Chapter Twenty-Six: The Residence of the Clearwater Divine Lord

The river scenery was picturesque. Daochen, with a fox and a monkey in tow, had taken several leisurely days to reach the mouth of Dongting Lake. Over those days, the fire fox and the white monkey finally overcame their fear of water and began to dart wildly from the bow to the stern, then back again, until Daochen was almost ready to slap a talisman on each of them just to make them stay still for a while.

The old turtle clearly knew whose hands held his peach-wood ritual sword, but he refused to say. That meant the person’s origins were surely extraordinary. Otherwise even the old turtle would not have been frightened into hiding from him. Since the turtle would not speak, Daochen could still make some guesses. In the Yangtze, there were not many who could terrify a turtle that had cultivated for a thousand years into such a state; in Dongting Lake, however, there was one.

As the little boat had just entered Dongting, Daochen was reading from the Classic of the Yellow Court and silently calculating his journey when the sky suddenly darkened. In an instant, black clouds rolled in and fierce winds arose. Daochen slowly lowered the scripture in his hand, and his expression darkened with the weather. He had originally thought the fellow who stole the peach-wood sword would hide himself away. Instead, the man proved so brazen that he was already delivering a show of force the moment Daochen arrived at the lake’s mouth.

On the lake, the wind whipped up towering waves. White spray slapped against the boat, rocking it violently up and down as though it might sink at any moment. The fox and monkey were utterly frightened and fled into the cabin, staring at Daochen. In their sparse memories, Daochen had always been all-powerful, so if the boat were to overturn, turning to Daochen was certainly the right choice. Daochen gave the two little creatures a reassuring smile. To be trusted was always a good thing, even if only by two small animals.

Daochen stood at the bow and scanned the surroundings, but suddenly anger rose in his heart. This storm had come far too strangely. Many boats on Dongting Lake had no time to evade it; the wind raged, the waves surged, and countless wooden vessels rose and fell as innumerable lives teetered on the brink of destruction. This thief of the sword cared nothing for human life, and feared neither karmic debt nor heavenly punishment. Yet Daochen, as a cultivator, could not ignore the countless lives upon the lake.

He shouted, "Heaven and earth, stabilize wind and waves; with the turning of the winds and waters, let the waves cease and the gale die down!" As he cried out, he took out a copper coin and cast it into the lake. A faint golden light spread across the water, and the surface immediately calmed. The black clouds and raging wind vanished in an instant, making one almost doubt whether the storm had ever been real.

Those who had been saved immediately cheered at surviving a disaster and thanked the Dragon King for his mercy. Then the fishermen went back to fishing and the pleasure boats continued their leisurely drifting. This, however, made Daochen anxious. His power was limited, and he was not skilled in the water arts of the five elements. Relying on the copper coin could not hold forever. Yet these people had no idea the danger had only temporarily receded and could return at any moment. Daochen had no choice but to raise his voice again: "The wind and waves have only paused for the moment; they may return at once. Everyone, dock immediately and come ashore, or bear the consequences yourselves." He shouted it three times. With Daochen's spiritual power behind it, the warning spread instantly across Dongting Lake.

For a time, the boatmen on the lake were uncertain and alarmed, not knowing where the voice had come from or whether it was true. But the earlier violent storm and black waves had indeed been inexplicable, and its sudden cessation equally suspicious. Better safe than sorry. Most boatmen quickly turned their vessels around and headed for shore. By then, Daochen was already sweating at his brow. The copper coin trembled ceaselessly beneath the lake, like a bottomless abyss, drawing away his strength without end. Seeing that there were still some fearless fishing boats out there casting nets, as well as pleasure boats drifting about heedlessly, Daochen could only warn them once more: "The wind and waves are about to rise. If you still do not return to shore, then life and death will be left to fate. Please do not court disaster yourselves." Again, he shouted three times.

At this point, medicine could not cure a dying illness, and the Dao could only ferry the willing. Those who would not save themselves, Daochen could no longer concern himself with.

The copper coin trembled more and more violently. Daochen no longer had the heart to spare attention for anything else, and focused entirely on suppressing the storm. At the same time, he drew his golden coin sword and swept his divine sense across a radius of hundreds of miles, searching for the enemy and the whereabouts of the peach-wood ritual sword.

With a clear ring, the copper coin could no longer restrain the wind and waves. It surged upward and leaped back into Daochen's hand. At once, Dongting Lake erupted again in fury, even more violently than before. The little boat was tossed by the storm, sometimes soaring to the crest of a wave, sometimes plunging into its trough. Amid the wind and rain, a great deal of lake water poured into the boat. The fox and the monkey were truly terrified now. In the cabin they could not even keep their footing, and though they wanted to run to Daochen, they found their feet no longer obeyed them. In panic they cried and chattered wildly.

Daochen hurriedly took out a golden talisman and pressed it to the bow. A flash of golden light passed over the boat, and it finally steadied. The storm outside could no longer affect the motionless little vessel in the slightest. Seeing the monkey and the fox calm at last, Daochen immediately sprang into the air and leaped into the lake.

He stood atop the water, and within dozens of yards around him, the wind ceased and the waves stilled without the faintest ripple, smooth as a mirror. Daochen's figure flashed, racing like lightning across the lake. The people standing on the shore watching the storm were so astonished their jaws nearly dropped. Though they could not make out clearly what they saw from afar, they only felt that a figure was hurtling forward at an unimaginable speed. At once, legends began to take shape in their minds: a demon stirring waves in Dongting Lake, a celestial immortal descending from the heavens to slay it. After the Yellow Crane Tower, perhaps another beautiful legend would be born.

Daochen, however, had no mind for anything around him. Within the storm, he finally caught the spiritual resonance of his peach-wood ritual sword. He sped onward until he reached a stretch of lake water and shouted, "Which wicked creature dares stir up wind and waves here? Have you no wish to live?" As soon as the words left his mouth, a golden protective sheen appeared around him, and then he vanished from the lake’s surface, no longer visible.

Relying on the copper coin to protect his body and chanting the water-evading incantation, Daochen went straight down to the lake bottom. There he came to an underwater dwelling. To call it a dwelling was no more than saying it was a cave dug out along the rocky base of a river island at the bottom of the lake. Yet this dwelling was clearly of higher quality. Its face had been lined and polished with blue stone, turning it into something like a kiln cave built beneath the water. There was even a courtyard in front, with aquatic plants and strange rocks arranged within it. Above the entrance were carved several large characters: Residence of the Divine Lord of Clear Water.

Daochen laughed inwardly. What a grandiose title. With the Dragon King absent to keep order in Dongting Lake, it seemed that any demon or monster now dared be outrageously arrogant. Was a divine lord a title one could simply claim at will?

As Daochen was considering this, the door to the dwelling opened. Out came a great crowd of shrimp spirits and crab monsters, bawling and shouting in confusion. Daochen did not bother with these foot soldiers. He raised his golden coin sword and fixed his gaze on the doorway, waiting to see what kind of thing would emerge next.