Fish Market.
Traffic streamed through the streets, and business bustled as though everyone in the county town had gathered there.
Zhou Yi and Hu Jiuying hid among the clouds and looked down.
"So this was your rotten idea?"
"You didn't object either, immortal master, did you?"
Hu Jiuying smiled behind pursed lips. A thousand-year-old fox spirit, she excelled at toying with people's hearts.
Zhou Yi's eyes were impassive as he looked at an official's sedan chair below.
"Those who seek to test human nature will ultimately fall into its abyss!"
The official's sedan chair stood in the middle of the Fish Market. Merchants and townsfolk passing by all went around it of their own accord.
Two children, a boy and a girl, ran around the chair, laughing merrily.
"Huh? Who are you?"
The boy suddenly noticed a little girl of three or four nearby, staring blankly at the sedan chair.
"I don't know." The little girl's eyes were bewildered.
"Are you lost? Stay right here! Father, Father, a little girl's lost!"
The boy waved and called to someone nearby. Feng Zhen, who was speaking with merchants, hurried over at the sound, afraid someone was abducting and trafficking people in Fuzhou County.
Human trafficking was a grave crime in Great Qian, on a par with becoming a bandit, raiding homes, and illegally minting coins. Not only did it carry the death penalty, but an offender's wife and family would be exiled three thousand li if they had been unaware, or beheaded as accomplices if they had known.
When Feng Zhen saw the little girl, he asked gently, "Little girl, what's your name? Where do you live? Did any family come with you?"
"My home is in Zhengping Ward in the Capital. I don't remember my family."
The little girl was Feng Ling'er, transformed into the way she had looked before her imprisonment. She looked at Feng Zhen with complicated feelings, but simply could not bring herself to call him Father.
"Someone from the Capital, abducted and brought so far away! The county must thoroughly investigate these criminals before anyone else comes to harm."
His face angry, Feng Zhen summoned a squad of bailiffs. "Old Qi, take a few bailiffs and hire a carriage to send this little girl home. Draw all expenses from the county office."
Constable Qi readily agreed, and several men led Feng Ling'er away.
As Feng Zhen watched Feng Ling'er's receding figure, tears suddenly streamed from his eyes.
Clerk Yan, who had come over after hearing the commotion, asked in puzzlement, "Sir, why are you crying?"
"It's nothing. The wind blew sand into my eyes."
Feng Zhen rubbed his eyes, then suddenly asked, "Old Yan, if someone commits an evil deed, then does hundreds or thousands of good deeds, can they cancel each other out?"
"Absolutely not! If good and evil canceled each other out, what would we need laws for? Would wicked gentry and unscrupulous merchants who harmed people escape arrest just by repairing bridges and roads, donating money, and doing good?"
Clerk Yan was a disciple of the Legalist School, specifically its most radical faction, the Lord Shang School. He believed in eliminating crime through harsh punishments.
Anyone who broke the law was to be rigorously investigated and punished. Once all the criminals had been beheaded, the world would naturally be bright and clear.
Feng Zhen nodded slightly in agreement, unable to suppress a sigh.
Partway through the journey, Feng Ling'er cast an illusion in which her family came looking for her, shook off the bailiffs, and reunited with Zhou Yi.
"Sir, my wish has been fulfilled. Once I leave for Green Mound, who knows how many years will pass?"
Feng Ling'er took out a palm-sized jade pendant, exquisitely patterned with a cassia tree and a jade rabbit.
"This Bright Moon Jade is a keepsake left by my mother. It can gather the moon's taiyin radiance and has wondrous effects when used to brew wine or tea. Please accept it as a memento, sir. If you ever need anything, send someone to Green Mound with this pendant. I would not refuse even if it meant dying ten thousand deaths."
Zhou Yi accepted the jade pendant and waved his hand. "Go. The road stretches across a thousand mountains, and fortune and disaster are hard to foresee. I hope you remember what you said."
Feng Ling'er bowed to Zhou Yi three times, reverted to her true fox form, and leaped into Hu Jiuying's arms.
"Immortal master, I take my leave. May we never meet again!"
The moment Hu Jiuying finished speaking, she turned into a streak of escaping light and vanished into the horizon, as though her fox's tail had caught fire.
Zhou Yi gently stroked the Bright Moon Jade. A cool, yin current seeped into his body, melting like ice and snow upon meeting his magical power and turning into taiyin spiritual energy.
If an ordinary person remained in contact with the Bright Moon Jade for too long, yin would overwhelm yang in both soul and body, and within a few years, their fragrance would fade and their jade would shatter in death.
Feng Zhen's cheekbones rose like peaks, and his canopy bone was pronounced-the physiognomy of a man whose fate harmed his wife, foretelling bereavement in middle age and a desolate old age.
A rainstorm in the Capital that year had triggered a bounty for capturing demons. Feng Ling'er and her mother had hardly been the only ones to die unjustly. Countless threads of cause and effect had become entangled; Zhou Yi had merely happened to stumble into them.
The stronger a cultivator became, the more restraint he needed.
A casually cast spell might cause mountains to collapse and the earth to split, and somewhere amid it all might be a youth whose entire family died in the landslide, who gained a fortuitous encounter and set out on the road to revenge.
How could one live longer?
Only by lying low!
Zhou Yi glanced toward Green Mound Mountain, then turned into a streak of escaping light and vanished into the horizon.
"I hope we never meet again, and this thread of cause and effect is severed for good..."
Same Fortune Inn.
When Zhou Yi returned, he found a luxurious carriage parked outside.
Shopkeeper Bai, whom he had not seen for over a month, was accompanying an elderly man in fine robes as they sampled Old Zhou's secret-recipe fried chicken.
Zhou Yi greeted him. "You're back, Shopkeeper Bai. Did you find your young master?"
"Thank you for your efforts, Mr. Zhou. We found the young master. He's at the Dingdu Marquis Manor."
Shopkeeper Bai introduced the elder. "This is the head of our Household. He came to the Capital to see the young master."
Master Bai had already risen and cupped his hands. "Bai Xingye, of Yu Province. The fried chicken you invented is truly delicious, sir."
"Zhou Yi, of Hengyang."
Zhou Yi cupped his hands in return. "It's just ordinary fried food. I'm glad you enjoy it, Master Bai."
Bai Xingye took out a banknote. "Thank you for looking after the inn all this time, Mr. Zhou. This is a small token, hardly a proper gift. I sincerely hope you'll accept it."
Zhou Yi was briefly taken aback. Who handed out banknotes upon meeting someone? Were people in ancient times all so understanding, noble-minded, and selfless?
"No need to be so polite, Master Bai. I only read by the entrance for a few days. I never even took down the 'No vacancies' sign."
"Please accept it nonetheless. I beg your indulgence, sir."
Bai Xingye bowed slightly and offered it with both hands.
Interesting...
Zhou Yi calculated on his fingers and immediately understood. He reached out and accepted the banknote. "Then you have my thanks, Master Bai."
With that, he left and returned to his upstairs room.
Shopkeeper Bai said quietly, "Master, although Mr. Zhou is only a minor clerk in the Demon-Slaying Bureau, his bearing is extraordinary. Why not cultivate his acquaintance?"
"More than extraordinary-he's practically beyond the heavens!"
Bai Xingye sighed. "If I'd met Mr. Zhou twenty years ago, I'd have rushed out with my shoes on backward to welcome him and invited him home to be honored as an esteemed guest."
"But things are different now. The Bai Household's business is flourishing, we lack neither wealth nor status, and we've arranged a marriage alliance with the Dingdu Marquis Manor. We can just about count ourselves as a distinguished local Lineage."
"When a Lineage is declining, it must be generous and befriend remarkable people with unusual talents, hoping to turn its fortunes around as soon as possible. When it prospers, it must be stingy and have little to do with lofty masters and eccentric prodigies. Only then can its peace and prosperity endure!"
Bai Xingye spoke earnestly. "The Demon-Slaying Bureau-what sort of people inhabit that place? How could our humble Bai Household afford to get involved with them? One misstep could mean death and the extermination of our entire Lineage."
Understanding dawned on Shopkeeper Bai. "So you offered him a thousand taels of silver to thank him for minding the inn. Isn't that a little much?"
"It wasn't just minding the inn! We mustn't forget the fried chicken, either!"
Bai Xingye sighed. "Dealing with remarkable people is utterly exhausting. Give too little, and your sincerity falls short; give too much, and it becomes an insult, breeding resentment out of thin air..."
"Brilliant, Master!"
Shopkeeper Bai suddenly understood why the head of the Household had been able to build his fortune from nothing. The thought he devoted to managing relationships alone exceeded that of ordinary people a hundredfold.
On the inn's second floor.
Every word Bai Xingye said reached Zhou Yi's ears.
"I didn't expect to be unwelcome."
Zhou Yi was not angry at all. Bai Xingye was entirely right, and he had been generous besides.
In a world where immortals, buddhas, demons, and devils roamed unchecked, ordinary people had a difficult lot and needed their own wisdom to survive.
"A thousand-tael banknote, plus the salary I've saved and the money from selling calligraphy, will buy me a small courtyard house."
"Since they don't like having me around, why remain an eyesore?"
"How lamentable that people seek immortals, yet find themselves troubled when an immortal stands before them..."
Before you continue