Chapter 41: All the Same

However, the woman did not leave immediately. Instead, she hesitated and asked, "Daoist, how should we handle the remains of that monster?"

Du Yuan recalled the wicked aura surrounding the monster wolf—which had been even more overwhelming than that of the monster python—and the total absence of any pure energy. He had intended to say that it needed to be cremated immediately, and that he would have to handle it personally.

But then, that voice echoed in his ears once more:

"Look."

Du Yuan looked up and saw that, in the very spot where he had slain the monster, a vast plume of black mist was rising, only to vanish into the heavens a moment later. It looked as if something was being consumed by fire and dissipating.

Thus, Du Yuan smiled and said, "There is no need to worry."

Before finishing, Du Yuan did not forget to say to the guard captain, who was watching him with eager eyes, "Of course, you may go and retrieve your horse-spear."

"Oh! Many thanks, Daoist! Many thanks!"

The guard captain was overjoyed. That weapon was his prized possession; now that it had been used by the Daoist to slay a demon, he cherished it even more.

After the woman and her party left the shrine, Du Yuan leaned against the altar to rest.

When dawn broke, the two men who had slept the night away woke up almost simultaneously. As they rose, they stretched their bodies with expressions of disbelief. They should have been aching all over from sleeping in such a place, yet they felt remarkably refreshed and clear-headed.

"Awake?"

Seeing them stir, Du Yuan, who had been sitting cross-legged beside the altar, asked with a cheerful smile.

The two men looked toward him, intending to reply, but their faces were filled with confusion. Where had all the people from last night gone?

"They left earlier, so it is just the three of us now."

The two nodded in sudden realization, but they still felt something was amiss. With so many people moving about, how could they not have been awakened?

"Do not overthink it. We were merely passing acquaintances."

The two men nodded, finding this logical. "That is true. Well then, Daoist, we shall take our leave."

"Please, feel free. Just... try not to be startled by what is at the entrance."

"Haha, Daoist, you joke. What could be at the... Oh, my heavens! What is this?!"

When the two men reached the entrance, their eyes widened in shock. The ground was littered with broken arrowheads and shafts. In the clearing before the shrine were several spiderweb-like cracks in the earth, and not far away lay the lone carcasses of several horses.

"Do not be afraid; it has already been dealt with!" Du Yuan had specifically stayed behind because he feared they would be terrified upon waking.

"Daoist, this, this, this!"

Du Yuan said it was solved, but how could they possibly process such a sight so quickly? The two men looked at Du Yuan, trembling.

It was in this moment of glancing that they caught a miraculous sight—one that even the noblewoman and her many guards had failed to notice.

"Daoist, is that... is that the incense you offered last night?"

In the incense burner remained a few sticks of consumed incense. By all accounts, it should have been unremarkable, yet they had noticed it. This prompted Du Yuan to look back at his own stick of incense, which had not diminished in size at all, yet continued to burn.

"Indeed."

The two men looked at each other in disbelief. A moment later, the more timid of the two spoke up, his voice filled with awe, exceeding Du Yuan's expectations: "Daoist, we slept so soundly last night. Was it because something terrible happened, but because you had us offer incense to the Mountain God, he revealed his divinity and kept us safe through the night?"

Du Yuan looked at the man in surprise and smiled. "Indeed!"

These two men, who had been the first to offer incense—even before the Han family's Han Tang—truly possessed their own seeds of fortune and wisdom.

Upon hearing this, the two men rushed to kneel before the dilapidated statue of the Mountain God and kowtowed repeatedly. They did so with such speed that Du Yuan had to quickly step aside to avoid receiving the bows himself. The Han family’s fortune was tied to their own efforts, but these two had played no part in the battle; this was a gesture he could not accept.

To Du Yuan’s amusement, when they saw him step aside, they turned after paying their respects to the Mountain God and bowed to him instead.

"Daoist, if you hadn't guided us, how would we ever have received the favor of the Mountain God?"

Hearing this, Du Yuan no longer dodged, but simply stood beside the statue. After the kowtowing concluded, just as Du Yuan thought they were finished, he heard them whispering to each other before saying:

"Daoist, we have discussed it, and we wish to repair the Mountain God’s shrine."

"Yes, yes! The Mountain God has shown his divinity and protected us; we cannot fail to repay his kindness!"

Du Yuan looked at them with growing wonder. "You two wish to repair this shrine as well?"

The two men scratched their heads shyly. "Heh, we certainly couldn't do it alone, but we intend to go back to the village and call everyone else. First, to repay the Mountain God's grace, and second, to let the villagers show their respects so that they might also sleep soundly at night!"

"Exactly! Such a wonderful thing—how could we leave our fellow villagers out?"

After hearing this, Du Yuan marveled as he circled them, then, amidst their confusion, looked toward the direction of Qingzhou. After clicking his tongue in wonder several times, they saw Du Yuan turn back to the broken statue and ask, "What say you?"

"Good."

Du Yuan withdrew his hand and pointed at the two men with a smile. "The Mountain God says it is good. However, repairing a shrine and offering prayers is a grand undertaking that requires a sincere heart. Are you two willing to first measure this mountain with your own feet?"

Both men nodded as quickly as pecking chicks. "Of course, of course!"

Du Yuan clasped his hands behind his back and laughed heartily. "Then go!"

The two men departed in high spirits. After watching them leave, Du Yuan turned back to the broken statue and said, "In that case, I shall stay a while longer to keep you company. I only wonder who will arrive first."

The voice did not return, but a clear breeze drifted through the shrine, as if the mountain itself were laughing.

After feeling the gentle breeze on his face for a long time, Du Yuan could not help but ask the statue behind him: "No matter how one looks at it, the offerings from the Han family will always be greater and better than those of a small, wild village. Is this truly acceptable?"

Even if the Han family was unlikely to give up, the difference between being first and second would always be significant.

Finally, the voice echoed in Du Yuan's ear once more:

"It is all the same."

Heh, this time there was an extra word. It seemed the Mountain God’s condition had improved quite a bit.

But, was it really all the same?

Du Yuan bowed his head, mocking himself with a smile, then bowed toward the broken statue. "I was attached to appearances. I have been taught well."

The wind outside the shrine grew stronger, sounding almost like someone covering their mouth to stifle a laugh. Yet, regardless of how the wind blew, the single stick of incense in the burner remained unextinguished, its blue smoke rising straight toward the heavens.

One god and one man waited quietly there to see who would arrive first. Would it be the Yidu Han clan of noble lineage, or the nameless village from the wild mountains?

Du Yuan knew he had done what was required of him; as for the rest, it would depend on their own destiny and choices.