“The legend of Mt. Firmament’s Secret of Immortality? What’s that?”

Lucian raised his hand. “Rover was still fast asleep this morning, so of course she wouldn’t know.”

Rover protested, “Hey! Don’t make me sound like Abby!”

Abby, hearing his name, popped out of the Tacet Mark with a huff. “What’s that supposed to mean? Do I really sleep that much?”

Lucian pondered briefly. “That might be a bit unfair. Besides sleeping, Abby also really likes to eat.”

Rover nodded in agreement. “Exactly. So I’m nothing like Abby.”

Abby stomped his feet in frustration. “You’re making me so mad! I’ll… I’ll…”

Lucian raised an eyebrow. “You’ll what?”

Faced with their teasing, Abby pouted and turned away. “I’m going back to sleep!”

Changli: “…”

Rover: “Abby’s so full of energy!”

Lucian smiled. “Go ahead. As the saying goes, no matter how upset you are, a good nap will fix everything.”

Changli chuckled. “What a peculiar Echo… I wonder what its origins are.”

Rover waved a hand dismissively. “Just a little pet of ours.”

Abby, still awake inside the Tacet Mark: “…”

Changli composed herself. “Let’s return to the main topic.”

“The story I’m about to tell differs from what Lucian heard in Hongzhen. Moreover, it’s also the purpose of our journey here.”

Rover leaned in curiously. “Go on.”

Changli cleared her throat and began, “A century ago, a cultivator ventured to Mt. Firmament and encountered a mysterious stranger. They traveled together, becoming unlikely friends, often playing board games in the mountains…”

Before she could finish, Lucian suddenly raised a hand. “Hold on!”

Changli looked at him in confusion. Lucian narrowed his eyes, his brilliant mind already piecing together the truth. “This ‘mysterious stranger’ you speak of… wouldn’t happen to be Rover, would it?”

Rover: “?”

She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. No wonder Changli had invited her into the mountains—it was related to her. No wonder the Go board had felt vaguely familiar earlier…

Changli nodded slightly. “Whether it’s true remains to be verified. But based on the clues I’ve gathered, there’s a strong connection to Rover. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have invited you here.”

She walked to the edge of the pavilion, gazing toward the towering Loong’s Crest, and continued, “Even a lost woodcutter who stumbled upon this place was drawn to the game, so absorbed that he didn’t notice the rope tying his bamboo basket had snapped. In his panic, he accidentally disturbed the board.”

“Yet, the stranger wasn’t angered by the ruined game. Instead, they poured the woodcutter a cup of tea, escorted him down the mountain, and shielded him from the temporal disturbances. After that, the stranger vanished without a trace.”

Lucian gasped dramatically. “In that case, the stranger couldn’t possibly be Rover!”

Changli turned to him, puzzled. “Why do you say that?”

Lucian explained, “Think about it. Someone who remains completely calm after their game is ruined? That doesn’t sound like Rover at all.”

“A stranger with stable emotions? Sounds like someone worth talking to!”

Rover promptly bonked him on the head. “Talk about what?!”

Lucian grinned, rubbing the sore spot. “See? I was absolutely right!”

Changli covered her mouth, laughing. “Rover’s emotions do seem… rather unstable.”

Rover’s cool, delicate fingers tightened around Lucian’s neck as she said flatly, “You’re mistaken. I’m only emotionally unstable around Lucian.”

“To be precise, it only happens when Lucian annoys me.”

Lucian’s lips twitched. “Rover, are you mad?”

Rover replied coldly, “No. My emotions are perfectly stable.”

Lucian: “…”

Changli: “…”

Rover’s Speaker: “All I want now is to kiss your stubborn lips~~~”

Rover: “This damn speaker needs to be smashed.”

She grabbed Lucian by the collar, flung him onto a chair, then plopped herself onto his lap, pulling his arms around her slender waist.

Lucian swallowed hard, his breath tickling her ear. “Rover… I didn’t expect you to be so forward…”

“But if you squeeze any tighter, we won’t be able to have mischievous kids like Abby in the future…”

Rover’s earlobes flushed red—whether from his whispering or his words, it was hard to tell.

She loosened her grip slightly. “If we have kids, they should be well-behaved like Verina. Another Abby would be chaos.”

Lucian kissed her smooth back in agreement.

Rover coughed lightly. “Ahem… Anyway, Changli, please continue.”

Changli: “…”

She scratched her head, suddenly questioning whether inviting both of them had been the right decision.

“…As time passed, the cultivator became a revered hermit. In his twilight years, he returned to Mt. Firmament and finally reunited with the stranger.”

“They played one last game in the mountains. It’s said the stranger hid a secret technique within that final match.”

Lucian frowned. “If the stranger was Rover, then who was the cultivator?”

A hint of nostalgia flickered in Changli’s eyes. “That cultivator… was my master.”

Lucian perked up. “Your master? Could it be the legendary Master Xuanmiao?”

Changli nodded. “It seems you’ve heard of him. Yes, that’s right.”

Rover, too, had heard the folk tales during her time in Jinzhou. “So there’s some truth to those rumors after all…”

Lucian pressed further. “Then is the game in the story the very one before us?”

Changli gazed at the interlaced black and white stones and smiled. “Yes, and no. This is a reconstruction based on records from the Grand Library… an unfinished game.”

“Quite different from the legends you’ve heard, isn’t it? But the core remains similar. Storytellers often embellish tales with fantastical elements.”

“The original truth has been lost to time, distorted through retellings—as is the fate of most ancient legends.”

Lucian mused, “Finding the truth between myth and reality is the essence of such stories.”

Changli’s eyes gleamed with appreciation. “You have keen insight, Mr. Lucian.”

“Even if the legends can no longer be verified, this game did exist. The surviving records contain one cryptic line—’This game may hold the key to quelling the temporal chaos.'”

Rover frowned. “What does that mean? Haven’t we already resolved the temporal disturbances?”

Changli chuckled softly. “Don’t be hasty. As far as I know, only the Sentinel at the height of its power could fully control the flow of time—and for humans, such an ability might well be considered a ‘Secret of Immortality.'”

…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep