Chapter 989: A Story-Telling God
A cool breeze picked up outside of the 10,000-mile bamboo forest. The red bamboo stalks swayed back and forth, creating a faint rustling sound. It was not like the sounds of nature. It surpassed that.
Floating Fiend’s mind and heart were in turmoil as he felt himself becoming a part of that sound that surpassed anything from nature. It affected his entire body, until he was trembling everywhere. And his thoughts seemed to be fading into nothing. However, that fading of thought wasn’t happening very quickly, and thus, he had time to recall what had just played out.
The ‘ten miles of sand’ represented the desert he had been to. The ‘hundred miles of swamp’ was obviously the unknown swamp he had fled through. The ‘thousand mile tomb’ was definitely the bare mountain, while the ‘ten-thousand miles of bamboo’ was the forest in front of his very eyes.
The nursery rhyme had correctly described the exact route he took. It was almost as if everything from the moment he entered the desert had been fabricated by means of the nursery rhyme.
Īt was a gruish type of godly authority. And īts name was: storytelling.
By the time Floating Fiend’s thoughts led him to the point of being aware of this godly authority, he was defeated. His mind became blank. His gaze became vacant, and he entered an ethereal daze as he stared at the ten-thousand mile forest and the god standing in front of him.
To him, the figure in front of him was immeasurably large, and could control everything. Īt had omniscience regarding everything.
He had become a character in a story. A fabrication. He couldn’t think, because of course, the thoughts of a character in a story are controlled by the person creating the story. He couldn’t move, as the actions of a character in a story are determined by the person telling the story. He even lost the ability to feel fear or confusion.
To a certain extent, the person telling the story was actually very kind in that regard. The merciful Yu Liuchen lifted hīs right hand and made a cupping motion. A ripping sound could then be heard as the long sword on Floating Fiend’s back was torn off his body. It flew up into the air. As chunks of disgusting flesh and bones tumbled off it, it revealed the very dim bubble, and the pagoda within it.
Smiling, Yu Liuchen projected a message into the pagoda. “Well, I say! There’s a person in there!” Inside the pagoda, Xu Qing quietly stood. Then he walked out of the pagoda, through the bubble, and into the presence of Yu Liuchen.
“Greetings, Senior,” he said, bowing his head.
Although Xu Qing had considered that someone would come to his rescue, none of his various analyses had featured Yu Liuchen as the rescuer. It was true that Yu Liuchen had, to some extent, worked together with Grand Emperor Swordsage right before the latter perished. But from Xu Qing’s perspective, Yu Liuchen had seemed gruish and unpredictable, both in thought and action. In an instant, hē could change from being happy to furious, or from being malicious to benevolent. It made it almost impossible to get a read on hīm.
“Hold on, aren’t you Swordsage’s successor?” Yu Liuchen asked with an enigmatic smile.
Xu Qing cleared his thoughts, clasped hands, and bowed very respectfully. “Your grace in rescuing me will be forever engraved in my memory, Senior.”
Yu Liuchen chuckled. Hē waved hīs right hand, and a host of bamboo stalks flew over and created a table in front of hīm, atop which rested five cups of tea. There was also a furnace off to the side, the flames of which heated a worn teapot. It took only a moment for the water in the teapot to boil. Then, five streams of water flowed out of it, which entered the five tea cups. A fragrant aroma began to fill the area.
Having accomplished that, Yu Liuchen sat down cross-legged, picked up one of the cups of tea, and took a drink. “You say you’ll engrave it in your memory? Are you referring to the current version of you, in which godly nature is dominant? Or are you talking about the version controlled by human nature, the version in which things are easily forgotten?”
Xu Qing thought for a moment. Then he took a blank bamboo slip out of his bag of holding, upon which he carved six words.
Huge favor owed to Yu Liuchen.
He put the bamboo slip back into his bag of holding and looked at Yu Liuchen. “I’ll use that to remember.”
Yu Liuchen’s eyebrows shot up in amusement. Hē looked a bit more closely at Xu Qing. “Interesting. Well, sit down and have some tea.”
Xu Qing didn’t hesitate. He sat down, picked up a cup of tea, and took a drink. After the scalding tea passed down his throat, it seemed to explode. Heat spread through his entire body, slamming into his mind, and stirring up all of his memories going back to his youth. Those memories were like images floating up in his mind.
He saw Peerless City. He saw the bitterness he experienced as a child. He saw the first time he killed someone, and how withdrawn he had become afterward. He saw the death of Grandmaster Bai. He saw the camaraderie he had experienced in Seven Blood Eyes. He saw his conflicted reaction to facing Zi Qing. He saw Palace Lord Kong and Grand Emperor Swordsage.... He saw Plumdark, Ling’er, and his Eldest Brother....
And yet, all of those experiences, all of those images, somehow seemed unfamiliar, as if they were from someone else’s life. The joys and sorrows, the vicissitudes of life, didn’t seem capable of affecting his heart. But then, because of the heat of the tea, the memory images became more colorful and vibrant. The happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy became more obvious. Ultimately, they became so prominent they were like peals of heavenly thunder, cracking endlessly.
RUMBLE!
Xu Qing shook from head to toe with joy.
RUMBLE!
His mind spun as he felt fear, then anger, then confusion, and then sadness....
All of the various emotions and longings of human nature came out in force. To him, the world was different compared to before. It was more colorful.
Panting for breath, Xu Qing looked up. His expression was no longer calm like it had been before. All of the human nature that he had struggled to keep suppressed before was now bubbling. It was once again forming an equilibrium with the godliness he had intentionally released.
What was more, uncontrollable killing intent toward Floating Fiend appeared in his heart. Xu Qing immediately turned to look at the disoriented Floating Fiend, his eyes burning with the desire to kill. But only an instant later, he took a deep breath and looked back at Yu Liuchen. Standing, he clasped hands and again bowed deeply at the waist.
“Many thanks, Senior!”
Yu Liuchen took a drink of tea. “There’s no need to thank me. I came here mostly to satisfy my curiosity.”
Xu Qing hesitated as he tried to wrap his mind around what exactly Yu Liuchen had been curious about.
Looking closely at Xu Qing, Yu Liuchen said, “I’m curious about a person with a body made of Eminent Desolation’s flesh. Before you, nothing like that ever happened. So I came. To be honest, if I hadn’t come, someone else would have rescued you. And soon, at that. That’s why you really don’t need to thank me. I don’t want any big karmic connection to develop between us.”
Xu Qing looked down thoughtfully at the bamboo table. Yu Liuchen had drunk tea from one cup, while Xu Qing had drunk from another. But there were three other cups.
“But I do have to say, this whole thing is very, very amusing....” Smiling, Yu Liuchen waved hīs hand at the befuddled Floating Fiend.
Floating Fiend shivered as he regained both his senses and his ability to move. His pupils constricted as confusion and terror returned to them.
Then Yu Liuchen began speaking in a very casual and relaxed manner. “Floating Fiend has some very nice shears. However... they can’t fool my eyes, let alone the eyes of that empress you humans have. Besides, from beginning to end, your Master never said a single word.
“Of course, you have no way of knowing... that after you went missing, both humankind and the Firemoons issued dharmic decrees. Every organization you can imagine sprang into action. They cooperated perfectly. The east of Revered Ancient has been working together as if it has a single, united will. That was quite intimidating to the other areas of the mainland, and it was quite intimidating to the holy lands around here. At the same time, many forces used the search for you as an excuse to deploy troops and plan for war. Some of the details... are even impossible for me to perceive clearly.”
Yu Liuchen clucked hīs tongue in admiration.
Xu Qing had no trouble picking up on the hidden implications in what Yu Liuchen said. He sighed.
As for Floating Fiend, what he had heard already had him feeling extremely nervous.
“My guess,” Yu Liuchen continued, “is that your empress’ next move is going to be... using your situation as a justification for kicking the holy lands out of the east. It would be completely logical to claim that it’s to make sure nothing like this happens again in the future. By paying only a small price, the entire east can be purged. No wonder Swordsage picked hēr.” Yu Liuchen’s eyes narrowed as hē looked at Xu Qing. “This really must have been tough for you! All twists and turns, right? Gods really can be ruthless. Rough. So rough!”
Xu Qing couldn’t think of anything clever to say. Looking at Yu Liuchen, he said, “That’s pretty deep, Senior....”
Hearing that caused Yu Liuchen to smile happily. Hē was intentionally trying to sow discord, for no other reason than he found it amusing. Except, hīs smile faltered when he heard what Xu Qing had to say next..
“However, Senior, the situation with me isn’t that simple.... If things really played out as you just described, it seems more likely to me that my Master has been paying attention the whole time. Senior, isn’t it possible that you showing up was actually part of what my Master predicted would happen?”
Yu Liuchen blinked a few times. After what Xu Qing just said, hē suddenly didn’t feel as amused as before. Hē actually looked thoughtful.
That was when Floating Fiend’s eyes filled with madness. Spinning, he unleashed every scrap of his cultivation base and aura, paying every price possible, including as much dao blood as he could spare, to try to flee. The Grand Emperor’s shears appeared above him, and they slashed down toward him. Then a cracking sound rang out as the shears sliced through the air. Floating Fiend vanished.
Xu Qing watched it all happen coldly.
Yu Liuchen, meanwhile, didn’t spare a second glance. Instead, hē coolly said, “Allow me to tell you a story, kid.
“The story is about a cultivator named Floating Fiend. He walked through a ten-mile desert, a hundred-mile swamp, a thousand-mile tomb, and a ten-thousand mile forest. Eventually, he got lost. But then he got lucky and managed to find his way back. In a show of gratitude, he blew himself up, and then he took a drink of my tea.”
All of a sudden, the spot where Floating Fiend had just disappeared rippled and distorted. Floating Fiend appeared, dilapidated and weak. In fact, he seemed like he was about to collapse. The moment he appeared, he looked at the two people present as if he hadn’t seen them for an entire month. His expression was one of absolute astonishment and unending terror.
A month ago, he had severed his karma with his shears, then detonated the essence of the shears to perform a greater teleportation. After that, he fled for a month, experiencing all sorts of deadly situations. He crossed numerous dangerous regions... only to return to this very spot.
Trembling, he looked at Yu Liuchen, then unhesitatingly decided to self-detonate. Rumbling built up within him. It was the only way he could think to free himself.
But then he became lucid again and found himself staring at the same bamboo forest, the same Xu Qing, and the same Yu Liuchen. He did not wake up where he thought he would wake up. Instead, he woke up here.
“Have some tea,” Yu Liuchen said coolly.
Floating Fiend looked at the cups of tea on the table. Trembling in despair, he reached out, took a cup, and drank.
Meanwhile, the distant horizon turned gray, as if it were turning into clay. The effect spread as a procession of clay people appeared, bearing a shrine. Among the team was Erniu. Looking very excited, he waved at Xu Qing.
“Little Ah Qing! Your Eldest Brother is here!”