Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 123: The Fisherman

The night passed. No one in the temple knew when they had fallen asleep the previous night, but most slept until the sun shone high on the mountains, then woke up the rest of their group.

The door of the mountain temple was still closed, and the rain outside had stopped long ago.

Mo Tong stood up and looked around, but could not see Ji Yuan.

“Where’s Mr. Ji? Did he leave?”

Someone opened the temple door and looked around, but there was no sign of Ji Yuan. They realized that the immortal must have left.

“Mo Tong, will the magic Mr. Ji left last night be of any use? What if we encounter evil spirits or monsters again…”

A woman asked worriedly. It had been her first time seeing an evil spirit. The event’s impact on her worldview was secondary; more pressing was the feeling of powerlessness that arose in her at the experience.

But before Mo Tong could say anything, the little boy Mo Yu shouted first.

“It will definitely be useful. After Mr. Ji wrote two words with water for me yesterday, I’m no longer nervous! It’s definitely useful!”

“It’s impossible for us mortals to speculate on the actions of the immortals. If all else fails, we will just follow Mr. Ji’s advice. Once the young master notices that something is wrong, we will hurry and take refuge in the City God Temple!”

“That’s all we can do…”

The group packed up, put the three cushions back in their places, and then very solemnly kowtowed to the statue of the Mountain God, before leaving. If there were any sandalwood in the temple, they would have definitely burned a stick of incense.

After all this, they exited the mountain temple, closed the temple door, and left the temple grounds.

In fact, Ji Yuan left decisively because he had left behind an edict to hide Mo Yu’s spiritual energy and even change his aura, and also because Ji Yuan had already observed Mo Yu’s aura the night before, and seen that his fated calamity had passed.

As for the shocking incident yesterday of his soul leaving his body, the other party’s cheap master¹ must have sensed the change in his Qi and would already be on his way.

In this world, conventional immortals were either pure-hearted, had few desires, practiced by doing good deeds, spent every day of every month in the mountains, or cultivated intensely to attain enlightenment. Although their personalities were all different, there were still a few insidious people who would plot against an ordinary child. The higher their realm, the more this held true. One might be able to reach enlightenment without undergoing trials to understand one’s own heart, but could never be able to go against the natural path.

Ji Yuan had no intention of meeting the other party face to face, nor did he want to be treated with excessive respect like their family’s ancestor along the way, so he decided to go on ahead.

Sure enough, about half an hour after the Mo family and their group descended from Jiaoye Mountain, someone appeared from the sky and came down riding the wind. However, the Mo family couldn’t see them from the ground.

The man wore a purple robe that fluttered in the wind. He had come here in the middle of the night, following the Qi that he could sense, but when he arrived, he could not sense the aura of his own disciple. He was surprised.

He took a closer look at the ground down below, and found a child, who was obviously much shorter in stature than the servants and his entourage, running and skipping down the road. He breathed a sigh of relief when he confirmed that it was his disciple.

With a frown on his face, he calculated a divination based on his disciple’s eight characters and the energy hexagram of last night. Apart from the hexagram indicating a crisis that had turned into safety, everything else was blank.

If he couldn’t figure it out, he could only ask the involved parties.

As he rode the wind downwards, the a gust picked up on the ground. The man riding the wind appeared as a strong breeze blew past. Only then did the others on the ground discover that there was another person right in front of them.

“Who is it?”

“Protect the young master!”

Mo Tong’s people were on guard as if facing a great enemy, but Mo Yu was so excited that he immediately shouted, “Master!” They had only met once or twice, but their master-disciple relationship was as close as if they had spent time together day and night.

And Mo Yu’s reaction made the Mo family heave a sigh of relief. They hurriedly saluted, feeling much more reassured after having met an immortal two days in an row.

……

The newcomer wore a small crown with a jade hairpin,² a purple robe, and a long tunic. He had a beautiful black beard about a foot long. He simply nodded in response to the greetings from the other Mo family members, then then walked up to Mo Yu and stretched out his hand, intending to use his spiritual energy to probe the child’s aura. However, he found that as soon as his hand touched Mo Yu, the obscure and hidden aura on his body disappeared.

“Yu’er, did you encounter any danger yesterday?”

Mo Yu was still a little frightened from the previous night when he heard this question.

“Yesterday, four bandits came to catch me. Even the servants couldn’t defeat them. Then, while I was running away, I panicked and didn’t want to be caught. I don’t know why, but my soul escaped…”

Mo Yu chattered on, roughly explaining how he survived the danger, then let his master stroke his beard and ponder.

“The Taoist friend that you met is surnamed Ji? What was the matter with this Mountain God of Jiaoye Mountain? Why did he take the initiative to look for your soul? Did he just happen to pass by?”

After hearing that Mo Yu describe the Mountain God as more of a monster than a human, his master could basically judge that the other party was not very advanced in his cultivation. Otherwise, unless it was a true, enlightened land god, a mountain god in an ordinary temple would definitely appear close to human. A small god like this would not dare wade into muddy waters when the group was just passing by, right?

Mo Yu’s master had only listened to Mo Yu’s narration, he he was naturally missing some of the details. But when Mo Tong heard the immortal’s question, he naturally answered.

“To answer the Immortal, we saw it clearly. It was Immortal Ji who stomped on the ground last night, and said, ‘I require an audience with the God of Jiaoye Mountain.’”

Mo Tong imitated Ji Yuan’s gesture and tone as he recounted it.

Right as he finished speaking, the others noticed that the immortal, who appeared to be far more ethereal and dignified than the Mr. Ji of last night, stiffened, and his expression froze.

“Do you really see him summoning the Mountain God like this?”

“Absolutely!”

The immortal seemed a little dazed.

‘It turned out to be a Spirit-Binding technique! Which esteemed Taoist master placed this here? This Mr. Ji…’

“Master, Master, I also asked Mr. Ji whether you or he is more capable! Mr. Ji said that you are definitely more capable. I think so too, Mr. Ji can’t even fly. He said that to him, mountains and rivers must be crossed on foot. He is definitely not as awesome as you are!”

His teacher’s expression froze again. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Yu’er…you… there are mountains beyond mountains, and heavens beyond heavens…³ that Mr. Ji was just being modest, some masters truly to like to walk slowly… forget it, you still don’t understand… by the way, did that gentleman tell you his full name?”

“No, I asked, but Mr. Ji wouldn’t tell me!”

Thankfully, Mo Tong and others didn’t see that Ji Yuan used his own “Body-Freezing Technique” when he went out to chase the demons. Otherwise, who knew what this purple-robbed immortal would think when he heard.

At the same moment, Ji Yuan, who had already walked a long ways away, did not see the purple cultivator arrive, but did sense that his water-inscribed edict with a special technique that he had left behind had disappeared. He knew that Mo Yu’s master had arrived.

However, if Ji Yuan knew that Mo Yu’s master assumed that he simply didn’t like flying, he would probably feel a little complicated.

. . .

Before he knew it, it was the winter solstice. Somewhere on the bank of the Tongtian River, somewhere to the west of Youzhou Prefecture,⁴ a small boat with a canvas-roofed area at the back floated along the water.⁵ On the boat, a man wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat was fishing with a handmade green bamboo pole.

This person had been sitting on the bow of the boat since the beginning of winter, fishing in this section of the river. Sometimes he would be on this side, sometimes nearer to the other side.

To this side of the river was Youzhou Prefecture. To the other side of the river was the center of bureaucratic power in Dazhen, where the Zhili Capital Province⁶ and the country’s capital⁷ were located.

This fisherman was Ji Yuan. The awning boat was rented from the same old man whom he had previously sailed with, and the rental period was half a year. The boat rental also included the straw raincoat, bamboo hat, oars, and other items.

About a dozen li to the south of Ji Yuan’s boat was the famous Zhuangyuan Ferry, one of the most famous ferry crossing ports along the Tongtian River.

As legend had it, it used to be just a small ferry port in the past, but during the history of the founding of Dazhen, six scholar candidates from the eastern border took the ferry to the Capital prefecture at that ferry post, and later won the top spots in the imperial examination.

As for whether this legend was true or simply an idea the local villagers came up with in order to promote their local economy,⁸ Ji Yuan had no interest in finding out. However, it was undeniable that most of the candidates who came from the east to take the imperial examinations would stop by the Zhuangyuan Ferry to pray for good luck and pay their respects to the Goddess of the river.

Presumably, Yin Zhaoxian would also pass through here, so Ji Yuan planned to ferry his friend across the river himself.

It was impossible for “A Historical Account from Outside the Tao” to be completely comprehensive, and generally, only the “interesting” content was recorded, such as the old flood dragon in the Chunmu River’s failure to transform into a true dragon.

And although Tongtian River was large, it had always been peaceful and calm, so it was never even mentioned in “A Historical Account.” It was not until he had arrived there that Ji Yuan learned that the River God of the Tongtian River was female.

Ji Yuan had already gone to the River God Temple some time ago, and had asked around with other pilgrims and local villagers. He learned that the River Goddess’s real name was Ying Ruoli, and that she was likely related to the Old Dragon Ying Hong.⁹

Ji Yuan was not in a hurry to find the Old Dragon for a drink. He had been hanging around the riverside for so long, the old dragon must not have been home, otherwise he would have been discovered long ago. And going directly to the temple to communicate with the River Goddess was out of the question. What if the Old Dragon hadn’t mentioned JI Yuan to the rest of his family? How embarrassing would that be?

Anyway, it was quite interesting to just enjoy the pleasure of being a simple fisherman, and he could wait to see which among his two friends, the man or the dragon, he would encounter first.

1. Previously translated as “convenient,” you might see it go back and forth
2. A headpiece with a hairpin through it, as seen here and here
3. Another VERY classic Chinese phrase: “there is always someone better than you”
4. Youzhou was a real place in Ancient China. Unclear whether it’s a prefecture or province here, but it doesn’t follow province naming conventions (1 character and then “province,” i.e. Ji Province, Yi Province), but rather prefecture naming conventions (2 characters and then “prefecture,” i.e. Desheng Prefecture, Dingyuan Prefecture) so I’m assuming it’s a prefecture.
5. I believe the term is “awning boat”
6. Zhili is a real province, renamed Hebei. The name means “directly ruled” and it was the seat of power for imperial China, with the capital Beijing. In this context, we can infer that this is the province that holds the capital city for the country.
7. Ok, so I may have previously called this area “Jingji Prefecture,” 京畿 (jīngjī). However, those characters actually mean “capital city and its surrounding area” so I can only assume that it means the capital of Dazhen as a whole, which is located in Zhili Province, not a prefecture unto itself. I have gone back and changed chapters 118 and 78 based on my new understanding.
8. Lit: “a ‘get rich’ idea”
9. T/n: slight spoiler, but HELLOOOOO MY FAVORITE CHARACTER!!!