Yang Qing sighed inwardly at the ntion of the brother. His lips slowly opened and closed as the figure of the mysterious person in that strange hut on Sage Mountain floated into his mind. He was tempted to ask who that person was, but with the way Ren Shu was operating at the mont, he wasn’t sure he would get a straight answer out of him.
Besides, Yang Qing felt it wouldn’t be bad to try and solve this particular mystery on his own. After all, thanks to the evolution of his blue-grade art, he could now enter Sage Mountain without the need for a purple guard, and he also had more entries available to him. He figured that with enough ti there, he might eventually end up drawing a few clues about that figure.
He had always loved a good mystery to solve, especially the non-dangerous ones. Not to ntion, he had just lost another mystery.
"So the dragons and the rest are around?" Yang Qing murmured with a sigh of disappointnt.
"They are," Ren Shu answered.
"But how co they haven’t been seen or heard of? I can’t rember coming across any information about soone encountering a dragon or a phoenix... It’s strange, isn’t it?" said Yang Qing, unwilling to let a perfectly good mystery like that go just like that.
"They keep to themselves," Ren Shu simply answered. "Let ask you sothing," he continued, leaning forward slightly. "Let’s take you as an example," he said, lazily pointing at Yang Qing.
"What about ?" Yang Qing asked defensively. With how he’d been taking verbal hits from the person before him all day, thick-skinned as he was, he didn’t want to take any more.
Ren Shu chuckled before continuing, "If the Order didn’t threaten you into doing field excursions and kept it optional, would you have ever left the compound?"
"I..." Yang Qing wanted to defiantly lie and say that he would, but the person before him knew him all too well. "I would not," he weakly added. As much as he enjoyed playing the role of a wanderer and adventurer the past few days, one of the driving factors behind his actions wasn’t his lust for adventure, but fear—fear of having to witness another loss.
If the case hadn’t been a matter of life and death, Yang Qing wasn’t sure he would have left the Order’s grounds to go gallivanting around the continent. Yes, he enjoyed that little field trip, and it had given him more than he could have ever expected, especially with his breakthrough to the fourth stage, but he knew himself.
He was a simple man with simple needs. He didn’t need much to keep himself content and satisfied. As long as he had good food, a comfortable ho, enough wealth, flexibe working hours, a decently stocked library, a safe mystery to solve, and solid walls around him to keep him protected, he had everything he needed.
What missing dragons, phoenixes, and kunpengs? What Millionsfold Treasure Ocean and its infinite treasures? What precious herbs in the Green Fog Region? What legacies scattered across hidden ruins and mysterious realms? The world could keep all those enticing mysteries to itself. For him, the mysteries within the safe walls of the Order were more than enough.
Had the Order given him the option to choose whether or not to go into the field, he would have never set a single step outside its walls, not even into Gold Eagle Town.
"So if you’d never set foot outside this place, would people see or hear of you? Would it count as you being missing?" Ren Shu asked.
"Even with risking myself out there, I doubt many people have seen or heard of ," Yang Qing softly retorted.
"Well, that’s because you’re a small fry," Ren Shu imdiately fired back, leaving Yang Qing speechless and a little hurt. With no tea to drown his sorrows in, he could only snort, cross his arms, and indignantly ask, "So, what’s your point?"
"The point I’m driving at is this: they haven’t been sighted simply because they don’t want to be seen. And the places they dwell in are hardly places most cultivators can reach—or dare to reach.
If I gave you the location of a kunpeng’s lair right now, would you go there?" Ren Shu asked with a smile.
"No, I would not. I still have plenty of years left to live," Yang Qing emphatically said with a snort.
"And now you get my point," Ren Shu said sagely.
"Fine, fine, fine..." Yang Qing retorted in frustration as he got up. "You couldn’t even let enjoy the romance of a good mystery," he poutingly mumbled.
"You’ve changed, Ren Shu," he added as he was leaving.
"Don’t forget our deal," Ren Shu softly called out as Yang Qing walked away. "If you miss a day, I’ll add two weeks to the arrangent. And I will get my two weeks."
Yang Qing’s footsteps halted like he’d been electrocuted. "I won’t forget," he stiffly said without turning back before making a hasty exit.
Has Old Fiend Lei been ntoring him? Using even threats now... Yang Qing thought fearfully as he made his way to the Beast Tar Hall to borrow so books on dream ambrosia bees and consult one of the mbers there about them.
When he was done, his next stop was the Institute. He wanted to arrange Bolin’s matter with one of the instructors before making his way to see Dean Zhu Lao. Ren Shu might have killed one of his dream mystery projects, but at least that corrupted deputy valley master had given him sothing new worth following up on.
Before, he had only been interested in Song Quan from a scholarly point of view, finding him an intriguing person to study. But now that he realized Song Quan had ties with the treefolk, Yang Qing was far more invested in learning more about him.
From the way Ren Shu put it, it didn’t seem like Wandering Song Quan’s journals were common items. With the way he phrased it, he made it sound like it was not sothing one would expect to find in a rank-three teahouse. Prior to this, Yang Qing had assud he could easily find Song Quan’s works in other teahouses in Hebei if he wanted. After all, this was a scholars’ nation, and it was natural for them to have research journals from all over.
While that might be the case with most research journals, from Ren Shu’s words, it seed that wasn’t true for Song Quan’s journals. So how did the Velvet Orchid end up with them? They might have gotten lucky and stumbled upon them, or perhaps soone from the Velvet Orchid had so connection or tie to Song Quan, whether direct or indirect.
Because of that, Yang Qing felt Song Quan was worth looking into, thinking it might offer so insight into the case.
...
Ren Shu’s backyard.
Unlike the relaxed, languid look he had when Yang Qing was around, Ren Shu now wore a slightly solemn expression tinged with worry.
"It’s too early for you, little Qing," he sighed as he leaned back in his chair, staring deeply into the sky above. "But it seems the world has other intentions," he added.
A soft breeze blew by, and his figure faded along with it, leaving only his words behind.
"It is still too soon."
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