Chapter 38 Breaking the Sky
Time is an invisible wheel that never stops without emotion. It has traveled through billions of worlds in the four seas and eight wastelands, unbiased and fair and equitable, who did not have one point more and who did not have one millimeter less. Whether in the earthly world or the sacred mountains of Kunlun, time has not been one step faster or slower. The snow on Kunlun Mountain accumulates more thickly yearly, and the peach trees in the Fengxijian River blossom and bear fruit for countless rounds. This year, a Shan Xiaohu by the Nanji Immortal Weng turned into a stone placed on the tip of the mountain for the hundredth year.
Nanji Immortal's heavenly punishment is almost over. Every time after the sentence, the Master would drop by to see Shan Xiaohu, talk to him a few times, and feed him a few mouthfuls of good tea and wine. Sometimes, Nanji Immortal gently stroked the rock underneath him as if he stroked Shan Xiaohu's big furry head and the two long fluffy hairs on his ears.
Sometimes, the Elder and Second Eldest Brother would also come up to sit with Shan Xiaohu and the Senior Master. Second Senior Brother usually explained a few paragraphs of canonical poems to him every time they came, reinforcing his cultural knowledge. However, Eldest Senior Brother spoke less; he often danced and punched with his sword, and when he encountered more challenging postures, he would stop to comment on them for a moment or two, followed by a few more demonstrations.
The stone seems motionless, but everyone can hear and see inside the sealed single Xiaohu.
In those first few years, Shan Xiaohu constantly ranted, roaring, and cursing uncontrollably daily. He often cursed and tried to do everything he could to break out of his confinement. He wanted to escape from the stone, escape from Feng Xi Jian, and escape from the Kunlun Mountains. However, he never succeeded and could only continue fighting tenaciously against the rock. Every morning, he would see his Master, Nanji Immortal, suffering three thunder tortures on the torture platform on the opposite mountain. At this time, Shan Xiaohu's heart is the happiest and the most pain relief. He thought: finally, let this old thing also suffer. He deserved it. Utterly unworthy of pity!
Shan Xiaohu did not understand. He had done nothing wrong, so why should the Master, that old thing caught up, somehow put it on this pointy mountain sealed into a stone? In his heart, he was aggrieved to death but also angry to the extreme! He even regretted that he had come to Kunlun Mountain to worship his Master, which was simply the most wrong decision in his life.
He couldn't go anywhere, not even to change his position. Although Shan Xiaohu wouldn't feel much hunger or sleepiness after being a stone, it was too dull! No more chasing and playing together with his buddies, no more fishing and hunting in the fields and mountain streams, and even the chance to get a slap on the face, because he didn't memorize the poems in his second senior brother's tedious culture class was gone.
Shan Xiaohu, himself a lonely person, stood in a high place, looking at the sunrise and sunset, the clouds, the change of seasons, the wind, frost, snow, and rain. An unprecedented sense of loneliness swept his whole body, and tears like this went down his rocky cheeks. The rain and snow melted slowly, moisturizing the land under his feet.
Suddenly, one day, a pair of birds made a nest on top of his head; although he could not see, every day, he could feel the two birds flying happily, busy in and out of breeding offspring. The birds laid eggs, and Shan Xiaohu could feel the eggs slowly growing and finally breaking out of their shells, as well as the little fledglings being dishonest and almost falling off the cliff from the nest.
Shan Xiaohu, at first, had just passed the time of boredom and had begun to pay attention to these birds. He was excited for the chicks to break out of their shells, worried about the birds almost falling off the cliff, but also for the birds to slowly grow up to whole wings and ultimately fly far away and feel proud and farewell. What makes him even happier is that the birds that washed away the year before will always return to his head in the new year.
The cycle of a year goes on and on, always opening up again according to the laws of heaven and earth, and nothing seems to have changed, but then again, everything seems to have changed.
A few years after his anger and aggression gradually subsided, Shan Xiaohu still watched the wind and clouds change daily as time flowed by, as did the Master, who would indeed appear every morning. From the beginning, he saw his Master being tortured with the mentality of watching the show, watching the fun, gritting his teeth, and cheering, which gradually changed slightly.
Master Nanji Immortal, these years, did not let the second brother Mei Xiangzi, early in the morning every day, carry him up and down the mountain as a plum blossom deer. Instead, he was alone, dawning less than standing in the center of the execution platform, waiting for one of the thunderbolt whips to pierce his body.
At the beginning of the dawning hour, the first thunderbolt never came down late and heavily struck Nanji Xianweng's back. As the thunderbolts passed, a deep bloodstain came through his clothes. Senior, he clutched the Immortal Staff tightly, supporting himself from collapsing. Sweat slowly flowed from the corners of his forehead, and blood flowed from his back to his feet.
The second thunder struck down at a quarter of an hour past dawning. This thunder was never the fiercest of the three. The thunderstruck Nanji Xianweng's head and his divine form briefly separated instantly when it crashed. Said to be an instant, for those who bear, the blink of an eye is as tormenting as years and years. Nanji Immortal could not suppress a muffled grunt after this lightning struck.
"It should hurt, right?"
Shan Xiaohu muttered to himself in his heart after seeing this. In the past, when he was still angry with his Master, he would steal some joy when he saw this thunder coming down, but after a long time, he didn't want to rejoice more and more. There was nothing to crow about. Even if his Master had committed some heinous crime, there was no need to be severely punished, right?
Half past dawning, the third thunder struck down. When this thunder came down, Master Teacher could only lie on the ground. This thunder would cause all the ligaments and joints on the body to separate, that is, to dismantle the bones briefly. With that kind of pain, even if one was a god, I'm afraid it would be difficult to bear it without frowning and with a cloud of lightness.
This Heavenly Thunder Punishment, the hardest thing to endure, was not the bone-crushing pain, bleeding, or separation of the divine form, but rather the long time one had to take. Three thunders, each time but half an hour, can be completed, but this thunder sentence will last a thousand years; every day can not fall, and no one can take the place.
After the end of the thunder sentence, the Nanji Immortal whole person lies on the ground, slows down for a while, and gradually stands up. Then, trembling hands, with the immortal method to wipe away the body's bloodstains, unlock the immortal staff on the treasure gourd, pour a pill to take, and relieve the body's injuries. This medicine used the Immortal Peach of Feng Xi Stream as a guide and various rare herbs. Master always said that the heavens were kind to him, allowing him to do these small actions to ward off the pain caused by the torture.
In the past, Shan Xiaohu and his three little demons came to FengXiJian to study, never followed the torture platform, and never saw the Master shed a drop of blood. The three little ones always feel that the Master is the Master, really is a powerful old god, suffer thunder torture like ordinary people scratching an itch, and play like a small matter of routine. But, when Shan Xiaohu carefully observes afterward, he, in any case, can not say that the punishment of thunder is a small matter like play. Especially when he occasionally experiences thunder, fire, wind, and blizzard rampage. Although he turns into a rock, he can feel heaven and earth's biting majesty and unpredictability.
One day, Shan Xiaohu saw the eldest brother, accompanied by a majestic heavenly deity, come to Feng Xi Jian. That god has a third eye in the center of both eyebrows, and his demeanor is very proud and complacent. When the Master saw him, he also had to bow respectfully and greet him, and he also picked a lot of peaches to give him as a gift to quench his thirst. Shan Xiaohu heard the conversation between him and his Master; his heart was shocked. This is the famous Erlang Zhenjun in the heavenly court of the gods; the most substantial magic power is also the strictest law enforcement of the world's first god.
Shan Xiaohu had heard that this Erlang Xingjun looked down on demons. Suppose he saw that Nanji Immortal had taken three minor demons as his disciples. In that case, I'm afraid that not only would the three of them be unable to escape their fate, but Nanji Immortal would also be implicated in the disaster.
The Master has calculated that Erlangshen will come to Fengxijian, so early preparations will be sent to the three of them, either to the mortal world of the calamity or closed-door training, using different cultivation methods. This is the Master is using an extreme plan to protect them! Thinking about this, only then did Shan Xiaohu finally understand how much pain and aggravation his master had gone through and endured towards them. Since then, Shan Xiaohu finally got the hang of it, gazing at the sky and the earth to perceive subtle changes between all things. This is his cultivation method.
Every day, he had to absorb the spiritual qi of heaven and earth in the sunlight and rain, sun, moon and stars, rivers and forests, and then run the spiritual beads in his body to open up his meridians to accumulate mana. After decades of weathering, the top layer of his rocky skin turned to clay, and many spiritual grasses and flowers grew. The pointed mountain under his feet was slowly loosening and separating from him. He was no longer bound, but he still stood firmly on it.
Because this pointy mountain that Shan Xiaohu is standing on is precisely his old ancestor Luwu's teeth changed, and the Nanji Immortal Weng daily thunder punishment of the punishment platform parallel to the stand, inevitably, there will be some heavenly thunder, blizzard, and so on patronize a little. When Shan Xiaohu was struck by lightning, when he felt the kind of heart-rending, soul-destroying general feeling how horrible, their own is a rock is still pain unbearable, the Master of that flesh and blood is how to carry over this whole thousand years of the flow of time and light ah? Shan Xiaohu realized that their Master, Nanji Immortal, was a powerful existence.
Every summer and fall, the whole moon night, the heaviest heaven and earth spiritual qi, Shan Xiaohu body spirit bead will quickly roll, uncontrollable outward expansion. Whenever he could hardly bear it, a few heavenly thunderbolts struck down, and a few rainstorms washed over him, helping him to comb and digest his spiritual energy slowly. It looked as if he was also being tortured, but in fact, those were exactly what helped him.
Shan Xiaohu's mana was growing as he practiced daily, and his mind was also changing. The once heartless and dull little beast slowly matured and stabilized. He gradually understood that the world's impermanence did not remain unchanged and that the vicissitudes of the world were only fleeting. He felt the changes in his body, the form of the beast, and the demonic aura became weaker and weaker until it disappeared, especially the heart, which was no longer brutal and rude, and his mind was no longer empty, without any knowledge reserves.
After being sealed in the stone for 100 years, Shan Xiaohu finally shed his body and transformed into a human being.
This day, the cloudless sky suddenly appeared. A lightning, sky fire from the sky split down directly and hit the boulder on the pointed mountain, instantly shattering the rock. Huddled within the boulder of the Shan Xiaohu finally awakened. He jumped across the sky into mid-air and stood on a shaky rock with a golden chicken standing alone, his long hair flying, sturdy and robust muscles, deep bronze skin, and big bright and heroic eyes overlooking everything under his feet. He breathed freely, the breath emanating from the grass, trees, mountains, and rocks in Feng Xi Jian, feeling the sunlight rolling and ironing on his skin, the fresh wind gathering from all around him, brushing slowly and gently on his body. He laughed broadly up to the sky; he had finally turned into a human being and came out of his cultivation successfully!
Shan Xiaohu leaped down from the top of the mountain in a single bound, leaping quickly through the mountain forests and grasses, skimming low over the river meadows, and instantly arriving under the long-awaited peach tree.
Master and Fox Xiaxia, who had come out a few years earlier, sat and stood under the peach tree waiting for him. The second senior brother smiled and brought him a suitable outfit and the eldest senior brother took out a purple and gold battle axe and gave it to Shan Xiaohu as his exclusive weapon.
Both Eldest Senior Brother and Second Senior Brother couldn't help but sigh with emotion. Whether it was Fox Xiaxia or Shan Xiaohu, these two brats had grown so fast. In just over a hundred years, they had washed off the demonic aura from their bodies and transformed into human beings. He Yunfeng finally realized with hindsight that the Master's plan was so brilliant that he had failed to see the cracks before.
The Master nodded smilingly, "Both of you have come out! Good, let's wait a little longer; Fox Xiaoxian, that girl is estimated to have a few more decades before the end of the tribulation. Waiting for her to assemble a mahjong table, you guys accompany the teacher to relieve boredom. These years fast suffocated me!"
"Little Tiger, come, come." The Master beckoned for Shan Xiaohu to come closer. Shan Xiaohu's eyes filled with tears, and his heart was excited. He finally came out; he had no resentment and only sincerely appreciated his Master's companionship and care over the years. Shan Xiaohu immediately fell under the Master's body, hugged the Master's legs, and cried out.
"Master, my disciple's foolishness back then caused me to misunderstand my Master and say so many disrespectful words. Please punish my Master." Shan Xiaohu genuinely confessed to the Master Teacher, while the Master Teacher only smiled and patted his shoulder to show comfort.
"Silly boy, it wasn't just my idea to let you go and stand on the pointed mountain; there was also Lu Wu. Why don't you turn around and go to the top of the Kunlun Mountains to see his old man! Come, let me see, has Little Tiger grown up yet?" Nanji Immortal looked carefully at Shan Xiaohu and nodded repeatedly in satisfaction, "Good! Good! It has Lu Wu's demeanor, and it's also more spirited. Now that you and Lao Si have shed your demonic aura, no one can say you are a demon anymore. You are both already full of immortal bones and can be men of heaven and earth."
Fox Xiaxia and Shan Xiaohu both kneeled in front of the Nanji Immortal, kowtowing to thank their Master for his painstaking cultivation, helping them shed their demonic bodies and attain immortality. This was unimaginable for the two demon clan members, who were not yet 300 years old, to change their destiny against the heavens. However, they even cultivated the right fruit in the Kunlun Mountains, in the Feng Xi Jian, in the Nanji Immortal Weng's enlightenment. Once those pain, frustration, hardship, blood, and tears, in this moment, are like the dust of the past with the wind, everything is worth it. Although the two are still young, their respective cultivation is over a thousand years; the Dao line is better than their elders of the same clan.
Fox Xiaxia and Shan Xiaohu, two good brothers who hadn't seen each other for many years, excitedly hugged each other. Finally, at the bitter end of the sweet, they could both understand and appreciate each other's difficulties, and both were even more attached to Fox Xiaoxian, who was still experiencing all sorts of suffering and hardships in the human world. Is she okay? Will she be able to pull through? What fate will she face? What kind of existence will her opponent or enemy be?