After the hidden bones disappeared, there was total disorder in Chu. The remnants of the Zhao clan fled as the tree fell. The Luwu masks were naturally of no more use, so Xu Rucheng simply resumed his true identity and represented the Luwu in negotiations with Yu Chang.

The spiritual energy prohibition had come too abruptly. No one, whether shed skin or ascended spirit, could soar into the sky or burrow into the earth anymore. The power of Great Wan’s upgraded immortal tools was magnified, and the gap couldn’t be filled in a hurry. Worst of all was that the Law Breaker was still operating, and reincarnation wood, able to get in at every crack, could deliver weapons to the four corners of the earth in the space of a breath. All powers black and white had to submit to Tai Sui’s tyrannical rule.

On the one hand, Yu Chang was beside himself with delight over having finally obtained the Sanyue Mountains, but on the other hand, he still had to bend his head to that damned Tai Sui. But what sort of man was Yu Chang? Believing firmly that a true man could endure the unendurable, he contributed a performance that was the pinnacle of “honeyed words with a sword in the belly.” He was like an assiduous shopkeeper, acting “close as brothers” with Tai Sui while precisely noting down every debt, so when the prohibition on spiritual energy ended and his cultivation was restored, he could demand repayment from a certain person surnamed Xi for every last item.

Because of this, while Yu Chang had obtained power over Western Chu, he still wouldn’t indulge in a single moment of comfort. Sensuous pleasures, whether of sound, sight, taste, or fragrance—he didn’t come near any of them; he worked hard to cultivate and lived ascetically, not letting up for a moment. Though he couldn’t sense the tiniest bit of spiritual energy, he still persisted in meditating daily in a heap of white spirits, in rain or shine; it was deeply touching.

Six months later, Yu Chang held his nose and accepted all of Xi Ping’s unreasonable provisions, including that people couldn’t be prohibited from moving freely, that cultivators whether righteous or evil had to be registered, that suppressing toilet bulletins without cause was prohibited, and so on—as well as delimiting Tao County and its surroundings within a three hundred li radius as independent territory, henceforth free of Chu.

When both sides had signed and made their marks, Xu Rucheng heard a tune in his ear. As he took part in the monumentally ostentatious entertainment Yu Chang had arranged, he surreptitiously asked Xi Ping, “What’s that noise?”

Xi Ping answered from a reincarnation wood tree a thousand li away: “Looking at Yu Chang’s smile, I was suddenly inspired to compose a song based on him.”

Xu Rucheng was curious. “What’s it about?”

Xi Ping answered profoundly, “An honest woman with a hard lot in life forced into prostitution, who hides rat poison in her bosom while receiving guests.”

Xu Rucheng: “…”

He suddenly felt that the wine at the feast tasted strange.

With the treaty between Wan and Chu concluded, Xu Rucheng could finally withdraw after winning merit.

The Silver Moon was no longer to be seen above the empty Sanyue Mountains. In Dongheng City, the streets and lanes were hung all over with Yu Chang’s banners, which fluttered boldly and arrogantly beside the terrified old colored lanterns.

While entering the Cloud Soaring Flood Dragon station, Xu Rucheng heard a boom. Through a thousand-li eye glass, he saw that the statue of the Black Emperor of Sanyue’s Principal Peak had been smashed to dust.

The new emperor was reveling atop the remnants of the old regime, not knowing yet that only scraps remained inside those remnants.

Xu Rucheng shook his head and handed over his ticket. “Tao County.”

He had two long-cherished wishes: one was to show that imperial grandson his own impressive appearance, so for the rest of his life that bastard would feel ill whenever he heard the words “dragon and phoenix symbolizing good fortune”; the other was to go to Tao County and meet Zhao Qindan, return her name to her.

Sadly, he was unable to realize the first—just as he had been busying himself on Tai Sui’s behalf, he had stopped paying attention, and the third-rate imperial grandson had gone off in a flurry to report to the netherworld. It was a great regret.

Xu Rucheng and Zhao Qindan were two half-immortals, one a poor country man with no home or property, one the precious young mistress of a great family; one had nearly given up his life to enter the Way out of resentment in the midst of upheaval, and one had exceptional natural talents that had let her effortlessly stand out among her peers at the Latent Cultivation Temple.

Supposing that their paths in life had not been so bumpy, supposing that there had been no “Kaiming” or “Luwu,” the only opportunity the two of them would have had to meet would have been if Xu Rucheng, as an “evil cultivator,” had been arrested and soul-searched by the Heaven’s Design Pavilion…and the responsibility of soul-searching him might not even have fallen to Zhao Qindan; after all, it fell into the category of “dirty work.”

Two such people, unexpectedly, had somehow come to exchange lives beneath a Luwu mask.

Zhao Qindan met him in person at the train station in Tao County. The two of them normally each had their own work and had little contact. They only exchanged greetings through the reincarnation wood at the New Year. At first Xu Rucheng was a little reserved, worried that they would be stuck with nothing to say to each other, but instead, as soon as they saw each other, an unspeakable sense of familiarity and closeness arose of itself…especially when he realized that the two of them performed an identical gesture of rubbing the writing brush callus on their middle fingers with their thumbs when nervous.

Living through danger together made people “brothers,” so after the two of them had spent a decade “wearing” each other’s lives, they had probably become twins with no blood relationship.

“Dongheng City was a total mess then. Among the Xiangs, some were with Xuanwu, some were against Xuanwu, and then there were those against the Xiangs, the rebels. You had no idea where to stand. After Xuanwu gained the upper hand, Prince Qing Manor, which had joined the wrong team, fled that very night to your…to the Zhao hidden realm. Before they could stop, they heard that Xuanwu was dead. The two families thought this was the light at the end of the tunnel and were beside themselves with self-satisfaction. They set out together with great pomp back to Dongheng, unexpectedly running into Yu Chang’s invasion.” Xu Rucheng sighed. “If not for that, given their prudence, they actually wouldn’t have ended up falling so fast.”

After she had heard out the fate of the Zhao family, no sorrow was visible on Zhao Qindan’s face. She only asked, “What about my mother?”

“Your honored mother died of illness three years ago. She didn’t live to see the tumult.”

Zhao Qindan went blank, after a long moment gave an Mhm, and nodded—she had spent a decade in Tao County, written countless articles. She had a profound awareness that human weakness didn’t change on account of completed spiritual bones or rising cultivation, so she hadn’t probed into Dongheng’s Zhao family’s situation even once, simply not giving herself the chance to be weak.

Just as well, Zhao Qindan thought, that her delicate and well-born mother hadn’t lived to see the tumult. She was so affectionate, so feeble. She had never had an opinion in her life. She could only submit, or cry and submit. It was her luck not to have lived to see this.

Xu Rucheng said, “Do you want to ask about anyone else?”

She shook her head, and Xu Rucheng understood; he said nothing further—the clan leader had also died, and all the Dongheng Zhao family’s cultivators had died. That they had died off so cleanly, apart from bad luck, was down the old clan leader, at the final critical moment, leading a group of established foundations and half-immortals who could no longer use spiritual energy in an attempt to take advantage of the chaos to break into the Sanyue Mountains and take back Zhao Qindan, who was “trapped in Sanyue.”

With them in such a hurry to die, Yu Chang had naturally taken them up on it, and afterward had even attempted to seize the items in the Zhao hidden realm, and was taught a lesson by the reincarnation wood.

As for how much of this concern had been motivated by worry and familial love and how much by plans for the family’s future, there was no way of knowing now. There was no benefit in considering it; it was just as well not to mention it.

“The things in the hidden realm were transferred into the Law Breaker. Tai Sui says you can come make an inventory and pick them up when you have the time.”

Zhao Qindan waved a hand. “I’m not short on money, and anyway, I haven’t had any connection to them for a long time. You’re the one who’s ‘Zhao Qindan,’ and you ought to be the one to handle it.”

“N-n-n-no, I, I’m not…” Xu Rucheng turned into a stutterer on the spot from fright, afraid lest he be unable to break free of the identity of “Zhao Qindan.”

Zhao Qindan laughed.

Over a pot of Xia River Baijiu, the two of them spoke of the former sweatshops in Yuzhou and the densely forested Latent Cultivation Temple, discussing all the past. Zhao Qindan raised a cup of wine in honor of A-Hua, and Xu Rucheng hoped that he would one day be able to see the South Sea Hidden Realm with his own eyes.

On his departure, Zhao Qindan saw him to the ferry crossing on the Xia River and asked, “What plans do you have for the future, Xu-xiong?”

Xu Rucheng said, “Go back and rest for a while, wait for a new identity.”

“Oh?” said Zhao Qindan.

“While we can’t use spiritual energy, cultivators are after all different from mortals. Tai Sui says that the first couple of years will be all right, but afterward, as time goes on, there will necessarily be new discord between mortals and those who were once cultivators. Perhaps a small number of people will create calamities.” Xu Rucheng clutched at his hair. “It’s so strange to say ‘those who were once cultivators.’ I asked him why, and he just said, ‘You’ll know in a few years,’ all mysterious… Anyway, no matter what, the Luwu will prepare in advance.”

“With your record,” said Zhao Qindan, “you amount to an elder in the Luwu, and with your relationship with Tai Sui on top of that, transferring to the Kaiming Department’s general headquarters in Jinping…”

“To be an official?” Xu Rucheng waved a hand, laughing. “Don’t, I’m not cut out for that. I don’t understand about the big picture or the little one. I’d better stay among the common people quelling calamities.”

Saying so, he aimed a glance at Yuzhou on the opposite bank. The gentle river breeze carried away the steam. Though the spiritual energy prohibition had been in place less than a year, Great Wan had stabilized at an amazing speed. Fishing boats put into port in droves, and from a distance mechanical chug-chugging could be heard.

In all of this, the Kaiming and Luwu’s contributions could not go unnoticed. If A-Hua were still alive, if she told people what he did now, probably they wouldn’t mock her for having “poor eyesight.”

When the third-rate imperial grandson had gone into the West, Xu Rucheng had in fact made time to go, and for a horrifying effect, he’d had a colleague alter his appearance by hand. When he sat down flagrantly by the third-rate imperial grandson’s bedside, he had been planning to gather breath in his diaphragm and cry out Mua-ha-ha, get a load of who I am!, not expecting to have his sleeve clutched by the bewildered imperial grandson, who was gasping for breath.

The imperial grandson could no longer see, and he didn’t recognize anyone. His flesh and bones seemed, like his life force, to have shrunk down to the point where there was nowhere left to shrink. Xu Rucheng felt that if you picked him up and shook him, perhaps there would be nothing left but skin, like a ragged kite.

Somehow, Xu Rucheng didn’t play his malicious prank. He brought his ear close and listened to this noble worm’s thin panting. As he gasped for breath, he said almost inaudibly, “I’m scared…I’m scared…”

After a dozen intermittent sobs, the imperial grandson choked, like a hiccup. Xu Rucheng bent his head and saw that his unfocused eyes were slightly open, staring at the bed curtains. A crowd of servants knelt outside, silent as cicadas in winter. No one cried, no one paid homage.

Naturally the imperial grandson’s surname was “Xiang,” but he was called Xiang…what was it now?

Xu Rucheng sat by him for half an incense stick and ultimately didn’t remember, so he reached out and closed the third-rate imperial grandson’s already cold eyelids.

Even more undignified than death was dying afraid.

Even more miserable than living alone and wretched was not knowing what you were living for.

“I’m going.” Xu Rucheng saluted Zhao Qindan and boarded the ferry to cross the river. “Sister, look after yourself.”

Some years later, when all the cultivators discovered that their cultivation was constantly regressing and their Ways of the Heart were melting away irreversibly, just as Xi Ping had anticipated, the conflict between the frightened cultivators and the mortals climbed to its heights. Groups of cultivators acting surreptitiously began to appear everywhere. They were opposed to technology, killed various toilet bulletin celebrities, kidnapped mortals to try all kinds of evil arts on them—fortunately, the Luwu were ready.

Like a fish entering the water, Xu Rucheng led the Luwu in infiltrating all kinds of filthy corners. He also persisted in sending a New Year’s greeting to Zhao Qindan every year, and sometimes he would even get someone to pass along some little handmade trinkets to her.

This lasted until one year, when Zhao Qindan stayed up all night seeing in the New Year with a crowd of colleagues at the Tao World Record, and by daybreak, his New Year’s greeting still hadn’t come. She looked up at the daylight and understood.

A few months later, Xi Ping gave her an old knotted bag shiny from being touched and said that Da Cheng had given it to him to pass on to her. She embedded the knotted bag, along with the dust and old marks on it, in resin and turned it into a piece of amber.

Another hundred years, and Zhao Qindan retired due to old age, stepping back with honors. She left the name of “Sir Xu” to the Tao World Record and returned to the little house she had bought long ago. She no longer discussed the great events of the world, national economies, or people’s livelihood. She began to write in the Wan language a compendium on fine foods to be found around the lower reaches of the Xia River, under the name “Zhao Qindan.”

The main ingredient of the famous dish called the Xia River Ice Fish is actually the red carp from the Tianze River, which in the eleventh month of every year comes south in large numbers from the Tianze River to the Xia River and goes north after the 2nd solar term. When the red carp comes, the New Year is near. Therefore, years back, Wan called the red carp the ‘Beauty Announcing Spring,’ while Chu called it the Yu Fish…¹

This was followed by an annotation that had been inserted at some point. It said: Suspected of being Yu Chang’s brother.

The tip of Zhao Qindan’s pen paused. Glaring at that line of flashy cursive, she considered putting up a sign on the study door: No Admittance to Xi Shiyongs or Dogs.

Writing a fine foods compendium was interesting enough, but it incurred Xi Shiyong; that jerk had demonstrated great interest. He was always sneaking into the study to steal peeks at her draft, coming more regularly than a rat and often leaving behind samples of his “beautiful handwriting” giving directions on this and that. His views were extremely biased: today he wrote Excellent! after the golden flower almond paste, tomorrow it was Yuck after the savory and numbing clay jar vegetables, and most wicked of all, one day he left his remarks beside the mixed filling buns, saying, The filling ingredients are mostly pickled; eating them is like sucking on a corpse’s toes…and Zhao Qindan had just eaten mixed filling buns for breakfast that day.

She took off her reading glasses and sighed, ready to cross out that nefarious annotation, when the girl who looked after her house ran inside in a panic. “Ancestor, there’s a guest! It’s…it’s…”

Zhao Qindan frowned. Before the girl could finish, a commotion of footsteps and voices came from outside. The uninvited guests were rather rude, intruding without being invited in.

Zhao Qindan was just about to call for a guard when she heard someone say loudly outside the study: “Is Sir Xu here?”

Next, a big crowd of people came in surrounding an old man.

The old man was sitting in a wheelchair, hair and beard white, weighed down with age, seeming about to drown in his robes. He had lost the appearance of his youth, and only a pair of bright red eyes remained to make his identity unmistakable.

It was Yu Chang.

After the spiritual energy prohibition, the Ways of the Heart of the cultivation world’s masters had melted away. But once they reverted to being half-immortals, there wasn’t much connection between their lifespans and their original cultivation level—those whose paths in cultivation had been rather bumpy and who had many internal injuries often aged prematurely.

And when it came to bumps in the road, no one could count more potholes than Yu Chang, who had spent centuries wavering on the edge of losing his mind.

He had passed his whole life living in the present, without view of a future. Now, when Zhao Qindan, who had been a half-immortal all along, had just started having problems with her vision, Yu Chang already had one foot in the grave.

He was still breathing, but he seemed to have turned into a desiccated corpse. He only barely managed to sit upright with the support of two attendants. As if it used up all his strength, Yu Chang saluted Zhao Qindan. As before, he was very polite to her, though his voice was now so aged it sounded like a chimney that hadn’t been cleaned in a decade. “Sir—Xu. An old friend…ahem…an old friend has come to call.”

Zhao Qindan automatically softened her breathing, afraid that if she breathed too loud, she would blow him to dust.

Originally, Yu Chang had only wanted to become Xuanwu, or even Xiang Rong or the Black Emperor; he’d had no intention of governing any nation. He only wanted to occupy the richly endowed Sanyue Mountains like the Xiang family before him and erect an invincible position on its pinnacle, so that Western Chu, as his appendage, would naturally shape itself after his order.

But the spiritual energy prohibition was like a nightmare he couldn’t wake up from. When he opened his eyes, he was still in the belly of the beast; there was no struggling free of it. He couldn’t become “Xuanwu”; he was only going to become the “wu.”²

Yu Chang had gone for a stroll outside the spiritual energy prohibition line and upon coming back had gone thoroughly crazy. All the ancient texts and secret scrolls that he could hunt up in the Sanyue Mountains—he tried them out one by one. Spiritual stones, the internal cores of spiritual beasts, all kinds of materials you could think of and ones you couldn’t think of—he ate them all in every manner of preparation.

Sautéing, deep frying, boiling, eating cold with dressing, baking—he had even driven needles into his meridians and spiritual bones, injecting the magic materials. Ultimately, not only did he not manage to get his cultivation back, he nearly sent himself off preemptively.

But just when he had completely given up hope and was ready to choose between going crazy and living in a drunken stupor, the disorder in Chu reached a certain degree, and there finally came a collapse.

Commoners everywhere rose up in rebellion. In less than half a year, seven or eight insurrectionary armies cropped up. Those that didn’t want to revolt fled the catastrophe, crossing the river east or simply escaping to the autonomous prefecture of Tao County.

The borders of the Tao County autonomous prefecture were surrounded by a ring of reincarnation wood like a city wall. They didn’t block the roads or the waterways; they only kept out the ill-intentioned. Starting with the spiritual energy prohibition, there had been a stream of clever Chu fleeing to Tao County. Transportation was well-developed there, tall buildings stood like trees in a forest; in just a few years, it was more flourishing by far than Dongheng City had once been.

Later, Tao County could no longer contain such a large population. When it could accept no more immigrants, the Chu simply occupied land beside Tao County, found themselves reincarnation wood seeds, and planted reincarnation wood forests themselves.

Anywhere with reincarnation wood amounted to Tai Sui’s domain. Therefore, apart from Southern Wan and Tao County, all the nations had signed a treaty with Tai Sui, prohibiting reincarnation wood within their borders.

But while Yu Chang could hold up the international treaty to make Xi Ping behave, he couldn’t keep the Chu people from planting the trees themselves. The more strictly they were prohibited, the more seeds people smuggled in, and the means of smuggling were endless in variety and peculiarity. Xi Shiyong not only said nothing, he even regularly used the reincarnation wood trees that made it into Chu’s interior to deliver firsthand news to the offices of toilet bulletins of his acquaintance.

The most ruinous incident was when a eunuch betrayed his nation and stuck a reincarnation wood branch into a flower pot in Yu Chang’s sleeping quarters. How could Xi Shiyong, who had ascended to godhood in the way of rottenness, pass up such an opportunity? The next day, “Photo of Western Chu’s Emperor Yu Drunk and Undressed in his Sleeping Quarters” appeared in the papers, written and illustrated.

Goodness, everyone had only ever seen their own bare-assed spouse at home; who had ever seen a bare-assed emperor? Therefore, they fell over each other to circulate it, nearly using up all the paper in the five nations for printing.

Though the headline of this photo was misleading and the main character in the image was still wearing an inner robe, the collar only open a little wide, Yu Chang still became the first emperor in history to make the papers for his “lithe and graceful bearing.” Even the neighboring country’s General Zhi, hearing of this farce, couldn’t bear to look. He chided “preposterous” several times in a row, snatched Xi Ping back to the Xuanyin Mountains and gave him a thrashing, then grounded him for half a year.

When Yu Chang sobered up, he wanted to wash the imperial palace with blood on the spot. He nearly lost his mind there and then—but this person had been both righteous and evil in his life and had at last come to stand at the pinnacle of the Sanyue Mountains; there was some destiny upon him. It was at that moment that his Way of the Heart melted.

Centuries of seeking were like a dream; suddenly, he lost all sense of time… Yu Chang’s heart palpitated, and his straying intellect was cut off in its tracks. During this pause, the female officials at Yu Chang’s side stood up.

After seizing control of Western Chu, Yu Chang had conferred a noble title upon his mother and erected her statue on Sanyue’s Principal Peak, in the place where the Black Emperor’s statue had once stood. For this reason, apart from Great Wan’s Kaiming Department and Tao County, the latter of which represented pioneering and freedom, Western Chu was the earliest to permit women to take the civil service exam and involve themselves in politics.

Yu Chang was an evil cultivator. His methods were vicious. As a ruler, he was severe and mistrustful. He was only somewhat more tolerant towards female officials, mostly lenient in sentencing even when they were convicted of crimes.

Chu was isolated, haughty, and uncivilized. It had always esteemed might. Chu’s female officials, who had just gotten their feet under them, knew perfectly well that while Yu Chang was despicable, apart from following him, they could have no other foothold, unless they abandoned everything and betrayed their nation to flee elsewhere.

The female officials put all their efforts into whole-heartedly supporting him. Not minding the trouble, they expostulated with him and rushed about busily and in fact managed to stabilize Yu Chang, who had just reverted to a half-immortal. He spent three days calming down. The flames of his rage calmed, and his hatred of Xi Ping once again rose to new heights, such that even when he recovered his cultivation, he temporarily tossed it to the back of his mind, devoted heart and soul to training troops and strengthening the nation so he could flatten the reincarnation wood in Tao County and Great Wan with artillery fire.

He held that breath for a hundred years.

Western Chu broke free of its instability bit by bit. The “one minister and three officials” emerged—four remarkable women whose names would be remembered throughout the ages; when the old ladies had long since died in their beds of old age, they continued to live on in the annals. Chu’s festering diseases had been eliminated. While he hadn’t amassed the national might necessary to attack Jinping, there was stability everywhere, all professions were thriving, and the slightly derisive “Emperor Yu” spoken of among his peers had turned into a true Emperor Yu.

The attendant pushing the wheelchair said to Zhao Qindan, “Might we request that Sir Xu contact Tai Sui? His Majesty hopes to see him.”

Yu Chang pulled at his sleeve and interjected with difficulty, like a faulty bellows, “If…if I don’t see him now, I won’t see him at all…”

Zhao Qindan froze, then quickly ordered her maid to get reincarnation wood. Just then, a familiar voice came from outside. “Here I am.”

Xi Ping passed through a reincarnation wood tree by the street outside the house and arrived beside Yu Chang in an instant.

Yu Chang narrowed his dim eyes, staring unblinkingly at Xi Ping, who hadn’t changed a bit in all these years. A frightening light appeared in the lifeless red eyes. His mouth moved, but he made no sound.

Zhao Qindan pushed up her reading glasses. To judge from lipreading, this seemed to her to be a colloquial Chu profanity.

Xi Ping, looking at this old acquaintance, his…hard to say whether enemy or friend, felt a tangle of emotions welling up. Involuntarily, he lowered his tone somewhat and asked almost gently, “Yu-xiong, what did you want to say to me?”

Yu Chang’s lips moved again, but he seemed to choke on a mouthful of phlegm. He clutched his chest. The people around him crowded forward, making a loud fuss while patting his chest and feeling his pulse. There was even one who took out a needle—

Yu Chang suddenly waved a hand, sending them all away. He looked fixedly at Xi Ping. Xi Ping understood. He took over the wheelchair and bent down to put his ear next to Yu Chang’s mouth. “Go ahead.”

“Xi Shiyong, you…you…” Breathy sounds came from Yu Chang’s throat.

Xi Ping sighed, bringing his ear closer. “Don’t rush.”

Yu Chang reached out an emaciated claw and seized his collar. Xi Ping didn’t dodge. “I’m here.”

“You…you’re…”

“Hm?”

“You’re an asshole! Ptui!”

Yu Chang’s last exclamation was suddenly sonorous. He spat at Xi Ping. Even though this sole “celestial being” in the world reacted quickly, he was still caught somewhat unprepared. He managed to dodge himself, but his clothes were sullied.

Yu Chang, looking at his stunned expression, laughed aloud.

He had probably never been so carefree in his life. After three laughs, the sound came to an abrupt halt. The hand clutching Xi Ping’s collar fell. Yu Chang’s expression was fixed in a look of perfectly contented tranquility.

This mouthful of spit just before parting obliterated centuries of debts of gratitude and vengeance.

Though the Chu had been prepared, they were still greatly grieved. Zhao Qindan had to call over Tao County’s troops to help make arrangements for them. The commotion in the little house didn’t quiet until it was night.

Xi Ping went on foot to escort Yu Chang to the border between Chu and Tao County, then stood at the border, watching the motorcade until it disappeared.

Zhao Qindan returned to the little house alone. Since getting old, she often had insomnia. After lying in bed for a while, she still couldn’t sleep, so she got up and turned on a light, filling in the entry on “Xia River Ice Fish” that she hadn’t finished before.

The red carp is large, its flesh sumptuous and fatty, yet with a unique stink that boiling does not avail against, and that heavy seasonings and frying also do not remove. Smelling it causes vomiting. Only during years of famine would starving fishermen catch and eat it.

This continued until the first year of the Kaiming Era, when the sages did battle beside the Xia River and General Zhi froze the river with his sword energy. Tao County was heavily damaged by the incursion of the hidden bones. Seventy percent of the residences were destroyed, leaving many people with no home to go back to. Therefore, people beside the river fished out the red carp that had frozen to death so they could eat their fill and found to their surprise that the flesh of the fish was delicious and fragrant, without any unpleasant stink.

Since then, the unique fine dish known as “Xia River Ice Fish” has passed on to the present. Only travelers who visit Tao County around the New Year can eat it…