Beware Of Chicken-Novel

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Bai Huizong, Lord Director of Spiritual Ascension Affairs, sighed heavily. It was himself, and his two most trusted employees.

“Are you alright, sir?” he heard his top aide, Hu, ask as he placed a drink in Huizong’s outstretched hand. Huizong had his feet up in a chair as Cho massaged his shoulders. A damp cloth lay across his face, soothing his headache and preventing him from seeing the mess that was his desk. So much damn paperwork.

Huizong took a deep quaff of the wine and sighed in satisfaction.

The day had started out well enough. A talk with his suppliers, organizing his aides, and commanding the staff of the mountain. Paperwork was last. He had sent out the usual polite request to the cultivators to be informed about what had happened, as a representative of His Imperial Majesty, fully expecting to be ignored.

His aide and the master of the workshop stayed silent as they waited for him to gather his thoughts.

“Things… well, things need a reevaluation, to say the least. That new cultivator? The rumours were true. Master Rou is in charge now. He led the procession in, took command of it. Then he explained what was going on with the rebuilding and assured me that I wouldn’t have to pay for any of it.”

Hu hummed. “I know he managed to conscript the disciples into helping with the town… but how deferential were the other Elders?”

“Elder Xinling brought a guzheng along. And played it for him as we took tea,” Huizong said wryly. He felt the fingers on his shoulders pause.

“Didn’t she stab Elder Gang for asking for her to play for him, saying it wasn’t for his crude ears?” Cho asked from behind his chair.

Hu shook his head immediately. “No, sir. The information brokers refuse to divulge anything on him. Not even when I offered ten times the usual rates. They just kept saying they didn’t know, and it was probably a good idea to stop asking.”

Huizong grimaced. Those Plum Blossom bastards had run everybody else out of town, or taken them over. They were incredibly skilled, and their prices were great compared to the mess before. To have them suddenly go silent was concerning.

“The Azure Jade Trading Company?”

Huizong grunted and grabbed the new bottle Hu passed him, considering the outcomes. Shake ups to the hierarchy were normally chaotic. But this cultivator seemed determined to minimize the chaos. And he had politely requested that his name be omitted from any report, but understood if Huizong had to talk to the authorities.

Huizong wasn’t stupid. If the information brokers wanted to keep mum about the man, Huizong certainly wasn’t saying anything. “Well, I’ll say this about him. He works fast, and for that, I salute him.”

Or rather, he planned to stay far out of his way, and reap the rewards as he always did with cultivators. Like applying for emergency funds due to cultivator damage from Grass Sea City.

The Shrouded Mountain Sect was going to be paying for everything… But the officials in the city didn’t know that. The trick to embezzling was always to have some deniability.

“On to the next subject. The catacombs. Did you get anything from Bao Wen, Hu?” Huizong asked Hu. The man nodded, pausing as he was getting out an inkstone.

“Bao Wen was reluctant... but I managed to persuade him.” Hu said simply. “The boy can’t hold his drink. Though it is another matter that I would advise discretion on. Bao Wen says there's an entire archive down there. A complete archive on the mountain and the Earthly Arena… and how to repair it.”

Huizong froze.

“They can repair the floating mechanisms?” he asked.

“Bao Wen thought so, as did the Elders.”

If they could repair the Dueling Peaks to their former glory, instead of this degraded wreck…

Huizong grinned. He could feel the silver coins clinking already.

“No cultivator war?” Cho asked, making sure.

“Thank the Heavens for that,” Hu muttered before shaking his head. “I’ll do the rounds and collect all the reports, sir. Your brush is ready for the report you have to send.”

“What would I do without you, Hu?” Huizong asked with a chuckle.

“Flounder helplessly?” the man replied cheekily without any bite, setting off to do as commanded.

Cho sighed and got up too, starting to walk away. He gave her shapely rear a swat and the woman yelped, glaring at him.

Then she reached out and stole his last two bottles of wine. Fair trade. He chuckled and turned to his parchment.

Just what to pen to his superiors though…? And how? He’d toe the line with the drunken brawl story. He wasn’t stupid enough to air the Shrouded Mountain Sect’s dirty laundry. Eventually, Huizong shrugged and simply wrote down what he thought would fly. Drunken brawl, town repaired, old vaults found, no danger to the mountain. Requesting additional supplies. Keep it as simple and dry as possible.

Heavens knows that being at the epicenter of these events didn’t make anything less confusing.

There. Sounded perfect. If significantly more polite and flattering in the courtly characters they used. It’d probably just be filed away like all the others, never seeing the light of day again.

He rang a small gong next to his desk, and a junior aide entered. He handed the letter off to the boy, then turned his attention to Master Rou’s request for a feast to celebrate the reconstruction effort. It was a good idea, if he was being honest.

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If anybody had told Cai Xi Kong he would be sitting down for tea with a rooster, he would have considered them mad. If they had said the rooster might be able to match him in battle… Xi Kong would have been forced to insure the one who uttered that grave insult never spoke again.

Now, he was looking across the table at a Spirit Beast well into the Profound realm. The rooster was the pinnacle of his kind. A creature out of an idealized painting. Each feather looked impossibly soft, yet chiseled from stone. His wattle and comb had not a single defect nor blemish. His beak and spurs shone in the light, like they had been freshly polished.

And he had just finished tying a cloth around his neck, and settled in on the cushions stacked high so he could reach the table.

“Fa Bi De pays his respects to Cai Xi Kong,” the rooster intoned, sweeping into an elegant and regal bow. His fox fur vest was resplendent in the light of the sun. A necklace glinted with silver light, hanging down to the rooster’s breast. Intelligence and refinement shone from the Spirit Beast’s eyes.

“Cai Xi Kong pays his respects to Fa Bi De,” Xi Kong returned. He poured tea from the pot between them. They were together on the balcony of a teahouse that overlooked the town. He had wished to speak with the creature about Xiulan, and her time spent at “Fa Ram.” It was necessary for Xi Kong to take measure of the expert tied to his daughter. Master Jin was a mystery. Opaque. Xi Cong could not understand the man.

And so he had sought out the one who claimed to be his first disciple. The rooster, Fa Bi De.

It was a Spirit Beast. Surely, it could be outwitted, and lead into revealing what Xi Cong sought. “I thank you for your time. Your Master is busy, and I would not bother him with the mere concerns of a father.”

The rooster cocked his head to the side, examining Xi Kong. “The Great Master is not one to be bothered over such questions. Nay, I would dare say my Lord welcomes them. He enjoys such conversations,” the rooster immediately replied. He bent his head down, and sipped his tea with impeccable manners.

The rooster’s words were light, but Xi Kong took a sip of his tea considering the implications.

Perhaps Xi Kong had been arrogant, but he had never met a Spirit Beast willing to sit down and talk. Those that could speak either just raged… or were horribly arrogant creatures sounding remarkably like some of the Young Masters Xi Kong knew. They were full of entitled arrogance. They thought the destruction they wrought was not just good, but right.

Still, he had some caution to him. In addition to the fact that the rooster was dear to Master Rou, he knew of Ri Zu the healer, who was, according to Liu Xianghua, beyond compare.

Xi Kong hummed, and decided upon bluntness. “Indeed. Master Rou is a man of virtue, and I dare not cast doubt upon his name. However… I would hear it not from the Master nor the student, but one… not as embroiled. One sees more of the mountain from an adjacent hill, no?”

The rooster considered Xi Kong for a moment, to his surprise it felt as if a seasoned warrior was taking his measure, before nodding.

“That is indeed a good point, Elder Xi Kong. What do you wish to know?” the rooster asked.

“Your thoughts upon her growth,” Xi Kong began.

“Her growth, hm?” the rooster asked. Xi Kong raised his own cup to take a sip of tea.

“She was suffering greatly when she returned to us,” the rooster stated, slowly.

Xi Kong froze, his cup halfway to his lips. Suffering greatly?

“Her sleep was disturbed. Her concentration wavered. It was my understanding that for several months she had struggled with the deaths of the soldiers she commanded,” the rooster continued. “Their faces haunted her memories, and her battle with Sun Ken and the pressures placed upon her contributed.”

His daughter hadn’t spoken a word of it to him. But… wasn’t that the way? Who among them would admit any sort of weakness? Xi Kong grimaced.

“She was aided in this… tribulation of the heart?” Xi Kong asked.

“She overcame it. With the aid of the Healing Sage and the Great Master, she was guided to recover. I believe her time within Fa Ram helped her make peace with the past.”

“She received aid, and in return has aided us greatly. This is one of the pillars of my Master’s knowledge. One who cheats the earth shall be cheated by it. One who gives to the earth, shall surely be rewarded.”

It sounded so simple, despite coming out of a rooster’s mouth. Give and receive.

“And after…?”

“Afterwards, she was honored to be trained personally by the Great Master,” the rooster stated simply. “Along with myself and Tigu.”

“What manner of training does your Master command?” Xi Kong was intrigued by the man’s methods. To raise even a rooster up so high must require great feats and meditation.

Bi De nodded, and told Xi Kong of the activities Xiulan partook in.

Looking after mortal children. Throwing balls of mud at her. Cooking, with ten levitating knives.

Individually, they sounded like childish games.

And yet… the control of her blades was exemplary. Her reactions and speed were enough that Xi Kong could not state with full confidence that he could win a battle against his own daughter if she had not been injured.

Xi Kong looked away from the rooster to gaze down to the square. His eyes found his daughter. She was speaking with Guo Daxian the Younger, who was nodding his head in agreement. His daughter was smiling. Xi Kong had kept an eye on his still healing daughter. He had watched as she approached the other Young Masters and Mistresses, joining in on their work, and speaking to them. He had not stooped to eavesdropping…yet. Whatever was said seemed to have positive reception from most of them.

And yet here she was. Willingly engaging with others, taking charge, being…open.

She was making and securing alliances, instead of just being his obedient daughter. A single year had changed her so much.

He turned away from the scene below, back to the rooster. Bi De’s talon shot out, cutting a pastry into bite-sized pieces. He then wiped the digit on a provided napkin.

Xi Kong leaned back in his chair, looking to the rooster. “Tell me, Bi De. Where do most of your contemplations lie? I, as my daughter, have contemplated deeply on the mysteries of a simple blade of grass.”

The rooster perked up. “The majority of mine meditations are spent upon the glory of the moon, and its holy luster.”

“The moon? Truly?” Xi Kong asked.

“Indeed. The holy Aegis is the most perfect celestial object—”

The rooster was suddenly cut off by loud obnoxious humming. Xi Kong glanced down at the street again, where the young disciple Gou Ren was entirely too cheerfully stacking bricks, a massive, idiotic smile on his face that Xi Kong could see from there.

Xi Kong raised an eyebrow. “Your Junior Disciple is certainly in a fine mood,” Xi Kong observed.

“Ah. He disappeared for a few hours last night with Liu Xianghua,” the rooster decreed, with a knowing gleam in the Spirit Beast’s eyes. “They’ve both been like that all day.”

The boy was going to be there for a while, though…

Xi Kong ordered the check. “Will you walk with me, Fa Bi De? I would continue our discussion, and would appreciate a change of scenery.”

They spoke at great length about the grass, and the moon above. It was a surprisingly enlightening conversation.

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Xiulan sat with her father in the tea room. The scent of tea was heavy in the air. There were noises of amusement from the guest house. Her father seemed… unsettled. He was silent, deep in thought, so Xiulan let him think. It was good to have a moment to gather one’s thoughts, especially after such a feast, and it was nice to once more have tea with the honoured father. He had arranged some lotus mooncakes. Both of their favourites.

“You’ve been speaking at great length to the other Young Masters and Mistresses, daughter,” Xiulan’s father observed quietly, finally breaking the silence.

So when she had spoken to them of the possibility of a summit of the Younger Generation, most were receptive to it.

A step forward. A step towards her own path.

Her father studied her, but he did not immediately press for answers on why she was meeting with the others, like Elder Yi. Instead, there was simply trust.

“I see… well, enough about that. What are your plans for the future? Though your strength may be diminished for now, if you are certain it will return, you may still be made an Elder,” he ventured.

Xiulan pondered it. It ought to have been an honour. She had earned it. But… Xiulan didn’t feel quite ready to take the title. To take that step. She had things she wanted to do, and being an Elder… the responsibilities would hinder that. Xiulan was not ready to settle quite yet.

Her father’s gaze was intent for a moment, before he sighed, seeming almost sad. “He has truly helped you greatly,” he said quietly. “This man… who is he to you?”

Xiulan smiled at the question. Hidden Master. Strange farmer. Younger than her. A good friend.

Her father met her words with silence. He took a breath at the look on her face, and sighed. “Very well. You have my permission, and my blessing,” her father said, bowing his head.

Xiulan bowed deeply in return. “Thank you, father.”

She would stay several months, if they would have her. She did want to see that dance Bi De talked about. Perhaps… to the new year? Yes. To the new year. And then… in the spring, she would set off again—

“Though I would request an invitation to the wedding,” her father said.

It took her a moment to process her father’s words. Xiulan jerked her head up, her eyes going wide. She gaped at her father, her face burned red with embarrassment.

“Ah, wha—?! No, father, there will not be a wedding!” Xiulan spluttered.

Her father’s face fell. “No marriage? I see. Unfortunate…” her father said, a seemingly troubled look on his face. “Will I meet the children of your union?”

Xiulan felt like Zang Li had lit her face on fire all over again.

“Hmmm. Pity.”

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“That's bullshit,” a man said, as he threw down the scroll in disbelief.

“What?!” Tao the Traveller demanded.

“It's bullshit. What kind of cultivator cooks mortals food? I think you were drinking too deep, Tao.”

“Tall-tale-Tao,” another man in the pub heckled.

“You bastards! When have I ever told a lie?!” Tao demanded.

Tao told nothing but the truth! It may sound fantastical, but that was why he wrote it! Honestly! Who could make what happened up?!