Shi Wuduan didn’t know what had happened in Cangyun Valley. When he awoke, it was already night.
The first thing he saw upon opening his eyes was a shivering ball of fluff, speckled with brown and black dirt. Next to the Cuibing bird, that stupid peacock, it seemed even more adorable.
With those shiny black eyes and that white fur, there was a moment when Shi Wuduan’s muddled mind had thought with unrestrained glee, this had to be Bai Li’s original form! Little Li-zi hadn’t been taken away by the black mist!
But when his sight cleared up, he discovered to his dismay that the dirty fluffball was only a rabbit.
The rabbit seemed to have some cultivation. It was so chubby, so fat, that at a glance, it looked more like an oily rat than a rabbit. It seemed to be sentient but very dumb. All that meat piled on it only made its pitiful little head even smaller in comparison. It had probably run over in confusion, seeking protection from him because its instinct told it that the youth had some kind of powerful magic tool; but the light of the astrolabe only paralyzed it with fear when it got near. That’s why it could only curl into a ball and tremble helplessly.
Ordinarily, Shi Wuduan would’ve made fun of it for sure, but all he did was struggle to sit up and stare at the ribbon in his hand. He turned to face the cave where Bai Li had disappeared and only felt empty.
The Cuibing bird nudged its head against his knee, gently rubbing back and forth. It blinked its black eyes at him.
Shi Wuduan sat listlessly for a while before he carefully blew the dust off the ribbon and tucked it in the fold of his robes. He pushed against the side of the cave entrance to stumble to his feet. Looking from his high vantage point, he finally saw what had happened to Cangyun Valley.
The whole valley had sunken down. The tall forests were now crushed beneath huge boulders that’d rolled down from the mountain. A crack that was a dozen meters wide had torn the valley in two. All of Cangyun’s once pristine lakes and ponds had taken on the color of old rust. The youth dazedly gazed out at the changed landscape. He looked up at the sky. Even the blue sky seemed to have hidden its face, there wasn’t even a hint of starlight anymore.
“Shifu!” Shi Wuduan suddenly came to his senses. He turned to run towards the mountain.
He’d turned too quickly and tripped over his feet, falling head over heels. He grit his teeth and pressed his scraped palms against the ground, clambering to his feet after a moment. With the ruined valley behind him and dust clinging to his clothes, he went alone to the mountaintop, doggedly crawling his way up.
It was like the Jiulu mountain range had been damaged. The once familiar paths had all twisted out of shape. The moon was black, the wind howled. There were exposed roots waiting to catch his feet at any moment, falling rocks threatening to crush him at any moment.
He fell, got up, then fell again. He ignored the pain as he laid gasping on the ground. He wiped his blood off on the ice cold stones, got up, and kept climbing.
The Cuibing bird silently followed him in the sky. When it saw him fall, it’d land by the side to wait for him. That silly fat rabbit had also followed him for some reason, not that anyone knew what it was thinking. With beady eyes that did not understand human suffering, it beheld this fallen paradise.
At every checkpoint, Shi Wuduan would enter and loudly ask, “Is anyone here? I’m Wuduan! I’m the sect leader’s disciple! Is anyone there?”
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.
But every checkpoint was utterly empty. Shi Wuduan kept running until he thought his heart would explode. By the time he reached the mountain top and arrived at the last checkpoint, he’d almost lost all hope. He only went in to check as a formality, but spotted a dark shadow in a pavilion at the back of the courtyard.
He stopped, then quietly crept over. He found that it was a disciple responsible for guarding the checkpoint named Lu Cheng, one of the sect-leader’s grand-disciples who had to call him little shishu. When Shi Wuduan used to go to the back mountain to play, he’d often pass by this place, so he was quite close with this big shizhi of his.
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One step closer, and he saw that Lu Cheng had been run through by a metal hook. He was drenched in blood, his eyes were tightly shut. There was a faint movement in his chest… but it stopped shortly after.
Shi Wuduan’s vision blackened. He thought, had something happened to the sect?
He scrambled another step forward and heaved up Lu Cheng’s upper body. He slapped his cheek, “Lu Cheng, it’s me, open your eyes and look, what’s going on? Where’s shifu? Where’s everyone else?”
But his injuries were too severe, he was almost literally hanging on by a thread.
Then, several strands of star silk slipped out against his orders. They slowly tangled around the hook in Lu Cheng’s chest as if gauging Shi Wuduan’s reaction.
Shi Wuduan startled, not knowing what was going on. Right while he was stunned, the threads began to shine. The slithered along the hook into Lu Cheng’s body and frenziedly gathered the last remaining shreds of this wounded man’s spirit.
Lu Cheng shuddered. Shi Wuduan, in shock, grabbed the threads and tore them apart. The other threads lightly brushed past his hands and retreated in fear. But that tug had torn at Lu Cheng’s wound. He let out a quiet groan and opened his eyes.
His gaze was empty like he was lost in memory. His expression was panic-stricken and his lips twitched convulsively. Then his whole body began to spasm. Shi Wuduan desperately patted his face again then said in an even quieter voice, “It’s me, don’t be scared. I’m Wuduan, what’s happened to Xuan Sect? Where’s shifu? Where’s da-shixiong and all the shishu? Why are all the checkpoints….”
He blurted out one question after another in his anxiousness, but Lu Cheng grabbed onto Shi Wuduan’s wrist with impossible strength. Shi Wuduan lurched and heard a dying noise creep out of his throat, raspy and strained, it said, “Run! Quick … run … fast….”
Then the sound ended chokingly. The hand around Shi Wuduan’s wrist slackened. “Lu Cheng!”
Lu Cheng’s wide open eyes stared sightlessly ahead. Shi Wuduan sensed the star threads behind him stirring in unrest again as if they were going to juice the last bit of soul out of this fresh corpse but held back in fear of their master.
Shi Wuduan slowly lifted his hand and put a finger beneath Lu Cheng’s nose. Several long moments later, he took a deep breath, not knowing what to do next.
It was the first time he’d seen someone die — and that person had been someone he’d known.
A frightening thought surfaced in his mind. If Lu Cheng was dead, then what about shifu? Was shifu also…. A cold feeling seeped into his limbs, freezing his hands and feet still.
Suddenly, he heard approaching footsteps. Shi Wuduan shuddered violently. He subconsciously grabbed the stupid rabbit by his feet and darted into a nearby bush.
The Cuibing bird reacted quickly as well. It crouched beside him, still as a stone.
Soon after, they heard someone say, “I think I heard something just now. Ziliang, lets go over and check.”
Another voice answered in reply. A burst of rustling later, and two people were running in their direction.
Shi Wuduan let out a breath of relief. He recognized these voices. They were Bitan-shishu’s disciples, Zhao Chengye and Huang Ziliang. After rushing about the whole day, he’d finally come across familiar faces. Shi Wuduan was about to cry with relief. His legs went weak when he tried to stand, rendering him temporarily immobile.
He was about to call out to them when he heard Zhao Chengye sneer, “Heh, who’d’ve thought we’d find a fish that slipped the net.”
What?!
Shi Wuduan instantly stilled. The Cuibing bird shuffled on the ground beside him, his hand instantly shot out to press it down. His thoughts raced, what did Zhao Chengye mean? Why did Lu Cheng tell him to run as he was dying? What was he afraid of?
“The body’s warm. Seems like he’s just bit the dust,” Huang Ziliang remarked. “Maybe that noise earlier was him?”
“Probably. The thing causing all that ruckus in Cangyun valley almost disrupted the emperor’s entourage; he probably escaped here in the confusion,” Zhao Chengye said. “Come on, help me with this corpse. We’ll be able to report back to shifu once we get it verified.”
Huang Ziliang chuckled, “Shixiong, you must not be thinking clearly. Won’t it be exhausting hauling this dumbass’s corpse up the mountain? We might as well just cut off his head and hang it by the waist. All we’d have to do is show it to shifu.”
Zhao Chengye laughed, “You’ve got a point.”
In the dark, Shi Wuduan’s eyes widened. His heart had almost forgotten how to beat.
What “shifu” were those two talking about? Bitan-shishu? How could Bitan-shishu order them to kill their own sect members and allow them to desecrate their corpses? His grip tightened on the Cuibing bird. That bird valiantly kept silent in his grasp.
“No, I can’t act rashly.” Shi Wuduan thought, “I’ve got to follow them and see just what’s going on here.”
He took a deep breath and waited until the two had left for several minutes before he cautiously emerged from his hiding place. He knew that even though Zhao Chengye and Huang Ziliang were somewhat lacking compared to the twelve masters, they were among Xuan Sect’s elites. They’d been single-mindedly cultivating for a century at least. His age and cultivation were nothing compared to theirs.
His limbs were still stiff and his gait was off, but he didn’t dare be careless lest the two discovered him.
When he passed by Lu Cheng’s corpse, Shi Wuduan couldn’t resist looking back. The shizhi that had just been speaking to him a moment ago was now nothing more than a headless corpse tragically sprawled on the ground. Its legs were tucked up; it’s fingers were curled as if they were grabbing onto something.
Shi Wuduan’s heart was cold if it’d been doused with icy water.
Their course was hair-raisingly perilous. Shi Wuduan carried the Cuibing bird and the rabbit as he tailed Huan Ziliang and Zhao Chengye from afar. Once they neared the summit, he discovered that it was brightly lit. But the guards there were strange. Those standing in the outer circle were people of Jiulu mountain, but those in the inner circle were all clothed in bright red brocade robes, embroidered with the sacred pixiu beast, and armed with sabers. Each of them had an aura of fierce killing intent.
Shi Wuduan didn’t know what they were doing there, so he didn’t act rashly. He carefully hid nearby and planned to find an opportunity to get in. He stayed there for a whole night but didn’t get the chance because, one small slip, and he fell asleep in the corner.
It wasn’t until daybreak the next day that Shi Wuduan woke with a start and furtively peeked through the grass concealing him. He saw those brocade-robed figures suddenly begin marching in sync. Shortly, a massive ceremonial procession emerged from the crowd.
Shi Wuduan had never seen anything like it before. Hidden behind the rock, his eyes widened.
Once the procession passed, an extravagant carriage came into view, escorted by many people, yet it was dead silent.
When it reached the gate, the carriage stopped. Bitan and Banya, leading Xuan Sect’s disciples, had seen it to the gate. Then, they, along with all the disciples, kneeled as one. Bitan said, “We humbly send off His Imperial Majesty.”
The crowd chanted long live the emperor.
A pale man standing next to the carriage announced in a shrill voice, “Depart—”
Then, the two columns of armed men opened a path and the carriage train grandly passed by Shi Wuduan’s hiding place. Shi Wuduan thought, holy shit, was that the emperor?
Just then, a man walking closely by the imperial carriage looked in Shi Wuduan’s direction as if sensing something amiss. Shi Wuduan held his breath in fear and shrank back into his hiding place. After a long while, the man frowned and turned away, though his suspicions hadn’t been allayed, and left alongside the emperor’s carriage.
oh Shit Sherlock so they did really sacrificed the other sect for the Qian Dynasty prosperity!!???
What happened to Master Jiang!?
Thanks for the chapter<3
Oh my goodness?! ❤️🩹
Thank you so much for your wonderful work 👏🙏💐
💙💙💙
so they all died…
SWD must’ve been grieving now…
Bai Li is gone too 😭
Thank u for the chapter!!!
They shouldve sacrificed the emperor instead ugh now they’ve released demons to the world and how is that any better than natural disasters??!! Were they even thinking 😭 damn idiots