Chapter 951: Seeing the Qilin
In the back courtyard of the Yang Family Medicine Shop, Su Dian, known as Yan Zhi since childhood, this female martial artist, stood alone, guarding the empty rear courtyard.
Her junior brother, Shi Lingshan, had returned to his home on Peach Leaf Lane.
Su Dian didn't feel lonely or bored or anything like that; she had been used to it since she was a child. Having too many people around actually made her uncomfortable.
The medicine shop followed a front-store, back-workshop layout. Decoctions were prepared and medicinal herbs were dried in the back courtyard. The main house was where Old Man Yang lived.
The eastern wing was kept locked. Generally, only when Li Huai returned to his hometown and came around to hang out would Old Man Yang open that door. Only the western wing had been vacated early on and given to Su Dian.
There was also a storage room in the corner of the courtyard, filled with all sorts of old objects—vases, jars, and the like. The key to that room was left with Su Dian. Her master had once instructed her that the next time Li Huai returned home, she should tell him that the stuff in that room, a big pile of old odds and ends, was all left for him. He could sell them or give them away as he pleased.
Under the eaves on the south side, opposite the main house to the north, was a long bench. Su Dian never sat there, and she usually didn't allow her junior brother to casually sit there either.
It was as if she was guarding an old shop, and also helping her master uphold some old rules.
Su Dian was a martial arts fanatic, but tonight, she rarely wasn't. She just sat in her chair, staring blankly, with her feet resting on the rim of the brazier, thinking about some past events.
Finally coming back to her senses, Su Dian bent down, reached out her fingers, and pinched the hem of her trousers, which were slightly warm from being roasted by the fire.
The medicine shop's main door was left ajar. Someone pushed it open, walked through the front shop, and lifted the curtain. A young man called out, "Senior Sister."
From the wing room, Su Dian responded. It was her junior brother Shi Lingshan, dropping by.
Shi Lingshan entered the room, moved a long bench over, and sat down beside the brazier. Su Dian laughed, "Coming to ask for a New Year's Eve meal at the medicine shop, aren't you afraid of bad luck?"
Shi Lingshan reached out his hands to warm them by the fire, pretending to be clueless. "Is there such a taboo?"
At home, it was a bit livelier. Four generations living under one roof. With the ancestral home on Peach Leaf Lane, the family couldn't be all that poor. Still, Shi Lingshan worried that his senior sister was all alone, too lonely at the medicine shop.
He knew that since her uncle, with whom she had been each other's only support, had passed away, his senior sister had no relatives or close friends in the small town. It seemed she didn't even have a single poor relative who would ask after her welfare on ordinary days.
Shi Lingshan pulled out a packet of pastries from the Ya Sui Shop from his sleeve, and said with a smile, "From Shopkeeper Shi over at Qilong Lane."
Su Dian hesitated for a moment, then reached out and took the oil-paper-wrapped pastries. "You actually went to ask for a New Year's Eve meal?"
On New Year's Eve, the custom of "asking for a New Year's Eve meal" was worlds apart between those on Fortune and Emolument Street and Peach Leaf Lane, and those outside those two streets. They generally didn't visit each other.
In the old days of the small town, on Fortune and Emolument Street and Peach Leaf Lane, there were the Four Clans and Ten Families. The prominent families of the early town—the four great clans, Lu, Li, Zhao, and Song—had always been led by the Lu Clan, because the Lu Dynasty, before its fall, had been the suzerain state of the Great Li Song Clan. The founding emperor of the Lu Dynasty had countless connections to the Lu Clan of Fortune and Emolument Street. Additionally, the ten families, including Yuan, Cao, and Xie, had all produced great figures in their ancestral lines. After leaving the Pearl Bead Cave Heaven, they had all made names for themselves. For example, Cao Hang and Yuan Xie, considered ministers who brought about the Great Li's resurgence, had given rise to the two current Pillar State surnames in the Great Li court. There were also Cao Xi, the Sword Immortal of Southern Continent of the Sojourner, and Xie Shi, the Celestial Lord of Northern Jambudvipa, among others.
Take just a single Mud Vase Lane: there was Chen Ping'an, the Hidden Official; Song Jixin, the Great Li Princely Lord; and Gu Can, the direct disciple of Zheng Juzhong.
That area was also the location of the ancestral home of the Zhenhai Tower of Southern Continent of the Sojourner, guarded by Sword Immortal Cao Xi.
As for Su Dian, besides her connection to the medicine shop, the only person in her hometown town she could truly claim to know was someone named Hu Feng. He was a few years older than her. Hu Feng's family used to run a funeral supplies shop. He often accompanied his grandfather as a day laborer, doing brick and tile work as a mason, or going door-to-door helping to sharpen knives. But Hu Feng had also left his hometown. Even if he had stayed, Su Dian wouldn't have had anything to talk about with him.
Shi Lingshan laughed and said, "Guess who I saw over at Qilong Lane just now?"
Su Dian was silent, chewing on the pastries slowly. Whoever it was, it wasn't worth making a fuss over.
Many years ago, there was a little girl on Qilong Lane, with disheveled hair and a sallow, emaciated face, who would pretend to pass by the lane by chance. She walked very slowly, sniffing gently, smelling the aroma of the pastries, her stomach growling with hunger.
The delicious pastries she dreamed of in her childhood, and the colorful fabrics in the cloth shops—those had all seemed like the most unattainable wonderful things in the world to that hungry and cold girl. But after she grew up and had money in her hands, strangely enough, she seemed to have no yearning for them at all.
Shi Lingshan said, "I caught a glimpse of her from afar. It seemed like it was Wang Zhu from Qilong Lane."
A former close neighbor from the small town, now a great figure far away.
Su Dian just hummed in acknowledgment. They weren't on the same path anyway; she had no interest in the wealth and success of these old neighbors.
The current Old Dragon Prefecture, the new Chuzhou, was recognized throughout the continent as a place where dragons and tigers were hiding, a gathering of extraordinary people and eccentric scholars. But in Su Dian's opinion, compared to the past, it couldn't compare at all.
The earliest group of outsiders had bought mountain peaks in the western mountain ranges for their mountain immortal estates. As long as they hadn't sold them off cheaply midway, they had all gained a treasure trove that was a constant source of income.
Later on, some well-informed cultivators, having heard the news, came and bought ancestral homes from the local townsfolk, or "purchased at high prices" serpent gallbladder stones picked from the Dragon Whisker River, bronze mirrors embedded in walls, and old objects like ancient coins and porcelain. It seemed that overnight, everything worthless had become extremely valuable. The only thing that had become worthless were the silver fragments painstakingly saved by generations of families, or the gold and silver jewelry that every household kept hidden away.
Nowadays, quite a few qi refiners living incognito in the small town kept to themselves all year round, using those dilapidated houses as cultivation grounds.
Their household registrations and mountain genealogy were secretly managed by the Longquan Kiln Affairs Supervisor's Office. As for the Huaihuang County government, they never knew the identities or backgrounds of these mountain immortals. Since no one caused trouble, it was a place where things dropped on the road were never stolen, much better than an average county town. This resulted in the county government's administration being so clear and upright that they received top marks every year in the prefectural city. After all, there wasn't even a single thief climbing over walls, let alone trivial household disputes.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the qi of mountains and rivers, the dharma treasures and spiritual artifacts—these sharp-eyed outsiders who moved quickly had indeed all profited. Each had their gains, and almost no one left empty-handed.
Just consider one thing: someone had once gone to the Heavenly Canopy to trade blows with ancient deities who had crossed the boundaries, bringing several golden rains to Bottle Gourd Continent. Although almost all of it was collected by the Northern Peak Mountain Lord Wei Bo, and although it seemed that only Piyun Mountain benefited, after all, Wei Bo was a continent's mountain lord. The entire jurisdiction of the Northern Peak rose with the tide. The qi of mountains and rivers became thicker, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth more abundant. For the cultivators living in seclusion in Huaihuang County town and the western mountains, dining on clouds and drinking dew, they were full to the brim. Over the past twenty-plus years, cultivators would quietly break through realms from time to time.
Shi Lingshan asked casually, "Senior Sister, do you think our lineage has a few people altogether?"
According to their lineage's generation division, the genealogy was extremely simple. Anyway, there was just one master who taught boxing. On the surface, Su Dian and Shi Lingshan had two senior brothers above them. But Li Er and Zheng Dafeng, one had taken his family to Northern Jambudvipa, and the other had gone to the Colorful World. As for whether there were other senior brothers and sisters, it had always been a mystery. Old Man Yang didn't like to bring up this topic. Shi Lingshan had once asked about it, and in response he received a thorough scolding. Old Man Yang was always like this; either he wouldn't speak at all, or, when he did, his words were incredibly harsh. He scolded Shi Lingshan, asking if he wanted to go outside and recognize senior brothers so eagerly just to fawn over them, or if the Shi family on Peach Leaf Lane was starving him, that he had to go to someone else's house to beg for a mouthful of hot shit?
After that, Shi Lingshan didn't dare ask another word.
Su Dian thought for a moment, then said, "I don't know the exact number, how many are on the sect's genealogy, or how many are currently alive. But besides Senior Brothers Li and Zheng, there are indeed others."
Shi Lingshan looked up, full of curiosity.
Su Dian shook her head. "I know the names of two senior brothers and sisters, but Master didn't say whether I could reveal their identities. Don't ask any more."
In the room, the temperaments of the senior and junior sister were very different. In Shi Lingshan's view, if Master didn't say it wasn't allowed, then it was allowed.
But for Senior Sister Su Dian, if Master didn't say it was allowed, then it wasn't allowed.
Su Dian suddenly said, "I plan to follow Master's instructions. After this New Year, when Li Huai returns, I'll tell him a few things, and then I'll go on a long journey."
Shi Lingshan asked, "Where is Senior Sister planning to go? How far is this long journey? Is it to the ancient battlefield ruins on another continent?"
Neither he nor his senior sister had ever left Bottle Gourd Continent.
The younger generation of the small town seemed to like going on long journeys more than the last.
Su Dian knew her junior brother had misunderstood, and explained, "I intend to go on this training trip alone. I won't be taking you."
Shi Lingshan was greatly disappointed, but he didn't press the issue because he knew his senior sister's temperament. She was very stubborn. Once she decided something, she wouldn't change it.
Su Dian broke into a rare smile. "Next time we meet, I'll treat you to a drink."
Shi Lingshan was just happy, grinning foolishly.
It would be even better if she was treating him to a wedding feast.
But the young man didn't notice that his senior sister, her head bowed, had a hint of sadness in her eyes and brows, her delicate face illuminated by the charcoal fire.
One was optimistic, the other pessimistic.
In the former's eyes, all journeys were for the sake of reunion.
In the latter's eyes, all encounters were the prelude to parting.
For this training trip, after Su Dian reached the Far Roaming Realm in the Hao Ran World, she would go find a senior brother named Xie Xin'en.
He was far away in the Azure Underworld.
According to Master, this Senior Brother Xie was doing well now, but he had changed his name. He no longer called himself Xie Xin'en.
From Master's tone, Su Dian could guess that this Senior Brother Xie had already accumulated a considerable fortune in that world.
Whenever Master talked about their disciples, he generally didn't have a good expression. Even when mentioning Senior Brother Li Er, who was already a martial artist at the end realm, he didn't smile.
Master left a few verbal messages for this never-before-seen Senior Brother Xie, asking Su Dian to pass them on.
The gist of it was that when Xie Xin'en saw his junior sister Su Dian, he was to act on behalf of Master to teach her boxing techniques and swordsmanship. Then, after Su Dian reached the Mountain Summit Realm, he was to help her establish her own sect there, take root, set up her own household, and pass on the lineage. After that, they would each go their separate ways and not reveal their connection as fellow disciples to outsiders.
As for how Su Dian would go to the Azure Underworld and where to find Senior Brother Xie, Master had already arranged everything.
Shi Lingshan asked curiously, "Senior Sister, what is the background of this Li Huai anyway?"
It was said that the young Hidden Official had given Li Huai a nickname: "Bossy at Home."
In this small town, Li Huai was truly unique in being able to be bossy at home.
Su Dian shook her head. "According to the mountain's classification, Li Huai doesn't have much of a background. He's just the most ordinary person with mortal eyes and flesh."
However, their Master treated Li Huai like his own grandson.
But this kind of thing couldn't be envied.
Shi Lingshan stayed in the room for about half an hour before taking his leave. Su Dian saw him to the medicine shop door. Only after her junior brother's figure disappeared around the street corner did she close the door, return to the back courtyard, and stare blankly at the long bench under the eaves.
She had heard Senior Brother Zheng Dafeng say that this long bench had been placed there for many, many years. There was no one older than it.
The last time she saw their Master, the old man was still sitting on the steps outside the main house, holding his tobacco pipe, puffing out clouds of smoke.
Master said something that Su Dian didn't understand.
The old man lightly tapped the steps with his pipe, then raised it to point at the long bench, saying that wooden bench was "us."
Seeing Su Dian hesitate to speak, the old man said that if she ever had the chance to meet up with that person in the Azure Underworld, she could ask him. He surely knew the answer.
A wooden bench and "us"—what could be the connection?
Su Dian was baffled.
A woman, young in appearance, with hair so black it seemed blue, her posture graceful, moved like a fish swimming in the Dragon Whisker River.
She was patrolling her own jurisdiction in her capacity as the local river god, accompanied by a few child-like river god water mansion followers. Among the group of children, with their tender faces, there were boys and girls. Their faces were pale and colorless, which was quite eerie to look at, but aside from that, their clothes, expressions, and childish tones of voice were no different from the ordinary children on the shore.
Following the River God Lady around to play, although they were all water ghosts and logically should have been adapted to the water, occasionally they would appear to be choking, flailing their hands and feet, splashing around, like children in the mortal world who couldn't swim well. But they would quickly return to normal, then make faces at each other, as if they all found it amusing.
Because tonight was New Year's Eve, following custom, the River God Lady gave each of her little followers a red envelope. The coins inside the red paper packets were all rusty copper coins that had been left behind in streams in the early years.
There was no helping it. Their own River God Lady was famous for being frugal in managing the household. Simply put, she was stingy.
Ma Lanhua, the officially recognized River God of the Dragon Whisker River under the Great Li court, still stopped at the waterfall outlet where the Dragon Whisker River met the Iron Talisman River. Going upstream, she passed by the blacksmith shop on the banks of the Dragon Whisker River. Taking advantage of the shop being empty now, she poked her head out of the water and looked around a few times.
It had changed owners three times. The first was Master Ruan, an unremarkable-looking blacksmith, who was actually the last Martial Saint stationed in the Pearl Bead Cave Heaven, hailing from the Wind and Snow Temple.
Later, it was Ruan Qiong's apprentice, Xu Xiaoqiao, a female sword cultivator missing her right thumb. Then came Liu Xianyang, and an out-of-town woman who seemed not too bright, Yu Qianyue.
Nowadays, the Dragon Spring Sword Sect, with Mountain Lord Wei Bo personally helping to relocate several peaks including their ancestral mountain Shenxiu Mountain, had moved them all to the north in one go. This was considered a complete handover of the land deeds from the old Pearl Bead Cave Heaven.
Every time she swam past that stone arch bridge, from which the Great Li Song Clan had dismantled the bridge corridor and which no longer hung the old sword blade, she was especially terrified.
She quickly swam past the stone arch bridge and arrived at a deep pool. There was a patch of green stone cliff. Ma Lanhua stopped, hovering in the water.
The children who hadn't managed to stop in time bumped gently into each other. After a chorus of murmurs and complaints, there was more laughter and happy noise.
The old woman from Apricot Flower Lane, back when she was hunted down by a female immortal seeking vengeance, had already been advanced in years. Old Madam Ma died in an accident, but turned misfortune into fortune. That Old Man Yang gathered her yin soul, allowing her to serve as a river grandmother. Gradually, her appearance restored, it was as if she was "living backwards," becoming younger. This Dragon Whisker River was originally a stream. After the Iron Talisman River rose from a river to a great river, the Dragon Whisker Stream, as its upstream and source, followed suit and was elevated to a river.
And she had also been promoted from a river grandmother to a river god, inexplicably getting an official promotion. But nearly thirty years had passed. She had finally managed to get a temple for herself by the river, but there was still no statue inside, not even an incense burner.
Where was there such a shabby and impoverished River God Lady?
But Ma Lanhua dared not show any dissatisfaction. Year after year, counting on her fingers, it was no exaggeration to say that a day felt like a year. She then asked an Earth God she knew well to help her find out how many old immortals in the prefectural city still knew the name "Ma Lanhua" and recognized her youthful appearance. It was said there were only two old folks of her generation and age left there. The more this was the case, the more Ma Lanhua revered that Old Man Yang from the medicine shop. Because if nothing unexpected happened, once the thirty-year limit was up, wouldn't those two old folks in the prefectural city pass away peacefully at the end of their natural lifespans?
Among the "three aunties and six grannies," she had been half of them: the witch who played with ghosts, the matchmaker who pulled strings, the midwife who helped women give birth. Ma Lanhua of Apricot Flower Lane had done them all.
Later, she also became a river grandmother...
Ma Lanhua let out a faint sigh. She revealed her form on the emerald green deep pool, standing on the water's surface. The river seemed to spread by itself towards the stone cliff. She just walked up and sat down on the green stone cliff. From her sleeve, she pulled out a white jade comb and began combing her black hair. Today, she planned to change her hairstyle.
Those little fellows also followed the Water God Lady, jumping out of the water, gathering on the cliff, running around and making a joyful racket. Normally, Ma Lanhua absolutely forbade them from going ashore. Not to mention the daytime, when sunlight was like fire, causing ghostly beings to vanish in an instant in the sun. Even at night, besides, they themselves dared not cross the boundary casually. If they collided with anyone in the mortal world, the clash of yin and yang qi would be unequal. They would be the ones to perish.
Watching these carefree children, Ma Lanhua sighed. She put on a smiling face and gently warned them with repeated admonitions: don't stray, behave, don't go ashore, or else there would be family discipline and a spanking waiting.
Actually, their "lifespan" on the shore hadn't been long. After becoming ghosts, it was like they fell into a strange kind of "nominal age." They grew slowly. To be precise, it was hard for them to grow up. Unlike the children in the marketplace, who shot up in height quickly, becoming teenagers and young adults in the blink of an eye, then reaching marriageable age, starting families, having their own children, then becoming old folks with light sleep who woke up early. One day, they would go to sleep and not open their eyes again...
Ma Lanhua looked up and gazed into the distance. In the deep of the night, just by looking at Piyun Mountain from afar, she felt it was glaring.
The Great Li court had first established three mountain god temples. Piyun Mountain was the Mountain Lord's grand temple, unattainably lofty.
The farthest south, Luo Po Mountain, had once had a mountain god nicknamed "Gold Head Mountain God" by his colleagues. He had served there, and on the summit, there had been a mountain god shrine of no small size, but unfortunately, those years had been tough. The entire mountain god shrine had nearly become the "family temple" of that orphan from Mud Vase Lane. What kind of incense offerings could there have been? Ma Lanhua knew that Gold Head Mountain God Song Yuzhang had a considerable background. He had served as the Kiln Affairs Supervisor for many years. In the years when the small town had no county government, he was the only official. The previous Supervisor, Cao Gengxin, young as he was, had become a Vice Minister of the Great Li upon leaving office. In contrast, Supervisor Song had been a good man with bad luck, simply not catching the right timing.
As for the mountain god temple built on Wind Cool Mountain, because the mountain's geographical location was excellent, being the northernmost of the peaks, it was closest to the prosperous area where the prefectural and county governments shared the same city. The temple's incense offerings had always been very strong. Devout men and women, pilgrims like clouds, all came up to burn incense in a continuous stream. On the first and fifteenth of every month, the temple fairs on the mountainside and summit were so lively that colleagues in the mountain and river officialdom were envious. The main path up the mountain, the "Incense Path," was wide and flat like a government post road, lined with tea houses, taverns, and inns.
An Earth God from the Wind Cool Mountain area, familiar with Ma Lanhua, was an old rogue. He didn't dare to make improper moves on her, but every time they met, the old thing would always find some way to tell a dirty joke, as if he would die if he didn't get some verbal advantage.
And this Earth God's immediate superior was precisely the Mountain God Lord of Wind Cool Mountain. By recognizing the face of that divine statue, Ma Lanhua vaguely remembered him as someone who used to run a funeral supplies shop in the small town. Look at the style he had now! And then look at her own temple's situation. Comparing people could really make you angry.
To be honest, when that Mountain God Lord was young, he had even sent someone to propose to her family.
But for some reason, when she was still a river grandmother, he would occasionally visit the Dragon Whisker River to meet her. However, not long after, he grew distant.
This made Ma Lanhua quite angry. I just asked you to find out news about my grandson—such a small favor, and you wouldn't help?
On this Dragon Whisker River, her immediate superior was the Water God of the downstream Iron Talisman River, Yang Hua. It was said she was a close associate of the Great Li Empress Dowager, and she wore a cold expression. Ma Lanhua didn't dare approach her at all. Occasionally, when she had to attend water mansion meetings on the Iron Talisman River, she was also terrified. Meeting those water mansion clerks who always looked down on everyone, Ma Lanhua only dared to put on an ingratiating smile. She absolutely dared not show any airs, fearing that if she said something improper or made a mistake in some matter, she would lose her official post. Therefore, regarding events outside the prefecture, Ma Lanhua could only infer a thing or two from the mountain and river official gazettes sent from the prefectural city god temple.
According to the promise Old Man Yang had made, once the thirty years were up, when the old folks in the small town who knew her youthful appearance and identity had mostly passed away, she could erect her divine statue and enjoy incense offerings, using them to temper her golden body.
But Ma Lanhua was both looking forward to this and filled with worry. The Water God Temples on the Iron Talisman and Jade Liquid Rivers were very effective for prayers seeking marriage. The Earth God Temple at Mantou Mountain was also quite famous for granting children. And Supervisor Song had been transferred to Qidun Mountain, and Wind Cool Mountain—at these two mountain god temples, it seemed that when scholars made wishes by drawing lots, hoping for smooth imperial examinations and the blessing of literary fortune, the results were quite good. So until now, Ma Lanhua hadn't thought of a way. Even if she did erect a statue in the future, where would the incense offerings for her temple come from? As for suppressing water movement, what did that have to do with her? In Chuzhou territory, there was no shortage of river and river gods.
Ma Lanhua combed her hair, sighing repeatedly.
On this pitted and uneven green stone cliff, the children of the small town in the old days used to come here to swim and catch fish. Each had their own "seat."
After becoming a mountain and river deity, one's perspective was completely different from those ordinary mortals on the mortal side.
At the junction of the western mountains and the small town, that unremarkable Zhenzhu Mountain was actually the location of a "Pearl."
And the Dragon Whisker River under Ma Lanhua's feet was truly a "dragon's whisker" in name and reality. That was why so many invaluable serpent gallbladder stones had appeared in the water back then. As for the other "dragon's whisker," it was the main street of the small town. Along this street were, in order, Crab Workshop, the Iron Lock Well, and the Old Locust Tree, extending all the way eastward, stopping at the east gate. There had once been a reckless young bachelor, the gatekeeper Zheng Dafeng. Who knew where he had gone? Only a yellow mud house, unoccupied, remained.
There was an elegant saying about a "tiger crouching, dragon coiled." It seemed that those dragon kilns were built right on the body of this dragon.
Actually, over the years, Ma Lanhua had been afraid that the thin, weak little girl from Mud Vase Lane would come to her to settle old scores.
After all, when drawing water at the Iron Lock Well back then, every time she saw that lowly maidservant beside the "Supervisor Song's illegitimate son," Ma Lanhua was often the one leading the gossipy women. She had indeed said some unpleasant things. After all, the widow on Mud Vase Lane and that orphan, no matter how poor they were, they weren't of humble status. Even if their home was bare, they at least had a clean identity. But this little girl with a strange name, no matter how wealthy and generous her life was... so what about her?
The women of the old small town, not to mention pointing fingers at Zhigui, whenever they got into a quarrel, it didn't matter who you were. They could always find a pile of faults. They would say things right to your face that would pierce your heart and sting your spine. For example, "So what if your family has some stinking money? Do you have a son now? You'd better watch out, lest your ancestral incense is cut off. Who knows who that money will end up with..." This kind of mutual exposure of shortcomings was extremely common. When one side couldn't argue anymore, they would start pulling hair and scratching faces.
Just talking about quarreling, not about getting physical. Then Madam Ma of Apricot Flower Lane, Widow Gu of Mud Vase Lane, Li's wife at the westernmost end of the small town, Huang Erniang who sold wine... they were all first-rate masters.
This kind of rustic folk custom, Master Ruan the blacksmith, Lu Chen who set up a fortune-telling stall, drunken Supervisor Cao... these outsiders had all experienced it firsthand and had to submit.
In fact, anyone who had come into contact with the younger generation of the small town, regardless of their identity or realm, would more or less have a similar feeling.
Just talk about that literary temple meeting. Someone's speech gave two resounding new nicknames to the Barbarian Lord Fei Ran and Wen Hai's close disciple. One was the "Tuo Yue Mountain Lying Saint," who became a continent's lord just by lying down, and the "Jiashen Account Losing Saint," who had never won a battle. The young Hidden Official even declared that he would personally carve two private seals for these two great contributors to the Hao Ran World: "A hundred deaths, no regrets" and "Heart towards Hao Ran"... This made those Barbarian great demons who were qualified to attend the Tuo Yue Mountain meetings feel even more that the young Hidden Official wasn't one of their own. What a pity. What a terrible pity.
Ma Lanhua rubbed her cheeks.
She had even been slapped hard across the face by that sharp-tongued little wench once.
From her sleeve, she pulled out a few old mountain and river gazettes. Their only common point was that they contained news about her grandson. Actually, she was already completely familiar with the content, could recite it backwards. Over the years, with nothing much to do, this River God Lady had started to learn a few more characters as a way to pass the time.
And these kinds of mountain and river official gazettes were issued from the prefectural city god temple, basically two or three every quarter. City God Zhang Ping would have the yin underworld clerks deliver them to the county city gods and mountain and river deities at various levels. This made Ma Lanhua especially proud. When she was a river grandmother, she only received a few gazettes a year. After her promotion to river god, her official status effectively entered the mainstream of the Great Li mountain and river officialdom, and the number of gazettes she received each year doubled at once.
Not up to the top, but better than those below.
When it came to living, people strived to go higher, just as water flowed to lower places. Look up at those who are doing well; that gives you a reason to live. Then look down at those worse off than yourself, and your heart calms down.
The woman forgot who had said a certain phrase.
"Living hard, fooling yourself—that is hope."
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Lu Yan led Xiao Mo and Qing Tong along the corridor to another place, intentionally allowing the two scholars, so different in age, to chat about "family matters."
The Saint of Saints asked with a smile, "Chen Ping'an, how did you come up with the idea of eating books?"
Chen Ping'an was startled, but quickly understood that the so-called "eating books" referred to refining characters.
Chen Ping'an explained, "I was at the wall before, with nothing to do. Coincidentally, Li Zhen from the adjacent city wall section threw me a travelogue about mountains and rivers. It came in handy."
The Saint of Saints smiled slightly. "A perfect coincidence, just right."
Chen Ping'an looked up at the Heavenly Canopy.
The Saint of Saints was clearly implying something.
If it hadn't been for refining all the text in that travelogue, and a certain coincidence, even if Chen Ping'an had stood guard on the wall for ten thousand years, he wouldn't have thought of what Senior Brother Cui Chan was up to.
Probably just as Li Zhen had muttered afterwards, only someone with a sick mind could talk to a like-minded person with a sick mind, get through to them, and understand each other tacitly.
The Saint of Saints' thoughts drifted, remembering faces, all of them within the ancient sword cultivator camp.
The sword cultivator Guan Zhao of the past wasn't the later talkative Li Zhen. He was famously a taciturn gourd, almost never talking to anyone. Every time there was a secret meeting, he would hide in a corner, or stand beside Chen Qingdu, not saying a word throughout.
But when Guan Zhao didn't act, it was one thing. Once he decided to challenge someone with his sword, he couldn't be said to have won every time, but at the very least he could ensure he remained undefeated.
To a certain extent, it could be said that Guan Zhao lived his entire life for others, practicing and delivering his sword for the greater good. So among all the sword cultivators, Guan Zhao lived the least carefree life.
In contrast, that Dragon Lord among his fellow sword cultivators simply loved to challenge others with his sword. Winning or losing seemed not to matter. Whenever he encountered a battle, he didn't care about life or death. He was far more unrestrained than Guan Zhao, who "dared not die casually."
The three leaders of the criminal sword cultivators—Chen Qingdu, Guan Zhao, and the Dragon Lord—were the founders of the Sword Qi Great Wall.
But not long after they had barely established a foothold, under Chen Qingdu's leadership, the three sword cultivators went on a long journey together.
That far-reaching sword challenge to Tuo Yue Mountain successfully blocked the founder of Tuo Yue Mountain, who was only half a step away. The latter, as the first common lord of the Barbarian World, ultimately failed to refine the favorable timing, geographical advantage, and human harmony of a world to ascend to the Fifteenth Realm.
And Chen Qingdu and his two companions paid an extremely heavy price. Chen Qingdu's natal flying sword, "Floating Duckweed," was completely shattered. He had no choice but to merge his Dao with the Sword Qi Great Wall, and because of this, Chen Qingdu lost his hope of ascending to the Fifteenth Realm.
Otherwise, according to the calculations of the Dao Ancestor, if Chen Qingdu had just been given another two or three thousand years of sword forging, he would have had the chance to become the "unprecedented and unrepeatable" pure sword cultivator of the Fifteenth Realm.
Unprecedented, because those sword cultivators who might have reached this realm had all died along the way under the suppression of the ancient deities.
Unrepeatable, because once Chen Qingdu reached this realm, it would be like he alone occupied the entire path of the sword, standing on a single-log bridge, leaving no room for others.
The Saint of Saints had once taken the Ritual Saint to the Sword Qi Great Wall to persuade Chen Qingdu, but their persuasion failed.
Chen Qingdu blocked the two "scholars" with just two sentences.
"We sword cultivators don't necessarily have to do the rightest thing."
"You scholars, remember to keep your promises."
The Dragon Lord was already extremely dissatisfied with sword cultivators being reduced to criminals. Therefore, during that long journey, the Dragon Lord had never intended to return to the Sword Qi Great Wall alive.
He was prepared to conclude his life's journey in a spectacular manner, not as a criminal exile of the Sword Qi Great Wall, but as a pure sword cultivator.
Thus, after his "death," he owed nothing to the Sword Qi Great Wall or to Chen Qingdu, his old comrade in arms.
The Dragon Lord's natal flying sword was called "Great Ruins Immortal Tomb." During the battle on the mountain, and even before that, the number of sword cultivators of the elder generation who died on the human earth without a burial place was incalculable. For him, the Dragon Lord, to use his natal flying sword as a tomb was already a stroke of luck.
And Guan Zhao possessed an even more special natal flying sword.
In the two to three thousand years before ten thousand years ago, the sword cultivator most targeted by the ancient deities was precisely Guan Zhao, who owned a natal flying sword called "Long River of Time." There wasn't even a second.
Therefore, Guan Zhao's path of cultivation was the most bumpy and dangerous. Sword cultivators who protected his Dao came one after another, succeeding each other. The number of ancient "earth immortal" sword cultivators who fell alone numbered in the double digits.
The Saint of Saints collected his thoughts and asked, "If we trace back to the source, mountains have their dragons, water has its source."
Chen Ping'an said, "Back then, Mr. Li told Xiao Nuanshu a principle. Although I was just listening in, I've remembered it ever since."
Li Xisheng from Fortune and Emolument Street had once come to Mud Vase Lane to find Chen Ping'an.
At that time, it was Chen Ping'an's first return from a long journey, and he had brought along Green Boy and Pink Dress Girl.
That time, Li Xisheng taught Green Boy, who was used to "speaking without discretion," a principle: that all words in the world have power. Characters form words, words string together into sentences, sentences connect into text, and the Great Dao lies within.
Chen Lingjun didn't take this seriously; it went in one ear and out the other. But it left a deep impression on Chen Ping'an. Although he hadn't carved it onto the bamboo slips, he had always kept it in his heart.
Later, Little Nuanshu plucked up her courage and asked that scholar a question that had puzzled her for a long time: why, when reading, she would suddenly not recognize a certain character, and it would feel strange.
Li Xisheng smiled and gave the answer, saying that it was because at that moment, some saints had secretly borrowed the characters from the book.
At the time, Little Nuanshu clearly didn't believe this kind of superstitious talk. She directly refuted Mr. Li, giving him a "lesson" in the eyes of a certain observer.
This was a rare sight indeed.
After that, Cao Jun, a sword cultivator from Southern Continent of the Sojourner whose ancestral home was on Mud Vase Lane, casually used the excuse of "presumptuously offending a great power" to find trouble with Chen Ping'an.
As a result, this now low-ranking retainer of the Xiandu Mountain met Li Xisheng, who had willingly taken on the trouble, in the small alley. Neither was willing to give way, so they fought.
One was just a qi refiner at the Viewing Sea Realm, the other was a sword cultivator who claimed his realm was between "eight and nine." Cao Jun had this strange claim because his Golden Core Realm at the time had been nominal; his sword heart was shattered, his Dao heart was a mess, and the landscape of his inner heart had degenerated into a pond of withered lotus. Before his sword heart was shattered, Cao Jun, on Southern Continent of the Sojourner, had been a top-notch sword immortal seedling with the best talent for practicing swordsmanship.
But no matter how much of a half-baked or paper-thin Golden Core Realm sword cultivator he was, when facing a Sixth Realm cultivator, no matter how powerfully he drew his sword, he ended up returning without success.
As for that sparring match, back then Chen Ping'an had only seen the general gist. As his horizons broadened, especially after he himself became a sword cultivator, he increasingly felt the unusualness of it.
A qi refiner who wasn't a sword cultivator, facing a sword challenge from a sword cultivator of a higher realm, could actually be sure of victory?
The calm, seemingly effortless way Li Xisheng received the sword back then was like handing a wordless truth to the future sword cultivator Chen Ping'an.
Since a sword cultivator's single sword strike could break ten thousand dharmas.
The way to break it was "very simple": just accumulate ten thousand and one dharmas.
In the years that followed, Chen Ping'an felt that the two fights closest to Li Xisheng's "realm" were one near the thatched cottage on the Sword Qi Great Wall city wall, and one on the battlefield outside the city.
Cao Ci's fist technique.
Fei Ran's swordsmanship.
Not only was their ability to foresee and anticipate the enemy's moves extremely similar to Li Xisheng's techniques back then, but there was also an aura and state emanating from Cao Ci and Fei Ran.
They didn't need formations, divine powers, or flying swords. They didn't rely on any external enhancements at all, yet they could form their own small world.
And besides fighting, there were two others who gave Chen Ping'an this feeling.
Senior Cui on the second floor of the Luo Po Mountain bamboo building, teaching him boxing.
And Cui Dongshan, sitting in front of a chessboard, ready to make a move.
Cultivators all say the human body is a small world.
But these few seemed to be their own great world.
The Saint of Saints remembered how, back in the small town, Green Boy, all serious, had kindly advised the Dao Ancestor that the name "Dao Ancestor" was too big, it would be best to change his name. The Saint of Saints couldn't help but smile and teased, "Your family's Daoist Friend Jingqing has some skill."
Chen Ping'an felt helpless and said self-deprecatingly, "It's like having a little ancestor at home."
But when he said this, the young mountain lord's eyes were gentle.
On Luo Po Mountain, even though Chen Ping'an was used to being an absentee master, there was no gossip that the young mountain lord didn't know about whenever he returned home.
Openly, the credit all went to Little Milky. But actually, Chen Lingjun was also a behind-the-scenes contributor not to be underestimated. One was diligent in patrolling the mountain, the other liked to stroll around. Neither could keep a secret about what they saw and heard.
The Saint of Saints said, "When Chen Lingjun went to the Da Du River in Northern Jambudvipa to 'walk the river' and felt he had made a mistake, he didn't seem to want to hide it. He just wanted to return home early. At most, he would get a scolding from you, and then a big weight would be lifted from his heart. You know, when ordinary people make a mistake, big or small, they always hope that heaven doesn't know, earth doesn't know, and especially that gods and ghosts don't know. That's human nature."
Chen Ping'an was puzzled, not knowing why the Saint of Saints would bring up Chen Lingjun.
The Saint of Saints asked, "Chen Lingjun cares about face everywhere else, but only with you, he seems completely unconcerned with face. Do you know why?"
Chen Ping'an really hadn't thought about this. After some deliberation, he tentatively answered, "Because I walked through Shujian Lake."
Everyone in Luo Po Mountain, whether cultivators or martial artists, seemed to have an unspoken agreement to deliberately avoid Shujian Lake and never touch upon that topic.
The more flawless a person is, the greater the invisible pressure on those around them.
Especially someone as meticulous as Chen Ping'an. Since childhood, the orphan from Mud Vase Lane had been tirelessly pursuing the word "no fault."
A person who often drinks but has never gotten drunk even once is terrifying.
It was precisely the regrets and mistakes along life's path, those secret pangs of conscience, that made Chen Ping'an a good drinker who rarely got drunk, but could eventually get drunk.
The Saint of Saints said, "Besides that, there was another intention. Cui Chan knew the situation was urgent, and there was no time to use a relatively gentle method. So he first helped you smash a bottomless pit on your path of the heart, and then forced you to use other things to fill that huge hole. Whether with conscience, guilt, or some more harmonious knowledge, in any case, there was a place for it."
The Saint of Saints deliberately spoke more euphemistically. In fact, Cui Chan used a method that was the reverse of "finding and filling a leak." Saying it was digging a well wasn't appropriate. It was directly using brute force to carve a lake without water in Chen Ping'an's heart's landscape. As for mending it, it was up to you, Chen Ping'an. Hard to bear? Endure it!
Otherwise, with Chen Ping'an's original Dao heart, he couldn't have carried that portion of divinity. To be precise, Chen Ping'an, whose two lines of good and evil in his heart were extremely close, was too compatible with divinity. The more he cultivated, the higher he climbed, the more his humanity moved towards divinity. This was an involuntary trend of the times. Just like earlier, when the Saint of Saints had used a dust brush to draw a circle to discuss the Dao, he intentionally asked Chen Ping'an how many possibilities there were in the end. Chen Ping'an couldn't answer. In the Saint of Saints' view, if he wasn't careful, there might be only one outcome: Zhou Mi, who ascended to heaven and occupied the ruins of the Old Heavenly Court, would instead lose to Chen Ping'an, who seemed to stay in the mortal world but lost the first move. Because Chen Ping'an's divinity would become even purer.
Wasn't Old Man Yang at the medicine shop also gambling? And he wouldn't lose. Regardless of whether Chen Ping'an, who had collected all the divinity on the gambling table, won or lost this tug-of-war between humanity and divinity—in Old Man Yang's eyes, it was like moving from the left hand to the right. It was still the same "One." The ancient Primordial Earth Immortal Ancestor, one of the twelve high-level deities, the Green Youth Celestial Lord who held a Flying Ascension Platform and waited bitterly for ten thousand years—it wasn't all for nothing.
That's why Cui Chan had acted early. So that when Chen Ping'an finally became that "One," successfully gathering the divinity of all those struggling to cross over in the Pearl Bead Cave Heaven, becoming the last person left on the gambling table, most of the pure divinity, even if originally uncontrollable, would be manageable at best. The divinity was like a waterfall pouring down from the sky, filling the heart-lake. In terms of matters, it saved worry and effort; in terms of the person, it could benefit cultivation.
The Saint of Saints suddenly asked again, "Have you ever thought about why Cui Dongshan is afraid of Li Baoping? Back when you all went to study at the Sui Empire National Academy, Cui Dongshan never fought back or talked back to that little girl in the red cotton jacket."
Chen Ping'an was stunned on the spot. This was another question he seemed to have never deeply considered.
Then Chen Ping'an's expression quickly became complicated.
When he first visited the Sword Qi Great Wall again and met Senior Brother Zuo You there, initially, neither recognized the other. He didn't think of him as his senior brother, and Zuo You didn't think of him as his junior brother.
But it was the "master-betraying and ancestor-defying" Senior Brother Cui Chan that Chen Ping'an had the most complicated feelings about.
"Because Li Baoping and Bottle Gourd Continent share a relationship of weal and woe, like lips and teeth. Who do you think was behind the 'substituting plums for peaches' scheme?"
The Saint of Saints revealed the heavenly secret in a single phrase: "The Great Leader of the White Jade Capital, Kou Ming, had lofty aspirations. He used the technique of 'One Qi Transforms into Three Purities,' intending to ultimately truly fuse the foundational knowledge of the Three Teachings through three identities. Zhou Li of the Divine Proclamation Sect was a Daoist, Li Xisheng of Fortune and Emolument Street was a Confucian scholar. Cui Chan had calculated that Li Xisheng, even knowing the truth of the matter, would still protect the safety of his sister Li Baoping. If Li Xisheng made this choice, what about the White Jade Capital? What about the Azure Underworld? Do you think that if the war on Bottle Gourd Continent turned unfavorable, unable to hold the Da Du and the auxiliary capital, the Great Li iron cavalry had to retreat to the northern capital, and something happened to Li Baoping, Li Xisheng would directly break through realms all the way, return to the Fourteenth Realm in a single day, and choose to face Zhou Mi head-on? At that time, what would his junior brother Yu Dou and Lu Chen choose to do? And could it be that the Dao Ancestor might break his rule once for his most cherished first disciple?"
"Not necessarily."
The Saint of Saints said slowly, "But Cui Chan only needed this 'not necessarily' to be enough."
"So back then, when Qi Jingchun said, 'A gentleman can be taken advantage of by appeals to fairness,' he was speaking both to you, his junior brother, and to Senior Brother Cui Chan. He wanted the latter's philosophy of achievements not to go to extremes, to exercise a little restraint in doing things, to be close to human feelings. Unfortunately, Cui Chan didn't listen. If we were to speak of 'close to human feelings,' we can't really blame him. A person who doesn't leave any retreat for himself—what more can we ask Cui Chan to do?"
The Saint of Saints clasped his hands behind his back and looked up at the sky.
A former Jia Sheng of the Hao Ran World, a former Zhou Mi of the Barbarian World, now the new master of the Heavenly Court.
Relying on his own strength, he could force the founders of the Three Teachings to join forces against him.
Chen Ping'an was silent for a long time, then asked, "Couldn't it be calculated? Not even the Dao Ancestor could?"
The Saint of Saints shook his head. "Indeed, it couldn't be calculated. Some things are extremely complex. If the deduction of the Great Dao only involved evolving a few hundred or thousand paths to the end, no matter how many, it wouldn't be difficult. Then any Upper Fifth Realm cultivator could go and become a Yin-Yang practitioner. The difficulty lies in the fact that the moment the human mind moves, the Heavenly Heart shifts. For example, let's just talk about a case like Feng Yuanyuan from the Colorful World. Of course, the Dao Ancestor could calculate her appearance. Let's assume the Dao Ancestor was a bit petty and insisted on targeting her. Then the Dao Ancestor would be pitting himself against the entire Great Dao of the Colorful World. It would inevitably be a thankless task, just suppressing one while another rises."
"After all, it's not the same as dealing with that ancestor of the Military Strategists back then."
"But if a few of us were to each Daoify a world, just on our own territory, we would naturally have all contingencies covered."
"I don't think it's very interesting. The Dao Ancestor believes that ceasing and knowing will lead the world to correct itself. The Buddhist Lord feels that the enlightenment of all beings is their own affair. Anyway, we few, as the earliest 'Daoists' in the mortal realm, all believe that the Dao is in the world."
Chen Ping'an was suddenly dazzled. An image flashed and vanished, and his Dao heart shook.
He focused his gaze, but saw nothing.
Just now, it seemed he had seen a legendary... Qilin, sweeping past his field of vision.
The Saint of Saints was composed and at ease, smiling freely. "Three cups of wine lead to the Great Dao, one gallon of drink becomes one with nature. Why are you standing there stunned? Get another flagon of wine."