Shang Can found herself in a difficult position.
She desperately wanted to finish her meal and flee the dining hall, but she worried that if she left now, finding Yun Duan again would be a massive chore. She still wanted to find out if the fake Canzhe’s clothing had yielded any clues.
As a result, her meal was an agonizing experience. The already unpalatable food, seasoned with her current anxiety, tasted even worse, causing her face to twist in discomfort.
“I heard from Junior Sister Yun Duan that you and she share some history.”
Well, no need to hesitate now; it seemed she wasn’t getting away.
Shang Can grumbled internally—What history? At most, we shared a roast chicken—but as she looked up, she noticed a profound depth in Chu Ming’s eyes. She suddenly understood his intent.
Chu Ming likely knew about her and Yun Duan sneaking out of Tianwaitian to the Yanyang outskirts last night. That was why he had taken the initiative to approach her.
Just as Shang Can was about to play dumb, she saw an apologetic look cross Chu Ming’s refined face. He asked warmly, “I have yet to ask—how should I address you, Fellow Daoist…?”
Shang Can froze. She subconsciously glanced at Yun Duan beside her, only to find that the other woman had also put down her chopsticks and was looking at her with singular focus.
…Good grief. If Chu Ming hadn’t brought it up, she wouldn’t have realized that despite meeting Yun Duan several times, Yun Duan had never even asked for her name.
Fine, that probably just meant that in Yun Duan’s eyes, she wasn’t someone worth remembering. That was a good thing…
Shang Can cast aside her reservations and smiled. “I am Gong Shang of the Bicang Sect. Just a minor figure, not worth mentioning.”
She finished by pointing a finger at Wan Shao, who was currently burying her head in her food. “This is my Junior Sister, Zheng Yu.”
“Ju-Junior Sister?”
Wan Shao lifted her head from her bowl, face full of shock and looking quite indignant. Shang Can thought to herself: Since we used the five notes—Gong, Shang, Jue, Zheng, Yu—it’s obvious Gong Shang comes first and Zheng Yu comes after. What’s there to be upset about? So she replied with a beaming smile, “Yes. Does Junior Sister have something to say? Are you not full? Shall Senior Sister give you the rest of her rice?”
Wan Shao endured the humiliation, gritted her teeth, stood up, and gave a dazzling smile. “No need, Senior Sister. I’ve finished and will take my leave. Senior Sister should… catch up properly with these two.”
The words “catch up properly” were laced with hidden daggers. Shang Can watched helplessly as Wan Shao picked up her tray and left without looking back. Every step she took was full of charm and grace, but to Shang Can’s eyes, it just radiated pure schadenfreude.
The Demon Lord of the Underworld truly refused to suffer even a small loss. Shang Can gave a dry laugh and apologized to Chu Ming: “My Junior Sister… she doesn’t have much sense of etiquette…”
“It’s no matter. I should thank her for making things convenient for me.” Chu Ming’s expression remained gentle, but his voice dropped slightly. “Since it is just the three of us now, I shall be direct.”
“You were with Junior Sister Yun Duan last night, weren’t you?”
While that was technically true, couldn’t he have phrased it differently?
Shang Can remained silent, glancing first at Yun Duan. The woman in white simply sat upright; not only did she not look back, but she even seemed to shift her gaze slightly in the opposite direction.
…What was this now?
Shang Can couldn’t quite gauge Yun Duan’s attitude. Realizing there was no point in playing dumb since Chu Ming had already laid it out, she nodded decisively.
“Yes. My heart grew restless upon hearing news of Canzhe, so I slipped out while the night watch wasn’t looking. The Lord of the Clouds only chased me out to bring me back to Tianwaitian. Unluckily, I really did run into… ahem. The Lord of the Clouds only intervened out of necessity. Please do not misunderstand, Lord Yushan.”
The moment she finished, Chu Ming arched an eyebrow. Before he could speak, a cold female voice rang out resolutely.
“That is not correct.”
She really can’t coordinate a lie to save her life.
Shang Can sighed inwardly. She turned to meet Yun Duan’s questioning eyes and spoke quickly before the other could continue: “Right, right, the Lord of the Clouds is correct. I also concealed the fact that I swiped a chicken from the kitchen. I am truly ashamed, utterly humiliated.”
“We shared that chicken together.”
“Yes, yes, the Lord of the Clouds is right. I even tried to bribe her by sharing the spoils. My, I really am a piece of work.”
After two rounds of this, Yun Duan finally seemed to realize that Shang Can was hell-bent on distancing herself. She stared at Shang Can for a long while before finally looking away, her brow lowered so that Shang Can couldn’t see her expression.
Shang Can’s heart skipped a beat, feeling inexplicably as if Yun Duan’s mood had plummeted.
“Is that so?”
Chu Ming’s interjection was perfectly timed. Shang Can shook off the strange emotion and turned back to his handsome face, which somehow looked much softer than before.
“But I heard from Junior Sister Yun Duan this morning that she was the one who let you out, and she took the initiative to accompany you to the Yanyang outskirts?”
Yun Duan actually confessed everything to Chu Ming? Such a violation of the rules? And why did she get caught so quickly? Are Yun Duan and Chu Ming that close? Huh?
Once the thought started, it wouldn’t stop. Shang Can found it hard to control the odd feeling in her chest. She couldn’t resist glancing at Yun Duan again; this time it was clear—that jade-like face was indeed looking a bit downcast.
“When my jade plaque’s location left Tianwaitian, it was discovered.”
Yun Duan explained anyway, her gaze lightly skimming over Chu Ming before landing on Shang Can’s face.
.Was I not supposed to say?”
Her fragile, butterfly-wing eyelashes fluttered with uncertainty, her clear ink-black pupils reflecting a pool of light. Shang Can didn’t dare look for long. She scanned the room, repelling several wandering gazes peeking their way, and stood up.
“No, of course you could say it.”
Shang Can’s voice softened instinctively as she sighed. Who could possibly say ‘no’ to that face?
She had originally felt that getting involved with these two was a bad omen in every sense, which was why she wanted to draw a clearer line around last night’s events. But now that Yun Duan had already blurted it out—
She turned to Chu Ming in half-defeat and spoke seriously.
“Lord Yushan, if you have finished eating, shall we move elsewhere?”
Chu Ming smiled warmly and nodded. “Naturally.”
“As the eldest among the Qingyu disciples attending the assembly, I was entrusted by the elders with the heavy task of looking after my juniors. They temporarily gave me the immortal slip that allows me to check their locations.”
After leaving the dining hall, the three of them walked slowly along the path as Chu Ming considerately explained to Shang Can.
“I have a routine of checking the slip before I go to sleep. Yesterday, I saw Junior Sister Yun Duan’s location…”
He stopped there. Shang Can understood perfectly and curled her lip in secret.
Upon joining the sect, a Qingyu disciple received a green jade plaque as identification, which they were strictly forbidden to be without. It contained a life-saving spell linked to the owner’s soul, capable of preserving their life from a single fatal blow.
That was the official line, but most of the time, the plaque’s main function was to act as a GPS for the disciple.
Shang Can had suffered plenty because of that plaque in the past. But she was bold; whenever she didn’t want to be watched, she’d rip the plaque off and toss it somewhere—an act that probably violated three or four sect rules. But Yun Duan had always been upright and disciplined; even if she had gone through the unprecedented act of sneaking out of Tianwaitian with her, she would never have dreamed of removing her plaque to avoid detection.
Sigh, this is no way to sneak around. There isn’t a person in the world less suited for mischief than Yun Duan.
Shang Can mused as she followed behind the two Qingyu cultivators, feeling like she had needles in her back. She didn’t even bother looking around; she just clicked her tongue mentally.
These two were far too conspicuous.
The reputations of the “Lord of the Clouds” and “Lord Yushan” were quite high in the cultivation world. Even in Tianwaitian, where the various sects had gathered their best talents, they were top-tier celebrities. Even for Lord Yushan, whose fame was slightly lesser, Shang Can had seen plenty of knock-offs—or rather, “merchandise”—related to him when she was wandering Yanyang.
“Yushan” (Jade Mountain) likely came from the phrase “Walking on a jade mountain, where the light reflects off people”—Shang Can almost couldn’t keep her face straight. That Chu Ming definitely wouldn’t have come up with such a self-aggrandizing title himself; it must have been given to him by others. If she were still using her identity as Shang Can, she’d have teased him mercilessly about it.
Speaking of which, the title “Lord of the Clouds” (Yunzhong Jun) hadn’t been Yun Duan’s idea either—
Shang Can blinked, remembering a day many years ago when she had excitedly held a book up to Yun Duan.
‘I heard that once we leave the mountain, famous cultivators all get honorary titles, usually ending in “Jun.”‘
‘I’ve been thinking about it. For a beauty like my Junior Sister, “Lord of the Clouds” fits quite well.‘
‘The Lord of the Clouds is the God of Clouds—look!‘
‘I will wash in the pond of the sun, and dry my hair in the corner of the sky. I shall ride in a dragon chariot and wear imperial robes, wandering through the vast universe.‘
She recited it slowly in her memory, her pale pupils reflecting a glass-like brilliance under the sunlight filtering through the window frame.
‘Junior Sister, one day you will shine like the sun and moon, and your name will shake the nine provinces.‘
‘When people mention that “the title Lord of the Clouds was picked by her Senior Sister,” then I’ll get a bit of the glory too, haha!‘
What nonsense. She hadn’t invented the “Lord of the Clouds”; she’d just stumbled across it while flipping through the Songs of Chu, yet she’d wanted to bask in the reflected glory.
Shang Can’s lips curved slightly, her peripheral vision unconsciously drifting to Yun Duan diagonally in front of her.
Her plain clothes were like snow, untainted by the dust of the world. Her waist was straight and tall, like a white crane in the clouds. Simply walking down the road made her the focus of everyone’s gaze, but she radiated a coldness like winter snow that made people only dare to watch from afar, fearing to disturb her.
Such fine quality and natural grace; even the most critical observer could find no fault in her.
Shang Can looked away, thinking that she hadn’t been wrong back then. Yun Duan would shine like the sun and moon, shaking the nine provinces, making the wind and moon of the long sky pale in her presence.
She suddenly felt a surge of gratification, secretly thinking that this accidental encounter with Yun Duan wasn’t a bad thing. But then, a sharp pain shot through her chest like a bolt of lightning, almost causing her to grunt out loud.
Shang Can bit her tongue hard, forcing herself to calm down. She felt a layer of sticky cold sweat on her back—a reminder as chilling as ice.
—This Yun Duan, pure as the snow on a mountain, had once been only a hair’s breadth away from being destroyed by her hand.
“Fellow Daoist Gong Shang, please sit.”
“Ah… yes.”
Chu Ming’s voice pulled her back. Shang Can shook off her daze and sat down.
They had arrived at a remote pavilion. Shang Can checked and saw that neither of them seemed to have noticed her brief lapse, allowing her to relax slightly.
“Earlier, I heard Fellow Daoist Gong Shang say you are from the Bicang Sect?”
The conversation started with small talk that had absolutely nothing to do with the topic in the dining hall. Shang Can’s heart skipped a beat as she met Chu Ming’s smiling eyes.
“Yes. We have no fame to speak of; I’ve made Lord Yushan laugh.”
“Not at all, you are far too modest.” Chu Ming smiled, a flash of inquiry in his eyes. “With your skills, I’m sure the Bicang Sect is full of talent.”
Here it comes.
Shang Can held her breath, a complex emotion rising within her. Indeed, given her suspicious behavior yesterday, while Yun Duan hadn’t pried, it would definitely raise Chu Ming’s suspicions.
Fine, fine. It’s just an interrogation, just acting, just changing the subject, right?
Shang Can steadied her mind and put on a mock-timid smile.
“My skills are very average. At the very least… I definitely can’t compare to that Canzhe.”