At this moment, upon hearing the sound of a carriage passing by and the other party’s conversation, Ji Yuan awoke from that dream-like state.

The reasons were, on one hand, because he felt that his session of practice had almost concluded; even though being in that state of cultivation consumed less energy, his body felt a little hungry. On the other hand, it was also because Ji Yuan heard a familiar voice.

It was that of the servant, Wei Tong. He had been the servant who had cursed out the boatman back then when the drunk young man had fallen from the boat into the water.

Ji Yuan and the young man had only met once, so he naturally had no intention of going out to greet him. However, Ji Yuan still felt that he had to meet this rich young master.

It was not for himself, but rather, he was thinking of the big blue carp. The blue carp had been able to save this young man, and it might have saved others before. Such a kind-hearted spirit should be rewarded, and this young man was the kind of person who was capable of giving those rewards.

So, before the front carriage passed him, Ji Yuan stood up, shook off the water droplets from his body, and lightly jumped down from the tree.

Although it was daytime, this was the area with the thickest fog, with a visibility of less than two zhang. After thinking about it, Ji Yuan felt that it would not be appropriate to directly block the path, so he walked slowly along the side of the road.

After a while, the three slow-moving carriages caught up with Ji Yuan. It looked like they were catching up and about to overtake a lone passerby.

The coachman and the servant Wei Tong, who had been peeking out of the side, subconsciously observed this lonely passerby in simple clothes, but they did not think too much about him.

The coachman, who had more life experience than the other man, could vaguely see that the clothes of the passerby were a little wet.

Ji Yuan could already hear the breathing of everyone in the carriages. Just when the first carriage was about to overtake him, he turned his head to look at the carriage, as if by accident.

A clear and honest voice sounded.

“Does the gentleman in the car still remember the incident where he fell into the Chunmu River?”

Ji Yuan’s voice didn’t seem to be loud, but it reached everyone’s ears. The coachmen were puzzled and didn’t react, but the people in the carriages were immediately shocked.

The servant Wei Tong looked at Ji Yuan and opened his mouth to ask.

“Were you also a guest on the ship?”

The servant thought that Ji Yuan recognized him, so he would have known that the person inside the carriage was his young master, but he would never have guessed that Ji Yuan had never seen him clearly whatsoever.

It was just that the approach taken by asking this question left Ji Yuan stunned for a moment. However, after thinking about it carefully, it seemed that there was nothing wrong with this assumption, so he just shook his head in denial.

“Haha… I was not a guest on the ship, I just happened to meet you…”

At this time, the young man in the carriage had already put down the book, but he did not stand up or stick his head out to look at the person outside. It was a bit embarrassing for him, as a man who knew martial arts, to fall into the water after getting drunk, and needing others to rescue him since he couldn’t swim.

The young master didn’t say anything, but the servant didn’t let him off, nor did he believe Ji Yuan’s words.

“Why? Are you happy to see our young master fall into the water? You must have been laughing in some corner of the ship at the time, right? You look so poor that I don’t even know how you were allowed on the ship!”

To be honest, although Ji Yuan’s clothes were not luxurious, they were not of poor quality, either. Naturally, the servant was deliberately making sarcastic remarks in his anger.

Influenced by the servant’s line of thought, the people in the carriage, who originally had no issue with the conversation, now also felt uncomfortable.

“Okay, Wei Tong, stop talking and tell the driver go faster!”

The young man in the car snorted coldly, feeling that he had expressed his dissatisfaction in a very polite manner.

The coachman also quickened his pace and pushed forward, controlling the reins.

The noise from that area continued without ceasing. The young lady and maid in the middle carriage were whispering.

“Chunfang, did you hear that voice just now?”

“Yeah, I heard it too. It seems like something happened with a passerby. Wei Tong got into an argument with someone again.”

“Who is that person?”

“I don’t know. It seems they saw the young master fall into the water on the ship that day…”

In the third carriage sat an old lady, a maid, and two more servants. They, too, lifted the curtain to look ahead, but due to the fog it was difficult to see clearly from a distance. However, they also looked to be dissatisfied.

Seeing the carriage speeding up, Ji Yuan frowned. He had indeed suspected that bringing up this matter would cause people to be annoyed with him, but cursing at him and leaving without even allowing him an explanation was just too rude.¹

Ji Yuan opened his eyes wider and looked at the servant, then scanned the three carriages, before speaking up again.

“Alright, stop the carriage!”

This time, the volume of his voice was a bit higher, and the end of his words carried a certain vibration. This was another combination of martial arts skills and magical techniques. It was obviously not very loud, but still made listeners’ ears sting.

However, the results were slightly beyond Ji Yuan’s expectations. Before anyone could react, the old horses pulling the three carriages stopped one after another, causing the coachmen to stagger. They could not move the horses, as if these animals did not want to budge at all.

The carriage suddenly stopped. Many of the passengers were shaken and thrown forward. Wei Tong, who had been leaning out the front, staggered and fell out of the carriage with a cry and almost rolled off.

The young man in the carriage was also a little surprised. He immediately picked up a sword leaning against the side of the carriage, and then nimbly jumped outside.

Seeing that the young lady and the maid in the carriage behind him seemed to want to get off, he quickly spoke up to stop them.

“You stay in the car, Chunfang, take care good care of the young lady!”

After saying this, the young man, still dressed in white, looked at the coachman who was pulling the horse, and then stared at Ji Yuan, who was standing not too far from the carriage. He felt that this man looked familiar.

“Who are you, sir? What is your purpose in seeking me?”

The sound he heard just now was strange, and the way the carriage stopped was even stranger. He didn’t know if it was because of the distance between them, but the other party seemed to be vaguely melding into the fog.

Seeing how the horses were unwilling to move, everyone, including the man in white and his companions, felt a subtle sense of horror, as if they had encountered some evil spirit.

It was only at this moment that Ji Yuan stopped his slow pace, turned around, and looked carefully at the young man. The man was dressed in white, and his appearance was almost the same as what he had looked like when he had seen him in the morning.

“Ah, this young master is actually a skilled martial artist!”

After saying this, Ji Yuan first bowed to the driver in apology.

“Excuse me for a moment. I’ll leave after I finish my business here.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ji Yuan turned his gaze back and changed the subject back to the beginning.

“This gentleman was drunk and fell off the boat. Do you remember what happened underwater?”

“Underwater?”

Seeing the young man’s frown, and remembering how dark it was at the time, Ji Yuan no longer bothered with this issue. His clear and honest voice sounded once more, slightly soothing with a hint of emotion.

“That night on the Chunmu River, the ship was filled with people singing and having fun. When you were drunk, sir, you fell into the river, and you should have drowned. It was a big blue carp that lifted you to the surface of the river, until that time when a few boatmen came over to rescue you. I wonder if the young master recalls any of this?”

At this time, because Ji Yuan had paused in his cultivation, the fog had become much thinner. It was only due to his appearance and his shocking words that no one had yet noticed the change in the fog.

A big blue carp that saved people?

The young man had a look of horror on his face. That night, he had dreamt of a bluish-white streak² passing through the muddy water before his eyes, and he was a little confused the next morning. Could it really have been a blue carp?

The young man in white suddenly thought of something and looked at Ji Yuan.

“Was this Sir the one who was eating porridge on that boat?”

“Hehe, maybe, maybe not. Sir, you may believe what you wish with regards to my words. If you want to repay the favor, you can send someone or go yourself to the Chunmu River at the same time every year and pour out a jar of wine, carve a small blue fish statue at home, and pray to it when you have the time, as a way of repaying this life-saving grace.”

Although some things could not be forced, Ji Yuan didn’t want to let hard work go to waste, so a little “divine revelation” would not be amiss.

Not wanting to wait for the other party to react, Ji Yuan glanced at the servant, then bowed slightly to the young master, despite feeling rather unimpressed.

“When you meet someone, first observe how they present themselves; the servant’s appearance reflects the master. Improve yourself and do your best!”³

After speaking, Ji Yuan turned around and walked away. The moisture on his wet clothes dissipated as he walked, making him look mysterious, as if he were surrounded by mist. In contrast, the surrounding fog was rapidly fading away.

After a few breaths, while it had not yet completely dissipated, Ji Yuan had already stepped into the fog and disappeared. However, after just a few more breaths, the fog completely dissipated, but the gentleman in a gray robe was no longer anywhere to be seen, neither in front of him nor off in the distance.

“The fog cleared? Where is that person? Where has he gone?”

“Did you see that? That’s not a mortal!”

“This… this person… this person can’t be an immortal, right?”

“I don’t think it was an evil spirit, either… Did we really see an immortal!?”

The coachmen were shocked and excited, and kept shouting. The more they spoke, the more they were convinced that they had seen an immortal. It was even more telling that when refreshing mist had dissipated, the person’s figure had disappeared.

The young man in white holding the sword was speechless for a long while.

In the carriage at the back, the maid, the old lady, and the servants had already all gotten off. How could they stay on the carriage in this situation?

Looking at this clear world as the fog melted away, and listening to the coachmen getting more and more excited, everyone had a feeling of wonder and mystery, especially the young man in white himself.

“Brother, brother!!”

“What?”

The young man in white looked at his cousin as if awakened from a dream.

“Hey! Brother, why didn’t you chase after him? Don’t you know martial arts?”

The young man in white turned his head to look in front of him, then looked up at the dark clouds in the sky… His cousin had said it lightly, but… To give chase? How could give chase?

Legend had it that immortals could ride on clouds and mist. As the mist dissipated, the other party must have flown away…

T/n:

JY: I’m going to give some advice because I am a Nice Person!

JY: gives the most cryptic supernatural advice one could possibly give while magically stopping their carriages and subsequently being carried away in a cloud of mist

JY: Why does everyone keep mistaking me for an immortal???

Me: WELL, YOU SEE, MY GOOD SIR—

1. Lit: “just too real” ↩︎
2. T/n: previously translated as “black carp,” went back and changed chapters 76-77 to match ↩︎
3. 见人先观衣, 见仆如见主, 好自为之吧 poetic series of 5 characters. Remember how the students at the school repeat things in groups of 4 characters? JY is essentially “imparting a lesson” unto these people, so he uses the same structure of 4-5 characters in repeating groups. Amusingly, 好自为之 (hǎozìwéizhī) can either mean “you’re on your own,” “do your best,” or “shape up!” ↩︎

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read