ALL NOVEL After offering tributes to the mountain gods, Qi Wu hurriedly gathered everyone together.
Drenched, the cold wind made them shiver.
“We’ll get sick if this continues.”
The old hunter went to a corner, brought out a handful of firewood, and with a toothy grin said, “We hunters sometimes take shelter here from the rain, so we’ve left some firewood in advance for times like this.”
Qi Wu was overjoyed: “Then we’re much obliged.”
The hunter waved it off: “It’s nothing. Living in the mountains is all about helping each other. Once the rain stops tomorrow, we’ll just gather some more firewood to it.”
Everyone quickly piled the firewood on the ground where a fire had been made before. Qi Wu lit a twig with a fire talisman and gently blew on it until the dry wood caught fire.
Watching the flames rise and feeling its warmth, someone sighed deeply.
“Finally, I feel alive again.”
“Qi Brother, would you like a yellow or white rice cake?”
“One of each?” frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
As someone distributed the dry food, they all toasted their rations by the fire. After bringing out the fragrance, Ah Yue produced a jar of pickles, spreading it on the cakes. Biting into it, the salty and savory taste filled their mouths.
“Ah Yue, your pickle-making skills are excellent. You should consider opening a pickle shop instead of following us merchants.”
Ah Yue just smiled, saying nothing.
Recalling the previous incident, Qi Wu asked, “Old Sun, why did you ask Ah Yue if someone pushed him down?”
Qi Wu and the others were first-time mountain trekkers aiming to cross to sell goods in Qinghuai County. After a long search, they finally found a local old hunter to guide them.
The hunter’s expression turned serious: “Have you ever heard of a vengeful ghost?”
Qi Wu and the others looked serious. Having traveled far and wide, they were aware of ghostly matters, and one of them even exclaimed, “You mean the vengeful ghost that assists tigers?”
The hunter nodded, speaking softly: “This mountain is called Song Mountain. About ten years ago, a hunter went hunting and vanished, leaving only a shoe behind. People then began saying a tiger demon had eaten him.”
“At first, people were reluctant to believe it, thinking how could a tiger demon appear where they had lived for generations?”
“But as time went on, someone said their hunting dog barked furiously at something, and when he looked in that direction, he was petrified.”
“It was a majestic tiger, four meters in length. The tiger leaped at the hunting dog, and he ran for his life, luckily escaping the tiger’s pursuit!”
“People also noticed others disappearing from time to time, so they reported it to Qinghuai County. The officials then sent me to Yanjiang County, arguing that since Song Mountain was closer to Yanjiang and we only sold our game there, it should fall under their jurisdiction.”
“In Yanjiang County, the officials claimed Song Mountain belonged to Qinghuai County.”
“After several back-and-forths, each side sent two monks to search for the tiger demon on Song Mountain. After ten days without finding a single tiger hair, the monks thought we were making fools of them, wasting their time. We tried explaining that the tiger demon might be hiding from them, but they left in a huff without listening.”
“We went back to the officials, but they ignored us.”
“Left with no choice, most people left Song Mountain to find other ways to live, leaving only a few of us old folks who knew nothing but hunting.”
“We later discovered that during hunts, we’d encounter those missing travelers. They would appear and disappear unpredictably, sometimes pushing us.”
“Sometimes when I led people into the mountains, these travelers would pretend to stumble upon us and ask to join, suggesting we were going the same way. How could I agree? I hurriedly led people away.”
“The elders used to say that the world contains vengeful ghosts, turned into such by the tiger demon after killing them, to help it find more prey, luring people to become new vengeful ghosts.’”
“But dealing with vengeful ghosts is straightforward; just refuse their requests, and they won’t harm you.”
Qi Wu suddenly realized why it was so hard to find hunters in such a vast forest; they were forced away by the tiger demon.
Seeing Ah Yue hesitating, Qi Wu encouraged him to ask anything.
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Ah Yue, feeling a bit embarrassed at first, decided to ask: “Do these vengeful ghost include female ghosts? Are they beautiful? Do they seduce men or drain their yang energy? Could I possibly start a forbidden romance, eluding the tiger demon’s pursuit and wandering the world with her?”
With each question Ah Yue asked, question marks popped up over everyone’s heads, including the old hunter’s.
Feeling embarrassed by the reaction, Ah Yue scratched his head: “I’ve read such stories in novels, like ‘A Chinese Ghost Story,’ where the love between a human and a ghost remains unfulfilled.”
After a moment of silence, Qi Wu patted Ah Yue’s shoulder: “Maybe read a little less.”
Then Qi Wu asked, “Old Sun, why not report this to the Five Great Immortal Sects? They uphold justice and surely wouldn’t ignore this.”
“The Five Great Immortal Sects?” The hunter looked puzzled, unfamiliar with the term.
“It refers to Dao Seeking Sect, Xuankong Temple, and three other major righteous sects, the most powerful on the continent.”
“I might have heard the name,” the hunter said uncertainly, unsure if it was from a teahouse at the mountain’s base, a passing traveler, or something he heard when younger or older.
He couldn’t remember.
In reality, the common folk knew little about cultivators, only finding the topic intriguing.
And stories passed down orally often distort easily, becoming quite different from the truth by the time they reach the common people, making them unreliable.
For instance, Qi Wu heard that Dao Seeking Sect’s name, meaning “inquiring about the Dao,” implies the vast and obscure path to immortality, where cultivation is also about cultivating the heart, constantly questioning one’s path, whether it’s righteous or demonic, and not losing one’s true self.
Once Qi Wu met a disciple from Dao Seeking Sect, named Dai Bufan, and asked him why it was called Dao Seeking Sect. Dai’s response is still clear in his memory.
“You ask about that? It involves our founding ancestor, Xiantian Daoist. To find a feng shui treasure land, he paid a hefty sum for someone from Heaven’s Mysteries Sect to calculate and locate it, finding a land blessed by all directions’ feng shui. He was told to establish the sect at a specific time and place for it to prosper.”
“However, our ancestor had a poor sense of direction. Despite markers, he got lost and had to ask a local farmer for directions, which led him to the sect’s location without delay.”
“To thank the farmer, he named the sect Dao Seeking Sect.” (TL Note: 道 or Dao The word for this concept, dao, indicates a “way” in the sense of a road or a path in cultivation. However, in this context, he was seeking the way to go to the sect’s location.)
(End of the chapter)