"Heaven! Earth! Dark and yellow... universe! Vast and primordial... sun and moon, what comes next? Oh no, I've forgotten..."
The sun stood high overhead, its light filtering through the woodland branches and leaves to cast dappled patches of light and shadow.
An ape walked through those patches, dressed in cloth robes and straw sandals, a bamboo hat on its head and a wrought-copper staff resting on its shoulder.
As it walked, it muttered to itself.
"Right! The next line is 'harvest in autumn, store in winter.'"
As though it had remembered something terribly important, it scratched its ears and cheeks in delight.
Earlier that morning, Chen Jin had used a Method Formula to help Yuan Bai refine away the Heng Bone in its throat, allowing it to speak human words from then on.
Not only that, he had also taught it four lines of verse.
Yuan Bai had been beside itself with joy. After kowtowing in thanks, it had returned to the foot of the slope, talking to itself and practicing over and over.
Then it had thought that, now it could speak, it ought to share the news with a friend, and so it had set off for the Yellow Wind Graveyard.
On the way, afraid it might forget the four lines of verse, it kept reciting them.
Even so, it still made mistakes and omissions from time to time.
Whenever that happened, it would stop involuntarily in the middle of the path and hastily rack its brains to recall the words. It must not get a single character wrong.
In truth, Yuan Bai did not really understand these four lines of verse. It merely felt that they rolled smoothly off the tongue. More importantly, the words seemed to contain profound truths of heaven and earth. "Heaven and earth," "sun and moon"-what grand vistas they evoked!
Without a doubt, these were teachings from a classic scripture bestowed by the immortal master.
If it read them thoroughly and came to understand them completely, perhaps it could attain the Dao of taking human form!
With all that stopping and starting, it was already sunset by the time it reached the Yellow Wind Graveyard.
Whoosh!
A yellow weasel the size of a child appeared atop a dilapidated grave mound, raising its head to look over.
It was the same yellow weasel. Many days had passed, yet it still had not managed to encounter anyone from whom to seek a spoken bestowal.
These mountains were growing ever more desolate. The traveling merchants and wandering warriors who had once appeared here rarely entered the mountains anymore.
The yellow weasel was wondering whether it ought to leave and seek someone at a large stockade settlement to grant it a spoken bestowal.
But doing so was clearly fraught with danger. One careless move, and it could be caught, skinned, and stripped to the bone.
At that thought, it suddenly felt sorrowful...
Learning that Yuan Bai had arrived, Huang Yu came out personally to welcome it.
Naturally, guests could not be received inside the deep, gloomy ancient tomb. Instead, a place had been arranged outside, beneath a verdant old cypress.
A small wooden table and two wooden chairs had been set out, with a plain-colored cloth spread over the tabletop. It looked very formal, and elegant too.
Some yellow weasels brought over porcelain plates holding berries, moss, grasshoppers, and the like.
There were several dishes, filling the table, all foods that apes loved to eat.
The warm hospitality made Yuan Bai feel so thoroughly at home that it became a little embarrassed.
"General Yuan, you can speak now?"
Huang Yu was both surprised and delighted.
Yuan Bai replied, "The immortal master cast a spell to help me refine away my Heng Bone, and then I could speak."
"What a tremendous blessing!"
Huang Yu spoke with no small measure of envy.
Although it could speak too, that was because it had consumed a medicinal pill. Both had relied on outside assistance, but receiving personal enlightenment from the immortal master held an entirely different significance.
Yuan Bai added, "The immortal master also taught me four lines of verse."
It paused, thought for a moment, and finally recited, "Heaven is dark, earth is yellow; the universe, vast and primordial. The sun and moon wax and wane; harvest in autumn, store in winter."
When imparting these teachings, Chen Jin had set no explicit restrictions, meaning he had not forbidden their disclosure.
Thus, Yuan Bai thought it ought to share this with Huang Yu. It also had another intention: it hoped they could study and ponder the words together, see whether they could successfully decipher them, and thereby comprehend the Dao.
After all, when it came to explaining words and interpreting characters, the yellow weasel was cleverer.
Huang Yu listened with flickering eyes, murmuring, "Heaven is dark, earth is yellow; the universe, vast and primordial... I've never heard scriptural teachings like these. They're far too profound."
Yuan Bai scratched its head. "I don't understand them either, so I came to discuss them with you."
Huang Yu said delightedly, "Thank you for your trust, General Yuan."
And so the ape and the weasel sat beneath the tree, exchanging ideas in a lively discussion.
Before long, the bright moon rose into the sky, its clear radiance carpeting the earth, the mountains and rivers stretching without end.
Beneath the moon.
As usual, Chen Jin sat atop the old banyan's crown and began visualizing and gathering Qi.
As he circulated his cultivation method, the moonlight that had previously descended in wispy strands now gathered into flakes, like fluttering snow:
"Jade and jasper of the heavenly immortals, drifting flecks of catkins, flake upon flake of goose down!"
Sensing the rich essence Qi of the moonlight, he felt his spirit lift, and the red hair all over his body seemed about to float.
"Caw!"
A hoarse, grating crow's cry rang out at an inopportune moment.
Chen Jin frowned and opened his eyes, turning his gaze toward the grove of old pines below.
It was shrouded in darkness as thick as ink.
The bright moon hung overhead tonight, its light pure and clear. Even the mountain hollows and dense woods received some of its radiance. Yet in this grove, that mass of darkness writhed and enfolded like a living thing, shutting out all moonlight so that not the slightest thread could penetrate.
Chen Jin's keen eyes caught countless living creatures perched in shadowy clusters among the trees.
And within that unusual darkness, he caught a scent of something familiar. It seemed his sword strike last time had not been harsh enough; this ghost actually dared to return.
"Caw!"
Another grating cry sounded, and a crow flew over to alight on a branch in the old banyan's crown.
The bird was pitch-black all over, its eyes a startling crimson, as though steeped in fresh blood.
It stared fixedly at Chen Jin, as though staring at a dead man.
Chen Jin was a dead man to begin with. Unafraid, he met its gaze.
"Who are you?"
The red-eyed crow spoke first, its tone chilling.
Chen Jin countered, "Are you Venerable Fire Crow?"
The red-eyed crow opened its beak in a laugh. "Gagaga! So you've heard of this venerable one."
Chen Jin said calmly, "Lord Black Bear, Venerable Fire Crow, and Madam Ghost-you are collectively known as the Three Giants. Since I have come as a guest to these mountains, naturally I ought to know something of you."
Venerable Fire Crow said angrily, "Since you know that, how dare you wound Madam Ghost?"
Chen Jin retorted, "Because it tried to hurt me first."
Venerable Fire Crow snorted coldly. "This venerable one cares nothing for who acted first. In short, you wounded Madam Ghost, which makes you an enemy of our Demon-Ghost Alliance. You must pay the price."
With that, it let out a screech.
The next instant, amid a flurry of wings, countless black shapes rose from the woods. They were a vast flock of crows, numbering in the hundreds and thousands, far too many to count.
A dense, black mass, they resembled an immense bank of dark clouds, blotting out the sky and veiling the moon. In mere moments, they had hidden the bright moon overhead.
A vast shadow fell, shrouding all of Banyan Tree Slope.
Mountainous pressure came howling down.
Such a commotion had long since alarmed the mountain monkeys below the slope. With their king absent as well, they sensed that things were going badly. They dared neither flee nor come out to look. Each cowered in a tree hollow or clump of grass, trembling, simply burying its head.
Chen Jin rose to his full height and drew his sword, declaring in a ringing voice, "What an imposing display. But when has my sword ever lacked an edge?"