Suppressive Magic

As the young man walked out of Mud Bottle Alley, he happened to run into Zhi Gui, Song Jixin's maidservant. After seeing the tall woman off to Gu Can's home, she had not hurried back herself. Instead, she crossed through the alley and browsed the Small Shops around Apricot Blossom Alley. Though she bought nothing, she was still in a fine mood, skipping along with light, cheerful steps.

A girl raised amid rustic streams and wild waters, as though carrying the scent of fresh grass, was ultimately different in manner from those young ladies from prominent families who lived behind lofty eaves and deep courtyards.

Upon seeing the straw-sandaled youth, she did not lower her eyes as she usually did, quicken her pace, and slip past him sideways. Instead, she stopped, stared at this neighbor with whom she rarely dealt, and seemed to want to speak but held back.

Chen Ping'an smiled at her, jogged past her, then ran faster and faster.

Zhi Gui stood quietly at the Mud Bottle Alley Entrance and turned to look. The shabby youth running beneath the sunlight rather resembled a tenacious wildcat—scurrying everywhere, not much to look at, yet seemingly impossible to starve to death.

The girl was not well liked in town. Burdened by young master Song Jixin's eccentric temperament, the maidservant named Zhi Gui always gave people the impression that she did not fit in, whether she was drawing water from Iron Lock Well, shopping at the market, or buying writing supplies for her young master. She had no companions among her peers and never liked to say much when she met acquaintances. To the townsfolk, who favored bustle and celebration, such a girl was truly difficult to approach.

In this regard, Chen Ping'an's circumstances were somewhat similar to maidservant Zhi Gui's. The difference was that while the young man also did not like talking, his nature was by no means unlikable. On the contrary, he was gentle and friendly by disposition, with none of the sharp edges that pricked others. It was only because his family had fallen into ruin, and because he had begun working at the Dragon Kiln so early to make a living, that he was not especially close with his neighbors. Of course, the people of Mud Bottle Alley did harbor an indescribable apprehension toward his birthday. The Fifth Day of the Fifth Month was considered an "evil day" in local custom, when the five poisons emerged together. The young man had been born on that day, and with both his parents dying one after another, Chen Ping'an had early become the last lone shoot of his family. Naturally, this made people uneasy. The elders in particular, those who liked gathering beneath the Old Scholar Tree, kept their distance from the youth of Mud Bottle Alley. In private, they even warned their children not to go near him. But whenever the children looked unwilling and insisted on getting to the bottom of why, the elders could never give a proper answer.

At that moment, a slender figure emerged from the small alley and stopped beside the girl. Maidservant Zhi Gui turned her head, said nothing, and simply walked forward. The man turned and walked beside her through Mud Bottle Alley. It was none other than the tutor Qi Jingchun, the town's only scholar and a genuine Confucian disciple.

Without slowing, the girl said coldly, "Wouldn't it be better if the well water and river water kept to themselves? And, sir, do not forget that you truly possessed Favorable Conditions before. I was merely a lowly slave girl of base status, so naturally I could only swallow my anger. But recently, it seems that something has gone wrong with your Daoist magic site, millions upon millions of miles away, hasn't it? So now, sir, you are merely the well water, while I am the river water!"

Mr. Qi, the uninvited guest in Mud Bottle Alley, smiled faintly. "Wang Zhu—fine, for now I shall follow local custom and call you Zhi Gui. Zhi Gui, have you ever considered that although Heaven and Earth favor you, and you were born in answer to fate, do you truly think I have no means of suppressing you? Or do you believe that, thousands of years ago, the four elusive Sages who came here together and personally laid down the rules merely spoke empty words, leaving behind not the slightest contingency plan? In the end, you are only looking at the sky from the bottom of a well. The height of the firmament and the breadth of the earth are far beyond the sliver of scenery at a well's mouth."

The girl frowned. "Mr. Qi, do not try to bluff me with words either. I am not my young master Song Jixin. I have no interest in your grandiose rhetoric, nor have I ever believed it. Sir, you may as well open the skylight and speak plainly. Whether we fight to the death or part on good terms, I all accept."

The middle-aged scholar said slowly, "After leaving this cage, I advise you not to press your luck or drain the pond to catch the fish. It will benefit no one. Especially after you and he embark upon the great path of cultivation, whether or not you become Taoist Companions, you ought to temper your sharpness and must not become arrogant and lawless. This is not a threat. It is merely some heartfelt words at parting, a well-intentioned reminder."

Logically Speaking, their statuses were as far apart as Heaven and Earth, yet maidservant Zhi Gui was neither servile nor overbearing. Her bearing even faintly outweighed the scholar's. With a mocking smile, she said, "Well-intentioned? For thousands of years, you remarkable cultivators have stood high above, drawing lines upon the ground to make a prison, using this place as farmland. This year you reap a crop, next year you pull another bundle; year after year, millennium after millennium, nothing changes. Why is it only now that you remember to 'treat this Evil Obstruction kindly'? Hahaha. I once heard my young master quote a saying that many of you regard as a guiding principle: 'Those not of our kind must harbor different hearts.' Is that right? So it is no wonder, Mr. Qi. After all..."

Qi Jingchun continued walking and lightly took a step, a smile that was not quite a smile on his face. "Oh?"

After that one step.

Maidservant Zhi Gui's expression changed slightly.

At some unknown moment, the two had arrived somewhere utterly dark, so dark one could not see one's own hand. Only far overhead, countless rays carrying a sacred aura poured down.

It was as if they stood at the bottom of a bottomless well, while golden sunlight slowly descended from its mouth.

The middle-aged scholar wore a Green Robe, and flowing light and color shimmered ceaselessly across his garments.

Vast Righteous Qi, upright and radiant.

The girl's face first twisted hideously, but she soon returned to an indifferent, numb expression. She murmured, "Sixty years of Buddhist Brahma Sound, like thunder exploding beside my ears, each peal unceasing. Sixty years of Daoist Talismans, like maggots clinging to the bone, biting and tearing with all their might. Sixty years of Vast Righteous Qi, blotting out the sky and covering the earth, leaving nowhere to hide. Sixty years of Military Strategist Sword Qi, like the earth-dragon turning over, splashing everywhere. Every sixty years is one cycle. It has been a full three thousand years, without a single day of peace... I only want to know where the root of the great Dao you speak of truly lies. I can see the Black and White words in your books, sir, and I can see and hear the subtle words and profound truths when you impart the Dao and teach, but I cannot find it..."

She stared blankly at that righteous middle-aged man. He was both an obscure tutor in this remote and impoverished place and Qi Jingchun of the Confucian Cliff Academy, a scholar whom even the powerful eunuchs of the Great Sui Dynasty addressed respectfully as "sir."

The girl suddenly smiled and asked, "How would sir teach me? How would you persuade me to turn toward goodness? If I remember correctly, your Confucian Venerable Master Confucius, as well as one of the Dao Ancestors, both proposed that There is education for all?"

The man shook his head. "Even if I spoke ten thousand sentences of Sage teachings to you, it would be useless."

The girl appeared to be casually chatting with the scholar, but in truth, she was like a tightly drawn bow. From the corners of her eyes, she constantly scanned her surroundings, searching for the faintest clue that might break the deadlock.

The scholar turned a blind eye to this and sneered, "I know that you possess endless rage, hatred, and killing intent. It is not that I cannot tolerate those unlike myself. But you must understand: casually stirring compassion and indiscriminately dispensing acts of mercy have never been the true doctrines of the three teachings."

"My young master often says that arguing principles with scholars is the dullest thing in the world." The girl curled her lips and narrowed those strange golden double pupils. "So Mr. Qi truly is having one last flash before death. Naturally, that makes you even harder to deal with than before..."

He merely smiled it off. "It does not matter if reason cannot be argued through. But as long as I, Qi Jingchun, live another day and remain qualified to guard this place another day, you ungrateful Evil Obstruction will not think of baring your fangs and claws!"

The girl pointed at herself and asked with a smile, "I am ungrateful?"

The middle-aged scholar said angrily, "When you were at your weakest and had no choice but to bow your head, taking the initiative to enter a Contract Binding with someone, who saved you on that snowy day in Mud Bottle Alley?! And who, over all these years, has been devouring his remaining fortune bit by bit?!"

The girl smiled. "When one is hungry, one must find food and fill one's stomach. Is that not Right and Proper? Besides, he never had any great opportunity to begin with. The sooner he dies, the sooner he reincarnates. Perhaps his next life might have some faint hope. If a Rootless Duckweed like him were allowed to remain in town, heh, then it truly would be..."

With a sweep of his Large Sleeves, the scholar shouted softly, "Shut up!"

The scholar rebuked her furiously, "The mystery of the great Dao, Heavenly Reason is Manifest—how can you decide it with a single word?! Every life has its own destiny and karmic ties. What right do you have to make choices for others?!"

Above the girl's head, a brilliant golden hand appeared from nowhere. Majestic and imposing, like Buddha's palm subduing a heavenly demon, like the Dao Ancestor's hand suppressing evil spirits, it swiftly pressed down upon the girl's head and forced her to her knees in an instant, her forehead striking heavily against the ground.

The sound of her kowtow rang out with a heavy thud.

With her head lowered, the girl braced both hands against the ground and struggled to rise. Her face hidden from view, she let out a sinister laugh. "You can force my head down, but I will never admit fault!"

That overwhelming golden hand seized the girl's head, lifted it, then slammed it down again, forcing another kowtow.

This time, the sound was as heavy as spring thunder.

The scholar said in a deep voice, "Do not forget! This thread of life was granted to you by the Sages. You did not win it for yourself! Otherwise, what difficulty would there be in suppressing you for three thousand years, or even thirty thousand?!"

The girl, whose head remained pinned down, said hoarsely, "I refuse to walk your damned great Dao!"

The scholar raised an arm high and violently brought it down upon the empty air before him. "Insolence! Suppress!"

Amid the golden rays descending from the well mouth, a white jade seal appeared, more than a zhang in length and width, square and upright. Eight ancient characters were carved upon it, marked by an intensely scarlet staining. Countless purple bolts of lightning coiled around the seal, crackling sharply.

At Qi Jingchun's command, it was truly as the legend said: Word Becomes Law. The enormous seal fell from the sky and smashed onto the back of the girl, who was already kneeling on the ground.

This enormous seal, containing the pressure of the Heavenly Dao, seemed not to be a physical object. It did not crush the girl flat against the ground. Instead, it carried wind and thunder as it swiftly sank into the earth and vanished without a trace, as though the rain had been heavy but the thunder light.

Yet an instant later, the girl seemed to have had every bone and tendon in her body shattered by a massive blow. She sprawled across the ground like a puddle of mud, utterly miserable.

Even so, one of the girl's hands curled its fingers into claws. With all her strength, her fingernails seemed to be carving words into the ground.

Qi Jingchun's face was expressionless as he said coldly, "Those three kowtows were to make you pay respect, respectively, to Heaven and Earth! All Living Beings! The great Dao!"

The girl's eyes were vacant. She did not answer.

Qi Jingchun lightly waved his sleeve, dispersing that suffocating, overwhelming majesty. "I, Qi Jingchun, am only a pedantic scholar under the Sages' teaching, yet I can force you to kowtow three times. Once you leave this place, if you act recklessly, are you truly not afraid that you will encounter someone even more unreasonable than yourself, someone who can crush you with a single finger?"

Qi Jingchun sighed. "Here, you have indeed been suppressed and imprisoned, denied freedom. But have you ever considered where in this world absolute freedom can be found? When our Confucian Venerable Master Confucius established all manner of rites, was it not also to seek another kind of freedom for the myriad beings of the world? So long as you do not overstep the rules or violate the established order, so long as you observe propriety, then one day, when Heaven is vast and Earth is wide, where could you not go?"

The girl raised her head and stared fixedly at the middle-aged scholar.

Qi Jingchun took a step forward.

Heaven and Earth returned to normal. He and maidservant Zhi Gui returned to Mud Bottle Alley, where the sunlight was warm and the spring breeze gentle.

The girl swayed to her feet, her smile deathly pale as she slightly bared her grim teeth. "This slave girl shall remember sir's teachings today."

Qi Jingchun said nothing more and turned to leave.

She suddenly asked, "Even if I have been ungrateful to Chen Ping'an, why did sir, as an outstanding disciple of the Sages, stand idly by? Why did you favor only your disciple Zhao Yao and my young master, while treating Chen Ping'an, whose background was ordinary, as nothing remarkable? How is that any different from a merchant doing business? If something is a rare commodity to be hoarded, you cultivate it with care; if it is inferior merchandise, you deal with it perfunctorily. Whether it can fetch a good price is of no concern at all?"

Qi Jingchun smiled. "The movement of Heaven is ever vigorous; thus a Gentleman must strive unceasingly to strengthen himself."

The girl looked baffled.

When the middle-aged scholar's figure vanished at the end of the alley, the girl's face immediately filled with disdain, and she spat viciously.

Limping back to her own courtyard, she wrinkled her nose and furrowed her brow as she passed Chen Ping'an's home. She was a little confused. But because that damned scholar's cultivation had crumbled, the town was now leaking heavenly secrets everywhere, like a small boat riddled with holes. She could barely look after herself, and still needed to carefully plan for the future, so she could not be bothered to haggle over it.

After she pushed open the Courtyard Gate, an unremarkable Four-legged snake darted out from some nook or cranny and rapidly crawled to her feet. In a rage, she kicked it flying.

Inside Chen Ping'an's house, the young Daoist priest sat upright beside the table, watching his nose, and his nose watching his heart.

The black-clothed girl, who had recently been on the brink of death, was already able to sit cross-legged upon the bed by herself. She was not wearing her Veiled Hat, revealing a face that left a deep impression.

It was not that the girl was some Beauty That Topples Nations. Rather, her heroic spirit was simply too striking, making people largely forget how exceptional her features were.

Her brows resembled neither willow leaves nor narrow blades, but something in between.

When she scrutinized the young Daoist priest with such intensity, he became unusually awkward. He had clearly done nothing wrong, yet still felt somewhat guilty.

The young Daoist priest coughed and hurriedly cleared himself of suspicion. "Miss, let us make this clear beforehand. This Daoist saved you, but someone else carried you into the room, removed your Veiled Hat, washed your face, and so on. His name is Chen Ping'an, the owner of this dilapidated house. He is a poor youth, black as charcoal, whose parents both died. He once worked as a kiln craftsman firing porcelain, and he even asked this Daoist for a talisman paper. That is roughly everything. If there is anything else you wish to ask, miss, this Daoist will certainly tell you everything he knows without holding anything back."

Just like that, the straw-sandaled youth had been sold out completely.

The girl nodded. She did not fly into a rage from humiliation. Instead, she openly and sincerely said, "Thank you, Daoist priest, for saving my life."

The young Daoist priest, even more uneasy in his heart, gave a dry laugh. "No matter, no matter. It was only a small effort. So long as miss is unharmed, all is well."

The black-clothed girl asked, "Daoist priest, you are not from East Treasure Bottle Continent?"

The young Daoist priest countered, "Miss is not either, correct?"

She gave a soft affirmative sound.

The Daoist priest gave one as well.

The young Daoist priest wearing a Lotus Crown smiled. "This Daoist's surname is Lu, given name Chen, and I have no Daoist name. You may ordinarily address me as Daoist Master Lu."

The girl nodded lightly and glanced at the young Daoist priest's crown.

The young Daoist priest hesitated, then gathered his courage. "Although that young man did some things that were not in keeping with propriety, circumstances demanded flexibility. Moreover, this Daoist did not expect miss to recover so quickly. If he offended you in any way, I hope miss will not blame him."

The girl smiled. "Daoist Master Lu, I am not an unreasonable person."

The young Daoist priest laughed awkwardly. "That is good, that is good."

The girl raised an eyebrow, and the young Daoist priest's smile immediately became stiff and rigid.

She looked around, her gaze calm.

She casually said, "I heard that Master Ruan, the finest swordsmith on this continent, intended to open a furnace and forge swords here. I followed him all the way here, hoping he could forge a sword for me."

The young Daoist priest said with feeling, "If it truly is him, getting him to forge a sword personally will not be easy."

The black-clothed girl was clearly troubled as well. "It is very difficult."

At that moment, the young man entered, carrying a bag of herbal medicine packets in his left hand and a small bundle in his right. He symbolically knocked on the door first, then quickly stepped over the threshold, placed the medicine on the table, and said softly, "Daoist priest, see if they got anything wrong. If so, I will go exchange it at once."

Still holding the bundle, the young man turned toward the girl. The black-clothed girl sitting cross-legged on the wooden bed met the straw-sandaled youth's eyes.

The black-clothed girl calmly said, "Hello. My father's surname is Ning, and my mother's surname is Yao, so I am called Ning Yao."

The straw-sandaled youth reflexively said, "Hello. My father's surname is Chen, and my mother's surname is also Chen, so..."

The young man looked somewhat embarrassed, but he soon smiled frankly. "My name is Chen Ping'an!"