Chapter 294: Lady Calico and the Stone Giant

“Mountain God, please come out!” A clear and delicate voice rang out, but its tone carried a sense of solemnity and formality.

At that moment, a stone by the riverside suddenly trembled, as if moved by some invisible force.

“Mountain God, please come out!”

The voice remained as clear and delicate as before, but it had grown slightly heavier, as though the speaker was becoming impatient—or perhaps putting in more effort.

The stone trembled again, then a second time. Then, as if pushed by an unseen hand, it began to roll.

And it wasn’t just that one stone. The nearby stones also started to roll in succession.

“

Clatter, clatter

...”

The stones didn’t roll from south to north, nor from north to south—they moved from all directions, converging toward a single central point. The smaller ones rolled lightly and swiftly, while the larger ones moved more slowly, with some difficulty. Once they had all gathered, they began to stack themselves one on top of the other, rising higher and higher.

“Mountain God, come out!”

The voice's owner seemed to be putting in extra effort now, and even without looking, one could imagine their teeth gritting with determination.

It seemed to work—

The stones suddenly assembled, taking on the form of a humanoid figure.

“Wow!” a cry of amazement rang out.

The stone giant had taken shape, standing by the riverbank. As the little cat turned her head left and right to inspect her creation, the stone figure mirrored her movements, as though it, too, had eyes and was curiously observing the world.

Far away, a Daoist sat cross-legged, unmoving.

“Mountain God, assist me in vanquishing evil!”

The calico cat still remembered the words the Daoist spoke the first time they met the Mountain God outside Changjing City, beneath Yanhui Peaks. Now, imitating those very words, she spoke them back to the Daoist himself.

The stone giant did not hesitate. With long, deliberate strides, swinging its knee-high arms, it lumbered toward the Daoist.

When it finally arrived in front of him, it raised its right arm high and slammed it down with force.

“

Thud...

”

The punch landed squarely on the Daoist’s shoe.

“...” Song You opened his eyes, glanced down at his foot with a trace of helplessness, and then looked toward Lady Calico.

With a calm tone, he said, “Congratulations, Lady Calico. After only four or five months of practice, you've managed to summon a Mountain God. Such talent is rare, even in the ancient times when cultivators were numerous. Most people, even those with great aptitude, often need years of training to achieve this.”

Hearing this, the little cat ran over, tilting her head up to look at him. She was about the same height as the Mountain God she had summoned.

Well, actually, not quite. When she tilted her head up, she was a bit taller than the Mountain God.

She asked, in a serious tone, “How long did it take you to learn?”

Meanwhile, the Mountain God beside her, seeing that the Daoist was unmoved, seemed confused. Then, noticing that its summoner hadn’t stopped it, the stone giant remained by the Daoist’s foot, repeatedly swinging its fist and striking his shoe.

“

Thud, thud, thud

...”

“Lady Calico, you should undo the spell now,” Song You said.

“...”

The little cat turned her head to look at the small Mountain God beside her, made of river stones. It was the result of five months of dedicated practice and her first successful summoning. She was clearly reluctant to dismiss it. Turning her head back toward Song You, she asked with a completely serious expression, “Does it hurt when it hits you?”

“It does.”

“Mountain God, please avoid him!”

Lady Calico's tone remained as serious and formal as ever.

At her command, the small stone figure immediately stopped moving. Seeing this, Lady Calico was extremely satisfied. The more she looked at her creation, the more impressive and powerful it seemed, and the more fond of it she became.

After admiring it for a moment, she suddenly remembered something and turned back to fix her gaze on Song You. With her usual seriousness, she resumed her questioning, “How long did it take you to learn?”

“Why must you compare yourself to others?”

“How long did it take you?”

“It's best that you don’t ask.”

“...”

Lady Calico's eyes flickered briefly as if recalling some prior lesson from her experiences. Surprisingly, she truly decided not to pursue the question further. Instead, she turned her attention back to her little Mountain God and asked, “Why is my Mountain God so small?”

“Though your Mountain God is small, it already possesses great spirituality and can understand human speech, which proves that you excelled in sensing the spiritual resonance of the stones. This is the most difficult part,” Song You replied earnestly.

He added, “It's only because your cultivation level is still shallow, and you lack proficiency in the spell, that larger stones cannot be moved or gathered. That’s why your Mountain God is small. But as long as you continue to practice diligently, the stone giants you summon will undoubtedly grow larger and larger.”

“Was the first one you summoned this small too?”

“...”

“Was the first one you summoned this small?”

“It was slightly larger.”

“How much larger?”

“A bit.”

“Oh...” Lady Calico seemed somewhat satisfied and continued her questioning, “Then will the Mountain Gods I summon in the future be as big as yours?”

“Possibly.”

“Will they be even bigger than yours?”

“Possibly.”

“Will they be as big as a mountain?”

“Theoretically, that's possible.”

“Theoretically!”

“I am not particularly skilled in Boulder Legion. If someone with similar or even greater cultivation than mine focuses solely on earth-based techniques, especially mastering this one, they could theoretically summon a stone giant as large as a mountain peak,” Song You explained. “Though at that point, it’s no longer transforming stones into soldiers.”

“What would it be?”

“Transforming mountains into gods.”

“How long will it take for me to become that powerful?”

“I don't know.”

“How long will it take for me to be as powerful as you?”

“I don't know.”

“You're not very smart.”

“The ocean is vast, formed by countless streams. A journey of a thousand li is completed step by step,” Song You replied patiently. “Sometimes, when the road ahead is far, you needn't think about how long it will take to get there. Instead, simply focus on the right direction and the path beneath your feet. One step at a time, each step brings you closer.”

“I don't understand!”

“Then you’re not very smart either.”

“...!”

Lady Calico tilted her head, staring blankly at the Daoist for a moment. Then, she looked up at the sky, turned, and walked off. Transforming into her human form, she went to gather firewood and fetched water with her small pot and the Water-Splitting Blade in hand. Naturally, she summoned her little Mountain God to follow along as her personal bodyguard.

However, the little Mountain God didn’t last long. After just a few steps, due to her inexperience with the spell, her momentary lapse of focus caused it to collapse on the spot into a heap of rubble.

Lady Calico glanced back and let out a quiet sigh.

The sun was nearly overhead.

Though the Daoist had called her “not very smart” and often spoke nonsense, it seemed humans were simply like that—fond of saying ridiculous things. Being the magnanimous Lady Calico, she couldn’t let him go hungry.

She carried back water, lit the fire, and left the rest to him.

After summoning another little Mountain God, she chatted with it briefly before taking it on an adventure across the grasslands. They then stomped on bugs and crushed ants. The grass was taller than them, and as the cat and the person walked through it, it felt as if they were navigating a dense forest.

Song You, unconcerned, tended to the fire and prepared their meal.

When leaving the military camp, General Chen had provided some rations, primarily millet cakes—a type of dry provision made from millet, a grain crop. Millet cakes, roughly the size of a fingernail, could be eaten as-is or boiled into porridge. Their flavor was plain, so Song You often added wild vegetables or meat. As for what kind of meat he would add, that depended on what Lady Calico decided to feed him.

Today, there was no meat—largely because she was too busy to hunt today.

***

A thousand meters high in the sky, a swallow soared continuously. Below, the ground stretched flat and vast, with little undulation.

It seemed this was already Hezhou.

Amid the swirling clouds, a city appeared in the distance. The swallow slightly lowered its altitude, circling the city once to confirm there were no City Gods or other protective deities guarding it, before finally flying in.

Soon, it landed atop a roof.

It was already late autumn, and the swallows of Hezhou had long flown south. Spotting one now was truly rare.

Yet no one found it strange.

The swallow turned its head backward, preening its feathers in a leisurely manner.

“The veteran guards at the city gates saw it clearly,” came a voice from below. “That divine immortal left the city with a young girl and a horse. It wasn’t like now—back then, not even in the city would anyone dare venture out at night. Let alone on the roads outside, not even the most skilled

jianghu

martial artists would travel in the dark. But that very night, the rat demon was slain. How could that be a coincidence?”

The swallow immediately paused its grooming, lowered its head, and attentively stared at the tiles below as it quietly eavesdropped.

“This is the southernmost part of Hezhou. If that was merely coincidence, then what about the tales in all five commanderies and thirty-nine counties of Hezhou? Everywhere, there are legends of that immortal. Everywhere that divine immortal passed, all the harmful demons, ghosts, monsters and nefarious gods vanished without a trace. Could that also be a coincidence?”

At some point, the swallow had moved from the rooftop to the doorframe. Its dark, beady eyes were fixed intently, listening with full attention to the story being told inside.

The swallow listened intently, thoroughly engrossed in the tale.

However, sensing the presence of a local Earth God nearby, it chose not to linger. Once the story concluded, it flapped its wings and took off, flying northward in the direction mentioned in the story.

From then on, it deliberately sought out tea houses and taverns.

Unfortunately, Hezhou had recently been in turmoil. Though peace had returned, the region had yet to fully recover. Apart from a few counties closest to Angzhou, where tea houses were still open and doing business, only the administrative center of Hezhou and Jingyu County in Pu Commandery had a tea house in operation. And even there, business was mediocre.

After gathering what it could, the swallow continued north. Flying over Gui Commandery, it pressed onward.

The plains below had become fertile again, but lingering traces of spiritual and demonic energy filled the air, making the swallow uneasy. It instinctively flew higher to avoid the unsettling land below.

By this time, the ground had become completely flat, with no discernible hills or rises.

But as it flew further, an enormous mountain suddenly loomed ahead.

The sight was striking—this vast expanse of flat earth stretched endlessly in all directions, its curvature almost forming a perfect circle, yet right in its midst stood a colossal stone mountain. The shock of its presence was beyond words.

The swallow hesitated, staring blankly as it approached. The closer it got, the more awestruck it became.

Lowering its altitude, it circled the mountain.

Was this the “borrowed peak” that the storyteller spoke of, where Song You suppressed the demons and restored He Plains from a snowy wasteland to fertile land?

After a while, the swallow finally came to a stop.

On the stone mountain stood a monument. In front of it were offerings and incense, still faintly smoking. The words engraved on the monument read, “In the second month of the sixth year of the Mingde Era, Shu Yifan and his black horse borrowed this peak from the Mountain God of Pingzhou to suppress demons.”

“Shu Yifan...”

The swallow’s thoughts drifted to that rainy night in Xuzhou.

It was now late September of the sixth year of the Mingde Era. That had been more than half a year ago.

The swallow perched atop the monument, gazing into the endless horizon.

The vast earth stretched endlessly, impossible to see its limits. In such an immense land, how could finding someone be easy?

“Flap, flap, flap...”

The swallow flapped its wings and took flight again, quickly soaring into the clouds against the wind, heading north in search.