At this time, Li Qiye placed his hand on top of the snail’s gigantic body, and a bright light flew out from the snail, disappearing into the middle of Li Qiye’s eyebrows.
After this bright light came out of his body, the giant snail’s entire body shook; he could finally stand up slowly.
“A pot of extremely nutritious medicine is cooked.” Li Qiye said: “Since you are now following me, I will allow you to drink it.”
Hearing this, the giant snail didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. This one pot was made from his own Longevity Blood, ah!
“So? You don’t want to drink? If you don’t want to drink, the two of them will drink it all!” Li Qiye pointed at Nan Huairen and his master.
“Drink, I will drink, why would I not drink?” The giant snail was actually afraid that the master and disciple would compete with him so he rushed into the giant pot to drink gulp by gulp. The medicinal pot was made from his own Longevity Blood; if he didn’t drink it, then his loss would be even greater. His wounds would require a longer time to recover, too.
Finally, the giant snail finished the whole medicinal pot, and he took a deep breath. He just took a trip from hell and back.
Here, Li Qiye commanded the giant snail, saying: “Withdraw your body.”
The giant snail crushed his incantations, and he quickly transformed. A thin, old man with dried flesh appeared in front of them. There were two tiny pairs of flesh on his forehead, and, at the same time, there was also a small shell behind him that seemed like a shield.
“Yikes, this is, this is your true body?” Nan Huairen was a little dazed. The old man in front of them versus his initial form was too contrasting. The snail was like a small mountain, but this thin and dried old man in front of them seemed as if a breeze could fall him in one pass.
“No, this is my second body.” The old man shook his head, and he smiled: “Earlier was my real body.”
“This old man is Niu Fen; earlier, I was blinded by greed and my eyes were obscured by a single leaf, offending this Young Noble.” [1]
“Hic... Niu Fen...” Hearing his words, Nan Huairen rolled his eyes wide open as he asked: “There, there is such a name like this?”
The old man gazed at Nan Huairen. He somewhat embarrassingly said: “It is Niu Fen, Fen as in to put in effort!” [2]
“My misunderstanding, my misunderstanding!” Nan Huairen was embarrassed; he forced a smile while he busily apologized.
Even Li Shuangyan, standing to the side, wanted to laugh, but she couldn’t under the current circumstances; she decided to hide her amusement in her heart.
Without the giant body from earlier, the current Niu Fen, who was thin and wizened, gave Nan Huairen a warm feeling, causing him to be much more friendly.
He then asked Niu Fen: “Grandpa Niu, you are digging a hole in the Ancient Land of our Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect; what are you trying to find? Don’t tell me you want to find the treasures of our sect...”
“I am just digging casually. Also, this place has been visited by countless amounts of people. If there really was a treasure, it wouldn’t be my turn to find it.” Niu Fen angrily glared at Nan Huairen.
“If Grandpa Niu isn’t here to dig for treasures, why did you dig such a deep hole?” Nan Huairen didn’t give up and continued to question him.
Li Qiye glanced at Niu Fen and said: “He is looking for the God of Calamity.”
“God of Calamity? Who is the God of Calamity?” Nan Huairen was at a loss; he stared at Li Qiye, and then he looked at Niu Fen.
Protector Mo’s expression was shaken; he stared at Niu Fen, and he said with surprise: “He is trying to find the Heavenly Guardian of our Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect!”
Hearing these two words “Heavenly Guardian”, Nan Huairen was also surprised, exclaiming: “In the legends, it is said to be the strongest existence in our Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect! With the exception of the Patriarch, no one was able to win a match against the Heavenly Guardian!”
Niu Fen had to admit the truth: “I was simply looking; I heard your Heavenly Guardian had left much earlier. I only wanted to go through this land to see if the great elder had left some words behind; perhaps I could have stumbled upon something profound.”
Nan Huairen had heard about the Heavenly Guardian before, so he couldn’t help but murmur: “If the Heavenly Guardian was still here, then our Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect wouldn’t be like it is today.”
There were many legends about the Heavenly Guardian of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect.
Heavenly Guardians — not all sects have them. Only the extremely powerful sects or fateful sects were able to have Heavenly Guardians.
As for the origin of the Heavenly Guardian, there was essentially no limitation. It could be a Heavenly Beast, a Longevity Spirit, or maybe even other existences! Under many circumstances, the Heavenly Guardians exist alongside their sects; after the sect was destroyed, the Heavenly Guardians could leave.
The Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect once had a Heavenly Guardian; this protector was called the God of Calamity! This Heavenly Guardian was extremely strong. It was so strong that the future generations believed that even during the era of Min Ren, outside of Min Ren himself, no one could oppose this Heavenly Guardian! Later on, when the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect was able to stand strong, to a certain extent, it was due to this existence.
Regarding the origin of the protector, there were many different legends. One stated that the protector came from a Burial Ground. Another believed that the protector was born in the Ancient Earth. Some believed that it was subdued by Immortal Emperor Min Ren from an external space. [3]
The Heavenly Guardian guarded the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect era after era but one day, it suddenly left for unknown reasons. Afterward, it completely disappeared without a trace and no one had ever seen it again.
Many people assumed that it disappeared fifty thousand years ago. Even more people thought that it left much earlier; however, they could only guess since the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect simply withheld the information from others.
As for why it suddenly left after protecting the sect for so long, no one knew. Even the disciples of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect during that period was unaware! It became a mystery without an answer.
At this moment, Protector Mo asked Li Qiye: “Young Master, where are we going now? Are we returning back?”
“No, all of you will bury me underground.”
“Bury? Bury underground?” Hearing Li Qiye’s words, Nan Huairen was stupefied. After recovering, he said: “Oldest Brother, this, this is an ominous sign, ah.”
Li Qiye didn’t want to waste words. He commanded Protector Mo: “Bury me, now.”
Li Qiye chose the location and was buried at the highest peak of the Ancient Land. In addition, it was very deep underground. Niu Fen had to personally dig a hole for Li Qiye before being able to place him down.
“Is Oldest Brother okay?” Li Qiye suddenly wanted to bury himself — this greatly shocked Nan Huairen. If his Oldest Brother was not completely normal at the moment, he would have thought that Li Qiye might have become crazy.
“It is all right.” Li Shuangyan shook her head; she didn’t say anything else. Even though she didn’t know why Li Qiye wanted to bury himself, she knew that there must be reasons for his actions.
“It is only a kind of ritual.” Niu Fen carefully observed Li Qiye’s chosen location, the method of the burial, and he finally said: “This is an extremely rare ritual that can be considered a method of communication.”
Nan Huairen couldn’t hold onto his curiosity, so he asked: “Communication? With what? What kind of existence is he trying to communicate with by burying himself so deep?”
Regarding Nan Huairen’s inquisition, Niu Fen didn’t give an answer. He didn’t know what Li Qiye was trying to communicate with, but he felt that this matter was extremely important!
Li Qiye was buried underneath the earth for five days and five nights. Finally, he personally crawled up from the ground.
“We shall go back.” In the end, he only said this sentence after crawling up from the mud.
Nan Huairen’s heart was simmering with curiosity. He really wanted to ask but seeing the disappointment on Li Qiye’s face, he didn’t dare to do so. If Li Qiye didn’t want to say it, it would be of no avail no matter who asked.
Eventually, Niu Fen used his true body to carry the group of Li Qiye back. When he shifted back to his true body, his crawling speed made Nan Huairen’s jaw drop to the floor. It could be compared with lightning! He was incredibly fast, and many flying treasures wouldn’t be able to keep up with this speed.
What was more amazing was that he could crawl in complete silence or be extremely thunderous; it was completely under his control, and no matter the style he chose, the speed remained the same.
Sitting on the snail’s back, Nan Huairen was completely stunned. In fact, even his master was astonished. This was their first time riding a snail, and it was also the fastest snail.
Thinking about what Li Qiye had said, Nan Huairen curiously asked: “Grandpa Niu, what is a Heavenly Ancestral Snail?” This name, he had never heard of it before. The Heavenly Ancestral Snail was a name that was very foreign to him.
“A very rare and ancient existence that, after they became their own tribe, people in this world would rarely see.” Niu Fen didn’t get a chance to answer before Li Qiye started speaking.
Seeing Li Qiye’s mood improving, Nan Huairen became emboldened and smiled: “Oldest Brother, the Eighteen Solutions you spoke of, what is it?”
Li Qiye only glanced at him, he didn’t say anything.
“It is the True Fate Solution of our Heavenly Ancestral Calamity.” [4]
Niu Fen answered. He yearned for Li Qiye to speak of the Eighteen Solutions because it was very important to him.
Nan Huairen continued: “True Fate Solution? This is a technique? Or is it an Emperor Merit Law?”
Niu Fen quickly shook his head and said: “No, it is not a technique, and not a profound truth either. In some sense, it was the true solution to break the cursed shackles of our Heavenly Ancestral Calamity.”
“Shackles? Eighteen chains of shackles? Once freed from the eighteen shackles, what would happen?” Nan Huairen continuously asked many questions.
Niu Fen contemplated for a moment before he finally replied: “I don’t know this myself because I have never heard of another kin member being able to learn the Eighteen Solutions. I only heard of some legends that once had obtained the Eighteen Solutions; if there are Gods in the heavens, then we would be able to slay Gods!”
Hearing this, not only Nan Huairen, but Li Shuangyan was also shocked. Slaying Gods?! What kind of shocking words were these? Finally, they understood why Niu Fen was willing to be a servant.
As for Li Qiye, he simply smiled. The Eighteen Solutions was a distant memory for him. It was not a technique nor a secret method; this was why this part of his memories had not been erased!
[1] Young Noble here is gong zi – think of it as a young master/young sir but commands more respects and imply the person to have some talents/skills. In the wuxia world, anyone called gong zi, you know they will be a bad ass/handsome.
[2] A Chinese snail is Gua + Niu = Snail. Niu alone = Bull(ox). His name is Niu(Bull) + Fen(effort) but Nan Huairen thought it was Niu(Bull) Fen(Shit). Both Fen might be identical in sound.
[3] Ancient Earth and Burial Ground are some forbidden locations in this world. We might see them in the future – these are the places that the Dark Crow went to.
[4] Snail is half replaced by the word Calamity here.