Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 83: Do Not Make Presumptuous Demands

[T/n: note on chapter title]¹

Why did that old flood dragon River God rush towards him? No matter how he thought about it, it seemed as though he were coming for Ji Yuan. It might have been because of that wisp of mysterious yellow energy, but Ji Yuan felt that this idea was a little absurd.

When he was burning incense, there was indeed a mysterious yellow vapor that emerged, but at that time Ji Yuan himself also felt dizzy, as if he had drunk too much, and it was quite uncomfortable. Feeling that something was wrong, he decisively pinched the tip of the incense stick to extinguish the smoke, and felt lot better.

Because he felt a little guilty, Ji Yuan, who had originally wanted to take a closer look at the murals and leave a poem or some writings, left the River God Temple after a brief visit.

Sure enough, a moment later, he saw a dragon-shaped silhouette flying in the sky, landing somewhere outside the sky and landed somewhere outside the city on Chunmu River.² Following that, dragon energy filled the River God Temple. It seemed that the old flood dragon had entered.

As for who he was looking for, Ji Yuan wanted to say that it was absolutely none of his business, but he himself didn’t believe that thought.

‘Is it because I extinguished the incense stick before it had even started burning?’

However, as the god of the river, he should not be so petty. It seemed that indeed, the problem lay with that mysterious ray of yellow energy. The uncomfortable feeling it gave Ji Yuan was still fresh in his memory.

However, he had experienced nothing wrong when he had offered incense to the City God previously. It seemed that it had something to do with the transformation of his inner alchemy furnace into a spiritual connection.

“Ah… From now on, when I enter a temple to pay my respects to the statue, I should put my hands together and bow. I shouldn’t burn incense casually…”

With this thought in mind, Ji Yuan still felt unsafe after entering the city, and hurried towards the west, intending to go directly through Chunhui City and leave. Because of the unclear conflict with the River God, Ji Yuan didn’t intend to stay here any longer.

. . .

At the Chunmu River’s River God Temple, after the originally domineering old man dejectedly released the temple keeper, the people around him still felt strangely like they did not dare breathe. They watched the old man leave the River God Temple, step by step.

Outside the River God Temple, the vendors along the path were still shouting loudly. There were visitors in a hurry, some of which were tourists, others who were chatting…

But all this seemed far away from the old man. He just paced slowly, feeling a little confused and frustrated.

Just now, a master had actually shared his aura of merit with him. That wisp of dark yellow was different from the fine aura, mixed with desire and easily dissipated, that came when ordinary visitors prayed and fulfilled their vows. It seemed so pure and flawless that even the old flood dragon almost couldn’t truly sense it.

It wasn’t until just now, after the dizziness had subsided, that the white flood dragon felt numb and itchy all over his body, and even sensed that his worn body was showing signs of revival, that the white flood dragon suddenly reacted and hurriedly rushed to the River God Temple. But when he arrived, he had only seen the previous scene.

And the most crucial that was that, not only was he given a share of that mysterious and incomparable aura of merit, but that there were actually people in this world who could do such an incredible act such as sharing merit, and use the mysterious yellow power to impact one’s fortune,³ which only existed in ancient legends!

“If the incense stick didn’t go out… if it fully burned out… if it fully burned out… why was it lit and then taken away? Why… could it be that my karma hasn’t yet arrived… or did I do something wrong…”

At this moment, the dignified River God of Chunmy River, who had already obtained his official divine position, muttered to himself in a state of disarray.

His figure became less and less visible to the eyes of the people around him, until he disappeared completely. A moment later, an invisible silhouette of dragon flew away into the sky.

When one reached the white flood dragon’s level of cultivation, it would become obvious that this opportunity had been lost, and he would not be able to get it back if he stood guard there.

. . .

In the underwater mansion, the short wait did not make the old turtle anxious. Turtles were used to waiting quietly. He simply kept wondering in his mind what had happened to make the River God lose his temper.

About half an hour after the River God left, an old man strode in from outside the underwater mansion, walking on the waves.

“Lord!”

“Greetings to the River God!”

The Yaskha and the old turtle hurriedly bowed, greeting him respectfully.

“Ah…”

In front of them, the white flood dragon regained his indifference. After a brief response, he walked towards the pile of wine jars that had been pushed to the wall of the sandy arena. He picked up a jar of wine, opened the seal, and poured it into his mouth.

After drinking an entire jar of Qianrichun in one gulp, the unwillingness in his heart still lingered, and even became stronger.

Suddenly, the old man turned around and looked at the old turtle. The look in his eyes inexplicably made the old turtle a little scared.

“Old turtle, use your skills to tell my fortune!”

As the old flood dragon spoke, he took a few steps closer, carrying another jar of wine.

“Let me warn you, this hexagram is extremely dangerous for you. If you can survive after revealing the hexagram, I will definitely help you with all my strength in the future!”

This statement was said in such a decisive tone that the old turtle was left no leeway, making the latter, a cold-blooded animal to begin with, feel even colder.

“Yes, yes sir…”

……

As this matter concerned the key to his own cultivation, the old flood dragon was naturally extremely cautious. In addition to the necessary quiet and tranquility, he actually returned to the River God Temple and brought back all of the incense ashes in the burner.

Although the incense stick itself had disintegrated, since it had burned down about the length of a fingernail, there must have been some ashes that remained.

After returning to the mansion, the old flood dragon dismissed the Yaksha, and spat out a mouthful of dragon blood, full of draconic energy, into the incense ash in front of the old turtle. Seeing this, the old turtle felt even more nervous and weak.

After about half an hour of preparation, the old turtle, filled with nervousness and fear, used the conditions for divination given to him by the Lord River God. He was even informed of the white flood dragon’s birth date and the specific time of his two previous failed attempts at transforming into a true dragon.

All of this put a lot of pressure on the old turtle. He knew that this matter of divination was absolutely not a trivial matter, and he even regretted coming to ask the River God for help in the first place.

At the moment of divination, the originally pitch-black back of the turtle slightly lit up with patterns of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams.⁴

However, as the old turtle cast the hexagram, the more he calculated, the more his eyes, which were originally closed, gradually widened. The hexagrams he obtained were completely different from what he had imagined…

Although the predicted danger had passed, the real danger had not yet been resolved.

Seeing the old turtle’s gradually changing reactions, the River God to the side asked with concern.

“How is it? Did you figure anything out?”

The old turtle subconsciously shrank his neck and looked cautiously at the River God, who was currently in the form of an old man. His eyes and expressions were innocent and hesitant, and he seemed a little pitiful.

“Lord River God… I, this old turtle, swear on my lifelong practice that my divination and my words are absolutely true. The hexagram… is blank!”

Blank?

Hearing this, the old man stared at the old turtle, who didn’t dare move. His expression changed several times. He wanted to speak, but he couldn’t utter a word.

After a long time, it turned into a sigh.

“Oh… never mind, just leave…”

The old turtle, who still had some lingering fear, felt like he had escaped from a desperate situation. He was very grateful and quickly crawled out, not daring to ask for any reward for his divination.

“Old turtle…”

A voice from behind made the old turtle freeze.

“I will pass on some of my own independently-realized cultivation techniques. Although they are not compatible with turtles, you can still find some benefits in them for your cultivation. If you still show no signs of improvement in ten years, then you can consider the transformation through achieving divinity!”

Hearing this, the old turtle was overjoyed. He turned around and kowtowed to the River God over and over again.

“Thank you, Lord River God! Thank you, Lord River God!”

“Hmph… it’s not easy for turtles to cultivate, so just take care of yourself!”

After saying these words, the River God flicked his sleeves and entered the back of the mansion alone. The jars of fine wine in the distance all followed closely behind him, swept away by the current.

. . .

Ji Yuan, who had already slipped away, naturally had no idea about the white flood dragon’s current state whatsoever, but he could see the shadow of the dragon ascending to the sky and leaving from the city.

He thought to himself, he came and went quickly, so he shouldn’t be angry, right?

In that case, considering his own state just now, Ji Yuan could only vaguely guess that he had a favorable impact on the white flood dragon, if the white flood dragon had indeed come because of him.

But even though Ji Yuan still didn’t know the exact reason, he didn’t dare go directly to the white flood dragon to ask.

Even though the white flood dragon had left, Ji Yuan didn’t plan to stay any longer. He bought some dry biscuits along the way and headed straight for the western part of the city, his pace growing faster and faster.

About an hour later, Ji Yuan was already walking on the official road west of Chunhui City.

When he got there, although there were still carriages and horses coming and going, the bustle of Chunhui Capital City suddenly faded away.

Ji Yuan also relaxed a little more. First, he took inconspicuous strides to avoid the main road, and headed in a more remote direction. Finally, when he saw that there were no longer many people around, he completely let himself go and ran wildly.

The next step was to directly leave Ji Province and head to the tomb of Mad Disciple Zuo in the eastern corner of Yi Province. There were many roads in between, so there was no need to stop anywhere special. Ji Yuan felt that, as long as he consciously kept a hold of his accurate sense of direction, he would always be headed towards his destination even if he continued running wildly.

It was as if the wind were blowing under his feet. Ji Yuan’s legs moved like afterimages, and he could hear the wind whistling in his ears from his high-speed running. When his speed reached his limit, Ji Yuan suddenly pushed off of the ground with his feet.

With a whoosh, his entire figure jumped into the sky.

“The clouds fly to the ends of the heavens, and the people travel to the ends of the earth. We bid farewell to Chunhui Prefecture, and hello to another state,⁵ hahahahaha…”

Although he could neither ride on the clouds nor control the wind yet, running fast and suddenly jumping up still gave Ji Yuan the feeling of flying, which made him feel refreshed.

Whether in his previous life or in this life, people always yearned to fly. Ji Yuan too had set flying as an important goal of his practice.

1. 妄求 (wàngqiú): inappropriate or presumptuous demands; 不得 (bùdé): must not/may not/not to be allowed/cannot. I translated it literally, but other translations are giving “unfulfilled desire/request” or “reckless requests cannot be fulfilled.” It might be a mix ↩︎
2. Raws say “Chunmu City” – I believe they meant to say Chunhui City. I decided on a similar translation to keep to the raws. ↩︎
3. 运玄黄之力参造化之功 lots of alternate translations: using the power of fate to participate in the work of creation, changing fate and giving fortune, etc. ↩︎
4. Also known as Bagua, a set of symbols intended to illustrate the nature of reality. Here’s a source with the trigrams on a turtle’s back! ↩︎
5. 云飞天末人遨游，别于惠府向异州 ↩︎