Life Like a Wild Weed, Fate Like Sparks Struck from Stone

Wind swept the damp breath of rain over the blue-tiled eaves.

Yu Tunzhou crouched beneath them for shelter, watching curtains of rain stretch into the distance and shatter the shallow puddles. Ripples blurred the reflections of the leaden sky and dark blue eaves.

He adjusted his bamboo hat and looked up.

The town was hazy and indistinct in the rain. The buildings rising and falling in the distance had been reduced to ink-wash outlines, and even the beast heads on their eaves had shed their usual ferocity.

Yet from the distant riverside landing, through the vast mist of rain, came the occasional sound of an oar sculling.

Unhurried and measured, slow enough to wear a person's temper smooth.

The downpour showed no sign of letting up anytime soon.

With nothing else to do, Yu Tunzhou took out several copper coins, their surfaces warm and lustrous from years of handling, and cast a divination for himself.

He calmed his mind, silently recited what he wished to divine, and tossed three copper coins, recording the resulting lines. He repeated this six times and finally obtained a result.

Qian, initial nine.

The boy's tense brow relaxed a little as he studied the hexagram.

The Qian hexagram represented heaven, its six lines all yang. It was the first of the sixty-four hexagrams, a sign of great fortune and prosperity!

Accuracy aside, it was a good omen, at least.

By the time he finished the divination, the spring rain was gradually easing. It really was a good omen.

Yu Tunzhou drew a deep breath. Threads of coolness seeped into his lungs, mingling the crisp freshness after rain with the earthy smell of soil, and he felt a little more spirited.

He stood, pressed his palms together, and turned to bow in thanks to the old house, long abandoned and uninhabited, for sheltering him from the rain. Then he walked down the steps at an easy pace.

The moss-covered flagstones were especially slippery in the rain. Yu Tunzhou had suffered for it before, so he walked with particular care.

Sheltering from the rain had cost him quite some time, so he chose a shortcut, heading straight through several equally dilapidated old houses.

At each house, Yu Tunzhou stopped to give thanks, softly saying, "Sorry to disturb you," toward the empty main hall.

Someone had once advised him that this town beneath his feet was rather special. Every dilapidated old house had once been the "ancestral home" of a distinguished household that treasured it as dearly as life itself.

Even if its people were now gone and it had fallen into disrepair, an ancestral home had a spirit. One should show it some respect and not act recklessly.

Yu Tunzhou had not only listened to those words but also committed them to heart.

He had made a point of counting: there were forty-nine households in town, but only thirty-nine were still inhabited, or rather, still had someone staying behind to keep watch.

The remaining ten had become empty houses that no one cared for.

"Tunzhou! Over here!"

A fishing boat was moored by the river in the distance. A man who was not tall but could be called sturdy stood on the stone steps of the landing, waving him over.

The man was around thirty, his skin bronzed by wind and blazing sun like old wood soaked in tung oil, with a roughness honed by wind and waves.

He wore a hemp shirt washed pale over the years and went barefoot, his trouser legs rolled to his knees to reveal solid calves corded with muscle.

Yu Tunzhou hurried over, glanced at the brimming fish baskets before the man, and asked curiously:

"Old Mo, why did you catch so many more fish than usual today?"

The man's surname was Mo, and he called himself Mo Laoliu.

Three years ago, when Yu Tunzhou transmigrated to this world and stumbled into this place, Old Mo was the first person he met.

Over those three years, Yu Tunzhou had survived in this mysterious town with its many rules largely thanks to Old Mo's help.

Old Mo chuckled, wiped the rain from his face, and said:

"People have come to town, so naturally I had to catch more fish. Remember what I told you? The upheaval that comes once every thirty years is about to begin, and some people have already entered the arena ahead of time."

He smacked his lips and added:

"You should've seen the procession. Heavenly maidens in attendance, ethereal immortal music, jade chimes ringing on and on. It was a frighteningly grand display... Anyone who didn't know better would've thought immortals from High Antiquity were traveling, and that auspicious omens had descended from heaven. No wonder it's one of the ancestral seats of Daoism. What a spectacle."

Old Mo clicked his tongue in amazement.

Another breeze swept across the lake.

Yu Tunzhou's gaze gradually drifted out of focus.

A thousand thoughts welled up, like a wind-stirred surface of water, churning up memories of the past.

In his previous life, he had lived in a welfare home and entered university with government assistance. But he had been reassigned to a different major, ending up in the particularly obscure field of folklore studies.

He was the only new folklore student in his year. In the words of the internet, he had become the sect's holy son the moment he enrolled; even his teachers had to ask him for leave.

And if he took a day off, the entire major got a holiday.

For the graduation photo, he would have to stand in the place of honor, with a row of professors seated behind him.

And that was indeed how things turned out-

After the professors confirmed that he had no intention of changing majors and learned of his background, Yu Tunzhou, who had fallen to the bottom of the valley from birth, finally saw his life's course begin to rise.

His teachers not only invited him home for meals every few days, with their wives ladling him soup and his senior sisters serving him food, but also took him along during summer and winter breaks to ancient temples and Daoist monasteries across the country to observe and learn.

At university, his main focus was ancient religious folklore.

During the winter break of his third year, he accompanied a teacher to investigate an ancient ruin and was tasked with identifying a divine statue.

Unexpectedly, an earthquake struck midway through the investigation, and the heavy statue toppled with a crash, falling toward them!

He pushed his teacher out of the way, but was unfortunately struck by the statue himself.

When he opened his eyes again,

he had arrived in this unfamiliar world and accidentally stumbled into the strange little town beneath his feet.

"...What a pity. One good downpour turned them all into drowned chickens. Ah, I'm just worried about those heavenly maiden sisters. What if they get soaked and fall ill?"

Old Mo was still chattering away, looking deeply concerned, and brought Yu Tunzhou back to reality.

Yu Tunzhou's vacant eyes gradually regained focus. Hearing this, he said helplessly, "If they're the heavenly maidens recorded in Daoist texts, would they really be afraid of getting sick from a little rain?"

Old Mo grew agitated at once. Beating his chest in anguish, he said, "Yu Tunzhou, is that the point? The point is, I've got a fire burning in my room!"

Yu Tunzhou did not respond to Old Mo's banter. A shadow hung over his heart.

Over the past three years, Yu Tunzhou had made discreet inquiries and learned that this town was actually a place where this world's Daoist establishments raised gu to train their younger disciples.

The town held a great trial every thirty years. Each household had one place, but usually only half of these disciples survived to leave.

In the bloodiest trial, only one had survived.

He had stumbled into this place three years ago. If not for Old Mo and two other seniors protecting him and giving him a sliver of a chance, he would have died back then.

The price was becoming one of the gu in this thirty-year trial.

So he had to find some way to set foot on the path of cultivation. Otherwise, he would still be unable to escape death in the end, becoming nothing more than someone else's whetstone.

Yu Tunzhou suddenly spoke. "Old Mo, do you think I still have a chance?"

At Yu Tunzhou's sudden question, Old Mo's expression settled, and he said seriously:

"Don't rush. It isn't over yet. It's only just begun."

Yu Tunzhou nodded firmly.

"Besides, don't you still have that slow-and-easy boxing art of yours? Keep practicing it. Who knows, maybe one day it'll amount to something." Mo Laoliu patted his shoulder in consolation.

Yu Tunzhou corrected him. "It's Taijiquan."

He had learned both Taijiquan and divination from his teacher in his previous life.

After coming to this world, he practiced it in his spare time to strengthen his body and remember his past.

Old Mo had once happened to see him practicing. He had given a startled exclamation on the spot, circled him more than a dozen times, and finally declared that the boxing art was rather interesting.

Yu Tunzhou had initially been somewhat excited.

He wondered whether a health-preserving boxing art so famous in his previous life might have some unexpected effect in this world of Gods and Devils.

But three years had flown by, and although Yu Tunzhou had grown much stronger, there was nothing unusual about the boxing art. After first ruling out any problem with himself, he increasingly felt that Old Mo had been fooling him that day.

"Old Mo."

Yu Tunzhou looked up, preoccupied. As though he had made up his mind at that moment, he said with utmost gravity,

"There's something important I want to tell you..."

"Hold it!"

Old Mo reached out, took the bamboo hat off the boy's head, and put it on his own. Smiling, he said,

"I'm not reliable. You'd better not tell me something that important."

"The rain's stopped, boy. Time to deliver the fish. Double the usual share for each household, two fish apiece. I accidentally caught too many this time, so take the rest home and share them with the little monk next door."

Warmth filled Yu Tunzhou's heart.

There was no accident about it. Old Mo was helping him again.

The town produced no grain. Every Monday, Old Mo sent him to deliver fish to each household, and he too relied largely on fish to get by.

The fish were small, but their flesh staved off hunger exceptionally well.

"I'll go deliver the fish!"

Yu Tunzhou bent down, hoisted one basket onto his back, and picked up another in each hand. With a light step, he ran toward town.

Though the town had only forty-nine households, it occupied a considerable area, and every residence was extravagantly luxurious.

The lanes alone were paved with fine flagstones as large as bed boards. No one knew how many years had passed, but time had long since worn the stones smooth as mirrors.

On either side of the lanes stood grand mansions with deep courtyards, vermilion gates with bronze knockers, and sweeping, upturned eaves.

Yu Tunzhou had been inside a few of them and felt they were like the imperial gardens of his previous life, luxurious beyond measure.

Yet for all their splendor, few people lived in these houses.

From what he had observed over the years, each household seemed to have only one person stationed here, and they rarely left their homes.

Yu Tunzhou went from door to door, knocking and delivering the fish.

Old Mo had him make the deliveries partly to give him a chance to meet the town's households.

According to Old Mo, his only hope of stepping onto the Dao Path was to earn the recognition and appreciation of one of the town's thirty-nine households and be taught its martial inheritance.

It seemed next to impossible, but there had been exceptions before.

According to Old Mo's inquiries, many years ago a cowherd boy who had stumbled into this place just like him had won the appreciation of one of the households.

In the end, he had not only walked out of town alive but had also become a figure of immense power in his day, one who could hold up the heavens with a single hand!

"Just leave them at the door."

He had barely climbed the steps of one household, before he could knock, when a bland voice sounded in the lake of his heart, utterly untouched by worldly concerns.

Yu Tunzhou was not surprised. He bent down as instructed and placed two fish before the threshold.

Just as he turned to leave, the voice sounded again, as calm and flat as before.

"Leave your share as well."

Yu Tunzhou halted and said in a low voice, "Senior, are you offering to take me as your disciple?"

Behind the gate, deep within the courtyard, in a verdant bamboo grove,

a refined middle-aged man sat on the ground, instructing the young person before him.

Hearing this, he paused for a moment, frowned slightly, and shook his head as he transmitted his voice:

"My lineage does not accept those who are about to die. But if you have a predestined connection with my Dongting in your next life..."

Outside the gate,

Yu Tunzhou heard the first part and immediately turned to leave without hesitation.

"Two fish per household. Those are the rules. Please don't make things difficult for me, Senior."

He walked down the steps and added,

"Old Mo said so."

In the bamboo grove, the middle-aged man's expression remained impassive as he turned toward the gate.

His gaze was cold.

Was the boy using that town guardian of unknown origins to pressure him?

The youth kneeling before him smiled. "Master Luo, what's the matter?"

The middle-aged man, Luo Shiwu, said calmly, "I meant to ask for a few more Dragon Fish to nourish Your Highness, so you could deduce the Qi Ingestion Method to the tenth level as soon as possible. I didn't expect that child to be so blind to my favor."

He spoke casually. "If that town guardian hadn't insisted on protecting him, the boy would have died three years ago. And he still dares dream of joining our lineage? Back then, a 'cowherd boy' walked out of this town, and now another boy like him has appeared. Who among the various factions wouldn't be suspicious? How could they possibly let him live to the end?"

The gentle young noble seated opposite him looked handsome and clear-featured at first glance, but was actually a girl dressed as a man. She had masculine features and delicate, porcelain-white skin.

The arrogance between her brows, cultivated over many years, could not be completely hidden, even though she had deliberately restrained it.

At that moment, the corners of the girl's eyes tilted up slightly. Somewhat interested, she smiled and said:

"Why trouble yourself with a country child, Master Luo? I heard someone has already divined his fate?"

"People from both Jixia Academy and the Star Palace have given readings," Luo Shiwu said with a nod. "Jixia Academy's reading was, 'Life like a wild weed.' The Star Palace's was, 'Fate like sparks struck from stone.'"

"Whichever way you look at it, he has a meager fate and shallow blessings."

"Oh?" the girl said playfully. "A bad fate? Isn't that wonderful?"

Jixia Academy was the world's ancestral seat of the School of Yin and Yang, expert in observing the stars and reading Qi, deducing the five virtues, and foreseeing the future.

The Star Palace was one of the present-day Daoist schools. Its main lineage alone possessed Purple Star Astrology, and it too was skilled in divination and fortune-telling.

For experts from both establishments to divine his fate was an "honor" for someone of the boy's standing.

Life like a wild weed, fate like sparks struck from stone?

The girl fell into thought.

Wild weeds often grew in irrigation ditches beside rice paddies, sprouting when they found water. They were invasive weeds, and because they competed with rice for water and sunlight, farmers often searched them out and pulled them up whenever they saw them.

If this town was a rice paddy carefully marked out by the various lineages and households, then Yu Tunzhou was a weed that had sprouted there by accident, one that needed to be pulled.

As for sparks struck from stone, that was even simpler.

How long could sparks struck from stone remain in the world?

A person with shallow blessings and a short life.

"With a fate like sparks struck from stone, how much longer can he remain in this world?" Luo Shiwu shook his head regretfully. "It's just a pity about those Dragon Fish."

The girl stared absentmindedly out the window.

The remaining rainwater dripped from the eaves in strings of beads, striking the puddles below and raising ripples that scattered and gathered, gathered and scattered, like rootless duckweed.

Something suddenly occurred to her. Hadn't that fellow eaten Dragon Fish for all three years he had spent in town?

She immediately said, "That fellow is still a little useful. Perhaps he can help me make contact with that town guardian. For now, don't go out of your way to make trouble for him."

Luo Shiwu's gaze sharpened, and he said in a grave voice:

"That town guardian's identity is unknown, and his thoughts are devious and unfathomable. The disciples of the Pure Tenuity Gate merely traveled in a somewhat grand procession, yet he played a trick on them with a Secret Method and left them in a sorry state. It was plainly a warning shot, striking the mountain to frighten the tiger. Your Highness must not let down your guard when dealing with him!"

The corners of the girl's lips curved, as though she were struggling to suppress a smile, and her eyes were full of barely contained amusement.

She had remembered the Pure Tenuity Sect's candidate Dao Child, who had become a "drowned chicken" not long ago.

The earlier incident had not caused a ripple in Yu Tunzhou's heart.

He did not want to die, but he also knew full well that he must never fear death, much less bow easily to certain people because of that fear.

In some people's eyes, he, Yu Tunzhou, was far too lowly, like a weed found anywhere in the countryside. That was why, even when asking him for Dragon Fish, they still acted so high and mighty.

It seemed that all they had to do was speak a few casual words, and he ought to offer up everything with both hands.

In those people's eyes, he probably could not refuse them. How would he dare? What gave him the right?

Yu Tunzhou knew full well that bowing and fawning before such people would not make them look him in the eye. It would only make them look down on him all the more.

He continued delivering fish to the remaining thirty-eight households in town.

Some gave no response, just as they had for the past three years. He left the catch at their doors and turned to the next household.

Some opened their doors as they always had and accepted the catch. They seemed to be smiling, but beneath those smiles was a coldness that kept others a thousand miles away.

At several of the houses, those who opened the doors were around his age.

When they learned that Yu Tunzhou did not come from any household and had merely wandered here by mistake, they all gave him strange looks, not a few of them filled with pity.

It was as though they were looking at a dying man.

Along the way, there were also those who, like the first household, tried to snare a white wolf with empty words and take his share of the Dragon Fish. He turned them all down by invoking Old Mo's rules.

Old Mo had to follow the rules, so he could not help him. In that case, these people had to follow the rules too.

So, to Yu Tunzhou, certain people's threats were no different from empty talk, going in one ear and out the other. He could not be bothered to pay them any attention. When he grew truly impatient, he would give them a sidelong glance and say, "All you can do is wag your tongue."

What could they do?

All they could do was turn red with anger.

Along the way, Yu Tunzhou had also guessed that the strange fish he had eaten to stave off hunger in the past seemed to be quite valuable. That was why the important figures who had never paid him any attention before had all deigned to speak.

Along the way.

Yu Tunzhou kept a silent count. The unfamiliar faces he had seen so far already numbered more than he could count on both hands.

More than a quarter of the thirty-nine households had received arrivals. The town was indeed about to grow lively.

And he had little time and few opportunities left.

If he wanted to embark on the Dao Path, he first had to obtain a cultivation method.

But a thousand pieces of gold were easily obtained; a true method was hard to find.

If no one passed on the Dao and taught him, how was he to get started?

Yu Tunzhou pursed his lips and came to a large residence whose gates stood open all year round, slowing his steps without meaning to.

Of all the households he had known over the past three years, he thought this one offered the most hope.

He crossed the threshold. Clearly, it was not his first visit, and he made his way into the depths of the residence with practiced ease. Suddenly, he heard a middle-aged man's rich voice coming from the main hall ahead-

"Qi Ingestion and Meridian Opening is a method of cultivating one's life and establishing one's foundation. It has undergone changes over several thousand years and has now taken its final form. Nothing can be added, and nothing can be removed.

"The Lower Vehicle method is to eat the five grains, fill the belly and replenish Qi, and refine essence Qi from meat.

"The Higher Vehicle method is to gather Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and the essence of the sun and moon to nourish one's body, striving not to be tainted in the slightest by the impurities of the mortal world.

"You were born into a great clan and joined my Evergreen Mountain. Now you have obtained a fortuitous opportunity and entered this Luofu Grotto-Heaven. Naturally, you seek to advance another step from the top of a hundred-foot pole, to find a path above the Higher Vehicle.

"But the Dao has no fixed method. None but those with great fortuitous opportunities and great fortune can walk this path-

"Some revere the ancient methods and use the clear Qi of the Nine Heavens left over from High Antiquity to forge an ancient-method immortal foundation, with rosy light following them and Dao rhythm arising of its own accord;

"Some fall into the Nine Netherworlds and seize a wisp of tribulation Qi on the brink of life and death. From then on, their Dao foundation is stained with Sha, and tribulation fire tempers their bodies;

"Others who came before opened up a different path, feeding on the twenty-four solar terms to attain the grand manifestation of 'the four seasons in order, the solar terms in cycle,' wielding the heavenly might of the seasons with every gesture;

"Still other extraordinary people are favored by heaven and earth. Their fortune is so abundant that it condenses into three azure lotuses of its own accord. Why would they need to rely on external things or methods? By feeding on their own fortune, they can forge a supreme immortal foundation."

"It was also after this person that the path of Qi Ingestion, which had gradually begun to grow fixed, gained a new, profound direction, such as..."

"Immortal fortune!"