Chen Pingan led Ning Yao to a five-colored divine statue, roughly a head taller than a robust young man. It originally had three pairs of arms, but now only the topmost clenched fist remained, raised high, and the lowest “handshake” arm. The single arm could still “shake hands” because the statue’s fingers were interlocked, so even though the other arm had been severed at the shoulder, the hand and wrist had to remain.

The five-colored clay statue was of a god-man clad in armor, with a large beard and clanging armor made of continuous scales. The edges of the armor plates were decorated with two beaded lines of full, round beads. Compared to the hideous wart armor inherited by Liu Xianyang’s family, in terms of appearance alone, the difference was like that between a young jade pendant and an old woman Ma.

The statue stood on a square, black stone base. Compared to the headless statue where they had sought shelter the night before, this painted statue, though missing many arms and with faded colors, still exuded a spirited energy. Most importantly, the clay god-man’s hands were intertwined at the waist in a very strange posture.

Ning Yao immediately saw the clue and understood why Chen Pingan had hurried to bring her here. She nodded and said, “Indeed, it looks somewhat like the stance from the ‘Mountain Shaking Manual,’ except it’s a bit different from the sword furnace in the boxing manual.”

Ning Yao pondered for a moment and asked, “Can you find the rest of the broken arms nearby?”

Chen Pingan squatted on the ground, shaking his head with a look of regret. “I’ve looked, but I couldn’t find anything. I guess they were crushed by kids playing hide-and-seek long ago. Over the years, these local gods and clay bodhisattvas have probably suffered all kinds of hardships. Look at this one; the highest fist has a large chunk missing from the wrist, and there are many cracks nearby. It was obviously damaged by kids with slingshots or stones. The kids in town are like that; the more the adults tell them not to play here, the more they like to sneak over to catch crickets and dig for wild vegetables, especially when it snows every year. There are often dozens of them having snowball fights, it’s very lively. Once they’re having fun, they don’t care about anything. When they were little, they liked to compete to see who could climb the highest, and some even liked to climb on top of the statue’s head to pee, to see who could pee the farthest. So, you can imagine, year after year, there isn’t a single complete statue left. Actually, I had a few wooden statues when I was little, but later I heard that some lazy men found it too tiring to chop wood, so they targeted them. Early in the winter, they secretly dragged them home, chopped them up and burned them as firewood.”

The boy babbled on, sounding somewhat somber and sentimental. “I was kicked out to burn charcoal in the mountains by old man Yao because he thought I had no talent for firing kilns. If I had known someone was doing that in town, I would have tried to persuade them. If that didn’t work, I could have promised to help them chop wood. Local gods and clay bodhisattvas, even if they never show any signs, are still bodhisattvas and gods. But they were chopped into firewood; how can you do such a wicked thing…”

Ning Yao and Chen Pingan’s focus was completely different at the moment.

Ning Yao pinched her chin with one hand and rested her elbow on the other, her eyes gleaming with light. She slowly said, “If I’m not mistaken, your family’s boxing manual’s sword furnace is derived from this, but not from the hands you see now. It’s from the middle pair of arms of this Taoist spirit officer statue that are now missing, the sword furnace is formed by those missing hands performing a mudra. Although I don’t know why the person who wrote the boxing manual only chose one of them and didn’t choose the hand gesture we see now, I can be sure that the sword furnace, or rather, the spirit officer’s finger-sword mudra, may have different sizes.”

Chen Pingan was confused, but he didn’t forget to refute and remind her, “The boxing manual belongs to Gu Can; I’m just keeping it for him.”

Ning Yao didn’t argue with Chen Pingan and pointed to the sword furnace stance of the Taoist spirit officer. She explained, “See, in the boxing manual, the little finger of the right hand is extended, while here, nine fingers are intertwined, wrapped around, and interlocked, with only the index finger of the left hand extended, standing out alone. This is to form a finger-sword incantation, ultimately used to nourish the index finger.”

Ning Yao said to herself, “I have traveled this world of yours for many years and have seen many of the Four Heavenly Kings in temples and spirit officers in Taoist temples. This clay statue…”

Chen Pingan waited for her to continue, but after waiting for a long time, he didn’t get an answer. He could only ask, “Is there anything strange about it?”

Ning Yao nodded solemnly, “It’s the shortest.”

The boy squatting on the ground said nothing, but gave her a thumbs up.

Ning Yao turned to him and asked, “Have you ever seen a Taoist spirit officer statue taller than your Pilv Mountain?”

“Of course not,” Chen Pingan said, stunned. He asked, confused, “Is Pilv Mountain on our side?”

Ning Yao realized and explained, “It’s the highest mountain here. A long, long time ago, it’s said that a Taoist master buried a Celestial Master Seal on Pilv Mountain to suppress the dragon energy of this land.”

Chen Pingan’s eyes lit up. “Do you know the general location? Can we dig it up?”

Ning Yao smiled. “What, do you want to dig it up and sell it for money?”

Exposed, Chen Pingan blushed slightly and admitted, “I don’t necessarily want to sell it for money. As long as it’s a good and valuable item, it’s good to keep it at home as a family heirloom.”

Ning Yao pointed her finger at the money-grubbing fellow and said good-naturedly, “If you can start your own sect in the future, I bet that with a sect leader who is so thrifty and good at managing the household like you, your disciples and retainers will definitely have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of their lives and can just lie down and enjoy themselves.”

Chen Pingan hadn’t thought that far, and he didn’t even understand what it meant to start a sect.

He stood up and asked, “Regardless of size, this can be considered a type of sword furnace?”

Ning Yao nodded. “Small and large sword furnaces, left and right hands. The real object being nourished is definitely not the left-hand index finger and the right-hand little finger, but all the way upstream, until…”

As Ning Yao said this, she closed her eyes and concentrated. She didn’t even need to perform a mudra to sense it. She opened her eyes, bent her fingers, and pointed to two places on the back of her head: the Jade Pillow and Heavenly Pillar acupoints. They were indeed suitable places to nurture one’s natal flying sword. She smiled and said, “The left-hand sword furnace corresponds here, and the right hand points here.”

Chen Pingan said blankly, “Miss Ning, I’ve always wanted to ask, this sword furnace is said to be a stance in the boxing manual, but with fingers twisted and turned like this, what does it have to do with practicing boxing? Can it increase strength?”

Ning Yao was dumbfounded.

If she had to explain the specific details of martial arts or cultivation, it would really be too difficult for her, not to mention explaining how to overcome all the obstacles along the way. After all, for Ning Yao herself, did such boring principles need to be said? Shouldn’t they be naturally familiar?

So, the girl put on a stern face and scolded the boy, “Your realm is not high enough. It’s useless to talk about it! Why are you asking so much? Just focus on practicing hard! What, can’t you endure hardship?”

Chen Pingan was skeptical and asked cautiously, “Miss Ning, is that really the case?”

Ning Yao crossed her arms, her face filled with righteousness, and asked, “Otherwise, what else?!”

Chen Pingan didn’t ask any further questions. He looked up at the painted statue that Ning Yao called a Taoist spirit officer and said, “This is the god of Elder Lu’s family.”

Ning Yao said helplessly, “What do you mean ‘the god of Elder Lu’s family’? First, Taoism, although it has the word ‘family’ in it, is definitely not the ‘family’ you people in town mean. Taoism is vast, far beyond your imagination. Even I don’t know how many Taoists there are or how many branches and schools there are. I only heard my father say that there are now four ancestral courts: upper, lower, north, and south… Forget it, it’s like playing the lute to a cow to talk about these things with you. Second, gods and immortals, although you are used to saying them together, and even all the common people in the world do, but in the final analysis, gods and immortals walk different paths. Let me give you an example, ‘Humans fight for a breath, Buddhas fight for incense,’ have you heard this saying?”

Chen Pingan nodded. “Old Woman Ma from Apricot Blossom Lane often argued with Gu Can’s mother, and I always heard this saying.”

Ning Yao now had the air of commanding the world. “Buddhas fight for incense, why do they fight? Because gods do need incense. Without incense, gods will gradually weaken and eventually lose their boundless power. The principle is very simple; it’s like a person not eating grains for several days, where does the strength come from? Why does the secular court want officials everywhere to ban immoral shrines? They are afraid that human incense will be chaotic, causing some people or things that shouldn’t become gods to occupy divine positions. To put it another way, even if they are good-natured people after becoming gods on their own initiative and are willing to protect the local people year after year without violating the rules of heaven and earth, to the emperors who call themselves ‘True Dragons,’ these immoral shrines that are not conferred by the court are disrupting the local feng shui, no different from regional separatism, weakening the dynasty’s fortune. They are digging at the foundations because they will shorten the years of the dynasty’s rule. How can they tolerate others snoring on the side of their bed?”

“As for immortals, it’s very simple. Most of the outsiders you see are considered immortals, even the old ape on Positive Sun Mountain is considered half an immortal. They all rely on themselves to walk the Great Dao, climbing the mountain step by step towards the peak of immortality. Cultivators are also called Qi Refiners, and cultivation is called cultivating immortality or cultivating truth.”

Chen Pingan asked, “Then is this Taoist spirit officer a god or an immortal? According to Miss Ning, it should be considered an immortal in Taoism, right?”

Ning Yao’s face was solemn, and she shook her head gently, not continuing to reveal the secret.

She suddenly frowned.

A stone was inexplicably shot over, heavily hitting the fist of the spirit officer statue that was above its head, knocking off many fragments.

Ning Yao waved her hand to disperse the mud and dust above her head.

Chen Pingan stood up and followed Ning Yao’s gaze. He turned his head and saw an unexpected figure.

A dark, skinny, and small boy was squatting on a toppled statue in the distance, constantly throwing and catching a stone with one hand.

Chen Pingan turned to stand side by side with Ning Yao and said softly, “His name is Ma Kuxuan. He’s the grandson of Old Woman Ma from Apricot Blossom Lane, a very strange person. He doesn’t like to talk since he was a kid. Last time I met him by the stream, Ma Kuxuan even took the initiative to talk to me. He clearly knew that snake gallstones were worth a lot of money a long time ago.”

The boy named Ma Kuxuan stood up and continued to weigh the stone in his hand. He smiled brightly at Ning Yao and Chen Pingan and said bluntly, “If I go to the Li Residence on Fortune Street and tell the old ape from Positive Sun Mountain that I’ve found you two, I think I can get a bag of money no matter what. But if you give me two bags of money, I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything. Let me say this in advance, it’s just a business deal; don’t think about killing people to silence them. There are so many gods and bodhisattvas on the ground watching us; be careful of retribution.”

Ning Yao, enraged, was about to speak when Chen Pingan grabbed her arm. He took a step forward and asked Ma Kuxuan in a deep voice, “If I’m willing to give you money, can you really keep your mouth shut?”

Ma Kuxuan was slightly stunned. He seemed not to have expected that this pair of young people would be so easy to talk to and would actually do business with him.

But he was too lazy to continue acting. He took out a beautiful and exquisite money bag and casually threw it on the ground, laughing, “I’ve already received the reward from the Li family, but I’m not doing this for money. Chen Pingan from Mud Bottle Lane, the next-door neighbor of Song Jixin, right? Blame the guy next to you; she’s too annoying. She ruined many people’s plans yesterday.”

The boy curled his lips and pointed to himself. “Like me.”

Chen Pingan looked around.

Ma Kuxuan looked at Ning Yao and laughed, “Don’t worry, the old ape has something to deal with for now. I’m just taking this opportunity to ask you for something. You know what it is, right?”

Ning Yao sneered, “Be careful of getting it but not being able to use it.”

Ma Kuxuan said cheerfully, “You’re not my wife, why worry about that?”

Chen Pingan couldn’t imagine how anyone could think this guy, who was full of eerie aura, was an idiot.

Ning Yao’s face was gloomy. She touched Chen Pingan’s shoulder and reminded him softly, “For some reason, the flying sword can’t get in here around here.”

Ma Kuxuan slightly shifted his gaze and smiled at Chen Pingan, “Yesterday’s battle on the roof was wonderful. I happened to see it all. Oh, right, you can take off the sandbags tied to your legs, otherwise you won’t be able to catch up with me.”

Chen Pingan really squatted down and slowly rolled up his trouser legs, his eyes fixed on Ma Kuxuan.

Only at this time did Ning Yao discover in surprise that Chen Pingan actually had a circle of sandbags of moderate thickness tied to his legs inside his trousers.

Chen Pingan explained to Ning Yao, “When I was very young, Grandpa Yang from Yang’s shop told me never to take them off, even if I die. I originally planned to use them to deal with the old ape’s fourth breath, but now that I think about it, it’s almost time because I always feel that this guy called Ma Kuxuan is as dangerous as the old ape.”

Ma Kuxuan jumped lightly off the statue and glanced at the spirited girl in a dark green robe, muttering to himself, “I thought I would at least have to leave the town before encountering my first enemy of the Great Dao, but I didn’t expect to meet one so soon. Haha, luck is really unstoppable when it comes.”

Ning Yao suddenly asked, “Chen Pingan, did that guy get whipped by a cow’s tail when he was a kid?”

Chen Pingan stood up, stomped his feet lightly a few times on each side, thought seriously about Miss Ning’s question, and replied, “Old Woman Ma is very rich, so I remember that the ox of this Ma Kuxuan’s family was especially big. That ox’s tail was very scary when it whipped.”

As Chen Pingan stood up, Ma Kuxuan squatted down again and grabbed a handful of stones, placing them in the palm of his left hand.

Finally, the boy from Mud Bottle Lane and the boy from Apricot Blossom Lane, two peers, faced each other from a distance.