Su Ming

Feisu Chinese Network

A chain of unending mountains stretched across the vast land like a dragon's spine. Lush vegetation filled them, and the cries of birds and beasts echoed without cease.

From afar, the raised portions of the range formed five peaks, like five human fingers lifted to grasp the sky. Midway up one peak, a youth leaned in the shade against a great hollowed rock. Beside him sat a woven basket filled with medicinal herbs, their fragrance drifting through the air.

The youth had delicate features, but his body was slender and somewhat frail. He wore a small shirt sewn from animal hides, a ring of white crescent beast bones around his neck. His hair was rather messy, casually tied with a grass cord.

He sat there with a leather scroll made from more than ten sheets of beast hide pasted together in his hands, reading with great relish and shaking his head as he recited.

"The Barbarian Tribe has an ancestor, who split open heaven and created man, leaving his legacy through countless generations to this day... Those who possess Barbarian power are called Barbarian Warriors; they can soar through the sky, burrow into the earth, move mountains, and overturn seas... Those with Barbarian Marks reaching the heavens may pluck the sun, moon, and stars..." As he read, the youth sighed.

"Without a Barbarian Body, how can one become a Barbarian... A Barbarian Warrior... a Barbarian Warrior... Su Ming, all you can do is gather herbs and become an ordinary healer in the tribe. To become a Barbarian Warrior who practices Barbarian Cultivation is a distant dream beyond distant dreams." The youth mocked himself, set down the hide scroll, and stared blankly into the distant world.

He had read this hide scroll so many times he had lost count. Though he could not recite it backward word for word, he was not far from it.

"The sky is round, the earth is square; boundless as though without edge, endless as though without limit..." Su Ming murmured, imagining the world described in the scroll. Before he knew it, the sky had darkened, and dark clouds could faintly be seen looming at the end of heaven and earth.

The mountain wind carried a damp chill, rustling through the countless grasses, trees, and leaves on the slopes.

The instant he saw the dark clouds at the horizon, Su Ming suddenly perked up.

"Grandpa's calculations were right after all. There really is Black Dragon Saliva today!" A bright gleam appeared in Su Ming's eyes. He swiftly rose, stuffed the hide scroll into his clothes, grabbed the woven basket beside him with his left hand and slung it onto his back. With a flash of his body, he nimbly seized a grass rope nearby and climbed toward the mountaintop.

From afar, his frail body burst forth with astonishingly tenacious strength. Like an ape, he leaped and sprang several times, climbing more than ten zhang in an instant.

The dark clouds rolled in across heaven and earth, thunder rumbling through the air as though heaven's wrath had descended upon the mountain range. The clouds connected sky and land in a sheet of blackness, drawing nearer in the blink of an eye.

Su Ming climbed even faster. Almost the instant the clouds spread over, he reached a spot several dozen zhang below the summit. There stood a huge protruding strange rock, seemingly formed by nature itself. Its interior was hollow, riddled with countless fist-sized holes. The entire rock resembled the head of a gigantic python coiled into the mountain peak.

Below the strange rock were conical projections like fangs, a shocking and bizarre sight. Since they jutted out from the mountain itself, they seemed almost suspended in midair and were extremely difficult to reach unless one could fly.

Su Ming gripped the rope with his left hand and took a small bottle from the basket on his back with his right, holding it between his teeth. He slowly shifted several zhang in the opposite direction from the strange rock, tilting the rope in his grip. Then he dug his fingers into the cliff face, pressed his body close against it, raised his head toward the dark clouds, and stared without moving.

A moment later, the clouds covered the sky. Thunder boomed deafeningly as wild winds raged, making the entire mountain range seem as though it would be ripped from the ground. Su Ming's fingers, hooked into the cliff face, had turned white in the gale, yet he remained utterly still. His eyes held only determination.

The wind grew fiercer and fiercer, whipping the mountain grasses and trees into a roar like some colossal beast. Countless dead branches and fallen leaves were swept into the air, until the sky and earth were filled with vegetation spinning wildly about.

Even large pieces of deadwood and small beasts were forcibly dragged into the air, spun about, and hurled far away. Their miserable cries were swallowed by the howling wind.

Su Ming endured the gale for only a short while before the entire sky was completely shrouded in dark clouds. Amid the thunder, raindrops as large as beans poured down in torrents, and in that instant, heaven and earth seemed to become a world veiled by a curtain of water.

Rain pattered down without end, growing heavier and heavier. Su Ming still clung tightly to the rain-soaked rope, pressed against the cliff, allowing the rain to drench him to the bone without moving. His gaze remained fixed on a fang-like protruding rock beneath the strange python-like boulder.

No one knew how much time passed. The rain continued to intensify, and heaven and earth became a hazy expanse of rain mist. Yet the fang-like rock Su Ming was watching slowly began to ooze black liquid beneath the washing rain.

The black liquid mingled with the rainwater, joining into a thin stream that flowed downward.

Joy flashed in Su Ming's eyes at the sight, but he remained motionless. Only when the oozing black liquid gradually dwindled, finally turning golden in an instant, did Su Ming's gaze sharpen. Without the slightest hesitation, he suddenly released his right hand from the rock. As his body slid downward, he immediately took the small bottle from his mouth.

The rope in his left hand had already been tilted. Now, as he released his right hand, his entire body swung out like a pendulum, speeding toward the protruding fang-like rock.

Because the rope had been angled in a great arc beforehand, and because he had judged his position precisely, Su Ming reached the nearly suspended fang-like rock in the span of a thunderclap. His left hand gripped the rope while his right held the small earthen bottle. The instant he drew near, he swiftly placed it beneath the fang-like rock. In the brief pause when the rope reached the limit of its swing, he filled more than half the bottle with golden liquid.

But at that very moment, sharp hisses suddenly rang out. Four or five black centipedes, each as thick as an arm and half a zhang long, crawled out from the many fist-sized holes in the strange rock and lunged ferociously toward Su Ming as he swung through the air.

Su Ming was not surprised in the slightest. Almost the instant those centipedes appeared, he released the rope with his left hand, and his body immediately plummeted at tremendous speed, dodging their attack.

"Xiao Hong!" Su Ming fell swiftly through the air. The raging wind was like knives, instantly stiffening his body. Though he had avoided the centipedes, once he hit the ground, he would be reduced to a pile of flesh.

Yet he did not panic. A red blur shot out from a nearby cliff, clutching a rope as it rushed toward Su Ming's falling body. In an instant, it reached him and grabbed him. The red blur was a small red monkey, baring its teeth, though its eyes shone with intelligence.

The man and monkey descended along the rope until they landed on the cliff face, at the spot where Su Ming had been reading earlier. Tension appeared in Su Ming's eyes as he immediately tucked away the small earthen bottle he had kept tightly in his grasp.

"Xiao Hong, we need to run! I stole too much Black Dragon Saliva this time! Huh? What are you holding?" As Su Ming spoke, he noticed a small pitch-black fragment clutched in the little monkey's paw.

The little monkey immediately became wary, hiding its paw behind its back and hissing several times. Seeing that time was short, Su Ming said no more. He quickly strode forward, leaped down, grabbed one rope after another, and sped down the mountain with the little monkey.

Behind them, hissing surged to the heavens. The black centipedes raced down the cliff face after them, like several black lines sliding downward in relentless pursuit.

The little red monkey bared its teeth again and again, constantly screeching at Su Ming beside it. Its red form flashed as it occasionally turned back to look at the pursuing centipedes, fear and indignation in its eyes.

"It's not like this is the first time we've run away like this. Those Wu Longs don't dare come down the mountain, so stop pretending. Same old rules—half of this Black Dragon Saliva goes to you." Though Su Ming fled at top speed, his voice was lazy. Sure enough, the instant he spoke, the little monkey beamed with delight. It was clear its earlier display had all been an act.

The man and monkey knew these mountains extremely well. Moreover, for some reason, the centipedes seemed afraid to cross certain places on the mountain directly and had to detour around them. Thus, although Su Ming and the little monkey were not as fast as the centipedes, they would occasionally leap straight down and often catch hold of a rope. After several such leaps, they descended the peak, plunged into the forest, and vanished from sight.

As expected, the centipedes did not dare descend the mountain. They hissed for a long while before crawling back toward the summit in unwillingness.

The dark clouds came swiftly and departed just as hurriedly. Several hours later, the mountain range had returned to normal, and the rolling clouds spread away into the distance.

Su Ming and the little monkey emerged from the edge of the forest. By then, the sky had gradually darkened, and faint firelight could be seen at the distant horizon. That was the tribe where Su Ming lived.

"You drank all the small half I gave you, and you still want more?" As he emerged from the forest, Su Ming was drenched from head to toe, yet he did not mind. Instead, he looked at the little monkey trailing behind him with a faint smile. It stared at him eagerly.

This little monkey was extremely intelligent. Su Ming had stumbled upon it by chance three years ago when he first entered these mountains. They had had some conflicts at first, but eventually became friends.

The little monkey blinked and scratched its face, revealing a trace of struggle and hesitation. But soon, it handed the pitch-black fragment it had been holding to Su Ming and screeched repeatedly, making clear that it wanted to trade it for Black Dragon Saliva.

"Fine, I'll give you some more. But I don't want this broken rock. Keep it yourself." Su Ming laughed, took the small earthen bottle from the woven basket, and handed it to the little monkey.

The little monkey hurriedly snatched it over and took a gulp. An intoxicated expression appeared on its face, and after swaying a few times, it let out a burp. It tossed the black stone fragment and the bottle back to Su Ming, then swayed away with several leaps and disappeared into the forest.

Su Ming looked at the earthen bottle, now containing only a small half of its contents, and smiled faintly. He did not mind as he put it back into the basket on his back, then examined the pitch-black stone fragment.

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