Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 34

When they set off the next day, Huo Fenghua’s cold symptoms had eased quite a bit, but he was still weak and limp all over. Feng Tianzong lifted him onto the horse and seated him in front, leaning back against his chest.

This time Feng Tianzong seemed to have a clear destination. After leaving the small mountain village, he followed the road straight toward the southeast.

Huo Fenghua asked lazily, “You know where Senior Brother is?”

Feng Tianzong answered, “Song Wei found Gu Guangji’s whereabouts.”

Huo Fenghua perked up a little. “Master? Where’s my Master?”

Feng Tianzong said, “Your Master’s probably trying to cultivate his way into becoming an immortal.”

“What?” Huo Fenghua was completely baffled.

Feng Tianzong glanced down at him and said, “He’s in Fengming Town. We’re heading there now. If we ride hard, it’ll take ten days.”

Fengming Town lay within Donglin territory, right at the southernmost border between Donglin and Xichou. Keep going farther south and you reach foreign lands inhabited by many different tribes.

It sat at the intersection of three regions. Many Han people and many southern tribes gathered there to trade, making it a lively and bustling major town in the south. About ten years earlier, a “True Master” named Zixi had appeared in Fengming Town and built a Celestial Master Temple there. Rumor had it that True Master Zixi was a great alchemist, and that the golden pills he refined could bring the dead back to life. From then on, countless people went to the Celestial Master temple in Fengming Town to seek his immortal medicines. For a time the temple’s incense offerings flourished and the believers were innumerable, including not only Han people from Donglin and Xichou, but also many minority peoples from the south.

True Master Zixi then founded a sect called the Yuzhen Sect, which could be considered an offshoot of Taoism. He accepted believers widely and had enormous influence in the south.

Gu Guangji had been a devoted believer in Taoism all his life and had studied many Taoist arts. In his later years, he tossed the position of sect leader to Huo Fenghua and traveled among famous Taoist mountains. Now he had ended up in Fengming Town.

Feng Tianzong said that riding hard to Fengming Town would take ten days, but in reality, because he and Huo Fenghua shared one horse, and even when they switched to a fresh mount along the way, they arrived twelve days later, and it was already afternoon.

As soon as they entered Fengming Town’s territory, Huo Fenghua caught the scent of incense lingering in the air. He saw many people dressed like Taoist priests walking through the streets.

He and Feng Tianzong each led a horse and first found an inn to stay at. Then they sat down and ordered a table of food and wine.

While eating, they heard a nearby table discussing that True Master Zixi had been recruiting new disciples lately.

A middle-aged man said, “Why don’t you have your son go and take the True Master as his master?”

The man across from him replied, “I had him go last year. The True Master wouldn’t take him.”

The middle-aged man said, “That makes sense. The True Master’s disciples, whether men or women, all have to be spiritually bright and good looking. If ordinary people don’t have enough spiritual aura, the True Master won’t accept them.”

“Ah,” the other man sighed. “My wife’s been bedridden lately. I paid a fortune to beg for two pills from the True Master, and she’s still not improving.”

The middle-aged man patted his shoulder. “Go beg for one more. Her illness must be too severe. Two pills might not be enough.”

The man glanced outside. “We’ll see tomorrow. It’s already late, and the Celestial Master temple has probably closed its doors to visitors.”

After that, the two drank a bit more, then stood up, said their goodbyes, and left the inn.

Huo Fenghua and Feng Tianzong listened in silence. After the two men left, Huo Fenghua said to Feng Tianzong, “Is this True Master Zixi taking disciples or running a beauty pageant?”

“A beauty pageant?” Feng Tianzong looked at him.

Huo Fenghua waved a hand, not bothering to explain what a pageant was. He lowered his voice. “Don’t you think this True Master Zixi sounds suspicious?”

Feng Tianzong asked, “Suspicious how?”

Huo Fenghua said, “It sounds like a cult. Doesn’t the court suppress them?”

Feng Tianzong replied, “The Yuzhen Sect is just a martial world sect. If no one’s rebelling, why would the court suppress it?”

Huo Fenghua grabbed his bowl and shoveled a big mouthful of rice, chewing as he spoke. “Anyway, I think there’s something wrong with this Yuzhen Sect. It’s probably some scammy cult that swindles money and sex.”

Feng Tianzong looked at him with his mouth full of rice and said, “Has no one taught you that you don’t speak while eating, and you don’t speak in bed?”

“In bed?” Huo Fenghua chewed for a long time before swallowing everything, then leaned close to Feng Tianzong’s ear and whispered, “So once we’re in bed, does the General want me to make noise, or not?”

Feng Tianzong stared at him for a moment, raised a hand and wiped a bit of vegetable oil from the corner of his mouth, then lowered his gaze. “Eat properly.”

After the meal, they took a turn around Fengming Town. The Celestial Master temple’s gates were indeed shut, but the heavy incense smell in the air still hadn’t dispersed. Besides the incense, Huo Fenghua also caught the sulfur scent of alchemy. He said, “Where is my Master, exactly? It’s been so many days. He might’ve already left Fengming Town.”

Feng Tianzong said, “Song Wei has had people following him the whole time. Even though we don’t know exactly where he’s hiding in Fengming Town, if he leaves the town, I’ll definitely get word.”

“This town’s huge,” Huo Fenghua looked around. “Then we can only search slowly.”

Feng Tianzong tilted his head up toward the gilded plaque above the temple gate and said, “Tomorrow morning, we’ll come here first.”

Hearing that, Huo Fenghua also looked up at the bold characters on the plaque, then suddenly said, “Don’t tell me my Master has taken True Master Zixi as his master and gone to be his disciple?”

Feng Tianzong gave him a look.

Huo Fenghua kept his head tilted back, brows drawn tight. “Then wouldn’t I have an extra grandmaster?”

“Don’t talk nonsense,” Feng Tianzong said. “Let’s go back.”

The south produced jade. On their way back to the inn, Huo Fenghua ran into a foreign trader selling jade bells. Each bell was tiny, no bigger than a thumb segment, tied with a red cord. When shaken, it chimed clearly, delicate and fine.

Huo Fenghua found it interesting, so Feng Tianzong took out silver and bought it for him.

On the way back, Huo Fenghua kept shaking the bell. The sound was crisp, though you had to hold it near your ear to hear it well. He brought it up beside Feng Tianzong’s ear and shook it until Feng Tianzong grew annoyed and snatched it from his hand.

Huo Fenghua immediately said, “Give it back.”

Feng Tianzong lifted the bell with a light laugh and neatly dodged Huo Fenghua’s hand when he tried to grab it.

Huo Fenghua missed and pulled his hand back. “When we return to the General’s Manor, we’ll have to separate anyway. Can’t you at least leave me a keepsake?”

Feng Tianzong paused, his smile fading as he looked at him.

Huo Fenghua seized the chance to snatch the bell back and shook it happily in his hand. “Heh. When the time comes, I’ll make Senior Brother give me something too, as a memento.”

Back at the inn, Huo Fenghua told the attendant to heat water and bring it up to their room. They’d been rushing nonstop on the road, often sleeping out in the open, and it had been a long time since they’d been able to bathe properly. Now that they were in Fengming Town, there was no need to hurry. They could rest properly.

Huo Fenghua sat in the wooden tub and soaked in comfort. He set the jade bell on the surface of the water, watched it slowly sink, then fished it back up.

Meanwhile, Feng Tianzong sat at the table with a book spread open beside an oil lamp flipping through the pages.

After playing around for a while, Huo Fenghua leaned on the rim of the tub and looked at him, calling, “General, General!”

Feng Tianzong didn’t even lift his head, only giving a soft “Mm.”

Huo Fenghua asked, “What book are you reading?”

Feng Tianzong picked it up and showed him the cover. It read: Biography of Zixi.

“True Master Zixi’s biography?” Huo Fenghua asked.

Feng Tianzong said, “Yeah. I borrowed it from the innkeeper to skim.”

Huo Fenghua rested his chin on his arm. “Stuff like that was definitely written for him by someone he paid. What’s there to read? Come soak with me instead.”

Feng Tianzong didn’t respond.

Huo Fenghua thought for a moment, ducked his head under the water and fussed around for a bit, then suddenly stood up in the tub. Facing Feng Tianzong, he said, “General, look at me.”

Feng Tianzong turned to look and saw that Huo Fenghua was completely naked. His cock was half hard and there was a red string tied around it, with that little jade bell hanging beneath it.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>