Chapter 75 – Renew the Bright Candle, Suppress the Sea
As the word “execution” fell, head and body separated.
Ying Zhong’s head spun in the air, his eyes wide with horror, as if still asking, “How is this possible?” But the one who killed him had already moved on, without even a second glance. In an instant, Zuo Liangshi’s figure appeared before the second traitor of the Mountain Sea Pavilion.
“Xia Jueming, for carrying out cruel punishments, stealing from the Pavilion’s treasury, leaking the location of the Sea Gate, and betraying our Mountain Sea Pavilion. Your crime deserves—”
Xia Jueming roared, summoned the Profound Heaven Seal, and turned to flee towards the city’s outskirts. He had just dashed out for five hundred meters when his body abruptly froze.
“Execution!”
A line of blood spurted into the air again.
Within the bloody line, the “Zuo Liangshi” behind Xia Jueming dissipated without warning. Xia Jueming’s body, severed at the waist, fell to the ground, revealing the real Zuo Liangshi shaking his saber.
In an instant, the traitors scattered like monkeys from a falling tree, like crows from a depleted granary.
Zuo Liangshi’s figure stretched into countless straight lines, appearing in all directions at once, single-handedly intercepting all the traitors. “Insolent brat! You’ve gone too far!” The fleeing Pavilion Elders roared like thunder, fighting for their lives as artifacts flew through the air. Golden bells, wolf fangs, dragon souls and tiger spirits… hundreds of artifacts and hundreds of sabers and swords rained down on Zuo Liangshi.
One strike.
A silver halberd pierced a shoulder bone.
“Yan Lichuan! For secretly teaching forbidden techniques, accepting bribes, and betraying our Mountain Sea Pavilion. Execution!”
Two strikes.
A fist of force struck a back.
“Meng Hanghe! For betraying our Mountain Sea Pavilion! Execution!”
Three strikes.
A crossbow bolt lodged in a chest.
“Chen Xianyu! Betrayal! Execution!”
Four strikes.
A golden whip struck a right shoulder.
“Xie Jiu! Execution!”
Five strikes, six strikes, seven strikes… heads rolled. All the attacks were like clay oxen entering the sea, having no effect other than to completely drench Zuo Liangshi’s white robes in blood. His hair crown was shattered, his black hair unbound, and his feminine face, half-stained with blood and half-pale as snow, looked like a madman, a demon, a mortal, and an immortal all at once.
Elder Tao Rong, Pavilion Elder Gao, Pavilion Elder Qing, and the others wanted to help him, but found they couldn’t keep up with his pace at all. The air was thick with the crisscrossing bronze-colored marks of his saber, with residual golden flames. Blood rained down over the nine cities of Zhunan, like a downpour washing over the earth.
In the rain, Zuo Liangshi’s voice was like a great bell. The nine cities were filled with his commanding presence, his strategic maneuvers, his judgment and reckoning.
He said he would purge the mountains.
“Chen Zhong! Execution!”
“Execution!”
Execution! Execution! Execution!
The Mo Saber was thrown, its final strike pinning the last traitor to the city gate. Meng Shuangqing gripped the saber tightly with both hands, and when he found he couldn’t pull it out, he turned to look up at the sky, pleading desperately, “Lord Emperor! This humble one has worked tirelessly for the Great Wilderness, Lord Emperor! Lord Emperor, save me!”
“Lord Emperor, save me!”
Huaining Jun was unmoved.
He merely stared at the sky where the Red Emperor had disappeared, waiting for something unknown. Meng Shuangqing’s tail-wagging pleas never reached his ears. Pawns before the chariot, soldiers before the horse—they were chess pieces destined to be abandoned.
“Moon Mother! Moon Mother, save me!”
Meng Shuangqing turned to the Moon Mother, spitting out a large mouthful of blood with every word.
“I am willing to offer the Return to Void Order! I am willing to present the Nine Cauldrons of Mountain and Sea!”
The Moon Mother sat high in the clouds, the charming expression on her face gone without a trace. She said nothing, her gaze fixed on Zuo Liangshi, her pupils empty. Zuo Liangshi slowly descended, landing on the gate-tower, facing the gasping traitor Meng Shuangqing. Viscous blood dripped from his sleeves onto the bronze Wind-Vane Bird.
“The guilty must be executed.”
He said softly.
Meng Shuangqing’s hands, which had been gripping the Mo Saber, went limp and fell heavily to his sides. Blood snaked down the back of his dry, wrinkled hands. Zuo Liangshi’s final strike had long since severed all his vital energy; it was only his extreme unwillingness to die and his fear that had kept him begging for his life.
“Pavilion Master!”
Elder Tao Rong let out a breath of relief and rushed over. But as he drew near, the joy on his face suddenly vanished. His body swayed in mid-air, and he nearly fell.
“…Pavilion… Pavilion Master.”
One figure, two figures, three figures… The Pavilion Elders landed on the nearby ruined pavilions and gate-towers, but no one approached. For a moment, the thirty-meter radius around Zuo Liangshi was silent. The disciples of the Mountain Sea Pavilion didn’t know what had happened and were still cheering like a tide.
With the Mo Saber pinning the traitor to the city wall, the fire on Zuo Liangshi’s body gradually dwindled. In the fire, the blood on him that had not yet dried washed away like ink, and his robes gradually became as white as frost and snow again, with only the blood from before his battle with Gu Yu remaining. Half his body in white, half in blood, he held no weapon in his hand. The wind stirred his tattered wide sleeves. He did not look at the Moon Mother and the White Emperor in the sky, but instead looked around him.
“Everyone,” Zuo Liangshi smiled, “the ones who deserved execution have been executed, and the ones who deserved to atone have atoned.”
“Pavilion Master.”
Elder Tao Rong’s voice was hoarse.
Zuo Liangshi took a step forward.
“I, Zuo Liangshi of the Zuo family, have served as the Pavilion Master of the Mountain Sea Pavilion for five hundred and sixty-three years,” his calm voice spread throughout Zhunan. “I knew of the suffering in Zhizhou City but did nothing; I knew of the trafficking of mortals but did not investigate; I knew of smuggling and collusion but did not correct it; I knew of the evil decrees below but did not stop them. I have violated the teachings and broken the laws, my sins are too numerous to count. By a stroke of luck, I fought the one from beyond the heavens above and slew the traitors below, and did not disgrace my ancestors.”
The tide of cheers gradually receded. The disciples of the Mountain Sea Pavilion were first bewildered, then uneasy.
Zhunan fell silent.
“However, the merit of a single scoop cannot offset the sins of a vast sea. Today, I, Liangshi, resign from my position as Pavilion Master.”
A light as thin as a blade’s edge emanated from within him, growing brighter and brighter.
“Pavilion Master!”
The Pavilion Elders could no longer hold back and all rushed forward.
Zuo Liangshi’s chest was covered in spiderweb-like cracks, and the light was coming from those cracks. The Red Emperor Gu Yu’s spear had not landed on him, but its edge had long since pierced his heart—the sharpest blade only attacks, it does not defend. That was why he had to fight with all his might, ignoring his injuries, to kill the traitors.
His life force had long been severed.
It was a small, bright candle flame hidden in his body that held his shattering body together.
“The guilty must be executed, the at-fault must atone.”
Zuo Liangshi looked back and smiled, his beautiful, feminine face shattering piece by piece.
“Everyone, you must remember.”
The dazzling light completely erupted, transforming into eight meteor-like fireballs that streaked across the nine cities of Zhunan, falling towards the Tranquil Sea, towards the true north, northeast, true east, southeast, true south, southwest, true west, and northwest!
Eight giant bronze pillars burst from the sea, like eight nails driven into the eight poles, and also like eight blazing torches.
The old Sea Gate shattered, and a new Sea Gate was born.
The iron chains that had been hanging in the sea broke through the water, connecting and linking the eight bronze pillars. All the sea pillars in the Tranquil Sea were once again connected as one. In the midst of heaven and earth, it was as if a million great bells were ringing at the same time. Amidst the ringing of the bells, all the sea pillars emitted a dazzling brilliance, the brilliance arching and connecting to form an indestructible shield of light, completely protecting the nine cities of Zhunan within it.
With his body, he renewed the bright candle; with his shattered bones, he suppressed the vast sea.
He said he would suppress the sea.
***
The miasma was forced back by the great formation formed by the sea pillars. Not only did the Tranquil Sea return to calm, but the sea surface for nearly 150 kilometers beyond it also became calm. The light of Zhunan’s nine cities was reflected far away on the surface of the Cangming Sea, swaying like blazing torches. Four people stood outside the torches.
Mister Xi lowered his head and looked at the tips of the two sabers protruding from his chest.
The sabers were like willow-leaf eyebrows.
“Meiniang,” he sighed faintly, “I never thought the second person to make me fail would be you.”
The Azure Dragon spun like a green rainbow, and Wu Mei was sent flying, crashing heavily into a reef in the sea. Her abdomen was torn open by the hard, sharp dragon’s tail, her organs exposed. Black flames surged from within, boiling and turning back on her, engulfing her.
“My surname is Wu,” Wu Mei smiled, not a charming smile, but a spirited one, unexpectedly beautiful. “My name is Wu Mei.”
“Meiniang, Wu Mei. I don’t understand… Why did you help Zuo Liangshi? Don’t you hate him?”
Mister Xi was genuinely surprised, so surprised that he subconsciously held back his hand, not letting Wu Mei die on the spot.
For the second time, a puppet in his hands had broken free of his control. The first to escape the strings of fate he had laid was Zhou Ziyan, who at least had been the number one genius of the Mountain Sea Pavilion. But who was Meiniang? She was a lowly courtesan, all her power came from the gifts of the Great Wilderness. How dare she, how could she, also break his puppet strings?
And not only did she break free of his control, she even burned all his puppet strings to ashes.
Wu Mei burst out laughing. “You don’t understand! Of course you wouldn’t understand!”
“It’s not Zuo Liangshi I hate, it’s the filthy Mountain Sea! I hate all people like you, whose hearts and lungs are rotten to the core! People like you, you’re rotten yourselves, so you think everyone is the same as you, you think there’s nothing good or beautiful in the whole world.”
Mister Xi frowned slightly.
Wu Mei’s pupils reflected the eight blazing bronze pillars… That person had promised her he would set fire to the Mountain Sea Pavilion and burn everything she hated. He had really done it… She leaned against the reef and slowly sat up.
“Zuo Liangshi was destined to find out that Gu Yu was the mastermind behind the Ru City incident, because Zhou Ziyan was Tao Rong’s student from beginning to end.”
“Lou Jiang was destined not to turn against Zuo Yuesheng, because he trusts the people his parents trusted.”
“And as for me, you never should have told me about Zhou Ziyan… Since you’re not omnipotent, since someone has indeed successfully broken free before, why wouldn’t I dare to make a second attempt!”
She laughed until she was out of breath.
“You’re convinced that all human hearts are evil, how could you understand that the human heart is like a demon, but also like a god!”
She released her hand from her abdomen and, with Jun Changwei’s help, shakily stood up. She turned her head to look in one direction, a hazy film of moisture covering her eyes.
“…I really want to go back to Mo City one more time.”
The wind blew, and Wu Mei scattered into a handful of dust. Some fell into the sea with a rustle, while some drifted away to an unknown destination.
The woman who had drifted through the world of pleasure finally became dust in the wind.
Jun Changwei withdrew his hand and turned to face Mister Xi.
Mister Xi pulled out the blood axe that Old Heavenly Craftsman had embedded in his shoulder and casually threw it away.
Mister Xi, whose real name was Xie Yuan, had been the foremost craftsman of the Heavenly Works Mansion three thousand years ago. When he defected, he took the mansion’s treasure, the Heavenly Soldier Azure Spear, with him. Three thousand years later, he had refined himself into a puppet, existing somewhere between life and death. Although the blood axe had split him in two, no blood flowed from the wound—his body was held together by transparent threads.
During the battle, Jun Changwei and Old Heavenly Craftsman had landed blows more than once, but he had always managed to piece his body back together with these silver threads.
Except for this time.
The black fire from Wu Mei’s two Willow Leaf Sabers surged out, quickly burning through the silver threads.
“Beautifully done, Wu Mei,” Mister Xi said, pulling out a Willow Leaf Saber. The fire on the blade flared up, and his hand quickly turned black like wood. “The bright candle is lit, the Sea Gate is established. It’s more than enough to protect Zhunan for three months… Unfortunately, you have no idea that ‘Obscuring the Twelve Continents’…”
The last silver thread was burned through.
Mister Xi’s corpse split in two.
Old Heavenly Craftsman coughed up a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs. He reached out and collected the corpse. He had to bring the traitor’s body back to the Heavenly Works Mansion to wash away the shame of the past three thousand years. Ge Qing had knelt before the Divine Fu Tree, and Xie Yuan had a grave he deserved to kneel at for millennia.
The Azure Spear, which had been refined into an evil weapon, fell to one side, the soul of the Azure Dragon coiling around it, now without a master.
“This is the karmic debt of my Heavenly Works Mansion.”
Old Heavenly Craftsman sighed softly and put away the Azure Spear as well.
“Old Ghost Jun…”
He turned his head and saw Jun Changwei silently gazing at the eight towering bronze pillars. Old Heavenly Craftsman walked over and patted his shoulder, then strode towards Zhunan. Gu Yu had retreated, the traitors had been purged, and the city boundary had been re-established. But the Moon Mother and the White Emperor were still high in the sky. Zuo Liangshi had done everything he could.
The rest was up to them.
They hurried across the sea, walking towards the brilliantly lit Zhunan, feeling as if they were walking towards a sun floating on the sea.
The sun leaped out of the water!
Jun Changwei and Old Heavenly Craftsman looked up at the same time. Everyone in the nine cities of Zhunan looked up at the same time, and everyone’s pupils contracted abruptly. In the direction of Lacquer-Wu Mountain, the seawater for thousands of kilometers was pushed to the left and right. The waves rose into high walls and then crashed down. A Golden Crow Bird with a wingspan of three thousand meters grasped a heavenly rope in its talons, carrying the sun on its back.
Midnight was as bright as day!
A cry resounded through heaven and earth, not the cry of the Golden Crow, but of another divine bird.
A divine bird that could rival the Three-Legged Golden Crow!
…The Scripture Woman and the Moon Mother raised a divine bird called the Yuan. It could stop the sun and moon.
The words Zuo Liangshi had spoken flashed through his mind.
“A Yuan Bird!”
The moment he witnessed the second sky-blotting bird take flight, Jun Changwei suddenly understood what Mister Xi meant by “Obscuring the Twelve Continents,” and what the White Emperor and the Moon Mother were waiting for… They were waiting, waiting for the Red Emperor Gu Yu to distort the sky, waiting for the celestial dome to be twisted and the sun’s orbit to change, waiting for the Golden Crow to carry the sun out at midnight.
They were going to completely steal the light of the Twelve Continents.
They were going to—
Hunt the sun!