Poem Competition
Fairy Tian Lu praises Lun Fei’s poem. She jokes that its closing line about a dream beauty must mean her, easing the mood. Luo Mu Zi then recites a poem, five words to a line, on a Gu Immortal’s climb toward immortality, its danger, and its buried darkness, without ever claiming it as his own creation. It closes on an image of the five regions and nine heavens sustained on one breath. The poem immediately moves the Gu Immortals present. Qiao Si Liu privately suspects he stole the work, since it does not match his character, but says nothing to expose him. ch. 1319
Fang Yuan recognizes the poem as Demon Immortal Qi Jue’s Five Words Poem and is startled. In his first life, Qi Jue’s grotto-heaven was not exposed until the five regions chaotic war. Dream realms manifested one after another. Regional walls disappeared, and the five regions became one. The upheaval disturbed heaven and earth qi, and many hidden blessed lands and grotto-heavens surfaced, Qi Jue’s among them. ch. 1319
Qi Jue was an Olden Antiquity Era rank eight. He fought Limitless Demon Venerable three times, to a win, a draw and a loss. The last battle lasted nine days and nights, after Limitless Demon Venerable had already advanced to rank nine. Limitless Demon Venerable spared him and credited him with driving his own cultivation. Qi Jue’s grotto-heaven holds the Demon Immortal’s true inheritance and endures from his death to the present. Qi Jue himself ranked on the same level as Sword Immortal Bo Qing, with Hei Fan paling in comparison to him. ch. 1319
Fang Yuan cannot explain how Luo Mu Zi would know a poem engraved inside a grotto-heaven not yet due to surface. He wonders whether Luo Mu Zi has already entered it. Intense killing intent rises in him again, weighing whether killing Luo Mu Zi would win him Qi Jue’s true inheritance. ch. 1319
Luo Mu Zi and Lun Fei press Fang Yuan to recite next. Lun Fei adds that he himself cannot compare to Wu Yi Hai’s scholarly attainment. Qiao Si Liu and Fairy Tian Lu join in urging him, Qiao Si Liu this time declining to shield him. Fang Yuan judges his rivals not worth the effort of copying one of the many famous poems he holds in memory. He reads Qiao Si Liu’s scheme of using two suitors to provoke his pursuit of her. It might have worked on the real Wu Yi Hai, but it leaves him unmoved. ch. 1319
He recites a mock verse comparing the sea to water, a horse to its four legs, and a beauty to her eyes and mouth. The pavilion falls into stunned silence, and the Gu Immortals unanimously denounce it inwardly as an utter boor’s ruin of the event. Fang Yuan asks Qiao Si Liu whether she is satisfied, and Luo Mu Zi and Lun Fei rage inwardly at the question while showing nothing on the surface. She forces a laugh, calling the poem special and admitting it is actually funny, sparing him publicly. Luo Mu Zi and Lun Fei are left silent. They cannot voice the fury they must suppress. ch. 1319
