The two arrived at the place where the aunt usually washed the chamber pot, and found that there was a river on the mountain.
“This place is called Donghe!” the aunt said to Lanqin. “This river extends all the way up to Taizipo, halfway up the mountain.”
Lanqin nodded and said, "Auntie, are you going to travel all over Wudang Mountain to transport night soil?"
"No, I only collect it from a few designated latrine pits. Otherwise, it's so big, how could I possibly walk through it all? The Taoist priests have designated junior priests responsible for collecting the night soil. They take all the night soil stored during the day to a few designated places. I just collect it from there," the woman said.
Lanqin nodded and said, "Okay, Auntie, I'm going to crawl into that night-scented tub in a bit. It won't smell bad, will it?"
"Hehe, don't worry, I'll clean them up nicely today," the auntie said.
Lanqin stood by the dark riverbank, watching the aunt unload the night-scented barrels from the carriage and then throw them into the river one by one to start washing them.
"Auntie, is there a separate kitchen inside Wudang Mountain?" Lanqin asked.
"Yes, they have a large kitchen inside, responsible for the meals of the entire church. It's over at Changfang Ridge. It's about the same distance from anywhere else, so the kitchen was set up there," the auntie said while washing buckets.
"Auntie, what do these Taoist priests do at night?" Lanqin asked again.
"What else can the Taoist priests do? They all go back to their own rooms. Some chat, some read, and some do other things, I don't know," the aunt said.
“Auntie, you deliver toilet paper at this time every day, you must notice something unusual about them, right?” Lanqin said.
"If there's anything unusual about it, it's that no one is allowed to get close to Zixiao Palace. Once, I went there and heard that Zixiao Palace sometimes exudes a mystical aura, so I wanted to go and take a look, but they chased me away," the auntie said.
Lanqin silently memorized it. She actually had some impressions of various places in Wudang Mountain, but those were from later generations. She didn't know what Wudang Mountain was like three hundred years ago.
"Alright, all cleaned up." The woman carried the night-scented tubes back and loaded them onto the trailer.
“Auntie, if I hide inside, you probably can’t pull me out. After all, this road is uphill,” Lanqin suddenly realized and said.
"You don't look too heavy, don't worry, I'm strong, I can easily pull you inside. Hurry up and hide!" The aunt secured the wooden buckets to the trailer with ropes.
Lanqin used a stone on the ground to climb onto the trailer, lifted the lid of a wooden barrel, took a deep breath, and climbed inside. The aunt quickly closed the lid for her.
After finishing all this, the woman dragged the cart towards Xuan Yue Gate. Because Lan Qin was inside, it was indeed much more strenuous for her. The woman dragged the cart step by step towards the gate.
"Hey, why are you so late today? If you hadn't come soon, I would have closed the gate." The Taoist priest guarding the gate said when he saw the old lady's trailer finally arrive.
"I'm so sorry, Daoist Master, my child wasn't feeling well today, that's why I'm late," the woman said with a smile.
"Hurry up and go inside. Be quick, it's the same time as always, don't keep me from sleeping," the Taoist priest said.
"Alright, alright. Don't worry, Taoist priest." The woman struggled a little as she dragged the trailer through the door.
Lanqin hid inside the chamber pot, covering her nose and enduring the nausea. Just thinking about how this thing was used to hold the urine of those Taoist priests made her feel nauseous.
The trailer continued moving forward, and Lanqin didn't know how long she had been squatting inside before it finally stopped. Actually, she hadn't been squatting inside for very long, but the environment was so uncomfortable that she had stayed there for a very long time.
"Alright, come out now. There's no one here!" the woman said, knocking on the outside of the bucket before picking up the lid.
Lanqin immediately stood up, opened her mouth and nose, and breathed heavily.
"Where is this?" Lanqin asked.
"Hurry up and get out of the car, a little Taoist priest might come soon." The aunt hurriedly called for Lanqin to get out of the car.
"This is Yuanhe Temple. I have no choice but to leave you here. Head northeast from Yuxu Palace," the woman said.
Lanqin slowly climbed down from the car and looked around at the scene inside the temple. She saw that the scenery on Wudang Mountain was very different from that of Wudang Mountain three hundred years later. At least in later times, there were streetlights everywhere at night, but now it was dark everywhere, with only a faint light coming from afar.
Lanqin, dressed in a Taoist robe, walked towards Yuxu Palace in the darkness. She had visited Wudang Mountain in her previous life and relied on her memory to find her way there. After walking for about fifteen minutes, Lanqin finally saw a faint light.
From her later travel experiences, Lanqin remembered that the Jade Void Palace was the largest palace in the Wudang complex and was probably a gathering place for Taoists.
Lanqin walked to the entrance of Yuxu Palace and saw a wall less than a person high. Looking inside, she saw two lanterns hanging at the entrance, but it was pitch black inside, without any other light.
"Am I going to spend the night here?" Lanqin sighed silently to herself, then planned to climb over the wall from the stone and sneak into the Jade Void Palace.
When Lanqin entered the main hall of Yuxu Palace, it was pitch black inside; she could only hear the pounding of her own heart. Lanqin took out a tinderbox she had prepared beforehand from her bosom and lit it with a soft pop. The darkness was pushed back behind the gauze curtains by the light.
Lanqin saw a huge portrait of Laozi hanging in the center. Lanqin walked up to the portrait and realized she was mistaken; the person in the painting wasn't Laozi, but rather some kind of founder of the Quanzhen School of Taoism. The person in the painting had a timeless face, an elegant posture, and a free and unrestrained air about them, as if detached from worldly affairs.
"It's Wang Chongyang!" Lanqin whispered. "No wonder that heroine of the Ancient Tomb Sect is so infatuated with him, he's so handsome!"
Lanqin was referring to the anecdotes about the Quanzhen Sect and the Ancient Tomb Sect that later generations read in Jin Yong's books, but in reality, there was no such thing as the Ancient Tomb Sect.
Holding a tinderbox, Lanqin began her tour of the entire Jade Void Palace. She noticed that the front hall was the largest, with side halls on either side of the back gate, and another large hall at the very back. Lanqin dared not linger, so she went to a corner inside the first palace gate and sat down.
Thinking back to her past life of luxury in the Fourth Master's mansion, Lanqin felt a pang of sadness. However, the thought that the Fourth Master, Su Peisheng, Si Hua, Shui Ling, and Gesang might be imprisoned somewhere made her feel a little better. After all, she wasn't alone in Wudang Mountain.
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