The Sacred Ruins

The badly startled livestock almost broke out of their fences; the usually ferocious Tibetan mastiffs were all whimpering restlessly on the ground. The shepherds were shouting and trying to keep the animals in check.

The women were busy comforting the crying children.

Some of the shepherds were praying with great piety. Later on, they even prostrated themselves towards the great mountain and kowtowed with great solemnity.

The shepherds weren’t alarmed by Chu Feng’s arrival since strangers frequently passed by and would sometimes ask to stay the night in one of their tents.

The commotion receded only after quite a while.

After washing himself with warm water, Chu Feng sat drinking the strong butter tea and felt all his tiredness slowly disappear. He then gifted all the sweets on him to the numerous children of the settlement.

The faces of these bashful children were all rosy as was normal for the Highlanders, their smiles simple and honest. These happy and content children dispersed swiftly after the distribution of sweets.

Chu Feng was curious as to what had happened in the mountains recently. Did those eerie blue spider lilies also grow here?

The elderly shepherd in the tent was already completely white-haired and his face was lined with numerous deep wrinkles. He was obviously concerned about something as he gazed toward the distant mountain range.

Very soon, Chu Feng found out that the blue mist had indeed appeared here and enshrouded this mountainous region. The startled livestock had become restless and almost escaped.

But there were no sightings of the blue flowers, and the mist was apparently much thinner here.

“Why were you prostrating toward the mountains?” Chu Feng asked.

“That is the direction of the sacred mountain,” the old shepherd replied.

The Kunlun Mountain Range had always been home to divine peaks and was also known as the sacred mountain. It had been recorded in various classic literature from the <Mountain and River Classic> to the <Huai Nanzi> and the <Records of the Great Historian>.

Previously, the area around the settlement was only covered by a thin layer of blue mist but some people witnessed dense clouds of blue mist in the direction of Mount Kunlun.

Apparently, the mist there was surging out torrentially and glowing with a translucent radiance. It became increasingly intense until, later on, they were like blue beams of light shining vigorously through the cloudy haze.

It was as if a dazzling blue sun was floating within the dense mist. Even from a great distance, its rays were akin to bolts of blinding lightning.

The view was incomparably mysterious, the resplendent blue dancing constantly in the distance.

As such, with no further thoughts, some old shepherds prostrated themselves piously in prayer.

Evidently, the strange phenomenon here was astonishing—the blue mist refused to disperse and was likely even more vigorous than in the great desert.

“Just what gave rise to these unusual phenomena?” Chu Feng pondered.

He considered the possibility of a mountain earthquake.

In the past, similarly mysterious cases had happened before; that valley suffered unusually frequent lightning strikes targeting living beings therein.

An earthquake in the mountains induced magnetic field abnormalities which affected the electric charges in the clouds. This induced the lightning strikes and colorful auroras, making that place an extraordinary lightning field.

Chu Feng wasn’t superstitious. Rather, he believed that everything that had happened was a type of natural phenomenon.

But the old shepherd wouldn’t believe him no matter how he tried to explain. He became quite mad at Chu Feng’s blasphemy and almost drove him off right then.

There were indeed some parts which were quite difficult to explain reasonably. Even Chu Feng himself couldn’t quite understand, for example, how the charming blue flowers came to bloom in the desert.

He sighed softly. There were many baffling things in this “post-civilization era”. People were trying their best to explain things conventionally, but the world was seemingly becoming harder and harder to comprehend.

In the distant past, war had destroyed the greater half the planet and nearly turned Earth into a wasteland. Although the earth’s vitality had been mostly restored after the long period of recovery, it was quite difficult to rebuild civilization to its former brilliance.

Countless enigmatic events had happened during this lengthy post-civilization era, but despite their widespread effects, most remained a mystery.

Dawn. The red sun had leaped up from over the horizon and the morning rays were creeping resplendently over the distant hills. The radiance spilled over the grasslands and onto the tent, painting scene of surging vigor.

Chu Feng bade his farewells to his hosts and, once again, set out on his journey.

He traveled due west toward the highlands.

Along the way, he discovered that the area affected by the blue mist was rather large and covered at least the whole scope of his journey.

“Could it be a mysterious phenomenon?” he murmured.

The few times such events had taken place in the past always resulted in great commotions with no definite answers found to date.

The Tibetan sky was especially blue, adorned by the purest white clouds floating so close to the ground that one could seemingly reach out to touch them. The desert, mountains, and pastures were all tranquil like a sacred land standing aloof from worldly affairs.

Chu Feng heard numerous rumors along the way.

Some shepherds claimed that the Sacred Mountain had revived and was thus flowing with blue radiance amidst the encompassing mist.

Some claimed that the Vajrapani Bodhi Tree was growing and would soon bear fruit.

“The true mastiff is about to come into being!” some exclaimed.

To the locals, their domesticated canines weren’t true mastiffs. True mastiffs that lived in the wild were said to be able to contend with tigers and lions. There was a certain legend describing a true mastiff which would appear once in hundreds of years. It was extremely powerful, and it could even subdue demons.

Days later, Chu Feng arrived in the vicinity of the sacred mountain.

He found out that all the regions along the way were affected by the blue mist. It was highly likely that another of those historical mysterious phenomena had appeared.

At the same time, this signified that most likely no one will be able to explain the reason behind it.

Perhaps most people wouldn’t even know of its consequences.

The Tibetan autumn was usually chilly, but Chu Feng felt an odd sense of warmth along the way.

The ground should’ve been covered by withered yellow leaves, but it was not—it seemed as if the remaining leaves on the trees had recovered their vitality, preventing them from withering and falling off.

This was especially true for the regions closer to Kunlun. The trees, grass, and shrubs along the way were all sparkling with vitality under the warm weather.

The late autumn was devoid of its characteristic bleakness.

“The weather has become warm. Could it be caused by the recent changes?” Chu Feng mused.

Finally, he arrived before Mount Kunlun.

He felt a sense of suppression even from a distance.

The lofty and towering mountain range was stretched continuously in a majestic and imposing manner as if it was the spine of heaven and earth.

The strength and vigor of this great ancient mountain knew no parity and was shrouded in countless myths and legends.

Chu Feng originally had planned to embark on his return journey after reaching Tibet. But after hearing the countless odd incidents related to Mount Kunlun along the way, he increasingly became curious that he wanted to approach the mountain for a look.

“It should be here.”

Chu Feng arrived at this destination and stood at the base of the mountain. The tremendous mountain was like a giant divine city sitting upon the western land—its boundless vigor was especially eye-catching.

This was just a small section of Mount Kunlun. A few days ago, many people living in the vicinity witnessed this whole area surging with blue lights, but few people dared to truly venture closer these days.

Chu Feng entered the mountain and began to climb.

The mountain was tall and precipitous with gigantic rocks strewn across its difficult trails. Plants and trees were growing verdantly along the way a scene out of the ordinary for this late autumn season.

“Could there have been an earthquake recently?” Chu Feng observed.

Large cracks could be seen on its surface along with large rocks and broken cliffs which had fallen from above.

Even this colossal mountain was affected by the unusual phenomena.

“What’s this?”

Chu Feng saw a gigantic rock with words carved deeply upon it but most of it was hidden underneath the rocks.

Small portions of the mountain had collapsed and slid down after the earthquake, revealing this rock from deep below the ground.

The large rock was covered with a layer of green which looked like dried moss.

“West… Queen!”

Chu Feng rubbed the dirt off the words and recognized the two words inscribed in bronze. They were ancient characters often carved on cauldrons during the distant era.

Normal people would have a hard time recognizing them.

Chu Feng was momentarily lost in thought, why these two words?

Seeing the two words “Queen” and “Mother” reminded him of the ancient Queen Mother of the West. Could it be that she really existed?

“Perhaps the ancients came here and left this for remembrance?” Chu Feng shook his head and thought.

“That’s not right either!”

He was suddenly startled because the “dried moss” wasn’t what it seemed.

“Copper Patina!” This finding shook his heart.

It was likely that this tablet had been buried deep within the ground through the millennia and only saw the light of day after this great earthquake. It shouldn’t have any moss on it at all.

It was made of copper!

But such a huge block of copper was a rare sight indeed.

“Even the Simu Cauldron excavated from within the ruins of Yinshang City was only a mere 1000 kilograms in weight. Even so, it is known as the largest copper item to date. As for this tablet…”

Chu Feng removed some of the rocks and earth covering the tablet and conservatively estimated it to be at least 3000 kilograms in weight—what a shocking number! This was definitely a rare treasure during ancient times.

It was covered by green patina and obviously an antique buried for countless ages.

Chu Feng thought it was a stone tablet erected here as a memorial, but now, he was not so sure after discovering that it was made of copper.

Who, during the ancient times, would expend such a large amount of resources just for a memorial?

—

Retranslated by Alsey 2018/JAN