>>warning: violence/gore involving children
Hm... since his soul had been transported back in time, maybe his
cultivation had come along for the ride too?
Mo Ran recited an incantation and felt the spiritual energy in his
body rush forth. It was abundant, but not strong. That was to say, his
cultivation had not carried over.
No matter. He was smart and perceptive, and blessed with innate
talent; he could just cultivate all over again, it was no big deal.
Rebirth was a blessed event of unparalleled proportions, some small
imperfection was perfectly normal. Thinking so, Mo Ran quickly
rearranged his gloomy and fierce expression into one more
appropriate for a sixteen year old youth, and cheerfully headed back
toward his sect.
It was the midst of summer. Horse-drawn carriages sped past,
wheels rolling, and no one paid any attention to the sixteen year old
Mo Ran.
Only the occasional village woman, taking a break from tending the
fields and looking up to wipe her sweat, would notice this
exceptionally handsome youth and stare a bit.
Mo Ran returned the stares with a smile and no restraint, until those
married women blushed bright red and looked away.
Mo Ran arrived at Wuchang Town around evening. The town was
close to Sisheng Peak, the towering peaks in the distance framed by
clouds lit on fire by the blood-red sun. He touched his empty
stomach and headed into a restaurant. Glancing at the menu and
knocking on the counter, he placed a quick order. “Shopkeep, a
pounded chicken, a plate of beef tripe in chili sauce, two catties of
soju, and a plate of sliced beef.”
This area was a popular rest stop, and it was currently bustling with
activity. A storyteller was on the stage, shaking his fan and telling the
story of Sisheng Peak in an animated manner, spit flying
everywhere.
Mo Ran picked a private room by a window, and listened as he ate.
“As I’m sure everyone already knows, the cultivation world is divided
into the upper and lower cultivation regions. Today we’ll talk about
the greatest sect in the lower cultivation region, Sisheng Peak. Did
you know that a hundred years ago, our Wuchang Town was a poor
and desolate place due to its proximity to the entrance of the demon
realm? No one dared to go out after dark. If they really needed to
travel at night, then they had to shake an exorcism bell and sprinkle
incense ash and paper money while chanting, ‘people barred by
mountains, demons barred by paper’ while passing through as
quickly as they could. But these days, our town is bustling and
flourishing, no different from anywhere else, and it’s all thanks to
Sisheng Peak’s care. This righteous sect stands right at the gate to
the demon realm, between the boundary of yin and yang. Even
though the sect was only established not that long ago...”
Mo Ran had heard this history so many times that his ears had
damn near grown calluses, and so he started glancing around
outside the window instead. It just so happened that right then, there
was a stall set up below where several strangers from out of town,
dressed in cultivator garb, were carrying a cage covered with a black
cloth as they performed streetside tricks.
This was much more interesting than the storyteller’s tale.
Mo Ran’s attention was drawn over.
“Come one, come all! Take a look at these pixiu cubs, fierce mythical
beasts tamed by us to obediently perform tricks and even do math!
It’s not easy travelling to perform chivalrous deeds, everyone spare
some tips and stick around. Come watch the first trick——pixiu
abacus!”
The cultivators ripped off the black cloth with a flourish to reveal a
couple of human-faced, bear-bodied monsters in the cage.
Mo Ran: “..................”
Just meek fuzzy bear cubs like these?? And you actually dared claim
that they’re pixiu???
That was quite the bullshit right there, only donkey brains would
believe that.
But Mo Ran’s views were widened soon enough, as twenty, thirty
donkey brains gathered to watch, cheering and clapping, drawing the
attention of everyone in the restaurant as well, making things quite
awkward for the storyteller.
“The leader of Sisheng Peak right now is a man known far and wide
for his strength and brilliance——”
“Nice!! Again!!!”
Encouraged, the storyteller glanced toward the owner of the voice,
only to find a customer whose face glowed red with excitement, but
whose gaze was locked onto the street performers below, not on
himself.
“Oh? The pixiu is doing math on the abacus?”
“Wow, quite impressive!”
“Good show! Make the pixiu toss apples again!”
The entire restaurant was laughing, everyone gathered by the
windows to watch the scene below. The storyteller pathetically tried
to carry on: “The master is best known for that fan of his, he......”
“Ahahaha, that light-colored pixiu wants to eat the apple, look at it
rolling around on the ground!”
The storyteller wiped his face with a towel, his lips trembling from
anger.
Mo Ran pursed his lips and smiled, leisurely calling out from behind
the bead curtain, “Forget Sisheng Peak, tell a story from 《Eighteen
Caresses》 instead, I guarantee it’ll pull everyone’s attention back.”
The storyteller didn’t know that the person behind the curtain was the
young master of Sisheng Peak, Mo Ran himself, and gathered all the
moral integrity he had to stutter out, “V-vulgar stories are not f-fit for
an elegant hall.”
Mo Ran laughed. “You’re calling this place an elegant hall? How are
you not embarrassed.”
A burst of noise came from below.
“Ah! What a fast horse!”
“Must be a cultivator from Sisheng Peak!”
In the midst of the chatter, a black horse galloped from the direction
of Sisheng Peak and broke into the streetside circus like lightning!
There were two people on the horse, one wearing a black bamboo
hat and shrouded in a black cloak, covered so completely that it was
impossible to tell their age or gender. The other was a thirty or forty
year old woman, with rough hands and a weathered face.
The woman started crying as soon as she saw the man-bears. She
scrambled off the horse and stumbled toward them, kneeling to
embrace one of them in her arms, wailing, “My son!!! Oh, my son—”
The audience was stumped. Someone muttered while scratching his
head, “Eh? Aren’t these pixiu cubs? Why’s this woman calling it
son?”
“Maybe it’s a pixiu mother?”
“Aiyo, that’s quite something then, if the female can even take on a
human form.”
These villagers had no knowledge or experience, and were only
babbling nonsense, but Mo Ran figured it out immediately.
Rumor had it that some cultivators out there liked to abduct children,
rip their tongues out so that they couldn’t talk, burn their skin off with
boiling water, and then stick animal hides on their bloodied bodies so
that child and fur became one once the blood had congealed,
looking just like a monster. These children couldn’t speak or write,
and had no choice but to suffer the abuse and obediently perform
tricks like “pixiu abacus”; any resistance would only earn them a
beating.
No wonder he hadn’t sensed any demonic energy, these “pixiu”
weren’t monsters at all, but actually living humans......
While he was thinking to himself, the person in the black cloak
whispered something to the cultivators, who flew into a fury.
“Apologize? That ain’t in my vocabulary!” “So what if you’re from
Sisheng Peak?” “Mind your own damn business! Beat him up!” They
pounced on the black cloaked person for a beating.
“Aiyo.”
Watching his fellow disciple get beat up, Mo Ran only let out a low
chuckle. “How scary.”
He had zero intention of helping out. He’d always loathed the
righteous and meddlesome ways of his sect, even in the previous
life. The lot of them rushed to throw themselves at any trouble that
cropped up, like so many idiots. Even some minor inconvenience like
Mrs. Wang’s cat getting stuck in the tree was something to bother
them with. The entire sect, from the leader all the way down to the
servants, every last one of them was a dimwit.
There were so many unfair things in the world, what do you care? It
was enough to tire a person to death.
“They’re fighting, they’re fighting! Hoh! What a punch!”
Inside and outside the restaurant, everyone gathered to spectate.
“So many of you ganging up on one person, aren’t you ashamed!”
“Watch out behind you sir! Aiya! Too close! Wah——”
“Nice dodge!”
These people loved a good fight, but Mo Ran didn’t care to watch.
He’d seen plenty of blood-letting; the events currently unfolding were
like a fly’s buzzing to him. He lazily dusted peanut crumbs off his
clothes and got up to leave.
Downstairs, the cultivators and the black cloaked person were at a
stalemate, swords swishing. Mo Ran crossed his arms and leaned
against the restaurant’s door, took one glance and clicked his tongue
in annoyance.
What a disgrace.
Everyone from Sisheng Peak was a fierce fighter, each the equal of
ten men, but the black cloaked person was a pathetic fighter. Even
when dragged off the horse, surrounded and kicked, the person was
still holding back.
They only called out politely, “Honorable men speak with their
mouths, not their fists. I’m trying to reason with you, why won’t you
listen?!”
Cultivators: “..................”
Mo Ran: “........................”
The cultivators were thinking, the hell? This person’s already so
soundly thrashed and still preaching that nonsense? He must have
mantou for brains, empty inside?
But Mo Ran’s face changed abruptly, his head spinning for a second.
He held his breath, eyes wide with disbelief——that voice...
“Shi Mei!” Mo Ran shouted and rushed forward, agitated. He let
loose an attack filled with spiritual power that instantly knocked away
five of the jianghu cultivator swindlers, and knelt on the ground to
help up the black cloaked person who was covered in muddy boot
marks, and his voice couldn’t help but tremble slightly——
“Shi Mei, is that you?”
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