When Su Che woke, he was already inside a mountain cave.
This seemed to be a natural limestone cavern. It was not particularly large, roughly three zhang square. The air was chill and damp, and he could hear water droplets falling incessantly.
Six stone lamps stood at the front, back, left, and right of the cave, green flames spilling layer upon layer of cold radiance within their lanterns.
The light outlined the cavern, lending it an air of tranquility.
Though the place was rather cold, his body was quite warm. Su Che reached out and touched a tiger-hide blanket, its yellow and white stripes interwoven, its fur smooth beneath his fingers. He had no idea what sort of craft the Cloud Fox had used this time.
Su Che climbed up and discovered that there was another tiger hide beneath him.
This Cloud Fox really did love picking fights with tigers.
People said foxes borrowed a tiger's might; now it was the other way around.
The Cloud Fox had somehow found a flat boulder and placed it at the center of the cavern as a large bed. Wooden bookshelves stood against the cave walls, crammed with layers of books and bamboo slips.
Besides the bookshelves, several instruments had been placed here. A cursory glance revealed an ancient zither, as well as flutes and xiao pipes.
Not far from the stone bed stood a wooden table, with two or three stones serving as stools. A gilded incense burner rested on the table, burning richly fragrant agarwood incense.
Not far from the incense burner lay several of Su Che's possessions, including the length of rope meticulously crafted by the Yellow Heaven Sect, the short sword left behind by the great hero Jiang Qin, and the Azure Emperor's Wine Goblet obtained from Withered Forest Chan Temple.
Had he not known this was Qingqiu's residence, Su Che would have taken it for the home of some scholar.
Su Che let out a long breath. With the medicinal potency of the Nine-Revolution Golden Core still in his body, the wounds inflicted by Gu Yin, the "book boy," were not enough to kill him.
Su Che rose from the stone stool and slowly gathered up the things on the table.
Then he walked to the bookshelves and examined the Cloud Fox's collection.
He found nothing but Confucian classics, Buddhist scriptures, and Daoist canons. Though these books did not concern cultivation, they contained the ideas of every school and sect.
Records of Nether Wanderings, Dragon Script Whip Shadows, Selections of Refined Literature, Treatise on the Middle View, Introduction to Abhidharma, Book of Great Peace and Pure Leadership, Explanations of the White Tiger, Yellow Emperor's Scripture of Hidden Talismans, and more.
If one simply drew a line between "Dao" and "technique," these were all matters concerning the Dao.
Little Fox's reading ranged even more broadly than that of many scholars in this world.
"Hey, you're awake."
A great furry head poked down from directly above the cavern.
"I took the liberty of looking over Miss Qing's boudoir. Miss Qing truly has refined and elegant taste."
Su Che sincerely offered a few words of praise.
With Qingqiu's tastes and accomplishments, she was qualified to go to Jiankang and contend for the title of its foremost courtesan.
"There's a Cloud-Hidden Tower at Cloud-Deep Unknown Place, said to contain every rare surviving copy under heaven. If you get the chance, you should go have a look."
"I certainly must go and see it."
Little Fox split her beastly mouth in a grin.
"But it's never open to outsiders. Only those who become family can enter."
Still the same chatterbox, with no distinction between meat and vegetables.
"Alas, Miss Qing saved my life. By sentiment and by reason, it would be only proper for me to call her sworn elder sister."
"Why call me sworn elder sister? With such profound kindness, even calling me sworn mother would not be enough. Better to offer yourself in marriage. Mutual affection between husband and wife, love entwined without end, growing old together with white hair."
"I would be fine, but Miss's fur has already turned white."
Su Che answered casually.
"You do look quite well." Qingqiu thrust her entire body into the limestone cavern. "Speaking of which, now that you've killed people from White Deer Grotto, what are you planning to do next? Why not join me in gathering a band in the mountains and forests?"
"Gathering a band in the mountains and forests means becoming bandits." Su Che looked at Qingqiu. "Miss Qing means wandering freely through the mountains and forests, doesn't she?"
"Understand the intent, understand the intent. And you call yourself an official."
Little Fox found a comfortable spot, sprawled down, and closed her eyes.
"It is not impossible, but it is the inferior course."
Su Che took a bundle of bamboo slips from the shelf and leafed through it.
"If White Deer Grotto wants to find me, then unless I truly hide away in Cloud-Deep Unknown Place in the Eastern Sea, they will always be able to find me."
"So what is your superior course?"
"Brother Gu was killed by a demon. What does that have to do with me?"
Little Fox fell silent for a moment.
"So you had already decided who would take the blame when you came looking for me."
"Miss Qing is magnanimous and refined. We should help one another, help one another."
Qingqiu seemed too lazy to argue further and merely gave a cold snort.
"Alas, this servant's life is bitter. Her beloved is a man without responsibility. Not only must she manage the household, she must even be pushed out to take the blame for her husband."
"Since Miss Qing thinks so highly of me, Su will certainly report this to my elders and arrange the three matchmakers and six rites—"
"Enough, enough."
Qingqiu snorted twice. "Well? Can you move around conveniently?"
"More or less."
"If you can, then hurry up and get lost. A county commandant has vanished without a trace; the Imperial Demon Hunters and the Night Pacification Bureau will investigate. This young lady is already saddled with one nasty debt to White Deer Grotto. I do not want to provoke the only two government offices in the human court that still get things done."
Su Che silently praised this ally.
The Cloud Fox might have no filter when she spoke, but she truly was a responsible companion.
"Great kindness needs no words of thanks. Su will surely repay it."
"Don't, don't. If you repay me again, I fear you'll set fire to Mysterious Capital Palace, to the ancestral statues of the Celestial Masters, Jade Vista, Divine Empyrean, and Yellow Heaven Sect, smash apart the gates of Great Spirit Coffin Temple, Nalanda Temple, Great Wheel Vajra Temple, and Compassionate Heart Nunnery, then credit all those glorious achievements to me."
Little Fox continued, "Do you see the things on the table?"
Su Che looked at the white paper, scissors, writing brush, pens, and needle and thread on the table.
What did she mean? Was she asking him to sew her trousers?
"You humans have nimble fingers. Cut out a human-shaped figure for me."
Su Che picked up a sheet of paper and, in three strokes and two cuts, made a crooked little human figure.
"Very good. Much faster than doing it myself."
Indeed, with fox paws as large as palm-leaf fans, this was rather troublesome.
"See the brush beside it? Draw facial features on it."
Su Che picked up the jade-handled brush, dipped it into the cinnabar inkstone, and dotted a human face onto the paper figure.
Little Fox closed her eyes. A faint, ghostly white shadow emerged from the crown of her head.
"Yin Spirit manifestation?"
Su Che looked at the female ghost with no visible features. Little Fox's Yin Spirit cultivation appeared quite advanced; pouring a headful of hot blood over her did not seem to have affected her much.
"Not a Yin Spirit manifestation. It's a soul-sundering art."
Little Fox's true body chuckled. "This Qingqiu is not like you, that Feng Boar. The technique Zhongyuan bestowed upon me is the Boundless Heavenly Demon Purple True Soul-Sundering Secret Art. Even among the Devil Sects of the four seas, it is a top-tier method. It's far stronger than that Mirage Shadow Primordial Sword of yours, which is everywhere in the Eastern Sea."
What kind of rule was that? The worse the codename, the better the thing bestowed?
Su Che could not bear to reveal to Little Fox that he was actually Lord Dongwang.
Let the child be happy for a few more days. In any case, the next gathering of the Mount Zhong Association was only days away.
The faceless female ghost leaned against the paper figure. At once, a charming girl appeared in the cave, her hair like dark Qingyun, her brows like distant mountains. She wore a pale green robe, her jade arms like lotus roots, her skin like fresh snow. Ice flesh and jade bones, delicate and pretty—anyone who saw her would have to praise what a lovely young lady she was.
"Go fetch an umbrella from the bookshelf. This young lady will take you to see some excitement."