CH 25

Dan Yi pressed Chen Ziqi’s face into his chest mid-scream. Chen Ziqi felt Dan Yi tremble once as he grunted softly in pain.

Chen Ziqi sat up immediately once he felt the arms wrapped tightly around him loosen. He ran his hands over Dan Yi’s body, checking for injuries, and his hands immediately came into contact with something wet and sticky. He looked down at his hands. They were covered in blood. Tears welled up immediately in his eyes and cascaded down his cheeks.

In all six years of his life, Dan Yi was the only person other than his little fairy who had protected him with his life. 

“Boohoohoo, Dan Yi, please don’t die! BOOHOO!” Chen Ziqi wailed, clutching Dan Yi desperately.

“Ouch. Don’t move,” Dan Yi grimaced, sucking in a breath. He patted Chen Ziqi’s back lightly, trying to get him to loosen his hold on him.

“Young Master!” Linghe flew over immediately to the two children. She couldn’t be bothered with Xue Lang any more given what had just happened. 

Xue Lang shoved Lingguan aside with a single blow. He tried to go and help Cheng Zhou, but before he’d moved two steps, his head whipped around suddenly, and he threw a handful of copper leaves behind him. 

“Ting ting ting!” The musical sound of metal colliding sounded, little golden sparks flying in the air from the points of collision. Countless long golden needles rained down, moving so quickly that they were almost invisible to the eye. The falling needles intercepted all of Xue Lang’s copper leaves, making them fall harmlessly to the ground.

Xue Lang’s eyes widened in fear. He retreated backwards quickly, but it was too late. A swift, forceful gust of wind followed in the wake of the needles, hurling him to the ground.

“AH!” Xue Lang cried out in pain. Eighteen long needles pierced through his body at his shoulders, palms and thighs, pinning him firmly to the ground. He looked like a huge, dead bug that had been nailed in a flower pot. When Xue Lang caught sight of the long needles impaling him, his screams turned into one of terror.

To be more exact, those “needles” were more like extremely long hairpins, the same kind worn by women in their hair. Each needle was topped with a carving in the shape of the eye of a peacock’s feather.

A man dressed in wide-sleeved azure robes descended gracefully from the sky, a silver peacock feather in his hand. This man was Lan Shanyu. 

“Brother Xue!” Cheng Zhou shouted. He pushed himself off the ground with great force and got back on his feet, charging straight at Lan Shanyu.

Lan Shanyu smiled coldly. He thrust out the silver peacock feather in his hand, and just as Cheng Zhou raised his axe to parry, he swiftly pulled out the jade fan and opened it with a flourish, battling Cheng Zhou with it. The thin jade bones of the silk fan looked too delicate to withstand heavy blows from Cheng Zhou’s mighty axe, but it held firm, and in Lan Shanyu’s skilled hands, it even looked like the latter was toying with Cheng Zhou.

Chen Ziqi didn’t have any attention to spare for the battle raging around him. He only had eyes for Dan Yi.

Linghe loosened Dan Yi’s robes and pulled them down. His outer robes were tattered and torn, but the frost silk undershirt was completely unscathed. The only wound Dan Yi had was on the back of his arm, which was exactly where Chen Ziqi had touched earlier. Blood was flowing from that wound in a scarlet stream.

Linghe quickly tore off the tattered fabric of Dan Yi’s sleeve and applied some medicine to the wound. She then sliced off a strip of her soft inner robe, using the cloth to bind his wound gently with well-practiced hands.

Chen Ziqi had originally thought he and Dan Yi were about to say their eternal farewells earlier, but he saw now that it was a false alarm.

“… …” Chen Ziqi didn’t cry any more. He stared blankly at Dan Yi, a huge teardrop hanging from his long eyelashes. The teardrop quivered, looking like it was about to fall onto Chen Ziqi’s cheeks at any moment. He looked quite funny.

“Why aren’t you crying?” Dan Yi asked. His lips were pale. Even though the wound was not life-threatening, he was still only an eight-year-old child, and the pain was quite unbearable.

Chen Ziqi blinked. The huge teardrop finally slid down his cheeks. “This undershirt of yours…” he started, his voice trailing off.

The first day Chen Ziqi met Dan Yi, Dan Yi had said that his undershirt was made of frost silk. Frost silk was made by Tianshan frostworms, and this type of silk was, as its name suggested, as cold as frost to the touch. It was also an incredibly strong, flameproof material. If one layered three pieces of frost silk on top of each other, it became virtually impenetrable. Swords and spears could not pierce through it, and fire could not burn it.

Poor little Chen Ziqi didn’t know this, and had always just thought that frost silk was just a cooler type of silk to wear…

Chen Ziqi frowned after he heard Linghe’s explanation. “Why didn’t you make his sleeves out of frost silk then?” he asked. To him, it seemed silly to use frost silk for the interior of the undershirt and regular material for the sleeves – why leave any weakness at all if the whole body could be protected?

“Tianshan frostworms only make silk threads every ten years. We can’t waste frost silk on making sleeves,” Linghe said awkwardly. It had already been very difficult to gather enough frost silk threads to make two sets of vests for the Young Master. If frost silk were that easy to obtain, then spears and swords would be rendered completely useless!

“BOOM!” Just as Linghe finished explaining this, Cheng Zhou had been subdued by Lan Shanyu in just a few moves. He was presently pinned to the ground by the golden peacock needles.

Cheng Zhou had already suffered internal injuries earlier, and this blow from Lan Shanyu really knocked him out. He lay on the ground, unable to move for some time.

“This subordinate apologises for his tardiness,” Lan Shanyu said in a low voice, bending one knee before Dan Yi.

Dan Yi waved his hands dismissively. “Why did these two want to capture me?” he asked.

Lan Shanyu stood up and kicked Cheng Zhou.

Cheng Zhou steadfastly refused to answer. He looked like he would rather face death than reveal the reason.

Unexpectedly, Lan Shanyu didn’t bother asking him anything. “Three months ago, the Invincible Duo came to the Cloud Palace to ask a Heaven-class question. They took a Return Tablet, but have not fulfilled the conditions we stipulated on it. It’s very likely that they were unwilling to pay the price we asked for, and so came up with this evil idea instead,” Lan Shanyu said, getting straight to the point.

The “Return Tablet” Lan Shanyu spoke of was a small wooden tablet that people seeking an answer from the Cloud Palace were given. The conditions they had to fulfil, or the price of the question was inscribed on the tablet, and once they had fulfilled the conditions or paid the price, they could return to the Cloud Palace to exchange it for the answer.

Answers to the three classes of questions below “Heaven” could usually be obtained with silver, gold or precious gems. It was only the answers to Heaven-class questions that could not be bought with wealth.

A thin stream of blood trickled from a corner of Cheng Zhou’s mouth. This man already knew everything! What did he kick him for then?! 

“The Cloud Palace obviously knows who exterminated the Jiuying Mountain Sect but refuses to say it! On top of that, you asked us to kill Abbess Wuyin! The Abbess Wuyin is a woman of honour and valour, and has done my Cheng family a great kindness. You… you’re all just too vicious!” he yelled.

The Cheng family’s Jiuying Mountain Sect was one of the small satellite sects of the Suxin Sect. The Abbess Wuyin was the Suxin Sect’s current leader.

Lan Shanyu laughed coldly. “If you don’t want to kill her, then don’t. We’re not forcing you to. If you can’t fulfil the conditions on the Return Tablet, then find out the answer yourself! What gave you the right to kidnap our Young Master? Looks like you’re inviting the Cloud Palace to hunt down the remaining members of the Cheng family and eliminate them all – that’s total extermination for you,” he said, his tone as cold as ice.

He’d seen too many people like Cheng Zhou. If the conditions precedent for Heaven-class questions were that easy to fulfil, then they wouldn’t be classified as Heaven-class questions in the first place. There were always people who wanted to try and take a shortcut. He had to give it to Cheng Zhou though – he was the first person in all of the Cloud Palace’s long history who had to tried to kidnap the Young Master to force the Cloud Palace to give him the answer.

Cheng Zhou raised a hand – the only hand he could move at this time. He used it to seal the meridian on his shoulder, and the blood pouring from the wound on his shoulder reduced to a small trickle. He did this so that he wouldn’t die of blood loss before he finished saying what he had to say. “Pah, you Cloud Palace people and the Bloodblade Tower are all in cahoots, colluding to make me turn against the Suxin Sect,” he spat out.

When he said this, he turned his eyes to Chen Ziqi, staring at him in a bloodthirsty manner.

Chen Ziqi looked at the rusting dagger in his hand. Could it be that the ruffians in Jiuru Town had accidentally picked up a treasure in the rubbish heap?

“If my Cloud Palace wants to kill someone, we don’t need to hide behind the Bloodblade Tower to do it. We’ll just kill them openly, in our own name, with our own people,” Dan Yi said icily.

The Bloodblade Tower was one of the Arcane Sects. They were mercenaries who would kill anyone for a price. Cheng Zhou was looking for the person who hired the Bloodblade Tower to kill his family in the Jiuying Mountain Sect. The Cloud Palace wasn’t the least bit afraid of making an enemy of Cheng Zhou, but it certainly didn’t want to take the blame for a crime it did not commit.

Cheng Zhou was silent for a few seconds. He looked over at his sworn brother, who had been shot through so badly his body was like a sieve. “All this was my doing. Let Xue Lang go,” he said, his voice so soft as to be almost inaudible.

Lan Shanyu raised an eyebrow. “I think it’s best if you two disappear at the same time from the martial arts world,” he said ominously. “And in a disgraceful manner, at that.”

The whites of Cheng Zhou’s eyes could be seen clearly now. He trembled as he glared at Lan Shanyu. He and Xue Lang had done heroic deeds for many years to build up the good name of the Invincible Duo, and he absolutely refused to have all those years of hard work come to nothing. “What are you planning?” he asked, angry and scared at the same time.

Lan Shanyu lifted his robes, then squatted down in front of Cheng Zhou. He flicked the golden needle impaled in Cheng Zhou’s shoulder with a finger, causing it to quiver. “In two days, there’ll be a shocking rumour in the martial arts world. The Invincible Duo were swallowed by crimson waves*, and died in the throes of passion.”

*T/N: It seems that the original meaning of the phrase 被翻红浪 (bei fan hong lang) just meant that red bedsheets were rumpled together at the top of the bed, without being made up. This phrase began its life as a purely innocent description of the state of the bed. However, subsequently, many writers used this in their novels to signify having a passionate night in bed. (I can see why.)

Chen Ziqi’s jaw hit the floor. “Can two men also be swallowed by crimson waves?” he asked Dan Yi quietly.

Dan Yi frowned and turned to face him. “You know what ‘swallowed by crimson waves’ means?” he asked.

“Of course I know. It means that they’re going to be made to sell their bodies!” Chen Ziqi said confidently. Everything that he knew about this topic came from the girls of the Scarlet Robe Court and the ruffians’ dirty talk.

“Pff–” Cheng Zhou coughed out blood violently on hearing this, then fainted, his eyes rolling toward the back of his head.

At this moment, the sound of galloping hooves could be heard coming from a distance. The Emperor’s guards had finally arrived, with a very concerned Second Prince at their head. “Little Seventh, Dan Yi, are you alright?” he asked, jumping off his horse. He looked at the two children before his gaze fell on Lan Shanyu. “Wing Leader Lan?!” he asked in surprise.

“Second Prince Dianxia,” Lan Shanyu said, bowing calmly. “These two assassins’ actions were aimed at the Cloud Palace, and inadvertently startled your Imperial Highnesses. This subordinate will immediately take them away.”

What happened in the martial arts world, stayed in the martial arts world.

“Hold on,” the Second Prince said, raising a hand to stop Lan Shanyu. “Brass leaf-knives and a three-foot axe – if I’m not mistaken, these two must be the renowned Invincible Duo. Cheng Zhou is the Sixth Prince’s uncle. Since he’s here, they should be allowed to meet.”

Lan Shanyu’s brows furrowed slightly. This Second Prince was full of tricks even at this young age. He had elevated Cheng Zhou’s status from a mere assassin to an Imperial relative by dragging the Sixth Prince in. This was probably a scheme of the Second Prince’s targeted at the Crown Prince.

A few detachments of the Yulin Troops had also arrived by this time, and the soldiers surrounded them tightly. Lan Shanyu did not say anything more. He helped his Young Master up and went to the camping ground with everyone else.

The Zhenlong Emperor was infuriated by the appearance of these two highly skilled assassins in the Imperial hunting ground. The Imperial family’s martial arts skills were very poor now, and most of the princes were wholly reliant on their guards for protection. He had spent a lot of money and effort training these Jinwu Guards precisely so that the Imperial family would not come to harm. He had not thought that the Jinwu Guards would not only fail to stop the assassins, but also be killed by the assassins as easily as a knife cutting through butter.

This incident really touched a raw nerve with the Zhenlong Emperor. He summoned everyone into his tent and castigated the Yulin Troops’ commander harshly in front of everybody.

Cheng Zhou and Xue Lang were trussed up like turkeys and thrown on the floor. All the princes had returned to the camping ground, and they stood in two straight rows next to the Emperor’s throne. Dan Yi was given special permission to sit on a soft couch on account of his injuries. Chen Ziqi immediately went over to accompany him.

“Does it hurt?” Chen Ziqi asked, looking at Dan Yi with huge, concerned puppy eyes. Dan Yi had never seen Chen Ziqi look at him in such an ardent, concerned manner before.

“It hurts,” Dan Yi said, giving him a sideways glance. “What are you intending to do about it?”

“I’ll blow the pain away,” Chen Ziqi said, his expression serious. He stuck his head next to Dan Yi’s injured arm, puffed out his cheeks and blew twice. “Puff! Puff! Pain, pain fly away!”

Author’s note: Mini-theater

Birdie Gong: It hurts

Qiqi: I’ll blow it for you

Birdie Gong: Okay~

[About a thousand years later]

Birdie Gong: It hurts

Qiqi: You’re not injured, what you talking about

Birdie Gong: But my little bird started to hurt when it saw you, blow it, quick

Qiqi: You perv!