Everything in the town fascinated Ergouzi, filling him with a sense of novelty.
He wandered over to a fortune-teller’s stall.
Sitting behind the stall was a white-bearded old man who half-squinted as he eyed the passersby. Beside him stood a flag bearing three large characters.
“Mu Ban Shan”
Ergouzi softly sounded out the characters on the banner.
“Young man, I perceive your bone structure is extraordinary. You are destined for great things!”
Even as he spoke, the old man remained seated like a mountain, his eyes still half-closed.
“Are you talking to me, sir?”
Ergouzi looked around, making sure he was the only one standing there.
“Of course I am!”
“Yet despite your extraordinary bone structure, you lack the guidance of an expert. I fear you will accomplish nothing in the end.”
Listening to the old man speak in such a refined, scholarly manner—much like his schoolteacher—Ergouzi felt a wave of respect.
“Please enlighten me, elder!”
“Today, I shall first teach you two characters.”
“Look at these three characters on the flag. In the first, the shape for a child, zi, sits beneath the shape for a tree, mu; together they are read as Li. In the last, a person stands beside a mountain; that character is read as xian, meaning immortal.”
Pointing at the characters one by one, the old man explained them to Ergouzi.
“Li Banxian!”
Ergouzi murmured the name to himself, his face burning hot as he realized that out of the three characters on the banner, he had misread two.
“So you are the renowned Mr. Li!”
Li Banxian was literate, skilled in divination, and possessed profound learning. His reputation was known to nearly everyone across the surrounding ten li.
Whenever people suffered from minor ailments, children cried inconsolably through the night, weddings or funerals were planned, or auspicious dates needed to be chosen, they would seek him out. He was said to be remarkably uncanny.
“Such minor fame is hardly worth mentioning.”
“Young man, I observe that your forehead is full and your jaw square. Originally, you were destined for great wealth and nobility, but alas… sigh!”
Leaving his sentence hanging, Li Banxian stroked his beard, heaved a heavy sigh, and assumed an inscrutable air.
Ergouzi felt a deep, instinctive resonance. The reading was so accurate—no wonder everyone called him an old immortal.
If not for the sudden death of his parents and the loss of several dozen mu of land, he should have at least belonged to a comfortably well-off family.
Sigh!
Just as Ergouzi intended to ask Li Banxian for further guidance, the sound of gongs and drums drifted from the end of the street.
“Dang! Dang! Dang!”
Drawing closer by the moment, the gongs and drums clamored loudly amidst a buzzing crowd, drawing many people to run forward and watch the spectacle.
More and more onlookers gathered, packing the street tight. Even Li Banxian stood on his stall, stretching his neck to see.
From the murmurs of the people around him, Ergouzi quickly caught the drift.
It turned out that the results of this year’s Martial Scholar examinations were being posted today, and someone from Sanchazi Town had successfully passed.
Ergouzi’s experience was limited; he only knew that scholar masters were formidable officials far above ordinary folk, and not a single Martial Scholar had emerged from Snake Creek Village in a hundred years.
As for what such a person looked like, a pig-feeding, wood-chopping farm boy like him had never laid eyes on one.
“I wonder whose ancestral graves smoked green for them to produce a scholar master.”
“Scholars don’t kneel when meeting officials, are exempt from corvée labor, and receive reduced tax grain, bringing immense glory to their ancestors…”
Standing on their tiptoes, the onlookers stared with eyes full of envy.
Naturally, there were those ignorant of their own limits who began entertaining thoughts of taking the martial examination themselves.
“I want to learn martial arts and take the exam too…”
“Keep dreaming! The very first requirement for the Martial Scholar exam is lifting a five-hundred-jin boulder. Do you have that kind of talent?”
Listening from the side, a wave of yearning surged in Ergouzi’s heart. He grew as exhausted as a dog just carrying a single dan of grain; he couldn’t fathom what sort of monster possessed such strength.
Driven by curiosity, he squeezed into the crowd and stood on his tiptoes to peer ahead.
“Dang! Dang dang dang…”
Copper gongs cleared the path, followed by a procession of people escorting a young man.
With a square face and large ears, wearing a giant red silk flower across his chest, the youth radiated high spirits!
It was none other than his cousin, Zhang Youliang!
Beaming with joy, Zhang Youliang was surrounded by a dozen or so local gentry currying favor with him.
Exchanging pleasantries as if they were family, Zhang Youliang suddenly let his gaze sweep across the crowd and land directly on Ergouzi.
Having suffered countless beatings since childhood—and having retaliated against Zhang Youxin just over ten days prior—Ergouzi instinctively wanted to shrink back the moment their eyes met.
Yet out in public, Zhang Youliang clearly had no intention of lowering himself to bicker with him. His gaze merely grazed over Ergouzi before he turned back to hobnobbing with the gentry.
Still, Ergouzi could clearly discern the disdain in his cousin’s eyes, as though Ergouzi was no longer worthy of being looked at directly.
He stood silently in the crowd, watching Zhang Youliang surrounded by gentry as they paraded through the town to the sound of gongs and drums before heading toward Snake Creek Village.
“Mr. Li, I also want to take the Martial Scholar exam. Is there a way…”
On his way back home, Ergouzi balanced a large iron pot on his head.
He wore a brand-new set of cotton-padded jacket and trousers, keeping his entire body warm and comfortable, with over a thousand wen hidden securely at his waist.
He had never been this wealthy in all his years. Under normal circumstances, he would have been jumping for joy.
Yet today, he could not summon a shred of happiness. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Perhaps it was jealousy, perhaps resentment; seeing his cousin pass the Martial Scholar exam left a sour, miserable taste in his mouth.
His uncle had seized his parents’ farmland, his elder brother Dagou had died under murky circumstances, and he had survived in his uncle’s household by eating pig slop.
Now that his cousin was a martial scholar and an official master, a lowly tenant farmer like him stood even less of a chance.
Yet, if his cousin could pass, why couldn’t he?
He had just asked Li Banxian about it in town. The government held examinations every single year, and one only needed to pay a fee to enter.
Ergouzi had even spent ten wen to have Li Banxian read his fortune.
Startled right out of his wits by the boy’s fate pattern, the old man had instantly tried to thrust the ten wen back into his hands.
Citing heavenly secrets that could not be leaked, he claimed he would rather forfeit the silver.
After Ergouzi pleaded earnestly and offered another twenty wen,
Li Banxian finally took the risk, making a decision that violated his ancestors’ teachings to reveal a fraction of the heavenly secret.
According to the fortune-teller, Ergouzi’s fate pattern was of a nobility too profound to utter.
As long as he received guidance from a renowned master, his future prospects would be limitless, far surpassing any ordinary Martial Scholar.
However, entering the martial examinations required learning martial arts first, and he currently had no path to acquire them.
Zhang Youliang had only been able to train at Zhengwu Hall because his family had spent a massive sum and secured a personal recommendation.
Only after repeated supplications, inquiries, and the offering of his remaining pork did Li Banxian finally let slip half a sentence.
It turned out that Li Banxian himself was a deeply hidden master of the world beyond the mortal realm. He commanded immortal arts, rendering mortal martial techniques utterly trivial to him.
Yet the master did not readily agree to impart his arts, stating that heavenly secrets must not be leaked and the Dao could not be transmitted lightly.
He required proof of sincerity—that sincerity can move metal and stone.
Given Ergouzi’s shallow experience, he originally had no inkling of how such sincerity should be expressed.
Fortunately, Li Banxian proved patient, overlooking his dullness and dropping heavy hints until Ergouzi finally understood.
As it turned out, while an immortal-like figure held worldly wealth in utter contempt, viewing it as mere dirt,
Ergouzi was merely a mortal. And for a mortal, the best way to demonstrate sincerity was through silver.
First, one had to present formal discipleship gifts and hold an initiation ceremony.
Afterward, every single year required ten taels of silver, ten jin of premium pork fat, two jars of fine wine, one dan of polished white rice, a fat chicken, and a fat goose.
Li Banxian certainly did not covet these worldly goods; he merely wished to test whether the boy’s sincerity was sufficient.
Merely scraping together this initial offering was entirely beyond Ergouzi’s current means.
Moreover, the daily expenses required for martial training were astronomical.
Take Zhang Youliang, for instance: he consumed three bowls of white rice at every single meal, three times a day, with meat every few days. Without substantial family backing, anyone else would have eaten themselves into destitution long ago.
Upon returning to Snake Mouth Mountain this time, he would have to accelerate the land reclamation, grow more grain, and eventually fulfill his tribute to Li Banxian.
With this thought, Ergouzi quickened his pace.