After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 414: Chapter 413: Radiant Harmony

Once everyone leaves Panlong City, will these storefronts still be worth anything? Will it still be possible to collect so much rent?

In the face of such a monumental change, would Panlong City’s officials still play by the rules?

Hee Lingchuan knew the guy had a keen nose for trouble and would surely try to get ahead of the curve, which was why he’d brought up renegotiating the rent. He smiled and stood up. ”In that case, let’s wait until the Relocation Command is officially issued before we discuss it further.”

With that, he strode out, ignoring Bai Guo’s attempts to make him stay.

The fat man sighed behind him.

The area outside Ring Number Seven was packed with people again today, and the first person Hee Lingchuan spotted was Skinny. The fellow was carrying a burlap sack, his face beaming like a flower in bloom.

Two double-hours passed with a few close calls but no real danger. Hee Lingchuan was still the ring champion, though his face now sported a few more bruises and his clothes had several new rips. His chest and abdomen felt tight—he’d taken a couple of kicks and two punches there, making every breath painful.

He took some medicine and spent an hour meditating to regulate his breathing before the pain finally began to subside.

As Skinny was splitting the money with him, Hee Lingchuan seized the opportunity to ask, ”Heard any news?”

Skinny was engrossed in counting the silver and Copper Plates. ”Huh?”

”News from the Xiluo Kingdom?”

”Collecting money like this, all these loose coins and scattered bills, is so inconvenient.” The money from the ring was easy to make, and he’d built up a reputation. Most importantly, everyone now knew he was the ring champion’s friend! No one else dared compete with him, so Skinny was thinking of expanding the business. ”Should we make some betting slips, so people can place their bets with those?”

”You mean betting chips?” ’Don’t casinos already have those?’

”Oh, yeah.” Skinny snapped out of it only after he’d finished counting a bag of money. ”What were you saying? News from Xiluo? Yeah, there is. I heard that the civil war and factional fighting are getting worse. The Capital City is powerless to stop it.”

Because Panlong City had always remained open to foreign trade, its channels for news were much more reliable than they were four or five years ago. It was only a matter of time before intelligence from within the kingdom reached them.

”Who doesn’t know that?” ’Weak kingdoms are prone to turmoil. Anyone who dares to model their system after the Beiga Kingdom is just asking for ruin.’ ”Anything else?”

Skinny looked blank. ”Haven’t heard anything.”

”Alright then.” Hee Lingchuan clapped him on the shoulder, took his share of the money, and headed home.

’Looks like the news hasn’t spread yet.’

On the way, he happened to buy some Poria Cakes.

CREAK. He pushed open the door. His courtyard—or rather, his patio—was as small as ever, but Hee Lingchuan could still sense something was different.

He’d only been away for a few days, but a row of shelves had been installed on the outer wall of the kitchen, just above the water cistern, and on them sat three small pots of flowers.

One was a pot of apricot-colored ranunculus, another held crimson-glow red anemones, and the third was something Hee Lingchuan didn’t recognize at all. Its cascading clusters of snow-white blossoms resembled falling snowflakes or the pearled veil of a bride, nearly brushing the surface of the water in the cistern below.

The courtyard was small, and he usually practiced his martial arts there, so the three new flower pots had been placed where he wouldn’t bump into them.

Hee Lingchuan took a sniff.

His courtyard had never smelled so fragrant.

Stepping into the inner room, he found it spotless. The clutter that was usually piled everywhere was gone, and a dark brown chest now sat by the bed. On a chair was a vase holding two gerbera daisies with a very wild look to them, likely picked from the outskirts of the city.

He opened the chest. Sure enough, all his miscellaneous junk was inside, neatly sorted into categories.

Right on top was a neat stack of the ”gentleman’s literature” he had picked up from the general store.

Just then, he heard a sound from the courtyard gate as someone pushed it open.

Hee Lingchuan quickly slammed the lid shut with a THUD and went out to see who it was.

It was Sunx Fuling, just as he’d suspected.

She set down the basket in her hand. ”You successfully defended the ring again today?”

”Yep. It’s getting tougher and tougher, but I still won.” Hee Lingchuan stretched, which pulled at the injury on his ribs, making him cry out. ”Ouch... There are too many strong fighters in the Great Wind Army. I might not be so lucky next time.”

’My left rib was smashed by the challenger’s staff. It’s probably a fracture, at least. Today’s opponent was especially cunning, feigning weakness several times to set up a finishing blow.’

Of course, in the end, Hee Lingchuan had kicked him off the platform.

”Is there any general who is undefeated? Once you stand in that position, it’s only a matter of time before someone knocks you down.” Sunx Fuling said it nonchalantly as she took two jugs of fine wine, two plump roasted chickens, three large slabs of braised beef shank, and a bundle of pig trotters from her basket. ”To celebrate your victory. This is ’Apricot Blossom Spring,’ a new release this year from Xinghua Restaurant.”

Cultivators had abundant vitality and, consequently, large appetites.

”And what if I had lost?”

”Then this would be to drown your sorrows.”

She carried the roasted chicken and braised trotters into the kitchen to cut them up. She grabbed the cleaver, sharpened it a few times, and gave it a practiced flourish.

The sight of such a delicate young woman handling a thick-spined cleaver, its cold, glittering edge spinning between her slender fingers, made Hee Lingchuan break out in a sweat.

CHOP, CHOP, CHOP. With a dozen or so quick strikes, the chicken and trotters were obediently cut into pieces.

Hee Lingchuan noticed there were hardly any new marks on the cutting board, a testament to the precision of her knife work. Not an ounce of strength was wasted.

’Chopping through large pig bones takes a lot of effort. Who could be so perfectly efficient?’

”And you said you couldn’t cook?”

”I can’t. This is all ready-made.” She pointed at the roasted chicken and trotters. ”These were gifts from my students.”

She then pointed to the braised beef. ”And this is from Xinghua Building.”

”I just do the cutting.” Sunx Fuling smiled. ”Didn’t you also start your training by slicing paper and tofu?” With that, she grabbed the braised beef. Her hand moved, the blade fell, and all he saw was a blur.

The braised beef was perfectly sliced, each piece as thin as paper and almost translucent.

They were as uniform as if they’d been cut by a machine.

After setting everything out in the courtyard, she washed her hands and took out a small jar, the kind that could only hold about three taels of wine.

”What’s this now?” Hee Lingchuan feigned protest. ”This is too much! We’ll never finish it all!”

Sunx Fuling chuckled. ”Why don’t you try one?”

She held the jar over a chipped porcelain cup and poured. Out came a clump of squirming, bright red things, each as fine and long as a strand of hair—

A ball of worms.

Sunx Fuling held the cup up to his mouth. ”Come on.”

WHOOSH. Hee Lingchuan leaped three feet back. ”What is this stuff?”

’It’s not that he’d never eaten insects before, but this stuff just looked unappetizing.’

’They look like parasites.’

”They’re bloodworms. Did you think you were the only one who needs to eat?” Sunx Fuling casually emptied the cup into the water cistern, and Hee Lingchuan heard a splash.

He peered over and saw the goldfish swimming to the surface, scrambling over each other to eat the snack.

He took the opportunity to count them. One, two, three, four, five, six... Huh? All nine fish were still there?

Not only were they alive and energetic, but their colors were even more vibrant.

’They must have been getting plenty of sunlight and nutrition.’ Hee Lingchuan asked himself honestly, ’It’s been seven or eight days since I brought these fish home, and I think I’ve only remembered to feed them twice?’

Where did the aquatic plants and shells at the bottom of the cistern come from? And the snails clinging to the sides—they couldn’t have just grown there on their own, could they?

Hee Lingchuan also saw something flash at the bottom of the cistern, a shimmering blue like a Ghost Soul. Looking closely, he realized it was a small, almost transparent shrimp.

Raising fish in an open-air cistern wasn’t easy. The city had many magpies and herons that would often come to steal a meal. How lucky did they have to be for all nine fish to still be accounted for?

”You’ve taken great care of these fish.” He had originally caught them to win a girl’s favor, never expecting that she would end up raising them for him.

”It was no trouble at all.” Sunx Fuling brushed a strand of hair from her eyes, and the dimples on her cheeks reappeared.

Standing there in the soft April light, the young woman’s smile was radiant. Though dressed in simple cloth and with a plain hairpin, she outshone all the blooming flowers in the courtyard.

As she bent down to feed the fish, she and the pot of cascading white flowers complemented each other perfectly, like dark hair delicately dusted with the first snow.

Hee Lingchuan stared, lost in a Trance. He felt that all the beauty in the world was right here, hidden away in his tiny, palm-sized courtyard.

Sunx Fuling tilted her head to look at him, her almond-shaped eyes filled with mirth. ”What are you looking at?”

”The flowers are beautiful, and the fish love to eat them,” Hee Lingchuan said quickly, pointing at the pot of cascading flowers. ”What is it called?”

The flower stamens nearly touched the water’s surface, and one goldfish, not getting its fill of bloodworms, simply leaped out of the water to nibble on a petal.

”Cascading Jasmine.” Sunx Fuling tidied its leaves. ”I bought it from a traveling merchant. It’s said to be a specialty from the eastern part of the Xiluo Kingdom. They don’t grow on the Chipa Plateau.”

After feeding the fish and washing their hands, the two sat down to eat and drink.

Hee Lingchuan took out the Poria Cakes, which now served as their staple food.

He mentioned the Juluo Tree that had suddenly appeared at the South City Gate. Sunx Fuling said in surprise, ”It really grew that big in just a few days? I’ll go have a look tomorrow. Juluo Trees are rare. Where did the seedling come from?”

”You know about Juluo Trees?”

”I know a thing or two about the world’s wonders. Isn’t that the legendary underwater wood that can shelter Ghost Souls?” Sunx Fuling picked up a piece of trotter with two fingers and began to gnaw on it, completely unconcerned with decorum. ”The oldest Demon King in the Beiga Kingdom, the King of Treasure Tree, is a Juluo Tree himself.”

’Doesn’t the Spirit Seed come from the King of Treasure Tree?’ Hee Lingchuan asked her, ”I heard that the King of Treasure Tree’s territory is the most peaceful Demon Kingdom in Beiga, with very little conflict.”

”They’ve never changed their Demon King. That old tree has been in power the entire time, so of course it’s peaceful,” Sunx Fuling shrugged. ”Forget the other Demon Kingdoms; even Lingxu City has had a change of Monarch.”

”Beiga has been established for six hundred... no, over four hundred years.” ’That was close. I almost forgot the Panlong Calendar is different from reality. In this timeline, the Beiga Kingdom’s history is only a little over four hundred years long.’ ”I looked for history books about it in Wenxuan Pavilion, and they all say its political system is chaotic, yet it stands firm. What’s your take on it?”

’The woman before me is an expert in national history. Asking her more questions could save me the trouble of burying myself in books. After all, his time in the dream was precious.’

Hee Lingchuan eagerly poured Master Sunx more wine. She raised her cup, drained it in one go, and exhaled softly, her breath indeed carrying the scent of apricot blossoms.

”The large territory that is now Beiga was formerly a dozen or so Human Kingdoms, with two small Demon Kingdoms interspersed among them. Of those two Demon Kingdoms, one was destroyed by a Human Kingdom. The other, sensing that the Human Race’s fortune was too strong and that the disunified Demon Race was no match for them, turned to the Deities. Using Divine Power, it united a host of Great Demons and began to turn the tide, devouring human territory bit by bit, one kingdom at a time.”

”Its success attracted more of the Demon Race to pledge allegiance, and the war against the Human Kingdoms went more and more smoothly. This process lasted only a little over thirty years. When the last Human Kingdom there vanished, the Beiga Demon Kingdom emerged. Its founding Monarch was the first Demon Emperor. He lavishly rewarded his meritorious subjects, dividing the vast territory among twelve distinguished Demon Kings and allowing them to establish their own Vassal Kingdoms. This was how the Northern Demon Kingdom was established.”