The Debate on Clouds and Rosy Clouds (Part One)

Su Yao had traveled some ten li south before this, but now he followed the woodcutter northeast.

The mountain god was merely disguised as an ordinary woodcutter. Since he meant to put on an act, Su Yao let him carry on, floating unhurriedly behind him as he watched him weave through the mountain woods.

They traveled more than twenty li northeast in this fashion, and by then it was already afternoon.

At last, they reached a relatively level hollow in the mountains, where several thatched cottages enclosed a small courtyard. A few mu of dry fields lay beside them.

The woodcutter went up and opened the gate, then turned to Su Yao:

"Immortal master, please follow me."

Without waiting for Su Yao to answer, he strode into the courtyard.

Seeing this, Su Yao remained impassive and stopped several zhang away. After a short wait, the prism in his sea of Qi reflected the whole courtyard clearly. There were no formations or outsiders lying in ambush, only the woodcutter the mountain god had transformed into, taking a jar of spirit tea and several kinds of spirit fruit from a Storage Bag.

Su Yao gathered his thoughts and headed into the courtyard, his face expressionless.

When he entered, the woodcutter had already set out a wooden table and two wooden chairs in the courtyard.

On the table were three plates of spirit fruit, all local specialties from the area around Qixia Mountain: jiao pears, green tangerines, and golden jujubes.

There was also a pot of clear tea, its fragrance filling the air. A mortal needed only a whiff to extend their life by several years.

The woodcutter, however, was nowhere to be seen.

Su Yao could not be bothered to wait any longer. Without waiting for his host to invite him, he cast a dust-clearing spell and sat down in the wooden chair on the left. He first looked over the spirit fruits and tea, then closed his eyes to rest. After all, such things were commonplace to him.

Still, since this performance had begun, it ought to be carried through to the end.

He would play along to the end and see what the other party wanted.

A moment later, the woodcutter emerged from the house again, carrying a plate of pastries.

Though they held no spiritual essence, their aroma was exceptionally rich. One look was enough to tell they were of the finest quality.

He set the pastries in the middle of the table and took a seat in the wooden chair on the right, though his posture remained stiff and awkward.

Looking at Su Yao, he made his calculations in secret:

This Dao Child is far more discourteous than True Person Guangli was five hundred years ago.

But when he thought of what had happened with True Person Guangli, boundless fear filled his heart. He had been summoned to Jiankang by imperial decree at the time, but when he returned, he saw the miserable fate of the families that had moved against True Person Guangli.

The Daozheng had hung the people behind it all above Qixia Mountain, calling down heavenly lightning one day, a wind calamity the next, and a Wu Earth tribulation the day after that. Finally, he went to the Eight Sceneries Palace and borrowed Samadhi True Fire, burning their souls to nothing and reducing their bones and flesh to ashes, before forcing their descendants to swallow them.

Even so, those people ought to have felt honored. How many in this world longed to see Samadhi True Fire just once, but could not?

The one who suffered most was the prefect of Qinghe, who had once been praised as "a gentleman as warm and gentle as jade."

His literary heart was shattered first, and then he was sent to the Heaven of Following Desire, which he despised above all else, where he had remained mired to this day.

To kill a man and destroy his heart-nothing surpassed this!

Afterward, the emperor of Great Qing also sent an envoy to demand an accounting. But he needed the Daozheng to guard against the South Sea Devil Lord coming north, so that he could devote all his efforts to suppressing the Southern Frontier and the Northern Rong. In the end, the matter was dropped.

Fortunately, the many mountain gods and earth gods throughout the realm had all been summoned to Jiankang back then, so he had not taken part and had escaped that calamity.

But this time, he feared he could not escape. He let out a wail in his heart.

After all, he had long wanted to extricate himself. The position of mountain god was far too awkward, and the families behind it had already promised to move him elsewhere to serve as a mountain god once the matter was done.

He could also take this opportunity to sound out the Daozheng's attitude. He did not know whether the day would come when he could return to Qixia Temple.

He silently repeated "I'm not making a move, just sounding him out" several times, then looked at Su Yao and said with a smile:

"Immortal, please help yourself. The pears, tangerines, and jujubes were all picked in the nearby mountains. The pastries were made by Mozhai Pavilion in Qinghe's prefectural city." He paused. "These pastries in particular, I traded herbs gathered in the mountains for them, just to satisfy a craving."

Su Yao had long since used the prism to examine the offerings and found that nothing had been done to them. So he picked up a pastry and tasted it. After a moment, he looked at the woodcutter:

"The pastries are indeed good, but I wonder what the person who made them is like?"

The woodcutter was taken aback and gave no answer.

Seeing that he would not answer, Su Yao simply picked up another pastry and tasted it.

Though Qixia Mountain was rich in produce, worldly things like these were scarce. Only Jueming occasionally made some pastries in secret for him to try, but how could Jueming's skill compare to that of the artisans below the mountain?

As for the spirit fruits and tea, he cared even less for them. Though Qixia Temple had already fallen from its former glory, and this was not its ancestral seat but a place it had moved to eight thousand years ago,

places like the Central Plains and Guanzhong were densely populated. Generations of Qixia Temple's patriarchs had often come here seeking peace and nature, away from worldly affairs. Naturally, they had also put Qixia Mountain in good order, and it had no shortage of fine things.

He had even seen the Jade Lake's peaches.

When the Jade Lake held its Peach Banquet, Qixia Temple, as part of the Jade Pure One's lineage, received a separate portion for its True Lord when it had one. In addition, by custom, the Daozheng, the temple master, and the Dao Child each received a portion.

Unfortunately, the last Peach Banquet had been a thousand years ago, so he had never attended one. The Daozheng, however, had attended many times and naturally had some in his possession. But the peaches belonged to water, while the Rainbow Clouds path he cultivated had an affinity for fire among the five elements. The patriarch Yun Zhongzi was not only the founder of the Rainbow Clouds path but also a renowned artifact refiner of High Antiquity, who made extensive use of fire. Thus, the Rainbow Clouds path favored fire and shunned water.

The Daozheng feared damaging the foundation of his cultivation, so he had never tasted one.

He ate a few pastries.

Seeing that the woodcutter still said nothing, merely keeping his head lowered, Su Yao did not know what he was thinking. He looked at the spirit fruits and spoke again:

"Jiao pears stand for desire; green tangerines, for wood; golden jujubes, for metal. Our Rainbow Clouds path favors fire and earth and shuns water, wood, and metal. Desire, still more, is not something we immortals favor. These spirit fruits have gone to waste."

His voice was not loud, but the moment it reached the woodcutter's ears, his heart jolted.

He opened his mouth, but in the end he did not speak and bring the matter into the open. At the same time, he was finally certain that Su Yao had seen through it.

How could this be?

He had heard that though this Dao Child's talent was astonishing, that he had reached Foundation Establishment Perfection in sixty years, and that the Qi throughout his body was incomparably abundant,

he was still only at Foundation Establishment, a world apart from the Purple Mansion. How could he have seen through it?

Hadn't they said that, given the Daozheng's temperament, he would not intervene over a little probing?

After a long daze, he finally managed to force out a faint smile:

"In that case, immortal master, please try this mountain tea as well. The mountain god of Qixia Mountain saw that we woodcutters spent all year chopping wood and gathering herbs just to put three meals a day on the table. He took pity on us and, out of consideration, often opened his private tea garden and allowed us to pick a little, so we might have a taste of what immortals enjoy."

With that, he picked up the teapot and poured Su Yao a cup of clear tea.

Su Yao picked up the cup at once and took a small sip. Some thoughts occurred to him, and he looked at the woodcutter:

"May I ask the name of this tea?"

Hearing this, the woodcutter thought Su Yao was interested. A trace of pride appeared on his face, and he said with a smile:

"It is a coarse tea from the mountain wilds, with no name. Only the woodcutters nearby like to call it 'Wild Cloud.'"

Su Yao shook his head and sighed when he heard this:

"'Wild' means the outskirts, and is not of the refined and proper kind. 'Cloud' is the Qi of mountains and rivers, gathering and scattering without constancy, with no lasting form. In the end, it has fallen into the Lower Vehicle."