Calamity and Tribulation of the Blessed Land
Half a month after Tie Mu Bai’s clash with Wu Gui and Ku Mo, on a peak of San Cha mountain, Tie Ruo Nan stands ringed by close to a thousand shrieking, ash grey mountain apes. She answers with a spray of golden needle Gu, a rank two Gu made by Tie clan’s own Gu Masters, each needle no longer than a finger. The needles freeze some apes in place, poison others to death, and drive others into a frenzy that turns them on their own companions. The survivors flee screeching. ch. 374
When the field quiets, Tie Ruo Nan walks among the fallen and fires golden needle Gu again, this time healing the many apes still able to move. Golden needle Gu is unremarkable on its own, but she has spent seven to eight days learning to pair it with four other Gu: poison liquid Gu turns it into a poison needle, stiff Gu freezes an enemy in place, chaotic mind Gu sows confusion so enemies attack each other, and vitality Gu heals. With that combined mastery she has beaten close to a thousand mountain apes alone. ch. 374
Tie Mu Bai watches without expression but with real praise in his heart, judging her comprehension outstanding and her nature tenacious and resolute, the trait he believes decides whether a genius endures to greatness or burns out like a shooting star. He teaches her partly because she shares Tie Xue Leng’s blood and partly because trials have already worn the impatience out of her, leaving a stability he compares to unpolished jade catching light. ch. 374
Half a month earlier, Tie Mu Bai fought Wu Gui and Ku Mo alone. He used his rank five turn gold Gu to hold them off with ease, then his rank five liquid metal Gu to drive them back and break their fighting spirit; the battle ended with both sides relenting. It left San Cha mountain contested by both paths, but everyone present could see Tie Mu Bai had never used his full strength. ch. 374
To reward Tie Ruo Nan’s progress, Tie Mu Bai raises a fog of golden needle Gu no bigger than raindrops. It drifts through nearby boulders with a sound like silkworms feeding, boring countless tiny holes through stone and killing the trees it touches outright; a person struck by it, he tells her, would be perforated through and through. He says he used this same golden fog, made by pairing golden needle Gu with create fog Gu, to dominate the Luchuan river region at twenty eight. ch. 374
Then he throws three thick, palm length golden needles into the skull of a mountain ape Tie Ruo Nan had just healed, one through the crown and two through its temples. The ape drops to its knees before him, paralyzed, unable even to cry out despite its wide, panicked eyes. He explains that golden needle Gu paired with puppet control Gu can seize a living body, the move he used at forty two against a band of over fifty demonic mountain bandits at Tie Mu mountain: it turned thirty eight of them to his side, and he captured the whole band and disposed of the evildoers. ch. 374
Tie Ruo Nan, who has heard of the old clan leader’s exploits since childhood, grows more fascinated with every story: his A grade aptitude, his rise to rank four peak stage before fifty, the years he spent roaming Southern Border making his name, and his return to lead Tie clan to a height that once eclipsed the Wu and Shang clans, a life of glory that even age has not dimmed. She vows the golden needle Gu will not shame his name in her hands. He answers by naming little beast king Fang Zheng, who she says has already fallen fully into the demonic path, as the test he sets for her. She vows to bring back his head. ch. 374
Tie Mu Bai praises her ability to stay level in victory or defeat and draw strength from setbacks, then spends over an hour teaching her the full principles behind these combinations. Once she has absorbed it all, Tie Ruo Nan asks whether the rumors are true: that the three kings inheritance opens for shorter periods with fewer light pillars and dimmer glow, and that the blessed land is nearing its end. Tie Mu Bai confirms it. ch. 374
Every blessed land, he explains, suffers an earthly calamity every ten years and a heavenly tribulation every hundred, and this one, born from a mysterious ancient Gu Immortal and later remade into an inheritance by the three kings, has grown old. A land spirit could have prolonged it, but this blessed land has none, so it is a sinking ship that every plundering Gu Master widens the holes in. Tie Mu Bai puts what remains of its life at under ten years before its immortal essence runs out entirely. ch. 374
