Chapter 973: Musician of the Sun
Eastnether Isle had long been in an alliance with Seven Blood Eyes. Nowadays, that alliance was stronger than ever. After Seven Blood Eyes rose to prominence in Sea-Sealing County, and of course after everything that happened in the Holytide and Nightspirit Regions, Eastnether Isle became an even more domineering force on the Forbidden Sea.
Guru Eastnether, who was Yanyan’s grandmother, was a good friend of Sir Bloodsmelter. In fact, in years past there were some Seven Blood Eyes disciples who audaciously claimed that their relationship went beyond the level of being fellow daoists. In recent years, Sir Bloodsmelter had been taking a lot of trips to Eastnether Isle, usually every few months, which only fueled such speculations....[1]
At the moment, all of the cultivators on Eastnether Isle were on guard and had very serious expressions on their faces.
Seated cross-legged on a high altar in the middle of the island was a young woman. Just looking at her, it was possible to see evidence of the passage of time. But that evidence was simply the fact that she had grown into a bewitchingly beautiful woman. She had pale skin and looked frail, but was very attractive. She wore a long black dress, and... was surrounded by numerous collections of beloved bladed weapons.
She was, of course, Yanyan. Her eyes were closed as if she were sleeping. But her eyelashes fluttered occasionally as her expression alternated between ferocity, terror, and pain. It was a very unusual sight.
Most unusual of all was her body. When Xu Qing first met her, he had noticed that she was different from other people. She had no mutagen in her. In reality, mutagen was a godly aura that existed everywhere in Revered Ancient. Only very high-level cultivators could completely purge themselves of it. But it was virtually impossible for low-level cultivators to be free of mutagen.
Xu Qing could do it with his violet crystal.
As for Yanyan, she had a very unique constitution. But now, her previously mutagen-free body had a black energy building up in it. It was mutagen.
Thankfully, even as the mutagen appeared, the spell formation around her lit up. Rumbling sounds could be heard as a majestic, cleansing power drove away all mutagen within the spell formation. It also drove away the sizzling black energy from within Yanyan. After the mutagen was gone, the pained expression disappeared from her face. Her breathing steadied, and she seemed to truly go to sleep.
Off to the side controlling the formation were Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Eastnether. Both of them breathed sighs of relief.
After confirming that Yanyan was doing well, Sir Bloodsmelter cleared his throat and looked at Guru Eastnether. “Well, what do you think? All it took was a single message and I had this spell formation sent over from Sea-Sealing County. It really is an extraordinary formation. In the imperial capital, only heavenly marquises can get them. Don’t worry, my clever grand-apprentice will be here soon. With his help, we can finish the job. It’s no big deal, right? She got hit by the gaze of a godly entity, that’s all. It won’t be hard to deal with.”
Sir Bloodsmelter was clearly trying to sound very nonchalant.
Guru Eastnether glanced at him and seemed about to say something snappy. Instead, she just nodded. “How long until he gets here?”
Seeing that Guru Eastnether was going along with his plan caused Sir Bloodsmelter’s heart to race. “Don’t worry. I already called for him, which means the hard work is already half over. As you know, my status nowadays is different from before. My apprentice is basically a Summer Immortal! I’m essentially the Master of a Summer Immortal. Get it?”
Sir Bloodsmelter proudly stroked his beard.
Guru Eastnether, who had spent nearly half her life bickering with Sir Bloodsmelter, finally couldn’t take it anymore. “You’re quite the expert in tooting your own horn.”
Sir Bloodsmelter chuckled. “Horn? What horn? There’s no horn! Look, I’m still Ol’ Seventh’s father-in-law. What, you want to be his mother-in-law? You have to admit, you have a rare opportunity on your hands.”
Guru Eastnether was apparently struck speechless.
Sir Bloodsmelter looked more pleased than ever. “Even if you don’t want to admit that I’m the Master of a Summer Immortal, you can’t deny the truth about my two grand-apprentices. One of them is King Skycrusher, the region lord of two regions, the tutor of the crown prince, and the future tutor of the emperor! The other is the daoist partner of Flame Phoenix!”
Guru Eastnether tartly responded, “Don’t you have two other grand-apprentices?”
Sir Bloodsmelter waved his hand dismissively. “I can’t really remember.”
Guru Eastnether snorted coldly. “Wow. You’re really the picture of an amazing Grand-Master.”
Sir Bloodsmelter’s eyebrows shot up, but before he could say anything else, the two of them turned to look toward the horizon.
There, they saw a mass of dramatic lightning. In the blink of an eye, the lightning was right over Eastnether Isle. However, there was no dramatic crack of thunder as would be expected.
The bizarre scene caused looks of astonishment to appear on the cultivators of Eastnether Isle. Even Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Eastnether were shocked.
A figure stepped out of the noiseless lightning, and with one step, arrived at the formation altar. As soon as Xu Qing appeared, he clasped hands and bowed with sincere respect to Sir Bloodsmelter and Guru Eastnether.
“Greetings, Grand-Master. Well met, Senior Eastnether.”
As soon as Xu Qing got Second Elder Sister’s message, he raced to Eastnether Isle, using his godly authority of sound to ensure that the lightning didn’t make any noise. In that way, he was able to make it across the Forbidden Sea in an instant.
Sir Bloodsmelter quickly suppressed his shock. Stroking his beard, he laughed heartily and said, “Well done, my grand-apprentice! It’s been such a long time! Not bad. Not bad at all. Your temperament reminds me a lot of myself, back in the day.”
Xu Qing’s respectful behavior really pleased Sir Bloodsmelter. He couldn’t help but think about the first time he’d laid eyes on Xu Qing. In the time since then, the young man had become true nobility.
Guru Eastnether was shocked to the core, but she took a deep breath and nodded to Xu Qing.
At that point, Xu Qing looked over at Yanyan on the altar. It wasn’t difficult to guess what was going on. “Grand-Master, did you call me here because of Yanyan?”
“Yes,” Sir Bloodsmelter said in a much more serious tone now that he was discussing an important matter. “A few months ago, in the middle of the night, some unknown godly entity fixed its gaze on Yanyan. Because of that, it created a strange connection between the two, and it keeps trying to summon her to it. Just before you arrived, I used this mutagen-expelling formation to purify her. Now that you’re here, you can handle the rest.”
Of course, Xu Qing knew that Yanyan was Guru Eastnether’s only blood relative, so he looked very serious as he replied, “Let me take a look.”
He walked over to Yanyan on the altar. Inside, his god talismans glittered, giving him a much different view of her. There was a black energy surrounding her that looked like a host of netherworld souls and evil ghosts. Their howls were constantly assailing Yanyan’s mind. There were so many of them that they seemed almost like a dense fog.
Visible to Xu Qing via his god perception was a hand inside the fog. It was the severed hand of a woman. In the palm was an eye, closed as if sleeping.
Xu Qing’s eyes turned cold as he reached out with his right index finger to touch Yanyan’s forehead.
At that moment, apparently because of being so familiar with Xu Qing’s aura, Yanyan opened her eyes and looked at him.
“Big Bro Xu Qing...” she whispered. All of a sudden, her facial expression changed, becoming a mix of joy, infatuation, attachment, and charm.
What was even stranger to Guru Eastnether and Sir Bloodsmelter... was that Yanyan’s eyes filled with anticipation, and as Xu Qing’s finger neared, she opened her little mouth.
Xu Qing’s finger stopped moving.
Upon noticing that Xu Qing wasn’t saying anything, Yanyan’s face fell slightly, almost like a flower that was about to start wilting and lose its will to live. The black energy surrounding her suddenly seemed much more ferocious.
Xu Qing sighed and put his finger in front of her mouth.
Yanyan instantly lit up. Leaning toward him slightly, she put her lips around his finger and licked it gently. The infatuated look on her face grew stronger.
Guru Eastnether stood there silently. Sir Bloodsmelter blinked a few times, looked at Guru Eastnether, and then similarly stood there silently.
Xu Qing let Yanyan do as she wished while he simultaneously sent his god perception over her. Because of their physical connection, combined with his senses, he could now see that the black energy connected to Yanyan’s fate actually stretched out into the Forbidden Sea. It went very, very deep.
He followed it for a long time to the inky seafloor, which was when he started hearing sounds of weeping and wailing. They came from evil ghosts. Not just one. Many.
His god perception was eventually able to make out a dilapidated palace in the sludge at the bottom of the sea. It looked like one small palace that had once been part of a larger palace complex.
Now it was just a crumbling ruin, fading away in time. There was a host of innumerable ghosts occupying the ruins. They looked vicious and sinister. Yet they didn’t notice him. They just let loose ear-piercing screams as they roved about. It almost seemed like they were singing.
Xu Qing’s heart skipped a beat. This was all very familiar. Years ago, he had encountered a host of evil ghosts on the Forbidden Sea. That phenomenon was called... ‘countless ghosts haunting the night’!
“There is a fantastic symphony in the endless sea; mortals are unable to hear it; it accompanies Crimson Yang the golden crow; countless movements become a song; it is called Natural Sounds Welcome the Moon.
“The god loved it; the god’s eyes gazed upon it; the endless sea became forbidden; countless movements became sinister.”
Xu Qing still remembered reading about the song in the sea annals in Seven Blood Eyes.[2]
Especially noteworthy was that, by means of his god perception, he could see that among the evils ghosts in the ruins was the godly entity that was causing trouble for Yanyan.
It was the severed hand of a woman! It was huge, being some 300 meters from end to end. The eye in the middle of the hand was closed, but the fingers were moving. And those fingers... were moving in time with the howling of the ghosts! It was as if the sound coming out of the ghosts was the music that she was playing!
Don’t tell me this is the origin of the countless ghosts haunting the night?
All of a sudden, Xu Qing got the feeling that the golden crow’s dragon chariot that he had been looking for to no avail... wasn’t so out of reach after all! After mulling the matter over, he kept his god perception locked onto the severed hand, but spoke with his physical mouth back on the altar formation.
“Grand-Master, I’m not very familiar with all the legends surrounding the Forbidden Sea. You know a lot more than me, sir. Is there any chance you’ve heard a story about a hand? Something connected to the countless ghosts haunting the night? Maybe something about a hand that can control the sound emitted by the countless ghosts?”
Sir Bloodsmelter looked surprised and thoughtful, but it was Guru Eastnether who responded.
“I know even more than him about Forbidden Sea legends,” she said. “What you’re describing actually conforms perfectly to one particular story. Supposedly, the phenomenon of countless ghosts haunting the night originates with the golden crow sun.
“As the story goes, before perishing, the golden crow would ride a dragon chariot through the canopy of heaven, turning into a sun that shone down on Revered Ancient. When it was night again, the musicians in the sun’s palace would play a song called Natural Sounds Welcome the Moon, which would call out to the moon to rise.
“When the broken face came, the golden crow perished. The Endless Sea became the Forbidden Sea, and the countless movements in the symphony became sinister. The musicians who played that most beautiful of music... also died. All that survived of those musicians was a hand that fell into the Forbidden Sea. Xu Qing, did you... actually find the hand from that legend?”
1. Yanyan was last mentioned inchapter 816 , and last appeared onscreen inchapter 726 . ☜
2. Xu Qing recalled the description from the sea annals inchapter 82 and173 . ☜