Chapter 75: What Is Sui?

Seeing Feng Xue's bewildered expression, Wang Laotou was slightly surprised.

"If you weren't after last night's 'sui,' why buy the Five Elements jade?"

"My sect requires a technique that needs a full set of Five Elements and Yin-Yang. The raw stone I bought earlier suited the Yin-Yang perfectly, so I thought I'd just complete the full Five Elements here with you, saving myself the trouble of hunting for them later." Feng Xue had prepared this answer in advance; now he had stored all his artifacts in the Hu Tian Bag, keeping only two or three life-saving items on his person, confident Wang Laotou couldn't tell anything.

Though curious, Wang Laotou was a righteous Xuan cultivator; hearing it concerned someone's technique, he asked no further, simply turned and entered the shop, selected and sifted through, then emerged with five pieces of jade material.

"All are Kunlun jade (commonly called Qinghai material)—the best Five Elements material in the country. I'll give you a discount: seventy guan. As for top-grade Hetian material, yellow and red jade are too rare; completing a full set is very hard… and the cost-benefit is poor. Better to wait until you've entered the Dao and cultivate them slowly yourself."

Hearing Wang Laotou say this, Feng Xue didn't press further, pulling out money as he said:

"From your tone, are there better ones abroad?"

Seeing Feng Xue latch onto his words, Wang Laotou felt a surge of satisfaction, yet maintained the demeanor of a senior master, nodding:

"Myanmar's pigeon-blood rubies, Colombia's emeralds, America's obsidian, Denmark's amber, plus Hetian white jade—that was the highest Five Elements configuration assembled by a senior from the imperial private treasury when the last dynasty fell. But since jade-cultivation methods don't work on the other four, and their circulation is limited, no one studies them seriously. Acquiring natural top-grade pieces is no easier than getting the five-colored Hetian jade."

"Damn, so far-flung…" Feng Xue muttered inwardly, yet found it odd—obsidian is black, but it spews from volcanoes; even if not fire, it should belong to earth; amber is fossilized resin, so why not wood or fire? But then again, the five-colored jade has little to do with the Five Elements anyway—he'd treat it as a black box, and study its principles later when conditions allowed.

Storing the information about the five-colored gems in his mind, Feng Xue settled the payment, tucked the five matching Jade Seals into the Hu Tian Bag, then asked about the earlier question—

"Old Man, you mentioned 'sui' just now? What exactly is that?"

"You don't know?" Wang Laotou was puzzled, but remembering he'd only heard it himself that morning from his unworthy disciple, he adopted a gossiping tone:

"It's nothing major—just an annual routine. But this year, for some reason, the 'sui' is much stronger than usual, starting over ten days early, even disturbing the earth's qi…"

"So what exactly is this 'sui'?"

Feng Xue scratched his head, then slapped his forehead:

"You mean the Nian Beast's 'sui'?"

"Ah!" Hearing this, Wang Laotou's face darkened; he sighed:

"These days' youth—if you were my disciple, I'd beat you senseless!"

"Huh?" Feng Xue was baffled by Wang Laotou's words. Seeing his confusion, Wang Laotou sighed again:

"That damn Nian Beast is a recent invention by some novelist. Once the article went viral, everyone started spreading it, as if not knowing it made you illiterate! Only you youngsters fall for it! Twenty years ago, did anyone ever hear of a Nian Beast? Did you hear of it as a child?"

"'Xi' in New Year's Eve isn't a monster—it just means 'evening.' 'Nian' means 'year,' a time unit. You're an Xuan cultivator—haven't you studied Small Seal script? Recognized Jinwen? Do you know what the character for 'nian' means? It's 'person' plus 'grain'—a character for harvest. You call that a monster?"

"The 'sui' I mean is a homophone—for 'sui' as in evil spirits. The New Year's money suppresses this 'sui.' The Nian Beast is just a corruption of the 'sui' legend, mixed with tales of firecrackers driving away evil and frightening beasts! Think about the Nian Beast's appearance—doesn't it look exactly like a Su Ni? Who puts a Nian Beast on an incense burner? And Su Ni loves smoke—why would it fear red and firecrackers?"

Wang Laotou spoke with spittle flying, clearly holding deep resentment over this. Feng Xue realized he'd stepped on a landmine; since he had no urgent business, he decided to let the old man vent fully.

Perhaps Feng Xue's obedient demeanor made the old man slightly embarrassed; his voice gradually lowered, and after two light coughs, he steered the topic back:

"In short, think of 'sui' as a kind of innate phantom spirit. You know, right? The higher the Qi, the clearer it becomes; the higher the wish-force, the purer it grows?"

"I know." Feng Xue nodded. With a good listener, Wang Laotou continued comfortably:

"Wish-force is born from human thoughts. The purest part is light and clear, slowly separating from wish-force and rising into the sky, while the impure part is heavy and turbid, sinking to the ground and seeping into the earth."

"These wish-forces don't vanish—they combine with earthly evil qi, forming phantom spirits similar to 'sui.' The more they accumulate, the more troublesome they become. After one massive outbreak caused great harm, elders began deliberately triggering their explosions at regular intervals."

"Since the general consensus holds that the New Year marks the end and beginning of the year, accompanied by various rituals, the elders deliberately aligned the 'sui''s outbreak with the New Year, using the flood of holiday wish-force to cleanse the evil spirits."

"In past years, these evil spirits only emerged on the 29th of the 12th lunar month. As long as you held out until the 30th, the great wish-force of 'saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new' would purify them. But this year, for some reason, they started surfacing as early as the 16th. Combined with the earlier mutated corpse-puppets, many suspect someone is secretly scheming…"

"So you mean the county plans to organize people to investigate?" Feng Xue thought of the way the wealthy had looked at him earlier, and grew anxious. He now had a bit of combat power—but only a bit. If he fought, he'd easily expose his weakness. If it were just the 'sui,' fine—but people's hearts are hidden. Who knew if some Xuan cultivator might, in a moment of misstep, develop ill intentions?

In that instant, Feng Xue even had the impulse to abandon the Three Periods guidance from the master and just flee on sheer luck—but then Wang Laotou's next words calmed him:

"What are you thinking? We've investigated before—didn't we find nothing? At times like this, you don't move. Stay calm and wait. Hold out for this ten-day period, and when you send off the Stove God and welcome the Jade Emperor, all demonic cultivators and evil spirits will be nothing but crumbling clay and broken tiles! Don't you know why 'sui' only appears on the 29th? Because the gods are on holiday!"

(End of Chapter)