Chapter Thirty-One: The Immortal Sage’s Abode

Liuchen had first thought this was the dwelling of some ancient cultivator, but the instant he pushed open the stone door, he was truly stunned.

The door opened into a crude stone chamber. Above it was a couplet carved by the sword, and in the center hung a painting of a man Liuchen knew all too well. Was that not Lan Caihe, one of the Eight Immortals, and a fellow disciple of his own patriarch?

Liuchen hurried forward and lit a stick of pure incense. Fortunately, the mansion’s water-repelling formation was still functioning; otherwise, burning incense underwater would have been a most troublesome affair. Lan Caihe, as one of the Eight Immortals, had long since ascended. Now that he stood among the immortals, who could say whether he had ever imagined that his former dwelling would be occupied by a carp, and later invaded by a younger successor?

Sure enough, there was a sword in the chamber, placed on a stone ledge before the painting and pinned down by a suppression talisman. Liuchen found it strange that a spirit carp would possess such a talisman, but there was no longer anyone to ask. He gently peeled it away, and the peachwood ritual sword gave a clear ringing hum before shooting into the air like a cheerful little bird, circling up and down around him.

Liuchen gazed smilingly at the peachwood sword recovered at last, his heart full of relief. Its quality was extraordinary, and with a sword spirit born from a thousand years of time, it was indeed not comparable to the money sword he had hastily forged himself. With a beckoning gesture of his right hand, the peachwood sword returned on its own to his grasp. He carefully stroked the patterns of grain along its blade, thinking, At last I have found it. Otherwise, how would I answer to the ancestors?

He sheathed the sword and placed it back into the cosmos pouch. Then he began to search the chamber.

In truth, there was little left inside. Presumably anything worth having had long since been taken first by the carp spirit. Liuchen looked around, sighed in disappointment, and finally glanced once more at the painting before preparing to take his leave. Just as he was about to step out, something suddenly struck him as wrong. He drew his foot back at once and turned again, staring fixedly at the painting.

Yes. Lan Caihe was smiling, and the smile was full of mockery.

Liuchen broke out in a cold sweat. When he had first arrived, the senior immortal in the painting had not been smiling. Yet the moment he had prepared to leave, that face had turned into a grin. If there were no hidden meaning in it, that would be far stranger.

Since Lan Caihe was among the immortals, and since he was a close friend of Liuchen’s own patriarch, one of the Eight Immortals together with him, surely he would not set a trap for such a humble junior, would he? Liuchen thought. He began to study the painting carefully.

The Lan Caihe in the picture was clearly unlike the images of the Eight Immortals commonly circulated outside. He wore a Taoist robe, carried a flower basket in his left hand, and pointed toward the ground with his right. His mouth curved in a smile that was half derision, half amusement.

“Could there be a treasure beneath the ground?”

Following the direction of the finger, Liuchen looked down, summoned the peachwood ritual sword he had just put away, and began to dig.

He had barely dug for long when he made a shocking discovery, and realized that he was truly a fool. With such an obvious hint, did he really expect to wait for himself to come dig up treasure? It must already have been taken long ago.

Liuchen looked again at Lan Caihe’s painting, and sure enough, the immortal’s face now wore an even deeper look of mockery. Even with his thick skin, Liuchen could not help but blush. He began to ponder in frustration: what exactly did this painting mean?

Half an hour later, Liuchen made a discovery. Another half hour passed, and he made another. By the time he had worked the mansion into a pockmarked ruin, he had finally uncovered a major clue. He decided to take the painting away and let someone else study it.

He very respectfully apologized to the senior immortal in the picture, then stretched out a hand toward the portrait of Lan Caihe. But the moment he lifted it, the image sprang to life. Lan Caihe’s brows shot up in wrath as he hurled the flower basket straight at Liuchen’s head.

Liuchen saw only countless flowers mixed with golden sparks whirl before his eyes, and then he fainted without hesitation.

When he woke, no one knew how much time had passed. Liuchen rubbed his head and got up in a miserable state, only to discover that the portrait of Senior Lan Caihe had vanished without a trace. All that remained was the couplet. Otherwise he would have wondered whether he had dreamed the whole thing. Being knocked senseless by a painting—who would even believe such a story?

The painting had flown away, leaving behind a hidden recess in the wall of the stone chamber. That must have been what the image had been hinting at. Liuchen thought back carefully, and had to admit that he truly was a fool. He had failed to see through such an old-fashioned trick.

He opened the hidden compartment with great care, only to find a scroll of silk inside. When he unrolled it and looked, his entire body trembled. He knelt on the ground and bowed three times in the direction the painting had flown, because this silk scroll contained neither scripture nor cultivation method, nor a map to hidden treasure. It contained a painting—or rather, a formation diagram.

In the diagram stood three hundred and sixty-five bronze pillars, arranged according to the constellations of the heavens, corresponding to the three hundred and sixty-five principal stars above. At the center was a formation platform covered in dense incantation symbols and runes, clearly bearing some resemblance to the formation on the back of the cushion he had recently obtained, though upon closer inspection the two were quite different. Most importantly, the silk scroll bore the title: Heaven-Circling Stellar Radiance Guiding Formation.

If one asked what Liuchen lacked most at present, the answer was simple: far too much. He lacked magic treasures, elixirs, cultivation methods, and insights. But what he lacked most of all was a source of spiritual energy. If not for his brief journey through the starry vault bestowed by heaven after the sealing of the gods, he had no idea how long he would still have lingered on the path to the Golden Core. Yet such good fortune could obviously not fall into his lap again; otherwise, there would simply be too many blessings in the world.

This formation diagram was practically Lan Caihe helping him cheat. Though it was certainly an abridged version simplified beyond further simplification, it still reached back to the primordial first great formation. Its name alone was enough to frighten countless people senseless.

If he were given the original version, Liuchen would instead have despaired to death: was that something the present age could possibly arrange?

Moreover, the materials of this formation seemed almost custom-made. He did not know whether this had been arranged long ago, nor what exactly his own patriarch and Senior Lan had done. But this formation diagram was truly a priceless reliance, one capable of turning Azure Radiance Temple into a blessed land for cultivation, guiding starlight to descend and replenishing the spiritual energy within the mountain. No words could overstate its value.

Carefully, Liuchen put the silk scroll into his cosmos pouch and emerged onto the lake’s surface, only to see countless lantern boats on the water reflecting the night sky, like stars in heaven.

This was not the Ghost Festival. It was not the time for rites to honor the dead, to set river lanterns afloat for departed kin buried beneath the lake, so that they might cross the sea of suffering and be reborn in paradise. Therefore, these lanterns must surely be connected to him.

Liuchen thought it over and immediately understood the cause and effect. Just as he was about to leave, he stopped again, gave two wicked chuckles, and took out a star lantern. He muttered an incantation, and at once countless river lanterns, as though summoned, converged toward him.

He lightly touched a finger to the star lantern, and from the countless river lanterns, tiny tongues of flame immediately separated and flew into it. In the end, there were so many flames that they became like a blazing ribbon, pouring endlessly into the star lantern.

Such a great commotion was naturally seen by the people on shore, and they were thrown into uproar. After setting river lanterns for so many years, none of them had ever witnessed such a marvel.

Fortunately, Liuchen had already concealed his form. Even so, he dared not continue playing mind games with heaven. He leaped onto a cloud at once and fled the scene at top speed.

His heart was already homeward-bound like an arrow. At the inn, he scooped up the two little ones who had been waiting for him with tearful eyes, settled the bill, and set off through the night toward Azure Light Temple.