Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 155: Meeting Qingsong Again

Ji Yuan, who had flown away on the cloud, did not ride too high nor too far. He only traveled a little over ten li outside the Capital before slowly landing on the ground.

The mist drifted like smoke in the wind a few dozen feet off the ground. It took less than half an hour to land outside the city.

This was Ji Yuan’s first attempt at the flying technique, so he was a little cautious. At this height and speed, even if something serious happened, he could land safely with his skills and movement techniques.

However, the whole process was much easier than Ji Yuan had imagined. Perhaps it was due to the Old Dragon’s inherent spiritual cloud-riding ability, or perhaps it was due to the white chess piece in his hand that represented the old white flood dragon.

Although he didn’t fly very high, the sensation of flight was still wonderful. After landing, Ji Yuan’s confidence increased greatly.

‘But if I were to apply the evaluation of Patriarch Bodhi¹ in Journey to the West, this couldn’t even be considered flying with the clouds, right? ’

With gloomy thoughts in his mind, Ji Yuan walked quickly towards the Tongtian River not too far away.

After all, it was spring and the third lunar month. Even though it was only early morning after dawn, the land between the Tongtian River’s Wharf and the Capital of the prefecture was already bustling with a constant stream of carriages and horses coming and going, without the silence of deep winter.

Ji Yuan was a lone passerby with a bag slung over his back and an umbrella. He looked like a scholar who had failed the imperial examination and was now returning home. No one would give him a second look. Occasionally, as he walked, he could hear people discussing the top scholar who had won three consecutive top scores in the imperial examinations this year.

When he arrived at the riverbank, Ji Yuan did walk towards the large pier to his left, but instead headed towards the south side of the riverbank to his right. There was already an old man waiting there; it was the Old Dragon, who had anticipated Ji Yuan’s itinerary.

The Old Dragon stroked his beard and watched as his friend grew closer from the distance. When they had almost gotten close enough, he and Ji Yuan bowed to each other at the same time.

“Mr. Ji!”

“Mr. Ying!”

After greeting each other, the two walked along the river together.

The Old Dragon looked at the bag and oil paper umbrella that Ji Yuan carried.

“Sometimes I envy Mr. Ji for having the patience and leisure to enjoy this world to the fullest.”

Ji Yuan also looked back at the Old Dragon. He always dressed the same every time they saw each other.

“Mr. Ying, you too can do it. With your level of cultivation, what gods in the mortal world could see through your dragon body? Even if they could, who would say anything about you?”

“Hah, I don’t have that kind of patience. Some things are fun, but they’re not as comfortable as taking a nap.”

The Old Dragon was only half joking. In Ji Yuan’s opinion, it was merely that the old dragon was not very interested in human affairs. When it came to patience, he really wasn’t that bad.

One man and one dragon walked slowly along the riverbank for several li.

When it came time for them to part, the Old Dragon reminded Ji Yuan not to forget to inform him where he was going to be practicing. They bid each other farewell with a simple exchange.

The dragon dove into the water and disappeared into the river, while the man rode on the clouds.

…

Bing Province was located on the southeast side of the Central Plains of Dazhen. It was the smallest of the thirteen provinces of Dazhen, containing only five prefectures in total.

However, Bing Province was an important agricultural center of Dazhen. Its suitable climate and vast farmland plains made Bing Province the veritable granary of the country. There were many records throughout history of governments transferring grain out of Bing Province when disasters occurred elsewhere in the country.

Changchuan Prefecture held the capital of Bing Province. In addition to the capital, it held jurisdiction of twelve large counties, one of which was Dongle County.

Ji Yuan was now familiar with the cloud riding technique, and he had asked for directions along the way. He arrived safely in Dongle County, Taoist Qingsong’s hometown, by the end of the fourth lunar month.

In all honesty, Ji Yuan was quite surprised when he first learned that Taoist Qingsong and his disciple Qi Wen lived in Bing Province.

Bing Province and Ji Province were not very close to each other. At that time, Ji Yuan had assumed that the two Taoists, both the older and the younger, were just wandering around Ji Province or even just Desheng Prefecture. He hadn’t expected them to have come from so far.

Factoring in an ordinary person’s walking speed, the fact that the master and his disciple were often short of money and could not afford to hire a carriage, and finally the fact that they had no clear purpose to their travels according to the young Taoist boy Qi Wen, the two of them had likely been traveling for about two and a half years.

There were few mountains in Bing Prefecture, and this trait continued in Dongle County. Yun² Mountain was easy to find in the county. Ji Yuan simply needed to ask around, and immediately found the Cloud Mountain Temple of Taoist Qingsong.

The scale of Yun Mountain was relatively similar to that of the old Hua Mountain outside of Jiudaokou County in Desheng Prefecture, Ji Province. It was considered quite a large mountain for Changchuan Prefecture.

At this moment, Ji Yuan stood outside the Cloud Mountain Temple on Yanxia³ Peak, and walked around the temple grounds.

The Taoist temple might seem small in scale, but it had everything one might need. In addition to a main hall dedicated to the stars, it also had many side rooms, kitchens, and a backyard.

There were some vegetables planted in the backyard. Because it was located on the upper half of the mountain, there was no well. The inhabitants had to go down the mountain to fetch water from the Yun Mountain stream.

The entire Taoist temple covered an area of ​​about one mu, and its only inhabitants were Taoist Qingsong and his disciple Qi Wen.

Judging from the aura in the Taoist temple, Taoist Qingsong and Qi Wen should have already returned here long ago.

However, there was no one in the temple at present. It was clear that the two of them had gone out. There were probably not many thieves on this mountain, so the temple had not been locked.

“Tsk tsk tsk… Has Taoist Qingsong gone out to tell people’s fortunes again?”

Ji Yuan pushed open the door of the Taoist temple and walked in. He didn’t bother looking around the two people’s residences, and went straight to the main hall of the temple.

The deities enshrined in this temple were not the Three Pure Ones of Taoism⁴ that Ji Yuan remembered from his previous life, but instead it was the stars and constellations in the sky. There were no clay statues whatsoever in the temple, but rather a star map which hung on a black cloth. He couldn’t tell whether it was because the stars were special, but although they were slightly blurry in his vision, Ji Yuan could easily distinguish them.

The most conspicuous were the Northern Dipper⁵ and the Southern Dipper,⁶ with seven stars visible and two of the nine stars hidden. In addition, there were the Eastern, Western, and Central Dippers, with many other stars embroidered in between.⁷

“Oh my, worshipping the stars instead of the gods. The Taoism here is quite interesting.”

In fact, whether it was “A Historical Account from Outside the Tao,” “Bright Strategies,” or some of the books Ji Yuan had obtained from the Old Dragon afterwards, only the Mingwang Buddha had been mentioned from time to time, and there was not much other information about Taoism.

Most of the “Masters” that the ordinary people of the mortal world would invite were monks, or people who wore what seemed to be “supernatural robes,” but there were not many true Taoist priests.

Ji Yuan looked at the star map for a while and then left the room.

There was also an incense burner outside the hall. The incense in it was not very strong, but based on the way the incense was dissipating, the star map in the temple was clearly neither needed nor used for prayer.

“No wonder people don’t come to this temple to burn incense. There’s not even a statue of a deity. What would they pray for?”

Dongle County was about twenty to thirty li south of Yun Mountain. Ji Yuan didn’t want to wait in the Taoist temple, so he planned to head out there to see if Taoist Qingsing was there, and to buy some groceries.

He rode the clouds to the edge of the county, then headed straight for the county’s temple. Sure enough, a small table had been set up under a large tree right outside the City God Temple. Taoist Qingsong sat there with a gloomy face. Qi Wen, having grown taller, stood beside him.

Although Ji Yuan couldn’t see the stall’s signboard clearly, he could still hear every word of Taoist Qingsong;s warm greetings to the passing temple visitors.

“Hey, is this gentleman here to seek marriage? Hey, is this lady here to seek marriage?”

“If you want to ask for your marriage fortune, come to me for a fortune interpretation. It’s cheap!”

…

Ji Yuan nodded to himself. It seemed that Qi Wen had listened to his words.

Not long after he finished silently praising him, a middle-aged pilgrim wearing a straight-hemmed gray robe and a square hat on his head came to the booth and asked a question.

“Taoist, can you interpret my family fortune for me?”

Taoist Qingsong spirit suddenly changed. Qi Wen, who had been standing beside him, had just finished uttering the word “no…” when a loud proclamation overwhelmed him.

“Yes! Of course! If my interpretation is not accurate enough, I will give you another at no extra cost!”

“Oh? That’s great, alright, please interpret my fortune, Taoist priest.”

“Hehehe, come sit, come sit. Actually, I had been reading your face just now, but I didn’t want to ask until you came by.”

Taoist Master Qingsong kindly and warmly invited the pilgrim to sit down.

Both Qi Wen in the distance and Ji Yuan sighed at the exact same time.

1. Patriarch Bodhi, also known as Puti Zushi was a mentor to the Monkey King and taught him numerous abilities including “cloud-somersaulting” and fast travel techniques. When he asked Sun Wukong to demonstrate his flight ability, he laughed and told him “This cannot be considered flying with the clouds; it’s more like crawling on them”
2. 云 (yún): cloud. I debated translating it as it was only one character, but I’ll follow the naming conventions I’ve stuck with previously and leave it as Yun for the mountain. The Monastery name, however, will be fully translated.
3. 烟霞 (yānxiá): haze. It’s literally Misty Peak of Cloud Mountain
4. Highest gods in Taoism, also known as Three Purities or Three Divine Teachers, represent the 3 essential fields of the body (jing, qi, shen). They are the Jade Pure One (Yuqing), Supreme Pure One, Grand Pure One. I highly recommend reading more about them, this is barely scratching the surface or else this footnote will end up being an 8 page essay
5. 北斗 (Běidǒu): Big Dipper, lit. “Great Bear,” marks death
6. 南斗 (Nándǒu): also known as the Dipper mansion formed by μ, λ, φ , σ, τ and ζ Sagittarii, marks life
7. Traditional Chinese astronomy does not have other dippers explicitly named as such other than North and South. However, it is a very rich field and there’s a lot of information out there about the constellations.