The Silly Alchemist

“You little idiot, it’s time to leave!” Coldblood Five leapt from Little Zero’s body, talking to Ye Lang who was tossing under his blanket.

“Leave? For what?” Ye Lang stopped tossing about to look at Coldblood Five, confused.

“To kill Princess Longji, of course!!”

“... But that’s so soon?!” Ye Lang stopped for a moment. He didn’t expect to start something they discussed yesterday, today!

Then again, Coldblood Five was surprised when she first received the instructions too. She expected the mission to start soon, but not the very next day!

“Not really. The Empress Dowager’s birthday celebration is next week. We’ll leave to Dragon City now, and it will take three to four days of travelling. The schedule is quite tight!” after thinking about it, she wasn’t surprised anymore.

Dragon City was the capital of the Vermilion Bird Empire.

Although they were called Vermilion Bird Empire [pronounced zhu que in chinese], the surname of the royal family was Long, meaning dragon. Long was the most common surname in the empire though, so not everyone with the Long surname was royalty.

Many people thought it was weird. Why didn’t they call the empire something like the Green Dragon Empire? Then the royal surname and capital city would match their empire’s name.

You would have to ask the first emperor who founded the empire, only he knew the reason!

There was a legend, that the founding emperor had seen vermilion birds, and had drunk its blood. So his royal descendants all had vermilion bird blood in them.

The Vermilion Bird God didn’t look at surnames when he picked his chosen ones. They didn’t have to be a Zhu or a Feng (meaning Phoenix), Long worked too!

“Dragon City sounds familiar...” Ye Lang thought the name was familiar.

“Of course it sounds familiar, it’s the capital of our Vermilion Bird Empire!” said Coldblood Five. She understood Ye Lang probably didn’t know Dragon City was the capital.

But how would he not know? He was used to planning his journey, and he should be familiar with the geography of the mainland (although he did make many mistakes along the way).

“I know it’s the capital city, but I’ve heard this name somewhere...” Ye Long shook his head, “Forget it, perhaps it’s because it’s a common name!”

Common...

If other locals heard him, they would exclaim, “Do you know of another Dragon City in the mainland? What do you mean by common?!”

However, only Coldblood Five and Little Zero were present, they didn’t take it to heart.

“Alright, pack up, we’re leaving!” reminded Coldblood Five.

Snap!

The spirit automatically walked over when Ye Lang snapped his fingers. Ye Lang jumped on it, climbed to his favourite spot, then grabbed Coldblood Five up too.

“Let me go! How many times have I said this, don’t grab me like that!!” shouted Coldblood Five. She didn’t struggle because she was used to it.

She also knew Ye Lang would put her next to him very soon. Then, they would act out the same dramatic scene again.

Thud! Coldblood Five knocked Ye Lang’s head.

“Why did you hit me?” exclaimed Ye Lang angrily, “I will turn stupid!”

“You’re already stupid enough, you know nothing!” Coldblood Five knocked his head again.

“Ahhhh... I’m ignoring you!!” he shouted, then settled down a little further from Coldblood Five. He brought the spirit out of the gates.

Coldblood Five was already used to Ye Lang’s theatrics. He didn’t hold grudges anyway, so provoking him for a minute didn’t matter much.

“Coldblood Five, watch him closely. This mission will rely on both of you,” reminded Coldblood Two as they were leaving. She looked at Coldblood Five on the spirit’s chest, then at Ye Lang sleeping while hugging a breast.

Coldblood Seven, who was standing aside, secretly thought, This pervert must love breasts a lot. When he caused the scene, where I grabbed at my chest to get him, it must have been on purpose! He will be very sorry one day!!

“Coldblood Seven! Your duties this time are important too, don’t let a grudge affect you, look at the big picture!” Coldblood Two knew she was raging inside when she saw Coldblood Seven’s unfriendly expression.

A woman’s grudge doesn’t fade quickly, perhaps even lasting a lifetime. Coldblood Two understood this!

“Relax, I am a professional! I wouldn’t want anyone to screw up before we even reach our destination!” Coldblood Seven glared at Ye Lang. It was very obvious she was referring to him.

“Zzzzzzzz...”

That was Ye Lang’s reply!

“...”

“Alright, you may leave now. Take care!” said Coldblood Two. Although they were the Coldblood Group, they were not cold-blooded. At least they weren’t among their own. They showed concern, always wishing each other the best.

Of course, that applied only to some of them, not all!

“Let’s go!”

The horse carriage left town for Dragon City. Coldblood Five knew Ye Lang’s personality too well, so she banned him from leaving the carriage. The carriage was spacious enough anyway, he could do whatever he wanted since he was so small.

Hmmph, are you treating me like a child? Do you think I only like to play?

“Little brat, let’s play a game of chess.”

“I... Alright...” Chess wasn’t considered play. It was a form of mental exercise. “I’m coming! What kind of chess?”

...

Three days later, a few carriages arrived at the east gates of Dragon City. They looked normal, and the passengers looked normal. Everything looked normal.

However, they didn’t need to undergo tedious security checks before entering the gates. It was a special season after all, and Dragon City was stricter with their security.

The group of carriages didn’t take more than a minute to pass the gates, because they showed something to the city guards.

What was it? Cash?

Some people thought it was cash. However, even cash couldn’t solve some problems. It was still very useful for bribing common guards though, to speed up some processes.

Then some people speculated, the city guards didn’t want to take too much trouble to perform their routine checks because the sun was already setting.

They were all wrong! The very normal group of carriages didn’t carry normal people. The mysterious Coldblood Group members were in them, and they had a special pass to enter every gate without hassle. Other than the palace and some more sensitive areas, no one would dare stop them!