The doctor poked his head out from the boss’s windbreaker pocket. The fierce winds atop Mount Yi blew his ears in all directions, making him afraid to stick his body out too far, or he would easily be blown away.
Seeing the boss silently walking up along Mount Yi’s ancient sheep cart path – what locals called the Imperial Ridge – the doctor’s mood became increasingly anxious. For this past month, he had continuously tried to persuade the boss to abandon the idea of using the crimson dragon robe as the final imperial antique to suppress the universe-stabilizing formation. But in these thirty-plus days, the boss had not found a replacement imperial antique.
The crimson dragon robe was personally painted by Emperor Huizong Zhao Ji of Song – a miraculous garment that could keep the wearer’s body completely preserved from decay. Once the boss removed this crimson dragon robe, he would quickly rot and die…
“Damn it, you haven’t even gotten my body back for me yet! How could you just die so easily like this?” the doctor muttered to himself.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to make him return your body to you,” the boss said with a gentle smile.
That’s not the point at all! The doctor was furious, but only then did he realize the boss had already entered a cave, otherwise with the cold wind howling outside, the boss wouldn’t have been able to hear his complaints. The doctor shook his long ears covered with dust and surveyed this cave with many stone cracks that was quite narrow and long: “Where have we gotten to?”
“This is the Ancestor Dragon Cave, named because Emperor Qin Shi Huang climbed through this cave when he ascended Mount Yi,” the boss said indifferently, lowering his head as he walked slowly through the cavern.
The doctor’s heart sank. He knew where the boss was heading – he had secretly researched online these past few days. The boss had found the locations where the first eleven imperial antiques were buried. What remained was Mount Yi’s peak, where Emperor Qin Shi Huang first erected a stone tablet.
Mount Yi was a famous mountain near the homeland of Confucius and Mencius. In “Mencius – Dedication of the Heart,” it says: “When Confucius climbed the Eastern Mountain, Lu seemed small; when he climbed Mount Tai, the world seemed small.” The Eastern Mountain referred to here was this Mount Yi. Emperor Qin Shi Huang chose this place to erect his first stone tablet because of its excellent geographical position.
Now over two thousand years had passed, and Mount Yi still stood here, though it had become a national 4A-level scenic park. Because it was already deep winter with fierce winds and bitter cold on the mountain, there were no other tourists at all. The boss passed through the narrow Ancestor Dragon Cave, and at the northeast exit saw a Peace Tree. This Peace Tree was said to have formed from a brush hair dropped by Han Xiangzi, one of the Eight Immortals, and this place was called the Heavenly Jade Well, which could only accommodate one person standing.
Continuing forward led to Mount Yi’s main peak, Five Flowers Peak. This place once had the saying “ascending to heaven in one step.” The mountain was formed by five giant rocks embracing each other, with the highest and most dangerous rock called the Heaven-Piercing Stone, its top narrow as a blade’s edge. The boss looked up for a long time but ultimately did not climb up, instead choosing a sheltered spot to sit cross-legged with eyes closed.
The doctor knew he was waiting for that Fu Su to appear, so he stopped talking and clung to the boss’s pocket, staring unblinkingly at the Ancestor Dragon Cave exit.
After an unknown amount of time, the wind on Mount Yi’s peak suddenly became fierce. The boss’s hair flew wildly as he slowly opened his eyes and sighed softly: “The wind is rising…”
Tang Yuan propped his chin with one hand, looking at the wind and snow outside the pavilion. After watching for a long time, he didn’t feel anything was wrong – after all, it couldn’t blow on him now.
Withdrawing his gaze, Tang Yuan noticed the young Taoist’s expression had become somewhat grave, no longer showing the leisurely and relaxed expression from before. He had even forgotten to eat the candied hawthorn he had specifically requested today.
Tang Yuan suppressed the uneasiness in his heart and grinned: “Hey! Are you still eating that candied hawthorn or not? If not, I’ll eat it!”
The young Taoist was startled at these words, as if awakened from some meditative state. The next moment, he reflexively opened his lips, and a piece of hawthorn obediently floated into his mouth.
He really is a foodie! Tang Yuan thought with exasperation, looking down at the Go board on the table. He was very puzzled about how the blind young Taoist managed to play Go against himself. Although the board was carved into the flat stone table and the Taoist could feel the intersecting grooves, and the black and white pieces were divided into black square and white round shapes, wouldn’t playing Go this way be extremely mentally taxing? As Tang Yuan examined this closely, he discovered that because he had casually placed pastries on the table earlier, some of the Go pieces had been disturbed. Tang Yuan tilted his head, wanting to restore the board to its exact original state.
The young Taoist didn’t stop Tang Yuan’s fidgeting – in fact, he didn’t care at all whether the board was disturbed.
But Tang Yuan was very concerned about his unusual silence. Making conversation, he asked: “Hey! When the snow stops, can you teach me how to create such an awesome barrier?”
The young Taoist pursed his lips and complained: “Tang Yuan, you won’t even call me Master, yet you want me to teach you things?” The Taoist was extremely resentful – thinking of all the disciples he had taken before, which one hadn’t been respectful toward him? As time passed, how had even these four characters of ‘respecting teachers and honoring the Way’ become unknown to people?
“I told you it’s an equal exchange! If you stop calling me Tang Yuan, I’ll call you Master! What more are you dissatisfied with? I absolutely keep my word!” Tang Yuan slammed the table – he was the one who should feel resentful! Fortunately, in this remote mountain wilderness, there was no one else besides him and the Taoist, otherwise the name Tang Yuan would really stick. No way – before this became a lifelong stain and caused a major disaster, he had to correct it in advance!
“Keep your word…” The young Taoist was obviously moved by these four characters. After eating another piece of hawthorn, he sighed: “Tang Yuan, do you know what a cauldron is?”
“A cauldron?” Tang Yuan was confused for a moment and was easily led off topic. “Isn’t a cauldron just a bronze vessel? A big one with three legs, very heavy.” Tang Yuan gestured with his hands, indicating that the big thing was more than sufficient to fit his entire person inside.
“Oh? Then do you know what it was used for?” The young Taoist ate his hawthorn piece by piece, asking with interest.
“It should have some symbolic meaning, right? A national treasure or something like that.” Tang Yuan tilted his head, thinking of the knowledge he’d read in books, answering somewhat uncertainly.
The young Taoist finally found a bit of the feeling of being a master. He sat up straight with some solemnity. He said slowly: “Cauldrons were actually used for cooking food in the very beginning.”
Tang Yuan’s round face darkened – he knew this foodie couldn’t go three sentences without mentioning food. Seeing that his candied hawthorn was almost finished, he handed over his own stick and stuffed it into the Taoist’s hands.
The young Taoist didn’t mind, accepting it and continuing to eat while speaking with perfect diction: “You must understand that the Bronze Age was truly an era when people lived by food as their heaven. An entire clan or tribe would eat together, which is why cauldrons were so large. But only the clan leader had the authority to distribute food, and over time, the cauldron became a symbol of power.”
“Wow, is this how foodies conquered the world?” Tang Yuan felt helpless. He had been out for so long and was getting thirsty, so he casually picked a lotus leaf, folded it into a water scoop shape, and bent down to ladle some from the steaming hot spring pool.
“But cauldrons had more than just these two functions – they were also instruments of punishment.” The young Taoist seemed tired of eating hawthorn piece by piece and directly ate one whole piece at a time, making his cheeks bulge and completely destroying the otherworldly sage appearance he had just put on.
“Instruments of punishment?” Tang Yuan held up the lotus leaf and blinked, completely forgetting to drink. All the water drops from the lotus leaf leaked onto him.
“Yes, instruments for directly cooking people.” The young Taoist spoke very matter-of-factly, as if commenting on today’s weather, while the frozen-hard hawthorn pieces in his mouth crunched crisply. “Those in supreme positions liked to give hope to life and also liked to deprive life of its rights. The power of life and death – this phrase summarizes it quite well. So cauldrons were quite contradictory existences – both vessels for cooking food and instruments for cooking people. Such objects that both give life and take life are indeed rarely seen.”
“Indeed…” Tang Yuan’s interest was piqued by the young Taoist’s words, and he urged: “Come on, tell me more about cauldrons.”
“Well, later cauldrons became symbols of the realm. All rulers devoted their entire national resources to casting ever larger and more exquisite cauldrons to demonstrate their power. In the early years of the Xia Dynasty, Yu the Great divided the realm into nine provinces and cast nine cauldrons, engraving the famous mountains, great rivers, and strange objects of these nine provinces on the nine cauldrons. One cauldron symbolized one province, and the nine cauldrons were concentrated in the Xia Dynasty capital to represent the unification of the nine provinces. Thus, the nine cauldrons became ritual vessels for each dynasty’s Son of Heaven when performing sacrifices to Heaven.”
“Wow, that sounds so awesome! Continue, continue! What happened to these nine cauldrons later?”
“Later the Xia Dynasty was destroyed by Zhou, and the Zhou Dynasty questioned the realm, continuing to possess the nine cauldrons. By the end of the Zhou Dynasty – well, I forget exactly when, but anyway during the time of King Wu of Qin – that guy insisted on seeing what these nine cauldrons looked like, so he sent Gan Mao as general to attack Han, marched straight to Luoyang, and destroyed the Zhou Dynasty.”
“Huh? Wasn’t this person quite formidable? But wait, I remember it was Emperor Qin Shi Huang who unified the six states, not King Wu of Qin!”
“Yes, this King Wu of Qin was brave and combative, thinking himself invincible. When he saw the nine cauldrons, he asked the strongmen attending him whether they could lift the cauldrons. One of those guys actually lifted a cauldron, and King Wu’s competitive spirit was aroused, so he went to try it too. This attempt was disastrous – he was a king, not a strongman. How heavy were those bronze cauldrons! Sigh, it crashed down with a clang, and he died that very night.” The young Taoist spoke as if he had witnessed it personally, shaking his head with great sighs.
“Oh no…” Tang Yuan winced as if he had been the one crushed. It sounded painful just hearing about it. “What happened next? After this cauldron crushed King Wu of Qin to death, it had to be smashed to pieces as atonement, right?”
The young Taoist placed the finished candied hawthorn stick on the table and said with disappointment: “How could that be possible? That was one of the precious nine cauldrons! King Wu’s unreliable death was his own doing. People immediately spread rumors that this was retribution for destroying Zhou and challenging the Mandate of Heaven. Instead, they investigated the strongmen around King Wu and Gan Mao’s crime of encouraging King Wu to enter Zhou to view the cauldrons. Gan Mao heard the rumors and didn’t return to Qin, fleeing to other countries and being stripped of his noble rank.”
“Gan Mao?” Tang Yuan noticed this was the second time the Taoist had mentioned this name, so he paid attention.
“Oh, that’s not the point.” The young Taoist waved his hand dismissively, opened the pastry bag on the table, picked up a piece and ate it. “But then King Wu’s brother, King Zhaoxiang of Qin, succeeded to the throne and completely destroyed Eastern Zhou, transporting the nine cauldrons back to Xianyang. But one cauldron fell into the Si River when crossing Si River at Pengcheng. Later, when Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified the six states and toured Si River, he also sent people to salvage it, but they found nothing.”
“Ah? You’re not going to tell me that coincidentally, the lost cauldron was the one that crushed King Wu to death, are you? Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence?” Tang Yuan suddenly felt like he had noticed something.
The young Taoist nodded: “That’s right. What I said above was the public explanation. That cauldron had once crushed a Qin king to death, so naturally Qin’s royal family couldn’t allow that cauldron’s existence. Having it reasonably disappear was also a kind of tacit understanding.”
“Oh, politics is quite hypocritical – obviously wanting to smash it but not daring to, so finding an excuse to lose it.” Tang Yuan snorted, somewhat looking down on this kind of political art of whitewashing. “So now in the Si River, is that cauldron still there?”
The young Taoist shook his head casually: “No! When I saw that no one wanted that cauldron, I picked it up and reforged it, melting down the bronze, taking a small portion and adding black gold, and it finally became my small medicine cauldron for alchemy.”
“…” Tang Yuan opened his mouth and found that this time he couldn’t even find fault. Did his master have mental problems? Was it still in time to run away now?
However, Tang Yuan turned his head to look at the back courtyard with its four seasons of blooming flowers, and the strange phenomenon of fierce wind and snow just feet away from the pavilion. He thought that having such heaven-and-earth-penetrating abilities, living for several thousand years wouldn’t be difficult either.
Thinking of this, Tang Yuan felt his heart itch with curiosity. He felt this nonsensical master wouldn’t mention the black gold medicine cauldron for no reason, so he asked curiously: “So where is that black gold cauldron now?”
The young Taoist’s hand holding the pastry paused. He thought very hard for a long time before saying blankly: “I have no idea where I lost it long ago…”
“…”