Chapter 11

Wang family of Heng Village, inside the main hall.

Lin Jue visited again.

Although the matter of staying overnight at the ancestral hall to drive away the demon and ghost had already been concluded, when he came again, he still received a chair and a bowl of tea; the red soup in the tea paired with golden chrysanthemums was clearly good tea.

Lin Jue brought a wild chicken caught in a mountain trap; it wasn't a very precious thing in these mountains, but it was worth much more than the common mountain bamboo shoots and grain, and it was a token of his sincerity.

"Thanks to the old gentleman's help, my uncle's illness has recovered, and he is now fine."

"The credit is yours, not mine; we owe each other nothing, so there was no need to come and thank me specifically." Old Master Wang looked at him. "However, this way, you can finally study with peace of mind and strive for official rank."

"To tell you the truth, I have decided to leave."

"Go out? Aren't you studying in the village?"

"The village lacks talent, and in recent years, the path of study for people in the village has been difficult. It just so happens that my parents are no longer here, so I thought it would be better to go out and see this vast world."

Lin Jue gave more or less the same explanation.

"Is that so..."

Old Master Wang was a well-known local worthy, so he naturally could hear that the so-called lack of talent was actually a euphemistic and respectful way of saying that the old teacher at the Shu Village academy lacked sufficient learning. But in teaching and educating, that old teacher's virtue was something even the demons and ghosts in the ancestral hall had to admire; for so many years, no one among the Shu Village descendants had ever been wanton or unfilial, so naturally, no one blamed him too harshly for this.

Furthermore, he could also guess that the reason Lin Jue was so anxious to leave was mostly due to the family's poverty.

At this moment, looking at Lin Jue carefully, taking a breath, and sipping tea, after pondering for a moment, Old Master Wang said: "If you truly have the heart to study, but are only constrained by family poverty and other reasons, you can come to our Heng Village academy to study; as for the expenses for pens and ink, they can also be sponsored by my Wang family."

"The old gentleman is too kind; if that were true, it would be a great favor. I will remember your kindness, but my heart is no longer on studying." Lin Jue paused, then bowed to request, "I only hope the old gentleman can help me issue a travel permit."

"Sigh..."

Old Master Wang was not as obsessed with making him study as his uncle and aunt, nor was he as close to him as they were, requiring Lin Jue to spend days patiently persuading them and dispelling their concerns; he just waved his hand:

"You can converse calmly even with demons and ghosts, so I imagine you have your own plans. A person like you, in this world, should be able to achieve something in whatever you do; if you return home in the future, whether you have succeeded or not, you should come to me for another cup of tea."

"Naturally, I will come to pay my respects to the old gentleman."

"I have a book satchel that a descendant used when going out to study and take exams; it's not worth much, so you take it and use it."

"I will not decline, then." Lin Jue thanked him first, then said, "The old gentleman is knowledgeable, so I will take the opportunity to ask, how do I get to Mount Qiyun?"

"Mount Qiyun? That's a bit far."

"I want to go and see it."

"Hmm, it's not a bad thing to go and pay your respects. I heard that those Taoist priests were very busy a while ago, but by now they should be finished." Old Master Wang recalled, "The last time I went to Mount Qiyun, it seems it was twenty or thirty years ago... You first walk toward the county seat, and halfway there, when you cross the bridge, walk toward your left hand, follow the main road, and you can go to the neighboring county. I won't tell you too much; if I say too much, you won't remember it, and I don't know if things have changed after all these years; you can ask again when you get to the neighboring county."

"Many thanks..."

Lin Jue thanked him sincerely.

As for the travel permit, there were countless officials in this county who came from the Wang family or had received sponsorship from this Old Master Wang, so for him, it was just a small matter.

Mid-April, early morning.

Lin Jue had already stepped onto the road away from home.

The youth was wearing a single-layered garment, dressed like a scholar, and on his back was the book satchel gifted by Old Master Wang—a square bamboo basket with a coarse cloth lining and a sunshade on top, which was a common piece of luggage for scholars of this era going out to study or to the capital for exams. Inside were a few books, some changes of clothes, a small self-defense knife, dry rations, a water tube, and a few copper coins.

Whoever saw him would think he was a scholar.

There were many people from the village who came to see Lin Jue off.

Besides his uncle, aunt, and cousin, there were also several neighbors who lived nearby, Shu clan elders who often dealt with Lin Jue, several childhood friends, and the old teacher from the academy; what surprised Lin Jue very much was that there was also the woman who served as the temple keeper at the Three Aunt Temple in the village.

Some people brought a few boiled eggs, some brought a small bag of rice and flour, and some brought dry rations, accompanying him all the way to the pavilion outside the village.

"Lin Jue, if there are no teachers outside who will take you in and you can't go on, come back quickly; your two rooms at home will be kept for you." His cousin urged him earnestly.

"I know."

Lin Jue promised.

He knew clearly in his heart that if he achieved success or gained wealth outside, he would likely return, or at the very least, find a way to send some money back. But if it were as his cousin said and he couldn't go on, given his personality, he would have to think carefully.

"It's our fault for not taking good care of you..."

His aunt was a woman who had already covered her face and was weeping.

"That's not the case."

"The world is not peaceful these days, and you are young; I'm just worried you'll end up like your father..."

"I have my own plans."

"You must be very careful, don't go too far, just look around in the neighboring county, and if it doesn't work out, come back quickly!"

"I know."

The last person to come before Lin Jue was the temple keeper of the Three Aunt Temple.

This ordinary middle-aged woman was carrying some seasonal fruits in a winnowing basket, and what she said to Lin Jue also surprised him very much:

"This is for you from the Three Aunts."

"Hmm?"

"This morning, I was taking a nap in the temple when I suddenly had a dream. In the dream, the Three Aunts came to life, and the eldest aunt told me that someone in the village was going on a long journey, and told me to give you the fruits from the offering table to satisfy your hunger and thirst on the road."

"Three Aunts?"

Lin Jue was stunned.

"I don't know if it's true or false, but it felt real. After I sent the Three Aunts off, I suddenly woke up on the threshold. Before I woke up, I didn't even know it was a dream."

"This..."

"Aren't you going to thank the Three Aunts?"

"Many thanks to the Three Aunts."

Lin Jue said this first, then turned around blankly and said it again toward the Three Aunt Temple and the distant mountains.

Yet he couldn't help but ponder in his heart—

The Three Aunts were the three deities worshipped in the village, and the time they had been worshipped should have been for several dynasties, over a thousand years.

Legend has it that in the past, there was a family in the village with three daughters who went to play on a nearby immortal mountain in their spare time, stole and ate the immortal peaches from the mountain, and subsequently turned into carp, and later into three great mountains—the three peaks among the continuous mountains behind the village that looked like a wall of heaven and a screen.

This story was widely circulated and even recorded in the county annals.

Therefore, these three deities were not only worshipped by Shu Village; many local people believed in them, which was why there was a temple fair.

If the three deities were real, then his frequent meditation and breathing on the mountains, streams, and fields near Shu Village would likely not have escaped their eyes.

Perhaps it was precisely because they knew he was practicing that they had the temple keeper send him travel money.

Lin Jue felt a sense of alertness.

If this were the case, would they also know every time he flipped through the ancient book in his room? What would the ancient book look like to deities like them? And what kind of character did the gods of this world have?

However, the alertness lasted only for a moment.

Lin Jue soon felt it was unnecessary—

Such an oversight was truly unavoidable, and there was no remedy now. Although he had learned the Qi-Nurturing Method, how could he resist deities with just a theatrical trick? He was truly ignorant of the affairs of this world; all he knew for now was the heavy goodwill the three deities had stuffed into his pocket through the temple keeper. Since that was the case, to speculate wildly would truly be petty.

It was better to be open-minded; at least it would make his heart feel comfortable.

He would just pay more attention to these things in the future.

Thinking this, his heart felt refreshed.

"Many thanks to the Three Aunts!"

Lin Jue said again and stepped forward.

The number of people around him became fewer and fewer.

By the end, even his cousin had been persuaded by him to return, walking back with a lonely and desolate figure. Lin Jue, like him, turned his head several times until he turned a corner in the bamboo forest, and then he was the only one left on the road.

He couldn't help but stop and look around.

The roadside was filled with deep bamboo forests; the bamboo here was much greener than he remembered, and this touch of green spread to the high mountains on both sides, with all the mountains being of the same color.

Walking alone among them, he felt the mountains were vast and he was small; thinking of this vast world, he suddenly felt even smaller.

For a moment, even he, who had already made up his mind, couldn't help but feel a sense of confusion.

The world is vast, and the immortal Dao is hard to find.

Stopping there for a while, Lin Jue finally settled his mind and continued to step forward.

Mostly heading toward Mount Qiyun.

It was April, and the weather wasn't hot yet; the bamboo forest was even cooler, with a breeze often blowing by, making the bamboo leaves rustle, and there was the chirping of birds, with the whole mountain filled with the same sounds.

Carrying the book satchel naturally wasn't as fast as walking empty-handed; Lin Jue's goal for today was just a temple between the two counties, so he wasn't in a hurry and often stopped to rest.

If he was hungry, he would take out the cakes his aunt had made and eat one, which was about enough. If he was thirsty, he was too lazy to take out the bamboo water tube from the satchel and would just find a place with the sound of flowing water to drink some mountain spring. If he was neither hungry nor thirsty, he would take out the fruits gifted by the Three Aunts and gnaw on them; anyway, these things wouldn't last for many days.

And don't you know, although these fruits had been on the offering table for a day or two, they were actually quite sweet.

"Three Aunts..."

Lin Jue murmured.

So besides demons and ghosts, there really are deities in this world.

It really is interesting.

It rains a lot in the mountains, and the weather is unpredictable.

On the afternoon of the second day, Lin Jue encountered a rainstorm.

Fortunately, this rain wasn't sudden, and the gloomy sky had given a warning; Lin Jue had found a tea shed to shelter from the rain in advance. There were many merchants and travelers in the tea shed, which was just right for listening to their idle chatter.

The sound of wind and rain, the mountain scenery and road scenery, along with the expressions of the people talking at this time, outlined this plain and real world.

However, this rain lasted a bit long.

It had been raining from the end of the afternoon until the evening, and it hadn't stopped by dusk.

If he didn't hurry, he was afraid he would have to travel in the dark.

Lin Jue often heard snatches of conversation flying into his ears.

"The world is not peaceful these days..."

"There might be demons and ghosts on the road..."

"I heard two days ago..."

Such words added a touch of anxiety and unease.

Fortunately, Lin Jue had been prepared—

Today's journey wasn't long; if he walked slowly, he could reach it in a day, but he had walked very fast earlier just to guard against accidents. Now, he wasn't far from where he would stay for the night.

Even so, there were often travelers who didn't want to wait; seeing that it was getting late, they would wipe their hair and leave in the rain.

Some were anxious, some were open-minded.

The anxious ones were in a sorry state.

The open-minded ones were carefree.

By the time dusk approached and the sky was near twilight, the rain turned light.

Many merchants and travelers went out to look at the rain; Lin Jue also went out to look and saw that the raindrops hitting his face were already so fine and sparse that they could almost be ignored, and the sky was brightening again. Seeing that many merchants and travelers were setting off, Lin Jue also shouldered his book satchel and walked quickly forward.