Chapter 779 — The Marriage Price

CHAPTER 779

The Marriage Price

Shi Feng sat down in Shen Yaoqing’s seat. It was still a little warm.

Long Caili didn’t look at him. Her veil hung still, and above it her eyes were on the stage, where the lanterns were burning down one by one on the water.

“You heard Qu Ming boast in my hall that his grandfather would make her master’s pill,” Long Caili said. “Once she accepts the Azure Sun’s terms.”

“Cheng Mobai told me what the terms were,” Shi Feng said. “A marriage.”

“To Qu Ming,” Long Caili said, keeping her voice even. “Her master has Void-rot. It eats a cultivator from the inside, through the wounds space leaves in her. She has perhaps a year. There’s one pill for it in the records, and Qu Hanshan is the only alchemist in the capital who has offered to try it.”

“For a price,” Shi Feng said. He looked toward the garden where Shen Yaoqing had gone.

“For Yaoqing,” Long Caili said, turning her cup without drinking. “So far she’s said neither yes nor no. In the Serene Jade, a chief disciple’s betrothal is her own affair, so her sect can’t refuse for her. And a disciple who turns away the only man who can save her master doesn’t look like much of a disciple.”

Shi Feng said nothing. He waited.

“Tomorrow, if Qu Ming wins my contest, he becomes my champion,” Long Caili said. “The Azure Sun’s young lord, standing on my stage before the whole capital, with his grandfather in the first row. The Azure Sun won’t waste that. Qu Hanshan will ask for her answer there, in public, with the pill as the price. In my pavilion, with her sitting at my side.” She paused. “And she’ll have to give one.”

“And if she says no?” Shi Feng asked. “What will they demand then?”

“Then her master dies, and the whole capital watches her choose it,” Long Caili said, her hand still on the cup. “If she says yes, the Serene Jade chief disciple goes to the Azure Sun with a pill for a dowry, and the Azure Sun stops needing me. When the lips are gone, the teeth get cold.”

Shi Feng understood the pressure now. They were using a dying master to force Shen Yaoqing into marriage, then using that marriage to weaken the princess. Long Caili had explained the danger to her friend first. He was surprised she trusted him with either part.

“Why are you telling me?” Shi Feng asked.

“Because you’re the other man on the stage tomorrow,” Long Caili said coldly. “And I don’t send my recruits into a fight without knowing what it’s for. It’s bad business.” She finally looked at him. “That’s all.”

“Is that all?” Shi Feng asked, watching her hand tighten on the cup.

“Don’t push your luck, Master Shi,” Long Caili warned, narrowing her eyes.

Shi Feng let it go. He looked down at the lake for a while.

“What’s in the pill?” Shi Feng asked.

Long Caili stopped turning the cup.

For the first time since he’d met her, surprise showed in her eyes. She’d been ready for him to ask about the price, or about Qu Hanshan, or about what he’d get for winning. Every man in the capital asked her about the price.

“The pill?” Long Caili said.

“Her master’s pill. What goes into it?” Shi Feng asked. “You said the Azure Sun offered to try, not that they’d already made it.”

Long Caili looked at him for a long moment. Then she gave him the details carefully, making sure he understood which parts came from the Pavilion records and which were Qu Hanshan’s claims.

“The Void-Mending Pill,” Long Caili said. “By the Pavilion’s book it’s 5 Mark-grade, but it sits right at the edge of the 6 Mark, and nobody has made one in eighty years. Nine herbs, all Shattering Void-grade. Two are rare, and the Serene Jade already holds both. And a sliver of void crystal, ground fine, to bind them.” She paused. “The herbs aren’t the problem. The fire is. Qu Hanshan says it wants eight clouds held for a full hour, or the crystal splits and takes the furnace with it. He says only he can hold eight clouds that long.”

“Eight clouds for an hour,” Shi Feng said. “Not seven? Not nine?”

“Eight,” Long Caili said. “That’s what he says.”

Shi Feng sat back in the seat and looked at the dark water.

“Interesting,” Shi Feng said.

He stood up, bowed to the princess, and went down the gallery stairs.

“Master Shi,” Long Caili said behind him. “Interesting how?”

“I’ll tell you after I’ve slept, Your Highness,” Shi Feng said. “It’s late, and I’ve got a fight in the morning.”

He walked home to Willow Ford along the dark canal. Ji Yuanhe was waiting up by the furnace with the salve jar and a lamp. Shi Feng let him change the bandages, ate one cold bun, lay down on his floor bedding and fell asleep almost at once.

Ji Yuanhe sat by the lamp for a long time and watched him sleep. Then he blew it out.

Across the city, on the princess’s lake, the last lantern on the water burned down and went out. In a few hours, the drums would sound on the Lake Stage.