Strictly speaking, the route the traveling rchants took ended at a very different location than where Yin Qing and his companions had originally planned to exit the mountains. It was not possible to cross Datong Mountain diagonally, so they had taken a shortcut and crossed it over a short distance.
But once they reached the other side of the mountain, things beca a lot simpler, especially since there were carriages and horses for rent at the large waystation.
Although Yin Qing and the traveling rchants had only known each other for a few days, they had a very good impression of one another. However, they inevitably had to part ways.
Although they had found so new herbs to stabilize their injuries, the traveling rchants still had to go see a doctor. Yin Qing and others also need to hire a carriage and rush to Lishun Prefecture’s capital city. After saying goodbye, they each left separately. However, the events of the past few days would definitely be unforgettable for all of them.
As they sat in the carriage and advanced along the relatively smooth official road, the four scholars finally felt at ease.
“Haah… If I went back to the academy and told our teachers and other classmates about what happened to us these past few days, do you think they would believe it?”
Lin Xinjie, who was the most talkative and empathetic, sighed with deep emotion in his speech.
“They would… at most just think of it as a story, right?”
Lei Yusheng wasn’t quite sure, while Mo Xiu glanced at them and then at Yin Qing.
“There are fox spirits in Datong Mountain. What will other other travelers do if they encounter them? So people at the waystation have heard about it before, but it seems that no one intends to do anything about it…”
Before, when they had co out of the mountain, they told the people at the official waystation about their experiences in the mountains. The people there didn’t scoff at them, instead telling them about how other people had also had also experienced similar incidents of being seduced by won in the mountains. After coming out of the mountains, they had been listless, and so even found that people in their team were missing. The people at the local waystation said that they had already reported it to the local governnt.
But it seed that would be of no use.
Yin Qing looked at Mo Xiu.
“Well, of course people from the local county governnt go and take a look, but there is a large difference between human cris and a monster’s actions, so it may not be that easy to deal with. Instead, we should send official docunts to the villages on the mountainside and let those experienced hunters take their mountain dogs to hunt foxes. Who knows, it might work.”
This was the optimal solution that Yin Qing had arrived at. After seeing those fox spirits, and based on what he knew about Hu Yun, he believed that it was as the Old Turtle had said: Dazhen was peaceful, after all, and powerful monsters were rare. The old hunters and their mountain dogs should be able to deal with monsters like these fox spirits.
After finishing his speech, Yin Qing also comforted him.
“Don’t think about it too much. Those foxes might have already been finished. Didn’t you see that bloody fox leg and the signs of a fight? There were quite a few wolves the night before…”
“Oh, that’s right…”
“Well, Brother Yin is right. I, too, think that there may truly be a Mountain God on Datong Mountain.”
“Yeah, this ti we really… Oh, and by the way, Yin Qing’s letter, it really glowed that night! Wasn’t it dazzling?”
“Mhm! And the handwriting is really good!”
“Yes, it must be the work of a famous master.”
Seeing that the three of them were talking about the letter again, Yin Qing was irritated as he replied.
“It is often said that scholars should act with integrity and nurture great virtue, so this letter must work with precisely that. As as we have righteousness in our hearts, sooner or later, we will be able to protect ourselves.”
Regardless of whether the others believed his words, Yin Qing himself believed in the power of the righteous spirit, even though he knew that this letter did not work quite like that.
. . .
Ji Yuan didn’t go directly to Lishun Prefecture; instead, he rushed to Wan Province before calculating Yin Qing’s approximate location. When he reached the sky above Datong Mountain, he happened to sense the energy of his letter. Ji Yuan knew that Yin Qing was in trouble.
However, when he arrived, the three foxes had been chased and hacked at by the group of traveling rchants, and had escaped the deserted outpost. Ji Yuan found this all quite funny.
In truth, those three fox spirits were indeed insignificant, but they were still monsters that had refined their horizontal bones, after all. To have been chased out like this, even Ji Yuan was embarrassed for them.
Sure enough, the three fox demons still stood on the hilltop, watching with hatred and speaking ruthless words with the intent to harm those inside.
Ji Yuan imdiately tried his lighting control skill, which he had not even mastered. He could not gather clouds to produce lighting, but he did succeed in drawing down a bolt of lightning during the thunderstorm. Unfortunately, he had no control over it.
He wanted to directly capture the three foxes, but along his journey, he had felt that Wan Province, which should have been prosperous, felt a little ill. Datong Mountain, which wasn’t all that large of a mountain, was able to directly give rise to three extrely evil fox spirits. It was obviously unlikely that the local land spirit could induce the enlightennt of normal animals.
As it was in the nature of mountains, Datong Mountain attracted thick and heavy energy from all directions; it must have also gathered the evil energy from the vast surrounding area. If the fundantal problem were not solved, Datong Mountain might continue to give rise to evil spirits.
Every profession had its specialties; if he wanted to solve the fundantal problem, he would have to look into the governnt administration and the people’s livelihood. However, Ji Yuan believed that, as a cultivator, he could still cure so of the symptoms. As long as Datong Mountain was taken care of now, at the very least the people living around it would be in less danger from evil spirits.
At that ti, Ji Yuan had been patrolling the mountains, but couldn’t find any defined source of spiritual energy, so he landed in the mountains and tried to use the Spirit Binding technique. Unexpectedly, there really was a spirit that had begun to connect with the earth veins and the mountain land.
That being the case, when Ji Yuan observed him with his supernatural eyes and noted that the other party was not an evil creature, he clearly explained the circumstances involved, and pointed out that this was also an opportunity for the Mountain God himself to further his cultivation.
As a monster to aid to beco a mountain god, he might not really care about matters of right and wrong, but he was certain that this immortal in front of him possessed unfathomable abilities, so he naturally did not dare to disobey. All of this led to the events that transpired with Yin Qing and the others.
After explaining the situation, Ji Yuan didn’t stay for long. Instead, he walked around the region. From the sky, aside from a lot of mulberry trees, he couldn’t see anything that would font discontent.
As for divination, he could try to calculate the fate of a single person or event if he had so information, but it was not possible to do so when it ca to general human Qi. He didn’t know whether it was possible for others to do so, but Ji Yuan himself was certainly not capable of it. If he wanted to understand the situation clearly, he could only ask soone involved and knowledgeable, such as his old friend Yin Zhaoxian, who had been an official in Wan Province for several years.
Although Lishun Prefecture was not the capital prefecture of Wan Province, it was definitely one of the top three prefectures with regards to Wan Province’s silk weaving industry, as well as its economy in general.
Flying through the air, he could see mulberry fields stretching on all over the prefecture along the way. Beside them were silk-weaving factories and silk dyeing workshops. It all seed to be quite prosperous.
The capital city of Lishun Prefecture was not small. After Ji Yuan had landed and entered the city, he did not bother wandering around. Instead, he asked for directions and went straight to the prefecture’s governnt office.
When eting soone he knew well, Ji Yuan naturally stopped concealing his eyes.
When his eyelids were half-open, very few people could see his eyes clearly when they weren’t paying attention, but the officers and officials would inspect him carefully if he wanted to see the prefect. When they heard that the visitor had traveled from Ji Province to Lishun Prefecture, they officers did not dare delay, and imdiately went to inform their superior.
. . .
“The visitor calls himself Ji Yuan?”
Yin Zhaoxian had gone out in the morning to inspect the implentation of the latest governnt decrees in several of the surrounding villages. At this mont, he happened to be in the bedroom with his wife. He was surprised when he heard the officer arrive.
“Yes, Sir.1 He looks gentle and polite, but his eyes are strange — they’re just gray and white.”
“Yes, yes, that’s Mr. Ji! Mr. Ji ca alone?”
Yin Zhaoxian and his wife naturally hoped that Yin Qing would have co with him, but the officer shook his head.
“There was only one person.”
“Husband, go see Mr. Ji. Don’t keep him waiting!”
Yin Zhaoxian squeezed his wife’s hand and nodded.
“Okay, my wife,2 rest well. I’m going to et Mr. Ji. I guess Qing’er will be here soon. There’s no way Mr. Ji wouldn’t have brought him along.”
“Mhm!”
Madam Yin, visibly pregnant, lay on the bed, covered in a quilt, and nodded with a smile on her face.
They hadn’t seen Yin Qing for a long ti. As parents, they missed him very much.
Ji Yuan had been waiting for so ti in the reception room at the back of the building, tea in hand. Before he finished his cup, he heard hurried footsteps from outside. Most importantly, he could sense an unmistakable aura of righteousness in his supernatural eyes, so strong it was almost visible through the walls and door.
Said talented, righteous individual bowed and greeted him as soon as he entered through the door.
“Mr. Ji! You’ve finally co to Wanzhou. I have been waiting for you to visit for a long ti! All, all of you may be excused.”
“Yes.”
At his words, the two servants beside him bowed and walked away. Ji Yuan set down his teacup, stood up with a smile, and bowed teasingly.
“Hello Master Yin, oh no, I an Prefect Yin!”
“Oh, Mr. Ji, stop laughing at . It’s really not easy to be an official! By the way, where is Qing’er? Didn’t he co with you?”
Ji Yuan gestured to a seat at the table, picked up the teapot, and poured Yin Zhaoxian a steaming cup of tea, as if it were his own ho. Of course, the latter did not stand on ceremony, and sat down beside him.
“Yin Qing and his three classmates are traveling together. I estimate that they will be here in three to five days.”
“Oh, that’s good, that’s good.”
Yin Zhaoxian stroked his beard and nodded.
Ji Yuan took a good look at this friend. He hadn’t seen him for only a few years, but he already had so white hairs. It seed that he was indeed working hard.
“You, the Great Prefect Yin, are the second star scholar in Dazhen’s history who has passed all the imperial examinations in first place. You are a popular figure among both the court and the general public. In your hotown, you have even been called the human incarnation of the Star of Literature.3 How can there be anything that troubles you?”
Yin Zhaoxian waved his hand awkwardly. Even though he had long beco accustod to his current official position, this identity felt strange in front of Ji Yuan.
“Mr. Ji, please stop joking, I have many troubles. Although Wan Province is prosperous on the surface, it is actually very corrupt… Ah, let tell you— before I took office, particularly in the past seven or eight years, over 70% of the farmland had been turned into mulberry fields, and 90% of the profits are concentrated in the hands of the of wealthy families and their descendants. How can the common people live on what little is left? I am their presiding official… Oh, it makes so mad!”
“Clap!”
Yin Zhaoxiang slamd his hand on the coffee table as he spoke. This was the first ti in Ji Yuan’s mory that he had seen seen Master Yin so angry.
T/n: unrelated but I just saw “The Wild Robot” for the first ti and it made BAWL oh my goodness, SUCH an adorable, tearjerking, beautiful, brilliant movie, feel free to scream about it in the comnts with
Could also be translated as “my lord” or “boss” Could also be translated as “Madam” 文曲星 (Wénqǔxīng): In Chinese mythology, Wenquxing is the god responsible for scholarly/literary pursuits and examinations, especially creative literature (i.e. not fa and fortune or morization). Incredible scholars and imperial officials are associated with the incarnation of Wenquxing
User Comments
0 comments from readers