Chapter 63: Clearing a Path
Li Jincai kept hacking through the long vines with his billhook, trying to find gaps that would let them avoid the bushes and undergrowth.
Li Jinbo brought up the rear with a stick, occasionally striking the trunks of trees as he passed.
A person's shouts could not carry far in the dense forest. It was like an enormous silencer, swallowing voices among the grass and leaves.
The low sound of wood being struck, however, could travel a long way.
If Old Man Li were nearby, he would surely strike a tree trunk in reply.
Cui Jiuyang walked between Jincai and Jinbo, making him the one with the easiest job.
Li Jinbo had said that when wild beasts attacked, they usually circled around and pounced on the person at the rear.
To prevent that, he had asked his eldest nephew, a ten-year-old boy, for a mask before setting out.
He now wore that painted-face mask on the back of his head. It would fool a wild beast into thinking it had been spotted, discouraging it from attacking.
The three struggled on for quite a distance, but found no trace of Old Man Li, nor did they hear any answering knocks.
They did not dare venture any deeper.
As long as they stayed on the outskirts, they would not lose their way.
But farther in, the trees grew taller and the woods thicker. Even the grass reached shoulder height...
"Jincai, let's not go any farther in," Li Jinbo said. "Even if your father came here, he wouldn't have gone this deep."
"Let's stop heading north and search eastward instead."
Li Jincai thought that made sense. Going any deeper would be hard even for three men in their prime, let alone an old man with bad legs.
They changed direction and headed east.
They could see neither sky nor sun, and could only gauge the time roughly by peering at the sky through gaps in the trees.
At noon, the three rested beneath a large pine, eating buns with salted fish and drinking some cold water.
Li Jincai said nothing. Dejected, he kept rubbing his shoulders. After hacking a path all morning, they must have been aching terribly.
Li Jinbo had lost heart as well, staring blankly into the undergrowth.
Seeing them like this, Cui Jiuyang took three copper coins from inside his robe. "I don't usually use Coin Divination, but it looks like I have no choice now."
His words immediately caught their interest.
"Mr. Cui, I've seen an old Taoist cast a hexagram with three copper coins at the market. Does it really work?" Li Jinbo asked, leaning closer.
Li Jincai moved over too. "Mr. Cui, can that tell us where my father is? Why didn't you bring it out sooner?"
Cui Jiuyang shook his head and smiled. "Tell us where he is?... That's impossible. What sort of ability could produce an answer that precise? You'd have to be an immortal!"
"But," he continued, changing tack, "it can tell us what he's doing right now!"
Coin divination was the common name for Six-Line Divination... though that was not quite accurate.
True Six-Line Divination required fifty yarrow stalks, following the principle of "the Great Expansion's forty-nine, with the one withdrawn," then using Four Operations and Eighteen Changes to stir the workings of heaven...
But very few people used this genuine Great Expansion Divination. First, it was genuinely cumbersome. Second, it genuinely shortened one's life.
That was why the simpler, more convenient, though less accurate Coin Divination was more widely practiced.
For Cui Jiuyang, however, there were differences between calculating on his fingers, casting coins, and using yarrow stalks-but not very great ones.
Although the divination arts of The Eight Extremes also arose from the principles of the Book of Changes, their ability to commune with the eight extremes of heaven and earth made the heavenly workings they stirred inherently more responsive.
He had brought out the copper coins for two reasons: first, to deepen his connection to heaven's workings through the coins' tendency to "scatter in all directions" as they circulated through the world; second, to draw Jinbo and Jincai's attention and keep them from imagining the worst.
Sure enough, hearing that Cui Jiuyang would divine what Old Man Li was doing lifted both men's spirits.
Cui Jiuyang tossed the three divination coins to obtain one line, gathered them into his hand, and tossed them again.
He repeated this six times.
After obtaining six lines, he applied the changing lines... and arrived at a complete hexagram.
This...!
Looking at the hexagram, Cui Jiuyang suddenly felt a chill across his back...
The answer given by Coin Divination was unmistakable. At that very moment, Old Man Li was meeting an old friend!
Inner Truth, nine in the second place: A crane called in the shade, and its young answered; I had a fine cup of wine, and I would share it with you.
What the hell? Where would Old Man Li find an old friend in this dense forest?
Jincai and Jinbo watched Cui Jiuyang remain silent for a long while, staring at the three copper coins on the ground.
At last, Li Jinbo ventured, "Mr. Cui, what does the hexagram say?"
Fortune-telling had its rules. Unless one was a swindler making things up, any genuine practitioner of divination through the Book of Changes could never distort a reading. He had to say what was there, to report whatever he divined.
Even if someone asked about his luck and the reading said he would die violently in the street within the next few days, it still had to be said.
That was why blunt-spoken fortune-tellers in the old days often had their stalls overturned and took a beating afterward-people came to ease their minds, not to hear the truth!
Seeing that both wanted to know, Cui Jiuyang naturally told them honestly. "I won't hide it from you two. Just stay seated, and don't be frightened by what I'm about to say."
Jinbo and Jincai immediately realized something was wrong. They exchanged a look, and Jincai said, "Mr. Cui, just tell us."
"The hexagram shows... that your father is in the forest, and he's in no danger," Cui Jiuyang said. "Not only is he safe, he's very happy."
"Because he's met... an old friend."
After hearing that, neither Jincai nor Jinbo spoke.
Cui Jiuyang sucked at his teeth. "Well, do you know of any friends your father has in these old woods?"
Li Jincai's face had gone pale. The more he thought about it, the more unnerving it became.
His hand unconsciously closed around the billhook tucked at his waist. "What friends could my father possibly have in the old forest behind the village?"
Judging by that movement, his thoughts had clearly taken a dark turn. Reaching for a blade at a time like this was an obvious sign that he felt unsafe.
Li Jinbo shivered too. "These hills... hardly anyone ever comes here, let alone some old friend."
He patted Jincai's shoulder, urging him to stay calm, then said, "Don't panic, Jincai. As long as your father's safe, there's still hope we can find him and bring him back. Never mind... who he's with."
"We've rested enough. Let's keep looking. The sooner we find him, the sooner we can go home. Stay in these old woods too long, and you start feeling uncomfortable all over."
The three rose and continued east.
The scenery in the old forest never changed.
One place looked much like another.
This tree resembled that tree, and this patch of grass looked no different from that one. Cui Jiuyang had long since lost his sense of direction and simply followed Jincai.
After noon, darkness came more quickly in the forest... As the sun sank westward, the woods began to dim. The old pines, originally dark green, now looked almost black.
All three had grown tired.
"The sun's about to set," Li Jinbo said. "Let's head south and west, back to the village. We can search again tomorrow."
Li Jincai stopped at that. Seeing that it really was getting dark, he did not insist on continuing.
The strange hexagram Cui Jiuyang had cast at noon had especially unsettled him, so he no longer pushed to keep searching.
The three turned back.
Truthfully, Cui Jiuyang could not tell that they had turned back at all. Everywhere looked the same to him.
At last... night fell completely.
An endless sea of trees still surrounded them...
Li Jincai turned around, his forehead drenched in sweat. "Jinbo... can you still tell which way we're going?"
Li Jinbo's face turned deathly pale. "I was sure we were heading back just now. Why do I feel less certain the farther we go?"
Cui Jiuyang slapped his forehead.
Well, there it was. The three of us were lost too.
Chapter 64: Nightfall
Darkness fell swiftly. While light still showed in the sky between the trees, beneath the overlapping canopy it was already too dark to make out a person's silhouette.
Cui Jiuyang was not particularly worried. He had Celestial Mechanism Navigation; at worst, he would spend a night in the forest.
Li Jinbo and Li Jincai, however, were frightened. The hills behind Heyang Village were forbidden ground to begin with. Now that they were lost there, how could they not feel chilled to the core?
"We can't see in the dark," Cui Jiuyang said. "Why don't we find somewhere to rest and wait until daylight tomorrow?"
"Mr. Cui is right," Li Jinbo agreed. "Wild beasts come out at night. We really shouldn't go blundering around. Let's find somewhere more open and see if we can light a fire."
"Just back there, where we came from, wasn't there an especially big oak?" Li Jincai said. "Let's go there."
By the time the three reached the great oak, it was pitch-dark.
It was so dark in the forest that they could not see their hands in front of their faces. Fortunately, Li Jinbo had brought a flint.
Feeling around in the darkness, Li Jinbo gathered some dry leaves and twigs and started a fire.
Clink, clink. The flint flashed again and again. The moment flames sprang up among the dry leaves, all three men beneath the tree felt considerably more at ease.
"Let's toast some buns. The salted fish is fine cold." Li Jincai trimmed three fresh branches with his billhook, giving each man one to skewer a bun and hold it over the fire.
The buns would take a while to toast. For a time, all three sat in silence, staring into the flames.
Li Jinbo was worried that the three of them might never escape the forest and would die trapped there.
Li Jincai worried not only about the three of them, but also about his father, who was meeting an old friend.
Cui Jiuyang, meanwhile... had sensed that faint, elusive connection again.
What exactly was it?
Why could I sense it?
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