Chapter 47: This Venerable One Feels Like Something Is Off

Chu Wanning was injured, and the three disciples were exhausted,

so once they reached the corridor outside the arsenal, Chu Wanning ordered

them to rest a while. No one spoke for a bit, either standing or sitting as they

inspected the injuries on themselves or one another and recovered their

strength.

That is, except for Xue Meng, who was staring at nothing with his head

drooping, seemingly lost in thought.

"Xue Meng…" Mo Ran murmured.

Xue Meng paid no heed to anyone else. He only walked stiffly over to

stand before Chu Wanning and look up. When he opened his mouth, his voice

was like shattered glass. "Shizun."

When Chu Wanning looked at him, he felt an urge to pet his tousled

hair, but in the end, he managed to push it down.

"The holy weapon I picked before, was it a fake?"

Chu Wanning was silent.

The rims of Xue Meng's eyes became even redder, and his eyes

themselves grew bloodshot. If not for the pride and stubbornness that kept

him upright, his tears would likely have fallen on the spot. "Does this mean

I'll never be able to claim a holy weapon?"

Chu Wanning closed his eyes with a sigh. The corridor was silent save

for his clear voice: "Silly child."

A single, "silly child," said with a helpless sigh, and the last of Xue

Meng's rationality crumbled. Unable to endure it any longer, he threw himself

into Chu Wanning's arms and, clinging to his waist, began to bawl.

"Shizun… Shizun…"

Failing to obtain a holy weapon from Jincheng Lake was tantamount to

forfeiting one's potential to rise in the cultivation world; it meant

surrendering one's chance to ever stand at the top. Everyone was well aware

of this. A mortal's powers were finite, and without a holy weapon, however

strong, a person was limited by their body of flesh and blood.

The young masters of the sects in the upper cultivation realm more or

less all possessed holy weapons that had been passed down to them by their

predecessors. Even though these weapons weren't perfectly compatible with

their spiritual energies, they were still considerably powerful. Among the

sects' young masters, Xue Meng alone had not received a holy weapon from

Jincheng Lake, as Xue Zhengyong and his brother had started from scratch.

And so, when Xue Meng had chosen to wield the Ancestral Sword

against the Heart-Pluck Willow and thereby destroyed them both, he had

essentially chosen to sacrifice his spirited ambitions to rise above everyone

else.

Chu Wanning didn't ask him anything and didn't say any more. He only

held Xue Meng and stroked his hair as the boy cried it out.

Xue Meng had grown up pampered, never really suffering any

injustice. He spent all his days arrogantly strutting about, and ever since he

was old enough to remember, he had never once cried. But at this moment,

tears streaked down his youthful face, and his every word came out broken

like the holy weapon he would never have—like the lionhearted aspirations

that he had once thought were a sure thing. All of them lay shattered.

"Xue Meng." Chu Wanning held his disciple in his arms, consoling

him.

The waves at the bottom of the lake rippled past Chu Wanning's white

cloak and his long, inky hair. In that instant, Mo Ran could see aught but for

his fine curtain of lashes lowering over the fragments of gentle light beneath

them. Then the waves picked up, ruffling hair and garment, and he could no

longer see Chu Wanning's face clearly in the dim light. He could only hear

him say, "Don't cry. You're already great."

His voice wasn't quite gentle, but when those words came from Chu

Wanning's mouth, they were indescribably soft.

In the corridor, they had all fallen silent as they each dwelt on their

own thoughts.

Mo Ran leaned against the ice-cold wall, watching Chu Wanning hold

Xue Meng and pat his shoulder, and his own heart felt heavy.

On this journey to Jincheng Lake, they'd come all fresh and energized.

Now they were leaving laden with wounds.

Xue Meng had been the darling of the heavens for fifteen years, well regarded and high-spirited. In the span of a single day, his future had

collapsed upon itself.

From here on out, he would have to spend the rest of his lengthy life

striving to forget these fifteen years of blazing glory.

As they escaped from the arsenal, they saw the Heart-Pluck Willow

buckling slowly into the crucible like an ancient colossus finally exhausted.

Like the death of a gentle giant, or the demise of the sun itself. The remaining

merfolk scattered in fright.

The holy weapon arsenal that had stood for millions of years was

destroyed in an instant. The celestial tree fell with a deafening rumble and set

off a surging tide throughout Jincheng Lake. Faced with the enormous

whirlpool that resulted from it, the merfolk assumed their larger original

forms in an attempt to weather the storm. Jincheng Lake was instantly filled

with glimmering scales, with little room left for mere mortals.

"We can't get out this way!" Mo Ran shouted.

As he spoke, a thick sea dragon's tail smashed toward him. Mo Ran

swiftly moved aside, barely managing to dodge.

A black dragon suddenly swooped forward, larger than all the others,

its blue-black scales shimmering with a golden sheen.

"Wangyue?!" Mo Ran yelled, startled.

Wangyue let out a mighty roar, and the mute dragon spoke with a voice

low like the chime of a great clock, "Climb on my back. With the destruction

of the Heart-Pluck Willow, Jincheng Lake is soon to follow. Quickly! I will

ferry you away!"

They didn't know if Wangyue was friend or foe, but having no other

options, they could only do as instructed. Wangyue carried the four of them

and surged through the perilous waves that were filled with thousands of

dragons, the waters parting in his wake.

"Hold on tight!"

This was the ancient dragon's only warning before he lunged out of the

lake and soared into the skies. The pressure hit his passengers like a ton of

bricks, the flow of water like a thousand galloping horses against their

bodies. They couldn't open their eyes, could hardly breathe, as they

desperately clung with all their might to the dragon's back in order to not be

flung into the lake.

By the time they could open their eyes again, they were high above

Jincheng Lake and soaring through the clouds at the summit of Dawning Peak.

Droplets of water flew off of the dragon's large, mirrored scales, and the

spray turned into countless sparkles of light that manifested a rainbow in the

sky. Wangyue raised his head in a roar as color washed over the land.

Mo Ran heard Xue Meng's voice from behind him against the fierce

gale, full of excitement. He was indeed young, after all, and easily distracted

from his worries. "Oh my god! I'm flying! On a dragon!"

Wangyue circled above Dawning Peak, gradually shrinking in size

while descending. He landed on the bank of Jincheng Lake at less than half

his original magnitude—so as to not crush the surrounding rocks and

vegetation. The dragon stayed quietly in place while they dismounted.

When they turned to look toward Jincheng Lake, they saw that the thick

frozen surface had melted. Waves churned and scattered fragments of ice.

The first light of dawn lent the eastern skies a pure-white hue, and sunlight

spilled into Jincheng Lake with a brilliant glimmer.

"Look at the dragons in the lake!" Shi Mei cried.

The dragons twisted and coiled in the waters, rising and falling with

the waves, until they gradually stopped moving, at which point they crumbled

one after another and turned into so many specks of dust. Black chess pieces

floated up from the surface and gathered in midair.

"The Zhenlong Chess Formation…" Mo Ran muttered.

Everything in the lake, from the sea dragons to the Heart-Pluck

Willow, had been under the control of the Zhenlong Chess Formation. All that

had transpired below had been a match devised by someone hiding in the

shadows.

Mo Ran shuddered. Something was off about this reborn era. Certain

events were occurring earlier than they should have, and for no apparent

reason.

In his previous life, he was certain that no one had been able to

command the Zhenlong Chess Formation with such mastery at the time when

he had been sixteen. Just who was this fake Gouchen?

"Wangyue!" Xue Meng cried out.

Mo Ran turned only to see Wangyue crouching on the ground,

unmoving. While no black chess piece emerged from his body, he appeared

extremely weak, his eyes half-closed.

"You lot…did well… It's far preferable to see our Exalted God

Gouchen's Jincheng Lake destroyed, than to…to see it fall into the hands of a

villain…"

When Wangyue finished speaking, his body began to glow with golden

light, and when the light subsided, he had assumed human form.

"It was you?!" Mo Ran and Xue Meng exclaimed simultaneously.

The Wangyue before them was the very same elderly, white-haired

merman who had led them to the holy weapon arsenal. Wangyue lifted his

head, a hint of guilt in his eyes. "It was me."

Xue Meng was shocked. "Y-you—why did you lead us to the arsenal?

Do you mean us help or harm? If you mean harm, then why have you brought

us ashore? But if you mean to help—if we hadn't passed the Heart-Pluck

Willow's trial, wouldn't we have…"

Wangyue looked down, and his voice was hoarse as he said, "Please

accept my apologies. Circumstances being what they were, there was naught

else I could do. The false Gouchen's own cultivation is insufficient, and he

relied wholly on the Heart-Pluck Willow's spiritual power to wield the

forbidden technique. The only way to dispel his magic was to overcome the

Heart-Pluck Willow. I had no choice but to vest my hope in the four of you."

Chu Wanning shook his head slightly, then walked over to Wangyue

and began channeling spiritual energy to heal his injuries.

Wangyue let out a long sigh. "Daozhang is kind, but there is no need. It

is my time. I am no different from the other creatures of the lake; I subsisted

on the Heart-Pluck Willow's spiritual energy. Now that it has fallen, I am not

long for this world."

Chu Wanning remained silent.

Wangyue continued, "The order of life and death cannot be altered. I

have lived to see the nightmare of Jincheng Lake broken, so my wish is

fulfilled. But I am full of remorse for having involved you in these perils."

"It's no matter," Chu Wanning said. After a pause, he asked, "Do you

know the identity of the pretender, and what he wants?"

"I do not know his identity," Wangyue replied. "However, his goal

was most likely to obtain the Heart-Pluck Willow's power in order to

command the three forbidden techniques."

"The forbidden techniques require an incredible amount of spiritual

energy," Chu Wanning muttered. "They would indeed be much easier to

master with the help of an ancient tree spirit."

"Yes, that man said as much. He also said that while ancient spirits are

immensely powerful, they are extremely difficult to find. The only one whose

location can be traced from the ancient records was the Heart-Pluck Willow.

"The intruder appeared only recently, and after taking control of

Jincheng Lake, he spent all his time at the bottom of its depths, using the

Heart-Pluck Willow's power to practice the forbidden techniques of

'Rebirth' and the 'Zhenlong Chess Formation.'"

Wangyue sighed, his eyes somewhat empty and dull.

Mo Ran felt his heart drop. Sure enough, this trip to Jincheng Lake had

been entirely different from the one in his past life, and everything that had

caused the changes had taken place not long ago. Just what was going wrong

to make these events change course?

"He lacked the strength to control living beings, so he killed

innumerable creatures in the lake and attempted to control the dead instead.

He managed this, and in a mere few weeks' time, he had slaughtered

practically all who lived in the lake and turned them into chess pieces. He

left only a few alive to experiment on, myself included."

"When you came out of the water to meet me, were you being

controlled by the fake Gouchen?" Mo Ran asked.

"No." Wangyue slowly closed his eyes. "He may be able to control the

others, like the fox spirit or even the Heart-Pluck Willow, but he cannot

control me. I am a spirit beast who was tamed by Gouchen the Exalted at the

creation of the world, millennia ago. When I submitted to being his steed, I

was branded with his seal on my inverted scale,

1

 and thus I shall be loyal to

one master only in life and in death."

"Then why did you…"

"It was an act; I had no choice." Wangyue sighed. "The intruder may

not have been able to totally control me, but the brand of Gouchen the

Exalted is millions of years old, its effectiveness a mere fraction of its

original potency. A portion of my body fell under the fake Gouchen's

influence—the reason I was mute at our first meeting was because the

pretender had control of my throat. Only when his magic was dispelled was I

able to speak again."

"Did that fake Gouchen know you were pretending?" asked Mo Ran.

"I doubt it." Wangyue looked to Mo Ran. "He planned to take your

spiritual core today, in order to extend the Heart-Pluck Willow's life. He

didn't anticipate that I would bring you back to the holy weapon arsenal to

destroy the ancient willow, and he took no precautions against my

interference."

"Perhaps it's not that he did not take precautions against you," Chu

Wanning suddenly suggested, "but rather that he didn't have the strength to

spare for any such thing."

"What does Daozhang mean?"

"There's another odd thing about this pretender."