Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 183: The Paper Crane

The cultivator who just walked out of the tower also saw the woman transformed from a crane, and asked curiously.

“Auntie Crane,¹ what are you doing here? Who is this child sitting in front of you?”

The newcomer wore a brown robe and looked to be around fifty or sixty years old. He gazed at the child in Auntie Crane’s arms with a puzzled look on his face. The child did not look familiar to him.

“Oh! To answer Immortal Huang, this child is the heir of the Wei family, who were kind to me in the past. He has a good deal of spirituality and intelligence, and is preparing to enter my Yuhuai Mountain. By the way, did you see anything flying in just now?”

“Hmm?”

The brown-robed cultivator subconsciously looked back in confusion. Seeing his reaction, Auntie Crane knew that the other party hadn’t seen a thing.

Shuyun Tower was also also called Seclusion Tower. It was surrounded by a faint white mist; the paper crane was also completely white, and did not have any spiritual energy fluctuations or Qi. Just now, the barrier had opened, and it had gone straight in. Immortal Huang didn’t notice it at all.

“Immortal Master Huang, a paper bird flew in just now. I came here chasing that paper bird.”

Auntie Crane had no choice but to explain. It was impossible for her to conceal such an occurrence.

Wei Yuansheng corrected Auntie Crane quietly from his place in her arms.

“A paper crane?”

The brown-robed cultivator looked at Wei Yuansheng and then at Auntie Crane. He thought for a moment, then waved his hand to reopen the barrier.

“Come along, let’s go and take a look!”

After speaking, he walked back to Shuyun Tower. Auntie Crane hurriedly followed, still holding Wei Yuansheng in her arms. She had originally wanted to come here with the child after all, and Immortal Qiu Feng might also be inside.

Shuyun Tower was quite tall on the outside, and extended deep down on the inside. Quite a lot of the building was hidden in the white fog. There were study rooms and a large number of quiet meditation rooms inside. They didn’t see very many people, but several of the meditation rooms had closed doors and their talismans² were lit, indicating that there was someone inside.

Auntie Crane briefly spoke to the brown-robed cultivator about the Wei family, and Wei Yuansheng explained the origin of the paper crane. It was revealed that it came from Mr. Ji.

At this moment, at the top of Shuyun Tower, Qiu Feng and his senior brother Taoist Ming Yang sat on cushions, in a row with three other cultivators. One of them was the “Junior Brother Zhao” who had previously fainted. The other two wore feathered robes: they were the two cranes.

There was another cushion opposite the five of them, upon which sat a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties, dressed in a green robe³ with a long black beard extending down to his chest. He held a jade tablet, and was scrutinizing it carefully.

“Junor Brother Zhao. What you are saying is that, when Senior Brother Pei asked you and the two fellow Crane Taoists to return the jade tablet, you were not attacked on the way there, but rather you encountered the demon on your way back to Dazhen?”

The man in green seemed to have finished reading the information on the jade tablet, so he questioned the people before him.

“That’s correct. We were not careful enough, and almost got into trouble. If it weren’t for the two fellow Crane Taoist brothers’ great spiritual powers and extraordinary speed, we would have paid a much higher price in returning to Yuhuai Mountain.”

One of the men in feathered robes continued the topic, with some doubts.

“On that day, we didn’t hesitate to expend our spiritual energy to break away into the sky and escape, but what was strange was that when we entered into Dazhen territory, those demons did not follow us. If they were afraid of losing our trail and their so-called opportunity, then Dazhen’s boundaries wouldn’t mean much.”

Taoist Ming Yan spoke up from beside Qiu Feng.

“This matter is indeed strange. Our Yuhuai Mountain has never had any grudges with the outside world. The matter of Tianji Pavilion is still just a rumor…”

“Senior brother, you are mistaken. There has recently been a fight between masters in Bing Province. According to the local ghosts and gods, the Dragon Lord of the Tongtian River was also present at the time. Together with another master, he subdued a True Demon and drove it away from the Eastern Cloud Continent… Foreigners don’t know about this, but the ghosts and gods of Changchuan Prefecture witnessed it firsthand.”

The man in green sitting opposite the five people frowned in thought.

“The Dragon Lord of Tongtian River has a perverse and unpredictable temperament, but he actually took action this time. Apart from the True Demon, who was the other individual? Could he also be a True Dragon?”

Dazhen seemed to have suddenly become a little unfamiliar. It was already a rare sight to have a True Dragon lingering in a river, but now it seemed that the situation had unknowingly grown even more complicated, and Yuhuai Mountain was just slow in realizing.

“By the way, Uncle Ren, what did Uncle Pei’s jade token say? Was it the exact information given by Tianji Pavilion?”

The man in green shook his head with a strange expression.

“Tianji Pavilion seems to have been working very hard at their divinations for long after their cave was closed to the world, but they have gained nothing. Senior Brother Pei is helping them decipher the Qi of the mountains, rivers, land, waters, forests, and wilderness of Dazhen, as well as the power of the human dynasties. They plan to work together to make another divination, but there will be no results in the short term.”

“Alright, this matter is uncertain, so don’t let it affect the cultivation of others on the mountain for the time being. From my perspective, the Qi in Dazhen is not abnormal. The provinces and prefectures are all being watched over by ghosts and gods, and there are no evil spirits. Although the human dynasty is quite old, there have been no major wars or disasters. Although it is located on the Eastern Cloud Continent, it is still a paradise on earth. Foreign cultivators will not fail to see any sign of chaos.”

All in all, the forces of righteousness still prevailed in this world. The wishes of sentient beings in the world, particularly those of the human race, created many spirits and gods. This force should not be underestimated.

Particularly in a relatively peaceful place like Dazhen, stability was destined to be upheld. Those who had reached a certain level of Taoism would not dare cause chaos at will, or at least too blatantly, lest they be haunted by calamity. Places where evil spirits were rampant were often unstable, and caused disasters to occur there.

The green-robed man’s words essentially meant that there would be no results or new information for the time being. Thus, he dismissed everyone back to their own practice.

Just when Qiu Feng and Taoist Ming Yang exited their quiet room at the top of the tower where their uncle had been in seculsion, a strange paper bird suddenly flew over, hurriedly flapping its wings.

When Qiu Feng and his senior brother noticed the paper bird, it had already reached them from far away at a very high speed, flying in circles around Qiu Feng.

“A paper bird? Whose exquisite spiritual technique is it? Someone on this mountain? There are no fluctuations of Qi or spiritual energy!”

Taoist Ming Yang was also very curious. He reached out a hand to catch the paper bird, but the bird quickly flapped its wings and dodged, hovering one foot in front of Qiu Feng.

The three other people outside also watched this scene with curiosity. This paper bird was quite intelligent. It seemed as though someone was controlling it at the moment, but there were no spiritual energy fluctuations, and it didn’t look like it had any hidden mechanisms.

Qiu Feng looked at his senior brother and then back at the paper bird. He tried stretching his hand forward, palm facing up.

Sure enough, the paper bird flapped its wings twice and slowly landed on Qiu Feng’s palm, then stretched out its paper neck and pecked his palm twice with its paper beak.

Immediately, an understanding of the spiritual knowledge conveyed by this object entered Qiu Feng’s mind, stunning him for a moment.

When he came back to himself, the paper bird in his palm had no reaction, as if it had changed back to an ordinary product of origami.

“Senior brother, do you remember when I told you about having met an expert in Laohua Mountain?”

“Of course I remember. Why? Is this paper crane related to him?”

Taoist Ming Yang was puzzled. He pinched the tail of the paper crane, lifted it from Qiu Feng’s palm, and took a closer look. No matter how he turned it, it was just a piece of paper.

“Yes, this paper bird was folded by the master surnamed Ji. He used it to convey some information. I should inform my uncle; the other mysterious cultivator who took action in Bing Province was very likely him!”

After saying this, Qiu Feng didn’t dare delay. He took the paper crane back from his senior brother and returned to the meditation room. The other hesitated, then followed him back together.

After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, not only were Qiu Feng and the other five in the Uncle Ren’s quiet room, but Auntie Crane, who was still holding Wei Yuansheng, and the brown-robed cultivator were all sitting there together.

The green-robed man curiously pinched the paper crane’s tail, looking at it from top to bottom. The had been looking it over for a while, but no matter how he twisted or inspected it, he felt that it was just an ordinary piece of paper.

Confused, he was about to unfold the paper crane to try to see what might be happening, when the action seemed to startle the paper crane. The crane, which originally looked like an inert object that had been folded by a child, suddenly flapped its wings, broke free from the green-robed man’s hands, and escaped into Wei Yuansheng’s arms.

“Uh… is it really alive?”

“Master, has this piece of paper become a spirit?”

The man in the green robe smiled.

“No, no, this is a very special technique. It must be an original, unique technique created by some master. But this paper bird…”

“It’s a paper crane!”

Wei Yuansheng muttered very weakly. The man in green paused for a moment before continuing.

“Well, wonderful technique imbues the paper crane with spirituality. If it is constantly nurtured by spiritual energy, follows the essence of its inner Taoism, and does not stop practicing its own form of cultivation, perhaps it might become a great spirit one day.”

“Can a piece of paper truly refine a spirit?”

The brown-robed cultivator asked in surprise. The blue-robed man before him retorted with a smile.

“Stones can become spirits, so why can’t paper?”

As he spoke, the man in green stretched out his hand, and the paper crane in Wei Yuansheng’s arms was immediately sucked into a gust of wind, returning to his palm. Now, however, the paper crane was “playing dead” or “hibernating” once more.

A small flame rose in the green-robed man’s hand. He moved the fire closer to the paper crane. As a result, the paper crane “panicked” and flew away again, time to Qiu Feng’s side.⁴

“Look, it can already determine a way to seek good fortune and avoid disaster!”

Wei Yuansheng nervously grabbed Auntie Crane’s clothes and whispered a question in her ear.

“Auntie Crane, what about my father?”

Qiu Feng also seemed to have heard his question. After looking at the child, he took the initiative to stand up, and bowed with cupped hands to the man in the green robe.

“Martial Uncle,⁵ I’m going to fetch Wei Wuwei in person.”

“Okay, go ahead!”

There was no problem in letting Wei Wuwei enter Yuhuai Mountain together with his son. If they could ask where Mr. Ji was, Yuhuai Mountain also planned to send someone to visit him and find out more.

1. I guess everyone just calls her Auntie Crane? I thought of translating it as her name (He Gu) but honestly I’d rather be faithful to the original text in this case
2. 符 (fú): mark/sign/talisman/symbol/written charm
3. T/n: yes, I did go to the manhua and check what color it was because I’m a perfectionist (the same character 青 qīng could also mean blue or black). If you’re curious, we’re currently on manhua chapter 110 (111 by the end of this chapter)!
4. T/n: HAHAHA they’re just messing with the poor baby paper crane XD
5. “Master Uncle” is awkward but I can’t find a better way to translate it EDIT: mindsystem suggested “Martial Uncle” and I like it much better