Three Pure Ones Mountain

In the Cosmic World, sacred mountains were beyond counting. The seas were calm and the rivers clear, immortals often manifested their wonders, and the pursuit of immortality and the Dao flourished.

Of all its lands, Ba-Shu and Yu Zhang boasted the most magnificent scenery.

Yu Zhang was a land of nature's treasures and gifted people, its earth alive with spiritual power. Its immortal mountains renowned even overseas included the Sword Sect's Mount Lu and Bright Moon Mountain, as well as the Chan Sect's Great Awakening Mountain and Suchness Mountain. Its Daoist mountains enjoyed even greater fame throughout the world: some housed the ancestral seats of great schools, while others were treasure mountains of talismans, standing apart from the mortal realm.

Thus, Yu Zhang was also known as the Daoist capital of the world.

Yu Zhang held the reins of the eastern Daoist world, with Dragon-Tiger Mountain and Three Pure Ones Mountain foremost among its sacred peaks.

Founded during the Han dynasty, Dragon-Tiger Mountain was the ancestral seat of the Celestial Master Dao. Having endured for nearly eight thousand years, longer than any other school of the present age, it led the world's Dao of Alchemy and commanded the Five Thunders. Yet Dragon-Tiger Mountain imposed the strictest requirements on disciples. Its members were few and exalted, and strangers were forbidden to approach the Celestial Master Residence.

Three Pure Ones Mountain, founded during the Eastern Jin dynasty, was the ancestral seat of the Ten Thousand Methods School. It had endured for over six thousand years, teaching internal and external alchemy, swordsmanship, talismans, formations, astrology, thunder arts, bodily refinement, medicine, Corpse Raising, and many other methods, and accepted disciples widely. It had even designated a mountain and temple as its gateway to the mortal world, throwing its doors wide to an unending stream of pilgrims.

This gateway was Graceful Splendor Mountain, which ran from north to south. Its eastern, western, and northern slopes were all sheer cliffs; only its southern slope was gentle and beautiful, with a mountain path cut into it.

At the foot of the path lay a broad stretch of level ground, crossed from east to west by Golden Sand Creek. A dozen li south of the creek stood a small settlement called Camphor Fragrance Town. Mountains enclosed it on three sides, and its open side faced Graceful Splendor Mountain. Red camphor trees grew on the mountain behind the town, their heartwood giving off an unusual fragrance. The villagers of the seven or eight nearby villages all made their living felling these trees. They harvested the heartwood and sold it in town, where the townsfolk made it into incense to sell to pilgrims.

Camphor incense gave off a fresh fragrance, its smoke curling upward without black soot. It refreshed the mind and repelled insects, so pilgrims visiting Graceful Splendor Mountain to worship the Three Pure Ones always stopped in town to buy some. Some visitors from farther away bought large quantities on each visit to take home and use in their family temples or ancestral shrines.

Besides making incense, the townsfolk often rented their homes to visitors touring Graceful Splendor Mountain. They were therefore quite prosperous: blue stone paved the streets, and every household lived in a brick house.

Late that night, a round moon rose above the mountain behind the town. Its clear light spilled in every direction, illuminating the town so brightly that every brow and strand of hair stood out.

A little alley ran through the town, lined on both sides with small courtyards roofed in blue tiles. In the courtyard at the entrance to the alley, a handsome, slender youth was carving by moonlight.

The youth was carving red camphor heartwood. Beside him lay a stack of a dozen finished pieces, each a square plaque.

The square plaques were exquisitely carved. His hands were deft, and no two decorative patterns were alike: ruyi motifs, bats and longevity symbols, auspicious spiders, goldfish, lions, and peonies, each arresting to the eye. The lettering was beautiful too, all auspicious wishes such as "Peace in every coming and going," "Blessings and prosperity together," "Virtue brings a household lasting joy," and "Good fortune rises, blessings gather."

He had spent a long time carving these plaques-almost four months since the first lunar month. Sixteen were now finished, with only the last remaining. Working as quickly as he could, he would finish that final one today.

When the moon hung at the zenith, he finished the last plaque, inscribing the eight characters meaning "May every blessing arrive, and auspicious fortune grace this virtuous home."

He let out a long breath and went inside to fetch the yellow tassels and luggage he had prepared earlier. He shouldered his luggage and threaded the tassels through the wooden plaques one by one. With that, all seventeen protective door plaques were ready.

After sweeping the courtyard clean, he stepped outside. A plaque also hung beneath his own eaves, bearing eight characters meaning "Set forth toward lofty heights; may joy and blessings come." His father had made it by hand. It had hung there since the year the youth turned ten and had never been replaced.

One by one, he hung his wooden plaques outside the other seventeen households in the alley as farewell gifts.

Tonight, he would leave town. He feared he would not return for three to five years.

He had left a letter in his house for his neighbors. It explained everything clearly: if he gained admission to an immortal mountain, he would have to achieve something in his studies before descending to visit them. If he failed to enter one, he would travel to further his learning. Having read ten thousand books, he naturally had to walk ten thousand miles.

Treading the smooth stone streets, the youth gradually left Green-Tile Alley behind, then Camphor Fragrance Town. Reluctance tugged at his heart.

He had grown up in Camphor Fragrance Town, but he had not been born to anyone there. He was a foundling. When he was six months old, someone had placed him in a farmer's bamboo basket lined with old cotton cloth and left him at the first house in Green-Tile Alley-the home of Mr. Cheng Tingxian.

Cheng Tingxian was the town's teacher, a man from elsewhere who had once served as a local magistrate. Well versed in the classics and devoted to the Dao, he had resigned from office and brought his wife to settle at the foot of Three Pure Ones Mountain. They loved each other deeply. Though they had no children, Mr. Cheng had never taken a concubine. Both were free-spirited and unlike ordinary people; even upon reaching sixty with no children at their knees, they had never adopted any.

Fifteen years earlier, the couple had settled in Camphor Fragrance Town. With time on their hands, they began teaching the town's children their first lessons, welcoming even the children sent by villagers nearby. The teacher's learning embraced heaven and humanity, far surpassing that of the local scholars, and his reputation gradually spread.

Then one day, two years later, a child suddenly appeared at their door. The couple took it as perhaps the will of heaven and kept him.

Devoted to the Dao, the teacher named him Yunqi, taking the name from a poem by Bai Yuchan, an exalted immortal of the internal Dao of Alchemy on Southern Wuyi Mountain:

"Lightly I ride the cloud-breath, bowing my head to gaze upon the mortal world."

When Cheng Yunqi was eleven, the old lady died from organ failure brought on by her congenital frailty. That she had lived past seventy at all was truly thanks to Mr. Cheng's devoted care.

A month after her death, grief made Mr. Cheng ill, and he followed her in death. All he left Cheng Yunqi was a house and the goodwill of the entire town.

Yunqi had chosen to leave tonight because news had come from Graceful Splendor Mountain in the first lunar month: an immortal master on Three Pure Ones Immortal Mountain intended to take a disciple. There was only one place, and the examination would be held on Grain Rain.

Three Pure Ones Immortal Mountain chose its disciples in an unusual way. Unlike the Sword Sect, its masters did not scour the world for disciples, testing both their swords and their hearts. Nor was it like Dragon-Tiger Mountain, which opened its gates only once every few centuries and set a hundred trials.

Through Graceful Splendor Mountain, Three Pure Ones Immortal Mountain offered pilgrims a health-nurturing exercise called the Meridian-Opening and Muscle-Stretching Exercise, free of charge. Ordinary people who practiced daily without interruption according to its diagrams could regulate their qi and blood, nourish their organs, and open their meridians. Those with exceptional gifts could even cultivate a current of clear qi within their bodies, with the wondrous ability to ward off poisons and dispel illness.

The first requirement for admission to the immortal mountain was possession of this clear qi. The second was that applicants must be no older than sixteen. Only those who met both conditions could go to the mountain to take the examination.

Examinations on the immortal mountain had never followed any regular schedule. With good luck, one might encounter three or five in a year; with bad luck, there might not be one for two hundred years.

Three Pure Ones Mountain had last publicly recruited disciples twenty-eight years ago.

Cheng Yunqi was blessed with both talent and luck. Under his father's guidance, he had practiced this exercise every day. His father had practiced all his life and remained in excellent health, yet had never developed clear qi. Cheng Yunqi, however, had begun at two and cultivated clear qi by five. Now fifteen, he had encountered this opportunity just in time. Once next year was past, it would never be possible again.

Now alone in the world and free of attachments, Cheng Yunqi, whose father's influence had drawn him toward the Dao since childhood, naturally had to try.

Tomorrow was Grain Rain. Worried that everyone's farewells would stir such sorrow that he could not contain himself, Yunqi had decided to leave during the night.

In the Grain Rain season, misty rain slowly drifted through the night. Cheng Yunqi walked from blue stone paving onto gravel, then onto a country dirt road, finally stopping before a grassy mound.

A retaining slope of cobblestones surrounded the mound. A pine and a cypress stood on either side in front, with a gravestone between them. Beneath the moon, its inscription was plainly visible: "Joint grave of our late honored father, Cheng Tingxian, and our late honored mother, Zhu Mingjun."

Yunqi knelt before the stone and bowed his head deeply. Sobs sounded in the open countryside, mingled with broken murmurs.

The moon had shifted a little farther west when the youth rose. He carefully wiped the gravestone with his sleeve, then circled the grave to inspect the retaining slope. Only then did he follow the little path away, heading toward Graceful Splendor Mountain.

The next day, rain still pattered down. The sky looked rather strange: dark and overcast overhead, yet bright in every direction. As Cheng Yunqi walked up the southern mountain path, the crowd grew steadily thicker. By the time he reached the Abundant Rain Temple at the summit, people were packed shoulder to shoulder.

The Abundant Rain Temple, known for short as the Rainfall Temple and also called the Jade Spirit Temple, was a Daoist temple established by Three Pure Ones Mountain specifically for the mortal world. Ordinarily, it prayed for blessings and interpreted dreams for pilgrims, made talismans and treated illnesses, or performed rites for the dead and soothed souls. Its incense offerings were exceptionally abundant.

The temple normally received many pilgrims and believers, but today's gathering was a rare spectacle. Cheng Yunqi carried no umbrella, yet as he walked beneath other people's umbrellas, scarcely any rain touched him.

Before the temple stood an immense blue stone plaza. At its center sat a huge red copper incense burner, giving off a faint radiance. Now the entire plaza was crammed with people, their umbrellas joining into clouds of many colors.

The temple gates stood wide open. The elderly Daoist Zhenwei, the temple's abbot and a man seldom seen on ordinary days, stood at the entrance as though waiting for something.

Everyone in the plaza was waiting too. At the appointed hour of eight in the morning, a very young Daoist emerged from the temple and walked to Zhenwei's side. He looked only twenty or so, with a noble bearing, but his face was unfamiliar; he had never appeared at the Rainfall Temple before. The design of his deep blue feather robe was likewise something none of them had seen.

The feather-robed Daoist cupped his hands in greeting and said:

"My sincere apologies to all the lay devotees who have come to offer incense. Today, an elder of our mountain is accepting a disciple, so the crowd is rather larger than usual. Please wait a little. Once we have seen off those with the destined affinity, you may enter the temple to offer incense."

The crowd immediately stirred with voices replying, "Not at all, not at all."

"Would the young lay devotees who possess Pure Spirit Qi and are under sixteen please follow me into the temple."

Another stir passed through the crowd. Some boys and girls stepped out, a hundred or so in all.

Yunqi, who had brought no umbrella, also stepped out of the crowd. Fortunately, the rain was light.

The hundred or so youths formed several rows, standing shoulder to shoulder. Once they were in line, most turned to look back into the crowd, where their loved ones presumably stood.

Yunqi did not look back.

"Yunqi!"

"Young teacher!"

"Cheng Household boy!"

Familiar calls suddenly came from behind him. Yunqi turned and saw that the people he knew from Camphor Fragrance Town had all come!

Auntie Zhang, the uncles from the Li family-even Great-Granny Wang, at her age! Yunqi raised his hand high and waved with all his strength.

Just then, the line began to move. However reluctant they were to part, none dared linger for even a moment. Yunqi waved repeatedly for them to go home. He had no time to wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes before hurrying after the Daoist who had spoken and entering the temple.

The temple ran from south to north, with its gates in the south. Beyond them stood the Hall of Wang Lingguan, followed by the Hall of the Four Deities, dedicated to the Thunder God, Lightning Mother, Wind Earl, and Rain Master, arranged on either side. Past the bell and drum towers stood the Hall of the Great Master of Mystic Metropolis, flanked by the Hall of Dao Lord Guangcheng and the Hall of Primordial Lady Doumu. At the very back of the temple, naturally, stood the Hall of the Three Pure Ones.

West of the Hall of the Three Pure Ones stood another hall, called the Hall of Immortal Ge.

They entered this hall. Within it stood a stone statue of an old man with his hands clasped before him, wearing a blue-green Daoist robe. His forehead was broad and full, and his face benevolent.

Even without an introduction from their guide, everyone knew who he was: the founding patriarch of Three Pure Ones Mountain, the exalted immortal Ge Hong, whose Daoist title was Master Who Embraces Simplicity.

The Daoist guide led the boys and girls around the patriarch's statue and had them stand before the rear wall of the hall.

While they were still wondering why, their guide formed a hand seal and recited an incantation. Suddenly, ripples spread across the white wall like the surface of a lake. Amid flickering waves of light, the wall actually disappeared.

Before everyone's astonished eyes appeared a boundless, surging sea of milky-white clouds.

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