Chapter 447: Lighting the Mountains and Rivers Map
Chen Yindu imitated the young Chen Shi so perfectly that it was uncanny, yet the words he spoke made Qing Goat, Sha Qiutong, and the others feel a chill run down their spines.
Destroy the True God.
Ruin this world.
Recreate a new era.
Any one of those sentences was terrifying.
If those words had come from someone else, at worst it would be childish boasting—strange talk without a workable method.
But the speaker was the Child Prodigy who had obtained the Innate Dao Embryo, a prodigy in everyone’s eyes; they could not dismiss him.
“He’s even more demonic than me,” Creation Little Five said.
He then thought to himself, “No wonder he’s my son.”
“Is the method Little Ten mentioned for corrupting the True God really feasible?” the Celestial Fox asked.
Chen Yindu said, “I’ve worked it out. It’s possible.”
Everyone fell silent.
“So when I revived him, I sealed his memories,” Chen Yindu’s face darkened.
Back then, when he had brought Chen Shi’s soul back, he sat by his grandson’s bed and watched Chen Shi sink into sleep. Candlelight in the room made Chen Yindu’s expression flicker; he could not make up his mind.
Chen Shi’s Dao Embryo had been taken, he had died and fallen into the underworld as a ghost, suffered tremendously, and accumulated overwhelming resentment. His demonic nature intensified.
The ghosts, monsters, gods, and demons he encountered either wanted to kill him or use him. That cruel environment forced the once-innocent Child Prodigy to rapidly metamorphose into a demon far more fearsome than Creation Little Five.
Chen Yindu could not be certain whether Chen Shi’s words were the taunts of a mischievous child or a sincere resolve.
Because if you included the eight years he had been dead, Chen Shi was already seventeen then—an adult.
When the candle burned down, Chen Yindu finally made up his mind and personally sealed Chen Shi’s memories.
He remembered that during the sealing, Chen Shi woke but did not open his eyes. Tears rolled from the corners of his eyes.
Chen Shi neither looked at him nor resisted, nor begged—he only whispered, “Grandpa, will you avenge me?”
“Yes. I will.”
Seeing his grandson’s tears fall, Chen Yindu felt a pang of remorse and his resolve wavered for a moment, but he steeled himself and sealed away Chen Shi’s seventeen years of memories.
He sat by his grandson’s bedside, face shrouded in darkness, feeling many years older.
The next morning, Chen Shi awoke from a blank dream and opened his eyes, gradually forming a clear understanding of this hazy world.
He looked at the old man by the bed and sat up.
At that moment he was neither the Demon Emperor nor the Child Prodigy—he was as pure as a blank sheet.
“Who am I? Who are you? Where is this?” His eyes were clear and a smile graced his face as he asked.
“Your name is Chen Shi, nickname Little Ten.”
“My name is Chen Yindu, your grandfather.”
“This is Huangpo Village, our home. It’s just the two of us left to rely on each other.”
“Oh right, there’s also Black Pot. Black Pot, come here. Little Ten, it was the one that pushed you and knocked you against the stones, so that’s why you don’t remember anything.”
Black Pot wagged his tail and looked at his little master with a smile, taking the first bite of Black Pot in his life.
“Black Pot, you’re responsible for this!”
“Woof!”
…
Du Yiran interrupted Chen Yindu’s reverie and asked, “Where should we head now?”
Chen Yindu looked up at the firmament and fixed his gaze on the bright moon above: “To fix the True God’s change and make the two suns reappear, we must go to Despair Slope. The True King went to Despair Slope a second time, and not long after, two suns returned to the sky. So Despair Slope can force the True God to open his eyes.”
Hearing this, everyone frowned.
Qing Goat asked, “With our strength, how can we protect ourselves inside Despair Slope?”
Chen Yindu turned and looked at Tu Ying and the other two.
Du Yiran, Sha Qiutong, and the others all stared at the three of them.
Tu Ying smiled: “Uncles, I do have some roots in Despair Slope. Anyone I can contact, I can mimic perfectly. Their cultivation techniques and divine abilities, their personalities, even their weaknesses—I know them all.”
Chen Yindu said, “You three study under Little Five, and we will disguise ourselves as people from Despair Slope, infiltrating it.”
Sha Qiutong shook her head: “We’ll disguise ourselves as them? But then won’t there be two of the same people inside Despair Slope?”
Chen Yindu shook his head: “There won’t be two. They will soon leave Despair Slope, giving us the chance to strike them.”
Du Yiran, Sha Qiutong, and the others were baffled; they didn’t understand why he was so certain.
Chen Yindu stopped and looked back down the road they had come, his gaze distant: “The Grand Sacrificial Officer will realize the truth soon and see through my lie. His heart is set on demonic techniques. If I tell him completing the demonic method is easy, that phrase will stir other thoughts. He knows it’s unlikely he can coerce me into finishing the method, but he can search for Little Ten.”
The Celestial Fox suddenly understood and laughed: “The Grand Sacrificial Officer will surely send Divine Capital experts to search for Little Ten. Once Despair Slope removes the Upper Realm, their next target will be Divine Capital. If they detect people from Divine Capital appearing, they will mobilize forces to encircle and annihilate them.”
Du Yiran nodded lightly: “That gives us the chance to eliminate Despair Slope’s top experts.”
Creation Little Five smiled: “People from Despair Slope have life lamps; when they die, their life lamps go out.”
Qing Goat said: “If we don’t kill them, let them live in another form. We’ve done that many times.”
…
The Grand Sacrificial Officer sat solemnly for a long time, then suddenly laughed: “Chen Yindu is indeed clever, he deceived me.”
He rose and smiled: “If the Divine Emperor had no world-ending intent, why would he seal his own memories? If he did have such an intent, why would he seal his own memories? Chen Yindu, you are the only one who could have sealed those memories.”
Having figured that out, he felt much more at ease.
The two children hurriedly packed. The Grand Sacrificial Officer glanced at the white crane’s corpse and the scorched zither and shook his head: “No need to tidy them up. I’m a bit hungry. Pluck the crane’s feathers, burn the zither, and cook the crane.”
The two Taoist children burned the zither and cooked the crane beneath the old tree. Before long, the smell of meat wafted out. One of the children saw there wasn’t enough kindling and felled an old pine to use as firewood.
The Grand Sacrificial Officer sat to one side holding a piece of paper, murmuring: “The Divine Emperor is so young, yet so cunning? He could have completed the demonic method before, but pretended not to understand, cultivating step by step to grow stronger. He’s very defensive, fearing I would discard him if I obtained the manual. I underestimated you.”
“I thought that if you and your son stayed in Divine Capital, you would give up entirely, but you still found ways to escape. However, completing the demonic method may not require you.”
He smiled: “Chen Yindu could also complete the demonic method. Chen Yindu is craftier. But if Chen Yindu can, then what of the other Chen Shi?”
He smiled faintly.
Before, only the Divine Emperor could possibly complete the demonic method, but now there are three possibilities.
The odds have improved.
Soon the crane meat was cooked.
The Grand Sacrificial Officer sat by the stove, took wine, first offered it to heaven, earth, and ghost gods, and then started to eat the steaming crane. He ordered: “Issue my command: use every effort to find Chen Shi!”
After a short while, demonic gods, calamities, and catastrophes within Divine Capital mobilized, leaving the city and scattering in all directions.
As Divine Capital’s forces moved, many Heaven’s Listeners also perceived the disturbance, and they twitched their ears, tracing and recording their movements.
Numerous reports were summarized and forwarded to higher-ups, then, via Zhuang Wujiu’s hand, sent to Despair Slope and delivered to the Celestial Way Walker.
The Celestial Way Walker reviewed the record, found the situation serious, and forwarded it to the Celestial Way Hall, passing it to a Celestial Way Immortal: “Divine Capital suddenly experienced large-scale activity, as if searching for something.”
Feng Ruotong opened the dossier and studied it carefully. His heart stirred as he said: “Demonic Capital was formed by remnants of Great Shang and freeholders and never amounted to much. Fourteen years ago they were suddenly united by a mysterious man claiming to be Divine Emperor. They formed an alliance called Divine Capital. These men have predatory ambitions, ready to act demonic and promote the path of demons, deserving death. The leader among the Great Shang remnants calls himself the Grand Sacrificial Officer; I once faced him.”
Another Celestial Way Immortal, Qiu Ning, asked: “What was the outcome?”
Feng Ruotong: “No decisive result.”
The assembled Celestial Way Immortals frowned.
They knew Feng Ruotong’s strength and depth of cultivation. The last time he hunted the Upper Realm, Feng Ruotong alone confronted the ancestral masters of the Thirteen Great Clans and heavenly gods, slaying those near-immortal existences. Even when others twisted into demonic forms, they were not his equal.
That the Grand Sacrificial Officer could be evenly matched with him was miraculous.
“His methods are extremely strange.”
Feng Ruotong said, “He holds the legacy of the Black Bird Celestial Court. In battle with me he became corrupted and his power surged, yet he could control the corruption and avoid total madness. It’s very odd.”
He rose: “My battle with him had no conclusion. Perhaps this time we can settle the score. Kill him, force out the mysterious Demon Emperor behind him, and if we eliminate Demonic Capital, we can sleep easy and enjoy thousands of years of peace.”
The Celestial Way Immortals nodded in agreement.
Feng Ruotong left the Celestial Way Hall and summoned Celestial Way Walkers to track the whereabouts of Divine Capital’s experts.
“Despair Slope has begun to act.”
Tu Ying’s heart stirred as he told Chen Yindu, “This time the Celestial Way Immortal Feng Ruotong has also come out.”
Chen Yindu’s face remained unchanged as he turned and walked away: “We move!”
Du Yiran, Qing Goat, and the others stretched and smiled: “Those old bastards from Despair Slope are finally in for good times!”
Beilai Province, Peng County.
Spring was coming again, firecrackers sounded to celebrate the new year.
Chen Shi stopped the wooden cart and looked up. In the distance villagers were setting off firecrackers, their crisp pops audible. Another New Year had arrived—he had been away from home for four years, and the Upper Realm had been destroyed for three.
Life for those still alive had grown harsher: food was scarce, fields failed to yield grain, and people suffered attacks from ghosts and evil spirits.
Most people, afflicted by Yin energy, were weak and sickly. Gunpowder’s nitre contains pure yang thunderfire; the explosion of firecrackers can temporarily dispel Yin and stimulate yang within the body, so the sound of firecrackers was heard everywhere.
Chen Shi sighed.
It’s hard to leave home. The more the new year approached, the more he yearned for his homeland—Huangpo Village, his grandfather, his parents.
“The Mountains and Rivers Map only has Beilai Province left unlit. Once this temple is sealed, all fifty provinces will have deities enshrined.”
Chen Shi had been traveling for four years, growing tall and broad-shouldered, his face becoming that of a gallant youth.
This year he was seventeen; his voice had deepened.
Despite the Qingchen Talisman, his clothes were ragged.
He entered a temple on the outskirts of Peng County; the sign above its gate read Stove God Temple.
In the second small temple behind him, Scholar Zhu sat cross-legged in meditation, projecting his Primordial Spirit into a thousand-zhang divine body. The sun and moon circled within the temple around him, and beneath him Yin and Yang energies formed rivers, seas, land, and mountains.
Inside the small temple was a complete world!
Scholar Zhu activated the Yuanhe Lingbao True Scripture, attempting to merge his Void Grand Domain with the temple’s internal space.
The Lingbao True Scripture is a Ghost Immortal cultivation manual. If a cultivator reaches Tribulation Crossing and dies during the tribulation, or their body is killed by others and they cannot ascend, they can choose a high-quality spiritual treasure as a body, gradually refine false into true, evolve a Void Grand Domain, and then unify with that domain to ascend.
However, the righteous Qi in the Western Ox New Continent contained corrupting energy, preventing cultivators from fully merging and ascending; those on the Ghost Immortal path suffered most. They lacked true bodies and could only become ghosts—either evolve into ghost gods or reincarnate.
Thus the Ghost Immortal cultivation path perished first and left no successors.
Jue Yangzi had kept a Ghost Immortal manual out of fear he might fail his tribulation; he traded rare materials to obtain this Yuanhe Lingbao True Scripture.
He passed his tribulation successfully and didn’t use the manual, but it ended up benefiting Scholar Zhu.
When the temple’s heavens and earth stabilized, Scholar Zhu slowly withdrew his cultivation. By unifying with the temple’s world, he took a hundred-foot step forward and now matched Little Duan Immortal and Jue Yangzi at the Immortal realm.
Though he lacked a true physical body, he used the Yin-Yang Sun-Moon Rings as his true body and was hardly inferior to them.
“So this is the realm of unification,” Scholar Zhu marveled.
By this time Chen Shi had completed his deification.
He lifted the Western King’s Jade Seal, and one by one the Mountains and Rivers Maps floated up into the sky; the final map lit up.
Across the Western Ox New Continent’s fifty provinces, spots of light came alive.
Chen Shi spread his fingers and stretched his arms, sending the maps outward. The maps enlarged and the geography sharpened.
Between mountains and rivers, inside the regions, one by one Huaxia deities shone brilliantly, guarding the land, protecting fields and people—from tiny villages to provincial cities, gods watched over all.
Four years.
His spirit surged.
After four years of traveling, he had finally walked every river and mountain on the map and lit up the dark topography!
“It’s time to go home.”
Chen Shi felt his heart burning. He retracted his hand and the Mountains and Rivers Maps vanished back into the Jade Seal.
He tossed the seal back into the cart and took two steps before stopping and looking down. A few toes peeked out from the front of his shoes.
His shoes were worn through again.
Chen Shi took them off and went barefoot toward Beilai City. “First buy a new pair of shoes, then go home!”
The soles of his feet were coarse and callused; even stepping on sharp stones brought no pain.
Black Pot ran ahead of the cart, then suddenly stopped and turned back alertly. After the cart moved on, he caught up.
“Found the Divine Emperor!”
In the distance, a voice rang with excitement. “Quick! Tell the Grand Sacrificial Officer!”
Several figures stood like statues; one dispersed into a cloud of demonic qi, while two others trailed the cart from afar toward Beilai City.
At the same time, farther away, a pair of eyes watched them from a distance before consciousness spread and notified the nearest Heaven’s Listener.
“Demonic clan movement detected! Notify Immortal Feng!”
Almost simultaneously, the Grand Sacrificial Officer of Divine Capital and Celestial Way Immortal Feng Ruotong received the message and hurried toward Beilai City.