Sect Bell

Summer days stayed bright well into the evening.

Baizhu and the others were quick enough, too. Though there were many people, they managed to distribute lamp oil to everyone in line before night had fully fallen.

Afterward, Baizhu told everyone that they would continue handing out lamp oil here at noon the next day. He asked them to spread the word throughout their villages so that anyone who had been unable to come today could collect some tomorrow.

The crowd naturally thanked them profusely once again.

On the way back, the eleven new disciples were all extremely excited.

The older ones managed to keep their composure, but the younger disciples could not hide their delight at all. They bounced along as they walked, making their happiness obvious to anyone who saw them.

As soon as they returned to the new disciples’ residential area, several of the younger disciples dashed into the crowd to share their excitement with their friends.

“I helped people!”

“I’m so happy! Hahaha!”

“Auntie told me today that her child was so pitiful—he’d been crying day and night after being bitten by mosquitoes.”

Xie Rong ran straight to Yin Xiaoxiao. Panting heavily, he spoke to her with an animated expression.

“Fourth Sis! I saw your parents!”

“They came in a carriage with my parents! Haha, my dad praised me! He said I was capable!”

Yin Xiaoxiao glanced at him and handed over the dinner she had prepared for him. Pretending to ask casually, she said, “Oh? What did my parents come here for?”

Only then did Xie Rong seem to remember something. He pulled a large bundle from his storage pouch and stuffed it into her arms.

“They brought you some things! Look how big this bundle is! My parents only brought me two changes of clothes and a few cornmeal buns…”

As he spoke, Xie Rong suddenly seemed to remember another amusing matter and changed the subject.

“Oh, right, Fourth Sis, did you know? Hua Xiao'er wasn’t chosen that day. Later, when his parents heard that the two of us had been selected, his father beat him up.”

Yin Xiaoxiao held the large bundle and nodded absentmindedly as she listened. Then she lowered her eyes and opened it.

Inside were brightly colored clothes made from fine fabric she had never worn before, several fashionable hairpins beloved by young girls, and two pairs of shoes.

Yin Xiaoxiao closed the bundle with little interest and placed it in her storage pouch.

Seeing that she was in a poor mood, Xie Rong began telling her about the interesting things he had seen at the foot of the mountain that day.

Yin Xiaoxiao, however, was not interested. She swept him with a glance from her almond-shaped eyes.

“If you have so much free time, have you reviewed Elder Yang’s lecture from today?”

Of course, Xie Rong had not.

He had spent the day racing off to compete for tasks. After that, he had been busy helping everyone chop bamboo and make bamboo tubes and lamp wicks. He had long since forgotten all about reviewing his cultivation techniques.

Now that Yin Xiaoxiao had reminded him, Xie Rong thought of how far ahead Fourth Sis was in her cultivation. He immediately forgot what he had been about to say, turned around, and hurried off to study.

Baizhu was happy as well, but he also felt somewhat dejected. The new disciples going down the mountain would be changing tomorrow, which meant that he and the others would no longer be able to go.

He had not really noticed it while busy on the mountain, but after going down today and seeing that old man, he had suddenly found himself missing the Old Beggar terribly.

He wondered how the old man had been doing lately.

The dry provisions he had sent him had not been snatched away, had they?

Just then, Elder Liu walked over to him.

“Baizhu, I won’t be accompanying them down the mountain over the next two days. You’ll be in charge of taking tomorrow’s disciples down. Do you have time?”

Baizhu was astonished, but he reacted quickly and nodded excitedly.

“I do, Elder Liu!”

Liu Yunan nodded, then took out a talisman and handed it to him.

“This is a voice-transmitting talisman. If anything happens, use it to inform me immediately. And if you encounter any urgent or dangerous situation, don’t worry about anything else. Turn around and enter the Path of Questioning the Heart behind you at once. Understood?”

He gave a few more instructions afterward.

There was no way Baizhu would refuse. He accepted the voice-transmitting talisman and agreed to each of Liu Yunan’s instructions.

The next day at noon, it was time for the Lingxian Sect to distribute mosquito-repelling lamp oil again.

When Baizhu stepped out of the Path of Questioning the Heart, he looked up and immediately saw that hunched figure who had accompanied him for so many years. The Old Beggar stood alone in the distance outside the crowd, squinting as he watched Baizhu.

After finally getting a clear look at him, the Old Beggar gave Baizhu a kindly smile. He then took a still-soft, if somewhat cold, multigrain steamed bun from the bundle on his back, found a stone to sit on, and slowly began to eat.

Baizhu felt relieved.

After sending away everyone who had come to collect the lamp oil, he filled a bamboo tube with some and brought it to the Old Beggar.

By the third day, hardly anyone came to collect lamp oil anymore.

The Lingxian Sect still had a great deal left, but none of it would go to waste. Liu Yunan stored it in the sect’s warehouse, where it could be distributed again the following year.

The people of Xiushui Village and the surrounding villages finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Ever since they had lit the mosquito-repelling lamp oil in their homes, they had no longer been bitten by mosquitoes at night.

The only problem was that when they woke the next morning, the ground would be covered with a dense layer of mosquito corpses. The sight was enough to make their skin crawl.

But compared to being tormented by mosquito bites every night, that was hardly worth mentioning.

For a time, the Lingxian Sect’s reputation once again spread far and wide across the land.

As for the matters at the foot of the mountain, after this interlude involving the distribution of mosquito-repelling lamp oil, the people on the mountain continued their busy daily routines as before.

The new disciples, however, looked forward to their cultivation careers more eagerly than ever.

Over the past few days, they had received the gratitude of countless people below the mountain.

The villagers were grateful not only for the lamp oil distributed during those days, but also for all the good deeds the sect had performed in the past.

Some people had not even come for the lamp oil. They had merely heard that immortals would be descending the mountain during those few days and had gone out of their way to make the arduous journey there just to express their thanks.

The new disciples all looked forward to the day when they would succeed in cultivation, inherit the legacy of the sect’s predecessors, and descend the mountain to help even more people.

Another day passed after the distribution of lamp oil came to an end.

The people of Xiushui Village suddenly discovered that a small stone shrine had been erected beside Peach Blossom Road—or, more precisely, beside the roadside lamps that possessed the power to repel mosquitoes.

There was no statue of a deity inside the shrine.

Instead, a small bronze bell hung within it, with a little hammer for striking the bell resting beside it.

A small plaque hung outside the shrine. On it were written two characters: Sect Bell.

Small wooden tablets hung on either side of the shrine. One bore the words: “When the people face hardship, they may ring the bell.”

For a time, everyone who saw the shrine hurried to tell others about it. But that is a story for later.

The shrine was something Liu Yunan had found time to make over the past few days.

Although Lin Xiao had shut himself away in the Artifact Refining Hall’s little black room during this period, he had not completely cut himself off from the world outside.

Whenever anything particularly noteworthy happened in the sect, Liu Yunan would tell him about it.

So when Lin Xiao heard about the mosquito disaster, he thought for a while and then asked Liu Yunan to prepare this Sect Bell and place it at the foot of the mountain.