The first glimpse of my Dao

Although the three martial artists tied up outside the County Office were badly injured, the damage was mainly to their martial abilities and meridians. Their lives were in no danger, so they were simply splashed awake with cold water and taken for questioning in separate batches.

Clearly, these newly arrested martial artists were not as tight-lipped as Sun Shiwan.

By the fourth watch, in the dungeon's torture chamber, a martial artist whose ten fingers were red and swollen finally broke. Faced with the unfamiliar, slender, hook-shaped instrument raised in the jailer's hand, and already crushed by having his martial abilities destroyed by an Innate Expert, he at last begged for mercy.

"I-I'll confess. I'll tell you everything..."

The Private Secretary, who had been yawning off to one side, immediately perked up. He hurried to the small table and picked up his brush.

"Speak! Who are you? Who sent you? Were you planning to harm Jia Yuntong?"

In another cell nearby that served as a makeshift torture chamber, Yi Shuyuan, who was also taking statements, heard the Private Secretary's excited shout and knew someone over there had broken.

Seemingly realizing that his companion was about to confess, the prisoner on Yi Shuyuan's side lost his resolve as well and likewise pleaded for mercy.

"I-I'll confess too."

The jailers and constables beside him all breathed a slight sigh of relief. Yi Shuyuan, who had been sitting at the small table all along, picked up his brush and watched the man, waiting for him to speak.

A constable kicked the man hard.

"Get on with it!"

"Yes, yes! We-we're from the Skywhale Gang. We came with Master Zhou..."

As the man spoke, Yi Shuyuan recorded his words, deliberately making his handwriting more ordinary this time. After all, this would serve as evidence and might even be included in the case files. The imperial court might see it, so it was best not to attract too much attention.

In the administrative quarters of the County Office, Lin Xiu was likewise unable to sleep. He had been waiting for news in his study, and the book in his hand had remained on the same page ever since he opened it.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside, accompanied by an excited voice drawing closer.

"Sir! Sir! They've confessed-"

Lin Xiu sprang to his feet and went to open the study door. He snatched the confessions straight from the runner's hands, then hurried back to read them by the lamp on his desk. As he read, the smile at the corners of his mouth grew increasingly pronounced.

At last, when Lin Xiu finished reading, he could not help bursting into laughter.

"Hahahahahaha! Teng Jingcai, oh, Teng Jingcai! You've finally fallen into my hands!"

Indeed, the martial artists had confessed to tonight's events and described the whole affair in detail. But to Lin Xiu, there was far more to it than that.

"Hmph! Since you're playing dirty, don't blame me!"

At that moment, Lin Xiu already had a plan.

The Skywhale Gang and that wandering sorcerer wanted Jia Yuntong dead? Then could that not mean that, if the sorcerer failed, the Skywhale Gang's martial artists would attack the County Office?

Lin Xiu was not forcing that interpretation on them. It was a perfectly reasonable inference! And attacking an imperial government office carried the same punishment as rebellion! Even if they had not done it yet, their intentions were already plain!

As for the wandering sorcerer's dark arts...

A gleam flashed through Lin Xiu's eyes. He did not care about the exact process or its outcome. He would classify it outright as harming someone through witchcraft!

The distinction was rather hazy to begin with, especially to ordinary people!

Supposedly, witchcraft curses could make people repeatedly fall ill and grow weaker, eventually cursing them to death without leaving a trace. Because the current emperor's birth mother was suspected of having been killed by a witchcraft doll in the imperial harem years ago, witchcraft was something he bitterly hated, and a grave taboo in the Great Yong Dynasty's court. Lin Xiu would seize on that point and never let go!

Immediately, Lin Xiu bent over his desk, took up his brush, and began drafting a new official document.

Two new charges: one equivalent to rebellion, the other no less severe.

"Let's see whether you can suppress this!"

Things had already reached this point, so Lin Xiu threw caution to the wind. He intended to make the affair as big and chaotic as possible. Even if it turned out not to be witchcraft, when the court asked, he would insist that he did not understand such things but dared not take them lightly!

You can wield dark arts, and you tried to harm a key figure in this case from more than ten li away. Does that count as witchcraft? Well, Yuanjiang County is just a little backwater, and everyone in our County Office thinks it does!

The more Lin Xiu wrote, the more excited he became, his heart filled with exhilaration. Being unable to win meant swallowing humiliation; winning was what allowed him to stretch his wings as an official!

Only when the roosters began to crow did the entire County Office gradually regain its peace.

Yi Shuyuan was finally able to head back to the Library. Though the roosters had begun crowing, the sky outside was still pitch-black, and both the interrogators and those being interrogated in the County Office had fallen quiet.

The flickering flame of the Library's oil lamp was the only movement that greeted Yi Shuyuan's return.

After entering the Library and closing the door, Yi Shuyuan casually pointed at the lamp. A strand of spirit wind drifted over and merged into the lamp oil, while the wick rose slightly. The Library instantly grew much brighter.

No wonder everyone wanted to cultivate toward immortality. Even at his level, it certainly made things far more convenient.

With that thought, Yi Shuyuan sat down at his desk and reflected on tonight's events. He thought of those martial artists, of the longing in that sorcerer's eyes, and of the Night Patrol Spirit's assessment.

To Yi Shuyuan, these so-called wandering sorcerers were really just one kind of spellcaster found among ordinary folk. They were not quite as worthless as the Night Patrol Spirit made them out to be. Apart from outright frauds and those with wicked intentions, many were simply trying to put food on the table. It was a profession of sorts.

But quite a few also harbored aspirations, yearning for the true immortal Dao. Even the one who had died tonight had probably been among them.

"Heh. He thought I was an immortal..."

Yi Shuyuan had already gained a great deal tonight. The insights he had reached while working through his Dao on the way out of the county town had been a delightful surprise in themselves. But after half a night of work, that delight had mellowed into reflection.

Murmuring to himself, Yi Shuyuan took out the book the Mountain God had given him once more.

The "Righteous Hero" whom everyone in the County Office had discussed tonight with such excitement and emotion had also made Yi Shuyuan aware of another problem. At times, his identity was rather inconvenient. It was true now, it would be true in the future, and it would remain true as he traveled through the mortal world!

Some interesting stories could neither be fully written nor clearly told without experiencing them firsthand. Yet if he entered those stories, he could not remain forever unchanged. This brought him back once again to his ambition of working out his own Dao.

Though it might seem that he was reaching too high at present, Yi Shuyuan did not believe he was merely dreaming in broad daylight.

With that thought in mind, Yi Shuyuan turned back to the section on illusion techniques and studied it closely.

These were tricks to deceive the eye, but they were also the fundamentals of illusion magic. The gulf between using them well and using them poorly was vast.

The Shadow Transformation, Form Dissipation, Eye Obstruction, and Illusion Generation described in this book were all basic techniques, but Huang Hongchuan had explained their principles clearly. He had plainly spent many years studying them.

As the saying went, a towering building rose from level ground. The same held true for the Dao within Yi Shuyuan's heart. If he wanted to work it out and manifest it, it could not simply leap into being the moment he acquired an orthodox method of immortal cultivation.

Rumble...

A muffled roll of thunder sounded faintly in the sky.

Soon, one drop, then two, then countless drops of spring rain fell from the heavens. Outside the Library, the steady rush of rainfall filled the air.

Yi Shuyuan held the book, his thoughts still lingering over its contents, but his gaze shifted toward the Library door. He swept his sleeve, and as spiritual power mingled with a surge of force across the intervening space, one of the doors swung open with a creak.

The night rain fell without cease, seeming to form a softly pattering curtain of water a few yards beyond Yi Shuyuan. With spring's chill still lingering, the rain striking the ground stirred up faint swaths of mist in the darkness.

That thin mist was like a pool of spring water, spreading into the corridor and beneath the eaves outside the Library, even creeping faintly toward its doorway.

Mist had no fixed form to begin with. Combined with the gently flickering lamplight, it became all the more changeable and elusive: like silk, like a tide, like an illusion, like smoke.

"Fine mist rises from the hazy spring rain; all transformations of the myriad arts begin within the heart!"

Yi Shuyuan lowered his head toward the book in his hands. Following his thoughts, his gaze naturally settled on certain passages: Eye Obstruction, Illusion Generation!

Within him, the spiritual tide of his inner scenery stirred, and wisps of spiritual energy surfaced around his body. He closed his eyes and circulated the energy for a moment, then opened them and drew over the water bowl used for grinding ink. Looking into it, he seemed entirely unchanged.

Yi Shuyuan narrowed his eyes and considered the matter carefully. Then his eyes flashed, a smile touched his lips, and he shook his head slightly. How had he forgotten what he did best?

At that moment, Yi Shuyuan's state of mind shifted again, his emotions gradually changing. His mind became like a painter's brush, following his thoughts to sketch out a sense of weight and depth with a few hidden edges of sharpness...

After letting it take shape for several breaths, Yi Shuyuan gently passed his right hand across his entire face. His thoughts shifted along with the suggestion of that movement...

Like rain, like mist, it spread inch by inch; as the heart changed, so did the face, like forests dyed through with autumn color!

When his right hand had passed completely over his face, Yi Shuyuan accepted that the transformation was complete. At that instant, he felt the spiritual energy draining from his body and even faintly sensed a change in his internal energy. Lowering his head again, he found that the face reflected in the water bowl was no longer the familiar one.

It seemed to bear more traces of years gone by, yet that added maturity somehow made it a little more handsome. A smile lingered on Yi Shuyuan's face. Then he spoke softly, his voice changing with his heart as naturally as if born that way.

"Scum of the Rivers and Lakes deserve death at anyone's hand!"

This was clearly not Yi Shuyuan's original voice. After the adjustment, its register was somewhat lower, with a few more notes of resonance woven into its depth.

How about Long Feiyang? A little too edgy. Better think of another...

Long Feiyang was a character name Yi Shuyuan had liked using when playing martial arts online games. More precisely, though, he was usually told the name was already taken when creating a character, so his characters were generally called "Long Feiyang I" or "Long Feiyang Too."

Thinking of those experiences, Yi Shuyuan drifted into reminiscence and could not help laughing aloud. That laugh immediately unsettled his state of mind. As his concentration collapsed, his face collapsed with it.

With his delicate awareness of the changes in his own body, Yi Shuyuan knew he had changed back without even looking into the water bowl.

"Whew..."

Letting out a long breath, Yi Shuyuan patted his face with both hands, producing two crisp slaps.

Keeping it completely stable was still no easy task. He needed more practice. But then again...

"It's a real challenge. I like it!"

Yi Shuyuan murmured those words with a smile, his spirits soaring in an instant. He rose and walked to the Library doorway, gazing outside at the spring rain falling from the sky.

If his Dao manifested, it manifested; if it did not, it did not. Even if this was only the tiniest glimpse, Yi Shuyuan dared to say that his cultivation had made a tangible advance.

"One day, I'll work out the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha Transformation. Then I'll change as my heart desires, and truth and illusion will be mine to command!"

As he murmured to himself, an even brighter smile appeared on Yi Shuyuan's face. Yet he immediately reminded himself that this was merely an improvement from a low starting point, nothing to grow complacent about!

There truly was nothing to grow complacent about, but Yi Shuyuan could not stop smiling. His heart was still filled with the words, I'm so damn awesome! It would take some time for that excitement to settle.