Chapter 154
Chapter 154
It turned out that the black hide came from an extremely formidable wild-born gu.
It was called the Black-Ice Giant Earthworm.
This gu creature was exceedingly rare.
Naturally, it was also immensely powerful–one of the nine most powerful wild-born gu in the legends of the Miao borderlands!
It looked like a large black earthworm. A mature specimen was one foot long and as thick as a thumb. Its skin, however, wasn’t sticky and slimy like that of an ordinary earthworm.
Instead, it was smooth and tough, rather like a beetle’s shell.
The Black-Ice Giant Earthworm possessed a wondrous ability: it could generate extreme cold. Wherever it crawled, even the rocks within several yards could freeze and crack!
Legend had it that the Black-Ice Giant Earthworm could not be bred artificially. Gu practitioners could only capture one in the deserted primeval forests deep in the Miao borderlands.
After capturing one, a gu practitioner would first spend time taming it.
Once it had been successfully tamed, the practitioner could slowly make it their own lifebound gu…
A gu practitioner could command many different types of gu creatures, but could possess only one lifebound gu.
A lifebound gu differed from ordinary gu creatures. Its life was linked to that of its practitioner, and a wondrous connection existed between the two. It was also far more powerful than an ordinary gu creature!
When the gu practitioner died, the lifebound gu would die with them.
If the lifebound gu died, the practitioner would not die, but their vitality would suffer a devastating blow and their strength would decline to varying degrees.
If it was fortunate enough to live for a century, a Black-Ice Giant Earthworm would undergo another transformation!
Its black outer hide would become impervious to blade or spear, water or fire. Even if it were casually discarded and exposed to the elements for a thousand years, it would not suffer the slightest damage or decay.
That was why the gu practitioners of traditional Miao villages used the hide of a Black-Ice Giant Earthworm that had lived more than a century to make the gu manuals handed down within their villages–because every village possessed its own unique gu arts.
After listening to Old Cao explain all this, I began to understand.
“In other words, the Black-Ice Giant Earthworm is extraordinarily powerful. Any village capable of killing one and turning its hide into a gu manual passed down through the generations must have been extremely powerful too!”
“That’s not how it works.”
Old Cao shook his head, rejecting my conclusion.
“Forget a Black-Ice Giant Earthworm more than a century old. One that has reached maturity at forty years is already immensely powerful and extremely difficult to capture. And if someone truly tries to overpower it by force, the creature would rather turn itself into a lump of black ice than let them succeed.”
“I see…”
I pinched my chin thoughtfully.
“Then there’s only one possibility! An exceptionally powerful gu practitioner must have emerged in that Miao village. The practitioner caught the Black-Ice Giant Earthworm while it was still young and made it their lifebound gu. After that, the practitioner had to live at least another sixty years.”
“The younger the Black-Ice Giant Earthworm was when it was captured, the longer the gu practitioner needed to live. That would mean both the practitioner and the gu creature were all the more powerful!”
“When the gu practitioner died, the Black-Ice Giant Earthworm, as their lifebound gu, died along with them. Only then could its hide be removed and made into a book–one that would remain imperishable for centuries or millennia and be passed down from generation to generation.”
“Exactly!”
Old Cao nodded and looked at me with open approval.
“Xiao Wu really is clever.”
I continued…
“So any gu practitioner capable of meeting those conditions had to be a genius and mighty expert who appeared in a given village only once every few centuries. Which means a village capable of using Black-Ice Giant Earthworm hide to make a gu manual must also have possessed a profound inheritance and extremely powerful gu arts.”
“That’s right!”
Old Cao sighed emotionally and gently ran a hand across the gu manual’s cold, smooth cover.
“Leidong Miao Village must have been incredibly powerful… What a pity. Even so, it was reduced to ashes beneath the assault of modern firearms and artillery. The era that belonged to the esoteric world has long since passed.”
His expression and tone were desolate.
An air of weary old age even seemed to emanate from his entire body.
I laughed, walked over, and patted his shoulder reassuringly.
“There’s no need to be so pessimistic. It’s true that after human scientific civilization flourished and the Industrial Revolution began, occult forces gradually weakened in both the West and China…”
“But we’re all still here, aren’t we? When it comes to cultivation, there’s no need to insist on reaching some extraordinary level. Look at those Celestial Masters of Mount Longhu in ancient times. No matter how powerful they were, could they have become emperor?”
Old Cao shook his head vigorously. “Absolutely not! The emperor bears the fortunes of the entire nation and is closely linked to its dragon veins. Even those lofty Buddhist and Daoist sects that look down on folk arcane lineages wouldn’t dare touch that.”
“Exactly!”
I slapped my thigh.
“Even in ancient times, we esoteric practitioners couldn’t control everything. How is that any different from today? Whether strong or weak, in ancient or modern times, righteous cultivators who live honestly still have to live their lives the same way. It’s the rogue occultists who had it far too easy in the old days. In modern times, they have to behave themselves and wouldn’t dare run completely wild…”
“You have a point, Xiao Wu. There’s no need to wallow in the bygone days!”
After hearing my grand speech, Old Cao’s pent-up gloom eased considerably.
The truth was… I didn’t entirely believe those words myself!
Fair was fair: practitioners of the esoteric arts truly didn’t have it as good as they had in ancient times. Their circumstances weren’t even as good as when Old Cao was young.
On top of that, Master had said we now lived in the Age of Spiritual Decline. The spiritual qi of heaven and earth had long since dried up, making it incredibly, incredibly difficult to cultivate to any truly profound level!
I was actually rather unhappy about it myself.
Fortunately, I was young. The world had already been like this when I was born, and I had no idea what things had truly been like before. Unlike Old Cao, I had nothing to compare the present against, so it was easier to maintain a good state of mind.
Once we finished talking, Old Cao handed the gu manual from Leidong Miao Village back to me.
With a grave expression, he warned me in complete earnestness, “Xiao Wu, this book is unquestionably a priceless treasure. A thousand years of gu arts inherited from a powerful traditional Miao village must contain something astonishing.”
“What’s more, it remained in Lianghe Town for over a decade without me or anyone else discovering it. Yet you obtained it after coming here for school only half a year ago. That proves this object was fated to come to you.”
“Keep it safe, and never let anyone learn about it. Otherwise, possessing such a treasure will only bring disaster upon you!”
I smiled. “Old Cao, something this precious should obviously be given to Master when I can’t even read the gu script. Maybe she can understand it. Besides, no matter how precious it is, can it really be more valuable than things I already have, like The Classic of Dwellings and The Book of Burial?”
“Good grief!”
Old Cao lightly smacked his forehead.
“I got muddled because I was worried about you. As long as you know what you’re doing, Xiao Wu.”
“I understand.”
With that, the two of us looked at each other and smiled.
Old Cao was even older than my father, but I felt completely at ease around him. There was none of the distance I usually felt when spending time with an older adult.
At that moment, Wang Hu, who had been sitting quietly to one side and listening, rose to his feet.
“Boss, Young Mr. Wu, are you hungry? I’ll go make two bowls of noodles for you in the kitchen.”
That sounded wonderful!
I loved the tomato, seared-soup noodles with tender pork that Wang Hu made.
…
The next day, I went to school.
The morning study bell had already rung ten minutes earlier when Yao Nan came hurrying in.
She was actually late, which was extremely rare.
So I teased her.
“Deskmate, has winter come, so you’ve started hibernating too?”
To my surprise, Yao Nan glared at me and pouted.
“It’s all your fault! I found out that magic really exists in this world and that my deskmate is an expert who can use it, just like those Daoist priests in Hong Kong movies. I couldn’t sleep well at all last night. I had a whole mess of weird dreams. It’s all your fault…”
Wang Dachun, whose desk was behind Yao Nan’s, leaned forward. He had probably heard only her last sentence.
His eyes widened at once, and he whispered in an exaggerated voice, “Whoa! Classmate Yao Nan, you had a whole mess of weird dreams about Brother Wu last night? Were those dreams… appropriate?”
Yao Nan: “…”
Me: “Get lost! Wang Dachun, are you itching for a beating? I’ll deal with you after morning study.”
“No, Brother Wu…”
The guy let out another exaggerated wail. Even Zeng Jin, who sat beside him, couldn’t help laughing.
I glanced at Deng Liqian’s seat.
It was empty.
She didn’t enter the classroom until the second period of the morning.
She sat in a daze at her desk for several minutes.
Then she quickly went to the teachers’ office. When she came back out, she began packing the textbooks, workbooks, notebooks, and other things from her desk and drawer.
I thought, “Mm, looks like she’s behaving and doing as she was told. I suppose I really can be rather intimidating now?”
Our last class of the morning was math, taught by our homeroom teacher, Chen Xue. He announced to the entire class that Deng Liqian was preparing to transfer schools for personal family reasons and asked us to send her off with applause and wish her well…
School let out for lunch.
Wearing her schoolbag, Deng Liqian walked over to the desk Yao Nan and I shared.
“What did you come over here for?” Yao Nan asked expressionlessly.
I could feel her body stiffen slightly. Clearly, she wasn’t nearly as calm inside as she appeared.
Deng Liqian looked at Yao Nan, then took something from her pocket.
She placed it on the desk.
I saw that it was a little bird made of bamboo.
“Xiao Nan, I made this myself. My grandma sometimes makes bamboo crafts to sell on the street, and I help her. I made this whenever I had a little spare time. It took me two weeks, and I always meant to give it to you…”
“Thank you, but no.”
Yao Nan stared into her eyes. “We’re no longer friends. I won’t accept anything from you either. Take it back.”
As she spoke, Yao Nan picked up the woven bamboo bird and put it back into Deng Liqian’s hand.
Deng Liqian’s eyes turned red.
Only after a long while did she bite her lip and whisper, “Mm, I understand. But I still want to say… I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”
With that, Deng Liqian turned and walked away with her schoolbag on her back.
Her figure disappeared completely through the classroom door. By then, only four people remained in the classroom: Yao Nan and me, along with Wang Dachun and Zeng Jin.
Only then did Yao Nan suddenly cover her mouth as large tears began spilling from her eyes.
I understood how she felt.
Someone she had always regarded as a close friend, practically a sister, had done such a thing to her and nearly made her mute for the rest of her life! Just imagining the pain of that betrayal made my heart ache as if cut by a knife.
But it was also true… Deng Liqian had once been her close friend!
“Waaah!”
Yao Nan finally lost control and burst into loud sobs. Turning around, she threw her arms around me.
Things became a little awkward then.
I actually wanted to push her away.
But I truly couldn’t bring myself to do it. Pushing away someone so vulnerable at a moment like this would have been too cruel.
There was nothing else I could do but let Yao Nan hold me and cry for quite a while. Her tears rolled down the back of my neck, and they felt hot against my skin.
“Is this the pain of being betrayed by a friend? I hope I never have to experience something like it.”
I thought this silently to myself.
…
Three days after Deng Liqian transferred away, the New Year’s gala proceeded smoothly.
Yao Nan performed “My Deskmate” as a solo and, just as she had hoped, won the award for Best Song that night.
Everyone in our class was delighted!
As for the Michael Jackson breakdance performed by Wang Dachun and several of his underlings…
It went exactly as I had predicted. When he grabbed his crotch, thrust his hips forward again and again, and launched into Michael’s classic moves, the entire audience erupted in cheers.
But the faces of the school administrators seated in the front row turned as black as the bottom of a cooking pot.
The oldest of them, the principal, wore an expression that practically screamed, “Utterly indecent!” He probably wished he could drag Wang Dachun off the stage and beat him on the spot.
In the end, the performance received the lowest score of the entire gala!
Wang Dachun claimed, however, that they had won the “hearts of the people”–meaning the cheers of their fellow students.
Yao Nan and I could only marvel at his Ah-Q-like talent for amusing and consoling himself…