Chapter 17 – Coincidence

Feng Ye had left, but Hao Chen hadn’t.

He had told Feng Ye that he had something to do. This was just an excuse, but when he left, he remembered that he actually did have something to take care of.

Hao Chen arrived at a lake in the back mountain. This lake wasn’t large, but due to the rich spiritual energy in this location, the water was quite clear.

There were also a few docile, herbivorous monsters by the lake, lowering their necks to drink from it.

Hao Chen looked around and confirmed that no one was there. Suddenly, he opened his fan and waved it gently at his side, and an invisible barrier spread open around him.

This barrier was able to block both spiritual energy and sound, putting Hao Chen enough at ease to continue. Taking the handle of his fan, he waved it at the surface of the lake.

Something invisible seemed to touch its tranquil surface, and ripples spread out from that point circle after circle.

And as the ripples spread outward, there also came a frighteningly cold aura.

Due to the sudden drop in temperature, white frost climbed up the grass and trees beside the water.

The herbivorous monsters drinking water beside the lake lifted their heads in alarm. They didn’t understand what was happening, but that didn’t prevent them from realizing how powerful the monster in front of them was. They immediately made a wild escape from the lake.

Hao Chen didn’t care about this group of low-level monsters. He waited quietly, and after a few breaths, the rippling lake returned to calm.

But the surface of the lake was no longer clear. Instead, it revealed the silhouette of a palace.

This was not an ordinary human palace, but more like a dragon palace of legend. It was decorated with precious pearls and corals, the smallest pearl as big as a fist. These would be priceless treasures in the human realm, but here they were just placed casually.

And judging from the schools of fish, shrimp, and crabs swimming through the image, this palace was likely built underwater. Even if it wasn’t a dragon palace, it was superior to one.

A hunchbacked old person in loose robes slowly came to the center of the image, then slowly saluted Hao Chen from the other side of the lake.

This set of movements seemed to be done in slow motion. Hao Chen watched him move cun by cun, and really didn’t have the patience to watch him perform the entire set of etiquette. 

He simply raised his fan and gestured: “Prime Minister Turtle, no need to be polite.”

The standard-issue Prime Minister Turtle of the dragon palace paused.

Feng Ye was probably not very far away. Although Hao Chen felt that his barrier was perfectly solid, he didn’t want to take any risks. The sooner this conversation was over, the better.

Thus, he got straight to the point: “What did you contact me for?”

Prime Minister Turtle considered for a moment, then said: “My Lord, we took stock of all the warehouses this month and finally found what the thief stole…..”

Prime Minister Turtle moved slowly, but spoke fast. But at this moment, he slowed down for no reason, demonstrating hesitation…..or perhaps disbelief.

Hao Chen frowned and asked impatiently: “What was stolen?”

Prime Minister Turtle then gave an incredible answer: “A drop of water.”

Surprise appeared on Hao Chen’s face. He repeated: “A drop of water?”

That thief had traveled thousands of li from the mortal world to the North Sea, leaving so many rare treasures behind and only stealing a drop of water?

“A drop of extremely cold water from the abyss in the far north.” Prime Minister Turtle added: “The North Sea is very cold, especially the abyss in the far north. Humans are unable to enter. He captured an octopus spirit who had cultivated for hundreds of years to help him accomplish it.”

If the octopus spirit hadn’t confessed after the fact, they never would have known that someone had stolen something as tiny as a drop of water.

Their investigation this month was mainly for the purpose of confirming whether the thief stole only that drop of water, and thus far it appeared to be true.

But this was even more unbelievable. Leaving aside how difficult it was to come to the North Sea from the human world, the environment there was extremely unsuited to human survival. The thief would have been at constant risk of dying from the lingering chill of the North Sea.

He had risked so much just to steal a single drop of water. For what reason?

Hao Chen was just as puzzled. He had lived for so long, but this was his first time encountering such a strange thing.

He rested the handle of his fan against his chin, trying to sort this matter out from the beginning.

It all started more than a month ago. As he did most of the time, Hao Chen had been floating quietly on the sea – or rather, sleeping.

When he was tired of sleeping, he would turn over and bask in the sparse sunlight of the North Sea.

Unexpectedly, the normally quiet North Sea became noisy, with large numbers of fish, shrimp, and crabs marching in neat lines.

Hao Chen attempted to ignore this and continue sleeping as usual, but he was unable to ignore the noise. With a hint of anger at being woken up, he swung his tail and knocked over a line of shrimp swimming past him.

It was fine to be grumpy when he woke up, and it was fine to swing his tail, but he was too big. When the black fish as big as an island swung his tail, he directly raised a wave one hundred meters high.

The North Sea was silent for a brief moment, then became even noisier.

Because the true Lord of the North Sea had awoken.

After venting his anger, Hao Chen sat in the main hall and listened to Prime Minister Turtle’s brief account of the sudden turmoil in the North Sea.

An octopus spirit came to the hall to report that a human had come to steal, and had forced it into petty theft. As it spoke, it wiped its tears with the only tentacle it had left.

If not for the fact that losing a limb wasn’t fatal for this particular species, it would have been killed by the ruthless thief.

How could this be tolerated?!

How could a human be so bold in the North Sea?!

Although Hao Chen was still asleep at that time, Prime Minister Turtle had acted decisively and ordered all troops to search for the thief.

Unexpectedly, the search was so noisy that it woke up Hao Chen.

Now that Hao Chen was awake, it was naturally up to him to decide what to do next.

Hao Chen sat upon a throne made of coral. He held his chin in thought, feeling that it was truly boring to remain in the North Sea. If it wasn’t so boring, he wouldn’t have to sleep all the time.

Since he was awake now, he might as well take the opportunity to go to the human realm under the pretext of searching for the thief.

Despite such great effort, Prime Minister Turtle had been unable to find the thief. Then there was only one possibility – the thief had escaped back to the human realm.

Thus, Hao Chen had come to the human realm just over a month prior.

In order to smooth the way, he used some tricks to obtain the identity of a disciple of Tiangong Pavilion. For some inexplicable reason – which Feng Ye would label conceit –  Hao Chen insisted on using his actual appearance despite the fact that it could expose his identity.

No one had caught sight of the thief. The only one who had seen him was the octopus. However, the octopus thought that all humans looked the same, so its description didn’t hold much value. The only clue it provided was that the thief had a piece of wrinkled skin like a sea eggplant on his left cheek.

When translated, this meant that the thief had been wounded on the left side of his face, which left a very distinctive scar. But this information was useless. Appearance was the easiest thing to disguise. Moreover, although the mortal realm was not as vast as the heavens, it also wasn’t small. This being the case, how could he find that person?

But Hao Chen had another way to track him. Since the thief had been to the North Sea, he must have been stained with the North Sea’s unique chill, which wouldn’t fade in the short term.

He simply chased that cold aura the whole way in an extremely improper manner.

Although he said he was here to catch the thief, Hao Chen’s purpose was greater than that. No matter what the thief had stolen, he wouldn’t have missed it much. His North Sea was rich, and he was a true local tycoon. The main purpose of this trip was to have some fun.

In addition, he happened to pass by the scene of a murder and robbery and saw a dead body, which he didn’t treat seriously at the time.

He pursued the thief passively for over a month, following the thief’s route all the way to Lingxiao Sword Sect.

This was the place where the cold aura finally dissipated. Only then did Hao Chen realize that he had been slacking off for too long – to the point that the cold aura was completely gone.

But it was no big deal. He didn’t actually care about catching the thief, so with the mentality of having a look around, he made up a half-hearted excuse and prepared to sneak into Lingxiao Sword Sect to see if the thief had left any clues behind.

Unexpectedly, he met Feng Ye.

Hao Chen initially suspected that he was the thief, but later realized he couldn’t be. The timing was all wrong.

For a month, that thief had been busy wandering the world, leaving footsteps in many locations. Hao Chen regarded him as his tour guide in the human realm and followed those footsteps to travel around.

And Feng Ye had been residing in Lingxiao Sword Sect for the past month. Although his identity was in question, he shouldn’t be the thief.

But this did not affect Hao Chen’s interest in Feng Ye. It was rare for him to meet such an interesting person in his tens of thousands of years.

So, he irresponsibly tossed the matter of catching the thief aside and instead pestered Feng Ye, vowing to unearth his identity.

However, Feng Ye had impersonated someone a month ago. Similarly, the thief had gone to the North Sea to take a drop of water a month ago and had also come to Lingxiao Sword Sect.

Could there be no connection between these two things?

Not necessarily.

The timing was too coincidental, as well as the location. There were too many coincidences, that was certain.

Therefore, Hao Chen found a fair and reasonable excuse to stay.

Hao Chen didn’t speak for a while as he sorted out his thoughts.

Prime Minister Turtle waited, but couldn’t help asking about a matter he was concerned about: “My Lord, the thief…..has he been caught?”

Compared to the real ruler of the North Sea, Hao Chen, who was extremely irresponsible and felt that catching the thief was unimportant, Prime Minister Turtle had a strong sense of collective honor. He was very angry at the thief for daring to break in, and had vowed to bring him to justice.

Hao Chen’s hand holding the fan paused for a moment. The thief…..he had lost track of him while traveling along the way.

However, as a creature capable of surviving the North Sea, the first requirement was to have thick skin. Without thick skin and a layer of fat, it was impossible to maintain one’s body temperature in the freezing environment of the North Sea.

Therefore, Hao Chen was extremely thick-skinned, which Feng Ye would have a lot to say about.

Hao Chen said to Prime Minister Turtle without a change in expression: “The thief was too cunning. I lost him.”

Prime Minister Turtle was shocked to hear this: “Even you…..”

Hao Chen nodded heavily. 

There was alarm on Prime Minister Turtle’s face: “Who exactly is this person? You’re the most powerful person in the world. How could anyone escape your pursuit?”

“This is bad.” Prime Minister Turtle’s thoughts diverged, and he immediately came up with a series of horrific scenarios: “Could it be the Yinglong from the Southern Sea? I’ve heard that he’s cruel and warlike, and has the ambition of ruling the world. I and several sea lords are worried that he might come to our North Sea…..”

“Prime Minister Turtle.” Hao Chen could only interrupt these outrageous speculations. That thief was just an ordinary human being, likely at the Nascent Soul stage. He had failed to catch him because of his own slowness, not because his opponent was too capable.

But if Hao Chen wanted to explain this without exposing his previous lie, he would have to tell another lie. It seemed the human saying was true – once you told a lie, countless lies would be needed to cover it up.

But it didn’t matter. He was the boss, and had no need to give explanations to his subordinates.

Hao Chen simply frowned, and Prime Minister Turtle didn’t dare to speak further.

When Hao Chen was about to end the conversation, he suddenly asked: “Is there a person named Feng Ye among the heavens?”

He spent most of his time sleeping, and his familiarity with the heavenly realm was no greater than with the human realm.

Prime Minister Turtle, who assisted him with government affairs, was much more knowledgeable. He thought for a moment before replying: “Among the well-known gods, there doesn’t seem to be anyone with this name. But I only know about the North Sea and the areas around it. I don’t know if there is a god named Feng Ye farther away.”

“Go investigate, and contact me when you have results,” Hao Chen commanded.

“Yes,” Prime Minister Turtle said with a bow.

His movements were slow once more.

Without waiting for Prime Minister Turtle to finish the ceremonial etiquette, Hao Chen waved his fan and ended the communication. 

The surface of the lake returned to normal, and the barrier he had erected around it dissipated as well.

Hao Chen closed his fan, and stood there thinking for a while before deciding to go down the mountain and find Feng Ye.

The heavens were enormous, a thousand times larger than this human realm. It would likely take Prime Minister Turtle a long time to search for that name.

Hao Chen had plenty of time. Compared to the short lifespan of humans, a single instance of sleep for him could last for several generations of mankind.

But at present, he was too curious about Feng Ye’s identity. In tens of thousands of years, there were few people who could arouse his interest like this.

So Hao Chen wouldn’t wait for Prime Minister Turtle to search slowly – he also intended to look for clues from Feng Ye.

Besides, there was an eighty percent chance that the name ‘Feng Ye’ was fake. It was very likely that Prime Minister Turtle would have no results, so it was best to prepare for both situations.

With this thought in mind, Hao Chen walked slowly down the mountain. Then, at the foot of the mountain, he once again met Feng Ye, who should have been long gone.

Hao Chen: “……”

Feng Ye: “……”

Neither side was prepared for this unexpected encounter.

After a beat, Hao Chen asked: “Fellow Daoist Feng Ye, why are you here?” Didn’t you go down the mountain quite a while ago?

Feng Ye heard the inquiry in Hao Chen’s words. He was speechless for a moment, then said vaguely: “I….took the wrong path, so it took me a while to get here.”

After answering, he threw the question back: “Why is Fellow Daoist Hao Chen here?”

It was Hao Chen’s turn to be speechless. He paused, then copied his answer: “I also took the wrong path, and got here via detour.”

“Haha, what a coincidence, ah.” Feng Ye laughed dryly, not going into why Hao Chen had plagiarized his answer.

“Yes, what a coincidence, ah. My fate with Fellow Daoist Feng Ye is truly destined by heaven.” Hao Chen offered a fake smile.

Then the two of them tacitly dropped the subject. They walked side by side all the way back, endlessly uneasy, wondering if the other person had found out what he’d done.

He shouldn’t have……right?

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Chapter 16 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 18