Chapter 365
Chapter 365
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 366
Chapter Title: Primordial Star Map
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Chen Shi slowly awoke from his flesh-and-blood body, opened his eyes, and sat up.
Granny Sha let out a sigh of relief and hurriedly asked, "Little Ten, what happened? Were you captured by other ghost gods, or imprisoned?
Your dad was worried sick! Your mom, that heartless woman, kept saying you were fine———."
Chen Shi remained calm and composed, his expression normal as he said, "Aunt Qiutong, I'm fine, no need to worry. There was just a little mishap."
Chen Tang strode quickly onto the altar, felt he was being too hasty, slowed his steps, and nodded lightly. "As long as you're back safe. Your mom was worried sick, always thinking something happened to you in the underworld."
Granny Sha shot him a glance, sneering inwardly. It was clearly Chen Tang who had been urging her to summon Chen Shi's soul back, fearing something might happen to his son, yet he pushed the blame onto Witch Qingyu.
Chen Shi stood up, familiarizing himself with his body. "Dad, I'm fine."
Chen Tang looked at him and felt his son had changed somewhat. He seemed less impetuous than before, more mature.
But Chen Tang soon noticed that Chen Shi wasn't quite used to this body yet; his movements lacked their previous coordination.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for Chen Shi to get accustomed to his flesh again.
These past days as a skeleton had become habit; he kept feeling like he could disassemble himself into bones at any moment, then reassemble far away.
Too bad a flesh body couldn't be used that way.
"Dad, Aunt Qiutong, has all the mo in my body been removed?" Chen Shi stepped down from the altar and asked.
Blackie Pot wagged its tail as it ran over, barking twice at him affectionately. They had been apart for many days, and it missed him terribly.
Chen Shi crouched down, hugging the dog's head. Blackie Pot wriggled free and slobbered all over his face.
Chen Tang came down from the altar, a bit jealous of the affection between him and Blackie Pot but showing no sign of it. "Not yet. We've extracted one hundred and two mo, but we ran out of soul-searching pouches, so we had to stop and gather materials to refine more."
Chen Shi smiled. "I see. You're not hiding anything else from me, are you?"
Chen Tang's face remained calm. "No. You should head home. Your mom's very worried about you."
Chen Shi acknowledged it, released Blackie Pot, and said, "Dad, let's go back together."
Chen Tang shook his head. "I need to help Aunt Qiutong pack up. Blackie Pot, take him back to Huangpo Village."
Chen Shi nodded lightly and left the underworld with Blackie Pot.
Chen Tang watched them go. Granny Sha said from behind him, "You're still going to keep it from him?"
Chen Tang replied flatly, "What else can we do if we don't? Tell him that at the end, a calamity-level one emerged?"
Granny Sha shuddered involuntarily at the mention, recalling the scene of their mo extraction.
The process had gone smoothly overall. Chen Tang had made all sorts of preparations and rehearsed many times. As Chen Shi's mother Witch Qingyu had foreseen, various issues arose later—like the mo growing stronger, twin mo, triplet mo, and other anomalies.
But they had been prepared to handle them.
The triplet mo incident had been particularly dangerous. That "Chen Shi" grew three heads on one body, able to fight in all directions at once without any flaws, breaking through the blockade of Chen Tang, Du Yiran, A Zhuo, and the others.
If Huodou hadn't appeared in time to block him, he would have escaped to the yang world!
Once there, with the three mo scattering, catching them would have been immensely difficult.
Things had remained smooth afterward, until a different kind of "mo" appeared in Chen Shi's body.
This "Chen Shi" didn't awaken ravenous like the others. Instead, he was calm and courteous, chatting amiably about family matters. If you didn't know his origins, you'd think he was a learned scholar.
He displayed an illusory celestial phenomenon—stars filling the sky, gorgeously magnificent. This vision enveloped a thousand li, changing everyone's expressions.
Huodou appeared personally, and as they prepared for a desperate battle, that "Chen Shi" saw Huodou, realized he couldn't win against both the group and Huodou, and voluntarily retreated without fighting.
Granny Sha and the others checked Chen Shi's sea of consciousness and found the abyss sealed, with that "calamity" still lurking deep within.
They were helpless against this calamity and had no choice but to halt the extraction, having Granny Sha summon Chen Shi's soul back to revive him.
"The mo in Little Ten's sea of consciousness abyss should have been completely removed, but who knows how many calamities remain inside. Hopefully just the one."
Granny Sha continued, "But the greatest shock this heavenly calamity gave us was the starry sky it displayed."
Stars blazed across the heavens, unparalleled in brilliance.
The sight struck them deeply, especially the Five Evils!
Granny Sha, Du Yiran, Hu Xiaoliang, Qingyang, and Qiao Zhuo had explored ancient mysteries with Chen Yindu back in the day, searching for True King era relics and the paths to tribulation transcendence and ascension. They had indeed discovered many things unlike modern cultivation systems—especially the star charts needed to open the Void Great Realm in the Returning Void Realm.
The star charts were divided into Star Combat Chart, Star River Chart, Four Palaces Chart, Central Heaven Chart, Zhou Heaven Chart, and so on.
They had found many such diagrams, studied them in detail, and gradually pieced together the star charts. Thus, Du Yiran and Qiao Zhuo's Void Great Realms used unique star charts unlike other cultivators'.
The same went for Chen Yindu and Chen Tang.
But the starry sky shown by the calamity "Chen Shi" differed even from the ones they had reconstructed from the charts.
The arrangement and positions of the stars, the form of the Four Palaces Chart, the Star River's shape, even the Zhou Heaven Chart—all were different.
It left them profoundly shocked.
Du Yiran and the others went off separately to contemplate the star chart displayed by the calamity "Chen Shi," leaving only Chen Tang and Granny Sha to summon his soul.
Granny Sha and Chen Tang immediately judged that the star chart shown by the calamity "Chen Shi" was very likely the true starry sky blocked by the extraterrestrial True Gods!
Because when visualizing and contemplating this chart, they sensed star power from beyond the heavens.
Those stars flickered in their minds, pinpointing their positions one by one!
Chen Tang murmured, "The question is, why did this calamity show us the starry sky? It didn't feel like showing off; it was more like deliberately displaying it for us to see."
Granny Sha couldn't guess the reason either.
A阴风 blew, and Chen Shi and Blackie Pot appeared on the yellow earth slope. Chen Shi greeted Scholar Zhu, lit incense for him and his godmother,
then returned home to report his safety to his mother, Witch Qingyu.
Everything seemed to return to calm.
Chen Shi lay under the crooked-neck willow, gazing up at the sky with a dogtail grass stem in his mouth.
Blackie Pot sat beside him, neck stretched out, chin resting on its front paws.
"You're hiding something from me, you, Dad, and Granny." Chen Shi bit the dogtail grass and suddenly broke the silence.
Blackie Pot's ears, which had been flat, immediately perked up, but it stayed lying on the ground, eyes rolling. After the calamity "Chen Shi" appeared, Chen Tang had indeed instructed it not to tell Chen Shi, lest he worry.
Chen Shi continued, "Blackie Pot, I thought we were iron bros. We grew up together, ate, drank, shat, and slept together. Didn't expect you'd treat me like an outsider."
Blackie Pot lifted its head, looking troubled, hesitant to speak.
"Forget it, we're strangers after all." Chen Shi said sadly.
Blackie Pot stood up, paws behind its back, pacing around the willow tree, sighing deeply, utterly conflicted.
Chen Shi said heartbrokenly, "So you and Chen Tang are the real bros. I misjudged you———"
Blackie Pot finally made up its mind, placed a paw on his shoulder, sighed, and said, "Woof woof! Woof woof woof! Woof woof woof woof!"
Chen Shi listened dumbfounded, nodding repeatedly at times, frowning at others, horrified now and then, tense the next, finally looking up at the sky in confusion.
"You mean you suspect Chen Tang and the others think the calamity's star chart is the true starry sky hidden by the True Gods?"
Blackie Pot nodded solemnly. "Woof! Woof woof?"
Chen Shi laughed. "I'm not worried about calamities in my body. There were some before too, and life went on as usual. What interests me more is whether the calamity's star chart is really the true starry sky covered by the True Gods. If so, why cover the real one? How does the calamity know its true form? And why show it to Chen Tang and them?"
Blackie Pot propped its elbow with one paw, chin with the other, lost in thought.
Chen Shi perked up and smiled. "Good brother, your recent adventures were wild, but mine were no less exciting—maybe even more so! You know, I became the king of Tianchi Kingdom in the underworld."
He pulled Blackie Pot to sit and slowly recounted his Yin Mountain ordeal: searching for the Lord of the Listeners, Wen Wuyu, battling him, exploring the immortal truth, entering the Immortal Palace to find Immortal Tianzhen, and Tianzhen's entrustment. Then that strange immortal flame...
"Woof woof!"
Blackie Pot sat up, barking solemnly. "Woof! Woof!"
Chen Shi said, "I know, that immortal flame is definitely suspicious. Immortal fire couldn't appear out of nowhere on the mountain where Tianzhen sealed himself, let alone on the key seal-breaking talisman. Someone knew Tianzhen died there and deliberately left the flame to break his seal."
Blackie Pot looked grave and barked once.
"You're right! They wanted Tianzhen's corpse to mutate into a calamity!"
Chen Shi's expression grew serious. "We're thinking the same. One weird thing: when the True King ordered Tianzhen killed back then,
they used Taihua Qinggong's True Martial Evil-Exterminating Sword. Tianzhen was struck, died in Yin Mountain. Kind-hearted, he feared post-death mutation harming the underworld, so he self-sealed. Everyone who knew should be long dead———."
From the True King era to now, at least six thousand years had passed.
The True King era fell, True King perished. Even the mightiest cultivators lived only a hundred-plus years, extending to two or three hundred at most. No one could know that secret and still live.
Moreover, wielding immortal fire meant an astonishing background!
Knowing the secret and using immortal fire—could a firsthand witness from back then still be alive?
Did the True King fail to seal all immortals?
"Whoever this is, they'll strike again soon."
Chen Shi's eyes flickered. "They never imagined Tianzhen created Yin-Yang Tempering—even in death, it suppresses mutation. Their goal failed, so they'll trigger a second disaster! First time, no one noticed.
Second time, they'll show their hand———."
He composed himself and told Blackie Pot about the fog moon phenomenon, the dead reviving, Tianzhen's mutation, the pursuit. How he escorted everyone back to Tianchi capital, only for Granny Sha to forcibly summon his soul, leaving a thought behind to protect them———
Blackie Pot looked anxious and grave. "Woof!"
Chen Shi flipped up laughing. "I want to rescue them too, but I can't die again. If I do, Dad and them can't suppress the calamity in me."
"Woof woof!"
Chen Shi grinned. "Good brother, it's a deal—we'll go to Yin Mountain together! I gotta take you to my throne, crown you, have palace maids bathe you in the magma pool—no more corpse bugs on your bones———oh yeah, I have a crown prince... definitely not mine; I'm a skeleton, how could I...——."
Chen Shi went home to greet his mother Witch Qingyu, then returned to the yellow earth slope with Blackie Pot. Man and dog sank into the underworld.
Blackie Pot revealed its true form: the colossal Huodou, treading hellfire, like a serene black mountain looming on the high ridge.
Chen Shi stood atop its head, surveying afar, pointing to the distant majestic peaks. "Should be that way!"
Blackie Pot leaped into the air, striding on demonic fire, heading deep into the mountains.
They plunged into Qianyang Mountain's underworld projection: immense peaks shrouded in mystery, a frigid Yin Spring Sea hanging upside down, giant trees inverted from the sky, towering coffins, Tongue-Pulling Hell and Wuwang City hidden in the valleys.
A giant serpent's eyes glowed like eerie torches hanging between heaven and earth, watching them.
Qingyang, mountain-like, gazed penetratingly, sweeping over them in surprise.
Granny Zhuang's endlessly thick, dragon-like roots extended from the sky locust, her little old lady form in the tree hollow now colossal···—
But none were the Yin Mountain Chen Shi sought.
He and Blackie Pot searched tirelessly for over ten days straight, yet couldn't find it.
"I wonder if they're safe———"
Chen Shi thought silently.
That day, as Blackie Pot dashed through the mountains, a stretch suddenly felt unfamiliar. Chen Shi stared, scanning around.
Blackie Pot kept running heedlessly when towering locust trees loomed into view.
"Blackie Pot! Over there!"
Chen Shi grew excited, pointing to Wuliang Cliff. "Go there!"
Blackie Pot raced madly through the peaks, faster and faster, finally reaching Wuliang Cliff. It trod fire, leaped onto the cliff, and endless Tianchi lakes stretched before them.
Blackie Pot charged toward Tianchi capital.
In the capital, Xiang Kun, Right Consort, and others still guarded the shattered bones of skeleton Chen Shi, protecting their king.
Suddenly, the碎骨 trembled.
They were shocked and delighted when cheers erupted. Looking over, they saw a mountain-sized Huodou treading demonic fire into Tianchi capital, approaching.
Atop Huodou's head stood a human youth facing them, beaming a brilliant, sunny smile, robes fluttering in the wind.