Jade Shakes the Thousand Mountains - Chapter 3: A Fate Chart That Can Never Shine Again

Chapter 3: A Fate Chart That Can Never Shine Again

Never let her grow old… How could an ordinary mortal like her avoid aging?

“Don’t tell me… you’re planning to find the Spirit Nourishing Mushroom for me?!” Lu Chanji suddenly recalled reading in an ancient text that within the Giant Sea Ten Provinces, the ancestral province contained an immortal herb called Spirit Nourishing Mushroom, capable of preserving one’s youth and even altering one’s appearance.

The ancestral province was once home to the Shennong Clan, masters of healing arts who could revive the dead and regenerate flesh from bones. But that was the ancestral province of the past, not the ancestral province of today.

Today’s ancestral province had become a barren wasteland following the fall of the Shennong Clan. The land was now teeming with venomous snakes, fierce beasts, and poisonous flora. Without guidance from descendants of the Shennong Clan, any outsider entering would be seeking certain death.

Lu Chanji bowed her head again, fully admitting her fault to secure Lu Wenshu’s compliance: “I promise I will never conflict with Lu Qi again. As a disciple of the Sword Inheriting Sect, I will restrain myself and never violate sect rules again. You must also promise me not to seek the Spirit Nourishing Mushroom for me.”

Only when Lu Wenshu nodded in agreement did Lu Chanji feel somewhat relieved.

Though Lu Qi was detestable, his words weren’t entirely unreasonable. With her limited lifespan of at most a hundred years, she wouldn’t even live as long as their ordinary Mystical Pets. Lu Wenshu had saved her life, brought her to the Sword Inheriting Sect, given her a place to belong he had already treated her more than generously. She didn’t need him to do anything more for her.

As Lu Chanji wanted to emphasize further, her eyes caught the bloodstain seeping through Lu Wenshu’s white robes at the shoulder. The crimson mark had deepened noticeably, the winding trail of blood appearing alarmingly vivid as the metallic scent in the air grew stronger. Her face instantly pale, she grabbed his arm exclaiming: “Your injury !”

With a mere flick of his sleeve, Lu Wenshu effortlessly cast a hemostasis spell to stop the bleeding. Dismissively, he said: “I was in too much of a hurry coming here and forgot to tend to my wounds first.”

Without suspecting anything, Lu Chanji felt her heart ache with concern. She urged Lu Wenshu inside to properly treat his injury. To avoid distracting him, she closed the doors and windows before returning to the courtyard to continue lighting lanterns.

–

Though Lu Wenshu’s hemostasis spell had stopped the blood from spreading through his robes, the pain from the whip wounds remained undiminished by the spell.

Outside, Lu Chanji secured the doors and windows for him.

With everything closed up, the space became private and enclosed. Lu Chanji busied herself outside with the Puppet, lighting lanterns. Their shadows cast by the firelight danced upon the windows, showing no intention of peering inside.

Knowing her temperament well, Lu Wenshu understood she wouldn’t disturb him until he had fully treated his injuries. Satisfied, he withdrew his gaze from the window, resting his forehead in one hand while opening his other palm to reveal a swirling nebula of blue and purple stardust.

This stardust represented the zodiac of Lu Chanji’s fate chart.

The nebula drifted like the vast, boundless universe, though it contained only scattered stars. Each constellation arrangement represented people who had been entangled with Lu Chanji’s past.

His gaze quickly settled on one particular point in the fate chart’s nebula.

Yesterday, when Lu Chanji clashed with Lu Qi in Sword Casting Valley, a new star had ignited in her fate chart.

However, after Lu Wenshu’s intervention, the star belonging to Lu Qi had already dimmed.

As long as Lu Qi no longer bothered Lu Chanji, this star would never have the possibility of shining again.

But even without Lu Qi’s star, two stars still remained lit on Lu Chanji’s Star Ruin Fate Chart.

Since he first drew this Star Ruin Fate Chart for Lu Chanji, these two stars had always been shining.

One represented himself, while the other fell in the position of Lu Chanji’s Parental Palace, representing both of her parents.

Her Parental Palace star flickered between brightness and darkness, wavering unpredictably, much like their whereabouts.

When Lu Chanji was three years old, her parents left home and never returned – neither seen alive nor found dead. In Lu Chanji’s heart, their fate remained unknown.

When Lu Chanji believed her parents were still alive, the star brightened; when she thought they had passed away, the star dimmed. Until the day she saw their remains with her own eyes, Lu Chanji could never know for certain whether her parents were still alive. Her heart would never find peace, and the star in her Parental Palace would forever flicker between light and darkness.

Lu Wenshu didn’t want to see Lu Chanji so tormented.

He wished only his own star would shine on Lu Chanji’s Star Ruin Fate Chart.

Putting away the Star Ruin Fate Chart, Lu Wenshu pushed open the door again.

Lu Chanji had already lit the lanterns and was standing in the courtyard, lost in thought. Several Puppets with figures strikingly similar to hers stood in the courtyard, yet Lu Wenshu recognized her at a glance. Her silhouette carried an inexplicable sense of lonely detachment, as if she didn’t belong to this world. Frowning, Lu Wenshu called out: “A-Chan.”

Lu Chanji turned at the sound: “Have you recovered from your injuries?”

After receiving an affirmative response, she ran to Lu Wenshu with upturned lips.

When she smiled, that lonely coldness about her faded considerably, connecting her to this world, no longer appearing as if she might vanish the next second.

Seeing this, a subtle sense of satisfaction emerged in Lu Wenshu’s heart – it was because of him that Lu Chanji smiled so happily, and it could only be because of him. After all, on Lu Chanji’s Star Ruin Fate Chart, aside from the Parental Palace, only connections with him remained, with no one else.

When Lu Chanji ran up to him, her eyes sparkling as she looked at the whip marks on his shoulder, Lu Wenshu asked: “A-Chan, if one day there’s news about your parents, what would you do?”

Lu Chanji thought for a moment and said seriously: “They were very good to me. If they have unfortunately passed away, I would like to collect their remains and hold a funeral for them.”

Lu Chanji lost both parents at age three. For the following two years, she was passed around among relatives like a ball, living through extreme hardships. Her memories before three were vague, but she could faintly recall that her parents had dearly loved her. During those two years at ages four and five, Lu Chanji had constantly wanted to find her parents. Even after Lu Wenshu rescued her from Demons and brought her to the Sword Inheriting Sect, she never abandoned this thought.

Lu Wenshu asked: “What if… they’re still alive?”

“Alive…”

Deep in her heart, Lu Chanji hoped her parents were still alive, but reason told her this was impossible.

If they were truly alive, why hadn’t they returned home over all these years? Why hadn’t they searched for her?

If they were truly alive yet hadn’t looked for her all these years, they had probably forgotten about her. In that case, she shouldn’t disturb them – at most she would watch from afar, never approaching.

But Lu Chanji spoke against her true feelings: “If they were still alive, I would want to return to the mortal world and live with them.”

Lu Qi’s words had struck upon Lu Chanji’s deepest fear.

She didn’t want to grow old before Lu Wenshu’s eyes, nor did she want to die in his presence. Immortals and mortals were fundamentally different – since she was merely flesh and blood, she ought to return to the mortal realm.

Lu Chanji thought to herself: she would accompany him for eight more years. When she reached twenty-five, the same age her mother was when she married her father, she would request to descend the mountain.

Little did Lu Chanji know what turmoil her simple answer stirred in Lu Wenshu’s heart, nor could she see how his fingers repeatedly clenched and unclenched beneath his white sleeves.

Lu Wenshu had always been one to keep his emotions hidden, his expression showing not the slightest abnormality.

A long silence fell between them, both suddenly quiet, neither speaking for a while.

In the past, whenever Lu Wenshu visited Lu Chanji’s courtyard, she would always pester him to practice sword techniques with her.

But today’s atmosphere was different.

Since it was her misdeed that had caused Lu Wenshu’s punishment, Lu Chanji felt rather guilty and didn’t dare ask him to practice swords with her, behaving quite meekly. However, when Lu Wenshu handed her the sword manual he had brought, her eyes still lit up unmistakably.

Lu Chanji cherished this newly acquired sword manual so much that she couldn’t bear to put it down, holding it in her hands and flipping through it repeatedly, wishing she could immerse herself completely in its ink-scented wisdom.

Lu Wenshu said: “In seven months, I will go to Penglai to participate in the century-spanning Sword Debate Tournament. The tournament from a hundred years ago ”

Lu Chanji continued Lu Wenshu’s sentence: “A hundred years ago, at that Sword Debate Tournament, Grand Micro Sect’s Wei Shengming emerged unexpectedly, using a self-created killing move called ‘Annihilation’ that left all Sword Cultivators present helpless, making his name renowned throughout the Giant Sea Ten Provinces.When it came to discussing swords, they shared remarkable tacit understanding. With just a slight pause from Lu Wenshu, Lu Chanji, who completely understood what he wanted to say, continued for him: “Since then, a hundred years have passed, and this move remains unsolved by anyone.”

Lu Wenshu nodded: “Exactly.”

Every sword practitioner in the Giant Sea Ten Provinces held one name in their hearts: Wei Shengming.

He was the unscaleable mountain peak they looked up to, the distant cloud in the sky they could never reach.

Although Lu Chanji wasn’t a Sword Cultivator, she believed her research into sword techniques was no less than any Sword Way practitioner in the Giant Sea Ten Provinces. She too knew Wei Shengming’s name.

When she was nine, she had seen Wei Shengming demonstrating his killing moves through a Shadow Projection Stone brought by Lu Wenshu – such stones recording Wei Shengming’s killing moves were practically owned by every Sword Way practitioner.

They captured Wei Shengming’s silhouette when he first used his killing move at the Sword Debate Tournament.

When she first saw his killing move through the Shadow Projection Stone at age nine, Lu Chanji’s feelings mirrored those of Sword Way practitioners who witnessed Wei Shengming’s killing move for the first time – utterly shocked beyond measure.

For Lu Chanji, who had only been studying swords for two years at that time, every move and stance of Wei Shengming’s killing technique was so profound that she couldn’t even begin to comprehend their purpose.

But as she grew older, read more sword manuals, and gradually deepened her understanding of sword techniques through sparring with Lu Wenshu, she found she could gradually decipher some aspects of Wei Shengming’s killing moves.

Recently, Lu Chanji had reached the point where she could see through the purpose behind every move and step in Wei Shengming’s killing technique.

Lu Chanji faintly sensed that she seemed on the verge of a breakthrough.

Unable to resist, she turned to Lu Wenshu and murmured, “If you could break Wei Shengming’s killing move in the next Sword Debate Tournament…”

Lu Wenshu’s eyes trembled slightly at her words.

Breaking Wei Shengming’s killing move was something almost all cultivators dreamed of. If he could achieve this in the next Sword Debate Tournament, it would mean he would soon be able to challenge Wei Shengming directly.

Even if he couldn’t match Wei Shengming’s strength, merely dueling him would be enough to make Lu Wenshu renowned and celebrated throughout the cultivation world.

But he quickly shook his head, reaching out to ruffle Lu Chanji’s hair. “Wei Shengming’s killing move isn’t so easily broken.”

Over the past century, countless Sword Cultivators had tried one after another, only to be defeated by it.

Among them were deeply experienced Sword Way masters who had lived for thousands of years, promising young talents, and even large groups who gathered to study it day and night. Yet in the end, who could stand against Wei Shengming?

Merely learning and executing such a killing move was difficult enough, let alone breaking it.

Lu Wenshu simply thought Lu Chanji was joking.

Lu Chanji muttered quietly, “Perhaps you’re all overcomplicating him…”

Lu Wenshu didn’t catch it clearly. “What?”

“Nothing.” Lu Chanji had never actually seen Wei Shengming herself, so she lacked the confidence to make definitive claims.

But Lu Wenshu continued watching her with a profound gaze, as if unwilling to let the matter drop without an answer.

Lu Chanji had no choice but to deflect: “I said, if I were you, I’d openly admit my desire to break Wei Shengming’s killing move. There’s a saying: a Sword Cultivator who doesn’t want to break Wei Shengming’s killing move isn’t a good Sword Cultivator. So are you a good Sword Cultivator or a bad one?”

Lu Wenshu rarely smiled. “Naturally, a good one.”

But his smile was exceptionally faint.

In his heart, he still held no real hope for Lu Chanji’s claim about breaking Wei Shengming’s killing move.

–

Two months later, the heavy snow in Flame Continent finally ceased.

The weather after the snowfall was even colder than during the storm.

Months of snow had accumulated on the less-traveled paths at the foot of Azure Peak, with snowdrifts reaching at least half a person’s height.

Lu Chanji, who feared both cold and snow, and dreaded causing another incident like the one with Lu Qi, grew even more reluctant to go outside.

Inside the Listening Spring Pavilion, she manipulated threads to control a puppet, executing sword moves against the phantom projection from the Shadow Projection Stone.

The next moment, the sword in the puppet’s hand flew out.

With a sharp “clang,” the sword skewered diagonally into the snow.

Seeing this, Lu Chanji could only stop in frustration, abandoning further attempts.

She was trying to break Wei Shengming’s killing move, “Annihilation.” True to its name, this move focused solely on attack with no regard for defense, single-mindedly aimed at taking the opponent’s life. Every advance and retreat, every motion, targeted the opponent’s vital points. Its angles of attack could shift endlessly, bizarre and unpredictable, brimming with ferocity. Facing it left almost no room for counterattack.

Lu Chanji’s practice puppet had “died” many times against the phantom from the Shadow Projection Stone.

At first, the entire puppet would be completely destroyed. Later, the remnants became less shattered. Then, although the sparring puppet would lose limbs, it finally managed to survive.

Until now, Lu Chanji’s puppet no longer broke in one encounter but could exchange multiple moves and last longer.

The sword-practicing phantom could only execute sword moves, yet even without any spiritual power or magical effects, it still inflicted such devastating damage. Lu Chanji dared not imagine how terrifying the consequences would be once cultivation was added, wielding the sword with spiritual power.

At this thought, a faint smile appeared on her fair face, with a flash of delight in her eyes.

If this killing move could be broken so easily, then it would be unworthy of Wei Shengming’s renowned title as Number One of Sword Way. Breaking it would hold no meaning.

After resting for a moment, Lu Chanji curled her fingers, intending to continue controlling the Puppet Doll to start over. But as soon as she moved her fingers this time, pain shot through them. She withdrew her gaze from observing the puppet and looked down at her own fingers, noticing the fine cuts left by the strings. She took out the Jade Beauty Balm and carefully applied it to each wound.

In no time, the wounds healed, and Lu Chanji breathed a soft sigh of relief.

If she became too engrossed in puppetry and swordplay and ended up with too many injuries on her fingers, Lu Wenshu would surely be displeased.

Lost in thought, Lu Chanji sighed softly. Just as she was about to manipulate the strings to lift the puppet lying on the ground, a clear, tinkling sound came from under the eaves. She looked up in pleasant surprise and saw Lu Wenshu, as usual, landing lightly on the edge of the roof with graceful steps, his white robes and wide sleeves flowing as they settled. With another light step, he leaped into the courtyard, approached her, and handed her a paper-wrapped package of pastries.

“Pine nut candies,” Lu Wenshu said. “I brought them back for you from the market at the foot of the mountain.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the rustling sound of unwrapping the paper bag immediately followed. Lu Chanji had already begun eagerly.

Most cultivators abstained from food, but Lu Chanji was still mortal and had cravings for delicacies, naturally yearning for these rare flavors.

She quickly unwrapped the package and, after eating one piece, felt thoroughly satisfied.

While enjoying the pine nut candies, Lu Chanji asked Lu Wenshu, “The Sword Debate Tournament is almost here. Shouldn’t you be in seclusion practicing your sword? How did you find time to go to the mortal world?”

Lu Wenshu gently wiped away the crumbs at the corner of her lips, but his eyes held a trace of sorrow. “A-Chan, there’s news about your parents.”

One incense stick’s time earlier.

Lu Wenshu had received news about Lu Chanji’s parents from his subordinates sent to the mortal world. Upon learning of it, he went straight to the Listening Spring Pavilion.

Now, without any embellishment, Lu Wenshu relayed the cruel message exactly as his subordinates had reported it, word for word, to Lu Chanji: “At Thousand Moon Island, Peach Blossom Lake, someone discovered their remains there.”