Gu Huo

Listening to these legends, Xu Yao could not help his eyes shining like stars. *The man I encountered was actually such a legend?* A wave of profound awe suddenly shook his heart. *Too formidable!* A deep reverence welled up within him. Only such a person, with such monumental achievements, could truly say they had not lived this life in vain. Everyone's enthusiasm surged, and they fell into eager discussion. "Why would Lord Gu come to our Black Mountain? And from what Big Fatty said, he came completely alone?" "Could something huge be about to happen around here?" *** While the crowd in the Mountain Guard Compound was absorbed in their impassioned talk, a serene valley lay quietly adjacent to Peach Blossom Valley. Clad in black, Gu Huo walked alone in silence along a desolate mountain path. This high-ranking official of the Great Qin Demon Suppression Bureau, whose very name struck awe across the realm, did not use even a shred of his cultivation base at this moment. He advanced slowly at the pace of an ordinary mortal. All around was barren desolation. He trudged onward alone through wild weeds taller than himself. Overgrowth and brush had swallowed everything, yet he unerringly found where to step. Parting the weeds and thickets revealed that beneath them lay a trail from who knew how many years ago. Amid the bleak ruin, where the ground leveled out slightly, the faint remnants of broken walls remained, long eroded by wind and rain into nothing more than low stumps of earth. He walked the old mountain path with utter familiarity. Had the trail of yesteryear been excavated, one would find he had not misplaced a single step. He had always been accustomed to walking with his hands clasped behind his back, but now his arms hung down loosely, swinging naturally as he moved. He seemed like a wanderer returning after a long absence from home, carrying a touch of timid reserve and nervous anticipation. At last, he came to a halt before a half-broken earthen wall protruding from the ground. Behind the wall was a slightly raised earthen mound, choked with wild weeds. A white stone slab, weathered and mottled by time, was half-buried before the mound, serving as an improvised headstone. It was a modest grave. Gu Huo stood before the mound. He gazed at it for a long, long time. After consecutive downpours, the wordless headstone had been washed spotlessly clean. He slowly crouched down, meticulously pulling up the weeds by hand until an area three zhang around the grave was cleared clean, revealing the color of rain-washed yellow earth. He lit incense. Then he knelt, retrieved paper money and joss candles, and set them alight. Amid curling blue smoke and rising flames, Gu Huo spoke in a low voice, "Mother, your son has come to see you." His voice trembled faintly. Through the rising firelight, he vaguely seemed to see once more that frail, withered woman clad in tattered rags that were nevertheless washed perpetually clean. "Lately, celestial portents have appeared ceaselessly around here, and the torrential rains have been far too frequent. Something major is bound to happen, so I came to take a look—and stopped by to see you." "Mother, there is one question I have never dared to ask all these years." He fed the paper money into the flames sheet by sheet, watching the paper swallowed by fire, curling and burning to ash. Softly, he asked, "...I hated you for so long. Did you blame me?" Gu Huo murmured softly. In his eyes, light and shadow intertwined, and he seemed to see once more that era when living was impossible. The household had been out of grain for a long time, surviving each day on tree leaves and bark, mother and son both emaciated as skeletons. Though he starved, staying by his mother's side every day had felt safe. The neighboring mountain folk were equally starved, drifting like wandering souls, their eyes glowing green when they looked at him. His mother had often cursed those people, ferocious and shrill, keeping a pair of scissors on her person, savage and resembling a madwoman. Finally, on a day when heavy snow blanketed the earth, his mother had led six-year-old him away. Gnawing on tree bark the entire way, they walked down the mountain to the edge of the thoroughfare. After waiting for a day, she sold him as a slave to a passing merchant caravan. She sold him for five copper coins. The moment he realized he was being sold, Gu Huo had let out heart-wrenching wails, desperately wanting to go back with his mother, to return home. Yet his mother ignored him. Taking the coins, she walked away, walking swiftly. Her thin figure soon vanished into the wind and snow. Before leaving, she left behind for him the only tattered padded cotton coat she wore. Recalling that padded coat, tears streamed down Gu Huo's face. When the caravan manager handed him the coat back then, young Gu Huo's chest had burned with furious hatred. That very night, weeping bitter tears, he had resolutely cast the coat into the fire. *You didn't want me anymore! Why leave behind a coat!* *Even if I freeze to death, I will never wear it!* It was not until he grew older, reaching thirteen and gaining understanding, that the gravely ill caravan manager summoned him to his bedside before passing away. The manager gave him five copper coins, wrapped inside a tattered cloth pouch bearing a single written character: *Huo*, meaning "Live." It was a corner torn from his mother's clothes. That was the money from selling him. His mother had never taken that money back then. She had pleaded with the manager: if the child truly could not stay or survive here, give these five coins to him. His mother had said, "Even if he still dies in the end, let the child eat one full meal before he goes." "Given your mother's condition back then... once she sold you, she couldn't survive on her own." On his deathbed, the manager gripped his hand and said, "Child, you should thank your mother. Do not blame her. Back then, only by letting you harbor hatred could you live. If she had let you cling to gratitude, you would have run back sooner or later, and running back meant certain death." "Child, your name is Gu Huo. Your mother gave it to you." "Your mother wanted you to live." Gu Huo did not know how he had walked out of that door that day. He only felt an absolute emptiness in his heart, as if the heavens and earth had lost all color before his eyes. The mortal realm felt so desolate. The manager died. Gu Huo wanted to return, but young and powerless in a chaotic world, there was no way he could make the journey. It was not until one day, while traveling with the caravan, that they were scattered by bandits, and he encountered his master. His master slaughtered all the bandits and saved him. Only many years later, after completing his training, did he finally search across the Southeast Circuit based on the three remembered characters *Elm Gully* and find his way back to his old home. Yet Elm Gully held no households anymore; not a single living soul remained. He found his family's old earthen house, long since collapsed. He sifted through all the ruins and unearthed a rotten roof beam. Beneath the beam lay a charred skeleton. Upon the skeleton, patched upon patch, were rotted remnants of clothing he recognized. Even after years of decay, he would still recognize them! Those were his mother's clothes. After selling him, his mother had returned, set a fire, and hanged herself from this roof beam. Knowing her son could live, her mind had been set at ease. She did not want to endure any longer, nor could she endure any longer, and so she departed. The fire had been set by his mother herself. Gu Huo understood her temper: she would rather burn herself to a crisp than become food in the mouths of others. Such was his mother's stubbornness. Crushed beneath the ruins of the roof beam for decades, she had finally waited for her son's return. That day, Gu Huo buried his mother and knelt before her grave for seven days and seven nights without food or water. The image of that frail figure in thin garments vanishing into the wind and snow after selling him surfaced in his mind again and again. What had been her feelings at that moment? He was consumed by boundless remorse. Why had he not kept that ragged padded coat back then? Why had he burned it? In such freezing weather, a padded coat meant life itself. If his mother truly had not wanted him, why would she leave that coat to him? If she had wanted to live, why would she give away her last garment against the cold? It had been an obvious clue, yet why had he been so consumed by hatred at that tender age that he could not see even this? That was his mother's final warmth, yet he had burned it! Had she known he burned that coat, how heartbroken would she have been? Today, her son was living very well, yet his mother's features had grown blurred in his memories... Wanting to see them clearly, he would never have the chance again. Later, as Gu Huo cultivated step by step, his cultivation base grew higher and his abilities grew stronger, until he finally reached the point where he could take charge of a domain alone. His master asked him: *Of the Eight Divisions across the realm, where do you wish to go?* Without a second thought, Gu Huo chose the region across all Great Qin territory where demons appeared most frequently: the Southeast Demon Territory. *I want to go to the southeast!* *I want to plant myself firmly in the southeast!* Gu Huo had not hesitated in the least. Because in the southeast, he could come see his mother at any time, and she could see him. Moreover, he would govern the southeast well, so that no mother and child would ever suffer such a tragic fate again. Like a man possessed, he governed the southeast with an iron fist. In those first few years, he practically worked without rest, leading his subordinates to scour the land, wiping out bandits, robbers, and outlaws again and again. The Southeast Demon Suppression Hall struck such terror into the demons of the southeast that they shivered, not daring to stir. Year by year, the southeast truly flourished. Gu Huo's contributions were immense, and his cultivation base and merit points had long qualified him for promotion, but he refused every offer. *I want to stay in the southeast!* *Remain in the southeast forever!* Every year, he would come quietly to visit his mother, making the trip whenever he missed her. He never dared let others know of this place; with enemies across the realm, he could not allow anyone to find out. Each time he came, he would sit with his mother for a while, telling her of what he had accomplished during that time. Every visit before her grave brought an extraordinary peace to his heart. The five copper coins rested against his chest, wrapped in the scrap of his mother's clothing, warm against his heart. The incense and candles burned, their heat distorting the air in a hazy shimmer. Gu Huo gazed greedily at the wavering space, feeling as though he saw a figure looking at him with a gentle smile: *How could Mother blame you? Mother needed you to hate me so that you wouldn't secretly run back out of longing, so that you could live on.* *Mother is very glad.* Tears streamed down Gu Huo's face. He silently burned the paper money, brought out wine to make his solemn offering, and shared a cup with his mother. He stayed until the sun sank behind the mountains. Evening glow blanketed the slopes. Only then did he slowly stand up, using his hands to scoop up handful after handful of earth to cover all traces, adding a fresh layer of soil to his mother's grave. "Mother, I am leaving. When I miss you, I'll come again." "Don't worry about me. Your son is living very well. They all fear me. They even call me Southeast Huo." A trace of boyish pride showed on Gu Huo's face as he patted his chest, speaking in a boastful tone. He turned slowly and walked down along the old mountain path, careful not to damage a single blade of grass upon it. Reaching the turn at the foot of the mountain, he looked back. Halfway up the slope, all was serene. Wild weeds taller than a man had long concealed everything. Yet Gu Huo truly seemed to see a woman whose face was veiled in mist, standing there and watching him with loving reluctance. Gu Huo stopped, his eyes misty as he gazed toward the ridge. Raising a hand in a wave, he murmured softly, "Be at ease." He turned and walked away. Rounding the mountain ridge, an entirely different scene unfolded. Here, the cliffs on both sides were covered with peach trees, and when the wind blew, the fragrance of peaches drifted through the air. Peach Blossom Valley. Like Elm Gully, it was nestled between two mountains. At its lowest point ran a small river, gurgling along. Yesterday's torrential rain had passed, and the floodwaters had receded; though the river had not yet returned to its usual clarity, it was already clean enough for washing clothes. From the riverside came the steady *thump, thump, thump* of clothes being laundered, the sound of wooden mallets beating against cloth. The sound carried far across the valley. A rush of familiarity washed over him. He remembered that in his childhood, his mother had washed clothes in just this way... Gu Huo moved quietly through the woods ahead, taking care not to disturb anyone, simply savoring that comforting sound. It echoed in his heart again and again like the rhythmic pounding of his mother washing clothes so long ago. Unconsciously, his heart softened, and he murmured softly, "Mother... Mother..." Just at that moment, a shout rang out from the distance: "Mother! Mother!" Gu Huo's body jerked. His divine consciousness wavered, and for an instant, he felt as if he had dreamed his way back to those distant years, nearly thinking it was his younger self crying out. Yet he snapped back to reality at once. A flicker of envy flashed in his eyes, and he quietly turned his head to look.