Dragon-Python Qi

Early the next morning.

As Zhou Yi walked down the street, he already heard people discussing what had happened.

Ordinary people could not sense the demonic aura that spanned heaven and earth, but the dragon's warning roar and the thunderous fox tails had been plain for all to witness.

Nothing stayed secret in the Capital. For the many middle-class people who did not have to work, gossip was their greatest pleasure.

Zhou Yi scoffed at it. He heard someone furtively spreading rumors that a demon suppressed beneath the imperial palace had broken free.

The moment he entered the Ministry of Works, he felt an oppressive atmosphere. His colleagues, usually relaxed and smiling, all sat stiffly upright at their posts. Even Li Xun, who normally grinned and fooled around without a serious bone in his body, looked solemn.

Zhou Yi arrived at the Five Viscera Department and found Zhang Cheng copying books.

Over the past year, Zhang Cheng had rarely put pen to paper.

The oppressive atmosphere in the Ministry of Works came from Zhang Cheng. Frost practically threatened to form on his aged face.

At the upper third grade of the Spirit Refining realm, even the aura he unconsciously released could affect his surroundings.

"Morning, Brother Zhang."

"Mm-"

Zhang Cheng gave an unwelcoming grunt.

Having met with a cold shoulder, Zhou Yi began concentrating on copying books.

With both of them on duty, they finished the day's work before noon. Zhang Cheng sat in his chair, lost in thought, while Zhou Yi copied Daoist scriptures.

"Brother Zhang, did you hear the commotion last night?"

After holding back for half the day, Zhou Yi finally asked.

This absolutely was not gossip. He really was only curious about Zhang Cheng's opinion of the matter.

"The noise shook the heavens. Who could have missed it?"

Zhang Cheng said bitterly, "Someone came bullying us right on our doorstep, and they all stood around watching the joke. One day, they'll be the joke themselves!"

Zhou Yi did not know whom Zhang Cheng was mocking, but it could only be the court officials, Buddhist and Daoist masters, or deities such as the City God and the earth gods.

Though the nine-tailed fox was powerful, probably only a fox immortal from Green Mound had the right to run rampant through the Luo Capital.

After cursing for a while, Zhang Cheng felt considerably better and began muttering to himself again.

"Soon there'll be no staying in this Capital. No decent people left..."

"Old Zhang can't bear to leave the lovely girls at the Spring Breeze Pavilion..."

"Wu Prefecture has plenty of slender waists, but unfortunately, Longchuan has a stone from the privy pit..."

Old people always liked talking to themselves.

Zhou Yi simply treated Zhang Cheng as a lonely old man. He had never heard of him having any family, and he had always treated the Spring Breeze Pavilion as his home.

"...Question: What are nature and life? Answer: The principles of nature and life are different names for yin and yang, spirit and qi..."

He shut his ears to everything and devoted himself to copying Daoist scriptures.

The Capital was a treasure land that Zhou Yi could hardly bear to leave.

In recent days, his understanding of the scriptures had grown ever deeper, and he had gained many new insights into the Daoist path of jointly cultivating nature and life.

Qi refining cultivated life; spirit refining cultivated nature. Only by uniting the two could one attain immortality and divinity.

That was what the Daoist scriptures said. Zhou Yi remained skeptical, but provisionally believed it. After all, with the Demon and Monster Compendium in his possession, he might not be walking the same path as Daoist immortals.

One could trust books, but not blindly believe everything in them.

After finishing his shift, Zhou Yi returned to the Same Fortune Inn.

A new sign stood beside the Same Fortune Inn: Old Zhou's Secret-Recipe Fried Chicken.

As the inventor of fried chicken, Old Zhou had enjoyed a packed dining room in recent days, bustling with noise and excitement.

Today, however, it was unusually quiet. Only after entering did Zhou Yi discover seven or eight young men in fine clothes gathered around a little girl.

The little girl was adorable, with delicate features, crescent brows, and horn-shaped pigtails. On a certain short-video app in his previous life, she would surely have become the whole nation's darling daughter.

Why is she here?

Zhou Yi frowned, then restored his usual expression and walked behind the counter to observe discreetly.

The girl was none other than the nine-tailed fox, Hu Jiuying.

"Grandaunt, wasn't I right? The fried chicken here is especially tender."

The young man leading the group had a bruised, swollen face and a slight limp in his right leg. He boasted, "The Capital's fried chicken started here. The Great Shun Restaurant and the White Tower are just picking scraps from someone else's teeth!"

"Mmm, mmm, yummy! Weally good!"

More than a dozen large plates covered the table Hu Jiuying occupied alone. Some were empty, some full, and all held different flavors of fried chicken.

The finely dressed young men stood beside her, attending to her carefully. A mere glance was enough to make them immediately pass something over.

"Grandaunt, you truly are a celestial maiden descended from heaven, peerless above and unequaled below... you shame the flowers and veil the moon, sink the fish and bring down the geese..."

The young man racked his brains to flatter the fox. Unfortunately, he rarely read, and after a few lines he ran out of words.

Seeing how happily Hu Jiuying was eating, he turned his mind over and came up with another trick.

"Innkeeper, get over here!"

Holding a Daoist scripture, Zhou Yi said without looking up, "What can I do for you, honored guest?"

"Oh? A scholar, too. No wonder you're so uppity!"

The young man limped to the counter and tapped it. "Do you know who I am?"

"No."

A spiritual gleam flashed through Zhou Yi's eyes as he instinctively used the Spirit Eye Technique.

After spending so long in the Demon-Slaying Bureau and seeing so much of Zhang Cheng, he always felt that the Capital harbored hidden dragons and crouching tigers. Even a beggar squatting outside gnawing chicken bones might be an upper third-grade master.

His blood qi had not condensed, and his aura was mottled. An ordinary person who had not even entered the ninth grade.

Zhou Yi relaxed. Apparently, he was just an ordinary wastrel. Then he examined him with the Qi-Reading Technique.

The Capital's wastrels generally had dispersed golden qi mixed with a dejected brown-gray aura, indicating declining family fortunes.

A haze of chaotic mist hung above the young man's head. Something faintly churned within it, but the Qi-Reading Technique could not make it out clearly.

Interesting, interesting. A dharma artifact that conceals heaven's secrets!

Zhou Yi's interest stirred. He poured magical power into his eyes, and a flash of golden light pierced the veil of chaotic mist.

A dark dragon-python coiled above the young man's head, surveying its surroundings with an eagle's gaze and a wolf's backward glance. As though sensing Zhou Yi's scrutiny, it flicked its serpentine tail uneasily and hissed.

Those whose qi formed a dragon-python suffered hardship and straitened circumstances in peaceful times, but became fierce, formidable warlords in troubled times.

Thump, thump, thump!

Seeing Zhou Yi stare blankly, the young man loudly declared, "I am Xu Ye, son of the Dragon Cavalry General. Have you heard of me?"

"Xu Ye? Of course I have."

Zhou Yi's gaze deepened, and a strange smile appeared on his face.

"Hahaha, Brother Ye's name really is extraordinary."

"Of course. Brother Ye is one of the Luo Capital's Four Great Scourges!"

"What Four Great Scourges? Brother Ye alone deserves to be called a scourge. The other three are pests at best."

"But even he can't compare to Grandaunt. Isn't Brother Ye waiting on her, too? Grandaunt, don't lift a finger. Let your humble servant do it!"

The other finely dressed young men could not resist joining in the teasing.

Far from getting angry, Xu Ye looked pleased with himself.

"Now you know how formidable I am, right?"

"Yes. What can I do for you, Young Master Xu?"

In the dozen or so years since obtaining the Qi-Reading Technique, Zhou Yi had examined many people. This was the first time he had seen fortune condense into a tangible form.

The concept of fortune had existed since ancient times. Broadly speaking, it could be divided into heavenly allotment and personal destiny.

Heaven determined one's allotment, while one determined one's own destiny. The two influenced each other.

Fortune was not predestination. Its gains and losses, rises and falls, prosperity and decline, victories and defeats could change at any moment.

Even wild men who held ghosts, gods, heaven, and earth in contempt believed in fortune's existence, lamenting, "When the time comes, heaven and earth lend their strength; when fortune departs, even heroes are not free."

Everyone's fortune differed in strength. What one was born with determined the starting point, while later circumstances influenced its growth, decline, and fluctuations.

Some people were born with extraordinary fortune. When their fortune in a particular aspect flourished to an extreme, the intangible became tangible, and their qi gathered into a form.

Dragon-python qi was one such manifestation.

Xu Ye had no idea Zhou Yi had seen right through him. He said arrogantly, "The cook said you invented this secret fried-chicken recipe. Hand it over to Grandaunt obediently, and I'll protect your little shop."

"Tell me how you ended up with her, and I'll teach you the recipe."

As Zhou Yi spoke, he secretly used the Mind-Confounding Technique. Without any cultivation, Xu Ye immediately fell under its influence.

Xu Ye's eyes grew hazy, and he said involuntarily, "Grandaunt was so beautiful that I wanted her..."

"Little Ye, let's go somewhere else. The fried chicken here has a funny stench of ox-nosed Daoist!"

Hu Jiuying's clear voice immediately roused Xu Ye from his daze. Then she left the inn surrounded by the group of wastrels.

Xu Ye had no idea what had happened. Everything revolved around Hu Jiuying's wishes, so he hurried after her.