For one brief instant, the scarred man looked genuinely ready to explode into profanity. He exhausted a lifetime’s worth of restraint before swallowing it back down. “I won’t comment on your idea of filial piety. Save that explanation for your father. I’ll ask you only one thing, Li Jin: do you know what will happen to those two children if they fall into the hands of the Ten Aspects Sect?”
Li Jin’s face went deathly pale, yet feverish patches of red burned across his cheekbones. “Don’t stand there talking as though none of this concerns you! I’ve raised them all these years. I’ve already done more than enough! They aren’t even my children! Ever since the family fell into ruin, every time I suggested sending them out as servants, Mother threatened to kill herself. She said she’d bash her own head in! They’re pitiful? Then what about me? What’s wrong with sending them away? At least they’ll have food! Do they have to stay here and starve with me before you’ll call us loving siblings?!”
“That meal exists only in your imagination,” the scarred man said coldly. “They’ll blind those children, pierce their ears until they’re deaf, force mute poison down their throats, and turn them into so-called True Spirits. Then they’ll be handed over to the sect’s followers to toy with and use as outlets for their desires until they finally die under torture. Afterward, even their corpses won’t be spared. Their skin will be flayed away and their bones pulled out to make ritual implements. Didn’t your great benefactor just tell you the soul is the most precious thing in existence? Then wait for those precious souls of your little brother and sister to come looking for you at night.”
Li Jin: “…”
“Nonsense… absurd! This is nothing but alarmist nonsense!” He abruptly turned toward Gu Pingchuan. “He’s lying to me! He’s deliberately saying these things to divide us, isn’t he?”
Gu Pingchuan smiled and nodded. “Correct. He is trying to sow discord. You need not take those words seriously.”
The scarred man sneered. “You don’t even dare ask him, ‘Can you guarantee you won’t do that to them?’ Looks like you already know what the answer is. Young Master Li, you’re not stupid, but sometimes there is nothing more frightening than a clever man determined to deceive himself.”
Gu Pingchuan calmly interrupted him. “Young Master Li is offering his siblings to our sect so they may transcend the mortal world and help deliver countless others. He has set aside private attachment for the benefit of multitudes. Is that not a great act of merit? To condemn him through such narrow reasoning seems rather biased.”
“Human trafficking is human trafficking,” the scarred man shot back. “Stop shamelessly dressing it up as saving the world. Li Jin has thrown away his conscience, so I suppose he fits right in with you. But what about Zhang Wan’s son from Tongshi Apothecary? Did that child ‘offer himself willingly’ too?”
Gu Pingchuan paused in thought, then looked enlightened. “Ah. You mean the matter Xu Shifu bungled. In that case, Venerable Qiuming, who disappeared without a trace, must already be dead. Just like the arson in Xianglian City—was that also your work behind the scenes?”
“The Ten Aspects Sect traffics people between states and commonly uses businesses such as apothecaries, cloth shops, and general-goods stores as fronts. Following Song Man’s trail upward wasn’t particularly difficult. What surprised me was Xu Shifu.”
Gu Pingchuan looked interested. “Oh? He was merely an apothecary proprietor. What could possibly have made him worthy of your attention?”
“Xu Shifu wanted to solve your supply problem once and for all. He was trying to develop a drug capable of directly blinding, deafening, and muting a person. Then you could simply take ordinary people instead of wasting time searching for those so-called Innate Spirits.” The scarred man’s tone turned cuttingly admiring. “Plots that ordinary people couldn’t invent in an entire lifetime seem to come naturally to your sect. To be so vicious and yet so creative about it—truly impressive.”
His mouth said impressive. His face said disgusting. Li Jin listened beside them in mounting horror, while Gu Pingchuan actually inclined his body slightly and graciously accepted the compliment. “Our sect has always excelled in medicine. After all, medicinal principles distinguish neither good nor evil. They treat everyone equally. No matter how righteous and noble you consider yourself, no matter how formidable your martial arts, haven’t you still fallen before our Bright Mirror Stand?”
“You repeatedly accuse us of cruelty. Why not lower your head and look at the blood on your own hands? Two of our Venerables and one Deacon have died by your hand. Over the years, countless members of our sect have died to Bihua. Why don’t you kill yourself to apologize to them?”
“Spare me your sophistry!” The scarred man’s voice cracked like a whip. “You prey on women and children who cannot fight back. You commit every vile act imaginable, then climb onto a lotus throne and pretend you’re a Bodhisattva! Calling you vicious is being charitable. If you dare stretch your hands toward innocent people, then don’t dream that you can spend your entire lives hiding safely behind others!”
He was drugged and unable to move a finger, yet none of his presence had diminished. Even Li Jin retreated two frightened steps. Gu Pingchuan studied him for a moment, his expression turning sinister. “A homeless dog with nowhere to return. This loud mouth is about all you have left. When that Prince Yugong of yours has his head hanging from Fengdu’s city gate tower, let’s see whether you can still shout so loudly.”
The scarred man looked at him and sneered. “What? After all these years, you still haven’t gotten over your sect leader?”
Gu Pingchuan lashed out. His foot slammed hard into the scarred man’s chest and sent him flying. “On the brink of death, and you still dare talk big!”
Cough—cough—cough!
The man sprawled on the ground, coughing violently. Flecks of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth, and the kick had clearly injured him internally. Gu Pingchuan walked over, planted his foot on the man’s back, and ground him into the floor. “You don’t seem afraid at all. Waiting for your comrades to rescue you? But you can’t have many people left, can you? The rest are all with the Longsha delegation, protecting Yugong Zhaoye. Do you think we can’t touch him?”
The scarred man forced out, “His Highness is heavily guarded. You won’t succeed. If anything happens to him, Xiling will pursue the matter to the end—”
Gu Pingchuan laughed softly above him. “Who told you we intended to do it ourselves?”
“What do you mean?”
“Bihua is a demonic blade that should never have existed in this world. If that blade reappears in Fengdu, kills someone it absolutely should not kill, and proves to the world that Longsha’s submission has been nothing more than an act, tell me—will the emperor of Xiling continue tolerating it?”
Gu Pingchuan bent close to his ear and enunciated each word with exquisite clarity. “The head of an envoy from a vassal state must be severed by the suzerain state itself. Only then can the result truly be called exquisite.”
“What exactly are you trying to do?!” The scarred man struggled violently, eyes webbed with blood, breathing like a bellows. “Bihua would rather die than let you manipulate us!”
“What integrity. What courage. That indomitable spirit is precisely what we need.” Gu Pingchuan withdrew his foot and gestured for his men to bind them. “I promise you’ll get exactly what you wish for. You don’t need to do anything. You only need to die as Bihua.”
Several gray-robed cultists dragged the drugged men in black into the room and tied them together. Li Jin stared in confusion. “Didn’t we agree I only needed to lure them here and you would take them away? Why are you leaving them in my house?”
“Young Master Li, the matter isn’t finished yet. We’ll borrow your residence a little longer,” Gu Pingchuan said. “If they have reinforcements, those people will come here looking for them. That makes it convenient to capture everyone in one sweep. Don’t worry. I promised that once everything is finished, I will grant your wish.”
Li Jin looked uncertain. “Then… then they absolutely cannot die in my house. If that happened, it would affect my future…”
The scarred man suddenly laughed coldly. “Stop dreaming. Better prepare to die with us. Can’t you see? He never planned to let you walk out of this house alive.”
Li Jin whipped around. “What?”
“He intends to impersonate us, commit another crime, lure the pursuers here, kill us, blame the whole affair on Longsha, and escape,” the scarred man said, staring directly at him. “You’re the only witness who knows what actually happened. If you tell anyone that the Ten Aspects Sect did it, his entire plan collapses. So naturally he has to silence you.”
“But he… he promised me…”
Li Jin looked toward Gu Pingchuan in terror. His limbs had gone icy, and his knees trembled. “I won’t tell anyone… If this becomes known, my reputation is ruined. I’ll never pass the provincial examinations and earn the juren degree!”
Gu Pingchuan watched him calmly. At last, he showed a faintly troubled smile and reproached the scarred man. “I had originally hoped he might leave this world happily. But you insisted on exposing everything. How inconsiderate.”
“Why?” Li Jin’s lips trembled. “Why… We had an agreement…”
Gu Pingchuan said apologetically, “Circumstances changed, Young Master Li. My apologies.”
His tone was gentle. His hand was not. One sharp chop struck the side of Li Jin’s neck, and he collapsed unconscious.
The scarred man asked, “At first, you genuinely intended to bring Li Jin into the Ten Aspects Sect. Otherwise, you would never have spared him. Later, the assassination of Xiling’s envoys failed. Our people began watching him, so you used that to your advantage and pushed him out as bait to lure us in. I understand that much. But you never needed to kill him. You could have taken us somewhere else and removed him from the affair entirely. Why did you change your mind?”
“Exactly as you said. He heard too much today.” Gu Pingchuan gestured for his followers to bind Li Jin and personally dragged him over beside the scarred man. “If I release him, Bihua will find him afterward. Xiling will find him too. If the Ten Aspects Sect could persuade him, then someone else could persuade him in turn. I thought it over carefully. The mouths of the dead are the most reliable. So… this is best.”
It was a shame Li Jin had already fainted. Otherwise, the scarred man would genuinely have liked to see his expression.
But if Gu Pingchuan had already decided Li Jin needed to die, why had he given him the antidote when he first entered? Why not simply leave him paralyzed? Why go to the trouble?
Thinking back over everything Li Jin had said, none of it seemed useful beyond exposing his cruelty and stupidity. Misfortune after misfortune, an entire family ground down by calamity, no one escaping…
Wait.
Something extremely subtle flashed through the scarred man’s mind, so fast it almost seemed imaginary.
He narrowed his eyes and silently replayed every word exchanged since they entered the room.
My mother is bedridden… I have two younger siblings who aren’t grown yet… I copy books to earn my own money for brushes and ink… My brother is eight. My sister is five…
I have another younger brother. He’s no good at studying, so we sent him to Wanhong Tower as an apprentice.
Dusk was approaching. Only a little light entered through the shattered window, and even that was completely blocked by the figure standing before him.
The silver mask engraved with beast patterns moved closer. Gu Pingchuan’s voice remained soft, but the interrogation beneath it admitted no evasion. “What are you thinking?”
The moment their eyes met, the scarred man struck. His hand snapped around Gu Pingchuan’s right wrist and twisted backward like lightning. Using that force, he surged to his feet. His right palm chopped into Gu Pingchuan’s shoulder, while his left foot struck twice behind the knees.
Crack. Crack.
Gu Pingchuan’s four limbs broke. Like a torn sack lifted by one corner, his whole body went limp and collapsed.