Immortal

“Congratulations, Mr. Zhong.” From not too far away came the voice of the master of the Zhao family.

“Congratulations, Mr. Zhong.” Another person that old man Zhong recognized.

It was the master of the Qian family, one of the four great noble families.

“Same to you, same to you.” Old man Zhong returned the greetings right away.

After all, master Zhao had reached Xiantian and several members of his family had been chosen by the Immortal Schools.

“You were just celebrating your birthday not too long ago. We were really surprised that you could arrive in just a few days.” Master Qian looked at Zhong Shan and said.

“It was a bit rushed. But we got here in time. Gentlemen, are you going home right now?” Zhong Shan said playing dumb.

“No, we are going to visit some friends. We will have a long chat on some other day then.” Master Zhao said.

“Then, we will talk another day.” Old man Zhong said with a smile.

Everyone bid farewell to each other and left.

In no time, everyone had left the Dragon Gate Gorge except old man Zhong and the bodies of his four sons in front of him.

Looking at the bodies, old man Zhong sighed, they had chosen to go down this path where life and death were decided by fate. But, if they had been chosen, were they going to be like Zhong Shijiu or Zhong Tian?

After lamenting for a while, old man Zhong finally dug a large hole outside of the Dragon Gate Gorge and buried his four sons.

Old man Zhong rested at the Dragon Gate Gorge that night. The scenes of battle from the day were still vivid in his mind. But he was not afraid at all to sleep among all the dead bodies.

What kind of scene had he not seen in his eighty years of life? In fact, it was the safest place. Many powerful people had met for the tournament and their great presence had already cleared out all the demons.

The next day, after eating some rations, he started to walk back while holding his dragon cane.

It was different after reaching Xiantian, he could walk much faster. When they had first arrived, there were nine people, and, now, there was only one. Old man Zhong was not depressed, rather, he was quite happy. Finally he had a stable starting point for Xiantian.

Among the four sons, three of them had betrayed him and only Zhong Tian remembered what he had done for his sons. Old man Zhong kept all this inside his heart, buried in the deepest place at the bottom of his heart.

Old man Zhong had to be very careful of the many poisonous insects and miasma while walking along the rugged mountain passages. At dusk, old man Zhong found a forest and climbed a tree. He tied a hammock he had brought with him between two trees and climbed into it to sleep. He also rubbed some herbal medicine on tree branches to prevent poisonous snakes from climbing up to bite.

Even though old man Zhong could go without sleep for a long time since he had reached Xian Tian, he dared not travel at night for it was full of danger deep in these mountains. He could only doze off on the hammock at night.

Around midnight, there were suddenly two flashes of light from sky which shot into the forest. Old man Zhong immediately woke up from his sleep and looked towards the lights.

“Gagaga[1], Zixun Fairy, come be my practice partner. Did you think I would treat you badly?” A voice came into Zhong Tian’s ear.

“You are dreaming, Old Devil Hongluan, you think my Kaiyang School would team up with you? It’s unimaginable that the great Hongluan School of the past would be led by a the super devil of your generation.” A very pleasant voice rushed into old man Zhong’s ear.

Kaiyang School? Kaiyang School? Old man Zhong’s eyes lit up because he knew of this school. But he wasn’t dumb enough to rush out, rather he held his breath and began Guixi Dafa[2], which he had practiced before. All of sudden, he was like a dead person lying on the hammock, breathing without a sound.

“Hongluan School? Gagaga, if you care about that great school of the past, how about I give you this machete that has been passing down through the hands of every head master? Only if you join me, then this is yours.” Old Devil Hongluan laughed.

“Hu[3] ~ ~ hu ~ ~. What happened to me? You poisoned me?” the woman yelled out.

“Hongluan Mist. How do you feel? The number one drug in the world and only I, Old Devil Hongluan, can deploy it. I don’t believe you can escape my grasp. Don’t blame me, it’s all because of what your female disciple had said before she died. She said that your body is the Zhen[4] Cauldron, the best cauldron for training. It took me quite some effort to heavily injure you. Gagaga, since you wouldn’t listen to me, then don’t blame me. Wait till I wipe your memory and bring you back to enjoy.” Hongluan Old Devil laughed lasciviously.

“You killed Qing Er?” The woman said with resentment.

“I wouldn’t say that I killed her, perhaps she was very happy at the time. I can only say that she had died and she had told some of your secrets while under my spell. Gagaga, in the end I’m the lucky one. Zhen Cauldron, gagaga, no wonder Zixun Fairy’s thunder is so powerful. If I didn’t find those scapegoats before, maybe, I would have found my end by your hands, gagaga.” Old Devil Hongluan laughed.

“I won’t let you have your way even if I die.” Zixun Fairy said angrily.

“It’s too late. Don’t you feel your whole body burning? Gaga, my Hongluan Mist covers the whole forest and you won’t die even if you want to die. Gagaga, this is the first time I met such a nice cauldron. Come, let me have a taste, gagaga.” Old Devil Hongluan laughed.

“Go to hell ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ “ Zixun Fairy roared.

“Boom ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”

After a loud boom, it quieted down in the distance.

“Hu ~ ~ ~ ~ Hu ~ ~ ~ ~” …………

In the distance, she didn’t know whether it was because she was tired or due to the Hongluan Mist.

“Pilipala, pilipala[5]……………..”

There was a series of strange popping sounds.

“Gagaga, you can’t move? Tianlei[6] Bead, didn’t expect a Tianlei Bead. If you had used it in the beginning, you may have had a chance to kill me. But, gagaga, can’t move now? You took a lot of effort to cast it and before long, you’ll be delirious from the Hongluan Mist. Well then, it’s time for me to come over, gagaga.” Old Devil Hongluan laughed.

“You’re still not coming out. Hu ~ ~ ~ ~ Hu ~ ~ ~ ~” said Zixun Fairy.

Hearing her, old man Zhong knew she meant him. He had no choice but to get up. It looked like Zixun Fairy’s ability was much higher than Old Devil Hongluan, otherwise she wouldn’t have noticed his presence. Run away? Once he started breathing, the Old Devil would find him and he would track him down forever.

Indeed, when old man Zhong got off the hammock, Old Devil Hongluan discovered him.

“There’s another person.” Old Devil Hongluan said coldly.

Old man Zhong took up his dragon headed cane and walked deeper into the forest. After a short while, he finally saw the two of them at a very bright spot.

Zixun Fairy? Wasn’t she that gorgeous woman who showed up by herself on the upper terrace at the Dragon Gate Tournament? Kaiyang School?

There was a beam of purple light shining out of Zixun Fairy’s palm and on the other end of the beam was a ball of purple flames jumping around. A large amount of lightning crackled from the flames. A great storm of purple lightning rained down on an extremely ugly, black robed old man that ended in crackling sounds.

The old man struggled inside the rain of purple lightning, but there was mirth inside his eyes. When he saw old man Zhong’s sudden arrival, his expression was replaced by a vicious look.

In front of the old man there’s a red machete that had been broken into two pieces. This should be the machete that had been passed down for generations. It looked like it had been broken by the purple flames.

“Push my body forward so I can use Tianlei Zihuo[7] and burn him to death. Hu ~ ~ ~ ~ Hu ~ ~ ~ ~” Her misty eyes were just slits and she was forcing herself to keep awake.

After seeing Old Devil Hongluan, old man Zhong, holding Zixun Fairy’s body, pushed her forward without any hesitation. As Zixun Fairy was going forward, the Tianlei Fire from her hand was quickly moving closer to Old Devil Hongluan.

“No ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~” Old Devil Hongluan screamed in fright.

“Hu ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”

Without any sound of an explosion, Tianlei Zihuo, in the blink of an eye, enveloped Old Devil Hongluan. It only took the time of two breathes before the body of Old Devil Hongluan was completely turned into ashes.

“Good, hu ~ ~ ~ ~ hu ~ ~ ~ ~” Zixun Fairy smiled. The Leihuo instantly returned into her palm and disappeared.

At this moment, Zixun Fairy relaxed after completing her task and seemed to be in a state of confusion.

The soft body was in old man Zhong’s arms.

“Hu ~ ~ ~ ~ Hu ~ ~ ~ ~” Old man Zhong’s eyes were turning reddish and a strong sense of desire suddenly came over him.

Old man Zhong was shocked. What was going on? What had happened to me? Though Zixun Fairy was beautiful, I had seen many beauties. Bao Er, my Bao Er was as beautiful as her. Besides, I was such an old man already, why couldn’t I control myself?

Hongluan Mist, that’s right, Old Devil Hongluan said that the mist covered the whole forest. So I was under the spell, too?

Old man Zhong tried to keep his wits about him as he was continuously trying to keep himself awake. But, the absolute beauty in his arms was constantly trying to take off his clothes and kept kissing him.

Old man Zhong felt that he was losing control of himself.

He himself was an old man, eighty years old. What had happened? Was this old man going to take advantage of a young woman? No, that’s not right. This Zixun Fairy was an immortal, she’s probably much older than I. Rather she would be taking advantage of me.

While thinking, the last trace of old man Zhong’s consciousness had thoroughly dissipated.

Old man Zhong seemed to have a dream, a dream that he hadn’t had for the past several decades. In this dream, he was the leading man, but the leading lady, who in the past had been Bao Er, had changed into Zixun Fairy.

[1]: 嘎, pinyin: “ga,” used as a cackling sound. Similar to the Japanese “fufufufu” laughter.

[2]: 龟息大法, pinyin: “gui xi da fa,” means literally “turtle breathing method.” A Daoist breathing technique or exercise. It’s believed that a turtle’s breathe is unnoticeable, so this exercise allows you to make almost no sound while breathing.

[3]: 呼, pinyin: “hu,” used as a sound effect for breathing out, in this case, something like heavy panting.

[4]: 震, pinyin: “zhen,” normally means shock or tremor, but in this case it probably is a reference to one of the Eight Trigrams (from Daoist cosmology) which symbolizes thunder. For reference =>http://www.taoistiching.org/image/image61.jpg

[5]: 噼里啪啦, pinyin: “pi li pa la,” the sound effect for firecrackers or heavy rain, somewhat equivalent to pitter-patter in English.

[6]: 天雷珠, pinyin: “tian lei zhu,” literally means “heavenly thunder bead,” some thunder weapon she has.

[7]: 天雷紫火, pinyin: “tian lei zi huo,” literally means “heavenly thunder purple fire,” no matter how hard I tried to translate this into English, it sounded ridiculous and so decided to leave it in pinyin. It sounds more like a real technique this way.