Chapter 107 – The Mortal Moon and the Heaven Beyond Heavens
“Medicine Valley, Buddhist Sect,” the Bei Ge Clan Head laughed instead of getting angry. “Your two sects have some nerve. When the day comes that jade and stone are both destroyed and you have no place in the mortal realm, don’t you dare regret it!”
“Whether we have nerve or not is hard to say,” Monk Budu said with a grin. “But this poor monk eats meat before the Buddha and sleeps soundly at the foot of the pagoda. I should still have a bit of guts.”
Compared to Zen Master Wuding, who willingly took a blow from Shi Wuluo and had his thousand years of cultivation destroyed out of guilt, he was extremely young, and his cultivation was somewhat lacking. Yet at this moment, in his tattered robe, leading thirty-two monks in red kasayas to confront the Heaven-Herding Clan, he faintly exuded an extremely strange aura. The injuries left by Yue Mu’s palm strike had also vanished at some unknown time.
As he spoke, he took a step forward.
“The Buddha is fundamentally compassionate!”
A golden Buddha body appeared out of thin air, its light shining for thousands of meters.
The Bei Ge Clan Head was slightly taken aback.
Unlike the arrogant Taiyu Clan Head, he had always been cautious. After Monk Budu appeared in Zhunan and traveled with Chou Bodeng and the others, he had ordered people to investigate his background and movements, both openly and secretly. After reviewing the Buddhist Saint’s absurd deeds for two days and one night, besides the single night in Zhunan which was somewhat noteworthy, there was nothing else unusual. He was, for all intents and purposes, a wine-and-meat monk.
However, at this moment, the golden Buddha body appearing behind Monk Budu was not something a wine-and-meat monk should possess.
Before the Bei Ge Clan Head could figure it out, another figure descended from the sky.
“A cultivator who doesn’t even have a bit of courage…”
The female sword immortal raised her dark brows, carrying a three-foot sword of water on her back as she arrived, treading on red silk.
“Might as well go home and farm!”
One after another, graceful figures landed behind her.
Thirty-two people from Wind Flower Valley, here today to atone.
“Fairy Mo, your Dao Companion is a famous great scholar of the Twelve Continents. You’ve been bonded for centuries, so how is it that you still speak so unrefinedly?” Among the Beast Taming Sect, another tall man in a black robe landed to the north, holding a spear. As he landed, he turned to the ochre-robed Spear Chief and laughed, “Second Brother Lu is unworthy of being the world’s Spear Chief!”
More than twenty disciples of the Beast Taming Sect followed the tall man without looking back.
The ochre-robed Spear Chief, Lu Tang, who was mockingly called “Second Brother Lu,” had an ashen face. “Yu Shiyuan! How dare you be so insolent!”
“Fairy Mo’s words are crude but true…” Yu Shiyuan muttered, then burst into loud laughter. “Second Brother Lu, you should hurry home and farm! Save me the trouble of sending you on your way later!”
Amidst the laughter, another dozen or so people landed behind Yu Shiyuan.
“The Beast Taming Sect, here today to atone!”
“The Xuanqing Sect, here today to atone!”
“Longevity Manor…”
“…”
The sect banners fluttered and swayed, vaguely reminiscent of the grand spectacle of the Dao being preached on the misty Incomplete Mountain back then.
The Bei Ge Clan Head, however, just sneered repeatedly.
The final ray of divine light descended from the sky.
Within a thousand-li radius, the mountains and rivers all sank!
The members of the immortal sects confronting Kongsang’s Hundred Clans in the formation felt the qi and blood in their chests roil, and a great clamor of bells and drums sounded in their ears. Before the heavenly gods, mortals were like ants, and the common people were mere foot soldiers. Looking around, they could only see one after another of the divine statues standing majestically, their forms so immense, as if they were tens of thousands of meters tall, that the entire world felt stagnant and fragile, as if the azure sky were just a layer of glass and the thick earth a sheet of thin paper.
It was said that in the Primeval Era, when the Divine Lord led the masses to establish the Four Poles, he ordered the Giant Spirit God to hold up the sky with his arms before calibrating their positions.
Now, it seemed the legend was true.
Among the four heavenly gods suppressing the four cardinal directions, the silver-armored, silver-speared god looked down upon the mortal realm and spoke a true word, “Shi Wuluo, as the Dao of this world, you should be impartial and just, loving all beings. Yet you have given in to selfish desires, taken on a physical form, and committed violent slaughter, creating vengeful souls. This is an act of self-destruction, and you will surely suffer the backlash!”
As his words fell, the thick earth sank, the mountain walls cracked, and lava flowed.
Shi Wuluo’s expression was cold and unmoved.
His black robes fluttered, his scarlet saber held level.
“Since the Heavenly Dao is selfish, how can it be worthy of being called the Heavenly Dao?” the red-faced, leopard-headed heavenly god guarding the west questioned majestically.
“A selfish Heavenly Dao is a heterodox path!” the golden-armored heavenly god guarding the east angrily pronounced judgment.
“A heterodox path must be severed, a crooked road must be shattered,” the four-armed heavenly god guarding the south said in a deep voice. “Disperse your form yourself, or you will surely be annihilated in both body and soul!”
“Annihilated in body and soul!”
Behind the four divine figures, eight Divine Soldiers and Heavenly Generals each spoke in unison. Their voices echoed back and forth, rolling like thunder, like a verdict from beyond the heavens.
The Bei Ge Clan Head gave a sneering smile to the solemn-faced Lu Chenchuan, Monk Budu, Mo Lingyu, and the others.
Let alone the fact that your immortal sects are not entirely of one mind, even if all of you were to repent today, all to be fearless of death, all to be daring to the extreme, it would be of no use.
One must know that there are always those who are stronger, and there is a heaven beyond the heavens.
Heaven Beyond Heavens!
***
Beyond the firmament of the Twelve Continents, there was another churning sea of clouds.
Within the sea of clouds, one could faintly see flight after flight of white jade stairs, flanked by glazed pavilions, colorful cloud halls, flying dragon towers, and yellow crane platforms, all layered and staggered. Between the palaces, one could see tigers, leopards, snakes, and pythons, as well as treasure trees and jade flowers—all ethereal sights that a mortal would never see in a lifetime. At the very top was a brilliantly lit divine shrine.
“All thirty-six armored gods have descended upon the Twelve Continents.”
A High God in red robes withdrew his hand.
A small patch of the sea of clouds at the end of the white jade Heavenly Staircase was parted, revealing a miniature version of the mountains and rivers of Yong Continent. Both large and small cities were as insignificant as specks of dust, let alone the teeming masses.
“So it’s a Nether Spirit evolved from a world,” a gold-robed High God said, gently shaking his head. “No wonder Pi Mu, a Son of an Emperor, was killed by him. If he were willing to submit to Heaven Beyond Heavens, with his strength in killing Pi Mu, he should be able to rank among the Upper Heaven, right?”
“I don’t think so.”
A jade-faced god beside him said playfully from within the colorful clouds.
“In my opinion, he should be a Mid-Heaven God.”
As the jade-faced god spoke, faint, low laughter could be heard from within the glazed, colorful clouds.
Immortal sects like the Xuanqing Sect referred to all gods summoned from Heaven Beyond Heavens as “High Gods,” little knowing that Heaven Beyond Heavens itself was divided into upper, middle, and lower heavens. At present, all those gathered before the divine shrine were, without exception, High-Heaven Gods. High-Heaven Gods resided high in the clouds and usually paid no heed to the requests of the mortal realm. Some time ago, Pi Mu, the son of the Red Emperor, had descended to the mortal realm as a High God to monopolize the spirit of the ancient Fu tree. Not only did he fail to obtain the Fu Spirit, but both his avatar and his divine tablet in the shrine were shattered.
This incident became a running joke in Heaven Beyond Heavens.
Jokes aside, all the High Gods gathered in the clouds knew with perfect clarity.
There was no such thing as “submission.” The human-shaped Heavenly Dao, having been discovered, was now a different matter. In the past, Heaven Beyond Heavens wouldn’t have gone to great lengths over his feud with Kongsang, at most occasionally lending a hand to the Hundred Clans. But now that his identity was exposed, Heaven Beyond Heavens would, no matter the cost, completely disperse this Nether Spirit of Heaven and Earth.
There was absolutely no room for maneuver.
The reason was hidden beneath the sea of clouds.
—Beneath the sea of clouds, millions of golden chains extended downward, converging into a single strand at the position corresponding to Kongsang in the center of the Twelve Continents. Then, guided by the bloodlines of the Hundred Clans, they passed, half-real and half-illusory, through the invisible boundary between the mortal realm and the world beyond, before suddenly fanning out, crisscrossing to form a net over the skies of the Twelve Continents.
Heaven Beyond Heavens was like a giant, ancient banyan tree growing in the sky, and the Heaven-Herding Ropes that descended into the mortal realm were its aerial roots.
Strand by strand, stream by stream.
The mortal realm’s qi, invisible to mortals, cultivators, and even many great demons, was drawn by the Heaven-Herding Ropes, trickling in a continuous stream into this sea of clouds in Heaven Beyond Heavens.
This was the true meaning of…
Herding the Heavens!
Therefore, the heavenly gods would absolutely not tolerate the birth of the mortal realm’s own Dao.
If the mortal realm had its own Dao, how could it allow them to take as they pleased?
“What a pity,” the red-robed High God who had parted the clouds sighed. “If only Incomplete Mountain had not been severed.”
Originally, Incomplete Mountain was the pillar of heaven and earth, and the upper and lower realms were not separate. If Incomplete Mountain had not fallen, they could have directly occupied a part of the mountains and rivers, refining them into their own blessed lands and grotto-heavens, without needing to go through the trouble of using the Heaven-Herding Rope to absorb qi bit by bit. Unfortunately, just as they had forged Incomplete Mountain into an eye for gathering qi, the white-robed Divine Lord returned from the Southern Chen.
He commanded the immortal sects to guard the eight directions.
Then he himself went alone with his sword and severed the peak of Incomplete Mountain.
Logically speaking, with the heavenly pillar destroyed and the upper and lower realms separated, the mortal realm should have suffered a great calamity of the sky falling and the earth collapsing. But no one had expected that the white-robed Divine Lord would ultimately choose to shatter his own body and bones to dissolve the calamity…
If the mortal realm had no Incomplete Mountain, then he would bear the sky!
Hearing the red-robed High God mention that being they all dreaded, many of the High Gods’ expressions soured.
In that battle back then, although the Divine Lord had fallen, he had also forced them to never again be able to personally descend into the mortal realm. This time, the descent of the thirty-six armored gods into Yong Continent was possible only by borrowing the bodies and bloodlines of their descendants left in the mortal realm, and by taking advantage of the turmoil in the mortal realm’s qi caused by the calamity of Zhunan. To this day, traces of the Divine Lord’s work remained in Heaven Beyond Heavens.
Originally, at the end of the Heavenly Staircase, there should have been a Heavenly Gate inscribed with the three words “Cloud City,” but it had been cut down by the Divine Lord’s sword.
The remnant sword qi had persisted for ten thousand years and could not be erased.
The former Divine Lord of the Clouds had been that powerful.
Amidst the heavy atmosphere, a god suddenly sneered, “Since this mortal realm of the Twelve Continents was jointly forged by the gods of the Cloud City, it is only right that the gods take the qi of the mortal realm to nourish themselves.”
What I have given, I shall receive.
Such a simple principle, why did the Divine Lord not understand?
The red-robed High God shook his head and said nothing.
He sat high in the clouds, looking down at the mortal realm.
In the mortal realm, the thirty-six armored gods formed a minor cosmic array. Shi Wuluo was at the very center, his eyes downcast, his hand on his saber, his pale, almost sickly fingers tapping along the blade. The members of the immortal sects stood in the eight trigram positions—Qian, Kun, Gen, Dui, Kan, Li, Xun, Zhen—to face the gods of the eight directions.
The red-robed High God couldn’t help but feel a sense of regret.
This Heaven-Herding Rope could have originally formed a watertight “Trapped Dragon Formation,” collecting all the qi gathered by the mortals into a cage. Unfortunately, after the Divine Lord was resurrected, he had severed the twelve key heavenly ropes that could have pinned down the Kui Dragon’s “life scale.”
Otherwise, this Nether Spirit of the Heavenly Dao, Shi Wuluo, would never have been able to successfully take form, let alone remain hidden for a thousand years without his true identity being discovered by Heaven Beyond Heavens.
However, it was also thanks to that severing of the heavenly ropes that the later confrontation between immortals and demons came to be. Now, the demon race’s hatred for the Divine Lord ran deep. If you, Divine Lord, had not severed the Heaven-Herding Rope, then mortal cultivators would have been stuck at the Law Guardian Stage. How then would my demon race have been forced to leave the Twelve Continents after the Middle Antiquity and migrate to the Thirty-Six Overseas Islands?
“Back when the four poles were being established, the demon race contributed quite a lot of effort.”
The red-robed High God muttered to himself.
Therefore, Divine Lord, your two falls were entirely your own doing!
Now, if you still persist in your delusion, it will be the third time.
As he spoke to himself, the red-robed High God’s expression turned cold. He reached out again, parting all the clouds corresponding to the Twelve Continents. After a moment of careful observation, he saw black clouds surging in the direction of the Southern Chen and turned his head to a Bronze Armored Soldier guarding the hole in the sea of clouds, “It’s time. Make your move.”
The Bronze Armored Soldier heard the command, slowly clenched his fist, passed it through the sea of clouds, and then opened his palm over the reflection of the Twelve Continents.
He pressed down from beyond the heavens towards the mortal realm.
The Divine Lord had drawn his sword three times and was now on the verge of death. Who could bear the sky for the mortal realm now?
Lan Continent was without a moon for five thousand kilometers.
Qing Province was without a moon for five thousand kilometers.
East Continent was without a moon for five thousand kilometers.
…
Yong Continent was without a moon for five thousand kilometers.
The shadow of the palm expanded, completely covering the entire Twelve Continents.
The mortal realm was without a moon.
A single hand blotting out the sky!
***
The mortal realm was without a moon, pitch black, save for the thirty-six thousand-meter-tall armored god statues shining with a dazzling, majestic light. They surrounded Shi Wuluo and the members of the immortal sects, shouting in unison, “A heterodox path must be severed, a crooked road must be shattered, kill!”
Ten thousand weapons descended at once.
Shi Wuluo looked up at the pitch-black sky. Heaven Beyond Heavens wished for nothing more than to be rid of him, and he, in turn, had been scheming to slaughter them all.
He pushed his scarlet saber forward, unyielding.
Come, let’s go mad! Let’s kill!