During this autumn, Yuzhou was experiencing a great famine.
Commoners without entry passes for the capital would be trapped in their lands all their lives. But they were not getting a single grain from their crops, so they could only pull together their families and leave their homes in defiance of the laws. So long as they could reach the provincial capital, the imperial court’s disaster relief efforts would be just enough for them to survive.
Refugees squatted along the city walls. Long queues stretched out from five or six large pots full of congee.
The congee in the pots was a little thin, but it did not contain sand or gravel. It was only just enough for the people to fill up on.
The city gates were locked, and no one was allowed to enter or leave freely.
No physicians arrived to treat the refugees, but there was a large tent near the city gates. Large buckets of inky black medicinal soup were brought out by horse-drawn carriages, and several irate soldiers served them up with large wooden ladles to the refugees waiting in line.
“Senior Brother, there’s a demonic cultivator there.”
Chen He said this in a low voice as he pulled the hood of his grey cloak lower.
Shi Feng took the chance to cast a camouflage spell on Chen He.
“Even demonic cultivators can go be government officials in the earthly world?” Chen He stared without blinking as the demonic cultivator chided the soldiers.
This person had the good looks of a martial hero. Dressed in armour and cape, followed by a good number of people, he clearly looked like a government official surveying the refugees.
Shi Feng smiled. “Enough with the nonsense. Only demonic cultivators would become officials working for the imperial government.”
Among all those who were subject to the divine order and reincarnation, only the demonic cultivators did not fear karma.
In a single sentence: people with heavy debts had no worries.[1]
“What did I tell you the previous day?” Shi Feng asked.
Stupefied for a moment, Chen He recalled the contents of the jade orb, then said hesitantly, “Senior Brother told me that after the War of Great Calamity, the cultivation world’s power was greatly sapped. Immortals from the heavens couldn’t come down to the mortal realm, and there were no longer any legends of gods or immortals.”
“And?”
“Mm, the Ascension stage is the most special stage. Demonic cultivators don’t have the Ascension stage, because they’re burdened by karma and the divine order won’t let them ascend. Normal cultivators can go through lightning tribulations and ascend to the heavens, but demonic cultivators will never be able to break through the Immortalisation stage. When their lifespan of one thousand years runs out, even Immortalisation-level demonic cultivators can’t avoid death.”
After he had finished saying all of it, Chen He asked a little puzzledly, “Senior Brother, are there no exceptions?” Shi Feng shook his head.
“So, when Senior Brother ascends, the rumours maligning you of becoming a demonic cultivator will be disproven on their own!” Chen He said earnestly.
Shi Feng was dumbfounded. That was not what he wanted his junior brother to understand.
This made him wonder just how he was able to spend the first eleven years of raising his junior brother, since he had not uttered a single word back then.
Fortunately, Chen He soon returned to the main topic. He asked worriedly, “All those demonic cultivators are working as officials, and they don’t care about karma, so what if they cause trouble?”
“Many cultivators who wish to gain favour with the divine order will come to kill them.”
Chen He shook his head. “What is the divine order, is it fair? Do these people with nothing to eat deserve to have nothing to eat? Why doesn’t the divine order kill the demonic cultivators instead of letting others do it?”
This stunned Shi Feng. It took a while before he bowed his head to speak to his junior brother again, “It presides over all karma, but is the most unfair thing in this world. In the past, cultivators had not a care for it, and so they experienced great calamity and suffered terrible loss. Now the cultivation world is frightened and terrified of it, which has pushed us far down the opposite end.”
“Senior Brother…”
“For a person in this world, it is such pleasure to be able to defy the heavens.”
Shi Feng’s eyes were bright and full of energy, as if he had seen the light and cleared the fog of doubts around him.
Chen He instinctively took a step back. He felt as if Shi Feng had become a whole other person after breaking the Silence Meditation. Previously, due to the coldness of the streams and air in Black Depths Valley, even the warmest of smiles seemed to carry some measure of coldness, making it all seem distant. Chen He once believed that all who were accomplished in cultivation should be like this, like how his Senior Brother was.
But now there was a dangerous aura, so sharp that it scared even him.
“Senior Brother, are you all right?” Chen He nervously tugged at a certain someone’s sleeve.
“I am fine. Just that I have woken overnight from a weighty dream of more than twenty years.”
Shi Feng looked down at his wrist. The prayer beads that used to hang there had been left in Black Depths Valley.
He had once bowed down to the divine order, living in seclusion in the deep valleys with the willingness to cultivate in exchange for the peace of the deceased. Prayer beads in hand, wounded by karma; the realisation had only dawned upon Shi Feng when he saw his inner demons in that fantastical realm.
If he wished to run away, he should have thrown his life away and gone to the underworld to be with them.
If he wanted to stand up to it, he should go through tribulations and ascend, scorn fate and follow his own wishes in all he did. To hell with karma!
Since his heart felt lighter, Shi Feng even had the leisure to joke around with his junior brother, which he had never done before.
“I am indeed able to ascend, but what about Junior Brother?”
Chen He clenched his hands behind his back, silently swearing to work hard at cultivation.
To prevent his senior brother from noticing anything amiss, Chen He immediately said, “But what about Qiankun Abbey of the Great Snowy Mountain, weren’t they State Priests for the previous dynasty? They aren’t demonic cultivators.”
“Putting on an act for the mortals every now and then is not considering being an official for the government.”
Chen He suddenly had a flash of inspiration. “So in that case, did the demonic cultivators chase them out?”
Shi Feng stopped in his tracks. He looked at his junior brother with a strange gaze, “Why do you say that?”
“It’s very obvious, because when you’re State Priest! You just have to fake a bit here and there and the Emperor believes you; meanwhile, the demonic cultivators are working so hard as government officials, and they’ll get cut down by other cultivators if they’re corrupt or kill people wrongfully, how oppressed they must feel! If I were in that position, I’d chase those State Priests out as well!” Chen He harrumphed; he had made a big note against the Divine Master of the Great Snowy Mountain in his little black book after all!
They had their eyes on the Secret Beixuan Treasure, so they were not good people!
According to Senior Brother’s words, the Beixuan Sect had shared the Great Snowy Mountain with Qiankun Abbey which had been chased out of the central lands. Perhaps Liang Qianshan had known his Senior Brother since an early age. But the Beixuan Sect had been destroyed, and Shi Feng did not show any courtesy towards Liang Qianshan. This fellow must not have done anything good, then! The only difference was whether Liang Qianshan had been standing by or adding to their troubles when the Beixuan Sect needed help!
Uhh, from the way Liang Qianshan could still give chase shamelessly after seeing Shi Feng, it was most likely the former scenario.
“What are you thinking in that little head of yours?” Exasperated, Shi Feng prompted his junior brother who was daydreaming himself into oblivion again.
“Senior Brother, I’m not little, I can have the capping ceremony in another two years!”
“Make that two years, nine months, and four days,”
added Shi Feng, for he remembered his junior brother’s birthdate very clearly.
After using a camouflage spell to get on a carriage with empty medicine buckets, Shi Feng cast a sweeping glance towards that demonic cultivator.
—the cultivation base was not even as high as his junior brother’s. No wonder Chen He could identify him on sight.
As the carriage swayed and shook on its way into the city, Chen He looked back towards the refugees crouched by the city walls.
“They won’t starve to death, will they!”
“Grandmaster Huanjian’s subordinates have always been decent when working as officials.”
“Grandmaster Huanjian?”
“The demonic grandmaster who supported the new dynasty and chased Liang Qianshan’s sect, Qiankun Abbey, out of the central lands three centuries ago.”
“Good job he did there!” Chen He felt that he would have to find a chance to meet this demonic grandmaster in future.
The capital of Yuzhou was much larger than Yunzhou’s, with wide streets and neat rows of houses. No one was dressed in exotic clothing, and there were no men who walked about with daggers and curved blades hanging from their belts.
Although the refugees had been held back outside the city, other people could still enter the city if they paid a little money.
Some middlemen had been camping near the west end of the city, waiting for the rich households who wanted to buy houses and settle down soon. Needless to say, all the houses available were the second-rate houses that were small, rundown, and normally neglected. Now their prices were doubled.
“Senior Brother, are we really not going back to Black Depths Valley?”
“The Secret Beixuan Treasure has too many implications. For the sake of Black Depths Valley’s peace, we shall wait outside for this upheaval to pass, and that will be all.”
In the cultivation world, seclusion amid the court was unrealistic, so they had to settle for the next best, which was seclusion amid the city.[2]
The middlemen led them well into the dark alleys, to a small house with two courtyards. There was dust and dead leaves everywhere, the walls were empty, and the only pieces of furniture were several chairs with uneven legs.
“Senior Brother, this is our house? A bit too small, isn’t it!”
There were no pear trees, and there would not even be space for a pond.
Turning around, Chen He could not help but let his eyes widen when he saw Shi Feng produce a sizeable number of silver ingots without even so much as creasing a brow. Only after everyone left did he say, blinking, “Senior Brother, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask for a long time.”
Shi Feng looked up. Chen He’s expression made it painfully obvious that he wanted to ask something, and he could not help but smile. “Hm? Where the money is from?”
“No, no, I wanted to ask if you’re very rich, Senior Brother?”
Shi Feng pulled out some pebbles, tossing them about. They transformed into people of all appearances upon touching the ground.
These dummies, which he had previously crafted and sent to the markets to purchase food and necessities for his junior brother, would be perfect as maids and servants!
“Every cultivator who has lived for several hundred years will at least have some money on them. Even the bowl you used for meals can be sold for a good price after three hundred years.”
Chen He had a realisation.
“Then where’s my bowl, Senior Brother, is it still in Black Depths Valley?”
“It is with me. I am holding on to it…”
After answering, Shi Feng suddenly felt like he had said something wrong. He slowly turned to look at Chen He.
“He brought the bowl before we even left. Seems like Senior Brother knew long ago that the Stone-borne Flame was in Yunzhou City, had I been brought outside to solve this problem?” Chen He was dejected. In the second jade orb he had wished earnestly for an enjoyable trip, but as it turned out, something had been off since the beginning.
Shi Feng did not speak. He was having quite complicated feelings.
—he had lived for more three hundred years, and no one had ever wormed anything out of him before! Yet he had been tripped up by his junior brother on the first time.
“That day, when Black Depths Valley’s barrier was disturbed and the disciple of the disciple of the disciple of Elder Long-Brows came in, he was here to talk about the Stone-borne Flame?” Chen He was still listless. He had this feeling that the Stone-borne Flame was more important and Senior Brother had brought him out just because of it.
“If it had been left alone, it would have burned down Yunzhou and caused at least a hundred thousand innocent citizens to perish.”
“Who said that, the Heluo Sect?” Chen He mumbled.
“True Samadhi Fires are difficult to extinguish. The Stone-borne Flame had already acknowledged you as its master; if it were to cause that much devastation, you would never be able to escape the resulting karma. The divine order would force you to become a demonic cultivator.”
“Senior Brother, you were saying earlier how one shouldn’t care about karma and they should just live the way they want, what’s wrong with being a demonic cultivator?” Knowing that his words were getting unreasonable, Chen He’s head was hanging so low that it was nearly buried in the ground.
Shi Feng patted Chen He’s shoulder, saying casually, “If you became a demonic cultivator and Senior Brother is unable to wait for you, how will Senior Brother ascend then?”
Chen He said nothing even after a long time. His face was a little reddened.
Upon seeing this, Shi Feng’s expression suddenly became a little strange.
The inner demons had wounded him too deeply, making it difficult to forget what he had seen. It felt as if those events had really happened before.
When he remembered how he told Chen He to live as if he had neither kith nor kin, to sever all emotions and be heartless, Shi Feng’s internal injuries which had not yet healed seemed ready to flare up again.
Shi Feng frowned. Were the inner demons not completely gone?
So they’ve managed to get a break from the chaos, but it seems this is only the beginning of some other worries. *shrugs* Why does life have to be like that, huh.
New location:
Yuzhou = 豫州. This is where they will be living for now. Will serve as the main setting for a while.
Last but not least, footnotes /o/
[1]: Basically, demonic cultivators don’t give any damns about karma because they already have so much of it anyway. No point worrying about something you can’t solve.
[2]: ‘Seclusion amid the court’ comes from 大隐隐于朝, which is part of a Taoist belief: 小隐隐于野，中隐隐于市，大隐隐于朝. Literally means ‘small seclusion [is] seclusion amid wilderness, moderate seclusion [is] seclusion amid city, great seclusion [is] seclusion amid court’. It refers to how individuals who wish not to concern themselves with worldly affairs will live in seclusion in the wilderness, but people who can truly maintain peace of mind regardless of location can be ‘in seclusion’ even within the bustling cities. However, only the truly enlightened individuals can maintain their purity and peace of mind even within the chaos and strife of the imperial courts. This belief holds that the third kind of person is the best, the most enlightened. (But of course, there’s nothing suggesting that those demonic cultivators are the most enlightened, is there? Demonic cultivators in SWIYBR aren’t the type to seek such enlightenment.)