Chapter 94: Chapter 7: The Corrupted World
At this moment, in a snowy mountain forest.
’HUFF, HUFF... Wh-where did this Postnatal Grandmaster on the verge of Rejuvenation come from?!’
Old Mo, currently sliding rapidly through the woods, was filled with despair.
He refused to believe Su Zhou was as young as he looked. It was clearly the life-extending, hair-darkening phenomenon that occurred when a Martial Artist’s Cultivation approached the Innate realm!
’Nephew Buyi, Monk Fang Hui, and Sunset Heroine are all decent experts from the Hundred Schools. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been entrusted with escorting the Relic. But their three-person joint attack was effortlessly neutralized. The strike from the "Punishment Sword," though seemingly simple, was like a great sound that is never heard—truly an attack that could shatter stone and steel, and even obliterate the soul!’
’It hit him right in the head, and he didn’t even yawn! That level of Undying Power... it’s probably on par with the Demon Dynasty’s Royal Family!’
Old Mo knew that while he was of a senior generation, he only understood strange contraptions, not martial might. Since their opponent was terrifyingly powerful, his greatest duty as the one responsible for transport was to run as far away as possible. Even if it meant destroying the Relic, he absolutely could not let those Demon Soldiers defile it!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
But he heard the sounds of shaking trees and snapping trunks.
Old Mo glanced back instinctively, and his heart leaped into his throat. He saw the gray-robed, black-haired "young man" from before, flying through the treetops! With every step he took, the trunks and branches beneath his feet either snapped on the spot or shook violently. This gray shadow was rapidly closing in on him with a series of ugly, bounding leaps that couldn’t be called Qinggong at all, but were just absurdly fast!
"Stay away from me!!!"
"No, I mean it! Stop!"
「A short time later.」
"Sir, what should I call you?" By the side of a roaring bonfire, Su Zhou looked up as he diluted the Holy Water with snowmelt and applied it to the Martial Monk’s head. He directed his question to the white-haired but hale and rosy-cheeked old man beside him.
The Martial Monk’s head was very smooth, with a bit of a well-worn sheen to it. The old man, a skilled craftsman, had already used his own scalpels and forceps to reset the monk’s shattered cheekbone and pick out the bone fragments. Now, all that was left was to use the Holy Water to accelerate the healing of the flesh and blood.
As he treated the man’s injuries, he asked very politely, "Where is this place? Why did you all try to fight me to the death the moment you heard ’leave the mountain’? And why did you mistake me for some Demon Soldier or Hidden Guard? Was it because of my Wood Centipede Spear? How strange."
"This old man... er, my name is Mo Ganxiu." On the other side of the fire, the elder, who had been helping Su Zhou move the unconscious team members into a circle around the flames, flinched at the sound of Su Zhou’s voice and replied with equal politeness.
The old man had short white hair and no beard, which seemed to be intentionally shaved to keep his vision clear. His face was weathered and covered in wrinkles, but his eyes were remarkably bright, and he had the air of a craftsman about him.
This was also evident from his hands. The old man who called himself Mo Ganxiu had a pair of hands that were much better cared for than the rest of him. They looked at least fifty years younger than his face, like those of a young man, completely free of scars.
The old man still hadn’t quite recovered from the feeling of Su Zhou leaping at him just ten-odd minutes ago, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck like a chick, and lifting his entire body off the ground.
—He, Elder Mo, had lived for sixty-nine years, built countless ingenious mechanisms for people, and had even personally constructed a True Power Steam Furnace. Yet this was the first time he’d ever had the feeling of ’My neck and spine are about to be ripped out by someone!’
"As for this place, it’s the Taibai Mountain Range..." For the sake of his own life, as well as the mission of his entire team, Mo Ganxiu wiped the cold sweat from his brow and chose his words carefully. "As for leaving the mountain... Young Hero, sigh... Your lineage probably hasn’t returned to the Divine Land in the last few decades, have you?"
"The world is in turmoil these days. The Anx Dynasty’s Immortal Emperor has brought so much suffering that the people can’t survive. The Divine Land is desolate, with nine out of ten homes empty. The living have either risen up in rebellion, been forced into the mountains and marshes, or fled the Divine Land to wander. Aside from the human livestock they raise, few people dare to venture out from the mountains. Outside of the territories controlled by the Rebel Army, only a few remote border provinces might still have some cities, but not many, and they’re mostly on the verge of collapse."
"Anx Dynasty? Nine out of ten homes empty? Human livestock?" Su Zhou mulled over these terms, his brow furrowed. Of course he knew about the Anx Dynasty—it was the last imperial dynasty before Zhengguo. He could even name all nine emperors of the Anx Dynasty and list their major accomplishments one by one.
But from the sound of it, not even King Lio in his final years had caused this much suffering. That guy had just performed sacrifices everywhere in his pursuit of Longevity, offering up human tributes... Wait. Su Zhou’s breathing hitched for a moment.
’This place is clearly different from the Zhengguo of my world. In fact, it’s worlds apart. This is a world leaning toward Wuxia, a world with Spiritual Qi and Inner Strength Martial Artists!’
He recalled some of the words his opponents had blurted out during the fight—Undead Demon Soldiers, Self-Healing Power comparable to the Royal Family’s, things like that.
The connection...
Su Zhou’s memory had been enhanced by the Wisdom Fruit. He lowered his head, his brow tightly furrowed as he considered many things. A moment later, he looked up and asked Mo Ganxiu cautiously, "Then may I ask, Elder, what is the current era name of the Anx Dynasty, and what year is it? Also, what exactly is it that you do? It sounds like you oppose the Court that possesses the ’Power of Undying’—are you the Rebel Army?"
"Young Hero, you really don’t know anything?"
Hearing this, Mo Ganxiu was beginning to truly believe that this young man might actually be the heir to some reclusive lineage. Nothing else made sense. The man held the power of life and death over them, yet he remained courteous and asked all sorts of basic, common-sense questions. It really didn’t seem like he had been in the Divine Land recently.
’But if that’s the case, how do you explain the spearhead forged from a Water Purifying Centipede’s Large Mandible Poison Stinger? And his incredible Self-Healing Power, which clearly indicates he’s been implanted with a Divine Wood Undying Root? I still can’t fully trust him... Sigh, but what does it matter if I don’t? We’re his captives.’
A thousand thoughts raced through the old man’s mind, but in the end, he gave up on any plans to conceal the truth or try anything else. It wasn’t like they could run or win a fight. So, he said directly, "It is now the seventy-fourth year of the Yongning Era of the Anx Dynasty."
"As for our identity, we are, of course, the ’Hundred Schools’ Righteous Soldiers’—a Rebel Army fighting against that unrighteous tyrant."
At this, the old man let out a long sigh. He straightened up and gave Su Zhou a deep bow. "We were attacked by Demon Soldiers earlier, so when we saw your Centipede Spear, we jumped to conclusions. We thought that since we’d run into a powerful enemy, it would be better to strike first... I should be apologizing, but time is of the essence!"
"We bear a great responsibility that concerns the common people of the world and even the survival of this Divine Land! If you truly are not affiliated with the Demon Dynasty, Young Hero, I beg you to let us go later. After we have completed our great task, we will surely return to serve you like dogs and horses!"
His posture was incredibly low, even humble, showing that the importance of their mission surpassed the lives and dignity of the entire escort team.
’The Yongning Era of the Anx Dynasty... the seventy-fourth year?’
"In the nineteenth year of the Yongning Era of the Anx Dynasty, King Lio’s tyranny became unbearable. The Hundred Schools rose up in righteousness, and the entire world rebelled."
Just from hearing the first part, Su Zhou recalled these familiar historical terms... Anx Dynasty, its final years, the Hundred Schools... ’Could it be? Is this a version of King Lio’s unrighteous reign and the Hundred Schools’ Uprising, but with Spiritual Qi?’
’Because of Spiritual Qi, was the persecution so much worse that the Divine Land became desolate, with nine of ten homes empty?’
But the seventy-fourth year of Yongning was too strange! In his history, the Anx Dynasty was already teetering in the nineteenth year of Yongning and was completely overthrown in the twenty-first. Seventy-four years... putting aside everything else, could King Lio have lived that long without ever changing the era name?
’Weird. As expected of a world with a deviation value of over twenty. This feeling of being similar yet different...’
He had more information now, but even more questions flooded his mind. In the end, seeing Mo Ganxiu bowing so solemnly to him, Su Zhou just scratched his head in frustration.
"Oh, come on... Don’t say that. Of course I’ll let you go. It’s my fault, really. I just wanted to stop you and ask some questions, and if that didn’t work, I figured I could test the skill of the locals. I didn’t expect you all to be so... resolute."
He rarely watched historical dramas, but he listened to a lot of crosstalk from Aunt Wen’s side. Even though the other man was speaking formally, he really wasn’t used to this kind of scholarly, archaic way of talking.
This wasn’t the time to be thinking in hindsight about his lack of preparation. Su Zhou quickly helped Mo Ganxiu up. After a moment’s thought, he switched to plain language, "Of course you can leave whenever you want. I just wanted to get some information."
"How about this: look, those people are still unconscious. So, before they wake up, Mr. Mo, could you explain to me what’s going on with the world these days?"
After being helped up by Su Zhou, the old man stared intently at him. For the first time, he was observing this young man from such a close distance... He truly couldn’t find any sign of lies or concealment. Instead, he seemed to have a natural, uninhibited, and free-spirited attitude.
—No wonder. For a person like this, doing something like blocking the road to ask questions wasn’t strange at all.
Mo Ganxiu could only let out a soft sigh and say, "This world... it’s not complicated, but it’s not simple either."
"It all begins when the founding Great Emperor of the Anx Dynasty found a branch of the ’Immortal Divine Wood’ in the South Sea Islands..."
