After Ji Yuan gazed at the starry sky for a while, he returned to his room in the temple to sleep.

The bed in his room was padded with straw and cotton, making it actually quite comfortable, particularly since the straw had been spread evenly and was quite fresh. However, it was best to change the straw in this kind of bed regularly.

He took of his shoes and undressed, then lay down on his side. The jade slip above his pillow had been replaced with another one, which read “Imperial Water Control.” This was definitely a more formal water control technique than even an immortal sect’s water control technique.

Around midnight, Ji Yuan opened his eyes from his sleep, hearing some noise outside the Taoist Temple.

The two Taoist priests in the room opposite were sleeping soundly. Ji Yuan stood up, got out of bed, and put on his coat. Then he opened the door and walked out.

The mountain breeze outside was cold. Ji Yuan jumped lightly onto the roof of the Taoist temple, right above the kitchen. His entire movement was silent.

The side of the temple kitchen was connected to the courtyard wall. The kitchen had two doors, one facing the courtyard, and the other facing the outside grounds. Two animals the size of kittens were rummaging around on the other side of the kitchen door, chewing on bone scraps and similar leftovers that had been temporarily placed there.

“Clack! Clack! Clack!.”

“Crack…”

“Grrr…”

The two animals would occasionally fight over something and let out threatening growls.

Ji Yuan sat down slowly on the roof of the kitchen, watching with great interest. His body repelled filth and was immaculate, and he let off no scent. He had also deliberately not made a sound, so as to prevent the two animals that were eating from being scared off.

Looking at their small bodies and fairly sharp teeth, with small slender heads and slightly larger tails, they didn’t quite resemble cats, at the very least.

‘Is this a weasel? Some kind of mountain ferret? Maybe some kind of marten! ’

Animals like jackals, tigers, leopards, foxes, and monkeys were easy to identify, so even Ji Yuan, with his poor eyesight, could easily recognize them. However, it was a little difficult for Ji Yuan to distinguish these two creatures clearly. Either way, they were definitely not cats, nor squirrels.

The only things the two little animals could fight over were some fish bones and vegetable scraps that had been soaked in the dregs of the fish soup. Ji Yuan and Ji Yuan and Qi Wen were relatively clean eaters, so it was impossible to expect for there to be any meat left.

Although these two small animals looked very smart, Ji Yuan couldn’t see anything special about them at present. After all, he had seen quite a few smart animals over his two lifetimes, and his current observation from the roof was just a matter of curiosity.

In the end, there weren’t that many bones or scraps. The two little animals scrambled to gnaw some of the smaller bones and lick the marrow from the spine of the fish. What was left were only the large bones that they could not eat.

But even so, the two small animals each still walked away with a bone in their mouths. He supposed it still tasted good, even if they couldn’t eat it.

Just when they had scampered about seven or eight feet away from the Taoist temple, a night owl¹

suddenly flapped its wings and swooped down from a nearby tree.

“Chiiik… chiiiiik…”

The two small animals on the ground sensed the danger and let out rapid cries. The night owl revealed its sharp claws.

“Creeeeee-“

With an animal scream, one of the small animals was caught by the night owl’s claws.

Then came the sound of flapping wings,² mixing with the cries of animals and the screech of the night owl.

Ji Yuan, still sitting on the roof of the Taoist temple, listened and watched. He heard everything sharply, but couldn’t see clearly. Nonetheless, he knew exactly what was happening; this was the way of survival for all living things.

In this situation, the other animal of the pair, which he suspected was a marten, should have fled immediately, but now it pounced on the owl, with fangs against claws. The owl’s beak curved like a sickle and its claws were like a knife, but the animal would fight with it to the death.

The night owl flapped his wings and tried to take off, but the other animal in its claws kept struggling, and even twisted around and bit the night owl’s leg.

“Hoooo-“

In pain, the night owl frantically flapped its wings, swung its sharp claws, and pecked a the marten under its feet with its pointed beak. In just a few stabs, the marten’s fur and flesh were ripped apart.

The other marten pounced on the night owl like mad and bit into its wing.

“Hoooo!”

Snap, snap, snap…

The night owl finally released its prey and flew away, flapping its wings unsteadily. The two little animals were also injured; the one that had been caught first looked to be dying. Even so, it still struggled to move its body, and tried its best to hide in a bush nearby. Ji Yuan knew that they had not left the area; either they were temporarily unable to leave, or they did not dare to leave.

Their reaction just now did not mean that the two little animals had gained enlightenment; there was a difference between animals’ spiritual intelligence, and their own mental and emotional intelligence. The word “spirit” as a qualifier represented the beginning of a more fundamental transformation.

However, it was undeniable that animals who had gained enlightenment had all evolved from similar beasts, ones who were smarter and richer in emotions.

Ji Yuan stood up and was about to turn around and leave, but he thought for a moment. He stretched out a hand, and a piece of fresh fish tail flew out from the kitchen, weighing about two or three catties.

He put a very weak strand of spiritual energy in the fish meat, then used a few straws he collected from the ground as a rope, pierced a hole in the tail, and threw it under the eaves.

As the fish tail fell from its arc, it caught on the wooden threshold of the kitchen’s outer door. It swayed there, and seemed on the edge of falling to the ground, but never did. After about the span of seven or eight breaths, the amplitude of its swing gradually weakened, it it stabilized in place.

The fish tail hung only about one foot above the ground, and the spiritual energy contained in side it was only a tiny wisp. Eating this meat would have a slight beneficial effect for injuries, and it would fill the stomach, but it would have no other effect.

By the time the fish tail had stopped swinging, the figure on the kitchen roof had disappeared. It was unclear whether the two little animals would have the courage to come back and take the the fish tail. It was even possible that the fish tail would be eaten by the night owl or other wild beasts.

‘If the fish tail is still there early tomorrow morning, let’s just cook it. ’

With this thought in mind, Ji Yuan returned to the house. Before he lay down, he suddenly thought of something else: he took out a crumpled piece of white paper from the bag beside his bed and exited the house again.

Then Ji Yuan moved as lightly as smoke, landing gently and pushing off of rocks as if merely splashing about in a mountain stream, and headed towards the top of Yanxia Peak.

The Green Vine Sword, which had originally been leaning against the bed in his room, sensed that Ji Yuan had left the Taoist temple and was climbing upwards. It immediately floated up, flew out the window, and chased after its master.

Cloud Mountain Temple was located above the start of Yanxia Peak, not at the top of the whole mountain. However, the Temple was nonetheless still high enough, and it only took the span of a dozen breaths for Ji Yuan to reach the top.

The space at the top of Yanxia Peak was about six or seven square zhang,³ with no rocks nor trees to block the view. In addition, the space was open to the sky all around, and the mountain wind was much stronger here than further down.

Sitting down cross-legged on a large flat rock, Ji Yuan took out the white paper from his sleeves and smoothed it out with both hands on either side of the paper, until it was flat again.

Using his left hand as a support and his right index fingers as a pen, Ji Yuan began to write on the white paper. Although there was no ink, there was spiritual energy woven into the strokes. It was a combination of the Edict and the technique of using objects to convey spiritual knowledge. Ji Yuan was quite good at this kind of minor experimentation.

After he had finished writing, he looked it over, and, just to be on the safe side, he injected some more fine and smooth spiritual energy into it, so that it covered the entire surface of the paper.

“Alright, the next step is to see whether my craftsmanship has deteriorated. It should be folded like this, right?”

Ji Yuan muttered to himself, and began to work on the white paper. After repeated attempts to fold it, the paper became wrinkled and flat. After several more tries, an exquisite paper crane appeared in his hands.

“Huh… not too bad, not too bad!”

He looked carefully at the paper crane, inspecting it from side to side, and finally felt at ease after repeatedly confirming its craftsmanship. Then Ji Yuan used his index finger, dipped it in some saliva from his tongue, and wrote a character on each of the crane’s wings: “flap” on the left,⁴ and “movement” on the right.

“That’s about it. Please have a safe trip.”

Ji Yuan’s words were not for the paper crane, but to the Green Vine Sword beside him. There was no way this little paper crane had the ability to fly across thousands of mountains and rivers.

Ji Yuan plucked another strand of his own long hair, wrapped it several times around the paper crane’s neck, and then tied it to the hilt of the Green Vine Sword.

“Go ahead.”

As soon as its master finished speaking, the Green Vine Sword immediately dragged the paper crane up into the high wind, protecting the crane’s body with its sword intent, then turned into a stream of light and flew away in the direction of the Capital Prefecture.

After watching the Green Vine Swrod leave, Ji Yuan did not return down the mountain, as he had not climbed up the mountain in the first place to send this letter; he could have simply done that in Cloud Mountain Temple. The main reason he had come here was to see the sunrise.

Even that paper crane had been made as a spur-of-the-moment experiment.

After waiting in the night breeze for half the night, the sky had already turned light, then a golden light appeared. A moment later, the entire Yun Mountain region resembled the scene of a sun rising over a sea of clouds…

Even disregarding the spiritual energy that gathered together from the clouds and the mist, Ji Yuan couldn’t help but open his eyes wide at this moment. It was the first time in his life that he had seen such beautiful scenery as this sunrise over a cloudy ocean.

. . .

It was already sunrise in Yun Mountain, but the sky was still dark over the Capital Prefecture.

The Green Vine Sword traveled thousands of li. It broke through the strong wind and fell from the sky above the Tongtian River in Ji Province, and hung precisely above the River Goddess Temple next to the Zhuangyuan Ferry.

The sword made a slight buzzing sound, and Ji Yuan’s long hair fell off from its hilt, and the whole strand wrapped itself around the paper crane’s neck.

After the paper crane fell freely and had been buffeted by the wind a few times, something magical happened.

The paper crane actually began to flap its wings, stabilizing its body that had been drifting in the wind, then flew on paper wings as it fell to the River Goddess Temple.

The Green Vine Sword waited in the air for a moment. When he saw the paper crane glide into the temple, it took off once more.

Inside the River Goddess Temple of the Tongtian River.

The paper crane flew like a silent bird, passing through the temple corridors and rooms, then finally entered the main hall of the temple through a ventilation window.

After flying around the statue of the River Goddess several times, the paper crane landed on the statue’s right hand. With a flash of light, it turned inert.

About a quarter of an hour later, a gentle woman in gorgeous clothes hurried over. The fact that the temple had not opened yet did not stop her. Finally, she pushed open the door to the main hall and walked in.

As soon as the Dragon Daughter entered the main hall, she raised her head. Her gaze focused on the right hand of her own statue. She stretched out a hand, and the paper crane flew over and landed in her palm.

As soon as the paper crane landed in the Dragon Daughter’s palm, it flapped its wings twice, which aroused the woman’s curiosity. She poked it twice, but the paper crane no longer moved.

“What kind of technique is this? It’s quite interesting. Is this hair Uncle Ji’s?”

As she subconsciously pulled off the hair from the paper crane, the paper crane in her hand activated its ability to convey information through spiritual energy, and relayed Ji Yuan’s letter to the Dragon Daughter Ying Ruoli.

The message had been conveyed, but the Dragon Daughter stared at the paper crane in disbelief for a long time afterwards. She inspected it on all sides, but it was just an ordinary piece of rice paper.

“No way… One piece of paper like this flew 6,000 li? This…”

T/n: editing this while rewatching the finale of Epic the Musical over and over again (~immediately starts singing~) sorry if there’s some typos, I was just VIBING-

1. Potential species, based on nocturnal owls that live in mountainous regions in China include the Eurasian Eagle-Owl and the Collared Scops Owl. I’m leaning towards the Collared Scops Owl because they tend to nest in temples on mountain-tops, whereas the Eurasian Eagle-Owl nests in rocks and crags. Although it’s not exact, the manhua seems to corroborate this
2. T/n: owls don’t make enough sound to hear when they fly…
3. 60-70 square feet / 19.8-23.1 square m
4. 扇 (shān): to fan/to slap on the face, OR 扇 (shàn): fan/sliding or hinged flap/door/window – I translate this as a flap, like a flapping bird’s wings.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read