Chapter 62 – Once a Bright Candle Burned for Heaven and Earth
A cold chill swept across his neck, and Half-Diviner froze in place.
Was… was it truly an omen of great misfortune?!
Owing the Valley Master of Wind Flower Valley three hundred thousand gold taels, owing Shisheng of North-Corner City one hundred and ten thousand taels, owing Monk Budu one hundred and thirty thousand taels, owing the elder of the Formation Sect two hundred and forty thousand taels… Countless IOUs flashed through his mind, and Half-Diviner inexplicably felt a sense of relief. You can’t take it with you when you go. All debts from his life would be wiped clean. Thinking about it that way, it seemed like a gain.
It was better than kicking the bucket right after working so hard to pay off all his debts, right?
“What is that!”
Lu Jing pointed at the sea surface in horror, his voice cracking.
“Huh?!”
Startled, Half-Diviner quickly raised a hand to feel his chilly neck. His head was, surprisingly, still attached.
The water roared!
The scarlet saber cleaved through the deep blue, almost black, surface of the sea, tearing open a dark red fissure. Viscous blood churned like boiling water as an expanse of dark green broke through the surface. It twisted in mid-air before crashing back into the sea, sending up blackish-red waves dozens of meters high. A pungent, fishy odor, mixed with an indescribable stench, assaulted them, forcing everyone to retreat simultaneously.
“Zuo… Fatty Zuo,” Lu Jing’s eyes were wide and blank. “The fish you said you were fishing for, was it this thing?”
His voice was still trembling.
The sea churned, and the dark green “cloud layer” floated on the water’s surface. A dark red tide of filth spread rapidly, stacking up layers of bizarrely colored, black-purple and murky-vermilion clouds on the sea. That was no cloud; it was a colossal, monstrous fish with enormous bat-like wings and covered in dense, hideous green scales. It had been lying silently on the seabed, stretching for dozens of kilometers, its body encompassing the entire sea region. Those standing nearby had been completely oblivious.
“Is this a person fishing, or a fish fishing for people?!”
“…An Azure Batfish.”
Lou Jiang murmured.
The Record of Strange Fish in the Raging Sea had documented this half-fish, half-ghost creature, describing it as “the large ones are several thousand kilometers long and hundreds of kilometers wide. They dwell in lairs on the seabed, hidden and inert, hibernating for a thousand years without dying. Their appearance heralds a raging sea.” Before the Mountain Sea Pavilion had driven the Black Tortoise to suppress the seas, the Azure Batfish was one of the masters of the Azure Sea. Its form existed between the real and the illusory, and it could use the gloom of the Azure Sea to conceal its aura. It was cunning and adept at tailing lone boats to find fishing villages, where it would stir up waves and devour the inhabitants.
“Impossible!” Zuo Yuesheng jumped up. “Weren’t these things all killed off long ago? And this is the Tranquil Sea! How could this ghastly thing be in the Tranquil Sea?!”
The very first thing the Mountain Sea Pavilion did upon its founding was to “clear the mountains and suppress the seas.”
After the Black Tortoise suppressed the Azure Sea and the raging waters calmed, the Mountain Sea Pavilion spent over two thousand years, deploying all its elite forces, to hunt down and exterminate the Azure Batfish and other strange fish and monsters that could travel between the wilderness miasma and the Azure Sea. Finally, they erected three million two hundred thousand sea pillars to enclose a region of Tranquil Sea for millions of sea-dwellers to live in peace.
The Tranquil Sea was waveless, its still waters free of demons.
Just like the Taiyi Sect’s main gate, where the Kui Dragons and Phoenixes resided, the presence of the Black Tortoise was supposed to ensure that no demons or evil spirits could exist for a thousand kilometers around!
“Damn it, damn it, damn it!” Zuo Yuesheng was practically stamping his feet and cursing. “How did this ghastly thing get into the Sea Boundary? What has the old man been doing these past few years? With something like this appearing in the Tranquil Sea, is he blind or deaf?”
He cursed his own father without any pressure, his words flowing endlessly, showing no intention of saving face for his old man in front of their “honored guests.”
“Young Pavilion Master,” Lou Jiang had to interrupt him, “the appearance of an Azure Batfish within the Sea Boundary is a matter of grave importance. We must report it to the Pavilion Master and the Grand Elders as soon as possible.”
As he spoke, Lou Jiang saw the young man in black sheathe his saber.
A chill suddenly shot up his spine.
Lou Jiang stiffened, finally snapping out of his shock at the appearance of the Azure Batfish in the Tranquil Sea, and noticed something else… a scarlet long saber, silver-gray eyes…
The young man standing next to Chou Bodeng was the same person they had met in Fu City months ago!
The man of unknown identity and origin who had disguised himself as a Young Oracle Master!
Lou Jiang had tried to investigate the other’s identity but had found nothing. Later, he had asked Elder Tao Rong, who, after a long period of contemplation, told him to stop pursuing the matter and to avoid this person immediately if he ever encountered him again. Avoid him? What avoidance! These few degenerate scions had brought a dangerous individual right into the Mountain Sea Pavilion!
For a moment, Lou Jiang felt like he was about to vomit blood.
He had known before that Zuo Yuesheng and the others were hiding something, like what had truly happened on that night in Fu City after Chou Bodeng jumped from the flying boat. But he had never imagined that they might have had private contact with a figure whom even Elder Tao Rong was extremely wary of. Not only contact, damn it, Lou Jiang even suspected they knew this dangerous person’s true identity.
Lou Jiang had thought that after experiencing Fu City and Ru City, he could already calmly accept any mess the scions cooked up and face the changes of the world with equanimity.
It was only at this moment that he realized he was wrong.
There was no upper limit to the trouble these scions could cause! You never knew what new stunts they could pull!
Strolling around the main pavilion of the Mountain Sea Pavilion with a dangerous individual that even a Grand Elder would shy away from—what was the difference between that and keeping a pile of Spirit-Containing Pearls at home that could blow up the sky at any moment!
The dangerous individual who “could blow up the sky at any moment” paid no attention to the tangled mess of Lou Jiang’s thoughts.
He stood helplessly beside Chou Bodeng.
The others had been forced back by the stench, let alone Young Master Chou, whose sense of smell was exceptionally keen and whose nose was particularly delicate. After Shi Wuluo’s sudden slash, Chou Bodeng had dry-heaved so hard he nearly threw up his stomach. The stench of blood and rot made him dizzy and light-headed, and he almost passed out.
Seeing Shi Wuluo still standing there dumbfounded, Chou Bodeng shot him a vicious glare, raised a hand, and tore off a piece of his sleeve to use as a handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose.
Wooo— wooo—
The sea horn sounded, the bronze tone vibrating in everyone’s eardrums.
Vastly different from the morning bells at sunrise, the horn’s call at this moment was urgent and piercing. It shook apart the swirling clouds that shrouded the immortal pavilions of Zhunan’s nine cities, casting a pall of tension and ill omen over everyone, from heaven to earth.
“The sea horn,” Lou Jiang grabbed the stamping Zuo Yuesheng. “Young Pavilion Master, it’s the sea horn! We need to get back to the Wuye Pavilion!”
“What… what’s a sea horn?”
Lu Jing pinched his nose and asked as he walked onto the trestle path.
“The Azure Sea used to be called the ‘Raging Sea.’ The waves were relentless, the billows ceaseless, and it was overrun with Crocodile Jiao-dragons and vicious monsters. Wilderness miasma dissolved into the sea, and the aquatic beasts were extremely fierce. It was only after the Black Tortoise suppressed the sea that there began to be moments of peace, and the people of this area began to live and multiply,” Lou Jiang explained as he dragged Zuo Yuesheng along. “The Black Tortoise is ageless and undying, but it must enter a hibernation period once every three hundred years. When the Black Tortoise hibernates, the Azure Sea is locked down.”
“But this isn’t the year for the Black Tortoise’s hibernation at all!” Zuo Yuesheng yelled over the sound of the sea horn. “Where’s the old man? I need to ask him what the hell he’s doing!”
Dark storm clouds rolled and stacked, surging in from the distant horizon, as if darkness was closing in from all sides, threatening to devour the nine bright candles burning on the sea. The world suddenly turned gloomy and dark. Above was the last sliver of daylight, about to be obscured, and in this light, people and objects appeared deathly pale.
The sea horn’s calls grew more urgent.
Countless fishing boats, large and small, fast and slow, appeared on the surging sea, heading back toward the nine cities of Zhunan. Disciples of the Mountain Sea Pavilion in silver cloaks flew out from the city gates like flocks of birds, skimming across the sea, breaking through the waves and tides, doing their utmost to help the fishing boats pass through the stone pillars and enter the Tranquil Sea.
“Thank goodness…”
Lou Jiang let out a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, the disciples of the Mountain Sea Pavilion were well-trained and could escort the fishing boats back at the fastest possible speed. As long as they could enter the Tranquil Sea, they would have weathered the storm. Afterward, they just had to wait for the Black Tortoise’s hibernation period to pass before they could open the boundary and go out to sea again. Lou Jiang tried to comfort himself with this thought, but the unease in his heart grew stronger.
An Azure Batfish had appeared below the Cloud Terrace, inside the Sea Boundary.
Was the Tranquil Sea of today truly still tranquil?
Lou Jiang was burning with anxiety, yet he noticed Zuo Yuesheng turning his head to look at the Cloud Terrace as he walked.
Following his gaze, Lou Jiang saw that he was looking at the half-built fish-roasting rack. For a moment, he was so angry he almost laughed. In a situation like this, you’re still thinking about your fish-roasting rack?
As he was grumbling to himself, a gust of sea wind swept across the cliff, carrying the half-built bamboo rack into the sea. Zuo Yuesheng cursed and turned back, and Lou Jiang heard him sniffle.
Lou Jiang was taken aback, remembering something.
When Zuo Yuesheng was little, Zuo Liangshi would bring him to the Cloud Terrace to fish. Back then, Zuo Yuesheng hadn’t grown into a fatty yet. The two of them, one big and one small, would squat on the Cloud Terrace, looking nothing like the ruler and future ruler of a grand immortal sect. Later, Zuo Yuesheng somehow started to develop horizontally, gradually revealing an extraordinary talent for being a scoundrel, and his relationship with his father became as incompatible as fire and water. To this day, whenever they met, they would inevitably stage a scene of the father chasing the son after no more than half an incense stick’s time.
In recent years, the Pavilion Master rarely came to the Cloud Terrace to fish, so Zuo Yuesheng had claimed it as his territory.
After recalling this, Lou Jiang tried to think back more carefully, but he suddenly realized he had no idea what had caused the relationship between Zuo Yuesheng and his father to become what it was today.
Chou Bodeng turned around on the vertical cliffside path.
The dark clouds had already piled up above Zhunan City, and the daylight was rapidly disappearing, replaced by pale, dragon-like lightning within the black clouds. The disciples of the Mountain Sea Pavilion were still working hard to escort the fishing boats back. Their cloaks flickered in and out of sight amidst the gradually swelling waves, like great birds carrying their young back to the nest.
The sound of the horn echoed.
***
“No need to wait any longer.”
Jun Changwei put down his Heaven-Peeking Mirror, picked up his saber, and stepped into the sea.
“The Sea Gate has long been compromised.”
“How on earth is Zuo Liangshi doing his job as Pavilion Master?” The Old Heavenly Craftsman fastened his dark green bracers and stood up with a grim face, holding two broad axes. “Someone has already lured an Azure Batfish into the Tranquil Sea. I think he should just go jump in a latrine pit. What face will he have to meet his ancestors in the future?”
“With the Mountain Sea Pavilion in its current state, even as the Pavilion Master, there are many things he might not be able to control,” Jun Changwei said in a low voice.
The Old Heavenly Craftsman’s brow twitched. “Has the sun risen in the west? Why are you speaking up for him today?”
“I just suddenly remembered some things,” Jun Changwei said, turning his wrist and drawing his Gold-Inlaid Saber. “The Pavilion Masters of the Mountain Sea Pavilion have always had the shortest lifespans among all the immortal sect masters. I used to think it was related to the Zuo family’s pact with the Black Tortoise, but now it seems that might not be the case.”
“What do you mean?”
“Zuo Liangshi is a very deep person. When he came to me for help to ‘clear the mountains and suppress the seas,’ he said something about how tossing his son around all these years was enough of an apology to him.” Jun Changwei swung his saber, its gleam flashing under the sea. “Why would he send his own son into exile everywhere? Because he’s afraid…”
“Afraid someone would harm his son.”
A long, agile black shadow in the water was sliced in two.
“Several Pavilion Masters of the Mountain Sea Pavilion have died under very suspicious circumstances,” Jun Changwei said, twirling his saber. “I suspect… they were assassinated. The power struggle between the Pavilion Master and the Grand Elders began long ago!”
The Old Heavenly Craftsman looked up at the nine cities of Zhunan under the black clouds. Countless lights flickered there, like a pack of beasts opening their eyes.
Was it true?
The immortal sect that had once vowed to guard the mountains and seas and protect the common people had long since devolved into a cage where beasts fought for power and profit?
***
Dark clouds hung low over the sea. The Azure Sea was black, the firmament was black. The world was like two thick curtains slowly sticking together. It had once been forcefully torn apart, separating heaven and earth, light and dark, up and down, left and right. But now, all coordinates of time and space were being lost, and everything was slowly returning to chaos.
“In the most ancient of times, how did it begin?”
“Above the highest, what was revered?”
“Before the primordial chaos was parted, how was there light?”
“Before the four poles were established, how were they distinguished?”
In the gloom, someone stood at the junction of sea and sky, reciting the Song of Questioning Heaven from the Twelve Questions on the Plain Flower of Qin Tower. The tide rose and fell, as if in response to him.
“Heaven’s questions are hard to answer. The questioner didn’t even leave a name.”
Huai Ningjun was still dressed in white, his robes fluttering in the wind.
He gazed at the nine cities on the Black Tortoise’s back. The cities were brightly lit, like nine giant candles burning between heaven and earth, their light illuminating the land for a hundred kilometers.
“Do they still remember why the South Star Candle was lit?” Huai Ningjun asked in a low voice, as if talking to himself, or perhaps to another person.
Tens of thousands of years had passed. The original legends were lost along with the unanswerable Song of Questioning Heaven. In the beginning, the Eight Cardinal Immortal Sects were wedges driven into the great earth, taut and fastened, propping up the canopy of the heavens; they were candles lit at the eight extremes, blazing fiercely, sweeping away the haze from the thick earth.
Now, this Celestial Wedge, nailed into the southeast of the Twelve Continents, was about to be pulled out.
A black-canopied boat cut through the waves.
Meiniang, who was poling the boat, bowed deeply. “Mister Xi sent me to welcome you, my lords.”
“He didn’t come himself? What is he doing? Could there be anything more important than welcoming our Lord?”
Behind Huai Ningjun were two other people, completely shrouded in black cloaks, their forms indistinct. The one on the left had a bird with pitch-black feathers perched on her shoulder, while the one on the right held a long staff wrapped in cloth strips. It was the one on the left who spoke, her voice low, hoarse, and sharp, seemingly a woman.
“Today is the beginning of ‘Obscuring the Twelve Continents.’ Mister Xi is fully engaged in altering the layout of the Candle South Sea Boundary, and Zuo Liangshi has also made his move. It is truly difficult for him to be distracted,” Meiniang replied, polite but not subservient.
The speaker sneered, seeming extremely dissatisfied with Mister Xi, or perhaps there was old friction between them.
“Let’s go.”
Huai Ningjun interrupted them coolly.
He stepped onto the boat, and the two black-robed figures followed closely behind.
The black-canopied boat moved swiftly, mingling with the million returning fishing boats, passing through the sea boundary and docking within the Tranquil Sea. The guiding disciples of the Mountain Sea Pavilion were oblivious, and the city-bearing Black Tortoise showed no reaction. Huai Ningjun tapped his fingers on the side of the boat, gazing at the fishing lights reflected on the sea’s surface through the boat’s curtain.
“You lit a blazing fire for heaven and earth, only to die in the fire you personally kindled, and people didn’t even remember your name.”
“Now, even the bright candle you left behind is about to be extinguished.”
“How truly sad.”