(*) zhongshen means "for the rest of our lives", also used in wedding, which can be called zhongshen dashi

Legend has it on the nine layers of cloud, there are immortals (*). About these immortals, there are extensive stories and legends among the common people - there are those about a female immortal running away with a poor male mortal, or those about the busybodies Buddhist or Taoist monks separating those in love, or those about the stars fighting each other to strive for favour or to seize power ... But if you demand real, solid proof, honestly no one dare say they have actually met any immortal.

(*) xian ren: people that

What gets spread around and around are merely baseless phrasings like "I heard that ...", "Somebody said that ...", "It"s a popular story by the folks here that ...".

From records for more than thirty thousand years on Yin Sheng lands, n.o.body has ever heard of anyone that truly ascend to become an immortal.

Those people that cultivate xian that people rarely see, they at most have the reputation of being free, at ease, and do not take part in worldly matters.

It is heard that Jianghua Sanren was originally from a large merchant family. Of scholars, farmers, industrial workers, and merchants, merchant is the lowest cla.s.s. Though his family might have mountains of gold and silver, his father still felt that their ancestry is not of high status. His father spent his life anxious about reputation, not only wasting a lot of money to donate to government officials for himself, but also letting his descendants read books, practice Kungfu and follow religious teachings, even finding famous teachers from all over the place.

Yet, his eldest son, his problematic treasure, Jianghua, was a piece of rotten wood: neither his studies nor his Kungfu was good, and when he was chased by his father to join Jiulu mountain, it was not even half a month before he was kicked down the mountain by his shifu for being unusually naughty, rebellious to teachings, and dared to question and leave his shifu speechless during lectures in front of all other students.

He did not dare to come back home, with no accomplishments and no jobs. They said it could have been fate, then, that he met an old and bizarre wandering xian cultivator, and followed him to cultivate the xian path. This one trip, he went all three hundred years, who even knew what he actually cultivated, but regardless this flowery name "Jianghua Sanren" has been bestowed to him by the people. It was thought that maybe the father that insisted on changing their family status could finally be at peace in the afterlife.

Right now, Shi Wuduan is worried. In his mind, he thinks this Jianghua Sanren is like exploded fireworks. He has been to all kinds of places, never resting for an instant, who knows if he is currently wreaking havoc in some place in the middle of nowhere, how am I supposed to find him?

This trip, would it take him three to five years then?

It was at this moment that lightning suddenly strikes. Shi Wuduan was shocked. He lifted his head to see that the weather in Cangyun valley has changed drastically in a blink of an eye. The sky that was blue and clear for miles just now has turned dark with gathering clouds, and moments later, raindrops that are as big as peas fall down. The jade sparrow"s head retracts. Disregarding old grudges, it opens its wings to fly and huddle inside Shi Wuduan"s large sleeves. Shi Wuduan grabs it by the back of its head and drags it out.

Shi Wuduan holds onto Bai Li and runs to the nearest cave, not forgetting to hold the jade sparrow over Bai Li"s head to shield him from the wind and rain, fully committed to protecting his treasure and beauty.

Pitiful for that bird jade sparrow, it was born without the ability to side-eye, so now it does not know how to express its current despairing mood.

The caves in Cangyun valley mostly are the living places of some small spirits. Some of them have cultivated for a long time, so now they pretend to be human to show off their deep cultivation power, even writing some error-filled nameplates in front of their caves. Despite such cultivation, these spirits still retain their primitive animal instincts and have always been territorial over their private territories. In this Cangyun cave, it is a huge faux pas to enter others" territories without permission.

Shi Wuduan is young. No one has told him this so without any concern about consequence, seeing that that cave has no nameplate in front, he declares it an empty one and pulls Bai Li straight in.

He hurriedly shakes off the rain on his body, then clumsily pull out from his cloth a piece of cloth. Turning it to the clean side, he carefully cleans off the bit of wetness on Bai Li"s temples for him, so he does not see the pairs of animal glinting green eyes starting over from the depths of the cave.

The rain grows heavier with time. The jade sparrow furiously wrested itself away from Shi Wuduan"s demonic clutch and immediately jumps up to chase and peck him. Shi Wuduan voiced some "ow!"s, both clutching his head while running in rats in the narrow cave and despicably speaking at the same time: "You don"t even have feathers, even if you get wet there"s no need to shake it off, what is there to ... Ow! Fine, don"t think that you"re an old bird that I don"t dare to roast ... Stop it already!"

Bai Li lightly laughed looking at him, then while he is not paying attention, he turns his head to look once at the hidden wild animal in the corner. The wild animal shrinks back the moment it meets Bai Li"s warning gaze. Hesitating for a while, it bows once to show its submission, then slowly withdraws to hide behind a large stone with its tail trailing.

Bai Li made a spell with his hand movements, surrept.i.tiously creating a barrier around them two, separating them from the outside.

Then, Shi Wuduan loudly runs over, with the jade sparrow fiercely chasing after him. It was not sure how he does it, but Bai Li looks like he just casually reaches his hand over to stop the jade sparrow from flapping its wings, pull it into his lap, one hand holding up the body of the big bird and one hand softly petting it from the neck down like he is comforting it.

Shi Wuduan sees the jade sparrow suddenly quiet down, peacefully lying in Bai Li"s lap like a miracle. He rubs his nose and reaches over to knock lightly on the bird"s head to scold: "Psst, lewd bird, how good for you."

Then his attention quickly shifts to his beautiful "little wifey", asks non-stop: "Are you wet? Cold?"

After asking, he is about to take off his outer layer for Bai Li. Halfway through, he realizes that layer has long been soaked in rainwater, embarra.s.sedly scratches his hair, and somewhat annoyedly, says: "Oh man, why is it soaked?"

Shi Wuduan is at that age when a child grows into a young adult, his body starts to grow taller but his face still retains child-like features, only his chin is starting to become more prominent among the bone structures. Two hair strands stick on his forehead, revealing the clear eyes below, blinking and stupidly staring at his soaked coat. Bai Li suddenly laughs.

Shi Wuduan does not know what is he even smiling at, only that his smile is so beautiful, so while touching his wet hair, he also dazedly smiles. That is why he did not notice the body of the jade sparrow that seemingly looks docile in Bai Li"s lap is shuddering.

There are actually some dry wooden sticks in this cave that was brought in by something. Shi Wuduan stacks these sticks then points his finger to skillfully draw an "invite hearth" spell. A flame softly flares up, and in the short while, it already managed to create a small fire, surrounded by two persons and a bird. Only then do Bai Li"s eyes land on the half-wet letter, the ink blurring, and asks: "How long will you be gone for?"

"Who knows?" Shi Wuduan undoes his hair, twists it dry, then casually runs his fingers through, "If my luck is good, who knows maybe I"ll meet him at the foot of the mountain. If it isn"t, and he"s just nice in some deep mountain or forest, then three or five years is normal."

He just ends his sentence when he sees Bai Li"s face shows some fleeting sadness, so he cannot resist continuing: "But be a.s.sured, in the luggage that shifu sends for me there"s a small constellation table. Even though my power is c.r.a.p so maybe I can"t calculate all that accurately, but the general direction I should"ve been able to calculate. Moreover, it"s not like I have no mouths, so by asking around, I can do it in one to two months, and definitely will be back soon."

He is in the age when he only thinks of playing, so he a.s.sumes Bai Li is not happy with him leaving because he would have no one to play with, so he continues again: "Last time I heard from the little shijie under Kure shishu said that the market at the foot of the mountain is very lively, they sell everything ... Ay, if not how about you notify your mom, then we can head down the mountain to play together!"

Shi Wuduan is used to listening to no one"s rules, so he does not even bother with whatever rules or whatever sects, he just waves his hand and says: "Or we just sneak away, don"t let your mom know."

He says this too carefreely, Bai Li cannot help but be stunned.

He sees Shi Wuduan hurriedly wants to try and says: "I"m this large but I haven"t even been down the mountain, I heard that the people down the mountain have their own castles and villages, there are horses and carriages all over, and whenever a lady heads out she would ride on a carriage full of fresh flowers - oh right, wait until I have money, I would buy one for you, and also the best flowery cloth for you to wear, and the Osmanthus-scented camellia fruits for you to eat, and bells strewn from scented gra.s.s for you to play, ok?"

The young man"s eyes sparkle, and at that moment, Bai Li almost wants to nod. He suddenly looks down and sees his child-sized hand resting on the body of the jade sparrow. He hesitates for a while but still shakes his head in the end: "But my tianjie (*) has not pa.s.sed ..."

(*) tianjie (lit. heavenly calamity): During cultivation, commonly people have to go through "punishments" from heaven, often in the form of lightning strikes. If they survive, they can ascend to new levels of power. These "punishments" come about due to the belief that cultivation, and thus gaining unnatural power and lifespan, is against the heaven"s will.

Shi Wuduan looks like he just got dunked in cold water. Scratching his messy hair, he mumbles: "Oh right."

Two of them are separated by half the fire, Bai Li slightly tilts his head, looking like he was pondering on something. In the wavering firelight that is bright one moment and dark the next, his expression looks a bit down. Shi Wuduan thinks he must not feel very happy. Seeing him sad, Shi Wuduan wants to use his everything to make him smile again, so he stands to pick some gra.s.s blades at the entrance of the cave, dries them over the fire. Flipping them back and forth, not long later he manages to make a small gra.s.shopper.

Shi Wuduan holds on to the leftover gra.s.s on the tail of the gra.s.shopper and brings it to under Bai Li"s nose: "Oooh, oooh, Xiao Li Zi, smile."

Bai Li takes it, docilely smiles at him, but his eyes are still wide open, even the corners of his eyes are not curved, so it is obvious he is faking it.

Shi Wuduan rolls his eyes, clapping his hands twice, mumbling a spell under his breath. This is the Puppet Spell he just learned, which is an insignificant controlling spell, only used on plants and gra.s.s. This has more than eight thousand variants, aside from entertaining its uses are not many. Others have no time to research into something like this, it is likely that on the entire Jiulu mountain only this no studies no jobs Shi Wuduan has managed to memorise this spell from start to finish.

It comes right at this opportune time to make Bai Li feel better. Bai Li only sees the gra.s.s gra.s.shopper drunkenly stood up on his hand, like it has just started to learn how to walk, with one leg bent, it slinks up from his wrist, rolling left and right humorously.

"This is called the rolling donkey."

"This is called monkey doing drunken Kungfu."

"This is called ..." The gra.s.shopper climbs all the way up to Bai Li"s shoulders, then uses its head to peck at Bai Li"s lips once, like a kiss. Bai Ly is stunned, then he hears Shi Wuduan giggle "hihi", his expression naughty but his face is red. He explains: "This is called stealing aroma, robbing jewel (*). Beauty, smile for you little master (**)."

(*) beautiful ladies are often compared to sweat aromas and bright jewels

(**) this sentence is the cliché one that is often said by lewd men (visiting their side wives or prost.i.tutes)

Bai Li"s eyes cannot help but show some hint of humour, but he intentionally hardens his expression, uses his hand to capture this lewd gra.s.shopper from his shoulder and scolds: "Where did you learn this shameful line from?"

Shi Wuduan scratches his head, embarra.s.sedly says: "About that, Xiao Li Zi ..."

Bai Li does not pay him any attention.

Shi Wuduan thinks about it, then quickly turns around, pulls up a fistful of dark mud on the ground, spreading on his face for a long while, no one knows what he is doing. A while later when he turns back around, Bai Li only sees him use the mud to draw a big "王" letter on his face, two huge dark circles around his eyes, a few whiskers on both sides of his mouth. He puffs up his cheeks and smiles at Bai Li, then suddenly raises his eyebrow extremely high, opens his eyes one big one small, bares his teeth, tilts his head and makes the most stupid face.

Bai Li and the jade sparrow both stare at him, stupefied.

Seconds later, the jade sparrow falls over with a "thud", nearly falling into the fire. Bai Li finally cannot hold his hardened expression and laughs out loud. Like he was just pardoned, Shi Wuduan finally adjusts his sore jaw and stupidly smiles after Bai Li.

Then he takes out the constellation table the Taoist master placed in the luggage for him, one hand raised above the table. The thin threads on the table start moving like they have their own consciousness and hang on his still-muddy fingers. Shi Wuduan picks up a small stick and draws some calculation that is all jumbled up on the ground next to them, then says: "Come, let me help you calculate what is the cause and effect (karma) of the tianjie, Xiao Li Zi, what is your birthday and bazi (*)?"

(*) bazi (lit. eight words): eight factors of a person"s birthdate, including, time, day, month, year, tiangan and dizhi. To explain the last two, for example, year 2019 is the year Ji Hai. "Ji" is the 9th "gan" since the year ends with number "9", and Hai (Pig) is the "zhi" (12 zodiac for 12 year cycle). "Zhi" is also used to annotate time (eg. the "time of the tiger" or "yin shi" is from 3-5 am).

Bai Li"s eyes immediately flashed - Shi Wuduan does not know what should and should not be done, even though he knows that Bai Li is a spirit but since Shi Wuduan plays with him every day, he has since considered Bai Li his comrades, so he casually just asks that question.

Yet, the bazi of spirits is something immensely secretive. It is linked to innumerable karma, and it has been the tradition that only the sky knows, the earth knows and the parents know of it. Then aside from that one intimate person who is unique and destined to you, a spirit would not tell anyone else.

Shi Wuduan sees he has become silent, yet still not knowing why, so he lifts up his head and asks: "What"s up?"

Bai Li fixes his gaze on him for a while, in his eyes is something complex that Shi Wuduan does not understand. After a long while, seeming like he has decided on something, Bai Li whispers: "Year Bing Chen, January 3rd, time Zi, third geng (*)."

(*) Bing is the 6th gan, so he was born year x.x.x6. Zi is the mouse, time Zi is between 11pm-1am. One night (from 7pm - 5am) is split into 5 "geng", each 2 hours, so the third geng also means 11pm - 1am. As to why we need two different terms to describe the exact same time, I have zero idea.