Ren Yijue slowly closed his fan, pondering in silence.
The red puppet said in a deep voice, “Mister Cangyuan is widely traveled and knowledgeable. Unless I give you more detail, I doubt this treasure will interest you. What I possess is the Floating Butterfly’s Molt.”
The other three could not help turning to look at the red puppet.
In cultivation, the shedding of a cicada’s shell and the transformation of a butterfly held special meanings. A cicada’s molt signified the passage from old life into new. Treasures named for it were already exceedingly rare. A butterfly’s transformation suggested that after casting off the old body, the new one could advance still further.
Ren Yijue’s fan struck his palm with a sharp smack.
Elder Silkworm stroked his beard, apparently pondering something. After a while he went back to eating his broad beans. One had to wonder what shadow-puppet beans tasted like.
“So it’s the Five Eccentrics,” Qian Xuelang said. “Gaunt Mountain, Parched Water, Tangled Cloud, Secluded Forest, and Perilous Rock. Which one are you?”
The red puppet froze. Then it suddenly burst into laughter, only to begin weeping bitterly. “How many years has it been? Sixty-one! A full sixty-one years have passed, and someone still remembers us five brothers… I… I am… No, no, I’m not. I am Gaunt Mountain, I am Parched Water, I am Tangled Cloud, I am Secluded Forest, and I am Perilous Rock!”
“I am the Five Eccentrics!”
He spoke in a frenzy, laughing and weeping by turns. The puppet’s expression seemed to shift along with his, making the sight terrifying.
Qian Xuelang was silent for a moment before speaking slowly. “Then the play we just saw must have concerned the enmity between the Five Eccentrics and Taishu Sheng.”
“You… you know Taishu Sheng…” The puppet’s face revealed no change in complexion, but its smallest movements betrayed its fear. Its limbs stiffened and its head and hands jerked as though it were a startled bird. It stumbled back two steps. “You… who are you? No, are you here to capture me for him? You… you’re one of his people!”
In his panic the red puppet bounced wildly across the picture and soon vanished from the cloth. No matter how Elder Silkworm called after him, he did not return.
“He’s gone,” Elder Silkworm sighed. “He won’t answer.”
Elder Silkworm waved a hand. The stage curtain rolled up, and the three found themselves back inside the cart. Ren Yijue looked down at his own hands and feet, then at Qian Xuelang. He smiled slightly. “The Jade Beauty was lovely even as a shadow puppet, but I’m more accustomed to seeing you like this.”
“Silkworm silk as the thread, shadow puppets as vessels for the spirit,” Qian Xuelang said evenly. “No wonder you can serve as an intermediary. Old gentleman, your abilities are impressive.”
From the moment he entered, Qian Xuelang had realized the stage cloth was woven from a very unusual silk. Every thread was connected to Elder Silkworm. Presumably the silkworms that produced it had been raised through the man’s own spiritual power.
That sheet of cloth was Elder Silkworm’s private domain. If anything unexpected occurred, he could use it to mediate between the parties.
The shadow puppets were borrowed objects entrusted with spiritual consciousness. If negotiations failed, either party need only abandon a puppet to leave the cloth world immediately. With such freedom to come and go, both sides could feel safe.
For the first time, someone had seen through Elder Silkworm’s divine art. He was startled, then laughed. “You’re quite something yourself. One visit was enough to discover this old man’s little tricks. I have no other skills, really. I only raise silkworms and make shadow puppets. Silkworm silk weaves my stage, and shadow puppets enact people’s lives. Listening to stories is my only pleasure. If Your Excellency doesn’t mind, would you be willing to add the story of the ‘Five Eccentrics and Taishu Sheng’ to my collection?”
“Why not?”
Qian Xuelang was about to sit down again when two little shadow puppets walked up to his feet and patted the hem of his robes. “Hmm?”
The little puppets pointed into the distance. Looking that way, Qian Xuelang saw four muscular shadow puppets carrying an exquisitely decorated chaise longue.
The chaise was beautifully made. One raised end was carved into a pillow-like shape resembling a curled auspicious cloud. Its backrest was intricately pierced with scrolling foliage, like layer upon layer of swaying peonies, orchids, and other flowers, all richly ornate.
Ren Yijue stared in astonishment and said as though nothing were amiss, “Elder Silkworm, I’ve come here dozens of times, and you’ve never entertained me so well. Alas, it seems the affection between us has faded.”
“Hmph, there’s hardly a truthful word in your mouth, boy. I feed you broad beans and still you aren’t satisfied. How could this old man dare show you any of his fine things when you’re so greedy?” Elder Silkworm shook his head. “Not like this Immortal Lord. He looks quiet and honest, a man whose every word is worth a thousand pieces of gold. Since he’s willing to tell me a story, of course I’ll treat him properly.”
While they argued, the puppet attendants set a small carved-and-lacquered table upon the chaise and brought a flowing procession of fruit, pastries, fresh flowers, and fragrant tea.
Qian Xuelang sat with composure, raised the tea, and took a sip. “Taishu Sheng was once a fairly well-known independent cultivator around Daihai. Several decades ago, his wife contracted an incurable illness. After exhausting the services of famous physicians, Taishu Sheng began searching everywhere for sacred remedies. He found countless spiritual herbs, immortal pills, magical treasures, and divine artifacts, but none helped. In the end he could only watch his wife grow weaker day by day.”
“I imagine that’s where the conflict began,” Ren Yijue said.
Elder Silkworm swatted him and hissed for silence.
“Precisely. Taishu Sheng was eager to help others and had friends everywhere. Someone who could not bear to see his suffering told him the Five Eccentrics possessed a treasure called the Floating Butterfly’s Molt.” Qian Xuelang spoke calmly. “The Molt is an essence formed by an accident of creation itself. It can transform flesh and bone and regenerate the body, while also refining one’s cultivation to greater purity, like a butterfly emerging from its shell.”
Elder Silkworm had just stopped Ren Yijue from interrupting, but now he could not help blurting out, “How did the Five Eccentrics obtain such a treasure?”
The little puppets who had been working earlier sat on the stage, legs swinging and faces propped in their hands. They nodded along, just as puzzled.
“The Five Eccentrics loved mountains and streams. They lived mostly in the wilderness among wild animals. Their eldest, Gaunt Mountain, was skilled at feng shui and could read the earth’s veins, giving him an unusual talent for finding treasures. The Floating Butterfly’s Molt was born between heaven and earth, and these five wanderers chanced upon it.”
“So that’s how it was,” Ren Yijue said. “A treasure like that ought to have been kept secret. How did anyone learn of it?”
“Some say the youngest, Perilous Rock, loved showing off. He wagered his life against an enemy, and Gaunt Mountain had no choice but to use the Molt to save him, exposing its existence. Others say Tangled Cloud once lent the Molt to an outsider to repay a kindness. Still others say Parched Water, being fond of women, could not restrain himself from boasting about it to a woman he admired…”
“The accounts differ. Choose whichever one you’d like to believe.”
Elder Silkworm chuckled. “When has there ever been a wall without a crack? Besides, to possess a treasure like this and never show it off is like wearing brocade in the dark. Who could resist?”
At that moment the light and shadows onstage shifted. The puppet woman with flowers on her skirt adjusted her dark-green coiffure and said in a soft voice, “My goodness. You men keep going on about where the treasure came from and where it went. I think the friend who told Taishu Sheng about the Molt had bad intentions. He wanted a fight between a snipe and a clam so that the fisherman could reap the prize.”
The woman with birds on her skirt lifted its hem and moved gracefully. She flicked a slender red finger outward from the tip of her nose and answered gently, “Why must you think the worst of people? Perhaps the friend simply meant well and couldn’t bear to watch Young Master Taishu lose his beloved wife.”
The shadow-puppet women’s voices carried strong Jiangnan accents, their words pitched almost like lines sung in an opera.
“We don’t know,” Qian Xuelang said, shaking his head. “In any event, Taishu Sheng sought out the Five Eccentrics and asked to trade for the Floating Butterfly’s Molt. They were carefree by nature, without much desire for possessions, and refused him. Unable to obtain it by request, Taishu Sheng decided to seize it. The two sides became enemies.”
Ren Yijue’s gaze cooled. Fortunately, he needs something from me.
“As Taishu Sheng’s wife’s condition worsened, his pursuit of the Five Eccentrics became fiercer. Eventually he ceased to show mercy,” Qian Xuelang continued. “It was then that a woman named Shui Wuchen arrived.”
Ren Yijue was startled. “The Jade Beauty knows Lady Jieyou, Shui Wuchen?”
“Lady Jieyou…” Qian Xuelang frowned. “I don’t know that title, but I certainly know Shui Wuchen herself.”
The puppets immediately clamored, “Don’t interrupt, don’t interrupt! Let him go on! What happened to the woman named Shui Wuchen?”
Ren Yijue relaxed slightly and smiled. “Excellent. My apologies. I interrupted the entertainment. Please continue, Jade Beauty.”
“After reaching Daihai, Shui Wuchen heard of the matter and approached Taishu Sheng. She persuaded him to ease his pursuit of the Five Eccentrics and mediated the dispute between them.”
Something shifted in Ren Yijue’s expression. To reconcile a feud like that takes considerable ability. No wonder she’s called Lady Jieyou, the Lady Who Dispels Worries.
The flower-skirted puppet looked disgusted. “Did Taishu Sheng fall for this Shui Wuchen? Was he planning to replace the old with the new? Why else agree to peace? Wasn’t he trying to save his sick wife?”
“Why do you always assume the worst?” the bird-skirted puppet replied. “Young Master Taishu was driven almost mad by love. Isn’t it a good thing if someone could persuade him to stop?”
Ignoring their reactions, Qian Xuelang continued. “No one could have imagined that Shui Wuchen was a half-demon. During the mediation, the Five Eccentrics and everyone in Taishu Sheng’s household died. She alone survived. People therefore assumed that her demonic nature had broken loose and she’d slaughtered the entire household, with the Five Eccentrics perishing as well.”
Elder Silkworm nearly pulled out his own beard. “A half-demon?”
Ren Yijue revealed nothing. “And what happened afterward?”
“Shui Wuchen said she had harmed no one, but she did not know how the massacre had occurred. As a half-demon during a time of severe demonic calamity, she could scarcely defend herself. The affair caused an enormous public uproar. Then someone pledged his life and entire fortune as surety for her.”
Ren Yijue chuckled softly. “Five Eccentrics and Taishu Sheng’s whole household. Those are a great many lives to answer for. Who was the man?”
“Jiufang Ce.”
At the name, Ren Yijue and Elder Silkworm were both astonished, not by the given name but by the surname. “Jiufang?”
There were great clans among cultivators as well. Unlike ordinary sect lineages, these families placed blood relationships above all else.
The three most famous were the Cui clan of Qingyang, the Jiufang clan of Daihai, and the Situ clan of Wuyuan. Among the three, the Jiufang clan placed the greatest importance on purity of bloodline. Many of its secret arts required blood to activate. The family held itself in extraordinary esteem and maintained customs that were not only conservative but extremely severe, rarely marrying outsiders.
Qian Xuelang said calmly, “During his travels as a young man, Jiufang Ce journeyed with Shui Wuchen, and they had long since pledged their hearts to each other. On the second day after her arrest, he came alone. Before everyone’s eyes, he struck a great wave rolling in from the sea and split it open with one palm. He declared that either the two of them, husband and wife, would slaughter their way through Daihai to survive, turning the sea red with blood, or the crowd would give him time to prove his wife’s innocence.”
Ren Yijue thought, They had merely pledged themselves to one another, yet by the time he arrived alone they’d become husband and wife. What a devoted man. I wonder how the Jiufang clan reacted.
The flower-skirted puppet cupped her face and let out an enchanted “Wow.”
Elder Silkworm could not help asking, “Was the killer found?”
Ren Yijue smiled faintly. “Obviously not. Otherwise why would the Five Eccentrics seek us out, or have us watch that play? But how did the Jiufang clan respond? Surely they did something?”
Elder Silkworm clicked his tongue. “I thought you were so clever. So there are things you don’t know.”
“The head of the Jiufang clan was furious, of course. But no one knows how the clan handled matters internally. All that is known is that although Jiufang Ce, originally their heir, was not completely struck from the family register, he lost all the honors he had once enjoyed.”
The bird-skirted puppet covered her mouth and gasped.
“The Five Eccentrics and Taishu Sheng were dead, and not a single clue remained at the scene. Jiufang Ce could not find the murderer, yet remained convinced of his wife’s innocence. Ultimately, overwhelmed by pressure, he withdrew with Shui Wuchen to live by the sea, shutting themselves away within bounds of their own making and no longer involving themselves in the affairs of the world.”