Chapter 421 — The Cauldron Shakes the Mountains and Rivers

His head was enormous, and the blood-swollen lump on his crown was scarcely smaller, yet when he drilled up out of the earth he stood no taller than five feet, his face a tangle of whiskers growing every which way, as careless as weeds.

Shen Mu said hastily, "Patriarch of the Earthwalking Divine Clan, this estate was forged by the Four Lords of the High Heavens themselves. They spared no expense."

"Those bastards again!"

The dwarf sprang out and landed with a heavy thud. Short as he was, his bulk was startlingly dense. Tilting his head back, he demanded, "Earth... Giant, are you the Human Sovereign? Did that cocky son of a bitch before you croak?"

Before Shen Mu could answer, he crowed in delight, "Good riddance! Did he die badly? He must have died horribly, right? Hahahaha, I knew it, I knew that bastard would die horribly! Strutting around like he owned the sky, forever dragging us out to play at counterattacks. Once or twice is fine, but who walks the riverbank and keeps his shoes dry? He played that game too many times — sooner or later the boat capsizes. And now he's dead, isn't he?"

Shen Mu glanced back, but the village chief was nowhere to be seen. He wondered, "The chief was standing right there a moment ago. Where has he gone?"

"I am Tuxing Feng of the Earthwalking Divine Clan, patriarch of this generation. My ancestor was the Earth God of the Kaihuang era — the whole family's short like this. You must have seen the earth shrines in the Wilderness Ruins? Those enshrine our forebears."

The dwarf was a great talker and quick with it: "Our clan breeds like rabbits, so in the Kaihuang era earth gods were everywhere, earth shrines everywhere, every peak had a god of our Earthwalking line. But the purer our blood, the shorter we grow. Since the Kaihuang era ended, our bloodline's gone to ruin — we keep getting taller. I, at my height, am already a giant among the Earthwalking Divine Clan. My ancestors would despise me for it. Oh, and I have twenty-eight brothers. I'm the eldest. My second brother's name is..."

Shen Mu cleared his throat. "Esteemed guests, please, come inside."

Suddenly a demonic wind came howling in. When it died, five figures of wildly differing appearance stood within the dark gust. "Leaders of the Demon Race, the Five Immortals, have come at your invitation to meet the Human Sovereign."

Shen Mu was startled. Emperor Jingping's Preceptor, at his side, said, "All five are demons, and extremely powerful ones."

Shen Mu's thoughts stirred. The Five Immortals were a folk tradition — the Fox, the Weasel, the Hedgehog, the Snake, and the Rat. The Fox Immortal was a fox, the Weasel Immortal a yellow weasel, the Hedgehog Immortal a hedgehog, the Snake Immortal a serpent, and the Rat Immortal a rat. These five demon leaders must be the spirit-beasts of the demon race's five clans.

Presumably when the first Human Sovereign saved the world in ages past, he saved the demons too, and so the demon leaders likewise presented treasures and joined in forging the Human Sovereign Seal.

"Five honored guests, please!"

Shen Mu led them all into the estate, and into the main hall to take their seats. The village chief had arrived as well. Everyone looked at the old man shaved down to a stick, and for a moment no one recognized him.

Besides the village chief, the Butcher, the Silent Artisan, the Blind Elder, Old Master Huo, the Lame Elder, the Deaf Elder, the Pill Master, and Granny Zhu all took seats of their own. Tuxing Feng kept staring at the village chief, finding him vaguely familiar. The chief looked rather embarrassed.

After a moment, Qingyou Shanren arrived with two elders, You He and You Yun, and paid his respects to Shen Mu, then to the village chief, saying with a laugh, "We're late!"

"Little Qing, Little You, and Old Wanderer!"

Tuxing Feng jumped up, overjoyed, crying, "You're still alive? I thought you'd died! Little Qing, you were close with the last Human Sovereign — did that bastard finally croak?"

Qingyou Shanren looked awkward, and hastily pointed at the village chief. "Isn't the old Human Sovereign standing right there?"

The village chief wished the ground would swallow him. But Tuxing Feng and the others burst out laughing and crowded forward: "We recognized you long ago — we just wanted to play with you a bit."

"You always summoned us here, but we've missed those years we spent at your side!"

"To have fought shoulder to shoulder with you in our lifetimes is our greatest honor!"

...

The village chief's face suddenly streamed with tears. He choked and could not speak.

Emperor Jingping's Preceptor felt a deep swell of emotion. The Sword God of the previous generation had so many true friends — that was something he could never attain.

Old Tathagata and the Old Dao Master arrived, and everyone made merry again.

"The human race still flourishes — no wonder they dominate the land." The Kun King saw that the human masters were the most numerous; all the other races combined could only just match them, and perhaps even fell short. He could not help but sigh inwardly.

The Snake Immortal looked at Shen Mu. "Human Sovereign, you've brought out the Human Sovereign Seal this time. What is your command?"

The Snake Immortal was a woman. Her name made her sound like a willow that had grown sentient, but in truth she was a green serpent with the bloodline of the Azure Dragon. No one knew how long this Snake Immortal had lived. Though she called herself old, she looked young. Humans at most lived some eight hundred years, while the lifespans of other races exceeded that limit. How long the Snake Immortal had truly lived, Shen Mu could not tell — but most of the masters who had come at his invitation had once fought alongside the village chief, so none of them could be young.

Of the other four Immortals, the Hedgehog, Weasel, and Rat Immortals were men, and the Fox Immortal a woman.

"To intercept the High Heavens."

Shen Mu looked around the room. "Senior brothers, senior sisters, you must have seen the stone statues and treasures scattered across Jingping by now. The gods of the High Heavens will come to release the calamities sealed within those treasures — stirring up the heavens, earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, thunderstoms, tempests, all of it. I fear even your own peoples will struggle to survive."

Frowns tightened on every face. On their way here they had indeed noticed many stone statues, and if the calamity truly erupted as Shen Mu said, none of their races would escape destruction.

Emperor Jingping's Preceptor said, "Before I came, I brought along one of the treasures that emerged from underground. Honored guests, look."

He produced a Taotie pouch, opened it with the greatest care, circulated his mana, and lifted out a round cauldron of crimson red, setting it down upon the ground with extreme caution.

Everyone crowded around to examine it. The great cauldron was vermilion, flames spilling from its mouth, blossoms of fire bursting forth from time to time to float around it. Within a radius of some hundred paces, the air shimmered. The cauldron had a seal — a massive lid clamped tight over its mouth, and around the lid ran line after line of sealing runes.

Within the cauldron seemed to lie limitless, terrifying energy, ceaselessly quaking. The great hall shook with it, the glazed tiles on the roof rattling with a regular clatter. The whole estate trembled, and the trees swayed gently.

Emperor Jingping's Preceptor was exceedingly careful, as though he feared to rouse the feral energy inside.

"This is the Earthquake Cauldron."

Tuxing Feng circled the great cauldron twice, his voice like thunder. "The Earthquake Cauldron contains the power of earthquakes. If it erupts, the tens of thousands of mountains of Jingping will be leveled to the ground! My ancestor, by imperial command, once forged such treasures to gather the energy of earthquakes."