**A Crushing Blow to My Teammates!**
While the teahouse was in utter chaos and the silly fish stood there in bewilderment, several pairs of eyes beneath the splendid carriage of Lingxiao City, at the other end of the long street, were watching the scene as well.
“Elder Huayue... no, Mr. Xie.”
Ling Fengqing’s face was cold and imposing. His sharply defined, angular features were set in a grim expression, and his low voice carried a lofty note of mockery.
“Are you truly certain that the one who set these questions—the Supreme Elder of the Tianyan Sect—is one of the long-vanished Qingluan descendants?”
“Indeed. Other than the Qingluan, no one in this world could possess such startling, unconventional imagination. And I happen to know that this imagination was inherited from their ancestors.”
Another voice came from behind the heavy, luxurious carriage curtains. It was as pleasing to the ear as an exquisite instrument, gentle and unhurried, with a peculiar, captivating rhythm. Yet it lacked some strength; the speaker kept his voice low, as though afflicted by some lingering ailment.
“The Qingluan have lived in seclusion for a thousand years. Who would have thought we would find news of them here? As the saying goes, ‘the darkest place is beneath the lamp.’ By supporting the Tianyan Sect and concealing themselves in its shadow, they achieved the most perfect deception.”
“Still... the Qingluan have always been honest and straightforward. This Perfected He Meng, however, seems somewhat unconventional.”
“And creatures like them dare call themselves descendants of divine birds?”
Ling Fengqing gave a derisive snort, his brows filled with contempt. “Crude, vulgar, and willingly debased. They are no better than the Honghu—useless trash, every one of them. As expected, apart from dragons and phoenixes, only our race is fit to rule the world and set the universe in order.”
The voice within the carriage replied leisurely, “Among the ancient mythical beasts, dragons and phoenixes stood supreme. Now, the dragons have vanished, while the bloodlines of the phoenix and the Yuanzhuo are nearly extinct. No one knows where they may have scattered, or whether any descendants remain.”
“The Honghu, Qingluan, and Yuanchu still have surviving clans. The Honghu have the fewest descendants. Several centuries ago, their main bloodline was wiped out by demonic cultivators, leaving behind only one egg and one cat, both of which fell into the hands of the Jiuhua Sect. The Qingluan claim that ‘the affairs of the world are too troublesome; better to return to the fields,’ and retreated behind the Tianyan Sect. They have remained silent and unseen for a thousand years. Compared with Lingxiao City, ruled by the Yuanchu clan, they are hardly worth mentioning.”
“Naturally.”
Ling Fengqing nodded with immense pride, lifting his pointed chin high. He raised a hand to stroke the lavish embroidery of a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix on his robe.
“My father spent his entire life striving to restore the Yuanchu. As his son, I will inherit his cause. I will unite both the human and demon races, and make the Yuanchu the true ‘foremost of all living beings.’”
Though his words were grand and imposing, Shu Fu had recently yanked out a patch of his hair, leaving a bald spot that had yet to grow back. For the past two days, he had been forced to conceal it with his topknot, lest his scalp be exposed.
Whenever he tried to look impressive in the wind, he could not help feeling a chilly draft over the top of his head.
“I shall watch with interest.”
The person inside the carriage chuckled. There was a faint trace of mockery and cold indifference in his voice.
“However, what the Eldest Young Master ought to be worrying about right now is whether Ling Qingyue can answer this ‘crude and vulgar’ question. If she loses here, it will be a tremendous disgrace to the Yuanchu clan.”
Ling Fengqing: “...”
“...”
Ling Qingyue felt an enormous weight settling on her shoulders.
It wasn’t that she felt embarrassed because of the [MOSAIC]. She simply never imagined that, after growing up hearing her elders say, “The yuan-chu and the honghu have long been at odds. Should you ever encounter one, you must keep your distance,” her own future would one day hang on the honghu’s [MOSAIC].
Liu Ruyi: Thanks for asking. I didn’t see this coming either.
As one might expect, Ling Qingyue had taken her elders’ teachings to heart. She had never even looked Liu Ruyi in the face, let alone found out whether he had a bird beneath his robes.
Fortunately, this question was simpler than the one Ji Shaoguang had drawn. It only asked whether the honghu had one—a simple yes-or-no question. At least she had a fifty percent chance of getting it right.
—Did he have one, or didn’t he?
The hope for the rest of her life was riding on such a ridiculous question. Ling Qingyue thought.
How laughable.
How tragic.
Born in Lingxiao City as a disregarded member of a collateral branch, she had studied and trained tirelessly, desperately striving to win herself and her younger siblings a chance to rise above their circumstances.
Who could have imagined that, just as she had finally begun to distinguish herself and earned the favor of the clan’s eldest young master, she would be sent to answer a life-or-death question like this—and then have to face a bizarre examiner who seemed determined to tease her at every turn?
She had already used up her chance to ask for help. The thirty seconds slipped away amid her sorrowful self-mockery. After agonizing over it from every conceivable angle, Ling Qingyue shut her eyes, steeled her heart, and answered without another thought:
“The honghu… does!”
“Ah, what a pity.”
Jiang Xuesheng sighed, though the schadenfreude in his eyes was practically overflowing. “She got it right. Ruyi, it seems your… is very trustworthy indeed. How surprising. Normally, most people would assume that birds ‘don’t have one.’”
Liu Ruyi said coldly, “Sir, are you insulting me again?”
“Hahahahahaha!”
Wu Yao had long since laughed himself onto the floor. With his entire body a vivid emerald green, he looked like a twitching blade of grass.
“Hahahahaha… Neither of you has any room to laugh at the other! As far as I’m concerned, you’re both equally matched. Hahahahahaha…”
“…”
Liu Ruyi’s expression darkened. She stepped on the tip of his tail.
“Lich King, feeling confident again? Still, in my opinion, being discussed for whether you ‘have one’ is less tragic than having one and being unable to use it.”
Wu Yao: “Are you insulting me again?!”
Shu Fu: “…”
Why must men make things difficult for other men? Besides, every last one of you was single, keeping an empty bed for a hundred years. None of you could use it anyway.
Si Fei: “…???”
To be honest, from the moment the [MOSAIC] appeared, he hadn’t understood a single word of the conversation around the table.
After all, he didn’t even know what the [MOSAIC] was or why it had been censored. He only thought that his junior sister was amazing for effortlessly answering a question he couldn’t make heads or tails of.
“…………”
While the people of Yaoguang Peak continued tearing into one another, Ling Qingyue sat with both eyes tightly shut and her face as pale as gold leaf, anxiously awaiting her verdict.
Then the host announced in a clear, ringing voice:
“Fellow Daoist Ling is indeed worthy of her illustrious lineage. She is learned, gifted, and possessed of extraordinary knowledge at such a young age. Truly, she is a model for all of us cultivators.”
Ling Qingyue felt the tightness in her chest ease. She opened her eyes in delighted surprise. “Then…”
“—But unfortunately, you got this question wrong. There are no honghu.”
Ling Qingyue: “...!!!”
Liu Ruyi: “Fuck!!!!”
Jiang Xuesheng: “...I should have seen this coming. Hold Ruyi down. Don’t let him storm into the Tianyan Sect and murder someone.”
“Senior Brother Big Bird, calm down, Senior Brother Big Bird!!! This is a misunderstanding!!! That Elder Qingluan must have misunderstood! We all know your bird is huge!!!!”
Shu Fu desperately wrapped her arms around Liu Ruyi from behind—no easy task, because he had completely transformed into an enraged little bird, as though he might launch himself out the window at any moment. Shu Fu, Zhao Yun, and Si Fei were soon joined by Ye Shusheng and Xiao Tieyi—the latter having absolutely no idea what was going on—and it took all of them to restrain Liu Ruyi.
Throughout all this, Jiang Xuesheng remained seated, utterly unmoving. He did not so much as lift an eyelid, watching idly from the sidelines with an exceptionally punchable expression.
“...”
For a moment, Shu Fu could not tell whether he was being so punchable in order to preserve his immortal image, or whether he was repaying Liu Ruyi for laughing at him earlier.
What was equally hard to tell was which of them had suffered more from the host’s announcement of the “correct answer”: Liu Ruyi or Ling Qingyue.
Ling Qingyue’s knees gave way, and she collapsed to the ground. The despair and terror she had been suppressing finally burst through the dam, and two streams of tears slid uncontrollably down her cheeks.
“There isn’t any… Why isn’t there any… How can there be no honghu…?”
Liu Ruyi: “What do you mean, there isn’t any??? Who says I don’t have one??? Can you not say that while crying? People are going to misunderstand—it’ll sound like I tricked you into marrying me, only to turn out useless in bed???!”
But no one paid any attention to his protest. The ignorant mortals who knew nothing about divine beasts—in Liu Ruyi’s eyes at that moment, everyone was an idiot—suddenly saw the light and voiced their admiration one after another:
“As expected of the Tianyan Sect’s Grand Elder. He even knows such obscure trivia.”
“This Five Provinces Quiz has truly been an enlightening experience.”
“When I get back, I’ll record this in our sect archives so future generations can study it properly. So that’s how it is—flood dragons possess a wondrous thing called a ‘Heart-Guarding Scale.’ No wonder they are descendants of dragons.”
“So honghu don’t have them. Even divine beasts are still birds in the end; they can’t defy the natural order of the world…”
Liu Ruyi: “………………”
Fuck every last one of you.
Wu Yao nearly laughed himself to death, gleefully twisting the knife. “Being discussed for whether you ‘have one or not’ is still less tragic than ‘having one but it being useless.’ Liu Xiao, I’m returning those words to you exactly as you said them. So tell me—which of us is more pathetic?”
“…”
Shu Fu silently placed a teacup over Wu Yao’s head, lest he go looking for death again.
As the saying goes, “People’s joys and sorrows do not necessarily connect.” While chaos reigned over here, Ji Shaoguang had won first place in one fell swoop. Beaming, she accepted her prize—a Bonding Flower—and, while calmly receiving the envious gazes and lavish praise of the onlookers, did not forget to modestly commend her opponent:
“Fellow Daoist Ling, you needn’t be so disheartened. Grand Martial Ancestor’s question was… truly fiendish. If I hadn’t had a friend’s help, I would already have lost to you on the previous one. As for today’s contest, I’d say we should call it a draw.”
“But the result is that you won, and I lost.”
Ling Qingyue looked up with a bitter, pained smile. Two tear tracks stood out starkly on her cheeks. “A bet is a bet. Perhaps this is simply my fate.”
“Fellow Daoist Ling?”
Ji Shaoguang sensed that something was amiss in her attitude and was about to press her further when Ling Qingyue abruptly turned around. Staggering, she descended from the platform and walked unsteadily toward the Lingxiao City carriage.
Her legs felt as though they had been filled with lead. Every step weighed a thousand jun, nearly draining the last of the courage remaining in her heart.
Before she could reach Ling Fengqing, it was as if all her strength had been spent. With a heavy thud, she fell to her knees and lowered her head in supplication.
“This disciple, Qingyue, has failed. I beg Young Master to punish me.”
“…”
Ling Fengqing stood with his hands behind his back, chin raised and nostrils pointed skyward in his usual arrogant posture. Without even glancing down at Ling Qingyue, he coldly pronounced her fate.
“Since you did your best, I’ll spare you a little consideration. Your cultivation will be crippled, and you will be expelled from Lingxiao City.”
Ling Qingyue was struck as though by lightning, nearly fainting on the spot. “Young Master, please show mercy! I—I am willing to request expulsion from the clan myself and leave Lingxiao City. I’ll disappear from before your eyes forever! I only beg you—please, don’t cripple my cultivation…”
“Oh?”
Ling Fengqing finally deigned to give her a glance, but there was not the slightest warmth in his eyes. He regarded her as though she were nothing more than a slaughter-bound animal.
“Qingyue, are you bargaining with me?”
“Qingyue wouldn’t dare. It’s just that…”
“If you wouldn’t dare, then there’s no need to say anything more.”
Ling Fengqing had no patience to deal with a defeated opponent. He waved impatiently to either side.
“Do it.”
The lackeys at his sides immediately rushed forward. Without giving the tearfully pleading Ling Qingyue a chance to resist, they forced her to the ground.
Then—
The hand Ling Fengqing had raised but not yet lowered was suddenly wrapped by a zither string. A powerful force traveled through it in the next instant, flipping him bodily through the air and dragging him violently from the carriage before smashing him heavily onto the ground!
“Who?!”
Ling Fengqing reacted with astonishing speed. He steadied himself at once, sprang to his feet, and seized the zither string with his other hand, attempting to yank out the hidden assailant at its far end.
At the same time, however, he heard the wind howl beside his ears. A peerlessly fierce blade of light came crashing down toward his head, carrying the force of a thousand bolts of thunder. Had he not ducked at the very last instant, the blade would have nearly cleaved away half his skull.
Ling Fengqing’s skull escaped disaster, but his topknot did not. The sharp blade sliced it clean off, sending strands of hair flying and exposing an eye-catching bald patch atop his head.
“How dare you—”
Furious beyond measure, Ling Fengqing looked up, only to find a sword and a saber poised inches from his nose, their piercing edges gleaming so brightly that the frigid light nearly scorched his eyes.
The sword belonged to Shu Fu.
The saber belonged to Xiao Tieyi.
Without exchanging a single word, the two of them leapt from the high tower in the same instant. They outpaced everyone else, charging straight toward Ling Fengqing’s carriage. Their weapons flew from their sheaths at the same time—one drew her sword, the other swung her blade—their movements perfectly coordinated, as though they had been longtime friends.
Even their expressions bore a certain resemblance: both regarded Ling Fengqing with icy disdain, as if he were nothing more than a dog.
Shu Fu arched a brow and smiled as she delivered the familiar opening line—the one that always sent his blood pressure soaring:
“Ling Big Dog. Long time no see.”
