Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 86
Huo Fenghua couldn’t quite understand Bai Huan’s intentions. “If you can take Feng Tianzong’s life directly, then why did you take the long way around back then and set up that whole ‘cut off the bloodline’ curse formation?”
Bai Huan didn’t answer. He only looked at Huo Fenghua.
Huo Fenghua met his gaze calmly.
After a moment, Bai Huan said, “This isn’t something that can be explained in a few words. Come with me.” With that, he raised the candle stand in his hand and walked out of the cavern.
Huo Fenghua had plenty of questions, but he didn’t dare press too hard. He was afraid of making Bai Huan suspicious. So he could only shake the mud from his boots and follow.
Outside the cavern was a corridor. By the light of Bai Huan’s candle, Huo Fenghua saw many exits along both sides. Some opened into more corridors that sloped upward or downward or ran level into the distance. Others opened into caverns, layered and overlapping. It was as if the entire mountain of Luofeng Ridge had been hollowed out into a gigantic maze, twisting and crossing through the lightless belly of the mountain.
He tried to memorize the route. Every time they passed through a corridor, he channeled inner energy into his fingertip and left a mark.
Bai Huan walked ahead without looking back. He seemed very familiar with the paths inside. After a long while, Huo Fenghua realized they hadn’t taken a single repeated turn.
Later, though, Huo Fenghua noticed that some of the caverns bore signs that someone had lived there. He saw stone beds and tables. He even saw luminous pearls set into the walls, and bead curtains hanging down as obvious decoration. He reached up to try and pry one of the pearls loose, but he couldn’t. When he turned around, he found Bai Huan watching him. Not wanting to expose his strength, he stopped and clapped his hands lightly. “Someone lived in here?”
Bai Huan was silent for a moment. “You came looking for the Flying Phoenix Scroll, yet you don’t know people lived here?”
Huo Fenghua had no idea what the Flying Phoenix Scroll even was. The more he said, the more likely he’d slip up. He clasped his hands behind his back, put on a deep, inscrutable air, and walked a few steps along the wall studded with luminous pearls. “I don’t know because nobody was willing to tell me. You can’t understand that?”
Bai Huan didn’t respond.
Huo Fenghua felt a bit annoyed at how uncooperative he was, so he continued. “I was sent to Donglin when I was young. Only now have they finally allowed me back to Xichou. Do you think they treat me like a prince… or like a tool? Can’t you see it?”
As he spoke, Huo Fenghua abruptly stopped. He’d spotted a line of carved characters on the cavern wall. He reached out to touch them and realized they were written in a script he didn’t recognize, like earthworms linked head to tail.
Bai Huan looked at him. “That’s the writing of the Yuqing people.”
Huo Fenghua turned to look at him.
Bai Huan walked to his side, lifted the candle stand, and illuminated the carving more clearly. “What’s carved there is a girl’s name, and her birth data.”
As he spoke, he lifted a hand and touched the carving too.
“Yu—what people?” Huo Fenghua hadn’t caught it.
Bai Huan said, “Yuqing used to be a small country in the northwest of Xichou. Many years ago, Xichou destroyed it. After that, the Yuqing people became the Yuqing clan. The largest surname of the Yuqing clan is Feng.”
Huo Fenghua was shocked. Feng. His mind immediately leapt to Feng Tianzong. “Feng? Then why is this place called Luofeng Ridge? Isn’t that an extremely unlucky name?”
Bai Huan told him, “Because Luofeng Ridge was originally the burial ground of the Feng clan.”
Huo Fenghua stared at Bai Huan, the astonishment on his face not fading at all.
Bai Huan set the candlestand down. “Since you want to know, I can tell you the ending of the Feng clan and the Flying Phoenix Scroll.”
Huo Fenghua’s curiosity was burning so fiercely that he practically wanted to go massage Bai Huan’s shoulders and beg him to take his time and talk.
For some reason, Bai Huan didn’t seem in a hurry anymore. He walked over and sat down on a stone bed in the cavern, then looked up at Huo Fenghua. “Xichou’s Martial Emperor, Huo Tinggao, could be called the emperor who restored Xichou’s strength. You’re surely more familiar with your ancestor’s deeds than I am.”
Huo Fenghua said nothing.
Bai Huan continued, “It’s normal you wouldn’t know the story of Luofeng Ridge and the Flying Phoenix Scroll. The matter began with Huo Tinggao. When he was young, he left the palace in disguise on an inspection tour. While hunting in the mountains, he saved a boy’s life. The boy was named Feng Yiting. Having walked right up to the edge of death, Feng Yiting was profoundly grateful. When they parted, he said that one day he would repay Huo Tinggao’s kindness. Ten years later, after Huo Tinggao had ascended the throne, he met Feng Yiting again, now a strikingly handsome young man.”
Huo Fenghua couldn’t help interrupting. “Is this… a love story?”
Bai Huan glanced at him and didn’t answer.
Huo Fenghua hurriedly said, “Go on, go on.”
Bai Huan’s voice was calm and even. “Feng Yiting was capable in both civil and military affairs. He fulfilled his youthful promise to repay Huo Tinggao’s kindness. He was appointed commander and led a northern expedition, nearly breaking into the northern barbarian capital. Later, the northern barbarians ceded Wuhetan to Xichou with their own hands. When Feng Yiting was about to continue eastward to campaign against Donglin, Huo Tinggao summoned him back to Huijing City, made him relinquish his command, and relinquished him as the Prime Minister of the court. Even so, Feng Yiting bore it without resentment, wholeheartedly assisting Huo Tinggao.”
Huo Fenghua said in a low voice, “Huo Tinggao was afraid he’d become too meritorious and threaten the throne.”
Bai Huan neither confirmed nor denied it. He only said, “In truth, Huo Tinggao trusted and relied on Feng Yiting greatly. He kept him close. The two often talked deep into the night in the palace. When Feng Yiting grew tired, Huo Tinggao would have him sleep on the emperor’s bed. There was even an eunuch who once saw Huo Tinggao personally taking off Feng Yiting’s boots and pulling a blanket over him. And because of Huo Tinggao’s favor, Feng Yiting suffered much jealousy and slander at court. He didn’t take it to heart. At the time, he was pouring himself into writing down everything he’d learned into a military treatise to present to Huo Tinggao. That book was the Flying Phoenix Scroll. Huo Tinggao also seemed untouched by others’ attempts to sow discord. He continued to favor Feng Yiting alone—he even killed a noble consort from his own harem for Feng Yiting’s sake.”
Huo Fenghua couldn’t help thinking, ‘This really is a love story.’
Bai Huan said, “Feng Yiting was trusted that deeply, and he remembered the old debt of kindness. So his feelings of loyalty and attachment grew heavier by the day. One day, the two of them were drinking in the palace. Drunk and dazed, Feng Yiting told Huo Tinggao that he was, in fact, a descendant of the Feng clan of Yuqing. The Feng clan was born able in both letters and arms. They were skilled in astronomy and geography alike, capable of deploying troops and setting formations, as well as reading the stars and divining fortunes. And he—he was only an ordinary member of the clan. Both men were quite drunk. Hearing this, Huo Tinggao laughed loudly, slapped Feng Yiting on the shoulder, and told him to bring his clansmen to help him unify the world. Feng Yiting only smiled faintly and shook his head, saying it was impossible.”
Huo Fenghua’s brows drew together slightly.
Sure enough, Bai Huan continued, “After that, the two of them slept on the same bed. At dawn the next morning, Feng Yiting woke with his head splitting. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw Huo Tinggao’s face close at hand, watching him with a deep, unreadable expression. Feng Yiting remembered what he’d drunkenly said the night before, and cold sweat broke out all over him. He hurried to get up and leave the palace, but Huo Tinggao had people stop him and confined him within his own palace. At the same time, he dispatched troops to exterminate the Feng clan of Yuqing.”
Huo Fenghua listened in silence.
Bai Huan went on. “The Feng clan had astrologers. Years earlier, they’d predicted this disaster. To avoid it, the entire clan relocated deep into Luofeng Ridge, living in caves and hiding. Luofeng Ridge was shaped into what it is now by generations of Feng people digging and building. It had originally been their burial ground, meant for the clan’s dead. Now it became their refuge. They hoped to weather this catastrophe, but Huo Tinggao was decisive and ruthless. He sent troops to search harshly for the Feng clan’s whereabouts. He thought: a single Feng Yiting could nearly help him crush the northern barbarians and conquer Donglin. A whole clan of such people would be like a blade hanging over his head. If he didn’t wipe them out, how could he feel secure marching east? In the end, the troops Huo Tinggao sent found Luofeng Ridge’s interior and slaughtered every hidden Feng clansman. Not one was left alive.”
Huo Fenghua asked softly, “But Feng Yiting was still alive?”
Bai Huan nodded. “Only Feng Yiting remained. Huo Tinggao couldn’t bear to kill him, so he kept him imprisoned. There were many rumors in the palace at the time—dirty, vile stories, too ugly to repeat. There were even claims that later, for Feng Yiting’s sake, Huo Tinggao buried alive the very unit of soldiers that had exterminated the Feng clan. No one knows what was true anymore. All that’s known is that in the end, Huo Tinggao still couldn’t bring himself to kill Feng Yiting. And Feng Yiting disappeared from the Xichou palace without a trace. Vanishing with him was the completed Flying Phoenix Scroll.”
Huo Fenghua was quiet for a moment, then asked, “Feng Tianzong is Feng Yiting’s descendant?”
Bai Huan tossed the question back at him. “What do you think?”
Huo Fenghua didn’t answer. He only reached out again to touch the carved writing on the wall. In his mind, an image of a little girl suddenly appeared. Maybe she’d been born in this cavern, and maybe she’d ended her brief life in this cavern as well.
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