Chapter 20: Unexpected Complications
Fu Nanhua noticed that Cai Jinjian seemed somewhat dispirited, so he led her for a casual stroll. They walked side by side, treating it as a way to lift their spirits. Along the way, he shared some curious tales about the southern regions of Eastern Treasure Vase Continent. Cai Jinjian still forced a smile, but compared to the irritability she had felt after leaving Mud Vase Alley, her mood had indeed improved considerably.
She was gradually developing a favorable impression of this distinguished young master from Old Dragon City. After all, although Old Dragon City had deep foundations and produced many talents, standing just one step away from the top-tier sects, it was still expected to be far inferior to a second-rate sect like Cloud Mist Mountain. However, Cloud Mist Mountain, with its orderly transmission of traditions and orthodox lineage, held an innate sense of superiority over such southern barbarians living in a remote corner like Old Dragon City. If they had met under normal circumstances, not muttering "southern savage" under one's breath would already count as good breeding.
Cai Jinjian said bitterly, "Brother Fu, although the Cloud Root Stones are the lifeblood of our Cloud Mist Mountain, since we agreed beforehand, I won't renege on the debt. Even if I have to sell everything I own, I will repay you."
Fu Nanhua comforted her, "It's still too early to say whether Gu Can's opportunity is already set in stone."
Cai Jinjian's face darkened as she shook her head. "River-Cutting True Lord Liu Zhimao may have a notorious reputation, but his methods are formidable. Otherwise, he wouldn't have secured a place at Book Bamboo Lake. This opportunity cannot be forced. If I offend Liu Zhimao, how could I withstand the might of a heretical grand true man? What I fear most is that Liu Zhimao already holds a grudge against me. Once we leave this town, without the sage's presence and the rules to restrain him, heaven knows what extreme actions Liu Zhimao might take. I'm sure you noticed some clues at the border, Brother Fu. The attendants from my sect who came with me to search for treasures are far too weak; they are no match for him at all."
Fu Nanhua smiled. "Rest assured, even if only for the ten Cloud Root Stones, my Old Dragon City will escort you safely back to Cloud Mist Mountain."
Cai Jinjian turned to him and gave a brilliant smile, her autumn-water eyes full of tender affection.
Fu Nanhua felt quite pleased with himself. He habitually reached for his jade pendant, only to grasp at empty air before remembering that he had already given his Old Dragon Rain-Streaming Pendant to that young man named Song Jixin.
Cai Jinjian breathed a sigh of relief. As she walked, she shifted her steps slightly to the left, allowing her shoulder to lightly brush against Fu Nanhua.
The trip to Mud Vase Alley had been an unplanned gamble for Cai Jinjian, a spur-of-the-moment decision made after careful consideration. But the outcome had proven that she had lost the bet, and the price was ten priceless Cloud Root Stones. This filled her with anxiety about the rest of her stay in the town and unconsciously made her dependent on Fu Nanhua. Alternatively, she had developed a gambler's mentality: if ten Cloud Root Stones was a bet, wasn't fifty also a bet? If she won, she would reap a bountiful harvest; if she lost... Cai Jinjian didn't think she would lose. Absolutely not. She was Cai Jinjian, the number one cultivation talent of Cloud Mist Mountain! Her cultivation path had been smooth sailing, her realm advancement swift as a splitting bamboo. She refused to believe that she would capsize in this stinking ditch.
As Cai Jinjian's mood improved, Fu Nanhua, feeling that the situation was well in hand, also found the leisure to genuinely appreciate Fairy Cai's appearance and figure. It was undeniable that she possessed an innate charm. If he were to become her dao companion and spend day and night with her, both in cultivation and in the bedchamber, they could gradually reach a state of perfection.
Cai Jinjian had once been praised by a highly respected senior as "a wind from Cloud Root Mountain, a celestial flying figure." The implication was that she was an extremely rare candidate for a dao companion. The Cloud Mist Mountain ancestors, who had grown accustomed to living off their mountain and doing business, had spared no expense in cultivating Cai Jinjian over the years, not without the selfish desire to wait for the best offer. In the immortal sects, arranged marriages for a match made in heaven were even more carefully considered and planned with a longer view than the marriages of secular dynasties and powerful clans.
However, Fu Nanhua had no good feelings toward Cloud Mist Mountain. Entrusting the fate of an entire sect to a single woman's shoulders was truly unseemly. This was one of the reasons Fu Nanhua had a poor impression of Cloud Mist Mountain.
Fu Nanhua reminded her, "If the young man next door to Song Jixin turns out to be someone chosen by an outside power, and he still has that name vessel with him, then your move here will stir up trouble. It will be easy for someone to trace it back to Cloud Mist Mountain and yourself. Furthermore, Song Jixin and his servant, as well as River-Cutting True Lord Liu Zhimao, might all detect this."
Cai Jinjian smiled. "Brother Fu may be focused on clues about the opportunity, so you might not be aware of the unwritten rules here. For children born in this town, if a boy hasn't been taken away by a 'porcelain buyer' who has waited nearly ten years by the time he turns nine, it means his innate talent is insufficient and he is no longer worth much. As he gets older, he becomes even cheaper. For the various sects and factions, paying a huge 'adoption fee' to be a sucker is far less practical than using that money to train a few direct disciples."
Whenever Cai Jinjian mentioned that straw-sandal boy, she felt nothing but disgust. "A commoner should know his place!"
Fu Nanhua tried to choose his words carefully as he advised, "That's true in principle, but that boy is short-sighted. How could he understand the nobility of you, Fairy Cai of Cloud Mist Mountain? Even if he offended you, a lesson would have been enough. There was no need to strike twice."
Fu Nanhua felt that Cai Jinjian's fierce attack was an anomaly that must hide some secret, possibly related to the opportunity. So he hoped to pry some information out of her, to see if he could find any clues. He didn't want to be the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind him. He thought she might be the cicada, but she could actually be the oriole. Old Dragon City had gone through immense hardship, paying an even more exorbitant price than Sunny Mountain or Cloud Mist Mountain, just to obtain a few fragmented secrets. This was how Fu Nanhua had learned that for three thousand years in this town, the so-called opportunities, after that stirring and unparalleled tragic war, had indeed been nothing more than the artifacts and treasures left behind by ancestral masters—except for that group of exceptionally talented town children. But now that this blessed land was on the verge of total collapse, things were no longer so simple.
In the final dynasty, when mountains and rivers crumble, divine weapons and heavy artifacts must emerge to welcome the new dynasty and new era.
Cai Jinjian was a bit sullen. "Don't mention him. Just thinking about him makes me sick."
Then a rare flash of ferocity appeared in her long autumn-water eyes, but she didn't want to spoil her fairy image in Fu Nanhua's mind, so she didn't voice her thoughts.
If she ever met that little bastard outside the town, she would make sure he died a quick death—not just drag out a sickly existence for another ten or twenty years.
The tall woman especially hated the boy's eyes. Deep down, she had an obsession she had never fully examined.
That kind of pure, clean gaze—she had cultivated for so many years on Cloud Mist Mountain, renowned for its "immaculate clarity," yet she had rarely seen it even a few times. What right did a poor boy growing up in a humble alley have to possess such beauty, day after day, year after year?
Cai Jinjian tilted her head and rubbed her eyelids. This gesture made her distant-mountain eyebrows appear even more elongated.
Fu Nanhua, who had been casually surveying the surroundings, teased her, "In the alley markets of our Old Dragon City, there's a widespread saying: 'Left eye twitches for wealth, right eye twitches for disaster.' Which eye is twitching for you?"
Cai Jinjian snatched her hand back as if burned and glared at him. It was clearly her right eyelid twitching at that moment.
Realizing his mistake, Fu Nanhua quickly tried to make amends, laughing, "Just superstitious nonsense from the common folk. It's not worth taking seriously."
Cai Jinjian's lips curled up. She turned sideways, gazing at Fu Nanhua's profile, and said smugly, "Got you, didn't I?"
Fu Nanhua was taken aback. Seeing Cai Jinjian acting coy and playful like a little girl, he felt an involuntary stir of emotion.
He suddenly hesitated. His intention to kill her began to waver. Wouldn't it be more beneficial for Old Dragon City's northward expansion plans to become a pair of celestial lovers with her? Once Cai Jinjian successfully obtained the opportunity here and returned to her sect, her status would inevitably rise. With proper maneuvering, she might even have a chance to become the mistress of Cloud Mist Mountain. Granting that there had been precedents of women taking charge in the long history of Cloud Mist Mountain's ancestral records. If that happened, Old Dragon City would have a springboard to legitimately penetrate the heartland of Eastern Treasure Vase Continent. With north and south supporting each other, they could advance or retreat as needed. This would be the foundation for a hegemonic enterprise, allowing Old Dragon City to escape its embarrassing situation of having strength but being forced to stay in a corner, enduring centuries of exclusion.
Not far ahead, just a few steps away, was the intersection where a horizontal and a vertical alley crossed.
Seeing that fork in the road, Fu Nanhua was suddenly jolted awake, as if enlightened. His eyes hardened once more.
Fu Nanhua, wearing his tall crown, had beads of sweat instantly forming on his forehead.
Anyone who disrupts my resolve must be killed to strengthen my dao heart!
At that moment, when Fu Nanhua looked at Cai Jinjian again, his gaze, demeanor, and state of mind had returned to their previous casualness. He was purely appreciating a painting. Beautiful women and beautiful scenery—both were pleasing to the eyes. He might as well take in as many glances as he could now, for after she left the town, she was destined to wither and fall at his hands.
"To kill and burn is to wear a golden belt; to build bridges and pave roads is to leave no bones."
Listen, some proverbs from the lowest of the low are truly universal.
Fu Nanhua's mind suddenly cleared.
Cai Jinjian, still sideways, asked in a charming voice, "Nanhua, what are you thinking about that makes you so happy?"
She had subtly changed to a more intimate form of address.
Fu Nanhua shook his head and smiled, about to speak, when the corner of his eye caught a flash of black shadow.
A thin young man seemed to cross from the horizontal alley to in front of Cai Jinjian in a single step. His left hand swiftly thrust upward, while at the same time, his right fist slammed into the belly of the Cloud Mist Mountain fairy. The blow was powerful and heavy, and with such sudden force at close range, it even carried a faint whistling wind, forcing the woman to bend over and lower her head.
Although the young man's right-hand strength was already far beyond that of his peers, the boy was actually left-handed. So the sharp weapon in his left hand sank completely into Cai Jinjian's throat, directly piercing through her lower oral cavity.
The boy did not stop there. His right fist smashed into her chest, while his left hand continued lifting upward.
Ensuring that this ambush would have no accidents.
At that moment, blood gushed from the woman's once slender and fair neck.
Then, bracing with his waist and ankles, the boy used his shoulder to ram into the tall woman's chest, slamming her entire body heavily into the horizontal alley.
Fu Nanhua rooted his feet to the ground, standing stock-still.
This young master of Old Dragon City's mind went completely blank.