Shi Wuduan experimentally took a step forward. The astrolabe above his head was leashed by the silk threads, illuminating a small circle centered on him. And then, the bamboo and rocks controlled by the Six Circle Array began to slowly shift away from him.
Shi Wuduan had had it all thought out. Plotting out the trajectories of the stars to calculate the corresponding change in the array for every change in the stars’ positions wasn’t a reliable method — he’d be calculating until he grew whiskers and still not be done. Even though Shi Wuduan sometimes seemed a few cards short of a deck, he wasn’t stupid. Someone so skilled in such a complicated art at such a young age was definitely not that dumb– for example, he knew that Jiang Hua was trying to con him.
He pondered for a while and felt that since rogue cultivator Jiang Hua was an old friend of his shifu and was his senior, he was different from the Cuibing bird and those rabbit spirits. It wasn’t proper to openly and brazenly con him back. So, he could only cheat by calling on Bai Li to help him trick this dead thing that was falsely called a living array.
The metal rod that Bai Li sent him was called a galaxy pestle, made from a mineral called “luo metal.” In the back mountain of Jiulu Mountain, there were plenty of little black rocks such as these. Usually, they weren’t of much use since all they could do was respond to the energy of the stars, absorb a bit of light, and twinkle a bit. When some yao were born, their parents would often collect these types of rocks to grind into powder to paste to the roof of their cave dwellings, creating an illusion of the night sky to amuse their young.
Shi Wuduan’s astrolabe, ever since it had sucked up the essence of that fierce ghost in the abandoned temple, had become a bit wild. It was a bit difficult to control because his cultivation wasn’t very high. Although normal divinations weren’t a problem, controlling the stars in the astrolabe required considerable effort, thus, he asked Bai Li to make something to help him.
The astrolabe derived astral calculations. Countless sand-like grains moved in imitation of the stars in the ninth heaven. Shi Wuduan hung it over his head, planning to use it to trick the Six Circle Array, using that “fake” celestial sea to make those annoying rocks and bamboo obediently move out of the way.
When he tried it, it actually worked.
“South of the great fire, the sun consumes its light.” Shi Wuduan became extremely self-satisfied, and his guts grew bigger as well. According to the slow movement of the sands in the astrolabe, the sea of bamboo slowly revealed a path. He headed straight, and maintained a decent pace, constantly adjusting the astrolabe above his head, not running into any obstruction.
Suddenly, for some reason, the ground began to shake. There was an almost furious rumbling sound coming from a faraway mountain ridge.
The human and bird were in the middle of the Six Circle Array. The Cuibing bird was originally terrified of the array, and had been quietly huddled up against Shi Wuduan, but this strange event caused it to start struggling as if possessed, stretching its neck out and repeatedly screeching, giving quite a scare to Shi Wuduan. He looked down and found that the bird’s black, watery eyes actually seemed to reflect a bit of red light.
He confusedly hauled the large bird, stiffly petting its head, quietly saying, “Ai, don’t yell anymore.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
However the Cuibing bird seemed as if its life was on the line, screaming and convulsing. Shi Wuduan was small, his strength limited, and was almost unable to hold onto it.
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Lbkfnfg Vtl Qevejc rlwqis atbeutaifrris yilcxfv jcv rjlv, “Clsj, kts’r atfgf jc fjgatdejxf?”
Although he didn’t know what was going on, his reactions weren’t slow. He heard a loud noise, a large rock had been shaken loose, rolling down the slope directly at him. Shi Wuduan nimbly carried the Cuibing bird, rolled to the side, stepped on a bamboo, curving it, and used it to launch himself away. The rock smashed into the place where he had just stood, leaving a large crater behind.
Shi Wuduan thought for a moment, his fingers full of star silk. He pulled down, lowering the astrolabe that had been blown into disarray by the wind. He hugged the Cuibing bird and hid underneath a large rock and curled into a ball.
The earthquake grew even stronger. The dizzying Six Circle array was broken by the rocks falling from the mountain peak. Apparently, in the end, even peerlessly ingenious arrays were only the works of mortals, and could not withstand natural calamaties.
Although Shi Wuduan wasn’t in the mood to be awed by nature, he was actually in high spirits as he spoke to himself, “If I’d known earlier there’d be an earthquake, I wouldn’t have prepared so much stuff.”
Just then, the massive stone behind him moved, a crack in the earth sending massive boulders rolling once more. The stone started to tip over, on the verge of crushing him into a meat patty. Shi Wuduan jumped to his feet and yelled, “Shit!”
He scampered away quickly as if his life depended on it, tumbling and rolling the whole way, while the boulder dogged his heels. The clothes on his back nearly looked like a beggar’s. After running for a while, he noticed a large tree growing by the side of the mountain face. Luckily, he had some skill in qinggong and leapt up like a monkey, catching a branch and flipping onto it.
The rock that almost seemed to be chasing him rumbled by, rolling down the mountain.
Shi Wuduan panted for a while, laying on the branch like a dead dog. He patted his chest and said somewhat insincerely, “That scared me to death.”
He was covered in big and small injuries from his wild escape, especially on his arm, there was a long and deep gash where it’d been scraped. It had bled all over his sleeve and dripped onto his astrolabe. The astrolabe glowed with ghostly light and absorbed the blood, gluttonous as a wild beast.
This time, Shi Wuduan saw it as well.
He frowned, and sat up straight, carefully wiped the blood clean, and looked down at the stars in the astrolabe. He suddenly felt that something was strange; a child his age had a kind of animal instinct hadn’t yet faded. He felt that his astrolabe was different from the one in his shifu’s courtyard, different from the large and small astrolabes in Jiulu Mountain’s storage.
The astrolabes in Jiulu mountain all had the right and proper aura of Xuan Sect. Generally speaking they were harmonious and orthodox. However, Shi Wuduan felt that his own, ever since it had absorbed that ghost, had grown crooked. It gave off the impression of having a wisp of strange spirit and a bit of vicious energy.
However, he felt that that current of viciousness seemed oddly intimate.
After Shi Wuduan made it through that disaster, his energy was completely spent. In the process of all that trouble, he’d already left the Six Circle Array. Perhaps assuming Jiang Hua wouldn’t be able to find him anymore, he decided to spend the night in the forest. He put away the astrolabe, let go of the Cuibing bird, and fell asleep.
He slept until morning the next day and picked a few wild fruits to eat, packing up the leftovers. Seeing as rogue cultivator Jiang Hua didn’t seem like he was going to chase after him, he straightened out his cloth bundle, picked up the Cuibing bird and, trodding on a ground full of devastation, left the mountain.
From the moment Shi Wuduan entered the Six Circle Array, Jiang Hua had actually been aware. He hadn’t even the time to figure out how the little brat had managed to break the array, when the ground cracked and began to shake. He Tong, in a rare event, lost his composure and rushed towards him, his face pale white, so scared he could hardly speak, “Im – immortal master, earth – earth….”
Jiang Hua didn’t dare be careless. With a wave of his sleeve, a green light enveloped the courtyard. The little yao he raised were all in a panic, and even He Tong reverted back to his true form, too afraid to move, while it scrunched up by Jiang Hua’s feet, trembling.
For an animal to attain consciousness and intelligence was extremely arduous, it was the product of hundreds, thousands of years of strenuous cultivation. Only after experiencing countless hardships, could they attain human form. They knew what starving was like, what being chased by enemies was like, what bitter cold and arid drought were like. They were incredibly sensitive and fearful of natural disasters. It was a terror buried deep in their souls, wrought from wandering at the border of life and death countless times.
The earthquake had occurred suddenly, and the sect master of Xuan Sect had entrusted his disciple to him; Jiang Hua feared that Shi Wuduan would encounter some mishap. He’d been cultivating immortality for many years, so of course he did not lack remarkable powers. After shielding the courtyard, he used his skills to set out in search of Shi Wuduan, unafraid of the quaking earth.
It wasn’t until the earthquake settled, and he saw the little imp sleeping soundly on a tree branch that he finally let out a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to approach, the astrolabe on Shi Wuduan’s back suddenly emitted a green glow. It seemed, balefully, to attempt to block his path.
The Cuibing bird flew from the tree branch, landing on Jiang Hua’s shoulder.
Jiang Hua frowned, closing his eyes as he calculated for a moment. Only a few minutes later did he open his eyes and look at Shi Wuduan, who was drooling and hugging a branch. He backed away and sighed.
The Cuibing bird gently nudged its head against Jiang Hua’s face. Jiang Hua patted its head, saying softly, “The ancients tell us, ‘easy to know heaven, hard to defy heaven.’ This brat is so young, not even understanding what ‘fate’ means, and already he dares to use an astrolabe to fake the will of heaven to trick the Six Circle Array. He … ai!”
The Cuibing bird chirped, somewhat anxiously looking at Shi Wuduan, before currying favor with Jiang Hua and nudging him with its head. Jiang Hua sighed again, “There’s no need for you to act as such, I am merely one who has withdrawn from worldly affairs. Three thousand undercurrents, and I can only watch from shore, never to wade into the water. Today, the machinations of fate have coincided. The mountain ridge collapsed just as he broke my Six Circle Array. Thus it can be seen that to this world, if he is not a great blessing, then he will be a great calamity. This is beyond my ability to influence.”
The Cuibing bird somewhat panickedly flapped its wings.
Jiang Hua let the bird go — in the dark, gloomy green light coming from behind Shi Wuduan, there was a moment when he saw thousands of threads, binding this still youthful Shi Wuduan to the great wide world beneath the mountain, winding so tightly, that even he could not discern the cause and effects of karma.
He’d said before that if he broke the Six Circle Array, he’d let him down the mountain. Now that the array was already more or less wrecked, could it be anything but heaven’s will?
Jiang Hua shook his head, turning around to head back to his own courtyard.
Shi Wuduan leisurely headed down the mountain, listening for news along the way, and setting up a spread by the side of the road whenever he ran out of money to earn more through fortunetelling. Even though he was only a youngster, he knew to say only the good news and not the bad. He had a sweet mouth and a cute face, and actually tricked quite a few people with the nonsense he spouted. Fooling off all the while, he made his way back to Jiulu Mountain.
He stood at the foot of the mountain, thinking that it was just too great to be home. He was beside himself with joy as he yelled loudly, “Shifu! Shifu! Little Li-zi! I’m back!”
Of course — Jiulu Mountain was tall, and the clouds deep, no one would be able to hear. He was only venting his longing before wiping the sweat off his forehead, eagerly following the small path up the mountain.
Shi Wuduan was utterly bursting with joy, so far as to not notice that the villages beneath the mountain were frighteningly quiet. He hurriedly passed by, heart set on showing off to the sect master how he’d valorously broken through Jiang Hua’s Six Circle Array, that he didn’t notice that the usually rowdy villages, with chickens flying and dogs jumping, were silent as a grave, not a person to be seen.
Little Shi is too naive!~
Thanks for the chapter<3
Thank you so much for picking this up 👏🙏❤️🧨💐
💙💙💙
Omg what happened they’re all gone ;_;
Thank u for the food!
Thank you for the translation!
I’m astounded by this translation for two reasons.
The first is that
the translator did an amazing job at accurately translating and
localizing the original text.
The second is what a difference it makes when the source material is written by a professional author.