The northernmost border of Chang River.
Summer solstice, a sudden heavy snow fell.
The Chang River that cuts through the entire Wuyin City was frozen with a thin layer of ice. The city’s layered buildings and pavilions had their eaves hidden in the pristine white snow, merging with the silk-like Chang River water, resembling cracks on a frozen river surface.
At the city gate, night had deepened, and fewer people came and went.
Dozens of Changshe[mfn]punishment/pardon[/mfn] Academy cultivators had been checking people entering the city all day. Finally relaxing, they huddled in groups of three to five, chatting idly in the snow.
“This year’s snow is too strange, probably another snow disaster. What bad luck.”
“Never mind what disaster it is. As long as we catch that Xi fellow one day earlier, we won’t have to freeze here anymore.”
“Xi Jianlan is really a damn plague! Ptui!”
Everyone cursed in various colorful ways.
A young man holding hot tea nearby asked curiously: “Master, didn’t Xi Jianlan lose all his cultivation? Why mobilize such a large force to search for a waste person?”
His master leaned against the wall smoking a pipe, giving him a sideways glance: “…A waste person who made the Xiezhi Sect search all Thirteen States without finding a single trace?”
The young man mumbled: “But didn’t everyone say he lost all his cultivation?”
“Back then the Xi family controlled three states, with great wealth and power. It wouldn’t be strange for them to leave him a few magical artifacts that could hide his appearance and form,” the master said.
The young man nearly spilled his tea: “Then wouldn’t he be able to wander right under our noses without us noticing? When would we ever find him—when monkeys grow horses’ manes[mfn]The idiom literally translates to “monkey year, horse month” and refers to something that will never happen, since there is no “horse month” in the traditional Chinese zodiac calendar system. It’s used to express that something is impossible or will take an extremely long time to occur.[/mfn]?”
“You sure worry about unnecessary things.” His master chuckled. “Tomorrow the Xiezhi Sect’s lord will come to search, then it won’t be our concern anymore.”
Only then did the young man feel relieved.
As they spoke, a man wearing a veiled hat approached through the snow carrying a lantern.
The warm yellow candlelight illuminated the goose-feather snow, like moths drawn to flame, scattered by the sweep of his black robe hem.
That person’s aura was cold and gloomy, like a soul-reaper messenger coming to take lives in the dead of night.
The several people who had just relaxed immediately became alert, blocking his path with drawn swords.
“Stop! Changshe Academy decree—where is your household identity token?”
The veiled man didn’t speak, only lightly lifted a corner of his veil with his sword hilt, revealing the golden embroidered dark pattern of the Xiezhi Sect’s divine beast on his wide sleeve.
Everyone immediately shuddered, stepping back half a pace in respectful salute.
“So it’s a lord from Xiezhi Sect.”
Xiezhi Sect controlled punishment throughout the Thirteen States, and was more like a prison holding the most vicious criminals. For decades, almost no criminal who entered Xiezhi Sect came out alive.
——So it was also called the “Gates of Hell.”
The Changshe Academy people hadn’t expected Xiezhi Sect to arrive so quickly, exchanging glances with each other.
The cultivator who had been smoking approached respectfully: “My lord must be here for Xi Jianlan’s matter? The Changshe Academy director has been waiting for a long time. Night has deepened, let me escort you there.”
The man lifted half his veil, revealing half a cold, imposing face.
His lips didn’t move, yet his voice rang out.
“No need.”
That cultivator stiffened, and when he came to his senses, his back was instantly drenched in cold sweat.
“Sect, Sect Master Sheng?”
The person from Xiezhi Sect was actually Sheng Jiao?!
In all the Thirteen States, no one didn’t know the name of Sheng Jiao, Sect Master of Central State’s Xiezhi Sect—he controlled worldly punishment and retribution, was impartial and upright, an existence comparable to the Heavenly Dao itself.
Everyone was shocked.
The name Sheng Jiao, Sect Master of Xiezhi Sect, is too intimidating; they simply couldn’t stop him and didn’t even check his identity token, respectfully opening the main gate.
Sheng Jiao’s figure was like a cold frost sharp sword, his robe fluttering in the goose-feather snow as he slowly walked into the city.
Everyone was stunned, staring at his back, and only after a long while did they exhale heavily.
Earlier, everyone kept their heads down, not daring to look Sheng Jiao in the eye, except for a young, naive boy who was a newborn calf unafraid of tigers, daring to glance boldly.
He watched Sheng Jiao disappear into the darkness, his expression somewhat dazed.
Sect Master Sheng Jiao of Xiezhi Sect…
Like an immortal lord of snow on a mountain peak, why was there a cat’s paw on his shoulder?
***
The long street was covered in snow.
Sheng Jiao was probably visiting this remote city for the first time, yet he skillfully navigated the intricate streets.
The streets and alleys of Wuyin City were all named after money, and soon he arrived at an alley called “No Choice” and walked in slowly.
A black cat appeared on his shoulder, speaking with a human voice.
“Xi Jianlan, I’ve never seen anyone in the entire Thirteen States braver than you—daring to impersonate even Sheng Jiao, aren’t you afraid of being discovered?”
The lamp at the alley entrance was probably about to burn out, suddenly flaring up with a bang for the last flame.
Soon, replacement oil was automatically poured into the lampstand, the flame flickered twice, and lit up again.
The candlelight spilled into the dark alley, and the black veil on the man quickly receded like a tide, slowly revealing a slender figure.
The face that everyone feared as “Sheng Jiao” just now was like a peeled mask, completely changed.
—It was none other than Xi Jianlan, who was being hunted throughout the Thirteen States.
He looked as if he had been ill for a long time, his eyebrows and facial bones were originally handsome, but his illness added a few degrees of languish. His ink-black long hair was loose, wrapped with a few snow petals.
Xi Jianlan said lazily, “Otherwise, how do you think I’ve survived these six years hiding everywhere? If I didn’t have enough courage, I’d have died eight hundred times already.”
“Ptooey!” the black cat scolded, “What did you go out of the city for this time? Chengshe Academy is searching everywhere, aren’t you afraid?”
“To another city to find a medicine.”
Xi Jianlan answered calmly, as if he was born without fear, strolling leisurely through the long alleys.
The corner pastry shop emitted a sweet fragrance.
An eleven or twelve-year-old girl in white sat on the doorstep admiring the snow, her delicate white fingers slightly raised, snowflakes swirling in her palm as if caught in a breeze.
A crow flapped its wings and landed on the eaves, shaking off the solid ice.
Xi Jianlan quickly blocked the sharp inverted icicle with his hand.
The girl was startled and exclaimed, “Brother Lan is back!”
“Why are you still watching the shop so late? Where’s your father?” Xi Jianlan raised his hand, casually brushing his jet-black hair with his well-defined fingers, bending down to look at the pastries on the stall.
The girl giggled, “Daddy went gambling.”
Xi Jianlan laughed along, lightly tapping her forehead, “Silly girl, do you know what gambling means and still laugh? With your father’s temper, sooner or later he’ll gamble you away too.”
The girl was carefree, happily taking two sheets of oiled paper, “No way—Brother Lan, do you want some osmanthus cake?”
Xi Jianlan nodded.
The girl skillfully wrapped some osmanthus crystal cakes and osmanthus sugar and handed them to him.
“Keep the account?”
Xi Jianlan took a bite of the osmanthus cake, mumbling, “Keep, keep, keep.”
The girl laughed nonstop.
Xi Jianlan, a grown man with hands and feet, shamelessly ate the girl’s pastries. The girl chatted casually, then strolled on with her umbrella deeper into the alley.
The girl continued sitting on the doorstep waiting for her father to come home. She subconsciously spread out her five fingers, and snowflakes gently fell into her palm—the invisible little wind swirl from earlier had disappeared without her noticing.
She tilted her head in puzzlement.
The black cat popped its head out from behind Xi Jianlan’s neck, rolling its eyes.
“Didn’t you hear? Tomorrow the Xiezhi Sect will come to recheck identity tokens. What will you do then?”
Xi Jianlan had been hiding for years and was experienced. He lightly licked the cake crumbs at the corner of his lips, and when his eyelashes drooped, a small red mole appeared on his eyelid.
“As long as the person from Xiezhi Sect isn’t Sheng Jiao, I won’t die for now.”
Sheng Jiao’s current status was noble, stationed at Xiezhi Sect all year round, so he wouldn’t have time to wander in such a remote place.
Xi Jianlan was fearless.
The black cat noticed something off in Xi Jianlan’s words: “I’ve always wanted to ask, do you have any old grudges with Sheng Jiao?”
Xi Jianlan had already reached the end of the alley and gently opened the door. His every move was noble, cultivated by a prestigious family for years, completely out of place with the shabby clinic.
“Old grudges?”
He tilted his head, thought seriously for a moment, then suddenly smiled.
“Deceived Sect Master Sheng’s feelings…”
The black cat was stunned.
Xi Jianlan’s smile was full of mischievous satisfaction: “…Does that count as a grudge?”
The black cat: “…”
##
