Mahayana 107
Chapter 107: The River of Forgetfulness — Buried Truths of the Immortal Palace
TL : Cnine
ED/PF :
Part 1
“Could this truly be the legendary River of Forgetfulness?” Su Miaoqing asked, her voice trembling as unease whispered through her words.
"Legend said the River of Forgetfulness looked exactly like this — water the colour of dried blood, crawling with insects and snakes, and swarming with countless resentful spirits." Even Luo Yun sounded uneasy as he spoke.
“Real or fake, the far bank should be where the Immortal Palace is,” Old Demon King said, grinning confidently.
“And who knows if that’s an Immortal Palace or a hall of the dead?” Su Miaoqing snapped, clearly having no fondness for the whole idea.
Xiao Yifeng knew this so-called Immortal Palace was far from simple. On top of that, he’d broken through from a slightly different direction this time, so he couldn’t quite work out their exact position.
“If the Immortal Palace is really over there, we should cross quickly,” Old Daoist Lingyun said, unable to hide his excitement. After all, when treasure is right in front of you, it’s hard not to let your heart race.
“The River of Forgetfulness isn’t something you can cross so casually. The legends say it won’t carry anything at all. You lot might want to test it first,” Xiao Yifeng warned kindly.
The group froze for a brief moment. Old Demon King, unconvinced, pulled out a piece of golden wood. It gleamed a pure gold, faintly glowing with a green light, clearly no normal bit of timber.
He tied it with silk thread and threw it into the river, wanting to check if it would float. Instead, it dropped like a rock and vanished straight to the bottom.
Just as he was about to reel it back in, countless vengeful spirits rushed towards it, swarming like a school of piranhas and stripping it bare in seconds. Some even tried to crawl up the silk thread, scaring Wang Laoxie so badly that he tossed the thread in as well.
The ghosts fought wildly over the thread, ripping at each other, and the air filled with shrill screams and wretched howls.
The bizarre scene startled everyone. Had they entered the water without knowing any better, even with their formidable cultivation, who could endure the frenzied gnawing of so many ghostly spirits?
Su Miaoqing and Luo Yun both went a little pale, their minds filling with horrifying visions of themselves sinking into the river.
“The things in that river are truly dreadful,” the old Daoist Lingyun said grimly. “It seems we won’t cross it so easily. Do you think we could just fly over it?”
Xiao Yifeng slowly shook his head and replied quietly, “Over the true River of Forgetfulness, flight is forbidden. Anyone who tries to force their way across will only become a feast for those vengeful souls below.”
When the others stared at him in puzzlement, Xiao Yifeng calmly added, “I only heard this through hearsay. If you don’t believe me, you’re welcome to test it yourselves.”
Everyone fell silent at once. “Try it” here was basically the same as “go die”, and no one was eager to volunteer.
“I’ve heard the River of Forgetfulness is supposed to have the Naihe Bridge,” Luo Yun said thoughtfully. “I wonder if this place has one too?”
“Then there should be a Meng Po and her famous Meng Po soup as well, right?” Su Miaoqing’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“Whether it’s there or not, we’ll find out if we follow the river upstream,” Liu Yue said steady and calm.
“Then let’s move!” Lin Xiao laughed. The group looked friendly and united, though who knew how many hidden schemes were quietly brewing beneath the surface?
The group walked along the river’s edge, but a foul, bloody stench rolled towards them from the water, making everyone frown. The three women, especially Su Miaoqing, reacted most strongly.
No one could tell how long this so-called River of Forgetfulness stretched. They had walked for a long while with no end in sight. Fortunately, as cultivators, they were experts at enduring loneliness and hardship, so no one complained of boredom.
With nothing better to do, they began sharing what they knew about this mysterious Immortal Palace.
“The master of this place really loves acting mysterious,” Mo Shuiyao said. “Road to the Yellow Spring, Shoreside Flowers, and now the River of Forgetfulness… Is he trying to recreate the underworld itself?”
“Who knows?” Lin Xiao replied, genuine admiration in his voice. “But his methods are truly unbelievable. Just opening up a space and making it function on its own is already enough to leave anyone in awe.”
“Even experts at the Tribulation Crossing realm couldn’t achieve something like this,” Luo Yun said quietly. “This Immortal Palace was very likely left behind by a genuine immortal.”
“Heh heh,” Old Demon King let out a low laugh. “A place that could make Nascent Soul and even Mahayana realm experts fall was never going to be simple.”
His words stunned the group, none of them had imagined the history of this place could be so terrifying.
“Fellow Daoist Old Demon, that’s just a rumour, isn’t it?” Ling Yun asked in disbelief. “Mahayana realm cultivators dying? As far as I know, only those below Nascent Soul realm can enter now. How could a Mahayana realm experts have fallen here?”
“That part’s true, only those below Nascent Soul realm can enter now,” The Old Demon King replied calmly. “Otherwise, how would it ever be our turn? The jade token chooses its owner on its own. In the past, this place was a secret realm that countless Mahayana realm experts rushed into… And many of them never came back.”
Seeing the doubtful looks on everyone’s faces, he pressed on: “That’s precisely because those Mahayana realm expert went all out inside. Rumour has it that even Tribulation Crossing experts joined the battle and smashed the Immortal Palace to pieces. That’s why it can now only handle cultivators at the Golden Core realm and below.”
Xiao Yifeng knew Old Demon King was telling the truth, the previous palace master of the Boundless Horizon Palace had vanished here without a trace.
“Then aren’t all the treasures inside already completely plundered?” Su Miaoqing asked anxiously.
“That’s partly true, but only from the perspective of Tribulation Crossing realm expert and Mahayana realm experts,” Old Demon King said. “To cultivators at our level, and even the Fusion realm, this Immortal Palce is still incredibly alluring. Don’t tell me you, a fairy of the Heaven Inquiry Sect, don’t know this?”
He paused, staring at Su Miaoqing in confusion.
“My senior and I are merely travelling the world. We just happened to stumble into this place by mistake,” Xiao Yifeng said in a calm, distant voice.
“Most of the treasures here are already gone, but there’s a rumour that the greatest treasure of all — the Book of Destiny — still remains inside. No one knows if it’s true. Even if we fail to claim it, there are still magic artefacts and divine artefacts left behind by fallen experts. For us, that alone is an extraordinary stroke of fortune,” Old Daoist Lingyun laughed heartily.
“Book of Destiny? What exactly is that?” Liu Yue asked.
“Legend says it’s the supreme treasure of the Samsara Immortal Palace. A book that can rewrite a person’s fate itself. But it was probably taken long ago and hidden away. There’s no way fortune like that would reach us,” Mo Shuiyao said, shaking her head.
Xiao Yifeng knew the truth, the Book of Destiny was still here. In his previous life, he had missed it by a hair’s breadth. This time, he swore he would claim it, no matter what. The only thing he didn’t know… Was how to get it.
“Hey, there’s another stone tablet up ahead!” Su Miaoqing was the first to spot the distant monument again. Xiao Yifeng couldn’t help but wonder, what on earth was this girl’s eyesight made of?
The group perked up and quickened their pace, heading towards the large rock by the riverside. It looked almost identical to the one Xiao Yifeng had stored away earlier, although this one was much bigger. Three blood-red characters reading River of Forgetfulness were carved into it, with a smaller line beside:
Even birds cannot cross the River of Forgetfulness.
The group had thought they had reached the next destination, only to discover it was merely a signpost. They couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.
“Come on, let’s keep moving. We should reach the next place soon enough.” Liu Yue showed no interest in lingering and strode forward quickly.
Xiao Yifeng stepped toward the colossal, pitch-black stone, his expression unreadable in the murky light. He laid his palm upon the cold surface, just a touch,and the stone vanished into his storage ring like a shadow swallowed by darkness. The sudden, silent act pulled every eye toward him.
“Fellow daoist Wu Chen… what’s the meaning of this? Surely that stone isn’t… a treasure?” Elder Lingyun’s voice trembled with suspicion and a flicker of regret. Had he just let something priceless slip through his fingers?
“It’s only a memento,” Xiao Yifeng answered lightly, the ghost of a smile on his lips, one that told nothing, revealed nothing.
Lingyun’s face twitched. Since he couldn’t pry out the truth, he could only swallow the frustration and vow silently: the next stone would be his, come heaven or hell.
Far away—across mountains and mist—morning sunlight spilled into the Boundless Horizon Palace of the Heaven Inquiry Sect. After completing her tasks, Lin Ziyun followed her familiar path toward the Thousand Lamps Hall, unaware of the ripples soon heading her way.
This had become Lin Ziyun’s strange little ritual ever since Su Miaoqing and that supposedly sensible Xiao Yifeng left the mountain. Every single day, she made her way to the Thousand Lamps Hall to check their soul lamps, her personal barometer of whether they were still alive and not off causing apocalyptic trouble.
The moment she thought about the pair, a familiar headache tightened behind her eyes. She’d even gone to the trouble of arranging for Lingxu to tail them from the shadows for protection, and somehow, unbelievably, they had sweet-talked him into returning while they slipped off on their own like a pair of escaped chickens.
---Miaoqing’s mischief was expected, but Xiao Yifeng? The calm, dependable Xiao Yifeng? How had he been dragged into such chaos as well?
Su Qianyi had complained to her endlessly because of this. Sighing, she pushed open the Thousand Lamps Hall’s doors. Inside, a thousand brilliant flames shone like a field of stars.
And then Lin Ziyun froze. On the central platform, among more than thirty soul lamps, two were faint, trembling, and on the verge of going out.
They were unmistakably Xiao Yifeng and Su Miaoqing’s soul lamps, and their nearly dead flicker could only mean one thing: the two little disasters were in life-or-death danger, hanging on by the spiritual equivalent of a frayed shoelace.
Lin Ziyun’s face drained of colour. She stood frozen for a long breath, icy panic flooding her mind, before she abruptly spun around and rushed off to find Su Qianyi.
Su Qianyi, upon hearing her frantic account, shot into the Thousand Lamps Hall like a rainbow bolt. He inspected the dimming flames, lifted the lamps, and quickly cast a localisation spell.
But what the spell revealed made even his calm heart tremble, the two troublemakers were nowhere within the Three Realms, nowhere within the Five Elements. It was as if they had vanished from existence entirely.
His expression grew grim. Without delay, he summoned every single one of his true disciple, explained the crisis, and began issuing orders to track down the missing pair.
When Elder Ling Xu heard the news about the dimming soul lamps, he stumbled out as if struck, collapsing to his knees.
He pressed his forehead to the cold floor, over and over, each strike more desperate than the last. “This disciple has erred… I failed them—failed Qing’er, failed Yifeng! Their disappearance is my sin alone! I deserve punishment, death if need be!”
His chest tightened with crushing guilt. If he hadn’t been tricked and shaken off by those two, they wouldn’t be missing now, beyond even the reach of their soul lamps.
“Ling Xu, enough, stand up first,” Lin Ziyun said gently, lifting him with a controlled wave of spiritual power. “This isn’t your fault. Those two little troublemakers are simply too mischievous for their own good… And I’m hardly without blame myself.”
But Ling Xu’s tears still streamed unchecked, his face etched with misery. Not even Lin Ziyun’s reassurance could pierce the thick fog of guilt suffocating him.
Su Qianyi’s expression had sunk so deeply it was practically a decorative pond, dark, still, and absolutely ominous. No one could tell what thoughts were swirling beneath the surface, but they didn’t look pleasant.
“This is all my fault…” Lin Ziyun murmured, tears welling up. “If I hadn’t agreed to let Qing’er go down the mountain with Xiaofeng, none of this would’ve happened…”
Her voice trembled, the fear for her daughter and disciple written plainly across her face. The moment Su Qianyi saw her like that, his sternness shattered like cheap pottery. He rushed to comfort her, hands hovering uselessly as he spoke far too quickly:
“Hey now, don’t cry. Their soul lamps are still lit, aren’t they? As long as they shine, I can find them. And if I can’t manage it alone, fine! I’ll go beg Senior Brother, the Sect Master. When Heaven Inquiry Sect’s nine Mahayana realm expert take action, honestly, who in this entire world could possibly remain beyond rescue? Even the heavens would think twice before saying no.”
Lin Ziyun frowned, brows furrowing as she muttered, “Not within the Three Realms… not within the Five Elements… then where on earth are they? A secret realm? No… this feeling… I’ve seen something like this before…”
Although Xiang Tiange was worried as well, he was sharp enough to point out the real issue.
“Hold on… this feels strangely familiar,” Ling Xu murmured, a tremor in his voice, as if he’d just remembered a nightmare he’d tried very hard to forget.
That one remark struck Su Qianyi and Lin Ziyun like bolt of lightning. Their heads snapped toward one another, panic flashing across their faces before they cried out together: “Master Qingxu! (Grandmaster Qingxu!)”
Both of them instantly thought of the same thing, wasn’t this exactly what happened when Grandmaster Qingxu from the Boundless Horizon Palace disappeared back then?
Realising this, the colour drained from Lin Ziyun’s pretty face. In those days, Grandmaster Qingxu had also vanished inexplicably inside his closed-door cultivation chamber, never to be heard from again, his soul-lamp dimming away shortly after.
Half a month later, the inevitable arrived, the two soul-lamps faltered… and went out completely. Their extinguishing felt like an old echo repeating through Heaven Inquiry Sect’s history, another mystery, another unanswered question.
Su Qianyi immediately grasped Lin Ziyun’s trembling hand. “Don’t worry. This doesn’t mean it has to be the same as what happened back then,” he said gently. She nodded, but her pale face and furrowed brows betrayed the fear she couldn’t hide.
Wasting no time, Su Qianyi dispatched his disciples down the mountain to trace the pair’s final steps and uncover where they had vanished.
He and Lin Ziyun, bound by their responsibilities, could only remain on the mountain, waiting, pacing, hoping. Lin Ziyun especially refused to leave the soul-lamps, standing guard day and night with a heart full of dread.