Chapter 61: The World Stunned
The night obscured the sky. What were those people in the mountains facing? What would happen next?
Mao Qiuyu did not hesitate. His sleeves fluttered lightly, and in an instant, he had crossed several miles, heading into the mountain path. The King of Linghai, his face ashen, transformed into a streak of light and followed, his right hand flipping over to grasp a glaringly bright Dharma pestle.
Just as the Heavenly Mechanism Elder had deduced, these two national religion giants, acting on the orders of His Holiness the Pope to escort Chen Changsheng, were indeed each carrying a precious treasure!
Yet they could not take a single step onto the mountain path, forced to halt before the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion’s archway.
It was not because of the night, but because countless stones suddenly rained down from the sky above the mountains.
Those stones, dense as a net, completely enveloped Cold Mountain, exuding an immensely powerful aura.
These were no ordinary stones—they were Heavenly Stones, of the same origin as the Heavenly Book Stele!
These Heavenly Stones formed a formation of terrifying power. Even the strongest in the sacred domain could not break through this Heavenly Stone Array in a short time. Though their cultivation realms were formidable and they carried the national religion’s treasures, they still could not force their way into Cold Mountain.
So what about those people inside Cold Mountain… and that person?
…
…
The Heavenly Stones rose from the Heavenly Pond, from the grassy cliffs by its shore, from the fingertips of the Heavenly Mechanism Elder.
The Heavenly Mechanism Elder sat by the lake. The wrinkles on his face had multiplied several times in an instant, making him appear even more aged. Yet his fingers remained steady, ceaselessly writing something in the mist above the water—calculating, and simultaneously setting up a formation, his body radiating an immensely powerful aura.
Thousands of Heavenly Stones flew to various parts of the mountains, hovering in the air. Beneath the pitch-black night, they seemed like stars appearing, sealing off a five-hundred-mile expanse of land.
This was Cold Mountain—his domain.
Even if the middle-aged scholar who had come to Cold Mountain today was the strongest opponent he had encountered in his thousand years of cultivation, he was confident he could fight him.
The Heavenly Stones suspended in the night sky wove a net. At the very center of this stone net was the bend in the mountain path, by the stream, before the persimmon grove.
Right above the middle-aged scholar’s head.
The middle-aged scholar looked up at the night sky, gazing at the dozens of Heavenly Stones within his line of sight. His expression remained indifferent, unmoved.
At the peak, by the lake, the Heavenly Mechanism Elder’s body swayed slightly. His wrinkles did not increase, but deepened by several degrees.
The middle-aged scholar stared expressionlessly at the peak and said, “Heavenly Mechanism, do you think such a crude formation can trap me?”
His voice boomed like thunder, exploding across the mountains.
The cultivators shielding Chen Changsheng felt their sea of consciousness tremble. Some with weaker cultivation directly abandoned their Dao swords, painfully covering their ears.
These scenes were faintly reflected in the mist over the lake at the peak.
The Heavenly Mechanism Elder looked at the images in the mist and said, “It cannot trap you forever, but it must trap you for a time.”
The middle-aged scholar smiled and said, “Then you don’t care about the lives of these juniors?”
The Heavenly Mechanism Elder replied, “If you don’t care about your own life, who else’s life can I care about?”
These two peerless powerhouses, separated by at least a hundred miles, seemed to be speaking face to face.
Hearing this simple exchange, the human cultivators and demon clan experts who had regained hope upon hearing the Heavenly Mechanism Elder’s voice were once again plunged into despair.
The Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion disciples sitting cross-legged in the pavilion by the lake showed pained expressions but had nothing to say.
If the Heavenly Mechanism Elder exerted his full power now, he might not be able to save those on the mountain path and by the stream, but he could perhaps prevent them all from dying.
Yet if he did that, he could not maintain the Heavenly Stone Array sealing off the five-hundred-mile Cold Mountain.
Those who had entered Cold Mountain were important—they were humanity’s future. However, if the middle-aged scholar could be sealed in Cold Mountain for a bit longer, allowing the strong from the human world to arrive and kill him, then… humanity would surely usher in an incomparably bright future.
Within a single breath of discovering the middle-aged scholar’s trail, the Heavenly Mechanism Elder had performed over forty calculations and deductions, finally making his choice.
If the deaths of those people could bring about the death of humanity’s most terrifying enemy, then their deaths would be worth it.
Even if those people included the future Pope.
The Heavenly Mechanism Elder believed that if those people knew the middle-aged scholar’s identity, they would make the same choice as him.
…
…
The Longevity Pavilion was a famous site in Xiling, housing a vast collection of books. A scholar stood by a bookshelf, holding a scroll and reading. He wore ordinary robes, the only unusual thing being a red flower tied to his little finger. That flower was very red, beautifully red, and special—it didn’t resemble any common shade of red, possessing a unique aesthetic.
The scholar’s expression was calm, as if he were deeply engrossed in his reading. However, the red flower trembling slightly on his little finger indicated that his emotions were not as serene as they appeared. Perhaps it was due to the occasional shouts of abuse coming from outside the pavilion. The Longevity Pavilion was a place of tranquility—who dared to shout outside? Who dared to curse at this scholar?
The one cursing outside was an old Daoist nun, holding a half-bald whisk—it was Wúqióngbì, who had been driven out of the capital by the Heavenly Sea Holy Empress.
Listening to the curses from outside, the scholar could no longer maintain his composure. His brow furrowed deeper and deeper, and finally, he sighed, preparing to say something. Just then, a faint fluctuation suddenly rippled through the sky to the east of the Longevity Pavilion.
The scholar’s expression shifted. His form flickered and vanished from before the bookshelf, reappearing outside the pavilion in the next moment. The old Daoist nun, seeing the scholar finally emerge, felt secretly smug but kept a face full of hatred as she glared at him and said, “If you won’t care about your son, won’t you even care about your wife?!”
The scholar ignored her entirely, still staring at the northeastern sky, his face dark.
The old Daoist nun grew furious and reached out to grab him.
The scholar snorted coldly, flicked his sleeve in anger, and lightly stepped on a lotus leaf in the pond before the pavilion. His figure suddenly became ethereal in the air and vanished without a trace.
The old Daoist nun fell heavily to the ground, her cheek red and swollen.
She covered her face, stunned. Since their marriage, she had never been treated like this.
Just as she was about to curse loudly, she finally sensed the anomaly in the sky. Her face turned pale, and a chill of dread surged within her.
At that moment, she could only hope that her delay of her husband’s sleeve-flicking by a single breath had not cost too much.
…
…
The Ten Thousand Willow Garden outside Hanqiu City was still a scorched wasteland. Though some time had passed, no new sprouts had emerged.
Zhu Luo stood by what had once been a lake, gazing at the ruined scene before him, silent.
Recently, he had been handling the affairs of the Zhu clan and the Heartbreak Sect, while waiting for Wang Po’s return to Tianliang County. His mind and spirit were slightly weary.
A man in a bamboo hat stood beside him—it was the Star Gazing Guest, another of the Eight Winds and Rains.
Suddenly, a speck of black ash landed on the brim of the bamboo hat. The Star Gazing Guest sensed something and looked toward the eastern horizon. He saw the clouds thousands of miles away darken by several shades.
“Something’s happened.”
“You go.”
“Alright.”