CH 29

The Heavenly Waterfall was the strangest place in all the Nine Layers of the Abyss.

It didn’t have an owner like the other layers.

Because here everyone lost their spiritual powers and became ordinary people.

On the contrary, ordinary people would receive supreme spiritual powers in this place, and become stronger than they could ever get outside.

But it was not at all a place that ordinary people could enter as they pleased. Most of them couldn’t even survive the First Layer of the Abyss, let alone come to the Heavenly Waterfall.

If a cultivator was trapped in this place where everyone lacked spiritual powers, they were not greeted by a land of happiness of love and respect, but a ruthless place where the weak fell prey to the strong.

Five strong and outstanding cultivators with exceptionally high martial arts became influential people and were in charge of Heavenly City. They were called the five elders.

“When night falls, vultures that feed on human flesh come out in large numbers. If they find no food, they go crazy, and their strength increases greatly, so they take even more human lives.”

“That’s why this place has an unspoken rule: after the sky darkens, people without a shelter become food for the vultures. If you can’t withstand their attack, no one will lend you a helping hand, because your death helps the survival of others.”

Chen Ting was stunned.

“What if everyone is hiding in their rooms? Do those vultures have no food then?”

Xu Jingxian: “If that’s the case, the second rule comes into the play: the strong are revered. If you lose your spiritual powers here, you become a good-for-nothing, so you can be thrown to those vultures as food. Don’t think that since that person from earlier was reduced to serving as an assistant here, he has no strength. In fact, he can at least fight to a draw with me.”

Chen Ting: “Has no one ever left this place?”

Xu Jingxian: “Of course, they did. But those who were lucky enough to leave this place don’t return here to share their knowledge. Moreover, not everyone wants to leave this place.”

Looking at her profound expression, Chen Ting understood what she meant.

Some wanted to leave, but others didn’t.

To take a high position in this place wasn’t worse than to take one in the outside world.

Some would rather be a chicken’s head than a phoenix’s tail. Although the outside world was as boundless as the sea and the sky, rivalry was more intense there as well.

Some would rather be a chicken’s head than a phoenix’s tail: to prefer to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond.

“Furthermore, every third day a martial arts competition is held in the highest tower of this city, in the Yunding Tower. The victor has a chance to become a personal attendant for one of the five elders, take a high position in the town, and receive some land, a residence and money. Partaking in such competitions is the best opportunity for someone who has just arrived here and has nothing at all. Are you interested, daoyou Chen?”

Yunding: lit. ‘cloud top’, since this town is ‘Heavens’.

Chen Ting asked with suspicion: “Then what if you lose?”

Xu Jingxian laughed: “Naturally, if you lose, you will be thrown to the vultures!”

Chen Ting: …

“You have to participate even if you don’t want to. Those who arrive here have no money that circulates in Heavenly City; food, clothing, shelter or means of traveling—they have nothing. Very soon, they are forced to tramp the streets. However, not everyone has to participate. There is a shortcut that allows you to take over a high position directly. Do you want to know how?”

Xu Jingxian gave them a flirting glance, but they remained indifferent. She couldn’t help but to pout.

“Why aren’t you saying anything, are you two dead?!”

Chen Ting: …I feel like you are not going to say anything pleasant.

“If so, you don’t have to ask, do you?”

Xu Jingxian: “Then I simply must tell you. If an elder takes a fancy to you, obviously, you don’t need to partake in the competition or fight against vultures, but still can have enough to eat and drink, and take a high position.”

Chen Ting: “Given daoyou Xu’s appearance, this won’t pose you a problem.”

Xu Jingxian laughed: “To tell you the truth, I was kind enough to help daoyou Chen to inquire about this. One of those five elders, surnamed Hou, loves men, not women. All his bodyguards are youths with thick eyebrows and big eyes. Daoyou Chen, you have a dignified appearance, so elder Hou will surely fall in love with you at first sight, and we, ordinary chickens and dogs, will also ascend to Heaven!”

Chickens and dogs will also ascend to Heaven: when a man gets a high position, all his friends and relatives get promoted as well.

Chen Ting: …

He thought, this temptress is evil indeed, once she opens her mouth, the words that come out are all immoral.

“What? You look down on them?” Xu Jingxian couldn’t get enough, “By the way, one of daoyou Chen’s old friends is eating delicious food and drinking hard liquor under one of these five elders right now. If daoyou Chen is fortunate enough to meet her, please, put in a good word for this girl, and ask her to look over us!”

Chen Ting was puzzled: “Who?”

Xu Jingxian: “Guan Xiachang.”

Chen Ting’s face betrayed his astonishment: “This, can it be that you saw it wrong?”

Xu Jingxian laughed: “You didn’t expect that a temptress would refuse to trade on her beauty, while a virtuous woman from a famous sect wouldn’t be able to resist the offer?”

Chen Ting: “That’s not what I meant…”

The two of them continued to bicker, but Changming made no sound. When Xu Jingxian remembered about him, she realized he had already placed his forehead on his arm and fallen asleep while still sitting.

Chen Ting also noticed this, and they stopped quarreling.

Xu Jingxian said: “Daoyou Chen, do me a favor, stop disturbing our family’s Ming-lang while he is resting.”

Chen Ting stared blankly: “Haven’t you ordered the two best rooms?”

Xu Jingxian: “Right ah, I’m sharing this room with Ming-lang, and you are living alone.”

Chen Ting: …

He looked at Xu Jingxian who behaved as if it was only just and proper, said nothing, and left the room silently.

Xu Jingxian watched him go out and close the door, and said suddenly: “I saw the Yangzhen Grass.”

Changming opened his eyes.

He was only taking a break with his eyes closed, not sleeping.

“So you actually found it?”

Xu Jingxian squinted: “So you admit that you were talking nonsense back then?”

Changming answered casually: “I just didn’t expect that you would find it so easily.”

“Who said it was easy, it was a lucky coincidence!” Xu Jingxian was outraged.

When they had that conflict on the Rainbow Bridge, Guan Xiachang ran away, and Xu Jingxian followed her.

Meddlesome Chen Ting stopped her, and hence she and this surnamed Chen were swept by a huge wave.

In the end, Chen Ting disappeared, while she and Guan Xiachang arrived in the Third Layer of the Abyss.

That place was a giant iron chessboard where the chess pieces were humans, and their fates and lives were the stakes. If one made a mistake, they would scatter like ashes and disperse like smoke, ceasing to exist.

Iron chessboard: probably Chinese chess.

The Iron Chessboard was a cycle of death and life. Some people disappeared, and others arrived; Xu Jingxian and Guan Xiachang took the places of dead pieces in the game, and became two chess pieces.

In order to turn into favourable pieces from the dying ones, they had to work together for some time. There is no use to describe all the breathtaking and mortally dangerous adventures they had been through. Eventually, they managed to escape, and arrived in Heavenly City.

“A couple of days ago I went to watch a competition in the Yunding Tower, and saw the Yangzhen Grass there. It grows at the lake outside the Yunding Tower. The center of the lake is full of exotic flowers and plants that belong to Lu Jianmu, one of the five elders, and no one dares touch it. One night, when the moon was full, I saw glowing grass floating on the surface of the lake. It looks the same way you described it.”

Xu Jingxian was very excited, and it was hard for her to calm down.

“It’s a pity that Lu Jianmu regards all these plants as his treasures and lets no one come near it. Because the Yunding Tower is his territory, his guards patrol that place all day long. As long as someone comes close to the lake, they’ll notice them.”

“Moreover, in Heavenly City, the power and influence of the five elders is immense, and you can’t escape from them. I got the money I have from one person, but money ends quickly here. I paid for your rooms just now, so I will probably run out of my wealth soon.”

She didn’t mention how exactly she had gotten the money, and Changming didn’t ask either.

In Heavenly City, taking resources by force or trickery was the only way to survive. Xu Jingxian was a demonic cultivator, so she wasn’t burdened by all those Dao virtues.

“I don’t understand one thing,” Changming said, “Since Guan Xiachang managed to become the new favorite of an elder, using your techniques, lady, you could easily make the five elders infatuated with you, and get a firm foothold without any problems. To plot a scheme for taking the Yangzhen Grass while being near the elders would have been way easier.”

Xu Jingxian looked at him seductively: “Wasn’t I waiting for you with the fear that you, an ill consumptive ghost, will come here, look around and see no one familiar!”

Changming: “Then you are doing me a great honor.”

While he was saying these words, his expression was indolent and sluggish, not flattered at all.

They were both aware that their friendship was not deep at all. Certainly, Xu Jingxian didn’t approach the five elders not because she was a reserved woman.

Probably, their relationship with each other was a bit closer than with Chen Ting and others, but it was only because of their shared secret, the Yangzhen Grass, and their non-conflicting goals.

Seeing that he was motionless like a mountain, Xu Jingxian pursed her lips, and stopped pretending as well.

“It seems that the one who has the Yangzhen Grass is Elder Lu Jianmu. They say that he doesn’t fancy female beauty, and only cares about growing flowers and other plants. And he is most fond of collecting all kinds of exotic flowers. Say, isn’t it strange to arrive at the Nine Layers of the Abyss just to grow herbs here? But he is a skilled master, the strongest among the five elders, and his bodyguards are all seniors who have followed him for more than five years. He lives in seclusion all the time, and I had no chance to get close to him.”

“Also, do you remember Xu Fenglin? He is that genius sword cultivator from the Donghai Sect. He had also come to Heavenly City, killed one of the previous elders, and became one of them. But this person is very proud and aloof. I have fought with him once in the world outside, so he knows my face.”

“There is also one surnamed Hou, he doesn’t appreciate women and likes men.”

Changming: “And Guan Xiachang depends on?”

“On the one surnamed Liu. He is very weird. You can never see a trace of him during daytime, but he likes hiding in dark places at night, watching vultures pursue exiled people and devour them. Except for this, I found no other useful information, so I couldn’t rush blindly. These five are not easy-going people, and not a single one among them is normal!”

Xu Jingxian finished complaining, and finally revealed her goal.

“Let’s work together. Tomorrow, you will enroll in the Yunding Tower’s competition. If you win, you will become an elder’s guard, and we will have more opportunities. When we find out their proclivities, you will find a way to introduce me. Don’t you want to leave this place as soon as possible? They say, an unfathomable mystery lies under the Yunding Lake, and the exit from Heavenly City is also there. I want to leave this place after I get the Yangzhen Grass as well, so we have a common goal. Two people working together is better than being alone, especially since we are in a foreign land.”

Changming: “I can’t go there.”

Xu Jingxian: “Why?”

Changming: “There is a person who wants to kill me. If I show my face, I will simply deliver myself to his hands.”

Xu Jingxian: “Who?”

Changming: “Yun Weisi.”

“Yun Weisi?”

Xu Jingxian repeated the name, thinking that she misheard his words: “The one who used to be the master of a Daoist temple, the owner of the Nine Layers of the Abyss, Yun Weisi?”

Changming: “Correct.”

Xu Jingxian raised her voice: “How did you provoke him?!”

Changming: “He is Yun Hai, and Yun Hai is him.”

Xu Jingxian was anxious and doubtful. On second thought, it wasn’t that surprising.

That Yun Hai popped out of nowhere, disappeared without rhyme or reason, and his powers were unfathomable. When Changming stated that this man is Yun Weisi, Xu Jingxian didn’t really feel that it was impossible, it’s just that—

“Why do you incur hatred wherever you go? At first, it was my clan master, now it’s Yun Weisi, say, just how many enemies do you have after all!”

Changming thought for a moment and said indecisively: “Probably, two more.”

The more disciples he accepted, the more enemies he got. If he knew earlier, he would have accepted a couple disciples less, and wouldn’t have had to worry so much now.

Xu Jingxian: …

Changming: “But, apart from Yun Weisi, the others are not in the Nine Layers of the Abyss.”

Xi Jingxian said angrily: “I shouldn’t have trusted your nonsense from the very beginning! I came here with you, and now, even if I want to, I can’t leave this place! Even though I can see the Yangzhen Grass without traveling far away, I can’t lay my hands on it! If I knew you were so useless in advance, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time talking! It’s even better to work with Chen Ting!”

Changming didn’t take her complaints to heart.

“According to what you said, the Yangzhen Grass is near the Yunding Tower. No matter how rigorous the guards are, there is no way you have no chance.”

Xu Jingxian shook her head without thinking: “Won’t do! I know what you want to say: go there at night, even if people are guarding the Yunding Lake, the vultures are on their hunt, so only those who were selected as sacrifices will wander the streets. But you can’t even imagine how terrifying those vultures are. I used not to believe in hearsays, and went out one night, looking for an opportunity to come to the lake. In the end, I was almost caught by one vulture.”

Her face revealed an expression of a lingering fear.

Since she was able to take over the position of Lingbo Peak master, Xu Jingxian had had her hands soaked in blood for years. If these vultures made her show such an expression, they were definitely not ordinary birds of prey.

“If you don’t believe me, wait till the sky darkens, open your windows slightly and look outside through the chink.”

Xu Jingxian’s voice was faint, almost oddly low.

“After the sky gets dark, this Heavenly City becomes a different world.”

Knock-knock-knock.

As if replying to her words, a knock on the doors sounded.

Changming coughed a couple of times, and didn’t move.

A knock on the doors sounded again.

Xu Jingxian accepted her fate and got up to open the door.

Two men in black clothes stood behind the assistant who they met earlier.

At the first glance at their robes, Xu Jingxian realized that these men were serving one of the five elders.

“Young master Changming.”

The two men looked past Xu Jingxian, right at Changming behind her back.

“Our Elder Xu invited you to visit him.”

Changming: “Which Elder Xu?”

Xu Jingxian: “Xu Fenglin?”

The men in black: “Precisely, Elder Xu Fenglin.”

Xu Jingxian turned towards Changming: “Do you know Xu Fenglin?”

Changming: “I’ve never met him, we are not acquainted with each other.”

Xu Jingxian asked the men in black: “Why is Xu Fenglin looking for my family’s Ming-lang?”

The men in black didn’t answer, but didn’t walk away either. Presumably, if Changming refused, they would have resorted to dragging him forcibly.

“Please, young master Changming, don’t put us in a difficult situation.”

Xu Jingxian raised her pretty eyebrows. She suddenly realized that this was a good chance.

They had just been thinking how to get closer to the five elders, and now Xu Fenglin sent people to invite them over.

But Changming had a different opinion.

He felt that they didn’t come here with good intentions.

…

One shichen ago.

One shichen: two hours.

Xu Fenglin’s subordinates reported to him that there was a person who wished to see him.

Since he had taken the position of an elder, there were too many people who asked for an audience to count them, just as there are carps crossing a river.

Like carps crossing a river: an excessive number.

But those who actually got an audience were few.

Xu Fenglin had no reaction when he heard this request.

“Not seeing.”

He closed his eyes and continued to meditate.

“That guest said that his name is Yun Weisi.”

Xu Fenglin opened his eyes suddenly.

“What did you say is his name?”

“Yun Weisi, he said he came from the Void Shore.”

Xu Fenglin stood up.

“Let him in quickly!”

Xu Fenglin lowered his head, looked at his gown, and even smoothed it with his hands.

After verifying that everything looked decent, he took a step forward.

He was proud and aloof by nature. When he was in his sect, he never paid so much attention to his appearance, and never tried to please anyone.

But hearing this name, Yun Weisi, was unexpected.

He was afraid that this person was an imposter, and he would be disappointed.

But soon the man, accompanied by servants, appeared in front of him, and Xu Fenglin knew: this person was really Yun Weisi.

So elegant and talented that Xu Fenglin couldn’t be mistaken.

“Daozun Yun.”

“Xu Fenglin,” Yun Weisi said, his expression indifferent.

“D, do you still remember me?”

Xu Fenglin was excited, but quickly suppressed his emotions.

Yun Weisi looked at him for some time.

“Some years ago, your shifu paid me a visit, and he brought you along.”

Xu Fenglin felt that both his heart and his face became relaxed, but at the same time he was elated.

“It’s me. Daozun Yun entered the Nine Layers of the Abyss, went missing for decades, and no word has come from you; but even now, you still have the same graceful bearing.”

Yun Weisi: “Why did you come here too?”

Xu Fenglin: “I wanted to follow the example of Daozun Yun, and temper my will in this dangerous place.”

Yun Weisi: “It’s not easy to come all the way to Heavenly City, you’ve worked hard.”

The corners of Xu Fenglin’s mouth curled up.

“I thought I would have to experience all kinds of hardships and come to the Void Shore before I would be able to meet you. It’s a surprise to see you now. I heard that only Daozun Yun can move freely in the Nine Layers of the Abyss, who would have thought that these rumors were actually true? You really are an extraordinary person.”

Yun Weisi: “Heavenly City is very special, and I can’t use my spiritual powers here.”

Xu Fenglin: “But you could have easily become the owner of Heavenly City with your skills. If Daozun Yun wants to stay here, I will pass you the position of an elder submissively.”

Yun Weisi: “No need. I came here to kill one person.”

Xu Fenglin: “Whom?”

Yun Weisi: “Jiufang Changming.”

Xu Fenglin said without thinking much: “Just say what you want, and I will do the job myself!”

He didn’t even speculate why Yun Weisi wanted to kill this person, and readily made the promise.