Chapter 175: The Ancient City of Dunhuang

Everyone was falling as the snow-capped mountain shattered into countless pieces, collapsing in less than three breaths of time. The lake beneath churned violently, resembling a massive cauldron set over a roaring furnace, boiling everything above it. The people from various major sects were terrified out of their wits, frantically searching for any foothold, leaving them with no time to pay attention to Lu Xin.

After two streaks of azure light shot up into the firmament, they merged with the original blue light, forming a massive vortex in the void. The unconscious Lu Xin, carried aloft by the radiance emanating from the jade pendant on his chest, flew rapidly into the vortex and vanished from sight. He did not witness a gigantic tree rising from the bottom of the lake, piercing right through the entire glacial mountain. Its luxuriant branches and dense foliage blocked out the sun, stretching as far as the eye could see.

"How is the power of that jade pendant so familiar? Furthermore, it shares the exact same origin as this tree..."

Ji Yu stood upon a leaf of the colossal tree, gazing into the distance. The immensely vast Fengdu Ghost Realm was revealed entirely before his eyes. The tree before him was simply too gigantic; standing amidst it felt like entering an entirely new world, making a person feel even more insignificant than an ant. The leaf beneath his feet was remarkably soft, yet it easily supported his entire weight. The entire tree possessed a metallic, ink-green hue, expanding and contracting once every ten breaths as if it were breathing.

"My master once said that beyond the Western Regions, in the Great Kuai Kingdom, there is a demonic tree which is a primordial relic. It dwells within an abyss tens of thousands of feet deep, yet blocks out the heavens and the sun. Could this tree also be a demon?"

Ji Yu's expression was grim. At this moment, he could no longer spare any concern for the Eight-Wasteland Fire Dragon Cauldron or the Yin-Yang Immortals-Roaming Sword. The changes in the Fengdu Ghost Realm far exceeded his capacity to cope. Figuring out how to leave this bizarre and eerie world was his most pressing priority.

Suzhou, inside the Jade Gate Pass—a prosperous desert city. Lu Xin snapped awake from an endless nightmare, opened his eyes, and looked around to find himself lying on a bed made of scattered weeds. The house was extremely dilapidated, with numerous holes in the walls and the roof. A ragged youth was tending a fire and boiling something, and the air was thick with a rich medicinal aroma. Feeling somewhat thirsty, Lu Xin couldn't help coughing twice. Upon hearing this, the youth hurriedly turned and walked over. He looked only about twelve or thirteen years old, with a dirt-covered face like a beggar.

"Big Brother, you're finally awake."

"Who are you? What is this place?"

"Me? I don't have a name; people in the city just call me Little Monkey. You've been unconscious for seven days and seven nights, and I thought you wouldn't make it."

As he spoke, the youth turned back to pick up the pot from the stove. Inside were thoroughly boiled medicinal dregs and an unappealing broth. After blowing on it for a moment, the youth motioned for Lu Xin to drink. Although the medicine smelled foul, Lu Xin drank it down in one breath. To his surprise, while the medicine smelled unpleasant, it lacked any bitter taste upon entering his mouth, carrying even a faint hint of sweetness and leaving a refreshing sensation in his throat. According to the youth, this was a miraculous medicine he had begged for at a temple in the city, capable of curing all diseases.

"Little Monkey, what is this place called? Where did you find me?"

Only after finishing the medicine did Lu Xin gradually regain sensation in his limbs. He tried to climb out of bed, but his entire body was aching and numb, and his movements were extremely slow. Looking inward with his spiritual sense, he discovered that the previously shattered meridians and broken viscera within his body had all completely healed. While this filled him with pleasant surprise, he began to recall the events before he lost consciousness.

He clearly remembered that his physical body had been driven into an ice pit by Wang Qi's spell, resulting in fractured ankle bones and completely severed meridians within his body. Cao Fu had attempted to save him after fusing with the Eight-Wasteland Fire Dragon Cauldron, but was taken away from the snow-capped mountain by Wang Qi using the Myriad-Soul Immortal-Devouring Array. Afterwards, he had been surrounded by people from various major sects. Members of the Ghost Mother Sect, wanting to extract Cao Fu's identity and the whereabouts of the Yin-Yang Immortals-Roaming Sword from him, stepped forward and cast a spell upon him, after which he lost consciousness entirely. As for what happened afterward, or how he managed to escape from the Fengdu Ghost Realm, he had no memory whatsoever.

Fortunately, despite facing what should have been a fatal outcome, he had survived, and Lu Xin was already immensely content. Afterward, through conversations with Little Monkey, he learned that he had been found by the edge of a lake in the desert. At the time, his entire body was enveloped in a layer of blue light, making him look like an immortal from the heavens. The place Little Monkey had brought him back to was called Dunhuang City.

Dunhuang is located at the westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor, serving as a nodal city along the Silk Road since the Han Dynasty. Traveling another several dozen li northwest from Dunhuang leads directly to the Jade Gate Pass. Beyond the Jade Gate Pass lie the various nations of the Western Regions, completely distinct from the Central Plains.

Lu Xin was deeply shocked. Fengdu City and Dunhuang were separated by thousands of li; how could he have appeared in such a distant place? Could it be that the exit of the Fengdu Ghost Realm connected to somewhere in this realm? At this moment, Lu Xin naturally could not fathom the answer. After chatting with Little Monkey for the better part of an hour, he decided to first visit the lake where he had lost consciousness to see if he could find any lingering clues.

Little Monkey's dwelling was a dilapidated Taoist temple in the eastern corner of Dunhuang City that had been abandoned for decades. It was a standard slum area, populated entirely by impoverished commoners. Little Monkey was an orphan who had grown up in Dunhuang since childhood. When times were good, he made a living by helping passing merchants carry cargo; when times were bad, he had to beg along the streets. Although life was extremely harsh, he at least managed to avoid starving to death.

The ruined temple sat in the eastern corner of the city. To get out, one had to traverse Dunhuang's most bustling marketplace, exit the city through the West Gate, and enter the desert. Along the way, Little Monkey chattered about the history of Dunhuang City and the changes over the past decade or so. The biggest change among them was the flourishing of Buddhism in Dunhuang. Within the city, there were easily twenty or thirty Buddhist temples of varying sizes. Monks begging for alms, along with numerous Buddha statues and murals, could be seen everywhere on the streets. This phenomenon began with Emperor Wen of Sui's policy of vigorously promoting Buddhism during his reign. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, the influence of the Buddhist school had spread throughout both inside and outside the Jade Gate Pass. The common folk in the city revered monks and were charitable by nature. Because of this, Little Monkey, an orphan, was able to survive in these turbulent times.

Emerging from the slums of the East City, Lu Xin gradually caught sight of Dunhuang City's prosperity. Here, developed commerce and trade were virtually the sole economic lifelines. As the largest city before the Jade Gate Pass, countless merchants from the Great Tang, the Western Regions, Tibet, and the Turkic Khaganate converged and mingled here. Great Tang silk and porcelain, Turkic fine horses and cattle, and Western Region jewelry and furs were all transshipped through this hub. People from the Western Regions with blue eyes and high bridges on their noses could be seen everywhere on the streets, speaking a multitude of different languages, yet presenting an extraordinarily harmonious picture.

Dunhuang was different from Chang'an City. Although the East and West Markets of Chang'an featured goods from all corners of the globe, they lacked that dust-laden, wandering spirit of the martial underworld. The diverse pedestrians seen in Dunhuang displayed their most authentic selves entirely. On everyone's face was an expression of fierce resilience, striving desperately for various purposes without even fearing life or death.

Although young, Little Monkey could be considered a local fixture in the city, acquainted with people from all walks of life. The two had walked the streets for barely ten minutes when four or five merchants greeted him. Two of them were even people from the Kingdom of Tianzhu.

"Now is the autumn harvest season, and these people all want to come to the Great Tang to purchase grain and transport it back to the Western Regions to sell at high prices. Don't look at how they smile at you on the surface; they are extremely shrewed behind your backs. A while ago, a monk from Chang'an came to lecture on scriptures in the city, attracting a massive crowd. They immediately joined forces with several merchant houses and forcefully doubled the price of green vegetables in the city."

"A monk from Chang'an? When did he leave? What is his Buddhist name?"

Hearing this, Lu Xin suddenly stopped in his tracks, utterly shocked. Little Monkey was also stunned for a moment before recalling, "That monk was very young, at most just over twenty. I heard people say he is a supreme dharma master of the Pure Land Temple, and his Buddhist name is Xuan something... I can't quite remember clearly. Anyway, that monk expounded on Buddhist dharma for three whole days and nights at the city's Nine Lotuses Temple, his lips never stopping for a moment. And the audience below was packed without a single empty seat, surrounded by people. Even the abbot of the Nine Lotuses Temple received him with the etiquette of a disciple. Tsk tsk tsk, thinking back now, that monk truly was the most glorious person I've ever laid eyes on. As for when he left, it should have been more than ten days ago, just a few days before I found you. Big Brother, looking at your reaction, do you perhaps know him?"

"I don't know him, but I know who he is."

Lu Xin shook his head and motioned for Little Monkey to lead the way again. Xuanzang was a figure feared by all factions, harboring immense secrets within him. Furthermore, these secrets even influenced the shifting tides of the future. Naturally, Lu Xin was curious about all of this. He longed to see this eminent monk of the Great Tang once more and ask him what he had seen when he gazed at him back in Chang'an City.

Pondering in his heart, Lu Xin soon arrived at the city gate under Little Monkey's guidance. Looking outward, boundless yellow sand swept across the earth, carrying an indescribable desolation. There were mountains in the distance, but they were entirely barren, making it difficult to spot a trace of green. Little Monkey pointed out a direction for Lu Xin to look: roughly thirty-odd li away in the northwest desert lay an oasis. Lu Xin had been found right by the side of a lake within it.

Since he knew the direction, Lu Xin naturally did not hesitate. However, just as he was about to set off, a massive sandstorm whipped up at the end of the horizon. The boundless sand and wind obscured the entire sky in an instant. At times pitch-black, at times flashing with lightning and rolling with thunder, it seemed to give birth to an entirely different world. Seeing this scene, Little Monkey's expression changed drastically, and he cried out in terror, "Let's go, hurry back into the city! This is a black windstorm. Once sucked into it, not even bones will remain."

Speaking in a panic, Little Monkey retreated swiftly back into the city. Lu Xin frowned slightly, sensing an unusual aura. To be precise, within that sandstorm lay a powerful demonic presence that made his hair stand on end.

"What kind of monster possesses such formidable magical power?"