Chapter 1020: Witnessing the Way Upon Meeting

Chapter 1020: Witnessing the Way Upon Meeting

While helping people read faces, Lu Chen asked with his heart voice, laughing, "Earlier beyond the heavens, when you saw Senior Brother, did you discuss the matter of transferring that *True Record of the Pill Scripture*? If it's settled, I can spare myself the trouble of relaying a message."

Chen Ping'an picked up a large helping of braised meat and bamboo shoots, nodded, and said, "We talked about it. Next time I go to Tongye Continent, I'll send it to Taiping Mountain."

That *True Record of the Pill Scripture*—besides containing many authentic talismans, Cui Dongshan had once revealed heavenly secrets on behalf of his master. In fact, the pages of the book itself were excellent talisman paper.

Moreover, Li Xisheng's personal annotations in the book—over twelve hundred characters—if used for "refining words," could sustain a grand Great Litany offering to twelve hundred Taoist deities. Whether it was given to the Fallen Mountain Sect or the Green Duckweed Sword Sect as a mountain-protecting grand formation, it would be more than sufficient. In the eyes of peak mountain cultivators, it might not be earth-shattering, but it would at least deserve the description "not ordinary." However, Chen Ping'an had his own plans. When Taiping Mountain held its official celebration next time, he intended to present this Taoist scripture and the mountain-protecting formation as a congratulatory gift to Huang Ting, doubling the good fortune and also repaying the favor from back when the old Heavenly Lord had gifted Taiping Mountain the sword formation blueprints.

After all, the incense lineage of Taiping Mountain on Tongye Continent originated from the lineage of Kou Ming, the Grand Master of the Jade Capital.

Lu Chen turned his head and asked, "Miss Pei, let me ask you something. Those two children—have they formally established a master-disciple relationship with my Senior Brother yet?"

Earlier, Pei Qian had only said that Li Xisheng would keep them by his side for cultivation. Whether they would maintain their old lineage or switch to a new one was a significant matter.

On the southern part of Tongye Continent, at Sune Mountain, the registered cultivators Miao Jia and He Zhou—one had just entered the Cave Abode realm and become an "eyebrow sketcher," while the other was only a fourth-tier sword cultivator. Yet relying solely on the innate divine ability of his flying sword, he could trap Zhong Kui and his group for a while. If this got out, probably no one would believe it. Who was Zhong Kui? Not to mention Pei Qian, a Martial Artist at the Stopping Realm! Plus there was the Ghost Immortal Yu Jin, who had only recently fallen from the Flying Ascension realm. Of course, Lu Chen was absolutely certain that trapping them was real, but if those two cultivators had malicious intent, forming killing intent and acting on it, then with Pei Qian's Stopping Realm fist intent protecting her like divine shelter, those two, with their frail physiques, would die the moment they approached her with killing intent.

Regardless, this pair of disciples from a small sect had great fortune. Surviving a great disaster must lead to future blessings. It matched the old saying: "Dharma, when destined, will eventually come into hand; illness, when fated not to kill, will surely meet a healer."

Li Xisheng also had a "porcelain" page boy named Cui Ci, who, because he had already known sorrow as a youth, was no longer so sorrowful.

Pei Qian put down her chopsticks, shook her head, and said, "They don't seem to have formally taken Li Xisheng as their master and entered the Dao—at least not for now. As for any long-term plans, I wouldn't know."

Lu Chen smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Miss Pei."

Pei Qian said, "Grand Master Lu is too polite. Since you and my master are old acquaintances, I will certainly tell you everything I know without reservation."

Lu Chen laughed awkwardly. The more Pei Qian followed rules and manners, the more uneasy Grand Master Lu felt.

"Old acquaintance"—that phrasing was clever. Liu Xianyang, Dong Shuijing, and others were your master's old acquaintances. But wasn't someone like Ma Kuxuan from Apricot Flower Lane also an old acquaintance of Chen Ping'an?

It was just that Lu Chen currently had a list in hand, with names of cultivators who might one day follow Chen Ping'an to visit the Jade Capital.

Just from Fallen Mountain, there was Cui Dongshan, the small Mo with the true demonic name "Zhuzhu," Bai Jing, who had a good chance of merging with the Fourteenth Realm, that otherworldly demon from the Years-End Palace who had once been Wu Shuangjiang's Dao companion and was now a Sword Immortal at the Immortal realm, Mi Yu... Among friends, there was Liu Xianyang of the Dragon Spring Sword Sect, Qi Jinglong of the Grand Emblem Sword Sect, and so on... If you added Pei Qian, then in the matters of the world, with a "wedge," there would be the main text. With Pei Qian, it meant that pure martial artists would also increase in number. And for every martial artist qualified to follow Chen Ping'an to inquire about the Dao at the Jade Capital, the Ninth Realm was far from enough—it would have to start at the Stopping Realm, right?

In Lu Chen's view, regardless of ultimate martial arts achievement, just looking at martial arts aptitude, on the Qingming Heaven side, there were Lin Jiangxian of Crow Mountain, Xinku of Leap Moon Peak, and here, Cao Ci and Pei Qian—these were the top tier, fewer than five.

Besides them, Chen Ping'an, Bai Ou, the female state preceptor of Green Mountain Dynasty, and others were actually slightly inferior.

Chen Ping'an pretended not to notice the undercurrent between Pei Qian and Lu Chen and asked, "On the Qingming Heaven side, are there many places like Union Joy Mountain?"

Lu Chen nodded. "Countless. Far more than in Haoran. The path of serpents coiling around mountains is quite common on Qingming Heaven as a cultivation path. Water-dwelling dragons are rarer."

As for "Dao companion mountains" like Fallen Kite Mountain and Black Vine Mountain, Chen Ping'an had first encountered them during his travels in North Juzhou Continent. On a ferry, he had once passed by Golden Light Peak and Moon Blossom Mountain. The former was home to a flock of Golden-Back Geese, extremely hard for qi refiners to capture; the latter was dominated by giant frogs. It was said that the two "ancestors" of the Golden-Back Geese and the Drumming Frogs had deep karma and had been following Li Xisheng's cultivation for years.

Chen Ping'an hesitated briefly, then said, "Among the twelve Earthly Branches of Great Li, there is a female ghost named Gai Yan. She is the behind-the-scenes manager of that immortal guesthouse in the capital. She is also a mountain painter known as an 'eyebrow sketcher' and can be considered a mountain predecessor to Miao Jia."

Lu Chen caught the hint and said, "I'll pass a word to Senior Brother later, letting Miao Jia, as an unregistered disciple, have a chance to visit the Great Li capital."

Now, the Confucian scholar Li Xisheng was not yet the Grand Master of the Jade Capital. Although he could teach Miao Jia some refined and quintessential Daoist techniques, this "eyebrow sketching" art was probably something Li Xisheng was completely ignorant of—seven orifices open, six open, one closed. As for the female ghost Gai Yan, though her current realm was not high, she was a "painter" cultivated by the Embroidered Tiger with the full resources of a nation back then. Her insight was certainly not low, and she had several profound Daoist books at hand.

Now Lu Chen was curious and looking forward to one thing: when his Senior Brother Grand Master returned to the Jade Capital one day, how many unregistered disciples like Jin Fengyulu, Miao Jia, and He Zhou would be by his side?

At Pink Pellet Manor, they had only tampered with the drinks; the food was fine. Moreover, in Pei Qian's vision, in each banquet hall floated faint pink threads, and there was a group of tiny flying sparrows, like midges. They were some kind of strange entity, with illusory bodies, freely entering and exiting guests' facial orifices at great speed, dragging out fine, dense threads like weaving cloth. Speaking of Pei Qian's Bai Mao, his entire head now looked wrapped like a zongzi.

Pei Qian asked her master what this was. It wasn't just Bai Mao, a ghost, but also Lady Pipa, a sprite qi refiner, and even some licentious shrine deities were fooled by it. Chen Ping'an couldn't explain it either. It was only with the help of Grand Master Lu, who had exhaustive knowledge, that the truth came to light.

It turned out to be an old craft rarely seen nowadays, a form of deviant technique. First, vinegar was brewed using immortal methods, and a "You" character was pasted on the outside of the jar—not auspicious red on white, but black on white. Then, after a series of secret processes requiring time, a type of "vinegar worm" called "Xiji" would be born in the jar. Using this vinegar for cooking could make long-term consumers "overturn the vinegar jar" (become jealous). But that was just the first step. Next, these midge-like flying insects were dipped in ink, then an ounce of "emotion silk" from Spring Dream Spiders was taken, refined into an ink stick on the fifth day of the fifth month, engraved with the characters "Spring Tour". Then, a couple of foolish lovers from the mundane world, who had made a vow of "eternal love" with some temple deity, had their contract letter taken, the text erased, and only the paper used. The "Spring Tour" ink was ground, and the entire page was filled with the character "Oriole". The paper was burned to ash, placed in a bowl of water, and a woman trapped in love was made to consume this talisman water. That woman would then, in a spring dream, unconsciously open her mouth and spit out transformed spring orioles that peck at dreams, also called "Weaving Women".

Finally, these orioles were tamed. They could weave a web of love for their master. Since alcohol is the medium of lust, it had a special effect. The orioles flew swiftly, like shuttles on a loom, darting back and forth, weaving continuously. Eventually, they formed a pink curtain hidden by miasma, full of amorous spring scenes. Therefore, fox spirits and similar beings with higher Daoism had always liked to play this trick. Whether it was used to enhance a night of passion or as a harmful method to harvest yang and supplement yin depended on the fox immortal's intentions.

In the world, qi refiners, especially wild cultivators of mountains and marshes, spent all year busy in mountains, rivers, and market towns. They had their reasons for being busy. Just gathering all sorts of strange materials and repeatedly studying various side-door techniques was enough to make a lone cultivator, who had to do everything himself, sigh, "Learning has no end."

To break this maze of confusion, ordinary mountain-water barrier-breaking talismans were of little use. It was simple in one way: a cultivator trapped in it only needed to light wormwood and pine branches.

But the problem was, which common cultivator would be so bored as to carry a bundle of wormwood and a few pine branches?

Chen Ping'an said, "Is this Yu Chunzhi building a romantic tent? Is she that kind of voluptuous corpse that cultivates the technique of colorful refinement?"

The voluptuous corpse, along with the seamstress who liked to skin people alive and refine them into talisman paper, the ferry master, the plague god, and the poison immortal, were among the ten kinds of evil heretics selected by Haoran Heaven. Once such cultivators were discovered, their fate was never good. Confucian academies from various continents would definitely send virtuous men and scholars to participate in the search. The most extreme case in history was on a dynasty in Liuxia Continent. A poison immortal disguised himself as a state preceptor, colluded with a passing traveler, secretly cultivated two plague gods, and used migratory birds and river fish to spread plague. Within just half a month, the surrounding six kingdoms became a vast land of no living people. Corpses littered the fields, ghosts ran rampant, and nearly a million ghost soldiers were gathered to commit atrocities. A headmaster of an academy was also secretly assassinated by the poison immortal. In the end, the Confucian Temple joined forces with Tianyu Cave Heaven and the old Sword Immortal Zhou Shenzhi to kill this poison immortal. However, there were also rumors that this immortal evil cultivator, who almost used this to reach the Flying Ascension realm, hadn't completely died. Instead, in the form of a ghost immortal, most of his remaining soul had fled to the Yellow Spring Road, setting up a new operation, hoping one day to return to the yang world and see the light of day again.

Lu Chen shook his chopsticks. "Not quite. This earthly immortal fox immortal only learned a bit of the superficial aspects of the colorful refinement technique. Probably, on her cultivation path, by coincidence, she picked up a side-door Daoist book by the roadside. Without a clear master to guide her, she ended up cultivating it into a crooked technique. If Yu Chunzhi were a proper voluptuous corpse, that old fellow with a belly drumming like a frog—a Golden Body realm martial artist, right—who dared to wander around the town, would have been captured by Yu Chunzhi long ago. He'd be off the bed every day, squatting at the base of the wall to sunbathe. If his body were a little weaker, he'd become a mummified corpse, and we wouldn't have seen him."

Anyway, in this dining hall, few had any real "backside." Even Steward Yu had gone to toast elsewhere, so two idle maids had been cajoled into sitting down by the young Daoist.

Lu Chen had brought chairs over and sat beside the two beauties. He had read their faces and told them some inside mountain information, like why those with noses like bamboo joints weren't suited for cultivating thunder techniques. He had them stunned, then moved on to reading their palms. They were probably maids that Yu Chunzhi of Pink Pellet Manor valued, so they had been given the surname Yu. One was plump, wearing a thin gauze robe embroidered with gold phoenix, but her waist was exceedingly slender. The other was slim and graceful, in a green dress.

At that moment, Lu Chen was holding the plump beauty's delicate jade hand, counting the number of white crescents on her nails. He then had her turn her palm downward, fingers upturned. The young Daoist looked at the curve of the back of her hand, nodded without speaking, then had her make a fist. He looked down to see the "earth" character formed by the lines on her palm. He looked up, first congratulating this sister on being able to cultivate techniques of the moon-worshipping path, then told her the exact dates and times for drawing in the moon's essence at specific locations... The Daoist spoke with spittle flying. The beauty, whose jade hand was still held in the Daoist's grip, seemed to be casting autumn waves but was actually listening perfunctorily, treating it like hearing a storyteller during boredom.

Pei Qian turned to look at her master.

Chen Ping'an had already eaten his fill. He picked a dried longan from the fruit plate and said in a secret voice, "It sounds unreliable, but every word he says is true."

Take Jiang Qu, for example. If Chen Ping'an hadn't known talismans, then even though Jiang Qu could cultivate at Fallen Mountain, his situation would have been similar to Guo Chunxi of Palace Willow Island—seemingly extremely poor in aptitude.

There are too many "Jiang Qus who never set foot on Fallen Mountain to cultivate talismans" in the world. This Yu Yiyou was one such case. She clearly had the destiny to cultivate the moon-worshipping path, but lacked the opportunity.

Bai Mao smiled and introduced, "This is longan dried from the misty dew hills. Xiao Zheng, give it a try. The pharmacopoeia says this is a top-grade tonic for concentrating the spirit, suitable for both young and old. It can nourish the heart and brighten the eyes. Think about it—a fruit named 'dragon eye' can't be without some merit."

Pei Qian thanked Master Bai and picked up a dried longan.

Hearing this, the young Daoist quickly grabbed two longan and popped them into his mouth, mumbling indistinctly, "Sister Yiyou, Sister Rongyu, I feel that after tonight, your hour and your eight characters will be in harmony. If nothing unexpected happens, good fortune will come upon you."

They had the surname Yu and were beauties with distinct charms—very fitting for the tune name "Yu the Beauty," originally from the teaching workshop.

Yu Yiyou showed a faint, melancholy expression, bit her lip, and said softly, "Immortal Master Lu, don't they say on the mountain that immortal fate has been this way since ancient times? Without fortune, it's hard to seek; forced seeking yields nothing; bitter seeking results in nothing."

The green-clad woman sneered, "You Daoist, you were clearly reading a palm, so how did you get to the eight characters? Have we told you our eight characters? Nonsense! You've slipped up, haven't you?"

The plump beauty helped smooth things over, "It's still better than those who pretend to be frightening, saying things like 'darkness between the brows' and 'blood disaster,' then hinting that giving money can avert misfortune."

"As for using money to ward off disasters and relieve calamities, you can't fully believe it, but you can't fully disbelieve either."

The young Daoist coughed, "There's finesse involved here. You need to use money from proper sources to block disasters and avoid misfortune. Money can reach the gods. You must understand that this money relates to yin virtue and blessings. Whether copper coins or silver, they are just a bridge between the dark and the bright. Like the incense on the altar—the curling smoke is the smallest flying ascent path in the human world, reaching the heavenly court. Sincerity leads to spiritual efficacy, so you can wipe out your sins with one stroke. But using money from improper sources to block disasters is like adding fuel to the fire. It's not that there's no retribution; it's just that the time hasn't come. If doing bad deeds, especially those who are steeped in evil, in high positions, yet with families that should know better still hoard livestock, and then take a few more steps to burn a few incense sticks in temples and monasteries, and everything is fine? How could there be such clever and easy good things in the world? Like black paper with white characters—good and evil are clearly distinguished—unless you use 'paste yellow' (a memorial format)."

Yu Rongyu's temper was clearly much worse than Yu Yiyou's. She gave the fortune-telling Daoist no face at all, sneering, "You're making it even more abstruse, aren't you? Who distinguishes between legitimate money and illicit wealth? Qi refiners? Isn't it only the local city gods and the mountain lord mansions of a nation's five sacred peaks?"

The conversation suddenly froze.

The young Daoist had been focusing on the plump beauty earlier, but now he began to make up for lost time, "Sister Rongyu, you truly have a wonderful name. 'With virtuous steps comes much blessing; in leisure, you walk on your own.' Just from your face, I can tell you'll have good fortune in your later years. If you were in the mortal world, marrying a scholar, raising children, and securing a noble title like a 'Mandate Lady' with jade seal script and gilded scroll, what's so difficult about that?"

Yu Rongyu spat disdainfully, and the plump beauty quietly pinched her arm, reminding her not to be so rude. Luckily, Steward Yu wasn't here, or they'd be in trouble.

Strictly speaking, even the guests in this side hall were the lowest-ranking ones at tonight's marriage and daughter-bestowing banquet—no exceptions. Bai Mao was here, like a general among dwarves—better than those below, worse than those above—so Master Bai of Wedge Ridge was considered a top-class guest here. But the young Daoist, the sword-carrying youth, and the freckled woman—the three who had come in latest and sat down in the side hall—even if their status was low, they were still guests of Pink Pellet Manor. Yu Rongyu shouldn't have been so rude. But that young Daoist's words and actions were just asking for a scolding.

Otherwise, this green-clad maidservant would have been perfectly polite to the straw-sandal youth and the woman with the coiled hair bun.

It was just that this Daoist Master Lu, who clearly looked like he was used to living rough on the road, really didn't seem like a proper person—he was asking to be scolded.

Bai Mao was a bit surprised and smiled, "I didn't expect Daoist Master Lu to also know about the 'paste yellow' and 'mandate lady' systems in officialdom?"

When Bai Mao was alive, his official position wasn't high—just a county magistrate—and he had started as an extra-system official, so he never had a chance to use 'paste yellow,' a bureaucratic procedure.

"Just heard about it by chance, just heard about it."

The young Daoist began to cozy up to the generous Master Bai, "Brother Bai, why did you build your mansion on Wedge Ridge? Was it because there are many scorpions there? Do you have any dried scorpions that can be used as medicine? I'd like to do some business with you, help sell them outside. I'll just make a small margin. A catty in the mountain market can sell for several taels of silver!"

Bai Mao said dryly, "'Wedge' means to insert one thing into another. It's not the 'scorpion' you're thinking of, Daoist Master Lu."

The Daoist showed no embarrassment. "It's not pronounced 'Scorpion Ridge'? Doesn't 'wedge' have the same sound as 'scorpion'?"

Bai Mao took a sip of wine and said earnestly, "Daoist Master Lu, as a cultivator, don't always be busy cultivating to become an immortal. You should read more books in your spare time."

The Daoist suddenly realized, "I see."

Pei Qian watched other banquet halls. The two mountain gods of Union Joy Mountain and many maids from the two mansions were constantly urging guests to drink. Many wild cultivators were already quite drunk, starting to get handsy.

She frowned and asked, "Master, the banquet has been dragging on for quite a while—almost half an hour now. When does Zhao Fuyang plan to make his move?"

Chen Ping'an glanced at the mountain goddess now using the alias Gonghua and said, "He's already in seclusion. He just needs to wait patiently until these licentious shrine deities have all taken the bait and are infatuated. Only then will Yu Chunzhi truly open the pink tent. In an instant, she can decide life and death, avoiding a few big fish slipping through the net. Especially to avoid accidents like a licentious shrine deity knowing he can't escape and, in a fit of desperation, destroying his own golden body. Moreover, the more Bai Mao and the others drink, the more their perception of time's passage will dull. It's like when ordinary mortals fall asleep, except for dreaming, they hardly notice the passage of time."

Lu Chen smiled and asked, "Master Bai, Sister Yiyou, Sister Rongyu, do you know the name of that big tree at the foot of the mountain?"

Yu Yiyou said she didn't know. Pink Pellet Manor had strict rules and a rigid hierarchy; they weren't allowed to ask questions or gossip behind backs.

Bai Mao shook his head. "Please enlighten us, Daoist Master Lu."

Lu Chen smiled. "An old saying goes: 'Daylilies forget sorrow and relieve grief; union joy dispels anger and forgets resentment.' It's because legend says that whoever sees this flower bloom—whether they are furiously angry or deeply aggrieved—will turn from anger to joy, from tears to laughter."

"Every year around the fifth day of the fifth month, around the Dragon Boat Festival, the union joy tree's flowering season arrives. If you look down from the mountain to the foot, the tree is covered in bloom, like holding up a red umbrella."

"That tree at the foot is a union joy tree. Similar to the parasol tree, it has a tall trunk, a broad crown, dense foliage, and beautiful symbolism. Hence, it makes an excellent courtyard shade tree and street tree. This tree can grow in dry, barren places, but it cannot withstand intense summer heat and direct sunlight. Prolonged exposure causes it to shed its bark. It's also afraid of waterlogging."

Hearing this, Yu Rongyu sneered, "Daoist Master, stop showing off your learning. Whether it's a union joy tree or not is debatable. But it's a clear fact to everyone that every Dragon Boat Festival, this tree never blooms."

The plump beauty looked at Yu Rongyu. The girl seemed to have eaten gunpowder today, always locking horns with the young Daoist. Yu Yiyou couldn't help but laugh. In private, the sisters would joke that if a man was handsome, he was witty; if ugly, he was being a pervert.

Yu Yiyou looked at the outlandish Daoist wearing a fish-tail crown. He wasn't ugly.

The young Daoist sighed inexplicably, "Who knows that every grain on the plate is the fruit of hard labor?"

If Chen Ping'an hadn't shown up here tonight, then regardless of whether the young Hidden Official of Fallen Mountain agreed to attend the coming-of-age ceremony of the Green Apricot Kingdom, the guests on the mountain tonight would have been fish on a chopping block.

All of them—regardless of whether their nature was good or evil, and each had achieved cultivation with difficulty—would end up as food grained by Zhao Fuyang.

Of course, many deserved to die. But there would definitely be quite a few unjust deaths. The latter included Bai Mao of Wedge Ridge, and the two maids of Pink Pellet Manor currently sitting beside Lu Chen.

Chen Ping'an couldn't help but gather his voice into a line and asked Lu Chen, "Is this union joy tree a manifestation between the real and the illusory?"

He had originally thought this tree was just Zhao Fuyang's camouflage, used to conceal the mountain-water prohibition where curled horns had already grown on his forehead.

But if Lu Chen's implication was correct, the growth characteristics of this union joy tree, which matched the path of Zhao Fuyang, who was born from a mountain python coiling into a dragon, were signs of the Dao's union. It could be called a kind of auspicious phenomenon, even. Such a "immortal trace" on a Golden Core cultivator was quite rare.

Lu Chen laughed in his heart voice, "Earlier, when I said Zhao Fuyang had five paths ahead of him, do you think I was making that up? Master Zhao's bloodline as a dragon descendant, his aptitude and bone structure for cultivation—they're all right there in front of you."

Bai Mao asked in confusion, "Daoist Master Lu, what did you say about anger earlier?"

"Brother Bai, this good habit of yours of not being ashamed to ask must be maintained!"

The young Daoist poured a bit of wine into his palm, then dipped his finger in it like dipping in ink and wrote a character on the table, "juan", smiling, "It means to promote great matters and omit minor details."

At that very moment, from cracks in broken walls and near the roads throughout Fengle Town, as well as in Fallen Kite and Black Vine Mountains, a kind of long worm appeared almost simultaneously. Its body was like a thin pen tube, shaped like a centipede, with segments bearing horizontal patterns like golden threads. They were dense and vast, surging toward the union joy tree at the mountain gate. The red paper strips hanging from the tree melted like water, stretching out into bright red lines that hung to the ground.

The ledger keeper at the mountain gate saw this, was terrified, and quickly climbed onto a table. The down-on-his-luck shabby scholar forced himself to remain calm, silently reciting sage verses to bolster his courage.

Among the preface texts, there was a saying from a sage, not as catchy as the whole poem, but equally majestic: "They have seven kinds of qi, I have one. Using one to defeat seven—what have I to fear!"

At the mountain banquet table, Lu Chen smiled and said, "'juan' is also the name of a type of worm—the 'horse deer' (millipede), commonly known as the earth centipede or hundred-jointed worm. They live in groups, eat carrion, and curl up like a knife ring. In summer, they like to climb trees and chirp. I believe, Master Bai, around your Wedge Ridge, among the stone piles and grass, this creature is very common."

Bai Mao nodded. "Very common. The book says, 'A hundred-legged worm, dead but not stiff,' and this refers to the millipede."

The young Daoist looked aggrieved. "That's why I misunderstood Master Bai's Dao field as 'Scorpion Ridge'—full of snakes and insects."

But Bai Mao sighed on his own, "If I remember correctly, the 'Autumn Water Chapter' of Grand Master Lu of the Jade Capital mentions this kind of long worm, named 'Xian.' There is a wonderful saying: 'The one-legged beast Kui pities the Xian, the Xian pities the snake, the snake pities the wind, the wind pities the eye, the eye pities the heart.' Grand Master Lu is truly a man of pure virtue and complete Dao. He is indeed one with grand words and grand knowledge. Just one sentence can clarify many great principles."

The green-clad woman looked sideways at the square-faced Daoist wearing the hibiscus crown, chuckling, "They're both Daoists. I wonder who is that 'small knowledge, fussy; small words, verbose.' With a little bit of learning, they like to be wordy and talk endlessly."

Looking immensely wronged, he said with eyes full of grievance, "Sister Rongyu, how can you compare me to Lu Chen?"

I am him.

Pei Qian twitched the corner of her mouth.

Chen Ping'an poured a bowl of wine and handed it to Grand Master Lu. Since he was so good at chatting, he should drink more.

Lu Chen pushed the wine away, saying, "Brother Chen, have you forgotten? I don't drink."

Chen Ping'an said, "You drink."

"I just made up my mind to abstain for a few days."

"Only by drinking can you find the heart and strength to abstain."

As the sword-carrying youth and the young Daoist went back and forth—one urging wine, the other refusing—probably because Bai Mao had mentioned the Jade Capital, and the Daoist had said the name Lu Chen.

The two maids of Pink Pellet Manor, upon hearing this title, felt the same reverence as Bai Mao.

Their hearts only stirred for a moment. After all, it was too far away to reach. Thinking more was useless.

A Daoist Grand Master—how could his virtue not be as high as the heavens, his Daoist learning and knowledge unfathomable?

But there was an entire world between them.

Thinking about Grand Master Lu was no better than thinking about their own young Hidden Official of Vase Bottle Continent.

Equally distant and unattainably lofty figures—but at least there was some hope and thought. After all, didn't the mountain have mirror flowers and water moon (illusory viewing)?

On both Misty and Pink Pellet Manors, female cultivators of this status all yearned for when Fallen Mountain would open its mirror flowers and water moon. Each had their own cravings. Some spoke of a white-clad youth with a vermilion mole on his forehead, peerlessly handsome. Others said the Great Sword Immortal Mi from Sword Qi Great Wall was like jade in face. But what they most wanted to see of the "people in the painting" was still the young Hidden Official in blue robes with a sword, his spirit incomparable.

Even the honorable Third Miss Yu Youyi and Fourth Miss Zhao Yan found it strange that a great sect like Fallen Mountain had never held a single mirror flowers and water moon event.

Lu Chen couldn't resist Chen Ping'an's insistence, so he took the wine bowl and drank it in one go.

Actually, for the three of them, drinking or not, even if they drowned themselves in drink, it didn't matter. Chen Ping'an's root was a talisman, and Pei Qian went without saying. Yu Chunzhi's little tricks weren't worth mentioning.

Since he had started drinking, Lu Chen no longer restrained himself. Drinking after a meal, the more you drink, the more you have.

The young Daoist's toasts were unique. He raised his wine bowl and said, "Even if our homelands differ, and man and ghost walk different paths, after all, the sun and moon share the same sky. I dedicate this to all Daoists, to form good karma together."

Lu Chen held the wine bowl, twisted his wrist, gently shook it, and looked down at the wine, watching the circles of ripples.

In the future, what name would this fist bear? Zhang? Chen?

---

"The mountain stands to welcome men; the stream's sound battles the rocks."

This old ancestor of the Zhang clan of Heavenly Commandery, wealthy beyond measure, had white hair and a burly physique. Yet he wore coarse clothes and a black turban, like a commoner, sitting cross-legged on a boulder at the cliff's edge. The water was noisy, but the man was at leisure.

The old man rested his fists on his knees and gazed into the distance in the night. Flowing water, solitary villages, new ghosts, old graves, withered trees, cold crows—like a widow crying in the night. Will-o'-the-wisps dotted here and there, like a traveler rising cold in the morning.

Zhang Qiong let his gaze drift slightly upward toward Union Joy Mountain, which stood like a thorn in his side, and Black Vine Mountain's Pink Pellet Manor. He imagined the scene inside: lanterns blazing, cups clinking, laughter and chatter. For this old man, who hated evil as much as an enemy, Union Joy Mountain was a thorn in his side. But if he truly didn't want to look at it, he could also not see it and not be troubled. In fact, last time when the Zhang clan's cultivators besieged Union Joy Mountain, there was no shortage of dissent within the family ancestral hall. The reasoning was simple: most members felt the gains were too small and the risks too great. Since the Zhang clan of Heavenly Commandery had no enmity with Union Joy Mountain, why be so confrontational? It was especially unwise to be so hasty and aggressive. But Zhang Qiong couldn't convince them with logic, so he had to pull rank as the clan head and see it through to the bitter end.

Events proved that the clan patriarch of Heavenly Commandery Zhang was indeed "old and dim-sighted." A host of cultivators couldn't even reach Yongfeng Town at the foot of the mountain and had to return empty-handed. After suffering such a great loss, damaging the family's hard-accumulated centuries of vitality, and with absolutely no gain, if there had been a terrestrial immortal within the family who was one or two generations below Zhang Qiong, the old man would likely have had to yield his position as clan head.

Fortunately, his great-granddaughter Zhang Caiqin, who was the designated next clan head, was of one mind with him. His chief guest elder, Qi Song, was his close friend. Moreover, the Zhang clan of Heavenly Commandery had double happiness: besides Zhang Caiqin, there was a young sword cultivator with terrestrial immortal aptitude, Zhang Yujiao. This prevented Zhang Qiong from losing his integrity in his later years.

But for the Liu dynasty of the Green Apricot Kingdom, this piece of territory was like a thorn in the flesh. The other two kingdoms were also unhappy about having such a lawless separatist force occupying a thousand li of mountains and rivers without cost. But in the court's strategic calculations, unless there was a heroic ruler or a foolish monarch willing to gamble the nation's fortune on a "stubborn insistence," there was always this kind of endless bickering, never reaching a conclusion, only pushing and pulling.

Zhao Fuyang was confident that the Liu emperor couldn't convince the other two monarchs to cooperate sincerely and attack Union Joy Mountain together.

Therefore, Zhang Caiqin's northern journey to Great Li with Hong Yangbo, successfully persuading that person to attend the Green Apricot Crown Prince's coming-of-age ceremony, became a "celestial immortal descending from beyond" on a deadlock chessboard.

Zhang Qiong asked, "According to the scheduled time, inside Pink Pellet Manor, has the marriage recruitment started yet?"

Zhang Caiqin said, "If on time, the mountain god's marriage recruitment and daughter bestowal should have started half an hour ago."

Zhang Qiong took out an oil-paper packet of sesame cake from his sleeve and raised it to her. Zhang Caiqin smiled and shook her head, so the old man started eating it himself, chewing loudly. As for that old immortal Cheng, forget it—no point offering a hot face to a cold backside.

Zhang Qiong laughed. "Aren't we being a bit aggressive? Will Zhao Fuyang jump the wall like a desperate dog and destroy us all in a jade-and-stone conflagration?"

After all, Zhao Fuyang, this local emperor, had promised that after the banquet ended, the day after tomorrow, he would return three imperial seals, including the heir's throne seal, to the Liu dynasty of Green Apricot Kingdom.

In exchange, within half a year, the Liu would give Union Joy Mountain three jade seals of similar rank from other kingdoms that had been scattered. Of course, this was just Cheng Qian's delaying tactic.

Zhang Qiong wiped his mouth. "Countless cases seem to prove that if you really push someone like Zhao Fuyang—tough-minded and not lacking in tricks, a wild mountain cultivator—to the wall, they might shed their own skin and dare to drag the emperor off his horse."

Cheng Qian said calmly, "One Union Joy Mountain, two Golden Cores—nothing to worry about."

According to the agreement, he would personally deal with Zhao Fuyang of Fallen Kite Mountain in a one-on-one fight. As for Yu Chunzhi, the Golden Core fox immortal, the Zhang clan of Heavenly Commandery would suppress her.

Zhang Qiong was full of doubts and couldn't help asking, "Why did Zhao Fuyang suddenly change his mind and make such a big concession?"

Cheng Qian said, "At this point, the reason doesn't matter anymore."

This remark resonated oddly with a certain statement Zhao Fuyang had made in the family ancestral hall.

Zhang Caiqin sighed softly. If Zhao Fuyang and Yu Chunzhi hadn't merged their mountains and mated, each fusing with Falling Kite and Black Vine Mountains, using a secret Daoist bedroom technique from the Gold Immortal Nunnery to boost their realm and advance their Dao, then all the various forces would have feared these two licentious shrine lords jumping the wall like desperate dogs, abandoning their Dao fields and vast estates, and fleeing over the wall. They would then bear a blood feud with several powers and fight to the death. If Zhao Fuyang escaped, whether the Liu clan, the Gold Que Sect, or the Zhang clan of Heavenly Commandery—none could bear the consequences.

Although Zhao Fuyang also knew the "shouldering mountains" divine ability passed down orally by the founder of the Gold Immortal Nunnery lineage, first, carrying mountains on a pole slows travel; second, Cheng Qian, as the current sect leader of the Gold Que Sect, naturally had a countermeasure.

Since the net had been cast, like hunting, they advanced in a pincer formation. As the encirclement tightened, the extermination of the mountain's beasts was to happen tonight.

The entire Union Joy Mountain territory was already a turtle in a jar. The whole Union Joy Mountain was also a pouch in Old Immortal Cheng's hand.

Zhao Fuyang's banquet and marriage recruitment tonight could be said to be favored by heaven, but it was also Union Joy Mountain's path to self-destruction.

Zhang Caiqin couldn't help asking a question again, "Great-Grandfather, is there truly no one-in-ten-thousand possibility? Are you sure Zhao Fuyang won't break through from Golden Core to Infant Soul in the near future?"

Zhang Qiong put the last piece of sesame cake in his mouth and pointed a finger at the big tree at the mountain gate. "Whether this tree shows signs of blooming or not is the manifestation of whether Zhao Fuyang has signs of breaking through a realm. No matter how many camouflage techniques he uses, he can't hide it. Fatty Qi is staying in Fengle Town, not just to show his might. This tree—mountain dragon's horns—"

Cheng Qian nodded. "I viewed this tree up close at Splashed Ink Peak earlier. There was nothing unusual. Zhao Fuyang would need at least several decades of water-grinding effort before he has a certain chance to nurture an Infant Soul."

But that strange, majestic aura was baffling. No matter how much Cheng Qian deduced and calculated, he had no clue, let alone reaching the truth.

To be precise, it was as if that aura had never appeared in the town at the mountain's foot. Cheng Qian had to give up trying to find the root. Instead, he only divined the fortune of the hexagrams. The result was still relatively vague, a hexagram where the heavenly timing was unreliable and human effort would determine good or bad. That was enough for Cheng Qian and the Gold Que Sect.

Zhang Qiong said without reason, "To be as high an official as a lord, to be as young and strong as you—rare in the world."

Cheng Qian said blandly, "A beautiful woman, mature but still with leftover charm."

Zhang Caiqin was a bit helpless. They were both elders, so it wasn't appropriate for her to speak out.

You two old children, bickering here.

Zhang Caiqin knew that actually, her great-grandfather and this state protector immortal of Green Apricot Kingdom, the third sect leader of Gold Que Sect, couldn't really be considered like-minded.

Her great-grandfather found Cheng Qian too stiff in his words and deeds, too full of immortal aura, too little human flavor.

In private, he called the other a wooden or clay sculpture in a shrine.

Zhang Caiqin had once believed this firmly and didn't take it as a derogatory term. That was why, after meeting someone at Green Clam Fang back then, she had given Hong Yangbo that evaluation.

Speaking of which, last time the Zhang clan of Heavenly Commandery attacked Union Joy Mountain, the Liu dynasty of Green Apricot Kingdom and the Gold Que Sect had chosen to look on from the sidelines.

Of course, Emperor Liu and Cheng Qian had their own concerns. For example, the other two kingdoms had troops stationed at the border, watching covetously.

Moreover, the Liu court still had three imperial seals in Zhao Fuyang's hands. They weren't afraid of Zhao Fuyang destroying the seals, but they were afraid of him using malicious mountain methods—like placing those seals in certain yin-sha or filthy places. That would be like, if you compared a nation's fortune to a person, the seals that should be used to stabilize the country would become a bone cancer. Or he might simply refine all the seals into life-bound objects, then Zhao Fuyang and Misty Manor would be forever connected to the Liu clan's national destiny and mountain-river fortune. The Liu royal family would then have to suffer in silence.

But these days, her great-grandfather kept repeating one sentence.

"I feel something is off, but I can't say what's wrong."

Although he wasn't exactly disheartened, Zhang Caiqin felt for the first time that her great-grandfather had a kind of evening air on him—a hero's decline.

Within the family, Zhang Caiqin, Zhang Yujiao, and the other young cultivators almost all supported this mistaken decision of her great-grandfather's, which had indeed bruised the family.

Zhang Yujiao, for example, felt the only mistake was that his own realm wasn't high enough.

On the other hand, the old-timers in the ancestral hall, one or two generations below Zhang Qiong, had no small resentment. Why provoke Union Joy Mountain's Zhao Fuyang when they were minding their own business?

The same "land gods" that everyone envied but couldn't obtain also had their "old, young, strong, and weak." Zhang Qiong belonged to the old among terrestrial immortals. He had already been at Golden Core for over three hundred years, with his primordial spirit's true spirit tending toward decay. Though his soul wasn't yet wavering or his oil running dry, if Zhang Qiong couldn't break through within sixty years, he would truly end up "dying in his bed."

But Zhang Qiong had always been open-minded. In recent decades, the old man hadn't even started preparing to "add oil to extend life." Instead, through connections, he had already bought large timber from Yuzhang Commandery in Hongzhou, Great Li, and had a coffin ready.

Now Zhang Qiong was quite proud of this deal, saying he had great foresight and acted quickly. If he had waited a few more years, until Great Li set up a logging bureau, not even a fifth-tier cultivator, let alone an old Golden Core like him, could buy a single piece of Yuzhang timber.

Cheng Zhenren, who looked like a youth, was a young terrestrial immortal. He had already touched the threshold of the Golden Core bottleneck and the Infant Soul realm. It was said he was already preparing for seclusion, having opened up a new Dao field cave dwelling. The Gold Que Sect's treasury had spent a lot on this. Even the person to guard his seclusion had been chosen—not Zhang Qiong, but a Jade Pu realm ancestor from the Divine Edict Sect.

Only after the Union Joy Mountain affair was settled and the Green Apricot Crown Prince's coming-of-age ceremony was over would Cheng Qian go into seclusion, located in the Clear Pool Blessed Land of the Divine Edict Sect.

Among mountain-dwelling cultivators, the two realms of Infant Soul and Flying Ascension were often teased as "a thousand-year tortoise, a ten-thousand-year turtle," often giving a deathly aura, with more and more evening air each year.

As for the other three realms—Cave Abode, Golden Core, and Jade Pu—as long as it wasn't someone like Zhang Qiong, who had no hope of breaking through, when they first entered a realm, they would be the most sharp-edged, full of aggression.

Because cultivators in these three realms all think about pushing through to the next level.

Thus, even as Golden Core cultivators, Zhang Qiong, Cheng Qian, and Zhao Fuyang would have utterly different cultivation mindsets.

Zhang Qiong suddenly laughed. "Just to be safe, since we're at the critical moment, let me do another divination. Think of it as a last-minute prayer to the Buddha."

The old man took out a few tortoise shells from his sleeve—the Nine-ribbed Yuanjiang tortoise shells that fortune-tellers on Vase Bottle Continent dreamed of.

Just then, Cheng Qian said, "Qi Song and the others are here."

Zhang Qiong had to put away the tortoise shells. Divination had too many taboos and requirements.

Soon, five people climbed the mountain. Only one face was unfamiliar—a dark-skinned girl. She carried an oil-paper umbrella slanted on her back and a cloth bundle slung across her body.

Cheng Qian and Zhang Qiong exchanged a glance. Both Golden Core terrestrial immortals had noticed the subtle change in Lü Mo.

As for her teacher Qi Song, being a pure martial artist, he hadn't yet discovered that this disciple had undergone a "transformation" before it had fully "developed."

Qi Song helped the girl introduce herself: Sect Leader Cheng of Gold Que Sect, Zhang Qiong, the patriarch of Heavenly Commandery Zhang, and the Sword Immortal Zhang Caiqin. From Fengle Town, Union Joy Mountain, was the qi refiner Ni Qing.

Ni Qing, regarding her traveling companion Qi Song, even though he was a Golden Body realm martial artist and a grandmaster of martial arts, she didn't have that sense of towering admiration. After all, different trades were separated by mountains.

But when she stood only an arm's length away from a state protector immortal of Green Apricot Kingdom and the old patriarch of Heavenly Commandery Zhang, Ni Qing couldn't help being nervous. She clutched the rope of her cloth bundle tightly.

The girl said in a trembling voice, "Two old immortals, I'm Ni Qing, my Daoist name is Qingni (Green Mud)."

In the mixed bag of Union Joy Mountain territory, especially at Fengle Town at the foot, the names Cheng Qian and Zhang Qiong were thunderous, known to all.

The young Sword Immortal Zhang Yujiao was expressionless.

Jin Lü kept a straight face, barely suppressing a laugh.

A proper cultivator with a lineage and a record generally only had the right to a Daoist name after reaching the Cave Abode realm. You've just started cultivating as a qi refiner, now only at the first realm, and you add a superfluous Daoist name like "Green Mud"—isn't that admitting you're a wild mountain cultivator?

Cheng Qian was silent, only using mountain techniques of aura observation and physiognomy to size up the girl. Her aptitude was passable, but she was a bit old, having missed the best time to cultivate high-level Daoist techniques.

But Zhang Qiong smiled and nodded. "Little Daoist friend Qingni, do you have any relatives or friends in the town?"

If so, he would have Zhang Caiqin and Zhang Yujiao go back to Fengle Town to avoid anyone being caught up in the disaster when the various forces attacked Union Joy Mountain at dawn tomorrow.

Ni Qing answered honestly, "I do, but they can take care of themselves and have their own plans."

Zhang Qiong said, "To be honest, Fengle Town is about to have quite a commotion. Immortals fighting on the mountain—not everyone can protect themselves."

Ni Qing said, "Sister Liu and Uncle Liu and the others all have their own things to do."

After all these years, Zhou Qiu and Liu Tie had their own tempers, which the girl knew very well.

The old man nodded. "Little Daoist friend Qingni, you said it well. It's the same for all of us."

Cheng Qian looked at the resolute girl. The young-looking Daoist immortal gently shook his head. It was really playing a lute to a cow, a spring breeze not entering a donkey's ear.

He held his breath, formed the Zi-Wu mudra in front of his chest, embodying the meaning of holding yin and embracing yang.

Ancient terrestrial immortals and ancient true men all obtained longevity by eating qi.

The path of qi refining cultivation, though not as much of an upstream struggle as a martial artist's boxing, still required persistent effort, dripping water wearing through stone.

The girl's heart was simple. At that moment, she just thought, compared to those two swindlers earlier, the mountain seniors in front of her were true immortals, real immortals.

Zhang Qiong asked with his heart voice, "Cheng Qian, you're not the kind of person with a narrow mind. Why do you hold such a grudge against Zhao Fuyang? It even seems like you have some... disgust for him?"

If it was because of Zhao Fuyang's spirit creature background, that wasn't right, because both Clear Still Peak and Green Grace Peak of Gold Que Sect had qi refiners of similar roots, and Cheng Qian didn't exclude them.

If it was just because of Zhao Fuyang's immortal fate with the Gold Immortal Nunnery, with Cheng Qian worried that Zhao Fuyang might break through to Infant Soul and then run back to Gold Que Sect to compete for the sect leader position, that would be underestimating Cheng Qian's Dao ambitions.

Back when Zhao Fuyang was expelled from Gold Que Sect and removed from the register, becoming a wild cultivator, and later by the great river, he secretly formed a Daoist pair with that fox enchantress. Cheng Qian had watched it all, yet had never bothered with this rebel. This was just thunder not arguing with frogs and earthworms. But what had stirred Cheng Qian's killing intent was not that Zhao Fuyang had a hope of breaking through the Golden Core bottleneck to Infant Soul, but this mountain python's method of attesting the Dao was too filthy and foul, especially involving several Dao lineages of the Gold Que Sect. For Cheng Qian, who from the beginning of his mountain cultivation had considered himself a ordained Daoist of the Gold Que Sect, this was a violation of orthodoxy, a great rebellion.

Cheng Qian was silent for a moment, then answered with his heart voice, "In the mountain ancestral hall, Zhao Fuyang hangs three portraits of sect founders. I've heard he even tried to hang a portrait of Grand Master Lu of the Jade Capital."

In the final analysis, whether it was Green Grace Peak or the Gold Immortal Nunnery, strictly speaking in terms of lineage, they all belonged to the "descended mountain" collateral branches of the Southern Blossom City lineage of the Jade Capital. They just weren't considered "mainstream," since the founding master of the Gold Que Sect was a disciple expelled from the Spirit Flying Temple by Heavenly Lord Cao.

Zhang Qiong asked in confusion, "Just... something like that?"

Cheng Qian sneered, "'Just'?"

Zhang Qiong thought for a moment and nodded, "I suppose you're right. Your Daoist lineage transmission is different from our mountain families."

Yes, yes. There was an unverified rumor that Cheng Qian's greatest wish in his cultivation life was to become an Immortal and eventually meet the descending true form of Grand Master Lu of the Jade Capital.

"An elder brother broke the mountain gate rules and secretly passed a dharma robe to Zhao Fuyang. The robe followed the ceremonial system for ordained Daoists of the Spirit Flying Temple. Moreover, Zhao Fuyang was so audacious as to privately create an outrageously blasphemous Daoist crown, hoping to one day wear that dharma robe and an lotus crown and swagger through the streets."

Cheng Qian's eyes suddenly became sharp, murderous. He said solemnly, "To wear such attire without the corresponding Dao—his crime is death!"

---

In a flower hall of Pink Pellet Manor.

Earlier, the eldest miss of Union Joy Mountain, along with the youngest fourth miss Zhao Yan, had accompanied their mother, the manor mistress Yu Chunzhi, to console the master of Hundred Flower Lake, whose lair had been smashed.

Yu Chunzhi appeared to be frowning along with them, but in truth she was gloating. Watching the family of three from Summer Moon Manor, looking like they had lost their parents, she said all the good words she could, but still couldn't make them feel any better. Indeed, a water manor disappearing just like that would make anyone lose their Dao heart.

But she couldn't just let them leave Pink Pellet Manor and rush back to Hundred Flower Lake. So Yu Chunzhi said, "Lake Lord Zhang, you and I are practically in-laws now. Only a formality remains. Now that such a huge calamity has befallen Summer Moon Manor, Union Joy Mountain can't just ignore it, in reason and in principle. But your water manor is far away from here, a long distance over mountains and rivers. Rushing back now won't change the situation. Why don't we finalize this marriage tonight? After that, my husband Fuyang and I will help you go to Hundred Flower Lake and demand justice from that strange stone turtle and the Mi Yun Kingdom's court. Otherwise, if Union Joy Mountain helps you without proper standing, our campaign would lack justification, wouldn't it?"

Zhang Xiangdao, wearing a court-facing crown and a black dragon robe, just stroked his beard in silence, truly burning with anxiety, having unspeakable bitterness.

Beside him, Wei Chan pondered for a moment, then nodded, persuading her husband that since things had come to this, they couldn't lose their composure. What Manor Mistress Yu said was very reasonable.

Only their youngest son had the broadest mind. At this moment, he still had the leisure to appraise the voluptuous Manor Mistress Yu, then glance at her two daughters, thinking that if he could share a bed with all three, that would be real fortune in romance.

Yu Chunzhi also looked down on this pair of Dao partners from Summer Moon Manor. As Zhao Fuyang had said earlier in his sharp remark, Zhang Xiangdao and his halfway-together paramour Wei Chan—one was a lucky old turtle who had formed a Golden Core by luck, with a rotten Dao heart; the other was a Dragon Gate realm old clam spirit, destined never to form a Golden Core. Precisely because of this, Zhao Fuyang had chosen this "in-law." First, the Hundred Flower Lake Summer Moon Manor had usurped that historically significant Dragon King Temple, its position illegitimate, and had never received the title recognition from the Mi Yun Kingdom's court. As a licentious water manor, it stirred up trouble and did many evil deeds, losing the hearts of the people across the Mi Yun Kingdom. If Zhang Xiangdao hadn't been a Golden Core and had the geographical advantage of his water manor, making it hard for cultivators to capture him, the Mi Yun Kingdom would have long ago taken action against their water manor.

Moreover, her husband Zhao Fuyang's mountain refinement was like an immortal's pill refining, needing to balance yin and yang, incorporating both dragon and tiger, water and fire. Zhang Xiangdao, his Dao partner the old clam spirit, and Zhang Hanquan, whose Daoist name was "Dragon Gill," were all water-element aquatic spirit creatures. Adding the various water manor shrimp soldiers and crab generals placed elsewhere, this would perfectly complete that link. Most crucially, Summer Moon Manor and the other guests all shared one common feature: they were all dirty goods whose deaths wouldn't matter. Killing them gave Zhao Fuyang no worries. Even if a virtuous man from the Confucian Academy wanted to make a fuss, it would be hard. What, Union Joy Mountain kills demons and defends the Dao for you—is that wrong?

Perhaps it might even be a reputation-building act praised by registered mountain cultivators. As for how wild cultivators would view Zhao Fuyang and Yu Chunzhi in the future, or whether they would still dare approach them—did it matter?

Yu Chunzhi deliberately ignored Zhang Hanquan's lecherous gaze, took a sip of wine, and said with a seductive smile, "I often tell Fuyang when talking about Hanquan that he would be such a good son-in-law—good aptitude for cultivation, good talent and looks. Even that Heavenly Commandery young sword immortal Zhang Yujiao, and those Daoist talents from Gold Immortal Nunnery and Green Grace Peak, don't have such a dignified appearance as Hanquan."

Zhang Xiangdao forced a smile and raised his cup. "Then many thanks to Manor Mistress Yu."

The short, sturdy youth, who by looks alone was clearly the biological son of Zhang Xiangdao and Wei Chan, also raised his cup and grinned. "The son-in-law thanks his mother-in-law!"

Compared to her mother, Zhao Yan had a thinner skin. She had to force herself to keep a straight face to avoid laughing.

In the adjacent banquet hall, the shrine goddess of Fallen Kite Shrine, now renamed Gonghua, appeared to be quite drunk, unable to hold her liquor. She sat by the table, propping her forehead to rest.

In fact, she had been silently operating her divine powers to dissipate the alcohol's effects, but deliberately kept the reek of alcohol around her, clinging to her clothes.

Several rough men sitting nearby looked at her profile, at her impressively ample scenery, wishing they could become that table. Of course, some wanted to become the chair.

The Green Apricot Kingdom's troops had begun advancing toward Union Joy Mountain in an orderly fashion.

Since the emperor was personally leading the expedition, the central army's command tent was heavily guarded. The mountain lords of the five sacred peaks and several water gods manifested their golden bodies, protecting those carriages.

The various spirits under their command were responsible for clearing the way for the vanguard cavalry. In the Union Joy Mountain territory, the official roads had been in disrepair for years, overgrown with weeds, now full of potholes and hard to traverse.

Inside one carriage, spacious enough to hold a small table, the old emperor of the Green Apricot Kingdom, wearing a bright yellow dragon robe, was perusing a small mountain of memorials. On the table, a celadon chi-dragon incense burner emitted purple smoke. The incense was a secret recipe from the Gold Que Sect, used to calm the mind.

The Green Apricot Emperor was known as a diligent monarch since ascending the dragon throne.

Sitting across from him was a young man with a clean face, the Crown Prince about to have his coming-of-age ceremony. Since he wasn't the eldest legitimate son, the court and public had been full of controversy since late last year and early this spring. The Emperor hadn't concealed this matter, directly showing him many secret memorials from the provinces. If he hadn't seen those memorials, this heir apparent would have thought he was the universally acclaimed candidate for Crown Prince. At least, that's what several old masters with scholar titles from his early residence, as well as his current assistant officials in the Eastern Palace, had subtly or directly implied.

For this, he had once asked his father, "Why do they deceive me like this?"

Because the Crown Prince considered himself someone who could hear blunt criticism. "Loyal words are harsh to the ear but beneficial to action"—this simple truth, he understood.

The Emperor had given him a strange answer that the Crown Prince couldn't figure out: "They're afraid you'll hold a grudge and settle accounts after you ascend the throne."

He also said, "When you understand that, you can barely inherit the great tradition."

The old Emperor threw a memorial from a certain official to the young Crown Prince. "Take a look."

The Crown Prince took the memorial, quickly scanned its contents, and frowned slightly. It requested that the court prohibit "extra-system personnel" from holding various prestigious and pure offices like "Five Bureau Directors," and that only the sons of ministers and literary elites should be appointed. This was completely contrary to the Crown Prince's consistent thinking. Now that the court was rebuilding, they should vigorously promote officials with real talent and learning, as well as untitled scholars from humble backgrounds.

Seeing the Crown Prince hesitate to speak, the old Emperor said, "Take up the brush and draft a decree. I'll dictate, you write."

The Crown Prince quickly picked up a brush and dipped it in ink. The old Emperor said slowly, "Approved. Allow the memorial. From now on, the Ministry of Personnel shall no longer appoint extra-system personnel."

The old Emperor said, "If you're not sleepy yet, just browse these memorials at random."

The young Crown Prince then selected a few memorials that had particularly many yellow paste notes.

Among the central nations of Vase Bottle Continent, there was an established bureaucratic custom: official documents submitted by court ministers, such as memorials and proposals, were written on white paper. If the content was lengthy and the text dense, and they feared the Emperor might not have time to read it all, officials would follow old protocol by using yellow paper strips to extract key points, attached after the main text. These extracts could not exceed a hundred characters, preferably within thirty, to allow the Emperor to quickly browse and approve, saving time.

One memorial, from a certain Director of the Ministry of Works, requested that the court promote the now-overburdened Ministry of Works to a "forward ministry," ranking after the Ministries of Rites and Personnel, and before the Ministries of War, Justice, and Revenue. According to the court's old system, the Ministries of Works and Revenue had always been "rear ministries." Simply put, a Director from a rear ministry being transferred horizontally to a forward ministry was essentially a promotion.

The Ministry of War had strong objections to this military expedition and did not agree with voluntarily giving up the Union Joy Mountain territory.

One Vice Minister of War wrote in his memorial, "If you gain an inch, it is the king's inch; if you gain a foot, it is also the king's foot."

"As the saying goes, 'A family with a thousand members has only one master.' You must understand the difficulty and ease within this truth as early as possible."

The Emperor coughed a few times, raised the back of his hand to cover his mouth, and was silent for a long time until his breathing steadied. Then he picked up another memorial from the table. Lifting his head, he said, "I hope that one day, in your hands, 'the pure and clear qi of heaven and earth will allow talents to obtain what they deserve.'"

At Splashed Ink Peak.

Zhou Qiu and Liu Tie and the others had quietly left Fengle Town and come here to wait for news.

She looked at the few pebbles on the ground and found them increasingly unusual. The lofty Daoists on the mountain had the divine ability to gather dirt into mountains, and also this technique of arranging stones to form formations.

Someone shrank the earth and appeared on the peak from nowhere.

Zhou Qiu and the others breathed a sigh of relief. It was Mr. Chen, who had removed his camouflage.

Chen Ping'an, who had arrived from afar, didn't explain anything. He just smiled and said, "We meet again."

Chen Ping'an hadn't hidden it from Lu Chen. He indeed had two avatars, acting as two hidden auxiliary stars in the Big Dipper Seven Star Formation, responsible for supporting from the shadows. Even if faced with a life-or-death encounter that allowed no retreat and where superiority was immediately clear, and rescue came too late, if one avatar had an accident, these two talismans could also fill the gap.

For these two avatars, Chen Ping'an used his original appearance, but with different attire. The Chen Ping'an now on the mountain peak looked the part of an immortal: wearing a golden crown, a blue gauze dharma robe, holding a lingzhi mushroom in his hands, and treading on cloud-climbing shoes.

It wasn't that "Chen Ping'an" deliberately showed off his wealth. Rather, this way, by deliberately hiding, he could better conceal his form and aura, making it hard for even Infant Soul cultivators to find his trace.

Also, encountering a strong enemy—if he couldn't win, he could run fast.

Earlier, seeing the "young Hidden Official" with a youthful appearance had been a bit awkward. Although mountain cultivators with techniques to maintain youth were numerous—far away, the old master of Wind Snow Temple was a lofty Daoist who had returned to youth; close by, there was the state protector immortal of Green Apricot Kingdom. Still, the Mr. Chen in front of them was the one Zhou Qiu and Liu Tie found more accustomed.

Chen Ping'an asked, "Miss Zhou, Squad Leader Liu, what do you think of Zhao Fuyang's conduct?"

Although Liu Tie found it strange that the young Hidden Official would ask this, he didn't think too much. He just answered from his heart, "This Union Joy Mountain is a filthy place, sheltering evil. If Fallen Kite and Black Vine mountains hadn't merged into Union Joy, this thousand-li area wouldn't have gathered so many monsters and licentious shrine deities. Zhao Fuyang is certainly the chief culprit. But... I can't deny he's a formidable character. Just look at that head of Gu Feng—it's already on the ground. Earlier, Zhao Fuyang had Yu Youyi throw it into the courtyard of the town. He also promised Black Vine Mountain Shrine's Li Ting that he wouldn't live long."

Chen Ping'an smiled noncommittally, shifting his gaze to the silent Zhou Qiu, waiting for her answer.

Zhou Qiu carefully weighed her words, then said slowly, "He's not really a good sort, but I can't say Zhao Fuyang is the kind of extreme evil person either."

Chen Ping'an smiled and asked, "Miss Zhou, do you mean Zhao Fuyang isn't yet to the point where everyone should want to kill him?"

Zhou Qiu was momentarily unsure how to answer.

Chen Ping'an continued, "What if I said that tonight at Union Joy Mountain, when hosting all kinds of cave spirits and ghostly creatures, Zhao Fuyang's plan was to trap all the guests in one net before the Green Apricot Liu dynasty and the Heavenly Commandery Zhang clan's encirclement?"

Zhou Qiu, Liu Tie, and all the scout spirits exchanged bewildered glances.

Evil repaid by evil? Returning the favor in kind?

Wild mountain cultivators—they really would do anything.

Chen Ping'an asked again, "If I changed the story—same outcome, but with Zhao Fuyang replaced by Cheng Qian—how would you see it?"

Zhou Qiu shook her head. Liu Tie just scratched his head.

Chen Ping'an smiled. "Each to his own duties. I'm just asking out of curiosity. Don't take it seriously."

Liu Tie nodded, deeply agreeing.

These twists and turns—he, a rough martial artist, couldn't figure them out anyway, so he wouldn't bother his brain.

Chen Ping'an was the world-famous Hidden Official. You thinking about these things was just right.

"Each to his own duties"—that was a very accurate way to put it. After all, he was a scholar; his speech was precise.

Zhou Qiu felt a bit stifled. Idiot.

Then she elbowed Liu Tie.

Chen Ping'an took out a stack of talismans. "I have some talismans here. They're a branch of the mountain divine-speed talisman. They can help you walk in daylight and maintain your spiritual integrity, allowing you to return safely to your hometown in Great Li. To reach the Great Li capital region, you'll need three. To be safe, I drew a few extra—five each. Let's just aim for absolute certainty."

Zhou Qiu was detail-oriented. She roughly calculated the distance. "Mr. Chen, we only need to reach the Great River, and we'll be very safe. So we don't need five each. Two at most."

Once at the Great Li border, various mountain-water spirits and civil-military officials, city god officials, and underworld clerks would welcome and guide them home.

Since their wishes here were fulfilled—the mountain god Li Ting and the demon cultivator Gu Feng had been killed—as long as they had talismans to maintain a spark of their true spirit, preventing them from becoming mindless vengeful ghosts or having their residual souls scattered by the wind between heaven and earth, they could reveal their identities along the way. Across the central and southern kingdoms of Vase Bottle Continent, who would dare to stop them from crossing north?

Chen Ping'an shook his head and smiled. "Listen to me. Don't be polite. Always leave some leeway; don't calculate everything too tightly. If you have leftover talismans, you won't need to rush on your journey home. Walk slower and look at the peaceful scenery along the way."

These talismans were called "Day and Night Roaming Immortal True Body Talismans," of very high rank, recorded in the last few pages of the *True Record of the Pill Scripture*. They had been lost in Haoran Heaven for a long time. They were both great talismans and "old" talismans.

Chen Ping'an had first seen a physical example of this talisman from Li Baozhen. It was made of gold talisman paper, with talismanic script drawn on both sides. In the center of the talisman was a circle, like two wheels, sun and moon, with a black-armored and a white-armored divine general on each side.

The essence and wonder of this talisman lay in the two words "true body." According to Li Xisheng's annotations, it could connect with the original forms of the Day and Night Roaming Spirits.

The effect was similar to the "reaching the heavenly court directly" in officialdom: the secret memorials of local officials could be placed directly on the emperor's desk.

Ordinary Daoist talisman schools of spirit-invocation or spirit-commanding methods, no matter how high the talisman's rank, could never achieve this wondrous effect.

Zhou Qiu and Liu Tie took the stack of talismans and distributed them.

Zhou Qiu seemed to have temporarily put aside her identity as a military qi refiner and somewhat reluctantly curtsied to the young Hidden Official.

Those who had studied a few days in village schools or government academies didn't clasp their fists in farewell; instead, they bowed. But after rising, they laughed at themselves—still awkward.

In a foreign land, on a mountain peak, man and ghost bid farewell in bows.

After the young Hidden Official's figure had quietly faded away, Liu Tie smiled and teased, "Zhou Qiu, how about that Mr. Chen? Isn't seeing once better than hearing a hundred times? You don't have any... hmm?"

"In this life, I've never liked anyone."

The female ghost shook her head, then gave a bright smile. "Then I'll make it up in the next life."

Above the sea of clouds, a strangely shaped ferry boat flew like thunder, like a hollowed-out wooden stake.

Its master was the upper-fifth-tier female Daoist, Daoist name "Dongting," the current palace master of Spirit Flying Temple, the matriarch Xiang Jun.

She was, of course, following the dharma decree of her master's master, bringing Wen Zixi along as they left the Gold Immortal Nunnery.

On the Gold Que Sect's side, there was only the peak master of Clear Still Peak, an old-looking Golden Core cultivator, Xing Zi.

One Jade Pu, two Golden Cores—they rode this galloping celestial raft, speeding toward Union Joy Mountain.

Xiang Jun did not tell them what they were going to do or whom they would meet.

She closed her eyes to rest, leaving the steering of the raft to her junior disciple.

Xing Zi didn't dare disturb Patriarch Xiang Jun's quiet qi refining and asked Wen Zixi with her heart voice, "Immortal Wen, is the wind speed of this celestial raft inferior to that of the Flowing Cloud Boat?"

It had indeed opened the old woman's eyes. The wind speed was faster than any ferry. Truly, "Hearing the Dao, one rides the celestial raft; flying along is truly joyful."

Hearing this overly heavy honorific, even Wen Zixi, a man with an unusually thick skin, couldn't help laughing.

On the Qingming Heaven's Jade Capital's Five