Chapter 695
: Too eager to improve
Eating raw deer heart has a slippery feel, like eating a piece of raw fatty meat.
Chen Ji was unwilling to chew and could only swallow it whole, while Lao Erduo ate with great relish.
Old Ears chuckled as he looked at him. “This old man has traveled all over the country, digging for wild vegetables, chewing on tree roots, eating mice, and gnawing on tree bark. Your experience is something you can’t match. In the twenty-fifth year of Jianing, there was a great drought in Shanzhou. I happened to be there. At first, there were still wild vegetables and grasses to dig up. After that, it was tree bark. Tsk, elm bark is the best to eat, it’s the softest to chew. Next is mulberry bark, locust bark, poplar bark, and ailanthus bark.”
Old Ears chewed on deer heart and recalled: "The older generation developed an attachment to elm and poplar trees by eating them. They thought they were good things. The year before last, I went to Shanzhou again and found that every household planted elm and poplar trees. In spring, there were so many poplar catkins that you could stick them to your mouth... Once all the grass and trees were eaten up, they would start eating old cowhide, cotton, tree leaves, and buckwheat flowers. When those were also eaten up, they would have to eat Guanyin clay."
He looked at Chen Ji and said, "After that, there will be starving people everywhere, thousands of miles of white bones, nine out of ten houses empty, and people exchanging children to eat. Kid, you've stayed in the capital for too long. You should go out and see the world more often."
Chen Ji remained silent, but then he realized that the deer heart wasn't so bad after all.
Taking advantage of Chen Ji's distraction, Old Ears cut off another piece of white meat from the sika deer. He first cut off a piece and stuffed it into his own mouth, then cut off another piece and stuffed it into Chen Ji's mouth.
He chewed with relish, nodding to Chen Ji: "Try it, this tastes better than deer heart. It's a rare delicacy in a year of great disaster."
Heeding the advice, Chen Ji immediately stuffed it into his mouth, and a fishy, foul taste suddenly exploded in his mouth.
Old Ears hurriedly spat out the meat in his mouth with a bitter expression, and Chen Ji also spat it out with a bitter expression: "Pah, pah, pah, hurting the enemy a thousand while losing a thousand of your own, what's the point?"
Old Ears laughed heartily: "This old man just wanted to see you get your comeuppance. Let's go, let's keep going."
Chen Ji grabbed a handful of snow and stuffed it into his mouth to wash away the fishy taste. He looked up at the tiger in the mountains again. The tiger just stared at them. After they had gone some distance away, it carefully approached the sika deer that had been abandoned on the mountain road, took out its internal organs and ate a few mouthfuls.
Chen Ji kept looking back as he walked. He saw that the tiger had only eaten a few bites before quietly chasing after them, seemingly worried about losing them.
The cloud meowed, "Sneaky and suspicious, it's obviously not a good thing."
Chen Ji patted its head: "Ignore it."
……
……
The two people and the cat kept moving and barely slept, but the tiger kept following them.
Originally, they were a hundred paces apart, but after Chen Ji and his companions ate the deer's heart, the tiger shortened the distance to sixty paces.
The next morning, the tiger disappeared for a moment, and when it reappeared, it had brought back a sika deer, and then it retreated and watched from a distance.
Chen Ji squatted down next to the sika deer and wondered, "Where did you get a sika deer in the short time it takes for an incense stick to burn?"
Old Ears glanced at the wound on the sika deer: "Snatched from the wolf's mouth."
On the third day, the tiger brought a lamb, and the distance from which it was observing the lamb decreased from sixty paces to forty paces, and then to thirty paces.
Old Ears suddenly beckoned to the tiger, which was slightly startled, and then slowly approached, lowering its head to rub against Old Ears's calf.
Chen Ji was taken aback. He looked at Old Ears, then at the tiger: "You two know each other?"
Old Ears chuckled: "This tiger cub is running rampant in Changbai Mountain. Other tigers are content with just having enough to eat, but not this one. Every day it chases wolves and pigs, causing chaos in the mountains. It even steals bird eggs and smashes them on the ground to play with. As a result, it is often chased around by the people of Wumiao Mountain."
Dark Clouds stared in disbelief.
Old Ears patted the tiger's head: "It left in anger for a while, but when it grew up, it returned to Changbai Mountain to cause trouble, and was then chased away again. This happened six or seven times. When it realized that it could not beat the Martial Temple no matter what, it slowly developed this sneaky nature."
Old Ears added, "This old man also has a grudge against the Martial Temple, so we share a similar fate."
Chen Ji sighed, "You two aren't just in the same boat, you're birds of a feather."
Old Ears said irritably, "You have no manners and you hold grudges. Learn from this old man; I never hold grudges."
Chen Ji sneered and retorted, "I think you're just too old to remember."
Old Ears: "..." Chen Ji looked down at the tiger and only when he got closer did he realize that the tiger had many injuries and several bald patches on its rump, indicating that it had been in many fights.
The tiger had been secretly observing him, as well as the dark cloud in his arms.
Wuyun meowed, "It was nearby when you fainted earlier. When Aunt Ping brought you ginseng to save your life, it kept watching and only slipped away when the Zhongwu Guards arrived."
The traces of the past suddenly became clear.
The dark cloud is a cat, and the Northeast Golden Shaded Dog is also a cat; both of them were attracted by the mountain tiger's path.
But he had never heard of a mountain lord being able to cultivate with a second wild beast. Even his master only had one crow... Wait, did his master really only have one crow by his side?
Chen Ji suddenly became uncertain. After all, his senior brother Yao An had six cougars by his side, each of whom possessed a cultivation level of half-step Dao Seeking Realm. And crows all looked very similar; even if one of them were replaced, he wouldn't be able to recognize it.
The tiger crept closer, but the dark clouds breathed out, causing the tiger to stop in its tracks.
The tiger glanced at the dark clouds, then opened its blood-red maw on the snow...
Just as Chen Ji thought the tiger was about to attack, it shook its head from side to side, as if displaying its fangs. Then, the tiger slapped a nearby pine tree, tearing off half the trunk with a single claw, leaving deep claw marks. Finally, the tiger lowered its body, its entire body tense, as if showing off its muscles to Chen Ji.
After doing all that, it looked up and gestured with its chin toward the dark clouds.
Dark Cloud broke free from Chen Ji's embrace and landed on the snow to confront the tiger head-on. However, the tiger was more than half a person's height, and Dark Cloud couldn't even reach the bend of its leg.
The dark cloud looked back at Chen Ji as if seeking help, and Chen Ji pulled the dark cloud back into his arms: "Why compare these things with it?"
He looked at the tiger, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "You may want to prove that you are stronger than it, so that you are more useful to me, but that means nothing to me. I don't know if you can understand, but if you do, then leave. Friends are not for comparison, and I will not be friends with you just because you are more powerful."
The tiger seemed to understand, and actually turned and walked away slowly. As it left, it looked back every few steps, as if to see if Chen Ji intended to stop it.
Chen Ji watched the tiger disappear into the mountains and asked, "Could it understand human speech?"
Old Ears chuckled and explained, "This is all thanks to your five Martial Dao Sounds. Martial Dao Sounds can enlighten all living beings. One Martial Dao Sound can awaken the intelligence of a wild beast once, and after awakening its intelligence, it can cultivate together with humans. The White-browed Immortal Deer of the Antarctic Immortal, the Black Tiger of the Mysterious Altar of Zhao Gongming, the Green Lion of Manjushri Bodhisattva, the Di Ting of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, the Six-tusked White Elephant of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva... Don't listen to the flowery stories in the streets. In fact, they are all spiritual beasts that have been awakened by their Martial Dao Sounds and have been brought to the Forty-Nine Heavens."
Chen Ji pondered: "Logically speaking, there have been quite a few Grandmasters of the Divine Path Realm over the past thousands of years, at least several dozen. Why is it that we rarely hear of spirit beasts roaming the world?"
The old man slowly said, "Humans have three souls and seven spirits, which are all open at birth. If some of them are not open, they are confused and no different from beasts. If you go to the village, you will always see some foolish village guards standing at the village entrance. These are people whose three souls and seven spirits are not fully open. If they are opened one day, they will be no different from ordinary people."
Old Ear continued, “The old man often said that birds, beasts and livestock have two souls and four spirits. The soul is missing the 'Tai Guang' (胎光), and the spirit is missing the 'Tun Zei' (吞贼), 'Fei Du' (非毒), and 'Qu Hui' (除秽). But they are not born without three souls and seven spirits. It is just that the remaining souls and spirits have been obscured by the sage decree of the Taoist Ancestor Li Er, thus cutting off the possibility of cultivation.”
Chen Ji pondered: "So, the sound of martial arts can dispel obscuration and instantly dispel chaos?"
Old Ear nodded: "That's right. A single martial arts resonance opens one soul. For ordinary beings, hearing a martial arts resonance once is of no use; at most, they might become a little smarter. Only the big blue ox of the Huangshan Daoist Court was lucky. Its disciple Zi received a martial arts resonance upon entering the Divine Dao Realm, Huangshan's top disciple Zhang Li received one upon entering the Innate Realm, and the little Daoist Yanchi also received one upon entering the Innate Realm. So, it has all seven souls, only lacking one spirit. The Heavenly Soul, the Fetal Light, governs conscience. Without the Fetal Light, that big blue ox cannot understand human ethics and is always sneaking around, even daring to steal incense from the Forty-Nine Heavens. As for the birds and beasts around the immortals, they have heard countless martial arts resonances with their masters and are already no different from humans."
Chen Ji looked down at Wu Yun and asked in confusion, "But Wu Yun was very smart even before he heard the martial arts resonance."
Old Ears said meaningfully, "Just like the mountain chief Lu Yang, there are also geniuses among birds and beasts. They are born with one more soul or one more spirit than other birds and beasts, or even have all three souls and seven spirits open. They can cultivate the same paths that humans can cultivate. However, these little things born with intelligence are usually reincarnated from the forty-ninth heaven. They may have had the ability to reach the heavens and the earth in their previous life."
Chen Ji was taken aback. Was Old Ear implying that Wu Yun was also reincarnated from the Forty-Nine Heavens?
But when he looked at the dark clouds, he saw only confusion in their eyes.
Chen Ji looked at the spot where the tiger had disappeared: "Where did that tiger go? What happened to it?"
Old Ear chuckled: "Of your five martial arts sounds, it probably benefited from four of them. Now that your three souls and seven spirits are all open, you are no different from a human."
Just then, the tiger returned, carrying a bewildered pika in its mouth as it approached Chen Ji and dropped the pika on the ground.
The pika seemed to have just been dug out of the ground by the tiger, huddled in a ball, too afraid to move. The tiger looked at the dark cloud in Chen Ji's arms, then at the pika on the ground, as if seeking praise.
Immediately afterwards, the tiger rolled onto its back in the snow, exposing its belly to the dark clouds to show its weakness.
Old Ears stood silently for a while, then clicked his tongue and exclaimed, "You're really too ambitious!" (End of Chapter)