Times Have Changed

A woman in ancient dress came to the town at the foot of the mountain.

She wore a dignified, elegant Ming-style hanfu, with a graceful figure and exquisite features. Had people of ancient times seen her, they would have taken her for a heavenly immortal; modern people would, at the very least, have thought she was a celebrity or internet influencer. Yet the whole time, she wore the expression of someone who had never seen the world, visiting a big city for the first time.

Shock and nervousness.

Unease and bewilderment.

This is just a bigger village? It's like another world entirely.

"Where to, where to? Motorcycle taxi!"

"Miss! Want half a duck?"

"Hey, beautiful, I'm a photographer. I was just passing by and saw you. Can I add you on WeChat?"

People kept calling out to her along the way, but although she had been able to communicate with the immortal master without difficulty, she found she couldn't understand a word they said.

"Honk!!!"

The woman quickly darted aside.

A fully loaded truck rumbled past her, its weight distorting even the hard road surface. The warm wind that blew against her felt like the scorching breath from its nostrils, while its roar was deafening. Like the chariot of a legendary god, it bore down on her with a tremendous sense of oppression.

"Beep!"

She darted aside again.

This time, a motorcycle roared past.

Unlike the truck, it was swift as the wind. The young man riding it had hair in a riot of colors, rings and studs in several places on his lips, and a fierce design exposed on his arm. He looked far more like a monster than she did. The young man couldn't help looking back at her, and her heart clenched in fright. She thought she had either encountered one of her own kind or had been seen through.

Fortunately, he vanished from sight in the space of a few blinks.

She had only just managed to calm herself when she saw an old man sitting in a chair with wheels. No one was pushing it, yet it rolled slowly and steadily up from behind her and passed her.

The woman watched him the whole time, turning her head as he went by.

Then she saw a group of children riding strange steel vehicles toward her. They had been chatting and laughing as they rode, but when they saw her, they all fell silent and looked over at her curiously.

"This..."

The woman was utterly shocked.

Fortunately, she hadn't forgotten what she had come to do.

Now, the immortal master's command had instead become her anchor. If she hadn't had a task to carry out and had wandered down the mountain and stumbled here on her own, it would truly have been like throwing her into a turbulent current. She would have had no idea where to go or what to do for quite some time.

The woman took out a piece of paper and, checking the writing on it, looked up and searched in every direction.

First she saw a two-story building whose exterior seemed to be covered in jade. Its windows were all made of sparkling, top-grade glass. A vacant room below had no one inside, yet singing drifted out from somewhere.

Then she saw a four-story building, built so very tall.

Several people on the road were holding glowing slabs and staring at them. She didn't know what they were, and she didn't even dare go closer for a look, for fear that people would discover just how ignorant she was, grow suspicious of her, and point and whisper about her.

She felt as though she had returned to the time when she had just comprehended the Dao and awakened her intelligence, before she had taken human form and begun cultivating. When she first came into the human world, everything had seemed so novel and amazing. The houses were big and strange, a carriage horse on the road could have stomped her to death with one hoof, and everyone walking the streets could speak except her. Everyone was stronger and smarter than she was. Frightened and ashamed of her own inadequacy, she had wanted nothing more than to flee back to the deserted bamboo grove and hide.

Only later, as she gradually cultivated and learned, painstakingly sculpted an unmatched beauty for herself, gained cultivation and magic power, and came to understand the human world, did that feeling disappear entirely.

As her cultivation grew and she learned spells, she had even developed a tiny sense of superiority toward mortals. Sometimes, when mortals saw her display her powers, they would revere her as a goddess.

How had everything gone back to the way it was?

Calm down! Calm down!

Getting the immortal master's precious sword back is what matters!

Yunzhi, oh, Yunzhi, you absolutely must not make any mistakes, and you mustn't expose yourself! Steady! Once you've retrieved the immortal master's precious sword, you can go straight back to the Daoist temple on the mountain!

Everything will be fine once I'm back at the temple!

At this moment, that mountain, that immortal master, and that Daoist temple had instead become a haven for her spirit, something relatively familiar to her in this strange world.

What great prison? It's practically home!

Yellow two-story building, yellow two-story building...

Keep to the side, don't walk in the middle...

Anyone who asks for my ID is an officer of the law. If I meet one, I'll run. First, I'll run as fast as my legs can carry me, and when I reach an alley where no one can see me, I'll use a spell to escape! Wait, why aren't there any alleys?

Fortunately, the town had only one main road, with storefronts on either side, and there weren't all that many of them.

Hongyuan Supermarket · Cainiao Post.

"I'm here to collect a sword!"

After checking again and again to make sure she had the right place, the woman, beautiful as a heavenly immortal, held out the token in both hands with great formality.

A short while later-

The woman bowed to the owner and thanked him, both puzzled and respectful, then bent down and picked up a large pile of things from the floor.

At the bottom was a twenty-five-kilogram sack of rice. On top of it was a large cardboard box, then a slightly smaller one, and another box a size smaller still. Some seven or eight boxes were stacked like that, and even though she was tall, the pile rose above her head.

In modern units, it probably weighed more than a hundred jin.

Kindhearted passersby worried both that the load was too heavy for her to carry and that the unsteady stack might fall, and they called out to her in concern. They heard her say things like "It's no trouble, it's no trouble" and "A thousand thanks, a thousand thanks" in an extremely pleasant voice as she carried the swaying pile of goods outside.

No one knew she still had several kilometers of mountain road to climb.

When I came down the mountain, the immortal master wouldn't let me use spells. Perhaps it's because he's cultivating in seclusion, living naturally and not seeking to display his powers in the mortal world, but it might also be a punishment meant especially for me.

Maybe...

I have to persevere!

Why don't these things look like swords? Could it just be a code? Or are the precious swords of immortals out of the ordinary? Never mind. Since they're all packed in these square, thick kraft-paper boxes, even if they aren't precious swords, they certainly aren't ordinary things. At the very least, I mustn't drop or knock them. I mustn't be careless!

The woman didn't dare slack off in the slightest.

Before long, she was panting from exhaustion.

One shouldn't assume that just because she was a monster, she had boundless strength and endless energy.

There were a thousand kinds of humans and ten thousand kinds of monsters. A tiger could awe the mountains and forests before it ever became a spirit, while a rabbit that became a spirit might still be caught by an eagle. Some monsters were naturally intelligent, some possessed boundless strength, and so on.

Strength and endurance were not Yunzhi's strong points.

It was nearly noon, yet no cooking smoke rose from the mountain.

Chen Du sat on the threshold of the Daoist temple's shrine, wearing the relaxed air of a cultivator living deep in the mountains. He turned the seal over and over in his hand, trying to discover what mysteries it held.

What connection did this mountain have to the Daoist temple? What did those black and white specks of light mean? And why wouldn't it let him go down the mountain? Or what conditions did he have to fulfill before he could leave?

Suddenly, his stomach growled twice.

He looked toward the mountain gate, but still no one had returned.

Something suddenly caught his eye. A black-and-white cat was carrying two big, fat rats in its mouth. Because the rats were so large and heavy, and it was carrying two at once, it had to walk with its legs splayed, wobbling all the way over to him.

It put the rats down, then nudged them with its paws until they faced the same direction, one close to itself and the other close to Chen Du.

"This..."

Chen Du thought of what he had told it that morning about going hungry and couldn't help smiling.

"That was thoughtful of you."

Indeed, he did have such a large mountain, after all, and a considerate cat he had raised from kittenhood. Even if the worst came to pass, he was unlikely to starve to death.

At that moment, a figure appeared at the mountain gate.

The figure wore a Ming-style hanfu and carried parcels stacked higher than herself. She was panting, sweat pouring down like rain, pausing and swaying with every step, yet her gaze was utterly resolute.

"Immortal master!"

"You're back?"

"I have fulfilled my task without letting you down!"

"You're that tired?"

Chen Du couldn't help staring for a moment. He noticed that even the hem of her mamian skirt had gathered dust.

This monster isn't pretending to be weak on purpose, is she?

"My true form is frail. I am not strong, and I am even less suited to running about. I, I have made a sorry spectacle before you, immortal master." The woman felt ashamed once again. The immortal master had probably never seen a monster as weak as her.

"If I'd known, I'd have let you ride my electric tricycle."

"Electric tricycle..."

The woman turned to look outside.

Does he mean the immortal master's vehicle? That vehicle has exactly three wheels.

What kind of vehicle is it?

It has 'electric' in its name. Could it have something to do with lightning?

"Please check everything, immortal master."

"Mm."

Chen Du took out his phone and checked. Everything was correct.

"Thank you for your hard work."

"Not at all, not at all."

"I'll be cultivating in seclusion on the mountain for a while. I'm the only one in the Daoist temple, and there are some errands I can't conveniently take care of. Would you be willing to stay at the temple and help me manage them?"

The woman was deeply moved when she heard this.

"I couldn't ask for more!"

"Those are your own words?"

"I mean them with all my heart!"

"Mm." Chen Du nodded and pointed casually. "I didn't want those petals in the bucket, and I have no use for them. Since you want them, you can take them."

"Really?"

The woman was wild with joy. She had thought the trip she had just made was the immortal master's punishment and test, but she hadn't expected to receive a reward as well.

"Thank you, immortal master!"

"Look at you. You got yourself caught up in all this over some trash. Was it worth it?"

"I gave in to a moment of greed."

The woman spoke with a bitter expression.

She regretted it too, whenever she thought of it.

To her surprise, she heard the immortal master say to her, "This tree has borne fruit. Go and count how many fruits are on it."

"Yes."

The woman didn't dare disobey and hurried over to count.

One, two, three, four, five... twelve, thirteen...

Huh? That's not right!

The woman suddenly froze.

What does the immortal master mean by this?

Could he mean that if I stay here and take good care of his errands, and if I do well, I can get even more...

Huh? Where was I?

One, two...

Yunzhi finally finished counting with difficulty. "Reporting to you, immortal master, there are twenty-eight fruits in all."

"Did you count correctly?"

"I, I'll count again."

"..."

"Reporting to you, immortal master, I counted again, and there are still twenty-eight!"

"Mm."

The tree had only sprouted a few days ago and wasn't very tall yet. Twenty-eight was quite a lot.

"Immortal master..."

"Hmm?"

Chen Du turned and saw the woman standing by the door. Not only had she stayed, but she was looking at him with a troubled expression, so he asked:

"Is there something else?"

"When I was down the mountain, I saw many strange things..."

"I already told you, times are different. The world changes in countless ways, and the differences between the world down the mountain now and the one you knew back then go far beyond that. There's no need to make such a fuss." After talking with her for so long, Chen Du's own speech had changed a little from before.

"Yes."

The woman still looked troubled and bewildered.

Chen Du gave it a little thought, then comforted her.

"You don't need to dwell on it. If people from the time of Yao and Shun were brought to the Ming dynasty and saw magnificent cities, exquisite towers and pavilions, broad roads, people dressed in fine clothes, and streets bustling with life, they would be astonished too. And the world has changed more in the four hundred years you slept than it did in the four thousand years before that. These changes have nothing to do with you, and they aren't something anyone could have stopped. You only need to take more time to learn about them."

Chen Du smiled faintly.

When he had sent the female monster down the mountain to collect his parcels and buy supplies, it had been partly because he truly had no other choice and needed to let her "make amends through good deeds." But he had also intended to show her the world as it was now and test how much she was capable of.

Letting her see how the world had changed would help her understand that she would be unable to take a single step in this world in the near future, so she could settle down on the mountain.

Even in the worst-case scenario, if she were an evil monster through and through, after seeing the world as it was now, she would most likely first find somewhere to settle and learn more about it before making plans. That would help Chen Du learn about cultivation and spells from her and obtain what he wanted.

At the same time, he could test her.

It was six or seven kilometers from the town at the foot of the mountain to here, nearly thirty li for the round trip. The things he had bought weighed close to a hundred jin altogether. He only had to see how long she took to return and whether she managed it with ease.

So far, the results were good.

"Yunzhi understands."

"Remember this well: you must never harbor any thought of doing evil. Otherwise, you'll find that in this age, it is by no means only the immortals, lofty masters, great monsters, and demon kings of legend who can split mountains and rend the earth, fill seas and dam rivers. Nor are cultivators the only ones who can sail on land, soar through the skies to reach a place ten thousand li away in a day, or know the affairs of the world without leaving home."

"..."

The female monster was shaken.

Yet what she had seen and heard down the mountain told her that the mortals of this age might truly be capable of such things.

The effect was excellent!

"You'll find out whether it's true later," Chen Du said with a smile. Then he asked, "Are you accustomed to eating the grains mortals eat?"

"Um, oh, answering the immortal master: after taking human form, I traveled in the human world for more than ten years, and my habits have become much the same as those of mortals. Your cultivation is important, immortal master, so I would not dare trouble you with my meals. Wherever and whenever it may be, I can provide for myself."

Much the same. Good.

Chen Du nodded.

They had only just met and had no friendship between them, so it was not appropriate to speak too deeply.