Chapter 95: The Mountain Lord's Awakening
Chen Shi felt a twinge of unease in his heart. Ever since waking from death, he had dreamed of cultivating anew, shaking off his crippled status, and gaining a fresh Divine Embryo. Then becoming a scholar, passing the provincial examinations, lording over the common folk as an official, and letting Grandpa enjoy his twilight years in peace.
But now, Grandpa had gone to the underworld, and his own Divine Embryo seemed to have run into a massive problem.
What should have been a true god's blessing, granting him a Divine Embryo from on high, had twisted into absorbing stray souls or divine aspects into the shrine whenever he encountered them, turning them into Divine Embryos!
With other Divine Embryos already in the Divine Shrine, would the true god still bless him during the Scholar's Divine Descent Grand Sacrifice?
"I worshipped Godmother for over two years and finally received her blessing and protection, but I don't know if this blessing is a fortune or a curse."
Just as the thought crossed his mind, he spotted the yellow tiger in the little temple, poking its head out the temple door and peering curiously at the outside world.
This little temple seemed to possess some wondrous power, allowing even a spirit like this one—unable to coalesce its divine aspect for ages—to finally do so.
It had never been able to truly stabilize its divine aspect before, always on the verge of dissipating at any moment. Yet once inside Chen Shi's little temple, the aspect solidified.
The ox-headed, human-bodied divine aspect atop the Divine Shrine had also halted its crumbling. Though not fully formed, it was far better off than before.
Peering into the little temple through the mirror, Chen Shi saw the three sticks of incense in the censer, their fragrant smoke rapidly flowing toward that divine aspect. The yellow tiger was eyeing the mirror in Chen Shi's hand, seemingly fascinated by its own reflection.
It was an adult tiger, looking rather docile as it gradually drew closer.
Suddenly, a massive head, huge as a mountain, thrust out from the little temple behind Chen Shi's mind. Its shadow blanketed the peak, and a terrifying pressure swept across every summit of Qianyang Mountain in an instant!
In front of the temple door, Blackie Pot froze in shock, thinking its young master had finally lost control. It looked up to see the tiger's enormous head and immediately lay flat on the ground, pretending to sleep.
The yang world is too dangerous, the dog thought.
At the same moment, every spirit great and small across Qianyang Mountain—including the godmothers in the surrounding villages—sensed the yellow tiger's aura. Ancient, timeless, and immensely powerful.
And behind the yellow tiger came another aura, vast and majestic as Qianyang Mountain itself. Solemn, compassionate.
In Canola Village, at the Hu family compound.
Granny Sha was visiting, discussing with Hu Xiaoxiang how to draw out the evil possessing Chen Shi, when the bearded burly man across from her abruptly shot to his feet, staring in astonishment toward the distant peaks.
"Granny, did you sense that?"
Granny Sha looked puzzled. "Sense what?"
Then she too felt it—a powerful aura emanating from the mountains, no weaker than Great Serpent Xuan Mountain's, but laced with a wild ferocity!
Great Serpent Xuan Mountain had been tempered by endless ages into something utterly serene and unruffled, whereas this aura brimmed with explosive violence!
"There's a new presence in the mountains on par with Great Serpent Xuan Mountain!" Granny Sha exclaimed in shock.
Great Serpent Xuan Mountain was Qianyang Mountain's spirit, its cultivation unfathomably deep—the strongest expert Granny Sha had ever encountered.
In that instant, another mountain expert had unleashed an aura rivaling his. Granny Sha couldn't help but click her tongue in amazement.
"Not that overpowering aura!"
The bearded burly man was still reeling. "The one behind it, Granny—did you sense that?"
Granny Sha frowned. "What's behind this aura? Old Hu, stop talking in riddles!"
The bearded burly man said, "Qianyang Mountain's sovereign... seems to have awakened!"
"What?" Granny Sha's face changed.
Qianyang Mountain's Mountain Lord had awakened.
The bearded burly man rose at once. "As a subject of Qianyang Mountain, I must pay my respects to the Mountain Lord!"
"I'll go with you!" Granny Sha followed right behind.
In a mountain village, Qingyang reared up on its hind legs, leaning against a tree with a teacup in paw, sipping tea. Suddenly its hand trembled, the cup shattering on the ground as it stared upward in alarm.
Ordinary mortals, bound by flesh, couldn't see the tiger's colossal head. But it could—the yellow tiger's head like a small hill, its shadow nearly engulfing the entire village.
"Mountain Lord..." it murmured uncertainly.
It dropped to all fours and headed toward Qianyang Mountain.
Qingyang had just left the village when trees in the woods began toppling every which way. An enormous ancient turtle emerged from who-knows-where, shaking off thick boulders from its shell, steam billowing from its nostrils as it lumbered toward the Mountain Lord's temple peak.
Boom!
Waters in the mountain stream surged wildly, flooding outward—only to contract into a roaring river over ten zhang wide upon reaching the flats.
Silver light flashed in the river as a massive creature leaped from the depths, unleashing a deafening dragon roar like an ox bellowing in the mountains, resonant and earth-shaking.
It was a silver dragon, still young, yet already able to command vast waters.
Qingyang had glimpsed her once a century ago, then heard no more of her. It never imagined she still lived.
Along the way, hulking spirit beasts answered the call, converging on the Mountain Lord's temple one after another, their numbers swelling.
Provincial Governor Li Xiao of Xinxiang Province sat leisurely in his palanquin, rolling along the provincial road toward the capital amid an escort of elite Li clansmen. Suddenly, his voice came from the carriage: "Halt."
The driver stopped in haste.
Li Xiao lifted the curtain and stepped out, gazing toward the Qianyang peaks.
"This aura..."
Radiance bloomed behind his head as his primordial spirit rocketed skyward, standing amid the clouds and peering into the mountains.
Amid swirling mists, he could only make out an immense tiger head roaring through the forests, rousing countless spirits in the hills.
Li Xiao withdrew his primordial spirit, perplexed.
"Dad, what's wrong?" Li Ju stepped forward to ask.
Li Xiao's face grew grave. "A new powerhouse has appeared in Qianyang Mountain, brazenly radiating its aura. This bodes ill for our Li family."
He fretted deeply. The Li family had pulled every string to secure him the Xinxiang governorship, all for the treasures in Qianyang Mountain. Their ploy was to make other clans think they targeted the Tomb of the True King, while the Lis aimed for that Ming treasure ship.
While the other houses fixated on the tomb, they'd seize the ship. By the time those clans realized, it would already be in Li hands.
But this upheaval in Qianyang Mountain worried him.
Great Serpent Xuan Mountain silently met the yellow tiger's gaze, its mind wandering.
When the tiger head emerged from the temple, not just he but every spirit across Qianyang Mountain had felt the call from the ancient True King era.
It was a summons not merely of bloodline suppression, but of the reverence from the people's hearts—the dread of the Ming soldiers and migrating settlers as they crossed the endless dark sea on the treasure ship to the new continent.
They needed a deity to anchor them in this new land, warding off plagues, pestilence, and evils. Answering that call, they hauled a shipboard idol meant to guard their voyage, erecting a temple and Divine Shrine on Qianyang Mountain to enshrine it.
From then on, Qianyang Mountain had a god gazing out to sea, safeguarding the peaks and holding vigil over this new frontier of the Great Ming.
He was the mountain's guardian deity, scourge of epidemics, healer of the ailments borne from the long migration by the Ming settlers who landed in Xinxiang.
A descendant of Shennong, he healed the Yellow Tiger, saved the Azure Dragon, mastered medicine to succor all beings—while wielding the Nine Yang Thunderfire, granting mortals the power to slay gods and fell immortals.
Known as the Nine Heavens Medicine King Great Sage Heavenly Physician Who Visits the Three Realms, the Primordial Universal Salvation Heavenly Venerable, the Responsive Universal Savior Heavenly Venerable.
The Spirit-Inspired Gunpowder Heavenly Lord, Sun the Great True Man!
His invented gunpowder let mortals shatter cultivators' golden cores, scatter infant souls, and pulverize primordial spirits!
In the True King era, he incarnated in West Ox New Continent, wandering the peaks to heal and save. The Yellow Tiger following him guarded the mountains, driving off evils and upholding order.
Many spirits in Qianyang Mountain were medicinal plants he had seeded, now grown into protectors of the land, sheltering the folk.
Great Serpent Xuan Mountain gazed toward the Mountain Lord's temple, murmuring inwardly: "Mountain Lord, why did you slumber? And why awaken now?"
Its spirit descended from its crown, taking human form as a black-robed man. Holding a single stick of incense aloft, it paid distant homage. "You are sovereign of Qianyang Mountain, I its subject. To she who birthed me, nurtured me—I offer this incense."
Chen Shi also noticed the anomaly in Qianyang Mountain. Strands of extraordinary power drifted up from the peaks, wafting toward the little temple behind his mind.
It was incense offered by the mountain's spirits, coalescing into this uncommon force that poured into his temple, aiding the deities within to form their divine aspects.
Among it were younglings like stream maidens and ginseng dolls, unborn spirits from ancient trees, vines, and strange beasts in the hills; godmothers safeguarding the villages; and powerhouses like Great Serpent Xuan Mountain and Granny Zhuang.
They were Qianyang Mountain's guardian spirits, and its subjects too, beneficiaries of the mountain's bounty.
Those who receive the mountain's grace must repay it.
Such was the simple creed of spirits.
Gazing through the bright mirror, Chen Shi saw the Mountain Lord's divine aspect in the little temple's Divine Shrine steadily coalescing and stabilizing.
It seemed in just two or three days, the aspect would fully stabilize—no longer at risk of destruction.
"But tomorrow's the day the lists are posted, and the day after is the Divine Descent Grand Sacrifice. Am I supposed to bring the Mountain Lord along?"
Chen Shi fretted, closing the hall doors of the Mountain Lord's temple before exiting. He called Blackie Pot and rode the cart down the mountain.
Reaching the base, Blackie Pot grew tense, blocking the wooden cart and barking wildly at the peaks.
Sitting in the cart, Chen Shi felt it vibrating faintly—the tremors quickening, growing fiercer.
As he puzzled over it, spirit beasts flooded the slopes ahead like a tidal wave, trampling woods and sweeping the ridges.
"So many spirit beasts—even one stepping on me would turn me to pulp!"
Chen Shi was about to spur the cart into flight when the sky blazed unnaturally bright. Looking up, he saw a streak of roaring flame hurtling from beyond the heavens straight for Qianyang Mountain, trailing roiling black smoke miles long. Its trajectory aimed right for the Mountain Lord's temple!
"Little Ten, why are you here?" Granny Sha's voice rang out.
Chen Shi whipped his head toward the sound. There was Granny Sha, basket in hand, perched atop a massive white fox's forehead. The fox had a ring of black fur around its neck, nine tails swaying with demonic might as it raced toward the Mountain Lord's temple.
"Don't—"
The white fox uttered human words—the voice of the bearded burly man.
Chen Shi also spotted a gigantic Qingyang charging through the beast horde. Its forebody was rippling muscle, horns like razor blades fifteen or sixteen zhang long, claws curved like scimitars. Lesser spirits dared not approach.
"Uncle Qingyang!"
Chen Shi wondered why they were all coming.
Qingyang leaped skyward on auspicious clouds, head lowered to ram the incoming heavenly fire, as if to deflect it!
But the fire plunged slantwise with ferocious speed, accelerating relentlessly—Qingyang couldn't intercept it in time!
The white fox shrieked, tails whipping. The sky above shattered like glass into countless razor shards amid collapsing space, striving to halt the fire.
Yet the flames howled through the spatial debris, reaching the Mountain God Temple!
The spirit beasts roared in fury—some offering their inner cores, others unleashing innate divine abilities, still more hurling themselves at the fire. All too late.
From the Mountain God Temple, an ancient colossal tree suddenly burgeoned wildly, its crown swelling into a sky-piercing parasol to block the flames.
It was an apricot tree with spiritual awareness, now striving to shield the Mountain Lord's temple. But the next instant, the fire pierced its canopy and slammed into the temple.
Blinding light erupted from the impact point, followed by a colossal fireball erupting skyward. Peaks crumbled, boulders hurled into the air by the uncountable numbers.
Scorching winds ballooned outward, bearing unimaginable force from beyond the heavens, blasting in all directions!
Many spirit beasts ignited in the blaze, flesh ashing in moments, skeletons left standing—only for the searing gusts to redden and incinerate them next.
Chen Shi vaulted from the cart, clutching Blackie Pot and shielding the big dog. Bracing for the heat wave, he suddenly found calm winds around him. Looking about, huge hexagrams of varying lengths whirled protectively, barring the hot gales.
Chen Shi released Blackie Pot, still shaken.
Boulders whistled from the sky as surviving beasts fled the plummeting rocks. Those too slow were smashed to bits, mangled gore.
The heat winds passed quickly. Chen Shi looked to the peak: half the mountain that had thrust from the earth was sheared away, its shattered crown belching thick smoke. The Mountain God Temple and colossal apricot tree were reduced to ash.
This scene felt eerily familiar.
Back when he and Grandpa hurried to the Moon Festival, a small peak had erupted from the ground with a ruined temple atop. He cultivated there, sunlight beaming from the temple. Descending at dawn, a streak of flowing fire—a meteor—had descended, obliterating the temple and mountain alike.
Now, the scene replayed!
Chen Shi suddenly recalled Grandpa's words upon his return home.
"Things like this are a dime a dozen across West Ox New Continent."
Grandpa had witnessed many such events.
Now, he had borne witness again.
The blast left Chen Shi's ears ringing, muffling Granny Sha's voice. He saw only her anxious face mouthing something, seemingly asking if he was hurt.
Uncle Qingyang hovered in the air, cursing heaven and earth with foul words—but Chen Shi still heard nothing.
The white fox staggered over, dazed, then glared at a distant peak, bellowing accusations at Great Serpent Xuan Mountain for failing to block the fire.
Chen Shi's ears still buzzed.
As Grandpa said, such incidents were indeed commonplace in West Ox New Continent. Back then, Grandpa and the others had the will but not the power to save those temple gods.
But...
"I saved it." Chen Shi felt an inexplicable joy, murmuring to himself.