The two children had spent the entire day on tenterhooks, only to find that their aunt hadn't scolded them and had even made them boiled pork. Wasn't that praise as plain as day? The two little ones huddled together, covering their mouths as they giggled.
Meanwhile, Jin Shanyao was making plans. She had to repay their kindness faster. Otherwise, if the two children kept courting death and kicked the bucket, wouldn't her repayment be cut short before it was done?
Without her divine position, what difference was there between her and a wandering ghost?
No, a person needed a home, just as a tree needed roots.
Hadn't she cultivated diligently for a thousand years for the sake of a divine position, so she could become a mountain god herself?
She had to send the two children to a private school as soon as possible, have them become tongsheng at five, pass the xiucai exam at six, become juren at nine, and take first place in the imperial examination at twelve.
By that reckoning, she would only need eight years to return to the Heavenly Court.
She couldn't keep dragging things out with them. Who could stand them risking their lives all the time? If they died, that would be the end of their troubles, but what about the kindness she still had to repay?
As the saying went, plans couldn't keep up with change.
The day had been calm, but a wind rose at night.
Rain poured down, and thunder and lightning burst across the sky. Frightened awake, Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci blearily rolled off the kang.
They slipped on their shoes and began looking for basins. The house had fallen into disrepair over the years, and whenever it rained, both the bedroom and kitchen were bound to leak.
Meng Anci dragged over a basin wider than he was and struggled to get it onto the kang. Just as he was straining to lift it, the wooden basin was suddenly pulled up, making him stagger and nearly knock himself against the edge of the kang.
"Auntie?"
Jin Shanyao steadied him and pulled the other sleepy little one over. "Why aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night? What are you doing?"
Meng Anzhi's eyes were still heavy with sleep as she said softly, "It's raining. The house is leaking."
Jin Shanyao sighed. Human young were so delicate: they couldn't stand the wind or rain. They were nothing like saplings, which weren't afraid no matter how hard it rained.
She picked up the two children and put them on the kang. "The rain's light today. The house isn't leaking."
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci didn't believe her. They rubbed their eyes and looked around, only to find that the places that usually leaked were dry.
Meng Anci was puzzled. "Auntie, did you fix the house?" Then he dismissed the thought himself. "No, that can't be right. We're together every day. How could I not know if you'd fixed it?"
Of course, Jin Shanyao wouldn't tell him that she had used a Law Technique to seal the holes that let the water in.
"The wind's blowing away from the leaks today. Go to sleep. When Auntie has money, I'll tear the house down and build it again, so you can get a good night's sleep."
Meng Anzhi stiffened slightly, then sleepily burrowed under the covers and pulled them over her head. A tear plopped onto the pillow, slowly soaking a large patch.
Jin Shanyao wasn't attentive when it came to raising children and didn't notice anything amiss with Meng Anzhi. She turned her gaze to Meng Anci.
"In the dead of night, are you trying to keep me awake like a falcon being tamed?" With that, she picked Meng Anci up and, whether he liked it or not, lay down and went to sleep.
Meng Anci carefully pulled his hand free and pressed the back of it to Jin Shanyao's forehead, then to his own.
Their temperatures were about the same... The worry hanging over his heart finally lifted. He nestled his little body in Jin Shanyao's arms, his eyes slightly red.
His mother had caught a chill back then. First she had talked nonsense, then she had been bedridden, and in the end she hadn't pulled through. She had passed away, and he was afraid his aunt had caught the same illness.
After the rainy day, the sky was especially clear.
In the kitchen.
Jin Shanyao and the two little tots stared at the pork leg, each with a different expression.
Meng Anzhi said regretfully, "How did perfectly good meat get maggots in it?"
"Auntie, can we eat meat with maggots in it?" Meng Anci's stomach churned with nausea, but he couldn't bear to throw the meat away. Heaven and man were at war in his heart.
Grief welled up in Jin Shanyao's heart. This was the tuition gift she had prepared for the teacher. How had it gone rotten?
If she had known it would spoil so easily, she would have preserved it with Spiritual Power. Now look what had happened: the children's taking first place in the imperial examination had been delayed another day.
Jin Shanyao picked up the pork bone and said in disgust, "We don't want it. I'll go back up the mountain and hunt something fresh."
Meng Anci secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Though he couldn't bear to part with the pork leg, he would still have had a hard time eating the same piece of meat as the maggots.
After Meng Anci's hanging incident, Jin Shanyao's desire to make money had grown even stronger. She was determined to raise the two children into a dragon and a phoenix within eight years.
One wild boar and one foolish roe deer could no longer satisfy her. She was going to make a grand undertaking of it.
She certainly couldn't take the children along on such an undertaking, so she told them, "In a little while, I'll take you next door to Grandma Li's house. Wait there for me."
Meng Anzhi was worried. "Auntie, I won't feel safe with you going up the mountain alone."
Meng Anci said nothing, thinking about what Jin Shanyao had meant by her words, but he said sweetly, "Auntie, we'll be good and wait for you to come back."
Jin Shanyao bent a finger and poked his plump little cheek a couple of times. "How good of you. Wait at home for Auntie, and I'll bring you mountain pears to eat when I come back."
Meng Anci nodded vigorously, his little face breaking into an even brighter smile.
Jin Shanyao took the two of them next door to Old Woman Li's house. "Auntie, sorry for the trouble."
"What trouble? We're neighbors. It's only right to lend a hand. Be careful on the mountain."
"I will, Auntie." Jin Shanyao said goodbye to the two little ones, left the cat and dog to watch over them, and went up White Head Mountain alone.
Meanwhile, Meng Hongde gathered a few villagers he was close to, shouldered bows, arrows, and brush knives with them, and followed an old hunter up White Head Mountain.
On White Head Mountain, Jin Shanyao bathed in a spring and lay in the shade of a tree, enjoying a little time to herself. When she saw it was about time, she got up and began casting a spell.
Spiritual Power slowly gathered in her palm. She then thrust it into the sky, where it instantly turned into a sky full of stars that drifted down into every corner. Soft rustling came from deep in the mountains.
The sounds drew nearer, and soon roe deer, wild boars, sika deer, wild rabbits, tigers, black bears... came surging toward her. The corners of Jin Shanyao's mouth curved up.
Roe deer meat could be eaten, sika deer could be sold for money, and she had heard that tiger pelts were the most valuable... She would take every one of these animals. The Spiritual Power in her hand rapidly expanded.
The first to fall were the pheasants and wild rabbits. After that... Rumble... A tremendous peal of thunder sounded in the sky...
This was bad. It was Lightning Punishment.
Jin Shanyao redirected her Spiritual Power and raised both hands above her head, but she was still a moment too late.
Crack... A massive bolt of lightning pierced the Spiritual Power shield and struck Jin Shanyao squarely on the head. Amid sparks and lightning, she was charred on the outside and tender on the inside, black smoke pouring from her mouth.
The prey that had delivered themselves to her doorstep came to their senses as if waking from a dream and fled in panic... thankful to have escaped the great demon with their lives.
Taishang Laojun's furious voice rang in her ears. "Jin Shanyao, you descended to the mortal world to repay a kindness, yet you're abusing your Spiritual Power. Are you afraid the Heaven-Surveilling Mirror won't spot you?
"If your actions cause our affair to come to light... Hmph. At worst, I'll be reprimanded for 'inadequate supervision,' have my salary docked, and be made to reflect on my conduct.
"But you... thousands of years of hard cultivation will be destroyed in an instant. Being cast into Samsara would be getting off lightly!
"From this day forward, put away your Divine Abilities! Repay that kindness honestly!"
Pain came from Jin Shanyao's abdomen. When she checked, she found that a tiny fissure had been blasted into her Spirit Core. The crack was finer than a strand of hair, but it sent Jin Shanyao into an uncontrollable rage.
"Damn you, Taishang Laojun! We've known each other for a thousand years, at any rate, and you struck me with lightning! May you choke to death on water, trip and die while walking, have a son without an asshole and a daughter without a butt hole!"
Taishang Laojun's face reddened at her cursing. "You... you've only been in the mortal world a moment. How have you become so vulgar?"
Crack... Another bolt of lightning came down, striking its target squarely. Meng Hongde, who was coming up the mountain, happened to see it.
"Ah... Hahahaha..."
He had actually seen Jin Shanyao struck by lightning. Truly, the Heavenly Dao came full circle. Whom had the heavens ever spared?
Meng Hongde clapped his hands in delight. "Jin Shanyao, oh, Jin Shanyao, you've done so many rotten things that even the heavens can't stand it anymore."
Jin Shanyao's clothes were torn, her whole body was charred black, and her hair was as messy as a chicken's nest. Hearing Meng Hongde curse her, she reached the peak of her rage.
She was a dignified old tree who had ascended to godhood, yet the Heavenly Court bullied her and mortals bullied her too. Did they really think she had no temper?
Jin Shanyao strode forward, seized Meng Hongde by the neck, and lifted him right off the ground. Killing intent flashed through her eyes.
"Cough, cough... Let... let..." Meng Hongde couldn't breathe, and his face turned bright red.
Afraid someone would be killed, the villagers with him hurried forward to break it up. "Meng family's auntie, he's got a foul mouth. Please let him go."
Jin Shanyao paid them no heed and slowly tightened her fingers. Pain came from her abdomen, and the crack in her Spirit Core grew larger.
Unwilling to give in, Jin Shanyao grabbed Meng Hongde by the collar and slapped him, knocking him out cold.
People died for wealth, and birds died for food. Those words were demonstrated to the fullest in the Meng family.
She bent down to pick up the wild rabbits and pheasants and headed down the mountain. When she passed a mountain pear tree, she didn't forget to pick two pears and tuck them into her clothes.
The people with Meng Hongde looked at one another, afraid to speak to Jin Shanyao and just as afraid to help him up.
They wondered, Could it really be as Meng Hongde said? Did Jin Shanyao covet the Meng family's property and get punished by the heavens????