Chapter 95: Penglai Has an Immortal Island (5)
Penglai Immortal Island lay deep within the Eastern Sea, shrouded all year round in an impenetrable sea mist.
This was not a natural phenomenon, but the island’s own immortal technique. Because of this mist, not to mention mortals—even Dao stage cultivators would lose their way at sea without a pass token. Even the island’s own disciples, once they left Penglai, could never return. The disciples referred to this as “graduation.” Each year, only a handful earned the qualification to “graduate,” and to them, it was a different kind of honor.
After leaving Penglai Island, whether these disciples joined other sects or established their own, they would have nothing more to do with Penglai Immortal Island.
For this reason, there were rumors that Penglai Immortal Island was the most peaceful and harmonious sect in the entire cultivation world.
The island’s master, Immortal Miaoyan, was also a Mahayana cultivator. His cultivation was not particularly outstanding, but his reputation in the cultivation world was excellent. Every hundred years, he celebrated a grand birthday. That was the only opportunity outsiders had to enter Penglai Island. Even then, the chance was rare—only the direct descendants of major sects and a few ruling figures from various spirit realms were granted the privilege.
Three hundred years ago, Bai Chunsheng had gone as well, accompanying his grandmother.
Yan Jingqiu had also attended that time. However, he had not been invited because he was Yan Jingqiu of the Yan family—he had gone solely in his own name.
Whenever Bai Chunsheng thought of Yan Jingqiu, he still felt a sense of unreality. Bo Yan had said that Yan Yi was dead.
If Yan Yi was dead, then naturally Yan Jingqiu was dead as well.
Bai Chunsheng leaned against the soft cushion of the flying dragon carriage and looked at his own pale, powerless hands spread open before him.
Over the past few days, he felt as though he had been living on clouds, with no sense of solidity at all. Ever since he had been captured by Shen Qing and brought to the Water Abyss Realm, everything had gone far beyond his expectations. When he had first left the Bibo Spirit Realm, he had been so happy.
It felt as though in the blink of an eye, everything was gone.
The Wutong Tree Sea was gone, and his Yan Yi was gone too.
Yan Yi—Yan Jingqiu. How could that be possible?
Curled up on the bed, Bai Chunsheng turned over miserably. Yesterday, he had stammered as he asked Bo Yan whether there was a body. Even if it was only a corpse, he wanted to see it. If alive, he wanted to see the person; if dead, he wanted to see the body. He should at least be allowed that.
Bo Yan had said nothing. He had simply left.
Soon after, Yi Zhou had entered with several meek-looking maids, saying they would take him to bathe again.
Bai Chunsheng had not slept the entire night. He comforted himself by thinking that not seeing Yan Yi’s body was a good thing.
Perhaps that fool had suddenly revived somewhere again.
Just like when the Yan family had claimed that Yan Jingqiu had failed his tribulation and become trapped within his own life-and-death realm—perhaps he was not dead at all. Perhaps at this very moment, he was somewhere in a corner of the world, waiting to meet Bai Chunsheng again. The world was so vast. Even if they did not have a coincidence as fortunate as their reunion at the Zhanbi River, as long as Bai Chunsheng knew that Yan Jingqiu was still alive, that would be enough.
Sometimes, Bai Chunsheng blamed himself even more. If he had not been afraid that a memory-restored Yan Jingqiu would turn against him, he should have taken the amnesiac Yan Yi back to the Yan family long ago. The Yan family’s old ancestor, Yan Jianhang, was still alive. He surely would have had a way to cure Yan Jingqiu’s memory loss. Then he would not have died so young in the Water Abyss Realm.
Bai Chunsheng knew that Yan Yi seemed to like him, yet he had never heard the unamnesiac Yan Jingqiu mention having feelings for anyone.
The fox maiden of Hanyu Pavilion, the fairies of Cuiwei Palace, Yan Jingqiu’s junior sister at Taixu Sect… among so many people, perhaps one of them had been the lover Yan Jingqiu did not dare speak of.
But now he was dead.
It was Bai Chunsheng’s fault. He had wronged Yan Jingqiu.
Thinking this, Bai Chunsheng clenched the soft fur blanket covering him.
The Water Abyss Realm was a major spirit realm close to the Grand World. Naturally, Bo Yan had a quota to travel to Penglai Immortal Island. He did not ride in the same flying dragon carriage as Bai Chunsheng. At his side, Yi Zhou was reporting on Bai Chunsheng’s condition that day.
Bo Yan, “He’s still not eating?”
“From when he woke yesterday until this morning, he only ate three spoonfuls of Qiongyu Spirit Cake,” Yi Zhou hesitated. “And he vomited some of it.”
Yi Zhou, “Perhaps because we’re going to Penglai Island today, the young master isn’t used to riding in the flying dragon carriage. And when we passed by the Ten Thousand Demon Sect, it stirred up memories. His mood is poor, so his appetite is poor. That’s why he ate so little.”
Bo Yan, “It’s not that he has no appetite. He finds me disgusting.”
Ever since hearing yesterday that he was to marry him, Bai Chunsheng had constantly given him cold looks, his unwillingness written plainly across his face. It made Bo Yan recall even more clearly that fleeting daze when he had asked Bai Chunsheng how he would react if he were to marry Yan Jingqiu.
That had been expectation unconsciously revealed.
As if it had driven home, more deeply than ever, that he truly liked Yan Jingqiu.
Bo Yan felt grief overwhelm him, so he avoided Bai Chunsheng as much as he could.
“Forget it,” Bo Yan said. “Prepare some food and keep it ready. If he gets hungry and wants to eat, give it to him. He’s such a big demon already—no matter what, he won’t starve himself to death.”
Yi Zhou withdrew.
That morning, the group had first traveled through the teleportation array at Soul Abyss and arrived within the Ten Thousand Demon Sect. Then they boarded the flying dragon carriage and headed east toward the Eastern Sea.
The carriage moved extremely fast. In just a few hours, they could already vaguely see the outline of the sea from the Ten Thousand Demon Sect.
As they ventured deeper into the ocean, signs of human activity gradually disappeared. Even fishing boats were nowhere to be seen.
The carriage continued eastward. When the mist grew thicker and thicker, and the undercurrents beneath the sea became complex and ever-changing, the dragon attendant steering the carriage knew that Penglai Immortal Island was near.
The island was covered entirely in peach blossom trees, embodying the spirit of a secluded paradise. It was precisely because of these countless peach trees that the people of Penglai were skilled at brewing peach blossom wine. The wine known as “Seeking Dreams,” ranked as the finest wine under heaven, originated from Penglai Immortal Island.
With a single drink, one would enter a dream. The dream would be incomparably long, and upon waking, one’s divine sense and cultivation would increase to varying degrees.
There were rumors that this long dream was in fact an entirely new life.
No matter what happened within the illusion of Seeking Dreams, everyone inside would believe they had merely had a hazy, restless dream. If one wished to know what one had truly experienced, one would have to forgo the growth in cultivation and risk inner demons by drinking “Unwilling to Forget.”
As for “Unwilling to Forget,” it was another kind of wine altogether.
Immortal Miaoyan had said that beneath every peach tree on Penglai Island was buried a jar of Seeking Dreams. But there were only nine cups of Unwilling to Forget on the entire island. The brewer capable of making Unwilling to Forget had willingly drowned in her own dream. In all the world, no one else could brew it again.
Fortunately, in this world, there were many who wished to forget, and very few who did not.
When Bai Chunsheng had visited three hundred years ago, there had still been ten cups of Unwilling to Forget.
Immortal Miaoyan had declared that the wine was incomparably precious. Only those who could defeat him at chess would be gifted a cup.
Now, three hundred years had passed, and only one person had ever drunk Penglai Island’s Unwilling to Forget.
Bai Chunsheng had once asked Bai Jianghan what the wine tasted like. Though she had never drunk it herself, she had told him very seriously, “Even if you get the chance, don’t drink it.”
When Bai Chunsheng had been about to ask why, Bai Jianghan had said, “That old man Miaoyan is extremely sly. Those who drink from the same jar of Seeking Dreams enter the same dream. Each time, he deliberately scrambles the order of the cups. You can never be certain whose dream you’ve entered. No one knows what might happen inside.”
“Unwilling to Forget has no real use. Its only function is to dispel the illusion of Seeking Dreams.”
“But think about it—everything in the dream is fake. You might fall in love with or come to hate someone within the dream. You might even fall in love with someone who entered the dream alongside you… but it’s all false. If you drink Unwilling to Forget, then you alone will remember it all.”
Bai Jianghan had said, “The only person in the world who could brew Unwilling to Forget—Immortal Biyun—died because of it. She fell in love with someone in her dream.”
“Perhaps it’s not entirely correct to say Unwilling to Forget has no use,” Bai Jianghan had amended. “Its greatest effect is probably to breed inner demons.”
“With that rotten basket of chess skills, that old man Miaoyan still wanted to be the greatest chess player in the world? I spit on that.” Bai Jianghan had sneered. “He harbored ill intentions, planning to destroy everyone better at chess than him. Does he think he’s clever? He’s nothing but a fool.”
Bai Chunsheng had listened uneasily, afraid he might develop inner demons too. He had nearly refused to drink the Seeking Dreams Bai Jianghan handed him at the birthday banquet. Only after she shot him a sharp glare had he reluctantly drunk it.
After the banquet ended, he had returned to the room arranged for him and fallen asleep immediately.
When he woke the next day, his divine sense and cultivation had indeed increased considerably. He had been overjoyed, though he faintly felt he had forgotten something.
Unfortunately, staying in the room directly opposite his had been Yan Jingqiu, who had come alone.
When Bai Chunsheng pushed open his door, he happened to see Yan Jingqiu sitting beneath a peach tree, drinking tea with a look of inexplicable loss.
Bai Chunsheng had assumed Yan Jingqiu’s results had not been ideal. That had made his joy even greater. He had immediately thrown his doubts about what had happened in the dream to the back of his mind.
Now, a hundred years later, the peach blossoms remained—but people had changed.
Bai Chunsheng sat dejectedly in the flying dragon carriage, watching as the scenery outside gradually drew closer.
Hearing the birds chirping by his ears and catching the faint fragrance of peach blossoms, Bai Chunsheng knew that he had arrived at Penglai Immortal Island.
Author’s Note:
“The peach blossoms remain, but people have changed.” Adapted from the Tang dynasty poet Cui Hu’s “Inscription at the Southern Village of the Capital”: “Last year on this day within this gate, faces and peach blossoms reflected each other’s red. I do not know where those faces have gone; the peach blossoms still smile in the spring breeze.”
Huge shoutout to @_nyanmaru_ on Discord for commissioning this! The chapter will be posted regularly, show your support for Ciacia at Kofi.
