CH 43

“Hiding beauties in a bamboo forest – you sure are refined,” Chen Ziqi said, walking sedately into the forest with his hands behind his back. He felt a strange sense of discomfort in his heart. Was it because he was envious that Dan Yi already had a hou yuan of his own, but he was still all alone?

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He had already been appointed as a King and had his own fief. He could actually take a wife and concubines. When he returned to his fief, should he take in a bunch of beauties for himself? However, his little fairy had said that he was not to indulge in pleasures of the flesh too early, so… perhaps he would get the beauties to massage his feet and wash his back instead? 

Dan Yi had no idea what Chen Ziqi was thinking about, but he could tell that Chen Ziqi was not pleased. He suddenly recalled an instance some years ago when his dad had lost a lot of feathers from his head, and when he asked his dad what happened, he had refused to explain, saying only that, “The only problem with having a partner for life is that you can’t accept gifts willy nilly.”

Many sects had sent gifts over to Dan Yi’s father at that time, and amongst these gifts, there were many beauties in pink sedans…

As the two were walking, they suddenly heard a woman’s sharp scream. “No! Let go…”

Chen Ziqi frowned and quickened his pace subconsciously. He passed through a peaceful bamboo forest, and what met his eyes thereafter was a patch of short, young bamboo with thin stems growing on a hillock. Each of the thin bamboo stems were only about the height of a man, and many of them had flowered. The flowers were very tiny and white in colour, and had swarms of bees flying around them. An apiary could be seen on a ridge a little higher up, and two people wearing gauze protective clothing were busy working there. 

A girl wearing a pink luoqun was kicking and screaming as she was being pulled along by two brown-clad men toward the apiary.

“Put this on. You won’t get stung by the bees that way,” one of the men said, handing a set of gauze protective clothing to her.

The girl smacked away the clothes. “I don’t want to take care of bees!” she screamed. This wasn’t what her sect had sent her here to do.

Her name was Lan Zhi, and she was one of the direct disciples of the Liuhe Sect. As the new Cloud Palace Master was only sixteen and had yet to set up his hou yuan or take a legitimate wife, the Liuhe Sect had decided to send a beauty as one of the gifts. After browsing through the many girls in his sect, he had decided to send Lan Zhi.

Lan Zhi was born into a reasonably good family. She had studied and practised martial arts since she was young, but because her innate capabilities were lacking, she was unable to become one of the core disciples. Nonetheless, she still hailed from a famous sect. As she sat in her pink sedan, she had furtively drawn the curtains aside a little and looked around when the sedan paused on the Perch Platform. All the people who had been born to smaller, less famous martial arts sects were all scared out of their wits, and they all couldn’t compare to her. Her confidence increased; was certain she would be able to win the Palace Master’s favour.

The sedan bearers did not let her alight there, but continued carrying the sedan deeper into the Cloud Palace. Lan Zhi saw incredibly exquisite pavilions and buildings, as well as luxuriously-clad palace servants, and her initial unwillingness to be sent here melted away, giving way to excitement and happiness instead. If she was able to win the Palace Master’s favour, then power, wealth, glory, and access to a peerlessly powerful martial art would all be in the palm of her hand.

However, the sedan did not stop in the Cloud Palace. It carried her past the ravine and into a part of the mountains that was thickly forested with bamboo. It was beautiful and peaceful, with birds chirping and the scent of flowers in the air.

“Is this the hou yuan?” 

“Do we live here from now on?”

All the beauties were whispering quietly amongst themselves after they got off their sedans. There were even two boys in their midst.

“Ah, finally some people have come! We were just shorthanded,” the person in charge of them said. He distributed clothes and tools as he spoke. Not everyone got the same tools – some received hoes, some received baskets, some received protective gauze clothing and gloves, and yet others received wooden clips…

The clothes were all made of coarse material and had narrow sleeves, a far cry from what even the servant girls in the palace were wearing. After being given a day’s rest, they were all called out, and they thought that it was to meet the Palace Master. Lan Zhi refused to wear the coarse luoqun she had received, and insisted on wearing her own wide-sleeved silk robes. But what had she come out to see? Bamboo forests and an apiary! 

Lan Zhi threw the protective clothing on the floor and stamped hard on it.

“Ktlr lr jmaejiis j gfjiis ubbv pby. P’v ibnf ab vb atlr, yea atfs kbc’a ifa wf,” atf ygbkc-mijv wjc rjlv, mbwqifafis mbcoerfv. Lf aegcfv ab ibbx ja atf jqljglra, atfc rkjiibkfv tlr vgbbi; atf jqljglra tjv kjixfv bea klat tbcfsmbwyr oeii bo tbcfs lc tfg tjcv.

Ktf akb wfc rjk atja rtf kjrc’a kliilcu ab ub cfjg atf yffr, rb atfs ujnf tfg j yjrxfa lcrafjv obg tfg ab qlmx yjwybb glmf.

After going past the apiary, they came to a patch of short bamboo that was all withered and yellow. A few seeds could be seen sporadically between the dried leaves and branches. Dan Yi picked one that was a little bigger, then cracked open the shell and tossed the thing inside into his mouth. “These are bamboo seeds,” he said. 

Chen Ziqi picked one to try as well. There was bamboo in the palace as well, but in all these years, he had never seen one flower and produce seeds. The bamboo in the Cloud Palace was really unique.

“Boohoohoo…” the pink-clad girl squatted between the bamboo, crying as as she picked bamboo rice.

“Miss, why are you crying?” Chen Ziqi asked. He’d always been inclined to treat women kindly since he was young, and on seeing this girl cry, he went forward to ask her what was wrong. He felt that she looked somewhat familiar. When he saw the peach blossom hairpin in her hair, he realised who she was – she was the beauty he saw in the sedans the day before!

Dan Yi really used his beauties to keep bees and collect bamboo rice?! 

Lan Zhi turned at the sound of the youth’s slightly husky voice, and when her eyes met his, she was stunned. A handsome face, peach blossom eyes, brocade clothes and a jade belt – even at first glance, this was clearly not a commoner. Her eyes moved behind Chen Ziqi, and she was suddenly thunderstruck.

Brilliant red huafu, a feathery-looking guan – Lan Zhi was quite well-read, and she knew that this person had to be the Cloud Palace Master. She quickly lowered her head and dabbed at her eyes daintily. So the people earlier weren’t having a go at her when they asked her to keep bees and pick bamboo rice – this Palace Master had a hobby of walking around the farming grounds!

She raised her head again, putting on a doleful look this time. “When a bamboo flowers, it means it’s about to die. Bamboo seeds embody the very essence of the life of a bamboo. I cannot help but feel melancholy at the thought of death. You two gentlemen must find me very laughable,” she said in a soft, gentle voice.

Chen Ziqi only knew then that the bamboo had to wither and die in order to get bamboo rice. He looked askance at the gigantic patch of withered bamboo. One stem of bamboo could only produce a few bamboo seeds, and to get enough to fill a bowl of rice, one had to harvest bamboo seeds from around five square feet of bamboo. Dan Yi ate bamboo rice every day, for every meal… 

Life in the Cloud Palace really seemed to be a hundred times more extravagant than that in the palace. Thinking this, Chen Ziqi couldn’t help looking at Dan Yi out of the corner of his eye.

Dan Yi felt like the hairs on his head were standing up, and he frowned. “Wheat also dies after it produces seed. Why don’t you cry for the wheat as well?” he said.

“… …” The girl was rendered speechless and could only gape stupidly.

Dan Yi sniffed derisively, then pulled Chen Ziqi away from the bamboo fields. 

“How could you make these people do farming?” Chen Ziqi asked. He had tried to hold in his laughter for the longest time but couldn’t help it any more and laughed out loud. This was the first time he had seen anyone use concubines this way.

“The Cloud Palace people don’t do this type of work well,” Dan Yi said seriously. If he got his Cloud Palace people to pick bamboo rice and collect honey, he probably would end up with only ten percent of the harvest! And if he ordered them not to steal any on pain of punishment, they would find it to be a real torture.

“Huh?” Chen Ziqi didn’t get it, but he didn’t pursue it further. He looked at the bamboo seed in his hand, and then at Dan Yi, who was dressed in red from head to toe. He felt a strange feeling rise in his heart.

The sun set behind the mountains in the west, but the Cloud Palace people were still scurrying around busily. In a few days, the various sect heads would be coming to participate in the celebratory banquet, and there were many things that they needed to prepare in advance. 

Chen Ziqi had thought to stay a few days and rub shoulders with these sect heads. If he set up his own sect in future, he would definitely need to get along with these martial arts people, and it didn’t hurt to start being friendly with them now.

However, that night, Dan Yi suddenly received a piece of news.

“What did you say?” Chen Ziqi stood up at once.

Chen Ziqi had been unable to go to his fief with Chen Zimo and Chang Er as planned because the Emperor had made him accompany him to the Cloud Palace. He had therefore entrusted Chang Er and Ah Mu to Chen Zimo, asking the latter to send them safely to his fief on the way to Lu City, Chen Zimo’s fief. Dan Yi’s Cloud Palace subordinates reported that Chen Zimo had failed to turn up to meet the Wind Wing staff at the appointed time regarding the matter of retrieving his mother’s corpse. The Cloud Palace had investigated the matter further, and found out that they had been kidnapped along the way! 

“Don’t panic,” Dan Yi said, frowning. He signalled with his hand, and a black figure darted off on receiving his orders.

Chen Ziqi saw that Dan Yi had already asked people to investigate the matter, and could only sit back down. There wasn’t anything he could do to help; he didn’t have any power or influence now, and he knew nothing about where his little fairy was, so he couldn’t go and save her. He had no choice but to wait for Dan Yi’s subordinates to bring news before deciding what to do next.

Chen Ziqi’s fief was in Jianyang, and it wasn’t far from Chen Zimo’s fief in Lu City. The most powerful sect near Lu City was the Suxin Sect, and the equivalent in Jianyang was the Lushan Sword Sect.

The Lushan Sword Sect was one of the three great sword sects of the Sword Alliance. Its power and influence were comparable to that of the Suxin Sect’s. Logically, there shouldn’t have been any mountain bandits near their fiefs given the presence of these two big sects. 

Dan Yi laughed a little scornfully on hearing his reasoning, then shook his head.

“Hehe. These supposedly famous sects only sweep the snow in front of their doors. They won’t bother about problems outside their jurisdiction, even if it’s nearby. The parts that are not directly under their control have been in chaos for some time now,” Lan Shanyu said, smiling as usual while he spoke.

Chen Ziqi pressed his lips together. He had always thought that Jiuru Town was in the mess that it was in because there weren’t any major martial arts sects nearby, but he now realised that this was the case even if there were major sects in the vicinity.

Four hours later, two pieces of news finally came back past midnight. 

“There is nothing to worry about for now. King Lu has already dealt with the people who tried to take them away, but he got embroiled with infighting between the sects and is unable to extricate himself for the time being,” the black-clad subordinate reported. Dew clung in little droplets to his clothes when he came to deliver the news.

In other words, his little fairy, Ah Mu and Chen Zimo were safe for now.

Chen Ziqi heaved a sigh of relief. However, he still decided to leave the Cloud Palace at daybreak the next day so that he could look for Chang Er as soon as possible.

Dan Yi waved his hands to dismiss the people in the room. 

Chen Ziqi watched as the black-clad man left the room. “How did your subordinate go there and back so quickly?” he asked curiously.

“He flew,” Dan Yi said blandly.

“Bah. If you don’t want to say it, so be it,” Chen Ziqi said, pursing his lips in dissatisfaction. He also recognised that he had asked a question that he shouldn’t have asked. The Cloud Palace must have some secret methods of information gathering in order to know everything that happened in the empire, and these secret methods certainly would not be revealed to an outsider.

It was already very late at night. Chen Ziqi was clearly very tired as he lay on the bed, but he couldn’t sleep. He really wanted to leave immediately and journey through the night, but there were mountains all around them, and mountain roads were not safe to traverse at night. He closed his eyes. The events of the past few days flashed by in his mind’s eye. 

Because of a little worm, he had been forced to subjugate himself. Because he didn’t have power, he couldn’t protect his own mother. And then there was that f*cking asshole of a Tiande Emperor…

“I need to take in more subordinates,” Chen Ziqi said, flipping over. He was now face-to-face with Dan Yi. He originally wasn’t an ambitious person; all he wanted was to have clothes to wear, food to eat, and be good at martial arts, but now it seemed like if he didn’t have power, it was impossible to do anything in this world.

“If you don’t have anyone you can use, I can lend you two…” Dan Yi said, before stopping himself abruptly. Giving a King two of his subordinates didn’t seem appropriate; it was as if he was trying to spy on the Imperial family.

“Sounds great,” Chen Ziqi said, grinning widely. He was very keen on getting two highly-skilled subordinates to accompany him. His own half-baked Divine Dragon’s Howl would be useless against a real martial arts master, and he’d be done for in that situation. “Give me two people with awesome skills. Even better if they can be gorgeous beauties!” 

Dan Yi’s expression immediately went dark.

The author has something to say: Mini-theater 

Birdie Gong: Dad, what happened to the phoenix crown feathers on your head?

Birdie Dad: Shaved it 

Birdie Gong: Why?

Birdie Dad: This is the most fashionable hairstyle now, it’s called the crew cut

Birdie Gong: I just saw Mum with two phoenix feathers in her mouth. Were they yours?

Birdie Dad: Go away! Why do you have so many questions? Children who ask too many questions will become problem youths*

*T/N: ‘Questions’ in Chinese is ‘wen ti (问题)’, and ‘problem youths’ in Chinese is ‘wen ti shao nian (问题少年)’. The pun is on the word ‘wen ti’. 

Birdie Gong: (⊙v⊙)？