Mother Yin entered the courtyard first to check on her husband, and found that his cheeks were red, and he was sleeping soundly on his stomach. Then, she looked around the yard, but saw no one else.

“Qing’er, didn’t you say that a scary old gentleman got your father drunk and then left?”¹

Yin Qing also looked around, then ran to the courtyard gate to look outside, but he didn’t see anyone.

“Maybe he’s gone…”

Mother Yin touched her husband’s face and found it a little hot, but she couldn’t smell alcohol.

“Qing’er, come over and help your mother. Let’s take your father back home to sleep. How much wine did your father drink?”

“Not much. I saw Dad pass out after drinking one glass.”

Yin Qing rushed back from the courtyard gate. Just as she was about to help his mother pick up his father, he suddenly remembered the old man’s words, and hurriedly stopped his mother.

“No, no, the old gentleman said that Dad should sleep here tonight. Let’s not move him, let him sleep!”

Yin Qing already began covering his father with the blanket as he spoke. He carefully tucked the ends of the blanket that were hanging around his father’s chest, and tied a knot.

Mother Yin looked at him strangely.

“How could that be? Your father might catch a cold if he sleeps here. He’s going to take the exam soon, we can’t let his trip be delayed due to illness!”

“Mother! That old gentleman…”

Yin Qing looked around guiltily as he spoke, then walked over to his mother side and whispered in her ear:

“That old man is Mr. Ji’s friend, maybe… he might not be mortal, it would be better to listen to him!”

When Mother Yin heard his words, her hand stopped moving.

Ji Yuan was a strange man. In Ning’an County two or three years ago his oddity had been an exaggerated topic of gossip for the other villagers and their neighbors to talk about after a meal. However, for the Yin family, this statement was an affirmation.

Today, three years later, not many people in Ning’an County still mentioned Mr. Ji. Perhaps only Old Man Sun from Sun Ji Noodle Stand would mention him when he occasionally crossed paths with Yin Zhaoxian.

But the Yin family would never forget Ji Yuan. So, after hearing what her son had said, Mother Yin thought about it for a moment, and ultimately gave up her plan to bring her husband home to sleep.

“Then, we just let your father sleep here for one night?”

“Yes, mother, don’t worry. I’ll get up a couple times at night to check on Dad!”

When Mother Yin heard her son’s words, she reached out and poked him on the head, then put her hands on her hips.

“What do you mean by waking up several times at night? Your father is drunk, so it’s inevitable that he will feel uncomfortable at night. You can bring over some tea and watch over your father in the first half of the night, and I will take your place in the second half. Understood?”

Yin Qing rubbed his forehead and replied weakly, “Okay.”

He felt somehow that his mother loved his father more right now.

In the second half of the night, this feeling of Yin Qing’s became even stronger. He slept for a while, until he heard the night watchman ringing the third gong, but his mother still hadn’t come.

Although it wasn’t autumn yet, and the weather wasn’t too cold, it was still uncomfortable to sleep at the table in the courtyard. Yin Qing had no choice but to pour himself a cup of tea and drink a few sips as he waited for his mother to arrive. However, his mother didn’t arrive until the night watchman struck the fourth gong, hurrying over late with an apologetic look on her face…

At dawn the next day.

“Cooo, coo-coo, cooo!”

Yin Zhaoxian opened his eyes naturally the moment the first rooster crowed in Tian Niu Lane.

He felt a blanket covering his body. He turned his head to the side and found that his wife was also covered with a blanket, lying beside him. Yin Zhaoxian looked around in confusion. He was still in the courtyard of Ju’an Pavilion, and there were some cups and a teapot on the stone table.

“That’s strange…why was I sleeping here?”

After thinking about it carefully, Yin Zhaoxian remembered what happened yesterday. There was an unusual old gentleman who claimed to be Mr. Ji’s friend. He not only swallowed half of the fruit from the jujube tree in one gulp, but also invited him to drink a glass of wine together. He had no memory of what happened afterwards.

Yin Zhaoxian looked up above his head and saw that the jujube tree was indeed missing half of its fruits. It seemed that it wasn’t a dream.

‘Could it be that I only drank one glass before passing out? ’

Just as he was pondering this, Yin Zhaoxian suddenly realized that something was wrong on the jujube tree.

“Huh? Why is a small part of this jujube red?”

He noticed that a few of the jujubes on the branches had turned red. It caught his eye among the green leaves of the tree, but he just looked at them and didn’t think much about it for the time being.

Yin Zhaoxian rubbed his forehead, but he didn’t feel any hangover or headache. He looked at his wife again; she had probably been with him for the whole night. He felt touched, and a warmth was in his heart.

He wanted to wake her up, but although the roosters were already crowing, it was still just barely daybreak. He couldn’t bear to disturb his wife.

Yin Zhaoxian took off his blanket and placed it on the stone table, then stood up and stretched his legs. He did not feel any pain after having slept sitting down for a whole night. Instead, he felt refreshed!

‘We will set off tomorrow! ’

. . .

Another autumn wind passed through. The rice fields had already turned golden, and deep in the mountains and clouds, fruits hung on the branches, and the maple leaves had already turned red.

In the territory of Juntian Prefecture in Yi Province, on a low peak deep in Junyuan Mountain, there was a cave more than two zhang deep. Inside this cave, a ragged and skinny man sat motionless, his eyes staring at the chessboard in front of him.

“Clatter…”

A white porcelain chess piece fell and shattered into broken pieces at his fingertips. The figure’s body shook, and finally woke up.

“Hum… hum…”

The Green Vine Sword leaning on the outside of the cave was so excited that it gave off a ringing sound, and its entire sword body and scabbard trembled non-stop.

“Hooh…”

Ji Yuan opened his mouth, but couldn’t make a sound. His dry throat could only give a hoarse exhale.

In his blurred vision, he could see the fallen leaves and dead branches beside him, and sense the feces of mountain animals, the sound of autumn wind blowing through the forest, the noise of flowing water from the mountain spring, the scent of ripe and unripe fruit…

The moment he awoke, Ji Yuan tried his best to empty his mind and controlled himself not to think about any superfluous things. There was only one thing he had to do, and that was to eat and drink water!

“Hooh…hooh…”

Ji Yuan braced himself against the cave wall and stood up shakily. He staggered out of the cave. With a sharp sound, the Green Vine Sword floated up and followed closely behind him.

Following the scent of fruit, Ji Yuan came to a wild persimmon tree. He looked up and saw that everything was blurry. He stretched out his hand to grab it, but couldn’t reach it. Instead, his body shook and he almost fell.

“Shwing-!”

A long chime rang out, and the Green Vine Sword was unsheathed for the first time in three years. The whole mountain seemed to be covered in a glow. A streak of light flashed, and the fruits of the wild persimmon tree fell from the branches like rain.

Ji Yuan knelt down and picked up the fruit on the ground, trembling. This wild persimmon was not much bigger than a jujube, and its yellow color with a hint of red was particularly attractive.

However, Ji Yuan didn’t care about anything of this. He picked each fruit one by one and put them into his mouth without even washing or wiping them off, not even spitting out the seeds. He chewed them roughly and swallowed, eating faster and faster. His hands and mouth were covered in juice.

More than a quarter of an hour later, all the fallen fruits had been eaten, but Ji Yuan did not stop. He continued to search frantically in the mountains. As long as the fruit was edible, he ate it. Finally, he came to a mountain stream and collapsed down beside it with a “plop.”

Ji Yuan buried his head in the stream.

“Gulp…gulp…gulp…gulp….”

He drank until his stomach swelled, then let it shrink, then swelled again. He had no idea how much water he drank in one breath. He didn’t even let go of the small fish, shrimp, crabs, loaches, or other creatures in the stream, and swallowed them all…

“Crash…”

Ji Yuan, with disheveled hair, raised his head and lay on the wet rocks, his body wet and gasping for breath.

“Hoo… hooh… hooh… hooh…”

After lying down for another half an hour, Ji Yuan, who had recovered a little, sat up.

He raised his hand and looked at his palms and fingers. They were originally as thin as his bones, but now they looked much better.² He didn’t know how many wild fruits he had consumed, or how much water he had drunk in the past half day. He only knew that all of his previous actions were driven purely by the instinct to protect himself.

The time he had spent playing chess was far beyond Ji Yuan’s expectations. Although he didn’t know exactly how long it had been, it was definitely not a short period of time. However, his consciousness was still deeply shaken, and he was no longer in a completely clear and rational state of mind.

Just like how he had started playing chess with a muddle-headed obsession, Ji Yuan imitated that same feeling the moment he woke up. With his absolute willpower, he cleared out all other thoughts, and only retained the instinct to find food.

This was because Ji Yuan understood his level of cultivation very clearly. It would be okay for him not to eat or drink for a few months, but if it lasted longer, then his life would be in danger.

In his previous life, when he had just exited the clearing with the chessboard, he met a search and rescue team and discovered that he would immediately die if the time elapsed was revealed. This reminded Ji Yuan more than once of the “Yuanyang Method” mentioned by Old Man Xu in Shanghegou Village of Suiyuan County.³

Right upon waking up, he might be in a similar state to the tale of “Bi Gan of the dug-out heart.”⁴

Ji Yuan didn’t dare take the risk. He didn’t dare allow himself to guess how much time had passed, and he didn’t dare let himself encounter people and be exposed, at least not until his body was replenished.

Otherwise, it was very likely that the “Yuanyang Method” would be broken, and the condemned individual would be “woken up” in one go, resulting in his death!

But now, it was all right.

Ji Yuan eased his breathing and laughed at himself. At first, it was only a slight smirk, but then his smile grew bigger and bigger, until at last he was laughing like a lunatic.

“He…hehehe… hehehehe, haha, hah, hahaha… ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha—“

Rumble… rumble… rumble… The laughter shook the ground in the whole area, and all the birds and animals in the mountains and forests fled in a panic…

1. T/n: PFFFFT– I mean he’s not wrong but the way he said it I’m whEEEEZING–
2. T/n: Pretty sure recovery after starvation doesn’t work like that but we’ll chalk it up to cultivator stuff.
3. Refer to chapter 57
4. Bi Gan was a Shang Dynasty Prime minister, best known for standing up to the incredibly corrupt King Zhou even when that meant his execution. According to legend, his heart was dug out and offered to the emperor, but kept beating with the aid of a talisman. However, someone asked how a man could live without a heart, and upon realizing that he was already dead, he died.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read