Li Xuanfeng rode the wind for several li, and Yuyue County, at the entrance to Lixia Commandery, poked up over the horizon. The clamor of ordinary life rose in smoke at the city gate, and the road was crowded with nobles and merchants driving ox carts and horse carriages—a bustling, lively sight.
Guli Road ended here. Inside Lixia Commandery the road grew broad and smooth, and along both sides many peddlers pushed little carts selling pastries and rice porridge. Having learned his lesson at Guanyun Peak, Li Xuanfeng hesitated before the city wall and came down to land in front of the gate.
"It's an immortal master! Get out of the way, quick!"
"Papa, look up there!"
Below, everything fell into chaos at once. The county folk scattered in panic, swiftly clearing an open space; yellow dust flew, goods were dropped and bowls smashed, and for a time children wailed, horses screamed, and soldiers shouted all at once, making Li Xuanfeng frown.
Before he could open his mouth, a whole swath of people had already dropped to their knees with a clatter. A dozen guards from the city wall kowtowed on the ground, trembling, not daring to speak, only thumping their heads down again and again. In the crowd a child was still crying, flung down onto the dirt, and no one dared pick it up.
Silence fell all around him at once. The caravans and travelers farther off scattered, and the queue that had formed at first light dissolved into a single huddle of people, none of whom dared move. The merchants held their horses and stared fixedly at the ground, as though they might see a flower bloom there.
Such a stir made Li Xuanfeng's heart seize. He knew he must have caused some misunderstanding. He opened his mouth, looked at the circle of people silent as cicadas in winter, and in the end formed the Breath Concealment Technique to hide his figure and went on into the county.
Behind him, the great crowd kneeling on the ground, not daring to say a word, stayed down for a dozen breaths more, until one of the soldiers raised his head slightly, saw nothing at all before him, and said, eyes brimming with tears:
"The immortal lord is merciful! The immortal lord is merciful!"
————
Everything at the city gate left Li Xuanfeng bewildered, and faintly bitter. The Li family had risen only forty or fifty years ago, and the gulf in standing between cultivators and mortals had not yet widened to such an extreme. His several mortal uncles still regarded him as a nephew of the younger generation, and mortals who met a cultivator did no more than bow—there was no cause for kneeling and kowtowing.
"The four Foundation Establishment clans—Xiao, Wu, Ma, and Chang—have worked this commandery for several hundred years, and these mortals have been frightened to such a degree. It shows how deep the divide between immortal and mortal runs..."
He pondered for a long while, then shook his head and looked up at the broad street before him, thinking:
"I still need to find a place to stay, to pass these dozen or so days."
A sweep of his spiritual sense soon found a grand, lavishly decorated tower, its dozens of rooms all spacious and clean. He nodded, and in a few steps arrived before the tower, whose railings and eaves were hung all over with red silk.
"Zuichun Tower."
Li Xuanfeng read the large characters on the plaque and found the inn's name rather odd. He stepped inside and saw the floor strewn with fruit and the leftovers of dishes, as though an all-night banquet had just ended and no one had had time to clear it away; chairs leaned every which way and the big wooden tables stood askew—a thoroughly sorry mess.
For a moment there was nowhere to set his feet. Li Xuanfeng frowned, too lazy to go looking elsewhere, and saw a girl in red sitting on the side stairs, her head bowed over her knees. He raised an eyebrow and asked:
"Do you have any rooms free?"
The girl lifted her head. Her cute round face was somewhat worn, touched with powder, and she looked him over. A flicker of gladness came into her young brows, and her small, slightly pale lips moved. She nodded and said:
"Young master, follow me."
The two went up to the second floor. A heavily painted woman lounged against the railing, glanced at them, and sneered:
"A month of free meals, and at last, first thing in the morning, you bring in a customer—and a young gentleman at that. Lucky you!"
The girl pursed her lips and gave her a timid glance but said nothing. Li Xuanfeng shot the woman a look that stopped the rest of her words in her mouth, and followed the girl into the room.
The woman was left standing there in the corridor, still caught in that fierce look of his, and only after several breaths did she come back to herself and mutter:
"So young, and already such a temper."
Li Xuanfeng entered the room with the girl, unfastened the longbow that stood as tall as a man, and hung it on the wall. He sat down on the couch, and saw the girl still standing there in the room, watching him timidly.
Li Xuanfeng raised his brows slightly. The girl looked no more than fourteen or fifteen; her brows had been carefully trimmed, her forehead was white and smooth, and the corners of her eyes were long and slightly narrowed, a catlike look that ought to have suggested ease, yet her eyes were full of unease.
"What is it?"
As Li Xuanfeng asked, the gauze robe draped over the girl's shoulders came loose and slipped lightly to the floor. Her snow-white skin was bared. She stepped forward and, just like that, naked, straddled the bed, staring straight at him, her tender lips slightly pursed as though kissing the empty air—the pale red of them quite alluring.
Li Xuanfeng's mind rang like a struck bell. All the strangeness finally gathered in his heart into one answer. He stared straight at her and said, his voice rough:
"What kind of place is this?"
"Zuichun Tower."
She answered with a smile. Her features were still young, yet there was a kind of calm beauty to her. She lifted her head, baring a slender, smooth neck, and the lines of her body held a fragile beauty that the wind could almost carry away. Seeing Li Xuanfeng's unblinking gaze, a hint of challenge even entered her expression.
"Zuichun Tower."
Man's nature woke in Li Xuanfeng, and what he had held down at home before elders like Li Tongya came out into the open. He took the girl offered to his door with scarcely any burden on his conscience, and so he embraced and kissed the docile girl, unfastening the buttons on his chest one by one.
Li Xuanfeng stroked and kissed her for a while, but did not know what came next. The girl undid the cord and took his hand.
Dazedly he let the girl pull him up, was guided into an unfamiliar land of bliss, and moved in a manner that seemed pure instinct. He stroked her long, slender willow-leaf brows, her eyes bright and vivid with feeling, her round, lovely face, and felt his body was about to burst. He laughed and said:
"Damn me, so there's such a fine thing in the world after all."
"Young master..."
The girl gave a pained whimper, tossing her head left and right on the couch, her black hair spreading loose. Li Xuanfeng caught her delicate, faintly red little feet, drove forward, and said:
"What's your name?"
"Jiang Yunu."
The girl answered in a daze, her eyes closed, her lovely flushed cheek pressed to the bedsheet, clutching the pillow, and stammered:
"Years ago an immortal killed people on the road, and afterward the refugees fleeing the disaster kept walking east, killing and robbing for grain. I was the only one of my family left alive, so I followed a merchant caravan east the whole way... and came here to make a living."
"How long have you been here?"
"Not a month yet. Young master is my first customer."
Li Xuanfeng let out a breath and said quietly:
"You don't need to do this anymore."
Jiang Yunu did not understand. She thought he was only speaking the usual words about turning to a decent life, and merely nodded, dim-eyed.
Li Xuanfeng bent his head and made no sound, and then he heard Jiang Yunu whimper, her limbs going taut for a moment, before she said timidly:
"I... I..."
She got out those two words, then closed her eyes and said no more.
————
While Li Xuanfeng was enjoying himself, Li Tongya was in a difficult spot in the great courtyard on Mount Lijing. The uproar on the lake had long since settled, leaving a scorched islet in the middle of it, seared by lightning and fire, with the forbidden grand array still running and attacking everyone who entered, without distinction.
Three batches of Foundation Establishment cultivators had come, and everything of value had been fished out clean, leaving only thunder and flame. Li Tongya had no choice but to return to Mount Lijing, and from far off he caught sight of white-haired Lu Sisi holding a jade ruyi.
"Brother Tongya!"
Lu Sisi's call was warm and friendly, but Li Tongya smiled bitterly to himself, cupped his hands, and replied:
"Senior Lu, it is lively indeed on the lake!"
"Isn't it just? The sects wiped out the remnants of Lingyu Gate—who would have thought this Zhang Cuotian was a Lingyu Gate remnant? The Lake Wangyue market has stood for two hundred years, and he hid right under the Qingchi Sect's nose all that time!"
Li Tongya sat down in the courtyard with Lu Sisi, and a servant brought tea. Li Tongya cupped his hands and asked:
"I wonder what trouble the Lingyu Gate stirred up, that the sects would annihilate them..."
(End of this chapter.)
Chapter 117