Both Beichenzi and the Earth God were fraught with anxiety. For over two years, Zulong had pursued them relentlessly, leaving them unable to eat or sleep in peace and forcing them to constantly scurry into hiding.
Two years ago, Zulong had even tracked down the Shenzhou Earth God Temple where the Earth God dwelled.
In that battle, the Earth God finally understood why Zulong claimed to hold Shenzhou beneath his heel.
The Shenzhou Earth God Temple had truly been trampled to dust beneath Zulong's foot, severing the god's incense offerings!
The four of them had fought desperately and eventually escaped, but in doing so, they lost track of Xu Ying. Left with no choice, they split up: Fairy Yutang went with the sorrowful old man, while Beichenzi paired off with the Shenzhou Earth God.
They searched everywhere for Xu Ying's whereabouts. Word of him surfaced from time to time, but whenever they rushed over, they arrived empty-handed. Just recently, hearing news that Xu Ying had appeared in Yunmeng Marsh, they hurried over—only to arrive one step too late. Xu Ying had already departed aboard Stone City, tearing through the void toward the heavenly road.
A forbidden ground like the heavenly road was not a place Beichenzi and his companions could casually tread. They had to request instructions from higher authorities; only if granted permission could they enter.
Yet petitioning above for approval took so long that a single round trip might consume a year or two, if not several years. For instance, when the Earth God petitioned above for a Heavenly Dao divine artifact to suppress Zulong, the request had simply been denied.
They prayed to every power they could invoke, hoping nothing would happen to Xu Ying, but it seemed something had gone awry on the heavenly road after all. When Stone City returned, Xu Ying had not!
Not long after, one of the sixteen characters forming the demon-quelling runes seal mysteriously dimmed, and a corner of the seal unraveled!
This was no small matter; fright nearly sent their souls scattering to the heavens and earth. Fortunately, the anomaly did not last long, and the dimmed rune soon returned to normal on its own.
Their hearts had been in their throats, but fortunately nothing further occurred—until the past two days, when two characters among the demon-quelling runes began flickering between light and dark. That was a grave crisis!
"This is no minor incident. We cannot ignore it!"
Beichenzi said to the Shenzhou Earth God, "When that first seal rune dimmed, it was like a prisoner in a jail having someone break in from the outside to pry open a breach. But for whatever reason, the rescuer pulled the prisoner halfway out, only to shove him back inside and patch the hole up."
The Shenzhou Earth God listened, bewildered, and asked, "And now?"
Beichenzi replied, "The problem now is that the prisoner inside seems to have figured out how the lock is built! He's trying keys one after another, attempting to pick the lock himself! That is what's truly terrifying!"
With this explanation, the Shenzhou Earth God understood immediately. His expression grew grave. "In other words, if he finds the right key, he can open the door and walk out on his own! And once he walks out by himself, he'll never lock himself back in!"
Beichenzi nodded. "We must report this to the higher authorities and make them see the stakes! If they replace the demon-quelling runes with different ones, we can secure peace for another several thousand years."
The Shenzhou Earth God said troubledly, "My temple was demolished by Zulong, so I cannot contact those above. I must find an Earth God temple in another continent and route my report through them."
Beichenzi frowned. If that were the case, the procedure would become even more convoluted. Merely navigating that red tape might cost them their lives!
"There is another way," the Shenzhou Earth God suggested. "Go directly to the Palace of Heavenly Gods to meet those heavenly gods and alert their upper echelons! The Palace of Heavenly Gods has long wanted to intervene in the mortal realm. They will surely be more than willing to step in."
Beichenzi said, "When Fairy Yutang visited the Palace of Heavenly Gods last time, they lacked the authority to act against Xu Ying."
The Shenzhou Earth God chuckled. "That is because you lacked sufficient standing. I am the Earth God of Shenzhou, enjoying incense offerings across the realm. If I speak to them, I will surely convince them to act!"
Beichenzi let out a breath of relief. "Then please make haste, Daoist Brother! And remember—beware of Zulong!"
Chilled by the reminder, the Shenzhou Earth God burrowed into the earth and vanished.
Beichenzi looked out toward the vast wilderness of the marsh. Yunmeng stretched boundlessly like rolling mist, beyond line of sight, while even more wetlands kept surging forth from the Cangwu Abyss in the distance, rich with aquatic flora and overrun with monstrous beasts.
"This time, we must have the gods of the Palace of Heavenly Gods bring down fresh demon-quelling runes. We cannot rely on the old ones anymore, or catastrophe will surely follow!" he murmured, looking into the distance with deep worry.
As far as Beichenzi's gaze could reach, a golden crow flew across the water, trailing blazing fire in its wake. It was an elderly three-legged golden crow, exuding the incomparably domineering aura of an ancient primordial beast, its presence suppressing all other creatures.
Even Beichenzi could not help feeling a pang of dread, not daring to provoke it.
*Where did this golden crow come from? To be so ancient, it must have lived for twenty or thirty thousand years, hasn't it?* he thought to himself.
The golden crow flapped its wings, skimming over the water. The scorching heat evaporated the marsh waters into billows of white steam. Suddenly, its talons plunged down and hauled out a colossal crocodile over a hundred zhang long.
The giant crocodile had lurked at the bottom of the marsh to prey upon beasts on the shore. Having lived for over two thousand years and undergone multiple molts, it had grown draconic horns and a dragon's tail, resembling a vicious flood dragon. It was a notoriously ferocious beast in these parts.
Trapped in the golden crow's grasp, it still struggled, trying to twist around midair to snap at the crow.
How could the golden crow tolerate such insolence? Opening its beak, it exhaled a blast of fiery light that roasted the beast from head to tail. By the time the crow reached the Fusang tree, the giant crocodile was thoroughly cooked.
Perched in the tree, the aged golden crow dined on the crocodile, tossing the uneaten flesh to the fish-belly folk who worshiped it.
Once full, the golden crow glanced over and saw Xu Ying still deep in thought, racking his brains to decipher the Dao character for "Imprison."
"Lad," the crow said, "this kind of rune is called an Immortal Dao rune. It records the Immortal Dao and cannot be deciphered so easily."
Xu Ying snapped out of his contemplation and bowed respectfully to the golden crow. "Senior, since you recognize this as an Immortal Dao rune, you must have seen it before. Could you tell me how to break it?"
The elderly golden crow stretched its long neck down from the Fusang tree until its head was right in front of him. Staring at Xu Ying with dim, clouded old eyes, it took a moment to slurp a dangling strip of crocodile meat from the corner of its beak into its belly before saying, "I am too ancient; I have forgotten many things. I recognize these as Immortal Dao runes, and I have seen you before, but I can no longer remember."
It slowly lifted its head, its voice rippling out across the boundless water like waves. "My memory is fading. I cannot recall where the scars on my body came from, nor why I am here. In perhaps another three thousand years, I shall die of old age."
Flapping its wings and kicking up gusts of dry wind, it said, "The memories of my youth may have vanished, or they may still linger somewhere in my consciousness. Lad, if you are bold enough, enter my memories yourself and search for them. Perhaps you can find the Immortal Dao runes I once saw."
Xu Ying's spirits soared. He praised, "Senior is truly magnificent in power! Lord Bell, come with me into Senior's memories to search for the Immortal Dao runes!"
The bronze bell warned vigilantly, "Ah Ying, this bird is going senile; its memories are continually collapsing and eroding into nothingness. If we enter its mind just as a memory disintegrates, we might be annihilated along with it, or trapped forever in the labyrinth of its mind!"
Xu Ying hesitated, then glanced back at Yuan Qi. "We cannot leave Seventh Lord unrescued. Lord Bell, you caused this trouble, and you cannot shirk responsibility. Enter Senior Golden Crow's memories with me and keep watch over me!"
With no other choice, the bronze bell had to agree.
Gathering his resolve, Xu Ying looked up at the aged golden crow and said, "Senior, my friend Yuan Qi is beneath the tree. He has been sealed. Please watch over him and do not eat him."
Doddery with age and afflicted with poor eyesight, the golden crow lowered its head and asked, "Which one is your friend Yuan Qi?"
Xu Ying guided its massive head over to the sealed Yuan Qi.
Squinting through dim, rheumy eyes, the golden crow examined him several times and chuckled, "Oh, just a loach. Very well, I will keep an eye on him for you. No one shall harm him in the slightest."
The bronze bell remarked, "Old Venerable, your memory isn't the best. Would you like to write it down? I worry you might forget."
The golden crow let out an indignant roar, radiating imposing might. Its bellow shook the bronze bell into a loud hum. "I have only forgotten things from my youth! I will never forget recent matters! You wretched bell, stop babbling!"
Knowing full well it was no match for the crow, the bronze bell meekly backed down.
Xu Ying called out loudly, "Senior, please draw us into your memories."
Sun divine fire blazed fiercely all over the golden crow. In a flash, a tongue of flame swept out, scooping up Xu Ying along with the bronze bell.
All at once, Xu Ying felt himself cast into a sea of fire, propelled forward by an immense force. Blazing divine flames roared all around him, burning wildly, while figure after figure flashed past in reverse through the divine fire!
Those figures standing within the sea of fire towered amidst varying lands and rivers, each majestic landscape distinctly different from the last, with even starry expanses flashing by in succession!
He even saw sun after sun streak backward before his eyes, and witnessed battlefields lined with gods and demons, their sinews bulging like martial gods in various ferocious stances, locked in brutal combat with savage countenances!
In his ears rang all kinds of sounds: battle cries, clashing weapons, chanting mortals, laughter, weeping, waves crashing against the sky, Dao resonances, and more.
These sounds rushed up in an instant and vanished just as swiftly!
Suddenly, the aged golden crow's voice drifted in: "I am sending you to the deepest depths of my memory, which should be when I had just come into the world. If you start searching from there, you shouldn't miss any Immortal Dao runes."
Its voice grew more and more distant: "You feel so familiar. Perhaps I met you in some era. You might have been one of the mortals who worshiped me when I received their reverence..."
Before Xu Ying's eyes, countless images streamed backward at breakneck speed as the golden crow's voice faded into inaudibility. Suddenly, the aged golden crow's peculiar power pushed him back to the very place where its memories began!
Where the golden crow's memories began was inside a warm, round egg. It was stretching its body, tearing through the shell with beak and claws, struggling to break out.
The moment it cracked the shell from the inside, light from the outside flooded its vision. At that very instant, it gained its own memory—born in the truest sense!
A wondrous life was born!
"Amu! Amu!"
An excited voice rang out, crying in sheer delight, "The bird egg I kept next to my skin and hatched every day, it's really born!"
Hearing this voice, Xu Ying was puzzled. The bronze bell also gave a gentle chime, muttering, "Bizarre. What a familiar voice..."
Its eyes heavy with sleep, the young golden crow struggled to open them. And then, Xu Ying saw his own face reflected in the crow's gaze.
"Amu, come quick!"
Xu Ying saw his own ecstatic face filling the young golden crow's vision, bringing an overwhelming sense of warmth and closeness to the newborn creature.
"Amu, I finally have my own spirit beast!"
Xu Ying watched himself bounding about in wild excitement, incapable of standing still for a single moment.
Back then, he was roughly the same age as he was now, his face brimming with youthful innocence and tanned red by the sun. Around his neck hung a necklace of beast fangs; he had broad hands, large feet, and was barefoot.
He wore only a pair of leopard-skin shorts, apparently skinned directly from a leopard with the hind legs cut off to slip on.
Trailing behind his rear was a leopard tail.
As the golden crow gradually learned to fly, it loved perching on young Ah Ying's shoulder.
It saw that the "Amu" young Ah Ying spoke of was a robust barbarian woman, stout and burly, endowed with immense physical strength.
"I'll give you a name," young Ah Ying smiled. "From now on, you will be called Jin Buyi. Jin Buyi, meaning never forsaken, never abandoned!"
As young Xu Ying's spirit beast, the golden crow accompanied him on hunts. Most youth of the clan had their own spirit beasts—colossal and exceptionally fearsome creatures—while only Jin Buyi was tiny.
Yet this diminutive golden crow was extraordinarily fierce. Exhaling blazing fire, even full-grown exotic beasts were somewhat afraid of it.
Jin Buyi was very fond of its master. Its master had his own troubles: every time he bathed in the river, he would yank out a hair with all his might, grumbling in vexation, "Another one grew! Damned hair!"
Whenever this happened, the crow would spit a puff of flame, burning that hair to ash.
Years rolled by. Jin Buyi gradually grew, radiating the aura of a primordial ferocious beast that held dominion over all spirit beasts within hundreds of li, truly awe-inspiring.
Yet Master Ah Ying never grew any older, gradually becoming an anomaly in the eyes of the villagers.
Then one day, Ah Ying disappeared.
Panicked, Jin Buyi hurriedly searched in all directions. It beat its wings, traversing Yunmeng Marsh, encountering other primordial beasts as mighty as itself and even beasts far more formidable.
Through untold hardships, Jin Buyi combed every corner of Yunmeng Marsh, but could not find its master.
It grew steadily, possessing ever greater power, able to transform into a streak of fire as it flew with astonishing speed. Even so, it took more than ten years before it found its master again.
Young Ah Ying lived in a small fishing village by the South Sea. He was still named Xu Ying, yet he had an entirely different background. He had no memory of his previous parents, nor of having a spirit beast named Jin Buyi.
At night, the fiery glow emanating from Jin Buyi illuminated the fishing village, drawing the youth out.
"Jin Buyi! Jin Buyi!"
In the sky, a strange bird cried out, calling, "Never forsaken! Never abandoned!" The bird swooped down and snatched young Ah Ying away.
Just then, powerful human cultivators gave chase and wounded Jin Buyi, forcing it to relinquish the youth and flap its wings to flee.
Another century passed, and Jin Buyi had grown much larger, far mightier than before.
Once again, it found that youth named Xu Ying. Young Ah Ying was in Chaoge City, the young master of a wealthy merchant clan. The crow flew to Kunlun, battled the gods there, and seized an immortal herb that could commune with heaven, earth, ghosts, and gods, flying back wounded to Chaoge. Shrinking in size, it landed on the youth's shoulder and presented the immortal herb to him.
The golden crow took flight, wheeling above Chaoge City, crying: "Jin Buyi! Never forsaken, never abandoned, Jin Buyi!"
Chapter 159