CH 67

Even though the Cloud Palace had never openly admitted that it had control of the Arcane Sects, the Arcane Sects still came to pay tribute to the Cloud Palace on an annual basis. The Yangchun banquet was held to entertain the leaders of the Arcane Sects when they gathered at the Cloud Palace every year.

The name ‘Yangchun’ might have meant ‘Spring Sun’, but the banquet was actually held in early summer every year, because the Cloud Palace was usually very busy in the spring. 

“I heard that you found a good man for yourself on the Pinghu lakeshore?” a young lady said softly to her companion. They were both in the Chaofeng Palace laying out brocade tablecloths on the banquet tables.

The two of them wore black and white luoqun, and their hair was held in place by a scarlet hairpin. They were subordinates in the Crane Wing. The Crane Wing was in charge of the logistics and entertainment for the Cloud Palace’s big ceremonies and banquets, and the Yangchun Banquet was no exception.

“Yes, I did,” the other young lady answered. “His mouth was very sharp and good-looking, and his legs were the longest out of all the other guys. He could dance in the lake…”

“Sigh, I, on the other hand, got sent to Jiangnan on an errand, and I didn’t manage to make it back for the spring festivities,” the first young lady said regretfully. 

“You’re younger than me – there’s no rush! Our clan has so many men. Don’t worry.”

Qing Luo stood behind the pillar, listening to the two girls talk. Her lips curled in disdain. Those long-legged male cranes were nothing to look at – they were just low-class birds.

She was a member of the Qing Clan, a descendant of the divine bird, the Green Phoenix! She was far more noble and valuable than these stupid common birds. Only the people of the Qing Clan, who had the divine blood of the Green Phoenix flowing through their veins, were qualified to mate with the divine Phoenix. This had been drilled into her since she was a little girl, and Qing Luo believed this with all her heart.

She raised her chin and walked out from behind the pillar, looking coldly at the two girls who were chatting openly without any regard for propriety. “You know, you’re not here in Chaofeng Palace to make idle chatter! It’s so late now, and the dance floor in the main hall isn’t even ready yet! How do you expect us to practice the dance for tonight’s banquet?” Qing Luo said harshly.

The two girls from the Crane Wing were completely taken aback by this outburst. After Qing Luo spun around arrogantly to leave, they collected themselves, exchanged a look and then laughed out loud.

“What on earth? She’s just the lead dancer – does she think that makes her the Palace Master’s wife?”

“The people of the Qing Clan are always looking down their noses at everyone. They think that they’re all that just because they’re the descendants of the Green Phoenix – please, they should check their butts to see how many Green Phoenix feathers are growing out of it! They can’t even change into bird form, let alone into a Green Phoenix. Pei!”

The Qing Clan didn’t have pure Green Phoenix blood. They were actually the descendants of children of the Green Phoenix and humans. Because they were half-humans, they didn’t have the ability to change into birds like the rest of the people in the Cloud Palace. 

“Those two girls who said I was a boy toy that day – weren’t they from the Qing Clan as well?” Chen Ziqi asked, lying beneath the blankets as he listened to Dan Yi explain the various types of birds that made up the people of the Cloud Palace. Their conversation had eventually touched on the Qing Clan.

“Nn,” Dan Yi said, pressing his lips together. He didn’t want to continue talking about this.

Lbkfnfg, Jtfc Ildl, vlvc’a kjca ab vgbq atf wjaafg. Lf rdelgwfv bnfg ab Gjc Tl jcv raemx tlr tfjv bc atf rjwf qliibk. “Ktfc, lr sbeg wbatfg jirb ogbw atf Hlcu Jijc?” tf jrxfv.

“Zs wbatfg lrc’a atf rjwf jr atfrf Hlcu Jijc qfbqif,” Gjc Tl rjlv, rwlilcu j ilaaif jr tf rqbxf bo tlr wbatfg. “Vtf lr j gfji Xgffc Utbfclz.” 

A real Green Phoenix? Chen Ziqi was befuddled now, but the one thing he did understand was that baby phoenixes were only begotten out of unions between Phoenixes and Green Phoenixes. “Oh no, then doesn’t that mean that I angered your potential mates into leaving?” he asked.

He was smiling on the outside, but he felt his heart ache uncomfortably on the inside. It was one thing to like another guy, but the guy he liked was also a bird-man! Ah, the road to romance was long, hard and full of obstacles…

“Nn,” Dan Yi acknowledged blandly, looking down at Chen Ziqi.

“Hmph. Let me see – since you sleep with me every day, are you just high and dry all the time?” Chen Ziqi asked, pursing his lips. He mischievously reached out and ran a frisky hand over a certain part of Dan Yi’s body, fondling it through his clothes. Little Fengyuan immediately raised its head. 

Dan Yi made a suppressed sound in his throat, then caught hold of Chen Ziqi’s hand. He looked deep into Chen Ziqi’s innocent-looking peach blossom eyes and suddenly felt like he needed to do something. He blew out the candle, then pressed down that cheeky fellow beneath him. “Your chest doesn’t hurt anymore?” he asked in a husky voice.

Dan Yi’s hot breath brushed against Chen Ziqi’s neck, and Chen Ziqi’s heart couldn’t help beating faster. “It hurts. My internal injuries aren’t fully healed yet. You can’t hit me,” he whined.

Dan Yi didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry on hearing this. He lay down on his side next to Chen Ziqi, pulled him into his arms and took a deep breath. “I won’t hit you,” he said softly.

“Then, let’s touch each other…” Chen Ziqi said shamelessly. Ever since they had “helped” each other the last time, they hadn’t done it again. He was a hot-blooded youth after all, and he had repeatedly thought back on that time, wanting to experience it again. 

Dan Yi certainly wasn’t going to refuse this request. He hesitated for a very brief moment, then reached out to unfasten Chen Ziqi’s belt.

They were nose to nose now, so close that they were breathing in each other’s breath. Chen Ziqi could see Dan Yi’s slender lips in the pale moonlight. He really wanted to taste them, but he resisted that impulse with all his might. Touching each other could still be passed off as something that good friends did to help each other, but kissing… that was something else entirely, and he didn’t want to scare off this little chick.

It got hotter and hotter beneath the blankets, but neither of them wanted to leave. The heat subsided after a while, and their ragged breathing slowly became calm.

This fellow’s stamina was really incredible. Chen Ziqi told himself that he had to find some way to sleep on Dan Yi’s bed every night, the better to prevent other people from doing something similar with Dan Yi. He closed his eyes in a bit of a daze, then snuggled more deeply into Dan Yi’s embrace, falling into a satisfied slumber. 

Dan Yi silently held the sweaty Chen Ziqi in his arms for quite some time, until the fellow snuggled at his chest started emitting cute little snores. He then lowered his head slowly and planted a soft kiss on those moist little lips.

Chen Ziqi slept very deeply that night, and the next day, Linghe had to dig him out of the blankets before using a hot towel to wipe his face once over.

Chen Ziqi yawned as he sat up, then rubbed his eyes. He saw that Dan Yi was already fully dressed.

He wore a scarlet narrow-sleeved inner robe, and the ends of his sleeves were secured by vambraces set with red gemstones. His wide-sleeved outer robe was a deeper shade of red, and embroidered with a pair of phoenix wings in golden thread. When he moved, he looked like a great fiery phoenix in flight, bewitching and yet dignified all at once. 

Chen Ziqi wore a sky blue wide-sleeved robe fastened at the waist with a waistband made of pale blue silk that had Yangzhi jade sewn on it, as was befitting of his status as a Qinwang, a King related by blood to the Emperor.

“Are we going out right now? I haven’t had my breakfast yet…” Chen Ziqi said, pouting a little and holding his empty belly as Dan Yi tugged him out of the room.

“It’s already noon,” Dan Yi said, raising his chin to get him to look up at the sky.

Chen Ziqi realised that the sunlight filtering in between the Wutong tree leaves was indeed very strong and piercing, and that it was fairly late in the day. Playing with each other at night did make him very tired, which in turn resulted in him oversleeping. 

He didn’t say any more, and just followed Dan Yi obediently to the Chaofeng Palace.

Chen Ziqi did not actually need to attend the gathering of the Arcane Sect leaders, but Dan Yi said that they needed some of the Arcane Sects’ help in order to save Chang Er, so he thought that he should familiarise himself with them first. That was why he had tagged along.

The Arcane Sects were not set up like the Sword Alliance or the Qi Sects, where big sects had little satellite sects paying tribute to it. Each of the Arcane Sects was an independent entity. For this reason, a large number of Arcane Sect Leaders would be present today.

Differently attired men and women of all ages sat on two sides of the banquet hall. 

“Why is there a table next to the Palace Master’s seat?” the leader of the Ten Thousand Venoms Clan asked the Thousand Poisons Sect Leader in a low voice.

The Thousand Poisons Sect leader was a fat old man, and he was in the midst of surreptitiously sprinkling itching powder on the seat next to him. He got a shock when the Ten Thousand Venoms Clan leader suddenly spoke to him, and his hand slipped, dropping a good amount of itching powder into his own sleeve. He quickly pulled out the antidote and threw some of that powder into his sleeve. “Perhaps it’s the Palace Master’s wife’s seat,” he said distractedly.

“The Palace Master is only sixteen. As if he’d have a wife at this age,” the Ten Thousand Venoms Clan Leader said, frowning at the Thousand Poisons Sect Leader and giving him a smack on the shoulder.

The revered Thousand Poisons Sect Leader was just about to close the bottle of itching powder antidote, and that smack spilled more of the antidote powder onto himself. The antidote to itching powder was numbing powder, and now that so much had been sprinkled, he started to lose sensation in his arm. The Thousand Poisons Sect Leader clenched his teeth in irritation, trying to hold in his temper. He smiled, raised an arm and patted the Ten Thousand Venoms Clan Leader on the shoulder. “You never know. Perhaps he’s just showing his wife off before they’re officially married,” he said. 

The Ten Thousand Venoms Clan Leader nodded. He wanted to raise a hand to rub his chin, but found that his arm was completely numb. He couldn’t move it at all.

As it turned out, the seat next to the Palace Master’s was filled by an unfamiliar-looking young man.

“I wonder which sect gave that beauty to the Palace Master?”

“Don’t spout nonsense. That’s the Palace Master’s good friend, the Seventh Wang ye,” someone who was better informed said. That pale blue belt adorned with jade immediately gave Chen Ziqi’s rank and status away. 

Ah, so that was what it was. Everyone let out the breath they’d been holding, then went to their assigned seats.

Dan Yi sat on the throne on the dais, his eyes sweeping calmly over the persons gathered below. They were all bowing to Dan Yi formally in greeting. Dan Yi raised a hand, and it was only then that they straightened and sat down in their seats.

“There’ll be no official business discussed at tonight’s Yangchun Banquet. Please enjoy yourselves to the fullest,” Dan Yi said, raising a jade winecup in toast to his guests.

The people below the dais raised their cups in unison and drank with Dan Yi. 

Now that a cup of wine had entered their bellies, drums and music sounded, and an elaborately dressed Qing Luo descended from the ceiling with six dancing girls. They started dancing gracefully to the beat of bamboo musical instruments.

They moved in a supple, fluid manner, as if they didn’t have any bones in their bodies, and their faces were as beautiful as flowers. The audience was entranced by their dance.

Qing Luo heard the clamorous applause from the Arcane Sect Leaders, and the corners of her mouth lifted in a proud smile. She was the girl who had the greatest amount of Green Phoenix blood in her generation, and that was why the Clan Leader had given her the one and only opportunity to enter the Crane Wing. She was the one with the greatest claim to the position of the Palace Master’s Wife!

She swirled her sleeves gracefully, then covered her face with a translucent gauze belt, following the steps of the dance. Her pretty almond-shaped eyes looked toward the godlike young man sitting on the dais. 

That godlike young man was, at this very moment, staring intently at a plate of chicken wings in front of him. He reached out with his chopsticks, picked one wing up, then put it in Chen Ziqi’s bowl.

“… …”

—

Beansprout: The Arcane Sect Leaders’ shenanigans are such a hoot! I love them 

Also, there is no mini-theatre for this chapter, more’s the pity…