Legend of Fu Yao

“Wasn’t that snake single-headed?” asked Meng Fuyao, still in a dazed state.

Zhan Beiye sighed and said, “These snakes are single-headed when they are young, and once they mature, they grow out a second head and live within the gaps between cliffs. I was too careless. I thought that these snakes disappeared along with the fall of the Big Gun Clan, and didn’t expect that they still exist. We have wronged the rat.”

Meng Fuyao, with an expression of guilt, looked into the tree hole. “Later I’ll apologize,” she said as she took out some bottles. “Let’s poison them first.”

“It is of no use,” Zhan Beiye remarked while pulling her back. “This thing isn’t afraid of poison, beware that you might wrongly hurt others instead.”

“What about a thunder crash bomb? I remember that your soldiers are equipped with this.”

“The snakes are underwater, so we can’t use thunder crash bombs. If one of them finds a way to escape and attack us, we would not be prepared,” said Zhan Beiye as he suddenly smiled. “This is something troublesome, but in times of trouble it is very useful.”

He held out a small bottle and poured some of the red powder-like contents on himself. Thereafter, he extinguished the campfire and flicked some of that powder onto the pile of wood.

Meng Fuyao curiously asked, “What’s that?”

“Pepper,” answered Zhan Beiye arrogantly.

Meng Fuyao scowled and uttered, “There’s pepper in the Five Region Continent? Could it be that I wasn’t the one who teleported, but you did?”

Prince Wang, who had a sharp hearing, casually asked, “What’s teleporting?”

“It means traveling around the different countries.”

“Oh,” remarked Zhan Beiye. Then, he went on to explain, “The other time we drank soup at the inn in Huazhou, the soup indeed tasted much better after you added pepper and so, I ordered my subordinates to bring me some. These snakes are blind, but they are very sensitive to smell. Once they detect the scent of an enemy, they will relentlessly chase after their foes.”

Meng Fuyao’s eyes lit up and exclaimed, “That’s why you left behind the scent of pepper! What smell could be more vivid and invigorating than this? Once our enemies arrive…”

“Yes,” Zhan Beiye laughed and said, “Later we’ll depart and leave our belongings behind. Once the Gold of Tiansha rushes over, they will definitely come up to inspect, such as flipping through the extinguished campfire and getting contaminated by pepper. Then… Just wait for the deadly pursuit of the Double-Headed Snakes!”

He held his sword and leaped over the Black Wind Horses soldiers. A crimson red beam flashed by, and in an instant, he split the disfigured human-like structure of snakes into two!

Immediately after, he commanded, “Retreat!”

The snakes fell apart in the left and right directions, mimicking how a real human body would have split apart. Some Double-Headed Snakes were sliced into two segments, but each segment became an independent warrior. They flew past the water surface like how the wind blew past and rushed towards the humans, bearing the resemblance of arrows.

Everyone had already escaped far away, with Meng Fuyao being the first – she rushed to the tree hole and dug out the guinea pig. Without giving a care of whether she would be seen as the third wave, Meng Fuyao tucked the guinea pig in her arms and in the blink of an eye, ran 100 odd meters away.

Zhan Beiye was the last to leave, and as he did, he conveniently grabbed the corpse of the warrior whose head was forever turned back at a weird angle. At the same time, he threw a huge bunch of stones in all directions.

The snakes chased after them, but for a moment, they were distracted by the noises coming from different sides and did not know where to go. Making use of the opportunity, everyone climbed up the trees and leaped from tree to tree. They only stopped when they were far away from the snakes. Zhan Beiye personally dug a hole, burying the soldier who died from a snake’s kiss.

Ji Yu and the other warriors were not grief-stricken; soldiers who died in battle did what they had to do. They silently looked at Zhan Beiye. He was their Prince, one who was brave, decisive and treated his subordinates like his sons. If possible, he would personally bury all the soldiers who followed him on the battlefield and died. Even for those who were injured, he never gave up on them easily. Hence, there was an unspoken rule in the Black Wind Horses: no matter who got injured and knew that his days were numbered should commit suicide immediately and not be a burden to Zhan Beiye.

Meng Fuyao walked over and quietly bowed to the place of burial. She reprimanded herself for not being much more careful even though the guinea pig had warned her. If only she had been more vigilant, this young warrior might not have died.

Zhan Beiye gently patted her shoulders and said in a low voice, “It’s not your fault. It was mine. I should not have slept.”

“Let’s stop fighting over whose fault it is,” Meng Fuyao gave a forceful smile and said, “It’s the rat’s fault for not knowing how to speak in the human language.” She lowered her head and took out the guinea pig. However, his hair was all wet, and his head hung low, and she was uncertain of whether he was asleep or not. Meng Fuyao stared at him dumbfoundedly and asked, “Eh? Rat, since when did you go into the water?”

The guinea pig was too tired to respond. The cry he released was a treasure that could not be used easily. Each time he did it, he would be utterly exhausted and would need to sleep for a few days to recuperate. Especially since he was not at Qiongcang, he did not have the necessary supplements and thus, he was even more disheveled than ever.

Meng Fuyao recalled that she was to blame for making Zhangsun Wuji’s beloved pet end up in such a state. In a rare moment whereby Meng Fuyao felt guilty, she uttered, “I have decided that for your sake, the number of slaps that I will give your master has been reduced from three to two.” At the same time, she carefully placed the guinea pig in her backpack, which had a pile of clothes to act as a cushion for the guinea pig and let him have a better rest. As for his hair that might contaminate her backpack, she would just pretend that she didn’t see it.

The group proceeded in their trek. The roads in the forest seemed somewhat the same, and even though the soldiers took turns to chop the thorns and vines, it was still inevitable that clothes were caught in shrubs and torn away. Meng Fuyao shifted the bag which contained the guinea pig to the front of her chest. Every now and then, she would instinctively touch the guinea pig, for fear of losing him – this forest felt different from the other forests that they had walked through before. In the depths of this thick forest, it seemed as though there were constantly countless pairs of eyes staring at them in a ghostly way, carefully calculating how long more they could hang on for, and waiting for them to encounter danger and turn into feasts.

What was different from yesterday was the reduction in the number of beasts that were peeping at them and trailing them. They seemed to have also realized that the group of humans had offended something so powerful that they were afraid of being caught in the impending calamity. As such, when Ji Yu and the rest when to hunt, they captured only a few hedgehogs.

During their trek, they encountered their foes, the Gold of Heaven Demon. The forest was small, and there were no roads, so it was very likely to bump into each other. The small group of soldiers they saw was being chased by a group of Double-Headed Snakes like maggots feeding on dead bones.

Ji Yu and the others climbed up the trees once they saw the figures of the soldiers, who either escaped or died under the relentless pursuit of the snakes. When the snakes pounced on the corpses to feed on them, Ji Yu threw down a thunder crash bomb. No matter how strong the snakes were, they were not immortal. Their bodies were smashed, and their bones flew under the power of gunpowder. Ji Yu dug deep holes to bury the dead snakes, preventing the other snakes from noticing.

At night, no one in the campsite dared to sleep near a pond or a cliff. The group ended up chopping a small circle of trees and cleared them to produce an open space. They used the trees to act as simple barriers, and the soldiers took turns to guard the night.

Meng Fuyao placed the guinea pig that was still in a state of deep slumber on her stomach. On the other hand, Zhan Beiye sat by her side cross-legged to rest. He would open his eyes from time to time, listening to the sound of wind blowing by from one end of the forest to the other.

The nightingale perched itself on a tree branch and sang uncannily, creating a gloomy and fuzzy feel of the moonlight. Further away, the wolf howled at the moon, its howls lonely and desolate, yet with the power to penetrate the hearts of humans.

Meng Fuyao slept without moving a single bit, just like the creature on her stomach.

Zhan Beiye laughed at the sight and said, “Aren’t you tired of acting?”

Still with her eyes closed, her mouth twitched, and she replied, “I am in deep thought.”

“Thinking of what?”

“Thinking of what you were implying when you told me to say that line to your third brother.” Meng Fuyao sat up and said, “Your grandfather’s death was because of him?”

“My grandfather, the Old Grand Preceptor Zhou, was labeled as the ‘ultimate turncoat-official’,” said Zhan Beiye as he flipped through the pile of fire. “In both the proper and alternative versions of Heaven Demon history, the Old Grand Preceptor Zhou was probably destined to have his name go down in history as a byword for infamy. You know, before the Heaven Demon Dynasty was the Jin Dynasty, in which both the Zhan and Zhou families served the Emperor. My father had great ambitions, and he attacked Pandu, intending to replace the Jin Dynasty. Back then, my grandfather was the Grand Marshall, and he voluntarily offered the capital to my father. He was bestowed the title of Grand Preceptor, and his daughter was both the Empress of the previous dynasty and Imperial Consort of the current dynasty. In both dynasties, my grandfather enjoyed great status and continuous favor of both Emperors. As such, he was constantly humiliated and someone even specially crafted a poem to mock him: ‘How unpredictable destiny is, what was once the Empress has returned as Imperial Consort. Yet, the title of Grand Preceptor eludes the Grand Marshall’. If he walked on the streets, no one was willing to be within three feet of him.”

Zhan Beiye smiled, his jet black eyes glistening. “But in my eyes, he taught me warcraft, sought the best teachers for me, climbed up with me to the highest library at home and personally picked books that were useful to me. To me, he was the best grandfather,” he said.

Meng Fuyao gave a gentle sigh.

“Grandfather did not live well in his later years. His daughter went berserk but the palace wall placed an insurmountable distance between them, and they never saw each other again. When I was 18, I was not yet a Prince and lived in the secluded west corner of the palace. I did not dare to casually walk around in the palace, for fear of meeting young concubines. My grandfather heard of my plight and was afraid that in the long run, my brothers would accuse me of adultery with those concubines. He profusely pleaded in front of the Emperor for three times before securing my title as a Prince. Even so, I was not allowed to settle in the capital and was allocated to the faraway Geya. I was counting on living with him in the capital, to bring him some relief in his old years under my care, but Geya…. He was no longer capable of traveling far away. He died in the same year I moved to Geya. The imperial doctor said that it was a natural death, but only I know that it wasn’t,” said Zhan Beiye.

“Why?”

“I bid him farewell before I left. He was reading his books and didn’t say a word to me until I was out of the door: ‘I don’t know when you will be back. If I pass away before you return, remember to bury me in my hometown, Yingzhou.’ That year, when I returned to Pandu for the funeral and checked his bones in his coffin, I realized that his bones were turning black. He was poisoned to death.”

Meng Fuyao stayed silent for a few moments before she gently asked, “Have you found out who’s the murderer?”

“It can only be those few people,” said Zhan Beiye as he sat cross-legged. He looked towards the direction of Pandu, stormy clouds brewing in his eyes, with a murderous aura resembling a sharp sword kept in its sheath. “Zhan Nancheng, Zhan Beiheng, and the one who was killed by your dagger, Zhan Beiqi. The latter was probably only used as a tool. He is not fit enough to be the puppet-master.”

He looked over and smiled at Meng Fuyao, who had been silently staring at him. That smile was magnificent and as radiant as sun rays. “It is all in the past…. Don’t let these matters affect our moods. Let’s sleep,” added Zhan Beiye.

Zhan Beiye pushed the campfire to the side, leaving a space warmed by the fire. He touched the ground and confirmed that there was nothing suspicious or dangerous, before gesturing for Meng Fuyao to sleep in that space.

Meng Fuyao knew that it was of no use to reject, so she shifted over and laid down. After sleeping for a short while, she opened her eyes and saw Zhan Beiye grabbing on to his robe, staring intently at her.