[T/n note on chapter title]¹

Not long after the seven people left with the carriage and their two horses, the old man who was sitting quietly spoke.

“Sir, you have read A Historical Account from Outside the Tao. What is your opinion of this book?”

Opinion? Ji Yuan’s first reaction was naturally that it was interesting and informative, but it was inappropriate to say that.² Additionally, although the book was good, it was still quite awkward in some places.

When he looked down, he happened to re-read a part of the record of the water monsters that he had come across once before. Presumably, the old man must have caught a glimpse of it as well.

When he thought about the content of the book, the most striking part was the author’s deep hatred towards monsters.

Take the dragons, for example. There was nothing wrong with them in and of themselves, but the content relating to the great dragons causing floods indeed suggested that it was these dragons that brought disaster to the people, and that they were evil went without saying.

However, the book appeared to describe the beneficial actions of dragons and other creatures in controlling the clouds and rain as “good.” But once a mistake occurred in their control, such as a small dragon losing its balance in the clouds and swinging its tail to create a tornado that collapsed some houses, then the feeling of “demons will always be monsters” was clearly obvious when reading between the lines.

And this was only a small section of the book; there were many similarities throughout. To use the words of his previous life, the author lacked a certain degree of objectivity.

Under normal circumstances, this didn’t actually affect whether or not a book was good. Hadn’t Ji Yuan read it for such a long time without sleep or food? But now that someone asked about it, he could feel a sense of awkwardness in this book.

Judging from the old gentleman’s appearance, he seemed reasonable. If he were an immortal or god, it would be easy to talk about it. Even if he were a demon or a ghost, Ji Yuan felt that it would sound better if he mentioned the awkwardness. So, after a little hesitation, he spoke bluntly.

“I have only just obtained the book A Historical Account from Outside the Tao, but I was fascinated by it and couldn’t put it down. A good book is naturally a good book…”

Speaking these words of praise, Ji Yuan looked at the old man, who hadn’t reacted at all, and the conversation changed.

“However, there are so many flaws in this book that it is regrettable!”

“I wonder what these flaws might be?”

Ji Yuan narrowed his eyes, sat up straight from his lazy position, put the book on his knees, and straightened his clothes. This series of actions showed that what he was about to say was not a joke.

“This book is wonderful, but it is also full of prejudice. As the saying goes, do not do onto others what you do not want done to yourself. How can the author of this book not understand this truth that ordinary people can comprehend? The narrative in this book around spirits and monsters is biased, it really is a pity!”

“Oh?”

The old man’s eyes lit up. He straightened his back from his relaxed position leaning against the stone wall, and sat upright facing Ji Yuan.

“Can you elaborate, sir?”

“Haha, why not? Could it be that this old gentleman is the one who wrote the book, so he would beat me up for saying so?”

Ji Yuan’s humorous question also amused the old man.

“Of course not.”

“Then I feel more relieved, so I’ll just say it straight.”

“Haha, sir, you can speak as you please!”

Seeing that the old man was in a good mood, Ji Yuan also relaxed and his face became solemn.

“It is true that many plants, animals, mountain spirits, and monsters do harmful things to people, so it is absolutely not advisable to generalize. In the book, Wang Lang saves a cat demon, and the cat demon transforms into a human to marry Wang Lang. Later, a rich man is attracted to her beauty and harms Wang Lang, which eventually leads to the destruction of the Wang family. The cat monster then kills the rich man and his family to avenge Wang Lang.³ The whole story has thousands of words, and though the last two hundred briefly mention the evil of human hearts, the more powerful connotation is that demons are the ones who harm people!

“I really don’t like it!”

Without waiting for the old man to speak, Ji Yuan opened the book and turned to the page on water monsters.

“Here it says that half of the the land of the Country of Qianqiu has experienced successive years of severe drought. The author of this book said that this was destined by heaven. The people of the country went to the Xudong River every month to sacrifice livestock and pray for rain. A dragon who had been receiving the sacrifices for a long time wanted to make wind and rain against the will of heaven. Later, he was entangled in catastrophe. The author of the book only concluded that monsters cannot be civilized!

“Hahaha…”

Ji Yuan sneered a few times and did not express any direct opinions, but the sarcasm expressed in his laughter was was extremely clear.

“There are many books like these that accept no moral principles except for the way of immortality. How ridiculous!”

Having said his piece, Ji Yuan didn’t plan to continue talking.

“Forget it, forget it. It will only make people angry.”

When the old man saw Ji Yuan’s calm, casual glance at the contents of A Historical Account from Outside the Tao, and heard his previous and calmness when he glanced at the content of the foreign preaching, and listened to his previous criticisms,⁴ he felt a faint, inexplicable admiration for Ji Yuan.

Quiet was briefly restored in the cave once more, and Ji Yuan began reading the book again. The old man leaned back and mediated.

After about the time it would take to drink a cup of tea had passed,⁵ the silence was broken again.

“Sir, do you know the name of this stone wall here?”

Ji Yuan put down the book and subconsciously glanced at the cave before answering.

“It seems to be called… the Crouching Dragon Wall.”

“Yes!”

The old man did not stand up. He raised his hand and vaguely measured the height of the cave with an indescribably look in his eyes.

“Sir, do you know the origin of this Crouching Dragon Wall?”

How could Ji Yuan know this? Looking at the pea-like shape, it was difficult to tell what it looked like. Could the name have any meaning? Ji Yuan’s thoughts began to diverge.

However, the old man beside him continued speaking before Ji Yuan could come to any conclusions.

“About three hundred years ago, there was a deep pool buried 1,600 feet underground here, with a young flood dragon⁶ lying inside it.”

Ji Yuan heart lurched and he looked at the cave again.

“That year it was also time for the Mangzhong festival. The young flood dragon felt that he had cultivated successfully, and wanted to walk through the water and transform into a True Dragon!!”

The old man’s gaze met Ji Yuan’s calm and peaceful eyes, and he paused for a moment before continuing his narration.

“The when the flood dragon family spreads water, they can easily flood the earth. However, this young flood dragon had been practicing for a long time, and waiting for hundreds of years for that moment… Before the Mangzhong festival that year, heavy rains lasted for half a month, and a flood occurred in Desheng Prefecture. The young flood dragon led the water out of the ground, and the hidden pool of water broke out of the earth, spreading across three prefectures!”

The old man paused here, leaning on the stone wall behind him. He slowly stroked his beard in silence for a long time.

“Alas… wherever he passed, all the living beings were wiped out!”

Ji Yuan seemed to be able to feel the heavy weight of these words as he imagined the devastating flood three hundred years ago.

Even in an era of advanced technology like in his previous life, with powerful ships and planes and the quick response of the military, floods were still terrifying beasts, let alone in this world three hundred years ago.

The old man patted the stone wall behind him and said to Ji Yuan:

“The stone wall here was lifted out of the ground because of the might of the young flood dragon who broke it out of the ground. It was originally the place where the young flood dragon lay in the deep pool. After the incident, there were many rumors about the flood dragon wandering in Desheng Prefecture. Several decades later, the cave was leveled, and the world was in turmoil. However, the stone wall and its name were passed down.”

Ji Yuan frowned and was silent for a while. After hesitating for a long time, he finally asked a question.

“I have heard that there is an immortal palace in Ji Province called Yuhuai Mountain. When the dragon was wandering, did any immortal cultivators come here?”

As what they came for, they could naturally have come to rescue people or stop the dragon, or, if they had the ability, they could use some tricks to control the flood, beat the dragon into awareness, or even just kill it directly. However, he did not explain these solutions.

Ji Yuan didn’t know whether the old man understood the implication of his words, he simply sighed and continued.

“After lying dormant for hundreds of years, the young flood dragon was now free. One could only imagine how excited he was. When stirring up trouble, he would naturally attract the attention of immortal masters… hmph…”

The old man actually sneered when he said this, which made Ji Yuan even more confused. Where did this old man come from? Was he a Taoist master, or was he related to the original young flood dragon?

“Let’s not mention those former immortal masters. If we talk about the one who made the deepest impression on the young flood dragon at the time, it must have been the City God of Duming Prefecture. His golden body shattered as he struck out angrily, waking up the young flood dragon and leading him to see the disaster wrought by his great flood…”

The old man paused for a moment, then continued.

“With the difficulty of cultivation, and the difficulty of the following the Tao, how courageous it is to risk one’s life for the sake of success… How sad, yet how admirable!”

Hearing this, Ji Yuan had already formed a certain guess about the old man’s identity, but he couldn’t be certain if he was the real one.

“Then may I ask, old Sir, whether this young flood dragon successfully transformed into a dragon, and how it behaved over the next three hundred years?”

“Naturally, just as water flows into the river and into the sea, after a hundred years it finally turned into a dragon!”

When the old man said this last sentence, his voice became a little louder, then he calmed down.

“Since succeeding in becoming a dragon, he has been bringing rain to Ji Province for the past two hundred years. There has been abundant rain for two hundred years without any drought. He has also helped the many tribes in the rivers and lakes to control the waters…”

Having said this, the old man turned to look at Ji Yuan.

“Sir, what do you think of this dragon’s actions? It is as described in the legend of the Historical Account?”

Even with Ji Yuan’s current state of mind, he couldn’t help but tremble in his heart. He had really encountered an extraordinary existence. Combined with the book’s preface, he was almost certain that the person sitting in front of him was either a True Dragon or a flood dragon!⁷

1. 评书 (píngshū): pingshu, a folk art where a single performer narrates stories from history or fiction. Still popular today. ↩︎
2. T/n: No clue why that would be the case ↩︎
3. T/n: the closest existing story I could find to this is the 2017 film Legend of the Demon Cat, though that story doesn’t have nearly enough similarities for me to say that JY is referencing it. I think it’s safer to assume that this was a made-up myth for this fantasy world. ↩︎
4. Lit: “taboo words,” not sure how else to translate ↩︎
5. 10-15 mins is the commonly-accepted approximation ↩︎
6. 螭 (chī): dragon with horns not yet grown (translated to “young”), 蛟 (jiāo): a legendary dragon with the ability to control rain and floods ↩︎
7. 龙 (lóng): Chinese dragon (distinguished here as “full dragon,” since it seems to be the final transcendent form of dragon-like creatures), vs 蛟 (jiāo): flood dragon. Lots of different kinds of dragons! ↩︎

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read