318: Chapter 318

On the back of the Gǔdiāo, which was as flat as the ground, an old man with a ruddy nose sat cross-legged, one hand propped up, the other holding a well-worn wine gourd. His head was tilted up at a forty-five-degree angle, and the scent of wine wafted from him like a burp, with the wind and snow unable to approach.

"General Chen, why are you standing there? Eight thousand li of wind and frost, it's still early! Come, have a drink!"

Old Man Dong of the Huanlong Clan called out to him.

Behind him, a silver-haired young girl stood with her back to them, her hair fluttering, presenting a unique sight. It was unclear what she was thinking.

Chen Yuan turned, his gaze shifting slightly. He leapt from the Gǔdiāo's head, landing in front of the old man. With a flick of his hand, tables, chairs, benches, wine, and pastries appeared in abundance. He then sat down by himself, his eyes glancing towards Cun Xin, the young girl.

"What is she doing?"

Old Man Dong naturally sat at the table and chuckled, "She's probably seeing the thousand li of ice and ten thousand li of snow, and it reminds her of the flowers blooming in the North Sea."

Chen Yuan raised an eyebrow, a question in his mind, "The old man said earlier that the Dragon Girl lost her memory. Does she still remember who she is?"

"Of course, it's not really amnesia. It's just the Primordial Spirit's self-Seal after severe injury. This is a life-saving Divine Ability of the Dragon Clan. Even the most severe injuries will slowly recover during sleep, but she will fully awaken if stimulated. General Chen, you still need to be careful. The Dragon Girl after awakening will be completely different from now; even this old man can't hold her back." Old Man Dong, reeking of wine, let out a strange laugh and looked at Chen Yuan with a smile.

Chen Yuan, however, was thoughtful, "If it's truly possible, I really want to witness the might of the North Sea Dragon Girl."

Saying that, he poured himself a cup of wine, raised it, drank it, and then set the cup down, his voice slow and deliberate,

"Isn't the old man more at ease staying in Jinguancheng? Why must you insist on joining Chen in this muddy water?"

He had originally intended to ask the old man to look after Yunding Mountain, but he hadn't expected the old man to insist on bringing the North Sea Dragon Girl along.

Old Man Dong placed the wine gourd on the table, his fingers rapidly moving as if doing calculations. Then, his hands moved like lightning around him, and with a flick, seven snowflakes landed on the table, four above and three below.

Then, the snowflakes quickly melted!

"With both water and fire, General Chen's journey this time is unpredictable in terms of fortune. I don't know if it's because the General's fate is peculiar and the Heavenly Secrets are hard to fathom, or if there's truly something to it. Hehe, it's never wrong to be careful."

"It wasn't easy for this old man to find a Dragon's Den like you; don't go getting yourself killed."

Chen Yuan's face twitched.

This old man was usually so unkempt and informal; he didn't know if he was serious or just joking, making him difficult to fathom. People from ancient clans, who moved with such ease, surely possessed true abilities, so it was indeed wise for him to be careful.

That's right!

He remembered something. He raised his hand, and a vortex of wind formed in his palm. Wind and snow flew into his hand, slowly condensing, about to form three characters.

But the next second,

"Pfft"

"Pfft"

"Pfft"

Just as they were half-formed, the snow fragments exploded without warning.

And Chen Yuan felt a sudden, strange force preventing all of it, a force he couldn't control.

"Hmm?"

He didn't believe it and tried twice more. Without exception, it astonished him increasingly.

Old Man Dong looked a little confused, "Is General Chen bored?"

Chen Yuan's expression was one of surprise. He ignored the old man and, to himself, began to draw strokes on the table with a faint glow emanating from his fingertips.

"Crack!"

A crack appeared on the table, then spread, and the table collapsed, scattering the wine and pastries.

"Oh dear."

Old Man Dong, quick-witted, tipped his foot and steadily caught a pot of wine, then tilted it to catch the wine, muttering repeatedly, "Almost, almost."

But Chen Yuan's interest had been piqued.

This was truly strange!

Among the four engravings he had copied with his Dharma Eye from the coffin in General Mountain, the first engraving described the origin of the imperial coffin's owner.

That group of people left the Yunding Heavenly Palace, and there were three characters on the building in the clouds. He had originally wanted to copy them to let Old Man Dong, who was from the Huanlong Clan, identify them, as he thought people from such an ancient clan would know. However, he couldn't engrave them.

He immediately looked at the muttering Old Man Dong, "Old man, don't speak, look at me!"

Dong Fu of the Huanlong Clan looked at Chen Yuan with a strange expression, scrutinizing him, wondering what was wrong with this boy.

But the next moment, a golden light appeared in Chen Yuan's eyes, and those golden specks quickly condensed into a golden image.

Old Man Dong immediately froze, then his eyes widened suddenly, and he blurted out, "White Jade Capital!"

Then, his body suddenly stretched forward, his cloudy eyes shining brightly, and he said, "Where is this place?"

These two seemingly contradictory sentences, however, revealed the old man's agitated state.

Chen Yuan hadn't expected this old man of the Huanlong Clan to have seen this engraving; he looked very surprised, and Chen Yuan himself was astonished.

"White Jade Capital?"

"Could it be those three characters?"

This name was very familiar; in his world, there was a poem, "White Jade Capital in the heavens, twelve towers and five cities." A strange sense of temporal dislocation made Chen Yuan feel a bit dazed. The golden light in his eyes dissipated, and the engraving also vanished with it.

"Hey, hey, hey, let this old man look a bit longer." Old Man Dong hadn't seen enough.

Chen Yuan was growing more and more curious now. Seeing Old Man Dong's strong reaction, his eyes lit up, "Old man, is the White Jade Capital you mentioned the three characters on the Yunding Heavenly Palace?"

"That's right, these are characters from the Heavenly Book, a kind of secret script. Even thousand-year-old aristocratic families might not know of the existence of such a secret script. General Chen, where did you get this image?"

"Could it be what you did in General Mountain during the day..."

Old Man Dong suddenly no longer reeked of alcohol. His eyes darted around; it turned out he knew everything.

Chen Yuan's expression remained unchanged. He shook his head lightly and very naturally concocted a story, "This is an engraving Chen discovered when he was recovering from injuries on a mountain near the Forbidden Ground of the Ten Thousand Mountains' Cloud Mist Sea."

"Based on the information Chen has gathered, he speculates that the people in the painting might be those great Divine Ability users who Sealed the Ten Fiends a thousand years ago. So Chen was curious and showed it to the old man, to see what information could be obtained."

Old Man Dong looked at Chen Yuan's expression with suspicion as he spoke, but found no flaws. After a while, he chuckled,

"Where this thing came from is irrelevant to this old man. I was just excited for a moment. These are indeed the three characters for White Jade Capital, and your speculation just now is very interesting. The past events are over a thousand years old; the records of those people back then are scarce, seemingly deliberately erased. To find the identities of these people, one can probably only go to the Imperial Capital, to the imperial court."

Saying that, he seemed to ask and answer himself, his messy eyebrows furrowed.

"Could there really be a place called White Jade Capital in this world?"

Chen Yuan was a bit confused by the old man, not understanding his meaning. Weren't they written on the engraving?

Old Man Dong seemed to have seen Chen Yuan's confusion, smiling ambiguously, "This old man knows General Chen doesn't understand. This engraving alone can't prove that this White Jade Capital is the real White Jade Capital, because..."

At this point, the old man feigned profundity,

"White Jade Capital has never been proven to exist!"

"It's all just vague legends!"

"Some say this place is where celestials reside, others say it's a boundless land overseas."

"No one knows what this place looks like."

"So, based on this engraving alone, it doesn't prove anything. It might just be someone acting mysterious to deceive the world, and this old man has heard of many such things."

Chen Yuan listened intently to the old man from the Huanlong Clan, feeling that perhaps the world was far vaster than he understood, confined to this one Dao's territory. A hint of longing arose in his heart.

He recalled the scene he witnessed in General Mountain, where those people from a thousand years ago had set up a scheme to revive the dead. He hadn't believed it then, but seeing the old man speak of the White Jade Capital's mystery, he began to believe it somewhat.

He composed himself internally, quickly calming down. This matter was too mystical, too ethereal; thinking about it was useless.

"So that's how it is. I've learned a lot!"

But Old Man Dong, seeing his reaction, changed the subject and chuckled, "General Chen must have kept that engraving. Why not give it to this old man to study? Perhaps a great secret can be discovered, and you and I will ascend to heaven on the spot, haha."

Just two serious sentences, and here he goes again!

Chen Yuan knew the old man was starting to scheme against him and simply ignored him, "Chen is going to Cultivate!"

Saying that, he rose and leapt onto the Gǔdiāo's head, sitting cross-legged amidst the howling wind and snow.

Behind him, Old Man Dong of the Huanlong Clan looked at his retreating figure, shook his head, and sighed, "How lonely, like snow!"

On the other side, at Tianxiong Pass, Tianxiang Pavilion, at dusk.

At the entrance,

"Get out of the way!"

Immediately following, the sound of horse hooves faded into the distance.

The cavalry officer standing at the entrance cupped his hands in farewell.