Chapter 415: Reflected Light

When the time came, and Panlong City’s people had all left, would these storefronts still be worth anything? Would he still be able to collect rent at the same rates?

Faced with upheaval on that scale, would Panlong City’s officials still follow the same rules and procedures as before?

He Lingchuan knew Bai Guo’s instincts were sharp. The man was sniffing out the wind early, eager to sprint ahead of the crowd, which was why he had come to renegotiate the lease now. He Lingchuan smiled faintly, rose to his feet, and said, “Let’s talk again once the resettlement decree actually comes down.”

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

Behind him, the plump shopkeeper sighed and groaned like the sky was falling.

Arena Seven was still packed to the brim today, too. It was so crowded that it was nearly impossible to move. The first person He Lingchuan spotted was Skinny. The guy had a burlap sack slung over his shoulder, smiling like a flower in full bloom.

Four hours passed with a few scares, but nothing fatal. He Lingchuan was still an Arena Master, just with a bruise on his face, a few new tears in his clothing, and a deep soreness in his chest and abdomen. Someone had landed several kicks there, plus two solid punches, and now every breath hurt.

He swallowed some medicine and regulated his breathing for an hour before it eased.

While Skinny was splitting the earnings with him, He Lingchuan seized the chance to ask, “Have you caught wind of anything?”

Skinny was fully engrossed in counting the whole messy pile of silver and copper. “Huh?”

“Have you heard any news or rumors from West Luo?”

“Collecting money like this is way too inconvenient,” Skinny muttered, still counting. He was already a veteran when it came to working the arena. More importantly, everybody now knew he was Arena Master Broken Saber’s friend, so no one dared compete with him for the side hustle. Skinny was already dreaming big. “How about we make tokens? Let people buy tokens to bet with.”

“You mean chips?”

Like a gambling house?

“Yeah, that!” Skinny finished counting an entire bag before he finally processed what was being asked. “News from West Luo? Sure, I heard the warlord fighting back home is getting worse and worse. The capital can’t suppress it at all.”

Panlong City had insisted on keeping trade routes open to the outside world. Over the last few years, information channels have grown far smoother than they were four or five years ago. Domestic intel making it here was only a matter of time.

“Who doesn’t know that?” Weak states bred chaos. Anyone trying to imitate Beijia’s system—if you could even call it a system—would be digging their own grave. “Anything else?”

Skinny stared blankly. “Nope. I haven’t heard of anything else.”

“Alright.” He Lingchuan patted his shoulder, took his share, and headed home.

So the news still hasn’t spread.

On the way, he bought a few pieces of Poria cake.

Creaaak.

He pushed open his door. His courtyard—or more accurately, his tiny little skywell—was still just as cramped as ever, but he could feel that something had changed.

He had only been gone a few days, but now, above the water vat, along the outer wall of the kitchen, someone had built a simple rack. Three pots of flowers sat on it.

One pot held apricot-colored meadow buttercups[1], another held a crimson-red windflowers[2], and as for the third... He Lingchuan could not identify at all. It drooped in long strands of snowy white blossoms, like falling snowflakes or like the beaded curtain of a bride’s veil, nearly brushing the surface of the water in the vat.

The courtyard was small, and he needed room to train, so the extra flowerpots had been placed up where he would not bump them.

He Lingchuan sniffed.

His courtyard had never smelled this fragrant before.

Inside the room, it was spotless. The clutter that had once been piled everywhere had vanished. A dark brown clothes chest now sat beside the bed. A vase rested on a chair, holding two wild, boldly colored gerbera daisies that were probably picked from the countryside.

He opened the chest, and sure enough, all his mess had been packed in neatly, sorted into categories.

Right on top was the stack of “gentleman’s reading material” he had once brought back from a local variety store. There were several volumes of such material, and they were aligned and piled with almost obsessive neatness.

At that moment, he heard movement at the courtyard gate. Someone pushed the door open.

He Lingchuan dropped the lid shut with a loud clack and hurried out.

Of course, it was Sun Fuling.

She set down the basket in her hands. “You defended the arena again today. I take it that you won again?”

“Yeah. It’s getting harder and harder, but I still pulled through.” He Lingchuan stretched, then hissed when it tugged at the injury between his ribs. “The Gale Army has too many experts. Next time I might not be so lucky.”

A challenger’s club had cracked into his left ribs. At a minimum, it was a fracture. Today’s opponent had been especially crafty, feigning weakness several times, trying to bait him into a single lethal counter.

In the end, of course, He Lingchuan had kicked him off the arena.

“What undefeated general exists?” Sun Fuling said lightly, as if it were an obvious truth. She pulled items out of the basket as she spoke: two jars of fine wine, two plump roast chickens, three huge slabs of braised beef shank, and bundled pork hocks. “For celebration. This wine is this year’s new release from Apricot Blossom Tavern, Apricot Blossom Spring.”

Cultivators had abundant qi and blood, and they also ate a lot.

“And if I’d lost?”

“Then it’s for drowning your sorrows.”

She carried the roast chicken and braised pork hocks into the kitchen, set them down to chop, and sharpened the cleaver a few times. Then, she casually flicked the blade in a neat little flourish.

Watching a delicate young woman handle a thick-backed butcher’s cleaver, the blade flashing coldly as it spun between her long, slender fingers, made He Lingchuan sweat in secondhand shame.

Thok, thok, thok...

With a dozen quick strikes, the roast chicken and pork hocks obediently became bite-sized chunks.

He Lingchuan noticed there were barely any fresh knife marks on the chopping board. That just went to show how precise her control was. There was no wasted force at all.

Anyone who had ever chopped pork bones knew how hard it was to strike them just right.

“And you said you can’t cook?”

“I can’t,” she said calmly as she pointed at the roast chicken and pork hocks. “These were gifts from students.” Then, she pointed at the beef. “And that’s from Apricot Blossom Tavern.”

“I only do the cutting,” Sun Fuling said with a smile. “Didn’t you start your training by slicing paper and tofu?” As she spoke, she grabbed the beef. The knife flashed, leaving only an afterimage.

In an instant, the beef was done being processed.

Each slice was paper-thin, thin enough to let light pass through.

It was evenly cut, as if processed by a machine.

They carried everything out into the courtyard. After washing her hands, she pulled out a small jar, the kind that could hold only about 150 grams or so of wine.

“And what’s this?” He Lingchuan put on a show of refusing. “This is too much. We can’t finish it!”

Sun Fuling burst out laughing. “Try one bite first.”

She tipped the jar into a chipped porcelain cup and poured out a clump of something long and fine like hair, but vivid red and wriggling. It was a writhing knot of worms.

Sun Fuling lifted the cup straight to his mouth. “Want some?”

He Lingchuan sprang back so fast he cleared nearly a meter. “What the hell is that?!”

He was not exactly unfamiliar with eating insects, but this thing looked deeply unappetizing.

It looked very much like a parasite.

𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

“Bloodworms. You think you’re the only one who needs to eat?” Sun Fuling rolled her eyes. She casually dumped the cup into the water vat.

He Lingchuan heard splashing.

He leaned over and saw the goldfish surge up, scrambling for the snack in a frenzy.

Oh, this is the perfect time to count them.

One, two, three, four, five, six...

Wait, all nine fish are still there?

Not only were the fish still alive and lively, but their colors were also even brighter than before.

This kind of health required sun and nourishment. He Lingchuan searched his mind. The fish had been here seven or eight days, and he could only remember feeding them twice.

Where did the water plants and shells at the bottom come from? And the snails clinging to the vat wall, surely they didn’t just appear out of nowhere, right?

He even saw something flicker blue at the bottom, ghostlike. When he focused, he realized it was a little shrimp, almost transparent.

Raising fish outdoors was not easy. Tong City had plenty of magpies and egrets, and they often swooped in to steal a meal. For all nine fish to not only be alive but even thriving, they were exceedingly fortunate.

“You’ve put real care into the fish,” He Lingchuan said softly. He had caught them to please a young lady, only for the young lady to end up raising them for him.

“Just a small thing,” Sun Fuling said, brushing stray hair from her forehead. Her dimples appeared again.

She stood in the soft light of the fourth month, smiling gently. Even in simple clothes and plain hairpins, she outshone the blooming flowers in his little courtyard.

She bent to feed the fish, and in that moment, she happened to align with the drooping white blossoms beside her. Reflected light answered reflected light, like black hair dusted with first snow, fine and delicate.

He Lingchuan stared utterly spellbound. For a moment, he felt that nothing in the world could be more beautiful than the scene he was seeing at this very moment, that all the goodness of life had been hidden inside this courtyard no bigger than his palm.

Sun Fuling tilted her head, eyes full of amusement. “What are you looking at?”

“That flower’s pretty, and those fish sure seem to love to eat it,” He Lingchuan said quickly, pointing at the white trailing plant. “What’s it called?”

The blossom strands nearly touched the water. One overeager goldfish, still unsatisfied with the bloodworms, even leaped up and nipped at the petals.

“Nodding clerodendron,” Sun Fuling said, tidying the drooping strands with one hand. “I bought it from an out-of-town merchant. It’s supposedly a specialty from eastern West Luo. You won’t find it in the Chipa Highland.”

After feeding the fish and washing up, they sat down to eat and drink. He Lingchuan produced the Poria cakes, which had become a proper staple for them.

He told her about the sudden appearance of the juluo tree at South Gate Square. Sun Fuling was surprised. “It really grew within a few days? Then I’ll go take a look tomorrow. Juluo trees aren’t common. Where did the sapling come from?”

“You know juluo trees?”

“I know a thing or two about strange wonders. Isn’t a juluo tree the legendary seabed wood that can shelter wandering souls?” She pinched up a chunk of pork hock and gnawed at it without the slightest concern for looking refined. Then she added, almost casually, “The true body of the Baoshu King, the oldest monster king in Beijia, is also a juluo tree.”

So the spirit seed really did come from the Baoshu King.

He Lingchuan asked, “I heard that the Baoshu King’s territory is the most peaceful monster state in Beijia and that it hardly experiences any unrest.”

“It never has a change of ruler; it’s always been that same old tree holding power. Of course it stays stable,” Sun Fuling said with a shrug. “Forget the other monster states, even Lingxu City has changed rulers once.”

“Beijia’s been founded for six hundred—no, four hundred-plus years,” He Lingchuan corrected himself quickly. He had almost forgotten that Panlong’s calendar did not match the real one; in this era, Beijia’s history was only a little over four centuries. “I looked up histories in the Literature Pavilion. They all describe Beijia as politically chaotic, yet somehow unshakable. What do you think?”

The woman in front of him was deeply versed in history. Asking her was far faster than burying his head in books, and time in the dreamscape was precious.

He Lingchuan poured her another cup with almost comical diligence. Sun Fuling drained it in one swallow, exhaled softly, and sure enough, her breath carried the faint fragrance of apricot blossoms. And so, she recounted:

“Beijia’s current territory used to be more than a dozen human states, with two small monster states mixed among them. One monster state was destroyed by the humans. The other, seeing that human destiny was too strong while monsterkind remained scattered and disunited, chose to throw itself into the gods’ embrace.”

“It used the gods’ power to unite a host of greater monsters and began turning the tide bit by bit, state by state, gnawing away at human territory.”

“Their success attracted more monster clans to join them, and the war against the human states became smoother and smoother. The whole process lasted only a little over thirty years.”

“When the last human state vanished, the Beijia monster state was born. The founding ruler became the first monster emperor. He lavishly rewarded his meritorious followers, dividing the vast lands among twelve monster kings of great achievement and allowing each to establish their own vassal state. And that is how the northern monster state was set.”

1. This is likely referring to

Ranunculus asiaticus

. ☜

2. This is referring to the anemone flower, likely

Anemone coronaria

. ☜