Chapter 15: Amulet

As the youth walked out of Mud Bottle Lane, he happened to encounter Song Jixin's maid, Zhigui. After escorting the tall woman to Gu Can's house, she didn't rush home. Instead, she strolled through the lane to the apricot blossom alley, browsing the small shops. Although she didn't buy anything, she was in high spirits, skipping and hopping with lightheartedness.

Growing up amidst the wilds of the countryside, the girl seemed to carry a fragrance of fresh grass. Her demeanor was different from the ladies of the grand mansions with their deep courtyards.

Upon seeing the straw-sandaled boy, she didn't lower her eyes as she usually did, nor did she quicken her pace to pass by. Instead, she stopped, gazing at this neighbor with whom she rarely interacted, hesitant to speak.

Chen Ping'an smiled at her, then scurried past, his pace growing faster and faster.

Zhigui stood quietly at the entrance of Mud Bottle Lane, turning her head to watch. The impoverished boy running in the sunlight looked like a tenacious stray cat, roaming everywhere, not particularly handsome, but seemingly impossible to starve.

The girl was not well-liked in the small town, burdened by Song Jixin's eccentric nature. Whether Zhigui was fetching water from the Iron Lock Well, going to the market, or buying writing supplies for her young master, she always gave off an air of aloofness. She had no companions of her age and never liked to talk much to acquaintances. To the townsfolk, who preferred lively gatherings, such a girl was difficult to warm up to.

In this regard, Chen Ping'an's situation was somewhat similar to Zhigui's. The difference was that, although the boy also didn't like to talk, his personality was by no means unpleasant. On the contrary, he was gentle and friendly, without any sharp edges. It was only because of his family's decline and his early departure to the Dragon Kiln to make a living that he seemed less close to his neighbors. Of course, the residents of Mud Bottle Lane did have some unspeakable apprehension about the boy's birthday. The fifth day of the fifth month was considered an "evil day" when all poisons emerged. The boy was born on this day, and coupled with the deaths of his parents, Chen Ping'an had become the last remaining member of his family at a young age. Naturally, this made people feel uneasy, especially the older folks who liked to gather under the old locust tree. They were particularly distant towards the boy and would secretly warn their children not to approach him. However, whenever the children looked unwilling and probed for a reason, the elders couldn't give a clear answer.

At this moment, a slender figure emerged from the alley and stood beside the girl. Zhigui turned her head, saying nothing, and simply walked forward. The person turned to walk alongside her in Mud Bottle Lane. It was Qi Jingchun, the scholar of the school, the town's only educated man, a proper disciple of Confucianism.

The girl didn't stop walking, her face cold. "Isn't it better if we just keep to ourselves? Besides, Teacher, don't forget, you used to occupy the perfect position with all the advantages. I was just a lowly slave, so of course, I could only swallow my anger. But starting recently, your far-off orthodox sect, seems to have some problems, right? So now, Teacher is just well water, and I am the river!"

Qi, the unwelcome guest of Mud Bottle Lane, smiled slightly and said, "Wang Zhu, let's just call you Zhigui for now, to fit in with the local customs. Zhigui, have you ever thought that even though you are blessed by heaven and born at the right time, do you really think I have no means to suppress you? Or do you think that thousands of years ago, the four elusive sages personally came here and established rules, only speaking without leaving any backup plans? In the end, you are just limited by your perspective. The height of the sky and the vastness of the earth are far beyond what you see from the well opening."

The girl frowned. "Teacher Qi, don't try to fool me with words. I'm not your young master Song Jixin. I'm not interested in your high-sounding rhetoric, and I never believe it. Teacher, let's be frank. Whether we fight to the death or part on good terms, I'll accept it."

The middle-aged scholar slowly said, "I advise you not to be greedy after you escape from this cage. Draining the pond to catch all the fish is not good for anyone. Especially after you and he embark on the path of cultivation, whether or not you become Daoist partners, you should restrain your sharpness and avoid arrogance. This is not a threat, but some heartfelt words of advice as we part, a friendly reminder."

Logically speaking, their statuses were worlds apart, but Zhigui was extremely composed, and her aura even faintly surpassed the scholar's. She sneered, "Friendly? For thousands of years, you great cultivators have been high and mighty, drawing boundaries, treating this place as a piece of farmland, reaping one crop this year and pulling another next year, year after year, unchanging for thousands of years. Why only now have you started thinking about being 'benevolent' to me, a scourge? Haha, I heard my young master say a sentence that many of you consider a golden rule, 'Those who are not of our kind must have different intentions', right? So, I can't blame Teacher Qi, after all..."

Teacher Qi continued forward, taking a gentle step, a smile playing on his lips. "Oh?"

After that step.

Zhigui's expression changed slightly.

They were now standing in a place that was pitch black, with no visibility. Only far above, countless rays of light filled with sacred energy fell down.

They seemed to be at the bottom of a bottomless well, with golden sunlight slowly descending from the opening.

The middle-aged scholar was dressed in a green robe, with ripples of light flowing over it.

The energy of righteousness, upright and brilliant.

The girl's face was initially ferocious, but she quickly regained her expressionless, numb look, and murmured, "Sixty years of Buddhist chanting, like thunder in my ears, ceaseless. Sixty years of Taoist talismans, like maggots on a bone, desperately biting. Sixty years of righteous energy, covering the sky, nowhere to hide. Sixty years of military sword qi, like the earth overturning, everywhere is splattered. Every sixty years is a cycle, for three thousand years... I just want to know where your so-called Daoist foundation is. I can see and hear the black words on your white paper, the profound meaning when you teach and impart knowledge, but I can't find it..."She gazed intently at the upright middle-aged man, a nameless teacher from a remote village, and also Qi Jingchun of the Confucian Cliff Academy, a scholar even the powerful eunuchs of the Sui Dynasty addressed as "Master."

The girl suddenly smiled and asked, "Master, what can you teach me? How can you persuade me towards goodness? If I remember correctly, your Confucian sage and one of the Taoist patriarchs both proposed 'education for all'?"

The man shook his head. "A thousand sentences of sage's teachings would be useless to you."

The girl seemed to be casually chatting with the Confucian scholar, but her whole being was like a taut bow, her peripheral vision constantly scanning the surroundings, searching for any glimmer of hope for escape.

The Confucian scholar ignored this, sneering, "I know you possess endless rage, resentment, and murderous intent. I do not reject the different, but you must understand that randomly giving rise to empathy and practicing indiscriminate compassion has never been the true doctrine of the Three Teachings."

"Our young master often says that arguing reason with scholars is the most pointless thing," the girl said, a sneer twisting her lips as she narrowed her uncanny golden pupils. "So, Master Qi is truly experiencing a final burst of light. Naturally, he is even more difficult to deal with than before..."

He dismissed her with a smile, "Whether reason prevails is irrelevant, but as long as I, Qi Jingchun, am alive and qualified to hold court here, you, this ungrateful wretch, shall not bare your fangs!"

The girl pointed to herself, asking with a smile, "Ungrateful?"

The middle-aged Confucian scholar retorted angrily, "When you were at your weakest, forced to lower your head and actively make a pact with someone, who was it that saved you on that snowy day in Mud Bottle Alley?! And who has been slowly consuming his remaining vitality all these years?!"

The girl laughed. "When one is hungry, one seeks food to fill the belly. Isn't that a natural and righteous thing to do? Besides, he never had any great opportunities. Early death and early reincarnation might give him some faint hope in the next life. If he were allowed to remain in this small town, a rootless weed, hey, that would truly be..."

The Confucian scholar waved his sleeve and softly shouted, "Silence!"

The scholar rebuked, "The mysteries of the Great Dao, the justice of Heaven, how can you presume to judge them with a single word?! Every life has its own destiny and karmic connections. What right do you have to make choices for others?!"

Above the girl's head, a dazzling golden hand appeared out of nowhere, its aura majestic, like the Buddha's palm subduing a demon, or the Taoist patriarch's hand suppressing a fiend. It swiftly pressed down on the girl's head, forcing her to kneel instantly, her forehead slamming heavily against the ground.

The sound of her head hitting the ground echoed sharply.

The girl, her hands supporting her on the ground as she struggled to rise, her face unseen, emitted a chilling laugh. "You can force me to bow my head, but I will never admit I'm wrong!"

The powerful golden hand gripped the girl's head, lifting and pressing it down again, another resounding thud.

This time, the sound was as loud as spring thunder.

The Confucian scholar said in a deep voice, "Do not forget! This chance of survival was given to you by the Sages, not earned by you! Otherwise, suppressing you for three thousand years would be nothing. What difficulty would there be in suppressing you for thirty thousand years?!"

The girl, her head still pinned down, said hoarsely, "Your dogshit Great Dao, I refuse to walk it!"

The Confucian scholar raised his arm high and slammed it down on the empty space in front of him. "Presumptuous! I command you: be suppressed!"

In the center of the golden rays of light streaming from the well, a white jade seal emerged, over ten feet in length and width, perfectly square. The seal was engraved with eight ancient characters, some with extremely vivid and piercing crimson stains. Countless purple lightning bolts crackled and swirled around the seal.

With Qi Jingchun's command, it was truly a case of words becoming law. The enormous seal descended from the sky, smashing down on the girl's back, already kneeling on the ground.

This enormous seal, containing the pressure of the Heavenly Dao, seemed not to be a physical object. It did not press the girl to the ground, prostrating, but instead, enveloped by wind and thunder, quickly embedded itself into the ground, disappearing without a trace, like a raindrop with a loud clap of thunder but little force.

However, in an instant, the girl felt as if her bones had been shattered by a heavy blow, collapsing onto the ground like a pile of mud, in utter misery.

Even so, one of the girl's hands, its fingers like hooks, exerted all its strength, its fingernails seemingly carving words into the ground.

Qi Jingchun, expressionless, said coldly, "Three prostrations, to pay your respects to Heaven! Earth! The Great Dao!"

The girl's eyes were vacant, unresponsive.

Qi Jingchun gently waved his sleeve, dispelling the suffocating, majestic pressure. "I, Qi Jingchun, am but a mere pedantic scholar beneath the Sages, yet I can force you to prostrate three times. After you leave this place, if you act wilfully, are you not afraid of encountering someone even more unreasonable than you, who will crush you with a single finger?"

Qi Jingchun sighed. "Here, you are indeed suppressed and confined, deprived of freedom. But have you ever considered that there is no absolute freedom in this world? The various rituals and rules established by our Confucian Sage, are they not also striving for another kind of freedom for all living beings? As long as you do not overstep the boundaries, do not violate the rules, and simply abide by etiquette, one day, when the world is vast, where can you not go?"

The girl raised her head, staring intently at the middle-aged Confucian scholar.

Qi Jingchun took a step forward.

Heaven and earth returned to normal, and he and the handmaiden Zhi Gui returned to Mud Bottle Alley. The sunlight was warm, and the spring breeze was gentle.

The girl staggered to her feet, her smile pale, slightly revealing her ghastly teeth. "I have remembered Master's teachings today, slave girl."

Qi Jingchun no longer spoke, turning to leave.

She suddenly asked, "Even if I am ungrateful to Chen Ping'an, why did Master, as an outstanding disciple of the Sages, stand by and do nothing? Why did you favor the disciple Zhao Yao and my young master, but treat Chen Ping'an, with his ordinary background, as nothing more than that? Isn't this no different from merchants doing business? If the goods are rare and profitable, they are carefully cultivated, while the inferior goods are dealt with perfunctorily, not caring whether they can be sold for a good price at all?"

Qi Jingchun smiled. "Heaven's movement is ever vigorous; thus the superior man makes himself strong and untiring."

The girl was bewildered.

As the middle-aged Confucian scholar's figure disappeared at the end of the alley, the girl's face immediately contorted with disdain, spitting heavily.

She limped back to her courtyard. When she passed Chen Ping'an's house, she wrinkled her nose and furrowed her brow, feeling somewhat confused. However, due to the demise of that damned scholar's Dao, the small town was currently filled with leaked heavenly secrets, like a small boat leaking everywhere. She was already struggling to take care of herself and needed to plan carefully for the future, so she couldn't be bothered to haggle over small matters.As she pushed open the courtyard gate, a seemingly unremarkable four-legged lizard darted out from some hidden corner, scrambling quickly to her feet. Annoyed, she kicked it away.

Inside Chen Ping'an's room, the young Daoist sat upright at the table, his eyes focused inward, contemplating his own navel.

The black-clad girl, who had been on the verge of death not long ago, was now able to sit up in bed on her own, legs crossed. She had even removed her veil, revealing a face that was hard to forget.

It wasn't that she was devastatingly beautiful, but rather that her heroic spirit was so strong it overshadowed her striking features.

Her eyebrows were not like willow leaves, but like narrow blades.

As she stared at the young Daoist with a searching gaze, he became uncharacteristically uneasy, feeling guilty despite having done nothing wrong.

The young Daoist cleared his throat, hastily distancing himself from the situation. "Miss, let's get one thing straight. I was the one who saved you, but carrying you into the house, removing your veil, and washing your face... that was all someone else. His name is Chen Ping'an, the owner of this dilapidated house. He's a poor, swarthy lad, orphaned, who used to work as a kiln worker. He even asked me for a talisman once. That's about it. If you have any questions, I'll answer them truthfully and without reservation."

The straw-sandaled boy was being sold out completely.

The girl nodded, not showing any sign of anger, and said sincerely, "Thank you for saving my life, Daoist."

The young Daoist, feeling even more apprehensive, forced a laugh and said, "No need, no need. It was just a small matter. It's good that you're alright."

The black-clad girl asked, "Daoist, you're not from the Eastern Treasure Continent?"

The young Daoist countered, "You aren't either, right?"

She hummed in agreement.

The Daoist followed suit with a hum.

The young Daoist, wearing a lotus crown, smiled and said, "My surname is Lu, and my given name is Chen. I don't have a Daoist title. You can just call me Daoist Lu."

The girl nodded slightly, glancing at the young Daoist's crown.

The young Daoist hesitated, then mustered his courage and said, "That boy, although some of his actions were not proper, it was a matter of urgency, and I didn't expect you to recover so quickly. I hope you won't blame him for any offense he may have caused."

The girl smiled and said, "Daoist Lu, I'm not an unreasonable person."

The young Daoist chuckled and said, "That's good, that's good."

The girl raised an eyebrow, and the young Daoist's smile instantly became stiff and unnatural.

She looked around, her gaze indifferent.

She casually said, "I heard that the 'Ruan Master,' the best sword-forger in this continent, plans to open his furnace here to forge swords. I followed him all the way here, hoping he can forge a sword for me."

The young Daoist sighed and said, "If it really is him, it won't be easy to get him to forge a sword for you."

The black-clad girl clearly seemed troubled as well. "It's very difficult."

At this moment, the boy entered, carrying bundles of medicinal herbs in his left hand and a small package in his right. He first knocked on the door symbolically before quickly stepping over the threshold, placing the herbs on the table, and saying softly, "Daoist, please check if I've made any mistakes. If I have, I'll go and exchange them immediately."

The boy still carrying the package, turned to look at the girl, the black-clad girl sitting cross-legged on the wooden bed, and the straw-sandaled boy locked eyes.

The black-clad girl said calmly, "Hello, my father's surname is Ning, and my mother's surname is Yao, so my name is Ning Yao."

The straw-sandaled boy said instinctively, "Hello, my father's surname is Chen, and my mother's surname is also Chen, so..."

The boy seemed a bit embarrassed, but quickly smiled openly and said, "My name is Chen Ping'an!"