A Tale of Encounters with Immortals: A Peach Blossom Temple in the Martial World

There is a long way to go.

The summit of Beishan Mountain within Qingzhou City.

Sword God Qin Shouzhong stood with his hands behind his back, exuding the aura of the world's number one master and the head of the Four Great Masters. This presence, carried by the morning breeze, was seen by the two people opposite him.

The woman was like a painting; her white dress fluttered gently in the mountain breeze, and a strand of hair fell from her forehead into her eyes, but it couldn't hide the seemingly calm man.

Bai Rong once felt proud to be the woman of the number one martial arts master, and she rejoiced at the carefree life on the grasslands. She rode her horse across mountains and rivers, and witnessed the gradual change of colors in the Helan Mountains from green to reddish-yellow with the seasons.

She was truly happy then.

She doesn't know when it happened, but her heart was no longer with the grasslands.

She is the most beautiful woman in the martial arts world, and should not just be a flower swaying in the wind on the grassland, but also be held in the hands of a man who is obsessed with martial arts.

Then she met the man she was destined to wait for.

That blue robe, that long sword, those blue cloth shoes—they were almost completely untouched by dust.

When I saw him that day, the clouds in the sky were almost swirling down from the azure sky. It was as if he had stepped out of a painting.

He said his name was Mo Qingyun, and the name sounded like an ink painting, with flowing ink that meandered across the white paper, forming a landscape painting.

And so began our daily, unspoken, and unexpected encounters.

As Mo Qingyun rode his horse at full gallop, he recited: "Wild grasses grow, glistening with dew. A beautiful woman appears, graceful and charming. We meet by chance, fulfilling my heart's desire. Wild grasses grow, heavy with dew. A beautiful woman appears, graceful and charming. We meet by chance, and will be together forever."

The sound was clear and melodious, soaring straight to the sky.

What woman could resist the love poems recited to her by a handsome and talented man?

Mo Qingyun's courage lies in the fact that even knowing she is the woman of Qin Shouzhong, the number one swordsman in the world, she is not afraid at all.

The wind was gentle that day.

The clouds were very low that day.

That day, they rode their horses from the grasslands towards freedom, leaving without a care in the world where only grass grew and no flowers were cherished, and headed towards the direction of love.

"Everyone in the world knows that you have betrayed me!"

Qin Shouzhong is indeed a sword god, but he is also a man. As a man, after his wife ran off with someone else, he should give himself an explanation and also give the martial arts world an explanation.

Because he is the number one master in the world, the head of the Four Great Masters.

He was uneducated, focusing solely on martial arts training and neglecting his academic studies, making him far less talented than Mo Qingyun. In this world, the educated can stand at the top of the social hierarchy, looking down on those martial artists who lack formal education.

But a lack of culture is not a sin, nor is it a reason to be cheated on.

The man was gentle and refined, tall and slender, with calm eyes, and the hand holding Bai Rong's hand. That hand was so delicate, so delicate that it didn't seem like a man's hand, much less a hand that held a sword.

Bai Rong felt a little guilty, but her gaze was very brave.

"I know, so just kill me!"

A surge of energy suddenly rose from Qin Shouzhong's dantian.

Up!

Raise your palm, and with one strike, no one can escape the first strike.

I will die beside you!

Mo Qingyun's voice was very low, so low that it seemed only Bai Rong could hear it.

Bai Rong was moved. She looked up at him, her gentle eyes seeming to overflow with tenderness, which turned into threads that wrapped around the man.

Death doesn't seem to be their biggest concern.

"Oh!"

Stone fragments flew everywhere.

Qin Shouzhong smashed a boulder next to them with a single palm strike.

His transformation from trembling with rage to calming down after unleashing his palm strike took only a few breaths. Then, somewhat listlessly, he said, "You can leave now!"

Bai Rong looked at Qin Shouzhong with some surprise.

"You're not going to kill us?"

Qin Shouzhong laughed loudly: "Killing you all won't change your mind or the facts."

Mo Qingyun also thought that the world's number one expert had gone mad.

How can you still laugh?

Qin Shouzhong seemed to have suddenly realized something.

"I once read a line written by an immortal." Qin Shouzhong seemed to be immersed in his memories, murmuring, "Everyone knows that immortals are good, but only a beloved wife cannot be forgotten. When you were alive, she spoke of love and affection every day, but when you died, she went with someone else."

Bai Rong's expression turned somewhat unpleasant.

"Life is really so boring!"

Qin Shouzhong laughed loudly, then walked to the cliff edge at the mountain's edge, facing the wind. He glanced back at the two men and said, "Adulterers are nothing more than this. Peach Blossom Mountain still holds my sword. Heaven has ordained me to cultivate there. I'm leaving, I'm leaving..."

With that, he jumped off the cliff.

Bai Rong tensed up, as if she wanted to pull him back, but she held back.

The white figure disappeared into the clouds and mist on the cliff, accompanied by the sound of laughter. Just as the figure was about to vanish into the mist, it stepped on a protruding rock and, like a kite, floated away into the mist, disappearing without a trace.

"Others laugh at my madness, but I laugh at their blindness. The tombs of the heroes of Wuling are nowhere to be seen; now, without flowers or wine, they are fields tilled by farmers."

These verses, carried by internal energy up the cliff, were clearly imprinted in the ears of the two men.

Mo Qingyun rested one hand on the hilt of his sword, while the other gazed down the cliff, where only mist and clouds obscured any human figure. He couldn't help but sigh.

"In the end, he is the number one master in the world; he can take it all and let it go!"

Bai Rong also walked to the edge of the cliff, looked down past Mo Qingyun.

"let's go!"

The words had barely left my mouth when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my chest.

With a "thud," the tip of the sword suddenly appeared in her chest. Crimson blood dripped onto the stone, drop by drop.

Bai Rong's hands were trembling so badly that she reached out to grasp the tip of the sword.

"puff"

The sword was withdrawn, and the tip disappeared. Only a wound remained, from which blood gushed.

Bai Rong turned her head to look at Mo Qingyun, a smile still on her face.

"I do not regret!"

This is what she said while looking into Mo Qingyun's eyes.

She said the same thing when she and Mo Qingyun fled the grasslands.

Mo Qingyun sighed: "Only in this way can a man be thoroughly enraged."

Bai Rong smiled, but as she smiled, her chest ached terribly, and her lips twitched: "Actually, I've known all along that I was just a pawn you used to attack him."

Mo Qingyun's face turned somewhat pale.

“But I don’t regret it!” Bai Rong said again. “This is the suffering I endured for him, I owe him.”

As Bai Rong spoke, she plopped down on the ground.

The blood was flowing very quickly, and she felt dizzy.

"Can I... hug you?"

Mo Qingyun walked over and hugged her.

"Qin Shouzhong killed my whole family. I was lucky to escape because I wasn't home. I was only fifteen years old at the time." Mo Qingyun said to himself, "I swear that I must take revenge. I know it will be difficult to beat him in martial arts, so... I will make him suffer all kinds of humiliation and be ridiculed by the entire martial arts world. I will make him feel that he is worse than dead and that he is worse than a dog."

Bai Rong's smile froze on her face.

The thing is actually very simple.

In the blood feuds of the martial world, she was merely a pawn. But even in death, she never felt like a sacrifice.

"what--"

Mo Qingyun, cradling the gradually cooling corpse, knelt on the ground, motionless. A day and a night later, he suddenly let out a long howl, the sound echoing through the valley for a long time, drifting far and wide…

Inside Lingzhou City.

Zhang Zhengdao set up a stall.

It's not that he didn't want to beg for alms from wealthy and powerful families.

It's like a college freshman, a complete idiot, taking his own code and the app he painstakingly developed to a big company and saying, "This is what I made, come and invest."

You'll be thrown out by security guards in a heartbeat, and they'll spit on you.

You need to have influence to attract the attention of wealthy families and thus gain investment opportunities.

So Zhang Zhengdao set up a stall with a sign next to it that read, "Knowing misfortune, predicting good fortune; judging death, speaking of life." His otherworldly demeanor attracted two or three people, but they all just looked and left.

The stalls were right next to the temple fair, in a bustling area with lots of people coming and going.

There was a malt candy vendor nearby, and Zhang Zhengdao bought a few coins' worth to try it.

I sat there all morning without making any business, and even spent a few copper coins.

The main thing is that not far away, there was another Taoist priest, dressed in a rather flashy Taoist robe, who was also ringing a bell and striking a wooden fish, loudly shouting: "Divine calculations and insightful understanding of heavenly secrets, pointing out the way through confusion and turning misfortune into good fortune."

He even wrote on his stall: Fortune telling is free.

This is absolutely unreasonable!

Why are you setting up a stall if you don't want money? You don't want to eat, but you're going to smash other people's pots and pans.

Throughout the morning, Zhang Zhengdao had several attempts to rush over and smash that person's stall.

The main reason was that there were so many people surrounding his stall, making it difficult to make a purchase.

Actually, this bird-like Taoist priest has quite a few tricks up his sleeve.

Fortune telling is free, but the predictions are enough to terrify people. They predict disasters, misfortunes, ghosts, or strange occurrences.

The fortune teller has figured it out, and the person who came to have their fortune told is terrified.

It's good to be afraid.

I have a talisman that can protect you from harm, turn bad luck into good, and even defy fate, bringing you abundant wealth in the future...

So the fortune teller asked, "Are the talismans free?"

The Taoist priest said, “I really don’t want your money, but invoking the gods in heaven with talismans requires offerings. So this money isn’t for me, it’s for the Six Ding and Six Jia, the Five Directions Jiedi, the Four Duty Officers, and the Three Pure Ones. The gods have come down to earth to do things for you, so you have to show your appreciation. Even an emperor doesn’t starve his soldiers, let alone when you’re inviting gods!”

Zhang Zhengdao was shocked when he overheard this.

That makes so much sense!