802. To the Southern Marches

Seeing Lina’s message through the Earth Book, Xu Qi’an felt bewilderment, caution, astonishment, and other emotions rise in his heart.

The caution was only natural. His own little sister had been “targeted” by the Gu God. Anyone in his place would’ve been alarmed.

As for the bewilderment and astonishment, they came from one thing alone, what on earth had the Gu God eaten to leave itself so idle that it had set its sights on Lingyin?

Luo Yuheng released the two long legs hooked round his waist and changed to kneeling on both knees, supporting herself as she reminded him with a grave expression:

“The Gu God has the ability to glimpse a corner of the future.”

Xu Qi’an immediately understood what she meant. Xu Lingyin wasn’t the Gu God’s true target. He was!

With the great calamity approaching, the Gu God, as a Beyond-rank existence and one capable of glimpsing fragments of the future, might have seen Xu Qi’an in one of those future fragments.

After all, Xu Qi’an was no longer some small fry. He was now a true first rank martial artist, one who could even stand for the whole Central Plains.

In the great calamity to come, there was bound to be a place for him. It wasn’t strange at all that the Gu God had “foreseen” him.

Xu Qi’an withdrew the left hand that had originally been cupping Luo Yuheng’s buttocks, then used his finger as a pen and wrote back:

【FIVE: Lina, ask Chief Longtu to go and have a look at the Abyss. Check whether the crack between the brows of the Confucian Sage’s statue has spread.】

If the Gu God could already leak out power and affect living creatures in the outside world, then the seal must have loosened.

【FIVE: Dad’s already gone to look. The crack in the Confucian Sage’s statue really has grown bigger. Dad said it’s already spread to the chest.】

Lina had first told her father Longtu about Xu Lingyin’s abnormality. After Longtu discussed the matter with the clan chiefs, they went together to the Abyss to inspect the situation and discovered that the Confucian Sage’s statue had loosened even further.

【THREE: What does Chief Longtu think about this?】

【FIVE: Father’s very angry. He said the Gu God wants to steal his disciple from him.】

When the members of the Heaven and Earth Society saw that message, a string of question marks flashed through their minds.

【ONE: What did you just say?】

Huaiqing, the exalted ruler of the nation, couldn’t hold back and sent a message to ask.

【FIVE: Lingyin said the Gu God teaches her cultivation in her dreams. Father carefully checked her body and didn’t find any abnormalities showing that she’d been corrupted by the Gu God.】

Lina slowly recounted the whole matter. Not long ago, Xu Lingyin had dreamt of a giant insect. The giant insect taught her how to fight every day, but there was very little communication. On the few occasions it did speak, it only told her its identity as the “Gu God”.

【FIVE: But the strange thing is, not only is there nothing wrong with Lingyin’s body, her cultivation hasn’t improved either. The elders all suspect she might just be dreaming, that’s all.】

【EIGHT: There are no such coincidences.】

Al-Asura cut in and sent a message:

【It’s best to go to the Southern Marches and take a look. The methods of a Beyond-rank existence can’t be treated lightly. Having no abnormalities is precisely the greatest abnormality. Also, who is Lingyin?】

【FIVE: Lingyin is my disciple, and also Xu Ningyan’s little sister.】

【EIGHT: To be favoured by the Gu God, she must be some peerlessly gifted prodigy.】

No, she’s a child so foolish it’s infuriating… Chu Yuanzhen muttered inwardly.

In a certain sense, Lingyin really is extraordinarily gifted… Huaiqing gave a fair appraisal.

Not very clever, but with an unusually hard fate. Even among all the people I’ve seen, she’s one of the rarest… Daoist Jinlian’s first thought was of Lingyin’s horoscope.

Then he thought of Zhong Li, the Jianzheng’s fifth disciple.

Zhong Li’s bad luck affected everyone around her, whether friend or foe.

But two kinds of people could resist the bad luck she attracted. One was people blessed with fortune, like Xu Qi’an. The other was people with hard fates like Xu Lingyin.

The members of the Heaven and Earth Society all cared greatly about this matter. After chatting a while longer, Xu Qi’an sent another message:

【FIVE: Lina, compared with before I left, how is the Gu God’s power in the Abyss now?】

【FIVE: It’s several times denser. Every three days, the chiefs have to go into the Abyss to clear out powerful Gu insects and Gu beasts.

【But even so, it’s impossible to root out every last powerful Gu insect and Gu beast. The Abyss is far too large. There’ll always be some that slip through the net. Grandma said that within half a year, beyond-mortal Gu beasts are very likely to appear.

【And every time a beyond-mortal Gu insect or Gu beast is born, a chief is bound to die. The whole shaman clans are deeply worried.】

My Sevenfold Gu is just about ready to advance to beyond-mortal too. On this trip to the Southern Marches, I’ll fleece the Gu God a bit… Xu Qi’an sent back:

【I’ll go to the Southern Marches today.】

Putting away the Earth Book fragment, Xu Qi’an looked at the breathtakingly beautiful face close at hand and said with a smile:

“Coming with me to the Southern Marches?”

Luo Yuheng shook her head. “I’ve already advanced to Earthly Immortal. The conflict of heaven and man is about to come. I need to enter seclusion during this period to stabilise my realm.”

As she spoke, she stood up.

“Pop.”

At the sound, Luo Yuheng bit her lip and swallowed back the soft moan that had risen to her mouth.

Understood. During your seclusion, I’ll have to come to the temple every day and cultivate together with you… Xu Qi’an was now very good at grasping the mindset of proud older beauties.

That was because both the Flower God and his little aunt were that sort.

Practice made perfect.

For Luo Yuheng, dual cultivation was also a way to quickly stabilise her realm and increase her magic power. The effect certainly wouldn’t be as good as before, since they were already near the ceiling of all power, but it was still better than breathing exercises alone.

…

Xu Qi’an didn’t immediately set off for the Southern Marches. He first made a trip to the palace, where on the second-floor balcony of Yingchun Pavilion, he met Huaiqing in her plain-coloured palace gown.

Her beautiful hair and skirts fluttered in the wind. Her bearing was still cold and ethereal, like an immortal maiden, but unlike before, this eldest princess now carried an air of “I alone reign supreme”.

“Since Your Majesty ascended the throne, you’ve hardly worn your old clothes again. Where did this sudden refined mood come from?”

Xu Qi’an sat down carelessly by the table, picked up a date and bit into it, then immediately frowned.

“Why does this date taste so strange? It’s a bit, a bit…”

Huaiqing didn’t turn round. She chuckled lightly.

“A bit like horse meat?

“These are meat dates presented by Song Qing. Apparently the date trees grow from the corpses of warhorses. One horse can cultivate three hundred pounds of meat dates. The war only ended recently, and horse carcasses were piled like mountains. We thought burying them would be a waste, so we handed them over to Song Qing to deal with.

“Now these meat dates have already gone into the porridge kitchens, and are being distributed with the gruel to the refugees. They do fill the stomach.”

…Xu Qi’an silently spat out the bits of date in his mouth, picked up his tea and rinsed his mouth, then said:

“I’m just about to make a trip to the Southern Marches. Has Your Majesty prepared the casualty payments for the shaman clan warriors?”

Huaiqing shook her head.

Xu Qi’an then relayed Erlang’s plan to Huaiqing.

“Excellent!”

Huaiqing immediately voiced her approval. “The Sitianjian is rolling in wealth, and Arcanists are never short of silver. Taking some from them as an emergency measure isn’t a bad idea.”

So Huaiqing wrote a handwritten order and gave it to Xu Qi’an. Its meaning was roughly this:

The position of the Jianzheng is of vital importance. We cannot treat it lightly. We must choose a virtuous and highly respected worthy, one who can convince the masses and contribute to the court and the people. At present, there just happens to be a matter…

After taking the letter, Xu Qi’an went on to see Wei Yuan. He informed him of the purpose of his trip to the Southern Marches and expressed his concern about the Gu God.

Wei Yuan’s suggestion was that before going to the Southern Marches, he should first make a trip to Cloud Deer Academy.

There was no abnormality in Xu Lingyin, which was very likely because the Gu God had concealed it with the spell “shifting stars and swapping constellations”.

So he should go to Cloud Deer Academy and borrow the confucian cap of the lesser sage, as well as two sheets of paper inscribed with “divination” and “laws follow commandments”.

First, he could use the power of laws follow commandments to forbid the power of shifting stars and changing constellations, and then use divination to divine Xu Lingyin’s condition.

Whether there was a problem or not would be clear at a glance.

And with the enhancement from the lesser sage’s confucian cap, it would ensure that the power of shifting stars and changing constellations was dispelled, while also increasing the strength of a Warlock’s divination.

The Gu God was, after all, still under seal. That thread of power leaking out couldn’t possibly contend with a Dharma treasure of the lesser sage.

Besides, Wei Yuan also said he should be prepared to return empty-handed.

He believed that with the Gu God’s status, if it truly wanted to corrupt and scheme in secret, it would never let the shaman clans discover it so easily.

So this was very likely to be a false alarm, with no such complicated hidden truth behind it.

…

Southern Marches.

On the outskirts of the Abyss, Heaven Gu Grandma and the other chiefs of the shaman clans finished one round of clearing operations and walked out with rather grave expressions.

Their worries came from two directions.

First, the Confucian Sage’s seal was loosening further and further. The Gu God’s escape was imminent.

For the shaman clans, this was without question a disaster. The prophets of the Heaven Gu tribe throughout the generations had all left behind prophecies such as: “When the Gu God is born into the world, all Jiuzhou will become a world of gu.”

Sealing the Gu God was the eternal mission and goal of the shaman clans.

Second, the Gu God’s power spilling out from the Abyss was denser than ever before.

If left alone, then first of all, the territory of the Abyss would expand, polluting the surrounding normal regions into the territory of “gu”. Secondly, the number and likelihood of beyond-mortal Gu beasts being born would rise with it.

A single beyond-mortal Gu beast might require the chiefs present to risk their lives to exterminate it.

Two would be enough to severely damage the shaman clans’ vitality. If three appeared, then the shaman clans would have to prepare to perish together with them all.

In the endless ages of the past, such a situation had never occurred.

“Grandma, is this the great calamity you spoke of?”

Luanyu, so enchantingly charming by nature, had completely lost her seductive grace. Her exquisitely trimmed brows were tightly furrowed.

“Compared to that, this is only one corner of the great calamity.”

After saying that, Heaven Gu Grandma turned to Longtu.

“That little girl hasn’t shown any abnormalities, has she?”

Longtu replied:

“No abnormalities. She eats well and sleeps well. At present she’s helping the tribe build a dam, and she can already carry five hundred pounds of stone.”

With that sort of strength, one punch would be enough to kill a Refining Vitality martial artist on the spot. Even someone in Refining Qi would lose half his life.

Heaven Gu Grandma said again:

“Have you informed Silver Gong Xu?”

Longtu nodded, then brought the topic back. “How do we deal with the situation at the Abyss? We can’t do anything about the Confucian Sage’s seal, and we can’t solve the excessive density of the Gu God’s power either.”

At these words, the chiefs and elders of the shaman clans all fell silent, their faces full of worry.

Chunyan, the calm and rational Heart Gu Master, said:

“If the shaman clans’ population expanded tenfold, we could solve this problem.”

The method was simple enough. They only needed to absorb the Gu God’s power directly.

But Gu Masters had their limits. It was impossible for them to absorb without end. The Gu God’s power had to be “filtered” by the life gu inside their bodies before the human body could absorb it, which effectively prevented mutation and madness.

Gu insects and Gu beasts, however, had no such need.

They could absorb the Gu God’s power directly. The price was becoming slaves to that power and losing their reason. Of course, the insects and beasts wouldn’t care about that.

“Or each tribe could produce one more beyond-mortal,” Chunyan added.

That would mean seven beyond-mortals… The chiefs of the shaman clans, along with the many elders beside them, all shook their heads faintly.

802. To the Southern Marches

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