Chapter 724: The Time is Up
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Liu s.h.i.+sui glided at a high speed along the mountain path by the stream, like a dusty dragon. It took him only a few minutes to arrive by the lotus lake.
The Green Mountain Sect had moved a few halls to this place; the scenery was wonderful. And yet, he had no interest in enjoying all this at the moment, nor did he visit the Immortal Guangyuan and Nan w.a.n.g. Instead, he went to Guo Nanshan.
After hearing Liu s.h.i.+sui’s request, Guo Nanshan couldn’t help but glance at Gu Han, saying, “I didn’t expect you to guess it.”
Gu Han asked someone to bring a stack of bamboos from a sword boat.
Seeing the bamboos, Liu s.h.i.+sui was ecstatic. He bowed to Gu Han earnestly.
He planted these bamboos on Tianguang Peak more than one hundred years ago. His former Master, Bai Rujing, had died in the Sword Jail, but the bamboos were still growing in front of his former manor cave. The new bamboos grew after the old ones died, and the small cl.u.s.ter of bamboos he had planted back then almost became an ocean of bamboos now.
Seeing Liu s.h.i.+sui carry the stack of bamboos on his shoulder and recalling the past events, Gu Han, though he was rather unbothered, couldn’t help but sigh once.
Liu s.h.i.+sui carried the stack of bamboos to the Three-Thousand Nunnery as quickly as he could. Then, he took out the Guard-City Pen to cut the smaller branches off and started making a bamboo chair. The Lone Sword quivered with a buzzing sound on his wrist, indicating that it was the sharpest fairy sword, save for the one lying in the meditation room, and that he should use it rather than the Guard-City Pen.
“The end of the pen is softer, so there is no need to polish the bamboos again,” Liu s.h.i.+sui explained patiently while keeping himself busy building the chair.
Back in the small village many years ago, he saw his young master make a bamboo chair once and remembered how to make it ever since; his skill of building bamboo chair had improved over the years. Even the Snow Girl in the Sword Jail appreciated his skill very much. It didn’t take long for him to build a brand new bamboo chair. It didn’t look different from the one often seen on Shenmo Peak.
Zhuo Rusui intended to lie on it reflexively; but when he noticed the disproved expression in Zhao Layue and Liu s.h.i.+sui’s eyes, he explained indignantly, “I just want to test it for the Sect Master.”
Ignoring him, Liu s.h.i.+sui walked into the meditation room and carried Jing Jiu to the underneath of the corridor; then he put Jing Jiu gingerly on the bamboo chair.
Seeing the cracks under Liu s.h.i.+sui’s feet, Que Niang asked in surprise, “Why is Teacher so heavy?”
Zhuo Rusui rejoined, “It means he is really sleeping like a dead person.”
Yuan Qü pulled him aside hastily and asked, “What should we eat for supper?”
…
…
Jing Jiu was lying on the bamboo chair quietly with his eyes closed, as if he was asleep.
However, he had neither any breath, nor heartbeat and bodily temperature.
Zhao Layue and Liu s.h.i.+sui stood by the bamboo chair, gazing at Jing Jiu’s face in great concentration; they hadn’t moved their gazes away for a moment.
The color and brightness of the sun had changed several times from the early morning to the sunset, Jing Jiu’s eyelids hadn’t quivered even once.
Yuan Qü suggested tentatively that his Master should sit on the bamboo chair as well; unexpectedly, Zhao Layue accepted his suggestion. Yet, Jing Jiu still didn’t wake up.
Zhuo Rusui suddenly commented, “It seems that the Sect Master really likes lying on the bamboo chair. Look, his facial expression seems more relaxed than before.”
Que Niang and Yuan Qü took a look and exclaimed joyfully, “It seems to be true. His eyebrows are not furrowing anymore.”
Liu s.h.i.+sui was very pleased to hear this. Yet, Zhao Layue remained silent, because she was aware that Jing Jiu’s expression was caused by the difference between the light in the room and the sunlight outside.
Jing Jiu didn’t wake up; but he had no need to lie beside Bai Zao on the bed since he had this bamboo chair now.
He was lying quietly on the bamboo chair to perceive heaven and earth no matter whether it was windy or rainy.
Two days later, it was the end of the spring season, and the summer weather arrived; the sun became scorching hot. The group knew that Jing Jiu didn’t like the hot weather, so they brought him back to the dim and quiet meditation room.
A barrage of crisp sounds from a silvery bell rang out in the sky. The group thought it was Nan w.a.n.g who had come to eat the hotpot and visit Jing Jiu. Unexpectedly, it was a flash of white light.
It was Ada who had come.
Ada landed on the bamboo chair. When he saw the G.o.dly Swordsman of West Ocean outside the round window, his white hairs all stood on their ends, looking like a dandelion opening up, ready to flee at any moment in the wind.
Jian Xilai turned to the white cat.
Ada meowed once, indicating that Jian Xilai shouldn’t fight against him and that he should wait until Jing Jiu woke up if he really wanted to fight somebody.
Jian Xilai nodded with a faint smile. He didn’t expect the legendary Princ.i.p.al Guard of Green Mountain to be such a coward.
Ada didn’t try to figure out if his behavior was a mockery or politeness. After making sure that Jian Xilai wouldn’t kill him with a swing of his sword, Ada crawled to Jing Jiu’s bosom slowly and then crouched gingerly on it.
This was a wonderful and tranquil scene. It looked like a sleeping beauty holding a white cat in the royal palace in a summer afternoon.
Yet, as far as Ada was concerned, it was truly boring to keep one posture for a prolonged time.
He missed his former décor, toy and playing partner, the peculiar snowy beetle named Cold Cicada.
His eyes suddenly beamed when he saw a green bird perching on a tree branch outside the window.
“You can give it a try,” the Green Bird spoke in human language, her eyes showing no emotion.
Ada had dealt with the Green Bird before, and knew that she was a true heavenly spirit so that he had no chance to catch her. But, it would be fun to play tag game with her since she wouldn’t get hurt, even though she didn’t know how to fight, Ada thought.
The warm and slightly hot weather, plus the dim and quiet meditation room, made the people inside feel sleepy and bored.
As Ada daydreamed about playing tag game with the green bird, he suddenly noticed the pretty face of Bai Zao nearby. He had a strong urge to jump over, but he gave up on the idea when he spun his head and took a look at the outside. He opted to crouch drearily on the chest of Jing Jiu, who showed no sign of any life force.
A hotpot was set up outside the door.
Zhao Layue, Yuan Qü, Zhuo Rusui and Liu s.h.i.+sui were eating the hotpot. It seemed that they were not playing Mahjong.
The routine of eating hotpot and playing Mahjong on Shangde Peak was inherited only partially.
The current Three-Thousand Nunnery seemed to have turned into Shenmo Peak.
The people of Shenmo Peak had such an ability.
On the distant Green Mountain, Ping Yongjia stood on the cliff of the Sword Peak and listened to the cries of the iron eagles, feeling extremely sad when he imagined the scene at the Three-Thousand Nunnery. “I’d like to eat hotpot too, and I’d like to visit my dear Master; but I dare not,” he complained.
Jian Xilai left the lakesh.o.r.e and came to the underside of the corridor with the Dark Phoenix in his arm. Looking at the few people eating the hotpot with their heads lowered and ignoring him, Jian Xilai remarked, “I don’t understand why the Immortal Jing Yang has the likes of you as his disciples.”
He had been observing these disciples of Shenmo Peak since Yuan Qü and Zhuo Rusui came to the nunnery hall with the iron kettle and hotpot.
“Who can figure it out then?” returned Zhuo Rusui while stirring the red soup with his chopsticks.
Yuan Qü said after sending a greasy intestine into his mouth, “I can’t understand it either.”
Zhao Layue blocked Zhuo Rusui’s chopsticks with her own, ignoring Jian Xilai’s question. Liu s.h.i.+sui put down the chopsticks, wiped his mouth clean before saying while pointing to the corpse of the Dark Phoenix, “Senior Master, I still wish you could pay more respect to the Princ.i.p.al Guard of our sect even though I can’t beat you.”
Jian Xilai said while pointing to Jing Jiu on the bamboo chair in the meditation room, “He and I are the same kind of people, so I have a hard time understanding why he did such a tedious thing of saving the world.”
He had no need to get an answer for the question, because he had already figured it out.
Jian Xilai continued, “I thought he did it for Lian Sanyue in the beginning, but looks like he did for all of you.”
Zhao Layue and the others set down their chopsticks and looked at him.
“I am the result of all my karma…I heard this statement made by the Immortal Jing Yang.”
Jian Xilai pulled back his gaze and went on while looking at the group, “You people are his karmas, including those outside; as such, he has become who he is now.”
…
…
The calculations could predict some of the karma, but more often than not it couldn’t. It was because the people involved in the karma didn’t even know the ins and outs themselves.
For instance, Zhuo Rusui could still remember that he enjoyed the spiritual sources of heaven and earth coming with the wind back when he and the others cultivated with Jing Jiu; but he forgot that the enjoyment occurred on a snowy peak, at the foot of which there was a small Cultivation sect named the Mysterious Heaven Sect.
It was an interesting phenomenon in Chaotian that the more famous a Cultivation sect was, the lower a profile they wished to keep, like the Green Mountain Sect, the Center Sect, and the Fruit Formation Temple. On the other hand, those regular Cultivation sects without any profound resources tended to call themselves with the impressive names, like the Three-Purities Sect, the Heavenly Church, and the Mysterious Heaven Sect.
However, the Mysterious Heaven Sect produced an exceedingly talented figure one hundred years ago by the name of Zhou Yunmu. He had reached the Yuanjing State by relying on the magic methods of his own sect. Later, he pa.s.sed the position of the sect master to his personal disciple Lu Jin because he intended to break through a higher state by staying behind closed doors. Lu Jin had a decent talent as well. The pair of master and disciple had become the swordsmen in the Huashen State one hundred years later after they encountered someone special.
The Huashen State was equivalent to the initial state of the Broken Sea. Anyone in such a state would enjoy an elder status at the Green Mountain Sect or at the Center Sect. For those regular Cultivation pract.i.tioners, this state was a high barrier that was almost impossible to overcome. As a result, the Mysterious Heaven Sect had been developing quite strongly over the years, and became an influential Cultivation sect in the area around the north of Yu County.
The higher status a sect possessed or the more powerful they were, the more responsibilities they had to take on. Even if they couldn’t take all the responsibilities, they could at least concern themselves about the more important matters.
The matters the disciples of the Mysterious Heaven Sect discussed the most that summer were the significant happenings in the Cultivation world.
“You guys haven’t witnessed the spectacular scene of replenis.h.i.+ng the sea. But now I worry that the Underworld will attack the upper ground when they recover their strength.”
“There is no point in worrying about this since we haven’t fought against each other in more than seven hundred years.”
“It’s because the Underworld Emperor was imprisoned in the Fiend Prison. Who can control the Underworld now?”
“You’re so ignorant. Don’t you know that the new Underworld Emperor is the student of the Immortal Jing Yang? To say nothing of the Green Mountain Sect, who doesn’t know this fact?”
As time pa.s.sed, the damages caused by the Immortal Taiping and the Immortal Bai in Chaotian had gradually healed. The pa.s.sages leading to the Underworld were stabilized, and the disaster in the Underworld was in the process of being dealt with. Yet, the people found out uneasily that the pa.s.sages leading to the Underworld lost the barriers after they were rebuilt; they were easy to travel back and forth on.
“Oh, that’s why. It’s also very quiet in the snowland. Now we’re enjoying a rare peaceful period of time.”
“The Immortal Taiping, the Grandmaster of the Mysterious Dark Sect, Emperor Xiao…and the Immortal Bai are all dead. Of course, it’s peaceful right now.”
“I don’t think so, though. I heard that a force at the Cold Mountain is contending for the underground spiritual source with the Kunlun Sect.”
“I heard that the head of the group is the former Young Master of the Mysterious Dark Sect; but I don’t understand why the Sect Master asks us to ignore them, and…why we have even helped them a few times in secret.”
“To say nothing of us, even the Windy-Broadsword Church has helped them in secret…Judging from the situation, the Kunlun Sect can only last for a few more years.”
“But these are merely trivial matters. Who knows how the things are in Dayuan City? Will the Green Mountain Sect withstand it forever?”
“The Master Night Howler blocked the fairy book of the Immortal Bai in the end. I heard that he has sustained a severe injury.”
As more information about the war that had influenced the whole of Chaotian spread, more secrets about the Cultivation world had also been revealed.
The secrets included the hermit peaks at the Green Mountain Sect, the Sword Jail, and the Princ.i.p.al Guard of Green Mountain who was like a mountain and hard to defy.
“After all the pa.s.sages leading to the Underworld are rebuilt, I’m afraid that the Broadsword King, the House Master and the Young Zen Master will go to Dayuan City. Now that Chaotian enjoys such a peaceful period of time, it’s impossible to give it all up simply because the G.o.dly Swordsman of West Ocean is back.”
“The key issue is that the Immortal Jing Yang is still asleep; otherwise, we wouldn’t have so many th.o.r.n.y issues.”
“Is the Immortal Jing Yang still not awake?”
…
…
Hearing the discussions of the disciples, Zhou Yunmu didn’t show any emotion on his wrinkled face. He turned to Lu Jin, “Is the Immortal still not awake?”
Lu Jin replied, “It’s said that his condition is different from when he was in Zhaoge City; he has neither breathing nor heartbeat.”
After a long moment of silence, Zhou Yunmu asked, “Do you think it’s the time?”
“I’m not sure,” replied Lu Jin.
Zhou Yunmu led Lu Jin coming to the deepest part of the manor cave and before a painting after dismantling a few highly secretive formations. The two of them bowed to it reverentially.
It was a fairy man in white clothing in the painting; but his face was empty. It was not because his face was not witnessed by anyone; the reason for it was because n.o.body in the world had the skill to paint his true appearance.
Zhou Yunmu took out a black board and handed it to Lu Jin.
Feeling quite nervous, Lu Jin pressed, “Are you sure it’s the time to bring it over?”
Zhou Yunmu said, “The Immortal said back then that we should bring it over when we believe it’s the time to do so. I think that time is now.”