Song of Adolescence

Chapter 267 The Grand Ten-Year Dream

Since the day Tang Lian became the head disciple of Snow Moon City, he had experienced several battles to the brink of life or death. But, he had never experienced anything like what just happened. He felt death coming too quickly for him to react, leaving him without a slightest chance to resist.

He still had tens of hidden weapons with him.

He had only just made the first move with his fist.

But, he never had the chance to throw one of his hidden weapons, nor to make the second move of his fist techniques. He could not even call for backup. Lei Wujie and the others could not possibly arrive in time. And, even if they did arrive, Tang Lian would also make them run away immediately, and don’t look back!

This Mo Yi was not an immortal beyond the sea at all. He was truly a demon!

"Is this my end?" Tang Lian sighed softly and closed his eyes.

Mo Yi\'s long sleeves struck him on his chest.

Suddenly, a gust of wind from a fist came right at Mo Yi and struck him from right above his head!

The power from this fist move was tens of times more powerful than the move Tang Lian made earlier. Even Mo Yi couldn’t dismiss it lightly, so he immediately retracted his long sleeves and waved them lightly to dissipate the force of that fist.

Tang Lian stumbled onto the ground and looked around happily. He was deeply familiar with the force of that fist, and he shouted, "Shifu!"

"Is he awake?" Mo Yi murmured, a slight frown on his forehead. “Impossible. If he’s awake, he would have come looking for me earlier.”

Sure enough, after that gust of fist wind, no one appeared, and there was no other movement.

"Shifu, are you here?" Tang Lian looked all around him, but there was no response.

"Looks like he’s not awake yet. It must be because this person’s qi was so familiar to him that he instinctively protected him." Mo Yi smiled slightly, tipped his toes, and flashed right in front of Tang Lian.

Tang Lian didn\'t have time to react, and he was about to die under Mo Yi\'s long sleeves. But, that familiar qi appeared once again, and Tang Lian was dragged backwards violently by a force of qi, once again avoiding Mo Yi’s killing move. That qi was incredibly fierce and it quickly pulled Tang Lian into a nearby cave.

Mo Yi sighed. "Forget it." Then, with a wave of his long sleeves, he struck the rock above the entrance of the cave, and a large swath of crushed rocks fell onto the ground, sealing the entrance.

"After drinking Meng Po soup, he will never wake up. You pair of master and disciple can sleep and die together inside."

While Tang Lian was violently being pulled into the cave by that force of qi, he saw the entrance of the cave being buried under the crushed rocks brought down by Mo Yi. He immediately thought of how bad the situation was but on second thought, he wondered, Could shifu be inside the cave? He hurriedly looked around him and realised that all the cliff faces of the cave were lit with candles. In the middle, there was a large stone table and on it, was a wine jar and wine cup. The wine was already gone, drunk by someone, but the fragrance of the wine still lingered and the strong aroma of wine permeated throughout the cave. A man was slumped over the stone table. He was dressed in blue, and had two wisps of beautiful moustache. His eyes were closed tightly and he appeared to be dead drunk.

He was none other than the most famous name in the martial world, Wine Immortal Baili Dongjun.

"Shifu!" Tang Lian called out loudly as he hurried over.

But Baili Dongjun didn\'t even shift his eyelids. He remained deeply asleep.

"Shifu, wake up!" Tang Lian gently pushed Baili Dongjun a few times. When he still didn’t respond, Tang Lian grabbed the wine cup on the table. "What wine could you have been drinking that would cause you to fall asleep so deeply?" He picked up the wine cup and sniffed it lightly. He suddenly felt his consciousness drift for a moment and he almost fainted dead drunk. He quickly placed the wine cup down and recalled a legendary wine.

Meng Po soup.

Legend had it that when a person died and became a dead soul, he would walk over the Bridge of Forgetfulness and head for the afterlife. At the bridge, Granny Meng will hold the Meng Po soup in her hands, waiting there quietly for him to drink it. When he was alive, he suffered through all sorts of difficulties, and after drinking this bowl, like a sort of relief, he will have complete closure with his previous life.

But according to Baili Dongjun, Meng Po soup was the most fantastical wine in the world. It could make people fall into a grand dream. In the dream, all the things you had forgotten in the past could be remembered again, and those who had left could come back. You could immerse yourself in this perfect dream and continue dreaming until you die. There were people who woke up too. But, they would have forgotten everything that happened, and would start a whole new life when they woke up.

He had been missing the last ingredient in this wine, but it looked like he had found it here.

But, would he ever wake up from this grand dream?

"Who are you?"

"You don\'t know who I am? My father is Baili Chengfeng. My mother is Wen Luoyu. Everybody in this city knows who I am."

"You heard my question wrong. I asked, who are you?"

"Who am I? Are you asking my name? My name is Baili Dongjun."

"Dongjun? That\'s a nice name. Dongjun heard the rainfall sounding like beautiful clinkling, the blue carriage spent most of its time travelling the nine passes. He sends a letter to Heaven tens of thousands of miles away, the spring breeze has yet to arrive in the human world. Do you know this poem?"

"Never heard of it."

"This is a poem from our hometown. In our hometown, Dongjun refers to the god of spring. The god of spring represents hope."

"Is your hometown beautiful? It sounds beautiful just hearing this poem."

"It\'s really beautiful, but it\'s completely different from the poem. There is no spring there. Snow falls through all four seasons. Sometimes it’s indeed beautiful, but most of the time, it just makes people feel lonely. We look forward to the sunshine that spring will bring. At that time, we can return to our homeland."

"So, can I help you?"

"Silly boy, your name is Dongjun, but you’re not really the god of spring. I\'m leaving now. We’ll meet again if we have a chance to."

"How do I find you in the future?"

"That will not be easy as my movements are quite restricted. How about this? You will become someone very famous, and when the time comes, I will know where you are. I will come to you."

"Okay."

"Your father, Baili Chengfeng, and your mother, Wen Luoyu, are indeed very famous. But that is not enough. You have to become someone even more famous."

"Okay."

"I’m off, then. So, when you’ve become renowned under Heaven, we’ll meet again."

"Let’s have a drink of wine. Treat it as an oath."

"Aren’t you too young to be drinking wine?"

"Because wine is really delicious, ah."

Tang Lian saw Baili Dongjun\'s mouth curled into a small smile. He had been in his grand dream for ten days now, and he was finally dreaming of the beginning of the story.

That year, they met for the first time.

He was twelve years old and a notorious little overlord in Qiandong City. The entire city, from his grandfather, the Marquis of the Western Garrison, to the restaurants and hawkers on the street, were terrified of him.

And she was fifteen years old, and she shimmered like a pearl whenever she appeared in a city. Her beauty amazed everyone who saw her, but she had never spoken to anyone else before, until she met him.

At that time, it was still ten years before the reunion of the Wine Immortal who awed the martial world, and the daughter of the Emperor of Northern Que.

Ten years later, in Snow Moon City when the sky was filled with camellia, they met again.

The grand dream was another ten years.

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