Chapter 26#

If You See SnowCh26.1 - Wanted: Naked Cat Thief#

Sang Chiyu held Su Ruhui by the neck and gently laid him back into bed. Since he wasn’t wearing any clothes, it was inconvenient to go out. Sang Chiyu picked up Su Ruhui’s outer robe and draped it over his shoulders, walking barefoot back to his own room. Closing the door, his racing heartbeat gradually calmed. He frowned and looked down, examining the palm of his hand. Ice-blue meridians extended out from his palm like tiny tentacles. When those meridians connected to those of others, he could plunder their secret arts. He retracted the meridians back into his palm. “Devour” showed no abnormalities, working normally. He closed his eyes, sensing the flow of spiritual energy within his body. The spiritual energy was slightly unstable, showing faint signs of acting up.

Why was this happening? Why did he suddenly turn into a cat?

He tested “Shadow Walking.” The arts suddenly activated, and his figure immediately disappeared and reappeared at the opposite end of the room. He then tested “Shapeshifting,” and his pupils and hair faded into ink black. His cold and stern face reflected back from the mirror in the room. He continued testing the third secret art, “Divine Eye,” and his vision instantly changed. The room became transparent and the solid earthen walls and bricks lost their substance, leaving only a dark grey structure. Through the wall, he could see the front hall outside the side door.

The more secret arts he used, the more unstable his spiritual energy flow became. He didn’t dare use them any longer. Looks like it wasn’t good to overuse his secret arts too much, but this still doesn’t explain why he suddenly turned into a cat. He thought, did it have something to do with the heart core? However, Su Ruhui never turned into a kitten when he possessed this heart core. Sang Chiyu frowned, unable to make sense of it. Could it be because he had devoured too many secret arts and triggered some mechanism in the heart core? He could only guess this, deciding to temporarily stop devouring any new secret arts. He then circulated his spiritual energy to terminate “Divine Eye.”

Stripping off the secret arts required repeatedly flushing his meridians with spiritual energy. This process was a painful one, but Sang Chiyu was already used to it. By the time “Divine Eye” was stripped away, he was drenched in sweat. He changed his clothes and pushed open the window to check the sky; it was almost time to report for duty at the guard. Sang Chiyu hid Su Ruhui’s outer robe in the wardrobe and took out the “Shapeshifting” talisman he had prepared earlier. The talisman burned up, and he once again transformed into the unremarkable fifteen-year-old youth, Su Yu.

Su Ruhui slowly woke up, the back of his neck aching painfully. He rubbed his neck and sat up. After sitting for a while with his hair all messed up, he suddenly remembered what had happened before he fainted. A naked man was in his room! He shuddered and quickly checked himself all over. Phew phew, no signs of being violated. He climbed off the bed and scanned the room. One of his robes was missing, and Sang Baobao was gone as well. Su Ruhui was utterly shocked— that naked man stole his robes and his son!

He flung open the door, colliding right into Su Yu, who had just come to knock and wake him up.

“Have you seen anyone suspicious?” Su Ruhui asked, gripping Su Yu’s shoulders.

Su Yu calmly shook his head.

“Damn it!” Su Ruhui cursed.

“What’s wrong?” Su Yu furrowed his brows.

Su Ruhui’s head hurt from anger, “Some naked man sneaked into our house and stole the cat l picked up last night!” The wind was cold and seeped straight into the room. He turned around and put on his padded robes while saying “You get all sorts of weirdos these days, infuriating to death. l’m heading to the guard today to post a wanted notice for that naked cat thief.”

“…” Su Yu paused for a moment, then asked, “Do you remember what he looked like?”

Su Ruhui thought for a bit, only remembering that the naked man had a full head of silver hair. “He knocked me unconscious and I didn’t have time to see him clearly. He looked like an old man getting up there in age. A seventy or eighty year old dude still out walking his bird; how come he didn’t freeze to death?”

Sang Chiyu’s expression was extremely complicated.

Su Ruhui was incomparably vexed but there was nothing he could do about it. The person had definitely run far away and it was too late to catch up, especially since he had to go report for duty. Su Ruhui put on his martial robes, donned his sword belt and arm guards, and hooked on his saber and crossbow. This guy usually didn’t care about his appearance, but now, he looked quite presentable in uniform. His tall and straight frame paired with his slightly sharp features, somewhere between man and boy, carried a hint of maturity without losing his youthful air, making him strikingly dashing and captivating.

Su Ruhui had always been like this since he was a child. Wherever he stood, he became the center of attention. Even without secret arts, even without a prestigious family backing him, he still stood at the top among the younger generation. Sang Chiyu stood to the side, silently watching him.

He lowered his head to inspect his outfit and asked Su Yu with a smile: “How is it?”

Sang Chiyu nodded, “Very good looking.”

“Speaking of which, Sang Chiyu used to wear this outfit too. I wonder what it looked like on him.” Su Ruhui remarked.

Sang Chiyu fell silent for a moment, then said: “Not as good looking as you.”

Su Ruhui put his arm around Su Yu as the walked out the door, “You’re such a little sweet talker. Let’s go, ge will treat you to some sweet meat buns.”

Actually, Sang Chiyu didn’t like eating sweet stuff. Only Su Ruhui in this world would enjoy such a hair raising dish as meat with added sugar. But… never mind. It’s okay to eat it once in a while.

They drove to the guard. Officials and clerks bustled back and forth, and the council hall packed with people moving with hurried steps. Xia Jing spotted Su Ruhui and waved him over, leading him and Su Yu to the duty quarters. Pushing open the cypress wood door, Xia Jing said: “This used to be Sang Chiyu’s duty quarters, now it’s yours. He didn’t leave much behind. Keep what you find useful and you can toss the rest.“ Glancing behind Su Ruhui, he noticed Su Yu acting as a shadow behind him, not uttering a single peep. Smiling, he added, ”This boy is Su Yu, right? He came in with you. I see you two are familiar, so he’s yours to command.”

Su Ruhui thanked him repeatedly. Xia Jing added, “Next month is the new year court assembly. The aristocratic families from all forty-eight provinces will gather at the border capital. Preparations for this event will keep us busy for a while. Be prepared. You may have to go without sleep for several days straight.”

“No problem. Quexie is young and can handle it.” Su Ruhui patted his chest and assured.

Xia Jing patted his shoulder, then suddenly changed the subject with a meaningful tone: “The trial lasted three days and two nights. Quexie, where were you those two nights? Were you and Su Yu together the whole time?”

“We weren’t together the first day. I ran into some bad guys the second day, and it was thanks to this little brother who rescued me, so we decided to team up from then on.” Su Ruhui said modestly. “Nephew is not very capable, and I didn’t dare to fight anyone head-on. So I found a secluded cave to hide in and hid there for three days. Please don’t laugh at me, Uncle.”

“Why would I laugh? In such a brutal trial, hiding is the wisest choice.” Xia Jing said with a smile, “You two children are truly blessed.”

Su Ruhui wore a cheerful smile on his face, but inwardly he cursed the old dogs of the Secret Sect. Thankfully he’d adopted a strategy of survival at all costs. Otherwise, he wouldn’t even know how he died. Strange things appeared on the snowy mountain at night, and they could even transform into humans. Those so-called “winners” on the third day were probably no longer human. Out of more than fifty people, only he and Su Yu were truly still breathing and alive. The thought made Su Ruhui’s teeth ache.

The Secret Sect’s recruitment of the Scout Guard was divided into two tracks: those for secret arts cultivators and one for ordinary people. The directly selected cultivators were the people the Secret Sect truly wanted to recruit. The other group of ordinary people were likely bait to lure the monsters. The Secret Sect knows the monsters will replace living humans, so they deliberately sent people into the mountains, giving the monsters this opportunity to make replacements. The gap in strength between ordinary people and monsters was too great, making their chances of survival extremely slim.

The final winners of the trial were basically monsters, not humans, which gave the Secret Sect the perfect opportunity to set a trap and wipe them all out. Even if one or two people survive, the Secret Sect likely already knew that the Underworld would take the opportunity to infiltrate, and there was an eighty to ninety percent chance that those who survived were members of the Underworld; their deaths were just as good.

The trials had happened more than once. Before Su Ruhui’s trial, there had been many others, and the Secret Sect had caused countless people to perish in the snowy mountains in order to lure these monsters out. Fortunately, Jiang Quexie was from a noble family and could not die in the snowy mountains for no reason, and the Secret Sect pulled him out to verify his identity. Otherwise, Su Ruhui would have ended up like those frozen meat.

“It’s time,” Xia Jing clapped his hands. “Su Gou, take the two of them to see those things.”

Su Gou appeared beneath the eaves, a man clad in white hemp robes and maintaining a perfectly measured smile. The curve of his lips was identical to the first time Su Ruhui had seen him. Su Ruhui wondered, don’t these people not feel creeped out by seeing his eerie smile all the time?

Su Gou bowed: “These two lords, please follow me.”

Su Ruhui had a guess, but still pretended to be clueless, “What are we going to look at?”

Xia Jing stroked his beard and said slowly: “You’ll know when you go see it.”