Jin SeCh80.2 - Extras

The years flowed like water.

The founder of the Great Yuan Dynasty, Gu Huaiyang, passed away in the thirteenth year of his reign and passed his seat to his son, the crown prince. The crown prince changed the reign name to “Duanrui,” supposedly, to honor that sixth uncle who’d he only met a few times in his youth. vuRFil

In the second year of Duanrui, General Meng Zhongyong retired. The emperor tried thrice to urge him to stay, then finally approved his resignation. 

In the sixth year of Duanrui, the third prince Lu Yunzhou passed away from illness, dieing in bed at an old age. Later generations would remark: loyal for a lifetime, straightforward.

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Many things appeared, many things disappeared, many things turned into legends.

Exactly as Shi Wuduan had planned, the yao never again appeared within the human realm. Occasionally when a yao or two entered by mistake, they’d be very quickly taken care of. As time passed, finally, the yao became an existence belonging solely to storybooks and folk tales. The sects that had once reigned for thousands of years, after generation and generation of inheritance and forget, faded in the people’s memory. Later generations would only know that the so called “sects” were merely another political party in the court, and no longer believed they had ever cultivated the Dao. xniZ5w

The human realm in which demons and immortals had coexisted, became a secret buried thousands of feet beneath the earth.

As for those who still lived, still remembered, there was no longer a stage for them, so they slowly receded behind the curtains, turning into sages and hermits of myth.

Jiulu Mountain gradually became a barren mountain. Later on, the son of the son of the founding ancestor issued an imperial decree integrating the mountain into Chaozhou, and ordered the governor of Chaozhou to cultivate the mountain. The local tea farmers planted tea trees atop the mountain, and perhaps because it’d once been rich with spiritual energy, the tea of Jiulu Mountain was especially fragrant and lingering. It became a regular offering to the imperial court. The courtyard that Master Daozu had once lived in was turned into a shrine honoring the “tea immortal.” No one knew if Master Daozu, cultivating down below in the Nine Springs, received any offerings.

The Mi Sect’s valley was destroyed by a great flood two hundred years later. Then, after the landscape changed several times, it became a popular vacation place famous for its marvelous scenery.

The sect master of the Dasheng Sect passed the title down to his disciple early in the reign of Duanrui, then went to wander the world. Some said he died someplace far beyond the seas. Some said he began a great undertaking, traveling to the barren places past the southwestern sea to spread the gospel, then later, crossed the world and became an immortal. At any rate, no one ever saw him again.

Since then, the Dasheng Sect experienced several ups and downs. Sometimes nearly being forgotten by the world, sometimes becoming important subjects of the emperor, gaining it the ardent faith of the people. Later, “venerating heaven and earth, respecting all things,” became a branch of study in regards to prayer and meditation, with its own canon of literature.

But people would never understand what the word “sect” had once implied.

Those were… things that would happen many many years later. ROJHB

And the last cultivators who’d gone to guard the six demon mountains were also slowly forgotten. As time passed, in order to save costs for the court, they were converted into relay stations.

The moon and stars shifted in the heavens; a hundred years of wind and frost. The etchings of the works Shi Wuduan left behind, carved into stone by Xia Duanfang, were gradually worn smooth. From then on, the last hints of even that great battle disappeared forever.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Cr lo la tjv cfnfg tjqqfcfv ja jii.

Ktf atgff mtjgjmafgr Vtl Qevejc yfmjwf eaafgis fcrtgbevfv lc wsrafgs. Ktf bcis gfmbgvr atja fzlrafv bo tlw yfujc ktfc atf obecvlcu jcmfrabg qlmxfv eq j ragjcuf sbeat lc atf wlvvif bo j gfyfiilbc jcv fcvfv klat atf obecvlcu jcmfrabg jrmfcvlcu atf atgbcf, gfwjgxlcu atja tf “kjr ilxf tlr ygbatfg,” jcv ifjnlcu tlw jc fwqas alaif bo “rlzat qglcmf.” hsoTMe

It wasn’t inheritable, because he didn’t have any descendents. Because he didn’t have any descendents, no one knew where he hailed from or whether he had family.

He was like a person from beyond the world who’d mistakenly landed in the human realm, nothing more than a transient guest, leaving nothing but his name.

As the ages passed, the legends about him spread far and wide. Some said he was a destitute descendant of nobility. Some said he was sent by the deities to change the times. Others said he was no more than a schemer. There were simply too many variations, most of them more fiction than fact. As for the ending, the official records say that he died in the last battle when the founding ancestor sieged Pingyang City, but most of the unofficial histories said he’d resolutely taken a step back, knowing that being able to endure hardship together didn’t necessarily mean they could enjoy prosperity together. After he’d aided the founding ancestor in accomplishing his great goals, he’d taken his family to live in seclusion in the mountains.

“Little Li-zi, come over, take a look.” G4dZPD

In a small tea shop next to the old road, sat two passing travelers.

Everyone who walked by couldn’t help but take a second glance at the two. One of them looked like a youth and wore a large straw hat to block the sun. His pant legs were rolled up unevenly, one long, one short. He sat on a long bench swaying one of his legs as he pored over a ratty old history book he’d dug out of somewhere. He carried on his back a strange-looking qin — it looked like a se, except it had many more strings than a regular se. The other young man looked extremely beautiful. All he carried was a longbow. From the looks of it, he was probably someone of the jianghu, not a person one could lightly offend.

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The youth pointed at a section of text and recited, “The sixth prince Shi Wuduan was born on an inauspicious day, full of wit and cunning. His appearance was unassuming, he was skinny, small, deformed, and rat-faced….”

The young man with the bow choked on his tea and hurriedly wiped his mouth with his sleeve, a hint of laughter in his eyes. 7VioaS

The youth lowered his voice and grumbled indignintantly, “He actually said I was contemptible and ugly! Am I skinny and small? Do I look like a rat?”

The young man with the bow took the book from him, flipped to the cover and saw: written by Xia Duanfang.

The one who appeared to be a youth was actually the legendary Shi Wuduan, who was supposed to have died ages ago. He said, “Let’s go. I’m going to go dig up that Xia fellow’s ancestral grave.”

Bai Li said, “Just how evil are you?” zvAYIV

Then, he opened the book, and after a moment, raised his brow, “Why is it that whenever you’re mentioned, it’s always sarcastic praise and subtle mocking?” Shi Wuduan replied, “Hmph.” 

Bai Li pondered for a moment, closing the book. Then he lowered his voice even more and asked, “That’s right, Wuduan, I just remembered something I wanted to ask you. The demon mountains have already changed names several times now and the bastions there have been turned into post stations, won’t that cause problems?”

Shi Wuduan picked up the “Book of Yuan” and started sullenly tearing it apart. He replied unconcernedly, “What problems? Back then I used the Ghoulish Astrolabe to fake heaven’s will and sealed all the exit points of the Six Circle Living Array. The human and demon realms have long been permanently separated, otherwise, why would I have been struck by lightning?”

Bai Li was at a loss for words. He said confusedly, “Then the six demon mountains are…” K2vim6

“Those are just there to mess with them,” Shi Wuduan said blithely. “Otherwise, how would you manage those strangely resourceful Daoists? With something everlasting as the entrance to the demon realm, of course each one of those manly men who see the welfare of the world as their responsibility would step up to bear the burden. If I didn’t find something for them to do, am I supposed to let them stay in the court, vying for power, setting up some new sect, and reenacting all that old stuff? When the time came for eldest brother to clear them out, he might just be accused of ‘killing the donkey after it leaves the mill.’”

Bai Li: “…..”

A moment later, he couldn’t help saying, “I suppose in his later years Xia Duanfang must’ve figured it out.”

Shi Wuduan said, “I didn’t leave very much behind. But if he was smart enough, he’d be able to discover the truth, which he must’ve done.” GtAv5k

Bai Li paused, then said, “When he depicted you that way, it’s probably because his image of you had just deteriorated.”

Shi Wuduan fell silent for a moment, looking down as he mulled it over ponderously. Then, he raised his head and said, “The thing that Xia Duanfang loved most in life was collecting money. Even during war, his coffers were quite impressive. That old bastard, when he was alive, said me that only square-holed brothers were eternal, and that he was going to have a whole bunch buried with him. We can rob the rich and aid the poor, how’s that sound?”

Bai Li: “……”

For a second there, he’d almost thought Shi Wuduan was feeling a bit of guilt for conning all those people. Now he realized he was overthinking it. sMZA5J

“You even swiped the offering money that believers left in the shrine of the tea immortal on Jiulu Mountain,” Bai Li said, feeling rather exasperated.

Shi Wuduan said, “My shifu wouldn’t mind.”

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

“You even pried a branch off of Dasheng Sect’s Bodhi tree.”

“Well we have the same roots.” 2siOBl

“Yesterday night, you drew an array on the door of the inn we stayed at, making the knocker-upper walk in circles for nearly four hours and scaring the piss out of him.”

“That was a black inn. Didn’t you taste the belladonna poison in the tea?”

“You’re just a block of wood, what’ve you got to be afraid of? If you run into evil people like that, just chop their heads off and be done with it.”

Shi Wuduan said, full of justice and righteousness, “Then what fun would that be? Oh, right, I left a yin-luring seal on their door too. In the future that human meat bun of an innkeeper’s going to have wet dreams every night.” XQFwPI

Bai Li sighed and asked, “What else have you done? Instead of sleeping like you’re supposed to, what else did you hop over the wall to do?”

Shi Wuduan obediently confessed, “I put the other half of the yin-luring seal on the county magistrate’s door. Now those two can roll in disease together at night. Might as well make it true that officials and criminals are in bed together. Now it’s up to that tigress boss lady to catch them in the act.”

Bai Li couldn’t resist flicking him on the forehead and remarking, “You idle old devil.”

Shi Wuduan stood up and tucked the torn pages into his robes, planning to stuff them into Xia Duanfang’s coffin. Then he left money for the tea and grinned, “Complaining I’m old? This really is a case of ‘feelings fading before looks fade.’” X6ON7Y

Bai Li went over and walked shoulder-to-shoulder with him. Not caring at all about what others thought, he openly held his hand and said, “I wouldn’t dare. After all, aren’t I old as well?”

Shi Wuduan tilted his head to glance at him, “Old corpse.”

“If you didn’t age nor die, then with how lazy you are, you wouldn’t even finish traveling these mountains and waters in a lifetime.”

“Move people and they live, move trees and they die — right now, I’m a tree.” 6upw4e

“You’re moving about and living just fine, all you need is to be watered with a bit of mischief…”

They walked leisurely along the dusty roads, not hurried in the least. They had plenty of time, at any rate.

The name “Shi Wuduan” was no more than a few lonely brushstrokes in history’s pages, but it would be etched into every inch of the mountains and rivers.

The river waters flowed long three thousand leagues; the vast skies stretched, the bright moon shone far three thousand leagues. UTekiB

And now, all our grievances are long buried. I want nothing more than for us to be a pair of contrary old urchins.

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