Chapter 73

It is said that that night, the giant sea snake kept in the great lake by the gate of the Western Palace died belly up.

The great hall of the Immortal Binding Platform has collapsed. With the Dragon Binding Locks removed, all that is left is an empty platform. Under the pouring rain, the thick smell of blood is all over the place as the water runs over the platform.

Out of nowhere, the demonic cultivators under Shizhou Mountain cause a great commotion the whole night. They pick fights as they like, and clash several times with the cultivators on the mountain. As the battles rage on, the wild animals on the mountain all run away. Countless villages around the mountain are also affected. However, the cause of this problem isn’t bandits or rebels, so the imperial forces are not only unable to deal with the situation, but they also have to run away alongside the civilians.

It should be said that the imperial court reacts fairly quickly. Within one day, the Celestial Divination Bureau sends their people to the place. Unfortunately, the gesture only has minimal effect. The cultivators from well-established sects are very proud, so they don’t bother to listen to the imperial court’s orders. Those demonic cultivators from Nanjiang are even more unpredictable. Relying on their numbers, they go from place to place to raise trouble.

Under Shizhou Mountain, the realm undergoes a great disaster. The bodies of people who starve spread for miles around. White bones are strewn everywhere. The water sources are polluted with corpse poison, and the plagues are spread widely. Countless mortal civilians become homeless.

The cultivators from various sides fight with each other without a care about their surroundings. The clash wrecks havoc on the spiritual energy of nature and causes great disturbances to the region. Sudden flood follows sudden forest fire. Snow falls when the sun is still shining, yet in the snow there are feeble summer flowers forced to bloom. They and the autumn crickets helplessly stare at each other, completely at a loss about what is going on.

The madness lasts for four days, which finally leads to the Heaven’s wrath. Divine lightning strikes at the Immortal Binding Platform and splits it into two.

This seems to be a warning sign for the start of a chaotic war between the divine and the demonic, as the old order collapses.

Bian Xu doesn’t linger. After he leaves the Immortal Binding Platform, he immediately returns to Black Tortoise Hall, then declares that he will go into seclusion. He doesn’t appear no matter who calls on him.

The lord of White Tiger Estate is nowhere to be seen right from the beginning. Whether it’s a secret investigation of Nanjiang or dealing with the incident on the Immortal Binding Platform, it’s just a group of disciples and an elder who easily loses his temper and insults another person’s child to their face. For a while, there is even a rumour that the lord of White Tiger Estate doesn’t appear because he has already been dead for a long time.

In the present, the Four Sages, who have been like the four pillars that carry the four corners of the world, are all dead or disappear. As if to follow their exit of the stage, the long period of peace also ends.

As the world plunges into chaos, both mortals and cultivators are afraid.

The decadence of great cities and all-night festivities is like a layer of beautiful bas-relief carved on ice, which vanishes with just a kettle of boiling water.

However, Cheng Qian doesn’t have the heart to pay attention to any of this.

That day, he leaves the Immortal Binding Platform together with Tang Zhen. They take shelter in a simple inn down Shizhou Mountain. Cheng Qian knows for the first time what the backlash by one’s own spiritual energy looks like.

When the backlash is underway, some blue veins protrude on Yan Zhengming’s temples. They look as if ready to break his skin and escape at any time. His hand unconsciously clutches at the stone bed. His groan that can’t be held back any longer breaks out, as the thick stone of the bed is crushed to dust by his hand.

Tang Zhen says loudly, “The kids must all stay outside. This is no joke. Whoever hasn’t formed a primordial spirit has to stay away too… Ouch!”

Before he can finish, an immensely powerful ray of sword will erupts from Yan Zhengming’s body. It has the chilly power of ‘divine realm’ sword cultivation. No one can last for long when facing it.

Unable to breathe, Tang Zhen falls back with a crumpled face and presses his disturbed chest.

The entire inn shakes and seems to collapse. There is a loud crack from a pillar. The sword will just soundlessly passes by its surface, but a deep hole appears on the tough wood.

Tang Zhen grasps Cheng Qian’s shoulder. His skeletal fingers squeezes harshly an injured spot, making Cheng Qian startle.

“Don’t stand there. I can’t handle his sword energy, so it all depends on you. You must not let all of his spiritual energy leak out. Otherwise, not only his body can’t bear the injuries caused by the Dragon Binding Locks, everyone within several miles from here will become collateral damage!”

Cheng Qian immediately focuses. He sends his spiritual energy to cover the entire inn and form an invisible net, which captures the backlashing sword energy of Yan Zhengming inside.

However, he himself only knows how to inflict violence. He has never done something like healing or giving support for another person before. On top of that, the inside of his mind constantly bears the unconscious attack from the sword energy, while he has to take care not to aggravate Yan Zhengming’s injuries. The two sides are at an impasse. Not much time has passed, but sweat can already be seen on Cheng Qian’s temples.

As if being ripped apart by a thousand blades, Yan Zhengming lies on the bed carved from stone, all of his strength gone. Even his groans don’t make any sound.

Even though he seems to be awake, his eyes are unfocused. His mind struggles, as he is unable to tell where he is. Yan Zhengming uses his fingers, which have gone stiff, to ineffectually grasp something in the air. He feels that he is already using all of his strength, but in reality only the tips of his fingers tremble a little. His bloodless lips move weakly, as if to call “Xiao Qian”.

Tang Zhen signs a complicated spell. Right away, Cheng Qian feels a pure breeze rises like a flow of warm water. As it sweeps through his injuries and the bruise on his hips, they are all healed completely.

The pleasant breeze goes past but doesn’t enter Yan Zhengming’s body. Yan Zhengming stirs slightly. His chest goes up and down more visibly, as he seems to regain his consciousness. Tang Zhen’s face immediately goes pale, as if he has just died once more.

Seeing as Yan Zhengming is conscious, Tang Zhen hurriedly says, “Sect Leader Yan, please withdraw your sword energy a bit!”

In truth, Yan Zhengming can hear him, but he can’t do anything even if he wishes to. As his body feels like every bit of it were being sliced by sharp blades, he thinks vaguely to himself, “Master, it hurts so much to cultivate the sword. I don’t want to do it anymore.”

Cold sweat breaking out on his temples, Tang Zhen turns to Cheng Qian. “We can’t delay it any longer!”

Gritting his teeth, Cheng Qian uses all his might to tighten his spiritual base and force the rioting sword energy back in one place. As the sword energy struggles in the invisible net, all he can feel is that a war is raging inside his head and in his energy base, that his body is being pierced by thousands of arrows.

Li Yun, who has been waiting by the door, only sees a great light flares up from inside. The windows shake, then a layer of frost spreads and freezes everything.

Dragging Puddle, who has been peeking, with him, Li Yun trembles as he pushes open the frozen door to the room.

Kneeling on one knee, Cheng Qian is holding Yan Zhengming close to himself. His torn clothes are soaked with blood and stuck on his body. Li Yun shakily steps forward and calls softly, “Xiao Qian?”

Cheng Qian wants to stand up, but he loses his footing. Li Yun hastily rushes in to support him. “You’re so reckless too!”

Cheng Qian momentarily can’t say anything.

“He is fine for the time being,” Tang Zhen stands up with difficulty. He gives the unconscious Yan Zhengming an unfathomable glance. “You should use your spiritual energy to take care of yourself.”

They don’t tarry at Shizhou Mountain long. After a perfunctory round of self-healing, Cheng Qian borrows Tang Zhen’s flying horse carriage to return to Fuyao Estate in the early morning of the following day.

The small flying horses are too scared to run. Puddle has no other choice but to play driver herself. She blows two rays of vermilion crane’s true fire at the tails of the horses, which spurs the two flying horses to run wildly like headless chickens.

Tang Zhen soon gets very tired and falls asleep in a corner. When he is awake, he looks like a well-mannered scholar with his gentle face. When asleep, his breath becomes very quiet, and a deathly aura of a rotting corpse emanates from him.

As Nian Dada chats randomly in a low voice, Liu Lang doesn’t give any response. Li Yun quietly sits by the door of the carriage, as his whole body is shrouded in an unspeakably heavy mood.

Holding an unconscious Yan Zhengming, Cheng Qian leans against the frame of the carriage. He doesn’t see any sign of pain on Yan Zhengming’s face, as if the latter were just bored from their Master’s lecture in the Hall for the Teaching of the Tao and fell asleep.

Cheng Qian recalls that when he was young, their Master sent him to live at Qing An Abode so that he could learn to find peace for his mind. Then why would their Master let his most senior brother live in “Land of Tenderness”?

Did their Master predict from early on that Yan Zhengming would only get to enjoy a carefree life for a short while in his childhood?

Outside of the carriage, the rain has been falling thick in the wind. Like a shaky storm’s lamp that is about to go out, the vermilion crane’s true flame flashes through the night sky of a damp world.

At that moment, Liu Lang, who has been looking out of the window, suddenly breaks the silence by speaking up, “When I realised that I become neither human nor ghost like this, I didn’t want to live for a while.”

He almost never speaks in front of other people, so everyone suspects his voice has been damaged after being possessed by that demonic cultivator and he became nearly mute.

“There is nothing bad about being a mortal,” Nian Dada yawns, then continues as he becomes more awake, “Following the cycle of life, having one’s own home and field, enjoying the unique pleasures of old age, resting with one’s ancestors when dead, then becoming a child loved by its parents in the next life.”

It is impossible to tell what kind of expression is there on Liu Lang’s face, which is completely covered by the mask. He gives Nian Dada a heavy glance then says in a low voice, “You don’t know what it is like to be a mortal. You people make a spell and cause rain to fall. It may lead to a great flood, but you won’t pay attention to that. But for the mortals who live down the mountain, their life has been going on peacefully as they go to sleep. Yet when they wake up, what they see is that their houses and fields are all destroyed after just one night, and they lose everything they have been building their whole life.”

Nian Dada is at a loss. “About this…”

“Those are the lucky ones. At least they get to keep their lives, so that they can leave their homeland,” Liu Lang says, “For the others, they may die because their houses collapse on them while they are sleeping. Or they die from stray attacks during armed conflicts. Or they run into a demonic cultivator and die without being buried. Afterwards, all people talk about is who wins and who loses, or which hero kills how many demonic cultivators. Other things are completely neglected.”

Liu Lang laughs quietly then says, “It’s like how a pedestrian kills ants on the way by stepping on them. It isn’t intentional, but no one pays attention to the dead ants either.”

“That’s nothing new,” Li Yun tiredly says, “Everyone who lives is an ant. Some want to be more than ants and wish to forget that they too are only ants in the end. In this world, happiness or tragedy has never in humans’ control. As long as we live, we have to accept that. Look at our sect leader and senior brother. He is a cultivator of the sword, who has reached the ‘divine realm’. Everyone fears him, but does that save him from suffering in his daily life just like other people?”

The word ‘suffering’ touches a nerve of Cheng Qian’s. Hanging his head, he lifts a hand of Yan Zhengming and feels the delicate pulse. Before, he could sense the burden of his most senior brother, but he has never found Yan Zhengming so fragile, that just looking on gives him immense anxiety.

Cheng Qian looks closely for a long time but he can’t find anything. Because his spiritual energy is cold, he dares not recklessly probe the inside of another person’s head. Thus, paying no heed to whether Tang Zhen is sleeping or not, he asks, “So, when will he wake up again?”

Closing his eyes, Tang Zhen replies, “I don’t know. When one is under backlash from one’s own mind, in addition to the disturbance from the demon of the mind, maybe he’ll vomit blood and wake up after a short while, maybe he’ll never wake up again and be forever lost.”

As soon as these words are said, silence reigns over the carriage again. Even the chatty Nian Dada dares not say anything.

Tang Zhen’s crow mouth is on the money again. The group has returned to Fuyao Estate for more than a month, but Yan Zhengming remains a living corpse.

Although Tang Zhen doesn’t explicitly promise anything, he probably still feels he should bear some responsibility for teaching Yan Zhengming the taboo technique, as he stays at the Fuyao Estate together Nian Dada and Liu Lang. He instructs Li Yun on how to reinforce the protective array around the estate and examines Yan Zhengming’s state once every few days.

Tang Zhen has become used to the ways around the bamboo grove. He drinks all of the cool water in the cup on the table in one gulp, then asks Cheng Qian, who has been waiting for quite a while, “You have passed all seven rounds of heavenly tribulations and formed your body. Why are you still maintaining such asceticism?”

“I’m used to that,” Cheng Qian quietly sits next to him. A moment later, for some reason, he adds, “Before, I felt that it was too bland to live as a being without feeling. However, now I feel that it isn’t necessarily a good thing to feel too much.”

“From what I see, you guys have guests again,” Tang Zhen says, “People flock to your place like it’s a festival. But that makes sense. Nearly all of the most powerful cultivators have fallen. After the incident at Immortal Binding Platform, you and your disciple brothers have become renowned. In a time full of unrest, it’s natural that you guys will be affected by the flow of events.”

Not bothering to look up, Cheng Qian says harshly, “When there is no tiger on the mountain, apes pretend to be kings.”

He doesn’t seem to be bothered that these words denigrate himself too.

Tang Zhen gives him a look and says, “It seems this guest comes from White Tiger Estate. Don’t you go to meet them?”

Cheng Qian apathetically says, “Their own lord is pretending to be dead. What use is it that they meet me?”

Tang Zhen continues. “Looks like the Celestial Divination Bureau has sent a card requesting for a meeting too.”

Cheng Qian’s face immediately darkens, “If they come from Celestial Divination Bureau, just kick them out. If any of them doesn’t know their place, then that one won’t be able to return. Even if the sun in the sky is changed, what does it have to do with us?”

What does the current event have to do with them?

The whole world will soon know Han Yuan’s origin as a Fuyao Sect’s disciple. Can they still stand by the side when it comes to that?

However, as Yan Zhengming is still unconscious, Cheng Qian gets increasingly impatient and anxious. Not wanting to provoke him further, Tang Zhen drops the topic. He steps forward and sends his awareness to probe the inside of Yan Zhengming’s head.

This great cultivator Cheng, who earlier just preached about ‘keeping the mind clear from all distraction’, immediately leans forward and asks, “How is he?”

Tang Zhen doesn’t say anything for a long time. Cheng Qian can’t sit still and walks to and fro. He is about to ask several times, but fearing that he’ll disturb Tang Zhen, he swallows the question on his own accord.

It takes a while for Tang Zhen to withdraw his awareness. He places Yan Zhengming’s arm back to under the blanket with great care. With a heavy face, he hesitates to speak.

Cheng Qian asks, “Tang-xiong?”

Tang Zhen says, “I think… you should summon your senior brother and junior sister here.”

Cheng Qian is stunned on the spot.

He has never felt such a cold in his chest. It is as if someone hollowed his chest out then stuffed him with permafrost, the chill of which cut into his flesh.

Perhaps being struck by lightning can’t be any worse than that.

Tang Zhen awkwardly glances at him and says, “My young friend, things don’t always follow human wishes. There is happiness, but there is sadness too. You’ve been purifying your mind and abstaining from all desires for a long time. How can you not understand that?”

“No…”

Cheng Qian’s voice breaks with just a syllable. He seems to wish to step forward from where he is standing, but his legs shake, as if he is about to collapse. His gaze slowly stops at Yan Zhengming. In a split second, Tang Zhen feels that his eyes redden. But, can a piece of jade cry?

The gaze of this person, who didn’t waver even when facing heavenly tribulations, can be filled with panic like this?

However, his moment of helplessness is fleeting. Before Tang Zhen can say anything, Cheng Qian’s gaze suddenly becomes determined. He says in the tone of steel, “No, please don’t tell them yet. Tang-xiong, you’re very knowledgeable, so you must know a solution. Whatever you say, I’ll do it, no matter if it’s to the Heavens or the Underworld. Even if you tell me to exchange a life for a life, that will be no problem.”

Tang Zhen interrupts him. “Aren’t you aware of what damned words you’re saying? If your senior brother heard that, he’d definitely stab you first, then stab me.”

Cheng Qian stares fixedly at Tang Zhen with a chilling calmness as he says, “I managed to forge the Spirit Collecting Jade into my body. As long as you point me to the way, there is nothing I can’t do.”

As Tang Zhen looks more closely at him, there is no hesitation in Cheng Qian’s eyes.

“No matter if it’s to the Heavens or the Underworld,” Tang Zhen repeats those words. Then he smiles vaguely. “My young friend, in this world, there are many stories of the strong bond between fellow disciples in the same sect. However, a bond so strong like between you guys is rarely seen.”

Cheng Qian says cooly, “This is ‘Fuyao Estate’, not ‘the world’.”

Tang Zhen doesn’t dwell on that topic anymore. “Outsiders like us can’t fully know the dangers that lurk in the ‘divine realm’ level of sword cultivation. He has just reached the ‘leaving the sheath’ level. It’s already highly dangerous that he has a heart demon while his cultivation is not yet stabilised. Yet he recklessly used a taboo technique. Did you see the extent to which he forced his cultivation to increase during that battle on Immortal Binding Platform?”

Cheng Qian says, “I’m not more powerful than him, so I couldn’t tell. I can only make a guess. It must have been at least one cultivation level.”

Tang Zhen says, “Indeed. It is like borrowing money with very high interest. In his case, he borrowed without paying back. At ‘divine realm’ level, a step forward is immense, so the backlash is naturally lethal.”

Cheng Qian immediately understands what Tang Zhen is driving at. “Then, as long as his actual cultivation catches up to what he borrowed, the backlash will be less painful for him? I can give him all of my spiritual energy. I’ll only have to cultivate again for another hundred years. One gets used to heavenly tribulations after a while.”

Hearing that, Tang Zhen is stunned. Then he can’t help laughing as he says, “What are you thinking? That spiritual energy is like a bowl of rice that you can give away at a whim? You aren’t a cultivator of the sword anyway, and even if you were, the spiritual energy of two different sword cultivators might not be compatible with each other.”

At this point, Tang Zhen sighs. “To overcome this tribulation, he must enter the level of ‘entering the scabbard’ before his flesh-and-blood body is destroyed. But you must under understand that in cultivation, you need to work a lot for a little bit of progress. Even those of demonic cultivation, who use shortcut, can’t progress too fast. As a sword cultivator, every step he takes requires immense effort. There is absolutely nothing external that can help him increase his cultivation. What we can do for him from the outside is extremely limited. Even if you want to, you just can’t.”

Cheng Qian’s face immediately darkens.