manynovel Chapter 19 The Son of Aolai 1
Chapter 19 The Son of Aolai 1
On the second day of the second month of the 5836th year of the Taiyi calendar, at Sushanfang on Aolai Island.
The midday sun shines on the glazed tiles of the buildings in the neighborhood. It should be a time for a lazy afternoon nap, but today, Sushanfang is shrouded in a depressing silence.
The streets, restaurants, rooftops—everywhere a person could stand was packed with people.
Although the crowd stood shoulder to shoulder, there was not a sound; no one whispered, no one talked loudly, and no one ran around.
Everyone stood facing north, looking up at the sky, listening to the cultivator standing on a sword in mid-air reading the announcement:
"Aolai is now under lockdown. However, the unruly nature of the Aolai mountain people remains, and their rebellious behavior persists. Although separated for a century, the people outside the island still live in fear and anxiety at the mere mention of Aolai's name, trembling with apprehension during the day and trembling with fear at night..."
The cultivator who read the announcement was at the Foundation Establishment stage, dressed in a jet-black battle robe. Judging from his attire, he should be from the Northern Xuanwu Six Ding Six Jia banner.
Behind him were rolling mountains and a towering, ethereal five-fingered figure reaching into the clouds!
No matter when or where, as long as the people of Aolai look up to the north, they will see this huge five-fingered phantom. For more than 100 years, it has stood before the people of Aolai and weighed heavily on their hearts.
Even on this day when the ban was lifted, this deterrent effect still exists.
"Furthermore, although the Celestial Realm is vast, there is no unclaimed land. Therefore, although the seal has been lifted and the teleportation between the Two Realms Mountains is now open, migration is not permitted; only immigration to vassal worlds is allowed..."
In the ensuing silence, the cultivator read the announcement aloud in one breath. Unsurprisingly, the moment the sentence "No relocation allowed" was uttered, a commotion erupted below.
One cultivator stared wide-eyed and questioned, "The only vassal world that's recently opened up is the Great Wilderness, right? Isn't it currently experiencing a demonic calamity? Are we being sent there to fight demonic beasts?"
One of the monks beat his chest and stamped his feet, exclaiming, "This is outrageous! They won't allow us to move out, yet they've lifted the damn ban!"
One monk broke down and cursed, "Immigrants have to go to academies to take exams on scriptures and divination! I'm 58 years old, what the hell am I supposed to do?!"
In fact, the news that "no one is allowed to move out" and "only immigrants are allowed" had been circulating for two years. However, after a century of being locked down, the people of Aolai were full of expectations for this lifting of the ban. Now that the news has been confirmed, many people have collapsed and lost their composure.
Many cultivators pointed to the sky and cursed, their shouts, cries, and roars mingling together in a rolling wave of sound.
The black-armored cultivator ignored him, quickly read out the signature and date of the announcement, and coldly said, "It is hoped that all parties in Aolai will comply. So be it."
After speaking, the cultivator tossed the notice aside and flew away on his sword.
The notice drifted down like a feather, swaying gently towards the center of the neighborhood. The old steward of the Heavenly Court stationed in Sushan Neighborhood was already standing in front of the bulletin board. Seeing the notice fall, he gently pointed and pasted it up.
The old steward had white hair and beard, but his eyes were still sharp. He glanced at the crowd that had gathered around him and sighed inwardly. He understood the anger of the people of Aolai, but the Heavenly Court's orders were not something a mere steward like him could change.
"Manager, how exactly will the teleportation to Two Realms Mountain be opened?"
"Old man! Does immigration mean going to the wilderness?"
"Lift the ban, lift the ban, lift the ban on the Great Wilderness? You want us to fill in monsters? I'll fucking kill you!"
……
Outside the isolation barrier, the crowd questioned and cursed, their spittle almost hitting the old steward's face. But he was over 150 years old and had been in Aolai for decades; what kind of scene hadn't he seen?
Seeing that although the crowd was excited, no one dared to act rashly, he felt relieved and announced loudly, "Entry and exit to the Two Realms Mountain teleportation point are by token. Those who wish to leave should go to the manager's office to obtain a travel pass!"
As more and more people gathered around, the arrogant people of Aolai might actually get spat on in the face.
The old steward hurriedly summoned his flying sword, stepped onto it, and used a sound-receiving spell to shout down to the people below.
"There are no restrictions on immigration; all vassal states are welcome to go! Recently, only the Great Wilderness Realm has been opened up—after ten years of bloody war, the demonic calamity in the Great Wilderness Realm has been quelled, and the situation has stabilized. Immigration is a great thing—the exact immigration plan will be released soon, so please be patient!"
If the Great Wilderness Realm has abundant spiritual energy and the demonic calamity has been quelled, then it's worth considering. After these words were spoken, everyone calmed down a bit.
The cultivators, whose relatives and friends had been captured and taken to the Great Wilderness, shouted at him, "Has the demonic calamity been quelled? What are the casualties among those captured?"
The old manager ignored him and simply shouted, "This notice will be posted for seven days! Anyone who dares to tear it down won't get a pass!"
After saying this, he rode away on his sword, and several Foundation Establishment cultivators took to the air and chased after him on their flying swords.
Most of the remaining cultivators were unable to give chase and could only gather around the bulletin board, jumping up and down and cursing.
Amidst the commotion, several loud crashes were heard, and the barrier formation was smashed to pieces.
When everyone looked closely, they realized it was a boy of seventeen or eighteen years old.
This person was tall and slender, with a clear face, sharp eyebrows, and an arrogant gaze. A small scar on his forehead extended diagonally to his hairline, adding a touch of wild charm to his face.
The boy himself was nothing special, but because he had very eccentric parents, many people in the crowd recognized him. One person said, "Cai Fei, you dare to do something that violates the rules of heaven? Don't you want to live anymore?!"
Cai Fei scoffed, "Violate the Heavenly Rules? Just because the Heavenly Court's name has the character 'Heaven' in it doesn't mean it represents Heaven! Heaven hasn't agreed to that!"
He strode forward, spat at the Heavenly Court edict, then took out a piece of red silk, from which he took out a stack of talisman papers. With a flick of his wrist, the talisman papers flew onto the bulletin board and stuck between the lines of the Heavenly Court's announcement.
"Knot!"
With a soft shout, Cai Fei quickly connected the talismans with his fingers, making it look like a red border was added to the large characters on the notice. Combined with the cloud and thunder patterns around the notice, it was extra festive.
"Adding a decorative trim, without tearing or destroying it, doesn't count as breaking the rules!"
Cai Fei, beaming with pride, kicked out and left a dirty shoe print on the Heavenly Court's announcement. Then, head held high, he summoned his spirit bamboo kite and leisurely flew away.
The crowd looked at each other, thinking that since Cai Fei dared to do this, they couldn't just stand by and do nothing. So they all stepped forward and proceeded to verbally attack the Heavenly Court's announcement.
"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!"
All sorts of random spittle sprayed all over the announcement, but the scraps of paper that Cai Fei stuck to remained clean and new.
One cultivator lamented, "What a damn waste! They even used a cleaning talisman array just to put on some decorative trim!"
Only then did everyone have the interest to see what Cai Fei had posted.
The book was written on yellow paper with lace trim and printed with blood-red sand. Although the materials were cheap, it contained two talismans. One was a very ordinary cleansing talisman; the other was intricately connected, and it was impossible to tell what kind of talisman it was at first glance.
However, there were always those who knew their stuff. Someone exclaimed, "This is a flashing rune that only lights up at night!"
"boring!"
Someone spat at the edge of the poster, then snapped their fingers, and a small cloud of black mist exploded in front of the bulletin board, forming a small black curtain.
Sure enough, the talismans on the lace began to emit white light. With each breath, the white light intertwined, forming striking characters that eventually became a half-baked doggerel:
Song of the Great Wilderness
A thousand demons' blood stains the sea and sand, ten thousand people are trapped between the two worlds. I carve open the Heavenly Gate to make books my path, and I will cross the vast ocean as my boat.
The ashes of calamity are not yet cold as new armor is donned for battle; the spiritual veins have dried up, yet another world has emerged. You gentlemen have promised me the cost of building a ship; in return, I promise you a piece of the vast wilderness.
Finally, there is a signature: Son of Aolai - Cai Fei.
After understanding it, many people were dumbfounded: Has this kid gone crazy for money? He actually used the Heavenly Court's announcement of lifting the ban to write a poem to borrow money!
"The son of Aolai? Damn, what a load of bull..."
"His good-for-nothing father and mother must have been captured and sent to the Great Wilderness, right? Without parents, he'll have to become the son of all the people of Aolai. I just don't know if I'll take him in or not!"
"A legitimate immigration would cost at least several hundred thousand. Where is he, a poor boy from Wujialing, going to borrow that money?"
……
The crowd was buzzing with discussion, but Cai Fei had already ridden his kite far north. Under the midday sun, the bright red flowers on the notice board seemed to open their mouths, as if silently mocking everything around them.
The market gradually returned to calm, but a sense of oppression still lingered in the air.
After the Great Sage was defeated in battle years ago, the Heavenly Court sealed Aolai for a hundred years, plowed up the fields, dug caves, severed the spiritual veins, and uprooted all the spiritual plants, making it difficult for cultivators on the entire island to cultivate and leaving them with no hope of achieving the Great Dao.
Now, a century has passed, but the suffering of the people of Aolai does not seem to be over.
Although the Heavenly Court issued a pardon, the words "no relocation allowed" acted like another lock, sealing off most of the thoughts.
The only hope seems to be immigration.