Deep in Nanwu Mountain, the upper reaches of the misty lake.
The head of the Xuanyu Sect stood beside the riverbank’s rocky edge, his sight lingering on the bloodstains remaining on the stones. A spirit beast crawled next to him, sniffing at something and flicking its tail restlessly.
Not just that, along the misty river’s edge, the Xuanyu Sect’s contracted demonic beasts were acting uncharacteristically, even beast control arts almost couldn’t repress them.
It was the blood, human blood.
The Xuanyu Sect head scanned the cultivators around him, lowered his eyes, and fell into thought. Many cultivators were injured, it wasn’t surprising there were bloodstains in the mountain’s depths. However this sort of blood wasn’t found near the misty lake, though was ever present upstream, as if someone was there watching from afar.
“These demonic beasts from your sect don’t look very reliable.” A voice said.
Seeing the white-haired old man approach, the head of the Xuanyu Sect stowed the unusual expression on his face and spoke calmly: “I didn’t expect you to still be with the Su family.”
The white-haired old man shrugged: “I too didn’t expect the Xuanyu Sect to be interested in this ancient seal, or did your ancestor in the sect say something?”[mfn]This is a respectful title for an elder.[/mfn]
The brows of the Xuanyu Sect head moved a bit, soon his expression relaxed: “Who’s the sword cultivator that made a move?”
The white-haired old man stepped aside with an indifferent expression, “I don’t know. He’s at least at Deity Transformation. Judging by his ways, he looked like someone from Tianlu Mountain.”
Hearing ‘Tianlu Mountain,’ the head of the Xuanyu Sect remarked: “For a Tianlu Mountain sword cultivator, splitting the seal with a blade comes as no surprise.”
Thinking of Tianlu Mountain, the Xuanyu Sect’s head felt deeply troubled.
As the foremost mountain in the world, all disciples of Tianlu Mountain were heaven’s favoured children.[mfn]天之驕子 (lit. proud sons of heaven) – Those who are very talented and favoured by the heavens. Also, I’m not sure if this was clear enough previously, but when Tianlu Mountain is mentioned as the top ‘peak’ or ‘mountain’ in the world, it’s as a place for cultivation, not literally in height.[/mfn] They, the Xuanyu Sect, relied on being situated in the south to reach Nanwu Mountain as soon as possible, and if the news had reached all the way to Tianlu Mountain, it was possible other forces were also on their way.
At that moment, a Xuanyu Sect cultivator came up to report.
“Shixiongs have already let the flying eagles check Nanwu Mountain…It’s very strange, there’s only some residual yin qi left in this mountain.”
The cultivator’s face looked a little ugly: “We didn’t find a single fierce evil spirit.”
As soon as these words fell, the surrounding cultivators were the first to refute.
The cultivators had seen far too many fierce evil spirits in Nanwu Mountain. How was it possible none were found? What’s more, yin qi used to blanket Nanwu Mountain, yet now there was only a little residual yin qi. Did the permeating yin qi just evaporate?
The Xuanyu Sect cultivator touched his head: “Could it have all just been a hallucination of yours? Didn’t you say the tomb guardian beast you saw had mind-altering powers?”
Hearing this, the Qi family members beside them laughed out loud, while the Su family cultivators looked embarrassed. What was this person implying?
Insinuating that their Su family’s cultivators couldn’t even judge the most elementary of hallucinations clearly?
At that instant, there was new movement from the lake.
The Xuanyu Sect’s demonic beasts had fished out the huge stele split by the sword cultivator from the lakebed. The stele was so heavy that even the Xuanyu Sect had to use several demonic beasts to bring all of it up. There were still a few faint lines on the broken stele.
The Xuanyu Sect’s head approached it. The stele had been at the lakebed for too long, and its inscriptions could no longer be distinguished, but the faint pressure seeping out from the stele made those around him take in sharp breaths.
Even the Xuanyu Sect’s spirit beasts kept their distance from the stele.
It was hard to imagine that something like this could be split.
Just as everyone gathered at the edge of the misty lake, the surroundings shook. They watched as the misty lake’s edge began to disintegrate inch by inch. The misty lake’s large pit, originally filled with corpse water, slowly sank. The sudden change shocked everyone.
“All, step back!” The Xuanyu Sect head shouted.
Simultaneously, the corpse water appeared to evaporate little by little and vanish before everyone’s eyes, just like the yin qi all over the mountain had.
Drrrrung!
A loud droning knocked on the soul.[mfn]A sort of resonance with the soul, possibly good or bad.[/mfn]
The stele drawn out from the lakebed burst into bits then and there, turning into grey smoke!
“What is this…”
“This stele has a spirit, and the stele broke after it left.” The white-haired old man’s face was slightly cold, “This isn’t the stele of a tombstone, but a mountain stele.”
“What’s the issue with it being a mountain stele?”
“You fool! It’s such an ancient thing! How many have been killed by that mountain beast? How worse could something it protected be!
The mountain stele being split by the sword cultivator, the strange bloodstains, Nanwu Mountain’s seemingly evaporated yin qi—
—and now, along with the mountain’s yin qi and corpse water, the stele had completely disappeared.
“This is undoubtedly something left behind from ancient times…” The Xuanyu Sect head looked at the Su family coldly: “You’ve released something unfathomable”
That creature may well be more important than a place of rest.
…and there is no trace of it now.
***
Most of the yin qi in the mountain had dissipated. The youth held onto a withered tree, and his lifeless eyes continued to gaze into the distance.
Seeing the human say nothing, the inky beast stood with its head held high and began to talk of its hard work over the years.
“Outsiders call this place Nanwu Mountain, that’s what your human race named it. But in the long distant past, during ancient times, it was called the Abyss of All Evil.
Essentially, wandering ghosts were the remnants of obsessions that linger in the world after death. The longer the regrets remain, the more likely one will become a fierce evil spirit through cultivation. This was how the fierce evil spirits and wandering ghosts all over Nanwu Mountain came into being.
In ancient times, there were many grounds for cultivators to cultivate, and cultivators emerged from all walks of life in an endless stream. Even the fierce evil spirits and wandering ghosts throughout the mountains and plains were countless.[mfn]This can literally mean mountain and plains but also among the common people.[/mfn] This ink spirit pearl was born with the ability to suppress, cage and gather the evils of the world. It was one of the ancient wonders. Later, more and more ghosts gathered to worship it, and its believers built it into a stele. At present, the ink spirit pearl possessed unprecedented power.
The land the mountain stele formed in and used—as the yin qi of the world had been potent since ancient times, and as countless fierce evil spirits had congregated—also became the Abyss of All Evil.
When the inky beast mentioned its own affairs, it voiced proudly: “And I, Master, have been the guardian spirit of the ink spirit pearl since my birth, and also the mountain beast of the mountain stele. In Master’s domain, the souls of ghosts do not scatter, and their cultivations progress in strides.”
Su Yu understood. It was no wonder Nanwu Mountain was filled with yin qi, and fierce evil spirits and wandering ghosts were everywhere.
It was actually the ability of this ink spirit pearl…
The inky beast stopped swinging its tail, and seeing that its master wasn’t in high spirits, it continued: “You swallowed the ink spirit pearl into your stomach, which means you swallowed the Abyss of All Evil into your stomach, and have also become the ink spirit pearl’s host. Do you see the qi in your body? This is the pure qi condensed after the Abyss of All Evil absorbed yin qi from the world.”
Hearing this, Su Yu paused, “Pure qi?”
Spotting that Su Yu was finally interested, it hurriedly spoke: “The ink spirit pearl can become a mountain stele, and the Abyss of All Evil’s domain extends with the stele as its center. In this domain, yin qi is abundant, and the ink spirit pearl releases pure qi. The speed of a ghost’s cultivation within the Abyss of All Evil is much faster than in the outside world. The more ghosts there are, the stronger the Abyss of All Evil is, and the greater the pure qi that can be condensed.”
So in truth, this was pure qi that had passed through the Abyss of All Evil. It’s no surprise it was so effective for him.
This pearl…is the Abyss of All Evil really that effective? Su Yu carefully observed the ink spirit pearl in his dantian. No matter how he looked at it, it was just a special pearl, hugely different from what the inky beast said.
Su Yu: “I only see the pearl, where is the mountain stele?”
The inky spirit gritted its teeth and said, “It was split by that damn sword cultivator and isn’t yet repaired.”
Su Yu: “The Abyss of All Evil?”
The inky beast felt wronged: “The mountain stele hasn’t been repaired, so the abyss cannot form.”
Su Yu pushed aside the weeds around him and kept moving.
“You don’t believe it!” The inky beast was rendered speechless for a moment, hesitated, then argued: “Master, if the spiritual veins hadn’t dried up a thousand years ago, there would be thousands of ghosts in my domain, don’t you see!”
Su Yu asked: “Thousands of ghosts?”
To talk of this, the inky beast felt like there was a lump in its throat, but it still spoke carefully—
Nanwu Mountain was a sealed land that no one from the outside world could enter a thousand years ago. It had been king of the mountain for ages, and had tens of thousands of ghosts under its command. It alone was also a dominating force in the outside world.
But all this happened thousands of years ago. The eastern realm’s spiritual veins had since dried up, affecting many living beings. The seal that Nanwu Mountain had maintained for a millennia was unable to sustain itself due to the loss of its spiritual vein. When the seal was repaired, the ghosts it had initially restrained had all fled, most of the yin qi had dissipated, and the souls of the unformed ghosts had scattered…The mountain stele was seriously damaged in the catastrophe a thousand years ago as well.
The foundation left over from ancient times was destroyed in one fell swoop, and the inky beast had to start all over again. With great difficulty, Nanwu Mountain began to recover, but as a result, a month ago, the damned seal cracked again…The mountain stele, after a thousand years of restoration, was destroyed once more. Now, not only was the mountain stele gone, but so was Nanwu Mountain’s yin qi, and it could only be wronged and spend its days huddled up in the dantian of a mortal.
“The Abyss of All Evil started out as the ink sprit pearl. When the ink spirit pearl became a stele, it also became the Abyss of All Evil.” The inky beast explained aggrievedly: “Don’t look at the simple pearl at present. So long as there are enough ghosts, in time, it can be capable of becoming its own land that can accommodate thousands of ghosts. Have you seen Nanwu Mountain? The Nanwu Mountain from earlier isn’t even a fraction of the Abyss of All Evil in its heyday…”
Su Yu frowned: “But even so, this Abyss of All Evil has now degenerated to a mere pearl.”
The inky beast: “…”
Don’t be so blunt!
Hearing this, Su Yu wasn’t interested in the Abyss of All Evil, but that the pure yin qi passing through this ‘Abyss of All Evil’ could not only relieve his hunger, but also stimulate the chaotic memories in his ocean of consciousness, and most importantly, it could inhibit the totem in his body.
Previously, he didn’t know the benefits yin qi brought him, and was driven by the totem everywhere. But since swallowing the pearl, the totem no longer controlled him like before, and its noisy voice had lessened too.
If the Abyss of All Evil was really as the inky beast said, in ancient times, this thing did have a few benefits…but keeping it was also a hidden danger.
The inky beast was still chattering on about the advantages of the Abyss of All Evil. Suddenly, it noticed that the yin qi in the dantian was gathering towards it again. Its hairs immediately stood on end and it took a few steps back, “What are you doing!”
“Why should I keep you?” Su Yu asked back.
The inky beast was struck dumb, it hurriedly explained: “Master, I am the guardian spirit of the ink spirit pearl, the mountain beast of the Abyss of All Evil since ancient times.”
“Does it have anything to do with you? What’s the use in keeping you?” Su Yu let the yin qi approach the other. His tone was as usual, but there was an underlying ruthlessness: “It’s the pearl that’s useful, not you.”
After the ink spirit pearl in his body was inlaid into the totem, the yin qi in his body could also circulate through the ink spirit pearl when entering the totem, breathing out purer yin qi. This yin qi acted on him, bringing him an unprecedented feeling.
Without this so-called guardian spirit, this pearl could still function.
The inky beast was really panicking now. It forgot that although this mortal’s cultivation was weak, he had innate spiritual eyes and could see many things that other cultivators could not. If it weren’t for this, this mortal wouldn’t have swallowed the ink spirit pearl so decisively.
“I am useful!! Don’t kill me, I can…”
“I can tell you what the pearl is used for, I can teach you how to use this ink spirit pearl!”
“Cultivation! I can also teach you how to cultivate!”
Just as the yin qi in the dantian seeped to the inky beast’s limbs, it had already exhausted its own usefulness in its mind, and hurriedly said: “I…I can also lead the way for you!”
The infiltration of the yin qi paused, and the inky beast loosened the claws covering its eyes and saw the yin qi in front of it.
“Can you see the path?” Su Yu asked.
The inky beast quickly nodded: “I can see it!”
Even in the end, all the efforts it made to rack its brain weren’t as good as guiding the way? The high and mighty guardian beast of the Abyss of All Evil, whom many ghosts kneeled before, whom many cultivators feared…Now actually had to listen to the orders of a human being whose hair hadn’t even grown out.
A disgrace! A total disgrace!
Su Yu noticed its silence and had no patience with it: “Will it work?”
The inky beast: “…”
“Go to your left! Your left!”
The inky beast cursed this little mortal devil for not knowing the way, but had no other option than to guide Su Yu.
With its guidance, Nanwu Mountain’s paths became easier to walk.
Su Yu quietly watched the thin, near imperceptible yin qi in his vision, but strangely, that was the only colour his eyes could see. It felt like if he spotted something, the surroundings wouldn’t be so desolate.
He walked forward a few steps and suddenly felt a little warm.
Sprinkled over his bare skin, the warmth seemed to dispel the chill of the qi in his body.
Seeing the human look up, the inky beast stayed still as its demonic pupils also lifted. Unlike its host who couldn’t see anything, it looked up and saw the scorching rays of daybreak pass through the mist from above, landing on the mulch that hadn’t seen light for hundreds of years. “Tsk, the red sun is out, its shine is truly uncomfortable.”
Things that grow in yin and evil lands would naturally keep a guarded distance from the red sun high up in the sky.
The inky beast shrank back, trying to avoid the blazing sun, but found Su Yu standing motionless beneath it.
“Your dantian is full of yin qi, stay away from sunlight, it will harm you.” The inky beast said.
Su Yu didn’t say anything. He touched his arm. There was tingling on his skin following the warmth.
It felt like burning, but in his vision was a vast emptiness, and he couldn’t see anything…it seemed like hadn’t felt sunlight in a long time.
The inky beast showed him the way without complaint. Save for its one sided voice, there were no audible responses in the ocean of consciousness.
This human is exceptionally taciturn, and he never seems to speak unless necessary.
The inky beast thought: A strange, cunning, heartless brat.
Obviously, his whole body is brimming with yin qi, yet he insists on going to spots with a lot of yang qi…does this human have a penchant for self-abuse!
Speaking of cultivation, its host’s cultivation wasn’t as good as any cultivator singled out from the mountain’s depths, but the pressure he exuded over it was very heavy, and the taste of his blood was also very strange. As an ancient beast that had survived for tens of thousands of years, the inky beast had tired of eating most things, but the blood of its host happened to be far more tempting to it than any delicacies from the mountains and seas…that too it wasn’t an auspicious beast. Why was its host’s blood so strange.[mfn]When the inky beast says it’s not an auspicious beast (瑞獸), it means its not a creature like the Four Evils, which are beasts in Chinese myth and legend that feed on humans. 山珍海味 (lit. delicacies from the mountains and seas) is an idiom for rich and rare dishes from nature and the wild. A real world example would be shark fins or sea cucumbers, but in the novel it’s probably different types of ghosts or demonic beasts?[/mfn]
There were inevitably signs of other cultivators in the mountain’s depths. The inky beast found that this little human devil was actually avoiding the cultivators all the way, choosing only remote paths and staying away from those cultivators who entered the mountain, as if they weren’t together from the start.
Suddenly, the weird little devil spoke: “What’s the sound in the east?”
There were mostly withered trees in the mountain’s depths. At this moment, they were very close to Nanwu Mountain Pass, and under the scorching sunlight, many cultivators were stationed in the distance.
The inky beast lay down, shook its tail, and perceived movement outside the forest from afar.
It blinked its different coloured eyes: “Human voices.”
Su Yu couldn’t see the path, but he could hear sounds.
Along the way, he heard movement in the forest many times. Fortunately, he avoided them in time and didn’t run into anyone. But there was no other way to get out of the mountain. Su Yu thought of the cultivators blocking the edge of the misty lake, now, the thing at the lakebed was in his body, and those cultivators wouldn’t give up.
The simplest way was to close the mountain and search, combing through it.
Thinking of the biting cold sword aura above the misty lake, Su Yu couldn’t help lowering his eyes. The longer it took, sooner or later he would fall into the hands of those people.
If he wanted to get out, he had to get past the cultivators.
Su Yu thought for a moment, walked a few steps out, and stopped again. He raised his hand and sniffed at the smell on his sleeve.
The smell of blood was strong, and there was also the lingering stench of corpses from the lake water. He now smelled more like a dead person than a corpse.
“Is there a dead person nearby?”
The inky beast: “?”
Su Yu continued, “A dead person. Preferably dead for a few years.”
The inky beast: “???”
Su Yu didn’t hear an answer and asked coldly, “No?”
The inky beast gritted its teeth and said: “I’ll search.”
In the end, they dug up a person who had been dead for who knows how long. The body had turned into withered bones, and half of it was in the soil.
Su Yu touched it and said, “It’s not broken, it can work.”
The inky beast was an ancient beast, and it had to help a human guide the way and then strip a corpse right after moving under their roof. “Are you really human? You’re worse than those weak ghosts that’ve just entered Nanwu Mountain. Some of them don’t even dare eat living humans. The soul of these withered bones has long scattered, but although they’ve become bleached bone, they still have spiritual energy. They make for a good embryo. Which sect did you study under? Maybe I even know your ancestors. Why are you looking for a dead person? To lure a ghost? Or maybe even raise a corpse….”
Before it finished speaking, it noticed the youth stretch out a hand, and without drawing out an array or rune, it dug out half the buried withered bones from the soil.
The youth didn’t say anything. He lowered his head and touched the exposed withered bones. Then he reached out and peeled the coarse cloth off the bones, stroking and pulling off the dead person’s clothes, and dug up the surrounding soil a little.
What is this human doing??? Stripping the clothes off a dead person??
It spent so much time finding a good embryo, but he didn’t need to use it, just stripped the person???
“You spent so much effort just for a change of clothes?” The inky beast was astonished.
“There are too many scents, we’ll be discovered.” Su Yu stripped the clothes off the dead person.
The inky beast was speechless. It walked back forth in his dantian anxiously, “It’s just those cultivators up ahead, you can just misdirect them a little. As long as they aren’t high level cultivators, they won’t even notice.”
Su Yu had already stripped off the clothes. After pondering briefly, he replied: “No.”
The inky beast was even more shocked. He can’t make a diversion???
“You’ve killed so many living dead, yet you can’t even use the simplest tricks…” Before the inky beast finished complaining, it smelled the familiar scent of blood, “You! What are you doing!”
The youth’s profile had a scratch that went through half of his face. One wasn’t enough, so he scratched another.
His face was immediately dripping with blood, which ran down the side of his jaw onto his dirty clothes, and a few drops fell into the pit of bones.
“Someone may have seen my face.”
Su Yu thought back to how the swordsman was very close to him at the time, and was about to add another scratch to his face. As soon as he raised his hand, he suddenly noticed something strange.
He touched the wounds with a clean fingertip, there wasn’t any wetness beneath it. On the contrary, it was clean and there wasn’t even an indentation.
The wounds he just scratched with a stone…disappeared?
Rip, now you can’t even disfigure yourself to hide.