Capítulo 1392: The rotten shield
“Did I keep you waiting long?” Yang Qing asked upon seeing Fei Chen’s silhouette at the entrance to his abode.
“It was not long,” Fei Chen replied, shaking his head as he looked around wistfully. “The air around Respite is different,” he comnted, soaking in the silent, slightly chilly atmosphere beneath the dark, starry backdrop.
“Different how?” Yang Qing asked curiously.
“It is much more relaxing,” Fei Chen said, taking a deliberate breath and relaxing his shoulders as he did.
“Requiem is not as gloomy as one would imagine. The natural features of those sprawling mountains are beautiful, and the spiritual qi density is rich. It is likely powered by an ancestral dragon vein. The cultivation facilities are great, and the work, surprisingly, is not as demanding as one would expect. But despite all it has going for it,” he said, pausing briefly to gaze admiringly at the vegetation on the ground before turning to the skies and finally settling on the even plain around him, “it just is not as relaxing as this place. Even the other places I have been stationed at, despite the protective asures the Order put in place, the tension just never leaves you, you know.” He said this mostly as if talking to himself rather than to Yang Qing.
Yang Qing joined him, sighing wistfully as he gazed around. “It really is,” he said, looking softly at the clear sky before turning back to Fei Chen.
“You did not use the token I gave you to let yourself in?” he asked suddenly, looking quizzically at the Silver Eagle Guard.
Fei Chen could have appreciated and engaged in his philosophical introspection about Respite Valley’s environnt much better inside Yang Qing’s abode than outside. Not to ntion, the Silver Eagle Guard would be having his wedding ceremony there, so it stood to reason he would want to see the place first and understand what he was working with.
Yang Qing would have expected him to be more concerned about the latter than his reminiscent thoughts on the comparison of different work environnts. Not that he minded hearing those thoughts, and truth be told, he was now curious about Requiem and how it looked. He, like most, assud the environnt there was dark and oppressive, since it was where the most heinous cultivators were imprisoned.
Hearing that the environnt was beautiful and the work was not demanding were the last things he expected to be associated with such a place.
Setting aside the incorrect assumptions about Requiem, Yang Qing was more curious about why Fei Chen was standing alone outside his abode. Even though the guard claid he had not waited long, Yang Qing was certain he had not just arrived, given they had spoken over half an hour ago.
Fei Chen standing outside was an inane detail he should not have bothered about, but Yang Qing could not help himself. He was a naturally curious individual who was also highly paranoid and suspicious. This combination made his mind prone to fixating on countless random things, especially those that seed odd.
“What?” Yang Qing asked suspiciously when he saw Fei Chen avert his gaze and look at the ground as if a heavenly treasure were about to be born there.
Almost instantly, Yang Qing’s body went taut, and his eyes bulged. “You?!” he yelped, pointing accusingly and in disbelief at Fei Chen.
Fei Chen looked up slowly with a guilty smile. “It cannot be helped, Yang Qing,” he said, the smile turning into a sheepish laugh. “You yourself said he has been sneaking around your place for months. What if I happened upon him?” Fei Chen added, trying to defend himself.
“So rather than die alone, you thought it would not be bad to have your old friend Yang Qing die with you,” Yang Qing said, exasperated. “What happened to the loyal friend I knew? What happened to being our shield, Fei Chen?” he asked in a chastising tone.
Fei Chen shrugged his shoulders. “That shield ca to the profound realization that it was not made of dragon scales, as it had thought, but rather of rotten, patched wood.”
His gaze turned solemn. “I can protect you against other swords and weapons made of similar rotten wood, but sadly…” Fei Chen said, looking mournful as he sympathetically patted Yang Qing’s back, “I can do nothing against well-made weapons. But at least if you get cut down, I will be cut down along with you,” he added comfortingly.
Yang Qing jerked his shoulders to remove Fei Chen’s hand and snorted coldly in disgust.
Walking ahead, Yang Qing said coldly, “Well, are you coming?… Rotten Shield.”
Fei Chen smiled wryly and shook his head before taking a deep, calming breath and taking a labored step right behind Yang Qing.
Yang Qing paused and looked back in disbelief. “Do you not have any sha?” he asked. “You may be a rotten shield, but should you not at least maintain the dignity of one? Stop walking so far behind ,” Yang Qing pleaded in frustration.
The only response to his plea was an awkward, helpless smile from Fei Chen and a firm look in his eyes that seed to say, no matter what Yang Qing offered, he would not switch positions.
Yang Qing snorted softly, his eyes filled with contempt, and moved forward. That contempt imdiately faded into worry and caution as he took out his token and began to walk ahead. Fei Chen shared the sa nervousness, which even began to affect the speed of his steps. He walked slower and slower the further they went, his eyes scanning his surroundings with every half step, one palm clenched defensively, ready to react to any unexpected situation.
Yang Qing was not all that different.
“No matter the cost, the upgrade must be made,” he muttered through clenched teeth in desperate frustration. He had never imagined that one day he would be this guarded when entering his own abode.
After a tense five-minute walk, Yang Qing and Fei Chen made their way inside and slowly reached the main courtyard. They both froze—Fei Chen more so—when their gazes fell on a certain otherworldly handso individual garbed in violet-purple robes and a matching feathered crown, seated calmly beneath the green fla tree and attentively reading a piece of parchnt resting on one thigh.
“Who is he?” Fei Chen asked via secret transmission, taking great care to hide his nervousness.
Smirking in contempt, Yang Qing scoffed slightly as he cast a mocking look between Fei Chen and the figure Fei Chen was so apprehensive about.
“Rotten Shield, et Rotten Bird,” Yang Qing mockingly introduced, gesturing toward the Celestial Nesting Weaver, who was now looking lazily and dispassionately at Yang Qing before shifting his gaze to Fei Chen. Fei Chen’s posture tightened reflexively under the attention.
“Rotten Bird, et Rotten Shield,” Yang Qing continued, gesturing toward the guarded Fei Chen.
“You look like a proper guard now,” Yang Qing said in mock praise, his lips curling contemptuously. Oddly enough, despite the sarcastic intent, the comnt seed to relax Fei Chen.
“He is my leech of a roommate. Do not worry, he will not attack you unless you have so ascendant- or saint-grade treasure on you,” Yang Qing said lazily as he moved toward one of the tables.
“Let us sit here,” he called out once he had reached the table.
Fei Chen nodded in acknowledgnt before his gaze returned to the Celestial Nesting Weaver. Cupping his fists, he said, “I apologize for my poor display. My na is Fei Chen.”
While Yang Qing’s deanor relaxed him sowhat, it would be a complete lie if Fei Chen said he was completely relaxed. Even though the person before him was not the feared Senior Instructor Lu Yuan, the aura the figure emanated rang alarm bells in him, which was sothing Fei Chen rarely experienced against those in the sa realm as him, and those that did were almost always monsters.
The Celestial Nesting Weaver’s lazy, impassive look switched subtly to one of interest as he gently asked, “You are friends with him?” He nodded in Yang Qing’s direction.
“I would like to think so,” Fei Chen said as he smiled apologetically at Yang Qing, whose scoffing comntary from the side suggested he still held a grudge.
“Not surprising. Not surprising at all,” the Celestial Nesting Weaver lazily comnted as his lips curled into a smile.
Fei Chen looked quizzically between the Celestial Nesting Weaver and Yang Qing before ultimately, and wisely, deciding against probing deeper into the strange atmosphere he detected between the two.
With the Celestial Nesting Weaver going back to the parchnt, Fei Chen took it as his cue to join Yang Qing.
“I take it you can drink now?” Yang Qing comnted as he took out the Hundred Leaf Bamboo Wine.
“I can,” Fei Chen said as he graciously accepted the filled wine cup. He and Yang Qing toasted one another by subtly raising their cups to the air before they both moved in to drink.
“This is good!” Fei Chen praised after the sip.
“Yi Jie made it,” Yang Qing said as he savored his own.
“Really?!” Fei Chen said in praise. “He has really co a long way from the batch he used to make back at the Institute.”
“He has. Though I think his wine-making skills were fairly good even back then. It is just that your body being poisoned and dangling on the brink of death all the ti ruins your ability to taste things, I think,” said Yang Qing.
“That it does,” Fei Chen said, sighing as he leaned comfortably into his chair and looked around. “Minggong was right, this place is truly beautiful. You are sure it is okay to have the wedding here?”
“It is no problem,” Yang Qing said as he lazily waved his hand before fixing Fei Chen with a firm stare. “What about you?” he asked.
“What about ?” Fei Chen quizzically asked.
“You are sure you want to have it here? Instructor Lu Yuan might pass by,” Yang Qing said in mock concern.
Fei Chen smiled wryly. “Well, at least I will not be alone,” he said aningfully before both broke into a short laugh that ended when Fei Chen took out the slip.
“Here,” he said seriously as he slid the slip on the table to Yang Qing, who picked it up with an equally solemn expression.
“For the mont of truth,” Yang Qing said as he inserted his spiritual sense to access the jade slip’s contents.
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