Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 132: Friends Have Arrived

In fact, with the power of the Xiao family, if the young master wanted to become an official, he could still do so even if he didn’t participate in the imperial examination. However, the imperial examination was not only a good way for scholars and ordinary people to rise, but also a good way for children of officials to prove themselves. So long as they didn’t have a reputation for being frivolous, connections and outstanding family resources could often aid heirs to achieve good results in the imperial examinations.

While Ji Yuan rowed away, he naturally overheard the chatter behind him of people planning to drink tea with various high-profile individuals. These were obviously related to the imperial examination, and the young master did not object. This kind of practice was obviously customary among high-ranking officials in the feudal dynasty.

Of course, these people didn’t dare go too far. At most, they would receive some guidance and advice to work hard. If they went too far in obtaining advantages, the emperor’s retribution would not be light. In the history of Dazhen, there had even been officials who were executed for leaking exam questions.

‘Well, Master Yin, I can only say that your opponents in this imperial examination are quite formidable! ’

The awning boat rowed further and further away, until it was completely out of sight of the large ship.

The sky was already completely dark, so Ji Yuan simply increased his paddling strength. With a stronger stroke of the oar, the boat was pushed even further. Thanks to the protection of a thin layer of spiritual energy, the wooden oar was made extremely tough, even under an enormous force that obviously exceeded its load capacity.

Before midnight, the awning boat had already passed by the Zhuangyuan Ferry. There were lights and fires on the wharf, as well as restaurants and inns. Not too far away, the Tongtian River God Temple had lanterns hanging high, and the scent of burning incense floated through the air.

However, on this cold winter night, no ferries were in operation on the river.

After a while, Ji Yuan rowed the boat back to the place where it used to be moored and breathed a sigh of relief. He wondered if Old Man Chen would have reported his absence to the police, since he couldn’t find him for a couple days.

Ji Yuan didn’t care about any of that. He lashed the boat to the shore, walked under the black canvas awning, closed the bamboo doors to either side, covered himself with a quilt, and fell asleep.

Early the next morning, a familiar voice came from the shore.

“Mr. Ji? Is that you, Mr. Ji? Mr. Ji!”

Ji Yuan had already opened his eyes when he heard footsteps approaching. He naturally exited the cabin under the canvas awning.

Seeing Ji Yuan come out, the old man on the shore breathed a sigh of relief.

“Hey, Mr. Ji, where have you been rowing around these days? You disappeared for so many days without even saying goodbye, and in this cold weather at that! I was so worried about you…”

Old Man Chen stopped, but Ji Yuan also knew what he meant. He bowed deeply to Old Man Chen apologetically.

“It’s my fault, I really didn’t think it through. I hope Uncle Chen can forgive me. I couldn’t catch any fish for the past couple days, and then I met a good friend who said we could catch more fish if we sailed a little further away. We also wanted to row around on the boat and enjoy the snow, so we went together. I forgot to leave a message for Uncle Chen.”

Old Man Chen shook his head and pointed at Ji Yuan.

“You’ve been gone for so long, I was really scared. But I’m glad you’re back, I’m very glad you’re back…”

After complaining for a long time, Old Man Chen adjusted his mentality. It was only because Ji Yuan was easy to talk to, and they were familiar with each other, that he dared to talk like this.

At this time, Old Man Chen checked the fish basket near the bow of the boat out of habit. Sure enough, it was still empty.

“Mr. Ji, you and your friend didn’t catch any fish, did you?”

“Yeah, they didn’t catch any, so they left all disappointed!”

“Yeah, it’s been really weird lately. None of the people in the village can catch any fish. The fish just don’t show up. At most, they could only catch some small minnows or shrimps. The fish never take the bait. Mr. Ji, do you think it will still be like this come spring?”

As the old man spoke, he moved closer to the shoreline and handed Ji Yuan a lotus leaf-wrapped package, which was still steaming hot.

Ji Yuan’s nose twitched. He happily took the lotus leaf package and spoke casually.

“Have you asked for help from the River Goddess?”

“I begged! How could I not?”

“That’s fine then, I think it’ll be alright soon!”

“Oh, I hope so! Oh, by the way, Mr. Ji, would you like a drink? If so, I can bring you some local wine in the afternoon?”

Ji Yuan thought about it for a while. He seemed to remember that the last time he had some, the old dragon had swept him and his boat away before he could finish drinking it.

“No, no, I still have some wine. I’ll ask Old Man Chen for more when I need it.”

“Okay, Mr. Ji, enjoy your meal. I’ll take my leave.”

“Okay, Uncle Chen, take care!”

Old Man Chen relaxed and walked a lot more briskly. Had had naturally been concerned about Ji Yuan taking off with the bat, but also primarily concerned for Ji Yuan himself.¹ After Old Man Chen had walked away, Ji Yuan untied the rope lashing the boat to the dock piling, picked up the oar, and rowed the boat away from the shore.

These foreign underwater creatures, particularly the dragons who had gathered in such large numbers, would all gradually leave, and the disturbed aquatic life in the river should return to normal soon.

As usual, he found a suitable position and sat on a small stool at the bow of the boat. He hooked dried insects as bait and cast out his line, all the while untying the lotus leaf package and eating the buns, with one of the new books he had borrowed from the Old Dragon on his lap.

This book was titled “Imperial Discourse.”² It was not written in Heavenly Script, but it was certainly no ordinary book, as Ji Yuan could see it clearly. Moreover, there seemed to be another mystery concealed between the lines of this book. If people with insufficient discipline in concentration stared at the words in the book for a long enough time, they would begin to feel dizzy and even experience hallucinations.

This book, like several of the books Ji Yuan had previously obtained, did not seem to have an author’s name.

Ji Yuan once thought, with some dark humor, that perhaps because they were in a world of demons and immortals, those authors were afraid that their works would displease some powerful and vicious demon, who would directly come and visit them to “discuss” their arguments, or perhaps simply to beat them up. Therefore, they chose not to attach their names to their works.

“Imperial Discourse” was not a book of spiritual techniques; to be exact, it was a book that helped understand the “control technique” among spiritual techniques. Generally, such thick books were almanacs, such as “A Historical Account from Outside the Tao” and “Bright Policies.”

The most important part was that this kind of strange book was enjoyable to read and quite intriguing!

As the saying went, true techniques were not so easily passed on. There were very few genuine techniques, and they were often complex, usually preserved in special objects that embodied the essence of their teachings, such as the jade slips and jade sticks that Ji Yuan had on hand.

However, Ji Yuan believed that there was some profound knowledge hidden in these books, and furthermore some of these academic questions were worth pondering. These “Control Techniques” spoke of the author’s research into controlling water, fire, wind, lightning, and so on, from the basic to the advanced level.³ It did not talk about strict methods, but rather only anecdotes from experience and speculation.

Based on the proportion of insights to guesses from the various methods of controlling lightning, Ji Yuan could easily analyze the author’s own attainments in cultivating the Tao, and the other techniques he was familiar with. For example, the author could only control eight parts of the lightning technique out of ten, and this portion of the text was basically all hearsay and assumptions based on speculation and debate.

While flipping through the book and eating his way through a steamed bun, Ji Yuan came across the most exciting part: details about changing the state of water, making it either soft or rigid. This section coincided with Ji Yuan’s own experience in water manipulation. This curious feeling made Ji Yuan smile from ear to ear.

The top of the fishing rod in his left hand trembled slightly, and the bait rose and fell. Ji Yuan stuffed the rest of the steamed bun in his mouth with his right hand, and looked towards the hook.

‘Is this a fish? ’

After scanning under the water surface for a while, Ji Yuan, grinning, turned his head to look towards the official road on the shoreline. In the distance, he saw two scholars carrying structured book packs⁴ walking together.

“Brother Yin, it’s all my fault for getting you into trouble. I should have known that it was a scam, but I didn’t listen to your advice. Now, both of us have lost our funds…”

One of the scholars kept sighing.

Although Yin Zhaoxian was also a bit depressed, he was much more relaxed and easygoing than his companion.

“Okay, Brother Shi, stop blaming yourself. Just take this as a lesson learned!”

“That’s what I said, but that a despicable person actually dared to file a complaint before we could. If it weren’t for Brother Yin’s status as the top scholar of Ji Province, we would have been thrown into prison. I can barely contain my rage just thinking about it!”

Yin Zhaoxian tightened the strap of his book pack. He rubbed his frozen hands together and breathed some warm air on them, then looked at the man beside him.

“In that case, we just need to succeed in the imperial examination and be assigned to an official post where we can settle such cases in the future. Today’s disaster may be a blessing in the future!”

“That makes sense, Brother Yin is right!”

The two chatted as they walked. After some time, they finally approached the bank of the Tongtian River. In the meantime, they discussed whether their remaining money would be enough to take the ferry, how many months they still had before the exam would start, how they would spend their time in the intervening period, and other concerns.

Even Yin Zhaoxian was a little worried, but he could only take things one step at a time.

“There’s a boatman over there. Shall we go ask him how far it is to the Zhuangyuan ferry?”

“Alright, let’s go over and ask!”

Although the two scholars were tired, they quickened their pace.

Under the river surface, a yaksha was full of doubts. Why didn’t this fisherman raise his rod? Was he blind and didn’t know that he had caught a fish? Did he want to catch a bigger one?

His Royal Highness the Dragon Prince suddenly ordered him to find a fisherman here, and to help him hook a large fish from time to time. Although the yaksha was puzzled, he didn’t ask any more questions and just obeyed the order.

Just as he was about to change to another fish, the fisherman on the boat suddenly lifted up his fishing rod.

Yin Zhaoxian and the scholar surnamed Shi had just reached the shore, and before they had time to shout to the awning boat, they saw the fisherman on the boat lift up his fishing rod to reveal an enormous white bighead carp⁵ that looked to weight at least 20 to 30 catties, making a big splash.

1. Lit: “more afraid that a murder had occurred.
2. 御 (yù): imperial/royal/to govern, 论 (lùn): opinion/view/discussion. Could also be: “Royal Treatise,” “Imperial Arguments”
3. As I previously mentioned, Ji Yuan’s current “water control technique” is actually always referred to as a “water avoidance technique” – he’s not fully controlling the water, he’s just repelling it, which functionally has the same effect when others don’t know what he’s doing. But this technique he’s talking about here is the real deal
4. You can look up “framed backpack” to get an idea – think backpacking bag but more rigid/sturdy and made to hold books
5. Bighead carp