The Six Immortals

 Wan Snake Cave

The heavenly blue sky oversaw as fog and mist curled around the Quinyang Mountains creating a picturesque shade.

A small lonely figure was busy at work inside the medicine orchard, and occasionally, his hand would wipe the sweat from his forehead. His name was Bi Fan.

Just looking at his weak body ignited a sense of pity, but in the Tian Yu world, vanquished of all compassion, no one would sympathize with him.

Bi Fan was an orphan who came to Quinyang School as a child and had been adopted by an old man at Quinyang School of medicine to look after the medicine orchard. He had never known his parents.

Immediately after adopting him, Old man Xing named him Bi Fan (Completely Ordinary).

Now 14 years old, Bi Fan still looked like an eleven year old owing to the malnutrition.

In the year that preceded Bi Fan’s adoption by the old man, Bi Fan suffered hardships that were beyond description.

Status of a medicine orchard boy is awfully low, lower than a sweeper who sweeps the floor, but the nursemaid cooked good food, where could he find that?

Medicine orchard farming required a great deal of expertise. It was a difficult task with a lot of pressure.

Inability to finish the task meant severe punishment, his wage might get cancelled and any fight would be futile.

From time to time, upon completion of the task, the old man would give some rewards, among these rewards was Dan (synthesized pellets which granted physical strength).

Bi Fan could certainly use some physical strength, but he had never had the good fortune.

Old man had handed over the management of the Orchard and rewards to Zhu San, only to make things even more difficult for him.

In the absence of the old man, Bi Fan answered to him.

As soon as the old man would go away, trouble followed Bi Fan, not only did Zhu San make things difficult for him, but other boys would also constantly bully him.

“Bi Fan, can you help me look after these purple stem grass, it’s very easy, great to have you helping me.”

“Idiot, hand over the Zhi Flower, if you make a mistake, you will regret it.” (Zhi is plant root used in Chinese medicine)

Bi Fan was very skinny as compared to the other boys at the farm and they had nicknamed him “idiot”.

In reality Bi Fan wasn’t stupid at all, or incapable of understanding things, he just pretended to be, so he would receive lesser blame.

One day, Bi Fan was assisting a guy named Daniu. He asked Bi Fan to take care of a Zhu vermilion fruit but he accidentally broke a leaf.

After Daniu found out about the incident, he rushed to the orchard to catch hold of Bi Fan.

“Idiot, what did I tell you? You broke the Zhu vermilion fruit, now I’ll break your arm!”

Then, Daniu pounced in Bi Fan’s direction giving him no time to dodge, and within no time, his strong and well-built arms grabbed Bi Fan. One could clearly see that Bi Fan was no match for him.

“What…..?”

Then with one strong push, Daniu dislocated Bi Fan’s slender arm, leaving him in agonizing pain. He trembled and shuddered, but he couldn’t dare to complain.

“Patience, tolerance…..” these words repeated in Bi Fan’s head.

In the world of Tian Yu, strength was the supreme law and above everything.

Bi Fan was weak, weaker than even the most ordinary men, in fact, fragile would be the most appropriate description for him.

Perennially being a target of bullies, he had come to master the art of tolerance.

Once he had attempted to resist a group of boys at the orchard, and as a result of that, it took him a month to completely recover from the consequences.

Since then, Bi Fan had become slower, lonelier, and even more of an “Idiot”.

Bi Fan was always required to assist the other boys in taking care of their tasks, especially the ones that required constant attention.

He was never able to achieve his annual quota because he had to take care of the work assigned to the other boys as well.

In the two years that had come to pass, nothing good had come his way. His only benefits were that he had learnt a lot about the growing conditions of various herbs, more than any of the boys in his company.

In the eyes of the world, Quinyang School was a paradise, but for Bi Fan, it was nothing less than a hell.

He wanted to escape from the Quinyang Mountain, but the lofty mountains were very steep. He would never be able to escape as he was far too weak.

The day Bi Fan feared the most every year had come. It was time to hand over the herbs to Zhu San. He not only had to take care of his herbs, but those of other boys as well.

Bi Fan hadn’t completed his assignments for 2 years. If he faltered this year too, the consequences would be grave.

Zhu San had already told Bi Fan that he would tear him to pieces if Bi Fan didn’t submit his assignment on schedule.

Bi Fan’s life depended on this, but he was desperately failing. His assignment was harder than most boys, and to be able to complete it along with helping other boys was nothing short of wishful thinking.

Zhu San’s ferocious appearance gave Bi Fan goose bumps.

Zhu San was fat like a melon and his walk shook the ground and there was always a ferocious look on his face. None of the other boys were a match for him and everyone feared him as well.

Zhu San would start collecting the herbs in 2 days and there wasn’t enough time for Bi Fan to finish his assignment.

Growing herbs meant following a process rendering Bi Fan totally helpless. All he could do was sit and wait for the punishment, and hope that he could beg his way out with Zhu San.

Bi couldn’t sleep that night, and first thing in the morning, he heard a noise outside.

“Not good!”

Zhu San was on his way, followed by a crowd waiting in anticipation, to see the herb collection.

Each time the herbs were collected, Bi Fan’s shack was bustling with excitement, because each time he failed to deliver the herbs on schedule, he would face punishment.

“Idiot, first you turn over the herbs, and then explain why you didn’t come out to greet Zhu San”.

“Idiot, you did not complete the assignment again! You are such a useless person that even your existence is the waste of food.”

A lot of boys had gathered to watch Bi Fan’s punishment.

Bi Fan quickly ran out of his shack, and bowed his head, his fleeting eyes flashed with a light of resentment.

Zhu San didn’t pay any attention to Bi Fan, as he finished scanning Bi Fan’s orchard, and said, “Bi Fan you are getting bolder day by day, you seem to have finished only a third of the assignment, this is not going to work. You have forged the path of your own doom.”

His tone was extremely cold, as his hand lashed out in Bi Fan’s direction to slap on his thin body.

For Bi Fan, there was no place to hide, nowhere to run.

Zhu San was more powerful than anyone and even a normal person could not take his hit unscathed then how could he?

It would be foolish to think that Zhu San’ fat body was a hindrance to his agility, because once he moved, his speed was beyond match.

Bi Fan didn’t react as Zhu San’s palm hit him.

“Bang!”

Bi Fan went flying 10 meters into the air, he emitted scarlet blood as he hit the ground, unable to move, he felt dizzy.

Zhu San had cultivated his power using the Yun Shi (stone inscriptions that grant power), and the power bestowed upon him was enough to kill a tiger. Zhu San only used a third of his power, but for Bi Fan, it felt as if he was about to die. (In the Tian Yu world, Yun Shi was a very important refined material that had high density, heavy and was extremely rare. The fist contained the great might of 1000 Jin. In the world of Tian Yu, Yun Shi was specifically designed to test the strength of practitioners.)

In the Tian Yu world, practitioners were divided into fetus category, emerging from the womb category, magical powers category, and going all the way up to the Immortal spirit category at the top. After reaching the immortal spirit category, one would be able to rise above the 6 Jies (realms).

The 6 Jies (Kingdoms or realms) consisted of Buddhist Jie, devil Jie, spirit Jie, world of immortals, magical Jie and chaos Jie.

Fetus category was again divided into nine layers, first layer was heavy strength (Qiang Zhuang), second layer was growing strength (Xu Li), third layer was martial strength (Wu Li), fourth layer was inner breath (Ne Xi), fifth layer was inner organs (Zang Fu), sixth layer was brave (Yong Wu), seventh layer was spiritual intelligence (Ling Hui ), eighth layer was enormous strength (Ju Li) and the ninth layer was the transformation (Tui Bian).

The first layer, Heavy Strength, granted an enormous physical strength, where the practitioner would undertake training to achieve the strength of 200 Jin, which was far more than what ordinary people could ever achieve.

The second layer granted the ability to store energy, where the practitioner would consume Dan which strengthened their bones till they had effectively stored up to strength of 600 Jin.

The third layer, Martial Strength, was the layer which granted enough strength to be able to surpass the strength of 1000 Jin. After reaching this layer, one could join the ranks of the practitioners (martial artists).

After reaching the fourth layer, inner breath, practitioners studied the teachings of Buddha and were able to store their vital breath inside their body and produced qi, which could be used as an explosive surge of power, greatly enhancing all aspects of the body. One had to reach this stage to be genuinely considered as a martial artist.

As far as layers of inner organs, brave, spiritual intelligence, enormous strength and transformation were concerned, only people like Zhu San could hope to achieve it.

If one was able to produce inner breath, he would immediately be accepted as a martial disciple, irrespective of age or build and his status would see an enormous rise.

Bi Fan hadn’t surrendered himself to mediocrity and kept on striving to work hard and practice, but his body was just too weak. He couldn’t even match the strength of the people at the first layer. So being constantly bullied was not something surprising.

“Bi Fan, your body is not suitable for practicing, so give up.” This was what the old man had always been suggesting him.

But Bi Fan never gave up and continued to increase his training volumes, only to yield negligible results.

“I don’t want to do minor jobs forever, I don’t want to be bullied eternally, I want to be strong, I will transform in to a man of ….” Bi Fan’s inner voice would scream as he would lose consciousness during training.

“Zhu San, Bi Fan has fainted, he might die soon, what do we do now? Should we throw him into the Wan Snake Cave?” A boy approached to examine Bi Fan’s condition with a pleased look on his face.

Throwing him into the Wan Snake Cave would be equivalent to destroying his corpse and so too so effortlessly and this would also be much less troublesome for them.

Zhu San waived his fat hand and commanded 7-8 boys to throw Bi Fan behind the mountain.

Behind the Quinyang Mountain was an enormous cave, dark and bottomless, inside it were countless poisonous snakes. It was known in the Quinyang School as the Wan Snake Cave (cave of ten thousand snakes). In Quinyang School, generally, the traitors and enemies were thrown into the Wan Snake Cave which was considered as the most vicious punishment.

The people of Quinyang School trembled with fear at the reference of the Wan Snake Cave.

The Wan Snake Cave’s opening was only 100 meters in circumference, but you could smell its stench from far away.

Just the smell of the cave was enough to make most people dizzy and Wan Snake Cave had so much poison inside it that it could clearly be sensed from the outside.

The boys would not dare to go too close to the Wan Snake Cave, so they elected the 2 strongest boys from among themselves who then talked and laughed as they walked away carrying Bi Fan towards the cave.