Lin Jue did not leave. Since it was still early and the yang qi had not yet reached its fiercest, he climbed a nearby bamboo-covered hill, sat cross-legged, and practiced breathing, sensing Spiritual Resonance as he absorbed and nourished the Five Qi.
The wind stirred his clothes and hair, while bamboo rustled across the mountainside.
At that moment, his mind was at its calmest.
After practicing for a while, he rested, ate two more vegetable buns, then took shelter from the sun beneath the bamboo.
To his surprise, Lin Jue discovered that another section had appeared in the Ancient Book:
Dream Sending: the art of sending dreams, entering dreams, and creating them.
Dreams were illusory worlds.
There were seven or eight ways to enter and create dreams in this world, broadly divided into two categories. The first could be called Dream Descending. Aside from Daoists borrowing the power of dream deities to send dreams, only deities and a few monsters knew this art. The second could be called Dream Sending: using magic to send oneself or an illusion one had created into someone else's dream. This could be learned.
This was the art of Dream Sending.
"Hm?"
Surprised, Lin Jue studied it carefully.
He had no idea when it had appeared...
It must have been last night, while he was asleep, so he had not noticed.
Though alone in the mountains, Lin Jue assumed his usual posture for reading and naturally placed his hand on the page. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Then the words explaining Dream Sending rang out in his mind.
But this art of Dream Sending was far more intricate and profound than Exhale Qi or the Fire-Repelling Technique.
The explanation was still complete and detailed, but it assumed a certain foundation.
For one thing, Lin Jue had only just begun practicing the simplest, most basic Qi Nourishing Method, so he was nowhere near ready to use this technique. For another, the art had appeared in the Ancient Book out of nowhere. Someone who had a master would surely have to learn much about cultivation and magic, and master some simpler techniques related to Dream Sending, before their teacher allowed them to study it. As Lin Jue listened, he could tell that the explanation covered every aspect of the technique, yet there was still much he could not understand.
If he had not succeeded in his search for immortals and the Dao, he would have to rely on this book to learn more related, yet simpler and more basic, techniques first.
"..."
Lin Jue had no choice but to set the book aside for now.
As for why the Ancient Book had not reacted when someone sent him a dream at the Wang Family Ancestral Hall in Heng Village, he guessed it was because the ghost had used Dream Descending, a technique that could not be learned.
Little by little, the afternoon passed.
The sun was at its fiercest now.
The monks at the temple subsisted mostly on grain, and with so little to do each day, they naturally grew drowsy after lunch and took naps. No one came to stay at the temple at this hour, so the whole place was quiet.
It was not just the temple.
Most of the merchants and travelers who had set out from the previous waystation had yet to arrive. The few people on the road would avoid the scorching sun, find a shady spot, and take a nap. Even the mountain road below was deserted. Beneath the bright sunlight, only the green bamboo swayed in the wind. The road shone in the glare, and apart from the insects' chirping, not a sound could be heard anywhere.
Lin Jue had already descended the hill and returned to the back of the temple.
There were few bamboo leaves in the grove, likely because the monks had gathered them for firewood. But there was human dung in the middle, which he had to carefully step around.
After finding a small mound and a shallow pit, Lin Jue began to dig.
Even now, last night's events still felt dreamlike to him. He could not be entirely certain he would actually find anything; there was still a one- or two-in-ten-thousand chance that he would not.
Then he dug through damp soil and struck something hard.
Lin Jue unearthed two clay jars.
He opened them. Each contained some official silver, copper coins, jewelry, jade ornaments, and a few personal belongings, such as name plaques.
It looked as if the two men's possessions had been divided evenly.
"Just as I thought..."
Last night's events had not been a dream.
The two ghosts had told the truth.
Lin Jue felt a solemn chill, yet at the same time, a weight lifted from his heart.
Those two ghosts, especially Ghost Su, truly had been loyal to the end.
After a moment's hesitation, he took five taels of silver from each jar—the smallest pieces inside—making ten taels in all. That was enough for him. The two ghosts had given him travel money, so there was no need to refuse it.
He tucked the silver into his robe and was about to bury the jars again.
But after a little thought, he realized something was wrong.
The spot was too close to the temple. The jars had remained undiscovered here for years, but now he had dug them up, leaving a lot of fresh soil and traces that would be hard to conceal. Never mind the monks; some merchant or traveler might wander over to relieve themselves, discover the jars, and come into an unexpected fortune.
Besides, the ghosts probably did not trust the monks very much.
"I'll take the rest of the jewelry and valuables, too, and give them to your families. If I can't find them, I'll come back and bury them here. It's only two or three hundred li either way. Even with the trip there and back and the time spent searching, it'll take no more than ten days or so."
Lin Jue spoke into the woods.
His conscience was clear. He did not care whether they had heard him. After he finished speaking, he wrapped the contents of both jars in cloth and left.
With ten extra taels for the journey, the road became much easier.
He worried less, and naturally walked with a lighter step. With money in his pocket, if he got sick of dry rations, he could stop at a teahouse or roadside shop, buy a couple of steamed buns, and have a bowl of wontons.
Before he knew it, the bamboo groves along the road had given way to woods.
Danxun and Qiuru Counties lay next to each other and were indeed close. The journey was two or three hundred li, and even walking slowly, Lin Jue took only four or five days. Finding the villages took some extra time, though.
People did not strictly control the movement of the population in this era, but communities were still fairly insular. A decade or more seemed to bring little change to the villages. Lin Jue found Su Village and Lao Village in turn, and managed to learn where Mo Laifeng's and Su Xiaojin's families lived. Their lives were hard, but they were still alive.
Without hesitation, Lin Jue handed each family its own bundle.
He had never considered keeping the valuables for himself.
Being granted another life was a rare opportunity, after all. No one understood that better than Lin Jue. Life lasted only a few dozen autumns, and nothing mattered more than living with a clear conscience and a measure of comfort.
"Brother Su's remains were buried by the monks behind the attic, together with his friend. I don't know what the monks at the temple are like, so I can't say whether anything was buried with them," Lin Jue told Su Xiaojin's family when he found them. "Brother Su can't return to his roots, and his soul can't rest. He sent me a dream and asked me to come find you. Please, you must bring his remains home."
People here valued their clans and family ties above all else. It was the strongest bond in their lives, so Lin Jue was not too worried about whether they would go to the temple to retrieve the two men's remains.
Mentioning the burial goods made him even less concerned.
Lin Jue left with an easy mind.
As he walked, he could not help taking the silver from his robe when no one was around, weighing it in his hand and holding it up to examine.
Now he had money, and his task was done. Holding it and spending it both felt much less worrying than before, and his steps grew lighter still.
Then he continued along the road in search of immortals and the Dao.
Mount Qi Yun was not far from here.
Lin Jue did not devote himself single-mindedly to searching for Mount Qi Yun and Mount Yi. Along the way, he also stopped at teahouses and taverns to ask travelers for directions. When he went to Danxun County, he even visited a tavern where storytellers performed, chatting with the storyteller and asking whether there were any masters who knew magic or True Person immortal teachers at any famous mountain temples. Sometimes he got no answers; sometimes he got a few. But when he went to investigate, the truth rarely lived up to the rumors.
Cultivation in this world did not seem all that widespread.
True masters were few and far between.
After much searching, he found a few sorcerers and witches who seemed to have some skill. But they all wanted money. Lin Jue had little to spare and feared being cheated, and he did not think his situation was urgent enough to risk it.
Ten taels of silver would not last long even under normal circumstances, much less if he spent it like that.
Meanwhile, the weather grew hotter by the day.
It was already late April.
The midday sun shone so fiercely that people could barely open their eyes, and many animals in the mountains had hidden away. Yet on a mountain road paved with rubble and worn by cart ruts, a man dressed like a scholar walked slowly along.
A piece of cloth stretched over the top of his book case shielded his head from the sun, giving him some shade.
His shoulders and the rest of him, though, were already burning hot.
"Why isn't there a single person on this road?"
Lin Jue stopped by the river, took out his bamboo water flask, and drank. Then he bent down and filled it again.
Straightening up, he looked ahead—
The river curved into a wide loop, its green water reflecting the blue sky and white clouds. The road followed the river's bend, with lush grass growing on either side. Its surface glared in the sunlight, insects buzzed noisily, and the occasional cry of a monkey echoed through the mountains. But apart from that, there truly was not another person in sight.
Were they all resting in the shade by the road?
But he had not seen anyone taking a nap, either.
Lin Jue could not help feeling puzzled.
Was there some kind of ferocious beast in this area?
Or a monster?
There were no large predators like tigers around here, only wolves and Cloud Leopards. Demonic Ghosts generally did not appear on the main roads in broad daylight. What Lin Jue feared more were bandits and robbers.
It was not just a young man like him, who had learned only a little Performance Art, who feared them. Even the many accomplished masters and strange adepts in stories, men of considerable cultivation and skilled in all kinds of magic, feared blades wielded by warriors and cold arrows shot from the shadows. When princes and nobles ordered them captured and executed, they often had no choice but to go into hiding.
"..."
Lin Jue steadied himself, picked up his book case, and continued on.
The road followed the river's winding course, and Lin Jue followed the winding road until he gradually entered a stretch of shade.
The trees around him were thick and sturdy. Only monkeys leaped in the distance; there was no sign of bandits or robbers, nor any tracks to suggest people had passed this way. That put Lin Jue somewhat at ease.
Perhaps he should find some shade and rest, too?
Or find a secluded spot and wait for a while, until other travelers came along, then join them?
Lin Jue thought it over, glancing around.
"Wait!"
Lin Jue suddenly froze—
Were those monkeys in the distance a little too big?
They were almost as tall as people!
More importantly, the moment Lin Jue saw them, they saw him too.
One monkey leaped onto a treetop and looked down at the road. It studied him closely, its gaze seeming full of menace even from far away. Then it gave two "oo-ah" cries, and all the other monkeys turned to look at him.
"Rustle, rustle..."
The woods began to shake violently as huge, man-sized monkeys scrambled through the branches, closing in on Lin Jue at speed.
One monkey screeched, baring a mouthful of sharp teeth.
"!"
Lin Jue seemed to understand why there was no one on the road.
Without hesitation, he spun around and ran!
But these monkeys were not much slower than people when they ran and climbed. There was no telling whether an ordinary person could outrun them, but with a book case on his back, Lin Jue definitely could not.
Panting heavily, Lin Jue ran for his life, repeatedly glancing over his shoulder. The sound of branches swaying grew closer, and he could see the treetops shaking closer and closer, too. Panic seized him.
"No good!"
Lin Jue made a snap decision, twisted around, and dropped his book case. He grabbed only the Ancient Book and his small knife, then kept running.
But his face still showed a look of reluctant anguish—
All his money was still in the book case!
He had worked so hard to get those ten taels!
The Ancient Book was unquestionably the most precious thing he owned, since it would profoundly affect his future search for immortals and the Dao. But money was useful, too.
As Lin Jue thought this, he suddenly realized there was no longer anything chasing him. He could not help turning around to look.
More than ten man-sized monkeys had gathered around his book case. They roughly tore apart its canopy, then dumped everything inside and rummaged through it, scattering things everywhere. When they found the dry rations, they immediately fought over them and gobbled them down together. When they found the water flask, they tossed it aside, and they flung his clothes everywhere.
Lin Jue's eyes went wide.
Then he saw one especially tall monkey stand upright and raise its head to look at him, its eyes full of scrutiny.
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