After Crossdressing and Provoking Long AoTian

“All right, all right, Brother Chi.” Scholar Xiao soothed him with practiced ease. “I’ll come up with a suitably imposing one for you later.”

Only then did Chi Yantian give a satisfied snort. Still, he could not resist peering at what Scholar Xiao was writing. “You’re recording this too?”

“A little rustic woodland amusement is worth preserving.” Scholar Xiao smiled as he closed his book, then crouched down to look at the two of them. “I do have something serious to ask you.”

Canglang edged back warily. “What?”

Scholar Xiao’s smile remained perfectly amiable. “The territories of the Flower-Mist Tigers and the Goshawk clan happen to lie near the entrance to Great Wilderness Mountain. I imagine anyone passing through would have a difficult time escaping your notice.”

“May I ask whether more people have been entering Great Wilderness Mountain lately?”

“A lot more!” Huayi rushed to answer. “I was wondering why things had suddenly gotten so lively around here!”

“Hmph.” Canglang gave a cold laugh, threat glinting in his eyes. “There are simply more people coming here to court death. Let me warn you: of all the human cultivators who have entered Great Wilderness Mountain lately, I haven’t seen a single one come back out alive.”

Chi Yantian waved this off without a care. “Maybe they took a different route on the way back.”

Canglang turned his head away and closed his eyes. “Fools with no sense of danger.”

“Just as I thought.” Scholar Xiao tapped his folding fan lightly against his palm. “Something is indeed amiss.”

Yu Qingtang pricked up his ears. “What’s going on?”

He knew absolutely nothing about this part of the plot. His mind was as blank as a fresh sheet of paper, yet for some inexplicable reason, he was also rather excited.

Let’s see what new trick the Heavenly Dao has up its sleeve!

“Great Wilderness Mountain may be unfriendly to human cultivators, but human lands and demonfolk territory border each other. Plenty of people still make their living in these mountains.” Scholar Xiao gently waved his folding fan and began as though launching into a storyteller’s tale. “Not only cultivators, either. There are ordinary mortals too.”

Chi Yantian looked shocked. “Mortals? They dare wander around here?”

He glanced at Huayi and Canglang. “These two aren’t astonishingly powerful, but they’re still more than capable of dealing with ordinary mortals.”

“They risk danger for the chance at fortune. Besides...” Scholar Xiao lifted the map he had been holding all this time. “It isn’t quite as dangerous as we imagine. This map has been passed down through generations of local mushroom foragers and corrected again and again. It marks not only where rare forest delicacies can be found, but also the distribution of Great Wilderness Mountain’s clans.”

He spread the map open for everyone to see. “Look. A circle means that the clan as a whole is friendly toward humans. A horizontal stroke means the clan’s temperament is unpredictable, while a diagonal stroke means the area must not be approached...”

Scholar Xiao sounded impressed. “I have no idea how these mortals accomplished this. As the map evolved, they also managed to record every shift in the balance of power among Great Wilderness Mountain’s demonfolk over all these years.”

Yu Qingtang quickly spotted the territories of the Flower-Mist Tigers and the Goshawks. “Both of them have circles. Looks like neither clan eats people.”

“I merely consider it beneath me,” Canglang said with his eyes closed.

Huayi folded her paws primly. “I already told you. I’m a good demon.”

“When the demon race moved here all those years ago, the three peoples discussed quite a few things together. One of them was that we should try not to eat one another—our Flower-Mist Tiger clan is exceptionally fierce, so we were specifically reminded about it.”

“Most demons don’t openly eat humans anymore, but plenty still sneak a bite in private!”

Yu Qingtang asked curiously, “I thought the outside world couldn’t interfere with the demonfolk inside Great Wilderness Mountain. Are you forbidden from eating people even among yourselves?”

“Oh, how should I put it?” Huayi rolled over. “It’s like being two hundred years old and still secretly licking the fur on your butt. It isn’t exactly forbidden, but people will laugh at you if word gets out.”

“Eating humans is the same. Suppose someone walks into Great Wilderness Mountain on his own and has the bad luck to get eaten by you. Starwatch Pavilion can’t do anything about it, but it still isn’t respectable.”

“Besides, eating people is such a hassle. Once you eat the young one, even if Starwatch Pavilion stays out of it, you can’t stop his elders from coming to take revenge.”

Huayi shook her enormous head. “It’s not as though the world has run out of delicious things to eat. It isn’t worth the trouble. It isn’t, it isn’t. Our clan doesn’t eat humans, anyway.”

Scholar Xiao nodded with a smile. “Precisely.”

He lovingly stroked the map in his hands. “The demonfolk have never cared much for written records. The changes preserved in these mushroom foragers’ maps may well be more accurate than the histories the clans have passed down by word of mouth. This is exceedingly rare.”

Noticing everyone looking at him, he gave an embarrassed smile. “Ahem. I took the liberty of accepting this assignment from Senior Sister Tianxin. I wanted a complete compilation of how the balance of power within Great Wilderness Mountain has changed over the years.”

He bent at the waist and bowed. “Since we’re heading that way anyway...”

“Then we’ll stick our noses into this business!” Chi Yantian readily agreed.

Ye Chenyan frowned slightly. “More people have been entering Great Wilderness Mountain lately... The ones disappearing in its depths cannot be limited to mushroom foragers, can they?”

“Correct.” Scholar Xiao smiled. “Brother Ye understood at once.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chi Yantian folded his arms and jerked his chin between Yu Qingtang and himself. “So the two of us need everything spelled out for us, is that it?”

“Oh, come now! How could that possibly be what I meant?” Scholar Xiao hurriedly begged for mercy and smoothly changed the subject. “This goes beyond ordinary. Not a single mushroom forager who has entered the mountains lately has returned.”

“Furthermore, Starwatch Pavilion keeps records of local Nanzhou cultivators and wandering cultivators from other provinces, provided they enter through the main entrance.”

“After the mushroom foragers approached Starwatch Pavilion, Senior Sister Tianxin had someone organize the registers. They discovered that quite a number of people had vanished without explanation.”

“It’s perfectly normal for a cultivator to enter seclusion for ten days or half a month, and spending several years in seclusion is hardly rare.” Ye Chenyan raised an eyebrow. “Their disappearances may not all be connected to Great Wilderness Mountain. But if the number is far above normal...”

Scholar Xiao nodded in agreement. “Precisely.”

“However, the demonfolk have always been fiercely independent. Even if we openly question the various Demon Kings, we’re unlikely to learn anything. Since we happen to be entering the mountains, we can investigate quietly.”

A sharp gleam flashed through his eyes. Lowering his voice, he asked, “There is one more thing I need to know. Canglang, my young friend, Miss Huayi—the mortals and cultivators you saw entering Great Wilderness Mountain...”

“Did they truly walk in of their own accord?”

“Huh?” Huayi did not quite understand. She turned to look at Canglang.

Canglang considered the question, then gave a cold laugh. “I see. So this is Starwatch Pavilion’s angle.”

“If they walked into Great Wilderness Mountain themselves, then even if some demon deliberately hunted them down and ate them afterward, Starwatch Pavilion still couldn’t meddle in Great Wilderness Mountain’s affairs. But if they were seized by the mountain’s demonfolk and dragged here...”

“Then demonfolk would have violated Nanzhou City’s rules within Nanzhou City’s own jurisdiction.” Scholar Xiao nodded with a smile. “Canglang, my young friend, you are quite clever as well. It only takes one...”

He paused, afraid that Chi Yantian would complain again, then hastily changed course.

“You aren’t stupid in the slightest.”

“Hmph.” Canglang laughed coldly. “Unfortunately, your calculations have come to nothing—they did enter on their own. That much is absolutely certain.”

“A few valued their lives enough to turn back after that stupid oversized cat frightened them. A few others only moved around within our territories and never went any deeper. But none of those who ventured farther inside ever returned.”

“Tch.” Scholar Xiao frowned, looking troubled. “That complicates matters.”

“Beyond our lands lies the territory of a thousand-year-old flood dragon.” A trace of apprehension crossed Canglang’s eyes. “Even if I was curious about where those mortals went, it would be difficult for me to investigate.”

“Hmm...” Yu Qingtang could not contribute much, but he still assumed a thoughtful pose. “The mushroom foragers enter the mountains to make a living. What are the cultivators after?”

“Ore,” Chi Yantian answered without hesitation.

“You’re an outlier,” Yu Qingtang immediately retorted. “That cannot be everyone’s reason.”

“What else do humans ever want?” Canglang scoffed. “Some were drawn here by rumors that a secret treasure had recently appeared in Great Wilderness Mountain. Others heard that a Thundercrest Leopard cub had been roaming nearby without its mother and wanted to try their luck capturing the young of a powerful demonic beast to use as an ally.”

“On top of that, something major recently happened in Great Wilderness Mountain. The Mountain-Shaking Ape King passed away. A rumor appeared from nowhere claiming that he had hidden a treasure somewhere in the mountains, and now everyone is flocking here.”

He glanced at Chi Yantian. “This auction you people are chasing after may well be a trap.”

Yu Qingtang looked surprised. “How do you know all this?”

Canglang’s gaze shifted slightly. “I’m not like those brainless four-legged idiots. Once more people began entering the mountains, of course I had to find out why.”

“What? You’re insulting me!” Huayi flew into a rage. “If we judge by size, my head is much bigger than yours! My brain must be much bigger too!”

Canglang sneered.

Chi Yantian paled in horror. “The auction might be fake? Does that mean the ore is fake too?”

He anxiously pressed them for answers. “Who actually controls the rare ores from deep inside Great Wilderness Mountain? How do they sell them? I have spirit stones!”

“They aren’t in my hands, anyway. They should belong to whichever demonfolk are best at digging and doing business...” Huayi paused, then corrected herself. “No. They probably belong to the strongest Demon King. The strong prey on the weak among the demonfolk. Even if you dig up a treasure, that doesn’t necessarily make it yours.”

“At first, nobody knew what was special about those hard, useless rocks, so no one cared. But now everyone knows good ore can be traded to human cultivators for spirit stones, and spirit stones can buy anything...”

“Agh—” Chi Yantian scratched his head in agitation. “What do we do? Are we still going to the auction?”

“Of course,” Ye Chenyan said lightly, folding his arms. “Even a trap needs bait laid out in plain sight before anyone will jump in.”

Chi Yantian’s eyes lit up. “That makes sense! If they’re using it as a hook, they must have at least a couple pieces of precious ore!”

He smacked his fists together. “Then it’s settled. We’re going to find out exactly what this auction is about!”

Canglang’s chest tightened with frustration, and his eagle eyes glared at them. “After everything I just told you, you still intend to go?”

Chi Yantian raised an eyebrow. “Nobody’s forcing you to come!”

Canglang fell silent. Then he abruptly sat up, gritting his teeth. “I’m coming too.”

“Huh?” Huayi stared at him in shock. “Do you really like humans that much?”

“Nonsense!” Canglang denied it flatly. “I simply want to learn why so many people have been flocking to Great Wilderness Mountain lately.”

“The Goshawk clan produced Demon Kings in the past. I have ambitions of my own. Count me in.”

He rubbed his beak, then transformed back into his half-human, half-demon form and rose to his feet. “I’ll go with you. Having one of the demonfolk along means that even if it truly is a trap, you’ll be able to probe more deeply before it closes around you.”

Huayi looked from one person to another, scraping her claws against the ground in indecision. “Then... then I...”

“You stay here.” Canglang glanced at her. “If we don’t return after several days, go find my grandfather and have him collect my corpse.”

Huayi’s ears drooped. She answered dejectedly, “Huh? Oh...”

“What?” Yu Qingtang looked shocked. “Can’t you call him a little sooner? Say, if we haven’t come back by tonight, send your grandfather to rescue us. Why do you have to wait until there’s a corpse to collect?”

Canglang turned his head away. “I am already an adult. Once I have made a decision, I have no need to rely on my elders!”

He raised his head proudly, spread his wings, and hovered in midair. “What is it? Are you frightened now? Do you intend to flee before the battle?”

“Who’s frightened?” Chi Yantian raised his chin. “Lead the way!”

With a demonfolk guide who knew Great Wilderness Mountain, their journey became much smoother. Following the golden beetle, they soon reached their destination.

“Heh.” The center of a towering ancient tree had been hollowed out, and a black-robed old man stood guard at the entrance. He glanced at the golden beetle in Canglang’s hand and chuckled. “So you’re the one who came.”

“What, is that a ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) problem?” Canglang had already instructed Yu Qingtang and the others to put on black robes and conceal their figures. Walking alone at the front, he swept his sharp gaze across their surroundings. “You chose this place? You certainly know how to hide.”

This was the most fiercely contested territory among several of Great Wilderness Mountain’s factions. Leave for a few days and it might already have changed hands. It truly was an ideal place for clandestine business.

“Business calls for a prime location.” The black-robed old man’s gaze swept over the figures behind Canglang, and he gave a humorless laugh. “You even brought humans.”

“What of it?” Canglang had no idea whether black robes could truly conceal what they were; he had merely told them to keep a low profile. “No one said humans weren’t allowed.”

“Of course.” The black-robed old man’s smile was far from friendly. “Humans tend to carry plenty of spirit stones. The more, the merrier.”

“Just make sure you keep them well covered.” He licked the corner of his mouth, revealing a forked tongue. “Their scent is already making me drool.”

Yu Qingtang: “...”

Judging by what he could see, Chi Yantian and Ye Chenyan had already clenched their fists.

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