Chapter 6: Naming Zhaoge (Heavily Revised)

What Chi Yixuan did not know was that, in this world, those who summoned weapons were considered among the luckiest of all. A weapon’s purpose was clear at a glance. Even the stupidest person, so long as they persisted in cultivation, would still have the strength to fight. They could even take their life-bound artifact out to hunt yao beasts. People like that did not need to beg others for a way to make a living.

But those who summoned ordinary tools were different. Without the guidance of a famous teacher, all they knew was that they had to keep cultivating with their life-bound artifact, and that they had to use it every day to build rapport. In the end, they became better accountants, better cooks, better gardeners… but the vast majority of them, because they could not comprehend the dao hidden behind their life-bound artifact, spent their whole lives barred outside the threshold of Foundation Establishment.

Chi Yixuan was different. He had been born in an era of exploding information and abundant entertainment. He had seen countless crystallizations of human wisdom, and all kinds of fantasy settings came readily to him. Give him a watch, and he could think of time, lifespan, the reversal of sun and moon, mountains and rivers flowing backward…

He was already standing on the shoulders of giants. What was more, the original body he had transmigrated into had been a genius who summoned a cultivation manual, and the information he had obtained through the original body’s memories was also the kind of news only the rich could acquire. It was on a completely different level from the background of these menial servants.

Everyone had seen a different amount of the world. Things he could casually blurt out were, to these menial servants, unheard of and unseen.

The shock they felt now was like being struck awake from muddleheadedness by a blow to the head, like receiving sudden enlightenment in the middle of a fog. With just a few light, airy sentences, Chi Yixuan had opened a door for them that they had never once touched before. As if the clouds had parted to reveal the moon, they understood in an instant, and what followed naturally was involuntary gratitude and reverence.

How many people knocked at the immortal gate and were denied entry? How many people, after comprehending the slightest bit of a path, hid it away for fear that others would learn of it? Even the immortal sects revered by the people had set up layer after layer of thresholds, keeping the majority outside their gates. Yet their employer had not only saved them, he had also given them guidance without holding anything back.

It was no exaggeration to say that their employer’s words today would be enough to benefit them for the rest of their lives.

When they had first pledged themselves to him, they had only wanted to survive. But now, they truly and sincerely admired him. Having received this grace of a single sentence of guidance today, they would honor him as their teacher for the rest of their lives.

It was only that the menial servants felt they were not qualified to formally become his disciples. Thus, with red-rimmed eyes, they merely knelt and kowtowed in thanks. They placed their life-bound artifacts before them and bowed deeply to that man. In the Longevity Realm, this was the highest form of etiquette, representing wholehearted reverence and admiration.

Chi Yixuan, however, did not know this. After losing his temper, he saw them crying and kowtowing, and only felt that he had scared them badly.

Damn it. He had forgotten they were not his thick-skinned colleagues.

“Ah, I really am a sinful man. They were only a little slow. Why did I have to scold them?” Chi Yixuan despised himself for a moment, then tried to speak as kindly as possible. “Don’t kneel. I don’t like spineless people. All of you, get up.”

Then he looked toward the menial servants in the back rows. “Those who haven’t summoned a life-bound artifact yet should work hard too. Once you summon one, come report to me.”

Did that mean that once they summoned theirs, they could all receive guidance?

The menial servants were wildly overjoyed. They wanted to bow down gratefully again, but after remembering their employer’s order, they forced themselves to stop.

Looking at the way they knelt at the slightest provocation, Chi Yixuan felt a headache coming on. He only felt that the work of mental reconstruction had a long road ahead.

He gave them some tasks to send them away, then looked toward Guo Qianshan.

Guo Qianshan summoned his own saber and presented it for Chi Yixuan to see. “Employer, this is my life-bound artifact. Its name is Ghost-Slayer.”

As expected of a thousand-li horse. Although the name was a little chuuni, at least it was much more proper than things like rags and brooms. So Chi Yixuan carefully examined his saber and found that it was indeed quite good. But then why was he only at the third level of Qi Refining?

Guo Qianshan said somewhat gloomily, “It’s only that ghosts no longer exist in this world. This saber has also been unable to improve for a long time.”

Chi Yixuan was shocked.

No ghosts? Then what exactly had he summoned?

This matter was somewhat serious. Chi Yixuan was currently in the middle of recruiting troops and buying horses, so he could not expose his own ignorance. Thus, he merely nodded slightly, putting on a profound manner. “When the time comes, I will tell you.”

He felt the tiniest bit guilty. Little did he know that Guo Qianshan’s whole body shook. His lips trembled, and he was somewhat moved, but he pressed them together tightly, afraid of exposing his choked sobs.

Guo Qianshan knew this was not a dream, because someone this good would not appear even in a dream.

After leaving through that door, he stood at the entrance, placed his life-bound artifact before him, and bowed deeply in the direction of the main hall.

He thought of that man in his green robes, like flowing water reflecting green grass. Water did not compete, yet it benefited all things.

He thought, How fortunate I am to have met a true immortal.

…

Chi Yixuan asked, “Have they all left?”

They have already left.

“You’re sure they can’t hear us?”

Rest assured. With their cultivation, even if they pressed themselves against the base of the wall, they would not hear the slightest movement from in here.

Only now did Chi Yixuan finally relax. Standing in the hall, he cleared his throat, then shouted loudly, “Why have you not come to escort the emperor?”

In the next instant, wind sprang up out of nowhere indoors. A pitch-black shadow rose from the ground, congealing into an ink-black human figure that stood before him.

Seeing that it did not move at all, Chi Yixuan tested it with a few more questions. After receiving not the slightest response, he finally confirmed that the Shadow Guard truly had no mind of its own. He did not know whether he should feel disappointed or relieved.

There are many strange secret arts in this world. Perhaps after your level becomes higher in the future, you will have a way to awaken his mind.

The nameless ghost summoned by Chi Yixuan was like a puppet. It could only carry out its master’s orders. Aside from that, it would not speak, and it had no expression. Standing there, it looked like an ink-colored sculpture. If its appearance had not been laid out clearly before him, Chi Yixuan would not even have dared to be certain whether this ghost was the original body or not.

Speaking of which, the original body did look somewhat similar to him. Perhaps this was also another kind of fate.

Putting down the mirror, Chi Yixuan sighed. “Looks like there’s no way to get information about ghosts from him.” Making the best of a bad situation, he said, “But this is fine too. In the future, when I take a bath, I can put him at the door to guard it. That way, I won’t have to worry about someone attacking me while I’m stripped naked.”

Although every time he summoned the Shadow Guard he had to shout “escort the emperor,” fortunately, it was only in his own room, so he did not have to fear being overheard.

There is no need for you to worry about that. If someone comes bearing ill intent, I will be able to discover them the moment they enter within a radius of one hundred li. If they are cultivators, they are brighter within my perception, and I will notify you in advance.

As soon as the life-bound artifact said this, Chi Yixuan immediately remembered the caravan conversation he had eavesdropped on earlier and said at once, “Since you can hear the conversations of people within a radius of one hundred li, then over the next few days, focus on eavesdropping to see whether any passing cultivators are chatting. It would be best if you could eavesdrop on things like cultivation methods, secret histories, hidden treasure realms…”

The more Chi Yixuan spoke, the more excited he became, feeling that his game was truly awesome.

In the future, if he expanded his territory and attacked those countries or sects, would he not be able to eavesdrop on their strategic deployments? Then what battles would he be unable to win? When the time came, he could even stir things up and make them fall into internal strife. After all, how could they possibly know that such a special life-bound artifact existed? They would definitely think there was an insider leaking intelligence.

Chi Yixuan’s daydreams soared higher and higher, and his eyes curved with laughter until they were shaped like crescent moons.

The life-bound artifact remained silent the entire time. Only after a long while did it seem to sigh.

Unfortunately, I cannot satisfy your expectations. At present, I can only hear the exchanges of mortals. Perhaps once your level reaches the highest level, I will be able to hear the exchanges of all cultivators.

Chi Yixuan was not the least bit dampened. Full of enthusiasm, he asked, “What is the highest level? How many points would it take?”

The life-bound artifact was concise.

In the terms of this world, it is the Hedao stage. It requires five hundred million points.

Chi Yixuan: …

Sorry to bother you.

After this interruption, the Shadow Guard he had summoned slowly became unable to maintain itself. It collapsed into black particles and merged into his shadow. In the depths of his mind, Chi Yixuan had a vague sense that the other party was sleeping inside his shadow.

“Looks like, for now, he can only last less than thirty minutes. I’ll have to keep that in mind when fighting in the future.”

Conditions were crude, and there was not even a mouthful of grain at home. Chi Yixuan could only swallow another fasting pill to recover his strength.

Are you not going to rest?

“I’ll survey the surrounding terrain first!” The convenience of having a life-bound artifact that was a game system lay precisely here. Without leaving home, he could inspect his entire territory through the game map.

He clicked the upper right corner of the panel, expanded the map, and examined it carefully. Only then did he gain a preliminary understanding of his own territory.

The place where he was now was inside an unnamed valley beside the Sea of Suffering Path in the Easternmost Continent.

The original body’s understanding of the Sea of Suffering Path had all come from books and from other people’s discussions. The books said that in ancient times, a Demon God emerged and threw the mortal world into chaos. It was three great figures of the cultivation world who turned the tide, defeated the Demon God, and thus preserved the peace of the Longevity Realm for the past several thousand years. Otherwise, how could the human race have peaceful days today? Mortals would all have become food on the Demon Race’s plates.

Of course, those last two sentences were the books’ wording, not Chi Yixuan’s personal thoughts.

If he were the one writing the book, he would definitely put quotation marks around “peaceful days.”

He continued digging through the original body’s memories.

It was said that after the Demon God fell, the demon thoughts were not eliminated. They fell into the mortal world and formed the Sea of Suffering. The Sea of Suffering boiled and churned, and every time the tide rose, it would not stop until it had devoured tens of thousands of lives. Thus, those three great figures appeared again. Together, they sealed the Sea of Suffering, avoiding yet another calamity that would have plunged the mortal world into suffering.

Because of this world-saving merit, those three great figures became immortal lords revered by all. Each of them founded their own sect, took in disciples far and wide, and this was the origin of the Three Great Sects of the Longevity Realm.

Since that was the case, then how had the Sea of Suffering Path come about?

As it turned out, the demon thoughts that had been sealed away bred resentment and repeatedly broke through the seal. Every time they broke through, they formed a long, narrow passage…

The description in the book for this section was extremely complicated. Chi Yixuan understood it for himself in this way: it was like Sun Wukong being taken into a gourd, then the gourd being buried underground, and then Sun Wukong jabbing outward in every direction with his staff from inside. Every time he stabbed at a place, the golden-banded staff would stretch out a long distance through it, naturally leaving behind a long and narrow corridor.

The way you describe it makes it seem as though you bear no ill will toward the Sea of Suffering and the demon thoughts.

Chi Yixuan’s eyes revealed a profoundness that, for an elementary-school student, was somewhat childish. “Because based on my past experience, the stories about famous people written in books are most likely lies.” For example, some oil tycoon supposedly gaining a rich man’s favor because he massaged someone’s shoulders, or some famous person cutting down a cherry tree.

Chi Yixuan continued remembering.

These corridors bursting out from the Sea of Suffering were called Sea of Suffering Paths. They were the routes by which the Sea of Suffering radiated evil qi outward. Only immortal sects had ways to suppress Sea of Suffering Paths, but every year, the immortal sects had to reinforce the Sea of Suffering’s main seal. Apart from some Sea of Suffering Paths whose situations were extremely dire and required immortal sects to act, the other Sea of Suffering Paths were left for each region to handle on its own.

And this self-handling method was to use human sacrifices.

After Chi Yixuan finished looking through all of this, he only wanted to curse: bullshit.

So it was not that there were no other methods. It was that they felt human sacrifices were more economical and practical!

Sure enough, this world, as always, had not failed to live up to Chi Yixuan’s contempt for it.

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