"Make way, make way—"
A middle-aged doctor was dragged and hauled inside, one hand clutching his medicine chest.
"Doctor Luo, hurry and take a look at our Grand Matriarch."
The Lu Family's Grand Matriarch had already been fed pills by the servants. Doctor Luo was middle-aged himself, and after being summoned in such a rush, he needed a few breaths to catch his breath.
He felt her pulse, frowning, then asked a few more detailed questions about her condition. When he learned that her descendants had angered her, his face darkened, and he shot Lu the Eldest a glance.
Lu Pei stood deferentially beside the old man.
He looked toward the doctor, his lips pressed tight, seemingly hoping the physician could cure his grandmother.
The doctor pressed an acupoint near her ribs, then took out his acupuncture kit and had the Lu Family servants form a human wall around them in the courtyard while he treated the Grand Matriarch with needles.
Now that the doctor had arrived, naturally the Grand Matriarch's health took priority.
The guests gathered together in the courtyard. For a while, they watched the doctor's back as he administered the needles and the Lu Family servants hurrying back and forth to boil medicine.
Then they watched the three people—the immortal master and his two young attendants.
All sorts of thoughts circled in their minds.
After the Lu Family's Grand Matriarch had finished receiving acupuncture, the doctor gave instructions to the servants. Only then did Yuan Danqiu speak.
"What the young attendant said just now about Breath-to-Flame—might Your Reverence demonstrate it for us here?" Yuan Danqiu stared intently at the old man, his tone quite respectful.
The old man raised his chin slightly.
"Seems you won't relent unless I demonstrate it once today."
Scholar Lu looked a little nervous beside them.
"Immortal Master, there's no need to go this far. It's only a hundred and fifty strings. My classmates and I can pool our money..."
The old man smiled faintly.
"Why not let them see it for themselves?"
"Everyone, please."
"Behold—"
The courtyard of this rural county household was quite spacious. The Lu Family servants moved the Grand Matriarch's chair farther away. The guests all stepped back and gathered together.
Jiang She and Li Bai stood beneath the old locust tree.
Meng Haoran and Yuan Danqiu had also retreated a few steps and stood beside the tree, waiting for the old man to breathe fire. Li Bai watched with interest, a mischievous thought rising in his heart. He reached out and tapped Meng Haoran and Yuan Danqiu on the back.
He wanted to know whether he could still touch people after a spell had been cast on him. Outsiders couldn't see him or Young Master Jiang.
Could he still touch them now?
Meng Haoran and Yuan Danqiu felt someone tap them and turned around together.
But all they saw behind them was an old locust tree, a few withered leaves on the ground, and ants carrying things.
There was no one there.
Was it a dream?
Or...
Yuan Danqiu looked carefully all around and confirmed that nobody was there. He exchanged a glance with Meng Haoran, then looked up at the lush locust tree. "Perhaps a cicada peed on us."
"Most likely."
Meng Haoran nodded.
The two didn't think much more of it. They turned back and focused once more on the old man's demonstration of the Daoist art.
At the mention of "cicada pee," Li Bai's mischievous smile froze.
Jiang She couldn't help chuckling.
Li Bai pretended to watch the young attendant chanting in the distance. The old man stood with his hands behind his back, his blue robes rustling in the wind. Ignoring Jiang She's laughter, he asked what he'd been wondering earlier.
"Did Your Lordship notice anything amiss just now? Why did you say it was wise of these people not to associate with the Prefect?"
Jiang She's smile faded. Li Bai had asked seriously, so he couldn't keep teasing him.
He thought for a moment.
"Close your eyes, please."
"Huh?"
He asked the other man to close his eyes.
He parted the eyelids with his fingers, and thus saw the ghosts and gods of the three realms.
Li Bai felt only a faint trace of warmth. He had no idea what sort of magic this was, and thought someone had plucked an insect from his eyelid. When he opened his eyes, he saw a Hanged Ghost dangling from the locust tree, its face livid and its tongue hanging long. He jumped in fright.
"This...!"
He choked on his words.
In an instant,
his eyes flew open.
Before Li Bai, ghostly shadows crowded everywhere, absurd and uncanny. All sorts of blue-faced ghosts wandered through the courtyard. A thin layer of faint blue light surrounded the buildings, enveloping the grounds. It must have been the Deer Mountain God's protection.
"How wondrous..."
Li Bai gaped in astonishment.
But Jiang She tugged at him, directing his attention toward the old man.
In the distance.
As the old man exhaled, he truly breathed fire.
A long, narrow tongue of flame flared up in an instant, then scattered into ashes on the wind.
Blue smoke rose straight into the sky.
Everyone around them—the guests, the doctor in the courtyard, the medicine boy, the male and female servants—cried out in shock. They stared at one another, utterly astonished.
Before the flames had even died down,
their faces flushed, their eyes filled with astonishment and yearning. As the blazing fire climbed and shone, vermilion light shimmered and glowed. The guests and servants stared in alarm and wonder, their praise coming one after another.
"Indeed, a master!"
"Immortal Master, please accept my bow!"
"To think that such wondrous magic exists in this world! The Immortal Master's cultivation is profound—truly impressive, truly impressive. We are in awe..."
"Lu the Eldest is blessed..."
Even Yuan Danqiu, who had opposed him all along, looked astonished.
Li Bai stared, looking again and again.
Yet he had no idea what the guests were praising. Even his friend Danqiu Sheng had been taken in, gazing in amazement at the old man standing with his hands behind his back.
Then he suddenly remembered the "Breath-to-Flame" he'd seen just moments ago.
Where had it gone?
"This is..."
"It must be a trick," Jiang She said. "Deceiving Scholar Lu isn't entirely a falsehood, though. A trick that can blind the eye like this is already worthy of being called magic."
"No wonder the Deer Mountain God couldn't drive the evil away. It was human mischief."
So he was a fraud who used magic tricks,
deceiving people with illusions.
The Mountain God could drive away evil spells and know the ghosts and gods, but it didn't understand the human heart.
Naturally, its magic had been useless.
No matter how many spells he cast or incantations he chanted, he couldn't change a heart bent on cheating people out of their money.
Li Bai's gaze turned strange. He and Jiang She stood together, watching the "Immortal Master" exhale from afar, his young attendant standing guard, while the people around them exclaimed in wonder and gazed at him with reverence.
The guests praised him without end. The servants held their breath and stared wide-eyed, joining in the praise.
The medicine boy was tending the pot by the fire, his head tilted as he kept looking over. He burned himself on the firewood and hissed in pain, but still couldn't look away, murmuring to himself.
"There really are immortals in this world..."
Hearing that, Li Bai suddenly felt a peculiar sense of pride.
Even the ghostly spirits haunting the courtyard no longer looked so terrifying.
"So that's what it was..."
"It was nothing more than this..."
When he looked again at the astonished expression on his friend Yuan Danqiu's face, he found it rather amusing.
Once the old man stood straight again and his "Breath-to-Flame" demonstration was over, the courtyard fell silent for a few moments. The guests were still immersed in the "immortal art" they had just witnessed.
Jiang She rose.
He walked around the Hanged Ghost dangling from the locust tree and said to Li Bai:
"Come on. It's our turn to step forward."
To settle the matter entrusted to them by the Old Deer Mountain God.
Li Bai ducked his head and cautiously circled around the Hanged Ghost. Mischievously, he deliberately pressed the ghost's tongue against Yuan Danqiu's neck.
Then he followed Jiang She.
Composing his expression and straightening his clothes and sash, he was about to appear before everyone alongside Jiang She, so naturally he had to carry himself with an immortal's effortless grace.
Yuan Danqiu felt a chill on his neck and reached to touch the back of it.
Still, there was no one.
There was something uncanny about the Lu Family.
Frowning, he moved a foot to the side and pulled Meng Haoran several steps away with him.
Looking at the old man and the two young attendants in the courtyard, Yuan Danqiu murmured to himself,
"Could he really be an immortal master?"
"Why would an immortal master behave like this?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he heard a familiar voice.
"Sir, stop this deception!"
"I know a reclusive master. He's willing to pit his magic against yours. What do you say?"
A zhang away from the old man,
two figures suddenly appeared, materializing from the ground up.
It was late. The golden sun was sinking in the west, trailing its afterglow. Clouds and wind churned across the sky. Bathed in the dusky light of evening, everyone present watched with their own eyes as two figures walked toward them step by step, gradually taking solid form.
They strolled at ease, ethereal and transcendent,
like immortals.
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