Chapter 160 – Green Snake Three-Foot Sword
The wind was fierce and the rain heavy. Lightning illuminated the black mountains and white sea, and also the girl’s delicate, youthful face.
Her hair was as white as snow, her pupils crimson-gold, yet cold green scales grew at the corners of her eyes. Her skin exuded an icy chill, and her snow-white robe, adorned with strange patterns, was whipped by the wind. In the wind, the silver bells on her wrists and ankles chimed with an ethereal, distant sound.
The wind flowing from her fingertips carried a bone-chilling cold.
Wherever the wind passed, icicles formed.
The disciples of the Beast Taming Sect had not yet had time to be surprised that the leader of the West Sea Demons was such a young-looking girl before they found themselves in the face of a terrifyingly cold wind. They had lived in the West Continent for many years and should have been accustomed to the long winters. But when the wind, having swept past the girl’s fingers, blew towards them, the bitter cold in it still made them shiver uncontrollably.
—That kind of cold could freeze blood! It could even freeze bones to the point of cracking!
The Stopping Clouds Peak’s supervising elder, Wu Chu, recognized the newcomer. His face darkened, and he squeezed out the words through gritted teeth, “It’s you, Nu Mie.”
The mountain gate was in an uproar.
A strong wind fell, and a dozen figures rushed over from the eight trigram mountains. As soon as they appeared, they immediately summoned their respective magical artifacts. The bitter cold suddenly receded, and only then did the disciples of the Beast Taming Sect realize who was before them.
The Cold Wilderness Nation!
Nu Mie!
—At the end of the West Sea, perpetually covered in ice, lies the Ancient Sea. In the Ancient Sea, there is a nation named the Cold Wilderness.
In the nation, there are two who worship the gods: one is the Female Priestess, and the other is the Nu Mie.
The Annals of the Ancient Sea recorded that there was once a cultivator who was passionate about geography and geomancy. He was determined to explore the sea boundary of the West Continent, so he ventured through the glaciers of the northwest corner and followed the desolate ice sea all the way. After flying on his sword for forty-nine days, a vast white ice vein suddenly appeared in his vision, lying like a giant dragon, stretching for hundreds of kilometers. The cultivator thought it was just a floating iceberg like the ones he had encountered before, so he planned to rest there for a while.
The moment he lit a bonfire, the snow and ice collapsed.
The mountain ridge cracked open, and white-haired monsters with scales on their hands and feet emerged.
Only then did the cultivator know that he had reached the end of the outer sea of the West Continent.
In the Ancient Sea, one only saw the black sky, not the white sun. Countless ice shells as large as continents floated on the deep black sea surface. A bitterly cold storm blew out from the cracks in the ice shells, the very same harsh wind that would sweep across the entire West Continent once autumn had passed. The harsh wind stirred up a vast snow tide. The snow tide fell in flurries, each snowflake as large as a mat.
The Cold Wilderness Clan of the West Sea Demons lived here.
They were a branch of the descendants of the ancient ice-age Shi Yi.
They inherited the Shi Yi’s preference for ice and cold.
The ice and snow on the mountains of the West Continent melted after the heavenly pillars were established, and the melted snow became rivers. The warmth-loving beasts and birds remained on the mainland, while the clans that preferred the shade and cold migrated to the northwest. The Cold Wilderness Clan traveled the farthest, all the way to the end of the northwest corner of the mortal realm, before stopping at the source of the harsh wind. They breathed the harsh wind and chewed on the profound ice. The cold of the extreme abyss permeated the flesh and bones of the Cold Wilderness Clan.
Occasionally, the Cold Wilderness Clan would also appear in the coastal waters near the continent. Whenever they appeared, the ice season of that year would be longer and colder than usual. However, such cases were few and far between, even when flipping through the Annals of the West Continent. Therefore, to the people of the West Continent, they were more like a distant and mysterious dream from ancient times.
But for the disciples of the Beast Taming Sect, who had to go north every year to guide the whales to break the ice, the Cold Wilderness Nation was not too unfamiliar.
Within the sect, almost everyone had heard one or two related legends.
Some said that the great demons of the Cold Wilderness could overturn the sea and turn mulberry fields into a vast ocean. Others said that the great demons of the Cold Wilderness waded through the sea with icebergs on their backs to temper the muscles they used to fight with dragon turtles and the like… The stories varied, but they all proved the strength of the great demons of the Cold Wilderness.
“Nu Mie,” Elder Wu Chu’s voice was stern and severe, “This sect, mindful of the great righteousness of your esteemed nation in guarding the Ancient Sea, has always held you in high regard, sincerely believing we were allies…”
His words came to an abrupt halt.
The rain curtain was shattered.
The white-haired, silver-robed figure flashed by like a ghost, appearing directly in front of Elder Wu Chu in the next moment. Accompanied by the sound of silver bells and a loud clash of metal, a series of dark red sparks burst forth in the sudden darkness between lightning flashes. Elder Wu Chu was thrown back heavily against the cliff wall, which cracked and caved in.
Nu Mie floated in the air, her left hand, as white as snow, pressed against his crossed bronze arms.
The arrogance and anger on Elder Wu Chu’s face had now completely vanished.
All that remained was a sense of utter horror.
The Beast Taming Sect had eight schools and eight methods. The most powerful technique, besides enslaving a hundred beasts to intimidate the four directions, was a method of “grafting flowers onto a tree,” a new method that had emerged after the sect had embarked on the path of enslaving demons a thousand years ago. It involved transferring the divine abilities of the contracted demonic beast to oneself to compensate for the disciples’ shortcomings in close combat, and was called “Where They Differ, I Shall Obtain.”
The method of “grafting flowers onto a tree” was somewhat unorthodox in its execution, so it had often been a point of contention within the sect. It wasn’t until twelve years ago, after the Night of Dusk and Dawn’s Division, when the Thirty-Six Islands entered Qing Province, that the Beast Taming Sect officially recognized this technique and no longer suppressed its development. And this Elder Wu Chu was a staunch proponent of this path. His pair of bronze arms came from the Ravine Mountain Ao Beast, which was known for its “bronze armor, immense strength, and ability to lift mountains and tread rivers.” In terms of defensive strength, he could be ranked in the top three within the sect.
Fine lines of blood seeped out from under the bronze scales of his arms.
Elder Wu Chu felt as if he were holding back a sea—the force coming from the girl’s small palm was as terrifying as an overturning sea! A bone-chilling cold quickly climbed up from the point of contact, and white cracks appeared on the bronze scales as they froze. No, this can’t go on.
Otherwise, he would surely die!
Just as Elder Wu Chu decisively decided to sacrifice his arms to save his life, Nu Mie looked up. Her crimson-gold pupils were cold and cruel, and her lips curled into a smile full of malicious mockery.
…Not good!
As the thought flashed through Elder Wu Chu’s mind, a piercing cold stabbed into his internal organs simultaneously.
Nu Mie’s pale fingers suddenly grew long, their sharp, hook-like claws piercing through Elder Wu Chu’s chest. The smile on her lips widened, and as her lips parted, she let out a crisp popping sound, like a child’s prank:
“Pop!”
“Elder Wu!!!”
The disciples of the Beast Taming Sect, who had just calmed down a little, suddenly cried out in unison, their voices filled with terror.
“How dare you!” The elders at the side were both shocked and furious. Forgetting to maintain the formation to resist the harsh wind, they turned their magical artifacts and smashed them down on Nu Mie, who had entered the second peak alone.
“Hahahahahaha…”
Amidst the blatant, malicious laughter, Elder Wu Chu on the cliff wall exploded from the inside out with a “bang,” turning into a shower of white ice shards. In the swirling ice dust, her long, ankle-length white hair fluttered. Nu Mie retreated as lightly as a piece of paper, and the lightning illuminated her hands, which were curled into claws.
The elder who had attacked paused.
The instinct of death loomed over him. On the sea surface, tens of thousands of giant bows were drawn and aimed at the same time. The sound of tens of thousands of taut bowstrings converging was a strange, scalp-numbing sound. In the blinding light of the lightning, the demon-like beings of the Cold Wilderness Nation, with their white hair, had bone spears nocked on their bowstrings, the spearheads as sharp and cold as teeth.
Drip.
Nu Mie landed lightly on the top of the whale’s skull, a bloody heart clutched in her pale hand.
The heart was still beating, as if it were still alive.
Nu Mie flipped her hand, palm facing up. The stiff and immobile elder, along with the other Beast Taming Sect disciples, could now clearly see the heart she was holding. The heart was indeed still beating, and warm blood spurted from the severed blood vessels. The flesh of the heart twisted into a human face.
That face was identical to Elder Wu Chu’s, who had just exploded into a cloud of snow dust.
—At the same time she had gouged out his heart, Nu Mie had used some unknown means to rip out Elder Wu Chu’s soul and trap it within his heart.
In the storm, the sound of teeth tearing at flesh and the shrill screams of a living soul were exceptionally clear.
The disciples of the Beast Taming Sect all turned pale.
Demonic beasts devouring humans was a long-standing occurrence, and the disciples of the Beast Taming Sect, who tamed and used demons, were accustomed to seeing living people being gnawed on by demonic beasts. But a scene like this, where even the soul was gouged out, was something even most of the elders had never seen before. In addition to the terror and gruesomeness, they felt a chill rise up from their bones.
For a moment, no one spoke again.
Nu Mie chewed on the still-beating heart, one bite at a time. The shrill screams of the living soul, the scarlet blood dripping down Nu Mie’s pale fingers. She methodically gnawed on the living heart, her eyes fixed on the elders who had rushed over, the vicious golden light in her pupils cold and venomous.
The last scream disappeared between her pearly white teeth.
Nu Mie unhurriedly licked the remaining blood from her fingertips, seemingly still not satisfied.
“Cannibalism…” In the rain washing over the peaks, someone murmured, “Ancient vicious demons fed on humans, devouring their flesh and blood, swallowing their souls, tearing with teeth and claws. Those devoured by them could not…”
In the roar of the storm and the raging sea, Nu Mie, who was licking her fingers, suddenly turned her head. Through the heavy rain, she instantly locked onto the disciple who was speaking.
Meeting those savage golden, non-human eyes, a vicious killing intent rushed towards him.
That disciple was so frightened that he collapsed on the spot, screaming in panic, “Don’t eat me! Don’t eat me! I just joined the sect, I haven’t killed any demons—”
Thud.
The panicked disciple’s voice suddenly stopped.
A hand as white as jade pressed down on his shoulder.
Nu Mie’s long hair swayed by her feet. She remained where she was, her now-clean five fingers hanging by her side, her eyes slightly narrowed as she stared at the person who had appeared silently behind the Beast Taming Sect disciple. The newcomer was dressed as a Daoist priest, wearing a wide-sleeved blue cloth Daoist robe, a hemp belt tied around his waist, and black cloth shoes on his feet. His features were not particularly outstanding, easily forgotten upon seeing.
The blue-robed Daoist priest seemed to possess some kind of calming power.
The moment he appeared, the cold air in the air quietly receded like winter snow meeting spring. The disciple’s panic subsided for the most part, and the Beast Taming Sect elders, who had been on high alert, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and hurriedly bowed in greeting.
“Greetings, Grandmaster Taiqian.”
“Greetings, Grandmaster Taiqian.”
“…”
Hearing this, the disciples finally realized who the newcomer was.
The immortal sects of the Twelve Continents, apart from the Taiyi Sect, which revered the Divine Lord as its martial ancestor and whose ancestor often roamed the Twelve Continents, all had several martial ancestors who were in seclusion and whose life and death were unknown to outsiders, guarding the mountain gates. This was also the biggest difference between immortal sects and rogue cultivators in the martial world. A sect with a history of ten thousand years, who knew how many trump cards such a sect had hidden.
The disciples of the Beast Taming Sect had always heard that there were several martial ancestors of the “Tai” generation in the sect who were in seclusion, and would not come out unless the sect was facing a life-or-death situation. Now was the first time they had seen a living martial ancestor with their own eyes, and also the first time they knew that one of the still-living martial ancestors in the mountain gate was Grandmaster Taiqian.
Grandmaster Taiqian, this name was not unfamiliar to the disciples of the Beast Taming Sect.
According to the sect’s mountain annals, it was this martial ancestor who had presided over the unprecedented plan of setting the mountains as trigrams and moving the mountains as floodgates, constructing the hundred-acre Dragon Head Lake. Thus, in the study of wind caves, he had completed the “dotting of the dragon’s eye.” Once the Dragon Head Lake was completed, the long vein of the West Continent’s feng shui was activated, and this act was praised by the Twelve Continents as a “great act of goodness.”
However, Grandmaster Taiqian’s act of changing the mountains and dotting the acupoints was a matter of several thousand years ago. No one had expected him to still be quietly guarding the sect.
While some people’s minds were greatly settled by the appearance of Grandmaster Taiqian, some other clever people had already keenly sensed that the meaning behind this attack was obscure.
—It seemed to be more than just a struggle between the Demon Race and the immortal sects.
“Nu Mie, the god-worshipper,” Grandmaster Taiqian spoke, his voice calm and unruffled, as if everything that was happening was just a trivial episode in the long history of the Beast Taming Sect. “This sect, mindful of the great righteousness of your esteemed clan in guarding the Ancient Sea, respects you as a god and holds you in high regard, sincerely believing we are allies, and has never once set foot in the cold wilderness of the Ancient Sea. Why have you slaughtered the people of our continent, devoured the elders of our sect, and invaded our mountain gate? Do you wish to—”
“Sincerely believing we were allies?”
Nu Mie’s five fingers were already clean. From her hair to her feet, she was a uniform frosty white, with only her lips being scarlet, still retaining the ferocity of having just gnawed on a living heart. Her bare toes touched the puddle of rain that had accumulated on the Yun-Whale’s skull, and the edges of her ankles splashed up turbid water.
“You lowly, ugly, stinking maggots…”
“Are also worthy of being our allies?!”
Grandmaster Taiqian’s robes fluttered lightly, his expression unchanged.
An elder behind him immediately shouted angrily, “In the presence of our martial ancestor, how dare a mere evil demon be so audacious!”
“Hahahaha! Ha!” Nu Mie, like a mischievous child who had discovered something particularly amusing, clapped her hands and laughed loudly. The sound of her laughter, her clapping, and the tinkling of the silver bells on her wrists echoed. She pointed at the elder and laughed. “Look at you chameleons! When you meet the strong, you’re like cicadas in the cold, trembling without wings to spread. Only when you have the upper hand do you become arrogant!… You people, don’t you also like to watch monkeys climb frames and perform tricks? Ha! What tricks are you watching, what fire torches are you playing with! Go to the water’s edge and take a look at yourselves. Which mountain’s monkeys can perform a better joke than you!”
“You!”
The elders who had spoken out were instantly flushed with anger, their beards and eyebrows trembling.
An elder, in a fit of rage, cursed without thinking, “What yellow-haired brat dares to speak so brazenly here?! Today, if this old man doesn’t get justice for my junior brother, I swear I am not a man!”
As he spoke, the twelve golden rings on his wrist flew off, transforming in the wind into a three-headed, six-winged strange bird, a green, yellow, red, and black Ba snake, a human-faced tiger with a beast’s body and fiery teeth… The bird chirped, the tiger roared, and the twelve imposing tamed beasts, trailing twelve different colored lights, rushed towards the Yun-Whale’s bone in an instant.
The tiger pounced, the bird swooped, the snake coiled. The killing intent was imminent. Nu Mie did not retreat or advance, but only clapped her hands three times.
Clap!
Around the Yun-Whale’s skeleton, the heavy rain curtain suddenly froze.
Clap!
The lightning illuminated the rain lines, and dense ice lines fell from the sky, connecting the sea and the sky. The figures of the twelve tamed beasts were frozen in mid-air, and countless fine lines of blood shot out from their bodies.
Clap!
All the ice lines shattered into ice crystals, and along with the twelve tamed beasts that were nailed in mid-air, they exploded into twelve strange, red and white blood flowers, bewitchingly magnificent.
The elder standing respectfully behind Grandmaster Taiqian immediately spat out a mouthful of blood mist, his aura suddenly weakening. He staggered back several steps before he could barely stand firm again, his face filled with horror. When Wu Chu had been killed by a misstep before, it could be said that the other party had succeeded with a surprise attack. But this time, he had clearly taken the initiative to attack, yet he had been defeated just as easily.
The strength and strange methods of the god-worshipper of the Cold Wilderness Nation, which had only existed in records, exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Grandmaster Taiqian casually waved his sleeve, lightly wiping away the ice dust and blood mist.
His gaze swept over the silver bells on Nu Mie’s wrists and ankles. It seemed that he had confirmed something through her two attacks. “Legend has it that when the West Pole was established, it coincided with the beacon fires of the Central Plains. The Celestial Wedge fell much further south than expected, causing the seawater to be unstable and the harsh wind to emerge. The Divine Lord was concerned about the northward-migrating clans of the West Sea, so he forged two sacrificial vessels, one called Bing Yi and the other Yu Xi, and bestowed them upon the migrating clans. It seems this is one of those two sacrificial vessels? I wonder if it is Bing Yi or Yu Xi?”
“You maggot actually have some knowledge.”
Nu Mie tilted her head and suddenly smiled.
It wasn’t the mocking, maniacal laughter of before, but a crisp, pleasant laugh. If one didn’t look at her blood-stained lips and the purple scales on her hands and feet, she would look just like a beautifully carved little girl.
Her tone suddenly became somewhat sweet, and when she smiled, two small dimples even appeared on her cheeks. “It’s Bing Yi, the Bing Yi Bell that the Divine Lord gave to my West Sea Demons back then. We sea demons, from the first clan of Shi Yi to the miscellaneous fish and shrimp, all love bells the most, the most, the most!
“So, the Divine Lord forged them into bells for us.”
She shook her wrist, and the silver bells jingled.
Tinkle, tinkle.
…Tinkle, tinkle.
Exquisite silver bells hung on the ancient, towering tree, jingling crisply as they were blown by the sea wind.
The outermost floating island of the West Continent’s islands was situated in the vast icy sea. The island was devoid of grass, insects, birds, and beasts, as silent as death. The only tree, so tall it could almost touch the heavens, was a dead one. The dead tree had withstood the wind and cold without falling, but was covered in a thick layer of grayish-white ice.
Shi Yi sat cross-legged under the tree, and the Divine Lord sat on his shoulder. After hanging the silver bells, he reached out and plucked them a couple of times.
Tinkle, tinkle.
Shi Yi imitated him, reaching out his huge, rough hand and carefully plucking them a couple of times as well.
Tinkle, tinkle.
“…The position of the West Pole’s heavenly wedge is still a bit too far south.” The Divine Lord tilted his head up, watching the bells sway left and right on the icy branches. “Otherwise, the feng shui of the West Continent would be connected, and the life force of the earth veins would no longer be interrupted by the sea and mountains, but would dive into the ocean, crisscrossing north and south. The Ruo Tree would be revived at the moment the life force is connected. Its trunk would be as red as jade, and the flowers it blooms would be like fire, but its leaves would be as green as emerald.”
“…When the Ruo Tree revives, its brilliance will shine for a hundred miles, and a hundred birds will come chasing the light, landing among the flowers and leaves. They will bring seeds from other places. When the seeds fall on the island, during the lulls in the harsh wind, they will sprout and grow, blooming into a sea of purple and red. Although it will be brief, it will be no different from the spring and summer of the southern continents…”
The Divine Lord had traveled for many years, and as he spoke, it was as if he could already hear the melodious chirping of a hundred birds and the rustling of a hundred flowers blooming.
It was a scene that the ancient sea demon race, who could only live in the cold of winter, had never seen in their lives.
Tinkle, tinkle…
Shi Yi, who was enormous in size and came from a land of snow but loved flowers and plants the most, could not speak and could only listen quietly as he described it. It carefully cupped its giant hands, covering the few inconspicuous bells.
As if it were an unopened flower, an unsprouted bud.
…I want to see the Ruo Tree revive, I want to see a hundred flowers bloom.
The Divine Lord had to leave.
When he left, he was clearly burdened with a thousand matters, yet his eyes were still curved in a smile, and he said, “From now on, I’ll leave the northwest corner to you.”
Shi Yi nodded.
Nodded and nodded again.
He was so clumsy and awkward it was laughable. The Divine Lord smiled, turned to leave, but then stopped. After a moment of silence, he added softly, “If you can’t hold on, then don’t. Remember to leave.”
…That was the prelude to everything, the eve of the earth being engulfed in strife.
The white-robed Divine Lord walked into the raging fire.
And never came back.
All that was left was the bitterly cold sea of the northwest, the dead Ruo Tree, and the mountain-like Shi Yi guarding the bells that rang day and night.
Tinkle, tinkle.
“Isn’t it beautiful?”
Nu Mie touched her toes in the sewage and spun lightly, making the bells on her ankles and wrists ring together. She asked with a beaming smile, like a child showing off a beloved treasure.
Lightning flashed and thunder roared, and the world was covered in snow.
The corpses of humans and demons rose and fell, carried by the currents, flowing through the gap between the first and second mountain ranges of the West Continent’s dragon head mountain group. The severed limbs of the tamed beasts and the flesh and blood of the Beast Taming Sect disciples crashed against the mountain rocks and were caught by the slanting grass and trees.
Grandmaster Taiqian held the line, and the elders either summoned golden rings or waist tokens. In the distance, the eight trigram mountains moved, and the water shifted, and rocks rolled into rivers. The dragon turtles and other monstrous creatures had gathered behind the white-haired demons of the Cold Wilderness Clan, their scales dense, rising and falling with the water, like a million soldiers in formation, or like the opening of the Netherworld, with the vengeful souls of the drowned climbing ashore in the torrential rain.
Swords were drawn and bows were bent, and the killing intent was on the verge of erupting.
But on this battlefield of life and death, Nu Mie was spinning on her own, like a carefree child. Her long white hair and sacrificial robes swirled open like a blooming flower.
On the mountain peak of the Beast Taming Sect, an impatient elder and a disciple shifted their feet.
“The whole body is like a mouth hanging in the void, regardless of the east, west, south, or north wind, it speaks of the wisdom that did not ferry for him, ding dong ding dong ding ding dong. The Chan school of Buddhism regards the bell as a symbol of ‘awakening’ and ‘great joy.’ Silver,” Grandmaster Taiqian’s gaze darkened slightly, “The Divine Lord bestowed the Bing Yi Bell upon the Cold Wilderness Clan, a truly painstaking effort.”
“Yes, who would have thought that the Divine Lord would forge such an important sacrificial vessel as the Bing Yi into such inconspicuous little bells,” Nu Mie tilted her head and gave a strange smile. “Actually, you cultivators originally had a chance to get this pair of Bing Yi Bells, didn’t you?”
…The world has its corners, and the corners have their guardians.
The howling cold wind swept across the desolate island that was perpetually summerless.
There was always wind, always sound.
In the vast white world, the passage of time became blurred, and it was impossible to distinguish between years and months. Only the stone statue under the tree remained seated cross-legged. It is unknown when it began, but listening to the monotonous sound of the bells, it learned to take iron, stone, and white silver and forge bells in imitation of the Bing Yi left by the Divine Lord.
One, two, three…
More and more bells were hung on the Ruo Tree, and the original Bing Yi Bell was drowned in the sea of tinkling sounds. Unless one had watched over it for years, it was impossible to tell them apart.
Ten thousand years passed in a flash of wind.
The torrent of strife drowned the land, and blood and fire shattered the rivers and mountains. The heavenly ropes stretched across the sky.
In a world that was completely changed, only the isolated island far from the continent remained as it was.
The dead ancient tree, the stone statue sitting cross-legged with its fists clenched.
—Until the Bottomless Abyss Sword came from the north, and a man and a demon fought under the tree.
The man was an idiot, and the demon was an idiot too.
“What a pity,” Nu Mie’s smile deepened. “That idiot with the sword didn’t even guess what your real purpose was when you went to all that trouble to set him up to kill Shi Yi… The sacrificial Bing Yi was clearly right next to Shi Yi, yet he only refined Shi Yi into a stele to suppress the wind cave again and then left. Don’t you just grit your teeth in hatred when you think about it?”
Grandmaster Taiqian’s ever-peaceful expression finally changed, almost imperceptibly.
At first, the people of the Beast Taming Sect didn’t react, not knowing who the “idiot with the sword” she was talking about was. It wasn’t until the words “kill Shi Yi” were spoken that they suddenly realized. Instantly, whispers erupted on the mountain peak, so loud that even the sound of the wind and rain couldn’t suppress them—ever since Senior Brother Zeng Qing had been imprisoned in the water dungeon, there had been some rumors within the sect about the true cause of Sword Saint Gu Qingshui’s death.
“Silence!”
Seeing that the situation was not right, an elder immediately shouted an order.
Grandmaster Taiqian raised his hand and pressed down.
He suppressed the commotion behind him.
“Shi Yi was indeed not an evil demon.”
Grandmaster Taiqian’s voice spread through the rain, suppressing all the whispers. The disciples were stunned at first, then their faces showed even more surprise.
The reason why the late Elder Gu Qingshui was known as a “Sword Saint” in the West Continent was because a thousand years ago, in the northwest corner of the West Continent, an evil demon had caused trouble, stirring up wind and waves. The merchant ships on the twelve main sea routes of the West Sea suffered greatly, and the coastal cities outside the Changlan Bay were repeatedly ravaged.
For this reason, the Beast Taming Sect sent Elder Gu Qingshui to slay the evil demon and refine it into a stele.
The stele suppressed the wind cave.
For the next thousand years, the twelve sea routes were restored to peace, and merchant ships came and went like shuttles. The coastal cities of the West Continent quickly recovered to their pre-calamity prosperity. The Annals of the West Continent recorded this event, and at that time, everyone rejoiced. The Bottomless Abyss Sword Saint became famous for this. This matter even became a source of pride for the disciples of the Beast Taming Sect when they interacted with disciples from other immortal sects.
—However, tonight, Grandmaster Taiqian had personally overturned the Annals of the West Continent and admitted that the evil demon that Elder Gu Qingshui had slain back then was not evil!
Grandmaster Taiqian seemed not to have noticed the disciples’ bewilderment and continued to speak in a steady voice.
“A thousand years ago, Kongsang was powerful, and the Hundred Clans acted perversely, secretly altering the celestial orbit, causing the sun and moon to shift and the seasons to be out of order. The Wei Wind Wind Cave in the northwest corner was thus displaced, leading to the tragic sinking of a hundred ships on the twelve sea routes. Our sect also sent elders to negotiate with Shi Yi several times, trying to correct the wind cave, but Shi Yi refused to talk. Therefore, Qingshui raised his sword, Bottomless Abyss, and mistakenly killed Shi Yi.”
“…Th-then we should have requested the immortal sects to thoroughly investigate the celestial orbit!” a disciple couldn’t help but ask with a cry. “The Taiyi Sect can investigate the Heavenly Ropes, the Mountain Sea Pavilion can investigate, the Medicine Valley can investigate. Can’t our Beast Taming Sect investigate?”
Grandmaster Taiqian looked in the direction the voice came from.
On the second peak, on a cliff, a young man with a feather crown and a square face stood among a group of disciples. It was unknown whether it was because he realized his slip of the tongue or for some other reason, but his face was flushed, and he clenched his fists uneasily. The disciples next to him subconsciously moved away, and a few hesitated for a moment before staying by his side without moving.
“…We-we should have requested a thorough investigation of the celestial orbit.”
The feather-crowned youth stammered, insisting.
A thousand years ago, the truth about the Heaven Beyond Heavens and the Heaven-Herding Rope had not yet been revealed to the world, but if an immortal sect noticed that the sun, moon, and seasons were abnormal, they had the right to request a thorough investigation. The Beast Taming Sect had known so long ago that the celestial orbit was abnormal, that the sun and moon were abnormal, that Kongsang was abnormal, but the Beast Taming Sect had said nothing.
If not for the West Sea Demons attacking the mountain gate tonight, they would not have even known that long before the Mountain Sea Pavilion’s City Diviner Zhou Ziyan and Young Pavilion Master Zuo Yuesheng, their own sect had discovered the abnormality of the celestial orbit.
Next to the feather-crowned youth, a round-faced girl nervously tugged at the corner of his clothes, signaling him to stop talking.
“We should have investigated the celestial orbit, investigating the celestial orbit was the right thing to do…” The feather-crowned youth was on the verge of tears, his knuckles white.
Since the root of the problem was with the sun and moon, with the seasons, with Kongsang, then the celestial orbit should have been thoroughly investigated.
How could they…
How could they kill the innocent and meritorious great demon guarding the island?
If…
If at that time, the Beast Taming Sect had chosen not to kill Shi Yi, not to cover up the truth, then the truth would have been revealed a thousand years earlier. If the immortal sects had investigated the Hundred Clans a thousand years earlier, then would the dark night of twelve years ago have come? Would so many wilderness wanderers, so many mortals, so many cultivators not have died in the miasma of that dark night?
Would the enmity between the Beast Taming Sect and the West Sea Demons not have deepened to the extent it has today?
Would there still have been a chance to salvage everything?
The ceaseless lightning illuminated the feather-crowned youth’s pale face. Across the river of piled-up corpses, Nu Mie stood on the Yun-Whale’s skeleton, watching his pale, desperate face with indifference.
The Bing Yi Bell chimed in the wind.
A million bone spears, a million weapons.
“Yes,” Grandmaster Taiqian nodded. “For many years afterward, the sect often wondered if we should have requested a thorough investigation of the celestial orbit. However, since the establishment of the Heaven-Supervising Alliance Pact, for ten thousand years, the immortal sects have questioned Kongsang a total of four times…” He sighed. “Including the one twelve years ago, proposed by the Divine Lord, who was still the Taiyi Martial Ancestor, and the Young Pavilion Master of the Mountain Sea Pavilion, a total of four times.”
Ten thousand years. Four times.
“Every time Kongsang was questioned and the celestial orbit was investigated, it resulted in bloody battles across several continents and immense suffering for the living. The fourth time was no exception.”
“And a thousand years ago, the West Continent had just suffered an unprecedented great calamity of desolation. After the calamity, ten out of ten households in the continent’s cities were empty, and not even one in a hundred survived. Our sect was in a state of decline and disrepair. To avoid a new war, the then-Sect Master Yan Zun suppressed the news of the abnormal celestial orbit. Afterward, Sect Master Yan Zun took the blame and retired, severing his own great Dao at the Dragon Head Pool… This matter is indeed our Beast Taming Sect’s sin, but at that time, our Beast Taming Sect truly had no other path to take.”
Nu Mie sneered mockingly, “Good! What a ‘no other path to take’!”
Grandmaster Taiqian’s expression was calm. “I know that these words, spoken now, are just excuses.”
He paused slightly.
“Killing Shi Yi, hiding the truth, these are indeed sins. But if someone were to ask me if I regret it, my answer would be only one: No, absolutely not.” His voice suddenly rose, as hard as cold iron, reaching the ears of every disciple in the mountain gate. “If not for a thousand years of peace, how could the West Continent have revived?! If not for a thousand years without war, how could there be the prosperous cities of today! The responsibility for millions of common people rests on one sect. Though we bear the sin, we have no regrets.”
A muffled clap of thunder came from the direction of the eight trigram mountains.
Grandmaster Taiqian suddenly took a step forward, his robe sleeves billowing, whipping in the wind.
His tone had completely turned cold.
“It is the Beast Taming Sect’s sin, and the Beast Taming Sect accepts today’s karma. But you West Sea Demons, under the guise of peace talks, forced our sect’s Elder Gu Qingshui to leave the sect and go north to plead guilty. Now, Elder Gu Qingshui has died to atone for the blood feud between our two clans, yet you have gone back on your word, slaughtering thirty-six cities in the West Continent, causing endless bloody disasters, and invading our mountain gate. What is your explanation for this?!”
“Hahahahahahahaha—” Nu Mie threw her head back and laughed, laughing so hard she couldn’t stand up straight. “Good! Good! What a ‘though we bear the sin, we have no regrets’! What a resonant statement!! What a grand and magnificent statement! Good! Good!”
Grandmaster Taiqian’s face was as cold as ice.
“You have broken your promise and betrayed the alliance, forcing our sect’s elder to use his residual soul to guide his sword back to the mountain as a warning of his grievance. Though the karma is distant, the blood feud is already irreconcilable. Today, the Beast Taming Sect and you West Sea Demons will fight to the death!”
“Broken your promise and betrayed the alliance?” Nu Mie laughed, and with a flick of her hands, the two Bing Yi Bells flew off her wrists, transforming in the wind until they were as large as mountain bells. “Are you even worthy of speaking of alliances and promises?”
Grandmaster Taiqian swept his hands through the void, drawing out two gleaming white bone swords.
“What a pity!” he said coldly. “Back then, the Divine Lord bestowed upon you the Bing Yi Bell so that you could live in peace in the Ancient Sea, not so that you could slaughter the cities of the continent, leaving behind millions of corpses and countless refugees. What a waste of the Divine Lord’s good intentions, to be so thoroughly betrayed.”
“How interesting, how interesting,” Nu Mie stood on the slowly rising Yun-Whale skeleton, the corpses of the Yun-Whale City residents hanging from it swaying in the waterfall-like stream of water. “You betrayed him, and we betrayed him. We’re all treacherous bastards. Why are we laughing at the pot calling the kettle black here?”
A frosty light flowed over the bone swords, and the phantom of a demonic beast churned behind Grandmaster Taiqian, as if it would rush out at any moment and turn from illusion to reality.
—The hatred between the two sides had long been irreconcilable. The conversation just now, whether casual or tense, had its own purpose, its own plan.
Streaks of water arrows shot out from the turbulent sea surface.
During the conversation between the two sides, thousands of strange sea demons with human bodies and fish tails had already lurked under the second continuous mountain range, clinging to the cliff walls. Now, they suddenly unfolded their bird-like fins, holding green sabers, and shot straight up the rugged mountain cliffs. Wherever they passed, their two sharp green sabers left a long bloody line.
“Kill!”
A cold blue formation seal crashed down.
A Red Elephant as large as a mountain rushed out of the formation, roaring at the sky. The Red Elephant stepped on the mountain rocks submerged by the sea and river, and its towering figure suddenly formed an indestructible defensive wall.
The Bing Yi Bell rang.
The sound was no longer ethereal, no longer crisp.
It was as cold and gloomy as a soul-guiding bell from the Netherworld.
Amidst the ringing of the bell, black mist rose from the turbulent water surface. In the black mist, the people and demons who had just died suddenly stood up from the water, opening their dark, lightless eyes—it was unknown what means Nu Mie had used, but the power of the Bing Yi Bell she controlled showed no divine light, but was instead gloomy and strange.
“What do you think the Divine Lord would feel if he saw the object he bestowed being used to brew such a blood debt?” Grandmaster Taiqian shouted.
“I know what you’re up to,” Nu Mie was still laughing, her laughter echoing with a hint of light. “You just want us to hate him!”
“You don’t hate him?” Grandmaster Taiqian gripped the hilt of his bone sword, the phantom behind him boiling. “That’s really strange. I’ve heard that the demon race of the Thirty-Six Islands all hate him to the bone. If you don’t hate him, why would you go against his wishes today, starting a war and causing such slaughter? Are the West Sea Demons and the Thirty-Six Islands so different?”
“We don’t hate him,” Nu Mie was still laughing, and with a sharp clap of her hands, she shouted, “Fire the arrows!”
The great demons of the Cold Wilderness simultaneously released their bowstrings. The bone spears shot through the air, and the strong wind they created lifted their white hair.
Ten thousand arrows were fired at once!
The Red Elephant roared in anger.
Driven by the blood contract, the Red Elephants stood firm against the sky-covering rain of stark white arrows. They were clad in heavy armor, but the bone spears pierced through it, embedding themselves in their flesh. The elephant herd, which had once been able to break through city walls and slaughter entire cities, was extraordinarily powerful. Even after being struck by hundreds of bone spears, they still stood tall.
However, the moment the first bone spear was fired, the great demons of the Cold Wilderness had already nocked a second bone spear on their bowstrings.
The sound of the bowstrings never ceased, and the rain of arrows never stopped.
As the Bing Yi Bell rang, a loud sound of mountains collapsing and the earth splitting came from the direction of the eight trigram mountains.
The entire West Continent’s dragon head thousand peaks mountain range, where the Beast Taming Sect’s main sect was located, trembled. The constantly rising water surface seemed to have exploded like a pot. The strong wind suddenly changed direction, no longer blowing from the West Sea Demons’ side towards the Beast Taming Sect’s battle line… No, to be more precise, an even more violent gale suddenly burst out from between the eight trigram mountains.
The wind was so strong that it forcibly suppressed the harsh wind coming from the northwest.
At the same time, a dazzling silver light slowly rose from within the Beast Taming Sect’s main sect. The light was so dazzling that it was as if a silver full moon had risen in the dark night.
As the silver moon rose, outside the Beast Taming main sect.
On a nameless peak, a young man in a black robe and white crown, sitting cross-legged, suddenly opened his eyes.
…A Rong.
The weeping three-legged little silver dragon coiled around the Divine Lord’s wrist, vowing, “Wait! One day, I will have many, many more dragon horns than you.”
Many, many more.
***
Silver light emerged from between the mountains, spilling over the turbulent sea surface. Wherever the light shone, except for the white-haired great demons of the Cold Wilderness, the attack speed of the other demon races clearly became sluggish. Some of the lower-level turtle and dragon species even prostrated themselves on the water’s surface, unable to move.
“As expected…”
Nu Mie’s crimson-gold pupils reflected the silver moon that had just risen from between the mountains, and she murmured to herself.
She gazed at the silver moon, her right hand reaching into the void as if grasping something. Then, slowly, as if with great difficulty, she began to drag it out, bit by bit.
Is it finally going to appear?
The second sacrificial vessel that the Divine Lord had left for the migrating tribes of the ancient ice plains?
Opposite her, Grandmaster Taiqian’s expression turned cold. He halted the bone sword that was about to strike and cautiously retreated.
Clang—
Nu Mie abruptly let go, seemingly unable to fully control the second sacrificial vessel she had pulled from the void. The moment she released it, the deep, resonant sound of bronze vibrated in everyone’s ears, and even the rain curtain rippled outwards.
A zun-vessel!
It was a three-legged bronze zun-vessel, its belly carved with fish patterns, shaped like a bronze cauldron!
In ancient times, the Divine Lord had forged nine cauldrons to stabilize the continents of the Twelve Continents. Now, this three-legged, fish-patterned bronze zun-vessel, which bore a three-tenths resemblance to the nine cauldrons, had just appeared, and the pressure emanating from the silver dragon’s inner pill was instantly suppressed.
“What a painstaking effort,” seeing another sacrificial vessel of such importance appear, Grandmaster Taiqian held his bone sword, his tone no longer able to maintain its composure, now tinged with a gloomy shadow. “A pity…”
“All for naught!”
In the rain of arrows and thunder, the bone sword struck down, and the Yun-Whale’s skeleton soared into the air.
After many years, Nu Mie, who was bringing both sacrificial vessels out of the Ancient Sea for the first time, stood on the top of the Yun-Whale’s skull, her arms spread wide, as if to embrace her enslaved kin, or perhaps just to let the storm wash away her anger.
The blood on her lips had been washed away by the rain. In the pale light of the lightning, her upturned face was still just a youthful, unblossomed one.
She was smiling.
Smiling with all her might.
“We don’t hate him—”
He was the Divine Lord who led them out of the darkness when their minds were not yet opened. He was the Divine Lord who lit a bonfire on the ice plains and sang and drank with them.
How could they hate him?
The bone sword struck down in mid-air, and the Yun-Whale’s skeleton turned in mid-air.
The skeleton, as huge as a mountain, crashed through the rushing demonic beasts. The corpses hanging from its frame, like maggots, rained down, pattering… Seven hundred years ago, an injured whale was stranded in the Changlan Bay. A merchant ship heading for Zhunan stopped. The merchant’s abacus clattered as he calculated how many tens of thousands of gold he could get for this rare whale meat in the treasure pavilions of Zhunan.
There was a poor, remote fishing village nearby.
The sound of silver and gold being sprinkled was tinkling, and the sound of sickles and kitchen knives colliding while cutting meat and pulling out tendons was also tinkling.
The merchant returned with a full ship, and the fishermen returned with full pockets. With real silver and gold, they hired cultivators who could help them drive wedges into the hard rock, and a city praised as a “pearl” was built in the new moon bay.
All that was left was the moving legend of the whale god’s flesh and blood turning into dust of light, of a whale fall giving birth to ten thousand things.
Seven hundred years later, it became a flourishing object of worship.
The whale bone and the bone sword collided, making a huge sound.
Nu Mie leaped up, spinning in the rain curtain, and drew a glittering soft sword from the jade belt at her waist.
“We just…”
The soft sword cut through the rain lines, its blade splashing a circular arc of blood.
“—don’t want to hurt anymore!”
The skeleton of the Yun-Whale, stripped clean of its flesh and blood, fell back into the sea, splashing up high waves. Most of the hanging corpses fell off, and along with the corpses, the grass, trees, and vines that had grown over the past seven hundred years, the strange flowers and plants that were regarded as the “whale fall giving birth to ten thousand things,” also fell off. After everything had been stripped away, the scars from the sword cuts on the whale bone could be vaguely seen.
The soft sword and the bone sword collided, and both sides were thrown back at the same time.
Nu Mie landed on the top of the whale bone that had floated up to catch her. In the rain, her crimson-gold pupils seemed to be burning, yet also seemed to be extinguishing.
On the second mountain range, the first Red Elephant finally collapsed with a roar, its body riddled with dense bone spears.
After the Red Elephant fell.
The feather-crowned youth who had questioned earlier was pierced through the throat by a bone spear.
He gripped the bone spear, his eyes wide open, pinned to the cold cliff wall. Blood slowly flowed from between his fingers, and the rain washed over his dilated pupils. The round-faced girl held his waist, crying and shouting something, but the sound of the rain was too loud, the sound of the thunder was too loud, and it could no longer be heard.
…It couldn’t be heard anymore.
The rain washed over her fingers, washing away the blood from slaying the tamed beast. Nu Mie stood in the rain, her face devoid of sorrow or joy.
The surface of the sea bobbed with the carefully protected and life-sacrificing whale god statues left behind by the later residents of Yun-Whale City. But they no longer wanted to see them… Mortals and cultivators alike, they worshipped them, loved them, hurt them, enslaved them, and killed them.
Divine Lord…
I’m sorry.
Mortals and cultivators may have truly given us good, beautiful, and sincere things, but we no longer want to endure these bad and painful things for that little bit of good.
“I’m sorry.”
The little round-faced girl pulled out the bone spear, held the corpse of the feather-crowned youth, and struggled to retreat with her fellow disciples. The rain washed the blood from her face. She untied the golden ring on her wrist, and with a toss, a streak of light shot out. A flood dragon leaped from the water, charging towards the oncoming, undead walking corpses.
Divine Lord, I’m sorry.
“But we…”
“don’t want to hurt anymore!”
In the wind and rain, Nu Mie rang the Bing Yi Bell for the second time.
Saber and sword, fang and claw.
The driven corpses and the contracted demonic beasts fought together. The constantly rising sea tide crashed against the mountain walls, and all kinds of huge sounds echoed repeatedly, drowning out each other’s shouts. The past had become very, very distant, and all that was left were the enemies at hand.
Only the newly dead ghosts sang the songs of old.
No one could hear them anymore.