Chapter 6: Sudden Change

Description

Bang!

A male disciple in a daoist robe stumbled and crashed inside.

His hair bun was disheveled. 

The lower hem of his robe was torn more than halfway, and the exposed flesh was covered in filthy blood.

Xu Han and Zhao Yuan, who had still been conversing, both stood up at the same time and instinctively reached for the magical tools at their waists.

The male disciple fell onto the green-brick floor, rolled and crawled to seize a table leg, and gasped heavily, his words coming out in broken fragments.

“Something’s happened… the white fog… things inside the white fog have come out!”

“The barrier at the edge of the formation couldn’t hold… demon creatures have broken in!”

Xu Han strode forward in a few steps, grabbed the disciple by the collar, and hauled him up.

“What did you say? Where are the people responsible for patrol today?”

“They were taken away…” 

The disciple’s body trembled violently; he could not even maintain a normal standing posture. 

“All of them were taken away! There were too many demon creatures. They directly scattered the formation.”

“Gray tentacles rolled people into the fog… Senior Sister Sang Zhi, and Yun’er, Cui’er… none of them managed to run out!”

At these words Xu Han and Zhao Yuan instantly froze.

The hand with which Xu Han gripped the disciple’s collar instantly lost strength, allowing the other to collapse weakly onto the ground.

Zhao Yuan’s face lost all color. He retreated two steps, his back colliding against a pillar.

“It’s over…” Zhao Yuan’s eyes were vacant as he muttered, “It’s over, everything is over…”

“Fated ones share life and death… if they are dragged into hell, we…” Xu Han clenched his teeth tightly, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

Shen Ci stood beside the wooden table. Looking at the two who were on the edge of collapse, he opened his mouth and asked, “Both of you, what does sharing life and death mean? How exactly are the rules of this Shen Cang Mountain set?”

“You still don’t understand?” Xu Han suddenly turned his head, just about to open his mouth to explain.

Dong—!

Dong—!

Dong—!

Three successive strikes of the bell came from the Longevity Palace upon the main peak.

This was the highest summons order of Shen Cang Mountain.

Xu Han’s words were interrupted. He glanced in the direction of the main peak, his face ashen.

“Let’s go. The Longevity Palace has struck the bell. Anyone who does not obey the order will be executed on the spot.”

***

Half an hour later, Longevity Palace.

The interior space of the great hall appeared even more spacious than when he had first come.

More than a hundred outer-courtyard disciples knelt neatly upon the meditation cushions. No one dared make the slightest extraneous sound.

Directly above the great hall stood a middle-aged cultivator in a deep-purple daoist robe.

He was the Hall Master of the Longevity Palace, and aside from that mysterious Mountain Lord he was the highest authority who managed the daily operations of Shen Cang Mountain.

The Hall Master held a jade slip in his hand and looked down indifferently upon the crowd below.

“At noon today the white fog stirred abnormally. Hellish demon evils impacted the barrier.”

“A total of twenty-seven patrol disciples were captured by the demon evils and taken into the white fog.”

“According to the iron law of Shen Cang Mountain, fated ones share fortune and misfortune. Now, those whose names are called, step forward.”

He unfurled the jade slip and began reading the list in order.

“Zhou Lin.”

“Li Yue.”

“Wang Cheng.”

***

Name after name was thrown out in succession, some male, some female.

The disciples whose names were called all trembled all over.

Some forced themselves to stand and walked toward the center of the great hall with stiff steps.

Others had their legs completely give way and collapsed upon the cushions, unable to move.

In the end they were seized left and right by the daoist children responsible for enforcement and forcibly dragged to the front.

The surrounding disciples whose names had not been called all kept their heads lowered.

They dared not look straight ahead, yet from their taut bodies one could see.

Everyone was treating these selected fellow disciples with an attitude of sympathy, even as if looking at the dead.

Shen Ci sat upon a cushion in the rear row and quietly observed all of this.

Soon that voice reached his ears.

“Xu Han, Zhao Yuan.”

The two rose one after another and walked forward like walking corpses.

“Shen Ci.”

Hearing his own name, Shen Ci rose and stepped forward.

Arriving at the center of the great hall, the twenty-seven disciples whose names had been called formed two rows.

The Hall Master put away the jade slip and swept his gaze across this group of people.

“Your fated ones have now fallen into hell.”

“The Mountain Lord has ordered that you must immediately enter the white fog and seek out your fated ones to bring them back.”

The Hall Master did not state any reason, nor did he explain why higher-realm cultivators were not dispatched to rescue them.

The disciples below likewise opened their mouths to ask nothing. 

They did not even give rise to the thought of questioning.

In their cognition the rules set by the Mountain Lord were the Heavenly Dao itself.

Following the rules was a matter of course, a logical and natural thing.

Shen Ci stood among the crowd and felt a slight doubt.

Why send a group of low-stage Qi-Refining cultivators into that white fog filled with the unknown and demon evils to rescue people?

This was no different from striking a stone with an egg.

Did Shen Cang Mountain truly have no deacons or elders of higher combat strength?

Shen Ci recalled the words Sang Zhi had once spoken.

“Once the disciples of Shen Cang Mountain establish their foundations, they must leave this place and go on pilgrimage to the White Jade Capital in the east.”

All the clues connected at this moment.

If this rule was absolute, then it meant…

The entire Shen Cang Mountain, aside from this Hall Master and that Mountain Lord who had never shown her face, simply did not possess any cultivators above the Foundation Establishment stage.

All those who reached the Foundation Establishment realm had gone on pilgrimage to the White Jade Capital…

Just as Shen Ci sorted out his thoughts.

The Hall Master ahead raised both hands and began to chant a complicated and obscure incantation.

The syllables of that incantation were strange and were not orthodox daoist true words.

As the incantation was recited, the Heart-Calming Formation above the great hall lowered dozens of streaks of golden light.

The golden light fell upon each selected disciple and transformed into a faint halo that adhered to the surface of their skin.

“The golden light of the dharma form has been bestowed. It can protect your minds from being eroded by the turbid qi of hell for twelve hours within the white fog.”

The Hall Master lowered both hands and issued the final ultimatum without sorrow or joy.

“Within one day bring your fated ones back. This is your destiny.”

“If the time limit passes and you fail to bring people back…”

He did not continue speaking downward and merely waved his large sleeve.

“Go.”

……

***

At the edge of Shen Cang Mountain, beneath the cliff.

A dozen or so zhang farther ahead was that gray-white fog that connected heaven and earth.

The mist rolled. 

Distorted dark shadows could vaguely be seen within it.

No wind could disperse this fog. It was like an uncrossable city wall that permanently sealed the outward path of Shen Cang Mountain.

Twenty-seven disciples stood at the edge of the barrier. No one dared take the first step forward.

A somewhat younger male disciple leaned his back against a giant boulder, both hands tightly clutching the trunk of a withered tree, his body trembling uncontrollably.

“I’m not going… that’s hell! There are monsters inside. Going is just sending myself to death!”

He resisted loudly, trying to find a reason to retreat.

Xu Han walked before him, brows tightly furrowed, suppressing the fear in his heart.

“Do you think staying on Shen Cang Mountain will let you live?” 

Xu Han advised. 

“We go in together, travel as a group. When we encounter demon evils everyone acts together. The chances will always be greater.”

“No, I’m not going! Shen Cang Mountain has formation protection. As long as I don’t go out I won’t die!” 

That disciple stubbornly shook his head.

“Idiot!” Zhao Yuan gritted his teeth and lowly roared from the side. 

“If you don’t bring your fated one back you won’t live either!”

Hearing the dispute, Shen Ci slowly walked forward.

“This senior brother.” Shen Ci looked toward the disciple clutching the tree, then looked at Xu Han and Zhao Yuan, and once more threw out the question he had not finished asking earlier. 

“I have one matter I do not understand. Why must we die if our fated ones do not return?”

The originally chaotic crowd suddenly quieted for an instant because of Shen Ci’s abrupt question.

Everyone’s gazes gathered upon him in unison.

Many only then noticed that this newcomer who had only just drawn qi into his body not long ago was actually also among the ranks.

“You are… Senior Sister Sang Zhi’s fated one?” someone recognized Shen Ci.

“Even a genius like Senior Sister Sang Zhi was captured…” low whispers rose from the crowd, and the despairing mood grew even heavier.

Xu Han looked at Shen Ci and let out a long sigh.

He stepped closer two paces and untied the riddle for Shen Ci.

“Shen Ci, you have lost your memory. It is not your fault that you do not know.”

“This has been the rule since the founding of Shen Cang Mountain. Fated ones are bound by the red strings bestowed by the divine hall and share life and death.”

“Once the other end of the red string breaks, it means one side has died. Then the other side remaining on Shen Cang Mountain no longer has value in existing.”

Xu Han pointed in the direction of the main peak.

“Even if you do not go to rescue people today, even if you remain safe and sound on Shen Cang Mountain. Once the time limit passes and the Mountain Lord confirms that Sang Zhi is dead, the enforcement team of the Longevity Palace will forcibly seize you and directly throw you out of the barrier.”

“Shen Cang Mountain does not keep those left alone. Since the fated one is dead, you must also be expelled and go into hell to accompany her in burial.”

Death either way.

Entering the white fog, one might be torn apart by demon evils; remaining here, when the time arrived one would still be thrown into the white fog by the sect.

This was the true reason that this group of people, even though terrified to death, could only obediently come to this place.

Because they simply had no path of retreat.

Shen Ci nodded slightly.

This forced-elimination law… was strange and cruel.

“So that is how it is.” Shen Ci cupped his fists. “Thank you for clarifying.”

Then he turned around and looked toward the towering mountain-protecting formation that reached into the clouds.

“Since we are so weak that entering the white fog is nine deaths and one life.” 

Shen Ci asked in a nearly exploratory and peaceful tone, “Why, earlier in the Longevity Palace, did we not request the Hall Master or that Mountain Lord who possesses great magical power to act personally?”

“With their cultivation, sweeping away these outer demon evils should be as easy as turning over a hand.”

At these words the surrounding air seemed to solidify in an instant.

Xu Han’s complexion changed drastically. Zhao Yuan was so frightened he retreated several steps in succession.

The disciples who had still been conversing around them all looked at Shen Ci as if they had seen a ghost.

Without the slightest hesitation they retreated backward, forcibly emptying a circle several zhang wide around Shen Ci.

“Mind your words!”

Xu Han cried out sternly, his voice pressed very low.

“Never discuss the decisions of the Mountain Lord and the Hall Master!”

“Thunder and rain are both the grace of the ruler. The Mountain Lord has ordered us to go, so we can only go!”

“If you dare make such greatly disrespectful remarks again, once they are captured by the enforcement formation you will be executed on the spot without even waiting until one day later!”

The gazes with which everyone looked at Shen Ci had already shifted from sympathy to wanting nothing to do with him.

They feared he would say something further that was treasonous and drag everyone down with him.

Seeing this situation, Shen Ci did not continue to press.

He knew that from the mouths of this group of low-stage cultivators whose will to resist had already been thoroughly ground away, he would obtain no deeper answers.

The controllers of this Shen Cang Mountain practiced a policy of keeping the people ignorant.

Shen Ci turned around and paid no further attention to everyone’s reactions.

He walked straight to the edge of the barrier and arrived before that gray-white fog.

Shen Ci extended his right hand, passed through the wall of Shen Cang Mountain’s formation, and touched the rolling white fog.

Icy cold.

Aside from that there was no other sensation.

The instant his arm entered the white fog, the red string upon his wrist suddenly emitted a burst of red light.

The red light flickered, seemingly resonating with a certain direction deep within the white fog.

The crowd behind stared blankly at this scene.

At this moment when everyone regarded hell with taboo silence and feared it like a tiger, Shen Ci’s calm that bordered on indifference appeared completely out of place.

Yet it could not be denied that his calm, in an intangible way, dispersed the fear accumulated in everyone’s hearts.

Even a newcomer who had only just drawn qi into his body dared to face hell head-on.

Could they, cultivators in the middle and late stages of Qi Refining, still wait here for death?

Xu Han bit down hard, was the first to draw his long sword, and walked behind Shen Ci.

Zhao Yuan followed closely after.

Then came the other disciples.

They spontaneously gathered together, encouraged one another, and prepared to enter this unknown land of death as a group.

“How are we to find them?” 

Shen Ci looked at the red string that had lit up upon his wrist and turned his head to ask those behind. 

“By relying on the guidance of the red string?”

Xu Han drew a deep breath and nodded.

He summoned his courage and glanced at that white fog that seemed capable of devouring everything.

“Correct.” Xu Han said in a deep voice. 

“The red string is our only link within hell. As long as the fated one is still alive, the red string will point the direction.”

“The golden light of the dharma form bestowed by the Hall Master can guarantee that for twelve hours we will not be assimilated into monsters by the turbid qi of hell.”

He swept a glance across the fellow disciples behind him.

“We only have one day’s time.”

“Everyone… let’s go.”

The twenty-seven people, guided by the red strings, stepped out of the barrier of Shen Cang Mountain.