Put It Down

Only after watching Lin Zhishui's figure gradually disappear into the vast curtain of nighttime rain did Yan Shanshui let out a small sigh of relief.

She folded her arms and looked up at the surveillance camera by the entrance.

The camera pointed straight out in front of the shop. Unless something unexpected had happened, it should have recorded her landing.

"Good. All I have to do is delete the surveillance footage. I've done this before!"

Yan Shanshui gave a confident smile.

Before she began cultivating, she had lived in a county town from birth until the age of fifteen. A few years after taking up cultivation, she had needed to enter the mortal world to attempt the first Heavenly Pass, the "Celestial Observatory." Through some connections, she had become a presenter for a Weather Program at a television station.

After all, in modern times, the profession closest to the ancient Celestial Observatory was weather forecasting. It could also help her Dharma Body gradually awaken.

Having spent that period cultivating in the mortal world, she was fairly familiar with modern technology.

Something as trivial as deleting surveillance footage was easy enough.

"Huh? There's one inside too?"

Yan Shanshui suddenly noticed the blinking red light of another surveillance camera in the upper-left corner of the ceiling. She was rather speechless. "It's just a shabby little calligraphy and painting shop. Why treat it like some priceless treasure and install two cameras?"

She rolled her eyes and was about to get started when she noticed how wet she was. Her clothes and skirt were soaked through, clinging uncomfortably to her skin.

She simply circulated her Magic Power, taking control of the rainwater absorbed by her clothes and forcing it out. It gathered into a small ball of water in midair, which she then sent flying out the entrance to fall onto the wet ground.

"Phew. That's much better."

Yan Shanshui breathed a small sigh of relief and glanced around the room. "Where's the computer?"

She looked everywhere but found no computer, and began to panic a little.

Although she knew little about recent technological developments, having spent the past few years in secluded cultivation, surveillance cameras should have been connected to a computer, with their recordings stored on it. How could there be no computer?

Yan Shanshui suddenly turned toward the folding screen dividing the room. "Could it be behind the screen?"

She quickly walked around the long screen and discovered that, apart from a single bed, there were only mounted calligraphy pieces hanging in the air and a handful of ink paintings.

The instant those calligraphy pieces entered her sight, she froze.

What was this?

As she saw the writing on those pieces, their varied, unfathomably profound Dao Resonance swallowed her up like boundless, towering waves.

At that moment, heaven and earth seemed to vanish. Only the "principles" displayed by those calligraphy pieces remained. Their breathtaking, enthralling "Ways" filled her world: the sun suspended in the heavens, sinking beyond the mountains; snow and ice filling the sky, leaving a thousand mountains devoid of birds...

Those unimaginable "Ways" shook her to her core. She could not help losing herself in their grandeur and mysteries.

Then, gradually, she set aside the other obscure, incomprehensible "Ways," leaving only the one that suited her best.

It was water, seemingly embracing everything, endlessly changing, supremely gentle and good.

She had been born with a water virtue body and was ideally suited to cultivating the way of water. Thus, her master had long ago petitioned their lineage in the upper realm, Defiled Earth Jianmu, to bestow the "Gonggong" Dharma Body upon her. The source of this Dharma Body's Way-the great god Gonggong-was an ancient water god and an excellent match for her.

That was why, after just thirty years of cultivation, she was already close to passing the second Heavenly Pass. Yet she had still reached a bottleneck.

Now, seeing the way of water expressed in this calligraphy piece, she was utterly awestruck.

Previously, the road toward the great way of water had been filled with impenetrable fog and darkness.

Now, a gap had been torn through that endless fog and darkness ahead, as though light were shining through. Faint as it was, it finally let her see the direction she should take.

This was water!

This was the path she should follow!

"Phew..."

After an unknown length of time, Yan Shanshui slowly exhaled, gradually recovering from that overwhelming shock. At last, she could make out the words on the calligraphy piece-

"The highest good is like water. Water benefits all things without contending."

She softly read the words one by one, unable to calm the emotions surging within her.

Those eleven seemingly simple characters expressed a principle she had heard long ago. Yet through the Dao Resonance contained within their strokes, this calligraphy piece conveyed the way of water to its fullest.

She was certain that, if she continued studying it like this, not only could she overcome her current bottleneck at the second Heavenly Pass, but she could even hope to break through the Five Passes and attain the Great Way!

Once she broke through the Five Passes, attained the Great Way, and survived the Heavenly Tribulation, she could ascend to the Heavenly Realm!

For a moment, emotions surged through Yan Shanshui like the tide. She could not help staring at The Highest Good Is Like Water, longing and excitement filling her lovely eyes.

"But..."

She frowned slightly. "Such a precious calligraphy piece is an unparalleled treasure. Even a Supreme Treasure probably couldn't compare to it. Why would it be in such a tiny calligraphy and painting shop?"

A Supreme Treasure was the most powerful kind of Magic Treasure in the mortal world. If unleashed to its fullest, its might would reach the mortal world's limit, coming infinitely close to the power of Immortals and Gods.

This calligraphy piece, meanwhile, could guide her toward the Great Way and give her a chance to glimpse the ranks of Immortals and Gods.

But a Supreme Treasure was ultimately an external aid. In comparison, this calligraphy piece was even more precious.

And there were actually more than a dozen such precious calligraphy pieces, all inside this tiny, ordinary shop?

"Could that mortal have obtained them by accident?"

Yan Shanshui could not help frowning slightly. That possibility seemed unlikely. How could such a coincidence happen, letting him acquire more than a dozen priceless calligraphy pieces?

Of course, there was another possibility: all these calligraphy pieces... had been written by that mortal himself!

But how could someone capable of producing such calligraphy be a mortal?

If he could express the Great Way leading to the ranks of Immortals and Gods through Dao Resonance, his own realm had to be higher still!

In other words, even peerless masters who had broken through the Five Passes, attained the Great Way, and might face their Heavenly Tribulation at any moment would not necessarily possess such ability.

"Could it be... he's only pretending to be a mortal?"

Yan Shanshui could scarcely believe it.

There truly was no discernible difference between him and other mortals. He even needed his girlfriend to pick him up when it rained.

Still, it was not impossible that he was pretending.

But the world was so vast. She had landed somewhere at random and met someone at random, and he just happened to be a reclusive master who had surpassed the Five Passes?

The chances were far too slim.

"But..."

Yan Shanshui paused, suddenly recalling something-

After killing the Miemeng Bird, she had descended from the sky and landed with an enormous commotion. He had been sitting right by the entrance, barely a dozen meters away, yet had supposedly failed to see her land.

He had also said, "I'll pretend I haven't seen what I shouldn't see." Had he meant that he had seen it, but was pretending otherwise?

If he had seen it without attracting an Outer Demon, that meant he was not a mortal!

Moreover, he had even declared that the rain would soon stop.

Perhaps... he had already realized that she had summoned this rain through prayer?

Frowning, Yan Shanshui carefully recalled the shop owner's words again. Suddenly, her heart jolted as one of his remarks flashed through her mind:

"Only children insist they aren't children. Old fellows all like pretending to be young."

Her eyes suddenly widened, as though she had spotted something she had overlooked.

That seemingly mortal young man had treated her like a child from the start, then said those words later. The child had clearly meant her, while the old fellow... could he have been poking fun at himself?

He looked so young, yet called himself an old fellow?

Well... if he really was a peerless master who had surpassed the Five Passes, there was no telling how many years he had lived. Naturally, he would be a genuine old monster, an old fellow.

Besides, his manner of speaking was very similar to her master's and the others'. He seemed to be learning how modern people spoke, yet habitually used antiquated expressions.

When she had asked him why, his answer had been, "I'm used to it"!

These clues kept connecting in Yan Shanshui's mind, as though forming a path toward the correct answer-

He really might be a reclusive master!

Shock filled Yan Shanshui's eyes, and she could not help taking a deep breath.

Although there were still a few puzzling details she did not understand, they could be explained if he was merely pretending to be a mortal.

"But he clearly knows there are so many precious paintings and calligraphy pieces in the shop, yet he still dared to leave me alone..."

Looking at the calligraphy pieces hanging before her, Yan Shanshui could not help pressing her lips tightly together.

There were two possibilities.

Either he really was a reclusive master and had no fear of her stealing the calligraphy pieces.

Or she had guessed wrong, and he was just a mortal who had no idea what they were worth.

She leaned more toward the first possibility. The second left far too many things unexplained.

"What exactly did he mean by agreeing to let me stay?"

Yan Shanshui hesitated for a long time before finally gritting her teeth. She took one last look at The Highest Good Is Like Water, then summoned all her willpower and resolve to turn around and walk out from behind the screen.

Treasures might be tempting, but she had to stay alive to enjoy them.

What if he did not allow outsiders to look at them freely, or had some other purpose? Would her actions not play right into his hands?

Leaving the screen behind and returning to the front room of the shop, Yan Shanshui looked around again but found nothing unusual.

She went over to the desk, hoping to find some trace of his having created those calligraphy pieces.

But the inkstone, brushes, rice paper, inkstick, and paperweight were all ordinary, mundane objects.

Unable to discover any clues, Yan Shanshui lowered her head with a sigh, only to notice quite a few torn scraps of paper in the wastebasket beneath the desk.

She picked up one crumpled scrap.

Unfolding it, she discovered that it was a small portion of an ink painting. However, it contained no Dao Resonance whatsoever, and its brushwork was inferior to the calligraphy and ink paintings behind the screen. It was clearly on an entirely different level.

"From the look of things, those calligraphy pieces and ink paintings might not be his work after all..."

Having reached this conclusion, Yan Shanshui picked up several more crumpled scraps from the wastebasket, intending to take them back for her master to examine. Perhaps her master could spot something different about them.

Just as she took those scraps and was about to put them away-

A low voice suddenly sounded from outside the entrance, dry, hollow, and stiff, with an awkwardness that made it sound as though its speaker were speaking for the first time.

"Put it down."

PS: (Two chapters in a row with over three thousand characters each. That's already pretty generous during the free-release period~~)