Beginning with the Ubume Bird-Chapter 370 - 7 The Birth of a Fan for the Ages

Chapter 370: Chapter 7 The Birth of a Fan for the Ages

Chapter 370: Chapter 7 The Birth of a Fan for the Ages

The child stood timidly on the spot, with over a hundred pairs of eyes of various colors piercing through him—he had no time to run, nor to lie down.

Cao Yongchang’s appearance here had its reasons.

After escaping from the city gate, he hid in a wine cellar until nightfall. Then he slipped into the kitchen of the Five Blessings Tower under the cover of darkness, found something to eat, and located a warm haystack in the backyard shed to sleep on.

Although he was but a child, Cao Yongchang’s wildness was innate; not to mention beating someone to death in the street, he had traveled hundreds of miles on his own, sleeping in the open, yet he didn’t feel the slightest bit of hardship—on the contrary, he had a kind of wild growth.

With no money for travel or food, he relied on the storytelling he had heard in the brothel areas, telling stories on the street, and lived off the onlookers’ tips.

Cao Yongchang was smart, and even more talented. The stories he told were vivid and often unexpected. As for storytelling techniques like leading and threading the plot or fleshing out characters, he was self-taught.

One, his stories were strange and cunning, things that ordinary people had never heard of, and two, he also took advantage of his young age as a gimmick. Therefore, he was able to make a decent living with this skill.

However, he ultimately had a murder charge on his head and a high spirit, which led to his roving life.

Lying on the haystack, Cao Yongchang remembered the events of the day. He was angry that Cha and Li Yan had forcibly involved him in entering the city and was frightened by Li Yan’s martial skills. As he was lost in thought, a story suddenly came to mind: “Er’chou Gui kidnaps a good man for a night tour of the underworld, while Scholar Cao makes a fool of Yama.”

As he was engrossed in coming up with the story, Cao Yongchang smelled a sweet aroma. He was, after all, a street urchin and was all too familiar with such knockout scents. Despite being a tough kid, he immediately took out the Ox-Ear Pointed Knife he carried for self-defense and cut across the back of his hand. The sharp pain instantly dispelled the drowsiness.

He lay in the haystack, watching with his own eyes the bizarre monsters and the instruments and opera costumes that moved on their own, flying into the tavern…

If the child had been content to stay put, he wouldn’t have ended up in this predicament. He hid behind an opera costume and stealthily climbed onto the stage, just in time to see the scholar in yellow conjure wine and meat from paper. He was staring in astonishment when he was discovered.

The faces of the demon people all changed. After all, this was the world of humans; the demons had bewitched the shopkeepers and workers of the Five Blessings Tower and were using the place for a feast. It was normal to have one or two who slipped through the net.

However, the gazes the forty-eight heretics cast toward the child were red and green, and not very friendly…

The scholar in yellow sighed and shook his head; his facial expression was also very tense.

Among these heretics, some were spirits that had cultivated for a long time, and some were fierce demons that had killed to hide their crimes—they didn’t put a human life in their sight. There were also worshipped spirits and Wild Gods, but they only lacked the habit of eating humans and were also devoid of a compassionate heart.

With Cao Yongchang being discovered by these people, his fate was uncertain.

Cao Yongchang instinctively took two steps back, his eyes scanning over the dining table before they landed on Cha Xiaodao.

“Tsk—”

Cha Xiaodao spit out a chicken bone, thinking to herself that her duty was probably about to begin.

Unexpectedly, Cao Yongchang swallowed his saliva, forcibly shifting his gaze away.

At that moment, a chunky simpleton of a muscular man stood up, and with a sinister smile said, “Kid, what did you see?”

“I saw…the immortals enjoying wine in the tavern…”

Cha Xiaodao couldn’t help laughing; the kid was quick on his feet. This room full of demons and ghosts, what part of them looked like immortals?

The chunky simpleton didn’t care about Cao Yongchang’s flattery, and with his massive head cocking to one side, he suddenly shot forth a neck several zhang long like a python’s, closing in on Cao Yongchang’s face and revealing a big bloody mouth: “Then tell me, what kind of ‘immortal’ am I?”

Cao Yongchang revealed an ugly smile: “You…”

His eyes sparkled, and suddenly he shouted, “Uncle, save me!”

The strong man instinctively turned his head, only to see Cao Yongchang’s face showing fierce determination as he bent his legs, pushed off with his waist, and lunged forward, plunging the pointed knife toward the strong man’s head, ears, and eyes with all his might!

Clang!

The blade broke sharply, and the strong man screamed terribly, blood spraying everywhere.

Cao Yongchang’s palms split open, and with gritted teeth from the pain, he twisted his waist and fell to the ground. Unexpectedly, a woman’s cold laugh sounded from mid-air, chilling Cao Yongchang to the core as he collapsed, unable to move.

“You little bastard!”

The chunky simpleton, in pain, went berserk. His round head transformed into a foul-smelling, rotten yellow-eyed ghost head with blood flowing from the ears and eyes, viciously diving to bite Cao Yongchang’s head.

“Am I going to die?”

As the putrid smell reached his face, Cao Yongchang’s head buzzed, and facing the gaping mouth of the ghoul, he finally began trembling with fear.

“My dear nephew, your uncle is here.”

A light laughter came, warmth spread across the feast, and Cha Xiaodao, though last to react, was quick to save the day. The Owl Kiss Twin Blades wedged between the yellow-eyed ghost head’s sharp teeth, rescuing Cao Yongchang.

Following with a quick twist of the wrist, black smoke and flames erupted from the evil ghost’s gaping mouth. The chunky evil ghost’s eyes rolled back as he collapsed unconscious on the floor.

Cha Xiaodao stood in front of Cao Yongchang, her right forearm rolled up to reveal a golden-red flame. This time, the surrounding demons were finally taken aback.

Cao Yongchang’s mouth hung open, unable to speak and unsure whether the figure standing in front of him was a deity or a ghost.

The dignified man in a black robe glanced at the empty seat next to him and then at Cha Xiaodao on the stage, revealing a look of surprise.

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The relationships among the demons present were complex and convoluted. The chunky evil ghost’s life or death was uncertain, and this had angered the heretics who were close to him.

Cha Xiaodao grabbed Cao Yongchang by the nape of his neck without looking back and sliced her knife’s blade into the head of a long-tongued woman who was rushing at them.

Culinary Skill: Straw Raincoat Blade.

Following closely, he shouldered past a limping, bald monk and transformed into an arc of fire rushing towards the doorway.

“Stop him!”

No one knew who yelled, but the Yellow Mud Earth Store Statue, the fork-wielding Red Hair Evil Ghost, the red-clawed Hundred-footed Centipede, the suspended human heads, and the parasol-wielding beautiful woman all surged toward Cha Xiaodao.

Cao Yongchang, who could not move, was being held by Cha Xiaodao and scared to the point of chattering teeth, yet due to the curse’s restriction, his eyes were round and wide.

Afterward, he witnessed a scene he would never forget.

Culinary Skill: Literary Thoughts Cutting

Knife gleam and flame weaved together into a vast expanse; Cha Xiaodao’s forward momentum didn’t slow in the slightest, and the fire and knife light before him submerged all the evil spirits and monsters, forging a patch of cleared land amidst the crowded horde of demons.

If Li Yan had been here, he might have recognized it as a rendition of his “Swallow Through the Curtain.”

Li Yan had been pondering how Cha Xiaodao might apply what he had inherited to develop his water armor, whereas Cha Xiaodao clearly had not been idle either.

In ancient China, cooking was always described as a combination of cutting and cooking techniques, and in applying these to fighting skills, there was no one in Yan Fu who could surpass Cha Xiaodao. Despite always being overshadowed by Li Yan, Cha Xiaodao’s personal ability ranked among the top of those who entered Yan Fu during the same period.

Mr. Hu San sighed, reached into the air and made a grabbing motion at Cha Xiaodao. Half of his arm disappeared into thin air, then reappeared as a yellow wild beast’s claw. But Cha Xiaodao, fearless, lifted his knife upwards sharply, forcing Mr. Hu San back several steps. The claw withdrew to the void, but in a final move, it clenched, and suddenly a lump of weeds and mud appeared right in front of Cha Xiaodao.

Cha Xiaodao reacted swiftly, leaping into the air with a loud bang.

“Stop him! Cai Genni!”

Someone yelled, seemingly very confident in Cai Genni’s skills.

But Cai Genni just stood there dumbfounded, even smiling foolishly at Cha Xiaodao suspended in mid-air.

Culinary Skill: Exploding Rice

Cha Xiaodao made several abrupt turns in mid-air, charging out of Five Blessings Tower.

“You–!”

That person pointed at Cai Genni!

“Let it be, let him go!”

Only then did Mr. Hu San gesture dismissively; it was now that people began discussing who that person was, and how he had sneaked in to freeload for so long.

Upon discussing, some said he was a snake demon, a Demon Immortal from their own Chang Clan; others said he was an animated clay sculpture, bathed in the essence of the heavens and the moon just like themselves; others suggested he was a worshiped Wild God, while most absurdly, several coquettish young girls insisted that he was one of their own kind, a lustful ghost who absorbed essence to replenish yin energy.

The more they discussed, the more Mr. Hu San felt uneasy about the person who had just fled, and doubt clouded his mind.

While the commotion unfolded, Cha Xiaodao had run several streets away and, seeing no one was pursuing him, finally put down Cao Yongchang, who had just regained the ability to move.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Cao Yongchang got up, he burst into tears. He was, after all, only a teenager, and as he cried, he knelt to the ground: “Uncle above, please accept my bow.”

Before Cha Xiaodao could respond, the voice of Yan Fu reached his ear.

“You have triggered the special Yan Fu event: Legend for the Ages!”

[Cao Yongchang, a man from Yangzhou Yuxi Town, left his home at a young age. One day, resting under a willow tree, a fellow traveler asked for his name. Struck by the scene, he wept and climbed the tree, looking at his dozens of companions, he said: “Alas, henceforth I shall take the surname of Willow.”]

After the passage that was neither ancient nor modern finished, Cha Xiaodao used A Fleeting Glimpse again and discovered that information about Cao Yongchang had changed.

Name: Cao Yongchang (Liu Jingting)

A grandmaster of storytelling from the late Ming to early Qing dynasty, later regarded as the ancestor of the storytelling clan.

Special Yan Fu event: Legend for the Ages

Requirement: Participate in at least three of Cao Yongchang’s ghost storytelling creations as a main character and ensure Cao Yongchang’s survival.

Looking at Cao Yongchang on the ground, Cha Xiaodao suddenly remembered the word “book” from the fruits of opening the Night, Book, Lamp, Sword, Ghost Fox.

“I ask you,”

he said, “why didn’t you just call me out during the meeting?”

Although Cao Yongchang later cried out ‘Uncle’ in an attempt to seize the opportunity to attack, had Cha Xiaodao not acted, his life would have been lost on the spot.

“Even commoners possess a spirit of chivalry; if uncle had the ability to save me, how could you just stand by and watch? If you lacked the ability to save your nephew, it would be just a futile sacrifice of one more life, so why should I have called out to you?”

Cao Yongchang said through his tears to Cha Xiaodao.

Cha Xiaodao heard this, grinned, and for a moment was lost for words.

…

“Cha Xiaodao is unrestrained and unbridled, with a spirit of chivalry and ambitious aspirations; in all my life, I have never seen his like.”

——”Liu Jingting · Tao’an Dream Remembrances”