With very conspicuous human baggage hanging over his shoulders, Xiao Songfen avoided brightly lit streets and crowds. Lest he be accused of human trafficking pretty young men…He glanced back at Yang Zishan’s face….or pretty young women. 

Even hanging upside, not an eyelash was out of place. Yang Zishan looked like a delicate princess being whisked away in the middle of the night.

Despite all the walking and jostling, this delicate princess did not wake up.

(Must be the Jade White.) Xiao Songfen concluded. Yang Zishan was actually very drunk back at the tavern, but he wasn't the type to get flushed or change much in personality.

He was an amiable drunk for the most part. Easy to manage with just a few whacks to the neck.

Except for maybe that violent streak of his.

Bai Yiyan made a turn to the edge of town where they could stand under the cover of trees and bushes. Without much care, he let go of Yang Zishan and let him tumble into a heap on the floor.

“-Hurgh…” Yang Zishan groaned quietly but didn’t wake up.

(He’ll fall off and break his neck if we try to fly home in this condition.) Xiao Songfen thought in a disgruntled manner.

Bai Yiyan was still carrying the guqin. The guqin had a special enchantment cast on it that only allowed it to be played and stored in a spatial ring by Yang Zishan. Between the two sober people here right now, one would have to carry an unconscious person while the other lugged a relatively large string instrument back to the Qingshan Sect.

snort

A soft snore broke the silence. Yang Zishan was currently sleeping very well curled up on the ground. Xiao Songfen leaned over Yang Zishan with a dismayed face.

Beauty Yang showed no signs of awakening.

(After causing a huge mess, he is still able to sleep so peacefully.) Xiao Songfen thought, willfully ignoring the small detail that he had been the one to knock Yang Zishan unconscious.

He jabbed two fingers into various acupoints on Yang Zishan’s upper torso.

TUK TUK TUK!

The air around them experienced a mild fluctuation and subtle breeze as Yang Zishan’s cultivation was released.

Xiao Songfen then gave Yang Zishan a hard swift kick.

THWACK!

“Wake up.” He commanded bluntly.

Bai Yiyan stood behind him, looking a bit surprised at his master’s brusque manner towards someone who was supposed to be a close childhood friend.

A thought flitted passively across his mind. It would be best not to get on his master's bad side in the future.

There was no response.

“Wake up or I’ll have him break your guqin.” Xiao Songfen threatened calmly. He motioned for Bai Yiyan to step closer with the guqin.

Bai Yiyan came to his side and offered up the string instrument. Xiao Songfen held his right hand up and signaled him to wait.

Still no response from Yang Zishan.

“Break it.” Xiao Songfen ordered coldly, not taking his eyes off of the human heap on the floor.

With no hesitation, Bai Yiyan channeled qi into his arms and swung the guqin down towards a sharply pointed boulder with inhuman force. The guqin was nearly impossible to break, but swinging it using the full qi force of a cultivator would surely leave a few scratches on its smooth surface.

White robes fluttered like butterflies as the person on the ground immediately sprung up and dived forward. With two hands, he caught the swinging end of the guqin just a finger’s breadth from making contact with the boulder.

“Ah! Xiao Huan, why are you so cruel ah?” Yang Zishan yelped, snatching the guqin from Bai Yiyan and hugging it close to his chest. “You hit me as soon as we meet and then threaten me right after I wake up. I was only resting for a moment.”

Eye glistening like ocean pearls, he looked like the most pitiful white lotus¹白莲花 bái lián huā: lit. white lotus. A slang term for someone who is pure in appearance. In recent trends, a lot of white lotus characters are portrayed as someone pure in appearance, but opposite on the inside..

“If you really treasure it so much, perhaps you shouldn’t use it as a tool for tenderizing human faces.”

“It’s not going to break just from bumping into some human flesh and bones.” Yang Zishan argued back, then looked at Bai Yiyan with accusing eyes. “Your disciple using qi on the other hand though…”

Bai Yiyan sensibly sidestepped to hide behind his master. Xiao Songfen naturally stood in front of his disciple, crossing his arms with a sigh.

“Stop throwing a fit and use your golden core to sober up.” He said wearily. “I don’t have the time to be dealing with you these days. I’m very busy.”

“Alright, alright.” Yang Zishan grumbled and stored the guqin away in his spatial ring, “Why are you suddenly being so difficult? You rarely ever scold me like this.”

Right after finishing his sentence, Yang Zishan looked at Xiao Songfen closely for the first time, eyes widening a little.

“You look kind of different. Why the spectacles? Your appearance has become muted. Where’s your weimao?”

“Getting a disciple made me turn over a new leaf.” Xiao Songfen replied nonchalantly. “I’m not irresponsible like you. It's a good thing you're not wearing our sect uniform, going around beating normal people half to death like that. Elder Yang would have a stroke if he found out. I've been sent here to keep you from loitering around Sanchuan like societal trash.”

“Nonsense! What loitering?” Yang Zishan huffed. “I’ve been working on important things.” 

Xiao Songfen scoffed. “What important things? Your drinking tolerance and money-grubbing ways? Beating someone's son into a pork patty?”

"It's more complicated than that." Yang Zishan scoffed and gave Xiao Songfen a pointed look. Xiao Songfen understood and side-stepped to face Bai Yiyan.

“Go back to Liushu Peak ahead of me. I need to talk with him privately.” Xiao Songfen spoke softly. “It may take a while, so don’t wait up for me. Rest early so you can resume sword practice tomorrow morning.”

"Yes, Shizun." Bai Yiyan nodded obediently and hand-fist greeted his master and Yang Zishan. “This disciple will take his leave then.”

Using qi to quicken his steps, Bai Yiyan dashed into the night in the direction of the Qingshan Sect.

Seeing his disciple disappear, Xiao Songfen briefly brought his right index and middle finger up to his third eye²The third eye is basically where the yintang pressure point is in the upper dantian. and pulled out a strand of refined and pure qi. He then used the strand of qi to draw a simple sound barrier array formation around himself and Yang Zishan. As soon as the formation circle was completed, it glowed faintly, successfully blocking out even the sound of crickets and night wind.

“Alright.” Xiao Songfen sat down on a boulder facing Yang Zishan. “What is so complex that you had me send my disciple away?”

Yang Zishan sat on the ground directly in front of Xiao Songfen and leaned back against a tree trunk. Then he took out a few jars of Jade White from his spatial ring and two cups.

Xiao Songfen’s expression turned black and he narrowed his eyes at Yang Zishan.

“What?” Yang Zishan said defensively. “This explanation might take a while so we might as well enjoy ourselves.”

“You stole from the tavern?”

“Whatever.” Yang Zishan snorted. "I know you paid for the tavern’s entire supply earlier so just think of it as us drinking what you’ve already purchased ba. My golden core is working now so I can't even get drunk to cause more problems anyway."

(I don't think you need to be drunk to cause problems...) Xiao Songfen looked at him with disapproval.

Yang Zishan poured some Jade White into a cup and offered it to Xiao Songfen. “Do you want to hear my explanation or not?”

The Willow Peak Elder³Refresh~ Xiao Songfen's title and one of his alternate names pushed up the sleeves of his robe and accepted the cup in a reluctant manner.

"Kicking up a fuss but still cooperating in the end." Yang Zishan laughed smugly. "For a moment, I thought you had become a completely different person, but you haven't changed as much as I thought hahaha."

He poured himself a cup and the two toasted with a resounding clink.

“You already know this well, but because of my father, I’ve been in charge of doing business with Sanchuan Bazaar for lecture materials and warehouse restocking.” He began as he downed the cup and proceeded to pour himself another. “Last month, we received our usual shipment of qi pill ingredients to be used for practice by Qingshan Sect disciples. Nothing special. Just some common herbs. However, last month’s shipment of herbs was significantly smaller by almost one-half of the usual amount. Nearly a thousand catties⁴Refresh~ 1oo catties describes 'how much one man can carry on a shoulder pole. So 1000 catties is ~500-600kg.  less. They apologized and told me that recent droughts have affected the production of the local farmers and offered us monetary compensation for the half that they couldn’t provide. Good customer service right?”

“Mn.” Xiao Songfen nodded, thinking about the bazaar owner he met earlier. “I was there earlier today. The owner is very eager to please.”

“But it's still strange. Sanchuan Bazaar is known to go to extreme lengths to fill the orders. In the many years I’ve worked with Sanchuan Bazaar, they have never failed to fill an order without first notifying me in advance. Yet they waited until the day I came to tell me that the order could not be filled. For common herbs no less. They could have easily sourced it ahead of time from another farm if their normal seller couldn’t produce enough to fill the order. The Qingshan Sect is one of their biggest customers and we also offer one of the highest prices per unit here for those herbs. With our offered price, even if they bought the herbs from a third-party reseller, they would still make a profit.”

Yang Zishan paused to look at Xiao Songfen with a face of expectation. Xiao Songfen just stared back dully.

“Okay?” Xiao Songfen pushed. “Get to the point.”

Yang Zishan threw up his hands. “Xiao Huan! I’m trying to tell you something interesting over drinks, but you are so impatient. I am still setting the stage.”

“Well if you know, then get on with it.” Xiao Songfen said monotonously as he sipped his cup of wine. 

With a scowl, Yang Zishan poured himself a third cup.

“Well, continually diminishing production of herbs that the Qingshan Sect regularly uses would no doubt eventually become an issue. So I went deep into the neighboring mountains to secretly investigate the local herb farms that Sanchuan Bazaar deals with to see if I could help resolve their drought situation. But listen to this." Yang Zishan leaned closer with a conspirational expression, "According to the workers there, there hasn’t been a drought in decades. The fields there are producing the same volume of herbs as they have always been if not more. They also confirmed that they had sold the full amount that the Qingshan Sect normally orders to Sanchuan Bazaar the day before I went to pick it up. So why did Sanchuan Bazaar lie to me? And so blatantly too?"

He clinked his cup against Xiao Songfen’s and took a swig.

“There are three possible explanations I’ve thought of."

Yang Zishan held up one long tapered finger close to Xiao Songfen's face. Xiao Songfen wrinkled his nose and leaned back away from the pretty face in annoyance.

"The first one. They already had the full shipment ready for us, but someone offered to pay more than what the Qingshan Sect offers last-minute so they compromised and sold them half to make a little more profit.”

Yang Zishan rubbed his chin. “This is very unlikely. Sanchuan Bazaar loves making money, but they also value their business integrity and reputation. They would not renege on a previous agreement just for a little bit of extra profit from some herbs. So I move onto the next one. Second one. Half of it was somehow ruined in the twenty-four hours it was being stored at Sanchuan Bazaar and Sanchuan Bazaar couldn’t replace it in time before I arrived. This is also very unlikely. No other orders had any problems that day. Sanchuan Bazaar's warehouses are also one of the best at preserving the freshness and quality of their products. They would never let something simple like herbs go rotten.”

“So?”

“So that leaves us the last explanation. A thousand catties of these common herbs were stolen. And I’ve been investigating in Sanchuan for the past month trying to find out who stole the other half of the shipment!” Yang Zishan finished proudly.

(...The fuck?)

Xiao Songfen ran out of patience.

(That's it? He's been MIA from the sect for an entire month just because of this? Is his brain just filled with holes? I can’t even-)

He rubbed his temples slowly, trying to calm a rising temper.

“Ha…I don’t see the point of this. Sanchuan Bazaar has filled our orders properly up until then and since then. It’s only one time and you wasted an entire month on this? On common herbs no less.”

“Ha…Xiao Huan, Xiao Huan…you really don’t see the bigger picture here.” Yang Zishan shook his head and looked at Xiao Songfen with eyes of pity. “Sanchuan Bazaar is a very wealthy and large business. It has the strong backing of many powerful sects like the Qingshan Sect and Ronghua Palace. Few would dare to interfere with their business. They even hire top cultivators to guard their distribution warehouses. How on earth could their products be so easily stolen or accessed? Let alone a whole thousand catties of herbs. The person who stole it must be very capable! Doesn't that interest you?”

(No. Detective Co***⁵Censored like a true copyright ninja this author is. If you know, you know. Leave a comment below if you know the reference~ just go home.)

Xiao Songfen looked at him with a scowl and stood up, foot out about to break the sound barrier formation. "Stop fooling around. You're going back to the Qingshan Sect with me tonight."

Yang Zishan hurriedly grabbed his leg with one arm while balancing the cup of Jade White in the other. Jade White sloshed back and forth.

Pitter. Patter.

A few drops landed on Xiao Songfen's robe. Xiao Songfen looked sharply at Yang Zishan and yanked his robes away.

Yang Zishan immediately let go and shrunk back.

"Ah wait, wait! I'm serious! There is really a legitimate reason for me to investigate this. The specific herbs that were missing from our usual order are all primary food sources for Gu⁶Gǔ 蛊: seduce; bewitch; attract; confuse; mislead; bewilder. "Gu was a venom-based poison associated with cultures of south China, particularly Nanyue. The traditional preparation of gu poison involved sealing several venomous creatures (e.g., centipede, snake, scorpion) inside a closed container, where they devoured one another and allegedly concentrated their toxins into a single survivor, whose body would be fed upon by larvae until consumed. The last surviving larva held the complex poison. Gu was used in black magic practices such as manipulating sexual partners, creating malignant diseases, and causing death." (courtesy of Wikipedia). In this novel, I am defining a 'Gu worm' as a poisonous parasitic creature that can poison or control their host depending on how they're bred. worm larvae. Coincidentally, it's well-known that someone bought Gu worm eggs in a black-market auction last month."

Xiao Songfen crossed his arms. "So you're saying someone's cultivating a few Gu worms with those herbs? Gu worms are dangerous, but it's no more dangerous than other lethal cultivation creatures we see in this world."

"Not just a few. With the sheer number of herbs they stole, they've got to be cultivating at least a few hundred of them. Gu larvae can only eat herbs picked within the last day, so I suspect this person is located nearby and was forced to resort to this method in order to sustain the Gu larvae. They'll likely come tonight to steal the herbs again as I'm due to pick up our monthly shipment tomorrow. Something like this happening so close to our sect needs to be monitored for potential accidents. If those Gu larvae mature and escape, we're going to have casualties on our end. That's why I'd like you to come investigate this with me before going home."

(HUH.)

"You want me to come with you?" Xiao Songfen repeated dully.

"En." Yang Zishan nodded confidently and downed the last of the Jade White. "Why not? You always agree to come along."

Xiao Songfen's eye twitched.

It's the middle of the night. Isn't this basically working overtime? Stopping a Gu worm cultivating thief was not even within his normal job description as the Liushu Peak Elder.

"No." Xiao Songfen answered curtly. "I already have plenty of work to do for Ronghua Palace and my disciple is waiting at home."

"Xiao Huan! You are throwing this sworn brother aside for that shifty disciple of yours?"

Yang Zishan's sudden comment about Bai Yiyan made Xiao Songfen bristle a little. He was already aware that there may be more to his disciple that meets that eye, but that didn't mean he liked others telling him that.

“My disciple is no business of yours.” He said coldly.

“Hmph! You are not even denying that he is shifty and yet you are still choosing him over me. That demure obedient personality of his gives me chicken skin⁷雞皮 jīpí: lit. Chicken skin. Chinese slang for goosebumps..”

Xiao Songfen rolled his eyes. "At the very least, he doesn't cost me a hundred silver taels just to figure out his whereabouts."

"Ai! Just accompany me tonight once?" Yang Zishan whined. "Just once ah. Just onceeeeeee."

The incessant whining gave Xiao Songfen a headache. So this is why OG Huan always got dragged into whatever trouble Yang Zishan cooks up. Yang Zishan was very different from Elder Yang in most things, but when it came to making requests, they were basically the same. Relentlessly annoying.

"Fine!" Xiao Songfen pushed away Yang Zishan's face with his entire palm. "On one condition."

"What?"

Xiao Songfen reached out his hand, palm facing upwards to receive.

"Give me back the hundred silver taels you won from the drinking competition."

"AH?! Why~"

"If you want me to come with you, hand it over. I don't operate on a loss."

"But-"

"The money." Xiao Songfen interrupted curtly. There was no room for compromise.

Looking as if his nails were being pulled out one by one in a torture chamber, Yang Zishan took out the small satchel of one hundred silver taels and reluctantly dropped it into Xiao Songfen's waiting hand.

"Really..." he grumbled under his breath, "...so stingy...unbelievable...got his elbows turned out⁸胳膊肘朝外拐 gē bo zhǒu cháo wài guǎi: An idiom that means 'to favor an outsider instead of someone on one's own side'....in the end he's completely changed...possessed..."

Xiao Songfen rolled his eyes and pocketed the money. Stepping forward, he broke the sound barrier array formation by twisting his foot and accurately breaking the circular design drawn. He looked down at the sitting Yang Zishan.

"Hurry up and lead the way."

"Don't rush me! I'm cleaning up." Yang Zishan huffed as he threw the empty jars of Jade White and cups back into his spatial ring⁹This author promotes no littering. Please properly take care of your trash.. "The exchange is going to be at Sanchuan Bazaar. It's not far from here."

It was already less than three shichen¹⁰six hours from sunrise. The streets were empty, save for a few drunk stragglers crawling home from the taverns and pleasure districts.

The two of them masked their presence and hid around the side of a building when Sanchuan Bazaar's entrance came into view. As powerful cultivators with naturally oppressive qi auras, they were careful to not let a single strand of their qi leak to escape detection.

Xiao Songfen looked into the darkened windows of Sanchuan Bazaar. Nothing looked out of place, but something didn't feel quite right. For a building that housed and dealt with countless cultivation items, there seemed to be too little flow of qi inside.

He begrudgingly admitted Yang Zishan actually had very good instincts for these things despite being somewhat delusional with his logic.

"Tomorrow is when many large organizations pick up their purchases including the Qingshan Sect." Yang Zishan observed. "If anything, there should also be at least a few employees bustling around right now working overnight to prepare. The enchanted padlocks they use suppress qi detection, but not vision. We should still be able to see employees working through the windows right now. But it's completely dark. Strange right? What did I tell you? Let's quietly infiltrate."

Yang Zishan eagerly took a step forward but was stopped by Xiao Songfen.

"Wait." Xiao Songfen said with a focused expression. "We should take precautions."

Xiao Songfen closed his eyes and used his cultivation to heighten his senses by a thousandfold. With enhanced hearing, he could just barely make out the sound of dense liquid trickling.

Drip...drip...drip...

Like leaking coagulated-

All of his muscles tensed up at the sudden realization.

Blood.

His qi detection had discovered a metallic rusty essence. But what made him tense up wasn't the essence of blood.

It was an ever subtle hint of Bai Yiyan's residual qi mixed in.

(!!!)

[IF YOU ARE NOT READING THIS BY XIAOMANGISBUSY ON SCRIBBLEHUB OR WATTPAD, IT HAS BEEN STOLEN. PLEASE REPORT AND ONLY READ OFF SCRIBBLEHUB OR WATTPAD.]

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WHITE-EYED WOLF THEATER

Xiao Songfen: I told you to go home.

Bai Yiyan: ...

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AUTHOR’S NOTE

Action is coming. Ahuehuehue.

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SONG OF THE DAY

This is the cutest ancient Chinese BFFs song ever.

Read below for XiaoMang’s incredibly botched English summary of the lyrics:

As Seen/Met in Qingshan/The Verdant Mountains (?) 如見青山 Rú jiàn qīngshān by 三無xKBShinya