CH 13

After more than half a month, Ji Chaoyun finally set foot on Wenqu Peak again.

Being dragged by Feng Qi into the familiar courtyard, Ji Chaoyun couldn’t help but ask, “Do you never live with others?”

“When you live here, you can’t be noisy, nor can you disturb my rest. Otherwise…” Feng Qi pointed to the lotus pond in the middle of the courtyard. “I will throw you into the water.”

Ji Chaoyun: “…”

“There are two bedrooms here. The big one on the left is mine, while the one on the right has been unoccupied and piled up with things by me. You can clean it up yourself.” Feng Qi crossed the stone bridge and laid down on the bamboo couch by the lotus pond, leisurely continuing, “You will take care of the courtyard in front of the house and the spiritual field behind it. It shouldn’t be difficult for you, right?”

“Also, I have kept this pond of golden-tailed koi for many years. You are not allowed to eat them.”

“…” Ji Chaoyun was speechless. “Rest assured, I don’t eat koi.”

Done with the conversation, Ji Chaoyun walked to the bedroom on the right. Pushing the door open, a cloud of dust rose in the house.

It was debatable how long this room had not been cleaned. A thick layer of dust coated the entire room; all kinds of miscellaneous junk were randomly and haphazardly placed. Ji Chaoyun stood silently in front of the door, not even able to find a spot to step onto.

Seeing that he hadn’t entered the house for a long time, Feng Qi came over. “What’s wrong… cough cough cough!”

Feng Qi was choked by the oncoming dust. He took a few steps back, clutching his nose. Ji Chaoyun glanced back at him, and was about to enter, but was held back by Feng Qi.

“Cough… you wait… cough!” Feng Qi pulled him back as if he wanted to flee, and raised his hand to cast a spell to close the door with a peng. “What are you planning to do? It’s so dirty yet you still want to go in? Cough cough...”

Ji Chaoyun’s expression was hard to read. “Have you never opened this room since you moved in?”

Feng Qi pondered. “Something like that. When I first entered the academy, I asked someone to move the unwanted stuff from the courtyard to here. After that, I didn’t open it again.”

Just entered the academy…

So it was more than fifty years ago.

Ji Chaoyun shut his eyes and said, “Never mind. It will be fine to just clean up. Your Highness, step back a little, so that you won’t get it onto yourself.”

“It’s already this late. Until when do you intend to clean?” Feng Qi offered, “I’ll find some people to clean tomorrow. Don’t do it for now.”

“But…”

“Don’t ‘but’ me,” Feng Qi interrupted him. “You didn’t rest last night and was out all day long today. Tomorrow you still have to head to class. Don’t you get tired?”

…Either way, not as pampered as you.

Ji Chaoyun criticised him in his heart as he patiently asked, “I just want to ask, if I do not clean it up, where will I live?”

Feng Qi: “…”

There were two bedrooms in this yard. If this one couldn’t be lived in, then there was only…

Feng Qi’s peripheral vision swept toward the right bedroom, a little hesitant. His Second Highness Feng has never lived with anyone since he was born. This layer of psychological defense was not so easy to cross. But if Ji Chaoyun were to leave now, it would be even more difficult to fool this person into Wenqu Peak for a second time.

Feng Qi gritted his teeth. “Sleep in my bedroom!”

Ji Chaoyun was a little surprised, but did not refuse.

It was already the main peak’s curfew time. Without this fearless Second Highness Feng following him, he was afraid that just after crossing the barrier, he would be caught by the night watch disciples on their way to the Supervisory Hall. Another reason was that yesterday, his demonic body had unexpectedly appeared, and today, he had run around for a whole day. He was indeed a little tired.

Feng Qi was particular about his nightly routine. Before sleeping, he first needed to take a dip in the hot spring water behind the house to relieve fatigue. He soaked for a short while as he gazed at the night sky. However, when he quietly returned to the bedroom, he found that Ji Chaoyun was not asleep either.

He was only wearing a middle clothing1, his wet hair casually draped over his shoulder as he sat under the lamp, reading.

The dragon race lived in the waters, not beneath the heat of the sun. Hence, they were born with a chilly and pale complexion, which was most obvious in Ji Chaoyun. Yet in this moment, under the lamp’s light, the three-dimensional features of his silhouette were outlined with a layer of warm glow, making him look slightly flushed.

Feng Qi leaned against the door and quietly watched him.

Somehow, the originally uncomfortable emotions lurking within disappeared the moment his eyes lay on this scene, replaced by another hidden and indescribable throbbing.

Feng Qi’s gaze traced every inch of Ji Chaoyun’s face. He suddenly felt a little regretful. If he wasn’t a man…

As this thought flashed through his mind, Feng Qi suddenly came to his senses.

What was he thinking just now?

If Ji Chaoyun wasn’t a man, what would he do?

A pity that he didn’t have time to think about it anymore. Ji Chaoyun closed the scroll in his hand and raised his head. “What are you standing there for?”

“…Nothing much.” Feng Qi nonchanthly stepped forward and glanced at the book in his hand. “Why did you take something from my Dengyun Tower’s library collection again?”

It wasn’t once or twice that Ji Chaoyun took books from Dengyun Tower. Feng Qi pretended to not see it until now, causing the little demon dragon to get an inch, then take a foot.

Feng Qi condescendingly stared at Ji Chaoyun, in the end deciding to not squabble about it with him. He raised his hand and turned off the light. “Sleep!”

The room fell into darkness. Ji Chaoyun heard the rustling sounds of Feng Qi turning on his bed in the dark. He hesitated for a moment before climbing onto the bed as well.

Ji Chaoyun once said that Feng Qi drank paulownia wine to quench his thirst, and he did not understand the sufferings of the world.2 Back then, he had only said those in a fit of anger, but he didn’t expect that this person was really as particular as the phoenix in the rumors.

His Second Highness Feng’s bed was made of fine sycamore wood, layered with soft mattresses and velvet blankets; it was extremely comfortable to lie on.

Ji Chaoyun touched the silk quilt on his body and muttered in his heart, if one didn’t know, one would have expected a precious little princess living here.

The two laid on both sides of the bed, separated by a gap wide enough to fit one person. Ji Chaoyun turned his back to Feng Qi, and heard the other person asking behind him, “Ji Chaoyun, have you always been prejudiced against people like us, born in the immortals’ realm?”

Ji Chaoyun didn’t answer for a while, then asked back, “Why do you ask this?”

“Felt like it,” Feng Qi said. “I heard that when you were in Changqing Courtyard, you often went to Hongmeng Mountain to help others through the secret realm, so many wandering immortals in the academy like you very much. This is not the you I usually know.”

Ji Chaoyun was silent. He softly answered, “I come from the mortal realm, naturally being closer to those wandering immortals. Isn’t it the same with the other disciples within the academy?”

Hongmeng Academy’s faction divide was very distinct. Wandering immortals either attached themselves to those disciples born from immortal families, or huddled together with themselves to keep warm. It was not at all uncommon.

“It’s nothing, but I always feel that you don’t look like the kind of person who values one’s background,” Feng Qi said. “It hasn’t been long since you first came to the immortal realm, and you don’t know much about it. Have you ever thought that this place is not as bad as you think? At least I… am not what you think I am.”

Ji Chaoyun fell silent again.

The room fell into a long silence, so long Feng Qi thought the other party fell asleep, but then heard Ji Chaoyun suddenly say, “Those words that you said, I agree with half of it.”

An immortal realm was still like that, but you are indeed not that kind of person.

Feng Qi subconsciously asked, “Which half?”

“…Think about it yourself.”

Ji Chaoyun took out his purse from his sleeve and put it to his lips in a soft kiss, whispering, “Sleeping now. Good night.”

Feng Qi turned his head and looked over in the dark. Only the silhouette of Ji Chaoyun covered under the quilt could be seen.

He quietly looked at him for a long while, gently smiling. “Good night.”3

.

Early in the morning of the next day, Ji Chaoyun arrived on time for the morning reading class.

Feng Qi hardly went to morning classes. The reason was not because of him, but because he couldn’t get out of bed. When Ji Chaoyun left in the morning, he’d originally wanted to wake him up, but then remembered how His Second Highness Feng had half-threateningly and half-intimidatingly told him how extremely annoyed he’d get after waking up last night. In order to not be thrown into the pool by this old master, Ji Chaoyun finally decided to not wake him up.

However, when Ji Chaoyun arrived at the Swordplay Arena later, he saw Feng Qi standing in the middle of the open space at a glance.

Feng Qi seemed to feel something, and turned to look in his direction. The two of them looked at each other, before Ji Chaoyun subconsciously looked away.

The corner of Feng Qi’s mouth curved into a smile, then quickly disappeared as he shouted, “Hurry up, the bell for lunch has been struck twice already. What are you doing?”

One after another, disciples arrived at the Swordplay Arena. Ye Chenxing leaned close to Ji Chaoyun’s ear and whispered, “Why is this peacock here? These high-level disciples are the most annoying supervisors for our practice. We can’t even hide. This peacock usually doesn’t attend his own classes, and no one would possibly dare to force him to come supervise our training. Did he take the wrong medicine today?”

“If something goes wrong, it must be because of a demon.” Bei Ran was worried. “Ji dage4, you had a fight with him earlier. Do you think he would deliberately retaliate against you?”

Feng Qi had suppressed the news of Ji Chaoyun losing control of his demonic spirit. No one in the academy knew about it. Even Ye Chenxing and Bei Ran thought that the cause of the two’s confinement was due to their fight.

Just as Ji Chaoyun wanted to explain something, Feng Qi gave a tiny glance in the direction they were standing at. He scolded, “What are you still whispering about? Still talking amongst yourselves? Why stand so close? Stop talking!”

Ji Chaoyun: ” “…”

Feng Qi nonchalantly retracted his gaze. “…I’ve asked Kaiyang-jun before. Each one of you was too lazy in the past, and did not practice well. How can you pass the academy’s assessment? Today, I, your shixiong, am in a good mood. I thus came to teach you some moves.”

He raised his hand. A circular enchantment about three feet wide appeared on the grass with him as the center. “Line up one by one and fight with me. Those who pass, go back and continue to practice your swordsmanship. Those who fail, I have my own punishment to give. Starting from the Black level.”

The disciples took turns to enter the circular area and competed one-on-one with Feng Qi.

Feng Qi’s martial arts skills need no explanation. Even if all the disciples present joined forces, they still might not be his opponents. At this moment, however, it seemed that he really was here to instruct these disciples. He didn’t release his own weapon during the whole process, and he constantly exchanged tactics to teach these disciples how to deal with the enemy.

Occasionally, there were some disciples who had a poor foundation, unable to handle his moves at all, being directly beaten out of the barrier by himself, henceforth being declared unsuccessful in the exchange.

Feng Qi taught in accordance with their aptitude. The time each disciple had with him could be either long or short. And after every training session, each of the disciples benefited a lot. The atmosphere on Swordplay Arena gradually became excitable, but Ji Chaoyun instinctively felt that things were not that simple.

This person was here purely to instruct these disciples on cultivation practice?

He subconsciously looked not far away. Since the beginning of class, Xu Zixing had been very unsettled, always hiding behind the crowd, his thoughts inscrutable. Perceiving Ji Chaoyun’s gaze, the man looked away in a panic and hid behind several disciples.

At this moment, Feng Qi slowly called out, “Next, Xu Zixing.”

Xu Zixing suddenly trembled, his entire face turning an ashen white.

Feng Qi seemed to be unaware of this, frowning and scanning the crowd. “Xu Zixing? Why aren’t you answering? Did he not come today?”

“I… I’m here,” Xu Zixing responded in a low voice. He crossed the crowd nervously, and walked inside the enchantment.

The corner of Feng Qi’s mouth curved. Rubbing his wrist casually, the golden chain around it fell down and turned into a long golden whip in his hand. The weapon glowed with spiritual power. Xu Zixing’s face further paled. He unconsciously retreated half a step back.

“Don’t be nervous,” Feng Qi said. “I’m a little tired from all the fights. You don’t mind if I use weapons, right?”

Xu Zixing: “No, I dare not…”

“That’s good.” The smile on Feng Qi’s face instantly disappeared, and he coldly instructed, “Let’s start.”

The author has something to say:

His Highness is going to beat someone~

Like this white garment. Let’s welcome Wang Yibo: 

Literal meaning: 甘泉为饮桐木为栖，不懂人间疾苦 A sweet spring to drink from and a tung wood to dwell on, not knowing the woes of the world.

Bubbles: LMAO HE THOUGHT THE GOOD NIGHT WAS FOR HIM… poor dude XD

Ie: Big brother Ji