Thank you for returning to the campfire. Lin Shiyi and Qing Niangniang were finishing their game. The girl glanced at the chessboard and lost interest, reaching out to the campfire.

Chen Pingan chopped branches and built three simple tents, coming to Li BaoPing’s side. The little girl yawned and went to sleep. In addition, Li Huai and Lin Shiyi shared a tent, and the girl Xie Xie also had her own tent. Yu Lu often slept in the coachman’s seat, half-covered with a blanket to get through the night.

Of course, most of the time, the team could find accommodation, either inns or temples and monasteries in the mountains and forests.

Once, on a stormy night, with the faint light, they finally found a wealthy family. The owner was the former Minister of Revenue of the Huangting Kingdom, an old man in his twilight years who built a villa to live in seclusion in the mountains. He was very hospitable. Seeing Li BaoPing and these young scholars traveling and studying, the old man was overjoyed. Even knowing that they came from Dali, a semi-enemy country, the old minister still warmly welcomed them. Regarding food, the old man strictly followed the sage’s teachings of “food should be finely milled, and meat should be delicately cut,” which opened the eyes of Chen Pingan and his bumpkin companions from a small place.

Later, the old man seemed particularly fond of the little girl Li BaoPing and the young Yu Lu. Knowing that the little girl liked to read travelogues, he not only gifted several travelogues from his private collection but also insisted on personally taking them to a scenic spot, a very famous riverside cliff in the area. The cliff face was as smooth as a mirror, with ancient *moya* stone carvings that had existed for countless years. The carved characters had never been seen in any classics and were obscure and difficult to understand. Numerous literati and poets had come here to admire the wonders. Rubbings of the stone carvings were widely circulated in the Huangting Kingdom and its upper kingdom, the Great Sui Dynasty, but no one had yet deciphered the true meaning of the words. There were many theories, but none could convince the public.

At that time, the young Cui Chan only glanced at the stone cliff from afar and said that it was “personally carved by the Thunder Department Heavenly Sovereign, an edict of the Heavenly Emperor to the Jiaolong (Flood Dragon).”

The old man laughed heartily, obviously not believing it. The philosophers and sages of previous dynasties had devoted so much effort to studying it and dared not make a rash judgment. It was understandable that the old minister of the Huangting Kingdom didn’t take the words of a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old boy seriously.

After leaving the old minister’s villa, Chen Pingan found that everyone’s eyes were a bit strange whenever he cooked something with a clay stove in the wilderness. Especially the little girl in the red cotton coat, who added fuel to the fire, saying, “Little Shishu, what you make is delicious, really, not worse than the food at the Ma Minister’s house!”

Li Huai was also a bit sleepy, so he said goodbye to Lin Shiyi and went to sleep in the tent. Lin Shiyi was not sleepy and continued to compete with Qing Niangniang on the chessboard.

Lin Shiyi told Chen Pingan that he would accompany Qing Niangniang to the small temple on the mountain peak to retrieve the precious chess manual hidden in the wall of the small temple. Perhaps he was afraid that Chen Pingan would worry, the boy smiled and explained that Qing Niangniang originally wanted to make the round trip alone, but he took the initiative to go with her.

Chen Pingan didn’t say much, just told Lin Shiyi to be careful on the night road.

The boy and the ghost haunting the small temple ascended the mountain together. Chen Pingan watched the backs of the one human and one ghost. Perhaps it was a unique rule of the mountain, Qing Niangniang’s feet did not touch the ground, she floated slowly, and in front of her, there was a bit of green, glowing ghost fire, illuminating the surroundings. Together with the blue-robed scholar beside her, the two chatted happily, so this scene, far from being frightening, had some of the romantic poetic charm described in Li BaoPing’s landscape travelogue, “holding a candle for a night tour, coming and going with pleasure.”

After the girl Xie Xie left, the young Cui Chan stood alone on a high branch. The sound of a night owl suddenly rang out in the mountains, mournful and terrifying. This bird was called “Liuli Bird” by the people of Huangting Kingdom, an ominous sign, often associated with “reporting funerals” and “bad news.”

A cloud of black smoke rolled through the forest, flying to the side of the white-robed boy, hovering and still.

The boy recovered from his tangled thoughts and said, “Leaving already?”

The Yin God from the small town nodded, “The good-luck charms bestowed by old man Yang can indeed defend against *yangqi* (positive energy) *gangfeng* (astral winds) and soul damage from city gates and passes. However, to travel back and forth with the Dali Yefu Pass as the endpoint will use them up. I have already been pushing my limits to escort you to this Hengshan Mountain in the Huangting Kingdom. I may begin to have a hard time around the Embroidery River and Wanping County.”

The Yin God’s face was like ripples on the water, like flickering lamplight, constantly changing, blurry and unclear. He sighed, “Although I don’t know what deal old man Yang made with you, I hope that before reaching that academy in the Great Sui, National Preceptor can have a good beginning and end with Chen Pingan and the others.”

The white-robed boy was relatively polite to the Yin God, “I will do my best.”

The Yin God suddenly asked with a smile, “National Preceptor, do you believe in karmic retribution?”

The young Cui Chan shook his head and said, “I never believe it. If you want to advise me to accumulate virtue and do good deeds, then I will advise you in return. People with different paths cannot make plans together. Instead of worrying about whether I will protect your benefactor Chen Pingan, you should worry about whether your wife and children in the faraway place you cannot watch over will be treated as pawns to be manipulated by Liu Zhimao, the True Monarch of Interception of the River in Shujian Lake.”

The Yin God sighed, helplessly saying, “Human power still has its limits, let alone an ominous thing like me that is hated by heaven and earth?”

Cui Chan smiled, “There is no dead end on the Great Dao, only differences in difficulty. Gathering *yin* becomes a ghost, gathering *yang* becomes a god. It has nothing to do with whether you are human or not. You don’t lack the opportunity to be conferred a god now. Think about those mountain and swamp spirits; their path of cultivation is truly arduous.”

The Yin God hoarsely laughed, “Indeed.”

The Yin God was silent for a long time, but he never returned to Dali.

The young Cui Chan asked, “What’s wrong? Do you have something else to say? I know that besides repaying kindness, you are optimistic about Chen Pingan yourself, but you certainly don’t know that I was optimistic about this boy from the very beginning, earlier than anyone else. It’s just that this involves the secrets of the Great Dao, so it’s not good to tell you in detail. You only need to know that although I was in the Dali capital, the attention and care I devoted to Chen Pingan were no later and no less than old man Yang’s.”

The Yin God shook his head and smiled, “It has nothing to do with that.”

The young man frowned, “I’m not in a good mood right now. Spit it out.”

The Yin God did not take it to heart and slowly said, “I admire Mr. Cui’s theory of deeds, which benefits the country and the people. Although there are criticisms within Confucianism, with more贬(demotion) than褒 (praise), I believed before I died that what happens in thousands of years can only be a matter for future generations to seek their own blessings. It is not as important as benefiting the people with learning in the present and achieving a peaceful and prosperous age.”

The white-robed boy was a little surprised, raised his eyebrows, and couldn’t help but turn his head and ask, “I never thought you would support my scholarship?”

The Yin God made an unexpected move, actually imitating the Confucian junior disciples when facing the virtuous masters, respectfully cupping his hands and bowing, lowering his head and loudly saying, “Gu bows not to the Dali National Preceptor but reveres Mr. Cui Chan, who not only writes lofty moral articles.”

It was not until the Yin God had already traveled hundreds of miles away that the white-robed boy slowly recovered his senses, his face filled with mixed emotions.

Finally, the white-robed boy took a step forward, the branch under his feet bent even more, suddenly shook his sleeves with both hands, placed them behind his back, and no longer had any dejected expression.

The boy had the awe-inspiring momentum of shaking his robes on a thousand-foot ridge.

When Lin Shiyi returned, his face was ashen, clutching a yellowed ancient book in his hand, sitting by the campfire.

Chen Pingan asked, “What’s wrong?”

Lin Shiyi gritted his teeth and said, “A bunch of depraved intellectuals! These scholars from the Huangting Kingdom’s gentry, it’s bad enough that they gather in the small temple to drink, but they even committed such impolite acts! Shameless, utterly disgraceful! If I were Qing Niangniang, I would have kicked these disgusting guys out of the mountain long ago.”

Chen Pingan asked, “Whatever happened, Qing Niangniang herself didn’t do anything, did she?”

Lin Shiyi nodded.

Chen Pingan said, “Then do as the Romans do.” (入鄉隨俗 – **Word-for-word translation kept as it’s a well-known idiom** )

Lin Shiyi looked up, somewhat puzzled. When the somewhat distracted boy saw that dark familiar face, Lin Shiyi felt inexplicably calm and peaceful, sighed, and softly said, “I understand.”