Chapter 14: Beating the Snow, Qinghe Clenched His Chest — Brothers, Let's Talk About Those Things
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He stared at the three-inch glass flask, which seemed to contain an entire river of stars.
Li Tiexian’s gaze fixed upon it. He covered the distance in two strides and hurried over.
“This…”
Xue Qinghe elegantly spat out a fish bone and said without looking up,
“The Yao Guang Brew you wanted.”
“For only two meals of fish, you still came out ahead.”
“Mm. You’ll have to treat me to at least another ten meals or so.”
Li Tiexian’s eyes lit up.
“Forget ten meals!”
“I’d treat you to a hundred!”
He snatched up the glass bottle and held it before his eyes, examining it closely.
The wine within shifted from an aurora-like blue-green to the orange glow of sunset, truly resembling starlight.
At the sight of such miraculous wine, Li Tiexian was overcome with delight.
He clenched his fist and thumped it against Xue Qinghe’s chest.
“Now that’s what I call being a good sport!”
Xue Qinghe froze with a piece of fish halfway to his mouth.
Slowly, stiffly, he raised his eyes and stared in disbelief at the white-robed youth who clearly had no sense of personal boundaries.
In truth, the instant his fist struck Xue Qinghe’s chest, Li Tiexian knew he had gotten carried away.
Though he appeared to be still studying the Yao Guang Brew, his heart had already begun to panic.
He could sense the increasingly dangerous look in Xue Qinghe’s eyes across from him.
What was he supposed to do?
In the space of a single second, Li Tiexian’s reaction was even faster than his swordplay.
Just pretend nothing had happened!
He was Crown Prince Xue Qinghe, not Saintess Qian Renxue!
They were all brothers here. What was wrong with thumping each other on the chest?
Li Tiexian raised his hand as though he intended to give him another punch.
“Just look at it! It must be excellent wine!”
“My good brother, you’re a real friend!”
Xue Qinghe watched Li Tiexian’s expression and calmly shifted out of the way of his fist.
“At your age, with wine never leaving your hand, can you even appreciate it?”
“Can I appreciate it…?”
Li Tiexian smiled.
Saying that he did not understand wine was much the same as saying he did not understand the sword.
At once, he pulled out the stopper and eagerly took a sip of the Yao Guang Brew.
It flowed down his throat like a strand of starlight.
A look of bliss immediately spread across his handsome face.
“Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!”
“As expected of the fine wine even the imperial family treasures—the Yao Guang Brew!”
After crying out his praise three times, Li Tiexian closed his eyes and savored the taste.
“The opening is clear as ice-fed spring water. The middle note conceals a dense, wintry chill, while the finish lingers on, carrying a trace of mysterious coolness.”
When he opened his eyes, the world before him seemed veiled in the haze of night.
A streak of brilliant starlight flashed past.
Feeling the tremor of the Green Lotus Sword, Li Tiexian sighed,
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“The Yao Guang Brew—a wine that possesses both the dreamlike and the poetic.”
Xue Qinghe stared in astonishment at the white-robed youth swaying his head from side to side.
The boy had fair skin and a stray lock of hair falling over his brow, accentuating his handsome and carefree appearance.
He looked no older than twelve or thirteen.
Yet when he savored wine, the confidence and flamboyance he displayed made him seem like an old drunkard with decades of experience.
“What an interesting person…”
That was Xue Qinghe’s private assessment.
“I still don’t know your name.”
“Li Tiexian.”
Li Tiexian returned the question out of courtesy.
“And yours?”
Xue Qinghe looked at him and said quietly,
“You didn’t know who I was yesterday. Do you still not know today?”
Li Tiexian was not embarrassed in the least. He picked up a freshly cooked fish and placed it in Xue Qinghe’s bowl, then laughed heartily.
“Since you’re the Crown Prince, you get the most tender fish!”
Xue Qinghe was stunned.
He had assumed that once Li Tiexian learned his identity, the boy would at least become somewhat restrained.
“You’re not going to eat it?”
Li Tiexian rose and reached to take the fish back.
“If you won’t eat it, I will!”
Xue Qinghe panicked.
“Put my fish down!”
…
That night.
In the small courtyard, Li Tiexian poured the remaining Yao Guang Brew into the Clear Spring Wine Flask.
Suddenly, a strand of starlight descended from the heavens and fell straight into the flask.
In an instant, a multicolored mist billowed from its mouth.
The rich, mysterious fragrance of wine filled the entire courtyard.
Upon the body of the flask, already engraved with springs, fruits, and other designs, another patch of starlight appeared.
Li Tiexian tipped back his head and took a mouthful.
Boom!
His Adam’s apple bobbed.
The potent liquor transformed into a scorching stream, yet within his chest it spread into a crystalline coolness, like snow and rain melting away.
Li Tiexian’s face flushed at once.
He gave a drunken belch, and pale violet mist spilled from his mouth.
“Excellent wine! Excellent wine!”
The imprint of the Green Lotus Sword appeared on his brow.
With a thought, a three-foot-six-inch blade of green steel appeared in his hand.
Scalding wine surged through his meridians, while lotus blossoms as radiant as starlight crystallized along the spine of the sword.
Li Tiexian suddenly leapt into the air, his sleeves startling fireflies from the grass.
With one sweep of his sword, all the falling starlight abruptly froze in midair.
That single stroke was so magnificent it beggared belief.
Never had there been a sword technique so beautiful—a strand of starlight stolen from the night sky itself.
When Li Tiexian delivered his final stroke, what rose from the tip of his sword was no longer a chill, but a strand of solidified stellar radiance.
With him at the center, everything within a radius of ten paces was ground into fine dust.
The wind scattered it.
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“First Form of the Green Lotus Sword Song—the Yao Guang Sword, perfected.”
…
For the next stretch of time, Li Tiexian’s life followed a simple three-point routine.
He fished at Lotus Lake, ate fish with Xue Qinghe, and returned home at night to practice his swordsmanship.
Of course, even the finest fish grew tiresome after a while.
So every few days, Xue Qinghe would bring delicacies out of the imperial palace.
One day, Li Tiexian was enthusiastically attacking a plate of Three Immortals Chicken.
Sitting across from him, Xue Qinghe curled his lips.
“You haven’t repaid me for the fish you owe.”
“On top of that, I’ve contributed two chickens, four ducks, and all manner of meat and fresh fruit.”
Li Tiexian laughed broadly.
“We’re brothers. Don’t keep track of such things.”
“If you ever need anything, just come to your brother.”
Hmm?
Hadn’t he said something similar to Zhu Zhuqing?
Li Tiexian shook his head and cast the thought aside.
It was no great matter.
A mountain of debt could not crush a carefree man.
Xue Qinghe opened his folding fan and shook his head helplessly.
If he searched his heart, he had never expected Li Tiexian to repay him.
In his view, there were things that neither the Heaven Dou Crown Prince nor the Spirit Hall Saintess could accomplish. Li Tiexian certainly could not accomplish them either.
The reason he treated Li Tiexian as a brother was simply that being around him was relaxing.
This white-robed youth was carefree and uninhibited. Aside from the pursuit of freedom, he seemed to carry no other troublesome concerns in his heart.
Xue Qinghe envied such a person from the bottom of his heart.
“Li Tiexian, are you truly unwilling to consider attending Heaven Dou Imperial Academy?”
“At your age, you’re at the ideal stage for cultivation.”
“If you want to go, I can help you.”
Xue Qinghe did not know the nature of Li Tiexian’s martial spirit or the level of his spirit power.
Still, he imagined that a wine-soaked fool could not be all that impressive.
“No.”
Li Tiexian refused without hesitation.
He simply could not understand it.
Why did both Zhu Zhuqing and Xue Qinghe want him to attend school?
Xue Qinghe was about to continue when, at that moment, Stingray Douluo and Spear Snake Douluo approached from a distance.
Xue Qinghe’s brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
“I have something to attend to. I’ll be leaving first.”
Busy gnawing on the chicken, Li Tiexian waved without even looking up.
…
Seeing the rustic youth treat their young master with such careless familiarity, a trace of anger surfaced on Stingray Douluo’s face.
Spear Snake Douluo sighed.
“Forget it. Ever since the young master began coming to Lotus Lake every day, his temperament has brightened considerably.”
“As long as he doesn’t interfere with the plan, let him be.”
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