Upon hearing Ji Yuan’s request, the City God and his subordinate officers looked at each other, confused.

“This… Mr. Ji, what do you want these for?”

“Of course, it is for reference and practice! I am also someone seeking immortality and the Tao, but I have no method to follow. I hope the Lord City god can help me, I will remember this kindness!”

The request this time was different from the one last time in Ning’an County. Even though it had been accidental, Ji Yuan truly had helped a lot then.

This time, it was just a snake spirit with weak skills, and there had even been a little misunderstanding between both parties at the beginning. However, those who could become City Gods were all people of great virtue and in life, and they had accumulated merits from the power of incense,¹ so they would be magnanimous after a sincere apology.

Ji Yuan had done everything he could to be as sincere as possible. In his final analysis, he had helped a little, but whether his request would succeed depended on the other party. If not, he wouldn’t force it.

The City God of Suiyuan County and his subordinates were somewhat confused. This request was certainly not excessive. It was just some unimportant classics. However, they had subconsciously placed Ji Yuan in a high position, so they were naturally somewhat puzzled by his request.

‘Could it be that this person really lacks these spells? ’

Although this idea seemed a bit absurd, Ji Yuan’s request could indeed be met.

The City God of Suiyuan County looked at Ji Yuan carefully, and Ji Yuan did not shy away from his gaze. His lightless, ash-gray eyes were quiet and calm as an ancient well.

“Okay, we will do our best to fulfill Mr. Ji’s request. This county does not have any profound books on immortality, but we do have one volume each of the old compendiums “A Historical Account from Outside the Tao”² and “Bright Strategies,”³ which we can give to Mr. Ji!”

A Historical Account from Outside the Tao? Bright Strategies?

These were obviously terms made Ji Yuan grow excited. Although he didn’t know what they were, they weren’t at the very least the small fire control and water control techniques that he already had.

Being a local gods was both beneficial and burdensome. The City Gods especially, who relied heavily on incense and offerings, would rarely step outside of the place under their jurisdiction. Even if they had cultivated to a sufficiently high level, their own strength would be greatly reduced if they left, and if they were at a low level, it would be even more so.

For remote counties such as Ning’an and Suiyuan, it was already a pleasant surprise to receive such a harvest, as they were relatively isolated.

Just when Ji Yuan thought that he needed to follow the City God and his entourage back to Suiyuan County, the County’s City God actually took out two thick books from his sleeves, which stunned Ji Yuan. Did he always carry these with him?

“I happen to have A Historical Account from Outside the Tao and Bright Strategies with me, and I occasionally use them to relieve my boredom. Although they are not expensive, they are rare nowadays. I will give them to Mr. Ji today!”

The City God the books over to Ji Yuan, who quickly came to his senses and took them with both hands. The books felt a little cool to the touch, and Ji Yuan found that he could actually see the two titles, “A Historical Account from Outside the Tao” and “Bright Strategies,” on the blue background of the book cover. He suddenly felt that these books were not ordinary objects.

“Thank you, Lord City God, for the books!”

If one asked how Ji Yuan felt at this moment?

Thinking back to the high school days of his previous life, online novels had just become popular. There were many super thick, pirated books printed on A4 paper, each of which was amazing. Ji Yuan now felt the same as when he had gotten bored and picked up a new thick novel: excited and happy!

While expressing his gratitude, he couldn’t help but start to flip through the Historical Account from Outside the Tao. However, as soon as he opened it, he found that the slightly yellowed paper inside was completely blank, without a single character.

Even the books he had read before had words on them, even if they looked blurry. What was going on now?

After looking carefully once more, he saw a change in the book. The words gradually became visible, allowing Ji Yuan to read the contents clearly. He happened to see a line of small words: “Among the spirits of water and marshes, the most unpredictable are dragons and sea monsters. The evil ones flood hundreds of miles, while the good ones create clouds and rain…”

Ji Yuan couldn’t help but smile with joy, before suddenly realizing that this was not the time to read a book, so he hurriedly put the book back in his arms and thanked the City God of Suiyuan County again.

“Thank you Lord City God for gifting me this book. It is exactly what I needed. Thank you again!”

“Well, as long as you like it, sir, I wish you a very successful and pleasant journey. I shall take my leave!”

After saying this, the City God of Suiyuan County bowed. Just as Ji Yuan hurriedly returned the bow, the City God used his mystical powers as a god of the land to move away with his subordinate underworld officials.

Ji Yuan was left really confused. Although he had tried to conceal it, Ji Yuan had still noticed the subtle changes in the City God’s emotions. The main giveaway was that he had left a little abruptly. What was going on? What happened? Weren’t the two parties getting along well just now? He didn’t even know the name of this City God of Suiyuan County.

A gentle breeze blew past, ruffling Ji Yuan’s sleeves and hair. He scratched his head in confusion.

‘Uh… Could it be that the City God actually likes these two books? ’

Since Ji Yuan couldn’t figure it out, he decided to just give up on it. To be honest, he couldn’t bear to go back and return these books. At worst, he would just give him something in return later.

With this thought in mind, Ji Yuan turned to the first page behind the cover of the Historical Account from Outside the Tao.

There were words visible on the first page: this Historical Account from Outside the Tao is written in the Heavenly Script. Those who have profound achievements in the Tao can read it at a glance, those who are knowledgeable in mysticism can read it through meditation, those who are wise and fated to do so can occasionally see the words, but ordinary people have no chance of reading it.⁴

The corner of Ji Yuan’s mouth twitched. It was a misunderstanding, really, it was a misunderstanding… He must be that kind of wise and fated person, or else there was really something wrong with his eyes!

There really was no way to wash away this guilt. He supposed Suiyuan County’s City God thought to play a trick on him, and he generously departed.

‘I’ll explain it next time. Now… it’s not advisable to stay here for a too long! ’

Obviously, he had done nothing wrong, but he felt inexplicably guilty. Ji Yuan used his spiritual qi to generate wind under his feet, and once again turned into a green shadow as he flew out of Suiyuan County and away into the distance.

As Ji Yuan fled, the body of the City God of Suiyuan County reappeared behind a distant hill, frowning thoughtfully.

‘Who is this divine man, Ji Yuan? Can he truly not recognize the Heavenly Script?’

. . .

People would feel happy when good things happened; even though there were some misunderstandings in Suiyuan County before, once he had departed Suiyuan, Ji Yuan was left with only joy.

Instead of walking and resting, he ran for dozens of miles in one breath, and only slowed down when he was exhausted. He even deliberately ran to a more remote place, subconsciously wanting to find a quiet place to read his books.

The southern part of Ji Province was mostly hilly terrain, and it was not uncommon to see hills, slopes, small mountains, and cliffs.

There was a rock and soil slope in the distance, four or five zhang high⁵ and ten zhang long. There were gentle slopes to either side, with the highest point in the middle. The side facing Ji Yuan is was a large rock wall that sloped slightly outward.

Perhaps it was the magic of nature. The rock wall was naturally concave, with a large lentil-shaped hole. It was only a couple feet deep, but more than 50 zhang in width, and the ceiling was slightly lower than an ordinary person’s height.

“Hahaha… what a great place!”

Ji Yuan laughed and accelerated again, rushing forward impatiently.

When he arrived to at the bottom of the rock wall, he looked up and saw that, due to the wall’s angle of inclination, this place should provide good shelter from the rain.

He walked to the front end of the winding cave wall on the northern side and swung his arms vigorously. A strong wind pressure immediately swept away all the dust and gravel on the ground and rocks.

Putting the umbrella to one side and using his bag as a seat cushion, Ji Yuan sat directly down on the spot, and took out a copy of “A Historical Account from Outside the Tao” which he had been holding in his arms.

Ji Yuan was immediately fascinated by this book. Some of the contents overlapped with what he had learned from previous conversations with City God Song and the bamboo slips he had given him, but most of the information was new. Even if he had already known something, the book provided more details or pointed to some interesting stories.

Ji Yuan had already understood. This was not a serious secret method to cultivate immortality, but it was very interesting, the kind of fascination that led him to not being able to put the book down!

The sky changed from light to dark, from night to day, and before he realized, a whole day and night had passed. However, Ji Yuan was still full of energy. As the sun was rising, he activated the Transformation of Heaven and Earth to absorb spiritual energy, but he still did not take his eyes off of “A Historical Account from Outside the Tao.”

There wasn’t much text on each page, but the content was very rich. In some places, even the modern-minded Ji Yuan needed to ponder carefully what the author wanted to express. It seemed that the author wrtie it very casually. Many parts were interesting when read repeatedly from different perspectives.

Because of his experiences from his previous life, Ji Yuan had an extremely rich imagination. Even if some stories were only a short paragraph, because of their vivid descriptions and some small but magical illustrations that could be seen when he concentrated, Ji Yuan was willing to spend a long time to come up with the complete story in his mind.

Ji Yuan was so engrossed in reading that he forgot to eat and sleep. When he was really hungry, he just took a few jujubes from his bag to satisfy his hunger and quench his thirst. When he felt sleepy, he just took a nap. He was actually in good sprits, even though his body suffered. After a few days, he was covered in dust and dirt, and looked very filthy.

“Boom…”

Thunder sounded in the sky, interrupting Ji Yuan’s thoughts as he was immersed in the book. He looked into the distance something on his mind, and saw that dark clouds had blocked the sun.

He had happened to come across the saying that dragons⁶ brought the rain for good harvests, and was inspired to blurt out the quote:

“A good rain for Mangzhong!”⁷

1. Small reminder: “power of incense” is used to mean the power the City God gains when people pray to him (faith), as opposed to gods like RIver Gods who don’t have people pray to them, but they are representative of natural phenomena. ↩︎
2. 外 (wài): outside/foreign, 道 (dào): Dao, 传 (zhuàn): biography/historical narrative ↩︎
3. 通明 (tōngmíng): brightly lit, 策 (cè): policy/plan/scheme/bamboo slip/to encourage/imperial examination essay/stroke in calligraphy. This one was more difficult to decide on. If I find later on that my translation was incorrect I’ll come back and change what I decided on here. ↩︎
4. T/n: LOL RIP JY’s self-image ↩︎
5. 1 zhang (丈 zhàng) = ~10 chi = ~10 feet = ~3.3m. This mountain is about 40-50 feet tall. Depending on context I might change how I translate it, but the measurements will be kept accurate. ↩︎
6. Specifically referring to 蛟龙 (jiāo lóng), river dragons/flood dragons/scaled dragons ↩︎
7. From what I have read, there are a lot of proverbs relating to Mangzhong and rain, particularly with regards to the harvest. I’m not sure where this one comes from, if it comes from anything at all, but in general rain on Mangzhong determines weather patterns for the upcoming harvest season, which is super important ↩︎

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read