Nanwu Mountain’s peak was shadowed by a complex seal. At the center of its mist-covered lake, the fierce beast steadily materializing sent out a roar, and the cultivators around it collectively did all they could to resist, astonishment and helplessness on their faces. Even if they had intended to seize the secret treasure earlier, now, their minds had gone numb seeing this scene.
How could they possibly seize……What on earth was this fierce beast!?
The cultivators, having never before experienced such oppression, were deterred and dared not gaze upward. Many cultivators seemed to be trapped in waking nightmares, heading towards the lake uncontrollably. The only figure in the group who could still keep their senses was the Su family’s young master. The spirit bead in his hand, which he had used to guide the way, emitted a weak radiance in resistance to the pressure from the misty lake. But it wasn’t long before cracks appeared on the spirit bead.
“Control yourselves! Don’t go there!” Su Yi’s expression suddenly turned extremely ugly. The spirit bead was a protective dharmic tool handed to him by the Cangxue Sect’s head. It could track the spiritual energy of all things to guide the way, and it could also protect him from three full-force attacks from a Deity Transformation cultivator. Here and now, the spirit bead actually cracked before this fierce beast…The cultivation of this fierce beast’s phantom was already far beyond the scope they could handle.
They had no way to resist, and they had no way to withstand this fierce beast’s deterrent force.
It was swifter and more violent than all the Nascent Soul fierce evil spirits they had seen before it. It would kill them.
Up above, Zhang Fugui felt himself caught between life and death amid the pressure, and he could only desperately lean towards the Daoist Master. Only once he was fully hidden behind Su Yu did he dare look up at the figure holding onto the rocks to stand. He could see Su Yu’s arms were covered in bloody cuts from the chill winds, yet even so, Su Yu was still standing.
He was about to speak up amid the gales to remind Su Yu, but as he opened his mouth, he saw the youth’s eyes—
Those eyes were more terrifying than what Zhang Fugui had seen before. Golden threads, glowing an unsettling crimson, swam around the Daoist Master’s eyes like snakes. In that instant, Zhang Fugui felt like those eyes had come alive; changeful, eerie, and disturbing.
When no one was paying attention, the youth’s wounds cut by the yin winds bled.
A drop of blood dripped into the Misty River, and was carried downstream by the rapids.
The bearer of the eyes seemed oblivious. His organs were suffering from the chill wind’s jolt. The eye totem entrenched within his dantian spun wildly, and an untold amount of yin qi rushed into his body. His swollen meridians made painful screams, but Su Yu only felt hunger. The faster the totem in his dantian revolved, the more obvious his hunger became.
Su Yu didn’t know what the fierce beast Zhang Fugui saw was like. In his eyes, the fierce beast was essentially a condensed inky mass of qi, like a huge stain on the white jade. Below the fierce beast, there was an even more dense inky qi, brimming with a fatal temptation.
‘Eat it!’
‘Live on!’
‘Go. Go down and eat it!’
Su Yu’s hunger, which had reached its peak, almost urged him to act. He looked as though he were staring at a feast. His uncanny eyes scanned around, trying to see the inky specks suspended within the fierce beast in vain.
He grinded his teeth, and like a hunter, watched and waited for his prey.
At this moment, the formation at the lake’s edge suddenly lit up.
Along the Misty River, Su Yu perceived the radiant hues of other cultivators.
“It seems like cultivators have arrived…” Zhang Fugui hugged Su Yu’s thigh tightly and said: “Shouldn’t we…”
“Why bother about them?”
In his sight, the light spots belonging to the cultivators quietly crept up to the white jade.
Like ugly moths, they unknowingly threw themselves into a white sea of flames.
Su Yu’s eyes were red to the extreme: “They’re going to die.”
Zhang Fugui’s eyes widened. What do you mean?
Beside the misty river, when the cultivators at a loss saw the formation light up, surprise burst out onto their faces.1六神無主 (to be at a loss) is literally ‘six gods without masters,’ and means that the six major organs of the body have lost their positions, or in other words, are confused.
“The elders are here!”
“We’re saved!”
The Su family cultivators who teleported in from outside Nanwu Mountain instantly noticed the fierce beast above the misty lake. At the forefront, joy unconsciously showed on the Su family elder’s face when he saw the beast. Half a month ago, Su family cultivators hadn’t found any clues, however now, an ancient beast had appeared in this misty lake.
He discerned that the beast was still a phantom, “It is not a real entity, merely a phantom. Do not panic.”
The other cultivators were astonished. If the phantom had such a powerful pressure, then what if it were the real body…how formidable would it be,
Since it was a phantom, there had to be a dharmic tool or formation to control it.
The Su family’s elder abruptly raised his hand. The Lihuo Sect cultivator nearest to him suddenly staggered a few steps and was knocked away by a certain power, falling into the misty lake.
The cultivator who fell into the misty lake didn’t sink into the water as everyone had expected, instead, he was suspended by an inexplicable force. The cultivator turned to those on the shore in horror, opening his mouth to shout: “Shixiong……Shixiong, save me!”
“Shidi!” The Lihuo Sect Shixiong was caught of guard.
Su Yi looked at the Su elder in disbelief: “What are you doing!”
The Su elder didn’t pay him any attention. Seeing the fierce beast, he was more certain that his efforts were destined to be rewarded. Greed gradually emerged on his face, and unknowingly, his expression had distorted. He no longer took the people around him seriously.
Soon, the voice of the cultivator who had fallen into the river stopped, their whole person suspended.
There were no more sounds.
Watching this, almost all the cultivators froze.
This misty lake would steal a person’s consciousness!
Above the misty lake, the colossal beast’s body slowly materialized, and an innumerable amount of yin qi surged to its side from all around. It seemed to have just awoken, and ignoring the cultivators surrounding it, it stretched languidly. After stretching out its body, its gaze slowly scanned the ant-like cultivators on the shore.
Then, the beast suddenly raised its left forelimb.
From above, Su Yu noticed something and shouted coldly: “Close your eyes!”
Zhang Fugui had no time to explore the real and fakes below, hurriedly closing his eyes. As soon as he did, he felt a tyrannical chill wind tear through, instantly slicing his soul body’s left arm.
There were screams from all around the misty lake, and after the chill wind cut through, the lake fell into a lull.
A phantasm almost fully enveloped the misty lake in an instant, and the actions of the fierce evil spirits besieging the cultivators at the lake’s edge paused momentarily. They were suspended, standing around the phantom at the misty lake’s center, like lingering dead souls…The whole lake solidified, and its surface became a film of reflective mirror. In it the fierce beast towered over the cultivators even further.
All was silent. Formless waves seemed to encompass everything within it in an instant. Su Yu was shaken by the chill wind, pain coming from within his organs. He raised his eyes with difficulty, and was stunned by the situation that lay before him.
He lowered his gaze to watch the yin qi at his feet that kept rushing into his body. When he had first looked at the misty lake, he had thought it resembled a huge white jade.
But now, without a sound, that white jade chunk had turned colossal, crossing the original limits of the misty lake and spreading out all around. Everyone was trapped within the white jade, and the instigator was the fierce beast seated atop it.
The first change occurred in the cultivators below. The cultivators closer to the misty lake seemed to be in the clutches of waking nightmares, walking towards it without their control.
In the stillness, it seemed that only the wandering of dead souls and the walking corpses of the living remained.
At the moment of life or death, a spiritual boat broke through a gap in the formation and suddenly appeared before everyone’s eyes.
“Isn’t this the cultivators’ spiritual boat from over at Nanwu Mountain Pass!” Zhang Fugui was shocked: “How did this spiritual boat get through?”
Su Yu immediately raised his head and saw the colourful and vibrant streams of light he had seen at Nanwu Mountain Pass appear before him again……The spiritual boat?
The colourful and vibrant lights of the spiritual boat were more intense than those of any cultivator present. As he examined it closer, he clearly perceived the complex formations formed by the gathering of the flowing hues…This spiritual boat was actually forged from various formations.
“Who arrived!”
“The Su family’s spiritual boat has arrived!”
Su Yu stared at the radiant splendours scattered about the spiritual boat, and the rapid shifting of the golden lines in his eyes seemed to take in its formations.
At that moment, the old man operating the spiritual boat landed right in front of the cultivators. The spiritual boat became a barrier similar to the one at Nanwu Mountain Pass at his will, and with a bang, blocked the space ahead of the cultivators.
After the barrier separated the beast, the cultivators trapped in waking nightmares abruptly stirred, floundering and crawling behind the barrier. Those who didn’t awake in time were drawn by the beast and brought into the misty lake.
The closest, the Su family elder, was shockingly among them. They witnessed him walk on with greed painting his face, and the next moment, his head separated from his body. An instant, tragic death.
The Lihuo Sect elder and those who followed him were also dragged down by the fierce evil spirits above the misty lake. They had no way to resist and seemed to enter the misty lake willingly.
In but a short moment, more than half the cultivators were killed or injured.
“The elder and the others—” Two cultivators of the Su family survived by chance and watched on in horror.
“Whether sooner or later, karma will take its toll on those who harm others.” The white-haired old man stroked his beard and said, “For those born with greed in their hearts, their greed will be infinitely magnified in this phantasm. Finally, they will be consumed and die.”
He glanced at the Su family’s young master with surprise, “The Snow Spirit Pearl of the Cangxue Sect? It’s rare for a Golden Core cultivator such as yourself to protect your mind here.”
Su Yi gazed at the old man in front of him who steadied the present situation. The Su family had many boat guardians, but this trip to Nanwu Mountain was the first he’d seen of the boat guardian before him. He bowed and said: “Respected Senior, please lend us aid.”
The white haired old man replied, “Young Master Su thinks highly of me. Do you know what this place is?”
“The outermost is a perpetual yin gathering array. The sinister qi throughout Nanwu Mountain is in a constant cycle, and in the end comes together in the lake before us.” The old man raised his hand and used the spiritual boat to block the beast in front of him. He spoke with a level tone, “And the creature in front of us looks quite like the portraits of the tomb guardian beasts mentioned in the ancient books. At the moment, it is merely a phantom, but the pressure it exerts can be said to rival one at the peak of Deity Transformation.”
“If it were it alone, the matter would be manageable. We might barely escape from it. But its means go far beyond that.” The old man gazed at the figures floating above the misty lake. Those were the wandering ghosts and fierce evil spirits of Nanwu Mountain, as well as the bodies of the other cultivators buried here. “When we entered Nanwu Mountain, we entered its domain. It appears to have the ability to control the dead, and also the power to entrance the living.”
When the cultivators who were still awake heard this, they thought of the situation where they couldn’t tell the real spirits from the fake. Even now, when they saw this fierce beast, they still couldn’t distinguish the true and false. But seeing fellow cultivators jump into the lake to take their own lives, their fear deepened.
What exactly was buried beneath Nanwu Mountain? A mere guardian beast had such fierce abilities.
Even Nascent Soul stage cultivators were put to shame in the face of its temptation and took their lives.
“This old man’s cultivation is well founded in defence, not offense. Protecting you for half a day is doable, but I cannot suppress this fierce beast before us.” The white haired old man’s face also showed a hint of contemplation. “As for restraining it…”
As the old man pondered, before he could speak, he noticed the guardian beast appear to look upwards—
He squinted his eyes slightly, looking up through the heavy mist to a higher place, and vaguely made out a figure.
Who’s up there!?
Just then, the guardian beast on the misty lake raised its feet and hit the misty lake, which seemed to have become a mirror. The power of the shock caused the barrier formed by the Su family’s spiritual boat to move back. The white haired old man had to give up thinking and put all his strength into resisting the impact from the guardian beast.
All of a sudden, it raised its eyes and looked up at the heights above the misty lake.
For an instant, Su Yu met its deep, shadowy pupils head on, and it were as though he had been dragged into a bottomless quagmire.
The chill winds around him suddenly stopped and turned into drifting smoke-like wisps. Memories that had been hidden in his ocean of consciousness for a long time were dredged up, and those blurry impressions slowly deepened. He seemed to return to the memory of where he first fell off the cliff. The second memory was clearer than it was before, he was once again held down to suffocate in a little pond.
Su Yu felt himself floating in the air, quietly watching the children push another child into the pond with mirth.
A suffocating feeling overwhelmed him, but he could watch all this from the sidelines. He felt he was that child, and wondered how he, who ought to be blind, could see such a vivid scene. The two emotions, empathy and indifference, filled his ocean of consciousness.
The child crawled out the pond, touched the white cane on the shore, and staggered away in the winter day.2A white cane is a mobility aid that those who are blind or have low vision can use for safety, balance, mobility and independence. It also helps onlookers identify a blind or visually impaired user so they can take appropriate care.
The cold winds blew bone-deep. Su Yu could feel himself shaking, and the biting cold stung him.
Soon, the coldness disappeared, replaced by a hint of warmth.
The smell of incense was vivid, and as the smoke wafted over, pain from kneeling for a long time welled up.
This was an ancestral hall filled with monuments, joss sticks and candles. Cultivators wearing wide-sleeved robes, each with the same family crest, stood around the ancestral hall, silently chanting a technique. Suspended in front of him was a strange scroll. Su Yu could barely make out a few words written on it, and when he was about to take a closer look, he felt his wrist had been cut open. The stinging pain in his wrist didn’t give him time to react, and gurgling blood flowed onto the scroll.
‘Can blood really modify a marriage contract?’
‘Of course, it’s certain with the assistance of the secret technique. Doesn’t the Gu family not know who the marriage contract is with?’
‘Transfuse blood every two years, and when he comes of age, the parties of the marriage contract can naturally change.’
The child had lost too much blood and fell to the ground as the elders’ unrestrained ambitions and calculations were revealed.
Su Yu watched in silence, the coldness of the blood draining from his body rising little by little. He reached out his hand to touch the child, but he suddenly felt a force drawing him away. Without waiting for him to touch the child, his consciousness was suddenly pulled back.
The totem in his dantian jolted in warning. Su Yu let out a muffled sound and spat out a mouthful of black blood. The scene before him had reverted, he was pulled from the ancestral hall back to the huge white jade. The phantom of the guardian beast perched on the white jade eyed him, and the temptation in its eyes was evident.
The moment he looked at it, it had pulled him into a phantasm.
‘Eat it!’
The eyes were like a reminder.
Su Yu’s gaze changed as he looked at the guardian beast, though hunger was just one of the reasons for this. He now truly wanted to get what was in the misty lake.
Confused memories and past experiences, who he is, how can he can’t die, how he can live, and how he can see so many things.
‘Eat it, and you will know everything.’
Zhang Fugui realized something with a start and hurriedly hugged Su Yu’s thigh, “Daoist Master, wake up! Didn’t you say it was all fake? Don’t be fooled!”
His body was blocked from moving forward. Su Yu looked down and saw the white qi ball at his feet. The dire hunger urged him on, “Let go.”
Zhang Fugui held on tighter. After Su Yu broke free, he clawed at the ground and clasped the chain connecting the two, fearing that Su Yu would be attracted by the mist and jump into the pit, from which would be no return.
How can I eat it……Su Yu lowered his head and watched the white jade-like misty lake condense into a crystal clear mirror, the fierce beast standing atop the lake.
……I have to find a way to break the mirror in order to get to the bottom of the lake.
Above the misty lake, the guardian beast sniffed the air and smelled the blood on the youth. It too grinded its teeth. After so many years of staying here, this was the first time it had smelled such a sweet and fragrant scent. The help that a drop of that blood brought to it was enough to offset seven days of gathering yin qi here.
What’s more, the blood of the human race could break through the stele’s restriction and send it the power it desired.
Still, I cannot rush. Dealing with these humans in the way comes first.
Fortunately, these humans aren’t very powerful, easily dealt with…The guardian beast’s fierce eyes swept around, and just as it raised its claws to attack the cultivators on the shore, something seemed to shake the air.
The yin qi rising from the lake broke through the clouds. Su Yu watched the misty lake surge, but his eyes were fixed on the huge inky stone within the lake.
There was something faintly shaking the air.
What’s coming…? Su Yu suddenly looked up, and noticed that something was getting closer and closer. An opportunity had come!
‘Swallow it.’
‘Go! Go!’
Suddenly Zhang Fugui’s hands were empty, and the chain that had bound him for so long had abruptly disappeared.
He was stunned in place and saw the figure before him vanish. When he looked up, he was stung by a blinding light from above.
—He saw a sword aura.
The sword aura pierced the sky and fell straight to the ground.
The sword aura penetrated the misty lake’s mirror, and dozens of ‘Nascent Soul fierce evil spirits’ were annihilated by the disturbance. The cultivators behind the spiritual boat had clearer minds when the mist was dispelled. They plainly saw the state of the misty river in Nanwu Mountain.
At the same time, the mist around them rapidly condensed. The guardian beast entrenched in the misty lake seemed to be threatened by something, and its fierce eyes fixed on the rude visitor above.
“Here it is.” The white-haired old man looked up.
The visitor was a sword cultivator.
Author’s Postscript:
Yu-ge: How can I eat it?
Gu Qi’s sword tricks: First, open the door.
