That night finally passed without any more turmoil, and the couple stayed together in bed until morning.
Su Wuniang sat quietly, lost in cultivation, while Liu Xiaolou lay distracted, drifting in restless thoughts. At one mont he wanted to try the effects of the Bewildering Fragrance, but he couldn’t summon the courage. At another, he was weighed down by the threats of his godmother Cai Yaojun, and from ti to ti he would reach down to touch himself, almost instinctively guarding his manhood. He felt listless, as though his spirit could never rise.
Since the ti he had first understood such things, this was the very first morning he had woken without that natural surge of vigor. The realization sank him even deeper into gloom.
When the first light filtered in through the window, Su Xi erged from her cultivation. She glanced at Liu Xiaolou lying beside her, the corners of her lips lifting in a faint smile, and thought to herself, As expected, he’s useless.
With a turn of her wrist she drew out from her bracelet a golden basin for washing, along with a towel, bamboo salt, and willow twigs. After both of them had finished washing, she brought out a food basket. The top layer held several rice cakes baked from spirit grain, while the bottom contained two small side dishes and a steaming bowl of soup. The dishes were Golden Dragonwhisker Carp from the mists of Shenwu Mountain and so naless little mountain mushrooms, while the soup was a fragrant hot pork tripe broth.
The basket, made of fine nanmu wood, doubled as a table, so the two of them shared the al right there in bed. The spread might have looked simple, but the rice cakes were light and crisp, carrying a faint fragrance of lotus leaf. The carp was fried to perfection, crisp outside and tender within, lting the mont it touched the tongue. The small mountain mushrooms, stir-fried with Sichuan pepper and evodia fruit, filled the air with their aroma. And the pork tripe soup was rich and hearty, leaving a lingering taste that was impossible to forget.
Liu Xiaolou ate with great appetite, finishing off two rice cakes in just a few bites. He devoured more than half the fish as well, leaving only the head and tail for Su Xi. Su Xi, on the other hand, ate slowly and with care, but in the end she ate just as much as he did, focusing mainly on the mushrooms and the tripe soup.
“This is delicious. The cakes sll amazing!”
“And the fish?”
“Even better. Way better than Susu’s cooking. She only ever steams it, steaming it over and over again… Was this Xiaohuan’s handiwork? No? Then which cook in the main kitchen made it? I need to go et them later!”
“I made it.”
“Ah! My apologies, my apologies. I never would’ve guessed you were such an expert, Fifth Lady!”
“I like good food. And since I often cultivate alone in the back mountains, I learned to cook for myself.”
“You’re really talented. And this bracelet of yours is sothing else too. The food cos out just like it was fresh from the stove.”
“This is the Misty Jade Bracelet. My godmother gave it to when I was twelve.”
“Oh…”
Before long, every last bit was gone. Liu Xiaolou still wasn’t satisfied. “It wasn’t enough. I’m still hungry.”
Su Xi said, “You shouldn’t eat until you’re stuffed. You shouldn’t spend all your strength at once. Love too deep doesn’t last, and those who push too far bring disgrace on themselves. Didn’t your teacher ever tell you that?”
Liu Xiaolou fell silent for a mont. “It was hard enough for my teacher just to raise . He didn’t have the ti to say things like that.”
She froze for a beat. “I’m sorry…”
After putting the food basket back into the bracelet, the two of them got out of bed and opened the door. The sky was filled with morning glow, painting the world in shades of deep red.
“Is the sky in Danxia Grotto-Heaven always this color?” asked Liu Xiaolou.
“Sotis it’s golden,” Su Xi replied, “or purple, or blue-green.”
All around, the doors of the thatched cottages had opened. The Su family was already prepared. Liu Xiaolou noticed Su Lang, the eldest son, glancing their way from the house across the way. Then Su Lang turned back inside and shut his door again. He didn’t co out until the smaller affiliated families had arrived and gathered in the central courtyard. Only then did he step out, head held high and chest puffed, walking with a deliberate air.
Among those vassals were seven groups: the Jia family of Dongheng Town, the Qian family of Fuzhou, the Lotus Fort of Wutong Mountain, the Xiong family of Huagou, the Tiger-Taming Sect of iling, the Plum-Breaking Sect of Yue Mountain, and the Moon-Plucking Sect of Tiger Mountain.
Within the groups from the Jia family, the Qian family, and Lotus Fort were people who had attended the son-in-law selection gathering at Shenwu Mountain earlier that year. Among them was Jia Po, who had tead up with Dong Wei to target Liu Xiaolou back then. And, as it happened, Jia Po also was gay.
When Liu Xiaolou caught sight of him, his heart settled a little. He thought, If Elder Cai and Tu Er aren’t satisfied with Dong Wei, this fellow might serve as my second shield. With that thought, he gave Jia Po a smile. The smile left Jia Po staring back, suspicious and uncertain.
Liu Xiaolou’s eyes t those of several other n who had also taken part in the son-in-law gathering. He gave them a magnanimous smile, the smile of soone who had won. They smiled back, though their expressions were a little strained, a little awkward.
A mont later, Su Zhi and Su Xun stepped out. Su Zhi swept his gaze over the several dozen people present, gave a slight nod, then clasped his hands behind his back and led the way toward the towering Danqiu rising in the distance.
Liu Xiaolou followed behind Su Xi, glancing around until he spotted Su Wan. With a look, he asked her about the outco of her eting with Yin Gong the night before.
Su Wan tapped her foot lightly and drifted over to his side, shaking her head. “It fell apart.”
Liu Xiaolou was about to press for details when Su Xi turned her head and called out, “Ninth Sister.”
Su Wan quickly caught up, falling into step beside her.
Su Xi tilted the corner of her mouth toward the woman walking behind them. “That main wife from the Xiong family, Madam Xiong Wu. Tell , how is she different from ?”
Su Wan blinked. “What?”
Su Xi lowered her voice. “Don’t stare. Just a glance. How is her figure different from mine?”
“She’s broad-shouldered and thick-waisted. Why?” Su Wan said.
“And what else? The way she walks?”
“Her walk… it’s steadier, I guess.”
“Steadier?”
“Or maybe… her upper body stays straight while her hips sway as she walks. Fifth Sister, you’re more like this; legs kept close together, walking neatly like this… Heehee, actually, I walk the sa way too…”
“Don’t fool around…”
“No, really. Fifth Sister, why imitate her? Don’t sway your hips like that!”
“I thought it felt awkward too. Forget it.”
The majesty of Danqiu was sothing impossible to grasp without standing before it. Looking up, Liu Xiaolou was struck with awe. Rising thirty to forty zhang high, its corners stretched out more than two li away on either side. What stunned him most was that the entire hill seed to be a single block of crimson rock, not a pile of stones pressed together. It was hard to imagine what kind of master could have cut and shaped it this way. And if it had truly been crafted by human hands, how could such a mass have been quarried and moved here? What kind of divine power would that take?
There was no mountain path, no rope ladder. The cliff face stood almost vertical and was remarkably smooth, with hardly a crack to grip. With Liu Xiaolou’s level of cultivation, he could only rely on outside help. He drew the Three-Mystery Sword and tested the rock. The blade barely sank in a single tip’s depth. The cliff was unbelievably hard.
Just as he was feeling stuck, Su Wan braced him with a push upward. In an instant he was sent soaring more than three zhang high.
After all, Liu Xiaolou was a fourth-layer cultivator. Using only his fingertips and toes, he tapped against the rock wall in quick succession, springing himself upward another three zhang. But above that there was nowhere else to gain a foothold, and just as he felt himself about to fall, he caught sight of a foot braced against the rock above him. It was Jia Po.
Jia Po had already reached the sixth layer of Qi Refinent, two layers higher than himself. No wonder he could stand on such tiny protrusions in the rock. In that split second, Liu Xiaolou flicked out his Groundbinding Spirit-Scattering Cord, wrapping it around Jia Po’s ankle. With that leverage, he launched himself several more zhang upward, the cord snapping back silently an instant later.
A startled cry of “Ow!” rang out, and Jia Po tumbled down the cliff.
Su Xi was waiting halfway up the cliff face. No one else had seen what Liu Xiaolou had done, not even Jia Po himself, but she had noticed everything. Both exasperated and amused, she reached down with a pull of her palm. With a technique called Dragon-Seizing, Crane-Controlling, she drew Liu Xiaolou up to her side.
Liu Xiaolou caught his breath. “All this just for a gathering?”
Before he could say more, Su Xi grabbed his belt and whisked him straight up to the summit.
What a vast, open, perfectly level square!
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