A natural-born saint?
Ye Qiu was somewhat surprised and asked, “Old man, how do you know Shuisheng is a natural-born saint?”
Master Changmei said, “I divined it.”
Ye Qiu rolled his eyes.
Divination again!
When have you ever gotten it right?
Can’t you do something serious for once?
Old fraud!
Ye Qiu cursed inwardly but said, “Don’t worry, with me here, I’ll make sure he’s fine.”
“With those words, I can rest easy.”
In the blink of an eye, dawn arrived.
After eating some breakfast at a roadside shop, the three set off, heading straight for the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.
Master Changmei somehow produced a map and even found a van.
The driver was a local middle-aged man with dark skin, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth when he smiled.
“You folks aren’t from around here, are you?”
The driver was chatty, striking up a conversation with Ye Qiu and the others as he drove.
“We’re from Dragon Tiger Mountain,” Ye Qiu said.
“Dragon Tiger Mountain, huh? I know that place, it’s full of Taoists, right? They say the Taoists there can exorcise ghosts and slay demons, is that true?”
“Of course it’s true.”
“Where are you all headed?”
“The Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.”
“That’s the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains right there.” The driver pointed ahead.
Ye Qiu looked in the direction the driver indicated and saw towering peaks in the distance, shrouded in clouds and mist, stretching endlessly.
“What are you going to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains for?” the driver asked curiously.
“We’re going to gather herbs,” Master Changmei spoke up, “I’m gravely ill and need a specific herb to save my life, I heard it grows in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, by the way, brother, do you know how to get to Dalong Mountain?”
Screech!
The driver slammed on the brakes and turned to look at Master Changmei, “Taoist, you’re going to Dalong Mountain?”
“Yes.” Master Changmei nodded.
“Taoist, I’d advise you not to go to Dalong Mountain, it’s an ominous place.”
Master Changmei exchanged a glance with Ye Qiu and smiled, “Why do you say Dalong Mountain is ominous? I’d like to hear the details.”
“Well…”
The driver hesitated.
Ye Qiu pulled out his wallet, took out a few bills, and stuffed them into the driver’s hand, saying, “Brother, my elder here urgently needs that herb to survive, please tell us about Dalong Mountain.”
The driver pocketed the money.
“I’m a born-and-raised local, when I was a kid, I heard the village elders say there’s a lot of treasure buried in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, back around the Republic era, there was a famine, a lot of villagers died, with no other choice, a few nearby villages formed an expedition team to go into the mountains to dig for treasure.”
“This team was made up of young, strong men, over twenty of them, all robust and powerful, some even knew martial arts.”
“Guess what happened in the end?”
The driver deliberately paused for effect.
“Did something happen to them all?” Ye Qiu asked.
The driver nodded gravely, “The Hundred Thousand Great Mountains have tens of thousands of peaks, they say Dalong Mountain is in the heart of it all, the expedition team entered the mountains, but before they even found Dalong Mountain, disaster struck.”
“Out of over twenty people, only one came back alive.”
“The one who made it out went mad, babbling nonsense every day, he said there were man-eating demons and monsters in the mountains, and the rest of the team all died.”
“A few villages organized another group to go in, this time not for treasure, but to recover the bodies of the expedition team.”
“That time, about a dozen people went in, and not a single one came back.”
“After that, the villagers never dared to enter the mountains again.”
The driver continued, “Then during the War of Resistance, a group of Japanese soldiers somehow heard there was treasure in the mountains, they brought a regiment of troops to the village.”
“They learned from the villagers that the mountains were dangerous, but the Japanese didn’t take it seriously.”
“They had top-notch equipment, all sorts of weapons, even tanks and artillery.”
“Hundreds of them marched into the mountains in a grand procession, in the end, only two came back alive.”
“Of those two, one ran out of the mountains and then suddenly burst into flames, burning to ashes, a lot of villagers saw it with their own eyes.”
“The other one was covered in coin-sized poisonous sores, biting people and sucking their blood, he was later beaten to death by the villagers.”
“Before that Japanese soldier died, he kept repeating a phrase, no one understood it, it wasn’t until a few years after liberation, when government folks came to our village for a census, that the village chief mentioned what the Japanese soldier said, one of them knew a foreign language, she said the phrase translated to ‘Dalong Mountain is an ominous place, there are devils inside.’”
“As for whether there really are devils, no one knows, but with so many deaths, it’s definitely an ominous place.”
“Since then, no one’s gone into the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.”
The driver劝 again, “Taoist, you’d better not go in, it’s really dangerous in there.”
“There’s no choice, danger or not, I’m gravely ill, without that herb, I’m dead anyway,” Master Changmei laughed, “Besides, I’m from Dragon Tiger Mountain, I’m not afraid of demons or ghosts.”
“Sigh!”
Seeing Master Changmei wouldn’t be persuaded, the driver let out a long sigh and kept driving.
An hour and a half later.
The driver stopped the car.
“Taoist, follow that mountain path ahead, it’ll take you into the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, it’s been years since anyone walked it, so be careful as you go,” the driver kindly reminded them.
“Thanks.”
Master Changmei thanked him, handed over a few more red bills, and then the three of them set off along the mountain path.
“Uncle-Master, is what that driver said true?” Shuisheng asked.
Master Changmei said, “Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter, what matters is that we’re here to find the Heavenly Master Sword.”
“Old man, does that map of yours mark Dalong Mountain’s location?” Ye Qiu asked.
He figured if it was marked, they could just follow the map, saving a lot of time.
Master Changmei shook his head, “The map I have isn’t detailed, it only shows the routes around the edges of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, there’s no mark for where Dalong Mountain is.”
Ye Qiu frowned, “Then finding Dalong Mountain might not be easy.”
“No worries, I’ll find it, trust me.”
Compared to the confident Master Changmei, Ye Qiu wasn’t optimistic, he worried that Master Changmei might die before they even located Dalong Mountain.
The mountain path was overgrown with weeds, getting narrower as they went, until it was only half a meter wide.
Master Changmei was panting from exhaustion, supported by Shuisheng the whole way.
After a full two hours of walking.
The three finally stopped, and before them appeared a truly spectacular sight.
