Chapter 618 — A Glimpse Inside the Opened Box

Shen Mu and Zhe Huali felt their hearts give a small jolt. They hurriedly looked toward the voice, and saw that the hand had plucked away the little box; the hand's owner was a man with a great axe slung on his back and a bamboo hat on his head, broad-armed and thick-waisted, heavy-browed and big-eyed.

He looked like a woodcutter who had just set down the firewood from his back, yet between his brows lay the deep air of a scholar. Garb and temperament were utterly at odds.

The little box rested in his palm, and looked very small indeed.

"The Woodcutter Sage!" Joy leapt in Shen Mu's heart.

Zhe Huali was aghast: "Celestial Master!"

On the other side Qi Jiuyi was still kneeling where he was. He stole a glance upward, and his heart shook violently: "The one who offered blood sacrifice at Luofu Heaven, the one who forced Fu Riluo into signing the Earth Lord's Pact with him!"

He rose noiselessly to his feet and backed away, wanting to leave and yet not daring to.

Chi Xi, three-headed and six-armed, his body withered to skin and bone, managed to lift his head and size up this woodcutter. He sneered: "You want it? You dare want it?"

The Woodcutter Sage held the square, upright box in his palm and looked it up and down. "Why would I not dare? Your cultivation is unhealed, and so is your flesh. Were you at your peak I would yield you three parts; since you are not at your peak, I do not even have the desire to beat you. Here, take it."

He cut his wrist, and divine blood flowed from the wound.

Chi Xi stared at the divine blood, could hold back no longer, and opened his mouths. The blood flowing from the woodcutter's wrist flew into his three mouths.

Having gotten the woodcutter's divine blood, his shriveled body visibly swelled, blood coursing, his heartbeat growing louder and louder, and every withered organ within him recovering one after another.

His essence, energy, and spirit grew steadily fuller, his face gradually flushed with color, and little by little he regained his original appearance.

Chi Xi might well be counted a middle-aged man of considerable character. The three faces of his three heads were identical, all with sword-like brows, and the killing air between those brows was heavy, perhaps because he had once been the execution overseer of the Chiming Heaven Court.

His aura too grew steadily stronger, and soon it set Shen Mu, Zhe Huali, and Qi Jiuyi swaying on their feet, so that they had to fall back.

By the time he had recovered more or less, the wound on the Woodcutter Sage's wrist slowly closed and bled no more.

"Your primordial spirit has been withered for twenty thousand years. Nurse it back little by little yourself."

The Woodcutter Sage's gaze had rested on the little box the whole time; he had never once looked at him squarely. After a moment he said: "Shen Mu, where did this little box come from?"

Shen Mu said: "Elder Senior Brother found it."

"He did?"

The Woodcutter Sage was startled, and asked: "Where is he?"

"Elder Senior Brother has never appeared. I found the wicked dragon he had suppressed in a ruin in the Desolate Wastes, and I slew the dragon. The star sand that suppressed the dragon in Elder Senior Brother's cauldron then revealed many geographic maps; only, he did not show himself."

Shen Mu swiftly recounted the whole chain of cause and effect, and said: "The geography around the God-Slaying Platform on that alien star is one of those maps. Following the map, I tracked my way here and found the little box. Elder Senior Brother used the All-Heaven Star Slaying Array to bind the little box, and left behind one Daoist arithmetic puzzle after another. Solving them, I found the number: three hundred and fifty thousand years."

"Three hundred and fifty thousand years…"

The Woodcutter Sage mused, murmuring: "Why would that fool leave a riddle behind too? Is it some hint he means for me? He left so many geographic maps, to what end… Those maps were not left for you. They were left for me. He wants me to follow them and seek out the clues he left. That you could find his maps at all was chance and coincidence."

Shen Mu said: "Three hundred and fifty thousand years ago was the Chiming era. This Elder Chi Xi comes from three hundred and fifty thousand years ago."

The Woodcutter Sage nodded: "I know. The moment I saw his three-headed, six-armed form, I knew he came from the Chi Xi era. I once found some ruins from that age, and learned that the men of that time took the three-headed, six-armed form as the strongest of fleshly bodies, vast in divine power, able to move mountains and fill seas, to chase the stars and drive the moon. This little box, too, comes from that age; its form is much like the so-called God-Slaying Mystic Blade of the Heaven Court. Which one imitated which, no one can say."

Qi Jiuyi did not dare speak, but sneered inwardly: "It must be the Chiming Heaven Court that imitated our Heaven Court's God-Slaying Mystic Blade!"

Shen Mu thought a moment, then took out the war tally Elder Qinghuang had given him, and said: "Sage Master, Elder Senior Brother left this with Elder Qinghuang. Elder Qinghuang did not know what era's war tally it is either."

The Woodcutter Sage took the tally, examined it, and laughed: "Elder Qinghuang? You mean Qinghuang the Emperor, don't you? That old fellow has a foul temper. He gives everyone the cold shoulder, but his heart is warm, blazing warm. Did he speak ill of me behind my back?"

Shen Mu hastily shook his head and said gravely: "No! Absolutely not! Elder Qinghuang speaks most amiably, kind-faced and benevolent-eyed. He received me with diligent hospitality and saw me off with reluctance. He cursed no one!"

"No such thing, I'll be bound! He certainly did. Not only cursed me, he would have cursed Kaihuang as well. He absolutely drove you off!"

The Woodcutter Sage tossed the tally back to him and laughed: "I have long had his temper down pat. As for this tally, I cannot make out its origin either, nor know in what year and month it was left. Keep it for now."

"Wait!"

Chi Xi's gaze fell upon the tally in Shen Mu's hand, and he said in a low voice: "Let me see that tally. I may well recognize it!"

Shen Mu looked to the woodcutter; the woodcutter nodded lightly.

Shen Mu stepped forward and handed the tally to Chi Xi. Chi Xi examined it over and over, then said: "This is a war tally of the Longhan era. There are still many Longhan ruins in the Chiming era; I have seen such things. Boy, take your tally back."

Shen Mu took the tally and said, perplexed: "Elder Senior Brother left a Longhan-era war tally in Elder Qinghuang's keeping, to what purpose? Elder Qinghuang was the Lord of the East of the Kaihuang era. That Elder Senior Brother asked him to keep it shows Elder Senior Brother did not necessarily prize it greatly. Is there some secret hidden in a Longhan war tally?"

The Woodcutter Sage laughed: "Since he left so many geographic maps, then follow the maps and search. The day will come when the boy solves the secret."

Shen Mu assented.

Chi Xi said coolly: "Daoist friend, the little box is the property of my Chiming Heaven Court. Please return it to me. Since you have gifted me blood, the grievance between me and this child is wiped clean."

The Woodcutter Sage finally turned his head to look at him, and said earnestly: "Old Daoist friend, this little box was left to me by my eldest disciple; it is therefore mine, and I cannot give it to you. I gifted you blood because I feared you would tear all courtesy apart, and then it would be awkward for me to beat you. So I let you recover a measure of cultivation. If you do tear courtesy apart, I will beat you. I had just forced the Honored King Fu Riluo to withdraw in the face of difficulty, and came here only to find you bullying my disciple and these two juniors. It ill becomes a senior, and it sours me somewhat against you."