Day and night tour

Chapter 417 Mentor, I've Understood
"What a lucky god you are! Your followers must be blind to call someone like you a lucky god."

Faced with the Rat King's boasting, the Taoist priest of Guishan was not one to tolerate it and immediately began to mock him.

The Rat King, mindful that the Taoist priest from Turtle Mountain was a "Taoist"... and mainly because "Bifang" was present, couldn't easily lash out, and patiently explained...

"I possess the qualities of the Heavenly Ghost Ancient Rumors; spreading rumors among humans is my instinct."

"There are truths in the world, and there are also rumors. The truths are—the earth is cracked and parched, the people are suffering, people are exchanging their own children to eat, and there are thousands of starving corpses."
My rumor, however, is—that the weather will be favorable, the people will be prosperous, there will be no shortage of vegetables and meat, and everyone will have many children and grandchildren.

After pausing for a moment, the Rat King asked the Taoist of Turtle Mountain, "Then tell me, which do the common people consider more auspicious: the cruel truth or the illusory and beautiful rumors?"

Guishan Daoist fell silent.

He suddenly remembered that before he became a Taoist priest, when he was just an ordinary bamboo craftsman, he had also encountered a similar incident.

Years ago, a wandering sorceress predicted that their town would suffer a severe drought and locust plague, urging everyone to flee the famine.

However, a local fortune teller predicted that year would be a great harvest, with granaries overflowing with grain.

Then, the fortune teller was considered by the villagers to be "spreading heresy and misleading the public," so she was tied up and burned alive, while the fortune teller received three bushels of millet and ate until he was full and fat.

But when harvest season came, locusts swarmed like a torrential downpour, and the scorching sun baked the riverbeds until they resembled turtle shells. The villagers could only flee the famine while gnawing on tree bark.

The fortune teller who had received three bushels of grain had long since fled.

As for the sorceress who was burned to death, who remembers her name, where she lived, or what her surname and given name were?
"The human heart is always easily swayed."

“I just say a few nice words and use my meager skills to stir up some minor troubles, and the people believe me without a doubt. I truly deserve the title of the god of auspicious words.”

The Rat King became increasingly smug as he spoke, his ego swelling with pride.

Zhou Xuan, who was far away on the bell tower, sneered: "The will of the people is a surging river. Many gods have drowned in it. There are always some people who are good at swimming. They can dive into this river a couple of times and think that they have controlled the surging river."

"No one can control the momentum of this great river. Anyone who claims they can control it is arrogant to the core."

His words were a veiled complaint—as long as he didn't transmit his voice into the golden token, the Rat King in the Cathedral of St. John's would definitely not hear it.

Pan Shanying, who was standing to the side, said after hearing Zhou Xuan's remarks: "Master, I think you can control this great river of public sentiment, at least in Mingjiang Prefecture."

"I am merely a better swimmer; I may have battled the waves of the great river, but I have never truly possessed its vastness."

Zhou Xuan is now thriving, but he has never lost his way or become arrogant.

Zhou Xuan, controlling the golden token, shouted to the Rat King, "You say you are the god of auspicious words, then I, Bifang, will accept it. Anyway, in this Well Kingdom, there are more than just one or two gods who have turned black into white and confused good and evil."
However, our cooperation must be carried out meticulously and without error. Rat King, you must not reveal your true colors before a real person; if we are to cooperate, then show your true self.

"Bi Shenming is no longer cooperating with that great demon Huangyuan?" the Rat King said with delight.

"You guessed right, the great demon Huangyuan is asking for a very high price, so high that I can't afford it."

The golden token in the church made a sound like "Bifang".

"Hehehe, I, the Rat King, may not be able to say anything else, but when it comes to the price for doing things, it is the fairest of the fair."

"Since Bi Shenming has revealed the golden token, then I, the Rat King, will not hide it either."

"The Church of the Seventh Anniversary will today reveal its true nature in the eyes of the divine."

As soon as the Rat King finished speaking, the earth trembled violently.

Beneath the earth, something seemed to be surging; the flat ground first bulged up into a mound.
Then the mound continued to expand, and gradually, it became like a small hill.

The earthen crust finally succumbed to such fierce expansion and broke apart, revealing a temple-like structure that sprang from the ground like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, exposed to the moonlight.

In Zhou Xuan's view, this building was more like a large prison.

Beneath the four walls, dozens of old women were locked up, each one filthy, with a full head of white hair. When they looked up at Zhou Xuan, their eyes were devoid of any human emotion.

Numb as a wild beast.

Each old woman had a blood-red tube attached to her neck; dozens of tubes pierced the center of the cell.

In the center of the cell lay a young woman with a slender figure.

The woman's belly had been opened, and her bloody internal organs were clearly visible under the moonlight.

Countless horseflies crawled on its internal organs, a dark mass still wriggling about, almost making the Taoist priest of Guishan vomit.

The Taoist priest of Guishan went through the happiest moments of his life in his mind before he managed to shake off his nausea and avoid showing any weakness in front of the Rat King.

The young woman, whose abdomen was crawling with horseflies, suddenly opened her eyes, stared at the golden token, and said, "Master Bi, the Rat King greets you."

Standing atop the bell tower, Zhou Xuan looked up at the moon, sighed, and said, "Rat King, your appearance alone is already quite rude."

After Zhou Xuan finished complaining, he poured his voice into the golden token and said, "Rat King, is this what you look like?"

The young woman smiled and said, "Bi Shenming, you can think of this woman as me, or you can think of them as me."

She pointed to the swarm of horseflies in her abdominal cavity.

As if under orders, the horseflies surged and moved, and finally, hundreds of millions of horseflies coalesced into the face of a rat.

This rat had no eyes; it was a blind rat. Its lips moved, emitting a deep, resonant voice: "Master Bi, I am known as the Rat King, yet I am not actually a rat. Every horsefly here is part of my body."

In Mingjiang Prefecture, countless horseflies fly about; they are all me.

Zhou Xuan immediately realized that this Rat King was truly difficult to deal with.

If the Rat King is a colossal creature, even one bigger than a clock tower, it doesn't matter; just kill it.

Before absolute power, no matter how magnificent its size, it is nothing more than a stupid creature waiting to be slaughtered, nothing special.

But the Rat King is actually very small. Not only is it small, but there are also countless horseflies. They are in the Cathedral of Xi'an and in Mingjiang Prefecture. How can they be killed off?

Throughout history, there have been countless methods for eliminating mosquitoes and other insects, but how many of these annoying creatures have ever been eradicated?
Insects can never be completely eradicated.

"But I will kill them all."

Today, Zhou Xuan will accomplish this almost impossible task.

He immediately asked, "Rat King, so the Cathedral of Sion is your dirty business? What is your relationship with the Cathedral of Sion, and why are you a swarm of horseflies? I'd like to hear the reasons behind all this."

"These matters are not worth the gods' attention. Let's discuss how to deal with Zhou Xuan."

The Rat King was unwilling to reveal too many of his secrets and politely declined Zhou Xuan's suggestion, instead steer the conversation toward the main topic of "how to kill Zhou Xuan".

This kind of rejection is a sign of distrust.

Why the lack of trust? Because the cooperation isn't deep enough.

"The reason why cooperation is not deep enough is often because I don't make the promise big enough to arouse the other party's interest."

Zhou Xuan pondered for a moment and then decided to make empty promises to the Rat King.

And Zhou Xuan was a master at making empty promises.

He immediately transmitted his voice through the golden token: "Rat King, do you want to kill Zhou Xuan and then take away Zhou Xuan's life?"

“That’s right,” the Rat King replied. “Zhou Xuan’s life should have been mine! He was merely a drop of blood released by the Heavenly Ghost ‘Chaos’.”

"After you took over Zhou Xuan's life, you became the young master of the Zhou family troupe, a core member of the Mingjiang Prefecture?"

“Yes! Mingjiang Prefecture and Pingshui Prefecture, with Zhou Xuan’s current reputation, if I become the new Zhou Xuan, they will be within my grasp.”

Thinking about the glorious life that was about to come, the Rat King's words became somewhat distracted.

"Is this enough?"

"what?"

"I ask you, is that enough?"

Inside the golden token, Zhou Xuan's question struck the Rat King like a thunderbolt, instantly stunning him.

"In a region encompassing two prefectures, you actually think that's enough for a small Zhou family troupe?"

"The nine prefectures of the Well Kingdom, the numerous folded spaces, and the Taoist priests guarding the 'Time-Space World'—all of that should be ours to possess."

"Twenty-four deities, nine celestial gods, the four great divine rulers of the Daoist sect, and the four great celestial venerables—which one of them wouldn't bow down and submit to us?"

Zhou Xuan kept painting a rosy picture for the Rat King, saying, "All the gods and Buddhas in the heavens are our servants, and the nine prefectures of the Well Kingdom are our watering grounds. Is that enough?"

"That's more than enough." The Rat King was tempted and quickly replied.

"Is that enough?" Zhou Xuan asked again.

"..." Rat King.

The Rat King, bewildered, asked, "Master Bi, isn't this enough?"

"Not enough, not enough. Expand your horizons! What lies beyond the Kingdom of Jing? The vast starry sky!"

What lies beyond the starry sky? The Buddhist Kingdom, the Starry Divine Kingdom, and countless other kingdoms whose names we cannot recall.

We want to wander through the Buddhist kingdom, listen to the beautiful women sing in the Starry Kingdom, and visit many other divine kingdoms to taste their delicacies.

Our future lies in the stars and the sea!

The Rat King was completely captivated by Zhou Xuan's grand promises, and the young girl actually sat up to listen.

"The stars are vast and boundless, and the divine kingdoms are as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. If the two of us become the overlords of the starry sea, on that day, you will think—"

"What is the Kingdom of Well? What is the Buddhist Kingdom? What are the nine provinces of the human world, and what is the so-called life of Zhou Xuan? A drop in the ocean."

“Bi Shenming, I understand now. The thing I’ve been craving for all these years is only worth… a single hair.”

"One must have lofty ideals in order to avoid being dependent on others."

At this moment, Zhou Xuan seemed to become the Rat King's spiritual mentor, guiding him to fulfill his grand dream.

"Master Bi, what should I do to realize the grand dream you spoke of?"

"You've come to the right person."

Zhou Xuan, atop the bell tower, wandered in spirit, shifting his form and appearance, until he reached the St. Peter's Basilica.

The first tactic of a magician is to cater to the player's preferences and initiate the activity.

……

Zhou Xuan appeared on the ruins of the Church of St. Petersburg.

"I, Bifang, a celestial deity, will become your mentor today."

Zhou Xuan activated the second level of the magician's technique—"bluffing".

With this method, in the eyes of the Rat King, he was the real "Bifang".

"Master Bi, your disciple, the Rat King, is willing to listen to your earnest teachings."

The young woman bowed to Zhou Xuan.

Zhou Xuan snapped open his folding fan and said to the Rat King, "Little Mouse, I just saw it, I really saw it clearly."

"Mentor, what did you see?"

"The Rat King said cautiously."

“I see your potential, and you and I, your mentor, have a perfect synergy.”

Zhou Xuan patted his Taoist robe and asked, "Look, what's this?" "Cloud pattern."

"Is this a normal cloud pattern?" Zhou Xuan asked again.

"No...no?"

"Of course not! This cloud pattern is a dream of one of the Four Heavenly Venerables, a gift personally given to me by the Supreme Will."

Zhou Xuan paused deliberately at this point and asked, "Do you know how magnificent that supreme will is?"

"I do not know."

"I'll let you know now."

Zhou Xuan said, "The four Heavenly Venerables divided the sea. The Heavenly Venerable slowly walked out. A gust of wind he casually stirred up could cover the sun and moon. With a flick of his finger, he could cut down the sun, moon and stars."

The Rat King listened with great longing, and Zhou Xuan's words were indeed very true, because he had truly seen the Supreme Will, although he had not seen its face.

"Such a powerful and supreme will has given me a dream. This dream is to be invincible within the Star Sea. What Buddhist kingdom or Starry Divine Kingdom can stop my dream?"

"Can't stop it!"

“No, we can stop it!” Zhou Xuan said.

"..." Rat King.

Zhou Xuan said meaningfully to the Rat King, "Even the strongest dream of supreme will has its limits, but... with you, this dream will be invincible."

"Why is that, mentor?"

The Rat King is having a blast again.

"Because of your horseflies, I smell the scent of rumors on them."

“Mentor, they are me. I... am actually a copy of the Heavenly Demon.”

"how do I say this?"

Zhou Xuan asked.

Now the Rat King is very arrogant, and he has been almost completely fooled by Zhou Xuan's grand plans. He has lost all vigilance and has told the truth of the matter like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.

"During those chaotic years, he didn't just release the Children of the Abyss into the Earthly Abyss; he also wanted to replicate the Heavenly Demon 'Ancestral Ballad.'"

"The Cathedral of the Resurrection is the birthplace of the ancestral song. Those missionaries preached in various parts of Mingjiang Prefecture, which was actually a way of finding suitable candidates."

"What kind of person are you looking for?" Zhou Xuan asked.

"That's the group of food."

The Rat King pointed to the dozens of old women in the cell and said, "They are all of special constitutions, people with abundant blood and energy. The missionaries kidnapped them to the Church of St. John, cut off their tongues, making them burst with resentment, and then used their blood to nourish me—a replica of the Heavenly Demon 'Zu Yao'."

"So, you were able to spread 'rumors' in Mingjiang Prefecture?"

Zhou Xuan asked.

“Mentor, don’t underestimate me just because I’m a clone of the Heavenly Demon. I… my horseflies can differentiate into dust particles to spread rumors and diseases. They are my billions of limbs.”
"I have already attained eighty percent of the cultivation of a Heavenly Demon,"

"Yeah, I can see that."

It's obvious he's bragging!
Zhou Xuan thought to himself: If you really had 80% of the power of the Heavenly Ghost, would you need to spread rumors and carry out sneaky terrorist attacks? You could just confront them head-on; who in Mingjiang Prefecture could stop you?

His heart was in turmoil, but his face remained calm as he said, "If your rumor disease can be used to enhance my Great Dream, then, the Dream of Will, the Rumor of the Heavenly Ghost, in the Star Sea, the two of us, master and disciple, will have no rivals."

"What Nine Heavenly Gods, the Lords of the Thirty-Three Realms, and that Buddha Lord of the Buddhist Kingdom? Let's deal with them!"

"Ah, deal with them."

The Rat King has a strong urge to "whistle" and express something wonderful.

"However, in order to verify just how much your ancestral prophecy can enhance my Four Heavenly Venerables Great Dream, we need to practice it."

"For the dream of the stars, for the conquest of the vast universe, I am willing to cooperate with my mentor."

"Then let's not delay."

Zhou Xuan patted the cloud pattern on his chest again.

The Great Dream Cloud Pattern then transformed into a gentle breeze, hovering above Zhou Xuan's palm.

The breeze seemed to have a physical form, and Zhou Xuan said, "My good disciple, put all your ancestral horseflies into this breeze."

"Mentor, watch closely, I'm coming in."

The Rat King immediately commanded the horseflies in its belly to fly towards the gust of wind, much like moths to a flame.
The young woman, however, collapsed to the ground as if all her life had been drained away.

Tens of thousands of horseflies split into streams and clumps, surging into the breeze.

Such a huge swarm of horseflies, even after a gentle breeze, the wind remained the same, only the voice of the Rat King could be heard from the wind.

“Master, I only saw chaos. I didn’t see anything about the dream of the Four Heavenly Venerables.”

Oh, so the dream of the Four Heavenly Venerables before it was activated was just a chaotic void, with nothing at all.

With the Rat King as his "white mouse," Zhou Xuan's doubts were finally resolved.

He said, "Disciple, this is what the dream was like. First, there was chaos, and then I saw an altar, where countless ancestors were worshipping the Blood God..."

To activate the dream of the Four Heavenly Venerables, even the deity Bifang would have to risk his lifespan and flesh, and borrow the incense offerings of Zhou Xuan and his nine-stick-of-incense masters.

Zhou Xuan alone could not possibly start it.

However, it doesn't matter. He can't activate this dream, but he can activate the third and fourth layers of the magic trick.

"A mirage" or "something created out of nothing".

As Zhou Xuan recounted the story, the Rat King truly witnessed the great dream of the Four Heavenly Venerables and was immediately overjoyed.

“Mentor, I saw it. This dream is so real. It is truly the work of the supreme will.”

"It's good that you've seen it. This Heavenly Venerable's Dream is extremely complicated to activate. Your ancestral chant was able to activate the dream as soon as it entered the dream. Sure enough, I guessed right. Your ancestral chant can indeed enhance the dream."

After a sigh, Zhou Xuan said, "Disciple, I know you still have many horseflies scattered throughout Mingjiang Prefecture. Summon them all and bring them into this dream."

"Mentor, I'm afraid that won't work. That's my lifeline when I need to escape..."

"Wow, he's still pretty lucid," Zhou Xuan thought to himself.

However, even the most clear-headed person is about to be finished.

Zhou Xuan spoke again, but this time his words carried the air of "No Thieves Under Heaven".

The tricks of the magician are layered and complicated to activate, but the effect is excellent. Even Bifang fell for it, let alone this evil rat from the abyss.

"Disciple, have you forgotten everything I taught you? You need to broaden your horizons. We are men destined to become the overlords of the starry seas. How can we be thinking about such petty things as self-preservation every day?"

"Conquer, plunder! I would rather die than not conquer the stars and the sea! What life are you talking about? No life allowed!"

Zhou Xuan got into character and delivered his speech with great passion and fervor.

Deceived by Zhou Xuan's words and swayed by the cunning tricks of "No Thieves Under Heaven," the Rat King immediately issued a declaration.

"Conquer, plunder! Heed the master's teachings."

This time, the Rat King held back, summoning all the horseflies in Mingjiang Prefecture to crash into the Dream of the Four Heavenly Venerables.

Horseflies from all directions, like a shower of stars, drifted and surged, until not one was left, all of them disappearing into the breeze.

"Disciple, are there any more insects?"

"Gone, gone, mentor, not a single one left."

"Oh!"

Zhou Xuan revealed a mysterious smile, then deliberately lied: "I also saw a horsefly flying around. Are you hiding something from me, kid?"

"That's all, Professor."

"Did it fly out of a dream?"

“Mentor, you must be mistaken. My horsefly cannot fly out of your dream.”

"Can't fly out... Are you sure..." Zhou Xuan's lips curled up slightly.

"I really can't fly out... Mentor... Mentor..."

The Rat King shouted repeatedly, but Zhou Xuan remained silent.

Zhou Xuan, riding the wind, walked up to the Shadowless Rat who had been observing from the sidelines and said, "Shadowless Rat, what is your Rat King saying? I don't understand."

“Master Bi, let me listen to it for you.”

The Shadowless Rat quickly moved closer to Zhou Xuan's palm, eager to hear what the Rat King had to say.

Before she could hear two sentences, a bone fang flew out and, with incredible speed, pierced a bloody hole between the eyebrows of the Shadow Rat.

Immediately afterwards, the bone tooth burrowed into the Shadowless Rat's brain and stirred it around wildly, until the Shadowless Rat was lifeless.

He never imagined until his death that Bifang, who was to lead the Rat King to conquer the stars and the sea, was actually Zhou Xuan in disguise.

"Master, Master, are you still there? Are you testing your disciple?"

"Screw you."

Zhou Xuan cursed at the breeze.

"Mentor, our future lies in the stars and the sea..."

"Fuck you, I am Zhou Xuan! You dare to try and take my life? I'll punish you today!"

Zhou Xuan said with a smile.

"Mentor...don't joke around, how could you possibly be Zhou Xuan?"

“Bifang, I killed him. I took his dream. You guessed right. Today in Jingchuan Prefecture, I did not kill the Green-Robed Buddha. I killed Bifang.”

Zhou Xuan had already caught the rat king in the trap, so he was no longer afraid of it escaping. He teased the rat king while walking to the golden token, biting his middle finger and dripping his blood onto it.

"Zhou Xuan, you have such a deep scheme."

Having given up his last hope, the Rat King cursed Zhou Xuan.

Zhou Xuan said with a smile, "Only a celestial demon like you would believe in conquering the stars and the sea. Don't you take a piss and look at yourself in the mirror? Do you even have that ability?"

"You can't kill me even if you lock me in this dream," the Rat King began to tremble fiercely.

Zhou Xuan said slowly, "So, I'm waiting."

To bolster his own morale, the Rat King followed Zhou Xuan's example and said, "I'm waiting too."

"I'm waiting for the God of War. Tell me, what are you waiting for?"

"..." Rat King.

"Wait a moment, the Witch God will enter your dream and take your head," Zhou Xuan said with a sinister smile...

(End of this chapter)