Guardians of Mountain and Sea - Chapter 3

On one side of the Divine Severance Cliff lay a deep pool, its waters exceptionally clear. Yet, when gazing into the pond, it appeared pitch black. This pool was considered a forbidden ground in the Great Mang Mountains, where neither humans nor beasts dared to venture.

Water drawn from the deep pool was ordinary, but within the pond itself, any object even a feather would sink immediately upon contact, without exception. The elders claimed that even the light of the sun and moon would be swallowed by these waters, which was why the pond appeared black.

Apu sidled carefully along the edge of the pool toward the base of the cliff, standing on tiptoe to avoid touching the water as she pressed herself against the stone wall and turned around.

Her left hand gripped a small tree growing from the cliff face, while her right hand held a dagger, thrusting it forcefully into a crevice to pry open a small hole. She then leaped upward, her left hand seizing another vine, her feet stepping into the freshly dug foothold, and her right hand continuing to carve out holes with the small dagger.

The process of alternating her ascent was tedious, and the girl’s hands were crisscrossed with bloody marks from the rough vines and bark. Her knees ached from repeatedly knocking against the stone wall.

Uncertain how much longer she would have to climb like this, she distracted herself with wandering thoughts.

She recalled what Priestess Grandma had said: “The Divine Bone Grass is crystal clear and jade-like, blooming only under moonlight. The moment moonlight fades, it withers into dust.”

The girl had never seen transparent jade in her life. She had only heard the elders say that the floor of the sacrificial ground was made of jade.

And then there was Priestess Grandma herself, after speaking, she had turned and stepped into the void, ascending the sacrificial platform step by step through the air. Did all immortals possess such abilities? She had heard that the immortal who had taken a liking to Wang Musheng as a disciple a few days ago had also descended from the sky.

And then there was Brother Atu, if he had climbed the Divine Severance Cliff from this side with her, he surely wouldn’t have doubted that the tale of “an immortal splitting the mountain” was false. Such a smooth, severed surface clearly looked as if it had been cleaved apart.

“Rustle…”

A shower of small stones tumbled down from above. Apu flattened herself against the cliff face, her hands digging tightly into the holes she had carved.

Once the cascade of stones and dust had passed, she looked up. About seven or eight meters above her, a small, luminous white plant with two leaves grew from the cliff. Flickering points of light swirled around the edges of its leaves, which swayed gently as if stirred by an unseen breeze.

The girl glanced up and down. On the lower parts of the cliff, she could still see sporadic vines, small trees, or weeds growing from the crevices. But above, all vegetation had withered and died, as if all nutrients had been drained by the white grass.

Another shower of loose gravel fell from above, and her heart jolted in alarm, a thick, long tail was slithering past overhead.

The girl remained frozen in her upward gaze, not daring to move a muscle. She closed her eyes until the dust settled, then wrinkled her nose to shake off the small stones on her face before opening her eyes to get a clearer look.

Embedded in the cliff wall was a massive, bluish-gray fleshy worm as thick as a water vat.

From time to time, it circled the Divine Bone Grass, slithering along the cliff face and dislodging gravel. Occasionally, it would poke its head out from the side to ensure its enormous body did not extend beyond the cliff and block the moonlight from above.

Apu remembered the many strange tales Priestess Grandma had told her, including one about “treasures without owners always hiding danger.”

She struggled to calm her racing heart, waiting for the frantic beating to subside before looking up again to observe the serpentine creature’s movements.

The worm’s body was covered in dense, ring-like segments of flesh, resembling an earthworm magnified millions of times. The sight was utterly revolting.

An owl flew past high in the sky. The serpent, its lower half embedded in the cliff, shot its upper body out and snapped the owl down in one bite.

Apu observed for a long while and noticed that whenever birds, beasts, or even stray leaves and weeds swept up by the fierce wind appeared above the Divine Bone Grass, the serpent would invariably shoot out to clear and swallow them. However, movements below did not attract its attention.

The blooming of the Divine Bone Grass depended on moonlight.

The girl guessed that the serpent was eliminating anything that might block the moonlight or pose a threat. In its eyes, she was probably no different from a weak insect or small animal.

She cautiously climbed upward, slowly making her way until she reached the crevice in the cliff where the serpent resided. As she climbed further, it seemed to sense something and turned, stirring up gravel as it began to descend.

Just then, another bird flew overhead. The serpent turned its head and shot out, snapping the bird down.

Terrified, Apu pressed herself into the crevice the serpent had carved into the cliff, not daring to move.

After a while, the girl peeked out and saw that the serpent had returned to its position diagonally above the Divine Bone Grass, guarding the moonlight above the sacred plant from being obstructed.

She was now only a meter or two away from the Divine Bone Grass, close enough to reach it with a leap.

Tiny glowing specks swirling around the edges of the grass blades slowly converged toward the center, and the two petals of the grass gradually closed together.

The Divine Bone Grass was about to mature.

She could wait no longer.

The serpent grew tense as well. It no longer hid within the cliff but extended its upper body diagonally, its dark, gaping mouth swaying unsteadily toward the Divine Bone Grass, as if it might swallow that section of the cliff at any moment.

The dark clouds that had been obscuring half the moon slowly dispersed.

At the sacrificial ground in the center of Nineteen Town, the Sacrificial Matriarch hovered high in the air, gazing directly at the bright moon.

“The time has come.”

The golden dragon coiled around the top of her staff let out a soft hum. The woman shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s up to the child now. My spiritual power has faded too much; there’s no time to wait for another.”

With that, she tapped her Dragon-Coiled Staff in the air. A light emanated from the base of the wooden staff, spreading outward.

The light followed invisible mystical patterns on the sacrificial ground, flowing down from the high platform along the steps. Black substances were squeezed out from the patterns, floating in the air. Upon closer inspection, they were tiny, dark-red chains emitting an ominous, dull glow.

The Sacrificial Matriarch’s hands trembled violently as she gripped the Dragon-Coiled Staff. Clenching her teeth, she steadied the staff with both hands, landing and pressing it firmly into the ground.

Her spiritual power continued to spread laboriously along the patterns on the ground through the staff, while the black chains writhed in the air, resisting as if trying to claw their way back and block the path.

Apu crouched in the crevice of the cliff, surrounded by rocks of various sizes that she had pried loose with her small dagger. She and the serpent faced each other diagonally, both leaning forward, fixated on the Divine Bone Grass between them.

The two petals drew closer and closer.

Soon, the dark clouds cleared entirely, and the full moon hung high in the sky.

The two petals of the Divine Bone Grass merged into one. It detached from its stem, floated out from the cliff, and hovered in mid-air, twisting and transforming into a small, jade-like bone, the size of a finger, glowing and delicate.

The serpent lunged downward. At the same time, Apu grabbed a large handful of the rocks she had dug out and hurled them with all her strength toward the area diagonally above the Divine Bone Grass, in the direction of the moon.

The serpent paused for a moment, then turned its head and swung its massive skull, smashing every rock to dust.

Apu kept her eyes open despite the shower of gravel, enduring the stinging pain. Planting her feet in the crevice, she leaped forward, mimicking the serpent’s hunting motion, and swallowed the floating, glowing jade bone in one gulp.

The serpent let out a furious, hoarse shriek that instantly ruptured the girl’s eardrums. Apu, clutching her aching ears, curled into a ball and plummeted straight down.

The mountain shattered violently, shaking intensely as the serpent pulled the lower half of its body from the depths of the cliff. A monstrous, terrifying giant worm crawled out from the mountain wall, stretching a full ten zhang in length.

With a flick of its tail, it accelerated downward in pursuit.

The speed of the fall increased rapidly, her clothes billowing in the wind.

Apu’s heart pounded fiercely, beating faster and faster. The Divine Bone Grass slid down her throat without any sensation. Had she not kept her eyes open and witnessed the serpent’s rage, she might have doubted whether she had even bitten into anything at all.

The pain from her ruptured eardrums persisted, and the airflow brushed against her skin. There should have been the sound of roaring wind in her ears, but she could hear nothing.

Her entire body trembled with excitement, her face flushed crimson with exhilaration.

She! Lin Apu! Had snatched a treasure right from the jaws of a serpent beast capable of wiping out half a town with a single sweep!

Hah, how incredible!

Mid-air, the serpent swallowed the girl whole, then plunged into the water with a loud splash.

“Hot, so hot! Didn’t I fall from the Divine Severance Cliff? Why haven’t I reached the water yet? It’s so hot!”

The girl’s consciousness blurred as her body temperature skyrocketed. A faint, glowing light emanated from her abdomen, where a small, exquisite jade-like bone slowly rotated.

The ethereal bone formed by the Divine Bone Grass shifted and transformed, elongating and gradually attaching itself to the girl’s skeleton. Starting from the tailbone, the illusory bone began to solidify, while her original bones were crushed and consumed.

In the water, the serpent struggled desperately to rise but was dragged downward by an unknown force from the depths of the pool.

Its demonic energy rapidly depleted as it fought against the dark, sucking force at the bottom of the pool. It began to compress and digest, attempting to convert the contents of its stomach into more energy to sustain its movements.

Foul, pungent gastric acid spread toward the girl. The moment it touched her skin, it began to corrode and smoke.

“Dad, Mom! It hurts! Apu is in so much pain. Granny! Granny, save me!”

The girl thrashed and screamed in her dazed state. The skin on her body rapidly corroded and festered, while her original bones were being ground down and reformed inside her.

The serpent’s acid corroded at an alarming rate. Half of the girl’s body had already been reduced to a skeleton, yet the ethereal bone had only just solidified and constructed a new chest cavity.

Her hand, now mere bone, withered and shriveled in the acid before snapping with a sharp crack.

From the broken end of the bone, not only marrow but also a stream of green, life-giving medicinal fluid flowed out. The jade bone formed by the Divine Bone Grass seemed to absorb this potent energy, and the previously slowed process of solidification accelerated, spreading upward toward her skull.

“It’s done! The spiritual essence accumulated in that child’s marrow over the years has been activated.”

The white-haired woman on the altar perked up. “Dragon Bone, lend me your strength once more.”

The divine dragon coiled atop the wooden staff let out a soft cry, lingering affectionately around its master’s shoulder before returning to the staff’s peak. With a piercing shriek, it transformed into nineteen beams of light that scattered, shattering all the black chains on the altar’s ground in one swift motion.

The entire altar lit up. Across the nineteen towns of Mang Mountain, every household, in their slumber, condensed a stream of energy that gathered and merged into nineteen golden rays, which then flowed back to nourish the altar.

All the energy converged at the center of the altar platform, condensing into a massive array diagram that rose into the air. The Dragon-Coiled Staff transformed into an ethereal dragon soul, carrying the energy array as it shrank. In a flash, it was instantly transmitted to the depths of the Divine Severance Cliff’s pool.

Crack! The teleportation array at the dark bottom of the pool shattered after being consumed. The ethereal dragon soul, with its last breath, surged upward, piercing through the serpent’s body and delivering the energy array onto Apu’s pale skull.

The unconscious girl faintly heard a dragon’s roar. At the same time, far away at the altar, the Dragon-Coiled Staff in the hands of the Priestess crumbled into dust.

The jade bones absorbed the energy, rapidly reconstructing the entire skeletal frame. In an instant, flesh and bones were restored, and the girl was reborn into the world.

The Priestess waved her hand, dispersing the millennium-old barrier that had enveloped the nineteen towns. Her hair was silver-white, her back hunched, and her face was now covered with wrinkles. The Priestess now truly looked like an elderly woman.

“To guide a mortal onto the path of immortality, two foundational steps are required. The reconstruction of the bone structure is the first step.”

As the barrier dissipated, a soft exclamation of surprise echoed from high in the sky two thousand miles away.

The next moment, the waters of the pool parted. The dead serpent at the bottom was sliced open by a water blade materialized out of thin air, and the water coalesced into a transparent hand, lifting the unconscious girl to the shore.

When Apu awoke and opened her eyes, a woman in a yellow robe stood before her, hands clasped behind her back, smiling as she examined her. “Jade bones, naturally formed, a top-tier foundation. Truly, a promising seedling for cultivation.”

On the altar platform, the white-haired, hunched old woman smiled with relief.

“The second step is complete.”

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