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Chapter 30: Carved Lock (II)
A dragon's body is covered in scales, and the ones on its back are extremely hard, forming a kind of exoskeleton. The scales are largest nearest to its head, and gradually become smaller as they inch toward its tail. Just to chip off a single scale from the back requires a strong knife. But the scales near the dragon's belly are softer than the ones on its spine. On that day at Guiyun Hall, for instance, Xue Xian had left Xuanmin a scale from his belly.
This niezhang was highly arrogant, and always insisted on assuming that the people around him were stupid –– indeed, he was so pig-headed that he generally did not trust anyone else to make the right decision. Xue Xian had worried that if he'd given Xuanmin a scale from his back, that bald donkey would not have known to first grind the scale into powder, and would have simply swallowed it whole. Then the scale would have slashed Xuanmin's throat from the inside and the innkeeper would have found a dead body in the room. That would not have been good.
The point was: this niezhang’s belly was relatively soft.
The annoying part was that, once he became small, the scales along his body followed suit and became tiny, supple things. Even the hardest scales on his spine lost their edge and became pliable and even slightly stretchy –– so of course the belly was even worse.
Looking down, Xue Xian poked himself with his claw and found that a single poke caused his belly to turn fucking concave. There was no difference between his belly and human skin! Worse, his belly seemed even softer, and, as it bounced, it didn't even hurt!
His mighty dragon claw, which could cleave through iron as though it were loose sand, could not cause any pain when scratching his belly! It seemed that his claws, too, had become soft.
Another fatal strike to his dignity.
As his soft and supple scaled body curled around the bald donkey's wrist, Xue Xian just couldn’t get comfortable ––
From an outsider's perspective, the bald donkey had quite a lovely wrist: slender, with a mellow curve to the bone. But as Xue Xian wound himself pitifully around the monk's wrist, he found that this spot was not amenable at all. The bone of Xuanmin’s wrist protruded against his soft belly scales –– it felt as though Xue Xian were lying stomach-down on top of a round ladle; it didn't hurt, but it was bumpy and hard.
Annoying!
Xue Xian clawed angrily at the bony wrist, but was unable to draw any blood –– all he had probably achieved was to slightly tickle the bald donkey. Xue Xian gave up and turned away to sulk.
The niezhang was full of drama and had a bad temper –– to be able to piss himself off so much and so often probably counted as a talent.
But as he moved this way and that, he quickly drew Xuanmin's attention.
When Xuanmin first opened his eyes, he simply blankly stared at the sky, his black eyes deep as pools, with a slight hint of emptiness.
Then, he furrowed his brows, because, mixed into the moisture of the river, he could smell the stench of blood. When he'd fallen into the water, he had been in the middle of muttering a spell with his eyes shut tightly, so he had not ended up swallowing too much water. But the pressure of the current at the bottom of the river meant that he now had a sharp pain in his chest.
He coughed softly and sat up. Glancing quickly at his surroundings, Xuanmin found that he was sitting in a pile of soft mud on the riverbank, and that next to him was a heavy stone lock, which sank into the damp earth. No one else was around, so there was no immediate danger. Through the mist on the river, he could see that a cluster of boats had gathered on the water –– he wasn't sure what they were doing, but they did not seem to have noticed his presence on the shore.
Reassured, he moved his gaze away.
Xuanmin hated any and all kinds of dirt. As he observed his own state, a mild expression of disgust appeared on his face.
When he moved to clean off the blood and mud from his robes, he felt a movement on his wrist.
Frowning, he tore up his sleeve and came face to face with the thing that had attached itself to his arm.
Xue Xian wasn't feeling very well, so when he made eye contact with Xuanmin, he really could not be bothered to deal with the monk. He noticed that Xuanmin was acting strangely and rolled his eyes. There he goes again!
So he scoffed and said lazily, "Don't talk. Don't ask me who I am, and definitely don't ask me who you are. Listen to me. Raise your hand and touch the left side of your neck."
Xuanmin was a suspicious man by nature. If anyone else had said this to him, he would not have heeded their words –– he would have beat the person and tied them up first, and then dealt with himself. But the thing curled up on his wrist spoke with such straightforward confidence. It did not seem to be lying.
Besides... this niezhang looked so weak. Any tug could snap it and any pinch could kill it. It didn't seem to be a threat at all.
So Xuanmin stared at Xue Xian coldly for a while, then finally did as he said and touched his neck.
Xue Xian reached out a claw and took on the air of an expert [a] as he directed Xuanmin. "Is your arm physically too short to reach it or something? Go further. Yes, right there. Now press down on it. When you wake up, don't try to talk to me. I'm not in the mood to chat with you."
Having had his moment of humiliation trying to claw the chain in the river, Xue Xian was in a bad mood. He took it out on Xuanmin at first opportunity. Xue Xian was an unreasonable one indeed.
Xue Xian watched as Xuanmin's fingers found that spider-shaped mole. Just like before, the thin red blood vessels around the mole swiftly retreated. The process seemed painful: Xuanmin frowned and snapped his eyes shut. After sitting there silently for a while, he opened his eyes again. The confusion in his eyes had disappeared and was now completely replaced by that familiar blank face and condescending glare.
Seeing this, Xue Xian knew that Xuanmin had recovered.
Xue Xian leaned back and idly said, "Where did you pick up this amnesia disease? Do you have to go through this process each time? It sounds awfully inconvenient."
Xuanmin said nothing. He only stared down at Xue Xian.
Before, Xuanmin had been too confused to pay any attention, but now that he looked at the niezhang, he found that the marble had grown a head, a tail, and four limbs. The head looked like a dragon's head. But Xuanmin had never seen such a... puny dragon. Though it was indeed covered in scales, the bottom section of its body hung limply. Unlike the top part of its body, which was coiled expertly around Xuanmin's wrist, the tail simply dangled, like dead weight.
Xuanmin stared at him blankly, then pinched that limp tail, which was slim and pointy, with a strange texture.
Xue Xian glowered at him and scoffed, "Let go. What are you doing? Do you have no sense of civility at all? Which book taught you to just go ahead and touch people's tails?"
In fact, Xue Xian could not feel the bottom half of his body at all, and would probably not even notice if it was cut off in the night. But pain was one thing –– this, dignity, was another. A glorious dragon getting his tail pinched in such a way... What would people say?
If it wasn't for the fact that he needed to rely on the bald donkey for the moment, he would slam this stupid mortal directly into the sea.
Of course, Xuanmin wasn't teasing –– he didn't tease. He was simply surprised by the fact that the niezhang had somehow completely transformed in the short moment that he'd been unconscious.
"Where did you get this shell from?" he asked.
"What do you mean, get?" Xue Xian glared at him. "You think I'd use someone else's sloppy seconds?"
Xuanmin checked his pouch –– the marble was gone.
"This is your real body?" Although Xuamin’s tone was a questioning one, he seemed to be stating it as fact.
Xue Xian grunted in agreement.
"If you have obtained your real body again, why are you coiled on my wrist?" Xuanmin asked, glaring at him.
Xuanmin didn't actually want Xue Xian to leave. Indeed, that mysterious piece of paper in his pocket had Find this person written on it in clear terms, and it seemed that something about Xue Xian had a clear connection to the diagram drawn on the paper. Naturally, Xuanmin was not going to simply let the niezhang slink away.
But that was Xuanmin’s perspective. Xue Xian's behavior, on the other hand, wasn't making any sense. The niezhang had previously made several attempts to escape, and based on his mischievous attitude, he should have taken advantage of Xuanmin blacking out to run away. For Xue Xian to dutifully coil himself on Xuanmin's wrist and wait for him to wake up was incredibly strange.
Xuanmin poked the little dragon's head. Had the niezhang gotten them into more trouble? Or eaten something poisonous? Why else would he be acting so well-behaved?
Xue Xian scratched at Xuanmin with his claws and pushed the annoying hand away. "First you capture me, and now you want to kick me out! It’s very rude and unreasonable to expect me to come and go as you ask. I've decided not to leave. Deal with it. Stop touching me, asshole!"
Xuanmin: “...”
This niezhang was the one who had decided to coil himself around someone else’s hand. Now he was trying to call others unreasonable and rude. How shameless.
Of course Xue Xian had not eaten anything poisonous.
Indeed, Xuanmin was not wrong to be so suspicious. Xue Xian had thought about sneaking away, and the issue of being naked in his human form was no big deal as he could easily steal some passerby's clothes. And if it came down to it, he could also have peeled the robes off the bald donkey and passed himself off as being on his way to a funeral.
The reason why he was so obediently staying by Xuanmin's side was that he'd discovered something nice back when he'd been a marble. This bald donkey had a unique physicality –– there was something special [b] about his body –– which had somehow managed to hasten Xue Xian's return to his original body. It was likely that Xuanmin could also help Xue Xian to track down his missing bones quicker.
Xue Xian could freely admit that he was not an empathetic person. When he saw that there was a benefit to him, he stayed, and when he could derive no use out of someone, he left. It was that straightforward.
He felt no need to look further into his intentions. Basically, he didn't feel like heading off on his own at the moment. He decided to stay with the bald donkey a bit longer –– he could always leave him another gift as a word of thanks afterwards.
Besides, with the bald donkey there, it made things easier to investigate. Xuanmin was far more useful than the bookworm Jiang Shining.
As he avoided Xuanmin's hand again, Xue Xian bared his claws and ruffled his scales to warn that bald donkey not to touch him. But his gaze landed on the stone lock beside the monk, and he began to ponder...
The body part he'd absorbed from the soil had been to Xue Xian like a seed to a tree. Although he now lazed around serenely, he could clearly feel something roiling and churning inside him.
But there was still something he hadn't figured out...
If it really had been one of his body parts, why had it appeared in the river by Wolong County of all places?
Could it be the case that the person who had maimed him was the same person behind the feng shui design in the tomb? And even if it wasn't the same exact person, there had to be some kind of connection.
If Xue Xian could get the bald donkey to help him decode the mark on the stone lock and figure out its origins, then they might happen to find the person who had maimed him.
Xuanmin cleaned out the blood and dirt from his robe and walked onto the paved river path, with Xue Xian telling him to hurry up all the while. Suddenly, like a water ghost, Lu Nianqi stumbled out of nowhere, feeling his way toward them. Xuanmin realised that the cluster of boats on the river had probably gathered because they'd found Lu Nianqi and the others... but it still didn't explain why so many people had shown up.
Lu Nianqi blindly tottered over and squinted at them. Finally, he said, "It is you."
The boy’s voice sounded extremely fatigued –– he was probably still mourning Lu Shijiu and had not yet been able to process the shock. He sighed, then added, "Could I... ask you for a favor? My... There's something wrong with my eyes, and I don't feel very well. Shijiu is standing right here, but somehow... somehow I can't see him. I can see the outlines of everyone else, but not him."
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The author has something to say:
[Acknowledgments to those who gave money on JJWXC]
Thank you so much! Tomorrow I’ll add more names, but I’ll say thank you already. Kiss
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[a] Here, Musuli uses 大爷 (da1 ye2) which means the patriarch of a household or some other highly respected older figure with the right to order others around.
[b] Musuli uses the word 玄机 (xuan2 ji1) here. Literally “dark/profound/mysterious machine/mechanism”, the word means “arcane truth” in a religious context. Here, however, it’s used to vaguely describe the fact that there is some kind of magic to Xuanmin’s hip, so I have kept it vague.
This chapter was beta’d by Rogue!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, Xue Xian is truly a little gremlin XD
ReplyDeleteI really wonder what is so magical about Xuanmin's hip...