A Legend of a Heavenly Cultivator

3 I Accept

In the real world, his body lay on damp moss with breaths growing weaker.

But here, before a tower that stood like something that had been waiting since a time long forgotten, he could feel that this was not the dream of a dying man.

This was real.

'My dantian is destroyed. My meridians are in chaos. Not a single cultivator in this world could rise from such a condition. But if this tower can...'

He lifted his head, gazing at the peak of the tower that vanished into the clouds.

"I accept."

When he opened his eyes in the real world, night had already fallen at the bottom of the ravine.

The sky up there was only a small piece, far away, like a narrow gap between two towering stone walls. Stars were visible from there, cold and indifferent.

Chu Jianqiu lay on the moss and did not move for the first few minutes, only making sure that every part of his body was still connected to his consciousness. Then he closed his eyes again, not to sleep, but to enter that tower through his mind realm.

And this time, the tower welcomed him like something that had been waiting for a long time.

What happened inside that tower was difficult to explain in ordinary terms. The spiritual energy flowing there was not merely thick, but pure in a way he had never felt from any source before. His chaotic meridians began to respond, slowly guided by the flow of that spiritual energy to return to their proper paths. And his destroyed dantian, which should have been impossible to repair, began to show signs of recovery.

Crack by crack closed.

Fragment by fragment fused together.

When he finally left the tower and returned to full consciousness in the real world, the sun had already risen.

He sat upright.

Drew a long breath.

Then he felt qi flowing in his meridians, thin but real, like a small stream of water finding its way among dry stones. His dantian had not yet returned to its best condition, but its foundation was no longer destroyed. There was now a place to rebuild.

A small laugh escaped his lips.

Then louder.

Until finally he looked up, toward the edge of the ravine far above, and shouted with a voice that sounded insane in the silence of that ravine's bottom.

"Ouyang Yuan! Liu Tianyao! Do you hear that?!"

His voice bounced between the stone walls, echoing again and again.

"I will climb up there. I will repay every debt of yours in full. Every humiliation, every blow, every lie you threw at me over these three years. I will collect them all!"

The last echo of his voice slowly faded.

And Chu Jianqiu smiled for the first time since that betrayal happened.

Not a warm smile like before.

This was a different smile.

Three days at the bottom of that ravine were not wasted.

Every time he entered the tower, its spiritual energy flowed abundantly, aiding the recovery process. Every time he left, his condition was a little better than before. His repaired dantian began to be able to absorb qi from the surrounding environment again, though its capacity was still far below his former peak.

But at least, that foundation existed.

On the third day, Chu Jianqiu climbed the ravine wall.

Not in a heroic way. Not with qi flowing impressively through his palms. Purely with fingers gripping the crevices of the stone, feet searching for footholds on the wall's protrusions, and a determination that had no logical reason to be that fierce other than the fact that up there were two people he needed to meet again someday.

When both his feet finally stepped onto the ground at the edge of the ravine, the afternoon sun welcomed him with long orange light.

His cultivation now? Far below the highest point he had ever reached before. That was an undeniable fact. But another more important fact was that inside his mind realm, a tower stood firmly, and its first door was already open.

'I will surpass that highest point. And then I will keep climbing far past what I never even dared to imagine before.'

He straightened his tattered clothes, cleaned the dust from his face with the back of his hand, then began to walk.

Avoiding the main roads.

Avoiding the paths usually traveled by members of the Ouyang Family and their followers.

Weaving through small alleys behind rows of houses and shops, choosing the lengthening afternoon shadows as his cover, until finally the walls of his own family home appeared at the end of that quiet back street.

He entered through the side door he had memorized since childhood.

The inner courtyard of his home welcomed him with familiar silence. The same trees. The same small pond. The same ornamental stones. Everything was unchanged, as if the world within these walls knew nothing of what had happened out there.

Chu Jianqiu stood in the middle of that courtyard for a moment.

This house was too large for one person.

His father had left several years ago, following the footsteps of his mother who had disappeared even earlier. No news. No explanation. Only a departure that left more questions than answers. Chu Jianqiu grew up with those questions as companions, along with one person who never left.

'Ah. Ru Hua.'

As if responding to his thoughts, the sound of hurried little footsteps came from the direction of the side corridor, and a small girl in a plain gray dress appeared from behind the corner, her round eyes immediately freezing upon seeing the figure standing in the middle of the courtyard.

That servant was around fifteen years old, with hair neatly braided back and slightly chubby cheeks. Her expression in the first three seconds went through at least five changes, from shocked, to disbelief, to confused, to nearly crying, and finally to something difficult to name.

"Y... Young Master?!"

"I'm home," Chu Jianqiu said simply.

"But they said..." Ru Hua stopped, her voice catching. "They said Young Master was eaten by wild beasts in the forest. They said no one could survive falling into that ravine. They said..."

"Who said?"

The little girl swallowed. "Young Master Ouyang. He spread the news throughout the city. Yesterday afternoon."

So fast.

Chu Jianqiu filed that fact away in his head, then stepped into the house. "That story is not true. I am fine, or at least fine enough to walk here on my own." He sat in a chair in the main room, leaning his back with exhaustion. "Sit down first, Ru Hua. There are some things you need to know."

The girl sat on a small stool in front of him, her hands clasped on her knees, her eyes not moving from her master's face.

Chu Jianqiu told her everything.

Not all the details. Not about the tower, it was not yet time. But about what happened on Red Flower Hill, about the blood burning pill, about Liu Tianyao's words, about Ouyang Yuan who emerged from the shadows, and about himself being thrown into the ravine.

Ru Hua listened in silence.

But her jaw hardened more and more as time passed.

When Chu Jianqiu finished speaking, the little girl could no longer hide her anger. Her cheeks flushed red. Her eyes blazed with a fury that felt too large for her small body.

"I already knew," she said at last, her voice trembling but controlled. "I knew a long time ago that Miss Liu was not right. The way she looked at Young Master, the way she spoke when Young Master was not near her. But every time I wanted to say something..."

"You were not sure I would believe you," Chu Jianqiu continued quietly.

Ru Hua nodded slightly, lowering her head a little. "Sorry, Young Master. I should have said it anyway back then."

"It's alright." He shook his head gently. "Even if you had said it, at that time I probably would not have listened." A brief pause. "Now I am hungry and I need cultivation medicine for recovery. Please fetch my monthly allowance from the treasure room."

Ru Hua rose quickly, nodded once, then left with hurried light steps.