After all the physical work was done and they stayed long enough to eat dinner, Qin Shu did not linger.
They had slipped out that afternoon. If Teacher Ouyang happened to conduct a random dorm inspection and discovered something wrong, they could end up in the tragic situation of someone trying to call their families only to find that not a single phone call would connect.
The white dragon had eaten until its belly was round too. Later, Granny A-Shu had even gotten out of bed personally to cook it an extra meal, allowing the white dragon to enjoy an unprecedented feast of gu insects… mm, basically the same treatment as Yuanbao.
It had eaten so much protein that it seemed dazed. On the return trip, it could not even be bothered to accelerate, carrying the two of them through the night sky at a leisurely crawl.
Neither of them urged it on. Qin Shu and Pei Zhao lay lazily across the white dragon’s broad back, saying nothing and staring blankly into space.
Exhausted. Qin Shu was half-dead from fatigue, and even Pei Zhao had not spent such a long stretch of time maintaining complete, full-body concentration in quite a while. After all, he had been cutting into living people, and using dragon bone. One mistake would have caused irreversible consequences.
Chen Li Chi’s original plan had also involved replacing bones with dragon bone, but not with that of a true dragon, much less a Dragon King. The original material was supposed to be from Qiuniu, the Dragon King’s eldest son, a version several levels lower. Looking back now, that plan had actually made considerable sense.
First, there might not be any consciousness remaining inside Qiuniu’s remains, which made the material far safer and more stable. Even if the bones had been preserved in such an unusually stable protective environment that their abundant vitality eventually developed into some form of awareness, that awareness would not have become an arrogant, furious dragon spirit unwilling to submit beneath another.
Qiuniu was mild-tempered. He had always been friendly toward humans. His nature was the kind more inclined to give than to demand. That was completely different from the white dragon’s father, an aristocrat who had accepted living sacrifices a thousand years ago.
More importantly, finding someone willing to perform the operation would be extremely difficult. If they used Qiuniu’s remains, Qin Shu himself could probably pick up the knife and still have a decent chance of success. But using the bones of a Dragon King directly, especially when said Dragon King was still perfectly alive, was another matter. The owner could naturally sense what was being done with his bones.
No doctor, no matter how skilled, would casually take that risk. If the Dragon King came back to settle accounts with them later, they could lose their life over it. Other than Pei Zhao, there was probably no one in the world bold enough to do something this outrageous.
Only afterward did Qin Shu gradually begin to understand all these complications. He suddenly realized just how rare and absurdly audacious what they had done really was. They had not saved just one person. They had replaced the bones of three living people in a single stretch, and A-Dou too, a completely ordinary, nameless corpse from the jianghu.
“We really did something ridiculous today,” Qin Shu muttered. “If word of this ever got out, people would probably die of shock.”
“Mm. Indeed. If anyone found out, our reputation would probably end up about the same as Zuo Zhe’s: lawless lunatics who will use any means necessary and waste resources with extravagant abandon.” Pei Zhao raised an eyebrow.
“Hahaha… ow. Ow, ow, ow!”
Qin Shu laughed only a few times before hissing in pain. The internal injuries he had received while the dragon spirit struggled had not fully healed. Whenever he laughed too hard, his ribs ached, so naturally he seized the opportunity to collapse weakly into Pei Zhao’s arms and enjoy being comforted.
The white dragon rolled its eyes. It was not laughing.
Its snow-white body moved silently beneath the moonlight, crossing the skies above the Nine Provinces, leaving warm, humid Yun City behind and heading back toward Jing City.
The two of them rested against one another with half-closed eyes. They felt the air gradually become colder and drier. Even the clouds they passed through seemed to carry a colder, harder tone. Qin Shu exhaled a puff of white mist, then turned and wrapped Pei Zhao’s scarf properly around him again. Without saying anything, he slipped his own hand into the scarf at Pei Zhao’s neck, warming himself against the soft cashmere while kneading and squeezing idly.
It should have been a perfect night.
Until the white dragon suddenly stopped midair, its head snapping around. “Something’s wrong!”
It did not even need to warn him. Qin Shu had already sensed it. Without hesitation, he tightened one hand around the dragon’s horn. His other hand was still tangled in Pei Zhao’s scarf, though he was careful not to pull too hard in case he tore it.
“There’s a pull… it’s the transport pearl!”
The strange sensation came from every direction around them. Some invisible force field seemed to collapse inward like falling walls, closing around Qin Shu from all sides. And the source of the pull was actually on Pei Zhao.
Qin Shu only looked confused for a moment before realization hit him. Pei Zhao lightly raised his hand, and a smooth, round black pearl sprang out of his storage space, glowing with dim light, then flew directly toward Qin Shu.
The moment it found a viable target, the eerie light around the pearl erupted. The surrounding air twisted and distorted under its pull, while a sensation of weightlessness slammed into Qin Shu’s already injured chest and lungs like a heavy blow.
“How is even that old clam’s pearl out to get me?!”
That was all Qin Shu managed to shout before his vision went black. His hands never moved. One still gripped the dragon horn, the other still clutched Pei Zhao’s scarf, as he allowed the black pearl’s downward force to drag him into the abyss.
When he opened his eyes again, everything was strangely peaceful. There was none of the violent impact he had expected, none of the familiar earth-shaking roar, only the elegant, winding music of strings.
Qin Shu was standing in the middle of a group of ox yao and horse yao, all nearly nine feet tall. Behind him stood a hunchbacked turtle only about three heads taller than he was, while in front of him was a blue-shelled prawn holding its chest high.
At a banquet dominated by yao cultivators, no one would voluntarily transform into human shape before officially taking their seat. Naturally, everyone wanted to display the martial splendor of their own clan first.
Any yao cultivator who had qualified to attend the birthday banquet, especially those gathered around Qin Shu in the guard contingent, more or less carried an additional duty to “display the might of the clan.” Body size, the glossy shine of fur or scales, even the density of yao qi they gave off: all of it counted.
…Except, of course, for Qin Shu, who currently possessed only human form.
Squeezed among this collection of strange-looking yao cultivators, he resembled a small hairless cat. The black pearl protected him from the water, but that did not stop the thick fur of several black bear spirits in front of him from nearly suffocating him.
Naturally, everyone also looked at Qin Shu strangely.
This guard recruitment had been entirely based on contests of strength and physique: arm wrestling, dueling, wrestling, and similarly crude methods. Human cultivators had been in decline for many years, and body cultivators were even rarer. The yao had absolutely no idea what bizarre method this tiny human could possibly have used to get in.
Fortunately, Huang Yu Yuan was not the sort of ox yao to blindly follow the crowd. He had his own aesthetic standards, and as one of Dragon Mother’s relatives, he also had absolutely no need to put on a performance for appearances.
Black hair, golden crown, a fitted black robe, bound sleeves, tall boots, and a mild, elegant smile: he stood there with effortless grace. At one glance, he looked exactly like someone who had gotten in through connections, and wherever he went, people automatically made way.
Huang Yu Yuan was actively searching for Qin Shu. His gaze swept calmly across the gathered guards and soon landed precisely on the far-too-conspicuous Qin Shu. The smile on his face immediately grew warmer. “Little Brother Qin.”
Qin Shu answered at once. He squeezed through the path the surrounding yao quietly opened and took his place beside Huang Yu Yuan as though nothing were unusual, smiling. “Brother A-Yuan. Long time no see.”
The moment the yao heard how familiarly he spoke, the looks they gave Qin Shu relaxed considerably. Qin Shu could practically hear what they were whispering in their heads: So that’s it. Nothing strange, then. Another one who got in through connections.
This was a good thing. It meant almost no one here knew who Qin Shu really was. It also meant Dragon Mother was bold enough that, even after their “unpleasantness,” she had still not exposed Qin Shu to the wider yao community. Instead, she had allowed him to obtain a perfectly legitimate identity.
A guard at the birthday banquet.
Even the lowest-ranking guard, useful only for carrying things and doing errands, had far more freedom than an ordinary guest. He had excuses to move around and was no longer confined to the lavish banquet hall.
Even their current arrival point was somewhere ordinary guests could never freely enter.
The kitchens.
More precisely, an open clearing outside the storeroom beside the kitchens. Wet yellow riverbed mud lay beneath their feet. The aquatic plants had been removed in advance, leaving the ground smooth and level.
The clatter of pots and ladles came from nearby, as did the furious shouts of head cooks. The aromas of steamed, roasted, fried, and boiled dishes blended together into something like the scent of an enormous communal meal, flowing through the still river water and circulating with the spiritual-energy formations.
Qin Shu had no time to be surprised, not by the sudden timing of the birthday banquet and not by the fact that he and Pei Zhao had been forcibly separated. On someone else’s territory, there were thoughts he could not even afford to think too freely.
He kept his expression completely normal. In the negligible pressure of the riverbed, he rapidly adjusted his body, breathing rhythm, and breathing frequency. Pretending to inspect the strange black pearl in his hand, he waited until he and Huang Yu Yuan were close enough.
“Little Brother Qin, this is your identification.” Huang Yu Yuan spoke quietly and handed him a wooden token carved with the character “Qin.” “Keep it on you at all times. There are formations throughout the Dragon Palace. Guests without permission may only remain in the main hall and enjoy the banquet. With this token, the formations will identify your status and allow passage. If there is anything you don’t understand, ask me at any time.”
“…What an aggressively old-fashioned temporary ID. It’s fine. I’ve used these before.” Qin Shu raised an eyebrow and casually tied the token to his waist.
To be fair, this wooden token was actually slightly more advanced than the one he had used in Fengdu back then. It was made from ship timber darkened and polished by river water, solid, heavy, and substantial in the hand. Each of the four corners had been wrapped in smoothly polished brass, with simple decorative patterns worked into it. Under the clear river water, illuminated by luminous pearls and colored gemstones, it even looked rather mysterious.
“The banquet hasn’t officially begun yet. The main hall is still hosting musical performances. According to the usual sequence, the next part belongs to the generals, mountain lords, and great yao kings from various regions. They’ll personally toast Her Ladyship, present birthday gifts, exchange pleasantries, then bring out a few talented juniors to perform. If one of them catches Her Ladyship’s eye, they may gain an opportunity…”
Huang Yu Yuan continued quietly, carefully sharing what he remembered from previous birthday banquets. His tone carried no personal emotion. Whenever he referred to Dragon Mother, his solemn, measured manner sounded exactly like that of every other yao cultivator who revered her.
During a pause in their conversation, several bold young idiots even tried to listen in and learn from Senior A-Yuan’s experience. They stuck their enormous heads closer with zero subtlety at all, seemingly entirely unaware of the size difference.
It looked less like eavesdropping and more like a group encirclement.
Exactly what Qin Shu wanted. Everyone thought they were listening to Huang Yu Yuan’s “senior experience,” which meant no one noticed the two of them communicating privately through voice transmission.
“Boss Lin didn’t come with you?”
“No. His transport pearl… is in Fellow Daoist Liu’s hands. I could only secure one additional pearl. Giving it to Fellow Daoist Liu was probably for the best. If Shi Yu doesn’t come, he’ll be safer.”
When Huang Yu Yuan mentioned the earlier incident, shame still colored his voice, but he forcibly suppressed the apologetic expression that wanted to surface and kept his face perfectly normal.
“Do you know where Liu Yang Yang is right now?” Qin Shu thought for a moment. “He’s a rough sort. If he gets lost in the Dragon Palace, he might accidentally alert someone. I need to find him quickly.”
“For the moment… he should be fine. There’s been no disturbance from the main hall. That means Fellow Daoist Liu has likely been properly settled and hasn’t attracted attention. The transport pearl in his possession should have sent him to the guest seating allocated to my clan. I warned my relatives beforehand. They’ll keep an eye on him.”
Good. With insiders there to receive him, Liu Yang Yang could at least have the situation and rules explained properly before he panicked and ruined everything.
Qin Shu relaxed slightly. He remembered the honest old yellow ox he had first met in the ghost market, standing beside the road eating grass, and could not resist asking one more question. “Your maternal uncle… does he know about all of this?”
“My maternal uncle knows that you and Shi Yu’s master joined forces to summon Nüwa and successfully had your wish granted.”
Huang Yu Yuan paused. He did not answer the question directly. Instead, he revealed an unusually smug little smile. “Being able to summon Nüwa means everything else no longer matters. Thank you, Little Brother Qin. I don’t need to waste any more words persuading him.”
He had said nothing, and yet he had said everything. Dragon Mother was no longer the ox yao clan’s highest priority.
Maintaining good relations with a relative who had given birth to the eldest dragon son was the sort of golden connection no clan could easily afford to lose.
But that dragon son was already dead, and the Dragon Kings had all disappeared. Everyone in the yao world knew these facts. They simply did not dare speak of them.
Dragon Mother’s current influence and followers did not come from herself. They came from dragons, from the underlying logic that bloodline ruled everything. To the yao, almost nothing outside the dragon race itself could be worth following more than a mother who had birthed dragon blood.
Except Nüwa. No, Nüwa could crush every metric of bloodline and heredity by herself. Her name alone could become an entirely new standard.
“Good. Then we behave ourselves and work for now?” Qin Shu transmitted. “My identification token definitely won’t get me into the sleeping quarters. Pei Zhao and the white dragon have the easiest time entering and leaving the Dragon Palace, and they don’t need transport pearls either. I should have dragged both of them in with me, but we were separated halfway. I can’t actively search for them. I need to wait until they find me first.”
“All right. The guard duties are very simple. Little Brother Qin should be able to handle them easily. Just follow Lady Ma’s orders. She is tonight’s guard commander. I’ll go ask my maternal uncle immediately whether there are any weaknesses in the Dragon Palace we can exploit.”
Huang Yu Yuan ended the voice transmission, then lightly patted Qin Shu on the back and smiled. “During the music performances, the banquet serves appetizers. They’re all specialties from the Four Seas, very delicately made. Before the song and dance begin, I’ll ask my maternal uncle for several plates so Little Brother Qin can have a taste too. I’ll be right back.”
The moment he finished speaking, Qin Shu heard an enormous gulp behind him, followed by a clearly audible growl from the stomach of a snow-white horse.
Huang Yu Yuan departed in flawless elegance.
Qin Shu slowly turned around. Several embarrassed yet curious ox and horse heads were staring back at him. A black bear spirit sat on the ground pretending to groom the fur around its ears, while a young tiger hid behind the white horse, pretending not to exist.
Of course, not every yao cared. The turtle and large prawn that had stood near Qin Shu earlier both gave dismissive snorts, apparently finding the others’ behavior vulgar.
The snow-white horse whipped its head around. “Who’s making those noises? Step forward for your Grandpa Horse!”
The prawn immediately lost its temper. “As if I’d ever lower myself to associate with a bunch of land-walking vulgar creatures like you. Filthy. Stinking. Great furry lumps covered in slime. And you’re still dreaming about eating the guests’ appetizers? Did you see Yu Yuan offer any to you? Tsk. You smell awful. When was the last time you bathed?”
“Hey! You damn mantis shrimp! You looking to die?!”
Qin Shu: …
So yao cultivators had severe regional prejudice and exclusion problems too. Educational.
Seeing a fight about to break out, he silently reduced his presence and edged toward the corner of the group, hiding behind a black ox with an honest-looking face.
The black ox seemed to be some distant relative of Huang Yu Yuan’s. It gave a low moo, gently nudged Qin Shu with its head, then stepped heavily forward and shielded him behind its body.
Honestly, Qin Shu had assumed that with the birthday banquet so close, these idiots would merely exchange threats and shove each other around a little. He had not expected them to actually start fighting. The prawn grabbed the old turtle and used it as a shield, while the snow-white horse spun around, lifted its hind legs, and began kicking violently. Several delighted spectators were sent flying as well.
Fortunately, fighting underwater was inconvenient. Everyone caught by the impact simply flew backward without suffering serious injuries, then swam back to continue watching.
Qin Shu watched too. He was not especially familiar with yao cultivators, so this was a perfect chance for last-minute study. Their fighting styles, for example… mm. Conclusion: chickens pecking each other.
Aside from brute strength, they had essentially no lethal technique. Bloodline suppression alone was enough.
The blue prawn was probably the descendant of some low-ranking Dragon Palace official. It had at least learned a little actual combat technique. Even so, as the fight continued, the white horse steadily gained the upper hand, because at roughly equal cultivation levels the horse simply had the better bloodline. The pressure it naturally emitted could suppress both its opponent’s performance and morale.
No wonder yao cultivators cared so much about bloodline. If simple bloodline pressure could stop someone from fully using their spells, the battle was already half won.
Just as victory was about to be decided, a cold female voice rang out from behind the crowd. “Stop.”
The snow-white horse’s raised front hoof froze midair. It did not dare kick down. The blue prawn trembled as well and slowly set the old turtle back on the ground.
The turtle had already pulled completely inside its shell and began playing dead immediately.
Qin Shu recognized the speaker from the voice alone. The reaction from the surrounding yao confirmed it: guard commander, Lady Ma.
Not just the three troublemakers. Even the black ox shielding Qin Shu quietly tightened its hide and lowered its head guiltily. It had done nothing wrong and still looked afraid of being beaten.
Because Lady Ma’s management method was simple: beat every troublemaker until they behaved.
A moment later, rhythmic thuds and miserable howls echoed continuously through the water. Hidden behind the black ox, Qin Shu enjoyed an extremely satisfying demonstration of one woman beating the hell out of several yao.
Lady Ma had clearly trained properly, and her cultivation was obviously not low. Horse head, human body, iron armor: aside from the enormous horse head, she was actually slightly smaller than Qin Shu.
And that compact build translated into extreme agility, precision, and explosive power. Without even seeming to exert herself, she dislocated all four legs of the white horse, bent the prawn over until it looked like an elderly man, then pried the old turtle’s head out of its shell and slapped it more than ten times.
“Behave yourselves! What kind of disgraceful racket is this? Do you think tonight is some ordinary feast on your mountain?! This banquet has guests from outside the yao clans too!”
Lady Ma’s voice remained loud and powerful even after all that exertion. Then she grabbed the blue prawn, which had curled itself into a ball, with one hand. “You. Especially you, Qing Lao’er! You were born in the Dragon Palace. Part of Her Ladyship’s face is reflected in you. What? Are you trying to humiliate Her Ladyship in front of every cultivator under Heaven on such an important night?!”
In comparison, Qing Lao’er could barely speak. A large section of its chest shell had cracked, and it whimpered while being shaken around, completely winded.
Qin Shu slowly raised an eyebrow. Inside his head, he assigned Lady Ma an immediate classification.
Loyal. Dangerous.
He did not approach, did not try to chat, and did not attempt to make himself memorable. Lady Ma would never quickly develop a good impression of a “human cultivator.” At most, she would tolerate Qin Shu moving freely as long as he obeyed the rules.
Their plans for Dragon Mother’s birthday banquet involved a lot.
Treasures, artifacts, remains, killing Dragon Mother, containing the pollution issue… all of those were part of the objective.
But the primary goal, the central plan, was still to retrieve Liang Ming Yue’s child.
Until that child was safely out, Qin Shu could not attract unnecessary attention.
So he obediently remained with the main group. Along with the gloomy, thoroughly scolded yao guards, he began helping carry the birthday gifts brought by various guests.
This was also an excellent opportunity to gather information. After all, not everyone had been dragged into the depths of the Dragon Palace without warning like Qin Shu. The Nine Provinces were vast, the country was enormous, and there were more than ten yao cultivators powerful enough to call themselves some sort of great general.
Some human cultivators friendly with Dragon Mother were also qualified to arrive leisurely with gifts. A few had even brought human servants along specifically to watch over the offerings.
Naturally, Qin Shu was assigned to carry the human gifts. The boxes were lighter, as Lady Ma had snorted, “At least they won’t crush that tiny frame of yours into shrimp paste.”
Less manual labor suited Qin Shu perfectly. He looked toward several cloth-robed servants who had their noses practically pointed at the sky.
With great interest, he said, “Mm… Real Person Lingxiao’s gift list. Please allow me to verify it.”