Chapter 48: Mountain Root
"Ugh... haa..." Shen Shuibi was too tired to straighten her back: "Li Qi, why are we... moving stones? I'm so tired."
Shen Shuibi said this while supporting the backpack on the old horse.
The backpack was tied with a vine and hung on the old horse. Shen Shuibi was responsible for steadying the backpack and, incidentally, putting stones into it.
She couldn't carry them herself, so she could only pick them up one by one and place them into the backpack on the old horse's back, then let the old horse carry them while she walked beside him, steadying it.
Li Qi, on the other hand, had no old horse to use; he could only carry the stones himself and hoist them up.
After all, he was a boat hauler. Being treated like an animal was a common occurrence.
No, he should say that the profession of a boat hauler was inherently about being used like an animal.
Hearing Shen Shuibi's question, Li Qi explained, "You had a premonition, and so did I. My Five Clouds Divination also showed a military disaster above my head. We must be prepared."
"Of course I know we need to be prepared... so, what does this have to do with moving stones?" She had already lost all her cultivation, and now she was doing heavy physical labor again, so exhausted that she couldn't help but ask Li Qi.
Li Qi was carrying a large stone weighing three to four hundred jin on his back, currently hiking uphill. Hearing Shen Shuibi's question he replied, "We're making traps. There's a mountain and water here. Among the three of us, only I have combat capability, so we have to prepare first."
"However, it's almost done. You and Old Horse can go rest; I'll handle the rest myself. There's not much left." Li Qi glanced over; about a third was still unfinished, but with effort, he should be able to complete it by midnight.
But Shen Shuibi pursed her lips and still shook her head.
The old horse also neighed a few times, not backing away, but continuing to carry stones up the mountain.
Seeing this, Li Qi said no more.
Climbing the mountain, he immediately began to arrange an altar with stones.
Yes, he was going to use the sacrificial methods he had learned before to see if he could create a trump card.
"Mountain god, sacrifice with xi..." Li Qi silently recited the words from the Zhu book.
The term "sacrifice" (xisheng) referred to two types of offerings: xi meant livestock of pure color and sheng meant edible livestock.
To sacrifice to the mountain god, one should use pure-colored livestock as an offering.
Where could he find a pure-colored one now?
Simple, wasn't there the old horse nearby?
Although the old horse was old, as a dragon steed, his coat was pure black and it shone brightly, very handsome.
So, he walked over to the old horse with a knife in hand.
The old horse was startled and recoiled two steps.
"Come on, don't make such a fuss..." Li Qi chuckled, scolding him. "I'm not actually going to kill you."
The old horse neighed plaintively, looking very wronged.
But Li Qi couldn't actually kill him for a sacrifice. After all, they had spent a few days together and the old horse was quite close to him; he couldn't bring himself to do such a thing.
He used the knife to make a small cut on the old horse's rump, collected some horse blood, and then cut off a lock from the old horse's elegant and handsome mane.
The old horse neighed mournfully twice.
Li Qi smiled and slapped its rump: "I'll give you a strand of Azure Dragon divine qi in two days, look at you acting like that!"
The old horse rejoiced at the words and trotted off with its hindquarters wagging.
That small wound didn't even need attention; it stopped bleeding within twenty minutes. Li Qi had only taken about 200 milliliters, which for a horse of its size was roughly equivalent to a nosebleed.
Li Qi then took the old horse's blood and mane and placed them on the altar built of stones.
"Carving stones to erect a monument, to appease the spirits..."
"Southern Mountain God, offer xi and li in sacrifice..."
Li originally referred to wine, but Li Qi had none at the moment, so he took the other meaning of the character li, which was liquan, meaning sweet spring water. He specifically made Shen Shuibi run over two mountains to fetch the clear, sweet spring water from another mountain stream.
The xi and li were all present.
The altar had also been constructed from stones, and Li Qi even used some principles of mechanics. He specifically performed a force analysis to ensure that although it looked like it was about to collapse, it wouldn't unless subjected to vibrations.
Even if it did collapse, it would fall towards the spring at the bottom of the cliff, not on him.
He determined the direction, faced south, and then presented the offerings.
Li Qi then used the blunt side of his knife to smash open a relatively regular stone, managing to roughly carve a human figure.
Actually, it could only be described as a stone teru teru bozu (a Japanese charm doll to ward off rain), barely counting as a human...
He placed this human figure on the altar.
Then, facing south, he began the shaman priest ritual.
All spirits of heaven and earth achieve the Dao by absorbing Qi.
In this world, not only could mountain spirits and water monsters become mountain gods, but there was another path: for the "mountain" itself to become a god.
This was difficult. A mountain had a spirit but lacked consciousness. Without consciousness, it had no perception, couldn't sense things, and thus couldn't cultivate.
Therefore, most mountain gods in this world were spirits, not the mountains themselves.
But what Li Qi was about to do was to forcibly create a mountain god.
Was it possible? Essentially impossible.
To do such a thing would require at least the people of an entire village to offer sacrifices monthly, for decades, for several generations, nurturing it with incense and faith to gradually awaken some intelligence. Then, the Qi of heaven and earth would need to nurture it for several hundred years before it could finally emerge.
So, what Li Qi was doing was, in all likelihood, not going to result in the mountain god's help.
But he knew this himself.
If a mountain god were willing to help him, he would truly be worry-free, completely safe from any danger. He didn't expect such a windfall to occur.
Therefore, the main purpose of this sacrifice was to obtain a trace of mountain root earth Qi.
This method was actually invented by other ritual priest and recorded in the Zhu book.
The principle relies on the characteristic of these primordial mountain spirits, having spirit but no consciousness or perception, to summon a portion of the mountain spirit and place it into the carved stone statue. This was the first line he recited: "Carving stones to erect a monument, to appease the spirits."
Then, he would offer sacrifices to this portion and dedicate a strand of his own Qi to it, allowing it to take on the characteristics of a "human."
In this way, this summoned portion of the mountain spirit would temporarily awaken its perception, but it would be like a person still in the womb, perceptive but without full spiritual wisdom.
As a result, the summoned portion of the mountain spirit, though part of the original mountain spirit, would differ from it, as if one's hand suddenly grew a brain.
The mountain spirit itself would resist this change. Although it lacked consciousness, mountains and waters inherently possess spirits and they would expel such attempts to "pollute" them.
Although such pollution would be insignificant to them, mountain spirits were immensely vast, and fully polluting them with human Qi would probably require the blood sacrifice of over a million people. A single person's strand of Qi was truly no more than a spit of saliva to the mountain spirit.
Therefore, the mountain spirit would sever this small part that was contaminated by human Qi and then depart, never again responding to that person's sacrifices. Even if the mountain spirit truly became a god later, it would naturally detest that person.
But Li Qi could no longer concern himself with such matters.
What the mountain spirit "spit out" that was what Li Qi wanted.
The mountain root earth Qi!
(Chapter End)