Facing everyone’s angry glares, Xing Wenyu said without changing expression, “Enough. While Xiao Xia isn’t here, let’s discuss something serious.”
Everyone froze. Xiao Xia?
Everyone at the City Lord’s residence knew that Xing Wenyu always separated public affairs from private ones. When he called Xia Yunzhao “City Lord,” he was speaking officially. When he called him “Xiao Xia,” he was speaking as an elder brother about a private matter.
And what sort of private matter was there to discuss now…?
Xing Wenyu looked around, somewhat at a loss for words. “Promoting Spirit-Testing Stones, letting all the mortals in our territory cultivate… Xiao Xia might not understand what that means, but surely the rest of you do?”
Jiang Hanchuan looked from face to face in confusion. His circumstances were unusual. He had devoted all his attention to plotting revenge against Qianyuan Sect. Matters concerning the relationship between cultivators and mortals were not things he had paid much attention to, and much of this conversation was going over his head.
Du Yan sighed softly and explained, with an undertone of emotion of his own. “If the other powers learn what we’re doing, it will provoke universal outrage.”
This was different from fighting over profits, and even from a dispute over Daoist lineages. It was equivalent to overturning the table and exposing what lay underneath to everyone: So pursuing the Dao was never the exclusive privilege of cultivators at all!
Ordinary mortals could cultivate too. Fortuitous opportunities, Heaven’s will, all of it was nonsense. A Spirit-Testing Stone was all it took!
How many days had Qingxi City’s Hall of Ten Thousand Affairs even been open? Already people in the streets were talking about Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment as casually as anything else, discussing medical cultivation and pill cultivation as if they were experts.
The townspeople had come to recognize the young cultivators at the hall by sight. They knew which ones were good at treating illnesses and which were good at finding things.
The once mysterious and lofty image of cultivators as living immortals was slowly dissolving. In its place stood individual, recognizable human beings.
So cultivators were people too. They were not so invincible after all. Some were merely stronger or tougher than ordinary folk… And if you struck a cultivator, they could die too.
Once mortals no longer feared and revered cultivators, no one could predict what power they might unleash.
That was the most frightening part.
And this was only Qingxi City. What if the same thing happened in every city in its territory?
And these were only children. What if adults with spirit roots were included?
At that point, Qingxi City might have a hundred thousand cultivators, every one of them loyal to the City Lord. That would go far beyond an army made up of ordinary citizens. It would be a whole nation of celestial soldiers and generals!
When that day came, never mind the nearby powers. Even great forces like Wentian Sect and Evernight River would be unable to sit still.
Xing Wenyu surveyed the room once more. Every face was calm, his own included. He said, “It seems you’ve all thought this through.”
Zhong Yundu laughed. “If we hadn’t, why would any of us follow him into this madness?”
Indeed. Everyone here except Xia Yunzhao understood the implications. Even so, when their impossibly young City Lord put forward the plan, not one person had stood up to oppose it.
Wei Ling smiled. “Even mortals, with their brief lives, say that a person should live without shame before Heaven and Earth. We cultivators certainly can’t drift through an entire lifetime for nothing. We’ve followed the City Lord for so long. Have we really not developed even this much resolve?”
Du Yan looked around. “You’ve certainly all thought clearly about it.”
Wei Ling turned the question on him. “And you haven’t, Senior Du?”
Zhong Yundu pointed through the air. “No need to ask. He’s worried about that Xia brat. Afraid the plan will fail one day and the boy will be heartbroken.” Then he added, “Worrying yourself sick over something so useless.”
Du Yan said nothing and lifted his cup of tea. Since returning from Duxu City, he had hardly drunk any wine.
“And you?” Zhong Yundu turned to Jiang Hanchuan with a wicked grin. “You just escaped a tiger’s den, and that Xia brat dragged you into a wolf’s lair. What do you think?”
Jiang Hanchuan considered the question. “Actually, Fellow Daoist Xia spoke to me about this before.”
Everyone turned to him. “Really?”
Jiang Hanchuan said, “He told me he couldn’t stand how Qianyuan Sect conducted itself and had wanted to stand against them for a long time. Looking at it now, the scope of that opposition has simply expanded a little.” He paused. “If someone else had told me all this, I might not have believed them. But if it’s Xia… the City Lord, I’m willing to try.”
Zhong Yundu burst out laughing. “In that case, I suppose we’ve reached an agreement.”
The cultivators and Guards in attendance began to smile as well.
Everyone looked to Xing Wenyu. There was warmth in his eyes too. He raised his teacup. “Let this cup of plain tea be our oath. From this day forward, we weather every storm in the same boat.”
They exchanged glances, lifted their cups, and drank them dry. “Together through every storm.”
Everyone who had boarded the vessel called Qingxi City was already unwilling to leave. And the person steering it was, at that very moment, chasing a spirit beast through the forest.
Xia Yunzhao and Shang Shuangze had arrived near their little valley. Both spread out their divine senses and, sure enough, caught sight of a golden gleam leaping through the trees.
Xia Yunzhao was delighted. “Over there! I see it!” He sprang upward like a hawk, flipped in midair, and raced after the spirit beast.
Shang Shuangze hurried after him. Before meeting Xia Yunzhao, he had never heard the expression gone the moment you let go. Now he knew exactly what it meant… He was even beginning to regret selling all those matching-heart jade pendants and matching-heart pills he had once refined. He really should have kept a few.
Xia Yunzhao had always been fast, and after reaching Nascent Soul he was quicker than lightning. With a few leaps, he caught up to the golden glow. The creature’s tail gleamed like liquid gold as it swished back and forth before his eyes.
“Hm?” Xia Yunzhao hesitated. That tail looked rather… Suddenly the creature stopped short, turned, and charged straight at him.
He tried to dodge, but it was too late. The golden creature struck him square in the chest and disappeared into his body!
“Yunzhao!” Shang Shuangze was horrified. Just as he went to draw his sword, a hand suddenly blocked his way.
The tattered Daoist robe smelled of scorched fabric, as though its owner had just been pulled from a fire pit. The hand before him was wrinkled with age. Bu Yao winked. “Easy, little fellow. This is an immense fortuitous opportunity. Don’t disturb him.”
Shang Shuangze froze, then looked again. Xia Yunzhao had closed his eyes and sat cross-legged, his hands forming a complicated seal before his chest. He had entered a state of sudden enlightenment. Only then did Shang Shuangze relax.
Bu Yao flung his bamboo stick into the air, muttering, “Off you go, off you go.”
The stick transformed into green light, and the green-clad woman appeared once more. Smiling, she floated in front of Xia Yunzhao, sat cross-legged facing him, and touched his forehead with one finger.
Golden light began rising from Xia Yunzhao. Countless motes of light flew in from all around and merged into his radiance, growing steadily brighter.
Bu Yao clapped his hands and laughed. “Merit like this is rare in the world. What a good child he is!”
Shang Shuangze could not help asking, “Senior, were you deliberately waiting for us here?”
“Well, you see…” Bu Yao looked embarrassed. “Last time, I was so focused on tricking you into opening the stone chest that I forgot the second half of what I needed to say. Luckily, you found your way back yourselves. I was still wondering how to lure you here again. My fault. The moment I saw you’d reached Nascent Soul, I got impatient…”
Seeing Shang Shuangze still frowning, Bu Yao reassured him. “Don’t worry. This child is destined for great fortune. As for you, you had a path of your own to follow, but now you’ve chosen to keep pace with him. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
Shang Shuangze never took his eyes off Xia Yunzhao. He only said softly, “I’m afraid he won’t be free to live as he wishes in the future.”
Even the greatest blessings did not come without a price. Greater power meant greater responsibility. Did Xia Yunzhao truly want to be a City Lord? Not necessarily. If given a choice, he would probably rather be an idle wandering cultivator, spending his days strolling through markets, drinking tea with friends, basking in the sunlight, and refining the occasional pill. And if he could do all that beside his Dao companion, so much the better.
Bu Yao shook his head and laughed. “Goodness, are young people these days always this attached to each other? Rest assured. In the future, no one will be freer than him.”
Shang Shuangze was not embarrassed by the teasing in the slightest. He bowed sincerely. “May your auspicious words come true, Senior.”
Bu Yao smiled and shook his head. Both of them were good children. He could only hope they succeeded this time…
After an unknown length of time, the golden light around Xia Yunzhao gradually sank back into his body. The green-clad woman opened her eyes, studied him with affection and reluctance, then drifted back.
Only then did Shang Shuangze notice that beneath the petal-like hem of her dress, she had a serpent’s tail.
She smiled and inclined her head to Shang Shuangze, then floated to Bu Yao’s side. Her figure had become much more transparent than before.
Bu Yao slowly exhaled. “At last. It’s done…”
The two bade Shang Shuangze farewell.
Shang Shuangze tried to invite them to stay as guests. Bu Yao smiled. “There’s no time. We have to go back now. If someone finds out, the consequences will be terrible… Never mind. You’ll understand later.”
Shang Shuangze did not understand, but he listened attentively.
Bu Yao continued, “We old fellows can’t help you much more. The rest of the road is yours to walk. I hope you’ll remain upright and never forget why you started…”
His voice lingered on the air. When Shang Shuangze looked up, they had vanished.
A thunderbolt suddenly cracked across the clear sky and struck the exact place where the two had stood.
Shang Shuangze stared thoughtfully at the deep crater left by the lightning.
* * *
When Xia Yunzhao awoke, he was no longer in the forest. He was back in the little valley, inside the quiet chamber used for secluded cultivation.
He scratched his head. What had happened? Right, he had gone chasing a spirit beast. Then it turned out the creature was not really a spirit beast but a streak of golden light? And then it flew into his body… What was going on lately? Why did absolutely everything want to burrow into him?
Looking around, he saw Shang Shuangze meditating not far away.
Since it was still early, Xia Yunzhao closed his eyes and resumed cultivating.
In terms of sheer difficulty, the Qian-Kun Qi-Control Treatise was far more demanding than the Qi-Guiding Origin-Connecting Art he had used before. Yet he had never felt that difference.
Ever since obtaining the Qian-Kun Qi-Control Treatise, his cultivation had progressed smoothly. Every retreat brought rapid improvement.
This time seemed no different. He quickly slipped into meditation, but then a clamor of voices sounded at his ear. “Has the City Lord gone out today?”
“City Lord, please bless my mother and help her get well soon…”
“City Lord…”
Again and again, voices called for the City Lord. They sounded strangely familiar, like the citizens of Qingxi City calling to him.
Xia Yunzhao could not help opening his eyes. He froze. He was floating in midair, and Qingxi City lay directly below him!
But the city did not look quite the way it usually did. In his eyes, spots of light glimmered in every home across the vast city, large and small, blinking like fireflies.
Curious, he wished he could go down and have a closer look. The instant that thought arose, he appeared before one of the houses.
The golden light inside this house was brighter than in most. Xia Yunzhao took a step and passed straight through its wall.
A medicinal decoction bubbled on the stove, filling the house with a strong medicinal smell. At the head of the main hall stood a spirit tablet. A girl of seventeen or eighteen knelt before it, murmuring prayers.
Xia Yunzhao leaned over curiously to look… How embarrassing. The name on the spirit tablet was his.
He knew some townspeople worshipped him in their homes, but he had never expected to see it happening in person.
The girl did not seem able to see him. She simply prayed fervently, “City Lord, please help Mother recover from her illness… Please, City Lord…”
Xia Yunzhao went to look at her mother. Qingxi City had plenty of physicians, and people could buy pills at Qingming Pavilion. Now there was also the Hall of Ten Thousand Affairs. In theory, almost no one should have been left without medical care.
But one glance told him what was happening.
A middle-aged woman lay on the bed, terribly thin, her cheeks a sickly bluish gray. Yet there was no aura of illness around her. Instead, a mass of dark, inauspicious qi had gathered between her brows. That was the true cause of her condition.
Such foul yin qi usually arose in mass graveyards or places where restless ghosts collected, such as White-Bone Mound. It generally did not harm cultivators, and most mortals were unaffected too. Only those with unusual constitutions and especially delicate birth-chart balances fell ill after coming into contact with it.
The affliction was so rare that not only ordinary doctors but even many cultivators had never heard of it.
There were no such places near Qingxi City. Either the woman had encountered yin qi somewhere else, or her constitution was exceptionally unusual, perhaps an Extreme-Yin Body or a Heavenly-Yin Body.
Xia Yunzhao reached out and seized the foul qi at her brow, scattering it. Her complexion immediately began improving.
She opened her eyes hazily and saw a handsome young man standing at her bedside. “You…”
Xia Yunzhao smiled. “Don’t be frightened. Your daughter asked me to come save you.”
The woman was still somewhat delirious. “Y-you look like our City Lord. So handsome…”
Xia Yunzhao laughed aloud. “You certainly know how to flatter someone. Come, open your mouth.” He fed her a spirit medicine, then added with a smile, “When you’re well, go to the Hall of Heroic Spirits and touch that good-luck stone. Maybe it really will bring you good fortune.”
Before the woman could reply, her daughter called from outside. “Mother? Are you awake?”
Xia Yunzhao’s figure dissolved. “…Make sure you go. I’ll be leaving now.”
The woman blinked. As the medicine began working rapidly, her eyes flew wide open. Had that really just been…?
Xia Yunzhao left the house, gradually understanding what was happening. He rose above Qingxi City once more and looked around. Sure enough, towns and cities elsewhere in his territory held the same little lights.
He turned toward one direction and took three steps. The scene below changed, and he was already above Puppet City.
He chuckled to himself. “If only my actual body could move this fast.”
Puppet City had even more little lights than Qingxi City!
Of course. The custom of keeping a divine tablet at home had first arisen in Puppet City before spreading to Qingxi City.
Xia Yunzhao visited several households. Whenever he encountered someone in truly desperate circumstances, he reached out to lend a hand.
One family was particularly dreadful. Two brothers were thoroughly unfilial and bullied their elderly mother until she could do nothing but weep while clutching the divine tablet… Xia Yunzhao promptly gave them a beating and tossed them into Puppet City’s jail, leaving a letter that explained what they had done.
But a household did not have to be in difficulty for the light to shine brightly.
He visited another family, a prosperous household with ample food and clothing. Its members were good people, and the light on their divine tablet was brilliant too.
No one was in the main hall when he arrived. Fruit and clean water had been laid out as offerings, and there were even spotless white lumps of sugar. Those could not have been cheap.
He looked around with a smile, found nothing that required his intervention, and was about to leave when a toddler in a little tiger-head cap toddled in, supporting himself against the wall.
The round little boy could hardly walk properly. He babbled as he climbed over the threshold. “M-mama…”
Seeing that he was about to fall, Xia Yunzhao concealed himself and reached out to steady him.
The child looked around in confusion. Finding himself safely past the threshold, he marched his little legs toward the spirit tablet, stretched out his short arms, and reached for the sugar…
Xia Yunzhao: “…”
He shook his head, amused. So the little rascal had come to steal the offerings.
Just as the boy grabbed some sugar, he heard someone cough beside him. He looked around in puzzlement. No one was there.
He reached for the sugar again. Another cough sounded. Hesitating, the boy put the sugar in his mouth, and a stern voice deliberately lowered to sound imposing said, “Hm?”
The child froze, then burst into tears. “Mama! Mama!”
His mother hurried in. “Xiao Bao, what’s wrong?”
The little boy clutched his sugar and pointed at the spirit tablet. “Mama… City Lord cough-cough…”
As his mother, she managed to make sense of his jumbled words. Both exasperated and amused, she replaced the water and sugar offerings and guided him through an apology.
The boy pouted. “Mama, scared…”
His mother reassured him gently. “Don’t be afraid. If you apologize sincerely, the City Lord won’t be angry with you. He’s a good man. Didn’t Daddy tell you? The City Lord saved Puppet City before. But you mustn’t steal the offerings again.”
The boy nodded obediently. “I’m sorry. Big Brother City Lord, please don’t be angry…”
Xia Yunzhao smiled and stroked the little boy’s head, leaving a trace of spiritual power at his forehead. I watched you put on a fine show, so I won’t take it for nothing. Here’s a blessing to keep you from getting sick so often.
The boy looked up in confusion and touched the place between his brows.
Xia Yunzhao left Puppet City and traveled to other towns and cities…
Who knew how long he wandered? When his primordial spirit returned to his body and he opened his eyes, he had advanced to mid-Nascent Soul.
Seeing that Shang Shuangze was still cultivating, Xia Yunzhao left the formation, went outside, and looked up at the sky.
“You expect that much from me?”
Heaven said nothing. The sky remained cloudless and blue.
Xia Yunzhao smiled, glanced back at the quiet chamber, and said, “I promise. But I won’t leave Shang Shuangze. Do you agree? If you do, then we have a deal.”
The wind stirred, the clouds moved, and a rainbow suddenly appeared across the clear sky.
Xia Yunzhao broke into a wide smile. “Then it’s a deal.”