All Chapters of Beneath the Immortal Sky: A Heart Left Burning: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Spring came early that year, which felt like the mountain deciding to be generous for once, and the seventh peak responded to it the way the seventh peak responded to most good things — by getting louder.The plum trees bloomed two weeks ahead of schedule. The bridge started its wind music earlier in the mornings. Chen Bolin, who had been working through his cultivation development with the focused seriousness of a twelve-year-old who had decided that this was the most important thing in his life, began producing spiritual energy outputs that made the formation lines in the cultivation chamber flicker with sympathetic response.Shen Liying, the girl who had lied on her application, had been honest every day since and was advancing in a way that made Yanmei come and find Lihua twice in one week to report on it because she kept doing things they had not expected yet.Wei Mingzhu had stopped managing her anger and started actually feeling it, which was louder but more real, and which was

Shen Liying had been at the Reservoir for three months when Ruoxuan came to Lihua and said, 'I think Liying is in contact with someone at the Wuming subsidiary ground.'Lihua put down what she was holding. 'Tell me.''She receives letters. Not unusual — everyone receives letters. But she reads them in the cultivation chamber alone, not in the common areas, and yesterday I walked past and the door was not fully closed and I heard her crying.' Ruoxuan's expression was careful. 'I did not intend to hear. But I heard.''Did you hear what she was saying?''She was not saying anything. She was just crying. But the letter was in her hand and I saw the seal.'Lihua was quiet for a moment. 'You are not sure if this is something I need to know or something that is her private business.''Yes,' Ruoxuan said. 'That is exactly what I am not sure of.''You were right to tell me,' Lihua said. 'Let me think about it.'She thought about it for a day. Not because the decision was complicated but becaus

Zhu Yanran arrived two weeks after Elder Ren's visit and she was exactly as angry as he had warned.She was nineteen, tall, with short-cropped hair and the kind of face that had stopped trying to be pleasant and had settled into honest instead. She walked across the bridge like someone who had made a decision to come here and was not entirely sure they were glad about it but was committed anyway.Lihua met her at the door.Yanran looked at her for a moment. 'You are younger than I expected,' she said.'So are you,' Lihua said. 'Come in.'They sat in the study. Yanran did not do the looking-around thing that most people did when they arrived. She looked directly at Lihua and said, 'Elder Ren told me he apologized to you.''He said the sect owed me an apology. He could not give it on their behalf.''That is a careful distinction,' Yanran said.'Yes,' Lihua agreed. 'He is a careful man.''He spent four years telling me to push harder,' Yanran said. 'Every time I plateaued he said push ha

Nothing got sicker in the fourth month and there was nothing to be done about it except be with him.He was seven years old, which was old for a fox. The healer who came up the mountain at Yijun's request — a quiet woman who worked with cultivation-exposed animals — examined him with gentle hands and said what they already knew: his organs were slowing. Not failing yet. Slowing. He had time but not the kind that stretched forward indefinitely.After she left Yijun sat with Nothing for a long time in the east room where the morning light came in. He did not cultivate or work or do anything. He just sat.Lihua left him alone for an hour. Then she brought tea and sat in the chair across from him and set the tea on the table between them.He said, 'He found me in a trap.''I know,' she said. 'You told me, once.''He was trying to get his paw free. He had been there long enough that he had hurt himself trying.' He looked at the fox. 'I almost walked past. I told myself it was not my proble

The Reservoir turned one year old on the first day of the eighth month, and they celebrated by doing exactly what they did every other morning, which was wake up and work, which Ruoxuan pointed out was not a celebration at all and which Lihua said was the best possible celebration because it meant they were still going.Ruoxuan had opinions about this.'A celebration requires food that is not the normal food,' she said at breakfast. 'It requires at least one thing that is special and not just part of the regular day.''The pears are from the mountain market,' Bai Chenghan said. 'That is somewhat special.''Pears are not a celebration,' Ruoxuan said.'I agree with Ruoxuan,' Chen Bolin said, which was the first time he had taken a side in a household debate and which made several people look at him with the surprised pride of people watching someone come into themselves.'Also with Ruoxuan,' Mingzhu said.'I am neutral,' Yanran said, which was the most enthusiasm she had shown for any n