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Chapter 7
The boy gazed into the darkness.
With his sense of touch, the images and words he had traced stood out vividly in his mind.
“Could this man be the Rain Master?”
Among the three gods who governed the weather—Wind Lord, Rain Master, and Cloud Lord—only the Rain Master was missing, so the boy couldn’t help but wonder.
“Hm! Whoever it is, the picture and the words are quite provocative.”
The text demanded the beheading of the Wind Lord and the crushing of the Cloud Lord’s skull.
It also said, ‘Follow the command that defies Heaven.’
To be honest, talk of heavenly energy didn’t stir him much.
That belonged to the realm of the gods, not humans.
With his gifted mind, the boy thought to himself:
Did someone truly wish for the Wind Lord and the Cloud Lord to be slain?
Or is this just the ravings of a madman?
It was hard to believe, but considering the sheer scale of the tomb, it didn’t seem like mere nonsense.
“Behead them, crush their skulls, obey the command against Heaven… It’s basically telling me to take a side, isn’t it?”
As he pondered, he instinctively reached out to feel the serpent’s head on the left.
Sure enough—
there was a faint crack between its head and its body.
He checked the serpent on the right and found a similar fissure.
“Oh! A mechanical trap!”
The knowledge of such mechanisms he’d once read about flashed through his mind.
Confident, the boy pressed hard on the serpent’s head held by the figure in the carving.
But nothing happened.
“No? That’s not right…”
Muttering, he groped along the ground until he found a stone that fit nicely in his hand.
He then raised it and smashed it down on the left serpent’s head.
Crack!
With a crunching sound, the serpent’s head shattered.
He immediately did the same to the right serpent, smashing its head as well.
The moment both heads were destroyed, something unexpected occurred.
The floor suddenly gave way beneath him.
“Uwaaaaah!”
With a scream, the boy plunged downward as the floor sank endlessly.
How long had he fallen?
With a heavy thud, the descent stopped as stone met stone.
Wide-eyed, the boy looked ahead.
The once-sealed wall had opened into a passage carved from rock.
A soft light glowed from within, illuminating the way.
Before entering, the boy glanced upward.
But the darkness above was pitch-black, giving him no sense of how far he had fallen.
“Can I even go back?”
He hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and stepped forward.
What good was staring up at an unreachable way out?
Better to follow this new path.
After a long walk through the corridor, an astonishing sight appeared before him.
Three massive square platforms, each side over thirty meters long, were stacked like descending steps.
At the center of the second platform, about fifteen meters below ground level, rested a gigantic stone coffin.
Could that be where the master of this tomb lies?
Cautiously, the boy descended the steps.
If this was the end of the path, then the sarcophagus must be investigated.
But each step was nearly three meters high, making the descent difficult.
At last, he made it down and inched his way toward the coffin.
Placing his hands on the lid, nearly thirty centimeters thick, he pushed.
It didn’t budge an inch.
“Wow! So heavy… How am I supposed to open this?”
As he circled the coffin, scanning it with hawk-like eyes, it happened.
Grrrrrk—
With a grinding rumble, the lid began to move on its own, sliding to the side.
Then with a booming thud, one end of the lid touched the ground.
It was fully open.
Stunned, the boy froze, eyes wide.
From within, a hand suddenly rose, gripping the coffin’s edge.
Slowly, a man in strange attire lifted himself out.
When the boy saw the man’s eyes gleaming like stars, he panicked, throwing himself flat and crying out:
“Divine One! Please spare this lowly being! I came here with no ill intent! I only wandered and lost my way! I beg you, have mercy and show me the way out!”
The man gazed down at the boy’s bowed head and spoke.
“Rise.”
The clear yet weighty voice reverberated like thunder throughout the tiered tomb.
Shaking, the boy slowly got to his feet and looked up cautiously.
The middle-aged man wore pure white robes, draped with a blue jade armor bound together with threads of gold.
Each jade plate was palm-sized and square, spaced about a finger’s width apart—strange for armor.
The boy stared blankly until the man asked:
“Who are you?”
“I… I think I’m a disciple of the Hao Sect, but I can’t remember who I really am.”
In an instant, the man vanished from the coffin and appeared before the boy, seizing his head.
The boy tried to say something, but before he could, the man withdrew his hand.
“You’ve practiced the Dual-Origin Unification Art of the Xiaoyao Sect incorrectly. Where did you learn such a botched version?”
“Divine One, what I learned was the Divided Mind Technique of the Xiaoyao Sect.”
“Recite it.”
“When a person is born, the True Spirit rests in the Heavenly Eye, while the Conscious Spirit resides in the heart below…”
The boy recited the formula to the end, whereupon the man shook his head in disapproval.
“A bastardized hybrid… No wonder your Original Spirit has split.”
“Huh? What do you mean my Original Spirit has split?”
The boy was bewildered.
According to Daoist teachings, the Original Spirit is the sacred essence bestowed by Heaven and Earth.
Taoists cultivate precisely to refine and realize it.
But with his current meager skills, he was nowhere near the level of a Taoist master.
And with no memory of Daoist secret techniques, creating an Original Spirit should have been impossible.
“Your Original Spirit has divided in two. Meaning, two personalities now reside within one body.”
“No, Divine One… Not that I doubt you, but I never even formed an Original Spirit.”
“What cultivation method have you practiced?”
“The Heart-Purifying Pill Technique. It’s the Hao Sect’s method.”
“Recite it.”
“When the heart is clear, one attains essence. When essence is emptied, one attains spirit. When spirit becomes true, seek the light…”
“That’s a Daoist inner alchemy method, but only partially transmitted.”
“Partially?”
“It’s called the Heart-Purifying Pill Technique, yet there’s no mention of the Pill itself. Clearly only the introductory formula was passed down.”
“Ah… so that’s why. I had no idea.”
“Rare as it is, your governing, conception, and thrusting meridians are all open. That allowed you to faintly touch the realm of the Original Spirit with the Heart-Purifying Pill Technique. But because of the faulty Divided Mind Technique, your spirit split apart.”
“Then… what happens to me?”
“What else? You’ll live with two personalities until they can be merged.”
“Wait—so it can be merged?”
“With the Dual-Origin Unification Art, yes.”
“Divine One, if you would pity a wretched soul, would you teach me this art?”
“It’s not impossible… but it belongs to the Xiaoyao Sect. That complicates matters.”
“Is something wrong with that?”
The man chuckled.
“Do you think I would care? No—it’s you. If the Xiaoyao Sect finds out an outsider learned their art, they won’t spare you. Not your body, not even your spirit.”
“If I never reveal it, wouldn’t that be fine? I’ll hide it my whole life.”
“You cannot hide it. Those who master the Dual-Origin Unification Art gain golden eyes.”
“Then I simply won’t master it.”
“To merge your spirits, you must master it.”
“Ah… well, if it’s just the eye color, I can wear tinted glasses.”
He recalled the yan’anjing, colored spectacles brought from the Western Regions.
Even one of the Hao Sect’s leaders wore them for style.
“What are these glasses?”
“They block the sun’s light, concealing the eyes. If I wear them, no one will know my eyes are golden.”
The man thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Very well. If you’ll take that risk, I’ll teach you.”
He recited the formula of the Dual-Origin Unification Art then and there.
And the boy, after hearing it only once, memorized the thousand-character text completely.
The man looked at him strangely.
This art was not something one could memorize after a single hearing.
Coupled with his rare meridian openings, the boy was anything but ordinary.
“Tell me what you remember of yourself.”
“I lived in the Terracotta Army Tomb with other children. We learned martial arts from the instructors of the Hao Sect, and I read many miscellaneous books in the library.”
“What sort of sect is this Hao Sect?”
The man was intrigued by the idea of raising children in a tomb.
“It’s a collective name for six sects of lowly trades….”
The boy explained in detail about the Six Gates of the Hao Sect and their hundred-year plan.
“So you too were sold to them?”
“All I remember is life in the tomb. Since the others were all sold, I suppose I was too.”
“Then of course you recall nothing of your parents.”
“Yes.”
“Interesting. The world has become much more interesting indeed.”
The man looked at the boy anew.
At first, he had only been curious about the boy’s extraordinary talent.
But upon learning the truth of the Hao Sect, he couldn’t help but laugh.
Seeing the man’s softened expression, the boy carefully asked:
“Divine One, may I ask something?”
“What do you wish to know?”
“Are you… the master of this royal tomb?”
“No. This tomb belongs to a king I once aided.”
“Before coming here, I saw strange images and words. Were those left by that king as well?”
“No. I left those.”
“…I see.”
The boy felt a chill and dared not ask further.
That such words—‘Defy Heaven’—were left by this Divine One…
Something told him it was better not to pry.
Noticing the boy’s unease, the man’s lips curled slightly.
“Don’t you want to know why I left those words and drawings?”
“No! How could I dare? Absolutely not!”
Startled, the boy denied it vehemently, but the man’s smile only deepened.
“You came this far out of curiosity, disrupting my cultivation—yet now you claim otherwise?”
“Oh! If I disrupted your cultivation, please forgive me! I only lost my way…”
“Don’t make excuses. Smashing both serpent heads cannot be explained by wandering alone. One might be chance, but two? That was no accident. Am I wrong?”
“Th-that… yes, I admit I acted rashly out of curiosity. But I swear I never meant to disturb your cultivation.”
“Worry not. You did not disturb it. In fact, perhaps it was Heaven’s will that you came.”
“Heaven’s will?”
“Long ago, I fought my enemies and my vital energy was gravely damaged. So I hid here, donning the Golden Threaded Jade Garments and practicing Falling Sun, Great Waters, an ancient revival art of the Primordial Sect. Over time, my Original Spirit healed, but my Conscious Spirit—my heart—remained trapped in delusion. Then you touched my coffin and awakened me. In truth, you could even be called my savior.”
