Originally, Ji Yuan wanted to leave before dawn. The reason he stayed a little longer was mainly because he was afraid that the City God of Suiyuan County would come looking for him. Secondly, he wanted to ask for directions. However, by dawn, no messenger from the county’s Yin Division had come, so Ji Yuan thought about it and decided not to stay any longer.

The situation this time was different from when he lived in Ning’an County. At that time, no matter how much people spread the rumors that he was a strange person, it was just gossip in private. It had little to do with the lives of the common people, so it just passed by as word on the street. But they could still meet him when he went out to eat, or something similar. It gave people the impression that he was still a living person.

This time, having directly fought the monster would leave a greater impact. Just look at the villagers’ reactions.

As for the snake demon, even if it hadn’t died, it must have been seriously injured. In addition, the various divisions under the Suiyuan County City God must have been prepared, so it shouldn’t be a big problem.

He directly pulled over a few merchants and asked them in detail how best to get to Chunhui Prefecture, where he should stop, and where he should turn. After asking his questions, he used the excuse of going back to the hut at the village entrance to take a nap, but in fact, after entering the house, he used sleight of hand to sneak away.

When the village chief came to invite Ji Yuan for lunch at noon, he found that there was no one there. He asked the villagers nearby, and they all said that they had not seen anything.

The real protagonist, Ji Yuan, had already left the village long ago.

According to the suggestions of the merchants, it would be better to continue in his current direction than to go back to Shunbao County. After passing through Deyuan, Qianzhou and Tangshu Counties, he would cross Laohua Mountain along Jiudaokou County. Following a river called Xiaoshun River, it would later merge into the Chunmu River, then he would follow the Chunmu River all the way to Chunhui Prefecture.¹

Of course, there were some small details and road signs in the middle, and the road would bypass some uninhabited placed. It sounded complicated, but Ji Yuan believed that the actual journey wouldn’t be too difficult, as he only needed to go straight in uninhabited places and at mountain streams. With a good sense of direction, he could find a suitable road in counties along the way, as long as he didn’t make the wrong turn. This was especially true in Jiudaokou County, since it was a major hub with a dense population, so it was difficult to miss it.²

On the side of the road heading northeast, Ji Yuan controlled his speed to that of an ordinary person jogging, but it appeared as if he were still walking. The only difference was that his stride was much larger than that of ordinary people. However, his feet remained very close to the ground, and the speed of his movements was correspondingly faster, so it did not feel like running or jumping, but instead like he was walking leisurely at a normal frequency.

In this state, with one step taking a distance of between one to five meters, it was easier for Ji Yuan to calculate the distance he had traveled, so he would not accidentally go too far. He would also be able to better allocate his energy and appreciate the beautiful scenery along the way.

After climbing over a hill, there was a small forest in front of him. However, from a distance, the shade of the trees over there seemed to be a little too dense, giving the illusion that it was pitch-dark.

Ji Yuan rubbed his eyes and looked carefully.

‘Oh, man…³

waiting for me here…’

The woods ahead of him were almost the border between Suiyuan County and Deyuan County. Under the shade of the trees, Suiyuan County’s City God and the two Chief Officials of the Rewards Division and Punishment Division stood there, along with several soul-catching messengers holding large black umbrellas and soul-binding chains. The chains were wrapped around a large snake demon soul.

Of course, Ji Yuan had certainly never seen the City God of Suiyuan County before, but generally the body of the City God was much taller than that of his subordinates, and his divine light was also conspicuous, so he was still very recognizable.

Looking at the way the snake demon’s soul is was bound and dazed, he was afraid it had suffered a lot. This situation was a bit delicate!

“Gulp…”

After gulping, Ji Yuan quickened his pace a little bit and headed towards the grove.

A little further away, the City God of Suiyuan County and several others had also seen Ji Yuan, and they all looked at each other with solemn expressions as he approached.

Ji Yuan still had some self-awareness. The situation last night was an emergency, but he wouldn’t be so stubborn as to ignore the underworld of an entire county.

So, right before he reached the appropriate distance from the grove, he already cupped his left hand in his right, raised his hands, and took a couple steps to get closer.

“My name is Ji Yuan. I greet the Lord City God of Suiyuan County all of his officials. Last night, the situation was urgent, and I was unable to pursue the snake, so I asked Suiyuan’s Yin Divisions for help. Sure enough, the snake demon has been killed. Thank you Lord City God and Yin Divisions, for cleaning up the mess for me!”

Ji Yuan thought that what he said was both sincere and polite, and it also conveyed the truth of what happened last night.

Sure enough, the expressions on the faces of the City God of Suiyuan County and the two Chief Officials suddenly softened quite a bit.

“So your name is Mr. Ji. A demon appeared in this county, and it almost succeeded. Thank you Mr. Ji for your help. Now the snake demon has been killed, and its soul is here. Mr. Ji, please take a look!”

The officials of Suiyuan County’s City God also bowed slightly to Ji Yuan as a courtesy, though their gaze often lingered on Ji Yuan’s eyes, as if he were truly blind.

As the saying went, ‘if someone respects me one foot, I will respect them one yard.’ It had always been the case since ancient times that people mostly exchanged respect and courtesy.

Ji Yuan’s words gave them enough face, and had also given Suiyuan County’s underworld a comfortable way out. The more false the words, “I was unable to pursue, so I asked Suiyuan’s Yin Divisions for help” were, the easier it was to put this delicate situation to rest. Even the Chief Official of the Punishment Division felt that he was sincere.⁴

“That’s right, Mr. Ji, please take a look. Is this the monster?”

The Chief Official of the Rewards Division waved his hand and several ghost messengers immediately carried the snake’s soul out.

“It was indeed this demon who, before dawn today, used illusions to deceive foreign merchants. I guessed that she had reached the critical point of a breakthrough and wanted to arouse his desires, which would help her achieve a fusion of yin and yang.”

“Hmph, Mr. Ji is absolutely right. It’s a pity that this evil creature had no foresight⁵ and ran into Mr. Ji’s sword.”

As he spoke, the Chief Official of the Punishment Division grabbed a soul-binding chain, pulled the snake demon’s soul closer, and pointed to its tail.

“Mr. Ji’s skills are superb. The patrol envoy mentioned that the fire on the snake’s tail was flowing nonstop, which is miraculous. It’s a really a pity that I didn’t get to see the beauty of this swordsmanship!”

Ji Yuan took a close look at the state of the snake demon’s soul, and gained a deeper understanding of the Vital Fire.⁶ This snake demon was not very skilled; not only would a more powerful one ignore his tricks, but Ji Yuan didn’t even dare go up against it.

But when the Chief Officer of the Punishment Division mentioned that he would have liked to have seen his wonderful method, Ji Yuan’s heart suddenly began racing.

“Your Excellency is too kind. I am just a countryman from the mountains. I have only practiced for a short time, and I don’t have any great skills. I just used a small fire control technique to ignite the Vital Fire, and used a sword stance that I learned from mortal martial arts swordsmanship to injure the snake demon by chance!”

“A small fire control technique? Mortal martial arts swordsmanship?”

Several officials of the Yin Divisions of Suiyuan County, including the City God of Suiyuan County, were slightly surprised. They did not doubt that mortal martial arts could defeat demons. In fact, those with truly superb martial arts skills had strong Qi and vitality, so ordinary ghosts and evil spirits could hardly take over. Even if it was a demon, as long as they didn’t encounter a powerful one, it was not impossible for them to kill it. What surprised them was the effect that Ji Yuan had achieved.

“That’s right, as the saying goes, the Fire of Vitality is endless. The sword moves that I comprehended were derived from a book left behind by a martial arts genius. It could be said that his skills were close to the Tao. The skills of the mortal world should not be underestimated, either!”

This was what Ji Yuan truly believed. He had always thought highly of the Sword Intent Inscription, which even surpassed the two cultivation bamboo slips he had obtained in the beginning, so he had always been looking forward to Mad Disciple Zuo’s true swordsmanship.

The City God and the two Chief Officials were silent for a moment, but in the end they didn’t fully believe his words.

“Mr. Ji’s fire control skills are amazing!”

“Since this matter has been resolved, I will not hinder Mr. Ji from continuing his journey. If you pass by Suiyuan again in the future, please don’t hesitate to ask if you need any help!”

After the City Gods poke, his subordinates from all the various divisions bowed a little bit once more. It seemed that they were ready to go back. Since everyone was happy, there was no point in putting on a show.

‘No! I still have to ask you for something!’

Ji Yuan had been a thick-skinned⁷ man in his two lives face, and at this moment he didn’t care about shame and quickly persuaded them to stay.

“Lord City God and all officials, please don’t leave yet. I do have an unwelcome request. Um, I wonder if your county underworld has any immortal books or spells. If it doesn’t violate any rules, could I take a look at them?”

After saying this, Ji Yuan seemed to have thought of something and hurriedly added a sentence.

“No matter how big or small, any books and spells would do!”

After speaking, Ji Yuan bowed once more with full sincerity.⁸ No matter whether it was the same water control technique or something similar, he would take it without shame!

T/n: If you’re interested, here’s a really cool educational video on the different kinds of traditional Chinese greetings/bows

1. T/n: all of a sudden I am incredibly thankful for Google Maps ↩︎
2. T/n: catch me and literally every single Chinese commenter laughing in the background because what got JY into the mess in the first place is that he doesn’t have a good sense of direction XD ↩︎
3. 好家伙 (hǎojiāhuo): my God! / oh boy! / oh man! ↩︎
4. To state it another way: the more powerful JY is, the more false his words “I was unable to finish the job” are, so the more it feels like he’s respecting the underworld by saying he called them for help. ↩︎
5. The actual phrase is “had no eyes” which more accurately means that they can’t tell when someone in front of them is important/is not self-aware/can’t tell beneficial things from detrimental things. I translated it to “has no foresight” since that’s what it most resembles in this case, while still saying somewhat accurate to the literal translation. ↩︎
6. 民生之火的 (Mínshēng zhī huǒ de): Literal translation “Fire of the People’s Livelihood.” I’m pretty sure it’s his fire technique’s name, but it’s a bit of an inelegant mouthful ↩︎
7. i.e. shameless ↩︎
8. Lit: ninety degrees. Apparently a 90 degree bow is RARELY EVER used because it’s just so overly deferential ↩︎

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read