Entering Again

There was no wind in the peach grove.

Meng Yuan wore a Daoist robe with a sword at his waist. Apart from his somewhat dark face, he had something of the bearing of a proper Daoist priest.

Three others, Pei Huasheng, Bai Xingshuang, and Chen Yuyin, stood staring blankly at a grave mound.

Pei Liuguang really had brought Meng Yuan here to chant funeral scriptures, because Chen Yucheng had just died.

"Keep chanting. Don't stop." Pei Liuguang rode a white deer, holding a wild fruit. She took a bite herself, then fed the deer a bite, urging it in circles around everyone while pressing Meng Yuan to keep chanting.

Pei Liuguang truly was not hiding her abilities. She was simply a layabout.

"He's chanted until his mouth and tongue are parched. You could at least give him a tip." Once Meng Yuan finished the funeral scriptures and delivered Chen Yucheng's soul, Chen Yuyin did not offer so much as a word of thanks. It was Pei Liuguang who spoke up for him.

Chen Yuyin remained silent, while Pei Huasheng asked where Meng Yuan came from.

Meng Yuan was an honest gentleman and concealed nothing. He said he was from Huai'an Prefecture in Yunzhou, born to a tenant-farming family, and had set out on his travels two years ago.

During his travels, he had crossed a bridge where an old man dropped a straw sandal into the river. Meng Yuan retrieved it and respectfully returned it, doing so three times. Seeing that Meng Yuan respected and cared for his elders, the old man taught him the Purple Cloud Technique, along with medicine, military strategy, and bedchamber arts.

"Bedchamber arts?" Pei Liuguang gaped.

"Military strategy?" For the first time since Meng Yuan entered the valley, Chen Yuyin finally spoke.

"The Purple Cloud Technique is a legacy of the ancient Western Cloud Kingdom. When practiced, it turns the face purple, making it very easy to recognize." Pei Huasheng pointed west. "It has seldom appeared in the martial world over the past thousand years. I never thought I would see it today."

"You are widely learned, elder!" Meng Yuan cupped his hands. "I have yet to ask your honored surnames."

Pei Huasheng said no more on that subject, instead asking how Meng Yuan had arrived here.

"This humble Daoist set out from Clear Wind Temple and strayed here while chasing a multicolored deer." Meng Yuan was very circumspect. "This place is cut off from the world, with vast peach groves. Are you living here in seclusion? Have you ever happened upon an immortal?"

"Liuguang." Pei Huasheng looked at Pei Liuguang.

"Hyah!" Sitting on the white deer, Pei Liuguang urged it over to Meng Yuan.

They were actually only three to five paces apart, but Pei Liuguang simply liked making a production of things.

Pei Liuguang drew a tiny pill bottle from her embroidered pouch, tipped out a pill, and tried to make Meng Yuan take it.

Naturally, Meng Yuan refused.

"Then we'll have to take the measure of your Purple Cloud Technique!" Pei Liuguang said with a smile.

Sure enough, after they fought for over an hour, Chen Yuyin and Bai Xingshuang joined the fray, and Meng Yuan was unquestionably overwhelmed.

"All three of you possess unique arts, with yin and yang complementing one another. This humble Daoist is thoroughly impressed!" Meng Yuan stopped fighting.

With a bitter smile, he swallowed the pill and stayed.

In the blink of an eye, twenty-one days had passed. Chen Yuyin was leaving, and everyone went to see her off.

"The Red Flame Fruit should be nearly ripe. Yucheng left two children behind. In the future, choose a good one, teach them internal cultivation, give them the extraordinary fruit, and come back," Pei Huasheng instructed Chen Yuyin.

Chen Yuyin said nothing.

Meng Yuan watched from the side, thinking that she was going to borrow a womb to have a child and would probably find it hard to return.

"This little Daoist is the twelfth outsider to stray here. But since the earthquake opened the Immortal Mausoleum, he is the first to have entered this place. In the meantime, our Three Surnames have pressed forward one after another, suffering countless casualties, yet have never managed to uncover the truth."

After sending Meng Yuan away, Pei Huasheng turned to serious matters. "We forced him to take the medicine and confined him here. That hardly counts as treating him courteously. The immortal's words have been passed down through the generations. Since the Immortal Mausoleum has opened, we might as well lead him inside for a look."

According to the words the immortal left behind, outsiders who trespassed here were people of great fortune and were to be treated courteously.

Though the immortal was probably dead now, they still did not dare forget those words.

Pei Huasheng wanted to settle this matter before Chen Yuyin left.

Naturally, Chen Yuyin had little to say and immediately left the decision to Pei Huasheng.

With the important matter settled, Pei Liuguang accompanied her dear elder sister to the exit of Peach Valley.

"He certainly has talent, and he's had fortunate encounters. His disposition is good too, but you must still be wary of him." Chen Yuyin caught hold of Pei Liuguang and began cautioning her.

Pei Liuguang sat on her white deer with a basket of wild fruit on her back, feeding the deer as she said, "He doesn't look like a bad person to me, and he's taken the medicine. What is there to be wary of?"

"Liuguang, you're still too young. Every time you discuss the Dao with him, I see him make you laugh. All the more reason to be careful." Chen Yuyin shook her head, utterly certain. "Be wary of anyone who can make you cry, and warier still of anyone who can make you laugh."

The Chen, Pei, and Bai families were on very harmonious terms. Since Chen Yuyin had just lost her elder brother, everyone often offered her comfort and counsel.

Meng Yuan was a compassionate Daoist and a physician, pure and kind above all, so naturally he followed everyone else's lead and offered a few words of consolation.

Chen Yuyin had been very well brought up and treated Meng Yuan with courtesy tinged with coolness. But remembering that he had studied military strategy, she talked with him about it, only to discover that he was all show.

For instance, on deploying troops, he said that before every battle, the entire army should be richly rewarded. With ample rewards, the soldiers would naturally give their all and win every battle. She asked whether, if paying campaign allowances before battle became customary, a shortage of money would scatter their morale and bring defeat without an attack. He said, "Why wage war if you have no money? Go home and nurse your children."

For instance, on holding a position, he said to camp on a mountaintop, creating the momentum of a downward charge. She asked what he would do if the enemy surrounded them and cut off their water. He said that if they charged from high ground to low and drove the enemy back, they would naturally have water.

Then there was naval warfare. He said to build plenty of large ships, for superiority in form would bring victory in battle. She asked what he would do if northerners were unaccustomed to fighting on water. He said to link the ships with iron chains, making them like level ground, fit even for warhorses to run across. She then asked what he would do if the enemy attacked with fire. He said, "How could anyone use fire on water?"

Asked about the great currents of the world, he could discourse at length for half a day, but his conclusion amounted to just this: go with the tide.

Asked how to make a country strong and prosperous, he had even more principles to expound, but in the end it came down to this: keep worthy men close and petty men distant.

In short, he was exceedingly good at spouting circular talk, which he had learned from who knew where. At first hearing, it sounded very reasonable, but on closer thought, it was nothing of the sort.

Moreover, he always managed to drag the conversation around to the Dao of yin and yang, then to secret bedchamber arts, his shifty eyes roving everywhere. He was plainly a libertine.

He clearly wanted to sleep with her. Chen Yuyin would never let someone like that get his way!

Thus, Chen Yuyin felt that after spending over a month in the valley and letting his complexion grow fair, apart from his decent looks, he was nothing but an incompetent little Daoist who could only boast wildly.

"I thought his exceptional bones marked him as someone above the common herd. Instead, his belly is stuffed with straw, and he's frivolous to boot." Chen Yuyin was utterly certain. "He's a pewter spearhead with a silver sheen. He might fool little girls, but he won't fool me."

"What about your brother? Could he fool little girls?" Pei Liuguang asked sincerely.

"..." Chen Yuyin clenched her fists and glared at Pei Liuguang. Then she saw Meng Yuan approaching with a broad smile, pleased about who knew what, so she glared at him too.

Why glare at me? In this life, I haven't pressed your head down... Meng Yuan muttered inwardly. He had been in the valley for nearly a month and had always behaved himself, merely discussing the Dao of yin and yang with Bai Xingshuang each day and exploring secret peach-felling arts with Pei Liuguang, without the slightest thought of escape.

Of course, Meng Yuan had also kept hiding his abilities in front of Chen Yuyin, afraid she might conscript him.

Chen Yuyin said no more. She left Peach Valley and drifted away.