Chapter Sixteen: Valley of Immortals

After bidding farewell to Elder Jiang, under Lin Weiyan’s guidance, we made our way out of the perilous Forest of Ten Thousand Demons.

Though Elder Jiang had died, he would live on forever in my heart.

Along the way, Lin Weiyan remained despondent. I wanted to comfort her, but couldn’t find the words.

Feng Zimo was far more eloquent than I, and tried from time to time to cheer Lin Weiyan up by telling amusing stories.

Yet Lin Weiyan could not bring herself to smile.

It was not until we reached the foot of a stony mountain that Lin Weiyan pointed to a massive boulder and said, “Open this stone gate, and beyond lies the Valley of the Immortals.”

I gazed at the huge rock before us. It must have been at least as tall as a three-story building, and what was more, there wasn’t even a door.

So I asked, “But there’s no door—how do we open it?”

“This boulder is the door,” Feng Zimo said, looking at Lin Weiyan.

Lin Weiyan did not deny it, but nodded. “That’s right.”

But with our current strength, there was no way we could move such a colossal stone. Perhaps if Lin Weiyan and Feng Zimo were uninjured, it might have been possible.

As it was, it seemed impossible—unless the boulder could move on its own.

Just as I was thinking this, Lin Weiyan turned to me and said, “Before he died, Elder Jiang said that you would be the one to open this door.”

What?

I was dumbfounded.

What did that stubborn old man mean? Was he trying to trick me, even at the end?

“You must be joking. There’s no way I could move such a giant boulder,” I said.

Lin Weiyan looked from the boulder to me, as if she, too, doubted I was up to the task.

She didn’t understand why Elder Jiang had said such a thing either.

“We’re here now. Why don’t you give it a try? Who knows—you might really be able to do it,” she said, though it was clear she had little confidence. This was her first time coming to the Valley of the Immortals as well.

Though she had followed Elder Jiang for nearly a century and often heard him speak of his master, she had never met the man.

Nevertheless, since Lin Weiyan had said so, I had to try, no matter what.

So I nodded and said, “Very well, I’ll give it a shot.”

Standing before the boulder, I had no idea where to begin.

The stone was immense—by my estimation, it weighed at least thirty tons.

If I tried to lift it, I’d collapse long before it budged. Pushing was equally hopeless.

I was at a loss, but since I had promised Lin Weiyan, I could only grit my teeth and grab hold of a protruding section, straining with all my might.

No matter how much strength I summoned, even to the point of exhaustion, the boulder remained as steady as a mountain, utterly unmoved.

“It won’t open,” I gasped.

They could see I had tried my best, and perhaps it was fate—so they did not press me further.

Lin Weiyan sighed and said, “It seems this calamity is inevitable.”

After speaking, she looked at me with a complicated expression, as if there was something she wished to say but did not know how.

At length, she spoke: “Brother Chu Yun, can you promise me that, no matter what happens, you’ll never again use the Crimson-Eyed Demon Gaze?”

I nodded. “The problem is, I can’t control it.”

Feng Zimo said, “You’re right. In this world, the only one who could seal the Crimson-Eyed Demon Gaze was Elder Jiang’s master.”

I looked at Feng Zimo, who didn’t appear very old, yet seemed to know a great deal.

Could it be that he wasn’t human? Or perhaps he was a demon, too?

Or maybe, like the stubborn old man, he had been enlightened by an immortal?

I had wondered about this for a long time, never finding the right moment to ask.

Now seemed as good a time as any.

“How do you know so much? Who are you, really?”

Feng Zimo smiled, striking a handsome, nonchalant pose. “I’m a demon, just like her.”

“Then why did you accompany us to the Valley of the Immortals?” I pressed.

Feng Zimo’s smile did not fade. “To tell the truth, I came here to escape a heavenly tribulation.”

“You’re about to ascend to immortality?” I exclaimed.

Both Feng Zimo and Lin Weiyan smiled at my startled expression.

Lin Weiyan asked, “Who told you that you become immortal after surviving a tribulation?”

I replied, “That’s what the books say—about ascending to the Way of Heaven after the trial, becoming an immortal, a god.”

Lin Weiyan said, “You must’ve been reading fantasy novels. None of that’s real. By your logic, I once read a book called ‘The Adventures of the Yin-Yang Master’ where a Taoist named Lin Tianyou ended up mastering the entire universe.”

Hearing her say this, I was startled—not about whether tribulation led to immortality, but the fact that a fox demon would read novels.

So I asked Lin Weiyan, “You read novels?”

She smiled. “I read them when I have nothing else to do.”

“Well, alright then,” I said, speechless.

Feng Zimo, on the other hand, seemed not to know what a novel was at all. Wearing a bewildered expression, he asked, “What’s a novel?”

I couldn’t be bothered to explain, fearing the more I said, the less he would understand.

So I simply told him, “I’ll bring you some to read one day, then you’ll know.”

Feng Zimo nodded as if half-understanding, and thanked me.

“Well, since we’re not fated to enter the Valley of the Immortals, let’s head back,” I said.

Feng Zimo seemed reluctant to give up. “Why don’t we wait here for a couple of days? Once we’ve recovered our strength, we might be able to open the stone gate.”

Lin Weiyan replied, “It’s useless. Even if we could open the gate then, Elder Jiang’s master would already be in seclusion. We still wouldn’t be able to see him.”

I added, “My cousin is still waiting for me, and we haven’t yet solved Sun Wenwen’s death. I don’t want her to die without justice—she helped me a great deal while alive.”

Seeing neither of us wanted to stay, Feng Zimo had to let it go.

So we started back the way we’d come. We hadn’t gone far when suddenly, the ground trembled beneath us. My first thought was that it was an earthquake.

The tremors grew more frequent, making it hard for us to keep our balance.

“We should run—there’s an earthquake!” I shouted.

But neither of them moved. Instead, Lin Weiyan’s face was lit with excitement.

I wondered if it was her first time experiencing an earthquake.

I grabbed Lin Weiyan’s hand and pulled her toward open ground.

But after just a few steps, she shook off my hand and pointed back at the massive stone gate.

“Look—!”