Mountain Sparrow: I wasn’t too powerful in Jing, so I ended up unlucky?
“How many people are there?”
“……”
Upon hearing this, Mountain Sparrow felt quite troubled.
Mo Li thus understood how indifferent Feihe Mountain’s dragon vein was towards people. If it weren’t for opium being able to bloom vibrant red flowers that left an impression on the Mountain Sparrow, the whereabouts of Ayanpuka would likely have to be guessed by Meng Qi.
With its round, dark eyes turning around, the Mountain Sparrow flapped its wings and pretended to fly up.
“Don’t go.” Mo Li stopped it.
The Mountain Sparrow obediently remained on the branch, tilting its head to look at Mo Li, thinking it made no sense not to go see if they didn’t even know how many people there were.
Meng Qi suddenly stepped forward, blocking the space between the two dragon veins, and said slowly, “The origins of Ayanpuka are still unclear, but it certainly has something to do with the snow mountain outside the border. He is certain of the existence of the dragon vein, and he knows the dragon vein is in Taijing and Feihe Mountain, knows the dragon vein can transform into human form… He knows many things he shouldn’t know.”
Who told him?
And who made him believe that dragon veins really existed in the world?
“The dragon vein of Anahduo Mountain must have left some records, with humans who have seen its true form, and even learned some ability to control spiritual energy. These people passed it down through generations, and Ayanpuka inherited this legacy… That would be the best scenario.”
When Meng Qi said the last sentence, he suddenly shifted his tone.
The Mountain Sparrow stretched out its head, chirped twice, its eyes filled with shock.
“Yes, there is also the worst possibility: the dragon vein of Anahduo Mountain has not died, or rather, has not completely died.” Meng Qi watched as the Mountain Sparrow, flustered and anxious, circled around twice, tugged at his mouth corner, and continued to stare at the Mountain Sparrow, saying, “Of course, spiritual energy can only gradually dissipate, but forcing the surrounding spiritual energy to converge in one place is the best way to delay it. There are few people outside the border, and the mountains and rivers are difficult to damage; they won’t be cut down extensively, and no one will dig deep into the soil to make tombs. He… cannot leave that mountain and will gradually fall into a long sleep, waking up once a year, once every ten years, once every twenty years… Ultimately dying in slumber, but how long it can be delayed, none of us knows.”
The Mountain Sparrow shivered, forgetting to flap its wings, and fell straight into the grass.
Mo Li looked at Meng Qi with curiosity.
The latter smiled and said softly, “Did the doctor forget what he told me earlier? Ayanpuka can only hear with one ear?”
“He was born with an ailment that couldn’t be cured.” Mo Li instinctively replied, and then spoke more slowly, “This ailment occasionally appeared in local chronicles and ancient texts, all stating that a woman gave birth to a monster after losing her chastity. When teacher traveled, he encountered a strange incident near Zhongnan Mountain, where it was rumored that there was a great demon in the mountain. The common people spared no expense to ask someone to exorcise it, and woodcutters had repeatedly seen the monster in the mountain.”
Qin Lu found this very strange and searched the mountain, ultimately discovering a child raised by a wolf pack.
The child appeared to be only seven years old in bone age, moved on all fours, and was completely unclothed, lacking human form.
Old Mister Qin knew that a child abandoned in the wild could be taken in and nurtured by a mother wolf or mother tiger.
He drove away the wolf pack and subdued the child. After cleaning the child’s face, he found a patch of white hair on the child’s forehead, and that the brow and nose bones were somewhat unusual. One eye was blue, and the other was black; only one ear could hear sound.
“…It might be that survival in the mountains was difficult, and since the child ate raw meat and blood, even though he was not yet ten years old, his body was in terrible condition.”
Qin Lu felt the child was afflicted with many ailments. He collected herbs in the mountains, treating the child for over a month without much effect. The child was not human but a wolf, completely oblivious to everything about the human world; he either bit or scratched. Qin Lu ruined several pieces of clothing but finally made this little wolf realize he meant no harm.
Meng Qi listened intently. The notion of beasts nursing human children had existed since ancient times, but feeding once or twice for a day or two would be considered auspicious, indicating that the child was extraordinary and would have great prospects in the future. However, if fed continuously in this manner, living off raw flesh and blood, that would be demonic.
Flipping through historical records and local legends, the wolves, tigers, and even monkeys on Shangyun Mountain had been involved in many such stories.
Since the dragon vein of Taijing was certain of its consciousness, such incidents had never occurred on Shangyun Mountain; they were all fabricated.
“What happened to that child later?” Meng Qi asked.
The Mountain Sparrow didn’t understand why they suddenly began discussing this but found it quite interesting.
Thus, it forgot to fly up from the grass pile, lying in the grass nest while shaking its head and swaying.
“Chirp chirp—”
There were no demons in the mountains, and blue-eyed monsters couldn’t be born. Why didn’t the wolves eat the child? Were they not hungry? Why did they want to raise a child?
A series of chirps ensued, and although the sounds of this bird, born near the swampy mountain streams, were melodious, Mo Li still felt a blankness in his mind, filled with the different pitches of “chirp chirp,” leaving him feeling heavy-headed.
Meng Qi waved his sleeve, and a gust of wind sent the Mountain Sparrow tumbling in mid-air, landing deeper into a thicker and denser pile of grass.
“Go away if you can’t speak human language.”
The Mountain Sparrow angrily leaped out of the grass pile and saw Mo Li smiling helplessly at it. It paused, then turned its head and dove into the stream, disappearing into thin air.
“Why are you angry at it?”
Mo Li rubbed his forehead, reminding Meng Qi that they were still on someone else’s territory.
“Don’t worry, it hasn’t left; its listening to us.” Meng Qi assured.
The dragon vein didn’t need to transform near the spiritual cavity. As long as Mo Li and Meng Qi didn’t use secret sound transmission, the Mountain Sparrow could continue eavesdropping.
Meng Qi glanced at the flowing water and said slowly, “As long as it doesn’t recklessly fly into the reeds, it’ll be fine. In the past, it hadn’t been discovered because it had no interest in people and didn’t even know the Xiliang people. Now that it knew there were so many things behind opium, if it ran over carelessly, Ayanpuka was very likely to have learned about the true form of Feihe Mountain from the dragon vein of Anahduo Mountain. Wouldn’t he take advantage of a mountain sparrow acting strangely?”
A dull sound came from underground, resembling the flow of water, or like a beast turning over.
Mo Li: “……”
He felt that the dragon vein of Feihe Mountain was about to die of anger.
“So angry that it doesn’t want to show up, doesn’t want to see anyone; that’s the safest.” Meng Qi said slowly.
The dragon vein of Feihe Mountain wanted to fight, but after seeing its true form, it felt that it couldn’t win against the dragon vein of Taijing even at home.
It became even angrier.
Since there was a dragon vein of Taijing, why was there also a Feihe Mountain?
If it weren’t for Meng Qi, that beautiful fish might have become its little companion.
Fish and water were the best match. With so much water in Feihe Mountain, how could it not attract a newly born dragon vein? The Mountain Sparrow believed that even if it stayed at home and went nowhere, Mo Li would still seek it out.
—However, the fish belonged to the sand rat; it didn’t understand what was said. The dragon vein of Feihe Mountain felt particularly conflicted.
Meng Qi resolved the issue of the plump mountain sparrow attracting Dr. Mo and cheerfully continued to ask, “So, did the child raised by the wolves survive?”
Mo Li slowly shook his head.
Old Mister Qin exhausted all his knowledge throughout his life but still couldn’t cure that blue-eyed wolf child.
“At that time, teacher’s internal power hadn’t yet reached mastery, and he hadn’t completely grasped the medical texts. He watched the child’s body deteriorate day by day, and soon he became unable to get up. The mother wolf seemed to know that the child’s end was near and howled mournfully outside the cave every night. On the day the wolf child died, the mother wolf entered the cave… Teacher said it squatted beside the child, guarding the child’s slowly stiffening body, only leaving when the morning came, never to return again.”
As human parents abandoned their child in the mountains, the wolf, as a beast, refused to leave until the child it raised had died.
What is human, and what is beast?
“After burying the wolf child, teacher left the mountain in disappointment, only to find that another woman in the village had given birth to a monster.
“The villagers were furious and wanted to burn the infant alive. Teacher happened to arrive just in time to rescue the child and took great care in raising him.”
Mo Li lowered his eyelashes and said softly, “However, that infant had a heart ailment and wouldn’t survive to his first birthday, passing away.”
Qin Lu personally buried two unfortunate children with blue eyes. He tried every means to read medical books and ancient texts, visiting famous doctors everywhere. He didn’t believe in monsters and was convinced this was a type of illness.
“…After hearing rumors several times elsewhere, he accidentally encountered a person who had lived to adulthood but could only beg for a living due to being ostracized by the villagers.”
This person usually claimed to be the offspring of a Hu woman abandoned by a merchant, singing some songs to beg. When Qin Lu saw his face and bone structure, which were unusual, he immediately took his pulse and found that he also had a naturally deaf ear, which couldn’t be cured, and the reason couldn’t be found either.
“In the world, there are women who, when learning embroidery, cannot recognize the red dyed with madder root; the boys they give birth to are the same. Even Bian Que couldn’t do anything. Being born with an ailment is particularly unfortunate, and being born with abnormalities is even more difficult.” Mo Li spoke halfway when he understood Meng Qi’s meaning and asked in a deep voice, “Do you think Ayanpuka was also abandoned in the mountains?”
Xiliang was beyond the border, and many merchants from the Western Regions also traveled to the country of Xiliang.
Ayanpuka was a Xiliang person and naturally was much better off than a Central Plains person; at least he wouldn’t be abandoned for having blue eyes.
“If he were in the capital, his appearance wouldn’t be remarkable at all, but he claimed to be a disciple of the Secret King of Mojie Temple, who eventually died in the Fei Ting tribe. This tribe just happened to be near Anahduo Mountain, which is quite isolated, without trade routes, and the pastures were not rich. If his parents were slaves, slaves, like cattle and horses, were property; naturally, no one would care about what he looked like. But if his mother was not a slave… she was likely recognized as a promiscuous woman.”
Meng Qi’s brow furrowed deeply, and Mo Li wore a similar expression.
Meng Qi felt that Ayanpuka’s mother, in her panic, had someone throw the child away.
However, Mo Li had a different speculation.
“Teacher said that this ailment is not due to a deficiency in the womb. Many women have good pregnancies but still give birth to children indistinguishable between madder red and verdant green, which may be due to the bloodlines of the parents or even the ancestors being deficient. In the past, several villages near Zhongnan Mountain were quite isolated, with little intermarriage with outsiders. If the Fei Ting tribe from which Ayanpuka originated rarely experienced wars and had barren grasslands, no one would want to raid, then slaves wouldn’t be frequently traded. The children born to slaves would still be slaves, never leaving that small area from birth to death… In that case, Ayanpuka wouldn’t be the first person to be born with abnormalities.”
The people on the grasslands outside the border were sometimes more ignorant and cruel than the common people of the Central Plains.
Mo Li didn’t know what had happened there, but the Fei Ting tribe was close to Anahduo Mountain, and the truth was likely already quite evident.
Ayanpuka was the child rescued by that snow mountain’s dragon vein.
He posed as a descendant of the Xiliang royal family, perhaps to restore his country or perhaps with ambitious aspirations to become the ruler of the world.
But when he sought the dragon vein, it was also possible he was trying to save his “father.”
The author has something to say:
Mountain Sparrow: Since there is a dragon vein of Taijing, why is there also a Feihe Mountain?
Ayanpuka: The dragon vein of Taijing is not to be trifled with; it’s wise to be cautious when seeking out Feihe Mountain.
Mountain Sparrow: ???
The dragon lies at home, and calamity descends from the sky.
