Meng Qi: What happened??
In fact, the appearance of a dragon in the clouds is like the Buddha’s light on mountain tops or mirages at sea—visible but intangible. Jianghu people marvel for a while and then it’s over. Whether dragons exist in the world or not isn’t the point; the question is why the dragon appeared!
Many believe it’s because the Emperor Li’s tomb was opened, causing the dragon’s spirit to leak out.
The presence of a dragon indicates that the treasure is real.
As for what the golden dragon represents, what the black dragon signifies, and why the two dragons fought to the death, most jianghu people don’t care. Getting rich is what’s most important!
Are divine weapons no good, or are rare treasures worthless?
Focusing on the treasure instead of worrying about whether the emperor’s throne is secure—isn’t that absurd? Those from the jianghu, whether unaffiliated or from lesser-known sects, who own no land and have no family, wander the world without a care for the affairs of the court. They find even an extra word too bothersome.
But encountering a dragon in the sky and running into one in the mountains are two different matters!
In the mountains, a seemingly unreachable dragon suddenly becomes a fierce tiger or some rare beast that can run, jump, eat, and get injured. What does this imply?
It implies it can be captured or killed!
Even the calmest person can’t help but get excited and rush to chase the dragon.
In the end, it was all for naught. The golden dragon tore through the clouds with a claw, and the black dragon vanished without a trace, leaving a crowd still excitedly discussing.
Everyone thought the same: the black dragon was outmatched by the golden dragon and must have hidden.
They were some distance from the pond and searched tirelessly.
They suspected everything, even the frogs and toads near the pond, could be transformations of the dragon.
—Some rituals to pray for rain involve inviting the dragon from a water source. Afterwards, the person conducting the ritual would take the first thing they see by the pond as the dragon’s avatar, either to worship or to symbolically whip.
Because of this habit of taking whatever they see first, besides fish, snakes, and turtles, even frogs and toads could be suspect. Over time, people believed that once a dragon approaches water, it can transform into anything.
“The black dragon escaped into Shangyun Mountain with the storm.”
“There seemed to be mist just now!”
People were desperate to turn the valley upside down, seeing everything as the dragon’s avatar.
“…Wait, didn’t a highly skilled senior try to jump onto the cliff to catch the dragon just as the golden dragon’s claw tore through the clouds, causing the black dragon to disappear? That senior was closest to the black dragon, maybe he saw something?”
The speaker was the youngest of the Eight Tigers of Yudong.
Reminded by this, everyone thought it made sense.
“Right, who was that person?”
“Seemed to be wearing a Taoist robe… didn’t see clearly…”
At that time, everyone was busy looking at the golden dragon hidden behind the clouds to pay attention to anything else.
The Eight Tigers of Yudong’s youngest was about to speak when his prepared eldest brother quickly covered his mouth and forcibly took him aside.
“What are you doing, Eight?”
“I’m telling what I saw! That person was Qingwu Ancestor, I recognize him!” Eight said indignantly, “Big brother, you don’t still believe in the treasure, do you? That dragon was alive, not some emperor’s tomb dragon spirit! I’ve asked around, no one who came here first found anything, not to mention emperor’s tomb treasures, not even a brick!”
“Alright, you’re the smart one!” the bearded eldest brother said irritably, pushing the youngest’s head down and nodding towards the crowd, “Do you think others haven’t thought of that?”
Initially, Eight was unconvinced, but after about the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, someone else started shouting.
“It was Qingwu Ancestor, I recognize his eldest disciple, Liu Changqing! They’re not here anymore!”
“There’s no emperor’s tomb treasure in Shangyun Mountain! They spread rumors and used explosives to blast the mountain because they knew there was a dragon. They tricked us into digging and searching to disturb the dragon, and now they’ve surely gone after it!”
“That… can’t be!”
People looked at each other in disbelief. If it weren’t for witnessing it themselves, they would have laughed at such a notion. Claiming there’s a treasure in the mountain just to catch a dragon?!
Dragons are elusive, surely the emperor’s tomb treasure is more plausible!
“Fellow daoists, consider this, if it wasn’t so, how do you explain Qingwu Ancestor hiding and not appearing? He is… the world’s number one expert! Even the abbot of Hengchang Temple and Scholar Mei of the Tianshan Sect were defeated by him. We’re all trapped here, why didn’t he come forward to lead the fellow daoists to his Cangfeng Sect?
“Another thing, has anyone seen the elders or leaders of the major sects? Did they turn back halfway, or were they delayed somewhere? Don’t you find it strange?
“This forest, and this valley, are very unusual! It’s like the legendary Eight Trigrams Formation, impossible to exit! Before we couldn’t understand why, but now that we’ve seen the dragon, isn’t it clear? We came to dig for treasures, but were used by others! There’s no emperor’s tomb treasure in this valley, this is where the dragon hides!”
These words left people dazed. Someone couldn’t help but ask, “Who are you?”
The speaker straightened his chest and said loudly, “I come from Fengxing Pavilion, known in the jianghu as the ‘Mountain Shaking Tiger,’ modestly recognized by fellow daoists.”
The name “Fengxing Pavilion” stunned everyone.
Even the Eight Tigers of Yudong’s youngest, who had wanted to expose Qingwu Ancestor, was left agape. He only thought of one possibility, while others had considered ten. He felt ashamed and whispered to his eldest brother, “I underestimated the heroes of the world. From now on, I will observe and think more, speak and act less.”
The Eight Tigers of Yudong’s eldest brother: “…”
The youngest probably was beyond saving, believing even such absurdities?
Just as the bearded eldest was about to speak, he heard agreeing voices around him, growing louder until nearly half the crowd thought the Mountain Shaking Tiger made sense.
The rest were intimidated, even starting to doubt themselves.
“We must leave this place! We might handle the black dragon, but if it’s the golden dragon…”
The speaker shivered, clearly imagining the terrifying outcome of a giant dragon claw crashing down, potentially leveling the entire valley.
Don’t say it’s impossible, this eerie place was deeply unusual.
“Right, we must go!”
With unanimous agreement, everyone gave up on searching for the dragon.
What if finding the black dragon also drew out the golden dragon?
The prospect of facing a grievously wounded dragon didn’t scare them, but a dragon with scales as large as the gates of Taijing City… who would dare provoke it?
The dragons mentioned in tales are seldom considerate of the common folk. Even in stories like “The Tale of Liu Yi,” where a failed scholar delivers a message for a Dragon Maiden of Dongting Lake and ends up marrying her—a story widely popular across the south, beloved by men and women, young and old—the brother of the Dongting Dragon Lord, Qiantang Lord, becomes enraged upon hearing his niece was insulted by the son of the Jinghe Dragon King. With thunder and lightning enveloping his dragon form, and hail raining down, he indeed shakes the earth to its core.
At the end, when Qiantang Lord rescues his niece back to Dongting, the Dragon Lord asks how many he killed. Qiantang Lord says six hundred thousand.
This six hundred thousand likely refers to shrimp soldiers and crab generals, aquatic troops. When asked if crops were damaged, Qiantang Lord’s response is chilling.
He says, eight hundred li.
This refers to the land within an eight hundred li radius, not the loss of aquatic troops. The crops belong to the common folk, who depend on their fields for survival. Without harvest, families would have nowhere to turn.
In the tale, is Qiantang Lord punished for destroying crops across eight hundred li? No, for dragons are dragons; they don’t reason with humans, and death is merely unfortunate luck.
Jianghu folks didn’t believe in real dragons until they appeared. Without formal education, most people thought of various plays and rural legends…
So, why wait? Run!
Thus, when the instigator regained consciousness and used his lightness skills to catch up, he found a large group of jianghu people wandering aimlessly in the forest, cursing under their breath.
Meng Qi: “…?”
That’s not right. The plan was aimed at Qingwu Ancestor, and he hadn’t even begun to incite or stir up these jianghu people! Who did this good deed?!
Mo Li was even more surprised. When he “left,” these people were red-eyed with eagerness to catch the dragon. How did they suddenly change their minds, eager to leave the valley?
The two exchanged glances, and Meng Qi speculated: “They might have been scared by the dragon claw. Ah, I said my original form is too big, easily frightening people.”
Mo Li: “…”
That feeling of having a thousand words to refute but not wanting to speak a single word, Mo Li experienced it fully.
“Let’s withdraw the formation. They won’t stay here any longer, and we’ve destroyed the cannons outside. As long as they find the right path, they won’t encounter any danger.”
Meng Qi nodded, eager to drive these people out of Shangyun Mountain.
The so-called trap was dense vegetation nourished by spiritual energy. Even for dragon veins, it’s impossible to instantly wither the plants and return everything to its original state.
Breaking the formation isn’t about using spiritual energy but martial arts. The jianghu people’s random slashing had little effect because they didn’t address the key stones and trees.
With high enough martial arts and the willingness to expend it, one could forcibly “break” a path through.
“Qingwu Ancestor has already left,” Meng Qi observed the damaged trees.
Traces extended to the valley’s exterior; if it weren’t so dark, those jianghu people might have found this “path” and left successfully earlier.
Meng Qi approached the crowd quietly, then loudly said, “There seems to be a path ahead!”
The people looked up, didn’t see a path, nor could they identify who was speaking.
“Over here!”
Some immediately followed the direction of the voice.
Soon, joyful shouts came from the woods.
“There really is a path!”
Mo Li, standing atop a tree, watched the group hastily leave the valley. Then, after discussing, they decided not to take the mountain path but to detour to another mountain, avoiding the imperial forces.
Below the mountain, General Tan of the Left Camp in Jingji was raging.
The supply camp carrying the cannons had an incident: everyone from the commander down to the soldiers had their acupoints sealed, unresponsive even to cold water. The cannons were broken, and even the storage for arrows had been raided.
The specially designed arrows with barbs and blood grooves were flattened.
More precisely, they were pinched flat, some with shallow finger imprints remaining. Gathering these arrows together revealed the impression of five fingers, indicating the perpetrator didn’t destroy them one by one but used a swift technique to grab and flatten them in handfuls.
What puzzled General Tan was why, with such ability to move undetected within the military, the intruder didn’t simply kill people but chose to seal their acupoints instead?
And with the arrows, breaking them in half would have been easier, yet they chose a more laborious method. Although this significantly reduced the arrows’ lethality, they were still usable.
Mo Li: As a doctor, found these arrowheads too troubling.
Meng Qi: To avoid Qingwu Ancestor turning back to kill these people, the arrows couldn’t be destroyed, leaving them for self-defense.
General Tan’s arrogance from the day before vanished upon seeing the remnants of the cannons.
Forget killing jianghu people; just the blame for the complete destruction of the cannons was too much to bear.
“General…”
“Everyone, hold your positions, do not act rashly, and wait for new orders from the capital.” As General Tan finished speaking, he felt a gust of wind blow past. When he looked again, those two figures were already far away.
That was the direction of Taijing.
General Tan’s expression changed several times, eventually gritting his teeth and waving his hand, forbidding any rash actions.
Author’s Note:
With thunder and lightning around him, hail and sleet falling all at once—
The lord said, “How many did you kill?”
He replied, “Six hundred thousand.”
“Did you damage the crops?”
He said, “Eight hundred li.”
“What about the merciless man?”
He said, “Eaten.”
—”The Tale of Liu Yi”
Aside from the trope of a poor scholar marrying a beautiful woman and the cross-era significance of this Tang dynasty romance novel taught in class, actually… the Dongting family showed their might in front of the scholar, then complied with the dragon maiden’s wish to pick a husband she liked and who dared not mistreat her, all were happy.【Just stop】
Above are the snide remarks from language class back in the day OTZ.
Very irreverent, just forget about it after reading.
Meng Qi: What happened??
In fact, the appearance of a dragon in the clouds is like the Buddha’s light on mountain tops or mirages at sea—visible but intangible. Jianghu people marvel for a while and then it’s over. Whether dragons exist in the world or not isn’t the point; the question is why the dragon appeared!
Many believe it’s because the Emperor Li’s tomb was opened, causing the dragon’s spirit to leak out.
The presence of a dragon indicates that the treasure is real.
As for what the golden dragon represents, what the black dragon signifies, and why the two dragons fought to the death, most jianghu people don’t care. Getting rich is what’s most important!
Are divine weapons no good, or are rare treasures worthless?
Focusing on the treasure instead of worrying about whether the emperor’s throne is secure—isn’t that absurd? Those from the jianghu, whether unaffiliated or from lesser-known sects, who own no land and have no family, wander the world without a care for the affairs of the court. They find even an extra word too bothersome.
But encountering a dragon in the sky and running into one in the mountains are two different matters!
In the mountains, a seemingly unreachable dragon suddenly becomes a fierce tiger or some rare beast that can run, jump, eat, and get injured. What does this imply?
It implies it can be captured or killed!
Even the calmest person can’t help but get excited and rush to chase the dragon.
In the end, it was all for naught. The golden dragon tore through the clouds with a claw, and the black dragon vanished without a trace, leaving a crowd still excitedly discussing.
Everyone thought the same: the black dragon was outmatched by the golden dragon and must have hidden.
They were some distance from the pond and searched tirelessly.
They suspected everything, even the frogs and toads near the pond, could be transformations of the dragon.
—Some rituals to pray for rain involve inviting the dragon from a water source. Afterwards, the person conducting the ritual would take the first thing they see by the pond as the dragon’s avatar, either to worship or to symbolically whip.
Because of this habit of taking whatever they see first, besides fish, snakes, and turtles, even frogs and toads could be suspect. Over time, people believed that once a dragon approaches water, it can transform into anything.
“The black dragon escaped into Shangyun Mountain with the storm.”
“There seemed to be mist just now!”
People were desperate to turn the valley upside down, seeing everything as the dragon’s avatar.
“…Wait, didn’t a highly skilled senior try to jump onto the cliff to catch the dragon just as the golden dragon’s claw tore through the clouds, causing the black dragon to disappear? That senior was closest to the black dragon, maybe he saw something?”
The speaker was the youngest of the Eight Tigers of Yudong.
Reminded by this, everyone thought it made sense.
“Right, who was that person?”
“Seemed to be wearing a Taoist robe… didn’t see clearly…”
At that time, everyone was busy looking at the golden dragon hidden behind the clouds to pay attention to anything else.
The Eight Tigers of Yudong’s youngest was about to speak when his prepared eldest brother quickly covered his mouth and forcibly took him aside.
“What are you doing, Eight?”
“I’m telling what I saw! That person was Qingwu Ancestor, I recognize him!” Eight said indignantly, “Big brother, you don’t still believe in the treasure, do you? That dragon was alive, not some emperor’s tomb dragon spirit! I’ve asked around, no one who came here first found anything, not to mention emperor’s tomb treasures, not even a brick!”
“Alright, you’re the smart one!” the bearded eldest brother said irritably, pushing the youngest’s head down and nodding towards the crowd, “Do you think others haven’t thought of that?”
Initially, Eight was unconvinced, but after about the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, someone else started shouting.
“It was Qingwu Ancestor, I recognize his eldest disciple, Liu Changqing! They’re not here anymore!”
“There’s no emperor’s tomb treasure in Shangyun Mountain! They spread rumors and used explosives to blast the mountain because they knew there was a dragon. They tricked us into digging and searching to disturb the dragon, and now they’ve surely gone after it!”
“That… can’t be!”
People looked at each other in disbelief. If it weren’t for witnessing it themselves, they would have laughed at such a notion. Claiming there’s a treasure in the mountain just to catch a dragon?!
Dragons are elusive, surely the emperor’s tomb treasure is more plausible!
“Fellow daoists, consider this, if it wasn’t so, how do you explain Qingwu Ancestor hiding and not appearing? He is… the world’s number one expert! Even the abbot of Hengchang Temple and Scholar Mei of the Tianshan Sect were defeated by him. We’re all trapped here, why didn’t he come forward to lead the fellow daoists to his Cangfeng Sect?
“Another thing, has anyone seen the elders or leaders of the major sects? Did they turn back halfway, or were they delayed somewhere? Don’t you find it strange?
“This forest, and this valley, are very unusual! It’s like the legendary Eight Trigrams Formation, impossible to exit! Before we couldn’t understand why, but now that we’ve seen the dragon, isn’t it clear? We came to dig for treasures, but were used by others! There’s no emperor’s tomb treasure in this valley, this is where the dragon hides!”
These words left people dazed. Someone couldn’t help but ask, “Who are you?”
The speaker straightened his chest and said loudly, “I come from Fengxing Pavilion, known in the jianghu as the ‘Mountain Shaking Tiger,’ modestly recognized by fellow daoists.”
The name “Fengxing Pavilion” stunned everyone.
Even the Eight Tigers of Yudong’s youngest, who had wanted to expose Qingwu Ancestor, was left agape. He only thought of one possibility, while others had considered ten. He felt ashamed and whispered to his eldest brother, “I underestimated the heroes of the world. From now on, I will observe and think more, speak and act less.”
The Eight Tigers of Yudong’s eldest brother: “…”
The youngest probably was beyond saving, believing even such absurdities?
Just as the bearded eldest was about to speak, he heard agreeing voices around him, growing louder until nearly half the crowd thought the Mountain Shaking Tiger made sense.
The rest were intimidated, even starting to doubt themselves.
“We must leave this place! We might handle the black dragon, but if it’s the golden dragon…”
The speaker shivered, clearly imagining the terrifying outcome of a giant dragon claw crashing down, potentially leveling the entire valley.
Don’t say it’s impossible, this eerie place was deeply unusual.
“Right, we must go!”
With unanimous agreement, everyone gave up on searching for the dragon.
What if finding the black dragon also drew out the golden dragon?
The prospect of facing a grievously wounded dragon didn’t scare them, but a dragon with scales as large as the gates of Taijing City… who would dare provoke it?
The dragons mentioned in tales are seldom considerate of the common folk. Even in stories like “The Tale of Liu Yi,” where a failed scholar delivers a message for a Dragon Maiden of Dongting Lake and ends up marrying her—a story widely popular across the south, beloved by men and women, young and old—the brother of the Dongting Dragon Lord, Qiantang Lord, becomes enraged upon hearing his niece was insulted by the son of the Jinghe Dragon King. With thunder and lightning enveloping his dragon form, and hail raining down, he indeed shakes the earth to its core.
At the end, when Qiantang Lord rescues his niece back to Dongting, the Dragon Lord asks how many he killed. Qiantang Lord says six hundred thousand.
This six hundred thousand likely refers to shrimp soldiers and crab generals, aquatic troops. When asked if crops were damaged, Qiantang Lord’s response is chilling.
He says, eight hundred li.
This refers to the land within an eight hundred li radius, not the loss of aquatic troops. The crops belong to the common folk, who depend on their fields for survival. Without harvest, families would have nowhere to turn.
In the tale, is Qiantang Lord punished for destroying crops across eight hundred li? No, for dragons are dragons; they don’t reason with humans, and death is merely unfortunate luck.
Jianghu folks didn’t believe in real dragons until they appeared. Without formal education, most people thought of various plays and rural legends…
So, why wait? Run!
Thus, when the instigator regained consciousness and used his lightness skills to catch up, he found a large group of jianghu people wandering aimlessly in the forest, cursing under their breath.
Meng Qi: “…?”
That’s not right. The plan was aimed at Qingwu Ancestor, and he hadn’t even begun to incite or stir up these jianghu people! Who did this good deed?!
Mo Li was even more surprised. When he “left,” these people were red-eyed with eagerness to catch the dragon. How did they suddenly change their minds, eager to leave the valley?
The two exchanged glances, and Meng Qi speculated: “They might have been scared by the dragon claw. Ah, I said my original form is too big, easily frightening people.”
Mo Li: “…”
That feeling of having a thousand words to refute but not wanting to speak a single word, Mo Li experienced it fully.
“Let’s withdraw the formation. They won’t stay here any longer, and we’ve destroyed the cannons outside. As long as they find the right path, they won’t encounter any danger.”
Meng Qi nodded, eager to drive these people out of Shangyun Mountain.
The so-called trap was dense vegetation nourished by spiritual energy. Even for dragon veins, it’s impossible to instantly wither the plants and return everything to its original state.
Breaking the formation isn’t about using spiritual energy but martial arts. The jianghu people’s random slashing had little effect because they didn’t address the key stones and trees.
With high enough martial arts and the willingness to expend it, one could forcibly “break” a path through.
“Qingwu Ancestor has already left,” Meng Qi observed the damaged trees.
Traces extended to the valley’s exterior; if it weren’t so dark, those jianghu people might have found this “path” and left successfully earlier.
Meng Qi approached the crowd quietly, then loudly said, “There seems to be a path ahead!”
The people looked up, didn’t see a path, nor could they identify who was speaking.
“Over here!”
Some immediately followed the direction of the voice.
Soon, joyful shouts came from the woods.
“There really is a path!”
Mo Li, standing atop a tree, watched the group hastily leave the valley. Then, after discussing, they decided not to take the mountain path but to detour to another mountain, avoiding the imperial forces.
Below the mountain, General Tan of the Left Camp in Jingji was raging.
The supply camp carrying the cannons had an incident: everyone from the commander down to the soldiers had their acupoints sealed, unresponsive even to cold water. The cannons were broken, and even the storage for arrows had been raided.
The specially designed arrows with barbs and blood grooves were flattened.
More precisely, they were pinched flat, some with shallow finger imprints remaining. Gathering these arrows together revealed the impression of five fingers, indicating the perpetrator didn’t destroy them one by one but used a swift technique to grab and flatten them in handfuls.
What puzzled General Tan was why, with such ability to move undetected within the military, the intruder didn’t simply kill people but chose to seal their acupoints instead?
And with the arrows, breaking them in half would have been easier, yet they chose a more laborious method. Although this significantly reduced the arrows’ lethality, they were still usable.
Mo Li: As a doctor, found these arrowheads too troubling.
Meng Qi: To avoid Qingwu Ancestor turning back to kill these people, the arrows couldn’t be destroyed, leaving them for self-defense.
General Tan’s arrogance from the day before vanished upon seeing the remnants of the cannons.
Forget killing jianghu people; just the blame for the complete destruction of the cannons was too much to bear.
“General…”
“Everyone, hold your positions, do not act rashly, and wait for new orders from the capital.” As General Tan finished speaking, he felt a gust of wind blow past. When he looked again, those two figures were already far away.
That was the direction of Taijing.
General Tan’s expression changed several times, eventually gritting his teeth and waving his hand, forbidding any rash actions.
Author’s Note:
With thunder and lightning around him, hail and sleet falling all at once—
The lord said, “How many did you kill?”
He replied, “Six hundred thousand.”
“Did you damage the crops?”
He said, “Eight hundred li.”
“What about the merciless man?”
He said, “Eaten.”
—”The Tale of Liu Yi”
Aside from the trope of a poor scholar marrying a beautiful woman and the cross-era significance of this Tang dynasty romance novel taught in class, actually… the Dongting family showed their might in front of the scholar, then complied with the dragon maiden’s wish to pick a husband she liked and who dared not mistreat her, all were happy.【Just stop】
Above are the snide remarks from language class back in the day OTZ.
Very irreverent, just forget about it after reading.
