Chapter 55: CH 55

In the blink of an eye, it was the New Year. There were definitely some people who would not be having a good New Year this year.

It was customary for the large sects to give New Year gifts to their Alliance and Confederate Heads. The Abbess Wuyin went personally to Liuhe Sect and met with the Qi Confederate Head, Luo Hongfeng. 

“The Suxin Sect has become a laughingstock in the empire, and all sorts of nasty rumours are being spread about us. The Sword Alliance, in particular, is laughing fit to kill themselves,” the Abbess Wuyin said. She was wearing a silvery white Buddhist cassock, and she was sitting in the Liuhe Sect’s main hall, asking the Qi Confederate Head to help quell the rumours and suppress the matter.

Provoking the Cloud Palace in retaliation had been Luo Hongfeng’s idea to begin with. Now that they’d gotten themselves into deep trouble with the Cloud Palace and suffered the Cloud Palace’s brutal counter-attack, it seemed only right to her that Luo Hongfeng should help to fix the problem.

Luo Hongfeng sat on the host’s seat, sipping languidly at his tea. “They’re only baseless rumours. People will forget this in time, and it will die down naturally. If you take some positive action, it will actually be counterproductive,” he said.

“Baseless rumours? These “baseless rumours” you speak of are far from ordinary rumours – my Suxin Sect disciples don’t even dare to step out of our sect grounds any more!” the Abbess Wuyin said angrily, slamming her hand down on the table with force. She fixed Luo Hongfeng with a cold glare. 

It wasn’t just about those ugly rumours. More importantly, the Suxin Sect’s satellite sects were all starting to show tell-tale signs of defecting to other sects.

Luo Hongfeng frowned slightly. He ruminated on this for a while before replying. “Well it’s not that difficult to fix the situation. First, tell me, what exactly did you get from the Jiuyin Sect’s mountain mansion?” he asked.

“That’s an internal matter of the Suxin Sect. Confederate Head, don’t you think you’re overstepping?” the Abbess Wuyin said, somewhat offended. The Qi Sects may have originated from the same source, but they had separated into their own separate denominations for centuries now, and there were some things that the Qi Confederate Head had no power over.

“Hmph. If you won’t say anything, how am I supposed to fix this for you?” Luo Hongfeng said, smiling coldly. He walked over to the Abbess Wuyin and spoke in a low voice. “Tell the truth. Did the thing you obtained have to do with the Grandmaster’s Will?”

“… …” The Abbess Wuyin glared back fiercely, refusing to back down. She bit out her reply, enunciated every word with sharp precision. “This nun has said many times before – the Suxin Sect does not have any Will in its possession!”

“… …”

The Abbess Wuyin and Luo Hongfeng parted on this bad note. There was no resolution on the issue of the rumours being spread about the Suxin Sect, so the latter could only close its doors and decline receiving visitors.

“I don’t want to go down the mountain! Those people look at me as if I’m some kind of prostitute!” Yuhu protested. She was the youngest, and was always being bullied by her Shijie. They wanted her to go down the mountain to buy supplies again, and she refused to do it this time. 

“Don’t be such a baby. The villages below the mountain all belong to the Suxin Sect. Who dares to say anything bad about you?” one Shijie said, trying to coax her to do as they wanted.

“You’ve never been down the mountain. What do you know?” Yuhu said. She started to cry.

“Enough!” Zhao Surou snapped. She happened to walk by and saw these few disciples quarrelling, and immediately went to stop them. “If you’re all so free, then go and sweep the snow in front of the front atrium!”

Everyone went quiet immediately. 

Yuhu sniffled, her head down. Every time her Shijie bullied her, her Shifu always just let the matter slide and never looked into the specifics of the matter. She secretly clenched her hand around a black handkerchief. These Shijie that she spent practically all her waking moments with didn’t treat her even half as well as a complete stranger had.

The Heavenly Fairy Peak was covered in white snow, making the roads slippery and icy. This was where the Suxin Sect was located. No other sects came to visit, and it was a very cold and desolate New Year for them.

Chen Ziqi’s New Year celebrations, in contrast, were very lively. He had just made two new sworn brothers, and he had to send them New Year’s gifts as well as go to the two sects to drink wine with them. Of course, he received gifts in return from them as well.

Chen Ziqi took out some of the treasures that he had brought with him from the palace to give to his two sworn gege. The Changjian Sect’s return gift was two carts of carrots and cabbages, and the Duanjian Sect gave him a live pig and two huge jars of preserved salted vegetables. 

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Chen Ziqi felt rather ashamed of the whole situation. “In spring, I’ll open a chicken farm, and things will get better. You can have chicken soup and chicken legs at every meal,” he said.

“Do I look like I really need meat to you?” Chang Er asked, rolling her eyes at Chen Ziqi. What she was worried about were her children – if they didn’t get enough meat to eat, they might not grow up tall and strong.

“I don’t lack meat either,” Chen Ziqi said, grinning. He pulled out the sleepy little bird from his clothes. “I bring some wherever I go.” 

“Tweet!” The little red bird immediately came fully awake.

“I’ll believe it when I see you eat it,” Chang Er said, her eyes rolling even more violently now. This son of hers had a little red chick with him every winter, and she had no idea where it came from.

Chen Ziqi looked at the fluffy little red bird. He then opened his mouth and slowly stuffed the bird’s head in.

“Tweet tweet tweet!!!” The little red bird chirped frantically, fluttering its little wings in shock. 

“Thwack!” A sharp smack landed on Chen Ziqi’s skull.

“You’re not to play with the chick like that! Bird heads are very dirty!” Chang Er said, her brows raised so high that they nearly disappeared into her forehead. She pulled the little bird from Chen Ziqi’s hands and took out a hanky to clean the bird’s feathers, which were wet with saliva. “Spit out the feathers in your mouth at once.”

Chen Ziqi grabbed the little bird back and put it back into his clothes, then made a face at his mother.

Wu Bujian was standing at the side, and he was completely shell-shocked by this whole exchange. If Chen Ziqi had accidentally bit down on the little bird’s neck… he had better persuade his Palace Master to return to the Cloud Palace as soon as possible. That was probably for the best. 

The little red bird disappeared that night. Chen Ziqi didn’t know if it was because it had left in a temper after his little stunt earlier that day, but it didn’t appear again for that whole month. The little bird only came back the next month, and at that time, Chen Ziqi had bought newly hatched chicks to start his chicken farm.

The whole area around Changduan Hill had been fenced up, save that slope on Changduan Hill where the two sects had their duels.

As the days became warmer, flowers started blooming, and the whole village was carpeted with newly sprouted green grass. Chen Ziqi had negotiated with Prefectural Governor Ceng to buy over the stale grain in the government warehouses at a low price to feed his chickens.

“Tweet tweet cheep cheep chirp chirp…” a group of fluffy little yellow chicks were gathered in a pen and cheeping noisily. He had about three hundred little chicks, a number that was neither large nor small for a chicken farm. 

Chen Ziqi leaned on the fence and felt very pleased as he looked at the little yellow chicks. When he had collected chicken eggs in the farmlands as a little boy, he had always wondered when he could have a chicken farm of his own. He thought it would be so great to be able to eat all the chicken he wanted.

“Where did you manage to buy so many chicks?” Chen Ziqi asked, turning to look at Wu Bujian.

“Jingang Sect, Wuying Sect, Stone Corpse Clan – all these sects have chicken farms. I asked the Wind Wing people to help me purchase them,” Wu Bujian replied honestly. This sort of simple task was best given to the Wind Wing to perform, especially as it involved buying goods from a few places.

“Having this Wind Wing is really convenient. Can you ask your Palace Master to set up a Wind Wing in Jianyang as well?” Chen Ziqi said. He pulled the little red bird out of his clothes and bent down to put the red chick amongst the little yellow ones in the pen, thinking it would find it fun to play with fellow chicks. 

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“I’ll have to ask the Palace Mas– ahh!” Wu Bujian exclaimed in horror in the middle of his sentence when he saw what Chen Ziqi was doing. “Wang ye, you shouldn’t do that!”

Dan Yi didn’t have time to react before he was deposited into the chicken pen, and the dour stench of chicken faeces nearly made him keel over.

“Tweeeeeet!!” he chirped loudly.

That clear, crisp sound was very different from the cheeping of the yellow chicks. In a trice, all the yellow chicks moved back in unison, giving the little red bird a wide berth. 

“Cheep cheep cheep cheep…” All the little yellow chicks huddled together, shivering in fright as they looked at the little red bird.

Chen Ziqi looked impassively at this scene. “Looks like you’re really the King of Birds – even the chickens are afraid of you,” he said softly.

The little red bird was tilting its head and staring at Chen Ziqi. When he heard this, he suddenly stiffened, then lifted his little head proudly. If you knew that I’m the King of Birds, then how dare you toss me into a chicken pen?!

Chen Ziqi chuckled as he took the little red chick out of the pen and instructed Wu Bujian to pass him a handkerchief so that he could wipe the bird’s little feet. “I was only pulling your leg. Don’t be angry. I’ll crack some melon seeds for you in a bit,” he said. 

He returned the handkerchief to Wu Bujian. As he was leaving with the little bird in his arms, he saw a crowd of people gathered in front of the chicken farm and asked Wu Bujian who they were. He then found out that these were all commoners who had responded to their call for farmhands.

In addition to the chicken farm, Chen Ziqi had bought a large plot of land that could be used to plant crops, and they had put out an advertisement for farmhands to work the fields. The salary he offered was high, and the area around the chicken farm enjoyed the protection of the Changjian and Duanjian Sects, so it was very safe and secure. These were good conditions in which to work, and many people came forward to apply for the job.

“I can till ten mu of land single-handedly! I am also very good at clearing land for farming and working the plough. I don’t need a salary – I only need three square meals a day!” a burly man said, squeezing to the front and making this fervent plea.

“If you’ve got so much strength, why don’t you plant your own fields?” Chen Ziqi asked, walking over. He’d seen the register that Prefectural Governor Ceng had given him previously – all the commoners had land to their name, and he was confounded as to why they all looked like they hadn’t had a meal to eat in ages. 

“There’s no way to plant on our own land…” a middle-aged lady behind the burly man cried. “The world is in a mess – how can commoners like us farm in peace? Whatever we grow gets stolen or snatched by other people!”

These people did not know that Chen Ziqi was the vassal King of their area. They saw that he was well-dressed, and thought he was a manager or butler of some sort that was close to the King, so they spoke their minds frankly.

Of the people who practiced martial arts, about half of them were in recognised sects, and the other half were wandering martial artists that didn’t belong to any organisation. In truth, these wandering martial artists were no better than robbers and thieves. They took advantage of their martial arts prowess, using it to snatch food and steal money from commoners who didn’t have any martial arts ability or a strong backer protecting them. When they lodged complaints against these wandering martial artists with the local government offices, the answer they got was always that “what happened in the martial arts world stayed in the martial arts world”, and there was never any investigation into the matter. Those wandering martial artists were never punished for their misdeeds. As time went by, nobody wanted to plant the fields any more, and the farmlands they owned were no better than wasteland. Everyone went to work for a sect instead, with the result that there were vast tracts of arable land that weren’t being farmed.

This was also why Jianyang’s population had shrunk so greatly over the years. Chen Ziqi sighed. If this trend continued, then the parts of the empire that were still controlled by the Emperor would slowly turn into empty cities, and the power of the Imperial family would one day be reduced to nothing. 

… …

Now that the weather was warm and the flowers had bloomed, it was also time to return the debts that had been accumulated over the winter.

King Wan, Chen Zijian sent another letter to Chen Ziqi, saying that he hoped Chen Ziqi could introduce him to the Cloud Palace Master soon. Chen Ziqi pressed his lips together, looked at the little red bird dozing off next to his hand, then started writing a reply.

“… this younger brother has not seen Dan Yi in many years. We aren’t that close any more. When I last saw Dan Yi, his personality had changed greatly, and he’s quite difficult to get along with… the Emperor’s actions have angered the Cloud Palace. It has been three months since I last met the Phoenix King, so I think it’s better to proceed with caution in this matter…” 

In short, Chen Ziqi’s point was that he was no longer close to Dan Yi and wasn’t able to make the introduction. He would only be able to do so after he had fixed his relationship with Dan Yi.

“Hmph. This good brother of mine only knows how to take my money, but he doesn’t give me any returns on my investment,” Chen Zijian said, smiling coldly as he burnt Chen Ziqi’s return letter. He directed his next question at the subordinate standing behind him. “What has he been doing recently?”

“He’s been clearing land for farming and buying chicks for his chicken farm…” the spy said, reporting back honestly on what he had found.

“A chicken farm?” King Wan was flabbergasted. That fellow wanted fifty thousand taels from him to start a chicken farm?! 

The fifty thousand taels certainly wasn’t just to start a chicken farm. Chen Ziqi also needed to return Dan Yi the money he had borrowed.

In the Cloud Palace, Dan Yi looked at the twenty thousand taels of silver notes and didn’t say anything for a while.

“This is part repayment for the silver I borrowed from you previously, and also the money I owe you for the treasure sword, Zhan Lu,” Chen Ziqi said, a little distracted by the feathery crown on Dan Yi’s head.

Dan Yi pushed the stack of silver notes back to him. “Keep it. You can repay me slowly later,” he said. 

“What, you find this amount too little?” Chen Ziqi asked, raising an eyebrow. He had borrowed ten thousand taels from Dan Yi previously, and added in an extra ten thousand for Zhan Lu. That was why he had returned twenty thousand taels of silver to Dan Yi.

“Zhan Lu is worth ten thousand taels of gold,” Dan Yi said blandly.

“… …”

— 

The author has something to say: Mini-theatre

“So long as your gongfu is powerful, you can grind a steel sword into a sewing needle”

Qiqi: Dafuq, why are all the things you give worth ten thousand taels of gold

Birdie Gong: I have money 

Qiqi: I have no money

Birdie Gong: Then pay back in instalments

Qiqi: How will the instalments be like?

Birdie Gong: Practice sword skills with me (/⊙/v/⊙/) Every day, we’ll practice once, and your debt will be paid in twenty or thirty years’ time 

Qiqi: ???

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