Making a Name
Inside a manor in West Asia.
The blazing sun shone directly on the trees, grass, and pristine white paths within the village.
Many of these plants are already ready to be harvested and prepared for making oils.
The newly joined apprentices of the Salt Lamp Esoteric Sect are subject to the strictest management, and such hard work often falls on them. To avoid the soiling caused by sweat, they wrap themselves up tightly while working under the scorching sun.
But they dared not complain in secret; they only felt a deep longing and envy.
They had all witnessed the power of the official members of the secret sect, and Elder Belial, the true master of this place, possessed various miraculous abilities.
As long as you can endure hardship, there will always be one or two new apprentices recruited each year who will have the opportunity to officially join the company.
However, in reality, those who believe they can advance by enduring hardship often only face more hardship and never manage to secure a spot.
As the official members strolled leisurely along the path, they noticed the longing looks some apprentices were giving the study, and could only chuckle to themselves.
"Ah!!"
A pitiful howl suddenly came from the direction of the study.
The members who were strolling along the path were taken aback and hurriedly headed towards the library.
The library was much larger than the secret society's library, but its collection was less than one-thousandth the size of the library's.
Hidden here are genuine esoteric texts, as well as some spiritual objects suitable for storage alongside them.
A group of middle-aged scholars take turns guarding the place, using the environment for research and cultivation. Every year, members of secret sects from other regions also come for friendly visits and tour the library.
But now, even the most experienced and knowledgeable guards in the library were staring in astonishment in a certain direction.
Some of the guards were even trembling, just like those inexperienced apprentices.
"Elder Belial is in trouble!"
"What happened? Didn't he accept the invitation from the Rose Society? We heard we weren't the only ones invited!"
The study was filled with murmurs and anxious glances.
The thing that emitted the scream was actually a golden pot placed on a wooden shelf.
With another long howl, thick smoke spewed from the spout.
The smoke formed the shape of Belial's upper body, angry and terrified, as he groped for his hands and forehead.
"Are my hands still there? Is my head still there?!"
After Belial devoted most of his energy to studying how to prolong his life and even reincarnate.
The Genie in the Pot is one of the secret techniques collected by the Salt Lamp Esoteric Sect. After the spirit is created, it can always sense the memories and emotions of its master.
After the master dies, the spirit can continue to exist in the master's place, which can be considered a kind of continuation of life.
This was clearly not a true case of life extension and reincarnation, but it was Belial's only successful attempt.
It now seems that Belial has suffered some kind of psychological shock.
This elf's mentality was not strong enough after all; when it received the memories and emotions, it was subjected to extremely strong stimulation.
The guard strode forward, sprinkled a pinch of salt into the smoke, and asked urgently, "Elf, what has happened? What's wrong with Elder Belial?"
"Dead, all dead!"
The elf uttered a series of names, all of them leaders from various factions who had been invited.
Among the guards, some were quite knowledgeable, and their faces were twitching with excitement as they listened.
"Hahaha, it's like they're deliberately going to their deaths."
The elf still appeared somewhat deranged, and suddenly switched to the language of the Mystic Kingdom.
"Chu Tianshu, Chu Tianshu!"
Within half an hour, the guards made urgent contacts to verify the information.
Six secret sects confirmed that they had experts who had been invited to secretly travel to the Tianshan.
Within the Rose Society, reports immediately arrived that Qiao, Xu Ziqian, and Jia Fang had apparently been killed.
Some found it hard to believe, some were shocked and confused, while others already sensed the trouble that was about to follow.
"Not only did the mission fail, but they also attacked the Special Investigation Bureau, and they all died there. The Mystic Kingdom will definitely cause us trouble next."
To be precise, it should be the Mystic Kingdom that questioned them, then Rose Society deny it to the death, to argue irrationally, and then they started arguing.
But sometimes, winning or losing is more important than right or wrong, especially since this time, the Mystic Kingdom was both right and wrong.
Trying to get by by arguing is not a good strategy; you'll inevitably have to pay a price.
"We've suffered heavy losses, including the death of a powerful scholar, and yet we're expected to make further concessions?"
"The loser always has to lose one more step. Isn't that common sense?"
"Chu, Tian, Shu, is that how you pronounce it? Tsk, I'll have to memorize three more characters from the Mystic Kingdom!"
Within the secret realm.
The cave fell silent.
Chu Tianshu and the others were unaware of what was happening in places thousands of miles away half an hour later.
He and Lin Chucheng simply watched quietly as the burning blanket gradually died down and fell to the ground.
"Huff! Huff! Huff!"
Lin Chucheng Matsushita, puffed out his cheeks, and breathed rapidly in and out of his mouth. Suddenly, he squatted down on the ground and hugged his stomach with both hands.
Chu Tianshu quickly reached out to take his pulse, asking, "What's wrong?"
"It's alright now."
Lin Chucheng exclaimed, "But the fire on that blanket was so intense! When I was on it, my whole body ached."
"I was in such a rush to hit someone that I didn't pay attention, but now that I think about it, it really hurt! Ouch!"
Chu Tianshu felt the child's pulse; he was a little weak, but there was basically no internal injury.
It seems his injuries have healed, but the lingering pain is making Lin Chucheng a little uneasy.
Thinking of this, Chu Tianshu felt he couldn't hold back any longer. He adjusted the weapon hanging from his waist with a thin chain, then plopped down on the ground.
He wasn't in too much pain; he was just very tired.
When Collarbone Shape-Shifting and practices Taiji, he experiences a great strain on his entire body.
His right arm, in particular, was sore and swollen from the use of techniques like the Blade of Remembrance and the Precipitous Cliff Saber.
Seeing that the battle was over, Mo Xiaoyu breathed a sigh of relief and stopped running.
She had previously helped Lin Chucheng activate his secret realm. Lin Chucheng felt that he hadn't suffered much loss, but her own power had been significantly depleted.
He then made two more attacks, each time unleashing the full power of his Li Fire Blade Qi, almost exhausting his strength.
After she took a short break to catch her breath, the fight was already over. Fortunately, the outcome was good.
Tang Nu, who had been stunned for a while by the blood-red light when he intercepted the Eight-Hand Halo, also rushed over.
We won!
He excitedly ran over.
Mo Xiaoyu tugged at him. "Wait, find Mr. Chu some clothes... Let's ask the medical team for a white coat."
Before the words were finished, a soft hum came from the bottom of the Taiji diagram pit in the distance.
Mo Xiaoyu's expression tightened, and she became alert.
Chu Tianshu raised his eyes and suddenly straightened his back.
Eight golden and silver hands flew out from the bottom of the pit, but they flew unsteadily and slowly, circling around to Lin Chucheng's side.
Lin Chucheng reached out and touched them, exclaiming in surprise, "Huh, I feel like I can control these hands."
A series of images suddenly flashed through his mind.
"Ah, I remember now."
Lin Chucheng leaped up and ran in one direction towards the cave, with eight hands automatically following him.
Chu Tianshu braced himself against the ground with one palm, his body moving like a floating cloud, and quickly followed.
"Xiao Tang, you stay here and watch over everyone. I'll go check on things too."
Mo Xiaoyu gave a word of advice and then followed.
They walked more than 300 meters through the cave.
The view ahead suddenly opened up.
The ground has become much flatter, and the dome has been specially decorated, resembling a starry sky. There is a large area here without even a single stone pillar.
But there are corpses here, more than twenty of them, corpses that look like they've been dead for more than half a month, dressed in modern clothes.
These must be the people who launched the surprise attack on Lin Chucheng.
The corpses were arranged around a hexagonal pool. Chu Tianshu approached and realized that it was not a pool at all, but a hexagonal pit.
At the bottom of the pit is a platform, where a jade statue sits cross-legged. Its facial features and eyebrows are lifelike, and it is dressed in royal robes, as if it were a living person taking a nap with its eyes closed.
Lin Chucheng had already jumped down. Chu Mo and the other man exchanged a glance and followed him down to see what was happening.
The inner wall of this hexagonal pit is also engraved with many patterns.
Chu Tianshu couldn't understand it, but Mo Xiaoyu understood it at a glance.
"So this place is connected to the Ancient Kingdom of Wusun..."
In the 2nd century BC, the Wusun people were nomadic between Dunhuang Qilian, bordering the Xiongnu to the north.
However, the king of Wusun was killed by the Yuezhi people, Xiongnu took the opportunity to support the Wusun, uniting with the Wusun forces to attack the Yuezhi.
After the Yuezhi were defeated and migrated, the Wusun people also migrated to the Ili River basin, where they grew stronger and gradually broke free from the control of the Xiongnu.
During the Western Han Dynasty, the Wusun had become a significant force on the east-west route. Zhang Qian believed that an alliance with the Wusun could sever the right arm of the Xiongnu and sent envoys to them multiple times.
Women from the Han Dynasty imperial family and daughters of the Xiongnu Chanyu married into the Wusun.
The content of this mural is related to that period, recording the story of the King of Wusun traveling with his two wives and accidentally obtaining a stone tablet in the Tianshan.
There was no soil on the stone tablet; its texture was like jade, and flowers could even grow from it.
The King of Wusun considered this a strange event and brought back the stone tablet to study day and night, eventually concluding that it was related to the Queen Mother of the West's Kingdom.
When he grew old and frail, he had a sudden inspiration: he ground all the stone tablets into powder, swallowed them every day, and secluded himself in this secret realm in hopes of making another breakthrough in his cultivation and Yannian his life.
However, shortly after entering this secret realm, he sensed that he might fail, so he inscribed these words to inform future generations.
However, it seems that the people of Kingdom of Wusun never entered this secret realm again.
No one took the former king's remains elsewhere for burial, leaving this secret place to slumber.
(End of this chapter)