Chapter 83: Fire Trees and Silver Flowers, a Spectacle of Heavenly Fire

On the other hill, they were unaware of the wonder here.

Being mere mortals of flesh and blood, what they could see for now was only the occurrence of the lunar eclipse.

It was already late; everyone grew a bit drowsy, yawning nonstop, just as sleep was about to overwhelm them, finally, effort did not betray the earnest.

"Quick, quick, quick! Everyone, cheer up, the lunar eclipse has appeared!"

With Song Yufi's voice full of vital energy, everyone shuddered and hurriedly looked through their telescopes.

As expected, a black shadow suddenly appeared beside the originally bright moon, as if it had been lurking for a long time, gradually devouring the moon's light.

The full moon suddenly lost a corner, looking as if a bite had been taken out of it; soon the black shadow grew larger, like thick ink, spreading across the whole moon.

The black shadow devoured quickly; the moon was left with only half, then after another hour and a half, only a crescent like a sickle remained, until it was completely swallowed.

With no trace of the moon, the sky instantly turned pitch black, and even the starlight vanished completely.

The sky seemed covered by a black curtain, with no light at all, heavy and oppressive, making everyone barely able to breathe.

Everyone instinctively held their breath, and no one spoke.

The process of a lunar eclipse consists of five stages: initial deficit, eclipse begins, maximum eclipse, renewal of light, and return to full.

Soon it would be the stage of renewal of light.

Just as everyone waited eagerly, beneath the black curtain a red shadow finally appeared, its red light flickering faintly.

Song Yufi instinctively glanced at the time, "Not right."

The previously tranquil vital energy was suddenly broken; everyone was somewhat puzzled, "What's not right?"

"The timing of the renewal of light is off; this is far too fast."

After Song Yufi's reminder, everyone realized that the time for renewal of light seemed to have come earlier.

Based on records from previous years, the observatory could calculate the timing, process, and time points of each stage of the lunar eclipse phenomenon.

Even if there were a deviation, it shouldn't be large, but this time it was ahead of their prediction by almost a full hour!

"Yeah, even if it's early, this time difference is too great."

Within the team, there was suddenly some commotion, not understanding why it was so much earlier than expected.

Everyone stared at the red shadow above, baffled, falling into discussion; finally Liu Mei spoke: "Alright, maybe there's some accident; let's continue observing."

Everyone, filled with doubt, could only keep watching; soon they found that the red light grew larger and brighter.

Not only was the timing off, but even the color and shape were wrong.

Soon a completely red object of unknown shape appeared in everyone's field of view!

The observatory staff immediately erupted in commotion, thinking they were hallucinating; they rubbed their eyes, but the bright object still hung in the sky.

"Is this the sun?"

"How could the sun appear in the middle of the night?"

The object's light grew brighter and brighter, already visible to the naked eye.

"What kind of situation is this!"

"Is this a meteor? But why does it look like a shower of gold?"

The observatory was supposed to observe the lunar eclipse, but was interrupted by a sudden unknown object.

The suddenly appearing unknown luminous object is simply unbelievable.

Even the oldest person in the observatory had never seen such a situation; soon everyone's surprise was replaced by shock and excitement.

"Never mind what it is; this time it counts as an unexpected gain—such a heavenly phenomenon occurs once a century; quickly record it and study it thoroughly later."

It turned out the lunar eclipse wasn't off; rather, another situation had appeared, obscuring the original observation.

Although we don't know why this unknown object suddenly appeared or whether it's related to the lunar eclipse, it is undoubtedly a good subject for observation and study.

Everyone once again cheered up and carefully observed the object on the horizon.

The originally dark sky suddenly brightened, like a signal; soon, amidst flashing firelight, countless similar objects appeared.

Red and black intertwined, even the hidden clouds were forced to reveal their true form.

Everyone felt dazed, as if they were about to witness the sunrise, though in fact it was still only early morning.

The black curtain was torn open a huge gap, and countless firelights fell from the horizon; the landing site was in the northwest, not far from them, seemingly the direction of the neighboring hill.

It could be seen with the naked eye.

"It's too magnificent."

"Why is there heavenly fire? What phenomenon is this?"

"Unheard of!"

"If we weren't domestically, I'd even suspect this is a military thermite bomb."

Right now the sky seemed to be raining fire; within the fireballs were countless golden lights, dragging long tails as they sped down through the night sky.

Because of the extreme speed, even several afterimages lingered in the air, faintly revealing golden trajectories.

This fire rain came all too suddenly, dyeing half the sky red; the dark sky was submerged in splendid light, like fire trees and silver flowers, raising wave after wave.

The waves were vast and magnificent, extraordinarily gorgeous.

"Look quickly, the fire rain has fallen on that hill."

Everyone saw that these heavenly fires were like crimson butterflies, flowing light unfurling wings, fluttering and dancing, intertwined with golden streams, thousands of threads, falling among the mountains and forests.

Everyone was deeply attracted by the bizarre scene before them.

It was truly too beautiful; the dreamlike scene also mingled with an indescribable magnificence.

Heavenly fire abounded, descending upon the world.

It makes one cannot help but marvel at heaven's splashed-ink brushwork, using the sky as paper to display such a grand spectacle to everyone.

……

At the same time, this spectacle was too dazzling, and was also seen by the villagers at the mountain's base.

Originally, some villagers also knew of the heavenly dog eating the moon spectacle; they weren't that they hadn't seen it, but this time even the city observatory was mobilized, so they also wanted to join the fun.

"Speaking of which, the heavenly dog eating the moon isn't anything special; I heard a total lunar eclipse happens every year or two, it's not rare. It's not worth those city folks and whatever observatory mobilizing a crowd to come over, making us wait all night for nothing."

"That's the observatory, you don't understand; they have specialized equipment for observation, we just have two eyes—how can that be compared?"

"I don't want to hear that; they look through that thing called a telescope, we just use our eyes, there's still a step missing in between."

"That's just twisted logic; I'm not going to argue with you."

"Clearly you can't out-argue me."

As the two villagers were arguing, the village chief yawned and said, "You really have energy; you've pretty much finished watching, I'm going back to sleep."

Just as the village chief was moving his small stool to get up.

"Plop——"

The small stool suddenly fell to the ground, and the village chief stared fixedly at the sky, as if he had seen something extremely unbelievable.

"This, this is heavenly fire!"

Other villagers were also drawn by the village chief's voice and followed his gaze.

Then they saw countless fire rains falling from the sky, as if a special golden sweet rain had fallen, illuminating half the sky.

And the place where they fell was exactly the mountaintop where the Mountain God resides.

……

The observatory staff were completely shocked, dumbfounded, standing still, heads raised to the sky.

They had observed and recorded all kinds of celestial phenomena, but in their minds none matched the scene before them.

"What on earth is going on? Could it be some new astronomical phenomenon, but why have we never heard of it?"

"Moreover, it hasn't caused any fire; these heavenly fires seem to be just a special light source?"

"Perhaps it's just some natural geological phenomenon that caused it, then formed this spectacle?"

"That doesn't seem right; this heavenly fire is clearly falling from the sky, a geological cause is unlikely, but we can't rule out a change in the ground's magnetic field, plus this lunar eclipse, which together caused the phenomenon."

"It doesn't make sense!"

The situation of fire rain falling from the sky didn't last long; as the last fireball disappeared into the forest, the dark curtain returned to its original state.

The silver moon's light flickered, returning to the sky, and the lunar eclipse began a new change. Only this time, much less attention was paid to it.

The people argued for a long time without reaching a conclusion, when a curious person suggested, "Why don't we go check out that mountaintop?"

The place where the heavenly fire fell was the neighboring mountaintop; if we could figure out what substance those fireballs are, we might be able to clarify the cause of this spectacle.

"But what about the later lunar eclipse?"

Song Yufi pondered for a moment and said, "Let's do this: we'll leave some people to keep filming, and others will go to where the heavenly fire fell to have a look."

This plan received unanimous agreement from everyone.

Soon Song Yufi and others went down the mountain, taking another mountain path, and happened to pass through the mountain base, which is where the Mountain God Temple is located.

Suddenly they discovered that inside and outside the temple were filled with villagers, lights blazing, as if it were daytime, leaving the observatory staff bewildered.

"Why aren't they sleeping?"

By rights, at this hour the villagers should already be asleep, yet now everyone is gathered here, making this scene truly strange.

There's nothing going on in the village, and besides they have to rise early for farm work tomorrow, so the villagers usually sleep early; now it's already past midnight, which really differs from their usual routine.

These villagers looked even more solemn, as if they were conducting some solemn, solemn ceremony.

The village chief also noticed a few figures; their expressions, illuminated by the lights, appeared somewhat strange.

"Little Song, did you also see that?"

Song Yufi and the others hadn't yet processed what the village chief said, and instinctively replied, "See what?"

"Heavenly fire! That's the Mountain God showing his spirit."

After saying that, he wore an expression of "you've struck it big."

"You really are lucky; just as you arrived here, you bumped into the Mountain God revealing his spirit."

Actually, after the village chief and others saw this spectacle, they beat drums and gongs to wake the whole village, gathering in the Mountain God Temple to worship together.

That's why Song Yufi and the others saw that scene after descending the mountain.

The observatory staff looked at each other, somewhat helpless, and said, "Village chief, this isn't the Mountain God revealing his spirit; it should be some special natural celestial phenomenon. Moreover, haven't you noticed? This heavenly fire hasn't caused any fire; it's not real fire, just a heavenly fire spectacle formed by a natural light source."

Just as they didn't believe what the village chief said, the village chief wouldn't believe what they said.

"Don't joke; we've lived at the mountain base for so long and never seen such a scene—it's definitely the Mountain God revealing his spirit."

"Exactly, then you tell us what phenomenon this is."

The few observatory staff were instantly speechless, because they truly didn't know.

However, seeing the observatory staff still wanting to argue, Song Yufi stopped them and lowered her voice, saying, "There's no need to argue about this."

The villagers' faith is deeply rooted; how could it be changed by just a few words from them?

The village chief sized them up and said, "Right, what are you planning to do? Have you finished observing?"

"We want to go up this mountain to see what the heavenly fire actually is."

The originally friendly village chief's expression changed abruptly upon hearing this, and he shook his head directly, saying, "That won't do; you're outsiders, and if you rashly go up the mountain now, you'll disturb the Mountain God."

"The Mountain God has just revealed his spirit; now is precisely the time he needs to rest."

The observatory staff never expected the villagers to stop them from going up the mountain at this moment, and they immediately became somewhat anxious.

There was an impatient colleague in the observatory who immediately couldn't help but say, "How can that be? You say no going up the mountain, then no going up; this mountain isn't yours."

Hearing this argument, the nearby villagers gradually leaned toward the village chief's side.

The village chief, with reason and evidence, advised, "Young people, I'm doing this for your own good; if you disturb the Mountain God, nobody can bear the responsibility, and moreover, climbing the mountain in the middle of the night is unsafe."

Song Yufi glanced at the village chief and the many villagers behind him; they were only a few people, and at this moment a conflict would obviously not be wise.

Moreover, the village chief had previously let them stay overnight; emotionally and rationally, they shouldn't be coming into conflict with the villagers.

Song Yufi adopted a compromise: "Village chief, how about this? If you won't let us go up the mountain now, we can definitely go tomorrow, and if you're uneasy, you can still send someone to accompany us."

The village chief isn't unreasonable, but the Mountain God has just revealed his power; if we let this bunch of outsiders rashly barge in, it's bound to anger the Mountain God, and then he might take his wrath out on the village—that would be bad.

Now Song Yufi has stepped back and suggested tomorrow; that shouldn't be too big a problem.

He broke into a grin: "Xiao Song, you're still sensible. All right, tomorrow I'll have the villagers take you up the mountain."

On the way back, the observatory staff were clearly somewhat resentful: "Yufi, why are you being so accommodating? Those villagers are really stubborn."

"What era is this, still indulging in feudal superstition?"

Song Yufi smiled.

"Taking a step back makes the sea and sky wide; besides, we already received the villagers' kindness for letting us stay, and they've looked after us quite well—starting a conflict wouldn't be good, and waiting one more night is no problem."

"Although that's what was said, I still feel."

"All right, all right, I also think Yufi did quite well—do you really think you could take on ten of them single‑handedly?"

To be honest, aside from being a bit obstinate about the Mountain God, the villagers are still decent people.

After learning of this, Liu Mei wholeheartedly approved of Song Yufi's approach.

"Xiao Song did the right thing; besides, the villagers are many while we are few—avoiding unnecessary conflict is the wise course."

"Moreover, the Heavenly Fire Spectacle has already ended; going to investigate now or tomorrow makes no real difference."

The observatory staff could only wait until tomorrow to go up the mountain and check the situation.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

On the mountain, Ye Qin's body flowed with radiant light as countless golden threads wrapped around him, forming a huge cocoon whose surface undulated, as if it were breathing.

A mysterious rhythm pulsed, as if it spanned the entire mountain range; with the cocoon's undulation, the whole range seemed to come alive.

More and more small creatures were drawn in, packed tightly, endless to the eye; their gazes converged on the cocoon in unison, like pilgrims, full of devotion and respect.

The animals in the innermost circle had smoother, brighter fur, and even the gleam in their beastly eyes differed—clearly these were the first to have followed Ye Qin.

They naturally cannot now develop spiritual intelligence or practice cultivation, yet they have been subtly affected, making them more vigorous.

Like some divine gift from heaven, the Ye Qin inside the cocoon, using himself as a bridge, continually absorbs Imperial Nectar.

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(End of chapter)