At the turn from spring to summer, rain was frequent.
Thunder roared as Wei Wenfeng vanished into the curtain of rain; beyond the bamboo house, rain stretched through the silent night as though he had stepped into the underworld itself.
“Aren’t you going after him?”
Ren Yijue felt heartsick and did not know what to say.
“After him?”
Qian Xuelang sat down again, studying the broken bamboo chair. Lightning made his expression especially cold. “Why? What could I do if I caught him? If I couldn’t, the attempt would be pointless.”
Whenever Ren Yijue thought Qian Xuelang had feelings, the Jade Beauty would choose just the right moment to reveal his lack of them.
Yet however unfeeling he might be, he was not one ten-thousandth as unfeeling as He Tianjun.
Ren Yijue drank from his cup. The cool well water merely chilled his body, but the thought of He Tianjun sent cold into his bones.
Had He Tianjun merely lacked feeling, perhaps matters would never have come to this. It was precisely because he understood Wei Wenfeng’s devotion so well that he had been able to calculate everything so perfectly.
How could someone who understood affection truly lack it? Yet He Tianjun’s capacity for feeling only made his choice more cruel.
Since childhood Ren Yijue had prided himself on his experience and thoughtfulness. He set down the cup and tried to imagine whether he could have devised such a scheme himself. In the end, he could not bear to follow the thought through.
Sacrificing his own remains would be one thing. After death, the soul dispersed; the corpse was hardly something impossible to give up. If a dead man could still provide something useful, it might almost be considered an excellent bargain.
But exploiting his master’s care for him that way was impossible for Ren Yijue. He could not do it.
The thought of how much his master would grieve, and how his mother would suffer after waking, made it unthinkable.
While Ren Yijue was lost in thought, Qian Xuelang spoke.
“Ren Yijue, do you think…” He paused and looked out at the streaming rain. “Or perhaps I should ask: if it were you, would you tell him the truth?”
Ren Yijue was astonished. “Does the Jade Beauty mean… you regret it?”
“No.” Qian Xuelang shook his head. “I asked Wei Wenfeng and he chose to know. What is there to regret? I’m not him, and I shouldn’t make his decisions. That’s why I think…”
That’s why I think Master was cruel.
Qian Xuelang stopped before saying it. “Think what?” Ren Yijue asked.
“Nothing. Never mind. I shouldn’t have asked. Your choice would have nothing to do with mine. Had Master not died, so many things would never have happened. But he’s dead, so such speculation serves no purpose.”
Such a practical and cold outlook, without even the smallest indulgence in fantasy.
Ren Yijue smiled bitterly and looked toward the quiet sword case. “Actually, the Jade Beauty shouldn’t have asked earlier whether I needed to rest. The great forgemaster is the one who needs it. He’s only just escaped the sword’s control, and now his emotions are in turmoil. It may damage his health.”
Qian Xuelang remained silent.
“Never mind. As you say, supposition changes nothing and remorse comes too late. Let’s not waste words on either.” Ren Yijue rose unsteadily, utterly exhausted. “So much has happened today. We must all be tired. The demonic qi inside me hasn’t settled, so I need to meditate for several more hours. Jade Beauty, please do as you wish.”
After Ren Yijue returned to the guest room, Qian Xuelang stayed seated in the hall.
Thunder and lightning continued outside. The rain did not cease. Setting Wei Wenfeng aside for the moment, Qian Xuelang began to wonder about something else.
What exactly did Master do back then to defy Heaven?
“Acting against Heaven’s will” was easy enough to say and understand. In the stories told by mortals, a tale without at least a few people defying Heaven might not even sell.
But the two words defy Heaven implied immense difficulty.
If anyone could succeed at it casually, people would not boast of such an accomplishment or praise it so highly.
Concealing Heaven’s secrets was no easier than defying Heaven itself. Even with Master’s cultivation, delaying a lightning tribulation by half a year, perhaps a year, would surely have been the limit.
That narrow span of time was enough for Qian Xuelang to conclude that He Tianjun had done the forbidden deed during the Demon-Extermination War.
If he had done it before the war, Master could not have departed without displaying anything unusual. Heavenly punishment might be a consequence of acting against Heaven, but the act of defiance itself also damaged a cultivator’s state of mind and cultivation.
Qian Xuelang could recall no clue of any such change.
But arranging a plan in advance and actually carrying it out were entirely different things.
Looking back, Master had probably begun preparing for his death in the war from the moment he gave Wei Wenfeng the extraordinary metal, if not earlier.
Yet it was only as the Demon-Extermination War approached that he truly completed his preparations to conceal his actions from Heaven, then committed the forbidden act during the war itself.
In that case, naturally nothing would have betrayed him beforehand.
They knew the time and the place. The question remained: what exactly had Master done?
Qian Xuelang still could not imagine.
Surely slaying the Heavenly Demon was not in itself an act of defying Heaven. If it were, Cui Xuanchan, Wei Wenfeng, and every other survivor of the war ought to have been struck by lightning several times apiece.
Neither Wei Wenfeng nor Cui Xuanchan had mentioned anything about such a matter, so they evidently knew nothing. Then perhaps only the dead He Tianjun and the reborn Heavenly Demon knew the truth…
Wait!
Qian Xuelang paused to consider.
There was one more person who might know: Sword Venerable Ren Cangming.
The Demon-Slaying Sword had been forged after Master’s death, while Ren Cangming had been grievously afflicted by demonic qi several years after the war. Put side by side, those events could hardly be dismissed as mere coincidence.
Furthermore, in Wei Wenfeng’s memories, Ren Cangming had gone to reinforce He Tianjun. If He Tianjun had left behind some arrangement, she was the most likely person to have known about it.
Unfortunately the Sword Venerable remained unconscious. They would have to find another way.
The rain continued all night, finally stopping the following morning. Ren Yijue was still meditating, while Qian Xuelang spent the night in the hall watching over the sword case.
Two more days passed. With the help of water jade, Ren Yijue’s injuries improved greatly. At last he emerged from his room. Seeing that Qian Xuelang was still alone, he asked, “Has Senior Wei not returned?”
“No.” Qian Xuelang shook his head.
Ren Yijue glanced toward the sky. “How long has the Jade Beauty been waiting?”
“Three days.”
“Three days.” Ren Yijue thought for a moment. “That’s quite a while. Senior Wei’s cultivation is high, but in his extreme grief, who knows what might happen? Shall we go look for him?”
Qian Xuelang slung the sword case across his back and nodded. “Very well.”
The sword case was exceptionally finely made, neither bulky nor clumsy. It was impossible to guess what sort of sword it held.
Ren Yijue had fainted before seeing the sword itself that day, and he was curious. But he knew that if it emerged now, he would probably be unable to withstand it. He suppressed his curiosity for the time being. There would be chances to see it in the future, although the later that opportunity came, the better.
After all, his present abilities were still insufficient.
Abandoned Blades Residence lay deep in the mountains without any proper road. When they stepped outside, they surveyed the area and chose different directions in which to search.
At Qian Xuelang’s speed, he could have searched every part of the mountain in half a day if he wished. Thus when darkness fell without his finding Wei Wenfeng, he concluded that there was only one place the man could have gone.
Under Abandoned Blades Pool, in the fluorite cave!
Qian Xuelang had no idea what Wei Wenfeng might do to Master in the depths of his anger and grief. He turned immediately and hurried back toward Abandoned Blades Residence.
Before he even entered, he saw that Wei Wenfeng had returned at some point and was sitting in the courtyard, staring blankly at the forge.
His hair was loose and disordered, his face terribly drawn. His crumpled clothing clung stiffly to him. It seemed that he had been soaked by the earlier downpour and never bothered to change. He looked as though he had aged many years.
“Wei Wenfeng.”
Qian Xuelang approached, but Wei Wenfeng seemed not to hear. Only after a long while did he speak in a dry, wooden voice. “What are you still doing here? What else do you want from me? Or what else does He Tianjun want me to do?”
Before Qian Xuelang could reply, Wei Wenfeng continued muttering.
“No. He Tianjun never actually asked me to do anything. I’m the one who wanted to take care of you… He didn’t need to instruct me. He knew I couldn’t bear to let go. That’s why he could bear to do all of this.”
Qian Xuelang had no answer. After a long silence, he said, “I’ll take Master away…”
Before he finished, Wei Wenfeng raised his head and stared at him. His black-and-white eyes were filled with a devouring light, more frightening than any demonkin Qian Xuelang had ever seen, as though he might attack at any moment.
They had known each other for decades, and Qian Xuelang had never sensed anything unpleasant in Wei Wenfeng. Now a chill of revulsion spread through his heart, nearly making him summon Honglu instinctively.
“You’re taking him away.”
Wei Wenfeng repeated the words.
Qian Xuelang stiffened. “Wei Wenfeng, I know you’re grieving and angry. But Master has died, and the two of you were… you were friends. Surely you wouldn’t…”
Wei Wenfeng suddenly smiled. On that icy face, the smile seemed grotesque and strange. “Surely? Xuelang, are you afraid I’ll take revenge on He Tianjun?”
Qian Xuelang said nothing.
“You master and disciple are equally heartless!” Wei Wenfeng cried. “No matter how well anyone treats you, it’s never enough to warm you. Never… never enough to warm your hearts! Once you’ve finished using someone, you throw them aside as though it costs nothing. I ought to have strangled He Tianjun myself! Then all this suffering would be a punishment I deserved!”
“But if I’d done that, you’d probably have killed me the very first time we met.” Wei Wenfeng quickly began to sound cheerful again, lost in his own words. “That would have been satisfying.”
His speech mingled airy delight with intense hatred, twisting his expression strangely.
Looking at him, Qian Xuelang suddenly felt afraid.
“Saving the world, rescuing its people, destroying the Heavenly Demon. If he had such great love for humanity, why cultivate the Emotionless Dao at all?”
Wei Wenfeng did not seem to care whether Qian Xuelang answered. He continued muttering to himself. Broken laughter rose from his throat. He appeared half-mad, his mind seemingly more disturbed than it had been when the sword was in his hand.
“Sword Venerable, I saved the people of this world. But why was there no one to save the person I loved?”
Remembering those words from Wei Wenfeng’s memories, a thought suddenly flashed through Qian Xuelang’s mind, and he stepped back in alarm.
Master destroyed him.
When Master died… he destroyed the devoted man Wei Wenfeng, who had been willing to save the world. Now even Wei Wenfeng’s final shred of compassion for the living had been destroyed.
Love… could love really be something so terrifying?
Perhaps sensing Qian Xuelang’s reaction, Wei Wenfeng stopped laughing and strode into the house with a sweep of his sleeves.
An immense wave of force suddenly surged outward, driving Qian Xuelang back several steps. He could have resisted, but he did not wish to.
Was he truly going to fight Wei Wenfeng?
When Qian Xuelang had retreated outside Abandoned Blades Residence, every door and window of the bamboo house slammed shut. Wei Wenfeng’s cold voice came from within.
“Since He Tianjun made himself a bargaining chip, then it’s a transaction. The Demon-Slaying Sword is yours, and he is mine.”
Qian Xuelang stood motionless outside the door.