After Irbu finished speaking, he “saw” Xu Qi’an at the bow of the boat, as if struck on the head, his pupils dilated slightly and his expression froze instantly.
“If there’s nothing else, this Master of Wisdom will take his leave.”
Irbu withdrew his gaze and said flatly, intending to leave.
“Wait!”
Xu Qi’an slowly exhaled and asked,
“Was the first Jianzheng’s ancestral home in Xiangzhou?”
When he asked this question, he seemed calm on the surface but his heart quietly tensed.
Irbu frowned,
“How would I know? Even if I did, why should I tell you?”
After taking the opportunity to retort, he turned and left.
Bathed in the somewhat scorching sunlight, Xu Qi’an sat at the bow of the boat, silent and wordless.
“What’s wrong?”
At the other end of the boat, Mu Nanzhi asked.
Due to their familiarity, she could sense Xu Qi’an was a little off. He should have been happy after obtaining the materials to revive Wei Yuan, but he just sat there dazed.
Xu Qi’an let out a breath and composed himself,
“Do you remember the matter of the Chai family’s great tomb map?”
Mu Nanzhi tilted her head and thought for a moment,
“The Chai family’s ancestors were once tomb keepers. Later, their clan was wiped out due to the map of the great tomb. The only, uh, child was sold to the Southern Marches as a slave, then later returned to Xiangzhou and established the current Chai family…”
She spoke haltingly, making an effort to recall.
Xu Qi’an then asked,
“Who do you think that tomb belongs to?”
Mu Nanzhi said in exasperation,
“How should I know!”
Baiji chimed in coquettishly, “Exactly!”
Sigh… Xu Qi’an half sighed, half breathed out,
“Then what if I told you the first Jianzheng was called Chai Xinjue?”
Mu Nanzhi and Baiji both tilted their heads to the left, looking confused, adorably innocent.
They hadn’t made the connection.
Xu Qi’an couldn’t tell for a moment whether they hadn’t remembered such a person as the first Jianzheng, or didn’t understand what he meant.
After all, information on the first Jianzheng was blocked by Heaven’s secrets. But due to the rift in history, people couldn’t utterly forget.
“The owner of the great tomb is the first Jianzheng.” Xu Qi’an revealed the answer directly.
Then, Mu Nanzhi and Baiji’s eyes widened simultaneously, round and big.
“Then Chai Xing’er is a descendant of the first Jianzheng?” Mu Nanzhi thought Xu Qi’an was talking nonsense, her face full of disbelief:
“How is that possible? There are so many people with the surname Chai, maybe it’s just a coincidence.”
“It’s a coincidence!” Baiji repeated.
Xu Qi’an shook his head,
“There are many people called Chai, but very few worthy of Xu Pingfeng’s personal attention. This big a coincidence doesn’t exist in this world.
“And, the first Jianzheng died five hundred years ago during Emperor Wuzong’s rebellion. In terms of time, even if we can’t prove the Chai family has a five-hundred-year history, there’s no contradiction here either.”
Moving the timeline forward, the Chai family were originally tomb keepers, then gave up that identity and settled in Xiangzhou. Later, because someone coveted the great tomb’s map, the Chai family was wiped out, and the only child was sold to the Southern Marches as a slave.
A hundred years ago, that child returned to Xiangzhou and became the ancestor of the current Chai family.
In other words, the Chai family’s history absolutely exceeded two hundred years.
So there was no contradiction with the timeline.
“I’d always wondered why Xu Pingfeng paid attention to a minor jianghu family. Compared to him, a second-rank arcanist, the Chai family were mere ants. After learning the Chai family had a mysterious map of a great tomb, I was curious why this tomb interested Xu Pingfeng at all.”
Xu Qi’an pinched his brow, “Later, I thought maybe Xu Pingfeng had crossed paths with the leader of the shaman clans’ Corpse Gu tribe, saw the map there, and followed this lead to the Chai family.”
Mu Nanzhi took a long time to digest his words and then frowned, asking,
“Isn’t that the case?”
“It’s possible, but maybe there’s another explanation!”
Xu Qi’an’s face grew a little grim,
“Perhaps Xu Pingfeng learned of the great tomb from that lineage five hundred years ago, knowing the Chai family were the tomb keepers for the first Jianzheng. There are just a few details I haven’t figured out yet.”
“What details?”
Baiji asked crisply.
Xu Qi’an didn’t respond.
First: What did Xu Pingfeng want with the first Jianzheng’s tomb? The first Jianzheng was already dead, so what value did the tomb have?
Second: The first Jianzheng died in Emperor Wuzong’s rebellion. Was his body even preserved? Was the body in the tomb really his?
…
Mount Jing City.
Wrapped in a rough robe, Sarun Agu climbed the stone steps up to the altar.
On the vast altar, two statues stood facing each other. One of them was youthful, wearing a long robe with wide sleeves, and a crown of thorns.
The other wore ancient Confucian robes and a Confucian cap, one hand behind his back, the other at his abdomen.
Sarun Agu walked to the statue of the Warlock God, bowed slightly in salute. Then he began to chant, and faint words could be heard:
“Baidi… Gatekeeper… First Jianzheng… There’s something wrong with it…”
When he finished, Sarun Agu lowered his head in a listening posture.
A few seconds later, Sarun Agu raised his head, his eyes narrowing as he muttered to himself,
“The great Desolation, there is only one…”
…
Western Regions, Ananda.
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, dressed in a kasaya and having the appearance of a young monk, sat cross-legged under a bodhi tree.
Vaidurya Bodhisattva, with hair flowing like a waterfall, dressed in white, her bare feet as white as snow, held a jade pot in her hand.
The “cord” of the jade pot was a tiny black snake. Its tail hooked around the handle, while the head was pinched gently between Vaidurya Bodhisattva’s fingers.
“Are you sure the Gatekeeper is the Jianzheng?”
Vaidurya Bodhisattva’s voice was melodious, but devoid of emotion.
“Agaruka said so,” Samantabhadra Bodhisattva answered with a smile, pressing his palms together. “In my view, it is very likely.”
The two bodhisattvas had only recently learned about the Gatekeeper, with this information passed on by Agaruka Bodhisattva from Qingzhou.
Vaidurya Bodhisattva nodded, her tone calm: “It matters not, whether it is or not.”
She handed the jade pot to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, saying, “Be careful with it. Take care not to harm the Guardian Divine Dragon.”
With that, she gently stroked the black snake’s head.
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva pinched up the little snake, pressing its abdomen between his forefinger and thumb, sliding upwards. The black snake instantly went rigid in apparent pain. Its scarlet mouth opened wide, spitting out a mist of blood laced with a fishy fragrance.
Rather than dispersing, the blood mist curled and flowed into the golden alms bowl before Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.
He then released the tiny black snake, picked up the jade pot, and slowly poured out a pale golden drop of water.
Vaidurya Bodhisattva tenderly cradled the tiny black snake in her palms, sheltering it with care.
The alms bowl rippled with “golden-red” light, sending out concentric circles of radiance.
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva gently tapped the bowl with his finger, and quietly intoned:
“Rise!”
Golden and crimson light rose from the alms bowl, wafting like fireflies or light silk ribbons, drifting into the depths of Ananda.
A moment later, a blazing sun rose from within Ananda, shining with myriad beams of golden light.
At the foot of the mountain, the devotees prostrated themselves, palms pressed together, foreheads touching the ground, praising the miraculous power of the Buddhist sect.
…
After Baidi appeared, the amount of water energy in the air grew immensely. The sea of clouds surged and collided, birthing thunder among their tumbling masses.
The sea of clouds beneath the Jianzheng and the others became thunder-heavy, turning into thunderclouds.
Baidi’s azure vertical pupils fixed themselves on the Jianzheng in his billowing white robes, and as ever, its voice was deeply resonant:
“The Gatekeeper will not fall so easily. If you are the Gatekeeper, what does that make the first-generation Jianzheng?”
After meeting Sarun Agu, it had received a relatively satisfactory, yet still paradoxical answer.
All of the first Jianzheng’s abnormal behaviours pointed to him being the Gatekeeper, but if he truly was, how could he have died so easily?
Seeing that the Jianzheng did not answer, Baidi continued:
“After the gods and demons fell, I have always wondered, if there was anything in this world that could represent Heaven’s Dao, what would it be?
“Would it be the spirits of flowers, birds, fish and insects, or even the gods and demons themselves? Would it be humans and Yao? Would it be today’s various systems?
“No, none of these.”
Baidi shook its head, enunciating each word:
“It is fortune!
“The fall of the gods and demons was decreed by destiny.
“The rise of humans and Yao was also destined. Even now, as the Yao dwindle and the humans come to rule over the land of Jiuzhou, it is thanks to the favour of Heaven, and all of it revolves around fortune.”
“Of the two major systems relating to fortune, the Confucians absorb fortune and merge with it. Therefore, Confucian scholars cannot attain immortality. This is the small Dao.
“But Arcanists are different. Arcanists refine fortune and wield it. Masters of Heaven’s Mandate become one with their nation. If the nation falls, they die. Otherwise, their lives are bound to the state. To tie themselves together with the favoured of Heaven, this is the great Dao.
“Hence, I have reason to suspect the first Jianzheng was the Gatekeeper: he enjoyed the favour of Heaven and thus founded the Arcanist system.”
Xu Pingfeng and Agaruka Bodhisattva listened silently by the side.
The Jianzheng remained composed, sitting upright before his chessboard, betraying neither joy nor anger.
“But as I said, the Gatekeeper would not die so easily, and yet you killed the first Jianzheng. So I wonder: was the first really the Gatekeeper from the start?
“Perhaps the true favoured one is the Arcanist system itself, rather than the first Jianzheng. After founding the system, his mission was completed, and following this, the true Gatekeeper, that is, you, personally appeared.
“In that case, your real identity must hold many secrets.”
With these words, Baidi gazed intently at the Jianzheng.
The Jianzheng met Baidi’s eyes and laughed:
“If you wish to know, come and try for yourself.”
Malice flashed in Baidi’s vertical pupils.
Boom!
Lightning flashed within the clouds, and at once, a “crashing” sound echoed through the void. Behind the Jianzheng, a thousand-foot-high, illusory black wave surged up.
It crashed down fiercely upon him.
Formed purely from the power of elemental water, Baidi’s strike nearly drained all the water energy for a hundred li.
The Jianzheng rose calmly, standing proud and motionless. As the giant wave struck, he reached calmly behind him, plunging his right hand into the illusory black wave.
Then, with a sharp tug, his right arm drew forth a jet-black, almost solid long sword.
Behind him, the black wave collapsed and scattered.
The Alchemist!
Ordinary alchemists refined steel and crafted utensils.
High-level alchemists refined magical tools and divine weapons.
Master alchemists made hybrids of men and horses.
By the Jianzheng’s level, he refined the elements themselves, rearranging and recombining matter at a microscopic scale.
If so inclined, he could turn stone into gold with ease.
Forging a Water Essence Sword from the water essence gathered by his foe was well within the domain of an alchemist.
“Take it back!”
The Jianzheng reversed his grip and slashed out with the sword.
The Water Essence Sword struck a mere afterimage. Baidi’s true form appeared before the Jianzheng, its right claw raised, swiping forward with a plain yet devastating blow.
Boom, boom, boom… The very void seemed to collapse beneath the impact.
“Ding!”
From the side, a viscous, pitch-black sword light shot out from the void.
The sword had been teleported back.
What’s more, this stroke was shielded from Heaven’s secrets. Utterly silent, it struck Baidi’s waist hard.
The sword light exploded into pure water essence, while Baidi shot back as a streak of white. It raked its claws through the void, sliding hundreds of feet before finally dissipating the force.
Baidi looked across at the distant Jianzheng and spoke in a low, slow voice:
“It’s been a long time since I fought an opponent at your level. How interesting.”
As the words faded, above Agaruka Bodhisattva, a pair of Dharma Aspects materialised.
At Xu Pingfeng’s feet, a magic circle thirty feet wide lit up, displaying heavenly stems and earthly branches, the five elements and eight trigrams, all in perfection.
Three absolute peak experts encircled the Jianzheng!
Comments for this chapter. You will need a GitHub account. Please follow all terms and conditions of GitHub issues and maintain etiquette in the comments. Cookies are required for this functionality.
If you want to talk with other readers about Nightwatchers (or other cultivation type books) you can join our cultivation groupreading discord server!
I also have a Kofi, which for legal reasons is definitely for supporting my digital art only (promise!): ko-fi.com/yanxin ... plus I guess server space isn't free, and I don't want to put ads/trackers... ever, so thank you if you do!