It was a face extremely similar to Ning Xingyuan’s.
If not for this face being excessively thin and filled with vigilance and wariness, Ning Buwei would have thought for a moment that he was seeing Ning Xingyuan in his youth.
“…Is someone there?” the person lying on the haystack asked with a weak breath.
“My mother locked the door.” He turned around, looked down at the other person, then took the wet cloth in his hand and wiped the blood-stained face clean.
The person lying down smiled slightly, “Sorry… I… have troubled you.”
He tilted his head slightly. The snow-blue hair tie fell among his hair and the dry grass, still stained with some blood. The dark gold Nine-Leaf Lotus pattern embroidered on it was faintly visible.
Ning Buwei recognized the appearance of that hair tie, his pupils suddenly contracting—
This hair tie was a magical tool refined by Ning Xingyuan, which he later gave to him through a combination of coaxing and trickery.
[…A magic tool I refined as a child, not much use, but looks good on children. Come here, let me tie it on you…]
[The Nine-Leaf Lotus family crest, one of a kind. I asked my friend at the Brocade Clothes Pavilion to embroider it for several months…]
It couldn’t have been anyone other than Ning Xingyuan.
The person sitting down kept his head lowered without speaking, carefully wiping the blood stains on his neck.
“I heard them… cough cough, call you Fourth Pei. Is that your name?” Ning Xingyuan asked him with a smile.
“Mm.” Fourth Pei put the cloth in the water basin beside him and scrubbed it vigorously a few times, wringing out a basin of bloody water.
He paused, then spoke, “Don’t talk anymore, your wound is still bleeding.”
Ning Xingyuan coughed up another mouthful of blood. Fourth Pei went to wipe it for him but was stopped by his raised hand. “This is… cough cough, a wound from a demonic creature, no matter what… cough cough, it will bleed. Don’t be afraid.”
Fourth Pei clutched the cloth in his hand, but still stubbornly helped him wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. “How can I save you?”
Ning Xingyuan smiled, “Please… I want to sit up.”
Fourth Pei frowned, reached out to support the back of his neck and his waist, and very carefully helped him sit up, letting him lean against the haystack behind him.
Ning Xingyuan was wearing all black clothes, making it impossible to see how serious his injuries were, but when Fourth Pei embraced him like this, his own rough gray cloth clothes became covered in bright red blood. He looked at Ning Xingyuan with a deathly pale face.
“…Don’t worry, I won’t die.” Ning Xingyuan’s complexion was no better than his, but his expression was exceptionally calm and composed. Perhaps because of his young age, he even had the mood to joke, “I am what you call an ‘immortal,’ after all.”
Fourth Pei clutched the soaked cloth and said, “There’s a medicine shop in the county. I’ll… wait until dark and then take you out of here. There’s a doctor in the medicine shop.”
Ning Xingyuan smiled helplessly, “Really, it’s fine. I just need to rest for a few days and I’ll be better.”
Fourth Pei didn’t believe him and silently wrung out the cloth in his hand, taking Ning Xingyuan’s hand to wipe off the dirty blood.
Ning Xingyuan looked like he wanted to pull his hand away, but obviously had no strength, so he could only let him continue.
“Fourth Pei, have you been born and raised here since childhood?” Ning Xingyuan asked him.
Fourth Pei paused in his movement of wiping his hand, looked up at him once, then lowered his head again, saying in a low, muffled voice, “My father picked me up from the mountains.”
Ning Xingyuan untied a jade pendant from his waist, pointing to the Nine-Leaf Lotus on it and asked, “Then when you… cough cough, were found, did you have anything similar to this kind of accessory… cough cough, or cough cough, or other cough cough—“
Fourth Pei quickly helped him pat his back, “Stop talking.”
Ning Xingyuan shook his head, but his eyes were slightly bright, “We look exactly alike, which is not an ordinary thing. When I return home, I must ask my father and mother if there was a brother who was lost outside… cough cough cough!”
He seemed somewhat excited and coughed until he could barely catch his breath. Fourth Pei inside the room watched him with trepidation, and Ning Buwei outside the window also frowned.
Just talk if you’re going to talk, why be so impatient? Not calm at all.
He completely failed to consider that the room contained only two fifteen or sixteen-year-old youths.
“No,” Fourth Pei didn’t dare move him, could only loosely hold his arm. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence.”
Ning Xingyuan held the Nine-Leaf Lotus jade pendant and said, “Whether you are a member of my Ning family or not, you are my life-saving benefactor. This… you keep it.”
Fourth Pei refused, “I would have saved anyone else the same way. This thing is too valuable, I don’t want it.”
Ning Xingyuan coughed a couple more times, closed his eyes and said, “I have no strength left… do you want me to cough myself to death?”
After saying this, the hand holding the jade pendant was still trembling slightly.
Seeing this, Fourth Pei looked hesitantly at the jade pendant in his hand.
Ning Xingyuan forcefully coughed once more, his hand trembled, and the jade pendant fell into Fourth Pei’s arms.
Fourth Pei hurriedly looked up at him. Ning Xingyuan’s head tilted to one side, frightening Fourth Pei into another bout of frantic activity.
Ning Xingyuan opened his eyes a crack, saw that the jade pendant had been kept by Fourth Pei, and then slowly closed them again.
Ning Buwei, who had witnessed the whole process: “…..”
Sure enough, whether young or old, Ning Xingyuan was always punch-worthy.
He was about to continue watching when a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.
Ning Buwei grabbed that hand, used the momentum to flip the person directly onto the ground, and at the moment when the other was about to cry out, swiftly covered his mouth.
It was a little boy who looked about the same age as him, with two upward-pointing buns on his head, looking silly.
Ning Buwei lowered his voice and said, “Make a sound and I’ll kill you.”
The child shook his head frantically.
Ning Buwei released his hand and heard the child whisper, “Don’t be nervous, I’m not from here, I—”
Ning Buwei raised an eyebrow, “Fang Wanchen?”
Fang Wanchen nodded quickly, “Are you Brother Chengfeng?”
The woman’s footsteps came from around the corner. Ning Buwei grabbed his hand and in a few steps took him up onto the wall.
On the locust tree stood a fifteen or sixteen-year-old youth, wearing a soft cotton robe. Although his appearance was ordinary, his whole body carried a coldness that could not be approached.
Ning Buwei looked up at him, and at the moment their eyes met, he recognized the other person. “Chu Jun?”
“Eh?” Fang Wanchen was stunned, but before he could say anything, Ning Buwei had already taken him and jumped directly from the wall to the locust tree trunk.
Fang Wanchen slipped underfoot and was about to fall down, but Ning Buwei suddenly gripped his wrist, kicked off with his foot, and pulled him back up.
Not far away, at the courtyard gate, those people were still clamoring to see the immortal. Elder Pei was pleasantly explaining to them that the immortal was severely injured and it wasn’t convenient, asking them to come back tomorrow. Just a wall away, the young woman was thoroughly blocking the door and windows, making it impossible to see what was happening inside the room.
Fang Wanchen, experiencing this kind of situation for the first time, couldn’t help feeling somewhat panic-stricken. He looked at his hands, which had become much smaller, “Wh-what’s going on here?”
Ning Buwei stood on the tree looking at the incredibly real sky and mountains in the distance. Even the clouds were slowly flowing. If not for the previous events, this place would be indistinguishable from the real world.
“This is a mass grievance illusion,” Ning Buwei said.
Fang Wanchen clutched the tree branch, his face pale, “Is it really Qimen Dunjia?”
“It’s not Qimen Dunjia,” Ning Buwei shook his head, feeling it was extremely difficult to explain to a mortal—especially a mortal like Fang Wanchen who didn’t believe in ghosts and spirits.
Chu Jun spoke up, “A mass grievance illusion occurs when thousands or even tens of thousands of people die at the same moment. If their deaths are tragic and they cannot find release, their souls cannot enter reincarnation, and countless resentful energies are born.”
He glanced at Ning Buwei and continued, “Normally, to keep souls from dispersing, they need to be nourished with spiritual power or evil energy, and only then can they enter reincarnation someday.
But the vengeful spirits here have been forcibly confined, and once a living person approaches, they become fodder for these vengeful spirits.”
“When vengeful spirits don’t disperse, they will endlessly repeat past events that happened in this place. Because there are so many dead, the illusion formed becomes incredibly real.”
Fang Wanchen looked at him in shock, then lowered his head to look at those lifelike villagers. “Are you saying… they are all vengeful spirits?”
“No,” Chu Jun said coldly. “These are all illusions, projections of the memories of those vengeful spirits. The real vengeful spirits are hidden in various places and are extremely difficult to find.”
Fang Wanchen’s expression changed several times, and finally, he raised his voice, “This is complete nonsense!”
Chu Jun still maintained his calm expression. “Then go find your own way out.”
Fang Wanchen’s eyes revealed hints of anger as he turned to look at Ning Buwei. “Brother Chengfeng, do you believe what he says?”
“…” Ning Buwei tried to explain to him tactfully, “It is indeed like this. If it weren’t a mass grievance illusion, it couldn’t be so real.”
Fang Wanchen shook his head but didn’t contradict Ning Buwei, softening his voice, “Since Brother Chengfeng also thinks so, we have different paths and cannot work together. I will find my own way out.”
With that, he jumped down from the tree.
“Hey—” Ning Buwei, quick-eyed and quick-handed, wanted to grab him, but was subtly blocked by Chu Jun, just missing him.
Fang Wanchen fell to the ground, got up, cupped his hands toward Ning Buwei, and limped away into the crowd.
Ning Buwei looked at Chu Jun in confusion, “Are you suspicious of Fang Wanchen?”
“No,” said Chu Jun.
Ning Buwei said with certainty, “You are definitely suspicious of him, otherwise why do you always have issues with him?”
Chu Jun looked at him, “And why do you insist on dragging him into this mass grievance illusion?”
“Having mortals present makes it easier to break through any illusion,” Ning Buwei said.
Chu Jun frowned, “Aren’t you afraid of entangling yourself in karma with him?”
“It’s not that easy,” Ning Buwei belatedly realized, and with a meaningful look that also contained a trace of shock, he said, “You’re even jealous of this?”
“I’m not,” Chu Jun slightly raised his hand and pressed down on his head as it was about to move closer.
Ning Buwei was now only a little more than half his size, and being pressed on the head made him unable to move. He simply clung to his arm. “Let’s go and check out the woodshed.”
Chu Jun: “…You’re not going to look after Fang Wanchen?”
Ning Buwei raised an eyebrow, “He can’t run far, and he’s much safer than we are.”
****
In the woodshed.
Fourth Pei looked at the person who had passed out and slowly raised his hand, placing it on his neck.
Ning Xingyuan grabbed his hand and twisted it forcefully, causing Fourth Pei to immediately let out a scream of pain.
Ning Xingyuan came to his senses and quickly released his hand.
Fourth Pei was in so much pain that he was sweating profusely as he hugged his hand and gritted his teeth, “You weren’t even breathing, I… was just checking if you...hiss, were dead or not. Your strength is too much.”
Ning Xingyuan sat up with some difficulty, and imperceptibly let out a breath, “When I’m using my cultivation to heal, my breathing becomes shallow… give me your hand to look at.”
With that, he took his hand.
Fourth Pei inhaled sharply in pain, “Is it broken?”
“No,” Ning Xingyuan applied a little force with his hand, and reset it.
Fourth Pei, with a deathly pale face, hugged his hand and found two broken wooden boards to tie around his wrist.
“What are you doing?” Ning Xingyuan asked.
“Stabilizing it, otherwise it will swell up even more,” Fourth Pei said in a muffled voice.
Ning Xingyuan instinctively tried to touch his storage pouch, only to remember that storage pouches couldn’t be opened in the mortal realm. He looked at him somewhat awkwardly, “I’m sorry, I thought…”
Fourth Pei tied the wooden boards with strips of torn cloth and looked up at him. “Are you immortals afraid of being killed?”
Ning Xingyuan smiled helplessly, “Not an immortal, a cultivator.”
“What’s a cultivator?” Fourth Pei asked him.
“Basically someone who cultivates arts and techniques, hoping to ascend and become an immortal,” Ning Xingyuan explained.
“Oh, a fangshi,” Fourth Pei nodded. “We have many of those here too, but they can’t fly. They just refine elixirs and draw talismans and such.”
(TL: “方士” refers to a “taoist priest” or “alchemist” in ancient China. It typically denotes someone skilled in Taoist practices, including alchemy, magic, divination, or medicine.)
Ning Xingyuan didn’t explain further, “Something like that.”
Fourth Pei became more interested, “Can you refine elixirs?”
“A little bit.”
“What about drawing talismans?”
“I know the basics.”
“Ah, can you read feng shui?”
“Somewhat.”
“What about fortune-telling?”
“I know the basics.”
Fourth Pei sighed, “You’re not very good at this, are you? You only know a little bit of everything. How do you make a living?”
Ning Xingyuan leaned against the haystack and laughed, “My family has some modest wealth. I won’t starve.”
Fourth Pei looked him over and nodded, “That’s true. You look like you’ve been raised with delicate skin and fair complexion.”
Ning Xingyuan: “…”
Fourth Pei seemed quite interested in these things and leaned against the haystack with him, turning his head to ask, “Besides flying and the things you mentioned, what else can you do?”
Ning Xingyuan lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment, “Whatever exists in the cultivation world, I… know a bit about all of it, I suppose.”
“Then you’re not very powerful among your fangshi—no, cultivators, right?” Fourth Pei asked.
Ning Xingyuan, who at sixteen was already ranked first on the Tianji Ranking: “Correct.”
“You need to find one specialty that you excel at so people won’t bully you,” Fourth Pei said with some concern. “Don’t you have any extremely powerful skills?”
Ning Xingyuan thought hard for a while, “Formation arrays, I guess.”
Fourth Pei looked puzzled, “Is that magic?”
“Sort of—” Ning Xingyuan straightened up, picked up a twig from beside him, and casually drew a small spirit-gathering formation on the ground. After a moment, tiny specks of luminescence appeared floating above the formation.
Those light spots floated unsteadily to the tip of Fourth Pei’s nose, lightly touched it, and then suddenly disappeared.
Before Fourth Pei could recover from his shock, Ning Xingyuan said, “Spiritual energy is sparse in the mortal realm, so even small formations like this can only be maintained for a short while.”
Fourth Pei exclaimed in admiration, “That’s amazing.”
Ning Xingyuan smiled and took out a light yellow talisman paper from his sleeve, “Let me show you a trick.”
As he finished speaking, the talisman paper in his hand immediately burst into flames, and a pure white, glossy jade stone appeared in his palm.
Fourth Pei exclaimed in shock, “Remote object retrieval?!”
“We call it an item-placement talisman,” Ning Xingyuan pointed to the ground. “The mountains around your village are full of jade mines. Some have spiritual energy even stronger than those in the cultivation world, just dormant underground.”
Fourth Pei’s eyes widened, “A lot of jade?”
“Yes.” Ning Xingyuan handed the jade stone to him, “Here, keep it to play with.”
Fourth Pei took it and looked at the ground, “Then… if we dig up these jade stones and sell them, would our village become rich?”
“Hmm, perhaps,” Ning Xingyuan said. “But it’s better to let nature take its course. If you’re too hasty, trouble can arise.”
“Why?” Fourth Pei didn’t understand. “Isn’t this a good thing?”
“Fortune and misfortune are intertwined, and fate has its limits,” Ning Xingyuan saw his bewildered face and sighed, “Forget it, you wouldn’t understand even if I explained. I haven’t fully comprehended it myself, so I shouldn’t mislead others.”
Fourth Pei helped him lean back comfortably.
Ning Xingyuan shook his head thoughtfully, “I was rash just now. You should keep this matter hidden and remember not to tell anyone else.”
Fourth Pei saw his serious expression and nodded. “Then what have you fully comprehended?”
Ning Xingyuan broke the twig in his hand into several small pieces, thought for a moment, and imitated the posture of a mortal fortune-teller, saying, “Come, let me tell your fortune. Write a character.”
“I don’t know how to read,” Fourth Pei said softly.
Ning Xingyuan was stunned for a moment, “Your clan doesn’t have a school or private tutor?”
“When we can barely afford to eat, where would money for schooling come from?” Fourth Pei tugged at the dry grass under his feet. “Though there is a private school in the county, but the tuition is very expensive. My father only let my younger brother study there for two years. He’s now an apprentice to an accountant at an inn in the county.”
Seeing his disappointment, Ning Xingyuan handed him a small piece of twig, “Then I’ll teach you how to write.”
Fourth Pei’s left hand was injured, so he held the twig with his right hand, looking at Ning Xingyuan with bright eyes.
Ning Xingyuan felt a bit uncomfortable under his gaze, “What character do you want to learn?”
“You said your name is Ning Xingyuan, how do you write that?” Fourth Pei bent over awkwardly, eventually just lying down on the haystack to watch Ning Xingyuan write.
Ning Xingyuan wrote his own name stroke by stroke, and Fourth Pei, lying beside him, clutched the twig and clumsily followed along stroke by stroke.
“Your posture is wrong, it should be like this.” Ning Xingyuan adjusted his grip on the twig, then patiently held his hand and guided him through each stroke.
“Ning—Xing—Yuan.” Fourth Pei wrote the three characters with difficulty and slowness. “These characters look really nice. Did your father name you?”
“My grandfather named me.”
“What does it mean?”
“The path of cultivation is both exhaustive and arduous, few can walk to the end—
Perhaps he hoped I could go further than most.”
