Volume One: Days in the Shantytown - Shadows Upon Shadows: Luo Qian's Identity

Luo Qian grinned. "You said it yourself: our funds are limited, and we have plenty of expenses ahead. If you ask me for thirty pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade just for a plot of land, how am I supposed to bear it?"

Du Lengning thought for a moment. He had a share in this business too; any money saved would be his as well. "If it's land you want, everything else is easy. But getting past Guan—my father—won't be." He added, "You know what he's like. When the sect's interests are at stake, he won't bend the rules even for me."

Luo Qian had to admit he was right. Du Lengning's father, Du Zhongping, was known as the third stingiest man in the Immortal Realm. Otherwise, why would the young master of Distant Hall be so poor he had to buy on credit from Luo Qian?

"But I could discuss it with my father. We supply Distant Hall with our Elixir at half price in exchange for a plot of land," Du Lengning said. Luo Qian shook his head at once. "Half price? Don't even think about it. We can earn back thirty pieces of High-Grade Immortal Jade in a few months. If I keep supplying Distant Hall at half price, how much would I lose? No. That deal isn't worth it. I'd rather buy the land myself."

Du Lengning thought again. "I'll talk to my father and ask him to give you an internal price. How's that?" Luo Qian said, "Not me. Us. The business belongs to both of us—unless you don't want to buy in. I won't force you." "Us, of course. I meant us." Du Lengning wasn't a fool. Only an idiot would pass up a business that promised ten thousand times the return on its investment.

"Luo Qian, are you there?" The two were discussing the details of their plan when an unfamiliar voice came from outside. Du Lengning saw Luo Qian's expression change. "What's wrong? An enemy of yours? Wait here. I'll send him away." He made to rise, but Luo Qian caught his arm. "It's all right," Luo Qian said bleakly. "I'll handle it. Don't come out." Du Lengning gave him a puzzled look. Luo Qian forced a smile. "Really. It's fine."

Du Lengning stayed inside the cave dwelling and strained to listen. Outside, three streams of treasure-light wound like ribbons around a handsome male Immortal suspended in midair. He wore a purple-Jin crown and layered Jin armor set with scales, with a loose spring-green robe over it. Clouds billowed beneath his Jin boots, and a fiery cloak snapped behind him. He cut a magnificent figure!

Luo Qian, however, greeted him coldly. "What are you doing here?" The man looked down at him and casually tossed over a jade tablet. An ancient-script heading stamped in Jin stood above three lines of writing. "Grandfather's three-thousandth birthday is the day after tomorrow. You may come home for a visit."

Luo Qian glanced at the tablet. "I'm no longer a member of the Qian Household. That isn't my home." He tossed it back. The imposing Immortal in the sky flew into a rage. A streak of green light shattered the tablet. "Luo Qian! Are you betraying your Lineage?" Luo Qian burst out laughing, his voice bitter. "Betraying my Lineage? Why would I need to? You stopped treating me as one of the Qian Household long ago. Was I supposed to wait for you to sweep me out the door instead of walking out myself?"

"Insolence!" the Immortal roared. The three streams of treasure-light around him trembled, and all of Green Toad Peak on Toad Mountain shook with the force of his shout. Luo Qian was badly injured on the spot. Two trails of blood ran from his nostrils as he staggered back several steps and fell.

"How has the Lineage wronged you? It overlooked your misdeeds in the Lower Realm and went to every length to make a man with no cultivation whatsoever ascend. It even intended to raise you as its successor. Instead of being grateful, you nurse a grudge. You're worse than a beast!"

Luo Qian wiped the blood away fiercely and stood straight. "Yes, they brought me to the Immortal Realm. But did I ever ask them to? I had someone I loved in the Mortal Realm. I had a life there. They didn't care how I felt. For their precious Lineage interests, they dragged me up to the Immortal Realm. Hahaha... What a pity things didn't go as they wished. I turned out to be a Tribulation Immortal—the most useless kind in the Immortal Realm! So I became Chicken Ribs, a burden on the Lineage. They didn't want to waste time on me anymore. Everyone was sick of seeing me, everyone wanted to bully me, and everyone could order me around. I was worth less than a servant. How could I possibly fail to be grateful to a Lineage that showed me kindness as weighty as a mountain?"

With that, Luo Qian refused to speak to him any longer. He turned and went into his cave dwelling.

Du Lengning stepped forward and opened his mouth, but Luo Qian walked past with his head lowered, as though he hadn't seen him. Du Lengning shook his head and followed.

Outside, the imposing Immortal called out, "Luo Qian, I've delivered the message. Whether you come is up to you. If you intend to betray your Lineage, then never call yourself one of the Qian Household again. Don't disgrace its name!"

"Old Luo, who was that? He looked so young, but he had treasure-flames protecting him. He must be at least a fifth-rank Immortal," Du Lengning asked cautiously. Luo Qian sat motionless in a chair, head lowered and eyes closed. After a long while, he said, "That was because of the Divine Artifact he was wearing, the Cloud-Opening Armor. His actual strength doesn't match yours." "How do you know?" Du Lengning blurted. Luo Qian did not answer. Silently, he thought, Because that Cloud-Opening Armor was originally meant for me...

Du Lengning left the cave dwelling on Toad Mountain with a bellyful of questions. He racked his brains but could not recall a "Qian Household" in the Immortal Realm. Yet a Lineage that possessed a Divine Artifact could hardly be obscure. Then it struck him: hadn't the man wearing the Cloud-Opening Armor said his grandfather's three-thousandth birthday was in three days? Such an important occasion would surely be celebrated lavishly. All Du Lengning had to do was find out which family was hosting a grand banquet soon, and he would know just what sort of power the Qian Household was.

Du Lengning returned to Distant Hall, but before he could settle into his seat, a senior fellow disciple came in. "Junior Brother, Master asked you to see him when you got back." Du Lengning hurried to meet his father.

Du Zhongping, the master of Distant Hall, had the bearing of a venerable Immortal. His face was lean, three long wisps of beard hung from his chin, and he wore a dark Daoist robe year-round. Though Distant Hall oversaw Far Garment Hall, the largest clothing workshop in the Immortal Realm, Du Zhongping wore the same plain robe for decades at a time. His title as the Immortal Realm's third stingiest man was no empty boast.

"Father." Du Lengning held his father in genuine awe and behaved with perfect propriety in front of him, not daring the slightest lapse. Du Zhongping was sorting a stalk of Seven-Headed Immortal Reishi. He pointed casually. "Sit down first."

Seven-Headed Immortal Reishi was a flesh reishi with seven heads growing from one stem. Exceedingly precious, it was a supreme ingredient for pill refining. Du Zhongping had somehow obtained a stalk. He carefully placed it in a jade box, sealed the lid, and put it away before speaking to Du Lengning. "In three days, the patriarch of the Turbulent Aristocratic Clan in the Gourd Realm will celebrate his three-thousandth birthday. I've prepared a gift. You'll accompany me to the banquet. You're no longer young; it's time you learned to take an interest in such matters."

Du Lengning was stunned. "You mean the Turbulent Aristocratic Clan that governs the Gourd Realm—one of the Nine Immortal Realms?" he stammered. Du Zhongping gave his son an odd look. "Obviously. Is there a second Turbulent Aristocratic Clan in the Immortal Realm?" Du Lengning drew a deep breath. "Father, what is the Turbulent Aristocratic Clan's original family name?"

The rulers of the Nine Immortal Realms were lords of their respective territories, and each Aristocratic Clan bore a particular title. Over time, those titles had replaced their original family names. Du Lengning knew of the Tidal Aristocratic Clan and the Turbulent Aristocratic Clan, but not what either family had originally been called.

"The Turbulent Aristocratic Clan's family name is Qian. The Qian of heaven in 'heaven and earth.'"

Du Lengning's mind roared. Luo Qian belonged to the mighty Turbulent Aristocratic Clan! How, then, had he fallen so far? In his exchange with the man wearing the Cloud-Opening Armor, he had said his Lineage had abandoned him. The feuds and infighting of great families were even more brutal than the rumors claimed!

He had once envied the privileged young Immortals of powerful families. Now he felt deeply that his own Lineage was better. It might not even rank among the top fifty in the Immortal Realm, but a small Lineage had warmth. His eldest uncle and third uncle both treated him like their own son...

Luo Qian sat cross-legged on his stone bed, silently reciting an ordinary cultivation method, but he could not calm his mind no matter what he tried. A figure flickered before his eyes, and that silvery laughter rang in his ears without cease. It felt as real as it had back then.

What could make a wayward young man turn back?

Luo Qian's parents had died early—from a deviation in their paired cultivation, though he only learned that after arriving in the Immortal Realm. A half-grown boy left to fend for himself had no one to restrain him. At that rebellious age, knowing no fear, he had resolutely decided to follow the classmates who settled matters with their fists and start running with the street crowd.

Because society had a thing called social welfare, Luo Qian had been forced to attend school all the way from junior high through high school. Yes, forced. Social welfare was the sole fig leaf covering an increasingly cold society. Whether Luo Qian wanted it or not, someone needed him in school—whether to bolster an official's record or soothe a donor's conscience.

One day, without quite knowing what he was doing, he threw a stone that split open the head of a boy from a "rival faction," sending him fleeing. A slender figure said timidly to him, "Thank you..."

Luo Qian had never thought of himself as a hero saving a beauty. Before the girl turned around, his thoughts had been entirely on "gang interests."

But the rule he had faithfully lived by for four years was overturned by that frightened little thank-you. Lightning fell from the sky, and Luo Qian was struck by first love.

A man in love seemed to grow up overnight. He learned to think about the future, to consider things from the perspective of two people, and to examine his past. That year, his homeroom teacher was named one of the school's outstanding teachers for supposedly pouring his heart and soul into reforming Luo Qian, the school's notorious wayward boy.

Luo Qian looked at the teacher's photograph on the bright red honor board and grinned. The man looked presentable enough, but all he ever thought about was grades. He would have loved for struggling students to go straight home and stop dragging down the class average. He had indeed poured his heart and soul into something—not saving a wayward boy, but pushing him out of school and onto the streets.

It was love that changed Luo Qian. Zhou Xin had timidly stepped into his life, and his whole world had turned over like an hourglass.

They had stood beside the Huangpu River and reenacted the classic scene from Titanic. Together, they had lit six hundred candles to form two overlapping hearts of flame. Their first kiss had come amid Christmas fireworks...

Every little moment they had shared remained vivid in Luo Qian's mind.

Life had been sweet until that face suddenly appeared before him. "The Lineage needs you. The blood in your veins has decided that." With only those words, Luo Qian was taken from the Mortal Realm without even a chance to say goodbye to the woman he loved.

...Only five years later did Luo Qian discover that he could return to the Lower Realm. But someone else was already at her side. He stood silently in the shadows and watched them walk arm in arm, close together, through the darkness beneath the streetlights.

(Second update. Someone sent me on a wild-goose chase this morning, and I wasted hours running around. I rushed back and posted this as soon as I finished writing, without even resting. Shi San is going to get some sleep, then get up tonight and keep writing. Ten thousand words today—I promise!)

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