Nobility Among Demons

"Did she leave the room last night? Or not?"

"Meow, meow!"

"Can you still see her now? Or can't you?"

"Meow, meow!"

"Then did she return to the temple? Or did she take another path?"

"Meow~"

"Just as I thought. Let's get moving."

"Mrr?"

"She's a demon."

"Mrr?"

"Not your kind. I call you a demon all the time, but you don't really count. Besides, I've raised you since you were little. You even sleep in the same position I do, so of course there's nothing to be afraid of."

The cat looked bewildered.

"Can you tell what she is by sight or smell? Like what kind of animal she is?"

The cat stared blankly.

"Ah, why can't you talk?"

The cat fell into thought.

Chen Du sped down the mountain on his electric tricycle.

He was nearly at the foot of the mountain.

Chen Du saw the houses below.

There were even people working in the fields by the roadside.

The sight of people put him much more at ease.

At the bottom of the mountain, the little concrete road led straight to the town's streets. Once there were more people around, naturally he wouldn't be afraid anymore.

But just then, something strange happened!

Chen Du noticed his electric tricycle slowing down more and more, from over twenty kilometers an hour to ten-something, then into single digits.

"Is the battery dead?"

No, that couldn't be right! He was still going downhill!

"Side-Swept Bangs! Did you step on my handbrake again?"

He glanced down. The cat was sitting comfortably on his thigh, using it as a seat, and looking up at him with an innocent expression.

By then, his speed had fallen to just three kilometers an hour.

It was visibly slower than walking.

Two kilometers an hour.

One kilometer an hour.

Until the tricycle stopped altogether.

This was bad!

After what had happened last night, Chen Du's first thought was that this was some kind of spell.

Who could cast spells?

Who else could it be but that demon from last night?

He immediately jumped off the tricycle and drew his long sword with a shing.

Strangely, as soon as he got off, the little tricycle seemed able to move again and began rolling slowly down the slope.

Chen Du pulled the handbrake, and only then did it stop.

That made him even more certain: this was a spell!

How could a vehicle refuse to move downhill with someone aboard twisting the throttle, only to roll forward once he got off?

Only a spell could be this bizarre!

But though he drew his sword and looked all around, there was no sign of the demon.

"You've got some nerve! A little demon like you dares to secretly toy with me? Are you looking to be reduced to ashes?

"Come out at once!

"What are you hiding for?"

Chen Du shouted several times, but there was no response. Instead, he startled the cat on the seat into staring wide-eyed, first at him, then hurriedly looking around with him.

"Meow?"

"Nothing?"

Chen Du was thoroughly puzzled.

"Let's get down the mountain first!"

Without putting away his sword, Chen Du climbed back onto the tricycle and released the handbrake.

Something strange happened: the tricycle still wouldn't budge.

As soon as he got off, it began rolling downhill again.

Chen Du had no choice but to walk.

But when he did, something even stranger happened.

He could walk sideways after getting off just as he normally would, but the moment he headed downhill, he felt resistance with his first step. It was as if his body had inexplicably become much heavier, and as if something were blocking him from the front and pulling at every part of his body from behind.

He took another step, and the strange force grew much stronger.

He could barely take a third step.

His whole body felt immensely heavy, and the resistance was tremendous. Yet as long as he wasn't walking downhill, he could go in other directions and do other things without any hindrance.

The cat beside him didn't seem to be affected either.

Was this a spell?

It was so miraculous!

Did that demon from last night really have such great abilities?

Chen Du was both amazed and wary, but he couldn't see any sign of the demon from last night, no matter what he did. Unwilling to accept his fate, he raised his sword, cursed angrily a couple of times, and tried to keep going.

As it turned out, he could still move forward, but it was extremely difficult.

To his surprise, when he took another step, the earth quaked and the mountain shook.

"Rumble..."

It sounded like thunder rolling across the heavens.

"What now?"

For a moment, it didn't occur to Chen Du what it was. He only thought he'd grown dizzy, making him feel as though heaven and earth were spinning, while a commotion sounded as if to frighten him. He continued pushing forward against the resistance, thinking that perhaps things would be fine once he got off the mountain and reached the street below.

"Rumble..."

Once again, the earth quaked and the mountain shook!

It was no illusion. The entire mountain was trembling.

Chen Du didn't believe it and took another step forward.

"Rumble!"

The earth and mountain shook even more violently. All the grass and trees on the mountain swayed, pebbles skittered down the slopes, and earth even collapsed where the mountainside was steep.

Even the farmers nearby were badly startled.

Only when Chen Du drew his foot back did the mountain grow still.

The mountain stopped trembling, though the grass and trees continued swaying for a while.

That frightened Chen Du. For a moment, the sensation had reminded him of a major earthquake he had experienced as a child.

This was Yizhou, after all, where small earthquakes were common. He was long accustomed to minor tremors; even if his bed shook while he was napping, he wouldn't wake. But what he had just felt was far beyond the small earthquakes hundreds of kilometers away.

Was this a divine ability the demon from last night could possess?

The earth quaked and the mountain shook. It would hardly be an exaggeration to call it the work of a god!

Chen Du gradually calmed down.

Some other force was stopping him from leaving the mountain.

What could it be?

After a while, he pulled the seal from his person and focused on it. Sure enough, it was wreathed in a radiant aura of spiritual energy, flowing and shifting in unpredictable ways.

Looking more closely, he saw a fixed layer of strange specks of light floating above the seal. They were black and white, intertwined, and faintly formed the shape of a mountain.

Chen Du looked at the illusory mountain above the seal, then turned to look at the mountain where his temple stood.

The two mountains were identical!

He took the seal and tried walking downhill. As the earth and mountain shook, the spiritual light and the mountain's shadow above the seal shook in unison.

"It's you..."

This seal was proof that he was the temple master.

It seemed his temple was no ordinary place.

Some kind of spiritual presence or setup at the temple also seemed to be awakening as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth revived. It would not let him, the temple master, leave.

How could this be? There was a demon on the mountain now!

Chen Du tried many more times with the seal. No matter what he did, whether chanting incantations, issuing commands, or leaving the seal on the tricycle, his steps grew heavy whenever he headed downhill. Even when he put the seal far away, it would return to his side.

"There's nothing I can do."

He could only hope that his strategy had worked, that the demon had stolen his things and left out of guilt and a guilty conscience, and that he wouldn't have to face her again when he went back.

It would be even better if she had stolen only the fruit and leaves and left the tree.

At the temple gate, Yunzhi looked up.

The mountain gate was old, with the three characters "Earth Sage Temple" written overhead and a couplet on either side:

Pillow on stone, listen to pines, forget the passing years;

Watch the clouds, keep to simplicity, live in harmony with nature.

It was not devoted to worshipping gods and teaching people, unlike the Talisman School; nor was it devoted to self-restraint and cultivating the heart, unlike the Elixir Cauldron School. Instead, it subtly accorded with the idea that "the Dao follows nature," like the practices of reclusive masters from more ancient times.

"Forgive my offense, immortal master!"

"Forgive me, forgive me!"

The woman repeated the words silently and devoutly.

Although she couldn't discern any cultivation or attainment in that Daoist priest, and hadn't seen him use any spells or divine abilities, she still didn't dare take the gamble.

When she finished, she gave a light leap. Her figure was graceful and nimble, and the courtyard wall was no obstacle to her at all. In an instant, she floated into the courtyard from the treetops.

She wasn't moving quickly, but she was graceful and ethereal, like a divine maiden performing a celestial dance in a mural.

She landed without a sound.

The treasure tree stood proudly in the courtyard, facing the wind, breathing in and out the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, shimmering with brilliant colors.

The woman looked at it and swallowed hard.

Back then, she had traveled across mountains and rivers, searching everywhere. Besides seeking out other immortals and masters, demons and ghosts, she had also looked for legendary treasures.

Yet even deep in the mountains and ancient forests, she had found none. She hadn't expected to find one growing right in this temple's courtyard, and still less had she expected its owner to treat it just like an ordinary tree. He had even felt free to go far away, leaving it here without placing any restrictions on it.

Then her gaze shifted to the trash can in the corner.

The treasure tree's fruit wasn't ripe yet, and she wouldn't dare steal it even if it were. But surely she could take the petals that had fallen to the ground?

Surely?

The immortal master clearly didn't want these petals. Treating them like ordinary fallen blossoms, he had swept them up with the dead branches and leaves knocked down by last night's rain and tipped them into this strange bin full of refuse.

She had even swept them up herself.

She was the one who had tipped them in.

Yet quite a bit of spiritual essence clearly remained in the petals.

She had wanted to ask the immortal master for them earlier, but had been too embarrassed. After turning it over and over in her mind, she still couldn't let them go, so she had come back for them.

He didn't want them, surely?

Surely?

It would be all right for her to take them away, wouldn't it?

If the immortal master discovered her, she could say, "After I finished cleaning for you this morning, I forgot to throw out the rubbish, so I came back to take it away and dispose of it somewhere far off, to keep your immortal abode clean." Surely that would sound reasonable and get her through it?

Surely?

The woman rummaged through the trash can for a moment, then held her hand over its opening and spread her fingers. Many things like transparent threads descended, picked up the little osmanthus-like petals one by one, and drew them back into her hand.

"I've struck it rich!"

She had gathered a great big handful!

She looked left and right.

Feeling terribly guilty, the woman prepared to slip away like a thief, run a thousand li, and hide in some far corner of the world where the master would never find her in his lifetime.

At this point, she only hoped she could leave without trouble.

But she had barely taken a step when a roll of thunder suddenly sounded.

"Rumble..."

She instinctively glanced up and saw that the sky was a uniform pale white, with no dark clouds or lightning. Only then did she realize that the thunder wasn't coming from the sky, but from beneath her feet.

Then the earth quaked and the mountain shook!

What was going on? Had the master become angry?

But hadn't he gone down the mountain?

The woman froze where she stood, at a loss.

"Rumble..."

The earth and mountain shook again, as if urging her on.

This was bad! No wonder that master had felt free to go down the mountain and leave the treasure tree growing alone in the courtyard. So he had such a divine ability!

Hadn't he thrown away this dust and rubbish?

The woman quickly tossed the fallen blossoms in her hand back into the bin and looked around, but she couldn't see any sign of the immortal master. It seemed she was the only person in the entire temple.

That was clearly not the case.

"Immortal Master, please hear me out!" The woman tilted her head far back and shouted up at the sky. "This little yao was foolish and careless. After cleaning up for you this morning, I forgot to throw away the dust and filth, so I came back especially to take it away and dump it far off, lest it dirty your cave abode! Please, Immortal Master, you mustn't misunderstand!"

"Rumble!"

The earth shook and the mountains swayed ever more violently. Tiles fell from the Daoist temple, clattering as they struck the ground, and she was nearly thrown to the ground herself.

The mountain stood several hundred zhang tall and was nearly ten li across. It took ordinary people one or two shichen to walk around it, and it weighed who knew how many hundreds of millions upon hundreds of millions of jin. Yet it was shaking violently because of one person's magical divine ability.

As far as she knew, this was nothing less than divine might.

Could it be the legendary divine ability, Shake Mountains and Quake the Earth?

"Please quell your anger, Immortal Master! I've already put the flowers back. I meant no harm, so please spare my life!"

The woman waited a while after speaking. When she saw that the mountain had quieted down, she reckoned she had given her explanation, returned the flowers, apologized, and begged for mercy. So she ventured to speak again:

"May I ask, Immortal Master, whether I may leave?"

"Rumble!"

The woman trembled all over in fright, and heaven and earth began to shake once more.

"Uuuh~~"

This time, the woman didn't dare move a muscle.

There were only two possibilities now: either the Immortal Master had discovered her intention to take the withered flowers and was actively using this divine ability himself, or he had actually set up a restriction that she hadn't noticed, and she had now triggered it, causing the earth to shake and the mountain to sway.

She didn't dare gamble, and she didn't dare leave.

If the first possibility was right, the Immortal Master was probably already on his way back. If it was merely a restriction being triggered, and things quieted down after a while, she would try to slip away again.

It all depended on whether the Immortal Master came back.

If he didn't, perhaps he was letting her live.

If he did, he was coming to hold her accountable.

The woman's heart was unbearably heavy.

As soon as Chen Du headed up the mountain, his steps immediately grew lighter.

"..."

He was both speechless and helpless.

He still had several packages to pick up at the foot of the mountain.

He had also made an appointment to go look at someone's feng shui.

Now he would have to apologize to the patron who had invited him to look at their feng shui.

If he couldn't get down the mountain, the predicament he faced would no longer be limited to these strange events that kept happening again and again, or the yao that had come up the mountain last night. There was also the matter of his livelihood.

He was the only one at the Daoist temple now.

If he couldn't get down the mountain, he couldn't perform rituals or look at feng shui, and would lose an important source of income. Nor could he go down to buy supplies, pick up packages, or go to the hospital when he was sick.

Although the founder of his lineage had also cultivated some fields on the mountain, commerce was flourishing now, and it was easy to buy anything. By his master's generation, they had already stopped relying entirely on the produce of the fields to feed themselves. By Chen Du's time, he grew only some seasonal vegetables and flowers in the garden and kept two laying hens, far from enough to cover his food needs.

Have Side-Swept Bangs go down the mountain to buy rice?

Have it pick up packages? Its canned food was in them, after all.

Clearly, that wouldn't work.

He hoped the yao had already left.

Chen Du's mind was in a mess as he walked back to the Daoist temple. He opened the door and saw the female yao standing right there in the courtyard.

Her face was deathly pale. When she saw him, she trembled all over, as though her last shred of hope had been dashed, and her body sank straight down.

Thump! For who knew how many times now, she fell to her knees.