Ghost Pot - Chapter 73
The golden-headed turtle carried Nizi on its way. The current gradually slowed down, and the gurgling sound of water could no longer be heard.
Just then, a huge underground lake appeared ahead. The towering, dome-like stone walls were inlaid with large pieces of green fluorite, like bright stars in the night sky, scattering a faint green light downwards. The lake water reflected this light green color. There was no wind underground, so the surface of the water was as smooth as a mirror.
In the middle of the lake stands a small island covered with tall stalagmites, resembling a white forest—truly magical and beautiful.
The golden-headed turtle didn't head into the lake. Instead, it slowly approached the edge of the underground river, turned its head, and made a "whoosh" sound towards Nizi, as if to say, "It's time to go ashore..."
Nizi moved her numb legs and jumped onto the shore, wondering, "Where am I? How can I get back to the ground?"
The golden-headed turtle shrank its head and silently submerged into the water, leaving a few ripples on the calm surface.
"Meow..." Suddenly, the big black cat in my arms let out a loud scream.
Ni Zi was startled, and then she heard a hissing sound of teeth grinding coming from afar. She turned her head and was immediately terrified. A large group of red eyes rushed out of the darkness and headed straight for her.
Run! Instinctively, Nizi hugged "Little Cui'er" and ran barefoot along the stone path on the bank, fleeing in a panic. But the giant ditch rats with blood-red eyes were getting closer and closer, and the grinding of their teeth was becoming more and more piercing.
"This is terrible. It's safer to stay on the old tortoise's body..." Nizi thought regretfully.
Just then, "Little Cui'er" suddenly broke free from Ni Zi's arms and jumped to the ground. She then turned around to face the giant rats that were already close at hand, arched her body, and roared loudly as a warning. However, due to her abdominal injury, she was clearly exhausted, and all four of her legs were trembling slightly.
The giant rats stopped, whispered among themselves, and seemed to see through "Little Cui'er's" bluff. Then they surrounded her like skirmishers, grinding their teeth and making threatening hissing sounds.
"Little Cui'er" turned her head and silently glanced at Nizi a few times, her gaze unusually tragic, then let out a low, sharp roar, baring her sharp teeth as she pounced on the lead giant rat...
The giant rat in the lead was extremely fierce, baring its two rows of teeth and fearlessly charging forward. The two then engaged in a fierce battle.
Cats are the natural enemies of mice, but "Little Cui'er" was not as big as the giant mouse, and her abdomen was seriously injured, so she lost her usual agility and dexterity. Fortunately, the cat had a pair of sharp claws, which was like having a weapon in hand, while the mouse did not, and was like being empty-handed.
"Little Cui's" two sharp claws were like sharp blades, scratching the giant rat several times. However, due to its weakness, it only managed to scratch a few bloody marks on the giant rat's fat body, without harming its vital organs. Meanwhile, the giant rat used its huge body and weight advantage to knock "Little Cui" to the ground several times.
"Little Cui'er" and the giant rat leader were evenly matched.
The giant rat leader leaped nimbly into the air and slammed its rear end heavily onto "Little Cui'er's" belly, tearing open the scabbed wound and causing it to let out a painful "meow".
"Hiss hiss hiss..." The mice cheered.
The giant rat leader stared at the black cat lying on the ground with its blood-red eyes, opened its huge mouth, hissed as it ground its teeth, and then suddenly bit down on "Little Cui'er's" belly...
Nizi's heart tightened. Without thinking, she rushed forward, blocking "Little Cui'er's" path, and swung her little fist with all her might, smashing it into the giant rat leader's thick hide...
With a "poof," as if stuffing rotten cotton, the leader grinned as if completely unaware, while the rats shook their heads and laughed disdainfully.
"Meow..." With a mournful cry, "Little Cui'er" had tears in her eyes, signaling to Nizi to stop worrying about her life or death and to hurry up and escape.
A surge of heroic spirit welled up within Ni Zi. "No! I won't abandon you!" she exclaimed. She sat cross-legged close to "Xiao Cui'er," her hands forming a mudra on her thighs. She focused her mind on the principle of "following the natural order leads to the mortal realm, going against it leads to immortality, and the middle way is reversed," attempting to create an energy barrier like Master Jia to stop the gnawing giant rats. Unfortunately, the true energy within her was unruly; a little bit she managed to draw out would immediately run amok in her meridians and disappear again.
The giant rats were taken aback at first, wondering what Nizi was going to do. Then, seeing that she didn't do anything unusual, they relaxed, stared with their blood-red eyes, and made a series of excited grinding noises before swarming forward.
Nizi thought to herself, "This time it's really over..."
"Meow..." A loud roar suddenly rang out, making Nizi's eardrums buzz.
A short-haired black cat, as large as a lion, landed in front of Nizi, majestic and awe-inspiring, looking down on the rats... It was the spirit cat king of Guanzhong, the mother of "Little Cui'er".
"Meow..." Little Cui'er, lying on the ground, raised her head in surprise, looking at the giant cat with tears in her eyes, and softly murmured her name.
When the mice saw the Spirit Cat King appear, they were terrified and fled in panic. The giant rat leader scrambled away as fast as he could.
The King of the Spirit Cats opened its blood-red maw and hissed menacingly. Then it leaped up and swept its paw across, instantly tearing the skin of several giant rats apart, breaking their bones and shattering their skulls. The leader had only managed to escape a few steps when the King of the Spirit Cats pinned him down with one of its large paws, rendering him unable to move. Then, the King of the Spirit Cats bit off his neck, and his corpse was tossed aside.
In an instant, the giant rats vanished without a trace.
The King of the Spirit Cats turned around and came to "Little Cui'er's" side. It stretched out its long tongue and licked the wound on its abdomen, then its sharp gaze fell on Nizi.
"Meow... Meow meow meow..." Little Cui'er meowed softly on the stone ground for a long time, as if she were telling her own story.
As the Cat King listened, his gaze towards Nizi softened more and more...
The Cat King licked Nizi's hand affectionately, then dragged over the corpses of two giant rats, and with a swift swipe of its sharp claws, tore off a piece of bloody rat meat, which it then presented to Nizi.
Nizi quickly waved her hand, indicating she wouldn't eat, but the strong smell of blood piqued the interest of the large blood flea inside her. With a few rumbling sounds from her stomach, Nizi's gaze gradually turned cold. She reached for a dead rat and eagerly brought her mouth to its broken blood vessels, sucking the still-warm blood with a "sizzling" sound…
The King of the Cats tore the rat meat into pieces and fed them to "Little Cui'er," coaxing it to eat with purring sounds.
After Nizi had satisfied the blood-drinking flea's cravings, "Little Cui'er" had also finished eating rat meat. At this moment, the Spirit Cat King stretched out a paw, grabbed Nizi, and made her ride on his back. Then, he opened his mouth, picked up "Little Cui'er," and ran forward along the shore of the underground lake.
The wind whistled past Nizi's ears. Along the way, she saw some giant white mushrooms larger than a foot basin and dark green moss more than a foot tall. The air was very humid, and she felt sticky all over.
The emerald green islet in the middle of the lake was getting closer, with an arched stalactite gate on the shore. The Spirit Cat King ran into the gate and then leaped into the lake, splashing water everywhere. It turned out that there was a hidden stone beam beneath the surface of the lake, invisible on the surface, but actually about a foot deep underwater, leading directly to the islet.
Before long, the Spirit Cat King carried Nizi across the stone ridge to the island in the middle of the lake.
The island was about a hundred feet in circumference, with tall, milky-white stalagmites growing along the water's edge, their roots intertwined like a maze. The Spirit Cat King wandered among the stalagmites, finally arriving at the center of the island, where he put Nizi down.
In the center is a high platform of stalactites, and on the east, west, south and north sides of the platform stand thick stone pillars that take several people to hug, each more than a meter high and of different colors.
The stalagmite to the north was black, and a large tortoise lay atop it, its neck covered in wart-like protrusions. Upon seeing Nizi, it blinked and made a "whoosh" sound. Nizi was delighted; this large tortoise was none other than the golden-headed turtle that had carried her and "Little Cui'er" here.
The stalagmite on the south side is red, and a giant bat is fast asleep on it, emitting snores.
The stalagmites to the west are white; that's the place of the King of the Spirit Cats.
On the green stalagmite to the east, sat cross-legged an elderly man with white hair, wearing a tattered long robe with a cloth belt around his waist. He had a hooked nose, sunken eyes, a stern face, and his face was covered with wrinkles. Hearing the noise, he slowly opened his eyes, paused when he saw Nizi, seemingly quite surprised, but then smiled kindly at her, revealing a set of uneven, yellow teeth.
Nizi was overjoyed to find her kind underground and quickly ran over, asking anxiously, "Grandpa, who are you? How did you get here? Can we get back to the surface from here?"
The old man smiled slightly and said, "Young lady, this place is the 'navel' of Guanzhong. How did you get here?" The old man's pronunciation was very ancient and his tone was extremely strange.
Chapter 109 of the main text
Nizi sensed that the white-haired old man didn't seem like a bad person, so she told him, "My name is Nizi. I fell off Jade Pillar Peak and landed on a pine tree halfway up the mountain. I ended up in a cave and came here by sitting on that big tortoise." She pointed to the golden-headed turtle lying on the black stalagmite.
“Oh, the Five Old Peaks are dozens of miles from here. Every moonlit night, ‘Xuanwu’ goes to the Jade Pillar Peak cave to collect moonlight to replenish its yin energy. It just so happened that it met you, so it brought you back.” The white-haired old man said with a sense of enlightenment.
"So the big turtle is called 'Xuanwu'? What are the names of the big bat, the big black cat, and you, Grandpa?" Nizi asked.
“Hehe,” the old man chuckled and said, “The big bat that is sleeping is called ‘Vermilion Bird,’ the big black cat is called ‘White Tiger,’ and I am ‘Azure Dragon.’”
"Why are they all animal names?" Nizi asked curiously.
"The Azure Dragon of the East, the White Tiger of the West, the Vermilion Bird of the South, and the Black Tortoise of the North are the four divine beasts. This is the celestial phenomenon. We four have been guarding the 'Central Divine Artifact' here for nearly 1,600 years..." the old man said.
“Over 1,600 years…” Nizi exclaimed, “That old man is over 1,000 years old?”
"Well, among the four of us, 'Black Tortoise' is the oldest, over a thousand years old; 'Vermilion Bird' is three hundred and eighty years old; 'White Tiger' is four hundred years old; and I am the youngest, only two hundred and fifty years old, born in the thirteenth year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign," the old man chuckled.
"Two hundred and fifty years old!" Nizi was so surprised that she couldn't stop smiling. Finally, she sighed softly, "I'm only seven years old."
The white-haired old man stared at her intently with his sharp eyes.
"Grandpa, how can people live so long? My grandpa only lived to be over seventy before he died..." Nizi asked with a sigh.
The white-haired old man said calmly, "This requires a special way of maintaining health."
"What health preservation methods?" Nizi asked, puzzled.
"It's actually quite simple; the body just needs a kind of beauty-enhancing worm," the old man said.
"Insects?" Nizi's eyes widened.
“Little girl, don’t be afraid, look at me…” The white-haired old man said, showing his yellow teeth, and his breath smelled of rotten meat.
Nizi stared at him blankly.
"Crackling sounds..." The old man's neck suddenly emitted a series of cracking sounds, then gradually stretched out, the wrinkled skin becoming thinner and more transparent, revealing clearly the bluish blood vessels beneath. In a short while, his neck had grown to over two meters long, supporting his white-haired, wrinkled head...
Nizi was so frightened that she retreated repeatedly, hiding at the feet of "Little Cui'er's" mother, the big cat "White Tiger".
"Don't panic, young lady. I'm just performing a magic trick. Once you have this little worm inside you, you can not only live a long time, but you can also turn your head at will..." After saying that, the old man actually started turning his head in circles.
The giant cat 'White Tiger' stretched out its massive claws to protect Nizi, and with a low growl, it issued a warning to the 'Azure Dragon' elder.
The white-haired old man slowly retracted his neck, returning to normal, and then said with a smile, "Little girl, was it fun? If you'd like, I can teach you."
Nizi shook her head vigorously and said, "Nizi doesn't want to."
After a long while, the white-haired old man pleaded with a sorrowful expression, "Young lady, no one has come to this navel for a very, very long time. Please keep this old man company and talk to him a little longer, okay?"
Nizi stared at him warily, without saying a word.
"Your name is Nizi, right? Since the Ming Dynasty, girls in the villages of Shanxi and Shaanxi have been called 'Nizi'. Do you have a formal name?" the old man asked casually.
Nizi looked at him and answered softly, "Guo Ni".
"Guo Ni, where are you from? Judging from your accent, you're from the Hedong area." Seeing that Ni was willing to answer, the old man was very happy and continued to ask.
“Fenglingdu on the Yellow River,” Nizi said.
"Oh?" The old man was greatly surprised upon hearing this, and slowly recited, "'A river divides the north and south, yet the Central Plains remain intact. Clouds and mountains connect the land of Jin, and misty trees enter the Qin plain.' These are lines from Zhao Zizhen's poem 'Inscription on Fengling Ferry' from the Jin dynasty. Have you heard of them?"
Nizi shook her head.
“Fenglingdu has been a vital passage between Hedong, Henan and Guanzhong since ancient times, and has always been a strategic location fought over by military strategists. ‘A rooster’s crow can be heard in three provinces.’ It’s a wonderful place. Where in Fenglingdu do you live?” the old man exclaimed.
“It’s just east of Fenglingdu Town,” Nizi replied.
"East of the town?" The old man paused, then murmured thoughtfully, "At the east end of the town, there's a large, old house with an old locust tree growing in front of it..."
“That’s my home,” Nizi replied.
"What! You are a descendant of the Guo family?" The old man's expression changed drastically upon hearing this, and he exclaimed in surprise.
"Yes, that's my grandpa's and my house. The old locust tree at the gate is so thick!" Nizi blinked and said.
"Who are the people in your family?" the old man asked hurriedly.
“It’s just me and Grandpa, but Grandpa is dead…” Nizi lowered her head, stretched out her right hand with a copper thimble on it, and gently stroked it as she spoke in a pitiful voice.
"What's your grandfather's name?" the old man asked.
“Guo Zichang,” Nizi replied.
"'Zi' generation, hmm, that's right, you're a descendant of the Guo family. And what about your father?" the old man continued.
“Nizi has no father, he died long ago…” Nizi couldn’t help but shed tears as she recalled the days when she had no parents and depended on her grandfather for survival.
"You must have an older brother or a younger brother, right?" the old man asked, seemingly quite certain.
"No, just Nizi," Nizi replied.
“No way… The ‘Ghost Embracing Incense’ formation, though passed down through a single lineage, will never die out. ‘Incense extinguished, fire extinguished,’ could it be that something happened to the old locust tree?” The old man looked surprised and then asked, “The old locust tree at the entrance isn’t dead, is it?”
"No, there are lots and lots of locust flowers blooming in the spring," Nizi said, shaking her head.
The old man pondered, unable to come up with a solution, when suddenly his gaze fell upon the copper thimble on the girl's finger...