Note: This chapter was a bit longer than usual. And then Chapter 21 seems like a hella long chapter, so the next one might take a week

Thanks again to Poppy for translation advice!!!

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Xie Lian said, “While your story may or may not be a fictional tale, the country of Ban Yue is real.”

San Lang said, “Eh?”

At this time, Nan Feng had finally finished drawing his sprawling array, and stood up to say, “I’m done. When are we leaving?”

Xie Lian quickly packed up his bag and went to stand by the door. “Right now.”

He placed his hand on the door, and said, “Blessings from a heavenly official, all taboos are off!” Then, gently, he pushed it open.

Outside, it was no longer the shallow hillside over looking a small village; rather, the scene had been replaced by a wide, empty street.

While the street was as wide as a major city road, there were very few people around. Only after they waited for a long while did they see anybody around. It wasn’t because the sky was getting darker as evening drew near; it was because in the northwest regions of China, the population was already naturally quite small, and adding to that the fact that they were next to the Gobi desert, even during daylight there would not be many people around anyway.

Xie Lian stepped out of the little shack while closing the door behind him. He looked back again, trying to figure out in which direction he’d stepped out of the Pu Ji Temple. Behind him, there was a clear silhouette of an inn. That one step had been a thousand li – that was the magic of “Shrinking of A Thousand Miles”.

A few people passed by, watching him rather cautiously. That moment, he heard San Lang’s voice behind him, “According to ancient text, when the moon has sunk in the sky, walk towards the North Star and you will arrive at the country of Ban Yue. Gege, look,” he said, pointing at the sky. “The Big Dipper.”

Xie Lian raised his head, and smiled. “The Big Dipper, how bright.”

San Lang walked up beside him, shoulder to shoulder, and glanced at him before looking up at the sky as well. “Yes, it is. I don’t know how, but the sky in the northwest is much clearer and brighter than it is in the Central Plains of China.”

Xie Lian made a noise of agreement.

While the two of them were seriously and solemnly contemplating the sky and stars, the two junior heavenly officials behind them were freaking out. Nan Feng said, “Why is he coming too?”

San Lang said with complete innocence, “Oh, the cards were in today’s favour¹, so I thought I’d come along to have a little look-see.”

Nan Feng looked furious again. “A ‘look-see’? You think we’re here to play?!”

Xie Lian tried to massage the situation. “It’s fine, it’s fine, he’s here and that’s that. He won’t be taking from your rations. I think I’ve packed enough for him and myself. San Lang, stick with me, don’t get lost.”

“Ok,” said San Lang obediently.

“This isn’t a matter of eating whose rations!!”

“Ai, Nan Feng, it’s late in the evening and everyone’s probably sleeping. Let’s deal with our business now. Stop fussing so much. Let’s go, let’s go.”

… …

The four of them followed the guidance of the Big Dipper, traveling northwards. They walked the whole night and saw towns and villages and greenery becoming sparser and sparser as they progressed, while fields of sand and stones expanded. They walked until they were no longer walking on dirt, and thus they entered the Gobi Desert.

While using the Shrinkage of A Thousand Miles was indeed convenient, it used more energy the farther the distance one tried to shrink. Nan Feng would not be able to use his powers for this technique for at least a few days. Xie Lian refused to let Fu Yao use it, because at least one person in their group needed to have a reserve of powers in case anything happened.

In this barren landscape, temperatures throughout a day and a night contrasted drastically. The night had a cold that seeped into the bones, but it was relatively bearable. It was the temperatures during the day time that was a completely different ballpark. While the skies were clear and the clouds were sparse, the sun beat down fiercely. The longer the four of them walked, the more they felt that they were walking further into a dumpling steamer. The earth emitted boiling air. Walking through such a place for a whole day could leave one nicely steamed and cooked like a mantou.

Xie Lian relied on the wind and the greenery found below rocks to guide him. He was afraid the other three would fall behind, and so frequently looked backward when he walked. Nan Feng and Fu Yao were obviously not mortals, but every time he looked San Lang, he’d want to smile.

It was midday. The sun was hot, so the young man had taken off his outer coat and haphazardly tied it around his face to protect against the sun. His normally languid, indolent expression was now laced with irritated exhaustion. His skin was extremely pale, his hair extremely dark, and with his red coat tied around his head like that, he looked like a beautiful woman. Xie Lian took off his bamboo hat and placed it on San Lang’s head. “You can borrow this.”

San Lang blinked, and then smiled. “No need.” He returned the bamboo hat.

Xie Lian didn’t argue with him, even though he himself didn’t need the hat. “All right. If you need it, come find me.” Patting the hat back on his head, he continued forward.

After walking for a while, the squad saw a small grey building in the distance amidst the barren sandscape. Walking closer, they saw it appeared to be a small inn that had been abandoned for years. Xie Lian looked up at the sky and determined that it was nearly afternoon, the most agonizingly hot part of the day, and remembered that they had also walked throughout the entire night. Thus, he dragged the four of them inside.

They sat around a table they found inside the building. Xie Lian rummaged through his backpack and took out a water bottle, holding it out towards San Lang. “Do you want it?”

San Lang nodded and took the bottle over, downing a mouthful. Only after that did Xie Lian take it back to drink himself. His throad bobbed up and down a few times as he cooled down, and after a few more gulps, he finally felt refreshed.

San Lang stared at him on the side, his cheek resting on his hand. He suddenly asked, “Is there any left?”

Xie Lian wiped at his mouth and nodded, holding out the water bottle to San Lang once again. San Lang was just about to take it when a hand suddenly appeared to stop Xie Lian.

Fu Yao said, “Wait.”

Everyone looked at him. Fu Yao only took another water bottle from his sleeve and placed it on the table, pushing it towards San Lang. “I have one here. Help yourself.”

Xie Lian knew at once what was going on.

With a temper like that, why would Fu Yao ever agree to share his water bottle with another person? Xie Lian recalled their conversation the day before, about testing San Lang to see whether or not he was a ‘Devastation’ demon, and realized that the water bottle didn’t contain any regular old water. It was a demon-revealing potion.

If a regular mortal drank this potion, nothing would happen. However, if one wasn’t a mortal human and drank it, then one’s true form would be revealed. Since the two junior heavenly officials were so bent on testing whether or not San Lang was a ‘Devastation’ demon, the potion was probably quite powerful.

San Lang laughed. “It’s fine if I just drink from Gege’s bottle.”

Nan Feng and Fu Yao both glanced at Xie Lian.

Xie Lian thought to himself, “What the heck are you two looking at me for?”

Fu Yao said coldly, “His bottle’s almost empty. No need to be polite.”

San  Lang said, “Oh? Then you two should drink first.”

“…”

Neither heavenly official said anything for a long while. Then Fu Yao insisted, “You’re thirstier. You should drink first.” While he still spoke in a rather refined, elegant tone, Xie Lian could tell that Fu Yao was somehow gritting these words out through clenched teeth.

San Lang gestured something like a “please” with his hand and said, “It’s your bottle, you should drink first. No need to be so polite.”

Xie Lian listened to them posturing back and forth a few times. Finally, the three of them started getting physical, putting weight on the table as they began pushing the water bottle back and forth. Xie Lian felt the tremours of the table beneath them and thought that it was going to die of old age. He shook his head.

Finally, Fu Yao was unable to hold back any longer. He said with a cold laugh, “You’re afraid to drink this water. Is there something on your conscience?”

San Lang smiled. “You’re not friendly to me, but you refuse to drink first. Aren’t you the one with something on your conscience? Perhaps you’ve poisoned it?”

Fu Yao said, “You can ask the person beside you if it’s poisoned.”

San Lang turned to Xie Lian. “Gege, is this water poisoned?”

Fu Yao was sly, cunning. A demon-revealing potion wasn’t poison, and a regular person drinking this was the same as a regular person drinking water. Xie Lian could only say, “It’s not poison. But…”

Before he could finish, Fu Yao and Nan Feng gave him deathly stares. However, San Lang immediately stopped pushing the bottle and said, “Ok.”

He took the bottle and swirled it around. “Since you said it wasn’t poison, I’ll drink.”

Without another word, he smiled and drained the bottle in a single gulp.

Xie Lian had not thought he would be so straightforward with his actions, and faltered for a moment. Neither did Nan Feng nor Fu Yao, who also stared blankly for a moment, before becoming extremely alert. However, all San Lang did after finishing the bottle was to wave it a bit and say, “Tasted so-so.” He tossed it away, and with a soft crash, the water battle shattered on the floor.

Seeing that San Lang looked the same as before, something like bewilderment flitted across Fu Yao’s face. He quickly said in a rather mild voice, “It’s just water. They should all taste the same. How could there be any difference.”

San Lang took the bottle sitting beside Xie Lian’s elbow and said, “Of course there are differences. Like this water tastes much better.”

Upon hearing this, Xie Lian couldn’t help laughing aloud. He didn’t really care about the results of this little experiment, about the true identity of San Lang, and aside from from the fact that this little fight gave him a small bit of entertainment, he didn’t really think too much about it.^? He thought he should probably stop laughing when, out of nowhere, there was a “clang”. Nan Feng had taken out his sword and placed it on the table.

With his cold, imposing attitude, Nan Feng looked as though he wanted to murder someone. Xie Lian was speechless for a moment before saying, “What are you doing?”

Nan Feng said in a low voice, “Since the place we’re heading towards is dangerous, I want to give our friend here the gift of a sword for self-defense.”

Xie Lian looked down and, at first glance, it appeared to be a plain, simple sword with a few years’ worth of grinding and sharpening already spent on the edges. However, he faltered when he picked up the sword and turned it around. He thought, “Huh. So it’s Red Mirror.”²

When it came to swords, youth were always interested in some way. San Lang said, “Eh?” There was interest in his voice. “Let me see.”

One hand holding the blade, the other holding the hilt, San Lang slowly took up the sword. The two pairs of eyes belonging to Fu Yao and Nan Feng watched his every move closely. The sword was unsheathed three inches, its blade bright and white as snow. After a while, there came a laugh, and San Lang said, “Gege, are your servants trying to play a joke on me?”

Xie Lian coughed and turned around to face San Lang. “San Lang, I’ve already told you, they’re not my servants.” He turned away again.

Nan Feng said coldly, “Who’s trying to play a joke on you?”

San Lang laughed. “How do I defend myself with a broken sword?”

He resheathed the sword and threw it on the table. Nan Feng was shocked for a moment, before suddenly grabbing the sword by the hilt and pulling it out of its cover. There was a “shing”, and in his hand, there was a sharp and cold… broken sword.

Red Mirror’s blade was really broken three inches below the hilt!

Nan Feng’s face changed many colours. As he slid it back in the sheath, he heard chaotic clattering inside the sheath – the remaining bit of the sword blade had been broken into many pieces.

Red Mirror had the ability to detect and distinguish any sort of ghoul or demon. No one has ever heard of any supernatural creature ever escaping its detection. However, no one has also ever heard of anything being able to break it into so many pieces!

Both Nan Feng and Fu Yao pointed and stared at San Lang. “You…”

San Lang laughed aloud a couple times, and leaned backward, resting his legs upon the table. He took a fragment of Red Mirror and began tossing it. “I don’t think you two deliberately gave me a broken sword to defend myself. You probably shattered it somewhere along the way here. Don’t worry, I don’t need a sword to defend myself. Weapons and such, keep them for yourselves to use.”

Xie Lian couldn’t bring himself to look directly at the sword. This magical sword “Red Mirror” had once been a part of Emperor Jun Wu’s collection. When Xie Lian had ascended the first time and gone to the Heavenly Palace for fun, that was when he had first laid his eyes upon that sword. He didn’t find it particularly useful as a sword, but he found it interesting enough that Jun Wu gave it to him as a gift. Afterwards, when he’d fallen, trying to survive in the mortal realm was so hard that he’d gotten Feng Xin to pawn it off.

Yes, he’d pawned it off!

The money they received from pawning it off had been enough for a few good meals, until they ran out again. Xie Lian had pawned off so many things during that time that he’d forgotten almost all of them; deliberately, so as to prevent his heart from bleeding from recalling those memories. When Feng Xin had ascended on his own, he probably remembered this matter and couldn’t bear the thought of Red Mirror being lost in the mortal realm. So he flew back down to find the sword, polished it, and put it in his Nanyang Palace. Only for Nan Feng to bring it back down again.

Looking at that sword gave him an ache in his chest, and he could only stare elsewhere the entire time.

He felt the three young men were on the brink of another fight, and shook his head. He observed the weather outside, thinking, “It looks like a sandstorm is brewing. If we keep going today, I wonder if we can find another shelter in time?”

Suddenly, upon the bright sandscape outside, the shadows of two figures flitted by.

Xie Lian immediately sat up straight.

The two figures, one clad in white, the other in black, seemed rather unhurried in their manners, though their feet moved rapidly, as though they were stepping on clouds. The one in black was slender, while the one in white had the figure of a woman’s, carrying a long sword on her back and a horsetail whisk in her hand. The one in black didn’t turn their head, but the one in white turned her body around and gave the abandoned building a glance and a smile. The smile was just like their figures – fleeting as it passed, but eliciting a strange uneasiness in its audience.

Xie Lian had been staring keenly out the window the entire time, so he’d managed to catch that little act. The other three in the building had probably only seen the shadows of the figures. They stopped their little fight^? and Nan Feng stood up suddenly. “Who were those people?”

Xie Lian stood up as well. “I don’t know. But they were definitely not regular folks.” Muttering to himself, Xie Lian spoke again, “It’s time to stop playing around. It looks like the wind’s getting stronger, so we should get going. Let’s just try to go as far as we can.”

Fortunately, while these boys could cause total chaos amongst themselves, they were still very reliable and diligent when it came to getting things done. Immediately, they stopped posturing, cleaned up the pieces of Red Mirror, and left the building.

The squad fought against the sand, step by step for several hours. These few hours saw much less progress than they had made the few hours before they had found the abandoned building. The winds were blowing much more strongly than before, barreling together with sand and assaulting their bodies nonstop. Their heads and limbs ached from the repeated blows. The more they walked, the harder it became. Their ears were ringing, and it seemed like the entire world was a whirlwind of angry sand. They could barely see anything. Xie Lian grasped at his bamboo hat, exclaiming, “This sandstorm isn’t normal!”

When there were no replies, Xie Lian wondered if they had fallen behind. He looked back, and to his relief could still clearly that the three young men were still obediently following his steps. It seemed that they had simply not heard him – the sandstorm was so strong that it had swallowed his words. Nan Feng and Fu Yao naturally did not need his concern, as their steps were steady and sure, their expressions rather murderous. San Lang also followed him closely, five steps behind, walking at a steady speed.

In the middle of this chaotic sandstorm, this young man looked absolutely unruffled, his hands not aiding him in any way as he walked, even as his red coat and black hair flew wildly about him. He looked as though he simply did not feel the sandstorm. He was so completely unmoved that he barely blinked his eyes.

Xie Lian had already been battered to a dull ache everywhere. Seeing San Lang’s apathy towards the sandstorm gave him concern, and he said, “Be careful not to let the sand in your eyes and clothes.” Then he realized he could barely hear his own voice. So he walked to San Lang to pull up the young man’s collar himself, sealing them shut to prevent sand from falling in. Sang Lang blinked in surprise.

At this point, the other two had caught up. The four of them were close enough together again that they could hear each other’s voices. Xie Lian said, “Be careful, everyone. This sandstorm came rather abruptly, and it doesn’t seem quite right. I think there may be an evil source behind it.”

Fu Yao said, “It’s only that the sand and wind have gotten worse. What’s weird about that?”

Xie Lian shook his head. “It’s not the sandstorm I’m worried about. There might be something laced inside the sand itself.”

Suddenly, a particularly powerful gust of wind flew by and lifted Xie Lian’s bamboo hat. It would have been immediately and irrevocably swallowed by the sandstorm the moment it flew away when San Lang, abnormally nimble, reached out to snatch it back. He returned it to Xie Lian, who thanked him. As Xie Lian put the hat back on, he said, “We should probably find shelter first.”

Fu Yao did not agree. “If this sandstorm is really the work of some demonic force, then its purpose is to stop us from leaving. If that’s the case, then it’s urgent that we keep moving.”

Before Xie Lian could respond, San Lang laughed. Fu Yao lifted his head and said coldly, “What are you laughing about?”

San Lang clasped his hands together^? and said with a smirk, “Does deliberately opposing people give you some weird sense of satisfaction?

Xie Lian had already felt before that while this young man was perpetually smiling, one could never truly determine whether not his mirth was genuine or a façade behind which he hid salt and mockery. But in this particular instance, anybody could tell that he’d meant offense. Fu Yao’s eyes suddenly grew much colder.

Xie Lian raised a hand. “Stop, you two. If there’s anything you want to say, wait till later. The storm may get worse, and that’s what we should be worried about first.”

Fu Yao said, “Get worse to the point where we’ll get blown into the heavens?”

Xie Lian said, “Yes, that could be very possible…”

Before he finished speaking, the three young men in front of them suddenly disappeared.

Then he realized that it wasn’t his three companions that disappeared – it was he whose body was blown skyward by the sandstorm then.

A tornado!

As Xie Lian tumbled around in air, he waved a hand and yelled, “Ruoye! Find something solid to grab onto!”

Ruoye flew out with a whoosh, and within a few moments, Xie Lian felt the white silk sink and tie on to something, catching him as well. Xie Lian finally stopped tumbling in the air, and looked down. He’d been thrown at least ten feet from where he’d been standing.

Xie Lian was a kite, tethered to the ground by a single line. He tried to face downwards, one hand holding Ruoye while looking for what exactly Ruoye had attached itself to. After a while, he finally made out a red figure. Ruoye had wrapped itself around the wrist of the red-clad young man.

Unexpectedly, the “solid something” he’d asked Ruoye to grab turned out to be San Lang!

 

 

1 – he said “我看这奇门遁甲很是神奇”, which actually means something like “the fates/ Chinese divination said things looked magical/miraculous for this trip”

2 – Chinese name= 红镜Hong Jing means “Red Mirror”

 

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