TDSDE 31

31. Pineapple or Big Cat?

Yunhua Mountain was tall, and the gorge behind the mountain was deep, making for an excellent echo chamber. So at first, Bai Yuanxiu thought that booming noise had to be some kind of explosion.

He and Xiao Qing swiftly swept down the mountain, only to suddenly hear someone shouting at full volume:

“Bo Luochun, come out here!”

Xiao Qing: ?

Bai Yuanxiu: “Pineapple?”

TN: Bo Luochun” (碧螺春) sounds a bit like “Boluochun”, and “Boluó” (菠萝) means pineapple in Chinese, hence the misunderstanding.

The two of them exchanged a look. Bai Yuanxiu gestured for them to move, and Xiao Qing gave a slight nod. The moment their toes touched the ground again, they had already landed within the Demonic Sect’s territory—now appearing before everyone as the infamous Left and Right Protectors.

Bai Yuanxiu darted over to the man in dark green robes—the Azure Dragon Hall Master.

“What’s going on?”

The Hall Master frowned deeply.

“No idea. That sword elder from Yunhua Sect suddenly barged in, and he—eh? What are you doing?”

Bai Yuanxiu was poking a finger under his mask, rubbing his sore cheekbone.

“Put the mask on too fast earlier. Rammed it right into my face.”

Ye Nanxun: ……

He knew now wasn’t the time, but he still couldn’t help scolding,

“Can’t you at least try to keep up appearances? So many people watching! Look at the Left Protector—so elegant.”

Bai Yuanxiu followed his gaze. Xiao Qing stood on the other side, hands behind his back, clad in white and facing the sparse morning sun. The hem of his robes billowed slightly despite the absence of wind, mist swirling faintly around him.

This same majestic Left Protector had been curled up on his shoulder earlier saying he was sleepy.

Bai Yuanxiu suddenly felt the urge to laugh. He suppressed it and replied,

“Forget it. I’ll never pull that off.”

Just as he and Ye Nanxun were quietly muttering, a black shadow leapt out of the forest and soared over their heads, landing in front of the Demonic Sect’s crowd.

It was a massive tiger—twice the size of a normal one. On its back sat none other than the Sect Leader himself.

The Sect Leader slid off the tiger’s back with a calm face and lazily asked the Yunhua elder across from him,

“What do you want with me?”

The emaciated sword elder glared, eyes practically spitting fire.

“Bo Luochun! Your Demonic Sect harmed my disciple—he’s unconscious and hasn’t woken up! If this doesn’t get settled, we’re not done here!”

Amid the tension crackling in the air, Bai Yuanxiu had only one thought in his mind:

—So our Sect Leader’s name is actually Bo Luochun.

Pineapple.

For some reason, the image that popped into Bai Yuanxiu’s head was the Sect Leader with pineapple-shaped hair and a funny accent, cheerfully introducing himself.

He couldn’t hold it in—pfft—he burst out laughing.

That laugh made the Yunhua elder explode in rage.

“You brat—what the hell are you laughing at!”

Bai Yuanxiu instantly bristled. He’d already found this elder annoying, so now he shot back with no hesitation:

“Laughing at you, old man. Not only are you old, but you’re also not even good at what you do.”

The elder instantly knew what Bai Yuanxiu was referring to—the time their sects had sparred and Bai Yuanxiu had fought him to a draw using Yunhua sword techniques.

To a sword cultivator, that was a monumental humiliation. Hearing it brought up now, with his temper already on edge, he completely lost it. Drawing his sword, he charged straight at Bai Yuanxiu.

Afraid others might get caught in the crossfire, Bai Yuanxiu immediately used his inner energy to push the surrounding people back, blocked the elder’s first strike, and countered to push him back a few steps.

He didn’t intend to seriously hurt the man, so he held back. But the more he did so, the more enraged the elder became—his strikes grew sharper, and soon, he even started aiming below the belt.

Martial artists still held to a basic sense of “honor in the way of the blade.” Unless absolutely necessary, dirty tricks were frowned upon. Bai Yuanxiu didn’t expect it and nearly fell for it.

Dodging a vicious thrust, he sneered,

“So this is the great upright sect everyone talks about? What a joke.”

Driven beyond reason, the elder reached to his sword’s hilt and pulled out a line of hair-thin needles. With a flick of his wrist, the nearly invisible needles flew at Bai Yuanxiu.

Bai Yuanxiu moved to block, but between the close range and the ongoing swordplay, he missed one.

The needle, glowing faintly blue with poison, was about to pierce the side of his neck—when a large hand reached out from the side and plucked it out of the air with ease.

Xiao Qing, who had appeared behind Bai Yuanxiu at the same time as the Sect Leader, silently stepped back.

The Sect Leader didn’t even look at the poison. He simply toyed with the needle between his fingers and looked at the Yunhua elder, his voice cold as ice:

“You think you can bully one of my people and walk away? With this little stunt of yours… you planning to get Yunhua Sect wiped out today?”

The Sect Leader wasn’t Han Chinese. He was tall and imposing. Usually, his laziness made that less noticeable, but now that his expression had darkened, his amber eyes radiated a wild, dangerous energy that was utterly oppressive.

The Yunhua elder instinctively stepped back. He opened his mouth to bark something about his disciple—when, out of nowhere, a figure in smoky purple robes appeared beside him, silent and swift.

It was the Sect Master of Yunhua Sect.

Sect Leader Zi Yuan didn’t rush to break up the fight; she simply asked the elder what had brought on such a fuss today.

The moment she asked, the Sword Elder’s eyes reddened. He glared viciously at the Demonic Sect’s side and ground out through clenched teeth:

“Someone from their side poisoned my disciple.”

Now that both sect leaders were present, the elder recounted everything from the beginning in detail.

Turned out, his disciple had fallen for a cook from the Demonic Sect. Because of their opposing positions and identities, the elder had strictly forbidden them from seeing each other. But the disciple had been deeply infatuated and refused to listen.

Two days ago, the disciple snuck into the Demonic Sect again, and on the way back that night, collapsed face-first into a mountain stream. If not for a patrolling disciple, he would’ve drowned then and there.

Later, when they brought him back, they discovered he had been poisoned. And that poison had clear ties to the Demonic Sect.

When he got to this part, the elder exploded:

“If it weren’t for that demonic temptress, my disciple wouldn’t be in this mess!”

Ye Nanxun fired back immediately:

“You idiot! The ‘evidence’ you found was one of my antidotes! And you’re calling people temptresses—have you looked in the mirror? You look like a sun-dried date!”

Bai Yuanxiu added,

“Tsk, even your brain’s shriveled from old age.”

The elder looked so furious his eyes were about to pop out of his skull.

The Sect Leader gave Bai Yuanxiu a pat on the back, and he got the message, quickly falling silent.

Once everything had been laid out, it became clear that the incident had been a misunderstanding on the Yunhua Elder’s part. The Yunhua Sect Leader and the elder apologized and even sent over some gifts. But everyone in the Demonic Sect knew—the matter wasn’t really over.

Yes, it had been a misunderstanding. But the fact remained: a Yunhua disciple had eaten something from the Demonic Sect and ended up poisoned.

As for the poison—Bai Yuanxiu had realized it instantly upon hearing the disciple’s symptoms. It was the exact same type that Xiao Qing had been afflicted with in the snow mountain prison!

Others might not know the whole story, but Bai Yuanxiu, Xiao Qing, and the Sect Leader did. They also knew that the young man named Zhou Xiaoxiao had resolved the knot in his heart and had no reason to harm the Demonic Sect anymore.

But then…

Zhou Xiaoxiao had said he would search for the truth about his past, and once he had answers, he would come back to apologize to the Vermillion Bird Hall Master. But now, the same rare poison—one only he could make—had resurfaced in the Demonic Sect.

Could it be… he’d uncovered some new secret?

Bai Yuanxiu only thought about it briefly and already felt a headache coming on. He folded his arms behind his head and leaned back lazily to wait for the Sect Leader to give orders.

He figured the task would probably fall to Ye Nanxun, since he specialized in herbs and poisons and was the logical person to investigate. But just then, a familiar voice suddenly rang out:

“Leave this matter to me.”

Bai Yuanxiu turned in surprise—Xiao Qing had stepped forward and was now standing before the Sect Leader. Because of the mask, Bai Yuanxiu couldn’t see his expression.

Even as they made their way toward White Tiger Hall, Bai Yuanxiu couldn’t shake his confusion.

Xiao Qing had always been solitary and quiet—so much so that people used to call him the Frozen Rakshasa. Why the sudden change?

With his usual casual tone, Bai Yuanxiu asked,

“Didn’t we just get back? Why’re we heading out again so soon?”

Even with the mask between them, Bai Yuanxiu could sense Xiao Qing glance his way at that comment. But after that glance, he said not a single word.

Bai Yuanxiu didn’t want to come off as nosy, so he let it drop too.

The White Tiger Hall was situated halfway up the mountain. It had once been Yunhua Sect’s training ground, but since the Demonic Sect didn’t go in for group drills or sparring, they’d handed the whole open space over to White Tiger Hall.

On the broad gray stone platform stood a structure that resembled a great hall—but only sort of. From a distance, it looked like multiple main halls had been mashed together in a chaotic tangle.

Wisps of smoke curled from within. At a glance, it resembled some mythic alchemy site from legend. But the mouthwatering aromas wafting out brought it firmly back to the mortal world.

Bai Yuanxiu’s nose twitched, and his eyes lit up:

“That’s pine-nut mandarin fish!”

As the two of them walked toward the source of the rich aroma, they spotted a woman with her hair tied in a simple bun, dressed in a light green short tunic, expertly flipping a heavy iron wok.

She poured bright orange-red sauce over a perfectly crisped fish, then set the wok back on the stove and waved cheerfully with an outstretched arm:

“Left Protector, Right Protector!”

Bai Yuanxiu returned the wave with a gesture of his own, then followed Xiao Qing into a small side room on the other end of the circular building. They sat down at a table to wait.

Soon, the woman pushed open the door and entered, smiling brightly:

“What brings the two of you here today?”

Bai Yuanxiu was just about to exchange pleasantries—when the person beside him cut in coldly:

“Someone suspects your cooking is poisoned.”

Bai Yuanxiu: ???

That direct, huh?