Cold sweat broke out on the saber-wielder and the mundane doctor. They quickly shrunk their necks, clamped their mouths shut, and dared not utter another word.
Sitting in her original spot, Su Yueli tightened her grip slightly on her wine flask.
Beneath her mask, her gaze grew dazed for a moment.
Things had changed, and the people of the past were gone; time moved on like a shifting sea.
A mortal's lifespan and destiny were truly as fragile as a blank sheet of paper before the vastness of time.
She still clearly remembered how, sixty years ago, the high-spirited Fourth Prince had stood on a pavilion, smiling as he handed her a royal token that spared her from many mundane troubles.
In her memory, that scene felt as if it had happened only yesterday.
Yet in the blink of an eye, a full sixty-year cycle had passed, and the prince who had once fought for the throne was now in a far from optimistic situation.
She had only just taken her first steps on the path of immortality, walking it for a few decades, yet the acquaintances and karmic ties around her were already beginning to rot in the soil one after another.
“Phew...”
Su Yueli slowly exhaled a somewhat heavy breath and downed the shaojiu in her cup in one gulp.
On the arena stage, the first round of mundane martial artists was already locked in a biting, tearing brawl, with fierce shouts and the sound of snapping bones rising and falling in succession.
But as she watched these martial artists putting everything on the line for mundane fame and fortune, Su Yueli's heart no longer felt the passion of her youth.
She simply watched in silence, waiting.
Waiting for this mundane farce to end, waiting for the cultivators who would soon descend, and waiting for Jiang Ran, who owed Shen Qing'an his life.
...
Soon, the first round of matches ended.
Most of the Second and Third Realm mundane martial artists on the field were eliminated. Those who remained were basically peak Third Realm and Fourth Realm experts, with a few even faintly reaching the Fifth Realm.
Su Yueli swept her gaze over them from her high vantage point and found it completely dull.
This level of mundane fighting was no different from playing house in her eyes.
Her visit this time was purely to revisit old haunts; now that she had seen it, her interest faded.
By afternoon, the second round of matches was about to begin, and the crowd in the venue remained highly excited.
Su Yueli had no intention of watching any longer. She stood up and walked out of the venue through a secluded passage.
Walking along a somewhat quiet street, a hunched old man with a limp ahead caught her attention. His clothes were rather worn, and he seemed to have just come out of the tournament venue as well.
The two of them happened to walk side by side for a distance.
Turning to look at the masked Su Yueli, the old man suddenly let out a long sigh and struck up a conversation on his own initiative. “Though this session of the Martial Arts Tournament is lively, it's still a far cry from the one a cycle ago. That session back then was truly filled with brilliant talents.”
Su Yueli did not reply, only slowing her pace slightly.
With a lonely expression, his cloudy eyes filled with reminiscence, the old man continued to ramble, “The champion of that session was my dear friend. Back then, to protect me, she completely offended the Pang family to the core all by herself.”
“Later, when the old patriarch of the Pang family died suddenly, my dear friend also vanished into thin air. For all these decades, I've wondered every day if she fell victim to the Pang family's foul play. I've lived with such immense guilt in my heart...”
Beneath her mask, Su Yueli's eyes suddenly shrank, and a wave of emotion surged in her heart.
She stopped, turned around, and cupped her hands slightly to the old man. Altering her voice, she asked in a deep tone, “May I ask your esteemed name, old gentleman?”
The old man stared blankly for a moment, then patted his head and chuckled self-deprecatingly. “This old man is already with one foot in the grave. My name is Lin Ye.”
Lin Ye... It was actually Lin Ye?
Su Yueli stared intently at the white-haired, toothless octogenarian before her, momentarily dazed.
She truly had not expected that the upright young man who had once downed large gulps of alcohol with her in the Great Li Imperial City, and who had stubbornly refused to leave first when they were surrounded by the Pang family, would actually still be alive today.
Seeing that Su Yueli remained silent for a long while, and sensing something unusual in her demeanor even through the mask, Lin Ye asked in confusion, “With such a reaction, could it be that you've heard of this old man's foolish deeds from back then, young lady?”
Coming to her senses, Su Yueli shook her head gently, her voice very low. “No, the events of sixty years ago are too distant. This junior wasn't even born yet.”
Lin Ye smiled and sighed with a hint of loneliness, “Indeed, a full cycle of sixty years has passed. The grudges of those days should have rotted in the soil long ago.”
Su Yueli sighed deeply in her heart.
This was the helplessness and sorrow of the long path to immortality.
Those she knew, those familiar faces, were rotting in the soil one after another.
Now, having finally run into someone still alive, she couldn't even reveal her identity.
After all, what normal mortal could maintain eternal youth without cultivating?
If she were to take off her mask now and stand before Lin Ye with the exact same appearance from sixty years ago, she wouldn't be helping him; instead, she would completely shatter the peace of his remaining years.
A mortal's desire for immortality was something that could drive people completely mad.
Su Yueli firmly suppressed her emotions and said no more, simply accompanying Lin Ye quietly as they walked slowly down the street.
Reaching a fork in the road, Su Yueli stopped and cupped her hands to Lin Ye once more. “Old gentleman, take care of yourself in the future. This junior shall take her leave.”
Lin Ye also tremblingly returned the gesture. “Safe travels, young lady.”
Watching Su Yueli's departing figure, Lin Ye stood frozen in place for a long time.
For some reason, he felt an indescribable sense of familiarity from this masked girl in the green dress, especially those cold and aloof eyes, which closely resembled the person buried deep in his memories.
But he also knew that if that person were still alive, she would be in her eighties or nineties. How could she possibly be this vibrant young girl before him?
Shaking his head, he chalked it up to his senility, turned around, and limped away.
However, just as Su Yueli had walked a dozen paces away, the crowds on both sides of the street and from the tournament venue behind them suddenly erupted in loud commotion.
“Look! It's an almighty expert from an immortal sect!”
“Heavens, those are immortal masters of the Blue Moon Sect!”
The originally peaceful street instantly boiled with excitement as countless Great Li mortals raised their heads to look at the sky, their expressions filled with fanaticism.
Su Yueli's mind stirred slightly. She stopped in her tracks and looked up with cold eyes.
In the sky ahead, three piercing streaks of light were sweeping across the sky above the Great Li Imperial City.
Powerful fluctuations of spiritual energy rippled through the air, suffocating the mortals on the ground.
Leading them was a handsome youth dressed in white, his aura robust and his brow filled with lofty arrogance.
Behind him followed two withered-looking elders, both exuding terrifying auras.
Su Yueli stared at the face of the leading youth in white.
In that instant, her brow beneath the mask furrowed tightly, and the Ji Dao blood qi deep within her marrow even began to boil completely out of control.
This was the one who had tested positive for a Heavenly Bone and had been built up with countless resources by the Blue Moon Sect, the Young Sect Master... Shen Huai'an?!
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