Chapter 4- What is the Dao Really?

A new day had dawned and a young girl with a bird leisurely perched atop her head tightened the straps of her carry bag as she watched the sun rise over the mountain she once called home. The girl was of course Baiyue and the bird in question was none other than her teacher the ever enigmatic Grampa Ming. For the purposes of their travels outside however, the duo had already agreed beforehand that pretending Mingtian was no more than a curious pet would be more convenient in the long run.

The general consensus stood that what people didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them thus such an excuse was fabricated. Furthermore with the current arrangement it wouldn’t be hard at all for Mingtian to whisper any words of advice or observations he made during their journey into Baiyue’s ear without being caught by third parties.

『Little Yue you’re going to be leaving on your first adventure soon, are you nervous at all?』

『No not nervous, if anything I’m actually pretty excited I’ve never left the mountain before. I can’t wait to see all kinds of interesting places and meet loads of new people.』

With a warm grandfatherly gaze none too different from his nickname Mingtian watched over the young girl as she practically vibrated on the spot in her expectations. Alas as the senior of the duo as always it fell to him to reign back her sparkly eyed dreams.

『Little Yue while this world may contain splendour and riches beyond your imaginings you will also find it has even more things of a, how should I say it; mundane nature. The people as well can be kind or just as easily malicious so if you wish to travel outside you must practice your ability to sense the ill intent of others. This is truly an essential skill; especially for a squishy little mortal like you.』

Baiyue listened well and engraved her Grampa Ming’s warnings into her head. It was true that she was naïve, even she herself was very aware of this fact thus she resolved to take special care once they left.

The large network of roads interconnecting the villages of the Rising Era Empire were said to be home to various groups of bandits and thieves. She had heard a number of stories over the years from passing merchants about people being robbed or assaulted as they tried to make their way around.

The question of how just two kids and a bird would make it all the way to the Flowing Wisdom Sect without being accosted in such a way suddenly left the young girl filled with countless worries. Of course for Mingtian seeing his birdbrained disciple go from one extreme to the other with just a few simple words equally so left him just as exasperated as he watched on.

『Calm down Little Yue there are many ways of getting around without needlessly running into trouble. Besides didn’t that village chief or whatever also say he was going to make arrangements; you can go back to brooding after you hear what he has to say.』

Finally seeing the light Baiyue agreed that her Grampa Ming’s words indeed had some merit to them and so she decided to strike while the iron was hot.

『Good, first we’ll go to Chief Zhang’s house, it’s about time to meet up with Zhang Wei regardless. Then, we can work it out from there!』

“So carefree!” Mingtian thought as he watched Baiyue confidently come up with half a plan and then effectively say “we’ll wing the rest”, his only ever disciple was truly a piece of work. Regardless he agreed that it was better to confidently move forward albeit blindly then to get bogged down in the little uncertainties of life.

Such a mindset would be essential if she truly wished to become great on the endless path of cultivation. Only small characters pass up on chances because of fear; where there is risk there is also reward.

Smiling to himself Mingtian with his two talons grabbed large bundles of Baiyue’s hair and pulled on them like reigns.

『Excellent! Then with my blessing, I say go forth Baiyue my noble steed!』

Feeling the tugging on her grey locks Baiyue realised what her Grampa Ming was doing and puffed up her cheeks in annoyance.

『Grampa Ming stop that, I’m not a horse!』

Noticing how the young girl was actually getting somewhat mad at him, the bird laughed in an unrestrained manner and once more pulled on his reigns.

『Very well then! Go forth my noble disciple!』

『Grampa Ming is a bully!』

Nonetheless despite her complaints the girl walked on, the small raise of her lips she wore as she listened to the birds laughter was of course her own little secret.

🙦🙥🙧🙤

Arriving at the Zhang household Baiyue confidently made her way past the threshold of the gate and only called out when she had already entered into the inner courtyard.

『Hello? Is anyone around? Its Baiyue, I came about yesterday’s talk.』

After only a few breaths of time Zhang Lin eventually poked her head around a corner and wasted no time dragging Baiyue by the arm gesturing to follow her.

『Big Sis Yue! Good it’s you, what are you standing there for? We’ve been waiting for you so just come on inside already!』

Smiling shyly while allowing herself to get pulled Baiyue scratched her cheek nervously.

『I’m not late am I?』

『Hehe~ Big Sis Yue you don’t have to worry about this, you aren’t late, it’s just that everyone else got up really early cause they were so excited.』

At hearing this she let out a small sigh of relief. It wouldn’t do at all to be late on the day of departure if anything it would probably be considered a bad omen, something Baiyue could really do without right now.

While she was off in her own little world Zhang Lin too couldn’t help but stop and stare at the pretty black pheasant blatantly lounging on her friend’s head. Unable to hold back her curiosity anymore she bluntly asked about it bringing Baiyue’s consciousness back to reality.

『By the way Big Sis Yue, why do you suddenly have a bird?』

Despite her normally honest appearance Baiyue easily lied like a long time veteran mixing truth with false.

『This is my new pet Grampa Ming he’s a pheasant I found in the mountains yesterday. I was going to eat him at first but after everything that happened with Father, I needed the warmth so I decided to keep him around. He’s really smart too and likes to eat wild berries so it wasn’t hard at all to get him to follow me by bribing him with a few.』

Listening to the story Zhang Lin soon understood but even so she couldn’t help but giggle a little when she heard the silly name of “Grampa Ming” and honestly felt a bit jealous afterwards. Afterall, what young child doesn’t yearn to have at least one interesting pet; alas she knew there was no way her father would ever allow such a thing.

Afterwards the two friends continued to catch up with one another chatting back and forth with Zhang Lin occasionally poking and petting Mingtian here and there before eventually they arrived at the main hall where the rest of the Zhang family was present.

Without any fanfare Zhang Chen enthusiastically called out to Baiyue in a similar fashion to his daughter.

『Little Yue you’re here! Good, good, come over and have a look at the map I’ve got for you.』

Doing just so Baiyue walked to the table in the centre of the room where a sheet of parchment lay unfurled, unconsciously smiling at the haphazard way it was held in place. Looking down at it she saw what she could only guess was a rough sketch of the Rising Era Empire with the capital and borders clearly outlined.

Pointing to a particular spot on the map with his calloused finger Zhang Chen began describing various things as he moved his hand.

『See here Little Yue, this is our Dragontail Village situated right at the base of the Dragontail Mountains we’re named after. Our little village sits up right against the very eastern edge of the empire, this is because expanding beyond the mountain range was deemed impossible long ago due to the large presence of demonic beasts found there. As this is the case, we can be considered amongst some of the furthest settlements from the capital.』

Gesturing again this time towards the large mark on the centre of the map the village chief continued.

『Speaking of the capital this is it right here in the middle and in case you didn’t know it’s called Endure. As expected of the capital it’s without question the wealthiest part of the Empire and it’s supposed to have a population of something like ten million give or take, very different from our little home out in the boonies.』

Listening to the village chief’s somewhat emotional tone as he gave his description, Baiyue had a question she wanted to ask him.

『Has Chief Zhang ever been to the capital before?』

『Hhm yes, once when I was young my own father had some business there and brought me along to broaden my horizons. It was certainly a sight to see indeed, why there was so many people there that they practically bumped up against one another as they walked down the main street. The buildings as well were multiple storey pagodas with restaurants around every corner. Furthermore some of the shops were so costly there that they unbelievably only took spirit stones as acceptable currency, looking down their noses at anyone who tried to use silver or gold. ‘Twas truly one of the highlights of this old man’s life that it was.』

『Wow~ I’m definitely gonna go there one day when I have the time. Sounds … pretty expensive though.』

Hearing a small snort from on top of her head Baiyue shortly glanced up at her Grampa Ming as he quietly said his own thoughts on the matter in a voice only she could hear.

『What expensive? The spirit stones he’s talking about are low class spirit stones. At even the most expensive mortal restaurant the most a meal would cost is one or two. One mid class spirit stone is equal to a thousand low class spirit stones and a thousand mid class spirit stones are equal to a high class spirit stone. Just the few pebbles you have in your bag right now are probably enough to buy that little shop he’s talking about several tens of dozens of times over with plenty left to spare.』

At the words only she could hear Baiyue went stiff as a plank suddenly staring off into space. Unconsciously she reached towards her carry bag with trembling hands but ultimately stopped herself with what little sense of reason she had left.

"A poor man’s only crime is to own a jade ring. I definitely shouldn’t let anyone carelessly see them. I would give one to Chief Zhang as thanks but I’m more worried it would only cause more trouble for them instead." thought Baiyue as she firmly decided in her mind to hide the existence of the spirit stones at all costs.

『Little Yue are you alright, you’re not sick are you?』

Drawn back from her thoughts Baiyue quickly shook her head in denial.

『No, no, just shocked by how big the capital sounds.』

『Yes just so, I was very shocked myself when I first heard about it. Anyway back to the map, do you see all the lines extending out from the capital? These are the government sanctioned roads that are maintained regularly. The thicker lines you see are the main roads going out to the north, east, south and west whereas the thinner lines are the side roads connecting the various villages together to the main roads.』

『I see, so like the branches of a tree.』

Nodding his head in confirmation the village chief agreed with Baiyue’s analogy.

『Exactly, it’s built this way so that from any road it becomes possible to easily travel towards the capital and vice versa. Here is where you have to be careful Little Yue, you see only the main roads are regularly patrolled by the empire’s soldiers. There just simply isn’t enough manpower to consistently monitor all the different side roads along the way, so if you encounter any trouble so long as you can escape to a main road finding help should be fairly simple.』

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Nodding along Baiyue memorized the Chief’s words and the more she heard the more she understood where the supposed bandits most likely operated.

『Chief Zhang you said that those were the government sanctioned roads. That means that there’s other roads besides these ones, right?』

『Yes Little Yue very clever of you to notice. The so called “unsanctioned” roads are the various game trails as well as the paths cut out by different folk over the years. These messy paths criss-cross randomly between the different side roads allowing for the more unsavoury sort to go about their business. The likes of bandits and smugglers usually travel along them, as such if you accidentally find yourself on one its usually best to get off it as soon as possible. Of course just avoiding the unsanctioned roads isn’t enough, bandits will often nest along them but it isn’t uncommon for them to attack along the side roads where traffic is more plentiful as well.』

『What do you think Wei and I should do then Chief Zhang?』

Looking at the little girl tightly scrunching her brows in thought Zhang Chen couldn’t help but unleash a hearty laughter that practically shook the room with its volume.

『Little girl what are you thinking so hard for? At times like these you should rely more on adults. Yesterday I sent a carrier bird to my merchant friend who regularly takes his caravan through these parts. He’s agreed to take you and Wei with him as they pass through to the main road. While he can’t take you all the way to where you need to go he can escort you past the dangerous side roads. From there you and Wei can follow the main road until you eventually reach Blackstone City.』

Tilting her head in confusion Baiyue urged Chief Zhang on for more information.

『Chief Zhang what’s Blackstone City and why would we go there?』

『Blackstone city is one of the hub cities along the main road, while not quite as busy as the capital it’s definitely second or third in line. The city was built around a massive blackgold deposit that has been continually mined for hundreds of years as its main source of revenue. The relatively useless blackstone that was dug out as a byproduct was then later used to construct most of the buildings, thus the name Blackstone City.』

Watching on in surprise as the older man cleared his throat to continue explaining even more, Baiyue couldn't help but think "Chief Zhang sure does know a lot, doesn’t he?".

『Ahem! Anyway, because black gold is a useful material for cultivators as well, the city is regularly visited by those from the Flowing Wisdom Sect. At the time of the disciple selection the sect would even supposedly send over a free transport for any youths of the city under fifteen years of age who would like to apply. While it would certainly be possible to make it there on foot, the chances of running into accidents along the way increase exponentially. As a result of taking all this into account and thinking long and hard for a while I came up with this idea; but what do you think?』

『What do I think? … Chief Zhang is a genius! Is it even going to take three months to get there? I can’t help but feel that following your idea it will be much quicker.』

Even Zhang Wei had no choice but to lower his head in the face of his father’s wisdom. Nodding firmly he too said his own piece.

『Not bad, as expected of the man who raised me. If you keep working hard like this then maybe one day you could even become as great as me.』

『Hee~ So Wei is shy when he praises others huh.』

『Shut up surname Long.』

『Wei is shy~ Wei is shy~ Wei is shy~』

『Shut up Lin!』

Watching the two girls teasing Zhang Wei the rest of the small family couldn’t help but laugh along merrily. With Zhang Wei and Baiyue both already packed and ready it became just a matter of waiting for the arrival of the merchant caravan.

While time passed the Zhang family along with Baiyue as a plus one had an early meal together sharing tear stained farewells all around. They all knew very well that it was possible that none of them would ever get to see the pair again in this mortal lifetime.

But it was exactly because that was so that they chose to make as many fond memories as they could with what little remaining opportunity they had.

🙦🙥🙧🙤

Sitting on the back of a rocking carriage Wei and Yue watched as the village they grew up in slowly receded off into the distance. Knowing better than to get hung up on the past, the grey haired girl instead resolved to focus on the future.

What better place to start she decided than to get to know their new travel companions. Looking around the interior of the carriage she was in Baiyue only saw one other person besides Zhang Wei and herself.

The stranger was a calm looking young woman with short bobbed hair who was actually so relaxed that she was lying down with a book in hand. Seeing the curious woman Baiyue decided on her target and so with her most well practiced smile firmly pasted onto her face boldly approached with the intent of making a new friend.

『Hello there! I’m Long Baiyue, it’s nice to meet you. What’s your name?』

Slightly glancing up over the edge of her book, the unnamed woman looked at the noisy creature jumping up and down in front of her for the briefest of moments before eventually returning her full attention to the text in her hands. Baiyue of course not realising she was being intentionally ignored tried once again, only this time waving her hands frantically almost as if to check that she wasn’t somehow invisible.

『Hello~? Could it be she can’t hear me?』

Following Baiyue’s insistent behaviour the woman with a truly, truly deep sigh eventually put down her book and responded.

『I’m not deaf, I can hear you just fine.』

Realising she finally had the woman’s attention Baiyue was all smiles and smoothly continued her attempts at conversation.

『Perfect, then you can tell me your name.』

After a pregnant pause the first to give in was in the end still the stranger, thus with a reluctant tone she spoke.

『… Zhaomin.』

Zhang Wei who was watching the peculiar interaction between the two found himself somewhat at a loss for words. The one standing outside sees things most clearly and clearly this was a rare meeting between a natural social butterfly and an experienced wallflower. It was almost certainly too painful to watch but at the same time he also somehow couldn’t seem to be able to bring himself to look away either.

『Then I’ll call you Big Sis Zhaomin.』

『Please don’t.』

Completely glossing over the utter rejection of the newly created nickname, Baiyue instead smoothly inserted herself in the seat right by the now named Zhaomin’s side.

『Big Sis Zhaomin, what are you reading?』

『A book.』

『Hehe~ Big Sis Zhaomin is funny. I meant, what is the book called?』

After marking her page the older woman closed the cover and looked up at the blue sky before sighing again. By that point she was already beginning to doubt this little ancestor would leave her alone long enough to enjoy it anyway.

『It’s called “The Seventh Attainment”.』

Crossing her arms while scrunching her brows, Baiyue gave her impressions of the title.

『Sounds pretty complicated.』

『It is. You could say it’s my life’s work.』

『Oh, I don’t really get it. Do you mean to say you wrote that book?』

Zhaomin chuckled a little at that before lightly shaking her head in denial.

『No I didn’t write it; the book was actually a gift from someone else. What I meant was that it’s something like a puzzle that I’m supposed to solve.』

Baiyue perked up a little at that before suddenly wearing a fox-like smile Mingtian had never seen before. Zhang Wei on the other hand, flinched hard when he heard the word “puzzle” and all of a sudden just looked like he swallowed a bug.

『Y’know I’ve been told I’m not too bad at puzzles myself. How about a bet? Tell me about this riddle of yours and if I can solve it for you … you have to promise to be my friend, deal?』

Hearing the confidence in Baiyue’s tone that bordered on arrogance Zhaomin was no longer as easy-going as before when she answered.

『Do you think my life’s work amounts to something so trivial? You wouldn’t even be able to understand it even if I stood here explaining it to you for hours. So think very carefully little girl when you say you want to “solve it for me”.』

Seeing that things were beginning to take a dark turn Mingtian hurriedly whispered into Baiyue’s ear.

『Oi, oi, Little Yue you should seriously stop, this little girl called Zhaomin is a half-step away from complete Martial Foundation. She’s most likely the leader of the caravan guards and definitely someone you shouldn’t mess with right now.』

Strangely though the more Mingtian spoke the wider Baiyue’s grin became. Without an ounce of hesitation she looked at Zhaomin straight in the eyes and … spoke.

『I’ll solve it for you.』

Zhaomin immediately stood up practically towering over the little girl. As she was now fully upright it became clear just how well formed her muscles were and Baiyue watched her face quickly turned from impassive to valiant.

While some ignorant would call her appearance “boyish” perhaps, for those with the eyes to see she was remarkably heroic looking while still maintaining a certain feminine charm. Baiyue also got a better look at the clothes she wore; a set of light armour sitting under a half open cloak that indeed matched with the other mercenary caravan guards suggesting her Grampa Ming’s words were likely on the mark.

『Good. If you lost confidence so easily I would probably look down on you more for it. In the end though words are like spilled water not easily taken back. I will give you a handicap to makes things fair, but if you still can’t solve my problem then I and the rest of the guards will immediately pull back from this escort mission and you will have to explain to the merchant leader why.』

『It wouldn’t be right to involve bystanders in my bet so I can’t agree to that. How about this instead, if I lose I’ll give you everything I own.』

『Very righteous of you, but the value is not equal.』

Somehow smiling even wider Baiyue opened the front of her carry bag and pulled out a shiny stone that looked like white jade.

『This is … 』

『A high class spirit stone.』

『I know what it is. What I don’t get is why you have it.』

Baiyue smoothly evaded the enquiry though with a wink and a few words.

『A girl’s gotta keep some secrets right?』

『… Right. Still though, don’t think you can buy me off so easily we mercenaries have our own sense of pride.』

『Off course how silly of me. How about these then?』

She then smoothly proceeded to take out another four high class spirit stones, a pouch almost overflowing with silver and finally oddly enough, a blank book. Zhaomin’s eyes started twitching at the sight and her heroic aura unconsciously wavered slightly, a little put off by how easily the little girl in front of her pulled out such a disgusting amount of wealth.

Mingtian too felt his eyes twitching by how blatantly she just bet her core cultivation technique to a random stranger on the road. Of course most would only look at the spirit stones and silver completely ignoring the strange book but unfortunately for Mingtian’s sanity it appeared the opposite was the case for this Zhaomin character.

『What is this book you added?』

『I said everything I own and this is definitely my greatest treasure. Though to most it would probably be completely worthless you could also say it’s the most valuable thing you will probably ever lay eyes on in your entire life.』

『I highly doubt that. When I was a little girl my parents would give me mid class spirit stones as pocket money for sweets.』

“These two wastrels!” a certain black pheasant screamed uncontrollably in his mind but alas as the ship had already set sail his only hope now was just that it didn’t sink.

『Wow~ Big Sis Zhaomin must come from a wealthy family then.』

『You could say that but it was also suffocating so I left. Came here and founded the Wolf Tide Mercenaries. My hope was that by constantly fighting I would be able to find some inspiration to help get past my bottleneck.』

『Well look no further, your inspiration is here!』

『We’ll see about that. I accept your bet, if you can help me solve my problem then I’ll … be your friend and if you should fail, all of this, will belong to me.』

Nonchalantly smiling as if she didn’t just bet the wealth of small country Baiyue easily agreed.

『Yep, so let me hear this oh so difficult problem of yours.』

『Fine then. The exact specifics are something you definitely lack the technical expertise to understand but if I were to sum up my problem it’s this “How does a human who is born without wings learn to fly?”』

Baiyue took her time pondering and not rushing to give a shallow response. Zhaomin though saw that the girl did not have an immediate answer so she simply looked at the clouds while she waited before as usual sighing deeply.

Curiously it was in watching the woman’s depressed figure that Baiyue stumbled upon the solution.

『You know my mother used to say that if you keep sighing all the time your happiness will leave you.』

Zhaomin looked back down at the grey haired girl as she confidently smiled at her.

『What a coincidence my mother used to say that as well.』

『Sounds like a smart lady though it doesn’t seem like you listened to her much.』

Zhaomin rolled her eyes at the little girl’s chastisement and decided to instead get to business.

『Enough talk. What’s your answer?』

『Fine, fine, my answer is this … “You stare at the sky too much.”』

Everyone present practically did a spit take be it Mingtian, Zhang Wei or Zhaomin all had expected something, anything more than whatever the hell kind of answer “that” was. Taking a breath Zhaomin decided to not immediately dismiss Baiyue’s words as nonsense and instead asked for an explanation.

『It’s simple what I meant by “You stare at the sky too much” is that you keep mistakenly setting a bird as your goal. When you look at the sky for a long time of course you will see all the different birds gliding along but, was that really what you wanted to know? Your challenge was “How does a human born without wings learn to fly?” your bias is obvious from the question alone.』

『You mean my goal is to … not be a bird?』

『Yes. You were not born a bird and all this time you have tried to become one to no success. So how about stop looking at the path of others and find your own way into the sky. There are plenty of other examples like flying squirrels or that one kind of spider that makes a net out of web to catch the wind. My point is that to go through your bottleneck you don’t have to just squeeze past you could smash the glass or maybe even find a way to phase through it. The only thing more limiting than your reality is your mindset.』

It was like a bomb went off in Zhaomin’s mind, all her preconceived notions that held her back were immediately put behind and she saw the way forward.

『”The only thing more limiting than your reality is your mindset.” How old are you Long Baiyue?』

Sitting back down into her chair Baiyue answered easily, she wasn’t quite at the age where such a question was offensive afterall.

『I’ll be turning ten soon.』

『Well while it might be embarrassing to be a ten year old’s friend, I suppose I’ll manage. My full name is Fei Zhaomin please look after me from now on.』

『Likewise.』

After formally inducting Baiyue as her friend Zhaomin couldn’t resist the urge to take her book back out. This time as she read however, her face constantly jumped between smiling and frowning much different from her bored expression of before.

Continuing this for a few more minutes she eventually sighed the way she always did and soon during the next stop excused herself to check in with her companions that were off guarding the other carriages.

For the time being choosing to ignore Zhang Wei’s suspicious gaze that seemed to be questioning where all her money came from, Baiyue instead stood up to stretch her legs. Looking around for a while she eventually found a quiet corner for herself so she could talk with her Grampa Ming uninterrupted as they snacked on their rations.

『Hey, hey, Grampa Ming what do you think of my technique for making friends?』

『Yes Little Yue its very like you. The technique of a complete birdbrain! What the hell were you thinking betting the Moon Grasping Manual like that?』

At the berating of her master, Baiyue’s eyes began swimming.

『Um, so the thing is … is that um … I’ve always been really good at puzzles and riddles growing up and whenever I find one that’s “hard” well I sorta go a little crazy I guess.』

『You guess?』

『It’s hard to explain. Mama once said that when I get like that, I’m like a hormonal teenage boy stumbling upon a naked girl chained to a wall. I lose control of myself and really, really, need to check it out no matter what, even if it means doing something I shouldn’t do.』

『The fuck was your mother telling to a five year old?』

Smoothly ignoring the very legitimate question her teacher had Baiyue focused on something else.

『Grampa Ming you shouldn’t cuss like that!』

『No seriously, why is it your mother can openly scrape by the moral bottom line of society but I can’t curse?』

Looking up at the bird on her head like he was an idiot Baiyue answered as if it was common sense.

『My Mama said cursing is bad.』

『Long Meixing, one day you and I need to have a talk!』