Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Watching the Flower Queen

Once they settled on a plan, Gu Shi Yi decided to go out and look around. Great King immediately started making a scene.

“I’ve been stuck in this broken clay jar forever! At least buy me a new one!”

Gu Shi Yi considered it. A flower pot wasn’t expensive. She agreed, so she carried Great King in her arms, with Li Yan Er tucked against her chest, and stepped out into the street.

The bustle of Xuan Cheng was nothing like the sleepy little towns they’d passed through. Gu Shi Yi had traveled the world and seen real crowds before, so she took it in with a calm face. Li Yan Er and Great King, on the other hand, looked like country bumpkins at a lantern festival—eyes wide, heads turning nonstop.

From inside Gu Shi Yi’s collar, Li Yan Er whispered, “The women’s clothes here really are prettier than in the towns…”

Gu Shi Yi nodded, amused. “Of course. A lot of merchant ships pass through. If you go six hundred li upstream, you reach Yue Kingdom’s second most prosperous place—Twin Sages City. It’s only a step below Huang Capital. There aren’t as many nobles as in Huang Capital, but rich merchants? They’re everywhere. Any new fashion starts there. When Twin Sages City merchants sail down to Xuan Cheng, they bring the newest styles with them. So naturally, the women here dress better than the women in a small town.”

Women loved beauty in any realm. Even female cultivators who lived in quiet seclusion sometimes came down to the mortal world to buy clothes—let alone ordinary women.

Gu Shi Yi chuckled. “But if you want the newest, best styles? Those are in brothels. If you want to see truly good clothes, that’s where we go.”

“Brothels?” Li Yan Er repeated, startled.

“Think about it,” Gu Shi Yi said, as if she were giving a lecture. “The young ladies there spend all day figuring out how to please men. They study men’s tastes like it’s scripture. They even hire embroiderers specifically to design outfits. Whatever they make, they test it on the young ladies in front of customers first. You tell me—how could it not look good?”

In Gu Shi Yi’s mind, it was no different from a fashion show.

She pointed as she walked. “If we head out through the south side, we’ll reach the docks. There are flower boats there—built for traveling merchants. If we go now, it’ll be dark by the time we arrive. That’s when business starts. You can look until your eyes hurt.”

Li Yan Er hadn’t even answered when Great King began shaking his branches like a drunk waving a flag. “Go! Go! Go! I want to go!”

Gu Shi Yi nearly crushed him in panic and hissed, “Are you insane? Xuan Cheng has the Qing Spirit Guard stationed here. Do you want to be declared a monster and cut down on the spot?”

The Qing Spirit Guard didn’t slaughter every spirit creature they saw, but any mercy was reserved for major sects with power and influence. Gu Shi Yi was a lone daoist nun with no backing. If someone decided her spirit companion was an evil creature, nobody would ask questions. They’d kill first.

Great King’s shouting drew a curious glance from a passerby—someone staring at the “poor country girl” hugging a busted clay jar. Gu Shi Yi flashed the man a bright smile, then bolted into a narrow alley, cutting through back streets toward the south gate.

When she reached the south gate, far off by the east gate of Xuan Cheng, five grim-looking men were lining up to enter.

“Brother,” one of them murmured, lips moving without sound to the mortals around them. “That old daoist priest and the woman really came to Xuan Cheng?”

Another man gave a short grunt. “That broken temple was clearly cleaned out. Anything portable was taken. The old daoist priest must’ve sensed something and fled with the female apprentice. We were delayed on the chase, but we used the pills Sect Master gave us to restore our power. We’re still moving fast. This is the biggest, nearest city on this road—Xuan Cheng. And Xuan Cheng connects to water routes. If they want to run, the fastest path is by boat. When we searched that turtle spirit’s soul earlier, didn’t it also mention a woman driving a cart into the mountains…”

Unfortunately, that turtle spirit hid in mountain ravines and rarely showed itself. It only knew someone had entered the mountains and then headed toward Xuan Cheng. When pressed for more, it knew nothing at all.

Old Boss listened, expression dark, and thought, Sect Master said Qi Jiu Feng is only a mortal daoist priest. A few tricks, nothing that even touches real cultivation. Yet he hid for so many years. Even Heavenly One Sect and True Origin Sect—top powers in great Yue—sent disciples to search again and again and still found nothing.

Then, out of nowhere, the treasure-seeking disk—silent for ages—flared with light in the middle of the night. Sect Master’s guess was that Qi Jiu Feng’s hiding method was tied to his own life. Now, judging by the time, the old daoist priest should be close to death. The treasure can’t be concealed anymore, and that’s why his trail finally leaked…

Too bad activating that treasure-seeking disk caused far too much commotion.

And this whole mess really did trace back to Old Five. He had practiced the blood fiend spirit light technique too aggressively, couldn’t control his killing intent, and slaughtered a few mortals over nothing. That drew the Qing Spirit Guard. After that, the brothers could only rush along, not daring to search carefully. Otherwise, how would they be forced to half-guess their way here? If they couldn’t find their target in Xuan Cheng, they’d have no choice but to retreat along the road and activate the treasure-seeking disk again.

Old Boss shot Old Five a sharp look.

Old Five immediately hunched his shoulders, neck shrinking like a turtle, and refused to meet his gaze. He was hot-tempered, but he still knew who he could mouth off to and who he couldn’t.

Not far behind them, three cultivators from the Qing Spirit Guard followed at a steady distance, neither too close nor too far. A man surnamed Wen said quietly, “Hundred-Captain, it’s fortunate you have a tracking secret art. You can follow them without even using divine sense.”

A younger man beside him frowned. “Official, back in the mountains, we caught up to them. Those heretical cultivators only have qi refining level seven or eight. Official alone could’ve taken them all. Why didn’t you move?”

Instead, their leader had swept past the five men as if he’d been fooled, pretending not to recognize them at all.

The gentle-faced man glanced at the youth and smiled. “Because I’m curious. They’re making such a fuss hunting someone down—who are they looking for?”

Heretical cultivators didn’t fear the Qing Spirit Guard, but reckless slaughter of mortals drew attention. Once the Guard took notice, they’d be hunted anywhere on this continent unless they hid forever. Most heretical cultivators avoided trouble unless they had no other choice.

So what was so special about that old daoist priest?

As the thought settled, the gentle man’s expression shifted. “They’re entering the city. We’ll go in too.”

The three gathered in their aura, slipped into the crowd disguised as scholars, paid the gate tax like ordinary mortals, and entered Xuan Cheng.

At the same time, Gu Shi Yi was leaning on a riverside railing at the south end of the city, watching the flower boats glide by under lanternlight. Music drifted across the water. Silk sleeves flashed like bright flags. From the opening of Gu Shi Yi’s collar, Li Yan Er poked out her head, staring in the same direction.

“Look at that one in the red robe,” Li Yan Er whispered. “In our world, she’d be at least top-tier.”

Gu Shi Yi hummed in agreement.

Li Yan Er nodded seriously. “With that face and figure, she’d be making billions a year. What a waste.”

“What’s the waste?” Gu Shi Yi snorted. “That’s Xuan Cheng’s flower queen. She can sell performances if she wants, sell herself if she wants, and she has rich merchants and wealthy households lining up to flatter her. She earns no less than any ‘top-tier.’ And if she meets an honest man, he can pay a big sum and bring her home to live a proper life.”

Li Yan Er’s head bobbed. “Fair point.”

Great King, however, wasn’t watching dancers. He was staring at a tree on one of the boats—planted in a gleaming white porcelain pot painted with gold.

“Gu Shi Yi!” he complained loudly. “Look at that! That pot is gold-painted porcelain. I want to live in that!”

He looked down at his own muddy jar like it had personally insulted him.

Gu Shi Yi patted the side of the pot as if it were a loyal horse. “Be good, Great King. We’re traveling. Porcelain breaks too easily. This clay pot is cheap, sturdy, breathable—good for roots, good for you. That kind only looks pretty. It doesn’t breathe, it doesn’t drain. You’ll suffocate in it.”

“Really?” Great King tilted his branches, unconvinced. “Don’t lie to me.”

Gu Shi Yi put on her most solemn, righteous face. “Do you think those flower boats care about keeping plants alive? They plant those ‘money trees’ for decoration. Two months later they’re dead, and they get tossed into the kitchen and burned as firewood. You want that to be you?”

Great King shuddered so hard his leaves quivered. “I don’t!”

They kept whispering and giggling by the water, judging the young ladies on the boats like it was a free fashion show. A few bold touting girls drifted over and tried to flirt with Gu Shi Yi. Gu Shi Yi spread her hands.

“I’ve got no money. How about a free night?”

“Pah! Dream on!”

The young ladies spat in disgust, flicked their handkerchiefs, and swayed away. Li Yan Er giggled. Gu Shi Yi wore the expression of someone who had seen far worse.

“When I was five, I traveled with the old daoist priest,” she said, sounding almost nostalgic. “And the old daoist priest was a lecher. Every city we reached, he had to ‘appreciate the scenery’ in places like this. I’ve seen plenty. Once, two groups of clients got into a fight—knives out, blood everywhere. Blood splashed right onto my face, and I still sat there eating and drinking like nothing happened.”

That time, the old daoist priest dragged her away in the chaos—without paying a single coin.

Gu Shi Yi was mid-brag when her voice cut off. Her eyes sharpened. She looked around, then up at the sky, and murmured, “The weather’s turning.”

Li Yan Er followed her gaze. The moon had vanished behind thick clouds.

Gu Shi Yi counted on her fingers, lips moving soundlessly, then said, “Time to go back.”

Li Yan Er nodded—then suddenly shrank her head back a little, peering around the way Gu Shi Yi had. “Shi Yi… why do I feel cold?”

With a clay body, Li Yan Er shouldn’t have been able to feel anything at all.

Gu Shi Yi sighed. “Bad luck. I came out to look at a flower queen and still ran into something unclean.”

She turned to leave. After a few steps, a soft voice called from behind, “Young fellow, want to come aboard for the night?”

Gu Shi Yi didn’t even turn her head. “No money. Can I freeload?”

There was a beat of silence. Then the voice answered, gentle as silk, “…Sure.”

Gu Shi Yi’s steps stuttered—then she sped up, tossing back, “You’re too ugly. I don’t want you even for free.”

She lowered her head and hurried forward, clutching Great King tighter. She’d barely gone a few steps when a red-robed woman stood five paces ahead of her, blocking the path.

The woman wore no makeup. Her face was pale as paper. Her features were pretty, her figure slender… but something was wrong.

Gu Shi Yi’s gaze slid down to the woman’s feet—balanced on tiptoe, light as if she didn’t quite touch the ground.

The red-robed woman looked at her with a wounded, resentful expression. “Young fellow… you’ve been keeping your head down this whole time. You never even looked at me. How do you know I’m not beautiful?”

Gu Shi Yi raised her head, expression flat, and held up two fingers. “First, I’m a woman. Second, are you addicted to soliciting? You’re already a ghost and you’re still out here pulling customers?”

The words hit like a slap. The red-robed woman’s face twisted. Her voice turned sharp and hoarse. “Do you think I want this?”

Her features warped. The pretty face vanished, replaced by one carved up with blade marks—ragged slashes, flesh torn open, blood-dark and ugly.

“If I don’t feed on yang qi, how can I walk in this world?”

Gu Shi Yi didn’t flinch. She studied the ruined face like she was inspecting a bad repair job. “Who cut your face?”

The female ghost froze, thrown off by Gu Shi Yi’s lack of fear. Then her head snapped toward the river, toward the flower boats still bursting with music and laughter. Her gaze locked onto the woman dancing under lanternlight—another red robe, another graceful smile.

Gu Shi Yi followed her gaze and nodded once. “Ah. I understand.”

She shifted Great King in her arms and tried to step around the female ghost. She took three steps—

—and her vision blurred.

The female ghost’s shredded face appeared inches from her.

“You’re not allowed to leave!”

Gu Shi Yi rolled her eyes so hard it almost counted as a spiritual technique. “I didn’t slash your face. Go find the one who did. And you’re harming people for no reason—aren’t you afraid an underworld constable will catch you and drag you down to the eighteen layers of hell?”

The female ghost’s hatred boiled over. “Do you think I want this? We were sisters—girls from the same house. Why did she have to do this to me? Fine, she’s the flower queen now, but she used a talisman to press me beneath that flowering tree, trapping me so I can’t reincarnate. If I don’t feed on yang qi, I’ll scatter and vanish in less than three days—gone forever, never to be reborn!”

Gu Shi Yi’s expression tightened. “She blocked your reincarnation?”

The female ghost’s mouth stretched into something vicious. She pointed at the dancer on the boat, her finger shaking with rage. “She always hated me. Always fought me for customers. Once, she tricked me into drinking, strangled me to death, and slashed my face. Then she stuffed my bones under that flower pot. And she spent a fortune to hire a talisman—so even my soul couldn’t escape. I can’t reincarnate. I can’t leave. Only at the end of each month do I get a chance to slip out.”

Gu Shi Yi’s eyes narrowed. “A talisman?”

The female ghost nodded, voice scraping raw. “It’s carved right into the tree trunk…”