By the time Ren Yijue returned, the moon had only just emerged from behind the clouds.
Pale moonlight fell upon Qian Xuelang. The Jade Beauty stood with his head lowered, seemingly deep in thought, looking somewhat lost and forlorn.
Meanwhile, every door and window of Abandoned Blades Residence was shut tight. Clearly it was no longer welcoming guests.
Ren Yijue slowed his steps. He even began to feel aggrieved. Why was it that ever since he climbed this mountain, he had managed to miss every crucial piece of information?
If he wasn’t fainting, he was arriving too late. Had he offended some unlucky star along the road, or met a little ghost that had covered his eyes?
“You’re back?” Before Ren Yijue could finish brooding, Qian Xuelang noticed him and came over.
“Yes,” Ren Yijue replied.
Qian Xuelang nodded. “Wei Wenfeng has returned. There’s no need to keep searching. But he won’t let us inside anymore.”
Ren Yijue glanced at the tightly sealed residence. He had been about to say that much was obvious, but could not bring himself to treat Qian Xuelang so harshly. He sighed instead. “Whatever happened, at least he’s safe. What does the Jade Beauty intend to do next?”
“Your injuries have only just improved. Let’s find somewhere for you to rest first.”
Warmth spread through Ren Yijue’s heart. He smiled gently. “All right.”
They walked down the mountain together and soon passed the ruined temple where the earlier clash had taken place. After the devastation of the sword qi, it looked even more wretched than before. The half-bodied Bodhisattva, however, still stood in leisurely composure, gazing out upon the world.
Ren Yijue had spent the whole day searching and was exhausted, though his spirits were fairly good. He gathered some firewood and built a campfire, plainly intending to warm himself beside it and spend the evening talking with Qian Xuelang.
Qian Xuelang set down the sword case and rested it upon his knees, stroking it gently. Firelight illuminated his face, melting away the usual chill. His eyes looked soft as water, almost luminous with it.
Ren Yijue watched him closely. The Jade Beauty’s thoughts had wandered who knew where, leaving only his body sitting there. Once he came back to himself, he certainly would not look this way.
Interesting. What could have upset the Jade Beauty and made Wei Wenfeng shut out his guests?
A name immediately leapt into Ren Yijue’s mind.
He Tianjun.
Ren Yijue felt a twitch between his brows and instinctively raised a hand to his forehead. Fortunately, it was not covered in cold sweat.
Whether friend or enemy, Immortal Lord He was undoubtedly the kind of person Ren Yijue least wished to deal with.
Brilliant intelligence combined with utterly detached forgetfulness of emotion. Who would want such an opponent? Even as a friend or confidant, it would be unpleasant to feel that one’s thoughts were laid completely bare.
And then there was the demon-slaying sword.
The thought that a man dead for sixty years could still manipulate events made Ren Yijue shudder even now.
Seen in that light, his mother truly was kind and generous. She had somehow been friends with a man like Immortal Lord He, even inherited his final wishes and paid for them with decades of unconsciousness, rather than running in the opposite direction the first time they met.
Ren Yijue considered himself kindhearted, but compared with his mother he was far from it.
Still…
Ren Yijue poked at the campfire and turned a curious gaze toward the distracted Qian Xuelang. I wonder what the Jade Beauty will become if he attains the Dao. Will he be like Immortal Lord He? Probably not… However clear his state of mind, the Jade Beauty doesn’t like meddling in other people’s affairs. He’s nowhere near as cruel as Immortal Lord He… ahem, as devoted to the greater good. Nor is he such a scheming sage.
At this thought Ren Yijue could not suppress a snort of laughter.
Qian Xuelang looked up in puzzlement. “What?”
“No…” Ren Yijue was suddenly speechless. He knew that if he said what he had just thought, he might well meet He Tianjun in the afterlife before long. His gaze darted about, hunting for a suitable topic with which to distract Qian Xuelang. Spotting the sword case, he hurriedly said, “Ah, Ren was just thinking how pleased I am that the Jade Beauty has obtained this divine sword.”
Qian Xuelang shook his head. “I’m not its master.”
Although Ren Yijue had merely brought up the subject at random, he had not anticipated this answer. He stared in astonishment. “What? How can that be?”
Ren Yijue could not feel it, but Qian Xuelang understood perfectly.
The sword within the case remained motionless. It neither responded to him nor rejected him. He was simply not the master it had chosen.
Qian Xuelang said nothing.
Ren Yijue was accustomed to his silences. He asked, “But the sword is so unusual. Apart from the Jade Beauty, who could possibly control it?”
“Someone who saves the world.”
Ren Yijue could only exclaim again. “What? The Jade Beauty means to slay the Heavenly Demon. Doesn’t that count as saving the world?”
“The Heavenly Demon has returned, and all living beings are in danger. What has that to do with me? If that were why I acted, I would have followed Master into battle sixty years ago.”
Qian Xuelang’s voice was cold and calm, without any shame or embarrassment. He clearly did not consider his refusal to involve himself in the world’s affairs a fault.
“I simply think that since Master died destroying the Heavenly Demon, the demon he slew sixty years ago ought not to have returned to life.”
“If killing him once wasn’t enough, then I’ll kill him again.”
He turned his face, cold as ice and snow.
“That is all.”
There was not a trace of killing intent about Qian Xuelang. He spoke as though stating a perfectly ordinary, irrefutable truth.
If Ren Yijue had not been certain his ears were working, he might have accepted that claim as naturally as Qian Xuelang delivered it. For a moment, slaying the Heavenly Demon sounded not like the near-impossible problem He Tianjun had spent so many years scheming to solve, but like going out tomorrow to chop a pound of cabbages.
Perhaps he was too stunned. Ren Yijue blurted something foolish. “But even if the Jade Beauty manages to kill him, the Heavenly Demon will still be reborn…”
The moment he said it, Ren Yijue wished he had kept his mouth shut.
“Of course. I understand that too,” Qian Xuelang agreed. “As matters stand, Master’s arrangements suggest that our hope of killing him permanently probably rests with this sword.”
Ren Yijue looked at the sword case alongside him.
Forged from immortal bones and a human heart, the sword had nearly claimed his life without doing much of anything. Presumably it would prove equally potent against the Heavenly Demon.
“As I said, I intend to eliminate the demon, but I have no desire to save the world. That’s why the sword won’t acknowledge me as its master,” Qian Xuelang explained. “Unlike an ordinary weapon, it contains the clear qi of immortal bones and Wei Wenfeng’s three poisons. I suspect it seeks as its true master someone of deep and sincere feeling, firm resolve, and a willingness to plunge into a catastrophe for the sake of all living beings.”
Ren Yijue smiled bitterly. “What exacting conditions! Is that the temperament of a divine weapon? It’s one thing to be impossible to use, but now its holder must run errands for it. And that’s not enough; it insists that someone find it a sage entirely to its liking.”
When Ren Yijue had first learned how unusual the sword was, he had assumed He Tianjun forged it especially for Qian Xuelang. After all, the Emotionless Dao naturally countered the sword’s overwhelming emotions. He had never expected that even Qian Xuelang would not be its master.
Just then a thought flashed across Ren Yijue’s mind, but it passed too quickly for him to catch.
Qian Xuelang ignored his jokes. “I think Master originally intended the Sword Venerable to wield it.”
“The Jade Beauty’s words are so sweet today.” Ren Yijue knew Qian Xuelang meant what he said, but could not calmly accept it. He concealed his heaviness of heart behind a smile. “Unfortunately Heaven is unpredictable and misfortune strikes without warning. Mother’s current condition can only disappoint Immortal Lord He. Does the Jade Beauty have any alternatives in mind?”
Ren Yijue tried to sound lighthearted so that no trace of hatred would escape.
Why should the crushing duty of saving the world, all those layers of responsibility, fall upon his family?
Of course Ren Yijue understood that Ren Cangming had agreed to or even decided upon this herself. It was like You Pingsheng looking after mother and son: done freely, by choice.
He knew he ought not to hate. He ought not to hate Immortal Lord He for his lack of feeling, nor hate the decades of family love that had been stolen from him.
Yet how could the human heart stop hating merely because it was told to? Ren Yijue could only restrain and suppress the nameless resentment, turning it toward the true enemy: the Heavenly Demon.
“No one else.” Qian Xuelang thought carefully, then shook his head. “Xiao Beisheng’s sword intent is far too weak. If we actually gave him this sword, he’d not only fail to control it but probably meet a fate even more wretched than Wei Wenfeng’s, becoming its slave completely.”
They fell silent.
“I know plenty of people, and many names come to mind. But I have no idea how capable most of them truly are. As for those whose abilities I know well, there are hardly any worth even trying.”
Ren Yijue tapped his forehead. “Never mind. We’ll have to leave that to fate. Why doesn’t the Jade Beauty tell me what happened earlier?”
“Earlier?” Qian Xuelang looked puzzled.
“Precisely. Why did Senior Wei shut Abandoned Blades Residence and send us away?”
Understanding dawned on Qian Xuelang’s face. “So that’s what you mean.”
It was not that Ren Yijue was looking for trouble out of boredom. He and the Jade Beauty were now enemies of the Heavenly Demon. The demon wanted to capture him, while they wanted to destroy the demon. However casually the Jade Beauty made it sound, as though buying a pound of cabbage at market, any cabbage with the Heavenly Demon attached would be a man-eating plant.
They might not be able to assemble an army as impressive as the one from the war right away, but they could at least count how many people could help them now.
Cui Xuanchan was a city lord with descendants to protect. He could not travel with them. They could ask for his help in great matters and leave him alone for small ones. That was the straightforward way to handle it.
So why had Wei Wenfeng suddenly closed his doors to visitors?
Those who had strength should use it; those who had brains should think.
The Jade Beauty was accomplished in both civil and martial arts, but even he might overlook something. Ren Yijue had no intention of being a useless glutton who knew nothing. Two people traveling together ought to fill in one another’s gaps. That was the point of being companions, friends, or even comrades.
Qian Xuelang had no idea how many thoughts had crossed Ren Yijue’s mind in such a short time. He began giving an honest account of what had happened.
At first the story sounded fairly normal. But when Qian Xuelang reached the words “I’ll take Master away,” Ren Yijue’s heart had already begun to whimper.
When Qian Xuelang went on to say “you were friends,” Ren Yijue felt the world spin and his vision darken. Thankfully he was already seated by the fire. Otherwise his legs might have given way beneath him.
Heavens!
Ren Yijue screamed inwardly.
How can the Jade Beauty understand emotion so clearly one moment, only to be so utterly incapable of it the next? Is this Heaven making up for something, or Heaven playing tricks upon us?
Ren Yijue raised a hand to interrupt. Weakly, he said, “J-Jade Beauty… Ren has a question.”
“What?” Qian Xuelang looked at him.
Ren Yijue sounded on the verge of death. “You and Senior Wei… aren’t particularly familiar with each other, are you? You aren’t very close?”
Please say yes!
Ren Yijue gazed at him with all his hopes. Qian Xuelang did not disappoint him. He nodded. “Although we see each other often, we aren’t especially familiar. Wei Wenfeng has a yielding nature, almost gentle to the point of weakness. Since Master’s death, he’s agreed to almost anything I asked. I… I truly couldn’t bear seeing him in such pain.”
So that’s it.
No wonder. I thought the Jade Beauty hadn’t seemed quite so hopeless about such things before.
Ren Yijue pressed a hand to his forehead.
People who forged iron spent years beside blazing fires, developing strong bones and muscle. Most had at least a little fire in their temperament. Anyone who had witnessed the way Wei Wenfeng looked at demonkin would know instantly that he was not a man of yielding gentleness.
Only Qian Xuelang, so cherished and protected, could believe Wei Wenfeng was gentle and frail. That was why he had kindly offered to take He Tianjun away, thinking it would spare the “fragile” forgemaster further heartache.
People were born with different natures and naturally viewed the world differently. All Wei Wenfeng really wanted was to be a little closer to Immortal Lord He. Naturally he treated the Jade Beauty as a precious treasure and never dared raise his voice to him—
Wait. In a flash, Ren Yijue caught the fleeting thought he had lost earlier. If I understand that… then He Tianjun understood Wei Wenfeng even better than I do.
In that case, only one possibility remained: He Tianjun had arranged today’s events deliberately.
After his death, whether Wei Wenfeng brought the sword to Qian Xuelang or Qian Xuelang sought Wei Wenfeng, the two would inevitably encounter the sword.
The sword was always meant to reach the Jade Beauty’s hands. Apart from him, no one could have taken this divine blade, forged at the cost of He Tianjun’s life, away from Wei Wenfeng.
The Jade Beauty and Wei Wenfeng would inevitably quarrel over it as well.
Then the Jade Beauty, the only person capable of drawing Wei Wenfeng out into the world, would be shut out. The great forgemaster would no longer feel attached to the mortal world, left with nothing but a heart full of hatred, and would even take pleasure in it.
From that point onward, He Tianjun would belong to Wei Wenfeng alone, not to all the living beings beneath Heaven, and no longer even to the Jade Beauty as his master.
Once Wei Wenfeng’s final bond was severed, he would surely take no further part in the affairs of the world and no longer associate with the Jade Beauty.
Ren Yijue shuddered in realization.
As for the Jade Beauty, once he learned that the Heavenly Demon had returned, he would inevitably seek vengeance. No one could stop him, certainly not the dead He Tianjun.
If the Jade Beauty was determined to act, Immortal Lord He would let him. His cultivation and disposition naturally restrained this divine sword, but precisely because he was emotionless, he could never control it as its true master. He would have to find someone else to wield it.
No matter how eager he was for revenge, then, the Jade Beauty would necessarily avoid confronting the Heavenly Demon until a worthy sword master had been found.
And with the Jade Beauty’s cultivation and temperament, as long as he did not encounter the Heavenly Demon himself, he would be in no real danger.
The cold sweat that had not appeared on Ren Yijue’s forehead before now soaked his back.
What a cruel, decisive path to survival…
Amid the calamity of the Heavenly Demon’s return, He Tianjun had left a slender chance of life for the two people who mattered most to him.
And the maze devised by an unfeeling man had finally been understood by a man overflowing with feeling. How absurd, how bitterly ironic…