Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 106 Demon Slaying and God Conferment

On the thirteenth day after Wu Hengyu's army entered the Great Cave Heaven, in Xu County, Wu, at Huaize, a complex marshland shrouded in mist, dotted with scattered villages.

Bai Renfeng soared through the air on his sword, arriving at the southeastern corner of Huaize. He discovered over twenty villages scattered along the riverbank within an eighty-mile radius. These villages, shrouded in mist, were filled with a chilling aura. Their earthen walls were covered in algae, as if they had been submerged. It was Chen Shi (7-9 AM), and normally, villages would be filled with the aroma of burning firewood from cooking smoke. But this village was devoid of it.

Bai Renfeng sensed a strong malevolent aura and noticed a lively scene coming from a village. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that some people in the village were banging drums and gongs, conducting a bizarre "wedding ceremony." The villagers wore unnatural smiles, and the sounds coming from the bridal sedan chair resembled the incoherent singing of a madwoman.

After Bai Renfeng opened his spiritual eye and carefully examined the area, he exclaimed in surprise, "Human sacrifice!" Then he observed for a while and realized it wasn't human sacrifice. He saw the way the villagers carried people and goods while walking and banging gongs, and he knew that this was a tax collection method. In other words, there were cultivators here who were "stealing the sky and changing the sun," pretending to be government officials, and demanding "blood food" and "incense" from the ignorant people here.

Suddenly, he sensed something and focused his spiritual eye on the "islands" in the distant lake. He immediately felt a stinging pain in his spiritual eye.

Just after Bai Renfeng closed his spiritual eye, five miles away on the lake, the previously pervasive mist was dispersed by a surge of malevolent energy, forming hundreds of feet high waves that rushed towards the villages on the lakeshore. But it wasn't over yet; the "island" that Bai Renfeng had seen sank with a crashing sound.

The waters of Huaize overflowed, spreading into the villages, gradually engulfing them as if being squeezed shut. More than twenty villages that once stood along the shore were now completely submerged.

Of course, it might reappear around noon as the tide recedes. But, is a village repeatedly swallowed and emptied by the lake still a village for people?
…The investigation has been completed…

Meanwhile, below the lake, Wu Hengyu's army had completed its assembly. About ten miles in front of their formation, an "inverted mountain" descended from the lake's surface, its tip pointing towards the lakebed beneath Wu Hengyu's army's feet. The originally flat lakebed, instead of being touched by this mountain peak, began to sink into a large basin.

The "inverted mountains" that appeared so abruptly are the sunken "islands" seen by Bai Renfeng above the lake, which are the legendary "Black Mountain".

After this "Black Mountain" appeared in the Great Cave Heaven, the previously bright Great Cave Heaven suddenly became dark, as if the surface of the lake above was shrouded in a black curtain.

Yu Li began to channel her magical power, and at that moment, the surface of the lake above descended from above, getting closer and closer to her head. It was as if something was about to descend.

According to the ancient method of traversing the Great Cave Heaven, as long as everyone enters this water-like ceiling, they will emerge from the surface of another large lake.

This is similar to how Sadako could find any mirror, crawl inside, and then emerge from the television set in the real world.

Currently, there are five large lakes, from Yunmengze to Huaize, and beneath each of these lakes lies a vast cave. Yu Li's statement that this place can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people is indeed true.

In ancient times, the mountains and rivers were stable and harmonious, and the Great Cave Heaven was a paradise where all kinds of spiritual creatures roamed. But in modern times, with the evil moon in the sky, malevolent energy permeates the mountains and rivers.

Just as Bai Renfeng watched dozens of villages being submerged in Huaize, Wu Hengyu, located below the interface, witnessed a similar scene: villages were revealed above the Great Cave Heaven, their inverted forms revealing the lives of villagers and livestock who had been swept away by the lake. Their bodies were completely cleansed, as if scraped clean by a butcher, leaving only skeletons. Meanwhile, dozens of times more demons were feasting on them.

All the skeletons were struggling. Yes, the villagers were not dead yet; they remained in a state of limbo within the Great Cave Heaven, enduring the torment of the demons. The mad bride, who had been married off at the lake, was screaming in agony as demons crawled into the bridal sedan chair, picked her up, and committed unspeakable acts against her.

The demons were committing evil deeds. The war drums of the army marching in formation in the Great Cave Heaven were beating. The demons twisted their ugly heads to look at these uninvited guests.

They gathered together like spirits, their heads revealing pale faces adorned with eerie pink blush, and charged out babbling incoherently. Not only were most of them unarmored, but even those who wore armor were made of paper.

The Wu family army is on high alert, currently facing two thousand against four or five thousand ghosts.

Yu Li's voice reached Wu Hengyu's ears: "They are servants of the Black Mountain Demon. They gained so-called immortality by consuming the Lycoris Radiata flower below Huai Ze and were transformed into ghosts. To break through the Black Mountain Demon's lair, we must first eliminate them."

Wu Hengyu's voice rang out throughout the army: "Demons and monsters blocking our path, kill them!"

The army shouted, "Kill! Kill! Kill!" A murderous aura surged forth.

Within the Great Cave Heaven, the "Black Mountain," which had originally hung upside down, has now shrunk back, as if it had cowered.

…The lake surface rippled…

Meanwhile, above the Huai Ze lake, Bai Renfeng and his four fellow disciples had just sensed the black mist binding them, preventing them from leaving.
Zhu Yanming: "Senior brother, we are trapped in a fog."

Bai Renfeng: "Form the Five Elements Array and don't run around. The reason those villagers didn't leave even after being swallowed by the lake is because they were bound here by the Black Mountain Demon. We mustn't move, otherwise the black evil energy will pollute our spiritual artifacts and ruin them."

Huang Yao pointed to the water: "Senior brother, look over there!"

Following his finger, a large amount of white steam appeared in the center of Huai Ze. Bubbles rose from the lake surface as if the mountains were being burned and the sea was being boiled. The "islands" that had originally sunk below the lake surface now floated up again, trembling as they rose, as if trying to avoid an even more terrifying force beneath the lake.

Bai Renfeng: "The armies are currently engaged in battle at the Cave Heaven Realm, and the Military Fiends have already gained the upper hand."

Han Jiangxue: "Senior brother, the Black Fiends around us have dissipated."

Bai Renfeng: "Come with me. We can't let the Black Mountain Demon get away. Take the general's flag with you."

…The bone bird, severed by the sword's edge, fell back into the lake and quickly sank…

At this moment, in the vast cave below, Wu Hengyu's elite archers unleashed the first volley of arrows. These arrows left trails of blue light within the cave, and the demons that had been tormenting the villagers didn't even have a chance for close combat. With each whoosh of the arrows piercing the air, the heavy arrowheads pinned all the demons, whose minds had been corrupted by the "evil scripture," to the ground. As dark red blood flowed out, maggot-like creatures crawled out.

Within the Wu family army, cavalrymen clad in black iron armor charged forward, wielding long spears to finish off the ghosts. Upon encountering the malevolent light, these ghosts vanished like ashes. However, they quickly respawned in the village. Of course, there were losses; dozens of ghosts died on the battlefield, while they respawned in small groups.

Yu Li: "Heng Yu, you must destroy those ghost villages. Those villagers have fed these ghosts with their blood and flesh."

Wu Hengyu had no intention of sending soldiers to infiltrate this evil village. As the command flag turned, oxen dragged heavy cannons within two hundred paces, leveled the muzzles, and began to bombard them. The scorching bullets crashed into the earthen walls, easily demolishing large numbers of houses, eliciting angry screams from the village.

After each village was destroyed and turned into nothingness, the following scene appeared on the mirror above it, like a video player.

The village was peaceful twenty years ago, but then a group of deserters broke in and committed atrocities. At first, these deserters were still human, but later their appearance changed and their behavior became more and more like that of wild beasts.

In the end, these soldiers, who had become monsters, cut down the village's sacred trees, urinated in the village's wells, and looted all the village's gold, silver, and other valuables. They then burned down the village's houses, but used magic to restrain the villagers from escaping or dying. They reconstructed the blockade using the feng shui layout of yin dwellings, and from then on, these villages were reconstructed into nodes that led to the Great Cave Heaven.

Yu Li: "It seems the Black Mountain Demon was originally human who stumbled upon a divine cultivation method. Clearly, he was too eager for quick success and was unwilling to relinquish his human form. He plundered the people while giving them what he had, and then forced the locals to offer incense and worship him. Thus, under the influence of evil faith, he and his minions mutated into something neither human nor demon."

At this point, the image of the Black Mountain Demon getting married appeared on the mirror. For the next twenty years, the village had to offer sacrifices to young women who carried sedan chairs into the lake for the Black Mountain Demon to enjoy in his pleasure below the lake. The real gods of incense did not have such desires.

Back on the battlefield, the Wu family cavalry, wielding swords and spears, launched a final assault on the demons. As the demons fell, various items tumbled from their bodies: gold and silver treasures they had hoarded when they were human, bloodstained hairpins hidden by soldiers, and tools crafted from unidentified bones. Before the Wu family soldiers could collect them, these items fell to the ground, quickly swallowed up by the earth like silt from a lakebed.

Below the Great Cave Heaven, it seemed as if the lake was beginning to dry up, and the lake surface overhead was getting closer and closer to the army.

Yu Li looked up at the interface that was getting closer and closer, and slowly said, "It's here."

Closer, closer still, like a diver surfacing on a lake. —The entire army is about to emerge from the Great Cave.

Suddenly, the entire army was in a daze, and the troops were standing on solid ground. Looking around, they saw a lake, and the place where the army was located was an island in the shallows, with a dark mountain in the center of the island.

Due to the golden light of the Wu family army, the Black Mountain mist retreated to the mountaintop.

Two hours later, the army completed its encirclement of the island's hilltop; as the sun set, the yin energy increased significantly, and the dark aura within the hilltop dared not descend. With the army lighting torches, the mountain remained suppressed like a chain.

Following them, the sect's disciples led the way into the mountains, having been engaged in a fierce battle with the black mist. Now that Wu Hengyu's army couldn't capture the demon, these young heroes naturally wanted to find a way to force the old devil out.

…The wild bee nest in the mountains was gnawed open by a honey badger attracted by a magical bird…

In the mountains, the Black Mountain Demon, hiding in the mist and lurking in the ravine, was in a sorry state, as bolts of golden lightning from the sky continuously struck his source. Contrary to Yu Li's guess, the Black Mountain Ancestor was not a bandit who became a monk halfway through his life; those bandits were actually his tools. He possessed a thousand years of cultivation, and three hundred years ago, after his physical transformation, he successfully became a divine cultivator thanks to a small red flower.

For the first three to five hundred years, he upheld the righteous path; but when the world descended into chaos, as refugees flocked to the mountains and worshipped him as a mountain god, they initially abandoned the old, weak, sick, and disabled on the mountain, covered their graves, and offered them to him, allowing him to experience the secrets of the three treasures of humanity; then, at a bottleneck, he would devour a pair of young boys and girls every twenty years. And now, with the world in chaos once again, having tasted the sweetness of blood offerings, he has begun to gorge himself.

Little did anyone know that just as its cultivation level was experiencing an unprecedented surge in recent years, disaster struck.

The war drums approached like thunder, and when faced with the terrifying aura of the army, the old demon's supernatural powers were rendered ineffective. His once powerful magic, capable of summoning wind and rain, was now completely unusable. Just as cloth was being trampled by an iron lion, the army at the foot of the mountain had also firmly locked away ninety-nine percent of his magical power.

Now these juniors, who have been cultivating for less than ten years, are actually using Dao techniques to gang up on it one by one.

The Black Mountain Demon glared angrily at these juniors riding on his head and roared, "Don't push your luck!" But a new round of musket fire left dozens more holes in his black cloth-covered body. The bullets, carrying malevolent energy, didn't penetrate but remained inside his black smoke-like body.

The Black Mountain Demon then made a snap decision, abandoned the place where he had cultivated for hundreds of years, and transformed into a yin wind to escape.

However, just as he entered the clouds, the army's artillery fire suddenly roared, and scorching shells carrying a murderous aura slammed into his black mist body, forcing him to fall to the ground.

The black smoke from the Black Mountain Demon condensed from hundreds of meters in the sky to the ground, as if a video of "black smoke rising" from the ground had been played in reverse.

After the smoke gathered, the Black Mountain Demon was horrified to find himself in a military camp, surrounded by soldiers with shields and faces like Vajra warriors. Within dozens of feet, there was an impenetrable barrier of long spears and shields.

Just as he was sweeping up the black wind to force the armored soldiers away, a general riding a strange beast came out, raised his spear, and thrust it directly at them.

The Black Mountain Ancestor felt excruciating pain. The last scene he saw was that wisps of black energy on his body turned into flying insects. Then the black energy melted away in the sunlight, and the vengeful spirits within were released. They then turned around and surged into his body, gnawing at him like maggots.

At this moment, the Black Mountain Ancestor vaguely remembered the Heart Sutra chapter of the Daoist manual he had just obtained during his cultivation.

The demon murmured: "So it turns out there's a predetermined fate in the dark." A small flower condensed on his body, flowing towards his origin along with the karmic consequences and sins, while the magical power he had painstakingly used to wreak havoc on the human world was absorbed by this small flower.

The Black Mountain Demon finally realized that this little red flower was connected to the general and the woman beside him in the army by a causal link.

When Yu Li inserted the flower into her hair, this thousand-year-old ghost realized that all these years of surviving had been nothing more than a wedding dress for someone else.

…postscript…

After the Black Mountain demons of Huaize were wiped out, the next day, under the true sunlight, the liberated villages by the lake set off firecrackers and beat drums, exclaiming that God had opened his eyes.

In recent years, "ghosts and demons" have roamed freely, causing unbearable suffering to the local people. No one could endure the endless calamity. Furthermore, the sight of all the villages being dragged into the lake every month, with all people and livestock turning into blood-red skeletons and being tortured, is a nightmare in itself.

As for the "Black Mountain Island" that could float up and down at will and roam freely in the Huai Ze, Wu Hengyu carried a stele to the highest point of the island. As the stele fell, the flow of energy in the mountains and rivers was frozen, and the island in the lake could no longer move.

Without an imperial edict, Wu Hengyu did not dare to linger with his army for long. Instead, he quickly sent the army back to the Great Cave Heaven. However, Wu Hengyu left a small team of only twenty men to be stationed in the area to ensure that the Wu family army could collect goods from the lakes and marshes.

…Incense offering dividing line…

Meanwhile, Bai Renfeng and the others erected memorial tablets for these young sword-wielding heroes in their respective households.

Of course, it was impossible to build ancestral halls specifically for this purpose. Most of the ancestral halls built today will only be worshipped for a few generations before being shut down by the imperial censors during their campaigns to "eliminate licentious worship."

Bai Renfeng and his companions reported their demon-slaying adventure to the local Demon Suppression Bureau. Although they didn't understand the rules their sect leader had told them before they left the mountain, they followed them anyway.

Yu Li understood perfectly why their sect required these third-generation disciples to report to the Demon Suppression Division after slaying demons and monsters. This was because the merit needed to be recorded in Da Yao's archives.

The establishment of the Demon Suppression Division by Da Yao was a lesson learned from the experience of Da Cheng, where the divine path arbitrarily collected incense offerings from the countryside. This led to some evil cultivators simultaneously advocating for an apocalyptic catastrophe and collecting beliefs for salvation, creating chaos in the human realm through this back-and-forth maneuvering.

After the establishment of the Great Yao, all matters that harmed the people were handled by the Demon Suppression Division, and sects also had to report to the Demon Suppression Division when they occasionally eliminated demons. As for why the sects cooperated...

For example, today, these young heroes like Bai Renfeng have no hope of immortality a hundred years from now. After their deaths, they can feel the power of the incense offered by the local residents. If they can obtain an ordination certificate from the imperial court through sect connections, they can be transformed into local gods.

Of course, even the "Earth God" can only linger in this world for a few hundred years at most. Mortals are forgetful. With the upheavals of the world, the changes in rivers and mountains, and natural and man-made disasters, villages often cannot survive for long. Even if a village survives a famine, once the people change, they forget to make offerings. Many Earth God temples have been abandoned in this way.

Unless one goes even further and becomes the City God of a great city, or is appointed by the emperor as the Mountain God or River God of famous mountains and rivers. Of course, these positions are extremely difficult to obtain.

Yu Li looked at Wu Hengyu: "Every sect sends its disciples down the mountain to bring fame to the sect during times of chaos. Also, if someone is confirmed to be a chosen one of the great calamities, they will be recruited into the sect in advance. This is because it involves the investiture of gods at the level of mountains, rivers, and famous cities."

(End of this chapter)