The car followed the navigation system, leaving the provincial road and entering county roads blanketed with fine, dense rain. Sometimes they had to travel on dirt roads full of potholes.
The clouds hung low, pressing down on the distant layered mountaintops. Along the dirt road, tree branches extended recklessly, scraping against the car with a constant rustling sound.
Mu Dai’s master lived at the foot of the Ailao Mountains, but the mountain range was very long, reportedly stretching for 500 kilometers.
Cao Yanhua asked Mu Dai what kind of place her Grand Master lived in.
It was hard to describe—a quiet little town. The trend of tourism development had swept through Yunnan for a long time, with popular attractions excavated to their core, but this town had been miraculously overlooked.
The town was called Youwu.
It wasn’t originally called that, supposedly. Due to the heavy fog year-round, in the early mornings, when the men of the household got up early, the women still lying in bed would ask: “Husband, is there fog today?”
Over time, it became known as Youwu Town.
Fog? How foggy could it be? Cao Yanhua couldn’t imagine.
Mu Dai explained, it was simply foggy. Early in the morning, the town would be wrapped in fog so thick you couldn’t see the person standing beside you—it was like a steamed bun wrapped in fog, with the houses and people inside as the filling.
Only when the sun rose high would the fog finally disperse.
As they were talking, the car suddenly stopped. Caught off guard, Cao Yanhua bumped his head against the back of the front seat, clutching his head with a grimace. Though Mu Dai wore a seatbelt, her chest still hurt from the restraint.
Looking ahead, they saw a deserted, somewhat desolate cement road. No one was walking, no cars were cutting in—why had Luo Ren made this emergency stop?
Mu Dai looked curiously at Luo Ren, who sat in the driver’s seat staring at something high up ahead.
Following Luo Ren’s gaze, she saw a high roadside billboard promoting Yunnan tourism—a map of China with Yunnan’s location highlighted in a red square, next to an advertising slogan: “Earthly Paradise, South of the Colorful Clouds.”
This… was there a problem?
Luo Ren’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel. He said, “I suddenly thought of something.”
The county town was small. Due to the rain, there were hardly any people on the streets. Luo Ren’s car drove around the town several times before finally stopping in front of an Xinhua Bookstore.
Without bothering to explain, he hurried into the store through the rain. Mu Dai waited for a while, but eventually couldn’t contain her curiosity and called Cao Yanhua to join her.
The bookstore was empty except for Luo Ren, the only customer. He had bought a map of China and spread it out on the floor, half-kneeling as he stared at it. One hand pointed at the map’s surface while the other held a marker. Another marker of a different color lay beside him. The store clerk, seemingly uninterested in everything, sat at the cashier’s desk knitting a sweater.
Mu Dai and Cao Yanhua crouched down on either side of Luo Ren.
Luo Ren removed the marker cap, paused briefly, then heavily circled a spot in Ningxia. Mu Dai watched and whispered, “Xiaoshang River.”
The second circle was in Guangxi, near Beihai. Cao Yanhua was all too familiar with it: “Isn’t this my Brother Wansan’s hometown? Five Pearl?”
Luo Ren didn’t answer, but his breathing quickened. The third circle was at the Guizhou-Yunnan border, near Four Villages.
The pen tip continued upward. There was one at the junction of Hunan, Guizhou, and Chongqing—that was South Field. Next was the junction of Sichuan, Chongqing, and Shaanxi, a place all too familiar, as they had just come from there: Cao Family Village.
Five black circles, like five staring eyes.
Luo Ren connected Five Pearl, Four Villages, South Field, and Cao Family Village with a line.
Thus, a zigzagging line with four nodes appeared on the pristine map, plus the distant circle at Xiaoshang River.
Luo Ren looked up at Mu Dai: “Do you see anything?”
Not yet. Mu Dai hesitantly shook her head.
Luo Ren smiled slightly, picked up the pen, and drew a horizontal line from Xiaoshang River to Inner Mongolia, then a diagonal line downward, making another turn near Sanmenxia, connecting directly to Cao Family Village.
This shape was…
A flash of insight struck Mu Dai.
Beside her, Cao Yanhua tilted his head, murmuring that it looked like a ladle.
Luo Ren said, “Indeed, the Big Dipper. We were too close to see it. After discussing the Big Dipper and the Eight Trigrams Observatory so many times, we never thought that the locations where the evil bamboo slips were subdued corresponded remarkably with the positions of the Big Dipper stars.”
He asked Cao Yanhua to find an image of the Big Dipper constellation online, then adjusted the phone’s position and angle, placing it on the map.
At a glance, the two Big Dipper shapes had the same trend and orientation—only the one on the phone was small, while the one on the map was large, seeming to cut across the heart of the continent.
Each star in the Big Dipper had its name, matching the geographical names on the map one by one: Five Pearl corresponded to Alkaid, Four Villages to Mizar, South Field was Alioth, Cao Family Village was Megrez, and Xiaoshang River was Dubhe. Though Luo Ren had added Merak and Phecda himself, Mu Dai thought the additions made sense because Phecda’s position was near Sanmenxia, and close to Sanmenxia was Hangu Pass—everyone knew that Hangu Pass played a crucial role in the legends of the evil bamboo slips.
This was a massive Big Dipper pattern spread across mountains, rivers, and valleys.
Luo Ren switched to a marker of a different color and drew a five-pointed star in the Zhejiang area.
“On a bridge in an ancient town in Zhejiang, there appeared a pattern identical to the underwater painting in Five Pearl Village. We can determine that it’s the same evil bamboo slip as the one in Five Pearl Village marked with the ‘water’ character.”
Right, Cao Yanhua nodded. He remembered that Luo Ren had speculated at the time that the evil bamboo slip might have traveled thousands of miles from Zhejiang to Five Pearl.
Luo Ren pointed at the drawn Big Dipper, his voice very low: “What if this Big Dipper, centered on its middle position, rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise?”
After rotating 90 degrees counterclockwise, the Alkaid star position, originally at Five Pearl Village, would fall exactly… within Zhejiang Province!
Mu Dai’s heart pounded.
—Initially, they had just followed the clues, searching haphazardly for the evil bamboo slips all over the world, privately complaining that the slips were too scattered, causing them exhausting travel and preventing them from solving everything at once.
—Later, Shen Gun reminded them not to fumble around like a fox chasing chickens, but to consider the causes and patterns.
—The Eight Trigrams Observatory was for observing the evil bamboo slips, and the Big Dipper appearing on the water surface hinted at the locations of the seven evil slips.
…
Meanwhile, Cao Yanhua was searching online about the Big Dipper.
—Brother Luo, the internet says the Big Dipper changes position with the seasons. There’s even a folk rhyme: “When the handle points east, spring fills the world; when the handle points south, summer fills the world; when the handle points west, autumn fills the world; when the handle points north, winter fills the world.”
—Now the handle points to the Five Pearl Village area, isn’t that “pointing south”? When it points to the ancient town in Zhejiang, that’s “pointing east,” right?
—Brother Luo, Daoist texts say that based on a person’s birth hour, their life is governed by seven star lords. The Hour of Zi corresponds to Dubhe, Chou and Hai to Merak, Yin and Xu to Phecda, Mao and You to Megrez… Everyone, according to their birth time, can find their destiny star…
What did that mean? It was profound and obscure, making Luo Ren’s head swim. Mu Dai completely ignored Cao Yanhua’s recitation from the book. She stared at the positions of Merak and Phecda on the map and asked softly, “Luo Ren, the remaining two evil bamboo slips should be here, right?”
Very likely, but a circle on the map could represent a vast area in reality that would exhaust someone trying to cover it on foot.
They hoped that the next clue from the Phoenix and Luan Clasp would come soon.