Chapter 105: Wu Hengyu And Yu Li In The Grotto-heaven
In the 34th year of the Shu Tian Calendar, Wu Fei passed through Donghua Commandery on his way north. As part of the Imperial Envoy’s team, Wu Fei gazed into the distance at the brightly lit military camp of the Wu Family Northern Army, as well as Wu Hengyu’s unique Hegemonic Way Killing Intent, and nodded.
What Wu Fei couldn’t let go of in his heart were the miner soldiers he had recruited in Donghua Commandery and their families. Now that his older brother was there, it was absolutely guaranteed. If the “return-to-hometown group” in Changcheng dared to send local ruffians to harass again, they would be torn to pieces by Wu Hengyu.
As for the military camp in Donghua Commandery, Wu Fei knew that the soldiers he had brought out must miss him terribly. If they knew he was passing by, there would definitely be a group of people wanting to see him off all the way.
But! Wu Fei: I’m freaking going to be a hostage! To meet his own brother, should he still run to the military camp? The Emperor might have some tricks up his sleeve.
Regarding this, Wu Fei glanced at Gong Qian, clearly afraid he would misunderstand, pretending not to recognize the main camp.
After walking twenty kilometers away, Wu Fei confirmed that no one from the camp had come, knowing that Wu Hengyu had restrained his subordinates, and sighed: You finally have a bit of brains.
If Wu Hengyu hadn’t restrained them, Wu Fei was sure there would definitely be soldiers coming out of the camp to chase him.
Wu Fei knew too well about the factional struggles in the Northern Army; the Noble Family faction and the Poor Family faction both had their own minds. —As soon as Wu Fei appeared, the non-commissioned officers he had trained would definitely come clamoring.
…Quietly leaving…
One day earlier, Wu Hengyu was in the Donghua Commandery military camp when a personal soldier came from outside the camp to report: “General, the Imperial Court’s southern inspection Imperial Envoy team has arrived at Cheng City.”
Wu Hengyu nodded: “Oh, I know about this matter. The one who went to the Southern Border last year—” At this point, he paused. Wu Hengyu stared at the messenger and asked: “Is there my Wu Family’s flag in the Imperial Court Imperial Envoy team?” The messenger said: “Yes, it is said that General Yuan Chang is in the team, saying he is going to Yao Capital. But we have not detected any news. The team did not let us approach.”
Next, Wu Hengyu waited in the camp for Wu Fei and set up a welcoming banquet. But in the end, the closest the two got was only twenty miles, their mounts under them could sense each other, but the two sides were like staring across a chasm. He did not wait for Wu Fei.
Wu Hengyu’s face was very displeased. He wanted to order to block the Imperial Envoy team, but on second thought, he understood something! —Wu Fei in the team not greeting him was for the Imperial Court to see.
Wu Hengyu silently dismissed the banquet, and after a long time sighed: “It seems like stars surrounding the moon, but few shine on me.”
The woman who was clearing the bowls and chopsticks nearby looked up. This woman was naturally Yu Li, with dragon horns hidden in her hair bun.
Yu Li poured wine and said: “Once stepping on this journey under heaven, it is the path of solitude.”
Wu Hengyu put his arm around her waist: “Oh, were you like this when you claimed kingship in Yunmeng Marsh?”
Yu Li smiled brightly: “Fortunately captured by the General, escaping such shackles.”
Wu Hengyu stared at her and slowly said: “Though you are my confidante, you are not my sibling.” —Distant memories surged to his mind. At that time, he was still a hegemon, but on the path to kingship, none of his siblings were of any use.
He looked at Yu, recalling the distant memory of going head-to-head with that old rogue, capturing that old rogue’s father, only to be mockingly told to “share a cup of the broth.” Then thinking of later, in desperate straits, she by his side, to avoid falling into that rogue’s hands and not letting him bear the humiliation of failing to protect his beloved concubine, took her own life in advance.
Yu Li played the qin to entertain Wu Hengyu.
…Wu Fei did not know Wu Hengyu’s original purpose for coming here…
The army commanded by Wu Hengyu was now deployed on the east side’s great mountain. This was about to do something big.
At this time in this army, the bows carried on the archers’ backs emitted a faint white glow, these lights coming from the materials of the bow bodies.
Among them, the bowstrings were tendons from spiritual flood dragons in the great marsh. As for this “spiritual flood dragon,” it was actually the finless porpoise in Wu Fei’s memory.
However, the finless porpoises here were much larger than those seen in his previous life; the big ones were fully four or five meters long and could flip a small boat in one go. As for the number of these “spiritual flood dragons,” they were everywhere in the entire great marsh, like cattle and sheep on the grassland. Clearly not some rare treasure.
Thinking about it, in his previous life, if not for humans as that kind of ecological circle monster—draining small rivers for farmland irrigation, sailing mechanical ships in the Great River, and discharging sewage at the same time—for dolphin species, the freshwater ecological niche was far richer than the ocean one.
Back to the present, these tendons could burst out with nearly a thousand jin of force. Ordinary pulling could not draw them; only by circulating appropriate Martial Qi could the archers draw the bowstrings.
As for this Martial Qi, it was the Carp Leap Strength that Wu Hengyu taught to the soldiers in the military camp. Though this technique was crude, it was also internal family qi strength, requiring two years of practice to see results. In Wu Hengyu’s sect, such techniques were on the first floor of the outer sect’s scripture pavilion, available for disciples to study freely, but no one cared, as Martial Qi was far less suppressed by Killing Intent than Spiritual Energy in mortal struggles.
Because on the mountain, who didn’t want to learn higher-level spiritual power magic? And such techniques were learned quickly on the mountain because in the past, Spiritual Energy was scarce in the mortal world, making progress difficult over decades, hard to break through the first layer, so they were rarely seen in the military.
With the Evil Moon in the sky and the Way of Heaven’s spiritual veins drawn away, spiritual evil mixed in the atmosphere of heaven and earth. Such techniques became easy to learn again, like in the seasons of the ancient Cheng Dynasty. Moreover, now that Wu Fei had purchased sufficient herbs and jade resources in the Ling River, the squad leaders under Wu Hengyu who were “well-informed” and “ambitious” began a trend of “self-improvement” in the military.
Every morning during training, streams of Martial Qi formed neat air ripples with the collective moves.
Nowadays, those in the Wu Family Northern Army practicing “Carp Leap Strength” all came from Poor Family or better backgrounds, more or less literate. In this way, it can be seen that the recruitment and maintenance cost of such archers is about four times that of ordinary archers. Of course, the range of these giant bows can reach two hundred twenty paces, 1.5 times that of ordinary elite archers. As for armor-piercing power? Its terminal velocity can still maintain an instantaneous high speed of fifty meters (fifty meters per second).
Unlike the Southern Route army under Wu Fei pursuing quantity and building economical and practical troops, the Northern Wu Family Army followed the “elite soldiers” system.
…Under the “Feather” character army flag of Shuoshuo…
Two days later, Wu Hengyu looked at this lake marsh, with Yu Li beside him. Yu Li said to Wu Hengyu: “Right there.” Yu Li unfolded a map, marking the center of Yunmeng Marsh.
Why had Yu Li entrenched herself in Yunmeng Marsh several years ago? Why had her flying ships stayed there without moving?
No one knew at the time, and even after Yu Li became a captive, she didn’t say for a long time. Only now, having fully settled down in the Wu Family, did she finally reveal the secret deep in Yunmeng Marsh.
That is, there was a Grotto-Heaven in Yunmeng Marsh, and this Grotto-Heaven could directly connect to five great lakes downstream of the Great River.
As for Yu Li, she herself was just one thunder tribulation away from Dragon Transformation, and under these five great lakes were sealed five treasures from the ancient great Cheng era. But now, with the Evil Moon in the sky, demons guarded every space linked by this Grotto-Heaven.
Before the Wu Family Army’s suppression, the Water Tribe corps led by her had already obtained four divine items. The first was the scorched-tail qin, legendarily made from a branch struck by lightning from a towering tree that the Azure Dragon transformed into.
The second, Sacred Dragon Scale; this was a reverse scale shed by the Response Dragon, and Yu Li had also pasted it on her chest.
The third, Cloud-Riding Sash; from the end of the great Cheng, a certain Divine General in his youth encountered a sinful dragon in the Eastern Sea, extracted its tendons, and made it into a waist sash.
The fourth was a Dragon Pearl; swallowing it could enable Dragon Transformation, but—Yu Li had not yet passed the final tribulation, so she could not use it.
As for the fifth, the one Yu Li had not obtained, it was a Dragon Blood Flower.
The four children born to Yu Li and Wu Hengyu all had more or less unusual features. Only by gathering the rare treasures could their Dragon Descendant bloodline, like the Haotian Dragon Descendant, “grow to summon clouds and mist, or shrink to hide scales and form.”
Thus, Wu Hengyu brought his troops here to complete the final task.
As the army rode dragon boats into the core of Yunmeng Marsh, the former Water Tribe immigrants knelt upon seeing Yu Li. Though long unseen, they still remembered her lingering influence. Yu Li could not help looking at Wu Hengyu.
Wu Hengyu spoke: “From now on, if these lake folk want protection, as long as they are willing to register in the census, I will take them in.”
Yu Li: “The General’s great kindness, this concubine thanks on behalf of the lake marsh commoners.”
Wu Hengyu gazed at her tenderly, embracing her once more, showing intimacy among these Water Tribe remnants.
At the same time, the clouds and mist of Yunmeng Marsh began to form a vortex, and a deep passage appeared in the lake.
…army shuttle dividing line…
After the entire army entered the Grotto-Heaven, they discovered it contained another world entirely; its sky was unexpectedly the reflection of the lake surface above. And the land beneath their feet was a gloomy lake marsh.
Wu Hengyu looked at the constantly shifting lake marsh overhead and asked Yu Li: “What is this place?”
Yu Li: “The area above consists of five great lakes. General, as long as you fly up and touch it, you can choose to reach one of them.”
With that, Yu Li raised her hand and shot a beam of Dragon Power into the sky above, causing the interface overhead to ripple like the lake surface.
She then further explained: “Within this Grotto-Heaven, all the lake surfaces are connected. Thus, the army can appear at any of the five lakes downstream of the Great River. This place is an orthodox training ground established here by the ancient Jie Faction.”
Wu Hengyu: “Besides you, who else knows?”
Yu Li: “The blue Evil Moon in the sky knows, but he has no way to enter; my sister Pu E also knows, but she is not good at swimming.”
Just as they were discussing, a situation appeared directly ahead of the entire army. Beams of pitch-black light fell from the ripples above, and after landing, large numbers of fish leaped out of the lake surface, then devoured these black lights, but soon transformed into monsters one after another.
After these monsters entered this “lake-connected Grotto-Heaven,” they instinctively sought blood food. Their noses sniffed around in all directions, seemingly distinguishing fresh blood qi from the stench on their companions. After identifying the direction of the blood qi, they excitedly ran toward the army, but upon seeing the army and sensing the oncoming killing intent, they immediately turned tail and fled.
With ranks of bows and arrows firing in unison, these monsters turned into porcupines.
Wu Hengyu, riding over on horseback, used the Star River Spear to pick up these monsters lying amid the water plants, after which Yu Li explained: “These are monsters corrupted by the supernatural power of mountains and marshes; some were thugs on the water, others beasts addicted to eating humans; however, once fully mutated, they fall. And these? Because the world under Heaven is polluted by the Evil Moon, demons are rampant everywhere, and the demons flow into the Grotto-Heaven.”
Wu Hengyu nodded and said to the personal soldiers nearby: “Please have the people from my sect come over.”
As Wu Hengyu’s words fell, Yu Li tactfully put on her veil and stood to the side.
Bai Renfeng and the other four cultivators hurried over; after meeting Wu Hengyu, they sat down one by one. This was also their first time coming to this underwater Grotto-Heaven world, and they were quite curious about everything here. Though it was their first visit, they could still recognize some of the spiritual herbs among the water plants here, as well as the nature of the demons.
Wu Hengyu pointed to that patch of lake surface ripples continuously emitting black light and asked them about it, whereupon Han Jiangxue, with her broad knowledge, immediately recalled the Records of Demons Under Heaven she had seen in the sect’s scripture pavilion. This catalog was updated every ten years, recording all demons that seized the jurisdictions of original orthodox gods in mountains, rivers, lakes, and marshes, for reference by disciples sent out to subdue demons and exorcise evil.
Han Jiangxue: “That is within Huai Ze of Wu Xu Commandery. There is an island in this lake marsh, locally known as ‘Black Mountain.’ A demon there calls itself the Black Mountain Ancestor.”
She used the Water Mirror Technique to show the situation there. Black Mountain was shrouded in a gloomy mist; even at noon, it was shrouded in clouds and mist, never seeing the light of day. Moreover, this mist would spread and diffuse at dusk, engulfing traveling merchants who strayed to the foot of the mountain. Those swallowed by the mist became servants of the Black Mountain Old Demon, pale-faced and half-ghostly, building villages here. At yin hours and moments, there would even be a parade of a hundred ghosts rampant on the roads in the commandery.
Qing Lin asked: “Shouldn’t that area be the territory of the Shang Ling Sect? Why don’t they do anything about it?”
Bai Renfeng: “Tens of thousands of thugs have gathered and entrenched there, forcibly seizing the mountain’s qi to claim kingship. Immortal families find it difficult to break through this wave of killing intent. So they can only let it be, unless the Imperial Court sends an army to attack.”
Zhu Yanming asked foolishly: “Then why hasn’t the local governor sent an army to wipe them out!”
Huang Yao: “The place is treacherous, full of marshes everywhere; even if the Imperial Court sweeps through, in a few years water bandits will settle here again, bullying fishermen, plaguing the human world, and eventually, under the baleful qi of mountains and rivers, greedily consuming blood food and turning into monsters.”
Wu Hengyu: “If the Imperial Court won’t act, we will. I ask my brothers from the sect to help me!”
These five Masters responded in unison: Eradicating demons is our duty.
They then began sword control, flying toward the rippling lake surface above.
These Immortal Sect disciples infiltrated as scouts to probe landing points for the army; the army needed flat ground to deploy.
Yu Li looked up at these five Immortal Sect disciples; just as Wu Hengyu thought she would praise his brothers as exceptional talents, Yu Li said: “The Orthodox Lineage of your brothers is incomplete.”
Wu Hengyu: “What?”
Yu Li: “Before the Da Yao, this realm had multiple great powers, but now they have clearly all left.”
…exposing the old background…
This lineage of the Qinghua Sect was founded by a Daoist Priest who came south two thousand years ago and has now passed through more than thirty generations of disciples. In the Da Yao, it is actually not an ancient Immortal Sect, but the Qinghua Sect Leader is hereditary, and the sect’s founding ancestor has some connection to the ancient Kunlun lineage, with its Orthodox Lineage being a branch of a branch.
Clear Source Daoist, back then, may not have learned it completely himself, but as his cultivation deepened, he supplemented the incomplete parts with his own understanding, and later generations continuously developed it further.
Currently, it can achieve techniques such as penetrating the netherworld, driving gods, shouldering mountains, forbidding water, borrowing wind, laying mist, praying for clear weather, praying for rain, sitting in fire, entering water, veiling the sun, controlling wind, boiling stone, spitting flames, swallowing blades, Pot Heaven, and so on.
As for the orthodox Orthodox Lineage legends of the Kunlun lineage—such as mediating creation, inverting Yin Yang, shifting stars and changing constellations, turning back heaven and returning the sun, summoning rain and calling wind, shaking mountains and quaking earth, riding mist and soaring clouds, parting rivers to form land, and other great supernatural powers—they were completely lost after the Immortals ascended ten thousand years ago.
The major sects are all like this. Each has only picked up partial Orthodox Lineages; to deduce orthodox Daoist Magic, they still need the dynasty to grant official titles, borrowing the Yao Calculation power of mountains and rivers to complete the damaged Orthodox Lineage.
Yu Li looked at Wu Hengyu and said: “You just called them senior brother and junior brother?”
Wu Hengyu nodded: “The sect has not yet expelled me from its registers.”
Yu Li nodded: “It seems your sect hopes you can achieve something on the Divine Path at this time of Great Tribulation.”
Wu Hengyu: What is the “Divine Path”?
Yu Li was also surprised: “You don’t know? In the last Calamity, famous generals at the convergence of wind and clouds were all enfeoffed as City Gods or Mountain Gods.”
Yu Li then said: “The Divine Path is not bad at all. The Immortal Path your brothers cultivate has an incomplete Orthodox Lineage. In a hundred years, if they cannot ascend by flying into the sky to other stars, they will have no choice but to soldier’s solution. And now with the Evil Moon overhead, all ascensions are scams.”
