Chapter 105: When I Wake Up |
The deity who stepped down from the miniature shrine had streams of incense-energy trailing behind him, pale cyan in color, flowing around him without stop. Chen Shi watched closely, and within the energy he saw strange, mysterious talismanic seal patterns, patterns that even Grandpa had never taught him!
“Are there talisman seals in this world that even my grandpa doesn’t know?”
He was greatly astonished.
In his mind, Grandpa was the most learned person, proficient in all talismans, charms, and seals. He could draw the images of all kinds of ghosts and gods, even immortals and demons, with a single stroke.
Even the taboo words of ghosts and gods, Grandpa plucked from memory as easily as picking fruit.
But the various talismanic seal patterns of the Medicine King God had never been taught by Grandpa; they should be an entirely new type of talismanic seal!
Grandpa had taught him many Medicine King talismans for curing illnesses, health-preserving talismans, and healing charms, including the Medicine King God’s likeness and some seals, but those differed greatly from the Medicine King God’s visage and talismanic seals before him now.
“Maybe it isn’t that Grandpa didn’t understand them, but that he never taught them to me.”
Chen Shi continued to scrutinize. Behind this divine figure’s trailing ribbons, whole apricot groves spread out, grasses of medicinal value covered the ground, and suspended in the air floated medicinal furnaces, a bamboo staff, and gourds.
Beyond that, there was the terrifying Nine Yang Thunder Fire, rolling and exploding within the strange ring-shaped world formed by those ribbons!
That power was monstrously fearful, a force that mortals might one day control yet was feared even by immortals and gods!
Mercy and destruction formed two opposing but unified faces within him.
This Medicine King God stood about sixteen feet tall. Sitting inside the shrine you could not see his true height, but once he stepped down his oppressive presence was overwhelming. Chen Shi had to tilt his head back to make out the deity’s features.
He exuded an intense desire to fight. Wherever his footfall landed the ground flashed with thunder and fire; within a few yards it seemed to contain bound rage, as if the terrifying Nine Yang Thunder Fire might unleash at any moment!
Chen Shi met the Medicine King God’s gaze, his heart pounding!
It was a warlike intent so strong it unsettled him, radiating from the god’s eyes.
This figure differed greatly from the Medicine King visages Chen Shi had seen from Grandpa. That Medicine King had the appearance of an old man, leaning on a bamboo staff, a gourd hung at the staff’s end used to dispense curative elixirs. The Yellow Tiger lay by his feet, docile as a cat.
But the Medicine King who had stepped down from his little temple’s shrine was not an old man; he was a middle-aged figure with bovine horns sprouting from his head, and his urge to fight could not be contained!
Among all people, ghosts, evil spirits, and entities Chen Shi had ever encountered, this one possessed the strongest battle lust!
“If I were to invoke the Mountain Lord, use the Mountain Lord as a divine embryo, wouldn’t my cultivation speed up?” Chen Shi’s heart thumped wildly.
The Yellow Tiger rose, came to the Medicine King God’s feet, very obedient, but it let out a roar at Chen Shi as if to say this is my true master.
You are not the master.
You’re merely a stand-in for the days the master is absent, something I bother with when bored.
“Thank you, young friend, for your protection these days.”
The Medicine King God spoke. His voice rumbled and shook, like thunder rolling in the brain, making Chen Shi see stars.
“You, young friend, called me at your lady’s request. Could it be that it is time you need me again?”
The Medicine King God’s fighting spirit surged. He drew forth a pale green bamboo staff from behind his back; sinews and bones bulged across his body, knots of muscle pushing up one after another!
His bamboo staff thickened and lengthened; the staff’s surface was covered in seals and talismanic scripts of destruction and combat. At the same time the treasure gourd on his back opened, emitting an unbearably fearsome aura.
It was the dense scent of Nine Yang Thunder Fire!
The fire within the gourd was so intense that Chen Shi felt as if, should it be unleashed, the thunderfire from that gourd could level the entire Xinxiang County!
“I smell the breath of evil spirits!”
The Medicine King God bristled with killing intent, staff in hand, about to charge out of the little temple.
Even Yellow Tiger showed a flicker of fear at his transformation, but then it swept that timidity away, roared, and prepared to follow him into battle.
“Wait!”
Chen Shi shouted hastily, “Wait! You cannot go out. If you go out, the Celestial True God will discover you, and destruction will follow one after another!”
The Medicine King God continued to surge forward. Chen Shi urgently moved his mind to return to his body, but just as his thought moved and his form flew outward, an invisible force flung him back; his figure remained inside the small temple.
“Huh?”
Chen Shi froze. He tried again, but the space around the little temple shook violently; he shot out of the temple, but was bounced back once more.
Time and again the same happened, and Chen Shi realized he was still trapped inside the little temple.
“Wait, I’m in the temple. Then where are the Medicine King God and Tiger?”
He blinked, walked to the temple doorway, and saw the sandy, mistlike space in front of the small shrine gradually parting.
Chen Shi saw his own topknot, the red ribbon fluttering before the shrine at intervals.
He saw the ancient tree of Huangpo Village; the tree spirit was a young maiden of about eighteen. Now she held an incense stick aloft and bowed toward “him,” saluting him with great reverence.
This young girl, aside from crawling into his bed once and being inexplicably saved by him, had never shown him such respect.
Chen Shi watched his perspective rotate; his gaze fell on Black Pot. Black Pot’s walk was no longer canine at all, but like that of a ferocious tiger.
Majestic, the dog’s body moved with the stride of a fierce tiger, abandoning all canine familiarity!
“Black Pot’s body is being occupied by Yellow Tiger!”
Chen Shi suddenly realized. If Yellow Tiger had taken Black Pot’s body, then who was occupying his own body?
“He’s inverted the Heavenly Trigram!”
It dawned on him. Whoever used his body now must be that muscle-bound, battle-crazed Medicine King God!
“I originally planned to invoke the Medicine King so he could help my cultivation. Now look, he’s taken my body!”
Chen Shi panicked. He tried again and again to force his way out of the little temple, but in vain.
He attempted dozens of times; each time he flew outside the temple an unseen force barrier bounced him back. He could not return to his flesh at all.
“This is bad…”
He sat before the little shrine, propping his cheeks with his hands, watching the ground ahead of him retreat toward his back.
The figure he watched walked out of the village in imposing fashion and climbed to the Yellow Earth Mound outside the village.
Chen Shi saw “him” scrutinizing Scholar Zhu hanging from the old tree, his heart pounding; he feared “he” might mistake Scholar Zhu for an evil spirit and do away with him!
At that moment Chen Shi noticed Scholar Zhu was also studying him.
Suddenly Scholar Zhu gripped the crooked-neck tree, pulled his head free from the noose, floated down lightly to the ground, and saluted “him.”
Chen Shi was surprised to find that “he” returned the salute, even offering an incense stick to Scholar Zhu.
Scholar Zhu actually received an incense offering!
“A god offers incense to a ghost, and the ghost returns incense to the god… this is utterly topsy-turvy!”
As he thought this, he saw “him” approach the stone tablet of the Godmother and, with three incense sticks in hand, kneel and kowtow.
Chen Shi was even more stunned—this Medicine King God not only offered incense to his Godmother, he kowtowed to her!
To ordinary people the Medicine King God was the Mountain Lord who guarded Qianyang Mountain, a deity. But to the Medicine King God himself, the Godmother was a true deity!
He was bewildered, asking inwardly, “Exactly what is my Godmother’s background?”
“My lady used his hand to wake me, did she not expect me to fight? Why is my lady still asleep?”
Chen Shi heard “him” muttering to himself.
“Why are all the gods asleep? Why am I the only one awake?”
“Why can I not sense their breath?”
“Why has this world become like this?”
“Where are the deities of China?”
“Why has the realm turned so steeped in demonic qi?”
Chen Shi watched “him” lift from the ground and startled—“I’m flying! I can fly!”
He then saw the dog Black Pot actually walking on auspicious clouds, stepping through the sky, mountains lush below, long rivers like ribbons, clouds like cotton.
Before long Chen Shi saw a black sea.
Not far outside Qianyang Mountain lay the coast.
Darkness.
Boundless darkness shrouded the ocean.
On land, however, it was full daylight and blazing sun!
Waves surged up and receded rhythmically, and darkness and daylight advanced and retreated together.
The sight was peculiar.
“The Sea of Darkness is really the Sea of Darkness!”
Chen Shi was inexplicably amazed.
He had thought the Sea of Darkness was only a metaphor for the ocean’s endlessness; he did not expect the phrase to be literal.
There was not a single glimmer of light, hence the name: Sea of Darkness!
The Ming fleets led by the Three Treasures Eunuch had crossed such utterly dark waters. They navigated the Sea of Darkness for seventeen years before they found this new continent!
What raging storms did they endure in those dark waters? What hardships and dangers?
Chen Shi could not imagine.
From his high vantage he looked down at the sea, then spotted a thriving city near the shore. Enormous, weighty city walls rose like a mountain range against the sea, as if to defend against dreadful sea creatures.
“Is this the capital of Xinxiang Province?” Chen Shi gasped; he had never been to Xinxiang Province. He never expected his first sight of the provincial capital would be from the sky.
He watched “his” cloud-feet churn beneath him as he descended into the provincial city, walking through the streets as if inspecting land he had battled over and the people he fought for.
He paused before various relics and stood still.
“Governor! Governor!”
In Xinxiang’s capital, in the Li residence compound, officials from the Bureau of Celestial Affairs rushed into Li Xiaozheng’s study, bowing and speaking urgently, “Governor, we received word that the man named Chen Shi, accompanied by a black dog, is flying in the sky and has already arrived at the provincial city!”
Li Xiaozheng’s heart jolted. He was about to reply when another Bureau of Celestial Affairs officer burst in to report, “Governor, Chen Shi and the dog have already descended into the city!”
“Does he come to seek me out if I do not pursue him? Flying in the sky? What level of cultivation has he reached?”
Li Xiaozheng composed himself. In recent days he had already ordered men to investigate and search for Chen Yindu’s whereabouts. If Chen Yindu were only feigning death, once he became active he would leave traces. No scouts had reported back yet, and now Chen Shi was flying. Li Xiaozheng could not ascertain Chen Shi’s exact cultivation level.
“Do not bother with him!”
Li Xiaozheng waved a hand. “Meet force with force, hide water with earth. Deploy men to watch from a distance. If he causes trouble, we will handle it impartially. If he doesn’t cause trouble, let him be.”
The two Bureau officers exchanged glances and left with the order.
Chen Shi found “himself” linger long before the ancient relics in the city, then made his way to the high city wall. Soldiers stood guard. Every few dozen yards there was a gigantic bronze mirror mounted in an unshakable stone frame.
Beneath the stone frame was a huge millstone, roughly six feet in diameter, about the size of the bronze mirror. The millstone could turn, and on the mirror’s back were reliefs of the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise.
Two burly soldiers were activating Yellow Turban Warrior talismans to empower themselves, pushing the millstone. As the millstone turned, the bright mirror rotated, casting sunlight down onto the waters of the dark sea.
Great shapes churned within the waves, enormous bodies with scales like countless eyes.
They would surge toward the shore but shrink back when hit by the light.
“Chen Shi” stood before a bright mirror. The soldiers were surprised but had orders from above and did not drive him away, allowing him to stand there.
Chen Shi sat before his little shrine, staring at the dark sea ahead.
The sea struck the shore, the sound of waves rolling on as in old days.
Suddenly Chen Shi dropped his chin from his hands, widened his eyes, and stared incredulously at the dark sea. He rose instinctively.
Firelight appeared on the sea, and then huge treasure ships burst forth from the darkness, emerging from the Sea of Darkness and sailing toward the continent!
Towering primordial spirits rose above those treasure ships, guarding them, fighting the gargantuan creatures leaping from the sea. They hacked and killed monstrous beings, decapitating them; blood stained the ocean red.
Boom!
The first treasure ship crashed onto the shoreline. Ming soldiers clad in iron scale armor surged ashore, wearing helmets adorned with red tassels. Every iron scale bore a painting of the Six Ding and Six Jia deities; their helmets had the Six Ding and Six Jia above, an Eight Trigrams Protection Talisman below, and a golden-protection talisman at the back.
They pushed forward with a spiritual guardian, storming the shore and finding the new continent bereft of people, only vile spirits spreading death and pestilence.
They engaged the spirits in bloody conflict, suffering heavy casualties and many wounded.
“We need a Medicine King God!”
One soldier shouted, “Bring out the Medicine King God from the ship!”
The soldiers hoisted a massive shrine from the vessel. Inside it stood a wooden carving, darkened and nourished by incense, sculpted in the likeness of the famous Tang dynasty physician Sun Simiao, later revered as the Medicine King, the Celestial Physician and Great Saint. A Yellow Tiger crouched by his feet.
The soldier held incense and knelt before the shrine, his voice like thunder, reverberating between darkness and light.
“O Medicine King on high, for seventeen years we have relied on your protection to preserve body and spirit. Now the situation is dire. What we need is no longer merely a healing physician who dispenses the gourd to save lives. We need a god who commands the Nine Yang Thunder Fire, who can both heal and unleash slaughter—the god of gunpowder and thunder!”
“Zheng Sanbao, are you certain you wish this?” the deity asked. The old voice echoed over the sounds of battle.
“Certain!”
“As you wish!”
The wooden carving thundered to life, divine power transforming his form. Horns sprouted. His body shifted from aged to youthful and robust. His relics transformed as well. The once-docile Yellow Tiger became fearsome and savage.
From that day on, this Medicine King God protected the Ming soldiers, fighting beside them as they battled on the new continent, helping the Ming establish Xinxiang.
Healing remained his duty, but slaying demons, refining malevolent spirits, and exterminating monsters became his greatest strengths!
The Medicine King God opened his medicinal gourd and the Nine Yang Thunder Fire burst forth!
He led the soldiers into battle, blazing and thundering, earth-shattering. Ghosts and gods were beheaded, evil spirits punished!
When the Ming soldiers established a foothold in Xinxiang and expelled nearby evil spirits, ever more Ming citizens crossed the Sea of Darkness to the new continent.
He defended the coast against demonic invasion, taught the Ming people gunpowder-making, and instructed them in producing firearms so mortals could also stand against the spirits.
At last, things settled.
Ming soldiers escorted this Medicine King God into Qianyang Mountain, built him a temple, planted a yellow apricot sapling, and years later, by imperial edict, the Ming emperor conferred upon him the title Mountain Lord of Qianyang Mountain.
The grand vision before Chen Shi’s eyes slowly blurred and faded, leaving only the dark sea.
He had just entered the Mountain Lord’s memories.
The scene left him unable to quiet his thoughts for a long time.
Now Chen Shi watched the view change before him.
“He” rose again, departing Xinxiang’s provincial city.
“He” returned to Qianyang Mountain.
Soon “he” arrived before a newly built temple in the mountains.
Chen Shi started. This temple must have been freshly constructed; the white plaster on the walls still damp. Inside he could see a newly carved stone deity—bull-horned, human-bodied, with a fierce tiger beneath. Nearby lay discarded stone fragments not yet cleared away.
In the courtyard of this new temple stood an apricot tree, and beyond lay an apricot grove.
“Is this…the new Mountain Lord temple that Granny Sha and the others prepared?” Chen Shi realized, then another question rose in him: “Why did the Mountain Lord come here?”
Before he could think further, his vision flickered, and he returned to his own body. He felt countless incense-energies flowing from his brow toward the new stone deity inside the shrine!
After a moment, the Medicine King God, the Mountain Lord of Qianyang Mountain, entered into this new stone statue.
His Yellow Tiger mount left Black Pot’s body and entered the stone tiger.
The statue settled slowly and fell into slumber.
“Children of China, when you need me again, wake me.”
A grand voice seemed to whisper in Chen Shi’s ear.
“When I awaken I will sprout twin horns, command thunderfire, unleash the boundless might of gunpowder, become Nine Yang Heavenly Thunder, shattering all evil spirits and demons, defending this land, protecting the bloodline of Yan and Huang!”
“Remember to wake me!”
——Five-thousand-word big chapter!! It’s the end of the month, brothers, cast your monthly votes for The Path Above! Begging for monthly votes, please more monthly votes!
