Yao King

One day, Nian Dada and You Liang were in the middle of repairing tables, chairs, and stools in the Hall of Ignorance when they saw their second uncle act like a runaway feral dog, whizzing down from the summit while shouting in rapid bursts. “Don’t chase me! I’m going into seclu… n…”

Nian Dada and You Liang looked at each other, confused as to what the hell ‘seclun’ was.

Before the end of that sound was finished, Li Yun had already dashed into an unnamed cave at the mountain’s waist, the wind beneath his feet, and sealed up its entrance with a prohibition on his back hand. The entire act could be labeled as, ‘someone has great hand-eye coordination’.

Unexpectedly, the next moment, an irrational band of swordlight descended from the sky, hacking the prohibition that some unknown predecessor had left behind into pieces. Sect Leader Yan showed his face, a murderous aura rolling off of him.

Nian Dada elbowed You Liang, having an expression of awe. “My god, your Master is really powerful.”

“…” You Liang felt like he should switch Masters with Nian Dada, so that the two of them didn’t look like they had entered the wrong sect.

The pursued Li Yun scrambled away in a flurry as he drew a howl out of his throat. “Master! The eldest is about to commit murder! Open your eyes and look, old man! You left too soon! No one can control him, no one can get justice for me! He covers the sky with one hand… Heavens, help me!”

Nian Dada was dumbstruck. This was the first time he had ever heard such systematic anguished howling.

As if sensing something, You Liang looked up in time to see a red shadow dashing through the forest. It was Shui… nope, little aunt Han Tan and a white crane silently slipping by. Like it was something routine, they occupied a hidden spot that was convenient for watching the fun, yet also wouldn’t get them a role in the fun being watched.

How many times had the tragic experience of getting caught in the crossfire occurred, for them to have practiced this until it was down pat?

You Liang had quite a bit of a stable mind, so he swiftly deigned to copy the example of his senior. Pushing Nian Dada’s skull down, he shut the courtyard door of the Hall of Ignorance, and then, one above and one below, they peered out from the multitude of cracks in the Hall’s gate.

This matter could be described as being as long a story that a motherless child would have; in short, all of it hung onto the fact that Li Yun had loose lips when he drank too much, making him getting chased and beaten up not an injustice at all.

It took place a few days back, during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Everyone had drunk a little much, sans the teetotaler Cheng Qian. He caught sight of a miscellaneous book of Li Yun’s that described off-kilter charms, and decided to borrow it for a look in a fit of interest. Unexpectedly, the instant he opened it, a ‘bookmark’ fell out from inside. By happenstance… it was the note that Yan Zhengming had written to Li Yun regarding Heart-Purging Pills.

Cheng Qian naturally recognized the eldest’s handwriting, but he genuinely didn’t suspect anything, merely casually asking after it.

Yet, Li Yun had gotten so drunk, he couldn’t find where North was anymore, mad with intoxication. Hearing such a question, he immediately looked immensely shocked, then roared at a very uncomprehending Cheng Qian. “Eldest! Eldest, you can’t blame me for you giving yourself away!”

“…”

Cheng Qian had only brought it up casually. Now that he’d heard this, he couldn’t just not ask further.

Following that… it was heard that he had gone to the summit to practice in seclusion the very next day, not even dawdling at the Residence of Peace’s gate. Anyone that attempted to go to the summit and ‘disturb his seclusion’ would have to mentally prepare to get lifted up and thrown down by Shuang Ren.

Fuyao’s summit had since become a frozen wasteland. In no more than a few days’ time, the village down the mountain would likely be telling ghost stories that said stuff like ‘the mountain god’s wife died, turning everything white overnight’.

Yan Zhengming was beside himself. With no way to get to Cheng Qian, he’d had no choice but to hunt Li Yun, the cause of this calamity, all across the land.

“Help me!” Li Yun cried. “He’s a murderer! Sister! Third brother!”

Shui Keng was hiding out in the dense woods and pretending to be dead, petting the birdie neck of the white crane. “I feel like it’d be a lot safer to go to the backmountain and wage war with Yao Valley. What do you think?” she asked anxiously.

The crane rubbed against her palm, supporting her going back to snatch the throne.

Li Yun let out a miserable shriek, like a pig getting murdered. “None of you have any conscience… Shui Keng! I endured changing diapers to raise you, yet you’ll sit and watch me die?!… Xiao Qian! Do you have the heart to let this senior that you’ve cowed bear this sin for you?! AAAAAHHH! Eldest, I was wrong! I’ll never do it again! Spare my doggy life!…”

All of a sudden, Li Yun’s howling and Yan Zhengming’s property damage came to a simultaneous halt. Raising his head curiously, Nian Dada saw his Master, ever as graceful as a high immortal, standing upon a massive boulder while holding his sword, coldly observing this farce.

“My Master seems to have come to save all life on Earth…”

You Liang sighed. “Brother Nian, you haven’t yet finished your punishment of carving out three-hundred chi of charms. You should still keep some distance from Third Uncle.”

Sect Leader Yan, who had just been showing off his might, instantly changed shape, going from an archdemon as cold as frost to a frail Young Master in white clothes. “Xiao Qian…” he called out, looking sheepish.

Cheng Qian glanced at him expressionlessly.

Yan Zhengming shuffled his feet nervously against the ground, but there was an aggravating look of ‘I’ll lower myself to coax you’ on his face. He coughed dryly. “Ahem, fine. I’ll give you some words of explanation.”

Laughing coldly, Cheng Qian gently stuck Shuang Ren into the ground, ears opened to listen.

The other stiffly wetted his dry and cracking lips. In reality, he knew that the implications of the Heart-Purging Pill were evident at first glance, and there was nothing to explain. No matter what he said next, he would pretty much make everything worse.

Sect Leader Yan was mute for a short moment. At long last, he decided to relinquish his face, point at Li Yun, and push everything onto him with righteous diction. “It was him that embellished the story in order to sow discord! That note was only to have him make up some ordinary pills for me! What are you, Li Yun? Someone that fears a world not in chaos, right? You can’t go a day without making things hard for me, can you? Ever since childhood, you’ve had improper schemes, and haven’t made a lick of progress!”

Inverting black and white, making a deer out to be a horse… these were things Yan Zhengming had perfected.

He talked and talked, nearly convincing even himself. At the start, he’d been putting on a show of force while being weak on the inside, but that had turned into confidence in the blink of an eye — he was so confident, in fact, that it was completely sincere, as if all of this actually had been done by Li Yun.

The latter poked his resentful head out of the cavern that got ruined by a sword cultivator, thinking to himself, Is it too late for me to rebel against the sect?

Yan Zhengming viciously stuck him with an eye dagger.

Hairs standing on end, Li Yun shrank his neck back, and spoke in violation of his heart. “Isn’t that just right! Xiao Qian, the eldest here only asked me for antidiarrheals, which he wasn’t used to doing! It had no relation to Heart-Purging Pills! It was all me… m-m-me talking nonsense! Who even knows what I was saying? I deserve to be silenced by the Sect Leader as per sect rules— ow!”

Yan Zhengming sent a sharp burst of true essence tumbling down, which accurately knocked Li Yun down to the ground.

Hearing so, Cheng Qian became all the more furious, but he remained collected on the surface. He felt that Yan Zhengming’s undertone was that he was not only not going to honestly admit that he was wrong, but had also learned how to lie without blinking.

He had really indulged him too much.

Witnessing Cheng Qian turn around and leave without speaking to him, Yan Zhengming quickly called out to him in fright. “Wait, what are you going to do?”

Cheng Qian didn’t turn his head. “Informing the Sect Leader; I’m going off the mountain to travel for a century.”

Yan Zhengming was tongue-tied, finally sensing that this had gotten out of hand.

Li Yun and the watching-from-a-faraway-hideout Shui Keng were both flabbergasted, too. The latter no longer cared about sitting to the side and observing, spreading out her wings alongside the puffed-up white crane — if her senior brother actually did leave, there would be no one on the Mountain that could suppress the villain that was the Sect Leader.

That awful plight could not come to be!

“Brother, don’t go!” she cried out, her voice so mournful, listeners could shed tears from it.

Yan Zhengming’s lips slightly shifted, a subtle emotion arising in his heart; him raising her hadn’t been in vain. Even though she was typically lazy and gluttonous, at critical times, she stood on his side very stably.

Then, he saw her spread out her wings to block Cheng Qian’s way, and say with a sorrowful, near-weeping face, “If you’re going to leave, take me with you!”

Yan Zhengming: “…”

From top to bottom of this goddamn sect, not a single member wasn’t a selfish prick!

In the midst of this chaos, a shrill shriek suddenly came from the backmountain. Everyone startled in quick succession, no longer caring to fight.

Cheng Qian’s figure quickly bounced several times, and he reached the top of Fuyao in a wink. He saw that the mountain cave was in turmoil. On account of some violent shaking, the formerly-quiet cold pool of the cave showed a layer of white waves.

“What’s going on?” he whispered.

Yan Zhengming listened in for a short moment. “Seems like something’s happened in Yao Valley… odd.”

Right then, they saw the pool part to two sides, after which Zhenren Zipeng, who had not changed at all in a hundred years, came out. The old hen’s eyes were still like a falcon’s, but they had no trace of deterrent power towards the people of today.

Yan Zhengming looked down upon her, waiting for her to speak. His stern face, which neither incited disaster nor offended anyone, was intimidating.

It was unknown if Zipeng recognized this youngster that she had sent flying with one feather a century ago. Her expression was complicated as she viewed the nearby Shui Keng, after which she bowed slightly, making a deferential motion. “A great yao rebellion has recently broken out in the Valley. The Yao King is dead, and too much is going on. Please temporarily seal up the mountain cave, Sect Leader.”

This news arrived suddenly, but was unsurprising. Past Yao Kings getting switched out had inevitably been accompanied by bloodshed, where the murdering party would take the seat — they weren’t even sure if the Yao King that died this time was the same one that had been in power when they had gone to find Han Yuan.

Yan Zhengming furrowed his brow slightly, hands behind his back as he stood at the summit. “Thank you for informing us. If there is anything in the Valley that we can help a bit with, please don’t be too polite and simply say it, Zhenren Zipeng.”

Those words were a bit arrogant, giving something of a feeling that he didn’t place any importance onto the Valley, but Zipeng knew that he had that power.

This generation of the Fuyao Sect was not plentiful in numbers, yet its strength was unprecedentedly awing. There was a sword cultivator in the Sword Spirit Realm, a half-immortal that had undergone heavenly tribulations, a bird that had inherited a three-thousand-year-old yao core, the most unpromising Ninth Chain Daoist that had already cultivated a primordial spirit… and Han Yuan, the devil of the faraway Nanjiang that now intimidated the region, did not need to be mentioned.

Zhenren Zipeng looked at Yan Zhengming with mixed emotions. Deep in the mountains, an unknown amount of time had flowed past while the events of humanity had shifted, a century rushing past in a snap. Back then, Han Muchun had been half-human, half-ghost; even with the Sect Leader Seal in his palm, controlling the entire Mountain would have been difficult, so he had had to set the rule that disciples were not allowed to go to the backmountains. Even when the Heavenly Yao had descended to the world, Lord Beiming’s dithering soul had personally calmed things.

Now, she had merely been on a long seclusion, yet the human world had already flipped on its head.

The one before her was aloof and proud, emitting the aura of a generational grandmaster. He was no longer the small child she had once bossed around. At the end, she merely bowed her head with her sleeves overlapping over her stomach. “Many thanks to you, Sect Leader.”

With that, she slowly sank down into the pool.

Such an intrusion caused Cheng Qian to temporarily forget his recent anger. “Seal up the mountain?”

“Just set up a prohibition. I have no plans to go out as of late, and who would dare to cross me to rush to the cave?”

Hearing that bombastic tone, Cheng Qian finally remembered that they were in a cold war, and immediately rolled his eyes. “Is that so? You just get more and more awe-inspiring, Sect Leader,” he scathed.

The other suddenly realized that he had lost himself. Heart filled with trepidation, he put on airs in his speech to compensate. “D… don’t. Fuyao is currently unstable, and not too secure. The last time there was a great calamity in Yao Valley, our martial grandfather’s soul was used up! How can you abandon your sect without a care at this critical juncture?!”

Cheng Qian stared at him woodenly, turned, and left.

Yan Zhengming plodded along after him. “Are you going back to the Residence? Okay then, I’ll warm up a bowl of plum tea for you… let’s have a nice chat later. Tch, you’re really spoiled rotten… Xiao Qian, wait up!”

“…” Li Yun cursed silently a couple of times, turned his head, saw Shui Keng staring blankly at the cold pool, and called out to her. “Sister, what are you looking at? Let’s go.”

Her brows furrowed. She looked serious, as if making an important decision.

Li Yun stopped in his tracks. “What is it?”

Shui Keng suddenly raised her head. “Second brother, I want to go to Yao Valley.”

He was taken aback. The crane raised its head, too.

“I’m a greater yao that inherited a yao core! Why would I just watch at the sidelines while the Valley is in turmoil? Our race has a lot of good people in it; do they deserve to get dragged into the fights that greater yao get into every so often? There’s also those old turtles that spit out Heavenly prophecies, talking about whoever is going to be a bringer of death all the time… I’m no bringer of death! I’m going to show them all that!”

When she said that, her body appeared to be on fire. Li Yun was quiet for a time.

Three days later, the entire Fuyao Sect congregated at the backmountains. Shui Keng’s arms were stuffed full of various talismans of unknown usage, each one able to be speculated into sky-high prices. While tidying up for her, Yan Zhengming scolded, “As I see it, you’ve gotten pretty full of yourself. A proper human you are not, you’re going to be chief of the birds… when you get beaten up until you cry, you’re not allowed to come back and whine about it!”

Li Yun sighed. “Powerful yao? Bullshit. You’ve never left my sight since you were little… alas, you’ve gotten so many ambitions. If you run into trouble in the Valley, just announce the eldest’s name. The yao will be too afraid to upset a sword cultivator for no reason—“

Cheng Qian’s brows had never un-knitted this whole time, and at this very moment, he cut off Li Yun’s chatter. “How about I go with you on your trip?”

Before Shui Keng had time to protest, Yan Zhengming let out a weird noise from his throat. “What? No!”

Following that, he thought about it, then made a concession. “If you’re going, so am I!”

“…” Shui Keng watched as her adventure was about to turn into a one-day-long outing with family in tow.

All of a sudden, a massive, ghost-faced sculpture flew over from far away, its entire body pitch-black as it arrogantly whirred on over. After orbiting the summit a bit, the big bird apprehensively looked at Yan Zhengming and the rest, then landed on the other side of the pool, the eerie demonic qi surrounding it stirring up the water into restlessness.

The sculpture was heard to scream, then suddenly spit out human words in Han Yuan’s voice. “I heard that there’s unrest in Yao Valley? I’m lending this sculpture to you. If you can’t sort out those beasts with this piece of junk, then just die there and don’t bother to come back!”

After finishing its master’s message, the sculpture resumed its bird cry, flying up as it shrieked. It then proudly landed beside Shui Keng, and belittled itself by bowing its head, forcing her to pet that noble skull.

Shui Keng… Han Tan’s back sprouted two massive wings that faintly shimmered with burning fire, like red clouds filling the sky. Like so, she stepped into Yao Valley, carrying the ghost-faced sculpture, as well as the various self-protection talismans that her three seniors had given her.

“I’m going to go take on the world!” she said without looking back, sweeping up sky-filling, swishing gales, like a juvenile and awkward King.

“The world, my ass. Isn’t that just a nook in the mountains?” Sect Leader Yan asked. “Get back here for the holidays! Don’t go feral out there and forget your home, you hear? I’ll break your bird legs if you do!”

Shui Keng stumbled, and she fell headfirst into the cold pool.

…This expedition of taking on the world thus started off with a sorry-looking dog eating dirt.