Chapter 31
Closing the bamboo door, Xie Qingzheng asked Mo Jiangxue, “Master, how long will we be out this time?”
Mo Jiangxue said, “As fate dictates.”
When cultivators of the immortal sects went out for training, it was either a large group of senior and junior sisters and brothers going out to exorcise evil spirits, or one or two people traveling the four corners of the earth, with no set destination and no known return date.
Before the master and disciple set out, Pei Shuxue had Min He send over a medicine gourd filled with various pills for healing and replenishing qi.
It was a token of Vice Sect Master Pei’s thoughtfulness.
Xie Qingzheng thanked the senior sister and the Vice Sect Master, tied the gourd to her waist, and suddenly remembered that Pei Shuxue had once said: in their youth, she, Xie Fuyun, and Xiao Wangqing had often traveled together.
Thinking of the Vice Sect Master’s weak and pale face, and the lingering melancholy in her eyes, Xie Qingzheng touched the gourd at her waist, sighed, and was filled with infinite emotion and regret.
Mo Jiangxue said, “Let’s go.”
Xie Qingzheng hummed in acknowledgment, looked back at the fox and the bamboo hut on Ethereal Peak, and then flew into the sky on her sword.
Looking down from a high altitude, she saw the vast river and the swirling clouds and mist below. Then came the rolling, endless mountains. Further away was a vast plain, the pedestrians on the road too small to see clearly, only a few scattered villages and towns faintly visible.
The last time she went to Qingjia Town, she had seen the poverty and hardship of a chaotic world, the difficult lives of the common people. This time, going to Jinyang, what would she see?
Before going to Jinyang, the master and disciple first went to Changsheng County. Wen Family Village was under the jurisdiction of Changsheng County, and the county yamen had the household registration information for Wen Family Village.
The world was in chaos, and Changsheng County was also deserted. The dilapidated county yamen was empty, covered in cobwebs and dust.
Fortunately, the county gazetteer and the household registration information for the various places were still piled up in the storeroom. The two of them searched for a long time and finally found the household registration booklet for Wen Family Village.
At the beginning of the founding of the dynasty, in order to clarify the population and household registration for the convenience of taxation, the court had issued a decree of “inspection by appearance.” The household registration booklet not only recorded the population and land of each household in each village, but also recorded the appearance and age of the population in detail. (Note)
The last record in the booklet was from ten years ago. At that time, Wen Family Village had thirty-six households and one hundred and twenty-seven people.
The plague in Wen Family Village had occurred eleven years ago. The two were only separated by three or four years, so the population should be about the same.
After finding the household registration booklet, for the next few days, the master and disciple exorcised evil spirits during the day and, based on the information in the population register, searched for the people of Wen Family Village. At night, they would camp out in the wilderness.
When Mo Jiangxue had traveled alone, she had also often camped out in the wilderness, either under a tree or in a cave, meditating all night until dawn.
Now, with Xie Qingzheng by her side, Xie Qingzheng would go and find some dry grass to put under her to make her more comfortable. If she found an empty cave, Xie Qingzheng would also clean it first, lay down a soft grass mat, and then invite her in.
Xie Qingzheng had already achieved Bigu, but she would still go and pick various wild fruits in the forest. If they were sweet and refreshing, she would share them with her. If they were sour and unpalatable, she would eat them herself with a frown.
Watching her disciple frown and grimace from the sourness, compared to the past when she was alone in the wilderness, it did add a bit of fun.
Every night, she would play a tune on the qin and also teach Xie Qingzheng some techniques, and only then would she go back into the cave to meditate.
Xie Qingzheng would practice alone outside the cave. After she was done, she would not go into the cave to disturb her master’s peace, but would just sit quietly at the entrance, keeping watch for her master.
All around, the night was hazy, and the night wind blew. She cut a mosquito with her sword and thought, No wonder Daoists all like to call themselves “this poor Daoist.” They have an immortal air, but they are so poor they can only camp out in the wilderness…
Traveling north from the East Sea, the two of them visited places along the way and arrived in Jinyang.
Jinyang City was located in the heart of the Central Plains and was already the territory of the rebel army. The chaos of war had subsided, and the common people could finally catch their breath and temporarily return to their former prosperity.
Upon entering the city, she saw a bustling crowd.
It was the first time Xie Qingzheng had seen a densely populated marketplace, full of the hustle and bustle of the mortal world. Her eyes darted around, looking east and west, dazzled.
Everywhere there were things she had never heard of, never eaten, never seen. She pestered Mo Jiangxue with questions.
Often, Xie Qingzheng would ask seven or eight questions, and Mo Jiangxue would answer one or two briefly.
She wore a white veiled hat that completely concealed her face and walked unhurriedly in front of Xie Qingzheng.
The passersby couldn’t see her face clearly, but they were attracted by her cool and otherworldly temperament, looking at her as if in a dream, and couldn’t help but make way for her.
Passing by a stall selling candied haws, Xie Qingzheng’s steps slowed.
Young people have a sweet tooth and want to eat everything they see.
But buying things to eat costs money. She knew that.
She had no money, and she was too embarrassed to ask Mo Jiangxheng to buy them for her, so she just looked at them reluctantly for a few moments and then walked away.
But Mo Jiangxue stopped, looked at the bright red candied haws, and then at Xie Qingzheng’s back.
The vendor asked with a smile, “Immortal, would you like a skewer of candied haws? Two copper coins a skewer.”
Mo Jiangxue nodded, took out two copper coins from her waist, exchanged them for a skewer of candied haws, handed it to Xie Qingzheng, and then handed her some loose silver. “Buy whatever you want.”
Xie Qingzheng’s eyes lit up at the sight of the candied haws and the loose silver. She stared at Mo Jiangxue and opened her lips.
But before she could say anything, Mo Jiangxue had flashed away.
As if she were afraid she would say something sentimental.
Xie Qingzheng was so happy she lost all sense of direction.
She walked to a bookstore, which was crowded with people. The owner was fanning himself with a banana leaf, wiping the sweat from his forehead, and hawking, “Take a look, take a look! From a famous author! A must-read for the immortal examinations! Buy one, get one free! No cheating the old or the young!”
Hearing the words “immortal examinations,” Xie Qingzheng squeezed in to see what books were for sale.
The shelves were densely packed with books such as Xuanmen Jottings, The Unspoken Story of the Renegade Disciple of Yuheng Palace and the Demoness of the Demonic Cult, and How to Quickly Pass the Immortal Examinations in Three Days…
After a long hesitation, she picked up a slightly more serious-looking book, Xuanmen Jottings. The owner, with a buy-one-get-one-free offer, also stuffed a copy of The Unspoken Story of the Renegade Disciple of Yuheng Palace and the Demoness of the Demonic Cult into her hands.
She didn’t really want it, but she reluctantly accepted it and read as she walked.
The title of Xuanmen Jottings looked serious, but the content was very frivolous. It was all just gossip, such as a disciple of a certain sect colluding with a demoness of the demonic cult and betraying his sect; a cultivator of a certain sect being fickle and being stabbed to death by his wife…
Xie Qingzheng was dazzled. “Why is their world so exciting?”
Her world only had her master, cultivating the Dao, and Wen Family Village…
As she was reading out of boredom, the sound of gongs and drums came from afar.
A group of people in colorful costumes, wearing ferocious masks, came over. Some sprayed water and drew talismans, some swallowed and spat fire, and some beat gongs and drums. The people beside them shouted in unison, “Send away the plague god, peace for all four seasons.”
A child beside them asked, “What is this? Are they performing an opera?”
The adult replied, “This is the Nuo opera, asking the gods to drive away ghosts and plagues for us, and to pray for blessings and ward off disasters. There are more and more people. Don’t run around. Hold on to Mother’s hand, or you’ll be snatched away by a kidnapper in a sack.”
A passerby sighed, “The world is not peaceful these days. There was a plague in the south a few days ago, and more than half the people died. Now there’s a great flood in the east, and more than forty counties have been flooded. Sigh, we need to ask the gods to come down and help…”
“Many homeless people have come to our place. There are even people selling their children over there. It’s so pitiful to see!”
“Let’s go, let’s go and watch the Nuo opera together, to get rid of the bad luck.”
The crowd surged and gathered to watch the excitement. Xie Qingzheng followed the crowd to squeeze in and watch.
Passing by an alley, she saw a group of children sitting on the ground, both boys and girls, all in rags, their faces blank.
The youngest of the group looked to be only six years old, and the oldest looked to be about her age. They all had a straw stalk stuck in their hair.
A straw stalk was a mark for selling goods. When stuck on a person, it meant they were for sale…
Xie Qingzheng watched silently, her heart filled with pity.
In the alley, a sturdy middle-aged man suddenly patted a woman on the shoulder, smiled at her kindly, and said in a thick local accent, “Girl, it’s time to go back to the village with Daddy.”
The woman saw that the man’s face was unfamiliar, cautiously took half a step back, and said, “Uncle, I am not your daughter. You’ve got the wrong person.”
The man pointed behind her. “Look, what’s that?”
The woman turned to look, and her vision suddenly went black, as if she had been covered by a huge cloth sack. Before she could even cry out, her mouth and nose were covered through the sack. Then her whole body was lifted up, and she was taken away somewhere.
Xie Qingzheng watched from the side, vaguely feeling that something was not right.
That man was not that woman’s father…
In broad daylight, how could they just snatch someone off the street?!
Xie Qingzheng was about to draw her sword and chase after them, but Mo Jiangxue walked to her side, slapped a talisman on her back, and said, “I’ve put a soul-leaving talisman on you. Go and possess that girl.”
A soul-leaving talisman could allow a cultivator’s soul to temporarily leave their body.
Xie Qingzheng’s soul instantly left her body. She watched as her own body fell into Mo Jiangxue’s arms and was carried away. She asked in a daze, “Master, my soul has left my body. What about my body?”
Mo Jiangxue said, “I will watch over it for you. Go quickly.”
Xie Qingzheng said, “Master, then you must watch over it well for me.”
She guessed it was to save that woman, so she didn’t ask for the reason and obediently floated over, recited the incantation, and possessed the woman.
The moment she possessed her, Xie Qingzheng felt her limbs were heavy, her meridians were blocked, and she couldn’t use any spiritual energy at all.
Oh no? How am I supposed to save her?
Mo Jiangxue’s voice came to her ear, “Just follow them.”
Hearing her master’s voice, Xie Qingzheng relaxed.
Master must have her reasons for doing this. I’ll just follow her arrangements…
After walking for some distance, the middle-aged man let go of the woman’s mouth and nose and roughly threw the whole sack onto a mule cart. He then got on the cart and urged, “Let’s go!”
A young man dressed as a scholar in front cracked his whip and drove the cart forward.
The sound of gongs and drums faded, and the sound of the cart wheels grew clearer. Xie Qingzheng, possessing the woman, heard these sounds, and her heart pounded. She asked, “Who are you? Where are you taking me?”
The middle-aged man chuckled. “Girl, a great joyous event awaits you!”
He smiled amiably, and Xie Qingzheng didn’t know what he meant by “a great joyous event,” but her intuition told her it was definitely not a good thing.
It was almost noon. The sun shone on the sack, and it was hot and stuffy inside. The cart was bumpy, going up and down, making her stomach churn.
She struggled a little.
The middle-aged man, with a slap, hit her on the head through the sack. “Don’t struggle. We’re taking you to find a fine husband!”
Being hit like that, Xie Qingzheng felt a surge of anger and said, “What husband? I don’t want one! Let me go!”
“Girl, don’t be ungrateful. To be able to marry the River God, that is your great fortune and good luck!”
Xie Qingzheng said, “If you say it’s a fortune and good luck, why don’t you marry him?”
“I can’t. That River God, he likes tender-skinned girls like you!”
The young scholar driving the cart, who had been silent all this time, now spoke in a refined and fluent official language, “Big Brother, don’t hit her, and don’t say too much to her. Let her have a good sleep.”
Xie Qingzheng wanted to say more, but she was hit hard on the neck, and then her vision went black, and her consciousness gradually faded.
In a daze, she heard a few snippets of conversation:
“There are plenty of girls in our village who are willing to marry the River God. If it weren’t for that what-what manor…”
“Tianquan Manor.”
“That’s right! If it weren’t for those girls from the manor stirring things up, we wouldn’t have had to bring back a girl from outside! We’ve never seen such arrogant and unreasonable girls. They haven’t even become immortals, yet they’re meddling in our business of marrying a wife for a god!”
“They’re cultivators, they think they’re superior. The government doesn’t even care, but they do.”
“Sigh, what can we do? How can we common people dare to offend them? Not everyone can become an immortal. Those are all from rich and powerful families… Back then, when you, Second Brother, wanted to become a disciple, you were also chased back by that what-what sect!”
“Big Brother, don’t say any more.”
“Alright, alright, I won’t. By the way, Second Brother, we’ll split the money for buying her. You have to keep your mouth shut and not let a single word out. When we get back, we’ll just tell the villagers that we bought this girl…”
When she slowly woke up, her neck was still sore.
She vaguely heard the sound of firecrackers and gongs and drums.
In a daze, Xie Qingzheng saw that she was in a simple earthen hut, lying on a hard wooden bed. Her hands and feet were tightly bound with a rough rope, and she couldn’t break free. Her mouth was gagged with a piece of cloth, and she could only make a faint whimpering sound.
Figures moved around her. Three women with blurry faces surrounded her, busy and excited, putting a bright red wedding dress on her. They said, one after another:
“Bride, you are so lucky!”
“Today is the auspicious day of your marriage to Lord River God!”
“This is the good fortune you have cultivated in your previous life! After marrying into the water mansion, you must bless our Dutou Village with favorable weather and peace every year!”
What River God? She didn’t know him at all! How did she become a bride and have to marry him?
Where was her master? Why hadn’t she followed?
A chill rose from the soles of her feet. Xie Qingzheng subconsciously struggled, but she couldn’t break free. She could only watch as they put makeup on her, put on a phoenix crown, dressed her up as a bride, and put her in a sedan chair.
Red silk fluttered, and gongs and drums sounded.
The wedding procession was grand, stretching from the head of the village to the tail, winding its way along the village path.
Xie Qingzheng struggled for a long time, and a deep, bloody mark was rubbed on her wrists and ankles, but she still couldn’t break free.
Unable to escape, unable to cry out, she had exhausted all her strength. She curled up in a corner of the sedan chair, feeling like a fish on a chopping block, at the mercy of others.
She couldn’t feel any pain, only confusion and anger.
A young man dressed as a scholar bent down and leaned against the sedan chair curtain, saying to her, “After you marry over, if you see Jiang’er, please tell her for me that I’m sorry.”
Who was Jiang’er?
“Ding-ling-ling-ling—”
The faint sound of a wind chime came from the distance, rippling like water. The sound came from far to near, gradually becoming clearer, and in an instant, it had reached the front of the wedding procession.
“Stop the sedan chair!”
A crisp shout exploded like thunder, drowning out the sound of the gongs and drums.
The villagers stopped what they were doing. Xie Qingzheng in the sedan chair was also startled. She struggled to move to the sedan chair curtain, poked her head out, and looked outside to see if Mo Jiangxue had followed.
The young scholar by the sedan chair saw this and quickly pushed her head back in.
In front of the wedding procession stood seven female cultivators with swords. They wore uniform green long robes with a pattern of fish playing with ink lotuses embroidered on them. Wind chimes were tied to their waists, and the wind chimes showed different colors according to their cultivation level.
The country path was narrow. The seven of them stood in three rows, blocking the way.
The village shaman came forward, made a gesture of respect, and said, “Immortal ladies, please understand. The girl in the sedan chair is not a girl from a respectable family in the village. The villagers all chipped in, and the Wu brothers bought her from the city.”
Hearing this, Xie Qingzheng cursed silently, “How shameless! What do you mean, bought? Clearly, she was abducted!”
Then, she heard a very impatient voice:
“What a joke! Who said you can just throw someone you bought into the river? Listen to me, even if she was bought, you can’t! Let her go, now!”
Another female cultivator with a gentler voice persuaded, “Shaman, we’ve told you before, sacrificing a living person like this is detrimental to your yin virtue. And there is no river god in this river at all. Even if there were, the one who wants to marry is an evil god, not a proper god, not worthy of your faith and worship.”
The shaman cupped his hands and replied, “Immortal lady, the world is not peaceful now. There are plagues and floods. The water has already flooded more than forty counties. Our Dutou Village is right next to a big river. We worship the river god to seek peace of mind. Besides, marrying a wife for the river god is a tradition in our village, just like the Nuo opera in Juxian Town. This is all passed down from our ancestors—”
Hearing this, the leading female cultivator’s willow-leaf brows shot up, and she interrupted, “What bullshit tradition? This is superstition! I don’t care about those god-dancers in Jinyang City. God-dancing won’t kill anyone! But you’re throwing a living person into the river to drown. That’s just insane!”
The female cultivators behind her agreed, “In previous years, when the girls from your village escaped to our manor for help, our manor has already sent people to deliver water-suppressing talismans. There is no danger of flooding in the village now. Why do you still have to sacrifice women?”
“That’s right, why harm the innocent?”
“Even if you really have to worship the river god, why don’t you men go and jump into the river?”
The clan leader at the side retorted, “The River God is a man. What’s the use of us men offering sacrifices? Besides, for a woman to marry the River God, to shed her mortal coil and become the wife of a god, that is a good fortune cultivated in a previous life! To protect the peace of the whole village with one person’s life, that is also a great act of benevolence and righteousness!”
Hearing this, the female cultivator with the impatient voice spat heavily and said, “I’ve cultivated for so many years and haven’t even ascended to become an immortal. Those women can become gods just by being thrown into the river by you? How can there be such a good thing in the world?!”
The female cultivator with the gentler voice also couldn’t help but scold, “Nonsense! This is all just something you made up to trick the girls!”
The leading female cultivator continued to curse, “And who said the River God is a man? Have you seen him with your own eyes? And so what if he is a man? Why can’t you guys jump in? Maybe the River God likes that! Tonight, I’ll throw all the men in your village into the river!”
Well said, well said! Hearing this series of angry curses in the sedan chair, Xie Qingzheng couldn’t help but nod, and even the frustration in her chest lessened a little.
Only now did she understand the general situation—
In this place called Dutou Village, the villagers all believed in the River God. The so-called “River God’s marriage” meant throwing a woman into the river to drown as a sacrifice, in exchange for the River God’s protection.
The people blocking the procession were cultivators from Tianquan Manor, who were opposed to the villagers of Dutou Village sacrificing living people.
It seemed they had already tried to stop it once before. After that, the villagers had mistakenly thought that these cultivators were unwilling to see a respectable girl from the village be sacrificed, so they had chipped in some money to buy a girl from outside to take her place.
Who would have thought that the Wu brothers in charge of buying her would have embezzled the money and just abducted a woman from the street?
How shameless!
After a long stalemate, neither side would give in. The villagers, seeing that the female cultivators were being disrespectful to the clan leader and the River God, grew angrier and began to criticize them:
“You immortal ladies are too domineering. It’s one thing to speak rudely to us, but how dare you insult the clan leader and the River God?”
“If the River God gets angry and floods our village, you can fly away, but the people of our village will suffer!”
“Immortal ladies, don’t meddle in other people’s business! There are no evil spirits here for you to eradicate. You should leave now!”
Mortals had always revered the high and mighty cultivators, but the people of Dutou Village were fierce, and their clan concept was extremely strong. There were often large-scale fights between villages, and the villagers were extremely good at banding together and protecting their own. Even the government officials couldn’t do anything about them. Everything was decided by the village’s clan leader and gentry.
The leading female cultivator said angrily, “You think I like to meddle?! If it weren’t for the Manor Lord’s order to stop you from continuing to do such harmful things, I wouldn’t have bothered to come to this poor, remote place of yours!”
“The government has agreed to our worship! You are people of the outside world. What right do you have to interfere!”
“We have no right? Alright! Then in the future, don’t ask the people of Tianquan Manor to come and exorcise evil spirits!”
“There’s more than just your one cultivation sect in the world. If we don’t ask you, we can still ask the Xuanji Sect, Yuheng Palace, and that what-what sect, what-what clan…”
The leading female cultivator sneered, “Are you trying to say there’s also the Kaiyang Sect, the Tianshu Sect? Let me tell you country bumpkins, our major sects were of the same lineage, of one breath and one branch, with the same ancestor eight hundred years ago! If our Manor Lord were to give the order, let’s see which cultivator in the cultivation world would dare to help you!”
The clan leader said in a loud voice, “You are cultivators, and we are common people. We can’t afford to offend you. But everything has to be reasonable. You are great people, you are great heroes. Shouldn’t you also be reasonable and not bully others with your power?”
Author’s Note:
Xie: Sob, sob, where’s my master? Where’s my master?
Mo: Let the naive and innocent disciple see the evil of the human heart and receive a beating from society~~~
Note: (1) Inspection by appearance, based on the “Great Search and Inspection by Appearance” decree of the Sui Dynasty; (2) River God’s marriage, based on folklore.
