BW Extra 1

Later

“What happened later?”

“Later they lived happily ever after.”

“Wait, wait.” The young man dressed in moon-white martial attire raised his hand to stop the other from continuing to ramble on. He propped one arm on the table and said seriously, “There are several parts I didn’t understand. You need to explain them to me.”

The voice of the young man sitting across from him was lively yet helpless, “What don’t you understand? This is the most detailed and easy-to-understand version I’ve ever told.”

“The most important question—did Young Master Xingyuan actually die or not? Where did the Ning Xingyuan that Ning Buwei saw at Chenyue Mountain go? Was that gray-robed person at the end Ning Xingyuan?” Shen Jingxue’s expression was sorrowful yet hopeful, “He was so capable, he must have survived, right?”

“What Ning Buwei saw at Chenyue Mountain was Ning Xingyuan’s soul. In order to repair the Eight Trigrams Formation and establish new restrictions, he merged his divine consciousness into the formation along with the other four…” The person across from him also began to sound dejected as he spoke.

“The gray-robed person at the end was Ning Xingyuan from five hundred years ago. On his way to five hundred years in the future, he happened to be pulled by Ning Xiu, who was inside Big Yellow’s mouth at the time. He left Ning Xiu a life-saving little flower. After he landed, it was just before Ning Xiu was born…

The reason he dared to let Ning Buwei risk retrieving the Linglong Bone was probably because he had seen Ning Xiu, who was transformed from the Linglong Bone later.

It was later confirmed that Big Yellow could only allow one person to perform one time reversal. So Ning Xingyuan returned to five hundred years ago with a narrow escape from death. Knowing his inevitable fate, he began making arrangements to repair the Eight Trigrams Formation…”

“Ah, how could it be like this.” Shen Jingxue, who had been listening to the story, listlessly sprawled on the table, “I really liked Young Master Xingyuan. It would have been so good if he were still alive.”

“My father often says that heavenly fate and karma cannot be forced,” the young man across from him said. “Look at it with acceptance.”

“Wait, wait, wait, second question.” Shen Jingxue perked up his head again, his eyes gleaming with gossip-seeking light, “Were Young Master Xingyuan and Yan Lanpei a couple?”

“How would I know,” the person across from him said, didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “But they were very close, that’s for sure.”

“Tsk, you storyteller are really annoying.” He sighed, “Then, what about that little wooden person called Mu Yuan? He finally became a young man’s soul—where did he go?”

The young man across from him was silent for a moment, “He was a thought that Di Huai left in the mortal world. He took away one of Ning Xiu’s fate tribulations for him—the biggest one—and finally dissipated along with the blood formation.”

“Ah…” Shen Jingxue sighed with emotion, “That little wooden person was quite nice.”

“Mm.”

“One more question!” Shen Jingxue asked curiously, “What were those letters at the end?”

“Are you stupid!” The person across from him reached out his hand to press against his approaching head. On his pale, slender fingers was a faint blood mark, “Naturally they were invitations to the Immortals’ Gathering that began with the internal strife in the Chongzheng Alliance thirteen years ago.”

“I know about this, I heard my father talk about it.” Shen Jingxue stared blankly at that beautiful, impossibly clean hand, but that hand quickly disappeared into his sleeve.

“At that time, Chongzheng Alliance Leader Shen Xi had her sect leader’s seal stolen by the Wushi Sect traitor Chu Xin, who summoned the major sects and aristocratic families to hold an Immortals’ Gathering. Chu Xin secretly conspired with remnants of the Wang family, nearly causing the complete destruction of the Chongzheng Alliance. In the end, it was Lord Chengping Feng Zizhang who took action and thoroughly eliminated Chu Xin. From that battle, he became famous. Later, when he was entangled by people from Yunzhong Sect, Lord Chengping became furious and leveled their mountain peak.” Shen Jingxue said admiringly, “Lord Chengping cultivates the Path of Ultimate Goodness. Though his early path was rough and difficult, later his suffering turned to sweetness and his fame shook the Seventeen States. He truly is a model for our generation!”

“…Yes, indeed formidable.” The young man across from him nodded.

“What’s with that tone of yours, as if you know Lord Chengping.” Shen Jingxue said playfully, “But this is the first time I’ve heard such a detailed story about Venerable Jinghe and Demon Lord Ning. It’s quite different from what other storytellers tell. You made this up quite well.

Venerable Jinghe and Demon Lord Ning’s six children each have different surnames yet all achieved great things, especially the youngest, Ning Xiu. Born with a golden core, possessing a Luotian spiritual body, he topped the Tianji Rankings at just fifteen years old. I heard he’s extremely handsome—even the Venerable and Demon Lord pale in comparison to him. Tsk tsk, Demon Lord Ning is not only fertile but really knows how to produce good offspring.”

“Pfft, cough cough cough!” The young man across from him, who was drinking tea, suddenly choked violently.

“Hey, Chu Xiaoshan, are you okay?” Shen Jingxue wanted to pat his back but was skillfully avoided.

“I’m fine, just choked.” The young man sitting across from him, called Chu Xiaoshan, had an unremarkable appearance, yet his hands were devastatingly beautiful. Shen Jingxue’s gaze was practically glued to them and couldn’t be torn away.

If judging by those hands, Chu Xiaoshan should have been a one-in-ten-thousand great beauty.

Shen Jingxue looked at him suspiciously, “Xiaoshan, you didn’t use a transformation technique, did you? I keep feeling like you should be particularly good-looking with particularly high cultivation?”

“That’s probably because there’s something wrong with your brain.” Chu Xiaoshan smiled slightly.

“Fine, we’ve known each other for almost a month now, and you can’t even kill the lowest-level demon beast.” Shen Jingxue shook his head, “Ah wait, I have one last question.”

“You really have a lot of questions.” Chu Xiaoshan leaned back against his chair, “Go ahead.”

“In the story, most of the time Ning Xiu was a baby who couldn’t talk, right?” Shen Jingxue asked.

“Right.”

“Then how did you know what he meant when he was going ‘ah ah, ah da, yi ya’ there?” Shen Jingxue pursed his lips, “Did you just make wild guesses? That’s not very rigorous.”

“…………” Chu Xiaoshan was silent for a long while, then said, “Of course I know what I was thinking myself.”

Shen Jingxue’s mind didn’t process this for a moment, “Ah, what do you mean?”

Chu Xiaoshan stretched, “It’s getting late, time to rest.”

“Don’t go, one very last question.” Shen Jingxue grabbed his sleeve, “Ning Buwei—ah no, Demon Lord Ning, what path did he ultimately cultivate? It’s a question that all Seventeen States are curious about. Please tell me!”

Chu Xiaoshan easily pulled his sleeve free, smiled slightly, “I don’t know.”

“You told the story in such detail, yet you don’t know.” Shen Jingxue wailed, and when he looked up again, the storyteller had already vanished without a trace.

The next morning.

Shen Jingxue knocked on the door for a long time, but still no one came out from inside.

The inn’s servant approached him, “Are you Shen Jingxue, Fellow Daoist Shen?”

Shen Jingxue nodded, “I am.”

“Your friend Chu Xiaoshan asked me to pass along a message to you.” The servant said politely, “He said he had urgent business and had to go home, so he couldn’t accompany you to the Floating Sky Realm. He said if you have time in the future, you can look for him in Chen City, Shangzhou’s Xun Prefecture, just mention Chu Xiaoshan’s name.”

Shen Jingxue nodded regretfully, “Alright, thank you.”

He hadn’t heard enough of the story yet.

He turned and walked two steps, then suddenly spun around and grabbed the servant, “Where did he say his home was?”

“Xun Prefecture, Shangzhou, Chen City.” The servant was startled by him.

“There’s only one family surnamed Chu in Chen City, isn’t there?” Shen Jingxue murmured.

“Oh my, Venerable Jinghe.” The servant was startled.

“No, no!” Shen Jingxue suddenly realized, “Chu Jun, Chu Xiaoshan—Big Mountain’s son is called Little Mountain, that seems reasonable too….Mother.”

Yesterday’s words from Chu Xiaoshan—”Of course I know what I was thinking myself”—surfaced in Shen Jingxue’s mind at just the right moment.

He nodded dazedly, released the servant, and floated down the stairs.

He seemed to have… made friends with someone incredible.

(TL: Xiao Shan=Little Mountain)