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Dandan tries to keep a low profile but it’s proving rather difficult…
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Ch. 25 | The Surveying Spring
Dandan blinked a little and asked, ‘Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation… what’s that?’
Song Lin gazed at him in silence for a while before asking, ‘You don’t know?’
‘Never heard of it,’ Dandan scratched his chin. ‘When it comes to saving a drowning person, I know of an ancient treatment of blowing air, but I don’t know if it’s the same as the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation you’re talking about…’
Song Lin massaged the space between his brows and asked vexedly, ‘Which dynasty exactly have you been living in?’
Dandan pondered for a moment before answering seriously, ‘Definitely not this one.’
Song Lin: ‘…’
‘Anyhow, what exactly is this mouth-to-mouth resuscitation? Is it some strange thing from the West again? Why do these Westerners always invent some odd stuff that isn’t much use…’
‘All right, enough, shut up.’ Hand covering his forehead, Song Lin decided that he had had enough of a certain rabbit’s prattle and it was time to end this pointless conversation.
Just then, a water fountain suddenly spurted from the spring in front of them. The fountain was at least two metres tall and even had little pink stars, as if a celestial maiden had descended to the mortal world.
Dandan: ‘… My word, like it’s new year… it’s even got fireworks?’
‘That’s the Surveying Spring.’
‘How does it work?’
‘The spirit beast injects its spiritual energy into the mouth of the spring. The taller the fountain, the greater the spiritual power.’ Song Lin pointed to one side of the spring where a perfectly straight ruler stood upright.
Dandan looked at the column of water with its daintily magical appearance and sighed — Mr Jing and his unacknowledged fondness for all things frou-frou…
That two-metre tall fountain had instantly drawn envious stares from everyone around; after all, only a very powerful spirit beast could produce that kind of height. As a result, everyone’s gaze naturally shifted to the spirit beast near the mouth of the spring. It was a man over six feet tall, his whole person covered by a dull red cloak. Even his face, which was the only part visible, was hidden by his fringe so it was hard to make out his appearance. But judging from the outline of his hard muscles, it was possible to sense the powerful heavyset build underneath the cloak.
His owner was a youth with a mocking¹ smirk who looked every inch the scion of a wealthy family. His apricot-coloured coat was of a cut as superior as Song Lin’s and the very expensive-looking blue and gold tiepin he had on conspicuously signified his high status. At present he was unabashedly accepting the tribute of envious gazes all round before leading his spirit beast to one side with a supercilious air.
Dandan noticed that Song Lin was also looking at him and asked sotto voce, ‘You know him?’
‘Mm,’ answered Song Lin in positively frosty tones.
Dandan scratched his bunny ears, still speculating. Was it possible that these two had some history?
‘So who is he?’
‘The Liangs’ youngest son.’
The Liang clan? The House of Liang, one of the Five Great Houses!
This time, the look Dandan directed at the youth was a lot more probing. He was still thinking of asking more when he suddenly heard a guard beside him reminding him, ‘You’re next.’
‘Huh?’
After a push from the guard, he found himself standing by the mouth of the spring. The guard took out the tablet and handed it to a registrar who was sitting down at a table beside them.
‘Dandan, yes?’ The registrar placed the tablet flat on the table, took up an engraving knife and instructed, ‘Inject your spiritual power into the mouth of the spring.’
Only now did Dandan notice that the characters Jade Rabbit were carved under the ‘Classification’ column on his tablet. His heart gave an involuntary thump. Since Mr Jing had classified him accurately… then it was very likely that this Surveying Spring would be just as accurate. Being exposed now would be a very troublesome thing. Dandan stood stock-still as the minutes ticked by.
The registrar eyed him doubtfully. ‘Look sharp about it.’
Just then, the youth strolled over to where they were and greeted Song Lin. ‘It’s been a while, Second Master Song.’
There was no warmth at all in Song Lin’s ice blue eyes but his tone sounded neutral enough as he returned the greeting, ‘Young Master Liang.’
¹ 玩世不恭 wánshì-bùgōng. If you’re not reading this chapter at hiding in plain sight, it has been stolen and reproduced by novelscraping sites.
‘Second Master Song, is this the spirit beast you’re planning to use for battle in the Guardians’ Tournament? A… a small white rabbit?’ The youth’s amber eyes travelled all over Dandan, patent disbelief in their depths.
Song Lin’s gaze followed his and settled on Dandan’s bunny ears which Dandan had specially retained for him. The corner of his mouth turned up briefly. ‘Mm hm, quite an obedient rabbit.’
‘Are you serious?’ The youth’s laughter was slightly scornful as he circled Dandan once before shaking his head in sympathy and pointing to the six feet of red cloak behind him. ‘My beast here is a vampire beast who lives in the Deadly Marsh and likes nothing better than eating small, obedient animals. You had better pray you don’t meet us then.’
Dandan ignored him, disdain writ large on his face.
Song Lin also did not seem at all concerned and replied casually, ‘If we do, please go easy on us² then.’
The youth raised an eyebrow and said, ‘Can’t promise anything. It depends on his mood.’ He turned round to look at his own spirit beast. From underneath the cloak came the sound of a savage beast grinding its teeth which sounded rather horrible.
Song Lin did not say anything else.
There was a strange undercurrent crackling between the two richly dressed young masters.
The registrar rapped on the table with his engraving knife, interrupting Dandan’s train of thought as he watched this free show. ‘This rabbit, please hurry up. After you’re done, it’ll be time for us to knock off.’
‘Okay,’ Dandan had no choice but to stop looking, channel his spiritual power to his fingers and let it flow slowly into the mouth of the spring.
After a few moments, nothing happened.
After a few more moments, still nothing was happening.
The fountain seemed to have dried up.
The corners of Young Master Liang’s mouth curled up as he patted Song Lin’s shoulder. ‘Does your older brother know that you’ve made a pact with this rabbit?’
Song Lin considered it seriously before saying, ‘He should find out very soon.’
Young Master Liang gave him a pitying look. ‘I hope you can reach the finals of the Guardians’ Tournament this year… but it doesn’t seem likely.’
At this point, the registrar discovered that the mouth of the fountain was gurgling and giving off steam. He pushed his spectacles up, intending to take a closer look but there was nothing.
What… what was he to write? He held the engraving knife vexedly — surely he couldn’t carve a zero? That would be too embarrassing for Second Master Song. He cast Song Lin a very cautious glance. ‘Second Master… you’re quite sure you want to have this spirit beast participate in the Tournament?’
Song Lin nodded. ‘Any problem?’
² 手下留情 shǒuxiàliúqíng. Translation belongs to theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com.
‘No-nothing…’ The registrar pushed at his glasses again. ‘But what should I write for his spiritual power?’
‘Just go according to the facts,’ Song Lin replied, unperturbed.
Young Master Liang, who was looking on, asked tauntingly, ‘Registrar, you don’t even know how to write zero any more?’
‘B-but, never has there been a spirit beast with zero spiritual power taking part in the Tournament…’
‘It doesn’t matter. Go ahead and put zero,’ said Song Lin.
Dandan stretched a little lazily and with a hint of boredom asked Song Lin, ‘How much longer are we going to dawdle here? Can we go now?’
‘Mm, let’s go.’ Song Lin turned round first.
The registrar hurriedly carved a zero on Dandan’s tablet and handed it to the guard in charge of him. The guard stuffed the tablet in his pocket and caught up with Song Lin.
‘Hey, where are you all going? To have your spiritual calibre appraised?’ Young Master Liang strolled over to where Dandan was, saying, ‘Let’s go together.’
Dandan said, ‘Okay.’
‘I’ve never seen a spirit beast with a low calibre before so it’s a good chance to broaden my knowledge… Don’t tell me you’re actually a Chrysalis?’
The young master kept buzzing near his ear, causing Dandan to inhale deeply and pick his ears.
At this point, Song Lin turned his head and Dandan looked a question: This brat is too noisy, can I punch him?
Song Lin answered with a gaze that said: Be good, bear with it.
After they had left the cave of the Surveying Spring, the registrar suddenly felt hot steam rising from the bubbling spring which immediately began to gurgle noisily like it was boiling over.
He swallowed and said, ‘Are you kidding…’
He was just about to turn around and find out exactly what was going on when a gigantic column of water abruptly erupted from the mouth of the fountain, shot straight upwards and burst through the ceiling with a bang…
In an instant, debris and dust came raining down with a clatter…
A few minutes later, the registrar came crawling out from under his table and asked the soaked monitoring official, ‘How tall is this fountain?’
The monitoring official mopped the water off his face, ‘I don’t know… it’s already ex-exceeded the height of the measuring ruler.’
The registrar said fearfully³, ‘Is that rabbit a monster? Go and request Mr Jing to come here quickly!’
³ 戰戰兢兢 zhànzhàn-jīngjīng. Please consider reading from theresanother(DOT)wordpress(DOT)com rather than from novelscraping sites.
At this moment, Dandan was being led into another room and of course, still buzzing away in his ear was a certain young master’s voice. ‘Hey, little bunny, where are you from?’
‘Dragon Ridge.’
‘Dragon…!! Dragon Ridge?’ The young master froze in mid-step before immediately asking, ‘As in THE Dragon Ridge where Arch-Guardian Yu Huan died?’
‘Mm hm.’
Liang Feng looked utterly astounded, his already round eyes wide with wonder. Turning round, he asked Red Cloak, ‘Nox, have you ever been there?’
Red Cloak shook his head.
‘Little bunny, since you lived on Dragon Ridge, have you ever heard of Yu Huan’s trio of spirit beasts?’
‘… Who?’ Dandan finally turned his head to look at him.
‘Those three spirit beasts of Yu Huan’s: one Jade Rabbit, one Taotie and one Flood Dragon.’ The young master enumerated them on his fingers. ‘Rumour has it that after Yu Huan’s death, everyone has been looking for them. Possessing even just one of them would make one invincible; possessing all three would make obtaining the title of Arch-Guardian a breeze.’
Dandan shook his head and said, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
The young master was a little disappointed. ‘As I thought, you’re just a little rabbit who hasn’t seen anything of the world.’
Dandan didn’t feel like responding to this. ‘I say, little bunny, since you’re going to be thrashed during the Guardians’ Tournament, why not join me instead? I won’t send you out to fight but keep you at home as a pampered pet and feed you well. How does that sound?’
‘What kind of good food do you have?’ Dandan slowed down to ask.
‘Mmm… carrots!’ The young master said with the air of one mentioning a temptation.
Dandan rolled his eyes and went off to catch up with Song Lin.
(Approx. 1905 words)
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Translated and edited by 12
hiding in plain sight 