Outside of Tiandu, the Song family"s old mansion.In the courtyard of the Eye of Starry Sky Song Gudu, Li Muyang had turned himself into a snowman in such a high-profile way.
The wind was howling, the snow was wild.
Li Muyang disappeared where he was sat crouching at, and in the same location there appeared a huge snowman.
What was strange was that, it seemed that all snow and wind came for Li Muyang alone. Crouching next to him less than three feet away, Song Gudu was completely undisturbed. It was as though he was an invisible person who had been ignored by the wind and snow. Also as though he had essential qi protecting his body, preventing the howling gale and snow impossible to harm his body at all.
Song Gudu remained calm and still, there was nothing in the world worth him getting emotional for.
It was only Song Tao who was twisted with shock across his face, pointing to Li Muyang who had turned himself into a s...o...b..ll, he exclaimed “Grandfather, what is he up to?”
“Everyone has his own fate. A man"s fate has arrived. The flowers he waits for are blooming.” Song Gudu calmly said, still staring at the courtyard of plum blossoms. “The flowers I have been waiting for hasn"t bloomed, but this boy went ahead of me. With one brief remark, he was enlightened. His talent is indeed amazing.”
“Then I—-” Song Tao looked to the white snowman, eyes flashing killing intent.
“Wait for him to pick the flowers,” said Song Gudu.
“Yes, Grandfather.” Song Tao answered with a smile, and resumed the graceful expression of a handsome Gongzi, standing there quietly and waited.
When Li Muyang caught the cunning fish in the sea of memory, it was like a golden door had been opened.
Pushing open the golden door, he saw a woman in white as beautiful as a fairy.
It was a woman he had never seen in the real world.
However, he was very familiar with her. He had seen her before, seen her blurred face, seen her startled face, and had seen her perfect figure fluttering away. But it was the first time he saw her entire body.
It was incomparably clear, incredibly moving.
The moment he saw her there was a moment of sadness, but more of surprise.
He wanted to reach out to touch her face, her eyebrows, her red lips and her white clothes fluttering with the wind.
He was hesitant, tangled, and in the end just watched from afar.
She stood under a plum tree, waiting from winter until spring, and then from spring until winter.
The four seasons went by and she waited one cycle after another.
Motionless, and without saying a single word.
In the course of her waiting, the plum tree had grown from a seedling to a thick and tremendous tree. The three to five plum blossoms in the first year had increased to hundreds and thousands of flowers.
The tree was densely covered with countless white plum blossoms.
The roots of the plum tree kept stretching and extending in the soil, and finally grew a new plum tree and new plum blossoms bloomed.
With that plum tree as the core, the surroundings had become a plum tree grove.
Li Muyang felt a pain in his chest like a blade was repeatedly stabbing into his heart.
“Who is she?” ”
“Who is she waiting for?”
Plum blossoms withered and bloomed.
Every time wind and snow were all over the sky, plum blossoms began to bloom, the expression on her face turned excited and joyous.
When the plum blossom died, leaving the withered leaves, she resumed an indifferent and unwavering ice-coldness
Li Muyang finally understood the true meaning of Song Gudu"s question: when will the plum blossoms truly bloom?
Song Gudu had long stepped into the Starry sky realm, and was one of the most powerful cultivators in the world.
Glory and wealth were like smoke and dust.
Fame and fortune can instantly become nothing.
What he seeks was nothing more than becoming stronger, longevity, and eternity.
If Li Muyang can see the plum blossoms blooming, others can also see the plum blossoms, then how could he not see it?
The spring breeze, the autumn rain, the summer cicada, and the winter snow. And the flowers blooming and withering.
These were all perfect, boundless. They were the changes of the four seasons, the cycle of the heavenly law.
Just like life and death, it was also a turnover, reincarnation.
Everyone will die, but if you don"t want to die, it"s about changing the heavenly law and changing the cycle.
The plum blossoms had bloomed and would soon wither. Song Gudu was waiting for the plum blossoms to truly bloom to change the heavenly law, change the cycle, change the norm that everyone knows, change everything that the Heaven had arranged. Defy the natural law and to make him anto an immortal.
After the Starry sky was followed by Astral projection, also known as the Immortal realm. Wander the sky and take a life thousands of miles away miles. One can kill with strand of divine thought.
At that time, will one really be able to live forever?
“I understand.”
“It"s all clear.”
Li Muyang was overjoyed.
He searched around only to find that the woman in white was gone, the forest had also disappeared.
The golden door had closed without him knowing and he had been thrown out the door.
At the same time, strange changes were happening in the small courtyard.
The bright and beautiful plum blossoms suddenly began to wither, petals falling, and then bloomed again at a speed visible to the naked eye. The white flowers emitting a golden glow.
The snowflakes that were fluttering down from the sky did not fall, and instead flew back in the reverse direction towards the sky.
The snow on the ground whizzed up, as though attracted by a great gravitational pull from the sky, and similarly shot to the sky.
Under the howling wind, the snow and ice that wrapped Li Muyang into a snowman also in same way darted skywards, disappearing in the Ninth Heaven.
Countless abnormal scenes that defied logic had emerged.
Song Gudu finally had a change of expression.
His eyes were like a raging lake, staring fixedly at the plum blossoms that were exuding a golden glow.
Even when Muyang peeled off the outer snow and ice on him, re-appeared, he still did not turn his head to take a glimpse at him.
Li Muyang"s eyes shot open, his pupils were as golden as two blazing sun.
But the flash of golden light quickly died away, instantly restored his original black pupils. The difference was that his pupils were clearer and cleaner, like the best black jade or gla.s.s bead in the world.
Noticing that Song Tao was staring at him with a gaze like he was looking at one of the fiercest beasts in the divine continent, Li Muyang looked taken aback, asked warily. “What happened? Why are you looking at me like that? What do you want?”
“What did you do just now?” Song Tao asked.
“I didn"t do anything.” Li Muyang argued loud voice. He didn"t even know that he had turned into a snowman, let alone how long he had been through that golden door. But it shouldn"t be long, right? It should only be the blink of an eye.
“You call this nothing?” Song Tao, pointing to the bare little courtyard, where the plum blossoms were glowing a golden light, questioning in a low voice.
“I really didn"t do anything, did the snow stop? What happened to the snow in the courtyard?”
Hearing the dispute between the two men, Song Gudu finally withdrew his attention from the plum trees, stared at Li Muyang for a long while, before he pointed out, “Congratulations to Little friend Muyang for stepping into the High mountain realm.”
“I broke into the next realm.” Li Muyang exclaimed.
Upon a careful feel, he sensed that his boundless sea of dantian had unknowingly been filled, blue seawater had overflowed the empty valley.
During his trip to the water illusion, he was swallowed into s...o...b..ll"s stomach, and then s...o...b..ll completely sucked up the water elements in the illusion.
The water disappeared, the water elements disappeared, and the Water illusion collapsed as a result.
The outside world had been guessing the cause of the collapse of the Water illusion, but little did they know that it was destroyed by a little s...o...b..ll in order to save Li Muyang"s life.
Later, when Li Muyang was spat out by s...o...b..ll, his stomach was stretched, and the dantian was filled to bursting point, as though was about to rupture.
After the escape, he took advantage of the opportunity to check on his state. The previous shallow pool of water in the empty valley had suddenly changed to a boundless blue sea.
At that time, Li Muyang began to wonder if it all the water elements in the Water illusion had went into his body.
“But can water elements be converted directly into essential qi to fill the sea of qi?” Li Muyang pondered over this for a long time, and was still left without an answer. Even the old Dragon"s sea of memory had no knowledge of this.
It seemed that not everyone have had the experience of getting along with the Heart of Weak water.
“I broke into the next realm.” Li Muyang muttered, unable to contain his excitement. “For a martial artist, there was nothing more joyous than breaking the realm.”
Not to mention that his teacher Xiahou Qianbai had used frightening words to scare him before, said to him with a grim face "Your empty valley s.p.a.ce is too empty, you most likely won"t be able to fill it in your whole life".
If his Empty valley were not filled, then he would have to stay in the Empty valley all his life?
Li Muyang did not want to spend his life filling the valley. In his calculations, he thought that it could be filled in three to five years.
But unexpectedly, in less than one year, because of a fortuitous encounter, he had progressed from the Empty valley into the High Mountain.
It should be said that the Empty valley was divided into the lower stages, middle stages and upper stages. He had broke through several stages and stepped into the High Mountain in one leap. Amongst the younger generation, there was hardly anyone whose cultivation progressed as rapidly as him.
“Stepped into the High mountain realm?”
Hearing Grandfather"s remark, Song Tao almost bit his tongue.
The first time he heard of Li Muyang"s name, was when he killed the Cui family"s Cui Zhaoren on his way to school and destroyed half of the Monitoring Division of the West Wind Kingdom.
Cui Zhaoren was a well-known figure of his generation, had a famous reputation across the whole Tiandu, and among the children of the aristocratic families, not many matched up him.
It should be said that, to reach the upper stages of the Free clouds at his age was incredibly impressive, and would surely have a promising future. Decades later, who can guarantee that he would not become another Starry sky cultivator?
However, he was killed by Li Muyang.
Later, there were more incidents that involved Li Muyang. However, the most shocking one was Mu Yubai of Still water sword school being beaten by him, severely injured and had not regained consciousness even now.
Because all those black swordsmen had died, and even one of the three wild guests Baili Chenghe was killed, and besides Miss Hong Xiu, there was no one in the entire Tiandu who knows how Li Muyang was able to defeat Mu Yubai.
Li Muyang naturally could not expose the secret of s...o...b..ll, so all the credit had fallen onto him.
What kind of man was Mu Yubai ?
The Master of the Still water sword school, the G.o.d of Sword of West Wind, a legendary Master who was said to be the same level as his Grandfather. Song Tao obviously thinks that he was not as good as his Grandfather. Although they have not had a match before.
A person like him was defeated by Li Muyang, which meant that Li Muyang must be a top cultivator? Is he at the upper stages of the Withering Glory? Or perhaps the lower stages of the Starry Sky?
It was also for this reason that, during this meeting, Song Tao"s att.i.tude towards Li Muyang was incredibly polite. Who dares to offend a master who could defeat the G.o.d of Sword of West Wind?
However, the truth was too cruel.
He had just stepped into the Empty valley realm, then that meant that he was just at the Empty valley realm previously.
How could an Empty valley realm kill Cui Zhaoren? How was he able to beat Mu Yubai?
Is the world crazy, or had he gone crazy?
Song Gudu reached out his hand to touch Li Muyang"s head, and a ball of white light instantly shrouded Li Muyang"s head.
Then, with a ruminative look in his eyes and a gentle sigh, he remarked, “Your High Mountain is too high.”
Li Muyang was now standing at the bottom of a high mountain, he was lifting his head and looking at another towering high mountain. He then got up and bowed deeply to Song Gudu. “Thank you Elder Song for the advice. Muyang will certainly remember and never dare to forget.”
Song Gudu with the wave of his hand answered: “I just placed my own uunsolvable problem on you, I did not expect you to so easily unravel it. What advice did I give you? It"s your own fate.”
“Elder Song has his own standpoint, Muyang has his own manner.” Li Muyang bowed again. “I was able to break into the next realm because of Elder Song"s problem, I naturally have to thank Elder Song.”
Song Gudu finally rose to his feet, strode over to stroke the glowing plum blossoms. “Li Muyang, what were you thinking of just now?”
“That the Heavenly law must not be disobeyed.””
“But we cultivate and break realms, that is in defiance of the Heavenly law.”
“I can go against it, but you can"t.” Li Muyang said with a smile, “For me to go against it, is just a little change. But for you to go against it, that really is in defiance of the Heavenly law.”
“Yes,” Song Gudu sighed lightly, “so, the further you go to the end, the more difficult it is. When one"s power is exhausted, one"s life has reached the end. Most likely that before one find the path in defiance of the heavenly law, everything will end, vanish like smoke in thin air.”
“Flowers that have bloomed, have bloomed. Matter that have happened, have happened.” Li Muyang uttered with a smile. “Although it is my first time meeting Elder Song, but Elder Song"s name resounds across the starry sky, all people know about Elder Song, know about your deeds.”
“Elder Song has existed, and will always exist. What you have experienced, what you have given, your glorious achievements will be spread across the world, will be recorded in the historical records. These, isn"t that enough?”
“Is that enough?” Song Gudu looked to the boundless sky, the wind rose, and snow came falling down once again.
As Li Muyang had put it, his defiance was just a little change. After a short period of time, everything will return to normal.
“Human greed is based on what one already has. No matter how much you have in front of you, you will always be in a state of nothingness.” Song Gudu sighed. “What I ask for, is what the people around the world cannot give me.”
Indeed, the emperor can give you power, give you wealth, but cannot give you longevity.
Even if the Emperor has longevity, he will not casually give to others.
Song Gudu then looked at Li Muyang, asking: “Li Muyang, in the illusion did you have any harvest?”
“Harvest?” Li Muyang snorted. “My harvest is that I almost could not come out, I got a little fame when the outside world spread the news that I have died in the illusion.”
“Hasn"t anyone ever asked you the question: how did you kill Cui Zhaoren? And how did you defeat Mu Yubai of Still water sword school?”
“Luck?” Li Muyang chuckled, “Maybe my luck is good, even the heavens look after me.”
“Is that right?” Song Gudu deeply looked Li Muyang in the eye, “Once is luck, the second time is not luck. Besides, I never believed in things such as luck.”
“I believe.” Li Muyang said.
“Do you know that it is extremely dangerous to break into the next realm in front of others? If I had struck you, you would be dead now.” Song Tao interrupted. For some reason, Song Tao did not like Li Muyang very much. Seeing him arguing with his Grandfather, he wanted to slap him to death.
“However, Third Young master did not do so.” Li Muyang drew his lips back in a grin, “so, still my luck is good. Isn"t it?”
“Your body is full of secrets.” Song Gudu remarked.
“Is that right? Muyang is stupid and had not noticed any.” Li Muyang said stubbornly.
But he was inwardly nervous to death. He remembered that Song Gudu was known as "the Eye of Starry sky". It was said that under the starry sky, nothing could be kept hidden from the old man"s eyes.
Could it be that he already knows that he was possessed by the black dragon?
If that was the case, Li Muyang was caught in one of the biggest crises of his life.
The old man in front of him was one of the strongest in the West Wind kingdom, and even in the Divine continent he was ranked in the top few.
If he knew he was a dragon, would he jump out and slaughter him immediately?
As to why he told his grandson to invite him over, it was just to make it more convenient for him to slaughter the dragon, and to not give others the opportunity to slay a dragon.
Song Gudu"s eyes were like a deep lake, when one looks at it, one would be deeply immersed in it and instantly sink in.
He looked at Li Muyang and all of a sudden asked, “Li Muyang, have you never doubted your ident.i.ty? You never really thought about who you really are? Where you are really from?”
The smile on Li Muyang"s face froze, staring at Song Gudu he answered, “I come from Jiangnan, my father is Li Yan, my mother is called Luo Qi, and I have a sister named Li Shinian. You already know, and I also know. So, I don"t know why Elder Song asked me to think about those questions.”
“It"s hard for fools to be smart, but it"s harder for smart people to pretend to be fools.” Song Gudu noticed the change of expression on Li Muyang"s face. “Muyang, you look fl.u.s.tered.”