Untouchable Lovers

Chapter 139: Chapter 129: Morning Flowers Glistening with Dew

There are many mountains called East Mountain, one in Guiyang, one in Shandong, and there’s one outside Jiankang as well.

During the Eastern Jin period, a young man named Xie An who was unsuccessful in his political career, retired to the East Mountain in Huiji and stayed there until he was forty-one years old before he returned to Jiankang (then known as Jianye) to take an official position. He resided on a mountain outside the city and named it East Mountain.

About eighty years earlier, under his command, the Eastern Jin had won a decisive battle with fewer troops against many, which not only temporarily stabilized the north-south situation but also secured his status at the court. From then on, he was influential in both the government and the court and eventually became the Prime Minister.

The idiom about East Mountain was thus coined based on this historical reference.

However, Tian Rujing’s connection to this East Mountain was that his master, Tian Ruyue, had told him he was found at the top of this mountain.

Today, he left the city in a daze, not knowing where he was heading nor how long he had walked, until he regained consciousness and found himself at the foot of East Mountain.

Was this not the will of heaven? To arrive at the place where it all began.

Rain poured down on his head and face, and streams of water washed over his cheeks one wave after another, seemingly without end. However, Tian Rujing no longer felt the cold; his thoughts were vague and bemused, his clear eyes filled with profound bewilderment.

He did not know what to do.

His master had once told him, for those who wield Divine Artifacts, there are no other requirements but to have a pure and focused mind, undistracted. He had been chosen as the heir because his thoughts were pure and free from distractions. He had never thought much about this until today when he realized he could no longer activate the Divine Artifact and found the distractions in his mind were almost uncontrollable.

The more he tried to concentrate, the less he was able to focus his mind, as if thousands of threads were densely entwined, causing him panic and leaving him at a loss.

His master was a proud man. When he discovered he could no longer activate the Divine Artifact, he passed it on to Tian Rujing and then quietly took his own life. But now, what was he supposed to do?

Unlike Tian Ruyue, Tian Rujing didn’t feel disgrace due to his failure nor did he contemplate ending his life. He was just… at a loss as to what to do.

Was it time now to find a successor? But where should he look?

There was no one to guide him, no one to show him the right way to do things, and Tian Rujing was still too young. Even though his thoughts were profoundly clear, he lacked sufficient experience and the calm maturity required to think things through.

Having stood for what felt like an eternity, he instinctively felt he should do something, so he slowly lifted his foot and began walking up the mountain. It was only when he moved that he felt the numbness in his legs, which had stood still for too long, causing a shaky, painful feeling as he stumbled and fell into the mud, getting all covered in mud and dirt.

He lay there on the ground for a while before slowly getting up, dragging his legs which still felt a bit numb and painful, as he climbed the slope with uneven steps.

At this moment, the wind grew stronger, swirling the dense white rain sideways, wave after wave, like endless waves. In this weather, the purple figure climbing the mountain leaned and swayed, nearly falling.

The soil under his feet was saturated with water, slippery and muddy. Sometimes Tian Rujing’s feet would sink into the mud, and sometimes they would nearly slip, causing him to stumble and stagger up to halfway up the mountain. His face and body now bore several bruises and abrasions, his body’s fatigue and pain intertwining, torturous in moments of chilling cold and searing heat. Yet oddly, his mind, shrouded in mist, gradually began to clear.

Don’t think about anything, just like that.

He raised his hand to wipe the rain from his eyes and looked up.

East Mountain wasn’t particularly high, yet under the veil of night, it strangely gave the illusion of being towering and majestic. The mountain was densely wooded, dark shadows heavily pressing down on the view, and the torrential rain fell like a waterfall, obscuring the path ahead, but he only needed to keep moving forward.

Keep moving forward.

Softly exhaling, Tian Rujing continued his climb up the mountain, slipping time and again, unable to exert any strength. He would randomly grab at the grass and rocks beside him. His entire body seemed as if it had rolled in the mud, with new wounds piling atop old ones. Within the icy pain, however, his eyes gradually became clear and resolute.

The storm whipped him like a lash against his cold, weary body, making him feel almost alien to himself, yet somewhere in his heart was clear and stark, emerging distinct and bright—

Chu Yu.

This unbreakable attachment suddenly converged, allowing him to feel it clearly.

His heart was disturbed because of Chu Yu. This woman was extraordinarily peculiar. She knew what he knew, and she knew what he didn’t. He yearned for those times they sat at the same table, her smiling as she spoke, a closeness unknown to others. He didn’t know what it was, but he knew that never had someone else imprinted so deeply upon his heart.

Not even Tian Ruyue had.

A slight sweetness, a slight bitterness, thoughts of her emerged unbidden, catching him off guard and lost in reverie. He felt completely unlike himself, yet perhaps more like himself than ever before.

In this pitch-black, stormy night, on this shadowy, muddy mountain, the lovesick youth Tian Rujing had a fresh, clean spot in his chest, shy and awkward, slowly blooming.

Like the first dewdrop crystallizing on newly open petals, shining with life.

Exhaustion accumulated repetitively, yet his soul felt lighter than ever before, so light that it seemed to float out of his body. As time passed, the rain gradually lessened until, upon reaching the summit, it finally stopped. The air was refreshingly clear, the sky faintly brightening.

Under a tree near the cliff’s edge atop the mountain, there was a circular stone disk about a foot high, engraved with nineteen intersecting channels. Tian Rujing bent down to touch the somewhat blurred lines, his scraped fingertips slightly stinging.

He spaced out for a while, then suddenly, as if sensing something, he turned his head.

The sky suddenly brightened, the clouds at the horizon bordered with gold, moving and flowing and gradually taking on a reddish-gold hue, as if the entire stretch of clouds was ablaze. Suddenly, it seemed as if a huge rift tore through the clouds, and golden sunlight burst through, like a longsword slashing the last of the twilight.

The next instant, a red sun leapt from the boiling sea of clouds!

Tian Rujing watched breathlessly, his heart, too, seemed to leap out of his chest along with the sun.

The clouds gradually thinned and dispersed, Tian Rujing’s fierce heartbeat also slowly calmed, the weariness of the night cleansed by the newborn sunlight, his body light inside and out, devoid of any impurities.

Tian Rujing raised his wrist, his heart as still as water, the gentle blue glow lighting up once again. Though a part of his heart still clung to Chu Yu, that attachment could no longer disturb him.

After thoroughly relaxing, fatigue and pain once again overwhelmed Tian Rujing, and he blacked out, collapsing to the ground. Before losing consciousness, he heard a clear voice: “Eh, how has someone else beaten me to it?”