Chapter 50: Cross-eyed Old Man

Xu Fengnian was in a good mood on his way back to the mansion, bringing two extra portions of braised beef for the maids in Wutong Garden. As expected, Jiang Ni was still waiting in the courtyard. This little money-grubber, come rain or shine, would tirelessly read one hundred thousand characters of secret manuals and classics every day until she earned a hundred taels of silver. For every ten coppers deducted for a mistake or omission, she had to read an additional ten characters. Today, Xu Fengnian had snuck out to meet Old Xu, the blind man, leaving Jiang Ni waiting in Wutong Garden. He knew he would be met with scorn when he returned.

As Xu Fengnian entered the courtyard, Hongshu, who had been waiting for a long time, handed him a letter from Longhu Mountain, personally written by the old Taoist Zhao Xituan. He told Qingniao to distribute the beef and then, taking the letter, went into his study alone. Jiang Ni was squatting in a corner, clutching a copy of the "Hidden Dragon Fist Manual," muttering to herself. She only realized Xu Fengnian had sat down when he did. She quickly stood up, looking vexed and indignant. Xu Fengnian opened the letter, settled into a recliner made of rosewood with auspicious cloud patterns, and chuckled, "Since you've waited all morning, you can wait a little longer before reading. Let me finish this letter first."

Jiang Ni, completely oblivious to her subordinate position, calmly stated, "Today, it's two coppers per character."

Xu Fengnian ignored her, focusing entirely on the letter. Jiang Ni watched as the Young Master's expression changed from clear to gloomy, then to stormy, and finally, it was as if dark clouds had enveloped a city. For a moment, she even forgot to repeat that one character was worth two coppers. Xu Fengnian raised his hand to slam it down on the sandalwood armrest, but just as he brought it down, he pulled back ninety percent of his force, managing to stop himself in time and prevent the chair from being ruined. Even so, his face remained terrifyingly dark. Xu Fengnian stood up and walked to the window. After a few breaths, when he turned around, his expression was calm and collected. He looked at Jiang Ni and smiled faintly, "Come, you read, and I'll listen."

Jiang Ni finished reading "Hidden Dragon" and then read more than half of a sword manual. Outside, night had fallen deeply. She noticed that Xu Fengnian, for the first time ever, hadn't deducted money. Xu Fengnian, who had been half-heartedly listening to her read for two hours, chuckled, "You've accumulated quite a bit of silver with me. How about we make another deal? A thousand strings of coins for a secret manual. In a year, you could buy ten of them. Even if you can't learn martial arts yourself, you could casually toss a few to some martial artists, and wouldn't they be eager to attack me like rabid dogs? This is much more practical than ending up wealthy but having nowhere to spend your money. How about this business? Don't give me that reluctant and incredulous look. I'm just voicing what you're thinking. Given our relationship and friendship, there's no need to be coy. So, how about it? Is it settled at twelve hundred strings of coins per manual?"

Jiang Ni wished she could stab the cunning fellow to death with "Hidden Dragon" as a sword. She sneered, "Is it a thousand strings or twelve hundred strings?"

Exposed in his little trickery, Xu Fengnian laughed heartily, "Friendship price, eight hundred strings per manual."

Jiang Ni immediately agreed, "Good."

Xu Fengnian waved his hand, picked up the carefully worded and subtly expressed secret letter from Longhu Mountain again. Frowning deeply, he didn't lift his head as he asked Jiang Ni, who was putting the two manuals back on the shelf, "Shall I prepare a chaise longue for you?" Jiang Ni scoffed disdainfully, "I still want to live."

Xu Fengnian neither confirmed nor denied her statement. As soon as Jiang Ni left, Hongshu entered the room carrying a translucent glazed bowl filled with fruit. Glaze was a rare and highly sought-after treasure; ordinary wealthy families considered themselves immensely rich if they possessed even inferior medicinal jade that resembled glaze. Yet, here, it was merely used as a small item to hold fruit. In the current dynasty, only officials of the fourth rank or higher were permitted to wear small glazed ornaments, and even then, their color was often not sufficiently transparent. The Young Master was truly squandering precious resources.

Xu Fengnian picked up a snow pear, took a bite, and said fiercely, "The one who rides the ox just sent a manuscript of 'The Two Principles of Union and Accord.' Old Man Wei in the Tide-Listening Pavilion merely glanced at it and was overjoyed to the point of tears, saying it was even more attuned to the Dao than the ancient 'Book of Changes, Union and Accord' in the pavilion, which is called the King of Ten Thousand Elixirs. Look, the sect leader not only gave up his Great Yellow Court cultivation, but even after I descended the mountain, Wudang was still willing to offer even more support. Now look at Longhu Mountain: in just over a year, people from the Celestial Master's Mansion have gone to bully Huang Man'er. These yellow-robed and purple-robed Taoists are truly courting death!"

Hongshu softly said, "Longhu Mountain has been powerful for two hundred years, but Wudang Mountain has been in decline for three hundred years. Furthermore, Wudang Mountain is located right in Beiliang, while Longhu Mountain is thousands of miles away. Their conduct is naturally different."

Xu Fengnian calmly said, "I had already planned a trip to Longhu Mountain. Now, I will go to the Celestial Master's Mansion to see the demeanor of the Feathered Minister."

Hongshu gently kneaded Xu Fengnian's shoulders. After practicing with his sabers, the Young Master's formerly frail body had become much more robust. Both his physique and aura had improved by leaps and bounds. If Hongshu's kneading technique used to be as delicate as embroidery, now even if she beat drums and rang bells, Xu Fengnian would still feel it was just a tickle. Hongshu softly asked, "Your Highness, are you really going to leave Beiliang again?"

Xu Fengnian nodded, smiling with a mix of earnestness and jest. "This time, I'm not going out like a stray dog. As the Young Master, I'll bring out all the pomp and circumstance. Longhu Mountain, Shangyin Academy, the Xuanyuan family's Dismounted Villa, the Yue King's Sword Pond, the Luoshen Garden by the Luo River—all these places I dared not visit before, I must visit them all. Hongshu, are you coming with me?"

Hongshu shook her head pitifully, "Can we not go, Your Highness?"

Xu Fengnian merely smiled, dismissed her concern, and told Hongshu to put away the letter. He then picked up two pots of wine and walked out of the courtyard alone to the Tide-Listening Pavilion. Every time he saw the main plaque with the four characters "Grand and Majestic," Xu Fengnian felt a sense of unease. If it were just this scrawled Nine Dragons plaque sitting there alone, it wouldn't be so bad. But next to it were two sub-plaques with characters that seemed to leap and dance, rendered with powerful, elegant strokes. In the world, everything is judged by comparison, and this only made the Nine Dragons plaque seem even more inferior. The old emperor, who unexpectedly passed away when Xu Fengnian was fourteen, was a great strategist, but his calligraphy was truly uncomplimentary.

Xu Fengnian thought of his Second Sister, Xu Weixiong, who also wrote like earthworms crawling through mud. He couldn't help but sigh, contemplating that if his second sister had been a man, the three hundred thousand cavalry of Beiliang would have been firmly in the Xu family's grasp, and Xu Fengnian, whether genuinely foolish or merely feigning it, would not have been able to escape his fate.

Xu Fengnian pushed open the door and entered the main hall of the Tide-Listening Pavilion, saying helplessly, "Second Sister, should your anger have subsided by now? If not, I'll go to Shangyin Academy so you can scold me there." This visit to the pavilion, besides finding White Fox-face for a drink, was also to look through the ancestral records of the Celestial Master's Mansion on Longhu Mountain. Among the Four Celestial Masters of this generation, Zhao Xituan, Huang Man'er's nominal master, ranked second in seniority but held the least actual power. Ostensibly, it was Celestial Master Zhao Danxia who presided over the world's Taoist sects. However, it was said that Zhao Danxia's brother, Zhao Danping, was no ordinary person. This Celestial Master spent most of the year preaching in the capital, performing various miraculous feats that even children knew of, and his prestige was in no way inferior to Zhao Danxia's. The remaining Celestial Master, Zhao Xiyi, who was the most senior, seemed to have never had any news leak about him.

Every family has its troubles, and the Celestial Master's Mansion, with its countless Taoist scriptures, is no exception.

Today, Xu Fengnian intended to go upstairs and thoroughly understand this family, where "only direct descendants of the clan can become Celestial Masters." The outside world only knew the Tide-Listening Pavilion as an arsenal, but few were aware that its achievements in gathering inside information and secret intelligence were even more remarkable.

When Xu Fengnian reached the second floor and turned the corner, he saw a new face: a short, one-armed old man with two wisps of a goatee, wearing an old, tattered sheepskin coat. He was standing on tiptoe, struggling to pull out a martial arts manual, which he then licked his finger to turn the pages and begin reading.

Feeling no trace of internal energy circulation from the man, Xu Fengnian decided to play a trick. He tiptoed over and whispered, "Old brother, are you also here to steal books?"

The old man ignored him, reading ten lines at a glance and turning pages incredibly fast. Only the rustling sound of his turning pages could be heard in the quiet pavilion.

Xu Fengnian craned his neck for a glimpse, wanting to see the content, but the old man was cautious and moved the manual slightly further away.

Xu Fengnian pretended to stuff a few books into his bosom and kindly reminded him, "Old brother, stop looking. Take as many as you can."

The old man tightened his sheepskin coat and, as if deaf, ignored the Young Master.

Xu Fengnian whispered, "Didn't you see a White Fox-face? The man with the saber, more beautiful than any woman? He has a terrible temper, so we'd better be careful not to get into trouble."

The old man finally looked up, his cross-eyes squinting sideways at the Young Master.

Xu Fengnian feigned warmth, putting his arm around the old man's shoulder, and said with great enthusiasm, "Old brother, the secret manuals upstairs are top-tier and rare. I've bribed the Young Master's maids in the mansion, so I know my way around relatively well. Shall I take you?"

The old man's cross-eyes squinted even more intensely, but he did not evade Xu Fengnian's impudent gesture. He seemed quite disdainful of the "colleague's" good intentions.

Just as Xu Fengnian was about to speak, he suddenly felt a suffocating sensation. He turned to see not only White Fox-face present but also Xu Xiao and his master, Li Yishan. Behind Xu Xiao stood six formidable pavilion guardians, as if facing a great enemy. What was this?

White Fox-face slowly walked over, giving Xu Fengnian a contemptuous glance, as if looking at an idiot.

Grand Pillar-State Xu Xiao did not approach closely; he merely bowed slightly and softly said, "Fengnian, you will have to exert yourself greatly on this journey outside Beiliang."

When and where had the Prince of Beiliang, the dynasty's only non-imperial king, ever shown such deference to anyone? Not even Zhang Julu, the Prime Minister, who was currently at the peak of his power, had the right to such respect.

Xu Fengnian, whose hand was still on the old man's shoulder, stiffened.

White Fox-face watched the scene with schadenfreude, his peach-blossom eyes full of malicious glee.

Xu Fengnian secretly glared at White Fox-face, then slowly withdrew his hand and put all the books he had tucked into his bosom back in their place. Xu Fengnian looked towards Li Yishan, who had unusually come downstairs. The latter smiled and shook his head, his eyes indicating that he had nothing to say.

The Grand Pillar-State and Li Yishan left together. Xu Fengnian clearly sensed that the six masters, who served as pavilion guardians in the Tide-Listening Pavilion for their own different reasons, all relaxed their breathing simultaneously, their tension dissipating.

White Fox-face, mimicking Xu Fengnian, put his arm around his shoulder and said with a smile, "He has a terrible temper, so we'd better be careful not to get into trouble?"

Xu Fengnian tried to put his arm around White Fox-face's shoulder in return, but the latter dodged him. Awkwardly, Xu Fengnian explained, "I misheard. His temper is excellent, excellent."

White Fox-face departed with a flourish, ascended a ladder, and continued to browse the books on the second floor.

In the end, only the Young Master and the cross-eyed old man remained—one utterly confused, the other pretending to be mysterious.

Xu Fengnian pondered, feeling he finally grasped the situation. He subtly distanced himself from the mysterious old man and cautiously asked, "Old brother, are you an expert invited by Xu Xiao to contend with the old monster suppressed in the Tide-Listening Pavilion?"

The old man narrowed his eyes to slits, remaining silent.

Xu Fengnian, feigning mystery and concern, said, "Old brother, this is dangerous work. What benefits did Xu Xiao promise you? If it's not much, you absolutely shouldn't agree. The great demon suppressed in the pavilion is incredibly powerful—it has three heads and six arms, can swallow clouds and exhale mist, and can move mountains and overturn seas."

The old man, who was about to put the manual back on the shelf, paused, then randomly let go of it. But strangely, the book remained suspended in mid-air without falling.

The cross-eyed old man turned and walked away, clearly annoyed by Xu Fengnian's noisy chattering.

Xu Fengnian's face turned pale. He muttered to himself, "Don't tell me you are that old demon from the underworld."

The old man's hoarse voice resonated through the pavilion, "How did Xu Xiao, the Butcher, manage to sire a son like you? Interesting."