Chapter 209: There Is a God on Buxian Mountain

Although he had only met the little boy once, Li Shun had instinctively sensed that there was something extraordinary about him.

Thus, after the banquet, he asked the patriarch of the Zhouhuang Clan, Xi, about him.

“Oh, you mean Chu?”

“This child has been obsessed with all kinds of food since he was little. It would be fine if he simply enjoyed eating, but he spends his days muttering to himself, saying that he wants to record every single thing he has ever eaten.”

“Originally, the boy was quite mischievous. But ever since he resolved to write a book, he unexpectedly became studious. So I simply let him be.”

Xi spoke with a beaming smile, the affection he held for Chu impossible to conceal.

“I noticed the silk thread Chu used for recording...” Li Shun recalled the scene of Chu compiling the Great Wilderness Food Record and asked curiously.

Xi's expression immediately became solemn.

“That is precisely a gift bestowed by the great god upon Buxian Mountain.”

As he spoke, Xi likewise reached a hand behind his back.

This time, Li Shun saw it clearly.

A thread shimmering with silver light emerged from nowhere from Xi's back.

It then began moving around Xi as though possessing a will of its own, lively and agile.

“This spiritual radiance can control objects, capture enemies, write and record events. Even when we suffer severe injuries, it can help us recover. Even regenerating severed limbs is within its capabilities.”

“It is precisely because we are protected by this spiritual radiance that our Zhouhuang Clan has been able to grow stronger without end.”

Xi spoke in a solemn voice, filled with reverence toward the divine being.

Li Shun stared at the spiritual radiance floating beside him.

He could not put the feeling into words...

It was strange.

And sacred.

Two completely different sensations emerged from this strand of spiritual radiance simultaneously.

Yet rather than contradicting one another, they were combined together with flawless harmony.

“So there truly is a great god...”

Li Shun's curiosity toward the deity atop Buxian Mountain grew even stronger.

The following morning, while the vast majority of the Zhouhuang Clan's people were still asleep, Li Shun officially began his journey of ascent.

Only Xi led several members of the clan out to see him off.

Before parting, Xi once again reminded him, “Friend, before you truly reach the summit, the god will not bestow its favor upon you.”

“But that does not mean the god will not cast its gaze upon you.”

“So throughout the entire climb, you must always maintain a heart of reverence. Otherwise, should you anger the god...”

Xi's expression became solemn before his tone softened somewhat.

“Of course, under ordinary circumstances, the divine being will not punish us simply because we unintentionally make a mistake. In any case, my friend, on Buxian Mountain, you must always be cautious in your words and actions.”

“Remember, from the moment you step onto Buxian Mountain, every action you take, every word you speak, is already under the gaze of the god.”

Xi warned him once more.

“As for the various trials of freezing winds and snow you will encounter during the climb...”

“They should not pose much of a challenge to you.”

“Even the eight-year-old children of our Zhouhuang Clan can independently complete their first ascent. I imagine you will have no trouble either.”

After bidding farewell to Xi, Li Shun officially embarked upon the mountain path.

Buxian Mountain stood eight thousand zhang high, nearly three times the height of Mount Dai.

Moreover, there were no man-made stone steps. There was only a crude mountain trail, formed by the footsteps of the Zhouhuang Clan members during their repeated ascents.

Because Xi had repeatedly warned him, and also because Li Shun was genuinely curious about the so-called deity atop Buxian Mountain, he did not attempt to fly.

Instead, following the rules, he climbed the mountain one step at a time.

His cultivation realm was no different from that in reality, yet Li Shun clearly felt much more relaxed at this moment.

His steps were light, and his entire body seemed far more nimble.

“Even without the support of Principle Qi, my lightness is already comparable to the speed of a lower-tier Spirit Resonance cultivator.”

“It should be the effect of the Yuhu meat.”

“The ancient Great Wilderness truly is overflowing with treasures.”

Li Shun could not help sighing inwardly.

At the same time, the exquisite taste of the Yuhu wing meat once again surfaced in his mind.

He unconsciously licked his lips, feeling somewhat nostalgic.

“It is a pity that the Zhouhuang Clan only managed to hunt a single one. All the Yuhu meat has already been eaten.”

“And after returning to reality, I will never be able to taste such delicacies again.”

Just as he was lamenting this, another thought suddenly occurred to Li Shun.

Although the Yuhu had already become extinct in Great Qian, as a yao beast, perhaps it still had descendants somewhere in the yao beast world.

“Besides, after countless years of reproduction, the yao beast world must have given birth to countless new species.”

“Among them, there must be countless delicious ones.”

It would have been fine had he never tasted them.

But after experiencing the flavor of yao beast meat for himself, Li Shun naturally began imagining all kinds of delicacies.

Amid his anticipation of delicious food, Li Shun spent a full two days climbing before finally reaching the summit of Buxian Mountain.

The scene was somewhat similar to that at the summit of Mount Dai.

The heavens and earth in all four directions were completely silent.

It seemed that apart from Li Shun, nothing else existed anywhere in the world.

Perhaps because Buxian Mountain was even higher, however, when Li Shun looked out from the summit, he saw nothing but darkness.

Nothing could be seen.

Even the sky above was an eerie, pitch-black color.

It was as though he had entered a profound abyss where the boundless heavens and earth had completely disappeared.

“So this is the summit of the Tongtian Divine Mountain?”

“Then where is the god?”

Just as this thought crossed Li Shun's mind, faint ripples suddenly appeared within the space atop the mountain.

Then, an enormous existence tore through space and time and quietly descended directly above Li Shun.

The instant he laid eyes upon the [God], Li Shun's thoughts seemed to freeze.

Every other thought in his mind vanished in an instant.

Only the appearance of the God of Buxian Mountain remained, deeply engraved within his mind.

It floated silently in midair, towering like a mountain. It lowered its head with an expression of compassion, gazing down at Li Shun.

At first glance, it seemed to be wearing a long robe.

But upon closer inspection, Li Shun realized that it was nothing of the sort.

It was layer upon layer of pale, moonlight-white, translucent gelatinous flesh curling outward.

The flesh hung naturally like withered lotus petals, while viscous, faintly glowing pale-blue fluid clung to its edges.

The flesh of its lower body writhed and dissolved unconsciously like the tentacles of a deep-sea jellyfish, only to slowly condense again.

The entire body of the deity was translucent.

It resembled a massive piece of azure-blue ice.

Within its chest, there was no heart.

Instead, there was only a slowly rotating abyssal vortex resembling a nebula.

Countless tiny luminous particles drifted and sank within the darkness, like stars that had been crushed into fragments.

The deity possessed no head in the human sense.

Where its neck should have been, there was instead a massive tear in its flesh, resembling the opening of a calyx.

From that opening grew countless pale tentacles, resembling bundles of human nerves yet as thick as the roots of ancient trees.

These tentacles were not chaotic.

They intertwined and spiraled strangely in midair, ultimately forming a solemn and sacred halo above its head.

The halo was covered in countless dense, pitch-black cracks.

They resembled countless eyes, all staring at Li Shun with icy indifference.

Beneath the deity's enormous fleshly robes, dozens of slender arms extended outward. They were as thin as the limbs of unborn infants, yet each possessed five or six reverse-jointed segments.

The arms were bone-white like withered skeletons.

They grew from beneath its ribs, along its back, and even from its abdomen in an extremely asymmetrical fashion.

Yet every single one of them simultaneously formed an ancient hand seal upon its chest.

The seals were extraordinarily complex, movements that no human fingers could possibly perform.

What made Li Shun feel the greatest sense of dread, however, was what lay behind the deity.

From its hunched, twisted spine extended several enormous, translucent, fleshy umbilical cords.

Like kite strings with no end, they stretched straight into the boundless darkness above.

They truly connected with the heavens.

“This...”

“Is this... a god?”