lovenovelstory #341 - Moving Mountain
#341 - Moving Mountain
Watching the slightly drunk Wu Changming and listening to his complaints, Zhang Chen couldn't help but sigh, thinking that Wu Changming was truly unlucky. He had managed the Northern Lands for decades, only to have Gu Mingyue snatch the fruits of his labor. Moreover, Gu Mingyue had the support of the Prince of Pingbian's estate, leaving him unable to retaliate. Even the Great Teacher didn't support him, favoring Gu Mingyue instead.
Wu Changming was suffering in his heart. He didn't want to pursue the path of the Yin Gods, as his faith had already blossomed everywhere, and his divine path had achieved some success. But who knew that at the crucial moment, he would be backstabbed by the Yellow Heaven Dao internally.
As Gu Mingyue seized more and more faith, Wu Changming's strength would decline along with the decrease in faith, stagnating his progress or even causing his strength to regress. This was the drawback of incense faith. To achieve eternal existence and escape the shackles of faith, one had to become a Primordial God.
Now was an era of great contention, and any delay would lead to being abandoned by the times. How could Wu Changming sit idly by and wait for death? However, everyone in the world now recognized the importance of incense, and if Wu Changming wanted to leave the Northern Lands to spread his teachings, it was likely that the various lords would not allow it.
Therefore, Wu Changming had no choice but to switch to the Yin God path. He had to take advantage of the fact that his divine position hadn't fallen below the ninth rank to quickly switch to the Yin God path and make up for it.
All the great paths in the world were interconnected. Wu Changming had reached the ninth rank in the path of incense, so now, looking back at the Yin God path from a high vantage point, he could save a lot of effort in his cultivation.
Moreover, Wu Changming was indeed very ambitious. He actually relied on his own insights to comprehend the first heaven of the spiritual world. He was indeed a promising seedling for cultivation.
Wu Changming knew about the grudges between Zhang Chen and the Prince of Pingbian's estate. At this moment, he drunkenly grabbed Zhang Chen's hand and complained, "I know why the Great Teacher is suppressing me. Isn't it because of Zhang Shicheng? He wants to use me as a scapegoat to give Zhang Shicheng an explanation. What was I fighting for when I participated in the Dragon Slaying War? Wasn't it for the Yellow Heaven Dao? Besides, the decision to slay the dragon was made by everyone together, and I was just the one executing it! Now, it's all good. The Yellow Heaven Dao is cooperating with the Prince of Pingbian's estate, and I've become a sinner!"
Wu Changming was cursing and complaining at this moment, which surprised Zhang Chen. He didn't expect that there would be such a reason behind it.
Thinking about it, it made sense. Once Zhang Shicheng successfully transformed into a dragon, he would at least be a tenth-rank existence. That would be a true pillar of support for a major power, which Wu Changming couldn't compare to.
Abandoning a Wu Changming in exchange for Zhang Shicheng's joining was indeed a profitable deal.
Hearing Wu Changming's words, Zhang Chen knew in his heart that Wu Changming had become a pawn of the Yellow Heaven Dao.
Zhang Chen didn't know how to comfort him after hearing Wu Changming's words. At this moment, Wu Changming began to reveal explosive information: "Don't look at how flourishing the divine path is. It now has a tendency to sweep the world, but the drawbacks of the divine path are too great. The poison of incense can cause the gods to fall into depravity. The more power of incense collected, the more ferocious the poison of incense, and the faster they will die. Why does the Great Teacher frequently go into seclusion? Isn't it because he is troubled by the poison of incense?"
"To resolve the poison of incense, one must find the legendary waters of the Yellow Springs to cleanse the soul and make oneself completely transparent. But... hehe..." Wu Changming sneered at this moment: "The waters of the Yellow Springs have long been extinct. They are waiting to die! Sooner or later, they will be invaded by the poison of incense and become shells without intelligence."
Wu Changming cursed and complained a lot that night. He was completely drunk, and his mouth was full of various revelations about the Yellow Heaven Dao.
Listening to Wu Changming's revelations, Zhang Chen's thoughts swirled in his mind. He didn't quite believe that Wu Changming was really drunk. How difficult was it to get drunk for someone who had cultivated to Wu Changming's realm? This old Taoist priest probably wanted to use his mouth to convey information to the Surveillance Division and the imperial court.
Zhang Chen looked at Wu Changming's flushed face with a strange feeling in his heart: "Wu Changming's mentality seems a bit... does he want to betray the Yellow Heaven Dao and lean towards the imperial court?"
"Master, you're drunk." Zhang Chen helped Wu Changming up and placed him on the couch. Before long, snoring began, leaving Zhang Chen standing under the bright moon, deep in thought.
The night passed, and in the early morning, Wu Changming left yawning, as if he wasn't the one who got drunk last night, and he wasn't the one who exposed the drawbacks of the incense divine path.
"The incense divine path actually has such drawbacks? The poison of incense actually needs to rely on the waters of the Yellow Springs to wash it away?" Zhang Chen looked at Wu Changming's back, feeling very surprised in his heart. Now he felt the importance of the waters of the Yellow Springs even more.
"Everyone in the world is cultivating the divine path. If I take out the waters of the Yellow Springs in the future, wouldn't I be able to drive those gods at will?" Zhang Chen pondered in his heart, and at the same time, he reminded himself in his heart: 'In the future, the waters of the Yellow Springs must never be exposed casually, or people will die!'
Thinking of this, Zhang Chen turned around and lurked into the Taoist temple, beginning to devour the power of faith like a whale. The amount that used to take a day to devour, Zhang Chen now only needed to devour for an hour before he had to return to the ground to wait for the recovery of the power of incense.
"Let's cultivate the Mountain Moving Art first, and cultivate as much as we can!"
Zhang Chen opened the golden finger panel and directly added points to the Mountain Moving Art. As the points evaporated like flowing water, one rune after another appeared out of thin air on the Pangu Stone, born within the Pangu Stone through the power of the golden finger.
When Zhang Chen added three thousand runes, his mana had already reached its limit.
"Can my mana only apply three thousand runes?" Zhang Chen said to himself.
However, although his mana limit was to apply three thousand runes, the point addition panel did not disappear, and it did not delay Zhang Chen's point addition?
As Zhang Chen added points, one rune after another was still imprinted on the Pangu Stone out of thin air, and at the same time, Zhang Chen's mana, under the effect of the points, actually continued to increase out of thin air.
Good fellow, Zhang Chen's mana was not enough, so he directly used points to make up for it.
The vast mana was constantly generated out of thin air in the dantian, pouring into the Nine Revolutions Returning Pill, increasing the foundation of the Nine Revolutions Returning Pill.
As the mana in the Pangu Stone increased, inexplicable runes also appeared in Zhang Chen's body, engraved in the acupoints, corresponding to the Pangu Stone.
As the runes increased, Zhang Chen's body was also undergoing bursts of washing and undergoing inexplicable transformation.
It was just that when Zhang Chen's mana increased to five hundred years, he could no longer increase it by half a point, no matter how many runes were added, Zhang Chen's mana did not increase by half a point.
It was as if there was an invisible shackle in the dark, firmly locking Zhang Chen, making the mana in his body unable to increase by half a point.
"Five hundred years of mana is the limit of the mortal realm, unless I transform into an immortal!" Zhang Chen had an inexplicable understanding in his heart.
"That is to say, even if I have points, the initial entry of the Mountain Moving Art is my limit? If I want to cultivate to complete mastery, at least my cultivation must have a qualitative breakthrough, rather than this small realm breakthrough?" Zhang Chen was thoughtful.
"Five hundred years is a major threshold. To break through this limit and shatter these shackles, one can only achieve it through breakthroughs in cultivation realm," Zhang Chen thought. It's true; he couldn't expect all the good things to be his. The golden finger adding points for him also incidentally increased his magic power, which was already a tremendous boon. He dared not harbor any other dissatisfaction.
Thoughts flickered in Zhang Chen's mind. The first realm of the Mountain Moving Art, having reached Great Perfection, was temporarily sufficient for his needs.
Cultivating the Mountain Moving Art to the initial entry level requires refining twelve thousand talismans, allowing one to move twelve thousand catties (approximately 6000 kg) of objects, which was already enough for Zhang Chen. One must know that Sun Dasheng's (The Monkey King) golden cudgel weighed only twelve thousand catties.
Looking again at Zhang Chen's dantian, his magic power was now vast and mighty. Five hundred years of magic power circulated throughout his body, having transformed into pure gold. It flowed endlessly, and faint runes flickered within the magic power.
"The Mountain Moving Art is finally complete. I still need to test its power," Zhang Chen thought, transforming into mist and leaving the Taoist temple. He flew into a deep mountain forest and stood before a large tree as thick as a man could embrace.
The tree had grown for a hundred years, just thick enough for Zhang Chen to embrace. Zhang Chen approached the tree, his eyes sizing it up. The next moment, he reached out his arms to hug the tree, and the Pangu Stone flickered in Zhang Chen's mental world. The talismans within Zhang Chen's body circulated with divine light. The next moment, he suddenly activated his divine power, intending to uproot the tree.
Today, Zhang Chen would be like Lin Daiyu, uprooting the weeping willow upside down!
As Zhang Chen exerted his strength, the tree made a 'crack' sound and was actually snapped by Zhang Chen's embrace.
"Hmm? Something's not right!" Zhang Chen looked at the broken tree, which crashed down after being snapped, startling Zhang Chen, who quickly dodged.
With a loud crash, dust billowed everywhere. Zhang Chen stood in the dust, his eyes looking at the fallen tree, a thoughtful expression on his face: "This is not quite the Mountain Moving Art I imagined."
He thought the Mountain Moving Art would grant him the strength of twelve thousand catties simply by using his divine power, but what was the reality?
The application of this twelve thousand catties of force lacked refinement.
"It would be more accurate to say that I snapped the tree rather than uprooted it! Applying too much force directly broke the tree," Zhang Chen mused.
His twelve thousand catties of strength was merely superficial power, acting only on the surface.
"For me, the best weapon is actually a heavy weapon like an iron rod. The heavier the weapon, the better, to fully utilize this twelve thousand catties of moving power," Zhang Chen pondered to himself.
Of course, his body was also extremely resilient, undergoing a subtle transformation. His skin was like old cowhide, still appearing fair and slender but with a defensive power no less than ordinary leather armor.
Zhang Chen turned his gaze to a three-meter-high boulder, likely weighing three thousand catties. Zhang Chen silently cast the Mountain Moving Art, and as his hands lifted the boulder, it was directly raised above his head, appearing effortless.
"It's a pity that I can only move tangible mountains now. If the Mountain Moving Art reaches Great Perfection, I can move intangible mountains. That's when it will be truly powerful. I can borrow the power of mountains, rivers, stars, and celestial bodies, applying it to my fists and feet, ensuring every move has the power to split mountains and crack rocks," Zhang Chen sighed softly in his heart.
Achieving Great Perfection in the Mountain Moving Art seemed distant and unattainable. At least for now, Zhang Chen saw no hope.
"I wonder if, with my current abilities, I can move that steel fork?" Zhang Chen thought of the fork in the thatched cottage, his mind wandering.
Unfortunately, that fork was taken away by the Emperor's daughter.
"Now that my Mountain Moving Art has just begun, possessing the strength of twelve thousand catties, I can try refining that slingshot," Zhang Chen thought to himself.
However, he was not in a hurry to refine it. He felt he should check on the Eight Trigrams Furnace. He wondered how far the refining process had gone. Seven or eight months had passed, and he assumed that the bead should have melted by now.
Zhang Chen transformed into a vampire bat and traversed the mountains, speeding along the way, and arrived at the location of the Eight Trigrams Furnace.
Scanning the surrounding guards from the Surveillance and Correction Division, Zhang Chen was very satisfied. He directly revealed his presence in the cave where the Eight Trigrams Furnace was located.
Flames blazed within the Eight Trigrams Furnace. Zhang Chen approached the furnace, looked at the colorful flames within, and extended his hand, pouring magic power into the furnace, sensing the situation inside.
After a moment, Zhang Chen frowned: "Why hasn't it been successfully melted yet? It's already been seven or eight months, why is that bead still holding on?"
Zhang Chen felt somewhat troubled. At this rate of refining, it would take many more days to complete the melting.
Zhang Chen really couldn't wait any longer, feeling restless.
"Forget it, there's no use in rushing things now. I can only wait for the bead to melt. After all, this bead is a twelfth-order existence, so completely melting it won't be easy," Zhang Chen knew that haste makes waste. Fortunately, he still had time and hadn't considered leaving the Northern Lands yet.
Zhang Chen carefully inspected the Eight Trigrams Furnace for a while, confirming that there were no abnormalities in the fire, and then he felt relieved. He turned and went to the cave to check on his precious bumblebees and falcons.
The number of bumblebees had not decreased. Even in the arid Northern Lands, due to the presence of groundwater, they had survived tenaciously.
Zhang Chen's gaze fell on the queen bee. This queen bee had been fed mysterious blood by him, and now, several months later, there was still no sign of her gaining intelligence.
Looking at the falcons, they also looked foolish and cute, showing no signs of gaining intelligence.
Seeing this, Zhang Chen shook his head: "Indeed, gaining intelligence is not that simple."
At this time, the falcons saw Zhang Chen's appearance and ran over to rub their heads against Zhang Chen's thighs, revealing an affectionate expression.
The queen bee among the bumblebees also flapped her wings from the hive and landed on Zhang Chen's shoulder, crawling around.
"These two fellows have gained some spirituality, but they are still far from gaining wisdom and becoming demon beasts. Relying on these two fellows to gain intelligence and become demon beasts is not as good as hoping that I can upgrade my Dragon Qi, improve my Beast Taming Art, and forcibly grant them intelligence," Zhang Chen thought to himself.
Demon beasts were not so easy to become. Zhang Chen looked at the queen bee and falcons on his shoulder and was not too disappointed.
It was now the cold winter in the Northern Lands. Although there was no heavy snow due to the moisture being depleted, the weather in the Northern Lands was still frigid. The bumblebees had all entered hibernation, and the fact that the queen bee could still be active in the cold winter was already remarkable.