Chapter 857
Hot Springs and Thunder Movie
General Thunder ignored her teasing, his purple eyes still fixed on Su Chen, his silent persistence carrying more weight than any words.
Ayaka Kamisato stared blankly at the two heavyweight figures who had suddenly appeared and both had a past connection with Su Chen. She gripped her fan tightly, but tried her best to maintain the composure and calmness of Princess Egret.
"You two... are you acquainted with Mr. Su before?"
Yae no Miko smiled, but her gaze lingered meaningfully on Su Chen's face: "An old acquaintance? Hmm... how would you define that, Su Chen?"
She tilted her head, her tone carrying a mischievousness that only the two of them could understand, a mischievousness that transcended the long passage of time.
"Is it the 'old acquaintance' who accompanied me to climb trees, catch fish, and steal bird eggs? Or the 'old acquaintance' who caused me to be punished by the shrine elder to copy scriptures for half a month? Or perhaps—"
“Divine Child,” General Thunder suddenly spoke, his tone calm but tinged with a subtle displeasure, “Enough is enough.”
"Oh?" Yae no Miko's eyes lit up, and she snapped her folding fan shut. She turned to her god with interest. "General, are you... protecting me? Or do you have some 'old acquaintance' story that I don't know about, and you want to share it with me?"
General Thunder paused for a moment. A faint, almost imperceptible blush flashed in his purple eyes.
“…Hot spring.” She uttered the two words very softly.
Yae no Miko was stunned for a moment, and then a crack finally appeared in his usual calm and playful demeanor.
Her eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at Su Chen, then at her own deity, her voice unusually high: "A hot spring?! You two were soaking in a hot spring together?! When?! How come I didn't know?!"
Ayaka Kamisato's face, starting from her ears, gradually turned crimson.
She understood perfectly well what "hot spring" meant.
The "marriage agreement" issue hasn't been resolved yet, and now there's the "hot spring" issue?
Her fiancé... and Inazuma's Raiden General, bathed in a hot spring together?
Princess Egret's impeccably well-mannered and dignified demeanor finally revealed a visible crack.
What truly caused the situation to spiral out of control was the arrival of a third voice joining the fray.
"He... taught me too."
Everyone turned to look in the direction of the sound. In the shadows of the corridor, a silver-haired, white-robed immortal disciple had been standing there for an unknown amount of time.
Shen He's face remained as cold as ice and snow, but his hands...
Those hands that had kept people at arm's length and had never touched anyone on their own initiative.
He was gripping his sleeve tightly, his knuckles turning white.
She stepped out and stood slightly behind and to the side of Su Chen, in a position that, while not overstepping boundaries, was unmistakably one of her own.
His icy blue eyes swept over the three women present, without hostility, only with an awkward yet stubborn solemnity, as if he were trying to defend his territory for the first time.
“Jueyunjian,” Shen He said, her voice as clear and bright as she was, yet with a slight, almost imperceptible tremor. “He stayed with me. For a long time.”
She didn't say "how long" or "what she would accompany," but the unspoken bond, the determination of a celestial disciple to abandon her solitary cultivation and willingly enter the mortal world, carried more weight than any explanation.
Ayaka Kamisato looked at her, then at General Raiden, then at Yae no Miko, and finally her gaze returned to Su Chen's face.
The emotions in those violet-blue eyes shifted from shock to bewilderment, from bewilderment to resentment, finally coalescing into a long-suppressed outpouring, like a dam bursting—
"no!"
For the first time in her life, Princess Egret lost her composure in front of others.
Her voice rose, carrying the crispness unique to young girls, and an almost willful urgency to defend her treasure.
"When...when did you meet him? I have no idea!!" She turned to Yae no Miko, then to Raiden General, nearly snapping her fan in her hand. "The engagement is mine! I've been engaged to him for twelve years..."
She paused, seemingly realizing that "twelve years ago" wasn't exactly an advantage in this situation. After all, the connection between those two and Su Chen's "old acquaintances" clearly went far beyond twelve years.
Then she turned to Shen He, her eyes slightly red, her voice a complex mix of righteous indignation and underlying weakness: "And you! You're clearly a celestial being from Liyue, how...how..."
Shen He looked at her, and for the first time, his usually empty eyes showed such a clear emotional fluctuation.
She did not answer Ayaka Kamisato's question, but simply reached out and gently grasped Su Chen's sleeve.
That movement, awkward and clumsy, carried a silent stubbornness that seemed to assert sovereignty.
Then Yura grabbed the other side.
Ningguang watched this scene with a mocking look.
Ayaka Kamisato's eyes were completely red.
"I...I've waited a long time too." Her voice lowered, a faint nasal tone tinged with the girl's suppressed tears. "I'm not here to steal anything, I just...I just want to confirm whether what he said still counts..."
Yae no Miko's hand, which was waving a fan, paused.
She looked at Ayaka Kamisato's reddened eyes, then at Shin-ho's trembling hands clutching Su Chen's sleeve, and at Ning-kwang, who made her feel very uncomfortable, as if she had encountered someone of her own kind...
Finally, their gaze returned to Su Chen's face.
The palace chief, who usually enjoyed teasing others, fell silent, a rare occurrence for him.
General Thunder frowned slightly as he looked at the scene before him.
She wasn't good at handling such situations.
Emotional entanglements, a young girl's tears, and a silent struggle.
All she knew was that the person who had stood silently opposite her in the hot spring, listening to her pour out her centuries of loneliness, was now being needed by many people in different ways, with the same deep need.
And she herself was one of them.
She lowered her eyes, neither backing down nor knowing how to move forward.
The backyard of the Rebirth Hall has never been so crowded, nor so noisy.
Zhongli held the cup of tea that had gone cold, gazing at the scene before him that could only be described as a "battlefield," his handsome face maintaining the composure cultivated over a thousand years, unmoved by wind or rain.
Only a very faint sigh, almost drowned out by the noise, revealed the complex emotions deep within the heart of this retired deity.
He faked his death to escape, relinquished his divine position, and sought nothing more than to wander the mortal world, sip tea and listen to opera, and observe the new chapter of the Liyue era of human rule as a mortal.
now.
His shrine of rebirth has become a mediation site for cross-regional "marriage disputes." His colleagues and retainers are being surrounded by the Thunder God, the High Priestess, the daughter of the Shaman from Inazuma, and local Liyue disciples, all demanding an explanation.
As for himself, the Geo Archon who once ruled Liyue for thousands of years, he could only sit in a corner, a nobody, a mere background figure drinking tea.
Ironically, he had brewed the tea himself.
Zhongli gazed at the bustling courtyard, at the women who were each sticking to their own opinions and refusing to back down, and at Su Chen, who was surrounded and whose expression was complex yet vaguely revealed a sense of "I knew it was going to happen" helplessness. He slowly put down his teacup.
He suddenly missed the tranquil sea at Guyun Pavilion.
I'd also like to ask this Su guest—how much "debt" do you still owe on the timeline, and when do you plan to settle it all?
Is this Hall of Rebirth still my secluded retreat for "leisurely wandering in the mortal world"?
No one could answer him.
As the sun set and dusk settled, the commotion at the Hall of Rebirth still hadn't subsided.
Walnut suddenly appeared from somewhere, holding a snack that someone had left behind, and watched with great interest.
Xingqiu's fan covered half of his face, revealing only a pair of incredibly bright eyes that seemed to say, "This material is enough to write three storybooks."
Qi Qi, clutching her notebook, stared blankly at everything, not understanding why everyone was making such a racket. Su Chen seized the opportunity to slip away.
First, head to the time vortex.
This time, I got to know and meet Lei's movies.
That was in a secluded valley deep within Shadow Mountain, a place rarely visited by even the Heavenly Dog.
Su Chen was "brought" here by Ying.
At that time, he had just escaped from a period of turbulence and had not yet determined his location when he was swept away by a bolt of lightning and landed in a steaming warm mist.
All around are dark basalt rocks, mottled with moss. A natural hot spring is nestled at the bottom of the valley, its clear water shimmering with a pale blue glow, like melting moonlight.
"This place... is where I occasionally spent time alone when I was still a 'shadow'."
The purple-haired martial god stood by the hot spring, his back to him, his voice as calm as still water, revealing no emotion.
She was still wearing that elaborate furisode kimono, with faint thunder patterns on the collar and sleeves, which made her appear overly solemn and overly lonely in this quiet valley.
“Nobody knows.” She paused, without turning around, “You’re the first.”
Su Chen looked at her taut back, its lines smooth yet stiff, like a bowstring ready for battle.
He didn't ask why he had brought him here. He simply found a flat rock to sit on, minimized his power of time, and let his own aura blend into the misty world.
a long time.
"...You don't ask me why." Ying's voice lowered a few decibels, more like a statement than a question.
"You will speak when you want to."
silence.
The hot spring water bubbled and gurgled, making the silence seem even longer.
“…I once thought eternity was stillness.” She spoke slowly, her back to him, so his expression was not visible. “To freeze everything in the most perfect moment is to have no loss, no change, no…loneliness.”
She paused, raised her hand as if to touch the rising mist in front of her, but stopped in mid-air.
"But in these hundred years, I have been here, the spring water is still warm, the moss is still green. My 'eternity' remains unchanged, but I am changing."
She finally turned around, her purple eyes looking at him through the hazy steam. The sharpness of the God of War had faded from her gaze, revealing a faint bewilderment that had accumulated over a century.
“I’m learning… what it means to ‘allow change within constancy’,” she said, her voice as soft as falling snow. “Very slowly. Very clumsily.”
“But you’re still learning.” Su Chen looked at her, without pity, only calmly stating, “That’s enough.”
Ying lowered her eyes, and those usually resolute purple pupils were now filled with a gentle light that had nothing to do with moisture.
“Warm water…you need to remove your armor,” she said, trying to maintain her authority, but unable to hide the barely perceptible hesitation in her voice. “You…turn around.”
Su Chen did as instructed.
Behind me came the soft rustling of fabric, the sound of the intricate layers of a kimono being untied one by one, the subtle friction of a sash slipping off, and the delicate tinkling of hair ornaments being removed.
The sounds were amplified infinitely in the silent valley, each one like a knock on the heart.
"Okay."
He turned around.
The shadow had already been submerged in the hot spring, leaving only the shoulders and neck floating on the surface.
Her long hair, now free of her crown and hairpins, spread out like dark purple seaweed on the moonlit water. A few strands of wet hair clung to her cheeks, softening her usually stern features and making her seem unlike a martial god.
In the misty haze, her face lost its divinity and majesty, revealing a true face beneath that was too young, even somewhat childish.
She lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes glistening with tiny water droplets, and dared not look at him.
Su Chen took off his coat, stepped into the warm bath, and sat down on the opposite side.
The water surfaces were only a few feet apart, and the mist blurred their outlines, but made the sense of their existence in the same space even clearer.
“…Over the past hundred years,” Shadow suddenly spoke, her gaze still fixed on the water, “I have often wondered what it would have been like if you had been in this ‘eternity’ back then.”
Su Chen did not respond, but listened quietly.
"Will you discuss philosophy with me, or remain silent? Will you grow weary of this unchanging scenery, or..." She paused, her voice barely audible, "...would you be willing to stay?"
“I left it,” Su Chen said, “on a timeline you don’t know about.”
Ying suddenly looked up, and water droplets slid down her long eyelashes like morning dew falling into a lake.
“I’ve been with you, I’ve taught you, and you heard me say these things in the hot spring.” Su Chen looked at her, calmly recounting old memories. “Every time, you’ve been learning to ‘allow change within constancy.’ Every time, you’ve been making progress, you just don’t know it yourself.”
Ying stared at him blankly, something deep in her purple eyes slowly melting, like the first warmth of spring touching the frozen earth.
“…You’ve seen many versions of me,” she said, her voice slightly hoarse. “Each one was clumsy.”
“Everyone worked very hard,” Su Chen corrected. “And in the end, each of them became a better version of themselves.”
He reached out and, across the misty water, very lightly and tentatively touched the strand of wet hair clinging to her cheek.
The shadow did not hide.
She even turned her head slightly, bringing that strand of hair closer to his fingertips, as if entrusting something precious to someone.
Those eyes, which had always been filled with only lightning and determination, were now brimming with steam, the warmth of the hot spring, and a newborn softness that she herself had not yet named.
“Next time,” she said, her voice so soft it was almost drowned out by the sound of water, “it won’t have to wait a hundred years.”
Su Chen withdrew his hand, a very faint smile curving his lips.
"it is good."
The hot spring water was still bubbling, and the night fog was getting thicker.
The valley was silent, except for the two heartbeats that gradually resonated at the same frequency in the stillness of the lightning.
Come here.
He and Ying had a wonderful hot spring experience together.
The true "reunion" with Yae no Miko occurred on the third day after Su Chen returned to the Hall of Rebirth.
At that moment, he was sitting alone in the backyard, sorting through those intertwined and complicated memories of time.
A familiar fragrance, carrying the scent of fox plum blossoms and ancient shrines, swept by. A woman with pink hair and fox ears had already gracefully taken her seat opposite him, her face half-hidden by a folding fan, and the beauty mark at the corner of her eye slightly upturned with a smile.
Taking advantage of the others' absence, he immediately seized the opportunity to jump out.
For this opportunity to be alone together.
get ready.
"Oh dear, look who this is." (End of Chapter)