Dragon Head Pass.

Old Master Zhang packed his things and prepared to return to Jizhou — or perhaps north to the border, it hardly mattered. There was no longer any reason to remain here.

When he had come, he had thought he might leave his old bones here — because he was about to reveal a man’s true identity, and there was every possibility he would be killed for it.

Now, it seemed he ought to have had more faith in what could pass between people. On that account, his foolish young apprentice perhaps did better than he.

Some seven or eight years ago, a man with the surname Cao had come to Dragon Tiger Mountain.

On that day, Old Master Zhang had been chatting idly with his disciples — a very particular sort of teacher, he never required his apprentices to memorize the various Daoist canons by rote.

He said the Daoist path was about drawing close to nature. Some had attained the Way by watching fish. Some by observing flowers. Some by tending seedlings in the field. But not a single person had ever attained the Way by memorizing scriptures.

The disciples asked: then what is the purpose of the scriptures?

Old Master Zhang answered: you foolish lot — those are the wisdom our forebears distilled for us, telling us how to live better.

Yes — that was exactly what the old Daoist said.

A disciple then asked: if that is so, why does master not have us memorize them?

Old Master Zhang answered: when you truly wish to learn the Way, you will seek out those words and commit them to heart on your own — not because I forced you. And most importantly, each and every one of you is spectacularly dim. If I set you to memorize, I must check your work. If I check your work, you will vex me. If you vex me, I will punish you. When I am vexed, my lifespan shortens. When you are punished, your lifespan shortens. So it is far better to sit here in this apparent harmony.

The disciples all nodded earnestly.

Old Master Zhang watched them nodding, one after another with such grave sincerity, and thought to himself: I said you were spectacularly dim, and none of you disagreed. That alone proves it.

It was then that a visitor arrived at the mountain gate.

This visitor was clearly no ordinary person — he came with at least several hundred attendants, and had sealed off the mountain road below, turning away any who sought to enter.

But he used no force — only money.

If you happened to be someone unconcerned with money but felt your own standing was rather exceptional, and you wished to enter, then one of this visitor’s subordinates would produce a token.

And at the sight of that token, even a person who had considered themselves quite exceptional stopped feeling that way.

Because the token bore the emblem of Prince Wu.

Everyone knew that in all the realm, after the Emperor, Prince Wu stood above all others — of course, between Prince Wu and the Emperor there had once been Grand Eunuch Liu Chongxin as well.

But Liu Chongxin was also a man of the Cao Ziluos — a man of the Shanhe Seal.

At that time Liu Chongxin was still alive, the old Emperor still on the throne, and a man called Yu Chaozong had just begun to rise in Jizhou — the Yanshan Camp freshly founded, his name spreading — though not yet as far as Dragon Tiger Mountain.

Dragon Tiger Mountain was far enough from Yanshan that crossing the distance meant crossing roughly three-quarters of Dachu. So at the time, Old Master Zhang had no way of knowing that a great bandit calling himself the Green-Eyebrowed Heavenly King had emerged in Jizhou.

Cao Ziluo entered the mountain gate and asked by name to see Old Master Zhang. But Old Master Zhang was not the kind of person anyone could simply demand to see.

If Old Master Zhang did not nod in approval, it would make no difference if the Emperor himself came — because if he wished to hide, not even his closest disciples could find him.

But that day, Old Master Zhang decided to see this person. Because when this person sent word requesting an audience, the message included one line that struck him with curiosity.

The messenger said: my master has come to ask the master a divination. The question concerns the realm under heaven.

Others asked about life and death. Others about prospects. Some even asked about marriage prospects. A question about the realm — that was a first.

In the main hall of Dragon Tiger Mountain’s shrine, Old Master Zhang received him — Cao Ziluo.

Cao Ziluo asked Old Master Zhang: “The Dachu dynasty’s power is waning. The court is in decay. Order has collapsed. Some say the star of the Purple Tenuity has long since shifted its master. I wish to ask the master — in what direction has it shifted?”

Old Master Zhang asked: “And why do you want to know this?”

Cao Ziluo answered with a smile: “I am a man of business. My trade runs on relationships between people. I have built it into the greatest business in all the realm. I come to ask in which direction the master has shifted because I wish to pave the road in advance — so that if the person I have paved a road for truly takes the realm, the road is already laid, and I may continue as the greatest merchant in the world.”

Old Master Zhang did not answer. Instead he smiled and asked: “And what makes you think yourself the greatest merchant in all the realm?”

Cao Ziluo answered: “What makes me think so — perhaps it is that I am rich.”

Old Master Zhang asked, “How rich?”

Cao Ziluo replied, “When others say ‘rich enough to rival a kingdom,’ they are speaking truthfully. When I say it, I am being modest.”

Old Master Zhang said, “Then you are indeed truly rich. Since you are already so wealthy, why concern yourself with these matters? Your money now is already more than you could ever spend.”

Cao Ziluo said, “Why is it that when you think of money, you think only of whether it can be spent up or not? That is not an inevitable way to see it. In my view, if a person is still pondering whether his wealth might run out — that person is poor.”

Old Master Zhang sighed.

He could not be bothered to speak further.

Cao Ziluo said, “The master sees through past and present and can look into what lies ahead. If the master is willing to offer guidance — whatever money can supply, the master need only say.”

Old Master Zhang said, “I cannot speak plainly — but I can give you an indication. And I want nothing from you for it. If you gain something from the indication, I ask only that you answer one question for me in return. That would make us even.”

Cao Ziluo nodded. “The master is truly above worldly things. I agree.”

He asked, “How does the master indicate?”

Old Master Zhang bade a disciple bring a sheet of paper. He cut the paper into four strips, and on each he wrote a single character: East, South, West, North.

Then he rolled the four strips into balls, placed them in a jar, and handed the jar to Cao Ziluo. “You shake it yourself. Whichever rolls out is your answer.”

Said by anyone else, those words might have earned a beating.

And done by anyone else — standing on the street and running a fortune-telling operation this casually — the person would likely have had their legs broken, the paper stuffed into their mouth. Or rather — the jar stuffed into their mouth.

It was outrageously perfunctory.

And yet he was a Dragon Tiger Mountain master. When Cao Ziluo heard the words “indication,” he received them as precisely that.

So Cao Ziluo took the jar, and with great care and deliberation began to shake it. Old Master Zhang rose and stepped to one side — indicating that he would not watch, nor would he interfere.

At the time, Little Master Zhang was truly little — following at his teacher’s side, looking as though carved from jade, the very picture of a young Daoist acolyte.

Little Master Zhang asked Old Master Zhang, “Master, can that contraption actually fool anyone?”

Old Master Zhang shot him a look. “That is heaven’s indication. What do you mean, ‘that contraption’?”

Little Master Zhang considered this. “What if he shakes out more than one — say three?”

Old Master Zhang replied, “Then the three that rolled out are the eliminated ones — what remains is the heaven’s indication.”

Little Master Zhang asked, “And if two roll out?”

Old Master Zhang replied, “If two roll out, you tell him: this means the flower blooms in two places — each commands half the realm.”

Little Master Zhang said, “And if only one rolls out?”

Old Master Zhang regarded his beloved disciple with an expression of deep compassion, and consoled him with two words in a faint regional accent.

“Foolish lot.”

With that, Old Master Zhang returned.

Cao Ziluo was indeed careful enough that only one ball rolled out — because in his mind, this would indicate the most critical direction for everything he intended to accomplish. How could he be anything less than careful?

He opened the rolled paper. The character written on it was: North.

“Just as I thought.”

Cao Ziluo murmured to himself after seeing the character.

Old Master Zhang asked with a smile: “It seems the person you had in mind is exactly the one you had already chosen — and so everything aligns with heaven’s intent. The one in your mind is the one you mean to back. This is heaven’s favor. You may be glad.”

In doing this, Old Master Zhang was truly being perfunctory.

He had no affection for people like Cao Ziluo — from the very first look, he had taken a dislike. He had come with curiosity about that phrase “a question concerning the realm,” but finding only a person of crooked motives, he was of course inclined to brush them off.

“Yu Chaozong…”

Cao Ziluo murmured another name to himself. Old Master Zhang, hearing it, recognized it as a name.

He quietly calculated — and his expression shifted slightly. Judging from this person’s name alone, the fortune seemed genuinely one of great wealth and prominence. There was even a possibility of a supreme position.

And so Old Master Zhang grew curious again.

Speaking as if to himself, he said: “Yu Chaozong — that is indeed a person of outstanding character.”

Cao Ziluo immediately asked: “Does the master also know him?”

Old Master Zhang shook his head. “I do not know him — but in recent days I observed the movement of the stars of the Purple Tenuity, a gradual shifting toward alignment. It is not yet certain, but it should come to pass within the next few years. The position lies in the north. So I spent a night working through a divination — I have gleaned something from it.”

Cao Ziluo was a sharp man, but in matters like this he believed without question, the great majority of the time.

Of course, coming from an ordinary Daoist, he might not have believed it entirely — but this was Master Zhang speaking. That meant he had to believe it completely.

“I ask the master to continue his guidance.”

Cao Ziluo said, “Will this person in the future become…”

He raised his hand and pointed upward. “The ninety-five degree position?”

Old Master Zhang sighed. “But you have already made your own judgment, have you not? I have said I can only give you an indication, not speak plainly — to speak plainly would be to reveal heaven’s secret.”

Cao Ziluo gave a sound of acknowledgment and nodded repeatedly, thinking to himself: the master says he cannot say it — but what that means is that of course, yes. It is him.

He let out a long breath and began to laugh. “Four have the conditions in the south; four lack them in the north — good thing I made arrangements early. Ha ha ha ha.”

Cao Ziluo bowed toward Old Master Zhang. “Many thanks to the master for his guidance.”

Old Master Zhang said, “Now it is my turn to ask you one question.”

Cao Ziluo said, “Please ask, master.”

Old Master Zhang asked: “By what method do you pave the road in advance?”

Cao Ziluo answered with a smile: “By buying. By buying people. In my world, everything that has a price can be purchased — and people have prices too. Lowly people, middling people, people of the highest caliber — all of them have their price. If immortals have a price, I would buy them too.”

Old Master Zhang thought: well, you really are quite something.

Cao Ziluo departed with great satisfaction.

Old Master Zhang, for his part, did not truly take the matter seriously. The Daoists of Dragon Tiger Mountain stood apart from the world’s struggles — he had no interest in concerning himself with such a person or such an affair.

Until much later, when he heard a rumor.

It was said that the Black Wu had launched raids on the border — and that Prince Yu and the Military Commissioner of Jizhou had both remained inactive in Jizhou. It was the great bandit Yu Chaozong who had taken his rebel force to reinforce the border troops. It was then that Old Master Zhang recalled that name.

He summoned Little Master Zhang before him, and looking at him said with gravity:

“Your master has been observing the stars at night, working through a divination — I can see that the Emperor Star is in the north, though faint and unclear. But using the heavenly eye to glimpse the Way of Heaven, your master has already come to know his name.”

Little Master Zhang said, “Master, I don’t believe you.”

Old Master Zhang raised his hand and rapped his knuckles on the young man’s head. “Go north. Find a man called Yu Chaozong. He may be a wise and enlightened ruler. Go and serve him. Counsel him. If you can help spare some suffering among the common people — then spare what you can. That is your merit, and the merit of Dragon Tiger Mountain.”

Little Master Zhang bowed. “Your disciple obeys. Master, is there anything else to instruct?”

Old Master Zhang thought for a moment, then replied: “Take care of yourself.”