At the summit of Jiulu mountain, the grand imperial palanquin seemed somewhat drab in the downpour. A palace attendant dressed in soaked clothes held up a large umbrella. Under the umbrella, stood a man.
He was perhaps about thirty or so; his features could be considered decent. He should’ve been in the prime of his life, but appeared rather dispirited. His eyebrows seemed to be weighed down, giving off the impression that the curtains were closing on him — he wore a gold-lined official’s headpiece on his head, a royal seal at his waist, and a black robe that had the sun and moon motifs stitched on his shoulders and a vermillion red lining embroidered with phoenixes, precisely the clothes the emperor wore during court.
That man was the emperor of Great Qian, who’d been on the throne for some tens of years.
The mountaintop was windy, and though the palace attendant was already trying their best to shield him from it, a few specks of rain still landed on the emperor, not that he cared at all. His eyes were unblinkingly focused on the Xuan Sect’s sky platform before him.
There was an old man kneeling upright on the platform, piously prostrated on the ground. His white hair swayed in the bleak wind and icy rain, making him seem even more thin and fragile. The gusts atop Jiulu mountain were so strong that the flags on the imperial palanquin flapped violently. However the white clothed old man seemed to be unaware of it, kneeling there completely unmoving, muttering something with his eyes tightly shut.
At the edge of the platform kneeled a middle aged man who was also focused in the old man’s direction.
With the sky platform at the center, the sect master’s shidi Master Bitan and the twelve masters of the Xuan Sect sat in around it in a circle. In the outer circle, eighty one disciples maintained a defensive array.
In the Xuan Sect, there were only three who were of the same generation as the sect master, those people being the older shidi, Master Bitan, the younger shidi, Master Banya, and a shimei, Master Kuruo. As for the “twelve masters,” they were the elites of the older generations, each with their own merits. Shi Wuduan, as the sect master’s close-door disciple, actually counted as a senior generation in name.
At that time, Master Banya was on guard at the side, but Master Kuruo was not there. She, as well as most of her disciples, were all women. Since the emperor had for some reason led his ministers and generals to the sect, even though it wasn’t quite proper for her to not make an appearance, it didn’t count as anything strange either.
What was strange was that the sect master wasn’t present.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew over, sweeping up a tree branch laying on the ground, sending it flying directly towards the old man in the middle of the platform. The wind was simply too strong, making it seem as if that light branch carried with it a burst of ferocious energy.
Banya was startled, immediately flicking a finger in the direction of the branch. In an instant, the tree branch snapped into two, one section flying up into the sky, and one brushing by the back of the old man’s head, messing up his bun and sending his grey-white hair scattered about on his frail shoulders and back, making for a somewhat ghastly sight.
The emperor couldn’t resist taking a half step forward, his expression anxious.
Suddenly, Bitan raised his eyes, quietly but urgently saying, “Not good!”
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.
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The old man kneeling on the grown collapsed as he spewed blood from his mouth.
The guards standing to the side immediately kneeled at his feet, quietly saying, “Your majesty, you mustn’t.” The emperor hesitated a moment, but still halted his steps in the end. The chanting of the Xuan Sect disciples gradually grew until the buzzing noise seemed to shake the earth. However, the lantern didn’t recover its light. It flickered twice before going out.
The old man kneeling on the ground suddenly lifted his head, and stared wide open at the extinguished lantern, reaching a hand towards it. Banya and Bitan, separated by ten steps of distance, met each other’s gaze. Banya shook his head solemnly, while a flicker of light flashed in Bitan’s eyes.
At that time, the middle-aged man by the sky platform stood up, deferentially presenting a dagger upon the platform, handing it to the old man.
The old man glanced at the dagger for an instant before laughing, almost relieved. Then, he reversed his grip on the dagger and stabbed it into his heart. Who knew how deep the dagger stabbed, but very quickly, the blood from his heart dripped down along the blade, and gradually coalesced into a line, as if guided by some force. A small gust swept up the thread made of blood and raised it up to the extinguished mountain lantern. It flickered into a fireball and ignited the lantern once more, but the light seemed to carry a faint sheen of red.
Only then did the wind and rain begin to wane. The old man faced upwards to the sky, silently kneeling there with a dagger stuck in his chest, as if he was already dead.
After some time, Bitan stood up and said, lengthening the sound, “Ceremony — complete –”
As soon as he finished speaking, the emperor lifted his robes, as he ran onto the platform and supported the collapsing old man, “Grand mentor, you….”
The old man dazedly raised his head, his gaze had already gone blank. The emperor looked down at the dagger in his chest, grit his teeth, and gripped the handleas if to pull it out. Bitan, who appeared by his side, said quietly, “Your majesty, the grand mentor has used his heart’s blood to ignite the seventh lantern. Right now, he must have words to speak to you. If you pull out the dagger, then you won’t be able to hear them.”
The emperor’s features twisted for a moment, his hand began to tremble.
However, the old man lifted his hand, gripping the vermillion collar of the emperor’s robes, as if in the midst of a dying flash of lucidity. His gaze was scorching as he said, “I have …. lit the seventh lamp, for the sake of Great Qian, for seventy more years of the Heaven’s Mandate, but… but….”
He suddenly sighed, his next words seeming stuck in his chest. He struggled to say, “The hearts of crickets and ants, cannot …. cannot surmise heaven’s intent, there will… there will … ”
Finally, he was unable to go on. His body violently convulsed as his eyes pinned the emperor in place. Then he turned slightly, looking through the emperor to look at the silently weeping middle aged person behind him. His purplish blue lips trembled lightly. He felt that there were thousands of words in his chest he wanted to say — he still hadn’t seen the day when favorable winds and waters would arrive to the empire, hadn’t yet seen the people living in peace and working happily. That feeling of unacceptance blocked up his chest, as if even his heart’s blood had congealed and stopped moving.
The middle aged man knelt down with a thud, weeping, “Father, rest assured, your son will assist the emperor and spare no effort for the sake of Great Qian’s prosperity!”
The light in the old man’s eyes gradually faded. The convulsing hand grabbing onto the emperor’s collar slowly lost its strength, drooping down feebly. The eyes that seemed to have seen through the thousand miles of mountains and waters finally became empty.
A celebrated official had died and only left behind a stooped, hoary corpse.
In the thirteenth year of Great Qian, Yan Huaipu, who in bygone days had been the emperor’s grand mentor, used his life to trade for Great Qian’s Mandate of Heaven at the peak of Jiulu Mountain, atop Xuan Sect’s sky platform. The wind rose, the lantern snuffed, thereupon replenished with heart’s blood.
At the same time, Shi Wuduan was finally able to see what was going on in the back mountain. The whole Cangyun Valley was enveloped in a cloud of black mist. Yao of all sizes scattered about in all directions as they fled for their lives, trembling as they did so. Looking from on high, it seemed that the mist was especially dense in the area around Fire Lotus cave.
Shi Wuduan grabbed a half-human half-beast deer spirit that was running past him and asked, “What happened here? What happened to Lady Bai and the heavenly foxes?”
The deer spirit was so terrified its eyes were almost rolled up into their sockets, he said tremulously, “Un – unbelievable, the valley’s ley lines were severed by divine lightning, and right now just happens to coincide with a yin hour, yin month, yin day. Someone went against fate and ignited the luck-borrowing lanterns. The great seal – the great seal has cracked open, the demons will descend to earth!”
The nonsense he was spouting about divine deities and monster demons, Shi Wuduan disregarded it all. Without waiting for it to finish, he asked restlessly, “Then what about little Li-zi? What about Bai Li?”
The deer spirit lurched, as if it didn’t understand who he was talking about. Shi Wuduan continued, “She’s Lady Bai’s daughter, that Bai Li …”
The deer spirit’s whole body shuddered, its face looked like it’d seen a ghost, it looked so frightened it was on the verge of peeing its pants — luckily its lower body was that of a deer, so it wasn’t wearing pants.
It struggled out of Shi Wuduan’s grasp frenziedly, yelling, “I don’t know, I don’t know!”
And then it ran without looking back.
Shi Wuduan stamped his feet, moving against the rush of fleeing yao, rushing deeper into the valley.
He felt a strong surge of unease — Shi Wuduan had never in his life felt so uneasy before, it was pretty much the first time that he’d felt fear, but he knew in his heart, that it was like having his house catch fire while his wife was inside. No matter how scared he was, he couldn’t simply leave his wife alone inside, right?
And so he went forth gallantly.
The closer he got to the cave dwelling, the thicker the black mist got, and the faster his heart beat. When he reached the entrance, his hands and feet started to become icy cold, his legs started convulsing, and his knees weakened as he walked. Shi Wuduan stopped for a moment and glanced at the Cuibing bird, his face white as paper, and said to the bird, “You fly upwards, the mist’s thinner in the sky, don’t follow me in.”
The Cuibing bird lightly pecked his nose, behaving uncharacteristically gentle.
Shi Wuduan lowered his arm a bit, urging, “Go, quickly.”
But the bird seemed as if it was glued to his arm, it wouldn’t move no matter what he said. He locked eyes with it for a moment before sighing, tying the astrolabe, whose green glow was gradually dimming, onto the bird’s back. He brought the bird with him as he ran into the cave, yelling as he ran, “Little Li-zi! Where are you?”
“Little Li-zi, you….”
His words got stuck in his throat, because the big and small yao inside the Fire Lotus Cave all turned to look at him. There were some who looked human, and some who were fox-faced, all of whom were staring at him. The yao king Bai Ziyi stood in the center with a long sword in her grasp, the tip of the sword pressed against someone’s chest.
That person was tied to a pillar in the middle of the platform, and was a youth of fifteen or sixteen by the looks of it. His snow white robes were already soaked through with blood, but his eyes were open all the same, as if the pitch-black hatred in his eyes wouldn’t subside until the last drop of blood had left his body. It was a sight that would chill the hearts of anyone who looked upon it.
Although the appearance was different, the face was familiar, and the expression was familiar, to the extent that Shi Wuduan froze for a few seconds before he realized — that was Bai Li!
When Bai Li’s gaze landed on him, that cold, hard expression softened a bit, seeming to be at a loss.
Shi Wuduan didn’t have time to ponder why Bai Li had suddenly grown so much, and why he suddenly seemed …. a bit like a man, because compared to the situation of “Bai Li’s mom wants to kill him,” they became light as goose feathers.
In a moment of desperation, his eyes swept the room, but his mouth let out a dumb laugh, and said, “Aiya, that uh … sorry, sorry, I got careless and went to the wrong place.”
Ohh-god🤦 Is this really my son?
Thanks for the chapter<3
At this rate, I will really facepalm at every sentence SWD spout. 🤦♂️
Thank you for the chapter!
My heart is in my mouth 🥺😳
💙💙💙
LMAO I-
Omg that’s right he still didn’t know BL is a man 😭
Thank u for the food!!!
Ooooh, events are already weaving together. The author is definitely big brain.
I’m cracking up. Is he going to ask where the toilet is next?