Title Page Note: Our disciples withdraw from the world, but they do not forget it. They travel the four corner…
Title Page Note:
Our disciples withdraw from the world, but they do not forget it. They travel the four corners of the land in secret, using mechanisms to quietly lend aid to all living things.
Even the most careful among us slips up sometimes, and a disciple's true identity is bound to slip out sooner or later. Let this book serve as a mirror. Reflect on your own conduct and patch up any cracks before they are spotted.
Strategy One: Draw the Snake from Its Hole
In this vast and tangled jianghu, there exists a peculiar breed of person: the Mohist Hill disciple.
Unlike the straightforward folk of the Nine Mortal Ways, Mohist Hill operates by strange rules, and its disciples who venture out into the world must keep their talents tightly wrapped up and well out of sight.
As the old saying goes: if they are putting on an act, the seams will show eventually.
Now, unlike those sects of singers and dancers, or those whose members can barely stand upright for all the wine they have had, the sharper sorts within the Nine Mortal Ways can pick a Mohist Hill disciple out of any crowd without breaking a sweat.
Mohist Hill disciples come in two varieties: the openly obvious sort and the deeply concealed sort. But whatever their type, they all share one telltale habit: the moment they lay eyes on a mechanism, their expression shifts, and their gaze starts to wander.
Try this with a Lone Cloud disciple: hold up a sum and say, "Solve this, and I'll say you're something." They will fling themselves headlong into the problem without a second thought.
A Mohist disciple, by contrast, will either fix their gaze on a mechanism with the look of someone deep in thought, or will cast sidelong glances at any nearby device or construction. At that moment, pull out a small mechanical trinket, hold it up, and shout: "Take this apart, and I'll call you impressive!"
Nine times out of ten, a Mohist disciple simply cannot help themselves.
Once you have identified them, what you do next is entirely your own affair: whether you earnestly enlist their help for your mechanism troubles, or make a show of unmasking their disguise for all to see.
For more advanced identification techniques, take the bookmark to the Antique Bookshop in the Ghostlight Market and give the password "Continue Reading." More exciting secrets await!