Who the hell touched my tree?

In the eyes of a thousand readers, there are a thousand Hamlets. Li Daniu had always thought this was a pointless saying, but after experiencing his journey through the world of movies, he now saw it in a different light.

Up until now, though the system had never made it clear just how these movie worlds existed, to Li Daniu, there was no doubt that each of these worlds was utterly real. Every person within these film worlds, even a passerby with no connection to the plot, possessed a spiritual world of their own.

"Heaven Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre: The Lord of the Devil Sect" was a film adaptation of Master Jin’s legendary novel. Though the original, compared to today’s sprawling web novels with their millions upon millions of words, was relatively short, it still couldn’t be fully captured in just over an hour. Even within the film, only about half of the original plot made it to the screen.

So adaptation was inevitable.

To Li Daniu, this film world was likely the version of "Heaven Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre" as seen through the eyes of the screenwriter, or perhaps director Wang Sanri. In this film, the character Huogong Toutuo, Monk Jueyuan, was no longer the somewhat simple and endearing Shaolin monk, nor was he Zhang Sanfeng’s master. Instead, he was a mad monk who, by chance, had acquired the long-lost Nine Yang Divine Skill of Shaolin.

Having suffered endless humiliation in the Shaolin Temple, Huogong Toutuo set out on a path of vengeance as soon as he mastered the Nine Yang Divine Skill. In the film, Zhang Sanfeng mentions that Huogong Toutuo injured more than thirty Shaolin experts, becoming practically invincible, before he finally saw himself as unmatched under heaven.

At this time, the universally acknowledged number one martial artist was Zhang Sanfeng. So Huogong Toutuo sought him out for a duel and, as expected, lost. The reason Li Daniu considered the film’s Huogong Toutuo to be insane was because, after losing the fight, he inexplicably leapt off a cliff. Wasn’t that ridiculous? Apart from Zhang Sanfeng, there was no one else in the world who could defeat him, yet he chose to jump off a cliff. Clearly out of his mind.

Li Daniu had always lamented how unhinged Huogong Toutuo must be, but now he was deeply grateful for that leap, since it gave him a shot at this extraordinary opportunity before Zhang Wuji ever had the chance.

In the original film, arranging for Huogong Toutuo to jump off the cliff was meant to set up an encounter for Zhang Wuji later in life.

Now, this opportunity was laid out right before Li Daniu.

“To jump, or not to jump?”

Li Daniu stood at the edge of the cliff, cautiously peering down. He could see no bottom, and his legs began to tremble.

“So high? How did Zhang Wuji and Xiao Zhao survive the fall?”

In the movie, Zhou Zhiruo seduced Zhang Wuji, then as soon as he fell for her, Song Qingshu appeared with a gang of lackeys, making fun of Zhang Wuji alongside Zhou Zhiruo. When they insulted Zhang Wuji’s parents, a fight broke out.

Xiao Zhao, still the little maid of the Ming Cult in this film, happened to come to Wudang looking for the Heaven Sword to cut off her own shackles. Seeing Zhang Wuji being bullied by the Wudang disciples, she stood up for him.

Xiao Zhao’s martial arts were not high, and Zhang Wuji, poisoned by cold energy, knew no martial arts at all. One could not fight, and the other’s skills were too meager. Facing Song Qingshu and Zhou Zhiruo—the heirs of Wudang and Emei—and their gang, they were obviously no match.

Forced over the edge, Zhang Wuji and Xiao Zhao fell to the bottom of the cliff, where they encountered the now even more deranged Huogong Toutuo, and Zhang Wuji’s adventure began.

Li Daniu remembered that Zhang Wuji and Xiao Zhao survived the fall because the trees and vines below cushioned their landing.

But Li Daniu didn’t dare jump. With the depth shrouded in darkness, he doubted the reliability of the trees and vines. Even with modern firefighting air cushions, who would have the nerve?

Moreover, Li Daniu couldn’t guarantee he’d be able to snatch his opportunity from the hands of Huogong Toutuo.

In the film, the first words Huogong Toutuo uttered when he met Zhang Wuji and Xiao Zhao were that he hadn’t tasted human flesh in a long time.

Faced with such a maniac, Li Daniu couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t become the next meal.

“Am I really going to let this chance slip away?” Li Daniu was deeply reluctant. He found a gentle slope, lay down, and began to ponder the possibility.

The cliff itself was not the real problem; with some ingenuity, he could get down. The real challenge was how to get the opportunity from Huogong Toutuo.

This wasn’t a video game where you could keep trying after failing, or simply give up—failure here meant real danger to his life.

Zhang Wuji met Huogong Toutuo eight years after this point, and Zhang Sanfeng’s duel with Huogong Toutuo happened before that, meaning Huogong Toutuo should already be waiting at the bottom of the cliff.

But how was he supposed to get the adventure without becoming Huogong Toutuo’s next meal?

Unable to come up with a solution, Li Daniu couldn’t afford to wait. Brother Cao had already cut off his martial arts training, and with only two months left, it was nearly impossible to find the jade pendant Song Qingshu dropped. In other words, all Li Daniu could pick up in this movie world were the basic Wudang Long Fist and a method to sense internal energy. Even if he managed to sense the energy, what use would it be?

Li Daniu considered asking a friendly novice for help, but their relationship was only casual. Besides, the novice’s master was Mo Shenggu, seventh-ranked among the second generation of Wudang disciples, whereas Brother Cao’s master was Song Yuanqiao, the foremost among them. Could a seventh disciple’s apprentice expect any favors from the head disciple’s camp?

Wishful thinking!

Anyway, since he didn’t have chores while searching for the jade pendant, Li Daniu began weaving ropes, preparing for when he finally figured out what to do. Otherwise, even if he had a plan, if he couldn’t get down there, it would all be wasted effort.

Weaving rope wasn’t hard; the challenge was not knowing how much he’d need. Li Daniu circled the area near the cliff several times, looking for the closest spot to the bottom. He scavenged every bit of rope he could find, even lying to Brother Cao to get some from the storeroom.

Still, it wasn’t enough. He tied a rock to the end and tossed it down, but it never touched the bottom.

So, Li Daniu began braiding ropes from grass. He’d seen this trick on a CCTV program once and thought it looked easy: basically, braiding dry grass like hair—three strands braided into one, then thickening as needed.

In seven days, aside from daily boxing practice and attempts at sensing internal energy, he managed to braid over two hundred meters of rope. With what he’d scavenged before, the total length exceeded three hundred meters. Even so, it still didn’t reach the bottom.

How deep was this cliff, anyway? Zhang Wuji only knew two basic farming moves and had never trained his internal energy—how did he survive the fall?

Nothing is more demoralizing than a hopeless task, and Li Daniu’s search for inner energy slowed as his mind was preoccupied. Although each breathing exercise made the sensation in his dantian clearer, he could not make the final breakthrough.

“Damn!”

With a curse, Li Daniu decided to climb down and see for himself how far it was to the bottom—at least then he’d have a sense of what he was up against.

He found a sturdy tree trunk, tied the rope securely around it with several knots, then fastened the other end around his waist. Embracing a do-or-die attitude, he began his descent.

To be honest, Li Daniu wasn’t too worried about the rope snapping—he’d already tested it with nearly a hundred jin of rocks, and it held firm. The only hard part had been pulling it back up afterward.

The cliff face was not smooth, so Li Daniu would stop and rest on any ledge he came across. This kind of climbing was exhausting, and if it weren’t for his month of daily labor and boxing practice, his former couch-potato physique would never have made it.

From dawn until noon, Li Daniu finally ran out of rope. Looking down, he could clearly see the green treetops at the bottom, which he estimated to be about ten stories, or thirty to forty meters.

“Perfect. Now I don’t have to worry about reaching the bottom and running straight into that lunatic Huogong Toutuo,” Li Daniu thought with relief. If he had gone all the way down unprepared and stumbled right into Huogong Toutuo, he’d be as good as dead.

By now, he was utterly exhausted. Remembering a resting spot he’d passed on the way down, he gritted his teeth and climbed back up about ten meters, then collapsed on the ledge to recover. Perhaps from sheer fatigue, he soon drifted into sleep.

Bang!

A loud crash jolted Li Daniu awake.

“Damn.” Once he was fully conscious, he realized he had fallen asleep on the cliff face, roped in as he was. That was crazy, but at least he’d slept soundly, unlike at home, where he’d toss and turn all night.

“What was that noise just now?”

Li Daniu scanned the area. As he was still on the cliff, far from the top, the noise could only have come from below. He peered down but, perhaps due to the height, saw no sign of change.

“Could it be Huogong Toutuo practicing martial arts?”

He couldn’t figure out the source of the noise and even began to wonder if he’d imagined it.

“Never mind, I’ll just head back up.”

Feeling that he’d recovered his strength, Li Daniu prepared to resume his climb, but when he pulled on the rope, something felt off.

“Why does it feel so loose?” There was no way a nap had increased his strength enough to move the tree. Looking closer, he noticed that, in addition to the rope in his hand, there was another, very familiar-looking rope dangling beside him.

“What’s going on?”

Dazed, Li Daniu instinctively grabbed the second rope and gave both a hard tug.

The rope came free, slipping down over the edge.

Li Daniu stared, dumbfounded, as the rope dropped all the way to the bottom.

“Damn!” He wasn’t ready to give up, so he pulled with all his might. He hauled up more than two hundred meters of rope, nearly running out of room on his ledge, before he finally could pull no more.

At that point, he understood. The crash he’d heard was no hallucination—the tree he’d tied his rope to had fallen to the bottom of the cliff.

Li Daniu looked up at the sky. Though the cliff face had many ledges, without the rope, it was impossible to climb back up.

“Who the hell moved my tree?”