There Are Gods Three Feet Above Your Head

While he was forming the New Moon Talisman, the distant Taoist suddenly quickened his pace, supporting an elderly senior. The old senior seemed even more urgent.

Behind them, a middle-aged Taoist called out in a low voice.

"Uncle-Master, walk slowly, walk slowly..."

The young Taoist muttered behind him: "Didn't they say the Temple Master's legs were bad?"

Mutter though he did, he still hurried along behind, and when they reached a long flight of steps, the young Taoist steadied the Old Temple Master's arm, carefully making sure the steps didn't trip him.

The Old Temple Master walked all the way to the temple gate, looked around left and right a few times, then headed east and stopped at a fortune-telling stall by the entrance.

The young Taoist and the middle-aged senior really had no idea what the Old Temple Master meant by this. Could it be that this stall was corrupting public morals, cheating pilgrims and laypeople out of their money day after day, and he wanted to deal with it?

But this stall had been set up at the entrance for over a decade. To walk so urgently, just to pick a fight with this stall...

"Uncle-Master?" "Temple Master?"

The two of them saw the Old Temple Master face the person waiting for a fortune reading, fold his hands together in the Midnight-Noon Hand Seal, and offer a greeting.

He said: "The Mountain Lord has arrived."

That person turned around. He appeared to be in his thirties, with thick black hair, built taller than an ordinary man—one had to look up to see his face—and his arms were extremely long, almost like an ape's.

The man nodded. "Temple Master."

The Old Temple Master asked respectfully: "When did the Mountain Lord arrive?"

"Not long ago."

The man hastily stuffed the fortune slip from the stall vendor into his robe, tossed down a piece of Nugget Gold that looked as if it had been forcefully broken off by someone, and said, "Pick out... never mind, give me one of each of these sachets you're selling."

Then he noticed the Old Temple Master was still standing before him.

He waved his hand. "The Temple Master needn't stand on ceremony. I merely sensed something unusual and came to take a look."

With that, he passed the Taoists, ignored the fortune-teller who hadn't quite understood the exchange, and strode straight into the temple, walking swiftly, as if in a hurry.

The two Taoists heard the conversation just now.

The middle-aged senior froze at the word "Mountain Lord," and then saw this person's demeanor and bearing—utterly unrestrained, treating Pure Void Temple as if it were nothing. Their Temple Master was now eighty-two years old, and the villagers down the mountain still called him an old immortal. Even the county magistrate and the Xiang Prefecture governor treated the Temple Master with courtesy.

Very strange... He didn't dare think too deeply about it.

The young Taoist beside him grew curious and muttered quietly: "Temple Master, who is that?"

On the way back, the Old Temple Master was no longer in such a hurry. Having rushed over just now, he also felt his legs aching, so he simply stood still to rest.

Only after catching his breath did the Temple Master speak.

"On what mountain is our Pure Void Temple located?"

"Black Stone Mountain."

"Exactly."

The young Taoist still hadn't reacted, still confused, when he heard the middle-aged uncle-master ask aloud: "Is that the Mountain Lord of Black Stone Ridge?"

The Old Temple Master stroked his beard and said nothing.

The two junior Taoists understood then.

The young Taoist asked: "What does the Mountain Lord want at our Pure Void Temple? He said he sensed something unusual—could it be that the ritual has drawn the descent of the Patriarch's power?"

The Old Temple Master wasn't sure either.

He was old now, and had heard from the previous generation about the origins of this current Mountain Lord—said to possess considerable cultivation—so he was all the more cautious.

The reason he had hurried over was precisely this.

He said: "The Mountain Lord entered the temple. Whatever he seeks must be inside. We'll know when we see."

The young Taoist muttered to himself again, very quietly: "I've heard that many of these lords of mountains, rivers, and marshes are born from strange beasts and spirits. I wonder what ours on Black Stone Mountain is. He looks a bit like..."

The old Taoist struck him hard with his staff.

"Watch your tongue!"

He paused.

Then said: "Three feet above your head, the gods are watching..."

The young Taoist shuddered, suddenly feeling a chill of fear. The Mountain Lord was still inside the temple, and he had been recklessly speculating about his origins. Luckily he hadn't finished speaking, or it would have been far too offensive and insulting.

The fortune-teller at the stall had caught fragments of the conversation and felt vaguely puzzled. He couldn't help asking.

"Reverend, what's this Mountain Lord you're talking about? Does the mountain belong to him?"

The Old Temple Master smiled, letting the stall owner ponder it himself. He asked kindly: "What fortune did that gentleman just draw?"

"I don't remember. Just that it was an auspicious one. That Mountain Lord fellow looked real pleased. No wonder he's from a wealthy family—generous with his money!"

The stall owner happily picked up the small piece of Nugget Gold, examined it from all sides, wiped it on his sleeve, and bit it with his teeth.

Ah, it was soft.

Real gold.

The Earth Deity Mountain Demon, in human form, threaded his way through the crowd of pilgrims. He spotted the one standing in an inconspicuous spot, listening to the scholars beside him talk, watching the acolytes hand out talisman papers.

"Immortal... sir!"

Jiang She looked up. "The mountain lord has come."

The Earth Deity Mountain Demon bowed in greeting. "Sensing that sir was here, this humble one came specially to pay respects."

"The mountain lord is too courteous."

Seeing that the immortal had no intention of driving him away, the Earth Deity felt relieved. That superior lot had spoken true. Wasn't this fate with the immortal coming right to him?

They walked a bit further off. The Earth Deity Mountain Demon said respectfully, "I know these mountains well. These Pure Void Temple priests—I've watched them grow up and grow old."

"After the talismans are handed out, shall I accompany sir for a stroll?"

Jiang She agreed. The Earth Deity volunteered, "This Pure Void Temple has some story to it. The current temple master also has ties to the Deer God—if not for the mountain god, he'd have died young, barely four or five years old!"

"Oh?"

The Earth Deity Mountain Demon recalled.

"That temple master had some talent for the Dao. From birth, he opened his Heavenly Eye. Sir can imagine—a young child, ignorant and unknowing, only thought the world had always had these spirits and strange beings. He'd babble to the ghosts at home, scaring his wet nurse half to death."

"Later, when he learned to speak, his family found it even more unsettling. Exorcisms and rites did nothing, and their fear only grew. Just then, another child was born in the household, so they more or less abandoned the elder one."

"By four or five, he finally realized that seeing ghosts with his eyes wasn't normal. Having just begun to understand the world, fear took root."

"From the moment he started reading and writing, his world turned upside down."

"It was the Deer Mountain God who heard of this, took pity on the child, sealed his Heavenly Eye, and had someone send the boy to the temple to grow up. That was nearly eighty years ago now."

The Earth Deity sighed.

"He's about to die, too."

Pure Void Temple thrived with incense offerings, nearly a hundred priests and acolytes—a flourishing congregation. Clearly, the temple master had done well. In the courtyard grew a thick old ginkgo tree, at least a century old, lush and green, offering shade.

Jiang She seemed to see a very young child—saw him born, saw him abandoned by his parents, saw him grow up in the temple.

Now he heard of his old age, his death approaching.

"When a person is first born, they know no fear."

Jiang She said with feeling. "As years pass, the deeper their understanding of the world, the more terror grows. Things once dismissed as idle talk, taken lightly, gradually become sources of worry and dread."

"In truth, cultivators, spirits, ghosts, and demons—it's the same for them."

"Hard to transcend."

"Thus it's said: the clever toil, the wise worry; the incapable seek nothing, full-bellied they roam, drifting like an unmoored boat. What life seeks is not depth of Dao or magic, but freedom—naturalness."

The Earth Deity Mountain Demon savored those words.

"Humans have worry and fear. Spirits and ghosts do too."

"The mountain lord has grasped it."

The Earth Deity gazed at the immortal standing in the corridor, bathed in sunlight, nearly one with the light and dust—carefree and at ease.

He couldn't help thinking.

This—calmly chatting and laughing, playing through the mortal world—this must be freedom.

While they spoke, the acolyte had already reached their side. The bamboo basket of talismans was growing sparse, nearly to them.

Jiang She accepted a talisman.

It was a New Moon Talisman—could ward off evil, pray for blessings, prolong life, and stabilize the home. The new moon was the first of each month, when heaven and earth intermingled, and ghosts and spirits recorded human good and evil; priests were to fast and meditate.

Jiang She examined the talisman.

Drawn by the temple's priests with cinnabar, it was enough to make weaker evil beings or low-cultivation, unawakened demonic ghosts keep far away. Sufficient for exorcism.

Not far off, those scholars were still eagerly discussing the mountain's spirits and demons.

Longing showed on their faces—they wished they had been the ones at the immortal's night banquet, wished they had been the ones slaying evil demons with ease, laughing as they talked.

Stories spread and warped; many added embellishments, mixing half-true opinions of their own, and the tales grew ever more exaggerated.

Dai Xiu mused dreamily:

"I wonder what that fox spirit on the mountain looked like—was her waist slender? Eating human hearts and livers—what a vicious woman."

The scholar surnamed Wang laughed heartily. "I heard there's more than one fierce tiger in these mountains. Strange, too—if the tiger really died, how could its roar still sound?"

"That night's gathering definitely had more than those two demons."

"These kinds of harmful creatures—best to exterminate them quickly!"

They chatted animatedly. Wang Zishen casually stuffed the talisman the acolyte had given him into his sleeve. It fell to the ground, but he didn't care enough to bend down and pick it up.

Jiang She heard this. He looked at the Earth Deity beside him—a mountain demon by origin.

The Earth Deity had heard it too.

He looked at those scholars, squinting as he sized them up. They wore scholar's robes and carried some literary aura. But the more they spoke, the more he saw faint black qi beginning to emerge on their foreheads.

To these mortals, the Earth Deity said indifferently:

"Trouble comes from the mouth—they will understand this truth sooner or later."

As the two were speaking, a commotion arose ahead. The Old Temple Master was supported by others as he walked over, stopping before the two of them. Frail with age, he raised his hand in a bow upon seeing the Earth Deity.

Then he looked at Jiang She, uncertain who this person standing beside the mountain master was.

"This is..."