Chapter 225 – Oracle Mountain
In the boundless universe that was like an ocean without end.
A myriad of stars followed along a fixed trajectory as they circled within the universe for eternity, and they emitted the aura of an immeasurable eternity. At an unknown distance deep within those stars was a mountain.
This mountain was called Oracle, and it stood towering in a world where the stars flickered eternally.
The living beings in this world only numbered in a few tens of people, and they rested all year long in Oracle Mountain as they bathed in the boundless dazzling starlight.
Towering mountains that pierced into the sky entered the eye all over Oracle Mountain. They were straight like swords, and countless extremely high waterfalls poured down from the mountains. The mist bathed in the starlight was like countless strands of jade dragons that shone with a silvery light, causing them to be dazzling and resplendent.
The deep and vast sky was forever without a trace of dark clouds, and the myriad of stars seemed well within reach, every single one of them like beads that emitted a beautiful and gentle sheen that illuminated the entire world.
Those thousands of mountains were packed with pine trees that had branches spread out like dragons, it was filled with flowing fountains, waterfalls, and luxuriant plants, causing it to reveal the aura of the wilderness of primeval times.
At this moment, a beautiful youth, that was a woman disguised as a man, was moving through the mountains, and a single step she took caused space to shrink and numerous mountains to fall behind her.
“Ah, it’s actually Little Junior Sister. Do you want to comprehend the principle of talismans with me?” On a mountain that seemed like a book, a white haired old man in a scholar’s robes stood up from behind the table and spoke with pleasant surprise.
The reason this mountain was said to be like a book was that countless books were piled up here; there were bamboo slips, text written on silk, tortoise shells, paper, jade slips… It was a superb collection of things related to books and were boundless like an ocean, causing it to simply seem like a real ‘mountain of books.’
“Fourth Senior Brother, I heard you stole the handwritten scriptures of the Solemn Lotus Buddha from the Buddhist World. You have to be careful, don’t be captured by that Buddha and be refined into the oil of a Buddhist lamp.” The beautiful youth shook her head, and she seemed to have something weighing on her mind as she took a step out and vanished.
“Hmph! Can you use the word ‘steal’ when it’s a matter related to a scholar? This is called borrowing! Once I comprehend the Buddhist wisdom concealed within this these words and combine it into my Dao of Talismans, wouldn’t it be fine if I return it to him after that?” The white haired old man in scholarly robes grunted coldly, and he scratched his disheveled hair and spoke indifferently.
“Little Junior Sister, you’ve come at the right moment. Quickly lend me a hand to subdue this animal!” On another large mountain, a burly and tall curly bearded man with copper colored skin was using his bare hands to subdue a spirit bird that was covered with flames that shot into the sky. This spirit bird’s wings were like ribbons, its feathers like blades, and flames flowed ceaselessly around it while revealing various divine flames of colors like crimson, orange, yellow, green, azure, and blue that were magnificent and extremely beautiful.
“A Vermillion Bird? Third Senior Brother, could it be that you really went to the Flaming Ruins of the Flame World? Good lord, this feathered animal is coiled with divine flames and its divine foundation is emerging, it’s soon to transform into a natural god,” said the beautiful youth as her right hand pressed out, causing an enormous and ancient talisman marking to press down and instantly cause boundless ice to appear out of thin air before condensing into a large ‘冰’ character1, and then it pressed down to the point the Vermillion Bird wailed endlessly and didn’t dare struggle anymore.
“Haha, how about I give it to Little Junior Sister as a pet after I comprehend the Vermillion Bird flame markings on its body?” The burly man laughed heartily.
“Senior Brother, keep it for yourself to study.” The beautiful youth shook her head before continuing towards the depths of the boundless mountains.
“Little Junior Sister, quickly come over and take a look at this Asura Execution Tree I brought back from the Abyssal Devil World. This tree’s grains are normal, but the key is these leaves that are like infants. Their veins are profound and faintly contain the essence of the Dao of Talismans. It’s truly an eye opener.”
“Little Junior Sister, this a treasure I just obtained, it’s called a Bayer. Its sound is like a large bell, yet possesses the clear and light sound of a Pipa2 and the deep feeling of the Xiao3, causing my divine music Talisman Dao to advance once more!”
“Little Junior Sister…”
All along the way, numerous Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters that possessed a variety of appearances and were either young or old would warmly greet the beautiful youth after seeing her, and then they would try to persuade her to stay and be their guest, but all of them were refused.
The beautiful youth seemed to have something weighing on her mind. Her brows were knit tightly and was in a rush, and she quickly arrived deep within the myriad of mountains.
This was an extremely simple small mountain with only a single lonely hut on it, yet the beautiful youth didn’t directly push open the door and enter but instead sat on a limestone before the hut.
This piece of limestone was mottled and dull, filled with the traces that time left behind on it, and its shape was irregular, yet it didn’t possess anything extraordinary about it.
However, when the beautiful youth sat on it, the starry sky above her that eternally emitted light instantly became different in her eyes.
The myriad of stars whistled as they dragged out profound trajectories and converged towards the center to form an extremely vast nebula pattern. The numerous stars were like the talisman markings drawn out from the tip of the brush, gushing out with boundless variations that were profound and complicated, and it seemed to cover the principle behind all derivation in the universe.
If it was another, seeing this scene would probably cause their souls to be absorbed by it with a single glance, and they would fall into eternal damnation.
“The path of the stars is the principle behind life, the Heaven Dao, and the workings of the heavens. Trace the origins to derive what’s within my heart…” The beautiful youth suddenly stretched out her hand to pass through the boundless boundaries and ‘grab’ towards the nebula.
Instantly, a scene appeared before her eyes.
It was the scene of a forest. Within the forest were two women and a man, the man sat cross-legged on the ground, seeming to be cultivating, whereas, the two women had instead raised their hands to kill him…
“Looks like my deduction wasn’t wrong. Even though Little Junior Brother’s fate is concealed by the workings of the heavens, during the fusion of Yin and Yang while relying on the quintessence energy of the Heavenly Fragrance Saint Beast, his fate can charge through the shroud and swim at the banks of the river of fate…” The beautiful youth suddenly stood up and spat out a mouthful of blood, and then her finger pressed out to start drawing in the sky with the blood and an incorporeal door of light had appeared in the blink of an eye.
“Hmph! Bastard! So I felt annoyed and ill at ease because of this!” The beautiful youth strode into the incorporeal door of light and vanished before the hut in the blink of an eye.
——
In the forest.
When he saw Chen Xi was about to be killed under the joint attack of Fan Yunlan and Qing Xiuyi, Ling Bai’s eyes almost split open as two streaks of blood flowed down from them.
Swish!
Right at this moment, a crack suddenly split open in the space before Chen Xi and a white and slender delicate hand stuck out from within. This hand seemed to carry magical powers, as at the instant it appeared, the surrounding spirit energy’s fluctuation instantly froze up, and it seemed as if time had stopped at this moment as well.
Qing Xiuyi and Fan Yunlan’s pupils constricted abruptly, as they never imagined that such a shocking unexpected event would actually occur at a moment like this.
It was already impossible for them to Kill Chen Xi, and their reactions weren’t slow. They instantly wanted to withdraw their hands that launched the attack, yet they noticed to their astonishment that their hands seemed to have been frozen in space, and no matter how they exerted the strength in their entire bodies, their hands didn’t move an inch!
Who!
Exactly who possesses such terrifying strength?
As they looked at the delicate hand that tore through space and arrived here, they seemed as if they were looking at the most terrifying thing in the world, and no matter how firm and tensile their dispositions were, they couldn’t help but go pale and be struck with panic at this moment.
“Both of you are truly audacious! You’ve already gained such a great benefit from my Junior Brother, yet you actually want to kill him to keep him quiet? You’re truly going too far and being ungrateful!” A clear voice that clinked like a pearl falling onto a jade tray resounded out, and then a beautiful youth in an embroidered robe walked out slowly with her hand behind her back from within the crack.
1. 冰is the character for ice.
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipa
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiao_(flute)