Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 90: Zuo Lis Legacy

After waiting for a long time, the carriages started moving again. However, the thoughts of the passengers and the coachmen were still on the previous adventure.

Since the fog had dissipated, there was no longer any need to lead the horses forward on foot, so all of the coachmen got back into the carriages and drove them forwards.

When the carriages had all gone, a shadow moved on a big tree by the roadside. Ji Yuan jumped back down from the branches.

“Whether they will follow my advice, as well as how useful it will be once it has been done, are not up to me to decide!”

Ji Yuan had a particularly good impression of the blue carp. This good impression was different from the one he had of Lu Shan Jun and the red fox, as well as from the impression he had of the old turtle. It was even greater than the impression he had of the white flood dragon River God. It was a purely good impression.

Especially when he had come to the boat later because he was greedy for wine, it was still out of a desire for beautiful things like rice wine. There was no sense of fear or attempt at flattery towards Ji Yuan. From Ji Yuan’s perspective, he saw this as a rare kind of “cleanliness.”¹

‘We will see each other again someday! ’

With this thought in mind, Ji Yuan smiled and continued walking forward, taking a dry biscuit out from his bag. Thanks to the spiritual energy, the biscuit had not yet gone stale, so he started eating it with confidence.

He only took the official road, and would ask for directions when he had the chance. This time, Ji Yuan was not greedy for the convenience of traveling in a straight line, so he would willingly take a detour to avoid going into any mountain valley again.

Although Ji Yuan had not yet become the free and easygoing immortal he longed to be, he was still confident in his leg strength, which was no worse than the power and speed of a galloping horse. His endurance and recovery speed were also much stronger than those of a horse. Even so, it still took him more than half a month to get out of Ji Province. He then had a more intuitive understanding of the scale of the entire territory covered by of the country of Dazhen.

Of course, this also had to do with Ji Yuan’s route and daily schedule. Although he felt like he was always on the road, he had seen jugglers and monkey shows, attended village banquets, and looked around for local wines, all of which also delayed him for some time.

. . .

June 21, Dashu.²

Before he realized, it was midsummer, the hottest time of the year, and Ji Yuan finally arrived at Ai Du³ Mountain, where the tomb of Mad Disciple Zuo was located.

Upon seeing the mountain, Ji Yuan finally understood why its name was so strange.

Looking around, he could see that all the hills of of the mountain range to which Ai Du mountain belonged were relatively flat and low, like arching bellies. There were very few towering peaks, and the names given to them by the villagers were simple and crude.

“This Mad Disciple Zuo has been dead for decades. I wonder if anyone has taken care of his tomb, or if it has collapsed or been buried…”

Ji Yuan murmured to himself as he found a place nearby on the official road where he could enter the mountain. He intended to look for the “line to the peak at the navel”⁴ that he had learned about from the Sword Intent Inscription.

It took from the morning to the afternoon for Ji Yuan to finally find where the so-called line to the peak at the navel was.

Looking at the rocks in front of him, which were only half a zhang high and less than two zhang wide, surrounded by numerous weeds and wildflowers, Ji Yuan was left somewhat speechless.

Calling it the Navel Peak was truly a reflection of Master Zuo’s abstract style. If one were to consider the mountainside in detail, there were at least a dozen other places in the entire Ai Du Mountain that could also be called the Navel Peak.

Ji Yuan squatted down and used his oil-paper umbrella to push aside a patch of towering weeds, revealing the mottled tombstone and the collapsed earthen grave behind it.

The words on the tombstone had most likely been engraved with a sword. Obvious slash marks could be seen on the edge. It read: “Here lies the tomb of my father, Zuo Li. With regards from his unfilial son, Zuo Qiuli.”

‘Mad Disciple Zuo’s true name really isn’t Mad Disciple Zuo. Perhaps, after so many decades, there are no longer many people in the world of martial arts that know his real name.’

Looking at the overgrown weeds beside the grave, Ji Yuan couldn’t help but sigh.

“Master Zuo! I know you were the best martial artist in the world, but in the end, you didn’t even have anyone to add a hand even have anyone who could add a handful of soil to your grave during Qingming…”⁵

The Zuo family must have encountered some kind of misfortune, or Zuo Li had given people certain instructions for how to proceed, or perhaps the descendants had simply long forgotten this tomb. Even though he knew that a couple decades was a very long time for ordinary people, Zuo Li was, after all, a man who had once stood at the pinnacle of the world. Even now, Ji Yuan couldn’t help but feel a little sad.

After bowing three times⁶ towards Zuo Li’s tombstone, Ji Yuan lightly jumped onto the rocks behind the grave.

The large stone was covered in a lot of soil, and was overgrown with dense weeds. Ji Yuan raise his foot and stomped heavily on the exposed base of the stone.

“Boom!”

As the sound echoed, Ji Yuan listened carefully, then smiled. He walked to the center of the boulders, pulled out the weeds, and used a small stone slab to dig into the soil. After digging a dozen times or so, he hit something hard.

After removing the stones that blocked the way, a dark yellow wooden box was revealed from underneath. There was a section on the edge of the wooden box which had rotted away that looked like the hilt of a sword.

Ji Yuan showed a look of joy, and reached out a hand to take out the heavy wooden box. He went to lift the sword, but upon grasping the hilt, he found that it had completely rotted, and fell apart on its own when touched. He had no choice but to lift it up by grabbing the slightly rusted metal tang.⁷

The legendary longsword Qingying⁸ did not look at all like a divine weapon. The hilt was corroded and falling off, the scabbard had rotted, and even the body of the sword was covered in rust.

An ordinary warrior might have been disappointed, but in Ji Yuan’s eyes, he knew that this was all just the superficial appearance. The long sword in front of him was very clear in his vision, and there was even a sense of liveliness flowing through the blade.

Ji Yuan reached out and flicked the sword.

“Ding…”

The sound was very crisp, and the body of the sword trembled, making invisible ripples in the air.

Ji Yuan stretched out his hand and gently stroked the blade all the way down to the tip. A trace of spiritual energy flowed into the sword along the lines traced by his fingertips. In a neutral and peaceful voice, Ji Yuan gently asked the sword.

“Are you willing to see the light of day again with me?”

As soon as the words fell.

“Buzz…”

The blade trembled slightly by itself, shaking off a lot of dust from the body of the sword.

“Good, good, good! What an excellent sword! It truly has its own spiritual intelligence!”

This longsword Qingying had truly given Ji Yuan a great surprise, so the secret book of swordsmanship must be even more amazing, right?

With such a strong feeling of anticipation, Ji Yuan couldn’t contain his excitement. He sat cross-legged on the stone, placed Qingying horizontally on his lap, and solemnly opened the wooden box, which was most likely made of nanmu,⁹ with both hands.

The edge of the box had been sealed with thick wax. When it was opened, the faint fragrance of nanmu drifted out from inside the box. A book of martial arts secrets lay at the bottom.

Ji Yuan picked it up and took a look. It boasted the very heroic name of “Zuo Li Swordsmanship.” He couldn’t resist his curiosity and started flipping through it, even though he knew his eyesight was poor.

Zuo Li must have poured a lot of effort into writing this book of secrets. As the most advanced innate master, there was also a trace of sword intent aura in it. Although the sword intent was not as clear as in the Sword Intent Inscription, Ji Yuan could actually see most of the words despite the slightly blurred texture of his vision.

However, this surprise seemed to fade as he read deeper.

In the middle of the night, Ji Yuan was still sitting cross-legged on the stone, but now the book had been placed casually on his legs.

“What is this? Where is the mystery present in the Sword Intent Inscription, which was about transforming one’s mind into another form and transcending oneself? No matter how exquisite this book of martial arts secrets is, how is it any different from any ordinary book of internal energy techniques combined with a couple moves of a swordsmanship technique? No matter how artful it is… Is there a secret compartment under the stone?”

Ji Yuan reluctantly looked at the small pit again, then stretched out his hand and slapped it against the rock.

“Bang!”

Because it was late at night, the sound seemed even louder in the silence. After listening carefully, he still couldn’t hear any location where the stone was hollow. Ji Yuan realized that this slap was just an attempt at deceiving himself.

After a long time, the slight sense of loss gradually faded.

“Haha, since that I have the Sword Intent Inscription and the longsword Qingying, what else is there to be dissatisfied with? Master Zuo has already been very good to me!”

Stuffing the book of martial arts secrets into his bag, Ji Yuan picked up the longsword and the nanmu box, then jumped lightly off of the rock.

Looking at the appearance of the longsword without a handle, Ji Yuan had an interesting idea. He casually broke off a nearby vine of suitable thickness and wrapped it around the tang of the sword. With his spiritual energy and magical power, there was a faint mist in the air. The vine slowly grew lush and green, forming a special green vine hilt.

“Although you have excellent spiritual intelligence, you are limited by metal. This green vine hilt can complement your Qi¹⁰ and replenish your energy. In the future, it will become your hilt and become one with you. I will nurture it with spiritual energy from time to time.”

After speaking, Ji Yuan stood in front of Zuo Li’s tomb, sword in hand. He originally wanted to weed the tomb, but after standing beside it and taking a good look at it, he felt that it was fine as it was now.

Ji Yuan just left a portion of his biscuits and the last uneaten rabbit leg in front of the tombstone and walked away.

“Master Zuo, please enjoy!”¹¹

Although he knew that there were no ghosts in the grave, Ji Yuan’s words still echoed in front of the tombstone as he left.

Perhaps this nanmu box could be exchanged for some silver. As for the book of martial arts secrets, it would be best to return it to the descendants of the Zuo family… if there were any descendants left.

1. i.e. spiritual purity ↩︎
2. 大暑 (Dàshǔ): Dashu is the 12th solar term, right after the solar solstice, generally 22-23 of July (but meh we’ll gloss over that here). The literal translation is “Great Heat” or “Major Heat” ↩︎
3. 矮 (ǎi): short/low to the ground, 肚 (dù): belly –> “Low Belly Mountain” ↩︎
4. Continuing the “belly” metaphor, if the mountains look like a big belly, then he’s trying to find the mountain that would be located at the belly button/navel. ↩︎
5. Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, is a festival in the spring where families visit their ancestors’ graves to clean the gravesites and make ritual offerings. Adding soil to the grave is a part of this, both symbolic (remembrance, connection to the past) and practical (maintenance of the gravesite) ↩︎
6. Bowing three times shows respect to Heaven, Earth, and all life. It’s frequently seen at solemn or important events such as weddings, funerals, etc. ↩︎
7. The tang is the shaft of the sword that extends into the hilt, made so that you can attach a hilt to your sword over and around the tang and won’t have the blade break off from the handle. You can also see this with screwdrivers and whatnot with plastic handles: the shaft of the metal extends into and through the plastic part, which wraps around it so that you can grip it. ↩︎
8. Refer to ch. 40 for the translation ↩︎
9. Nanmu is a precious wood unique to South Asia and China. It has a wavy grain figure and does not react to humidity and temperature, and resists decay, which means that anything made from it doesn’t get loose or crack. It’s also exorbitantly expensive. ↩︎
10. If you look up the Chinese Five Elements philosophy (Wuxin) you’ll see that each element has a generative or destructive relationship to the other elements, similar to how rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock (but there’s some more philosophy and relationships as well!). For metal (the element of the sword), the best element to enhance its spiritual abilities is wood, hence the vine hilt. ↩︎
11. Lit: “take your time,” or “bon appetit!” ↩︎