"Spiritual pills and wonder herbs? A poverty-stricken disciple like me is already happy if he can eat until he’s full, how can I afford to eat spiritual pills and wonder herbs?"
Zhong Yue shook his head, he lifted this bronze lamp and was ready to go back to the Sword Sect, but he suddenly stopped his steps and turned back once again. The little Xin Huo kid watched him curiously and saw Zhong Yue take a medicine hoe from his basket then spend over an hour as he dug a pit, paid his homages to the skeleton and put it inside the it, filled the pit back, again paying his respects. Only then did he stand and leave carrying the lamp.
The little child inside the lamp revealed an expression of praise in his gaze and quietly waited for him to finish. As he saw Zhong Yue hang the lamp in front of his chest and climb up along the rocky cliff, he couldn’t resist saying: "A dignified G.o.d race, you don’t even know how to fly and still need to walk on your feet, you’re really tossing the G.o.d race’s face aside! Pure-blooded G.o.d race are born absolute, with a wag of their tail they can master the air and fly."
Zhong Yue said as he climbed the cliff "I have no tail and I’m no G.o.d race either, of course I can’t fly."
The little Xin Huo kid jumped out of the lamp and walked on his clothes. He touched Zhong Yue’s tailbone and shook his head: "You have a tail, it just hasn’t grown out. The f.u.xi G.o.d race I met before all had a snake tail, why hasn’t your tail grown out? You don’t believe me? Touch your own a.s.s then, see if three’s not a trace of tailbone."
Zhong Yue turned around and indeed felt his own tailbone. His heart faintly shook.
"Could it be that my human race is really a descendant of the f.u.xi G.o.d race? Impossible, my human race is weak, it could be said that we’re the weakest among the ten thousand races, how could we be the descendants of the sovereign race, the most honorable among the G.o.d races?"
He composed himself and climbed toward the top of the cliff with all his strength. With Xin Huo and this bronze lamp the black haze had no way to come inside. Very quickly Zhong Yue had climbed to the clifftop, and when he looked around he saw that the black haze shrouded all of heaven and earth.
"Xin Huo, can you see what’s inside this black haze?"
"A dignified G.o.d race can’t even use his own eyes to see…Right, your eyes have also degraded. Touch between your eyebrows, is there a slight depression there? The f.u.xi G.o.d race have their third eye there, it’s the location of the divine eye!"
Zhong Yue touched the spot between his eyebrows and indeed felt a depression. The suspicion in his heart grew heavier and he thought silently: "The Sovereign Sui inside the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Picture also had a third eye, could it really be that my human race also has a third eye?"
The light from the worn-out bronze lamp gradually brightened, shining farther and farther away. The black haze was incomparably thick but those rays of light seemed to be able to wear down all of the haze.
Zhong Yue’s gaze followed the lamp light all around and his heart filled with horror.
He say a gigantic foot stamp out from the sky, stepping inside the ravine. This foot had no blood nor flesh; it only had bone left, white and ghastly. It was half an acre big!
He lifted his head and saw a gigantic skeleton man stand within the black haze, his body covered in ragged armor. The armor was covered in messy mixture of bronze rust and iron rust, seeming to have been eroded by millions of years.
The white bone giant’s skeleton was filled with magnificent drawings, with totem-like patterns covering each bone. He strode forward on his two bone feet, dragging a white bone tail behind him, shaking it back and forth. Zhong Yue had no idea which race that was.
Suddenly, a tattered banner quietly appeared in front of Zhong Yue, fluttering in mid air along the wind, and gigantic white bone feet landed one after the other, walking with no sound and no breath inside the black haze. Those white black feet, just the surface of their sole was much bigger than Zhong Yue!
There were also quite a few white bone giants floating up from the ground and joining this great white bone army, while the ground didn’t show a single trace of damage.
Those white bone giants had bones entirely covered in totem marks that hadn’t be erased despite the erosion of endless years. It seemed like they didn’t possess a true body; they pa.s.sed through the mountains when they met mountains, stamped over the water when the met water, following behind the great banner. Only when they met living creatures would they suck away all the blood and meat on their body!
Then many giant beast appeared, rotten meat hanging from their body, ghastly light glowing inside their skull. The white bone giants straddled the huge beasts and rode them. On some giant’s body, there was even meat from birds and beasts hanging on and squirming, presenting a strange picture.
Even farther away there was a ragged banner dancing in mid air and even more giants and giant beasts appeared. Only Zhong Yue’s eyesight couldn’t pierce so far and he couldn’t see clearly. He could only discern ghostly lights moving, those were the eyes of the white bone giants and white bone giant beasts!
Originally the area around the Sword Sect mountain was lush and dense with vegetation, the unbroken mountain ranges covered in fresh green, and now it looked like a demon territory where devils and monsters rampaged!
"Those are demon souls. When demon G.o.ds die with great grievance their resentment coagulates and shapes itself into a demon soul!
The little Xin Huo kid said quietly inside the lamp: "Such strong resentment, something earthshaking must certainly have happened here that won’t let the grievance dissipate from those guys. Moreover, what are those demon souls looking for? Those guys still have to search for it even after their death, it must be some amazing treasure!"
Zhong Yue said in surprise: "Are they from a G.o.d race?"
"There’s some from G.o.d races and there’s some from demon races, but most of them are low-tier G.o.d races. Only f.u.xi, Nuwa, Huaxu, Yanci etc those nine great races can be called genuine G.o.d sovereign races, their blood lineage most respectable. You have f.u.xi G.o.d race lineage inside your body, but unfortunately it’s too thin, even far worse than those dead G.o.d demons. You’re unsuitable to pa.s.s the Soul Fire to, or else you could be this generation’s Soul Fire inheritor."
Determining the direction Zhong Yue walked toward the Sword Sect Mountain.
When he came out of the Cloud Gathering mountain, the demon souls inside the haze had already scattered, then half a day later the haze disappeared as well.
After the Demon Souls Haze scattered, the little Xin Huo kid also became quiet inside the lamp. Those days Zhong Yue hadn’t felt lonely with the company of this strange and curious small creature, but now that little Xin Huo was suddenly not talking anymore, he found he had some trouble adapting.
He lifted the lamp cover and looked inside, and saw that little Xin Huo couldn’t be seen on the wick, leaving only a small flame in his place.
"Xin Huo, are you still there?" Zhong Yue asked as he shook this weird lamp.
"Don’t bother me."
The fire lightly shook and the little Xin Huo kid’s finger-big head faintly appeared. He said with a yawn: "I’ve beeb lighting the lamp and resisting the black haze those past few days, I’ve spent too much consciousness and need to rest. I need to quickly find the Soul Fire inheritor and live in his soul, or else I’ll only be able to persist for a few years before going out. I slept for too long, I’m much weaker than I used to be…"
He drowsily went back to sleep. Zhong Yue thought a bit and put the lamp in his basket, then covered it with herbs, before he traveled back to the Sword Sect mountain.
"Among outer sect disciples, the treatment of those who can take their soul out of the body and those who can’t is greatly different. If you have achieved the out of body state you can live in the upper yard, receive ten Feather Spiritual Dan every month, and the methods taught will also be better! I need to go to the outer sect’s Blue Sky Hall and pa.s.s the a.s.sessment so I can upgrade my treatment!"
Zhong Yue went straight to the Blue Sky Hall. The out of body a.s.sessment was only held once a month and today was precisely the day of the a.s.sessment, if he missed it he would have to wait for a month.
Outer sect disciples were many, over 50 thousand of them, and Zhong Yue’s disappearance for 3 days didn’t attract the Sword Sect’s attention either. Even if he died outside no one would care about such an insignificant person like him born from a small tribe like the Zhong Mountain tribe.
"Soul breaking out of the body, I can’t use the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Picture Xin Huo taught me, I can only use the Sword Gate Breaking Out Visualization Method. I’m not sure if I can achieve the Out of Body state using that method?"
Zhong Yue was a little worried. The Sword Sect placed a lot of importance on inheritances; if someone found out he wasn’t cultivating a method from the Sword Sect then being expelled would be a small matter, but it would be a big loss if he even lost his life because of that.
Reaching the Blue Sky Hall, he saw a hundred outer disciples gathered inside also waiting for the a.s.sessment. Some outer sect disciples were holding a totem pole with strange patterns drawn from the blood of rare beast on them.
Totem poles were divine poles used by the human tribes of the Great Wilderness for worship. They had mystical uses, they had an extreme effect on nourishing the soul, and they also made visualization twice more effective with half the effort.
Those who could hold totem poles were all from elite families within the tribes.
This type of totem pole could only be refined by Qi Refining Warriors, so only tribes with Qi Refining Warriors could have them. The spirit cultivated by the Qi Refining Warriors were also a type of totem, called totem spirit, meaning the spirit within the totem.
Spirit and totem had were intimately related. In one tribe, because its Qi Refining Warrior’s totem spirit happened to be a dark turtle, the whole tribe had adopted the dark turtle as totem. And the tribe worshiping the dark turtle totem was also enhancing that Qi Refining Warrior’s cultivation to some extent.
As to tribes without Qi Refining Warriors, they naturally didn’t have totem poles either. Even more so for the smallest tribes like the Zhong Mountain tribe Zhong Yue was born in, they naturally didn’t have this kind of treasure.
As soon as Zhong Yue reached the Blue Sky Hall, he heard an uproar burst out: "Someone died!"
"Someone was killed during the a.s.sessment, his soul flew away and scattered!"
Zhong Yue’s heart shook, he saw two white clothed men carry a young man’s corpse out of the Blue Sky Hall. It was precisely the outer sect disciple that had died in the a.s.sessment.
A lot of outer sect disciples tensed at this sight. The out of body a.s.sessment was extremely harsh, breaking the soul out of the body wasn’t the only thing needed to pa.s.s it. They still tested the soul’s strength, your battle awareness, and there were many dangers; one moment of carelessness and you could end up injured!
Even losing one’s life was a common matter!
Outside the Blue Sky Hall the outer sect disciples that had come for the a.s.sessment were feeling restless and worried. They had all heard about the Blue Sky Hall a.s.sessment possibly taking your life, but hearing it and seeing it with your own eyes were two different things. It had a stronger impact on their mind, and many people had their heart beating like a drum and were thinking of retreating.
Zhong Yue stepped forward, thinking in his heart: "The road of cultivation has to be boldly traveled with courage and spirit. Once the heart is lost everything’s lost, what need is there to talk about cultivating then?
In front of the hall, the white robed old man in charge of the hall was looking at his nose while his nose looked at his heart[1], as if he hadn’t noticed Zhong Yue’s arrival, and faintly asked: "Which clan do you come from?"
"Zhong Mountain tribe, Zhong Mountain clan, Zhong Yue!"
The white robed old man lifted his head and glanced at Zhong Yue: "Go in. Next! Which clan do you come form?"
"Wei River tribe, River Mud clan, Shui Qingyan."
Zhong Yue entered the Blue Sky Hall and suddenly heard a beautiful and pleasant voice: "Zhong Yue? Zhong mountain clan’s elder brother Yue? Is it really you? Long time no see, how did you become so thin?"
Zhong Yue turned his head back and saw a young girl follow him inside the Blue Sky Hall. That young woman was around 13 to 14 years old. Her skin was white and her looks pretty. She wore a white fur hat on her head, her penetrating eyes like clear water, and her whole person carried an elegant fragrance. She carried a small totem pole on her back. She closed in with quick steps and said excited when she came to his side: "It’s really you! Last few days when I went to see you you weren’t there, I thought something happened to you. I was afraid to death! How did you become so slim? Just now I almost couldn’t recognize you…"
Translator notes:
[1]: In this context it simply means he had his nose down and didn’t bother looking up, but I left the expression because I found it funny.