Chapter 43 – Ten Thousand Years of Immortal Sects, Taiyi is First

“How did you confirm it? Your arithmetic is terrible, and you’re clueless about calendar science. Don’t tell me you’re just guessing.”

After receiving an affirmative reply, Zuo Liangshi grabbed the wine he had poured for Jun Changwei, downed it in one gulp, and took out a bottle of pills, clutching it in his hand in advance.

“…Speak slowly, one thing at a time.”

Unlike his round and stout, troublesome son, Pavilion Master Zuo Liangshi was actually a handsome man with the air of a “willow swaying in the wind.” Dressed in wide robes and broad sleeves, drinking wine in the wind, he could be described as worldly and independent. Thinking about it, Zuo Yuesheng’s frequent boasts that he was a “handsome young man with a jade-like face” when he was thin suddenly seemed somewhat credible.

“Didn’t I tell you?”

Jun Changwei said faintly.

“I made a trip to the Northeast Corner.”

“You ascended the Vicious Plow Earth-Mound?” Zuo Liangshi’s expression changed slightly as he asked, “You didn’t get into a fight with the Scripture Woman and the Moon Mother, did you?”

The “corners” and “bends” referred to the extreme angles and curves on the border where the Twelve Continents were being devoured by the Great Wilderness. The eight corners and bends—due east, west, north, and south, as well as the four intermediate directions—were designated as the anchor points for the Twelve Continents’ directional coordinates, each marked by a mountain.

The anchor of the Eight Extremes in the Northeast Corner was called the “Vicious Plow Earth-Mound.”

The words “Vicious Plow” offered a glimpse of the peril of this place—in primeval times, it had been a battlefield between gods. It was said that a giant was beheaded here; its head was lost, and its body transformed into the mountain peak. The Vicious Plow Earth-Mound was home to many strange birds, vicious insects, and monstrous beasts. It wasn’t until it was designated as one of the Eight Extremes of the Twelve Continents that the Scripture Woman and Moon Mother of the Hundred Clans were ordered to move their entire clans here.

Legend had it that the clan chiefs of the Scripture Woman and Moon Mother clans were ageless and immortal.

When Zuo Liangshi was young, he inherited his father’s love for traveling the world. Driven by curiosity, he once traveled thousands of miles just to meet the Scripture Woman and the Moon Mother… At that time, the great Pavilion Master Zuo fancied himself a romantic. After arriving in the Northeast Corner, he wrote poems and sang operas, descending upon the two clan chiefs’ dull lives like a brilliant light.

—And was then nearly kept as a “mountain-pressing consort.”

According to eyewitness accounts, this incident left a deep psychological scar on the great Pavilion Master Zuo. From then on, he immediately abandoned his “romantic” ways and became as proper as could be.

“Worried about your old flames?” Jun Changwei asked.

“You with the surname Jun, stop spouting nonsense,” Zuo Liangshi’s “beautiful” face turned pale. “I have absolutely nothing to do with them, I’m as innocent as can be, alright? I see it now, you’re still trying to settle a personal score!”

“Since you’re not worried, that makes things simple,” Jun Changwei nodded to himself, once again dropping a second bombshell without warning. “The Scripture Woman and the Moon Mother have disappeared with the Yuan Birds. The Vicious Plow Earth-Mound is now a dead land.”

“What?”

The jade bottle in Zuo Liangshi’s hand fell to the ground with a clatter.

“Didn’t you say you weren’t worried?” Jun Changwei sat down on his knees and took another swig of wine. “Compose yourself, or you’ll have to go kneel on the washboard again.”

“What do you know.”

Zuo Liangshi finally dropped his flippant demeanor and sat up straight, his brow furrowed in a deep frown.

“I see now how you could be so certain the celestial orbit is out of control, even though you’re the worst at arithmetic…”

The sun and moon’s trajectory across the Twelve Continents was governed by one hundred and twenty Heaven-Herding Clans.

The core of controlling the sun and moon’s movements was the Time-Year Plate on the divine Fusang Tree, but beyond that, the eight corners and bends played an extremely important role. The eight spatial coordinates defined by the eight mountains served as the baseline for determining the sun’s position, and the clans guarding the Eight Extremes each held a secret related to the celestial orbit’s operation.

The celestial orbit was a series of interlocking rings; to move one was to move them all.

If something happened in the Northeast Corner, the entire celestial orbit would be affected.

“No wonder…” Zuo Liangshi muttered. “No wonder the Hundred Clans are acting like grandchildren before Heaven Beyond Heaven…”

“It seems you really do know,” Jun Changwei put down his wine gourd, his gaze suddenly turning sharp. “Speak. What was the secret the Scripture Woman and the Moon Mother were guarding in the Northeast Corner?”

“So you came to pry information out of me, you old fox.”

Zuo Liangshi shook his head with a bitter smile.

He stood up and paced back and forth in the pavilion.

“You don’t have to say,” Jun Changwei said calmly, the Gold-Inlaid Saber humming in its sheath. “But it’s been a long time since we’ve crossed hands, hasn’t it?”

“Starting a fight at the drop of a hat, what a brute.” Zuo Liangshi shook his head, then turned back. “It’s not that I won’t say it, I’m just thinking… how to make a guy who’s never even gotten a ‘D’ in arithmetic understand.”

Jun Changwei silently drew his Gold-Inlaid Saber.

“What?” Zuo Liangshi scoffed. “You can’t even stand to be told you did poorly on your own tests? In the entire Taiyi Sect for all these years, who else but you has held the top spot for worst in arithmetic for three hundred years.”

“No, you’re wrong.” Jun Changwei sheathed his saber. “Elder He was last for five hundred years, Elder Ye for four hundred. The highest was Sect Master Yan back then, for a full thousand years. Have you forgotten…” he said grimly, “in Taiyi’s examinations, those who don’t get a ‘C’ have to keep taking the test until they do…”

Zuo Liangshi was dumbfounded.

When he was young, his father had thrown him into the Taiyi Sect for a period of “exchange,” and the atmosphere of having a small test every three days and a big test every five days had left a deep impression on him. But he had never imagined that this bunch of oddballs in Taiyi were so serious about it—even after becoming elders and a sect master, they couldn’t just erase the subjects they hadn’t passed with a ‘C’.

What the hell was wrong with them?!

“You people of Taiyi…” Zuo Liangshi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, shaking his head repeatedly. “Forget it, forget it. Let’s get back to the matter at hand.”

He paused.

“The Scripture Woman and the Moon Mother guarded the Northeast Corner for one reason only—”

Jun Changwei focused his attention.

“To halt the sun and moon, to prevent them from appearing out of turn, and to regulate their duration [1].”

Zuo Liangshi’s voice was solemn and heavy, each word carrying immense weight. The secrets established since the founding of the Four Poles and Eight Extremes were unfurled, revealing the rising sun, the setting moon, and the Golden Crow and Black Rabbit suspended high in the azure sky. He looked directly into Jun Changwei’s eyes and saw the old drunkard’s gaze suddenly become piercingly sharp, as aggressive as a blade.

Zuo Liangshi was greatly surprised.

This brute who only knew how to swing a saber actually…

“Didn’t get it.”

Zuo Liangshi was floored. “If you didn’t get it, why did you suddenly look so serious?”

“I was playing along,” Jun Changwei explained.

“…” Zuo Liangshi took a deep breath, reminding himself that he couldn’t beat this madman. “Let me explain it this way… damn,” the proper facade that the great Pavilion Master Zuo had maintained for years finally cracked, and he cursed, his refined upbringing flowing away like water. “For crying out loud, can I really explain this to someone who’s ranked last in arithmetic?”

“How will you know if you don’t try?”

Jun Changwei’s expression didn’t change.

As someone who had held the last place in arithmetic at the Taiyi Sect for three hundred years, his “blockhead” thick skin, which had infuriated countless senior brothers, sisters, and elders, was not something that could be shaken by a mere “for crying out loud” from the great Pavilion Master Zuo.

“Let’s put it this way.”

Zuo Liangshi pondered for a moment, then waved his sleeve. His spiritual energy materialized into ten small suns and one bright moon, which slowly rotated in mid-air.

“Ten suns circling the Twelve Continents once is a year. The black moon waxing and waning once is a month. Not the Fog Moon, Clear Moon, or Miasma Moon, but the twelve established months based on the Earthly Branches: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai. Fog, Clear, and Miasma are more accurately called ‘seasons’.”

“I know that much,” Jun Changwei interjected.

Clear Moon, Fog Moon, and Miasma Moon were just customary terms.

Each city would classify the current month as one of the three based on the thickness of the miasma outside its walls. They planted during the Clear Moon, harvested during the Fog Moon, and sealed the city during the Miasma Moon. The official calendar, however, counted time according to the twelve established months arranged by the Earthly Branches.

“If you didn’t even know that, you should really find a block of tofu and smash your head against it.”

Zuo Liangshi said irritably.

Jun Changwei silently took a swig of wine.

“A year corresponds to twelve months. From this concept,” Zuo Liangshi traced a circle around the miniature suns and moon formed by his spiritual energy, “the time it takes for ten suns to circle the Twelve Continents once should match the time it takes for the black moon to circle once. But in reality, the speed of the Golden Crow carrying the sun is slower than the speed of the Black Rabbit holding the moon.”

“Rabbits do breed faster…”

Jun Changwei nodded.

“Shut up,” Zuo Liangshi said, his face dark. “The Black Rabbit holding the moon refers to the Black Rabbit devouring the moon and then spitting it out, causing the moon to go from a crescent to full, and from full back to a crescent. I’m not actually discussing with you how fast rabbits breed.”

Jun Changwei continued to drink his wine.

“The Golden Crow takes about three hundred and sixty-five days, four hours, and forty-five minutes to circle the Twelve Continents. The moon’s phases take about twenty-nine days and twenty-four hours to complete one cycle. You can simply understand it as the sun’s orbit and the moon’s orbit should be parallel, but in reality, there’s a slight angle between them.” Zuo Liangshi drew a line with his finger, and the miniature suns and moon made of spiritual energy suddenly sped up their rotation. “That is to say… if they continue on the same track, eventually, every so often, the sun and moon will do this—”

Zuo Liangshi released his fingers.

The golden solar disk and the white lunar disk collided violently, exploding into a firework.

Bang!

Zuo Liangshi withdrew his hand.

“The sun and moon collide.”

Jun Changwei slowly put down his wine gourd, watching the specks of gold and silver light drift down. “So the purpose of the Scripture Woman and the Moon Mother guarding the Northeast Corner was…”

“The Scripture Woman and the Moon Mother raised a divine bird, called the Yuan. For thousands of years, they relied on the Yuan Bird to prevent the sun and moon from meeting,” Zuo Liangshi said in a low voice. “They were stationed in the Northeast Corner to halt the sun and moon, to prevent them from appearing out of turn, and to regulate their duration [2]… Do you understand now?! I’m not worried about the two of them, I’m worried about the sun and moon colliding! That would leave the Twelve Continents without a sun or moon, the miasma would submerge the cities, the Great Wilderness would completely devour the Thick Earth, and all living creatures would be devastated. Even cultivators would have no place to stand!”

“It hasn’t gotten that serious yet,” Jun Changwei shook his head slightly.

“Right.” Zuo Liangshi nodded. “Heaven Beyond Heaven has intervened. Although they may not understand the celestial orbit very well, with their power, they can still force the sun and moon to move out of sync. I was wondering why that bunch from the Hundred Clans suddenly became so subservient to Heaven Beyond Heaven… Those bastards! To dare to hide such a huge matter.”

“How could they not hide it?” Jun Changwei sneered. “They’ve seen the sun and moon as their own property for so long, why would they publicize something like this and let us immortal sects interfere with the celestial orbit?”

“So, that key really exists?”

Zuo Liangshi looked him straight in the eye.

The sound of the tide was immense.

Jun Changwei’s hemp clothes billowed in the sea breeze, and Zuo Liangshi’s blue robes fluttered as well. The long, black-and-gold saber lay across the low table between them, its blade resting in its sheath. The air was like a string pulled taut, ready to snap at any moment.

After a long while.

Jun Changwei smiled.

“You asked Tao Rong?” he asked casually. “He wouldn’t tell you, would he.”

Zuo Liangshi didn’t evade the question, nodding slowly. “He wouldn’t say, but as the Pavilion Master, I can guess some things. If there really is a key that can control the movements of the sun and moon, then it would explain why someone is in such a hurry to kill Elder Chou. Is the key really on him?”

“I might as well tell you,” Jun Changwei said. “The key is not on him, but it is indeed related to him.”

“Damn it!” Zuo Liangshi stood up without another word, about to leave. “Knowing the key is related to him, and you still let him come down the mountain… You can borrow my fastest flying boat. Go wait at the entrance to the Southern Underworld now, and as soon as Elder Tao arrives, take him back to Taiyi. Don’t delay for a second.”

“Stop.”

Jun Changwei said coldly.

“Are you people of Taiyi insane?” Zuo Liangshi took a deep breath, his gaze suddenly turning sharp. “I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time, even without this matter of the key, you shouldn’t have let him come down the mountain!”

“Bullshit.” Jun Changwei lifted his eyes and cursed bluntly. “If he wants to come down the mountain, he comes down the mountain. Whatever he wants to do, he does. There’s no ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’.”

“Changwei!” Zuo Liangshi said sternly. “You all clearly know what state he’s in right now!”

“Do you think my Taiyi Sect is keeping him just to imprison a dangerous weapon?”

Jun Changwei drank the last of his wine, then violently threw the gourd to the ground. In a flash of lightning, the Gold-Inlaid Saber drew a golden arc through the air and rested against Zuo Liangshi’s throat.

“You’re full of dog shit.”

He usually seemed like a drunkard, always reeking of alcohol, but at this moment, he was suddenly as ferocious as a beast.

“That is my Taiyi’s Little Martial Grand-Ancestor!”

“You can kill me now, but can you kill everyone in the world?” Zuo Liangshi asked in a low voice. “We’re both in the know, so let’s not play dumb—he’s covered in karmic obstructions right now. If he’s exposed, he’ll be besieged and killed by the righteous path, won’t he? Since you managed to hide it from the beginning, can’t you just keep this secret hidden?”

“Secrets are always exposed one day.”

Jun Changwei turned to face the sea, his sleeves billowing in the wind.

“Taiyi is not a cage, and he is not a trapped beast.”

“Does your Taiyi Sect intend to make an enemy of the world?”

Zuo Liangshi asked grimly from behind him.

“Back in the days of the immortal sects’ Dao discussions, you people from the Mountain Sea Pavilion wrote endless policy papers, one grand principle after another. I don’t have as many long-winded speeches as you. I only know one thing…” Jun Changwei didn’t turn back. “In my Taiyi, no city would ever suffer for a hundred years.”

Zuo Liangshi was shaken to the core, and for a moment, he couldn’t say another word.

“An enemy of the world?”

Jun Changwei let out a low, hoarse laugh, then suddenly erupted, slashing his saber toward the surging, crashing sea.

“What is there to fear!”

The great tide was split apart. The sea surface cracked open in a line thousands of meters long, and billions of tons of seawater froze on either side of the saber’s mark. The elder in hemp clothes, holding his saber, leaped out of the window. He took the large gourd from his waist and walked on the reefs and sand at the bottom of the sea, singing and drinking wildly as he went further and further away.

Only his hoarse, unrestrained song drifted back on the wind.

“The sun and moon do not linger, heaven and earth are high and thick.

The Soaring Serpent becomes earth, the divine turtle rots to flesh!

The White Deer is hard to herd, the Year Crane hard to roam.

The old must die, the young grieve not in high towers!”

The song gradually faded away.

Zuo Liangshi stood silently in the tower.

In Taiyi, no city would suffer for a hundred years… but not all sects in the world were Taiyi.

Ten thousand years of immortal sects, Taiyi is first.

The golden scar on the sea’s surface finally collapsed, and the seawater crashed down, throwing up thousands of white waves.

***

Bang!

Lu Jing’s head slammed onto the table, his face smeared with ink. He turned his head stiffly, staring blankly at the wall… The sky was so white, the sun so big, the clouds so high… the moon so red… huh???

“You’re down already?”

Chou Bodeng stood by the table, casually picking up a Sun and Moon Record Table to flip through.

“Is Lu Shiyi going to make it? You’ve only calculated less than seven volumes.”

“The sun follows the sixth track, moves two degrees; the moon reaches the Heng palace,” Zuo Yuesheng reported the new angles from behind him. At first, his hands on the abacus were like a blur, but now they had gradually slowed down.

“Pass.”

Chou Bodeng flipped through Lu Jing’s Sun and Moon Record Tables while also taking the time to check Zuo Yuesheng’s calculations.

“…” Lu Jing was speechless for a moment, then suddenly slammed the table and shot up. “You, Chou Bodeng, you’ve been acting out a ‘playing the pig to eat the tiger’ script, haven’t you! I hereby declare you expelled from the profligate ranks!” He spat on the ground resentfully. “Bah! You’re a spy who infiltrated the profligate team!”

Smack.

Chou Bodeng slammed a thick volume of the Sun and Moon Record Table directly onto Lu Jing’s head, knocking him flat again.

“Classmate Lu, I’ll give you another chance to organize your words.”

The Taiyi Sword was drawn half a foot from its sheath as Chou Bodeng spoke amiably.

“I mean, Young Master Chou, your unrestrained behavior cannot conceal your outstanding talent. You are truly a romantic figure of this generation,” Lu Jing quickly changed his tune.

“Lu Shiyi, where’s your backbone?”

Zuo Yuesheng stopped his work and gulped down some water.

He had calculated the most, about twelve volumes of the Sun and Moon Record Tables.

“Amitabha, this humble monk feels…” Monk Budu leaned back, his gaze hazy, already somewhat delirious. “This humble monk feels… that we need to balance work and rest… ah… Buddha, this humble monk is seeing so many stars…”

“A bunch of little brothers.”

Chou Bodeng sneered.

Little brothers they may be.

Between continuing to calculate and taking a break, the group unhesitatingly chose the latter.

Lou Jiang put down his brush and organized the calculated angles of the sun and moon.

Zhou Ziyan had actually already completed some of the work of calculating the celestial orbit.

Zhou Ziyan didn’t understand the `Celestial Calculation`. But over a hundred years, he had done his utmost to collect all the Sun and Moon Record Table data he could. Based on his own arithmetic knowledge, without the formulas from the `Celestial Calculation`—”formula” was Young Master Chou’s term—he had still managed to calculate a small part of it.

Lou Jiang, who had also tried to calculate the celestial orbit without understanding the `Celestial Calculation`, understood the difference between having the formulas and not having them all too well.

The amount of work and difficulty were simply incomparable.

They, who had the formulas given by Chou Bodeng after he understood the `Celestial Calculation`, were already calculating to the point of exhaustion. What about Zhou Ziyan, who had no formulas?

Lou Jiang didn’t know what kind of mood Zhou Ziyan was in when he calculated the celestial orbit amidst piles of paper for a hundred years… Did he still hold a faint glimmer of hope? Was he still waiting for the day when the injustice of Ru City could be redressed?

He didn’t know.

Chou Bodeng made a round, gathering all the data everyone had calculated, and flipped through it. He flipped through it quickly, then suddenly stopped on a certain page.

“Eh.”

He let out a soft sound of surprise.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Jing sat up nervously. The page Chou Bodeng was looking at happened to be one he had calculated. “Did I calculate something wrong?”

Chou Bodeng frowned, lost in thought for a long time.

“Something’s not right…” Chou Bodeng muttered to himself, raising a hand and vaguely drawing two parallel lines in the air. “The angles of the sun’s orbit and the moon’s track are a bit off…”

“Have you figured out the altered trajectory of Ru City’s sun and moon?” Lu Jing was overjoyed. “Does that mean we don’t have to continue calculating the rest?”

“Not sure.” Chou Bodeng shook his head. “Fatty Zuo, go find Elder Tao again and ask for a copy of your Mountain Sea Pavilion’s Sun and Moon Record Tables—I want all of them from within the last hundred years.”

“Huh?”

Lu Jing’s scalp tingled.

“Alright.” Zuo Yuesheng nodded.

Lu Jing sighed and rolled over on the table.

…Fine, fine. Since Chou Bodeng was the only one who could understand the `Celestial Calculation`, whatever he said, went.

“Speaking of which,” Lu Jing was puzzled, “Young Master Chou, have you really never studied the `Celestial Calculation` before? You really understood it just by looking at it for the first time.”

“Good question.” Chou Bodeng put the paper down. “The answer is, I don’t know either.”

Lu Jing rolled his eyes.

“Keep pretending. I’ll believe you when pigs fly.”

“Oh,” Chou Bodeng changed his tone. “You guys can’t even understand something this simple? Then that’s not my problem, it’s your problem.”

Lu Jing glared at him, and in doing so, noticed something he hadn’t before. He immediately sat up straight.

“Hey?” he pointed at Chou Bodeng’s hair. “How did your hair get messy again?”

“I think you’re full of energy, Lu Shiyi.”

Chou Bodeng subconsciously reached into his sleeve and found it empty. He gave a half-smile.

“Come on, let’s keep calculating.”

Lu Shiyi was speechless.

Lu Shiyi understood!

It must be the legendary “cold war”!

***

Southern Borderlands Witch Clan, the altar.

The old man nearly dropped his pipe on the back of his hand, dumbfounded as he watched Shi Wuluo arrange jar after jar of wine on the stone. As worldly as he was, and as well-versed in human affairs as he thought himself to be, he couldn’t figure out what was happening… Could it be that their Head Shaman, in a shocking turn of events, was inviting him for a drink? No, no, that was absolutely impossible.

After placing the last jar of wine down, Shi Wuluo sat up straight.

“I’m treating someone to a drink in return,” he paused, as if particularly unaccustomed to asking a question directly. “Which one should I choose?”