After leaving the post station, they continued east along the official road. The farther east they went, the drier the air became. The sky was clear and bright, with not a single rain cloud in sight.
Xin Hexue remembered that when his memories had just been cleansed and floated back to the surface, there had clearly been a fine drizzle. But as he kept heading east and caught up with this monk’s pace, the humidity in the air gradually dropped.
There were boundary markers at some forks in the official road. Xin Hexue took a glance and noticed that they were already nearing the border between Jiangzhou and Shuzhou.
During a break, Xin Hexue sat in a pavilion. Behind the pavilion was a bamboo grove leaning against the foot of the mountain.
There wasn’t a single breeze, and the scorching sun blazed down, so it didn’t feel cool at all.
Fortunately, Xin Hexue was a demon. In this kind of weather, he still maintained a cool body temperature. His whole being was like the snow between pine trees in early winter, showing no signs of flushed face or red ears.
Beside the pavilion, some villagers from a nearby village had set up a small tea stall to quench the thirst of passing travelers.
The tea they used wasn’t anything fancy, just old maple leaves picked from the mountain last year and boiled into tea.
Old maple leaf tea cost one wen for two bowls, and snow-soaked mung bean water cost five wen per bowl.
Xin Hexue was fiddling with the veiled hat in his hands out of boredom. The hat had a wide brim, which was enough to block out sunlight while traveling. Plus, the gauze veil kept it from being too glaring or too stuffy.
Du Zhi used two bowls of old maple leaf tea to fill up the water flask, then handed Xin Hexue a bowl of snow-soaked mung bean water, along with a wooden spoon.
Xin Hexue took it.
The name “snow-soaked mung bean water” was a bit long, but it was really just cold mung bean water, or more accurately, mung bean soup.
The mung beans were sparse; the main point was to quench thirst with cold water, enhanced by a bit of mung bean and sugarcane syrup’s clean sweetness.
He didn’t care whether Du Zhi was thirsty or not, or if he drank or not. He slowly finished the cold mung bean water by himself.
He could almost be considered a prisoner now, and it was only right for the sanctimonious monk to treat such a cooperative prisoner well.
After resting, the two set off again.
Xin Hexue heard Du Zhi ask the elderly man at the tea stall for directions. “Elder, is Lijiazhuang nearby?”
The stooped, white-haired old man pointed in a direction and replied, “Yes, follow this road for a little over ten li. Go down a slope and you’ll reach Lijiazhuang.”
Once they reached Lijiazhuang, they’d be in Shuzhou territory, no longer within Jiangzhou.
Xin Hexue lay on Duozhi’s back again.
Though the weather was hot and dry, neither of them were ordinary mortals. Du Zhi had carried him for almost an entire day without a trace of redness on his face. His forehead wasn’t even sweating, and the whole person was remarkably dry and neat.
Compared to him, Xin Hexue who was on his back was more like the unmelted snow atop a mountain when all the spring blossoms in the world had already faded, cool and gentle.
But Xin Hexue was afraid of the sun, so Du Zhi obediently kept to the shadier side of the mountain path, walking under the trees.
Xin Hexue suddenly asked him, “Why don’t you use the post station’s carriages?”
Those horses and donkeys were government-owned, provided for officials to travel conveniently. They could replenish food and fodder at every post station, or even replace horses if the ones they had were too tired.
Perhaps because of his tall stature and long legs, Du Zhi walked quickly, but his pace was very steady. He replied, “Measuring the land with one’s own steps is also a form of cultivation. Besides, carriages and horses would affect one’s sensitivity to demons and spirits.”
‘Got it.’
It seemed that this was the Taichu Temple monks’ way of cultivating.
One must walk on solid ground to better sense the traces of demons and spirits.
Then what about flying creatures and water ghosts?
They probably had other methods.
Xin Hexue didn’t ask further.
………
Unlike Jiangzhou, the territory of Shuzhou was still suffering from a severe drought.
According to Du Zhi’s explanation, he had already eliminated the drought demon in Jiangzhou and performed a rain-summoning ritual, which finally ended the drought there.
Xin Hexue guessed that the poor scholar he was originally tied to by the red thread must have been a native of Jiangzhou.
However, since Du Zhi had traveled all the way from the west and the great river had dried up this year, the states along its banks had all suffered from droughts. It was hard to say whether the poor scholar was in Jiangzhou or somewhere further east.
Xin Hexue asked, “Why are there so many drought demons this year?”
From Du Zhi’s words, he had started from the mountains where the great river originated in the west and had come all the way to this hilly plain, eliminating drought demons and summoning rain along the way.
Du Zhi calmly explained, “At the start of the year, the earth dragon stirred, causing the drought demons to emerge in full force.”
Thinking that Xin Hexue might not understand this matter, he patiently continued, “There are two types of drought demons. One resembles beasts; the other is formed from corpses, both capable of causing droughts and blocking wind and rain. Then there’s the highest kind, superior drought demons. They look human but are taller, with a third eye on their forehead. When they see clouds in the sky, they blow them away. Rain clouds can’t gather, the sun blazes even more fiercely, and so a drought takes hold in the human world.”
Xin Hexue asked him, “What kind will you eliminate in Lijiazhuang?”
Du Zhi: “I’m not sure yet. I can only sense that the area with the most severe drought is Lijiazhuang.”
Xin Hexue: “Oh.”
He wasn’t very interested. With a listless expression, he leaned against Duozhi and closed his eyes for a nap.
After a long time, when it was already approaching dusk, they came out of the shaded mountain path. The mountainside was bathed in a dim yellow light, and golden rays melted across it.
Xin Hexue was awakened by a burst of noisy clamor.
It sounded like a group of people locked in an argument. Their shouting was even more deafening than the flock of birds at the treetops.
“Li Erhu, don’t push people too far!”
The voice was full of a determination to die rather than submit. After what must have been a long deadlock, it had become hoarse from parched lips and strained yelling.
The name sounded a bit peculiar. Xin Hexue lazily lifted his eyelids, pulled aside the veil, and looked toward the source of the commotion.
It wasn’t too far. From this fork in the road, one could see a group of young men who looked like local bullies, gathered and surrounding a grave on a dirt slope halfway up the mountain. The young man confronting them wore a white mourning band on his head, and it was clear he was still in the mourning period.
Xin Hexue listened for a while and roughly figured out that it was one of those despicable local customs called “digging up bones to relieve drought”. Whenever there was a drought, these idlers in the countryside would gather together, claiming that “a recently buried corpse has turned into a drought demon”. They insisted on digging up the grave and burning the corpse to relieve the drought.
This was indeed one method of eliminating corpse-turned drought demons. But this group had only heard it in passing, and they weren’t truly trying to resist the drought. Whoever they suspected, they would go dig up that person’s grave. It was just an excuse to extort and blackmail, or a way for villagers to settle private grudges.
Xin Hexue knew about this so clearly because in his second life, local officials had reported such matters to him. However, his second life was in a dynasty that didn’t have a worldview involving the supernatural, so it was impossible for real drought demons to appear.
The young victim was still in mourning. His voice trembled with grief, and every word was filled with blood and tears. “My parents’ bones have not yet turned cold, and you shameless people already want to dig up my family’s grave?!”
The hooligan in the lead should be the Li Erhu who spoke earlier. “That’s right, Ren Ke. Your parents died last year, and this year our Lijiazhuang is suffering a severe drought. It must be that one of your parents has turned into a drought demon, which is why our village has no harvest this year!”
“Don’t think that just because you’re a scholar, you can throw your weight around. You’re just a poor scholar with two mu of thin land. Even if you call the village head to uphold justice, he’ll praise us for enforcing heaven’s will!”
After Li Erhu finished, he exchanged glances with the people around him. They all burst into laughter, looking every bit the part of petty villains who had gained the upper hand.
Xin Hexue had only been watching quietly and hadn’t planned to act, but when he heard the key phrase “poor scholar”, it was as if invisible pink cat ears on his head twitched and he locked his gaze onto the poor scholar.
‘Ren Ke?’
But this was the Shuzhou region, it shouldn’t be possible…
But still, since it was a poor scholar, there was no harm in helping.
Xin Hexue got down from Du Zhi’s back elegantly. Be approached the group and said unhurriedly, “Don’t you know that you need to report to the government before digging graves and verify the identity of the grave owner before digging? If you dig without permission, you risk getting flogged by the yamen.”
He wore a veiled hat, and his face couldn’t be seen clearly through the gauze, but he had an extraordinary aura. The group of thugs were briefly intimidated and didn’t dare make a move. Li Erhu shouted, “And who the hell are you? What makes you think we’ll believe whatever you say?”
Xin Hexue replied gently, “It’s not me saying it. Isn’t it written in black and white on the bulletin wall at the county yamen gate? Or are you all illiterate?”
They didn’t exactly look like they’d read a book in their lives.
Of course, Xin Hexue was bluffing. He hadn’t paid any attention to the county bulletin wall on his journey and was simply guessing based on what had happened in his past life.
Back then, this bad custom had become popular in impoverished rural areas. In the early days of reform, several leaders of grave-digging cases had been arrested and exiled. Later, it was decreed that anyone wanting to dig a grave under the pretext of seeking out a drought demon must first file a report with the government and confirm the identity of the grave’s occupant. This added a bureaucratic step, allowing officials to intervene. Those who dug without permission not only had to compensate the victim’s family but were also punished with flogging.
He just didn’t know whether the Dacheng had such a law.
His confident tone managed to bluff most of the crowd into silence.
Li Erhu wasn’t willing to give up so easily. He raised his hand and shouted, “What are we afraid of? We are many. The law doesn’t punish the masses! Today we’re digging up your family grave, Ren Ke!”
They were about to take action when Xin Hexue, still perfectly calm, said, “Du Zhi.”
That tone had a bit of a “close the gate and release the dog” flavor.
Li Erhu’s attention had been completely focused on Xin Hexue, and it was only now that he noticed the monk standing off to the side. He shouted, “Just because you shaved your head and stole a kasaya doesn’t mean you can pretend to be some master monk!”
Du Zhi simply looked at him quietly.
In just a moment, dozens of tall and strong young men were already lying on the ground, groaning and gritting their teeth from injured muscles and bones.
When the monk came close, they hadn’t even seen how he made his move.
Even the onlookers who had come to watch the fun were frightened and began begging for mercy.
“Master, we meant no offense!”
“We weren’t trying to dig up anyone’s grave! Such heartless behavior…it was all Li Erhu who forced us into it!”
Li Erhu spat out a mouthful of blood. He realized that he had offended someone he shouldn’t have offended today, glared at Ren Ke with hatred and limped away in anger.
Ren Ke stepped forward and said to Xin Hexue and Du Zhi, “Thank you both for your help today. May I know your names?”
Du Zhi placed his palms together and greeted, “This humble monk is Du Zhi.”
Xin Hexue pulled off his veiled hat and said, “Xin Yao.”
He thought for a moment about how to introduce his identity, then simply moved closer to Du Zhi and smiled, “This is my senior brother, I cultivate while keeping my hair.”
Ren Ke, however, stared at his face in a daze. It seemed he hadn’t heard anything and just nodded.
‘Really, really looks like a young master from the realm of immortals…’
The young man’s smooth, dark hair, previously tied loosely with a jade hairpin, had been somewhat tousled by the veiled hat, and a few strands fell over his shoulders.
Like mist drifting, like pearls and jade.
………
As the sun began to set and there were no inns in Lijiazhuang, Ren Ke invited the two to stay at his home.
Xin Hexue asked, “What happened today?”
Ren Ke explained, “That Li Erhu is a notorious local thug. My family has a different surname, we only moved here from the north a few years ago and have always been ostracized by the villagers. In the past, my parents stopped him once or twice when he was doing evil deeds, and he’s held a grudge ever since. Today was just his chance to take revenge on me.”
Xin Hexue asked, “Forgive me for asking something so direct, but how did your parents pass away?”
Ren Ke: “My father used to run trade errands, delivering Shuzhou brocade to the capital for sale. My mother often accompanied him. Last year, they encountered mountain bandits and…”
He lowered his head, seeming unable to go on.
