Chapter 76: Chapter 75: Warmed by Wine, a Righteous Spirit Arises

As Song Ciwan passed through the main hall, she overheard someone say, "Back in the previous dynasty, Cold Hill Mountain was originally a Buddha Mountain! One after another, countless family temples belonging to wealthy households were built upon it. The ones living in those temples were the female family members of those great houses, sent there for a life of asceticism!"

The words were simple enough, yet for some reason, they carried an unspeakable sense of dread, compelling those who heard them to stop in their tracks, eager to hear the rest of the story.

Yu Lin was one of those who had stopped in their tracks.

Seeing him standing there, listening intently, Song Ciwan also paused to listen alongside him.

The storyteller had a weathered face. He’d had a few cups of crude wine, and several drops clung to his messy beard. Others called him Third Master Luo.

Third Master Luo sat tipsily at his table. He slapped a hand down on the wood with a "Heh!" and said, "Family temples, eh? Do you have any idea what kind of life the people inside lived?"

"Wearing thin robes in the winter and padded jackets in the summer, hauling water and chopping firewood, tending gardens and planting vegetables... All their former wealth and luxury, all the servants they could order about—gone. And that was just the beginning..."

"They’d chant scriptures day after day before a lone lamp, striking a wooden fish and copying sutras. Kneeling to face a wall was a daily routine, and ’bamboo shoots with stir-fried pork’ was a regular side dish. The new arrivals were always bullied by the veterans, but little did they know, those veterans had once been new arrivals themselves, bullied by the veterans of their own time!"

...

Third Master Luo was a fluid storyteller. His words painted such a vivid picture you felt as if you were there. More importantly, his speech was laced with an uncanny atmosphere that silenced the clamor in the hall. More and more people abandoned their own conversations, turning to listen intently to his tale.

Just then, a rather dense man blurted out, "’Bamboo shoots with stir-fried pork?’ I thought this was a temple for ascetic practice. How could they be eating stir-fried meat?"

The crowd fell even more silent. A moment later, the hall erupted in a wave of raucous laughter.

The man was still baffled when someone explained to him, "’Bamboo shoots with stir-fried pork’ doesn’t mean you’re actually eating pork. It means getting whipped with bamboo canes! It won’t leave a mark on your face, but the pain is excruciating!"

But that excruciating pain belonged to the people of the past, not the people in the hall today.

And so, as the man finished speaking, another round of HA HA HAs and guffaws broke out, and the eerie atmosphere inexplicably warmed up a little.

The hall was still heavy with the reek of wine. Third Master Luo let out a laugh as well before continuing, "’Bamboo shoots with stir-fried pork’ was actually just a common punishment. There were methods you couldn’t even dream of! For instance, shoving fine needles under the fingernails, or covering the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose with wet paper. It would smother you until you couldn’t breathe, and only when you were on the verge of death would they reluctantly pull the paper away."

"Sometimes they wouldn’t pull it away in time, and the person would be gone, just like that. And what happened then? Heh, that was no big deal either!"

"They’d claim to the outside world that these women entered the family temples voluntarily for spiritual Cultivation, to pray for their families. But the truth is, they were all sinners banished to those remote mountains. What did it matter if a few sinners died?"

A listener shivered and asked, "Third Master Luo, you said these women sent to the family temples were from wealthy families. If that’s the case, they must have come from distinguished backgrounds. What on earth could they have done to deserve such torment?"

Third Master Luo took a drink of wine, a smirk playing on his lips that was half-drunken, half-mocking. "Oh, there were plenty of ’crimes’! For a married woman, it could be jealousy and wickedness, or failing to bear a son for many years, or disrespecting her elders, or being a detriment to her husband... And for some, you didn’t even need a proper charge. They’d just claim your zodiacs were mismatched, that your attributes clashed, and order you to the temple for a period of ’Cultivation’. Could you possibly refuse?"

"And then there were the unmarried ones. A concubine’s daughter suppressed by the first wife, a first wife’s daughter suppressed by a stepmother, an orphan suppressed by her own relatives... there were countless reasons for them, too."

"Some even had both parents still living, only to be met with suspicion from their own flesh and blood. It was bad luck. Heh, just plain bad luck!"

"The Profound Origin Land back then wasn’t like it is for us today, with the world unified and the Nine Provinces under a single ruler. In those days, our region of Huailing was governed by a nation called the Yun Country."

"In the final years of the Yun Country, a great drought struck the land. For thousands of miles, the earth was scorched red. From north to south, it was nothing but chaos!"

"Countless heroes rose up and raised the flag of rebellion. The fighting was relentless, and blood flowed in rivers..."

Third Master Luo gestured with his hands as he spoke. "On Cold Hill Mountain, there was a young lady living in seclusion. One day, while chopping firewood on the back mountain, she came across a wounded young man. Seeing that he was covered in injuries, she felt a stir of compassion, despite her own difficult circumstances."

"The young lady saved him, hiding him on the back mountain. Every day, she would set aside a portion of her own food and water, tucking it into her robes when she went to chop firewood and secretly bringing it to him."

"From the young man, the young lady learned of a completely different world."

"She heard of people who drew their swords to right a wrong they witnessed, slaying an evildoer only to become a fugitive themselves. And so, they rebelled against the Court and joined the Rebel Army."

"She heard of a woman from a gentry clan who took pity on a small boy and gave him a flatbread and a flask of water. For this, she was reported to her clan. They accused her of meeting a man in private and engaging in an illicit exchange. The clan sentenced her to death by drowning!"

"Even though someone pointed out that the boy was only eight, the rule was that males and females must be separated after the age of seven. A woman giving an eight-year-old boy a flatbread was, by definition, an illicit exchange!"

"Hah..."

He let out a dry laugh. The captivated crowd couldn’t help but press him, "And then what happened?"

Third Master Luo said, "The young man told the lady that the woman fought back against her clan. She had a dagger hidden on her person, and with it, she stabbed the Clan Leader who had sentenced her to death."

"After killing the Clan Leader, she escaped in the ensuing chaos. A short time later, she had a stroke of good fortune, began her Martial Arts Training and learned to guide her qi, and eventually joined the Rebel Army."