24: Flowing Water Like Emerald Green - Part Three
"They blew up the mountain where Juxia lives?"
Inside the ancestral hall on Kongyun Mountain, Mingjin knelt before the table where the memorial tablets of the ancestors were enshrined, listening to the elders standing at the door speak.
"It's not that serious, it just split the mountain in two. And it's not a famous mountain, just some desolate wilderness," Ji Zhen slightly corrected Du Gewen's statement, which he had just learned the whole story from Chen Kou. "The cultivators who rushed over from Juxia, and a spirit nearby, can also testify that she just stumbled into the evil spirit's magic array and had no choice but to save herself. However, Juxia's message was sent directly to the sect leader, and Shihe thought something serious had happened, which is why Tingran found out."
“Tingran and Yuanbei are still there dealing with the rest. It’s really the middle of nowhere, and no one else was injured. The leader of Juxia has already said that it’s not worth investigating,” Chen Duan said, leaning on his cane. “Calm down. Tingran said he’d be punished by kneeling and reflecting on his mistakes, but he didn’t say how long. He Gengtang has already started cooking. Go and give him a few words of advice, and then let him go.”
Seeing that the two women had reached a consensus, Du Gewen stepped into the ancestral hall, took the ruler that he had placed on the table by the door to discipline his disciple, and stood behind Mingjin.
Although Mingjin couldn't see anyone else and didn't dare to turn her head, she could see Du Gewen's shadow on the ground under the setting sun with just a slight glance.
She gritted her teeth and lowered her head slightly.
"Don't hit me..."
In the past, Chen Duan would have taken the ruler and gone to discipline him herself, but now that she was older and weaker, she couldn't even bear to see others hitting someone, let alone Mingjin, whom she had watched grow up. However, she was still able to control herself. After all, he had caused trouble, and she knew that he couldn't be left unpunished, so she swallowed the words she was about to say.
"Mingjin".
"yes."
"You start acting recklessly just because you're not following the elders?"
"Disciple knows his mistake, please punish him, Master."
"You too can be summoned to the ancestral hall and forced to kneel as punishment."
Mingjin knelt with her back straight and eyes lowered. She could see Du Gewen's shadow standing upright, but only his right hand, holding the board, swung up and struck her hard across the back. This dull sound was common at the ancestral hall, but Ji Zhen and Chen Duan, standing at the door, couldn't help but lean forward for another look.
Mu Ning, who had just arrived, heard this sound before she even reached the door, and looked through the window to see what was happening inside.
"A single moment of folly or carelessness can lead to a mistake, leaving only regret and no way to make amends. Since you entered the academy, I have repeatedly told you to be careful and cautious whenever you go out. Now look what you've done, you're all grown up, and you're heading straight for caves in the middle of nowhere. If something really happens, even a hundred lives wouldn't be enough to fill the hole there."
After saying that, another lash of the ruler struck his back, causing Mingjin's entire upper body to tremble slightly.
Dugwin turned around behind her.
The ruler returned to its original place, striking the table with a crisp sound that echoed melodiously above the ancestral hall.
"Alright, stop kneeling. Go to the backyard and fetch some water. You're not allowed to leave the ancestral hall for the entire day. First, wipe all the memorial tablets clean, then wipe the walls and floor. Understand?"
"Disciple understands."
“Get up, stop kneeling,” Dugwen turned around and sighed deeply. “It’s infuriating. If Tingran comes back tomorrow, go find him and ask for punishment.”
"yes."
"Tian Guang," Ming Jin stood up from the prayer mat to see the four elders off. As she was leaving, Chen Duan called out to her, "Come visit me tomorrow if you have time."
"yes."
As the door closed, a ray of sunlight stung Mingjin's eyes, causing them to sting and involuntarily shed a tear. However, once the floodgates of tears are opened, they cannot be closed. One eye followed the other, and one tear turned into two. Even with both hands, Mingjin could not wipe away the endless stream of tears.
She sat down against the door and took out the lotus seed from her pouch.
Soaked in the medicinal solution, it looks just like an ordinary lotus seed.
"Why."
In an instant, the fatigue accumulated throughout the day burst forth. Mingjin couldn't utter a single word, holding the lotus seed in both hands, gradually becoming so exhausted that she could no longer shed tears.
During festivals, people are required to keep watch at the ancestral hall, so a small room is kept inside. A narrow bed is placed against the wall in the room. Opposite the bed is a small table, and next to the table stands a single cabinet. Opening the lower cabinet door reveals a wooden bucket, inside which is a long-used, grayish cloth.
The ancestral hall has a backyard with a well. Mingjin was still in pain from the two blows to her back when she drew water, but she didn't want to be powerless in her current intense emotions. So she endured the pain, poured the water into a small bucket, washed the cloth, and began to wipe the memorial tablets.
The person placed at the front was naturally Elder Jingyu, the first leader of Kongyun Mountain, but he passed away when Mingjin was six or seven years old. At that time, Mingjin couldn't remember many people, only that Jingyu was Fu Nai's grandfather. However, Jingyu was always busy with official duties, unlike Lu Ying and Xiang Wan who had time to play with the children on and off the mountain. Even Fu Nai rarely saw him, so he followed Lu Ying up and down the mountain.
At Jingyu's funeral, Mingjin was overwhelmed by the solemn atmosphere and dared not say much. She simply knelt and bowed several times beside Shao, dressed in white. However, she remembered that Fu Nai had cried particularly sadly, so she and Huang Jing were sent to accompany Fu Nai. But staying at the funeral sooner or later, it was easy to see Pei Xuanzhen and Ming Shiyu hiding somewhere, shedding tears.
The people closest to Jing Yu were Jing Mao, Jing Tang, Lu Ying, and Xiang Wan. Ming Jin was in low spirits, running his fingers over Lu Ying's name, already imagining the old man hitting him with a ruler today.
"Grandfather, please forgive your granddaughter this time. I will never dare to do it again."
"Dawn, dawn."
Mingjin was still praying for Lu Ying's forgiveness with her eyes closed and head bowed when a voice suddenly came from somewhere, startling her. But when she came to her senses, Mingjin recognized that it was Huang Jing's voice coming from the backyard. She straightened the memorial tablet, responded, and quickly went out.
"I heard from Master that you were beaten. How is it?"
Initially, disciples punished by being confined to the ancestral hall for reflection were not allowed to step outside. However, some committed serious offenses and were locked up inside for five or ten days in a row. Since it was unacceptable to watch people suffer from hunger, meals are now permitted to be brought in from the backyard.
The fence in the backyard wasn't high, only reaching a person's thigh. There was a large rock outside and a pile of firewood inside, providing a convenient place for the two of them to talk.
"Tonight's dinner," Huang Jing handed over the box in his hand, "I'll come back tomorrow morning to pick it up."
"It still hurts a little, but I feel like it will pass quickly," Mingjin said without opening the box, simply placing it at his feet. "Has the sect leader returned?"
"Not yet," Huang Jing shook his head, resting his chin on his hand. "What are the sect leader and the others still doing there?"
"I have something to tell you."
"What's wrong?" Seeing that Mingjin was clearly preoccupied, Huang Jing couldn't help but sit up straight to listen to her.
"I've messed up."
"You mean you damaged a mountain? That was done by evil spirits. Besides, haven't you already been punished for your recklessness?"
“No, that’s not it,” Mingjin said through gritted teeth. “I think I’ve killed someone.”
"That's all due to that evil spirit," Huang Jing said bluntly.
“Listen to me first,” Ming Jin waved his hand in front of Huang Jing, signaling her to take things a little more seriously, “This matter is a bit complicated.”
So Huang Jing listened quietly as Ming Jin finished rambling on about the matter. After a long "hmm," she asked, "Are you sure that the blade of grass you pulled off is the original form of the spirit you're looking for?"
Mingjin said helplessly, "I feel so."
"What about the other two spirits?" Huang Jing pondered. "Let's show them that blade of grass."
“I don’t know. After I came out of the cave, I was surrounded by the cultivators of Juxia. I was dizzy and saw them sealing off the area when the sect leader and my senior brother arrived. I was taken back to reflect on my actions and didn’t have a chance to go to them,” Mingjin shook his head. “Besides, I was scared at the time, so I took that blade of grass to show Yuan Bei. He didn’t know what had happened before and thought it was just a weed that had fallen on my head. When I asked him, he said that as soon as he let go, the grass was gone.”
"You don't need to think too much about it, and no one will ask you to confess. As for that blade of grass, it's best if it's not the original form of a spirit. Yes, the responsibility also lies with that evil spirit, since it was the one that made it dig holes everywhere."
"But even if that evil spirit caused the grass to lose half its life, I was still the one who directly killed it."
"The headless case," Huang Jing said with a troubled grin. "The key now is that you still need to find the other two spirits and determine whether their friend is dead or alive. Such a big thing happened, and one of the spirits was forced back to its original form and didn't return. Haven't they come looking for you yet?"
“They probably won’t be able to find us,” Mingjin said, puzzled. “Aren’t we inside the barrier?”
“The barrier can only keep out evil spirits, or more precisely, it can only keep out that ghostly aura,” Huang Jing stood up from the rock. “Even if spirits transform into human forms, their essence is still just grass and trees. What barrier can keep them out? If you really can’t let it go, wait until tomorrow and find some time to go and ask them for clarification. Don’t just keep thinking about it here. I’m leaving now; I still have things to do in the fields. I’ll come back tomorrow morning. Hurry up and eat; it’s still cold, and the food will get cold if you leave it for a while.”
It gets dark early now; by the time Mingjin finished eating on the futon, it was completely dark. He lit a candle and continued working. When he started yawning and his head felt heavy, he pulled a quilt out of the cupboard, lay down on the bed, and fell into a deep sleep.
When Mingjin woke up the next day, it was still dark, but a glimmer of dawn was already breaking on the horizon. Because he was exhausted and scared the day before, he had slept soundly without any dreams and woke up feeling refreshed. Moreover, the back pain he had felt when he lay down yesterday was now completely gone, making it seem as if nothing had happened.
After putting away the bedding, she stretched and continued working. She had already finished cleaning the memorial tablets yesterday, and by the time Huang Jing came to deliver the meal, it was already well into the day, and the floor was half-mopped.
Why do you look so tired?
“I used to catch mice in the fields with my pen and inkstone until midnight before I could sleep,” Huang Jing said, still a little dazed. “This morning, I don’t know what happened, but my master sent me a message to wake me up and told me to eat quickly and then go find her.”
"Judging from Master Ji's tone yesterday, he seemed alright."
Upon hearing Huang Jing's words, Ming Jin quickly shoveled down a few mouthfuls of porridge, along with a steaming hot wild vegetable bun.
“Master didn’t say it explicitly, but he sounded quite anxious,” Huang Jing said, yawning as he spoke. He wiped his eyes and said, “I ran into Shihe when I was eating. He also looked like he hadn’t woken up properly, and he didn’t bring back the sect leader’s food this morning. Maybe he hasn’t come back yet.”
"Not back?" Mingjin muttered with a bun in his mouth. "Did I really get into big trouble?"
"No one has sent a message back yet, so at most it's just troublesome, not serious," Mingjin said, having finished his meal. The two of them quickly and quietly packed up the box. "Don't think too much about it. You're punished to sweep the ancestral hall, so just focus on sweeping the house first. Don't try to do two things at once and neglect one."
After Huang Jing left, no one came to the ancestral hall all morning. Ming Jin went back and forth between the ancestral hall and the backyard fetching water, but didn't see anyone passing by. She thought that she was usually very busy and wouldn't come here unless it was something important, so she instead immersed herself in sweeping and cleaning.
It wasn't until noon, after wiping the floor, that Mingjin, still busy, started wiping the tables, chairs, doors, and windows, when she suddenly heard someone knocking on the window. She followed the sound and found Pang Ming outside the small rest room, knocking on the window with one hand and holding a lunchbox in the other.
"How did it go?" Mingjin reached out and took the lunchbox, but he had no appetite and just wanted to know what happened next.
"The sect leader is still there. Senior Brother Shen came to relieve me. I just ate before coming over. You eat first, and I'll tell you slowly," Pang Ming said, leaning against the window. "The sect leader, along with me and the cultivators from Juxia, investigated that magic array. The array is extremely powerful, so we had to be careful. However, after the investigation, we found very few traces left behind. At first, we thought that the traces had been erased during the battle, but not even any traces of magic were left. The elders were worried, thinking that it was something that a highly powerful evil spirit had casually drawn. The sect leader asked me to go through the old records. We searched all night, but we still couldn't find an evil spirit with similar abilities and cultivation. Now everyone is feeling quite anxious and at a loss."
"What do we do next? Did the elders say anything?" Mingjin asked anxiously.
“The cultivators from Juxia have cordoned off the area, saying that boulders often roll down the mountain and it’s unsafe,” Pang Ming said. “They’re currently changing shifts to investigate, and hopefully they can find something. But I have my own guess.”
"What?"
“I don’t think it’s a single magic array, but rather a link in a larger array,” Pang Ming said cautiously. “When I was looking through the books, I noticed that a malevolent spirit once used many small magic arrays to form a large array, which it then ran rampant in. It was only because a group of Juxia cultivators who were out cultivating unknowingly wandered in that the array was broken. I think the traces left behind are somewhat similar to the previous case, but I don’t know if I’m just reading the files and applying them blindly, so I haven’t dared to tell the elders.”
"You should have told the sect leader back then. After all, we have no clues now, and there is a monster-like ghost hiding among us. We can't let any clue slip by."
“It wasn’t just me; all the cultivators discussing it nearby had their own opinions,” Pang Ming recalled the scene after Ming Jin left. “However, I told the sect leader that I wanted to continue investigating this matter, and the sect leader allowed me to stay in that area as long as I wanted with the spirit tablet of Kongyun Mountain, and I could also access Juxia’s relevant files. If I get any more clues, I will continue to bring this up with the sect leader.”
As they spoke, Mingjin had already finished half a bowl of rice. She was about to finish quickly when her gaze fell on a peanut on the plate, and she remembered something else.
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