Chapter 479.1: New Grudges and Old Scores (1)

At the break of dawn, Xu Han left the little courtyard with a back basket, a barrel, and a bamboo basket.

Was it really necessary to bring so much just to go out?

As far as Old Mister Xu was concerned, every one of them was essential. The back basket was for medicinal herbs, the barrel was for golden juice, and the bamboo basket was for wild greens. Each had its own purpose.

Walking along the mountain path, Xu Han spotted a shepherd's purse. Naturally, that went into the bamboo basket. Further on, in the woods, he came across a mushroom and that went into the bamboo basket too. Beside the mushroom grew a cocklebur. That was a medicinal herb, so it went into the back basket.

Beside the cockleburs was a patch of tangled weeds, and crouching among them was a man named Gong Ziming. He was one of the Sage's disciples, which meant he belonged in the golden juice barrel.

Old Mister Xu caught Gong Ziming with his fork and dragged him over. Gong Ziming howled in pain as he was hauled to Xu Han's side. "My friend, you have been watching me from this mountain for days. Now you are trying to leave without so much as a word. I feel like you are looking down on me a little when you do that?"

Gong Ziming hurriedly waved his hands. "This junior was merely passing through and happened to disturb your peace. Please forgive me."

Xu Han sighed. "You are not an honest person."

As soon as he finished speaking, the barrel strapped to Xu Han's back suddenly expanded, growing wider until it resembled a washbasin.

Old Mister Xu stirred the gleaming golden liquid with his trowel. Just as he was about to toss Gong Ziming inside, Gong Ziming cried out, "Mercy, Old Mister Xu! I was sent here on my teacher's orders to pay you a visit."

That was putting it politely. He called spying on Xu Han a "visit," but technically, he was telling the truth.

Back when Zhong Huaien, one of the Sage's disciples, was afflicted by the Greenwater Beggar's pathogen, Old Mister Xu had placed him in the barrel and soaked him in golden juice for three days. Zhong Huaien failed to pull through and died inside the barrel. Old Mister Xu then had two eggplant people deliver his body back.

As far as Old Mister Xu was concerned, he had handled the matter properly from beginning to end and had shown all the courtesy expected of him. Even so, the Sage lost his temper and sent Gong Ziming to keep an eye on Xu Han.

Gong Ziming had kept watch on him ever since, right up until today. Old Mister Xu, however, had known he was there from the very first day.

Old Mister Xu asked, "What's happened? Why are you leaving in such a hurry?"

Gong Ziming replied, "I was overestimating myself to think I could keep watch on you. You have tolerated me all this time because you wanted to leave me a way out. I may be slow, but I still know when to retreat if I want to stay alive. Before I truly anger you, I thought I would hurry back to Sage's Peak. That way, I might still make it out of here alive."

Old Mister Xu asked, "And when you return to Sage's Peak, your teacher won't blame you?"

Gong Ziming sighed. "No matter how my teacher punishes me, I have to stay alive first."

His story was airtight. There wasn't a single flaw in it.

Old Mister Xu gave an appreciative sigh. "What a well-crafted lie. I have to admire how quick-witted you are!"

With that, Old Mister Xu lifted Gong Ziming on his fork and was about to start lowering him toward the barrel again.

Gong Ziming cried out, "Old Mister Xu, have mercy! I will tell you the truth! My teacher sent orders the day before yesterday for me to return to Sage's Peak at once. He has something important to discuss with me."

Old Mister Xu asked, "And what exactly is this important matter?"

Gong Ziming sighed. "Old Mister Xu, you know what sort of man my teacher is. He gives us orders and expects them carried out. He would never explain all the little details."

"You didn't try asking your senior and junior brothers?"

"This was an order directly from my teacher. How would I dare poke my nose into it? And even if I did ask, my senior and junior brothers wouldn't tell me."

Old Mister Xu smiled. "The way you said that... Is it your senior and junior brothers that you don't trust or is it me?"

"Old Mister Xu, I am telling the truth... I am really telling the truth..."

Splash!

Gong Ziming was thrown into the barrel. He bobbed in the golden broth for a while. When he tried to climb and leap out, Old Mister Xu jabbed him back in with his fork.

Gong Ziming cried out, "Old Mister Xu, spare my life! I will tell you the truth! Glug, glug..."

Old Mister Xu pulled the fork back. Gong Ziming coughed and gasped for quite a while before he managed to speak.

"Teacher moved Ghostblade Ridge next to Sage's Peak because he wanted to turn the Toilblade Ghosts into an army. But something went wrong with them. Not only did they refuse to obey, they killed many of my senior and junior brothers. They even charged down from Ghostblade Ridge and started attacking the people on the Sage's Peak.

"Teacher is in grave danger now. Even the protective effects of Neverending Peaks have been overcome. He recalled all the disciples stationed outside to Sage's Peak and said that we should put all our effort into holding off the Toilblade Ghosts."

Old Mister Xu shook his head and sighed. "After being out of power for so many years, he's lost all sense of his own limits. To think he would actually dare move a place like Ghostblade Ridge right to his doorstep.

"Still, it is strange. The Toilblade Ghosts rarely leave Ghostblade Ridge, yet now they have even hiked up the Sage's Peak and launched an attack there. Their behavior really has changed."

Gong Ziming said, "Old Mister Xu, when I offended you before, I was only carrying out orders. I really had no choice.

"Now my sect is on the brink of destruction. All I want is to go back to the Sage's Peak and risk my life to repay my teacher for everything he taught me. Old Mister Xu, this is my only wish. I ask that you be magnanimous and allow me to fulfill it."

Xu Han sighed. "What sort of man do you think I am? Whatever grudges there were between people of our generation have nothing to do with you. There is bad blood between your teacher and me, but now that he's in such grave danger, I can't simply stand by and do nothing. Stay where you are for a moment. I will be back soon."

Old Mister Xu left Gong Ziming in the barrel and turned to leave. Gong Ziming waited until the old man was well out of sight before he tried to climb out. However, even after several attempts, he couldn't do it.

There was something very peculiar about the golden juice. An invisible force seemed to have wrapped itself around him, holding him firmly in place. And the more Gong Ziming wriggled and struggled, the tighter it squeezed.

Old Mister Xu went out to the fields and grew eighteen eggplant people. He then wrote eighteen letters, rolled them up, and stuffed one neatly into each eggplant belly.

Every letter said the same thing. It first explained the situation on Sage's Peak, then offered the recipient some advice.

Old Mister Xu's advice was that the Sage had once been the ruler of an entire country. Now he was in trouble. And surely, at a time like this, nobody should stand around doing nothing. Anyone with an old score to settle should settle it and anyone with a grudge should repay it. After all, now was the perfect opportunity to kick a man when he was already down.

Off went the eggplant people, and off went the letters with them.

Old Mister Xu was rather disappointed that he could not go himself. He would very much have liked to visit Sage's Peak, see what the once-mighty Sage looked like now, and perhaps help send him on his final journey while he was there.

However, he couldn't go. He had promised the Peddler that he would guard Medicine King Gully, and until the agreed time was up, he would not take a single step outside it.

Still, he couldn't help wondering. Just what did Sage's Peak look like now?

***

A farmer and his grandson were pushing a cartload of grain up Sage's Peak. The cart was terribly heavy, the mountain road was terribly steep, and between the two of them, they were very nearly out of strength to continue pushing.

An old man in a round cap and round spectacles came along, leaning on a cane. He walked by their side and asked, "Big Old Bro, where are you off to with all that?"

The farmer smiled. "Taking grain to the Sage."

"You are still taking grain to the Sage now?"

The farmer looked puzzled. "Why? What's wrong with doing this now?"

The old man responded, "Haven't you heard? Something's happened on Sage's Peak."

The farmer did not seem to care at all. He waved a hand dismissively and said, "I heard about it, but that was just a few monsters[1] causing trouble on the mountain. Those monsters are practically asking to die. The Sage is merciful and values all life, so he's allowing them to live a couple more days. If they know what's good for them, they will hurry up and leave. But if they don't, once the Sage really loses his temper, he can wipe them out in the blink of an eye, leaving them without even a place to be buried."

"With just a blink of his eyes?" The old man looked doubtful. "Is the Sage really that powerful?"

The farmer was horrified. "You are already at Sage's Peak, and you still dare say something like that? If your devotion isn't sincere, I would advise you not to go see the Sage.

"See that mountain over there? It wasn't here before. With just a single thought, the Sage moved the entire mountain here in the blink of an eye.

"If he can move a mountain, what do a few monsters amount to? Some people in the village are too afraid to come up the mountain now, and that only proves their devotion isn't sincere. People like that will never become disciples of the Sage."

With that, the old farmer went back to pushing the cart up the mountain with his grandson.

1. The raw really refers to a supernatural creature. In Chinese folklore, it can refer to animals, plants, objects, or other beings that have developed a spirit or cultivated over time. It's not exactly 妖怪 (yaoguai) because yao are these animals, plants, objects, or other beings that have developed a spirit but have also developed human form and that's why they get the yao name. ☜