That sword strike Young Master Pei delivered without even looking back had reached a new height of human handsomeness. If Fu Xi Yan had not still been concentrating on controlling Xi Mo Ya’s corpse, he would have been making starry eyes and applauding like a dolphin.
For the ordinary people living near Huayue Tower, however, everything that happened that night had far exceeded both recognition and comprehension. Why had strangers barged into perfectly good homes? Why had a perfectly good building collapsed? Why had a perfectly good summer night suddenly filled with killing intent?
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The Jiyang County magistrate was once again dragged out of his concubine’s bed. Before he could even get angry, his adviser rapidly reported everything that had happened that night.
Two Martial Kings had fought openly in the streets. Huayue Tower had been leveled by a single sword strike. The beautiful proprietress who had done business in the county for years had not escaped the building. Two patrons had also died inside… Every item made the veins on the magistrate’s forehead throb.
“That group from the Immortal Treasury Palace still hasn’t left?” No one wanted a crowd of troublemakers who could neither be arrested nor offended living on their turf. The magistrate said irritably, “Invite Young Master Jin over!”
As the saying went, the one who tied the bell should be the one to untie it. Whoever had invited this particular Buddha could be responsible for sending him away again.
And so Duan Qian, who had been waiting at home for news, did not receive word from Fu Xi Yan and the others first. Instead, a sedan chair arrived to take him to the county office.
Two flowers bloom, and each branch tells its own tale.
Meanwhile, Fu Xi Yan, whom the county magistrate was thinking about, was carefully transporting “Xi Mo Ya” back to the inn. It was his first time walking a corpse, and his technique could only be described as “completely devoid of technique.”
Xi Mo Ya staggered and lurched all the way, walking like a drunk. Fortunately, something major had happened in the county that night, and most people were afraid of getting dragged into trouble. Unless they had urgent business, they preferred to stay safely inside their homes.
Fu Xi Yan delivered Xi Mo Ya back to his room right in front of the innkeeper, then began rummaging through everything to pack up his belongings.
Xi Mo Ya did not have much luggage: several large-denomination banknotes, a handful of broken silver, a few gold leaves, a copy of Compendium of Puppet Arts, three erotic picture books, a bottle of pills of unknown purpose, and an ostrich egg.
…It was probably an ostrich egg. The shell was faintly reddish, and it felt warm to the touch.
Fu Xi Yan did not care. He spread all of Xi Mo Ya’s inheritance over the table and left it there to be collected.
Only after arranging everything did he leave. Before going, he even stood at the door and performed a brief one-man play: “Junior Brother, rest well. When you leave tomorrow morning, I won’t specially come over to see you off.” Then, right under the innkeeper’s eyes, he swaggered out with his chin held high.
Pei Yuan Jin was waiting outside. Beneath the night sky, his expression looked exceptionally dark.
Fu Xi Yan comforted him. “The Giant Eagle Martial Artist is a Martial King, after all. It’s normal that you couldn’t kill him immediately. Try a few more times. Eventually you’ll wear him to death.”
Pei Yuan Jin answered carelessly. Clearly that was not the issue truly occupying his mind.
Fu Xi Yan scratched his scalp. “What else are you unhappy about?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “You still haven’t told me why Xi Mo Ya wasn’t wearing trousers.”
His calm tone concealed a distinctly uncalm heart.
Heaven alone knew the violent shock Pei Yuan Jin’s eyes and heart had suffered when he first entered and saw Xi Mo Ya facing Fu Xi Yan with his lower body completely bare. Running the man through had merely been an impulse. He should have sliced him a thousand times and ground his bones to ash… The more Pei Yuan Jin thought about it, the more the Crimson Dragon King began itching to move again.
Fu Xi Yan had no choice but to recount everything that had happened inside from beginning to end, emphasizing that although Xi Mo Ya was a filthy pervert, he had not become so overcome with lust in the middle of a fight that he spontaneously stripped himself naked.
When Pei Yuan Jin heard that Fu Xi Yan had cut the belt, his heart remained completely unmoved. Even if his belt had broken, it was still Xi Mo Ya’s fault for not wearing trousers.
Pei Yuan Jin asked with great concern, “Then what did you see?”
Hm.
Now that was a question that could be philosophical, Buddhist, or mysteriously metaphysical depending on how one answered it.
Fu Xi Yan wanted to say, I saw through the phenomenon to the essence and confirmed that Xi Mo Ya truly was a complete and utter dirty old lecher. But saying that would naturally raise questions about the verification process.
For instance: How exactly did you confirm it?
He had no desire to invite trouble, so he gave the usual safe answer. “I didn’t have time to look. Then you came in.” That was not exactly a lie. Most of his attention had indeed been on Pei Yuan Jin at the time. It was only that a tiny portion of his peripheral vision, free-spirited and beyond his control, had happened to brush past certain locations likely to cause styes if stared at too long. In truth, it did not feel like a huge matter to him. In his previous life he had lived in dormitories, and the bathhouse showers were communal. Seeing each other naked, scrubbing one another’s backs, and joking around had all been perfectly normal.
If Yin Fei Yu had not mentioned jealousy and Pei Yuan Jin had not questioned him so solemnly, Fu Xi Yan truly would not have thought it was a big deal.
In fact, Pei Yuan Jin himself did not know why it was a big deal. In the past he would only have thought such a sight hurt his eyes. It would never have stirred his emotions. But once Fu Xi Yan was involved, everything became wrong.
He silently looked at the person beside him, seeming to wonder why this one man could make him change so much.
Fu Xi Yan: “…” Don’t move. Don’t move at all.
When the two returned to the Jin residence, Duan Qian had not yet come back. The badly frightened magistrate had come down hard this time and forced him to promise that every one of them would leave Jiyang County within three days.
Duan Qian could hardly look too delighted about being ordered out, so he could only smile bitterly, dryly, apologetically, then return with steps that looked anxious but were secretly almost cheerful.
By then, pale morning light had begun to spread and dawn was near.
Pei Yuan Jin was meditating. Fu Xi Yan forced his eyelids open until Duan Qian returned, then told him what had happened from beginning to end.
Duan Qian’s smile faded slightly. “So the plan actually wasn’t completed?” To avoid revealing his relationship with Huayue Tower, he had neither sent puppets nor dispatched people to investigate during this period. He had kept himself completely outside the matter. His newest information came entirely from the county magistrate, so naturally there were gaps.
Fu Xi Yan said, “Mm. Aunt Feifei said it can still be salvaged.”
It was just that the proposed method of salvaging it sounded extremely rough.
One could not blame Yin Fei Yu. Time had been tight. She could hardly brew a cup of tea in front of Xi Mo Ya’s corpse and, amid curling steam, leisurely discuss how to patch the final plot hole to absolute perfection.
Fortunately, Tong Fang Yu had gone to Haojing. It would take at least several months for news from here to reach her, giving them plenty of time to tamper with the aftermath.
Duan Qian pondered. “Throwing the dirty water onto Guo Ju Ying could work. But Xi Mo Ya’s corpse needs to be handled as soon as possible.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Already handled.”
The Hidden Dragon Unit at Pei Yuan Jin’s side was highly professional when it came to disposing of corpses. Lord Qilin had been dead for so long and was still classified only as a missing person. That alone proved their expertise. Xi Mo Ya’s belongings had also been brought back during the night. They kept the broken silver and gold leaves outright, set the banknotes aside for later, and as for the egg, Pei Yuan Jin suspected it was a Red Peng egg.
Fu Xi Yan remembered Xi Mo Ya mentioning one before and immediately thought it very possible.
After all, there were only two places in the entire jianghu especially interested in raising pets.
One was the City of Ten Thousand Beasts, which literally had “beasts” in its name. The other was the Immortal Treasury Palace, which devoted itself to imitating immortals by raising “immortal beasts.” The peng was a creature of myth, so naturally it appeared on the Immortal Treasury Palace’s wish list. They simply had never raised a Red Peng because the creatures were so difficult to obtain.
But that was no problem. They had never raised a Red Peng, but they had raised immortal cranes. In the course of a single night, Pei Yuan Jin had already fashioned a warm nest from quilts and was nourishing the egg with true qi.
Duan Qian did not know the complicated details. In any case, if the Immortal Treasury Palace handled the cleanup, nothing could be traced back to him. He finally relaxed. “We’ll make preparations and leave the city tomorrow.” He and Yin Fei Yu had agreed to meet outside the city. Conveniently, the county magistrate had given him a three-day deadline, so they did not even need another excuse.
Fu Xi Yan said, “We still have to wait another day?”
Seeing their impatience, Duan Qian was naturally happy to cooperate. “If you two aren’t tired, we can leave today.”
Fu Xi Yan glanced at Pei Yuan Jin, whose eyes were closed as he rested. “The sooner the better. I’ve had enough of Southern Yu.”
The magistrate had given them three days to leave, yet “Young Master Jin” had everything arranged in a single day. That speed genuinely delighted the magistrate. When they left the city, he even sent his adviser to see them off.
Looking at the basket of so-called local specialties, Fu Xi Yan understood perfectly. The magistrate was afraid they might change their minds at the last minute and was giving them no opportunity to regret leaving.
Such a large group traveling together naturally drew attention. Once they reached a sparsely populated area, Duan Qian, Fu Xi Yan, and Pei Yuan Jin quietly split from the others and headed to a point two li north of the appointed Li Pavilion.
Only then did Duan Qian reveal the truth: Huayue Tower had a secret tunnel.
Fu Xi Yan had already guessed as much.
There were only so many variations on slipping out of one’s shell like a golden cicada. Television had studied them to death.
When the three reached the meeting place, Yin Fei Yu still had not arrived.
Duan Qian grew anxious. Judging by their respective routes, she should have arrived before them. But the jianghu always contained too many variables, just as they had never expected Xi Mo Ya to invite Guo Ju Ying, while Xi Mo Ya had never expected them to join forces.
A single night was more than enough time for many things to happen.
With that thought, Duan Qian could no longer remain seated. He immediately stood and headed back toward the city.
No matter how long Huayue Tower’s secret tunnel was, it could not possibly cross the entire city. Its exit naturally remained within the county town, and not far from Huayue Tower at that. It emerged in an abandoned kitchen beside the Puyang River.
The neighbors all believed the kitchen had been left behind when someone renovated a nearby house, abandoned because its position was inconvenient and used only as a storage room. No one knew somebody had deliberately chosen and rented it. The lease had lasted thirty years. In that time, the owner had moved away on a long journey, and no one cared where the building had come from or where it was going.
The three doubled back from outside the city. By now the sky was bright, and early risers were gradually coming out to buy and sell goods.
As they skimmed over the rooftops, Pei Yuan Jin left neither sound nor trace. Fu Xi Yan left only a faint afterimage. Duan Qian’s qinggong had never been his strength, and panic made him worse. He broke several roof tiles before finally reaching the abandoned kitchen.
The building looked utterly decrepit to anyone else, but Fu Xi Yan nodded approvingly again and again. This was exactly the kind of place one wanted for a secret tunnel exit: inconspicuous and quiet.
Surely no one wanted to struggle out of a secret passage after great difficulty only to find ten curious pairs of eyes staring at them.
Duan Qian unlocked the entrance. The small courtyard beyond was overgrown with weeds, lush and vigorous. The bare earth lay smooth and even, without any sign of footsteps. But all three knew that for an expert with extraordinary qinggong, crossing snow without leaving a trace was hardly impossible.
Duan Qian snapped the kitchen door-bar with internal force and pushed inside. As the bar fell to the ground, a rope dropped with it. Duan Qian knew the other end ran into the tunnel. If the door moved, bells inside the passage would sound a warning.
If Yin Fei Yu was still in the tunnel, she would certainly hear it.
He rapidly threw out the firewood that had been stuffed in the stove for who knew how many years, then lifted the blackened stone slab beneath it. Several holes had been punched through the slab. The inner walls of those holes were clean and bore no traces of burning, so they must have been added later.
Fu Xi Yan had originally worried the tunnel might have poor air circulation. Yin Fei Yu had entered an underground passage in a hurry the previous night, and one careless mistake could have caused carbon dioxide poisoning. But seeing this arrangement, it was obvious they understood the importance of ventilation and should not have made such a mistake.
In any case, Duan Qian had already gone down first. They would see the truth soon enough.
Yet Fu Xi Yan had a faint premonition that whatever waited below would not be what he wanted to see.
Duan Qian had descended in such haste that he had not lit a lamp. After Fu Xi Yan landed below, his vision went black for a moment before slowly adjusting. The tunnel was crudely made. Perhaps Yin Fei Yu had thought she would never need it, or perhaps she had never expected to remain here long. The air carried a damp, moldy smell.
Fu Xi Yan instinctively covered his nose. Then he heard Duan Qian release one short cry of grief. It lasted only an instant, yet it shook the soul.
His premonition seemed about to come true again.
He hurried forward. Duan Qian was kneeling not far ahead, bent over someone cradled in his arms.
Fu Xi Yan crouched and pressed his fingers to the hand hanging toward the ground. He felt only cold stillness. There was no pulse.
A bracelet circled the wrist.
Perhaps because her name contained the character for “silver,” Yin Fei Yu had liked silver jewelry. Fu Xi Yan remembered her bracelet was made of silver, with several small round pearls hanging from it. It was delicate and exquisite. Whenever its owner laughed or raged, those pearls would tremble and sway. But now…
Duan Qian suddenly swung one hand backward in fury, striking toward Fu Xi Yan. Pei Yuan Jin blocked him first.
Faced with Pei Yuan Jin’s coldness, Duan Qian seemed blind and senseless, completely swallowed by his rage. He roared, “Didn’t you say she was fine?!”
That anger was completely unreasonable. Yin Fei Yu had certainly been fine when they separated. Otherwise, she could not have entered the tunnel. The real question was what had happened afterward.
Fu Xi Yan tried to remain calm and keep himself from falling into grief along with Duan Qian. Yet sorrow and joy were strange things. The more one tried to bury them, the deeper they carved themselves into the heart.
He had not known Yin Fei Yu long, yet emotionally he had already begun relying on her. It was as though, before his mother could ever truly appear, Yin Fei Yu had briefly and strangely stepped into that role and completed a small part of Fu Xi Yan’s imagination of it. That emotional projection came from the past Yin Fei Yu had shared with Jin Yuan Xiu, something Madam Fu could never give him.
He rubbed his aching nose and was about to rise when Pei Yuan Jin had already started toward Huayue Tower’s direction.
There were no clues on the kitchen side. That left two possibilities. First, the killer had not entered through the kitchen. Second, the killer knew every detail of the tunnel’s setup and had covered their traces flawlessly.
Comparatively, the first possibility seemed more likely.
So perhaps there would be clues near the Huayue Tower entrance.
Fu Xi Yan sniffed and quickly followed.
The tunnel was perfectly straight, a single line connecting Huayue Tower and the abandoned kitchen, without a turn or obstruction in between. Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin examined it as they walked and never saw any trace of a fight.
So had the killer ended it in one strike?
They still did not know Aunt Feifei’s fatal wound.
When Fu Xi Yan and Pei Yuan Jin returned, Duan Qian had calmed considerably. “I lost control just now. Please forgive me, Young Master Fu.”
His way of addressing Fu Xi Yan was always changing. One moment it was Young Madam, the next Young Master Fu, perfectly reflecting his conflicting view of Fu Xi Yan. Sometimes he recognized Fu Xi Yan as an individual; at other times, he feared the Pei Yuan Jin standing behind him.
At a moment like this, no one cared about details like that.
Fu Xi Yan asked quietly, “What was the fatal wound?”
Duan Qian gritted his teeth. “Claw marks. Her throat was torn open.”
Fu Xi Yan sucked in a sharp breath. That death was far more painful than he had imagined. He could not bear to think farther.
Pei Yuan Jin examined the wound. Martial artists naturally understood injuries to some degree. “That’s not right.”
Fu Xi Yan asked, “What isn’t?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “The killer was standing in front of her when they struck.” A frontal strike and an attack from behind left different wounds.
They had previously guessed that the killer followed Yin Fei Yu into the tunnel. But the passage was narrow and could not accommodate two people side by side. If the killer wanted to get in front of Yin Fei Yu, they would inevitably alert her.
Think about it. In a pitch-black tunnel, if another person suddenly appeared behind you, any normal person would make some sound, much less a martial artist like Yin Fei Yu. If the killer only struck after she turned around, then during the time it took her to turn, she should at least have been able to do something.
But there was nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
The tunnel was so clean it looked as though Yin Fei Yu had been the only person ever inside.
Fu Xi Yan said heavily, “There’s another possibility. Before she entered the tunnel, that person was already waiting inside.” In fact, this possibility seemed even more likely than someone following her.
That would explain why Yin Fei Yu had been killed closer to the exit.
The killer entered the tunnel first, checked the exit, then waited nearby until she approached and launched a successful ambush.
Then there would have been no need for her to turn around at all.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “That requires three conditions. Knowing about this tunnel. Knowing her plan tonight. Leaving afterward without any trace.”
“There’s one more,” Duan Qian said viciously. “Being skilled in eagle-claw techniques.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “You suspect…”
“Guo Ju Ying! Other than him, who in all of Jiyang County meets those conditions?”
Pei Yuan Jin frowned. “It’s possible…” Before he could finish, Fu Xi Yan caught his sleeve and gave a slight shake of his head.
When leaving the abandoned kitchen, Fu Xi Yan deliberately tested the ground with qinggong and discovered the soil at the doorway was unusual, somewhat like soft silt. With his own qinggong, to step on it without leaving a mark he would have to use the Air-Stepping Walk from inside the threshold. But the Air-Stepping Walk moved vertically upward… and would send him straight into the roof beam.
Pei Yuan Jin could do it. His martial arts were far more varied. Once different qinggong techniques reached his feet, they seemed to lose their names entirely. He simply used whichever movement worked best at that instant. Had the killer reached that level too?
If it was Guo Ju Ying…
Fu Xi Yan remembered Guo Ju Ying’s unusual robe. If he used it like a glider, then he truly would not need to worry about leaving footprints.
Duan Qian carried Yin Fei Yu’s body out into the sunlight. If not for the horrifying wound across her throat and the pallor of her face, her expression would have looked as peaceful as sleep.
But Fu Xi Yan had known Yin Fei Yu only briefly and had already grown used to her vibrant, lively manner. This silence did not resemble her at all.
Duan Qian went into the city and paid a high price for a display coffin, then buried her in a place of beautiful mountains and clear water. Supposedly Yin Fei Yu had loved coming here to wash her feet while she was alive.
The name carved on the grave marker was “Lu Da Xiang,” her birth name. It was not as beautiful as Yin Fei Yu, but it sounded like a name that belonged to someone who had lived an ordinary, peaceful life.
After Fu Xi Yan finished offering incense, he looked at the hollow-eyed Duan Qian. After hesitating, he took out the little iron box and offered it to him. “If you want revenge, you’ll need a good weapon.”
Duan Qian lowered his gaze to the box. After a long silence, he said, “This was your payment for performing at Huayue Tower. You earned it. Besides, Foster Mother liked you very much. Giving you those three little arrows made her happy. Consider it her final wish.”
With him saying that, Fu Xi Yan could no longer insist on returning them. “What do you plan to do now?”
Duan Qian said coldly, “Kill Guo Ju Ying. Kill Tong Fang Yu… Lord Xuanwu won’t stop me, will he?”
Whether or not the killer was Guo Ju Ying, the man had appeared at Huayue Tower the previous night, so he could not be completely uninvolved. As for Tong Fang Yu, if she had not pursued them relentlessly, why would they have spent their lives hiding like rats unable to see daylight? Why would they have thought of faking their deaths to escape? Why would they have encountered Guo Ju Ying?
They all had a share in Yin Fei Yu’s death!
Fu Xi Yan put the box away, then took out the Lord Xuanwu token. “Keep this token. It might be useful.”
Duan Qian looked deeply at him before accepting the kindness. “I’ll continue investigating the leader of the Ghostshadow Organization.”
Fu Xi Yan looked surprised.
Duan Qian said, “I’ve lost my foster mother. The Ghostshadow Organization suspects me. I have grudges with Guo Ju Ying and the City of Ten Thousand Beasts, and I’ve offended the Qinling Sect before. I no longer have any friends in the jianghu. If possible, I hope I can make a friend of the Immortal Treasury Palace.”
Fu Xi Yan glanced at Pei Yuan Jin. Seeing that he appeared to be leaving the decision entirely to him, Fu Xi Yan asked, “Can you guarantee you won’t harm innocent people?”
Duan Qian smiled faintly. “If one day you discover that I’ve harmed innocents, you may kill me.”
Fu Xi Yan held out his hand. Duan Qian paused, then tried to put the Lord Xuanwu token back into it. Fu Xi Yan did not take the token. Instead, he clasped Duan Qian’s hand and gave it a brief shake. “Then until the day you harm an innocent person, we’re friends.”
By the time they came down the mountain, dusk had fallen again.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “You know the killer probably wasn’t Guo Ju Ying.”
The chance that Guo Ju Ying knew about both the tunnel and the fake-death performance was very low. If he had known, he and Xi Mo Ya should simply have waited for them to finish acting, then intercepted Yin Fei Yu in the tunnel. Their odds would have been much better.
Fu Xi Yan said, “I know. Duan Qian knows too.”
Confusion appeared on Pei Yuan Jin’s face.
Young Master Pei, whose instinct was always to charge straight ahead, naturally had little experience with the fact that when people were extremely angry and extremely vulnerable, they sometimes needed an imagined enemy onto whom they could transfer their fury, if only to keep themselves from suffocating on grief.
Fu Xi Yan said, “He needs someone he can hate.” Besides, Guo Ju Ying truly was a bad person.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “But the real killer is still free.”
Fu Xi Yan sighed softly. “Actually, I keep feeling Aunt Feifei’s death had something to do with me. If I hadn’t come to Jiyang County, Tong Fang Yu might still have hunted her, but she probably wouldn’t have lost her life.”
Pei Yuan Jin looked at him, not understanding.
Only in front of him did Fu Xi Yan allow the weakness and self-reproach inside him to show. “Aunt Feifei survived on the run for so many years and always managed to turn danger into safety. That means her enemies were never overwhelmingly strong. But this time, the enemy was almost absurdly powerful.” They had known the tunnel in advance, known the fake-death plan, killed Yin Fei Yu before she could resist, and left without a trace.
How many people in the entire jianghu could do all of that?
…
As it happened, Fu Xi Yan knew a few.