Mountain Root

"Whew... haa..." Shen Shuibi was so exhausted she could barely straighten her back. "Li Qi, why are we... moving rocks? I'm so tired."

As she spoke, Shen Shuibi held onto the basket strapped to Old Ma.

The basket was tied down with a vine and hung from Old Ma's body. Shen Shuibi was responsible for keeping it steady while also loading rocks into it.

She could not carry them herself, so she could only pick them up one by one and place them into the basket on Old Ma's back. Then Old Ma would carry them while she supported it from the side.

Li Qi had no Old Ma to use, so he could only move the rocks himself and haul them up.

After all, he was a towman. Being used like a beast of burden was hardly unusual.

No, rather, the profession of a towman was itself one of being used like a beast of burden.

Hearing Shen Shuibi's confusion, Li Qi explained, "You had a sudden impulse, and so did I. The Five-Cloud Observation Technique even showed a calamity of blades and weapons hanging over my head. We have to prepare."

"I know we need to prepare... but what does that have to do with moving rocks?" Her cultivation foundation had already been utterly ruined, and now this wave of heavy labor had left her exhausted beyond measure. She could not help asking Li Qi.

Li Qi was carrying a massive boulder weighing three or four hundred jin up the mountain. Hearing Shen Shuibi's question, he said, "We're making traps. There are mountains here, water here, and among the three of us, only I can fight. We still need to make preparations first."

"But it's almost done. You and Old Ma go rest. I can handle the rest myself; there isn't much left." Li Qi took a look. Roughly a third remained unfinished, but if he worked hard, he should be able to finish by midnight.

Yet Shen Shuibi pressed her lips together and still shook her head.

Old Ma whinnied twice as well. Rather than backing away, he continued hauling rocks up the mountain.

Seeing this, Li Qi said nothing more.

Once they reached the mountain, he immediately began arranging the stones into an Altar.

Yes, he intended to use the sacrificial methods he had learned earlier and see whether he could build up a Trump Card.

"To the mountain god, offer sacrifices..." Li Qi silently recited the wording from the Book of Blessings.

The word for sacrificial offering referred to pure-colored livestock, while livestock referred to animals fit for consumption.

To worship a mountain god, one ought to use pure-colored livestock as the offering.

But where could he find such an animal now?

Simple. Wasn't Old Ma right beside him?

Though Old Ma was already old, as a Dragon Steed, his coat was a pure, gleaming black—exceptionally handsome.

So Li Qi took his knife and walked over to Old Ma.

Old Ma was so frightened that he backed up two steps.

"Is that necessary? Look at you..." Li Qi laughed and scolded him. "It's not like I'm really going to kill you."

Old Ma whinnied twice, looking deeply wronged.

But Li Qi could not truly kill him for a sacrifice. They had spent several days together, and Old Ma had become rather close to him. He could not bring himself to do such a thing.

He sliced Old Ma's rump with the knife, collected some horse blood, then cut off a lock from Old Ma's flowing, handsome mane.

Old Ma gave two aggrieved whinnies.

Li Qi laughed and smacked his rump. "In a couple of days, I'll give you a strand of Azure Dragon Spirit Qi. Look at that pitiful face!"

Old Ma brightened at once, stuck out his rear, and walked away.

That tiny wound did not even need tending. The bleeding stopped within twenty minutes. Li Qi had taken only around two hundred milliliters; for a horse of Old Ma's size, it was about equivalent to a nosebleed.

Li Qi then placed Old Ma's blood and mane atop the stone Altar.

"Chisel stone and set up a stele, that the divine spirits may dwell in peace..."

"To the mountain god of the southern shrine, present offerings and sweet spring water in sacrifice..."

The sweet liquor should originally have been wine, but Li Qi had none at the moment, so he used the word's other meaning instead: sweet spring water. He specifically had Shen Shuibi cross two mountains to fetch clear, cold water from another mountain spring.

The offering and the sweet spring water were all prepared.

The Altar had also been built from stone. Li Qi had even employed a few mechanical methods and made a proper load-bearing analysis, ensuring that although the thing looked ready to collapse at any moment, it would not fall unless it encountered vibrations.

And even if it did collapse, it would collapse toward the water spring below the cliff, not onto him.

After identifying the direction, he faced south and presented the offerings.

Li Qi then used the back of his firewood knife to smash apart a relatively regular stone, barely pounding it into a human shape.

Really, it was only a stone sunny doll. It could barely count as a person...

He placed the human-shaped stone on the Altar.

Then, facing south, he began the ritual of blessing a person.

All spirits between Heaven and Earth cultivate qi, and through it attain the Dao.

In this world, mountain spirits and water monsters were not the only beings capable of becoming mountain gods. There was another path: the mountain itself becoming a god.

That was exceedingly difficult. Mountains had spirit but no awareness; without awareness, they had no perception, could feel nothing, and thus had no way to cultivate.

Thus, most mountain gods in the world were sprites and monsters, rather than the mountains themselves.

But what Li Qi intended to do now was forcibly create a mountain god.

Was it possible? Basically, it was impossible.

To do such a thing, at the very least it required an entire village to worship month after month for decades, with several generations steeped in incense offerings, before nurturing a trace of spiritual intelligence that could gradually awaken. Then heaven and earth's vital energies would have to gestate it for several more centuries before it could probably emerge into the world.

So, Li Qi most likely had no way of obtaining a mountain god's help.

But he knew that himself.

If a mountain god were willing to help him, he truly could sleep easy with his head on a high pillow. There would be absolutely no danger at all. He had never expected such pie to fall from the sky.

Therefore, the main purpose of this ritual was to obtain a wisp of mountain-root earth energy.

This method had actually been invented by other Zhu people and recorded in the Book of Zhu.

Its principle relied on the primitive mountain spirits' trait of possessing spirit but neither knowledge nor awareness. A portion of the mountain spirit was summoned out and placed inside a chiseled stone statue. That was the first line he had recited: "Chisel stone and set a stele, to settle the divine spirit."

Then he would sacrifice to that portion and offer up a strand of his own Qi, staining it with the characteristics of "human."

This would temporarily awaken that portion of the mountain spirit's senses. Yet it would be like a person still inside the womb—though it had perception, it possessed no spiritual wisdom.

Thus, although the summoned portion of the mountain spirit remained one with the original mountain spirit, a difference had appeared between them. It was like one's own hand suddenly growing a brain.

The mountain spirit itself would resist this change. Though it had neither knowledge nor awareness, mountains and waters were in fact all spiritual. They would cast out actions that sought to contaminate them.

Such contamination was nothing to them, of course. Mountain spirits were immensely vast. To completely taint one with human Qi would probably require the Blood Sacrifice of over a million people. A single strand of one person's Qi was truly no more than making a mountain spirit spit.

Therefore, the mountain spirit would sever that tiny portion contaminated by human Qi and abandon it. Afterward, it would never again respond to that person's sacrifices. Even if the mountain spirit truly became a god someday, it would instinctively loathe that person.

But Li Qi could no longer worry about so much.

The part the mountain spirit spat out was precisely what Li Qi wanted.

Mountain-root earth energy!