◎I have to find a way to get to Mid-Cloud Ridge.◎
The Immortal Venerable had clearly been seized by interest. He rapped his fingers once on the desk, and the stunned cloud hurriedly floated over, carrying the bowl to hover before the Snow Deer Physician.
A silent gesture: Please.
The Snow Deer Physician: “……”
Never had he imagined that a white sparrow playing the fool could land him in such mortal peril.
Hands trembling, he took the scalding bowl of medicine, staring at the flame-red liquid within and clenching his teeth.
“Venerable One…”
The Snow Deer Physician knew all too well how potent the Blood Fire Lotus was. Even if he survived by sheer luck, he would be a crippled deer—and the Snow Deer Clan Master had never liked him. If his meridians were utterly destroyed, he’d likely end up a discarded pawn.
Then he recalled Feng Beihe’s words…
“A madman like him wants nothing more than to see the world in chaos.”
The Snow Deer Physician hardened his heart and, daring greatly, said: “In years past, the Vermilion Bird Immortal Venerable was corrupt and cruel—he forced countless poisonous herbs and drugs upon you. You have even suffered ‘Water Poison.’ Even if this medicine truly was poisoned, it could not harm you in the slightest.”
The moment the words left his mouth, the mist throughout the sleeping hall froze solid.
The Wind-Divining Chimes abruptly rang out in a rapid, urgent chorus—ethereal and bitingly cold.
The Immortal Venerable slowly raised his golden eyes, and for one instant, those beautiful gold vertical pupils were scarlet blood.
Fu Yuqiu understood maybe half of it.
Forcing someone to drink poison?
Word was the previous Vermilion Bird Immortal Venerable had been slaughtered outright by this Living Yama. So the two of them had a blood feud that deep, huh?
Could the Living Yama have pickled his brain with all those poisons? Fu Yuqiu thought.
No wonder he was so insane.
The Secluded Sound Valley was rich in spiritual power; spirit grasses and flowers grew in abundance there—poison grasses included.
As a spirit treasure gifted by heaven, Fu Yuqiu rarely dealt with such sinister things. Only the Shadow Vine—that one that ate corpses—loved to come play with him, and Fu Yuqiu vaguely remembered it mentioning that certain poison grasses could twist a person’s temperament, making them cruel and bloodthirsty.
Before the Immortal Venerable could speak, a little black dragon came flying from who knew where, abruptly assuming human form, sharp dragon claws clamping around the Snow Deer Physician’s throat.
Yun Gui was in a fury, her claws merciless—she very nearly carved away half his neck.
“Are you looking to die?!” she said, voice icy.
The Snow Deer Physician’s heart hammered, but he held the medicine bowl steady, letting the blood stream down his neck.
“Venerable One!” Yun Gui snarled.
One word from the Venerable One, and her claws would take the deer’s entire head!
But contrary to expectation, the Immortal Venerable laughed.
“Well said.” The Immortal Venerable’s eyes crinkled with amusement, not offended in the least. The scarlet bled out of his golden eyes, and his smile was slow and wild.
Yun Gui: “But he—”
The Immortal Venerable seemed in unprecedented good spirits. His layered robes trailed over the snow-white mist as he walked unhurried to the Snow Deer Physician.
“The Snow Deer Clan Master always says you’re timid and stupid, set in your ways, unfit for great responsibility. It seems he’s simply grown too old to judge character.” His eyes curved with genuine mirth, and the praise was entirely sincere. “You speak truly. My days are numbered anyway—what poison is there to fear?”
With that, the Immortal Venerable took the Blood Fire Lotus medicine and drank it down in one go.
Yun Gui went rigid.
A drop of vivid red clung to the corner of his lips; the Immortal Venerable’s snow-pale fingers brushed it away with an indescribable touch of wickedness.
The Snow Deer Physician’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest. Judging by the Immortal Venerable’s reaction, he knew he’d dodged a catastrophe, and breathed a nearly imperceptible sigh of relief.
“My thanks for the Venerable One’s generous praise.”
Yun Gui shot the Snow Deer Physician a vicious glare and withdrew her claws, departing with ill grace.
Fu Yuqiu curled his beak too, somewhat displeased to see the physician escape.
Still, he’d never really expected the tiger-borrowing gambit to work, so he wasn’t too disappointed.
The Immortal Venerable was a clever man; he wouldn’t willingly be wielded as someone else’s blade.
At that thought, Fu Yuqiu couldn’t be bothered to keep playing dead. He popped up and glared ferociously at the Snow Deer Physician.
A deer, of all things—and yet he had the luck of a cur.
The Snow Deer Physician felt that white sparrow’s gaze and sneered inwardly.
The Immortal Venerable could not be manipulated so easily—and that sparrow’s little trick of playing dead to frame him had been so transparent it was practically idiotic.
The Vermilion Crane Junior Venerable had been right: meek obedience would never rouse the Immortal Venerable’s interest; only risking death could carve out a path to survival.
The Snow Deer Physician’s heart settled slightly.
The Immortal Venerable leaned down, reached out, and tilted his chin up, suddenly in high spirits. “I have never bestowed a Golden Plume on any of the other clans. What about you—do you want one?”
The Snow Deer Physician froze.
The Golden Plumes the Immortal Venerable bestowed on the Three Clans carried immense spiritual power; the Junior Venerables typically used them for cultivation.
The Snow Deer Physician had seen Feng Beihe use one once. When that Golden Plume’s power entered the body, cultivation soared—but the flesh burned with charred cracks that took a long time to fade. Presumably the power’s attribute was fire.
Fire and ice do not mix.
To the Snow Deer Physician, the Immortal Venerable’s spiritual power was fiercer even than the Blood Fire Lotus.
Unable to guess the Immortal Venerable’s intent, he could only venture a careful refusal.
“There is no need to trouble the Venerable One…”
The Immortal Venerable let out a thoughtful “Oh?”
The Snow Deer Physician couldn’t tell whether he was pleased or displeased, and fell into tongue-tied silence.
Was refusing… the wrong choice after all?
In the space of just a quarter hour, the Snow Deer Physician had nearly been driven mad by the Immortal Venerable’s mercurial moods.
Fu Yuqiu, on the other hand, tilted his head, puzzled. Why is he suddenly unhappy again?
The Immortal Venerable regarded the Snow Deer Physician calmly, slowly loosening the hand clamped on his neck. Looking down at the blood red between his own fingers, he said—leisurely—something that had nothing to do with Golden Plumes at all.
“The Snow Deer Physician is injured. Why don’t you treat yourself?”
The Snow Deer Physician froze.
Before he could grasp what the Immortal Venerable meant, the white-robed immortal before him raised a hand and summoned a Golden Plume—the very treasure every member of the Three Clans yearned for—and waved it casually.
“Allow me to heal you.”
With that, the Golden Plume pressed against the dragon-claw wound on the Snow Deer Physician’s neck. Golden light flared, and a torrent of spiritual power flooded in through his neck.
The Snow Deer Physician stood rooted in place, vaguely hearing someone shrieking in agony.
Only when the pain saturating every limb and bone crashed into his mind did he realize—the screaming was his own.
The Golden Plume’s power, hotter than the Blood Fire Lotus, spread through his meridians from the wound.
A snow deer’s frost spirit veins could never withstand such incompatible power. Like burned-through dry grass, they crumbled inch by inch into ash—only to be healed whole again the next instant, and burned again.
The agony of that tempering was ten thousand times worse than death by a thousand cuts.
The Snow Deer Physician curled in a pool of his own blood, shrieking in agony loud enough to split the sky.
The Immortal Venerable didn’t spare him a glance. Gathering his wide sleeves with unhurried elegance, he walked to the miniature landscape, where—amid the screams—he lowered his eyes and gently washed the deer blood from between his fingers.
Fu Yuqiu: “……”
Fu Yuqiu stared, dumbfounded, from the sidelines.
Who could have imagined that in the span of two sentences, the Immortal Venerable—in the best of moods mere moments ago—would reduce a deer to this?
Only one question filled Fu Yuqiu’s head: What did he even say wrong?
How had it all spiraled into this?
The mortal storybooks always said “serving a ruler is like serving a tiger.” Fu Yuqiu had always scoffed at the phrase—but watching the Immortal Venerable’s methods now…
The white sparrow shivered, unnoticed.
The Snow Deer Physician still thrashed in the blood, though his strength was fading fast. Those clear deer eyes, once pure as spring water, had gone dull as a dried-up well, lightless.
The Immortal Venerable walked back to the desk and set his water-dripping hand right in front of Fu Yuqiu.
Fu Yuqiu: “……”
Fu Yuqiu swore he had never reacted so fast in his life—he scampered forward two steps and dove headfirst into the Immortal Venerable’s damp palm, diligently serving as “hand towel.”
A glimmer like shattered starlight seemed to return to the Immortal Venerable’s golden eyes.
Fu Yuqiu peeked out through the gaps between the fingers.
Happy again?
Good grief, the Living Yama’s moods are exhausting. This nail-biting is so annoying.
But whatever.
When Fu Yuqiu recalled the suffering he’d endured in the sand mustard and looked at the Snow Deer Physician in his pool of blood, he felt wonderful all over.
A secluded grass repays every grudge. True, he hadn’t done this with his own hands—but borrowing the tiger’s might at least counted for something.
Fu Yuqiu started doing his “debt arithmetic” again: Since he avenged a little grudge for me, I’ll dry his hands one more time. That settles the life-saving favor.
At that thought, the white sparrow rolled about happily, kicking his claws, drying with even greater zeal.
By the time the Golden Plume’s power was spent, the Snow Deer Physician had fainted from pain countless times. His exposed fingers and neck were covered in charred black cracks, and at the wound itself a golden plume-shaped brand remained burned into his flesh.
The Immortal Venerable looked down at the docile sparrow in his palm. “Send him back,” he said without raising his head.
“Not tossing him to the Lower Realm?” Yun Gui asked coldly.
“Deliver him to Mid-Cloud Ridge.”
After establishing the three Junior Venerables, the Immortal Venerable had ordered them all to relocate to the Drifting Path below the Nine Heavens.
—Mid-Cloud Ridge was the residence of Feng Beihe, the Vermilion Crane Junior Venerable.
The Immortal Venerable stroked the Little Snowball and said with airy indifference, “Since he loves Mid-Cloud Ridge so much, he needn’t return to the Nine Heavens at all.”
Yun Gui bowed, transformed into a black dragon, seized the half-dead Snow Deer Physician in her jaws, and flew out of the inner hall in a flurry of claws.
The Immortal Venerable hooked the white sparrow’s little beak, eyes smiling as they regarded each other. “Satisfied?”
Fu Yuqiu stared at him, astonished.
He knows I don’t like that snow deer?
Fu Yuqiu didn’t bother hiding it. He bobbed his head in a vigorous nod, nearly pecking the Immortal Venerable’s finger again.
He made his stance perfectly clear: thoroughly satisfied.
The Immortal Venerable’s smile deepened. “Sing a song?”
Fu Yuqiu would sooner die than chirp. He opened his beak and produced several soundless puffs of air, as if to say: I’m still a mute, remember.
The Immortal Venerable laughed, indulgent, and didn’t press—just stroked the sparrow’s head fondly.
The mist of the inner hall worked quickly; before long, every trace of blood on the floor had been cleaned away.
With all that commotion, it was already deep in the night.
The Immortal Venerable lifted the bed curtains woven of cloud brocade and stepped up onto the bed.
At Yun Shou’s mention of “attending the bed” earlier, Fu Yuqiu had shuddered. He’d meant to sneak off—but he was too cowardly to actually try.
The Immortal Venerable removed his outer robe and, seeing the white sparrow tentatively extend a claw toward the edge, said mildly, “Would you prefer to be kept in the Golden Cage?”
Fu Yuqiu went still at once.
He’d been locked in the sand mustard for so long—the humiliation of confinement was something he both dreaded and loathed.
Seeing the Immortal Venerable lie down as if to sleep, Fu Yuqiu obediently settled by the pillow, kicked his legs about until the soft bedding was worked into a tiny nest, and curled up inside.
The Immortal Venerable’s jet-black hair spread across the snow-white bed, one strand falling right onto the white sparrow’s tail feathers.
He seemed utterly without guard, long lashes lowered, his breathing evening into a soft, steady rhythm within moments—as though asleep.
Fu Yuqiu peeked at him furtively.
The Living Yama was terrifying, sure—but he had helped him twice today.
Setting aside that foul, mercurial temper, this person was actually rather decent.
Surely no one would come assassinate the Immortal Venerable in his own bed. Fu Yuqiu’s nerves eased a little, and the exhaustion of the whole day crashed over him.
That snow deer was sent to some ‘Mid-Cloud Ridge’… could Feng Beihe be there too? Fu Yuqiu drifted groggily down into sleep, and his last muddled thought was—
I have to find a way to get to Mid-Cloud Ridge and see for myself.
