Cai Zhao and Fan Xingjia came out of the inner room like two quail caught in the rain, heads down.
Fan Xingjia was loyal enough to speak first. He explained why they had slipped in through the back door and took all the blame on himself. Cai Zhao added, "Master, we really didn't mean to listen to what you said to Shiniang. We won't tell anyone."
Qi Yunke didn't know whether to be annoyed or amused. "Enough, I know. Besides, there was nothing in what I said to your shiniang that others can't know. Ah, everyone understands how things stand."
His voice was tired, with a trace of helplessness in it. Since Wu Gang's sneak attack had wounded him, and the Chaos Soul Needle had controlled him for days afterward, he had grown much thinner, and a few more white hairs seemed to have appeared.
He leaned slowly back against his cushion. "Xingjia, what did your Uncle Lei say about Dalou's injury?"
"Uncle Lei says the needle poison has reached the bone. Senior Brother needs at least half a year of rest."
Qi Yunke sighed. "As long as he can recover. Dalou has suffered terribly this time... Zhaozhao, is your father better?"
"He could have been up and jumping around yesterday," Cai Zhao said, covering her mouth as she laughed. "But my mother flatly refuses to believe Uncle Lei's diagnosis. She cried and fussed and made my father lie in bed a few more days, and Uncle Lei was furious."
"Xiaofeng never did like listening to doctors, even as a child." Qi Yunke smiled. "Zhaozhao, you deserve the greatest credit for getting your father and me rescued so quickly. And you're so young, not even a month into your apprenticeship, and already you've had to run around outside enduring hardships. If Pingshu knew, she would surely shout, 'What a terrible master, he's a huge pit, run for it!'..."
Fan Xingjia burst out laughing, and Cai Zhao laughed too. "Master imitates her so well. That's exactly what Aunt would say."
The three of them traded jokes for a while, until a disciple outside announced that Song Shijun and Zhou Zhizhen had arrived.
Qi Yunke could tell the two had something to discuss and told Cai Zhao and Fan Xingjia to withdraw. But Song Shijun stopped Cai Zhao, and Qi Yunke understood at once: they had questions for her.
After Fan Xingjia left, Song Shijun asked eagerly, "Zhaozhao, a few days ago in the medicine hut you said the Thousand Faces Sect disciple was already dead. Is that true?"
Cai Zhao didn't so much as flinch. "Of course it's true. The demonic sect doesn't trust him at all, and they had put a controlling drug in his body. Not long after I brought him down the mountain, the poison took hold. I didn't even have time to bring him back. There was no antidote, so naturally he died."
"That's very much the demonic sect's style," Qi Yunke said. "It's just as well he's dead, it saves us further trouble. Shijun, stop dwelling on it. Besides, the snow-scaled dragon beast's saliva that Zhaozhao brought back has been a great help to Yuzhi. Have you thanked her?"
Song Shijun gave a dissatisfied hum. "What's the point of thanking someone with words? When I go back, I'll pick out a proper treasure and send it to Zhaozhao. That's real thanks."
Cai Zhao liked the sound of that and beamed. "Thank you, Sect Leader Song. It's a pity there isn't much saliva left. Otherwise Third Senior Brother might have recovered all his power."
Song Shijun shook his head, his face full of worry. "That little bit is enough to nourish Yuzhi's meridians. The snow-scaled dragon beast is cold by nature, and what struck Yuzhi was the Netherworld cold qi, the most yin and freezing of all. More saliva would do no good. I just don't know how your aunt treated Elder Shi back then. Even your parents don't know the details. Yunke, you were with Cai Pingshu longer than anyone. Think about it again, maybe something will come back to you."
Qi Yunke smiled bitterly. "I happened to be away when Brother Shi had his trouble. I really don't know."
Song Shijun had no answer for that. He turned to Zhou Zhizhen. "Hey, why aren't you saying anything?"
Zhou Zhizhen looked grave. After thinking for a while he said, "Zhaozhao, you really didn't go to the great snow mountains in the far north?"
"Of course not." Cai Zhao's expression was innocent and open. "The snow-scaled dragon beast saliva came from that Thousand Faces Sect disciple. It's the natural enemy of the body-swapping art, so the disciples of the Thousand Faces Sect have always secretly stored some to guard against each other. This time I took everything the Thousand Faces Sect had collected over the years."
"That makes sense," Song Shijun said. "The more thieves a gang has, the more they guard against one another. That body-swapping art is a wicked thing. Unless the person dies, it's practically flawless. Besides, the great snow mountains in the far north are so far away. Even if Zhaozhao rode at full speed, the round trip would take months. How could she be back in just a few days?"
Zhou Zhizhen sighed. "I don't doubt Zhaozhao's word. It's just... ah, I'm afraid something has happened to Zhiqin in the great snow mountains."
At that, the other three were startled, though one was truly startled and one was only pretending.
Zhou Zhizhen continued, "Last year Zhiqin's son Yulin died away from home, and Zhiqin never would say where it happened. Soon afterward he left on a long trip with Dongfang Xiao, saying he wanted to clear his mind. He didn't even come back for the hundredth death anniversary of our ancestor."
"I thought he was grieving his son and didn't want to press him. Only now, when Zhixian was attacked on her way back and the elders urgently wanted Zhiqin home to defend the estate, we questioned the Dongfang family's old servant and learned they might have gone to the great snow mountains in the far north."
"So what?" Song Shijun didn't follow.
"Zhiqin used to send word by pigeon every month to say he was safe. This month there has been nothing." Zhou Zhizhen's brow was tightly knotted. "If I'm not mistaken, Yulin was buried in those snow mountains too. Otherwise why would Zhiqin travel such a long way to go there?"
Qi Yunke tried to comfort him. "Everyone says those mountains are treacherous. Wait a little longer. Perhaps Brother Zhiqin has been snowed in and the news just can't get out for now."
Zhou Zhizhen nodded.
Cai Zhao lowered her head without a flicker of expression, delighted inside.
On the way back from the snow mountains she had decided that, to protect Qianxue and Shenxue and the five young beasts, the fewer people who knew what happened up there, the better. It was a pity she couldn't expose the true faces of Zhou Zhiqin and the others, but each of them had died more horribly than the last, which at least avenged the Tao family.
Leaving Qi Yunke's room, she ran into Ding Zhuo coming the other way. She greeted him and meant to move on, but Ding Zhuo stopped her and raised the matter of their duel again.
Cai Zhao groaned. "We still have to fight?" Didn't he already know what she could do?
Ding Zhuo was dead serious. "A duel is for exchanging skills and broadening our knowledge. It isn't about who wins or loses. As long as the contest is fair and open, what does the result matter? It's said that in the old days, in the duel between the founding patriarch of Qingfeng Temple and Feng Zhouhan of the Sky-Overturning Palm..."
"All right, all right, Senior Brother, stop reciting. I agree to everything," Cai Zhao said quickly.
So the two of them set the duel for half a month later.
Five days after that, Cai Pingchun had fully recovered. Lei Xiuming threatened Ning Xiaofeng that if she dared question his diagnosis again, he would put something in Cai Pingchun's medicine and really make him "lie down a bit longer."
To prevent any further accidents, Zhou Zhizhen insisted on escorting the three of the Cai family back to Fallen Blossom Valley himself. Over a dozen warrior monks sent by Changchun Temple to assist Master Juexing would travel with them as well, so the road should be safe.
At the farewell, Cai Han wore a miserable look, like a little old man. When Cai Zhao asked why, he said with a sour little chubby face, "Mother says Aunt had real foresight, insisting back then that Sister practice martial arts, and now it turns out there are endless benefits. When we get back, she's going to push me to practice harder too."
Cai Zhao laughed. "Practice is hard work, but you won't have to eat vegetarian food anymore. That's a good thing, isn't it?"
Cai Han looked grief-stricken. "Sister doesn't know. Grandmother suddenly had a great awakening. This trip she gave me delicious food every single day. Staying at the Ning family was actually pretty good. It's all the demonic sect's fault for causing trouble and making my future so hard. From now on, the demonic sect and I cannot coexist!"
Cai Zhao: "...All right."
The next day, Song Shijun was also due to leave. Before going, he held his son's hand and rambled on and on, repeating over and over: "If you can't fully recover, come back to Guangtian Sect, and your father will support you for the rest of your life."
Song Yuzhi pulled his hand away from his father's with a blank face. "Your son has only lost some of his power. I haven't become useless. Father, you should get more sun and think about better things."
For the next several days the jianghu was calm, and within the sect the days passed peacefully.
Cai Zhao finally moved back into Chunling Cottage. Just as Qi Yunke had guaranteed, it was comfortable to live in, with lovely scenery. Yet she still lazed around, unable to rouse her spirits. When the kitchen steamed a scallion-oil perch and forgot the ginger slices, she quietly ate it anyway.
Fan Xingjia asked why she was so dazed. "I'm worried," she said.
"Worried about what? What's there to worry about?" Fan Xingjia didn't understand.
Cai Zhao said, "There was a fluffy little duckling, good-looking but with a terrible temper. I looked after him for a while, and then one day I found out he wasn't a duck at all, just a big white goose with his nose in the air. Fine, a white goose. But he insisted on going off to make his name in the world. Sigh, I'm not at ease. What if someone roasts and eats him?"
Fan Xingjia thought for a moment, believed he had worked it out, and cried in alarm, "You're not eyeing Uncle Lei's ducks, are you? Please don't! If you want duck, send someone down the mountain to buy it. If you touch Uncle's ducks, he'll fight you to the death!"
Cai Zhao, speechless, patted Fan Xingjia on the shoulder and walked off, sighing.
That day she sat for a while in the empty Qingjing Studio, where the arguments and laughter of not long ago still seemed to echo through the room.
At last she had it figured out. Finally pulling herself together, she hurried toward Chunling Cottage with her skirts flying, only to find her maids all standing under the veranda, one after another with cheeks flushed pink and shy glances.
She walked over and saw Song Yuzhi standing in her courtyard, hands clasped behind his back.
She invited the strikingly handsome Third Senior Brother inside and poured tea for him herself. Song Yuzhi caught her off guard with one line: "Junior Sister Zhaozhao seems much more energetic today. Have you finally made up your mind to go to the demonic sect?"
Cai Zhao nearly knocked her forehead on the table. She jumped up, shut the windows and door, and pulled Song Yuzhi into the inner room to talk.
"Third Senior Brother, be careful what you say," she said, very seriously. "A disciple of a righteous sect has no reason to go to the demonic sect."
Song Yuzhi looked at her calmly. "Junior Sister Zhaozhao may not know it, but the jianghu has been quiet these past few days while the demonic sect has been stirring a great deal. Altars everywhere are recalling their people. From the look of it, something must have happened at Youming Bamboo Path."
Cai Zhao's heart tightened.
Song Yuzhi went on. "When I was a child I heard my mother say that before Nie Hengcheng, most of the demonic sect's leaders were surnamed Mu. It's just that Nie Hengcheng's power was so great and he held the sect for so long that people gradually forgot. Chang Ning is a young man of the Mu family, isn't he?"
Cai Zhao was silent for a long while before she nodded. "When I went down the mountain to find the snow-scaled dragon beast's saliva, he helped me a great deal, and he saved my life. If everything is going well for him, then that's that. But if he has fallen into trouble, I have to repay his kindness at the very least."
She raised her head. "Is Third Senior Brother going to stop me?"
Song Yuzhi shook his head. "I want you to go with me."
"???" Cai Zhao was stunned. She had never expected to hear that. "You... what are you going for? Um, Third Senior Brother, you don't need to worry about me. I can protect myself."
Song Yuzhi gave a self-mocking smile. "I only have half my power now. How could I dare claim I can protect anyone?" He paused. "I want to find Chang Ning. I want to borrow something from him."
"What?"
"The Purple Jade Golden Sunflower."
Cai Zhao blinked. "What is that? I've never heard of it."
Song Yuzhi said, "It's a treasure of the demonic sect, said to have been handed down since the era of Patriarch Beichen. It calms the mind and steadies the breath, and it can prevent qi deviation during cultivation."
"What does Third Senior Brother want it for?" Cai Zhao was still lost. "My aunt says that when people suffer qi deviation while practicing, it's mostly because their cultivation is shallow or their understanding is incomplete, or some flaw of that sort. In any case it's a deficiency in themselves. If you rely on outside help to avoid qi deviation, there will be lasting trouble even after you master the skill. Only cultivation you've built up steadily through your own effort is safe and reliable."
Song Yuzhi's straight brows lifted slightly. "Well said. Your aunt's insight is truly extraordinary. But I won't use the Purple Jade Golden Sunflower to practice. I'll use it to heal."
Cai Zhao finally understood. "Can the Purple Jade Golden Sunflower help Third Senior Brother recover his power?"
"Yes."
"How can Senior Brother be so sure?"
"Because back then your aunt used the Purple Jade Golden Sunflower to restore Hero Shi's power."
"..." Cai Zhao was dumbstruck. After a long while she said, "No, I didn't even know that. How do you know?"
Song Yuzhi said, "An elder in my family was struck by Netherworld cold qi back then, forced his recovery, and died not long after from qi deviation. Hero Shi, on the other hand, lived well through the Battle of Tushan, and only after Nie Hengcheng died did the brothers withdraw into seclusion and vanish."
"These past few days I've gone through all the records from ten years ago. The year Hero Shi was struck by Netherworld cold qi, Heroine Cai took him to Qingque Sect for help, but no one in the sect could do anything, so Heroine Cai took Hero Shi and left. Just a month later, Hero Shi had recovered his power and even took part in the campaign against Elder Duan Jiuxiu of Tianji."
"I then went through everything that happened in the jianghu during that month. Righteous and wicked sects were fighting as always, nothing unusual. But after I pressed Senior Uncle Li, he remembered something. Around that time, Senior Granduncle Wang Dingchuan captured several demonic sect followers who had tried to sneak onto Jiuli Mountain. Under questioning, it came out that they were guards of the demonic sect's treasure pavilion. Heroine Cai had stolen the Purple Jade Golden Sunflower not long before, and they had to recover it before Nie Hengcheng found out, or they would be sent to the Soul-Devouring Platform."
"Counting the days, Heroine Cai's theft happened not long after she took Hero Shi away."
"...What happened after that?" Cai Zhao pressed.
"Nothing after that," Song Yuzhi said.
"The matter was just dropped?" Cai Zhao didn't believe it.
"Impossible," Song Yuzhi said. "Nie Hengcheng was at the height of his power then. A treasure of the demonic sect had been taken without anyone knowing how, and he would never have swallowed that insult. Yet the demonic sect never pursued it further, and no one went looking for Heroine Cai. If I'm not mistaken, after Hero Shi recovered, Heroine Cai returned the Purple Jade Golden Sunflower, and Nie Hengcheng never noticed at all."
Cai Zhao found that strange. "Even if Nie Hengcheng didn't notice, surely someone else must have mentioned it?"
A faint, subtle look crossed Song Yuzhi's solemn, handsome face. "...Because it concerned Heroine Cai, Senior Granduncle Wang Dingchuan told neither Old Sect Leader Yin nor anyone else, and the matter ended there."
"Oh." Cai Zhao held her teacup and seemed to understand.
Song Yuzhi said, "Heroine Cai was upright and open in her conduct. Even toward the demonic sect, I doubt she would have wanted to keep their treasure for herself. After using the Purple Jade Golden Sunflower, it's very likely she returned it."
Cai Zhao nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, that's exactly the kind of person Aunt is."
"So I intend to make a trip to the demonic sect and ask Young Master Mu to lend me the Purple Jade Golden Sunflower." Song Yuzhi frowned slightly. "I hope Young Master Mu is willing."
"He'll be willing, of course he should be," Cai Zhao said hurriedly. "He ate your snow lotus pill, so he owes you a favor."
"Actually, calling in a favor is not the way of the righteous path." Song Yuzhi's sword-straight brows lifted slightly, his starry eyes dimmed, and his face took on a melancholy look, like a bright moon hanging in the sky sinking into a deep green pool, cold and still, so beautiful it set her heart racing.
Cai Zhao pressed a hand to her chest and urged him with all her might. "In the jianghu you don't need to worry about face. Recovering your power is what matters most, everything else can wait. Um, but could we travel together?"
Song Yuzhi's sword brows rose, and all trace of melancholy vanished. Perfectly composed, he said, "Do you know how to get to Youming Bamboo Path?"
Cai Zhao was struck dumb at once.
"Or do you plan to stop people on the street and ask the way?" Song Yuzhi asked again.
Cai Zhao looked up at the ceiling.
"Excuse me, uncle, do you know which direction the demonic sect's headquarters is?"
"Auntie, I'd like to ask you something. How do I get to Youming Bamboo Path? You-ming-bam-boo-path, did you catch that? 'Youming,' not 'youbing' (fried dough cake)..."
The picture was so lovely that her heart nearly gave out.
Song Yuzhi took a small scroll from his sleeve and spread it open for Cai Zhao. "This is a route map I drew after going through the records. It avoids many shady caves along the way."
Cai Zhao: ...
Song Yuzhi then casually pulled several gold-patterned silver banknotes from inside his robe. "There's no need to worry about travel expenses either."
Cai Zhao: ...
She picked up the teapot and respectfully refilled Song Yuzhi's cup, smiling like a lackey. "Third Senior Brother, let's make this tea stand in for wine. Here's to a smooth journey for us both."
A few days later, Cai Zhao and Song Yuzhi left the mountain half a day apart.
She left a note saying she wanted to follow her aunt's example and see the jianghu on her own to broaden her experience.
He had his personal attendant pass on word that since his recovery wasn't going well and he was in low spirits, he wanted to go out to clear his head and look for a way to restore his power.
They met outside Qingque Town.
Cai Zhao was a little worried. "Won't everyone suspect we left together?"
"No." Song Yuzhi was perfectly calm. "I specifically waited until everyone had found out you were gone, and had lunch with the other disciples, before I came down the mountain."
"That's good." Cai Zhao still felt uneasy and kept looking back.
Song Yuzhi asked, "What's wrong?"
Cai Zhao scratched her head. "Um, I feel like I've forgotten something."
...
Ding Zhuo came out of the inner room with a gentle smile. "Fifth Junior Brother, please prepare a fragrant bath for me tomorrow."
"Sure, sure. So tomorrow is the day of the duel? Congratulations, congratulations." Fan Xingjia wiped the sweat from his forehead. "But Senior Brother, there's one small thing you'd better know."
"The duel is almost here. Don't tell me small things, or you'll disturb my mind."
"...This is something you absolutely must know."
"Fifth Junior Brother, you're being unreasonable. What could matter more than my duel tomorrow?"
"Your opponent has run off."