Ch. 98 – Mountain Flower

“We brothers have stayed in the mountains for a while now. We initially came here to avoid the government troops, but now that the heat has died down, what are we still doing here?” 

“Isn’t it for the legendary treasure inside the ruins?!” Wang Wu slapped his thigh.

Zhao Yi nodded in agreement.

“But that place is too eerie. Of all the creatures we sent to scout ahead, which of them came back alive? In the end, they all became skeletons in that pit. Let me think…..”

Wang Wu stroked his messy, unkempt beard, which resembled overgrown weeds: “Staying here like this isn’t going to work. There is absolutely no way that the two of us can deal with that man-eating place. As wonderful as the treasure is, without the ability to take it, we can only stare at it helplessly.”

“But now this group of people has come to our doorstep, and they’re heading directly for the city ruins. They might also be searching for that treasure. We can’t deal with that thing, but these cultivators might just be able to.”

“But once they’ve dealt with it, won’t they make off with the treasure?” Zhao Yi interjected.

“Eh, it’s worth the gamble! We can’t just stay here forever, can we?” Wang Wu detailed his plan to Zhao Yi: “There are three possible outcomes if we take them to the ruins.”

He held up three fingers: “One, they’re eaten by that ghostly thing too. Two, they fight the monster to a standstill and both sides perish. Three, they return victorious.”

“If it’s the third outcome, we can forget about everything. We don’t have the ability to retrieve the treasure, nor do we have the ability to take them down. We’ll just have to accept our fate. But judging by how young they are, even if they are cultivators, they’re probably just greenhorns with limited proficiency. In my opinion, the third outcome has a very small probability of happening.”

Wang Wu’s analysis was very logical and insightful. Despite his rugged appearance, he was a meticulous soul. “If it’s the second outcome, we can look for an opportunity to snatch up the benefits while the snipe and the clam are fighting each other.” 

“Finally, if even they are incapable of fighting the thing in the ruins, we have even less of a chance. We’ll no longer need to sit idly by on this mountain of treasure with no way to get to it. But while we might not be able to take the treasure ourselves, we can take it from these cultivators.”

“We’ll loot the treasure from their corpses, hehe…..” At this point, Wang Wu couldn’t help but chuckle smugly over his flawless plan. “These cultivators must possess treasures that are impossible to find in the mortal world. If we take just one and sell it, we’ll be able to live a life of wealth and honor!”

“And to go even further, we might be able to use their magical treasures to enter the immortal realm!” Wang Wu spoke with great excitement.

As Zhao Yi listened to his words, his eyes brightened more and more. It made sense. Rather than waiting in vain for this treasure that could only be looked at but not held, it was better to take a gamble.

“So, how about it? Want to take a gamble with me?” asked Wang Wu.

“Damn it – I’ll take the gamble!” Zhao Yi growled fiercely.

“That’s right!” Wang Wu stepped onto the bank from the stream and hooked his arm around Zhao Yi’s neck, saying in a low voice: “This afternoon, we’ll behave ourselves and lead the way to the entrance of the ruins. Then….”

The two discussed back and forth how to lure Feng Ye and his group into the deadly ruins, completely unaware that a human and a bird were listening to their plan from behind a tree.

Feng Ye tilted his head, and a tuft of fluffy feathers against his neck tickled him slightly.

He wondered if taking a mile when given an inch was Hao Chen’s motto. It probably was.

This fellow was pretending to be frightened, scooting closer and closer to him. In the end, he put one foot into Feng Ye’s collar and curled his whole body tightly around Feng Ye’s neck.

There was a common rumor that dragons possessed a scale that couldn’t be touched, lest they fly into a rage.

And this scale – or “inverse scale” – grew on the neck, where the crow was currently nestling.

There was some truth and some falsehood to this rumor.

This sensitive spot was definitely not to be touched casually. If it was, whether it was Feng Ye or the dragon in the Eastern Sea, they would fly into a towering rage.

Because this scale, which grew upside down, was actually the most sensitive spot on a dragon’s body. Even a light touch was uncomfortable, much like a ticklish person being tickled on the sides.

And this sensitive spot was considered to be extremely private by the dragon race.

A stranger touching a dragon’s inverse scale was like someone groping a pure young maiden. It would be strange for a dragon, which were violent by nature, not to get angry.

There were, however, exceptions. A dragon’s lover could touch it however much they wanted. 

Hao Chen was clearly not Feng Ye’s lover, so when the crow neared that most sensitive of spots, Feng Ye tilted his neck to avoid it.

But the more he evaded, the closer the crow pressed against him, until the tips of his feathers eventually touched that sensitive spot.

The feathers were soft, and their fine, dense down felt like a tiny brush. Although it was only a light graze, it still sent a shiver through Feng Ye’s entire body.

A wave of furious offense came over him, and Feng Ye snatched the crow off his shoulder, glaring at the bewildered bird.

The crow blinked up at Feng Ye, wearing an innocent expression.

And he was indeed quite innocent, because the fact that a dragon’s inverse scale was its most sensitive spot was something only known to dragons themselves. Outsiders had no way of knowing.

But ignorance was no excuse.

Feng Ye understood this principle, and had no intention of letting the crow off easy.

Thus, he grabbed the crow’s wings with both hands and ruffled all of its feathers, stroking them against the grain until he had thoroughly disheveled its soft plumage.

The power of his avatar was limited, and Hao Chen was unable to break free from Feng Ye’s grip as his feathers were rumpled in retaliation.

But even though Feng Ye was petting against the grain, it was still….a little enjoyable…..

So enjoyable that he wanted him to do it again.

After preening his feathers back into place with his beak, Hao Chen looked at Feng Ye with bright eyes, his anticipation evident.

However, Feng Ye had no intention of continuing. He had already gleaned sufficient information from the conversation between the two mountain bandits. Their plan didn’t concern him much, because he wasn’t going to keep them around long enough for them to put their plan into action.

Therefore, Feng Ye started the trek back, throwing Hao Chen off from where he had once again climbed up to hitch a free ride on his shoulder.

Hao Chen thought to himself, Perhaps I’ve been standing on the same side for too long, and Feng Ye’s shoulder is a little tired.

The crow thoughtfully flew up to perch on the other shoulder, only to be thrown off once again.

Just as he relentlessly made a third attempt, Feng Ye caught the crow mid-air and uttered two cold words with a grim expression: “Fly yourself.”

The crow flapped his wings and hovered in place, using his eyes to rebuke Feng Ye for his ruthless abandonment. 

It had clearly been fine for him to perch there a moment ago, but now it suddenly wasn’t allowed even though he had purchased a ticket.

Feng Ye completely disregarded the crow’s accusing look and continued on his way toward the wooden house.

The crow watched Feng Ye’s retreating figure, in no rush to give chase.

He sensed very acutely that this dragon was angry.

But he couldn’t figure out the reason for his anger. He hadn’t done anything wrong, ah. In the end, he could only attribute it to the unpredictable temper of a drunken dragon.

Anyway, no matter how angry he was, Hao Chen would just coax him!

Another idea occurred to him, and his eyes lit up.

Feng Ye saw the crow disappear for a while, and then fly back with something else in his beak.

It was a small, pale purple flower. The exact variety was unclear, but it was probably a wildflower unique to Longqiu.

The crow hovered in front of Feng Ye, as if offering the wildflower to him.

He had already been fooled once, and there was no reason to fall for it a second time. If he accepted this wildflower, the crow would have a legitimate excuse to take advantage of him again.

Still burning with offense, Feng Ye remained expressionless, unmoved by the crow’s gift.

He fixed the crow with a cold stare. Standing in place was nothing to him, but the crow was so small that he could only look Feng Ye in the eye when he flew up to him.

So he continued to flap his wings, hovering in the air. But his stamina was limited, and crows were not particularly endurance-based birds. He couldn’t maintain his altitude, and slowly began to descend.

He flew lower and lower, before finally, he landed on the ground.

Feng Ye simply lifted one long leg and stepped over the head of the exhausted crow huddled on the ground.

The crow stood alone on the muddy mountain path, watching Feng Ye head on his way without looking back

As he watched, Feng Ye steps began to slow, and he came to a sudden stop just as he was about to disappear from sight.

Walking back the way he had come, he approached the crow and crouched down. Then he took the flower from the crow’s beak, but instead of wearing it himself, he placed it in the feathers on the crow’s head.

But this could be considered a gift received. The crow shook his feathers and happily prepared to fly back onto Feng Ye’s shoulder.

Feng Ye raised a hand to stop him, and with a serious expression, laid down one basic rule: “No standing on the shoulder.”

Otherwise, given Hao Chen’s style, he would definitely end up provoking him again. Therefore, Feng Ye simply cut off the possibility of Hao Chen touching his sensitive spot again at the root.

There were only so many places on a person’s body to perch. If not on the shoulder, then where?

The crow’s gaze rose higher and higher, and he found his answer.

Feng Ye walked back to the wooden house with a crow perched atop his head. And on the crow’s head, tucked behind its ear, was an unidentified wildflower.

Although the petals were purple, deep within the pistil lay a deep golden hue, a color even sweeter than honey.

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