A Name in the History Books

Jiang She lifted two bass from the stream. Seeing the fish out of water, still thrashing violently, full of vigor, he wondered where the Old Deer Mountain God had found them.

They must taste quite fine.

Not far behind him, Meng Haoran and Yuan Danqiu had already set up a simple makeshift stove with stones and branches, lighting the firewood.

Yuan Danqiu glanced into the distance, at the immortal who was trying to string the fish on a willow twig, his expression carefree, his Dao profound and lofty.

Then he looked nearby, at the mountain god sitting cross-legged in meditation, looking every bit the old immortal.

He lowered his head and elbowed the man beside him.

Together with Meng Haoran, they surrounded Li Bai, who was trying to make the stone stove's fire burn more fiercely.

Yuan Danqiu lowered his voice and asked him.

"That one..."

"Is he truly an immortal?"

Li Bai laughed heartily, then also lowered his voice: "Master Meng, Danqiu Sheng, this time Bai has seen a true immortal."

Yuan Danqiu's eyes flickered a few times.

He pressed on: "Taibai, following beside a true immortal, what have you seen?"

What have you seen...

Li Bai stopped smiling and thought for a moment.

He had appeared together with Young Master Jiang at the Lu Family, first seeing the immortal, then witnessing the art of blinding sight. His eyes, somehow opening some aperture, were touched by Master Jiang's hand and became able to see ghosts and spirits.

And then there were the seven days in the dream.

He saw these nineteen people live through forty years.

Following Young Master Jiang and the Old Deer Mountain God, he saw how these nineteen obtained wealth and honor, saw their wedding ceremonies, their attainment of official posts, and also saw the soldiers and horses attacking, the border conflict ignited, human lives falling like scythes cutting grass, surging forth to die—among them was Yuan Danqiu.

He also saw the monarch's suspicion, former glory and favor, in a single day turning to smoke and clouds.

He saw Scholar Lu's corpse, slowly being carried out of the Ancient Locust Kingdom.

And the place where these people spent their lives, either enjoying wealth and honor or keeping the Dao for forty years, turned out to be an ant nest. The so-called "neighboring kingdom" was likely another ant nest under a different locust tree.

He saw glory.

He saw life and death.

He thought for a long time.

For a moment, he didn't know how to answer this question.

Recalling what he had seen and heard in the dream, Li Bai shook himself, and finally answered Yuan Danqiu with the same words he had once asked Jiang She, Young Master Jiang, in the dream:

"Bai is fortunate."

"To witness the fate of life and death."

"The changes of honor and disgrace."

"All lie within a single thought."

As Li Bai spoke, he looked toward the mountain. This was the foot of Lumen Mountain, not far from Xiangyang County's city gate. Li Bai had come here many times before, and he had climbed Lumen Mountain with Master Meng many times.

Only this time, when he raised his eyes.

He could faintly see strange shadows within, flickering past.

Were those mountain spirits?

Or mountain-dwelling, enlightened specters?

Or wild beasts?

Li Bai stared at the strange shadows in the wilderness, squinting to try and make them out clearly, but they were hard to discern. He spoke slowly again.

"And fortunate."

"To witness with my own eyes the tales of ghosts and spirits."

"To see spirit beasts that seem to understand human nature yet are strange, to see an oath from eight hundred years ago, and also to see, in the span of a few breaths, the mountains and fields covered in flowers as if embroidered."

Hearing Li Bai finish.

Yuan Danqiu's breath caught.

"You..."

He only then noticed, lifting his head to look at Lumen Mountain—

The mountain azaleas had bloomed at some unknown time, covering the mountains and fields. Purple-red mountain flowers flourished in full bloom, like clouds on the horizon, brilliant and myriad.

A gust of wind blew, the mountain flowers surged, magnificent as rosy clouds.

Azaleas were common flowers in the wild, blooming in spring and summer. Meng Haoran remembered that at this time last year, only a few scattered blossoms had opened. Occasionally climbing the mountain, one could spot a few hints of red, which were already quite delightful.

He had lived in Xiangyang for generations and studied Dao on Lumen Mountain.

Yet he had never seen such strange flowers covering the entire mountain.

Then he recalled Taibai's words: "Life and death, honor and disgrace, turn on a single thought," and what he said about "gods and spirits, sentient beasts that seem almost human, an oath from eight hundred years ago..."

Eight hundred years ago.

That was still the Han Dynasty, in the midst of the Zhaoxuan Restoration.

Both of them felt a little dazed.

Jiang She finally finished cleaning the fish and brought them up. As he sat down, he saw the two lost in thought. He took a closer look, met their eyes, and understood what had happened.

He looked at Li Bai.

Li Bai hung his head, poking at the firewood.

Jiang She smiled and said to the Mountain God.

"One fish grilled, one steamed. What does the Mountain God think?"

He had been here a long time, managing many things himself, and over time had learned skills that people of the previous era never had—like how to cook in the wild.

The Mountain God had already heard their conversation.

After all, no matter how low they kept their voices.

How could they hide anything from the master of this mountain?

The Old Deer Mountain God stroked his beard, watching the young men stand dumbfounded, lost in thought, and laughed.

"Excellent!"

No one knew how the Old Deer Mountain God raised his fish, but they were incredibly fresh. With just a simple seasoning, the aroma burst forth.

The fish had just left the fire and was still hot.

He took a bite.

"The flavor is superb."

"Sss—such fresh fish!"

"The gentleman has such skill."

Although the expert had said that today's events were not to be spoken of to outsiders, the county town was small, and rumors still leaked out.

That day, besides the nineteen who had entered the dream, there were other servants of the Lu Family, the county magistrate, seven or eight runners he had brought, and a few family members of the missing who had rushed over upon hearing the news.

How could so many people be made to keep silent?

Matters of immortals were always rare.

When they happened close to home, they were even harder to forget.

Even County Magistrate Cheng Zhi, upon returning to his office, found himself unsettled. Facing the documents he had been reviewing earlier, he couldn't focus, his mind stuck on what had happened that morning.

His cousin's husband, Wang Er, said he had lived through forty years in a dream and even become an official, only to wake and find seven days had passed.

Seven days without food or water—how could a person survive?

Cheng Zhi couldn't help but ponder.

Thoughts kept multiplying. The more he tried not to dwell, the more he did.

After half an hour, he had barely read a few pages of the case files. He tossed the papers aside and sent a servant home to fetch two volumes of Daoist scriptures and a copy of Biographies of Immortals.

Then, reading through them.

He could barely manage to focus.

He read for a while, thoughts rising and falling like a gourd bobbing in water. Cheng Zhi pressed his forehead and called for his secretary.

He recounted what he had seen and heard that day.

Finally, he said, "Only today did I learn that Lumen Mountain in Xiangyang has an old mountain god. That god seemed to hold that gentleman in great respect—he must surely be a lofty immortal."

Then he added.

"A dream of forty years, yet only seven days pass in the waking world—have you ever heard of such a thing? I doubt even Biographies of Immortals records anything like it."

Biographies of Immortals was written by Ge Hong in the Jin Dynasty, chronicling the lives of eighty-four immortals. Cheng Zhi had a copy at home but had rarely flipped through it before.

Having recounted the morning's events, the magistrate was still not satisfied, still marveling.

"To think there are such immortal beings in this world."

"What do you think..."

The secretary also looked astonished.

After a long pause, he came back to himself, suppressed the surging excitement in his heart, thought for a moment, softened his tone, and cautiously reminded him.

"From what Your Honor says, this expert is merely passing through on a journey. No telling how long he will stay."

"Such experts rarely open their doors lightly."

"A master-disciple bond is hard to come by."

The county magistrate looked as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him.

"You make a valid point."

"Then I..."

Seeing this, the adviser added, "We could also commission someone to write an essay, composing a rhapsody about today's events, making clear that under Your Honor's governance, such an immortal encounter occurred. How does that sound?"

Cheng Zhi's eyes gradually lit up.

He murmured to himself.

"In that case."

"This official might yet leave a name in the annals of history."