I’ve finally found how huge and incredible about Hua Xue Mountain when I was standing on the territorial water that was as vast as the Ice Sea. Xing Gui told me this was the territory of South Guardian, Die Che and behind this territorial water, it’s the Southern Palace Bo Tian Zhu Que.
Apparition was the only way for us to get past the territorial water. I hooked up my finger, getting ready to summon the snow.
“No, my king.” Xing Gui’s breath was weak but rapid. “My king, this is not any ordinary lake. There are ten enchantments superimposed on this lake, there might be more enchantments that I couldn’t sense. In other words, someone may just fall into another world if you are not careful enough. And what kind of worlds would there be, I couldn’t determine. Maybe it’s a world filled with sharp ice blades, or a vast land of roaring fire, or maybe a beautiful hill planted with cherry blossom trees, or you may just skip the South Guardian region, and we might even meet Yuan Ji directly. So, my king, please don’t use your magic so easily because the union of the spiritual power could cause turmoil within the enchantment, changing its entrances and exits.”
I stood in front of the territorial water, the messy sunlight reflection on the water were now shining on everyone’s face.
I said, “Xing Gui, then how should we go over?”
Chao Ya came up to me and said, “My king, use my Wu Yin Qin (soundless zither).” Then she removed a hairpin from her hair and the hairpin became bigger immediately, forming a huge black ancient zither.
I’ve finally got to see the imperial zither used by my father. Its entire body was black with white crystal strings and the end of the zither was charred.
Chao Ya said, “This zither was used by my mother and during the holy war, the end of the zither got burnt by the fire spirits’ magic. During the holy war, my mother had spent several years in the mortal world; the people there were amazed by my mother’s zither playing skill. Then my mother left a replica of Wu Yin Qin in the mortal world; from then on, it became the famous zither in the mortal world generation after generation and they named it Jiao Wei. Wu Yin Qin can change its size freely without any magic to support, so we don’t have to worry about changing the distribution of the enchantment. We can use this zither as something, which they called boat in the mortal world, to cross the sea.
When we stood on the zither’s body, moving slowly across the water, Chao Ya laughed. “My king, I have never thought that zither could be used in such a way.”
At the other side of the sea would be Bo Tian Zhu Que Palace, the entire palace looked just like a zither. When we went towards the door, a melodious sound of a zither was coming from the inside, as if it was piercing down from the sky directly, like waves in the heart coming one after another. The snow on the ground swirled up from the ground all of a sudden, cherry blossoms petals began falling off, and those petals fell neatly at our feet forming a petal trail. The air was filled with floral scent; everyone was standing in the middle of the petals, waiting. Huang Tuo created an enchantment to protect Xing Gui, we stood back to back forming a hexagram lineup and I could vaguely feel that Die Che would appear soon.
But when all the petals had fallen, Die Che has yet to appear and the music became more melodious than before.
I noticed the expression on Chao Ya’s face and asked her. “Chao Ya, what’s wrong with you?”
Chao Ya said. “My king, if you want me to compete with the master of this zither, I don’t think I have any chance of winning.” I saw the dejected expression on her face.
But when I turned around, I saw the despair on Xing Gui’s face. Then Xing Gui opened her eyes, and said a sentence slowly, then I saw the tears in her eyes. That sentence made every single one of us to stood on the spot motionlessly; cold winds blowing, and cherry blossom flowers kept falling uncontrollably.
Xing Gui said, “The person playing the song is only a palace maid of Die Che.”
Po Tian Zhu Que and Mie Tian Xuan Wu were two totally different palaces; Xuan Wu Palace was grand and majestic, the towering city walls were standing high up in the sky, and weapons like three spines swords, ice blade and magical staff were all displayed in the palace. All the people in the palace were tall muscular men. The entire palace seemed like a place filled with male power.
But inside Bo Tian Zhu Que Palace, everything has a soft contour; the sky roof has a thin layer of ice on it, letting the daylight sprinkled lightly into the palace and the entire palace was floating within some kind of pale blue light. Music could be heard from everywhere of the palace; smiling palace maids could be seen everywhere in the garden with zithers in their hands, cherry blossoms were falling slowly around them, just like those flamboyant dreams.
Die Che was reclining on the throne, barefooted and her hair was falling along her body. She looked at me, not speaking at all, but I could see from her crystal white pupil talking to me, she said, “Ka Suo, you’ve come.”
I have been seeing countless beauties in Ren Xue Cheng, concubines in the palaces and the beautiful mermaid tribe. But I have to admit that the beautiful look of Die Che was something I have never seen before; this kind of look had never appeared in the most flamboyant dreams before. I could feel the surrounding air becoming faint when I looked at her. Her eyes continued to talk to me, saying. “Ka Suo, you’ve come.”
I got snapped out of my trance when Yue Shen patted my shoulder. She leant forward and whispered at my ear. “My king, she had just used soul capturing spell on you. Be careful.”
I looked at Die Che, and her smile was so alluring and attractive.
Yue Shen went up and looked at Die Che, saying. “You better don’t use your a.s.sa.s.sination spell in front of me, they are not even up to one tenth of my skills.”
“Then you can kill me completely.” Die Che’s speaking voice didn’t carry any emotions; it was slow and misty like a dream, so blur and unreal, as if the fog has been lingering over the lake for a long time.
I saw the light had already appeared at Yue Shen’s hand, I knew it was a sign that she would be using her magic.
“No, Yue Shen.” Xing Gui’s voice came from behind.
“Why.” Yue Shen turned and looked at Xing Gui.
Xing Gui said, “Even if you managed to kill Die Che, we still wouldn’t be able to pa.s.s Po Tian Zhu Que Palace.”
Xing Gui came down from Liao Jian’s arms, and walked to my side, holding out her weak arm and pointed at the end of the grand hall, telling me. “My king, you see that wall?”
I followed the direction of her arm and looked towards the end of the palace, it was a tall and delicate wall that reached the top of the palace. There were a lot of figures engraved on it, there’s a beautiful woman in the centre, and that would be Die Che who was seated on her throne, surrounding her would be countless of musicians holding their ancient zither. But on that wall, Die Che was the only one with expression, the expression on the other musicians was hollow and confused, and they have no eyes. The only expression on Die Che’s face would be her arrogant yet attractive smile.
Xing Gui said, “It was a wall of sigh.”
Then I heard Chao Ya’s rapid and heavy breathing. She walked to the wall, held her hand out to touch the corner portrait of a musician on the wall with her head hanging low, not speaking at all. It was only after some time then she turned around and said, “This is my mother. Chi Lian. The old emperor’s imperial musician.”
“It’s true that this wall actually exists in this world. I thought it’s only a legend within our music sorcery tribe.” Chao Ya said.
“Chao Ya, why can’t we get through this wall?” I asked.
“My king, this is not any other ordinary wall, no blades or illusion magic can has any effect on it. Only the most wonderful music of precision is able to touch the heart of the wall. In the past, there are countless of musicians that wanted to touch the heart of this wall, but to no avail. There’s only one person who managed to touch the wall since the ancient times, and she has become the guardian of this wall. She is Die Che, the legendary woman with rare beauty. So, even if we were to kill Die Che, we still couldn’t get pa.s.s Bo Tian Zhu Que shrine.
Chao Ya walked and stood before Die Che, saying. “In the eyes of the people from the music sorcery tribe, you are indeed our G.o.d. I wish to hear your music, I want to know what kind of melody can touch the heart of the wall of sigh.”
“Forget it! I’m afraid that you will hit yourself to death on your Jiao Wei when you hear my music.”
Chao Ya’s face went pale, her body was shaking slightly, and I knew she was holding back her anger. Anyone could hear the disdain Die Che has against Chao Ya’s wu yin qin. But Chao Ya didn’t say anything, she walked over and knelt on one knee and said. “Please play a song for us.”
Die Che looked at Chao Ya and let out a sigh. “Forget it, you will never be able to learn my music no matter how many times you listen.”
Chao Ya continued to kneel before her. Die Che stood up and said. “Fine, as your wish.”
I’ve finally saw Die Che’s huan die qin (magic b.u.t.terfly zither), that zither was in fact not a zither. Die Che stood up, with both arms outstretched, fingers open, and then she quickly spread her arms open. Five shiny green chords appeared in between her ten fingers. When she used her white jade-liked finger to strike the green chords, I could see countless b.u.t.terflies with green glow flying out from the chords. The melodies actually formed into a b.u.t.terfly fluttering into the air. I got so immersed into the music; those past memories came pouring back, just like a flash of white cherry blossom petals flying over the four walls of memories. Shi planted a kiss on my brow, Li Luo standing up tall on the unicorn, Shi fell during the fire at the Mirage Palace, Lan Sand died under the cherry blossom tree, a dream where Li Luo was buried under the deep ice sea, the snow bird killed itself from hitting onto the huge cliff rock, the blossoming of fiery red lotuses…
Then I felt a sensation of pain hitting my body all of a sudden, and by the time I recomposed myself, I saw those green b.u.t.terflies kept flying into my body and melted in my blood, traveling all over my body. I’ve finally understand Die Che’s music was another way of hidden a.s.sa.s.sination, but when I wanted to resist, it was already too late, my arm could no longer move. The view before my eyes started to get blur, only Die Che’s smile remained the same like the wind of spring spreading around, so alluring so attractive.
When my willpower was dissipating slowly, I saw Liao Jian and Xing Gui already lying on the floor, their silvery white hair were all over their sides, Pian Feng was curling his ring finger up, summoning a wind blast to surround him and those green b.u.t.terflies were finding the loopholes to get into his body. I knew he was going to crumble soon. Yue Shen and Huang Tuo were the only ones that remained unharmed; Die Che’s a.s.sa.s.sination posed no threat to Yue Shen and Huang Tuo’s white protection enchantment was also something the b.u.t.terflies could not penetrate.
Then I heard Chao Ya’s voice, she said, “My king, I cannot play something to surpa.s.s Die Che’s music because my feeling isn’t as much as hers. My intuition tells me that there’s an unforgettable memory in her heart, if not she won’t be able to play such soulful music. My king, I know there is a lot of buried feelings within your heart, broken yet intense, please send these feelings to me via the form of dreams, I need to borrow your emotions to destroy the wall of sigh.”
I could no longer distinguish where Chao Ya was when she was talking to me, there was a huge patch of green b.u.t.terflies appearing before my eyes, and so I began to weave my memories into a dream – those days when Shi and I were together, I carried him around while we were in the mortal world, the day when I saved him from the fire at the Mirage Palace, the day when I killed him with my sword and him smiling at me, and then I lost my consciousness. It was a very strange feeling, as if I have entered into a dream, but there was nothing in the dream except pure pale blue colour, just like the sky colour in Snow Empire when spring was about to arrive.
