Xie Lian was shocked on the spot. Seeing this tall, slender, lanky young man help him carry his bag of rubbish while looking so casual about it [gave Xie Lian’s heart offense]. As San Lang began walking away from him, Xie Lian realized he needed to catch up, and was just about to take a step when he remembered the fainted old master back on the cart. He woke the old man up and told him to take special care not to speak of what he’d seen to anyone. The old man, having seen his powers back in the forest, nodded his head quickly and hastily steered his cow home.

Only a woven mat that he’d bought back in town was left on the cart. Xie Lian bundled it up on his back. He turned to see San Lang, his bag of rubbish slung over his shoulder, already making his way up the hillside.

Arriving at the decrepit temple, San Lang lowered his head, and then let out a small laugh as though he’d seen something extremely funny. Xie Lian only realized after he walked inside that San Lang was looking at the sign he’d put up earlier before he’d left the shack. He said quietly, “It’s as you see. That’s why I said earlier that you might not want to stay here.”

San Lang said, “It’s pretty nice.”

Before, it had always been Xie Lian who’d gone around saying “it’s good, it’s fine.” This was the first time someone else had said something of that sentiment to him, and Xie Lian felt some indescribable emotion right then.

As the wooden door to the shack had long since rotted, Xie Lian tore away what was left of it and replaced it with a curtain. Once in place, he lifted up the curtain to look at San Lang still standing outside. “Well, come in,” he said, and San Lang followed him inside.

Inside this wooden shack, all the furniture could be accounted for within a glance. There was only a long table, a couple of stools, a small putuan¹, and a small offering box. Xie Lian took the bag of stuff from San Lang and placed the Qian Tong he’d bought, the incense, and whatever stationery was in the bag on the table. Then he lit a red candle that someone had thrown away during his beggaring, and immediately the inside of the shack was awash in light. San Lang casually took the Qian Tong, shook it a bit, and put it down again. He said, “So, is there a bed?”

Xie Lian turned around and, without saying a word, removed the mat that had been strapped on his back and showed it to him.

San Lang raised an eyebrow. “There’s only one?”

He’d only met the young man on his way back from the town, so of course he’d only thought to buy one sleeping mat for himself. He said, “If you’re not opposed, just for tonight, we can share it.”

San Lang said, “That’s fine too.”²

Xie Lian took a broom and swept the floor once more. San Lang swept the inside of the shack with his eyes, and said, “Daozhang gege, isn’t this place missing something?”

Xie Lian had finished sweeping and knelt on the ground to spread the mat. “I think, aside from worshippers, this temple isn’t missing much else.”

San Lang also crouched on the ground beside him, his chin resting on his hand. He asked, “What about the deity’s image?”

Only after San Lang’s reminder did Xie Lian suddenly remember the most important part of a temple – the image of the deity!

What kind of a temple was a temple with no image of the deity it worshipped? Even though the deity himself was technically here, it didn’t seem like the most amazing idea to sit himself on that shrine table.

And if he painted a portrait of himself to hang on the wall of his own temple, if the heavens heard about that, he’d be laughed at for at least ten years. And if he carved an image of himself, he’d waste both time and money, and so that choice would also be laughed at for ten years.

Who knew, however, that San Lang would say, “Drawing? I can draw. Do you need help?”

Xie Lian was speechless for a moment. Then he laughed, and said, “Then, I’ll thank you in advance. But I’m afraid you wouldn’t know how to draw the likeness of Xian Le’s Crown Prince.” After all, almost all of his images had been burned eight hundred years ago, and if there were still any believers left after all these generations, there probably weren’t many of those that would have seen his image.

San Lang said, “Of course I do. Remember back on the cart, we were talking about the His Highness the Crown Prince?”

Xie Lian remembered. Indeed so, back on the cart, he’d said, “You probably haven’t heard of him,” but San Lang hadn’t replied. Hearing his answer now, Xie Lian’s curiosity was piqued. Having finished spreading the mat, he stood up and said, “Can it be possible that you really know about him?”

San Lang sat down on the mat. “I do.”

Both the expressions and tones of the young man’s voice were intriguing. He was often smiling and laughing, but it was hard to tell whether those smiles were genuine or mocking. Xie Lian had spent the entire trip on the cart talking and listening to him, and yet he still hadn’t quite figured the young man out. Xie Lian sat down next to him on the mat and asked, “What are your opinions on this Xian Le’s Crown Prince?”

The two of them faced each other in the candlelight, the fire of the red candle flickering around them. San Lang’s back faced the candle so his eyes looked dark and sunk in his face, their expression obscured by shadows. In a short while, he said, “I think that Jun Wu hates him.”

Xie Lian had not expected that sort of reply. After a moment, he asked, “Why do you think that?”

San Lang said, “Why did he strike down the Crown Prince twice?”

Hearing this, Xie Lian chuckled and thought, “What an innocent, naïve way of thinking.”

Xie Lian lowered his head and began taking off his sash. “That’s got nothing to do with hate. There are many things in this world that can’t simply be explained by love and hate.”

San Lang said, “Uh huh.”

Xie Lian turned around and took off his boots. “Moreover, crimes deserve punishments, and the Heavenly Emperor was only doing his duty, nothing more.”

San Lang replied noncommittally. “Perhaps.”

Xie Lian took off his outer layer, folded it, and prepared to place it on the shrine table. He wanted to say some more things when he turned his head and saw that San Lang was staring intensely at his foot.

There was something strange about his stare. It was cold, and yet it seemed it would feel hot and pierce through skin; it was hot, and yet it seemed it could freeze blood. Xie Lian looked down at his feet as well, heart dropping, and realized that the young man was staring at the cursed manacle on his right ankle.

The first cursed binding was the cursed collar curled around his neck, and his second cursed binding was the one around his ankle. These two cursed bindings, while there really weren’t any ideal places on the body to place curses on, were on parts of the body that was very hard to hide. In the past, when anybody asked, Xie Lian would bullshit something and said it was part of his training. However, if San Lang asked and Xie Lian had to answer, the young man didn’t seem the kind of person who would buy such fake explanations.

However, San Lang only stared silently at the cursed manacle on his foot, and so Xie Lian didn’t say anything either and proceeded to lie down on the mat. The young man also lay down obediently next to him, still wearing his day clothes. Xie Lian presumed he probably wasn’t used to sleeping on the ground with all his clothes on, and turned his head to say, “Relax. Sleep.”

He blew softly, and the candlelight went out.

The next morning, when Xie Lian opened his eyes, San Lang was no longer lying beside him. Looking up, feeling suddenly worried, he saw that on the shrine table there hung a portrait.

In the portrait, there was a man wearing huafu and a mask made of gold, one hand holding a double-edged sword, one hand holding a flower. The strokes were controlled and beautiful, the colours vivid but by no means gaudy. All in all, it truly befit the image of “The Crown Prince Deity of Xian Le.”

Xie Lian hadn’t seen this kind of portrait in years. He was stunned, and didn’t move for a very long time.³

When he was finally able to get his senses together, he stood up and dressed himself, and pushed aside the curtains on shack entrance. San Lang was outside under a shadow, twirling a broom in his hand while gazing at the sky with bored eyes.

It seemed that the young man really didn’t like sunlight. The look in his eyes as he stared at the sky – he seemed as though he were contemplating how to strike the sun down and beat it to a bloody pulp. The fallen leaves around the shack had all been swept into a neat pile. Xie Lian went outside to meet him. “How did you rest last night?”

San Lang still stayed leaning in the shadow, and turned his head. “Not bad.”

Xie Lian walked over and took his broom. “San Lang, did you draw the portrait in the temple?”

San Lang said, “Mm.”

Xie Lian said, “It’s very good.”

The corner of San Lang’s mouth curled up, but he said nothing.

Perhaps it was because he didn’t sleep well last night, San Lang’s hair this morning was even messier than it had been yesterday, loose and unkempt, though somehow Xie Lian still thought he looked completely charming and handsome. Xie Lian touched his own hair and said, “Do you want me to help with your hair?”

San Lang dipped his head, and together the two of them went back inside the temple. Xie Lian made him sit down and, taking a long lock of his black hair, carefully and quietly looked at it.

While some demons might be able to make flawless palm and finger prints, every demon that ever takes on a human appearance will always have one detail they get wrong. A living person’s hair is too numerous to count and to make one by one. A lot of demons forged fake human skins with hair that was more like a black cloud, or they would crudely attach a large wad of hair like a piece of cloth onto the head, or… they would simply go around bald.

Last night, as he’d already inspected San Lang’s palm and finger prints, Xie Lian had lowered his guard and let his suspicions go. But seeing that portrait this morning, drawn so beautifully and accurately, his suspicions were roused once again.

How could a normal person draw an image like that?

However, as Xie Lian carefully inspected the long strands, gently rubbing aside any dust and dirt, he found nothing exceptional. After a few moments, perhaps the way Xie Lian was fiddling with his hair made him ticklish, because San Lang laughed and tilted his head a bit. He glanced backwards at Xie Lian, and said, “Gege, did you really want to brush my hair, or did you want to do something else with it?”

With his long hair undone and draped around, San Lang was still handsome, but somehow looked a little bit demonic now. Having been asked this, Xie Lian smiled and replied, “All right.” He brushed it a couple more times before doing it up.

Once he was done, San Lang looked in the water basin next to him, before looking back at Xie Lian with a raised eyebrow. Xie Lian took a look at his own handiwork as well, and then couldn’t say anything.

San Lang’s hair had been messy before. Now, it was still messy.

While San Lang said nothing and simply gave him that look, Xie Lian felt as though he hadn’t been this embarrassed in several hundred years. He put his hands down and was about to say, come here, let’s try this again, when he heard a ruckus outside. A cacophony of human voices were calling, and one in particular yelled, “Great Immortal!”

Startled, Xie Lian rushed outside, and met a great crowd of people with faces flushed red in excitement. The leader of the crowd took a big step up towards him and grabbed his hand, saying, “Great Immortal! Our village has finally been visited by a real heavenly official! This is too amazing!”

Xie Lian was dumbstruck. “???”

The rest of the villagers all crowded around him. “”Great Immortal, welcome to our humble little village!”

“Great Immortal! Could you blease bless my new wife?!”

“Great Immortal! Could you please give us blessings for a new child?!”

“Great Immortal! I have fresh water chestnuts! Do you like water chestnuts? If you eat my chestnuts, do you think you could bless me with a good harvest this year?!”

The crowd massed around him, getting overheated with excitement, besieging Xie Lian on all sides with fervent prayers and requests. Xie Lian was pissed off. That old cart master with his big mouth. He’d told him last night to take extra care not to talk about what he’d seen to anyone, but this morning the word has spread throughout the whole village!

The villagers didn’t actually know who this deity was, and yet they fought to light incense for him. Who cared which heavenly official he was; a heavenly official was a heavenly official. It couldn’t hurt to pray to him. Xie Lian had thought that there would hardly be anybody visiting this shrine – perhaps only a few throughout the year, tops, so he had simply bought a handful of incense sticks as a gesture for the temple. Who could have known it would be used up within moments, with the incense pot stuck to the brim with incense sticks, filling up the entire shack with incense smoke. Since Xie Lian hadn’t smelled incense smoke in centuries, he couldn’t stop coughing. “Cough, fellow country folk, I really can’t promise blessings on wealth and fortunes, really, cough cough, please take care not to ask for wealth again! Who knows what sort of consequences would come of that! … Sorry, I don’t bless marriages and love either. …No, I don’t bless children either. Um.”

San Lang had let go of the matter of his unkempt hair as a lost cause. He sat on the shrine table, one hand holding an offering box, one hand eating water chestnuts. When many of the women in the village saw this handsome young man, they all blushed, and asked Xie Lian, “Then… do you bless…”

He didn’t know what they were going to ask, but he immediately struck it down, quite fed up at this point. “I do not!”

When the place was finally cleared of people, there was a mountain of fruit, vegetables, rice, noodles, and other such things. As much of an ordeal that was, they were still considered offerings. Xie Lian took up a broom and swept out the debris that the villagers had left behind on the floor. San Lang followed him outside. “The incense wasn’t so bad.”

Xie Lian continued to sweep as he shook his head. “Normally this place wouldn’t be of interest to anyone.”

“Why not?”

Xie Lian glanced at him, and then smiled. “But perhaps it was your luck that blessed this place today.”

Saying this, he remembered that the curtain on the door had been torn in the ruckus and had to be replaced. He took out a new curtain from his sleeves and put it up. Taking a couple of steps back to look at his handiwork, he realized that San Lang hadn’t followed him. He turned to look. “What’s the matter?”

Only to see San Lang was staring at the curtain, his gaze pensive. Following his gaze, Xie Lian also looked back at the curtain, and realized he was looking at what had been on drawn on the cloth.

It was a piece of curtain he’d casually written on in the past, full of wards and charms, thick and cascading, looking rather intimidating. It was originally meant to guard against demons and the supernatural, though because it was Xie Lian who had written these spells, who knew if they still worked. Obviously, Xie Lian attracted more ill luck than anything else. But as the curtain was acting as the entrance to his temple, it seemed safer to have at least some charms written on it.

Seeing the young man frozen before this curtain, Xie Lian’s heart thumped a few beats. “San Lang?”

It couldn’t be that, with this curtain full of wards and spells, he couldn’t enter?

 

 

1 – Google translates the characters to “futon” but it’s not the kind of “futon” that the West bastardized from Japan, nor is it the Japanese style of bedding. The Chinese 蒲团 (putuan) (also called zafu) is a cushion placed on the ground, like a “chair” but you kneel on it

2 – he’s probably waited for this for 800 yrs

3 – can you imagine how much love Hua Cheng must have put into this drawing… OTL

 

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A couple of notes:

• Xie Lian’s white bandage weapon is called Ruoye but I forgot how it was pronounced. I’m going to start using that name now
• “Blood Rain Tan Hua” finally figured out means “Blood Rain Covering Flower” lol
• The “bone ashes” I termed in the last chapter – figured out it means “the ashes of the dead human body of the person that had become a ghost/demon/ghoul”. I went back to fix up my translation so it makes more sense (starting from Hua Cheng’s “Bone ashes” line)

——

The white clad people seemed to have no heads, and their uniforms were those of convicts. They all carried a skull, and looked like beheaded criminals. They all swayed slowly towards the cart, the skulls in the crooks of their elbows chattering ceaselessly.

Xie Lian told the other two in a low voice, “When they come near us, be careful not to utter a single sound.”

San Lang cocked his head. “Gege sir¹, you really are a strange person.”

He sounded intrigued. Xie Lian replied, “[I can’t quite say I’m a strange person, but hold that thought.] They can’t see us right now, but when they get in close, it might be a different story.”

The old master of the bull cart, dumbstruck already from the flying white ribbon around them, seemed as though his eyes were going to roll to the back of his head from fear at the sight of the walking headless people. He shook his head wildly. “I can’t, I can’t! I don’t think I can hold it in! Daozhang, what should we do?!”

[note: Daozhang is like a title for a Taoist priest, which the old man uses to address Xie Lian]

“…” Xie Lian said, “All right, then. Old sir, please excuse me.” When he finished speaking, [he struck quickly behind his back], and immediately the old man collapsed in the cart. Xie Lian caught him and gently laid him down on the cart, and took his place in the rider’s seat instead. There was a movement behind him, and Xie Lian turned to see the young man had also followed and sat down behind him. He asked, “You’re all right?”

San Lang, his hand resting against his lower jaw, said, “Not at all. I’m terrified.”

He didn’t sound remotely terrified, but Xie Lian replied in a soothing voice anyway, “Don’t be scared. Stay behind me, and there won’t be anything that will hurt you.”

The young man laughed but didn’t say anything. Then Xie Lian noticed that the young man was staring at him. In a flash, he realized that it was at his cursed collar.

This collar looked like a black snare around the human neck, and couldn’t be concealed right now, what with Ruoye flying about. To the layman, it looked ominous and sinister, and so in an attempt to prevent the young man from associating him with anything bad, he subtly pulled up his collar, even though that didn’t really cover up much anyway.

The sky was dark, so he couldn’t quite see the young man’s expression. Xie Lian took the reins of the cart and softly tried to encourage the cow to move. The approaching headless demons seemed to notice there was something blocking their path, and complained in wailing voices, “This is so strange! Why can’t we cross through?

“It’s true! We can’t pass! We’ve encountered a demon!”

“You stupid ass! We’re demons!”

Xie Lian had just managed to get the cow to move when the gang of headless ghouls brushed past them. Hearing this chatter coming from the heads that they were carrying, he straight up wanted to laugh out loud. They had still more to grumble about.

“Hey, why do I feel like the body carrying your head is my body?”

“It’s your damn body that took the wrong head!”

“Why don’t you two just switch…”

“Why’s the cut on your neck so uneven?”

“Ai, the executioner was a noob, needed five to six chops to get my head off. I almost wonder if he did that on purpose.”

“Your family didn’t give him bribe money? Next time remember to give bribe money. You’ll get it chopped off in one fast slice.”

“What ‘next time’ you fool?”

“… …”

The fifteenth of July’s Ghost Festival was the biggest festival of the year for ghosts and demons. On this day, the door to the demonic world opens, and all the ghosts and demons that normally hide themselves in dark places rush out to party in wanton and merry ways, while all the living folk try their best to avoid them. Particularly during nightfall on this day, it was best to confine oneself inside, since chances of running into a demon grew exponentially higher.

Xie Lian had always been unlucky his whole life; even while wearing his Taoist priest garment he was running into demons, and this time, head-on. There were green ghost fires floating about everywhere, guiding an enormous number of demons. There were also other demons, expressionless and muttering to themselves, that crouched in front of a circle, hands outstretched as they waited for offerings that were burned for them by the living folk.

This entire scene could practically be described as a chaotic, demonic dance. Xie Lian decided that the next time he was going out, he was never going to forget to consult the Huang Li.

[Note: Huang Li is a kind of calendar tells helps calculate things like what to be aware of, what to notice, luck, omens, etc. It was based on the lunar calendar and according to legend, created by the “Yellow Emperor” – hence the “Huang”, meaning “yellow”. People used it to predict meteorological changes, agricultural production, etc]

Suddenly, a shrill voice that sounded like a chicken being murdered screeched, “Terrible! Terrible! Ghoul murder!”

[Note: Ghosts and demons and ghouls can all be called “鬼” and I think here they’re more referring to “ghoul”]

The ghouls were all alarmed. “Where, where? Where’s the murder?”

The ghoul that had screeched said, “It scared me! Over there I found a lot of shattered ghost fires, all shattered by humans! Ruthless!”

“All shattered? How appalling! Truly ruthless!”

“Who could dare? It couldn’t be… a cultivator mixed in among us?”

The band of headless ghosts piped up, “Ah! Speaking of, just now we bumped into something and couldn’t pass. Could it be…”

“Where, where?”

“Over there!”

Xie Lian cursed silently. Within a few moments, a large group of ghouls surrounded their cart, revealing their fierce-looking appearances one by one. One of them said, in a malicious voice, “I can smell a strong yang energy…”

There’s nowhere to hide!

During the Ghost Festival, bumping into a demon was the fault of the human. There was no way Xie Lian was going to talk his way out of a situation with this many demons! He urged the cart, “Go!”

The cow had already been impatiently pawing at the ground, scared out of its wits, and once it heard Xie Lian’s call it all but flew down the road. Xie Lian didn’t forget the young man behind him and pulled him in, yelling, “Sit steady!”

Calling back Ruoye, Xie Lian steered the cart down a side road. He suddenly came upon a ghost fire circle and broke right through it. Behind the cart, a group of ghouls missing a leg screeched, “There really was a cultivator!!! That damn cultivator really wants to die!!!”

“A living person dares to mix in with our Ghost Festival! Whatever happens can’t be blamed on us!”

“Get them!”

Xie Lian, with one hand on the reins, used his other to rummage through his bag to grab a handful of charms which he threw to the ground. “Hinder!”

The ghouls were unable to outrun his Step-Hindering Charms. There was a series of loud booming noises, and with each booming noise, a barrier was erected around each ghoul, stopping them for a moment, but only for a moment. He’d spread out and used up most of his charms, so not even several moments passed before the ghouls started catching up again. Xie Lian hurried the cart faster for another block of road, before he suddenly said, “Stop–!”

The cow had come upon a fork in the road, which led to two very dark, shadowed paths. Seeing this, Xie Lian immediately pulled in his reins.

He had to be careful here!

On the day of the Ghost Festival, one would discover roads that normally didn’t exist on any other day. If one walked on such a road, one would enter the demonic realm, and it would be nigh impossible to find the way back out again!

As he was new around here, Xie Lian didn’t know which path to pick. Then he remembered that in the bag of rubbish he had beggared for, he’d also gotten a bamboo Qian Tong². He would use them to predict what to do.

So he took them out, shaking the tube while chanting, “Blessings from a heavenly official, anything goes!³ Walk once on each path facing heavenward! One left, one right! I will walk the path that is chosen for me!”⁴ When he finished chanting, two qians tumbled out with a clatter. When he picked them up and read them, his face went dark.

Bad omens!

Both qians were of the portentous type. Didn’t that mean he sought death if he walked on either road?

Xie Lian felt helpless. Both hands clasping the bamboo tube, he shook it furiously and said, “Tube oh tube of oracles, we’ve only just met today, why are you so heartless! Let’s try again, save me some honour!” When he finished speaking, two more qians tumbled out with a clatter. Picking them up and reading them, he saw again that they were of the same portentous type!

Then, San Lang piped up from the side. “How about you let me try?”

There wasn’t any way it could go worse than it had for Xie Lian, so he gave it to the young man. San Lang received it with one hand, shook it casually, and two qians fell out. He picked them up but instead of giving them a single look, gave them over to Xie Lian, who read them and saw that they were both of the fortuitous type. He couldn’t help feeling shocked. Normally, Xie Lian’s luck was so bad that the people around him also got their lucks pulled down. He wasn’t sure if that correlation meant causation, but it happened often enough he might as well believe it was true. Yet this young man was not only immune to his bad luck, he also managed to shake out two good oracles with almost no effort at all!

As both oracles showed good fortune, he picked a random path. As the cart started up once again and headed down the path he’d chosen, Xie Lian exhaled and said, “My friend, your luck is truly quite amazing.”

San Lang tossed the Qian Tong behind him, and laughed. “Really? I think my luck’s pretty good too. It’s always been so.”

Hearing him say “it’s always been so”, Xie Lian thought that the difference between himself, a Taoist cultivator, and the young man, a regular human, was really like the difference between the sky and the earth. When they got further down the road, there was suddenly another wave of ghouls and demons around them, yelling, “We’ve got them! They’re here!”

“Everybody, over here! The damn cultivator is here!”

One by one the ghouls and demons came out towards them. Xie Lian said, “Ah. I still chose wrongly after all.”

The effects of the Step-Hindering Charms had worn off, and they were now surrounded again!

The ghouls and demons numbered at least a hundred. It was a mystery how there were so many ghouls and demons in this area, surrounding their cart six bodies deep and still increasing. But there was no time to wonder about this. Xie Lian called out, “Good ghouls and demons, bumping into you all was the fault of mine. Please forgive me graciously and show kindness.”

A headless ghoul said, “Bullshit! You damn cultivator, why didn’t you show kindness first? You were the ones that shattered the ghost fires back there!”

Xie Lian, innocent, said, “It wasn’t us. To be honest, I’m only a lowly beggar.”

“Stop quibbling! What sort of beggar are you supposed to be? You’re obviously a cultivator. Besides you, what kind of cultivator here would be capable of such a horrific deed?”

Xie Lian said, “Perhaps it wasn’t a cultivator that shattered the ghost fires.”

“Then what else could it be? A demon?”

Discreetly, Xie Lian put his hand in his sleeve. “It’s not impossible.”

The demon laughed hysterically. “Damn cultivator! You… you… you…”

The demon that had erupted in shocked laughter suddenly stopped, while Xie Lian said, “What about me?”

Asking this, all the ghouls and demons stopped. Their stared at Xie Lian as though they were staring at some sort of monster, some with their mouths hanging open, some with their mouths snapped shut, and many of the headless convicts had dropped the heads they were holding to the ground.

Xie Lian tried to feel out the situation. “Fellows? What’s…”

Before he could finish asking, all the ghouls and demons, like dust in the wind, scattered helter-skelter in all directions.

Xie Lian was stunned. “There’s no way???”

He hadn’t even grabbed the charm hidden in his sleeve, and he’d already been discovered? Were they really that perceptive? Moreover, the charm wasn’t even a strong one. Xie Lian was completely baffled. Were they even looking at him?

Or were they looking at something behind him?

He turned his head to see what was behind him.

Behind him was only the old cart master that had passed out, along with the ever-casual red-clad young man, who had his chin still resting on his hand.

Meeting his eyes, San Lang smiled again, and lowered his hand. “Daozhang, sir, how amazing. You scared them all away.”

“… …”

Xie Lian smiled too. “Yes, I didn’t realize either how powerful I am.”

Immediately, he shook the reins a couple of times and the cart clacked forward once more, this time with no more interruptions. An hour later, the cart slowly emerged from the forest onto a flat mountain road. Pu Ji Village was just below the hillside, warm lights already flickering in the houses.

The oracle qians really did foretell a good path. They’d escaped more scared than hurt.

The evening wind blew by, and Xie Lian turned around again. San Lang looked like the epitome of high spirits, laid back, his head resting on his hands as he gazed at the bright moon above. Under the soft light of the moon, he didn’t quite look human.

Muttering to himself for a moment, Xie Lian couldn’t hold back a smile, and said, “My friend.”

San Lang replied, “What?”

“Have you looked at your fortunes?”

San Lang turned his head. “Nope.”

Xie Lian said, “Then, would you like me to look at your fortunes?”

San Lang laughed. “You want to do that for me?”

“I would like to.”

San Lang cocked his head slightly. “All right.” He sat up, facing his body towards Xie Lian. “How do you want to do it?”

Xie Lian said, “By reading your palm. Is that all right?”

Hearing this, the corner of the young man’s lips curled, but Xie Lian couldn’t read his expression, and only heard him say. “That’s fine.”

The young man stuck out his left hand.

His arm was long and slender, his knuckles clean, his hand quite beautiful. It wasn’t the kind of delicate pretty; it brimmed with hidden strength, the kind that one wouldn’t want around one’s throat. Xie Lian remembered San Lang’s expression when he’d accidentally touched him, and so was very careful not to make direct contact, only lowering his head to carefully examine the young man’s palm.

The light of the moon was neither bright nor too dim. Xie Lian looked for a while, while the cart continued to clack along the road, the wooden wheels and axels creaking. San Lang said, “How is it?”

After a moment, Xie Lian slowly said, “Your life is very good.”

San Lang said, “Eh? How good?”

Xie Lian lifted his head and said in a mild voice, “You’re very hard-working, extremely dedicated, even when your luck is down. But your heart [will forever be true], and can turn even the worse misfortunes around. Your fortunes are numerous, my friend, and your future will be very bright.”

All of this was complete rubbish that Xie Lian had pulled out of his ass. He had no idea how to read palms. Having devalued the subject since the beginning, for a while after he’d regretted not learning palm- and face-reading with his fellow disciples in the royal palace. If he had, eking out a living among the regular human folk would have been easier, and not comprised of performing in the streets and breaking rocks on his chest all the time. Also, right now, Xie Lian hadn’t wanted to read his palm, actually; he’d only want to see if the young man had palm and finger prints.

Demons and ghouls can take on many bodies and pretend to be live humans, but they can’t normally reproduce such features as palm and finger prints and the ends of hairs in much detail.  In addition, this young man did not give off any kind of spiritual energy,  His palm lines were distinct, clear. And if he really was a demon pretending to be human, [then their fortunes could only be bad the entire time they were together, and not a drop good otherwise.] As well, what sort of demon king would spend his time with him, on a crickety cart rolling towards a poor village such as Pu Ji village? Heavenly officials weren’t the only ones busily flying around. Demons were also quite busy!

Xie Lian pretended to know what he was talking about, forcing himself to make up a few lines until he couldn’t anymore. San Lang said nothing, simply staring at him rather intensely, listening and chuckling and looking very intrigued. “And? Is there more?”

Xie Lian thought he couldn’t possibly need to bullshit more, could he? “What else did you want to know?”

San Lang said, “Since you’re telling fortunes, it’s inevitable I’d ask about my fortunes in love and marriage.”

Xie Lian coughed, and solemnly said, “My studies in this subject were not that great, so I don’t really know how to tell fortunes for those things. But, since you’re asking, I don’t think you’ll have any troubles there.”

San Lang raised an eyebrow. “Why do you think I won’t have troubles there?”

Xie Lian smiled. “There’ll probably be many girls who like you.”

San Lang said, “And why do you think there will be many girls who like me?”

Xie Lian had been about to open his mouth to answer when he realized what was going on. This young fellow was trying his best to get Xie Lian to praise him directly, and he chuckled helplessly. Not knowing what to say, he massaged the point between his brows and said, “San Lang ah.”

This was the first time Xie Lian had called him San Lang. Hearing this, the young man laughed, and finally let him go.

Now the cart had finally entered the village. Xie Lian turned and grabbed onto the side of the cart as he jumped down. San Lang also jumped down beside him. Xie Lian was shocked to find that, because the young man had been lying down or sitting in the cart this whole time, San Lang was actually much taller than he when they were standing side by side. Their heights weren’t even close in comparison. Xie Lian stretched and yawned next to the cart. He said, “San Lang, where are you headed?”

San Lang sighed. “I don’t know. I’ll sleep on a main road, or I’ll find some kind of cave.”

Xie Lian said, “That’s not good?”

San Lang spread out a hand. “There’s no other way. I have nowhere else to go.” He looked askance at Xie Lian, and gave another laugh. “Thank you for the fortune-telling. I wish you well, and hope we’ll meet again in the future.”

Hearing San Lang thank him for the fortune telling, Xie Lian flushed in embarrassment. Seeing him really turn away to make his way down the road, Xie Lian suddenly rushed to say, “Wait. If you are not opposed, would you like to stay at my temple?”

San Lang stopped in his steps, and turned back around halfway. “Is that all right?”

Xie Lian said, “That shack wasn’t mine to begin with. I’d only heard that it’s been used by passersby to pass nights. It’s much simpler and cruder than you think, and I’m only afraid you might not want to stay there.”

If this young man was really a young master from a noble family, Xie Lian couldn’t let him wander aimlessly around. Xie Lian suspected that he’d really eaten nothing but that half of a mantou that whole day. For a young man like San Lang, if he truly kept that up, he would really faint on some road one day.

After listening to Xie Lian say all that, San Lang fully turned back around without a reply, and only walked right up to Xie Lian, the distance between their bodies diminishing quite more than necessary. Xie Lian didn’t really know what San Lang wanted to do. He only knew that it felt a bit too much.⁵

Then the young man stepped back. He’d only reached forward to take the bag of rubbish that Xie Lian had beggared for earlier that day, and said, “Then let’s go.”

 

1 – San Lang said “这位哥哥” – transliterally “this older brother here”. 哥哥 can also be addressed to any boy or a man who’s slightly older than you… though it has a very friendly/close/cute sort of tone. Because of the 这位and bc they’re still strangers I added a “sir”

2 – Lottery poetry or 签筒 (Qian Tong) or Kau Cim – a cylindrical bamboo tin containing long flat rods (qian) that have poetry/sayings/predictions carved onto them. Used as oracles in Taoist/Buddhist temples, and dates back to the Jin Dynasty (3rd century AD)

3 – “天官赐福 百无禁忌!” (Tian guan ci fu bai wu jin ji) First four words here are the title of this cnovel

4 – the whole chant rhymes in Chinese

5 – xie lian’s feeling his Thirst Awakening

 

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(Sakhyulations translations)

He looked as though he were joking, but there was an inexplicable all-knowing serenity in his face. Although he had the voice of a young man, his voice was slightly deeper than that of a boy of his age, and it was very pleasant to listen to. Xie Lian sat upright in the bull cart, thinking for a moment, and said, “Blood Rain Tan Hua sounds quite impressive. Could you tell me how that name came to be, my friend?”

To show his respect, Xie Lian didn’t add a “young” to his address of “my friend”. The youngster languidly hooked his elbow on his knee, fiddled with his sleeve, and said rather indifferently, “Not really impressive. He just put an end to a nest of demons on a mountain and caused a storm of blood rain. [When he was walking], he saw a flower beaten up by the bloody rain, and opened an umbrella to protect it for a little bit.”

Xie Lian tried to imagine such an act of softness amidst such a scene of carnage. He also recalled the stories of this red-clad demon burning down the worship of thirty-three heavenly officials and asked with a smile, “Does this Hua Cheng like to go around picking fights?”

The youngster answered, “Not everywhere. It depends on his mood.”

Xie Lian asked, “What was he like when he was alive?”

“Probably nobody good.”

“What did he look like?”

At this, the youngster lifted his eyes to look at him, cocking his head. He stood up, came to Xie Lian’s side and sat down, their chests side by side. He asked in return, “What do you think he looked like?”

Upon a closer look, he felt that this young man was even more astonishingly handsome. Moreover, he had this deadly look about him too, like an unsheathed sword, quite dazzling to the eyes, though it also made one unable to look at him too closely for too long. Holding his eyes for only a moment, Xie Lian felt a little unnerved. Moving his head slightly to the side, he said, “Considering he’s a great demon prince, he probably has too many forms to count.”

Seeing his head turn, the youngster raised his eyebrow. “Mm. But he sometimes he’d use his true colours. We’re talking about his original body.”

He didn’t know whether or not it was his imagination, but Xie Lian felt as though the distance between their two bodies had grown a little larger. He turned his head back. “Then I think, perhaps, his original body would probably be similar to that of a young man, like you.”

Hearing this, the youngster lifted the corner of his mouth. “Why?”

Xie Lian said, “No why. This is a casual conversation, I had a casual thought.”

The youngster let out a laugh. “Maybe not? However, he is blind in one eye.” He pointed to his own right eye, and said, “This one.”

This wasn’t too much of a surprise. Xie Lian had heard about this before. In some rumours, Hua Cheng had a black eyepatch that covered up the eye he’d lost. “Do you know how he lost it?”

“Mm. A  lot of people want to know the answer to this question.”

Most people wanted to know how he’d lost his eye because they wanted to know about his weakness. Xie Lian simply just wanted to know. Before he could say anything in reply, the youngster said, “He dug it out himself.”

Xie Lian blinked. “Why?”

“In a crazy fit.”

To go so crazy as to dig out his own eye… Xie Lian felt even more curious about this Blood Rain Tan Hua. He thought it couldn’t be that simple. But since he’d said it like that, Xie Lian probably couldn’t pry out any more details. So he continued to ask, “This Hua Cheng, does he have any weaknesses?”

Xie Lian didn’t really expect any answer to his question, and had only asked rather casually. If the weakness of Hua Cheng could be so easily known by the layman, then he wasn’t Hua Cheng at all. Who would have known, however, that the youngster would answer without hesitation, “The ashes of his dead body.”

If one could possess the ashes of a demon’s former human body, then one could control that demon. If the demon refused to listen to its master, then the demon would perish forever, its soul scattering into smithereens. This was common knowledge. However, there didn’t seem to be any meaning applying this knowledge onto such a demon as Hua Cheng. Xie Lian said lightly, “Truly? It seems to me that we should be more afraid no one would ever be able to possess the ashes of Hua Cheng. I don’t think that really counts as a weakness for him.”

The youngster replied, “You never know. In some situations, a demon would give away his own ashes.”

Xie Lian said,” Like, how he’d bet he’d lose his own ashes to those thirty three heavenly officials?”

The youngster scoffed. “How?”

Though he hadn’t said anything more than that one word, Xie Lian could hear what he wasn’t saying: how could Hua Cheng have possibly lost? He continued, “In the demon world, there is a custom. When a demon has chosen somebody, they would entrust their own ashes to that person’s possession.”

[translator’s note: this “chosen somebody” is a “life partner”, I assume, and I think in this case he also meant “a human”]

For a demon, that was equivalent to giving someone else their life. There was something strangely and poignantly romantic about it. Xie Lian felt captivated. “So there are customs of such extremes in the demon world.”

The youngster replied, “Yes. But there aren’t many that have the courage to do it.”

Xie Lian thought that was to be expected. In this world, not only were there many demons that cheated humans, there were also many humans that cheated demons, and so there were many tales of betrayal. He said, “If such infatuations did exist between the two, it would definitely end in heartbreak.”

The youngster laughed. “What’s there to be afraid of? If it were me, sending out my ashes, what do I care if [they threw it into the wind or played with the dust]?”

Xie Lian smiled, and then suddenly realized that, though they’ve talked for so long, they still didn’t know each other’s names. He asked, “My friend, how should I address you?”

The youngster lifted a hand against his brow to block the red of the setting sun, squinting, as though he didn’t quite like sunlight. He said, “Me? At home I’m third in rank, so everyone just calls me San Lang.” [Note: it means “third in rank/status”]

Since he didn’t offer his name, Xie Lian didn’t pry. Xie Lian replied, “My surname is Xie, given name is just Lian. Are you also headed in the direction of Pu Ji Village?”

San Lang leaned back on the rice straws, head pillowed on his hands, legs crossed. “I don’t know. I’m wandering.”

Hearing an unspoken story in those words, Xie Lian asked, “What’s the matter?”

San Lang took a deep breath and let it out, and said, after a long time, “Family’s fighting, so I got kicked out. I didn’t really know where to go. And today I was so hungry I was about to faint, so I just randomly found a place to lie down.”

This youngster wore clothes that looked casual at first, but the quality was actually quite excellent, and adding that to the impressive manner with which he talked and how knowledgeable he was, Xie Lian recalled again his first impression of him – a young master from a noble family, running away from home to play. A young master who had probably lived like a prince his whole life, trying to find his way around in the common world – he’d probably experienced a lot of hardships he never had before. Xie Lian could empathize with that. Hearing that he was hungry, Xie Lian rummaged around his bag and found a mantou. He was glad that it wasn’t hardened yet. He said to San Lang, “Do you want to eat this?” The youngster nodded, and Xie Lian gave it to him.

[note: in Chinese, San Lang speaks in a somewhat high class, educated language style that doesn’t exist in English]

San Lang looked at him, and asked, “There’s no more for youself?”

Xie Lian said, “I’m all right. I’m not really hungry.”

San Lang returned the mantou to him. “I’m all right too then.”

Seeing this, Xie Lian took back the mantou and broke it in half, giving one half to him. “Then you’ll have half, and I’ll have half.”

Only after this did the youngster take the mantou, and they sat and ate it together. Seeing him sitting beside him, biting into the mantou and looking for an inexplicable moment like an obedient child, Xie Lian somehow felt like he was depriving him of something.

The cart clunkered slowly through the up and downs of the mountain, the sun slowly setting in the west, and the two of them sat and chatted side by side in the cart. The more they talked, the more Xie Lian felt that this youngster was truly a fascinating character. Despite his apparent youth, there was something like a natural disdain to the way he spoke and behaved, and he really seemed to know about everything, like an old soul in a young body. Sometimes, however, the young man would let slip a hint of a preference or phrase that revealed his youth. Xie Lian told him that he was the master of the Pu Ji Temple, and the boy asked, “Pu Ji Temple? Sounds like a lot of water chestnuts. I like them. Who does the temple worship?”

Not this question again. Xie Lian answered in a rather quiet voice, “The Crown Prince of Xian Le. You probably don’t know about him.”

The young man laughed quietly, and was about to say something when suddenly, the cart shook and swayed.

The two of the swayed along with the cart, and Xie Lian was worried the youngster would fall off. He reached out to grab him. However, just as he touched San Lang, the youngster pushed his hand away as though he’d been burned by it.

Though his expression didn’t change much, Xie Lian realized that perhaps the young man actually despised him? But they seemed to have gotten along fine this whole trip. He didn’t have time to mull over this, however. He stood up and asked, “What’s going on?”

The old master of the cart said, “I don’t know what’s going on either! Old Huang ah [note: name of the cow], why aren’t you moving? Move!”

At this point in time, the sun had set, twilight had fallen, and the cart was in the middle of a dark forest. The old cow stayed in its place, stubbornly refusing to move no matter how much its master tried. It just kept mooing, its tail skipping up and down like was a frantic jump rope, and Xie Lian felt something was not right. Just as he wanted to jump down from the cart, the old master suddenly yelled at something in front of him.

Only to see that, in front of them, there was a horde of emerald balls of fire floating about everywhere. They were carried by a band of white-clad people that were slowly making their way towards them.

Seeing this, Xie Lian suddenly called out, “Protection!”

Like a cursed snake flying out from his wrist, his white bandage made a circle in the air surrounding the cart, protecting the three people and the one cow inside its radius. Xie Lian looked back and asked, “What day is it today?”

Before the old man could speak, the young man answered behind him, “It’s the Ghost Festival.”

Mid way through the seventh month of every year, the door to the demon world opens. He’d left without checking what day it was, and it just so happened to be the Ghost Festival!

Xie Lian said in a deep voice, “Don’t wander around. We’re crossing paths with evil today. If we walk on the wrong road, we’ll never be able to return.”

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(Sakhyulations translations Ch. 1-11)

Of course, he’d never say those words out loud. But it wasn’t surprising that Nan Feng and Fu Yao had changed colours so dramatically when they’d heard about the silver butterflies, as they had served the two Heavenly Officials who had suffered at the hands of those silver butterflies.

One Heavenly Official asked, “Your Highness Crown Prince, when you met Hua Cheng, h-h-h-he… what did he do to you?”

Hearing that tone of voice, it was clear he wanted to ask instead, “Did you lose an arm or a leg?”

Xie Lian said, “He didn’t do anything, only…” At this point, he didn’t know what to say, and thought to himself, “Only… what? I can’t say he only received me from the marriage sedan and walked me for a bit.” After thinking for a moment, he could only say, “He only broke the enchanted maze cast by the demon Xuan Ji, and brought me inside.”

Many of the Heavenly Officials brooded over this for a moment, muttering to themselves. After a while, a Heavenly Official said, “All, what is the opinion on this matter?”

Listening to the sounds in the spirit communications array, Xie Lian could imagine all the Heavenly Officials shaking their heads and lifting their hands, saying, “No opinion, absolutely no opinion!”

“I don’t know what he wants, scaring people like that.”

“What could Hua Cheng want, no one has ever been able to understand…”

Though rumours that Hua Cheng was something of a devil incarnate had spread far and wide, to Xie Lian, he didn’t seem scary at all. He felt that Hua Cheng had actually helped him. As well, after he’d returned to the Heavens, Xie Lian had received his first merit (note: blessing/prayer from a worshipper), and [this business should have been finished].

As promised before, all the offerings made from the trip to Yu Jun Mountain this time were counted as his. Because the old official had only remembered about the offerings after his daughter had been dead for so long, he still brought heartfelt offerings, but inevitably they were fewer than was initially expected from him. However, gathering all of those offerings together, it was close enough to the eight million, eight hundred eighty thousand merits he needed to make. Xie Lian, now an entire debt lighter, his head and heart clear and boundless, happy and carefree and in quite high spirits, decided to properly be a Heavenly Official. The best part of it all was that he could become half a friend to all the Heavenly Officials now. Though the spirit communications array in the Heavens was normally quiet, when it became loud, it was truly chaotic. Normally the Heavenly Officials were all quite calm, or if they came across something entertaining, they’d say something about it in the array with a teasing line or two. Though Xie Lian was still unclear about who was who, he would still listen silently. He couldn’t always stay silent this way, however, so when he’d listened for a while, he’d blurt out a line.

“Wow, this truly is entertaining!”

“I’ve come across a beautiful line of poetry, let me share it.”

“I’ve discovered a hilarious recipe to cure back and leg pain, let me share it.”

What was unfortunate was that every time he shared his rather detailed quips and tips, which were quite useful in content, the entire spirit communications array would fall silent. Eventually, Ling Wen couldn’t bear it any longer, and pulled him aside to tell him privately, “Your highness, these things that you share into the array might be useful. But even officials a hundred years older than you would not send such things into the array.”

Xie Lian was a bit depressed. Though it was obvious he wasn’t the oldest of all the Heavenly Officials, why was he the slowest to catch up to the conversational topics of the young ones, like some kind of old person? Probably because he’d been separated from the heavenly realm for far too long. And being continuously ignorant of the goings-on of outer realms not mortal, he probably couldn’t be rescued on this aspect. Oh, well. When he let go of this issue, he felt a little less depressed.

There was another problem. In the human realm, there still were no temples built for him. Perhaps, the heavenly realm hadn’t found one, and so couldn’t have recorded any. [Even a lowly] god of the earth had a temple. He, who had properly ascended, and had ascended thrice to the stage of a Heavenly Official, still had not a single temple, and further yet not a single follower – it was quite an embarrassing situation.

Still, the embarrassment was mostly felt by the Heavenly Officials around him. Xie Lian himself felt fine about it. On a whim one day, he suddenly said, “If no one wants to worship me, then maybe it’s all right if I worshipped myself!”

All the Heavenly Officials had no idea how to reply to that.

Who the fuck has heard of a heavenly official worshipping themself!

To be a heavenly official at such a miserable stage – there wasn’t any point!

Yet Xie Lian had long since gotten used to awkward silences after speaking in the spirit communications array. He thought that amusing himself in this way could make an interesting story, and so once he dec ided on this, he jumped from the heavens back down to the human realm.

This time, the place he landed was a small mountainous village, called Pu Ji Village (note: Water Chestnut Village).

It was practically just a muddy slope. Xie Lian saw the clear mountains and rivers, the continuous rice paddy fields, the elegant landscape, and thought, “I’ve really landed in a nice place this time.” On top of the muddy slope, he saw a slightly wrecked shack. He asked about and all the villagers said, “That’s been abandoned. No residents. Sometimes a wanderer might go in to sleep for a night; use it as you wish.” Wasn’t that exactly what he wanted? Immediately, he walked inside.

He realized, once he walked inside, that though it looked wrecked from afar, this shack was even more wrecked from up close. Out of the four pillars holding up the shack, at least two were rotting, and when the wind blew the entire place would creak, and would probably fall apart. However, this was still tolerable to Xie Lian, and when he went inside to take a look, he began to clean the place up.

The villagers went to see and really found that there was someone who was willing to live there. It was quite the source of amused curiosity and they all came over to have a look. Here, they were all quite enthusiastic and warm. Not only did they give him a broom, seeing that he’d covered himself in dirt and dust while cleaning, also gave him a basket of freshly picked water chestnuts. These chestnuts were all peeled, each one of them flawlessly white and tender, sweet and juicy-looking. Squatting inside the shack and finishing the basket, he put his hands together in a prayer, and decided in his heart that this shack was to be called the Water Chestnut Temple.

The Water Chestnut Temple already had a table. Wiped down, it could be turned into a shrine stand. Xie Lian was quite busy for a while, and the villagers who surrounded the place watching him realized that this youngster was attempting to turn the place into a temple, and grew even more curious. They all wondered aloud, “Who is this temple for?”

Xie Lian said in a light voice, “Um, I worship Xian Le’s Crown Prince.”

One of the villagers asked, “Who’s that?”

Xie Lian replied, “I… I don’t know either. I think he’s a royal crown prince.”

“Uh huh, and what did he do?”

“Probably protecting peace.” And begging for rubbish on the side.

The villagers then asked fervently, “Then does he also help bring about wealth and prosperity?!”

Xie Lian thought that one should be happy not to be broke. He said in a lukewarm voice, “Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like he can.”

Each of the villagers started putting forth suggestions of their own as to whom this temple should worship. “Then let’s worship the water [god] instead, and bring in prosperity! [That should keep the incense burning bright]!”

“Why don’t we worship Ling Wen ZhenJun? Maybe we’ll raise a brilliant scholar from our little village!”

One girl said, bashfully, “What… what about… what about…”

Xie Lian tried not to smile. “What about?”

“General Ju Yang.”

(Note: Ju Yang spelled incorrectly as in “Tremendous Masculinity”, not the correct “Altogether Bright. If you remember from Sakhyulation’s translation, it’s been a constant source of headaches for Feng Xin, who gets worshipped for virility and probably very kinky things)

Xie Lian didn’t know what to say.

If he really made a temple for “Tremendous Masculinity” Ju Yang, Feng Xin would probably shoot an arrow at him straight from the Heavens!

Having finished roughly cleaning up the Water Chestnut Temple, Xie Lian realized it was still missing an incense burner, [a sign, and a few other things]. However, he’d forgotten the most important thing – an image of the worshiped deity. He put on his bamboo hat and went out the door – well, there wasn’t a door. Thinking for a moment, he realized the place really needed reconstruction. So he wrote a sign and propped it against the entrance.

“A decrepit temple. Asking good folks: please donate for the renovation, please come give your blessing and prayers.”

Leaving the temple, within seven to eight miles, he arrived at a small town. What did he want to do there? Well, naturally it was to mingle with the crowd and find food to eat, and get to know his fellow people.

By the accounts of the heavenly folks, heavenly people do not need to eat, but that was hard to say. Indeed, they could absorb all the energy and nutrients needed for their souls from nature. The problem was – sure, this could be all they needed, but who wanted to survive on just that? Why did they have to?

Some heavenly officials, to practice asceticism to reach enlightenment, needed their organs clean and clear, couldn’t tolerate the greasy meat and food of the mortal folk. If they could, it would be like when mortal folk ate poison and dirt – they would wretch out their insides. In such a case, they simply could not eat food, [and only absorb energy as their kind could, to enhance their longevity and spiritual powers.]

But Xie Lian had no problems there. With his cursed collar, and wearing mortal clothes, he could eat anything he wanted. And thanks to his seasoned, experienced life, he could eat anything and not die. Even if it were a bun that had been left out for an entire moon, or a cake with green mold, he could eat them and still stand. Because he had a constitution that pretty much defied nature, his body could take any amount of misery and he’d still feel quite fine. In comparison: [opening a temple, he’d lose money; begging for rubbish, he’d gain money; and so ascending to the heavens was still unequal to receiving rubbish.]

As he was both incredibly handsome and had the grace of an immortal, he had a bit of an advantage as a beggar of rubbish. In a very short while, he received quite a bag of things. On his way back, he saw a large yellow cow pulling along a cart which looked quite familiar, a mountain of rice straws heaped upon it. He realized he’d seen this cart before in Pu Ji Village, and reckoned it was probably going the same way as he was, and asked the owner if he could catch a ride. He took his bag of rubbish and climbed aboard, and when he got on, he realized there was already another person sitting at the back.

This person had his upper body covered behind the straw grass, and Xie Lian could see his legs and arms splayed out rather leisurely, looking content and comfortable. Xie Lian felt rather envious. The black boots were pulled in tightly, and the straight long legs that could be seen were quite eye catching. Xie Lian recalled what he’d seen that night on Yu Jun Mountain, and couldn’t help looking at it a few times to confirm that it didn’t have a silver chain hanging on the boots. He didn’t know what sort of animal hide was used to make these boots. He thought to himself, “This young master must be from some kind of noble family, come out to have fun.”

Swaying slowly, the cart made its trip. Xie Lian, holding his beg of rubbish, pulled out a scroll to read. He used to care not a wit about the rumours and goings-on of the worlds, but after suffering too many awkward silences from his ignorance, he decided he probably shouldn’t keep tolerating that. Not too long afterwards, the cow led the cart through some maple woods. Raising his head, he saw clear green fields, the vividly-coloured trees, the wilderness about him, as well as the great mountains, and felt something like passion and wonder stir in his heart. Xie Lian couldn’t help taking a moment to be awestruck by the sight around him.

When he was younger, he’d practiced his cultivation at the Huang Ji Temple, and helped build it too. That temple was within the mountains as well, in a forest that was yellow like gold, strong like fire. In these circumstances, he couldn’t help recalling those days. After a moment, he came back to the present, and lowered his head to read his scroll again.

Opening the scroll, the first thing he read was:

“The Crown Prince of Xian Le, thrice ascended. First a martial god, then a god of plagues, and finally, a god of beggars and rubbish.”

“…”

Xie Lian said, “Fine. When you really think about it, there really isn’t that much of a difference between a god of rubbish and a martial god. They’re equal, they’re equal.”

Behind him came a soft laugh. The voice said, “What?”

It lazily continued, “The common folk love to say that all gods are equal, all people are equal. But if that were really true, then all the gods in the heavens would no longer exist.”

This sound came from behind the mound of straw grass. Xie Lian turned his head in that direction, and saw that the youngster was still languidly lying there with no intention of getting up, and had probably just meant to make a random quip. Xie Lian said, smiling, “That makes sense.”

He turned back to his scroll to continue reading, and saw the next line:

“Many believe that the Crown Prince of Xian Le, as a plague god, had curses in his writing. If his writing was stuck upon a person’s body, or the entrance of a family’s house, then they will be cursed with bad luck over and over again.”

“…”

With this sort of commentary, it would be hard for anybody to distinguish whether or not they were reading about a god or a demon.

Xie Lian shook his head, and decided he didn’t want to read any more about himself. He decided it was probably better to start with figuring out which heavenly official was who, to save himself from doing anything impolite in the future. Remembering the water god that had been mentioned by a villager before, he flipped around the scroll to find the relevant passages and found this:

“[The Water God has no crossing.] One hand controls water, the other controls wealth. Many shop owners would hold and worship an image of the water god within their shops, to protect their wealth.”

Xie Lian thought this was strange. “Why does the water deity hold wealth?”

The youngster behind the mound of straws said, “When shop owners and traders are transporting their goods, they often have to travel over water, so before their journeys they like to go to the water god temple to burn some incense and offer some prayers, in return for safe journeys, etc etc. Over time, the water deity gradually became one who protected wealth as well.”

That made sense. Xie Lian turned his body and said, “Oh, so it’s like that? Interesting. Then I suppose this water deity must be a very important heavenly official.”

The youngster sneered. “Uh huh. [Water flipping across the sky.]”

Hearing that tone of voice, Xie Lian thought the youngster obviously did not think too greatly of the water deity, and did not want to say anything too kind about the deity either. He asked, “What’s [water flipping across the sky]?”

The youngster lazily answered, “Well, for a boat to cross a big river, however it wanted to pass, it all depended on a single word from the water deity. If you don’t give him the proper prayers, he’ll flip the boat over, so I gave him a nickname. [Water flipping across the sky]. It’s just like with Ju Yang (Tremendous Masculinity) and sweeping floors.”

The most famous and renowned of the heavenly officials all had a mix of nicknames from mortal worshippers, like how Xie Lian was known as the thrice-ascended laughingstock, the infamous weirdo, the star of misfortune, funeral family dog, etc etc etc. Normally, calling a deity by their nickname was an act of extreme insolence. For instance, if one were to call Mu Qing “General Floor Sweep” to his face, his fury would know no boundaries.

Xie Lian remembered not to call him by that, and said, “So it was like that. Thank you for your answer.” He hesitated for a moment, and thought this youngster’s style of conversing was quite fun. He continued, “My friend, you look quite young, yet you seem to know quite a lot.”

The youngster replied, “Not a lot. Just for fun. When I have time, I read for no purpose, that’s all.”

Among the mortal folk, everywhere you looked, you could find booklets on mythologies and legends about gods and demons. Some were quite righteous in its writings, some were quite trashy, and there were both true and false information. That this youngster knew a lot was not too much of a surprise. Xie Lian put down his scroll and asked, “Then, my friend, since you know so much about gods, how much do you know about demons?”

The youngster said, “What demon?”

Xie Lian said, “The Blood Rain Tan Hua, Hua Cheng.”

(Note: The characters for Hua Cheng, 花城, means “Flower City.” It’s a soft pretty name)

Hearing that, the youngster gave a couple chuckles, and finally sat up. When he turned his head towards Xie Lian, Xie Lian suddenly widened his eyes.

This youngster looked about sixteen or seventeen years of age, dressed head to toe in red, skin paler than snow, eyes twinkling bright like stars, a smile on his face as he glanced sidelong at him. He was abnormally handsome, something strangely heavenly about his face. His black hair was loosely bounded, a few strands loose and crooked. Altogether, he looked quite the carefree character.

As the two of them passed through the maple forest, one bright red leaf fell down and landed on the youngster’s head. With a soft breath, he blew it away, and only then did he raise his head fully to look at Xie Lian. With a smile that was yet not quite a smile, he said, “What do you want to know? Make haste and ask.”

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