Snow Lotus

The Great Elder of the Chen family paused, carefully choosing his words before continuing. "There are still about ten days left until the rainy season ends. Young Master... Chen Fan's Jiangbei Chen Family Outpost No. 37 still stands upon the wasteland. "There is currently no sign of it falling." As his words fell, several elders beside him subconsciously glanced up at him. A flicker of displeasure crossed the eyes of the Chen family retainer seated opposite them, though he said nothing. Chen Quan kept his head lowered, fidgeting with the corner of his robes, his expression concealed. The Chen Family Head showed no intention of opening his eyes either. While the title "Young Master Chen Fan" sounded jarring to their ears, what they had to admit at this point was that Chen Fan had unquestionably become an architect—and a formidable one at that. Under such circumstances, regardless of his past standing, they had to afford him a certain level of respect. At the very least, Retainer Liu knew full well in his heart that even with an unlimited supply of ghost stones, he could never have survived eighteen days in the rainy season. Putting everything else aside, where would anyone get so many building blueprints? Didn't one have to study them? Didn't one have to practice? Could that Chen Fan truly conjure a building into existence with nothing more than a thought? Seeing that no one intended to chime in, the Great Elder continued. "At the northernmost edge of the Jiangbei Wasteland, bordering the sea, lies a peak known as 'Nameless Mountain.' The ghost-skin map shows a ghost fire ignited there several days ago, and it has not gone out since. "My guess is that it is likely a branch outpost built by Young Master Chen Fan. "Furthermore..." He paused for a beat. "Last night, the ghost-skin map showed twenty additional ghost fires suddenly flaring up on Nameless Mountain, only to be extinguished shortly after dawn. We do not know what occurred, but in all likelihood, Young Master Chen Fan fought a vicious battle last night. "What Young Master Chen Fan is experiencing out on the wasteland during the rainy season may be far more perilous than we can imagine. "Not to mention that Young Master Chen Fan..." Before he could finish, he was cut off. Chen Quan, who had been sitting quietly, looked up with bloodshot eyes and glared straight at the Great Elder, his voice dripping with venom. "You sure are enjoying calling him 'Young Master Chen Fan' with every breath, aren't you? "The man hasn't even come back yet, and you're already itching to be his dog?" Then, as if suffering an emotional breakdown, he slammed both hands onto the table and sprang to his feet, roaring at the top of his lungs. "I, Chen Quan, am the only young master of the Chen family! The sole heir! "Do you understand? "Can you remember that!" "Insolence!" The Chen Family Head, who had kept his eyes closed in the seat of honor, snapped them open, his cloudy pupils blazing with anger. "He is the Great Elder of the Chen family, and you are a junior! How dare you speak to him like that? "Apologize!" Chen Quan sneered. Without a single word, he turned on his heel and stormed out, slamming the door behind him. The Chen family retainer, the Level 5 architect, also stood up and left with a grim expression. The Chen Family Head remained seated in silence for a long time without saying another word. With a flick of his sleeve, he strode out of the council hall alone. "Great Elder..." Only after the hall was reduced to the remaining few elders did the others look toward the Great Elder. "Sigh." The Great Elder rose, paused for a moment, and sighed. "Do you all have the habit of going to the teahouse to listen to storytellers? "Whenever I listen to stories at the teahouse, there is always a certain type of character who gives you the feeling from the moment he appears that he is doomed to die. "That is precisely the feeling Young Master Chen Quan gives me. "The rainy season is almost over." After offering this cryptic parting remark, the Great Elder said nothing more, shook his head, and walked out of the council hall. *** "Mother!" Elsewhere within the Jiangbei Chen family compound, Chen Quan knelt before a woman, his eyes rimmed with red as tears streamed down his face. "Isn't the Chen family's Level 5 architect retainer one of your people from the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce? "Why must we rely on the Chen family? "Can't we strike out on our own? "Father is being far too unfair!" The woman seated in the chair unhurriedly took a sip of tea before speaking softly. "There are many hidden matters you know nothing about. You only need to understand two things. "First, the Jiangbei Chen family needs our Pingtian Chamber of Commerce. "Second, the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce needs the Jiangbei Chen family. "As for Chen Fan, you need not trouble yourself over him. The schemes we have laid all these years will come to fruition once this rainy season ends. When it is over, Mother will take you away from the Jiangbei Chen family. You have a long life ahead of you. "Once you have seen the outside world, you will understand that a trifling place like Jiangbei City amounts to nothing." Kneeling on the ground with red-rimmed eyes, Chen Quan was taken aback, then grew bewildered. "Mother, what schemes? "Are you telling me not to fight for the heir position anymore?" "Heir?" The woman stood up and moved to sit by the window. Her black cloud-like hair was coiffed impeccably, held in place by a single exquisite hairpin. With a face as fair as white jade, eyebrows curved like crescent moons, and bright red lips parting over snowy teeth, she gazed out at the rain dripping from the eaves. Merely sitting there, she looked like a classical painting treasured in an aristocratic estate. Her bare, delicate feet swung gently in the air, resembling white magnolias newly bloomed after rain, exuding a cool fragrance that brooked no profanation. Smiling faintly, she poured herself another cup of tea and said languidly, "Over a decade ago, my father came from Jiangnan to this godforsaken Jiangbei City. The outside world claimed our family had fallen on hard times and that he brought five thousand ghost stones to make a comeback and establish the Pingtian Chamber of Commerce. "Yet ordinary people are foolish. "Their minds cannot grasp very much. "They could never fathom why our Pingtian Chamber of Commerce, possessing a Level 5 architect, would seek a marriage alliance with the Jiangbei Chen family. Perhaps they truly believed that because my father had only me as his daughter, and daughters must eventually marry, he naturally had to find a local landed gentleman." The woman's attire was strikingly alluring. A loose, moon-white bodice was casually tied, occasionally revealing tantalizing glimpses of skin beneath a pale red robe embroidered with plum blossoms. "And furthermore..." She looked into a bronze mirror, admiring her reflection with evident satisfaction. "How could a wretched place like Jiangbei ever produce a rare beauty like me?" Yet she undeniably possessed the right to be proud. If beauties were ranked, she would unquestionably stand first in Jiangbei City, far beyond the reach of the powdered commoners of the brothels. Untouched by grime, she carried an air that seemed almost sacred and untouchable. Men loved this above all else. The primal urge to conquer and despoil bred into men's bones made them desire nothing more than to ruthlessly ravish women who seemed beyond reach. Kneeling on the floor, Chen Quan's peripheral vision inadvertently caught sight of those swaying, jade-white bare feet. His Adam's apple bobbed uncontrollably, and he hurriedly averted his eyes. Struggling to process what he had just heard, he asked in disbelief, "So my position as the Chen family heir doesn't matter at all?" "It doesn't matter." "Then... Mother, why did you have me fight for it?" "To give you a chance to temper yourself. After all, you will still have to compete in the future." "Mother," Chen Quan took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, "does this grand scheme of yours have something to do with Nameless Mountain?" The woman's delicate eyebrows furrowed again. Pulling her gaze from the rainy courtyard, she looked down at him. "Where did you hear that?" "I..." Chen Quan dared not look directly at his mother. Pressing himself closer to the floor, he stammered, "Last time you and Uncle Liu were talking in the room, I passed by and overheard mentions of Nameless Mountain..." Uncle Liu was Retainer Liu of the Chen family, the Level 5 architect. Chen Quan left the rest unsaid. That time, he had not merely overheard conversation; he had also heard decadent, intimate sounds. Yet he had never told his father. The woman remained silent. The room plunged into dead silence, so quiet that one could have heard a pin drop. Unable to bear the stifling pressure, Chen Quan braced himself and pressed on. "Today in the council hall, the Great Elder said Chen Fan went to Nameless Mountain and built a branch outpost there. If you have plans there, could he ruin them? "Could he make all your years of scheming come to nothing?" As his voice fell, a soft, barely audible chuckle escaped through her nose. "Ruin them?" She leaned an elbow against the windowsill, resting her chin gracefully against long, slender fingers. A flicker of pity tinged her gaze as she tilted her head, searching for a gentle word. "How delightfully naive of you. "Do you know whose former residence Nameless Mountain was? "It belonged to *that person*. "Are you suggesting that the Snow Lotus and Earth Heart Fruit nurtured within the 'Sky-Imprisoning Formation' left behind by that person could be breached and ruined by an ordinary mortal? "If that Chen Fan could truly accomplish such a thing, then perhaps I ought to become his disciple instead. His methods would be far more terrifying than my master's. "Do you know why our organization was named the 'Pingtian Chamber of Commerce'? "Because our goal is to flatten the Sky-Imprisoning Formation." With his cheek pressed against the floor, Chen Quan listened in utter shock. He had never heard such secrets before; it felt as though the true world was slowly unfurling before his eyes. He asked subconsciously, "Won't doing that offend that person?" "That person can barely protect himself right now," the woman said, raising a hand to cover her lips, unable to conceal the trace of triumph dancing in her eyes. "Then why do you refer to him as 'that person' instead of speaking his name?" Before the smile on her face could fully blossom, it froze at the corners of her mouth. Her complexion drained of color for an instant, and even her fingertips curled involuntarily. Taking a deep breath, she regained her usual dignified poise. Yet as she lifted her teacup, her fingers trembled almost imperceptibly. Lowering her eyelids, she said softly, though her voice carried a slight rasp, "It is out of respect for the strong." "Then why did that senior cultivate the Snow Lotus? What is it used for?" "To save an exotic beast." "An exotic beast... Is that a type of ghost creature?" The woman did not answer. She merely turned her head back toward the rain outside and murmured, "You know too much. You will learn everything in time. Keep quiet these days, and wait patiently for the rainy season to pass." After Chen Quan left, a man clad in white drifted into the room like a phantom without opening the door. Standing motionless, his voice sounded eerily calm, shifting between near and far. "Last night, 'Hou Kui' made a move. "The flesh worm ghost tide was herded toward Nameless Mountain as planned, but the wind shifted unexpectedly halfway through, causing a minor complication. The ghost fire on Nameless Mountain did not go out. Shall we continue tonight?" The woman neither spoke nor turned around. Several days ago, when the flesh worm ghost tide attacked Jiangbei City, the city would have fallen long ago had she not stepped in. How laughable that the mortals in the city truly believed the Wild Wolf Gang had held off the ghost tide with their lives. A mere Level 1 wall. Even if the Wild Wolf Gang exhausted all their hidden reserves, they could never have withstood a flesh worm ghost tide. Those people had never witnessed such a tide before and possessed no understanding of its terror. Had she not dispatched someone to intervene, even the combined reserves of Jiangbei City's three great families would have been utterly incapable of defending the city. Only those who had experienced the horrors of the rainy season understood what ghost creatures were truly capable of. If the flesh worm ghost tide had breached Jiangbei City, she too would have died. She could not care less about the lives of those mortals; to her, they were worth less than a single hairpin. "Can Hou Kui trigger it a second time tonight?" the woman asked, lost in thought. Although she claimed Chen Fan could not possibly damage anything on Nameless Mountain, extinguishing that ghost fire was naturally the safest course of action just to be certain. She had guarded this place for over ten years. The Pingtian Chamber of Commerce had remained here for over ten years as well, so many people plotting and waiting all this time solely for this Snow Lotus and... what she had left unsaid. It would mature once this rainy season passed. She would not allow any mishap. Once this matter was settled, she could finally leave this desolate backwater. "Not for the moment," the man in white replied. "We must wait until the wind blows the flesh worm ghost tide near Jiangbei City again. There is no telling when that will be." Right at that moment, the white-clad man glanced toward the door. His eyes narrowed, and he took a step back, melting almost entirely into the shadows of the room. Without looking closely, one would never notice a person standing there. Chen Quan, who had already departed, suddenly returned. Kneeling in the doorway, his face a mixture of fear and resolve, he looked toward his mother and asked with a trembling voice, "Mother... did you ever have any feelings for Father?" "No." The woman shook her head slowly, her delicate brows knitting as if baffled by such a foolish question. "Then..." Chen Quan buried his head against the floor, summoning every ounce of courage to ask hoarsely, "Is my birth father truly the Chen Family Head... or is it Uncle Liu?" A long silence hung in the room before the woman's voice drifted out. "Does that matter?" Chen Quan, who had been trembling in dread, suddenly looked up blankly at his mother sitting by the window. "Does... does that not matter?" If even this did not matter, what else in life did? Did the Snow Lotus matter?