Chapter 124 – Red Clay Small Stove
A chorus of retching broke the tranquility of Plum City.
“Alright, alright, hurry up and finish vomiting, then come over. Don’t dawdle.”
On the Sparrow Landing Platform, two or three Plum City Oracle Masters with narrow red trim on their sleeves frowned, urging the passengers on while forming hand seals to clean up the mess with practiced ease. Ever since the Mountain Sea Pavilion and the Heavenly Works Mansion jointly launched the Startled Swan White Colt Boat, the Oracle Masters of every continent and city had gained a new routine task: cleaning the Boat Roosting Platform.
As the saying goes:
One ride on the Startled Swan reveals its flight, a light soul and heavy body cannot unite.
The Startled Swan White Colt Boat, hailed for “crossing a thousand miles of rivers and mountains in a day,” pursued the ultimate in speed and the most untamed acrobatics. One had to be tough-skinned, bold-hearted, and iron-willed to endure it. Even so, every single person who disembarked from the Startled Swan White Colt Boat would inevitably vomit their guts out.
“Next!”
The Oracle Master in charge of checking boat passes waved two burly saber masters, who were supporting each other, to pass. He called out without raising his head.
“Pass!”
The boat pass was handed back, but no one took it. The passenger spoke weakly, “Where did those four people from the last Startled Swan boat go? Three men and one woman, one of them carrying a heavy blade as tall as a person.”
“So many people on one Startled Swan boat, how would I remember?” the Oracle Master said impatiently. “Go, go, hurry up—”
A gleaming gold ingot appeared before his eyes.
“Uh,” the Oracle Master’s words faltered. “It seems there were indeed a few people like that, but…”
He had been checking boat passes for nearly six years and was used to seeing all sorts of destitute people disembarking from the Startled Swan White Colt Boat—if one wasn’t poor to a certain degree, they probably wouldn’t have the courage to ride the “No-Compensation Boat.” This was the first time he had encountered someone coming off the boat of the poor and destitute who could actually pull out a gold ingot! The young man standing before him had a pale face and unsteady steps. Judging by his appearance and attire, he was exceptionally well-off, likely a pampered disciple from some major sect or clan. Hearing the Oracle Master’s hesitation, he didn’t even blink before casually producing another ingot.
The Oracle Master beamed, pocketing the gold and pointing the way.
“There, a group of four, they went towards Heavenly Lake Mountain.” For the sake of the gold, the Oracle Master added enthusiastically, “Young Master, you’ve come at just the right time. The plum blossoms in our Plum City usually only bloom in the dead of winter, but a few days ago, a strange phenomenon occurred. Overnight, thousands upon thousands of plum blossoms all bloomed. It’s a sight that comes once in a thousand years…”
He rambled on for a while, but when he looked up, the space before him was empty.
The person was long gone.
***
Plum City was built against a mountain, its houses and streets following the undulations of the ridges and distributed along the valleys.
At the foot of the mountain, there were nearly a hundred taverns and teahouses. Boats arrived and departed daily, like flying cranes coming and going. Looking up, one could see Heavenly Lake Mountain shrouded in clouds and mist, like a long ribbon winding around it. At the highest point, the pride of the West Continent, the red plum blossoms that bloomed in the snow, had turned the mountain red overnight, as if the green mountain had been rouged, presenting a truly immortal scene.
Just as the Oracle Master had said, this once-in-a-millennium event of plum blossoms blooming in the first snow had attracted many tourists and travelers.
The taverns and teahouses at the foot of the mountain were filled with scholars and poets. In just two or three days, countless new famous poems praising the plums and sighing at the snow had been written. However, Heavenly Lake Mountain was over two thousand meters high, with sheer cliffs. To the due south and due east were deep valleys where strong winds buffeted the face. With the might of the heavens above and the peril of the deep streams below, one could not fly on a sword or ascend high without the permission of the ancient plum spirits. The only way to reach the main peak was a single cold stone plank road, which had to be climbed step by step from the bottom. Most ordinary people stopped at a height of one to two thousand meters.
These past few days, perhaps due to the harsh winds from the West Sea’s ice sea moving south earlier than usual, the valley winds from the south and east were particularly strong. It became even more difficult for tourists and travelers to climb the mountain. They could barely reach the mountainside at about one thousand meters before the biting cold became unbearable, forcing them to turn back.
Thus, while it was bustling at the foot of the mountain, the summit remained serene.
The chimes tinkled as snowflakes swirled.
The waterside pavilion in a corner of Heavenly Lake was elegant and small, its wooden corridor half-extended, like a dragon or serpent resting on the waves. At the end of the corridor was a white stone gazebo, open on all four sides. A red copper brazier burned inside, with a pot of plum wine warming on top.
A few fishing rods extended over the railing, their lines dangling into the lake through a hole in the ice. Cold mist swirled over the water’s surface, and the fishing lines swayed with the wind.
“…The Beast Taming Sect has built twelve sea-watching towers near White Beak Island, where the Wei Wind Wind Cave in the Northwest Corner is located, to observe the western gloom. Each year, a hundred people take turns on duty, with three elders overseeing them. This time, with the harsh winds moving south and the glaciers blocking the way, Elder Gu of the Beast Taming Sect has already set out to drive the whales to break the ice, in order to clear the shipping lanes and wind tracks.” Ye Cang reported while skillfully reeling in his fishing line.
A shimmering Snow Mountain Silver Fish was pulled from the water, its long tail kicking up a spray.
The little junior brother to his left tugged at his own fishing line and sighed with envy, “Senior Brother Ye is so amazing!”
“Quick, quick, it’s going to get away, it’s going to get away,” Lu Xiaoxiao said nervously.
Junior Brother Liu on the right grabbed a landing net and, with quick eyes and nimble hands, intercepted it in mid-air.
“Careful! Careful! Don’t splash water everywhere.”
“Ah! The fish hit me!”
“…”
The corner of Ye Cang’s eye twitched slightly.
He didn’t know what it was like when disciples from other immortal sects paid their respects to their martial ancestors, but it probably wasn’t this boisterous…
“Did you catch anything?”
Chou Bodeng propped one hand on the gray tiles and leaned down, asking.
He was wearing a black cloak and sitting on the gable ridge of the waterside gazebo. Beside him was a shallow glazed cup filled with fish bait made of plum wine sauce and minced meat. From time to to time, he would use a pair of jade chopsticks to pick some up and toss it into the hole in the ice.
Chou Bodeng tossed the bait without any method, purely for fun. The fact that they could catch any fish was largely thanks to Ye Cang’s impoverished upbringing, where his skill at fishing for food in Fu City’s Reed River had not diminished since joining Taiyi.
“We caught a silver fish,” Lu Xiaoxiao replied cheerfully, looking up at him. “Little Martial Ancestor, should we roast it or stew it? Do we need to scale it?”
“The Heavenly Lake Silver Fish basks in the sun by day and roams the moon by night. Its scales and bones are both soft, so there’s no need to scale it. Simmering it over a low fire with plum wine is just right,” Chou Bodeng said as he dumped the rest of the bait into the ice hole. The plum wine meat paste balls bobbed up and down in the icy lake water like flower petals, attracting the fish that had just been scared away. He picked up the glazed cup with one hand and gathered his black cloak with the other, leaping down from the pavilion ridge and stepping onto the ice to return to the gazebo. “The plum wine is ready. Who wants to go sweep some snow from the plum branches to boil water?”
“The little junior brother and I will go together.”
Lu Xiaoxiao found a small broom made of thin reeds and a clay jar, then proceeded to drag up the little junior brother who was huddled next to Ye Cang, watching the fish.
“Let’s go, let’s go. I’ll sweep the snow, you hold the jar.”
“Gently, gently, Great Aunt, don’t you know your own monstrous strength—Ouch!”
Ye Cang, accustomed to this, placed the caught fish into an ice tank that Junior Brother Liu had just carved. He set it on the stone table in the gazebo as a temporary decoration, then went about rigging the fishing line, baiting the hook, and casting the line again, while continuing with his report.
“The ice-breaking whales usually arrive around the time of the first snow, but this year’s West Sea whales have been late in descending into the fjords. With the Beast Taming Sect elders guarding near White Beak Island, the disciples didn’t dare to investigate the fjords directly for fear of being discovered. So, they took a detour and climbed Ancient Yue Mountain. From the cape, they looked out and indeed saw no sign of whale pods.” As Ye Cang spoke, he couldn’t help but frown.
The West Continent was different from Qing Province.
Although Qing Province was near the Cangming Sea, most of its cities were located on the vast plains. Only the nine cities of Zhunan were situated in the Raging Sea. The West Continent, however, had fragmented terrain, with ten peaks for every nine rivers. The sea and rivers surged westward, with few plains and many mountains. Apart from mountain cities like Plum City, sea cities were the most common, and travel was mostly by boat on the water.
Every year, as autumn turned to winter, it was the “Ice Season” in the West Continent.
During the Ice Season, the extremely cold, harsh winds and swift currents would push the profound ice from the ancient sea in the north diagonally downwards, creating the spectacular “Hundred Rivers at Sea,” a magnificent but perilous sight. This was because the profound ice from the ancient sea was extremely hard and massive. Once it entered a bay, it would often completely block the sea routes, and in some cases, it could even sink a floating sea city whole.
For this reason, the Beast Taming Sect would work with the whale pods every year to break the ice and guard the waterways.
But this year, the whale pods were late.
This news was strictly sealed by the Beast Taming Sect. Ye Cang and his group had only managed to uncover it after a great deal of effort, with the secret assistance of the Mountain Sea Pavilion.
“…Besides the anomaly with the whale pods, the Beast Taming Sect has also commissioned a batch of special spiritual artifacts from several weapon-forging manors, bypassing the Heavenly Works Mansion,” Ye Cang said, handing several blueprints to Chou Bodeng. “This disciple is ashamed that I couldn’t find out the purpose of these spiritual artifacts.”
The blueprints were filled with complex and precise diagrams of parts, but the person who drew them clearly didn’t want the forgers to guess their true purpose. Not only did they not provide a drawing of the finished product, but they even disassembled the parts of several different spiritual artifacts and mixed them together.
Ye Cang had pondered it all the way here, but he couldn’t figure out what the Beast Taming Sect was up to.
Chou Bodeng took the blueprints, glanced through them, and then shifted his gaze to the view outside the pavilion.
The cold mist swirled, gathering and dispersing.
The daylight fell on the lake’s surface, reflecting onto his face.
Junior Brother Liu beside him subconsciously wanted to ask what these blueprints were for. Ye Cang stood up, casually complaining about how long his junior sister was taking, while discreetly placing a hand on Junior Brother Liu’s shoulder.
“…Little Martial Ancestor, the… the wine should be warm by now,” Junior Brother Liu quickly corrected himself, using the motion of standing up to hide his face, which was contorted from the force of Ye Cang’s grip. Damn it, my bones are about to break! “I’ll go hurry Xiaoxiao and the junior brother along. Those two are dawdling. Are they turtles?”
“Hey, hey, hey, Liu the Second, who are you badmouthing!”
Lu Xiaoxiao, her hair dusted with snow, happened to be returning with the little junior brother, one behind the other, carrying a clay jar. Her sharp ears caught his words from afar, and she immediately shot him a dissatisfied glare, her willow-leaf brows raised. You dare, Liu the Second! How dare you slander us in front of Little Martial Ancestor while we’re away!
“Hey!”
Junior Brother Liu, all smiles, went out to meet them.
Ye Cang turned back.
Chou Bodeng had already put away the blueprints and was sitting by the stone table. He lowered his hand, and a small wooden puppet, familiar to all Taiyi Sect disciples, slid down his sleeve and jumped to the side of the stove. It deftly lifted the ceramic jar and steadily poured wine into the wine cups.
Plum wine fell into plum blossom cups, its fragrance warmed by the fire, becoming mellow.
After filling the cups, the little wooden puppet set down the wine jar, then picked up a cup and placed it by Chou Bodeng’s fingers before sitting down primly.
Ye Cang and Junior Brother Liu went to clean the fish, while Lu Xiaoxiao washed the fish-cooking pot with lake water.
She turned her head and saw her beautiful Little Martial Ancestor resting his chin on one hand, while the other hand reached out to poke the little wooden puppet, gently tapping it until it fell backward. When the little wooden puppet righted itself, he continued to poke it intermittently. The light from the stove cast a warm red glow on his fingertips.
Lu Xiaoxiao whipped her head back.
The movement was so swift that she nearly sprained her neck.
The little junior brother beside her gave her a baffled look that said, “Are you crazy?”
Lu Xiaoxiao looked pained.
…Yes, I think so too.
If I’m not crazy, why would I suddenly be overcome by these elder-like feelings?
Damn it! Little Martial Ancestor is the elder here!