Looking Up at the Sky Was Not a Crime

Tianmen Town, bustling and prosperous only moments ago, had turned into a graveyard in the blink of an eye. The woman with the flower umbrella looked around and saw nothing but silent, desolate graves, along with a dilapidated Heaven Gate and a residence—Su Yun's residence!

This was the real Tianmen Town!

Tianmen Town had been destroyed in that calamity six years ago!

Later, envoys from the Eastern Capital arrived to investigate the cause of the disaster. They built grave after grave for the victims of Tianmen Town.

"You are no match for that Qiu Shuijing."

Uncle Qu's voice came from somewhere. "Qiu Shuijing saw through Tianmen Town's illusion. With one great laugh, he shattered it and let the sunlight shine in. Yet you saw nothing at all."

Standing amid the bleak cemetery, the woman with the flower umbrella felt the hairs rise on her back. She turned toward the gate, only to find that Uncle Qu was no longer atop the Heaven Gate.

"Members of the Tong Family were not raised to be frightened!"

The woman with the flower umbrella bolstered her courage and gave the umbrella a shake. Bi Fang Divine Birds flew out from beneath it one after another, circling and dancing around her.

She continued toward Su Yun's residence, her legs trembling slightly. On either side stood the graves of Tianmen Town's residents, each desolate mound silent and still. How could she not be afraid?

Secretly on guard, she murmured inwardly, Even ghosts and gods are far weaker than they were in life! My Tong Family is an aristocratic house; both our Family Learning and official teachings are exquisitely profound...

At last, she arrived before Su Yun's residence. This was the only place with sunlight, and also the only place where anyone lived.

The woman with the flower umbrella reached out to push open the wooden gate. At that moment, she happened to notice that the flesh on her hand had somehow vanished, leaving only white bones!

Not a trace of skin or fingernails remained on her five fingers. Her flesh seemed to have been gnawed clean by a swarm of ants!

She screamed and dropped the flower umbrella. Raising her other hand, she found nothing but bones there as well!

She pulled up her sleeve. Her arm was the same.

The woman hurriedly touched her face. All the flesh had vanished from it. Her finger bones even jabbed into her own eye sockets, and there was nothing inside them!

"This damned place..."

She let out a mournful sigh. Then, with a crash, the skeletal beauty fell apart. Her bones crumbled into powder, while her clothes dropped to the ground.

A gust of yin wind swept past, and her clothes scattered in the breeze like paper reduced to ashes.

Her flower umbrella, along with the Bi Fang Divine Birds flying in the air, also turned into specks of light and vanished.

As the yin wind blew, the desolate graves disappeared once more. Broken bricks and tiles rose into the air, snapped pillars and roof beams reassembled, collapsed houses rebuilt themselves, and every building in Tianmen Town became as good as new. People came and went through the streets, living their ordinary lives as before.

This little town by the North Sea seemed to still exist in the world.

Yet whenever the wind from the North Sea blew in from over the water, Tianmen Town trembled in the sea breeze like a mirage in mist, as though it might be blown away and scattered at any moment.

The townspeople of Tianmen Town likewise trembled in the wind like figures in a painting, giving off a profoundly unreal feeling.

Su Yun and the four little foxes knew nothing of what had happened in Tianmen Town. By the time they woke, it was already noon. Flower Fox and Hu Buping had caught several wild chickens, while Qingqiu Yue and Li Xiaofan had gone to the vegetable gardens of Niu Family Village and stolen some vegetables.

Those ox demons liked growing vegetables.

Su Yun cooked at home. He baked several wild chickens in coarse salt until they turned golden, braised dried sea fish, stewed eggplants, steamed rice, and stir-fried the vegetables they had stolen. One human and four foxes sat down to eat.

"We're out of soy sauce at home, so we need to buy some at the market."

As Su Yun ate, he said, "My clothes were torn when I fought Senior Student a few days ago, so I need to buy a few rough cloth outfits too. And Second Brother, if you want to enter the city in the future, you'll need to buy some clothes as well."

Flower Fox said nothing at the table, quietly gnawing on his salt-baked chicken. Hu Buping, however, could not hold back. He looked up and asked, "Brother Xiaoyun, why do we have to enter the city? Can't we just stay out of it?"

"No."

Su Yun's expression darkened slightly. "In the city, we can receive a better education and learn better cultivation arts."

Hu Buping did not understand. "But we can live very well in the countryside too. There is food and drink here, and there are companions. We can survive here. Why do we have to enter the city? Once we do, can we still be as free and unfettered as we are now?"

Qingqiu Yue and Li Xiaofan stopped eating as well and silently watched Su Yun.

Su Yun put down his bowl and chopsticks. After a moment of silence, he said, "And then die like Mister Wild Fox? Be silently erased like Huqiu Village, without even knowing who our enemy was? Or become like The Whole Village Eats, suffering through countless hardships to cultivate into a Flood Dragon, only to be captured and used as a mount?"

His voice was bitter. "Or do you want to be like me, blinded merely because I looked up at the sky once?"

Hu Buping opened his mouth, then said no more.

"I want to learn more. I want to take control of my own fate. I want to climb higher, so I can live better and let my family and friends live better."

Su Yun pressed his thin lips together. "I do not want to die like Mister Wild Fox, nor do I want to be like Huqiu Village, erased just because someone casually gave us a name. I do not want my descendants to live this kind of life as I have! Looking up at the sky was not a crime!"

"I want justice for myself, for Tianmen Town, for Mister Wild Fox, and for Huqiu Village. I do not want to live an ordinary life!"

Though he could not see, he accurately picked up a piece of sea fish and placed it in his bowl. "And if I want to do all that, I must go to the city. I must study and learn more skills, better skills!"

"Xiaoyun is right."

Flower Fox set down the salt-baked chicken he had gnawed more than halfway through and said solemnly, "We will enter the city with you. If we do not enter the city, how will we avenge Huqiu Village?"

Li Xiaofan gnawed on a chicken claw and said in a muffled voice, "I'll follow Brother Xiaoyun. Wherever Brother Xiaoyun goes, I'll go. By the way, do you think there really are dragons in Fallen Dragon Valley? Dragons that turned into ghosts? I really want to see them... If Brother Xiaoyun goes, I'll go too..."

Hu Buping's eyes rolled. "Me too."

Qingqiu Yue seriously dealt with the chicken in front of her, raising her tail and swaying it to show her agreement.

"Then shall we go take a look at Dragon Burial Mound?" Hu Buping asked excitedly.

Su Yun thought for a moment. "Beyond the mountain behind the broken cliff lies Dragon Burial Mound, and beyond Dragon Burial Mound is Fallen Dragon Valley. Everything else is manageable, but the broken cliff cannot be climbed at all. Only birds can fly across it. However, with this rope, we can cross the broken cliff..."

The four foxes' eyes lit up.

Not long afterward, Su Yun and the four foxes passed through Linyi Village again. Linyi Village had suffered grievous casualties in the battle at Snake Ravine, so this time its residents did not mock them again. Quite a few Striped Owls hid in treehouses, nursing their wounds.

After reaching the outskirts of Linyi Village, they turned and walked several more li along the mountain road before arriving at Niu Family Village. From afar, they saw an old black ox sitting on its rump, using one foreleg to press down grass and feed it beneath a chopping blade, while lifting the blade with its other foreleg to chop grass for itself to eat.

In Niu Family Village, white funeral banners hung before more than a dozen homes as funerals were underway. A group of graceful cat demons had set up an opera stage and puffed out their cheeks as they played trumpets and suonas onstage all night long.

Several ox demons jeered beneath the stage, demanding to hear "A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix."

"Think I'm afraid of you? This old lady can play from the moment you were born until your whole family is carried out for burial!" The leading cat demon woman was exceedingly fierce.

The "people" of Niu Family Village were in a terrible temper after so many ox demons had died, and the cat demons were no mild-tempered lot either. Su Yun and Flower Fox wisely took a detour.

"The name The Whole Village Eats is far too fitting."

Hu Buping muttered, "These cat demons specialize in the business of feeding entire villages. They could make a fortune..."

Everyone was frightened out of their wits, afraid that the loose-tongued fox would anger both Niu Family Village and Mao Family Village. Fortunately, the trumpets and suonas in Niu Family Village were so loud that they drowned him out.

They bypassed Niu Family Village and walked several more li before finally arriving at the broken cliff.

This was not the broken cliff at Snake Ravine, but the second broken cliff behind Snake Ravine. It was extremely steep, and crossing it would bring them to Dragon Burial Mound.

However, among the nearby villages, only the residents of Linyi Village had ever gone to Dragon Burial Mound. None of the other "people" had been there.

Su Yun and the others arrived beneath the cliff. The four foxes nervously looked all around. Flower Fox said, "No one nearby!"

Su Yun took out the Immortal Rope, pinched its end, and tossed it into the sky. The rope shot upward with a whoosh.

Zhai Zhu: The four characters in Walking the Abyss need your hearts, fellow Daoists~ If you reward the work, please reward the characters instead. Many thanks~