Jiangshi, the reanimated dead, had ranks. A roaming jiangshi was one of them.
There were lesser jiangshi and beings at the very highest levels. The lowest had no intelligence. They were little more than beasts.
They knew only the urge to attack and drink blood. But once their cultivation reached a certain level, intelligence slowly began to return.
A jiangshi that had reached that stage was very difficult to deal with.
A roaming jiangshi had survived its first tribulation: heavenly lightning. Born from the accumulated resentment of Heaven and earth, it neither aged nor died, and could not be destroyed. Heaven and earth had cast it outside the six paths of rebirth.
At that rank, it could pass between the realms of yin and yang, roam the Nine Heavens above and the Underworld below. Sky or earth, neither could confine it.
It followed the lunar qi as it shifted with the seasons, never settling anywhere. Given enough time, it could become a flying yaksha.
Even at its present rank, it was terrifying. If it truly evolved into a flying yaksha, even an immortal standing before it would have reason to fear.
What made jiangshi so difficult to confront was that they could not age, die, suffer injury, or be destroyed. Rejected by the Way of Heaven, they wandered outside the Three Realms and the Five Phases.
Beyond the Way of Heaven's reach, they were beyond the reach of ordinary means as well.
Once they became roaming jiangshi, they no longer fed on ordinary humans. Their daily food was the water dragons of the sea.
The fact that they ate water dragons should tell you how frightening they were.
Yet that young man was more frightening still. Even a being as powerful as a roaming jiangshi could be driven into Heiyao Mountain by him, made to stay obediently inside, too afraid to venture into the human world.
Such power didn't merely reach Heaven. It defied it.
Who was that young man? How could he possess such strength? I was intensely curious, and I felt admiration as well, a longing to be like him.
I was still young myself. Hearing that someone so young could have that kind of ability made me want all the more to become such a person.
I knew how difficult that would be. It might be impossible. But that didn't stop me wanting it.
No wonder Heiyao Mountain was so terrifying. So many powerful, evil beings were imprisoned there.
If even one escaped, the whole land would fall into chaos.
Even many practitioners of the occult arts working together might not be able to stop it.
I had never seen anything at that level, but it took little imagination to picture it.
'Those beings are imprisoned in another realm, deep inside Heiyao Mountain. But their evil presence still seeps out. Animals in the depths of the mountain become tainted by it and slowly cultivate into yao, roaming the slopes. That's where the terror of the place comes from. Then some fools decided to build an amusement park there. Hundreds were killed or injured in a single night, leaving still more resentment that won't be quieted. It isn't merely an ill-omened place. It's one evil laid over another.'
With that, Uncle Qiu brought his account to an end. That was his judgment on the mountain.
I had wondered how an amusement park, however much resentment it held, could put someone like him in such danger. Now I could roughly imagine what had happened. He must have dealt with the trouble afflicting the young man from his shop.
Then the shadowy figures had appeared without warning, catching him off guard and stringing him up.
They hadn't killed him. They had only used him to lure me there.
That made me all the more curious about what they really wanted.
Once I came, they hadn't killed me either. They had simply kept attacking, injuring me.
'Uncle Qiu, have you ever been into the depths of Heiyao Mountain? Is there still a sword there?'
I wanted to know whether this was a legend or something that had actually happened.
He shook his head with a wry smile. 'With my strength, I'm nowhere near qualified to go there. Never mind me. Even someone several levels above me would be stopped by an invisible membrane in the mountain's central region, unable to advance another inch. Some think the young man put it there, to make reckless fools turn back rather than go in and challenge those vicious beings. They're imprisoned in another realm, but that doesn't mean just anyone can venture into the mountain's depths.'
His words made me reconsider just how dangerous the mountain was. I finally understood why its very name could make people pale.
Not only ordinary people, either. Practitioners of the occult arts feared it too. The backpackers must never have reached the deepest part. They had only wandered around the outskirts.
Some might have strayed into the central region. None of those could have come back alive.
The driver had said that many hikers went in and came out mad. Not one had escaped that fate.
Those who went mad had been lucky. At least they had survived. Others might not even have left a heap of bones.
'You're asking because you want to know whether it's a legend or real history, aren't you? I'll tell you plainly: it's history. Almost everyone of any standing in the occult arts knows it. And don't you dare go running into Heiyao Mountain. If you're that eager to die, you needn't trouble the mountain. I'll kill you myself.'
Something seemed to have occurred to him. He turned back to me with that warning and threat.
I gave a sheepish laugh and promised him.
'Don't worry, Uncle Qiu. I'm not some fool who doesn't know better. I've spent enough time in the occult arts to know that impossible things do happen. I'm only curious. I wouldn't go into Heiyao Mountain looking for trouble. If even you say it's that terrifying, going back would be asking to die. And if I did, I'd deserve it.'
Only after that promise did he nod in satisfaction.
For me, a door had opened onto another world.
Much of what I understood about the world had changed.
It was like a great stone dropped into a little stream.
One stone, a thousand ripples.