Copper Coins

Chapter 8: Gold Ingots (4)

 

When the ringing passed and the sesame-like blackness faded, Xue Xian sensed something amiss—

 

Under him was the bluestone-paved floor from which some dark green moss could be scrubbed off with a slight movement from him. He had landed on the floor and the Baldy who had him in his fingers had disappeared. 

 

It wasn’t just the Baldy. He turned and looked around and saw that even Adviser Liu had disappeared. At least the house behind him was still there, but this house was a complete one and had detailed engravings on the wooden lintel. It was obviously not the place the blockhead Liu Chong had lived in. Naturally, he would not expect Jiang Shining and the rest to appear inside the house. 

 

In truth, the place where he was was extremely quiet. Not even the slightest whisper could be heard, just like an unoccupied mansion with many houses and courtyards, yet silent.

 

“Where the hell is this?” Xue Xian muttered. 

 

His current predicament was slightly worrisome. If it had been anyone else who had been transported to this silent place, they could more or less move around to see what sort of a place this was. But Xue Xian could not. Someone half paralysed like him couldn’t walk. 

 

The Xue-daye, who was currently in paper form, stretched himself out, smoothing the creases on his body. With two hands against the floor, he cocked his head and started admiring the scenery—

 

In addition to the room behind him, there were old vines that crept close to the walls on his left side and a shady tree with its branch extending just past the wall. To his right was a corridor and the courtyard wall. Through a narrow door, he could barely make out the small garden inside the mansion. 

 

Only by looking at this corner could one tell that this was a meticulously decorated mansion. But it would be a little alarming if a mansion decorated so meticulously didn’t cast even the slightest of a shadow.

 

The good thing was that Xue Xian was someone who had torn through the sky. To him, even the scenes that were far more alarming than this weren’t the least bit troubling. He would just have to face it a little more carefully. 

 

“West at the front, south at the back…” He wasn’t just admiring the scenery without a purpose. Xue Xian looked around and roughly figured out his position from the moss growth on the bluestone floorboards, the direction of the old vines, and the direction of the house.

 

If he wasn’t mistaken, he was in the north-east corner of the house.

 

North-east corner…

 

Xue Xian inhaled sharply. “Sounds familiar…”

 

If he was still in Adviser Liu’s mansion, then the north-east corner would be the room where his youngest son, Liu Jin, who had nearly drowned, lived. 

 

The ringing he previously heard seemed to also have come from this direction.

 

The thing he had been searching for is here?!

 

Xue Xian jumped and sat up abruptly, listening with baited breath. But there was no sound at all, let alone such a particular ringing. 

 

Brushing the patch of moss in front of him, he curled his lips in disdain and crouched so that he lay flat on the ground. Now, some miniscule movement could finally be heard. But the strange thing was that the movement was sometimes suddenly close, sometimes suddenly distant and did not have a fixed point at all. 

 

In addition, this change was extremely subtle and it was almost impossible to detect if there was the slightest bit of distraction. The way it ran when teased irritated Xue Xian to no end, his temper boiling only after a short time of listening. He wanted no more than to overturn the ground, to stick a huge blade in, and to stir everything up.

 

Unfortunately, with this body made of this stupid paper, he wouldn’t be able to overturn anything even if he wanted to. 

 

Just when he was a little fidgety, a slight wind blew through the window at the bottom of the wall. A wind in winter, however weak it was, would still have some strength to it. Xue Xian, who had grown used to borrowing wind for movement, naturally would not miss this chance. He immediately stretched his paper body and caught the wind. 

 

In the blink of an eye, he lifted off the ground.

 

Xue Xian took the opportunity and seized a tendril on the old vines, hefting himself onto the shady tree with a few movements. 

 

The tree had a straight trunk and did not have many other branches aside from the one that extended past the wall. Thus, the wind Xue Xian had borrowed lost its usefulness here. 

 

Paper was light and thin. Not only was it easy to get blown off, but it also did not provide a good viewpoint either. 

 

Hence, Xue Xian performed the great trick of turning human and turned into his original form amidst the breeze. With one hand on the trunk and another on the branch, he sat steadily on the wall. 

 

Illuminated by the light, his eyebrows and eyes came into focus and became more good-looking. The pair of dark pupils shone like two cold pools, sharp and unbridled under a shallow layer of mist.

 

The first thing he did when he sat down was to look beyond the courtyard wall. 

 

After looking at it, Xue Xian turned back, expressionless. He stared inside the courtyard for a moment, then turned to look outside again. 

 

After so many back and forths, a hairline crack appeared in Xue Xian’s expression, like a white porcelain that had cracked from the cold. 

 

“…”

 

Why the hell does it look exactly the same from both sides of the wall?!

 

Xue Xian found this funny.

 

If he was correct, he probably was hit by the Astraying Ghost. 

 

This was rather the first time an Astraying Ghost had dared to hit him. 

 

But this thing wouldn’t descend without a reason. Something must have triggered it. Xue Xian thought about the previous events and could only think of the “Array of River Draining into Sea” that the Baldy Xuan Min had mentioned. 

 

Could something have stirred up the fengshui array and led it to go crazy all on its own, swallowing them all in?

 

Then, was this mansion in absolute silence because of the Astraying Ghost? Or was he really left alone?

 

Although the view from top of the wall was wider than that from the bluestone floor, it wasn’t  better. There were numerous fire walls of different heights around the mansion, most of which obscured more than half the view. What Xue Xian could see were the bluestones and the narrow doors that he wasn’t sure if he should pass through. 

 

He stared at the narrow doors which were present in all four directions, glanced at the walls of varying heights and came to a decision. 

 

Being hit by the Astraying Ghost in a motionless mansion as this one, one would have to find the Eight Gates of Defenses if they wanted to break through the array. 

 

The Gate of Commence, Gate of Cease, Gate of Life, Gate of Wound, Gate of Sever, Gate of Luminous, Gate of Fear, and the Gate of Death. Each gate was its own variable. If one wrongly entered a gate, they would be considered lucky to be only trapped in this array forever. This was because the other alternative was to be wounded, or worse, dead. 

 

This mansion was surrounded on four sides, that of which were also surrounded by four sides. The so-called eight gates were also in the structure of one surrounding the other, so it would take a great deal of effort to break it. 

 

Xue Xian’s identity was different from that of ordinary people. He never spent any effort on these broken things. During his former days, these kinds of things wouldn’t have been effective against him anyway. He had never thought that a day would come when he would be paralysed and be hit by the Astraying Ghost as well. 

 

So, rather than him sitting here and figuring out where the Gate of Life or the Gate of Death was, he would’ve much preferred two knives and a quick end. 

 

“Making me drag my two paralysed legs around to look for them, huh?” Xue Xian sneered and thought, Why do I hate myself so much?

 

He was used to being proud and would not choose to lose face and torture himself unless there was no other option. If there really was no other option…then, he would just have to die. 

 

The wind in this broken mansion was pitifully small and he couldn’t find anything to borrow strength from. Even if he figured out the exit route, how would he go there? Was he going to crawl or inch?

 

Xue Xian felt his teeth ache just by thinking of the image.

 

Dream on! Whoever wishes to crawl can go ahead but it wasn’t going to be him!

 

Xue Xian leaned on the tree trunk and bit the tip of his tongue, thinking. Then, he reached into the hidden pocket in his clothes and pulled out a sheet of yellow paper. 

 

The yellow paper was a little crumpled and had many creases on it. This thing had not seen any good days ever since it had landed in Xue Xian’s hands. Xue Xian disliked it a little and shook it out with two fingers holding one end. What came into view was a bunch of chicken scrawls no one could recognise. 

 

But Xue Xian did.

 

He got this from a divining Taoist priest when he passed by the Raozhou capital. 

 

The Taoist priest had two diagonal mustache slashes, wore a ragged crown, and had a green scar across his eye that could either be a birthmark or a scar left from a beating. He was stationed near the edge of the bridge every day and sold countless talismans created by himself through divination. He was also a funny guy. If one wanted to sell talismans, they should have at least learned to write words that would fool people. But this old Taoist priest carried a bunch of unintelligibly written talismans with him, neither ashamed nor afraid that he might not be able to sell them off. 

 

Xue Xian lingered by his divination stall for a few days and glossed over the talismans that he drew. Most could only be used for decoration. Only a few were drawn properly and could be used for small purposes. 

 

Still, only for small purposes. 

 

For example, if a talisman was supposed to be for exorcism, in reality, it could only get rid of pests; if a talisman was supposed to be for longevity of life, in reality, it could only alleviate small obstacles in life. 

 

The one in Xue Xian’s hand was drawn by that Taoist priest. 

 

“May the Dragon Lord of the South descend from thunderous clouds.” Xue Xian squinted his eyes and lazily read the words on the talisman out loud. These words were drawn 800 times over and looked like earthworms with the way they twisted and turned. It was a miracle he could remember them.

 

Just by reading the content, it seemed like it was probably a talisman to summon thunder. He had no idea why the Taoist priest would be so bored as to make something like this.

 

Although it was said to summon thunder, by the looks of this wrinkly talisman, it couldn’t really invite whoever was the Dragon King of the South. At most, it would only be able to summon two wisps of clouds to provide some shade against the sun. But the same could not be said when the same talisman was in Xue Xian’s hands.

 

Because the Dragon Lord of the South, not that he was bragging, was probably Xue Xian himself. 

 

Although the paper body he was in now couldn’t stir up any trouble, with a talisman as a medium, he could at least try. 

 

He took a tiny porcelain bottle out of his clothes and uncorked it and a strange, frozen fishy smell wafted into the air. 

 

Xue Xian frowned. Even if it was his own blood, its smell was still miles away from nice.

 

He flattened the talisman on his palm and poured a drop of blood from the tiny porcelain bottle on it. The bead of blood was absorbed by the talisman in an instant.  

 

Xue Xian kept the porcelain bottle and threw the talisman out. 

 

The moment it left his hand, the centre of the bloodstain caught fire and burned to cinders in a flash. 

 

Suddenly, the winds howled and waves of thick clouds rolled in the sky. 

 

The sky darkened as if someone had knocked over a pot of ink. Spider webs as bright as snow descended from the sky and thunder erupted from the ground as if it had been right by your ear. 

 

The thunder had either touched the borders of this array or shaken its base.

 

Along with a sound akin to mountains being split open, lightning zigzagged downwards. 

 

Xue Xian sat on the wall beside the old tree and watched impassively without blinking even once as a bolt of lightning struck the ground just before him and shattered the heavy bluestone into dust.  

 

The entire house shook and it was a long time before it gradually settled down. 

 

Xue Xian lifted his head and looked up, looking a little regretful. Even with the help of the talisman, he could only do so much now. 

 

The thunder that shook the sky and earth was more or less useful as it had struck open a little narrow crack somewhere in this array. The house which was silent to the point of stagnancy now had an outlet of air. Faint whispers started to emerge from that area, soon enveloping the entire house. 

 

Of course, he wasn’t really the only one in this house. 

 

The rest should also have been swallowed into this array but were trapped in a corner and had not realised it. 

 

Xue Xian casually yanked a tendril from the old vines beside him and wrapped it around his fingers, leaning back against the trunk of the tree. He closed his eyes, listening to the sounds from the gap, and tried to find a particular sound in the midst of the trivial ones. 

 

A moment later, he seemed to have caught one…

 

A bell?

 

“No…” Xue Xian tsked, frowning. 

 

The sound was faint in the whimpering wind as if it came from a faraway place or maybe the sound was stretched due to the narrow crack. 

 

It sounded like the four-pointed copper bells often hung on ox carts but was infinitesimally different.

 

Copper bells…

 

Copper coins?

 

Now that he had the thought in his mind, the sound became clearer and clearer, truly like the jangle of several copper coins occasionally bumping into each other. 

 

“…” Xue Xian opened his eyes, expressionless. With an audible sound, the few tendrils wrapped around his hand snapped into two.

 

Within a snap of a finger, the jangling of the copper coins seemed to have sounded much closer. 

 

Listening to it, it seemed as if the sound was coming from just outside the wall.

 

A narrow door in the corridor made a soft squeak. Xue Xian looked up after destroying the old vine.

 

The young monk clothed in white hemp walked silently towards the wall. 

 

Xue Xian felt cold just by looking at the white linen he wore in this freezing winter. It seemed as if there was still a layer of chilly air draped around the thin clothes. Only after Xuan Min had stopped at the bottom of the wall and hung the string of copper coins back onto his waist did Xue Xian realise that the Baldy never made any sound while walking. 

 

So...the jangle of copper coins just now was done on purpose?

 

Xuan Min stood by the wall and briefly sweeped past Xue Xian with his impassive gaze. 

 

The one sitting on the wall was undoubtedly handsome, like a sword drawn out from its sheath. But he was too skinny and the black clothes made him seem all the more paler, showing a sickly appearance. This, further mixed with the vivid sharpness, seemed contradictory and mysterious.

 

When Xue Xian put on an expressionless face, he always gave others the illusion of being extra reserved. 

 

He held this expression and levelled his gaze with Xuan Min. After a moment, he finally rolled his eyes and asked, “Why is it you…?” 

 

As he finished talking, he angrily crushed the broken tendril into a ball in his hand. 

 

This person was truly deserving of a good beating since he would not behave even when he was sitting on a wall. After shooting two glances at Xuan Min begrudgingly, he threw the crushed tendril ball towards Xuan Min. 

 

Xuan Min shook his head, curling the “secret weapon” thrown at him into his palm. “What was that piercing thunder for just now?”

 

Xue Xian raised his eyebrows at him. “You’re not even going to ask who I am?”

 

He was still a piece of moss on the ground when this Baldy had caught him, who later turned into a thin sheet of paper. From the beginning till the end, he had never appeared before him as a human. 

 

Xuan Min opened his palm. In the thin and slender fingers was the evidence of Xue Xian’s misbehaving—the tendril ball. 

 

He never liked to talk and always put on a face of icy coldness. But the open palm very obviously conveyed one thing—there was only one who was naughty to this extent here; he would be recognisable even if he was in the form of ash. 

 

Xue Xian, “…”

 

Xuan Min dropped the tendril under the root of the old tree and raised his head, reminding Xue Xian again, “You still haven’t explained about the thunder.”

 

Xue Xian made an “oh” sound and said, “Nothing much. I just wanted to tell you guys that I’m here so someone can come to find me.”

 

Xuan Min, “…”

 

The thunder was so powerful that it could’ve pierced through the sky and the earth as if to strike the Liu mansion into ash. 

 

In the end, it was all for a simple squeak into the sky, a signal to the rest that there was still someone waiting here…

 

The Baldy was used to putting on a frosty face. Hearing this, his face actually showed signs of cracking. 

 

Xue Xian was amused by his expression and relaxed, smiling. “Hmm? You came here following the thunder? Then it seems like the thunder wasn’t wasted. It’s a good thing that you came fast. I was just wondering whether I should go again.”

 

Speechless, Xuan Min looked at him for a moment and said coldly, “Then there’s no need to look for the Eight Gates. Dry as ash, you could even save up on the coffin money.”

 

“How can you monks bring up money so easily?! Aren’t you Bal—” Xue Xian twisted his face away, swallowed the “-dy”, and said seriously, “afraid of insulting your Buddha?”

 

Xuan Min, “…”

 

The vile spawn, who even sent thunder up into the sky, had the audacity to say such words.  

 

“Have you found the eight directions you mentioned earlier?” asked Xue Xian. “If you’ve found them, it makes things much easier. Just bring me along. If you haven’t, don’t be afraid of being struck one more time. I’ll find a way to summon another thunder. Maybe this time I can pry this array open directly.”

 

That was what he said, but in his mind, he thought, Baldy, you better tell me that you’ve found them. I only have one Thunder Talisman in total with me and it has been used up already.

 

Fortunately, Xuan Min did not disappoint him. He nodded and said, “You can come down from the wall now.”

 

With that, he turned and walked away.

 

The white hemp of the monk’s clothes swept by like clouds and he was far away only after a few steps.

 

However, Xuan Min stopped after a while and turned back to look at Xue Xian, who had not moved a single inch.

 

He patted his legs and said boldly, “They’re paralysed, I can’t move.”

 

Xuan Min frowned. Thinking that he was playing games, he replied coldly, “You vile spawn weren’t slow at all back then...”

 

Flipping up the servant’s collar in two or three movements, how agile you were. 

 

“…” Xue Xian sneered, “I think you’re blind, Baldy. Did I use my own legs to move? That was the servant’s legs I had borrowed.”

 

For a moment, the Baldy, who did not understand the ways of the world exchanged glances with the eternally naughty vile spawn. Finally, the former lowered his eyes and turned back to the wall. 

 

Under the black robes that were covering Xue Xian’s legs, the slender and prominent outline of his protruding knees could be seen. For people who were eternally bedridden, most of them would have thin legs, but Xue Xian was different. From the rough silhouette, his legs looked no different than those of an ordinary person’s and didn’t seem like a pair of paralysed legs.

 

Xuan Min glanced at him, then raised his hand to grasp Xue Xian’s ankle. 

 

Xue Xian was startled by his action. If it weren’t for his legs that couldn’t feel anything, he would’ve sent him flying already.

 

Feel your own conscience and tell me, is a dragon’s claw something you can simply touch?! Huh?! You’re basically asking for death!

 

Xuan Min assessed all of his reactions—if it had been someone with functional legs, they would not have moved their upper body only and shown no reaction in their lower body when startled. 

 

It was clear that the vile spawn was telling the truth: his legs truly were paralysed. 

 

Xuan Min raised his head and did a Buddhist salutation with one hand before him. The other hand was stretched towards Xue Xian, his thin and strong palm spread open. He said, “Come down.”

Chapter 8: Gold Ingots (4)

 

When the ringing passed and the sesame-like blackness faded, Xue Xian sensed something amiss—

 

Under him was the bluestone-paved floor from which some dark green moss could be scrubbed off with a slight movement from him. He had landed on the floor and the Baldy who had him in his fingers had disappeared. 

 

It wasn’t just the Baldy. He turned and looked around and saw that even Adviser Liu had disappeared. At least the house behind him was still there, but this house was a complete one and had detailed engravings on the wooden lintel. It was obviously not the place the blockhead Liu Chong had lived in. Naturally, he would not expect Jiang Shining and the rest to appear inside the house. 

 

In truth, the place where he was was extremely quiet. Not even the slightest whisper could be heard, just like an unoccupied mansion with many houses and courtyards, yet silent.

 

“Where the hell is this?” Xue Xian muttered. 

 

His current predicament was slightly worrisome. If it had been anyone else who had been transported to this silent place, they could more or less move around to see what sort of a place this was. But Xue Xian could not. Someone half paralysed like him couldn’t walk. 

 

The Xue-daye, who was currently in paper form, stretched himself out, smoothing the creases on his body. With two hands against the floor, he cocked his head and started admiring the scenery—

 

In addition to the room behind him, there were old vines that crept close to the walls on his left side and a shady tree with its branch extending just past the wall. To his right was a corridor and the courtyard wall. Through a narrow door, he could barely make out the small garden inside the mansion. 

 

Only by looking at this corner could one tell that this was a meticulously decorated mansion. But it would be a little alarming if a mansion decorated so meticulously didn’t cast even the slightest of a shadow.

 

The good thing was that Xue Xian was someone who had torn through the sky. To him, even the scenes that were far more alarming than this weren’t the least bit troubling. He would just have to face it a little more carefully. 

 

“West at the front, south at the back…” He wasn’t just admiring the scenery without a purpose. Xue Xian looked around and roughly figured out his position from the moss growth on the bluestone floorboards, the direction of the old vines, and the direction of the house.

 

If he wasn’t mistaken, he was in the north-east corner of the house.

 

North-east corner…

 

Xue Xian inhaled sharply. “Sounds familiar…”

 

If he was still in Adviser Liu’s mansion, then the north-east corner would be the room where his youngest son, Liu Jin, who had nearly drowned, lived. 

 

The ringing he previously heard seemed to also have come from this direction.

 

The thing he had been searching for is here?!

 

Xue Xian jumped and sat up abruptly, listening with baited breath. But there was no sound at all, let alone such a particular ringing. 

 

Brushing the patch of moss in front of him, he curled his lips in disdain and crouched so that he lay flat on the ground. Now, some miniscule movement could finally be heard. But the strange thing was that the movement was sometimes suddenly close, sometimes suddenly distant and did not have a fixed point at all. 

 

In addition, this change was extremely subtle and it was almost impossible to detect if there was the slightest bit of distraction. The way it ran when teased irritated Xue Xian to no end, his temper boiling only after a short time of listening. He wanted no more than to overturn the ground, to stick a huge blade in, and to stir everything up.

 

Unfortunately, with this body made of this stupid paper, he wouldn’t be able to overturn anything even if he wanted to. 

 

Just when he was a little fidgety, a slight wind blew through the window at the bottom of the wall. A wind in winter, however weak it was, would still have some strength to it. Xue Xian, who had grown used to borrowing wind for movement, naturally would not miss this chance. He immediately stretched his paper body and caught the wind. 

 

In the blink of an eye, he lifted off the ground.

 

Xue Xian took the opportunity and seized a tendril on the old vines, hefting himself onto the shady tree with a few movements. 

 

The tree had a straight trunk and did not have many other branches aside from the one that extended past the wall. Thus, the wind Xue Xian had borrowed lost its usefulness here. 

 

Paper was light and thin. Not only was it easy to get blown off, but it also did not provide a good viewpoint either. 

 

Hence, Xue Xian performed the great trick of turning human and turned into his original form amidst the breeze. With one hand on the trunk and another on the branch, he sat steadily on the wall. 

 

Illuminated by the light, his eyebrows and eyes came into focus and became more good-looking. The pair of dark pupils shone like two cold pools, sharp and unbridled under a shallow layer of mist.

 

The first thing he did when he sat down was to look beyond the courtyard wall. 

 

After looking at it, Xue Xian turned back, expressionless. He stared inside the courtyard for a moment, then turned to look outside again. 

 

After so many back and forths, a hairline crack appeared in Xue Xian’s expression, like a white porcelain that had cracked from the cold. 

 

“…”

 

Why the hell does it look exactly the same from both sides of the wall?!

 

Xue Xian found this funny.

 

If he was correct, he probably was hit by the Astraying Ghost. 

 

This was rather the first time an Astraying Ghost had dared to hit him. 

 

But this thing wouldn’t descend without a reason. Something must have triggered it. Xue Xian thought about the previous events and could only think of the “Array of River Draining into Sea” that the Baldy Xuan Min had mentioned. 

 

Could something have stirred up the fengshui array and led it to go crazy all on its own, swallowing them all in?

 

Then, was this mansion in absolute silence because of the Astraying Ghost? Or was he really left alone?

 

Although the view from top of the wall was wider than that from the bluestone floor, it wasn’t  better. There were numerous fire walls of different heights around the mansion, most of which obscured more than half the view. What Xue Xian could see were the bluestones and the narrow doors that he wasn’t sure if he should pass through. 

 

He stared at the narrow doors which were present in all four directions, glanced at the walls of varying heights and came to a decision. 

 

Being hit by the Astraying Ghost in a motionless mansion as this one, one would have to find the Eight Gates of Defenses if they wanted to break through the array. 

 

The Gate of Commence, Gate of Cease, Gate of Life, Gate of Wound, Gate of Sever, Gate of Luminous, Gate of Fear, and the Gate of Death. Each gate was its own variable. If one wrongly entered a gate, they would be considered lucky to be only trapped in this array forever. This was because the other alternative was to be wounded, or worse, dead. 

 

This mansion was surrounded on four sides, that of which were also surrounded by four sides. The so-called eight gates were also in the structure of one surrounding the other, so it would take a great deal of effort to break it. 

 

Xue Xian’s identity was different from that of ordinary people. He never spent any effort on these broken things. During his former days, these kinds of things wouldn’t have been effective against him anyway. He had never thought that a day would come when he would be paralysed and be hit by the Astraying Ghost as well. 

 

So, rather than him sitting here and figuring out where the Gate of Life or the Gate of Death was, he would’ve much preferred two knives and a quick end. 

 

“Making me drag my two paralysed legs around to look for them, huh?” Xue Xian sneered and thought, Why do I hate myself so much?

 

He was used to being proud and would not choose to lose face and torture himself unless there was no other option. If there really was no other option…then, he would just have to die. 

 

The wind in this broken mansion was pitifully small and he couldn’t find anything to borrow strength from. Even if he figured out the exit route, how would he go there? Was he going to crawl or inch?

 

Xue Xian felt his teeth ache just by thinking of the image.

 

Dream on! Whoever wishes to crawl can go ahead but it wasn’t going to be him!

 

Xue Xian leaned on the tree trunk and bit the tip of his tongue, thinking. Then, he reached into the hidden pocket in his clothes and pulled out a sheet of yellow paper. 

 

The yellow paper was a little crumpled and had many creases on it. This thing had not seen any good days ever since it had landed in Xue Xian’s hands. Xue Xian disliked it a little and shook it out with two fingers holding one end. What came into view was a bunch of chicken scrawls no one could recognise. 

 

But Xue Xian did.

 

He got this from a divining Taoist priest when he passed by the Raozhou capital. 

 

The Taoist priest had two diagonal mustache slashes, wore a ragged crown, and had a green scar across his eye that could either be a birthmark or a scar left from a beating. He was stationed near the edge of the bridge every day and sold countless talismans created by himself through divination. He was also a funny guy. If one wanted to sell talismans, they should have at least learned to write words that would fool people. But this old Taoist priest carried a bunch of unintelligibly written talismans with him, neither ashamed nor afraid that he might not be able to sell them off. 

 

Xue Xian lingered by his divination stall for a few days and glossed over the talismans that he drew. Most could only be used for decoration. Only a few were drawn properly and could be used for small purposes. 

 

Still, only for small purposes. 

 

For example, if a talisman was supposed to be for exorcism, in reality, it could only get rid of pests; if a talisman was supposed to be for longevity of life, in reality, it could only alleviate small obstacles in life. 

 

The one in Xue Xian’s hand was drawn by that Taoist priest. 

 

“May the Dragon Lord of the South descend from thunderous clouds.” Xue Xian squinted his eyes and lazily read the words on the talisman out loud. These words were drawn 800 times over and looked like earthworms with the way they twisted and turned. It was a miracle he could remember them.

 

Just by reading the content, it seemed like it was probably a talisman to summon thunder. He had no idea why the Taoist priest would be so bored as to make something like this.

 

Although it was said to summon thunder, by the looks of this wrinkly talisman, it couldn’t really invite whoever was the Dragon King of the South. At most, it would only be able to summon two wisps of clouds to provide some shade against the sun. But the same could not be said when the same talisman was in Xue Xian’s hands.

 

Because the Dragon Lord of the South, not that he was bragging, was probably Xue Xian himself. 

 

Although the paper body he was in now couldn’t stir up any trouble, with a talisman as a medium, he could at least try. 

 

He took a tiny porcelain bottle out of his clothes and uncorked it and a strange, frozen fishy smell wafted into the air. 

 

Xue Xian frowned. Even if it was his own blood, its smell was still miles away from nice.

 

He flattened the talisman on his palm and poured a drop of blood from the tiny porcelain bottle on it. The bead of blood was absorbed by the talisman in an instant.  

 

Xue Xian kept the porcelain bottle and threw the talisman out. 

 

The moment it left his hand, the centre of the bloodstain caught fire and burned to cinders in a flash. 

 

Suddenly, the winds howled and waves of thick clouds rolled in the sky. 

 

The sky darkened as if someone had knocked over a pot of ink. Spider webs as bright as snow descended from the sky and thunder erupted from the ground as if it had been right by your ear. 

 

The thunder had either touched the borders of this array or shaken its base.

 

Along with a sound akin to mountains being split open, lightning zigzagged downwards. 

 

Xue Xian sat on the wall beside the old tree and watched impassively without blinking even once as a bolt of lightning struck the ground just before him and shattered the heavy bluestone into dust.  

 

The entire house shook and it was a long time before it gradually settled down. 

 

Xue Xian lifted his head and looked up, looking a little regretful. Even with the help of the talisman, he could only do so much now. 

 

The thunder that shook the sky and earth was more or less useful as it had struck open a little narrow crack somewhere in this array. The house which was silent to the point of stagnancy now had an outlet of air. Faint whispers started to emerge from that area, soon enveloping the entire house. 

 

Of course, he wasn’t really the only one in this house. 

 

The rest should also have been swallowed into this array but were trapped in a corner and had not realised it. 

 

Xue Xian casually yanked a tendril from the old vines beside him and wrapped it around his fingers, leaning back against the trunk of the tree. He closed his eyes, listening to the sounds from the gap, and tried to find a particular sound in the midst of the trivial ones. 

 

A moment later, he seemed to have caught one…

 

A bell?

 

“No…” Xue Xian tsked, frowning. 

 

The sound was faint in the whimpering wind as if it came from a faraway place or maybe the sound was stretched due to the narrow crack. 

 

It sounded like the four-pointed copper bells often hung on ox carts but was infinitesimally different.

 

Copper bells…

 

Copper coins?

 

Now that he had the thought in his mind, the sound became clearer and clearer, truly like the jangle of several copper coins occasionally bumping into each other. 

 

“…” Xue Xian opened his eyes, expressionless. With an audible sound, the few tendrils wrapped around his hand snapped into two.

 

Within a snap of a finger, the jangling of the copper coins seemed to have sounded much closer. 

 

Listening to it, it seemed as if the sound was coming from just outside the wall.

 

A narrow door in the corridor made a soft squeak. Xue Xian looked up after destroying the old vine.

 

The young monk clothed in white hemp walked silently towards the wall. 

 

Xue Xian felt cold just by looking at the white linen he wore in this freezing winter. It seemed as if there was still a layer of chilly air draped around the thin clothes. Only after Xuan Min had stopped at the bottom of the wall and hung the string of copper coins back onto his waist did Xue Xian realise that the Baldy never made any sound while walking. 

 

So...the jangle of copper coins just now was done on purpose?

 

Xuan Min stood by the wall and briefly sweeped past Xue Xian with his impassive gaze. 

 

The one sitting on the wall was undoubtedly handsome, like a sword drawn out from its sheath. But he was too skinny and the black clothes made him seem all the more paler, showing a sickly appearance. This, further mixed with the vivid sharpness, seemed contradictory and mysterious.

 

When Xue Xian put on an expressionless face, he always gave others the illusion of being extra reserved. 

 

He held this expression and levelled his gaze with Xuan Min. After a moment, he finally rolled his eyes and asked, “Why is it you…?” 

 

As he finished talking, he angrily crushed the broken tendril into a ball in his hand. 

 

This person was truly deserving of a good beating since he would not behave even when he was sitting on a wall. After shooting two glances at Xuan Min begrudgingly, he threw the crushed tendril ball towards Xuan Min. 

 

Xuan Min shook his head, curling the “secret weapon” thrown at him into his palm. “What was that piercing thunder for just now?”

 

Xue Xian raised his eyebrows at him. “You’re not even going to ask who I am?”

 

He was still a piece of moss on the ground when this Baldy had caught him, who later turned into a thin sheet of paper. From the beginning till the end, he had never appeared before him as a human. 

 

Xuan Min opened his palm. In the thin and slender fingers was the evidence of Xue Xian’s misbehaving—the tendril ball. 

 

He never liked to talk and always put on a face of icy coldness. But the open palm very obviously conveyed one thing—there was only one who was naughty to this extent here; he would be recognisable even if he was in the form of ash. 

 

Xue Xian, “…”

 

Xuan Min dropped the tendril under the root of the old tree and raised his head, reminding Xue Xian again, “You still haven’t explained about the thunder.”

 

Xue Xian made an “oh” sound and said, “Nothing much. I just wanted to tell you guys that I’m here so someone can come to find me.”

 

Xuan Min, “…”

 

The thunder was so powerful that it could’ve pierced through the sky and the earth as if to strike the Liu mansion into ash. 

 

In the end, it was all for a simple squeak into the sky, a signal to the rest that there was still someone waiting here…

 

The Baldy was used to putting on a frosty face. Hearing this, his face actually showed signs of cracking. 

 

Xue Xian was amused by his expression and relaxed, smiling. “Hmm? You came here following the thunder? Then it seems like the thunder wasn’t wasted. It’s a good thing that you came fast. I was just wondering whether I should go again.”

 

Speechless, Xuan Min looked at him for a moment and said coldly, “Then there’s no need to look for the Eight Gates. Dry as ash, you could even save up on the coffin money.”

 

“How can you monks bring up money so easily?! Aren’t you Bal—” Xue Xian twisted his face away, swallowed the “-dy”, and said seriously, “afraid of insulting your Buddha?”

 

Xuan Min, “…”

 

The vile spawn, who even sent thunder up into the sky, had the audacity to say such words.  

 

“Have you found the eight directions you mentioned earlier?” asked Xue Xian. “If you’ve found them, it makes things much easier. Just bring me along. If you haven’t, don’t be afraid of being struck one more time. I’ll find a way to summon another thunder. Maybe this time I can pry this array open directly.”

 

That was what he said, but in his mind, he thought, Baldy, you better tell me that you’ve found them. I only have one Thunder Talisman in total with me and it has been used up already.

 

Fortunately, Xuan Min did not disappoint him. He nodded and said, “You can come down from the wall now.”

 

With that, he turned and walked away.

 

The white hemp of the monk’s clothes swept by like clouds and he was far away only after a few steps.

 

However, Xuan Min stopped after a while and turned back to look at Xue Xian, who had not moved a single inch.

 

He patted his legs and said boldly, “They’re paralysed, I can’t move.”

 

Xuan Min frowned. Thinking that he was playing games, he replied coldly, “You vile spawn weren’t slow at all back then...”

 

Flipping up the servant’s collar in two or three movements, how agile you were. 

 

“…” Xue Xian sneered, “I think you’re blind, Baldy. Did I use my own legs to move? That was the servant’s legs I had borrowed.”

 

For a moment, the Baldy, who did not understand the ways of the world exchanged glances with the eternally naughty vile spawn. Finally, the former lowered his eyes and turned back to the wall. 

 

Under the black robes that were covering Xue Xian’s legs, the slender and prominent outline of his protruding knees could be seen. For people who were eternally bedridden, most of them would have thin legs, but Xue Xian was different. From the rough silhouette, his legs looked no different than those of an ordinary person’s and didn’t seem like a pair of paralysed legs.

 

Xuan Min glanced at him, then raised his hand to grasp Xue Xian’s ankle. 

 

Xue Xian was startled by his action. If it weren’t for his legs that couldn’t feel anything, he would’ve sent him flying already.

 

Feel your own conscience and tell me, is a dragon’s claw something you can simply touch?! Huh?! You’re basically asking for death!

 

Xuan Min assessed all of his reactions—if it had been someone with functional legs, they would not have moved their upper body only and shown no reaction in their lower body when startled. 

 

It was clear that the vile spawn was telling the truth: his legs truly were paralysed. 

 

Xuan Min raised his head and did a Buddhist salutation with one hand before him. The other hand was stretched towards Xue Xian, his thin and strong palm spread open. He said, “Come down.”