Lady Cultivator

As Mo Tiange walked on with her Cloud-Treading Boots, she looked down and stared at the small town below her.

This was a very tiny town with only a few streets in total and some sporadically stalls set up by the street side. There also weren’t many people shuttling about. Most of them were farmers and commoners.

She scanned the scene bit by bit as she looked for some familiar traces.

That inn, that stall, the tall flag with the word “tea” on it next to the bridge at the town entrance…

It was as if time had gone back to ninety years ago.

She walked along the small path out of town, and soon enough, she had already arrived at a small village.

On the east side of the village, several houses were scattered randomly, a river meandered through it, and smoke rose, spiraling from the chimneys.

This was only a small village under Liancheng County of Jin Country. There were only about 300-400 people in the entire village. In the secular world, it was just a very common village.

But for her, the significance of this place was different.

This was her hometown. She was born and grew up here. Under her mother’s love and care, she too had a joyous childhood once.

Ninety years passed by like water, like clouds of smoke that slipped through one’s fingers. The girl from that year was now a Core Formation cultivator, while the people from that year had now become a pile of dried up bones and a handful of soil.

She looked at the small house in the small courtyard at the eastern end of the village. It was newly painted. Its roof tiles were glossy. And there was a woman sweeping the courtyard—Mo Tiange naturally didn’t recognize her.

After her mother died and she left, this house was presumably given to one of her uncles, right? The house was still that house, but she could no longer find the family in her memories.

She sighed softly and closed her eyes.

Immortals and mortals were different. Cultivators were unruffled by emotions. She would no longer entangle herself with past events, but when she saw traces of her childhood, she still couldn’t hide the faint sorrow in the depths of her heart.

In the western part of the village was still that ancestral hall. Although there were traces of renovations done, the walls were out-of-date. She stepped forward as she couldn’t help but want to take a look, whether or not there was still an old, prudish teacher and a narrow, small library inside.

It was inside that tiny library where she first learned about this kind of cultivation world and stepped into this kind of path.

Upon seeing her entering the village, many of the villagers ran out of their houses and pointed at her, but they didn’t have the courage to approach her.

Her Daoist robes were untainted by dust, her face was beautiful, and her bearing was outstanding—she was just like a celestial immortal descending to the world, completely different from villagers like them.

She’d walked through that small path in the village. She’d walked through ninety years’ worth of time. The thin, feeble, little girl of that year, who was the same as these villagers, had already become a noble Core Formation cultivator.

She pushed open the door to the main hall of the ancestral hall.

This time, someone finally ran over in a panic, wanting to stop her. “Young lady, this is our Mo family’s ancestral hall. Women aren’t allowed to enter…” When he faced her, he couldn’t even speak smoothly. By the end, he was already mumbling.

“I just came back to take a look,” she said as she stepped into the hall.

Women weren’t allowed to enter this hall. She only went in once, but that one time changed her entire fate.

Under the incorporeal pressure of a Core Formation cultivator, the person who tried to stop her didn’t dare to come close. He just looked on helplessly as she stepped into the hall, stood in front of the ancestors’ memorial tablets, reached out and caressed one of the tablets.

Although women weren’t allowed to enter the ancestral hall, her mother was in a marriage in which the husband married into her family, so after her mother died, her memorial tablet was still enshrined in the ancestral hall.

At that time, Mo Tiange still hadn’t confirmed news of her father’s death, so her mother’s tablet stood alone now. All these years, maybe no one had worshiped it.

Mother, being alone here, do you perhaps feel very lonely? Daughter will take you away and bury you and father together, okay? Mo Tiange mumbled in her mind. With a faint smile, she lightly flung her sleeve, causing the dust on the memorial tablet to be blown away. Then she put the memorial tablet into her Qiankun Bag.

“Young lady!” That person turned pale in fright. “You…”

“No need to panic.” She turned around and smiled at that person. “I’m also an offspring of the Mo family. This is my mother’s memorial tablet. I’ve come specifically to take it away.”

That person seemed dumbfounded and at a loss for words when he heard what she said. “You…”

The little old man, who seemed to be about fifty to sixty years old, thought about all the children in the village he’d met before, but the woman in front of him was completely unfamiliar to him. This fairy-like girl was an offspring of Mo family?

Mo Tiange turned around and directed her gaze at the topmost position.

Mo Yaoqing’s jade tablet only had two words written on it. There were no honorifics whatsoever. However, the fact that their ancestor wasn’t a mortal was most likely unknown to the current existing offspring, right? Mo Tiange wondered if there was more to this memorial tablet…

After a moment of contemplation, she softly raised her hand. The jade tablet flew in the air and eventually fell into her hand.

Once he saw this scene, the man who tried to block her before once again paled in fright. “You… you… Young lady, are you an immortal?”

Mo Tiange paused for a moment then shifted her line of sight. “How did you know?”

The little old man’s gaze moved towards the original position of the memorial tablet that she took away. He suddenly said with astonishment, “You’re, you’re…”

Mo Tiange wrinkled her brows slightly. “Do you know who I am?”

The little old man took a deep breath and all of a sudden, he knelt and kowtowed to her. “Mo Yijia greets Second Grandaunt.”

Second grandaunt? For a split second, the title he used to address her befuddled her—on second thought, among all the girls in the clan in her generation that year, she indeed ranked second. Tianqiao was the eldest granddaughter while she was the second granddaughter.

She showed a small smile. “It’s been ninety years, yet some people surprisingly still remember me.”

That little old man raised his head and looked at her reverently. He said, “Our entire village knew about Second Grandaunt being taken away by an immortal that year. Second Grandaunt, please wait here for a moment. I-I’m going to call Eldest Granduncle.”

Eldest granduncle? Before Mo Tiange could ask about this further, the old man already crawled up, trembling all over, and went out hurriedly.

According to the title he used to address her, she ought to be more senior than him by two generations. “Eldest granduncle” was also a title for someone two generations more senior—could it be that there was someone from her generation still alive?

Mo Tiange felt it was rather impossible, but she’d soon get an answer in any case. She smiled and lowered her head to look at Mo Yaoqing’s tablet.

This tablet was made of jade. Furthermore, it was a jade that contained spiritual aura. She was still very young when she left Mo Family’s Village, so she didn’t think about coming here and looking to see what was really going on with this tablet. She also wasn’t able to sense the tiny restriction there.

This restriction was extremely elaborate. If it wasn’t because she was proficient in formations and had read Mo Yaoqing’s personal note, it would’ve been very unlikely that she could see through it at a glance even with her current cultivation level. Maybe she would’ve taken it only to be a common jade that contained spiritual aura.

With a slight smile, she gathered some spiritual aura between her fingers and sent it into the jade tablet.

The solid jade tablet became mist-like. From inside it, she pulled out a Jade Slip, but the jade tablet remained undamaged.

After she finished taking out that Jade Slip, most of the spiritual aura on that memorial tablet had dissipated. Mo Tiange raised her hand, returning the memorial tablet back to its original place. The Jade Slip, on the other hand, went into her own Qiankun Bag.

More and more people gathered around the door to the ancestral hall. This was the first time they saw a woman entering the ancestral hall and Mo Yijia, who was guarding the ancestral hall, not only didn’t stop her but he even kowtowed to her. They were encircling the door to the ancestral hall, pointing at Mo Tiange and whispering, making guesses about her identity. However, they didn’t dare to come in.

“Great grandpa! Great grandpa’s coming.” A commotion rose among the crowd.

“Eldest Granduncle,” Mo Yijia’s excited voice rang out, “In here. Second grandaunt’s in here.”

The crowd was pushed to make way. A trembling, wrinkled, white-haired man so old he almost couldn’t walk on his own walked in supported by others. Upon seeing this person coming over, the crowd respectfully moved back and cleared a path for him.

The old man looked up. His turbid gaze was fixated on her. After he stared at her for a long time, his expression suddenly changed greatly, and he walked towards her, still trembling all over. “Tiange… Are you Tiange?”

She couldn’t find any trace of the old man before her eyes in her memory, but he coincided with the grandfather in her mind.

Mo Tiange stared at the old man in front of her. She said quietly, “You… are Tianjun?”

Tears rained down from the old man’s muddy eyes. “You finally came back…”

Mo Tiange took a deep breath. Tianjun… was two years older than me, right? I’m now ninety-eight years old. Tianjun should be a hundred years old now, yet he’s actually still alive? 

“Tianjun, how have you been?” As she stared at the old man before her eyes, an old man who couldn’t even walk properly, Mo Tiange couldn’t help but sigh. On this trip back to the secular world, she really never expected she could still run into an acquaintance. She originally thought that after ninety years, the world must’ve already changed.

“I’m… very good. I manage to live until a hundred years old, very good… very good…” Still trembling, Mo Tianjun wiped off his tears. “Old people can… can easily get emotional.”

That year, they were all children; he always liked to bully this younger sister, loved to pull her braids. When he grew up slightly later on, he finally understood that he ought to have been a bit more caring towards her. But soon afterward, she left. She was gone forever.

Now that he was old and one foot was already in the coffin, she finally came back, still looking quite young.

As he wiped off his tears, he suddenly recalled something, He said, “Right, Tianqiao… Tianqiao also went to your world. Do you know—”

Mo Tiange’s eyes dimmed. Tianqiao’s death… was something she always regretted.

“I met her…” she said softly, “But she already passed away.”

“Did she?” Mo Tianjun let out a soft sigh but didn’t feel too sad. Living until this age, he’d seen many deaths already—he was already accustomed to having family at his side passing away. Not to mention parents and siblings, but even his own children had already passed away. The people in his grandchildren’s generation had also started to become old… He didn’t know how he could live so long. “Tianqiao wasn’t an immortal; I’ve long guessed that she might’ve passed away already.”

Mo Tiange didn’t explain. Letting him think so was good too. He was already so old, so he must’ve long been mentally prepared. Why should she make him sad again?

“Tiange, you… you must’ve become an immortal, right?”

Mo Tiange smiled. “Yes, I’ve already achieved some success in my cultivation nowadays. I already have some immortals’ abilities.”

Before Mo Tianjun could say anything, the youngster who’d been helping him up suddenly knelt down. “Great Grandaunt, since you’re already an immortal, please save great grandpa. Great grandpa is—”

Before he could finish what he wanted to say, Mo Tiange raised her hand to stop him. “You don’t have to say anything further. As a mortal, the fact that your great grandpa lived until a hundred years old is already a blessing from Heaven. I can make him healthy, but I can’t change his mortal fate.”

“Great Grandaunt…”

“Xin’er!” Mo Tianjun yelled out. Although he was already old and his voice was hoarse, his prestige was still there. The youngster immediately lost his courage to speak.

Mo Tianjun stared at Mo Tiange, saying: “People have their own mortal fate. I’ve lived for so long, so I’m already content. But these offspring from the Mo family… Tiange, I know you cultivators have to have so-called spiritual roots or something. It’s only by having spiritual roots that one can have a chance to cultivate to become an immortal. Today, I’m thickening my skin to ask you a favor. If Mo family’s offspring have so-called spiritual roots, I hope you can give them a chance.”

People spoke more and more slowly as they got older. By the time Mo Tianjun finished that long speech, he was already exhausted. That youngster promptly came over and propped him up.

Mo Tiange took a glance at the youngster then chuckled softly. “Alright. I’m also a descendant of Mo family, and that’s nothing difficult; that’s something I should do naturally. However, whether or not they have an Immortal’s Fate isn’t something I can decide. Today, every offspring of the Mo family may come and have a try to see whether or not they have an Immortal’s Fate. If they do, I’ll lead them to walk onto the path towards immortality. If they don’t, they shouldn’t obsess over it any longer.”