Chapter Fifteen: A World Beyond
Yet at the bottom of the cave, there was clearly only a stone wall. But upon closer inspection, Li Chongyuan saw that the dust and smoke drifted slowly into the stone, which was riddled with tiny cracks. Running his hand across the surface, he realized the wall was not naturally formed but built from stacked stalactites, then sealed with the cave’s spring water, whose mineral deposits had gradually filled the gaps.
Who had constructed such a wall here? Li Chongyuan pondered for a while but could not find the answer. Resolving to investigate, he gathered his strength and struck with a palm, shattering the stone wall and opening a large gap. Peering through, he saw a small courtyard beyond. Crawling through the opening, he found at the center a stone well, its mouth black and bottomless. Picking up a stone, he tossed it in to judge the depth, but to his astonishment, the rock floated at the well’s mouth, refusing to sink. Reaching out, he felt a powerful current of air surging upward from below, supporting the stone.
Could it be that the elders Lu Pinghu, Murong Starcatcher, and that unnamed disciple had escaped through this very well? Yet the well was unfathomably deep; what lay below was impossible to guess. Should he descend and explore? Li Chongyuan hesitated, but after some time, a surge of boldness welled up within him. To be imprisoned in such desolation was truly a joyless existence, and thus he had no fear of death. Laughing aloud, he leapt into the well. The rising air current bore him gently, lowering him down more smoothly than water.
The walls of the well were bare, dark-green stone, with shallow indentations at intervals—marks left by someone’s fingers long ago. After descending for about half an hour, his feet finally touched solid ground; he had reached the well’s bottom. Here, a bitter wind howled, nearly knocking him over. Rounding a stone barrier, he found himself facing another cliff—just as the rising sun bathed a vast snowy plain in an enchantingly strange beauty. Gales from the valley rushed into a cave behind the cliff and spouted out from the well at the end of the Immortal’s Peak cave, the strong updraft forming a rising current capable of supporting a person’s weight. No doubt, Murong Starcatcher and Lu Pinghu had only discovered this secret in a moment of desperation; who else would dare leap into an abyss like this?
Overjoyed, Li Chongyuan explored the area. The cliff lay hundreds of meters below the precipice of Immortal’s Peak, close to the snow line, where the climate was milder and more humid. The precipice bloomed with crystalline snow lotuses, a secret treasure of the Tianshan School prized for healing and enhancing martial power, rarely seen by outsiders. Yet here they grew wild and plentiful, withered blossoms mingling with the living and countless snow ginsengs with slender, dried stalks. Li Chongyuan plucked one at random and found a mature snow ginseng, shaped like a tiny human, features complete—surely a thousand years old. In the outside world, even a withered snow lotus would be a rare treasure, but here he could hardly move without treading upon these priceless herbs.
Growing hungry from his wanderings, he picked a few snow lotuses and ate them. Their fragrance was pure and lingering. Biting into the snow ginseng, he chewed slowly, and a sweet, spicy energy rushed to his dantian. Snow ginseng was famed for boosting the Primordial Energy Technique, while snow lotus, being of a cooling nature, greatly benefited the Asura Divine Skill. Not only was his hunger banished, but his internal energy grew abundant. Sitting in meditation, he circulated his inner power several times, feeling his meridians flow smoothly and his spirit revive.
If Du Nan and the others had seen him eating snow ginseng and snow lotus so directly, they would have shaken their heads and sighed at such waste. In the Tianshan School, these herbs were never eaten raw; they were ground, mixed with other medicines, and refined into pills. A single snow lotus could yield hundreds of elixirs, though much potency was lost in the process. Even so, Tianshan’s Nine-Turn Spiritual Elixir and Sun-Returning Pill were renowned throughout the martial world. Ordinary martial artists regarded even a few such pills as life-saving treasures.
Looking up from the cliff, Immortal’s Peak was barely visible. Below, the valley was lush with green grass; across, another precipice stood. Suddenly, Li Chongyuan understood: the three elders had escaped Immortal’s Peak from here, which explained the absence of their bodies. But where had they gone next? Though this cliff was closer to the ground, it was still too high to descend by lightness skill alone—certain death would await. Unable to solve the riddle, he let the question go.
Exploring further, he discovered a stone grotto behind the cliff. Lighting a torch, he entered to find a stone table and chairs, and on the central stone couch, two skeletons lay side by side. On a stone tablet before them, lines of ancient characters were written in black charcoal, faded but still legible:
“I and Brother Starcatcher have lived in seclusion here in the Lotus-Ginseng Cave for decades, gazing at stars and listening to the wind, finding joy in solitude. With rare treasures to eat at leisure, happiness has no equal. Even with Acheng to accompany our final years, what complaint could we have? But the child was born to wealth, and I could not bear to ruin him, so I sent him down the mountain. Brother Starcatcher recently attained liberation and passed away in daylight. My own time is near, but we have left our knowledge to the world, gifting it to those destined to find it.”
Reading this, Li Chongyuan knelt and bowed deeply before the skeletons, performing the Tianshan School’s rites. These were the remains of Starcatcher and Lu Pinghu, the two vanished founders. The disciple mentioned—Acheng—must have been Master Ye’s missing student, who had apparently left Immortal’s Peak, though by what means was unclear.
The surrounding stone walls were covered in diagrams and inscriptions carved by finger strength, containing all the martial secrets of the southern and northern branches of the Tianshan School. Besides the known arts such as Thunderclap Palm, Falling Snow Sword, and Three-Life Sword, there were also the legendary Tianshan Sword, Tenfold Prajna Formless Palm, and others. Tianshan was famed for its swordplay, palm techniques, and lightness skill—the Three Supreme Arts: Tianshan Sword, Tenfold Prajna Formless Palm, Lamp-Shadowless, and Beidou Phantom Moon. Of these, the sword art was supreme, though both the sword and palm techniques were extraordinarily complex and intimately connected to the practitioner’s spirit and intent. Thus, the same technique performed by different people would yield vastly different results: some exuded righteous grandeur, others a chilling, ghostly lethality. The Tenfold Prajna Formless Palm was also known as “Jieli Mohe Soul-Crushing Hand.” Prajna, in Sanskrit, means supreme wisdom; formless signifies no fixed shape, adapting at will. The palm could absorb the essence of all other martial arts, reducing complexity to simplicity. Though imbued with Buddhist compassion, some practiced it with insidious cruelty, crippling or killing with a touch. In ancient times, masters of the northern branch dominated the martial world with this very technique. Few knew the palm’s original name, but all the martial world feared the Soul-Crushing Hand, one of the “Four Great Evil Arts,” alongside Nether Blood Fiend Skill, Southern Venom’s Gu Art, and Hainan’s Fiendish Fire. The other three relied on strange internal force, poisons, or elixirs, but the Soul-Crushing Hand was pure technique, targeting the body’s most vulnerable points in ways impossible to defend. Combined with the Primordial Energy and Asura Skills, its power was immense.
However, in Tianshan—north or south—only the orthodox use of the Tenfold Prajna Formless Palm was recognized; the name “Soul-Crushing Hand” was not acknowledged. In fact, the name was given by Master Tan Jing of Shaolin. Jieli Mohe was a figure from Indian legend—a man who, pursued for practicing evil arts, lost his wife to a fatal misunderstanding. After mastering his powers, he fused his body with his wife’s remains, becoming a monster neither male nor female, neither living nor dead, slaying and razing cities until subdued by the great deity Maheshvara. Naming the technique after him was a warning of the perils of practicing it wrongly.
After Ye Changqing retook Tianshan, these methods became forbidden, taught only to those who reached the seventh level of Primordial Energy and were deemed upright and wise. Ordinary disciples learned only Thunderclap Palm, Falling Snow Sword, and partial Lamp-Shadowless lightness skill. Even the renowned Beidou Phantom Moon technique was not taught, and most younger disciples had never heard of it. Now, here on these stone walls, all these secrets lay exposed. Li Chongyuan’s joy was boundless as he carefully committed every detail to memory.
Returning was surprisingly simple: standing in the well’s center, he leapt upward, and the rising current bore him aloft several meters. When the force lessened, he braced himself against the indentations and repeated the process, quickly ascending back to the stone well of Immortal’s Peak.
ps: During the day, I am at work; in the mornings and evenings, I ferry my children and tend to my parents. Only in the quiet of night can I steal a little time to write. Throughout the year I’ve worked on “Legends of the Flourishing Tang,” I have hardly slept before 1 a.m. I dare not claim every word is a gem, but every line is written with blood and tears. What a reader finishes in minutes may take me hours of painstaking thought. It is not easy. I hope readers will support and recommend this work so that my efforts are not in vain. My heartfelt thanks.
This novel is a slow-burn story; its plot gradually unfolds chapter by chapter. The further you read, the more engaging it becomes, with open and hidden struggles coming to the fore and early foreshadowing slowly revealed. The novel offers not just tales of martial heroes but also the secretive intrigues of the palace, all rooted in historical fact. Characters such as Li Chongyuan, Li Chongjun, Li Duozuo, Tian Yangming, and Xue Chongjian are all real historical figures, and their fates align closely with the records. Thus, “Legends of the Flourishing Tang” is not only a martial epic but also a historical saga. Many Tang court secrets will be unveiled in these pages. I believe you will not be disappointed. When this novel is complete, I will present “The Fall of Tang” in gratitude for your support.