“Meow~ Meow~”
Fatty screeched as it used all its strength to twist its fat body, attempting to escape from Qiu Yutong’s evil clutches.
Qiu Yutong felt extremely helpless and could on;y carefully press it down, softly coaxing, “Fatty, behave, help me with this favour and I’ll give you dried fish to eat after, okay?”
It was unknown whether Fatty heard the two words “dried fish” but it sceptically stopped its struggle.
Qiu Yutong shook his head, smiling, lifting his finger that was still dripping blood and continued to draw on top of Fatty’s head.
Soon, a crookedly circular blood talisman appeared atop Fatty’s snow-white head.
Qiu Yutong carefully scrutinised it for a moment, before nodding in satisfaction. “Shixiongs all said I only knew how to perform a sword dance, and talismans drawn would be illegible… From what I see, isn’t this pretty good, only slightly inferior to Third Shixiong’s.”
He put his index finger in his mouth to stop the blood and kneaded Fatty’s back, vaguely saying, “Fatty, don’t you agree?”
Fatty unhappily meowed.
The blood talisman Qiu Yutong drew was his Third Shixiong’s, Sang Lingxi’s, independent creation, called “Spiritual Breath Talisman”. It has the ability to transform ordinary animals into hunting spiritual beasts, pursuing other spiritual beasts’ weak scent, usually used in hunting in secret territories.
As the spiritual tortoise’s shell that Prince Jin mentioned can be counted as a part of a spiritual beast, Qu Yutong thought of this method.
“Spiritual Breath Talisman, awaken——”
Along with Qiu Yutong’s clear command, the blood talisman slowly lit up with faint gold light.
Fatty widened its eyes, crying “Meow~” before running outside.
Promising! Qiu Yutong felt pleased before quickly catching up.
Daning Palace at night was deserted, there were practically no people on the roads. Qiu Yutong followed Fatty closely, the farther they went, the more remote they got. Soon, they reached the outside of a small courtyard.
Fatty paused slightly, looking back at Qiu Yutong.
Qiu Yutong looked up and saw the board with the words “Bailu Courtyard” inscribed.
He was momentarily stunned and couldn’t help but frown.
Bailu Courtyard?
This was… the place Lu Xiao sent Jiang-shi* for house arrest.
[T/N: The -shi suffix is not part of her name but rather to indicate that that’s her original surname.]
Jiang-shi, was the previous Royal Imperial Consort Jiang*.
[T/N: It’s kind of hard to TL this term but the actual raws state that she is a 皇贵妃 (Huang Guifei), which is like the head of all guifeis, with guifei meaning Imperial Consort.]
The old Emperor was naive and extremely doting towards the young and beautiful Jiang-shi. Calling him submissive would not be overboard. Jiang-shi was prone to jealousy and after killing Lu Xiao’s birth mother, hypocritically adopted the three-year-old Lu Xiao. The few years that Lu Xiao was in the hands of Jiang-shi, he had suffered all kinds of inhuman torture, living a life worse than death.
Later on, Lu Xiao fled far away with Jiang-shi’s people chasing him down to kill. He luckily met Qiu Yutong so he managed to retain his life.
Even later, Lu Xiao frequently managed to accomplish meritorious deeds in the borders and managed to gain control of the elite troops in the north border. Then, he came back to the capital and thoroughly controlled the government. The old emperor hung himself, JIang-shi went crazy, personally choked her infant son to death and was forced into house arrest in Bailu courtyard.
“Bailu courtyard…” Qiu Yutong stared at the quickly deteriorating board and muttered.
Fatty stood on the stone steps in front of the door and turned back to look at Qiu Yutong, urging him with its meows before squeezing into the courtyard through the crack between the doors.
Qiu Yutong came back to himself and quickly followed.
The courtyard was desolate.
The red lacquer on the board of the central house was peeling, weeds were overgrowing and under the large locust tree in the corner of the courtyard was a small well.
Qiu Yutong inwardly sighed. The former Royal Imperial Consort Jiang was so impressive, but her current predicament was so dire. However, after what she had done, Lu Xiao being willing to let her live can be considered not bad.
“Kacha,” a crisp sound.
Qiu Yutong looked down; he had stepped on a dried-up branch.
The sound of the dried-up branch breaking, in the silence of the night in the Cold Palace, seemed exceptionally clear.
“Who?” A sharp female voice suddenly sounded.
Qiu Yutong was frightened and quickly hid behind the large locust tree.
“Who is it? Who is outside? Is… Is it you? You’ve finally come to get this consort? This consort doesn’t want to stay here… This consort wants to leave… OUr child is dead, choked to death while still alive, wuwu*…”
[T/N: Wu is a crying sound in CN, similar to Ying.]
A woman with dishevelled hair ran out, her face utterly filthy, wearing palace clothes that were so dirty, the colour couldn’t be made out anymore, but Qiu Yutong recognised her in one glance, this was Jiang-shi.
Who was she calling? The old emperor? But the old emperor had long died.
Her child was also choked to death by her.
Looks like she was really crazy.
Jiang-shi was in a panic, running around the courtyard while hoarsely shouting. Suddenly, her foot slipped and she fell onto the limestone ground. She lay on the ground, stunned, for a moment before gurgling and laughing.
Her laughter was neutral and low, sounding very miserable, with an undertone of joy. Qiu Yutong felt an inexplicable coldness at the bottom of his heart when he heard it.
Jiang-shi foolishly laughed for a while before suddenly singing a song.
“The tears drenched the towel, and it was difficult to fall asleep. In the middle of the night, she heard the sound of singing in the front hall… Her beautiful appearance has not became old yet , but she has lost the love of the king, leaning against the spice box, and sitting until dawn…”*
[T/N: This is a Tang-dynasty poem called “后宫词” (Hougong Ci). I got the translation from here: https://chinagrep.com/poems/chinese-poem-hou-gong-ci/]
Jiang-shi’s singing was previously very splendid, after all, what the previous emperor loved the most was her oriole-like throat. But at this very moment, her voice was so hoarse it was like a crow crying at night, filled with the despair of love as well as extreme anger.
Qiu Yutong suddenly felt something and looked up into the night sky.
The sound of a sword.
“Whoosh——” A bright sword glare dropped from the sky, landing accurately onto the roof. Following that was a grey shadow, falling silently opposite the sword glare.
Qiu Yutong stared and couldn’t help but be slightly shocked.
The person who was defending against the sword was a black-clothed Taoist*, his complexion was gloomy, and he was tall and thin, like a ferocious bamboo pole.
[T/N: The raws actually state Taoist, but this can also mean cultivator.]
The grey shadow that fell after was a middle-aged grey-clothed monk, looking lean with a placid face.
Jiang-shi screamed sharply, “Who is it! Such guts!”
“Crazy woman,” the thin Taoist coldly snorted, before waving a sleeve and Jiang-shi softly fell unconscious onto the ground.
The grey-clothed monk put his palms together and said profoundly, “Taoist Tu*, the object in this place should be a remnant from a former abbot from this monk’s monastery.”
[T/N: Yes, the same Immortal Cultivator Tu we saw in previous chapters; the raws used different terms there and now.]
Qiu Yutong inwardly trembled.
Taoist Tu? This thin Taoist was Prince Jin’s backer, Tu Wuwei?
The thin Taoist smiled and said, “Where do these words come from, Great Master Qing Ci? This poor Taoistis under orders from Sect Leader Gui to come here and find our sect’s lost treasure, how did it become South Sky Temple’s item?”
The grey-clothed monk said lightly, “Beihai sword sect is long-sighted and Taoist Tu has long resided in the capital, having covered Daning Palace with a network of spiritual talismans, presumably because you felt the feeble presence of a spiritual beast touching the talisman network so Taoist Tu quickly rushed over.”
“So Great Master followed me here, picking up on this easy opportunity?” The thin Taoist laughed mischievously.
Qiu Yutong understood completely. This thin Taoist was indeed Beihai Sword Sect’s Gu Wuya’s fourth shidi, Tu Wuwei. This grey-robed monk was South Sky Temple’s* chief disciple, the eldest male disciple of Qingzi’s generation, Qing Ci.
[T/N: For some reason, the raws here state South Mountain temple instead of South Sky.]
Looks like they were here because of that “spiritual tortoise’s shell”.
However, the feeble spiritual beast presence they mentioned probably wasn’t the spiritual tortoiseshell but rather Fatty —— he had drawn a blood talisman on this fat cat becoming a hunting spiritual beast.
As Qiu Yutong was thinking deeply, Tu Wuwei suddenly shouted severely, “Who is sneaking around over there? Get out here for this Taoist!”
Qiu Yutong was startled, Tu Wuwei had already taken out his sword and his spiritual sword flew out!
A perfect snow-white sword glare ferociously swept towards Qiu Yutong!
Qing Ci said in surprise, “Requesting Taoist Tu to be lenient!”
Qiu Yutong was slightly stunned. His mastery of swordsmanship is extremely high so he could tell in one glance that this sword glare was not rushing towards him.
He suddenly realised something and hurriedly turned around.
Liu Bitao was lying on top of the wall behind him, so frightened his face was deathly white and he had forgotten to even hide.
In an instant, the sword glare had passed by Qiu Yutong and he didn’t have time to think, he turned and using a method of “four ounces can move a thousand catties*”, his middle finger lightly touching the side of the sword blade——
[T/N: This just means using little effort for great effect.]
“Clink——” The sword gave a groan and the approaching severe sword glare instantly shifted a lot, skimming across Liu Bitao’s cheek with a whistle!*
[T/N: If it’s not clear here, basically Qiu Yutong uses some skill to shift the sword. The sword glare and sword come together in this event – aka sword glare denotes where the sword is.]
Liu Bitao’s legs went soft, and tumbled off the wall, and coincidentally falling beside Qiu Yutong, scared until his face was green and lips were white, “I, I…”
“You’re simply causing trouble,” Qiu Yutong helplessly said.
This wimpy kid suspected that Prince Jin and him had an affair and monitored him secretly. This time, mostly because he (LBT) saw him (QYT) running out in the middle of the night, so he (LBT) sneakily followed. Who knew that he would run into a fight between cultivators?
Tu Wuwei jumped down from the roof, holding out a hand and recalling his sword, suspiciously looking at Qiu Yutong, “And who is this honoured Sir? Also thinking of getting some of the profits? Hmph, then you also need to ask this poor taoist’s sword whether it agrees.”
Qing Ci also jumped down from the roof, and frowned, “Taoist Tu, these two people do not have spiritual energy in their bodies, I think they probably accidentally pushed away your spiritual sword, let them go.”
“Whether they have spiritual energy, we will know after testing!” Tu Wuwei hadn’t finished speaking when he suddenly raised his sword mercilessly and a boundless sword gale engulfed the ground, lifting both Liu Bitao and Qiu Yutong!
“Hey!”
Qiu Yutong’s vision darkened, he heard Liu Bitao’s sharp scream and following that, the ground below him became soft as if he was standing on sludge.
“We, we fell into the well!” Liu Bitao screamed.
Qiu Yutong also reacted. Just now, Tu Wuwei set off that sword gale and sent himself and Liu Bitao into the well under that locust tree.
Liu Bitao was still shouting, “Save me——”
“Stop being noisy, do you want to suffer another attack?” Qiu Yutong sat inside the well and massaged his brows in pain.
Liu Bitao immediately shut his mouth tightly, his face looking like a stuffed bun.
Qiu Yutong silently listened with rapt attention. Tu Wuwei and Qing Ci above didn’t plan on paying attention to himself and Liu Bitao. One went into the central house while the other went to the east wing, rummaging messily around everywhere.
What to do now?
Qiu Yutong struggled to stand on the sludge, feeling around the well wall. The wall was covered in thick moss, moist and slippery, wanting to climb up wasn’t going to be easy.
Just as he hesitated, Liu Bitao screamed again, at the same time firmly clinging onto him.
“Xue Rong, there’s a ghost, a ghost!”
Qiu Yutong’s head ached from his screaming, and unable to bear it, pushed off the other’s thin arms, “Quiet down! What is it again?”
Liu Bitao’s upper and lower jaw trembled, stuttering even worse than Xiao Xizi, “There, there, there’s a ghost… ghost, ghost grabbing my leg…”
Qiu Yutong sighed again, squatting down to feel around, “What ghost…”
He paused.
He touched… strands of wet hair.
Qiu Yutong was stunned for a moment and couldn’t help starting to feel apprehensive.
Is it possible that the ghost story Xiao Xizi mentioned was true? The bottom of Bailu courtyard’s dried-up well really had a water ghost that died with grievances?
That clump of long hair wound around Liu Bitao’s leg. Qiu Yutong had used up a lot of energy to undo it, then he carefully and prudently felt along the hair.
He tugged at this head of wet hair and from within the sludge at the bottom of the well, he dragged out something.
A complete skeleton.
At this moment, the moon reached its zenith and the cold moonlight shone through the well opening. Liu Bitao was so scared he couldn’t even scream, his entire body trembling all over, “Dead, dead, dead body…”
Qiu Yutong took a careful look and frowned, “It’s a young lady.”
Jiang-shi had always been cruel and this slim skeletal remains was most likely a palace maid. It was unknown how she offended Jiang-shi and was thrown into this well.
Qiu Yutong sighed inwardly, arranging the long hair of the skeleton, then taking off his outer robe, wanting to wrap her up. However, he suddenly saw something and paused his movements.
The skeleton’s pelvic bone… seemed like there was something.
Qiu Yutong hesitated, and reached out for that item. After that, his entire person was stunned.
This was a tortoiseshell.
To be accurate, it was an ebony shell, looking about an inch large, on top were carved crooked, intricate lines that wound across it.
Even though it was the bottom of the well, the tortoiseshell still emitted a faint glossy lustre; evidently it was a spiritual tortoise’s shell.
Qiu Yutong carefully sized the tortoiseshell up under the moonlight, heart feeling extremely unconvinced. He muttered to himself, “Could it be that this was what Prince Jin wanted to find?”
Liu Bitao widened his eyes, “Xue Rong, you and Prince Jin actually…”
“Don’t talk drivel,” Qiu Yutong was simply too lazy to pay attention to him.
Liu Bitao hurriedly covered his own mouth, “Be extremely assured, you saved me today so from now onwards, we are basically brothers. I, Liu Bitao, have always been very clear about my gratitude and grievances. I will definitely keep your secret, I absolutely will not tell His Majesty.”
A/N:
The author has something to say:
Some cuties asked what Qiuqiu exactly did while drunk so I wrote this extra~
(Regarding their past ten years relationship, along with Lu Xiao’s five years of waiting, maybe next time I will write a long extra based on Xiaoxiao’s point of view)
This senior has two pet owner servants.
Among them was one who liked to wear white clothes, he really loved and respected this senior, always feeding this senior dried fish; the other one really loved black clothes, and extremely feared this senior, always thinking of throwing this senior away.
Today, white clothes brought this senior to a huge room, inside was filled with delicious food, this senior was stuffed. After that, White Clothes seemed to have fallen asleep. Black Clothes supported him from behind. This senior suddenly remembered that White Clothes hadn’t fed this senior dried fish and thus, followed.
Black Clothes put White Clothes on the bed then motionlessly watched him while sitting on the side.
This senior was impatient and climbed up, biting onto White Clothes’ lapel, wanting to wake him, this senior hasn’t been fed dried fish yet today.
Black Clothes wanted to grab this senior’s nape but White Clothes had woken up.
White Clothes wanted to get up from the bed and was continuously muttering, “I’m not drunk, I still want to drink… where did you hide the wine?”
“Shizun, you’re really drunk…” Black Clothes attempted to press White Clothes back onto the bed, but was always unsuccessful.
Black Clothes had always been cold as ice, but at this moment, he was even perspiring.
White Clothes and Black Clothes pushed and shoved for very long when White Clothes seemed to have smelled something, and bit shut Black Clothes’ mouth, speaking indistinctly, “It’s hidden here!”
Black Clothes was motionless like the wooden puppets White Clothes gave as tributes to this senior, so fun.
After that, Black Clothes suddenly firmly pressed White Clothes onto the bed and succeeded.
Even after that… wait, why did Black Clothes tear White Clothes’ clothes off, and was even biting all over White Clothes’ body, looking like he hadn’t eaten for three days, but White Clothes wasn’t dried fish, can he (LX) be full?
Thinking of dried fish, this senior quickly rushed onto the bed, “Meow!” (Stop biting, where is this senior’s dried fish?!) Black Clothes was indeed extremely afraid of this senior and immediately stopped.
Someone passed by outside the window, smelling like that hated human with the aquiline nose.
Black Clothes restored his usual look, expressionlessly looking outside the window, after that using the quilt to wrap up White Clothes, carried him up and returned to the manor.
Today, this senior still hadn’t managed to eat dried fish, sad*.
[T/N: sad is written in English.]
