This place was bitterly cold and often buried beneath heavy snow. Even the sturdiest house required frequent repairs.
After the house Qian Xuelang had lived in decades ago collapsed beneath the weight of the snow, he simply abandoned it and found an ice-and-stone snow cave elsewhere among the mountains where he could cultivate in seclusion. He had never moved since.
The two followed Qian Xuelang into the cave. Feng Yinming was long accustomed to it, but Ren Yijue found everything novel and could not help looking around.
This ice-and-stone snow cave had been shaped by nature itself. Its interior resembled a giant egg, broad and spacious.
The walls were formed from interwoven rock and ice. It was impossible to tell whether the stone had carved into the ice or the ice had polished the stone. Dark-blue crystals glimmered faintly across the walls, brightening and dimming by turns like rippling water. It was quite a remarkable sight.
The cave was almost completely empty. At its center sat a half-green, half-yellow meditation cushion woven from some unknown spiritual grass. It was not only the cave’s sole furnishing, but also the only thing in it of any value.
Other than that, there was nothing at all. There was not even a rack for Honglu.
Qian Xuelang casually set Honglu aside, leaving the scarlet saber leaning alone against the stone wall. There was nothing in the cave with which to entertain guests, yet he did not find this awkward in the least. He merely said, “Please, sit.”
Ren Yijue: “…”
Feng Yinming: “…”
Sit where, exactly?
On that smooth stone bed? Were the three of them supposed to fight over the single tiny cushion? Or should they follow the customs of the ancients and sit directly on the ground?
Qian Xuelang followed their gazes downward and finally understood. After thinking for a moment, he seemed about to say something, but ultimately said nothing. He simply stood there with perfect composure and turned his gaze toward Feng Yinming.
He never entertained outsiders here. Since the guests had chosen to come of their own accord, naturally the guests ought to make their own preparations.
Ren Yijue had no doubt that if Feng Yinming also failed to come up with a solution, Qian Xuelang would probably say, “Please, stand.”
Entrusted with this important task, Feng Yinming could only heave a heavy sigh. “The serious matter ought to come first, but right now we can only deal with the most important matter of all. You two wait here for me.”
He took an object about the size of a weaving shuttle from his sleeve and walked outside.
Feng Yinming possessed a spiritual artifact in the form of a traveling boat called Mochengfu. He had refined it for ordinary sightseeing and travel, and also for fleeing with his life when necessary. Whether crossing clouds or waters, it had always carried him wherever he wished to go.
A boat could carry people, and naturally it could carry cargo as well. It was therefore useful for storing everyday necessities.
Mochengfu might not be a marketplace stocked with every imaginable good, but compared with Qian Xuelang’s snow cave, it had practically everything.
Before long, a little warmth filled the cave. A black stove glowed with red coals and sent thin white smoke curling upward as it warmed a pot of wine. A low tea table had been set out with three cups and three plates of pastries. There were, of course, now three meditation cushions as well.
After drinking a cup of warm wine, Feng Yinming felt not only warmth return to his body, but apparently some courage as well. He poured himself another cup, breathed in the sweet, intoxicating fragrance, and finally spoke.
He watched the ripples in the wine. “We’ve known each other all these years, and I have never once asked you for anything, have I?”
Feng Yinming spoke with unmistakable solemnity. Given the closeness between them, the formality even sounded somewhat distant.
Qian Xuelang did not drink. “Not once. Unless making a mess of my snow cave counts. In that case, there have been several.”
Ren Yijue very nearly laughed aloud.
Even Feng Yinming’s face twisted for a moment. He desperately wanted to be angry, yet could not stop himself from laughing. In the end, he could only say helplessly, “Xuelang, I’m trying to discuss something serious with you.”
Qian Xuelang frowned. “I wasn’t joking.”
Feng Yinming fell silent for a moment, then shook his head and continued. “You know I have always treasured you as a friend. I would never force you to do something you don’t wish to do. I want you to understand that this was true before, and it is still true now.”
By this point, anyone could hear how difficult the next words were for him to say. Qian Xuelang had always been direct. “Other than Ren Yijue, what else do you want me to do?”
Feng Yinming never spoke the words, but his eyes had already drifted toward the sickly Ren Yijue, and guilt surfaced in them.
People rich in feeling always had this troublesome habit. They hoped everything could be handled more smoothly and gracefully, so they could not help spending endless effort finding a more cautious and proper way to speak.
He had yet to decide how to phrase it, but his heart had already revealed what he meant. Yet he truly could not explain the reason in full.
Ren Yijue had already guessed what Feng Yinming was thinking and smiled faintly. “I think it is precisely the opposite. Mister Feng hopes there is something you will not do.”
“Since he truly cannot bring himself to say it,” Qian Xuelang said indifferently, “then you say it.”
How could someone else speak in his place? Feng Yinming hurriedly said, “Wait. I’ll say it myself.”
Despite saying so, Feng Yinming still could not get straight to the point. Instead, he drank another two cups before carefully explaining the circumstances from the beginning.
“Three months ago, Little Yuntao was ambushed by demonkin… Ah, I just remembered. You still don’t know who Little Yuntao is…”
Qian Xuelang said, “The top disciple in the Zhaoying Sword Sect’s disciple sword trials for the past ten years, Xiao Beisheng’s first disciple, He Yuntao.”
The Zhaoying Sword Sect had existed for at least a thousand years and produced many exceptionally powerful sword cultivators. Qian Xuelang was hardly so ignorant that he knew nothing about it.
At the time, however, he had only heard the name in passing.
What truly made He Yuntao memorable to Qian Xuelang was that he had seen him in the Heavenly Mandate.
At that thought, Qian Xuelang glanced toward Ren Yijue. Seeing the other man lowering his head to drink wine without any reaction, he withdrew his gaze.
“Huh?” Feng Yinming was surprised. “How do you know that? Mm… you fought Xiao Beisheng when you were young. Don’t tell me Xiao Beisheng climbed this mountain too?”
Qian Xuelang: “…”
Feng Yinming took one look at his face and realized the problem. “Ah! That wasn’t funny, was it?”
Qian Xuelang said flatly, “The matter at hand.”
“Really, you have no patience at all. We haven’t seen each other in so long. Don’t you miss me even a little? All you do is hurry me back to serious matters.” Feng Yinming put on an injured expression. “Could it be that all that talk just now about remaining a man of feeling was meant to deceive me?”
Qian Xuelang said, “If you don’t want to say it, then don’t. However long you delay, you will still have to say it eventually.”
Ren Yijue gently swirled the wine in his cup and sighed inwardly. What a heart-piercing thing to say.
“I should have known. Becoming friends with someone like you meant accepting this fate.”
Feng Yinming let out a long sigh, abandoned his lament, then immediately turned serious. “Since you know who he is, that makes things easier. Three months ago, Little Yuntao was gravely injured. With no other choice, he took a desperate gamble and fled into Liuyanzhu.”
At this point, Feng Yinming’s expression grew even more solemn. “You know Liuyanzhu is filled with demonic miasma. Even the demonkin of today, whose bloodlines are no longer pure, cannot endure it. That was how he escaped.”
Qian Xuelang assessed the decision. “Quick-witted, but excessively dangerous.”
“Exactly. But his injuries were too severe, and his luck was terrible enough that his fellow disciples had all just withdrawn to the sect. If he hadn’t run into the kindhearted Fellow Daoist Ren, I’m afraid people would already be burning funeral incense for him.”
Ren Yijue said, “It was only a small effort.”
“Then his fellow disciples must have lifted their feet instead of their hands. They certainly ran back quickly enough.”
Feng Yinming sneered.
“In any case, the two of them escaped successfully, but Fellow Daoist Ren was badly injured in the process and demonic qi entered his body. Ordinarily, the Zhaoying Sword Sect ought to take responsibility for this. Unfortunately, He Yuntao remains unconscious, and the demonic qi inside him is even worse…”
“And I am afflicted with demonic qi while having no known background. Although the Zhaoying Sword Sect is grateful, they cannot help suspecting that Ren may have staged the whole affair. They intend to wait until Fellow Daoist He wakes before reaching any conclusions.” Ren Yijue smiled faintly. “Mister Feng happened to be visiting, so he took this troublesome matter off their hands.”
Feng Yinming opened his mouth, wanting to say a few words in defense of the Zhaoying Sword Sect, but could not find anywhere to begin.
Qian Xuelang remained calm. “These are troubled times. There is nothing strange about the Zhaoying Sword Sect being cautious. The demonic qi in Ren Yijue’s body may affect disciples with lower cultivation. And when He Yuntao met with danger, no one was there to aid him. The Zhaoying Sword Sect already has internal troubles, and no one knows when external trouble will arrive. They must have offered a perfectly proper and prudent repayment of the debt, but their arrangements were not necessarily beneficial to Ren Yijue. Is that right?”
“Exactly.” Feng Yinming said, “The best place to resist demonic qi is somewhere with the purest spiritual qi. Otherwise, someone has to use their own cultivation to suppress it for him. No matter how grateful the Zhaoying Sword Sect is, they cannot possibly let him enter the vital heartland of their sect. As for the second option, they were willing, but Fellow Daoist Ren was not.”
Everyone had secrets of their own, and one’s cultivation method was among them. Since Ren Yijue did not want anyone learning his origins, naturally he also did not want someone else freely using their own power to suppress his injuries and the demonic qi within him. There was nothing strange about that.
“My original plan was to ask you to let him stay here. Aside from protecting him from further pursuit by the demonkin, I wanted to use the spiritual qi of this place to suppress his demonic qi.”
“Your original plan?” Qian Xuelang paused. “And what do you think now?”
Feng Yinming looked at him, his expression resolute. “Your emergence from seclusion went wrong this time, and I truly am worried about your condition. So I do not want you forcing yourself on account of the friendship between us.”
After speaking, he abruptly turned toward Ren Yijue. “Fellow Daoist Ren… I’m sorry. I don’t mean anything by it, it’s only…”
“It’s fine.” Ren Yijue smiled. “Matters have their importance, and affection has its degrees of closeness. Besides, this happened for a reason and could not be helped. I imagine Mister Feng is quite surprised as well. Since you did not deliberately make a fool of me, what is there to be angry about? I am not so petty.”
Qian Xuelang had no opinion on their courtesies and addressed only the matter itself. “You came to me, so I assume you have no other road left. He is injured and being hunted by demonkin. You cannot afford to delay much longer, much less pass the disaster on to someone else.”
Feng Yinming was speechless.
Ren Yijue, the disaster in question, was even more speechless.
“It is true that my emergence from seclusion did not go smoothly,” Qian Xuelang said calmly. “I have agreed to take care of him. Whether you choose to leave him here has nothing to do with me.”
If anyone else had said such a thing, it might have sounded like a polite refusal. From Qian Xuelang, however, it was simply an indisputable statement of fact.
This Fellow Daoist Qian not only looks cold. Even his words are cold.
The matter concerned whether Ren Yijue would stay or leave, yet he himself did not care particularly much. In truth, merely encountering someone so unusual had already put him in quite a good mood. The outcome hardly mattered.
As for Feng Yinming’s hesitation, Qian Xuelang was not surprised. Feng Yinming had possessed this temperament from the day they met.
And it was precisely because of that temperament that Qian Xuelang likewise treasured him as a friend.