Chapter 412: Yugong Moves Mountains to Fill the Sea and Create Land

"The Valley of Seven Emotions should be just ahead. Let us halt here; the two of us will venture into the valley to find someone to look over Old Meng’s condition."

Lu Yang harbored a creeping dread that pressing any further forward would only invite a fresh cascade of mishaps to bar their advance.

The memory of tumbling mud and roaring stone was still raw, and he had less than no desire to repeat the ordeal of swallowing dirt through his Heaven-Devouring Earth-Gorging technique.

Meng Jingzhou knew the words carried a bitter truth, and so, with a huff of indignation, he let the pair disembark, remaining behind to keep company with the old horse.

The two men and the corpse walked for two or three li before coming upon a chasm that looked as though it had been cleaved clean through the earth by a celestial blade. The walls on either side rose sheer and mirror-smooth, devoid of the slightest protrusion or indentation; if this were the handiwork of nature, then nature's axe was far too divine.

Noticing Lu Yang fixed upon the strangeness of the ravine, Zhao Po offered an explanation: "In days of old, the Valley of Seven Emotions was not called a valley, but the Sect of Seven Emotions. A former sect master felt that the Central Continent was so utterly awash with 'sects' and 'factions' that their own name was drowned out in the crowd. Thus, the Sect of Seven Emotions invited a grandmaster of the sword to strike a single blow across the plains. That strike split the earth in twain, turning the flat lands into a gorge. The sect seized the moment to rename themselves the Valley of Seven Emotions, and they even went to the imperial court to formally register the change."

"To think such a method existed. A true revelation. And remarkably proper too, knowing to register the change with the authorities..."

Midway through his thought, Lu Yang suddenly snapped awake to a realization: "Wait a moment. Doesn't the imperial court decree that whenever cultivators clash, they must restore the terrain to its original state afterward? A situation like this valley should require official approval, shouldn't it?"

"Precisely. Which is why, to this day, the Valley of Seven Emotions remains an illegal structure."

Lu Yang felt a silent groan rise within him; it was his very first time hearing of a canyon being classified as an illegal building. A true marvel of cultivation-world logic.

Within the spiritual realm, the Immortal Fairy grumbled, "Your Great Xia governs far too strictly in these matters. Back in our ancient times, we enjoyed true freedom, untethered by such tiresome regulations. If one wished to reshape the landscape, one simply did so."

"I recall that in our era, there was a family that had lived deep within the great mountains for generations, finding travel exceedingly difficult. Two massive peaks choked off their path, forcing them to journey a tremendous distance just to reach the outside world."

"A young child of that household, seeing how arduous their travels were, vowed to move those two mountains from their doorstep. Others mocked him, saying he was young and frail, unable to lift even a common boulder, so how could he possibly move two great mountains?"

"The child replied that even if he could not do it now, there was always the future. He would cultivate to the Qi Condensation stage, and if that were not enough, the Foundation Establishment stage. If that failed, the Golden Core stage, and after that, the Nascent Soul stage. The realms of cultivation are boundless, and a day would surely come when his strength could move the mountains away."

"The lad went abroad to seek a master and learn the arts. By the time his training was complete and he returned, he was already an old man, known to all who recognized him as the Foolish Old Man. Having attained a cultivation of earth-shaking might, Yugong returned to his ancestral home, manifested the Law Phenomenon, lifted the twin peaks of Taihang and Wangwu from his doorstep, and cast them into the sea."

"From that day forth, Yugong dedicated himself to helping other mountain-dwellers, uprooting the peaks before their doors and throwing them into the ocean as well."

"Because of his benevolent nature and his frequent acts of mountain-moving, the vast and boundless sea was eventually filled to the brim by the towering peaks."

"The tale of Yugong moving mountains and filling the sea was later distilled into an idiom—'Yugong Fills the Sea'—to illustrate that to overcome hardships, one must persevere tirelessly in one's cultivation."

Lu Yang rubbed his temples in agony, feeling as though his very memories were fracturing into chaos.

Yet the tale was not yet finished, and the Immortal Fairy babbled on: "As you ought to know, water does not simply vanish; it merely displaces. When Yugong filled the oceans, the waters spilled over the brims of the deep, birthing a great deluge."

"Fortunately, Jiu Chong Xian had long since crafted the Soil of Expanding Essence, which swells upon contact with water. He brought forth this miraculous earth to dam the floods and avert disaster, an event the world remembers as the Immortal Taming the Waters."

Lu Yang’s consciousness snapped back to reality, where he discovered a dense throng of people gathered at the Valley of Seven Emotions, all arrayed in a long queue. If they were to wait their turn, how long would it take?

"What is the meaning of this? Have this many people fallen victim to the curses of the valley?"

Was the curse of the Valley of Seven Emotions airborne, to have claimed such a host of casualties?

"Not quite. More than half of those in line were cursed by outsiders and have come to the valley seeking aid. To hone the curse-breaking skills of their disciples, the valley arranges for several of them to hold consultations at the entrance, dispelling the hexes on the spot."

"Though the crowd appears vast, these are merely minor afflictions—toothaches, gout, and the like."

"However, queuing will do us no good. The disciples stationed here can barely unravel a Foundation Establishment grade curse. The affliction Senior Brother Meng suffers from requires the personal intervention of the Valley Master to have any hope of being undone."

Suddenly, a voice transmitted directly into the ears of Lu Yang and his companion from amidst the crowd: "Young brothers, have you come to dissolve a curse? I can surrender my place in line to you. Just claim you are my kinsmen. It will cost you a mere five hundred spirit stones. What say you?"

Lu Yang followed the sound, and when his gaze fell upon the man offering them a chance to cut the line, his eyelid twitched violently.

It was the very man in the white paper hat who had masqueraded as the innkeeper at the Qingming Inn!

To dare show his face so brazenly at the Valley of Seven Emotions meant the man possessed absolute confidence that even if discovered, he could slip away unharmed.

Lu Yang walked straight toward him, a faint smile gracing his lips. "Do you still recognize me?"

Seeing Lu Yang’s demeanor, the man in the white paper hat scrutinized his face for a long moment before a look of understanding dawned upon him. "Ah, I remember now. You were a guest who stayed at my inn!"

Lu Yang thought to himself that it was clearly an abandoned inn belonging to someone else; how had it suddenly become his?

The man in the white paper hat looked slightly perplexed. "The brother who was with you before, and that old horse—where have they gone?"

Lu Yang’s heart tightened. The man had deliberately mentioned the old horse; could he have discerned its extraordinary nature?

"Fairy, what is the cultivation level of this man in the white paper hat?"

"Hard to say. This is merely a clone, making it impossible to see his true depth. He likely practices a technique akin to a myriad of manifestations, dividing himself into thousands of fragments to temper his spiritual will."

"Count it my bad luck. I'm off."

The man in the white paper hat vanished into thin air. A youth who could claim a dragon-horse as his mount, though possessing a modest cultivation, had a foundation so terrifyingly solid that his background was bound to be labyrinthine.

As for the other companion, though unfamiliar, the living corpse trailing him bore the refining hallmarks of the Corpse Driving Sect, marking him clearly as one of their disciples.

An enigmatic Lu Yang and a Corpse Driving Sect disciple like Zhao Po were both recipes for trouble; it was best to depart before complications arose.

The man executed his escape art right before Lu Yang’s eyes, yet Lu Yang remained entirely unable to discern how he had fled.

"Was that the man in the white paper hat from the wanted posters?" Zhao Po recognized him as well.

"You have heard of him too?"

"I have. When we were traveling the martial world, the three of us... brothers and sister wanted to capture him to claim the bounty, but we could never find a trace of him."

Zhao Po had originally intended to strike and seize the man, but seeing Lu Yang’s solemn expression, he realized the figure was far less simple than he had imagined, which stayed his impulse to act.