At this point, Gao Yiye had become little more than a decorative vase.
She stood there with her hands folded, maintaining the dignified posture expected of a Saintess, but there was precious little she could actually do to help anyone.
When she spotted the injured guard, whose leg was covered in enormous, angry-looking blisters from the boiling oil, she nearly rushed over on instinct. She wanted to help him, at the very least.
Then she remembered Mrs. Shan's advice.
'The more dignified your bearing, the more respect people will have for Tianzun.'
Gao Yiye hesitated.
She couldn't just run around like an ordinary village girl. She was Tianzun's representative now. Whatever she did would reflect on her god. No matter how badly she wanted to help, she had to preserve her dignity.
She was still struggling with this dilemma when the clouds in the heavens parted.
Tianzun's majestic face appeared once more, followed by an enormous hand descending from above. It stretched toward her, apparently bringing something down.
Another heavenly gift?
Gao Yiye looked up with curiosity. But as the hand drew closer, she began to have trouble identifying what it was carrying.
A small, yellowish lump. Soft-looking, with a distinctly sticky appearance.
"Eh? Is this something else to eat?"
The words slipped out before she could stop herself.
Up above, Li Daoxuan nearly lost his composure.
"You again! Why is your first thought always food? The last time I gave you those iron plates, you were thinking about eating them too!"
Gao Yiye's face turned scarlet.
She had managed to maintain her dignity for so long, only to have it blown away by one careless question.
"Yiye, this is medicine. It's an ointment for burns. Take it."
Gao Yiye immediately brightened.
She had just been worrying about her injured comrade, and now Tianzun had personally sent down a remedy. She hurriedly stretched out both hands to receive it.
Of course, there was a slight problem with the size.
To Li Daoxuan, the ointment on his fingertip was no bigger than a sesame seed. To Gao Yiye, however, it was a huge, heavy lump of medicine. The moment it landed in her palms, its weight caught her completely off guard.
Her hands dipped.
The slippery glob began sliding toward the ground.
Fortunately, Mrs. Shan had been standing nearby the entire time, faithfully guarding the Oracle. The moment she saw the heavenly gift about to fall into the dirt, she lunged forward.
Between them, the two women managed to catch and support the enormous lump before it hit the ground.
Mrs. Shan stared at the sticky substance in astonishment. Since she couldn't hear Li Daoxuan's voice, all she had witnessed was something mysteriously appearing in Gao Yiye's hands.
"Saintess, what is this? Where did it come from? And that medicinal fragrance... it's incredibly strong!"
"Tianzun has bestowed a burn ointment," Gao Yiye explained, still catching her breath. "Quick, we need to apply it to the injured guard."
Mrs. Shan's eyes widened.
"Divine medicine? Oh my. This is no ordinary gift!"
Without wasting another moment, she turned toward the crowd and shouted, "Someone, bring me an empty jar! Quickly!"
The area behind the walls was still crowded with women who had been tending the vats of boiling oil during the battle. Naturally, plenty of empty containers were lying around. A maid from the Bai family quickly brought over a large, clean jar.
Mrs. Shan accepted it with the solemnity of someone handling a priceless imperial treasure. She carefully lowered the ointment inside, then covered the mouth of the jar with oil paper, wrapped a rope around it, and tied it securely.
Her expression was so serious that anyone who tried to take the jar away might well have lost a finger.
Gao Yiye watched the entire process in bewilderment.
"Wait. Why are you sealing it? We still need to use it on the guard!"
"Saintess, this is heavenly medicine. We must preserve it carefully!" Mrs. Shan replied, as though the answer should have been obvious. "Besides, there's still plenty of it on your hands. Just apply what's left to the guard. That should be enough."
Gao Yiye looked down.
Sure enough, both her palms were covered in a thick, sticky layer of ointment. It even had a rather pleasant, cool sensation.
She had no choice but to make do with that.
Walking over to the injured guard, she tried to keep her usual dignified expression despite the mess coating her hands.
"Hold still. Tianzun has granted you a divine remedy."
The guard was overwhelmed.
He tried to kneel and kowtow in gratitude, but the moment he moved his injured leg, a sharp wave of pain forced him to stop. In the end, he could only bow deeply toward the heavens.
"Tianzun is truly benevolent!"
Gao Yiye knelt beside him and began applying the remaining ointment.
Unfortunately, she had no idea how to treat a burn. With both hands covered in the stuff, she simply started spreading it over the injured skin. A smear here, another there, then a few more strokes to make sure the entire wound was covered.
Her technique was, to put it generously, rather unrefined.
The guard immediately sucked in a series of sharp breaths.
Damn, that hurts!
For a moment, he even wondered whether the heavenly medicine might have been worse than the injury itself.
But as soon as Gao Yiye finished and stood up, something began to change.
The guard blinked.
Wait...
The searing pain that had been tormenting him just moments earlier was gradually fading. The ointment seemed to release a deep, soothing coolness that spread across his burned skin, suppressing the fierce sting of the blisters.
He let out a long breath, only then realizing how tightly he had been holding it.
"This heavenly medicine is incredible!" he exclaimed. "I already feel so much better!"
The people standing around him looked on with open envy.
"That fellow is really lucky. He gets to use medicine from the celestial realm!"
The injured guard turned toward them.
"Are you jealous? Then why don't you pour a vat of boiling oil over your own legs? You can have some heavenly medicine afterward too!"
The crowd laughed.
"No, thank you. You can enjoy that blessing on behalf of all of us!"
Master Bai pushed his way through the onlookers and examined the guard's injury.
"Has the pain really subsided?"
"There's still a little stinging, sir, but it's nothing compared to before."
Master Bai nodded.
For a man of his standing to personally ask after the injury of a servant was already a considerable gesture of kindness. Any more concern might give the fellow the wrong impression and make him think he was suddenly someone important.
His gaze gradually shifted toward the Dao Xuan Tianzun Cave at the center of the village.
Something stirred in his heart.
This Dao Xuan Tianzun was nothing like the fabricated deities worshipped by the White Lotus sect. Nor was he one of those distant, mysterious figures from orthodox Taoism, gods whose existence remained a matter of faith simply because no one had ever seen them with their own eyes.
This one was different.
He was real. Master Bai had witnessed his power personally, and the heavenly medicine was proof enough that his benevolence was no empty promise.
I should pay my respects at the shrine, he decided.
With the threat of the bandits finally gone, the atmosphere in the village had relaxed considerably. People could at last turn their attention away from survival and toward the other matters that had been put aside during the fighting.
Shan Shi'er soon approached, guiding Master Bai toward Gao Yiye.
"Allow me to introduce her. This is Gao Yiye, the Oracle and Saintess of the Dao Xuan Tianzun faith. Every command from Tianzun is conveyed through her."
Master Bai had already guessed as much, but he still brought his hands together and offered a formal salute.
"My greetings, Saintess."
"And this gentleman," Shan Shi'er continued, his chest swelling with pride, "is Master Bai, also known as Bai Yuan. A renowned gentleman and philanthropist from Chengcheng County. He organized the local militia to protect the region and enjoys considerable affection among the people."
A few weeks earlier, Gao Yiye would probably have been terrified at the prospect of meeting someone of Master Bai's standing. She might even have thrown herself to her knees in the middle of the road.
But things had changed.
She was now the representative of Tianzun. She couldn't afford to behave in a way that diminished his prestige. So she simply returned the greeting with a small, dignified nod.
Bai Yuan took another look around Gaojia Village before turning his attention back to her.
"This village truly is blessed. Its walls are sturdy, there's a clean pond, and even in a year of such terrible famine, the people still have enough food and drink. Such a place is exceedingly rare."
Shan Shi'er immediately puffed out his chest.
"Naturally! Why do you think I gave up my comfortable life in the county seat and came to settle here? As the saying goes, fine birds choose the best trees to perch in!"
Bai Yuan looked at him with an expression usually reserved for witnessing a donkey try to write poetry.
"Shan Shi'er, you do have a little education, but apparently not enough to keep you from mangling every idiom that comes out of your mouth."
Shan Shi'er's smile faltered.
"What did I get wrong?"
"You just compared yourself to a bird. Depending on how you interpret it, you might as well have compared yourself to a beast." Bai Yuan shook his head. "What you should have said was, 'A wise minister chooses a worthy lord to serve.'"
Shan Shi'er opened his mouth, then thought better of it.
Bai Yuan gave him a smug look.
"And this is precisely why you're still nothing more than an advisor. You never passed the imperial examinations."
Shan Shi'er's eyelid twitched.
He muttered just loudly enough for the other man to hear, "It's not as though you passed them either."
Bai Yuan's mouth opened. Then closed. Then opened again. No words came out.
After an awkward pause, he finally sighed.
"Fine. You got me. My education isn't exactly impressive either. My scholarship has its shortcomings." He paused. "The Calligraphy section of the Six Arts of a Gentleman... cross it out. Just cross it out."
Shan Shi'er leaned closer and whispered, "Calligraphy means the art of writing. It doesn't mean general academic knowledge."
Master Bai went still.
For a few moments, he seemed to be processing this.
Then his face suddenly brightened.
"Well, in that case, put Calligraphy back on the list! There's no need to cross it out!"
The surrounding villagers just stared.
Up in the heavens, Li Daoxuan finally burst into laughter.
He had initially assumed that this Bai Yuan fellow was some kind of high-ranking, dignified gentleman who kept his emotions firmly under control. After all, he had organized a militia and was apparently well respected throughout the region.
Who would have thought he was such a comedian?
Li Daoxuan was still laughing when another thought suddenly occurred to him.
Wait a minute. In the Six Arts of a Gentleman, does Calligraphy refer specifically to the art of writing, or does it also include general literacy?
He thought about it for a long time and realized he didn't actually know either.
Yeah, forget it. Cross it out, cross it out!