[T/n: note on chapter title.]¹

After a moment of comprehension, Ji Yuan knew that his appearance and characteristics were likely only circulated among the upper echelons of the divine of Dazhen.

It had been spread among some of the higher-ranking city gods, land gods, river gods, and lake gods, who were closer to humanity and might also know of him. Other peopel who were more well-informed might at most know that there was a great man hidden in Dazhen who could “overturn the heavens with a sword.”

In fact, the longer he lived in this world and the more he learned, the more Ji Yuan grew to understand the relationships between the various paths in the world of cultivation. If one wished to think of it in simple terms, then it would indeed be quite simple; in more complicated terms, it grew very complex.² Although there was a certain degree of similarity or relation between them, in terms of their systems, they did not interfere with one another, nor was one path subordinate to another. It felt like they all had their own practice, each with a certain subtle tacit understanding.

Generally speaking, the world of cultivation was relatively lax. Even the city gods, who all shared the divine path and relied on the general trend of humanity’s destiny, were not actually subordinate to one another.

But this time, the Water and Land Assembly was being held by Emperor Yuan De of Dazhen against opposition.³ In addition to, on the surface, gathering the “famous talents” of Dazhen, privately, it also attracted some of the traditional cultivation powers of Dazhen to gather together, which was quite rare. These powers included the immortal sect represented by Yuhuai Mountain, the assembled righteous monsters led by the Dragon Lord, and the local gods, represented by those of the Capital Prefecture.

Regardless of the rumors of the incident at Tianji Pavilion, Dazhen was still the land where everyone had long been cultivating. If the state of humanity’s energy was too complicated, it would easily pollute their spiritual base; however, they would not tolerate the possibility of demons or outsiders causing trouble.

Ji Yuan happened to be the link that held them all together: it was no exaggeration to say that he was the leader of the assembled beings. With Mr. Ji’s current prestige in the upper echelons of Dazhen’s world of cultivation, he was the only one who had the ability to convince all parties — in other words, he was the only one who could dare get the cooperation of the Dragon Lord.

Because of this, Ji Yuan had not been idle at all in the month since he had left Master Yin’s mansion. Compared with his previous Buddhist lifestyle,⁴ he was much busier now, and more tired.

As the venue for the Water and Land Assembly, the Capital Prefecture was naturally the best spectator seat in Ji Yuan’s mind. In the end, he finally returned to the Capital Prefecture early. However, it would still at least be relatively quiet here before the Assembly began. After all, it would take time for the “experts” to make their way here.

On this day, the early morning sun cleared the clouds and mist. Ji Yuan walked through the city, with one hand behind his back, and the other holding a bamboo slip.

“Come on, can we continue?”

“Sir, have some tea, please drink, sir.”

“Bring the gentleman a stack of bean paste pastries and add it to my bill.”

“Okay!” ……

The sounds coming from a nearby teahouse made Ji Yuan slow his pace. It must be that someone was telling a story.

“Clap!”

The sound of the attention-stick meant that the storyteller had entered the right mindset.⁵

“Previously, I mentioned that General Huang had made many extraordinary achievements, and was finally appointed as a general by the emperor. He was only thirty-four years old at that time… Next came the battle in which General Huang became famous all around the world, known to history as ‘The Battle of Dong Mountain’! “

Hearing this, Ji Yuan stopped in his tracks. He remembered that he had also listened to the “The Legend of General Huang” in a teahouse in Juntian Prefecture, Yi Province. He happened to have overheard the first half at that time, but had missed the second half due to something else. Today, he accidentally overheard someone preparing to speak of the second half, which seemed to be quite the coincidence.⁶

Thus, Ji Yuan changed directions and entered the teahouse.

As soon as he arrived at the door, a tea specialist came out to greet him warmly.

“Ah, sir, please come in quickly. Welcome to our Qingye Building. Do you wish to go to the private private room upstairs, or…”

Ji Yuan said “shh…” and pointed to the storyteller’s table a ways away.

“I’ll just find an empty table downstairs, I’m here to listen to the story.”

“Ah, ah, ah, okay, sir, please follow me!”

The tea specialist also subconsciously lowered his voice, nodded, bent down, and extended a hand to invite him forwards. Then, he led the way, finally bringing Ji Yuan to a clean table by the window and near the door, and wiped the table down with a rag.

Ji Yuan ordered a plate of rice cakes, a plate of bean paste pastries, a plate of melon seeds, and a plate of dried apricots, plus a pot of good tea. He sat there, leisurely listening to the storyteller’s vivid and moving story.

“Ah! This is a nice place. You can smell aroma of food from both sides of the street, and you can see pedestrians from all sides.”

An aged voice with a slightly playful tone came from outside. The mere sound attracted Ji Yuan’s attention away from the story. Then, he saw two beggars, one old and one young, sitting in the opposite corner. The young beggar had already set up a broken pottery bowl.

“Grandpa Lu, there seems to be a blind man watching us from over at the teahouse…”

Hearing this, Ji Yuan couldn’t help but smile. Then, he saw the old beggar glancing at him out of the corner of his eyes. When their gaze met, Ji Yuan clearly saw that the old beggar was stunned for a moment.

Just as the old beggar was muttering something, Ji Yuan nodded at him with a smile.

Under such circumstances, the old beggar also understood that the other party had clearly seen through him.

The young beggar looked at the old beggar’s expression, one he had rarely seen, and then back at the gentleman in the direction of the teahouse.

“Grandpa Lu… Do you know him?”

“No…but I’ll get to know him soon.”

Sure enough, Ji Yuan called the tea specialist over, said a few words, put down a piece of silver, and stood up after the tea specialist nodded.

However, Ji Yuan didn’t think about inviting the two beggars to enter Qingye Building. Back when he himself had a sloppy appearance, entering the restaurant would affect their business. The two people outside were in a much more exaggeratedly bad state than he had been back then.

So Ji Yuan placed the teapot, snack plates, and other items on his table onto a stool, then held the stool with his right hand and picked up another stool with his left. Then he walked steadily out of the teahouse to the opposite street corner.

When he walked over, the two beggars, old and young, were looking at Ji Yuan, but the old one’s focus was still on Ji Yuan himself, while the younger one had shifted his focus to the stool in his right hand — or, to be precise, on the pastries.

Ji Yuan first placed the stool with the snacks, teapot, and teacups down firmly, then set down the stool in his left hand, which freed his hands up to bow with cupped hands to the old and young beggars.

“I am here to greet the two guests from afar. If you don’t mind, let’s have tea together.”

Ji Yuan pointed to the empty stool as he spoke, then added another sentence.

“Please help yourself to the refreshments. The bill has already been paid.”

The little beggar immediately looked at the old beggar with expectant eyes. The latter scratched his neck and stood up, and also bowed with cupped hands in a relaxed manner.

“My name is Lu Niansheng, and this child’s name is Lu Xiaoyou.”

Ji Yuan was surprised.

“Your grandson?”

“Hahaha… This kid used to have a name but no surname, so I just put ‘Lu’ in front of his name.”

As the old beggar spoke, he dusted off his butt, took a piece of pastry, and stuffed it into his mouth, then sat on the stool and spoke to the young beggar.

“Eat.”

“Okay!”

The little beggar cheered. He looked at Ji Yuan and bowed to him much more seriously than the old beggar had. Then, he sat on the other corner of the stool and stuffed several pieces of pastry into his mouth.

The old beggar’s pat on his butt raised a lot of dust, but Ji Yuan didn’t care. He sat down directly next to the old beggar, occupying the remaining half of the bench. He then turned over the three teacups on the tray, picked up the teapot, and poured three cups of tea one by one.

The first cup went to the little beggar, whose mouth was full of pastry.

“Don’t choke.”

“Mmm! Mmh, mph- hmmm…”

The young beggar took the teacup with both hands, almost swallowed the mouthful of pastry, then doused the rest of the cake in his mouth with tea before finally uttering “thank you.”

When the old beggar saw the flakes of mud and dust floating near the gentleman, the dust actually slid away by itself. His eyes opened slightly. Then, like Ji Yuan, he picked up the remaining cup of tea on the tray with a calm gaze.

“I thought that this so-called Water and Land Assembly would be attended by all manner of evil spirits, but I didn’t think that there would actually be a master present.”

Ji Yuan was certain that this old beggar was definitely not from Yuhuai Mountain, and he did not disguise the curiosity in his words.

The old beggar also took a big sip of tea, squinted his eyes and savored the taste, then nodded slightly at Ji Yuan’s words.

“Sir, this old beggar also feels the same way!”

Similarly, the old beggar also knew that Ji Yuan was definitely a human being but certainly not a cultivator from Yuhuai Mountain. This Mr. Ji did not have the “noble Qi” of an ordinary cultivator.

“So, old gentleman, are you here to participate in the Water and Land Assembly?”

Ji Yuan looked at the beggar. He did not appear to have any divine light or aura. If it weren’t for his special supernatural eyes that could see the hidden Taoist aura flowing around him, it would have been easy for him to overlook the man.

“So, Mr. Ji, are you not here to participate in the Assembly?”

The old beggar also looked at Ji Yuan.

“Of course I am not.”

Seeing that the old beggar didn’t reveal anything, Ji Yuan simply replied and drank his tea, listening attentively to the wonderful narration of the storyteller in the teahouse. The story was now at an exciting moment, and when the old beggar wanted to speak, Ji Yuan subconsciously raised his left hand to stop him.

Only when General Huang’s crucial battle in Dong Mountain came to an end did Ji Yuan finish the tea in his cup and pick up the teapot to refill his own and the beggar’s cups.

When Ji Yuan was listening to the story, the old beggar continued to observe him carefully. He found that this man was not pretending, but rather truly listening with great interest. He couldn’t help but become even more curious about Ji Yuan.

“Mr. Ji, are you also interested in this mundane story?”

Ji Yuan smiled.

“It contains all kinds of worldly affairs, full of fun and excitement. It’s beyond words.”

It sounded profound, but it was just fun to listen to when he was bored.

The young beggar ate the pastries as he listened to the two people talking. Although he was confused by most of what they were saying, he was enjoying it, and felt happy at heart. Ji Yuan and the old beggar chatted about random things. Although they both mentioned the Water and Land Assembly, they did not mention anything about demons and monsters.

Both parties understood that the other party was a practitioner on the righteous path, and their level of cultivation was definitely not low. It was fate that they had met by chance at this moment, so they spent their time together without asking about where they were coming from, and chatted without disturbing the peace and quiet.

Of the customers in the teahouse, the ever-enthusiastic tea specialist, and some passers-by on the street tea, many would subconsciously pay attention to this strange group of people — they were too conspicuous and unique.

In particular, the dirty old beggar and the gentle and elegant Ji Yuan sat on the same stool, but they seemed surprisingly harmonious. They each held a teacup, and looked very natural as they drank tea and chatted.

The shopkeeper of Qingye Building also looked over at the other side of the street through the door, and couldn’t help but remark in his mind.

‘Today, the current emperor announced to the world that a Water and Land Assembly will be held. It seems that many experts truly have gathered here…’

T/n: completely unrelated note, I came across a HILARIOUS YouTube video that absolutely encapsulates my translation experience: //www.youtube.com/shorts/PCAolGxccVU

1. 真是 (zhēnshi): indeed/truly, explicitly sarcastic
2. A very convoluted way to say “it’s as simple or complicated as you make it out to be,” i.e. there’s a lot of complicated relationships and you can gloss over it somewhat if you want, but be aware if you want to get into the details
3. 力排众议 (lìpáizhòngyì): idiom – “to stand one’s ground against the opinion of the masses.” Unclear whether that means “against all odds” or explicitly “against public opinion,” so I tried to choose a middle ground translation
4. A euphemistic way of saying relaxed/laid back
5. See ch. 96 footnote 6 for more details about the stick. It was translated differently there, but I still haven’t really made up my mind
6. See ch. 96 for the first half. (Quite a coincidence indeed…)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read