The Human Heart

"Interesting. How did you do it?" Ninth Young Master flicked away the trace of blood between his fingers. "I knew every word you said matched the rhythm of his breathing, and in the end, even counting to three, you got the timing exactly right. But... how did you do it?"

Li Yunxin touched his neck. The wound was not very deep.

He spread his hands. "Promise you won't kill me if I tell you."

Ninth Young Master gave a derisive snort. "You little thing, and you want to bargain with me? Don't you know I ought to be angry?"

"I'm not bargaining with you. I'm begging you." Li Yunxin said, "There are plenty of people to eat, but not many as interesting as me."

"It's actually quite simple. People can feel fear, and they can have courage too. One person fighting a tiger would certainly be afraid. Ten people fighting one tiger would not be so afraid. A hundred people, and it became entertainment. The tiger was still the same tiger, but the thoughts in their hearts were different. Actually, I'd been preparing from the start—I got him to talk about his household, wore down his patience, and it was nighttime. Under those circumstances, people were easily stirred up. It sounded simple, but every word had to be weighed carefully, slowly guiding and suggesting. In the end, you were right. Every sentence I spoke landed on the rhythm of his breathing. Then I gave him an instruction with one, two, three, leaving him no chance to think. I'd already suggested that he follow my rhythm, so everything fell into place like water flowing into a channel."

Ninth Young Master thought for a moment. "It sounds rather easy."

"But it's difficult to do." Li Yunxin said, "An ordinary person couldn't manage it without systematic training. So you see, I'm quite interesting."

"Interesting, indeed..." Ninth Young Master frowned and sized him up with ill intent in his pale yellow eyes. "Then the reason I find you interesting now and don't want to eat you is because you did this to me as well?"

Li Yunxin spread his hands and smiled candidly. "Perhaps. But what does it matter... You're so strong. You're so strong that killing people is like child's play. Even if I'm a scheming bitch, I can't hurt you. So..."

He said earnestly, "Don't eat me, all right?"

Ninth Young Master looked at him, thought for a while, then burst into laughter. "All right."

"But what is a scheming bitch?"

"Uh." Li Yunxin thought for a moment. "...Something like a martial arts manual, I suppose. For example, the manual for my particular craft."

"I have heard of the 'Memorial on Sending Troops' and the 'Memorial on Punishing Zhou.'" Ninth Young Master seemed uninterested in such things and waved a hand. "You owe me a life. Mm, you owe me a life."

He repeated it, as though he found the wording novel and amusing, and even laughed to himself. "When I'm bored, I'll come find you. If you make me bored too, I'll eat you."

Once he said that, a cloud of mist abruptly rose from the spot. His great sleeve spread within the mist, scales flashing with cold light, and the cloud soared into the air before vanishing into the night.

Only after a quarter of an hour did Li Yunxin finally let out a long breath.

"One day, two days, three days, four days... nine days. Mm." Leaning against the tree and slowly recovering his strength, he muttered to himself, "So all this happened. My life is about to unfold into something magnificent and turbulent."

Nine days earlier, he had still been in Ding Prefecture, in a mountain village there.

It had been noon that day. He sat dozing in a wicker chair beneath a tree in the courtyard, sunlight spilling through the gaps in the leaves and turning into round patches of light on his body.

His parents had died a year ago. He had been saddened by it. Even two strangers who had cared for him devotedly for twelve years would have created feelings impossible to sever, much less those who truly were his "birth parents."

Therefore, although he had always felt that he should not spend this life muddleheaded in that mountain village, he had remained there for the time being. In the Great Qing Dynasty, the custom was to mourn one's parents for three years. To him, that had originally seemed far too long, but under the present circumstances, it did not seem impossible to accept.

He was only fourteen.

Though years of strengthening his body had made him look like a youth of eighteen or nineteen, he still had not decided what he ought to do.

Much like in certain histories of another world he knew, the Great Qing Dynasty had scholars. In the eyes of ordinary people, studying and becoming an official was the highest path, while all others were minor ways. But his parents seemed to possess a transcendent sense of superiority regarding scholarship and officialdom and had never regarded that "road to advancement" highly.

Though their family of three was acknowledged as the village's only household of poetry and books, Li Yunxin had known since childhood that the path his parents had once walked was likely far more mysterious and unfathomable than studying and becoming an official.

He had dabbled in the classics, histories, philosophers, and literary collections, but had never devoted himself to them. What interested him more was the trick his father had once displayed—when he was two years old—turning painted paper into salt.

Yet after his parents believed he had begun to remember things, they never displayed such "divine powers" again.

He had thought that perhaps his parents planned to tell him some heart-pounding secret once he was older, so he had not been in a hurry. His disposition had never been that of a child in his teens. Though he could not achieve a heart still as water, the experience of living a second life had taught him how to keep his composure.

He simply had not expected the two of them to suddenly die last spring.

Li Yunxin remembered that it had been a stormy night. He had been sleeping deeply in the west room when booming thunderclaps jolted him awake one after another. When he looked out the window, heaven and earth were a vast sheet of white, lightning illuminating every last detail in the room. The rolling thunder continued for roughly two quarter-hours. When he went back to sleep and woke again, he discovered that his parents in the east room had become two lumps of charred coal.

After searching in grief for clues for nearly a month, he reached a conclusion.

It seemed to have been an accident.

Such a thing, at such a time, seemed horrifying and could even invite unpleasant speculation. Yet in the era where he had once lived, it was not especially rare. Some people, for example, had been struck by ball lightning, or killed by lightning strikes.

The village's discussions over the matter did not last long. After all, his parents had been kind to others in life, and many villagers had benefited from them.

Li Yunxin had once felt a trace of unease, believing the matter might not be so simple. But as a year passed, that unease gradually vanished like smoke and clouds.

Until that afternoon, when two Daoists arrived outside his door.

It was Li Yunxin's first time seeing Daoists. He knew that people like them possessed certain miraculous methods, and so he felt an unusual sense of familiarity. He also knew that his parents had not been ordinary people. Even he himself had a few tricks up his sleeve.

The Daoists looked eighteen or nineteen, the beards at their lips still soft and downy. They had kindly faces and wore blue-cloth Daoist robes. They said they were traveling on foot and passing through the area. The villagers had told them his household had an empty, quiet room, so they asked whether they might stay the night, with silver as compensation.

Li Yunxin had grown up in that village, and most of what he knew about the outside world had come from his parents. His parents had indeed been learned and widely traveled, but he had scarcely encountered outsiders himself, much less young men like these two, who appeared to be about his own age.

So at the time, he truly had been very happy.

On the third day, he chatted with the two Daoists beneath the tree in the courtyard, eating pine nuts stored from the previous winter. The pine nuts were held in a small basket, which sat atop a square wooden table. Clouds had been casually painted onto the corners of the table, lending it a distinctive charm.

The two Daoists were named Red Pine Master and Kang Cangzi. Their names happened to fit the scene perfectly, and the three naturally could not help but joke about it.

"So the two True Persons were originally in Xiang Prefecture, and came out to gain experience?"

Red Pine Master smiled. "True Persons, we are not. The two of us have yet to attain the Dao. But gaining experience is true enough. One must cultivate the heart before cultivating the Dao, and cultivating the heart is, in truth, cultivating the spirit soul."

His parents had never specifically discussed such matters while alive, so Li Yunxin knew many things only by their surface, not their underlying reasons. He humbly asked for guidance. "Cultivating the spirit soul... what does that mean?"

Red Pine Master glanced at Kang Cangzi, stroked the fuzz at his lips, and smiled. "It seems this little brother is also one who seeks the Dao. Then let me explain."

"Everyone possesses a spirit soul, strong or weak. We cultivators need to command the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for our own use, so our spirit souls must be strong. Only when the spirit soul is strong enough can one wield great power and extract the essence of heaven and earth. As for the method of cultivating the spirit soul, hehe, it actually sounds quite simple—it is to pass through tribulations."

"...Pass through tribulations." Li Yunxin was startled.

Red Pine Master smiled. "It is not as frightening as it sounds. The Great Dao is formless, Supreme Detachment. In truth, ordinary people are passing through tribulations as well. Most are passing through tribulations of emotion. Look at those brash, quarrelsome men in the streets—at the slightest disagreement, their hair shoots up in rage and their faces turn red. Then look at those gifted scholars and beautiful ladies, who are born to hate from love and wounded by affection—they can never escape the seven emotions and six desires. But we cultivators cultivate the Heavenly Heart Orthodox Law and comprehend the Great Dao of heaven and earth. If the spirit soul is not strong enough and is always moved by external things, how can one keep the mind pure and perceive all things clearly? Perhaps when casting a spell to subdue demons, one stray thought will bring backlash upon oneself."

"Mm... so having a strong enough spirit soul means not rejoicing over external things nor grieving over oneself—Supreme Detachment?"

Red Pine Master's eyes lit up. "Little brother, you are very clever. Precisely so. The realm of Supreme Detachment is the realm we cultivators dream of attaining. Thus, to cultivate the spirit soul and cast away the six desires—you must first understand what the seven emotions and six desires truly feel like."

"Most people know that, don't they?"

Red Pine Master shook his head. "No, no. Take love between men and women, for example. It may bring joy or sorrow. Those who are joyful are willing to sink into it and seek no release. Those who are sorrowful have not yet suffered enough to have their hearts torn apart, so there is always hope remaining. Though both know the taste of love, neither can pass the tribulation."

"You must wait until love brings joy and sorrow, until flourishing gives way to decline, until you grow weary of it and sick of it, before you understand that love is nothing more than this. Once you let it go in your heart, you become pure."

Li Yunxin cracked open a pine nut and nodded. "Oh. So you eat until you want to vomit and no longer want to eat. But I think feelings come in many kinds. For example, liking cats and dogs differs from liking a woman. Being upset because you lost money differs from being upset because someone slapped you. With so many kinds, how long would it take to experience every tribulation?"

"Ah. That is why life is short and bitter." Red Pine Master looked up at the sky and sighed. His eighteen- or nineteen-year-old face unexpectedly carried the air of an old man. "That is why we cultivators must first seek longevity, so that we may undergo tribulations. Of course, if someone has the fortune and opportunity to obtain..."

He glanced at Li Yunxin. "To obtain the treasured scrolls of ancient masters, then it becomes much easier."