Chapter 9 – The Monarch: Song Qiao
Lei Xinfeng stood up. “What’s that sound? Where’s it from?” His heart pounded with fright. After the horror story that Chuizi told, followed by such a loud crack, it was impossible to not be frightened.
Xin Zhaolun also stood up and immediately saw the wall behind Lei Xinfeng. “There!” he said, pointing.
“Here!” Lei Xinfeng shouted. By that time, all the people that were cultivating woke up; how could they continue while such a disaster was happening?
“What’s wrong?” Fengying asked.
Shihu jumped to his feet, looking around wildly.
A crack appeared in the ice wall starting from the floor. With continuous cracking sounds, the gap widened and lengthened, traveling up the wall. If the wall cracked and the outside air leaked in, then there weren’t many people that could walk away alive.
“Give me a thicker pelt! Hurry!” called Xin Zhaolun. “Stick it on the wall!”
Fengying scooped up a pelt from the floor and flew to the ceiling, putting the pelt above the creeping crack. Xin Zhaolun took a basin of water and poured it down the pelt while Lei Xinfeng made sure the pelt was pasted snugly against the wall. The water froze as soon as Xin Zhaolun took it out, and it took Xin Zhaolun’s fire to melt it enough for it to flow.
Although the ice wall was still creaking, after the addition of the pelt and the frozen water, the crack temporarily stopped widening.
“This won’t do. We must make this more sturdy. We should build another wall, it’s too scary.”
Xin Zhaolun agreed. “Alright! Let’s build another layer. I still have some steel poles. Everyone help. First, we should create a frame.”
With everyone helping, the frame was finished extremely quickly. The frame was behind the first wall, so just by putting in materials, then freezing it in place with water, the ice wall will be finished.
All the people present dug around in their Hidden Lun space to find things they didn’t need, and they put it as filler for the wall. After a few minutes, the the new wall was finished.
Everyone sat down again, their faces pale from cold. Even though there were so many burning braziers, the temperature was raising at all. It was still much warmer than air outside, though.
“It’s only the first day, and it’s already this bad. If this lasts ten days, we won’t make it. Even with a house,” Lei Xinfeng said.
“It won’t last ten days, at most five, at least three days, and the cold will recede,” Xin Zhaolun said.
“Then I hope it only lasts three days.”
The ice wall kept emitting cracking sounds, not stopped at all. It made everyone anxious. But with the second layer of ice wall, everyone felt much better than before. However, right when they were about to relax, there was a loud cracking sound coming from the outside. They looked at each other.
“It broke,” Chuizi said. Instantly, the temperature in the room dropped.
“Don’t worry, we have two layers. The outside broke because it couldn’t stand against the wind, but we have the outer layer as a shield.”
There was the ear-piercing sound of a flute as the wind began to circulate between the outer and inner layers, like a mixture between the cries of a ghost and howls of a wolf.
“Who discovered this at first? If they came here the first time and saw this kind of weather, how’d they survive to tell the tale?” Lei Xinfeng asked.
“Well, only Monarchs are able to create and open Hidden Doors. The first person here is definitely someone on par with a Monarch, or someone even stronger. Escape should be entire in question, and…they need only to make contact with the natives here to find out everything they need to know,” Xin Zhaolun said.
Lei Xinfeng put wood into the fire non stop. The flames rose, bathing everyone’s faces in a warm red glow. A tiny amount of warmth even reached them, alleviating some of the bone-chilling cold.
Boom!
Everyone jumped. The sound came from the outside, causing everyone to be nervous. “What happened?” asked Lei Xinfeng.
“I wonder whose house collapsed,” Chuizi commented.
Lei Xinfeng laughed awkwardly. “And there was nowhere to run…scary!”
Boom!
This time, everyone stood up, because this time the sound came from right outside. Xin Zhaolun rushed to the door, raising the door curtain and peeked outside. Lei Xinfeng also followed him. This doorway had no wooden board as a cover, but was instead three pelts hanging down. It could block normal winds, but not the extreme frost that came with the coldest days.
They saw that the corridor was starting to fill with white fog, causing Xin Zhaolun to shout at Lei Xinfeng. “Get back!”
At that time, they saw the silhouette of a person come out of the fog with his entire body clad with red light. “Wait for me!”
By the time Lei Xinfeng and Xin Zhaolun took a single step back, the person had already reached to door. “Move!”
An incomparable and unmistakable pressure descended on their body, and Xin Zhaolun began backing up as fast as he could while Lei Xinfeng sat down on the ground. “Monarch!” Xin Zhaolun called hoarsely.
The person turned around and waved at the entrance. A black doorboard immediately appeared at the entrance, blocking the fog. He looked at them, just sitting there. “What are you waiting for? If you don’t want to die, hurry up and seal it!”
Everyone present understood the circumstances in an instant and they began piling pelts against the door, then soaking it with water to freeze.
The person barked again. “Build another wall to seal it utterly!”
Everyone knew that just a door wasn’t enough to block the cold. Luckily, there was a lot of people, and Xin Zhaolun had a lot of spare materials. The doorway was also small, so it only took a few minutes before a sturdy wall was erected in place of the doorway.
Lei Xinfeng looked up, and was speechless for a while. Then, “Elder, why are you here?” The old man was the person who sold him the Chaos Wheel at the auction.
The old man didn’t think that he’d get into Lei Xinfeng’s shelter either, and he smiled. “Boy, how’s my Chaos Wheel?”
“I haven’t ascended yet, so I can’t use it,” Lei Xinfeng said. “Right, why did you come over here to us?”
The old man erupted in anger. “I found a bunch of idiots and decided to borrow their shelter for a bit, but it all collapsed! How the hell did they build that shack. Luckily I was fast on my feet, or I’d have died along with that bunch of fools!”
“Senpai Senior, you almost killed all of us!” Xin Zhaolun complained. In his heart, he was extremely angry.
“Er, it’s fine. I’m here, after all,” the old man said, rather sheepishly.
Xin Zhaolun didn’t press the subject. After all, the opponent was a Monarch. He could kill them with a flip of his hand. No matter how angry he was, he still had to hold it in.
Lei Xinfeng saw an opening immediately. “Then I’ll be relying on you to guarantee our safety,” he said, pinning the Monarch down with a single line.
Xin Zhaolun wasn’t stupid, and he saw what Lei Xinfeng meant. They couldn’t do anything to the Monarch, but they could still use him.
The old man grimaced. “Very well, since I owe you. Don’t worry, as long as your house doesn’t collapse, I’ll solve any other problem for you.”
Xin Zhaolun’s anger was finally reined in. “Thank you, Senior.”
“What may we call you?” Lei Xinfeng asked.
The old man’s eyes flashed. “What, do you want my name so you can take revenge on me later?” After seeing Lei Xinfeng speechless, the old man laughed, and then answered the question seriously. “Song Qiao, Monarch!”
Everyone present, including Chuizi and Futou, stood up in greeting. “Greetings, Senior.” This kind of manners was familiar to everyone. To a Monarch, no amount of respect was too much.
Song Qiao laughed. “Alright, I guess that since I owe you lot one, if you ever need my help, I will help you once as long as you could find me.”
Xin Zhaolun’s eyes glowed. This kind of promise was incredibly valuable. Even if the master was a Monarch himself, Master was a busy person. There are some things he wouldn’t bother Master with. With this promise from Song Qiao, he gained the assistance from a Monarch.
Lei Xinfeng was also happy. “Then, Senior Song, how might we find you?”
This was the critical question. No matter how many promises Song Qiao made, they were worth as much as a pile of trash if they couldn’t find him.
Everyone’s eyes landed on Song Qiao.
He laughed. “Clever boy! Here, take this!”
It was a red crystal badge, an inch squared in size. Lei Xinfeng didn’t understand. “What is this?” he asked.
“Fool! Don’t you know what a message badge is?”
Of course Lei Xinfeng knew what it was, but he’d never seen one before. It was something for communication between Monarchs; Sages had nothing of the sort.
Song Qiao continued to explain. “As long as we’re in the same world, the message badge will always be able to find me.” After a quick lesson on how to use the message badge, he asked for the masters in the group. After identifying themselves, every master received a message badge themselves. Even Futou and Chuizi got one.
Lei Xinfeng smiled. “Chuizi, the two of you won’t leave this place. I think Senior Song doesn’t come here often?”
Song Qiao nodded. “Indeed. I’m only here because I have business here, else I’d never come here.”
Lei Xinfeng turned back to Chuizi and Futou. “After Senior Song leaves, he won’t come back, or will only come rarely. Even if you two have the message badge, you won’t find much use for it…why don’t you give it to me?”
Miaolin who was in Hongjie’s arms suddenly called out. “Brother Lei is so devious!”
Futou and Chuizi quickly discussed the offer, and then Chuizi answered. “Alright. Ah Feng, what will you trade with us?”
Lei Xinfeng smiled. “What do you want? You can have it as long as I have it.”
“We should build another wall” -Lei Xinfeng.
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how weird that second wall must look.
“Build another wall!” – Song Qiao.
Why are they so scared of him anyway? They have four Ninth Ring Sages, while that Monarch should technically be suppressed down to Ninth Ring Sage as well. They should take that fight rather easily, considering that a Ninth Ring Sage can’t easily kill an Eighth Ring Sage if the latter decides to run.
I need something else to call 师姐/妹/兄/弟 besides a generic elder brother, etc. Any suggestions?
By the way, I’m still looking for an editor (as someone brought up in the comments). The editor is going to have to do more than just editing, as I might just pass the translated chapter to them, and they will be responsible (if I figure out how the permissions work) for:
proofreading
formatting
chapter linking
tagging
all the other stuff that gets done between translation and uploading.
This is negotiable. If anyone is still interested, email me or contact me through discord! You can make your own notes at the end of the chapter like this (overly long) one, but I’m not going to pay you!