The White Deer Appears

Zhang San carried two bowls of mushy meat noodles on a wooden tray. On his own initiative, he had also bought a jug of wine and a plate of braised pig head meat drizzled with vinegar sauce.

After making one trip outside, he already knew about the changes in the county.

Magistrate Jiang had fallen out with County Constable Su.

That made Zhang San hesitate somewhat.

County Constable Su was indeed a powerful dragon crossing the river, but Magistrate Jiang was no local snake either.

He was a fierce tiger sitting atop the mountain.

When dragon and tiger fought, the flowers and grass nearby were naturally the ones to suffer.

Zhang San felt that he was no more than an ordinary yamen runner. Now that he had caught County Constable Su's eye, he had to perform well while the iron was hot.

Didn't those storytellers have a saying?

A fierce wind reveals the strength of the grass. Now he had to become a blade of sturdy grass.

He lightly knocked on County Constable Su's door, but there was no response inside.

Zhang San gathered his courage and called out to the county constable twice more.

Yet there was still not the slightest movement.

That shouldn't be right, should it? Even if he really was doing something with the Qi Household's wife, there ought to be some noise inside.

He gently pushed the door open a crack, only to see that aside from the deeply sleeping Qi Household's wife, there was no one else in the room.

Three stubs of incense continued to burn in the incense burner, offering worship to the wooden box County Constable Su had brought.

Where was he?

Su Che was on the road.

Wearing a blue robe, he had quietly left the county yamen.

The night was nearing its depths, and the chill was gradually becoming apparent.

A bright moon hung high in the middle of the sky.

A white figure floated at his side.

She was about five feet tall, with long flowing hair and a white face devoid of features.

This was Qingqiu.

"Do you really have to look like this? Even if you aren't pretty, there's no need to put on a blank white face to scare people. If some old uncle saw you, the whole neighborhood could start preparing a funeral banquet."

Su Che looked at Qingqiu's face beside him.

"If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense."

Little Fox was utterly speechless at this fellow's ignorance of the concepts of cultivation.

"Seeing as your cultivation is shallow, I'll explain it to you. Before one reaches Seventh Grade, the manifested yin spirit cannot possess facial features."

"There's such a rule?"

"Back when I was in the Eastern Sea, I heard the elders of my Household tell a story. I'll tell it to you today."

Little Fox's chatterbox nature was fully revealed.

"Long, long ago, there was a god called Chaos. He was born without the seven apertures. He had two friends who were also gods, one named Xi and the other named Hu. Seeing that Chaos lacked the seven apertures, they felt deeply sorry for him. Everyone else had them, and only he did not, so every day they opened one aperture for him."

"After seven days, the seven apertures had been carved out, and Chaos died." Little Fox said, "That is the principle of cultivation. According to Daoist teachings, the human body is born with a trace of Innate Spirit. It is the foundation for achieving the Great Dao, and the root of all future gathering, refining, and ingesting."

"My elders said that Chaos was that trace of Innate Spirit, while Xi and Hu were time. As time passes, the Innate Spirit gradually wears away. Once it has all leaked out, one's lifespan reaches its end. Cultivation is the process of replenishing and strengthening one's Innate Spirit."

"Once one reaches Seventh Grade, the Innate Spirit can stabilize itself and will no longer leak away into heaven and earth. Even if some occasionally escapes, one can seize the essence of heaven and earth to replenish it. Only at this stage can the yin spirit gradually develop facial features, merge with the fleshly body, evolve primal chaos, and point directly toward the foundation of the Great Dao."

Was this how demons viewed cultivation?

Perhaps this was why the world had so many methods of cultivation. Perhaps it stemmed from differing understandings of the world itself.

The divisions between sages, immortals, demons, Buddhas, and devils might well arise from this.

To sum it up in the words of his previous life, different worldviews produced different methodologies, and different ideas naturally produced different methods of cultivation.

The Seventh Grade?

Ninth-rank cultivation could only be called a beginner's first step. Only upon reaching Seventh Grade could one be said to have planted one's feet firmly on solid ground.

An expert at Fifth Grade could be considered a pillar of a region. Many great generals and important ministers of the imperial court possessed Fifth Grade cultivation. In the Confucian School, Fifth Grade was called "Golden Seal" and "Pillar of the State," meaning that upon reaching this realm, one could become a chief minister of the nation or an important official ruling a region.

The Yin-Yang Dharma King in neighboring Guobei County, with his fourth-rank cultivation, could lead a horde of ghosts in howling assembly across a region, and even the imperial court dared not interfere with him.

That was also why so many people coveted that old lion in the heartland of Mystic Mountain.

Even if they could not reach Third Grade, it would still be good if they could use this opportunity to cultivate to the fourth rank, or even Fifth Grade.

Advance one step, and one could gain the Longevity Realm, leave the Northern Sea at dawn and reach Cangwu by dusk, roam freely between heaven and earth, watch the affairs of the world shift like pale clouds and gray dogs, laughing and cursing amid the mortal dust. Such was an Earthbound True Immortal.

Even without attaining that, one could enjoy worldly wealth and honor in peace, enter and leave attended by eight bearers, dine from nine cauldrons, turn one's hand to make clouds and overturn it to make rain, making others sigh, "A true man ought to be like this."

"You don't manifest facial features because you haven't reached Seventh Grade?"

Su Che suddenly realized something.

Little Fox was not much stronger than he was either.

He was at the peak of the tenth rank and had just entered the ninth, while Little Fox had just entered Eighth Grade.

What was this, a rookie chicken paired with a rookie dog?

"Sigh, how should I put it?" Little Fox hesitated. "As long as that person isn't at the Sixth Grade Realm, if I get serious, I should be able to kill her."

How overbearing.

If that sentence had merely been, "I can kill him," then in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it would probably have been a line for second-tier famous generals like Gan Xingba or Zhang Junyi.

But with the addition of "if I get serious"—tch—it carried the air of Lord Guan: "Pour the wine and wait; I shall return at once," "a head for sale with a marker stuck in it," and "mere clay chickens and pottery dogs."

"What if they're at the sixth rank?"

Su Che was truly curious just how strong this fox was.

"If they're sixth rank, then fight my ass. Of course I'd hide." Though she had no mouth on her face at present, Little Fox spoke with great seriousness.

A true man could bend and stretch. Truly the bearing of a strong person.

"Miss Qing, I was foolish before and offended you greatly."

Su Che recalled how he had tied up Little Fox with the rope generously supplied by the Yellow Heaven Sect, and was quite worried that she might get "serious" and seek revenge later.

"Sigh, no matter, no matter. The ignorant are not guilty. Just prepare some gifts and apologize."

"Understood, understood. They will certainly be generous."

"Young Master Su is truly brilliant as ice and snow. This humble girl likes you."

Beneath the bright moon, within a narrow alley, upon blue bricks.

A delicate-looking bookboy watched Su Che approach from afar, a smile curling across his lips.

"Young Master, taking a female ghost on a night walk is quite romantic. But if ordinary people see it, it'll be a little frightening."

Su Che looked at the bookboy who had accompanied him all the way from Jiankang to Shanyin and slowly let out a long breath of stale air.

"Sir, you have worked hard accompanying me all this way."

The bookboy wore a bewildered expression.

"What is Young Master talking about? I don't quite understand. You aren't doing me, so what hardship have I suffered?"

Su Che looked at the bookboy. "I have heard that the gentlemen of White Deer Grotto hold aiding all under heaven as their ideal, uphold the Four Sayings of Hengqu, and swear to establish the heart for heaven and earth, establish the fate for living people, continue the lost teachings of past sages, and open great peace for ten thousand generations. Among the four great academies, they are the most unyielding: better to abandon gain while remaining upright than obtain it through crookedness. Yet all along this journey, sir has bent yourself to flatter me, while I repeatedly tested you. I have truly offended you greatly."

"Hahahahahahahahahaha..."

The bookboy seemed to have heard something immensely amusing, and tears rolled from his eye sockets.

"Su Che, you know what the Four Sayings of Hengqu are too?"

There were too many typos. I apologize to everyone. My punishment is three chapters, to be delivered in full over the two weekend days.

Thank you all for your understanding and support. Many thanks.