Chapter 139 — A Chance Encounter

Xiao Wan, torn between laughter and worry, made to rise and look, but with a "swish" the monkey had already shot back up from the floor, hands on the ground, grinning up at her.

Seeing that the three-eyed monkey seemed unhurt, she was reassured. She reached out and stroked his head, and Xiao Hui blinked his eyes at her.

Xiao Wan pondered a moment, glanced again at Ming Li's figure, and turned to Zhou Yixuan. "Grandfather, this of his is..."

Zhou Yixuan frowned. "Could he have been wounded by a woman? With his present cultivation and the power of the Hades Sect, there aren't many women in the world capable of that. Could it be Shuiyue of the Canglan Sect? Or Sanmiao of the Devil Sect's Soul-Bewitching Faction?..."

The Wild Wolf Daoist, who had sat silently all this while, suddenly spoke. "I don't think so."

Zhou Yixuan flared up. "What did you say? You dare tell this old—er, this immortal that he's wrong?"

The Wild Wolf Daoist did not look at him. A strange expression came over his dog face as he gazed at the fallen figure and said slowly, "From what I know, he's not the sort of man to set much store by victory or defeat. And besides, there's not a wound on him..."

Zhou Yixuan gave a snort of profound disdain. "That's because your cultivation is far beneath his. If you were like yourself, with only a few cheap tricks to your name, losing every fight you picked, of course you'd set little store by victory or defeat—every day you'd be spouting, 'Victory and defeat are commonplace for a soldier'..."

The Wild Wolf Daoist was furious and about to retort when Xiao Wan glared at the pair of them and raised her voice. "Enough! Stop it!"

Zhou Yixuan and the Wild Dog fell silent at once, though they still glared at each other in anger.

Xiao Wan thought a moment, then nodded, as though she had made some decision, and said to the monkey crouched before her, "Xiao Hui, you two had better come along with us for now."

"What?"

Before Xiao Hui could react, Zhou Yixuan and the Wild Wolf Daoist had both cried out, so loudly that even Boss He in the distance jumped.

Xiao Wan glanced at them. "What is it?"

The Wild Wolf Daoist stammered a little. "He—he has too many enemies. I'm afraid there'll be trouble."

Xiao Wan said, "If I'm not afraid, what are you afraid of?"

The Wild Wolf Daoist fell silent, but Zhou Yixuan beside him would have none of it, and rounded on Xiao Wan in anger. "We're not running a charity here! Why must you take in every stray you come across?"

Xiao Wan glared at her grandfather. "He's not a stray. He saved my life in the Dead Marsh! And besides," she added, suddenly giving a laugh full of meaning, "Grandfather, do you still remember how, some dozen years ago, you tricked him into stepping in dog dung and bringing himself good luck?"

The Wild Wolf Daoist started, and Zhou Yixuan's old face went red. "What are you dredging up a dozen-year-old debt for?"

Xiao Wan gave a little huff. "So long as you remember. In any case, I can't just look the other way." That said, she paid her grandfather no further heed and turned to tend to Ming Li.

As she gently turned the man over, a wave of wine fumes struck her in the face. Xiao Wan frowned, and saw only that on that familiar face the eyes were tightly shut while the brows were drawn together—whether even in his drunkenness he was grieving, she could not tell.

Gazing silently at the man's face, she felt a memory suddenly flit through her heart: that day outside the Dead Marsh, when this man had walked up to her fortune-telling stall and murmured:

"You've grown up..."

Zhou Yixuan naturally had no idea that his granddaughter's thoughts had suddenly wandered off, but he was quite clear that he had most likely acquired himself a very large headache. In such a mood, how could he be pleased? He turned his head with a venomous glare at Ming Li and bellowed, "Boss, the bill!"

Boss He hurried over, all smiles. "Sir, won't you sit a while longer?"

Zhou Yixuan snapped, "Sit longer? This immortal sat here a short while and landed himself in a heap of trouble. Sit any longer and the trouble will be the death of me!"

Boss He suppressed a smile. "Thank you, sir. Four qian of silver."

Zhou Yixuan grumbled as he dug the silver from his robes, when suddenly Xiao Hui darted over, swung the great wineskin from his back around to the front, and began waving it frantically at Boss He, chirping without pause.

Zhou Yixuan, Xiao Wan, and the others were all puzzled, unable to guess what trick the monkey was up to. Boss He, however, had spent three days with the creature and knew him somewhat. He frowned in brief thought, then suddenly said, "Do you want me to fill this wineskin?"

Xiao Hui was overjoyed, nodding desperately and grinning from ear to ear.

Zhou Yixuan and the others were dumbfounded. After a moment Xiao Wan cleared her throat and said with a dry laugh, "Shopkeeper, just help him fill it—fill it with a little wine."

Boss He was delighted, answered at once, and went off to fetch the wine.

The wineskin was indeed enormous; as the wine poured in, it slowly swelled, but after Boss He had emptied two full jars into it, it was still not full. Xiao Hui was beaming beside him, while Zhou Yixuan could bear it no longer. Forgetting all about his immortal dignity, he leapt up in fury. "Enough, enough..."

"Whoosh!" A dark shape flew at his face. Zhou Yixuan, wiser now, dodged at the sound—and sure enough, it was Xiao Hui flinging a dish straight at him, which struck the ground with a "crack" and shattered.

Zhou Yixuan was about to say more when "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh"—dish after dish came flying from the table. He ducked and dodged, too busy to speak, while Boss He, hearing each plate shatter with a crisp crash, was beside himself with distress. Seeing there was in fact little wine left, he hurriedly said, "Never mind, never mind! The last bit of wine is on the house, on the house! Lord Monkey, please stop throwing the plates. And you, sir—er, this immortal—just pay for the two jars of wine."

Only then did Xiao Hui stop. Zhou Yixuan came to a halt, gasping for breath and cursing under it, but he dared not go near that foul-tempered three-eyed monkey again.

Xiao Wan smiled, turned her gaze back from them, and returned her attention to Ming Li—never noticing that the Wild Wolf Daoist, who had been silent so long beside her, was now also staring at Ming Li sidelong, a strange light gradually kindling in his eyes.

Mount Canglan, Jietian Peak.

Below the stone steps before the great hall of Yuheng Palace, in the deep, cold jade-green pool, the water qilin, guardian spirit beast of the Canglan Sect, rolled over lazily in the water. The ripples churned and were pressed outward in all directions by its vast body, raising wave upon wave—a truly magnificent sight.

Li Xun, the special envoy disciple of Fenxia Valley, studied the pool from the stone steps a while, then turned with a smile. "I had long heard that the Canglan Sect's guardian beast, the water qilin, is a spirit beast of a thousand years. Seeing it today, it is indeed extraordinary."

"Brother Li flatters me." A clear laugh came from Xiao Yichen, the most renowned disciple of the Jietian Peak main lineage of the Canglan Sect, who stood attending Li Xun. He too glanced at the qilin a few times and smiled. "As it happens, the venerable beast was subdued by our sect's founder, Patriarch Qingye, in his day. When I think on the bearing of the founder, I cannot help but feel boundless admiration, we younger disciples most of all."

Li Xun nodded and smiled. He came of a famous orthodox sect and held his head high, yet for that Patriarch Qingye of astonishing talent and brilliance, he felt the same deep admiration.

Xiao Yichen gestured toward the summit. "After you, Brother Li."

Li Xun demurred a moment, then the two set off together.

As they walked, Xiao Yichen said, "Might I ask what important matter brings Brother Li here this time?"