Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Chapter 16 The True God Watches
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"Transporting qi and blood is actually so wondrous!"
Chen Shi's playful mood surged. He focused his intent on his palm, and his right hand swelled like an inflating balloon, brimming with boundless strength.
He picked up the stone he had knocked off earlier and squeezed it hard. With a series of cracks, the stone shattered, and after a few rubs, it crumbled into dust.
He grabbed another stone and smashed it against his hand. With his qi and blood surging, there was no pain at all!
"As long as qi and blood fills a spot, it can swell and thicken there, without any pain!"
At this thought, Chen Shi immediately directed his qi and blood to various parts of his body, testing the effects of filling different areas.
He discovered that if he concentrated it on the joints and tendons of his arm, his arm could suddenly stretch by four or five inches!
If he filled his spine and vertebrae, strengthening the tendons, a clattering of bones sounded from within his body. In an instant, he could grow half a foot taller!
Chen Shi suddenly felt the urge to urinate. On a whim, he directed his qi and blood to his privates. It quickly swelled up, and in excitement, he whooped, "I can pee even farther now! No one in the whole village can pee as far as me!"
He then directed his qi and blood to his neck, thickening it considerably.
"In the future, if someone tries to strangle me, it'll take them a lot of effort!"
Chen Shi urged his qi and blood toward his head. Suddenly, his vision went black, and he toppled straight over, passing out cold.
He didn't know how much time passed before Chen Shi woke up. His eyes bulged wide, his mind a complete blank.
Only after a good while did he blink, gradually recalling how he had just been circulating his qi and blood.
He dared not direct it to his head again.
The head was the root of the six yang channels. Circulating qi and blood there was extremely dangerous—with the slightest mistake, one could faint, hallucinate, or suffer a brain hemorrhage.
Chen Shi was cultivating on his own, and with an incomplete manual at that. It was inevitable he'd run into such risks.
"Without the complete Three Lights Righteous Qi Art, it's no good. I have no idea about the cultivation taboos. One slip, and I'll go mad with qi deviation. But with my current strength, I still can't read the stele in front of the Tomb of the True King."
He was about to continue cultivating when suddenly, the sky outside turned dark red. Countless miles of skyfire filled the heavens, forming an utterly magnificent sunset.
Chen Shi's heart jolted. This was the phenomenon of the true gods beyond the heavens closing their eyes, flames surging from beneath their eyelids to ignite the eighty miles of sky above the earth!
The appearance of this spectacle meant night was about to fall!
After dark, evils would prowl the mountains and wilds!
"I've probably been unconscious for a long time. I need to get home early."
Chen Shi immediately rose and headed out. Just as he reached the temple entrance, the sky grew darker red, the skyfire about to extinguish.
With his current speed, he couldn't make it home before nightfall—he might not even reach the foot of the mountain before darkness hit.
"The best choice now is to stay in the temple overnight."
Chen Shi hesitated, then steeled his resolve. "Staying in the temple offers a chance of survival, but going down the mountain is certain death."
He knew full well how dangerous the mountains and wilds were under moonlight.
Chen Shi sealed all the doors and windows, then dragged over several massive stones to barricade them. He had brought his book chest this time, and it contained some peach talismans.
—Grandpa knew he was coming to this ruined temple in the wild mountains to cultivate, so he insisted he bring the peach talismans.
Chen Shi hung peach talismans behind the doors and windows, then climbed onto the roof and hung some at the broken spots. The roof had several large holes, patched roughly with wooden boards, but it still leaked wind everywhere.
Chen Shi jumped down, gathered some firewood, lit a fire to warm his dry rations, and wolfed them down.
Before he finished eating, thunder rumbled from the sky, and pattering rain began, dousing the campfire.
Chen Shi hurriedly shifted position to avoid the rain.
But the rain grew heavier, pouring in buckets. Soon the ruined temple was flooded everywhere, with only a few dry spots left to stand.
Sleeping was out of the question.
"Tomorrow, when the rain stops, I'll find a mason to fix up this ruined temple. It'll make cultivating here much easier from now on," Chen Shi thought to himself.
The moon beyond the heavens was already shrouded by dark clouds, and the sky outside grew ever blacker.
Without moonlight, even evils and spirits wouldn't venture out.
Since he couldn't sleep, Chen Shi simply continued cultivating.
He activated the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art. Starlight, sunlight, and moonlight surged in, dots of light glowing around him. The three lights converged, fusing into seven stars that formed the Big Dipper pattern, tempering his body.
After an unknown time, Chen Shi suddenly sensed the ruined temple gradually brightening. He looked around for the light source and froze.
In this pitch-black night, with pouring rain outside amid occasional flashes of lightning and thunder, a beam of sunlight shone down from the temple roof!
Chen Shi rubbed his eyes and looked up. Indeed, a beam of sunlight was shining down!
He glanced outside the temple.
Outside was utter blackness, rain bucketing down, not a hand's breadth of visibility, the sound of rain roaring, distant thunder muffled. He could see at most one or two steps beyond the entrance.
Chen Shi turned back to the interior.
Inside the temple, sunlight blazed as bright as day—though the roof was still leaking.
Rain passed through the sunlight, falling to the ground.
This was downright ghostly!
No—for him, ghosts and gods were commonplace, visible everywhere.
But he'd never seen a sight like this!
"Inside and outside the temple truly have different spaces and times!"
Chen Shi suppressed his excitement. He'd long suspected as much, and now this beam of sunlight confirmed it.
He followed the sunlight with his gaze and saw another expanse of deep blue sky.
That sky was clearly not the same as the one over West Ox New Continent!
He also saw the sun of that other sky.
Golden-yellow, not large—like a golden disc.
But the sunlight from this sun could be used for cultivation!
With this beam, his Three Lights Righteous Qi Art ran even smoother, the Big Dipper's tempering more efficient!
He could feel the Big Dipper's tempering speed increase by three or four fold!
How marvelous!
"Could this sun be the true sun? The Three Lights Righteous Qi Art also draws moonlight from that space. Does that mean the moon there is the true moon as well?"
Such thoughts bubbled up. Did the sun and moon in the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art refer to those of this space?
Did the ancients of West Ox New Continent face the sun and moon of that space? That's why they coined terms like sunrise, sunset, cloudy, clear, full, and crescent.
Then what happened later to make the sun and moon vanish?
What happened that the true gods beyond the heavens replaced them?
Where did the sun and moon go?
Why could this ruined temple connect to the sun and moon, letting sunlight shine in?
Who was once enshrined in this ruined temple?
Why had it risen from underground at this time?
Was it related to how nightfall had come a quarter-hour early a few days ago?
"It's a shame Grandpa isn't here. He's seen so much, he surely... surely wouldn't know! He'd just say to double the medicine dose at night!"
Chen Shi continued cultivating, putting these bizarre questions aside. Thinking about them yielded no answers anyway.
Gradually, he entered a wondrous state—neither asleep nor awake, his breathing long and drawn out. The Three Lights Righteous Qi Art ran steadily, the Big Dipper tempering unceasingly, the seven stars slowly orbiting around him.
The heavy rain lasted all night, stopping only in the morning. Chen Shi had cultivated through the night without any fatigue—instead, he felt invigorated, this one night of practice surpassing tenfold his previous sessions.
"I haven't gone home all night—Grandpa must be worried sick!"
Chen Shi ceased his cultivation, moved the stones barricading the door, and stepped out of the ruined temple. Outside was still misty, the air thick with moisture.
"Woof woof!"
A big black dog stood outside the temple, barking affectionately at him twice. It was Blackie Pot.
Chen Shi hurried over with a grin. "Blackie Pot, did Grandpa send you to find me? He must've been really worried, huh? How long have you been here?"
Blackie Pot wagged its tail, trotting up with a fawning smile, circling him twice.
Man and dog hurried down the mountain. Though the path was slick from the rain, Chen Shi felt light and agile, traversing any terrain as if it were flat ground.
"This time home, I need to ask Grandpa for some money. I want to hire masons to renovate the ruined temple. I plan to cultivate there often."
As they went, Chen Shi said to Blackie Pot, "I've got a lot of silver saved with Grandpa. Think he'll give it to me if I ask?"
Blackie Pot's tail spun like a windmill as it barked, "Woof!"
Chen Shi laughed. "You're wrong, Blackie Pot! Grandpa said that money's for me to get a wife. If I ask, he'll definitely give it."
"Woof woof!"
"You're saying Grandpa spent it all? Impossible!"
"Woof, woof woof!"
"Don't talk nonsense—Grandpa wouldn't cheat a kid out of his money!"
...
Man and dog chatted as they went, gradually leaving the wild mountain behind, heading toward Huangpo Village.
At that moment, the sky suddenly blazed with abnormal brightness. Chen Shi and Blackie Pot looked up and froze.
A blinding streak of light tore across the sky—it had to be a burning stone from beyond the heavens, smashing through the firmament straight toward them!
The meteor from beyond the heavens flashed over their heads, trailing thick smoke a li long. The next instant, it struck a barren mountain several li away, slamming right onto the ruined temple!
Flames erupted skyward, huge stones flying in all directions.
In Chen Shi's view, that peak which had grown from the earth was sheared off dozens of zhang at once!
Blackie Pot lunged at Chen Shi, tackling him down. Man and dog tumbled into a deep ditch by the roadside.
Whoosh—
A gale like knives swept overhead, carrying rolling heatwaves. Trees on both sides of the ditch ignited instantly, turning into massive torches.
Fortunately, after the night rain, the ditch was full of water. Man and dog submerged, avoiding being burned to ash by the hot wind.
Boom!
A massive explosion roared, the ground shaking endlessly. The vibrations reached the water, nearly shaking Chen Shi and Blackie Pot to vomit blood.
Then碎石 pelted down like stone rain.
Luckily, hiding in the water sapped the stones' power.
After the stone rain passed, the still-shaken Chen Shi and Blackie Pot surfaced. Waiting a moment with no further noise, they climbed back to the road.
Chen Shi staggered to his feet, soaked through. Beside him, Blackie Pot shook vigorously, spraying water everywhere.
Chen Shi looked around. Trees lay toppled every which way. Some still bore flames, others charred black by the hot wind, standing bald as smokestacks belching grayish plumes.
Crops in the fields were flattened here and there, boulders gouged into the earth, skidding to a stop.
Where the boulders plowed, crops were razed flat—like a giant had wielded a brush on farmland canvas, scrawling clumsy, crooked strokes.
Chen Shi gazed at the distant barren mountain. The hundred-zhang peak was now halved, its jagged break like Blackie Pot's bite—uneven and interlaced.
That mysterious little temple was pulverized to dust!
The barren mountain that rose from the ground was nearly leveled!
"Wh-why?"
Chen Shi murmured.
He looked to the sky, where the sun blazed fiercely.
The two suns were the massive eyes of the true gods beyond the heavens, gazing down upon the earth, seeing everything crystal clear.