Chapter 30 Fox Fur and "Ghost Weather"
The old ancestor was determined to die.
The Ten Realms of Breaking the Wind only have two seasons, winter and summer, and it is now the coldest time of winter.
The coldest period of winter is the "three nines," when the weather is freezing, birds and beasts do not venture out, pillows and blankets are as cold as ice at night, and there are strong winds and thick snow during the day. Sunny days are becoming increasingly rare, almost comparable to the extreme cold of the Four Seasons Ridge.
Duan Jiuyou often smiled on such days.
She had been living in Shifengling for almost half a month, waiting for this "terrible weather".
The fox fur coat she took was a must-have for keeping warm. The silver fox of Xian Mountain is born to eat fire, and wherever it goes, there is a three-year drought.
Adult silver foxes were fond of eating human flesh and often unleashed foxfire to burn villages and devour people. They were eventually killed by order of the Palace Master of Xianyun Palace. Their fur was so valuable that it was priceless, especially the silver fox fur that Duan Jiuyou was wearing. It was worth more than three immortal mansions. Not to mention the entire Breaking Wind Realm, it could withstand the bitter cold even in Yanchuan, a place of extreme cold.
Di Jiang was concerned about his image, so he rarely wore this cloak when hunting beasts. After nightfall, he would often throw it in the corner of his bed and use it to block the wind when he was cold. Duan Jiuyou had been by his side for quite some time and naturally knew these habits of his.
“Ancestor, do you really think that person in the abandoned house would come up the mountain for a cloak? They have plenty of money. If they like it, they can just buy another one. If you ask me, you should just do what you did last time and take the initiative to go down the mountain and apologize. After all, we've done this before. At worst, your disciples can go with you to apologize.”
"Yes, Ancestor, it's just a cloak. If you really want to go back, you can just send someone to pick it up. Why bother coming here in person?"
Her apprentices kept trying to persuade her, as if she was the only one who thought the thing was valuable.
Duan Jiuyou was too lazy to explain. She sat on the mountaintop, kicking her little feet and looking down. She knew he would definitely come.
As for when he will come, it's hard to say. He certainly won't come during the day because there are too many people around. He hunts at night and doesn't like to get up during the day, so she can only wait at night, when it's the coldest time of night. A small torch is lit on the mountaintop, like a lamp that invites warmth.
On the other side, Emperor Jiang, sitting atop the mountain in the cold wind, lit a torch, and his vassal squatted beside him, roasting a pheasant.
It was so cold that even someone with his excellent constitution felt the chill. When hunting at night, he couldn't withstand the cold without food in his stomach. Occasionally, he would find some edible birds and beasts, pluck their feathers, wash them, and roast them over a fire.
His cooking skills were mediocre; he only knew how to spit salt in circles. The emperor rarely ate his food, and the vassal knew he couldn't serve him well. While spitting out the pheasant, he said, "If you miss her, just call her back. Don't always have such a long face; the soldiers in the manor tremble at the sight of you."
Some soldiers were missing three souls, others were missing seven spirits, but regardless of what they lacked, they all held their lord in the utmost reverence. When their lord was happy, they relaxed; when their lord was stern, they remained on high alert.
Emperor Jiang sat on his usual bench, looking at his vassals with a blank expression: "Haven't I always been like this?"
"That's right. When she was around, you would occasionally smile, though it wasn't very obvious, but you could tell you were in a good mood."
Now you know how to read between the lines?
Di Jiang looked at the vassal with a slightly surprised expression: "Can you see that the smoke and salt particles from your barbecue are drifting towards me?"
The emperor sat downwind, while the vassal's barbecue area was upwind. When the wind blew, it was so strong that if the fire was made bigger, the vassal's meat could be eaten along with it.
"Oh, I was negligent."
Feng Chen moved to another spot, muttering to himself, "There are many things you don't say, and I can't understand them. Take this matter just now, for example. If you had said one more word, you could have gone to the other side to roast, and I wouldn't have been able to smell you. In this deserted house, the only person who can guess six or seven tenths of your thoughts without even hearing you speak is Duan Jiuyou."
Why don't you think it's your own lack of common sense?
Sometimes even the emperor doesn't understand his vassals; he's so foolish, yet he often gives advice to others.
For example, does he need to say anything about grilling meat?
He sat downwind. He carried a pheasant back, looked around, and resolutely chose to roast it upwind, not knowing which way the wind was blowing.
The vassal remained stubborn, saying to himself, "I can't stand it when she says you're afraid of the cold. You are the lord of the Wilderness Clan. Even if all the soldiers in this mansion are dumbfounded, she can't damage your dignity in front of them."
This is a deeply ingrained concept among the vassals: the old lord lived this way, and the lord, following suit, seems to think he should live the same way.
"But I also hope that you are comfortable, such as eating. I always thought that Your Excellency ate little because you were not big eaters to begin with. In the past, we ate spiritual energy and did not eat much. But after Duan Jiuyou came, I learned that Your Excellency can eat two bowls of rice."
"Actually, Duan Jiuyou has had a tough time. As a dignified Heavenly Realm Divine Official, she gave up her high position and generous salary to lead six or seven disciples to the Tenth Realm to plot a rebellion with you. Although she caused this trouble herself, her sincerity was quite evident. Putting aside the distant past, just take this time at Four Seasons Ridge. If it weren't for her few mouthfuls of Ao blood, you would have returned frozen solid. The Spiritual Physician said that being frozen stiff for too long is not good. If it goes on for too long, it will damage your heart meridian and make it even harder to recover."
Vassal lords generally don't use their brains, but once they do, they can't help but chatter incessantly.
Emperor Jiang didn't like to talk to his vassals, but when he mentioned Four Seasons Ridge, it did remind Emperor Jiang of many of Duan Jiuyou's good points.
The cold wind and swirling snowflakes seemed to transport her back to that day in the icy wilderness, where she supported him, their backs marked by tiny snowdrifts. Every now and then, she would pat his hand on her shoulder, either saying "Don't sleep" or trying to find an excuse to chat with him.
What exactly did he and she argue about last time?
Di Jiang paused to think. After more than half a month, he could hardly remember anything, only that the two of them were quite angry at the time. Duan Jiuyou pursed his lips and widened his eyes—
This sight made him sigh. In the distance, a large-headed owl perched on an old sycamore tree. Since it hadn't developed any intelligence, everything it saw was new and exciting. Di Jiang stared at it for a while before turning to look in another direction.
East of Xianwei Mountain lies Shifeng Ridge, which is the direction he is currently facing.
He had never argued with anyone before, but he didn't expect to do so well that day. He vaguely remembered that he won the argument, but she didn't say a word, which made him feel even more uncomfortable.
She seemed really wronged that day.
He turned his gaze back to the vassal roasting the pheasant: "Did Xiao Cui write you a letter?"
Feng Chen said, "There's nothing particularly new, it's just that the food wasn't good, it was too cold, and I wanted to come back. The disciples of Ao Zong nourish their bodies with qi, and even if they need to eat three meals a day in the Ten Realms, they don't have a stomach as big as Xiao Cui's. She was eating and living there for free, and she was too embarrassed to ask for extra meals, and the food wasn't as good as ours."
"What else?"
"In addition, Duan Jiuyou sits on the mountaintop every night waiting for you, and no amount of persuasion can change his mind. He's so pitiful."
This was truly a misjudgment on Xiao Cui's part. Ever since Duan Jiuyou had his argument with Di Jiang, he hadn't been very fond of this "spy." With a group of people talking around the ancestor, she was inevitably the one standing on the outside of the circle. She didn't know that Duan Jiuyou was holding the cloak to wait for Di Jiang to get too cold and come to beg her. She only judged from his appearance that Duan Jiuyou was reminiscing about someone by looking at the object.
The minister replied verbatim: "Xiao Cui said that she touches the fox fur at least three times a day. She is not afraid of the cold and gets sweaty after wearing it for a while, but she doesn't let go of it even when she is hot. She often looks at it and then laughs, then gets worried, and then gets annoyed."
After this description of the scene, Duan Jiuyou almost seemed like a fool.
The vassal waited a while, then glanced at the emperor and asked, "Are you going over tonight?"
Di Jiang remained silent, leaning back and settling deeper into the bamboo chair. His delicate face was bathed in moonlight. He didn't reply, but he was indeed pondering a question.
—Should we get some medicine for Duan Jiuyou?
—Maybe it got into some kind of "dirty thing" in Zhaozhao City.
—The person they're talking about isn't the Duan Jiuyou he knows anymore; it's clearly Liu Tianshi, who's gone mad with love!
The coldest night of winter is like the frozen, stern face of a soldier, pale and bluish, yet his gaze is fixed unwillingly on the distance.
This kind of cold is absolutely unpredictable; the wind is as hard as a dagger, scraping against your skin as if it's going to tear a piece of flesh away.
A lamp was lit in the dilapidated thatched house in Shifengling. The light reflected behind him, casting the outline of a small head and a "large" body. It was Duan Jiuyou, wearing a large fox fur coat, sitting in the open space in front of the thatched house.
The snowlight illuminated her features. At first, she seemed a little absent-minded, but she slowly listened intently, focusing in one direction. Her eyes gradually brightened, and finally, to make sure the other person could see her position, she lit a lamp at her feet.
In the midst of a blizzard, someone was climbing the mountain with an umbrella.
Snowflakes drifted onto the hem of the dress embroidered with luxurious patterns, leaving delicate, fragmented marks. The wind was strong, and the snowflakes quickly dispersed, leaving behind a slender, upright figure. Half of her face was visible under the umbrella, refined and aloof, with exceptional bone structure.
The people on the mountaintop kept their eyes on him the whole way.
It's really strange, even though both of them can ride the clouds, they both chose to use their legs to go up the mountain.
Di Jiang didn't know why he didn't ride the clouds. He didn't have any particular thoughts along the way. There were two lights on the mountaintop, one inside the room and one outside. He saw that someone was waiting for him, so he slowed down.
Duan Jiuyou's gaze never left Dijiang. In the vast darkness of the night, she watched him walk step by step toward her, open the umbrella, and reveal a pair of calm, almost inhuman eyes.
You can't see the compassion of an immortal in these eyes, nor can you see any love for all things in the world. They are always quiet, just like their owner, lonely and indifferent.
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