Who in this world can ever escape death?
Though you be peerlessly beautiful, the envy of all beneath heaven, in the end you are but red dust and white bones. Though you be a favored child of heaven, commanding a thousand miles of rivers and mountains, in the end you become a handful of yellow earth.
Deathless longevity—all desire it. Yet there is no ageless beauty, no immortal emperor. The fairest face and the mightiest sovereign are no different from the common throng; none can escape birth, age, sickness, and death. No one lives forever in this world.
And yet, the legends of immortality have never ceased.
Laozi, Zhuangzi, Bodhidharma, Chen Tuan, Zhang Sanfeng…
Names that echo through the ages, ancient spells that forever drive the living onward, whispering that deathlessness is not utter falsehood—that some may indeed attain that realm.
But time is the cruellest of all. As the years flow past, even the undying tales are ground away in the river of ages.
Until, after unmeasured silence, the miracle blazed forth once more from the plain of common days.
On the night of the fifteenth full moon, the heaven-favored divine maiden Lan Nuo would sever her mortal ties atop Red Dust Peak in Kunlun and shatter the void to depart. Every practitioner under heaven was stunned; the talk of immortality burned anew.
For days, over a hundred thousand souls had poured into the Kunlun Mountains—princes and paupers, nobles and peddlers, scholars and rogues. All with a single purpose: to witness a miracle unseen in a thousand ages.
Now the moon was full. Majestic Kunlun rose in splendour, bathed in pale radiance as if draped in gauze, making the sacred mountain seem as misty as the fabled immortal realms.
Beneath that moonlight, Xiao Chen ran like the wind, his body drenched in blood, even his long black hair stained crimson. But his face—carved like a blade—held only defiance, and his eyes, bright as stars, blazed with unyielding light.
He was fleeing for his life.
The royal heavenly maiden Zhao Lin’er had sworn to destroy him, leading dozens of practitioners in a cordon from every side. She wore a light veil over her face; her figure was lithe and graceful, her gaze like autumn waters. She moved like a startled swan, ethereal as a banished immortal brushing the mortal dust.
With no path left, Xiao Chen charged toward Red Dust Peak.
There, under the full moon, the mountain was ringed by an ocean of people. Over a hundred thousand souls had gathered, and yet such stillness—all gazes fixed upon the white-clad woman atop the summit.
At the highest point, Lan Nuo stood, her robes purer than snow. Bathed in moonlight, her immortal form seemed to glow with faint holy radiance. The white dress stirred in the wind, and she was truly like the goddess of the moon, untouched by the world’s smoke and fire.
For half a month, she had twice attempted to break the void, and twice at the moment of success she had drawn back her stepping foot.
One step—and she would live forever between heaven and earth.
But if she took that step, the vast red dust of the human world would leave her forever, all mortal ties severed.
To draw the sword of wisdom and cut the bonds of the world—that requires a terrible courage. For beyond that step, in the endless years of deathless life, perhaps only infinite solitude awaited her.
Heaven’s heart is unknowable; the immortal’s love is frost.
She had stood there since dawn, letting every memory of the mortal world pass through her heart. Now it was time to bid it farewell. Suddenly, fierce divine light blazed from the peak, and the entire summit was steeped in holy radiance.
Lan Nuo—her skin like ice, her bones like jade—stood in that pure glow, otherworldly and sublime. As the multitude gazed up, the void shattered, and she stepped forward with serene resolve.
In that final instant, she looked back over her shoulder, casting one last glance at the mortal world. That dreamlike celestial countenance was forever engraved in the hearts of all who saw it. A hundred thousand voices cried out her name in unison.
But the ordered shouts soon dissolved into chaos. Two figures were seen racing across the peak—they were drawn into the shattered void along with Lan Nuo!
Annals of the Nine Provinces record: In the year 7316, the heaven-favored divine maiden Lan Nuo broke the void and departed; the royal heavenly maiden Zhao Lin’er was fortunate enough to bind a thread of immortal fate and followed into the World of Immortality.
As for Xiao Chen, he was not destined to enter the annals.
In the moment the void shattered, Xiao Chen was shocked beyond measure.
Never had he imagined that such a day would come, that he would enter the World of Immortality in this manner. In that instant, a thousand thoughts flooded his mind—family, friends… all farewells. He would leave this mortal world forever.
A desperate flight had ended in such a result. For many, tearing through the void into the World of Immortality was an eternal glory. But Xiao Chen would have given up that chance in a heartbeat. He clung to this world, to his parents, his loved ones… Farewell! In silence, he bade the red dust goodbye.
Xiao Chen did not know that the royal heavenly maiden Zhao Lin’er had also shattered the void with him.
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