Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 84: Incidentally Seeing an Ominous Light

Facts had thus far proven that in some things, Ji Yuan’s confidence was quite misplaced. Of course, this was not referring to his spiritual practice, but rather something more metaphysical.

Ji Yuan was 100% sure that he had not made a mistake in his direction. After leaving the city and climbing over the hill, he ran south along the ridge.

But now, Ji Yuan suddenly realized a serious problem: the map he knew might not be accurate.

In the end, the impressions from his previous life were too ingrained, and he had forgotten that the ancient maps were sometimes very abstract, and their level of detail naturally could not be compared to the modern-day photography and satellite positioning of his previous life.

The biggest map that Ji Yuan relied on was the one carved by Judge Wu of the Ning’an County City God’s administration, and here lay the problem.

It had been dozens or hundreds of years since Wu Pan’s death, and he might not have traveled far during his lifetime. The maps he had engraved were naturally copied from maps he had found, and some of those maps might have been old manuscripts hidden in the City God’s underworld residence.

He could not assume that the design was miraculously accurate just because the person who had carved it was a ghost cultivator of the power of incense and faith. In fact, the accuracy might even be questionable.

After thinking about it for a while, Ji Yuan stopped and muttered to himself.

“It’s a little different from what I imagined… So… where’s the road?”

Ji Yuan was a little at a loss. After running without stopping for a whole day, he slowed his speed and gradually became more and more panicked. Finally, he admitted that he had lost his way again.

‘I know who I am, but where am I?’ The lifelong agony of this question arose in Ji Yuan’s heart.¹

He should have been able to see a river a long time ago, but he hadn’t seen any obvious waterway along his route, so Ji Yuan had continued running confidently until now.

All he could see to all sides of him was a sparse forest. The terrain was composed of low hills and gently undulating slopes. The highest one was probably only a few dozen meters high, and could not even be considered a peak.

However, there were some trails on the ground, some of which looked to have been trod by wild animals, while some were obviously left by people. Although they were covered by weeds, Ji Yuan could still feel some carriage wheel tracks when he stepped on them.

Then again, when it came to the comfort of wearing shoes, Ji Yuan felt that his experiences in both of his lives had their merits. In these times, shoes were all made by embroidery workshops or by girls or wives of ordinary people. The soles were relatively soft, and the upper part was made of multiple layers of cloth. They were comfortable to wear. However, this might also be because Ji Yuan did not understand the details of footwear in his previous life, and did not have much money, so he had never bought high-end shoes.

Ji Yuan did not have to worry about anything, as long as his direction was roughly correct. After all, he was no longer an ordinary person. If he were hungry, he would not have trouble finding food or drink by relying on his senses of hearing and smell.

At this point, Ji Yuan stopped running. Instead, he strolled forward to take a rest. He chose a narrow path that followed his intended direction, which might have been a trail left by a wild animal. He also took out the jug of wine from the bag on his back, opened the cap, took two sips, and then put it back in his bag.

When he stepped over a patch of dry grass, Ji Yuan, who was about to lower his foot, suddenly thought of something. He stopped, withdrew his foot, squatted down, and reached out to carefully push aside the dry grass, revealing a wild animal trap.

He brought his face closer and tried to take a closer look. He could vaguely see that the small main part had two iron hoops with sharp serrations. In the middle, there were some small holes, with a number of bamboo sticks that looked like they had been made to be diffusers or for other uses. However, the bamboo sticks were currently severely bent, and seemed to have been tied with something that looked like animal tendons. Although it was quite different from the spring technology used in his previous life, it should definitely be a beast trap.

“How powerful can this be without the help of a spring?”

Curious, Ji Yuan found a wooden stick that was as thick as a thumb and as long as his forearm and pressed it against the iron plate in the middle of the trap, which served as the trigger.

“Crack…”

With a crisp biting sound, the branch in his hand was directly snapped.

“Hiss…”

Ji Yuan sucked in a sharp breath. He knew that he wouldn’t have been seriously injured if he had stepped on it like that, but his scalp couldn’t help but feel numb.

However, where there were traps, there must be hunters, which meant that there were still people nearby.

After thinking about it, Ji Yuan reset the not-too-complicated animal traps back into place according to their patterns. This kind of trap made of bamboo and animal tendons would probably not be sprung very often, and the bamboo would quickly become fatigued by the stretching.

After covering it up with weeds like before, Ji Yuan got up and continued on his journey. However, this time, he did not follow the animal trail.

When he climbed up a small hill several dozen meters high, Ji Yuan’s eyes lit up. Although his poor eyesight made it blurry, he was sensitive to dynamic things. He could see black smoke rising in the distance, which must have been someone making fire.

. . .

On the leeward² side of the hill three li³ away, four men wearing light leather vests and leather guards tied tightly around their trouser legs and forearms were resting by a campfire. Most carried bows and arrows, some of which were slung on their back and some of which were placed aside, while others carried machetes, spears, and the like.

A skinned hare and a plucked pheasant were being roasted on a skewer over the fire.

“Hey, it’s been a few days since I’ve come out here, and not only have I not caught any big game, I also lost the beads my mom gave me. It’s so damn unlucky!”

“Okay, just go back to the temple stall and buy another string of beads for five coins. Why do you have to keep talking about it?”

“What do you know! My mother got if from the temple, not from the stalls. It’s different!”

“Look at you. I didn’t say anything. Just buy it to trick your mother, otherwise, won’t you be scolded to death?”

“Uh… that makes sense!”

The two people next to them also laughed when they heard the words, but they did not seem to be frustrated by the lack of prey. It was impossible to return with a full load every time when hunting in the mountain forests.

“Shh…don’t talk, someone is coming over there!”

The sounds around the fire suddenly stopped, and several hunters either drew their bows or picked up spears.

But it was not dark yet, and although they were vigilant, they were not nervous.

“Brothers, I lost my way when I was going down the road. I saw the fire here, so I came to ask you for directions.”

Ji Yuan’s clear voice came from a little distance away. He had deliberately made his movements louder so that they could notice him. He stopped when he was about ten steps away from the group.

“Where are you going?”

A hunter holding a spear asked loudly, while several people were also observing Ji Yuan.

The visitor was carrying a bag and an umbrella, and the clothes he wore were not suitable for traveling in the mountains. Although his appearance looked gentle, he was still a little suspicious.

“Excuse me, which direction is Qingshui County in? Logically, after crossing Luoyue Ridge and walking south, I should have been able to see a river. I could reach Qingshui County by walking along it. Why was there no river along the way?”

“River?”

Several hunters looked at each other, all confused.

Then the older one among them suddenly seemed to think of something.

“You’re not talking about the Old Qingshui River, are you?”

Ji Yuan didn’t know what the name of the river was, but in this case it was probably as he had said.

“It should be.”

“I heard from the elder in the village that the Old Qingshui River used to flow from Qingshui County through the area of the Qian mountain ridge, but it seems that, in order to facilitate the irrigation of the fields, the county magistrate mobilized the villagers to change the river’s course more than 20 years ago. It no longer flows to this side of the mountains.”

Ji Yuan suddenly realized.

“So that’s how it is. How far is this place from Qingshui County?”

“Walking east for 20 to 30 li,⁴ you’ll see the official road. Walk further for another half a day, and you’ll see people.”

Twenty or thirty li didn’t seem very far.

“Thank you for telling me!”

Ji Yuan bowed and left. He didn’t intend to make himself unwelcome or ask for free barbecue meat. The people here were obviously on guard against him. Twenty or thirty li would only take a little while of running.

Seeing Ji Yuan leave so decisively, and still dressed like a gentleman, the hunters were a little surprised.

“Uh, sir, are you leaving now? It’s a 20-30 li mountain road, and it’s almost dark!”

After all, he was a kind-hearted man, so in the end, the hunter shouted to Ji Yuan. He was the one who had lost his beads.

It was this shout that made Ji Yuan take a second look at the speaker. He could tell that something was wrong from this one glance.

Since the formation of his power core, Ji Yuan’s eyes had changed a once more. He could see some of the “vital fire” of ordinary people. Bright Strategies called this “Qi-Reading.” Both talent and skills could achieve similar effects. In Ji Yuan’s case, he determined that he should belong to the category of talent.

In order to confirm, Ji Yuan opened his eyes slightly. The blurriness did not decrease, but the ague feeling did not decrease, but the “ambience” around the hunters was much clearer.

The person who had just spoken had an inconspicuous red and black aura lingering above his head, like a wisp of gas that had accidentally passed through the smoke emanated by the body’s vague vital fire. If he didn’t look closely, he wouldn’t notice it.

Ji Yuan stopped and complained to the man with some caution.

“There’s nothing I can do. If I don’t hurry, am I going to spend the night in this wilderness? What if there are wild beasts? And the bows and spears in your hands are also scary…”

Ji Yuan’s slightly nervous appearance actually lowered the hunters’ vigilance.

“Hahaha, don’t worry, sir. We are just hunters, not warriors. If there are wild animals at night, we will just go hunt them. If you don’t mind, come and sit. We will go back to the village tomorrow morning. It’s not far from Qingshui County.”

Ji Yuan looked overjoyed but still did not dare approach.

“Is that alright?”

“Hahahaha… Come here, sir. What’s wrong? Look, the pheasant and the hare are almost roasted. How about you taste the cooking skills of our countryside hunters?”

The other hunters also laughed kindly.

Now that things had been resolved like this, they had let go of much of their vigilance, so Ji Yuan naturally walked over with gratitude.

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T/n: I would like to make a note that I CALLED IT, I predicted him getting lost like 3 chapters ago. 😀

1. T/n: couldn’t find any particular thing this was referencing, I think he’s just being facetious and philosophical ↩︎
2. downwind ↩︎
3. 1.5km / ~1mile ↩︎
4. 10-15km / 6-10mile ↩︎