Chapter 51 Spring City Flying Flowers Suddenly Full
Lin Feiran brushed aside the fragments of the imperial carriage, frowned, turned around, and upon seeing the person behind him, his eyes widened in shock: "Your...Your Excellency?!"
Her once snow-white hair had turned black, and her eyes had changed from emerald green to dark green. At first glance, they looked no different from ordinary black eyes. The red mark on her left eye was gone, replaced by a small, blood-red mole on her eyelid. Apart from that, her appearance remained unchanged.
...
No, this is already a huge change!
The carriage shattered with a crash, the scorching sun blazed down, and the sea breeze rushed in, blowing the hair and hems of the two people inside. Just as Lin Feiran was surprised, Ru Xian pulled her up by the right shoulder, and the two of them spun around and leaped out.
The phoenix formed from the gold paper was still crying out and resisting. As it fell, she seemed to sense something was slightly wrong.
Given Ru Xian's nature, how could he have been attacked so easily? He would probably have turned against them long ago!
The two landed on the shore and confronted the white-clad man who had acted rashly. Below, the surging waves crashed against the rocky cliffs, sweeping the phoenix carriage that had fallen into them back into the deep sea, before suddenly returning to calm.
This was not the time to ask questions, so Lin Feiran suppressed her thoughts and simply looked at the other person.
The man held a pipa in his arms. He was handsome, but his face was expressionless. His black hair was tied up with a wooden hairpin, and he wore a loose linen robe. Upon closer inspection, it was not white, but rather looked like the natural color that had been polished after repeated washing.
Lin Feiran looked at him and suddenly remembered that when she was married off to the demon realm, she had seen a white figure on the endless sea cliff and had a brief eye contact with that person.
Looking at it now, it resembles the figure I saw back then.
Her gaze was questioning as she observed them closely; the person opposite them was also scrutinizing them.
Without moving his head, his dark eyes kept shifting between Lin Feiran and Ru Xian, as if he had figured something out. He nodded to himself and made a decision on his own.
He looked at Lin Feiran and said calmly, "Young man, there is no need to be afraid. Now that I have met you, I will protect you from harm."
Lin Feiran paused, silently sheathing his disciple's sword, which was only half an inch from its sheath, and tentatively asked, "Who are you, senior?"
The man, holding his pipa, replied without changing his expression, "Nameless person, thank you for looking at the flowers. I am ordered to guard this border. Protecting the human race is my duty. Now that you are being coerced by a great demon, I will not stand idly by."
The border guard, Xie Kanhua?
The disciples of the Gan Dao sect must have heard of this name, but the person was so distant that Lin Feiran paused for a few breaths before connecting the person in front of him with the character in the book.
She relaxed her shoulders and said slowly, "Senior, you have misunderstood. I am familiar with him and it was not due to coercion."
Xie Kanhua was slightly taken aback: "Then why did you wave to me for help just now?"
Lin Feiran: "...Didn't you wave first, senior?"
He withdrew his mimicking hand, and sighed with a deep emotion: "Fortunately, I didn't interfere on the day you married into the demon realm, otherwise I would have broken up the marriage."
Hearing the back-and-forth conversation between the two, Ru Xian tilted her head and chuckled.
"The day you married into the demon realm?" Lin Feiran asked疑惑地, "How did you know that person was me, senior?"
“That night, we looked at each other. I saw you. Your eyes were red, but I couldn’t tell why they were red, so I didn’t act rashly. I only asked with my eyes, but you didn’t respond.” Xie Kanhua turned around with her pipa in her arms and squatted down in another spot. “I often misunderstand others and make a lot of jokes. It’s better to be cautious.”
Lin Feiran thought back to that night. Had she waved then, would he have stopped the wedding procession?
After Xie Kanhua finished speaking, he did not stop. He squatted down and fiddled with the pebble star array on the ground, and continued, "The Endless Sea is rarely visited by people, but during that period alone, at least three groups of people wanted to enter the Demon Realm. This was unusual, so I remember it very clearly."
Lin Feiran asked, "Three groups of people?"
At this point, Lin Feiran knew he was referring to Jiang Jin and Mu Qian. Upon hearing that the Demon Lord was patching the hole, she glanced at Ru Xian.
He didn't listen carefully, but only looked around, probably because he hadn't seen the endless sea for many years.
"What about the last wave?" Lin Feiran wondered. Could it be that someone was actually spying on her?
"It wasn't a group, it was one person. The last one was a young man, with outstanding looks and considerable cultivation. He was also looking for someone, saying that his friend was injured. I asked what he looked like, and from his description, he seemed like a woman, but also like a bright-eyed and pure-hearted fool... I only saw you as a woman at that time, but before I could finish speaking, he left in a hurry."
Upon hearing this description, Ru Xian raised her eyes and glanced at her.
Lin Feiran was a little confused, but then she thought that apart from Jiang Jin and Mu Qian, no one else had come to cause her trouble. Besides, this description didn't sound like her at all, so it was probably just a coincidence.
Xie Kanhua stared at the star array under his command for a long time, but to no avail. He then raised his hand and set the array up, then stood up and looked at Lin Feiran.
“Young man, what are you doing in the human world? Where are you going? Could you give me a ride? I don’t know the way. Besides, you are newly married. If the journey is boring, I can play the zither to liven things up.”
What a natural person!
"Senior, you misunderstand. He and I are not partners, and the wedding ceremony last time was not the real reason."
Lin Feiran glanced at Ru Xian, puzzled by his silence. After a moment's thought, he nodded, "Where are you going, senior? If it's on the way, we can go together."
Xie Kanhua sighed softly, "Spring City."
Hearing this answer, Lin Feiran was not surprised. Nowadays, probably more than half of the people in the world would go to Chuncheng.
“We also want to go, but we two need to attend the ceremony, so we have to go on foot. Senior, why don’t you come with us out of the Endless Sea, and then we can travel by sword with the others later?”
Xie Kanhua's expression remained unchanged, but his eyes dimmed even more: "Although I am not a disciple of the Candian, I still have to go on foot, otherwise I wouldn't be so anxious."
Lin Feiran couldn't detect a trace of anxiety in his calm expression, but he still agreed.
Xie Kanhua nodded to her in thanks, and then asked, "Young man, what is your name? And what is the name of the person behind you?"
Lin Feiran paused: "Senior, you can just call me Wenran. As for him..."
“Bai Fei.” Ru Xian glanced at her. “The Jade Clan is her contracted demon.”
Xie Kanhua was quite surprised, but he only slightly opened his eyes. He looked at Lin Feiran and said with his lips slightly parted, "Is that so?"
"Really?!" Lin Feiran looked at Ru Xian, even more shocked, her eyes wide open.
"Isn't that so?" Ru Xian walked past the two of them with her arms crossed, her posture elegant and leisurely. A few steps later, a white fish floated out and blew bubbles beside him.
With irrefutable evidence, Xie Kanhua's gaze towards Lin Feiran changed: "Scholars are born after all. Nowadays, edicts to command demons are extremely rare. How did you manage to contract such a powerful demon?"
While one's realm cannot be directly discerned, it can be judged by one's aura. The higher the realm, the better the aura. Observing this demon's aura, although it has a somewhat ignorant and chaotic feel, it is extremely vigorous. It must be a great demon with a high realm, but this young man looks to be only around the Sea Illumination Realm.
Lin Feiran touched his neck and said somewhat awkwardly, "Maybe it's because I'm a nice person."
Xie Kanhua did not question it, but rather agreed: "That's right, good people have good causes and good results. Maybe it's your destiny to have this opportunity."
After walking a few meters, Ru Xian turned back and saw the two still talking. He said, "Aren't you leaving?"
"Coming right away, coming right away!" Lin Feiran said subconsciously, then politely asked Xie Kanhua to go first.
Xie Kanhua accompanied her, nodding expressionlessly, and said, "It's rare to see a young person who doesn't despise the demon race. The fact that you have this contracted slave—no, we can't call him a contracted slave anymore, but a contracted demon—is probably related to your attitude. I've always believed that those who form a contract should help each other..."
Xie Kanhua seemed to be a reserved and taciturn person, with little expression on his face. He always held his pipa, but surprisingly, he was very talkative, mostly asking Lin Feiran about the current affairs of the Dao.
He had been out of touch with the group for too long and was no longer familiar with many things.
The two chatted the whole way, and Ru Xian didn't interrupt. He only occasionally touched the little fox that had transformed into a clumsy creature, teased the white fish, and glanced at Lin Feiran when she was startled by Xie Kanhua. Otherwise, he was very quiet.
As Biqing said, Ruxian dislikes contact with people, and even more so, dislikes talking to strangers.
It's not that he can't, but that he doesn't like it; he never does things he doesn't like.
As evening approached, the three stopped to rest by a stream. The twilight glowed all around, fish swam in the shallows, and a gentle evening breeze caressed them.
Lin Feiran was well aware of his appetite. Before leaving the realm, he had scoured several markets in the demon capital, and his mustard seed bag was full of food. Now, he generously laid it out for the other two to share.
Ru Xian has never had a big appetite and prefers light food. Lin Feiran served him several servings of rice cakes and a cup of jade dew. Under his somewhat surprised gaze, she lowered her head and began to eat.
Xie Kanhua had no appetite, but he was still somewhat surprised to see such a sumptuous meal. He took out a few round luminous pearls from his pocket as a token of his gratitude, and then quietly began to eat, occasionally glancing at the other two out of the corner of his eye.
Wen Housheng ate seriously. Although his appetite was excessive, it was understandable. After all, he was a teenager growing up, so it was not surprising that he ate a lot... At least he could not show any surprise.
His gaze flickered, then fell upon the exceptionally beautiful yet remarkably quiet demon, or perhaps more definitively, a demon beauty.
Even with his extensive experience and knowledge, he had never seen anyone with such a beautiful appearance.
The beautiful man was not talkative and was rather quiet, but his quietness had nothing to do with his temperament. He could tell that the man simply did not want to speak.
Most of the time, his gaze was casual, occasionally looking at flowers and grass, teasing fish and foxes, as if he had seen a lot, but in reality nothing caught his eye.
But things were different now. He ate a few pastries and drank some dew, then stopped. He casually crossed his legs, propped his chin up, and watched the young man eat.
That look was completely different from when he looked at flowers or grass.
Then he heard the second thing this demon said that day: "There's fish, do you want to eat it?"
Upon hearing this, the young man looked up and said earnestly, "Of course we'll eat, there's no fish anywhere."
Xie Kanhua: "..."
He then heard the demon say, "I heard a sound in the stream; it's a silver fish."
The young man's eyes lit up. He immediately put down his chopsticks and walked towards the stream. In the fading sunlight, she must have seen something, because she turned back and said, "It really is!"
Xie Kanhua had also heard of it. This silver fish was originally a unique species of fish in the demon realm. It was tender, had few bones, and had delicate and delicious flesh. Later, merchant caravans traded it back and forth between the two realms, and fishermen near the Endless Sea began to raise it.
Could it be that fish fry have drifted into this stream?
The young man must have liked eating these silverfish, because he immediately rolled up his trousers and went into the stream to catch them.
The demon beauty turned around, leaned against the edge of the table, and crossed her long legs again. She nudged the little fox beside her with her raised toes: "You go too."
The little fox barked once, and the next moment it ran happily and plunged into the water. It seemed more like it was just going to play in the water than to catch fish.
The young woman was clearly a serious person by nature. She did not use any magic, but instead honestly speared the fish with a disciple's sword. Her expression was gentle, and her eyes reflected the light of the stream, giving her a natural and calm demeanor.
Even though the little fox had disturbed her fish, she wasn't angry. She just smiled and turned to look for the fish again.
Xie Kanhua observed with a blank expression, and for some reason, seeing this scene gave him a long-lost sense of peace.
The young man was even joyful when catching fish, which reminded him of his past.
Suddenly, he saw a flash of spiritual light appear in the palm of the demon beauty, and two silver fish emerged from his mustard seed bag and were silently placed into the upper reaches of the stream.
"..."
The memories suddenly became blocked out. No wonder there were silver fish here; it was he who released them.
As he was silently grumbling, the man suddenly glanced at him, a half-smile playing on his lips. It was neither a threat nor a request, and he didn't even utter a word. But with just that one glance, he knew in his heart that there were some things he shouldn't say.
Xie Kanhua put down her chopsticks and suddenly felt much fuller.
Author's Note: Let's have a sweet moment first; the next chapter will probably be about entering the city.
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