"There was no one in the coffin?"
"No one at all," Bright Rabbit said. "I opened it and looked. There were no clothes or grave goods inside. Old Master Liu isn't dead. He might still be at the Liu Family compound right now."
The Liu Family compound stood on Dragon Gate Mountain, south of Luo City, and covered several hundred mu. People in Luo City often joked that if a woman from an ordinary household married into the Liu Family's high-walled, gray-tiled compound, she might never find her way out, growing old and dying inside.
Bright Rabbit pulled off Chen Ji's blindfold. The three sat down on the ground atop Zhuangyuan Mountain. "Let's hear it. What do we do now?"
Cloud Goat hesitated for a long time. "The Liu Family actually dared defy the whole world's condemnation, using that old bastard's fake death to pressure the Secret Intelligence Directorate? Doesn't that mean everyone in the Liu Family, from top to bottom, is colluding with the enemy, just like Liu Shiyu?"
Bright Rabbit raised her arms to tie up her hair. "The Liu Family has operated in the Central Plains for a long time. They control eighty percent of the land and officials. Even the imperial court has to watch their expressions when collecting grain and taxes. Great families like the Liu Family, Xu Clan, Hu Clan, Chen Clan, Qi Clan, and Yang Clan have long put their own interests above the nation's. It's hardly surprising that they're colluding with the enemy."
"But His Majesty's Long Live Army is right on the border of Yu Province. How would they dare?" Cloud Goat exclaimed.
Bright Rabbit pondered for a moment. "What if Prince Jing's Estate is in league with the Liu Family? I'll send a message by carrier pigeon to the inner minister shortly. This is no longer ours to decide. We must bring troops here!"
"Right, send troops to surround the Liu Family immediately!"
Chen Ji interrupted. "My lords..."
Cloud Goat's eyes lit up. "What, do you have another idea? Quick, let's hear it. You're full of ideas, kid!"
Chen Ji said, "Sorry to trouble you both, but could you settle my payment? Lord Bright Rabbit still hasn't given me the fifty taels from last time. That makes one hundred and fifty taels altogether."
Bright Rabbit's face darkened. "Money, money, money. That's all you ever think about."
Chen Ji was desperately short of money. He roughly estimated the icy current in his body; this time, it would probably take more than ten ginseng roots to deal with it. There was still plenty of icy current left uncollected in the inner prison, and by the time he was done, it would probably cost him over a thousand taels of silver.
His path of cultivation burned through far too much money!
He smiled. "My lords, discovering that the coffin was empty is already an enormous achievement in itself. I'm sure the inner minister will be delighted. Compared with that, what are a hundred taels of silver?"
Reluctantly, Bright Rabbit took a red sandalwood bead bracelet off her wrist. "Here. A Buddhist Sect Circulating Treasure. You can take it to Dharani Temple and withdraw a hundred taels of silver."
Chen Ji froze for a moment. He examined the bracelet and saw that every bead was covered in densely packed writing, enough to make his eyes swim.
"You can withdraw money with this?" he asked curiously.
"You've never seen a Buddhist Sect Circulating Treasure?" Bright Rabbit explained. "The beads bear the Buddhist sect's own secret code. Take it to their temple kitchen, and someone there will pay you according to the code. They can read it."
Chen Ji grew even more curious. "Then if I carved an identical bracelet myself, couldn't I exchange it for money too?"
Bright Rabbit chuckled. "I advise you to put that thought out of your head. Plenty of people in the jianghu have tried to target the Buddhist sect, and they all ended up being sent on to the afterlife."
Beside them, Cloud Goat took out five small silver ingots. "Here."
Chen Ji smiled sincerely. "Thank you for your patronage. I've been out too long today, so sorry to trouble you both, but please take me back first. As for how to handle the Liu Family, that's not something I can take part in."
His savings now amounted to two hundred taels of silver and one hundred and seventy-three copper coins.
Not counting the fifty taels of silver under his bed.
It was not until the chou hour, after midnight, that the carriage brought Chen Ji back to the entrance of Taiping Medical Hall.
Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit had just lost a sum of money, and even their joy at earning merit had been dulled. Without so much as a word of parting, they drove away.
As the carriage receded, Dark Cloud jumped down from its roof into his arms. "I've memorized the inner prison's location... Oh, you're so cold."
"I drew in too much icy current in the inner prison. Did you see Bright Rabbit's path of cultivation?" Carrying the copper coins in his left hand and cradling Dark Cloud with his right, Chen Ji walked toward the medical hall.
"I did. A Yin Spirit emerged from between her brows. It was fierce!" Dark Cloud said.
Chen Ji pushed open the medical hall's door, but at the very instant he did, the icy current arrived as expected, at the third quarter of the chou hour.
It seemed to be a special moment. The dormant icy current always surged up at this time, refusing to stop until one side was dead.
Chen Ji struggled toward the medicine cabinet. A medicine peddler had come by that morning, so his master should have restocked the ginseng.
But before he reached the cabinet, he could not take another step.
Chen Ji forced out the words, "Dark Cloud... ginseng."
Inside the medical hall, Dark Cloud jumped out of Chen Ji's arms and, with practiced ease, leaped onto the medicine cabinet, pulled open a drawer, and carried the new ginseng root back in his mouth to touch Chen Ji with it.
With a clatter, the ginseng turned into ten transparent beads that fell to the floor and bounced up again. Dark Cloud ran and hopped after them, swallowing them one by one.
The molten current flowed back, instantly igniting the left and right Taiyi acupoints outside the dantian!
Chen Ji leaned wearily against the counter and stroked Dark Cloud's head. "Thank you."
Dark Cloud lifted his head. "You don't have to thank me anymore... What if your master notices the ginseng is gone?"
Chen Ji was troubled. "I'll have to hurry and buy a new one to replace it before Master notices."
Dark Cloud thought for a moment. "How about I go beat up that fat white cat again and balance the accounts for you?"
Chen Ji regarded him with solemn admiration. "...Good idea!"
At that moment, Old Yao's flat voice came from behind him. "I sent you to deliver some medicine, and you took from morning till night to do it."
Chen Ji turned instinctively, blocking the medicine cabinet drawer behind him that he had not had time to close. "Master? How do you walk without making a sound?"
Never mind Chen Ji-even Dark Cloud had failed to notice him approaching!
Old Yao stood in the main hall of the medical clinic with his hands behind his back, his face full of mockery. "So you still remember to come back? What are you standing there for? Come here!"
Chen Ji did not dare move, because the medicine cabinet drawer behind him was still open!
Just as he was rapidly thinking of a way to deal with the situation, Dark Cloud jumped out of his arms, ran up to Old Yao, and sprang into the air.
Old Yao paused, then instinctively reached out and caught Dark Cloud. The fluffy little black cat meowed in his hands, blinking his golden eyes with their vertical pupils.
Old Yao remained silent for a long time. At last, he gathered Dark Cloud into his arms and stroked his fluffy head, then sneered at Chen Ji. "He's much better behaved than you... Come on, Dark Cloud. Grandpa will take you to have some pastries."
Chen Ji: Huh?
After Dark Cloud's interruption, Old Yao had actually forgotten to scold him.
While Old Yao turned away, Chen Ji hurriedly and gently closed the medicine cabinet drawer.
He had just shut it when Old Yao's casual voice drifted over. "What are you still hiding? Go buy one yourself tomorrow and replace it. Check the ledger carefully-not one rootlet can be missing."
Embarrassed, Chen Ji followed him into the back courtyard and changed the subject. "Master, where are my two senior brothers?"
Old Yao said in an indifferent tone, "She Dengke's third brother is putting on a private performance for a wealthy household. She Dengke took Liu Quxing along to sneak in and watch the opera. They'll be back tomorrow morning. They were going to take you too, but you didn't come back."
He brought the purple wooden box out of his room again. The first drawer held pastries, and the second held candied fruit.
Dark Cloud had not eaten all day and stuffed his mouth full.
Chen Ji merely glanced into the drawer, and Old Yao shot him a glare.
"If you want to eat, go cook for yourself in the kitchen," Old Yao said coldly.
"Oh."
Chen Ji fetched a mixed-grain flatbread from the kitchen and asked between bites, "Master, does the third quarter of the chou hour have any special significance?"
Old Yao held pastries in his hand for Dark Cloud to eat as he frowned in thought. "The third quarter of the chou hour... That's when you were born."
"Hm?" Chen Ji was stunned. Was the icy current always surging up at that time because the third quarter of the chou hour was when he had been born?
Strange. Could it be that the vast consciousness on that battlefield had to wait until the moment of his birth to seize his body?
Chen Ji hesitated for a long time before finally asking frankly, "Master, what is a cultivator?"
Old Yao glanced at him. "Why should I tell you? You can sell intelligence for money, yet you expect to get information from me for free?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Dark Cloud stopped eating his pastries and nuzzled Old Yao's palm with his fluffy head.
Seeing this, Old Yao immediately said in exasperation, "You little thing, you look well-behaved, but you've got a lot of tricks up your sleeve."
He said slowly, "Cultivator is a general term for people who cultivate. There are all kinds of cultivation paths, and cultivators do all sorts of things."
Chen Ji was puzzled. "Why don't ordinary people know they exist?"
Stroking Dark Cloud's head, Old Yao said, "It's only that most people don't know. Most cultivators have to keep their cultivation paths well hidden, or others on the same path will covet them."
"Why?"
"Because the Dao sought by each cultivation path is like a bowl of water. There's only so much water in the bowl. The more people share it, the less each person gets to drink. And if you want to reach that great road to the heavens at the end, you have to drink the whole bowl yourself. You can't let even one other person share it."
Chen Ji was dumbfounded. Conservation of energy?
Only now did he realize why Cloud Goat had said there was only life and death on the road of cultivation. Under such a Heavenly Dao, people cultivating the same path were natural enemies.
Chen Ji asked calmly, "Then, Master, are you a cultivator...?"
Old Yao smiled and beckoned toward the sky. Suddenly, the sound of beating wings rang out in the dark night, and an enormous crow descended!
Chen Ji sprang to his feet. So the crow belonged to his master!
It had been there both when he was assailed by the icy current and when he went to investigate at Liu Shiyu's house!
"Master, you knew everything," Chen Ji said hesitantly.
"What if I knew? What if I didn't?" Old Yao gently stroked the crow's wings. The crow looked at Chen Ji and opened its beak in a soundless laugh, as though mocking his ignorance of the world.
Master's crow was just as sharp-tongued as Master.
At that moment, the crow looked at Dark Cloud, whose head was down as he wolfed down his food, then at Old Yao, and let out a series of caws.
Old Yao said patiently to it, "Get acquainted. This is a new friend."
The next second, the crow looked at Chen Ji, then at Old Yao.
Old Yao continued patiently, "This one isn't yet."
Chen Ji: "..."