Clouds and mist surrounded him; he could only see a massive tiger’s head that roared through the mountains, awakening countless spirits.
Li Xiaozheng was filled with apprehension as he drew back his Primordial Spirit.
"Dad, what happened?" Li Juan stepped forward and asked.
Li Xiaozheng’s expression was somber as he replied, "A new master has appeared in Qianyang Mountain, recklessly unleashing his aura; this is probably not good news for our Li Family."
He was deeply worried. The Li Family had gone to great lengths to secure his appointnt as the governor of Xin Xiang Province, solely for the wealth within Qianyang Mountain. However, the Li Family intended other families to believe that their target was the True King’s Tomb, but their actual objective was the Great Ming Treasure Ship.
While the other families were focused on the True King’s Tomb, they managed to seize the Treasure Ship. By the ti the other families realized, the Treasure Ship had already fallen into the hands of the Li Family.
However, the changes in Qianyang Mountain now concerned him.
Great Snake Xuan Shan and Huang Hu silently exchanged looks, both sowhat bewildered.
When the tiger’s head erged from the temple, not only him but all the spirits of Qianyang Mountain had felt the call from the ancient True King Era.
This call was not only an ancestral suppressive force but also a revered worship, a collective reverence of the Great Ming soldiers and the migrating populace, who had traversed the vast, dark sea on the Treasure Ship and arrived in the New Continent in fear and trepidation.
They needed a deity who could ensure their stability in the New Continent and protect them against diseases, plagues, and evil spirits. This call urged them to move a statue of the guardian deity that had protected their sea journey, set up a temple in Qianyang Mountain, and place the deity’s statue within a shrine.
From then on, there was a deity in Qianyang Mountain, looking toward the sea and protecting the mountain, guarding this piece of the Great Ming’s Xinxiang.
He was both the guardian deity of this mountain and a deity that dispelled epidemics, a healer for the Great Ming settlers suffering from the ailnts of their long journey.
He was a descendant of Shen Nong, a healer of Huang Hu, savior of the Azure Dragon, in charge of dicine, universally aiding all beings while also controlling the Nine Yang Thunder Fire, granting mortals the power to slay gods and immortals.
He was known as the Nine Heavens Interview Three Realms dicine King Heavenly Doctor Saint, the Opener of the Era of Universal Salvation, the Responsive Savior of All.
The Divine Fla dicine King, Sun Da Immortal!
His invention of gunpowder allowed mortals to blast open a cultivator’s Golden Core, shattered the Nascent Soul, and obliterated the Primordial Spirit!
In the True King Era, he incarnated on the West Bull New Continent, walked among the mountains, treated diseases, and saved people, while Huang Hu, who followed him, guarded the mountains, dispelled evil spirits, and maintained order.
Many of the spirits in Qianyang Mountain were dicinal plants planted by this Mountain Lord; they had now beco guardian spirits of the mountains, protecting the local populace.
Great Snake Xuan Shan looked towards the Mountain Lord Temple and thought silently, "Mountain Lord, for what reason did you slumber? And for what reason have you awakened?"
His spirit descended from the top of his head, transford into a man in black, and held up a stick of incense, solemnly offering, "You are the Lord of Qian Mountain, and I am a son of Qian Mountain’s soil. You gave life, nourished , and I shall offer a wisp of incense in return."
Chen Shi also sensed the abnormal changes in Qianyang Mountain. Strands of extraordinary power started drifting from the mountain, flying towards the small temple behind his head.
That was the devotion offered by the mountain spirits, coalescing into an extraordinary force, flowing into his small temple, aiding the formation of a divine likeness in the temple shrine.
Among them were young spirits like the stream maidens and ginseng babies, and unford spirits such as mighty trees of the mountain, vines, and mutant beasts, as well as protectors of the villages like the godmothers, and also powerful spirits like Great Snake Xuan Shan and Granny Mother.
These were the guardian spirits of Qianyang Mountain, as well as the children of Qianyang Mountain, blessed by this great mountain.
Blessed by the mountain, they must return the favor to the mountain.
This was the simple creed of the spirits.
Chen Shi used the Bright Mirror to observe, and saw the divine likeness of the Mountain Lord forming and stabilizing within the small temple shrine.
It seed that in two or three days the divine likeness of the Mountain Lord would be fully stable, and there would be no worry about it being destroyed.
"But tomorrow is the day the imperial examination results are announced, and the day after is the Divine Descent Festival. Should I take the Mountain Lord to attend the Divine Descent Festival?"
Chen Shi was troubled, closed the doors of the grand hall, and exited the Mountain Lord Temple with Black Pot, descending the mountain by cart.
When they reached the foot of the mountain, Black Pot beca anxious, positioned itself in front of the wooden cart, and barked ferociously at the mountains.
Chen Shi, sitting in the cart, felt the cart slightly vibrating, the frequency of vibration increasingly rapid, the amplitude growing larger.
Amidst his wondernt, he suddenly saw a host of mutant beasts from the mountains charging towards him like a flood, sweeping over the hills and destroying the forests.
"With so many mutant beasts, one stomp could probably mash into a pulp!"
Chen Shi was about to urge the wooden cart into a frantic gallop when suddenly, the sky beca exceptionally bright. He looked up, only to see a fierce blaze heading straight toward Qianyang Mountain from the sky. Dragging a trail of thick black smoke several miles long, the blaze was headed directly for the Mountain Lord Temple!
"Little Ten, why are you here?" Granny Sha’s voice ca.
Chen Shi hurriedly looked toward the sound and saw Granny Sha standing on the forehead of an enormous white fox, carrying a small basket. The white fox, with a ring of black fur around its neck and nine tails wagging behind it, exuding a daunting demonic aura, was also rushing toward the Mountain Lord Temple.
"Don’t—"
The white fox’s mouth emitted a human voice, faintly similar to that of a bearded burly man.
Chen Shi also saw a giant green sheep among the herd of beasts, its forebody incredibly muscular and its muscles rugged. Its horns were like exceedingly sharp spears, albeit the spears were fifteen to sixteen zhang long. Its claws resembled curved sabers, making ordinary divine beasts dare not approach.
"Uncle Green Sheep!"
Chen Shi was puzzled. Why had they co?
Green Sheep leaped forcefully, stepping on auspicious clouds, bowing its head as it seed to want to knock away the fiery light assaulting from beyond the sky!
However, the fiery light was ferocious, smashing down obliquely, speeding up continuously. Green Sheep simply couldn’t collide with it in ti!
White Fox howled, its tail waving, causing the sky above to seem like a glaze, shattering into pieces. The space collapsed, and countless sharp fragnts attempted to block the fiery light.
But the fiery light roared through, piercing countless fragnts of space and reaching the vicinity of the Mountain Lord Temple!
Nurous divine beasts roared in fury, so offering up their inner cores, others triggering their innate divine abilities, and so even flying up to collide with the fiery light, but all were too late.
Inside the Mountain Lord Temple, an ancient tree suddenly beca lush, its treetop growing larger and larger like a giant umbrella trying to block the fiery light.
It was an apricot tree, sentient and now trying to protect the Mountain Lord Temple. However, the next mont, the fiery light pierced through the apricot tree’s canopy, striking the Mountain Lord Temple.
A trendously bright light emanated from the point of impact, dazzlingly bright, followed by a flaming fireball soaring into the sky, shattering the mountainside and sending countless rocks flying into the air.
An unbearably hot wind expanded out, carrying the unimaginable force of the extraterrestrial strike in all directions!
Many divine beasts were directly ignited by the fiery light, in an instant turning their flesh to ash, leaving their skeletons standing in place, but in the next mont, the skeletons turned red-hot in the scorching wind, burning to ash.
Chen Shi leaped out from the wooden cart, saving Black Pot by holding the large dog in his arms, ready to desperately resist the onslaught of the heat wave, when suddenly all around beca calm. He hurriedly looked around and saw nurous unevenly sized trigrams spinning around him, blocking the hot wind.
Chen Shi released Black Pot, still shaken.
But in the sky, huge rocks roared down. The surviving divine beasts were frantically running, dodging the falling rocks. So couldn’t avoid in ti and were smashed into pieces, their flesh and blood blurred.
The hot wind passed quickly. Chen Shi looked toward the mountaintop and saw the peak that had erged from underground now halved, with the broken mountaintop emitting black smoke. The Mountain Lord Temple and the giant apricot tree had turned to ashes.
He was very familiar with this scene.
When he and his grandfather had rushed to attend the Moon Festival, a small mountain had erged from underground, with a dilapidated temple on it, where he cultivated while sunlight shone from within the temple. When leaving the mountain in the morning, a stream of fire descended from the sky, carrying a teor that struck the dilapidated temple, destroying the small mountain along with it.
Now, this scene repeated!
Chen Shi suddenly rembered what his grandfather had said after he returned ho.
"On West Bull New Continent, such events are as common as the hairs on a bull."
His grandfather had seen many similar incidents.
Now, he was witnessing it once again.
The explosion made Chen Shi’s ears buzz, unable to hear Granny Sha’s voice, but he could see her anxious face, seemingly asking if he was injured.
And Uncle Green Sheep stood in the air cursing, gesticulating wildly, and spewing profanities, but Chen Shi still couldn’t hear.
White Fox staggered over, distraught, suddenly glaring at a distant mountain peak and loudly berating Great Snake Xuan Shan, apparently blaming Xuan Shan for not intervening to block the fiery light.
Chen Shi’s ears continued to buzz.
As grandfather had said, such incidents were indeed nurous on West Bull New Continent, but at that ti, his grandfather and his people, though willing, were powerless to save those temples and their gods.
But...
"I saved them." Chen Shi felt an inexplicable joy, silently thinking to himself.
User Comments
0 comments from readers