CHAPTER 1333: THE SUANNI

Yang Qing poured himself a cup, and for his guest he made sure to bring out a larger wine bowl, given his guest’s love for wine. If that person claimed to be second place in loving wine, then no one dared claim first.

"Thank you," said Dai Chen with a grin that was part smile and part him licking his lips in anticipation. Yang Qing, acting contrary to his usual stingy self, had actually brought out the good stuff.

"How is it you ended up with the luck of receiving such a magnificent wine?" Dai Chen sighed in envy as he brought his bowl close, throwing tender gazes at the clear wine within it. "I am the wine lover," he grumbled, still looking tenderly at the bowl.

Licking his lips once more like a starved ghost, Dai Chen drained it clean in an instant before reaching for the gourd it had come from. But Yang Qing, already anticipating such a thing, snatched it away and shielded it with his arms.

"Do you know how precious this is?" Yang Qing cried. "Be satisfied with the cup you just had. If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t even give them such a generous pour," he added, quickly storing the wine away in his storage ring.

"Stingy," muttered Dai Chen under his breath.

"What did you say?" Yang Qing asked warningly as he exaggeratedly cupped his ears.

"Thank you for the wine," Dai Chen quickly said, changing tack. He knew how petty this friend of his was, and how selfish, too. He didn’t want to give him the excuse he needed to keep that wine to himself.

And true to form, Yang Qing clicked his tongue in disappointment at Dai Chen’s words.

"You’ve broken through," they both suddenly said as Yang Qing took out another wine, one he wouldn’t feel bad about if it got emptied, which he more than expected with Dai Chen involved.

"Mmh, I had a lucky break," Dai Chen leisurely said, like breaking through to the fifth stage of the palace realm wasn’t something noteworthy, despite it being a watershed for many cultivators who managed to reach the palace realm but failed to go beyond the early stage, either due to exhausting their potential or the journey upward proving to be just that steep.

"You?" he asked as he took out a few items of his own from his storage ring and began unpacking them on the table. The items turned out to be red-braised pork, dry-fried shredded beef, and noodles with wonton.

Yang Qing’s eyes glimmered with excitement when he saw the spread. Knowing his friend well, just as his friend knew him, Dai Chen immediately jumped into divvying up the food, where three quarters of what he had bought (whose quantity was more than enough to comfortably feed five people with sizeable appetites) was given to Yang Qing, and he settled for a quarter of it. Despite the smaller share, it was still enough to feed more than one person.

"Thousand flavors?" Yang Qing gingerly asked as he passed over the wine gourd, before quickly moving to bring his share to his side.

Smiling wryly at the act, Dai Chen hummed a response to the question as he poured himself the wine, adopting the same joyous look Yang Qing had.

"I didn’t think you’d reach the fourth stage this fast," Dai Chen commented in between sips.

"A lot of luck and coincidental factors were involved there," said Yang Qing in between taking a bite of the red braised pork. He seemed to have enjoyed it greatly, if the crescent smile accompanied by a long sigh was any indicator.

"The Ice Emerald case played some part in it," he said somberly. His chopsticks paused mid-air as his gaze turned distant, drifting off to that day.

"Me too," sighed Dai Chen, as his eyes also drifted off to the same memory as Yang Qing.

A few seconds passed in that heavy silence before it was broken by Yang Qing.

"I was in Hebei," he said excitedly as his chopsticks regained motion and attacked the shredded beef. "You ever been there?" he asked after taking a bite of the beef.

"A few times," said Dai Chen as he licked his smiling lips. "They have great wine," he added as he inhaled deeply, almost as if he could catch the scent of the wines he had when he was there.

"And good food too," Yang Qing chimed in as he licked his lips as well, making it seem as though he was eating those foods at that very moment.

"You had a case there?" Dai Chen asked, his tone suggesting he felt fairly certain that was the case. After all, he knew Yang Qing all too well, and he also knew his incessant complaints and fears about leaving the headquarters. If it wasn’t for a case, he would never leave the Order’s compound.

"Mmh," Yang Qing hummed with a nod as he reached for the wonton. "A kidnapping one. It actually involves someone from Gold Eagle Town," he added after the bite.

"Who?" Dai Chen asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Bai Chen, the owner of the Bluefin Escort Agency. You know it?" asked Yang Qing.

"Know of it, yes, but I’ve never been there," said Dai Chen. "How’d he get taken?" he asked.

Yang Qing sighed briefly before going on to give Dai Chen a rundown of the case, which was much deeper than what he had shared with the escort supervisors, as he held nothing back. Every unsubstantiated suspicion he had, he revealed to Dai Chen, including all the other cards he had in play, like the involvement of Gu Xing.

"Seems like you stumbled onto quite the case," said Dai Chen with a comforting smile.

Yang Qing smiled bitterly as he replied, "Tell me about it."

"Still... mythical races," Dai Chen said as he leaned back in his chair, a complicated gaze settling in as he looked in the direction of the celestial nesting weaver’s nest.

"Have you ever thought of looking for them?" Yang Qing softly asked, the them in this case referring to the person, or rather the creature, responsible for Dai Chen’s mythical bloodline.

Dai Chen had the Suanni bloodline. It was thin, but that was only in the context of him being compared to a pure Suanni. When compared to others with mythical race bloodlines, more specifically, the ones Yang Qing had come across, Dai Chen, in his book, had the densest bloodline of the mythical race he had descended from. If his bloodline were to be quantified based on density, one would say he was one-eighth Suanni, which meant that in relation to a full-blooded Suanni, he was not that far down the genealogical line.

That full-blooded Suanni he descended from could likely have been his great-great-grandfather, which was a much closer familial trace than what Yang Qing had seen in other members of the Order with mythical race bloodlines. For them, the traces were so thin that if you were to track back to the source, they and the source would be separated by twenty generations or more. If quantified, where Dai Chen was one-eighth Suanni in density, those of the latter group would be closer to one-hundredth mythical race member.

The closeness of Dai Chen to his Suanni heritage could even be seen visually, unlike the latter, where it required saint grade treasures, special treasures, or powerful techniques just to confirm the presence of those traces.

Dai Chen might not have been a full-blooded Suanni, but anyone who saw him could tell outright that there was something intrinsically different about him, whether in his physical attributes or in his presence.

The Suanni was a hybrid between a dragon and a lion, which meant that even by that alone, they carried a naturally fierce appearance. Dai Chen was easygoing by nature, and when coupled with his unnaturally handsome face, it made him stand out while also seeming approachable. However, when he grew angry, that was another matter entirely.

In their group, Zhang Qingge was the most terrifying when she got mad, though what made her terrifying was not how she looked but the damage she could inflict. Dai Chen was different. If someone were to ask their group who looked the most terrifying, or who exuded the most terrifying presence when enraged, they would all unanimously say Dai Chen. From sheer presence alone, he could make those weaker than him collapse or lose their will to fight entirely.

Then came another side of presence. He carried a dignity that could still be seen even when he dressed slovenly, as he often did with his robes open at the chest, a stubble beard, and wavy hair tied together with a plum blossom flower.

In their group, Xia Boqin could be said to be the most handsome, a result of both his looks and the noble-like demeanor born from the meticulous care he took with his appearance. But as noble and handsome as he was, if he stood side by side with Dai Chen, the latter would stand out just as much where presence and looks were concerned. Xia Boqin’s dignity was born of effort, whereas Dai Chen simply was; he could fall asleep in a haystack and, when he woke up covered in grass stalks, that same regal dignity would still be there.

And then there was his love for wine. The Suanni, though fierce in appearance, were a mythical race that loved tranquility. Hence the saying: if you wanted to spot a Suanni, go to a secluded temple deep in the mountains that was rarely visited and burn an incense stick. Once you do, a suanni would appear from the incense smoke.

Dai Chen might have been the scariest-looking when he got angry, but in the same vein, of everyone Yang Qing knew, he was the slowest to anger, especially within their group. He could brush off anything as long as he had a wine in his hand. That tranquil air that seemed to ooze from him was what made him the most approachable and the easiest to drink with.

"Find them, huh," Dai Chen dawdled as he sighed. "It would be a lie to say I wasn’t curious about them," he said, his gaze still fixed on the celestial nesting weaver’s nest as one of his hands swirled the wine gourd. "But where would I start to look? It’s not like I have that much free time," he added with a smile, shifting his gaze from the crown of the green flame tree back to Yang Qing.

"Besides, I think it’s much easier for them to find me than for me to find them. At least I won’t think of trying until I’m in the soul formation realm and the atavism kicks in," he said.

For those with a partial mythical race bloodline, it was said that there was a chance of them fully transforming and gaining a complete bloodline when they broke through to the soul formation realm. It wasn’t a guarantee for all of them, as the purity of the bloodline had to reach a certain density, and even then, it still required a special technique to trigger the transformation.

There were a lot of very stringent, very complicated requirements that needed to be met before one even thought of attempting it.

Given the thickness of his bloodline and his talent, as stringent as those measures were, and as difficult to achieve as they might be, Yang Qing believed his friend would be able to transform into a full-blooded Suanni if he wanted to when he reached the soul formation realm. And judging by his response, it seemed like it was indeed something he intended to do.

"If you’re looking for any Suanni connections, I’m sorry, I can’t help at the moment," said Dai Chen as he flashed an apologetic smile and raised a toast. After taking a sip of it, he threw Yang Qing a teasing look. "Luckily, you have Miss Gu Xing, the sacred flame swan, to lean on," he added with a laugh.

"Are you trying to get me into trouble?" said Yang Qing, smiling wryly before his expression turned solemn once more.

"Actually, the reason I asked is," he continued, "I found something in Hebei... Bar him," he said, gesturing with his eyes at the celestial nesting weaver’s nest. "Have you ever met or seen any other mythical race?"