Chapter 530: Chapter 48: Farewell to the Yunteng Sect
On the train, Zhou Ziang looked out the window, seemingly at the landscape, but his motionless, sticky eyes showed he was deep in thought.
The path back to Yunteng Sect was right before his eyes, yet he missed it.
The sunlight skipping on the train’s glass fractured into rainbow colors, turning Zhou Ziang’s pupils mysteriously ever-changing.
That vision, the scene it revealed, was oh so familiar.
It had been over five years, Zhou Ziang mused. Yun Guanzi becoming Zhou Ziang had already been over five years. He thought he had forgotten, but when those visions reemerged before him, they were so familiar.
The visions showed the Yunteng Sect, where Yun Guanzi had always lived and cultivated.
Jade Belt Waterfall, Golden Claw Cranes, those landscapes were so familiar, yet they seemed like matters of many years past.
In just a few short minutes, the visions disappeared, along with the cotton tree.
Zhou Ziang didn’t know what Mirage Gate was, but relying on his intuition, he could guess that the scene was out of the ordinary, not merely a mirage as defined by science.
Uluqosa was situated in a dry area, full of Gobi desert terrain, but it did not have the conditions for mirages to occur.
Moreover, the scenes in mirages aren’t just mere illusions; they could reflect a certain place, or perhaps a fragment of a certain period, but at least it’s a scene that once appeared on Earth.
Could Yunteng Sect also truly exist? If he had taken that step earlier, could he really have returned to Yunteng Sect?
Everything was now unknowable, what exactly had held back his feet just now. Was it confusion or fear? Neither, what appeared in his mind was...
Could it be that he had changed, no longer desiring to chase the limits of cultivation, and what shook him were the people that flashed in his mind for an instant.
Zhou Ziang’s heart jolted, as once again in his mind appeared the person who, in that last moment, made him completely lose the ability to walk.
Reluctance, like a spider spinning silk, cast out its nets, binding his footsteps, making it hard for him to touch the truth behind the Mirage Gate.
"What’s wrong with me?" Zhou Ziang questioned himself, finding no one who could help him find the answer, "I need to search for the answer, whether it’s those visions, or the strange gate before the visions."
**
When Yu Gang took Yu Shanyang back to the nursing home, the courtyard was bustling with excitement, and the elderly were gathered together, vying to look at something.
"Old Yu, come take a look, this mat is much better than the ones you make," Mao Dazhu and Xiao Xian had already left, and speaking to Yu Shanyang was an old man who lived next door to him, with whom he occasionally played chess, pretty familiar with each other, hence daring to speak with him.
A mat? Yu Gang’s heart was a mix of feelings, as his father had been secretly weaving mats again.
Making mats doesn’t seem complicated, but it’s actually quite taxing on the spirit. A few years ago, his father had retired early due to migraine excuses and even decided to live alone in the elderly home.
Raised alone by his father since childhood, Yu Gang had strongly opposed Yu Shanyang living alone, but at his father’s repeated requests, Yu Gang had visited Fang Street Elderly Home, found the surroundings and other elderly residents quite agreeable, and only then had he agreed to it.
Who knew that not long after settling in, his father learned to Weaving Mat, reportedly one per week, and even started Weaving Mat specifically for some mat shop.
Yu Gang wasn’t a rigid person, thinking his father didn’t like playing mahjong and weaving mats might even stimulate his brain. But this time, when he brought his father to pay respects to his mother, the caregiver at the nursing home mentioned that his father hadn’t slept for two nights straight in order to weave a Black Wisteria Mat, which was overtaxing his health.
"Dad, stop looking at the mats. I heard that you haven’t slept for a few days because of Weaving Mat, that’s too harmful to your health. If you keep this up, I will have to go talk to Mr. Mao," Yu Gang blocked Mr. Yu’s intention to move forward to inspect. Yu Shanyang was old and had lost all his edges in officialdom, but the one thing he couldn’t let go of was competing to be first, and even in his old age, this hadn’t changed. If he actually saw a mat, he’d definitely go looking for someone to compete in craftsmanship.
"It’s fine, I eat the Rejuvenation Pills that Miss Mei brings every day, there are no major health problems," every month Mei Nian would have Yu Gang bring Rejuvenation Pills to Yu Shanyang. It’s said that Pharmacist Huang started eating them after turning fifty, and now over seventy years old, he was still as healthy as in his early fifties.