The Sacred Ruins

Yellow Ox was rather listless. He had indeed secretly recorded that incident and submitted it to the awkward incidents network for fun.

After Chu Feng received the notification, he was first dazed and, following that, broke into howling laughter. It was indeed a rare amusement to see the Black Yak in such a state of fury.

"Black Boss, this isn’t something to be angry about. Real men must have the courage to pursue his dreams!" Chu Feng comforted from thousands of miles away, with some evil tone in his voice.

"Brat, scram! I don’t want to see you," cried the Black Yak.

Even through the communicator, one could feel the tremor of Mount Kunlun. Chu Feng was greatly amused and ended the call in a good mood.

After which, he immediately informed Zhou Yitian of this matter.

Zhou Yitian did not disappoint. After confirming the piece of news on the internet, he immediately arranged a grand news conference.

During the conference, he produced the video of the Demon Ox howling thunderously at Mount Kunlun, causing a great earthquake. Almost immediately, all the media started moving.

That was a true beast king, so any news related to them were always the first to be reported. It was hard not to cause a commotion.

This was supposed to be a serious topic, but in truth, the people who watched the video did not feel any fear towards the beast king.

Seeing the infuriated and repeatedly roaring Demon Ox, the people felt greatly amused. The masses had no pity to offer Zhou Yitian, because they were all busy laughing at the comical scene.

"This movie is no doubt a godly creation. Even before screening, they have started to interact with a beast king. Zhou Yitian is truly a genius, let’s wait and see if he’ll be skinned alive by the old ox."

"This film is a must-see. I have a feeling that even more spectacular things will happen after the ox watches this film."

"You’re totally right! Let’s book a ticket quickly, we’ll go and cheer them on tomorrow."

...

It could be said that the Demon Ox’s thunderous roar turned out to be the most effective advertisement for the film. The video circulated explosively throughout the country and even abroad.

The cast of felt increasing pressure. Everyone was flabbergasted. How would they even find a beast king, let alone get one to come and interact with them?

That night, there was no peace to be found.

Even the relevant authorities were were sent on alert. They found Zhou Yitian and asked him to lay low for a while. Even though they supported him from behind, further provoking a beast king was not wise.

Zhou Yitian felt somewhat guilty. He patted his chest and assured them that it would not happen again.

Actually, he did know some propriety. Although he vexed the Black Yak, he did not dare to offend the White Snake too much, even going as far as calling her an immortal to that end.

With an all-star celebrity cast, naturally had the advantage—it was truly a feast for the eyes. All the famous first line celebrities of the entertainment circle came forth to interact with the audience to great fanfare.

Relatively, the premiere of was much quieter. Not only did they not invite celebrities, even the main actor Chu Feng was nowhere to be seen.

How would he dare to show his face amidst all the wind and waves [1]. There was no doubt that "certain people" were waiting for him to appear.

The premiere of proceeded with a crushing momentum—the lineup of glamorous celebrities and VIPs shook the masses. The investors behind the movie were simply too strong, so a lot of heavyweights were invited.

At the premier, they announced with great confidence that their movie would break all records and form a box office miracle with unstoppable momentum.

Among them, there were stars who disdainfully criticized that one could not hope for too much from certain other films that were crudely produced with no professional cast. They haughtily claimed that these unorthodox people could only rely on instigating a temporary hype to somewhat promote their poor work. The box office would decide everything, and in the end, those people would only meet their Waterloo [2].

Comparatively, was rather miserable. No celebrities were invited, and the people featured in the posters such as Jiang Luoshen, Lin Naoi and Vajra did not appear.

There were only a few actors on site.

When Ye Qingrou, Chen Luoyan arrived and saw the circumstances, they fled swiftly.

Only the clairvoyant Du Huaijin and the clairaudient Ouyang Qing were in high spirits as they mingled with the spectators, addicted to the stardom.

"We do not need to invite celebrities, we only invite spectators. We will let the audience decide which one is the actual peerless film. We will shut up a certain group of people with the box office statistics."

This was Zhou Yitian’s grand proclamation. Indeed, he was at his wits end since he was unable to invite any famous person to the premiere.

This day, all the theaters were packed to the brim. The sea of people crowded the area, and it was even difficult to squeeze through.

This level of popularity was unprecedented, to the point that even the popcorn was sold out, not to mention the tickets. The ticket scalpers were taking advantage of this time to make their fortune, raising the tickets to exorbitant prices.

It was a rare grand occasion—the likes of which have never been seen.

It was, quoting the evaluation by the media, "crazy!"

Interviewing the spectators revealed additional reasons for the explosive popularity.

Among them people, who went to watch were relatively more passionate. They were chasing after their favorites celebrities, something the film was able to offer in abundance.

As for the people who went to watch , most of them were curious. The movie was truly unconventional and adventurous. It was a film consisting of actual battles between terrifying beast kings, something that was unimaginable previously.

At the same time, their unconventionality lay in the fact that some of the cast were "stolen", for instance, Jiang Luoshen, Vajra, Silverwings, and Lin Naoi to name a few.

"I must watch the romance between the Demon Ox and the White Snake Immortal, ha-ha..."

In the Kunlun Mountains, the great Black Yak saw this and nearly threw his communicator away.

"Moo, this grandfather is furious!" Following which, he caught Yellow Ox and started to beat him up, saying, "Little bastard, you have the guts to secretly film me and release it to the internet. I’m really going to beat you to death!"

Yellow Ox started to panic. He threatened that if the old ox hurt him any more, he would let Chu Feng release even more sensitive information. At that time, the name "Demon Ox the Love Saint" would shake the world and be known by every household.

The great Black Yak could only glare at him in fury!

Every theater was packed with people. The people who wanted to watch also had another reason: they wanted to know the identity of the lead actor.

The reason being that, in the recent days, the rumors claimed he and Jiang Luoshen share an intimate relationship, truly dubious.

"I want to know who that mysterious guy actually is. This time, he can’t hide!"

"That’s right, I also want to know his origins!"

A group of people were excitedly anticipating the identity of the male lead.

"Oh god, Luoshen you’re going to watch and not my ?! This really breaks my heart!" Xia Qianyu complained begrudgingly.

"I just want to see how they are slandering me, so that I can make early preparations," explained Jiang Luoshen truthfully. She was extremely worried that she would be dragged into the center of the storm after the film was screened.

Similarly, within Jiang Ning city, Lin Naoi was also heading to the cinema to watch , hoping to find some answers within.

...

"Son, you’re the lead actor, so aren’t you going to watch your own movie?" Wang Jing called out to Chu Feng, hoping to watch the movie together.

Chu Feng shook his head immediately. Going there was the last thing on his mind.

In the end, Wang Jing turned to Chu Zhiyuan and dragged him to the theater, saying, "We have to contribute towards our son’s box office record!"

After the public screening started, both movies all sold out.

At that time, Chu Feng switched off his communicator, afraid that too many people would be calling him at once.

Afterwards, he swiftly left the city.

He decided that it wasn’t really safe even if he stayed at home. It would be better to go hunting outside the city. As long as he didn’t need to see all the commotion, his mind would be peaceful.

During the recent days, he would often leave the city and enter the desolate mountain forests, and each time, he would return with all kinds of game and fruits, greatly improving the food stores in the house.

But this time, Chu Feng decided that he had to go farther away from the city. He left a message at home saying that he would be staying out in the wilds for two or three days, and that he would be alright.

Outside of Shuntian, there were very few mutant beasts near the villages, but most were found in the mountains.

Nowadays, the more remote villages were largely abandoned. People had now moved towards the convenient city states where the army could also protect them when needed.

The influx was so great that the residential areas were planned for expansion and negotiations with the contractors were already underway.

The area surrounding Shuntian could be said to be relatively peaceful.

Unless one rushed into the depths of the mysterious and desolate mountains, there was little chance of meeting any especially dangerous existences.

"Eh?"

Suddenly, Chu Feng extended his hands and caught a snow-white flower slowly drifting down from above.

Chu Feng raised his head and looked into the distance.

He focused his vision and noticed a gigantic tree, well over a hundred meters tall—even the adjacent hill could not cover it.

Chu Feng advanced with caution.

After seeing this tree, he recalled the day of the great change.

He once saw, from his seat on the train, an ancient maidenhair tree that was taller than a hill, dancing in the wind and rain.

He also saw a giant vine piercing through the skies and floating in the great firmament. Even a satellite was dragged down, causing it to fall onto the train.

During the great change, many mysterious plants appeared in space and greatly affected satellite communications.

After that, every nation was so nervous that they fired numerous missiles towards space and destroyed the strange plants.

At the same time, the giant maidenhair tree on the ground also became a target for elimination.

Chu Feng learnt of all these things after joining the Hollow Jade Temple.

Many mysterious changes had been happening since the post-civilization era, and the governments all knew of this. That was why, during the time of crisis, they were able to respond decisively.

Both east and west unanimously mobilized at that time.

Lu Tong told Chu Feng that many countries used up most of their missile reserves after that one assault.

Fortunately, they were able to manufacture more and replenish some of them them in a timely manner.

Chu Feng’s expression was serious because such a plant had reemerged!

He skirted the small hill and came before the tree.

He observed that this was a giant chinese scholar tree [3], incomparably sturdy and well over 500 meters tall. Its numerous flowers hung in strings—they were snowy white and radiant, swaying and fluttering elegantly with the wind, painting a scene akin to a gentle snowstorm.

A faint fragrance hung in the air, but Chu Feng was certain that this was not a catalyst.

At the same time, he felt a faint willpower within the tree. It felt more like a living being with a partial soul than a plant.

Chu Feng’s divine instinct wasn’t prominent back then, so he wasn’t able to sense the power of the great vine, but now it was different.

Today, he was an expert with astonishing divine instinct, so he sensed the uniqueness of the tree.

"This world is still undergoing great change. A shroud of mystery surrounds everything, it is truly hard to see through." Chu Feng sighed.

The great changes were extremely odd and mysterious, and one could not even touch upon the truth at this moment.

Even though the tree was special, the pollens, unfortunately, were not capable of promoting Chu Feng’s evolution, and it also had no effect on the nearby mutants.

Chu Feng left and started on a long trek through the mountainous regions surrounding Shuntian. Perhaps fortunately, he did not find anymore ancient trees.

The remaining flora were all normal.

Chu Feng went farther and farther away. Possessing an astonishing physique, he did not feel fatigued at all. By twilight, he had already left Shuntian 800 miles behind.

The glow of the sunset spilled onto the mountainous forests, dying them red.

This area was extremely quiet. The roar of wild animals could not be heard, and flying birds of prey could not be seen.

Chu Feng bathed in the sunset as his lonely figure dashed through the woods. He wanted to find a place to rest and eat some food.

"Huu..."

Suddenly, he heard a rather odd sound. The source of that sound was far away, but nonetheless, it was caught by his superhuman senses.

"It sounds like the sound of breathing, but how could there be such a coarse breath sound?" Chu Feng pondered.

He was extremely cautious as he slowly approached.

After walking for quite a few miles, he saw, amidst the mountainous terrain, an amazing sight.

There on the mountain side was an abandoned mine, glowing with silvery light. It produced sounds that were comparable to coarse breath sounds!

Chu Feng was greatly surprised as he also discovered a peculiar tree. Although it was not very thick, it was bold and full of vigor. The bark had cracks running across its surface in several areas, forming a pattern akin to a dragon in hibernation.

The tree’s roots penetrated deep into the earth adjacent to the mine. It stood one zhang [4] tall, with faint violet colored leaves that carried a fiery vibrance.

"A mutated tree that can promote evolution!" Chu Feng was certain that this was a mysterious mutant tree.

It was actually so tall! Much taller than the previous trees which were only about three chi [5] tall.

"This is... a silver mine?"

Chu Feng was surprised. He had a strange feeling that this abandoned silver mine possessed life.

...

[1] 風尖浪口— literally means "on tip of the wind and the mouth of the waves". It is used to describe a situation on the verge of an intense struggle with society.

[2] 滑铁卢 — Waterloo is a place in Belgium where the great Napoleon Bonaparte faced his greatest defeat in the hands of the Duke of Wellington and the Prince of Wahlstatt. It is used to describe a great defeat.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo

[3] 槐樹 — chinese scholar tree or japanese pagoda tree

Link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styphnolobium_japonicum

[4] Zhang 丈 is Chinese measure of length and is equal to 3.2 meters or 10尺

[5] Chi 尺 is one chinese foot = ⅓ of a meter

Link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement#Length_2