Chapter 770: Night Voyage Boat
Shao Baojuan said with a smile, "Wei River autumn wind, the willing takes the bait."
Chen Ping'an asked, "So this is Liyang Road?"
Shao Baojuan nodded directly. "Good learning, you remember even that."
In later ages, even those who were wholeheartedly devoted to Buddhism and meticulously studied Buddhist koans would often not pay much attention to a seemingly insignificant place name.
Chen Ping'an understood inwardly. Li County also had a jurisdiction called Mengxi; no wonder that Collator Shen would come here to wander around, seemingly a frequent customer of that bookshop specializing in prefecture gazetteers. Collator Shen was probably much like Shao Baojuan—not a native of Tiaomu City. They held the advantage of being latecomers, which allowed them to seize opportunities first, so they enjoyed finding bargains everywhere. For instance, Shao Baojuan seemed to acquire several treasures in the blink of an eye, and there were certainly other opportunities waiting in other cities for this City Lord Shao to gather one by one, using "stones from other hills to polish his jade." The treasures that Shao Baojuan and Collator Shen obtained today in Tiaomu City—whether it was Collator Shen's book, the precious saber "Xiaomei," a pouch of E green, and a length of thin rope—were all genuine goods.
As for the gaunt old Taoist's hostile glare, Chen Ping'an was not particularly concerned. It wasn't like back then in the Skeleton Beach Ghost Valley, where he could only flee, unable to fight. Chen Ping'an's only worry at the moment was that pulling one hair might affect the whole body. For example, the curly-bearded man next to the fortune-telling stall, and especially this Shao Baojuan—he had no idea how many backup plans were waiting for him.
It was like a Central Plains sword cultivator visiting the Sword Qi Great Wall, facing himself, who had already served as the Hidden Official. The disparity in victory or defeat did not lie in the difference in realms, but in the advantages of time and place.
That monk, who had originally planned to buy some snacks, also noticed Chen Ping'an. The monk stopped speaking with the old woman, lifted the load of "Blue Dragon Commentary" that he had handwritten every word, and asked, "You seem to be a fellow countryman from the north. Want to go south together to see those southerners?"
Shao Baojuan remained expressionless, but inwardly he was slightly surprised. The monk, upon first meeting this man, had given him the evaluation of "a fellow countryman from the north." Shao Baojuan knew that the monk read widely and was thoroughly familiar with all kinds of allusions. Previously, relying on his identity as a city lord, he had been able to travel freely among the cities. He had seized the timing to come to Tiaomu City many times to wait, follow, and inquire about Chan teachings from the monk. Even after replicating dozens of the sharp exchanges recorded in later ages, he had gained nothing from the monk. So Shao Baojuan's mind turned rapidly, and he immediately came up with some new calculations.
Chen Ping'an pressed his palms together and bowed to the monk, who would later be known as "Jin Gang of Zhou," but then shook his head. He hesitated for a moment, glanced at the walking staffs in Pei Qian and Xiao Mili's hands, and said with a smile to the monk, "How about owing sixty strikes first?"
According to the historical records of the Haoran World, the monk would stop at Longtan, burn that load of handwritten scriptures, utter the words, "Do not doubt the old monk's tongue," and then perform the shocking act of building a thatched hut on a mountain peak, scolding the Buddha and reviling the patriarchs. There was also the Chan koan about thirty strikes whether one said it or not.
At the bookshop, the old shopkeeper leaned against the doorframe, watching the commotion from afar.
These outsiders who disembarked first at Tiaomu City were rare; most would stop at Tuiqiao City or Benmo City. And year after year, the locals had seen many people running around like headless flies. But a visitor like this blue-robed sword immortal today, so cautious in his words and actions, as if he had a well-prepared plan, was indeed uncommon. As for Shao Baojuan, with his deep karmic fortune, he was the most exceptional case. The bookshop owner withdrew his gaze slightly and glanced at the weapons shop. That Scholar Du was also standing at the door, holding a bowl of sour plum soup from Benmo City in one hand, nibbling a piece of Tongling white ginger, looking very leisurely. It seemed this Master Wusong had filled in the complete content of the "Flower Fragrance Permeates People" calligraphy scroll from City Lord Shao Baojuan of Rongmao City. Now Scholar Du could quickly use this calligraphy scroll to go to Youyong City, also known as Baiyan City, to exchange for a long-cherished opportunity. On the ferry, between the cities, a word, an incident, or an object had always been passed around like this; indeed, they were hard to come by and even harder to obtain.
The bookshop owner found it strange. Why did Scholar Du's gaze keep lingering on the long sword carried by the blue-robed guest? Could it be an old acquaintance? Absolutely impossible—the young man was too young.
How bizarre. Before boarding the ferry, Scholar Du had been a first-rate mountain refining master in the Haoran World, roaring with red lightning and surging purple smoke, very imposing. It was said that the Tongling mountains near his hometown had been mostly refined away by him. Even swords of demi-immortal rank could rarely catch Scholar Du's eye. And because of Scholar Du's pioneering smelting, there had been a huge joke recorded in the archives of Tiaomu City. According to one of the absurd entries, there had once been a Xuyi River God's mansion near Scholar Du's hometown, where the shrimp soldiers and crab generals were hailed as "the most robust in the Haoran World." This Master Wusong had actually boiled and cooked a good part of them alive, causing the river mansion such misery that they had to go to the Confucian Temple to cry out their grievances. Was that long sword carried by the outsider an immortal relic belonging to someone Scholar Du had known in his early years?
On the street, the monk was slightly puzzled. He returned the bow with his palms together, but before shifting his load and moving on, he suddenly asked Chen Ping'an, "Having emerged from the depths of Confucian learning, is a monk thus tinged with a scholar's air?"
Chen Ping'an could only laugh silently. The monk shook his head and carried his load out of the city. But just as he was about to pass Chen Ping'an, he abruptly stopped, turned to look at Chen Ping'an, and asked again, "Why can all eyes perceive the smallest details, yet cannot see the face directly?"
Chen Ping'an replied, "Wait only for the Chan lamp to shine; for eons, the dragons and elephants of all directions will open the right eye, burning through the dark alleys."
The monk frowned slightly.
Chen Ping'an countered, "Who lights the lamp? How to light the lamp?"
The monk laughed heartily. "Good answer. Our kind, our kind, truly not those southern lowlanders."
Chen Ping'an hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping. The Chan teachings of the Haoran World had a north-south division, but in Chen Ping'an's view, there was no difference in superiority between the two; he always believed that sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation were the same Dharma gate.
But the monk had already carried his load far away, as if in the blink of an eye, his figure had vanished at the city gate.
Shao Baojuan spoke to him mentally, offering a friendly reminder, "Opportunities are hard to find and easily lost. You should strike while the iron is hot."
Chen Ping'an said nothing.
Shao Baojuan smiled and said, "I have no intention of scheming against you. It's the Hidden Official himself who is overthinking."
Chen Ping'an squinted and asked, "Oh? City Lord Shao has such bold spirit—are you trying to collect Deshan's Stick, Linji's Shout, Yunmen's Cake, and Zhaozhou's Tea?"
Shao Baojuan replied helplessly, "I was indeed a bit greedy earlier, but now the Hidden Official has intercepted sixty strikes from me—not even the thirty strikes—so it's naturally impossible."
Shao Baojuan suddenly smiled again and asked, "How about we call it even? From now on, you and I will be like well water and river water—we don't interfere with each other? We each seek our own opportunities?"
Chen Ping'an neither agreed nor disagreed. He just smiled and said, "City Lord Shao, what kind of city lord are you? Since we're to be like well water and river water, I need to know where the well water and river water lie."
Shao Baojuan smiled and said, "Here and now, there is no such thing as free knowledge. Why does the Hidden Official ask knowingly?"
Chen Ping'an had actually already discerned the general situation. On this ferry, at least in Tiaomu City and Benmo City, a person's knowledge and learning—such as Collator Shen knowing the truth about how the peaks formed, or Shao Baojuan filling in the blanks of that wordless scroll with textual content—once verified as accurate by some "someone" on the ferry, could earn a great or small opportunity. But the price was very likely to be leaving a wisp of soul on this ferry, becoming one of those "living immortals" that Pei Qian had read about in ancient texts, trapped in some kind of prison of words. If Chen Ping'an had not guessed wrong about this thread, then as long as he was careful enough, learning from City Lord Shao Baojuan, going door to door, only doing certain things and saying certain words, then logically, the later one boarded this ferry, the easier it would be to profit. But the problem was that this ferry had little fame in the Haoran World, too obscure, making it easy to fall into a trap. One careless move, and the whole game was lost.
As for why Chen Ping'an had, upon first seeing "Tiaomu City," warned Pei Qian and Xiao Mili not to answer any questions, it stemmed from when he had traveled with Lu Tai in the Tongye Continent years ago. Lu Tai had casually mentioned a ferry and jokingly asked Chen Ping'an what was the most difficult thing to deal with in the world. Later, when Chen Ping'an went back to the Sword Qi Great Wall, in his spare time, he had searched through the secret archives of the Summer Palace and actually found a record about the ferry beneath his feet. It was in a book called "Pearl Boat," in the marginalia of the last page, where he saw a note about a "Night Voyage Boat." Because his hometown had a mountain called Pearl Mountain, and Chen Ping'an was extremely interested in the wide-ranging content of the Pearl Boat, he had read it thoroughly from beginning to end, not skimming like he did with many books. That was how he saw the line: "First the Pearl Boat, then the Night Voyage Boat; the sea of learning is boundless, a single leaf of a boat, patching and mending, carrying people through the ages of night travel between heaven and earth."
Beside the text, there was a crooked line of handwriting. Chen Ping'an recognized the hand at once: "To hell with that, two punches to smash it."
So later, on the city wall's horse path, Chen Ping'an had uttered the offhand remark, "Among all knowledge in the world, the Night Voyage Boat is the hardest to deal with."
When Chen Ping'an returned to the Haoran World, he stumbled into a situation in Shenjing City and found in the Yellow Flower Temple the book-collection seal that Fei Ran had deliberately left beside Liu Mao. Seeing the seal impressions, he understood that those two lines in the book were probably just a bored annotation by Xiao Xun, the former Hidden Official of the Sword Qi Great Wall, about Wen Hai Zhoumi, the former Execution Officer.
As for why this City Lord Shao had lost his mind and targeted him, once Chen Ping'an found a few fundamental threads of this Night Voyage Boat, he could naturally follow local customs, trace the clues, and have a proper sword duel with Shao Baojuan.
Pei Qian wasn't worried about that City Lord Shao Baojuan; since her master was watching, she directed most of her attention to the gaunt old Taoist. She glanced at the crooked banner inscribed with "To obtain the long-life formula, first pass this immortal altar," then looked at the ground formation before the stall. She took off the bamboo basket from her back, placed it on the ground, and let Xiao Mili stand back inside it. Then, using her walking staff, she pointed at the ground, drew a circle around the basket, and gently poked. The staff cut into the earth like a knife into tofu, going about an inch deep. A walking staff stood upright. When Pei Qian let go, several silk-like threads coiled around it, as if sword aura lingered, along with that golden lightning pool, forming a miniature sword array to guard the basket.
Pei Qian lightly flicked her sleeve, her right hand silently gripping a bamboo-yellow paper-cutting knife—a gift from Yu Panshui that could shrink distances. She then reached out, and the paper knife returned to her sleeve, while her left hand held an extremely heavy iron rod. Her posture slightly bent, she assumed the "White Ape Carries the Sword" stance. She twisted her wrist gently, and the rod traced a circle, one end lightly tapping the ground. Ripples spread, and the street seemed covered with countless water lines, layer after layer undulating outward.
In the Leigong Temple of Mahu Prefecture, Aiai Continent, Pei Qian had split a half-immortal iron spear—a gift from Fu Lu Yuxuan—into three parts, breaking off the spear tips that were sharp as blades, turning them into two knives and one rod.
The curly-bearded man glanced at Pei Qian, who was using the staff as a sword to draw a talisman, and nodded lightly, not hiding his appreciation.
What the old Taoist saw was different from what his neighbor the curly-bearded man saw. He marveled, "Young lady, you look not too old, leaving aside some magical arts, you've got a good bit of strength in your hands and feet. Who taught you those fist and foot techniques? Could it be Wang Fusu, that young man from Julu Continent, or Wu Shu from Tongye Continent? I hear that down in the mortal world, things are lively, and many martial artists are competing, one mountain higher than the next. What a pity that a woman took the lead. Do you have any martial connection to that woman?"
Pei Qian said, "Old Immortal, if you want to spar in Dao arts with my master, why not first exchange a few punches with this junior."
The man squatting on the ground had a hint of a smile. "Lord Feng is indeed an old immortal, but his fist and foot skills aren't very nimble. If it comes to asking fists, even if you go to Lord Feng's territory on Niaoju Mountain, the old immortal would still lose for sure. The young lady is quite clever."
The old Taoist turned around and jumped up, cursing, "In Dianjing City, where Madam Kongtong resides, there's a fellow who looks at himself in the mirror every day and shouts, 'A good neck and head—who shall chop it off?' Who was that meant for? And you dare to say I'm not nimble? Your hundred thousand armored soldiers—are they just for eating dry rice? Don't forget, it was I who used beans as soldiers and paper as generals to help you gather over ten thousand troops, just to make up the hundred thousand. Ungrateful wretch..."
The man with curly red beard simply sat down on the ground and laughed, "Didn't I return you a 'sea gate' as well?"
Pei Qian immediately spoke mentally to her master, "Master, it seems these people have the means of 'a separate paradise.' This Lord Feng's territory on Niaoju Mountain, and this kind man's hundred thousand armored soldiers—they can probably form their own small heaven within Tiaomu City."
Chen Ping'an replied mentally, "If this Lord Feng is truly that 'Green Ox Taoist,' a high-ranking Taoist immortal, and his Daoist site is indeed Niaoju Mountain, then the old immortal is quite ancient. Let's observe quietly."
The old Taoist grew angrier as he spoke, kicking the bottles and jars on his cotton-cloth stall until they fell over in a mess. "I let you favor outsiders over your own people. I'll definitely go complain to the city lord about you after I pack up."
The man tugged at a corner of the cotton cloth, shifted slightly to stay as far away from the fortune-telling stall as possible, and said helplessly, "Why take it out on me? You've got the wrong person, haven't you?"
Only then did Lord Feng remember to look back at the blue-robed outsider carrying the sword. He asked, "The one on the street carrying a leaking vessel—is he a monk or a Taoist? Tell me straight! Just give me a true word, boy!"
Chen Ping'an smiled and said, "Perhaps the Dao method is without leakage, so there's a Taoist carrying a leaking vessel on the street. Why blame me?"
The old Taoist stomped his foot, both annoyed and amused. "Fine, these days Confucian scholars arguing reason have grown even more formidable."
Shao Baojuan suddenly interjected, "The Great Dao has fifty, heaven derives forty-nine. So whether it's perfect or flawed is also a maybe in words, but uncertainty in the heart."
Chen Ping'an asked, "City Lord Shao, are you never going to stop?"
In an instant.
Chen Ping'an found himself in a picturesque land of beautiful mountains and clear waters.
The streets of Tiaomu City were gone. On a mountain path, only an old Taoist riding a green ox approached, with a bag slung diagonally over his shoulder, adorned with a row of bamboo tubes that clinked crisply against each other as he came toward Chen Ping'an.
Chen Ping'an looked at the green ox and felt a momentary daze. He stood stunned for a long while, because if his memory served him correctly, when Zhao Yao left the Pear Blossom Cave Heaven back then, he had ridden a wooden ox-cart, a young man in blue, with a green ox pulling it. It was said that there was also a wooden-faced driver. Chen Ping'an also recalled another matter: the lancer riding patrol in Tiaomu City earlier had said the utterly unreasonable words, "No ascension by lifting the form." Could it be that this Green Ox Taoist, within his separate paradise, could attain an illusory false realm in the grotesque manner of a living immortal?
On the street, Shao Baojuan smiled knowingly. The oddities on the ferry were countless. No matter how cautious Chen Ping'an was, no matter how carefully he sailed his ten-thousand-year-old boat, he could still capsize in the gutter here.
If it weren't for Shao Baojuan's innate extraordinary talent in Dao cultivation, he would have long become a living immortal here, let alone become a city lord. There were probably three people in the world who were most favored here. One was Fire Dragon Zhenren from Northern Julu Continent. Another would likely have a profound and mysterious Dao dispute with Shao Baojuan, this "dream traveler" of Liuxia Continent.
In Tiaomu City, only a moment later.
Chen Ping'an stepped over a threshold as if he had just crossed a door, reappearing in the same spot on the street. But the long sword "Night Tour" on his back was nowhere to be seen.
At the same time, the fortune-telling stall and the Green Ox Taoist had also vanished into thin air.
Pei Qian's expression remained calm, not even asking a single question.
Chen Ping'an still said softly to soothe her, "It's fine."
Shao Baojuan chuckled and clasped his fists in farewell.
Chen Ping'an nodded. "Until we meet again."
A young girl approached leisurely. First, she smiled at Shao Baojuan and said, "City Lord Shao, leaving already?"
Shao Baojuan smiled and replied, "When I next enter the city, I'll go pay respects to your master."
With just one step, the scholar ignored the city's restrictions, shrinking the ground and mountains, and in an instant left Tiaomu City, seemingly leaving with a full load.
Only then did the girl curtsy to Chen Ping'an. "My master said that if the Sword Immortal writes a piece on 'Human Nature is Evil,' he can roll out of Tiaomu City. If he makes a single mistake in a character, please let the Sword Immortal be prepared for the consequences."
Chen Ping'an asked with a smile, "May I ask who your master is?"
The girl replied with a smile, "My master is the current city lord of Tiaomu City. In the Sword Immortal's hometown, he was once called Li Shilang."
At the same time, just as Shao Baojuan had left, another person arrived—a young boy. He bowed to Chen Ping'an and said, "My city lord is currently crafting a set of seal impressions. The first seal text is 'Wine Immortal, Poet Buddha, Sword Same as Eternity,' and there are dozens of other seal texts that need the gentleman's help to fill in."