Chapter 1193 — Filling the Mountains, Patching the Chasm

Long Qilin, Yan'er and Little Tubo turned their heads together, and saw an old man in plain, unadorned clothes trudging over with a little iron bucket in his hand. The bucket held water, and a sprig of willow.

Long Qilin looked around in astonishment. The twenty-eight heavens of the Lapis Lazuli Azure-Heaven Banner were still there, still guarding this place; it would not be easy to pass through the heavens of the world's foremost treasure!

But where had this old man come from?

The old man came to the riven Great Black Peak, set down the little bucket, took out the willow branch, swished it in the water, and said, short of breath: "I am old. Will none of you come and help?"

Long Qilin hastily transformed into a qilin's head on a human body and alighted on the mountaintop; Yan'er became a young girl and came to the old man's side as well; Little Tubo, solemn of face, also meant to transform, but after a couple of grunts it could not manage it at all, and had no choice but to walk over crestfallen.

The old man handed the willow branch to Long Qilin and had Yan'er carry the little bucket. "Dip the willow branch in the water," he said, "and sprinkle it over the cracks. Every last crack must be sprinkled. That way, that thing from the past won't come running over here."

Long Qilin did as he was told, swishing the branch in the bucket, then drawing it out and flicking its droplets across the cracks of that sundered mountain.

"Ha?" Little Tubo lifted its head and asked, gazing gravely at the old man of utterly unremarkable looks.

"I have always lived here. I did not break in."

The old man's eyes were kindly and his brows benevolent; he seemed to have understood the question, and said with a smile: "I am no intruder. You are the intruders. You broke into my home, built houses, and drew the void beasts here."

Little Tubo said, suspicious: "Moo?"

The old man sat down beside it, supervising Long Qilin's and Yan'er's work, and said loudly: "Be careful now, don't use up all the water. This water is hard to come by."

He said to Little Tubo: "I could have left in the beginning, but I am not welcome anywhere, and this tree has died. Someone wants to climb up here from the past age by way of this tree. So I had no choice but to stay and keep watch here, and not let them crawl out."

Little Tubo, wearing a look of bafflement and perplexity, pointed down the mountain and said: "Moo?"

"Yes."

The old man nodded. "They live down there. But they have been dead a long while now — or rather, they died before this universe was born."

Little Tubo grew more confused still, scratched its head and said: "Ha?"

"You could put it that way too, I suppose."

The old man thought it over and said: "The boundary between life and death is not really so strict. Life and death are only different states of matter. They seem to have died when the universe was destroyed, but before the universe was destroyed they were still alive. All they need is to seize the chance to crawl from before the universe's destruction into the present, and they can live on."

Little Tubo scratched its head, still puzzled.

The old man was of very good temper, and went on explaining: "Why do the corpses of these void beasts vanish? They are dragged off into the past by them. The past universe gains a portion of the present's matter, and then they can swap themselves over while the chance lasts. That is how they are able to crawl from there into the present."

"Moo?"

"There is no need for doubt; it is very simple. This Great Black Tree was alive once. Its roots connect sixteen cosmic eras — one cosmic era is one year — and its substance runs through endless ages."

The old man explained patiently: "Some dreadful beings set their eyes on it, and followed its roots from the past into the present. It does not matter if you do not understand; think of the Heavenly Venerable Shepherd who created you. He took you aboard a ghost ship and traveled back to the past — then you will understand."

Long Qilin and Yan'er finished sprinkling the water with the willow branch and returned to the summit, only to find the old man still talking with Little Tubo, about what topic neither could tell.

Long Qilin put the willow branch back into the little bucket and returned it to the old man. The old man stood up, braced his hands on his waist, worked the ache from his limbs, and sighed: "This too is the sin I made, and so I can only stay here patching and mending. I cannot really blame your Heavenly Venerable Shepherd. The water is nearly gone; I must go fetch some more. Thank you, young friends. We shall meet again another day."

Long Qilin was about to speak, but the old man had already picked up the little bucket and left, and in no time had vanished from sight.

"Another eerie affair!" Yan'er cried in alarm.

She had not seen how the old man disappeared.

Just then, with a thunderous rumble, the cracks of the Great Black Mountain closed, and the mountain returned to its former state; even the five claw marks upon it faded away.

That night, Long Qilin and Yan'er stayed on the black mountain with Little Tubo, and the strangeness came again. Visions of every kind arrived one upon another, as though some colossal thing inside the mountain were trying to break the peak open, dashing madly outward, shaking the mountain violently.

Yet the mountain did not split. The turmoil only began to subside in the small hours of the night.

At dawn, Long Qilin looked all around and saw that two more peaks among the Hundred Thousand Mountains had split open, and on the inner wall of one of them, hollows in the shape of a face had even surfaced!

He and Yan'er were arguing over whether someone was growing inside the body of the mountain when a comely young woman came over carrying a little iron bucket, waved to them and said: "We meet again."

The two were startled and uncertain.

The woman set down the little bucket and said with a giggle: "Yesterday's body was too old to do the work, so today I changed to a young one. Today I brought more water, and an extra willow branch too. With two mountains split open, the mending may take a while."

Long Qilin's mouth fell open. He stammered: "Madam, are you that old gentleman of yesterday?"

The woman smiled. "He, and not he. Lend me a hand, the three of you, and let us mend it quickly, lest they run out when night falls."

Long Qilin and Yan'er stepped up at once to help. Long Qilin took the willow branch and sprinkled the water, and asked cautiously: "May I ask, madam, what your origins are?"

The woman smiled. "I am as you are, an ordinary soul, born of heaven and reared by earth. Only our ways of living differ. Mine is rather more tiring. Wherever the sky springs a leak, I go and patch it; wherever the earth breaks open, I go and mend it. It is all hard labor."

Long Qilin and Yan'er helped her repair the two great mountains, and the water in the bucket was used up. The woman sighed: "The spring I draw from does not yield much water. If a few more mountains split, there will be no water left to mend them."

She carried the little bucket off into the distance, and the two black mountains closed of themselves, restored as they had been.

Watching her vanish like that, Long Qilin grew all the more astonished, and thought to himself: "This Great Black Tree is hardly a good place. Every night it frightens a man out of his sleep. Should I tell the Sect Master to choose another, better place?"

Another night passed. The earth quaked and the mountains shook, and a dozen or more black mountains split open. Long Qilin saw a dozen or more youths arrive, each holding a little iron bucket with a willow branch thrust into it.

One of the youths said to him: "These past days you have helped me sprinkle the water, so I will give you a boon. A new Void Mother Beast has been born, and it is still very weak. Now is the best chance to subdue the Void Mother Beast."