AMHA - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - You Can't Cultivate Immortality

At this time, Zhaozhao's tears miraculously stopped.

It seemed that she finally understood that the husband who would wipe away her tears and wanted to remember her for the rest of his life was gone. Even if she cried herself blind, no one would feel sorry for her anymore.

She wiped her face. Her thoughts were still confused but she still nodded calmly.

The other party has already made things plain to this point. It would be ugly if she continued to cry and beg him. She didn't want the last thing Xie Lanshu remembered of her to be her agonized face.

"Then, does the longevity elixir count as the divorce settlement you give me?"

Tianshu Daojun replied: "You can regard it as so."

"Since it's a settlement, can you change it to something else?"

Zhaozhao deliberately made her tone sound lighter and freer. Even if it was a facade that could be seen through with one glance, she didn’t want to display such lingering emotions right now.

"Hmm... how about changing it to gold? Rare jewelry is also fine. Rather than living longer, I want to experience the feeling of being incredibly rich."

He looked at her steadily, as if he couldn't understand what she was thinking at the moment.

"Yes, I can."

"No, no, no."

Zhaozhao thought for a while and changed her mind.

"Can I become an official instead? They say that you are the Daoist Master of the Cultivation Realm and can control the world. So it would be easy for you to make me a female official in the human world, right?"

This was actually an impertinent request but Daojun Tianshu still said patiently:

"Yes, I can."

Zhaozhao was a little suspicious: "Is it really possible?"

His smile was as gentle as the breeze and the bright moon:

"After all, in the end it’s me that’s wronged you. So I can still handle something small like this."

The unyielding look on his face seemed to overlap with Xie Lanshu's emotional expression in her mind.

Zhaozhao couldn't help but feel a little hatred. She hated him for being ruthless but then also behaving in such a confusing and emotional manner.

She couldn't help but be angry and want to make things difficult for him.

"What if I say I want to be the Empress?" {Zhaozhao said “Nu Huang” not “Huang Hou”, hence she wants to be a female Emperor, not the wife of the Emperor.}

The smile on his lips deepened. He picked up a chess piece and said casually:

"An Empress has to devote herself to the affairs of the country and has no rest every day. How can you do it since you love staying in bed so much?"

The mood that had finally calmed down was stirred up again by these words.

"...Don't talk to me in Xie Lanshu's tone." She said coldly, with red eyes. "You are not him, don't talk to me like that in the future."

Daojun Tianshu just looked at her and said nothing.

Such calm and gentle eyes seemed to say—

What future could there be between the two of them?

Water gleamed in her eyes and Zhaozhao thought to herself that, try as she might, she was still not as cruel as him. She almost cried again.

After a while, her violent mood swings returned to normal.

She said dully:

"Those requests just now were just jokes. I don't want gold and silver, and I don't want to be an Empress. You just need to give me some basic elixirs and magic tools. I don't want immortality elixirs. I want to cultivate immortality myself."

The longevity elixir is a secret treasure specially given to mortals without talent, so that they can stay beautiful and live longer without having to cultivate hard..

In terms of value, it is actually more valuable than the elixirs used for cultivation.

But after listening to Zhaozhao's request, Tianshu Daojun categorically refused this with a smile:

“No."

The unexpected answer made Zhaozhao's eyes widen.

The words that came out of his mouth were soft and cold, which seemed to be two extremes from the gentle demeanor just now.

With one word and one word alone, he sentenced Zhaozhao to death on his path to immortality.

"Miss Xie, you can't become an immortal."

It took a while before Zhaozhao found his voice.

"Why, why..."

Those frost-like beautiful eyes reflected the girl's panicked look, and seemed to be able to understand everything in the world.

"You said you want to cultivate immortality, then what is the path you seek?"

Zhaozhao was speechless immediately.

Daojun Tianshu spoke softly and pressed forward step by step.

"Although the world of cultivation is huge, there will invariably come times when we will meet. Miss Xie, ask yourself, can you really cut off your love and hate, and meet me calmly like mere acquaintances?”

"I……"

"Everyone in the cultivation world knows that I have a wife in the mortal world. If you stay in the cultivation world, sooner or later someone will know your identity and then everyone will connect the two of us together. Can you really deal with these rumors with a normal heart?"

Every sentence is like a knife stabbing into the heart.

Zhaozhao couldn't refute but still refused to give in.

"...I will not stay in Kunwu. I know that the cultivation world is very big and there are many sects. I will go to other small sects in places far away, where you can't see. Isn't this okay?"

He replied gently: "No."

"Can you just... avoid me as though I’m a snake or a scorpion?"

The sun fell on the young man's body like frost and snow that had not melted for thousands of years. He looked at Zhaozhao who was about to cry, stood up slowly and took a step forward.

Just one step.

The sky and the earth changed color.

The mountains and rivers, the clouds and mists, the morning glow and the rosy glow, and the Thirty-Third Palace of Lihentian, all stood still at this moment.

As a mortal, Zhaozhao had never seen such a display of power before and it would not be an exaggeration to call it a miracle.

The next moment, the immortal fluttered his sleeves and time surged forward visibly to the naked eye.

In this vicissitudes of life, Zhaozhao saw intertwined red threads suddenly appearing between people. The red threads entangled, broke, and reunited, turning the world into a crimson color.

Only now did Zhaozhao realize why the human world is called the ‘world of mortals’.

"The red line is the 'fate' between people.” The tall and imposing Daojun explained slowly. "Family is fate, friendship is fate, and love is also fate."

As if to confirm this sentence, Zhaozhao lowered her head and saw a red thread growing out of her heart, like a blood thread, tightly connected to Daoist Tianshu's heart.

"If you were a stranger to me, you wouldn't come to Kunwu, let alone want to cultivate immortality."

Two fingers covered with jet-black leather gloves picked up the red line. Daojun Tianshu lowered his eyes and his voice was as light as snow.

"It's not that I can't avoid you but that only when you return to the human world can you rectify the chaos and cut off this cause and effect."

"Similarly, in the next thousand years, no matter what opportunities there are in the human world, I will never step foot there and disturb Miss Xie's quietude."

Zhaozhao lowered her eyes in silence. She stretched out her fingers and tried to touch the red thread, as if she could catch something in this way.

She asked softly:

"What if I... insist on cultivating immortality?"

The next second, the red thread snapped like a string and the surrounding scenery shattered into pieces.

Only then did Zhaozhao realize that all this was just an illusion created by Daoist Master Tianshu.

The moment the illusion shattered, she heard the gentle voice of the Daoist Lord who looked down on upon all living beings—

"If you insist on doing this, no matter how many years of hard work you have spent or what level you have reached in cultivation."

"I will personally destroy your cultivation."

*

Kunwu Immortal Land, outside the Thirty-third Palace.

"—Master has an order that no one can enter or leave Lihentian. Fairy, please stop."

Two disciples from Tianshu Daojun's sect held swords and blocked Shi Lanyan's way.

Shi Lanyan had already guessed that she would be stopped, and said with a smile:

“Daojun hasn’t come out for a long time. I am just here to ask on behalf of the Beichen Confucian Sect  when Lord Tianshu will be attending the banquet. Everyone is still on the Immortal Terrace waiting to congratulate Daojun."

Senior Sister Mu Ling solemnly replied: "Master has said that the banquet will be held on the Immortal Terrace for three days. You can do as you please."

Senior Brother Zong Fei continued: "I will convey the congratulations of the Beichen Confucian Sect to the Master. Fairy, please go back."

Seeing that the two of them were so unyielding, Shi Lanyan's expression changed.

"Don't talk to me like you’re bureaucrats. Zong Fei, let me ask you, did your Master marry a mortal girl when he lost his memory in the human world? Did that mortal girl come to your door?"

In the world of cultivation, those who admire Daoist Tianshu are like crucian carps crossing the river.

But among these admirers, Shi Lanyan, the daughter of the head of Beichen Confucian Sect, is definitely the leader.

She and Tianshu Daojun have known each other since they were young and were childhood playmates. She has known since she was a child that Tianshu Daojun has the highest talent in the world of cultivation, and is the person most likely to break through the void in the world. He definitely could not engage in romances.

Unexpectedly, the heavenly immortal that she had had a crush on for thousands of years, and whom she thought untouchable, lost his memory for two years and was then kidnapped by an unknown mortal woman to be her husband.

She could understand it if she lost to other women in the cultivation world, but how could she endure it when a mortal woman who just had had a stroke of goddamn stupid good luck could marry the Daojun Tianshu?

"This matter Kunwu Immortal Land’s personal business. Fairy, it's better not to inquire about it."

"What if I insist on inquiring? What can you do to me!”

Shi Lanyan was too lazy to talk nonsense with them. She raised her skirt and was about to rush inside. Unexpectedly, at this moment, Lihentian's palace door opened.

The devastated Zhaozhao emerged from inside like a wandering spirit.

"You're the one-"

Shi Lanyan wanted to ask her if she was Tianshu's mortal wife but just the word "wife" passing through her mind made her so sour that her whole heart twisted and she couldn't say it at all.

In fact, she didn't need to say it.

There was a very subtle feeling which existed between the love rivals. Zhaozhao only hand to raise her eyes and glance at her to understand that the look in Shi Lanyan’s eyes was the same as the women in Yunmeng Lake who had a crush on Xie Lanshu.

"It’s me." She replied numbly, "What do you want?"

After experiencing such ups and downs, it was not easy for Zhaozhao to summon up the energy to have normal conversations with people. She really couldn't be expected to give Shi Lanyan a good face.

But in Shi Lanyan's eyes, this listless look with drooping eyes was undoubtedly a provocation.

When has a proud girl like Shi Lanyan ever been shunned by others?

She twitched the corners of her lips and glanced up and down disdainfully:

"Nothing, I just heard that when Daojun was living in the world, he accidentally had a bad relationship. Daojun and I are childhood sweethearts and we have been together for a thousand years. We have a very close friendship. His business is my business. But you’re a girl so, in the end, you’re the one who’s  suffered more of a loss. So I would like to apologize on behalf of Daojun."

We have been together for a thousand years and have a deep friendship.

Zhaozhao's eyes darkened.

Yes, Daojun Tianshu has lived a thousand years and she has never been involved in those long years in his past. How normal was it for him to have a childhood sweetheart? She should be rejoicing that it wasn’t an ex?

{So the Chinese term “qing mei zhu ma” which translates approximately as childhood sweetheart represents an unrelated boy and a girl (for example neighbors, classmates) who grow up together and are close based on shared childhood/experiences; it’s often a trope of a couple who grow up later to become romantically involved, but it isn’t necessarily romantic on its own.}

The two years he and she were husband and wife were just a brief blimp in Daojun's thousand years.

"…Do not apologize."

Shi Lanyan, who was smiling and feeling very proud in his heart, was startled.

The girl with drooping eyes opposite her suddenly raised her head. Her beautiful face was untouched by any makeup, yet its beauty was still beyond reproach.

Her emotionless eyes looked at Shi Lanyan calmly and said unhurriedly:

"It's his first time and it’s also mine. So it's fair. I've been married to him for two years and really can’t complain about anything and I’m very satisfied. So it’s unfair to say I’ve lost out."

After Zhaozhao finished speaking, she realized that her words seemed a bit ambiguous.

She merely wanted to say that they had both gotten married for the first time.

"Satisfied" only describes the satisfaction that he is "very considerate and gentle as a husband."

But the three people present who showed shocked expressions obviously didn't interpret it this way.

The two disciples of Daojun Tianshu were still okay but Shi Lanyan was so shocked by her bold manner of  speech that she almost fainted.

…In public! Under the blue sky and bright sun! She was saying such dirty words that tarnished Daojun's innocence!

Shi Lanyan wanted to scold her for being shameless but then she thought about it. She and Tianshu Daojun had even done intimate things and she had indeed tarnished Daojun's innocence.

I'm so angry, I'm so angry, I'm so angry—

Shi Lan was so angry that her orifices were filled with smoke. Suddenly, she raised his head and used her  magic weapon to light the mountain.

A jade-tube pen flew out of the sky, like it was dipped in the starlight of the Milky Way and sprayed with ink. It was the unique method of Beichen Confucian Sect to kill people with pens and defeat enemies with words.

"Carving wood into history, painting the ground into a prison, trap!" {Um this is a spell and sounds a lot more lyrical in Chinese.}

Up until the moment a cage fell from the sky, Zhaozhao didn't realize what had happened.

The black-colored cage shrank smaller and smaller and Zhaozhao, who was trapped inside, could not stand naturally. She could only bend her back lower and lower, curling up into an extremely uncomfortable posture.

Mu Ling frowned and said, "Fairy, why are you humiliating a mortal?"

The maid behind Shi Lanyan said:

"Obviously it was this mortal girl who deliberately provoked her first and our Fairy just retaliated. How can we call it humiliation?"

"That's right, our Beichen Confucian Sect is not that easy to bully."

Shi Lanyan looked at the girl imprisoned in the pen and ink prison. As soon as she calmed down, she heard Zong Fei say quietly:

"Fairy, you are bullying Master's wife outside the door of Lihentian. Are you hoping that the Master will see you acting domineering and causing trouble?"

Shi Lanyan suddenly lost her temper like a snake that was pinched back into seven inches.

"... Tianshu and I were childhood sweethearts. He won't be angry with me over some woman he’s only known for only two years."

Although she said this, Shi Lanyan already felt guilty.

Daojun Tianshu did have some friendship with her but this friendship was more for the sake of the Beichen Scholar Sect and couldn’t be said to have crossed any personal boundaries.

No one knows whether this mortal woman, whom he has actually married, has crossed his personal boundary.

Mu Ling suddenly looked at the palace behind him.

"Master is coming out!"

All four of them turned their heads.

As far as the eye could see, a figure as pure and white as frost and snow was riding on the wind and the silver thread on the sleeves of the wide robe shone with sparkling waves. Under the clear sun, the brilliance drifted, like a nine-winged heavenly crane soaring up, heading towards the Immortal Terrace to receive the congratulations from people all across the realm. 

Shi Lanyan was extremely nervous. In her mind she had already imagined countless scenes of Daoist Lord Tianshu standing up to support this mortal woman, and humiliating her in front of everyone.

However--

It didn’t happen.

From the beginning to the end, the graceful immortal figure only lowered his eyes and glanced over lightly. There was no unnecessary emotion in his eyes and there was not even a trace of stagnation in his steps.

Mu Ling and Zong Fei looked at each other.

"Master... sent a message asking us to go to the Immortal Terrace."

Should they really ignore this woman who almost became their master's wife?

The two of them hesitated a little but Daojun Tianshu's order was absolute. They did not dare to disobey it so they could only warn Shi Lanyan with a complicated look before leaving.

Zhaozhao looked up at the man's back in the light, her eyes sore from the scorching sunlight.

"...Ha, it seems that Daojun doesn’t think much of you."

Shi Lanyan herself was surprised.

However, no matter what, the fact that Lord Tianshu did not support this girl made her feel relieved.

She waved her hand to remove the pen and ink prison and Zhaozhao instantly fell to the ground, sore all over.

In the distance, bells and drums were clanging, flutes and pipes were shouting. The music seemed to come from the clouds, resounding throughout the sky.

It was supposed to be a banquet on the Immortal Terrace, and cultivators from all over the world came to congratulate Daojun Tianshu for returning to Kunwu and for the return of the Dinghai Divine Needle to the cultivation world. {Dinghai Divine Needle refers to a jade hairpin transformed from the Queen Mother (a goddess) which controls the water and fells beasts around Tianchi Lake. I think this represents that Tianshu is one the mainstays which stabilizes the cultivation world.}

Seeing the girl's miserable appearance, Shi Lanyan felt a bit of pity in her heart:

"I advise you to just let go of everything. This world of cultivation is not a place for mortals like you."

That name came to Zhaozhao's mind again.

Xie Lanshu.

Xie Lanshu.

That was the husband she picked up from the snow when she was fifteen.

He has no place of origin, no memory, and even his surname and given name were given to him by her personally.

It was like a mirage that shattered outside the Thirty-third Palace shrouded in fairy mist.

She thought: stop saying it. No matter how many times she said the name, no one would respond.

Zhaozhao raised her head and moved her pale lips:

"Do you like Lord Tianshu?"

Shi Lanyan's face turned green and red. It changed back and forth for a while before she said:

"So what? You want to accuse me? Stop dreaming. I have been with Daojun for a thousand years and you are the third one who is the interloper..."

"I just have something to tell the Fairy."

The girl's tired and pale face suddenly showed some energy. She smiled slightly, with two pear dimples appearing on her soft cheeks, giving her a lively and pretty look.

"I'm pregnant."

These two words were like thunder, chopping Shi Lanyan from top to bottom.

Zhaozhao just smiled.

"The Daoist Lord doesn't know about this yet and I don't want to use it to entangle him. If the Fairy can give me some compensation, such as elixirs or magical tools for cultivation, I will abort the child and leave immediately. I will never break my promise."

Just let go of everything?

A woman should never just give up when something happens to her.

Immortality? She insisted on cultivating it!

*

The author has something to say:

Zhaozhao: Yes, we have two children (referring to the kind who can stab him a few times in the future)

PS. Zhaozhao is not pregnant! She is lying!

Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated the nutrient solution between 2023-07-13 10:00:00~2023-07-14 11:00:00~

Thanks to the little angel who threw the landmine: 1 dumpling was exposed;

Thanks to the little angel who irrigates the nutrient solution: 30 bottles of Winterwin; 1 bottle of amuroberry;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!

*

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