Chapter Forty-Seven: Calamity

  It is about 7 or 8 feet wide, 5 or 6 feet high and over 10 feet deep. This doesn't look like a cave but rather a large pit formed by weathering of the cliff face. The surface is uneven with some places having stone stalactites protruding as much as one foot high.

  Meng Yuanhou put down Xiao Qiu and looked him up and down a few times. "Not bad, it seems you're the first person to move in."

  "Can you come see me? Or I'll go see you." Xiao Qiu said to Meng Yuanhou who was turning to leave.

  "I'm afraid you don't have the privilege of visiting your neighbors casually, I'm not far from you, a thousand and seven feet up, separated by sixty-three caves, that's my new home." Meng Yuanhou suddenly remembered something, stretched out his right hand and pressed it on a relatively flat cave wall, exerted some force, and withdrew his palm. "Thinking also has one advantage, it's very quiet, just suitable for crossing the calamity, I'll leave you with a section of heart method, maybe it will be helpful, but here there is no one to take care of you, you can only rely on yourself. If possible, try to delay the moment of crossing the calamity, you will be safer at Nurturing Spirit Peak."

  "Yes." Xia Qiu felt a pang of reluctance, the people he admired had all met with bad ends. Li Yuechi had taken his own life to prevent the demon kind from invading, and Meng Yuanhou was going to spend a hundred years in contemplation for someone else's crimes. "I don't know how to thank you."

  "Don't thank me then, just remember that I'm the one who taught you the art of defying heaven. The way of fire will not be extinguished, see you in a hundred years."

  "The lamp will not go out." Xia Qiu couldn't say the last four words. One hundred years, an unimaginably long time.

  Meng Yuanhou soared into the air and flew towards his own cave of introspection. Xiao Qiu stood at the entrance of the cave, looking up to see that the cliff was so high it seemed to have no top, and Meng Yuanhou had already disappeared into the darkness of night; looking down, the depth was unfathomable; gazing out into the distance, the mountains in the night fog stretched out like a giant snake crawling towards the farthest reaches.

  Xiao Qiu was unclear where she was, only knowing that it was a barren cliff, without even a single blade of grass, covered with large and small holes everywhere. Shen Geng, who had been sentenced to five years of contemplation, should also be in one of the caves.

  He stood at the entrance of the cave, until the sky gradually lit up and the clouds dispersed, revealing a clear view of the mountains. One of the peaks looked somewhat like Laozu Peak. As for Yangshen Peak, he had never been there before and didn't know what it looked like. He closed his eyes and imagined a place similar to the platform in front of Laozu Peak. Then he muttered to himself: "Get up, get dressed, wash your face, probably still practice boxing, eat breakfast, assemble, line up, pay respects to the ancestors..."

  Kokoro could only think of this, as for the initiation ceremony, he knew too little about it.

  Then he opened his eyes to find a bird flying towards him, getting closer and closer, but surprisingly not dodging, just about to collide when it suddenly stopped. It turned out that it wasn't a flying bird, but a plate of rice, without chopsticks or any side dishes.

  Xiao Qiu only felt hungry now, from the martial arts competition to now has been nearly six or seven hours, he didn't eat a single grain of rice. He held onto the plate for a moment, then simply used his hand to grab the rice and stuff it into his mouth. In the end, he even cleaned the plate spotless. The black lacquer plate seemed to dislike this action, and it hastily escaped from Xiao Qiu's hands, shaking and flying away.

  This little food is not enough to eat, Xia Qiu can only expect that lunch and dinner will be more abundant. When the night falls again, he realizes that there is only one meal a day here.

  All day, Xia Qiu was doing one thing, trying to remove as many stalactites as possible from the cave to make a place for herself to lie down. The hungrier she got, the more energetic she became, relying solely on her hands to smash the rocks and then throw them out of the cave. In this way, she made herself exhausted, forgetting both her hunger and her worries.

  The ground was still hard and uncomfortable, but Xiao Qiu and Yi lay down and fell asleep as soon as they closed their eyes.

  Three consecutive days, life was monotonous and unchanging. In this quiet and desolate cave, he ate one meal a day. During his free time, he either practiced boxing or smoothed out the ground. He had seen the place where Meng Yuan Hou had pressed with his palm, leaving behind a faint handprint. There were no words or patterns on it. Xia Qiu knew that this was because he hadn't reached the point of crisis yet, and without any doubts in his heart, there wouldn't be any answers.

  On the fourth evening, Xiao Qiu was sitting cross-legged at the entrance of the cave, gazing out at the mountains, when a visitor arrived.

  The visitor slowly rose from below, and when he appeared in his entirety, Xia Qiu saw that under his feet was a pale green jade ruyi, three feet long and three inches wide, barely enough to hold two feet, but the visitor stood very steadily.

  It turned out to be Shen Yi.

  He wore a slightly loose blue Taoist robe, with his hair combed up into a high bun and secured with a wooden pin, looking every inch the standard young Taoist.

  The two of them stared at each other for a moment, then Xiao Qiu said: "Let me guess, was it your mother who sent you here?" Xiao Qiu didn't know much about magical instruments, but he felt that the male Taoist priest probably wouldn't use a jade scepter as his instrument.

  "I'll take a look at how you're doing." Shen Ji sized up the cave behind Xiao Qiu, without commenting on Xiao Qiu's guess.

  "It's okay, I live alone, and it's more spacious than the dormitory room with four people squeezed in. There's just one thing that makes me lose my appetite and sleep poorly - I really want to know if your brother is living in some cave downstairs."

  "What, you still want to take revenge on him?" Shen Yi's eyebrows slightly raised, "In the pavilion, you were able to defeat him only by accident. Relying on yourself, even if you could crawl past, you wouldn't be a match for my brother's finger."

  Xiao Qiu shook her head, "I don't want to fight with Shen Geng now, I just want to know, every time I take a dump or pee, can it fly into his hole with the wind?"

  Shen Yi's face changed, he was a handsome and elegant Taoist disciple, who had been living among the wind and rain since childhood, some dirty things were even more vulgar when spoken in the most euphemistic terms, let alone such plain words?

  "Mother told me to always remember the face of an enemy. I'll take a look, that's enough. We'll meet again on Yangshen Peak."

  "Okay, you know what? You look a lot like your brother, especially in the eyes."

  "Uh-huh."

  "When I beat you up later, I will feel very happy."

  A faint, disdainful smile floated onto his face. "Mother also told me that enemies are the best catalysts for cultivation. I hope you can work hard and practice diligently this month, don't fall too far behind."

  Xiao Qiu stared at Shen Yi, shaking her head slightly. "Your mother must have been especially fond of your brother, and only told you these things after he was locked up."

  Shen Ji couldn't control the anger in his heart, let out a cold hum, turned around and flew downwards, with a green light flashing from the jade Yuanyi under his feet.

  Xiao Qiu's mood was pleasant, and she opened her stance to practice the Bone Fist again. Suddenly, she heard Shen Yi's voice ringing in her ears once more: "I will defeat you, Mu Xingqiu! I will beat you until you can't fight back! I want to make Mother proud, let her know that I'm not inferior to my brother at all... and maybe even stronger..."

  Shen Yi, who had always been very serious, actually said something so childish that Xiao Qiu couldn't help but laugh. He turned around to retort, only to find that there was no one outside the cave. He leaned forward and looked down, but all he saw was a sea of fog.

  Xiao Qiu was taken aback, and then more unfamiliar sounds flooded her ears: the faint sound of human voices, the rumble of mountain winds crashing against cliffs, the rustling of the last few withered leaves on some unknown ancient tree, and the gentle hum of clouds absorbing moisture. The sounds grew clearer and more complex.

  Xiao Qiu retreated back into the cave, knowing that the thunder tribulation was about to arrive. This kind of thing couldn't be controlled, it came when it came, and without a master's protection, he could only face it alone.

  He leaned against the wall and, with the last rays of sunset, carefully searched for the handprint left by Meng Yuanhou. As expected, some characters gradually appeared:

  The heart is the master of all orifices. The only way to survive calamities is to guard your heart. Let things come as they may, and let them go as they will. Do not show weakness, nor try to force things.

  This is just a vague nonsense, if it weren't for the respect in Meng Yuanhou's heart, Xia Qiu wouldn't have continued to stare at the handprint with her ears buzzing, soon, the text changed, this time the sentence was no longer ambiguous, but a specific method of fortune-telling.

  Xiao Qiu immediately followed the instructions, first sitting cross-legged on the ground, closing her eyes, then covering her heart with her right hand and pressing her left nostril with her left hand. She slowly breathed in through one nostril, and each time she exhaled, she gently tapped her upper and lower teeth together once, but kept her lips closed.

  After seven breaths, cover your heart with your left hand and press your right nostril with your right hand, repeating the cycle.

  This is the law of guarding one's heart, and it cannot block or weaken the external sounds. The discomfort in Xiao Qiu's ears grew stronger and stronger. When the real thunderbolt arrived, even the sound of dry leaves being blown down by the cold wind was like a burst of thunder next to her ear, continuous and unrelenting, still growing stronger without stopping.

  It should be able to hold on, Xia Qiu had just produced such an idea, the sound entering her ears had a slight change, and one voice became clear from the noise:

  That was a child's voice, muttering to himself with hatred, frequently blurting out the three words "Mu Xing Qiu", "...I want to prove that you have demon blood, all of you have demon blood...Pang Shan owes me an apology...Zong Shi, why are you so biased towards them? Have you also been possessed by demons? Open your eyes! Ah, my eyes, Mu Xing Qiu, I want to dig out your eyes..."

  It was Sheng Geng who had the same idea, Xia Qiu's anger burning with rage, just about to open his mouth to scold, another voice cut in: "The enemy's voice, disturbing people's minds, can't you even withstand such a simple trick?"

  Meng Yuanhou's stick shook Xia Qiu, immediately retracted his anger and continued to run the Guardian Heart Jue.

  Shen Gang's curse reluctantly merged with the noise again, and after a while, another voice became clear. It was obviously Master Pong Shan and the head of the Forbidden Department arguing. One thought that they should continue to observe the young man from Ye Lin Town, while the other thought it was impossible to raise a tiger as a pet. Zuo Liu Ying couldn't speak, so a woman spoke on his behalf, her tone extremely fierce.

  "Illusory voice, moving the heart's intention." Meng Yuanhou's reminder was like a wandering thread that drilled into Xiao Qiu's mind, and he woke up again. Just now, Shen Geng's voice might still be real, but Zong Shi and Zuoliu Ying were both powerful Taoist priests, and their voices would never reach the ears of outsiders.

  After a while, Xia Qiu heard even more impossible voices, those of Er Liang Shen Xiuyi and Tu Zi Muxuan, who were chatting and laughing together, teasing and hitting each other, as if they were still alive in Yelin Town.

  Xiao Qiu knew it was fake, but still felt a deep sorrow, the momentum of which was a hundred times stronger than the anger triggered by Sheng Geng.

  "The voice of the dead, it makes one's heart sorrowful." Amidst a burst of thunder, Meng Yuanhou's voice was as light as a sigh.

  Xiao Qiu persisted and came over. When his father, brother, and the voices of the left and right neighbors of Ye Lin Town rushed in at the same time, he just turned a thought and eliminated them from his ears.

  He opened his eyes and saw three rice balls placed at the edge of the cave entrance. He had safely passed through the thunderstorm for three whole days.

  Then he saw the snowflakes outside, and this year's first snow came unexpectedly.

  Pangshan's snowflakes were unique, each one as big as a round plate. Xia Qiu was amazed to find that their shapes were even more beautiful than fresh flowers, which he had never noticed before. Moreover, Xia Qiu smelled the scent of the snowflakes, similar to the smell of rain after a long drought. Suddenly, his throat moved involuntarily, not because he wanted to eat, but because he wanted to make a sound.

  He turned his head to look at the handprint left by Meng Yuanhou, on which a few lines of small characters were flashing, each of which seemed as big as a dipper to Xia Qiu.

  Eyes like torches, illuminating all subtleties, is the Fire Tribulation.

  The nose is like a thoroughfare, unobstructed and unrestrained, this is wind stroke.

  The mouth is like a Hong bell, and the shock is thousands of miles away, which is called mountain robbery.

  Xiao Qiu had just passed the Thunder Tribulation and was about to welcome the Three Calamities of the other five senses, he clearly remembered that this was an extremely rare occurrence, but also an extremely dangerous one.

  Three days ago, when Shen Yi left, the green light that flew out from under his feet with the jade Ruyi seemed to flash before Xiao Qiu's eyes again.

  (Collection wanted Recommendation wanted)