Chapter 458: Foot Washing
Little Duan Immortal was both embarrassed and annoyed. She wanted to pull her foot back, but met Chen Shi’s provocative gaze. Her pride flared; she snorted and slipped her foot into his arms, toes straightened.
Chen Shi examined it and saw that the foot truly was as fair as mutton-fat jade, yet within that whiteness lay a faint fleshy pink. In the sunlight it almost looked translucent.
He pinched it, feeling how soft and boneless it was.
Looking upward, the ankle did not protrude; it had a slight fleshiness, the pink hue stronger than on the sole, but still very white.
Chen Shi looked further up and complimented, “Your leg is so straight, like bamboo.”
“Aren’t you going to wash it?” Little Duan Immortal scolded, propping herself up with both hands as she splashed water at him with the other foot.
Chen Shi blocked the splash, put her foot into the stream while placing his own legs into the water.
The creek was clear; algae clung to the stones on the bottom, green and swaying with the current.
Even with her foot in the water, Chen Shi could see everything clearly. Sunlight poured down and danced on her foot, colorful ripples inviting a school of small fish. A few darted over to peck at her foot and then slipped into a crevice.
Actually Little Duan Immortal had already washed thoroughly before Chen Shi arrived. When he stirred the creek he did not wash away any dirt. He was content simply to pinch her foot and hold her sole in his hand.
“There’s still the other one.” Little Duan Immortal put her other foot into the water.
Chen Shi set one down, picked up the other, and gently splashed the creek water, letting it drench her smooth instep and toes.
“Your foot has little hairs,” Little Duan Immortal laughed.
Chen Shi’s heart stirred. He pulled her foot out of the creek and laid it on his leg. “You’ve worked all day. I’ll give you a little massage.”
Little Duan Immortal nodded lightly.
Chen Shi pinched her foot, slowly moving up to the ankle, then to the calf.
Just as he prepared to press higher, Little Duan Immortal withdrew that leg and switched to the other one.
“There’s this one too,” she said with a smile.
Chen Shi could only start again from the sole. By the time he finished the calf and went upward once more, Little Duan Immortal pulled her leg back, rose, and laughed, “Clean and relaxed, time to go back.”
Chen Shi laughed and walked beside her. “Why haven’t you cultivated the Small Heavenly Cycle Dharma Realm?”
“Who said I haven’t cultivated it?”
Little Duan Immortal shook her head. “I’ve already comprehended it long ago. Walking, tending fields, picking vegetables, cooking—these can all be cultivation. The Small Heavenly Cycle Dharma Realm is merely a method to regulate one’s Dao unification; achieving it isn’t difficult.”
Chen Shi hesitated, then said, “Then you won’t need to live in my little temple anymore.”
Little Duan Immortal stopped and looked at him in puzzlement. “Why wouldn’t you let me stay? I’ve unified my Dao within the temple’s space. If you don’t let me stay, are you planning to seize my cultivation?”
Chen Shi looked at her and tested, “Are you Little Duan, or are you an Immortal?”
Little Duan Immortal ignored that remark. Speaking as if to him and as if to herself, she said, “Until the world’s evil transformation is resolved, I can’t leave you. If you die, I die. Besides, you’re very important. Your Dao Field determines whether my people can change from the ghost clan back to humans. So I cannot leave.”
A heavy stone dropped from Chen Shi’s chest. He smiled, “You mentioned the Great Shang people; that reminded me of something. Come with me.”
He took Little Duan Immortal’s hand and ran toward home. From a distance he saw Chen Tang and shouted loudly, “Chen Tang, tell my mother I and Little Duan are going on a journey. We’ll be back in a few days!”
Chen Tang said, “My rebellious son just returned, why leave again so soon?”
“I’m just notifying you, not asking for your permission!”
Chen Tang grabbed a chest and was about to prepare the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Demon-Binding Formation when Chen Shi had already pulled Little Duan Immortal and sliced through the void. His voice carried from afar, “Black Pot, lend me your Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle for a bit!”
“Woof!”
Black Pot barked and ran over, only to see the Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle shoot out of the wooden cart, transform into ninety-nine flying swords, and with a swish envelop Chen Shi and Little Duan Immortal. They dashed through the void and quickly vanished from sight.
“Woof?” Black Pot looked bewildered.
The wooden cart rolled after them and sprinted crazily in the direction Chen Shi had gone, but could not catch up and sulked back.
Scholar Zhu and Jue Yangzi were cultivating the Small Heavenly Cycle Dharma Realm. Hearing Chen Shi’s voice, they ran out to look, but Chen Shi and Little Duan Immortal were already gone. Fortunately, their own Small Heavenly Cycle Dharma Realm had achieved some success and did not immediately mutate.
They could only return. Scholar Zhu proposed, “Since Little Ten left and we did not mutate, it shows our Small Heavenly Cycle Dharma Realm is usable. We should go to the Empress Temple and help Daoist Willow guard the temple, to guard against Despair Slope’s incursion.”
“Good!” Jue Yangzi said.
They climbed the high mound and met Daoist Willow. Though powerful, he also worried about an attack from Despair Slope, so seeing them he was overjoyed.
Scholar Zhu wanted to hang himself on the tree again, but hesitated and restrained himself.
“The Empress’s resurgence draws near. Why did Little Ten and his wife run off so quickly?” he wondered.
The Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle flew with extreme speed, a blur of silver light, passing between towering, strange underworld mountains and rivers like a streak in the sky.
Inside the shuttle everything outside was vividly visible; from the outside one could see nothing, yet from the inside everything was crystal clear.
It felt as if they were standing on a piece of rapidly moving void.
The shuttle soon reached the Yin Spring Sea and skimmed over its surface. Little Duan Immortal looked up and saw the giant tree hanging upside down in the sky and the suspended coffins beneath it. Before she could see clearly, one spectacular mountain after another rushed toward them.
They entered the Ten-Thousand Mountains, flashing past various strange ghost-clan settlements and gradually delving deeper.
When the shuttle grazed Boundless Cliff and soared over it, the capital of Heavenly Pool Kingdom spread before their eyes.
The shuttle flew over one Heavenly Pool after another. On many of the pools, ghost-clan members stood at the bows of boats, looking on curiously at the unknown object.
The shuttle’s arrival stirred powerful ghost gods throughout the capital, who came to see.
The shuttle rang and scattered dozens of flying swords, revealing Chen Shi and Little Duan Immortal.
Those ghost gods were clan heads of various peoples. Seeing the two of them, they all bowed their heads.
Chen Shi slowed, approached the royal palace, and descended.
The shuttle dispersed, transforming into willow-leaf shaped flying swords. The swords then folded and stacked together, each less than a foot long and only three inches wide, both ends pointed.
Chen Shi reclaimed the Taiyi Demon-Repelling Shuttle and praised, “This treasure is remarkable. If it could fly beyond Heaven, perhaps we could go see the True God’s true face.”
A thought stirred in him. He might gather the Master Craftsmen of the Lu Ban Sect to modify this immortal artifact, install a powerful sword furnace, and its flight speed would surely increase—going beyond Heaven to meet the True God would cease to be a difficult matter.
“You could also build several large ships, equip them with sword furnaces and internal mechanisms, place a refining furnace inside to burn coal, artificially produce Nascent Souls to continuously supply spiritual energy to run the sword furnace, and the ships could fly in the sky.”
He blinked; perhaps copying the shuttle’s talismans and Dao formulas could also let great ships fly.
Red Mountain Hall had plenty of talent and could certainly produce them!
Besides sword furnaces, they could make fire furnaces to smelt iron, copper, and tin; open academies to cultivate talisman masters; and use metals to forge all kinds of talisman objects and magic treasures.
Before, he hadn’t had time to think as the sun had gone out and the catastrophe had erupted. But now that matters had settled, his mind brimmed with wild ideas.
“What did you bring me here for?” Little Duan Immortal interrupted his reverie.
Chen Shi pulled his scattered thoughts back and smiled, “Look.”
With a thought, his Dao Field radiated outward. The covered area widened and gradually encompassed the entire Heavenly Pool capital, continuing to extend further.
On the streets and among the tribes—Fu Birds, yakshas, Ox-Head, Horse-Face, Fire Qiao, Water Qiao, asuras, Celestial Dragons, Herding Ghosts, Dao-Lao, and other ghost clans—bodies and faces began to change.
Even those towering ghost gods, hundreds or thousands of zhang tall, had their physical bodies and primordial spirits shifting.
People stared at their palms in astonishment as their hands changed from ghostly hands into human hands. They watched their own and each other’s faces change from ghost visages into human faces.
Their body shapes remained as before, but their species were transforming.
Strange ritual markings surfaced on their skin—these were their shamanic ritual markings, different marks for different professions, passed down through bloodlines.
The surface markings on the skin were the distinctive style of the Great Shang people.
Little Duan Immortal stared blankly at the scene, her expression a little dazed. For a moment she seemed to return to the years before she sealed herself away, to that gilded era.
Countless black streams of light poured from her body—her shamanic ritual markings.
Those markings formed a black mysterious bird behind her, trailing long tail wings like a sable phoenix.
The Destiny Mysterious Bird descends and the Shang are born anew.
The ancient emperor commanded Wu Tang to secure the four directions!
Everyone’s gazes fell on her. Time and space blurred in that instant, and the Great Shang seemed truly to return to the world.
Little Duan Immortal could not stop the tears. Years of cultivation, severing the Three Corpses, hardening the Dao Heart, and abandoning the six desires—all of it seemed swept away by a flood of emotion.
She cried like a lost yet joyful little girl, tears pouring down.
Chen Shi came to her side and quietly waited for her to compose herself.
After a long while, Little Duan Immortal’s eyes were still rimmed red.
“Chen Shi, you’re a bad person!” she said with reddened eyes.
Chen Shi smiled, “Do you like it?”
Little Duan Immortal hesitated, “I do.”
Chen Shi beamed, “I was talking about myself.”
Little Duan Immortal glanced at him and tried hard to recover her former pure, chaste demeanor, struggling, “I am of the Great Shang royal family…”
Chen Shi smiled, “I am the king of these Great Shang people.”
Little Duan Immortal’s Dao Heart again threatened to collapse under the tide of feeling, but she steadied her mind.
They looked into the distance. A Heavenly Cascade fell through a crack in the sky, scattering jade-like spray and plunging into the underworld.
“Where the Heavenly Cascade comes from, no one has ever known,” Chen Shi said with a smile. “Do you want to go see?”
Little Duan Immortal hesitated for a moment, then, as if compelled by some force, nodded.