It was a night when moonlight gently fell on the riverbank.

A man knocked on the gate of the estate.

His long ears and beautiful face were otherworldly.

He called for the master of the estate, offering to stay as a guest for the night and provide medical treatment.

With his mysterious features and scent like grass leaves, the gatekeeper dared not treat him poorly.

The master happened to have a newborn child. He welcomed the long-eared man, intending to ask for a diagnosis of the child.

The man, holding the baby and looking down intently, said:

“It’ll be hard for this one to live past twenty. That’s the constitution.”

“You mean an early death? This child was born after I disgraced its mother. Is this divine punishment?”

The man frowned at the master’s words as if he had heard something improper.

“Is that what you ask a doctor? Even for an ignorant country bumpkin…”

“What about the child’s condition?”

The master cleared his throat and asked.

“As a father, I’ll tell you. This is similar to the Nine Yin Severed Pulse. I’ve never seen someone with such an extremely open Baihui acupoint. It’s like the top of the head is completely open.”

“I thought the Nine Yin Severed Pulse was about dying from hardened meridians.”

“You’re not entirely ignorant. This child will pass away due to excessively open meridians at the crown. It’s commonly called ascension.”

“Suddenly talking about ascension? Isn’t that when a Taoist master with high spiritual power departs for the celestial realm?”

“You believe in such things?”

The man stroked his long ears and explained:

“I wonder if you’ve heard of some absolute masters using the upper Dantian of the head. Ascension is when one is intoxicated by the energy of nature pouring down from heaven and earth, ultimately unable to bear it and crossing the Sanzu River*. It’s a distorted story.”

“It seems it is divine punishment after all.”

“You turtle of a man. To think you’re a father…”

The man frowned and clicked his tongue. The master stood up abruptly, pointing a finger.

“I’ve heard enough. You seem to be from the murim, but what’s your rank? Even if you’re from a noble family, your words are most unpleasant to hear.”

“Rank? You dare speak of rank to me? Even if your great-grandfather’s great-grandfather came, to me…”

The man, spouting abuse at the master, was driven out, and their conversation did not spread beyond the estate walls.

* *

“If raised in an unorthodox sect, this child would have become a demon. If grown in Shaolin, the 72 arts would have doubled. But born as a hated child in such a backwater place, there’s no other way but to die young in this countryside.”

The man shook his head as he departed.

“Unless they awaken on their own…”

Notes:-
Sanzu River:  The Sanzu River is a mythological river that separates the living world from the afterlife