1
The moment I opened my eyes, I discovered that not only had my soul failed to dissipate, but it had also gained a body.
Not a jade pendant, not a little bell, but a real, living human body.
Somehow, this living person had sought death, and now her family was weeping over her.
But I had come back to life.
Her family jumped in fright and leaped eight zhang away.
What were they so afraid of? I was only a “corpse come back to life.”
Those “relatives” wiped away their tears and changed their tune. Once they were sure I wasn’t going to bite their throats, they decided to tie me up.
The dead coming back to life had terrified them. They wanted to burn me alive, convinced I was an evil spirit.
But I had at least learned a few martial arts moves. Though my limbs were weak, I managed to fight my way out and flee far away.
On the road, I came across an old man and asked, “Where is this?”
After he answered, I asked, “What year is it?”
Only then did I confirm:
I had returned to the Vân Châu Continent. This year marked exactly one hundred years since the Immortal Venerable attained the Dao.
One hundred years—it felt like the blink of an eye.
2
The Vân Châu Continent seemed not to have changed much in the past hundred years.
On a whim, I decided to look up some old friends.
Fortunately, cultivators didn’t age, so I didn’t have to worry about meeting them again only to find we’d become strangers.
But this body of mine had no spiritual power, and I had no gold or silver, either. So it was best to look up old friends with power and influence.
If I got lucky, one of them might take pity on me for old times’ sake and give me a little money. Wouldn’t that solve all my worries about food and clothing?
First, I went to the Lý family in Nhạc Dương City.
A servant of the Lý family barked:
“Get lost, get lost, get lost! You think you can see our family head whenever you want?”
…Little Lý Dục, who used to trail after me, was now the family head. I couldn’t even hope to reach his level anymore.
Then I went to Tần Phong Pavilion.
A disciple of Tần Phong Pavilion chased me off:
“Move along! The elder has been in seclusion for years. Even the sect leader can’t get him to come out… And you want to see our elder? You’ve got some nerve.”
…Even Ông Bình was now a sect elder, someone I couldn’t hope to reach.
At last, I went to Thiên Kiếm Mountain.
I went to Thiên Kiếm Mountain to see an old friend.
To find out how my old friend was doing:
Was he still young? Still handsome? Still the crybaby he’d been back then?
3
My old friend’s reputation shook the Vân Châu Continent.
In a teahouse at the foot of Thiên Kiếm Mountain, a storyteller was recounting how the Immortal Venerable Lục Trầm Mặc had once shattered Thương Mountain with a single sword strike.
His story was so vivid, it felt as if he had carried his listeners right into the scene.
“That’s an outrageous exaggeration,” I muttered. “Lục Trầm Mặc wouldn’t have won so easily. The Demon Lord was at least his equal.”
To my surprise, the storyteller had exceptionally sharp ears. His expression darkened:
“Do you understand the Immortal Venerable better, or do I?”
He tossed me the wooden clapper:
“Come on, if you know so much, you tell it!”
Fine, I’d tell it.
I rolled up my ragged sleeves and tapped the wooden clapper lightly.
I told the story of how Lục Trầm Mặc had cleaved Thương Mountain with a single strike.
Back then, Lục Trầm Mặc and the Demon Lord Bách Lý Hứa fought a duel on Thương Mountain. It was nothing like the easy victory you’re making it out to be.
At the time, the Demon Lord Bách Lý Hứa was famous throughout the world. He had reached the Tribulation Transcendence realm and was just one step away from the Mahayana realm.
And Lục Trầm Mặc? He’d been cultivating for less than a hundred years, was only in the early stages of Tribulation Transcendence, and had an unstable foundation. His destined sword was still unmastered, and yet he was forced to fight Bách Lý Hứa.
They fought for three days and three nights.
Lục Trầm Mặc nearly died several times. He used up every magical treasure he had, and in the end won by barely half a move, destroying Bách Lý Hứa’s soul with a single sword strike.
That day, the fate of the Vân Châu Continent changed, and the Heavenly Dao bestowed great merit.
Lục Trầm Mặc attained the Dao and became an Immortal Venerable.
Covered in wounds and unable to stand, he simply lay on the ground and asked me:
“The mountains are high and the rivers long. Will we meet again?”
Then he asked:
“Have they left?”
A little while later, he asked again:
“Have they left?”
I stayed silent, pretending I’d already gone.
Then Lục Trầm Mặc burst into tears.
He lay on the stones, stained bright red with fresh blood, and cried even more miserably than he had the day his engagement was broken off.
4
This story might shatter everyone’s illusions about the cultivation world.
Lục Trầm Mặc wasn’t the heroic young man they imagined. He was just a small, unlucky boy.
I met Lục Trầm Mặc when his engagement was broken off.
That haughty young heiress took the betrothal contract with her and left behind a huge sum of gold and silver.
Lục Trầm Mặc clutched the jade pendant the young woman had left behind and wept bitterly…
Then the jade pendant suddenly began to glow.
I entered that jade pendant.
“Brave young man, are you willing to enter into a contract with this system and awaken the supreme power of this world?”
That’s right, I was a system.
My mission was to assist the chosen one and stop the Demon Lord from destroying the world.
Once I completed my mission, I could return to my homeland.
The Heavenly Dao here told me that the chosen one was clever and strong-willed. With just the right amount of help from me, my day of return wouldn’t be far off.
But I hadn’t expected the chosen one to have no interest in power.
Lục Trầm Mặc poked the jade pendant. “What’s a system? You can talk? Are you a fairy in the pendant?”
Me: …
Lục Trầm Mặc went on, “Fairy in the pendant, do you know the Matchmaker God? Can you ask him to restore the bond between Bội Chi and me?”
“Enough!” I scolded him. “Sign a contract with me, rise to the rank of Immortal Venerable, and you’ll have six consorts at your beck and call. Why pine for someone who abandoned you?”
…
It was never my intention to turn Lục Trầm Mặc into a lovesick fool.
But the tea drinkers below laughed and chimed in.
They clearly preferred a romance to the story of Lục Trầm Mặc I was telling.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to continue.
Disciples of Thiên Kiếm Mountain burst in.
Two of them dragged me straight up the mountain. “You slandered the Sword Venerable at the foot of Thiên Kiếm Mountain. Come with us and explain yourself!”
I’d heard that ordinary mortals had to climb Thiên Kiếm Mountain’s gate steps to ascend the mountain.
Thiên Kiếm Mountain had 108,000 stone steps, and climbing them all would take you to the cloud-capped summit.
I had once climbed those cloud-piercing steps side by side with Lục Trầm Mặc, back when he was still mortal.
What had I done to deserve being escorted straight up the mountain by two cultivators, sparing me the hardship of climbing the steps?
5
I thought speaking ill of Lục Trầm Mặc was a minor matter.
But who would have thought that a nobody like me recounting a childhood memory of his would make the sect leader preside over the matter in person?
The old man with the white beard was still the same old man from all those years ago.
He studied me for a long while, then suddenly burst out laughing.
“So you're just a little girl.”
That was right. This body of mine belonged to a little girl.
She looked about fourteen, with thin hair and signs of poor nutrition.
Her face was gaunt, with a pointed chin and sunken cheeks—especially when she stood on the platform, frowning as she told them about the Sword Venerable.
“I won't interrogate a little girl. If this matter concerns Trầm Mặc, take her to him and see what he has to say.”
The sect leader of Thiên Kiếm Mountain had unfathomable cultivation. He was also Lục Trầm Mặc's master, and the only person on Thiên Kiếm Mountain who dared call him by his name.
And so I was taken to Lục Xuất Peak.
The disciple guiding me said that Lục Xuất Peak was covered in snow year-round and bitterly cold. Since I had no spiritual energy to protect me, they took me to the supply office to get a fox-fur coat before we set out.
“You said Lục Trầm Mặc is on Lục Xuất Peak. Isn't he cold?”
As soon as I asked, the disciple laughed. “You're joking, miss. The Sword Venerable has an ice-type spiritual root. How could he be afraid of the cold?”
No. That wasn't right.
Lục Trầm Mặc did have an ice-type spiritual root, but he was always afraid of the cold.
His fur coat was even thicker than mine.
Every winter, he refused to meditate on his cushion and would curl up under the covers instead, tugging at my sleeve. “Đồng Đồng, stay with me.”
“I'm just a soul. Even if I lie beside you, I can't keep you warm.”
“Just having you here makes me feel warm.”
6
“We're here.”
The disciple's voice broke into my memories.
I reached up to lift my hood, and the wind and snow whipped straight into my face.
“Greetings, Immortal Venerable!”
I was brushing off the snow when the disciple beside me dropped to his knees in greeting and tugged at my sleeve.
But my legs were stiffer than the pillars of Thiên Kiếm Mountain.
I clutched my fur coat tight and peered through the wind and snow. A figure stood with his back to me.
He wore a thin, flowing robe…
A white robe like snow, and a lonely silhouette.
A long separation. So many years without meeting.
“Lục Trầm…” I started to call his name.
But another voice rang out first.
“Lục Trầm Mặc!”
The voice was crystal clear.
I followed the sound and saw a graceful figure in pale yellow appear at the far end of the snowstorm.
She was a lively, beautiful girl of fourteen or fifteen, with a soft-feather ornament in her hair and rosy cheeks. She skipped toward Lục Trầm Mặc.
“Slow down. Careful, or you'll fall,” Lục Trầm Mặc reminded her in a low voice.
Since when had he ever been so gentle with anyone else?
I said nothing, standing still as I watched him.
He didn't look my way. His gaze stayed fixed on the girl running toward him.
A cold wind swept by, carrying snowflakes.
The bell at his side rang once, bright and clear.
On the day he attained the Dao and became an Immortal Venerable, I severed our bond with him.
He asked me, “The mountains are high and the rivers long. Will we ever meet again?”
I pointed to the bell. “When it rings, that means I've returned.”
But we both knew I had lied.
I thought that after that parting, with mountains high and rivers long, we would never meet again.
7
I quietly asked the young immortal cultivator beside me:
“Who is that young woman?”
“That's Miss Đồng Đồng. She's been on Lục Xuất Peak for sixteen years.”
Is that so?
But “Đồng Đồng” was clearly the name I'd made up when I told Lục Trầm Mặc my name. It was my name.
When he was young, Lục Trầm Mặc was a chatterbox who pestered me all day, asking what my name was:
“Do I have to keep calling you Jade Pendant Fairy forever?”
I was so fed up that I had to make up a name on the spot to get him off my back:
“Whatever. Just call me Đồng Đồng.”
Đồng Đồng sounded like “thống thống”—system. Wasn't I Lục Trầm Mặc's system?
After that, he called me “Đồng Đồng.”
Eventually, I got used to being called that.
But who could have imagined that a hundred years later, another Miss Đồng Đồng would appear by Lục Trầm Mặc's side?
The young cultivator said:
“Miss Đồng Đồng is the Immortal Venerable's beloved, reborn. She grew up here on Lục Xuất Peak.”
Beloved?
Since when did Lục Trầm Mặc have a beloved?
“Look,” he said, pointing to the bell at Lục Trầm Mặc's side. “As soon as the young woman came near, the bell rang. Everyone knows the Immortal Venerable and his lover parted on Thương Sơn and made the bell their pledge to meet again.”
As soon as the young cultivator finished speaking, the bell at Lục Trầm Mặc's side fell silent too.
“Miss Đồng Đồng” had come to a stop beside him.
The two of them both looked toward me.
So he'd known we were here all along.
“Why have you brought an outsider to Lục Xuất Peak without permission?”
The four of us stood apart, separated by layer upon layer of wind and snow.
The snow blurred Lục Trầm Mặc's brows and eyes.
A hundred years had passed, but Lục Trầm Mặc's appearance hadn't changed.
From a distance, it seemed as though he were looking at me across that hundred-year divide.
The young cultivator explained the situation to Lục Trầm Mặc in detail.
When he heard that I'd been telling stories in a teahouse, Lục Trầm Mặc frowned too.
“May I ask your name, miss?” He looked puzzled. “How do you know about my past?”