Chapter 340: Paying Homage to the Mountain |
Liu Xiaolou blinked, carefully processing the news Lin Twin Fish had just dropped. After a pause, he asked, “Your sect is so determined to join the fight. What’s the reason, exactly?”
“Do you know,” she said, “why the conflict between the Jinting Sect and the Qingyu Sect started in the first place?”
He thought for a bit. “When I was staying with your sect, I once heard Abbot Wu of Baofeng Temple mention it in passing. He said it was over some kind of treasure, right?”
Lin Twin Fish nodded. “That’s right. A treasure that can open an ancient cave dwelling.”
“A key?”
“More or less.”
“So, Senior Sister Lin, you’re trying to get into this ancient cave dwelling?”
“Yes. Who wouldn’t want to?”
Liu Xiaolou really, truly did not.
Liu Xiaolou didn’t have any of that heaven-sent genius about him, and he knew it. He’d sized himself up pretty clearly long ago. Adventures like that? He couldn’t afford to play those games.
As a cultivator from Wulong Mountain, when an opportunity came along, even if there was only a thirty or forty percent chance of success, he would still dare to take a shot. But if the odds were not even ten percent, and there was a very real chance it would cost him his life, then he would much rather stay as far away as possible.
So for Lin Twin Fish and her crew, this was a golden opportunity. For Liu Xiaolou... it was two death traps: first getting thrown in as cannon fodder to charge the front lines, then diving headfirst onto the blades, into the flames, and right into the boiling oil...
He did not dare go himself, but he had no objection to Lin Twin Fish and her group going. She was exactly the kind of standout talent these chances were meant for. She came from a prestigious orthodox sect, and she was a sword cultivator to boot. For her, this kind of opportunity was the perfect trial.
What puzzled him, though, was why the hell she felt the need to drag him into it. Why insist on coming through his little back-door route instead of taking the main path?
“Senior Sister Lin, do you really have to enter the war under the name of my Sanxuan Sect? Using my sect’s name versus just grabbing any random sect to pad the numbers doesn’t seem all that different, does it? It’s not that I don’t want to help. If you really need it, I have no objections at all. I can lend you the Sect Leader Token, no problem. I’m just curious.”
Lin Twin Fish answered without the slightest hesitation. “There’s no other choice. We really do need Xiaolou’s help with this. Disputes over ancient cave dwellings only allow the participation of ancient sects. Our Southern Sea Sword Sect is certainly an ancient great sect, founded thousands, even tens of thousands of years ago... But we’re barred from going ourselves. And we couldn’t find any other ancient sect on short notice, so the only option left was to join under your Sanxuan Sect.”
Only then did Liu Xiaolou finally put the pieces together. “An ancient sect… Sect Leader Token?”
Lin Twin Fish smiled, clearly relieved. “If you know about the sect leader’s token, then it means the Su family really did tell the truth.”
“The Su family… they told you?”
“Yes. You’re not upset with them, are you?”
“Oh, no, not at all. If I can help you, Senior Sister Lin, that’s a good thing in itself. I just don’t quite understand why participation has to be limited to ancient sects. That rule feels… a bit strange.”
“Once the ancient cave dwelling opens, you need an ancient sect’s Sect Leader Token to enter. That’s all there is to it.”
Liu Xiaolou nodded as he thought it over. He asked Lin Twin Fish to wait here for a moment, then headed up to the summit himself.
He reached out and beckoned with his hand. The Sect Leader Tokens Formation Disk flew out from the crack in the stone. The moment it was in his grasp, that spiritual eye snapped shut. In seconds, the thick scent of spiritual energy hanging over the peak top vanished.
Big White and Little Black stared wide-eyed, pacing around anxiously at the summit, searching desperately, but finding nothing at all.
Even the Thunderfire Essence stored in the crevice reacted to the change, its flames sputtering and jumping a few times.
He pulled out the formation key and separated the three sect leader tokens. The tokens of the Purple Pole Sect and the Xingming Sect went back into his Qiankun Pouch, while he kept his own Sanxuan token in hand. He went back down into the courtyard and handed it to Lin Twin Fish.
“Senior Sister Lin, is this the one?”
Lin Twin Fish took it, looked it over, and nodded. “Yeah. This is it.” She quickly handed it back to Liu Xiaolou.
Liu Xiaolou turned it over and over in his hands, studying it from every angle. He still couldn’t sense anything special about it, no trace of spiritual energy or anything out of the ordinary. And yet he knew for a fact that the thing was strange. Otherwise, how could it be used to refine a formation disk, or to locate and open a spiritual eye?
Holding something like this, how were you even supposed to enter an ancient cave dwelling?
Maybe guessing what Liu Xiaolou was thinking, Lin Twin Fish said, "According to my master, anyone holding the token can enter. You'll know when the time comes."
Liu Xiaolou nodded. “So what should I do now?”
“Pay your respects at the mountain,” she said. “Go to Zhanglong Mountain.”
From the foot of Wulong Mountain, follow the Wuchao River downstream. Pass through Wuchao Town, then travel a bit more than ten li. Leave the bamboo raft and go ashore, then head northeast for about a hundred and fifty li. That will bring you to Ewe Ram Mountain, home of the Zang family, where Liu Xiaolou had once helped harvest their spiritual fields.
In fact, Ewe Ram Mountain and Zhanglong Mountain were connected. The spiritual fields at the foot of Ewe Ram Mountain were nourished by leftover streams of spiritual energy flowing down from Zhanglong Mountain. Skirt around Ewe Ram Mountain, and Zhanglong Mountain lay just ahead.
Entering through the valley and climbing four or five li up the slope, you soon reached a stone gate formed by towering pillars. On the smooth rock wall was a blade mark left who knew how long ago, slashed deep and clean. It carved out four ancient seal-script characters: Taifu Golden Summit.
A blessed land was not the same as a grotto-heaven. It was a place where spiritual springs and spiritual eyes converged, not a small world in the void.
Beyond the mountain gate rose the main peak, the Taifu Golden Summit itself. There was nothing sheer or forbidding about it. The terrain was broad and gentle. Amid the lush, thriving greenery, several grand halls with golden roofs nestle half-hidden. Even standing at the gate, you can already faintly sense the aura of spiritual energy in the air.
This was the blessed land of Zhanglong Mountain. The spiritual springs here were rich, and rumor had it there was more than one.
This wasn't Liu Xiaolou's first time here. As a kid, he'd come with his master multiple times to pay respects at the gate and petition the Zhanglong Sect, pleading for justice over the wrongs he and his master had suffered. Sometimes their appeals got a response, sometimes they were ignored completely. He knew this mountain gate like the back of his hand. Walking straight to the left side of the gate, he grabbed hold of a green bamboo stalk, pulled it back, then let go. The bamboo snapped forward.
With a soft pff, the bamboo bamboo smacked into the thick cluster of leaves ahead, making a dull, muffled sound like hitting worn-out leather. Liu Xiaolou paused for a second, then pulled the bamboo back and let it snap forward two more times.
Someone came down the winding path inside the mountain gate. “All right, all right, knock it off!” he was barking impatiently,
Liu Xiaolou pointed to where the bamboo had struck. “Steward Six, time to replace the thing?”
The sixth inner steward of the Zhanglong sect looked up, then grumbled irritably, “Way too much rain this year.” He flicked out a short sword and sliced away the bamboo leaves and branches, revealing a copper drum behind them, its surface tinged red.
Liu Xiaolou studied him closely. The move looked like a flying-sword technique, but in truth it was still just a throwing method. After all these years, the inner steward was still at the tenth layer of Qi Refinement. Whether he had reached the peak was your guess.
This time, when Liu Xiaolou snapped the bamboo forward again, it produced a clear dong as it struck the drum.
Steward Six nodded, slipped the short sword back into his sleeve, and only then turned to look Liu Xiaolou over. “So it’s Xiaolou. Been a lot of years since I last saw you. I figured you were dead. What brings you up the mountain today?”