Chapter 56 — Changhe City

After Zhang Qingyue, Bili, and Shitou left Xiaochi Town, they headed east. After flying for some distance, they descended to the ground.

Shitou spoke first to Zhang Qingyue. "Brother Zhang, where do you plan to go next?"

Zhang Qingyue thought for a moment, then said, "Since Senior Sister Yan Fei of Fenxia Valley said my master was going to Liubo Mountain in the East Sea, I may as well go and see them. And you?"

Shitou considered it, then said, "Then I'll go too! My master told me to travel the world, cultivate the Way, and do good deeds. Now I hear the remnants of the demon cult are stirring up trouble again—I might as well lend a hand."

"Hmph!" A cold laugh came from beside them. Bili gave a snort and said icily, "What noble ambition, what righteousness. Just don't let it happen that when the time comes, instead of vanquishing demons and subduing devils, you get vanquished and subdued by those demon-cult remnants yourself."

Shitou froze, at a loss for words. He turned to look at Zhang Qingyue, who wore an awkward expression and was staring at Bili, also unable to speak, just like Shitou.

Bili sneered. "What are you two looking at me for?"

Zhang Qingyue and Shitou exchanged glances. Zhang Qingyue fared somewhat better—after all, he had spent some time in Bili's company and knew her temper to a degree, and knowing her identity, he did not much mind.

But Shitou was a blunt, straightforward man, and being inexplicably rebuked by Bili left him feeling stifled. Yet he could not bring himself to be angry at such a pretty, delicate girl, so he kept it bottled up inside. He reflected that his master had warned him many times before he left home to stay far from women, saying that the most unreasonable creatures in this world were women—especially beautiful young women. Seeing it today, it was indeed so; his master was truly incomparably wise.

Zhang Qingyue glanced at Shitou and saw him standing there dazed, not saying a word, and felt a little guilty. How could he know that this fellow was inwardly sighing with deep emotion, delivering a whole commentary on the women of the world and praising his master's sagacity? He assumed Shitou was simply sulking after being snapped at by Bili.

He turned to Bili, saw her face still cold, and sighed. "Where do you plan to go?"

Bili shot him a look and snorted. "None of your business!"

Zhang Qingyue, rebuffed, mumbled and could not speak, though he was not really angry. After all, if he went to Liubo Mountain in the East Sea, he would practically be her enemy—her anger was only natural. Just then Shitou came up behind Zhang Qingyue, his eyes full of sympathy, and gently patted his shoulder with a look that said, I understand you.

Zhang Qingyue looked at his expression, mouth agape, and for a long while still could not produce a single word. He only felt the situation was utterly awkward—his bitterness had no outlet, and he was thoroughly miserable.

By the end of that day, Zhang Qingyue and Shitou still had not found out where Bili was going. In truth, after being snapped at a few times, they dared not ask again. In any case, they were heading east, and Bili walked ahead of them.

Along the way her mood was never good, and a stream of cold words and cutting remarks never ceased. Eventually Zhang Qingyue and Shitou came to almost fear her. When the two were chatting happily and saw Bili glance their way, they immediately fell silent as cicadas in winter, lowering their voices or stopping altogether.

Thus they traveled two days, the three of them heading east, until they came to a great city called Changhe City.

Entering the city, Shitou and Zhang Qingyue split up to ask around, and learned that Changhe City was already the largest city of any scale nearest the East Sea. Four hundred li further east from here lay the shores of the East Sea.

Walking through Changhe City, the three saw that the dwellings and the people's dress of the East Sea region were much the same as in the Central Plains. This place had always been a hub of the East Sea area, where traveling merchants and wayfarers mostly stopped to rest and trade. But of late, many cultivators had appeared in the city—even now, walking the streets, they saw many people in the garb of different sects coming and going. Who knew whether they too meant to go to Liubo Mountain?

Zhang Qingyue and Shitou conferred on the side and decided to find a small inn here, stay the night, and set out for Liubo Mountain first thing the next morning. Having agreed, they turned to look at Bili standing nearby. In fact, when the two had been talking, they had deliberately raised their voices, assuming that Bili, standing right beside them, must have heard every word.

To their surprise, Bili seemed utterly unaware, standing there expressionless, her lovely eyes fixed on the passersby in the street, showing no reaction at all. Helpless, Zhang Qingyue had to screw up his courage, step forward, and ask, "Miss Bili, what do you think of that plan?"

Bili started, as if startled, and only then drew her gaze back from the distance down the street.

Zhang Qingyue saw her brows knit slightly, saw her hesitate in silence—it did not look like deliberate coldness toward him, but rather as though she had seen something puzzling. He could not help asking, "What is it?"

Bili's gaze drifted and she looked into the distance again. Zhang Qingyue followed her eyes and saw only the coming and going of pedestrians in the street, among them many oddly dressed folk, presumably cultivators of the Way—but what she was looking at, he could not tell.

Bili was silent a moment, then turned her head. "What did you ask me?"

Zhang Qingyue then carefully told her of the plan he and Shitou had discussed to stay a night at an inn. Seeing Bili give no answer, and glancing at Shitou still standing some distance off, he lowered his voice. "You—what do you plan to do next? You can't very well come with me to meet my master! I see many followers of the righteous path in Changhe City. If your identity is exposed, it will be dangerous!"

Bili looked at him and suddenly said, "Are you worried about my safety, or afraid I'll get you into trouble?"

Zhang Qingyue froze. He raised his eyes to Bili and saw her bright eyes, clear as water, gazing at him. Deep in his heart, something suddenly skipped.

Bili suddenly smiled, turned, and walked off. Shitou came over from a distance, glanced at Bili, and said to Zhang Qingyue, "Well? What did Miss Bili say?"

Before Zhang Qingyue could answer, Bili had already turned back ahead of them, a faint smile on her face—rare these past days—and said, "Didn't we say we were going to an inn? Aren't you coming?"

Zhang Qingyue and Shitou both started, then exchanged a glance. Shitou's face showed admiration; he secretly gave Zhang Qingyue a thumbs-up and said, "Brother Zhang, you really have a knack—a few words and you've got this young lady in good spirits!"

Zhang Qingyue, inexplicably praised by Shitou, wanted to explain but did not know where to begin. He could only follow Bili silently with Shitou, yet in his heart a thought had already turned over: was his entanglement with this woman of the demon cult truly already too deep?

By Zhang Qingyue and Shitou's reckoning, any small inn would do for a night's lodging. But as they walked, they watched Bili, without a backward glance, enter an inn called the Sea Cloud Pavilion—an establishment that, by any measure, was more than ten times as luxurious and spacious as the "small inn" they had imagined.

Zhang Qingyue and Shitou exchanged looks, but seeing Bili go inside, they had no choice but to follow.

Along the way Zhang Qingyue whispered, "Brother Shi, do you have enough silver on you? I have only four taels..."

He had no sooner said this than Zhang Qingyue suddenly fell silent—he had remembered that even those four meager taels had already been swindled away by that wandering fortune-teller, Zhou Yixuan.