Green Mountain

Eating raw deer heart has a slippery feeling, like eating a piece of fat.

Chen Ji didn’t want to chew more and could only swallow it whole. In contrast, Old Ears seemed to enjoy it.

Old Ears noticed him looking and chuckled, "I’ve traveled far and wide, dug up wild vegetables, chewed on tree roots, eaten mice, and gnawed on tree bark. This experience is something you can’t match, kid. In the 25th year of Jianing, Shan State had a big drought. I happened to be there. At first, there were wild vegetables and wild grass to dig up, then it was tree bark. Tsk, the best tree bark is from the elm tree, it’s the softest to chew, followed by mulberry, acacia, poplar, and ailanthus."

Old Ears chewed the deer heart and reminisced, "The older generation developed a fondness for eating elm and poplar trees, thinking they’re good things. A few years ago, I went back to Shan State and found every household growing elm and poplar trees. In spring, the poplar fluff could even cover your mouth... Once the vegetation was eaten up, you’d start eating old cowhide, cottonseed, leaves, and buckwheat flowers. When even these were gone, you’d have to eat Guanyin soil."

He looked at Chen Ji, "After that, it became a wasteland, corpses everywhere, out of ten rooms, nine were empty, people eating each other’s children to survive. Kid, you’ve stayed in the Imperial Capital too long, you should get out more and see the world."

Chen Ji remained silent, only feeling that the deer heart didn’t taste that bad anymore.

Old Ears took advantage of Chen Ji’s distraction and cut off another piece of white meat from the sika deer, first feeding a piece to himself and then another piece to Chen Ji.

He chewed with relish and nodded at Chen Ji, "Try it, this tastes better than the deer heart; it’s a rare delicacy in a year of disaster."

Taking his advice, Chen Ji immediately put it in his mouth, only to have a burst of gamey taste explode in his mouth.

Old Ears quickly spat out the meat with a pained look, and Chen Ji did the same, "Ptooey! Hurting the enemy a thousand, causing damage a thousand, what’s the point?"

Old Ears laughed heartily, "I just wanted to see the look of disappointment on your face. Come on, let’s keep moving."

Chen Ji grabbed a handful of snow and stuffed it into his mouth to wash away the taste. He looked up at the tiger in the mountains, which was watching them. Once they had left some distance, it cautiously approached the sika deer left on the mountain path, tearing out the insides and taking a few bites.

Chen Ji looked back every few steps, seeing that the tiger only ate a few bites before following them again, as if worried about losing track of them.

Wu Yun meowed, "Sneaky, not a good thing at first glance."

Chen Ji patted its head, "Ignore it."

...

...

The two of them and the cat kept moving, barely sleeping, yet the tiger continued to follow them.

Initially, there was a hundred-step distance between them, but after Chen Ji and the others ate the deer heart, the tiger shortened the distance to sixty steps.

Early the next morning, the tiger disappeared for a moment, but when it appeared again, it brought back a sika deer, then withdrew to watch from a distance.

Chen Ji squatted beside the sika deer, puzzled, "Where did it manage to sneak off to for just thirty minutes and come back with a sika deer?"

Old Ears glanced at the wounds on the sika deer, "Took it from a wolf’s mouth."

On the third day, the tiger brought a lamb, reducing the watching distance from sixty steps to forty, then down to thirty.

Suddenly, Old Ears beckoned the tiger, and the tiger hesitated for a moment before slowly approaching, lowering its head to rub against Old Ears’ leg.

Chen Ji was taken aback. He looked at Old Ears, then at the tiger, "You know each other?"

Old Ears smiled, "This tiger cub used to act recklessly in Changbai Mountain. Other tigers were content just being full, but not this one. It chased wolves, harassed pigs, disturbing the peace in the mountains, and even cracked bird eggs on the ground for fun. It frequently got chased away by Wu Temple Mountain People."

Wu Yun was dumbfounded.

Old Ears patted the tiger’s head, "It left in a huff for a while, came back after growing a bit, caused trouble in Changbai Mountain again, and got chased away once more. It did this six or seven times until it realized it couldn’t beat the temple. That’s when it started being so sneaky."

Old Ears added, "I also have a grudge against the Wu Temple, so we share a kind of mutual sympathy."

Chen Ji mused, "You two don’t just share mutual sympathy, you’re birds of a feather."

Old Ears replied irritably, "No respect, holding grudges as always. Learn from me, kid. I never hold grudges."

Chen Ji snorted, retorting, "I think you’ve just gotten too old to remember."

Old Ears, "..."

Chen Ji looked down at the fierce tiger, and upon getting closer, he realized it had many injuries on its body, with patches of fur missing at its rear, showing that it had been through many fights.

The fierce tiger had been quietly observing him, and also the cloud cat in his arms.

Wu Yun meowed, "While you were unconscious earlier, it was also nearby. Aunt Ping brought you ginseng to save you, and it kept stealing glances, only slipping away when the Zhongwu Guards arrived."

Chen Ji suddenly understood.

Wu Yun was a cat, and the Northeast Golden Layered was also a cat, both attracted by the Mountain Lord Sect’s Scripture.

But he hadn’t heard of a Mountain Lord being able to cultivate with a second wild beast, even his master only had a crow... wait, was there really only a crow beside his master?

Chen Ji suddenly wasn’t so sure, after all, his senior Yaon had six Chang Ghosts, each with a Half-step Seeking Dao Realm cultivation. And the crows looked so similar, even if they switched one in the middle, he wouldn’t be able to tell.

The fierce tiger quietly moved closer, Wu Yun started to hiss, causing the tiger to stop in its tracks.

The fierce tiger cast a glance at Wu Yun, then opened its bloody maw on the snow...

Just as Chen Ji thought the fierce tiger was going to harm someone, it shook its head left and right, as if showcasing its fangs. Then, it swiped its paw at the nearby pine tree, tearing away half of the trunk with a single claw, leaving deep claw marks. Finally, the tiger crouched down, muscles tensed, as if displaying its physique to Chen Ji.

Having done all this, it raised its head and gestured with its chin at Wu Yun.

Wu Yun struggled out of Chen Ji’s embrace, landing on the snowy ground to confront the tiger, though the tiger was more than half a human tall, and Wu Yun didn’t even reach its leg bend.

Wu Yun looked back at Chen Ji for help, Chen Ji pulled Wu Yun back into his arms, "Why bother comparing with it."

He looked at the fierce tiger, and after a moment of silence said, "Perhaps you want to prove you’re stronger than it, and therefore more useful to me, but this means nothing to me. I don’t know if you understand, but if you do, then leave. Friends are not for comparison, it’s not about being more formidable to be friends."

The fierce tiger seemed to understand, and indeed slowly turned and left. As it walked away, it turned back every few steps to see if Chen Ji had intentions of keeping it.

Chen Ji watched as the tiger disappeared into the wilderness: "It can understand human speech?"

Old Ears chuckled and explained, "That’s thanks to your Five Sounds of Martial Arts. The Martial Arts Roar can enlighten all beings, with one sound able to open the intelligence of a wild beast once, and once their intelligence is opened, they can cultivate with humans. The White Eyebrow Immortal Deer of the Nanji Immortal, the Xuantan Black Tiger of Zhao Gongming, the Green Lion of Manjushri Bodhisattva, the Tidings of the Womb of the Earth Bodhisattva, the Six-tusked White Elephant of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva... don’t listen to the tales spun in the streets, they’re just spiritual beasts enlightened by their Martial Arts Roar, taken to the Forty-nine Heavens."

Chen Ji pondered, "By rights, there should have been many Divine Dao Realm Grandmasters over the centuries, perhaps dozens, why is it rare to hear of spiritual beasts walking the world?"

Old Ears responded leisurely, "Humans have three souls and seven spirits, all open by birth. If some are unopened, then they are no different from beasts, if you were to look in the village, you’d find some who are simple-minded standing at the entrance, those are people without fully opened souls and spirits, if they opened one day, they would be no different from normal people."

Old Ears continued, "It’s said that birds and beasts have two souls and four spirits, souls lacking embryonic light, spirits lacking devourer, non-poison, cleansed. But they’re not naturally without three souls and seven spirits, it’s just that they were obscured by the Saint’s Will of the Taoist Ancestor Li Er, severing their path of cultivation."

Chen Ji pondered, "So, the Martial Arts Roar can remove the obscurity and suddenly clear the confusion?"

Old Ears nodded, "Exactly, one sound opens one spirit, ordinary beings even hear a Martial Arts Roar to no avail, at most becoming a little smarter. Only that big green ox at Huangshan Dao Court was lucky, with the Apostle entering the Divine Realm and a sound of Martial Arts Roar, Huangshan’s first disciple Zhang Li entering Innate with a sound, and the little Daoist Yan Chi entering Innate also with a sound, so its seven spirits are complete, missing only one soul. The Heavenly Soul Embryonic Light governs conscience, that big green ox without the embryonic light couldn’t comprehend human moral principles, sneaking around all day even daring to steal the incense of the Forty-nine Heavens. As for those birds and beasts around immortals, they followed their masters hearing countless Martial Arts Roars, long indistinguishable from humans."

Chen Ji looked down at Wu Yun, puzzled: "But Wu Yun was very clever even before hearing the Martial Arts Roar."

Old Ears said meaningfully, "Just like the Mountain Master Lu Yang, among birds and beasts there are geniuses too, born with one more soul or one more spirit than others, even with all three souls and seven spirits open, the paths that humans can cultivate, they can too. However, such creatures born with spiritual intelligence are usually reincarnated from the Forty-nine Heavens, perhaps in their past life they had the ability to reach the skies and penetrate the earth."

Chen Ji was startled, was Old Ears suggesting that Wu Yun was also a reincarnation from the Forty-nine Heavens?

But when he looked at Wu Yun, Wu Yun also seemed puzzled.

Chen Ji looked in the direction where the tiger disappeared: "What about that tiger, what’s its story?"

Old Ears chuckled, "Your Five Sounds of Martial Arts Roar, I’m afraid four of them benefited it, now all its three souls and seven spirits are open, no different from humans."

At that moment, the tiger had returned, holding a rabbit-like creature with dazed eyes in its mouth, dropped in front of Chen Ji.

The mouse rabbit seemed to have just been dug out by the tiger, curled up and not daring to move. The tiger looked at Wu Yun in Chen Ji’s arms, then at the mouse rabbit on the ground, seeming to be seeking credit.

Then, the tiger rolled over onto the snow, exposing its belly to Wu Yun as a sign of submission.

Old Ears stood speechless for a while, smacking his lips in amazement: "You’re really too ambitious."