Fellow immortal?
Who?
Me?
Jiang Yi froze for a moment. The golden light flickering in his eyes slowly gathered, then abruptly took the shape of a page.
Immediately afterward, a vast, tangled mass of information surged like waves crashing against the shore, battering his mind until the space between his brows ached and throbbed.
"Wield the Heavenly Book, discern cause and effect..."
"All living beings bear causes that yield effects..."
"With the Heavenly Book in hand, all may be examined!"
Jiang Yi sat down on the plank bed, leaned against the rough earthen wall, and took one deep breath after another.
Only after a full half-incense stick's time did he gradually shake off the intense, dizzying stupor.
He raised a hand and waved it. The golden page reflected in his eyes seemed illusory-visible, yet impossible to touch.
"Everything between heaven and earth, so long as it exists, leaves traces from birth to destruction. Those traces are cause and effect, and none can escape this book's scrutiny?"
After confirming that the golden page of the Heavenly Book was no imagined hallucination, Jiang Yi suddenly felt his heart ease, as though a great stone had dropped to the ground.
Looking again at the laborers' hut, still as cramped and confined as before, he found his state of mind quietly changing.
The urgency and anxiety that had lingered around him suddenly weighed far less heavily.
Even his apprehension and worries about the road ahead dissipated somewhat.
"Discern cause and effect, know all things... Then what do I need to know right now?
"A teacher at the Dao Academy once said that throughout the Jambudvipa Vast Land, anyone who cultivates the Dao, rises in rank, and attains divine abilities must have opportunities accompanying them and a destiny of their own..."
Jiang Yi pondered silently. With a slight shift of thought, he posed a question in the prescribed form.
[I humbly beseech the Heavenly Book: reveal my opportunities.]
Jiang Yi weighed it over and over, confirming that what he needed most was an opportunity that offered hope of shedding his duties as a Mortal Laborer and no longer toiling like an ox or horse!
With a hum, tiny, archaic and mysterious tadpole-shaped characters instantly emerged on the golden page.
Its brilliant golden glow seemed to be stirred, sending out faint ripples.
[Subject of inquiry: personal opportunities] [Time required for deduction: five breaths] [Example one: a seventh-grade Qi Refining cultivation method, the "Cloud-Walking Rain-Generating True Spirit Art," is stored in the secret vault on the Qianji Sect's main peak. Break through the restrictions to obtain it.] [Example two: the Yi Character Medicinal Field on Herb-Gathering Peak has yielded an excellent harvest this year. All one hundred stalks of suiling grass have matured, producing two Hanyuan Pills, which may be consumed to improve cultivation.] [Example three: Soul-Nourishing Peak...]
"What?"
Jiang Yi quickly finished reading the seven or eight "opportunities."
He could not help frowning. The Heavenly Book could indeed examine every kind of cause and effect, knowing them as clearly as the palm of its hand.
But every "opportunity" it provided carried enormous risks.
Take the first example: Mortal Laborers had no right to enter the main peak at all, let alone approach the secret vault. Anyone who overstepped would be beaten to death.
It was also true that the two Hanyuan Pills produced on Herb-Gathering Peak would greatly benefit anyone below the fifth level of Qi Refining.
But how could he possibly get a turn?
Even inner disciples might not receive a share!
"Perhaps... I asked the wrong way."
After a little consideration, Jiang Yi changed the thought in his mind.
[I humbly beseech the Heavenly Book: reveal opportunities I can obtain now without future repercussions.]
Hum!
The golden page trembled, its ripples growing violent.
Like dense raindrops falling onto a still lake, they caused quite a stir.
[Subject of inquiry: opportunities suited to oneself] [Time required for deduction: six hours...]
The brilliant golden glow undulated like water, yet no tiny tadpole-shaped characters coalesced to display a clear answer.
"So the more specific the question, the longer it takes to get a result? That's fine. I can wait!"
Jiang Yi's heart burned with excitement. He took several deep breaths, inexplicably feeling an urge to stand up and pace.
"Ah, I'm terrible at keeping my composure. Stay steady. Steady."
Jiang Yi smiled at himself, silently repeating the word "steady."
When someone trapped at the bottom of a valley suddenly grasped a shred of hope, it was hard not to grow restless.
That was only human nature!
Only those who had truly scraped out a living at the bottom, enduring days of ox-and-horse drudgery, could understand just how heavy the words "rise and change your fate" really were.
Just as he badly wanted to do something to vent the feelings pent up inside him, a loud voice suddenly came from outside:
"Brother Yi! I'm off work. We agreed to eat together..."
Jiang Yi rubbed his cheeks, restoring his usual expression before getting up to open the door.
"Thanks for your hard work, Brother He. I was just waiting for you."
He Laohun's weathered face was red through and through. Presumably, he too had spent hours enduring the rolling heat of the Quenching Room.
The moment he entered the communal courtyard, he hollered:
"I'm roasting to death! Damn it, the furnace was especially fierce today. I could barely breathe!"
Jiang Yi said:
"I reckon the worker on the bellows stoked it too hard. Catch your breath, Brother He. We'll rest a bit before heading out to eat."
He Laohun was at the second level of Qi Refining, yet even he could not endure the Quenching Room's torment. Clearly, today's work had been truly exhausting.
"No matter what, I'm switching to the Engraving Room tomorrow. Eight hours nearly roasted me through. I can't take it, just can't..."
Jiang Yi said nothing. Mortal Laborers had no right to pick their work. The duty overseers of the various rooms decided everything, handing out tallies and drawing lots.
He Laohun grabbed a water dipper and gulped down several mouthfuls of cool water. Only after his breathing steadied did he seem to come back to life:
"Damn it, working half my life away for a few measly talisman coins!"
Jiang Yi had heard far too many complaints like that.
When you worked like an ox or horse, driven at someone else's bidding, who could avoid a little resentment?
He had often complained of hardship himself, but today he seemed unruffled.
Perhaps this is the confidence the Heavenly Book gives me...
Considering the change in his own mindset, Jiang Yi said:
"Rested enough, Brother He? If you have, let's head to the Ice and Fire Cave."
"Let's go, let's go! I've been waiting for some meat! I'm sick of eating coarse rice and stale grain!"
He Laohun beamed at that and followed Jiang Yi out of the communal courtyard in high spirits.
South of Crimson Flame Peak lay the workers' quarters, with courtyards and shacks built along the rise and fall of the terrain to house the Mortal Laborers, some three or four hundred people in all.
To the north stood many stilt buildings built against the mountainside, suspended over steep walls and nestled among the cliffs. Most were taverns, eateries, gambling dens, and brothels.
With work just ending, the place was quite lively.
Mortal Laborers in drab gray Daoist robes gathered in groups, like tiny ants among towering trees, climbing and weaving through them in search of food, rest, or pleasure.
The Ice and Fire Cave Jiang Yi had mentioned was a tavern inside a cliffside cave. A dozen or so tables with chairs and benches stood within, rather like a time-honored cave hotpot restaurant in Bashu.
Perhaps because he would not be paying the bill himself, He Laohun stood straight-backed, abandoning his usual penny-pinching. The moment he entered the Ice and Fire Cave, he called out:
"Waiter, a pot of good wine! Two bowls of spirit rice, packed tight-no skimping! And some good dishes!"
"Certainly! I'll have everything ready for you two Daoist masters right away!"
The waiter answered and called toward the kitchen.
Before long, two large bowls of fragrant spirit rice arrived at the table.
Sure enough, they were packed solid, just as He Laohun had requested.
"That's what's good about the Ice and Fire Cave. An old establishment that doesn't cheat its customers! Unlike those other places, with no regard for the rules, always fleecing Mortal Laborers!"
Smelling the rice, He Laohun wore a look of enjoyment before he had even begun eating.
Next, the waiter brought out a pot of snake soup, a plate of wild rabbit, and a plump, greasy roast chicken.
"Don't laugh at me, Brother Yi. I haven't had a single grain of spirit rice in two whole months. There's a famine in my belly! Let me shovel down a few bites first!"
Jiang Yi nodded. He was at the first level of Qi Refining, and He Laohun at the second. Both counted as "initiates of the Dao" who had opened their Qi meridians, and their need for Spiritual Qi was considerable.
Before the fifth level of Qi Refining, the physical body needed nourishment.
Their usual seated meditation and breathing exercises, for instance, circulated True Qi through every part of the body along its circuit, cleansing impurities from inside and out.
But without spirit rice and spirit medicine to replenish them, hoping to improve their cultivation through practice alone was undoubtedly like an idiot babbling of dreams.
Besides, the Mortal Laborers' daily toil swallowed up much of their time for cultivation, making progress even harder.
That was why Jiang Yi and He Laohun valued spirit rice so highly.
Eating a fragrant bowl of spirit rice not only equaled several days of seated meditation and circulating Qi, but also relaxed the pores and made the body feel much lighter.
Like a reincarnated hungry ghost, He Laohun bent his head and shoveled rice into his mouth. Though his movements were vigorous, he was meticulous, letting not a single grain escape. He only stopped after licking the bottom of the bowl clean.
"Now this is what a Dao cultivator ought to eat! Truly satisfying!"
After enjoying this hard-earned bowl of spirit rice, He Laohun loosened the sash of his cotton Daoist robe and ate rabbit and snake soup with his wine.
"At two or three hundred talisman coins a bowl, how could the rice be anything less?"
Jiang Yi ate more neatly than He Laohun, steadily and unhurriedly finishing his meal. Then he wiped his mouth and said:
"Waiter, bring me a pot of wine too."
He Laohun narrowed his eyes, seemingly surprised:
"Brother Yi, you never used to touch a drop. Why today... Ah, I'm talking too much. Here, your big brother will drink a cup with you!"
Before finishing his question, he shook his head, as though he had worked out the reason.
Brother Yi had resolved to sever his "ill-fated bond" with Luo Qian'er and was drowning his sorrows in wine!
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