Chapter 189
Chapter 189
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 189
Chapter Title: Eternal Night Approaches
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The newly appointed top provincial graduate—each province had one every three years. No matter what, passing as top graduate wouldn't make high officials like the governor or commander take pride in it. At most, they'd grant an audience and offer a few words of encouragement. Yet now, the governor, commander, and other high officials of Xinduo Province had actually come all the way to this remote countryside to pay a personal visit and congratulate Chen Shi.
This spectacle left the villagers both shocked and baffled.
Wasn't Official Chen about to turn bandit? How had he placed in the exams in the blink of an eye—and not just placed, but first in Gongzhou Province?
The key question was, how had he taken first without even sitting for the autumn provincial exams?
Li Tianqing was refining pills in Chen Shi's courtyard. Several constables hurried into the yard and saw he was busy, so they didn't disturb him.
Over these past few days, Li Tianqing had already refined more than fifty batches of Soul-Returning Pills. It was second nature to him now.
Though news of Chen Shi placing as top graduate spread from outside, it didn't shake his mind at all. He remained utterly steady as he completed this batch of Soul-Returning Pills before finally standing up.
"Dare I ask if you are Chen Shi, the top graduate Chen?"
One constable, seeing how young yet extraordinary he seemed, inquired.
"I am Li Tianqing, from Quanzhou,"
Li Tianqing replied.
"Chen Shi is out, but he should be back soon. Why don't you gentlemen rest in the courtyard and wait a moment?"
"No, no, we wouldn't dare."
The voice of the newly appointed governor came from outside. He chuckled,
"We officials will wait out here for Mr. Chen."
Li Tianqing was surprised. He stepped out of the Chen household and bowed.
"Li Tianqing pays respects to the Governor and to all you gentlemen."
The new governor sized him up and said,
"You are Li Tianqing of Quanzhou's Li family?
I've heard you're the Li family's lucky star. Everyone on that stone ship vanished without a trace, yet you alone survived.
I've also heard about Lord Li Xiaozheng's murder—truly heartbreaking.
This official is surnamed Xu, given name Jian, courtesy name Zhongxiao.
This is Lord Cui, who handles the border troops' movements for Xinduo Province. He is the new Commander of Xinduo."
He introduced them one by one, and Li Tianqing stepped forward to pay his respects.
These newly appointed local officials often hailed from the Thirteen Great Families, though four of them did not.
Li Tianqing was well-read and sharp-minded. From their names alone, he knew that even if they weren't from the Thirteen Great Families, they came from lesser aristocratic clans—not commoners rising from nothing.
One official was Xinduo Province's Education Commissioner. He smiled and said,
"Young Master Li, you are also on the Gongzhou autumn exam roster—a fine ranking.
You placed fourth as the Jingkui."
Li Tianqing paid it no mind and asked,
"How are the juren ranked?"
The Education Commissioner laughed.
"Naturally, the rankings come from the West Capital.
Ahead of you, first is Top Graduate Chen, second is Runner-Up Yuan, third is Xu Jingkui.
For you to rank fourth is already thanks to Quanzhou Li family's influence.
Congratulations, Jingkui Li!"
Hearing this, Li Tianqing realized the Gongzhou juren list was ranked by the Thirteen Great Families.
As for why Chen Shi ranked ahead of the Thirteen Great Families, he wasn't sure.
At that moment, Chen Shi returned from stealing melons, cradling two plump watermelons in his arms—one for Li Tianqing and one for Black Pot.
Governor Xu Jian hurriedly led the group forward with a smile.
"Top Graduate Chen, this official has come to offer congratulations. Felicitation on your triumph as top graduate!"
The other officials crowded forward with their congratulations. Chen Shi was utterly stunned and handed the two watermelons to Li Tianqing.
Only after they'd all explained in a flurry of words did he finally understand. He said in alarm,
"This student hasn't written a single word or accomplished a single feat. How dare I claim to be Gongzhou and Xinduo's top graduate? I am terrified—terrified! I am ashamed to the bone!"
Xinduo's Censor Xia Mingdong laughed.
"Ai—Top Graduate Chen, your literary talent and martial prowess stand unmatched in Gongzhou and Xinduo for the past five hundred years and the next! You as top graduate proves the West Capital knows talent when it sees it!"
The crowd chimed in with praise for Chen Shi's literary genius and martial skill. Even though Chen Shi knew full well he hadn't sat for the autumn exams, their flattery still left him floating on air.
Governor Xu Jian surveyed the Chen household and remarked,
"Mr. Chen lives so simply, in this remote and impoverished place.
This official has a residence in the provincial capital—just three mu of land, left to waste for lack of care.
If Mr. Chen wouldn't mind, I present it to you."
Chen Shi was about to decline when Xu Jian pressed his hand and smiled.
"Brother Chen, my place sits idle and wasted either way. Better to put it to use.
They say present fine swords to heroes. You are a young hero—I'd gladly swear brotherhood with you, entrust you with my life and fortune, let alone a mere neglected house."
Commander Cui chuckled from the side.
"Exactly, exactly! Your performance in the autumn exams dazzled us, showing us what splendid prose truly is, what sword qi unfurled means. It won us over.
I never dally with women, but I have a few maidservants and singers at home—quite lovely. I'll send them to your residence."
Lord Gao laughed.
"With maidservants and singers, how can you lack useful servants? I have several sharp-eyed ones at home. I'll send them over too."
Lord Ma grinned and said,
"I've always indulged my appetite. I have some fine cooks at home. If Top Graduate Chen can stomach Xinduo cuisine, I'll send them as well."
"How can Top Graduate Chen travel without a fine carriage? I have four excellent steeds—Jiaolong breed. I'll deliver them!"
"My family has a Cloud-Chariot Carriage lying idle, a gift from a Lingnan merchant. It's just gathering dust—I'll gift it to Top Graduate Chen!"
...
Before Chen Shi could even speak, the crowd had chattered away and furnished him a residence complete with beauties, servants, carriages, horses, and everything else.
Lord Bao the Assize Judge even planned to give Chen Shi a manor—not large, but with a thousand mu of prime farmland outside the city and a hundred tenant households.
The annual rent alone would suffice to maintain the residence and his delicate wives and concubines.
"Gentlemen, hear me out!"
Chen Shi, unable to get a word in, suddenly raised his voice.
"I don't want any of this!"
The crowd fell silent, watching him uneasily.
A smile suddenly broke across Chen Shi's face.
"But since you gentlemen think so highly of me, I humbly accept!"
The crowd burst into laughter, and host and guests parted in high spirits.
Governor Xu chatted amiably with Chen Shi as if they were old friends. With the conversation flowing freely, everyone left content.
"Our village is rather poor, so we won't keep you gentlemen,"
Chen Shi said with a smile.
The crowd took the hint and bid farewell. Chen Shi saw them off courteously all the way to the village entrance. Governor Xu hurriedly said,
"No further—stay your step."
Chen Shi halted, waved goodbye, and the group departed reluctantly.
Once they'd seen them off, Chen Shi returned home. Li Tianqing was cleaning the pill furnace, preparing to refine more. Seeing him return, he sneered,
"Chen Shi, I overestimated you. Turns out you're no different from those aristocratic families.
Greedy for wealth, lustful, fond of luxuries! They'll corrupt you, turn you into a vulgar merchant like them!"
Chen Shi laughed.
"The Jade Hall Master said we must cling to this world and coexist with it.
Isn't that what I'm doing now?"
Li Tianqing snapped,
"The Jade Hall Master sends tribute money to Gongzhou officials for Red Mountain Hall's survival! And you?"
Chen Shi probed,
"Aren't Xinduo's officials sending me tribute money to cling to this world?"
Li Tianqing said in anguish,
"You're not clinging to this world—you are this world! You've merged with its filth! Do you still hold any convictions? Any principles? The Jade Hall Master has firm convictions and principles!"
Chen Shi reclined in his chair, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan, and smiled.
"I accepted their house, but when it's time to kill them, I'll still kill them. How does that lack conviction or principle? You think I take their money and stop killing? I just can't beat them yet!"
"You!"
Li Tianqing's eyes bulged; he was speechless.
Chen Shi glanced at him and smiled.
"You still owe me forty-six batches of spirit pills. Get back to refining!"
Li Tianqing assented meekly and went back to pill-refining.
Over this time, his pill-refining skills had improved greatly. The Soul-Returning Pills he produced were of ever-higher quality, and he felt ten taels of silver per batch was underpriced.
But with his deal for a hundred batches already set with the magnanimous Chen, he couldn't raise prices until he finished them.
Soon after, Governor Xu and the others sent over the deed to the capital residence. Chen Shi accepted it but didn't move to the city, staying in Huangpo Village instead.
He knew no one in the city, but at home he had Scholar Zhu, Godmother, and Huangpo Village's endearing villagers.
Just Doggy racing about wildly each day—no place for that in the city.
Seeing Chen Shi slow to move in, Governor Xu had the maidservants and singers settle into the residence and tend it diligently, without pressing him.
That day, as usual, Chen Shi cultivated the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art when suddenly the spirit pill within him shifted from black to yellow—from black golden core to a gleaming golden one. He was delighted.
"Finally broke through to the fifth revolution of the golden core. Without top-grade spirit pills, I'm still a few days behind Li Tianqing."
Just three days prior, Li Tianqing had reached the fifth revolution. Chen Shi could only match the Purple Jade Divine Embryo's pace when both shrines in the little temple had spirits guarding them. Now with one shrine empty, his cultivation speed lagged behind Li Tianqing's.
Where to catch a powerful evil spirit...
He was pondering when Black Pot suddenly barked furiously. Chen Shi's heart stirred. He looked up at the sky to see meteors streaking and the sun slowly closing its eyes.
"It's getting dark—earlier again!"
Chen Shi rose from under the old willow tree in alarm. He saw villagers working outside the village shouldering hoes and farm tools as they hurried back.
Darkness had come a full quarter-hour early again!
Chen Shi gazed upward. The crescent moon above the twin suns had grown noticeably larger than before.
His heart pounded with a foreboding thought.
"What if... what if one day the sun closes its eyes forever? Day or night, only moonlight—what then?"
Since the first early dusk, there had been three such celestial anomalies. Darkness had advanced a total of three quarter-hours.
Though night came three quarter-hours early, daybreak hadn't advanced.
In other words, night had lengthened by three quarter-hours.
If this continued, Xiniu New Continent might truly enter eternal night!
All would prowl only at night, with evil spirits rampant!
"What calamity would that bring—disaster-class, calamity-class, or world-ending?"
Chen Shi shook his head to dispel the ominous idea.
But a sense of urgency welled up. He felt eternal night might become reality at some future moment.
If he couldn't swiftly raise his cultivation, he'd have no chance of survival when it came!
"The outer realm's true gods are the greatest calamity! Their changes are often world-ending!"
he thought to himself.
Though this early dusk was just a quarter-hour—seemingly brief—its impact was enormous.
Days shortened, nights lengthened. Evil spirits grew more active, and even the fiends invading from the Dark Sea assaulted more ferociously than before.
When Chen Shi took refined Soul-Returning Pills to the county seat to sell, he heard news of fiends landing and attacking Xinduo's border garrisons.
Other reports said fiends had broken through garrisons into villages and towns, killing many.
Moreover, moonlight's intensity was rising—the moon shone brighter than before. The evil qi within it boosted evil spirits' power, and corpses twisted into monsters faster!
Qianyang Mountain fared well with Chen Shi holding it, but stray evil spirits still caused occasional harm.
Beyond Qianyang Mountain, evil spirit incidents surged.
For a time, cities and countryside alike were gripped by panic.
Li Tianqing refined pills at home while Chen Shi roamed the streets with Black Pot, peddling talismans village to village and exorcising evil spirits.
For each exorcism, he charged just five taels of silver—a low price.
He'd sold many Soul-Returning Pills now and didn't lack these few taels. Mainly, he wanted to protect the local folk—couldn't let them get killed by evil spirits before he could fleece them.
That day, Chen Shi walked ahead while Black Pot rode in the wooden cart, which followed him into Fragrant River Town.
The town lay southeast of Qianyang Mountain. The Fragrant River, originating there, wound eastward to the sea.
Named for the river, the town produced fragrant fish—said to be juvenile sea fiends in fish form. Each autumn equinox, the juveniles swam upstream along the Fragrant River to Qianyang Mountain's Ice Spring Bay for winter, growing there.
Come spring, they'd swim back to the sea, transforming in the Dark Sea into man-eating fish monsters.
Fragrant fish tasted exquisite, with a strange aroma upon entry—tender, boneless, firm, and chewy. A gourmet's delight.
Chen Shi arrived during fragrant fish season; the air was thick with fishy fragrance that whetted the appetite.
Then he spotted a young monk with alms bowl, begging from street-side shops.
The young monk approached, trailed by a veiled maiden of marriageable age.
The monk begged only vegetarian fare, no meat.
"Uncle Master, it's nearly mealtime again!"
Monk Wuchen emerged joyfully from a restaurant, bowl in hand. He laughed,
"The shopkeeper is kind—gave steamed buns and flower rolls, fresh from the steamer, so soft and... Benefactor Chen!"
He looked up, spotted Chen Shi, and froze. He blinked urgently, signaling him to flee.
The maiden's voice rang out with a laugh.
"Benefactor Chen? Since you're here, why not dine together? Wuchen, go ask the shopkeeper for another serving."
Chen Shi watched Wuchen steel himself and reenter the restaurant. He sighed,
"A master from the Grand State-Protecting Temple reduced to begging.
What is the young lady's name?"
"Ying Rumeng."
The maiden sized him up with a smile.
"Monks of the Grand State-Protecting Temple begging is a form of cultivation too.
Wuchen lacked this training before. Traveling with me hones his mind."
Chen Shi turned to face her squarely and said gravely,
"Demons cultivate the mind as well?"
I didn't sleep well all night—the building shook like it might collapse any moment, rows of trees toppled downstairs. Typhoons are terrifying.
Fortunately, everyone's safe, though the water's cut off.
End of chapter.