I Might Be a Big Shot — Chapter 31
Li Xinglun truly couldn’t understand why his master was so fixated on his past identities. By rights, with Changkong Zhuoyu’s state of mind, distinctions of gender and species should mean nothing to him — so why cling to the past? It was all just fleeting smoke and clouds. Besides, he had already severed his past in order to overcome the death tribulation, which likely meant that his past was entangled with that tribulation. Since that was the case, why insist on reclaiming it?
In Li Xinglun’s eyes, it should have been enough for his master to travel the cultivation world with him, making all who saw them marvel at Changkong Zhuoyu’s strength. If his master wished to restore his former glory (if there even was such a thing), it would be far too easy — so why the obsession?
Though he couldn’t comprehend it, Li Xinglun, as always, didn’t voice his doubts. He simply listened quietly to his master muse aloud. When he finished, Li Xinglun asked, “Then Master, what do we do next? Head to the Mystic Fog Yao Valley?”
Changkong Zhuoyu shook his head. “The Mystic Fog Yao Valley is guarded by Nüwa’s barrier. We don’t even know where it is — how could we go? For now, the priority is to reach the demonic sect and obtain a method to trace bloodlines, so we can find those cousins of yours who were abducted.”
“Even if they weren’t necessarily taken by the corrupted?” Li Xinglun asked. “After all, right now our goal is to locate those corrupted ones, to delay the coming of the mortal calamity and buy the cultivation world more time.”
“That’s true,” Changkong Zhuoyu replied. “But the matter of the Li family is your heart demon. It must be resolved before you reach Nascent Soul stage, or else your heart demon tribulation then will be much harder to survive.”
“From Golden Core to Nascent Soul, the fastest to achieve it was Master Yin, and even he took nearly a century. I’ve only just advanced to the Golden Core stage — how could it happen so fast?” Li Xinglun was secretly pleased, yet still spoke considerately.
“Ordinarily, yes,” Changkong Zhuoyu said with a helpless shake of his head. “But you… I fear you’ll be facing tribulation in just another two months!”
Li Xinglun: …
His cultivation speed really was fast, but surely not that fast?
After settling on their course, the two flew straight toward Heaven-Shaking Peak. Changkong Zhuoyu seemed genuinely worried that Li Xinglun might suddenly ascend on the spot — this time he didn’t sightsee at all, but flew quickly toward the demonic sect’s domain.
Although Mount Shu Sword Sect was a cultivation sect, it was not located in some desolate place. On the contrary, Mount Shu itself was famous and often visited by tourists. Heaven-Shaking Peak was different — despite its scenic beauty, there were no inhabitants for a hundred miles around, only a few bandits preying on travelers.
From a distance, the area around Heaven-Shaking Peak appeared to be an endless plain, with no trace of towering mountains.
“There’s a folk tale,” Li Xinglun said, “that this place was once a very prosperous town. The land here was fertile, the weather kind, there were no local bullies, and the magistrate was a good man devoted to his people. Every household was wealthy.
“But on one new moon night, black mountains suddenly appeared beside the town — one peak in particular rose into the clouds, as if to pierce the sky. The night watchman woke everyone, and they huddled together in fear, thinking their town had been cursed. But the next morning, as the first rays of sunlight fell, the mountains vanished.
“If it had just been a dream, how could an entire town have dreamed the same thing? The townsfolk were terrified. Even though the mountains were gone by daylight, they couldn’t sleep peacefully. Worse, a month later, after everyone had begun to forget, the mountains reappeared on the next new moon.”
Changkong Zhuoyu loved stories. He stared at Li Xinglun, not blinking, and though he clearly had many questions, he didn’t interrupt.
Seeing his expression, Li Xinglun couldn’t resist teasing him. He clasped his master’s hand before continuing: “Once again, the mountains vanished with the sunrise — but this time, no one could dismiss it as a dream. So the magistrate, who didn’t believe in ghosts or gods, raised silver to hire a famous Daoist to exorcise the evil. The Daoist agreed and set up a formation on the next new moon, intending to fight whatever malevolent force was haunting the town.
“That night, no one dared leave their homes. The next morning, they emerged to find only the Daoist’s corpse.
“From then on, the town was never peaceful again. People would become possessed at night, wandering outside and returning with ashen faces, remembering nothing and weakened for days. Suspicion and fighting broke out constantly. The fields went to ruin — from bountiful harvests to nothing at all. Slowly, the townsfolk could no longer survive. On every new moon, the mountains returned like a curse, robbing them of sleep. Realizing it couldn’t go on, the magistrate led his constables and the able-bodied men up the mountain on a new moon — but they never came back.
“After that, the rest either died or fled. A few years later, no one was left. Yet on every new moon, the cursed mountains still appeared. No one dared live here anymore, and this place became a wasteland.”
When he finished, Changkong Zhuoyu frowned. “Heaven-Shaking Peak does exist — it’s just been hidden by the demonic sect’s formation so no one would discover it. But the fact that the townsfolk lived so close to the demonic sect suggests they didn’t intend to harm the mortals around them. While many demonic cultivators are ruthless, and some use mortals in their cultivation, they seem to follow the rule of ‘a rabbit doesn’t eat the grass near its burrow,’ sparing those nearby. But this story… When did this happen?”
“About seven or eight hundred years ago,” Li Xinglun replied. “My father told me the story when I was young. To the Li family it was ancient history, but to cultivators it’s just a single generation.”
“After Xue Qianjie entered the demonic realm,” Changkong Zhuoyu mused. “Besides the townsfolk fleeing, one thing is unclear — the reason the mountains appear on the new moon is because the formation draws on the moonlight’s power. The new moon is when moonlight is weakest, so the mountains’ phantom becomes visible. But this formation clearly didn’t have such a flaw before — then one day it did, and for eight centuries it’s gone unresolved?”
“Definitely strange,” Li Xinglun agreed. He led Changkong Zhuoyu into the midst of the mountains. Although eight hundred years had passed, no natural disasters had struck, and the town’s ruins still remained, with some sturdy buildings intact.
The sky was overcast and night was falling. Walking among the ruins gave an eerie, unsettling feeling.
Changkong Zhuoyu headed straight for the most intact building, which turned out to be a temple. Inside stood a Buddha statue. After centuries without repair, the statue was corroded, its original features hard to discern — the statue sat cross-legged, two fingers broken, and the lotus pedestal chipped and cracked.
“The town worshiped Buddha?” Li Xinglun was puzzled. “Compared to righteous cultivators, Buddhist cultivators are the greatest bane to demonic cultivators — their natural nemesis. How could a town at the foot of Heaven-Shaking Peak worship Buddha? The demonic sect would never allow incense to burn here — what if a reincarnated Buddha appeared?”
“Yet this temple has stood here for eight centuries. The townsfolk are gone, the demonic sect never destroyed it, and it remains the only well-preserved building.” Changkong Zhuoyu’s tone was thoughtful.
Indeed, everything — the townsfolk’s disappearance, the formation’s flaw, and this temple — was out of character for the demonic sect.
A thousand years ago, when Xue Qianjie was sect master of the demonic sect, it had reached its peak. Under his restraint, the demonic cultivators dared not kill indiscriminately — instead they obediently cultivated, collecting baleful blood aura from mortal battlefields and managing to survive. The sect’s experts were numerous.
But in the two centuries since Xue Qianjie’s departure, the demonic sect couldn’t even maintain its own formation at Heaven-Shaking Peak?
“No righteous cultivators noticed this?” Changkong Zhuoyu asked.
“Which righteous cultivator would come to the demonic sect’s domain to die?” Li Xinglun countered. “Even during righteous–demonic wars, no one fights at their own sect gates. It’s always the small sects and rogue cultivators who suffer. After all, the caves they found with such effort are destroyed in one battle, and they themselves might perish too.”
“But even you’ve heard of the town’s story.”
The Li family was a minor sect — if they knew, then the whole cultivation world must have heard the tale.
Yet no one intervened.
Li Xinglun explained, “The demonic cultivators didn’t actively harm the townsfolk. The ones who died were that third-rate Daoist who challenged the demonic sect and the men who went up the mountain. They stepped into the demonic sect’s domain — if they were killed, the demonic sect could claim it was merely to keep mortals from discovering their location. Even righteous cultivators couldn’t use that as an excuse to attack. Besides, a formation flaw benefits the righteous sects — why would anyone fix it? And many townsfolk escaped, and the ‘cursed mountain’ story spread among mortals, so we naturally heard of it.”
Yet no one had come to look at this temple — it was as if the town’s ruins had been completely forgotten, and the formation at Heaven-Shaking Peak had gone unmaintained for eight centuries.
Changkong Zhuoyu lifted his gaze to the Buddha statue, staring at it for a long time before saying, “So that’s it. Disciple, let’s go.”
With that, he took Li Xinglun’s hand and led him out of the temple. They walked for a long while, then looked back — and the temple was gone. In its place stood an magistrate's hall. Though dilapidated, its outline was still discernible.
“What’s going on?” Li Xinglun walked back to it, but inside there was no Buddha statue — only an ordinary magistrate's hall.
Changkong Zhuoyu followed him inside. As he stepped through the doorway, the interior scene shifted again — back to the Buddha hall.
Li Xinglun: …
A sense of foreboding crept over him.
~ Chapter End ~
Comments
Post a Comment