“You’re a pretty lewd man, aren’t you?”
“...My deepest apologies, you two. My grandson was the one who offended you.”
“No, no, not at all. It was my fault. Young Master Luan was only trying to stop me, and that’s why he accidentally bumped into the Dragon God... uh, bumped into the Dragon God’s... that...”
Shu Fu trailed off. For the first time in her life, she understood what it meant to be at a loss for words.
In front of this kind, grandmotherly old lady, no matter how thoroughly she had absorbed Jiang Xuesheng’s teachings, she simply could not bring herself to spout dirty jokes.
Old Madam Luan, however, was quite understanding. She waved it off. “It’s all right. Didn’t you put them back anyway? Besides, the Dragon God is a heavenly deity, no ordinary being. He can create life through spiritual energy and does not need that particular appendage to reproduce. The later dragons are the same. Even if it were gone, I imagine the Dragon God wouldn’t mind.”
Shu Fu: “...”
Jiang Xuesheng: “No, that’s not quite... Never mind.”
“I’m terribly sorry, Madam Luan.”
The scene from moments ago had been far too awkward. Shu Fu only wanted to move on as quickly as possible, so she stiffly changed the subject.
“Madam Luan, besides paying our respects to the Dragon God, we came to see you this time because there is something else we’d like to ask.”
“Ask me...?”
Old Madam Luan looked slightly puzzled, but her eyes crinkled kindly nonetheless. “Please, go ahead, Immortal Maiden.”
Shu Fu did not beat around the bush. She gave a concise account of the matter concerning the Flower Children Temple, then brought up the rumors she had heard from the residents of Wei City.
“I heard that you and your family... have always opposed people worshipping the Flower Children, and that you said the ‘Flower Children’ were merely ordinary people. Why is that?”
“There is no particular reason. It is simply the truth, so I said it.”
Old Madam Luan’s expression was serene as she spoke, recounting the tale as though it were a legend.
“My family lives longer than most, and our memories stretch back farther as well. So while others have forgotten these things, we still remember.”
“Things that have been forgotten?”
“Yes. Though I did not witness it myself, three thousand years ago, after the demonic calamity was quelled and the Dragon God disappeared, the ancestors of the Luan family left Wei City for a time. Back then, the great drought had not yet begun, and those called the ‘Flower Children’ were merely two boys from an ordinary household.”
...
Unlike the absurd legend of “wheat yields of eighteen thousand jin per mu,” Old Madam Luan’s story was an altogether ordinary one.
The so-called Flower Children had originally been twin brothers from a common family, surnamed Hua. From the time they were small, they had been delicate and lovely, like dolls carved from jade and dusted with powder. Everyone who saw them adored them.
Unfortunately, they were somewhat simple-minded. By the time they were ten or so, their minds were still no more developed than those of three-year-old children.
At the time, the human realm had only just endured tremendous upheaval. Those brave souls who had risen to fight the demons had mostly perished, and the surviving mortals, consumed by fear, were especially wary of anything different.
By the time the brothers were six or seven, rumors had gradually begun to spread through the city: that they were reincarnated demonic cultivators, cursed by the Heavenly Dao, which was why they had turned out this way.
To make matters worse, although the brothers were foolish, they seemed to possess a faint spiritual sensitivity. They were exceptionally responsive to spiritual and demonic energy, and from time to time did astonishing things—such as “bringing home a monster beast’s egg” or “digging up a spiritual spring with a single shovel.” Naturally, this only fueled the rumors.
According to the memories passed down by the Luan family’s ancestors, even the bond-blossoms famed throughout the cultivation world had first been discovered by the Hua brothers while they were playing in the mountains.
Each of them picked a flower and wore it pinned to his chest year-round. The blossoms never withered, making the two brothers especially conspicuous.
Later, unable to bear the constant harassment of gossip, their parents grew resentful and began blaming one another. In the end, they each returned to their own family homes, taking one child apiece and living separately in the cities of Yao and Wei.
Even so, rumors about the two children only grew more rampant, spreading far and wide.
Their parents considered moving the entire family several times, but they were attached to their homeland and reluctant to abandon the ancestral estate, so they never managed to leave.
Later still, the Luan family’s ancestors departed on a journey for reasons unknown. They remained away from their hometown for several years and thus knew nothing of what had happened in the cities of Yao and Wei.
When they finally returned to Wei City, it was after that great drought.
To their bewilderment, in just a few short years, the legend of the “Heaven-Sent Flower Boys” had swept through the entire city. An extraordinarily splendid temple to the Flower Children was under construction on a grand scale.
…Yet those two children, like the Dragon God amid the calamity of demons, had vanished without a trace.
From that day onward, no one in the Luan family ever saw them again.
…
“…………”
After hearing the tale, Shu Fu felt a chill run down her back. Her heart seemed to sink beneath a crushing weight.
The two children in the story were clearly not reincarnated demonic cultivators—but neither did they have the slightest connection to immortals.
Ordinary people might not understand the finer points, but Shu Fu could tell. If the human heart had seven apertures, then these two children had merely opened the “apertures” through which one communicated with heaven and earth early, while the “apertures” through which one connected with other people had developed late. That was why they seemed slow-witted and dull, yet possessed such mysterious spiritual abilities.
Had nothing gone wrong, they would surely have regained their wits with time—and on the path of cultivation, they might even have surpassed others by far.
Though this phenomenon was exceedingly rare, occurring perhaps once in ten thousand cases, it was not unheard of in the cultivation world.
It was simply that Wei City, three thousand years ago, was impoverished in talent and gripped by fear. Not a single person understood what they were seeing.
“So those two children…”
Old Madam Luan lowered her eyelids and slowly shook her head.
“What happened to them, the Luan family does not know. But I do know that they could never have become immortals in just a few short years, nor could they have ended that great drought. The favorable weather Yao and Wei have enjoyed all these years is in truth the protection of dragon aura. It has nothing at all to do with the ‘Flower Children.’”
“Uh, so in other words…”
Shu Fu rubbed her forehead, feeling that the whole affair was rather absurd. “The Dragon God left behind dragon aura, but when the drought came, its effects arrived a little too late. So the people misunderstood and thought the Flower Children deserved all the credit?”
—So, in the end, this was all caused by a delay???
No. That was not right either.
At the root of it all, two children with no foundation in cultivation could not possibly become immortals out of thin air, much less transform into Flower Children who descended from heaven.
Even if the common folk had misunderstood, they could not have invented such a vivid, elaborate tale from nothing.
Where had those two children gone?
How had the legend of the “Heaven-Sent Flower Boys” come into being?
—or rather, what truth lay concealed beneath this legend?
To be honest, Shu Fu did not want to think too deeply about it, because she could more or less guess the truth.
The Dragon God vanished. A drought ravaged the mortal world. No one knew that dragon aura lay buried beneath the earth; they only believed the end of the world was at hand, that disaster was about to descend.
And meanwhile, among them were two children who differed from ordinary people in every way, condemned as “reincarnated demonic cultivators.”
Shu Fu could imagine how ordinary people—small, powerless, and ignorant, struggling on the brink of death amid catastrophe—would deal with these two children.
If that truly was the case, then it was simply too...
“Madam, I have one more question.”
Shu Fu clenched her heart in dismay, but her tone remained as calm as before. “If the locals wanted to... say, exorcise a demon, where do you think they would go?”
Old Madam Luan shook her head. “I wouldn’t know about that. But since you mentioned ‘demons,’ I just remembered something else.”
Shu Fu asked, “What is it?”
“Ten li east of Wei City, there’s a barren mountain. They say a demonic cultivator once left an underground palace there. But it’s only a legend. No one has ever seen it with their own eyes.”
“I see. Thank you, Madam.”
Shu Fu bowed deeply, offering Old Madam Luan a solemn salute. “Your words have been immensely helpful.”
Old Madam Luan hurriedly bent at the waist. “Please, you mustn’t! Immortal Maiden, there’s no need to say that. Our family has nothing of value. I’ve wasted my entire life, and now I’m merely waiting to die in this desolate place, offering a single stick of incense to the Dragon God. I haven’t done anything to help.”
“Not at all. You’ve been of great help this time.”
After another round of thanks, refusals, and mutual bows, Shu Fu knew that they had accomplished what they came for. She rose and prepared to take her leave.
She had obtained the information she needed. The azure-luan bloodline in the Luan family was so thin that they were nearly indistinguishable from ordinary mortals; they were not among the “Five Phoenixes” Jiang Xuesheng was seeking.
Besides, if they did not wish to leave and insisted on staying to guard this Dragon God Temple, no one could force them.
Only then did Jiang Xuesheng, who had been quietly listening all this time, speak:
“Old Madam Luan, have you ever considered leaving this place? The world is vast, and the children are still young. They ought to go out and see it.”
“Leave?”
Old Madam Luan looked confused. At his words, Luan Dai’s expression changed, and he once again slammed the table in anger.
“We’re not leaving! What will happen to the Dragon God Temple if we do?”
He had grown up listening to the legends of the Dragon God. Now, grief and indignation filled his heart, and his eyes seemed almost ready to overflow with tears.
“The dragons are already gone. The Five Phoenixes have withered away one after another. All that remains is scum like Lingxiao City, who can’t wait for the yuan-chu clan to dominate everything and take their place... Apart from us, who else remembers the Dragon God? Who else is grateful to the Dragon God?”
“Perhaps the Dragon God does not need anyone’s gratitude.”
Jiang Xuesheng answered gently. There was not the slightest hint of mockery in his voice; instead, he showed a patience he had never displayed before.
“If he cared about such things, he would not have vanished from the sight of the world.”
His voice was clear and transparent, reminding Shu Fu of the first time they had met. When faced with Big Yellow, the stranded descendant of the great honghu, Jiang Xuesheng had worn the same expression.
Detached and tranquil, keeping a slight distance from everyone. He seemed indifferent, yet carried an unspeakable compassion.
As though he had seen through all the ways of the world, yet still could not bear to let go.
He seemed heartless, and yet was full of feeling.
Patiently and gently, he continued:
“I believe the Dragon God—this ‘Lord Yinglong’ you speak of—quelled the demonic calamity in the first place so that living beings could have better lives. You are descendants of the Five Phoenixes. Like the dragon clan, you are his most cherished kin. He would not be pleased if you lived miserable lives simply to keep a single stick of incense burning for him.”
“What...?”
“H-How do you know...?”
At these words, Shu Fu came to an abrupt halt. Old Madam Luan and Luan Dai exchanged looks, both utterly bewildered and confused.
Only the little girl, Luan Qingtian, remained innocent and carefree. Her bright black eyes darted from face to face as she studied everyone present.
“The Dragon God? Little White Snake, do you know the Dragon God? Where is he now? Is he doing well? Everyone has forgotten him, but… but my grandmother, my father, my eldest brother, and I—we all miss him very much.”
Jiang Xuesheng did not answer again. He merely poked Shu Fu’s palm with the tip of his tail.
“Fu’er, let’s go.”
“...”
Without changing expression, Shu Fu lowered her gaze and gave him a look of mutual understanding. Scooping the white snake into her hands, she turned at last to the stunned and speechless Luan family. With a slight bow, she said solemnly:
“If any of you should need anything in the future, you may come to find me at Shaking Peak of the Ninefold Splendor Sect. For as long as I live, I will be there.”
…
…
The moment they left the Luan residence, Shu Fu rose into the air on her sword. She flew several li in one breath before landing in an empty, deserted stretch of wilderness. Holding the white snake up before her with both hands, she stared into his eyes.
“...”
For a time, neither woman nor snake spoke. Only the breeze threaded its way through the heavy silence.
The grass swayed in the wind, clear dewdrops glimmering at the tips of the blades beneath the sunlight. A petal or two drifted past now and then, and an unfamiliar, subtle fragrance flowed through the air.
Shu Fu had many questions, but Jiang Xuesheng did not speak, and she did not know where to begin.
Why had he said those things to the Luan family?
Why did he care so deeply about the Five Phoenixes?
Did he truly know the Dragon God?
Or could it be that he—
A thousand words rose to her throat. In the end, however, Shu Fu only gazed deeply at the slender white snake in her palm, so delicate he seemed as though a breath might break him, and asked the one question that mattered.
“Sir. That Dragon God you spoke of... is he well now?”
“...”
Jiang Xuesheng quietly lifted his head and glanced at her. Then, in a flash of flowing light, he resumed the human form Shu Fu knew so well.
His robes fluttered in the wind; he seemed born of immortal bone and heavenly grace.
As if he stood upon a distant mountain peak, deep among white clouds, untouched by the mortal world.
On his moon-bright face still rested that calm, indifferent smile—as though heaven and earth had never been worthy of his notice.
Forgetful of self and all things, unmoved by favor or disgrace. Radiant as peach blossoms and plum flowers, clear and brilliant as the morning sun.
Smiling, he answered, “Of course. He is doing very well—free and happy. If the dragon clan and the descendants of the Five Phoenixes can all live well, neither harming others nor being harmed themselves, then he will be even happier. But to make that happen, we will still have to put in some effort.”
“...”
Shu Fu stared blankly at his smiling face, momentarily at a loss for words.
She could tell that Jiang Xuesheng was not forcing a smile. If he said he was happy, then he truly was happy from the bottom of his heart.
And faced with her question, which had struck straight at the heart of the matter, he had not evaded or dismissed it. He had all but openly acknowledged his identity.
Jiang Xuesheng truly did share a profound connection with the “Dragon God” of three thousand years ago.
Perhaps he was the Dragon God’s closest friend and old companion—or perhaps...
“You—”
Because he was being so forthright, Shu Fu found it almost unreal. “Sir, you’re just going to tell me like this?”
Judging by the Dragon God’s lofty status, this had to be a world-shaking secret, right? By all conventional storytelling rules, it was the sort of thing that wouldn’t be revealed until the final volume of a long novel.
“Yes. I think I should tell you.”
Jiang Xuesheng lowered his brows, his eyelids half-lowered. His gaze rested on her face with the serene benevolence of a divine statue.
“I told you—in Yaoguang Peak, your questions will always be answered.”
“Then, just what are you—”
Shu Fu was about to ask another question, but Jiang Xuesheng beat her to it. He extended one finger and pressed it firmly against her lips—casting a silencing spell for good measure.
Shu Fu: “??????”
Jiang Xuesheng: “However, if you can’t bring yourself to ask, then I won’t have to answer. It’s a long story. Once we’ve dealt with Ling Fengqing, I’ll tell you everything from beginning to end.”
Shu Fu: “………………”
—No, seriously, was this man actually a jerk???
—That spring, with apricot blossoms drifting in the rain, you told me you were connected to the Dragon God who would save the world. The shock, emotion, and flutter of my heart that flashed through me at that moment… In the end, they were all wasted on you!
The little deer in her heart hadn’t died, exactly. But at this moment, it really wanted to charge into Jiang Xuesheng three times and out three times, stabbing seventeen or eighteen perfectly transparent holes through him.
