V3C28

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Just as Zihu had said, there is indeed a sacrificial altar at the top of the mountain. They don’t know what age it was left. Very old, but the carved fence and bronze censer are still there, the ancient and rustic atmosphere is still there.

The sky was dark by then, and a disc-like bright moon hung in the sky, with moonlight spreading like frost, was quietly scattered on the stone slab of the altar, which was as bright as a mirror, reminding people of how many shamans and Taoists had worshipped the gods and heaven and earth here.

For some reason, this dilapidated feels mysteriously sacred, surrounded by thousands of mountains and peaks, all quiet, looking up at the dark sky and down at the vast earth, the people can’t help but feel awe, not daring to laugh or speak.

Zihu also reduced the usual immodest behaviour. She bowed her head for a while, to contemplate something they don’t know for a long time, suddenly ordered, “You go, starting from the north, in order to light the eight ever-bright altar lamps.[1]“

There are eight one-person-high stone pillars around the altar, filled with secret grease and a wick as thick as a child’s arm, which must be the “ever-bright” altar lamps she mentioned.

Yu Sifeng lit the torches, starting from the north, staggered left and right, and lit the eight long-lasting lamps. The eight lamps correspond to the eight directions, that is, the position of the eight trigrams[2], so a wrong step is not allowed.

Once the lanterns burned, the flames immediately rose into the air half a person high, its color like blue, swirling and twisting, reflecting a layer of ghostly green shadow on everyone’s face.

The purple fox gently said: “There is a pool of pure water behind the altar, sprinkle this inside and go clean yourself and change your clothes.”

She pointed to the huge bronze tripod in front of her with a pointed mouth, the tripod is not carved with flowers, birds and animals, but in the four corners of the four sides are carved with strange human faces, like crying, like laughing, like subversive, like crazy, and it was creepy. The ashes of the incense left behind for many years are as white as snow. Xuanji looked back at the three teenagers, and obviously she had to be the first to clean themselves and change their clothes.

She grabbed a handful of incense ash and transferred it to the altar. Sure enough, there was a small pool of water. She doesn’t know what depth. However, the top of the mountain was so cold that there was a thin layer of ice on the pool. It was a little scary to do down to take a bath.

She had to use a sword to break a hole in the ice, scattering incense ash into it, followed by taking off her clothes, closed her eyes, and jumped down as if she were dead.

On a cold day, bathing in freezing water is tantamount to self-abuse. It was obvious that the four of them were not accustomed to this kind of purification, and after the bath, everyone’s face was frozen red and shivering, and they could only barely use their energy to keep warm.

“Are you all right?”

The purple fox asked, suddenly her front paws moved forward, whispered, “To do this kind of thing, one must have a human form. There’s no helping it, let’s try.”

The people saw her back rise high, gradually elongated, sharp claws and dense fur soon disappeared, the purple fox on stage suddenly stood up, long hair poured down, wearing purple clothes, but the fox ears above her head and tail can not be retracted in any way.

“Alas …… that damned snake demon …… the remaining poison hasn’t been cleansed until now ……” she touched her ears bitterly.

Usually when she wants to become human, she rolls on the ground and breaks out of the original body. This is the first time they see her real body change and can not help but be a little surprised. Zihu snapped her head towards them, this face and the purple beauty’s usual face exactly similar, but the fangs in the mouth are sharp, her pupils are green like a wild animal, in the bleak moonlight, she appeared three parts ferocious, four parts horrible.

“Give me the package.” She muttered and stretched out her hand. The fur on her hand was not removed. It was clearly the claws of a beast, and her fingernails were more than three inches long.

Xuanji hurriedly handed her the package. Zihu ran out in Ge’ermu to buy some things by herself, secretly not letting them look at it and packed it in a package, no one knew what was inside. Seeing that she shook the package open, there were five big incense sticks the size of a small arm and five dark candles nearly half a person long. Xuanji has seen this thing before, but she heard from her Master that it was a private secret system. A kind of incense stick, which contains cinnabar and black dog blood and is mixed with unheard of materials. It is only used for major sacrifices. The actual purpose of the incense and candles were not clear even to the master.

While she was thinking about this, Zihu stuffed the big incense and candles in her hands, “Go and light the incense and candles, and then bring them to me.”

Xuanji only felt that the candles felt a bit rough and when she looked down and saw what was carved on it. Zishi hour of the Twelfth Day of the Eighth Month of the Third Year[3], it was exactly her birthday. She was slightly shocked, but suddenly remembered that the purple fox in Gao’s mountain had said that the birth date of a mortal was transparent in her eyes, and she could see through it at a glance.

After lighting the incense and candles, Zihu inserted the incense into the bronze censer, and put the candles in a circle on the ground, whispered, “When the incense is burned out, we must return to the altar. So we have to move fast. No one can move this candle. As long as it is extinguished, we will be bounced back to the mountain, suffering serious injuries.”

Buzhou Mountain is not a place in the living world. If they were to go in, they would be lost to the world of the living, this is bound to cause an imbalance. So, the candle is a substitute for their destiny to stay in the living world. Once extinguished, the gods guarding Buzhou Mountain will immediately find out and drive them out of Buzhou Mountain.

Xuanji couldn’t help but ask, “You …… said you grew up playing on Buzhou Mountain, didn’t you? How do you also want to do this?”

Zihu barked, “This is no time to ask these questions! I have long left Buzhou Mountain to cultivate into a person, If I want to go back again, I can only be the same as you, where is the exception!”

Xuanji was yelled at by her, so she had to shut up.

Zihu spoke again, “The moon is in the middle of the sky, the time has come, I want to start the worship. None of you are allowed to make a sound.”

After that, she floated up, her long hair fluttered, her feet were floating towards the bright light of the north. her sleeves suddenly unfolded, like a phoenix with open winds and she raised her head and screamed, like wailing. The flame seems to be infected, trembling and jumping up.

The four people are silently sitting in a circle, in front of a black candle carved with their birthdays. Hearing the purple fox whistle long and clear, and for a moment they could not tell whether it was singing or the howling of a wild animal. The long light from eight directions jumped up and down, the shadows on the ground also stretched out in all directions, the sky seems to have dark clouds gathered, blocking the moon like the ice wheel, the gusts of wind, mixed with inexplicable ghostly cries and wolves, which was frightening.

The purple fox suddenly stopped, sitting steadily cross-legged in the middle, hands forming seals, forehead stained with sweat. The left and right hands suddenly separated, one pointing to the sky, one pointing to the ground, muttered: “Chariot of spirit.”

As soon as the words fell, I saw a white light flashing in all directions, and a silver lightning bolt fell from the top of the sky, which seemed to split the whole sky into two, and the roar was deafening.

Her body swayed slightly, as if she could not bear it, and her face suddenly turned white, but she gritted her teeth and held on, closing her hands together and chanting.

“Binding dark clouds!”

The dark clouds at the top of the sky seemed to be stirred by a huge hand, swirling and fluctuating rapidly, almost as if to tear the whole sky apart. When the group saw such a phenomenon, have also long forgotten how to speak and are looking at the sight with dropped jaws. Zihu panted heavily and could not hold on any longer, limp on the ground.

“Ah…” When Xuanji opened her mouth, she suddenly remembered that she had told her not to speak, so she hurriedly got up to support her.

She heard a loud thunderclap from above her head, and a sudden flash of lightning struck this small altar at the same time. She was so shocked that she forgot to support the purple fox, and involuntarily let go of her hand.

“The door, the door opened ……” Zihu struggled to sit up, whispered: “Go …… to the center of the altar …… we go …. …Buzhou Mountain.”

The lightning did not retreat, stabbed across the sky and earth, like a huge cage, wrapped up this altar, can not get out, can not come in.

Xuanji saw Yu Sifeng and the others still looking dazed and confused, so she tugged his sleeve, “Let’s go! Linglong is waiting!”

They were about to get up when they heard someone behind them roar: “No one is allowed to go!”

Everyone was astonished, hurriedly turned back, only to see that outside the lightning cage, side by side stood three people, hovering upon the swords stopped in mid-air, it is actually Chu Lei, Chu Ying Hong and and Elder Yang. They are all sweating and panting, and they are trying their best to get here.

Xuanji was stunned for a long time, before saying: “Father …… Master …… you how ……”

The altar was shrouded in lightning, the three of them simply can not approach, can only stop outside with their swords. Chu Lei said sternly: “No one is allowed to go to the unbounded mountain! Do you hear me? Come back!”

How can they not go! They had come here with great difficulty, and were about to save Linglong and Second Brother, how could they give up!

Xuanji was about to argue, when Zhong Minyan behind him suddenly said, “Please forgive me, I cannot accept Master’s order! We will definitely go to Bu Zhou Mountain and bring back Ling Long! Please don’t worry, Master and Uncle.”

How could he speak like that? Xuanji was shocked. Although Zhong Minyan is usually foolish, but in front of father he is always obedient, dare not have the slightest disrespect, today this kind of tone of voice, absolutely not like the usual him!

Chu Lei was really furious, said, “You will go to your death! Do you think there are still not enough people in trouble?”

Zhong Minyan said loudly, “Master, do not underestimate the disciples! I have the confidence to return in one piece.”

Chu Lei was so angry that his face was blue, can’t say a word. On the other side, Chu Ying Hong hurriedly intercepted, “Minyan, Xuanji! No! We are not underestimating you! But that place does not belong to the living, it is very dangerous, only afraid that there is no return! Xuanji, father and mother have already lost Linglong, can you bear to let them lose you again?”

Xuanji’s heart trembled and she was speechless.

Zhong Minyin was still arguing: “Master, Elders, don’t bother! We are determined to go! This time, we can definitely save Second Brother and Linglong!”

Chu Lei was furious and waved his sleeve, saying, “Zhong Minyan! You want to go, fine! You are no longer a disciple of Shao Yang Sect! From today onwards, you will be expelled from the sect! This is the price for your recklessness!”

Expelled from the sect! This is the most serious punishment! Xuanji immediately shouted, “Father! How can you ……”

“Don’t call me father! I don’t have a daughter like you!”

Xuanji was blocked by him. The pain was so severe that tears immediately poured out of her eyes.

Zhong Minyan’s face was pale and he was stunned for a long time, only to hear Zihu say urgently from the side, “Hurry! The door is closing!”

His body trembled greatly, suddenly prostrate on the ground, kowtowed three times to Chu Lei, said, with a trembling voice “I am not good! Even if I am expelled by the master, I still want to find Linglong! Do not dare to beg the master to take back the order, but the disciple …… can not repay the master’s grace and will never feel peace of mind for the rest of his life!”

After saying that, he got up proudly and turned his face towards the center of the altar, and in a flash of white light, he disappeared in an instant.

“Minyan!” The three people in the air could not help but exclaim.

Xuanji looked at Chu Lei, and then look at the center of the altar, and finally gritted her teeth and walked over.

White light flashed a few more times, Yu Sifeng and the others all have gone in, only one left is the purple fox, who looked up to the air and saw the three pale people, said: “You immortal cultivators, really ruthless! They are so desperate, for whom?!”

After saying so, she also plunged to the center of the altar, the next instant, the lightning white light bombardment disappeared, leaving only the bronze censer, the five huge incense inserted in it, a circle of black candles under the censer, candle flames swaying, as if nothing earth-shattering had happened.

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[1]: The original term used is 長明燈 (cháng míng dēng) meaning ‘altar lamp burning day and night’.

[2]: Bagua / Eight Trigrams: The Bagua, Pakua or Palgwae are eight symbols used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts. Each consists of three lines, each line either “broken” or “unbroken”, respectively representing yin or yang, 0 or 1 forming binary numbers 000-111 (0 to 7). Due to their tripartite structure, they are often referred to as Eight Trigrams in English.

[3]: 丙(bǐng) 酉(yǒu) 乙亥(yǐhài) 庚寅(gēng yín) 子時(zishi) – the author has written the birthday in the form of the 八字 / bā zì or Eight Characters or Birthdate Characters, which are used in Chinese Astrology to create a chart (or horoscope) of a person’s life. Here is more information about it.

Originally, the birthday is written in the format of Year->Month->Day->Hour. However in English it sounded awkward i.e, Third Year’s Eighth Month’s Twelfth Day’s Zishi Hour. In which the Year refers to the year in the Sexagenary Cycle and the Month and Day from the Chinese Lunar Calendar. 子時(zishi) refers to an old Chinese timekeeping method in which the day was separated into twelve sets of 2-hour periods. So, 子時(zishi) would be between 11pm to 1am.

Also, please note that, while the author has written 丙(bǐng) 酉(yǒu) , as far as I have been able to understand, there is no such year combination (3, 10) in the Sexagenarian Cycle. Either I have misinterpreted the date, or it is a typo. As such, I have chosen 丙寅(bǐngyín) (3,3) or the third year of the cycle (Year of the Fire Tiger). Other options could be 丙子(bǐngzǐ) (3,1) Year Thirteen of the cycle (Year of the Fire Rat) or 丙戌(bǐngxū) (3, 11) Year Twenty-Three of the cycle (Year of the Fire Dog).

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