Chapter 869 — Eight Clouds Calls

CHAPTER 869

Eight Clouds Calls

Qu Hanshan didn’t sit on the stone bench. He looked at it, and then he looked at Shi Feng, and stayed standing.

He was a tall old man with a white beard cut square and eyebrows like two strokes of ink. His robe was deep crimson, and a burning sun was stitched in gold thread on his chest. He stood very straight. The air around him was dry and warm, and the willow leaves nearest to him had begun to curl.

He’d come alone. Shi Feng understood how much he wanted this conversation kept out of the disciples’ hearing.

“Elder Qu,” Shi Feng said, bowing. “Please, sit. Master Ji Yuanhe has made tea.”

“This old man has had tea,” Qu Hanshan said. “I’ll be brief.”

Ji Yuanhe set the teapot down on the stone table anyway and retreated to the stove. He didn’t go far.

“You beat my disciple on the Pavilion steps,” Qu Hanshan said. “Baili Xuan was rash. He’ll recover, and he’ll learn. I haven’t come about him.”

“I’m glad to hear he’ll recover,” Shi Feng said. “His fist art was very good.”

Qu Hanshan’s eyes rested on him, sharp and unfriendly.

“You’re mid Shattering Void this morning,” Qu Hanshan said. “Yesterday you were early. Your arms are burnt, your rib is cracked, and you’ve written the 6 Mark in the register.”

“All true,” Shi Feng said.

“Then listen to an old man,” Qu Hanshan said. “Ginger gets spicier with age. I’ve stood at the furnace for four hundred years. I’m registered at eight clouds. There are only a handful of men alive who’ve seen more clouds than I have, and every one of them is a 6 Mark and stands at Profound Heaven.”

He paused.

“Strike the 6 from your line,” Qu Hanshan said. “Sit the 5 alone. Pass it, as you probably will. The day you do, the Azure Sun Sect will seat you as an elder. A full elder, with a hall, a stipend and disciples of your own. At twenty-three.”

Behind him, at the stove, Ji Yuanhe went very still.

It was a real offer. Shi Feng knew that. The Azure Sun was one of the eight giant sects, and its elders were received in every city of the Empire. Men spent their lives trying to earn a seat like that.

“That’s generous, Elder Qu,” Shi Feng said. “Why?”

“Because a 6 Mark stands at Profound Heaven,” Qu Hanshan said, “and furnaces have killed better hands than yours. A Profound Heaven pill holds a sky’s worth of force. If you can’t hold it, it doesn’t fail. It bursts. I’ve seen it take a man’s arms. I’ve seen it take a man’s head.”

He let that sit in the air.

“Listen,” Qu Hanshan said, more quietly. “You’re young and you’ve grown fast. If you die in the Glass Hall, the princess loses her alchemist, and the capital loses a talent. If you live and fail, you’ll be a joke for a hundred years. Either way the Azure Sun loses nothing. I’m offering you a way where you lose nothing either.”

Shi Feng picked up his cup and drank. The tea had gone a little cold.

“First, thank you,” Shi Feng said. “I mean it. You came yourself, and you didn’t have to.”

Qu Hanshan waited.

“Second,” Shi Feng said. “I can’t take a seat in the Azure Sun. I’m already the princess’s guest. A guest who takes a second seat in a different house isn’t a guest any more. He’s for sale.”

“And third?” Qu Hanshan asked coldly.

“Third, I’d like to ask after Elder Ye Wanqiu,” Shi Feng said politely. “Shen Yaoqing’s master. How is her void wound?”

The courtyard went quiet.

Qu Hanshan knew exactly what had happened to Elder Ye Wanqiu’s pill. Qu Hanshan had tried to make it and failed. It had sat at the edge of the 6 Mark grade, and his furnace hadn’t been able to hold it. Then Shi Feng had made it behind a sealed door in the princess’s vault room, with the Serene Jade chief disciple standing guard inside the door.

The old man’s face went dark red.

“I hear she’s walking a little now,” Shi Feng added. “I’m glad. It was a difficult pill.”

Qu Hanshan’s hand closed slowly at his side. The heat around him rose. Three more willow leaves curled up and fell. For one breath, Shi Feng wondered whether an eight-cloud 5 Mark would really strike a man in his own courtyard, the week before a sitting, with the whole capital watching.

Then the heat went down again.

“You’ve refused the Azure Sun,” Qu Hanshan said, very quietly. “Remember that you did.”

“I’ll remember,” Shi Feng said. “I remember everything.”

Qu Hanshan turned and walked to the gate. Ji Yuanhe hurried ahead and opened it for him. The old man went out without looking back, and without touching his tea.

Ji Yuanhe closed the gate and stood with his back to it, breathing a little fast.

“Master Shi,” Ji Yuanhe said. “That was an elder seat in the Azure Sun.”

“It was,” Shi Feng said.

“Most alchemists would kneel for it,” Ji Yuanhe said, still staring at the closed gate.

“Then I’d need his permission to sit the 6 Mark,” Shi Feng said. “Or to refine a pill he didn’t want me to make. I’m not giving him that choice.”

Ji Yuanhe thought about that and nodded slowly.

“And his tea?” Ji Yuanhe asked, looking at the full cup.

“Pour it back in the pot,” Shi Feng said. “It’s good tea. The princess sent it.”

Ji Yuanhe laughed out loud, surprised at himself, and did.

That evening a red card came from the Vermilion Avenue. It was written in a firm, clean hand that Shi Feng already knew.

Her Highness’s table sits tomorrow. Ministers and family elders will attend. Her guest is expected. Wear sleeves.