CH 49

The weather was so bitterly cold that they couldn’t travel on horseback. The two of them each rode in a horse carriage instead, and parted ways at a fork in the road. Chen Zimo was bringing Cheng Jiazhen back with him to Lu City, and Chen Ziqi headed toward the Cloud Palace.

He left Tu Buxian back in his residence to protect his little fairy, and only brought Wu Bujian out with him. 

There was a hot brazier inside the horse carriage, and the interior of the horse carriage was nice and toasty. The little red bird hopped around energetically on the cushioned bottom of the carriage whilst Chen Ziqi leaned lazily against the backrest and extended a finger to play with the little bird.

Wu Bujian tried to make himself scarce in a corner of the carriage, not daring to look at the interactions between Chen Ziqi and his bird.

Chen Ziqi reached out to touch the little bird’s tail feathers. The small red bird shied away initially, probably still worried that Chen Ziqi wanted to pluck it off. It flared out its little wings and hopped to one side, tilting its head as it looked at Chen Ziqi.

“I just want to touch it. I won’t pluck it off,” Chen Ziqi said, his expression brimming with sincerity. 

The bird scratched at the fabric of the cushions. He noticed that Wu Bujian had turned a strange shade of green out of the corner of its eye, and decided that he couldn’t lose face in front of his subordinates. Furthermore, the person he liked wanted to touch his tail, and that was a good thing… he’d let him touch it once then. Just once.

The little red bird slowly walked over to Chen Ziqi’s side and put his feathery tail next to his hand. Chen Ziqi was as good as his word, and only extended a finger to stroke the feather gently. He did, however, cop a feel of the little bird’s fluffy butt.

“Tweet!” The little red bird’s feathers ruffled up angrily.

Wu Bujian quickly stuck his head out of the carriage curtains on the pretext of giving the driver some directions, only pulling his head back into the carriage after a while.

“Wu Bujian, you recognise this bird, don’t you?” Chen Ziqi said, glancing at Wu Bujian. He had a very odd, constipated expression on his face.

Wu Bujian’s breath caught in his throat. He looked up and met Chen Ziqi’s questioning gaze, then wrung his hands and grit his teeth before answering. “I do, this is the divine bird…” he said.

“How is it that everyone in the Cloud Palace knows?” Chen Ziqi wondered, pouring himself a cup of tea. He discovered it was Junshan Yinye tea, and suddenly lost his desire to drink it. He poured the whole lot out the window and made himself a fresh pot of tea.

According to Dan Yi, the Junshan Yinye tea given by the Tiande Emperor was worm feed for the blackworm. The tea leaves were roasted personally by the Venom Master, and people who were blackworm hosts had to drink this tea very often in order to ensure that the blackworm in them didn’t get hungry. If the blackworm was sated, it wouldn’t do anything to its host unless the Venom Master ordered it to. Nonetheless, the blackworm would continue to grow inside the host’s body, and after ten or twenty years, the host would die if it was not removed. 

Thinking this, Chen Ziqi couldn’t help shuddering involuntarily. He wanted to quickly meet up with Dan Yi and let him check his body to make sure that he hadn’t somehow picked up another blackworm along the way.

“Umm…” Wu Bujian stole a glance at the little red bird, trying to ask it if he could answer Chen Ziqi’s question.The bird stretched out a claw and scratched its tummy.

“Since your Palace Master has already assigned you to me, that must mean that he doesn’t intend for you to keep anything from me,” Chen Ziqi said, picking up the teapot from the coal brazier and making himself a pot of Longjing tea, which had been a gift from Prefectural Governor Ceng.

Wu Bujian took the teapot Chen Ziqi held out, filled it with cold water and put it back on the brazier to boil. He stared at the glowing coals as he ruminated on what Chen Ziqi had said. “The people of the Cloud Palace are all servants of the Protector-God, and that’s why… that’s why we all know of this,” he said slowly. 

“Servants of the Protector-God?” Chen Ziqi said, lowering his gaze. Lan Jiangxue had said something similar in the past. “Then, Dan Yi is also the Protector-God’s servant?”

“The Palace Master is different from us,” Wu Bujian said, his head dipping. He had told the truth, but as to how Dan Yi was different, he refused to say.

The roads were long and icy, and by the time they reached the base of Jade Mountain, the sky had turned dark. Wu Bujian jumped off the horse carriage and went to call the palanquin bearers over. Chen Ziqi put the little red bird in the folds of his clothes, opened the carriage curtains and looked up at the palace on the mountain.

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The small palanquin was carried by six people. It no longer had the thin, gauzy curtains that Chen Ziqi remembered, but thick cotton curtains that were able to block out the cold. Two men stood in front of the palanquin with covered lanterns to guide the palanquin’s path.

At first glance, this scene looked rather like that of a Demon King coming to collect his bride…

The corner of Chen Ziqi’s mouth twitched. “Next time, don’t use a white palanquin to carry me. It has a rather ominous feel,” he said.

They floated up Jade Mountain on the palanquin and landed on the Roosting Platform. The arched bridge leading from the Roosting Platform to the Cloud Palace proper was covered with a layer of grass to prevent slips and falls. The ones carrying the lanterns walked ahead, leading them all into the Palace. 

“Wang ye, you arrived very late today. Dinner is already over,” Lan Jiangxue said, coming out to welcome him. A servant girl stepped forward and put a foxfur cloak on Chen Ziqi’s shoulders.

“The roads were slippery, and we couldn’t go very fast,” Chen Ziqi said, smiling. He stretched out his arms to make it easier for the servant girl to fasten the cloak on his person. “Where’s Dan Yi?”

Lan Jiangxue led Chen Ziqi toward a warm chamber. “Wang ye, please warm yourself up and have something to eat first. The Palace Master will be with you shortly,” he said cordially.

Warm air swirled out of the room the moment Chen Ziqi pushed open the doors. A coal brazier was burning brightly in the small room, and a few servant girls were at the side of the room, setting out plates and adding coals to the brazier. A person in brilliant scarlet clothes sat in front of the table, looking over at Chen Ziqi with a pair of mesmerizing phoenix tail eyes. Who could it be but Dan Yi? 

Lan Jiangxue seemed to be rather stunned, but he recovered quickly and smiled. “Ah, the Palace Master is already here,” he said. “Wang ye, please have a seat.”

“Dan Yi!” Chen Ziqi said happily. He couldn’t help grinning when he saw Dan Yi and scooted over to sit with him. He thrust his icy cold hands into Dan Yi’s clothes. “Oof, I nearly froze to death,” he said.

Dan Yi froze. Chen Ziqi’s action was quite intimate, and his hands were very cold. An icy sensation spread over his body from Chen Ziqi’s hands, and he reached out to pull those two wildly pawing hands out of his clothes, covering them with his hands instead. The Danyang Divine Martial Arts was a martial art based in warming yang energy, and Dan Yi’s body was always warm no matter what season it was.

“Are you hungry?” Dan Yi asked. He felt rather restless as he held Chen Ziqi’s slender, fair-skinned hands, his heart and mind both racing like a galloping horse. He furtively extended a thumb to caress Chen Ziqi’s soft palm as he warmed his hands. 

“Definitely hungry,” Chen Ziqi said, turning to look at the food on the table. It wasn’t just green-coloured stuff today. There was meat fried with bamboo shoots, spicy fish and dumplings – all the food he loved best. His eyes lit up immediately, and he was about to pull his hands away to start eating when he suddenly remembered something. “Oh right, there’s something I wanted to show you!”

“What?” Dan Yi asked, picking up the wine jar, pouring himself a cup and sipping it slowly.

“My bird!” Chen Ziqi said, reaching into his clothes to pull out the bird.

“Pfft-” Dan Yi sputtered, choking on his wine. A servant girl immediately came forward to wipe him clean, but Dan Yi waved her away. He dismissed all the servants, then took out a silk handkerchief to wipe his mouth and poured himself another cup of wine. 

“Why did you ask the servant girls to leave?” Chen Ziqi asked, blinking in confusion. He then realised what Dan Yi must have thought, and punched him on the shoulder. “What were you thinking? I wasn’t talking about that bird.”

Dan Yi choked again, and put down the winecup with a long-suffering look. “I know,” he said.

“Eh?” Chen Ziqi patted himself all over, but couldn’t find that little fluffball. He started to panic. “Crap, did I drop it in the mountains on the way here?!”

The little bird had still been in his clothes when he got off the carriage, which meant that the bird must have been lost while he was on the palanquin. The Cloud Palace’s palanquin was made of bamboo, and there were only a few sticks of bamboo forming the base of the palanquin seat. There were gaps between the bamboo stems, and a small bird like his divine chicken could have fallen through them. 

Dan Yi saw how worried he was and had no choice but to comfort him. “It’ll be fine,” he said.

The divine chicken always appeared in a mysterious manner every year, and disappeared equally mysteriously. Logically, it was true that there shouldn’t be a problem, but why had it escaped all of a sudden for no rhyme or reason? Chen Ziqi pressed his lips together. “I originally wanted to show it to you. I’ve talked about it for so many years but I’ve never been able to let you two meet,” he said.

The two of us are never ever going to meet… Dan Yi lowered his eyes and picked up a piece of bamboo shoot with his chopsticks to eat.

Chen Ziqi looked gloomy as he picked up some meat with his chopsticks and shoveled a spoonful of bamboo rice into his mouth. The fragrant bamboo rice set off the oiliness of the meat dish and complemented it perfectly. 

That line from the Compendium suddenly sprang into his mind.

Phoenixes will not roost on any tree other than Wutong trees, and will only eat food derived from the bamboo plant…

“Dan Yi, is the divine bird a phoenix?” Chen Ziqi asked in between mouthfuls of food.

“You could say that,” Dan Yi said. He didn’t really eat the meat, picking out the bamboo shoots to eat with the bamboo rice instead. 

Chen Ziqi looked at him and pressed his lips together. He ate a big mouthful of rice and swallowed the words he wanted to say along with the food.

“Since you’re here, stay a few days more,” Dan Yi said after dinner. He held Chen Ziqi’s hand as they walked toward his sleeping quarters. “The martial arts world is dangerous, and it’s best that you improve your martial arts skills.”

The Cloud Palace seemed to be warmer than Jianyang, especially in Dan Yi’s sleeping chambers, which were as warm as spring. Chen Ziqi rolled around in the bed, finally ending up by Dan Yi’s side. Dan Yi was still looking at official documents. “Is it that the Divine Dragon’s Howl and the Danyang Divine Martial Arts can’t be mastered unless they’re practiced together?” he asked.

“The Danyang Divine Martial Arts can be practiced on its own, but you can’t do that for the Divine Dragon’s Howl,” Dan Yi said, not looking up from the documents he was perusing at warp speed. 

No wonder Dan Yi’s cultivation was progressing much faster than his. Dan Yi had mastered the third level of cultivation, but he had just started learning the second level of his.

“The martial arts world is in turmoil lately,” Dan Yi said, closing the documents in his hands and frowning slightly. “Get the matters in your fief settled, then come and stay with me in the Cloud Palace long-term. You should at least master the third level of cultivation before you come of age.”

“Okay,” Chen Ziqi said absently. He slid down beneath the blankets until only half his head was showing. “Also, um, Fengyuan gege…”

Dan Yi’s hand that was holding the document shook slightly when he heard Chen Ziqi call him by this name. He put down the document and turned to look at Chen Ziqi. “Nn?” he said. 

“Lend me some money,” Chen Ziqi said. He bit down on the edge of the blanket, showing a line of small white teeth.

“How much do you want?” Dan Yi said sliding into the blankets and extinguishing the candle flame.

Chen Ziqi counted on his fingers. He didn’t know when the Emperor and the Second Prince were going to lend him money, and so decided that he had better ask Dan Yi for a bit more. “I need to give the Lushan Sect Leader a gift when I first meet him, and I also need to start a chicken farm…”

“… What are you starting a chicken farm for?” 

“To make money! You have no idea how poor I am right now. I might be a great first-ranked Qinwang, but I won’t even be able to afford a chicken leg if I carry on this way.”

“… …”

The next day, Dan Yi gave Chen Ziqi a long sandalwood box.

“What’s this?” Chen Ziqi asked, shaking the box a little as he hugged it to his chest. It was pretty heavy. 

“A gift for the Lushan Sect. A treasure sword will be much better received than gold or silver,” Dan Yi said, looking a little displeased. “Why are you trying to suck up to Lu Xiuqi?”

Lu Xiuqi was the leader of the Lushan Sect.

“I’m forced by circumstances…” Chen Ziqi muttered as he opened the box to have a look. A sword that was made entirely of gleaming silver lay inside. A fine blue gemstone was embedded in the pommel, and the words “湛卢” were carved in small letters on the sword blade.

Chen Ziqi wasn’t an expert on swords, but even he could tell that this sword was worth a lot of money. 

As they were speaking, a black-clad man suddenly came in and knelt in front of Dan Yi. “Palace Master, the Wind Wing got into some conflict with the Suxin Sect on Bailu Mountain. There’s one death on Suxin Sect’s side, and three injured from Wind Wing.

Bailu Mountain? Chen Ziqi frowned. Wasn’t that where Berry Brown’s mother had allegedly fallen off the cliff? The whole reason Chen Zimo was anxious to rush back to Lu City was because he had made arrangements with the Wind Wing to look for his mother’s corpse in Wangchuan Cliff.

The author has something to say: Mini-theater

Birdie Gong: Come stay here long-term 

Qiqi: But I don’t have money to pay the rent

Birdie Gong: You can pay by other means

Qiqi: What?

Birdie Gong: Guess 

Qiqi: (hides his face)

Birdie Gong: (/⊙/v/⊙/)