On a cold, crystal-clear winter night.
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A full moon hung high in a blue sea of stars, spilling moonlight over the vast, unbroken forests until they shone as brightly as day. Tree branches cast clear, crisscrossing shadows on the snow.
Atop the cliff.
Invisible to the naked eye, Black Snake raised his head toward the moon and breathed, relying on no exquisite secret art, only earnest, deep, drawn-out breaths.
Cloudless nights were best for cultivation, though Black Snake did not know what cultivation was.
Suddenly, two faint, ethereal fox cries drifted up from below the mountain, calling at full voice for Black Snake to come down.
Black Snake considered it.
He stopped breathing in the moonlight and swiftly wound across the snow like flowing black water.
Upon reaching the foot of the mountain, he also spotted the fat weasel. Keeping a safe distance from one another, the three unusual creatures bearing extraordinary spiritual radiance gathered late at night. The fox gave a low cry and darted off, frequently glancing back without slowing, signaling for Black Snake and the weasel to hurry after it.
After a little hesitation, the weasel bounded in pursuit, cautiously remaining behind and to the fox's right, at a distance that allowed it to advance alongside the fox or retreat to safety.
Black Snake also wanted to discover what was happening, so he glided silently along behind the fox's left side.
Three beast spirits, temporarily separated from their bodies, passed soundlessly through the dim gray world.
Just as Black Snake began worrying about how far they could roam, the fox finally stopped. With a light leap, it settled atop a snow-covered gray-green rock.
The weasel also chose a rock it liked.
They were beside a stream at the bottom of the valley.
With the two suitably sized rocks occupied, Black Snake showed no concern. He calmly wound himself around an old tree nearby, suspending his body above the ground to look down.
Black Snake waited patiently.
The stream water that had spread over the ice by day thickened into solid ice in the cold night, expanding layer upon layer until the stream resembled a flat, natural mountain road.
From here, they could see the courtyard on the solitary crag halfway up the mountain.
Before long, Black Snake sensed a living creature approaching along the icy road, moving very slowly.
The footsteps on the ice were soft.
Black Snake watched with cool detachment, believing the creature could not see him. He was merely curious about what the fox intended.
The footsteps drew closer. At a distance, he could only detect a gap through subtle changes in the surrounding temperature, barely outlining a shape. Only when the creature came very close did he detect its warmth and see it take form.
Finding a target through an absence in the surrounding temperature was a method he had never used before, one that could reveal unusual beings in hiding.
Having confirmed that the newcomer was of the same kind as the three people in the courtyard, he looked closer and indeed noticed something unusual.
Black Snake did not care why the man was traveling alone on a freezing winter night, nor did he concern himself with the man's thin clothes. He had no interest in investigating why those clothes seemed so out of keeping with the present age. Instead, he discovered a clue in the heat the man gave off.
Even in the wind, the man's body temperature remained unusually constant.
All his warmth seemed contained within some miserly cycle, without the vigorous, natural overflow of an ordinary living creature.
The man walked at an unhurried pace.
Moonlight cast his shadow across the ice and snow. Only as he came closer did his appearance become clear.
He looked about the same age as Chi Ke.
His hair was carelessly gathered with a wooden hairpin. Though old, his clothes had been washed until they faded white and wrapped a lean body. His hands were rough and thickly callused, his face weathered and composed.
The man stopped on the ice twenty feet away and cupped one hand over his fist in greeting.
His voice was clear and calm.
"Traveling by night, I happened to pass through this blessed place. My greetings to you three devoted cultivators. A pleasure to meet you."
At this, the fox stood and raised its paws in imitation of his greeting. The weasel followed suit.
Only Black Snake flicked his tongue out of habit.
He truly had no way to cup a fist.
He was merely surprised that a living creature could see him, the fox, and the weasel. Unless this man, too, was no ordinary being.
Having spoken, the man turned his gaze to the fox nearest him. As though recalling something, a faint smile touched his lips.
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"So you are a young friend of the Fox Clan. More than three hundred years ago, I discussed the mysteries with an elder of your family on a summer night and benefited greatly. Since I have met an old acquaintance's descendant tonight, I ought to tell you a few essentials of cultivation."
He did not dwell on how the fox had known he would pass this way. All beings possessed spirit, each with their own divine abilities. With no ill intent involved, why probe further?
He chose a rock and sat upright as though on a stool, making no deliberate effort to cross his legs.
He began with breathing, demonstrating as he spoke and likening true breath to the foundation of cultivation.
Then he pointed to the bright moon overhead and explained the nature of moonlight essence, revealing a mystery: the moon did not shine of itself, but was the essence of the stars throughout the heavens, borrowing its form and substance to bestow grace upon all things...
These words were somewhat abstruse to the fox and weasel. They first tried to swallow every word whole and retain it, leaving it to be slowly polished and pondered over the long years to come.
Black Snake was staring blankly.
There was nothing for it. He had not understood even after Chi Ke spoke for so long; these few words were even more like splashing water over a stone.
After finishing, the man cupped his fist in farewell and walked away along the frozen stream at an unhurried pace.
The weasel imitated a human and saluted the fox, expressing gratitude for its kindness, then turned and bounded into the mountain forest.
The fox called twice to Black Snake, but he remained motionless, wound around the tree. Unoffended, the fox made two light circles with its leaps, then headed back.
Black Snake flicked his tongue as two empty questions surfaced.
Where was this? What had I come here to do?
The limit on his time outside was approaching. Following instinct, he returned to the cave and reunited with his body, stirred lazily, and went back to sleep.
Before long, morning light spilled over the mountain ridge, and thin cooking smoke rose from the little courtyard.
Chi Ke stood beneath the dripping crag, gazing up to admire the frozen waterfall.
This was the only nearby water source halfway up the mountain. After winter arrived, icicles first grew upward and downward where water seeped from the rock face. Day after day, they joined into pillars of ice. Afterward, water spreading by day froze by night, expanding without cease until it finally formed a broad white frozen waterfall clinging to the dark mountain rock, with another thick layer of solid ice spread over the ground.
The bookboy scattered gravel he had shoveled onto the ice.
He laboriously laid out a narrow path to prevent anyone slipping and getting hurt. It was a ceaselessly recurring task: each day, the stones scattered before were covered by another thickening layer of ice, showing murkily black beneath it.
Swinging an axe to chop the ice, he loaded the heavy blocks into a basket and carried them back to the courtyard for household water.
Chi Ke looked up at the frozen waterfall and sighed regretfully, his exhaled white vapor vanishing in an instant. He regretted having no means to preserve the frozen waterfall forever, unable to reproduce it exactly for his friends in the days to come.
The hunter hurried over.
"Sir, I found unfamiliar footprints below the mountain, probably left last night. They followed the ice straight upstream. I saw no sign of them turning back."
Chi Ke's brows knitted tightly. The bookboy also stopped working and looked over.
In these deserted mountains, in a place even the mountain folk struggled to reach amid such bitter cold, how could unfamiliar footprints appear out of nowhere?
All they could do was heighten their vigilance and take careful precautions.
Fortunately, when they had moved up from the valley floor, they had built the dwelling on a solitary crag beside the peak, relying on the perilous terrain to form a natural fortress.
"Be especially cautious these next few days. Remember to lock the doors tightly after nightfall. I will speak to my friends in the mountains."
After speaking, he pondered briefly and added...
"Give the yellow dog some meat, and put more dry grass in its bed. Do not neglect it."
The hunter nodded in agreement.
Filled with solemn respect, he marveled that his employer was not merely kindhearted but possessed genuine abilities. Able both to drive out evil entities and to befriend the spirits of the mountains, such a man truly deserved to be called one of the legendary Qi Refiners.
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An air of caution shrouded the entire little courtyard on the solitary crag. All three people and the dog were especially watchful. At night, the hunter scarcely dared sleep deeply, getting up to investigate at the slightest rustle.
Only after more than twenty days, with no sign of the unfamiliar footprints returning, did they dare breathe a sigh of relief.
The unfamiliar footprints became an unsolved mystery.