Three ancient copper coins flipped through the air and landed. Auspicious Duck muttered under his breath. Suddenly, his body shot into the air, jerking and twitching as foam spilled from his mouth. Then he let out a pained howl. After a long while, he fell to the ground and cursed through gritted teeth, "I'll tell you straight: I never want to go through that kind of agony again. It's worse than having your bones scraped and your heart cut out! From now on, go find whoever you want—but don't come to me..."
Auspicious Duck seemed to be in genuine agony, rambling on and on. After a long while, he finally said, "The capital. She's in the capital. You've been looking for your donkey while riding on its back, and all the while you've been pretending to be so clever."
Xu Yi had never expected this result. He had even entrusted Huang Xuanji with the task of searching for her. If Yan Zi was truly in the capital, how could they have failed to find her?
Then he thought it over. Her being in the capital was probably the most reasonable answer. Given Yan Zi's condition, she really couldn't have gone anywhere else.
Once he'd figured that out, Xu Yi's heart burned with excitement. He couldn't bear to waste another moment. He tossed a few spirit stones to Auspicious Duck and said, "Head toward the Great Yue Imperial Mausoleum. We'll meet there." With that, he shot into the sky. An enraged curse rang in his ears a moment later: "Xu Yi, you bastard!"
It wasn't that he didn't want to bring Auspicious Duck along. The problem was that the fellow was too much trouble, and he loved to chatter. He'd squawk nonstop the whole way. Xu Yi didn't think he could