Chapter 77: Into the Mountains

Having rushed back to the blacksmith shop, Ruan Xiu found only her father sitting on a bamboo chair under the eaves. She handed him the wine pot and then sat on another chair, asking, "Father, have you finished your business?"

Ruan Qiong opened the pot. Without even drinking, just the scent made his head ache. It was indeed Peach Blossom Spring Brew, but not the high-quality kind worth two taels of silver. This was the cheapest kind, worth only eight copper coins a pot. Ruan Qiong glanced at his daughter out of the corner of his eye. She was fidgeting, twisting the hem of her clothes, her gaze darting around, clearly afraid of being exposed. Ruan Qiong sighed inwardly, pretending not to notice anything. He tilted his head back and took a swig. He felt nothing but frustration. He said slowly, "It's done. It went well. I'll have someone go to the Kiln Affairs Office and find that Da Li official named Wu Yuan. I'll take the old and new maps of the mountains and rivers. I expect Chen Ping An will come to ask me for them when he comes to his senses."

Ruan Xiu was relieved. She smiled and gave a little "oh." She stretched her legs out straight and let out a comfortable yawn, leaning against the cool, smooth back of the bamboo chair.

Ruan Qiong thought about how he was about to start making headway here. The beginning was always the hardest, but this was a good omen. He was even moved to say something nice about Chen Ping An, "That kid from Mud Bottle Alley. He might be simple, but he's not stupid."

Ruan Xiu said happily, "Father, that's called profound wisdom, you know?"

Ruan Qiong chuckled, not saying anything.

He just thought to himself, *What profound wisdom? I don't know anything about that!*

Ruan Qiong looked at the distant stream, holding the neck of the wine pot with two fingers, gently shaking it. "There are some things that I can't tell him directly, in case he overthinks it and messes things up. Tomorrow, when you see him, you can tell him."

Ruan Xiu asked curiously, "What is it?"

Ruan Qiong was silent for a moment, then lifted the wine pot and took a small sip of the strong liquor. Only then did he say, "Tell him not to hope for Dragon Spine Mountain. Even some rogue cultivators in the Upper Five Realms wouldn't dare to ask for it. Wind and Snow Temple and True Martial Mountain spent a lot of effort, plus my current status, to barely take it down. There are still many people who are secretly jealous, gnashing their teeth behind the scenes. Of course, you don't need to explain all the intricacies to Chen Ping An. Just be straightforward and tell him not to even think about Dragon Spine Mountain. Also, regarding this sale of mountains by the Da Li court at low prices, there are only sixty or so in total. At most, Chen Ping An can only buy five peaks. Any more than that, and it will be difficult for me to protect him and his mountains. Third, I've just decided to ask Da Li for three mountains, mainly Divine Splendor Mountain. When Chen Ping An is looking at the map, have him pay attention to the mountains around Divine Splendor Mountain, Lantern Mountain, and Horizontal Spear Peak. I'm not an unreasonable person. I won't make him spend all his money in the vicinity. He only needs to spend half of his gold essence coins. But if he's smart, he'll buy more mountains around your father's two mountains and one peak. That's the right thing to do. Finally, you can also tell him that if he can spare a few copper coins, he should buy a few shops in town. Many good shops will probably be changing hands soon, because many locals with connections outside the town will likely be moving out, so the prices will definitely be low, at most one copper coin."

Ruan Xiu asked tentatively, "Father, why don't you buy that pawnshop? You took my two bags of copper coins, right? Give me back one first, just one, okay?"

Ruan Qiong forced a smile, "Don't even think about the copper coins I've saved up. I advise you to give up. Oh, right, you can have Chen Ping An pay for it. He's the richest man in our town now."

Ruan Xiu said without hesitation, "That won't do. He's poor. He has to borrow even a dozen taels of silver."

Ruan Qiong's mouth twitched. He couldn't help but turn his head and ask, "Oh, so my money isn't money, but his is?"

Ruan Xiu chuckled, "I'm not that familiar with him."

Ruan Qiong almost spat out a mouthful of old blood. *Not that familiar? If you weren't familiar, would you lie and make your own father drink this swill, then pocket the money, just to lend it to that bastard? How familiar do you have to be?* Ruan Qiong took a big gulp of the mediocre liquor, stood up, and said, "Anyway, I've said what I need to say. You can choose what to tell Chen Ping An tomorrow."

The man strode away, knowing full well that his daughter would say everything tomorrow, whether she should or not.

The more Ruan Qiong thought about it, the more frustrated he became. He couldn't scold his daughter, and he couldn't beat that little rascal who was digging at the corner of the wall with a small hoe. The man had no choice but to curse under his breath. He took a walk to a deserted open space, threw away the empty wine pot that he had finished drinking despite its terrible taste, and his figure shot up into the air. In an instant, he landed at the entrance of the shop that sold Peach Blossom Spring Brew in town. Of course, the shop was already closed for the night. He knocked hard on the door, and soon a sleepy-eyed woman got up from the backyard to open the door, grumbling, saying things like "eager to die and be reborn," "drinking at midnight, why don't you drink pee, it's free," "daring to knock on a widow's door at night, aren't you afraid I'll break your three legs." She wasn't polite at all.

Ruan Qiong stood at the door, his face gloomy, saying nothing.

Seeing that it was Blacksmith Ruan, the woman glanced at the middle-aged man's tightly muscled arms in the moonlight, and her face immediately changed. Her eyes became alluring, and she grabbed the man's arm with great enthusiasm. It was as hard as iron. The woman, feeling like she had found rain after a long drought, smiled even more eagerly. As she led the way, she stumbled as if she was about to fall into the man's arms, but unfortunately, the blacksmith didn't understand her intentions and gently held her shoulders. In the end, he threw down some silver, took two pots of wine, and strode away.

The woman stood at the door, her face full of mockery. She called out loudly, "Such a strong man, but as soft as your surname! Soft Master Ruan, oh no, Master Ruan, next time you come to my shop for wine, I'll charge you double the price! If Master Ruan ever gets it up, maybe I won't charge you a single coin. Free wine, free woman."

Ruan Qiong walked indifferently to the end of the street, his figure flashed, and he didn't return to the shop south of town, but went north, coming to a small mountain.

It was made entirely of broken porcelain, piled up into a mountain.

Ruan Qiong found a place thirty steps away from this small mountain and sat down cross-legged.

A voice sounded not far away, "What a coincidence, you're here too."

Ruan Qiong nodded and threw him a pot of wine.The old man took the wine, weighed it in his hand, and clicked his tongue. "Buying wine from Widow Liu's shop these days, any man's bound to take a loss."

Ruan Qiong, of course, didn't want to discuss that, and instead asked, "Old Mr. Yang, who exactly is that youth beside the new supervisor Wu Yuan? I can't see through him. On the surface, he seems no different from anyone else."

The old man was indeed Old Man Yang from the Yang family shop. He took a sip of wine and said, "His identity is unknown, but as the old saying goes, those who come with ill intent don't come bearing gifts, right?"

After saying this, Old Man Yang smiled and looked up.

At the summit of Porcelain Mountain, a young man in a green robe stood with his hands tucked into his sleeves, a mole between his eyebrows, and a spring breeze smile on his face.

The youth pulled one hand from his sleeve and waved it. "One should announce their presence before entering a home, and worship the gods before entering a temple. I understand the rules. I greeted Master Ruan first, and now I've come to see Old Yang. No fault can be found in my etiquette."

Old Man Yang didn't continue drinking. He found a rope from somewhere, tied the wine pot to his waist, took a puff of his dry pipe, and chuckled, "One draws talismans to ward off evil when entering mountains and swamps. I just don't know if you've drawn ghost scribbles or immortal talismans?"

The youth retracted his hand, leaned forward slightly, and said with a smile, "Regardless of how Old Yang and Master Ruan misunderstand, I assure you that after this visit, I won't have any further dealings with either of you. Well, if there truly is anything, it's probably just the construction of the City God Pavilion, which I'm temporarily responsible for. That will slightly touch upon both of you. As for any Literary God Pavilion or Martial Saint Temple, I can't control those. I can only manage a City God Pavilion the size of a sesame seed."

According to common lore, within a county's borders, the magistrate has full authority over all matters in the mortal realm. As for that lofty clay City God, he's actually responsible for watching over the night and any ghostly creatures under his jurisdiction.

Master Ruan frowned. Was he a Ministry of Rites offering from the Great Li Dynasty? Or a Qi cultivator from the Astronomical Observatory?

But whether his roots were in the Ministry of Rites, the Astronomical Observatory, or somewhere within the Great Li imperial palace, to dare stand so audaciously atop Porcelain Mountain, he must be at least a tenth-floor cultivator standing at the pinnacle of the Middle Five Realms.

So, this youth was definitely not a youth.

The handsome cultivator, with a vermillion-like mole between his eyebrows, looked at Old Man Yang and said, "Old sir, a word of warning: better safe than sorry."

Old Man Yang took a forceful puff of his dry pipe, but in the end, only a wisp of extremely thin smoke emerged, quickly and silently dissipating into the heavens and earth.

The seemingly handsome youth still had his hands tucked into his sleeves, but his sleeves moved slightly, as if he were performing hand seals with his fingers.

Ruan Qiong sighed heavily. "For my sake, let's leave it at that, otherwise, if the three of us engage in a chaotic battle, will we really have to destroy everything within a thousand miles?"

The youth immediately removed his hands from his sleeves, raising them high, showing a suspicious tendency to shift with the wind, and said with a grin, "I have no problem with that."

Old Man Yang inhaled through his nose, and two undetectable wisps of blue-purple smoke quickly flew into the old man's nostrils.

The old man sneered, "You know quite a bit."

The youth reached out and pinched his nose. "Not too much, not too little, just the right amount. For example, I only know that I should call you Green… Great Gentleman, and not Old Mr. Yang."

The youth deliberately omitted a word.

It wasn't a joke or something amusing, but in the moment that word was about to be spoken, he genuinely felt the old man's killing intent, resolute and decisive, so he chose to temporarily retreat a step.

The youth leaned backward and fell, laughing, "Farewell then, I hope there won't be a next time. The Yang Pass Road, the single-plank bridge, or the Gates of Hell, let's all go our separate ways and show off our own abilities."

The green-robed youth who was falling backward disappeared without a trace.

Ruan Qiong said in a deep voice, "He could be in the Upper Five Realms!"

Old Man Yang scoffed, "Don't make such a fuss. Aren't you, Ruan Qiong, also in the Upper Five Realms? Even though Eastern Treasure Continent is small, it's still one of the Nine Continents. It's not impossible for eleventh, twelfth, or even thirteenth-floor Qi cultivators to emerge."

Ruan Qiong's mood wasn't light. He shook his head and said, "I'm only at the beginning of the eleventh floor, and my realm hasn't yet stabilized. Although I come from a military family and am considered skilled in the art of attack and slaughter, but..."

The old man shook his head and swayed, turning to leave, holding his smoking pipe and puffing out clouds of smoke. "You should be content. There are countless cultivators in the world, and tenth-floor cultivators are already as rare as phoenix feathers. Let alone the Upper Five Realms. In the end, the truth is, you fear that person, and that person is no less fearful of you. Pottery crashing against jade, both of you are actually feeling insecure."

Ruan Qiong thought about it and figured it was true. He wasn't one to dwell on things, so he simply stopped worrying about the strange youth's background. It would be best if they could each mind their own business and live in harmony.

With a roar, Ruan Qiong's figure soared into the sky, and after reaching the sea of clouds, he swiftly plunged back down towards the creek.

Old Man Yang, strolling leisurely back to town, smiled. "Young and vigorous."

A young man in a green robe walked through the town's alleys, muttering to himself, "Night curfews, watchmen, marketplaces, all are needed. Our county magistrate has a lot to do."

The handsome youth with a mole between his eyebrows gently twirled a string of old keys, walking into an alley called Two Gentlemen Lane, which was next to Apricot Blossom Lane. Legend had it that two remarkable figures had emerged from the family in the past, but who they were and what they did, no one could say. Over time, it became just another mysterious topic for the old men under the old locust tree.

Now that the old locust tree had fallen, the town's vitality seemed to have diminished. The children didn't feel it deeply, but the young people felt that the view had opened up, and a large empty space had been created, which was good. Only the nostalgic old people would occasionally sigh. Two Gentlemen Lane and Apricot Blossom Lane weren't home to wealthy families, but they were more than enough to get by. The people in the vicinity of Mud Bottle Lane mostly couldn't hold their heads up high when they saw the people in these two lanes. Granny Ma and her grandson Ma Ku Xuan lived in Apricot Blossom Lane, and their family was considered quite well-off in the town.

The youth stopped in front of a house, the door adorned with two brand-new, brightly colored door gods. The youth looked up at one of them, a silver-armored door god holding a short halberd, imposing and majestic, with one leg raised, standing on one foot like a golden rooster, glaring fiercely like a Vajra. The youth smiled and said, "Returning home in glory, nothing more than this."

The youth opened the door and entered. It was a small but exquisite house, with a square courtyard open to the sky and a pond dug into the ground. The ventilation was excellent, and the second floor had a railing, suitable for stargazing in the winter and enjoying the snow. The youth was very satisfied, muttering that it was good, a good place to cultivate and nurture oneself.A youth moved a carved wooden chair and sat beside a pond, shaking his sleeves. With a rustling sound, a massive pile of broken porcelain pieces cascaded out, ranging in size from fists to grains of rice, countless in number. In the end, the overflowing mound, likely unable to be contained by a whole basket, levitated above the courtyard pond.

This feat was a true demonstration of sleeves containing a universe.

The youth glanced around, rubbed his temples, and muttered to himself, "Where to begin?"

"Ah, you'll do." Finally, he settled on a枣red shard that particularly caught his eye. With a flicker of his intent, it darted out from the porcelain heap and hung silently in the air a foot away from him.

Afterward, a continuous stream of porcelain fragments flew from the small mountain of shards, arriving before the youth before being gently placed by him in specific locations.

It was as if he were piecing together a porcelain artifact.

The next day, at the blacksmith's shop, Ruan Xiu handed Chen Pingan two maps. One was old, its paper yellowed, depicting undulating mountains marked with generic labels like "A-one," and "B-three." The other, a fresh map emanating the fragrance of ink, retained those labels but also featured more interesting names like Dragon Spine Mountain, Pearl Mountain, and Divine Peak Mountain. At the end was the addition of "Great Li Dragon Spring County."

Ruan Xiu pointed to the place names and mountain names, carefully explaining and introducing them to Chen Pingan. She cautioned, "Though the maps show only a fingernail's breadth of difference, once you enter the mountains, you'll find the distance could be several miles. When the Li Zhu Grotto Heaven fell upon the Great Li territory, the earth trembled greatly. Some mountains with unstable foundations even collapsed entirely. This will introduce many unexpected challenges on your journey, so you must be extremely careful."

Chen Pingan carefully stowed away the two maps. Then, carrying a bamboo basket on his back, similar to when he took Chen Duo and the others into the mountains, he said apologetically to Ruan Xiu, "This time, I'll try to reach the region of the Tiao Deng Mountain and Heng Shuo Peak on the map. I estimate I'll return here in at least half a month, but at most a month."

Ruan Xiu said softly, "That's so long. Will you have enough food?"

Chen Pingan suppressed a smile. "I'm accustomed to living in the mountains. I can eat wild game and mountain fruits, and I know where to find them. I guarantee I won't starve."

Ruan Xiu nodded and smiled, "My father promised to lend you a dozen taels of silver. After you return from the mountains, I'll be sure to give it to you."

Chen Pingan thought for a moment and decided to be honest, "Miss Ruan, don't inconvenience yourself. I can figure out the money myself. You can't really go for ten or fifteen days without eating pastries from the Ya Sui shop, can you?"

Ruan Xiu's face flushed red. She couldn't understand how he knew the truth.

Chen Pingan felt a bit helpless, smiling without speaking. He thought, with Master Ruan's bad temper, it would be a miracle if he agreed to lend him any silver at all. So it's not that I have eyes that see through everything, but that your attempt at deception is not very good.

Seeing that she was a little disheartened, Chen Pingan quickly reassured her, "Miss Ruan, I appreciate your kindness. Thank you."

Ruan Xiu pursed her lips and smiled.

She suddenly said, "I'll see you off."

Chen Pingan had already strode away, turning his head and waving his hand. "No need. I know the way well. I can walk it with my eyes closed."

The girl with the ponytail softly responded "Oh," and then waved goodbye to him.

After Chen Pingan left the Ruan family's shop, he sprinted upstream along the creek.

Chen Pingan wasn't interested in the mountains near the town. Although they were small and inexpensive, he didn't want to buy there, as they were too close to the town. He couldn't afford to draw attention. Furthermore, Master Ruan had hinted a few times that the base of these mountains, including "Di Zhen Mountain" and "Yuan Mu Peak," were originally quite good, but unfortunately, they had been nearly emptied over the years. Therefore, they were just embroidered pillows. He needed to go further west, towards Pearl Mountain, for things to improve.

Chen Pingan walked for a full day and night, resting for less than two hours, before finally climbing to the summit of a small hill. He took a deep breath, his lungs filled with the fragrance of mountain vegetation.

The straw-sandal-wearing youth puffed out his chest, stomped his feet heavily, and declared with unrestrained spirit, "This is mine!"