Who Let Him Cultivate Immortality

Chapter 412: The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains and Fills the Sea

The landslides and mudslides reminded him too much of his earlier experience using the Swallowing Heaven Devouring Earth technique to devour dirt, and he had no desire to go through that again.

Meng Jingzhou knew Lu Yang had a point and could only begrudgingly let the two of them get off the carriage while he stayed behind with the horse.

After walking two or three miles with the living corpse, they arrived at a gorge that looked as if it had been split in half by a heavenly sword. The gorge’s sides were steep and smooth, without a single bump or recess. If this was the work of nature, then nature’s chisel was far too divine.

Seeing Lu Yang notice the unusualness of the gorge, Zhao Po explained, “The place you’re seeing wasn’t always called Seven Emotions Valley. It used to be called the Seven Emotions Sect. A former Sect Leader thought there were too many sects and factions in the Central Continent, so Seven Emotions Sect didn’t stand out. To make the sect more remarkable, they invited a sword cultivator of great renown to split the plains in two with a single strike, turning the plains into this gorge. Following that, Seven Emotions Sect changed its name to Seven Emotions Valley and even registered the name change with the imperial court.”

“So that’s a way to do it, huh? Impressive. They even made sure to go through proper channels to register the name change,” Lu Yang remarked, then suddenly realized something. “Wait a minute. Didn’t the imperial court stipulate that cultivators must restore the land to its original form after a fight? Wouldn’t a case like Seven Emotions Valley need approval?”

“Exactly. That’s why, to this day, Seven Emotions Valley is technically an illegal construction,” Zhao Po replied with a grin.

Lu Yang thought to himself, This is the first time I’ve heard of a gorge being classified as an illegal structure—definitely a unique quirk of the cultivation world.

In Lu Yang’s mental space, Everlasting Fairy muttered, “You folks in The Great Xia are far too strict about this sort of thing. Back in the ancient days, we had much more freedom. There were no such troublesome regulations, and we could change the landscape however we liked.”

“I remember a family back then who lived in the mountains for generations. Traveling in and out was extremely inconvenient because two huge mountains blocked the path. They had to take a long detour just to reach the outside world.”

“There was a young boy in the family who saw how difficult travel was and decided to move the two mountains blocking the path. Some people laughed at him, saying he was too young and weak to even lift a stone, let alone move two mountains.”

“The boy replied that if he couldn’t do it now, he could train. If he couldn’t do it at the Qi Training Stage, he would try at the Foundation Building Stage. If not at the Foundation Building Stage, then at the Golden Core Stage. And if not at the Golden Core Stage, then at the Nascent Soul Stage. Since there’s no limit to cultivation, there would come a day when he could move the mountains.”

“The boy went out to find a master and train, and by the time he returned, he was an old man. Those who knew him called him the foolish old man. The foolish old man had cultivated to a shocking level and returned to his homeland, where he used Heavenly Transformations to move the two great mountains, Taihang and Wangwu, and tossed them into the sea.”

“After that, the foolish old man helped other families who lived in the mountains, moving the mountains from their doorsteps and throwing them into the sea as well.”

“Because of his willingness to help others by moving mountains, over time, the ocean became filled with mountains.”

“The story of the foolish old man moving mountains and filling the sea became an idiom, symbolizing that to overcome difficulties, one must persist in cultivation.”

Lu Yang massaged his temples, feeling his memories becoming confused.

(TL Note: This was based off the story “The Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains”, The myth concerns a Foolish Old Man of 90 years who lived near a pair of mountains (given in some tellings as the Taihang and the Wangwu mountains, in Yu Province). He was annoyed by the obstruction caused by the mountains and sought to dig through them with hoes and baskets. To move the mountain, he could only make one round trip between the mountain and his home in a year. The food he brought on the road to last him through this difficult time is Chaoqi. When questioned as to the seemingly impossible nature of his task, the Foolish Old Man replied that while he may not finish this task in his lifetime, through the hard work of himself, his children, and their children, and so on through the many generations, some day the mountains would be removed if he persevered. The gods in Heaven, impressed with his hard work and perseverance, ordered the mountains separated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Foolish_Old_Man_Removes_the_Mountains)

Before he could respond, Everlasting Fairy continued, “You should know, the sea doesn’t disappear; it just shifts. When the foolish old man filled the ocean with mountains, the water overflowed from the sea, causing a great flood.”

“Fortunately, back then, the Nonuple Immortal had already created a type of soil called ‘Self-Renewing Soil,’ which expands upon contact with water. He used this Self-Renewing Soil to block the flood, preventing it from spreading. This event later became known as ‘The Immortal’s Flood Control.’”

Lu Yang snapped back to reality, only to realize that there was a long queue of people in front of Seven Emotions Valley. If they had to wait their turn, who knew how long it would take?

“What’s going on? Did all these people get cursed by Seven Emotions Valley?”

Was the curse from Seven Emotions Valley airborne? How were there so many victims?

“It’s not that bad. More than half of these people were cursed by others and have come to Seven Emotions Valley for help. Seven Emotions Valley uses this as an opportunity to train their disciples in curse-breaking. They assign some disciples to sit at the entrance of the valley, diagnosing and removing curses on the spot.”

“Don’t be fooled by the large crowd. Most of these are minor curses, such as toothaches or gout.”

“However, standing in line won’t help us. The disciples here can’t even handle Foundation Building-level curses. To break Senior Brother Meng’s curse, we’d need the valley master to step in.”

Suddenly, a voice from the queue transmitted a message to Lu Yang and Zhao Po: “Hey, little brothers, are you here to get a curse lifted? I can give you my spot. Just say you’re my relatives, and it’ll only cost 500 Spirit Stones. Deal?”

Lu Yang followed the voice and saw the person offering them a spot, his eye twitching.

It was the man in the white paper hat who had pretended to be the innkeeper at the Qingming Inn!

The fact that he was bold enough to show up openly in Seven Emotions Valley suggested he had absolute confidence that even if caught, he could escape.

Lu Yang walked over with a smile on his face. “Do you remember me?”

The man in the white paper hat stared at Lu Yang for a moment before recognition dawned on him. “I remember! You were a guest at my inn!”

That wasn’t your inn to begin with, Lu Yang thought to himself, how did it suddenly become yours?

The man in the white paper hat looked puzzled. “Where’s that brother who was with you before? And what about that old horse? Why aren’t they here?”

Lu Yang felt a chill in his heart. The fact that the man mentioned the old horse specifically meant he had likely noticed something unusual about it.

“Fairy, what’s this guy’s cultivation level?” Lu Yang asked internally.

“It’s hard to say. This is only an avatar, so I can’t tell his exact level. He seems to be practicing a technique that splits himself into thousands of parts, like ‘Myriad Incarnations Body,’ to train his mental strength.”

“Looks like I’ve run out of luck. I’m out of here.”

The man in the white paper hat vanished on the spot. Though Lu Yang’s cultivation wasn’t high, his foundation was scarily solid, and the man could tell that Lu Yang had a complex background.

As for the other person, though the man hadn’t met him before, the method used to refine his Living Corpse clearly came from the Corpse-Driving Sect, meaning the other person was from that sect.

With Lu Yang’s unclear background and a Corpse-Driving Sect disciple like Zhao Po, the situation could easily become troublesome, so the man decided to flee.

He used a type of escape technique right in front of Lu Yang, but even then, Lu Yang couldn’t discern how he disappeared.

“That guy was the one from the wanted posters—the man with the white paper hat, right?” Zhao Po recognized him as well.

“You’ve heard of him too?”

“Of course. When the three of us brothers—well, sisters—were traveling the martial world, we wanted to catch him for the reward but could never find him.”

Zhao Po had been about to take action, but seeing the serious expression on Lu Yang’s face, he realized the man wasn’t as simple as he initially thought, and he held back from making a move.

(End of the chapter)