Mountain

"First: 'Heaven's heart is my heart; my heart is Heaven's heart,' Yin Fenghai. Battle record: undefeated, peerless in the contemporary world. Possessing the greatest natural talent in ten thousand years, the man closest to the Void Realm..." Huang Tian's eyes narrowed as he carefully perused the information regarding Yin Fenghai. Orphaned at age seven, Yin Fenghai had been a beggar, a Daoist priest, a blacksmith, and a soldier. He had joined righteous sects and entered the demonic cult, had slain provincial governors of the imperial court, and had slaughtered demonic cult elders. He stirred up storms across the realm until both court and Jianghu, thoroughly exasperated, joined forces to issue a warrant for his capture. At that time, he had not yet broken through to Celestial Being; facing the inescapable net spread out for him, he simply vanished without a trace for several years. One day years later, having hidden among mountains and wilds all along, Yin Fenghai suddenly appeared at Mount Chuizuo outside the imperial capital of Great Gan. After sitting in silent meditation atop the peak for a hundred days, he finally broke through the barrier to Celestial Being! He rose with a long cry, his voice like thunder reverberating for a hundred li. The three-thousand-zhang-tall Mount Chuizuo trembled and shuddered beneath him like an earth dragon turning over. Massive boulders tumbled down, and countless ravines cracked and snaked across dozens of li! On that day, the tens of millions of citizens and subjects in the imperial capital were plunged into panic, and the Emperor was secretly shaken. Even Mountain-Carrying Arhat of the State Protection Temple was startled awake from secluded cultivation and prepared to head to Mount Chuizuo to investigate. Yet before Mountain-Carrying Arhat could set out, Yin Fenghai, seeking to verify his new attainments, arrived at the State Protection Temple first to challenge him. In that battle, Yin Fenghai pressed Mountain-Carrying Arhat to his knees with a single hand. The ground fractured and collapsed, while qi whipped into tornadoes across a hundred li, smoke and clouds blotting out the sun and turning heaven and earth upside down. No matter how the Arhat struggled, his face flushed crimson, he could not push up even a single inch, pressed three feet into the earth! One had to know that he was renowned for immense strength. After achieving Celestial Being, he had once supported a high mountain with one hand and walked a hundred paces—a divine, monstrous might that awed the world, earning him the title of Mountain-Carrying Arhat. Yet that very strength capable of hoisting a mountain could not withstand the boundless force of Yin Fenghai's single palm! Rumor had it that after subduing Mountain-Carrying Arhat, Yin Fenghai was rather disappointed with his strength and left behind only a single sentence before departing: "The mountain is not as tall as I!" Sixty years had passed since that battle. For a full cycle of sixty years, Yin Fenghai had suppressed the entire realm with a single hand, silencing all heroes and bringing Celestial Beings to their knees. Countless people yearned after him, revered him, and feared him. The world thus called him— Heavenly Heart Sacred Venerable! With supreme power in hand, my heart is Heaven's heart, and Heaven's heart is my heart! 'What a Yin Fenghai!' Even Huang Tian could not help but inwardly marvel at such imposing spirit. He truly was the proud paragon of a world! 'And yet, even a paragon like him failed to step into the Void Realm Soul?' The word "Soul" carried the concept of the divine—not that Soul-level powerhouses truly became gods, but that their spirit and psyche were so formidable that they could lodge them within others. From thousands of li away, they could take in the sights of the mortal world, and through the person they possessed, unleash a portion of their might. To ordinary mortals, such wondrous power was indeed worthy of being called divine! 'I wonder if the five great armament masters recognized by the divine armaments in legends will ever appear. Once they emerge and mature, will they be able to achieve the Void Realm Soul? 'Well, that's thinking too far ahead. For ten thousand years in the Five Directions Realm, no one has ever laid eyes on the Void Realm divine armaments. Even if they truly exist, they would only appear in the face of a great calamity. I won't have the chance to see them...' Unless he happened to run into a great calamity unseen in ten thousand years, he would never lay eyes on the five divine armaments. Chuckling, he shook his head and continued reading the Celestial Being Ranking, committing the information on all thirty Celestial Being powerhouses to memory. A moment later, he returned the ranking to its place and exhaled softly. By now, he had memorized and mastered nearly all the texts and martial techniques in the Commandery Martial Restraint Guard's Book Pavilion, gaining a rich harvest. 'The only pity is that the quantity is still insufficient. Fortunately, in Kunyun Commandery, besides the Martial Restraint Guard, Six Doors also possesses many martial techniques. I can look for an opportunity to check them out in the future...' As one of Great Gan's two major institutions suppressing the Jianghu, the number of martial techniques in Six Doors' collection did not match the Martial Restraint Guard's, but it was by no means small, certainly worth browsing. However, because their duties and authority overlapped, friction was inevitable, and officials from the two sides had little contact with one another. If he wanted to enter Six Doors' book pavilion, he would have to wait for an opportune moment. Pondering this silently, he gave a slight cupped-hand salute to Elder Guan, who sat cross-legged in silence, and slowly walked downstairs. Once Huang Tian's figure vanished down the staircase, Elder Guan opened his eyes and thought to himself, 'His aura is calm and concentrated, his vitality robust, and his foundation extraordinarily deep. Add to that his comprehension, and he is virtually guaranteed to become a Grandmaster in the future. No wonder Bai Yuanfu wanted to dispatch Nie Kun and Tie Qi to protect him in secret...' Leaving the Book Pavilion, Huang Tian did not return straight to Qinghui Garden, but went first to inspect where he would be working for the coming period—the Martial Restraint Guard's Baoqing Ward Defense Company Office. Kunyun Commandery was divided into thirty wards, and each ward had a Company Office. Coordinating with the Commandery Yamen's Patrol Inspection Office and Six Doors' Constable Hall, they patrolled the local areas to maintain peace and order in each ward. The chief official of a Company Office was, as the name implied, either a Probationary Company Commander or a full Company Commander. By conventional standards, Baoqing Ward was the home turf of the Commandery Martial Restraint Guard, so the chief official of its Company Office had always been a full Company Commander who had broken through to the middle three ranks. Yet exceptional circumstances always arose. For instance, this time, in order to give Huang Tian a relatively safe post with real authority to temper him, the three Pacification Commissioners, including Bai Yuanfu, had gone so far as to reassign the original chief official of Baoqing Ward Company Office and replace him with Huang Tian, who was merely at the seventh rank of the martial dao. This had prompted many to click their tongues in wonder. 'This is the place...' Standing before a yamen bearing a plaque that read "Martial Restraint Guard Baoqing Ward Defense Company Office," Huang Tian did not go inside. He was only scheduled to officially assume his post the next day, so for now he merely intended to look around from the outside. The entire office carried a cold, stern air. A pair of stone beasts crouched before the entrance, fangs slightly bared and eyes grim, looking as though they might pounce at any moment to devour all evil. Outside the doors stood several guardsmen with hands resting on their sabers, each clad in black martial garb with their waist tokens hanging at their sides. Their eyes were sharp as eagles, sweeping over passersby with vigilant scrutiny. After observing for a brief moment, just as Huang Tian was about to turn and leave, someone suddenly walked out of the Company Office and called out to him. "Brother Huang... Company Commander Huang!" Huang Tian halted and turned his head. To his surprise, it was Luo Chan, dressed in the official robes of a Platoon Commander! Beneath the startled and questioning gazes of the guardsmen, Luo Chan hurried forward with delight and bowed in greeting. "Platoon Commander Luo Chan greets the Company Commander!" Huang Tian helped him up and asked with a hint of curiosity, "Weren't you assigned to Zhenhua Ward? Why are you in Baoqing Ward now?" Luo Chan scratched his head and explained with a grin, "A few days ago, I was indeed assigned to Zhenhua Ward. But yesterday, a sudden transfer order reassigned me to Baoqing Ward. I was baffled at the time, but after asking around, I learned that you were about to take charge of the Baoqing Ward Company Office..." So Luo Chan had been transferred entirely because of him! Huang Tian understood, knowing this was undoubtedly the work of Bai Yuanfu or Xia Hong again. He smiled and said, "I didn't expect the day would come when I'd work alongside Brother Luo." "The Company Commander may address me by name," Luo Chan said hastily. "Would you like to come inside and have a look?"