The spring sunshine had warmed the rocks. After Black Snake had listened to Chi Ke calling for ages, the sun was already high before Chi Ke finally headed down the mountain.
Black Snake had meant to remember those sounds, but his memory was simply too poor.
As Chi Ke descended, he talked with the hunter, discussing why the goshawks were shrieking so restlessly, circling back and forth through the valley in a panic.
Before long, the hawks' cries vanished.
The agitation of the two hawks had drawn a nearby flock of crows. The conflict ended quickly, with the crows driving the hawks far, far away.
The instigator basked peacefully in the sun, digesting his meal.
After spending half the previous night hunting, he now lounged beneath the warm sunshine, using its heat to thoroughly digest and absorb his recent prey. He reflected that his body had grown after this year's shedding. Clearly, all that habitual worrying had been worthwhile.
The spring breeze brushed through the valley, carrying the fragrance of a hundred flowers.
Black Snake did not actually like that scent. Pollen interfered with the sense of smell he relied on to perceive the world.
When the sun hung directly overhead, thick blue-gray smoke rose from the valley floor and slowly wreathed the mountainside.
Black Snake disliked the smell of smoke and fire, too. Fire stirred a fear deep in his mind, recalling a sky filled with crimson, the pungent stench of scorching, and the pain of burns.
Though cooking smoke occasionally rose from the thatched cottage, it had always been thin and light, dispersing with the wind.
Today, the smoke smelled far too strong, rousing a little suspicion.
Looking down from halfway up the mountain, he could see a bright crimson glow near the thatched cottage, its temperature extremely high. Suddenly, his heat sense detected the heat source churning and swelling strangely, like an enormous mushroom...
Chi Ke sighed mournfully, his handsome beard now a little shorter. The boy attendant's face was black with soot, and the yellow dog fled with its tail tucked between its legs.
Returning from the pool with water, the hunter was speechless. The enormous iron pill furnace hissed and roared, spewing black smoke wildly and flinging smoking medicinal herbs to land beside his feet.
Fortunately, they had not tried this in the courtyard, or they would have been sleeping in a cave tonight.
As expected, the first attempt at refining pills ended in failure.
On the great rock, Black Snake watched the intense heat on the valley floor gradually cool, then promptly forgot the whole affair.
His simple brain could not hold on to much. He could not even remember raiding the hawks' nest the previous night.
The wind carried away the acrid smoke and brought scents from the distant mountains. Calmly, he extended his tongue, flickering it gently to gather smells and learn about the world far away.
That afternoon.
Black Snake noticed several heat sources entering the mountains along the stream.
Their outlines resembled those of his neighbors. They stumbled along clumsily and posed no threat to his safety. They had nothing to do with him, so he ignored them as usual.
The second to notice people entering the mountains was the yellow dog. With its tail raised, it sniffed toward the mountain path, then barked twice in delight and ran back and forth, its tail whirling like a windmill as it repeatedly looked back at the hunter.
"Someone's coming? Didn't they just come a few days ago?"
The hunter put down his work, said a word to the boy attendant, and took his woodcutting blade to meet them. His tall figure soon disappeared into the woodland path.
Before long, the hunter returned hurriedly with a couple. Travel-worn, they had streaks of mud where sweat had run down their dust-covered faces. The man held a boy of about six or seven, whose head rested limply against his father's shoulder. He was as limp as a seedling wilted by the sun.
Inside the cottage, Chi Ke was absorbed in studying a pill formula, his brush suspended in midair and his brows drawn into deep furrows.
Hearing the commotion, he looked up and paused at the sight of the visitors.
"The woods are deep and the paths dangerous. Why bring a child into the mountains?"
Like the hunter, the man was a villager from beyond the mountains. Strong and honest-natured, he often accompanied the pack trains carrying supplies into the mountains.
The hunter hurried inside.
"Sir, Wu Family's Second Child has encountered something evil. Even the physician in town could do nothing. Everyone knows you're a great immortal cultivator, so they braved the journey here. Please show mercy and save this child's life!"
Chi Ke had intended to decline politely. If one physician could not cure him, they should hurry and find another. What did he know about encounters with evil? How could he dare risk someone's life?
But the words "great immortal cultivator" struck squarely at his most secret longing, filling his heart with warmth. The refusal on the tip of his tongue stalled.
During the idle winter days, he had casually leafed through a few books of strange tales. He supposed he knew a little of the basics.
They've already come all this way. I might as well take a look first.
He raised a hand, signaling for them to bring the child closer.
The boy attendant fetched a damp cloth and gently wiped the dust and mud from the child's face.
The child curled limply in his father's arms, his entire face an ashen blue-gray. He looked sickly, his eyelashes drooping weakly, and occasionally a few indistinct murmurs escaped his throat.
Chi Ke felt the child's pulse, gently pinched his fingers to examine them, then lifted his eyelids to look.
Between sobs, the woman spoke haltingly.
"A few days ago, Second Child kept saying he dreamed of a figure talking... He couldn't see what it looked like. Five days ago, he grew dazed, and by yesterday we couldn't even get him to swallow water..."
Chi Ke frowned in thought. Judging by all these signs, it did indeed seem that an outside evil had invaded the child's body.
Because he was refining pills, he had stocked cinnabar and other substances that warded off evil, but he dared not use them carelessly. A life was at stake, after all.
Outside the window, the setting sun sank toward the western mountains.
The shadows of the great mountains pressed closer, and the light inside the room dimmed with them.
As he pondered what method to use to expel the evil, a mysterious chill suddenly shot up his spine without warning. He could not help shuddering and instinctively rubbed his hands, which were as cold as if he had just pulled them from a deep pool. His teeth chattered. This chill was far too strange!
A moment's thought told him-good heavens, the evil had actually possessed him!
A nameless fury surged from the depths of his heart. Had more than half a year of painstaking cultivation truly left him this vulnerable?
Yet excitement soon overwhelmed his anger. Savoring that icy chill, he finally understood what the medical books' vague descriptions of an outside evil invading the body actually meant.
The blue-gray cast gradually faded from the child's face. His eyelashes fluttered a few times, and he slowly opened his eyes, looking around blankly.
At the sight, the couple were beside themselves with emotion. Holding the child close, their eyes reddened as they bent deeply at the waist in a bow.
They spoke through throats choked with tears.
"Sir, your great kindness... my wife and I will remember it for the rest of our lives."
"We heard Brother Li say you're looking for medicinal herbs. From now on, whenever anyone in our family goes into the mountains and gathers herbs, we'll make sure to bring them to you first..."
Chi Ke smiled and reached out to help them up. He did not blame the child.
"Mountain paths are difficult at night. Make do here for the night, and wait until tomorrow to head back down."
Before the couple could thank him again, he hurriedly rose and went outside.
He strode to the thatched shed in the corner of the courtyard and found cinnabar deep in a basket of herbs. At once, the chill in his body eased considerably. With the sunset shining on the cinnabar in his palm, Chi Ke sighed speechlessly. He remembered only that the book said cinnabar suppressed evil, but had not paid attention to whether it should be applied externally or swallowed with water.
He would have been lying if he claimed not to be panicking. He was merely forcing himself to appear calm. How could a self-taught amateur like him know anything about expelling evil?
Clutching the cinnabar, he stood in the dusk. The mountain wind slipped through the gaps in the shed and lifted the back of his robe, while the icy chill slowly crept up his spine.
He worried, not knowing what to do.
His gaze happened to sweep across the mountainside, where a black figure lay silently coiled on the great rock stained red by the setting sun.
An idea immediately came to him.
Whether you're some household's newly departed wandering soul or a lonely ghost with nowhere to go, however vicious you are, could you possibly be fiercer than this mountain's overlord? The books said that sinister beings feared savage creatures whose blood burned hot and whose killing intent pierced the heavens most of all.
Without further hesitation, he turned and strode out of the fenced courtyard, crossed the stream on stepping stones, and climbed the mountain path, his robes stirring in his wake.
Chi Ke's feet flew, and the pent-up gloom in his heart turned to ferocity.
You blind wandering ghost! Just you wait-see how my Brother Snake deals with you!