Chapter 75

Chapter 75: The Silkworm Road [9]

Translator: Xah

Zhang Qiu was awakened by the dream.

“Don’t move, Song Bao.”

It was the voice of Li Shu. Zhang Qiu breathed a sigh of relief and thought of getting up but he was pressed back by Li Shu. The warmth and dryness of his body as well as the pain of his belly pulled back his memory and he quickly said: “Lao Er—”

“It’s coming out.” Li Shu sounded calm. “You should lie down.”

Zhang Qiu didn’t dare to move any more. He was lying down and his thoughts were chaotic. When he gave birth to Xiao Jiang, he was asleep as Xiao Jiang came out. Right now, he was going to give birth to Lao Er, so which part was going to be?

Feeling the belly getiing cold air, Zhang Qiu felt Li Shu’s hand opened his clothes. His palm hot on his belly as it slowly went down. It was itchy yet warm, and the belly pain also alleviated a lot. He was feeling comfortable. Suddenly, feeling a needle like pain, Zhang Qiu did not hold to moan. He raised his head up and saw Li Shu’s hand drawing out crimson fog from his belly.

Along the extraction, the pain became more and more intense, it was like someone cutting open their belly with a knife and pulling the contents out of it. Zhang Qiu gritted his teeth, endured with a layer of cold sweat on his forehead, and when he could not hold it, the pain in his stomach all disappeared, only the smouldering itch lingered.

“Okay.” Li Shu held Zhang Qiu in one hand and put a cloud of crimson in his hand in front of Zhang Qiu. He kissed on Zhang Qiu’s forehead and said, “Lao Er.”

“A cloud of fog?” Zhang Qiu was not surprised as he remembered the way Xiao Jiang was born, but it was really painful when he gave birth to Lao Er. He poked the crimson fog, and as if it felt him, the fog wrapped around his finger, soft as marshmallow.

Zhang Qiu had all forgotten his bitter suffering and promptly said happily: “It’s so soft. I don’t know when it’s going to grown into a small hand like its Gege did.”

As he was speaking, the apple-sized fog in the palm of his hand slowly dispersed to both sides. Shocked, Zhang Qiu opened his eyes wide. Within the fog lay a mini small person, whose body was white glowing skin and head of long black hair which covered half the body that lay on its side. On the face were big eyes with crimson pupils and long thick lashes, small exquisite nose and captivating red lips. The apricot-like eyes slightly raised and there was also a cinnabar mole under the corner of the eye. Perhaps, it was sleepy, the eyes slightly closed. The tender and frail body attracted people to pamper it.

Zhang Qiu was so excited. He had never seen such a beautiful child, like a little angel. He pulled Li Shu’s hand and whispered, “Our daughter is so pretty.”

“Boy.” Li Shu said lightly.

Sky thundering shock!

Zhang Qiu felt unbelievable that such a beautiful face turned out to be a boy. Was Li Shu playing him?!

Looking down, there really was a mini little Tintin. Zhang Qiu did not believe that, he still wanted to check it carefully. The little person in his palm shook his body shyly, and the crimson fog enveloped him again.

Zhang Qiu was shocked. What was this skill of Lao Er? He couldn’t help but look at Li Shu. “I thought Lao Er was like Xiao Jiang. When the fog opened up, he came out.”

“He is weak and needs this fog to protect him.” Li Shu stared at Zhang Qiu, but Zhang Qiu was still immersed in happiness that his family’s Lao Er was so beautiful, as expected of a child born from him with his good genetic. In the end, the line of sight above him was getting stronger and stronger, seeming as if to melt him. Zhang Qiu looked up and bumped into Li Shu’s deep and gentle eyes. He was a little embarrassed. “What?”

Li Shu bowed his head and kissed Zhang Qiu’s lips. “Song Bao, I won’t forget you anymore, I promise.”

“What forget——” Zhang Qiu was in a daze by Li Shu’s charm that his words were spoke all over his mouth. Suddenly, he realized and held Li Shu’s hand tightly. “Do you remember?”

“Yes.” Li Shu did not say that when Zhang Qiu fell down the waterfall in that split second, all the memories came to his mind.

Zhang Qiu felt so happy that this trip was not a waste. His family’s Xiao Shushu had finally recovered his memory!

Zhang Qiu stared at him, feeling pain on his face. “Why pinch me? I haven’t pinched you yet!”

“Lao Da Xiao Jiang was born by me and bed position could be change? Hmm?” Li Shu pinched Zhang Qiu’s soft face and asked with a smile.

Zhang Qiu’s face was stiff. He had forgotten about his previous boasting!

“Well, I was going to stimulate you to see if you can remember.” Zhang Qiu talked nonsense without thinking. Being stared at by Li Shu as if he was going carry out the law on the spot, he quickly changed the topic and said, “What about the others?”

Only now that he found himself in a cave with Li Shu’s jacket under him. He reached out and touched it. Under the jacket was burnt-out ash. No wonder it was warm and not cold at all.

“Lost.”

Zhang Qiu remembered Xiao Jiang, who had been thrown off on the mountain. He had woken up long enough but had not seen Xiao Jiang, so he quickly asked, “Where is Xiao Jiang?”

Li Shu’s expression was looking somewhat bad. When he saw Zhang Qiu fall down, he didn’t think through and went to follow down to find him. He didn’t care about his son at all.

Zhang Qiu saw Li Shu’s expression and knew that Xiao Jiang was lost. He said quickly, “Let’s look for the people first. Our son is so strong, he shouldn’t have any mishap.” He gave himself reassurance but yet he could not rest. He put the crimson cloud child into the pocket of his jacket very cautiously before he quickly put it on him.

They were behind a windward slope, not far from the waterfall, but when Zhang Qiu looked up, he did not know that he had fallen from such high. Fortunately, he had not fallen to death.

“Right, what about Yue QinCang?”

“What Yue QinCang?”

Zhang Qiu paused and looked at Li Shu. “You didn’t see Yue QinCang, Yue Donghui’s son, coming along with him. Yesterday, Yue QinCang lived in the village.”

“I only saw you when I arrived, no one else.” Li Shu frowned. “But the fire is new, so he should have been gone.”

Zhang Qiu thought about it for a while, but he didn’t know what Yue QinCang was going to do. In any case, now it’s very important to find Xiao Jiang. When he was worried about how to climb up, Li Shu took his waist and his whole body soared up. The sense of weightlessness made him hold Li Shu’s waist tightly. He then remembered Lao Er in his pocket, and freed a hand to cover it.

When he got used to it, Zhang Qiu found out that Li Shu was not flying, but that his jumping ability was so good that he could easily put his hand on the stone wall while the other hand held him. They reached the waterfall in a few moments.

“Xiao Jiang!” Zhang Qiu shouted, and suddenly heard a faint roar in the sky, “It’s Qi Xi.”

Before long, Qi Xi’s true form landed on the ground with the huge golden wings flapping. The sight in front of Zhang Qiu was blurry. Then a black shadow pounced on him. Before he could see it clearly, there was a small cannon ball put in his arms. The small cannon ball hung around his neck with its soft, fat arms, big tearful eyes, and small reddened nose, while looking at him with grievance. The pitiful looking made Zhang Qiu’s heart ached.

Zhang Qiu held Xiao Jiang’s butt in one hand. The little guy had grown up again, he was so heavy.

“Daddy.” Xiao Jiang sniffed and lay obediently in Zhang Qiu’s arms, holding him tightly.

Zhang Qiu stroked his son’s back. He knew that Xiao Jiang was frightened and felt insecure at this moment. He hurriedly coaxed in low voice, “Daddy is here. Daddy is not good, making Xiao Jiang worried.”

“When I picked him up, the little guy almost cried himself to suffocation.” Qi Xi calmly pulled out his clothes from his bag and put them on. No other way, he could not transform in a state of light. He had to take off his clothes before each change.

Xiao Jiang cried too much before. Now that he saw Daddy and was coaxed, he lay obediently on Zhang Qiu’s shoulder and fell asleep with tears on his face.

Li Shu was afraid that Zhang Qiu would be tired and he wanted to take over. Xiao Jiang clutched Zhang Qiu’s clothes tightly when he was asleep and when there was movement, he woke up with a start. Seeing this, Zhang Qiu could not bear and whispered, “I’ll just hold him. You put Lao Er properly.”

“Lao Er? You two shouldn’t have thrown away your child to go wild, right?!” Qi Xi had put on his clothes and said with a smile.

When Li Shu heard it, he felt like beating someone. When Zhang Qiu heard it, he felt angry. “It’s my family’s Lao Er; just born and warm soft Lao Er. What exactly is the structure of your brain?!” But when he thought about it, Lao Er had not named yet. He would think about what to call him when he returned home.

“What about Erge, Pei Qing and the others?”

“Let me see your Lao Er first. It’s a pity that I didn’t see Xiao Qiuqiu delivering a baby. It’s also the first time I met a man delivering a baby——” Qi Xi saw Li Shu with a face comparable to that of Judge Bao^[1] and quickly restored to deadpan and said. “I didn’t see Zhang Yushui ant the others, but did saw gutsy Gao ZhiHao dangled on the rope beside the mouth of the waterfall. Hahahaha, you don’t see he was like sausage swaying in the wind gap.”

[1 = fictional nickname of Bao Zheng(999-1062), Northern Song official renowned for his honesty]

Zhang Qiu looked at Qi Xi and suddenly laughed. Qi Xi felt that laugh was weird and said, “Don’t laugh. You look as scary as Li Shu’s black face.”

“I heard that Divine Beasts inheriting Divine Vein, all could bear children, regardless of gender.” Zhang Qiu hatefully returned with a grin. “If you like to see man delivering children, you’d better have one yourself.”

Qi Xi clicked his tongue and wanted to clap Zhang Qiu on the shoulder but seeing Li Shu withdrawn his hand, he said, “Regardless, it won’t be me that give birth. Xiao Qiuqiu, stop dreaming.”

“That’s not true.” Zhang Qiu recalled that appearance of Qi Xi, who changed into a cub and shamelessly rolling on someone’s knees, and here Qi Xi was thinking to be a Top?!

As the three men spoke, the found two backpacks scattered in the forest. Li Shu and Qi Xi took them and then they walked towards the mouth of the waterfall. From a distance, They heard Gao ZhiHao’s scream like a pig on the slaughter. The three hurried over and right at the time they saw the rope tied to Gao ZhiHao broken and he fell straight down.

“Really seek death.” Qi Xi said so, but he still ran to save people. However, somebody moved faster than him. An azure dragon tail flew out of the water and rolled around the person before thrown him aside.

Qi Xi had rushed past in his true form. At first, the dragon’s tail wanted to throw the person aside, but because of Qi Xi, it made a hard bend and threw Gao ZhiHao into the waterfall.

Zhang Qiu:…

Pei Qing looked out of the water. “It’s all right. I’ll go see him.” He plunged into the water again and soon came up and said, “He’s gone.”

“He was washed away?” Zhang Qiu thought to himself; Gao ZhiHao was really gutsy to die for the legendary Silkworm Road.

Pei Qing shook his head. “I was obstructed, couldn’t rush down.”

“There is a secret point in the waterfall.” Li Shu opened up. Pei Qing understood, said as he nodded, “I’m going to look.”

A moment later Pei Qing came up, “There is a small hole behind the waterfall, which a size of one person can pass through, but no shadow of Gao ZhiHao was seen.”

It’s really strange. Zhang Qiu looked at Li Shu and Li Shu decided to go there first. They did not go looking for Zhang YuShui and Pixian Hui Wang. Anyway, they both of them were a Phoenix and a Zongzi that had been cultivating for thousands of years. Nothing would happen to them. Zhang Qiu left signs and information at the obvious places. Pei Qing transformed. With a swat of the dragon’s tail, the whole waterfall was separated. Indeed, there was a hole as high as half a person.

Li Shu held Zhang Qiu in his arms. Qi Xi’s true form was too big to fly in, he could not pass through. He carried his pack on his back and entered the waterfall swiftly, behind Pei Qing.

The entrance of the cave was damp and cold, but the nearer they were, the drier it was. There was even a faint heat. Ling Dang came out of the spirit bead. Then he rummaged through his backpack, found a towel and handed it to Pei Qing. He also handed clothes, very much like a young wife. At the back, Pei Qing groped and teased little Ling Dang until he blushed.

Zhang Qiu’s ears were full of Pei Qing’s obscene whispers to Ling Dang, and he felt so uncomfortable.

Li Shu looked sideways at Zhang Qiu. “You want it too?”

“What the hell?”

Li Shu quickly kissed Zhang Qiu’s ear root and said with a smile, “The red here is lovely.”

Fcuk, his family’s Xiao Shushu was going to tease him to death.

Zhang Qiu was Xiao Jiang in his arms as he whispered expectantly, “When we return home.”

Li Shu’s curved lips rose a few points. Qi Xi, who was walking in front of them, rolled his eyes and said, “Big brothers, I don’t want to eat dog food. Can you spare me a life?”

“You can find one if you have the ability! Single dogs have no human rights.” Zhang Qiu said with a broad grin.　

At the back, Ling Dang was the first to be embarrassed. He whispered ‘understood’as he blushed, and persuaded Pei Qing to wait until they were home. Pei Qing took the opportunity to make many shy-worthy requests. Little Ling Dang nodded shyly as he agreed.  Pei Qing was very satisfied.

Qi Xi was fed a whole mouthful of dog food and had nothing to say.

Zhang Qiu felt that little Ling Dang was a softie, totally making people want to bully him.

The entrance of the cave was not long. After walking for about ten minutes, they suddenly come to a wide clearing. In the late autumn in the mountain, the grass and trees withered and dried up to yellow, even if the breed was originally dark green lustre. However, the scenery ahead made them unable to hide their exclamation of amazement.

Fresh, tender greenery and flowers all over the mountain.

A mountain within mountains.

Zhang Qiu didn’t know it came to be, but the fact was true. There was only a narrow bridge 100 meters away between the two mountains. But the strange thing was that the bridge was not connected by any chains. It was floating in the air. The black stone slabs abriged led to the mountain with flowers all over the field. The sound of the rippling river flowing went through their ears. Looking from the side, a clear brook slowly flowed down from mountain wall, leading to the foot of the mountain somewhere, and disappeared after its convergence.

“Is this the Silkworm Road?” Qi Xi pointed to the bridge ahead.

“Maybe so.” Zhang Qiu also thought alike. This place was too mysterious. It’s more mythical and magical than the tombs built by men. This place was like being cut off from the rest of the world. It’s really two worlds out there.

Qi Xi raised his eyebrows and took the lead in stepping on the black slabs floating in the air. Zhang Qiu was really scared and sweating all over. It was unknown how long this thing had been and if it was a decoration that couldn’t bear people. He hadn’t spoken yet but Qi Xi had stood on it, waved back at them, and said with a grin, “What are you doing, looking stunt? We want to live forever!”

Zhang Qiu showed an old father’s smile. He really felt that he had adopted Qi Xi as his son. Sometimes Qi Xi was more worrisome than Xiao Jiang.

Anyway, Qi Xi only did as he pleased because he had wings to rely on. When Li Shu wanted to take over Xiao Jiang in Zhang Qiu’s arms, Xiao Jiang rubbed his eyes, about to wake up. Then he looked around in a hurry and once he saw Zhang Qiu’s face, he was a little relieved. This time, it really had frightened Xiao Jiang.

Zhang Qiu stroked his son’s head. “Daddy is here.”

Xiao Jiang lay on Zhang Qiu’s shoulder and with some shyness smacked his lips onto Zhang Qiu’s face. At the side, Li Shu’s face was black. He held Xiao Jiang into his bosom with one hand. Xiao Jiang kicked back and forth on his two short legs, making a noise about coming down and walking by himself. He disliked losing face this way.

Zhang Qiu was not reassured while Li Shu was very reassured. He let Xiao Jiang and Zhang Qiu walk in front of him, while his eyesight was fixed only onto the father and son.

Although the slabs were floating, they were very stable. Zhang Qiu stood on it and couldn’t help looking down. His legs were trembling. It’s too high. There were no handrails on either side. The slabs became narrower, barely enough for two feet. A block connected to another block. Qi Xi had gone far. Xiao Jiang was skipping behind him, as if it was fun. Zhang Qiu’s face was white with fear. He gritted his teeth, dared not look down. He was angry with himself. He thought to himself that it was granted to be outdone by his son, but to be outdone by that branless Qi Xi meant losing face.

It was undoubtedly a 100 meter distance but Zhang Qiu felt that he had been walking for a long time. Because the slabs were small and connected block by block, it was like there was no end, and when looking at the people behind, it was all blurry. The smell of flowers was getting stronger and stronger. They were almost there, but how did he know the smell so well?

Before he could think about it, Xiao Jiang stepped on empty air and Zhang Qiu shouted in horror, “XIAO JIANG!” He himself suddenly lost his weight and fell down at great speed. Next second, Li Shu held him tightly. There was a roar in the air and the wind whispering in ears before they fell straight on the golden wings.

“Xiao Qiuqiu, you and your man are really heavy. Lose weight quickly!” Qi Xi roasted.

“Xiao Jiang?” Zhang Qiu looked down from the wings and heard Xiao Jiang’s voice calling Daddy from the top of the slab. Zhang Qiu was stunned. He just saw Xiao Jiang fall down.

Li Shu touched Zhang Qiu’s face and said, “The smell of flowers has a hallucinating effect.”

“I’ll tell you how you fell so foolishly.” Qi Xi took a sniff and said, “Anyway, this smell like I’d smelled it somewhere.”

“Su WanTing.”

After Li Shu said that, Zhang Qiu also remembered that it smelled like this when they were in Changsha water, but Su Wanling’s smell was too sweet and flirty. It was lighter here, but also very similar.

“Even the smell of others, you remembered.” Zhang Qiu looked at Li Shu.

Li Shu laughed. “I remember more deeply the smell of you, from head to toe.”

Shameless Xiao Shushu. Zhang Qiu snorted.

Qi Xi, who was carrying them, could not bear it. With a roar that could break the eardrum of people, he rushed quickly to the level slope of the flowery mountain. Xiao Jiang was already there. Once he saw Zhang Qiu, he rushed over to hold Zhang Qiu’s thigh in his arms and never let go with his dead grip.

Zhang Qiu picked up his son and Li Shu’s lips suddenly came up to kiss him. At first he wanted to be aloof and push Li Shu away because they were in public view. As a result, the kiss deepened naturally.

“My eyes are going blind.” Qi Xi covered his eyes as he said.

Li Shu let go of Zhang Qiu and stroked Zhang Qiu’s reddened lips. He said solemnly, “Now, you won’t be affected by the smell of flowers.”

In fact, Zhang Qiu shouldn’t be affected to much as he had the Divine Soul within his body. At that time, he felt dizzy after looking at the slabs for a long time and adding to have smell the fragrance of the flowers, he was somewhat affected, which had influenced him so quickly that he fall. That Li Shu’s kiss could be said to be carrying personal goods (intention). However, right now Zhang Qiu was in a pile of flowers and his mind was clear-headed and unaffected. He really thought Li Shu’s saliva worked.

The last Pei Qing and Ling Dang also came over.

“How do we get there now?” Zhang Qiu very seriously asked with a teasing eye to Qi Xi and Pei Qing.

Above was a stream outlet, below which a stream of water disappeared somewhere. In addition, there was a stone slab leading halfway to the mountainside. Thre were three paths; up, middle and down.

“Do you remember eating the fish that give hallucination?” Li Shu pointed to the top, “What should there be? It should be irrigated by streams and converged into rivers outside. The fish have been nourished in the water for a long time, and people will have hallucinations when they eat it.”

Li Shu’s eyes swept a glance at the beautiful flowers on the mountain, where the streams flowed to the most brightly-colored area.

“Up.”

Qi Xi also was too lazy to wear clothes and undress again. Just now, the situation needed him to transform hurriedly and so his clothes had already become rags and drifted down with the wind. Now, he carried several people directly to the top of the mountain and flying around the peak until they found a stream outlet.

“Wait a minute. It’s Gao ZhiHao.”

Zhang Qiu pointed to a place and Qi Xi went over. Gao ZhiHao was kneeling on the ground with a dagger in his chest, blood all over his body, and a happy and exciting smile on his face. Zhang Qiu recognized at first sight that the dagger in Gao ZhiHao’s chest was the one he had thrown away.

“Dead.” Pei Qing checked, frowned and said, “He stabbed the dagger himself.”

Stabbed yourself to death?!

Zhang Qiu thought that it was unlikely. Then he heard Qi Xi shouted, “You guys come here, there’s a stone door here.”

Looking past, both sides of the stone door were open, and the patterns carved on them were all eroded and mottled. Li Shu hugged Zhang Qiu’s waist and threw his windbreaker to Qi Xi. Qi Xi took the windbreaker and said, “This brother’s figure is so good. A lot of people want to look at this but could not. Your family’s Xiao Shushu has the rare chance of seeing this beautiful body.”

“Thank you very much. I’m afraid to get a sty.” Zhang Qiu answered back.

Li Shu held Zhang Qiu’s hand. “Go in and have a look.”

Inside the stone door was a wide tunnel. After several meters of walking, there was another stone door. The door was carved with patterns. It was of a vigorous and heroic man’s face with handsome features, slender stature with a lump bulging behind his back, as if he was carrying a shell on his back. It was really funny for such a vigorous and heroic face to look like that.

“It’s Bie Ling.”

Li Shu reached out and pushed open the stone door. There was sound of ‘dingding-dongdong’ inside, like what the river was hitting on something. The stone door opened slowly and Zhang Qiu looked on warily. He saw a figure on the black sarcophagus floating in the air. Probably having heard them moving, the figure turned to look.

Yue QinCang.

Yue QinCang, with blood flowing from his mouth, was smiling.

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