Phoenix's Requiem

While Rong Tianling was making a fuss by the entrance of the Yun manor, Yun Ruoyan was playing a simpler variant of go with her grandmother. This was a variant that Yun Ruoyan had developed herself. It remained interesting while being far less taxing, and she’d had great success introducing it to her grandmother these last few days.

“Oh, Grandmother, no, I’ve changed my mind!” Right after Yun Ruoyan put down a stone, she immediately wanted to undo her move.

“No, you’ve put it down already!” The Yun matriarch smacked Yun Ruoyan’s palm as she tried to grab the stone back.

“Grandmother, won’t you relent just once?” Yun Ruoyan pleaded with puppy eyes.

As expected, the Yun matriarch relented. In a huff, she emphasized, “Just this once, you hear me?”

“Alright, alright, just this once.” Yun Ruoyan’s eyes twinkled as they met Xiao Lan’s, who was standing behind the Yun matriarch.

Just then, a servant hurriedly ran into the pavilion and stated that the master was summoning Yun Ruoyan. Yun Ruoyan glanced at the man, whose expression instinctively told her that this wasn’t about to be a pleasant summons.

Without raising her head, she replied casually, “Is it something urgent? I’m playing go with Grandmother at the moment. Would it be fine if we finished this game first?”

The servant rubbed his hands nervously. “No, Miss, the master wants you to go immediately!”

Before Yun Ruoyan could respond, the Yun matriarch slammed the stones in her hand on the board. “What’s so urgent that it has to interrupt my eightieth birthday celebration?!”

“Oh, my goodness!” The servant was so frightened that he knelt down and recounted the entire sordid affair, even revealing his own half-swollen face to the Yun matriarch and Yun Ruoyan.

“Pshaw! That Rong Tianling was a dirtbag even as a child, but I can’t believe he hasn’t matured in all this time,” the Yun matriarch commented. She knew about what had happened during the flower-viewing party because Yun Ruoyan had told her herself. “He dares try to interrupt my birthday celebration for this?”

The Yun matriarch stood up immediately, and Yun Ruoyan scrambled to help support her. “Grandmother, please be careful.”

The Yun matriarch patted at Yun Ruoyan’s hand and continued benevolently, “Ruoyan, don’t be scared. Whoever dares bully you today is disrespecting me. Come, let’s head to the entrance of the manor together.”

Yun Ruoyan knew that the celebrations wouldn’t go smoothly, but she hadn’t expected the problems to start so early on. Since this wasn’t an event she could afford to miss, her safest choice was to stay by her grandmother’s side throughout the entire celebration. That was why, during these last few days, she had either been cultivating in her rooms or spending time with her grandmother playing cards or go.

Her goal was to get her grandmother used to her company, until she expected to see Ruoyan daily. At the start, Yun Ruoyan was simply making use of her grandmother’s authority, but after a period of time, she found that she actually did enjoy spending time with her grandmother.

Slowly, her feelings became genuine.

The Yun matriarch got on a palanquin, and Yun Ruoyan stood behind her. The procession followed the servant all the way to the entrance.

“What’s going on? Whose carriage is that blocking the eastern entrance?!” a guest who had just arrived asked curiously. 

“It’s Elder Rong’s carriage, and it’s been there for quite a while,” someone jumped in.

“Elder Rong!” The first guest had a shocked expression on his face as he continued in a whisper, “How did someone like Official Yun manage to enrage that tyrant?”

“Don’t you know? During the empress’ flower-viewing party, the Slaughtering King crippled the eldest daughter of the Rongs for the second daughter of the Yuns, Yun Ruoyan! Naturally, that tyrant can’t handle the Slaughtering King himself, so he’s here to make a fuss with the Yuns.”

“But isn’t that too excessive? It’s the Yun matriarch’s birthday!”

“That tyrant wants everyone to see what’s going on, of course! The crown prince and the Slaughtering King haven’t yet arrived, but when they do, sparks are going to fly. Just you watch!”

Along with a growing crowd, the crown prince slowly made its way to the Yun manor.

Li Qianxiao didn’t want to attend the celebration at all. Because of what had occurred during the flower-viewing party, Li Xiu had punished him with two weeks of house arrest, and he was all gloomy by the time his punishment was over.

Furthermore, the Yun manor had two girls he didn’t ever want to see again. One was Yun Ruoyan, and the other, Yi Qianying. Despite all this, the empress had forced him to attend. If it were under usual circumstances, it would be fine if he feigned illness, but while the repercussions from the flower-viewing party lingered, he had to be on his best behavior.

Luckily, the second prince Li Qianyuan had finally returned to the palace and was very happy to be attending the celebrations with him. The two brothers rode from the palace, surrounded by an escort of imperial guards, toward the Yun manor.

“Brother, is that second daughter of the Yuns really as frightening as you claim she is?”

“Naturally,” Li Qianxiao responded without hesitation. “It would be fine if she were ugly all around, but if you look at her with her gauze patch on, she looks like an incredible beauty. But as soon as she takes it off… it’s like watching a fairy transform into a female ghoul! If I weren’t so daring, I’d have become ill from the shock!”

“Really, that frightening?”

“I’m not lying to you. You’ll see for yourself once we get closer.”

“I’m really quite interested. I wonder if she’s more frightening than the female demons roaming the eastern seas?” Li Qianyuan raised his slender eyebrows. He looked more feminine than the rest of his brothers, having inherited his father’s almond-like eyes. His skin was fine and his features elegant; when he smiled, he looked more charming than many a noble girl.

When Yun Ruoyan hadn’t arrived despite a significant wait, Rong Tianling began to get anxious. Almost like a gossipy woman, he asked, “Official Yun, is your daughter afraid of crowds? I’ve heard that she’s unbelievably ugly. She tried to seduce the Slaughtering King himself during the flower-viewing party, jumping into his embrace before then refusing his advances. I’m sure word of this incident has spread far and wide to everyone gathered here!”

Yun Lan peered once more at Rong Yuehong, still within the carriage. Your daughter looks far more ghastly than mine, but she’s right here. What does Ruoyan have to fear? But he didn’t want to give the crowd more to talk about.

When he saw that Rong Tianling was still about to speak, Yun Lan continued mildly, “The Slaughtering King himself will be here today. Elder Rong, you should be careful with your speech: it wouldn’t do for you to provoke the Slaughtering King himself, would it?”

When he heard this, Rong Tianling snapped his jaws shut awkwardly.

“Master, Master, I brought her here!” Finally, the servant with the half-swollen face appeared with Yun Ruoyan in tow. He was shouting as he ran, and by the time he reached Yun Lan’s side, he was wheezing.

“What took so long?” Yun Lan asked 

The servant clutched his stomach and gulped his saliva as he continued, “Master, the old madam’s here as well.”

As soon as he said this, the Yun matriarch’s voice could be heard from a distance. “I heard Elder Rong’s here to celebrate my birthday, but that he’s blocking the entrance and refusing to enter. Has my Yun family somehow offended him?” she called out as her palanquin moved slowly forward.

The Yun matriarch’s voice rang out bright and clear, not at all sounding like that of an eighty-year-old woman. When she was young, she had been a rather talented cultivator, and had even reached peak eighth-rank. Despite her advanced age, she still retained some of the authority of the strong.

Only then did Rong Tianling deign to get off the carriage and bow toward the Yun matriarch. “Madam, I’m not trying to be unreasonable, but I’ve been wronged!”

The Yun matriarch snorted. “Well, go find whoever wronged you! I heard that the one who crippled your daughter at the flower-viewing party was the Slaughtering King. Coincidentally, the Slaughtering King has accepted my invitation and will be at my celebration today. You have my blessings to discuss this matter with him then.”

Everyone knew that the Slaughtering King was the true culprit, but the Yun matriarch was the only one who dared to point that out.

“That’s right, that’s right, the Yun matriarch’s words are reasonable,” someone finally piped up by the site of the blockade.

“Elder Rong, you’re looking for the wrong person. Since the culprit himself hasn’t shown up yet, could you move aside and let us through?”

“It would be terrible if the banquet couldn’t start at an opportune time for the celebration, Elder Rong, so please let us through.”

A ruckus began to spread by the dissatisfied carriages that had been forced to wait behind the ostentatious Rong carriage.

“I don’t care about any of that!” Vexed by the crowd, Rong Tianling resorted to brute strength.

With a wave of his large palms, a strong spiritual energy emanated from his hands. That spiritual energy morphed into a huge gust of wind, fanning out the curtains and displaying the sorry, wretched sight of Rong Yuehong for all to see.

As soon as the crowd saw the girl in the carriage, there were gasps of astonishment all around. So much wealth flowed through the capital that even the beggars ate well, and no one had seen such an emaciated, ghastly figure.

“That’s my daughter! My daughter, reduced to this sorry state just because she fought with Yun Ruoyan at the flower-viewing party! Everyone, have you had a good look?! Who else should I seek out but the Yun family?!”

“My goodness, what happened to her?!”

“She used to be so beautiful!”

“I accompanied Miss Rong up the Minghuang mountain not a few months ago, and she was still a sight to behold then! How did something like this happen just because she attended a party?!”

When they saw Rong Yuehong’s figure, they couldn’t help but pity the poor girl. In the carriage, Rong Yuehong began to make more gurgling, strangled noises.

Rong Tianling immediately leaped back into the carriage before nodding intently. He then turned toward Yun Ruoyan, who had been standing quietly by the Yun matriarch’s side. “Although Yuehong was hurt by the Slaughtering King, this ultimately resulted because of her duel with Yun Ruoyan, the source of her grudge. Now that Yuehong looks like this, the only reason she braved this trip today was because she wanted Yun Ruoyan to carry her on her back to resolve her grudge. Is the Yun family unwilling to make even such a small, reasonable concession?!”

“She really is quite pitiful, isn’t she? The eldest daughter of the Rongs, reduced to such a state!”

“She doesn’t seem like she’s particularly heavy, so it should be fine, shouldn’t it?”

“That’s right—it doesn’t look like she has long to live, at any rate.”

Crowds naturally sympathized with the weaker party, and the momentum was in Rong Yuehong’s favor.

Yun Lan had long since become exasperated by Rong Tianling’s antics. Now, he commanded, “Ruoyan, go carry her.”

The Yun matriarch hesitated. She certainly wouldn’t let any harm come to her beloved granddaughter, but if the Rongs just wanted her to carry Rong Yuehong on her back for a little, this didn’t seem too troublesome. As a result, she also advised, “Ruoyan, how about you do it?”

Yun Ruoyan smiled scathingly. “As you will, Father, Grandmother.”