CH 44

The second spring after the arrival of the white jade statue, the fires of war abated, and Falling Flower Terrace had its first real mountain market. 

Because the divine arbor was always half withering and half thriving, haloed in clouds, it hadn’t an ordinary plant’s flowering season. But, those who’d seen the divine arbor would always say that the flowers wreathing its branches looked a bit like the red apricot blossoms of the mortal realm. 

Beside the East River at the time, in the place that would later become Meng City, there was a mountain called Mount Ting whose apricot blossom forests went on for dozens of miles and bloomed most abundantly in the third month.  

Hence, people set the divine arbor’s flowering season based on Mount Ting’s apricot blossoms, and picked the memorable date of the third day of the third month to commence their mountain market. 

When the mortal realm’s first Falling Flower Mountain Market erected its lanterns, Wu Xingxue was watching.

His hidden figure leaned against the divine arbor, lowered eyes looking on as the winding mountain path began lighting up at dusk, lantern string after lantern string, candle flame upon candle flame, straight on through to the utmost points of the mountain range, nearly on past the horizon.  

He vaguely recalled how he’d felt at the time…

Watching the weft of passers-by, the jumble of language, he felt content, happy.  

He was born here, and because of certain reasons, he cared about this place. He hoped that this Falling Flower Mountain Market would always be so lively, each year livelier than the last until it became the happiest place in the mortal world. Travelers would come from far and wide, and its name would spread to distant places. 

Because the more lively this place was, the more likely that young general’s next lives would come to visit the attraction… 

This feeling lived too long in his mind, it nearly became habitual.  

Even after the divine arbor was sealed later on, and the temple was no longer around, he still didn’t drop the habit. 

He’d never told anyone the initial reason. But whenever Falling Flower Mountain Market was mentioned, he’d always say: “That place is very fun, quite the lively crowd.” 

But now, grasping the jade carving, Wu Xingxue looked at the person beside him, and after gaping at him for a long time, called out to him: “Xiao Fuxuan.”  

Xiao Fuxuan was still gripping his wrist. His gaze fell to the divine arbor’s flowering jade branches, and was momentarily vacant. On hearing that, the light in his eyes stirred, then shifted to Wu Xingxue.  

That instant, Wu Xingxue did indeed get an urge—

He slightly hoped that the other party would remember the events of that year, remember the words he’d said under the divine arbor on that autumn night when the mystic lightning first hit. If so, then he could point to all those blossoms on the tree and grin as he took credit for the deed, saying: Xiao Fuxuan, the blossoms you wanted to see.  

But from the other’s perspective, wouldn’t that night have actually been quite painful?

How many had he wounded in the fires of war, and by how many had he been wounded? Perhaps his whole state, his family, his fellows had all vanished in the smoke of that long night. When he walked toward the divine arbor, how many dead souls had he passed in that wilderness, who’d saluted him, or who’d hated him? 

And when the heavenly lightning struck his bones and his flesh body died, in that moment, would he have been reluctant, lonely…?  

Just thinking about this, and that faint urge faded to nothing.  

Better that you don’t remember. Wu Xingxue thought. 

Hence he opened his mouth, huffed out a laugh, and in the end just spoke calmly: “Look, the divine arbor’s blossoming.” 

After saying this, he withdrew his gaze and no longer looked at Xiao Fuxuan, lest that slight regret that’d flashed by be detected by the Tianxiu Immortal.  

Who knew that just after he averted his eyes and bent over to put the jade caning down, he heard Xiao Fuxuan’s voice sounding deeply out: “Wu Xingxue.”

“Are you the divine arbor?” he said.

Wu Xingxue froze.

Xiao Fuxuan said: “They said, the jade carving mustn’t be touched by anyone other than the divine arbor.”  

Wu Xingxue turned his head to look at him. 

“You’d also said that you were born in Falling Flower Terrace.”  

Wu Xingxue still didn’t utter a word, just kept looking at him.

“Am I…” Xiao Fuxuan paused to shoot a glance at the jade carving of the youth leaning against the tree, then turned back around: “…that General Bai?”  

Wu Xingxue was afraid that Xiao Fuxuan had remembered something. Staring into his eyes for a long time, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief inside—it must have just been a guess, not a memory.  

Consoled, he opened his mouth to reply: “Their words are all over the place, all jumbled, you mustn’t take it all as true. But why ask me, oughtn’t I be the one who’s most confused about this place.”  

Xiao Fuxuan, however, lowered his gaze to look at him. After a beat, he spoke: “You are unhappy; it looked like you’d remembered something.” 

Wu Xingxue stiffened. 

After a moment, he saw Xiao Fuxuan slightly lowering his head and lifting a hand to touch his face with his fingers bent. Warm and deep, he asked: “Why would it blossom?” 

……

The dignified Devil Lord was abruptly rendered speechless.  

That moment, whether regret or pity, every subtle morsel of emotion swiftly disappeared. Yet another, entirely unrelated thought flashed through—this Tianxiu Immortal must have been a real menace in Immortal Capital.  

Wu Xingxue was just about to spit out a retort when he heard a sudden commotion.  

He and Xiao Fuxuan were simultaneously startled, and turned their heads toward the commotion. They saw that those hanging upside-down had their noses pricked up as though sniffing something out. The direction they sniffed was none other than that jade carving.   

Hence, Wu Xingxue also lightly sniffed a few times.

There was indeed a scent scattered throughout this temple. It smelled like… blood.  

At first, he was still a bit confused, but as his gaze swept over the jade carving he remembered, at the time he’d infused the jade carving with blood from Xiao Fuxuan’s previous lifetime. Now that the jade carving had awakened, that scent of blood slowly wafted out. 

And spirits were always sensitive; it was no wonder that they’d smelled it.

The odd thing was their reaction to smelling that blood scent…  

Those hanging upside-down revealed perplexed expressions as they pricked their noses, as though doing their best to recall something, but couldn’t immediately bring it to mind. But their murmuring spread out like a tide. 

“This scent…”  

“It seems I’ve smelled this blood somewhere before.”  

“Yessss, it’s so familiar.” 

“Same with me, I also think it’s a bit familiar.”

“But… where had I smelled it before?”

…..

They kept discussing for end, the actions of drawing in breath growing more and more conspicuous. Their expressions were also somewhat odd.  

“What’s up with them?” Wu Xingxue didn’t understand, but intuitively got a bad feeling about it.  

The blood had come from Xiao Fuxuan’s previous lifetime, and these people hanging upside-down came from all over Falling Flower Mountain Market. Falling Flower Mountain Market didn’t exist until after General Bai’s death. No matter what year these people had set foot in the mountain market, they shouldn’t have had any reaction to this blood, much less thought it “a bit familiar.”  

But he suddenly recalled something Xiao Fuxuan had said before: People’s life-and-death cycles operated through the spirits. 

Stowed in Falling Flower Mountain Market were their current lifetimes’ flesh bodies. From one life to the next, their flesh bodies naturally couldn’t have had anything to do with Xiao Fuxuan’s past life. But this place was different; these people hanging upside-down were spirits, and spirits would remain unchanged with the revolving of lifetimes, and would remain who they were back then. 

Thinking on this point, Wu Xingxue’s complexion became tense. 

He heard Xiao Fuxuan blurting out: “Is the blood in the jade carving yours?” 

Wu Xingxue subconsciously replied: “No.”

After answering, he clicked his tongue, a bit annoyed. 

This was basically admitting that he had remembered something.

But the circumstances before them weren’t ideal, and Xiao Fuxuan didn’t nag him, just looked him in the eye and then said: “That’s good.”  

Wu Xingxue was at a loss: “Why?”  

Xiao Fuxuan said: “To spur spirits’ memory is never a good thing.” 

Wu Xingxue’s heart skipped a beat. He was just about to ask when he heard Xiao Fuxuan continuing: “After death, mortals will not remember their previous lifetime. Spirits that have been shucked out are also such. Should they retain any impression, it must be something that runs deep.

He paused, then said under his breath: “Most likely related to their death.”  

He needed not to explain any further; Wu Xingxue could catch his drift.

He understood full well—when it came to the dead, the memory of their moment of death was always deepest. It was both their last—and often most painful—moment, and pain ever outlasted joy.  

These spirits suspended upside-down had been drawn out alive, so it was normal for them to remember incidents of their current life. If they remembered anything from before, it was likely—really only could be related to “death.”  

Or in other words… 

Blood from Xiao Fuxuan’s prior lifetime, had it a connection with these people’s deaths from some previous lifetime?  

Thinking on this point, Wu Xingxue felt a chill running down his spine.  

The moment the thought flashed across, he heard a familiar sword screech.  

Out of the corner of his eye, Xiao Fuxuan’s figure flashed over. 

He snapped his head up, seeing that the Tianxiu Immortal’s sword tip had already borne in on the nearby suspended people’s foreheads.  

He heard Xiao Fuxuan’s low voice saying: “Apologies.”

The eyes of those hanging upside-down contracted. The moment the sword tip made contact with their heads, a frost-sharp whistle arose straight up to the firmament. Wu Xingxue’s mind buzzed with the vibration.   

Since the impression was related to “death,” being pressed close to death again was most liable to arouse it. Amidst the reverberation of the sword screech and sharp whistle, the hangeds’ eyes widened as they cried out in terror: “I remember that smell of blood!” 

“I remember…” 

That move of Xiao Fuxuan’s wasn’t a genuine ‘interrogation,’ but was similar.

The next moment, fragmented scenes zoomed past—

A vast, horizonless wilderness, a mishmash of whinnying horses and startling murderous bellows. 

The moment he saw those scenes, Wu Xingxue knew it was a battlefield…

It was the battlefield General Bai had once crossed. And, the reason those people suspended upside-down got a sense of déjà vu from the blood scent was because in that life, they were on that battlefield opposite General Bai, and had died under his longsword.

The last moment before they died, they smelled the blood covering General Bai’s body. 

……

The sharp whistle continued to linger throughout the temple. Wu Xingxue hurriedly lifted his eyes, beyond the scattered scenes, to Xiao Fuxuan.  

Those fragmented scenes aroused the other hanged people’s memories, and hence similar murmurations struck down phrase by phrase, a tide of voices flooding over Xiao Fuxuan— 

“I remember…” 

“I remember too.” 

“It was you.”

“It was you who killed me.”

……

Before, a measure of doubt had crossed Wu Xingxue, as to why the sealed divine arbor would pick out these people, why it would use people’s spirits to suppress a divine arbor that had towered up to heaven. Were it to involve prior karma, these people hadn’t any karmic relation to the divine arbor, so why them? 

Now, he understood— 

Just before death, Xiao Fuxuan’s previous life had given protection to the divine arbor, causing him to be the one most deeply linked with it. But he’d once been a young general who’d made his way through the flames of war, bearing souls that’d died by his sword. 

Someone… had especially sought out those who’d died on that battlefield in a previous life, died by the general’s sword, and gradually gathered them in Falling Flower Mountain Market, then at last drew out their spirits and confined them here. 

Using the overflowing karmic “killing hindrance” between them and Xiao Fuxuan, they could seal away that divine arbor that had been protected by Xiao Fuxuan.  

No wonder!

No wonder Xiao Fuxuan’s pardon couldn’t free these spirits no matter what. Given such a karmic hindrance before them, how could he possibly have freed them? In order to apply force, one would have to take action against Xiao Fuxuan himself. 

Wu Xingxue’s complexion went cold.  

On Xiao Fuxuan’s perpetually icily handsome face, he witnessed an extremely seldom-seen flash of utter blankness. White as jade, Tianxiu sheathed his sword, and carrying its handle, silently looked at those tied-up spirits…  

Something delicate pierced Wu Xingxue’s heart.