Outside Nanwu Mountain, when they heard the Su family announce the mountain’s closure, the expressions of the cultivators present immediately changed. Several rogue cultivators attempted to go forward, but as soon as they neared, they were forced back by the chill winds of the Nanwu Mountain Pass. After taking a few steps back, it was clear they couldn’t take another step further.
Every one of the cultivators successively looked at the person managing the spiritual boat’s curtain wall.
The white-haired old man was clothed in a coarse cloth robe with two gourds of wine tied at his hips. His unkempt hair covered his face, and one of his eyes was murky. Upon finishing up his work, he reclined beside the curtain wall with a wine gourd in hand, taking a quaff to reinvigorate himself. He truly projected an air of disregard for the follow up.
“What are you doing! Don’t move forward, that’s one of the Su family’s boat guardians.”
Hearing of the reputed boat guardians, the rogue cultivators had to stop.
The Su family’s spiritual boats were far-famed in the eastern realm’s southern world. The Su family, well-known for their talismans and formations, were in truth, even more well-known for their boatbuilding craft. The forging of the spiritual boat was a culmination of painstaking effort from across all generations of the Su family. As a device, the spiritual boat was the best of its kind in the eastern realm, and is said to be the Su family’s finest boat device. Allegedly, the assembly of the spiritual boat, a single vessel, contains the essence of all the Su family’s formations and talismans.
In order to prevent the Su family’s techniques from leaking out, each of the Su family’s spiritual boats had a designated guardian.
Watching the cultivators shrink back in face of the challenge, the Lihuo Sect’s elder was very satisfied. At the same time, he asked the other cultivators to identify those who were swept away by the winds.
“Most of the low-level cultivators have emerged.”
“I heard that rogue cultivators from the East Sea went in, along with a few others. They wouldn’t have been faster than us right?”
“What are you afraid of, Su-shixiong was among the first to enter—”
“Are there any cultivators from the Su family missing?” The old man asked.
Right after the white-haired old man’s words fell, a Su family cultivator beside him subconsciously replied: “The low-level cultivators of the Su family are all here, that just leaves the shixiongs and shijies who went in with Su Yi-shixiong…”1 師姐 (lit. senior sister; shijie) refers to an older female disciple
The cultivator was midway through his words when someone next to him touched his shoulder, hinting at him not to speak.
The spiritual boat they traveled in this time around wasn’t one of the ones the Su family cultivators usually used. As the spiritual boats were being used frequently recently, the Su family’s elders called for a spiritual boat gathering dust in the Su family’s Spiritual Boat Pavilion before the trip, even its boat guardian was unknown…They only knew his surname was Qi, and that he was a hearty drinker, nothing else.
The cultivators of the Su family still had eyes, the Su family elder accompanying them spoke little with the boat guardian and avoided him in many things.
The white-haired old man didn’t speak. The discussions of the cultivators around him fell into his ears. As he drank the wine, his eyes moved away from the Su family elder talking in a low voice a distance away, and fell on Nanwu Mountain’s heavy yin qi.
…That means everyone was here, so who could the figure he just saw be?
Then again what did this have to do with him? The white-haired man closed his eyes. He was just a boatman now.
The Lihuo Sect’s elder turned to look at Nanwu Mountain. Noticing that the chill winds were gradually growing more ferocious, he turned to look at the Su family elder: “I sent several Golden Core cultivators to enter…but is this truly not an issue?”
The majority of the cultivators only came for Nanwu Mountain’s yin qi, picturing they could gain experience and qualifications by slaying its evil spirits and defending the Dao. However, those of the Lihuo Sect knew very well that this crack wasn’t so simple. The sealing pattern was unusual, it could even fully conceal Nanwu Mountain’s yin qi, like a special seal set by a great cultivator. It was in all probability an opportunity that couldn’t be sought after.
The evil spirits were a small matter, while the seal was a major one.
If this was a mighty figure’s place of rest, that too one that had passed away in meditation, then the Su family and the Lihuo Sect who discovered it first…
“The stronger the spiritual energy, the more its tendency to attract covetous evil spirits. If you wish to head even deeper into Nanwu Mountain, you may only rely on Golden Core cultivators.” The Su family’s elder gazed at the mountain replete with yin qi and the partially cracked seal before his eyes. Nanwu Mountain’s yin qi raged, its situation mercurial. There was a high likelihood this was a land where one had passed in mediation, not yet discovered. As such, more than a month ago when they received the news from the Lihuo Sect, they had dispatched people to investigate.
The result was that all the Nascent Soul cultivators came out injured upon entering, while the Golden Core cultivators were in fairly good conditions.
Though the cracked seal appeared ordinary and unremarkable, beyond it, much was bizarre.
This Nanwu Mountain was as though it were alive. The higher one’s cultivation level, contrarily the more one would be restricted when they enter.
“There are indeed precedents for happenings such as this following a mighty figure’s passing. Some great masters did not wish for their dwellings to be invaded, so they would set up restrictions before their deaths.2洞府 means cave dwelling or immortal abode. The higher one’s cultivation, the more difficult it is to enter.” The Su family’s elder looked up at Nanwu Mountain, speaking at a steady pace: “I’m afraid that this seal of Nanwu Mountain’s was established to resist intrusions. If it had not broken, we would be yet to discover the clues within Nanwu Mountain.”
As the resting place of a great master, what was hidden inside had to be remarkable.
If the Lihuo Sect weren’t familiar with this area, the Su family wouldn’t have cooperated with the Lihuo Sect; Discovering Nanwu Mountain’s secret in the first place, setting up a boundary marker, and blocking the news lest those of other influential factions preempt them…Who could have known that if they were a little more careless, a group of cultivators that had come running might’ve entered the mountain.
The Lihuo Sect’s elder wanted to comment further.
“Don’t fret, it’s our young master who went in. Though he is a Golden Core, with his ability, the yin qi outside Nanwu Mountain is but a trifle.” The Su family’s elder reassured in a deep voice: “Not to mention inside…”
“Inside?” The elder of the Lihuo Sect suddenly thought of how, before the news about Nanwu Mountain had spread, the Su family had also sent a batch of people into Nanwu Mountain. But those cultivators’ whereabouts were unknown to date, otherwise the Su family’s young master, Su Yi, would not have been allowed to personally take action.
“So many evil spirits flee hither and thither from the nearby towns, and Nanwu Mountain’s yin qi hasn’t dispersed in a long time. The evil spirits and fierce evil spirits have been sealed amid this for hundreds of years, and with those things inside, do you think the rogue cultivators who went in can come out alive?…Outside the mighty figure’s place of rest, is a living tomb.”
‘If anyone enters…and perishes in the living tomb, it is their own fault.” The elder of the Su family gazed at Nanwu Mountain undaunted and said slowly, “After all, my Su family has closed the mountain for the sake of great benevolence and righteousness.”
***
Deep inside Nanwu Mountain’s mountain pass, the withered trees showed traces of being overturned, twisted and warped at different angles.
Lying on the withered branches and rotten leaves, when Su Yu came to again, the winds wrecking havoc had died down. As he reached out and touched the damp ground, a heavier stench hit his face, and he couldn’t resist reaching out to stand up. As soon as he moved, his notice was instantly drawn to his injured leg.
Though his broken leg had been simply bandaged earlier, the bone’s already torturous deformation now pierced into his flesh. The pain went straight to his brain in bursts.
Where is this?
Ah yes…He seemed to have been swept away.
Su Yu felt like his brain had sobered a bit. He looked up above, there seemed to be less chatter around him. The chaotic smoke’s vibrant and bright lights in the sky had already disappeared, returning to slowly drifting with the wind just as how Su Yu first saw them. He now had a general idea of what his eyes could see. His vision was likely affected by the ‘eyes’ in his dantian—his eyes that were born without light can, in some form, see things.
Su Yu watched the totem run soundlessly within his body, he could feel the unctuous yin qi drilling into him. He only watched it for a short while, then soon groped around to take in his situation. He stood with the help of a withered tree, and just as he was going to move forward, he suddenly noticed something strange on his ankle.
What’s this?
Su Yu bowed his head and clearly saw a chain attached to the ankle of his uninjured leg. The chain’s color resembled the creamy white yin qi floating around the totem in his body, though interspersed with a faint blood-red hue.3The kind of white described here is actually that of “mutton fat” jades. It was especially conspicuous, running from his ankle to a farther area.
He was drowsy in the first place, moreover, so many strange things had abruptly appeared in his vision. He hadn’t even noticed this thing tied to his ankle.
Su Yu moved. The chain on his ankle was as light as a feather, with a faint resistance. There was something at its other end.
He pulled on it, but it didn’t move.
So heavy? Su Yu frowned a bit, he had no choice but to add a little more strength.
Zhang Fugui was woken up by the dragging, and when he did, the chain around his ankle had tightened to the extreme. As its other end pulled on him, his soul was fully subjected to an irresistible force, and he was immediately dragged more than ten steps away.
When he fell by Su Yu’s feet, he was still jarred and reacted belatedly, “Dao-Daoist Master!”
Hearing the familiar voice, Su Yu remembered…It was that little ghost he didn’t kill.
Zhang Fugui was extremely excited to see Su Yu, heaven knows that when he was swept away by the winds, he’d thought his soul would scatter. Before, he had intended to run away with some of his ghost friends, but they didn’t make it out successfully, and his gluttonous ghost friends were gone. Now that the Nanwu Mountain Pass has been closed again, and the heavy yin winds had swept him back into the mountain pass, his future was worrying, plus, he didn’t know where to go from here.
Laying eyes upon the Daoist Master again, it was as though he’d found his backbone. He didn’t care about what had just pulled him to the point of dizziness, and hurriedly neared Su Yu: “Daoist Master!”
The moment the humanoid white ball approached, Su Yu took half a step back.
Realizing his abruptness, Zhang Fugui touched his head in embarrassment, but didn’t dare stray too far from Su Yu.
Since the humanoid white ball stopped moving, Su Yu didn’t intend to pay attention to him.
He gazed upwards and vaguely made out the smoke around him floating in a single direction.
“Daoist Master, where are you heading?”
When Zhang Fugui saw the youth leaving, he was going to follow, but two steps in, he noticed the direction the youth was heading in. He immediately broke out into a cold sweat and rushed to reach out and grab him: “Don’t go over there! Going deep into the mountain means entering the territory of the bigwig ghosts…they’re all fighting over possession of a lesser spiritual vein.”
Hearing this, Su Yu was puzzled: “A lesser spiritual vein?”
Zhang Fugui paused. Isn’t this something everyone in the cultivation world knows?…He didn’t dare ask this question back, he just replied carefully: “I too only heard of it from the mountain’s ghosts when I started cultivating…It’s said that a thousand years ago, a great devil destroyed the cultivation world’s Ten Thousand Treasures Hall, causing all spiritual veins to collapse and countless mighty figures to fall in succession. As a result, the eastern realm’s cultivation world declined for hundreds of years, until a place where a mighty figure once passed in meditation was discovered.”
Ghost cultivation like theirs relies on yin qi to cultivate, but the origins of heaven and earth arose from the spiritual vein of all things, thus, cultivators breathe in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to cultivate.
The decline of the spiritual veins also led to the limitation of a cultivator’s cultivation and a stagnation of the stages one could reach…It’s rumored that in places where cultivators passed in meditation, vestiges of the spiritual veins from a thousand years ago are hidden, known as lesser spiritual veins. Although lesser spiritual veins aren’t at the level of those from a thousand years ago, they’re enough for establishing and forming new spiritual veins, and they also solve the problem the cultivators face due to lack of spiritual energy.
Zhang Fugui didn’t know much, but he’d heard a few ghosts say that their Nanwu Mountain had an overabundance of yin qi, coupled with its strange seal, it might also be the place of rest for a great master from a thousand years ago.
Su Yu spoke with a tiredness of sorts: “You, a weak ghost, have heard of the rumors, yet they don’t know?”
“Ah? They?” Zhang Fugui then realized: “They’re here for…”
The band of cultivators outside probably came for what’s within the mountain. Su Yu threw out a sentence and didn’t speak further. The train of thoughts within his mind seemed to be getting even clearer.
This feeling wasn’t a first. It also happened when he fell off the cliff…Thinking of the cliff, intermittent memories in his ocean of consciousness emerged one after the other. His memories stopped at his encounter with the violent winds and the mingling of the vivid flowing lights in his vision.
Who is he? He was called Su Yu.
How did he get here…?
He fell off the cliff.
Zhang Fugui could see something off with Su Yu: “Daoist Master, what’s wrong?”
Su Yu covered his forehead, turning over the intermittent memories in his mind.
Just at that moment, a special handprint emerged in his ocean of consciousness through the totem. Almost instantly, Su Yu recognized this handprint, it was the one he used unlearned to kill the evil spirits after he fell off the cliff.
When Su Yu thought of a cultivator’s talismans, handprints, formations, and other such things, though he knew these were a cultivator’s arts and techniques, when he thought about them carefully, he didn’t have a precise understanding of them, as if he had never studied them in depth.
This handprint which now appeared in his ocean of consciousness was obviously an extremely obscure pattern, he couldn’t make any sense of its components. It was like, just by seeing the pattern, he would know it was a handprint and not a formation or a talisman. Su Yu could subconsciously follow and depict it with a single glance, as though he knew the directions by nature. There was an absurd sense of déjà vu.
Su Yu raised his fingers, and the yin qi entrenched in his dantian seemed to move with his thoughts. It circulated from the periphery of the totem and flowed outwards along his meridians. But not long after it did so, the yin qi seemed to…lose its direction. After a few breaths without movement, it suddenly collapsed and retreated to his dantian.
Su Yu paused. He knew how to draw the handprint, but he didn’t know how to actuate it.
Just then, his hand holding the tree trunk slid off. He heard a cracking sound from where his foot landed.
The rancid smell that hit him was hard to ignore. Almost instantly, Su Yu felt a chill.
He raised his gaze and looked to the side, in his dark vision filled with white qi, appeared a series of black spots.
“What’s that?” Su Yu asked.
Zhang Fugui turned his head at his voice and saw a pair of eyes in the withered forest, peering at them.
Amid the murky withered woods now stood ‘people’.
Author’s Postscript:
Yu-ge‘s eyes don’t have light, he can’t see things that can be seen normally.
He can however see the more substantial, inner parts of some things.
