The Rules of Cultivators

Shen Hui walked out of his master Jinghui's quiet room and looked up at the sky. The sun was still high, with several hours yet until the evening meal.

He returned to his own room and sat down cross-legged.

Since his master hadn't punished him and had even promised him a full set of gear, he couldn't afford to slack off.

He sank his mind inward in meditation.

The bronze ancient lamp in his heart still burned quietly, the tiny flame within the wick perfectly steady, no longer flaring wildly like last night.

Three hours passed in a flash.

Shen Hui opened his eyes and exhaled a mouthful of turbid breath. Today's cultivation was complete.

As usual, he poured all the cultivation points he'd earned into the realm column. The number after [Qi Induction] jumped, becoming 131/10000.

He stood up, stretched his limbs, pushed open the door, and headed for the kitchen.

Fifth Senior Brother Qing Shi was busy in the kitchen. When he saw Shen Hui, a smile immediately spread across his face. "Little junior brother's here? Feeling better?"

"Great."

Shen Hui rolled up his sleeves. "Senior Brother, Master told me to take charge of the stove tonight, but I'll need you to come with me to the back mountain first to find some wild greens and game."

Qing Shi was taken aback.

"Going to the back mountain again? After what happened last night..."

"That's exactly why we need to be more careful."

Shen Hui sighed, a little embarrassed.

"I can't tell what's edible and what's not, so I need you to help me check. We won't touch anything unfamiliar—only what you recognize."

Qing Shi thought it over and nodded. "That works. Let's go, I'll come with you."

Just as the two reached the courtyard gate, they ran straight into Fourth Senior Sister Jinghui.

She was wearing a clean new Daoist robe today, with a long sword hanging at her waist. When she saw them, her eyes lit up.

"Oh? Where are you off to?"

"Back mountain, to find some wild greens and add a few dishes to tonight's meal," Shen Hui replied.

"Back mountain?"

Jinghui blinked, a mischievous glint flashing across her face.

"Little junior brother isn't afraid of running into something that's become a spirit again?"

Shen Hui seized the chance to flatter her. "With Senior Sister here, what do I have to fear?"

Hearing this, Jinghui beamed with delight.

She waved her hand. "I like hearing that. Come on, I'll go with you. Good chance to stretch my legs."

The three of them chatted and laughed as they walked out of the temple gate, following the familiar path toward the back mountain.

The deep autumn forest was quiet, with only the occasional birdcall drifting over from afar, then fading away into the distance.

Qing Shi walked at the front, his eyes scanning the ground. Every so often, he'd crouch down, push aside some grass, pick a few leaves to sniff, or dig up some roots to examine.

"This is wild onion. It can be used for seasoning."

He handed a handful of slender green leaves to Shen Hui.

"And this is ground bamboo shoot. Wash it, slice it, and stir-fry it—it's crisp and tender."

Shen Hui took them, examined them carefully, and silently committed them to memory.

"Fifth Senior Brother," he suddenly spoke up.

"Hm?"

"I'd like to borrow some books from you."

Qing Shi turned around, surprised. "Borrow books? What kind?"

"Anything."

Shen Hui chose his words carefully. "Geography, local customs, common knowledge, historical anecdotes. I joined late and don't know much. I need to read more to broaden my horizons."

Qing Shi scratched his head. "What you're talking about... I don't think I have any. But Third Senior Brother has plenty—his room is stacked with them."

Jinghui, listening nearby, cut in. "What use is reading those miscellaneous books? They're all about some vague, distant immortal mountains and strange tales. You can flip through them over and over and still not get anywhere."

"Not entirely useless," Shen Hui said with a smile. "For one thing, it broadens my knowledge. For another, it helps me practice my reading. I still don't know all the characters, so reading more can't hurt."

Jinghui tilted her head, thought for a moment, and nodded. "That's true. I'll talk to Senior Brother later and have him lend you a few more."

"Thank you, Fourth Senior Sister."

The three chatted as they walked, and before they knew it, they had wandered far.

As they passed a thicket of bushes, Jinghui suddenly stopped in her tracks and raised her hand to signal the others to halt.

Before Shen Hui could react, her figure flickered—fast as the wind—and in the blink of an eye, she had vanished into the bushes.

Then came a fluttering sound, a dull thud, and Jinghui emerged from the thicket again, holding a plump wild rabbit in her hand.

The rabbit was still kicking its legs, struggling fiercely, its fur glossy and sleek—at least four or five jin.

"Lucky catch." Jinghui shook the rabbit in her hand smugly. "We'll have meat tonight."

Shen Hui was about to praise her when he suddenly caught sight of something gaudy coiled around her waist. Looking closer, it turned out to be a massive snake.

The snake was as thick as an adult's arm, weighing eight or nine jin, and now hung limply, its head drooping—clearly dead.

Shen Hui startled, stepping back half a pace.

Jinghui followed his gaze, looked down, and said in realization, "Oh, this. When I was catching the rabbit, this thing was hiding in the grass. I reached in, and it opened its mouth to bite me."

She pursed her lips. "So I gave it a punch."

Shen Hui swallowed hard, glancing at the snake, then at Jinghui's carefree face, momentarily at a loss for words.

"Is it dead?" Qing Shi leaned in, looked at the snake, and frowned. "Senior Sister, why did you kill it? It didn't even bite you."

Jinghui snorted coldly. "It didn't bite me because I dodged fast. Something this big, out in this cold weather—it might have absorbed some mountain spirit energy."

"If it dares to bite people with just a little spirit energy, what happens when it gains real cultivation in a few years? It'll come down the mountain to eat people. Killing it now saves trouble later."

As she spoke, she shoved the rabbit into Shen Hui's arms. "Here, take it. Enough? If not, I'll catch two more."

Shen Hui weighed the still-kicking rabbit in his arms and quickly nodded. "Enough, enough. One is plenty."

The three of them carried wild greens and game back toward the temple.

After a few steps, Shen Hui suddenly thought of something and asked, "Fourth Senior Sister, that tiger demon back then—why didn't you just cut it down with one sword when you first saw it?"

Jinghui paused mid-step and glanced back at him. "A tiger is the king of its mountain. Tigers that gain cultivation mostly open their spiritual wisdom, far smarter than ordinary beasts. That day, it showed itself but didn't strike first. Since it knew its limits, we let it go. That's the rule."

"The rule?"

"The rule of cultivators." Jinghui's tone turned rare and serious. "If a demon doesn't harm people, it has its own share of cultivation. We can't just kill as we please."

Shen Hui nodded thoughtfully, then asked, "But what if it goes down the mountain to harm people later?"

"Then kill it." Jinghui said it lightly. "At that point, it's not about letting go—it's life or death."

Shen Hui sank into contemplation.

The essence of morality was reciprocity. If a spiritually awakened demon abided by the pact of "not harming humans" and even actively turned toward good, then it fulfilled its duty as a member of the "moral community."

At that point, for humans to hunt it was to unilaterally tear up the contract—an act of betrayal.

Just as one couldn't casually kill another person, a cultivator couldn't casually kill a demon that followed the same rules.

Killing it would be punishing "goodness," forcing originally neutral demons into opposition.

Shen Hui was silent for a moment, then asked, "Since that tiger demon was already killed, why didn't we bring it back to the temple? Tiger bones and meat could last a long time."

Jinghui suddenly laughed, a strange edge to her voice.

"Little Junior Brother, you're so clever, yet you ask such a foolish question?"

"Why do you say that, Senior Sister?"

Fourth Senior Sister turned her head to look at the puzzled Shen Hui, her tone earnest. "Let me ask you—eating a spiritually awakened creature—how is that any different from eating a person?"

Shen Hui was stunned.

"Once it awakens spiritually, it's one of our kind."

Jinghui finished, then reverted to her carefree demeanor, hopping along ahead.

Shen Hui stood still, watching her back, and felt a stir in his heart.

If a creature could think, knew cultivation, possessed emotions, and could build social bonds, then in ethical terms, it had already crossed from mere "animal" into the realm of "person."

Eating such a being was essentially overstepping the taboo of "cannibalism."

So if eating people was wrong, then by the same reasoning, eating a spiritually awakened demon was also wrong.

"Interesting. It's to avoid a slide in ethical cognition."

Shen Hui glanced down at the dead snake at Jinghui's waist, shook his head, and stopped overthinking. Holding the rabbit, he followed.

When the three returned to the temple, the sun was already slanting westward.

Shen Hui plunged straight into the kitchen and got to work.

Fifth Senior Brother helped on the side, while Jinghui sat on the threshold, gnawing on a wild fruit she'd found somewhere, watching Shen Hui bustle about.

He skinned the rabbit, chopped it into pieces, blanched it to remove the gamey smell. He cut wild scallions, crushed wild peppercorns, sliced ground bamboo shoots. The kitchen had simple seasonings, but Shen Hui had his own methods.

In the end, he even made an egg drop soup—the eggs were ones Fourth Senior Sister had gathered from a wild chicken nest, saved up to nearly half a basket, and today was the perfect time to use them.