The green donkey carried the soon-to-retire female Taoist along a barely visible animal path, moving unhurriedly toward the mountain depths.

Wei Xun followed behind with dragging footsteps, frequently looking back to ensure Bao Zhu and the others remained within his sight.

“Can’t you just copy the formula for me directly? I can read some characters now,” he said impatiently.

“Be patient. After searching so many years for this medicine, you should understand its background and origins.”

Taoist Master Qingyang’s peaceful voice carried some weariness as she slowly said: “This formula’s story begins in the ninth year of Tianbao. Over fifty years ago, the Great Tang was still an unprecedented golden age of peace with all barbarians submitting and songs and dances flourishing. One day, your grand master, Barefoot Taoist, suddenly ordered us four to descend the mountain together to complete our final trial before graduation. The trial’s subject was—what constitutes paradise.”

“The ninth year of Tianbao.” Wei Xun frowned, thinking before blurting out: “That was five years before the Tianbao Rebellion erupted.”

Zhou Qingyang nodded slightly: “Yes. Not until warfare suddenly arose five years later did we realize Master had already penetrated heaven’s secrets. The Tang court was strong externally but weak internally—this golden age was destined to break under barbarian rebellion, an unavoidable catastrophe. He prepared in advance, sending us down the mountain early, hoping we might reduce the suffering of living beings during the chaos.

However, we knew nothing of this then, enthusiastically researching the mysteries of ‘paradise.’

I was obsessed with medical arts, thinking that if I could make people healthy and long-lived, saving one person was like saving a hundred—each person’s happiness would be a small paradise. Zhu Ming loved martial arts, firmly believing only military strength could suppress evil and maintain eternal peace by intimidating all directions. Bai Zang had a clever mind, excelling in mathematics and calculations. He felt material abundance and people’s prosperity was paradise—to achieve this, wealth must first be created.

We each held our own views, unable to convince the others. Soon after descending the mountain, we went separate ways to practice and prove our respective ‘Ways.'”

Wei Xun asked puzzledly: “What about my master? Didn’t Chen Shigu have his own ideas?”

Zhou Qingyang sighed: “At that time, we three were already adults, but only Xuan Ying was fourteen or fifteen, his nature still undetermined—he shouldn’t have descended the mountain for training so early. Initially lacking inspiration, he wandered everywhere, learning some star-reading and medical principles from me, studying weapons and tactics from Zhu Ming, and pestering Bai Zang to learn construction methods—mainly tomb-robbing skills.”

Wei Xun curled his lips: “Bai Zang’s method of getting rich was tomb-robbing?”

Zhou Qingyang shrugged: “Third Brother believed money only had value when circulating—the wealthy occupying riches after death was the greatest waste. He first obtained capital through tomb-robbing, then used it for commerce, quickly becoming wealthy as kings before helping the poor and weak. Though I didn’t approve, he provided considerable funding for my elixir research. Those days were quite prosperous—not like now, so poor I can only prescribe ‘Hot Water Formula’ for people.

Though young, Xuan Ying was independent-minded and didn’t accept his seniors’ concepts. He felt we were too slow, unable to strike at the heart of matters. Learning these miscellaneous skills was purely for fun. So he wandered east and west, playing with the world. Until one day, while messing with corpses on Mount Beimang, he met a friend of similar age.”

Wei Xun instantly guessed this must be Yuan Xu.

Zhou Qingyang continued: “After two years, Xuan Ying notified us he’d found his ‘Way.’ As the most martially gifted among us four, this fellow perversely chose the scholarly path. He decided to study and enter officialdom, join the imperial court, and assist talented individuals in purifying the world to create an ideal paradise.”

Wei Xun had already learned from Tan Lin about Chen and Yuan’s later hardships and remained silent.

Zhou Qingyang’s gaze seemed to cross time and space back fifty years: “In the fourteenth year of Tianbao, An Lushan raised troops in Fanyang, warfare sweeping the realm. Zhu Ming had gained great reputation as a hero in Xingzhou—when she raised her arm and called out, heroes from all directions responded. Bai Zang poured out all his wealth to provide provisions, and Zhu Ming assembled three thousand volunteer soldiers to rise up against the An-Shi rebels. Due to outstanding military achievements, this force was quickly recruited by the court.

However, since the Tang’s founding, no woman had ever held court office. The court only agreed to grant male officer ranks. Zhu Ming had to enter a fake marriage with her deputy to indirectly obtain the military command token—truly ridiculous.”

“Those skilled in warfare achieve no glorious victories; skilled physicians gain no brilliant fame.” Wei Xun recited: “The fish token that fell from Zhu Ming’s statue had those two lines carved on it.”

Zhou Qingyang smiled bitterly in self-mockery: “Not just us—looking back, how many once-mighty and renowned figures have long since vanished into obscurity? Your master was the world’s greatest martial artist in life, but in a few decades, not many will remember that old madman. Besides, when we first embarked on this path, it was to pursue the ‘paradise’ in our hearts—fame and official positions never mattered.”

Wei Xun spoke honestly: “I’ve indeed never heard the names Zhu Ming or Bai Zang in the martial world. Did these two die at barbarian hands?”

Zhou Qingyang shook her head, her voice full of melancholy: “If so, there would be no regrets. At that time, Tang forces suffered defeat after defeat on battlefields, the situation utterly corrupt—even the eastern and western capitals fell successively to enemies. In desperation, the court had to borrow troops from the Uighurs. These bestial imperial nobles lacked funds to pay for borrowed forces, so they agreed: ‘When cities are taken, land and people belong to Tang, but women and wealth all belong to the Uighurs.’

To reclaim their own territory, they kept only aristocratic families while selling all common people on the land as transaction payment. Uighur cavalry twice sacked Luoyang, burning, killing, and pillaging on their return journey while the court turned a blind eye.

Zhu Ming fought desperately on battlefields against rebels to protect the people’s paradise—how could she watch foreign bandits ravage civilians? So she took the risk to steal the command token and led hundreds of loyal warriors to intercept Uighur cavalry.”

Zhou Qingyang’s eyes dimmed at this point, falling into long silence. Wei Xun had already guessed the outcome and said quietly: “She died in battle.”

“Fighting one against a thousand, pierced by countless arrows yet standing firm. She was too hard to kill—Uighur soldiers suffered heavy casualties and in fear finally hacked her corpse into pieces before daring to confirm her death. When I reached the battlefield, I only found a head and one foot. This incident nearly caused a rift between the court and Uighurs—officials demoted the couple as treacherous turncoat generals and struck their names from records.”

Wei Xun pressed on: “What about Bai Zang? What happened to him?”

“Officials had long targeted his massive wealth of unknown origin, repeatedly confiscating it under various pretenses, and he repeatedly started from nothing. Finally one day, petty informants tracked and betrayed him—soldiers blocked the tomb entrance tightly and… buried him alive underground. I never found his body.”

Wei Xun’s thoughts drifted back to childhood, when Chen Shigu went mad and frenzied, holding soul-summoning banners while running wildly through mass graves. Perhaps what he remembered in his heart wasn’t just Yuan Xu’s ghost, but other departed fellow disciples.

The older and younger stopped walking, facing each other wordlessly. After a long while, Wei Xun craned his neck again, peering through the forest to confirm Bao Zhu’s group was safe.

Zhou Qingyang knew his concerns and quickened her narrative pace: “During those war years, Xuan Ying never appeared. I hated his standing aside and watching, breaking off relations with him. Years later, hearing rumors of Chen Shigu’s madness in the martial world, I still couldn’t rest easy and went to check on him.

Xuan Ying had been tortured beyond recognition by his heart ailment. He said he’d been protecting a friend’s family then, unable to split himself to support Hebei. But the friend he’d placed such hopes in, who possessed world-saving talent, was later ruthlessly abandoned by the court and died miserably in Lingnan, also ending up with no remains. Thus, among the four who descended the mountain seeking the Way, three had already ended in failure.”

Mist shrouded the Taihang Mountains as Wei Xun, full of suspicion, refused to go deeper. He stared directly at Zhou Qingyang and asked: “What do these old stories have to do with phoenix embryos? What exactly is that thing?”

Zhou Qingyang looked down at Wei Xun, her eyes mixing pity, helplessness, and some expectation. She said heavily: “Little Cat, in your master’s later years, having experienced countless vicissitudes and hardships, he absorbed the experiences and lessons of failures and conceived a decisive ‘paradise’ path. He called it ‘Exterminating Rats to Attain the Way.'”

Suddenly hearing his childhood name from Master Uncle’s mouth and seeing her strange expression, Wei Xun’s heart surged with ominous foreboding.

“Great rat, great rat, eat not my millet! Three years I’ve served you, yet you show no care for me. I shall leave you and go to that happy land. Happy land, happy land—there I’ll find my place.

Xuan Ying believed the reason people couldn’t make a living and wars raged was rooted in those high-and-mighty, stupid and greedy Li Tang great rats. They consumed all the world’s benefits, forcing myriad people into desperate straits. Only by completely exterminating these exploitative great rats could common people reach true ‘paradise.’

He refused to teach disciples reading and writing to prevent you from treading the wrong path he’d once walked, deceived by the lies of loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and forgiveness in books. Precisely because you were illiterate, the riddles he left were quite straightforward—the answers displayed plainly on the riddle surface.

The so-called phoenix embryos and living pearls refer to the Li Tang imperial clan with true dragon bloodlines, living for generations in Chang’an palaces. Each pill of your life-saving medicine requires taking a living imperial family member as ingredient to refine into human elixir.”

At these words, bone-chilling cold shot from his feet to the top of his head. Wei Xun felt his scalp tingling, his internal organs churning, his blood instantly freezing.

“You… you’re saying that elixir was refined from living people? But I ate half and you ate half!”

Zhou Qingyang calmly met his gaze: “You’ve always been alert and cautious—if I hadn’t tested the medicine personally, how would you dare take it?”

The long-digested elixir made Wei Xun retch repeatedly, but it was too late—the human pill had merged with his flesh and blood, impossible to separate now.

Wei Xun glared furiously, demanding: “Who exactly was in there?!”

“An old imperial clan member the emperor had demoted to commoner status and ordered to die—seemed to be called Yiyang or something. Anyway, a prisoner facing death. Xuan Ying kidnapped him at night for the medicine, then threw the remains back that same night—no one investigated deeply.

Human elixir isn’t enough to cure your terminal illness completely. Each year, you must capture and kill an imperial family member to refine medicine, continuously taking phoenix embryos to sustain life. For the Li family, relatives die unnatural deaths year after year without resistance possible—they can only live in despair and terror day by day. Under endless horror, it won’t be long before they collapse and perish.”

Zhou Qingyang’s gaze locked directly onto Wei Xun: “Xuan Ying named you Little Cat, expecting you to catch rats like a cat, killing all Li Tang great rats to prove his Way. You are the ‘relic that will overturn the Great Tang and bring chaos to the world’ in his dying words!”

Author’s Note:

Little Cat versus Great Rats, Great Rats versus Paradise

“Book of Songs: Wei Feng: Great Rat”

Cui Lingrong once also cursed the imperial family as great rats and parasites, but unfortunately due to different social classes, Chen Shigu never got to know her. Or perhaps he would have considered aristocratic families also part of the great rat class.