In the mortal world, in a land where spiritual veins dwell, thousands of years of spiritual energy converged.
Moreso at the heart of these spiritual veins, located in the very center, stands the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
Rumor has it that the great powers of the cultivation realm once collected dozens of celestial artifacts possessing the power of immortals, and amassed them in the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, thus gathering spiritual energy from all walks of life in the eastern realm. Beneath the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall is the spiritual vein with the most profound heritage of spiritual energy in the current cultivation world, such that boundless spiritual energy spreads from the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall for thousands of li.1里 – a unit of measurement for distance, one li is 500 meters.
At this moment, countless great figures assembled before the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, all brought together in one place, attracting constant glances from many surrounding cultivators.
The cultivation world hadn’t seen so many powerful people congregate in a long time, and when looking out upon the crowd, the pressure originating from them was suffocating, leaving all breathless.
“Why are there so many powerful figures?”
“Is it not for suppressing that ghost cultivator, lest he flees?”
“I say, it’s good for that ghost cultivator to be suppressed beneath the Sword Tomb no? Why bring them to the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, don’t tarnish the spiritual energy of this place.”
“Don’t you understand? With the effect of the celestial artifacts, that is, the spiritual energy they gather, thousands of ghosts may be slain.” A cultivator explained, “That ghost cultivator left untouched is a hidden danger. At this time, the Immortal Platform is about to be built.2问仙台 (wèn xiāntái) – lit. asking the Immortals platform or searching for the Immortal Path platform. Likely to aid Daoists in cultivating and becoming Immortals. By making use of the spiritual energy from the celestial artifacts as a cornerstone and putting that savage ghost cultivator to death, the orthodoxy can then be upheld, returning to the righteous path.”
“The ghost cultivator is here.”
A noise came through from the distance, and the cultivators in discussion raised their heads to see a cage escorted by powerful figures arriving in slow flight.
The huge cage cast from millennial meteoric iron imprisoned a lone broken figure, neither human nor ghost, whose mortal flesh and blood formed a bizarre coexistence with bleached bone. The figure was further sealed by layers of runes, completely bound within the cage’s formation.
Anew did the crowd discern what was in the cage—
The figure kneeling on the ground had a bluish-white complexion, whether a human’s or ghost’s was uncertain. At the end of the body covered by rune formations was a calf that had already become bleached bone, pinned by a cold white snow sword from behind. The snow sword pierced through the leg bone and suppressed the figure within the confines of the cage.
“What is that?”
“The sword of the Tianxu Sword Sect, also the sword of that ghost cultivator’s shixiong.”
“Don’t mention it, I’ve heard he killed his shixiong and even ate him.”3师兄 – lit. senior brother; a male senior disciple of one’s teacher.
Everyone looked at the wide open doors of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall. In the hall, on the towering Immortal Platform, spiritual energy surged, vaguely taking on the shape of an immortal soul. Thousands of soul-suppressing bells were erected around the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, all of which seemingly used to suppress the ghost cultivator, a harm to the cultivation world, beneath the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
There were none left who knew the ghost cultivator’s name. It’s said that thousands of years ago, he was originally a wandering soul, born in the eastern realm’s cultivation world with a wisp of innate evil.4天生带煞 – lit. born with an evil spirit; to be born under an malignant star and destined to be in danger and unlucky, bringing about disaster and misfortune. Also referred to simply as an ‘evil spirit,’ ‘calamity,’ or ‘jinx’. Though fostered and taught by the Tianxu Sword Sect, he unexpectedly turned out to be a person devoid of gratitude, vile and cruel; practicing an inhumane soul-devouring art, and eating the souls of living beings. He killed his teacher and wiped out his ancestors, brutally massacring dozens of high-ranking Tianxu Sword Sect cultivators single-handedly, before escaping to the Land of Nothingness.
This matter aroused great anger among the powerful figures of the eastern realm’s cultivation world. At the time, many of them besieged him, wanting to slay and behead him in appeasement of the Heavenly Void Sword Immortal. Alas, who could’ve known that the ghost cultivator would achieve great faculties, already having the body of an immortal by then. In the end, he could only be imprisoned under the Sword Tomb of the Tianxu Sword Sect.
Now, with the path towards the immortal realm about to be fashioned in the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, this ghost cultivator, burdened with karmic debt, will be cast alongside it as the foundation for the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall. His eternal existence will become the base of its Immortal Platform, never to rise again.
The cage erected was filled with ghost qi that surged towards the heavens, while its surroundings were suppressed by layers of Dharma.
At this moment, the cage slowly ascended the heavenly steps of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, moving step by step towards the depths of the earth.
There was silence all around as the surrounding powerful figures watched the cage enter the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
The elder of the Tianxu Sword Sect, who was leading the way, arched his hand towards the nearby cultivators helping him, “That is the eye of the formation in the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, also the foundation of the Immortal Platform. I hope that all fellow Daoists will lend some aid. So long as this villain is subdued in the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, he shall never be reborn, and the Immortal Platform of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall may also be cast.”
An old man dressed in monk’s robes responded, “Elder Yu is being too polite.”
The elder of the Tianxu Sword Sect nodded: “This matter should not be delayed, one and all…”
Just as he was halfway through his words, the crisp ring of a bell chime rang out in the silence of the main hall.
Ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling—
The soul-suppressing bells at the front of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall burst out with shrill peals, and the soul-stirring sound of the reverberating bell tones enveloped them. The treasures in the hall that had lay dormant for ages appeared to receive some kind of guidance from the sound. Unexpectedly, terrifying and ownerless spiritual energy spread out from below, rushing towards the immortal soul on the towering platform at an unstoppable speed.
“What’s happening?”
“The soul-suppressing bells of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall are ringing!”
Before the spiritual energy of all the masters was input, as the soul-suppressing bells rang, celestial artifacts throughout the entire Ten Thousand Treasures Hall began to operate in an unsteady manner, their many lights illuminating the main hall. The immortal soul on the towering platform disintegrated and collapsed under the impact of the soul-suppressing bells, and as it did, cracks began to appear on the meteoric iron cage placed on the Immortal Platform, in which the ghost cultivator was imprisoned. Morose-white ghost qi gushed out of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
“Great Elder, hasn’t this evil spirit’s cultivation been abolished?”
The senior cultivator’s face changed drastically, “Something’s amiss…why hasn’t the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall’s ghost-suppressing formation activated!?”
Everyone turned to the core of the formation, where the ghost-suppressing-cum-smelting formation had turned into a sacrificial formation at some point.
The controller in the formation’s center was the ghost cultivator imprisoned at its core.
“He wants to flee!” Tianxu Sword Sect’s Great Elder spoke hurriedly out of urgency, “May I trouble all to take action and save this evil spirit from reincarnation.5超度 (chāodù) – lit. transcendence; refers to helping sentient beings escape from the sea of suffering in reincarnation, in this case, prevent Su Yu from reincarnating after this. He must not be allowed to endanger the world.”
“Save?” The ghost cultivator did not raise his head. He seemed to have not spoken for a long time, his intonation especially unusual in the heavily lit main hall. After his voice fell, the formation centered upon the huge cage suddenly came to life. Its golden lines were quenched red, resembling pulsating blood vessels. Thump, thump, the spiritual energy throughout the hall suddenly rushed upwards.
The cultivators clad in monk’s robes retreated one after another, and the expression of the leading elder and senior cultivator changed considerably.
The rushing spiritual energy poured into the altar, and restrictions made of spiritual energy fell layer by layer, instantly sealing off the cultivators’ every path out of the hall.
“You’re mad, mad.” The elder in charge was immediately aware of what the evil spirit was doing, “Using the soul as a guide to attract spiritual cultivation, from where did you learn the formation for burning both jade and stone?”6玉石俱焚 (yùshíjùfén) – lit. destruction of good and bad alike; to destroy indiscriminately.
All these powerful figures intended to rush to save this ghost cultivator before the collapse of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall. However, they hadn’t expected this man to tamper with the array formation’s patterns without a trace, penetrating deep into the spiritual veins underground and turning this site into a sacrificial formation spanning thousands of li.
“Tianxu Sword Sect’s formation…this kind of formation, has long been ruined by my hands.”
The ghost cultivator raised his head, his full white hair cascading like a waterfall. Eyes engraved with red runes peered at the white-robed cultivator in the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall below. He didn’t pay heed to the voices of the other cultivators. Only the word ‘save’ filled the last remains of his consciousness.
Save? Save whom?
He waited for hundreds of years, waited solely for all of them to enter his domain. If he must go to the Eighteen Layers of Hell, these people will all follow him down, not a single one may survive.7地狱 (dìyù) – The Eighteen Layers of Hell; the realm of the dead in Chinese mythology, based on the concept of Naraka in Buddhism, an underground maze with various levels and chambers.
“You’re insane, if you do this, your meridians will collapse!” The senior cultivator shouted.
“What does that have to do with me?” The ghost cultivator gave a low chuckle, his face almost pale, save for the overly radiant hue of the bloodstains flowing down. His whole body trembled with laughter while the restraining formation placed on him gradually shattered, “The Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, the Immortal Platform…are dirty to death.”
Vivid red liquid flowed from his eyes, dripping drop by drop on the rune formation in the cage, providing a steady stream of spiritual energy to the formation below. The bright red blood flooded the cage, falling onto the altar in the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, causing the obscure lines on the altar to light up.
Promptly, the several powerful figures hastily retreated, but they were already enveloped by the formation covering the vicinity of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
The grand sacrificial formation was already complete, and the illustrious individuals nearest to it were trapped, having all their spiritual energy and vitality rapidly devoured by the formation.
The voices of the cultivators below seemed as if they were blocked by dense water, the droning noise accompanied by the distant soul-suppressing bells. It was the same sorrowful sound as all the celestial artifacts within the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall.
The evil spirit felt the restraints on his form steadily fading away, and along with these restraints, so did his life…he tilted his head back and took in the screams all around him. Then, ignoring those voices, he laboriously got up from the cage. As he turned around, bones all over his body emitted crackling sounds, but he disregarded them completely, looking back with a pair of soulless and unfocused eyes.
There was nothing else behind him, only a snow-white sword, standing firm within the sacrificial formation.
The ghost cultivator suddenly smiled, reaching out his hand to touch the sharp blade above his leg bone, his hand moved up little by little, till it grasped the hilt of the sword at last.
“Shixiong, I’m about to die…it’s just in time, you can leave as well.”8Here ‘you’ is plural.
When the rune formation swallowed up the cage, the fetters that weighed on him for nearly a thousand years turned to ash.
At this moment his half-human, half-evil spirit hun body also crumbled with the wind little by little.9Hun (魂) are the yang spiritual souls that leave the body upon death. This refers to the view of the human soul in Daoism, where the ‘Three Hun and Seven Po‘ together animate the body. When the hun and po are in harmony, so are yin and yang, keeping the body healthy.
Starting from the gloomy bleached bone, it turned into a dull floating mist and dissipated into the torrent of spiritual energy.
Just as he was on the verge of disappearing, the remnant soul in the celestial artifacts of the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall seemed alerted of what was to come. The fragments of the remnant soul clustered, and one after another, flocked to the sacrificial formation centered in the cage. The snow sword held in his hand suddenly scattered a faint light, swiftly flying out at once and wrapping up the remnants of the evil spirit’s soul when everything collapsed.
The immortal soul enveloped the evil spirit, and the mournful calls of the soul-suppressing bell dwindled into near silence.
As if glimpsing a ray of light in the murky darkness, the ghost cultivator looked up.
During the Tianqi era of the eastern realm’s cultivation world, the Ten Thousand Treasures Hall collapsed, the Tianxu spiritual veins were destroyed, and countless mighty figures fell.
Hereafter, the spiritual energy within the cultivation world was exhausted.
***
Thousands of years later, the Nanwu Intermontane of the eastern realm’s cultivation world.
Wind and rain poured down, and rushing dark shadows swept past, splashing mud all over the ground. A pallid-faced youth dashed through a dense forest, running forward frantically.10慌不择路 – lit. fleeing in any path he could without heeding which he chose; describes a tense and flustered mood clouding judgment, as well as being forced to make a choice. His body was covered in wounds cut by branches and gravel, and his heart was just short of being seized by the sound approaching in the wind and rain.
Suddenly, the boy missed his footing and fell into a muddy puddle on the mountain road.
“Why run?”
The sound abruptly drew closer.
The youth’s face immediately turned deathly pale. He blindly fumbled around with his hands and hastily grabbed the gravel he came across on the ground, waving it around in fear. Just as he lifted his hand, his left hand was twisted backwards with a click, broken ruthlessly without warning.
A strong wind blew towards him, flipping him over and throwing him on the edge of the cliff.
At this moment, a man in black garbs gradually took form in the wind.
“Still running?” The black clothed man asked with a sneer.
The youth gasped heavily. As if he felt the wind reaching the cliffside, he endured the pain and shrank back, only to suddenly bump into a hand.
“Su Yu, a member of Tianyuan City’s Su family, eighteen years old, born in a yin year, on a yin day, in a yin hour, whose three hun are incomplete…” The black clothed figure exerted a little force, clasping the youth’s neck, and lifted him off the ground.
Raindrops splashed onto the youth’s body, his hair disheveled. As his name was read, he trembled and tried to shrink back. His eyes were soulless, without waves or ripples, however the intensity of his struggle grew. Nevertheless, he couldn’t shake off the hand clamped around his neck in the slightest.
“…Why is it only at the Qi Refining period? It’s a waste of the destiny of a malignant star.” The black clothed man sneered at the situation and tilted his head to look down at the mingshu in his other hand.11Refers to Li Xuezhong’s mingshu (命书). Its title literally translates to ‘book of fate’ or ‘book of life,’ and describes the basic framework for Li Xuezhong’s Three Pillars of Destiny fortune-telling. The destiny of the youth before him leapt on the paper without exception.12To be actively (true) and vividly described on paper. At just eighteen, his family was apathetic and unwelcoming of him. His mind was slow-witted, he possessed extremely poor qualifications, and was even blind and ill. “A burden to keep in the home,” he remarked.
“Having such dull aptitude, to enter the Dao is already fairly good.”
From a short distance away, a middle-aged cultivator drew closer with a few steps, but did not dare near the black clothed man, “You may rest assured, this person has no worth to the Su family, you might deal with him at will.”13The formal ‘you’ (italicized) is used here in Chinese.
The man lowered his head and pulled the youth in front of him, admiring the gradual flush of his face due to suffocation, and swept a glance across the youth’s brows with an almost scrutinizing gaze.14Here ‘brows’ refers to examining one’s appearance and temperament. It seemed he didn’t get what he wanted to see from the youth, as he tsked in disinterest. It’s also a shame that the Su family kept watch of a thing like this for so long…It took some time to get him out.
As that person had said—It was best for those with fates of the malignant star, born into this world during a yin time, to thence disappear, so as to sever the roots of future troubles.
The moon sank into the dark sky, chilly wind wuthered among the cliffs, and indomitable yin qi drifted in ascent.
The black clothed man bowed his head, the boy in his grasp was already drenched from head to toe.
When all is said and done, a trace of concealed danger still exists within a living person.
Of those with fates of the malignant star, this ought to be the last one.
The youth’s face steadily reddened as the strength of his grip increased, his voice was without a sliver of pity—
“Pitiful…the blame can only lie with you for being born at the wrong time.”
“In the coming reincarnation, remember to choose a good family.”
As wind and rain pelted down, the youth’s unruly hair was blown up, and the strength of his struggle weakened little by little.
The middle-aged cultivator took a couple of steps to the fore but receded half a step as a chill wind rushed past from below the cliff.
Lifting his gaze once more, at once, he noticed a person standing at the edge of the far away cliff. Though said to be a person, it was more akin to the wisp of a ghost, quietly hanging by the youth’s side.
The soul and the youth, who was no longer struggling at the edge of the cliff, looked to be of the same mold. That being said, compared to the youth, the suspended hun body did not say a word. Its dark eyes reflected the bright moon perched high above, tempered ice-cold by a few rays of cold light.
And within the sharp passing edge of the cold light, gold threads dyed red climbed up from the depths of its eyes ceaselessly, like the webs weaved by spiders, seeming to form a particular kind of seal.
What is that!? A ghost?!
In that brief instant, it was as though the middle-aged man’s entire being was seen through by those eyes. He abruptly recovered his senses and impetuously took a few steps back.
“What?” The black clothed man glanced askance and his hand loosened.
At that moment, the youth’s thin pale hand grabbed his wrist. The black clothed man lowered his head, and before he could react, suddenly saw the youth using his hand to leverage his strength, breaking loose from his shackle and falling to the ground.
“Troublesome.” The black clothed man frowned, coalescing energy into his palm before pushing it forward. The youth had just run a stones throw away when he was knocked back by the force from the palm, falling uncontrollably towards the bottom of the cliff.
The middle-aged cultivator came to his senses from afar, fixing his gaze for a closer look. There was no ghost at the edge of the cliff, the youth had long been pushed down.
He heaved a sigh of relief, inwardly musing that the chill wind here was somewhat peculiar, and spoke with a tinge of worry: “Is there a need to descend and take a look…”
The black clothed man dusted off his hands, knitting his brows and stating: “There’s no need.”
The Qi Refining period’s cultivation was lacking in protecting the body.
Falling below will be that one’s end.
alverose: Though I’ll be reading along with everyone else while translating, I have confidence in the author considering their past works—coughs—and the jjwxc rating, and I hope you’ll give this read a go! I’ll do my best to give the work a good translation so please bear with me m(._.)m. Also, I’d like leave an adapted postscript from Chapter 2 here, where the author has pointed out some things readers should consider before continuing with this novel;
- The protagonist loses his memory at the beginning, and he regains his previous life’s strength by levelling up. There’s no ‘soaring to the sky’ plotline at the start, and the protagonist will acquire the Abyss of All Evil in Chapter 15.15一飞冲天 (soaring to the sky) is a metaphor for someone who isn’t particularly noteworthy that suddenly achieves amazing results. In this case, it means the protagonist won’t suddenly become strong out of nowhere and amaze, but instead grow stronger bit by bit.
- This is a non-traditional upgrade flow.16Where the protagonist starts as a lose and gradually achieves success through different challenges and ordeals. The protagonist usually experiences various setbacks, gains ‘experience’ from them like in video games, and then ‘levels up’ and gets stronger. The Abyss of All Evil is moveable, and its layout is changed by collecting ghosts. This isn’t a fast-paced shuangwen work, and not an easy read.17爽文 (shuangwen; pleasurable work) means the protagonist has a smooth journey throughout the novel and gets stronger quickly.
- The first volume has a lot of foreshadowing, with mixed descriptions as the protagonist explores from his perspective.
