The little boat pushed through the waves. The big boat pushed through the waves too.
Elio’s Notes: The opening riffs on the familiar Chinese children’s song “Let Us Sway Twin Oars,” whose lyric begins with a little boat pushing through the waves.
The large and small boats slowly drew together on the river. Fu Xi Yan heard a thunk against the hull, followed by the boatman shouting outside. He hurried onto the deck and saw Jing Luo standing calmly on the little boat. When Jing Luo spotted him, he even smiled and waved.
Fu Xi Yan quickly welcomed him aboard and asked in delighted surprise, “Chief Steward Jing, what brings you here?”
Jing Luo said, “I escorted the scholars into Southern Yu. When I heard about the martial assembly, I intended to find you, but by the time I was halfway there, the assembly had already ended. Your feat of killing the Taoshan brothers and the Spirit Sect Leader one after another has spread throughout the realm. I guessed you would return soon, so I waited on the river. Sure enough, I found you.”
Fu Xi Yan was very modest. “I wasn’t the killer. Yuan Jin killed all of them.”
Jing Luo asked, “Where is the Young Master?”
Fu Xi Yan led him into the cabin.
Since the martial assembly, Pei Yuan Jin had spent most of his time inside the cabin. In appearance, his true essence was already infinitely close to a Golden Core, but in nature it was still true essence. Since a Golden Core had to be tempered, he still lacked the final step of undergoing one more lightning tribulation before he could completely transform and advance to the Golden Core Stage.
Before Fu Xi Yan and Jing Luo entered, Pei Yuan Jin had been sitting with his eyes closed, reviewing what he had comprehended during his battle with Wu Xuan Yin.
The surrounding spiritual qi had been drained away while his true qi was constantly consumed. After one battle after another, his body had been exhausted to the limit. The only thing that had kept him going was his will to forge straight ahead and never retreat.
Was that not also a kind of tempering?
He had a premonition that after his next lightning tribulation, he would definitely form a Golden Core.
The moment Fu Xi Yan stepped into the room, Pei Yuan Jin had already poured three cups of tea.
Jing Luo tactfully picked up the cup placed some distance from the other two. Fu Xi Yan sat beside Pei Yuan Jin and instinctively bumped his shoulder against the man next to him.
Pei Yuan Jin gave him a helpless look.
Jing Luo waited until the two had finished their little gestures before saying slowly, “I heard Ban Qing Yu was struck by lightning when she died?”
By the time he entered Southern Yu, there were already countless versions of Ban Qing Yu’s death, most revolving around the fact that she had been struck by lightning. Pei Xiong Ji had told him about lightning tribulations before, so what Jing Luo really wanted to know was who had drawn this one down.
Pei Yuan Jin said briefly, “My lightning tribulation happened to arrive that day.”
Jing Luo looked at Fu Xi Yan. Fu Xi Yan immediately let his imagination loose and described an earth-shaking battle. Just as Jing Luo was becoming engrossed, Fu Xi Yan added, “I wasn’t there at the time. I made all that up.”
…
Jing Luo said, “For the two of you to have become husband and wife, you truly are no ordinary people.”
That did not sound much like praise. Fu Xi Yan laughed dryly and changed the subject. “Has the Immortal Treasury Palace finished its organizational reforms? Is it really all right for you not to remain at Fujun Mountain and oversee things?”
Jing Luo said, “The overall situation is settled. Chief Steward Yu is handling what remains.”
Fu Xi Yan was somewhat surprised.
Yu Su Huan had never been particularly involved in management before. He had not expected his idol to entrust her with such responsibility this time. But on second thought, there had not been much choice. Most of the Immortal Treasury Palace’s upper ranks were obsessed with martial arts, while the middle ranks were still young and lacked seniority. Jing Luo simply did not have many options.
If the choice was between Zhao Tong Qu and Yu Su Huan, then it was not really a choice at all.
Of course, there was one thing he did not know.
Back when Yu Su Huan had effectively “joined the cast with her own funding,” she had arrived and immediately occupied the high position of chief steward, stirring considerable controversy within the palace, especially from Ying Zhu Cui. At first, Yu Su Huan had tried to involve herself in the Rain Division’s affairs across the various regions, only to encounter inexplicable resistance. She had never been interested in administration to begin with, so after trying twice, she simply went with the flow and gave up.
Later, because of Zhao Tong Qu, Pei Yuan Jin took her on an inspection tour. The Rain Division branches had plenty of problems, and Yu Su Huan felt guilty about them. That was why she accepted the responsibility readily this time.
Since they were talking about the Immortal Treasury Palace, Jing Luo naturally brought up Yu Cao. “The Palace Lord intends to restore Yu Cao to his position as an elder.”
Yu Cao’s resignation had always been an unspoken temporary measure. Now that the Immortal Treasury Palace’s reforms were complete and Zhao Tong Qu had become a tiger with its teeth pulled, Yu Cao’s return was only natural.
Fu Xi Yan said, “As it should be.”
Jing Luo said, “But he refused.”
Fu Xi Yan asked curiously, “Why?”
Even Pei Yuan Jin looked over in puzzlement. From what he knew of Yu Cao, the man was not stubborn or unreasonable enough to keep brooding over what had happened before.
Jing Luo looked at Fu Xi Yan with a half-smile. “He said that since Yu Yu Er has joined the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror, he is old now and should follow his son, so naturally he should join the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror as well.”
Fu Xi Yan looked stunned.
As for the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror, he genuinely had never thought about expanding it into anything grand. After all, under Shi Yi Ming, the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror had basically been a family workshop employing a large number of temporary workers. Its direction of development was completely different from a joint-stock company like the Immortal Treasury Palace.
“I wonder what salary and benefits I’m supposed to offer if I recruit a Martial God?”
Who said the far shore of a family workshop could not be a joint-stock company? A man ought to have dreams. What if an inheritance suddenly fell from the sky? At that thought, Fu Xi Yan’s smile abruptly collapsed. Thinking about his father dying was one thing, but inheritance talk was just too ominous… Bad luck!
From inheritance, Fu Xi Yan’s thoughts jumped to the Puppet Path, then to Tong Fang Yu and the White Tiger King, which brought “Shan-Mo-Da-Yan” back to mind. He asked, “Chief Steward Jing, do you know about the No-Return Sect?”
Jing Luo said, “The No-Return Sect’s evil deeds surpassed even the Spirit Sect’s.”
It was a simple statement, yet Fu Xi Yan heard a trace of heaviness behind it.
“Chief Steward Jing, have you met them before?”
Once people like Pei Xiong Ji and Jing Luo cultivated their martial arts to a certain level, their appearance stopped showing the passage of years. Fu Xi Yan had no idea how old Jing Luo truly was, and even Pei Yuan Jin was not entirely sure.
But from Jing Luo’s attitude, it was clear he had lived through that era. To him, the No-Return Sect was not merely a story written on paper. It was part of a past he had personally experienced.
Faced with Fu Xi Yan’s curiosity, Jing Luo sighed softly. “In those days, the No-Return Sect was extraordinarily prominent. It had supporters throughout the land, north and south of the Yangtze, and most of them were ordinary commoners.”
Fu Xi Yan asked, “Were they being controlled?”
Jing Luo said meaningfully, “Someone in the No-Return Sect was skilled in medicine.” There were people in this world who could resist the temptation of wealth, but very few who did not fear death.
Fu Xi Yan’s eyes lit up. “There are rumors that Divine Physician Yan Ke belonged to the No-Return Sect?”
Jing Luo avoided the question. “The Divine Physician has saved countless lives. Why should his origins matter?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “There are also rumors that Mo Xiao Ran belonged to the No-Return Sect. Doesn’t that mean the No-Return Sect may never actually have been destroyed?”
“There may have been some who slipped through the net, but the No-Return Sect Master truly did die.” Jing Luo’s usually steady gaze showed a rare trace of distance. To him, the No-Return Sect already belonged to a very remote past.
“It was because he died that everyone finally confirmed the No-Return Sect Master was the Ghost King, Cheng He Cheng.”
If, a year earlier, people had hesitated over whether the Heaven-and-Earth Mirror or the Immortal Treasury Palace deserved to be called number one in the world, no such question would have existed in the era when the No-Return Sect reigned.
The No-Return Sect of those days possessed the Immortal Treasury Palace’s high-end combat strength, the Spirit Sect’s influence over ordinary society, and the Ghostshadow Organization’s mystery.
Had the righteous factions not discovered Cheng He Cheng’s corpse when they besieged the No-Return Sect, people might have gone to their graves never imagining that the Ghost King himself was the Sect Master. The rumors that Mo Xiao Ran and Yan Ke were Cheng He Cheng’s disciples arose from the particular traits of those two men.
Puppet Arts shared certain principles with the No-Return Sect’s martial arts, while Yan Ke’s medical expertise closely resembled the No-Return Sect’s methods of saving people.
Fu Xi Yan asked, “Other than Mo Xiao Ran and Yan Ke, are there any other suspicious candidates?”
Jing Luo asked, “Why do you ask?”
“Just curious.” Fu Xi Yan gave two dry laughs and kept his own theory to himself. He could wave that baseless speculation around in front of Pei Yuan Jin, but bringing it out before his idol would only make him look ridiculous.
He turned his head and saw Pei Yuan Jin looking at him meaningfully, so he pulled a face.
The young couple continued their little back-and-forth. Just as Jing Luo had tactfully chosen the seat farthest from them earlier, he now tactfully rose to take his leave. Fu Xi Yan saw him to the door, then turned back and found Pei Yuan Jin looking at him with a smile.
“What are you looking at?”
“I thought you would bring up ‘Shan-Mo-Da-Yan.’”
Fu Xi Yan said proudly, “A theory this wild yet divinely inspired should only be unveiled with a dramatic flourish once I have hard evidence. Then I can stun everyone in one stroke.”
Pei Yuan Jin raised a brow. “I await your brilliant insight.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “First, we now know for certain that the No-Return Sect Master was Cheng He Cheng, and that Mo Xiao Ran and Yan Ke should be disciples of the No-Return Sect.”
Pei Yuan Jin responded to the phrase “should be… certain information” with rational silence.
“That means…”
Fu Xi Yan paused.
Come to think of it, that was exactly what the jianghu rumors had already been saying.
He stroked his chin and said in disbelief, “We haven’t proved anything at all.”
Pei Yuan Jin poured himself more water. “Drop the ‘we.’”
* * *
The two-deck ship continued along the Yangtze at an unhurried pace. Given Fu Xi Yan’s unpleasant experiences on his previous boat journeys, he had prepared himself for a fight this time. Unfortunately, they were almost out of Southern Yu territory and had not encountered a single pirate or bandit.
He sighed aloud. Jing Luo heard him and explained, “The White Dragon Gang now controls the Southern Yu stretch of the Yangtze. All the large and small river bandits take orders from Qi Wen Xin. By now they have probably gone to block the Southern Yu navy.”
Southern Yu’s navy was considered one of the finest in the world. To counter it, Prince Yue had taken a different approach and inserted Qi Wen Xin into the White Dragon Gang to bring the Southern Yu river bandits under control. Now was the time to see the results.
Those results, however, arrived earlier than they expected.
On the night before they left Southern Yu, letters arrived from both Prince Yue and Ying He, the former chief manager of the Lin’an Wind Division. Prince Yue’s letter was still mostly reminiscing and gratitude, with the farewell saved for the end.
Fu Xi Yan could not see his face, but he could imagine it. They had come lightly equipped, killed with tremendous fanfare, then left as though it were nothing. That suited Prince Yue perfectly.
If they had really stayed behind drinking with Prince Yue and waiting for rewards to be handed out according to merit, Prince Yue probably would have started squirming in his seat.
Ying He’s letter, meanwhile, contained quite a bit of news from Southern Yu. The fact that it had been sent together with Prince Yue’s letter meant the information must have been shared with Prince Yue’s approval.
And the very beginning of the letter stunned Fu Xi Yan.
It said that Prince Ningguo, a distant cousin of the young emperor, had been incited by Southern Yu’s Chief Grand Secretary. Working in concert with the Spirit Sect from within and without, he led troops in an assault on the Lin’an imperial palace.
At the critical moment, Zhu Shou Xin led the Imperial Guard in a desperate defense of the emperor, while the Second Grand Secretary arrived with the Divine Martial Army. Together they crushed the plot.
The Spirit Sect suffered another devastating blow. Of its Four Great Elders, Elder Wei and Xiao Jin Zi were killed on the spot, while the other two disappeared without a trace. The third-greatest sect under Heaven, once feared throughout the realm, now had no one stronger than the Vajra Stage.
Zhu Shou Xin was also badly wounded in the battle and lost his left hand, but the emperor granted him the title Count Zhongyong, so fortune and misfortune came hand in hand. A Dong was promoted to Commander of the Imperial Guard.
The Chief Grand Secretary’s entire clan was executed, the Second Grand Secretary succeeded him as Chief Grand Secretary, and formal peace negotiations with Prince Yue began.
But at the very end of the letter, Ying He had written one strange line: Something may have happened where Wu Xuan Yin’s body lies in state.
Fu Xi Yan held the letter out for Pei Yuan Jin to see. “Does this mean…”
Pei Yuan Jin braced himself for whatever astonishing conclusion was coming.
Sure enough, Fu Xi Yan did not disappoint. “Wu Xuan Yin’s corpse came back to life?”
Pei Yuan Jin said, “Her soul was already taken.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Exactly. Maybe they took it away for repairs. Once it’s fixed, they can stick it back into the corpse. Wow, is the young emperor about to act out My Date with a Vampire?”
Elio’s Notes: My Date with a Vampire is a Hong Kong supernatural TV franchise. Fu Xi Yan’s next joke about Fuxi and the Queen Mother also riffs on characters and plotlines from the series.
Pei Yuan Jin: “…”
Fu Xi Yan suddenly grabbed Pei Yuan Jin’s hand. “I’m getting a little nervous now.”
“Nervous about what?”
“I’m afraid Fuxi and the Queen Mother are about to fall in love. Fuxi, Fu Xi, Fu Xi Yan… don’t tell me I’m actually Human King Fuxi?” Fu Xi Yan had started out joking, but the more he talked, the more he convinced himself, until he looked at Pei Yuan Jin in genuine alarm.
Pei Yuan Jin said, “…The ren wang from ‘family ruined, people dead’?”
Elio’s Notes: 人王 (ren wang, “Human King”) and 人亡 (ren wang, “people dead”) are homophones, which lets Pei Yuan Jin turn Fu Xi Yan’s grand Fuxi theory into a grim little pun.
…
“Peh, peh, peh. Bad luck. Pretend I never said that.” Fu Xi Yan turned to admire the scenery along both banks of the Yangtze.
* * *
Wu Xuan Yin was dead, but the young emperor believed he did not have much longer to live either, so why not be buried together? He gathered all sorts of treasures, sealed Wu Xuan Yin’s body in ice inside her coffin, and kept it in Kunning Palace.
As for himself, he had spent these days sleeping beside the coffin. Or rather, what he called sleeping was simply lying on a bed with his eyes closed. Since Wu Xuan Yin’s death, he had barely slept at all. Only after drinking medicine could he doze for a short while, and even then he woke quickly. The more often he took the medicine, the less effective it became.
On the night Prince Ningguo broke into the palace, he was awake as usual.
The instant Xiao Jin Zi made his move, Qin Xiao Xun noticed. He sat up on the edge of the bed and watched Xiao Jin Zi approach step by step, expectation actually shining in his eyes.
Xiao Jin Zi looked at him and said with pent-up resentment, “Your Majesty, if you hand the realm to Prince Yue, the Spirit Sect is finished!”
Qin Xiao Xun said, “If you want to kill me, then kill me. Must I admit I was wrong first?”
Xiao Jin Zi said, “Why won’t Your Majesty think about this? If the Sect Leader knew in the afterlife that the Spirit Sect had fallen into ruin, how heartbroken would she be?”
Qin Xiao Xun shook his head. “You never understood her.”
Xiao Jin Zi knew there was no turning back after reaching this point. He raised his dagger and lunged at Qin Xiao Xun, but just as he reached him, a tremendous force blasted him away.
Qin Xiao Xun looked down and pulled a transparent gemstone from inside his clothes. It had originally contained three bright marks. Two were now dark, leaving only one.
After Zheng Yu was killed, Wu Xuan Yin had obtained this Earth-grade defensive spiritual treasure. It could block three attacks, and she had used it once herself when she first acquired it.
Xiao Jin Zi crashed out through the doorway. Zhu Shou Xin heard the disturbance and rushed over, intending to ask what had happened, but Xiao Jin Zi got up and immediately attacked him, making further questions unnecessary.
The two fought outside. Qin Xiao Xun rose, intending to check on Wu Xuan Yin in the neighboring room, when rustling suddenly came from next door. The apathy that had covered his face vanished. He hurried over, but the instant he pushed open the door, a tremendous force swept him away. He landed without injury, but the sheer force alone showed just how terrifyingly powerful the intruder was.
When Wu Xuan Yin had tested the treasure herself, she had only been forced back half a step!
He remembered what Zhu Shou Xin had said about the person in the sedan. His gaze sharpened and he rushed inside. The spiritual treasure had already exhausted all three of its protections. He had nothing left to rely on now, and the only thing carrying him forward was a reckless courage that no longer feared death.
“Your Majesty!” Zhu Shou Xin abandoned Xiao Jin Zi and turned to protect him.
Qin Xiao Xun ignored him completely and plunged into the hall. He saw someone withdrawing a hand from Wu Xuan Yin’s coffin. The person turned, glanced at him once, and vanished from the spot.
When Qin Xiao Xun rushed to the coffin, he saw that Wu Xuan Yin’s clothing had been disturbed, as though someone had searched through it.
Had the intruder been looking for something, or desecrating her remains?
Qin Xiao Xun had personally washed and arranged Wu Xuan Yin’s body, so no one knew better than he did what had been placed inside the coffin. He quickly checked everything, then let out a breath of relief. “Nothing is wrong here. Go.”
Hearing the thunderous sounds of fighting outside, Zhu Shou Xin was already burning with anxiety. “I’ll have A Dong come in to guard Your Majesty!”
Qin Xiao Xun said nothing, which amounted to agreement.
After Zhu Shou Xin left, Qin Xiao Xun straightened Wu Xuan Yin’s clothes again and closed the coffin.
* * *
Monk Shan was holding a small box and preparing to pass through the wall when he suddenly sensed something strange. He stepped back half a pace and opened his right hand, revealing a long saber that had somehow appeared there. He slashed straight through the wall. A muffled groan seemed to sound from the other side, then everything fell silent.
He spun around at once and sped off in another direction.
Prince Ningguo’s men were locked in battle with the Imperial Guard.
Monk Shan swept between them. Halfway across the battlefield, his left hand suddenly loosened, and the little box vanished without a trace.
His expression sharpened. He opened his right hand, and both sides of the fighting abruptly froze for an instant. More than a dozen souls flew out of their bodies, then gathered into a single force of soul power that strangled the remaining people one after another.
This was a side hall of the imperial palace. There had not been many fighters from either side to begin with, and once they died, no reinforcements came. The place became truly silent as death.
Moonlight poured down from the sky like a fall of heavy snow. White light covered the corpses strewn across the ground, desolate, mournful, and bitterly cold.
Monk Shan stepped over the bodies and searched the area, but he could not find what he wanted. His face darkened before he vanished from the spot.
* * *
The night was very long. It seemed unwilling to end.
That was true of the Lin’an imperial palace.
It was also true of Qifu Inn in Lin’an.
A lamp was burning inside the inn.
A man sat beneath the lamp.
He idly toyed with a small box in his hand. Had Monk Shan been there, he would have recognized it instantly. It was the very box Wu Xuan Yin had promised him, then forgotten, forcing him to go all the way to the imperial palace and open her coffin himself, only to lose it again immediately after obtaining it.
But was Monk Shan truly not there?
Knock, knock, knock.
Three knocks sounded on the tightly shut guest-room door.
The man inside casually set the box on the table and said softly, “Come in.”
The door opened, but Monk Shan did not enter. He stood outside the threshold, staring coldly at the two cups of tea on the table and at Mo Xiao Ran, who had clearly prepared to receive a guest.
Monk Shan said, “Thieves fall into Avici Hell. Put down what you stole and turn back to the shore.”
Mo Xiao Ran smiled. “You really have returned to secular life. Even your lies are a jumble of mismatched sayings.”
Monk Shan said, “There are many people in this inn. You are not my match.”
Mo Xiao Ran said, “Is that so?”
From what Monk Shan knew of General Da, even if the man had agreed to help, there were limits to how far that help would go. He could not possibly remain at Mo Xiao Ran’s side indefinitely. Yet Mo Xiao Ran’s attitude made Monk Shan hesitate.
Mo Xiao Ran raised one hand and hooked a dim strand of soul that did not belong to him around his fingertip. “Didn’t you want to turn around and kill me instead? I’m sitting right here now, saving you the trouble of tracking me everywhere.”
Monk Shan was not surprised that his little trick had been seen through.
Among the old Shan-Mo-Da-Yan group, Mo Xiao Ran had borne the title Scholar Mo and had always been the one most skilled at plots and schemes. That was why Cheng He Cheng used to say, “Scholars have too many schemes in their heads.”
Monk Shan suddenly softened his tone. “After everything has come to this, must fellow disciples still kill one another?”
Mo Xiao Ran only smiled without answering.
Monk Shan said, “If you give me the box, I’ll give you a fragment of the Sect Master’s remaining soul.”
Mo Xiao Ran still said nothing.
Monk Shan looked at him, then suddenly stepped across the threshold. At that instant, every nerve in his body was strung taut. If Mo Xiao Ran attacked without warning, or if someone else was hidden inside the room, Monk Shan had seventeen or eighteen different ways to counterattack or escape.
But even after both his feet landed inside and his gaze swept every corner of the room, Mo Xiao Ran remained quietly seated. General Da did not appear either.
Monk Shan smiled, pulled out a chair, and was just about to sit when Mo Xiao Ran asked lazily, “Are you sure he isn’t here?”
Monk Shan paused slightly, then straightened again.
He looked at Mo Xiao Ran.
Mo Xiao Ran looked back at him.
The air grew heavy and oppressive, as though it had solidified.
At that moment, Monk Shan suddenly remembered something Cheng He Cheng had said a very, very long time ago. “You harbor ambition, but you are suspicious by nature. Even when an opportunity falls into your hands, you cannot seize it.”
It was because of those words that he had plotted the assassination and killed Cheng He Cheng without hesitation, all to prove that even if he was suspicious by nature, he would still seize an opportunity when one appeared.
Thinking of that, he sat back down. “I’m certain he isn’t here.”
* * *
Then, the instant the words left his mouth, he attacked Mo Xiao Ran. The moment Mo Xiao Ran instinctively dodged, Monk Shan snatched the box from the table.
The instant the box touched his hand, Monk Shan knew he had been tricked.
Wu Xuan Yin’s box contained the Ice-Soul Yin Spring, cold enough to chill the hand on contact. This box gave off a chill too, but it was not nearly cold enough!
He released it at once, but the box had already exploded.
With a sweep of his long sleeve, Monk Shan flung the shattered box and the explosives inside it out the window.
A figure in a straw raincoat flashed past outside.
Monk Shan turned and ran.
Against Mo Xiao Ran alone, he had seventy percent confidence. With General Da added to the equation, that dropped to twenty percent. Monk Shan had always treasured his life. The only true risk he had ever taken was killing Cheng He Cheng.
Ever since then, he had wanted nothing to do with taking risks.
Because that time had truly been far too dangerous.
He had even wondered more than once whether some other person had been behind his success. After all, although he had obtained the Sect Master’s soul, even after refining it all this time, he still had not found the thing he wanted.
Could someone else have taken it first, then used him as the scapegoat to draw everyone else’s attention away?
By the time that thought finished turning through his mind, he had already reached West Lake. No one was pursuing him.