39 – Present
675 12 23
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

In the depths of the bamboo forest, a nondescript cave jutted out of the ground, sealed with a restrictive formation.

The sun had fallen below the horizon, replaced by the pure white moon above. Darkness reigned, but the soft moonlight illuminated the way.

As Xinxin walked through the bamboo forest, she was reminded of the night after her Sifu took her as a disciple.

That time, the darkness had been dense, almost palpable.

This time… while the darkness wasn’t as all-encompassing, there was still something in the air that was just as prevalent.

Xinxin’s heart throbbed. With every step she took towards the sealed cave, she felt… odd. Emotions she couldn’t describe. Hatred, regret, happiness, sorrow…

Faint memories flickered in her mind as well, scenes that skirted on the edge of her awareness.

Staring out into the distance, painting the horizon.

Wistfully singing to the skies, pining for one who would not arrive.

A life spent without meaning, filled with sentiments that were left unreturned.

…But even so. Even while the emotions stirred in her heart, they didn’t remain. Like a passing wind through a bamboo forest… even while they shifted, they always returned to how they were.

Xinxin came to a stop in front of the cave.

A long and low sigh echoed. “So you returned after all.”

“If I didn’t, wouldn’t you have just left without a trace?” It was just like Wang Tian to do that… just like him to leave her behind again.

“As it should have been.”

Xinxin frowned. “What is this I hear about you entering your final closed door cultivation? Are you trying to breakthrough again? An old man like you trying to reach immortality… don’t you have any shame?”

She was rambling. The odd emotions in her chest were causing her to say things she didn’t understand or mean.

Wang Tian laughed. “It was unexpected. In the end, I suppose things just turned up this way when I decided to help you, Xiao Xinxin.”

“Don’t call me that.” Xinxin shook her head. “No matter what you might think, we were never married and never will be.”

“Yes… I suppose that’s true.” Wang Tian let out a wistful sigh. “In this life, karma has already decreed it to be.”

“…This life?”

Wang Tian was quiet and then said, “Did you enjoy your trip into the kingdom?”

Xinxin waved her hand, making a small chair from her qi, and sat down. “So you noticed.”

“I knew you wouldn’t sit still. You had enough of that already for one lifetime.”

There it was again.

‘This life’.

‘One lifetime’.

Xinxin’s heart throbbed when he spoke. At the same time, she felt a headache. A realization that was on the edge of awareness.

Even so, she ignored it and said, “…You did a fairly decent job. The kingdom is thriving and the people are lively. Though, you missed the part where the scum gathered.”

“The Dark Tournament, I presume?”

“…You knew?”

“I know everything that occurs in this kingdom, Xiao Xinxin. Even in my old age and with my depleted cultivation… such a thing is trivial.”

“Depleted cultivation? So you admit that you did not lose your cultivation from combat then.”

“You caught me.”

Xinxin couldn’t see his face, but she knew that he would be smiling at that time.

She frowned and said, “Care to explain?”

“The tournament or my cultivation?”

“Both.”

Why the upright Wang Tian would allow such a revolting place to exist and why his cultivation plummeted so low… both were things that Xinxin couldn’t understand.

“…I said it, did I not? Everything I have created here is for your sake. This kingdom, this sect… even though I did not know if you would ever arrive, in the chance that you did. Even if I could not welcome you, at least there would be something that remained.”

Xinxin scoffed. “Some welcome you prepared. Did your disciples not attack me when I appeared?”

“Did you not attack them first?”

Xinxin paused.

Now that she thought about it… perhaps she had been a bit hasty at that time. But she couldn’t be blamed for that with what had just happened to her.

“See?”

Xinxin flushed and said, “T-That doesn’t matter. More importantly… I did not ask for your help, Wang Tian. Especially if it will end in your death. The bad karma between us is already enough to last a lifetime and beyond…?”

She paused the moment the words spilled from her mouth.

Bad karma? Lifetime and beyond?

What was she saying?

The headache intensified and her heart felt like it was going to rip out of her chest.

Wang Tian was quiet and then he let out a long sigh. “…Yes. You are right. Then… shall we resolve that karma?”

“Hm?” Xinxin frowned. “Resolve the karma?”

“…There is a story I want to tell you.”

Throb.

Xinxin’s heart rebelled against his words. Everything in her was saying to leave him be… but at the same time, she felt that she should at least hear him out.

“I am not so rude as to decline a dying man’s last words.”

Wang Tian laughed. “So harsh. I wonder if that came from your Sifu or… No. That doesn’t matter.”

“Wang Tian.”

He sighed. “Then… I will begin. It may be a bit long, so I apologize for not preparing refreshments… but I am a bit indisposed at the moment.”

Xinxin rolled her eyes.

Could he see her? The moment Xinxin did, Wang Tian chuckled.

Xinxin frowned. “You-“

“There was once a young man hailed a prodigy and given everything in life.”

Xinxin paused when she heard him speak.

Wang Tian continued. “From the time he was young, he was already betrothed to a heaven-defying beauty. She… was kind. Completely supportive in his decision to pursue the path of immortality, even though she could not walk it with him.”

Throb.

That… was familiar to her. Xinxin recognized what Wang Tian was saying.

“Time passed and that young man became a peerless cultivator. Beauties flocked to his side because of his heaven-sent talent… and he took it for granted. Thrilled at the thought of peers that could walk beside him, he forgot the one who supported him from the beginning, who continued to support him even when she was called foolish and childish. Even when she was powerless.”

“…That guy sounds like the scum of the earth.”

Wang Tian laughed. “I agree. But at the time, he could not understand it. So focused on carving a path towards the heaven he was that he never stopped to look behind him. But… at the threshold towards immortality, he was forced to face his heart. There, he saw her support, saw her kind and warm devotion. Realizing that… he decided that he made a mistake.”

His words were heavy with regret and sorrow.

The story he told… Xinxin knew it well. Not with her mind, but with her heart. A tale of her devotion being tossed aside, of her love spurned and shattered, with only herself to pick up the pieces each time.

Xinxin laughed, a cold sound echoing through the bamboo forest. “A mistake? You realized it far too late, Wang Tian.”

She tossed aside all pretentions and cut to the core of the matter.

Wang Tian sighed. “…Yes. It was too late. My heart demon on the threshold to Sainthood… was you. To pass the tribulation, I had to sever the karma sewn between us… but I could not. Knowing the extent of your devotion, how you stuck to your heartfelt emotions… I could not sever it.”

“So you say… but you became a Saint in the end, did you not?” Xinxin scoffed. “What a weak resolve-“

“It was not my choice!” Wang Tian’s words rang loud and clear. Remorse, guilt, fury, despair. “It… was not my choice. I had decided then. Decided to give up my cultivation to live out the rest of my life as a mortal. To live out the rest of my life… with you.”

Was it because Xinxin realized it now? Despite Wang Tian’s words… her heart was still. They… could no longer move her.

Still, she was curious.

“…Then what happened?”

“I was a fool.” He scoffed. “What prodigy? What heaven-sent genius? I was so blind that I treated the excrement I found on the road as gemstones and tossed aside the jade that fell into my hands as a youth.”

The air chilled, a sharp intent spreading throughout the area like a drawn sword.

“…They severed it. The ones I foolishly called my companions. The ‘pure fairies’ that accompanied me performed a forbidden ritual. They must have realized that I was hesitating and made the decision for me. While I faced my past, they took you and tore out your soul, offering in to that accursed goddess to banish it from the cycle of creation. To ensure that our karma was completely severed… they erased your very existence. At least… that should have been the case.”

“But it was not.”

Xinxin existed. The time and life that Wang Tian spoke of… she could not remember it, but her heart did. Yet, if what he said was true… then how could it be? That she existed, that she stood there at all…

“Yes,” Wang Tian whispered. “It was not.”

Silence.

A breeze swept across the bamboo forest, causing them to rattle. A sound that could have been heard as either laughter or weeping.

Xinxin stared into the cave and said, “Why are you telling me this?”

“…I told you, did I not? This… is all to settle the karma between us. While our bond has been severed… the weight left behind I have never forgotten. When that goddess sent me back to the past, I was determined to repay the debt I carried… but the heavens are cruel. Even now… the one in your heart is no longer me, is it? Rather… it is that man. Your ‘Sifu’.”

Xinxin didn’t respond. But then, it seemed that Wang Tian didn’t expect an answer.

“While I might not be able to resolve the karma between us peacefully… I can at least help you reach your desires, Xiao Xinxin.” He laughed. “How odd. In the end, you who gave everything to me will be the one to live, while I will be the one to vanish.”

“Wang Tian. You-“ Xinxin’s voice caught in her throat. Despite her wishing otherwise, she found it hard to speak.

A bell rang from somewhere in the distance. The signal that Wang Tian’s life was ending.

Hearing that, Xinxin found her words again. “…I will not forgive you. What you did to me… what you allowed me to suffer…”

“I know. But I chose this path. The destiny wrought by a foolish young man who sought heaven in the skies rather than accepting the bliss he had on earth.”

Another chime. When the bell finished its toll, it marked the end.

Wang Tian’s voice drifted out again from the cave, weaker than before. “Even so… would you allow me to see you? One last time?”

Xinxin sighed and then stood up from her chair.

At the same time, the restrictive field vanished.

Xinxin walked inside.

It was a simple cave, not too deep or wide. As a result, it did not take long to reach Wang Tian.

He sat in the middle of the cave, cross-legged in meditation. Yet, unlike before, he had changed from the appearance of an old man back to the one he held as a youth. Still, with his white hair and dull eyes, it was clear that he was no longer a young man.

When Xinxin arrived, Wang Tian stared at her and let out a long sigh. “What a hopeless fool I was to throw you away.”

Xinxin didn’t say anything, only nodding.

“No words, even at the end?” He shook his head. “No. I suppose that is to be expected… Then. I will focus on what comes next instead of these lingering sentiments.”

Wang Tian’s dull eyes focused and he stared at Xinxin. “Your Sifu is alive… but to reach him will be difficult. Using the last of my strength, I managed to discern his location… but that man’s karma is tangled beyond all recognition. Moreover, another’s karma has been woven into his, a golden thread cast by the Goddess to bind him to a fate she envisioned.”

Sifu… was alive?

Xinxin’s eyes widened, that single thought echoing through her mind.

Her Sifu… Nowun was alive. Despite falling to that Goddess, he was alive.

And then Xinxin recalled the rest of Wang Tian’s words and her eyes narrowed. “That Goddess has forced a fate upon him?”

“Heh. So you speak when it comes to your Sifu, huh?”

“Wang Tian.”

“Humor a dying old man, will you, Xinxin?”

Xinxin rolled her eyes.

Wang Tian shook his head, an amused smile on his face. But after that, his expression became somber and he said, “If you wish to meet your Sifu… if you wish for him to stand beside you, that karma must be cleared.”

Xinxin frowned. “And how do you expect me to do that?”

“For that… I have a present for you.” Wang Tian waved his hand. “A word without a sound… A blade by another name.”

Light gathered, forming into a sword in front of Xinxin.

She grabbed the sword and stared at it.

A blade of pure crystal, as if carved from ice. Inscribed upon that blade were three characters: 粘信心

Zhan Xinxin. Her name… but characters that could also be read as a stick with faith.

“I will not dissuade you,” Wang Tian said. “I can only hope that you stay true to your name, Xinxin. Stick to your heartfelt feelings… to your faith. In that way… I am sure you will reach the happy ending you deserve.”

The final toll of the bell rang.

Xinxin’s eyes widened and she called out his name. “Wang Tian-“

He smiled… and then he vanished, fading away into dust.

Xinxin held onto the sword a bit tighter and shook her head. “You idiot. Leaving me behind without a word again…”

Holding that sword in her hand, she realized what Wang Tian’s incantation meant, the ‘path’ that he achieved.

A word without a sound… a blade by another name.

Regret.

Not much I have to say today, I think, other than to thank you for reading, as always, and  that I hope the chapter was enjoyable. Might be a bit too melodramatic, but I think it's not too bad... hopefully.

Until tomorrow!

23