The Matter of Advancing in Rank Years Ago

After sitting in dry meditation for an entire night, Li Shun pushed open the door as soon as the first pale light of dawn spread across the sky.

Stepping through the faintly bright morning light, he turned familiarly into an inconspicuous, cramped bookshop in Cold Mountain County.

The owner was a handsome young man of around eighteen or nineteen, yet his eyes, still as ancient wells, occasionally revealed a weathered air utterly at odds with his age.

"Cripple, back again? Which one do you want this time?" He was not surprised in the slightest by Li Shun's early-morning visit, and his tone carried easy familiarity.

With a sweep of his wide sleeve, he somehow shut the shop door through the air.

The already poorly lit bookshop immediately grew dim.

"Book of Imperial Exegesis." Li Shun lowered his voice, getting straight to the point.

The shop owner chuckled. "I guessed as much. I had it ready for you long ago. Same old rules—the price hasn't changed!"

As he spoke, he flicked his fingers and pinched a yellowed scrap of paper from his sleeve, placing it face-down on the mottled wooden table.

The back of the paper faced upward, concealing the ink, but Li Shun had no need to turn it over. He already knew its contents by heart. This was precisely a passage he had read in the "yesterday" consumed by blazing fire—a record of the open and covert struggle between Great Qian's Left and Right Chancellors, who had tampered with the weather.

"Change it." Li Shun lowered his eyelids, his tone calm.

The shop owner was visibly stunned for a moment, then laughed helplessly and shook his head. "Now you're getting picky. Fine. Pick one yourself."

With a flick of his finger, more than a dozen book pages in varying shades flew out like scattered blossoms, spreading themselves neatly across the tabletop.

Li Shun swept his gaze over them, casually drew one out, and tucked it close to his body. Then he reached into his robes and carefully took out a small gray cloth bundle. As he peeled away its layers of wrapping, a stalk of Cold Mountain Grass glowing with a faint blue light emerged.

Putting on an expression of heartache, he pinched off three crystal-clear blades of grass with extreme care and placed them on the table.

"Three leaves?" A trace of surprise flashed through the shop owner's eyes. "Didn't we agree that one leaf bought one page?" Though he said so, his hands moved as swiftly as lightning. With a slight curl of his sleeve, the three faintly glowing blue leaves had already vanished.

"The extra two leaves are for information on the 'Cold Mountain Venerable.'"

"Cold Mountain Venerable?!" The shop owner's lazy expression abruptly tightened, and his blazing gaze pierced straight at Li Shun. "Could it be that you cultivated one too?"

Li Shun actually knew nothing whatsoever about this so-called Cold Mountain Venerable, but judging from the other man's reaction, he had already concluded that it must be closely connected to Cold Mountain Grass.

Without changing expression, he shook his head and denied it. "How could it be so easy? I've merely spent half my life grinding away and found a few clues. I want to make one last gamble while these old bones of mine haven't completely rotted through. But I know very little about the Cold Mountain Venerable's true nature, so I wanted to ask around here."

Li Shun's words were half true and half false, yet flawlessly airtight.

Sure enough, the shop owner grew no suspicious. In his eyes, it was already a stroke of luck for a lowly laborer to gather enough tribute year after year. Yet this cripple had surplus Cold Mountain Grass every year to trade, proving that he had considerable skill in cultivating spiritual plants. Now that his greed had grown and he wanted to go one step further, that was only natural.

The shop owner's index finger lightly tapped the wooden table unconsciously. After weighing the matter for a moment, he nodded slightly. "Fine. But I have one additional condition."

"Go on."

"If you truly succeed someday... I want you to copy out your cultivation insights for me."

"That simple?" Li Shun raised an eyebrow.

The shop owner merely smiled and nodded.

"Fine." Li Shun agreed at once.

"Cold Mountain Venerable..." The shop owner narrowed his eyes, his index finger tapping the tabletop once more.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Accompanying the rhythmic taps, specks of golden light suddenly lit up in the depths of the dark bookshop. Hundreds of illusory characters glimmering with faint light rushed out of the shadows like moths flying into flame. In the blink of an eye, they interwove and arranged themselves in midair, gathering into a dazzling long text.

The shop owner casually grabbed a sheet of white paper and tossed it out. Those golden characters instantly adhered to its surface like fledglings returning to their nest, and ink marks began to form.

"Thank you!" Li Shun accepted the paper and folded it away without even looking.

Just as he turned to leave, Li Shun paused mid-step. He suddenly looked back and asked, "By the way, we've known each other for so long, but I still don't know what to call you, shopkeeper."

The shop owner did not answer at once. Instead, he looked Li Shun up and down once more with a scrutinizing gaze. Only after a moment did he slowly utter three words. "Zhou Xunzhen."

Li Shun cupped his fists in salute and stepped out through the door.

Before leaving, the corner of his eye swept over the four characters on the plaque above the bookshop entrance: "Jixia Bookshop."

Blending into the bustling morning crowd of the market, Li Shun appeared to be wandering aimlessly, but a thread of his mind had long since sunk into the [Square Inch] space within his body, examining the two sheets Zhou Xunzhen had given him.

Through the information between those lines, Li Shun finally learned what the [Cold Mountain Venerable] truly was.

"The king among Cold Mountain Grass is the Cold Mountain Venerable. During its growth, Cold Mountain Grass has a certain chance of transforming and advancing into a Cold Mountain Venerable. But the probability is extremely low. In the five hundred and seventy-two years since Great Qian was founded, only three have ever appeared in all of Cold Mountain County."

"Though the government has mastered a secret method for mass-producing Cold Mountain Grass, it has always been helpless when it came to cultivating the Cold Mountain Venerable. Thus, the value of the two is as different as clouds and mud."

"In Year 333 of the New Calendar, a laborer in Cold Mountain County happened by chance to grow a Cold Mountain Venerable. The court was overjoyed and bestowed rewards upon him, promoting him four ranks in succession. From a humble commoner, he leapt in one bound to become a fourth-rank 'Bu Geng' noble, forever freed from the suffering of corvée labor..."

Li Shun's expression did not change, but ripples had already risen in his heart.

It seems a fourth Cold Mountain Venerable was born in Cold Mountain County this year. That was why it drew those Xiang Kingdom remnants here.

Suppressing his turbulent thoughts, Li Shun turned his gaze to the second sheet.

There was only a short passage written on it:

[The Emperor wished to gather the wealth of the four seas, and thus decreed that Gongshu Yuan, Minister of Grain Administration, revise the currency laws. Yuan submitted a memorial: "In former times, when the states stood divided, coinage was varied and mixed, its weight and value uneven, and thus merchants gave birth to deceit. Now the four seas are united as one; the foundation should be set right. This servant requests that all old coins beneath heaven be abolished and that new currency alone be minted, called the 'Yuan.' 'Yuan' means beginning: vast indeed is Qian Yuan, from which all things take their beginning. Let it be used in trade and exchange, that it may display the majesty of unification." The Emperor was greatly pleased and approved his memorial. Thus, all gold, silver, pearls, and jade beneath heaven were delivered into the public treasury and hidden deep within the inner vaults. Among the streets and markets, only Yuan coins circulated, while real gold and silver vanished from the world.]

So that was how it was. Li Shun sighed inwardly.

Having arrived in this world twenty-six years ago, he had long since ceased to be surprised by the many jarring and bizarre aspects of this unified empire.

For example, the twenty-four-hour method of timekeeping, the sunset forcibly delayed until eleven at night, and the legal currency known as the Yuan.

At first, Li Shun had secretly guessed whether the lofty Emperor of Great Qian might also be a "transmigrator." Only after he spent heavily to buy fragment after fragment of the [Book of Imperial Exegesis] from Jixia Bookshop, gradually glimpsing this vast empire's past through the cracks of history, did he completely overturn that guess.

After tomorrow's reset, I can exchange for another page.

Unfortunately, there aren't many Book of Imperial Exegesis fragments left in this remote Cold Mountain County's Jixia Bookshop that I haven't read.

The [Book of Imperial Exegesis] was a magnificent work written by the Grand Historian, recording all manner of events following Great Qian's founding.

It was said that the Grand Historian and Emperor Gan had been intimate friends since childhood. Thus, he could record what ordinary people dared not record and judge the faults that ordinary people dared not judge.

Unfortunately, in Year 454 of the New Calendar, the Grand Historian's lifespan came to its end, and he perished.

From then on, no one in court or among the people dared to take up the brush, nor could anyone take up the brush and shoulder such a burden.

The Book of Imperial Exegesis thus became an unmatched swan song, its original manuscript locked tightly away within the palace. The only passages that reached the common folk were scattered scraps copied down in those years.

"Some of the people recorded in the Book of Imperial Exegesis are still alive today, and most have already become powers who sway the court. Naturally, these high ministers do not wish for the secrets of their humble beginnings to be laid bare before the world. Thus, though the Book of Imperial Exegesis is not an officially banned book, it has become an absolute taboo in plain sight. If I had not used Cold Mountain Grass leaves for exchange, Zhou Xunzhen would never have taken it out."

Lost in thought, Li Shun limped onward without slowing his steps. Before long, he arrived at Cold Mountain Market.

He deliberately concealed his tracks, circling among different sundry stalls and shops as he separately purchased a total of ninety Image-Recording Coins.

They cost him more than twenty thousand Yuan in all.

Though Li Shun was a laborer, he still received a monthly wage of three thousand Yuan.

Moreover, other than food and drink, he had almost no expenses in Cold Mountain County. Over the years, he had saved up quite a bit. He could still afford this sum.

One Image-Recording Coin consisted of a mother coin and a child coin.

After activation, they could remain active for seven consecutive days. The mother coin could reflect the surroundings of the child coin like a water mirror.

This item had originally been created by the Military School, a sharp tool specifically used by spies to scout military intelligence. After the world was unified and the four seas knew no more conflict, such military supplies gradually entered ordinary households and became a commonly used means of communication among the people.

Carrying the Image-Recording Coins, Li Shun quietly returned to his wooden hut. After making further preparations, he called Old Feng from next door over.

"Cripple, what do you need me for?" Feng Guan asked as he entered.

Li Shun swept his hand behind him. With a clatter, all ninety Image-Recording Coins, gleaming with cold light, were spread across the rough wooden table. "Old Feng, do me a favor."

As Li Shun slowly laid out his plan in a low voice, Feng Guan's originally muddy old eyes instantly widened round, and his face immediately filled with extreme horror.

Like a startled bird, he hurriedly glanced outside and lowered his voice. His words trembled uncontrollably. "Cripple, what are you trying to do? Scatter these things all over the county... If the authorities find out, we'll lose our heads!"

Li Shun coldly cut Feng Guan off. His deep gaze stabbed into the other man as he asked only one earnest question. "Old Feng, look at yourself first. How many more years do you think you can live?"

Feng Guan's voice came to an abrupt stop, and he stood frozen on the spot.

Li Shun thoughtfully handed him the mirror he had long prepared.

Feng Guan subconsciously looked at himself in the mirror.

Deep wrinkles crisscrossed his face, while his sparse white hair resembled withered grass.

That ashen, aged face was utterly unlike the young man he remembered himself to be.

He did not know how many years he had endured in this hellish Cold Mountain County without looking into a mirror. Feng Guan, who had never dared to face his own appearance, went completely rigid.

The room fell into deathly silence.

Only after a long while did Feng Guan tremblingly raise a hand. Despairing old tears spilled from his clouded eyes. "I... I'm already this old."

Li Shun slowly walked to Feng Guan's side, raised a hand, and gave his hunched shoulder a steady, powerful pat. Bending close, he whispered:

"Now, an opportunity to defy heaven and change your fate lies right before you."