Chapter 343: Stop Trying

The tongue of Mr. Master Piaodang stretched even longer.

His face was a picture of embarrassment.

"My lord, please do not jest." Mr. Master Piaodang smiled bitterly, shook his head, then rose, hovering three feet in the air. He clasped his fists and bowed respectfully to Xu Yuan: "Thank you, my lord, for saving me."

Xu Yuan stopped joking: "How did you fall into the hands of that thing?"

"That thing has been plotting against me for more than a day or two." Mr. Master Piaodang slowly recounted the grievances between the two sides.

The story began in Wangxiang Village.

Life in the mountain villages was hard; they could only rely on merchants coming and going to exchange mountain products for various daily necessities.

Bai Laoyan and Mr. Master Piaodang had long sought a reliable person to serve as a channel for contact between the village and the outside world.

Mr. Master Piaodang often intervened, rescuing people who entered from beyond the mountains.

On one occasion, he ruined the female spider's plans.

She had already captured that person, but Mr. Master Piaodang rescued him.

Over the years, Mr. Master Piaodang and Bai Laoyan had secretly rescued and assessed more than a dozen people, yet all were ultimately abandoned for various reasons.

Instead, Xu Yuan truly helped Wangxiang Village accomplish this matter.

But after that conflict, the female spider held a grudge against Mr. Master Piaodang.

However, Mr. Master Piaodang himself was no weakling, and with Wangxiang Village watching over each other, the female spider could not defeat them.

But today, the female spider Fu Daxiong had surged in power.

One of the female ghosts beneath Mr. Master Piaodang had been controlled by the female spider today, causing him to be caught off guard and fall into her trap.

The female spider had intended to swallow Mr. Master Piaodang, but fortunately Xu Yuan had just returned to Huishan and saved his life.

The paper-made house burned completely clean, revealing Mr. Master Piaodang's crooked-neck tree.

Yet even that tree was miserable.

It had been scorched by fire and struck by lightning.

Its surface was entirely charred and withered.

Mr. Master Piaodang hung himself on the tree again, but unexpectedly, the branch cracked and broke!

Mr. Master Piaodang stood stunned for a long moment, feeling lost and desolate.

Xu Yuan apologized: "I wasn't paying attention just now..."

Mr. Master Piaodang waved his hand: "How could this be my lord's fault? Alas, I have been bound to this place for decades; it is time for me to depart..."

Xu Yuan said: "Come with me to Wangxiang Village first."

Mr. Master Piaodang waved again: "The village is full of living people after all; I... am not suited to live in the village. My lord, please go on ahead."

He floated dazedly beneath the tree, which could no longer support itself and crashed down with a crack.

Mr. Master Piaodang said mournfully: "I have truly become... a lonely wandering ghost."

Xu Yuan wanted to offer some comfort, but saw that Mr. Master Piaodang had already clasped his hands behind his back and drifted away toward Shenshan.

Xu Yuan, somewhat uneasy, followed and asked: "Mr., where are you going?"

Mr. Master Piaodang said nothing, but suddenly sped up.

Xu Yuan chased urgently.

Mr. Master Piaodang helplessly turned back and said: "My lord, rest assured; I have a place to go."

"Truly?"

"Absolutely."

Mr. Master Piaodang bowed farewell to Xu Yuan once more, and Xu Yuan did not follow further.

The distance from Mr. Master Piaodang's crooked-neck tree to Wangxiang Village was very short; Xu Yuan arrived in only half a stick of incense's time.

Zhang Sanba was already preparing to close the village gate when he saw a malevolent spirit rushing toward them from afar. He let out a "Yo-ho," lit his tobacco pipe, and said: "So there's still some blind thing daring to cause trouble in our village?"

Xu Yuan removed his clay mask and waved to Zhang Sanba: "Uncle Zhang, it's me."

Zhang Sanba was overjoyed; he still remembered the matches Xu Yuan had respectfully given him last time, which had greatly boosted his prestige in the village.

"Come in quickly."

Xu Yuan entered the village and asked: "Is Uncle Bai here?"

"I'll take you to find him." Zhang Sanba closed the village gate, smoked his pipe as he walked, and led Xu Yuan into the village.

Halfway there, they met Bai Laoyan.

Bai Laoyan was dressed as before.

The feathers on his cloak, severed in previous battles, had all been replaced with new ones.

After not seeing him for a while, the old mountain runner had actually gained some weight.

"Lord Xu." Bai Laoyan stood properly, hands folded before him, and bowed to Xu Yuan.

He was the "Baozhang" of Wangxiang Village; this was his official identity.

Xu Yuan's rank was far higher than his.

Zhang Sanba blinked aside, somewhat confused.

The old mountain runners had never before taken the title of "Baozhang" seriously.

In the past, countless imperial tax collectors sent to the mountains had died in the mountains!

This time, upon meeting again, Xu Yuan did not put on the airs of an official.

Why was Bai Laoyan so respectful?

Bai Laoyan did not hold the government in high regard, or perhaps he had previously harbored some hostility toward it.

Because officials entering the mountains only came to exploit everyone.

Surviving in the mountains was already difficult enough; did you have to come and cut us again?

But the Qihetai Office truly helped Wangxiang Village.

Even other villages in the mountains have had much better days because the office regularly buys mountain goods at fair prices.

People in the mountains are like this: your worldly glory, wealth, and overwhelming power outside the mountains have not the slightest connection to me.

But if you truly can bring me benefit, only then will I submit to your discipline.

Xu Yuan also waved his hand and said, "Our friendship forged in hardship requires no such formality."

Bai Laoyan did not refute him, but had already made up his mind in his heart that this would be the rule from now on.

"My lord, is your return this time due to that dragon-serpent matter?"

Xu Yuan took his leave of Zhang Sanba and returned with Bai Laoyan.

On the way, he stated his purpose, and regarding the dragon-serpent, only said it had other grievances and had never fallen into betrayal.

Bai Laoyan's rather strange eyeballs rolled, and he asked in confusion, "Pig-Call Rock? I haven't heard of any strange phenomena over there..."

Xu Yuan was even more puzzled: Could the Miao family have been mistaken?

If the Miao family encountered some great evil spirit in the mountains and cast a deceptive technique similar to "Dragon Vomiting Mirage," they would surely be deceived.

They would think they saw it, when in fact that thing did not exist at all.

But since they had already entered the mountains, they must go see for themselves no matter what.

"Tomorrow I will go to Pig-Call Rock to take a look; you will be my guide."

"Very well." Bai Laoyan naturally agreed.

Xu Yuan also told Bai Laoyan about saving Mr. Master Piaodang on the road but unintentionally burning his crooked-neck tree, and finally said, "Mr. Master Piaodang said he has a place to go—where could he possibly go?"

Bai Laoyan's expression showed a hint of strangeness as he said, "Copper Coffin Cliff."

Xu Yuan knew this place; there stood a sheer cliff seven hundred zhang high. Below it flowed a turbid Dahe River, its waters rushing violently.

It is said there are several hundred drowned ghosts in the river.

On the cliff hang several dozen ancient bronze suspended coffins.

Inside each suspended coffin lies an ancient corpse-stiff.

It is said that every seven days, these ancient corpse-stiffs open their coffins and exhale.

The corpse-qi exhaled by several dozen ancient corpse-stiffs would shroud an area of ten li in a dense, green-black fog.

No matter what thing, if it accidentally wanders into it, within five steps it will turn into a corpse-stiff!

This is also one of the extremely perilous places nearby.

No one has gone there for many years.

Bai Laoyan continued, "Inside the highest bronze ancient coffin lies a female corpse; seven or eight years ago, Mr. Master Piaodang moved her there.

That old ghost simply refused to go.

Now it's fine; the old ghost has nowhere to go and can only go be a live-in son-in-law for someone else."

After Bai Laoyan finished speaking, he could not help but let out a gaga-gaga strange laugh.

Xu Yuan was stunned for a long moment; what on earth is there for me to feel guilty about!

I have simply fulfilled Mr. Master Piaodang's wishes.

Do not think that although Mr. Master Piaodang has been dead for many years, the pedantic scholar's habits on his body still cannot be changed; someone needs to give him a push.

He is already dead; why should he still strive on his own?

(End of this chapter)