So this is Tianshi Town..."
Seeing Tianshi Town, which he had assumed was completely lost, up close, Qiu Shuijing could not hide his trembling heart. Tianshi Town seemed like a city from a fantasy. At first glance, the buildings were all only two colors—black or white—but as time passed, they slowly changed into different colors. It was as if someone were using magic to create hallucinations.
Inside Tianshi Town, it was quiet, as if no one lived there. Only the sounds of the sea breeze, the waves, and Su Yun's footsteps could be heard.
Suddenly, the ground shook, and a light emerged from the sea, stretching toward the Ghost City floating in the sky. At this, the Ghost City fluttered wildly like a tent in the wind, then vanished without a trace along with the wind.
Qiu Shuijing hurriedly opened his Heavenly Eye and looked up at the sky. Beams of various lights were pouring down from the sky onto the cemetery in the Tianshi Enclosure. About a hundred of these light beams descended upon the streets of Tianshi Town and, surprisingly, transformed into the figures of people. They greeted each other, chatted, and roamed about.
'They are merely the souls of the dead.'
Qiu Shuijing was completely bewildered by the continuous stream of astonishing events. However, Su Yun continued walking, unaware of anything. Then, he bowed and greeted an old man who was sweeping a yard. It seemed to be someone he knew.
"Uncle Qu. Hello."
"Yes, Su Yun is here. Go on inside and rest."
The old man welcomed Su Yun warmly while glancing at Qiu Shuijing, who was following behind. Qiu Shuijing was momentarily flustered, but the old man, seemingly uninterested in the strange outsider, simply resumed sweeping the yard.
Feeling something amiss, Qiu Shuijing opened his Heavenly Eye and examined the surroundings. To his surprise, he saw the mansion behind the old man continuously collapsing and being rebuilt, over and over again.
Su Yun continued to walk forward.
"Aunt Luo, hello."
"It's Su Yun. Hurry inside and eat. And don't forget your class tomorrow."
The woman spoke in a very kindly voice.
When Qiu Shuijing looked with his Heavenly Eye, he saw that the mansion behind Aunt Luo was also repeatedly collapsing and being rebuilt, just like Uncle Qu's mansion.
Su Yun went around greeting everyone he met with a bright smile, never dreaming that he was the only living existence in Tianshi Town.
"Sister Xiu, hello!"
"Uncle Xu, hello."
"Grandma Zhang, hello!"
Watching all of this, Qiu Shuijing was dumbfounded and appalled. To Su Yun, everyone in Tianshi Town was a vivid, living person, but in reality, they were all people who had been dead for five or six years.
After a while, the two finally arrived at Su Yun's house. The house looked old and shabby at a glance. As soon as Su Yun arrived home, he began to prepare a meal. Shortly after, smoke from cooking rice rose from the fireplace.
Qiu Shuijing stood still and watched Su Yun prepare the meal with his own hands. Behind him, people were passing by, chatting noisily. It was a very ordinary scene, no different from a normal village.
'Su Yun believes that all the people in the town are alive, and the spirits in the town are deceiving Su Yun for some reason...'
With a troubled mind, Qiu Shuijing stood there vacantly, looking pitifully at Su Yun eating his breakfast.
'Master Hu said there was a living person in Tianshi Town; his words were indeed not wrong.'
After finishing his meal, Su Yun immediately washed the dishes. Then, he went into his room and began to review the lessons Master Hu had taught him. Only after he had completely mastered the lesson content did he lie down on his bed. Perhaps he was tired, for as soon as he lay down, he began to snore and fell into a deep sleep.
When a person falls asleep, the dregs of the mind settle, allowing one to observe their spiritual soul more clearly. Qiu Shuijing approached the deeply sleeping Su Yun and examined him closely for a while. Then, he was able to discover a fact he hadn't known before.
The gear positioned at the very bottom of Su Yun's soul was still rotating at a rapid speed, and beneath it, a tiny person no bigger than two cun (approx. 6cm) was sitting in meditation. He happened to be performing Tu-Na (breathing exercises), expelling stale energy through his mouth and inhaling fresh energy through his nose.
Looking closely, that person was Su Yun himself. He was cultivating the most basic Sage's Breath Nurturing Method. The Sage's Breath Nurturing Method was a simple technique for training Qi; while useful for boosting vitality, it was of little use for making the soul spiritually potent.
'Then where on earth did Su Yun train to achieve Divine Power...?'
Master Hu's ability would not have been enough to teach such advanced techniques. Suddenly, a possibility flashed through Qiu Shuijing's mind.
'Su Yun, blind and without family, had to survive on his own strength. So, to calculate the time for himself, he imagined the form of the Yellow Bell's gears. And by earnestly desiring and thinking about it, Su Yun's soul achieved Divine Power on its own and eventually made it a reality.'
'But is it truly possible to explore and cultivate on one's own without the help of a master and reach the level of Divine Power...? If all this is true, Su Yun possesses an aptitude that counts among the best in the world.'
'To think a boy with such aptitude is buried in this countryside, taking lessons from the likes of Master Hu... What a tremendous waste this is...'
Qiu Shuijing, lost in thought for a while, let out a deep sigh. Then, he recalled the bizarre and strange incident of Tianshi Town he had heard about six years ago.
One day, six years ago, a very strange event occurred in the Tianshi Enclosure. Suddenly, another world appeared above the North Sea. That world possessed an appearance so beautiful and majestic that it was incomparable to anything else. Looking like a painting or a poem, it appeared to be a Celestial Palace floating in the sky. Some people said it was a world where immortal Immortals lived.
Due to the gravitational pull of that world, the waters of the North Sea soared into the sky. The soaring water became a massive pillar of water, thirty li thick and tens of thousands of li long, becoming a passage connecting the existing world of the land with the newly appeared world of the sky.
This rumor spread instantly to every corner of Yuanshuo, and experts from all over the country who heard the rumor flocked to the Tianshi Enclosure to see the new world.
Then, one night. Strangely, lightning struck down from the sky above the North Sea all night long. And the next day, heavy rain poured from the sky, and a tsunami pushed ten li inland, causing countless people living in the Tianshi Enclosure to drown.
When the lucky survivors looked, both the new world that had appeared in the sky and the water pillar connecting to it had vanished without a trace.
However, the strange thing was that no corpses could be found anywhere in Tianshi Town. This was true for the residents of Tianshi Town as well as the bodies of the experts who had flocked to Tianshi Town from all over Yuanshuo.
Since that day, Tianshi Town had been called a cursed city, becoming an abandoned land that no one visited. As time passed, many people tried to find Tianshi Town to uncover the truth of that day, but for some reason, it could not be found anywhere.
Qiu Shuijing also held many questions about the strange incident of that day, but until now, there had been no way to investigate Tianshi Town. But unexpectedly, he was now in Tianshi Town, and with a survivor of Tianshi Town at that.
'However, Su Yun is too young, so he probably doesn't know what happened back then. There is a survivor of that tremendous event, yet in the end, nothing can be found out; it is truly a pity...'
While Qiu Shuijing was lost in his thoughts, Su Yun woke up. Upon waking, Su Yun washed his face and combed his hair neatly. Then, sitting in a proper posture, he checked the content he had learned once more so as not to forget it, ate his meal, tidied up the house, and went outside.
As Su Yun was leaving the house, a gentle yet powerful voice came from behind.
"Su Yun, wait a moment!"
Su Yun recognized the voice as one he had heard before and turned around.
"Are you by chance the teacher I met at the Village School?"
Qiu Shuijing took a step toward Su Yun.
"You are truly bright. My name is Qiu Shuijing. You can just call me Master Shuijing."
"Master Shuijing. But since when have you been here? I didn't even hear your footsteps, Teacher."
"About two shichen (four hours). I have been waiting for you here since you were asleep."
"Why?"
Su Yun asked with a face full of curiosity.
"If it's alright, may I take a look at your eyes?"
Su Yun seemed slightly puzzled but smiled innocently and lifted his eyelids with two fingers to show him.
Looking closely, Su Yun's pupils were not completely gone. His pupils had contracted into small dots due to some strong stimulation, and a film was covering them. That was the reason Su Yun could not see.
Qiu Shuijing concentrated his magic power into his hand and slowly brought it to Su Yun's pupils.
Shoong—.
Qiu Shuijing's hand seemed to tremble for a moment, and then a bright light burst forth from Su Yun's pupils. Qiu Shuijing was startled by the light, strong enough to momentarily blind him, and hurriedly covered his eyes with his hand.
After some time passed and he recovered his sight to some extent, Qiu Shuijing narrowed his eyes and examined the surroundings. Surprisingly, light was emitting from Su Yun's pupils, and that light was projecting a scene onto the sky of Tianshi Town.
Looking up at the sky following the light from the boy's pupils, he first saw the clear and pristine North Sea. Then, he saw a massive water pillar rising above the surface of the North Sea and numerous ships climbing up that water pillar. At the end of that water pillar was another world. It was the legendary Grotto-Heaven (Dongtian) where the so-called immortal Immortals were said to live!
A moment later, a single sword appeared from the Grotto-Heaven, emitting blinding beams of light. It was a massive Immortal Sword, fifty chi long and nine chi wide.
And below that Immortal Sword, a city appeared. Surprisingly, it looked exactly like Tianshi Town!
'Are you saying Tianshi Town was destroyed because of that sword...?'
Su Yun, feeling it strange that there had been no sound for a long time, called out to Qiu Shuijing.
"Master Shuijing?"
"Y-Yes. I am here. Just stay still for a moment."
Qiu Shuijing answered with a trembling voice.
'To think the Grotto-Heaven, which I thought only existed in legends, actually exists...'
'Then do Immortals, those beings of immortality, truly exist as well?'
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