Lanke Chess Edge -
Chapter 33: A Dream That Makes You Wonder!
After listening to whole story, Ji Yuan couldn’t help but joke.
“I must be the last unlucky person in Ju’an Pavilion.”
The Old City God also laughed.
“Hahahahaha, Mr. Ji must be kidding. It was that evil spirit that was unlucky when it met you, Sir!”
After saying this, the Old City God looked at Ji Yuan, who was currently chewing on the bean paste cake, and hesitated for a while before asking a question.
“I don’t know where Mr. Ji hails from, but why did you come to my Ning’an County?”
Here it was, the big philosophical question of his life!
Ji Yuan had thought quite a bit about this question, but he didn’t know how to answer it at all. He definitely couldn’t talk about what happened in his previous life. Ji Yuan himself also wanted to know what happened to the original beggar of this life. As for why he came to Ning’an County, apart from here he really had nowhere else to go.
Ji Yuan smiled awkwardly, not knowing where to start. This question was related to his biggest secret, so he didn’t really want to talk about it.
When the Old City God saw Ji Yuan smiling without speaking in response to his question, he understood that the other party probably didn’t want to talk about it.“It doesn’t matter. Mr. Ji does not have to say anything. You are naturally humble and polite, and you were kind to our Ning’an County. That alone is enough.”
From Ji Yuan’s point of view, when this City God invited him to come over, thanking him was only part of his goal. He also wanted probe him about his reasons and identity.
“By the way, does Mr. Ji plan to reside in Ning’an County?”
This was a question Ji Yuan could answer.
“If there are no other incidents, I will stay in Ning’an County for a while.”
After thinking about it, Ji Yuan felt that it would be better for him to be honest. Although he felt that a spirit like the Old City God should be able to see through him clearly, he continued in case.
“In fact, I am not an enlightened individual in the way of the Dao. It was just a coincidence that I was lucky enough to hurt the evil spirit. There are many things I would like to ask Lord Cheng Huang about for advice.”
“If Mr. Ji has something to ask, please do not hesitate.”
The first half of Ji Yuan’s sentence was directly ignored.1 An apparent lack of strength or divine light on the surface did not mean anything at all. It was very difficult to happen to be lucky enough to injure an evil ghost, and that creature was an incarnation of earthly evil, not a mere lonely soul.
“I wonder if Lord Cheng Huang knows anything about the methods of cultivation in this world? Specifically the kinds of human cultivation!”
Ji Yuan was very nervous after asking, and added the second sentence. After all, what was it that attracted him most in this world? Wasn’t it simply those magical and magnificent acts? Wasn’t it simply the desire to fly into the sky and escape the earth for a while?
The Old City God frowned and thought about it seriously.
“I am just a small county city god. My method of cultivating incense, fire, and the golden body can be regarded as borrowing the will of all living beings. I have no need for ordinary Qi training methods, and I do not possess any precious true cultivation methods. I only possess martial arts methods, as there are quite a lot of those practitioners in the Yin Division under my jurisdiction.”
Ji Yuan was immediately disappointed; there was no magic.
“However, there is no mystery as to the fundamentals of these methods; I still know a little about the ordinary methods of inducing and guiding Qi, but it is relatively superficial. I am afraid it might be useless to Mr. Ji, correct?”
How could it be useless? It was still better than nothing!
“To be honest, I don’t even have this kind of superficial method. If it is convenient for Lord Cheng Huang, would you be willing to let me borrow it? Those mortal martial arts as well, I would like to take a look at them!”
‘I have done you quite a big favor. You wouldn’t refuse such a small request, will you?’
Although Ji Yuan was blind, he stared, motionless, at the Old City God, causing the latter to feel inexplicably seen through.
“Ah! Mr. Ji, where is the problem in taking a look? I will order someone to prepare the books and send them to Ju’an Pavilion.”
Ji Yuan was quite happy now.
“Excellent, excellent, thank you, Lord City God!”
This Old City God was very easy to talk to, and his biggest concerns had been solved Ji Yuan also wanted to ask about other things, things that would be difficult to ask about in the mortal world.
“Lord City God, as far as you know, what kind of immortal sects or mystical mountains exist today? What qualifications do they need to accept disciples?”
Ji Yuan asked humbly. The Old City God felt a little strange at his words. Why did Mr. Ji keep asking these questions about common-sense?
‘Could it be that this person is truly not an expert, as he said? ’
But no matter the other party’s background, the fact remained that they helped Ning’an County, and as such it didn’t matter how strange or common their problems were!
The Old City God relaxed his mind, stroked his beard, and thought for a moment before answering slowly.
“My Ning’an County is small and sparsely populated, so I have very little information from the outside world. As far as I know, the there are no immortal sects in Desheng Prefecture, where Ning’an County is located. In our entire Ji Province,2 all I can think of is Yuhuai Mountain.3 It is rumored that there is a Mountain God Edict4 hidden there, which can call upon the god of the mountain, but I don’t know whether this is true. Of course, there must be some heretics from small families in Ji Prefecture, but as for how they recruit disciples, I really couldn’t say. I am unaware of matters in other provinces or countries, but there is a literary legend that speaks of an Island of Immortals hidden deep in the clouds, housing the unparalleled Changjian5 Mountain…”6
Ji Yuan was still stunned by what he just heard about Yuhuai Mountain: an imperial edict? A Mountain God?
“What about the Heavenly Court?”7
Ji Yuan blurted out his question right as the Old City God paused for a moment.
“Heavenly Court? I wonder which immortal sect Mr. Ji might be referring to?”
The Old City God frowned. It sounded like they had a powerful background, if they dared to use heaven as a backdrop to crown their court.
Ji Yuan immediately realized: there is no heaven?
Originally, when the City God mentioned the Mountain God and his edict, he had thought that there would be a heaven, but now it seemed like there was no such thing. So are the so-called immortals in this world truly what he thought of as immortals?8
The City God’s question still needed an answer.
“Oh, it’s nothing. It is merely a powerful immortal sect that I have heard of before. It can appoint mountain and river gods. I don’t blame the City God…”
“I see, it must be extraordinary now that I think about it!”
Yes, it’s very extraordinary. I would be scared to death if you said it exists!
After evading the topic of the Heavenly Court, Ji Yuan asked a lot about the world of cultivation, including about demons, ghosts, and the like. He concluded from this information that there was no such thing as a unified underworld, except for the Yin Division of the City Gods in various places. Even if the different places were affiliated with each other, their relationship seemed to be very weak.
Overall, this information allowed Ji Yuan to better understand the world of cultivation, but at the same time, gave him even more questions. The Old City God’s knowledge was really limited.
Ji Yuan frowned and pondered for a while. His mind was a little confused, so he simply put these things aside for the time being. Thinking about these things would only worry him more, so it was better to understand some other things first.
After calming down, Ji Yuan spoke again.
“I would also like to ask you some stupid questions. I hope the City God will not laugh at me.”
“Please ask, I will tell you all I know!”
After so many questions, the Old City God was a little surprised.
“I would like to ask, what country are we in, what dynasty and era, and what is the situation with respect to other countries? How many times has there been a change in dynasty?”
This question…
The Old City God was stunned for a moment at his question, and then his expression became inexplicably serious.
Just now, this man didn’t know anything about cultivation or the world of immortals, which was understandable, but now he was even asking about such mundane matters as dynasties and countries?
The former was indeed out of reach of ordinary people, but the latter would be known by anyone with a little knowledge or even some common sense.
Did Ji Yuan not have any knowledge or common sense? Through his previous investigations, the Old City God knew that Mr. Ji was by no means a mediocre person.9 His speech was clear and his behavior was polite. He also had unique and piercing insights into many of the things they had chatted about.
It was impossible for a person like that to say they had not read any books. But sometimes, Ji Yuan’s speech patterns were a little strange.
Suddenly, the Old City God thought of a possibility, and his body couldn’t help but tremble slightly.
When Song Shichang was alive, durign the time when he was a court official, he once read a book about fairy tales. Although it was written from the imagination of ordinary mortals, the content of the story was so interesting that it was still fresh in his memory.
There was a story in that book that began with the following sentence: You awaken with a laugh to go play a game, unaware that you have dreamt for a thousand years!10
“Lord City God, Lord City God?”
Ji Yuan called out twice. Why had this City God become stunned? Was he truly asking a stupid question?
“Ah!? Oh, Mr. Ji, let me answer your question!”
The Old Town God didn’t even notice that he subconsciously changed his tone of voice.11
T/n: I have a Kofi now! I’ve disabled the monthly function; I want to make sure that I keep a balance so that I don’t get too much pressure to translate, or this might stop being fun. Thank you everyone for your support!
- T/n: AHAHAHAHA RIP Ji Yuan XD ↩︎
- Several villages/towns/cities make a county, several counties make a prefecture, several prefectures make a province, and several provinces make a country. The city god is going from small to large, saying that there’s nothing in Ning’an County, he hasn’t heard of anything in Desheng Prefecture, and there might be a thing that he’s heard rumors of in Ji Province ↩︎
- Jade Heart Mountain ↩︎
- Could also be translated as: “imperial mountain edict,” “mountain sealing edict,” “mountain seal talisman,” “mountain imperial edict” – basically some kind of powerful talisman artifact. Based on how they use it later, it’s the “mountain god’s edict.” ↩︎
- Roughly translates to “eternal sword strike,” which is a badass name for a mountain on a hidden island of immortal cultivators ↩︎
- T/n: Alright this whole paragraph was a flipping doozy to translate. Now who’s ready to wait 200+ chapters for this to actually be relevant? Wooooo! ↩︎
- Court of Heaven, ruled by the Jade Emperor. You’ve probably seen depictions of it in other media, most notably with Journey to the West. ↩︎
- i.e.: are they really immortal? Do they match his impression from his previous world’s media? ↩︎
- Lit: “man without ink” ↩︎
- 大笑醒来游戏去，恍不知一梦千年 From what I can tell, it’s like the legend of Lanke but with a dream instead of chess. ↩︎
- More formal tone, but again, English doesn’t have that, and no one, least of all me, wants me to start translating things like “Sir Ji, I beg thee, lend me thine ear” ↩︎
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