Declining three times and yielding three times was an emperor's courtesy. Yunqi felt he had already yielded twice, so there was no need to refuse again.
He reached out and took the bracelet strung with the Void Grotto Stone. "This alone is more than generous enough. I dare not accept the gold seal as well."
Jiang Nanjing grew anxious. "Could it be that you think my gold seal is less valuable than the Cave Stone, benefactor?"
Yunqi hastily waved his hands. He had no such thought; he simply felt the gifts were too generous. Obtaining a single Cave Stone was already an unexpected delight, and he had even resorted to a little cunning to get it. How could he be greedy for more?
Jiang Nanjing continued, "The Cave Stone was a gift from an elder, while the gold seal is a token of my own regard. It is hardly anything valuable. Please do not refuse again, benefactor!"
He took out the gold seal himself. It was very small, yet exquisitely crafted. The body was golden, but the seal knob on top was white. Even with Yunqi's keen eyesight, he could not tell whether it was a single piece of two-colored gold or two unusual metals smelted together. Judging by its luster alone, however, it was neither jade nor stone, but undoubtedly some kind of refined metal.
The seal face was only six fen square, and its sides were one cun and five fen tall. It was a new seal, with no inscription on either its sides or its base.
Its knob took the form of a beast, resembling a dragon crouched atop the seal. Its front claws rested on the rim, its raised head stretched beyond the body, and its hind claws pressed against the top. With its back arched and belly tucked, it looked poised to soar. Its slender, exceedingly long tail hung down from the top and wound around more than half the seal's body.
The dragon was covered in white scales, but its eyes and horns were inlaid with crimson gold.
White scales, red eyes, a long tail, and fiery horns-this was the likeness of Fuxi, a son of the dragon.
The dragon's belly was raised clear of the seal, and a strip of white silk threaded beneath it, like white clouds following a dragon. This was the ribbon.
The young hero held the dragon-son seal upside down in his left hand. Turning his right hand over, he produced an engraving knife from thin air. Presumably, he too carried a Cave Stone.
He looked at Yunqi. "Yesterday, I heard you say you had yet to enter the Register of Destiny, benefactor, so you presumably have no Daoist name for now. I would not dare engrave a seal bearing your personal name. Please tell me your sobriquet or the name of your studio, and I will engrave the base at once."
Yunqi smiled and shook his head. "I am just an ordinary country fellow who was fortunate enough to enter a cultivation sect. How would I have a sobriquet or a studio name?"
Jiang Nanjing's eyes lit up at that. "Then why not choose one now, benefactor? Choosing a name upon seeing a seal-would that not make a fine tale?"
Looking into Jiang Nanjing's eyes, Yunqi could not help surrendering. He thought it should merely be a beautiful seal of unusual design, rather than some precious wondrous treasure, so he might as well accept it!
He considered it, pondering for a long while before saying, "Let us choose a studio name. Call it 'Humble Caution Studio.'"
Yunqi felt his cultivation had gone fairly smoothly so far. Such smooth sailing could easily breed pride-or perhaps pride had already arisen at some point without his knowing it. The words "humble caution" would serve well as a warning to himself.
Jiang Nanjing paused at his words, then said, "You are no ordinary person, benefactor. To choose 'humble caution' as your studio name while still in your youthful years is truly rare."
Yunqi smiled. "Pride invites loss; humility brings gain. There is never any harm in reminding oneself. Sorry for the trouble, Jiang Nan. Please make the seal with that name."
Jiang Nanjing nodded, looked at the seal, and thought for a moment before smiling too. "Fuxi loves climbing high and gazing far. 'Humble Caution Studio' is just right for the base of this Fuxi-knob seal. It perfectly embodies the principle of acting with confidence and sitting with humility.
"Since it is meant as a reminder, I shall engrave the base in intaglio, using Ancient Han Mountain-Cliff Clerical Script. What do you think, benefactor?"
Yunqi nodded gladly. It was a most thoughtful arrangement.
Jiang Nanjing returned to his chair, with Yunqi seated beside him. Without even drawing a draft, he began setting his engraving knife to the base of the seal, each horizontal and vertical stroke slow and steady.
He seemed very fond of seal engraving, becoming wholly absorbed in it.
As gold shavings fell in a soft shower, Yunqi took the opportunity to slip the bracelet onto his right wrist. With his left hand, he stroked its bead-the Void Grotto Stone.
The Cave Stone was about the size of a jujube pit, crystal clear, like a bead of water or a drop of frosty dew.
He gave it a squeeze. The Cave Stone was extremely hard.
A silver mesh wrapped around the Cave Stone, cradling it and forming a knot at its top. A thin, white braided cord passed through the knot to form the bracelet.
Yunqi extended his awareness toward it, intending to look inside.
"Hm?"
His awareness slid past without entering the Cave Stone's void realm.
Jiang Nanjing, who was engraving beside him, heard his voice and more or less guessed what Yunqi was doing.
"Benefactor, attach your awareness to the silver mesh outside. The key is the outer ring of nodes on the mesh; simply trace one full circuit with your awareness. Afterward, refine the silver mesh and set a new key. If someone forcibly breaks through the mesh's restrictions, the Cave Stone will shatter, and the void realm within will merge back into the greater world. Everything inside will then appear at random in any corner of the greater world."
Yunqi nodded to show he understood. He felt a little embarrassed, as though he had seemed too impatient, but he really was curious.
Seeing that Jiang Nanjing had not even finished engraving the first character, "humble," he extended his awareness to try again.
This time, his awareness attached to the silver mesh, and it felt as though it had landed on a spiderweb. Every node on the web shone with light.
It was not much different from the keys commonly used on jade slips. Yunqi moved his awareness through the points of light on the web's outermost ring. Once he completed a circuit, every light on the silver mesh went out. Now, rather than hurrying to refine the mesh, he sent his awareness straight into the Cave Stone-
It was a pure, luminous white space, like stepping into a sunlit alley in winter. The alley had to be exceptionally clean, its walls thickly coated in white paint, its ground utterly spotless, reflecting the winter sunlight in full. It had to be winter sunlight: the white felt soft, and even seemed to refract countless patches of multicolored light. It was nothing like the fierce white of summer, a white shot through with gold that made it impossible to keep one's eyes open.
That was the impression Yunqi received from what he saw.
The space seemed to have no visible boundaries, with the same brightness everywhere.
Yet when he moved his awareness around to explore, he ran into walls wherever he went. Only after several attempts did Yunqi finally determine that it was a space roughly three zhang square.
It was no small space.
Yunqi withdrew his awareness, his heart brimming with delight. From now on, he would no longer need to carry a large bundle on his back. Any fine things or bulky things could all be stored inside.
The Void Grotto Stone had another advantage: its void realm depended on the greater world while remaining separate from it. Whenever his awareness entered or left, it was actually crossing between two worlds that were a hair's breadth apart, yet as distant as the ends of the earth. This would greatly benefit his grasp of the principles of the void, and greatly benefit his understanding of the Guangcheng Edict of Emptiness Wish-Following Mantra.
From that single passage in and out just now, Yunqi had already gained a faint glimmer of insight.
By then, Jiang Nanjing had finished engraving. After cleaning the seal face, he took a wooden box from his own portable Cave Stone.
He set the wooden box on the table. It covered more than half the tabletop, and when he opened it, dozens of little jars lay neatly arranged inside, their reds, oranges, yellows, and greens dazzling the eye.
He took out a small porcelain jar shaped like a red persimmon, its calyx serving as the lid. When he opened it, the seal paste inside was a vivid red suffused with warm yellow hues. Fragrance spread in every direction. There was no telling what precious materials had gone into this paste, or what elaborate process had produced it.
Holding the persimmon jar in one hand and the seal in the other, Jiang Nanjing gently touched the seal face to the rounded, glossy surface of the paste, lifting it away at once. Then he rotated the seal and repeated the motion, first coating all four edges red before covering the center. As he worked, he said:
"Benefactor, do not rush when applying vermilion. Better to make several passes. Once the seal has absorbed all this paste, vermilion will naturally grow upon it, and you will never need paste to stamp with it again. There is no need to tend it ordinarily; this paste will neither fall off nor dry out."
Once Jiang Nanjing had applied the first coating of paste, he handed both the gold seal and the persimmon jar to Yunqi.
Yunqi thanked him sincerely.
Jiang Nanjing put away his engraving knife and the wooden box filled with assorted seal pastes, then brought out a booklet.
"Please leave this first impression with me as a keepsake, benefactor!"
Jiang Nanjing opened the booklet to its title page and invited Yunqi to stamp it.
Yunqi gladly agreed and pressed down the seal.
White characters against a red ground, in Han Mountain-Cliff Clerical Script:
"Humble Caution Studio."
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