Deep within Golden Water Ravine, the crevice narrowed. Many long, squared jade beams, dozens of zhang in length, spanned its sides overhead. Wooden planks laid across the beams formed something like level ground, with halls and pavilions built upon them. This was the headquarters of the Golden Water Trading Association.
Though suspended in the air, the complex occupied no small area. Du Yuxi led Cheng Xinzhan through it. Formations shut out the noise of the bustling market below, giving it something of the serenity of a quiet retreat amid the clamor.
"Daoist, Supervisor Xiao's study is just ahead."
Du Yuxi brought Cheng Xinzhan to a corridor and stopped. At its far end, twenty paces away, stood an elegant chamber. The plaque above its entrance read "Seeing the Deer Studio." The door stood ajar, with a wooden sign hanging from it that read "At work."
This place was different from the others. A faint fragrance drifted through the chamber's half-open door, delicate and lingering. Cheng Xinzhan recognized it as Pear-and-Gooseberry Bedchamber Incense. Shi Yiniang liked to hang this incense in her residence; he had smelled it before in the Idle-Fighting Pavilion in Haiqing City.
"Thank you for your trouble."
Cheng Xinzhan inclined himself as he spoke.
Du Yuxi repeatedly said it was nothing and made to take his leave.
Just then, Cheng Xinzhan suddenly called him back and asked,
"Fellow Daoist, were you at the last Waterway Thoroughfare Assembly on Earth Dragon Mountain?"
Du Yuxi did not know why this eminent figure had suddenly asked him this, but he dared not inquire. He simply nodded truthfully.
Cheng Xinzhan said,
"At a restaurant back then, you hit it off at once with a Rogue Cultivator from Shizhou and spoke of the Northern and Southern Kui Stars. Do you remember two sword-carrying Daoists