At the edge of the Great Snow Mountain, the Ice and Snow Goddess cast her gaze into the distance, quietly watching two figures scaling the snowy peaks. A touch of curiosity stirred within her, and she murmured, "A man of his strength would usually force his way across the snow mountain, yet he willingly climbs it step by step. What an eccentric person."
The formidable man she spoke of was a thoroughly ordinary middle-aged man of average height, plain looks, and humble garb. He wore a perpetual deadpan expression, showing almost no emotion.
Yet this middle-aged man held deep reverence for the Great Snow Mountain and the Ice and Snow Goddess. When ascending, he had personally offered incense, bowing and kowtowing with utmost deference.
In contrast, the youth walking ahead was far more exuberant. Dressed in green robes tied with a black cloak, he had just crossed the Great Snow Mountain and stood upon the heights, gazing as far as the eye could see. He cried out in astonishment, "Patriarch, Patriarch Qingshuang! Come quick and look! Don't the twenty-four bright moons in the Kunlun Mountains look just like your Bright Moon Mountains and Rivers Beads?"
This youth was none other than Yan Kongcheng, Sect Master of Mount Emei. The deadpan man following behind was Patriarch Qingshuang, Qiao Zizhong.
Renowned as Qiao Zizhong was for his steady composure, the distant sight of his twenty-four Bright Moon Mountains and Rivers Beads made his face twitch violently several times. He managed a dry chuckle. "Haha. Someone must have forged an identical magic treasure."
Even so, a tempest of fury surged in his heart:
*You tomb-robbing thief, you've finally shown your tail! And here I thought you would never dare to use my treasures! Let's see where you can run this time!*
Qiao Zizhong quickened his pace and urged, "Sect Master, let us hurry."
Taken aback, Yan Kongcheng hastily caught up, thinking to himself, *Why has the patriarch become so eager ever since reaching Kunlun?*
Originally, Qiao Zizhong had no intention of coming to Kunlun. Even after Mount Emei's ascended Supreme Patriarch handed down a golden-script immortal decree, he had shown not the slightest inclination to enter the mountains.
Had Yan Kongcheng not worn him down with endless badgering, he never would have accompanied him.
When Yan Kongcheng asked the reason, Qiao Zizhong had merely said that the Six Nuo Ancestors had dubious origins, offering no further explanation.
*To think that upon arriving in Kunlun, the patriarch is even more impatient than I am,* Yan Kongcheng thought. *Seeing an identical treasure must make him feel he's met a kindred spirit, making him want to meet the other person.*
***
Back in the town of Xiadu, Xu Ying watched the spirits pass safely into the Netherworld before turning around.
Right before his eyes, Lu Wu's shrine collapsed with a resounding crash, leaving only a solitary stone statue of Lu Wu squatting atop the altar.
Having weathered the impact of the Heavenly Dao avatar, the divine shrine had finally succumbed under the immense strain, bringing its long mission to a close.
The statue of Lu Wu still tried to play dumb as an ordinary sculpture, but having an inherently restless temperament, it soon hopped down from the altar. It paced around Xu Ying, looking him up and down repeatedly.
Still nursing a grievance, Xu Ying paid him no heed. He brought out the Bright Moon Pearls one by one and inspected them closely. Seeing countless fine cracks spiderwebbing across the inner walls of the pearls, he could not help but sigh in distress.
*Being part of the Heavenly Dao Crowd isn't easy either. Unleashing the might of the Heavenly Dao requires top-tier treasures as a foundation, and they risk shattering at any moment. Even with an inheritance like mine, I can't afford such squandering.*
He mused inwardly, *If only I were like those illiterate fools in the Heavenly Dao Crowd. Their Heavenly Dao domains are riddled with flaws and carry little power, so their demands on treasures are low.*
This time, when he deployed the pearls to form the Heavenly Dao domain, the sheer power of the Heavenly Dao he channeled had put excessive strain on the twenty-four Bright Moon Mountains and Rivers Beads.
If this set of treasures could not be repaired soon, it would turn to dust after only a few more uses.
Lu Wu pulled a displeased face and said, "Xu Ying, haven't you heard the saying that it's better to break up ten marriages than to tear down one temple? You went and wrecked my shrine!"
Ignoring him, Xu Ying stepped forward, gathered the Heavenly Dao treasures dropped by the Heavenly Dao Crowd, and stuffed them into Juan Qi's mouth.
Lu Wu's eyes rolled as he said, "My mountain is rich in gold and jade. If you need treasures..."
Juan Qi opened his maw wide, and a dense array of treasures drifted out, radiating rolling power and neatly aligned for easy retrieval.
At that very moment, far off on the Great Snow Mountain at the entrance to the Kunlun Ruins, Qiao Zizhong felt the power of his treasures. His fury blazed. Though the power was intimately familiar, his own brand had been completely erased! He accelerated, racing in their direction.
Yan Kongcheng scrambled to keep up, calling out, "Patriarch, wait for me!"
Seeing the hoard of treasures inside Juan Qi's belly, Lu Wu stammered, "These treasures of yours were clearly dug up from graves. Their origins are shady and they reek of yin qi. Who knows, the rightful owners' vengeful ghosts might be trailing right behind you! The materials for refining treasures in my mountains are clean and pure, of far superior quality..."
Juan Qi snapped his mouth shut, swallowing the treasures back down, and retorted, "Ah Ying thought that with your promise, he could stand tall as Lord Ying and hold his own for once. Who knew you nearly got him killed! And you still have the cheek to accuse him of wrecking your shrine? A man without trustworthiness cannot stand, a family without trustworthiness will decline, and a god without trustworthiness is doomed to perish. Ah Ying shouldn't have awakened you in the first place!"
The bronze bell chimed in, "We called you down to fight, where did you run off to?"
Lu Wu argued, "I said I would only answer him once. A god must keep his word. If I answered him a second time, wouldn't that make me too cheap? Who would offer me incense in the future?"
The purple immortal plant leaped onto his head, trying to burrow into his Realm of Xiyi. But Lu Wu was a god; he possessed no Realm of Xiyi.
The graveyard weed grew thoroughly exasperated, silently cursing him for having a head like solid stone.
Juan Qi pressed on firmly, "Is High God Lu Wu's life worth only a single wish? As a high god, to turn a deaf ear to pleas—you are unworthy of your title!"
Unable to outargue him, Lu Wu laughed and said, "Fine, fine. I will grant you one more chance, and that is that."
Juan Qi sneered, "The grace of saving your life is worth merely two wishes? You sell yourself awfully cheap, High God."
The bronze bell added persuasion: "You've seen it yourself, High God. We get into fights all the time. Look at me, I'm covered in dents and scars."
Lu Wu's eyes brightened slightly, though he put on a reluctant air: "Three wishes, then. You only need to call my name, and my divine power will descend directly, invincible and all-shattering."
Xu Ying proposed, "How about answering every single call?"
Lu Wu bristled instantly. The terrifying majesty of a mountain god rose from the peaks, far more frightening than Xu Ying's Heavenly Dao domain. Behind him, the faint silhouette of a god-fiend the size of nine mountains loomed, possessing a human face, a tiger's body, and nine tails. The oppressive aura made their hearts pound.
"Answer every single call? Am I an indentured servant to your Xu family? Where would the dignity of the High God of Kunlun's Xiadu be?" His booming voice echoed through the mountains like nine sacred peaks roaring in unison, shaking heaven and earth. "I am a High God of Kunlun, master of the nine mountains, ruler of living beings, guardian of the Great Emperor's gate! If I answer your every beck and call, how am I supposed to collect incense offerings?"
Xu Ying remained unperturbed, laughing heartily. "Fine. Five times it is. A deal's a deal."
Lu Wu glared at him, his voice heavy: "I said three..."
Juan Qi, the bronze bell, and the purple immortal plant felt the weight of the massive mountain bearing down upon them, trembling in terror. Juan Qi frantically signaled Xu Ying to accept.
Xu Ying did not yield an inch. "Five times."
Juan Qi, the bronze bell, and the weed shuddered, terrified of provoking this high god.
Lu Wu stared at him without blinking.
Xu Ying stared right back, refusing to blink as well.
After a long standoff, tears began streaming down both their faces, yet neither would shut their eyes.
Lu Wu's tiger eyes were round and watering. Tearing up, he said, "Four times. What do you say?"
"Deal," Xu Ying said crisply, wiping away his tears.
Lu Wu raised a furry paw, brushed away his own tears, and dissolved into a brilliant flash of rosy light, vanishing into the mountains. His vexed grumbling drifted back: "I only came out to watch the excitement, and ended up giving away four wishes for nothing. I should never have come out to watch..."
Xu Ying rubbed his eyes, then scooped a handful of snow outside the town and pressed it to his face to cool his stiffened facial muscles. Only after a moment did he relax.
*I forgot to have High God Lu Wu take us straight to Yuzhu Peak.*
Just as Xu Ying thought of burning one wish for that, he recalled that the Undying girl was also traveling toward Yuzhu Peak. If he rushed there now, he would only have to wait for her arrival.
Rather than wasting a wish, he might as well journey on foot.
*Besides, I might encounter other places like Xiadu along the way,* Xu Ying thought. *It's rare for me to return to the Kunlun Ruins. I should walk the land, tread my ancestral soil, and learn what suffering this place once endured.*
He descended the mountain and followed the glacial river forward, pressing toward Yuzhu Peak and Yuxu Peak.
A few hours after their departure, Qiao Zizhong and Yan Kongcheng arrived like lightning.
Leading the way, Qiao Zizhong was about to step into the mountains when he paused, took out several sticks of incense, planted them at the mountain foot, and bowed reverently before venturing into the Lu Wu Mountains.
When he reached Xiadu, he found only ruins. The tomb thief who had unleashed the twenty-four Bright Moon Pearls was nowhere to be seen.
*He robbed my tomb, so he must be immensely smug. He will definitely use them again.*
Qiao Zizhong sped down the mountain, rushing toward Yuxu Peak of the sacred Mount Kunlun.
Yan Kongcheng kept pace and asked, "Patriarch Qingshuang, did you discover anything?"
Qiao Zizhong answered, "That person altered how the Bright Moon Pearls are used, inscribing the Heavenly Dao into them. He is likely creating an independent Heavenly Dao world in the mortal realm. Within that domain, he becomes a heavenly god. Such an art is known as a Heavenly Dao domain."
Yan Kongcheng smiled. "That is quite a novel way to refine treasures."
Qiao Zizhong remarked, "Merely the crude tricks of the Heavenly Dao Crowd. Mount Emei possesses immortal arrays; if the Bright Moon Pearls were used to lay out an array, its might would surpass a Heavenly Dao domain by far."
He paused briefly, thinking, *Though it requires someone of immense cultivation to command the array, or its immortal power cannot be brought forth.*
Yan Kongcheng glanced back at the Lu Wu Mountains, thinking, *The Supreme Patriarch's handwritten decree mentioned that these nine mountains are rich in gold and jade, prime materials for refining immortal artifacts, and bade me gather as much as possible. But Patriarch Qingshuang is in a hurry, so I'll have to collect some on the way back.*
Ores and precious stones suited for immortal treasures were far beyond ordinary mineral wealth, making them exceedingly rare.
***
As Xu Ying drew closer to Yuzhu Peak, he suddenly noticed nine peaks ahead bearing a resemblance to the Lu Wu Mountains. However, the ridges of the Lu Wu Mountains looked like tiger tails while the summits resembled tiger bodies, which had given birth to a god in Lu Wu's likeness.
These nine peaks, on the other hand, resembled nine tiger heads, while the range behind looked like a tiger's body, completely devoid of tails.
*These peaks must have birthed a primordial god with nine heads and a tiger's body.*
Xu Ying looked into the mountains and saw a gentler stretch of terrain behind the nine-headed peaks, where tiled cottages stood. It appeared to be another settlement of the Undying People.
"Let's head there first," Xu Ying said.
This was the Kaiming Mountains, home to Zhongdu Town.
Over a hundred townsfolk lived here, men tilling and women weaving, coexisting in apparent bliss and leisure, as though in a pure land.
A woman stood by a well, turning a windlass to draw water. As pure well water was hauled up, she cheerfully tossed a leg bone from the bucket back into the well, then ladled out water for a nearby child to drink.
The child cupped the clear water and drank greedily. The woman rubbed his little head affectionately and smiled. "Once upon a time, there was a poor family who couldn't afford food. The father took a kitchen knife to the market and found a meat stall. The meat was too expensive, so he carried the knife home. He rinsed the knife in his own pot, and the broth tasted of meat..."
The child looked up with an innocent smile. "Why not rinse the knife in the well? Then we could taste meat forever!"
The woman glanced back at the well and chuckled. "Back then, that's what we thought too."
At that moment, the townsfolk stopped their chores in unison and looked toward the entrance of the town. A youth clad in black with a red sash was walking inside.
The youth walked at an unhurried pace, followed by an unnaturally massive serpent sporting dragon horns and whiskers behind its head, yet lacking limbs.
Upon the youth's shoulder clung the roots of a purple immortal plant, resembling exquisite embroidery.
Above his head floated an archaic bronze bell, its surface covered in various Dao images of flora, fauna, figures, and landscapes, though it was marred by numerous scars.
The youth had slightly darkened skin, as though weathered by long exposure on the plateau.
Bloody streaks covered his flesh, etched with strange characters that seemed branded across his entire body.
Watching the youth, the townsfolk caught a faint scent of flesh and blood, their throats bobbing in hunger.
They rose one after another. Behind the woman, the well water churned violently, spilling over and disgorging countless bleached bones that piled up like a mound.
"It has been a long time since we tasted fresh Undying People," the woman by the well chuckled slyly. "We were ordered to suppress this place and pull them up by the roots. Who would have thought a fish would slip through the net and deliver himself right to our doorstep?"
Taking in the scene, the youth walked forward in silence until he stopped before the ruins of a collapsed shrine. The primordial god here had already been destroyed; unlike Lu Wu, it had not been fortunate enough even to keep its statue intact.
Throughout Zhongdu, the members of the Heavenly Dao Crowd shouted in unison, their cries tearing through the clouds of the azure sky. Heavenly Dao treasures soared aloft one after another, and the radiance of the Heavenly Dao filled the heavens and flooded the plains in an instant, inverting like a canopy of dawn light!
The sound of the Heavenly Dao thundered!
The various Qi Refiners, Nuo masters, and Nuo immortals exploring the Kunlun sacred mountains were startled, turning their eyes toward the Kaiming Mountains in shock and uncertainty.
Many of them had been warned by their sect ancestors: *Enter no village, enter no town.* Thus, they had kept their distance from the settlements nestled in the mountains.
Other sect patriarchs had bluntly informed them that those residing in the villages were the Heavenly Dao Crowd, bound to a special mission and not to be disturbed.
Yet on this single day, the Heavenly Dao Crowd had been disturbed twice!
"Who has the gall to do such a thing?"
They looked on from afar, only to witness twenty-four bright moons rising steadily amid the mountains. Their brilliant moonlight formed another Heavenly Dao domain, overarching and suppressing the original one.
"This power of the Heavenly Dao is so pure! Could the person intruding into those towns be the true successor of the Heavenly Dao?" Their astonishment only deepened.
Heavenly might rippled through the peaks like surging wind and gathering clouds, unleashing a terrifying shockwave. Fortunately, the Kaiming Mountains possessed nine great peaks that absorbed the brunt of the impact, triggering cascades of avalanches across the mountains.
Soon, the Heavenly Dao domain dissipated. The twenty-four bright moons streaked across the sky, dropping one by one into the mountains.
Before long, Xu Ying walked down from the Kaiming Mountains, heading toward Yuzhu Peak. Just then, a familiar voice called from behind:
"Brother Xu! You're here too? Do you still remember me? I'm Yan Kongcheng, no weaker than you!"
Xu Ying was pleasantly surprised to encounter an old acquaintance. Turning around swiftly, he saw Yan Kongcheng, and right behind him stood an ordinary-looking man whose plain features made him easy to forget at a glance.
Chapter 234