Heaven and earth stretch wide, the long river flows on, and upon the long river floats a black-canopied boat.
Under overcast skies and dark clouds, a drizzling rain falls. Mu Aotie stands at the bow, wearing a bamboo hat and a straw raincoat as he steers, letting the entire vessel drift with the current.
Beneath the black canopy, in the rather cramped cabin, Nan Zhu sits cross-legged in meditation, while Yu Qing lies there with his hands behind his head, staring blankly at the ceiling as if refusing to close his eyes in death.
The three martial brothers take turns steering the boat.
The trio had originally planned to ride horses to reach their destination quickly, but as plans often fall victim to changing circumstances, they were forced to take things slow.
There was no other choice. Along the way, they suddenly encountered numerous soldiers setting up roadblocks for inspections. This left the three feeling deeply uneasy, unsure whether the checks were aimed at them.
They worried somewhat that ill-intentioned individuals might be targeting them.
If that were true, changing horses at the relay stations along the route would no longer be safe. The military could easily track their whereabouts through the station records.
Fortunately, this region was crisscrossed by waterways and rivers, so the three brothers simply acquired a boat.
With one person steering and the other two hiding in the cabin, they were less likely to be spotted. It proved a sound strategy.
Whenever they faced inspections or similar checks along the way, the other two would quickly slip into the water from the stern, hang beneath the hull, and slip past unnoticed. The key was to prevent outsiders from realising three people were travelling together.
“If the map is correct, the triangular area ahead should be Shiji Bay.”
Mu Aotie, standing at the stern and steering, called out a warning as he looked ahead.
Nan Zhu opened his eyes and turned his head towards Yu Qing. Seeing his junior brother lying there completely unmoved, as if he had not heard a thing, he sighed and shook his head. “Knowing his temperament, unrequited love would not affect him this deeply. It seems he and Wen Xin truly shared a past.”
Looking down into the black canopy while steering, Mu Aotie added, “It is as if that Wen Xin has stolen his soul.”
The two had already sensed something was amiss between Yu Qing and Wen Xin. How could they not, when Yu Qing had actually called out Wen Xin’s name in his sleep? It had genuinely startled his two senior brothers, who naturally pressed him for an explanation, but Yu Qing refused to admit anything under any circumstances.
Yesterday, after docking the boat, Nan Zhu went to a small town to purchase supplies and heard the news that Wen Mao had died and Wen Xin had inherited the position of head of the Wen family.
The news had actually spread across the entire Ning Province, but the trio rarely interacted with outsiders, so they had remained unaware.
After Nan Zhu brought the news back, they were all deeply moved. They had not expected such a drastic change to befall the Wen family so suddenly, with dozens of members poisoned to death in one go.
Yu Qing had only said one thing, “It might be aimed at us. We should avoid going ashore in populated areas.”
After those words, things essentially remained this way.
The two senior brothers roughly understood the implication behind his words. The disaster at the Wen family might have been brought about by his reputation as a Tanhua scholar. It was highly likely that someone was using the Wen family to track down their whereabouts.
The timing was simply too coincidental. It did not happen earlier, nor later, but precisely after they had left. It was hard not to overthink it.
At the very least, they needed to raise their guard. No one could guarantee that the Wen family would not betray them.
“Hey, Shiji Bay is almost here.”
Nan Zhu, who had been sitting cross-legged, extended one leg and nudged Yu Qing’s hip twice as a reminder.
“Hmm?” Yu Qing finally came to his senses, sat up, and half-crawled to the bow to look outside.
Nan Zhu also half-crawled over to peer out. The boat had already reached the confluence of two rivers. According to the map, the direction the surging waters flowed towards was the sea.
At that moment, numerous boats were travelling back and forth outside. The triangular shoreline was clearly a dock.
Whenever a boat passed nearby, Yu Qing and Nan Zhu would immediately shrink back into the cabin and lower the black canopy curtains, trying their best to prevent anyone from knowing three people were aboard.
Pfft! Yu Qing poked a small hole in the arched canopy with a finger and peered outside through it.
Nan Zhu looked at his own finger, copied the action, and poked a hole of his own to look out.
Due to the water currents, Mu Aotie stopped steering and instead picked up both oars, rowing vigorously towards the dock.
The boat did not dock. It merely passed close by the quay. The archway at the dock prominently displayed the three large characters, “Shiji Bay”.
Beside the dock lay a massive boulder. It was said that during the dry season, it resembled a giant frog resting in the water. At present, only a large portion of it broke the surface. On top, an old fisherman was braving the rain to fish in the eddies behind the rock.
According to local gazetteers, the place was named “Shiji Bay” precisely because of this massive stone.
Having finally found the “Shiji Bay” that Yun Xi had mentioned, all three felt highly excited.
Nan Zhu closed his eyes and recalled, “Yun Xi said the entrance lies at the highest peak among the mountains deep within the white clouds. There are rapids at the foot of the mountain. After drifting on a wooden raft for about half an hour, one sees a small town surrounded by many camellia flowers. Then, after drifting for another half day, one reaches this dock called Shiji Bay.”
After opening his eyes, he pulled out a local map acquired along the way. Spreading it open, the spot circled in charcoal was indeed Shiji Bay. He pointed to a mountain range relatively far from the bay. “By rough estimation, the distance is about right, and this is the only area with a highest peak nearby.”
There was no other option. After obtaining the actual map, they realised that tracing the river upstream was impractical. Too many tributaries merged into the main river along the way, making it impossible to determine which river Yun Xi had drifted down on her raft years ago.
Three thousand years had passed. Tributary channels were highly prone to changing course.
Trying to navigate every single river, whether upstream or downstream, would be incredibly difficult, even setting aside the time required.
They could only roughly calculate how far one might drift in half a day based on the average water speed. They located a roughly matching mountain range on the map and decided to find the so-called highest peak first. Then they would follow Yun Xi’s described route to see if they could locate the town full of camellias.
If, upon reaching the highest peak, drifting on a raft for about half an hour revealed the camellia town, then they would likely have found the right place.
Yu Qing, leaning over the hole in the canopy to observe the bustling dock outside, said, “Shiji Bay has survived for three thousand years because of its convenient terrain and its nature as an ideal natural harbour. A small mountain town is unlikely to have lasted that long. I fear we might not be able to find it.”
Leaning against the wall, Nan Zhu replied, “If the town is truly gone, it does not matter if we cannot find it. Towns can vanish, but suitable plant species do not disappear so easily. If large quantities of camellias exist in the approximate area, that will serve as proof enough.
If we find no evidence, we will simply bet that the highest peak of that range is it. An immortal cave mansion, if located at a mountain peak, would hardly be placed on a lower summit, would it? Let us first locate the highest peak and wait there until the first new moon of next year to try. If that fails, we can always spend a year drifting back and forth along each river to test it out.”
Yu Qing turned around and sat down. “The fact that Yun Xi could tell us the location of an immortal cave mansion makes me feel something is off. It just feels wrong. Could she have deliberately picked a place name from her memories just to toy with us?”
Nan Zhu said, “If that is truly the case, there is nothing we can do. We did not have to come here, and we did not have to be played. We chose to push through wind and rain to get here. No one forced us. Who can we blame? Come on, Old Fifteen. Since we are already here and have already done this, let us just take things as they come.
In short, we either strike it rich or waste our efforts. Did you not vow to become a master in the cultivation world? How can you become a master without cultivation resources? Where would you get those resources without money? We cannot win a fight if we try to rob people! In the past, our lives were cheap, and we never had a path to wealth. Now that an opportunity has finally arisen, how could we not try? Old Fifteen, we have already come this far…”
Yu Qing raised a hand to stop him. “Alright, I was just speaking casually. Say no more.”
He had to admit defeat to this chatterbox. The moment he found an opening, he would deliver solemn lectures with absolute seriousness, rambling on endlessly. It was truly unbearable.
Nan Zhu shook his head, wearing the expression of an elder whose wise words are ignored by the youth. He turned back, reached into a nearby water bucket, grabbed a ladle, poured fresh water into a teapot beside him, tapped the pot, and called out to Da Tou, who was resting on the canopy’s drying crossbeam, “Come here, Da Tou. Come and boil a pot of tea.”
Da Tou on the crossbeam tilted his head to look at him, then tilted it back, remaining completely still and ignoring him entirely.
His reaction clearly showed he had heard Nan Zhu’s call.
Nan Zhu raised an eyebrow, turned around, rummaged through a cloth sack in the corner, grabbed a handful of spiritual rice, placed it on the deck, and tapped it twice.
Da Tou on the crossbeam glanced over, immediately flew down, and pounced on the spiritual rice.
Thwack! Nan Zhu swiftly covered the small pile of rice with his palm, gesturing towards the teapot with his chin. “You dare ask for food without doing any work? Boil the tea first!”
Da Tou tilted his head to look at him, turned around, gave a leap, and landed inside the teapot.
Nan Zhu grinned crookedly. Suddenly struck by a thought, he said to Yu Qing, “Old Fifteen, have you noticed? This farting bug seems much cleverer than before. It appears to be thinking, starting to understand bargaining, and now seems to gradually comprehend human speech completely. Could it be that it is simply growing up?”
Yu Qing paused. Having spent so much time near Da Tou, he had not noticed it. But with the reminder, it was true. Along this journey, compared to before, there seemed to be a noticeable change. Could it really be that it was just young before and has now grown up?
Gurgle gurgle. Steam soon rose from the teapot. The water boiled, and Da Tou climbed out again.
Nan Zhu rinsed the pot, poured out the hot water, refilled it with fresh water, tapped the teapot, and Da Tou jumped back in on his own.
After the second pot of water boiled, Da Tou crawled out and went straight for the spiritual rice, crunching away with loud bites. Nan Zhu did not stop him this time, letting him eat, while he took out tea leaves and tossed them into the pot.
Outside, clad in his bamboo hat and straw raincoat amidst the drizzle, Mu Aotie swung his arms vigorously, rowing hard upstream with both oars. He knew the exact route to take.
Although they said the three would take turns rowing, in reality, Mu Aotie did most of it alone. Yu Qing and Nan Zhu only took over when he needed to rest and recover. Under normal circumstances, Mu Aotie handled the regular physical labour as well. He called himself a martial obsession and treated manual work as a form of cultivation. Since he was willing, the other two naturally did not stand on ceremony.
“Old Nine, take it easy. Do not row too fast. It might arouse suspicion.”
Pushing aside the curtain, Nan Zhu handed Mu Aotie a cup of freshly brewed tea while offering the reminder.