Chapter 397 - 375: A Myriad Miles of Mountains and Rivers, Discussing Glory and Disgrace

Later, Yin Xunyi said, "Daoist Song, when the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken. If you want to ignore many of the world’s problems, you must possess absolute power.

"But what kind of power is truly absolute? A True Immortal? A Martial Saint? I’m afraid even that might not be enough..."

Song Ciwan replied, "Even a True Immortal or a Martial Saint might not be enough, and right now, neither of us is even an Earth Immortal. Daoist Yin, sometimes it isn’t a good thing to think too far ahead."

Yin Xunyi lay on the bamboo raft, his hand trailing in the water. The azure stream flowed past his dark cyan sleeve, which floated on the surface like a gossamer veil carried away by the current.

His eyes were hazy with drink as he began to softly sing: "Heroes meet and part beyond the balustrade,

Dynasties rise and fall with the creak of an oar.

The swallows, knowing nothing of the Mortal World,

Return to the old roads in the setting sun.

The peaks gather like an army, the waves roar in fury,

Across ten thousand miles of mountains and rivers, we sit and speak of glory and disgrace.

A thousand autumns of great deeds, all turned to dust!"

When he finished singing, he began to chuckle softly. "Heh heh heh, HA HA HA... A thousand autumns of great deeds, all turned to dust. All turned to dust..."

As he laughed, he said, "Now that I’ve left Yong State, I’m going to the Demon Suppression Pass. The Mortal World is boring; I’d rather be killing demons. In a few hundred or a few thousand years, it will all turn to dust anyway.

"Daoist Song, what about you? Where will you go?"

Song Ciwan did not answer him. Instead, she gazed at the landscape before them.

In the distance, the mountains were like mist, their indigo shapes rising and falling between heaven and earth. Golden sunlight spilled from the sky, striking the clouds and fog that wreathed the peaks and refracting into a thousand splendid, colorful rays that filled the world.

This was the scenery of the Nine Provinces—a common sight in the Mortal World, and yet, an uncommon one.

They had stood between heaven and earth for hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of years. Compared to these mountains and rivers, a person’s life—even one who cultivated to become a True Immortal—was as fleeting as a speck of dust.

But Song Ciwan was different. She had a longer, much longer—perhaps even an endlessly long—Lifespan!

Tens of millions of years from now, when the Celestial Prides of this generation had all turned to dust, she would surely still exist.

The rise and fall of eras, the shifting of dynasties—all these things seemed so important to her now, for she was still young and weak.

’But what about tens of millions of years from now? Who knows what anything will be like then?’

And so, contemplating the immense stretch of time that might lie ahead, even Song Ciwan, whose Dao Heart had always been firm, couldn’t help but feel a momentary sense of bewilderment.

’If time stretches on long enough, is eternal life a blessing or a curse?’

Ahead, the river took a sharp turn, and the bamboo raft danced through it.

In the azure dome of the sky, a line of swan geese flew past, their lingering cries echoing behind them.

Beside Song Ciwan, the Big White Goose couldn’t resist stretching out its long neck and singing out, answering the calls of the geese in the sky.

"HONK HONK HONK!"

"KANK KANK KANK!"

Song Ciwan snapped back to her senses and suddenly broke into a wry smile.

She had counseled Aunt Wen so well before. The world’s most strange and magnificent wonders are often found in dangerous and distant places, beyond the reach of ordinary people... To achieve what others cannot, one must inevitably endure trials that others cannot bear.

’This is an eternal truth. If I can’t even grasp this, what’s the point of my Cultivation, of seeking the Dao?’

Of course, Song Ciwan had always understood this. It was just that the human heart was like a demon, and the monkey of the mind and the horse of the will were ever-present. Even if you succeeded in taming them for a moment, they would soon reappear.

The human heart is inconstant, as fickle as the shifting clouds—changing at every moment, everywhere.

What is Cultivation?

It is to cultivate as you walk, to question with every step of the journey, to ceaselessly tame the monkey of the mind and the horse of the will, so that you remain unshaken amidst their endless transformations.

Standing on the bamboo raft, Song Ciwan gently exhaled. The breath took the form of a smoky serpent, instantly crossing several dozen yards to land on a frog that was leaping up from the riverbank.

The frog was extending its long tongue to catch an insect. But the bug was incredibly nimble; just as the frog’s tongue shot out, the insect was about to dart past it. The frog’s hunt was about to fail—

But at that very moment, the wisp of smoky breath landed on the frog.

The frog was suddenly filled with a new surge of strength. Its small, green body performed a sudden double jump in mid-air, propelling it an inch further through the air.

With a flick of its tongue, the frog snatched the flying insect from the air!

"CROAK CROAK!"

Having landed back on the bank, the little frog swallowed the bug in one gulp, then let out a joyous cry.

The wind blew across the riverbank, rustling the rice paddies.

The croaking of frogs was like a song, a picturesque scene.

A faint smile touched Song Ciwan’s lips. She turned to look behind her and saw that Yin Xunyi had, at some point, fallen dead asleep on the raft.

His sleeve hung over the side of the raft, trailing in the water. The current that held him up also seemed to be carrying him toward some distant shore.

A wine cup had fallen onto his lapels, resting upside down on his chest. With the rise and fall of his breath, the cup rolled back and forth, but somehow, it never fell off.

Song Ciwan chuckled softly. Facing the water and the wind, she said, "Daoist Yin, farewell. The mountains are high and the waters long; we will meet again someday."

She patted the Big White Goose beside her. The goose beat its wings and took to the air, singing joyfully: "HONK HONK HONK!"

The Big White Goose could fly. Though its body was heavy and plump, it had undergone Transcendence to become a spirit beast, so taking flight was a simple matter.

Song Ciwan took a light step forward and walked across the waves, soon disappearing over the water’s surface.

「For the next several days, Song Ciwan traveled north.」

She didn’t really have a clear destination, nor was there anywhere in particular she felt she had to go.

She simply wanted to travel these great lands, to see the sights beyond Yong State: the wind of Jingzhou, the moon of Yangzhou, the azure sea of Qing State, the snow of Xuzhou...

She had no need to rush, nor did she have to concern herself with the perils of the Martial Arts world or the storms of the imperial court.

’Who rises to power, who takes the throne, who declines, who falls—what does any of that have to do with me?’

’The world may change, but my heart remains constant.’

Of course, she could afford to be uninterested in the shifts of power at court, but there were some matters she was still compelled to worry about.

For instance, the matter of the Spirit Realm Secret Realm, of the worms growing in Golden Cores. This was an issue that concerned entire races, perhaps even the fundamental secrets and truths of heaven and earth.

If Song Ciwan were to close her eyes and cover her ears, pretending this had nothing to do with her for the sake of temporary peace, then in the long run, she could end up like the proverbial turtle in a jar.

As a certain predecessor once said: to live in a world of darkness, blindfolded, and die in ignorance.

After all, though she possessed a long Lifespan, she was not yet invincible!

As for the matter of the Insect Race, since some great and terrible power had laid a Forbidden curse upon the world, making it impossible to speak of or mention, and preventing Song Ciwan from spreading the news, her only recourse was to advance with courage and diligence—

’If I am not invincible now, then I will cultivate until I am.’

’To face all the world’s crises with power that none can match—would that not be a joyous thing?’

After several days of travel, Song Ciwan sorted out her thoughts. They gradually became clear, and her resolve hardened.

During this time, she sold off Demon Spirit Malice every day, and her Lifespan quickly grew to seventy-six thousand years.