Chapter 104: The Mountain Lord's Divine Form Takes Shape
"Granny, Uncle Qingyang, Uncle Hu, the Mountain Lord's divine form hasn't fully taken shape yet. It's not suitable to relocate it to the new temple."
Chen Shi activated the small temple, displaying the Mountain Lord's status for everyone to see.
Honestly, he was somewhat reluctant to hand it over.
Without a divine embryo of his own, the Mountain Lord was equivalent to his divine embryo. Activating a divine embryo brought tremendous benefits.
In battle, he could activate the yellow tiger—even an expert like Mr. Zeng at the Nascent Soul Realm could hardly withstand a single blow.
If he activated the Mountain Lord instead, its power would likely be even greater!
The benefits for cultivation were even more profound.
Chen Shi could sense that when circulating the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art, his true qi passed through the yellow tiger for empowerment, becoming far purer while his cultivation speed soared.
As Scholar Zhu had said, a divine embryo was equivalent to a cultivator's nascent soul. It allowed one to experience all the advantages of a nascent soul ahead of schedule, even at low realms—assisting cultivation with twice the results for half the effort. In combat, it was like wielding a nascent soul at a low realm, dramatically boosting one's strength.
If he kept the Mountain Lord in his small temple indefinitely, he could surely achieve the second revolution of his Golden Core, then the third, at breakneck speed! Granny Sha carefully examined the small temple. Sure enough, the Mountain Lord's divine form was still coalescing, though very close to completion. She said,
"Relying on the Mountain Lord to form its divine form on its own will probably take another ten days or half a month. But leaving it with Little Ten isn't safe, either."
She pondered for a moment, then said,
"Little Ten, stay on Qianyang Mountain for the next few days. Don't wander off anywhere. Old Hu, Qingyang—let's discuss this."
The three walked off a ways, huddling together conspiratorially and whispering. Chen Shi strained his ears but couldn't make out their words.
Chen Shi signaled Blackie Pot to creep closer and eavesdrop. Blackie Pot shook its head vigorously.
After a moment, Granny Sha stepped forward and stressed repeatedly,
"These next few days, you must not leave Qianyang Mountain."
Chen Shi thought it over, then asked,
"Can I go to the other villages?"
"Going to other villages is fine, but you absolutely cannot leave Qianyang Mountain."
Granny Sha instructed him gravely.
"Also, never use the Mountain Lord's mount on sunny days. Only on overcast days, rainy days—when neither the sun nor moon is visible—can you use it. Got it?"
A chill ran through Chen Shi as he nodded solemnly.
He had long suspected that the true god beyond the heavens opened its twin eyes by day to form the sun, and its vertical third eye by night to form the moon—all to monitor every movement on the ground, taking in everything that transpired in the human world.
That was why sunlight beaming from the ruined temple in the barren hills had drawn a meteor strike from beyond the skies.
That was why the massive tiger head protruding from the Mountain Lord Temple had been obliterated by a meteor from beyond.
It was on this very guess that he had waited until the rain started before activating the yellow tiger to swat Mr. Zeng dead.
For the same reason, borrowing the small temple to activate the yellow tiger hadn't brought a meteor crashing down on him.
"Granny Sha, Uncle Qingyang—they definitely know something!"
Chen Shi whispered quietly to Fu Leisheng and Blackie Pot.
"They were acting all sneaky, and they specifically warned me not to use the Mountain Lord's mount on clear days. They must figure that on sunny days, the mount shows up and the true god beyond the heavens spots it right away—then the strikes come raining down!"
Blackie Pot looked deadly serious, nodding vigorously as it barked,
"Woof! Woof woof!"
Fu Leisheng didn't understand a word of it, but Chen Shi's revelation terrified him all the same.
Chen Shi said,
"Blackie Pot's spot on. Grandpa's tight with them—they're probably in the same secret group as him. They know way more than I do. A whole lot more! They might even know why the true god beyond the heavens destroys any divine incarnation from our ancestral land the instant it detects it."
Fu Leisheng's heart raced with horror. The terror in these few sentences from Chen Shi outdid every fright he'd ever known.
Chen Shi mused aloud,
"Six thousand-plus years ago—the severing of ties between Huaxia Divine Continent and Xiniu New Continent, the True King's death, the fall of the first wave of Huaxia deity temples brought by Three Treasures the eunuch and his cohorts... Could it all tie back to the true god beyond the heavens?"
While he still clung to his wits, Fu Leisheng said woodenly,
"Chen Shi, Blackie Pot—thanks for the hospitality. I'm... kinda missing my wife and kids. Gonna head back to my hometown and check on 'em!"
Chen Shi asked, puzzled,
"Mr. Fu, don't you want to know the grudges and entanglements between our ancestral gods and the true god beyond the heavens?"
"I don't!"
Fu Leisheng bolted like a man possessed, panic churning in his gut.
Only after putting Huangpo Village far behind him did he start piecing together how off Blackie Pot and that goat really were.
"That dog stands on its hind legs to cook and brew soup! It stokes fires, boils meds! It even messed with my thoughts! And that goat walking upright? Totally unnatural—definitely an evil spirit!"
His head swam in a fog, but recalling Chen Shi's words made the dog and the two-legged goat seem less sinister by comparison.
Chen the Talented Scholar—that was the true evil!
Suspecting the true god beyond the heavens!
Claiming the True King's death and the split between Huaxia and the New Continent tied to the true god!
Blasphemy on a cosmic scale!
Stick around him any longer, and even my thoughts would twist. I'd turn into an evil spirit myself!
Chen Shi regretted Fu Leisheng's departure. The house felt deathly empty with just him and the dog—every room hollow and echoing.
These past days without Grandpa had driven home just how vital family truly was.
"I've got a bit of cash now. Wonder if Little Jin would marry me?"
Chen Shi thought of Jin Hongying. He'd passed the county exam; at twelve, he could take a wife—not counting those eight years he'd been dead, of course.
"But if I go to marry Little Jin, Tianqing won't be thrilled. Tianqing and I are best friends, and he's outstanding too—just not as loaded as me. Little Jin facing two standouts like us? Tough choice, huh?"
Boyish at heart, Chen Shi soon shoved Little Jin's dilemma aside—let her sweat it. He took Blackie Pot out of the village to drill the accuracy of his Noon-Midnight Evil-Slaying Sword.
This session, he didn't just fire off the Noon-Midnight Evil-Slaying Sword raw. He circulated the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art, weaving Big Dipper Seven Stars Steps while unleashing sword qi.
Circulating the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art, he routed his true qi through the yellow tiger—a full circuit in the temple, treating it as his own divine embryo. Twice the results for half the effort; his cultivation surged ahead!
His Golden Core lifted into the air, slipping into the temple unnoticed to temper itself—progress lightning-fast!
Chen Shi brimmed with shock and joy.
"No wonder better divine embryos mean faster cultivation and higher prowess. The perks are huge!"
He couldn't help wondering: What did an innate Dao embryo—surpassing even first-grade divine embryos—look like? Just how mighty was it?
Did it match the yellow tiger's caliber?
No innate Dao embryo, but I'm leagues beyond my old self!
Chen Shi settled his mind for pure cultivation.
His Noon-Midnight Evil-Slaying Sword already hit true at range, distance no issue. But Chen Shi wanted more: Could the sword qi adapt? Bend to his will?
His footwork flowed ceaselessly, ethereal—skimming parallel to the earth one instant, inverted across the sky the next. Invisible sword qi shrieked through the air, slicing the void.
This time, he sought not distance, but proximity.
Chen Shi had crossed swords countless times with Noon-Midnight Evil-Slaying Sword users; he knew its flaws cold. Get in close, and no dodging—sword qi flies straight, hard to redirect, allies at risk.
So he honed it for suppleness, versatility.
Long experimentation revealed the crux: The Noon-Midnight Evil-Slaying Sword packed too much punch. Close-quarters control? Near impossible. Tame the path, and you gutted the power.
Better off learning a fresh spell.
After ages of practice, Chen Shi called it. Angles? Nailed. Sword qi curving round trees? Check. But true finger-flex pliance for the Noon-Midnight Evil-Slaying Sword? Still no.
"Need other spells after all. Hope the Tomb of the True King has some."
Then he froze, feeling ancestral sunlight and moonlight.
Chen Shi raced home, yanked out a mirror, peered in. There—in the small temple at the back of his head—a sunbeam cascaded from the roof!
Ecstatic, he scrutinized it over and over. Yes—sunlight spilling from the temple's inner ceiling!
The wee yellow tiger lounged blissfully in the rays.
If only I could step inside the temple...
The thought had barely formed when darkness swallowed his sight. Light returned: He stood outside the small temple.
Little changed from before, save a finer sand-grain texture, space around it steadier—no longer on the verge of sandblasting away in a breeze.
His hard training lately must've toughened it up plenty.
Chen Shi barely glanced before striding in.
From afar, the yellow tiger looked tiny. Up close? Immense.
It rose slowly, gaunt—shoulder blades jutting high under taut hide, shoulders towering one or two heads over Chen Shi!
Head dipping low, it still loomed, issuing a curt, uneasy roar—a warning not to get cute.
Yet Chen Shi sensed no ill will, no killer instinct. Dependence, if anything.
Stunned, Chen Shi thought: The yellow tiger's the Mountain Lord's mount. Why depend on me?
"Because it formed its divine image in my temple—born a faint reliance?"
Emboldened, he reached for its head.
It bared teeth—fangs dwarfing his palm—in threat.
Chen Shi pressed on. Threats unheeded, it quit, letting his hand settle on its brow.
Pleased, it flopped down, napping in the sun.
Chen Shi tried cat-petting its crown. Too vast; no dice.
Circling back, he eyed the beefy hind legs cradling two fuzzy giant bells—reached out.
Irked, the yellow tiger nonetheless tail-nudged its nosy lord aside with forbearance.
Under another's roof, concessions must be made. But Tiger's final dignity? Non-negotiable.
Chen Shi relented, turning to the Mountain Lord's divine form. Incense qi streamed steadily from beyond the temple; a few days more to solidify.
"Once the Mountain Lord leaves my small temple... will it still link to the ancestral land? Still get that sunlight?"
Gain and loss warred in him. Then—the incense qi flooding the small temple thickened explosively. From dribble to deluge: roiling azure torrents stormed in, flash-forging into potent force!
The Mountain Lord's divine form accelerated wildly!
Chen Shi gaped, baffled. At this clip, days? Try hours—today!
"What the hell?"
This instant, across Qianyang Mountain's sixty-three villages and five towns, godmothers hoisted incense sticks, burning and chanting silently.
Deep in the wilds, a colossal tree hollow: Zhuang Granny lit three sticks, murmuring the Mountain Lord's true name.
Before Great Snake of Xuanshan, incense burner hovered, smoke curling skyward.
Mountain woods: Qianyang Mountain spirits, tiger-headed ginseng dolls—incense glowed, qi-threads wafting one way.
Mountain fringes: Myriad demon foxes blanketed slopes, rearing upright, proffering three sticks each, kowtowing afar!
Chen Shi's nape-temple brimmed with incense zenith. Vast, world-nurturing righteous qi surged from the divine shrine, set to course his veins—bliss unspeakable.
Before him, the shrine's deity-figure stirred, rising—stepping down.
Ancestral Huaxia Divine Continent: Three Realms Medicine King, Heavenly Healer Great Sage wielding Nine Suns Thunderfire—the gunpowder's inventor, Grand True Person Sun Simiao. After six millennia, his avatar as Qianyang Mountain Lord descended anew to this land—to Xiniu New Continent!
本章完。