Chapter 51: Past Events

Old Man Yao had lived his whole life, priding himself on having weathered many storms. Yet, he had never seen the technique of turning boiling water into ice.

From the rafters, the crow watched from a distance for a long time. Eventually, it couldn't resist flying down to the counter to examine it.

Dark Cloud tried to pounce on it, but the crow casually waved it away with its wing.

Old Man Yao looked up at Chen Ji. "How is this possible?"

Chen Ji was in a difficult position.

When the temperature of a saturated solution drops, its solubility decreases and crystals precipitate.

This was a very simple statement for him, but if he wanted to explain it to people of the Ning Dynasty, he would probably have to start from a very, very basic beginning.

Old Man Yao poked at the small crystal. How could a bowl of water, after being boiled repeatedly, turn into ice? Yet, it wasn't cold to the touch.

"Boy, what is this thing?" Old Man Yao asked, bewildered.

Chen Ji smiled. "It's exactly what you just called it: a formidable and imposing substance."

Old Man Yao became even more confused. "Where did you learn this alchemy? From Mount Huang or Mount Laojun? But those Taoists wouldn't pass on something like this... Could it be Mount Wuji or Mount Taiji?"

Chen Ji fell silent. He couldn't explain where he had learned it.

Old Man Yao scoffed. "Alright, don't tell me if you don't want to... I just want to ask you, how powerful is this thing?"

Chen Ji pondered for a moment, then cautiously replied, "...It's not finished yet. If it were, destroying a building shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Old Man Yao stroked his beard, seemingly choosing his words carefully as he advised. "Although our lineage is also called 'Dragon Devourers,' we must proceed slowly and not be too hasty. Once you learn medicine, many officials will invite you to their homes for consultations when they are on their deathbeds. You must avoid seeking quick success and rash advancement; remember that greed often leads to loss."

Chen Ji understood. His master was worried he would lose his mind and use this substance to murder Ning Dynasty officials to gain 'ice flow.'

He quickly said, "Master, I'm not doing this to accelerate my cultivation; it's for self-preservation."

"Oh..." Old Man Yao nodded. He lay back on his bamboo chair. "Alright then, carry on."

In the main hall, the old man relaxed in his reclining chair, the young man worked with his sleeves rolled up, and the crow and the cat chased and played. All was quiet and peaceful.

Chen Ji suddenly spoke. "Master, thank you."

"Thank me?" Old Man Yao raised an eyebrow. "Did paying me six taels of silver make you soft in the head? Don't start acting like a madman in the middle of the night. Money in my hands doesn't get returned, so don't play the sentiment card."

Chen Ji asked with a smile, "Master, 'Heaven and Earth were chaotic, yin and yang began to intertwine with difficulty, movement in peril, Water over Thunder: Tun Hexagram.' How exactly should this divination be interpreted?"

This was the divination Old Man Yao had performed before Chen Ji went to Wanxing Garden.

Old Man Yao lay in his bamboo chair, swaying gently with his eyes closed. After a long while, he spoke. "In desperation, new opportunities emerge. Those who receive this hexagram will find life in death."

Chen Ji nodded. "So, that night at Wanxing Garden, it wasn't because you were afraid of danger; it was because your divination revealed that you would gain ice flow from that trip."

Old Man Yao did not reply.

Chen Ji continued, "You said danger was to be avoided, but that night at Zhou Chengyi's mansion, you still came to save me."

Moreover, this master was cold on the outside but warm-hearted. If he truly didn't care and kept aloof, how could he have allowed Liang Gou'er to live in the medical hall and teach him swordsmanship?

The medical hall was quiet and serene. The crow watched Chen Ji silently, its eyes seeming to hold approval.

But Old Man Yao spoke. "These are all just your wild guesses. Don't spend all your time daydreaming at such a young age."

Chen Ji said earnestly, "No matter what you say, I still thank you."

"What is there to thank me for? Just don't hate me later, that's enough," Old Man Yao said, his voice tinged with weariness.

"Hate you?"

Old Man Yao chuckled. "Do you think it's a good thing that I've given you access to this cultivation path? When people are young, they all think that as long as they possess abilities beyond the mundane, they can become great heroes in this world. But what do you think this cultivation path really is? It's a curse and a cage that traps all practitioners in the world."

Chen Ji remained silent.

Old Man Yao sighed with emotion. "Once you have a cultivation path, masters must guard against apprentices, fathers against sons, brothers against brothers; a perfectly good family can be torn apart. Do you think Liang Gou'er is happy? If he were happy, he wouldn't need to drink so much... Furthermore, what you should be worrying about now is what to do if you encounter other practitioners of the 'Mountain Monarch' path."

Chen Ji muttered quietly, "You didn't even mention killing them all off before passing it on to me, leaving me with these lingering issues..."

Old Man Yao glared. "Are you blaming me for this now? What then? Give me a hundred thousand taels of silver right now, and I'll go kill him for you!"

Chen Ji changed the subject. "How many Mountain Monarchs do you think are still out there?"

Old Man Yao mused. "How many burners can you light with one ginseng now?"

"Two."

Old Man Yao said airily, his eyes closed in the reclining chair, "This is easy to calculate. Before you became a Mountain Monarch, I could light three burners with one ginseng... So, there should only be one Mountain Monarch left outside. After I die, you'll be able to light three burners with one ginseng. If you kill the other Mountain Monarch as well, you'll be able to light six burners with one ginseng. Are you tempted?"

So, the impact of changes in the number of practitioners on cultivation was this direct.

As he thought of this, Old Man Yao slowly sat up, looking at Chen Ji with a mix of surprise and uncertainty. "You're not making this formidable and imposing substance to use against me, are you?!"

Chen Ji didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What are you thinking, Master? I definitely wouldn't betray you, don't worry."

Old Man Yao gave an noncommittal answer. "One's heart is hidden behind a belly; only you know what you're thinking."

Chen Ji leaned against the counter, purifying saltpeter while pondering. His master was actually far less indifferent than he appeared. But no matter who tried to get close, he would actively keep them at a distance.

"Master, did you personally..." Chen Ji stopped mid-sentence, unsure if he should ask.

Old Man Yao calmly replied, "You want to ask if I personally killed my own son? Yes. You've been holding that question in for a long time, haven't you? Finally couldn't resist asking."

"Why did you kill him?"

Old Man Yao let out a grim, cold laugh. "Because I felt he was hindering my cultivation progress. Although imperial physicians don't rely on their official salaries, they can still collect hundreds of taels of silver annually just from the consultation fees of high-ranking officials and nobles. But how could that keep up with the expenses of the Mountain Monarch path, which burns through money so quickly? With one less fellow practitioner, naturally, less money is spent. So, I personally killed him."

Chen Ji had just finished purifying all the saltpeter. He picked up a cloth, wiped his hands, and casually tossed it onto the counter. "You don't need to scare me. If you were that kind of person, you wouldn't have passed the lineage on to him so early."

Old Man Yao closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time. "In my life, I've had no wife, no sons, no daughters. In the twelfth month of the fourteenth year of Zhengde, I was walking home after finishing my duties at the Imperial Medical Academy when a heavy snow began to fall. I saw a small beggar boy collapsed from the cold under the eaves. At that time, I was still kind-hearted, so I went home, boiled a bowl of hot ginger soup, and brought it out to him."

"The little beggar boy woke up and begged me to take him in. I asked him how he had become a beggar. He said his parents died during corvée labor, and his aunt and uncle had driven him out of their home."

"At the time, I wasn't married, and taking in a beggar boy seemed strange, so I hesitated. I was just beginning to learn divination then, and I divined ten times, each result being the worst possible. But I thought it must be due to my inexperience, so I didn't believe it. Ultimately, I decided to take a chance on fate and asked for his birth date and time."

"'Born in the fourth year of Zhengde, on the twelfth day of the twelfth month, at the third quarter of the Ox Hour at night,'" Old Man Yao seemed to muse, "—'It was such a coincidence that he was born exactly at the time of the Mountain Monarch lineage's transmission. I thought then that this must be a destined connection from heaven, so I raised him as my son.'"

By this time, Chen Ji had stopped what he was doing. He sat cross-legged on the floor beside the rocking chair, listening quietly. Dark Cloud perched on his shoulder.

Old Man Yao continued slowly. "I had no intention of pursuing the Great Dao of Immortality. So, I passed on the Mountain Monarch path to him early, when he was sixteen. I remember the first stream of 'dragon qi' he absorbed came from Supervisor Yang of the Ministry of Works."

"The child was very intelligent, quickly grasping anything he learned, and picked up excellent medical skills from me. There were many high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital, so when I was too busy, I would send him to treat patients. However, I gradually realized that none of the critically ill officials and nobles he treated ever recovered. I began to have doubts and visited their homes at night to investigate... Censor Liu of the Censorate, who had emphysema, clearly could have been cured, but he prescribed a poisonous formula."

"He was too clever; so clever that he thoroughly understood pharmacology. Even if he prescribed conflicting poisonous remedies, other doctors wouldn't notice. People, once they get too clever, tend to take shortcuts..."

"I reprimanded him and made him kneel in the snow for three days and three nights. At the time, he knelt, crying and admitting his mistakes. I thought he was genuinely remorseful, so I didn't send him to Dali Temple Yamen. But that moment of softness led to an enormous mistake."

"In the year that followed, his actions became even more secretive. He even secretly poisoned my food; my first crow was killed by his poison."

After speaking, Old Man Yao looked at the crow in the medical hall. "The first one accompanied me for twenty-one years. This is the second one; it has been with me for fifty-three years."

The crow flapped its wings and landed on Old Man Yao's shoulder. It gently preened Old Man Yao's white hair with its beak. Dark Cloud also jumped onto the armrest of the reclining chair and gently patted Old Man Yao's hand with its furry paw.

Chen Ji asked curiously, "What happened after that, after you were poisoned?"

Old Man Yao shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it anymore. I'm tired."

Old Man Yao didn't say what happened after he was poisoned, nor did he say exactly how he killed his adopted son. It seemed he was still hiding other secrets.

Chen Ji suddenly recalled that night he left Zhou Mansion, Old Man Yao had divined to avoid the little beggar boy. It was actually the heavy snow in the twelfth month of the fourteenth year of Zhengde that had chilled the old man's heart to the core.

It seemed that all the passion and kindness in this world would always turn into a sigh.

Old Man Yao opened his eyes and looked at Chen Ji. In his calm, weary eyes, he seemed to be looking at another person through Chen Ji, or perhaps at his past self.

Old Man Yao slowly got up and went back into the house. "Don't worry, I won't hinder you for too long. There's no need for master-disciple affection between us, either."

Once Old Man Yao disappeared through the main house door, Dark Cloud meowed. "He's afraid you'll be the next beggar boy."

Chen Ji hummed in acknowledgment. "I won't be."

Old Man Yao had brought him to the vicinity of Prince Jing's Estate. He had carefully arranged for him to collect ice flow, and he had taken in Liang Gou'er to teach him sword techniques. Regardless of Old Man Yao's attitude, Chen Ji would not forget what he had done for him.

Wait.

Yun Yang had said Old Man Yao was highly respected at the Imperial Medical Academy in the capital. Yet he had suddenly chosen to come to Luocheng and live next to Prince Jing's Estate...

Prince Jing's Estate?!

Chen Ji suddenly realized something: According to his inference, Old Man Yao wanted to find another disciple before his death to pass on the Mountain Monarch path.

But how could he make his disciple grow quickly? He would need to quickly acquire ice flow.

If it were anyone else, they would simply have to rely on luck and wait for high-ranking officials and nobles to die.

But Old Man Yao was skilled in divination. He could naturally calculate precisely where disasters would occur and where ice flow could be absorbed!

Old Man Yao suddenly resigned his post and came to Luocheng. It must be that he had divined a great catastrophe was about to befall Prince Jing's Estate!