Chapter 227 — The Great Sage Who Restores the Seas (Part Two)

Whether the twelve Ancestral Shamans of the Shaman Gate, or the demon race's Great Sage Empress Nuwa and Donghuang Taiyi, all were peerless powers, beings of the same rank as the Five Hierarchs: the Three Pure Ones, the Tathagata Buddha, and the Daoist Cundi. Donghuang Taiyi is the present Jade Emperor—yet unlike the Jade Emperor, that puppet, Donghuang Taiyi was absolute authority.

The Five Hierarchs of the immortal path, the twelve Ancestral Shamans, the demon race's Great Sage Empress Nuwa, and Donghuang Taiyi were all leading figures of the primordial age. Later, friction among the immortal path, the Shaman Gate, and the ancient demon race erupted into a savage and incomparably bitter war.

This bronze bell records the fuse of that war: in those years the great shaman Houyi clashed with the ten Golden Crows, sons of Donghuang Taiyi, who governed the rising and setting of the sun. In his wrath he shot and killed nine of the Golden Crows, and thus the great war was kindled.

The Shaman Gate had its twelve Ancestral Shamans, while the demon race had only Empress Nuwa and Donghuang Taiyi, two powers, far from a match. So the demons allied with the Five Hierarchs of the immortal path, and after a single war the human realm was left in ruins.

Though the writing in the bell gave only a sketchy account, far from detailed, the sheer number of peerless powers who fought to the death—the savagery of it—seeped out from between the lines, and a desolate breath from the primordial wilds rippled through Zhou Xuan's mind.

Donghuang Taiyi, that Heavenly Emperor of the demons, possessed a body undying and indestructible, and even he was beaten to death outright. The tragic ferocity of that battle could well be imagined.

"This King does not know how you came by such fortune as to condense the Ancestral Shaman avatars, and this King has no interest in knowing now. This King wishes to cooperate with you, to restore together the glory of my ancient demon race and take back the rule of Heaven, Earth, and Reincarnation. Would that not be joyous?"

The Flood Dragon Demon King dismissed his assembled ministers and ordered them to guard the news strictly lest it leak. The mountain god and the local earth deity had long since been seized by the Flood Dragon Demon King, which was why Zhou Xuan's summons could not reach them.

So it was his twelve Ancestral Shamans the fellow was after. No wonder the Flood Dragon Demon King's power was so great—he was a man with a plan, and such a mad design at that. Little did he know the thing was utterly impossible. I shall string him along for now!

Having finished reading the record, Zhou Xuan listened to the Flood Dragon Demon King while he examined the paintings within the bell. Those ancient demon beasts were all ministers under Donghuang Taiyi, governing the stars of the heavens and the cycles of sun and moon. These demons were mighty one and all, cultivating by drawing on the power of the stars, and stood near the Hierarch rank. Unlike the present star lords and gods—cultivators who died in the War of the Investiture of the Gods—who, though they govern the sun, moon, and stars, are bound by the Investiture Roll and cannot draw on the stars' power to cultivate at all. They are like custodians of a treasure house: they can see it, but they cannot touch it.

It was precisely because of these ministers under Donghuang Taiyi that the ancient demon race could barely hold its own against the Shaman Gate; otherwise the twelve Ancestral Shamans would long since have exterminated them.

"Great Sage Who Restores the Seas, this is no small matter. Buddhism and Daoism now share rule over the Three Realms. Even if you and I joined hands, it would be as a dragonfly shaking a stone pillar. Never mind the Five Hierarchs of the immortal and Buddhist paths—even their underlings would blast us to dust. Besides, this poor Daoist attained immortality through the human path and is no demon; there is no profit in it for me. This matter needs careful thought." So said Zhou Xuan.

"Do not forget, you are this King's prisoner now. You are in no position to haggle with this King. Only agree to hand over the banner that binds the twelve Ancestral Shamans, dispel the primal essence upon it, and tell this King the incantation. Once this King has refined it, I will let you out, and we go our separate ways. This King will not make things hard for you. What say you?" said the Flood Dragon Demon King.

"Flood Dragon Demon King, do not take this poor Daoist for a fool. If I hand over the banner, will you not then set the bell's water, fire, wind, and thunder loose on me? Then am I not dead?" Zhou Xuan laughed. "You cannot do anything to me. A proposal so brainless hardly ought to tumble from your lips. You are a demon who has lived tens of thousands of years, after all. Can it be that the longer you live, the more muddled you grow?"

"This King will not bandy words with you. With the twelve Ancestral Shamans guarding you, I cannot touch you. But this King has patience to spare. Day after day I will unleash the bell's restraining arts to refine you. If a hundred years cannot refine you, then a thousand years. This King does not believe you can hold out that long. This King has time enough."

The Flood Dragon Demon King laughed. "This King knows you have roots in the Southern Continent of Jambudvipa, and that you have a feud with that Niu Yan. I will send word to him—or better, go myself. If I cannot touch you, can this King not touch your disciples?"

"No matter, no matter. Go ahead. This poor Daoist has received the writ of the Primordial Lord of Heaven; all things are fixed by fate. If they are slain by demons, that too is destined, and nothing can be forced. But this poor Daoist's disciples are all blessed folk; Heaven will watch over them." So said Zhou Xuan, without a trace of worry.

Liao Yanqiao wore full armor and a great crimson cloak, gripping a sword graven with nine purple stripes. Behind him rolled eight hundred thousand demon soldiers, and at their rear the Poison Dragon and other demon kings. Their killing aura surged skyward and massed into waves of dark cloud. Suddenly a demonic gale rose, as though a tempest were about to break.

Commanding the demon host, relying on his great shaman body, his vast and deep strength, and his vicious treasures, Liao Yanqiao had pressed on day and night, already leveling more than a hundred great mountain strongholds and taking the whole million-li expanse west of the Two Realms Pass into the fold of the Heaven's Dao Sect.

Now the disciples of the Shuyan Sect were kept busy indeed; even the disciples of the Great Freedom Palace helped put affairs in order, stockpiling all the ritual implements and materials. While Liao Yanqiao campaigned abroad, the twenty thousand disciples of Heaven's Dao and the ten thousand-odd of the Great Freedom Palace held the gates, setting the demon conscripts to dig the ore veins and refine materials, and brought the two sects into fine, bustling order.

The Buddhist forces had already withdrawn. Now it was the Heavenly Snake King of Coiled Snake Mountain who mainly contested with Liao Yanqiao, one in the south and one in the north, the two locked in standoff. The Heavenly Snake King was of the Lady Wudang's lineage. With the Buddhists gone, everyone scrambled for mountain strongholds, and he and Liao Yanqiao had come to blows.

Below lay the Myriad Venoms Mountain, a hundred and fifty thousand li across, its slopes wholly shrouded in red and green vapors. Deep in the dark, shadowy valleys and caves one could dimly see hundred-zhang venomous things—centipedes and scorpions—spitting colored poisonous mist.

Myriad Venoms Mountain was a range where insects ran riot, but to cultivators it was a vast resource, especially for demons refining noxious implements. Even the Five Venoms Divine Banner in Zhou Chen's hands required such venomous creatures and no others.