The Invisible Poison
-------------------------
Meng Hao returned from a successful pill auction. He had sold only one pill - the Bedevilment pill. It was a poison pill and an original creation that arose from his conviction that a true grandmaster of the Dao of alchemy must also be a grandmaster of the Dao of poison.
He took a stock of things. On one hand he owed a huge number Qi Condensation Pills to the Sect. He was a master alchemist and needed to turn in a regular quota of these cultivation pills which are really the bread and butter of a large sect like the Violet Fate sect.
On the other hand if he ever really got paid for his original Bedevilment pill, then he would really be rich. The only thing was that it was Grandmaster Pill Demon who owed him that money and he was unlikely to get it.
Meng Hao went over to Lin Rui who was the girl in charge of daily affairs for Master alchemists.
"How many Qi Condensation pills do I owe the sect?" asked Meng Hao.
"6,757 pills, assuming you didn't break any new tripods," answered Lin Rui.
"That is a huge amount," said Meng Hao, "is there any other way to pay off the quota?"
"Well, now that you ask, there is a huge demand from outside for the East River antidote," said Lin Rui. "The sect is unable to keep up with the demand and the pressure from other sects is great. If you can produce a dozen batches of those, your quota can be considered to be paid off."
"Is there any reason for the huge demand for the East River antidote?" asked Meng Hao. "That type of pill is almost never produced by the sect, except by a special commission. And now they are producing it in bulk?"
"I have no idea, said Lin Rui, "You can check with Su Zhonglun in the Pill Pavilion."
Meng Hao set off to Pill Pavilion. He was wondering about the unusual demand for the antidotes. It was a good thing that he was concentrating on poison pills at this point of time and got this opportunity to work with a very unusual type of poison pill.
Normally cultivators did not have a need for poison antidotes. They could merely circulate their cultivation base and the poison would eventually be expelled. However there are more types of poison than can be categorized. Also there was an old rule that poison pills should not have written formulas - this prevented misuse and added to the aura of mystery that these pills already had.
The normal way to make a powerful poison is to think along the lines of making a cultivation pill. Only, instead of promoting the circulation of qi, poison pills would block or even reverse the flow of qi along the meridians. A cultivator cannot expel the poison himself, but would instead seal his cultivation base to delay the effect and send out for a custom antidote.
Meng Hao's Bedevilment pill was of a different category. This was fundamentally a poison pill, but instead of blocking or reversing qi flow, it would radically transform it to give a devilish amount of spiritual power for a short time. This was a new idea at the time and caused a huge sensation. According to the old rule, he did not write down the formula, thus making it a unique pill under the heavens.
At the Pill Pavilion, Meng Hao ran into Su Zhonglun.
"I was informed that there is a huge demand for the East River antidote," said Meng Hao. "Do you know who need these many pills and for what?"
"A lot of different people need it," said Su Zhonglun. "Most of the demand comes from small sects on the far side of the state of Eastern Emergence. Most of these sects and families border the Hundred Bends marsh.
Thanking him, Meng Hao left to go back to his immortal's cave.
***
Meng Hao took time off churning out Qi Condensation pills and the East River antidote to make a trip to the Hundred Bends marsh. The first thing he noticed was that small stalls selling pills had come up all over the place. Clearly there was an epidemic of sorts. But what was the cause?
Meng Hao introduced himself as a Violet Fate sect alchemist to the elders of a couple of sects and families here. Most of them responded by asking for any spare poison antidote pills. One of them was more helpful.
"It started a few months ago," said the elder. "Everything around here is poisoned. Cultivators are more sensitive to poison and luckily more resilient. But the poison won't go away."
"Has anyone found the source of the poisoning?" asked Meng Hao.
"It definitely has something to do with Hundred Bends marsh," answered the elder. "But nothing can be done about it. The poison there is so dense that it has taken the form of a corrosive miasma. Even clothes get shredded if someone goes there at certain times of the day. Also daylight has been blotted out by the perpetual fog."
Meng Hao looked in the direction of Hundred Bends marsh. He could sense a faint trace of demonic qi emanating from there. The poison was not apparent here but over time, the effects would be deadly. Hence the demands for poison antidotes.
***
Older alchemists did not tire of saying that the archives contained the formulas for all possible pills. Whether this was true or no, no one knew. There were far too many text on paper, old bamboo books and jade slips. Also random combinations of ingredients have some or the other effect and thus had been dutifully recorded.
What Meng Hao was sure of was that there were full and clear explanations on every type of pill. Except one - pills that destroy demonic qi.
That was the pill he was most interested in. The poison effects were secondary and could be cured by the East River antidote. Also, as a demon sealer, he knew more than most about demonic qi. In fact, he was the number one expert. But he had only one demon sealing hex and couldn't be used by sending it in a general direction.
He was depressed by the lack of knowledge here in this department. This was something he was determined to fix. After all, Grandmaster Pill Demon has said:
"If those who inherit my Dao of alchemy are full of the ambitions of wild wolves, I will take back the Dao of alchemy. However, he who can weed through the old to bring forth the new, he who can tread the untrodden path, that person may establish his own school of thought."
After sifting through tons of archives he eventually found obscure and semi-mythical references to the alchemical method of destroying demonic qi.
Transformations of the sun and moon - this was the semi-mythical account of the sect founder Reverend Violet East. This record mentions how Reverend Violet East walked the earth in an earlier era and achieved the reputation of being a sage. The immortal Zhang Guolao who passed down the Dao of Alchemy from the heavens to Reverend Violet East.
Transformations of the sun and moon:
The first things in the cosmos were created when water, fire and metal combined. The Jade Emperor passed this method down into the world of mortals. This is the dao of alchemy.
It is thus that the pill contains the entire cosmos in microcosmic form. Not only the earth, sky and the four directions, but the three realms are contained in each pill. This is the mystery of pills of immortality.
The sun and moon are eternal. The interactions of the sun and moon give life to the pill. The cauldron is where the pill is born.
The ingredients are transmuted to a pill, the pill transmutes a cultivator and the cultivator transmutes the world.
Having received only this dao, Reverend Violet East went on to create the various types of pills and the myriad formulas. This resulted in the founding of what is called the Violet Fate sect today.
Putting together the accounts from several sources, one can also find the encounter of Reverend Violet East with a host of demonic dragons. He was able to destroy them all in one blow by dropping a pill that can destroy demonic qi into the lake they resided in.
Was this a mythical account or was there basis in fact?
Jasper Sea Lake
-------------------------
Meng Hao ran into the alchemist Li Tao.
"Is there really a lake called Jasper Sea lake?" asked Meng Hao.
"Yes," answered Li Tao. "It is not far from here either, but is hard to find. No one goes there."
"Did Reverend Violet East fight a host of demonic dragons there?" said Meng Hao.
"That part is myth," said Li Tao. "But then everything about Reverend Violet East is a myth. You can go look if you like, but you won't find anything there."
Meng Hao found the place with much difficulty. It was hidden inside a ring of rocks and cliffs. The lake was large and of the colour of jasper - hence the name Jasper Sea Lake. He spent the whole day walking around the lake, but did not see anything unusual.
At one end of the lake stood a solitary evergreen cypress tree. This tree seemed ancient, and moreover this type of tree was now not seen anywhere in the Southern domain. Meng Hao went closer to have a look. This tree really had a strong aura, as if it was the will of an ancient sage. There was no doubt that Reverend Violet East had instilled a tiny part of his will into this tree for some purpose. As long as the will was there, the tree would stay on as a testament of a great event, even if the even was forgotten.
Meng Hao came across a fisherman mooring his boat. The fisherman waded out and went into his hut. It wasn't a large hut and was more or less open.
"Greetings," said Meng Hao. "I am a visitor new to these parts. Someone recommended that I visit this excellent lake. Is there anything interesting to see here?"
"Whoever asked you to visit this place was trying to get you killed," replied the fisherman. "It is difficult to get in here and difficult to get out."
"But have you seen anything unusual at all?" persisted Meng Hao.
The fisherman was silent for a while. Meng Hao turned to leave when the fisherman said, "One does fish out unbelievable things at times."
***
Meng Hao pulled out dozens of jade slips from his bag of holding. He systematically infused spiritual sense into each of them, let them drop into the lake, wait for them to reach the bottom and then move on to another location. Really this was not a good method, because considering his cultivation base, it was not possible to get a full picture of all parts of the lake.
The first thing he discovered was that the lake was of varying depth. In some places, the depth was hundreds of li or more.
In some places, the jade slip sank for many hundreds of li till his spiritual sense lost contact with it. Is it possible that this lake is even many thousands of li deep in some places? Such a thing even defied his imagination. He continued this activity for quite some time.
Searching further out, he found routes under the lake that went right under the cliff for a long distance. Probably some other water body was connected to this one.
Finally he reached a place in the very centre of the lake where the jade slip sank quietly for some distance and then was destroyed. Meng Hao was hit hard because his spiritual sense was tightly connected with the jade slip. He felt some internal injuries and sat down by the lake to recover.
There was nothing to learn if he did not take any risks. Without thinking any further, he jumped in to the centre of the lake and sank a little of the way down. He could feel the weight of the water as he went down. He saw nothing remarkable, when suddenly he heard the voice of the Demon Sealing Jade, "An ancient greater demon, sealed without, free within." Unbelievable scenes flashed before his eyes for several seconds before his mind went completely blank.
When he regained consciousness, the fisherman was sitting beside him, warming some wine. As was his habit, Meng Hao checked if his bag of holding was still with him. Being killed is a simple matter, but his spirit stones ...
The fisherman poured out some wine into a cup and placed it in front of Meng Hao. "One does fish out unbelievable things at times."
Meng Hao set up with a heavy head. He noticed that there was a pile of junk in the fisherman's hut. Looking closer, he found a fir stake that clearly had a hex marked on it. This was clearly a demon sealing hex from an earlier generation.
"Can I take this?" asked Meng Hao.
"Yes," said the fisherman, "and you can take the rest of the junk too."
Meng Hao finished his cup of wine, put the fir stake into his bag of holding for later study and proceed to leave: "I believe you have saved my life today. I cannot repay you enough."
"No need to thank me," replied the fisherman. "Only thing, the next time you take a swim, don't snag on my fishing hook."
***
Back at the sect, Meng Hao tried to understand what happened. He had sunk beneath the surface a little distance and saw nothing. He went further down and at some point of time, lost consciousness. He had seen something incredible before losing consciousness, but he had no idea what. Each time he tried to think of it, he got a headache.
Over time, the headache got worse. He began having hallucinations. He would hear voices and see distant lands. At other times, it seemed as if it was day and night at the same time. He lost all emotions and often forgot what he was doing. Sometimes he even forgot his own name and identity.
Thankfully he had enough clarity between these hallucinatory episodes to think what to do about it. He suddenly recalled what the Demon Sealing Jade tried to say. He had confronted a sealed demon. Something so powerful that he became disoriented just by going near it.
He circulated his spiritual sense inside himself to check if he could find anything within himself. He was the ninth generation demon sealer and was extraordinarily sensitive to demonic qi. He noticed tiny strands of demonic qi embedded deeply within himself. The closer he looked at them, the more of a headache he got.
Now the only option was to try the East River poison antidote, which is the only type of pill that could work in unusual cases like this.
Perhaps this was not a misfortune, but a great piece of luck. If only there was a way to examine the events that occurred at the lake. He got a crazy idea. He would use the scroll painting from Shui Dongliu to examine his mind. The painting was created to seal the Resurrection Lily that lived inside him. However it would also serve as a mirror into his soul.
He opened the scroll painting. It had an image of himself, but you could also see the sealed Resurrection Lily if you looked at it long enough. He sent spiritual sense into the painting. Now he could see the strands of demonic qi, but as if from afar. He examined them closely and was shocked by what he learned.
The lake contained a greater demon of heaven and earth. In a battle between Reverend Violet East and some demonic entities residing in Jasper Sea lake, Reverend Violet East had used a pill that destroys demonic qi to exterminate the demonic host. He just dropped the pill into the waters and any being that was entirely made of demonic qi would be instantly shredded.
However this approach proved insufficient because of the inter-connectivity of water bodies and also the multiple entry and exit points of the lake. Reverend Violet East would have learned this soon enough and requested the help of another person. This person would have been a demon sealer! Meng Hao could clearly see a sealing hex. He could not determine where this hex was fixed, but it was distinctly the work of a demon sealer of an earlier generation. Also this hex looked exactly like the one on the fir stake he had brought along.
Meng Hao would need to study that hex more closely - and imitate this approach in dealing with the current crisis.
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The Furnace Room of Patriarch Violet East
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Meng Hao had been suffering headaches with increasing frequency. He looked at the East River medicinal antidote in his hand and swallowed it. Hours passed. He was feeling better, but the problem did not go away completely.
Violet Moon city was a city of cultivators in the state of Eastern Emergence. This city was just outside the sect and was the location of the annual Violet Fate sect pill auction that brought in thousands of cultivators from all over the Southern Domain. At normal times there were only small pill shops here. The sect had a kind of monopoly here but Meng Hao knew better. All kinds of things happened right under the noses of the sect.
Meng Hao stood at a small pill shop in a back alley.
"Any new poison antidotes came in?" asked Meng Hao.
"There is a new one called the Eternal River antidote. It was made by the Golden Frost Sect’s World Pill Division."
"Probably it is a work of Grandmaster Eternal Mountain," said Meng Hao. "He was formerly from the Violet Fate sect and would be aware of the East River antidote. I will take a couple of these."
Meng Hao paid twenty-thousand spirit stones. This was a high amount for this kind of a pill, but there seemed to be an impossibly high demand for them at this point of time. Back at his immortal's cave. Meng Hao put one pill aside for study or duplication and put the other in his mouth. He instantly felt the strands of demonic qi getting destroyed. This was total destruction, not the partial effect of the East River pill.
He felt much better and freer now that the strands of demonic qi had been eliminated.
Now cured of the ill effects of his trip to Jasper Sea lake, Meng Hao set about studying the pill. He used instantaneous formula scrying to analyze the pill and compared that with the formula of the East River pill. He found that this pill was fundamentally the same, but there had been numerous improvements in how the herbs interact.
All such pills must come down to the original conception of Patriarch Violet East - the way of destruction of demonic qi. Alas at this point of time he did not have further information on this theory. Of course neither did Grandmaster Eternal Mountain, but he was working on the existing example of the East River antidote. Meng Hao wanted to go much further. After all he was a ninth generation demon sealer.
***
Meng Hao created a report of Grandmaster Eternal Mountain's antidote and sent it for recording to the archives. Ever since he received the rank Master alchemist, he had required to create such reports. He now saw understood the purpose of this activity and never failed to send in a bunch of short reports every week.
This time he went over to check if his reports made it to the archive. Looking through the records, he found all his other reports. But the one about the antidote from Grandmaster Eternal Mountain was missing. He asked around and was told that reports sometimes get misplaced. So he just submitted a new report and headed over to Master alchemist Li Tao.
"Does the archive section regularly lose or misplace reports and documents?" asked Meng Hao.
"I have seen quite a few go missing," said Li Tao. "I suppose this happens more with reports about poison pills. But the sect doesn't really care about the archives and there is nothing to be done about the missing documents."
"Do you suppose there is someone strongly interested in poison pills and their antidotes?" said Meng Hao.
"If so, then they would have to be someone of a very high rank in the Violet Qi division," said Li Tao. "We have no way of finding out who that might be."
"I believe the sect has been infiltrated by a sect of poison type cultivators," said Meng Hao.
"You cannot make such allegations without proof," said Li Tao. "An Zaihai would already be looking into the matter. He is someone who knows how to locate information. Contact him if you find evidence of infiltration."
***
Meng Hao pondered a long time on how there could be a pill that destroyed exclusively demonic qi.
Three thousand daos, two categories of being and four paths!
There are three thousand Daos. They all have something to do with the sealing of Demons.
There are two categories of pure being - Immortal and Demonic. Mortality is just the dissipation of Internal Essence.
The path of cultivators is the path of immortality. Internal Essence is the seed of this category of being.
The mirror image of this category is poison cultivation. Poison cultivators seize upon Essence by the path of alchemy to destroy it or to induce naturally impossible changes. Such an example is my Bedevilment pill which won me much fame under the identity of Grandmaster Pill Cauldron.
There is another pure category of being which is Demonic. There is no seed for this type of qi - it remains alien to mortals and cultivators alike. Ancient records talk of a process called demonic transmigration by which a mortal cultivator can become an immortal greater demon of heaven and earth.
The mirror image of this category is the path of demon sealers. Demon sealers seal the greater demons of heaven and earth to suppress their power or approve them to gain their power.
Anyone infected with strands of demonic qi will eventually be destroyed because demonic qi never integrates with internal Essence. As for the path of demonic transmigration, it is a long and arduous process that can take an aeon to complete. For this reason, there is no record of anyone who may have taken this path to its culmination. Most likely such an effort would end in gradual dissipation of qi and a final death. Even if anyone succeeded in this path, they would lose their self-consciousness and become a true greater demon of heaven and earth.
***
Meng Hao came up to the Pill Pavilion and deposited a bottle of pills.
"This is a new type of poison antidote that I have created," said Meng Hao. "I consider it to be a great improvement over the existing East River antidote." And without further explanation, he left.
Night fell and most of the pavilions closed their doors. A shadowy figure was seen leaving Pill Pavilion. A second shadow followed. In a desolate part of the sect, they confronted each other.
"Meng Hao! Why are you here?"
"Hello Liu Yanbing," replied Meng Hao. "I see you are running off with a set of pills. I presume it is the new one I created today? Really, you shouldn't have bothered. They are just the regular East River antidote."
"You made life difficult for me ..." said Liu Yanbing.
Suddenly a new voice spoke in the darkness. "And so you teamed up with the Deadly Centipede sect, to destroy information and smuggle poison antidotes?" This was none other than An Zaihai. " I have been tracking your activities for quite some time now. It took Meng Hao's trickery to actually catch you in the act."
Meng Hao was smug. Liu Yanbing was neither the first person he had conned, nor would be the last.
"Your family has contributed greatly to the sect over many generations," said An Zaihai, "I will give them face and let you flee. Get out while you can!"
Liu Yangbing ran into the distance. He would not enter the sect again.
Turning to Meng Hao, An Zaihai said, "The sect owes you thanks. There is a dangerous sect of poison cultivators called the Deadly Centipede sect. They are located in the Hundred Bends marsh. I knew that they had been trying to infiltrate the Violet Fate sect. It looks they had been successful for a while."
So saying, he left Meng Hao alone to ponder his next move.
***
According to one rumor, ten thousand years ago, the Violet Fate Sect wasn’t located where it was now, but rather, on Eastern Emergence Mountain. So the furnace room of Reverend Violet East would be located there. At this point of time, Eastern Emergence Mountain was under constant guard by the Violet Fate Sect. It was the place Reverend Violet East achieved perfection in the dao of alchemy and later reached immortal ascension. Therefore it was considered a holy place for the sect.
Currently, an enormous pill furnace rested on the peak of the mountain. It was covered with countless protruding magical symbols, and emanated an archaic air. An air of Time seemed to spread out from within, an air that felt thousands of years old.
For Meng Hao, this was the place numerous mysteries would finally be resolved. Meng Hao entered a pavilion where the furnace room of Reverend Violet East was said to be located.
"Ah Master alchemist Fang Mu!" greeted the disciple guarding the pavilion.
"Greetings fellow daoist," answered Meng Hao, bowing slightly.
Meng Hao went right in. It was a deserted place - no one usually came here. Going up a flight of stairs, Meng Hao was faced with a spell formation. He walked right through. This spell formation was familiar to him - these were some form of demon sealing hexes. Because of his identity as the ninth generation demon sealer, the hexes did not harm him in the least.
"So a demon sealer of an earlier generation did assist Reverend Violet East! Moreover, these hexes are here to stop demonic entries from entering. Perhaps there was a danger of a demonic invasion and Reverend Violet East wanted to keep this furnace room secure. After all, the pill that can destroy demonic qi may be the only way to defeat a host of powerful demons."
He was now in the furnace room of Reverend Violet East. All the equipment he would have used was still here. Most important of all, here was the ancient cauldron used in the long-lost non-smelting method of pill concoction! He now understood how the pill could be made. If he could only get a sample...
He turned to leave when he was suddenly confronted by Grandmaster Pill Demon.
"Junior greets the patriarch," bowed Meng Hao. "I was searching desperately for certain techniques."
"Are you looking for ancient techniques and formulas?" said Grandmaster Pill Demon. "An artisan works at his masterpiece in a peculiar way. If the motion of his hands is even a fraction too fast or too slow, the work will be a failure. Over time he has learned things that he was not taught and that he cannot explain. The ancient sages are dead and their untransmittable message are lost. Then what you are looking for is just the dregs of the ancients, isn't it?"
"Junior will keep that in mind," replied Meng Hao. "But is it not true that the sect has grown by building on what the ancient sages have seen? Further, we now have an urgent situation where the sect is unable to suppress the demonic qi of Hundred Bends marsh. It is thus necessary to look further back into the past than what the alchemists are doing."
"Well spoken," said Grandmaster Pill Demon with a smile, "I haven't paid the spirit stones you should have received in the auction. Consider that an apprentice's fee to me. And here is the formula for a pill that can destroy demonic qi. It is called 'Daylight that sunders a million shadows.'"
He flicked his wrist and a jade slip flew over to Meng Hao. Meng Hao scanned it and said "It looks like it uses the ancient non-smelting technique of pill concoction."
"Yes. If you succeed then you succeed. If you fail you fail," said Grandmaster Pill Demon. "In any case you are the one who must create this pill and destroy whatever has taken over Hundred Bends marsh."
"Why me?" asked Meng Hao.
"If you could walk in here, then it means that destiny connects you to this pill," answered Grandmaster Pill Demon. "Go now."
The Final Attack
-------------------------
A whole week passed as Meng Hao immersed himself in the task of analyzing the formula and concocting the pill. As he opened the door of his immortal's cave, sunlight poured in. He held a single pill of a type not known in the Southern Domain since ancient times. This was the called 'Daylight that sunders a million shadows' pill.
Meng Hao walked in confidently into Hundred Bends marsh. This used to be a lake earlier, but was now just boggy soil and evil miasma. Meng Hao was not affected by the poison in the air because of the poison lily inside him - it was itself a poisonous plant and would not tolerate any other poison in its host.
Even though Meng Hao was unaffected by the miasma, he could hardly tolerate its smell and it gave him a headache. He took a swig from a flagon containing Chen Fan's special alcohol. Chen Fan had given him a flagon as a parting gift and Meng Hao could not think of a more useful time to drink it.
Suddenly he was confronted by a hooded shadow. "Leave this place. This is the holy ground of the Deadly Centipede sect."
"It is as I thought," said Meng Hao. "Your crazy sect is doing crazy experiments here and poisoning the land around for hundreds of li."
"The fact that you can endure the poison here shows that you are an extraordinary person," said the hooded figure. "It took me many months and hundreds of the East River antidote before I could reach this level. Unfortunately your cultivation base is too low for you to provoke the patriarch of the Deadly Centipede sect!"
So saying he sent out a green viper. The viper flew through the air towards Meng Hao. Suddenly the viper hissed in fear and exploded. The power of the Resurrection Lily had done its work again.
It was now Meng Hao's turn. He sent out just a single strike onto which he focused his internal sense. This was a technique he learned at the temple of Doom. His hit was direct and the hooded opponent collapsed instantly.
"Your cultivation base is destroyed" said Meng Hao. "Now you will be eaten up by the poison of your own sacred ground."
The hooded figure seemed to scream silently as he sank into the poisonous bog, never to rise again.
Without wasting more time, Meng Hao got down to work. He opened his hand. It contained a single pill. This was the 'Daylight that sunders a million shadows' pill. As soon as the pill came in contact with the wet air, it began to dissolve into the air. The fog absorbed the pill and the miasma began getting shredded. Any demonic form in the immediate vicinity would also have been shredded.
But this would not be enough. The example set by Reverend Violet East at the Jasper Sea lake was proof. Meng Hao retrieved a dozen fir stakes - all imprinted with the exact hex he had seen at Jasper Sea lake. He had gained enlightenment of this hex after studying it and contemplating it for a long time. He sank the stakes deep into the ground at the base of cliffs and at all entry and exit points. This took many hours. Once he was finished, he noticed that the air seem purer and did not carry any trace of poison.
Families living in the district saw the fog disperse and sunlight pour in for the first time in months.
***
Now back at Jasper Sea lake, Meng Hao handed over a flagon of Chen Fan's special alcohol. "This is for when you fish out unbelievable things."
Meng Hao was here to discover the location of the hex he had seen in his visions of Jasper Sea lake. Finally he stepped back and scanned the whole place from a distance.
The entire cliff face of the mountain was marked by a huge and powerful hex! The mountain itself was the demon sealing device!
This is the difference between generations. What was done in the past is built upon by later generations. Yet the later generations do not reach the levels of the ancient ones. The ancient sages are there to guide us and to prompt us to surpass them.
The sun set on Jasper Sea lake as Meng Hao left this enigmatic lake and the mysterious fisherman, and made his way slowly back to the sect.