Chapter 51

The two returned to the bamboo forest cottage.
Jiandi Yue was in the kitchen, lighting the fire to cook.
Even a swordsman needs to fill his stomach before he can continue to study swordsmanship.
Yun Pianpian was very conscious of her role as a disciple, so she voluntarily took on the role of cook and quickly prepared three dishes and a soup.
Stir, fried bamboo shoots with pork, ginger, glazed fish slices, stir, fried cabbage, and a fresh mushroom soup.
As soon as the dishes were placed on the table, they emitted a steaming aroma, visually appealing, fragrant, and delicious.
The scent of everyday life wafted toward them.
Jiandi Yue had not left the bamboo forest or encountered such mundane aromas in a long time. His heart was devoted solely to the supreme art of swordsmanship. Though he ate both meat and vegetables without discrimination, the meals he prepared were merely to fill his stomach and had nothing to do with flavor.
He never expected that in this lifetime, he would once again smell such aromas and taste the kind of home, cooked dishes that only existed in his memories.
Seventy years, he had been away from the mortal world for far too long.
Jiandi Yue couldn't help but eat two extra bowls of rice.
Yun Pianpian used her chopsticks to pick out a few slices of fish for Buling Buling.
Having been hungry for almost a day, Buling Buling buried its head and wolfed down the food.
After the three finished their meal, Yun Pianpian went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. The bamboo forest cottage was built by Jiandi Yue for his seclusion. He disliked visitors, so there were no guest rooms. Thus, Yun Pianpian and Xiao Changyuan had no choice but to sleep in the cramped kitchen.
Although Jiandi Yue was reclusive by nature, he brought them two quilts, one to use as a mattress and the other as a cover. Having slept outdoors for several days, Yun Pianpian missed the warmth of bedding dearly. She lay under the quilt and fell asleep before long.
Xiao Changyuan draped the quilt over Yun Pianpian, wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and closed his eyes to rest.
Buling Buling slept at their feet, wrapping its fluffy tail around its body.
The moonlight was bright and clear, and all was silent.
Jiandi Yue pushed open the door and walked into the courtyard.
Xiao Changyuan had sensed Jiandi Yue’s movements the moment he stepped out of his room.
He opened his dark, ink, black eyes and glanced at Yun Pianpian. The young girl’s eyes were closed, her sleep peaceful and serene. Carefully, Xiao Changyuan lifted the quilt, stepped out of the kitchen, and turned back to close the door for Yun Pianpian.
“What do you need, Elder?”
Jiandi Yue replied, “How did you know I was calling for you?”
Xiao Changyuan’s expression remained cool as he said, “You’re not sleeping in the middle of the night, Elder. Surely you didn’t come out just to admire the moonlight.”
Jiandi Yue paused, then spoke slowly, “Do you know why you lost to me in today’s duel?”
Xiao Changyuan answered, “Because my swordsmanship is inferior to yours.”
“Wrong.”
Jiandi Yue turned around, his aged yet sharp gaze falling on Xiao Changyuan like a piercing sword aura.
“You lost because your mind was clouded with distractions.”
Hearing this, Xiao Changyuan frowned slightly.
Jiandi Yue continued, “Although your body was dueling with me, your heart was tied to that young lady. Your sword heart is impure, which is why you lost to me. A true swordsman should sever worldly attachments, abandon all desires, and achieve the selfless state of unity between man and sword…”
“I don’t want to become a swordsman.”
Xiao Changyuan looked calmly at Jiandi Yue.
Jiandi Yue was taken aback. “Then why did you come to Lingxu Mountain?”
Xiao Changyuan replied, “Because my wife asked me to.”
Jiandi Yue stared blankly. “If your wife hadn’t asked you to come, would you not have come?”
Xiao Changyuan nodded coolly.
“Yes.”
Once again, Jiandi Yue was infuriated by Xiao Changyuan’s lack of ambition, his aged face flushing red, his voice trembling slightly.
“Romantic attachments will only hinder you from becoming a true swordsman. You should abandon your wife and join me in diligently studying the art of the sword, instead of wallowing in the sweetness of romance. You possess such remarkable sword intent, why must you be so stubborn?!”
“The truly stubborn one is you, Elder.”
Xiao Changyuan coldly interrupted Jiandi Yue. “You tell me to abandon desires and sever worldly ties, yet your heart holds only the sword. Isn’t the sword itself one of those desires?”
Jiandi Yue’s shoulders trembled.
He lifted his aged eyes and stared at Xiao Changyuan in stunned silence.
Xiao Changyuan said coolly, “There is no difference between holding the sword in your heart and holding desires in your heart.
I have simply replaced the sword in your heart with my wife. Moreover, my wife is not merely one of my desires, she is my life. For you to ask me to abandon her for the sake of swordsmanship is something I will never do in this lifetime.”
Jiandi Yue stood frozen in place, unable to speak for a long while.
Xiao Changyuan asked indifferently, “Is there anything else, Elder? If not, I’m going back to my wife.”
His wife was lying alone in the cold bedding, she must be freezing, her hands and feet icy.
Xiao Changyuan turned his head and looked toward the dark kitchen in the corner of the courtyard.
He wondered if his wife had woken from the cold…
If she woke and found him gone, would she come looking for him?
He missed his wife.
Xiao Changyuan’s gaze toward the kitchen was filled with longing.
Without waiting for Jiandi Yue’s reply, Xiao Changyuan strode quickly toward the kitchen, like a weary bird returning to the forest.
Jiandi Yue stood where he was, Xiao Changyuan’s earth, shattering words echoing endlessly in his mind.
“Having a sword in one’s heart is no different from having desire in one’s heart.”
Jiandi Yue was born into a renowned martial arts family. From a young age, he was solitary and withdrawn, seldom speaking to others. He had two older brothers, but he disliked them. He had trained in martial arts since childhood, and in his heart, there was no fraternal affection, only the pursuit of supreme swordsmanship.
He aspired to become the greatest swordsman in the world, and eventually, he achieved it.
Across the land, no one could match him, he became the world’s number one swordsman.
Later, his parents arranged a marriage for him.
He married a woman from a scholarly family.
Her name was A’Rou.
Normally, someone like Jiandi Yue, born into a prestigious martial arts family, would have married a woman from the martial world. But his parents believed that Jiandi Yue’s stubborn and solitary nature would inevitably harm both himself and others in the long run, so they hoped this girl named A’Rou could soften his heart.
Even after more than seventy years, Jiandi Yue still remembered his wedding day, when he lifted the red bridal veil after drinking himself into a stupor. Beneath the red cloth was A’Rou’s shy, blushing face and her beautiful, tranquil eyes, reminiscent of the misty rains of Jiangnan.
A’Rou’s temperament was as delicate and gentle as her name.
In her words and actions, she was always tender and timid, like a spring breeze and gentle rain, melting his heart.
For A’Rou, Jiandi Yue set aside his sword.
His eyes held only A’Rou.
The two of them spent a peaceful and serene time together.
Later, Ji Wuliang challenged him to a duel. As the world’s number one swordsman, Jiandi Yue was unexpectedly defeated by the novice Ji Wuliang.
From then on, Jiandi Yue’s temperament changed drastically.
He blamed his defeat on A’Rou.
He believed that A’Rou had hindered his path in swordsmanship and he divorced her.
After that, Jiandi Yue severed all worldly ties, secluded himself on Lingxu Mountain, and devoted himself entirely to cultivating his swordsmanship.
His parents and A’Rou once came to Lingxu Mountain to find him but he avoided them.
Not long after, he learned from his parents that A’Rou had remarried.
She married a pastry vendor. Though the vendor was not from a noble or prestigious family, he was diligent, honest, and treated A’Rou well. Jiandi Yue’s parents reproached him for not knowing how to cherish such a good wife, who had ended up with a mere vendor.
That night, Jiandi Yue practiced his long sword in the courtyard until dawn and attained a supreme martial art…
The Emotion-Severing Sword.
From then on, Jiandi Yue’s martial prowess grew immensely. He searched everywhere for Ji Wuliang, hoping for a rematch, but he learned from the martial world that Ji Wuliang had mistakenly killed his wife and child, succumbed to madness, and disappeared without a trace.
Jiandi Yue felt a pang of disappointment but had no choice but to let it go.
His parents had long been utterly disappointed in him and severed their ties with him. When they passed away, he wasn’t even able to see them one last time.
Everyone had drifted away from him, but it didn’t matter, he still had his sword.
From then on, Jiandi Yue immersed himself even more deeply in swordsmanship, indifferent to the ever, changing tides of the martial world.
He cared only for his sword.
His skill with the blade had long surpassed that of Ji Wuliang from years past.
He grew even more obsessed than before.
Because if he weren’t obsessed, he would feel he had betrayed the choices he made back then.
He would have let down A’Rou, whom he had divorced, and his parents, who had cut ties with him.
He would have betrayed the decades of single, minded dedication!
He needed to become even more engrossed in swordsmanship, even more devoted to martial arts.
He wanted Xiao Changyuan to make the same choice he had, he wanted Xiao Changyuan to prove that he hadn’t been wrong.
But tonight, Xiao Changyuan told him, “Having a sword in your heart is no different from having desire in your heart.”
The moonlight was cold, the courtyard silent.
In that instant, Jiandi Yue’s face seemed to age ten years.
Had he…truly been wrong all along?
The swordsmanship gained by abandoning his parents and beloved wife…was it really worth it?
Perhaps he had known the answer all along but refused to admit it.
More than seventy years had passed, his parents had long departed this world, and A’Rou had long since remarried. Unable to acknowledge his mistake, he could only mask his regret with obsession, fill the void with swordsmanship, and hide his warmth behind reclusiveness, trapped in a vicious cycle.
Now, abruptly awakened by Xiao Changyuan, he could only sigh with sorrow, lost in melancholy for the rest of his days.
Xiao Changyuan had a solid foundation and profound inner strength, so he learned swordsmanship quickly.
Three months flew by, and Xiao Changyuan had mastered nearly ninety percent of Jiandi Yue’s techniques.
Now, when the two sparred in the bamboo grove, they could fight for three days and nights without a clear victor.
Yun Pianpian hadn’t been idle these past three months either.
She studied medicine under Jiandi Yue, spending her days with Buling Buling in the garden, identifying medicinal herbs and learning about their properties.
She could now handle common ailments like colds and minor wounds, no longer would she need to travel all the way to the county town to seek a doctor.
Spring arrived, flowers bloomed, and all things came back to life.
It was time for them to leave Lingxu Mountain.
“You’re leaving?”
Jiandi Yue frowned as he looked at Xiao Changyuan and Yun Pianpian.
He had grown accustomed to Yun Pianpian’s cooking, to guiding Xiao Changyuan in martial arts each day, to the company of these two young people.
Yun Pianpian said, “Shitou and I still need to return to the village to farm…”
Jiandi Yue grumbled, “Is your farmland more important than my swordsmanship?”
“Of course not, Master,” Yun Pianpian replied. “But important things can only be prioritized, not abandoned. Farming is important to us too. Now that we’ve accomplished the most crucial task, learning swordsmanship, it’s time to return to our secondary work.”
Yun Pianpian had so much to do in spring, and she had already completed the first item on her list.
She couldn’t wait to start the second.
Hearing her words, Jiandi Yue’s aged eyes momentarily lost focus.
Important things can only be prioritized, not abandoned.
He had realized this truth far too late.
Jiandi Yue collected himself and looked at Yun Pianpian. “You two may go, but Buling must stay.”
If he couldn’t keep the older ones, he would at least keep the little one for company.
Yun Pianpian was taken aback. “Buling Buling?”
Jiandi Yue said with a righteous air, “Yesterday, it stole and ate my thousand, year ginseng. Now it must sell itself to repay the debt.”
Yun Pianpian said blankly, “Impossible. Buling Buling never steals food. It only eats what I feed it.”
Jiandi Yue returned to the bamboo hut and brought out a half-eaten thousand-year ginseng. On it were clearly the tooth marks of Buling Buling.
Yun Pianpian looked down at Buling Buling in disbelief.
“Buling Buling, did you bite this?”
Buling Buling lifted its dog head, its moist black eyes gazing watery at Yun Pianpian.
Over the past three months, it had been learning human language and could understand simple words, but more complex sentences were beyond its grasp.
It hadn't understood a single word the old man had just said, but Buling Buling understood Yun Pianpian's words.
Last night, the old man had indeed fed it half of the ginseng.
So it nodded honestly.
Yun Pianpian crouched down disappointedly and poked Buling Buling's furry head with her slender, delicate finger.
“You naughty dog, how could you steal food.”
Sensing Yun Pianpian's disappointment, Buling Buling grew uneasy. Did its owner want to eat ginseng too?
So Buling Buling suddenly darted out of the courtyard.
A moment later, it returned with a freshly dug thousand, year ginseng in its mouth.
Buling Buling placed the ginseng at Yun Pianpian's feet, lifted its head, and wagged its fluffy tail at her ingratiatingly.
Owner, eat ginseng.
Jiandi Yue exclaimed in shock, “Where did it find that thousand-year ginseng?”
Yun Pianpian was stunned. “Thousand-year ginseng?”
Jiandi Yue said, “Thousand-year ginseng is extremely rare, especially in autumn and winter when the roots shrink and are hard to find. Over all these years, I've only managed to find five pieces of thousand-year ginseng. I never expected this little fellow to find one so easily. This is truly remarkable.”
Yun Pianpian looked at Buling Buling. “Where did you find the ginseng?”
Buling Buling led the three of them into the bamboo grove. It sniffed with its dog nose, then dug at a patch of empty ground with its paw. In no time, it unearthed a ginseng root from the soil, picked it up in its mouth, and brought it to Yun Pianpian's feet.
It lifted its doggy head, wagging its tail happily at Yun Pianpian.
It turned out that Buling Buling had also learned how to identify medicinal herbs during this time.
Such a clever little dog, already working to redeem itself.
Yun Pianpian patted its head and handed the ginseng to Jiandi Yue.
“Master, these two ginseng roots should make up for the one Buling Buling ate, right.”