Background and Backing

"Which academy do you study at, brother?"

The young gentleman in blue came over to question him aggressively.

Art required the right frame of mind and inspiration. Every time he thought of the courtesan queen letting out a foul fart, he wanted to tear his painting apart.

Zhou Yi said, "I've never studied. I'm just a butcher."

Wang Hao whispered something into the blue-robed gentleman's ear, and his scowling expression immediately relaxed.

"So you're from the Demon-Slaying Bureau. No wonder you don't like Miss Bright Moon."

The blue-robed gentleman cupped his hands. "I am Wang Bo'an, an instructor at Jixia Academy."

Jixia Academy ranked first among Great Qian's four great academies. He looked no older than twenty-five or twenty-six, yet already held an instructor's post there. His talent was clearly outstanding.

"Zhou Yi, a clerk in the Demon-Slaying Bureau's Ministry of Works."

Zhou Yi's tone was rather cold.

Wang Bo'an clearly knew that the dancer onstage was a fox spirit. Yet rather than rejecting her, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to admiring her.

After spending so long in the Demon-Slaying Bureau and hearing so much about demons devouring people, Zhou Yi would naturally dislike the demon race, however firmly he held to his principles and tried to treat them fairly.

There were indeed kind souls among the demon race, but far more broke the law and sowed disorder. As a whole, they stood against humanity, competing for room to survive.

"Those not of our kind must harbor different hearts" was not without reason.

Wang Bo'an straightened his clothes and headwear, then sat upright opposite Zhou Yi, his back straight, and instructed him in a teacher's tone.

"The Demon-Slaying Bureau has always been prejudiced against the demon race. Heaven gives life to all beings. Demons are no different from humans; they, too, have parents who bore and raised them. Yet the Bureau does nothing but slaughter them, only intensifying the conflict between our races and undermining the stability of the realm!"

"Hm?"

A spiritual gleam flashed through Zhou Yi's eyes, but he could not see through Wang Bo'an's cultivation. A dense layer of azure energy concealed it.

Azure energy signified fortune in officialdom, hence the saying of soaring straight into the azure clouds.

"What office do you hold at court, Brother Wang?"

"I passed the metropolitan examination in the forty-fifth year of Jingtai's reign and have the honor of serving as a Hanlin compiler."

"So I stand before Compiler Wang. Forgive my discourtesy!"

Zhou Yi immediately understood where the azure energy came from. A Hanlin compiler was no ordinary position. Though ranked only seventh or eighth grade, its prospects were greater than those of a commandery governor.

Such officials dealt daily with Great Qian's core affairs of state, serving much like secretaries to the crown prince. With a smooth official career, they might eventually become grand secretaries.

Wang Bo'an said proudly, "Having long studied the demon race, I submitted a memorial entitled 'Ten Strategies for Pacifying Demons and Reassuring the People,' and was fortunate enough to win His Highness the Crown Prince's favor..."

"May I ask who your father is? What office does he hold?"

Zhou Yi cut Wang Bo'an off directly.

"My father currently serves as Minister of Rites..."

Wang Bo'an answered instinctively. Once the implication sank in, his face flushed red. "You... filthy butcher! An ignorant commoner cannot be taught!"

With that, he rose and swept away with a flick of his sleeve.

"Heeheehee."

Listening beside them, Wang Hao finally could not hold back her silver-bell laughter.

Zhou Yi said, "Miss, shouldn't you go comfort him? Men need coaxing too."

"Ah!"

Wang Hao cried out, her face crimson with embarrassment, and ran off with her sleeve covering her face.

"At least she isn't too foolish."

As long as I cover my face, I'm not the one being embarrassed.

Zhou Yi turned toward the stage. The courtesan queen Bright Moon had finished dancing and invited several scholars with literary reputations up to discuss poetry and songs.

"Who says this fox demon isn't breaking the law..."

Through his spiritual sight, Zhou Yi clearly saw strands of yang energy gathering inside the courtesan queen.

Fox demons were cold and yin by nature, and needed to absorb yang energy to balance their demonic energy.

The fastest method was intimate intercourse, followed by sucking blood. After that came the courtesan queen's method: using charm arts to stir desire, drawing it out strand by strand, peeling silk from a cocoon and piling grains of sand into a tower.

Regardless of the method, the Great Qian Code strictly forbade demons from absorbing yang energy to cultivate.

Zhou Yi waited until nearly midnight, but Zhang Cheng still had not come downstairs, so he left alone and returned to the inn.

Early the next morning.

For once, Zhang Cheng actually arrived in the morning. Seeing Zhou Yi already at work, he nodded in satisfaction.

"How did you find last night?"

"It broadened my horizons quite a bit."

Zhou Yi kept copying as he spoke. "The only thing I didn't feel good about was the courtesan queen."

Across two lifetimes, this was his first taste of the surging world of earthly pleasures. Given Spring Breeze Pavilion's standing in the Capital, it would have been a top-tier private club in his previous life, the sort whose entrance he would not even have known how to find.

"What didn't you like about the courtesan queen Bright Moon?"

Zhang Cheng deftly poured water and brewed tea. A warm fragrance wafted up, actually dispelling much of the underground chill.

Zhou Yi was an ordinary fellow who knew nothing of the art of tea, but Zhang Cheng's movements were simple and natural, without stiffness or affectation, and pleasant to watch. He resolved to learn from him sometime.

Choosing his words carefully, Zhou Yi said, "The courtesan queen Bright Moon looks much like those things in the torture prison."

Zhang Cheng gave him a surprised glance. "Such keen spiritual perception. What a pity. There is indeed something wrong with the courtesan queen, but she isn't someone we can easily deal with."

He handed over a teacup as he spoke. "Try it."

"Thank you."

Zhou Yi asked in puzzlement, "So the Demon-Slaying Bureau knows about this?"

"If it involves demons in the Capital, there's nothing the Demon-Slaying Bureau doesn't know!"

Zhang Cheng sipped it while it was hot. "But under Great Qian Law, there's no requirement to kill demons that haven't harmed anyone."

Zhou Yi sniffed the tea's fragrance and immediately felt his soul grow comfortable. Imitating Zhang Cheng, he took a delicate sip, and a rush of warmth surged straight into his head.

The spiritual energy in the tea slowly nourished his soul and consciousness, leaving him poised between haziness and clarity, just on the verge of intoxication.

Zhou Yi could not help letting out a long breath. "Excellent tea. It actually makes me feel a little tipsy."

"Of course. Why else would it be called Drunken Spring Return?"

Zhang Cheng carefully put away a tea tin only an inch tall and as thick as a thumb, then said proudly, "This was picked from those few mother trees at White Cloud Temple. If I didn't carry such weight, ordinary people wouldn't even get a sniff."

"Old Zhang, can demons live in Great Qian as long as they don't break the law?"

Zhou Yi thought of the little fox Feng Ling'er hidden in his sleeve. She seemed not to have broken any laws, and half her blood was human besides.

Which side manifested in a half-human, half-demon's soul depended on the relative strength of the parents' bloodlines. Feng Ling'er's father had merely been a mortal scholar, so her soul took only a fox's form.

"What? You want to keep a little fox temptress?"

Zhang Cheng waggled his eyebrows and gave a laugh any man would understand, then sighed regretfully. "Don't even think about it. If that fox didn't have someone backing her, she'd have been skinned long ago and made into a scarf for some noble."

Zhou Yi suddenly understood. In Journey to the West, demons with connections were all taken away, while those without were beaten to death beneath a flurry of blows.

Even the Great Sage Equal to Heaven checked a demon's background and backing before vanquishing it, let alone the Demon-Slaying Bureau.

Seeing Zhou Yi fall silent, Zhang Cheng drained his spiritual tea, then began tapping the table lightly and singing along.

"What talk of lofty ambitions to save the court, when hot blood burns in vain and demons go unslain? What talk of heroes meeting peril as they banish evil, when all around I gaze, my heart adrift?

Ah, I sigh-what use is roaming all beneath heaven? Better to return, return!

You demon up ahead, surrender at once-"

His ornate singing rose and fell, its lingering resonance rich with flavor.

Zhou Yi stared in astonishment. Calligraphy, tea, singing-Old Zhang was an old man full of hidden treasures.

On reflection, it made sense. Cultivators lived long lives, and most were adept at music, chess, calligraphy, painting, drinking, and tea tasting. Poetry alone depended more on talent; time could not simply pile it up.

Singing, tea tasting, drinking, brothels...

Zhou Yi did not know how other Upper Third Grade experts lived, but Zhang Cheng, at least, enjoyed an exceedingly comfortable life. Occasionally, he would lament a hero's twilight years, only to tumble back into a crowd of beauties moments later.

As for the stance training he had promised Zhou Yi, whether he had forgotten or deliberately failed to remember, nothing more had come of it.