Xi Chu was not easy to find.
Ming Zhu wandered through the hall amidst the clinking of glasses and the hum of conversation for a long time. Every time he approached someone to ask about Xi Chu, he was met with a teasing smirk. Even their tone of voice carried a distasteful, murky ambiguity. When pressed for details, they became evasive, refusing to utter another word.
Frowning, Ming Zhu eventually found a chair and sat down. He picked up a porcelain cup from the side and took a thoughtful sip, intending to rest for a moment before resuming his search.
As the liquid hit his tongue, a spicy heat seared his throat. Only then did Ming Zhu realize the cup contained wine. He clicked his tongue and set the cup back down.
It was good wine, but drinking too much would likely make things difficult later.
Just then, Lu Qingkong came running over, clutching a pile of miscellaneous odds and ends. He showed them to Ming Zhu with a face full of excitement. "Senior Brother, look at this!"
"Call me 'Sister'." Ming Zhu swatted him away and glanced casually at the heap of strange objects in his hands. "What did you buy all this useless junk for?"
Lu Qingkong replied, "I plan to take them apart when we get back to see how they’re made. If I can learn these techniques and arrays, I can make them myself instead of buying them from others—tch, though this stuff is deathly expensive. I don't know how those people have the nerve to ask for such prices without their tongues falling out."
Ming Zhu asked, "So? Instead of continuing your shopping spree, why did you come looking for me?"
A rare, faint smile appeared on Lu Qingkong’s usually cold face. "Eldest Senior Brother."
Ming Zhu immediately grew wary. "Don't smile like that. Speak plainly—and also, call me 'Sister'."
"I’ve spent all the money Shen Yu had on him," Lu Qingkong said, looking somewhat innocent. "I’m a bit embarrassed to ask Seventh Senior Brother for more, so you..."
Ming Zhu felt a headache coming on. "Just how much did you buy?"
Lu Qingkong replied righteously, "You can't blame me. It's the sellers in here who are practicing highway robbery. I spent five thousand just for a single piece of hide. Oh, right."
He fished a ghost-face mask out of the pile and handed it to Ming Zhu. "This is for you. Supposedly, it’s a spiritual tool forged by a Great Power of the Mahayana Stage. It doesn't require spiritual energy to activate, and even those with high cultivation won't be able to see through it. I cursed at that guy... I mean, I negotiated with him for a long time to drop the price from fifty thousand to five thousand."
Ming Zhu: "..."
He wondered if the seller had been so infuriated by Lu Qingkong that his Golden Core had spontaneously combusted.
Ming Zhu was truly impressed. He said sincerely, "Junior Brother, if you don't go into business, that sharp tongue of yours will truly go to waste."
Lu Qingkong urged him, "Hurry up and take it."
Ming Zhu looked down at the ghost mask and immediately said, "I don't want it. It's too ugly."
"Don't be picky. If I give it to you, take it." Lu Qingkong forced the sale, shoving it into Ming Zhu's arms before he began tugging at Ming Zhu’s clothes. "Since you aren't buying anything in Yueyue Tower, the spirit jades Seventh Senior Brother gave you are useless anyway. Considering I bought you a gift, you might as well give them to me so I can put them to good use."
Ming Zhu desperately clutched his clothes. "You spendthrift brat, that's enough! You should be satisfied after buying so much... Ah, don't touch my waist, it tickles... Pfft! Hahaha, Lu Qingkong, you—!"
Shen Hongchuan’s storage ring had been placed in the sleeve of the outer robe Zhou Fuxue was wearing. When Ming Zhu had stripped Zhou Fuxue earlier, he had taken the ring along with the clothes. Somehow, Lu Qingkong knew this. He aggressively yanked at Ming Zhu’s robes, forcibly snatching the storage ring away.
Ming Zhu’s clothes were already loose; after the scuffle, half of his shoulder was exposed.
Lu Qingkong laughed. "Haha, thanks, Senior Brother!"
Ming Zhu had been poked in his ticklish spot, and he was laughing so hard tears were coming out. He cursed, "You ungrateful wolf!"
At that moment, the servant who had welcomed them in happened to pass by. Seeing this scene, he gasped sharply. Under the confused gazes of Ming Zhu and Lu Qingkong, he covered his mouth, his eyes welling with tears, and ran away sobbing.
By tomorrow, all of Shuoyu City would likely know exactly how lush and vibrant the "greenery" atop the handsome and wealthy Shen Hongchuan’s head had become.
Lu Qingkong held the ring, bewildered. "What’s wrong with him?"
Ming Zhu shrugged. "Who knows?"
Lu Qingkong didn't care. Clutching the ring, he turned and bolted.
Ming Zhu was about to call him back when he watched as the miscellaneous iron junk hanging from his junior brother’s waist swung in a semi-circle as he turned. It slammed directly into the hand of a young gentleman who was holding a crescent moon jade pendant.
With a crisp *crack*, the crescent moon jade in the gentleman's hand was shattered by Lu Qingkong’s iron gadgets, scattering across the floor in a shower of fragments.
Nan Qinghe: "..."
Ming Zhu: "..."
Hearing the noise, Lu Qingkong turned around and saw Nan Qinghe’s familiar, grief-stricken expression. His eyes swept over the broken jade on the ground. He took a deep breath and struck first with a false accusation: "You bumped into me again?"
Nan Qinghe: "..."
Ming Zhu thought to himself how embarrassing this was. He hurried over, intending to stand by reason rather than kinship. "Lu Qingkong, I’m telling you—"
Without waiting for him to drone on, Lu Qingkong said, "I won't lower myself to your level this time. I have things to do. I'm leaving."
With a wave to Ming Zhu, he slipped away.
Ming Zhu: "..."
He began to miss the awkward junior brother from five years ago who would turn red just giving a gift. Who was this thick-skinned, spendthrift brat?
Nan Qinghe’s eyes were brimming with tears. "Bi—Big Brother Ming, I... I didn't bump into him."
Ming Zhu thought, *You really are unlucky. To suffer twice at the hands of the same person is no easy feat.*
He smiled warmly and patted Nan Qinghe’s soft hair, apologizing gently, "I saw it. It wasn't Qinghe's fault. My spendthrift junior brother is just ill-mannered. When I get back, I’ll give him a good lesson to vent your frustrations."
Nan Qinghe had a very soft nature; he neither held grudges nor was he hard-hearted. Hearing this, he wiped his tears and whispered, "Actually... it’s not that big a deal."
Ming Zhu bent down to pick up the shattered pieces of the crescent moon jade, musing, "Can this still be glued back together?"
Nan Qinghe shook his head. "It’s fine. I’ll just have someone bring another one."
Only then did Ming Zhu remember that Nan Qinghe was the young master of Yueyue Tower. He could have as many of these jade pendants as he wanted.
Not wanting to be overly formal, Ming Zhu said with a smile, "I’m truly sorry. I seem to cause you trouble every time."
Nan Qinghe blushed and whispered, "It’s okay."
Seeing his harmless appearance, Ming Zhu couldn't help but want to tease him. He reached out and hooked Nan Qinghe’s chin, saying playfully, "Qinghe, has anyone ever told you that with a personality like yours, it’s very easy for people to want to bully you?"
Nan Qinghe was flushed red by the teasing. He stammered to change the subject, "Big Brother... what happened to your clothes?"
Ming Zhu treated him entirely like a child to be coaxed, saying flippantly, "Didn't you tell me to come find you? But Yueyue Tower is so hard to get into. I had to use a 'honey trap' to sneak in. Well? Do I look good?"
He raised his arms as if to spin in place. Nan Qinghe hurriedly grabbed him in a fluster, looked left and right, and whispered, "Here... it’s not very convenient. I—I’ll take Big Brother to a better place to talk."
With that, he grabbed Ming Zhu’s wrist and led him through the vast hall, following a long corridor to its end, then stealthily avoiding others to slip into a rockery.
As Ming Zhu was pulled along, his eyes curved into crescents. He said happily, "Oh my, are we going to have a secret tryst? I’ve never tried this before. I’m feeling a bit shy."
Nan Qinghe had just led him to a pavilion at the end of the rockery. Upon hearing this, he immediately let go of Ming Zhu’s hand as if he had been burned.
Ming Zhu laughed like a rogue.
Nan Qinghe’s face was crimson as he stammered, "Big... Big Brother Ming, stop talking nonsense. Qinghe... Qinghe just wanted to..."
Ming Zhu leaned against the pavilion railing, looking at the lake surface reflecting the candlelight. He turned back lazily. "Hmm?"
Nan Qinghe bit his lip, hesitating. After a long moment of silence, he clutched his sleeves tightly and whispered, "I heard... Big Brother has been asking around about Xi Chu."
Ming Zhu said, "Ah, right. Look at me being silly. You’re the young master of Yueyue Tower; you must know Xi Chu, right? Can you take me to see him?"
"No..." Nan Qinghe said immediately. Realizing his reaction was too sharp, his voice softened. "N-No, I can't. Big Brother, I’m sorry."
"What’s there to be sorry about? If you can't, you can't. It's no big deal." Ming Zhu didn't mind. He leaned his waist against the railing, his hands dangling below to idly pluck a few blades of grass. Humming an unknown tune, his fingers moved nimbly for a moment, and a delicate grass-woven rabbit appeared.
Ming Zhu, with a blade of grass in his mouth, tucked the rabbit into Nan Qinghe’s hair and smiled with squinted eyes. "A gift from Big Brother. Does it look good?"
"It looks good. Thank you, Big Brother." Nan Qinghe touched the grass weaving on his head and nodded absentmindedly. After a moment’s hesitation, he asked again, "Can Big Brother tell me why you’re looking for Xi Chu?"
Ming Zhu thought for a bit and said, "Well, now that you mention it, I don't really have any business with him. I just want to know what kind of person he is."
—The kind of person who could make Ming Zhao give up on stealing the Spirit-Suppressing Lamp and target him instead.
Nan Qinghe walked to Ming Zhu’s side and leaned against the railing. Suddenly, he asked, "Do you know about... the Cheng Demon, Mei Liang?"
Ming Zhu looked up, not understanding why he was bringing this up.
Nan Qinghe took a deep breath, as if gathering his courage. He looked directly into Ming Zhu’s eyes, which were shimmering like water. "Hundreds of years ago, because the demon race ran rampant and committed countless atrocities, numerous Great Powers of cultivation besieged Guifang... Xianluo City. Countless demons were slaughtered. The City Lord, Na Lian, fell from the Sun-Blocking Cliff, his fate unknown. The Cheng Demon clan was entirely annihilated, vanishing from the world."
Ming Zhu had seen scrolls about Xianluo City in the Rizhao Library, and his Junior Martial Uncle had mentioned it during morning lessons. He raised an eyebrow slightly. "I know. So?"
Nan Qinghe said, "Most of the Great Powers who participated in that battle have either gone into seclusion or passed away. Very few know the truth. And my father just happens to be one of them."
Nan Qinghe looked up slightly at the brightly lit, magnificent Yueyue Tower and said softly, "Great Powers usually avoid the mortal world, but he was different. He used the demon neidans obtained from Xianluo City to spend a hundred years building this extravagant forest of meat and pool of wine..."
Ming Zhu finally frowned upon hearing this. "But Hongchuan told me this isn't a brothel."
Nan Qinghe suddenly said sharply, "How is this place any different from those lowly dens?"
Ming Zhu was stunned.
Nan Qinghe lowered his head slightly, his long hair falling forward to obscure his expression. One could only vaguely see his tightly bitten lips and tense jaw.
Ming Zhu hadn't known Nan Qinghe for long; he had only thought of him as a young master who didn't know the ways of the world—innocent, ignorant, and possessing a purity that made one want to protect him.
Only now did he suddenly realize that someone who grew up in a place as chaotic as Yueyue Tower, no matter how noble and pure they appeared on the outside, would have a hidden gloom buried deep in their bones.
Nan Qinghe seemed to realize his attitude was too cold. He took a light breath, his voice trembling slightly. "Haven't you been wondering why no matter who you ask, no one will tell you who Xi Chu really is?"
Ming Zhu let out a bewildered "Ah."
"He isn't some powerful figure. He’s just a Cheng Demon plaything imprisoned by my father," Nan Qinghe squeezed these words out from between his teeth, his voice almost vibrating with a tremor by the end. "A... a toy that can be wantonly desecrated as long as one has enough money. In the eyes of those people, such a lowly thing is barely even equal to a dead object. Do you think they feel the need to waste their breath explaining it to you?"
Ming Zhu was completely stunned.
Nan Qinghe looked up sharply, his clear eyes filled with tears. He had always been weak and indecisive, but now he was shrouded in a dark aura, his small face full of resentment. He forced himself not to let the tears fall, his voice choked with emotion. "The actions of the Cheng Demons were indeed hateful, but are those sanctimonious people who wantonly abuse the weak any more noble? To the victor go the spoils—is it these disgusting, petty men who have 'succeeded'?"
Ming Zhu looked at him in shock.
Seeing Ming Zhu’s dazed expression, Nan Qinghe froze for a second. He immediately wiped his tears with his hand and sobbed, "Big Brother, I—I’m sorry. Qinghe... Qinghe shouldn't have said these things to you, but..."
After a long silence, Ming Zhu said in disbelief, "You’re saying Xi Chu is a Cheng Demon from Xianluo City?"
Nan Qinghe nodded, tears pitter-pattering down. "Yes. Xi Chu’s identity is already common knowledge among the 'high society' of Shuoyu City. His demon form is... is a fox. He is the younger brother of Na Lian, the City Lord of Xianluo City."
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 成妖 | Cheng Demon | A specific race or clan of demons/spirits. |
| 魅魉 | Mei Liang | Spirits/Goblins; often used as a general term for supernatural creatures. |
| 鬼芳 | Guifang | Likely an older or alternative name for Xianluo City. |
| 陷落城 | Xianluo City | Literally "Fallen City." |
| 那帘 | Na Lian | Former City Lord of Xianluo City. |
| 蔽日崖 | Sun-Blocking Cliff | The location where Na Lian fell. |
| 内丹 | Neidan | Internal alchemy/core; the source of a demon's power. |
| 禁脔 | Plaything / Forbidden meat | A term for someone kept for the exclusive pleasure of another; a captive lover. |
| 狐 | Fox | Xi Chu's demon form. |
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