The Story of Those Years

"Honored guests at the door—one bowl of assorted mushroom vegetarian noodles! Serve them well~~"

The moment they entered the hall, two attendants came forward to greet them. One had a dog's head, while the other was plainly a living human.

"Sir, madam, please take a seat. Our little establishment is Old Niu House. Here in Dujue City, we're considered a renowned old shop. Back when Lord Dushan laid the first great timber for the city walls, my master was already running this place."

The attendant grinned as he took a towel and dusted off the tabletop.

"Then we did have a good eye."

"Sir, one can tell at a glance that you are an accomplished cultivator. Would madam like some incense? We have fine sandalwood incense, fine grain-pastry incense, and fine aloeswood incense here. They nourish the Primordial Spirit wonderfully."

The human attendant answered with a giggle, while the dog-headed attendant merely stood to one side with his mouth shut, staring blankly.

They had plainly mistaken the little fox for some female ghost.

As Su Che knew, quite a few practitioners of unorthodox paths kept ghosts as wives and concubines.

"My wife does not like to speak." Su Che took out a piece of broken silver from his sleeve and placed it on the table. "Sorry for the trouble. Bring us a stick of fine aloeswood incense."

"Sir, I imagine this is your first time in Dujue City. We aren't accustomed to using that here."

The attendant smiled rather awkwardly.

"Lord Dushan's rules: throughout the city, only copper coins may be used—no gold or silver." Azure Ox swayed in from outside. "Give him a copper coin as a tip, and that will do."

"It was indeed my ignorance." Su Che drew out a copper coin from his sleeve and placed it in the attendant's hand. "Sorry for the trouble, brother. Please bring us some tea."

The attendant chuckled. "What are you saying, guest? I'll go right away, right away."

The Azure Ox proprietor pulled out a chair and sat down broadly across from Su Che, fixing his bovine eyes on him.

"Sir, you look unfamiliar."

"This is indeed my first time here."

Su Che looked at the ox demon.

"Then you should come often in the future. This little shop has fine beef brisket. Whichever part of me catches your eye, chop it off and have it with your wine."

Damn it, they really were eating him.

The old ox's words were too valiant and fierce. For a moment, Su Che was left speechless.

"Then I must thank you, but I eat vegetarian food."

"Oh, then you and I are fellow travelers, sir. I eat vegetarian food too. I simply wonder whether you observe a permanent fast or a monthly fast."

The old ox let out a moo, as warm and familiar as though he had met his own blood brother.

"I would not dare deceive the proprietor. My husband observes the Gengshen Fast." Qingqiu spoke up, drawing repeated sidelong glances from the two attendants nearby.

"Eh? Didn't the Gengshen Day just pass?"

"My husband's Gengshen Fast permits him to eat meat only in a Gengshen year, a Gengshen month, and on a Gengshen day. Had he not cultivated the Dao well and maintained his techniques properly, surviving three Gengshen years since he began cultivating, even his favorite braised ox tail could not have been eaten to his heart's content."

Su Che instantly understood what foxish nonsense meant.

A sixty-year cycle made one jiazi. A Gengshen year came only once every sixty years. Having endured three such cycles, one's lifespan would be heading toward two hundred years.

"Excellent cultivation, sir, excellent cultivation. Later, Old Ox will give you a few ox tails. When the next Gengshen Day comes, you can satisfy your craving."

The old ox nodded.

As they spoke, a bowl of vegetarian noodles was brought out from the kitchen. Its fragrance rushed at them. Su Che lifted his chopsticks and stirred the noodles, yet did not take a bite.

"The kitchen has fine skills indeed," Su Che praised. "But there is one matter I do not understand. I hope the proprietor can clear up my confusion."

"Please, sir, speak freely. We will surely have many dealings in the future."

"I come from elsewhere. Seeing the city's roads laid out in perfect order and its shops standing row upon row like fish scales and comb teeth, I wonder which great king possessed such lofty ambition, and by what stroke of fortune he established such a foundation."

As Su Che spoke, he glanced at the little fox beside him. She had led him into this city; it could not have been that simple.

"The local ruler is called Lord Dushan. Among the demon kings around Mystic Mountain, he is indeed one of the most magnanimous. More than thirty years ago, he received guidance from a High Person and founded this city here." The old ox snorted. "Since you have come to Dujue City, sir, are you here to do business? When this city was built, Old Ox was among the first batch of residents. If there is anything you want to know, just ask me."

This old ox played the fool without being mad. I was probing him for information, and he was probing me in return.

Yet this city had been established for over thirty years, and the Imperial Demon Hunters and Night Pacification Bureau had actually ignored it. One could see what sort of state Great Liang truly was.

"As for me? I brought my wife to seek some heavenly treasures and earthly materials, to chance upon opportunities. When I saw that this place had the smoke and fire of human life, I was briefly lost in a haze and brought my wife in to have a look."

"I can faintly see Sword Qi between your brows, sir." The old ox asked curiously, "Could it be that you are a swordsman from the Eastern Sea?"

"I do have a sword, but I cannot bear the word 'hero.' Proprietor, why do you take this beef from your own body?" Su Che lightly turned the subject aside.

If he accepted that word hero, he would have to slay demons and eliminate evil—and use this old ox to test his swordsmanship.

The old ox seemed to sink into deep thought.

"Now that you mention it, the reason I sell meat here and the reason Lord Dushan built this city are actually one and the same."

The ox proprietor pressed all five fingers against the rough wooden table, his eyes unfocused as though he had fallen into an old memory.

"More than thirty years ago, I had just reached the Form-Change Realm and could transform into human shape."

Form-change was the seventh realm of demon cultivation. Upon reaching it, demons could truly alter their forms, progressing from illusion to transformation. It was like manifestation for the Daoist School, or Sword-Forged Thread for Sword Cultivation. Only upon reaching this realm did one step onto the threshold between immortals and mortals.

One step further, and one would no longer be a person of this world, but an immortal in the mountains.

"Lord Dushan had already reached the sixth-grade Spirit-Prowess Realm then. I was young and hot-blooded at the time, always fighting and competing. Not one of the old freaks around Mystic Mountain was not sick of me."

So afterward, you cast away worldly splendor and became an honest, simple restaurant proprietor?

"Life would have gone on like that, but then a bald old monk suddenly arrived. His beard hung to his chest, he stood eight feet tall and six feet wide, the lumps of flesh on his body hard as refined iron. Carrying a thick staff, he beat every demon in these mountains with a name to it."

Hearing this, Su Che had some thoughts stirring in his heart.

"Only Black Mountain Freak had some sense. He shut his doors and refused to come out, and that old monk did not trouble him. The great demons from every quarter refused to accept it, so they joined hands to fight him. Ah, but once we exchanged blows, we discovered he was an arhat forged of steel, a vajra cast of iron. We were like tofu kneaded with piss, and in just a few strikes, he beat us until not even a dog fart remained."

"Master Qing had his spine broken. Lord Yutu fled for his life, while Feng Jiunan was somewhat better off—he ran quickly, but was still blocked in and did not dare leave his door. In the end, only I was stubborn, determined to fight that monk to settle who was higher and who was lower. When I went to find him, I happened upon Lord Dushan leading a group of demons as they burned incense, scattered flowers, and paid homage to that monk."

"What they said, I do not know. But afterward, Lord Dushan established this fortified city, as if he had truly become a mountain king."

The old ox snorted twice. "So I had no choice but to open a shop here and sell some meat."

"So you sell meat here because that monk fooled you into it?" Qingqiu smiled faintly.

"That monk said that offering my flesh as a feast for all living beings, like Lord Dushan building this city, would become an opportunity for us to attain the Dao in the future. Sir, your wife may not like to speak, but whenever she does, she makes people annoyed."

Su Che said nothing.

To have swept through the demon hordes of Mystic Mountain, that monk must have possessed at least fifth-grade cultivation back then.

What had he come for?

It was certainly connected to that Old Lion.

Those bald donkeys were ruthless indeed. More than thirty years ago, they had already placed an idle chess piece here.

Su Che thought to himself that now the mountain rain was about to come and the wind was filling the tower. Every faction should have made its moves by now.

He simply did not know how the imperial court, the Confucian School, and the various branches of the Daoist School would arrange their pieces.

That Old Lion was wrapped in karma, after all, and had more or less some connection to every one of those factions.