Chapter 4: Broken Promise

Qingyun Sect, Coldjade Peak.

The chill deep within the ice lake grew heavier with each passing day. Qin Jia sat cross-legged upon the Coldjade Platform at the center of the lake, a faint white mist coiling around her. Ice-attribute spiritual energy continuously gathered into her body, and she could vaguely sense that she had touched an invisible barrier.

Perfected Person Binghua stood by the lake and watched for a long while before finally speaking.

“Your cultivation can no longer be suppressed.”

Qin Jia opened her eyes.

“Master, am I about to break through?”

“Yes.”

Perfected Person Binghua raised a hand, and a streak of spiritual light entered the center of Qin Jia’s brow.

“Your cultivation has advanced too quickly, and the spiritual power within your body has yet to fully solidify. During this retreat, you must not only break through to the next realm but also reorganize the spiritual energy flowing through your meridians.”

“It may take as little as two or three years, or as long as several decades.”

Qin Jia had been beaming with joy, but the smile on her face froze at those last words.

“Several decades?”

She counted on her fingers, then suddenly sprang to her feet atop the Coldjade Platform.

“No!”

“I still have to go home this year.”

Perfected Person Binghua shot her a glance.

“An opportunity to break through may vanish in an instant. If you return to the mortal world and then come back, you may miss this chance entirely.”

Qin Jia lowered her head and looked at the Heartbond Pendant at her chest. The pale-green crescent-shaped jade pendant glimmered faintly. After hesitating for a long while, she finally asked, “Then can I send a message to my family first?”

“You may.”

Perfected Person Binghua did not stop her.

“Find ​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌‍a disciple who will be traveling to Neighboring Immortal City soon and have him deliver a letter for you.”

With permission granted, Qin Jia immediately hurried down Coldjade Peak. She did not know many people within the sect. Senior Sister Chen Su was away on a sect mission and would not be returning anytime soon. Most of the other disciples had never been to Neighboring Immortal City. After thinking it over, Qin Jia decided that Senior Brother Xu An was the most suitable person.

Xu An was an inner disciple who often escorted supplies for the sect in exchange for contribution points, traveling back and forth between its various branches. Like Qin Jia, he had once been brought back from the mortal world, so they had quite a bit in common. However, as cultivators, both of them were busy with their own affairs, and they were not particularly close. A few days earlier, he had mentioned that he would soon be passing through Neighboring Immortal City.

When Qin Jia found him, he was outside the Teleportation Hall, counting jade slips.

“Senior Brother Xu!”

Xu An turned around. When he saw her, a smile quickly spread across his face.

“What brings you here, Junior Sister?”

Qin Jia took a communication jade slip from her storage pouch and solemnly held it out to him.

“Are you going to Neighboring Immortal City?”

“I leave tomorrow.”

“Then could you help me deliver this to my family?”

Worried that he might not be able to find them, Qin Jia carefully explained, “They live at the foot of the mountains west of Neighboring Immortal City. There are three wooden houses there, with a large patch of plants growing behind them.”

“My father’s name is Qin Ye, and my sister’s name is Qin Zhen. You should be able to find them if you ask around nearby.”

Xu An accepted the jade slip.

“What did you write inside?”

“I told them that I’m going into seclusion to break through, and that I may not be able to return for the next few years. I won’t be able to leave freely while I’m in seclusion, and I don’t know when I’ll emerge. You must tell them that I haven’t run into any danger and that they shouldn’t worry.”

After thinking for a moment, she took another jade box from her storage pouch.

“This is for my sister as well. There are some spirit seeds inside that I found recently.”

Xu An accepted both the jade slip and the jade box.

“It’s nothing, Junior Sister. Don’t worry. Once I reach Neighboring Immortal City, I’ll deliver them personally.”

Only then did Qin Jia relax.

“Thank you, Senior Brother.”

With that, she took out another jade box and handed it to Xu An.

“This is a small token of my appreciation. I’m sorry to trouble you, Senior Brother.”

Xu An took the box and smiled. “There’s really no need for this.”

The next day, Qin Jia entered the secluded cultivation chamber deep within Coldjade Peak. After the stone door closed, Perfected Person Binghua personally activated the formation outside the chamber. Until Qin Jia successfully completed her breakthrough, no one would be able to disturb her.

That same day, Xu An departed Qingyun Sect with the sect’s convoy. However, the communication jade slip was ultimately never delivered to the Qin family, and the jade box containing the spirit seeds never found its way into Qin Zhen’s hands.

Outside Neighboring Immortal City, summer in the mountains seemed especially long. When the time of year for Qin Jia’s annual homecoming arrived, the Qin family had tidied the house early. Liu Zhen made all the snacks her daughter used to enjoy, while Qin Ye and Qin Wen did not go into the mountains for several days in a row. They simply waited at the foot of the mountain, glancing up at the sky from time to time.

The Heartbond Pendant at Qin Zhen’s chest continued to glow. They waited from dawn until sunset, but the pendant never changed.

On the first day, the Qin family was not overly worried. Perhaps something had delayed her for a day or two—the affairs of an immortal sect were surely numerous. But after three days, Qin Jia still had not appeared. After ten days, the sky remained empty of the familiar streak of sword light.

Liu Zhen could no longer sit still. Qin Ye and Qin Wen took Qin Zhen into Neighboring Immortal City, where they asked around outside the teleportation array. The people guarding the array had never heard of Qin Jia, and they certainly were not going to contact Qingyun Sect on behalf of a few mortals.

Qin Ye tried asking people to approach the cultivators entering and leaving the teleportation array, but those cultivators were always in a hurry.

Some ignored them completely. Others complained that they were in the way. A few merely left them with a single remark:

“It’s perfectly normal for a disciple of an immortal sect to spend decades in seclusion or traveling.”

The Qin family could only return home in disappointment.

A month passed, and Qin Jia still had not come back. Although the light on the Heartbond Pendant had weakened, it had never gone out, and no cracks had appeared across the surface of the jade. This meant that Qin Jia was still alive.

Qin Huai could only console everyone.

“Perhaps Jiajia is in seclusion. It’s not unusual for cultivators to spend several months cultivating.”

The Qin family accepted this explanation and continued to wait.

They waited for an entire year.

When the appointed day arrived the following year, the Qin family once again went into the city and stood outside the teleportation array for seven full days. Qin Jia still did not appear.

In the third year, they paid a merchant who often did business with cultivators to inquire about Qingyun Sect.

The merchant took their silver, but returned with only one vague response:

“Everything is as usual at Qingyun Sect.”

As for where Qin Jia was, whether she was in seclusion, or when she might emerge, outsiders had no way of knowing.

It was not that the Qin family had never tried to find her.

Over the years, whenever they heard that a cultivator had entered Neighboring Immortal City, they would find a way to approach and ask about her. They had even asked others to deliver letters to Qingyun Sect, but they never received a response.

They had done nearly everything they could. The only proof that Qin Jia was still alive was the thin thread of azure light on Qin Zhen’s chest, which had never once gone out.

At the same time, the Qin family’s life was quietly changing as well.

After the first harvest of spirit rice, Qin Zhen kept most of it as seed. As she grew increasingly familiar with that mysterious power, the fields behind the wooden house gradually expanded.

At first, there had only been a few plots of land. Later, there was one mu, then two. Eventually, even the slopes below the mountain were cultivated into spirit fields. Though there was no spiritual energy in the area, the spirit rice and spirit vegetables continued to grow under Qin Zhen’s care.

Every day, the Qin family ate some of them.

One year, two years, three years...

The power within the spirit food gradually seeped into their flesh and meridians. Qin Huai’s once-graying hair slowly returned to its original black, while the hidden injuries Qin Ye and Qin Wen had sustained in their youth healed one after another. Liu Zhen and Wang Sumei’s health also became far better than before.

Although they had no spiritual roots and still could not absorb spiritual energy on their own, their bodies were no longer those of ordinary mortals. The changes in Qin Zhen were especially apparent. As the years passed, her sensitivity to spirit plants grew increasingly acute.

All these years, she had never stopped studying her ability. Little by little, she came to realize that she might truly be capable of entering that place mortals could never reach.

In the fifth year, Qin Jia still had not returned. On the night her expected return date passed, the Qin family gathered around the table, yet no one spoke for a long while. Qin Zhen’s Heartlink Pendant lay on the table. The jade pendant still glowed, but that faint light could only prove that Qin Jia was still alive.

“I’m going to the cultivation world to find her.”

Qin Ye finally broke the silence.

“I’m Jiajia’s father. I can’t keep waiting like this.”

“Father, you can’t go.”

Qin Zhen immediately shook her head.

“We don’t know what the cultivation world is like. Father, you’re too straightforward. If you run into someone with ill intentions, it would be easy for them to trick you into revealing things about our family.”

Qin Ye frowned.

“That still doesn’t mean I can let a young woman like you take such a risk.”

“I’m not going deep into the cultivation world right away.”

Qin Zhen looked toward the depths of the forest.

“I’ll only try to see whether I can cross the barrier.”

The Qin family had hunted in the nearby mountains for years and had long since discovered an invisible barrier deep within the forest. The rocks and trees beyond it were clearly visible, yet whenever an ordinary person approached, they would be stopped by an unseen force. They had always suspected that this was the boundary between the mortal realm and the cultivation world.

In the past, none of the Qin family had dared to approach it for real. But things were different now. Five years of nourishment from spirit food had gradually allowed their meridians to adapt to spiritual energy. Qin Zhen could even activate the low-grade sword Qin Jia had left behind. She might not be able to cultivate, but that did not necessarily mean she could not enter the cultivation world.

Qin Huai remained silent for a long time before finally asking, “What will you do if you’re able to cross over?”

“I won’t go far. First, I’ll investigate the area around the barrier and find somewhere inhabited. Then I’ll think of a way to ask about the Qingyun Sect. If I can’t get in, I’ll return immediately. If I can, then at least it will prove that we still have a way to find Jiajia.”

Silence once again fell over the room. They had already waited five years. If they continued to stay here, all they could do was guard the faint glimmer on the pendant—they could accomplish nothing else.

At last, Qin Huai slowly closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh.

“Let Zhenzhen go and try, but she may only move around near the barrier. If she notices anything wrong, she must return immediately.”

On the day of her departure, the sky was still pale with dawn. Qin Zhen changed into a coarse cloth outfit that was convenient for traveling, strapped the long sword her sister had left behind to her back, and hid a short knife at her waist. Her backpack contained ten pounds of ordinary rice, several spirit vegetables, and a small amount of dried spirit-rice seeds.

The ordinary food would help conceal her identity. As for the spirit plants, they were the only thing she could rely on in the unfamiliar cultivation world.

Before she left, Liu Zhen straightened her collar.

“Zhenzhen, whether you find Jiajia or not, don’t push yourself.”

Qin Ye tried several times to speak, but in the end, he merely placed a heavy hand on his daughter’s shoulder.

Qin Zhen nodded. “I know.”

She closed her fingers around the Heartlink Pendant at her chest, which still gave off a faint glow, then turned and walked into the forest.