One clan member, seeing Yuesong’s white clothes and his arrival on a cloud, instantly recognized the mystic’s status. He came forward to greet them, asked someone to alert the clan leader, and guided Yuesong and Ye toward the front hall.
When they reached the hall, a man in his fifties and dressed in white, came to meet them. When he saw Yuesong, he actually stopped in shock, only recovering after a pause, “I had no idea you were coming, Silver-Haired Mystic! The main clan never told us, or I could have prepared, I apologize...”
Ye noticed the older man’s white clothes, but the style was more like a Taoist robe and the man had none of the ethereal air Yuesong had. The clan leader resembled an elder at a Taoist temple, so Ye silently chuckled.
Yuesong also frowned, “Liu Yunze, why are you dressed this way? What’s with all the crowds on the mountain?”
The older man, Liu Yunze, was indeed the leader of the Ganzhou clan, and he was surprised by Yuesong’s unhappy tone. He quickly replied, “well, our clan is really well-liked by the locals, and I have no choice...” Yuesong didn’t want to hear his explanations and waved his hand, “we wanted to stay here for a while, but your place too crowded and annoys me, just get us a place on the back of the mountain.”
Yunze instantly agreed and had his subordinates help set-up. Yuesong didn’t want to chat with him, so he rested with Ye at a quiet area. At the back of Mt. Dragon Head was a few old houses, after some cleaning, Yuesong and Ye were invited to move in. While the house was older, the location was quiet, which made Yuesong happy, so he told Yunze not to bother them without reason and moved in with Ye.
Now the two had a quiet place to practice. The clan delivered meals three times a day, and cleaned their place regularly too, so Yuesong and Ye had nothing to do but practice. After about two months, Ye’s White Cloud Knife improved a lot more, making Yuesong nod and think that the kid was probably going to be better than him one day.
One day, Yuesong asked Ye to come and said, “your have learned the White Cloud Knife, and it’s just a matter of getting stronger. Starting today, I’ll teach you spell work. This is a classic Taoist art and has many variations, it’s very hard to practice, do you have the faith to learn it?”
Ye has seen the power of Yuesong’s spellwork, hearing the news, he was excited, “how impossible could it be? I guess I’ll just listen to you.”
Yuesong smiled, “when the spell work is good enough, you can use your internal qi to make a spell, but beginners could only make spells from paper, which is very tedious. If you are impatient like when you were before, I won’t help you.” Ye stuck out his tongue and stopped bragging.
Spell work was a very complex art. Yuesong had Ye memorize more than fifty kinds of spell patterns. When Ye was able to draw these patterns with his eyes closed, then he had to learn to make the ink needed for each spell, which needed more than ten ingredients, and took Ye a long time to master.
By the time this lesson was finished, two more months had passed.
One day, Yuesong asked Ye to come inside and said, “spell work has a lot of changes, but it generally falls into four types, attack, defend, healing, and helping, some are harder than others. I will teach you the “thunder snake” spell, it’s powerful and difficult to grasp, so you must practice diligently, alright?”
Remembering how Yuesong made the thunder burn the ribbons on Junjing’s gown, Ye was motivated and nodded. Yuesong started to teach the kid the spell’s pattern, ways to channel the power, which Ye memorized and then began practicing breathing with Yuesong’s guidance. After a day or so, Ye already made good progress, so Yuesong patted Ye happily and complimented him.
Ye was happy at the praise and wanted to hear more of it. Taking out a piece of spell paper, he started drawing the spell’s pattern. Yuesong laughed, “it’s not that easy, even if you were a genius and practiced all the time, it’d take about six months for you to get a thunder snake...”
Ye didn’t believe it, he huffed, “please, how hard could it be? It’s just a thunder snake?” he then picked up the paper spell, used the breathing method Yuesong taught him, and tossed the spell into the air.
Yuesong shook his head and grinned, waiting for the kid to make a fool of himself. But, after the spell paper left Ye’s hand, it turned into a ray of thunder and exploded into a dozen thunder chains, flying everywhere in the room. Instantly, the thunder burned the room full of pits and holes. Yuesong gasped, he picked-up the shocked Ye and ran out the door. As soon as they went outside, the room collapsed.
Ye stared, and his mouth stayed open in shock with no words, while Yuesong frowned and muttered, “body of thunder, how did I forget he was a body of thunder?”
Yuesong put Ye on the ground and asked, “do you feel any different?”
The flustered Ye shook his head, “what... what happened?”
Yuesong answered after a while, “Ye, your body has thunder energy on the loose. When you tried to use the spell, the thunder activated and went everywhere, it’s not able to focus, which is not good for your practice.”
Ye looked anxious, “then what do we do?”
Yuesong said, “for now, we have to seal the thunder and start from the beginning. You have to try to make the thunder energy combine with your own power, until you can control it.”
Ye replied, “what are we waiting for? Let’s block it now.” Yuesong nodded and pointed to the sky, where a powerful gust of energy went from his hand up into the clouds. A crackle of thunder sounded, as if the power broke the sky. Ye was stunned and couldn’t speak.
The thunder formed into the shape of a ball along Yuesong’s fingers. He pointed to Ye, and the ball of thunder flashed along Ye’s forehead, lighting up Ye allover, as if he was surrounded by light. Ye could feel a numbness and couldn’t help but scream.
After a long while, the thunder disappeared and Ye fell to the ground as if he lost all energy. Yuesong took a big breath, “I locked the thunder and from now on, you have to practice harder than ever, and try to make the thunder your own, understand?”
Ye gritted his teeth and nodded gravely.
Starting that day, Ye practiced night and day. In two months or so, he was able to create thunder about a foot long, making Yuesong feel relieved and believe that the kid was gifted.
As Yuesong trained Ye in his skills, he saw how the kid’s thunder was now able to form a snake-shape, so he was happy yet also worried. He told Ye, “your power is growing fast and will one day overcome the seal I put on you. By then, you have to be careful and not break the seal.”
Ye didn’t understand, “if I broke the seal, then what?”
Yuesong answered, “the seal is like the floodgates of a river, if removed suddenly, the tide of energy will explode, which will break apart your body. So you have to be very careful and make the energy be absorbed by the land, when the thunder completely combines with your own power, then the seal is properly removed.”
Ye nodded and remembered the warning.
At that moment, Yunze arrived, annoying Yuesong, “didn’t I say don’t bother us without anything important?”
Yunze looked nervous, “it’s important, definitely important! Sir, I found the Moon Glow Mirror!”
Yuesong now looked anxious too, “Moon Glow Mirror? What happened? Where did you see it?”
Yunze explained. A few months ago, a bear monster showed up in Ganzhou City. The monster had thunder power and was destroying homes and killing animals, even eating a few people. The local government was helpless and begged Yunze for help, so he and his disciples fought the bear monster and managed to injure the bear.
The bear monster then tried to flee after turning into a ray of thunder. Yunze wanted to eradicate it for good and followed it all the way into Mt. Qilian. The mountain was covered in snow, and since he didn’t know the area, Yunze lost sight of the bear. Because the bear was hurt on the inside, while not dead, it has lost all of its power and was back to being a regular bear, so Yunze and crew left the mountain.
After a month or so, the bear monster reappeared in Ganzhou, not weaker but stronger than ever. Yunze was shocked to hear the news from the local government and tried to kill the bear monster for good. But this time, the bear monster was not only stronger physically but smarter too. While not able to defeat Yunze, it used spells, ate a few people overnight and fled back to Mt. Qilian. And in another two weeks, it showed up again, healed and with stronger power and intellect.
By this point in the story, Yunze said, “I thought about it over and over, and I think the bear had to have found the Moon Glow Mirror, which could revive the dead. There’s just no other explanation. But I didn’t want to tell the main clan leader without having proof, which is why I’m telling you. I didn’t kill the bear, just chased it into the mountain and asked my disciples to look for its hiding place. We looked for half a month and found nothing, so we just blocked main routes out of the mountain to make sure it doesn’t come down the mountain again.”
Yuesong was shocked, “so it’s likely the Moon Glow Mirror is on Mt. Qilian. This can’t wait, let’s head over now.” He grabbed Ye and made a spell for a flying cloud. Yunze had long practiced the Sword Craft and was able to make a sword fly, so he also threw a sword into the air to guide them. The three quickly reached the area outside the valley of Mt. Qilian.
The rolling hills of Mt. Qilian were endless. In the valley of the mountain, icicles hung thousands of feet into the air from sharp cliffs, resembling a frozen waterfall and presented a stunning sight.
Around 100 clan members in Yunze’s branch all waited by the entrance to the icy valley. Seeing the trio’s arrival, they all bowed. Yuesong stepped onto the icy plane and looked around, it was white allover and hard to see very far. If they wanted to look for a single bear, it’d be like looking for a needle in the ocean.