Chapter 7 – The Beautiful and Kind-hearted Chou Bodeng

Lu Shiyilang had never been threatened by anyone other than his own older brother. For a moment, his sobs got stuck in his throat, unable to come out or be swallowed.

“You should stop crying,” Zuo Yuesheng advised. “This guy will really beat you. He’s always been a bit…”

Lu Jing wiped his face and stood up, kicking the fat man.

Zuo Yuesheng yelped, “He’s the one who whipped you, not me!”

“I! Was! Not! Crying!” Lu Jing said fiercely. “It was the wind! Haven’t you ever gotten wind in your eyes?!”

“Such a strong wind, yet it can’t even blow a single leaf,” Chou Bodeng sneered.

Zuo Yuesheng, trussed up like a silkworm cocoon in the net, for the first time found that Young Master Chou’s dog mouth could spit out ivory. He couldn’t help but chuckle. Seeing Lu Jing raise his leg again, he quickly shouted, “Wait! I didn’t throw away those bird feathers! Let me up! I’ll help you look!”

Chou Bodeng, remembering the “fragrance revenge,” didn’t forget to instruct as Lu Jing fumbled with the golden net, “Just let his two arms out so he can get the things.”

“This is it.”

Zuo Yuesheng, looking disheveled, managed to stick his head and two arms out. After rummaging in his mustard seed pouch for a long time, he pulled out a long box. Inside were several gray feathers.

It turned out that day, after Zuo Yuesheng had “bought” Lu Jing’s Yin-Yang Pendant, he felt he had made a huge profit and couldn’t resist taking it out to admire it on his way back. He was so engrossed in looking down that by the time he heard the sound of wind, he had already been knocked out by a wing. Being robbed by a person, he could at least inquire and seek revenge later. Being robbed by a bird, he had no idea where to even start looking.

Who knew where that bird had flown off to.

“You actually kept it so well?” Chou Bodeng squatted down and picked up the longest feather.

“I’ve been looking for it too, okay?”

Zuo Yuesheng grumbled.

He had shown this thing to Lou Jiang, who had impatiently scolded him, saying that the Mountain Sea Pavilion collected heavenly materials and earthly treasures, not roadside junk, and that he shouldn’t think he could swindle money with any old chicken or duck feather he picked up.

Speaking of which, where had that bastard Lou Jiang run off to?

Chou Bodeng held the gray feather up to the light and slowly turned it.

The quill was very long; the entire feather was three times the length of his forearm. It was likely a primary flight feather from its wing. Judging by its length, it was definitely a bird of prey. No wonder it could knock Zuo Yuesheng down with one wing.

“What does your Yin-Yang Pendant do?” he asked Lu Jing.

Lu Jing stared at the feather for a long time, just like Chou Bodeng had, but saw nothing. When asked, he reflexively recited, “Heaven and earth open and yin and yang combine, the two directions endlessly give life to each other, the spirit is housed and firmly stored, hidden white and central rush…”

“Stop!” Chou Bodeng’s head throbbed. “Speak human!”

“It warms your hands in winter and cools you down in summer.”

Zuo Yuesheng’s cheeks twitched, and he couldn’t help but snort. “Can you show some respect for treasures? The Yin-Yang Pendant contains the two essential energies of ‘life’ and ‘death.’ It has the effect of gathering the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. It can help with cultivation and accelerate healing when you’re injured. How can you describe it as a piece of broken stone?!”

Hearing the fat man still blabbering, Lu Jing pulled the net rope and kicked him again.

Zuo Yuesheng immediately shut up.

Chou Bodeng tossed the feather to Lu Jing. “That’s it then. An injured bird of prey, landed in the place with the most abundant spiritual energy on the Fu tree.”

Lu Jing released the rope and fumbled to catch the feather. “How do you know?”

“Have you never raised a bird?” Chou Bodeng looked at Lu Jing with a gaze full of “as a profligate, you haven’t even played with this” disdain. “Their feathers get worn out easily. Unless they’re too old to move or seriously injured, they’ll preen themselves every day, coating their feathers with oil from their tails to keep them glossy. These few feathers are dull and lusterless, especially this one, the most important flight feather. The barbules are messy and tangled, completely withered. But…”

Chou Bodeng estimated Zuo Yuesheng’s tonnage.

“To be able to knock this guy out, it seems it’s not old age, but an injury.”

Lu Jing only half-understood, but he grasped the key point. “If I climb the Fu tree, I can find it?”

“Birds and beasts are much better at sensing the energy of heaven and earth than humans. It probably snatched the Yin-Yang Pendant because it sensed the energy inside would help it. With something to accelerate the gathering of spiritual energy, it would naturally seek out the place with the most abundant spiritual energy. Besides the ancient Fu tree, where else could that be? However, Fatty Zuo was only knocked out and didn’t even get a scratch. Its temperament seems quite good. If you trade some healing pills with it, it should return the jade pendant to you.”

After speaking, Chou Bodeng paused and looked at the stunned Zuo Yuesheng and Lu Jing, asking strangely, “What are you staring at?”

“Applaud!”

Zuo Yuesheng, Lu Jing: …

The little bit of admiration that had just risen was shattered in an instant!

“Wait!” Zuo Yuesheng reacted quickly. “We have to climb the Divine Fu Tree to find it?”

“What else?” Chou Bodeng asked with concern. “Are you planning to jump around under the tree and shout, begging it to fly down and return the jade to Brother Lu? That could work.”

“Even if I shout, will it come down? No, wait,” Zuo Yuesheng pulled the conversation back on track. “The problem is, if we climb the tree, we’ll be chased by the whole city!”

“Not ‘we’,” Chou Bodeng corrected, “but ‘us’.”

“Young Master Chou! My lord! My dear lord! The people of Fu City really don’t allow anyone to climb the Divine Fu Tree. They think it’s a great disrespect.” Zuo Yuesheng’s forehead began to sweat.

“Wait a minute.” Chou Bodeng interrupted him. “That’s not right. Since when was climbing the Divine Fu Tree forbidden? I seem to remember reading in Miscellaneous Notes on a Southern Journey that when Qiu Mingzi came to Fu City, he saw ‘children playing, in groups of three and five, hanging colorful streamers and lanterns from the treetop to the base, man and tree rejoicing together’?”

Zuo Yuesheng was stunned. “Miscellaneous Notes on a Southern Journey? My great-grandfather’s long and boring notes? You’ve read them?”

“Your grandfather wrote them?” Chou Bodeng’s interest was piqued. “What about the other three volumes? Didn’t the last one say it would be published soon? Was it published?”

“Published my ass! Two million copies of the Southern Journey were printed, but less than a thousand were sold. My great-grandmother was so angry she called him a good-for-nothing who only knew how to lose money and burned the other three volumes.”

“Wait—” Lu Jing tried his best to pull the topic back. “Aren’t we talking about the Divine Fu Tree right now?”

“Oh, oh, oh,” Zuo Yuesheng came back to his senses. “Climbing the Divine Fu Tree was allowed a long time ago. Three hundred years ago, the old City Diviner felt it was improper for children to be climbing up and down the divine tree all day, so he forbade it. Over time, just like not being able to break the Fu tree’s branches, it became a taboo in Fu City.”

“Does the Divine Fu Tree know it has so many ‘proprieties’?” Chou Bodeng asked.

“Fatty, don’t talk nonsense. Are you trying to back out?” Lu Jing asked sinisterly. “I’m telling you, no way! If we don’t find the Yin-Yang Pendant today, I’ll turn you into bird droppings!”

“But-but, what if the bird took the pendant and flew somewhere else?” Zuo Yuesheng made a last-ditch effort.

“Are you an idiot or is the bird an idiot? It’s injured, and you think it’s going to fly around in the miasma?” Lu Jing ground his teeth.

“Forget it, don’t force it,” Chou Bodeng advised.

Zuo Yuesheng was stunned.

Since when was that Chou fellow so kind?

Chou Bodeng was extremely gentle. “Birds have a hard life. Don’t feed it spoiled pork…”

Swoosh.

Zuo Yuesheng rolled on the ground. A cold, glittering broken sword scraped past his cheek and embedded itself in the ground. If he had been a moment slower, his head would have been pierced. He was so scared his soul nearly flew out of his body.

“…Just kill it directly,” Chou Bodeng finished his sentence.

Lu Jing, standing nearby, watched as Chou Bodeng pulled out his sword with a smile, ready to turn hostile at a moment’s notice. His Adam’s apple bobbed nervously, and the spot where he had been whipped suddenly felt a little cold. He felt… Chou Bodeng’s threat earlier wasn’t “if you howl again, I’ll beat you,” but “if you howl again, I’ll kill you,” wasn’t it?!

In the first month of running away from home, Lu Shiyilang had come to understand what his brother meant by the “dangers of the martial world.”

Crooked merchants abound, and madmen are everywhere. The martial world is dangerous; my brother did not deceive me.

Lu Jing was homesick!

“I’ll go, I’ll go!” Zuo Yuesheng cried out. “If I don’t go to hell, who will!”

***

Zuo Yuesheng led Chou Bodeng and Lu Jing through a maze of small alleys.

No one knew how the streets and alleys of Fu City were laid out. They were a web of connections and forks, like a labyrinth. Some places were very dark and a bit eerie. At first, Lu Jing wanted to wait for his guards to arrive, but Zuo Yuesheng asked him if he was hoping to be discovered as soon as they started climbing the tree, with so many people making the chase even more lively. Lu Jing fell silent and gave up.

“I can understand Lu Jing.”

Zuo Yuesheng, his life no longer in immediate danger, couldn’t stop talking.

“Young Master Chou, what about you? I’ve never seen you so proactive before.”

Chou Bodeng walked lazily behind, his hands clasped behind his head. The Taiyi Sword, which he had used and then discarded, floated sullenly in mid-air, bumping his elbow every so often in frustration. Lu Jing had never seen a sword that “walked” on its own before and watched with curiosity.

“Proactive about what?” Hearing Zuo Yuesheng’s words, Chou Bodeng looked up with a smile. “Haven’t I always been beautiful and kind-hearted?”

“…”

The beautiful and kind-hearted Chou Bodeng?

Zuo Yuesheng wanted to puke.

“The big bird that knocked you down should have gained some intelligence. I’ll see if I can invite it to come to Taiyi with me,” Chou Bodeng recalled a certain bald phoenix from the Taiyi Sect. “Last time, I accidentally set fire to Elder Ye’s phoenix’s tail. Recently, that old guy has been crying to me every day about how it can’t find a wife without its tail feathers.”

“Being ugly is indeed a problem,” Lu Jing nodded in agreement. “My second brother’s turtle is pitch black, and it still doesn’t have a wife. But my third brother has a crow, and it’s still single too.”

“Then if this one can’t be tricked away, we’ll have it go on a blind date with your brother’s crow,” Chou Bodeng said cheerfully.

“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t be such a messy matchmaker. Can you show some respect for the phoenix? It’s a divine bird!” Zuo Yuesheng complained.

“They’re all birds,” Lu Jing retorted. “And besides, aren’t we supposed to be climbing a tree? Why are you taking such a long detour?”

“Brother Lu, you’re my dear brother,” Zuo Yuesheng nearly knelt. “Can you keep your voice down? Do thieves announce they’re going to steal beforehand?”

“Oh, oh, oh.” Lu Jing, a first-time thief, had no experience. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t know.”

Chou Bodeng glanced at him sideways, thinking the guy was unbelievably stupid.

No wonder he was scammed out of his Yin-Yang Pendant.

“The Fu tree is huge, covering the entire city. Are you at the Dao Enlightenment Stage or the Law Guardian Stage? Can you tell where the spiritual energy is most abundant with just one glance?” Zuo Yuesheng looked around, only relaxing after confirming no one was there. “Or are you planning to search the tree until the cows come home?”

Among the three, Lu Jing had the highest cultivation, at the early Soul-Fixing Stage.

However, his Soul-Fixing Stage was so watered down it was practically an ocean. It was the result of his father force-feeding him all sorts of strange and ancient medicines over the years. He could manage to fly and jump, but if it came to a real fight… it was better not to mention it.

“Are you looking for a guide?” Chou Bodeng asked suspiciously. “Didn’t you say we can’t climb the Divine Fu Tree?”

“The people from the City Divination Department can. They’re considered part of the tree, not people,” Zuo Yuesheng said. “No one is more familiar with the Divine Fu Tree than them.”

This time, Lu Jing had experience. “That’s not right. You’re looking for someone from the City Divination Department to be our guide? That’s not a thief exposing himself, that’s a thief turning himself in.”

“He was kicked out of the City Divination Department a long time ago.” Zuo Yuesheng stopped and turned to face Lu Jing. “We’re almost there. That broken-down courtyard ahead is the place. Now there’s a critical problem. This guy is from the City Divination Department, after all, and deep down, he still considers himself one of them. So, whether we’re asking for a guide or turning ourselves in will depend on you.”

“On me?” Lu Jing’s eyes widened in disbelief. “But I don’t even know him!”

“No.”

Zuo Yuesheng was very serious.

“This matter can only depend on you.”

***

“Mother—”

“Your unfilial son—your son couldn’t even find the last thing you left behind—”

“Mother!”

From a not-so-spacious courtyard came the sound of crying, so sorrowful and mournful that all who heard it shared in the grief.

Lu Jing, dressed in white, was hugging the leg of a dark, thin youth and crying his heart out. The person he was hugging wore a somewhat tattered brown short robe and held a sickle for cutting grass in his hand. The dark, thin youth tried desperately to push away the lump of mud clinging to his leg. “I! Am! Not! Your! Mother!”

“Mother—”

Lu Jing, remembering Fatty Zuo’s instructions, ignored whatever the other person said and just cried, crying so hard it shook the heavens and moved the earth, his heart breaking into a thousand pieces.

Chou Bodeng shot out of the crooked courtyard gate with a swoosh, one hand on the wall, the other on his stomach, laughing so hard his shoulders shook silently.

To come up with such a move, Fatty Zuo was a true genius.

“Mother—”

Lu Jing cried with genuine emotion, crying with abandon.

“Fatty Zuo!” the dark, thin youth roared. “What kind of person did you bring! Go to hell!”

Zuo Yuesheng held back his laughter until his face was red and he had squeezed out two crocodile tears, which he wiped away theatrically. “Brother Ye, you see, we’re not trying to cut down the tree, we just want to find a keepsake. Please, just help us and be our guide. Look at him, so pitiful, so dejected. He might just bang his head against a wall if he gets desperate. That’s a human life we’re talking about!”

Chou Bodeng, who was having a hard time suppressing his laughter outside, decided he should move further away so as not to ruin the atmosphere by laughing out loud.

“Ye Cang, just say it, will you help or not? If you don’t, this guy is really going to kill himself right in front of you.”

Chou Bodeng, who was about to move away, froze.

Ye Cang?

Wasn’t that the protagonist of Chronicles of the Gods? What was he doing in Fu City?

In the book, the protagonist appeared as a disciple of the Taiyi Sect.

Chou Bodeng had checked the Taiyi disciple registry and found no such person, which was how he had calculated that he still had a good eight hundred years before his death. If he remembered correctly, the protagonist embarked on the path of cultivation to investigate the truth behind the destruction of the city he lived in as a youth.

In the courtyard, Zuo Yuesheng gave Lu Jing a look.

“Mother, your unfilial son is coming to see you!” Lu Jing had really thrown all caution to the wind today, his pride be damned. He dragged Ye Cang with him as he charged towards the wall.

“If you want to bang your head against a wall, do it yourself! Why are you dragging me with you!”

Ye Cang shouted in desperation.

“Stop! I’ll! Help!”

Chou Bodeng returned to the courtyard gate, looking expressionlessly at the now lively and energetic classmate Ye.

So, the city that was destroyed overnight…

Was Fu City?

The Taiyi Sword had brought him to such a “good” place?

The weather is turning cold. Time to melt a sword.