[Revised TL] 63 铜钱龛世 | Tong Qian Kan Shi | Copper Coins -- 木苏里 | Musuli -- 英语翻译 | English translation -- Chapter 63

The JJWXC raws are here. Please support Musuli if you can! The novel is very cheap to buy; this guide tells you how to use JJWXC.

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Chapter 63: Tongshou Spider (III)

But there was something strange about that breathing noise... It was so faint that it sounded like the person was about to die, yet the rhythm of the breaths was extremely steady.

After three soft inhales and exhales, the sound stopped, and did not emerge again.

    

"That might be the man we're looking for. He stopped breathing... He couldn't've just died, could he?" Xue Xian muttered, frowning.

His damn wheelchair was still outside, and he could not move by himself, so all he could do was sit on the desk and watch. But Xuanmin, standing beside him, did not hesitate and began to walk swiftly to where Xue Xian was pointing.

   

For some reason, ever since they'd been plunged into this basement area, the lantern on the table had become much dimmer. The flame was only a small, bean-sized thing, extremely vulnerable-looking, as though it might go out any second. Naturally, the room had darkened too.

    

From what they could see, this was a square room with stone walls, about the same width as the room they'd fallen from earlier — though without being able to see where the walls ended, they could not be sure of the room’s dimensions.

    

Xuanmin's silhouette quickly disappeared from the glow of the lamp. Because his steps were always so utterly silent, in that moment, it seemed as though he had been entirely swallowed by the darkness, never to return.

    

Something made Xue Xian's heart squeeze. It certainly wasn’t fear: in all the years he'd lived, he'd never known the feeling of fear, and he wasn't about to begin now. It was more like he'd sensed something was amiss...

In that instant, the mechanism above their heads suddenly began to hum again.

As Xue Xian looked up, he saw a massive black shadow come down upon them. With a clang, it locked itself into the wall and became the flooring of the room above, and this stone room's new ceiling... They were trapped here.

    

“...” If it weren’t for the fact that Xuanmin had amnesia, Xue Xian would demand, Did you build this place just to mess with people? We haven't even gotten out yet, and you've sealed the exit. What are you playing at?

And if it weren’t for the fact that this was Xuanmin's home, Xue Xian would blast that new ceiling to pieces!

    

But Xue Xian was used to all kinds of mysterious and scary situations. Ultimately, a roof sliding shut was a mere annoyance, and nothing too major. Let it be –– once they found the man they were looking for, they'd have all the time they needed to figure out how to escape that ceiling.

    

So Xue Xian looked away from the ceiling and gazed back into the darkness.

But in that moment of distraction, he felt as though something had changed. Something was missing...

    

Right, it was far too quiet. Even Stone Zhang had shut his huge mouth–– hold on!

Where was Stone Zhang?!

    

Frowning, Xue Xian looked around him. In the dim lantern light, there was nothing to see at all. Where had Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi gone?

"Bald donkey!" Xue Xian shouted blindly into the dark. "Stone Zhang and that kid, Lu Nianqi, have disappeared."

    

For a moment, he feared that even Xuanmin had vanished, too.

Thankfully, Xuanmin's calm voice came floating in from some pitch-black part of the room. But what he said was not reassuring at all: "The person hiding here has also disappeared."

    

"You didn't find him?" Xue Xian's brows furrowed further.

Xuanmin's white robes emerged from the shadows. He walked over to the table, picked up the lantern, and returned once more to the place where Xue Xian had heard the breathing.

    

The lantern was on its last legs. It strained to emit just a tiny bit more of the lingering light, casting a weak glow ahead of Xuanmin's steady steps. The light did not reach very far –– it could only create a circle around Xuanmin's feet, which made it seem as though it were his white robes that were casting the light.

As Xuanmin walked, the place where Xue Xian sat grew ever dimmer, until he was absorbed into the darkness.

    

From the blind spot where he now sat, Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin stopped walking and held the frail lantern flame up, shining it on that corner. At the long end of the stone room, under the light Xuanmin cast, the corner could now be clearly seen.

Indeed, there was no one.

    

Xue Xian's hearing had never been wrong before. He was sure that the breathing noise he'd heard earlier had come from that area. Besides, the breathing he'd heard was on its last legs; just like the lantern flame that Xuanmin held in his hands, the person in the room sounded like he might die any second. 

How could such a frail, dying person escape from under their noses?

Xue Xian hadn't been paying attention earlier: with the sudden drop in the flooring and that breathing noise, he had completely forgotten that Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi even existed. Now, he wondered whether they hadn't come down with him and Xuanmin at all. Were they still stuck upstairs?

So they’d disappeared, and now the hidden man had also vanished...

Xue Xian understood what this meant. Of course he did: if he still hadn’t known what was going on after all that, then the head stuck at the top of his neck would have absolutely no use apart from making him look taller.

    

"He’s trying to hide, so he’s playing us," Xue Xian said, jutting his chin out at Xuanmin. "Have you checked the whole area? Is there any flaw?"

It really was inconvenient not to have the wheelchair anymore –– now he needed to bother others for every little thing. Although Xue Xian did not doubt Xuanmin's intellect, it was disheartening to have to sit on that table in the darkness, waiting for others to report back to him. Xue Xian couldn't sit still. He gripped the table beneath him and, with a push, lifted it up with himself still on top.

    

Soon there was a loud crash as the table, and Xue Xian atop it, clattered heavily onto the floor next to Xuanmin.

Despite the commotion, Xue Xian still sat peacefully on the table. The gust of wind he'd summoned to bring him here continued past him and hurtled toward the corner of the room, brushing past Xuanmin's white sleeve. When Xue Xian halted the wind, the stone room fell silent again.

    

Xuanmin held the lantern and watched Xue Xian with what looked like resignation, though he said nothing. He shone the light onto the corner again, not letting a single cobweb escape their attention.

"There's a drop of blood here," Xue Xian said, pointing at a tiny nook near a crack in the wall. 

Xuanmin inspected it. Then, as though having suddenly remembered something, he turned and shone the light on the opposite corner of the room, saying, "Here too."

    

He gestured at Xue Xian to wait, then strode confidently over to that other corner and studied the bloodstain there. When he was done, he looked back at Xue Xian from across the darkness and said, "An array."

    

Xue Xian understood. "Indeed. He couldn't escape, so now he's trying to trick us. What kind of array?"

Xue Xian naturally did not know as much about arrays as Xuanmin. He rarely needed to use them, and would obviously not be able to guess what kind of array someone had created just by a few drops of blood on the floor. When it came to that, he had to rely on the bald donkey.

    

"It's not a violent array. It's more to buy time," Xuanmin said as he came back over with the lantern.

"With a stone room like this, it's hard to set a violent trap. So in what way does the array buy time?" Xue Xian asked, frowning.

"This array is called Nine Rings," [a] Xuanmin calmly said as he placed the lantern back onto the table. "It is unbreakable."

"…Why not?” Xue Xian asked. “Does that mean that once we're inside, there’s no way out?"

    

"Most arrays have eight doors. Although they are difficult to get ahold of, once you find the correct door, you can leave," Xuanmin said slowly. "But Nine Rings has no door. No matter how powerful the person being trapped is, there is no exit. It is often used by people who need to make an escape. After one shichen, the array undoes itself."

“...” Xue Xian was so furious that all he could do was laugh. "If we have to wait an entire shichen to get out of here, even a boiled duck will have flown away by the time we’re out."

He had no patience to sit around here for that long. As he spoke, he raised a hand.

"Wait!" Xuanmin warned with a frown.

But it was too late. The tiny stone room was suddenly illuminated by purple and white bolts of lightning that knocked into the four walls around them with terrifying power. As the lightning bolts hit the walls, they exploded with a deafening roar. 

    

This zuzong had clearly run out of patience. Seeing as there were no doors to a Nine Rings spell, he had decided to use brute force. He would not stop until they broke out.

But the array was far too cunning. Not only was the thunder that Xue Xian summoned unable to cause even a fissure in the walls, it had instead made the situation worse: with each strike, a red-hot fire burst out and rushed across the stone so that, in the blink of an eye, they had become surrounded by pillars of raging flame.

The flames quickly billowed and began to lick hungrily at Xue Xian and Xuanmin's sleeves.

But that wasn't even the worst part –– the worst part was that, with the fire, the temperature in the room shot up and hot air filled the entire room. If the fire kept raging, they would all become steamed buns.

    

In that moment, Xue Xian felt as though he were that small golden marble again, rolling around dazed in Xuanmin's pouch, electrified by the heat emanating from Xuanmin’s hip bones.

Xue Xian’s natural environment was that of the tempestuous skies and the deepest oceans. He loved the cold and he loved water. And what he hated the most was the sweltering heat.

As the fire began to roast them alive, Xue Xian suddenly felt the table beneath him shake. He looked over and saw that Xuanmin was frowning, with his eyes shut tight and one hand gripping the side of the table.

Shit. The effect of the dragon spit had not yet dissipated, so Xuanmin had already been feeling incredibly hot but had been suppressing it all within him. Now, with the flames around them, he was losing control –– perhaps there really was a danger of qi deviation. 

    

Xue Xian didn’t need to give it another thought. He stopped immediately.

The roaring thunder suddenly disappeared, and, with it, the flames spreading across the walls gradually died down. The walls did not even retain black streaks from the burning. Instead, they returned to their previous state –– it was as though Xue Xian had never summoned any thunder at all… Extremely uncanny.

And even though the fire was gone, the hot air was still fucking there, steaming them both alive.

    

Worse, the tiny, flickering lantern flame that had been on its last legs finally keeled over and died. With a small hu––, it disappeared.

Plunging the entire room into absolute darkness.

    

Not only was it so dark that Xue Xian could not even see the fingers on his own hand, but it was utterly silent in the room, too. Every sound began to resound with piercing echoes. Xue Xian's five senses were already far stronger than humans', and now the sensory overload was starting to drive him crazy. Every time Xuanmin breathed, it came out unusually clear and close, and reverberated across the four walls to worm its way into Xue Xian's ear. He felt as though the sound was burying him alive. 

    

The heat was going straight to Xue Xian's head. His reaction time slowed too, so that, for a disoriented moment, he did not understand where that heavy sound of breathing or the ripples of heat were coming from.

"What is going on..." he muttered. He could feel his robes becoming sticky against his skin as sweat began to seep out of every pore in his body, and it distracted him to the point where his speech was becoming slurred.

    

"The array is named ‘Nine Rings’ because..." came the low sound of Xuanmin's voice, which seemed to creep up to the very skin of Xue Xian's ear. "Every time you try to break out using brute force, the pressure felt by those trapped inside doubles. All in all, the doubling can multiply ninefold –– nine levels."

“...” 

So this was the first level: it was already unbearable. By the ninth level, he and Xuanmin would have been thoroughly cooked. Xue Xian tried to think amidst his dizzy state.

He bit down on the tip of his tongue and wondered why this array had to be about fire rather than water. At the same time, he worried about Xuanmin's state –– from the sound of his voice just now, he did not seem well.

They needed an idea...

Never mind everything else –– first, this bald donkey needed some relief. 

Xue Xian forced himself to think. They couldn't get out of the spell, that was for sure, and in the meantime, he didn't have any kind of medicine on him ––

Wait.

    

In his daze, Xue Xian remembered one thing: he was a dragon, so obviously, everything from his body was precious to humans. He could not get hold of his scales or his horns in his state: the room was too small, and if he tried to transform back into his dragon form, he would fill up the entire room. Xuanmin really would die… from being crushed to death.

    

Besides, even if he did manage to obtain a scale or a horn, he couldn't just stuff it into Xuanmin’s mouth –– that stuff needed to be ground into powder, and the process took forever. Apart from dragon scales and dragon horns, other substances that could heal humans included dragon spit and dragon blood...

Right. Blood.

But having learned his lesson from the dragon spit, Xue Xian no longer dared to act so recklessly. He raised a sweat-damp hand and felt around in the dark until he found Xuanmin, then patted him and said, "Dragon blood... Does blood have any annoying side-effects?"

Xuanmin was silent for a time, then said, "No."

    

"Good, then I'll give you some." Xue Xian breathed out an exhausted sigh as his mind raced. Where should he make the puncture? 

In the darkness, amid Xuanmin's heavy breathing, Xue Xian heard him say, "Really?"

For a moment, Xue Xian froze.

Before his confused mind could even react, he felt his chin be pinched by someone's hand.

    

Xue Xian automatically moved his head toward the direction of the hand. Next, he suddenly felt something brush up against the side of his neck.

Xue Xian's breath caught in his throat. He automatically twitched his fingers, wanting to raise his arm, yet his arm would not move –– instead his hand only gripped the side of the table tighter.

    

There was something within him that wanted to come out. All he needed to do was accept it, and call it forth. And at the same time, another strange, unusual feeling tumbled through the thick soup of his dazed mind, finding no exit nor release.

That feeling of being touched so tenderly on his neck was so overwhelming that it seemed to block out everything else in the world. It was as though something was resting lightly and patiently on Xue Xian’s skin, and only required a little bit more pressure and a little bit of time to pierce through his flesh...

    

"No." At that moment, Xue Xian finally realised what the strange feeling was –– with Xuanmin's aloof, distant personality, if they really were to find themselves in such a situation, Xuanmin would only ask Xue Xian to get away. Xuanmin would never, ever agree so easily to drink Xue Xian’s blood, and would definitely never drink it from his neck.

    

In an instant, Xue Xian's overheated mind became crystal clear. His face turned hard and he pushed away the person standing in front of him.

    

Xue Xian was highly powerful, and, when he was under pressure, he would often lose control of the strength in his hands. With that push, any ordinary person would crash into the opposite wall and shatter the stone to pieces –– but as this person's body slammed into the wall, it made no noise.

    

Instead was the noise of something small, like a pearl, scattering to the floor and rolling to a stop.

With that, everything around Xue Xian suddenly dissipated like smoke. From the uncomfortable heat to the complete darkness, all of it faded to nothing. With a neutral expression, Xue Xian looked around him––

    

He was still sitting on the desk, and the ceiling above him was very high –– the dungeon was not sealed. The lantern on the table had not died yet, either, and Xuanmin stood there next to him with his eyes closed. Even Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi were back, lying on the floor unconscious.

Xue Xian knew what this was: each of them was plunged into their own versions of the array, and had not awoken yet.

    

Xue Xian laughed coldly, then raised his claw and swiped at that dark corner where he'd originally heard the breathing noise.

There was something heavy there, and he dragged it out of the corner towards him. It was a man sitting crumpled on the floor. He was covered in dust and dirt, looked worn and bedraggled, and emitted the pungent smell of fresh blood.

    

"You can start by telling me what array this is," said Xue Xian as he hooked two fingers in the air. The man was lifted up by the throat by an invisible force. "Next, tell me whether you've ever touched a dragon bone. Then you’ll have earned the right to bargain: let me know which way you'd prefer to die."

    

The man was bleeding profusely from his mouth, but he pulled his haggard face into a grin and hoarsely said, "What a shame. If it had only taken you a little bit longer... then I would have succeeded. But no worries. There are still three."

Xue Xian's face turned cold, and he made to move the hand that controlled the man's neck.

But the man spoke again. "You can't... You can't help them. When it comes to Heart Demons, [b] each must break out of their own will. I only need one of them to take a bit longer..." the man paused, then began to laugh. As he laughed, he choked on more blood in his throat, and began to cough so hard that his entire body convulsed.

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The author has something to say: 

These days I will work hard to get my body clock back to normal, and I hope to get updates to you a bit earlier =3= 

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[a] Musuli uses 九连环 (jiu3 lian2 huan2) here, which literally means “9 linked/successive rings/loops”. This is also the name of a traditional puzzle attributed to Zhuge Liang (Wikipedia).

[b] Musuli uses 心魔 (xin1 mo2) here, literally “heart demon(s)”. This is not a term exclusive to magic, but can generally be used to describe the doubts or evils that one may have in one’s heart. 

This chapter was beta’d by Rogue!

[Revised TL] 62 铜钱龛世 | Tong Qian Kan Shi | Copper Coins -- 木苏里 | Musuli -- 英语翻译 | English translation -- Chapter 62

The JJWXC raws are here. Please support Musuli if you can! The novel is very cheap to buy; this guide tells you how to use JJWXC.

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Chapter 62: Tongshou Spider (II)

Anyone would be completely shocked to see their own handwriting in some random place they didn’t recognise. If you were of the cowardly type, you might even feel a frisson of fear. Even if you were brave, though, you still wouldn’t be very happy about it.

    

Were you to find your own handwriting in a normal place, then perhaps it wouldn't be that bad. But this was a mysterious bamboo building, and clearly not a welcoming or nice location –– after all, you had to have something deeply wrong with you to willingly imprison yourself within a thicket of poisonous fog in the middle of nowhere.

    

So it would be highly unnerving to find your own handwriting here.

    

Thankfully, the book itself didn’t seem to have any issues: it was an ordinary booklet filled with notes about some anonymous person's travels. These notes were nothing special: in a straightforward manner, they described how the author had accidentally gone into a funeral stop in Langzhou to shelter from the rain, and had run into corpse-carriers. [a]

And the annotations in the margins were even simpler. They consisted of only three words: Xia Mountain, Langzhou.

This was too small to even be defined as an annotation, really. It was more of a marker.

    

Frowning, Xuanmin stared intently at the calligraphy, only coming back to his senses when Xue Xian called out at him.

"Bald donkey? Why are you just standing there? What's in the book?" Although most of Xue Xian's attention had been on Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi, he had noticed Xuanmin take out a book and then stand there unmoving for a long time. It had made Xue Xian curious.    

    

From Xue Xian's angle, he could only see Xuanmin's profile. The lantern in this room wasn't very bright, so Xuanmin's brow cast a dark shadow onto his eyes, outlining the handsome silhouette of his nose. Yet this also made his expression seem highly severe, as though he'd seen a ghost.

It was rare to see Xuanmin so taken aback, so Xue Xian wanted to take advantage and see what his face looked like. That was why he hadn’t been able to resist calling out to Xuanmin.

    

Xuanmin continued to stare at the book and did not move his head. All he said was, "Nothing."

This was an automatic reaction on his part. Right after he said it, he looked up, and the hand that was reaching out to grab another book from the shelf stopped. He shut the book and began to walk over.

    

In all honesty, there was a really unique aspect to Xuanmin's aura, which became the clearest when he was doing certain things alone and in silence. It was as though nothing that was happening around him had anything to do with him, so that he appeared utterly alienated and desolate. And the desolation wasn't the melancholy kind, but one that made him seem far away and detached. 

    

A monk like him seemed to be made to stand alone in a deserted, snow-covered temple, with a pagoda made of bronze and ebony behind him, and a heavy set of doors in front of him.

Outside the doors would be the chaotic red dust of the common realm; and inside the door would be the high priest, a lone figure made of clouds and snow.

    

When Xuanmin had said, Nothing, this was the image that he’d conjured in Xue Xian’s mind. It made Xue Xian feel a lingering sense of discomfort. But then, when Xuanmin had changed his mind and begun to walk over, it was as though he had suddenly pushed open the heavy temple doors and stepped out into the world.

For some reason, this simple action of Xuanmin’s made Xue Xian happy.

    

But soon, Xue Xian’s good mood was shattered again––

    

Xuanmin gave him the book and opened it to the page he'd been reading before, pointing down at the lettering.

Naturally, Xue Xian saw the marking in the margin. He read it twice over, but did not see anything particularly interesting. Finally, he said, "There's something wrong with the annotations?"

Xuanmin said, "Mn."

"What is it?" Xue Xian asked, confused.

“It looks like I wrote it."

Xue Xian: “...”

    

At first, Xue Xian's heart skipped a beat, then a mixture of complicated emotions rushed into him. On the one hand, he was pleased that Xuanmin was telling him this so honestly, with no intention of keeping it a secret. But on the other hand... Why was there an object here connected to Xuanmin?!

The person they were looking for was responsible somehow for the maiming of Xue Xian’s body. In all the places in the world that this stranger could possibly hide, he had chosen this foggy, unknown place. And inside this mysterious room, traces of Xuanmin's past had turned up...

For a brief moment, as Xue Xian stared at the calligraphy on the page, his mind became blank. His heart felt as though it had been suddenly plunged into an icy river and was now convulsing ceaselessly with shocked, hypothermic shivers.

But after some time sitting there, frozen, Xue Xian recalled the figure he’d seen that day by the sea, who had stood beyond the cage of golden threads with the wind whipping their long hair across their face. Xue Xian knew that Xuanmin had shaved his head as a child. So the person who had maimed him was not Xuanmin.

So everything was okay.

    

Finally, Xue Xian let go of the breath he'd been holding, and the blurred words on the page became legible again.

"So what if you wrote it? Are you trying to get me to praise your handwriting?" Xue Xian sneered as he flipped through more of the pages. He hoped to use the teasing to repress the sudden sense of doubt that had nagged him just then. Although he had immediately nipped that doubt in the bud, it was still hurtful to imply that you did not trust someone. It was best not to discuss such things at the moment –– he did not want to perturb Xuanmin, lest Xuanmin begin to crack.

    

Xue Xian tossed the book back to Xuanmin and spread his arms wide in measurement. "If you want to catch up to how good my handwriting is, there’s still this much to improve,” he said.

Xuanmin: “...”

Stone Zhang, still searching the wall for clues, overheard this last sentence and thought, I can't believe there are such shameless people in the world. I'm truly honored to be a witness to it.

Even more shameless was that the two powerful ones were just idly standing there, waiting for a middle-aged man and a half-blind boy to figure out what lay within the room. What the fuck was that about?

Since Xuanmin had willingly given the book for Xue Xian to inspect, he had prepared himself well in advance for any kind of reaction from Xue Xian. But he really had not expected Xue Xian to say that, of all things.

    

No sense of alarm crossed Xuanmin’s eyes, however –– he simply stared silently at Xue Xian for a long time.

    

Xue Xian glanced at him and added, "It's just a book. How much can you deduce from that? Why don't you try to call out to the room and see if the room answers."

Xuanmin: “...”

    

Seeing that Xue Xian was becoming more unreasonable by the minute, Xuanmin retracted his gaze and decided not to engage him anymore. Xuanmin turned to take out another book from the shelf. However, although the room did not answer, something else did.    

    

Suddenly, a strange batting noise rose from outside the building and seemed to be rapidly coming toward them.

Startled, everyone in the room jumped, and Xue Xian almost summoned a gust of wind to blow the thing away. But as he calmed down, he saw that the thing was a pitch-black bird.

    

This room had a high ceiling and was very spacious, so as the bird flapped in, it flew around aimlessly and did not hit anyone.

"Is this the bird from the forest earlier?" Stone Zhang asked, recalling the crow that had almost led them away.

With his sharper-than-human eyes, Xue Xian studied the frenzied bird as it flapped about in the lantern light and said, "You're right, it is. How did it get in here?"

    

As he spoke, the black bird did something else to startle them.

It flew up to the high ceiling and spun around in circles: it seemed to be searching for a specific person. It soon found its target and flew down in a flash, flapping its wings manically until it landed on Xuanmin's shoulder. Then it lifted a long plumed wing and nuzzled against Xuanmin's cheek, chirping.

Stone Zhang's mouth dropped to the floor.

Lu Nianqi only coolly said, "I don't think that's the noise crows normally make..."

    

“...” Xue Xian was probably the most taken aback of them all.

Now the heavens really had called his bluff. Just as he'd said, See if the room answers, this damn bird had come in and answered. Not only that, but it had come all the way into the room –– and not only that, but it had to go up to Xuanmin and sit on his shoulder. As the crow had flown by, it had sprayed feathers onto Xue Xian's face. This ...

What was this?!

    

Even Xuanmin had been shocked by the appearance of the bird. When it had flown into the room, the foot that had stepped out in the direction of the bookcase had frozen.

Xuanmin didn't need to look at more of the books to understand –– beasts and birds were inherently sensitive, and many were particularly intelligent. No ordinary bird would just tumble into a room and settle onto a stranger's shoulder, and then nuzzle that stranger's face.

    

"W-what is going on?" Stone Zhang finally said, completely lost.

Blankly, Xue Xian glared at the bird and scoffed, "What do you think? Obviously, this bird knows the bald donkey."

    

"So..." Stone Zhang mumbled.

"So this building likely belongs to the monk," Lu Nianqi said, finishing Stone Zhang’s thought.

    

Lu Nianqi and Stone Zhang had not seen the calligraphy –– if they had, they would not have added the word ‘likely’. 

"This is your building," Xue Xian said, staring into Xuanmin’s eyes.

Xuanmin glanced at the bird on his shoulder. He had to admit that, normally, he hated being too close to other people or things –– but when this crow had come to nuzzle him, he had felt a sense of familiarity rather than the usual automatic disgust. So he, too, concluded that this bamboo building really must be his.

As Xue Xian stared hard at Xuanmin's eyes, Xuanmin looked up and met his gaze. "Yes," he said matter-of-factly, without seeming to be hiding anything. The odd thing was that, after Xuanmin responded, he did not tear his gaze away –– he continued to look calmly back at Xue Xian.

Maybe it was Xue Xian’s mistaken instinct –– maybe the dim light of the lantern in the room had made things seem different from reality –– but Xue Xian got the feeling that Xuanmin was rather worried about his reaction...

Xue Xian automatically looked away and stiffly said, "That bird is stupid."

The crow ruffled its feathers and cried out again, then came flying at Xue Xian to peck at his face.

    

"It can understand human language. It really is some kind of spiritual bird," Xue Xian said unhappily. "Why are you so nice to the bald donkey but so rude to me? Huh? Looks like you don't want to keep that beautiful smooth plumage of yours!"

This niezhang had been alive for at least hundreds of years, yet here he was, fighting with a bird... What a wonder. As Xue Xian spoke, he even lifted his hand to try and pluck at the crow's tail feathers.

    

Unable to defeat Xue Xian, the black bird chirped again harshly and flew back to Xuanmin's shoulder. With that, the strange, silent disconnect that had previously settled between Xue Xian and Xuanmin suddenly disappeared. 

Xue Xian chuckled, then looked at Xuanmin again. "So this is your home, I guess. But you're not the one who maimed me –– I'm sure of that. At the same time, it does seem that you have some kind of connection to that person. I hope that you were opposed to each other, and not... together." 

    

Xue Xian spoke with no expression on his face, and Xuanmin’s demeanor was detached, too. Stone Zhang, standing by the wall and observing this, felt afraid to even breathe; even Lu Nianqi, who never normally paid attention to what was going on around him, detected something strange about the atmosphere.

    

Xue Xian was staring into Xuanmin's eyes and did not miss a single hint of even the most subtle emotion in that calm gaze. If Xue Xian saw correctly, when he'd said that last word, together, there had been a minuscule change in Xuanmin's eyes.

The change was tiny, almost imperceptible, and Xue Xian wasn't sure what it meant. But at least... Xuanmin wasn't completely unfazed.

    

They had been travelling together for quite a while now. If, when faced with the possibility that they may be enemies, Xuanmin had continued to show that absolute sense of stillness and nonchalance, then they might as well part ways right then and there.

Xue Xian felt a strange feeling. There was nothing wrong, but somehow, things didn't seem right either.

    

But it wasn't the right time to dive deep. Xue Xian rearranged his face back into that carefree expression and jutted out his chin. "Look at you. You go around looking upon everyone with a filthy sense of disdain. You could probably never be in cahoots with anyone even if you wanted to –– you'd annoy the other person to death. Alright, now stop overthinking it and go help look at the walls. Since this room is yours, your instinct will be better than anyone else's. Show us! Show us where the secret mechanism is!”

As Xue Xian spoke, he slapped the table with exaggerated motions, as though interrogating a prisoner.

Xuanmin: “...”

    

A certain someone flitted between extreme emotions like flipping the pages in a book. No one could keep up with him –– even Xuanmin felt exasperated. 

    

Xuamin continued to stand there. Just as he wanted to speak, that spiritual bird began to nuzzle his face again. The crow chirped harshly at Xue Xian a second time, then flew up to a corner of the high ceiling and began flapping its wings at a piece of bamboo at the end of the wall.

With a weng–– noise, some kind of mechanism in the bamboo ceiling unlatched and the ground beneath their feet began to tremble. Suddenly, the floor vanished.

This building had a secret dungeon?! 

Xue Xian’s hearing was more sensitive than humans’. As they sank all the way to the bottom and the mechanism stopped, he suddenly heard, in some distant corner, the weak sound of someone breathing.

---

The author has something to say: 

Initially, with the one from yesterday tacked on, I was meant to do 3 updates today~ But although I wanted to, I did not have the power to →_→ Here are 2 updates now, and the other chapter I’ll put up tomorrow, kiss~ 

---

[a] Musuli uses 赶尸人 (gan3 shi1 ren2) here, literally “people who shutter/ferry/transport corpses”. 

This chapter was beta’d by Rogue!

[Revised TL] 61 铜钱龛世 | Tong Qian Kan Shi | Copper Coins -- 木苏里 | Musuli -- 英语翻译 | English translation -- Chapter 61

The JJWXC raws are here. Please support Musuli if you can! The novel is very cheap to buy; this guide tells you how to use JJWXC.

---

Chapter 61: Tongshou Spider (I)

With the dense fog gone, all the things that had gone unnoticed beneath it were now revealed.

Xuanmin scanned the inconsistent patches of grass along the path and said, "Someone was here, then left."

Xue Xian scoffed.

Obviously! Anyone could figure that out.

    

But... someone was here?

"What ordinary person would dare come here? Do they have a death wish?" Stone Zhang said, perplexed. But as he said this, he realised what the important part of Xuanmin's sentence had been. "Wait... came then left? They left, alive?"

    

No one would ever stumble into here by accident. And then to survive the poisonous fog and make it back out alive? That meant that this was no ordinary person.

"Could there be another group of people looking for him?" Stone Zhang said, clicking his tongue. "This is a really difficult place to get to. How many people did this guy piss off? But if these people went in then came back out, that means they did what they came here to do. They either killed him, or took him away, or he was never here in the first place..."

    

Stone Zhang wasn't stupid –– he just liked to ramble. In that moment, his mouth had been enough for the four of them, and he'd said what they were all thinking.

So Xue Xian glanced at Lu Nianqi.

    

Assuming that Xue Xian wanted to ask whether his divinations were correct, or that Xue Xian wanted him to do another divination, Lu Nianqi began to speak. But he noticed that Xue Xian quickly looked away again.

    

Xue Xian summoned another gust of wind, leant back into his chair, and began to roll at high speed onto the path. Within the blink of an eye, he was already four or five zhang away.

His distant voice made its way back to them. "Let's check out this place first,” Xue Xian said in a lazy tone. “If he's not here, then we'll go track down the group of people that just left. Humans only have two legs, and if they're on a horse, that's only two more legs. How fast could they possibly be going? I could catch up on them even if I took a nap first."

Everyone else: “...” 

Does it feel good to bully people who can only walk, when you’re the only person that can fly?

    

Xue Xian zoomed ahead, fast as lightning. Apart from overgrown weeds, there were no obstacles on the path –– the poisonous fog had probably been this person’s main defense against visitors. Thus, Xue Xian soon arrived in front of that three-story building inside the mountain hollow.

    

Xue Xian hated depending on others, and in general there were not many people who were powerful or capable enough to be of much help to him anyway. Xuanmin was a special case, but Xuanmin was still a mortal, and Xue Xian was holding his precious pendant, so he did not mind going ahead without Xuanmin.

    

Xue Xian had originally intended to arrive first so as to get a general impression of the hollow, and inspect everything that could be inspected. That way, if there were any traps ahead, he could quickly get rid of them. Equally, if the man really wasn't here, then Xue Xian would be able to save the mortals the effort of walking all the way in and back out again.

So as he rolled his wheelchair toward the building, he thought he looked very threatening and fearsome. However...

    

Why did this building have to have three fucking stories? Each staircase spiralled this way and that, and the bamboo steps were thin and frail, and connected in a way that meant one really had to use one's whole body to climb up them...

The reason why Xue Xian took notice of all the building's shortcomings is because... Well, a certain someone in a wheelchair had only been able to get here by borrowing the power of the wind. And now that he wanted to get from the ground floor to the first floor, he again had to summon the elements to help him. However, all this was easy for someone like Xue Xian.

    

Xue Xian wheeled himself to the front door of the first floor, planning to search the premises. But he discovered that the damn door was too narrow, and his wheelchair was too wide. If he tried to force his way in, he'd destroy the door; and if he destroyed the door, the entire building would likely collapse. There was nothing he could do...

Apparently, this damn door had been constructed just to piss him off. This was straight-up bullying! [a]

    

Thus, when Stone Zhang, Lu Nianqi, and Xuanmin finally arrived at the building, what they saw was Xue Xian sitting by that door on the first floor with a blank expression on his face.

"What's wrong? Is he really not here?" Stone Zhang asked, sensing that Xue Xian was unhappy.

Xue Xian glared at him coldly. Startled, Stone Zhang wondered what he had done wrong, and covered his mouth so as not to speak.

"I don't think he's searched it yet..." Lu Nianqi said. This kid was fearless.

"Why not?" Stone Zhang asked idiotically.

Before Lu Nianqi could respond, Xuanmin gave the zuzong a mild look and then began to walk up the stairs. 

The two said nothing more, and scurried after him.

    

Xuanmin did not ask Xue Xian why he was sitting still. Instead, Xuanmin went straight into the building and peered into every room on the ground floor, then walked up those small, crooked stairs and checked the first and second floors. Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi didn't want to stand around, nor did they want to hang out with Xue Xian outside, so they simply followed Xuanmin up and down. In no time, they had searched every corner of the bamboo building.

And yet, they found nothing.

Never mind a shadow of the person –– without Jiang Shining in their group, there was not even a sign of a ghost anywhere in the building.

    

Xue Xian watched angrily as the group paced in front of him.

"There really is nothing," Stone Zhang mumbled.

But Lu Nianqi said decisively, "He's here."

    

As he said this, a sudden sound of something knocking against the leaves rushed in from the forest outside, making them all pause.

"Perhaps he was hiding in the woods, and now he's gone?" Stone Zhang ventured, looking out into the thicket.

    

Without the fog to block their vision, it was easy to get a panoramic view of the forest, and also easy to track the origins of the noise. The group looked in that direction, but only saw a black crow fly out from the crown of a tree.

Lu Nianqi said, "Perhaps the earlier group of people thought the same thing as you."

Stone Zhang was stunned. "You mean they searched the building and found nothing, and then heard a sound in the forest, and... Perhaps. That does sound plausible."

    

But then Stone Zhang added, "You make it sound like that crow is spiritual, [b] and is leading people away on purpose." Stone Zhang was a coward, but it meant that he was highly sensitive: whenever he heard about something, he would thoroughly investigate all its possibilities, rooting out an explanation. "Hmm... Maybe it really is like that. Think about it. The fact that the bird could survive in the fog suggests the fog isn't actually poisonous. But is that possible? No. So that means there's something special about the bird."

    

Lu Nianqi wasn't one to chat, so he didn't respond to Stone Zhang. Instead, he calmly repeated what he had previously said: "The person we are looking for is definitely still here."

"How do you know?" Stone Zhang looked around the building. "Did you do another divination? How come I didn't see you do it?"

Lu Nianqi was sick of listening to Stone Zhang’s voice. He rubbed his ear. "I didn't. It's my instinct."

    

If anyone else started talking about ‘instinct’, Xue Xian would immediately tell them to get lost. But it was different with Lu Nianqi –– he was physically, fundamentally uniquely attuned to magic, so his ‘instinct’ was also bound to be special.

Xue Xian glanced at the boy and said, "So can you instinct a little more, and tell us what room he's in?"

Lu Nianqi: “...” 

You think I can get instincts on command? You insist on being unreasonable just because you know that none of us here can actually take you in a fight. 

Finally, Lu Nianqi lifted his finger and pointed. "Here."

The room he was pointing at was the one on the first floor that Xue Xian was still sitting in front of.    

Great. Xue Xian still couldn't get in.

"All there is in that room is a table and two chairs," Stone Zhang said, frustrated. "And a wooden closet. I looked everywhere, even in the drawers. There's no one there!"

"The room inside," Lu Nianqi said.

    

The design of the bamboo building was very unique –– clearly, the person who had constructed it was very cultured. Only half of the building had rooms, whereas the other half had been made into a series of large balconies held up by bamboo scaffolding. The balconies combined with the roofs of the rooms to create platforms on which people could walk. It was the first-floor platform, above the ground floor, that they were now standing on. 

But the room in question did not have a door leading from the platform. To get into the interior room, one had to go through that room next to Xue Xian, and then take another staircase downstairs to the ground floor.

That was the ‘inside’ room that Lu Nianqi meant.

Still frustrated, Stone Zhang said, "But we searched that room too. It's also just got a bookcase and some books. Should I go back and flip through every single page of the books to check if he's hiding in there?"

Xue Xian tapped impatiently at the armrest. "Let's do that."

Stone Zhang: “...” 

Kids these days love to make all sorts of stupid jokes, and you can’t even scold them or beat them.

    

Although Stone Zhang grumbled to himself, he followed Lu Nianqi into the room. Before he went in, he couldn't help but take a look back.

If Stone Zhang didn't know about Xue Xian's true form, he would address him as ‘Xue-xiao-xiongdi’. But Xue Xian was a dragon, and you couldn't just go ahead and call a dragon your brother. He was more like your great-grandfather. But to actually call him ‘great-grandfather’ [c] was a bit weird. Jiang Shining, for instance, called Xue Xian ‘zuzong’, but a word like that came with all sorts of connotations. If you weren't familiar with Xue Xian and tried to call him ‘zuzong’, he'd probably kill you. So, in that moment, as Stone Zhang turned around to call out to Xue Xian, he had to stop himself midway, for he did not know how to address Xue Xian at all.

    

Stone Zhang had wanted to ask why Xue Xian wasn't coming in with him and Lu Nianqi. In the end, he turned to Xuanmin and said, "Dashi, why aren't you coming in?"

It was a bit nerve-wracking to think that only Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi were going into the room. After all, Lu Nianqi insisted that the man they were looking for was hiding in there.

    

Xuanmin calmly said, "Coming."

He was standing in front of Xue Xian. As he spoke, he took a look at Xue Xian and then wordlessly bent down to pick Xue Xian up in his arms.

"…What are you doing?!” Xue Xian said.

Xue Xian had gotten used to the joy of being able to zoom about on his own, and now he had to go back to the days of being carried. Xue Xian wanted to spit blood.

    

"Don't move," Xuanmin said mildly as he walked them into the room.

Stone Zhang's eyes bulged out. "What..."

Although Xuanmin did not reply, it was Lu Nianqi who said, "I think the chair is too wide to fit into the door."

    

Xue Xian laughed coldly and wanted to say something to scare off the two gawkers. But before he could open his mouth, he realised that something was off: Xuanmin's body temperature was extremely high. It was perhaps even hotter than it had been last night. Yet his palms were cool and comfortable. Furthermore, although Xuanmin was emanating heat, there was not a bead of sweat on him.

    

For Xuanmin body heat to be so abnormal, it had to have been caused by Xue Xian's dragon spit. Xue Xian began to feel guilty and decided to behave. But even if this was an effect of the dragon spit, it was still a different reaction from last night. How could that be? Were it not for the fact that Xue Xian was literally in Xuamin’s arms, he would never even have noticed that Xuanmin was burning up.

Xue Xian pondered this and realised that there was only one explanation: Xuanmin had found a way to repress it, so that others could not detect that anything was amiss.

No wonder Xuanmin had been acting so weird all morning. Never mind a bit of saltiness in his tone, Xue Xian thought. If I were feeling this damn uncomfortable, I'd bury everyone around me in salt.

    

Now Xue Xian truly decided to behave and let Xuanmin carry him downstairs into the interior room.

Just as Stone Zhang had said, the room was extremely basic: all it had were a bookshelf attached to a table and some books, with not even a chair in sight.

    

As they entered, Xuanmin set Xue Xian down onto the table, rearranged his sleeves, and walked away.

The lantern on the table was lit –– Stone Zhang had lit it when he'd first come in. The light illuminated the entire small room. It was impossible to guess where the man might be hiding.

    

Of course, Stone Zhang and Lu Nianqi did not actually flip through the books one by one. They ignored the bookcase entirely and were feeling along the gaps in the bamboo on the walls, looking for some kind of secret mechanism.

It was Xuanmin who, looking back at the bookcase, took out one of the books and began to flip it. But as soon as he opened the page, his finger froze.

Because the book he'd opened was covered in someone's annotations. The content of the notes didn't matter –– what was important was the calligraphy.

    

The characters were thin but stable, and the strokes in some of them were highly unique. It was a highly difficult handwriting to forge. But as soon as Xuanmin set eyes upon the calligraphy, he knew exactly how to replicate those twists in the lettering.

Because the handwriting was his.

---

The author has something to say: 

Sorry, last night I was going to take a quick nap, but then I got a fever. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been sleeping well and have been doing all-nighters in the past couple of weeks. The fever only came down after I did an IV drip in the morning. I’m going to update this chapter now, and in the evening there will be another one~ This time I won’t be late, kiss!

---

[a] Some very poignant observations on the lack of accessibility and consideration for disabled people in our society.    

[b] The Chinese term here is 成精 (cheng2 jing1), literally “to become 精”. 精 can have many meanings, including “goblin/demon” (as the second character in 妖精 yao3 jing1, usually just called ‘yao’) or “intelligent/conscious/sensitive”. In this context, it is used to indicate that an animal has, through some kind of spiritual experience or adjacence to spirituality, become particularly intelligent or sensitive: it might understand or speak human language, be able to perform magic, or be immortal; overall, the animal is no longer an ordinary animal. I have chosen to use “spiritual” in this TL, because, in the same one that one might say “spiritual weapon”, this crow is a “spiritual bird/animal”. 

[c] Musuli uses 祖爷爷 (zu3 ye2 ye) here, meaning “great-grandfather”. 

This chapter was beta'd by Rogue!

[Revised TL] 60 铜钱龛世 | Tong Qian Kan Shi | Copper Coins -- 木苏里 | Musuli -- 英语翻译 | English translation -- Chapter 60

The JJWXC raws are here. Please support Musuli if you can! The novel is very cheap to buy; this guide tells you how to use JJWXC.

---

Chapter 60: Bone Threads (V)

Boji Mountain was named after its shape. The mountain was hidden behind a smattering of wild forest, close to a village that stood near the border of Qingping County. The side of the mountain that faced the sun was covered in rice paddies and looked pure and fresh in the daylight, half-hidden by a constant, thin cloud of water vapor.

But the reason why it was called Boji Mountain was because the side that did not face the sun contained a large patch of concave earth. The concave part was always shrouded in fog so thick that someone standing at the foot of the mountain looking up would not be able to see anything there. Every once in a while, someone slipped and fell in, or a curious person went to explore, but no one ever returned.

    

Thus, there were many local rumors about Boji Mountain. According to some rumors, so many people had died in the sunken part that the area was a wild cemetery filled with white bones; yet other rumors said that there were people living there, that they could sometimes hear their voices, including the chilling cry of an infant –– no one knew if these cries came from ghosts or humans.

There were all sorts of stories that ranged from the mundane to the ridiculous, but not a single one of them could be proven.

    

In previous decades, some people were stupid enough to go and explore, but these days, no one had such a death wish. Even the rumors had begun to fade, and few people talked about it now. Today, young people knew only that Boji Mountain existed and that they should not go there –– though they had no idea why.

    

The officials from the Ministry of Ceremonies trotted forward, avoiding the sun-bathed little village and paddies, heading straight for the dark side of the mountain. Before long, they could see that patch of fog.

    

The Taizhu lifted his hand, halting the riders behind him, then turned and said, "Lady, [a] which of these two paths do we take?"

    

Ahead of them, there were two paths. One went around the sunken part of the mountain and was headed for the side, whereas the other was entirely hidden by the fog.

 

The fog was humid, cold, and emitted intense yin energy. It also had a faint, lingering wooden smell –– or maybe it was the smell of medicine. It definitely seemed poisonous.

The Taibu had already checked her records multiple times during the journey, but now she frowned at the tortoise shell again. Finally, she pointed into the fog: "Yes. This one."

The Taizhu sighed, then said to the train behind him, "Let's make sure we all cover our faces... and our eyeballs."

    

Indeed, they were all human, with frail human bodies –– they knew not to be stupid in an unclear situation.

Hearing the Taizhu's order, each of the riders in the train took out a small cotton pouch from their chest pockets and shook out a small antidote pellet. They ingested the medication. Then they took out a primitive-looking pouches of smelling salts and inserted these into their masks, beneath their nostrils.

The Taibu reached into the bags strapped to her horse and retrieved a crescent-shaped bell, which was carved on the side with the image of another tiny eight-sided bell.

Then she took out a stack of folded talismanic papers and extracted one of them. She cast it into the fog and rang the bell three times, then kicked her stirrups. The horse obediently began to trot again, following the ringing of the bell into the thick, dense fog.

    

As the Taibu went first and the Taizhu followed, the entire carriage train fell in line from two rows into just the one. They inched into the fog.    

The fog was a sickly white glaze through which they could see nothing –– even the horses beneath them became headless ghosts. The sudden blindness was unnerving.

    

Despite this, the Taibu maintained a calm expression. With her brows slightly furrowed, she focused on maintaining the same rhythm –– five steps of the horse for each ring of the bell –– and led the long, thin train into the depths of the mountain. Halfway in, there was a young rider near the back of the train who had never experienced such a thing, and began to panic in the fog.

Panic makes you lose control of your breathing. As the young official entered the fog, he inadvertently gasped with fear, drawing a large amount of fog right into his nose.

    

Before the official had taken even three more steps, there was a plopping noise as he slid off his horse and onto the ground. He pinched wildly at the skin of his throat, gasping for breath. Those behind him were impatient; once they'd managed to control their own breathing, they repressed their anxiety and pulled the young official back onto his horse.

    

"Keep your steps steady and your breath steadier––" came the gloomy, distant voice of the Taibu, as wispy as smoke. She sounded as though she were speaking from a whole other world.

Despite her warnings, seven or eight officials in the train fell victim to the fog. They began to convulse and spit out mouthfuls of blood, then quickly died.

    

The crescent-shaped bell rang five times in quick succession. This meant that the Taibu had arrived at their destination.

It seemed that she was right in front of the mountain hollow. Strangely, the hollow looked different from the way it did at the foot of the mountain. The fog was thin here, as thin as a layer of water vapor rising from the ground after a day of rain, and not at all like the terrifying, opaque thing that had pestered them all the way in. Within that weak layer of fog was a small, solitary building made of bamboo. It seemed to have three stories, and was exquisitely crafted.

   

Perhaps because it had been submerged in the fog for too long, every single thin plank of bamboo on the building was clean and shone with a brightness. Were it not for the fact that it was located within that poisonous fog, it would look like a luxury inn.

At the head of the train, the Taibu and Taizhu studied the building for a while, waiting for those behind them to file in and surround the building. If they took off their masks, the officials' faces would probably reveal a sense of unhappiness––

Their mission had only been to track a location, but they'd already lost several lives. Anyone else would be upset, too.

    

"Don't lose caution. The thin fog is poisonous too," the Taibu reminded the Zhenzi officials around them. Then she met eyes with the Taizhu. The two swiftly descended their horses and proceeded, with practiced hands, to lay down a series of talismans around the building, establishing a simple array.

As the array took effect, the thin fog around the building suddenly floated away, sucked back into the thicker fog around them. There was now a circle of clean air where the officials stood.

    

The officials all removed their smelling salts and got off their horses, gathering near the two leaders to inspect the building.

They knew that they were here to find a person –– however, who the person actually was, the lowly Zhenzi were not told. They had seen a likeness, but could not say what the person did, nor why they were looking for them. Only the Taibu and Taizhu knew.

    

"Are you sure it's here?" the Taizhu asked the Taibu as he scanned the building again.

Even the Taibu herself realised that, if you wanted to hide a person here, it was both easy and difficult: if the fog could block visitors out, then it was a perfect hiding place; but if visitors managed to penetrate the fog as they had, then there was nowhere to run.

    

"Oh well. Let's search it," the Taizhu said as he turned to give instructions to the Zhenzi.

Soon, the two led five Zhenzi into the bamboo building with the aim of inspecting every room. The hundred-odd other officials remained outside, holding down the fort.

    

The three-story building really was small –– in no time, the seven officials had finished searching it.

"So?" The Taizhu hurried down from the top floor. He held a scroll in his hand and flipped through it, looking for clues, then shook his head and tossed it onto a nearby table.

The Taibu stood on the first floor, staring into a pristine living room. She said, "Nothing at all."

    

The Taizhu crossed his arms and looked around again, then finally said, "Lady, I'm not saying your divinations were wrong... but maybe we missed a clue somewhere, and it affected the results?"

With the situation as it was, the Taibu was not offended by the question. She sat down by the table and slammed the grass knot and tortoise shell onto its surface, studying them carefully.

"Do you want to... try using another shell?" the Taizhu asked.

The Taibu shook her head. "No. I cannot burn a shell for the same matter twice in a day. Let me look harder."

    

But soon, she let out an exclamatory "Yi!"

"What is it?" the Taizhu asked.

"Nothing. It's the person I mentioned earlier," the Taibu replied. "When I was divining, they happened to be in the nearby town, and now they've been brought into the shell markings."

"The one you said could not possibly be there? Who is it?" the Taizhu asked, confused.

    

The Taibu lifted her head and looked back at him, her black eyes behind the mask revealing a sense of unease. "It must be some other person with a similar birthdate or life horoscope. It can't be who I think it is. Indeed..."

"Stop beating around the bush. Who? Tell me." The Taizhu was about to explode.

The Taibu shook out the folded notes from her pocket and tapped at the red stamp on the letter that read, Tongdeng. She said, "The Guoshi."

"Who?!" The Taizhu couldn't believe his ears. He wanted to scratch them, but his hands only came into contact with the mask, so he had no choice but to put his hands away again.

The Taibu looked at him and repeated, "The Guoshi."

    

"Impossible. Impossible. How could it be ––" the Taizhu blubbered, shaking his head. "The Guoshi is on the top floor of Famen Si. [b] We saw him before we left. The old man is still in seclusion. How could he suddenly appear in Qingping County? You know the rules of his seclusion as well as I do. If he leaves in the middle, then he's ruined the whole thing."

"Of course I know," the Taibu said. "That's why I said it must be someone similar, and not actually him. However..."

The Taizhu waved his hand dismissively. "There's no ‘however’. Let's focus on the matter at hand."

Although he said this, he couldn't help but feel a rising sense of fear.

    

Just as the Taibu got ready to read her tortoise shell again, a small, gentle sound was emitted amid the fog outside. It sounded as though someone had accidentally stepped on a bamboo leaf.

At the same time, as though blown by a breeze, the grass knot on the table shifted to a different position.

The Taibu sprung up, gathered her things, and began to hurry down the stairs. "There's been a change," she said. "We must leave this mountain hollow immediately. If we delay, we're going to lose the person!"

Very soon after this, another group of people arrived at that fork in the road where the officials had stopped before entering the mountain. 

"Where do we go now? The creepy road full of fog that looks like it's going to kill us, or the clean and safe-looking road?" asked a stout middle-aged man anxiously.

    

This group was none other than Xue Xian and his companions.

It was to be Jiang Shijing's birthday in two days. Xue Xian hadn't made Jiang Shining come along with them, so that he could spend time with his sister at home. Instead he'd brought Lu Nianqi, Stone Zhang, and Xuanmin.

Lu Nianqi was a human compass. Although he wasn't always very accurate, he was still highly useful for someone as bad with directions as Xue Xian. Stone Zhang could remember the man who had blindfolded him: if they found him, they needed Stone Zhang to identify him, so he, too, was useful. And as for Xuanmin...

Whether or not he was useful, he had to be brought along.

    

Where such a logic came from, Xue Xian wasn't sure. He was probably used to travelling with Xuanmin, and feared he would get bored without him.

Although some unknown urge had compelled Xue Xian to take Xuanmin along, now that they were here, Xue Xian began to regret it. The events of last night still stood between them, and this morning, Xuanmin had been in a weird mood. Plus... what had Fang Cheng said?

Oh, right: the effects of dragon spit could not go away within as short a time as one or two days.

Ha. Ha.

    

As Xue Xian admitted to himself that he must've been crazy to bring Xuanmin to Boji Mountain, Lu Nianqi suddenly pointed into the fog and said to Stone Zhang, "Do you really need to ask? Of course we have to take the road that looks like it's going to kill us."

"That fog.... I-i-is it poisonous?" stammered Stone Zhang.

"It's going to kill us. Of course it's poisonous," Lu Nianqi replied.

"So how do we go in..."

Without changing his expression, Lu Nianqi said, "We charge."

Oh, fuck off.

    

Stone Zhang wished he could simply run away. The worst part was, apart from a faint smell of wood, he also thought he could detect the stench of blood in the fog... Fresh blood.

His legs began to tremble, and he wondered whether he should begin to cry again –– see if Xue Xian would take pity on him.

    

Thankfully, before Stone Zhang began to squeeze out tears, the magnanimous Xuanmin said, "No need to panic––"

Xuanmin took out a talisman. Just his mild mannerism was enough to reassure Stone Zhang. Xuanmin was always reliable; he always had an idea. So he must know how to get them through that poison fog.

    

Stone Zhang could tell from the talismanic paper that Xuanmin was going to establish an array. He moved out of the way to make room for Xuanmin, and even tugged Lu Nianqi aside too.

But just as Xuanmin had selected the right talismanic paper for the job, a certain person, who had been deep in thought, came back to his senses.

    

Suddenly, Xue Xian pushed Xuanmin's hand away and smirked. "There's no need to pull out all the stops for something as small as this. Let me."

As he spoke, he slapped the armrest on his wheelchair. With a kacha sound, an enormous gust of wind rose and began to rumble forward with the might of a thousand soldiers.

    

Hu–––

The fog that had blanketed the path for who knows how many years was blown to nothing by Xue Xian's fierce wind. Now, they could see a dense thicket of old trees gnarled by the poisonous air of the mountain hollow –– as well as a clear road into the mountain.

    

Xue Xian turned to Xuanmin and wagged his chin. Although his face displayed that usual air of lazy foolishness, there was something to his expression that seemed to say, Isn't this the part where you tell me how great I am?

Xuanmin only glanced back at him and said, "You've broken the armrest." His tone still had that... saltiness.

Xue Xian: “...” People who can't read faces and insist on being so rude all the time should be thrown directly into the sea.

---

The author has something to say: 

In the last chapter, a lot of people asked what I meant by “a salty tone”. Actually, I meant to write “neither salty nor bland”, but then I wanted it to be more emphatic than that. So I just wrote “a bit salty”. Probably it’s the opposite meaning of “a bit sweet”. Salt to marinate people. (Runs away

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[a] 丫头 (ya1 tou), meaning “girl”, is used here. 

[b] 法门寺 (fa3 men2 si4), aka Famen Temple, is a famous ancient Buddhist temple in Shaanxi province. (Wikipedia). 

This chapter was beta'd by Rogue!

[Revised TL] 59 铜钱龛世 | Tong Qian Kan Shi | Copper Coins -- 木苏里 | Musuli -- 英语翻译 | English translation -- Chapter 59

The JJWXC raws are here. Please support Musuli if you can! The novel is very cheap to buy; this guide tells you how to use JJWXC.

---

Chapter 59: Bone Threads (IV)

But as soon as the words came out of his mouth, Stone Zhang regretted them. He saw Xuanmin’s brows furrow slightly as he faltered.

Stone Zhang: “...” It was just a casual question. You don't need to think that hard, dashi... 

He slowly turned his head and exchanged glances with Jiang Shining, who stood by the stove as well. Stone Zhang mouthed, What do I do? I'm freaking out.

Jiang Shining shrugged. You brought this upon yourself.

    

When Stone Zhang turned back to the stove, Xuanmin had taken his hand away and was frowning contemplatively at the boiling glue in the pot. Xuanmin’s pristine white robes contrasted dramatically with the steam and grease of the kitchen stove: even the stove’s flame seemed to retreat from him with timidness. 

    

Stone Zhang couldn't begin to understand what Xuanmin was pondering, but from the look on his face, it did not seem to be something happy. So Stone Zhang did not dare to disturb Xuanmin by gently asking him to leave the kitchen. All he and Jiang Shining could do was stare and wait.

    

Fortunately, although Xuanmin was socially inept, he was still miles above people like Xue Xian, who made trouble on purpose. As the glue in the pot began to gurgle, Xuanmin seemed to come back to his senses. He took one last look at the pot and said, "The heat is too weak."

Then he strode out of the kitchen, without even a glance back at Stone Zhang and Jiang Shining inside.

    

The snow-white robe swept past the door frame as Xuanmin vanished without a trace.

Stone Zhang let go of the breath he’d been holding. "I can breathe again! I'm too old for frights like these. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest..."

Jiang Shining sighed too. Wordlessly, he began to add dry hay into the belly of the stove.

    

"But dashi really is powerful. How does he know everything?" Stone Zhang added, mystified. "Like this thing––" 

He pursed his lips in the direction of the pot, and continued: "Like this mask. No one in our area works on these. One time, a patron brought me to Liangzhou, and that's how I got to know about the process. That city is close to a strategic mountain pass, [a] and is a dangerous place to live. In order to protect themselves, some people pick up some skills here and there. This kind of thing looks simple, but you need to have a wealth of experience under your belt. And if I may... Dashi is awfully young. Even though he's powerful, at this age, there's still only a limited amount of things he could have seen and places he could have been. How much experience could he possibly have?"

    

In reality, even Jiang Shining sometimes had his doubts –– he always got the feeling that the knowledge and stability that Xuanmin demonstrated far exceeded the wisdom of his years...

As a middle-aged man, Stone Zhang had few hobbies, but gossiping and speculating about people was definitely one of his favorites –– and he was very good at it too. He peered out into the courtyard and lowered his voice. "And look at the zuzong named Xue... When he's with dashi, sometimes it seems like he's the secondary one. Today, I got the feeling that he was following dashi around. Think about it. A twenty-something guy, taming a dragon? That's a real live dragon –– he must be a million years old!"

   

That mouth really would not stop talking –– Stone Zhang was like a plucked sparrow with eight extra mouths attached to it. He couldn't help but add, "Oh, right... How old is the zuzong?" 

Jiang Shining patted his poor, worn ears and snapped, "Who the fuck knows?"

    

Although Stone Zhang did not know why Xuanmin would know how to make yirong masks, he nonetheless did exactly as instructed and made the flame hotter, then waited a bit longer.

Finally, he took the glue off the heat and carried a steaming hot bowl of it into the courtyard, slamming it down onto the table with a clang. Pinching his ear, he hopped up and down and said, "Okay, where are the other materials?"

    

Fang Cheng gathered the ingredients they'd collected and placed them onto the table. He'd already chopped what needed to be chopped and juiced what needed to be juiced –– the little plates of materials were arranged immaculately across the table, like a banquet spread.

Stone Zhang did not delay –– he began making the mask.

    

The others were extremely curious, but, knowing that it was a fine process and not wanting to disturb Stone Zhang, they all stood as far as possible and dared not ask any questions. They only stood there and watched.

    

Xue Xian found this all quite interesting too. He had heard of the so-called human skin masks, but had never seen one being made. And yet, because of certain things on his mind that he did not wish to express, he found himself unable to sit still––

    

Every time Xue Xian caught sight of Xuanmin, he would turn his wheelchair in the other direction and escape. Sometimes he would go to speak to the twins in the front shop, and sometimes he would go to bother the beggars. As Xue Xian hid, terrified, from Xuanmin, he grumbled to himself, I just want to sit back and watch Stone Zhang make the mask! Is that so much to ask?

    

Because of all the running around, Xue Xian naturally did not get to observe the full process behind the mask. By the time he'd circled the compound and finally come back, Stone Zhang was already half-finished –– all he needed now was the cast. The little beggar was still lying in bed, her face ravaged by the rash, and it was not the right time to try and touch her.

    

It was at this point that Stone Zhang could really show off his skill. He walked into the room and studied the good half of the girl's face for some time, memorising every detail. Then, he moved onto the ravaged half and studied that too, comparing the two sides.

When he came out, he seemed to know exactly what to do –– he immediately picked up the cast material and began to carve...

    

This was the most effortful and time-consuming part of the process.

It was only after many hours that Stone Zhang finally presented the onlookers with his product. However, the product was different from what Xue Xian had expected –– he thought the mask would be a full face, but it was in fact two separate pieces: one slightly thicker and concave, and the other as thin as a cicada's wing.

    

"Why is it two pieces?" Xue Xian couldn't help but ask as his wheelchair skittered to a halt.

Stone Zhang explained, "When it comes to making such masks, the approach is to add on, not to take away. For instance, you might make thinner parts fatter, and raise the bridge of someone's nose... The little girl is missing chunks of flesh on her face, and the two parts are not balanced –– they need to be balanced out. This first thick piece is to fill in the gaps caused by the rash, and the thin piece is to bind the thick part to the rest of her face. The thin piece is like a second skin on top of the mask."

As Xue Xian listened to Stone Zhang speak, he stared at the two masks. Stone Zhang had panted the colors very accurately, so that, from afar, the masks looked exactly like real human skin...

Hold on––

Real human skin…

Xue Xian turned his head and immediately rolled himself to Xuanmin's side. He tugged at Xuanmin's sleeve, bringing Xuanmin down to chair level, and said, "Bald donkey, look at what Stone Zhang's holding. Does it resemble your memories from Wen Village? You said that in your memories from your youth, there were two images where you were holding human skin. Could this be it?"

    

Although Xue Xian had asked it as a question, he felt almost certain that he was right. Indeed, how could a teenager, especially a teenager with a personality like Xuanmin's, end up holding someone's flayed skin in his hands? He hated touching even a drop of blood –– would he touch human leather? No way.

But he might touch human-skin masks...

    

As he thought this to himself, Xue Xian suddenly realised that Xuanmin had still not answered him. When he looked up, he saw that Xuanmin was looking down at him too, and could not decipher whether Xuanmin’s face was a happy or unhappy one –– he seemed cool and detached as normal, yet somehow different.

But how different, Xue Xian couldn't say. He just knew that, after being stared at like that for a while, he began to feel guilty. He wished he could roll his wheelchair away and escape again.

    

"Not running away anymore?" Xuanmin finally said. His tone was a bit... salty.

Xue Xian: “...” 

Now Xuanmin was making Xue Xian sound like a coward. Xue Xian was irritated, but when he replied, it was to return to the topic at hand: "So you really were holding human-skin masks? At that age, why would you be making yirong masks instead of dutifully copying your sutras?"

"I don't remember," Xuanmin replied.

    

The fact that Xuanmin did not deny the first part meant that he acknowledged Xue Xian's guess –– he, too, now thought that the objects he'd been holding in his memory were masks, or at least fragments of masks. But what would a thirteen or fourteen year-old be doing with that?

    

Xue Xian squinted and began to ponder; as he did so, he felt the sleeve he'd been holding between his fingers slip out of his grasp. Next, a hand arrived to pinch Xue Xian’s chin, moving it so that Xue Xian was looking at Stone Zhang, before letting go again.

Beside him, Xuanmin's voice said, "First, do what you agreed to do."

    

Startled, Xue Xian absentmindedly touched his chin where Xuanmin had pinched him. When he turned back, Xuanmin was striding back into their room, with no intention of staying in the courtyard. And Xue Xian wasn't sure if it was just his own feeling, but...

The bald donkey seemed... unhappy?

    

Now that Stone Zhang had crafted a similar-looking exchange item, Xue Xian effortlessly placed a spell [b] on the two halves of the mask. Jiang Shijing obeyed Xue Xian's instructions and tested the mask on the back of her hand. As soon as the mask came into contact with her skin, it stuck to her, looking as though it were growing out of her body. The colors and wrinkles were all perfectly accurate –– even the small blemishes on the girl's face had been faithfully reproduced.

"Simply give this to the little girl when she wakes up,” Xue Xian said. “You should wait until her scars have healed. If she doesn’t mind the way she looks, then don’t force her. But if she wants to cover the damage, then simply stick the mask on her face and it will work just fine. As long as I'm alive, this object will never lose its effect.”

    

At that moment, Xingzi, who had yearned for Xue Xian’s attention all day, brightened, and her large eyes kept darting back to gaze upon him. Even Chen-sao couldn't help but glance at him every once in a while and half-joke, "Xue-xiao-shaoye, do you think you could give me a facelift? How about making me twenty years younger?"

Chen-shu averted his gaze and led Chen-sao away so as not to let her embarrass herself further.

    

Although the Fang family were a lively bunch, they all seemed to tacitly agree to close their mouths at this moment. They had witnessed Xue Xian perform an extraordinary feat, but not a single one of them tried to ask him about it –– it was polite, and quite caring, of them to be so restrained.

    

As the group tidied away the little plates on the table, Lu Nianqi, who had been curled up in the corner all day, suddenly waved manically at Xue Xian.

"What is it? Have you made progress?" Xue Xian asked.

Lu Nianqi nodded and said, "I'm not as good as Shijiu. I can't divine it accurately. But I can say that, at least during the period between last night and this morning, the person who touched this black blindfold was still at the location that I divined. Whether or not he'll still be here tonight, I can't be sure."

    

"No worries. Let's go take a look first. If we can seize him, that would be ideal, but if not, we'll know that he can't be far, and will have surely left some kind of clue." Xue Xian wagged his chin at Lu Nianqi and said, "Tell us –– where is it?"

Lu Nianqi said, "A mountain that looks like a dustpan."

    

"Looks like a dustpan?" Xue Xian was not familiar with the area, so he had no idea what that meant.

"Oh, Boji Mountain!" [c] Xingzi, who had been silently observing them, suddenly said. "I know, I know! Look –– if you walk straight in that direction, and take the southwest road once you leave town, it's right behind the forest."

Seeing that noon was about to come upon them, Xue Xian did not want to delay. He slapped his armrest, signalling that he wanted to get going. From what Xingzi had said, it did not seem like it would take long for them to get there.

    

At the end of the southwest mountain road, the Ministry of Ceremonies’ carriage train came to a halt. One of its leaders, the Taizhu, lifted his head and looked at the mountain in front of them. "We’re almost there,” he said. “It's right behind the forest." 

---

The author has something to say: 

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I wish that all those who are taking grad school exams know the answers to all of their questions, or that if they guess the answers, the guesses are right. I hope that everyone gets good results~ (Says the marinated fish that is currently buried in essay-writing and wants to die. 

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[a] The Chinese term here is 关隘 (guan1 ai4). 隘 means “narrow” or “pass”, and 关 is a character with a broad meaning that can mean “gate/pass” or “border”. In this case, the geographical location is a mountain pass, but it is “strategic” because it is on the contested/ambiguous borders between the Chinese empire and foreign forces. I chose not to use “border” because it is anachronistic to apply our modern understanding of strict and violent political borders to the historical complexities of the Silk Roads. 

[b] Musuli uses 做功夫 (zuo4 gong1 fu) here, which literally means “to do something”, where 功夫 is the word that gets transcribed into English as “kung fu”, but here, just means “task” or “skill”. 

[c] 簸箕 (bo4 ji) means dustpan. In my original TL this was called Boji Mountain. Normally, in keeping with other ‘locations named informally after their appearance’ in the novel (eg Thumb Mountain, Gravestone Island), I would translate the name into English. The only reason why I have chosen no longer to do so here is because [slight spoiler alert] Boji Mountain will become a highly important location in the story. In light of this, I have chosen to signal the importance by using the Chinese name.

This chapter was beta'd by Rogue!

[Revised TL] 58 铜钱龛世 | Tong Qian Kan Shi | Copper Coins -- 木苏里 | Musuli -- 英语翻译 | English translation -- Chapter 58

The JJWXC raws are here. Please support Musuli if you can! The novel is very cheap to buy; this guide tells you how to use JJWXC.

---

Chapter 58: Bone Threads (III)

A long train of horse-drawn carriages trotted along the main road of Qingping County. The men manning the carriage were dressed peculiarly, in a way that was not at all commonly seen in this area. Their robes were wide with large sleeves, and a fierce beast's head was embroidered on the front and back of each robe: this was not abnormal. What was odd was that their robes were entirely white, and billowed gently with the movement of the horses so that the men looked like they were wearing clouds, creating a beautiful mixture between aggression and elegance.

    

If one looked purely at the clothes, it was impossible to tell the ages of the people on horseback. They seemed to have gone through many years of physical training to make their mannerisms restrained and stiff. And as for their faces... each of them wore an odd mask in the shape of a beast's face, and it was impossible to see what they looked like.

    

There were dozens of people in the carriage train, perhaps a hundred. They formed two rows of horses, with a row of three carriages in between, the windows of which were sealed shut. Each carriage bore two flags on its side –– a total of six –– which all depicted the same complex design against an ink-black field. At first, the design was impossible to make out, and it was only under sunlight that contours could begin to emerge: on top of that black field were two large characters intricately calligraphed so as to be reminiscent of curled dragons or twisted snakes –– Taichang, the Minister of Ceremonies. [a]

    

In previous dynasties, the Taichang’s role involved all the ghosts and gods in heaven and on earth, with the task of maintaining overall balance between yin and yang. Within the Taichang Si, [b] the Taichang was assisted by deputy ministers. [c] But ever since the Guoshi had taken over the Taichang Si, the deputies' roles had become greatly limited, and even the Taichang himself had become the Guoshi's lieutenant. And since the Guoshi was extremely old –– no one knew how old he truly was –– he had, in his career, been served by a number of lieutenants.

Not only was it rumored that, every few years, the Guoshi would take in one or two children with innate Buddhist wisdom as disciples, but there was also a rumor that he would choose a number of highly intelligent small boys and girls to be educated within the Taichang Si. Once these boys and girls turned ten years old, they would officially become Zhenzi, [d] with the job of facilitating and executing rituals. Zhenzi could not be older than sixteen years old. Once they exceeded sixteen, a number of them would be transferred to other roles within the Taichang Si.

This meant that, particularly within the last two generations, the entirety of the Taichang Si –– from the Taichang himself and his Deputy Ministers, to the Taizhu and Taibu [e] and right down to the Zhenzi and more –– were all intimately close to the Guoshi. The origins of these officials were unknown. It was suspected that they were all his disciples.

    

As the Taichang Si’s carriage train reached a fork in the road, they split into two groups, with two dozen men diverting into Qingping Xian Cheng along with one of the carriages: this was the team that had been ordered to exorcise the plague. The second group, consisting of around a hundred and twenty people, took a winding mountain road. The two riders at the front of this group wore gleaming, shiny copper coin pendants on their hips, and also carried tasselled jade tiles. 

    

The carvings on the jade tiles were different for each of the two riders: the one on the left had a tortoise, on which stood a bird with long plumes. Both animals were parenthesised between two curled characters –– Taibu. And the right hand side person’s tile had the long face of a beast, above whose head hung a small eight-sided bell. Those carvings were also parenthesised by two characters –– Taizhu.

The Taibu and Taizhu both worked within the Taichang Si. The Taibu was responsible for divination and navigating yin and yang, while the Taizhu performed sacrifices and rituals.

    

As the carriage train exited the mountain path, the leading rider carrying the Taibu tile made a hand gesture, and the entire train obediently came to a stop.

The Taizhu turned to face him, eyes full of puzzlement gleaming from behind the mask, and asked, "What is it?"

The tone was profound and serious, but the voice itself was rather young: the Taizhu sounded like a young man only a little over twenty years of age.

"Let me confirm the direction again," the Taibu said. This voice was that of a woman, equally young, and contained some nimbleness within that outer layer of warmth and brightness.

As she spoke, the Taibu took off the beast mask that she wore, revealing a pleasant face. Her appearance made her look even younger than her voice suggested, perhaps only seventeen or eighteen. Thankfully, she had elegant brows and a pair of eyes as deep as lakes, which helped to ground her aura and make her seem calm and stable.

    

The position of Taibu was a unique one: whether one was practicing divination or interpreting dreams, it all had to do with innate talent. To become a Taibu, one only had to be a highly skilled and fortunate person –– it did not matter whether one was male or female. Because women happened to be more sensitive to spirituality, recent generations of Taibu had included a number of women.

    

The Taizhu nodded in agreement and said, "True. After all, this is about great disasters. If we get it wrong, we'll surely be punished when we return to the capital." As he spoke, he anxiously pointed his finger upwards and added, "That person won't be happy."

    

The Taibu glanced at him, then peered up at the layers of clouds in the sky. "The Guoshi has always been just and fair. His punishments are insightful and never arbitrary. We do not have to worry about whether he is happy or not. Besides, we won't be able to see him at all when we return. You're overthinking it..."

“Hey, lady, [f] I was just saying. Can you stop being so serious?" the Taizhu snapped.

"I cannot."

The Taibu spoke nonchalantly while simultaneously reaching into her pocket. She extracted a grass knot, a tortoise shell, and a bamboo-scented sheet of paper. She carefully unfolded the paper, on which the first few rows of writing were dry and faint –– they had clearly been written some time ago. There were very few words, and the content was straightforward and direct. In place of the sender’s signature, [g] there was a red stamp with two simple characters: Tongdeng.

    

The Taibu confirmed the location written on the paper, then carefully folded it back up again. Next, she arranged the grass knot and the tortoise shell in her palm and said, "Be discreet in word and deed, and especially do not speak ill of the Guoshi in my presence. Or else I may become angry."

The Taizhu shook his head, exasperated. "There you go accusing me of all kinds of nonsense again. I would never dare to speak ill."

    

Although it was commonly known that the officials within the Taichang Si were of mysterious origins, there were still some distinctions.

Take as example these two riders at the front –– ten years ago, they had both been recruited by the Guoshi to be educated at the Taichang. They had slowly grown up and climbed the ranks from Zhenzi to Changshi [h] to their positions today. Although the two of them had almost the same experiences and were of the same age, the Taizhu feared the Guoshi more than he respected him –– and the Taibu respected the Guoshi more than she feared him... Far more.

    

The Taibu focused on her divination and ignored the Taizhu.

After some time, the Taibu glanced at the grass knot in her hand then looked at the horizon. "Yi," she muttered.

"Yi what? Are we lost?" the Taizhu demanded.

    

The Taibu gently furrowed her elegant brows and fell deep in thought. Finally, she muttered, "I divined... But it shouldn't be."

"You're [i] always speaking in bits and pieces. Say it properly. What did you divine?" The Taizhu followed her gaze and looked at the horizon too, but apart from dark clouds, he saw nothing. Then he stared at the grass knot in her hand, and apart from the fact that the knot looked rather worn, he saw nothing peculiar, either.

"Nothing. I just divined that someone is in Qingping County who really shouldn't be. But it's impossible..." the Taibu explained, then shook her head. "Never mind. In any case, it was only an approximation. I must be mistaken. But we have serious matters to deal with. I've confirmed the location: we keep going down this path toward the southwest."

"Where do we rest tonight?"

The Taibu glanced at the Taizhu again and said, "See that mountain that looks like a dustpan? That's where we're headed."

The Taizhu raised his fist to send a signal to the rest of the train and kicked his stirrups. "Let's go."

Meanwhile, in the Fang family compound, the group was discussing something entirely different...

Their discussion had been provoked by Jiang Shining going in to treat the three plague-ridden beggars. As he saw that their fevers were receding, he also noticed that one of the child beggars who looked like a skinny monkey was actually a little girl.

    

"Now this is unfortunate..." Jiang Shining raised his hand to gesture at the left side of his face and said, "The other two's rashes all stop at their necks, but that little girl has a huge patch on her face. The rashes don't just bleed –– they're going to get gangrenous. We have to clean away the already rotten flesh, and when she recovers, that girl's [i] face..."

    

The group already knew about the disgusting rashes, and had seen how frail the little girl looked. Naturally, they could imagine the immense scar that would ravage the girl's face after she healed –– half her face would be ruined. The child was still so young. If her appearance was ruined now, her future wouldn’t look good. 

    

Fussing really ran in the Jiang family. Although the beggar was a complete stranger, Jiang Shijing became extremely worried for this little girl. [i]

Xue Xian had happened to be passing by in his wheelchair, but, upon hearing Jiang Shining's words, he stopped.

The only thing that determined whether Xue Xian was interested in doing something was his mood. Chen-sao was a real talent, and the feast that she'd laid out for him that morning had been excellent. Once he’d eaten his fill, Xue Xian was in a good mood. He could even forget some of the things that were burdening him, to the point where he hadn’t even noticed when Xuanmin had left their room and begun walking towards the group.

    

Xue Xian hated to eat and drink for free, but to give the Fangs golden pearls would be to treat the Fang home as an inn. Just as he'd been pondering how to repay his debt to the Fangs, he'd heard Jiang Shijing fret, and had had an idea. 

"I have a solution for the little girl's [i] face," Xue Xian said casually.

Stunned, Jiang Shijing and the others turned to him. "What solution?"

    

If Xue Xian could make a paper body for Jiang Shining’s immaterial soul, then of course he could help make a new prosthetic for the little girl's face. [i] However...

"I can't just create flesh out of nowhere. There needs to be some form of exchange with another material object," Xue Xian explained.

Jiang Shijing was not stupid, and Jiang Shining had experienced it all before so could offer advice. The group quickly debated the issue: "Some form of exchange... to go on someone's face... Hey! How about a mask?"

Stone Zhang, who was still eating his breakfast, eagerly raised his hand. "I can help! I can carve her a beautiful, extravagant mask!"

    

Oh, fuck off!

Xue Xian glared at Stone Zhang. "Not even eating will shut you up, it seems. Have you ever seen someone with a face carved full of designs?"

Silently, Stone Zhang went back to eating.

    

"I mean yirong masks," [j] Jiang Shining explained, chuckling. "The kind that you can use to entirely replace your face. But a mask is still just a mask, so we still need you for the final step..."

He glanced at Xue Xian.

Xue Xian nodded. "That's also what I mean."

    

"But..." Jiang Shijing asked awkwardly. "Who could make one?"

Stone Zhang hurriedly put his bowl back down again. "I can."

"Really? But aren't you a stonemason?" Xue Xian asked skeptically.

"Many such skills are transferable," Stone Zhang said, waving a hand. "I've seen others make them before. Plus, I'm extremely nimble-fingered. I'm sure I can make an adequate one."

    

It was rather creepy to see a stout, balding little man speak of his own nimble fingers so proudly. [k] But indeed, no one else at the table was as nimble as he, and none had observed the making of a yirong mask. So the task fell to him.

Stone Zhang did not delay: he immediately listed the materials that he needed, and then went to thoroughly wash his hands.

In the meantime, the others did not sit by idly either. Ever since he'd woken up in the morning, Lu Nianqi had tucked himself away in a corner of the courtyard, holding the black cloth that had been used to blindfold Stone Zhang in one hand and using the bundle of sticks in his other hand to trace markings across the floor. After he finished his spell, he would study the markings and then wipe it away and start over...

    

Stone Zhang had not asked for a lot of materials, and fortunately Fang Cheng's compound was full of raw materials, especially those relating to medicine. Everything except for the most unique ingredient was gathered and prepared quickly.

"What else do we need?" Jiang Shijing asked.

Stone Zhang cleared his throat and mumbled, "X glue." 

"What glue?" Xue Xian suddenly turned around. 

With a face full of resignation, Stone Zhang glumly repeated, "Dragon glue."

“...” Xue Xian asked, "What in the world is dragon glue? I’ve never heard of it."

    

"It's glue made out of dragon skin." Stone Zhang felt that he was signing his death seal with those words. He wished he could slap his own mouth off. You volunteered for a task, and look at you now. You're getting yourself killed.

Xue Xian's expression turned dark. "What the fuck? Who is making glue out of dragon skin? Drag him out there and show him to me!"

"It's not... that's... that's just what it's called," Stone Zhang quickly explained. "You know how whenever there's some strange new item, people come up with mysterious, powerful names for it. They like to name things after dragons but it usually has nothing to do with them. That glue comes from western merchants. It’s made of animal skin..."

    

But Xue Xian was still furious. He hated hearing about dragon skin, dragon bones, and other such things. He slapped the table and shouted, "Why do you need some mysterious glue? Go get some pig skin and make your own!"

"Alrighty," Stone Zhang said. He did not object to the zuzong’s orders.

    

Just as Xue Xian finished roaring with rage, he turned to see Xuanmin behind him. Their eyes met for a brief moment, and then Xue Xian swiftly wheeled his chair away, making his escape as quickly as he could.

Xuanmin: “...”

    

Actually, pig glue was perfectly adequate –– they just needed to be careful about taking it out of the boiling pot, as doing so too early or too late would ruin it. 

Stone Zhang, having stood guard by the pot for some time, decided that it had been long enough. Just as he made to turn off the heat, a hand shot out to stop him. 

He only needed to see that snow-white sleeve to know who it was. He filled his voice with respect and deferentially said, "Dashi."

Xuanmin did not waste his words. He glanced at the pot and said, "Let it boil a bit longer."

    

Stone Zhang was stunned. "Dashi, you know how to make these masks too?"

---

[a] 太常 (tai4 chang2) is an imperial official’s title that can be translated to Minister of Ceremonies (Wikipedia) or Courtier of Imperial Sacrifices (Wikipedia). In historical China, position (and the ministry that comes with it) has come in different forms depending on what dynasty and what emperor was in charge. For Copper Coins –– which approximates a general structure but simplifies it –– I am choosing to go with Minister of Ceremonies because the word “Minister” sounds more politically powerful in English than “Courtier” does; and because “Ceremonies” is a broader and more euphemistic term for all of the mystical things a Taichang might be expected to oversee.

[b] 太常寺 (tai4 chang2 si4), literally “Taichang(‘s) temple” is the Ministry of Ceremonies, from which the Taichang is based. 

[c] The Chinese words used here are 太常寺卿 (tai4 chang2 si4 qing1) and 少卿 (shao4 qing1). 卿 means “minister/high official” and 少 means “junior”, so these mean “Minister of Taichang Si” (i.e. the Taichang, of which there is one) and “Deputy Ministers” (of which there are many) respectively. 

[d] 侲子 (zhen4 zi3) is a title for witch-children who work within the Taichang Si (Baidu).

[e] 太祝 (tai4 zhu4) and 太卜 (tai4 bu3) are titles. The Zhou Dynasty bureaucracy had 6 “Tai” officials, of which Taizhu and Taibu are two. (Chinese Wikipedia) 祝 means to wish and 卜 means to divine/prophesize. The Taizhu’s role involves invoking the spirits and the Taibu’s role involves divination/fortune-telling. (Lisa Raphals) There were usually several Taizhus and Taibus. In Copper Coins, Musuli has subordinated these two roles into the Taichang Si as individual roles. In my original translation I misread 卜 as “pu” – apologies. 

Note: because Taichang, Taizhu, and Taibu are all titles/positions and not given names, I use “the” in front of the terms –– much like how we say “the President”, “the Mayor”, or “the detective”. Similarly, Taichang Si is the title of a government office, so I refer to it using “the” much as we might say “the White House” or “the community center”. 

[f] The Chinese here is 丫头 (ya1 tou), meaning “girl” or, in some cases, “servant girl”. However, translating this into English as “girl” didn’t give the same effect, so I used “lady” instead. “Wench” might also be a possible translation.

[g] The Chinese word here is 落款 (luo4 kuan3), where 落 means “to land/fall” (in this case, “to place/put”) and 款 means “section” or “type” (in this case, “signature/information”). 落款 indicates the location on a letter, painting, or other document where the names of the sender (and sometimes also recipient) are written. 落款 is a very important part of letter-writing / gift-giving traditionally. 

[h] 常事 (chang2 shi4), literally “common/ordinary things”, is the title of an official in charge of day-to-day government/bureaucratic affairs.

[i] 丫头 is used here again.

[j] 易容 (yi4 rong2), literally “to change appearance”, is a martial arts/historical fantasy trope denoting a technique by which people can easily disguise themselves. This is considered a special skill, and is usually done using a wooden or metallic mask. It was difficult to express this concisely in English, so I decided to transcribe the phrase, especially as –– like wuxia or qinggong –– this is a vocabulary word that is part of the aesthetic universe of Chinese historical fantasy. 

[k] Lol I find this so mean, Stone Zhang is the best stonemason in the region, of course he’s talented!! >:(

This chapter was beta'd by Rogue!