The immortal pats my forehead; the knot is tied as I accept everlasting life.
Chen Xiaolian knew of this verse. But the problem was… how did the immortal in this painting become Mr San?
Did he make a mistake? That cannot be!
Mr San had left a deep impression on Chen Xiaolian. While it might be possible for Chen Xiaolian to make a mistake regarding others, it was absolutely impossible for him to make such a mistake where Mr San was concerned.
The immortal in the painting, those facial features, that disposition, all those aspects appeared remarkably true to life and was about 70 to 80 per cent similar to Mr San!
Could it be just a coincidence?
Chen Xiaolian did not believe that to be the case.
Because he had, before this, found out some of the details regarding ‘Skyblade’s’ disappearance.
Father Qiao himself had informed him that Skyblade went missing after going in search of an umbrella!
An umbrella (sǎn)!
Back then, Chen Xiaolian had suspected that this matter might be related to Mr San.
Now, he had coincidentally discovered a painting that resembled Mr San among Skyblade’s heirloom.
Could there be such a coincidence?
Chen Xiaolian stared intently at the painting. The longer he looked at it, the more reservations he had. He then subconsciously leaned down, trying to move closer to the painting so he could get a better view…
It was at that moment that circles of light shone out from the faint wooden patterns on the mahogany box that was placed beside him.
The circles of light were not dazzling. Rather, they were quite faint. However, a bloody atmosphere emanated outward from them.
Chen Xiaolian was lost in thought as he checked the painting. Thus, in the beginning, he failed to discover what was happening. A few seconds later though, that bloody light grew brighter and Chen Xiaolian who finally noticed it became shocked.
As he was exclaiming, he felt the bloody light enveloping the painting. Next, a powerful force pulled him and his body was inexorably sucked down…
Soo!
Following the swooshing sound, Chen Xiaolian who was seated before the table found his entire body slamming onto the surface of the painting. His body was completely sucked into it… and he disappeared!
…
“Damn it! What happened?!”
Inside a dark room, Fatty was seated before an old-fashioned monitor, an unfiltered cigarette in his mouth.
The monitor screen was originally showing the video of Chen Xiaolian sitting there before the unrolled painting.
The next instant however, the screen suddenly turned red. Then, the monitor blacked out.
Mm?
No more image?
Fatty rapidly stood up, moved over and forcefully slapped down on the monitor a few times.
No response?
Fatty instantly bounced up and swore, “Damn it! What is going on here?”
He quickly reached for the microphone and shouted, “Xiaolian! Brother Xiaolian! Brother Xiaolian!”
But, would he be able to get any response?
Most alarming of all, Fatty discovered that the link between his remote control device and Chen Xiaolian’s Storage Watch had been cut off!
No signal at all!
It had been utterly cut off!
“The… the Hell? What is going on here?”
…
Chen Xiaolian fell headfirst and the feeling of weightlessness assailed his body. Before he could utter a word, he faceplanted.
This fall was excruciatingly painful. After falling down, Chen Xiaolian instinctively rolled away. After rolling a few times, he jumped to attention, his heart feeling terribly shocked. He raised his head and surveyed his surroundings.
After looking around, Chen Xiaolian became utterly dumbfounded.
“This, what is going on here?”
His surrounding was foggy and a light drizzle fell on his body.
At that moment, he found himself standing atop a chain of mountains and rivers, enveloped by a vast stretch of clouds. A range of hills could be seen in the distance as he stood there atop one of the mountains. Before him were two shocking figures!
An ephemeral looking immortal, whose hand was lightly touching someone’s forehead. This other person was kneeling on the ground with a reverent look on his face!
Surprising, this was the scene in the painting just now!
Chen Xiaolian exclaimed in surprise. He subconsciously stepped forward and reached out to touch the two figures.
However, the two figures swiftly turned translucent. Next, they turned into golden beams of light before disappearing into thin air.
“Oh damn!” Chen Xiaolian was shocked.
The mountain was surrounded by cliffs on all sides and there was no way down the mountain. The area above the mountain that Chen Xiaolian was occupying was not that large. It was more like a little platform atop the mountain peak.
At that moment, with the exception of Chen Xiaolian, the only other thing there was something no more than 10 steps away from him. A large blue coloured stone.
Mm?
Chen Xiaolian looked at the big blue coloured stone.
There on the surface of the blue coloured stone was a cave like hole. The size of the hole was roughly sufficient for one person for crawl inside.
Chen Xiaolian stepped forward. The next instant, the two figures forming the ‘immortal pats my forehead’ scene reappeared.
Chen Xiaolian was momentarily shocked. He carefully assessed the scene before finally figuring out the key detail!
“It was actually a holographic projection.”
The hole on the blue coloured stone was projecting a beam of light, which was formed the two figures outside. One was the immortal patting the forehead, while the other was the man kneeling on the ground.
Those two figures were not real. They were merely holographic projections.
Just now, the two figures had suddenly disappeared because Chen Xiaolian had accidentally blocked off the beam of light coming from the blue coloured stone when he moved forward. Thus, the holographic projections had disappeared.
When he moved once more, the beam of light was no longer hindered and the holographic projection reappeared.
“They’re dummies.”
After figuring that out, a bigger question emerged for Chen Xiaolian.
“How did I get thrown in here? There was something about that painting after all!” Chen Xiaolian became vexed.
What kind of luck is this?
Didn’t Fatty said that all of Skyblade’s heirloom had been inspected a hundred times over by all the old fellows in the guild?
Why was it that no problems happened when those old fogeys were checking, but now, all I did was take a look at the painting, and I end up in this bizarre situation?
But the problem now is… how do I get out?
Chen Xiaolian looked to his left, then to his right. The only thing of note was the hole in the blue coloured stone.
Chen Xiaolian rushed over and carefully assessed the hole on the stone.
A few seconds later, he took a deep breath. Making up his mind, he stepped forward and crawled into the hole on the blue coloured stone.
The cave passageway inside the hole was very narrow and was only barely able to accommodate one person. Chen Xiaolian had to crouch down as he moved forward.
After entering the cave, Chen Xiaolian found a relief on the wall of the cave. It was none other than the relief of the ‘immortal pats my forehead’. The sculpting was very fine.
Within this passageway, an oval-shaped stone could be found on the floor of the passageway, emitting light.
The holographic projection outside this passageway was projected from this oval-shaped stone, which projected out the contents of the relief on the wall.
Chen Xiaolian regarded the stone and found that it had been fixed upon the ground and could not be removed. He then gave up any ideas on getting hold of the stone and continued going deeper into the depths of the cave.
The deeper he went in, the smaller the cave became!
This was completely illogical.
Although the blue coloured stone was very big, it was only slightly taller than an average human. Additionally, no matter how he looked at it, it could not have a width of more than three to five metres.
However, Chen Xiaolian found that he had moved up to seven or eight metres deep after entering the hole on the blue coloured stone! And he had yet to reach the end!
Furthermore, the hole of the cave had grown more narrow. In the end, he could no longer proceed by moving forward in a crouching position. He had to crawl forward.
The further in Chen Xiaolian was, the more uncertain he became.
However, he attempted to pump his own morale while mocking himself. “Could I end up like Zhang Wuji crawling through a cave passageway that contains something like a ‘Nine Yang Manual’?” [1]
After crawling another 10 metres, the cave passageway became so narrow it was hard to continue forward. Thankfully, Chen Xiaolian did not have a large body shape. He could be considered quite lean and thus, he was barely able to make it forward.
A few moments later, an opening appeared before him. Chen Xiaolian moved both his hands and feet, worked hard to creep forward and he finally emerged headfirst!
After making his way out of the cave, Chen Xiaolian looked around and became utterly dumbfounded!
It was a world filled with opulent and grandiose buildings!
A stretch of pavilions was laid out before him.
All the buildings appeared ancient and were enveloped by a curtain of fog, appearing and disappearing depending on the movements of the fog.
When he carefully inspected them, he noticed that all of them were tall buildings, ancient in appearance. Some corridors could be seen in between them.
However, Chen Xiaolian noticed something unusual.
Those tall buildings… everyone one of them looked similar!
Stacking upon each other heavily, they appeared unlimited!
What is going on here? Chen Xiaolian sighed in frustration.
It was not an easy feat to crawl his way out of the cave. But now, he was faced with so many ancient buildings that appeared the same.
Each of the buildings were so tall, they appeared to be piercing the clouds.
As Chen Xiaolian was standing before the cave exit and observing the boundless landscape of buildings in a dumbfounded manner…
A sigh came from the sky above…
“Finally… someone has come!”
The voice was hoarse and it contained a hint of weakness. Additionally, a trace of excitement could be sensed within the sigh.
Chen Xiaolian was shocked and he looked around. But he could see no one.
He then looked up at the sky and said loudly, “Who is it? Who is talking?”
The sigh rang out once more. “Who are you? Are you Thunderflame’s disciple? Or Bluesea’s disciple?”
Hearing those two names, Chen Xiaolian became shocked.
His hand subconsciously flicked and the Sword in the Stone appeared. At the same time, he also summoned out his Four-eyed War Cats to stand ready before him.
The sound from the sky rang out once again. This time, there was a trace of disappointment in his voice. “It turns out to be a weak little kid… what kind of characters are Bluesea and Thunderflame… how could their subordinates still be using Four-eyed War Cats as pets? Kid, who are you?”
Chen Xiaolian swung his sword into a horizontal position and shouted, “My name is Chen Xiaolian. I am not a disciple of Bluesea or the others. I… I am just someone who came to discuss some matters with Bluesea, but I accidentally stumbled into this place. You… who are you?”
The voice became more dejected. “Discussion? How did someone who came for a discussion end up entering the old painting that I left behind? Could it be that Blade Mountain Flame Sea Guild had fallen to such a state? An outsider could now casually enter my home? That makes no sense, that makes no sense ah…”
When he heard that, the speculation in Chen Xiaolian’s mind grew in clarity.
His heart pounded heavily and he blurted in a hushed tone, “You… could it be, you are… Skyblade?!”