This was the first time An Ping had seen Mu Geshen get the better of someone. Before he could even enjoy the schadenfreude, a sudden cramping pain shot through his abdomen. The pain was so intense that he cried out and rolled right off the sofa.
Then he woke up from the fall.
An Ping was so dizzy and disoriented from the impact that it took him quite a while to realize he was in his family’s home theater. He had fallen asleep while watching a movie—and had spent several months in his dream.
I actually didn’t starve to death?
In a daze, An Ping fumbled for his phone and checked the date. In reality, not even a full day had passed.
He had slept for more than ten hours, and it was already the following morning.
An Ping sat there in a daze for a while. Then he suddenly realized something and let out a scream.
School started today!
Not only was he going to be late, but he hadn’t written a single word of his homework!
For a high school student, nothing was more important than schoolwork. An Ping immediately forgot all about the tangled events of his dream. He hurriedly washed his face, grabbed his schoolbag, and rushed out the door. After hailing a taxi, he spent the entire ride trying to make up for lost time and finish his homework.
By the time he finally arrived at school, it was already the break between second period and third period.
“Class Representative, why are you only getting here now?” The moment his deskmate saw him, he began wailing. “Nobody in the entire class has done the last set of practice papers! We’ve all been starving here, waiting for you to show up and feed us! How can you face your fellow countrymen after this?”
“Sorry, sorry. I overslept.” An Ping forcefully shoved his schoolbag into his desk compartment. “Where’s the homeroom teacher? I’ve been late for so long. I’m afraid I’m going to get chewed out until I’m covered in spit.”
“The homeroom teacher isn’t coming to check on the class today.” His deskmate nodded toward the last row. “That guy’s here.”
An Ping froze, then abruptly turned his head. Sure enough, Mu Geshen was sitting in a seat by the window, chatting happily with a female student. As if noticing An Ping’s gaze, Mu Geshen turned around and winked at him.
“Holy shit! Was he just looking at you?!” His deskmate jolted in fright. “He actually didn’t come in and immediately fall asleep today? Also, when did he get so close to the class representative?”
Only then did An Ping notice the girl sitting beside Mu Geshen. It was the class representative, who hadn’t been to class in a long time.
“Has the class representative recovered?”
“Apparently, she’s better now. The class group chat went crazy with the news yesterday. She was originally supposed to stay in the hospital for observation a little longer, but she didn’t want to remain there, so she decided to come back to school. Her parents personally brought her here today. I saw them having breakfast with her in the cafeteria.” His deskmate sighed with emotion. “Now those are real parents. I was probably just a freebie thrown in when someone topped up their phone credit.”
An Ping examined the class representative’s complexion. The girl looked to be in excellent spirits. Mu Geshen seemed to have told her a joke, making her laugh repeatedly.
Previously, the class representative had been the type to bury herself in her studies. She was very quiet by nature, but now she seemed much more lively than before.
After suffering through a serious illness, both the patient and those outside the sickroom probably came to understand many things. For her parents, having waited by her bedside for so long, finally seeing their daughter open her eyes might have been worth more than anything else.
“Hey, though, I never realized that guy could be so easy to talk to.” His deskmate whispered, “He usually never comes to class, and on the rare occasions when he does, he sleeps in the last row like the world could end around him. He looks really unapproachable. I don’t know what’s gotten into him today… Holy shit, did you see him smile just now? He’s so fucking handsome!”
An Ping was speechless. You’ve been fooled by appearances. This guy is just a shameless old fox who refuses to act his age.
He was still grumbling inwardly when he suddenly noticed the silence beside him. Looking up, he discovered that Mu Geshen had somehow appeared right in front of him, wearing an exceptionally amiable expression.
“How are you feeling?”
His deskmate covered his mouth and let out a strangled squeak.
“I’m all right. I didn’t eat breakfast, so I’m a little hungry.” For a moment, An Ping didn’t know what to say, so he chose his words carefully. “I overslept. I spent the whole night dreaming.”
“How can that be? Someone your age shouldn’t be going hungry.” Mu Geshen said, “Come on, I’ll treat you to a meal.”
Before he had even finished speaking, the class bell rang. This man completely ignored the physics teacher who had just entered the classroom and sauntered out as though he owned the place.
“…Class Representative, I know your family is rich. I admit I was narrow-minded. I underestimated the imagination of the wealthy.” His deskmate stared at him with a mixture of shock and admiration, lowering his voice. “You actually made Mu Geshen your lackey?”
An Ping: Please, I’m begging you. Can you stop making things up in your head?
He did indeed have a lot of questions he wanted to ask Mu Geshen. After sitting restlessly for a while, he finally couldn’t hold back any longer. Using the excuse of going to the restroom, he slipped out of the classroom.
Mu Geshen was holding a thermos and filling it with water at the end of the corridor. Hearing An Ping’s footsteps, he remarked casually, “In the dead of winter, the uniforms at City No. 1 High School are so thin they could freeze someone to death. It’s nice to be young.”
An Ping immediately understood what he meant and asked in surprise, “You knew that I knew?”
“An Ping’er, what kind of sentence is that? Are you practicing tongue twisters?” Mu Geshen opened a packet of goji berries and dropped them into his thermos. “One night isn’t a short time. What all did you dream about?”
It wasn’t convenient to talk in the corridor, so An Ping followed Mu Geshen toward the rooftop. He gave him a rough account of what had happened in the dream. As Mu Geshen listened to An Ping’s narration, he let out an occasional chuckle.
“Who knows how many petals have fallen in the dream?” Mu Geshen leaned against the railing and unscrewed his thermos. Steam drifted through the air. “It seems that An Ping’er, you’ve learned quite a few things by now. What do you think of it all?”
“I can’t really say.” An Ping fell silent for a moment before asking, “Why did I have that dream?”
“The situation was urgent back in the Three Paths Realm, and you tasted my blood.” Mu Geshen explained, “Blood served as the medium. It’s not strange that you obtained my memories through it.”
“You did that on purpose?” An Ping had already witnessed Mu Geshen’s abilities. Escaping the Three Paths Realm hadn’t been difficult for him, and bringing along one more useless weakling like An Ping shouldn’t have been a problem either. There had been absolutely no need to feed him blood.
But An Ping couldn’t figure out why Mu Geshen would do such a thing. He was nothing more than an ordinary rich second-generation kid. His daily homework alone was enough to kill him. What reason could there possibly be for this venerable old man to take an interest in him?
“Oh, right. An Ping’er, you haven’t dreamed about that place yet.” Mu Geshen held his thermos and blew away the steam. “Actually, I died once.”
An Ping froze.
“I suppose you already know that everyone in your dream is connected to a certain existence. We call it the ‘Seven Houses of the Hundred Schools.’”
“You can think of it as a form of inheritance. A thousand years ago, seven groups of people gathered together and established an organization. Through the passage of time and the rise and fall of dynasties, it has endured without ever collapsing. Among these seven groups, some are families, some are sects, and others are lineages of masters and disciples passed down through a single succession. Each group constitutes one house, and the head of each house holds one of the positions among the various schools. That is why they are called the ‘Seven Houses of the Hundred Schools.’”
“In your dream, An Ping’er, you’ve already met four of the Seven Masters. There’s Chai Shuxin of the Chai family, from the Medicine House, who holds the position of the Spirit Pivot Master; Song Wentong of the Song family, from the Mohist House, who holds the position of the Mohist Master; and Wu Zixu of the Wu family, from the Yin-Yang House, who holds the position of the Impermanence Master. Four of the Seven Houses are hereditary families, and the Chai, Song, and Wu families are three of them.”
“I already understand those three families.” An Ping thought for a moment before asking, “You said I’d met four of the Seven Masters. Who’s the other one?”
“You’ve met my master, haven’t you?” Mu Geshen smiled. “That old man is the Heavenly Divination Master.”
“The Heavenly Divination Master?”
“The Heavenly Divination Sect has passed down its lineage through a single succession for generations. Each generation takes no more than three disciples. Once a successor has been chosen, all the others must leave the sect.” Mu Geshen explained, “Because there are so few members, one person constitutes an entire house. That’s why they don’t use a collective name like the ‘Heavenly Divination House.’ The Heavenly Divination Master is the Heavenly Divination House.”
An Ping pondered for a moment before saying, “There’s something I’ve wanted to ask for a long time. What exactly do the so-called Seven Houses of the Hundred Schools do?”
Mu Geshen was taken aback, then smiled. “That makes sense. No wonder you don’t know. In your dreams, you probably only saw a few of us fighting.”
An Ping thought to himself: Not at all. Besides fighting, there was also plenty of trivial nonsense about eating, drinking, and answering nature’s call.
“Each of the Seven Houses of the Hundred Schools specializes in something different. The Medicine House specializes in acupuncture and medicinal remedies. Their medical skills are unparalleled, capable of bringing the dead back to life and restoring flesh to bare bones. The Mohist House excels in heavenly craftsmanship, mechanisms, and metallurgy, producing peerless master artisans. Members of the Yin-Yang House are born with half-underworld bodies, allowing them to command spirits and ghosts and travel between the realms of yin and yang. As for the Heavenly Divination Master, well, as the name suggests, he tells fortunes.”
That last explanation was a little too casual. An Ping couldn’t help asking, “A fortune-teller?”
“Heavenly Divination means divining the heavens. The Heavenly Divination Master inherits forty-nine Shan Gui Hua Qian coins from each generation, using them to calculate the Mandate of Heaven.” Mu Geshen explained, “Historical records say that Shan Gui Hua Qian coins only appeared during the Yuan and Ming dynasties, but the coins in the hands of the Heavenly Divination Master can be traced back to ancient times. My master once said they were personally made by Fuxi. I don’t know whether he was bragging.”
There was far too much information to take in. And since it was coming from Mu Geshen, it all sounded like an elaborate tall tale spun by someone who loved making things sound mysterious. However, the events An Ping had experienced over the past few days were simply beyond ordinary understanding. His thoughts were completely immersed in all of it, and he had an inexplicable intuition that although Mu Geshen appeared carefree and nonchalant, everything he was saying at that moment was the truth.
“The Heavenly Divination Master calculates the Mandate of Heaven?”
“Exactly. Among the Seven Houses of the Hundred Schools, the Heavenly Divination Master holds the leading position. In ancient times, after the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors passed away one after another, a sage foresaw that great changes were coming to heaven and earth. He therefore gathered like-minded individuals to carry out the Mandate of Heaven and uphold the righteous path. This was the origin of the Seven Houses of the Hundred Schools. That sage was the first-generation Heavenly Divination Master. The forty-nine Shan Gui Hua Qian coins in his possession could calculate the Mandate of Heaven. The Seven Houses then took the Mandate of Heaven as their guiding principle, making choices at critical moments to steer the human world. This inheritance has continued through successive dynasties. You could say that behind every change of dynasty and every upheaval in the human world, the Seven Houses have left their mark.”
An Ping found it hard to believe. “Can they really be that accurate?”
Mu Geshen pulled out a handful of coins. “Want me to calculate how many points you’ll get on the college entrance examination?”
An Ping immediately changed his tune. “I believe you.”
After taking some time to digest the information in his head, he asked, “So far, I’ve only met four of the houses. What about the remaining three?”
“The Zhu family is another hereditary house. Its head holds the position of the Star Constellation Master, and they carry the bloodline of the Vermilion Bird. You could roughly call them immortals. The sect-based lineage belongs to the Immortal House of Penglai. Its sect leader holds the position of the Longevity Master and follows the path of seeking immortality and cultivating the Dao. You could tentatively call them half-immortals. Finally, there’s the Rakshasa Master, who only appears in times of great turmoil. There’s no hereditary lineage; one simply emerges at random.” Mu Geshen gave him a rough explanation. “Go back and get a few more good nights of sleep, and you’ll meet them.”
An Ping committed most of this factional distribution to memory, as though he were memorizing a guide to a game. Suddenly, he remembered something.
“Wait. What did you say just now? That you died once?” Only now did he fully process what Mu Geshen had said. Even though he already knew Mu Geshen was an immortal old monster, he still broke out in goosebumps.
“So you finally caught up.” Mu Geshen looked at him with a half-smile. “That’s right. Or, to put it more accurately, I am a dead man.”