Chapter 9 - Lunar Festival

Throughout the month that followed, Ju Feng was spending more time cultivating his soul and vigorously practicing his martial arts. He had resolved not to disappoint his mother and grandparents, but rather, to make them proud in all things.

Everyday, he practiced martial arts from morning till the afternoon, mystical arts from the afternoon till evening and cultivation technique till late in the night. These extensive trainings were having a massive effect on his development.

In martial arts, he was focusing more on the Shifting Heavens hand technique since It was not an element affiliated technique, but a technique that relied on the chi energy inside the body. Although he was still at the initial stages of swordsmanship, he shifted his attention to hand combat which was more easier to learn.

His training in the mystical arts had continued with him using the Soul Pith technique making his soul gained more awareness and got more connected to his affiliated elements.

Meanwhile, he was still at the early stage of Chi refining in cultivation, but using the astral primal technique had increased the quantity and quality of Chi in his body to an alarming state.

As the festival date got nearer, there was great happiness in the air as the villages were gripped in the celebration mood, preparing food and drinks to be shared with others. Lunar dumplings made of rice, lunar cakes of millet, lunar grubs of moonbugs and lunar milk from the mountain yaks, were some of the treaties that were being arranged for the festival.

Ju Feng was extremely anxious to see what a major festival would look like as the following day would be the beginning of the lunar festival. The villages headmen, designated village elders and the nascent soul cultivators would all be there. However, if there were no nascent souls in a village, golden core cultivators would be representing the village. And since it was an open festival, any villager who could also make the trip was a highly welcomed.

He had never seen a major festival before talkless of one involving all the nine villages, hence, he had been preparing for the day. At one corner of the room, was his folded the new robe, given to him by his mother. All these were creating enxiety in him which he tried to aleviate through meditation, but after a while, he slowly slept off.

The following morning, he woke up very early and cleaned himself before putting on his new robe. As a special day, there would be no form of training on this day. He arrived in the living chamber as his mother and grandmother were preparing the morning food, and the ones for the festival.

"Good morning ma, grandma."

"Good morning, son."

"Good morning, my grandson."

Zhang Wang Jing smiled before pointing to her grandson's robe.

"Is that a new robe you have on?"

"Yes grandma. Ma just got them for me."

He smiled gleamingly while patting his robe. His conversation with his grandma was cut short by Zhang Xiu Ying who set the prepared food on the table before reaching for the basket.

"That's the last one, ma."

The lunar plain was at the center of the nine villages which was over seventy miles from their village. As a special ocassion's day, they decided to ride their swords which quickly turned to streaks of lights as they sped towards the plain.and in a matter of seconds, they arrived at the lunar plain.

Alighting from their swords after arriving in a matter of seconds, they quickly located headman Huan Yu and the section for their village containing needed cultivators and other villagers. As they headed in the direction of headman Huan, they continued exchanging greetings with the people they met from other villages who were happy to be there.

It was a joyful day and everybody was in great spirit. Afterall, this only happened every thousand year. And all the villagers continued to exchange numerous food and other gifts they had prepared, as the festivity's happy mood kept on increasing. Really, it was a special ocassion.

"Let me introduce the two of you to the other dignitaries according to our tradition. Please follow me."

Voiced Huan Yu before moving ahead of the two nascent cultivators — Zhang Xiu Ying and Chu Shang Wu — who easily followed and kept up with him, as he continued to address them.

"Lady Zhang Xiu Ying. I know this is your first time witnessing this festival, but I believe you've already heard about it before. Nevertheless, I will reiterate it to you. This festival is a way of promoting unity and harmony among the nine villages, and at the same time, making them work harder in preparing the future generations. The nine villages were formed by nine siblings of the same ancestral lineage. Skyspring, Redeagle, Rainwater, Windfall, Fountainfox, Yellowbay, Solarpeak, Wallmount and Mountaincrust. Being siblings, they looked for ways to stay united."

He stopped for a second and glanced at Zhang Xiu Ying before smoothing the sleeves of his robe.

"So, they created the lunar festival. The siblings discovered that every thousand years, when the nine orbital stars aligned with the moon, it would cause a reaction at top of the lunar mountain. It creates the floating lunar stone — radiant stones that shine for a thousand years. Although they were just ordinary light stones, they determine the ranking of the nine villages. The first lunary to come back will make his or her village to be the number one ranked village and it goes on like that. Just to let you know, we ranked fourth the last time."

Huan Yu looked sideways with a bright smile.

"The first day of the festival, like today, is for a friendly competition among the villages. Before this day, each village will determine its representative known as lunary who must be at the Zhuji stage. Each of these lunaries will gather here at the lunar plain. At the sound of the gong, they will race to the top of the mountain to collect one lunar stone and return here. The main test is at the top of the mountain where there's a mist that affects the mind of lower cultivators. However, the Zhuji stage cultivators can withstand it, but they will be greatly slowed down. That's why we prepare our lunaries properly for our villages' honors."

He halted for a few seconds when he saw some recognizable faces before speaking rapidly.

"And as part of the tradition, you may be asked for some friendly spars. It's really good because it will raise your prestige as a nascent soul cultivator and the honor of our village."

"I can manage with that."

Voiced Zhang Xiu Ying with a nod of her head as she glanced at Chu Shang Wu who was following the conversation without any words. His gaze was keenly set on the nascent soul cultivators ahead.

First was Fountainfox. The village headman was Jiang Bin, a peak-stage golden core cultivator, and with him were two nascent soul cultivators. One was Tu Yun Fan, a late-stage nascent soul cultivator and an air and ice elements affiliate. While the other was Yun Wu You, also a late stage nascent soul cultivator and a water element affiliate.

Away from Fountainfox dignitaries, they were introduced to the other village headmen and their nascent soul cultivators or otherwise.

Four of the villages — Fountainfox, Rainwater, Skyspring and Redeagle — had two nascent soul cultivators each. Another four villages — Windfall, Yellowbay, Solarpeak and Mountaincrust — each had one nascent soul cultivator and one golden core cultivator. Whereas, Wallmount had no nascent soul cultivator, but came with two peak stage golden core cultivators.

After a while, it was time for the lunar competition to begin. The lunaries were stationed at the starting points with some distance among them. At the sound of the gong, they took-off, racing up the mountain. As with the rules, no teleportation talismans and portal seals were allowed — not that they could afford to use any here, anyway. Only movement techniques or talismans were allowed to be used.

Some lunaries used quick steps and light steps techniques, others used flash steps talismans. Zuo He, the lunary from Skyspring was using the lightning steps talisman, making him climbed the mountain at a very fast pace. Despite this, others too were at the same level with him while some were even above him.

Although it took them few minutes — with some seconds' interval, they all reached the top almost at the same time. Once they entered the mist, they lost sight of one another which caused them not much panick. They all knew what was involved, hence, they had all prepared adequately beforehand.

Some distance from the base of the mountain, all the delegates from the nine villages were monitoring the situation with the lunaries, using their divine and spiritual sights. They could, clearly, see what was happening around the mountain and were monitoring the situation to avoid any foul play, and to handle any danger that could arose.

"Hehehe. Celebrations! We love celebrations too. Let's celebrate together! ATTACK!!!."

One of the four daemon lords screamed the command at the demon warriors. The demons, covered in shimmering dark energy and brandishing radiant obsidian sabers, started moving in the direction of the delegates with terrifying speed. Atrament energy was not from this universe and shouldn't be here. Seeing the demons speeding in their directions, the nascent soul and jindan cultivators launched their own attacks.

Under unrelenting and superior attack, the first wave of demons were quickly destroyed.

The second set of demons — demon chiefs — who were much more powerful than the demon warriors, were sent forth. But instead of attacking individually, they morgued into dangerous formations of spiraling wave of atrament energy. Sensing the danger of the formations, Tu Yun Fan glanced at Chu Shang Wu with grave eyes.

"Chu Shang Wu, I know you are looking forward to the friendly spar after the last time, you'll probably have your chance. But for now, we have to stop those attacking formations before they find their ground."

"Fair enough, Tu Yun Fan."

Just like lightning mirage, the delegates engaged the demon chiefs in battle as they tried to stop them before they could gain battle momentum. It was a terrifying battle due to the demons' strange formations being extremely difficult to break.

With the need to protect her grandson, Zhang Wang Jing tried to use a teleportation seal to transport herself and her grandson away from the place, but she couldn't activate it. The whole mountainous area appeared to be in a lock-down. She looked at her husband who was standing with them like a shield but had his eyes on his daughter was already battling the demons.

They all knew she couldn't desert a battlefield as a nascent soul cultivator. It would be a grevious dishonor to abandon her village in any serious battle.

"Pa, please stay with ma and protect my son."

Zhang Xiu Ying sent a booming mindvoice to her father as the noise of the pandemonium continued to escalate. With her phoenix sword in hand, she turned her attention towards Chu Shang Wu was already engaging two of the demons' formation, along with Tu Yun Fan. She saw Chu Shang Wu, brandishing his large war hammer, smashed the ground with it as he launched a massive terra wave towards the spiraling atrament. The atrament was blasted apart, but slowly reformed with less tenacity.

As the demons sent a vortex of dark energy towards him, he raised his war hammer, forming pillars of terra force in front of him. The vortex of raging dark energy collided with the pillars, creating a loud bang before they both dissipated in a blast. Zhang Xiu Ying arrived beside him as he was launching another attack —terra beam blast. She swiftly released her most powerful attack — the phoenix stream — the fourth stage of the phoenix inferno technique.

The river of liquid fire joined the terra beam blast and covered the area of the spiraling darkness, disintegrating it into nothingness and badly injuring the six demon chiefs. The injured daemon chiefs were quickly destroyed by blasts of terra and fire, before they could crawl back to their masters.

Around the mountainous area, the demons were suffering the same fate. The four daemon lords, seeing what was going on, quickly brought out some items and seals. After activating the seals, they raised their staves and formed the Void Cube. For it to be powerful enough to warp the fabric of the space-time, it was an ultimate formation, although of an unknown origin.

Colossal mass of atrament energy, quickly sorrounded the vast area and started closing in on them. They launched counter attacks at the mass of dark energy but their attacks were effectively rebuffed. They had little or no effect on the atrament.

"Hahaha. Stop trying. No mortal or immortal of this world can break this lock. Not even your heavenly deities. Sad, we could have continued celebrating together, but time is not on our side as you can see. Hehehe."

Said one of the daemon kings, laughing heartily as the other three joined him.

"We must bring this to an end now."

The four daemon lords raised their staves higher and the obsidian skulls at the top of their staves, shone with intense blackness. The massive mass of atrament had increase in speed, and the energy coming from it was becoming incredibly overwhelming. There was no way they could survive this after giving it their all, but was still lacking.

Zhang Xiu Ying contemplated about their lives and what could have been. She was beginning to regret bringing her son to the festival, but she couldn't have left him at home in the first place. Afterall, it was a festival. Anyway, she would give it everything she got, even her last breath, before succ.u.mbing to the demons. She prepared herself to use her true nascent soul — her avatar. Although it was a huge risk — her true nascent soul was still young and weak — which could backfire on the her, she had no other choice. As she was about to use her avatar, everything stopped, freezing space-time in place.

A godly force-field?

Slowly, a tall, seemingly muscular man who was wearing a thick yellow robe, came out through an opening that suddenly formed at the base of the mountain. His shining bald head would make the solar hide. And on closer look, he had thick eye brows and yellow pupils which moved like that of an ancient predator. He was taken aback in shock when he saw the dark shimmering energy.

"Atrament? In human world? This is not right. Energy so powerful to manifest in physical form. Not right at all."

He continued to stare at the massive mass of atrament, slowly shaking his head.

"This shouldn't be here. Not in this universe, talkless of a human world."

He waved his hand and a massive terra wave covered the dark energy in its entirety. Taking out a seal and activating it, the seal flew into the terra wave and the mass of atrament dissipated into nothingness. With eyes emitting anger, he flipped his hand and one of the demon lords appeared immediately before him.

"Daemon, yet not daemon. There's atrament energy inside you. How? Why are you even here in a mortal world with an energy that came from the void. Speak up!"

"You can't even imagine it, can you? I will never tell you anything."

"Very well then."

The bald man flicked his hand and with a release of earth bust, the daemon lord exploded. He continued this act until he was on the last daemon lord.

"We are here for those two."

The daemon lord voiced, pointing to Zhang Xiu Ying and Ju Feng.

"The boy cultivator, in particular."

"Why?"

"We only have our instructions. We don't ask why."

"Mhm."

Whatever the reason behind this, it was surely of no good. He contemplated as he took a step forward and appeared in front of Zhang Xiu Ying. Standing in front of her, he shook his head as he released his force-field on the area.

"A demigod. Your life force is really powerful and solid, however, you should be stronger than this. I truly don't know why the daemons were after you and the boy, but if you remain like this, you will simply die. Whoever is after you must be a very powerful entity. It could be from any of the planes or could be from the void, although, I doubt that. Why would an entity from the void be after you? Anyway, atrament is one of the deadliest energy in the void, and it's used by extremely dangerous entities. Know this, when you are attacked by the atrament, the inside of your body will instantly decompose into black liquid, and your soul will be ripped from the body becoming part of atrament. Avoid this at all cost."

He flipped his sleeves and produced two white stones, giving one to Zhang Xiu Ying.

"Terra's light. It will keep atrament and other total dark energies, away from you for a period of time. When any of these energy nears you, it will flare brightly and that's a warning to you. This is a gift to you as a true demigod."

With a glance around, he discovered that few villagers had been killed, but no nascent soul or golden core cultivator was killed. He shrugged before looking at the boy with the threads of karmic virtues around him. Although he couldn't say what exactly, there was something about the boy that drew his attention. His virtues? Surely something.

"Who is the boy?"

"He's my son."

Zhang Xiu Ying replied mildly, despite slightly trembling inside. They should have been dead by now, dead. But somehow, they were saved by this exceedingly powerful man. Although he couldn't be a god — since no god's image could be that powerful — he was definitely an immortal beyond the mortal plane. There was surely an ancient aura about him.

"Senior, thank you so much for saving us. We are all in your debt."

He gently waved-off her words.

"No. You are not in my debt. I was around and did what was necessary."

He took another step and apeared in front of Zhang Li Qiang, Zhang Wang Jing and Ju Feng. He watched Ju Feng for some seconds, then gave him the other stone.

"Terra's light against the dark energy and the likes. Take it. A gift to you for your virtues."

"Thank you senior, sir."

Receiving the stone, Ju Feng bowed deeply from his waist, receiving acknowledgement from the bald entity.

"Hm. Be stronger and gain more knowledge. Only by knowing what you are really facing can you truly confront it. Come visit in the future."

"Senior, forgive me for asking. Who are you?"

Asked one of the village headmen respectfully.

"You can call me Primus. For billions of years, this place has been my home. I was here when there was no living soul in this world. When the nine siblings came."

A titan lord!!!

"Thank you, lord Primus."

"No need. It was simply necessary."

Primus let out a soft breath and turned to Chu Shang Wu.

"Impressive terra force. Maybe we can exchange pointers in the future?"

And with that, he disappeared back into the mountain, leaving no traces behind.

Ten minutes later, the first of the lunaries started to descend the mountain, holding the lunar stones high in his hand.