ATEG Chapter 68.1

The blood-chilled sacrificial offerings transformed into resentment-laden ghosts and lunged toward the solemnly and magnificently dressed priests.

The deity watched this scene with indifference, neither disgust nor coldness evident, yet something extremely cold and dark seemed hidden in the depths of those black, abyssal eyes…

Heart-thoughts. Before the deity first made contact with mortals, no one had ever noticed this kind of power.

Through imagination and communication, they used “belief” to bestow illusory value upon processed shells, creating the concept of money. In the same way, they created laws and rules that had no substance, created the signs of commerce and divisions of nations… These things existed only in people’s heart-thoughts and had no real existence, yet they truly and surely enabled people to gather together and exert force toward a common goal, gradually establishing achievements upon the earth. Those tigers, wolves, elephants, and leopards whose strength originally far exceeded theirs had already been driven away to other places. 

This was the power of heart-thoughts, but it remained unreal. If people no longer believed in money, then the polished shells would be worthless. If people no longer believed in laws, then these codes that everyone originally obeyed would become mere traces on paper.

However, when heart-thoughts combined with divine power, something real could be born. For example… the Netherworld.

Heart-thoughts swirled around the deity’s fingertips—this he had collected from those beings whose karmic threads had been severed. Resentment, unwillingness, obsession, longing… They did not yet have the concept of a Netherworld, only a vague hope in the deity of causality. And under the guidance of the deity’s divine power, this vague heart-thoughts gradually formed the foundation of the Netherworld.

The Netherworld the deity wished to establish was not some particular place, some faction, or some magical treasure… but rather an operating rule recognized by heaven and earth. It would be extremely vast—vast enough to encompass the entire world. It would also be extremely small—small enough to be omnipresent, ensuring that no causality could transcend it, and none could be overlooked by it.

Yet as Taiyin had said, heaven and earth had their own operations—how difficult would it be to alter them?

But did the spontaneous operations of heaven and earth truly have no oversights? If there were no oversights, why had causality and destiny remained safe and sound throughout the incalculable years of the past, yet recently begun to break down and descend into chaos? If there were no oversights, how could he possibly be gradually establishing the Netherworld within heaven and earth?

The deity lowered his gaze to the illusory and unstable embryonic Netherworld in his palm, slowly curling his fingers to grasp it.

It was still too fragile. This amount of heart-thoughts was far from sufficient to bring the Netherworld into being. He needed more—clearer and purer heart-thoughts.

But the power of heart-thoughts was mutual. While he utilized heart-thoughts, he was also being influenced by this power. The expectations of the worshippers traveled along those karmic threads connecting him to all beings, transmitting tremors like heartbeats.

This influence was not difficult to resolve. The heart-thoughts of mortals could hardly shake the firm divine heart the deity had honed over long ages—it was like ants unable to shake a great tree.

But what if the ants numbered in the thousands and tens of thousands, continuing day and night?

Desire for justice, desire for judgment, desire for revenge… Resentment, unwillingness, suffering…

Perhaps he had already been affected, which was why he had intervened in that evil sacrifice, causing their evil karma to ripen prematurely.

The deity tapped the jade-white bone-like brush shaft, and the heartbeat-like tremors ceased. This brush was made from his bone as its body and was born with the ability to judge causality. During its refinement, he had incorporated the principles of destiny bestowed upon him by Taiyin, and thus it also possessed partial ability to record and alter destiny.

This brush was sufficient to bear the portion of heart-thoughts influence he temporarily had no time to handle.

If he merely collected heart-thoughts as he was doing now, establishing the Netherworld would be a very, very long process. Even though he would not enter reincarnation and could wait indefinitely, the world’s causality would only become increasingly scattered during the waiting. He should find a more efficient method…

Another memory fragment ended, and thick fog rose again.

…..

To the southwest of Langyue City stood a verdant mountain, especially conspicuous among the withered and yellowing lands of the four directions.

Zhong Yongwang reined in his horse and gazed at the mountain with delight, asking, “What mountain is that?”

The guide said, “Daren, you cannot enter that mountain. It’s a poison mountain. The nearby villages and those of us who travel this area regularly all know this. The fact that the mountain is still green might well be because of the poison within.”

Zhong Yongwang sighed with regret. The guide was named Xu Shen, an experienced merchant of this area whom he had hired as a guide. He was the Inspector Envoy of Lu Kingdom, spending years traveling on the king’s behalf to observe conditions in places beyond the capital and then report back. This time, one purpose was to assess the disaster situation, while another was to investigate what forces had been secretly inciting refugees to rebel.

In order to obtain the true situation, Zhong Yongwang usually traveled incognito. This time he brought two attendants and pretended to be searching for relatives with whom he’d lost contact. Xu Shen didn’t know his identity and presumably wouldn’t deceive him, but being more cautious couldn’t hurt.

Zhong Yongwang looked up at the sky and said, “We’ve traveled far today and the horses are tired. Since there are villages nearby, let’s go rest and recuperate first.”

Xu Shen simply assumed he was exhausted from several days of travel. After pointing out the direction to the nearest village, the group rode toward it.

The village they went to was called Baotong Village. When they arrived, the sky had just begun to darken, yet they saw several villagers with baskets on their backs cheerfully walking in from the village entrance. The baskets were filled with wild vegetables and fruits, as well as several captured prey animals.

Zhong Yongwang was curious and went to strike up conversation with them. He was practiced at this, and in just a few words had relaxed the initially wary villagers. When he inquired about the origin of the mountain goods, they didn’t conceal it either.

“We picked them from that poison mountain,” a villager answered.

Zhong Yongwang said in surprise, “From the poison mountain?”

“There’s an immortal in that mountain who can help people detoxify the mountain’s poison,” a villager said. “We only learned about this these past few days.”

Zhong Yongwang was greatly intrigued. After entering the village and settling down, he found people to inquire further.

“At the foot of that poison mountain, there’s a village called Feng Family Village. They’re closest to the mountain. A while ago, someone from their village couldn’t bear the hunger anymore and thought dying from poison was better than starving, so he went into the mountain to find food. Then he encountered the immortal. The immortal helped him detoxify and even told him to spread the word to others that from now on, everyone could come up the mountain to gather and hunt. As long as they weren’t too greedy, they could find him for detoxification.” The villager spoke with both joy and regret. “Our village is a bit too far. We only learned the news yesterday, otherwise Fifth Uncle might have been able to hold on…”

Zhong Yongwang sighed along with him, then asked, “Can I follow along tomorrow to take a look?”

The villager hesitated.

Zhong Yongwang assured him, “I won’t take anything from the mountain.”

The villager waved his hand and said, “It’s not because of that. Since the immortal permits everyone to take things, we have no reason to stop anyone. Besides, everything in that mountain is poisonous. Even if you’re greedy and take too much, the immortal can’t detoxify such heavy poison. Taking it would be useless—eating it would be seeking death.”

Zhong Yongwang pressed on, “Is the poison that severe? Only the immortal can detoxify it?”

The villager said, “Of course! This has been passed down by our ancestors for generations. If someone could detoxify this poison, wouldn’t everyone have known long ago? Besides, that heavy rain a while back was severe, right? Yet this mountain was completely unaffected! What does that tell you?”

“What does it tell you?” Zhong Yongwang cooperatively pressed further.

The villager said, “It tells you the poison in this mountain is far more severe than that rain! Think about it—those plants and wild beasts in the mountain could survive in such severe poison. Would they fear a few days of rain? Look at how they had no reaction after the rain, and you’ll know how severe the poison is! If there were no immortal to detoxify, anyone who ate things from there would die! Even if they were fine at first, they’d definitely perish before long!” 

“Then why…” Zhong Yongwang asked.

The villager hesitated, then said, “Apart from everything inside being poisonous, that mountain is no different from ordinary mountains. There’s nothing special to see. If you just want to see the mountain, wandering around inside is fine. As long as you don’t stay too long or eat anything from the mountain, you won’t need the immortal’s detoxification.”

“I want to see the immortal,” Zhong Yongwang said frankly. “As you know, I’m here searching for someone. At this time, not having found them after so long, I’m really anxious. I want to ask the immortal for help.”

The villager found it hard to refuse. After hesitating for a while, he said, “That’s fine then. But… I should warn you in advance—he’s a good immortal, just not very good-looking and a bit frightening. You absolutely mustn’t offend the immortal.”

Zhong Yongwang nodded, “Naturally.”

Yet the villager still wasn’t reassured and came back repeatedly to admonish him. On one hand, having received the immortal’s kindness, he didn’t really want to discuss the immortal’s appearance. On the other hand, he was quite worried Zhong Yongwang might offend the immortal.

This conflicted attitude only made Zhong Yongwang more curious. From what he could see, people truly revered this “immortal,” but what exactly did this “immortal” look like to make them find it so difficult to express?

Many common people didn’t distinguish between divine-path cultivators and immortal-path cultivators, simply calling them all immortals collectively. He didn’t know what the situation was with this “ugly immortal.” But since he was willing to rescue the surrounding people, that was a good thing. As Lu Kingdom’s Inspector Envoy, he should meet this person in any case. If this “immortal” could reach cooperation with Lu Kingdom, that would be even better.

…..

At the foot of the poison mountain, having just entered the range of the poison mountain, people had erected a grass hut here. Currently, four or five people carrying elders on their backs or holding children were queuing to enter.

In the grass hut, a woman holding a child received bitter vine juice from Mu’s hands and urged the child to drink it. After the child drank it with a scrunched-up face, she stuffed a fruit into his mouth.

The child held the fruit in his mouth and said indistinctly to Mutou, “Thank you, Ugly Immortal!”

The woman’s eyebrows shot up, “What are you saying!”

“It doesn’t matter.” Mutou waved his hand with a smile.

The child’s heart-thoughts was grateful—that was enough. He was ugly, and even if people didn’t say it aloud, they thought so in their hearts.

That person who previously entered the mountain wanting to be a well-fed ghost—he had decided not to live anymore, yet his first reaction upon seeing Mutou was still to exclaim “Goodness!” and run away stumbling and crawling, wasn’t it?

That person was also interesting. After running a few steps, he stopped. Mutou asked him why, and he said, “I’m already hungry. Running more will make me hungrier. Since I’m going to die anyway, before you kill me, can you let me eat my fill?”

Mutou saved him, and later the man indeed returned, even bringing others to build a grass hut for Mutou. Mutou quietly extended a bitter vine root over, and here he helped people detoxify.

The bitter vine had grown from the poison pool. Though it could detoxify, it couldn’t be drunk casually. For these ordinary people without cultivation, each person could only drink a limited amount and resist a limited amount of poison. Previously, someone greedy and disbelieving had secretly drunk more of others’ bitter vine juice and ended up being brought to him for life-saving treatment. Since then, no one had been greedy for more.

After flowing out, bitter vine juice could only be maintained for a limited time. Many whose homes were far away couldn’t take the bitter vine juice back with them, so they brought people here to drink it.