Chapter 99 – I Promise You a Lifetime, Free of Sickness and Disaster
Golden light burst forth. Lu Jing and Half-Diviner’s ears rang with the sound of a great bell, shaking their three souls nearly to scattering and their seven spirits to flight. Lines of blood streamed from their mouths, noses, and ears. Before he could even stabilize his soul, Half-Diviner leaped out, flying through the air to catch Monk Budu, who had been knocked back by Moon Mother’s palm strike. Monk Budu’s face was a dark purple-gold as he crashed into him, sending them both flying backward to heavily break a stalagmite as thick as an old tree trunk.
Zheng—
The Bodhi Clarity Beads flew back with them.
The beads, a gift from the Buddha himself, usually hung on Budu’s wrist. Though they didn’t appear ostentatious, a closer look would reveal an inner glow. Now, however, they were completely dim.
The moment the two were knocked back, Lu Jing ducked and charged forward.
Catching this out of the corner of his eye, Monk Budu was horrified. “Shiyi! Come back!”
For Moon Mother, who had single-handedly stirred up a storm in Zhunan and forced many Grand Elders of the Mountain Sea Pavilion into battle, dealing with the three of them was no different from crushing three ants. This ancient god turned great demon had no habit of showing mercy to juniors. Monk Budu had been able to withstand her palm strike because, firstly, the Clarity Beads gifted by the Buddha lived up to their name, and secondly, Moon Mother had been curious to test the power of this Buddhist secret treasure and had only used thirty percent of her strength. Even so, her strike had directly shattered his protective Buddhist light.
Lu Shiyi had no divine artifact in hand. How could his weak body withstand a single slap from this great demon?
Lu Jing turned a deaf ear.
Monk Budu and Half-Diviner simultaneously scrambled out of the pile of rubble. One went to intercept, but both were overcome by the sharp pain in their chests and rolled to the ground together, a perfect picture of Buddhist-Daoist unity. The force of Moon Mother’s palm strike on Monk Budu had passed straight through him and hit Half-Diviner as well. It was only now that the two of them finally understood what a “disparity in strength” truly meant.
Seeing Moon Mother’s palm descending towards Lu Jing’s cranium, Half-Diviner didn’t have time to think. He wiped a handful of blood from his nose, pressed it directly onto his Star-Pushing Plate, and threw it into the air.
Moon Mother’s fair, white fingers paused for a fraction of a second before continuing their downward press.
In that brief, less-than-a-moment pause, the most useless young master of Medicine Valley had twisted his body like a nimble fox, dodging from under her palm. With a flick of his hand, dozens of hidden crossbow bolts shot towards her eyes like shooting stars.
Seeing the hidden bolts coming, Moon Mother didn’t dodge. She simply bent her fingers and clenched her fist.
The dozens of hidden bolts instantly turned to dust, as fine and crystalline as powder. The bolts were indeed shattered, but the crystalline dust rapidly expanded, turning into a large, blurry gray mist that enveloped Moon Mother.
He had neither physical agility nor talent with the sword or saber. His only gifts were in the arts of escape and underhanded tricks, likely honed from years of surviving his brother’s beatings. After straying from the proper path to study the Poison Classic, he had gone all in, collaborating with Zuo Yuesheng to combine the ingenious devices of the Heavenly Works Mansion with the swift and hard-to-defend-against nature of poisons, specializing in the insidious little tricks most despised by the righteous path of the martial world. The dozens of crossbow bolts he had just thrown were all hollow. Once shattered, the duckweed poison hidden inside was released along with them, spreading everywhere.
A muffled sound was heard.
The swirling gray mist of duckweed poison froze for an instant, then, as if swallowed by a mountain-devouring python or sucked in by a great whale, it was drawn into a jade box. Lu Jing, his face ashen, was held by a white-robed Chronicler Official who had appeared without a sound. The Chronicler Official’s knuckles, calloused from years of writing, collided with Moon Mother’s beautiful, fair hand.
An invisible flow of air stretched out like a vertical mirror.
“How come any cat or dog is here to guard the formation?”
Moon Mother’s gaze flickered, sweeping over the white-robed Chronicler Official’s collar and cuffs, and with a charming smile, she shook her wrist.
The white-robed Chronicler Official let out a muffled grunt. Holding Lu Jing by the back of his collar, he slid backward in a straight line, stopping in front of the struggling Half-Diviner and Monk Budu, shielding them both.
Hearing the words “North Ge Clan,” the expressions of all three, including Lu Jing, turned sour. Lu Jing subconsciously struggled, and the white-robed Chronicler Official tossed him back towards Half-Diviner and Monk Budu.
“This junior, Zi Jin, under the orders of Mister Mu, is here to guard the Kun position.”
The white-robed Chronicler Official lowered his hand, using his large sleeve to hide the trembling of his wrist, and answered calmly.
Lu Jing rolled next to Monk Budu and clearly heard him curse under his breath. No wonder their blasting of the rock wall hadn’t attracted much attention. The person guarding the Kun position had discovered them long ago, but their real target was Moon Mother!
Clack.
The Star-Pushing Plate fell from mid-air and landed next to Half-Diviner.
What now?
Lu Jing lay on the ground, his eyes darting towards Monk Budu. For a moment, he couldn’t tell whether the white-robed Chronicler Official or the crazed Moon Mother was friend or foe… To be honest, neither of them looked like a good person.
The purple-gold color on Monk Budu’s face had faded a little. At some point, he had clasped the Clarity Beads in his hand again. When Lu Jing gave him a look, he just shook his head almost imperceptibly.
The meaning was to stay put and let them fight it out first.
Unexpectedly, at that moment, the entire underground cave suddenly began to shake, and large rocks rained down from the ceiling. The confronting white-robed Chronicler Official and Moon Mother were both startled, their expressions changing slightly… A dull humming sound echoed in everyone’s ears, a humming that seemed to come from tens of thousands of miles deep within the earth, almost like the angry roar of the thick earth itself.
***
A vast expanse of mist and frost covered Chao City.
The crystal shadow orchids bloomed and withered, one after another. The reddish-brown stone path brightened and dimmed. The little wooden man walked into the water and transformed into a grove of mulberry trees that shot up from the ground. The river beast tilted its head back and swallowed all the lightning. From within the dazzling scarlet flowers under the crimson-flowered tree, a stone platform rose. A youth in red wedding robes slept with his eyes closed. Shi Wuluo held him, his own eyes also closed.
Chao City, shrouded in a faint mist, was like a piece of tranquil jade resting in the mountains.
—Deep beneath Chao City, thousands of meters down, was buried a piece of white jade, once the gui tablet held in the Divine Lord’s hand.
That year, the Divine Lord set out alone to re-ascend the Incomplete Mountain, to draw his sword and fight for the common people. He passed by the border of Yongzhou on his way from south to north. He happened to see the weakness of the mayflies, the fragility of the fragrant flowers, the short life of the White Deer, and the easily destroyed crimson flowers. He stopped, wanting to leave behind some treasure to protect the mountain and its spirits. But on his journey north, he had given things away in the east and left things in the west, and all he had left was a single sword and a jade gui tablet.
The little fox-cat was timid, and the river beast wept.
The Divine Lord leaned down from the clouds and gently buried the jade gui tablet deep within the earth of the barren mountains of western Yongzhou. A bewildering mist rose, becoming a barrier around the deep mountains, a wall both tangible and intangible. Clear water gathered into a lake that nurtured life… He gave the weak spirit monsters and little demons a city.
He left behind that jade gui tablet, a symbol of his former rule over the clouds.
The last shred of his noble glory was thus left behind in the mountains and waters.
By the time he set foot on the heavenly ladder, he had nothing left but a sword and a set of white robes.
“Chao City has no dusk, for the Divine Lord has not returned. Chao City has no night, for the Divine Lord has not returned. Born at dawn to die at dusk, we cannot see your face. Born at dusk to die at dawn, we cannot behold your countenance…” The brown bear, the parrot, the river beast, the little fox-cat, the Lushu… all the citizens of Chao City surrounded the stone platform under the crimson-flowered tree, bowing and kowtowing, kowtowing and bowing again.
They kowtowed for their sin.
The sin of receiving the Divine Lord’s gift of the tablet but not knowing he was heading north to battle. The sin of letting the Divine Lord go to his death without a single citizen trying to stop him. The sin of not a single citizen fighting by his side while he fought a bloody battle.
It was laughable. While the Twelve Continents were ravaged by miasma and all life struggled to survive, they had relied on the jade tablet to live in peace and comfort in their own little world, free from dust and grime. It wasn’t until nearly a hundred years later, when a cultivator stumbled into Chao City, that they suddenly learned that the Divine Lord who had cheerfully said, “We shall meet again in the mountains and waters,” had long since passed away.
That was Chao City’s sin.
Weak and useless, naive and foolish.
If they had been able to keep the Divine Lord in Chao City back then, would he not have died in battle? If they hadn’t been so weak, only knowing how to rely on his protection for their own sake, turning a deaf ear to the affairs of the world, would they not have learned of the Divine Lord’s death until nearly a hundred years later?
They did not dare to fight alongside him, nor could they collect his bones.
They received his grace in vain, repaying none of it.
Why did the Divine Lord protect such useless creatures? What right did such useless creatures have to live shamelessly in this world?
Generation after generation, guilt pierced their flesh, bones, and souls. For every day the Divine Lord did not return, Chao City could not find a night of peaceful sleep.
But when the Divine Lord returned through the bewildering mist, the Mayfly Spirits couldn’t believe their eyes, and the youngest of the red fox-cats wailed like an infant.
—Divine Lord of Chao City, how did your white robes get stained with blood?
Immortal of the Clouds, who once spoke and laughed so cheerfully, why are you crying?
“Born at dawn to die at dusk, yet there is a day. Born at dusk to die at dawn, yet there is a night…” The Mayfly Spirits held hands, bowing and rising, dancing lightly around the stone platform. Where their toes lightly touched, circles of ethereal ripples spread out, blooming into one illusory flower after another. They fluttered down, landing on the youth’s body and silently sinking into him.
With every ethereal flower that bloomed, a portion of the latent aura hidden deep within the earth of Chao City was drawn out and returned to its original owner.
They bowed in gratitude.
For the Divine Lord’s pity on their humble suffering, for the Divine Lord’s gift of a city, for the Divine Lord’s gift of a pure land, for the thousands of years of carefree existence for the spirits and monsters of Chao City.
With a single ladle of Chao City’s meager water, they repaid the Divine Lord’s ocean of deep grace.
“We gift the day to you, may the red sun never set. We gift the night to you, may the clear wind not hasten…”
The white jade gui tablet gradually rose from the ground, finally flying out from the hollow center of the crimson-flowered tree. It hung in the void, like a pristine moon shining down on the finally reunited Divine Lord.
***
From west to east, from east to west, from south to north, light simultaneously streamed across the southern, northern, eastern, and western meridians. Wherever it passed, all the lights lit up. Lights of all colors gathered from all directions, finally rushing into the sky and transforming into a bright moon that illuminated the Illusory World.
The moonlight, cool as water, flowed over Chou Bodeng’s back.
He was lying on a wooden table by the window, his head resting on a copy of Classic of Mountains and Seas’ Oddities. He was sleeping peacefully, his right hand resting on the spine of the book, as pale as snow, the faint blue veins clearly visible. Shi Wuluo held him, always shielding him from the sorrowful cries of the grieving souls. It wasn’t until the bright moon rose that he released his hand, wiped the gold-stamped title off the book’s spine with his fingertip, and replaced it with another story of beauty and happiness.
He withdrew his hand and looked out the window.
His silver-gray eyes were like the first snow of winter.
The snow began to fall.
The last vestiges of the Illusory World turned into a flurry of snow.
The black miasma dissolved in the snow, the skeletons were reborn in the snow, the collapsed skyscrapers rose from the ground, and the cracked avenues were restored to smooth paths. The first snow washed away all the dark clouds and gray haze from the sky. In the snow, a chattering parrot newly appeared on the tree outside the window, many mayflies flew slowly back and forth by the pond, and in the classroom, a round, fat boy and a dissolute wordsmith appeared…
Shi Wuluo patiently and meticulously rebuilt every blade of grass and every tree in the Illusory World.
He wiped away all the gloom, wiped away all the ferocity. He wanted it to be bright and splendid, warm and frost-free, lively and bustling, and for everyone to love him.
He wanted to give him a world full of stars.
Just like a long, long time ago, when Chou Bodeng wore that shamanistic Nuo mask and walked through great mountains and rivers. If he encountered any danger, he would take off the mask and put it in his sleeve. Shi Wuluo had asked him why. He had said, “The ugliness of this mortal world, I don’t want you to see it. When I have built the four poles and set the longitudes, latitudes, and seasons, I will give you a peaceful and beautiful world.”
But that peaceful and beautiful world never came to be.
The Divine Lord who was to build the four poles and set the longitudes and latitudes fell from the clouds.
***
The jade gui tablet fell from the sky and was caught by a hand with well-defined knuckles.
Shi Wuluo placed the white jade gui tablet in Chou Bodeng’s palm and closed his fingers around it. He stood up and gazed at Chou Bodeng’s serene sleeping face. The thunder had stopped, but the crimson flowers piled by the stone platform glowed like a fiery sunset, illuminating Chou Bodeng’s face and applying a new layer of ancient, radiant makeup.
The mist and frost submerged the central islet of Chao City. The spirits of the mountains and waters lay on the ground, on branches, or on the islet stones, sharing a sweet dream with the red-robed youth on the stone platform… His beloved slept in deep love and would awaken in deep love.
“The mountains and rivers love you, the Cang Sea loves you, heaven and earth love you.”
Shi Wuluo took off his bright red wedding robe, covered Chou Bodeng with it, then leaned down and placed a kiss as light as the first snow on his lips.
“I promise you my life.”
I promise you a life without sickness or disaster, a life of peace and joy.
…
“Rejoice, O my god, may your life be as the green pine.”
“Rejoice, O my god, may your joy be as the white bird.”
“Rejoice, O my god, may your peace be as the still mountain.”
“Rejoice, rejoice! May my god be well!”
The fierce members of the Witch Clan, riding their Zheng Beasts, loudly sang the blessing song passed down through generations, breaking through the swirling summer wind and charging headlong into the southern gate of the thousand-mile Army-Slaying Formation in Yongzhou.
“Insolence!”
The elder of Taiyuan Manor guarding the southern gate of the grand formation was both shocked and enraged.
He was shocked that the Witch Clan, after being trapped in the desolate, poisoned lands for so many years, still possessed such terrifying strength upon their first emergence from the Southern Borderlands. He was enraged that of the four gates—east, west, south, and north—his was the one chosen to be breached first. Wouldn’t that mean that Taiyuan Manor was the weakest among the many sects?
At this thought, Elder Cao Shiqing of Taiyuan Manor did not hesitate. He drew three swords and charged out of the formation.
With a shake of his shoulder, the peach wood sword on his left unsheathed, and the cypress sword on his right unsheathed.
The peach blossom went forth with ten miles of fragrant color, the green cypress stood with a hundred feet of awe-inspiring wind. In an instant, the sword intent materialized in the darkness, a vast and mighty force charging towards the invading witch people.
On the head of a Zheng Beast, an old witch who had been hunched over and dozing straightened his legs and kicked up a cloud of rolling yellow sand. The sand, arriving after but moving faster, blotted out the sky, smashing the fragrant peach grove to pieces and tearing the cypress wind to shreds. Elder Cao Shiqing had never been treated with such contempt in battle before. His face instantly turned purple. He no longer controlled his swords with his intent, but instead wiped his hand across his back, drew the Frost Sword from the center, and thrust it towards the withered-looking old witch.
“You dare to come out and embarrass yourself with a piece of scrap iron?”
Wu Luo laughed loudly, suddenly straightened up, and pounced like a tiger. Without using a weapon, he struck out with his palm.
“Go back and practice for another three hundred years!”
The palm of flesh and blood collided with the blade of metal, the sound booming like a great bell, deafening to the ears.
Cao Shiqing let out a muffled grunt and flew backward. Other elders from Taiyuan Manor immediately flew out and caught him, bringing him back under the formation’s flag. Wu Luo landed back on the Zheng Beast’s back, lame and hunchbacked, and sneered, “Back then, old man Meng Chen managed to cut off one of my feet with a pinewood sword. Now you, a user of the Frost Sword from this Taiyuan Gate, can’t even take one of my palm strikes. Truly, one generation is worse than the last. You’ve lived all your years for nothing.”
“You!”
Cao Shiqing spat out a mouthful of blood and glared at him furiously.
Wu Luo ignored him, his gaze sweeping over the hundred-mile-long fire flag. He suddenly roared, “Old man Meng Chen, you running dog of Kongsang, come out and die!”
His voice rolled like thunder, echoing for a hundred miles.
“Wu Luo, your Witch Clan has acted perversely. Wasn’t causing one desolate calamity enough for you?!” A white-robed Daoist priest emerged from the billowing sea of fire, holding a horsetail whisk and carrying a pinewood sword on his back. “Does your Witch Clan want to suffer heavenly punishment?”
Before Wu Luo could answer, a figure in black robes with a scarlet saber walked out of the void and asked,
“What heavenly punishment?”
Upon seeing the newcomer, the expression of the white-robed Daoist priest holding the horsetail whisk changed slightly. As for the other seventy Taiyuan Manor disciples behind him, they didn’t even have time to wonder why it was the infamous Shi Wuluo, enemy of gods and ghosts, who had come to the formation alone. They simultaneously drew their swords and, without hesitation, directly activated the grand formation.
The white-robed Daoist priest’s expression hardened. He too raised his pinewood sword and shouted in response, “To disregard the lives of the common people—if the heavens have a way, they will surely punish it!”
Shi Wuluo suddenly smiled.
Extremely light, extremely cold.
“Who told you that the Heavenly Dao cares about the common people?”