Seeking the Dao in the Seemingly Mundane Mortal World

Chapter 31: Chat about Immortality over Wine

Translator: Henyee Translations

Editor: Henyee Translations

In a pavilion in the garden of the crown prince’s residence.

Li Qinglin and Qin Yi sat opposite each over at a stone table. It was well after dark, the moon was high up in the sky, and the night breeze filled the air with a floral fragrance.

There were no servants around, and Li Qinglin was warming some wine himself. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts as he stared into the swaying flames on the small stove by the pavilion.

Qin Yi studied him for a while and found him a very contradictory man, whom he had conflicting feelings about. He could tell that Li Qinglin actually meant some of the things he did and that not everything was for show. For instance, he didn’t try to look considerate and kind to a man of talent by warming the wine himself, because there was no need to. What difference would it make if he gave the job to a maid? Ever since they first met, Li Qinglin had always been a do-it-yourself type of guy. Rather than a prince, he struck Qin Yi more like a warrior or a simple martial arts practitioner a lot of the time.

However, the warrior had done things that only cold-blooded politicians would do.

“You don’t have to stare at me.” Li Qinglin suddenly chuckled. “Qingjun and I may look alike, but I promise you that I’m not a woman in a man’s disguise.”

Qin Yi laughed as well. “It’s so rare of you to make a joke.”

“I told you already; I don’t have energy to spare for things like that. If I was still Qingjun’s age and my head was still full of dreams, I’d be making jokes all the time, too.” Li Qinglin chuckled. “Everyone wants to live a merry life. It’s not fun to walk around with a grim face, preoccupied by all kinds of schemes.”

“So…” Qin Yi chose his words carefully before asking, “Why do you choose to live like this, then?”

“One has to know what kind of life they want and work for it. Otherwise, one will be carried away by the tide. Why bother living at all if one has to live like that?”

Qin Yi was speechless for a little while and recalled what Liusu said during the banquet about what life was about. However, the two of them had polar opposite opinions on that subject. While Liusu found life pointless if one couldn’t live as freely as they wanted, Li Qinglin found a life worthless if one didn’t have aspirations.

Qin Yi was waiting for Liusu to make a comment, but the spiked club remained silent.

Li Qinglin went on. “Brother Qin, what about you? I guess you would like to live in a quiet forest with pine trees and bamboo around you and stay away from the hubbubs of the world. Am I right?”

Qin Yi hesitated before saying, “I guess you could say that.”

Li Qinglin smiled. “We may want different things, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Noble and unsullied people know what they want. Only fools would try to convince themselves that being common is a rare quality after living an ordinary life.”

Qin Yi felt the temperature of his cheeks rising, for he seemed to be the latter…

But he now knew why Liusu didn’t comment—because what it had said didn’t exactly contradict Li Qinglin. Essentially, they were both after their own goals in life, and there was nothing worth arguing about even if their goals were different.

On the other hand, Qin Yi might look like a man who didn’t care about worldly affairs, but he was only drifting along aimlessly because he didn’t know what he wanted. Even if he used to tell Li Qingjun like a show-off that one needed to know what they wanted, he didn’t have the answer himself.

Finally, he asked, “Brother Li, what’s your goal, then? To become the ruler of Nanli?”

“Well…” Li Qinglin chuckled. Instead of answering the question right away, he carefully put out the fire on the stove and poured Qin Yi some more wine as he organized his thoughts.

Qin Yi only waited in silence without trying to rush him.

“Brother Qin, you’re a man of Nanli and a herbalist.” Li Qinglin kept his unblinking gaze on the wine in his cup and asked, “Would you say that Nanli is like a sick person?”

“Well…” Qin Yi sighed and said, “Yes.”

“My father is completely absorbed in cultivation theories to the point where he’s ignored all state affairs. Even news of Xihuang’s invasion couldn’t compete with his pill consumption,” Li Qinglin said slowly. “When he does care about what’s going on in the kingdom, he values the opinion of that evil priest more than mine, not to mention his loyal subjects. When there was an earthquake in the southeast, instead of providing disaster relief, he let that priest hold a ceremony. And when our land was under attack, he didn’t deploy troops but only prayed to whomever’s up there.”

Qin Yi fell silent.

“When a king behaves that way, his subjects will only follow suit. The officials suck up to Donghuazi in court and no one is doing their jobs because they’re all too busy learning Taoist theories. Some even wore a Taoist robe to court. Instead of putting an end to it, the king started wearing one himself, which was preposterous.” Li Qinglin sounded embarrassed when he said, “Our land is infested with demons and monsters, and the people revere Taoist temples instead of the king. The folks have abandoned their farmlands, because they’re too busy ‘cultivating’. Even the population has dropped because no one has time to make babies anymore. Brother Qin, this kingdom is more than just a regular patient. It’s terminally ill.”

Qin Yi nodded slowly. He didn’t have much idea about the national economy or people’s livelihoods, but Li Qinglin was obviously telling the truth. In that case, this kingdom was really doomed.

“And if you wonder when everything started, the answer is when my father started listening to Donghuazi and tried to achieve immortality. That was the root of all our problems,” Li Qinglin said. “I’ve tried to persuade my father and even formed my own clique to frame Donghuazi so I could ruin him politically. However, all my efforts have been futile. I was only the second prince of the kingdom, and I didn’t have enough power.”

After that, he threw his head back and drained his cup.

Qin Yi looked up and met Li Qinglin’s eyes.

“I ordered Night Wing to assassinate my brother,” Li Qinglin said calmly. “I can look past the fact that he gave in to my father and started cultivating himself. But his biggest mistake was when he tried to get the soldiers to follow. Our army is the last stronghold of Nanli, and when I was suddenly struck by the idea that if I were the crown prince instead of him, maybe this kingdom would still have a chance. You just asked me if I wanted to rule the kingdom. The answer is yes, because that’s the only way I can save Nanli.”

Qin Yi heaved a sigh and drained his own cup.

Liusu suddenly spoke. “Ask him what he would think if immortality was real.”

Qin Yi asked as instructed, and Li Qinglin replied with a smile after some thought. “Brother Qin, I understand why you would ask that question, since you’re an alchemist yourself. But I’ve told you already—demons and monsters have been proven to exist whereas immortality is still just a rumor. Numerous kings have gone down that road, but none of them have ever achieved immortality, so I cannot be convinced.”

Qin Yi insisted, “I mean ‘if’. What would you say if it was real?”

Li Qinglin shook his head. “I’m a prince and this is my kingdom. It’s my duty to allow my people to enjoy a good life, allow this kingdom to prosper, and fend off all enemies trying to invade this land. If I’m lucky enough to expand my kingdom and inspire awe throughout the continent, my life would be so worthwhile. What good would immortality do? Even if I could live forever, without my duties and aspirations, I’d become a walking corpse.”

Liusu chuckled and said, “Interesting.” But it didn’t tell Qin Yi to pump him for more details.

Li Qinglin asked Qin Yi instead, “Brother Qin, I haven’t visited you to hear your stories for some time, but Night Wing has told me part of Journey to the West. I presume that they obtained the real scriptures in the end and everyone attained Buddhahood, right?”

Qin Yi nodded. “They were all given a job, but Tang Sanzang and Sun Wukong indeed became Buddha.”

“In that case, Brother Qin, I was wondering if you could answer a question for me.”

“Sure.”

“It’s about that six-eared monkey…” Li Qinglin slowly said. “Who was killed? The six-eared monkey or Sun Wukong?” [1. In Journey to the West, the six-eared monkey transformed itself to look identical to Sun Wukong, and the deities had a hard time trying to tell which was the real Sun Wukong.]

Taken by surprise, Qin Yi opened his eyes wide.

Some readers had indeed brought that up before, but Qin Yi had never considered the possibility. However, Li Qinglin only heard bits and pieces of the story, but now he was asking this very question. Qin Yi wondered if the man had transmigrated into this world as well.

“Why would you ask that?”

“Because Sun Wukong seemed to have changed completely after the six-eared monkey incident. The wild side of him vanished all together, which made me wonder. Was it possible that the real Sun Wukong was framed and killed by Tathagata in the process, and the six-eared monkey took his place on the journey to the west?”

Qin Yi had to explain to him. “I didn’t write the story myself, and there really was a book. The titles of the chapters on that incident mentioned a ‘restless monkey mind’, so it’s usually believed that the so-called six-eared monkey was only the manifestation of the unruly side of Sun Wukong. Once it was eliminated, he was no longer wild.”

Li Qinglin poured himself another cup of wine in silence and downed it in one go.

“What’s wrong?” Qin Yi asked in bewilderment. “Did you find a loophole in the plot?””

Li Qinglin said quietly, “I’d rather believe that the ‘Great Sage’ died than accept the fact that the monkey king who fought his way from heavenly courts to the netherworld would sit down cross-legged and become an immortal monk.”