The Arrival

Mountain-root earth qi was the earth qi of a mountain.

Earth qi had its own properties.

Thus it was said: "There is a great tree called the Shu Tree. Its leaves remain green through winter, its fruits are red and sour. Eating its bark and drinking its sap cures the illness of rebellious qi. The people of Qi Prefecture treasure it, but once transplanted north of the Huai River, it turns into a Zhi Fruit. Mynas do not cross the Ji River, and raccoon dogs die once they cross the Wen River—such is the nature of earth qi."

In other words, there was a great tree called the Shu Tree. Its green leaves remained verdant even in winter, while its fruits were red and sour. Eating its bark and drinking its sap could cure illnesses of rebellious qi. The people of Qi Prefecture treasured it, but if it was transplanted north of the Huai River, it became a Zhi Fruit. Mynas would not cross the Ji River, and raccoon dogs would die after crossing the Wen River. All of this was caused by earth qi.

Earth qi had properties. Different places had different earth qi, which created different local characteristics, leading to differing circumstances and customs.

Li Qi had once thought all this was utter nonsense, but after considering it carefully, he had no choice but to admit that it made sense.

In the world he came from, the saying that oranges grown south of the Huai River were oranges, while those grown north became trifoliate oranges, was complete nonsense. They were simply different varieties. But in this world, such things truly existed.

Furthermore, in the other world, temperatures differed from region to region because of latitude. The world was round, so sunlight fell upon it differently.

But in this world, the earth was flat.

When the light was good, he could stand atop a hill and see dozens of li into the distance. There was no such thing as a horizon at all.

Clearly, concepts like longitude and latitude did not exist here.

This was a world with a round heaven and square earth.

Then the only things that could determine the nature of different regions were naturally the ethereal earth qi and weather qi.

Li Qi had realized many times already that this world was completely different from the one he had once known.

Of course, there were also some similarities, but at a deeper level, they were certainly different. For instance, gravity here was absolutely not the same as in his world—otherwise, this flat earth would have collapsed long ago.

Since that was the case, he fully believed the descriptions of mountain-root earth qi in the Book of Zhu.

Why could a mountain be called a mountain?

What was the difference between a mountain and a pile of dirt or rocks heaped upon the ground?

The difference was that a mountain had roots. A mountain might appear to be nothing more than a towering mound of stone and earth, but beneath the surface lay another mountain turned upside down, one even deeper and more robust than the mountain above.

That was the mountain root, the foundation that allowed a great mountain to stand firm for ten thousand years without falling.

Without roots, a mountain could be toppled with a single push. How could it stand tall?

The nature of a mountain root followed the terrain surrounding it.

If springs welled forth from the mountain root to form streams, where water emerged, then it was a configuration of water and earth merging together.

If the mountain root had a skeleton of stone, then trees would spread everywhere, bursting with life.

If rivers gnawed at the mountain root from below, then it would be an earthen hill with neither trees nor stone, no more than several dozen zhang tall at its highest point.

It was said that Penglai had a mountain whose roots formed a Jade Palace of their own, where Mirage Castle shimmered in brilliant colors, becoming a wondrous sight of the mortal world. It was exceedingly marvelous.

These were all manifestations of the mountain root's nature.

And Li Qi, as a Zhu practitioner specializing in Earthly Deities, had a unique method of using such mountain-root earth qi.

That was to use it in conjunction with weather qi.

The Book of Zhu said: "Earth qi rises, weather qi descends; yin and yang grind against one another, heaven and earth churn together. Thunderbolts beat their drums, wind and rain surge forth!"

Earth qi rose to become clouds, weather qi descended to become rain. When cloud and rain aided each other, thunder was born!

Zhu practitioners were famed for their combat strength.

Back when this rabbit Shen Shuibi had first encountered Li Qi, her assessment of him had been: "Those called Zhu serve ghosts and gods. Ghosts and gods guard them at their side, ancestral spirits walk with them, and heavenly gods, Earthly Deities, and the gods of the four directions all shelter them. Their might is terrifying." (See Chapter Twenty-Three.)

And Shen Shuibi—though he did not know what Dao path she walked—was at least fifth rank.

Li Qi, however, was still a rookie. He had only a few wisps of qi and did not even possess a rank.

But that did not mean he could not use knowledge and careful planning to try and prepare a Trump Card for himself.

The Azure Dragon Spirit Qi bestowed by the Eastern Azure Dragon was a kind of weather qi, but the Earthly Deities he worshipped—the door gods Shentu and Yulei—had not given him any earth qi.

The Five Sacrifices Gods were Earthly Deities, but what they bestowed was divine qi rather than earth qi.

So now, he intended to use his own Qi, along with this mountain spirit's loathing for him, to exchange for a wisp of earth qi.

The sacrificial ritual continued.

The mountain spirit sensed that its innate purity had been tainted by the aura of a human.

This infuriated the originally pure mountain spirit. Yet that trace of contamination was far too weak for it, so it easily scattered Li Qi's Qi and withdrew its own power.

Meanwhile, Li Qi felt an indescribable pressure...

The surrounding mountain forest... seemed not to like him very much?

It felt as though the entire world was rejecting him.

"No wonder they say this method can't be used recklessly... This counts as interfering with this mountain spirit's Dao path. If it gets lucky in the future and transforms into a god, it might come looking for trouble with me..." Li Qi mocked himself.

Human Qi contaminated a mountain spirit. If that mountain spirit became a god someday, its Dao path would be far more difficult than that of an ordinary mountain spirit.

The ignorant, senseless mountain spirit's loathing would not have any substantial effect at the moment, so Li Qi was not worried. As for the future?

What a joke. There were countless mountains and rivers in the world. How many could transform into gods?

The odds were lower than winning the lottery.

"We're ready on this side... let's put the altar here." Li Qi raised his head and looked at the altar piled from stones.

The altar was built entirely out of stone. He had even specifically run a load-bearing analysis on it—each piece weighed two or three hundred jin, and together they came to over ten thousand jin, roughly ten tons of rock.

Carrying them up here had been no easy task.

Having finished his own work, Li Qi turned to glance at Old Ma and Shen Shuibi.

Those two nonhumans were even worse off than Li Qi. They had already collapsed asleep nearby. Old Ma was half-kneeling against a tree as he slept, while Shen Shuibi slept against Old Ma. Both of them were completely out cold.

They really had it easy...

But Li Qi did not dare take it so easy.

He might as well not sleep tonight.

He found a high spot with a clear view of the surroundings and sat down.

Then he continued reading.

He was already at 0.8%. If he kept at it every day and studied diligently without fail, there would always be gains.

Wasn't today's trump card something he had gained through reading?

Perhaps someday, he too would be like Shen Shuibi, able to speak in polished passages, with all kinds of allusions and ancient texts rolling effortlessly off his tongue.

As a former researcher, Li Qi understood perfectly well that knowledge was power.

As he read, Li Qi kept part of his attention on observing the outside.

Yet before he could notice anything amiss in the distance, he saw Shen Shuibi's ears suddenly spring out from atop her head.

Those rabbit ears.

Adorable.

But before Li Qi could react, Shen Shuibi abruptly opened her eyes, her face full of panic. "Hoofbeats! Something's coming! So many hoofbeats—at least ten of them!"

At her words, Li Qi immediately stood up.

Damn it, the Art of Divination really was accurate.