LIGHTNOVELONLINE Xi Fu Interlude 7
Xi Fu really did not know how to react to the news.
"So, after announcing I had cucked a noble lord, of your own house, and then killing him, in his own home no less, you are giving me all his family's property as... an apology? An apology for what? His blood getting on my hands?"
It was unfathomable.
Sure, Xi Fu had felt righteous and justified in the action itself. At most, he had expected the Redscale clan to look the other way, given Hong Long Aochang's words of 'do as you please,'. But to be actively rewarded for it was beyond anything he could have predicted.
He looked down at the token before him, a simple brass badge with the word Ji on it in fancy calligraphy. Once he took this, the cities' formations would recognize him as a noble lord and the rightful owner of all that had once been the Ji's.
The young man in him felt like it was the cherry on top of his total decimation of Ji Ran's legacy. First, he had stolen the man's concubine, then his life. Now he was taking every cent the man owned.
But, he was also a Captain of the Sky Swallowing Gulper Armada, a member of Bing Meilu's Inner Circle, and witness to her political maneuverings in Port Snake. The side of him that had a more mature and sober worldview, knew it was a little more base and pragmatic than that.
"You're trying to tie me further to the Redscale clan," he said. "Effectively making me the head of a branch clan in all but name, I have a financial incentive to ensure the peace and stability of Redscale city."
"What? Can an old man simply not look out for the younger generations these days without eliciting suspicions?" Hong Long Aochang lamented, shaking his head sternly. "The youth these days-They see malice and ill-will in even the most benevolent of men!"
Xi Fu noticed the man did not refute a word of what he said.
The two cultivators sat facing each other, not on a table, but a thousand feet in the air above the bustling trade center that was Redscale City.
"What a fucking pain," Xi Fu eventually said.
He did not have it in him to decline the old man's blatant manipulations. Not because he really needed money-but for his daughter. Holding wealth and influence over the Redscale clan would make it easier for him to protect her, and then one day, to allow her to inherit the wealth and holdings of the Ji Clan.
And Xi Fu was sure the old bastard was aware of that fact as well.
"Fine then. This one humbly accepts your offering," the spear cultivator said, rolling his eyes.
He reached out and snatched the metallic badge, before storing it in his spatial ring with a crackle of qi. He was far too done with the events of the last few days to offer anything but the barest pretence of sociality and respect for his elders. Hong Long Aochang merely chuckled, taking a sipsp of his ever-present tea cup.
"For free, I will let you in on a tidbit of wisdom," the old man winked. "The best sort of manipulation is when the person you are manipulating knows exactly what you are doing and what you want, yet still has no choice but to go along with it."
Then, Hong Long Aochang leaned in closer to Xi Fu, giving him a conspiratorial look.
"Psst. One little thing... You are gaining ownership of everything the Ji branch had owned. That includes that sweet old mistress of yours, Xue Xiang. I don't think anyone would have objections if you were to pop out a couple more kids."
'...because of Xiyi's special bloodline' went unsaid. But Xi Fu could hear the message as loud as day. Just as the Redscale clan had rewarded Ji Ran and encouraged him to have many children. They now wanted the same from him. To fuck into being a gaggle of talented cultivators to be tossed fresh-faced into the lethal dangers of the cultivation world.
With a flash of his spatial ring, Xi Fu's ebony-hafted spear appeared in his hands.
"The next time you imply that I serve as a breeding mule so your clan can use my children as weapons... I will kill you."
With that Xi Fu turned around and flew away in a burst of displaced air.
Hong Long Aochang sat there, a complex look appearing in his eyes.
'How strange,' he thought. 'For just a single moment-I think I almost felt something akin to... fear? Just what the hell are they feeding the brats today?'
The old man shook his head in lamentation before he too vanished from the air.
---
Hong Long Xiyi sat at the breakfast table, awkwardly refusing to meet eyes with her mother. Xue Xiang silently sliced bits of roast lamb off a hunk and set them on the little girl's plate.
Xiyi's anger at her mother from before had faded after the older woman's outburst from last night. It was a side of her mother that she had never seen before. A side that could get angry, could even shout and explode in rage. A side that was hurt and resentful-not the seemingly omnipotent Mother who reigned over her house with an iron fist-but Xue Xiang, a woman thrust into a life she had never chosen finally coming to terms with that fact.
And most of all, the side of her that hated Ji Ran.
'Mommy can't be wrong!' It was a fundamental, core truth that Xiyi felt deep in her soul, as many children did. 'But father can't be a bad man!'
And so like most did when faced with fundamental cognitive dissonance, she tried her best to just ignore the contradiction. To pretend everything was normal.
"S-so, Mommy..." Xiyi began, before realizing she could not come up with anything to say.
At that point, she just fell silent again, pushing idly at her meat with her fork, but too lost in thought to actually stab the hunk of flesh and devour it.
"Does it taste good?" Xue Xiang eventually asked.
"Mhmm," her daughter hummed in agreement, not looking up.
---
The next morning, Xi Fu watched his daughter train. Wreathed in a simple invisibility technique-which only stopped mortals like Hong Long Xiyi from seeing him with her eyes. It was not even a real technique so much as a forceful application of his raw qi manipulation, but it would do for such basic purposes.
The young girl stood in her yard, wooden training spear in hand, a sight Xi Fu had seen commonly at this point. She began to flip through the new training book she had left for her.
It was exceptionally written, in Xi Fu's own humble opinion. He had tried to, compared to his old, jumbled notebook, make this one an actual proper training manual. It was written in clear language that made the lessons easy to understand. There were various techniques-not just for individual fighting, but even explanations of how to fight alongside others with various weapons.
He watched as Xiyi began attempting to execute a described maneuver designed to ward off oncoming swords. She swung and swung and swung, failing each time but slowly refining her execution.
In a mere hour, she was already well on her way to basic competence in the execution. It was almost crazy to see. Xi Fu had taken days to learn that one-but it seemed before a real genius his efforts were just so-so.
"Do you have any friends?"
The question slipped out of his mouth completely unexpectedly. And because Xi Fu had only bothered to cloak his appearance, she heard him loud and clear. Not wanting the girl to realize he had been spying on her, Xi Fu dropped the invisible cloak, just as she spun around, eyes narrowed in anger.
"W-what the hell are you doing here?" Xiyi stumbled on her words before her face flushed in anger "Aa-and what the hell kinda question is that? Of course I have friends- stupid old geezer!"
Xi Fu blinked slowly.
"Ah, that came out wrong. I meant to say that... every time I come here, you are always training. I never see you out doing normal kid stuff, you know? Do you not play with your friends?"
"O-of course I do, dummy! I have-I have plenty of friends and we play all the time!" Xiyi glared, eyes starting to turn red with unshed tears. "Like uhm- uhm- the neighbour's boy! He came over to watch me train just a few weeks ago, so take that! Now if you're just gonna insult me, you can screw off!"
Xi Fu gently stroked his chin, before frowning. It really was just as bad as he thought. The old man's words had ignited the suspicion in him-and now Xiyi had just confirmed it for him.
'All she does is train. Was she ever allowed to have an ordinary childhood? Or did Ji Ran really just want her to be a living weapon? His shiny prize genius!'
Even Xi Fu had gotten up to all sorts of chaos with his buddies back in the day. From Stealing chickens from Merchant Fu's street stalls while the fat bastard chased them down shaking his fist, to pranking glory holes with spice-covered dildoes and then mugging the unfortunate individual on the other end while they rolled around in pain, to setting up a betting market on who would win, between Ji Teng and the wife he was brawling with in the streets when she caught him cheating.
"Alright, that's that!" Xi Fu decided, a sly grin slowly forming on his lips. "I'm taking you with me, and we're going to have oodles of fun."
"What exactly do you mean-"
Xi Fi reached out, grabbing Hong Long Xiyi under both her arms. He hoisted her into the air and dragged her, kicking and screaming as he leapt into the air and took off in flight.
The direction? The bar is called the Red Horse Pub. The very same one contained an underground fighting ring that Bing Meilu had fought in to earn spirit stones before their hunting trip to the Ashen Mountains.
'My little combat maniac is going to love this!' Xi Fu thought, grinning.
"Pumme down!" the girl squeaked in outrage.