Chapter 201

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Protagonist:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

This story is quite long; Jiang Fu even begins from her own birth.

That day, her mother bled profusely, bright red blood seeping into the soil, blood mixed with mud, as if Nuwa had picked it up, pinched it into her, and cast her into this world filled with blood and mud.

She was born bearing sin, yet possessed some fortuitous opportunity; while still in swaddling clothes, she could judge fortune and misfortune through crying and laughing, and could see many people's fates.

Between the ages of three and five, her childish words were unrestrained, and she often declared people's life and death, frequently falling ill because of it, unable to pry any longer. Those she told their fates might avoid a temporary disaster, but still could not truly escape, and might even trigger greater calamities.

She did not understand the reason until a few years older, when she could see greater flows of qi; only then did she gradually realize that above individual life and death lay the qi of heaven and earth, that vast and boundless qi enveloping all beings, invisibly correcting incidental variables, its direction of flow not changing according to individual will.

But if nothing could be changed, what meaning did her innate knowledge ultimately hold?

As a child she could not fathom it, but in the darkness she had a sense that her birth bore not only sin, but also some mission, merely that the time had not yet come, and she must wait patiently.

Her strange innate ability spread throughout the vicinity, and her home knew no peace; her father took her away, strictly ordering her not to speak rashly.

Her father was named Zhi, called Doctor Zhi, because he used heavy medicine to cure a lord's most beloved concubine to death, and was subjected to Yanmen. Her mother was already pregnant before this upheaval occurred; her father hoped to have a son to support the household in chaotic times and continue his medical path.

She was born a daughter, and her father was greatly disappointed, insisting she present herself as a male, taking her through chaotic times to avoid disaster, wandering and settling in Donghai Jun.

Her father was obsessed with the medical path and indeed had extraordinary talent, but his temper was eccentric and extreme, incompatible with others, unable to be heavily employed by local great clan heads. But with his superb medical skill, warmth and sustenance could still be guaranteed.

In chaotic times human lives were especially cheap; many orphans were packed into baskets and sold. One day, she and her father went out, and among the children being sold on the street, one was particularly special.

That child was thin and small, appearing no different from ordinary people, but for some reason, his fate was strange, turbid and unclear, making her unable to fathom it in the slightest.

Her father, attracted by a medicine-digger from the mountains, threw her very few copper coins, telling her to buy two young slaves to take home as medicine apprentices.

She held out the copper coins to the trafficker, extended a finger, first pointing to a child with a short-lived appearance, paused, then pointed to that child of unclear fate.

The former shrank back; the latter raised his head, a pair of pitch-black eyes following her finger to look at her.

She was then only a muddled child of six or seven, unable to say exactly why she chose him—perhaps out of childish curiosity, perhaps guided by fate in the darkness.

At first everything was normal; her father gave the two children food and had them dry and pound medicine.

Until one day, the child with the short-lived appearance fell ill, and her father, being a doctor, inevitably tried to cure him.

She observed carefully, wanting to verify once more whether her choice could truly change another's life and death, simply watching whether her father could save that child.

The fantasy failed again; the child's body still quickly declined, but her father thereby sparked an ambition, muttering to himself that the previous lord's concubine had originally been a dying person, his medicine had no problem, it just needed some improvement; once perfected, it could possess an effect close to bringing the dead back to life...

His father was obsessed with this, it had become an obsession; it was said that before her mother died, he had also poured many heavy medicines intended to bring the dead back to life into her.

The dying child was repeatedly used by her father to test medicines, his life prolonged for nearly two months, but after two months, the child still breathed his last, and his appearance underwent extreme changes during this process, his skin and hair all turning white, like dried white wax.

Her father still refused to give up, insisting he was only one step away; he began studying medicine day and night without sleep, often shouting and screaming, initially showing signs of madness.

One day, he actually poisoned the remaining child; the poison would not kill immediately, but without an antidote, it would make the person suffer torment until death.

The child of unclear fate had no name, called "Slave"; Slave bore a fatal poison, was taken by her father to test medicines, again and again, living worse than death.

Slave ultimately did not die, likewise with skin and hair all white, becoming a monster in the eyes of the world afflicted with white-hair ghost sickness.

Though he managed to keep his life, this white-hair symptom was likewise a manifestation of poisoning, and would ultimately cause the body to slowly decline and perish in torment.

Her father was overjoyed, repeatedly saying "this time it really was only a little bit away"; he had gone completely mad, no one dared seek him for medical treatment anymore, he had no more subjects to test medicines on, nor money to buy people, and began turning his gaze toward her.

Just as her father could no longer restrain himself, Slave, curled into a ball from pain, suddenly told her father that several beggars would secretly hide in the grass shed behind the Taoist Temple east of the Jun every winter to spend the night; he had been there himself when he was a beggar.

Her father was overjoyed and hurried to catch them.

She did not stop her father, in a double sense.

She saw that her father's outing this time bore an omen of great misfortune, more likely ill than well.

That year she was ten; upon hearing the news of her father drowning, she first truly understood the necessity of respecting individual cause and effect and not recklessly interfering.

A ten-year-old child was still muddled, but had already begun to comprehend the Dao herself; yet like a child holding a great treasure, she was utterly at a loss as to how to use it, hoping for a little true guidance.

That day snow fell like goose feathers; in her confusion she felt a nameless guidance, walked out the door, and waited silently in the snow.

Slave followed her out; she gave him her black cloak, and he said: 【I have been given your clothing, are you cold?】

She had only a lead-white old garment left, smiled faintly, and joked in reply: 【I have immortal bones; I fear neither cold nor heat.】

In the snow-filled heaven and earth, Slave wore black, only his exposed hair was white; while she was all in lead-white, only her exposed hair was black.

He had a remnant of white within black, she had a touch of pitch-black within white; seen from afar, they resembled the Taiji Two Instruments diagram.

Taiji gives birth to the Two Instruments—the natural Dao of yin and yang of heaven and earth; perhaps from that time, many things were already destined.

A Taoist in a gray robe walked through the snow, like an ancient crane, as if he had truly cultivated immortal bones.

Laohe Daoren publicly told her fortune: exactly—fate guided by heavenly secrets, fortune and misfortune interdependent, no heir in her destiny, death at thirty.

The old Taoist asked if she was willing to go with him; she asked if he would help her change her fate; the old Taoist smiled and shook his head; she nodded lightly.

The old Taoist led her, she led Slave, and they walked out of Donghai Jun.

The Former Emperor had been emperor for only a few years; disorder in various places had not yet ceased; defeated soldiers and bandits from various countries were often seen fleeing in all directions. Along the way she saw all the tragic scenes of the human world—that was a cultivation, allowing her to slowly grasp a hint of the shape of her mission in her muddled state.

Also along that way, Slave's strange appearance attracted endless malice; even the weakest refugees would cast him looks of disgust, calling him a disaster monster, a plague god.

She pulled Slave's black cloak tighter around him and softly promised him that she would think of every possible way to cure him; this was the cause and effect she must repay and fulfill.

He was brought home by her pointing finger out of youthful curiosity and inquiry; he was turned by her own birth father into such a broken body and an appearance unacceptable to the world.

Upon reaching Qishan Guan, she begged Laohe Daoren to also accept Slave as a disciple, to teach him Immortal Arts to protect his heart and dispel confusion.

The old Taoist asked if she had decided; her attitude was firm; the old Taoist stroked his beard and smiled: 【Since you are so determined, then it must be accepted. Perhaps in the future, you and I can understand where he is headed.】

Slave was born with an unclear fate, and his true form had been changed by medicine testing; even his master could not see where he was headed; but the master said, since she had this heart, there would surely be a fulfillment in the future.

The old Taoist became master; she became Baili Youyi; Slave became her junior brother, Chiyang.

Time in the mountain was especially slow; seven years felt as long as a lifetime; she observed heaven and earth, observed all beings, observed herself, and her heart's Dao was thus cultivated.

Her junior fellow disciple likewise possessed exceptional comprehension; though he was entangled by illness, he too slowly sought and found a method for peaceful liberation of the mind.

For seven years she never gave up on treating his physical ailment, prolonging his life; her medical arts therefore reached great accomplishment, driven and urged on by this very cause and effect.

It was in the seventh year that she finally derived the method to treat this illness, but it was already too late; her junior fellow disciple had coexisted with this condition for many years, and even if she exerted all her strength to stop it, it had already seeped into his bones and entered his body, impossible to uproot. She could only find ways to suppress it, yet that too was not a long-term strategy.

Her junior fellow disciple was very composed, saying this was precisely his fate, and he was willing to follow the Heavenly Way's law, not forcing things.

He looked toward the continuous mountains and said: "Senior Sister's fate holds early death, and I am likewise not the image of longevity and peace; in the future I and Senior Sister shall be buried together in the sect's mountains, and after death we can still cultivate the Dao together, or transform into grass, trees, and mountain spirits, observing the vicissitudes of heaven and earth across ten thousand ages."

She leaned against the mountain gate, smiling as she replied: "Good."

But on the very next day, their master summoned the two of them forward.

The master sensed a change in the world's qi mechanisms and ordered her and her junior fellow disciple to assist, jointly performing divination to question heaven and earth.

Questioning heaven and earth's mechanisms extremely consumes mental strength and physical body; she, her junior fellow disciple, and their master went into seclusion for many days, the three joining forces to divine this hexagram, only then finally obtaining the portent of this heaven-shaking change — the hexagram showed that after fifteen years, war would rise again, the world would collapse into chaos, and the common people would face a hundred years of calamity in a chaotic era.

Because the three's immortal arts were profound, all with sincere hearts and fixed intent, sparing no effort, they thereby additionally glimpsed a single thread of faint variable within this interval, seemingly an omission outside the Heavenly Way.

This was the variable she and her junior fellow disciple jointly divined; lacking either person it could not be glimpsed, yet divergence arose from this.

Her junior fellow disciple advocated complying with the Heavenly Way's great trend, only observing, not making changes.

She believed that since they had seen the calamity's variable, they could not turn their backs on it; since the variable had appeared, it was the Heavenly Way giving the world's people a chance for self-rescue — this matter lies in human effort.

At first it was only regarded as one ordinary discussion of the Dao after another; though her junior fellow disciple had unilateral disputes, she never once showed an annoyed expression.

Though her expression and color were faint, her intent was already decided, with no way to alter it.

She was very clearly conscious that this was the heavenly mandate she had waited many years for; she must comply with it, regardless of success or failure in the result, her heart at ease without regret — all a joyous matter.

All of these were recounted by Jiang Fu from memory.

And in a place beyond her sight, only the gray rats' eyes clearly saw Chiyang's collapse and loss of composure.

Chiyang could not understand; his senior sister had always accepted fate and also let him accept fate, so why, in the end, was she unwilling to let this world's strange common people accept fate?

Those commoners, even if suffering hardship and fear, still had to cast groundless hateful gazes at him... the hundred-year calamity was precisely to wash clean these filthy things; why would Senior Sister bestow pity on them?

Toward this world, his heart was not without hate, merely he was willing to follow nature's law; this was his fundamental way of dissolving suffering — if die, die together; if there is destined suffering, then treat every person equally... why could his fate not be changed, yet this world's myriad beings have a chance to escape a calamity?

Such a variable that obstructs the Heavenly Way's fairness should only be destroyed, not borrowed to carry out some hypocritical world-saving act!

Indeed, this was the first time he knew Senior Sister was such a hypocritical person; her temperament was like the wind, never truly lingering for anything; she always looked toward the distance, not tethered by things beside her... only now did he know, her far gaze was actually directed at the greatness of the common people.

Such a gust of wind now wants to change the direction of the Heavenly Way's flow for the sake of utterly unrelated ignorant ants; she walks toward heaven and earth, carrying false pity, uniquely abandoning him.

He finally no longer magnanimously asked aloud: "Senior Sister leaves just like that; how shall the cause and effect between me and you be repaid?"

Senior Sister rode on the green donkey's back, turned her head to look toward the mountain gate, composedly and freely answering him: "Junior fellow disciple, I was born in this heaven and earth, first I generated cause and effect with heaven and earth; worldly matters emphasize first come, first served — wait for me to fulfill the heaven and earth cause and effect, then I will come repay your cause and effect."

First come, first served... he had accompanied her for many years, yet was placed by her after strange commoners; he instead became an unimportant latecomer.

The cause and effect with him was fundamentally insufficient to tether her; she had waited for her heavenly mandate ideal, needing no agreement from him, thus entering the world, going to seek the opportunity to capture that thread of variable.

The variable he had spared no effort to divine became her blade for severing the tether with him and piercing toward him.

He thus went into seclusion for many days, also trying to find a way to let go; but in day after day of questioning his heart, dragging that diseased body inseparably linked to her, he gave birth to a kind of hate never before known.

She has her Dao to guard; then he too will guard his Dao, each defending their own, and we shall see who is right and who is wrong.

Secretly leaving the sect, for this diseased body he went to seek inexhaustible medicine guides for suppression. Also for this right and wrong, to obtain the path and power that can prove it.

The rats followed all the way; in their round, crystalline eyes was reflected the Liang ruler's disabled, foolish appearance in magnificent robes.

Chiyang borrowed the extreme medication method he had once recorded at Doctor Zhi's place, forcibly awakening the Liang King's dazed consciousness.

The Liang King's consciousness resumed thinking, but his body still could not move; he seemed trapped in a cage, and what was awakened along with it was a heart demon named torment.

The Liang King looked at the white-haired Taoist who had awakened him; the Taoist told him, he was the true dragon Son of Heaven, only because in that year he blocked calamity for his elder brother, his dragon fortune was stolen, leading to his current plight.

The bewildered, pained Liang King did not immediately make up his mind, until in day after day of torment, he heard a piece of earth-shaking news from Chang'an.

The Liang King's mindset thoroughly transformed; in Lianqing Guan they began preparing the formation to steal back — no, to retrieve — the dragon fortune for him; he hoped to reclaim his own fate, repair his body's defects, and relieve his heart's suffering.

The gray rats knew not how many years; they only knew they crawled and crawled, until one day they crawled into a peaceful realm named Taoxi Township; they gnawed a crack in this realm, announcing the end of this peace.

A woman dressed in a cyan robe was surrounded by countless men and horses; she stood blocking the front of a green ox, looking toward the approaching junior fellow disciple.

Clear wind brushed her clothes; she was without sorrow or joy, without love or hate, also without surprise, asking nothing more; so as not to startle her world-saving plan, she went with extreme composure to this long-predestined life tribulation.

Chiyang's eyes, however, held much hate; Zhu Zhi was at his side, he had to act, yet she actually said: "Junior fellow disciple, I used this life well; you take it — from here the cause and effect is settled."

In a split second, Chiyang only felt even more hate; he hated to the point of impossibility letting her die so easily.

She was injured extremely severely, only one last breath remaining; ordinary medical arts could not save her, but he had a method...

A medicine he had personally tried before, naturally the memory was deep.

He slowly said: "Senior Sister, you also come take a look inside my world."

But this method is vicious and risky, not every time able to save someone at death's door; besides luck, it also depends on whether the medicine recipient has the will to survive.

To Chiyang's "delighted surprise," his senior sister who never feared death or clung to life actually retained a thread of will to survive... her mission was already complete, yet she had another existence she could not let go of?

He had originally thought she only had false far-gazing, no intimate tethers; turns out she was not without a heart...

Hate intent actually became even more surging in this moment; that variable she had named Heavenly Mechanism, he was determined to destroy it.

Chiyang thus returned to the capital, secretly hiding the person in Lianqing Guan; at this time the formation was fully ready, needing a person to serve as the formation eye sacrificial offering.

For this type of formation's sacrificial offering, the more extraordinary and noble the life fate, the better; Chiyang told Song Ya in Lianqing Guan that his senior sister had greater use alive; as for the sacrificial offering, he would personally select one for His Highness the Liang King.

Chiyang passed a fake mountain and saw a female Daoist crown wearing a Daoist robe; that female crown was around thirty, figure and appearance similar to his senior sister, holding a bamboo strip in hand, yet whipping a young female crown, her gnashing-teeth, vicious scolding appearance causing Chiyang to feel a burst of strange disgust and hate.

He hated his senior sister's hypocritical pity, yet hated even more those similar to his senior sister making such abusive postures — simply like a kind of impersonating bizarre monster.

Thus that female crown became the "extraordinary life fate" sacrificial offering, changed into his senior sister's clothes, and lay into the sacrificial pit.

Under round rat eyes' gaze, Chiyang at that time wore a black robe, quietly watching the sun suspended high above the blue sky.

He did not care whether the formation took effect; he disliked changing the Heavenly Way, naturally would not truly serve the Liang King loyally; everything was merely his assistance for erasing the Heavenly Mechanism.

The Heavenly Mechanism must die; he wants Senior Sister to watch with her own eyes.

The Divine Sky was azure, floating clouds flowing.

Snow-white eyelids naturally blinked and drooped; Jiang Fu, who had been doing up Shaowei's hair, had finished telling her story.

The first half was narrated by Jiang Fu; as for Chi Yang's private affairs, from the answers in the various clues that have now become clear, Shaowei could already fill in the general picture herself; as for his detailed state of mind, Shaowei had no interest in probing.

Looking at Jiang Fu from the copper mirror before her, Shaowei merely asked: "Going by what you say, more than half of this medical art of yours was actually learned in order to treat him?"

"Exactly." Jiang Fu sighed lightly: "I failed to cure him, yet used this medical art to cure the heavenly mechanism of his future bliss that he wished to eliminate... Back then in the master's sect, without him I alone could not have divined the world's great calamity and that single thread of variable, and then entered the world because of that thread of variable, wandering and observing, until I sought out you, this little brat."

Shaowei frowned; so from a certain perspective, it was also Chi Yang who pushed all this forward; he was an indispensable link.

"When we first met, I could not see his fate clearly. Long after, I gradually noticed that he might be related to the heavenly mandate I bear. Master also said in private: pull one thread and the whole body moves; my life and death and his both have their fixed numbers, they must not be rashly moved..." Jiang Fu said softly: "Recalling now, if not for him pushing things along, the current situation would indeed have been hard to achieve."

Therefore Jiang Fu said: "Back then it was I who brought him back; in this game, he counts as being used by me; therefore whether toward him or toward those he harmed, I should bear this road of bitter fruit."

Shaowei turned her head and asked solemnly: "You have suffered more than enough; you have done even more for this world's common people; I do not want to hear you say this; I only ask you, can your illness be completely cured?"

"Not dying is already good." Jiang Fu smiled: "I have been acquainted with this illness for only a short time; as long as I keep taking medicine, I can stop it from ravaging my internal organs; only this outward appearance is destined to accompany me for a long time."

As she spoke, she pressed close to Shaowei, leaned in toward the copper mirror, examined herself earnestly, and asked: "This appearance isn't ugly, is it?"

"Good-looking." With his back to the room, having not uttered a word until now, the house slave sitting at the door wiping his blade gave a hoarse evaluation.

He did not pass judgment on anything related to Chi Yang, and neither did Jiang Fu; they merely narrated everything objectively.

Shaowei likewise did not pass judgment — including on Jiang Fu's beauty or ugliness — but there was one thing Jiang Fu insisted she judge.

Jiang Fu lightly twisted her head with both hands, making her face the copper mirror: "I racked my brains and poured out my heart to dress your hair up to now; you might as well look — is it good-looking or not?"

Only then did Shaowei get a chance to examine the coiffure closely; she couldn't help but stare wide-eyed: "What kind of flashy, gaudy bun is this?"

At the back of her head, half her hair was still gathered and tied hanging with red satin; on top of her head, however, it was divided into many strands, wound round and round, and pinned with gold, silver, and jade fragments, making Shaowei's eyes swim in confusion.

"This is the Wangmian Ji." Jiang Fu pressed down the little brat's hand: "This looks good; you absolutely must not take it apart. When I was your age, I still had to pretend to be a boy in the master's sect; I wanted to dress my hair but couldn't."

Shaowei could only withdraw her hand, and through the mirror looked at Jiang Fu's face, thinking: this person is elusive as wind, yet with a light attitude accomplishes weighty great matters.

So Jiang Fu's 'Fu' means: since she was born bearing sin, she cannot walk this trip through the human world in vain.

She acts only from the heart, caring nothing for the world's praise or blame, seeking no reward, and not avoiding the complex cause and effect with Chi Yang; just like the white in the Taiji Two Modes, in that white there is always a speck of unclear pitch-black — not seeking pure spotlessness; in great love ruthlessness is also seen — yet it is the true natural Dao.

Heaven and earth are vast; everyone walks their own Dao; what does love matter, what does hate matter, what does right matter, what does wrong matter — just as this person said before: life is like a spider web, each weaves their own meaning; weaving to one's heart's content is enough.

Shaowei's gaze passed over the copper mirror desk, through the doorway, into the courtyard; youthful spirit overflowed from her brows and eyes; a vigorous voice rose in her heart — her cold ailment was now resolved, all matters were ready; she would surely walk such a trip through the human world, following her heart to the fullest.

Therefore she asked Jiang Fu: "You say, Prince Liang helped Chi Yang deal with me like this, clearly knowing I am the true heavenly mechanism, fearing I would block the way, intent on killing me. Since it is so, the one who assassinated Ming Dan in Xian Tai Gong would not be Prince Liang's people; then who is it?"

Since they came to assassinate the heavenly mechanism, now that they know she is the heavenly mechanism, they will surely make another move against her afterward.

"The Emperor hasn't found out yet; how would your master, who sleeps in a stupor all day, know?" Jiang Fu carefully tidied Shaowei's coiffure again as she spoke: "There are far too many demons and monsters wearing human skin in this world; even with such keen eyes, your master cannot see through them all."

Shaowei looked at herself in the mirror: "Anyway, whoever wants to kill me, I'll kill them."

"Exactly right." Jiang Fu rested her chin on Shaowei's shoulder, faced the mirror together with her, and asked with a beaming smile: "Do you still remember the day of your coming-of-age ceremony, when your master dressed your hair for you — what did I say?"

Without waiting for Shaowei to answer, Jiang Fu repeated it herself: "I wish my disciple to be clever and quick-witted, to follow her heart and find satisfaction, to gallop bravely forward, to split mountains and sever seas."

Jiang Fu said to the young girl in the mirror: "Not only must you split mountains and sever seas, you must also follow your heart and find satisfaction."

This tyrannical world needs precisely this kind of simple, boiling, untamed little brat, carrying animal qi and youthful spirit, charging straight ahead.

Facts prove she has indeed crashed out quite a name for herself.

Listening to Jiang Fu's words, Shaowei looked at herself in the mirror seriously, and finally said seemingly out of nowhere: "I want to bring the little bird back and raise it."

Jiang Fu asked: "Which little bird is this 'little bird'?"

As the two spoke, the little birds on the branches in the courtyard chirped, accompanied by Mo Li shouting at the top of her lungs, calling everyone to eat the morning meal.

?? 【Next chapter update on the 6th in the evening; recently I've been writing at dawn; considering moving the update time back; this month five days averaging 5000 words daily! Broke the record; crippled-hand party is still very proud hehe】

? Didn't pigeon! And it's a super large chapter!

? Part of this chapter was originally planned as an extra, but since I wrote it I'll just finish writing it completely, explain everything clearly.

? (Everyone knows, this book fictionalizes the Han.

? The Han, especially the Western Han period, had a relatively direct and unadorned atmosphere; everyone would fight at the drop of a hat, like a youth full of blood qi; at that time Confucianism and Buddhism had not yet become the mainstream atmosphere; the overall posture was not pressed into such 'neatness' as in the later Ming and Qing; there wasn't that much painstaking concealment and watertight extreme maturity; very natural, retaining the Warring States legacy; this can also be seen from the poetry of the time. Because there weren't many precedents to reference, the whole society carried a bit of chivalry and gratified vengeance; human nature was comparatively naked, straightforward, unrestrained, pragmatic; emotion-led dominated; including General Ling's utmost devotion to feelings — all set according to this atmosphere standard.

? Shaowei is even more the culmination of this era's atmosphere, an animalistic protagonist; therefore this story exists. (A bit of chaotic rambling)