By the time they came down Taozhu Mountain, the sky was completely dark. The two walked side by side along the mountain path, and at some point, without either of them noticing, their hands quietly found each other.
They had traveled at night before, but there had always been a crowd around them. Even when no one made much noise, they knew the Hidden Dragon Unit and Phoenix-Roosting Unit were always there.
Now that Pei Yuan Jin had advanced to the Martial King Stage, he had openly ordered everyone to stay behind. If an enemy was too much even for a Martial King, then the others would not even qualify to buy them time by staying.
Fu Xi Yan quietly angled his toes a few degrees and edged closer. His shoulder brushed Pei Yuan Jin’s through their sleeves, and the faint warmth coming from him sent a feeling of happiness flowing through Fu Xi Yan’s chest.
He thought that even if the world still held countless injustices, even if the road ahead was thick with thorns and traps, as long as he held this hand tightly, he would have endless courage to draw his blade, rise, and cut a path through every obstacle.
…
But first, he needed a blade.
His little blood-primed swords had all fallen in battle during Yi Jue and Wu Xuan Yin’s clash. He needed to prepare new weapons.
After practicing over and over during this period, he was no longer limited to bloodstone when it came to weapon materials. Thinking back to how his search for bloodstone had led him to Tong Fang Yu and somehow netted him the title of Lord Xuanwu, he truly had no idea what to make of it.
He laughed self-deprecatingly, and Pei Yuan Jin happened to catch it. “What are you laughing at?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “I just remembered that I’m technically Lord Xuanwu of the City of Ten Thousand Beasts. Who knows whether that identity is still useful? Come to think of it, their Lord Qilin once tried to kill me too. I wonder whether he’ll show up this time.”
That was also when he had learned Pei Yuan Jin had planted Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang beside him as bodyguards. Remembering the “tragic” experiences those two had suffered because of him these past few months made his mood sink again. He had no idea how much longer Xiao Sang would need to recover from his latest injuries.
Pei Yuan Jin remembered that after killing Lord Qilin, Yu Su Huan had sealed off the news to prevent the City of Ten Thousand Beasts from sending another assassin. “I killed Lord Qilin that same day.”
Fu Xi Yan stared at him in shock. A phrase he had often heard in his previous life suddenly popped into his head: Don’t leave cooked dishes overnight. He blurted, “Afraid he’d go bad if you left him till morning?”
Pei Yuan Jin: “…”
Fu Xi Yan came back to himself and hurriedly patched things up with an awkward laugh. “Just proves he really was a lousy dish.”
Lord Qilin had already been a Dao-Entry Stage expert at the time, a whole realm above Fu Xi Yan, so calling him “lousy” was hardly fair. Unfortunately, he had run into Pei Yuan Jin, who had dared challenge a Martial King while still at the peak of Dao-Entry. Calling Pei Yuan Jin invincible among his peers was no exaggeration.
Elio’s Notes: The joke hinges on cài (菜), which means “dish” but is also slang for someone weak or unskilled.
By then they had reached the foot of the mountain. Fu Xi Yan rubbed his growling stomach and looked at the dense lights of the market streets ahead. His appetite suddenly surged. “Let’s eat something good.”
After so many days of porridge, steamed buns, and flatbread, he finally understood what it meant to have food so bland a bird could fade out of your mouth. That dry, stringy, tasteless piece of unidentified wild bird they had eaten after first leaving Lin’an and entering the mountains had somehow become the high point of their recent meals. Every time he gnawed on a bun and thought back on it, he almost missed it.
Of course, compared with Jiyang County’s proper traditional dishes, even that game bird could only graciously “yield the road to the worthy.”
Salt-baked chicken, steamed three delicacies, pork belly with preserved mustard greens, red-braised pork knuckle…
Dish after dish arrived at the table, and Fu Xi Yan felt his saliva staging a rebellion. Just as he was about to reach for his chopsticks, another person suddenly sat down beside them.
Surely they were not going to stage some painfully old-fashioned table-stealing drama before he could even eat?
Fu Xi Yan was genuinely on the verge of losing his temper and slamming down his chopsticks when he saw that the newcomer was Yi Jue.
…
Right. At the time, it seemed, they had, in fact… gone up the mountain as three people.
Fu Xi Yan hurriedly offered over the chopsticks he had almost thrown. “Elder Yi, you’ve worked hard. Eat more.”
Yi Jue had no idea he had come within a hair of being chased away from the table. Looking at the fragrant, beautifully prepared dishes before him, even he had trouble maintaining his usual composure. He grabbed the chopsticks and began eating at astonishing speed.
Fu Xi Yan hurriedly picked up a fresh pair and joined in.
He was one beat too slow, so Pei Yuan Jin put a piece of salt-baked chicken into his bowl for him.
Delicious. Truly delicious.
The three swept through the food like a gale scattering clouds, eating while constantly calling for more dishes. If they had not all looked so distinguished, the owner would almost have suspected they were refugees who had fled some disaster zone.
While they ate, someone seemed to run into the restaurant and say something. The place immediately grew noisy. A crowd muttered excitedly among themselves, then surged out together.
But at that moment Fu Xi Yan had eyes only for food and hands only for chopsticks. Everything else in the world was none of his concern.
Only after he was full and had come back to his senses did he hear the owner, the waiter, and several regulars chatting about someone who had paraded through town surrounded by a giant python. Humans were naturally curious creatures. They knew it was dangerous, yet a whole crowd had still rushed over to stare.
The owner had stayed behind, but the waiter had gone. After returning, he vividly described how thick the python was, how sharp its gaze looked, and how utterly fearless, or perhaps senseless, its owner seemed.
Fu Xi Yan looked at Pei Yuan Jin and thought of his tiger, far away beyond the horizon.
Pei Yuan Jin said quietly, “Xi Mo Ya should have arrived.”
The unmistakable hallmark of Xi Mo Ya, Azure Dragon King of the City of Ten Thousand Beasts, was that he took a python with him everywhere he went.
Fu Xi Yan was a rational lover of fluffy things. A ferocious beast like a white tiger could still win his affection through adorableness and fur. A python had absolutely no chance. It could be the gentlest, kindest python in the world and the answer would still be no.
Goosebumps rose over him just thinking about it. “To avoid trouble growing overnight, let’s not meet Xi Mo Ya at all. We’ll finish Duan Qian’s business and leave.” Whether Xi Mo Ya believed the deception afterward was Duan Qian’s problem.
Pei Yuan Jin nodded. “With time running short, we can demand more conditions.”
It might have looked a little like taking advantage of someone in distress, but once the someone in question was Duan Qian, it could safely be reclassified as eliminating evil and protecting the innocent.
The two of them had gone up the mountain to bare their hearts and confess their feelings, leaving their host hanging where he stood. Yet Duan Qian not only dared not lose his temper, he had to continue entertaining everyone else with a pleasant face, good food, and good wine. One could imagine how much resentment he was swallowing.
Several consecutive days of clear weather had baked the earth. Even at night, residual heat remained trapped in the ground, and the breeze carried only waves of muggy warmth, making everyone increasingly irritable.
That was when news came that Xi Mo Ya had entered the city.
Half of Duan Qian’s heart immediately went cold.
In his original plan, he naturally hoped to finish laying everything out before Xi Mo Ya arrived, clean up afterward, then leave gracefully with Meng Chun Qiu. The City of Ten Thousand Beasts would arrive to find nothing, and even an investigation after the fact would lead nowhere.
But one wrong step led to every step going wrong.
Duan Qian’s head throbbed.
First, he had miscalculated how much the refugees would slow Pei Yuan Jin’s group. Second, he had not expected Wu Xuan Yin to suddenly appear halfway through. Most importantly of all, the lookouts he had sent out had somehow failed to spot Xi Mo Ya’s approach.
Now they had to perform this entire play right beneath Xi Mo Ya’s nose. That would make the deception more convincing, but it also made everything harder. Their original plan had to be torn down and rebuilt.
He calmly ran through the possibilities.
Huayue Tower was packed with mechanisms, and every spy the City of Ten Thousand Beasts had previously sent inside had vanished without a trace. If Xi Mo Ya barged in relying only on brute courage, they would have no choice but to change plans and kill him outright, using his death as a warning to the City of Ten Thousand Beasts.
If Xi Mo Ya did not attack Huayue Tower immediately, then they still had hope.
Unfortunately, that hope was apparently still wandering somewhere unknown!
Just as Duan Qian’s patience was about to run dry and he was preparing to send people out looking, Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin finally returned, well fed and thoroughly satisfied.
Duan Qian immediately invited them to the pavilion for tea.
The man watching Xi Mo Ya’s movements had also returned. He confirmed that Xi Mo Ya had checked into an inn in the exact opposite direction from Huayue Tower and had made no further move.
Duan Qian relaxed slightly on hearing this, while becoming even more determined to accelerate their cooperation. The moment Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin sat down, he said, “This Duan offers tea to apologize to you both. I misspoke today. Young Master, Young Madam, please forgive me.”
Fu Xi Yan drank the tea.
On the way back, the two of them had analyzed this partnership. They did not know the grudge between the City of Ten Thousand Beasts and Meng Chun Qiu, but neither Duan Qian nor Tong Fang Yu was a good person. It did not matter who won or lost. Mutual destruction would be ideal.
However, since Duan Qian was willing to infiltrate the Ghostshadow Organization and had personally stepped forward to settle the refugees, his standing with them was naturally a tiny bit better than the City of Ten Thousand Beasts’. Temporary cooperation was not impossible. After all, Pei Yuan Jin’s Dao was to advance without hesitation, not to charge ahead like a one-track fool. Relying solely on the Immortal Treasury Palace to clear every parasite out of the jianghu would be a drop in the ocean. There was nothing wrong with borrowing one enemy’s strength against another.
And since the opportunity was rare, they naturally had to whack the bamboo pole as hard as possible.
Fu Xi Yan went straight to the point. “Since Young Master Duan proposed cooperation, I assume you’ve already decided what you’re putting on the table?”
Duan Qian said, “Xi Mo Ya is already in the city and time is tight, so I’ve adjusted the plan slightly. Since Xi Mo Ya has made such a conspicuous entrance, we may as well play along. When he attacks Huayue Tower, the Young Master can appear at the right moment and ‘discover’ two members of the Puppet Path. Then, together with Chief Steward Shou and Elder Yi, you can catch them all in one sweep. How does that sound?”
Fu Xi Yan smiled. “What fine calculations, Young Master Duan. That way you not only help Meng Chun Qiu fake her death and escape, you can also eliminate one of the City of Ten Thousand Beasts’ major fighters and conveniently drag all their hatred onto the Immortal Treasury Palace. Several birds with one stone. Impressive, impressive!”
Once Tong Fang Yu lost her beloved disciple, why would she still care whether Meng Chun Qiu was dead? She would be too busy wondering when this entire group of people would die instead.
Duan Qian hurriedly said, “I absolutely do not mean that! Whether Xi Mo Ya lives or dies is entirely up to the Young Master. We only want to use the chance to escape.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “The City of Ten Thousand Beasts is far away on the western frontier. Its reach cannot stretch forever. Why go to all this trouble to fake your deaths? Change your names, hide your identities, move somewhere else, and start over.”
Duan Qian smiled bitterly. “Do you think we haven’t tried? But that woman Tong Fang Yu is truly insane. For more than ten years, we’ve changed names and appearances countless times, and every time she spends endless effort and resources hunting us down again. With that kind of obsession, I’m afraid only death will make her stop.”
That could mean Tong Fang Yu’s death, or theirs.
One only had to look at Tie Rong Rong to know how mad people of the Puppet Path could become. Tong Fang Yu seemed slightly more reasonable than Tie Rong Rong, at least because her brain was not very good and therefore did not think too much. Fu Xi Yan was curious what exactly they had done to make her this relentless.
Duan Qian said, “To tell you the truth, Meng Chun Qiu is actually Jin Yuan Xiu, Mo Xiao Ran’s final disciple and Tong Fang Yu’s junior martial sister.”
Crack.
Fu Xi Yan heard the sound of his own jaw hitting the ground.
What was this? Was he about to have a family reunion in Jiyang County?
He took a sip of tea to suppress the shock, his mind spinning rapidly. If his mother was running Huayue Tower in Jiyang County…
His mother was running Huayue Tower in Jiyang County?
His mother would rather operate a brothel in Southern Yu than come back to see him or even send him a message?
Fu Xi Yan’s emotions became an absolute mess.
Pei Yuan Jin saw the impact this had dealt him and took over the questioning. “Then what is your relationship with her?”
Duan Qian said, “I’m her adopted son.”
As he spoke, he took out three booklets. “I don’t know where the Young Madam learned Puppet Arts, but my foster mother was Mo Xiao Ran’s direct disciple, so what she passed down is naturally the most orthodox lineage. These three books are Introduction to the Puppet Arts, Intermediate Puppet Arts, and Mastery of the Puppet Arts. If you wish to advance further, you can use them as references.”
He had seen Fu Xi Yan use his little blood-primed swords and therefore assumed he possessed only Introduction to the Puppet Arts. In truth, the latter two books contained the essence of Puppet Arts and the true inheritance of the lineage. This gift could hardly be called small.
And they were exactly what Fu Xi Yan wanted.
The reason he had dared practice Introduction to the Puppet Arts in the first place was because he had a Gu inside him and considered himself practically indestructible. Even if Mo Xiao Ran had tampered with the manual, Fu Xi Yan believed he could turn danger into safety.
Only after reading the comprehensive jianghu record Jin Yuan Xiu had left behind did he learn that the Gu inside him was also Mo Xiao Ran’s handiwork. That had left him deeply uneasy. If it was Mo Xiao Ran’s Gu, then Mo Xiao Ran could naturally break it if he wished. For a while, Fu Xi Yan had hesitated over whether to keep practicing Puppet Arts at all. It was only after nothing seemed wrong with his body, while the techniques continued proving genuinely useful, that he started practicing again.
Later, Mo Xiao Ran had given him Intermediate Puppet Arts as well. Fu Xi Yan said nothing aloud, but his guard had risen even higher.
Duan Qian’s manuals were exactly what he needed for comparison.
Meng Chun Qiu and Duan Qian had practiced from these books for so long and were still alive and kicking, so the manuals were probably clean. If Duan Qian had altered them afterward, Fu Xi Yan could compare them with the version Mo Xiao Ran had given him. He refused to believe two different people would just happen to tamper with the exact same places!
Seeing Fu Xi Yan accept them, Duan Qian relaxed and was about to return to discussing the plan when Fu Xi Yan also pulled out a copy of Intermediate Puppet Arts. “Hm? What a coincidence. I have one too. They seem to be the same.”
Duan Qian’s smile stiffened slightly. “I also have Mastery of the Puppet Arts…”
Fu Xi Yan said, “My master said I have to finish learning Intermediate Puppet Arts before I get the final volume.”
Duan Qian asked cautiously, “May I ask who your master is…?”
Fu Xi Yan put a finger to his lips. “Can’t say.”
Since Fu Xi Yan’s Puppet Arts were not particularly advanced, Duan Qian had always assumed that after Tie Rong Rong died, Fu Xi Yan had obtained Introduction to the Puppet Arts from her and taught himself. After all, everyone knew Tie Rong Rong had died near Fu Xi Yan’s cell in the Ministry of Justice prison.
But if Fu Xi Yan could produce Intermediate Puppet Arts and even had a master, that theory no longer held.
There were only so many people in the Puppet Path. Excluding Tie Rong Rong, who was definitely dead, that left Tong Fang Yu, Yin Fei Yu, and Jin Yuan Xiu. Duan Qian directly ignored Mo Xiao Ran. He did not belong in the same category. Of the remaining three, Tong Fang Yu was the City Lord of Ten Thousand Beasts, and the Immortal Treasury Palace presumably would not allow its own Young Madam to have dealings with her. That left Yin Fei Yu and Jin Yuan Xiu.
Duan Qian’s face shifted through several colors. He wrestled with himself for a long time, trying to find some sign of probing in Fu Xi Yan’s expression, but Fu Xi Yan simply smiled at him from beginning to end, looking as though everything was already within his grasp. In the end, Duan Qian admitted defeat.
He lowered his head and sighed. “This Duan thought himself clever.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Oh?”
Duan Qian said, “My foster mother is Yin Fei Yu.”
Fu Xi Yan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. So it really is Yin Fei Yu. Thank goodness it’s Yin Fei Yu, or I’d have to start calling Duan Qian my brother. Thinking carefully, though, the fact that Meng Chun Qiu was Yin Fei Yu was not strange at all.
Back then, Yin Fei Yu had run away with a disciple of the Southern Ridge Sect. The two fled together to Southern Yu, and only a few years later a “Mantis Poison Woman” named Guan Shan Mei appeared. That matched Duan Qian’s story about repeatedly hiding under new names and appearances.
Tong Fang Yu’s hatred and obsession toward Yin Fei Yu also made sense now. Fu Xi Yan remembered that she had once called Meng Chun Qiu a “traitor.” The Puppet Path had been doomed sooner or later under the righteous sects’ campaign against it, but as the first disciple to flee, Yin Fei Yu would naturally have drawn the full force of everyone’s resentment.
He also remembered Aunt Yu once saying that among the Puppet Path disciples, third disciple Yin Fei Yu and fourth disciple Jin Yuan Xiu had been especially close. If Fu Xi Yan wanted information about his mother, Yin Fei Yu was therefore an excellent lead.
Seeing him remain silent for so long, Duan Qian’s heart twitched. He took out a palm-sized iron box from his robe and placed it on the table. After hesitating with obvious pain, he finally pushed it toward Fu Xi Yan.
Fu Xi Yan asked, “What is this?” Even as he spoke, he opened it without the slightest courtesy.
Since the item had already been given away, Duan Qian did not bother putting on airs. “This is a Heaven-grade spiritual artifact. It has not yet been named.”
Before he even finished speaking, Fu Xi Yan activated the Object-Commanding Art. Three little arrows, each about the length of a middle finger, rose smoothly from the box at his will. The entire process was effortless, without the sluggishness and awkward delay he usually felt when commanding other objects.
He tried sending one of the arrows into a decorative rock. It passed cleanly through, circled the courtyard once, then returned and came to a steady stop above the box.
His mind kept chanting, Hold it in, hold it in. Don’t let him see how you feel. But true delight could not be hidden. Every corner of his face was practically announcing, I LOVE THIS THING!
What did it mean for someone to deliver a pillow the instant you grew sleepy? He had just been thinking about replacing his destroyed little swords, and now a Heaven-grade spiritual artifact had landed in his hands. Did Duan Qian have a secret second occupation as Santa Claus?
One look at Fu Xi Yan’s expression told Duan Qian that the deal was as good as done.
Fu Xi Yan returned the arrows to the box, rested his hand on the lid, and looked at him with shining eyes. “I have one more condition.”
Duan Qian’s face immediately darkened. He had already contributed a Heaven-grade spiritual artifact that had cost him ten years of effort to forge. There were still conditions? Wasn’t this pushing his luck a little too far?
Fu Xi Yan said, “I want to meet Yin Fei Yu.”
Duan Qian was silent for a moment. “I’ll ask her.”
After working through all the possibilities, Duan Qian had guessed that the master behind Fu Xi Yan was probably Jin Yuan Xiu. Knowing that his earlier lie had most likely been exposed, and fearing Fu Xi Yan would become furious because of it, he had been forced to admit his foster mother’s true identity and had even offered that lavish gift as compensation.
Naturally, he had heard from his foster mother about the friendship between Yin Fei Yu and Jin Yuan Xiu. Even if Fu Xi Yan had not asked, he had intended to ask her whether she wanted to meet him.
Fu Xi Yan believed that if Yin Fei Yu really had been close to his mother, she would probably agree to see him.
Because Xi Mo Ya was in the city, Duan Qian did not dare act too openly. Even the man he sent to Huayue Tower was the sort of regular customer who frequented places of pleasure. The man stayed at Huayue Tower for one night and soon brought back a response.
Yin Fei Yu said she would meet him, but not in Jiyang County.
The meaning was clear. The meeting would count as the final payment for the deal. Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin first had to finish the play and fool Xi Mo Ya before she would deliver it.
With that, Fu Xi Yan naturally became much more enthusiastic.
He took the initiative to discuss it with Pei Yuan Jin. “A day has passed and Xi Mo Ya still hasn’t moved. I wonder if he’s waiting for reinforcements. Should we find a way to probe him?”
Normally the Immortal Treasury Palace’s Wind Division could have supplied information, but before Pei Yuan Jin led everyone out of Lin’an, he had ordered Shen Bo You to pass down instructions for every branch to move underground, break into smaller units, and avoid showing themselves for the time being, lest the Spirit Sect persecute them after its relationship with the Immortal Treasury Palace deteriorated.
So here in Southern Yu, they were practically blind with their eyes wide open.
Pei Yuan Jin asked, “How do you intend to probe him?”
Fu Xi Yan pulled a token from his robe. “Lord Xuanwu hears that the eldest senior brother of the City of Ten Thousand Beasts has arrived and secretly goes to pay him a visit. Perfectly reasonable, isn’t it?”
Pei Yuan Jin’s tightly furrowed brows told him that no, it was not reasonable in the slightest.
Fu Xi Yan said, “Tong Fang Yu assigned me the task of eliminating Meng Chun Qiu before. Since I’m already here, I can’t do absolutely nothing. I’ll go to Xi Mo Ya, discuss it with him, feel out his plans, and see how he intends to proceed. If it works, I can simply take over the mission and act personally. Then, in Tong Fang Yu’s eyes, I’ll be the good martial nephew who bravely takes responsibility and completes his assignment. In Yin Fei Yu’s eyes, I’ll also be the good martial nephew who bravely takes responsibility and completes his assignment. One fish, two meals. One arrow, two birds. One stone, two birds… perfect!”
By the end, he was practically vibrating with excitement.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Xi Mo Ya is vicious by nature and difficult to deal with.”
Fu Xi Yan grinned shamelessly. “You’re my sweetheart, not him. What does it matter to me whether he’s easy to deal with?”
Pei Yuan Jin: “…”
Ever since their heart-to-heart on Taozhu Mountain, Fu Xi Yan’s skin seemed to have acquired a protective coating. It did not look thick, but it was remarkably durable.
Fu Xi Yan rubbed his chin. “Still, I need to find a chance to slip out. The Immortal Treasury Palace and the City of Ten Thousand Beasts are mortal enemies. As a spy planted by the City of Ten Thousand Beasts, I must conduct myself with appropriate caution.”
Pei Yuan Jin asked, “What do you plan to do?”
Young Master Jin personally visited the settled refugees and delivered the donated grain into their hands. When the Jiyang County magistrate heard of it, he naturally publicized the young master’s benevolence far and wide. The more charitable people received praise, the more others would follow their example.
The refugees had been brought out of the mountains by the Immortal Treasury Palace, so naturally they could not simply wash their hands of them. Pei Yuan Jin had to go.
Fu Xi Yan had originally been included as well, but just before departure he suddenly “felt unwell” and had no choice but to remain at the residence to rest.
Once the inspection party had left the county town, Fu Xi Yan changed into the clothes of a household servant, slipped out through the back gate, and followed quiet side streets to the inn where Xi Mo Ya was staying.
It was just past noon and the sun was blazing. Everyone at the inn looked drowsy. When he asked for the room number, no one even bothered to lead him there. The innkeeper merely pointed lazily in one direction and told him to find it himself.
After searching for quite a while, Fu Xi Yan finally found the last room at the end of the corridor.