Chapter 5 - And Now We’ll Be Taking Our Leave

author: Yi Shi Si Zhou (一十四洲）translator: Lanlaneditor: sleepingjay, milarynproofreader: Elestrea

After Ling Fengxiao finished instructing them to bring the villagers to Ning’an, she sprung up and departed using qing gong. Her red robes fluttered in the air before disappearing from the group’s sight.

Unfortunately, the temperament of this young miss was even more hot-blooded and impatient than they had thought, to the extent that she wasn’t even willing to walk this section of the path with them.

“Young Miss specifically came to Minzhou City—who knew it would end in this kind of result,” Ling Baochen said.

“After today, even if Young Miss were to marry another man, she would no longer be able to marry any of the best candidates,” Ling Baojing said.

Ling Baoqing snorted coldly. “So that b.a.s.t.a.r.d was worthless from the start! That good-for-nothing’s master was called Taoyuan-jun? Let me ask you, have you ever heard of such a person in the Jianghu? How could someone who’s no more than a nameless youngster produce any sort of good apprentice?”

Ling Baochen sighed. “The person our master arranged for Young Miss naturally wouldn’t be that bad. The name ‘Taoyuan-jun’ sounds very esoteric, perhaps he’s a mysterious hermit of great ability who keeps to himself. It’s unfortunate that the rebellion was so far-reaching and implicated so many people. Even hermits of great ability were unable to remain aloof and focus on their own pursuit of virtue. Otherwise, if Taoyuan-jun is still alive, how could there be no news of him for ten years?”

Lin Shu and the two others followed them as quietly as mice. They had been listening to the young women’s distress over the marriage of their Young Miss for the whole journey. After exhausting the list of talented young men of the Jianghu, they came to a conclusion: no one was worthy of Young Miss.

They were all very worried and Li Jimao and Li Yamao had also commiserated in understanding. However, Lin Shu couldn’t really understand nor sympathize with that kind of feeling.

For one, he wasn’t very familiar with this world’s customs after all. To his knowledge, a married woman being widowed wasn’t considered shameful , let alone this kind of childhood betrothal where the two parties had never even met face-to-face before. And second, this type of girl, who was accustomed to threatening people with flaying and shattering their bones, was truly vicious and merciless. Vicious and merciless people were typically cold-blooded and heartless.

—But it didn’t matter what kind of person the Young Miss was, because it had nothing to do with him. He and this Young Miss were merely strangers brought together by fate and after today, they would likely part forever. Right now, his only concern was to find a way to start cultivating and overcome his weak const.i.tution.

When he thought of cultivating, he suddenly recalled his previous life.

Every midnight, he would gaze into the dark and enter a meditative trance. In the wee hours of the morning, he would practice the sword. At dawn, he would collect his backpack and go to school.

There had been many people in the cla.s.sroom. He had always sat in the corner of the last row. Thick textbooks had been piled in front of his face as if isolating him, creating a s.p.a.ce away from the disturbances of others.

One day, those things had all been swept to the ground.

A few people surrounded him, jeering and ridiculing him with words he had already forgotten. They were probably something like “psycho” or “mute”—those kinds of vicious words. Many more people had been looked on.

He squatted down and picked up those books, placing them back on his desk. But they were all knocked down to the floor again.

He lowered his head and continued to pick them up.

It was probably because an activity like bullying a simpleton was pointless, and watching a simpleton being bullied wasn’t entertaining either, so after several rounds of knocking his things over, those people grew bored and dispersed.

That day, he had gone home and told his master: I want to die.

That old man had said, No can do. You have to practice the sword. After the Mahayana, you will be able to roam the heavens and earth freely and do as you please. If you want to avoid dealing with people, just avoid dealing with people. Tsk.Live freely.

Lin Shu: Oh.

Thus, he did not die and continued to practice the sword.

While practicing and practicing, several years had pa.s.sed like flowing water and Master died.

His life didn’t change at all. He kept practicing as he should and tested into college along the way.

Later on, it gradually became time for the Mahayana and he had to undergo a tribulation.

And then even later on, here he was.

To Lin Shu, this world didn’t seem all that different apart from it possibly having more cultivators and no lightning rods—the root of all evil.

He planned to spend this life the same way he had spent his previous life: practicing the sword. Being the kind of person he was, if he wanted to be comfortable he’d need to either die or enter the Mahayana.

However, it may be a little too difficult to cultivate to immortality using this body with its bizarrely terrible spiritual roots.

He was slightly at a loss and unconsciously, his footsteps slowed.

Ling Baoqing pressed him, “Hurry it up!”

He mentally prepared himself before opening his mouth to ask the fierce-looking Ling Baoqing, “Are there many people out there cultivating to immortality?”

“What’s this?” Ling Baoqing looked askance at him. “You also want to cultivate to immortality?”

Lin Shu: “Mm.”

“It’s simple.” Ling Baoqing didn’t deliberately make things difficult for him. “Confucians and Daoists like to say education is for everyone, regardless of one’s background. We of the immortal path are the same. As long as one has the talent, any kind of person can cultivate to immortality.”

Lin Shu felt that since one was chosen based on talent, she couldn’t say that “education was for everyone, regardless of their background.” This Ling Baoqing-xiaojie’s education level was a bit worrying.

But reason prevented him from mentioning this matter so instead, he asked, “How’s that?”

“For example, in two months’ time, there will be a ‘Shangling Examination.’ Anyone from the Southern Xia Dynasty can partic.i.p.ate,” Ling Baoqing said. “a.s.suming one pa.s.ses the annual Shangling Examination, he can enter Shuzhou’s ‘Shangling Academy’ regardless of whether he is a Confucian scholar, a warrior, a cultivator of immortality, a pract.i.tioner of Buddhism, and so on. Countless famous masters teach at the Shangling Academy and as long as you want to learn, you will naturally make some achievements. Aside from the Shangling Academy, there are a few other academies. Although they’re slightly inferior compared to Shangling, they’re all good.”

After she finished, she sized up Lin Shu from head to toe and then walked away, calling back, “But little beggar, I see that your body is weak and can’t even withstand a gust of wind—you can’t study martial arts. Naturally, you also don’t have any Confucian or Daoist cultivation potential. I’m afraid that—it’s impossible for you!”

Lin Shu felt a little stab in his heart, but he silently made a note of that “Shangling Examination.”

After returning to the village, Ling Baoqing and her party conveyed the Young Miss’s intentions to the villagers. They were told that they would be safely escorted to the comparatively bustling Ning’an, where they could stay for a while.

Naturally, the villagers were moved to tears by this kindness and after thanking them in every possible way, immediately started to pack up their familial belongings. They threw away every object that was heavy and unwieldy, while saving the few things that were worth some money. They affixed them to handcarts that were pulled along by thin, weak-looking donkeys or mules.

The girls of Phoenix Heights did not turn their backs in disgust at their poverty and helped them from beginning to end.

Lin Shu remained in his thatched shack. The room was empty and there was nothing to tidy up. Thus, all he did was stare up at the roof and silently recite the word seals and chants for mental cultivation, so that he would not forget them in the future.

He didn’t know how much time had pa.s.sed until he heard the sound of approaching footsteps. It was that lady.

She held a small black box in her cupped hands. From beside the door, she said, “Young sir, that year your master entreated our family to safeguard this thing. He said it was left for you.”

Lin Shu took it and somewhat stiffly said, “Thank you.”

The woman eyed him a few times and said, “I really didn’t expect that you’d actually be quite handsome after washing up.”

Lin Shu’s language faculties could not handle responding to her sentence.

He looked at the small box in his hand and thought that since this body of his still possessed the succession of teachings from master to disciple, it was better to have a clear understanding of things. He asked, “My master…… Why did he leave me here?”

The old lady sighed, “How could we know what immortals are thinking? When you meet him in the future, just ask him yourself.”

He feared he wouldn’t be able to recognize him when they did meet.

Or maybe that cheap master of his would be able to recognize him, but he wouldn’t be able to recognize his own master.

He could only repeat, “I don’t remember what he’s like.”

“I also only roughly remember.” An admiring, dreamy look appeared on the lady’s face. “Very young, dressed in white, and very handsome.”

In fact, this was as good as saying nothing at all, because immortals tended to favor white clothing, and young people in white clothing were usually beautiful.

Lin Shu chose to keep asking questions. “What was he called?”

“That I don’t know,” the older woman said. “How could people like us easily gain the knowledge of an immortal’s name?”

Lin Shu: “Many thanks.”

After thanking her, his language reserves ran dry and he lapsed into silence. The atmosphere suddenly became awkward.

Thankfully, the old lady flapped a hand. “I have to go gather up my things. I’ll take my leave first.”

Lin Shu relaxed, and then opened the small box.

Inside the box were two objects.

The first was a yuhuang made of smoky jade. It was very small and the jade was delicately carved. After holding it in his palm, a cool, refreshing sensation suffused through his limbs from the center of his palm. This jade was saturated with spiritual energy.

The little dragon carved on the jade was exquisite, vivid and lifelike. Part of its body was coiled, forming a small hole through which a thin, black cord was pa.s.sed.

Lin Shu pondered over this for a while. In the end, he picked up the fine black cord and looped the jade ornament around his neck.

Whatever the origin of the yuhuang, it was of good quality, and good spiritual energy could warm the body and help the meridians; although the effect was small, it was still better than nothing.

He couldn’t tell what material the second object was made of. It was like jade, but not jade. It was like gold, but not gold. Its shape was cylindrical and its surface was painted with joyous and auspicious designs.

Lin Shu picked it up and shook it. Sure enough, it made a noise when shaken.

He hoped that it contained a secret book of peerless martial arts techniques pa.s.sed down by that master; yearning that studying it would wash the impurities from his meridians and marrows and turn this zero into a hero.

It was a lovely wish, but he didn’t know if that would actually happen because he couldn’t open it.

The surface of the cylinder was extremely hard—dashing it to the ground didn’t open it either. There were no gaps or cracks in its body, leaving one with no clues on where to even start opening it.

Lin Shu reverently put it away. He believed that it must contain some sort of exceptional, secret book and that he would be able to open it one day.

After half a day, everything had been packed up and readied. A dozen or so mules and donkeys pulling handcarts set off majestically.

Li Jimao and Li Yamao each drove a donkey, while Lin Shu was a.s.signed to the cart those two donkeys were pulling. Of all of his belongings, he only had one treasure: the ‘Schrodinger’s cylinder’ that could possibly contain either an exceptional, secret book or a piece of garbage.

Out of nowhere, Lin Shu smelled a wisp of ominous odor from that Schrodinger’s cylinder, probably because modern physics always seemed to have it out for him.

Upon leaving the village, all of the people, donkeys, and mules turned their heads to take one last look at the dilapidated ruin of a town before joyfully departing.

Although they were cheerful, the pace of the donkeys and mules was still quite slow. Thus, they only reached Ning’an six days later.

As expected, that person had exhausted her patience already and had become very temperamental.

When they met up in an inn, the Young Miss was drinking expressionlessly on the second floor. When she saw that they had arrived, she moodily threw a pile of stuff onto the table below, producing a huge crack in the wood..

It was a deed for land, a pile of doc.u.ments from officials, and a few silver-backed banknotes. It turned out that the reason why the Young Miss had not gone with Ling Baoqing was not because she was too angered from her dead fiancé, but because she had gone ahead to the feudal authorities of Ning’an to give a report. Within the s.p.a.ce of a few days’ time, the Young Miss had not only solved the problem of the villagers’ ancestral village, but had also bought them a piece of land in the southern outskirts.

The villagers dared not accept, but Ling Baochen pressed the land deed and the banknotes into their hands. In a gentle voice, she said, “Do you think our mountain village would miss two taels of silver? Treat it as our thanks to Sir Lin and the two Li brothers for guiding our way.”

“Young Miss is as kind-hearted as ever.” Ling Baoqing rolled her eyes where the villagers couldn’t see. “Treat it as an acc.u.mulation of good karma on the part of that dead b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”

The villagers were so thankful they almost started loudly hailing the Young Miss as the G.o.ddess of Mercy, the Bodhisattva of Compa.s.sion Guanyin.

The G.o.ddess of Mercy Guanyin had no reaction whatsoever to their thanks and even snorted coldly. She descended to the first floor and, leading out a snow-white horse, said, “I’m off.”

Ling Baochen let out an “Ai!” To the villagers, she said, “Everyone, our time together has reached its end, and now we’ll be taking our leave.”

The sight of the Young Miss flipping onto her horse—the red muslin and golden thread on her clothing falling onto the snow-white horse—was extremely haughty and honorable. She waited until the girls caught up before they all spurred on their horses, their figures gradually melting into the setting sun on the horizon.

The villagers held up the land deed, the official doc.u.ments, and the banknotes. “She was really a good person, eh!”

Lin Shu felt a little complicated. It seemed that the Young Miss wasn’t a completely coldblooded, emotionless person, and was indeed even a little kind. After all, they had only met by chance, like patches of floating duckweed, so bringing the villagers out of the ghost city was already showing meticulous virtue and attention to duty.

Women were mercurial indeed.

He resolved to rename “Schrodinger’s cylinder” to the “Ling Fengxiao cylinder.” In this way, the name was not only consistent with the nature of the cylinder, but also got rid of the stain modern physics put on it.

The author has something to say:

And now we’ll be taking our leave…… my a.s.s!

Lin Shu and his grudge against modern physics ???