There are plenty of people surnamed Yin in this world, but as far as Cen Yuchi knew, only one Yin Family could casually embroider the rising sun over the sky onto their money pouches. Combined with the way the shopkeeper and his servant had treated this Young Immortal just now, Cen Yuchi was all the more certain: this Young Immortal had to be a descendant of one of the Twelve Immortal Feathers, the young master of the Yin Family of Jiangbei.
Speaking of the Jiangbei Yin Family, they actually had quite a history with Cen Yuchi, and were one of the few Immortal Sect clans he had never fallen out with.
The Yin Family had never favored martial prowess, instead devoting themselves to cunning schemes and intricate calculations. Though they remained neutral, since very few families in the Immortal Sects cultivated this particular path, and its uses were broad, plus the renown that came after the Twelve Immortal Feathers, all the great clans were willing to be on good terms with them making them a rather prestigious family.
The Yin Family had always been closest with Immortal Feather Peak, so their disciples were usually sent there in their youth to study swordsmanship. Most would learn for a year or so, enough not to be completely clueless then return home to carry on as before. It had always been this way.
The previous generation’s eldest son of the Yin Family, Yin Yunluo, had studied at Immortal Feather Peak alongside Cen Yuchi back in the day. Since the two were close in age, they were often arranged to come and go together.
Cen Yuchi had been clever as a child, clever at everything except actual cultivation: charming cats and provoking dogs, climbing onto roofs and tearing off tiles, that sort of thing.
Yin Yunluo, meanwhile, was even more of a bookworm, capable only of armchair strategizing and reciting classical texts; in actual combat he was several degrees worse than even Cen Yuchi.
But this Yin Yunluo was extraordinarily capable in his own family’s specialty. He knew Divination Bagua, Military Formations, the essentials of martial learning, and the like inside and out, and was accomplished in every one of the four arts qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Humble and courteous, he would open his mouth only to quote the classics, and was deeply beloved by the elders.
When the Yin Family sent him over, they had made things clear: this child was a rare genius seen once in a century, destined to be groomed as the next Family Head. Sending him to Immortal Feather Peak was merely a formality, he need only learn a little superficial knowledge.
And so Cen Yuchi, second from the bottom, fared even worse than the very last. Not only did he fail to enjoy the pleasure of being above just one person, he was constantly held up for comparison against Yin Yunluo and no matter how you turned it, he couldn’t match the other in anything.
As for Yin Yunluo himself, he was famously talkative among the disciples of Immortal Feather Peak, always muttering away under his breath. Listen closely, and it seemed to be all about astronomy, geography, and Qimen Bagua, as if with every step he took, he first had to calculate whether the feng shui of that patch of ground was favorable. Most of his peers kept him at a respectful distance.
Yet this superstitious oddball somehow decided that Cen Yuchi had extraordinary talent in Artifact Refining and that the two of them got along wonderfully, and he would often seek Cen Yuchi out to discuss mechanical ingenuity, rare treasures, and the like. Every conversation left Cen Yuchi’s head buzzing, and eventually he started hiding at the mere sight of him.
But Yin Yunluo’s Soul-Seeking Pursuit Method was truly formidable. A few flicks of his fingers, a shake of the Soul Bell, and he could calculate where even a single strand of anyone’s hair had fallen, practically a plague god.
As for fighting him, well, he was a bookworm, and it felt unseemly to raise a hand against him. And there was no hiding, either. Even later, when Cen Yuchi had turned to the demonic path and everyone shunned him, Yin Yunluo still came to Ten-Zhang Manor every few days to exchange thoughts and insights with him, insufferably persistent.
It was only after the Yin Family’s upheaval, when Yin Yunluo became Family Head and was bogged down with endless affairs, that Cen Yuchi finally got some peace.
Yin Yunluo was annoying, but he was not the only nuisance the Yin Family had to offer.
If the elder one was merely talkative chattering enough to give anyone a headache then the younger one was a genuine little demon of mischief and mayhem. That person was Yin Yunluo’s precious nephew, Yin Xiaoyang.
Like the other children of the Yin Family, Yin Xiaoyang had been sent to Immortal Feather Peak as a child, but he was exceptionally gifted, displaying remarkable talent in swordsmanship. The Yin Family was a nest of bookworms who hadn’t produced a single Sword Cultivator in eight hundred years, so they treasured this eldest nephew immensely. He was fed and clothed in extravagant luxury, his words and actions indulged to an utterly unreasonable degree.
The worst offender among them was Yin Yunluo.
As long as Yin Xiaoyang stayed at Immortal Feather Peak, things were fine, but the moment he returned to the Yin Family, Yin Yunluo wanted to tether him to her waistband and drag him everywhere she went.
There had been a few occasions when the two of them came to Ten-Zhang Manor together, and within half a day, everything in the manor, whatever flew in the sky, ran on the ground, or swam in the water was wrecked. Even the ginseng that Nan Xunliu had painstakingly nurtured for years, which had just begun to take on a human shape and was treasured like his own son, was dug up, decapitated, dismembered limb from limb, and torn apart, utterly brutal.
Cen Yuchi, unable to bear it any longer, put up a sign at the gate with a few bold strokes: “No Yins Allowed.” So even now, Cen Yuchi harbored a strange “dread” of the Yin Family.
And now, right at this moment, that little demon of chaos was sitting upright on the edge of the bed, frowning at Cen Yuchi.
Cen Yuchi gave a sheepish grin, trying to ease the awkwardness.
In just the past incense stick’s worth of time, Cen Yuchi had used twelve different tools, formed thirty-six different Magic Incantations, and chiseled at it with a rock one hundred and seventy-two times, yet he still couldn’t remove the thin golden ring locked around his wrist and he had successfully woken up Yin Xiaoyang on the other end of it.
Cen Yuchi was deeply frustrated.
A disastrous start. Of all people to steal from, that little thief just had to provoke this darling young master of the Yin Family from Immortal Feather Peak. What a double disgrace!
“Don’t bother. You won’t be able to undo it,” Yin Xiaoyang said first.
Cen Yuchi felt his pride as an Artifact Refining cultivator take a slight insult.
That shouldn’t be…
Cen Yuchi had seen plenty of Magic Treasures of this kind. They generally fell into just a few categories, and there were only a few dozen ways to break them. Even if it were an Immortal-Binding Rope binding him right now, Cen Yuchi was confident he could slip away without a trace within half a cup of tea. He had crouched there studying it for ages and simply couldn’t figure out why he couldn’t undo this stubborn, accursed thing.
Cen Yuchi promptly swallowed his pride and asked: “Young Immortal, this treasure of yours is truly remarkable. May I ask what it is?”
A barely perceptible flicker of embarrassment crossed Yin Xiaoyang’s face, as if what he was about to say were hard to utter, but he quickly composed himself and declared with full confidence:
“A dog leash.”
“…”
Cen Yuchi’s hand holding the rock wobbled, and the chisel landed squarely on the back of his other hand. Muttering inwardly about how carelessly the thing had been named, he thought to himself: Brother, I’m sorry. If this blow ruins those money-making hands of yours, I’ll join an opera troupe and play “Cen Yuchi” for the rest of my life to support you.
But… wait? Amid his pained wailing, Cen Yuchi took a careful look at the thing on his wrist.
It was a golden ring, carved with exquisite openwork totems and inlaid with several rubies of considerable value. No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t seem like something used to bind people, it looked more like a refined work of art.
Add a few red threads for decoration, and it really would be a dog leash.
Cen Yuchi nodded. And it was his own handiwork, at that.
Come to think of it, Cen Yuchi himself had almost forgotten that years ago he had picked up a little puppy by the roadside. The puppy was jet black all over, covered in fluffy little curls, with bright red eyes, very distinctive.
Cen Yuchi took a liking to it and went to great lengths to make a set of pure gold collars. The collar could automatically adjust to the thickness of the puppy’s neck, ensuring it couldn’t be slipped off, yet wouldn’t chafe too tightly. The other end was a ring, worn on his own hand, connected by an invisible “leash.”
Since it was, after all, a dog leash, the collar could only be opened or closed by the person wearing the ring, it couldn’t be undone from the other end.
Cen Yuchi named the puppy “Cen Xiaojuan,” fed it well every day, and took it out for walks everywhere. Later, that heartless little dog somehow broke free of the collar and ran off. Cen Yuchi was so anxious he searched all night in the rain without finding it, and was heartbroken for quite a long time afterward.
Because he was so grief-stricken, he had no mind to figure out how it had escaped, and the matter was simply set aside.
Later, when Yin Xiaoyang came to Ten-Zhang Manor and gave Cen Yuchi such a splitting headache, he casually tossed the dog leash to him to play with.
Afterward, though Cen Yuchi found many puppies resembling Xiaojuan, he never cared for them as much, nor did he ever think of that leash again. Who would have thought that after all these years, with that wretched dog long since forgotten, today he himself would be the one leashed.
A dog leash is useless for restraining dogs, but works wonderfully on people. Cen Yuchi, with his lifetime of renown, had actually come to a day when he fared worse than a dog.
……
Drowsiness overtook him, and Cen Yuchi slept the whole night hugging the table leg, only to be woken the next morning by Yin Xiaoyang. Gazing bleary-eyed at Yin Xiaoyang as he wrapped cloth bands around his sleeves, Cen Yuchi felt as if he had returned to those miserable days years ago on Immortal Feather Peak, rising with the sun every day.
In that short while, Yin Xiaoyang was already fully dressed. Cen Yuchi had nothing to prepare either, and was led away by Yin Xiaoyang just like that.
Fortunately, ordinary people couldn’t see through the metal ring on his wrist, nor did they know about the “blood feud” between them. In the innkeeper’s eyes, the two of them had simply both flown out the door last night in a whoosh fighting over the last room, come to blows, and then one of them had been sheepishly hauled back by the other to sleep on the floor.
After settling the bill, Yin Xiaoyang strode off directly, and Cen Yuchi, being in his hands, could only follow a step or two behind him.
The early morning street was very quiet. Shopkeepers along the road, in twos and threes, yawned as they set up their stalls, and a small mountain in the distance was shrouded in thick mist, giving one a feeling of utter relaxation and ease.
Cen Yuchi stretched lazily, squinting comfortably, and just as he was about to lower his arms, he suddenly felt his wrist tighten. Cen Yuchi looked up to see Yin Xiaoyang standing not far away, turning back to look at him with an impatient expression.
Cen Yuchi gave a cheeky grin and pointed at a small stall that had just been set up nearby: “Young Immortal, how about buying me a bun?” With that, he sat down without another word and began ordering things on his own.
A high-level cultivator like Yin Xiaoyang could naturally go ten days or half a month without eating or drinking, but Cen Yuchi couldn’t, he’d panic if he missed even a single meal. Yin Xiaoyang stood in place in silence for a moment, then came over with a dark face and sat down as well.
Cen Yuchi didn’t eat much and ordered only a little, so naturally he hadn’t ordered anything for Yin Xiaoyang. Yin Xiaoyang showed no intention of eating together either; he silently paid the bill, then said irritably, “Hurry up and eat.”
Cen Yuchi, of course, wanted more than just a free meal. This great-nephew of the Yin Family wouldn’t say what he planned to do with him or where they were going, he was about as talkative as a stone. Now that Cen Yuchi finally had a chance, he intended to interrogate him properly. It would also be a good opportunity to learn a bit about the current situation within the Immortal Sect, so he wouldn’t be caught off guard if something unexpected happened.
“Young Immortal, your surname is Yin? You wouldn’t happen to be from the Yin Family of Jiangbei, would you?” The shopkeeper had been calling him “Immortal Yin” repeatedly, and since the surname Yin was rare, it was only natural to think of the Yin Family of Jiangbei.
Sure enough, Yin Xiaoyang didn’t seem surprised. He gave a snort, which was as good as an admission.
Cen Yuchi continued, “But why would someone from the Yin Family be wearing Immortal Feather Peak robes? You’re not fooling me, are you? Is that money pouch really yours?” Either way, playing dumb was the right move.
Yin Xiaoyang frowned at his words and snapped, “Finish eating and get moving. Stop talking nonsense!”
In truth, Cen Yuchi had noticed last night that Yin Xiaoyang was really in a hurry to get somewhere. So he grinned and pressed on, “Young Immortal, where are you rushing off to in such a hurry?”
Even if Yin Xiaoyang didn’t say, Cen Yuchi could guess. From the moment they set out in the morning, the man had been heading straight south. No map needed, he had left the Yin Family and was making a beeline for Immortal Feather Peak. And given how urgent he seemed, something must be about to happen.
“What business is it of yours?” Yin Xiaoyang said righteously.
My dear great-nephew so the gold bracelet in my possession was a gift from you, was it? Cen Yuchi slammed down his chopsticks in anger: “You say you’re in a hurry, yet you’re dragging me along. How heavy do you think I am? Besides, if you’re heading back to Immortal Feather Peak, doesn’t bringing an outsider break the rules?”
Yin Xiaoyang was just about to say something when suddenly a crowd of people came pouring around the street corner, noisy and chaotic, with the sound of a woman wailing mixed in.
Yin Xiaoyang and Cen Yuchi both froze at the scene, not knowing what had happened. The crowd quickly arrived at the baozi shop where the two were eating. Cen Yuchi reached out and grabbed a friendly-looking man to ask, “Friend, where are you all headed?”
The man looked at Cen Yuchi, then at Yin Xiaoyang sitting nearby with a furrowed brow, and sighed. “Ah! The hunter’s son at the village entrance ran off into the mountains yesterday and hasn’t come back all night. So all us neighbors are rushing up the mountain to search for him. If you two have nothing urgent, why not come along? The mountain’s been haunted lately, lots of people have seen it, hanging from a tree! More hands make lighter work. We can’t let anything happen to that boy!”
A hunter? A ghost? Hanging from a tree? Could they be talking about him?
Cen Yuchi racked his memory. Yesterday morning, while he was indeed hanging from a tree, he had seen a few hunters out hunting deer but for some reason, they had suddenly bolted like madmen, and he had ended up eating their deer.
Thinking about it now, could it be they had mistaken him for a ghost and fled in terror? Then there was nothing to worry about, he was no evil spirit that harmed people. That boy had most likely just gotten lost in the mountains.
Once he’d figured this out, Cen Yuchi had no intention of getting involved and was about to refuse on the grounds of being in a hurry to get somewhere, when Yin Xiaoyang, who had been silent all this time, suddenly stood up and declared emphatically: “Fine!”
Cen Yuchi was nearly choked by that single “Fine,” thinking: What a model young man of our times, championing the weak and helping those in trouble!
Then Yin Xiaoyang continued, “But I have one condition.”
At this, a young man stepped out from the crowd. He was presumably a family member of the lost child. A thick smile hung on his face the whole time, making him seem kind and pleasant, yet there was something careless about him, as if nothing really mattered to him. He said to Yin Xiaoyang, “May I ask, honored immortal, what must we do for you to be willing to help?”
Yin Xiaoyang’s gaze swept across the faces of the crowd one by one, then returned to the young man. “My condition is that you all return home and wait quietly. I alone, ” At this point he glanced at Cen Yuchi beside him, then quickly changed his words, ” the two of us will go!”
Cen Yuchi: Hey! Did you just roll your eyes? Did you? Don’t think I didn’t see it! It’s not like I insisted on tagging along with you!