The convoy continued northwest along the official road, and with every mile the mood grew lighter and the heart more open — the scenery here made one feel as though they had left the mortal world behind.
Xiahou Yili said that the distance to Yun-yin Mountain was no longer great; another two or three days of travel and the mountain’s outline would become visible on the horizon.
It was precisely because they had walked this road themselves that Li Chi and the others could begin to imagine — however imperfectly — what that little girl had endured on her own journey all those years ago.
How old had Xiahou Yili been when she left Jizhou?
Such a long road. Such suffering. Such hardship. That she had made it to Yun-yin Mountain alive was a miracle within miracles.
Were it not for heaven’s blessing, no other explanation presented itself.
When she had walked this road back then, she likely carried only a single thought in her heart — *I cannot let my brother guard Mother alone*.
Because her brother, Xiahou Zuo, faced not one enemy, not one danger, but countless wolves wearing human faces.
She ached for her brother, and ached for her mother, and so could no longer afford to ache for herself.
Xiahou Zuo had not come on this journey. Had he walked this road alongside her, no one could say how deeply his heart would have broken for his little sister — she who would not spare herself a moment’s pity. He would have wept for her, surely.
“Yun-yin Mountain is wonderful fun.”
The closer they drew to her home sect, the more Xiahou Yili talked — she seemed, too, in considerably higher spirits, and looked more like the lively, endearing young girl she was.
“When we went to Xiaoyao Country, everyone said the scenery there was like a painting — but Xiaoyao Country falls somewhat short compared to Yun-yin Mountain.”
She said this with a hint of pride.
Gao Xining asked: “When you say it falls short, you mean in terms of scenery?”
“No.”
Xiahou Yili said: “The scenery of the world each has its own splendor. The valley landscapes of Xiaoyao Country are already beautiful as brushwork — what they lack is immortal spirit.”
She let out a soft sigh, then said: “Ask my mother and you’ll understand. Yun-yin Mountain — it truly has that immortal air.”
She gestured toward the sky: “Clouds and mist coil through it, thin as smoke. Cranes pass through the haze in flight, and a hundred birds follow in their wake.”
She then pointed downward: “Directly across from the Immortal Crane Divine Palace on Yun-yin Mountain is Mirror Lake. The lake, too, wears a layer of mist, and if you set out in a small boat upon it, you feel as though you are drifting through the clouds themselves.”
“Surrounding Mirror Lake on all sides are fields of flowers — planted over a hundred years by the disciples of the Immortal Crane Divine Palace, and now at the height of their bloom. A single glance and seven colors radiate outward. You’ll feel as though this, right here, is what the mortal world is meant to look like.”
“Those flowers aren’t only beautiful to behold — they are all medicinal herbs. My master says that walking a single circuit through the flower fields each morning cleanses the lungs and heart, and extends one’s years.”
Yu Jiuling, upon hearing this, thought: *Well, I’m fast — you walk one circuit and I’ll have done several. You cleanse yourself once, I’ll cleanse myself several times over. You extend your years, and I’ll extend mine several times more.*
So when they arrived, he would definitely run several laps around the flower fields every morning. Stay a while, and by the time he left, he’d be an immortal elder.
There were all manner of immortal elders in the old tales — Southern Pole Elder, Northern Pole Elder. He would be the Rapid-Pole Elder.
Xiahou Yili continued: “Before we arrive at the Immortal Crane Divine Palace, we’ll pass through Hundred Herb Valley in the rear mountains.”
She said this with a touch of quiet pride: “Hundred Herb Valley stretches nearly a hundred li. Inside is the Floating Cloud Pavilion, built by the founding patriarch of the Immortal Crane Divine Palace.”
“The Floating Cloud Pavilion was constructed atop a long gallery, and beneath that gallery are the herbs below and the Cloud Stream flowing through — bees and butterflies flutter, a thousand birds call out together.”
“At the entrance to Hundred Herb Valley stands a tree that may already be a thousand years old, its shape like a reclining deer, and so it is called the Deer Tree. From the Deer Tree hang ten thousand red silk ribbons, hung there over the years by Immortal Crane Divine Palace disciples. On each ribbon is written the wish of one of the sect’s members.”
“My senior sisters’ wishes are all so wonderful. Senior Sister Du wrote on her ribbon: *May all be at peace and the world rest easy, may disaster be spared humanity and medicine go unneeded*.”
“Senior Sister Li wrote: *Before the door stands a tree, upon the tree ten thousand wishes, within the wishes all living souls, and among those souls, gentle joy*.”
“Senior Sister Pei wrote: *Zhou the Immortal became a deer and lingered in the world of men, bound to mortal yearning — atop the Floating Cloud Pavilion, listening to wind and rain, you could be in the thirty-third heaven itself*.”
She raised an eyebrow, looking rather pleased with herself.
“There’s also one I hung up there myself. What I wrote was… also… probably… quite wonderful.”
Madam Xiahou asked with curiosity: “And what did you write?”
Xiahou Yili’s fine little face flushed faintly. She turned to look elsewhere and mumbled: “More or less the same as the rest.”
Madam Xiahou said gently: “By the sound of your voice, I suspect it differs quite considerably.”
Yu Jiuling chuckled: “What harm is there in telling us? We’re talking about wishes — whether written well or not, are we really going to laugh at you?”
Xiahou Yili pursed her small lips and lowered her head.
“What I wrote was… braised pork knuckle braised with lotus root, quick-fried pork, pig’s trotters — and I’m a celestial immortal, so I eat and eat and never get fat, thin thin thin.”
Yu Jiuling was silent for a good long while. Then he said to Xiahou Yili, with an apologetic air: “I should go check on the rear of the column — the people back there seem to be getting a bit disorderly.”
He leapt down from the carriage. He hadn’t walked three paces before he could no longer hold it in, and threw his head back with a thunderous peal of laughter, his mouth stretched nearly to splitting.
Xiahou Yili’s small face burned red. “It… it isn’t really my fault. My master only told me that disciples of the Immortal Crane Divine Palace should each write down their wish and hang it on the Deer Tree for good fortune — she never explained *why* you make a wish, or *what* you’re wishing for…”
“I thought… so I just… And by the time I understood, I wanted to change it, but my master wouldn’t allow it. My master said once it’s been hung up, it cannot be taken back down.”
She twisted her head aside and pushed out her lower lip.
“How old was I when I wrote on that ribbon…”
She instinctively glanced over at Li Chi. Li Chi immediately nodded: “If I had written it, I’d have written the same. Fat or thin doesn’t matter much — you need the food to begin with. People who spend all their time fantasizing about rare delicacies and fine cuisine are just being gaudy. Only pork holds true dominion.”
Madam Xiahou reached up and gave her daughter’s head an affectionate tousle. “You’re right,” she laughed. “Too grand a wish is greed. Wishing every day for peace under heaven won’t bring peace under heaven. A modest wish — that’s the kind the immortals will receive.”
Three days later.
Walking along a path overgrown with green grass, they could already see from a great distance the Deer Tree, covered in what looked from afar like red blossoms in full bloom. It was very, very large.
The canopy was so broad it might shade nearly an acre of ground. A thousand red ribbons hung down from its branches. No poem could have captured it more fully; no painting would have needed to try.
“Behind the Deer Tree is Hundred Herb Valley, and inside there should be senior sisters of our Immortal Crane Divine Palace. Hundred Herb Valley is pure and elegant — the moment you enter, you can hear the sound of strings and flutes. Music fit for immortals sounds no different from that.”
She jumped down from the carriage, excited as a bounding young deer, and ran off toward Hundred Herb Valley.
At that same moment, Madam Xiahou was moved as well. The instant she set eyes on the Deer Tree standing before Hundred Herb Valley, her eyes visibly began to glisten.
“Mother.”
Li Chi helped Madam Xiahou down from the carriage. “Let’s walk a bit — stretch your legs.”
Madam Xiahou murmured her assent and stepped down. As Li Chi steadied her, he noticed she was trembling faintly.
“The sound of strings and flutes?”
Yu Jiuling cocked his head to listen.
“I don’t hear anything.”
He picked up his pace and ran ahead, eager to see what this immortal place actually looked like. He ran fast — blindingly fast — and quickly overtook Xiahou Yili.
Yu Jiuling was still thinking: by the time he reached the entrance to Hundred Herb Valley, he should surely be able to hear the music of celestial instruments, the sound of strings drifting into his ears…
As he ran toward the mouth of the valley, he was already wondering — when he saw a group of white-robed immortal sisters, what would be the proper way to greet them without seeming presumptuous?
For instance… *Hey? How do you do, sisters?*
Too flippant!
Or perhaps… *Ladies, this humble one pays his respects.*
Even more flippant!
At precisely that moment, he stopped.
No music drifted into his ears. Only the low grunting and squealing of wild boars.
At the mouth of the valley, a herd of wild boars was ambling about — rooting at the ground here, rolling in the mud there, each one round-faced and plump, fattened into perfect spheres.
“No strings and flutes… but a whole herd of live pigs.”
Yu Jiuling called back over his shoulder.
Where a shimmering pool of five-colored fish ought to have been at the valley entrance, there were instead wild boars taking a bath.
Xiahou Yili was dumbstruck.
What was going on?
Had the Immortal Crane Divine Palace been overrun?
*Overrun by pigs?*
She ran inside in a rush, and found Yu Jiuling standing before a wooden placard near the valley entrance, reading something.
One wild boar ambled up casually, lifted its head to look at Yu Jiuling, felt no fear whatsoever, looked once, then ambled away again.
On the placard, a single line of text:
**WOMEN NOT PERMITTED TO ENTER.**
Yu Jiuling looked at Xiahou Yili. The color had already begun to drain from her face. She immediately moved to draw her blade and hack the placard apart — only to find she hadn’t brought her weapon.
She moved to yank the placard out of the ground. Just then, from behind came the sound of thunderous, rapid, heavy footsteps.
The Divine Eagle came charging over, squealing with excitement — it had likely decided that after all this time, it was finally seeing that many dogs at once, a whole crowd of them, so many kindred souls.
The wild boars at the valley entrance weren’t afraid of people, but the moment the Divine Eagle came barreling toward them they bolted, squealing and screaming as they stampeded into the valley, leaving nothing behind but a cloud of dust.
The Divine Eagle stopped in bewilderment at the valley mouth, thinking: *What’s gotten into these dogs?*
*Am I not a dog myself?*
The little dog flapped its wings down and perched on the Divine Eagle’s back, also staring in bewilderment at the departing boars, thinking: *How did I suddenly end up with so many servants?*
“Who’s there!”
Xiahou Yili stood beside the placard and called out in a loud voice: “Who dares to desecrate Hundred Herb Valley of my Immortal Crane Divine Palace — who dares to disturb the resting place of my sect’s founding patriarch — come out and face your death!”
Her fury was absolute. Her voice rang through the valley again and again in rolling echoes.
She waited. No response came. Xiahou Yili flew into a rage; she ran back, snatched her weapon from the carriage, and was about to charge into the valley.
Li Chi and the others, not knowing what had happened, ran up to the valley entrance — every face blank with confusion.
Only Li Chi, catching sight of the retreating herd of wild boars, furrowed his brow faintly, sensing that things were not quite so simple.
“Wait.”
Li Chi held Xiahou Yili back. “I may know whoever’s inside. Let me go in first and see what the situation is — then I’ll come back and tell you.”
He straightened his clothes, his manner taking on a certain gravity.
Yu Jiuling asked: “You’re going in to call on a boar, and you’re adjusting your appearance first? Are you worried they’ll think you’re rude?”
Seeing Li Chi ignore him, he added: “You’re actually going, are you? Academic exchange, is it? Take the Divine Eagle then — you’ll need a translator.”
Li Chi shot him a look. He was just about to step into the valley when a rather small wild boar came trotting back, huffing and puffing.
It trotted up to the group, lifted its head, and looked at them. They looked back at it.
The little creature was ugly-cute, ugly-cute — mostly ugly.
After a moment, the small boar turned around, presenting its backside to the assembled group. And thus they beheld, upon the small boar’s perfectly round and proudly upturned rear, a single character:
**LEAVE.**
Li Chi thought to himself: *That must be him.*
So he stepped forward, and as he walked, he called out: “Master Li? I am Li Chi, your student from the Four-Page Academy in Jizhou.”
Upon hearing these words, Tang Pidi started slightly, thinking to himself — that Master Li, had he undergone some sudden change in temperament, or had he always operated along such unconventional lines?
Worried that Li Chi might come to some harm — his injuries still not yet fully healed — Tang Pidi quickened his pace and followed.
He had barely taken a step when Gao Xining had already broken into a trot and chased after Li Chi.
At that very moment, from another direction, several young women in flowing white arrived, riding atop great spotted deer.
The spotted deer leapt and bounded as though treading on clouds, and the women riding them looked just like immortals.
Yu Jiuling’s eyes went wide at the sight, filling with tiny stars.
“Senior Sister?!”
Xiahou Yili caught sight of those white-robed women riding toward them on deer and cried out in delighted surprise, then ran toward them.
The foremost woman was none other than Senior Sister Pei, of whom she had spoken earlier.
Senior Sister Pei heard the call and halted at once. Recognizing the little junior sister she had not seen in so long, she called back in her own delight.
The other senior sisters leapt down, light as floating clouds.
In Yu Jiuling’s eyes, the stars overflowed their banks. Stars in both eyes, stars spilling to the corners, past the corners — becoming drool.
—