Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 117 The Temperature of the Flame

Yun Ce sneaked out of the manor, with his chestnut horse following closely behind. Then, taking advantage of the crescent moon night, Yun Ce rode the chestnut horse and they sneaked off towards the volcano.

The volcano is called Longshan. I heard that Longshan is the origin of Longhu Lake at its foot. People from the Han Dynasty might not understand this, but people like Yun Ce, who have some geographical knowledge, do.

After a volcanic eruption, it enters a dormant period. During this time, the blocked water veins will gush out from the geological fault lines, forming rivers where conditions permit and lakes where conditions do not.

Longshan has no summit; the summit is only a large depression, which is divided into two parts by the mountain. One part is filled with water, which cannot be stored at the summit and flows out from a low gap, forming a waterfall that is not very spectacular but has a very large drop.

On the other side, it was terrifying. Smoke columns would rise from the bottom of the pit every now and then. If you could get past those yellow, rock-like things, you could see a lake of magma that was constantly boiling and eleven or twelve meters in diameter.

The chestnut horse remained alone at the foot of Longshan Mountain. Yun Ce quickly ascended the mountain along the mountain path, which led to the northern slope, where one could see the spectacular sight of waterfalls turning into mist in the wind. As for the eastern slope, almost no one went there.

Longshan is not high, especially compared to the surrounding mountains, it is only half the height of them. This must be because a volcanic eruption cut the mountain in half.

At first, there were some tall reeds here, but after Yun Ce continued to climb up a hundred meters, there was not a single blade of grass to be seen.

A strong smell of sulfur wafted from the mountain pass, so Yun Ce put on the gas mask from his equipment. After walking another hundred meters or so, he saw sulfur covering the entire mountainside.

The sulfur here is of very high purity. Yun Ce could crush a handful of sulfur blocks in an instant, and his fingers would become smooth when he rubbed them together.

A considerable amount of mirabilite from Chicken Shit Mountain has already been collected. If the mirabilite can be purified and combined with the sulfur here, the raw materials for gunpowder will be basically ready.

At this point, he naturally couldn't care less about sulfur and such. Urged on by the dog, he reached the limit his body could withstand, which was less than ten meters away from the crater.

The rocks here are starting to soften; if we walk any further, the soles of our shoes will definitely melt.

"We're too close to the ancestral fire enshrined in the Dragon God Temple in Chang'an. What if the ancestral fire discovers us?" Yun Ce asked cautiously.

Gouzi said, "I've calculated that it's 260 li from the Dragon God Temple to this place. From the time the Ancestral Fire discovered the Shehuo in Yunzhou, to the time the location was determined, until the warriors arrived here on Xintianyou, it would take at least 45 minutes, and possibly longer. We'll be testing the Shehuo here for no more than 30 minutes, so it should be safe."

Yun Ce sighed and said, "The Ancestral Fire is connected to the heavens and the earth's veins. We can only guess at its power. Let's reserve another ten or twenty minutes. After that, we will leave immediately."

Just as Yun Ce was speaking, a silver thread pulling a ball of bright yellow flame appeared in front of him.

Looking at the flames leaping at the tips of the silver threads, Yun Ce said, "Can't the Shehuo burn your tentacles?"

The dog, who was trying to move the folk performance towards the crater, said impatiently, "These are super-strong tentacles woven from sixteen tentacles."

"Be careful not to let the folk performance land. I've heard that once it lands, it will take root and then it might not want to stay inside the Dragon Ball anymore."

As the folk performance slowly rose to the crater, the bubbling lava began to churn. The originally dark surface was gradually covered by the churning lava, and large clusters of flames rose upwards.

In an instant, those scattered flames covered the crater.

The dog happily shouted in Yun Ce's mind: "I knew that Shehuo is actually fire energy. It can absorb spiritual energy from the lights of thousands of homes, and it can also absorb instinctive fire energy from other fire sources."

As the flames in the pool gradually formed a fire tornado and hurtled towards the folk performance, Yun Ce shouted to Gouzi, "Start the timer!"

The place that overlooks the entire city of Chang'an is called Weiyang Palace, and the place that overlooks Weiyang Palace is called Shenlong Hall.

As usual, a faint yellow light emanated from the windows of the Dragon God Temple tonight. This light was unaffected by the crescent moon, condensing into a near-real existence that could not be dispersed by the wind or extinguished by the rain.

The elderly high priest leaned against a fire pit about eight feet in diameter, dozing off. A small fire, only about two feet in diameter, was flickering in the fire pit, and the priest was wandering around aimlessly.

In the hearth, there were hundreds of tiny flames, each the size of a candle flame, leaping and swaying around the ancestral fire like children. Some flames would even mischievously jump into the ancestral fire, going in and out of it, busy as bees.

Suddenly, the ancestral fire stopped moving and stopped in one place. After a moment, the flames of the ancestral fire suddenly rose up and quickly covered the entire fire pit from a thickness of two feet. The golden flames shot straight up to the high caisson ceiling of the Dragon God Temple.

The high priest, who was resting with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them. His eyes were no longer old and cloudy, but sharp as a hawk's. He stretched out his hand and put his entire arm into the fire pit, letting the golden flames burn without moving.

In a short while, the high priest slowly withdrew his arm, carefully placed a burning candle flame that had jumped onto his finger back into the fire pit, and rolled up his wide, dark gold sleeves.

He muttered to himself, "The folk performances in Izumo Prefecture, are they still going on?"

He looked with pity at the candle flame that was still jumping around in the body of the ancestral fire. After a long while, he sighed, picked up the golden cudgel, and struck the green chime next to him.

"Ding!" A trembling chime rang out in the huge Dragon God Temple, and a small Taoist boy walked in from outside.

"Tell Xiang Zhongyuan that the Shehuo performance in Chuyun Prefecture is currently taking place in the east... no, within a 300-mile radius of Chang'an. If he can retrieve the Chuyun Prefecture Shehuo, remember to bring it back." The young Taoist bowed and left the Dragon God Temple.

The high priest looked at the ancestral fire, which had been restored to its original state, with affection. He then gently flicked a candle flame that had drifted out of the fire pit, and the flame returned to the ancestral fire's side.

"The Ancestral Fire and the Shehuo are one entity. How can it be called a rebellion? It's just that some naughty children want to wander around outside for a while. It will come back sooner or later."

Yun Ce watched as a pillar of fire, like a fiery dragon, shot into the sky, almost turning half the sky red. Sweat poured down his face. He knew that this was it; anyone who wasn't blind would know that something was wrong here.

The Izumo-shu Shehuo (a type of folk performance) was like a mischievous child, spinning around inside the huge pillar of fire, appearing extremely lively.

Under Yun Ce's stern rebuke, Gouzi finally put away the reluctant Shehuo (a type of folk performance) and immediately crawled into the Dragon Ball.

Yun Ce also leaped away from the crater like a bullet at the first moment.

As the folk performance ended, the towering pillar of fire immediately collapsed. By the time Yun Ce had sped all the way to the foot of the mountain, twenty Xintianyou (a type of mythical bird) had already taken flight and were circling in the sky above Chang'an in the distance.

Yun Ce gave a whistle, and the chestnut horse that was grazing not far away immediately spat out the grass in its mouth and came over following the sound. Without saying a word, Yun Ce rode the chestnut horse and galloped towards home.

Half an hour later, Yun Ce returned to the Yun family manor, patted the chestnut horse's rump, and sent it to the stable. He then tiptoed toward his bedroom.

As they approached the bedroom, a window opened, revealing Zhang Min's cold face.

"You didn't sleep at night, were you out stealing?"

Yun Ce pouted and said, "I'm going to become a flower thief."

Just as Zhang Min was about to ask another question, she heard Eji's voice.

"My lord, come back soon!"

Yun Ce raised an eyebrow at Zhang Min and then quickly went back to his room.

Zhang Min sniffed. She caught a strong, unidentified odor. Although she didn't know what it was, it at least meant that Yun Ce had gone out to do something bad.

As soon as Eji came up, she climbed onto Yun Ce's neck and sniffed his clothes. After smelling a faint stench, she stripped Yun Ce of all his clothes and stuffed him into the bathtub. She then sat on the edge of the tub and began washing his clothes.

Just as Yun Ce returned to the manor, four albatrosses flew from the direction of Chang'an. After circling the billowing smoke-filled crater once, the albatrosses, disliking the smell of the crater, did not stay long and flew back to Chang'an.

Although a column of fire rose from the crater of Longshan just now, it only lasted for a short time, so it was thought to be a brief eruption of the volcano.

Lying in the bathtub, Yun Ce relaxed his body and asked the dog.

"How's the effect?"

"It won't be very effective. Shehuo is about playing with fire, and it likes playing with fire. It seems you still need to quickly establish a territory and let Shehuo take root so that it can continue to be nourished by the lights of thousands of homes."

"You think too highly of me? You want to conquer the world right now?"

"You'd better hurry up. You keep saying you're a descendant of bandits, that you trampled the heads of countless reactionaries back then, and now you don't even have a piece of territory. You'd better start a rebellion as soon as possible."

Yun Ce did not continue to discuss the rebellion with Gouzi. Even now, his understanding of this world was still very vague, and he felt that there was little difference between rebellion and suicide.

The dog is like a boss who only knows how to make demands, completely disregarding whether Yun Ce can actually fulfill them.

While sleeping, Eji held Yun Ce's head, her newly developed breasts pressed against his face. Although she didn't know what Yun Ce had been doing, Eji knew from the terrifying smell emanating from his clothes that what he had just done was not so safe.

That night, the guards of the Great Han Dragon Terrace Guard did not sleep. They longed to capture the guy who had run away with the Chuyun Prefecture folk performance and then tear him to pieces.

Since the Yellow Emperor revealed the laws governing the heavens, established the four directions for the earth, and divided the vast land into thirty-six states, all the land has belonged to the Han Dynasty.

Under the whole world, is it not the king's land, and the coast of leading the land is not the king's ministers.

With just a simple bean-shaped firework, where can you possibly run off to?

(End of this chapter)