Transmigration: A person in a martial arts world, cultivating to ascend to immortality

"When will you come back?"

Jiang Yuchuan shook his head again. "I can't say for sure. It could be a dozen years or more, or several decades, or perhaps—he won't come back."

"--What?"

Qi Changqing never expected to hear such a reply.

At this moment, he desperately hoped that Jiang Yuchuan was joking with him, but judging from Jiang Yuchuan's expression, that was clearly not the case.

The gentleman is really leaving.

As for the promises of returning in ten or twenty years, he believed they were merely vague timeframes given by his teacher to comfort him.

After all, whether it's a decade or several decades, it's a considerable amount of time, enough to soothe the pain of separation and allow a person to gradually fade from one's memory...

But is that really the case?

Seeing Qi Changqing's eyes gradually reddening and his increasingly sorrowful expression, Jiang Yuchuan sighed softly, "All good things must come to an end. Life is full of partings, so you don't need to be too sad about it."

"Will Changqing have another chance to see you, sir?"

Qi Changqing forced back the tears welling up in his eyes and asked in a choked voice.

"We'll meet again if fate allows." Jiang Yuchuan picked up his chopsticks and handed them to Qi Changqing. "Alright, let's eat. The food won't taste good if it gets cold."

Qi Changqing nodded vigorously, raised his sleeve, wiped his eyes, took the chopsticks handed to him by Jiang Yuchuan, and began to shovel rice into his mouth.

But the more he tried to suppress his grief with food, the more uncontrollably the tears flowed.

Jiang Yuchuan looked at Qi Changqing, who was silently shedding tears while desperately eating, and said nothing more.

No amount of comfort could change the fact that he was leaving.

He knew that after spending so much time together, Qi Changqing had long regarded him as the closest person to him besides Sun Ying, and had unknowingly developed a strong dependence on him.

This is not what Jiang Yuchuan wanted to see.

Whether it was Qi Changqing to him or him to Qi Changqing, they were both just passersby in each other's lives.

There is a difference between immortals and mortals.

It is a rare and precious fate that the two of them were able to spend such a wonderful time together in this world.

Jiang Yuchuan leaving at this time might be the best choice.

Time will eventually heal all wounds. It's better to leave Qi Changqing with a beautiful memory than to watch him slowly grow old and pass away.

In the following days, Qi Changqing lingered longer and longer in Jiang Yuchuan's courtyard, only reluctantly leaving when the moon was high in the sky.

As the wooden boat that Jiang Yuchuan had personally crafted gradually took shape, Qi Changqing became increasingly silent. He even moved his books out of the study and sat at the wooden table in the courtyard to read them, quietly keeping Jiang Yuchuan company.

Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

After more than ten days of hard work, a wooden boat with a simple design, smooth lines, and several rows of fist-sized runes carved around its sides was finally completed.

Despite the simple appearance of the wooden boat that Jiang Yuchuan built, it is sturdy enough to withstand a powerful blow from a grandmaster!

Most importantly, Jiang Yuchuan doesn't need to row the boat himself. He only needs to stick a Swiftness Talisman at the stern and use a little spiritual power to activate the runes engraved around the boat and connect them with the Swiftness Talisman, and the boat can move on its own.

Its speed is several times faster than that of a fine horse that can travel a thousand miles a day.

After carefully inspecting the wooden boat inside and out and confirming that there were no omissions, Jiang Yuchuan put it into his spatial storage.

Moon stars are rare.

It was less than two hours until dawn.

"Since everything is ready, let's set off immediately."

Having made up his mind, Jiang Yuchuan waved his sleeve and closed all the doors and windows of the house.

Just as he took a step and was about to step out of the courtyard, the peach tree in the yard suddenly began to sway.

Jiang Yuchuan stopped in surprise and looked over.

Seemingly sensing Jiang Yuchuan's gaze, the peach tree, with its lush green canopy and trembling body, blossomed with a delicate pink peach flower on the branch closest to Jiang Yuchuan.

The peach blossoms bloom and fade quickly.

The withered peach blossoms quickly gave birth to a small, pinkish-red peach, no bigger than a fist, at a speed visible to the naked eye.

After all its efforts were used to force the growth of a single peach, the entire peach tree suddenly became withered, as if it had exhausted all its essence.

Jiang Yuchuan never expected that this peach tree, which had only just begun to develop spirituality and had not yet gained intelligence, would actively exhaust all its spiritual energy and forcefully produce a peach for him just before he was about to leave.

Could it be that she was inspired by his spiritual power, which led to a subtle connection between them?

Given the profound mystery of the "Qingyuan Creation Technique" and its potential influence on plants, this possibility is not entirely out of the question.

Jiang Yuchuan picked the small peach hanging in front of him and put it into his spatial storage. After thinking for a moment, he walked to the peach tree, stretched out his finger, and infused it with a trace of pure spiritual energy.

This trace of spiritual energy is enough for the peach tree to absorb and digest for a long time.

If this peach tree is lucky enough, it might be able to gain sentience after fully absorbing this bit of spiritual power.

But these are all things for later.

If that day ever comes, it will be inconvenient for the peach tree to remain here any longer, and then he can consider moving it.

After leaving the courtyard, Jiang Yuchuan locked the door and went to Qi Changqing's house. He placed the key and the silver notes that Qi Changqing had entrusted to him earlier on Qi Changqing's pillow as he slept.

The moonlight shone through the window screen onto Qi Changqing's cheek, and a clear tear stain shimmered with a faint luster in the hazy moonlight.

……

After leaving Qingyang Town, Jiang Yuchuan headed south, following the map he had previously acquired at great expense.

At full speed, Jiang Yuchuan traversed nearly half of the Great Qian Dynasty in less than a month, arriving at a fishing village near the Wuhui Sea on the southern border of the Great Qian Dynasty.

Although this seaside village is not large, with fewer than two hundred residents, it boasts a long history. If we trace its origins back further, its existence is comparable to that of the Great Buddha Temple and the White Cloud Temple.

When Jiang Yuchuan arrived at the fishing village, it was noon, and some fishermen who had been fishing in the nearby waters were just returning from the sea.

Jiang Yuchuan chose to set sail from this fishing village to find Fangzhang Island because, based on the information he had collected, he deduced that the fleets that had seen Fangzhang Island appear from afar were closest to this fishing village.

In addition, the fishing village has a long history, so Jiang Yuchuan thought he would ask the respected elders in the village to see if he could get some unexpected information.