The Path Toward Heaven

On the same night.

The cold Shangde Peak suddenly had a tinge of irritating heat.

The starlight shone down and streamed through the well all the way to the bottom of it, shining on a black dog.

Dead Dog opened his eyes and looked up at the sky.

The object fell down along with the starlight was not Jing Jiu, but five pieces of coal-like black wood that contained extremely powerful energy.

These were the most cherished treasure by the Green Mountain—the Thunder-Soul Woods.

There were only six pieces of Thunder-Soul Wood left at the Green Mountain Sect, and one of them was still not completely nurtured yet, receiving the nurturing of thunders on the top of Bihu Peak.

When Jing Jiu and Zhao Layue brought White Ghost to Shenmo Peak from Bihu, they also took the five pieces of Thunder-Soul Wood with them.

Except for the Immortal Sect Master and Yuan Qijing, nobody knew about it, including those on Bihu Peak.

Dead Dog smelled the five pieces of Thunder-Soul Wood by his side, and tugged them underneath him to hide them like he did with the bones after a moment of silence.

…

…

In the early morning next day, on Shenmo Peak.

Gu Qing said, “That carriage is still at the Fruit Formation Temple. Should I send someone to bring it back?”

“Don’t bother. It’s too slow anyway,” said Jing Jiu.

Having made the remark, he reached out his hand to hold the cat in his chest and then sat on the iron sword.

The iron sword carried him and headed skyward diagonally.

Seeing his disappearing figure, Zhao Layue was a bit worried, as she thought he left in a kind of hurry, unlike his usual calm, indifferent, and lazy temperament.

Yet, Gu Qing complimented, “Only this can be called ‘leaving by sitting on the sword’…This is truly the style of a real immortal.”

Startled, Yuan Qü commented hesitantly, “Isn’t this similar to riding a donkey?”

…

…

Seeing Zhaoge City in the distance, Jing Jiu descended. He wrapped the iron sword with the cloth carefully and walked forward while heaving the white cat.

Jing Jiu was the elder of Shenmo Peak, so all he needed to do before leaving the peak was inform the Green Mountain; but he knew that his departure would cause a lot of discussion and gossip.

He didn’t ask Zhao Layue to conceal the fact that he couldn’t break through the Cultivation state.

He came to the gate of Zhaoge City soon enough. With the Travel Permit obtained by Zhao Layue years ago, he entered the city with ease.

The light snowflakes fell down from the sky and landed on his conical hat, forming a thin layer of frost on the hat.

More snowflakes fell on the roads in the streets, and the pedestrians stepped them into mud.

In the late winter, the visitors still crowded the streets of Zhaoge City, especially around the White Horse Lake. More people came out this day to enjoy the snowy scene, so it was even more crowded that day.

Jing Jiu’s sleeve quivered slightly, as the white cat poked his head out to look at the surroundings curiously, his black pupils wide open.

He preferred inaction to action, so he had no desire to leave the Green Mountain at all; it was the past experience that had aroused his certain emotion to motivate him to get out of the mountain.

Seeing the crowded scene that was utterly different from that on the Green Mountain, he suddenly felt it wasn’t a bad idea to walk about outside the Green Mountain.

Zhaoge City seemed cleaner than when he was last here many years ago.

Jing Jiu said, “Be careful; don’t let anybody see you.”

The white cat mused that he was a living creature, not a magic treasure, and that it would be so boring if he wasn’t allowed to enjoy the scenery. Even if he was discovered, so what?

Jing Jiu said, “I’m not afraid that somebody might find out your background. It’s just that it’s a rather odd thing to walk a cat to begin with, so I don’t want to draw too much attention.”

The white cat meowed once, attempting to tell Jing Jiu that he should have brought that dog with him if he felt it inconvenient to bring this cat.

Jing Jiu walked into a medical house by the street.

The plaque in front of the medical house had a carved begonia flower. They were the Curtain Rollers.

A moment later, Jing Jiu came out from the medical house, and it was unknown what he had asked them in there.

Zhao Layue’s feeling was correct.

Jing Jiu was indeed anxious.

In this world, his Big Brother was the only one who could make him feel this way.

Both He and his Big Brother restarted their Cultivation from the scratch in a sense, and his Big Brother escaped from the Sword Jail one year earlier than his own return to Green Mountain.

Jing Jiu was certain that he would be able to catch up to this lost year easily.

This had something to do with his talent, but more importantly, the two of them used different methods.

Jing Jiu’s method hailed from the Fruit Formation Temple and the Water-Moon Nunnery.

Back when he discussed the methods with the Young Zen Master on Shenmo Peak for one hundred days, they discussed the method of the golden wheel of reincarnation; it was because for some reason the Young Zen Master had the most profound knowledge of it in the world.

Many years ago, he had also spent some time studying with Lian Sanyue. The ancient Magic-Pearl Script, which he taught Bai Zao while they were in the snowland, was their achievement back then.

After Jing Jiu got accustomed to his current body, he thought this method was a perfect fit for him; but he had never expected that he would run into a difficult problem.

The situation made him feel restless. Then he thought of the method used by his Big Brother.

His Big Brother’s method came from the Underworld, which had many shortcomings and hidden problems; for instance, it was harder to find a body that could perfectly match the spiritual soul; even if the body were found, it would still be impossible to solve the issue of rapid decay.

Jing Jiu had no desire to try this method, but this method reminded him of the possibility of solving the issue of the Sword Ghost.

The helpful person he was looking for was a swordsman of the Underworld.

Many swordsmen of the Underworld were imprisoned in the Sword Jail of the Green Mountain, but they were not powerful enough.

What he wanted to learn was the method of the highest state in the Underworld, that is, the Control of Soul-Fire.

The Underworld swordsmen of this level could be found only in one place in Chaotian.

The light snowflakes continued drifting down, and they melted as soon as they landed on the eaves, looking like the wet horns of an old dragon.

Standing at the entrance to the alley, Jing Jiu looked at the nearby Taichang Temple.

It was the place he wanted to go to.

Looking in that direction, the white cat showed hostile intent, but he reduced his energy, seemingly trying not to disturb somebody.

…

…

Jing Jiu walked up the stone steps, pressed the green brick, and then knocked on the door.

Soon after, footsteps were heard, and the door was pushed open. A tender face peered out.

“May I ask who you are?”

The speaker was a youth of about twelve or thirteen years, and they looked at Jing Jiu curiously.

Though Jing Jiu wore a conical hat, the youth was much shorter than he was and stood close to him, so the youth could easily see his face.

After the initial shocking expression, the youth suddenly thought of something and yelled out excitedly, “You…are you my little uncle?”

Jing Jiu remembered, this youth should be the son of Jing Shang, and was his nephew in name.

Back when he came to Zhaoge City, this little kid wanted to be hugged by him, and he cried a great deal after being refused.

He didn’t expect the little kid to have become a youth now.

If he were a regular person, he might have felt sentimental about the time, family and life.

Jing Jiu didn’t go through any emotional change.

Yet, the youth was baffled by his indifference, though he suddenly remembered his father telling him that his little uncle wasn’t a regular person. So he got his emotions together and led him into the courtyard.

The Jing family was as quiet as before. Some trees were planted carelessly between the living room and the side yard. Looking to the right side, he could vaguely see the begonia, which resembled a blossoming flower with snow accumulating on top.

Jing Jiu looked around, but didn’t see any servants. The only difference was that the wall of the courtyard on the northwest side was knocked down half way; it seemed that an expansion project was under the way.

The Jing Shang couple had already walked out from the living room to receive Jing Jiu, and the grandfather was standing in the living room, not knowing what to do while rubbing his hands uneasily.

After some thought, Jing Jiu asked, “Did you eat?”

On the dining table in the living room were the bowls and plates of remaining food

The atmosphere was kind of awkward.

Jing Shang knew that Jing Jiu was trying to express friendliness.

However, this type of address wasn’t appropriate between the family members, sounding very odd.

But Jing Shang knew he couldn’t regard Jing Jiu as his real family member.

“Yes, we have eaten.”

Jing Shang replied with a smile, and meanwhile he gestured to his wife and father to relax as he led Jing Jiu to the side yard.