CH 59

“Wu Bujian, can you find out where these girls came from?” Chen Ziqi asked, standing in front of the entrance to the houyuan and looking at the closed doors of the West Wing, which was where his concubines were to live.

“As to this… this subordinate can only look into things that are nearby. If you want to find out where these girls came from, I have to ask the Peacock Wing to make the arrangements…” Wu Bujian said rather awkwardly. He watched Chen Ziqi’s expression carefully, afraid that he would take offence. 

Chen Ziqi understood. This sort of complicated investigation was probably the kind of thing that the Cloud Palace would require payment for. “Ask the Peacock Wing how much they charge for this request, then,” he said.

“Certainly,” Wu Bujian said, heaving a sigh of relief. He left for the Peacock Wing in high spirits.

“Lord Jiang’s horse carriage has already been checked through. The horse is a Qiaoyan horse of Huangshan stock, and the carriage driver has a Luyang accent. He brought along a total of two pages and two guards. That is all,” Tu Buxian said, reporting everything in detail. “Earlier, this subordinate tested him out with a few moves, and he responded accurately and methodically even though he felt embarrassed afterward. He definitely has martial arts skill, and he’s fairly adept at it.”

Chen Ziqi nodded slightly. He drummed two fingers on the table. “Let him see whatever he wants to see. No need to stop him from going anywhere,” he said. This fief didn’t hold any secrets anyway, since it was newly allocated to him. 

Now that things were in order, Chen Ziqi stood up and walked out languidly to look for that Minister of General Affairs.

“Lord Jiang, you’re from Huangshan?” Chen Ziqi asked. He had instructed his chefs to make a feast so as to entertain Lord Jiang, and was presently drinking wine with him.

“Yes, this lowly official grew up in Huangshan. Unfortunately, my innate capabilities are not great, and I was unable to become really good at swordsmanship,” Jiang Liangcai said with a smile.

“You’re too humble, Lord Jiang. Whatever it is, you’re still better than I am,” Chen Ziqi said, raising his winecup and clinking it against Jiang Liangcai’s.

It was already an open secret that the Imperial family couldn’t master the Divine Dragon’s Howl, and Jiang Liangcai naturally knew what Chen Ziqi was getting at. “You’ve already been appointed as a King and have your own fief. Wang ye, you can actually start learning the martial arts of other sects,” Jiang Liangcai said, smiling. There was a hint of a question in those words, probably because he had already heard that Chen Ziqi had become a disciple of the Lushan Sect.

Chen Ziqi lowered his gaze and poured another cup of wine for Jiang Liangcai. They clinked their cups together again, and Chen Ziqi gestured to him to drink up. He watched as Jiang Liangcai downed the whole cup. He himself only took a small sip. “My esteemed mother doesn’t allow me to drink wine – I hope Lord Jiang will not begrudge me for this,” he said.

“Wang ye is not of age yet, so of course you cannot drink wine,” Jiang Liangcai said. He would never dare to insist that the Wang ye empty his cup as well, and naturally didn’t object to what Chen Ziqi said.

Jiang Liangcai had originally thought that Chen Ziqi was trying to change the topic, but surprisingly, Chen Ziqi himself went back to the question he had asked earlier. “This fief of mine is surrounded by sects in the Sword Alliance, and it’s all thanks to my Second Brother’s good name that even the Lushan Sect is willing to entertain me. My days here haven’t been so hard as such,” he said. 

Jiang Liangcai smiled again. Chen Ziqi had made his position clear with those last two sentences, and it would appear that he was someone who knew what was good for him.

After that, Chen Ziqi started asking about his Second Imperial Brother’s situation, playing the part of a concerned younger brother perfectly. He also told Lord Jiang that he could go anywhere he wished in his fief.

“Jianyang is very poor. I hope Lord Jiang will not judge it too harshly,” Chen Ziqi said, his expression brimming with sincerity.

“Oh, of course not! Wang ye is much too polite.” 

Both the host and his guest enjoyed their meal greatly.

Lord Jiang remained in Chen Ziqi’s mansion for two days, then took his leave and headed for Lu City. Chen Ziqi had not accompanied him in those two days and allowed him to go wherever he pleased. He saw how barren and desolate Jianyang City was, and also had a look at the chicken farm at the outskirts of the city.

After he sent Jiang Liangcai off, Chen Ziqi originally intended to return to the Cloud Palace, but after thinking about it, decided to pay a visit to his houyuan.

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“Wang ye,” the two girls said, rising to greet him in a ladylike manner. They were still wearing their veils, and when they saw Chen Ziqi come in, their eyes lit up with anticipation.

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“Things are good here. We thank Wang ye for his concern,” Yu Furong said in a sweet voice.

“Wang ye, why don’t we speak more inside the house?” Yu Linglong said, getting up and holding on to Chen Ziqi’s arm in a most natural manner. 

Chen Ziqi smiled faintly and entered the house with the two girls. A few small sparrows could be seen perched on a shrub outside the house. One sparrow flew off, and the rest remained on the shrub.

In the Cloud Palace, Dan Yi heard the news that the messenger brought, and his hands balled up into fists. “That girl held his arm?” he bit out.

“Yes…” The subordinate kneeling on the floor had difficulty breathing after being subject to Dan Yi’s sudden killing aura. She started shivering slightly. “Wang ye went with them into the house, and I don’t know what happened thereafter…”

“Crack!” Dan Yi brought his hand down forcefully on the small table next to him, smashing it to smithereens. 

“Continue watching him,” Lan Jiangxue said, waving a hand to indicate that the messenger could leave. He looked at the cold-faced Dan Yi and sighed. “Wang ye is already suspicious about the identities of those two girls, and he’s probably just testing them.”

Dan Yi pressed his lips together and left Chaofeng Palace without another word, forbidding anyone from following him.

Of course he knew that Qiqi was probably just trying to test those two girls, but he couldn’t help being angry nonetheless. His Qiqi was so young, so naive. He would probably be easily fooled by other people, just as he had managed to fool him…

His feet brought him to the Wutong forest even though he hadn’t specifically intended to do so. The mountain winds blew past the tree boughs, and the rustling sound made him feel cold and empty. 

Dan Yi shut his eyes, then started circulating his neili in his body.

The Danyang Divine Martial Arts were the epitome of yang energy. It gathered the spiritual fire of heaven and earth and pierced the heart of all things with its flames. Dan Yi allowed that fiery neili to move in his veins and pass through his meridians, then struck the starting pose and started to practice his martial arts from the first level of cultivation. As he practiced, a scene from his childhood floated up in his mind. It was the time when he had first met Chen Ziqi.

His dad had said that he was a peerless talent not seen in a thousand years, and he could start cultivating the Danyang Divine Martial Arts at a very young age. However, this gongfa was too powerful, and he had to look for a suitable Dragon in order to ensure that nothing would go wrong when he practiced this martial art as a child. That was why he had been tossed into the Imperial Palace – to find his Dragon.

The princes that had been born in the Imperial Palace were all not people he would bother looking at twice. Lan Qinghan had said then that there were still a few princes scattered amongst the commoners of the Empire, and he could try picking one again after they had all been found. That day, he had been whiling his time away catching grasshoppers when a stone had descended from the sky and landed on his head with a thump. 

A warm, fair-skinned little hand had picked him up. That hand belonged to a really pretty child, with soft, pale cheeks and a pair of peach blossom eyes that had yet to fully blossom. Those eyes had been sparkling beautifully, like a pair of black onyx gemstones glittering in the sunlight.

Every summer, when the weather became hot and sultry, he had to practice his martial arts with Chen Ziqi by his side. The Divine Dragon’s Howl had a cool and soothing aura, and it made the fiery neili flowing through his veins much more bearable.

Originally, he only needed to be with Chen Ziqi every summer, but in the winter, he couldn’t help wanting to be in those warm little arms.

He was a proud phoenix, and he shouldn’t have debased himself for a human this way. 

“Why don’t you want to hold my hand any more? This road is so long…”

“If I make you angry, I’ll call you Fengyuan gege…”

“Fengyuan gege…”

Time slipped by unnoticed as he continued to practice his martial arts. He went through the stances more and more quickly, gradually going from the first level of cultivation to the third level. After the third level, he naturally transited into the fourth level. 

Ever since Dan Yi understood his own feelings for Chen Ziqi, he had never considered the possibility that Chen Ziqi might like someone else. Today’s events had been like a sharp blow to the head, and had awoken him to that very real possibility.

Qiqi…

“Urk!”

Fresh blood sputtered out from Dan Yi’s mouth, and he suddenly lost control of the strong neili flowing in his body. It started churning wildly in his veins without any method to the madness. 

“Ah!” Dan Yi groaned in pain and fell to the ground. His own neili was now like a dangerous weapon that was attacking him, and the pain he felt was like that of every bone in his body breaking. He broke out in a cold sweat, writhing in agony amidst the dry leaves on the forest floor. He bit his tongue in an attempt to clear his head with the pain and tried to retract his neili, but he hadn’t learned to control this fourth-level neili properly yet. His efforts were not only in vain; they seemed to make the situation even worse.

When Chen Ziqi returned to the Cloud Palace and didn’t see Dan Yi around, he figured he was practicing martial arts in the Wutong forest, and thus headed in that direction. Before he reached his destination, Linghe suddenly flew down from the sky, looking at him as if she had just seen her saviour. She took Chen Ziqi’s hand and flew off toward the Wutong forest with him.

“Wang ye, please save our Palace Master…” Linghe cried, unable to stop tears from sliding down her cheeks. She was putting everything she had into getting Chen Ziqi to Dan Yi as quickly as possible.

In the Wutong forest, withered brown leaves were flying everywhere, and a person dressed in red was twitching violently in pain amongst them. 

“Ah…”

Chen Ziqi recognised that suppressed groan as Dan Yi’s voice and got a real shock. He flew over in a few steps and gathered Dan Yi into his arms.

“Dan Yi, what’s wrong?” Chen Ziqi asked, caressing his sweaty forehead. It was frightfully hot. When he held Dan Yi’s wrist, he found that his veins were standing out so much that they looked like they were about to burst. He couldn’t imagine the pain Dan Yi was going through.

“Qiqi… Qiqi…” Dan Yi forced his eyes open and saw the vague silhouette of Chen Ziqi’s face. 

“Yes, it’s me!” Chen Ziqi said, hugging him tight and looking around in a panic. “Go get someone – go get Lan Qinghan and the rest!” he shouted at Linghe.

“Certainly!” Linghe said, leaping away immediately.

“Qiqi…” Dan Yi grabbed hold of Chen Ziqi’s hand and pressed it between his collar bones. Just then, a wave of pain washed over him. It hurt so badly that he threw his head back in agony, and he bit his lower lip so hard that it bled. When the intense pain finally passed, he panted out, “Help me… suck it out… mmph…”

“Suck it out?” Chen Ziqi’s brain worked even faster in times of disaster, and he immediately understood that Dan Yi wanted him to suck out his neili. Previously, Dan Yi had wanted to teach him how to suck out his neili, but due to various things that had happened, the lesson had been delayed. “How do I suck your neili out?” 

“Reverse the flow of neili… urgh… to the Shaoyang meridian…”

Chen Ziqi followed his instructions, and a burst of fiery hot neili immediately flowed into his body from the part where their bodies were connected. It practically scalded Chen Ziqi, and he shivered in pain, but he was still able to bear it. He grit his teeth and continued to extract neili from Dan Yi’s body.

That powerful, overflowing neili suddenly stopped surging everywhere in his body, and Dan Yi felt much better. Chen Ziqi, on the other hand, felt more and more uncomfortable.

“Urgh… it’s hot…” Chen Ziqi said, biting his lip and pressing on with the extraction. 

“It’s enough,” Dan Yi said weakly. He covered Chen Ziqi’s hand with his own. “Use your neili to harmonise the extracted neili and return it to me.”

Chen Ziqi had learnt this before, and he nodded immediately. He used his neili to wrap around the power surging hotly within him, and once he felt it calm down, he transfused it back to Dan Yi.

“Mm…” Dan Yi moaned softly in pleasure. That mesmerizing voice was a little hoarse from the terrible exertions he’d been through earlier. Chen Ziqi felt his heart quiver a little, as if there was a little feather brushing across his heart.

He swallowed hard. For some reason, he felt like his mouth was strangely dry. 

—

The author has something to say: Mini-theatre

Qiqi: It’s over, it’s hard now

Birdie Gong: Need help? 

Qiqi: Hoho, you can’t move anymore, and I can have my way with you!

Birdie Gong: Oh sure, come, sit up here, you can move around as you please

Qiqi: … …