Ji Yuan was at the host’s seat in the front of the hall, so naturally his table was the first to be served the dishes. Bowls of steaming hot food with bursts of fragrant scents were served up by the nimble kitchen helpers. When there were obscure dishes, Old Man Zhao next to him would introduce them to Ji Yuan.
“This is grilled fish… this is rice with at, it’s delicious… this is the mutton bone soup…”
At this table sat the groom, his in-laws, and his close relatives and elders, but no one had any objection to treating Ji Yuan as the guest of honor. They all felt that the newlyweds had gained the “talent” of scholars, and that their children would have a bright future.
As Ji Yuan congratulated and socialized with the guests, he lowered his head to check on the chess piece in his sleeve. The chess piece had indeed turned white. With smiles on their faces, the wedding banquet seed to be filled with joy for both the host and the guests.
The wine glasses were all filled, and everyone imdiately started to eat.
The food at this wedding banquet in a remote village was naturally not as good a that of chefs in big cities, but it has its own flavor, and the banquet had a particularly excellent atmosphere for eating. Additionally, it was the evening during the hottest ti of the year, and everyone was sweating profusely while they ate.
Ji Yuan finally understood why so many people had wet towels hanging around their necks. So people at tables further away had even taken their shirts off.
The groom went around to toast each table, while the bride waited alone in the bridal chamber…1
After a long round of toasts, he returned to the host’s table to toast his parents in law and elders. The groom’s face was already flushed with drink, but he still did not forget to toast Ji Yuan.
“Mr. Ji, I’m so happy today. Thank you for writing us a wedding couplet, they are truly the best. I would like to offer you a drink, please accept!”
Judging from how clear his words were, he should not be completely drunk yet. After this round of toasts, he would enter the bridal chamber.
Ji Yuan also stood up with a smile and raised his glass to return the toast.
“May you soon be blessed with child, may you soon have a precious child!”
After drinking this glass of wine, the groom walked steadily towards the inner room amidst the noise. Ji Yuan looked at the groom’s relatively strong body, and thought to himself that, as a man, he should still be stronger than his wife, despite her skill in farm work.2
……
As the sky gradually darkened, the wedding banquet was almost finished.
Although it was the hottest ti of the year and there were no refrigerators here, there was no need to worry about the leftovers spoiling, because the villagers were so fierce that Ji Yuan couldn’t see any plate with even a half-catty of food left. So tables even had such flavorful soups that people would pour them over rice and finish it all.
In addition to helping in the kitchen and cleaning up, the neighbors and relatives all began to disperse, rubbing their bellies with satisfied looks on their faces. Ji Yuan followed one of the young n who had returned earlier with the wine, nad Zhao Dongliang, and went to stay overnight in his ho.
This family lived close to the village entrance. They arranged a side room in a small farmhouse for Ji Yuan, equipped with a bed, chairs, and bedding.
Everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, but because the weather was so hot, most of the villagers had not yet gone to bed, even though it was already gotten dark. Many stayed in the ventilated outdoors to cool off, and would not go to bed until the heat in the houses had dissipated a little.
Ji Yuan also brought out a chair and sat by the wall of the courtyard. To his left hand side, he could see a strange little hut in the distance, with three small spots of light in it.
He hadn’t paid it much attention when he arrived, but now it seed to be a small temple. Judging from its size, it was probably no larger than half of a person’s height. Maybe it was the village’s temple.
The weather was indeed quite hot. Ji Yuan didn’t have a fan, so he grabbed his right sleeve with his sa hand and used it to fan himself twice. When Zhao Dongliang over there in the courtyard saw Ji Yuan co out, he moved a small stool over to sit near him and diligently used a cattail leaf fan3 to fan Ji Yuan.
“Mr. Ji, what are you carrying on your back? Why don’t you put it inside? It must be so hot with all that cloth sticking to you!”
Zhao Dongliang was sweating despite wearing a sleeveless shirt. A wide-sleeved robe like this gentleman wore looked like it was hot, and he had even tied a stick or sothing around his back, which must have only made the heat worse.
“Oh, this is a sword. I forgot to set it down!”
In truth, he still carried it because the green vine sword was unstable and needed to be nourished by spiritual energy at all tis, so it was inconvenient for it to leave his body during this period of ti.
“A sword!”
Zhao Dongliang’s eyes lit up.
“Mr. Ji, do you know martial arts? The kind that can let you fly over rooftops and walk on walls? No wonder you dared walk such a long distance alone!”
“Haha, I suppose you could say I know so martial arts. I still need so ans of self-defense when I’m out and about!”
Zhao Dongliang beca even more excited when he heard this.
“Mr. Ji, can you please let take a look at your sword? I saw a longsword with flower patterns hanging in a shop the last ti I went to the county capital. It was beautiful!”
Ji Yuan smiled.
“It doesn’t hurt to take a look, but you might be disappointed.”
After speaking, he untied the knot around his back, took out the green vine sword wrapped in cloth, placed it on his knees, and removed the green cloth to reveal the body of the sword.
The Green Vine Sword4 was three feet and six inches long, and one inch and eight-tenths wide. It was a straight line from the hilt to the tip of the sword. There was no guard at the bottom of the hilt, nor were there any ornants at the tail. The hilt was wrapped with lush green vines all the way down, which was simple and plain. Of course, there were still spots of rust on the sword.
“Ah… Mr. Ji’s sword is not as good-looking as the one I saw in the county capital. It doesn’t even have a scabbard, and it’s rusted like this…”
Zhao Dongliang was obviously a little disappointed.
“Hahahaha… I told you that you would be disappointed. But it’s still not nice to say it aloud. I’m fine, but the sword won’t be very happy!”
Ji Yuan smiled and pointed at the sword, with his left hand pressed down on it to prevent it from making a sound.
Zhao Dongliang thought his words were because Ji Yuan himself didn’t like what he had just said, so he spoke with a chuckle: “Don’t mind , Mr. Ji. Actually, your sword is quite beautiful!”
Ji Yuan smiled and said nothing, looking up at the sky full of stars.
“Mr. Ji, tell about the outside world, and the martial arts world. Isn’t it wonderful and exciting?”
“Well… Maybe, but it’s not necessarily that great!”
They chatted haphazardly, with Zhao Dongliang asking most of the questions and Ji Yuan choosing the answers. He talked about the giant blue carp that saved people in Chunmu River, the old turtle that begged for wine outside of Chunhui’s capital, and the old dragon that brought rain to ensure a good harvest. Zhao Dongliang listened as seriously as a child listened to stories.
After more than half an hour, most of the villagers who had co outside to enjoy the cool air carried their chairs and stools back to their houses one after the other. Although Zhao Dongliang still wanted to chat with Ji Yuan, he too went to bed, considering that he had farm work to do tomorrow. Ji Yuan was the only one left outside in the courtyard.
In the Land Temple a little further away, a cloud of smoke appeared, and a hunched old man slowly approached. When he was only two zhang away, he bowed to Ji Yuan.
“It’s rare to have an immortal visit this place, so I, a small Land God, ca here to greet you!”
“I don’t dare accept, I don’t deserve it! I would like to thank the villagers here for taking in and for the glass of wedding wine.”
Ji Yuan hurriedly stood up and bowed in return. He had seen that the Land Temple did not have much incense, so he had assud that it was an empty temple, not even fit to be an ancestral shrine. He did not expect that there would actually be a real god. However, the gods of mountains and rivers were the best at hiding, so it was normal that no one had discovered them. However, this one did not seem to be a real cultivator, but rather a ghost who had cultivated himself into a god.
The old man looked at the Green Vine Sword on Ji Yuan’s knee and carefully approached his side.
“May I ask, which immortal sect does Sir hail from?”
“I have no immortal sect, I am just a traveler. But the Land God should be a local, right?”
The old man sat down on the stone mill beside him and nodded in answer.
“That’s right. This old man was a native of Zhaojia Village before my death. I don’t know when I had started to be worshipped as a land god, but it must have been nearly three hundred years ago. This area near Zhaojia Village is under my jurisdiction. If soone in the village dies and they have done good deeds to accrue good karma, their soul will not be scattered, and I accompany the soul-catchers to lead them to the underworld.”
Three hundred years? That was such a long ti!
However, it was likely due to the limited size of his jurisdiction. After so many years, although he had beco a true god, he had not accumulated much power from worship or spiritual energy.
“I wonder what might the reason be for the Land God’s appearance here?”
This old man was quite interesting. He answered directly and frankly.
“Immortal cultivators are very rare, so I just ca out to take a look!”
Ji Yuan burst out laughing. It seed he had beco an exhibit.
“Then it seems I must disappoint the Land God. I am just a small cultivator, not the immortal you think I am.”
“Sir, you are too modest. You are already much better than I thought!”
There was so elent of complint to his words, but it was also coming from the heart. After speaking, he hesitated for a mont, and then took out a strange piece of folded yellow paper from his arms.
“I wonder if you might be able to help see the words on this. There should be words here, but my cultivation is shallow, and I cannot see it!”
It seed that he was not just here to see a novelty, but that he also had so important business. Ji Yuan did not refuse, and decided to give it a try.
“Okay, I’ll take a look!”
He took the yellow paper from the Land God and unfolded it. Looking closely, he saw ink marks on the page.
[Public Records of Emperor Zhengde]5
“It’s actually a book in Heavenly Script!”6
T/n: Hello friends! This month of August is looking crazy for — first a week and a half of no internet access, then a couple more weeks of a lot of stuff going on — so I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to translate at all. Just for this month, though! I’ll be back at the end of August with regular updates. Hope you all have a lovely month.
The bedroom where they will be spending their first night and laying together (in the Biblical sense) ↩︎T/n: the raw translation is “he should still be able to control his wife,” which… yeah. Just when I got my hopes up… 😦 Those were the cultural values though. ↩︎Looks like this or this ↩︎They keep using it as a title instead of a description, so I’m going to capitalize it as the na of the sword. ↩︎The Zhengde Emperor was the title (aning “rectification of virtue”) of Ming dynasty emperor Zhu Houzhao. He was known for his indulgences and disregard of state affairs ↩︎The word used here is 箓 (lù), which ans: record book/archive, Taoist written charm, docunt of prophecy attesting to dynastic fortunes. I couldn’t tell exactly which, so I went with the last one considering the previous connection to the Zhengde Emperor. EDIT: I previously translated this as “Heavenly Script” in terms of the writing style, which definitely seems more consistent with future chapters. So let’s settle this as “Heavenly Script” for now with the understanding that it can also have mystical or magical subtexts. ↩︎
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