Chapter Ninety-One: The Birth of a Calamity Star

Hearing those three words, Young Master Lan, Hua Sheng felt as though a great stone had finally dropped from his heart. Ever since boarding the ship, that name had been spoken of again and again. Now, with death hanging by a thread, Young Master Lan’s arrival was not only a rescue to him, but also the answer to many long-baffling riddles.

At that thought, the invisible force binding Hua Sheng immediately dissolved. He fell to the deck, dropped to one knee, and looked up to see, on the iron railing above and behind Wu Wang, a middle-aged man in blue, ragged and worn to the bone, sitting there.

With his left hand, the middle-aged man seemed to hold an unseen thread that had ensnared Wu Wang; in his other hand he held a wine flask, singing carelessly and with ease:

“Step and sing, drink blue wine, what is the world in all its span?
Beauty blooms like a spring tree; years are cast away like a shuttle from the hand.
The ancients, gone in murky haze, return no more;
The people of today come thick as ever more.
At dawn, riding phoenixes and dragons to the blue firmament,
At dusk, seeing mulberry fields turn to waves of white foam.
Long days and bright radiance shine in the empty sky;
Golden and silver palaces rise high and steep.”

After finishing his leisurely song, this middle-aged man called Young Master Lan drifted down from the railing with his wine flask in tow, and, tipsy-eyed, looked at Wu Wang.

“How strange. What is this thing? I have roamed the mortal world for more than a thousand years, and never once seen its like.”

Hua Sheng shouted, “This... this is a monster!”

Young Master Lan swayed slightly and glanced at Hua Sheng. “Young fellow, I’m afraid you’ve never seen what a demon really is! There are strange things every year, and this year there are especially many. But this one is not a monster!”

“Whatever it is, Wu Wang is no kind soul!” Hua Sheng said.

Young Master Lan lifted the flask and took a sip. “Indeed. There is nothing in its eyes but murderous malice. Even if it is not a fiend, it carries killing intent no less than one.”

“Young Master Lan, be careful of that dangerous thing!” Hua Sheng was desperate for help, yet still remembered to warn him not to underestimate the foe.

By then, more than a dozen strange birds around them had found themselves unable to deal with the little girl, and so they lunged toward Young Master Lan instead.

Young Master Lan, as though seeing nothing at all, continued studying Wu Wang by himself.

Unable to bear it, Hua Sheng cried out from the side, “Be careful! They’re coming at you!”

Without even lifting his head, Young Master Lan merely gave the flask a gentle shake. At once, a ring of lotus petals appeared all around him. The petals first circled into a wheel, then scattered in all directions. The moment a petal brushed a strange bird, the latter vanished at once, leaving not even a trace of mud behind, only turning into dust that the sea wind carried away.

Seeing those once-ferocious creatures fall so helplessly, Wu Wang grew furious. “You little immortal. Why must you ruin my affairs?”

“Oh?” Young Master Lan asked. “What affairs have I ruined?”

“I came only to destroy Nether Shadow. What business is that of yours?”

“So that is her name?” Young Master Lan looked at the little girl in black, then his expression grew somewhat grave. “Hmm? Strange. This Nether Shadow is also something beyond my reckoning? Today I have truly widened my horizons. Just where, exactly, did the two of you come from?”

“Mind your own business. If you do not let Wu Wang destroy her, then do not blame me for destroying you as well today!” Wu Wang ground its teeth with a harsh clicking sound.

Young Master Lan smiled. “Old sir, that is not quite the way to say it. From what this immortal sees, you are now paralyzed from the waist down, half your body useless, and even your movements are hindered. You still mean to make things difficult for me?”

A vicious look flashed across Wu Wang’s face, and it suddenly let out an exceedingly shrill cry. To Hua Sheng, it sounded like the unbearable high-pitched howl produced when a speaker and microphone feed back against one another.

Hua Sheng immediately clapped his hands over his ears, but the sound seemed to pierce straight through his palms and into his eardrums. He could not endure it and rolled back and forth on the ground. His eardrums were instantly wounded, and blood began to seep out. In the edge of his vision, he saw Wu Wang’s body start to split apart, breaking into pieces that shook free of Young Master Lan’s restraint. In the air, it reassembled at once, appearing completely unharmed. Freed, Wu Wang lunged fiercely at Young Master Lan.

Though Young Master Lan had been unmoved by the terrible cry, Wu Wang’s bizarre sorcery still startled him. “What manner of creature are you?” he shouted, springing up into the air.

At that moment, Wu Wang turned into a mass of black vapor and rushed straight at him.

Young Master Lan cried, “By decree, disperse your resentment!” and from his palm shot a beam of golden light.

Under that dazzling radiance, Wu Wang could not evade. Struck by the light, it began to melt, letting out an agonized, piercing shriek.

Then an inconceivable sight unfolded. Hua Sheng saw Wu Wang turn into a grid of little blocks, then those blocks became even smaller blocks, splitting again and again until they were reduced to countless multicolored fragments. Each fragment then burst apart, and as they burst, something kept surging forth from them, spraying onto the nearby deck and walls.

This transformation was utterly unlike the disappearance of the strange birds. Hua Sheng had never seen such impossible fragmentation before.

Could this be true exorcism? Why was it so utterly different from what he had seen in books and films? Barely regaining his senses, Hua Sheng could only stare helplessly at this bizarre spectacle.

In just a few seconds, Wu Wang was reduced by that explosion to powderlike shards. The powdered matter created by the blast fell across half the foredeck.

Some of the powder landed on Hua Sheng’s sleeve. Looking down, he saw that it was covered in tiny rodlike and ring-shaped marks, so he became even more bewildered. He tried to brush it off as dirt, but discovered that once touched by these patterns, both sleeve and deck seemed as though they had been stamped with ornament.

The entire foredeck was now shrouded in these fragments, numbering in the millions.

Looking again at Young Master Lan, Hua Sheng saw that even the blue robe on his body had been marked by the same patterns.

A puzzled expression appeared on Young Master Lan’s drunken face. He patted the powder from his long blue robe, but it was as though he had been dyed with paint.

“How very strange! What sort of demon is this? Could this fellow have been transformed from a dye vat?”

Dragging his exhausted body, Hua Sheng limped over to Young Master Lan’s side. “Immortal Young Master Lan, thank you for saving my life!”

Young Master Lan waved a hand and asked, “Was that formation laid by you? And where is that Brother Xu?”

Only then did Hua Sheng remember Brother Xu. “He’s gone already...”

Young Master Lan counted on his fingers, then shook his head. “What a pity, what a sorrow. This immortal was unable to help much.”

“Perhaps, as the old saying goes, it was fate,” Hua Sheng said, thinking of destiny.

Young Master Lan asked, “And who are you to him?”

For a moment Hua Sheng did not know how to explain. “I’m just a friend who came aboard to fulfill a promise he made.”

“Right. Earlier this immortal divined that a star of calamity would descend tonight and bring great disaster upon the mortal world. That Wu Wang must have been...” As he spoke, Young Master Lan again counted on his fingers, and then his expression changed abruptly. “No good!”

Hua Sheng hurriedly asked, “What is it?”

“The calamity star has not been destroyed!” Young Master Lan quickly counted again, then looked around. With a solemn face, he pointed at the little girl who was half-kneeling on the ground. “The calamity star is here. It is this child!”

Suddenly, torrential rain came pouring down through the night, and lightning and thunder erupted all around them.

The little girl pressed a hand to her chest and slowly rose in the driving rain, gasping for breath. Then she lifted her head. Freckles dotted her nose, and there was not a trace of fear in her eyes.

“Shut your mouth, Blue Caper! You little immortal must not spout slander! What calamity star is this Nether Shadow? I have come to save the world!”

A bolt of lightning split the heavens. The sea wind grew fiercer and fiercer, and the surrounding air colder and colder, so cold it seemed it could freeze time itself.

Just as Young Master Lan raised a hand toward the little girl, Hua Sheng suddenly stepped in front of him and met Young Master Lan’s gaze.

“Child, this young maiden is the calamity star come to earth. You mean to protect the one who brings disaster?”

“I believe what I have seen.”

“If she remains in this world, then within a year the earth will rise in monstrous waves. Perhaps even the immortal realm will be swept up in the calamity.”

“But she’s clearly just a child!” Hua Sheng’s resolve was iron.

“Foolishness! Why trust what your mortal eyes show you? She may look like a child, but I have already sensed an immense power of immortality hidden within her body, and it is still growing.”

“If this calamity star is so formidable, why is she no match for you?”

“I cannot say. Perhaps she has only just descended and still needs time to adapt to this place.”

“How am I supposed to believe that?”

“What you see is not necessarily the truth. Think of that Wu Wang. That ghostly hag Wu Wang, and this little girl, both came from the same unknown place. They each carry the aura of the spirit race, yet I have never seen a spirit folk like either of them.” Young Master Lan’s expression was grave.

“If you claim to be an immortal, then you should be saving all beings and relieving suffering. Why, then, are you harming the living instead?”

Young Master Lan was just about to answer when he sensed something was wrong and shouted, “Damn it! The calamity star’s power is swelling rapidly! You brat! Stand aside! Let me destroy this monster first!”

He thrust out a hand, and Hua Sheng was flung more than a zhang away. Then a ball of flame rose in Young Master Lan’s palm and shot toward the little girl.

Unexpectedly, after Hua Sheng fell to the ground, he leapt up like lightning, rushed forward, and seized Young Master Lan’s arm with such force that even Young Master Lan was taken aback. But with time pressing, Young Master Lan frowned and shoved Hua Sheng away, releasing the flame.

Yet Hua Sheng reacted even faster. He threw himself in front of the flame, and in an instant his entire body became a blazing fireball. Screaming as he clutched his face, Hua Sheng staggered backward.

“What a sin, what a sin! Why must you turn yourself to scorched earth for the sake of saving this wretch?” Young Master Lan sighed and shook his head.

But after only two or three cries, the flames on Hua Sheng’s body grew smaller and smaller until, astonishingly, they were absorbed into his body instead. Then Hua Sheng raised his head, and from both eyes there burst a streak of blue light.

Young Master Lan stepped back. “No wonder you tried to save her. You... are a demon!”

Hua Sheng lost all reason and charged at Young Master Lan like a mad beast.

“Since you are both vile things, then today this immortal will rid the mortal world of you two wretches!” Young Master Lan rose into the air and pointed downward. “By decree, samadhi fire, arise!”

With a thunderous roar, the entire cruise ship was instantly engulfed in a sea of fire, and the air filled with a disturbing stench of charred flesh.

Hua Sheng spread his arms and stood in front of the little girl with his body, and the two of them were swallowed together by the samadhi fire.

The little girl seemed unable to bear those flames and covered her face, screaming at the top of her lungs. Yet amid that screaming, the fire around them began to shrink, continuously being absorbed into Hua Sheng’s body.

When the flames weakened somewhat, Hua Sheng knelt on the ground, panting hard, his eyes still shining with blue light. Behind him, the little girl had suffered grave injury from the samadhi fire; her black hair had withered away and turned silver-gray.

Seeing that the two were unable to resist, Young Master Lan descended to the deck. Then the steel of the cruise ship behind him tore and twisted into shape, becoming dozens of sharp iron swords poised to shoot toward Hua Sheng and the little girl.

What Young Master Lan had not anticipated was that Hua Sheng’s body suddenly became swifter. Like lightning, he grabbed the broken half-iron rod that had fallen to the deck, rushed to Young Master Lan’s front, and with a soft thud drove the rod into his chest.

Young Master Lan had not expected to be struck by the iron rod and sent Hua Sheng flying with one palm.

What could a mere iron rod do against him? But then he looked again and saw that the rod had been scorched into a vivid red. When Young Master Lan tried to pull it out, it would not budge at all. He tugged once more with all his strength only to realize that the iron rod had actually pierced through his immortal body and could not easily be withdrawn.

Unable to move, Young Master Lan glared at Hua Sheng in fury. “You insolent brat! You dare... slay an immortal?”