Chapter 73: The Fire Of Separation Appears
In the 31st year of the Shu Tian Calendar, October, that is, 10 days after Wu Fei recovered from his illness, Ling Jiangnan was already in complete chaos at this time.
Those many tribes that knelt and worshiped the Li Huo Sect had seen with their own eyes that the millennium sacred land was a piece of dim gray, with all the bright lamps completely extinguished. This collective darkening scene was just like a massive power outage in modern society. For these fire-worshipping, lamp-revering barbarian tribes of the Southern Border, it was like a whistling past, blowing out all the flames.
Although the ferocity of the Li Huo Sect’s method of lighting fires to rule was incomprehensible to the Da Yao people, if this kind of rule suddenly disappeared, it would make the barbarian tribes unaccustomed, because they were used to the illumination of the lamps and fires.
The pain of being scorched under the Li Huo Sect’s lamps and fires was known, but the fear after the lamps and fires were extinguished was unknown.
Narration
After the lanterns went out, great terror appeared in the various tribes south of Ling River. The leaders of each tribe went mad. They began continuously killing their own clansmen. Once they killed to a certain extent, the gu worms inside their bodies activated, biting through their bodies, then clawing and baring teeth as they burrowed into the nostrils, eyes, ears, and other orifices of other people. And in the shrubbery outside the tribes, sharp serrated teeth appeared on the grass leaves. These sharp teeth began biting people like living creatures.
…The dividing line craving Fire Glory…
At this time, south of the Ling River, Ang Ri and Zhao Tu were teaming up to explore.
Under the swift winds blowing from heaven, Ang Ri gazed toward the direction of Yun Qie Valley, where once the scorching Vermilion Bird Fire had sustained Yang Yao, but now it was completely out of balance, with the jungle below writhing.
In places where certain bushes shook violently, the screams of the natives came through, while trees and vines moved, and the jungle seemed to grow teeth to chew up flesh and blood.
Zhao Tu: “There seem to be people over there.”
Zhao Tu pointed at a group of Clawed People fleeing in a stream, with a group of Mountain Imps that had already merged with twigs chasing behind them.
Ang Ri opened a magical instrument bottle. As Ang Ri slightly broke open the bottle’s seal, every single fluff feather on his mount Tai Yue Luan trembled, with fear mixed with excitement.
Before arriving, this Tai Yue Luan had already eaten the fire pill refined by Jia Mude, but the dust that fell from Wu Fei’s body could only be considered embers.
And now, what this bottle contains is a drop of Wu Fei’s blood. When Wu Fei completely unleashes “strong oxidizing property,” that is, activates the Vermilion Bird bloodline, a drop of blood that stabs from his fingertip.
…scene divider…
Two hours ago, in the Central Military Camp.
Tai Yue Luan and the griffin obediently sat in a row nearby, while Wu Fei separately instructed Ang Ri and Zhao Tu.
Wu Fei: “You must pay attention to safety. Withdraw immediately if anything seems wrong.” After saying that, he took the needle and pricked his finger.
As a drop of blood detached from Wu Fei’s body, it was burning with inextinguishable flames. After giving this thing to him, Wu Fei sucked on the finger that had been pricked to draw blood while carefully instructing the dumbfounded Ang Ri.
Ang Ri carefully placed the blood droplet into his “Hunyuan Yiqi Bottle” for safekeeping. Now this wisp of Sacred Flame could no longer be collected by ordinary objects; even the finest Fire Jade would instantly melt into a pool of jade liquid upon touching the blood droplet.
That Mixed Origin Bottle was the container given to him by the Moon Empress to store “Bi Fang Source”. After coming into contact with that drop of Wu Fei’s blood, the originally cyan bottle instantly turned red.
Wu Fei had never seen such a “strong oxidation” state, where the body was adjusted to its limit, leaving red marks on the skin—it was a first for him. He watched wide-eyed as the drop of blood he squeezed out nearly burned down the entire military tent.
As for the item that Ang Ri gifted to Wu Fei, there was only one term: “Vermilion Bird Sacred Flame”. This item’s grade was much higher than the treasure fluff that Fire Ancestor used as a wick.
…Switch back to the present…
After this thing manifested, the jungle that was originally still in the Taotie instantly trembled. Immediately after, the jungle for dozens of miles became completely still. Of course, it wasn’t dead. Ang Ri could feel the trembling of the hidden demon veins within the body of every demon tree pretending to be dead.
As for those who didn’t have time to play dead by “remaining completely still,” they had already carbonized and were drifting in the air above, emitting smoke.
…perspective switch…
The fleeing Clawed People suddenly felt that the Mountain Imps chasing from behind had gone quiet. Turning their heads to look, they were directly stunned.
The mountain imp’s petrified stiff stance became burning charcoal, with fiery red spreading across its body. And looking around toward the four directions, it was as if the entire jungle was emanating fireworks aura.
And the Clawed People suddenly smelled something, looked at themselves, and black smoke also rose from their own bodies. They hurriedly rubbed themselves, and thus some sparks fell off, but there was no pain, only warmth.
This scene is similar to the one after a nuclear flash, where items in the light radiation zone are ignited. But it only affects evil things.
Strands of scorching spread, and the eerie ghostly wails that had originally surrounded like background noise also suddenly disappeared.
The fleeing Clawed People quickly gave up their meaningless actions, because a mild warmth they felt approaching from overhead was drawing near, the lights of the Li Huo Sect could make them feel protected, but also carried a scorching pain. And this mass of “fire” drawing closer was vast. Thus, before the Clawed People could even clearly see Ang Ri and Zhao Tu’s appearances, they collectively knelt down.
…in the midst of paying respects…
Ang Ri was somewhat taken aback facing these Southern Border Tribes who knelt down on the spot, but he felt it was only natural.
Ang Ri: “Races that have no response at all to the Sacred Fire’s aura are not worthy of continuing to exist in the Southern Border.”
After learning from the mouths of these kneeling Clawed People about the current chaos in the Southern Border, Ang Ri had Zhao Tu send this group of people north of the river for the army to interrogate, while he continued toward Yun Qie Valley to investigate.
In this way, Zhao Tu took these “tongues” and headed north of the river. Ang Ri streaked a red trail across the sky, advancing straight into Yun Qie Valley.
Along the way, large swaths of jungle demons and monsters were all ignited by the Vermilion Bird aura, just like a 21st-century magnetic pulse specifically targeting electronic products. One second they were going mad in the shadows, the next second they were smoking.
…Tai Yue Luan flapped her wings…
In Yun Qie Valley. In the past, this place had a seeping religious atmosphere, but now it is an eerie bustle. The Yun Qie Valley with extinguished lamps is shrouded in mist, and upon closer inspection, this surging mist consists of vengeful spirits surging within it like sea waves.
As the Soul-Calming Curse personally presided over by the Fire Ancestor failed to kill, after the 102 slaves whose birth charts harmonized with Wu Fei’s suffered the failure of their life-bound gu worm curses, the evil they had wrought over four hundred years rebounded on them.
After Ang Ri arrived here, these vengeful spirits in the mist parted to make way for him. To be precise, they made way for the fiery red bottle in his arms, which allowed him to reach the original holy site “Fire Pit” in Yun Qie Valley extremely smoothly.
And now this cave is no longer hot; dense mist-state vengeful spirits are coming in and out here, crawling around just like maggots.
And at the bottom of the cave, as if sensing that Ang Ri had arrived, an ugly mud-like monster stood up in the mist, looking up at Ang Ri.
Ang Ri knew this was that Fire Ancestor; at this moment, in his extinguished state, he was struggling to lift his head.
Upon seeing the fiery red bottle in Ang Ri’s arms, he let out an inhuman howling sound. Although the words could not be distinguished, it was clearly a cry of longing, but the massive number of vengeful spirits entangled him. And they teased and mocked him. These vengeful spirits, like octopus tentacles, writhed and tightly clung to the Fire Ancestor in the fire pit.
Ang Ri glanced at the guy and said coldly, “One who brings misfortune upon oneself cannot live.”
He thus mounted Tai Yue Luan and flew away. Meanwhile, the Fire Ancestor below roared, but was soon drowned by the vengeful spirits again.
…In the northern Ling River military camp…
Wu Fei looked at the pieces of animal hide maps, which had been delivered by the Southern Border captives.
Zhao Tu and Ang Ri successively brought reports on the Southern Border Tribes as well as the Li Huo Sect, forcing the Wu Family Army’s southward advance to confront an entirely new problem: the current scattered Southern Border tribes were in a power vacuum, incapable of even blocking his own army.
In the military tent, the generals discussed noisily, while Gongshu Wang performed a Yao Calculation and then suddenly said to Wu Fei, “My lord, under heaven, every mountains and rivers belongs to the virtuous. The Southern Border barbarians have rejected royal rule for three hundred years; now that your army has arrived, this is a heaven-sent opportunity. To not seize it is to invite calamity!”
Wu Fei stared at him, and Gongshu Wang revealed a smile.
Wu Fei knew his reason for persuading him. When Gongshu Wang had defected to him, Wu Fei had quietly investigated; the Mohist School’s decline over these past few centuries was due to a lack of spirit wood. Without materials, puppet technique became cooking without rice.
And three hundred years ago, even the main sect could barely continue. Because of the Southern Border rebellion, the last channel for obtaining thousand-year spirit wood was gone, and Gongshu Wang had come to him to revive the sect, so now, for personal reasons, he had to urge him to attack.
In the end, Wu Fei nodded to him; at least he had expressed his attitude openly instead of bottling up the “bad” inside.
Thus, Wu Fei pondered for a moment and drew a military order arrow.
Drums thundered like lightning across the three major camps north of the Ling River.
Human Realm killing intent surged, stirring the qi of heaven and earth. South of Yongji Pass, there were no prefectures and counties, no prefects to regulate the mountains and rivers qi, but here there was human governance, by Wu Fei himself, so his military order could draw upon the power of mountains and rivers.
The Way of Heaven takes from the surplus and adds to the deficit. Now the mountains and rivers south of the Ling River were too severely damaged, so the mountains and rivers north of the Ling River indeed favored the influx. The Ling River waters responded to the military order, with parts of its riverbed rising, causing the river to backflow into tributaries on the south bank of the Ling River, diverting massive traffic around the main channel.
Meanwhile, downstream on the Ling River, where the Wu Family Army was camped, the river turned into calm, shallow shallows.
The various armies preparing bamboo rafts suddenly discovered they could now cross directly by swimming.
Thus, the battalion officers of the three Wu Family Army routes sent men to observe upstream before launching a full army assault across the Ling River.
Fifteen shichen later, the army advanced unhindered to south of the Ling River.
For this campaign, around ten thousand men were scattered across the Southern Border. The cavalry was not numerous; if it were the Southern Border tribes four years ago, this thin soldier line would be devoured entirely by the horde within ten days.
But now, just after reaching the shore, the various Southern Border tribes trembled and came forward to prostrate themselves obediently.
Only after careful questioning was it learned that before the army arrived, the leaders of various tribes had either been burst open by unknown parasites or mutated, leaving the tribes leaderless; the courage of these tribal remnants had been utterly crushed by the terrifying mutated things in the mountains and forests.
Narration: Just like a little parrot, after seeing a hawk alive devouring its kin outside, eagerly drills back into its cage.
And after the army arrived, this reign of terror suddenly stopped. So these Southern Border tribal remnants were now sincerely submitting. Outside the camp, even tribesmen mutated into overly grotesque forms knelt at the entrance; soldiers couldn’t drive them away even with whips, and even seeing shackles in soldiers’ hands, they proactively approached to be locked and obediently entered the cages.
Clearly, compared to kneeling as slaves, the unspeakable encounters in the jungle over these dozen days were far more terrifying.
Wu Fei then ordered a three-hundred-man army corps to continue exploration, advancing deep into the Southern Border. Along the way, this corps saw various remains, such as corpses with branches growing from their seven orifices, or skeletons torn off alive and hung as “lanterns” on trees.
Notably, in the former Southern Border, humans and monsters were indistinguishable. Humans mutated into “monsters,” beasts into “spirits”; both had spiritual intelligence and limbs but weren’t human-like, living together.
It could even be called a reversal of humans and beasts: big ones like mountain monsters were originally mutant bear offspring, while clawed people and horned people were human, with humans taming bears—but mountain monsters tamed humans.
In the current series of changes, the mountain spirit lineage became extremely brutal in mutation; for example, mountain imps had almost symbiotically fused with trees.
Thus in the past, “spirits” in the Southern Border were generally more prone to corruption than monsters, having already undergone beastly survival of the fittest, able to bear more “malevolent” qi after the mountains and rivers changed.
“Monsters” from human mutation required even more brutal changes to survive this new hellscape.
But this worsening after the lanterns extinguished had just begun when it was interrupted by Wu Fei’s army arriving—after all, the lights went out, but torches came.
All corrupted mountain spirits were burned to death, so the races that surrendered were all human monsters.
Unknowingly, the Southern Border underwent a racial screening.
…Two days after crossing the river…
The Wu Family Army began mobilizing more food and grass across the river; along the way, the charred remains of evil creatures were tallied.
Scene: A soldier temporarily stepping out of formation to relieve himself prods these carbonized skeletons hanging on treetops with his sword; upon collision, it sounds like knife scraping sand. With a slight push, the grinning-skulled head falls, “peng,” shattering, and the rest instantly turns to flying ash, covering the soldier’s face. Feeling unlucky, he hurriedly pats it off and runs back to his formation.
At the main camp in the military camp, though Wu Fei had already learned the full picture from Ang Ri, he was still somewhat surprised at how smoothly it went.
Wu Fei muttered to himself: It feels just like the Qing army entering the pass and picking up victory for free.
Wu Fei gazed at the blooming north bank of the rolling Great River. Pondering the next step of “advancing pawns.” On the third day after crossing, Wu Fei issued the order: the whole army raises the Da Yao flag. And he began ordering dragon horse cavalry to mark conspicuous spots in mountains and rivers north and south of the Ling River.
For the next military operation, Wu Fei would take up his brush to explore the map, drawing regional boundaries.
As the Imperial Court-appointed Major General, currently the highest military position in the Southern Border, Wu Fei decided to use this identity to legitimize this military operation.
Because Wu Fei heard too many Southern Border tribes starting to chant his name, spread by those ignorant fools after the soldiers’ boasts.
Wu Fei’s traditional introspective thinking: This is no good! If feats are sung too mythically in these “conquered” areas, when transmitted to civilized regions, it would backfire into “cocky bumpkin” judgments.
To make this expedition’s legitimacy recognized by more people in the interior, Wu Fei adopted a modest and cautious attitude.
As Wu Fei’s brush tip fell on mountains and rivers on the silk book, defining future farmable pacification regions with potential roughly two to three Da Yao prefectures, the Human Realm in mountains and rivers began to take shape.
Outside the military tent, foraging house sparrows lifted their heads, then took flight toward the points set by Wu Fei’s brush tip. Tiny birds flying over the savage jungle caused leaves within a hundred zhang to sway; at their chirps, foxes, rats, tigers, wolves all looked up and listened.
…This Human Realm was guided from Da Yao…
In the Divine Capital, within the central palace, Emperor Shu looked at the Map of Mountains and Rivers underfoot; he paced to its southwest, because in these dozen days, the southern geography fog on the map began dissipating. Though not as clear as Da Yao’s heartland, the main river channels and regional population scales were now visible.
This was the first time in four hundred years this land reappeared on the Map of Mountains and Rivers after detaching from Da Yao oversight.
Emperor Shu asked the eunuch beside him, “Is it that boy in the south?”
Eunuch: “Yes, Your Majesty, it’s that boy from the Wu Family.”
Emperor Shu had long paid attention to the Southern Border situation; after all, a few years ago when Wu Fei investigated the Li Huo Sect secrets and touched on some Da Yao royal matters, ordinary people would have stopped, but Wu Fei, with distance from the emperor, continued sending men to probe, thus drawing the attention of Emperor Shu’s inner guards.
However, the inner guard could determine that Wu Fei’s investigation aimed at teaching the Li Huo Sect a lesson in the Southern Border, and showed continuous movements of deploying military forces to attack the Southern Border factions, rather than colluding with the demons and monsters within the Li Huo Sect to subvert the imperial family, so they decided to quietly observe and wait.
Now on the Map of Mountains and Rivers, that ulcer of the Li Huo Sect has begun to heal, Wu Fei lived up to expectations by taking down the root source in the Southern Border, and has raised the Da Yao flag.
Emperor Shu nodded and said to the summoned Sima: “Draft the decree.”
A strand of imperial will condensed and began flying toward the South.
