Chapter 51: Past Events

Old Man Yao had lived a whole lifetime and prided himself on having seen it all, yet he had never once witnessed the art of turning boiling water into ice.

Perched on the ceiling beam, a crow watched from afar for a long time before finally being unable to resist flying down to the counter to inspect it.

Dark Cloud tried to take the opportunity to pounce on it, but the crow casually brushed it away with a wing.

Old Man Yao looked up at Chen Ji. "What is the logic behind this?"

Chen Ji found himself in a dilemma.

When the temperature of a saturated solution drops, its solubility decreases, causing crystals to precipitate.

To him, this was a simple sentence, but to explain it to a person of the Ning Dynasty, he would likely have to start from a very, very long time ago.

Old Man Yao poked at the tiny crystal. How could a bowl of water, boiled over and over, end up becoming ice? And yet, it didn't feel cold to the touch.

"Boy, what is this thing?" Old Man Yao asked, puzzled.

Chen Ji smiled. "It is exactly what you just described: something vigorous and domineering."

Old Man Yao became even more confused. "Where did you learn these alchemical arts? Huangshan or Mount Laojun? But those Taoists wouldn't pass such things on to outsiders... Could it be Wuji Mountain or Taiji Mountain?"

Chen Ji remained silent; he had no way to explain where he had learned it.

Old Man Yao snorted. "Fine, if you won't say, then don't... I only ask you this: how much power can this thing wield?"

Chen Ji thought for a moment and answered conservatively, "...It hasn't been fully perfected yet. If it were, destroying a building shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Old Man Yao stroked his beard, seemingly weighing his words as he offered a cautionary tone, "Though our lineage is known as 'Dragon Swallower,' we must proceed with caution and not rush. Once you learn medicine, a great number of officials will seek your consultation on their deathbeds. Avoid seeking instant success through haste; know that to grasp too much is to lose everything."

Chen Ji understood. His master was worried he would lose his mind and use this thing to murder Ning Dynasty officials to obtain Ice Flows...

He hurriedly said, "Master, I'm not doing this to accelerate my cultivation; I'm doing it for self-preservation."

"Oh..." Old Man Yao nodded and lay back in his bamboo chair. "That's good, then. Continue."

In the main hall, the scene was quiet: an old man lounging leisurely in a chair, a youth working with rolled-up sleeves, and a crow and cat chasing each other about.

Chen Ji suddenly said, "Master, thank you."

"Thank me?" Old Man Yao raised an eyebrow. "Did charging you six taels of silver turn you stupid? Don't start acting crazy in the middle of the night. Once the money is in my hands, it's not coming back. Don't try to play the emotion card with me."

Chen Ji asked with a smile, "Master, 'The heavens are primordial and chaotic; strength and softness meet with difficulty; movement occurs amidst danger; the hexagram is Tun.' How, exactly, should this hexagram be interpreted?"

This was the hexagram Old Man Yao had cast before Chen Ji went to Wanxing Court.

Old Man Yao lay in his bamboo chair, swaying slightly with his eyes closed. After a long time, he finally spoke, "New opportunities are nurtured within desperation. One who receives this hexagram must live by moving toward death."

Chen Ji nodded. "So, that night when I went to Wanxing Court, it wasn't that you were afraid of danger, but that you had divined that the trip would yield an Ice Flow."

Old Man Yao did not answer.

Chen Ji continued, "You said on your lips to stay away from danger, but that night at Zhou Chengyi's manor, you still came to save me."

Moreover, this master was cold on the outside but warm on the inside. If he truly didn't care, why would he allow Liang Gou'er to live in the clinic to teach him saber techniques?

The clinic was quiet and tranquil. The crow watched Chen Ji silently, its eyes seemingly filled with approval.

But Old Man Yao spoke up, "That's all just your own wild guessing. Don't spend your youth overthinking things."

Chen Ji said seriously, "Regardless of what you say, thank you nonetheless."

"Why thank me? Just don't hate me in the future," Old Man Yao said with a weathered voice.

"Hate you?"

Old Man Yao chuckled. "Do you think me giving you the path of cultivation was a good thing? When people are young, they all think that as long as they possess the power to transcend the mortal realm, they can become great heroes of this martial world. But what do you think the path of cultivation is? It is a curse and a cage that traps the practitioners of this world."

Chen Ji remained silent.

Old Man Yao sighed. "Once you have the path of cultivation, a master must guard against his disciple, a father against his son, and a brother against his brother. A happy family can be torn apart. Look at Liang Gou'er—is he happy? If he were, he wouldn't need to drink... Furthermore, what you should be worrying about now is what to do if you encounter another practitioner of the 'Mountain Lord' path."

Chen Ji muttered under his breath, "You didn't even tell me to kill them all before passing it to me; you left behind such a lingering consequence..."

Old Man Yao glared. "You're blaming me now? Then what should I do? Give me a hundred thousand taels right now, and I'll go kill him for you!"

Chen Ji changed the subject. "How many Mountain Lords do you think are left out there?"

Old Man Yao looked thoughtful. "Currently, how many hearth fires can you light with a single ginseng root?"

"Two."

Old Man Yao spoke lightly with his eyes closed in the lounge, "That is easy to calculate. Before you became a Mountain Lord, I could light three hearth fires with one ginseng root... Therefore, there should be only one Mountain Lord left out there. After I die, you will be able to light three fires with one ginseng root; if you kill the other Mountain Lord as well, you will be able to light six fires with one ginseng root. Does that tempt you?"

So, the impact of the number of practitioners on cultivation was so direct.

As this thought surfaced, Old Man Yao slowly sat up, looking at Chen Ji with suspicion. "You didn't make this 'vigorous and domineering' thing to deal with me, did you?!"

Chen Ji didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What are you thinking? I certainly wouldn't backstab you. Rest assured."

Old Man Yao remained noncommittal. "You can never know what is in a person's heart; only you know your own thoughts."

Leaning against the counter while purifying saltpeter, Chen Ji pondered. His master was actually far from as cold as he appeared on the surface, yet no matter who tried to get close, he would proactively push them away.

"Master, did you personally..." Chen Ji stopped mid-sentence, unsure if he should ask.

But Old Man Yao said calmly, "You want to ask if I personally killed my own son? Yes. You've been holding that question in your heart for a long time, haven't you? You finally couldn't resist asking."

"Why did you kill him?"

Old Man Yao gave a chilling laugh. "Because I felt he was hindering my cultivation progress. Although a physician doesn't live off a salary—earning hundreds of taels a year just from the consultation fees of high officials—how could anyone withstand the cost of the Mountain Lord path? Fewer fellow practitioners naturally means less money spent. So, I killed him with my own hands."

By this time, Chen Ji had finished purifying all the saltpeter. He picked up a rag to wipe his hands and tossed it onto the counter. "There's no need to intimidate me. If you were that kind of person, you wouldn't have passed the inheritance to him so early."

...

...

Old Man Yao closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time. "I have lived my life without a wife, a son, or a daughter. In the twelfth lunar month of the fourteenth year of Zhengde, I was returning home after my shift at the Imperial Academy of Medicine. It was snowing heavily. I saw a little beggar frozen under an eave. Back then, I was still kind-hearted, so I burned a bowl of hot ginger soup at home and brought it to him."

"The little beggar woke up and begged me to take him in. I asked him how he became a beggar. He said his parents died during corvée labor and he had been kicked out of his home by his uncle and aunt."

"I wasn't married yet, so I hesitated, wondering what it would mean to take in a beggar. At that time, I was just beginning to learn divination, and all ten times I cast, the results were extremely unlucky. But I thought it must be because my skills were lacking, so I didn't believe it. Ultimately, I decided to gamble on fate and asked for his birth details."

"The twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month, in the third quarter of the hour of the Ox in the fourteenth year of Zhengde," Old Man Yao said with a hint of emotion, "It was such a coincidence; he was born exactly at the time of the Mountain Lord inheritance. I thought this must be a gift from heaven, so I raised him as my own son."

By now, Chen Ji had stopped what he was doing. He sat cross-legged on the floor beside the lounge chair, listening quietly, with Dark Cloud perched on his shoulder.

Old Man Yao continued slowly, "I had no intention of seeking the Great Way of immortality, so I passed the Mountain Lord path to him when he was sixteen. I remember the first wisp of Dragon Qi he absorbed came from Inspector Yang of the Ministry of Works."

"The boy was very clever; he understood everything instantly and learned excellent medical skills from me. There were many high officials in the capital, and when I was too busy, I would let him go to consult for them. But I gradually discovered that not a single critically ill official he treated was ever saved. I grew suspicious and went to verify it at night... Censor Liu of the Inspectorate suffered from emphysema; it was clearly treatable, yet he prescribed a poisonous formula."

"He was too smart. So smart that he mastered pharmacology so thoroughly that even when he prescribed poisonous formulas that countered one another, other doctors couldn't detect it. Once a person becomes too clever, they tend to take shortcuts..."

"I reprimanded him and punished him by making him kneel in the snow for three days and three nights. At the time, he knelt and cried while admitting his faults, and I thought he was sincerely repentant, so I didn't send him to the Court of Judicial Review. But that single moment of weakness led to a catastrophic mistake."

"For the year that followed, his actions became even more secretive. He even secretly poisoned my food; my first crow was killed by his medicine."

Having finished, Old Man Yao looked at the crow in the clinic. "The first one stayed with me for twenty-one years. This is the second, and it has stayed with me for fifty-three years."

The crow flapped its wings and landed on Old Man Yao's shoulder, using its beak to gently preen his white hair. Dark Cloud also hopped onto the armrest of the lounge chair, patting Old Man Yao's hand with its fluffy claws.

Chen Ji asked curiously, "What happened after you were poisoned?"

Old Man Yao shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it anymore. I'm tired."

Old Man Yao didn't say what happened after he was poisoned, nor did he say how he ultimately killed his adopted son; it seemed there were other secrets hidden away.

Chen Ji suddenly remembered that on the night he left the Zhou manor, Old Man Yao had cast a hexagram to avoid the little beggar. It was because the heavy snow of the twelfth lunar month in the fourteenth year of Zhengde had chilled the old man's heart to the core.

The passion and kindness of a person in this world always seem to turn into a sigh.

Old Man Yao opened his eyes and looked at Chen Ji. In his weathered, calm eyes, it was as if he were looking through Chen Ji at someone else, or perhaps looking through Chen Ji at his former self.

Old Man Yao slowly stood up and returned to his room. "Don't worry, I won't be in your way for long, and there is no need for us to have a master-disciple bond."

Once Old Man Yao disappeared through the door of the main room, Dark Cloud let out a "meow." "He's afraid you'll be the next little beggar."

Chen Ji gave an "mm" in response. "I won't be."

Old Man Yao had brought him near the Prince of Jing's manor, meticulously arranging for him to collect Ice Flows while also taking in Liang Gou'er to teach him saber techniques. Regardless of the man's attitude, Chen Ji would not forget what he had done for him.

Wait.

Yun Yang said that Old Man Yao was a highly respected figure in the Imperial Academy of Medicine in the capital, yet he suddenly chose to come to Luocheng and live near the Prince of Jing's manor...

The Prince of Jing's manor?!

Chen Ji was suddenly struck by a realization: according to his deduction, Old Man Yao wanted to find one last disciple before his death to pass on the Mountain Lord path.

But how could he make his disciple grow quickly? He needed to obtain Ice Flows rapidly.

If it were anyone else, they could only rely on luck, waiting for high officials to die.

But Old Man Yao was an expert in divination; he could naturally calculate precisely where disasters would strike and where Ice Flows could be absorbed!

Old Man Yao's sudden resignation and move to Luocheng must mean he had calculated that a great catastrophe was coming to the Prince of Jing's manor!

...

(End of Chapter)