Your Dragon Doesn’t Seem Quite Right
“…That’s what happened. Master, Junior Sister, I think we should go over there and ask that family a few questions.”
“Master? Junior Sister? Are you listening?”
“…”
“…”
Shu Fu was still lost in the afterglow of her sit-ups, and it took her a while to come back to herself. “I am! I’m listening!”
Truth be told, she very much wanted to continue their earlier conversation. But business came first, and her deeply rooted sense of duty wouldn’t allow her to get distracted.
Business first. Talk business first.
Jiang Xuesheng’s thoughts were fickle by nature, always leaping from one idea to another. She shouldn’t let what had just happened occupy her mind—
Damn it, of course she still couldn’t stop thinking about it!
No. Business first!
“I was listening too.”
Jiang Xuesheng, on the other hand, was perfectly composed, as if nothing had happened just now—as if Shu Fu really had only been doing sit-ups. “You said that, in the southern outskirts of the city, there’s a family known for being eccentric and reclusive. They refuse to show reverence to the Flower Children and frequently make alarmist claims, insisting that ‘the Flower Children never became immortals. They were merely pushed onto the altar by others.’ In Wei City, that certainly qualifies as a noteworthy curiosity.”
As he spoke, he turned to glance at Shu Fu. “If I remember correctly, Fuer, you also scoff at the notion of the Flower Children. This family could be called your kindred spirits.”
“Huh?”
Shu Fu’s heart gave an inexplicable jolt when he suddenly brought her into the conversation. Forcing herself to remain calm, she said, “That’s right. I think they must know something.”
“…”
Si Fei had felt ever since last night that his master and junior sister were behaving strangely. But he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what was wrong.
The innocent little merfolk was completely baffled. He looked from one to the other, and the more he watched, the more he felt as though he had fallen into a whirlpool. Although his fins were sensitive enough to sense the direction of flowing water, they were no help in detecting the subtle currents in the room.
To break the awkward silence, Shu Fu rose first. “Since that’s settled, let’s head to the southern outskirts. Senior Brother Liu is still tracking Xiao Hanyi. Once he has any news, he’ll naturally contact us.”
Jiang Xuesheng nodded. “Ruyi is careful and reliable. There’s no need to worry. Si Fei, you and Wu Yao stay in the city and help City Lord Wei clear out the Ghost-Faced Demon Lord’s spies.”
“Yes, Master.”
Si Fei obediently acknowledged the order, though he was still somewhat puzzled.
At a time like this, it was perfectly reasonable for them to split up. His master’s arrangements were entirely sound. So why did he feel such a lonely sense of being pushed away?
…
Following the information Si Fei had provided, Shu Fu made inquiries along the way and followed the trail until she quickly found the strange family from the rumors.
The family’s surname was Luan. Three generations lived under one roof: an elderly woman in her sixties, and, at the other end of the family line, a little granddaughter who was just learning to walk. Their surname was unusual, and they repeatedly spoke disrespectfully of the Flower Children, stubbornly insisting on worshiping the ancient Dragon God. As a result, they were practically household names throughout the southern part of the city.
Naturally, theirs was not a flattering reputation.
Fortunately, Wei City was open-minded, and its residents were generally well-mannered. Although everyone thought the Luan family was stubborn, absurd, and antisocial, most kept those opinions to themselves, mentioning the family as a curiosity only once in a while. No one went so far as to ostracize or bully them. Compared with the Wei City of legend—a place said to have tormented young people—it was positively civilized.
The Luan family lived far out in the countryside, making a living from a small plot of land. Their circumstances were hardly prosperous, yet a tiny shrine stood at their gate. It was said to house the Dragon God they worshiped.
The small shrine was ancient and had endured years of wind and rain. Layer upon layer of mottled moss covered the corners of its walls, but it was clear that someone had always taken meticulous care of it. Not even a single roof tile was chipped, and the spring rain had washed them until they gleamed.
When Shu Fu arrived at the entrance, a boy of fifteen or sixteen happened to be walking toward the shrine. He held a bundle of flowers and a basket half-filled with fruit, while his other hand held that of a little girl with a topknot sticking straight up from her head. Their features bore a faint resemblance; they were probably brother and sister.
On closer inspection, both siblings were fair and delicate, bright as snowballs. If not for their plain clothing, one might have mistaken them for the young lady and young master of some wealthy household.
“You are…”
Perhaps because outsiders were so rare, the boy stopped when Shu Fu approached and studied her with some confusion. “Miss, did you need something? From the way you’re dressed, you don’t look like you’re from Wei City.”
“Hello. My name is Shu Fu, and I came to Wei City for the Flower Festival.”
As she introduced herself, Shu Fu discreetly lifted her eyes and swept them over the shrine’s entrance.
From where she stood, she couldn’t make out what was inside. She could only see a plaque hanging above the doorway, bearing the three characters “Dragon God Shrine.” The calligraphy was vigorous and powerful, and the gleaming gold lacquer looked as though it had been freshly applied. The characters had clearly been wiped again and again; they shone brilliantly, without the slightest trace of the bleakness one might expect from a place battered by wind and rain.
Shu Fu understood at once. She was just about to turn back to the boy and continue her questions when an old voice suddenly came from behind her.
“…An immortal maiden? Are you the immortal maiden from last night?”
“Huh?”
Shu Fu turned at the sound. A trembling shuffle of footsteps approached, and a small, stooped figure with white hair and an aged, weathered face came into view.
It was none other than the old woman she had met at the night market the previous evening.
After Shu Fu had bought a set of her dough figurines and returned to the inn, everyone had asked the same question: Were those brightly colored, bizarrely shaped things some new kind of witchcraft implement?
Now, standing beneath the bright daylight, the old woman looked even smaller and more shriveled, like a bundle of withered yellow grass, repeatedly crushed beneath the weight of the years until every last trace of fresh green had been wrung from it. One gust of wind, and she seemed liable to scatter in all directions.
Yet when she looked up at Shu Fu, her face lit with an uncanny radiance. Even her lifeless eyes shone with renewed light. “Immortal maiden, could it be that you… came here to pay respects to the Dragon God?”
Not exactly, Shu Fu thought.
Before coming here, I hadn’t even realized that “the Luan family” referred to you. And you really do have a Dragon God Shrine right outside your home.
So when you go into town to sell dough figurines, you’re spreading your faith.
Her expression remained perfectly composed, however, and she gave the old woman a polite smile. “That’s right. Auntie, was this shrine built by your family?”
The old woman hurriedly waved her hands. “Oh, no, no, we wouldn’t dare. This shrine is an ancient relic. Our family has merely been looking after it for generations.”
“It’s just that… aside from us, no outsiders have come to worship the Dragon God for many years. Ever since people fabricated the so-called Flower Children, everyone seems to have forgotten the Dragon God.”
The old woman bent her back even lower and let out a deep sigh.
“Wouldn’t forgetting the Dragon God be a good thing?”
Shu Fu had just been about to ask about the Flower Children when Jiang Xuesheng suddenly poked his head out from her sleeve and spoke without warning.
“The Dragon God has been gone for many years and can no longer protect the people. If so, wouldn’t abandoning such a useless deity and pursuing a new faith be a happy outcome for everyone?”
“That won’t do.”
The old woman shook her head very slowly and solemnly. The wrinkles on her face gathered together as she revealed a weary yet knowing smile. “The Flower Children are false, but the Dragon God is real. The dragon race truly once existed, and they saved this land from the demonic calamity. I believe that the reason the Dragon God disappeared must have been for the sake of all living beings.”
“Even if everyone else forgets, we must never forget this debt of gratitude.”
With that, she turned to her grandson and granddaughter and instructed them kindly, “Dai, Qing. This immortal maiden is our honored guest. Take her to the temple for a look.”
“All right, Grandma.”
The boy answered promptly. Taking his little sister’s hand firmly in his own, he said, “The wind is strong outside. Go back inside and rest first.” Then he turned to Shu Fu and bowed stiffly. “Miss… uh, immortal maiden, please come with me.”
“There’s no need to be so formal,” Shu Fu replied before stepping over the threshold and following the boy named Luan Dai into the small temple.
The temple was simply furnished, no less plain than its exterior, but it was clean and spotless, and every corner showed signs of care.
A celadon vase sat on the altar, packed full of bright, colorful flowers, so radiant that they were almost crowded together. After setting down the basket of fruit, the boy deftly replaced the flowers. His little sister, meanwhile, used her small hands, white as mutton-fat jade, to pick up the fruit one piece at a time and arrange it on a plate. Her round little face was filled with solemn devotion.
Their movements were orderly and practiced, as though they had repeated them countless times.
As for the deity enshrined in the temple, it was neither a dainty, adorable immortal child nor a Buddha or bodhisattva of the sort usually found in temples. Instead, it was an authentic—
“…dragon?”
Calling it a dragon seemed somewhat inaccurate.
The statue was unmistakably a white dragon, its body gleaming like frost and snow, yet it had a pair of scarlet wings like red agate growing from its back. It bore a striking resemblance to the “dragons” of Western mythology.
“Yes. Didn’t you know, immortal maiden?”
Luan Dai turned around and said, “The ancient texts say, ‘There are nine dragons in Heaven, and Yinglong has wings.’ They also say that the mother goddess Nuwa ‘rode upon Yinglong,’ and that ‘Yinglong gave birth to the phoenix.’ In the ancient era, the first Dragon God descended to the mortal world as Yinglong. The dragons and phoenixes of the mortal realm all descended from him. Three thousand years ago, the last Dragon Emperor likewise possessed a pair of wings. Because he resembled Yinglong, he was also known as Lord Yinglong.”
He puffed out his chest and introduced the statue with no small amount of pride. “This statue was crafted by our ancestors after the likeness of Lord Yinglong. It may be a little smaller, but there isn’t the slightest mistake in its form.”
Shu Fu inclined her head modestly. “You’ve enlightened me.”
The cultivation world had very few records concerning dragons and phoenixes. Before transmigrating, she had not studied the subject in much depth. Her store of knowledge was limited to the saying, “A water serpent becomes a jiao after five hundred years, a jiao becomes a dragon after a thousand years, a dragon becomes a horned dragon after five hundred years, and a horned dragon becomes an Yinglong after a thousand years.”
But judging from Luan Dai’s tone, in this world, Yinglong seemed to be a category of divine dragon—and the ancestor of both the dragons and the Five Phoenixes of the mortal realm. That differed from what she knew.
She soon noticed that the colors on the temple’s four walls were mottled, just as they had been in the Flower Children Temple. They were covered in a series of intricate, exquisite murals.
The Flower Children Temple naturally depicted the scene of “Flower Children descending from Heaven and bestowing blessings.” But what about the murals in the Dragon God Temple?
The answer was—
…far too abstract to make any damn sense.
“Sir?”
Shu Fu lowered her head and glanced at her wrist. “Wake up and help me out.”
For some reason, ever since entering the Dragon God Temple, Jiang Xuesheng had remained completely silent, as though he had become an ordinary white snake with no intelligence at all.
Only after Shu Fu called for him did he regain a little of his vitality. His voice was toneless as he replied, “What is it?”
“Nothing.” Shu Fu shook her head. “Sir, you’ve lived longer than I have. Do you know anything about the legends of this temple?”
Jiang Xuesheng shook his head as well. His tone grew even more composed, as deep and still as an ancient well. “Nothing in particular. It is merely the story of the Dragon God leading his followers against the demonic calamity and saving the common people. The faithful tend to embellish such tales. They cannot be taken entirely at face value.”
Luan Dai grew angry when he heard that. “It’s all true! How could the stories passed down through my ancestors possibly be false?”
Jiang Xuesheng said flatly, “Three thousand long years have passed since your ancestors lived. Stories transmitted by word of mouth are bound to contain errors. That cannot be ruled out.”
Luan Dai raised his voice. “Impossible! Though the years are long, my people have always enjoyed long lifespans… Though, though things have changed a little by my grandmother’s generation. She only lived a little over a hundred and twenty years, but her grandmother lived for several hundred!”
His words failed to impress Jiang Xuesheng, but they startled Shu Fu.
“Several hundred years?”
—Were they even human?
No. In this world, considering how things worked, “not human” was practically the norm.
Shu Fu had often said in the past, “An older sister is fine, and a younger sister is fine too.” But ever since transmigrating, she had usually encountered situations where “the older sister isn’t human, and the younger sister isn’t human either,” or “the senior brother isn’t human, and the master isn’t human either.”
The Luan family appeared to be nothing more than an obscure household of ordinary commoners. But who knew? Perhaps if they peeled off their skin, they would reveal a whole nest of iron-skinned, steel-boned beasts.
Shu Fu was still lost in her thoughts when Jiang Xuesheng slowly emerged from her sleeve. He raised his little jade-like snake head toward Luan Dai.
“Come here. Let me take a look at you.”
“What?”
Luan Dai still wore an indignant expression, but considering his grandmother’s instructions, he had no choice but to step forward reluctantly. “You’re a rude snake demon. I’m right here. If you want to look, then look.”
“……”
Jiang Xuesheng remained perfectly still as he stared at him, examining the boy from head to toe, inside and out, over and over again. His gaze was deep and unfathomable, as though he were weighing whether to steam the little brat or deep-fry him in oil—or as though they were old friends reunited after a lifetime apart, and he was carefully tracing the departed man’s features in his mind.
At length, he gave a careless chuckle, tinged with a strange sense of ease, as though brushing a flake of snow that had refused to melt for years from his shoulder.
Then Shu Fu heard his voice in her mind—
[The Qingluan line has certainly been much luckier than the Yuanchu.]
[They are both remnants with diluted bloodlines, but this fledgling is not only quick-witted and fairly easy on the eyes; he even bears some resemblance to his ancestors.]
Qingluan…?!
Shu Fu nearly cried out, but when she noticed Luan Dai’s suspicious gaze, she immediately forced down her astonishment.
[Sir, are you saying… the people of the Luan family are—?]
—If that was the case, then when Old Madam Luan had said at the immortal market last night that she wanted to see “real dragons and phoenixes,” had she actually been lamenting the decline of her Qingluan descendants and hoping to witness the glory of her ancestors once more?
Jiang Xuesheng explained:
[I already had my suspicions at the night market yesterday, but I lacked evidence. Now that I’ve seen him, it’s obvious enough. “Luan” is homophonous with “Qingluan,” while “Dai” refers to a blue-black color.]
[The main lineage of the Qingluan clan has lived in seclusion for a long time and disappeared without a trace… Who would have thought that some descendants still remained among the common folk, guarding this ancient temple that no one ever visited? Of the Five Phoenixes, this branch has always been the most honest. They were never good at putting on airs.]
He commented casually as he took Shu Fu's sleeve between his teeth, gesturing for her to come closer and get a good look at the "Yinglong" statue.
[But being too meticulous has its downsides. There are parts that really didn't need to be rendered down to the tiniest detail. Like that little notch on the dragon's horn...]
"Ah."
Right as Jiang Xuesheng finished that line, Shu Fu stopped right beside the statue, pointed at a spot and said, "Sir, this is the first time I've ever seen a dragon's—"
"Don't look at that."
Jiang Xuesheng's voice dropped sharply, he stopped using sound transmission and spoke out loud directly, "It's all made up out of thin air, don't take it seriously."
"R-really? It looks pretty impressive, just like two spiked clubs, there are even barbs on it..."
"...There are no barbs. They made that part up."
"How do you know there aren't? You've never seen one!"
Luan Dai could no longer hold back, ignoring his little sister who kept tugging at his arm to stop him, he strode forward to argue, "You snake, you've been spouting nonsense this whole time, showing no respect for the Dragon God! Do you think Lord Yinglong is just like you? Lord Yinglong is extraordinarily gifted, invincible to all forces, of course that part of him would be different from ordinary mortals..."
Shu Fu: "..."
-- Come on, can you two argue about something that doesn't make you feel like you're not in the mortal world?
She tried to ease the tense standoff, pretending to reach out to touch the statue: "But this divine statue is really detailed down to every hair, the carving work is exquisite. Your ancestors must have been a master of clay sculpture, no, a stone carving master..."
"Wait, Immortal Maiden! You can't disrespect the Dragon God!"
The youth hurriedly raised his hand to stop her, brushing Shu Fu's outstretched hand aside. Unexpectedly, he was so worked up that he used too much force, and the back of his own hand slammed hard against *that part* of the statue. Then—
Crack.
Maybe it was the erosion of the years, the Dragon God statue looked flawless on the outside, but its inside had long since weathered and turned brittle.
Or maybe it was all those meddlesome people who came to worship back in the day, treating *that part* like a lucky charm, each of them grabbing and rubbing at it, until little by little they wore down an iron pestle to a needle, and worked the toughest steel into something soft as thread.
In any case, the moment the youth bumped into it, a shower of stone dust sifted down, and that barbed, ferocious-looking... let's just call it the dragon's *root*, snapped clean in two with a sharp crack right in front of Shu Fu and Jiang Xuesheng. The top half rolled and clattered onto the ground.
Shu Fu: "..."
Jiang Xuesheng: "..."
-- The Dragon God, in a very specific sense, has lost his ability to carry on his line.
