His half-blind master, Master Ming, offered no explanation. He simply insisted on lying in the bamboo chair in the main room to sleep.
Lü Bufan wondered whether he was afraid the eastern bedroom, where those human faces had once hung, was haunted. But he refused to move into the western room either, and if Lü Bufan pressed him, he started cursing...
Fortunately, for some unknown reason, there were no insects or rats in the bamboo house. The old quilts were still reasonably intact, too. Lü Bufan did not mind the dirt; he beat the dust out of them, then lay down to sleep...
At twelve years old, leading a half-blind old man over several hundred li of mountain trails had exhausted him.
The flames in the firepit gradually died down, turning to glowing coals, then slowly fading into faintly flickering ashes.
At midnight, his half-blind master suddenly opened his gray eyes and stared motionlessly toward the doorway.
Someone had appeared there at some point, squatting in the entrance.
A powerfully built, stocky middle-aged man crouched in the doorway, holding a pitch-black tobacco pipe...
The man's face was creased with wrinkles that looked carved by a knife. Beneath the moonlight, he frowned as he smoked. Clouds of pungent smoke spread around him... "Why'd you come back? What did you come back for?"
"When did Shameless leave?"
"Two days before that thunderstorm three months ago... He just left all of a sudden. Big Black at the village entrance didn't even lift his head... Just let him go. Why did you come back?"
"Hmph. What good is counting on him? What's it got to do with him?"
"True enough. I went north these past few days to see whether Shameless might still come back... Didn't find a trace. Looks like he really went off to get himself killed... Maybe death is better. There's no point being caught here, neither alive nor dead. But seriously, why did you come back?"
His half-blind master, Master Ming, blinked and snorted. "Can't you see I'm nearly blind? Was I supposed to die out there instead?"
The man curled his lip. "As if coming back means you won't die! You'd been gone over twenty years... Now you're back. What a waste. Is Two-World Mountain any place for a person to live?... Have you broken the Heart-Piercing Curse on you?"
"No..." A trace of melancholy and grief flashed in the gray haze of Master Ming's eyes.
"Then that's it. Shameless is doomed. Even if he fights his way into the Immortal Abode, he won't get a chance to destroy the curse talisman. He'll probably sacrifice his Wei Family's Dustless Sword for nothing, too! What a pity... Can your eyes recover?"
"There's no chance. No medicine under heaven can heal the damage from the Heart-Piercing Curse... Three months ago, I stationed myself in Huqi Town to stop him. But Shameless deliberately passed through the town where I was staying and left a message for me, without coming to see me. I knew then that he truly didn't want to live anymore... But I could no longer stop him."
"Ah, death ends everything. Let him die, then!"
Master Ming lifted a finger and pointed at the thatched cottages and bamboo houses in the distance. "Are these all people Shameless took in over the past few years? How come there's every sort here? Didn't Big Black eat any of them?"
"He ate over a hundred... Shameless couldn't bear to watch these remaining ones die, so he saved them all! While I was out of the village these past couple of days, another seven or eight households fled... Now, counting Mute, Old Skeleton, and Granny Yu, there are fewer than ten left! There are two restless young fellows who'll probably head into the mountains in the next few days... They won't listen!"
Thin wisps of white mist slowly drifted out of the dense forest on Rear Mountain behind Two Realms Village. Beneath the moonlight, they looked tranquil and ethereal, flowing silently onward.
Gradually, the white mist thickened, and the clamorous chorus of insects all around fell silent in an instant! Birds fluttered up from the forest and flew away without a sound, while countless small beasts darted through the undergrowth, fleeing swiftly toward places untouched by the mist.
At the village entrance, the big black dog still lay beside the boulder. As the white mist rolled over him... he merely tilted his head, then went back to sleeping with his head on his paws.
Old Skeleton climbed down from the boulder, grumbling and swearing. Then, swaying unsteadily, he actually squeezed into the tiny Land God Temple!
Apart from its divine statue, the little Land God Temple had barely enough space for one person to curl up beside it. Fortunately, Old Skeleton was thin enough... Otherwise, he would never have fit.
The white mist drifted lightly to the village entrance, gradually swallowing the sleeping Big Black. Then... about ten feet before the Land God Temple, it began swirling, turning murky and eerie! It advanced no farther!
The big black dog seemed utterly unaware of the mist around him. He even seemed comfortable breathing in that strange white mist, which drove every living creature in the mountains far away!
But the white mist stopped before the Land God Temple at the village entrance, then broke apart! Slowly it thinned, until at last it vanished eerily...
The mountain forest through which the mist had flowed lay deathly silent, as though every living thing capable of making a sound within its reach had disappeared!
Except for the big black dog at the village entrance.
Early the next morning, Lü Bufan rubbed his eyes and got up. He sat on the bamboo bed for a long while before remembering that he and his master now had a home. Happiness welled up in him, and he hurried out to check on his master.
On the bamboo recliner in the main room, his half-blind master was still snoring, with an old blanket over his belly that Lü Bufan had tucked around him during the night.
Seeing that his master was still alive, Lü Bufan breathed a sigh of relief... Then he tiptoed into the courtyard, drew water to wash himself, and lit a fire to boil a kettle of water.
He glanced back and saw that his half-blind master was still sleeping. Lü Bufan poured the hot water into a bamboo tube and set it beside him, then gathered his things and left the courtyard.
The sun had yet to rise above the mountaintop east of the village, and a faint chill still seemed to linger among the houses.
Lü Bufan shivered and slowly made his way toward Granny Yu's home near the village entrance. He wanted to ask how the people here earned their living. He needed to make plans to support himself and his master, too.
Outside Granny Yu's little courtyard, a sturdy man with a deeply wrinkled face squatted on a stone pedestal, smoking a tobacco pipe. Clouds of pungent smoke spread in every direction... Lü Bufan paused. He had not seen this old fellow yesterday.
With a creak, the bent and hunchbacked Granny Yu slowly emerged from her thatched cottage carrying a shallow basket. She glanced at the old man by the gate, then at Lü Bufan farther away, and dumped a heap of medicinal dregs onto the ground outside.
Supporting her lower back, Granny Yu said to the old man, "Meng Laojiu, this is the disciple the blind man brought back! Teach him a few rules... Don't let him die too soon."
Lü Bufan felt thoroughly put off. Isn't this just some shabby village? Why does everyone keep saying I'm going to die?
"Uncle Meng..."
"What's your name?"
"Lü Bufan."
"Know what's beyond Two-World Ridge?"
"Yes! The Wild Spirit Land. Once you go in, you can't get out!"
"Mm. You can't leave your house or the village at night! People die when the mist comes. No killing living things inside the village. Gather mountain produce or hunt outside all you like. Once a month, I'll take people to town to trade for supplies... How you stay alive is up to you. Even begging is fine."
"That's it? There's... nothing else?"
"Mm!"
"What's my master, Master Ming's, full name? How did he get out of here back then?"
"Ask your own master! Also, don't go prying into other people's business here. Don't pay any attention to the old man at the village entrance, and don't provoke that big black dog! Remember that?"
"I will."
Meng Laojiu wandered off with his pipe, leaving the thin, frail boy standing there in bewilderment.
Granny Yu curled her lip in the courtyard and took several drying herbs off a nearby rack... "Hey, boy. Do you recognize these herbs?"
Lü Bufan perked up and hurriedly took them for a closer look. "I do! Sun-awakening grass, cooling root, jute, aconite... Granny Yu, do you need someone to gather herbs? I worked as a helper in a medicine shop recently. The physician only fed me, but I secretly memorized plenty of medicinal herbs!"
"You're some use, at least. These herbs grow on Rear Mountain. Go gather them for me. I use plenty in my medicines... I'll trade you food for them! You can take whatever's left to town and sell it for supplies and grain. This month, gather herbs and bring them here to exchange for food! Don't let your master starve to death... Meng Laojiu's no use. Mute knows how to hunt. If you want to learn, go out with Mute! There are plenty of wild animals out there. You can learn the trails from him, too."
"All right! Thank you, Granny Yu..."
Granny Yu snorted, turned, and went into the courtyard, paying him no further attention.
And so the days passed, one after another.
Gradually, Lü Bufan learned the terrain around Two Realms Village, along with the taboos and ways of living there.
For instance, it was best not to go outside after dark, because there was no telling when that eerie mist would drift over from the other side of Two-World Ridge!
Once enveloped by that mist, every living creature that breathed would inexplicably disappear! Not even a corpse would remain.
The nearest town to Two-World Ridge, Stone Gate Town, lay nearly a hundred and eighty li away. Once a month, Uncle Meng would lead the villagers who needed to trade there, carrying mountain produce on their backs.
Climbing Rear Mountain and crossing a wild ridge brought one to a valley. At the valley's far end stood a sheer cliff towering between heaven and earth!
Clouds and mist swirled around the clifftop, where few trees grew. Now and then, snow and glaciers could be glimpsed flashing atop the mountain, at some unknowable height!
That was Two-World Ridge... a place forbidden to the living! It was said to be a barrier laid down by immortals to protect the mortal world from the ravages of the Wild Spirit Land. Lü Bufan did not take it particularly to heart, though... He could not climb up there anyway.
The unbroken range of Snow Peaks wound onward, vanishing into the ends of the world on either side. Even the white clouds overhead took on different forms on opposite sides of Snow Ridge's barrier.
Sometimes, standing in Two Realms Village, one could clearly see dark clouds rolling in the sky beyond Snow Ridge, with faint flashes of lightning and thunderstorms!
On this side of Two-World Ridge, however, white clouds drifted and gentle breezes blew, as though the two sides were hell and the mortal world...
The month was nearly over. Each day, Lü Bufan either gathered medicinal herbs alone in the mountains and dense forests around the village to exchange for food at Granny Yu's, or followed Mute as a helper, hunting a few wild animals near the valley's water sources.
But Lü Bufan's physical skills were too poor. He could only trail behind Mute, running errands and carrying some of the game. Later, as though something had come over him, Mute suddenly took to walking behind Lü Bufan during their climbs and lightly punching his back along the spine!
It did not hurt much, but it always startled Lü Bufan. He assumed Mute was merely annoyed at how slowly he walked along the mountain trails and paid it little mind.
Mute was a born hunter. Lü Bufan never saw him change or wash his filthy robe, and his short hair was a tangled mess. Though skilled with traps and throwing stones, he never agreed to take much game.
Once he had caught enough wild animals to feed himself and Lü Bufan, he killed nothing more. At home, he did nothing but eat and sleep... His life was as simple as a wandering tramp's, without a care in the world.
More than a month passed, and Lü Bufan still knew only these few people.
Meng Laojiu, Granny Yu, Mute, the thin man and the lame man who spoke so oddly and acted mysteriously all day, and Old Skeleton, who spent his days sleeping on the boulder at the village entrance without even a shack to his name.
Oh, yes... There was also the big black dog that lazed around all day. As for the other households, besides two men who stayed shut inside their thatched cottages like living corpses, there were two somewhat younger men.
But those two young men were always planning something unknown, leaving early and returning late as they roamed Two-World Mountain.
One day, Granny Yu accepted the herbs Lü Bufan had gathered, then waved him straight out... "There's no food for you today! Meng Laojiu's going to the market in town tomorrow. Go with him and trade the mountain produce and herbs you've saved up for supplies! Get lost..."
Lü Bufan grinned. "All right! Granny Yu, thank you for looking after us these past days. Without you, my master and I would probably have gone hungry! I found a wood Lingzhi the day before yesterday. I won't trade it for grain. I'll leave it with you for your medicines!"
As he spoke, Lü Bufan took a bamboo tube from inside his robe and carefully opened its lid. At once, a faint, delicate fragrance drifted out, revealing a dark red Lingzhi inside...
Granny Yu paused, then tilted her head and studied Lü Bufan. "You're willing to give it to this old woman for nothing?"
"I am!"
"Do you know this Lingzhi is almost a hundred years old? Take it to that Huqi Town you came from, and you could probably trade it for three horses. Or a little house. Sell it for money, and you could buy a few mu of land, too."
Lü Bufan's heart gave a shudder at her words... How could he have imagined this thing was a century-old medicinal treasure? That it was worth so much money?
But... he had already said he would give it away, and Lü Bufan was too embarrassed to go back on his word. He could only steel himself, thump his chest, and declare that a gentleman's word could not be caught by a team of four horses. This was his gift of thanks to Granny Yu.
Granny Yu gave a crooked smile, snatched the bamboo tube containing the Lingzhi, and walked back inside. But as she closed the door, she tossed a bag woven from rushes back toward the thin boy, who stood watching hopefully at the courtyard gate.
Lü Bufan caught it and opened it. Inside was a whole bag of gleaming white rice! Ah... It had been so long since he had seen anything this good!
The thin boy broke into a grin. Just as he was about to thank her, Granny Yu's door slammed shut. Who knew what she spent all day tinkering with in her room?
In any case, black smoke from Granny Yu's boiling medicines rose above her roof every day, spreading medicinal odors all around. The villagers feared her poisons, and not one dared approach her house. Lü Bufan was no exception.