“That man killed all five Eccentrics in one stroke, so his cultivation must be exceptionally high. Perilous Rock also said he was held in considerable esteem in Daihai.”
Since Shui Wuchen had already guessed the truth, Qian Xuelang stopped concealing anything and spoke plainly. “There cannot be too many people like that. Do you have anyone in mind?”
“Those with high cultivation are usually famous, but to have standing means to be looked up to.” Shui Wuchen considered the matter and said slowly, “Then again, the Five Eccentrics might not have meant someone of the righteous path. He might have been an esteemed figure among their own sort.”
“You think someone outside the Jiufang clan could be involved?” Qian Xuelang asked.
“If we count those drawn into the matter, there are really only Ce-lang and me. If the culprit knew of our relationship and meant to use me to ensnare Ce-lang, then the Jiufang family would indeed be the likeliest suspects. Ce-lang was their heir at the time, and people will resort to any measure in a struggle for power. But how would they have learned my identity? And how would they have gained the Eccentrics’ trust?”
Shui Wuchen looked up at the bright moon. “It could also have been an enemy of mine, seeking to ruin my reputation, who never expected to draw Ce-lang into it and therefore dared not stir things up further.”
“Ren Yijue has suggested that possibility too,” Qian Xuelang said suddenly.
“Then the two of us see eye to eye.” Shui Wuchen sighed softly. “So many years have gone by without my noticing. Whoever is behind this, now that the old affair has resurfaced, I imagine someone is going to lose their composure.”
“Have you told Jiufang Ce?”
“Do I even need to?” Shui Wuchen smiled. “When you were speaking, Brother Xue, Ce-lang probably understood already. He only asked you where your evidence came from because he needed witnesses and material proof. A feast for the eyes still leaves the stomach hungry. How could mere words convince anyone?”
Qian Xuelang was not especially concerned with such matters, and his expression remained cool.
Shui Wuchen continued, “It is rare to find a new lead. I’ll buy a few things and pay my respects tomorrow to Taishu and his wife and the Five Eccentrics, and tell them the good news. Brother Xue, will you come with me?”
“Yes. Ren Yijue is coming too.”
Shui Wuchen knew they had come together to investigate, but could not resist teasing him. “Very well. Bring along your young friend Ren too.”
Before they parted, Shui Wuchen gave the sword case on Qian Xuelang’s back a long, searching look, but said nothing.
Shui Wuchen rose early the following day, went to a nearby town to buy incense, candles, and paper offerings, and also prepared flowers and fruit.
As the three were setting out, they found Jiufang Ziming quarrelling endlessly with a flower servant. He had gone out early to practice swordsmanship and now wanted to return, but the flower servant refused to let him back inside.
No one could tell what kind of flower the servant was. Its blossom was as big as a washbasin, and although it could not speak, its petals quivered incessantly, giving it quite an imposing air. Jiufang Ziming argued with it until he was nearly exhausted, then hurried over when he saw the three emerge.
“Please, help me talk some sense into it—” Jiufang Ziming broke off when he noticed what Shui Wuchen was carrying and asked cautiously, “What’s happened? What’s all this?”
“We’re going to sweep the graves,” Shui Wuchen said. “If you don’t mind, you can come along.”
After hesitating a moment, Jiufang Ziming nodded. “All right.”
They walked for a while before Jiufang Ziming, lagging slightly behind the other three, suddenly called out, “Hey—”
All three turned back, none knowing whom he meant. Jiufang Ziming looked uncomfortable and said haltingly, “Those things you’re carrying… let me carry them for you.”
Shui Wuchen handed them over with a slight smile. “Then thank you.”
The four continued on and soon passed an abandoned garden. Its walls had collapsed, and everything bore traces of the fire. It was impossible to recognize what the place had once looked like.
A little farther on lay the burial grounds of the Five Eccentrics, Taishu Sheng and his wife, and their servants.
Only then did Jiufang Ziming realize what he had seen. “That place just now… was that Taishu Sheng’s home?”
“That’s right,” Shui Wuchen replied. “That was his home.”
Jiufang Ziming fell silent, lost in thought. He crouched to help Shui Wuchen arrange the offerings and set out incense and candles before asking, “Do you come to pay your respects often?”
“Not very often.” Shui Wuchen spoke lightly. “Decades ago, I could only ask Ce-lang to do it for me. Later the storm gradually died down. To put it plainly, I had to outlive the people of that time until they were half-dead themselves before I could come.”
Jiufang Ziming felt wretched at this but could find nothing to say. He silently began burning the paper offerings.
Ren Yijue looked over the area and suddenly asked, “When the bodies were collected, were they all accounted for?”
“They were,” Shui Wuchen said. “The fire was fierce, but the Five Eccentrics and Taishu Sheng still had their magical treasures and weapons, so identifying them wasn’t difficult. As for Bu Yueniang, by that time she had already…”
She did not finish. After burning some more paper offerings, she continued, “Ce-lang identified Bu Yueniang’s body according to my description and buried her with Taishu Sheng. The Five Eccentrics were buried together. The other charred bodies could not be distinguished, so they were all gathered and buried as well.”
That meant Perilous Rock’s physical body had indeed died. Floating Butterfly’s Molt had preserved his spiritual consciousness and allowed him to be reborn. No wonder the mastermind, passing through in such haste, had failed to notice anything unusual.
Ren Yijue’s heart warmed. If Floating Butterfly’s Molt could bring someone back from the dead, then surely it could also remove the demonic qi from his mother’s body.
Since childhood, he had watched his mother sleep. His master had labored for years over her condition, and every remedy Ren had sought himself had proven useless. He was not exactly disheartened, but thinking of it inevitably left him helpless and at a loss. Now that hope had appeared so unexpectedly, he could scarcely contain his delight.
Jiufang Ziming had no idea why Ren looked so happy. Puzzled, he demanded, “Have you no humanity? Something so tragic happened, and what are you smiling about?”
Shui Wuchen did not know what had pleased Ren either. The subject was hardly amusing, and displeasure made her frown slightly.
Only Qian Xuelang knew that Ren was happy for his mother’s sake, and that his joy had momentarily got the better of him. He gave Ren a slight shake of the head.
Ren Yijue’s smile finally faded. Looking at the forlorn graves, he felt rather ashamed as well. “It’s nothing. I’m only glad we’ve found a lead. Once the real culprit is uncovered, I hope the dead will finally be able to rest in peace.”
“That’s more like it,” Jiufang Ziming muttered.
Together they burned a great deal of paper money, offered incense, and arranged the flowers and fruit. Just as they were preparing to leave, Jiufang Ziming suddenly asked, “Can they really hear us?”
Shui Wuchen froze.
Seeing her expression, Jiufang Ziming hurriedly waved his hands. “I didn’t mean it that way.”
As the youngest, talented and likable, Jiufang Ziming had always been much indulged at home. He had never given much thought to other people’s feelings and was nowhere near as sensitive as Jiufang Shixuan, but he was not bad at heart.
Over the past few days Ren Yijue had deceived him, and he had met Shui Wuchen in person and learned unexpectedly of this affair from more than sixty years ago. Discovering that people and events were so unlike what he had believed had changed many of his opinions in an instant. Without quite realizing it, he had grown melancholy.
“I only mean that it’s been so long. They must be tired of waiting. Even if they still hold a grudge and refuse to reincarnate, wandering among these ruined walls, abandoned gardens, and graves, would that really be a good thing?” Jiufang Ziming considered this, then added, “But now we know there was a hidden killer. If their spirits are still here, couldn’t we find a way to speak to them and learn who the murderer was right away?”
The instant the words left his mouth, his face went deathly pale and he clapped a hand over his mouth, as though he could hardly believe what he had said.
Arts capable of seizing souls and subduing spirits did exist, but they were generally the sinister practices of deviant cultivators, intolerable to the world. The living and dead belonged to separate realms; to forcibly break down the divide between them would surely incur Heaven’s punishment.
A demonic cultivator had once captured the living souls of a thousand people to refine a technique, a deed already universally despised. Later, the Demon Calamity had introduced the art of controlling demon thralls, inflaming people’s anger even further. For that reason, righteous cultivators loathed and rejected any similar art without exception.
Jiufang Ziming’s face turned ashen. For a time he was silent with fear and said nothing more.
But his words reminded Shui Wuchen of something. “That brings a matter to mind. The circumstances were strange, and the great fire destroyed almost everything, leaving hardly any clues. When the others did not find Floating Butterfly’s Molt on me, they assumed the fire had burned it up as well.”
“I was imprisoned on the execution platform then. One night, a deviant cultivator called White-Brow Child came secretly to ask what had happened. When he found I knew nothing, he angrily told me that Floating Butterfly’s Molt could never be consumed by fire. He was convinced righteous cultivators had coveted it and killed not only his five brothers but Taishu Sheng as well.”
Jiufang Ziming was indignant. “Does he think righteous cultivators are as vile as people of his own wicked path?”
Shui Wuchen pondered. “White-Brow Child was skilled in alchemy, and his methods were bizarre and sinister. He was said to water medicinal plants with human blood and use corpses as fertilizer. He knew many like-minded deviant cultivators, including one named Bone Lingding, who practiced summoning souls and controlling corpses. Despised by society, Bone Lingding lived deep in the mountains and rarely ventured out. White-Brow Child may have sought his help.”
Shui Wuchen still remembered a person from so long ago with remarkable clarity. Plainly, she had spent the intervening years going over every possible clue.
Yet in the end, she and her husband had never sought out White-Brow Child to learn what had actually happened.
First, Shui Wuchen’s position was delicate. If she, a half-demon, associated with demonic cultivators and deviant practitioners and disturbed the peace of the dead through forbidden soul-seizing arts, even a just cause would seem unjustifiable.
Second, Jiufang Ce was still a member of the Jiufang clan. Even if he had agreed, Shui Wuchen did not wish her beloved to entangle himself in such sordid disputes for her sake, soil his reputation, and hand his enemies a weapon against him.
Third, Shui Wuchen hoped that whether White-Brow Child acted out of brotherly loyalty or desire for Floating Butterfly’s Molt, if he uncovered anything, he would proclaim it to the world or seek their help. Failing that, should he find the Molt, the couple could follow that lead themselves.
But White-Brow Child had remained silent for decades, and Shui Wuchen had gradually put him out of her mind.
Ren Yijue smiled faintly. “You two have reputations to protect. As it happens, the Jade Beauty and I are outsiders who have just arrived, which saves a great deal of trouble. If you tell us where this White-Brow Child lives, we can pay him a visit.”
He had no intention of summoning souls. Rather, because White-Brow Child had been acquainted with the Five Eccentrics, Ren thought he might well have seen the black-robed skeleton.
Jiufang Ziming stole a cautious glance at the others. When he saw that no one was dwelling on what he had said, he finally relaxed.