Voyageurs lointains

by dampierra

Une histoire sur l'ancien chef d'une organisation spéciale servie sous la royauté, laissant maintenant sa vie passée derrière et s'engageant involontairement dans le monde martial.

41. Chapter 41

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Chapter 41-50

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Previously, when Zhou Zishu arrived at the Pingan Bank, he could always enter straight away. Today, however, after the shopkeeper had let him into the main hall, the shopkeeper first poured him and Wen Kexing, who was peering at his surroundings like a villager from the rural areas in the city, a cup of tea each. Next, he stood to the side, all smiles as he said, "Please wait for a little while more, Master Zhou. Lord Seventh is here today, and the boss has gone in to pass on news of your arrival."

Zhou Zishu's heart leapt, his emotions suddenly in a tentative jumble at being so close to meeting an old friend once more.

Yet, Wen Kexing heartlessly commented, "Hey, didn't they say that Gu Xiang and Zhang Chengling are here? Can't they just lead those two dumb kids out? What news do they have to pass on? It's like we entered a lord's manor."

Zhou Zishu remained silent, thinking that Wen Kexing was truly a person of divinity, for every guess he made to be correct.

After a short while, Pingan walked out at a brisk pace, and said, "Master Zhou, my master and the Great Shaman are waiting for you inside."

When Wen Kexing heard the two words "Great Shaman", he was stunned. He thought: could it really be that the impossibly mysterious great shaman of Nanjiang had arrived?

-This pugilist world of the Central Plains was really becoming more and more chaotic.

Before he could muse further upon it, Wen Kexing followed Zhou Zishu into the inner hall. Pushing open an aged wooden door, a courtyard in which a row of sweet osmanthus flowers were planted lay beyond; entering, they could catch a whiff of a faint fragrance. Pingan brought the two of them into a house. Once he pulled the curtain aside, the warm air within rushed out at them. Lifting his gaze to peer in, Wen Kexing discovered that apart from Gu Xiang and Zhang Chengling, there were two other men inside.

His gaze involuntarily drifted to meet with that of the man in black. In that instant, without prior agreement, the two men nodded to each other and shifted their gazes away, as a show of cession to each other out of courtesy.

Wen Kexing regarded the other man, guessing that this man was probably the "Lord Seventh" that the shopkeeper had mentioned. At first glance, he could not help but privately gasp. He reckoned that of all of the good-looking individuals in the world, he had seen a considerable number of them. Yet, none of them could compare to this man-those eyes and brows came off as somewhat insouciant in their beauty, but were balanced by an air of affluence about him, thereby revealing only a little hint of that indefinable, loose charisma. It was like the idiom "a noble as outstanding as orchids and jade trees" had been thought up to describe him specifically.

The next moment, he heard Zhou Zishu call respectfully, "Lord Seventh, Great Shaman."

Smiling cheerily, Lord Seventh made to help him up and examined that face of his, sighing nostalgically, "After many years of not seeing you, Zishu, your tastes…are truly becoming something fewer and fewer people would dare agree with."

Zhou Zishu laughed and reached up a hand to wipe lightly at his face. Plucking the human skin mask off, he carried it in his arms and smiled wryly. "After so many years, other than young maidens, the only person I know who dares to 'hide behind' a beautiful face is that fool Jiuxiao."

That shidi who had died in the battle of the capital all those years ago, Liang Jiuxiao, was the regret of his lifetime. All along, Zhou Zishu had dared not mention him-after so long had passed, that scene was like a dream to him. But here, faced with an acquaintance from the past, he felt like he had returned to the capital of that ten-mile Moon-Gazing Riverbank[1]. Those past acquaintances and past events flashed in succession before his eyes, and, astonishingly, he had spoken that person's name without a second thought.

In actual fact, it was nothing much to say it aloud. It merely felt like something had been cast out of his chest; like he was missing a piece of it, hollow.

Lord Seventh's smile froze. He sighed, looking Zhou Zishu over another time, and then frowned. "Why have you become this thin?"

Zhou Zishu shook his head, dropped his gaze and chuckled. "It is a long story. It is most probably that...I am growing old."

Wen Kexing was a person who lusted after men to begin with; upon entering, he had admired the man at first, opining that this "Lord Seventh'' was truly peerless. Yet, at this moment, he was starting to grow dissatisfied. He considered how he had pestered and badgered Zhou Zishu for so long, and the fact that if it weren't for Yu Qiufeng and company giving them trouble, he might not even have had the chance to witness that person's true face up till now. This man, however, could make him wipe off his human skin mask within two to three sentences upon his arrival, and even knew his real name...

Indignance rose within Wen Kexing.

Pingan invited the two of them to sit, and served them tea. Lord Seventh asked, "Has all been well...in the capital?"

Leaning against the backrest, Zhou Zishu seemed to have relaxed himself entirely, and spoke slowly, "There are those leaving on expedition as commanders, and there are those returning to the palace as premiers. The Young Marquis He Yunxing has married Princess Jingan. The couple are faraway in the Northwest, and can be said to have set their roots down over there. The Emperor...is quite well. A little prince has just been delivered to him this year, but I had to leave early, and couldn't make it for the Third Prince's full-moon feast[2]."

Between the two of them, one asked and the other answered, their conversation neither hasty or slow. The Great Shaman did not interrupt, but merely sat to the side and listened silently. Smoke rose gently from the incense burner. It was as if time had slowed.

Wen Kexing sensed that there was an odd atmosphere between the two of them. He had never seen such a Zhou Zishu, who sat drinking tea and chatting quietly with a serene expression on his face, and felt that they were like old kindred souls who had not seen each other for many years. Though this reunion might have come out of the blue, joy did not show on their faces, and they talked about inane, dull things that could have done without being said. Yet, it was like they shared a silent, mutual understanding in their hearts.

He began to find this "Lord Seventh" unpleasant to the eye, thinking, where did this pretty boy pop up from? He keeps going by "Lord Seventh", "Lord Seventh", and doesn't even dare to give us a name. He cannot be a decent fellow.

Thus, very unhappily, Wen Kexing ripped the human skin mask from his face, and beckoned at Gu Xiang and Zhang Chengling, who were staring, flabbergasted. "Get over here, you little tykes."

At once, the gazes of the three people shifted onto him. The faint trace of nostalgia had not yet faded from Lord Seventh's face, so he asked in passing, "And this is?"

Zhou Zishu hesitated slightly, then replied, "A...friend...from the jianghu..."

Before he could even finish his sentence, Wen Kexing quickly snatched Zhou Zishu's hand from where it was resting on the small table and placed it over his own chest. Slanting his gaze at Zhou Zishu, he whined, "A friend from the jianghu? That's not what you said to me previously, why, A-Xu, are you planning on abandoning me after you've toyed with me?"

In that instant, Lord Seventh's expression could be described as "stunned". Even the Great Shaman who had remained silent thus far beside him paused, his inky pupils darting back and forth between the two of them, before landing on the hand Wen Kexing was holding with a strange gaze.

Zhou Zishu freed his other hand, and skilfully flicked at the ulnar nerve[3] at Wen Kexing's elbow, forcing him to let go. Then he calmly lifted the tea bowl, and as if nothing had happened, said, "He's called Wen Kexing. He is quite batty, and always speaks untrue nonsense. Lord Seventh, please do not take it amiss."

Lord Seventh was mute for a beat before he could not stand watching them any longer, and said, "Pingan, what are your eyes for? Hurry and top up Master Zhou's bowl."

Like he had just been startled from a dream, Zhou Zishu set down his empty tea bowl, and shot a venomous glare at Wen Kexing. Wen Kexing suffered it willingly, producing a dumb smile that made one's teeth itch with detestation.

With the intent to stir the pot, Lord Seventh sighed. "To think of the wealth and glamour of those years, now transformed so completely that I can no longer recognise them. Who knows what has become of the Moon-Gazing River, constructed upon heaps and heaps of rouge and powder, and all those magnificent and ornate buildings along it today? That year, during the crisis of the capital, you and I made an oath on the tower. If we lived to see long, leisurely days, we would not retire our cups before we were drunk. I have been waiting in Nanjiang for so long that the wine has grown cold, yet, an old friend does not even have the slightest intent to visit."

Subsequently, he shifted the topic, a mischievous light flashing in his amorous eyes as he deliberately mentioned, "Zishu, you have broken with our promise to meet, but I have not. Until now, I still remember that you asked me to procure you a slim-waisted Nanjiang girl, and I have taken note of many. I am not sure if you…"

The Great Shaman coughed lightly, traces of laughter appearing on his aloof face. Zhou Zishu felt that he could stay here no longer, and stood up to slap his palm over his fist in a sloppy salute, saying hastily, "Ah…what's that, Lord Seventh has just arrived in Dongting, and must be exhausted from travelling by carriage. We'll not intrude any longer…"

Lord Seventh said, "Actually, we aren't tired at all."

Almost at the same time, Wen Kexing exclaimed, "What? A-Xu, you've even said something of this sort?"

The room descended into silence. The few of them stared at each other speechlessly, until Gu Xiang, who was more insensitive to the situation, suddenly patted Zhang Chengling, who was spacing out, on the head and lamented, "This is called 'How well can you know another after a night of longing; be utterly ignorant as you sleep like the dead in spring'[4]. Little Chengling, I think we, the two of us, should go rescue Cao-dage. Every one of them only cares about fighting for a lover's attention, and isn't reliable at all."

Lord Seventh laughed. "This little maiden doesn't have to worry. You said that Cao-dage of yours is from the Qingfeng Sword Sect, so those strange people will not dare to do anything to him. Instead, if you hurry there without sufficient preparations, you will be cementing his guilt, and do nothing but cause more trouble for him-Zishu, only so little time has passed, and you want to leave? Sit for a while longer. As the ancients frequently lament, "There is no company to share the beautiful days of youth with", you and I have met again in a rare reunion, but have barely reminisced enough about the past to fill a cup to the brim. Why are you so eager to leave?"

Wen Kexing felt that this person spoke confusingly by using pretentious references from literary works and cobbling unrelated events together. He found him unreliable and increasingly unpleasant to the eye, and thought that the words "The genteel sophisticated accumulate great falsehoods, while the simple boorish accumulate great virtue" were indeed true: a person who talked a lot of nonsense indeed inspired his loathing, even if he was a beauty, or an absolute beauty. Tugging Zhou Zishu along, Wen Kexing said, "Yes, yes, yes, we won't disturb your rest, we still have some matters to see to…"

However, the Great Shaman set down the chess piece he was fiddling with, as he shook his head and smiled. Rising to his feet, he said, "Manor Lord Zhou, I see that you are not in great spirits, and your countenance appears to be somewhat languishing. Could I take your pulse?"

Zhou Zishu hesitated, but Wen Kexing's hand on him tightened abruptly.

The playful mischief on Lord Seventh's face had vanished. He frowned, asking, "What is it?"

The Great Shaman said, "I will need to take a look before I can tell with accuracy. Though, forgive me for saying so directly, Manor Lord Zhou—looking at you now, you show signs of a person on their last legs. What, exactly, has happened?"

Upon hearing this, Wen Kexing released Zhou Zishu slowly, his irreverent expression growing serious.

Out of the blue, Lord Seventh said, "Why, does Helian Yi refuse to spare even you?"

"Helian Yi" was the true name[5] of the current Emperor, yet, he uttered it so nonchalantly. No one at present noticed this minute detail, though; all those in the know and outside of it were looking at Zhou Zishu.

Zhou Zishu only chuckled lightly, stretching out his wrist to lay it flat in the Great Shaman's hand. "Lord Seventh, what kind of place that is, and...what kind of person he is, shouldn't you know more clearly than I do?"

The Great Shaman placed three fingers over Zhou Zishu's pulse. His brow knitted more severely, and after a long while, he finally released Zhou Zishu. Gently, he sighed, and asked, "I have heard that Tian Chuang has a Three-Autumn Nails of the Seven Acupunctures…"

"Indeed."

"You have nailed one into your body every three months, allowing them to grow into your body and letting your meridians wilt bit by bit, so that you would not lose your mind and can still retain a few levels of core strength. Am I correct?"

Lord Seventh's eyelid twitched. Still, Zhou Zishu smiled, and said, "The Great Shaman has an observant eye."

Yet, the Great Shaman ignored him, clasping his hands behind his back and pacing around the room slowly. Wen Kexing felt an abrupt sense of panic and opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Instead, it was Lord Seventh who helped him ask, "Wu Xi, do you have a solution?"

The Great Shaman did not speak for a long while; upon hearing this, he thought for some time, before shaking his head slowly. "If you had hammered in seven nails at the same time, although your mind might be disoriented, I might still have been able to come up with a solution to remove them. If you recuperated with great care afterwards, you will be able to recover some. But once the nails in your body are removed, the core strength you possess will undoubtedly flood your nearly-desiccated meridians and destroy them. By then, not even a god can save you…"

Ye Baiyi had already said these words once; Zhou Zishu flapped a hand, indicating that he was unwilling to hear them a second time. Just now, when the Great Shaman had spoken, he still had a few slivers of hope, even if he did not make them known. Otherwise, he would not have presented his wrist.

He, too, did not know when it had begun-maybe it was because of these few noisy people by his side, or maybe it was because he had been dragged into those troublesome affairs, that he had begun to be sentimentally attached to this mortal dust.

Upon hearing the Great Shaman say this now, a few smidgens of gloom rose in his heart. With effort, he chuckled and said, "You should have told me this earlier. If I had known that the Great Shaman has such divine knowledge that he even knows how to remove the Three-Autumn Nails of the Seven Acupunctures, I would definitely have told Tian Chuang to switch to a more foolproof method, so that not even one person could escape our net."

The Great Shaman looked at him. Still thinking deeply about a solution, he did not answer. So Zhou Zishu nodded to Lord Seventh and said, "We'll take our leave first, and come visit another day."

They had just walked to the door, when they heard the Great Shaman suddenly utter, "Hold on, or…"

Before Zhou Zishu could react, Wen Kexing had already taken hold of him. His hand was like metal clamped around Zhou Zishu's wrist, pinning him steadfast in place. Turning his head, he said in a polite and proper tone that was rare of him, "What did the Great Shaman think of?"

The Great Shaman hesitated for a moment, then said, "Manor Lord Zhou, if...if you incapacitate yourself by ridding yourself of your martial ability, I may have a fifth of confidence that I can save your…"

Yet, when Zhou Zishu had heard the words "ridding yourself of your martial ability", a smile surfaced on his pale face. It was difficult to tell what emotion was behind it. He lifted a hand to cut him off, and gently replied, "What else do I have left, if I rid this body of mine of martial ability? Will I still be myself? If I am no longer myself, why should I still keep living?"

He fought free of Wen Kexing, turned, and left. The Great Shaman's words were on the tip of his tongue, but he did not utter them in the end, the words dissolving into a nearly imperceptible sigh—

Zhang Chengling followed uncomprehendingly behind the two men, sensing that his shifu had become a little different after changing his appearance. The atmosphere was stifling; not even Gu Xiang, off to the side, had the nerve to make a racket, following behind without daring to make a single sound.

Usually, once the two of them were put together, they would keep needling each other nonstop, both taking cracks at the other person to release excess energy. However, neither of them spoke, placing their respective attentions on putting one foot in front of the other. Zhou Zishu did not even put his human skin mask back on-no one here recognised him anyway.

He felt a sense of discomfort in his chest, like he was suffocating. The Great Shaman's words were like a heavy blow straight to his chest-if ridding himself of his martial ability granted a fifth of hope, he would rather not have this hope, and die slowly, peacefully, like this.

Throughout history, numerous pugilists, far too many to count, had fought one another for just one secret manual and failed tragically. That gongfu of his was trained through momentous perseverance, through the deepest winters and the hottest summers; through carving his own unprecedented path of understanding via laborious rumination.

It was not merely a possession of his, or merely a skill he was proficient at. It was the culmination of his entire soul.

What did it mean to rid himself of his martial ability? It was like a person missing his soul; he might as well have turned himself into an imbecile at the very beginning and live blissfully in idiocy.

Naturally, the Great Shaman had understood this. It was why he had only sighed in the end, and not persuaded him.

If he was missing a good portion of his soul, if he had not this last bit of dignity, was it not an empty existence that was only fulfilled by dying[6]? He indeed wished to live, but he did not wish to do so barely clinging onto his last thread of life.

Suddenly, Zhou Zishu could not help but raise his voice and sing, "Time flits by too fast for me, I fear how the years do not wait for me; at the break of dawn I hike up the mountain to gather magnolia, and at dusk I pluck hardy weeds from the river delta; the sun and moon continue to exchange places in the sky, just as how spring and autumn change over tirelessly; to think of how the grass withers and the trees shed their leaves, I fear the aging of the beautiful…"[7]

That voice carried hints of hoarseness; in each word and every line, sorrow and anger had been tucked away, leaving only an indescribable viciousness and wild arrogance. This wild arrogance that he had been born with had reached the end of the road; it had wandered amongst the thousands of miles of rivers and mountains the people of the country made their living by, twisted and turned for far too long within his chest, and now, finally broke free from his throat.

The sky was gloomy, bearing down on them heavily. Gazing at the endless grasslands around them, there was only that one narrow path overgrown with weeds and littered with fallen branches. The northwestern gale did not know to stop howling; it rustled the grass forlornly, whistling through the fissures in rocks and through the woods like the wailing of a mountain spirit. It felt as if a thousand, even a million years could pass in the span of a day.

The breeze puffed up his wide sleeves, as if it was telling him to go with the wind. Wen Kexing lifted his head and observed Zhou Zishu's skeletal frame. The wind snapped the hair at his temples like a whip, lashing against the side of his face. Closing his eyes, he blocked out the image of that figure which had filled his wistful vision, and concentrated wholeheartedly on the burning agony he felt.

Cold wind swept into Zhou Zishu's throat, choking him. That tune of his, that had wandered far off-pitch, cut off abruptly as he bent slightly at the waist to cough. On his near-transparent lips, there was only a spot in the centre of his lips where there was some colour-an extremely, extremely thin line. Yet, it was as if it held the trace of a smile, a dark, blood red.

Wen Kexing raised his head to gaze at the sky that looked like it was about to fall, and a flake of something cool settled on his face-the first snow of Dongting had descended.

Why did the heroic have to face his eventual downfall? Why did the beautiful have to grow old one day?

Suddenly, a sense of resentment that he could not put into words rose within his chest. The resentment seemed to be on his own behalf, but also seemed to be on someone else's behalf, almost spilling over. He was resistant against accepting it; his fingers trembled as he felt an all-encompassing desire so strong that it could tear apart the heavens, the earth, and the mortal world with its might. He wanted to interrogate the heavens…what was natural creation? Why did they have to be beholden to the orchestrations of natural creation just because they lived, and suffer them?

With trepidation, Gu Xiang watched her master look back at her, who smiled as he asked, "A-Xiang, do you like that dumb boy Cao Weining?"

Gu Xiang was dumbfounded for a moment, staring at her master in confusion. "Master…"

Wen Kexing asked, "Do you find him nice?"

Gu Xiang had the feeling that those eyes were gazing straight at her soul. Suddenly, an odd emotion welled up in her, and she thought, was Cao Weining nice? She recalled that person telling her, "what if you're wrong, what if…you realised it in the future? I'm worried that you'll feel troubled over this." with a serious expression, recalled him hiking up his long sword with great effort to parry that couple of old demons and keep them at bay at all costs, whipping his head back at the moment of crisis. Those words, "Take him away first, hurry!"

Gu Xiang suddenly recalled that before this, no one had ever said things like letting her be the first to leave. Without knowing why, the edges of her eyes reddened, and she nodded sullenly, but only said, "Cao-dage is quite nice, he knows how to talk to people well, and he's educated…"

Wen Kexing chuckled soundlessly, "Yes, he's the only person who can utter something like 'be utterly ignorant as you sleep like the dead in spring'."

Gu Xiang could tell that he appeared to be saying something sarcastic, and actively defended, "'Weary in the spring, exhausted in the autumn, and nap in the summer'; everyone gets sleepy during springtime, don't they sleep like the dead and are unable to wake? The way I see it, what Cao-dage says is reasonable. His words aren't only just a bit better than those bookworms who only talk of 'the scent of chrysanthemum comes from the bitter cold', they're a lot better."

With a mischievous air, Wen Kexing looked at this slightly-blushing young girl, and nodded. "Sure, let's go rescue him then."

Gu Xiang was taken aback. "Huh? Didn't that Lord Seventh say just now that…"

Wen Kexing interrupted her loudly, "If I want to save someone, then I'll save them, and if I want to kill someone, then I'll kill them. I'll do as I like, and I'll see who in the world dares to block my path. Why prattle about so much? As a shabby, destitute pretty boy scholar[8], he doesn't know anything! A-Xu, are you coming with?"

Zhou Zishu smiled. "I wouldn't dare not to."

The corner of Wen Kexing's mouth lifted slightly, but his brows were still drawn together, inexplicably giving off an air of killer frostiness. This made his face, on which the mask was stuck, look rather frightening, as he said, "Alright, A-Xiang, whoever you're willing to rescue, just go and rescue them. I will naturally accompany you in stirring up a great ruckus."

At this moment, Cao Weining was very disheveled. He had tumbled and was as covered in mud as a mudskipper, the rags of his clothes stuck to him. One of his eyes was swollen nearly shut. Both his hands were tied behind his back, and his sword had been taken from him. Despite being shoved and stumbling for the whole journey, with Feng Xiaofeng bellowing and cursing sharply by his ear every now and then, for some reason, he was very much at peace.

He realised that he was really worthless. The teachings of their Qingfeng Sword Sect's ancestors dictated that "The individual goes where the sword goes; the individual dies when the sword shatters; uphold morality and righteousness; exterminate demonic evil." Now, despite the fact that his sword had been snapped and that he had probably been taken for one of those unorthodox villains, he did not take it to heart. Cao Weining had never considered himself one of those great figures who had the tremendous talent to govern, or the ability to shake the pugilist world with a stomp of his foot. As long as whatever he did was within his conscience, done without guilt, he was alright with it.

He only saw Zhou-xiong doing good deeds; saw Gu Xiang, such a frail and petite maiden, protecting the child of the Zhang family with her life. Conversely, it was the venerable orthodox who were bitterly forcing them to desperation.

What was good, and what was evil? All along, Cao Weining's greatest strength was his ability to keep an open mind.

Qingfeng Sword Sect taught him the path of good and evil, but did not teach him to pursue fame and personal interests. So, if others said that he was bad, that he had veered off the righteous path and willingly fell to evil, what could he do? Cao Weining thought about it. He felt quite sad, but sad as he was, he did not find that he had erred in any way. In a haze, he thought, If others do not think me good, then forget it. Anyway, by pursuing their own path in life, no one interferes in another's life. It's just that…I feel like I've let down my shifu and shishu a little.

It felt like Green Willow Grandpa had broken a rib of his: his chest blazed with agony every breath he took, and he was growing slightly disoriented. They threw him into a dark place, but without even glancing around first, Cao Weining closed his eyes and started regulating his qi. He intended to recuperate enough of his energy before escaping—he was still planning to escape, it didn't matter what happened to the others, but Gu Xiang was protecting Zhang Chengling all alone. Wasn't the situation going to be very troublesome if they couldn't find Zhou-xiong and Wen-xiong, and ran into the Poisonous Scorpions again?

He did not know how long had passed before a commotion suddenly sounded outside. He heard an extremely familiar voice roaring, "Bullshit! Since when has our Qingfeng Sword Sect produced unorthodox evil? In fact, the way I see it, you peach-red and willow-green old demons are the ones who don't look like decent people!"

The scene before Cao Weining's eyes brightened as the door to the shack he was held in was opened. A group of people walked in; squinting, Cao Weining peered over with his wretched appearance and discovered that the one raging within the group was none other than his shishu Mo Huaikong. Instantly, Cao Weining thought, Oh no, my shishu is going to hit the roof.

Mo Huaikong had already hit the roof-in the instant he saw Cao Weining, he growled in fury. Snapping his sleeve, he shoved Green Willow Grandpa and made him fall on his ass without the slightest bit of respect for the elderly. Enraged, Peach Red Grandma screeched, "Mo Huaikong, you lunatic, what are you doing?!"

Mo Huaikong did not beat around the bush either. In front of everyone else, he roared back at her, "That is my shizhi! If he has done anything evil, my Sect Leader shixiong will naturally cleanse our sect of him. Do we require you two old demons to uselessly screech at us about what we should do?"

Internally, Cao Weining could not resist the silent cry of "Well said!", thinking that even though his shishu had a terrible temper, he ultimately still sided with him. However, Mo Huaikong's next sentence was, "Before you beat the dog, you still have to check who its owner is!"

At once, Cao Weining cried silent tears of dejection in his heart.

Out of the blue, Feng Xiaofeng yelped, and yanked over the Gaoshan slave, whose eyes had been bandaged. Pointing to Mo Huaikong, he accused, "What a good Qingfeng Sword Sect. Why don't you ask what good things your good shizhi has done? It's the little female demon that was with him who harmed A-Shan's eyes with poison, if I can't capture that little female demon, I will rip the eyes out of this little rascal Cao!"

Mo Huaikong was just about to speak, but someone off to the side humphed. "A little girl, executing such a vicious technique right off the bat-obviously, she's a little female demon. Why would Young Hero Cao mingle with this sort of shady woman? I would like to be enlightened on this matter."

This made Mo Huaikong swallow the words that he had just been about to utter. Mo Huaikong shot a venomous gaze at Cao Weining, and the latter opened his mouth to pathetically call, "Shishu."

Mo Huaikong fumed, "Who's your shishu?" He stepped forward, grabbed Cao Weining's collar, and said coldly, "Who was the person with you that they mention? Speak!"

Cao Weining opened his mouth, and mumbled, "That's...A...Xiang, A-Xiang isn't one of the bad ones, shishu, A-Xiang...A-Xiang…"

Peach Red Grandma scoffed. "A-Xiang? You're sure addressing her rather intimately."

Having hurried back from the other direction, Yu Qiufeng, who looked solemn on the outside but had his own nefarious intentions, butted in, "It is understandable for a young man to have been wrongly led astray by beauty. As long as you turn over a new leaf, all of us here are also not unreasonable people with petty hearts…"

Before he could finish speaking, Feng Xiaofeng raged, "I want to rip her eyes out!"

It was unknown whether he had intended to do so or not, but he successfully destroyed the stage that Yu Qiufeng had set for himself. Gritting his teeth in frustration, Yu Qiufeng had the desire to stomp on this shortie until he was dead.

At the present moment, Gao Chong, Zhao Jing, Reverend Cimu and the rest were absent as they were busy with the funeral preparations for Shen Zhen. Without a leader, this mob of vile crooks was like a group of dragons without a leader, and bickered among themselves even more flagrantly. Mo Huaikong's eyelid was twitching non-stop. Picking Cao Weining up from the ground, he growled through gritted teeth, "Unfilial disciple, speak honestly-where is the little female demon headed to, having kidnapped the Zhang child?"

With great effort, Cao Weining said, "A-Xiang didn't…"

Enraged, Mo Huaikong landed a slap on his face, which had already swelled up like a pig's head. At this exact moment, a clear, light voice announced, "The little female demon is over here, you old, shameless bunch, come and catch me if you're capable enough!"

Cao Weining's mind imploded-A-Xiang!

Gu Xiang appeared at the door brazenly, looking fearless and without care. Then she saw the tragic state Cao Weining was in, and a fire blazed in her heart. She scoffed, "I still thought that you so-called orthodox sects attack a person as a pack because you cannot best them in a fight alone, but in fact, it is actually that you have this tradition of doing so! Zhang Chengling, come out and tell them, where did I kidnap you to?"

It was only then did the crowd notice a mousey teenager following behind her, as if he was embarrassed at the prospect of speaking a few words where there were many people; this, on top of the savage expressions on the faces of Feng Xiaofeng and the rest prior, made him shiver involuntarily. Zhang Chengling shuffled to Gu Xiang's side like a young bride, and mumbled softly, "Gu Xiang-jiejie did not kidnap me, I was the one who left with them."

Green Willow Grandpa fumed, "Nonsense, you Zhang kid. Have you followed in the footsteps of others and fallen prey to beauty at this young age, and been hoodwinked by these demonic enchantresses?"

Upon seeing Gu Xiang, Feng Xiaofeng's eyes turned red. Brandishing his machete, he swung it at her. "Wretched lass, leave your eyes behind!"

Turning sideways, Gu Xiang retreated three steps in succession and dodged the continuous blows that followed close behind one another. Gliding up to the rafters, she spoke from the advantageous height, "Shortie Feng, consider it that giant fool's eight lifetimes' worth of shit luck that he has to follow you around. This maiden is kind of heart and merciful of hand, and only blinded his pair of lookers, nothing more. If you'd bumped into any other person, they could even want his life. Not to mention that you purposely went looking for trouble and caused him to get hurt because of you, hmph…"

Her last "hmph" was a little weak, as the young girl flipped gracefully on the rafters. Dodging those who swarmed her in a hubbub and secretly anxious, she edged closer to where Cao Weining was.

Huang Daoren glided up to the rafters too, grabbed hold of Gu Xiang, and attacked her without warning. Not willing to be disadvantaged thusly, Gu Xiang ducked away and jumped onto another broad joist, stretching an arm out to hook it around the horizontal beam, and whirled beautifully in mid-air. She made a flinging motion with her hand, shouting, "Watch out!"

Alarmed as he did not know what kind of wicked hidden weapon this little demon girl of unknown origin had in hand, Huang Daoren growled and took a huge step back. But there was nothing at all; when he took a second look, Gu Xiang had already left him behind and was giggling without even looking back at him. "Ugly freak, I'll scare the life out of you!"

Mo Huaikong had long set Cao Weining, who was in heart-pounding anxiety off to one side, down as he watched on impassively. Though his stupid shizhi had gotten into trouble, he thought that this young maiden, who had clearly escaped but returned to save him, was evidently also someone who honored her ties, but was just slightly harder to deal with.

He cast an eye at Cao Weining and his silly demeanor, like he was vibrating with the urge to go lend Gu Xiang a hand. Mouth twisting, he thought that if she was hard to deal with, so be it; anyway, if someone was willing to marry a ferocious wife in the future, it was like a beating willingly dished out and suffered-consensual on both ends.

Right at this moment, Peach-Red and Willow-Green pounced at her from right and left, trapping Gu Xiang between them. Taking clear action, she lifted a leg and a dagger sprung out, aiming straight at Green Willow Grandpa's skull. However, Green Willow Grandpa still had some capabilities: he did not duck or hide, but swiped his cane horizontally. Gu Xiang felt a gust of strong wind rush at her, knew that she could not beat it, and swiftly retracted her leg. But she was not fast enough, and the dagger on the tip of her shoe was shattered.

Gu Xiang whipped back around immediately, thinking of reusing the same trick, but Peach Red Grandma had already crept up behind her.

Panicked, Gu Xiang exclaimed, "I'm about to die, and you're still enjoying the show!"

There was a light laugh, before Peach Red Grandma felt a gust of wind sweep at her and slam into her back. It was too late for her to dodge; she could only spring forward with all her might and stick herself onto the rafters like a giant lizard. Gu Xiang took the chance to hop off the rafters, and the crowd only noticed then that the thing that had nearly scared the daylights out of Peach Red Grandma was actually a walnut shell...and it was only half of one.

Immediately after, the "crack" of a walnut being unshelled came from the doorway. A man with unassuming features was holding a small packet of walnuts in his hand. Two fingertips pinched inwards, and the walnut shell burst open. He then threw the kernel into his mouth, and feasted on it delightfully. Beside him followed an even more sorry-looking person. These two people looked like they were born of the same mother, since they shared the same yellowish-green coloring and puffy eyes.

The one holding the walnuts was still politely offering them to the one beside him, saying, "You're not eating them?"

Like he was dodging a catastrophe, the one beside him arched backwards, and replied with an expression of revulsion, "Get this thing further away from me."

The one holding the walnuts laughed. "Oh, the great...is afraid of eating walnuts? Silly, this is good stuff. Eating these make you smarter, they enrich your brain[9]."

The one beside him took two steps forward and reached out to grab hold of Zhang Chengling's shoulders, saying, "No matter how you enrich a pig's brain, it'll stay the same."

Yu Qiufeng's brow wrinkled as he questioned commandingly, "Who are you?"

The person holding Zhang Chengling close shoved the youth forward and murmured by his ear softly, "I find him an eyesore. Go beat him up on my behalf."

Mouth agape, Zhang Chengling looked at him dumbly. "Shi...I…"

"You, what? They bullied your Gu Xiang-jiejie, and you're just standing aside? Are you a man, or are you not?"

Zhang Chengling extended a finger to point at Yu Qiufeng, then pointed at himself at a loss. "This...that…"

That strange man despised his hand-wringing, and kicked him on his rear. Stumbling two steps forward, Zhang Chengling nearly fell into Yu Qiufeng's arms.

Ecstatic, Yu Qiufeng scrambled to put on a gentle voice, and told Zhang Chengling, "Child of the Zhang family, come to me."

Still, Zhang Chengling gazed around with his wide eyes and lost expression, looking exactly like a little rabbit that could not find its way home. The one holding the walnuts chuckled softly and said, "You're too cruel."

The one beside him replied impassively, "After a baby hawk grows up, the old hawk will boot it out of the nest. I'm doing this for his own good."

Zhang Chengling, who had been regarded as a baby eagle, retreated a timid step back, treating Yu Qiufeng exactly like an old pervert who specifically preyed on young children. On the other hand, Feng Xiaofeng was not as polite as the Huashan Sect Leader. He followed this train of thought: this little Zhang fellow looked to be a part of their crew, and seizing him was good too, since they wouldn't have to fear not being able to hold back these few people that way. Who cared who he was, as long as he didn't kill him while seizing him?

So he swooped forward, and stretched out a hand to seize Zhang Chengling.

Uselessly, Zhang Chengling turned and fled, still shouting, "Heavens[10], shifu, he wants to seize me!"

A snicker escaped the one holding the walnuts, who used the tip of his shoe to poke the one beside him. "I say, your baby hawk's feathers are puffed up in fright."

"Hopeless," the man muttered, and delivered a palm strike through the air. Zhang Chengling felt a great wave of energy surging at him, as if someone had shoved him hard and halted his steps. Immediately after, his arms were propped up like a puppet on strings, which met with the incoming Feng Xiaofeng head-on. Frightened, Zhang Chengling closed his eyes, his hands clenching instinctively, and his fist landed right on the bridge of Feng Xiaofeng's nose.

He hit that shortie into letting loose an earth-shaking howl; Zhang Chengling opened his eyes and looked at his own fist dizzily, unable to believe it. Someone's voice tunnelled across the distance. It was his shifu's voice ringing by his ear once more, reprimanding him, "Idiot, why are you in a daze? Kick his danzhong acupuncture point[11]!"

Reflexively, Zhang Chengling did as per his instructions. He sensed that the gust of energy had not dispersed, but had rather surged into his four limbs. It pushed him to put a leg forward and, incredibly, sent Feng Xiaofeng flying with a kick.

Yu Qiufeng asked loudly, "Who are you?"

That strange man did not speak, but slammed another palm towards Zhang Chengling's back. With a loud yelp, Zhang Chengling pounced at Yu Qiufeng. Gaze hardening, Yu Qiufeng pulled a long sword out of nowhere, and met him head-on. It looked as if Zhang Chengling was about to be impaled on his sword, and the youth was greatly frightened, his legs carrying him forward of their own accord as he yipped, "Shifu, save me!"

The voice by his ear spoke once more. "Since the tip of his sword is trembling slightly, he must have another move following on the heels of this one. Retreat with the Nine Palaces Steps[12], and strike the side of his arm."

Finding great reason in these words, Zhang Chengling involuntarily took a sideways step forward and whirled away from the tip of Yu Qiufeng's sword. Instantly, Yu Qiufeng's sword trembled, and plagued him once more like a shadow. Without faltering, Zhang Chengling brought his right leg another step forward. The posture was awkward, extremely odd and clumsy, but somehow, he dodged Yu Qiufeng's blow. Then, respectfully following his shifu's instructions to "strike the side of his arm", he shut his eyes, gritted his teeth, and headbutted his target.

The one who was snacking on walnuts was none other than Wen Kexing, who was thrilled upon witnessing this sight: what Zhou Zishu had taught Zhang Chengling was none other than one of the top qinggong techniques, the Drifting Clouds Nine Palaces Steps. It sought movement as light as drifting clouds and flying willow catkin, and when it was applied, a person would truly look like a gliding immortal. It was elegantly genteel and very nice to look at, and Wen Kexing knew, for the first time, that someone could perform this Drifting Clouds Nine Palaces Steps like a black bear performing a dance.

Beside him, however, Zhou Zishu's brow relaxed. He discovered that although this child's movements were clumsy, he had not misstepped once, and knew that Zhang Chengling took his studies seriously-had learnt the mantra and practiced the same steps innumerable times, over and over, that despite being this panicked, his feet did not mess up the steps in the face of danger.

Yu Qiufeng had suffered great injuries to his core when he had slammed palms with Wen Kexing that day; now, upon absorbing the impact of Zhang Chengling's skull, the weapon he had just armed himself with instantly slipped out of his grasp. Furious, he shouted, "Don't let them escape!"

At this, the crowd immediately surrounded Zhang Chengling. This was not something that Zhang Chengling could handle, so Wen Kexing stuffed the half-eaten packet of walnuts at Zhou Zishu as he said, "Hold this for me, granddaddy is going to discipline this bunch of grandsons!" and charged into the fray, laughing uproariously.

Zhou Zishu had always found walnuts very repulsive: they tasted disgusting, and also looked like human brains. Revolted, he pinched the packet with two fingers and held it far away from himself at arm's length, while he continued to instruct Zhang Chengling by sending his voice across the distance as he remained a spectator.

Gu Xiang took the chance to sneak to Cao Weining's side, punting a person who tried to stop her, and glared venomously at Mo Huaikong. She thought, I don't care who you are-if you dare to block my path, I'll give you the same treatment as well!

Yet, even before she could draw near, she saw Mo Huaikong suddenly exclaim "Aiyo" and bend at the waist. His expression was agonised as he pointed at a baffled Gu Xiang and panted raggedly, "This...this little demon girl is...is too strong, I am no match for her any longer!"

Then he sat down on the floor with a plop, eyes shut tight, and stopped moving.

Gu Xiang and Cao Weining glanced at each other, neither of them knowing how to react.

Mo Huaikong, who had closed his eyes, suddenly opened one and cast it at them, scolding them a low voice, "Hurry up and run, have you become stupid?"

Gu Xiang whipped out her dagger immediately and cut away the rope binding Cao Weining with a few efficient strokes. Jumping to his feet, Cao Weining replied in an equally soft voice, "Many thanks to shishu."

Gu Xiang followed suit hastily, "Old man, we will never forget your great mercy for as long as we live. When I make it out, I will definitely erect a memorial archway in your name!"

"Fuck you, you're the one that has an archway erected for yourself, your whole family has archways erected for them!" As he shut his eyes tight and faked incapacitation, Mo Huaikong cursed nonstop silently, discovering that although this young maiden Gu Xiang had a decent appearance, her words truly rubbed people the wrong way.

Seeing that Gu Xiang and Cao Weining had already fled, Zhou Zishu suddenly flitted over, grabbed Zhang Chengling by the back of his neck, and swung him like a bat. Whirled in mid-air, Zhang Chengling's leg hit Huang Daoren in the chest, forcing him back ten or so steps. Taking the opportunity to stuff the packet of walnuts into Zhang Chengling's arms, Zhou Zishu told Wen Kexing, "Are you enjoying this too much to leave? Hurry up and let's go!"

Wen Kexing chortled and flew out of the crowd, saying, "Just as the lush mountains will remain evergreen and the clear rivers flowing, our ties will remain as they are until we next meet. I will be taking my leave now, everyone!"

Then he left side-by-side with Zhou Zishu, who had hold of Zhang Chengling. The qinggong of both men were unrivaled; at full strength, it was impossible for anyone to catch up with them, and there was no trace of them in the blink of an eye.

The three of them fled and stopped only when they were far away. Setting Zhang Chengling down, Zhou Zishu tore off his human skin mask and straightened his robes. Lowering his head, he saw Zhang Chengling gazing back at him with a pair of shiny eyes like a tiny critter begging for praise, and the movement of his hand paused. The tradition he adhered to in the past was that his shidi must be punished for any mistake made, otherwise he would not remember the lesson; if his shidi did well, to prevent him from being full of himself, he could not be praised. However, as he looked at the child's expectant manner before him, his heart softened of its own accord. He thought about it, and said, "Your qinggong is passable."

Zhang Chengling was overjoyed, but Zhou Zishu's expression darkened immediately as he reprimanded, "What are you so proud of? Look at your lack of courage-you only know how to howl for help once you run into the smallest problem, how disgraceful."

Zhang Chengling went back to hanging his head in dejection, but a warm hand suddenly covered the back of his skull. Chuckling, Wen Kexing told him, "Don't listen to what he says, that bit of skin of his is as thin as paper. He gets shy more easily when he takes his mask off…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Zhou Zishu had turned around with a fake smile on his face, and asked in a low voice, "Lao Wen, what are you saying?"

Instantly changing his tune, Wen Kexing corrected himself, "I said that you're calm even in the face of disaster, and utterly unshakable when confronted with danger. Your skin isn't thin at all, you don't know the meaning of shame, and not even a stake can penetrate your skin."

Out of the blue, Zhou Zishu reached out to cradle his face. Wen Kexing froze, stunned, and Zhou Zishu did not speak either. He merely leaned in very close, his eyes staring intensely at Wen Kexing, unblinking.

Zhang Chengling peered at one, before looking at the other, but could not figure out what they were doing at all. An incense stick would have burnt down wholly before Zhou Zishu finally let go of Wen Kexing with the hint of a smile, and flicked his earlobe, laughing, "You're finally blushing, now."

Wen Kexing took a dazed step forward-his arm and leg along one side of his body swung at the same time.

Zhou Zishu laughed heartily.

Abruptly, his laughter halted. Zhang Chengling and Wen Kexing traced the direction of his gaze, and saw a man in white robes who was standing not too far away looking over at them expressionlessly.

Upon seeing that it was Ye Baiyi, Wen Kexing's expression grew foul. Upon seeing that Ye Baiyi was staring unblinkingly at Zhou Zishu's face, Wen Kexing's expression grew even more foul.

Zhou Zishu, on the other hand, was rather surprised. From a distance away, he bowed and said, "Senior Ye."

Ye Baiyi looked at him for another long while, before he remarked, "It's you? Why do you always have to make yourself look so ghastly-do you not look quite like a proper human like this? Moreover, the ancients have the saying 'Wherever you go and no matter the situation, one should not change his name', much less the looks naturally bestowed on you by your parents. Do you not know what is meant by 'to live as plain as day'?"

Zhou Zishu raised his head to look at the sky, as if this action could suppress his quiet desire to smack Ye Baiyi flat. Half a beat later, he finally lowered his head, put on an apologetic, humble smile, and said graciously, "As Senior chides."

Indifferent, Ye Baiyi nodded, and told them, "Follow me."

Wen Kexing felt that it was impossible to make sense of this old fart's stubbornness through logical means, and humphed coldly. "Who are you? Do I know you?"

Ye Baiyi looked back at him. It was impossible to discern any particular happy or unhappy expression from his face. He remained silent for a while, before he asked, "Do you all not want to know what happened to Rong Xuan and his wife Yue Feng'er thirty years ago, as well as what the truth behind that whole Lapis Armour mess is?"

Wen Kexing, who had already turned away and was about to walk off, abruptly halted in his tracks. With his face turned to the ground, it was impossible for anyone to tell what expression he had on.

The few of them were at such an impasse for a half-beat, before Wen Kexing finally turned around and asked in a very incredulous tone of voice, "Why would we…want to know what happened to Rong Xuan and his wife?"

Suddenly, Ye Baiyi sighed, and said, "When you live to be the age I am now, you will understand that sometimes, being able to tell what a person wants is not as difficult as you think."

Wen Kexing immediately disliked his tone of voice that was flaunting his seniority.

Zhou Zishu exchanged glances with him, and asked, "Does Senior have some information?"

Ye Baiyi smiled briefly-because of that stiff face of his, it was always impossible for others to tell if he had sincerely intended a smile, or if it was a sarcastic, fake one. Soon afterwards, they heard him say, "What do I know? I am no more than an old fool who has lived for many years as a hermit on Changming Mountain, what can I know?"

He turned and walked on, with his back towards them. "Although I do know one person who might be clear about what happened all those years ago."

Zhou Zishu instructed Zhang Chengling, "Keep up", and caught up to Ye Baiyi. Wen Kexing found it a little odd as well, so he asked, "What person has such omnipotent knowledge?"

Ye Baiyi did not even look back as a few words drifted from his mouth. "Long Que of the Puppet Manor."

Zhou Zishu's brow furrowed as he could not help but point out, "Legend has it that there is indeed such a Puppet Manor within Shuzhong, but it is concealed deep within the mountains. The lord of the Puppet Manor, Long Que, is a master of traps and of the art of the vanishing door; that manor appears to be migratory. I have repeatedly ordered men to create a map, and each time, the one who edited the map would swear that there was nothing wrong with the map, but when one visited the place again, there would be no trace of the manor that appears and vanishes mysteriously…"

Ye Baiyi said, "You're useless."

-Indeed, a dog's mouth could not utter anything as precious as ivory.

Zhou Zishu closed his eyes, took a deep breath, unclenched his fist to clench it once more, and silently regarded Ye Baiyi's head, which he found increasingly suitable for clobbering. To one side, Zhang Chengling was tugging at the corner of his shirt, opening his mouth to ask a question, but was viciously glared at by Zhou Zishu. Irritably whisking the corner of his shirt back, Zhou Zishu scolded, "You're a rascal of more than a decade old, if you have something to say, say it. What are you doing, being a shrinking violet of a young wife?"

He was clearly enraged; Zhang Chengling retracted his head, and did not dare to speak.

Zhou Zishu casted a glance at him. "Hurry up and say what you have to say!"

"Shi, shifu, are we going to keep heading to Shuzhong?"

Zhou Zishu startled, realising that he was right, it was a rather long journey. Thus, Zhang Chengling brought trouble upon himself: because he had asked a question that he should not have asked, he was tortured in a multitude of ways by his evil shifu Zhou Zishu for the rest of the journey. Sometimes, he was made to reverse his flow of qi and walk on his hands; other times, Zhou Zishu pressed a hand down onto his shoulder, ordering that teenager to strenuously hurry his way forth with all the energy he had, almost as if he were bearing a load as heavy as that of a enormous mountain…it was worse than death.

Off to one side, Wen Kexing didn't speak. He kept loudly cracking his walnuts open and snacking on them, disgusting Zhou Zishu while appearing to be thoughtfully contemplating an issue at the same time. Seeing that Zhou Zishu was ignoring the old mule Ye Baiyi, he made rare conversation with Ye Baiyi. "How are you...related to Rong Xuan? Why do you want to know what happened thirty years ago?"

Ye Baiyi looked at him, and remained silent for a long while. Just when Wen Kexing thought that he was about to say something, he heard that bird's beak of Zhou Zishu peck its nonsense, "Why do you want to ask about everyone's business, like those old maids who love to gossip? What does that have to do with you?"

Wen Kexing exerted force on his fingers, and a walnut shell splintered in his hand. Like a hidden weapon, the pieces shot out about a zhang out, bringing with them a strong gust of wind. Zhang Chengling instantly ducked away as far as he could to save himself from getting embroiled in danger[13].

Wen Kexing was about to snipe at him for a few lines more, but a glimmer caught his eye. Focusing his gaze, he discovered a surprising strand of silver among Ye Baiyi's long hair, and he noted incredulously, "Hm? Ye, you're greying."

He did not know if it was just his imagination, but in that instant, Ye Baiyi's wooden pupils seemed to flash, so fleetingly that it was imperceptible. Subconsciously, he raised a hand to touch his own hair, but halfway to his head, he put it down again, and only said indifferently, "Have you not even seen white hair before? An ignorant person would find everything strange."

Wen Kexing thought about it. True, this old freak was ancient; if this was any other person, their remains would have grown cold by now. What was a strand of white?

After that, he could no longer find a topic of conversation, as Ye Baiyi had the ability of steering people away from irritating him. On the road from Dongting to Shuzhong, Ye Baiyi was like a mannequin that could walk-it was only when he ate, where that great force of nature which could sweep away an armada as effortlessly as rolling up a mat made people realise that he was a living being.

Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing were bored to tears. With nothing to do, they could only bicker and make digs at each other, endlessly raucous. At first, Ye Baiyi still listened to them expressionlessly and calmly-until later on, when he felt that the both of them were being ridiculous, upon which he snarked, "If the two of you are capable enough, scram and go tussle in bed. Stop jabbering, you're like two huge crickets. Is it that you can't get it up, or that you're maidens disguised as men? What are you pretending to be restrained for? Taking your mushy touchy-feely as entertainment, both of you, shut up!"

Zhang Chengling was currently walking on his hands according to how Zhou Zishu had taught him. Reversing his flow of qi was supremely tough in the first place, and upon hearing this, he first froze, before something vaguely clicked in the half-grown child's mind. His face turned red, his qi hit a snag, and he tumbled over instantly, clutching his neck as he cried "Aiyo, aiyo", blushing.

If Ye Baiyi had not claimed that he could locate the "Puppet Manor", Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing were almost planning to team up and teach this old fart a lesson. The two of them exchanged looks with unspoken coordination, but for some unknown reason, when Wen Kexing glanced at that person's handsome expression of barely-suppressed ire, his gaze unconsciously drifted downwards, as if he could see past his robes to look at the flesh and bones within. He imagined it for a moment, his Adam's apple bobbing once, and suddenly felt like there was indeed some reason to Ye Baiyi's words.

With their last mode of entertainment gone, the two of them spontaenously teamed up to torture Zhang Chengling.

If Zhou Zishu told him to "gather your true qi, and let it surge into your qihai[14], guide it through your meridians, to turn it onto its head as it circulates as it pleases, freely", Wen Kexing would secretly inform him that "your internal qi is unstable, and your martial power is too weak, which is why your internal qi scatters easily and does not gather as readily", that he should "steadily progress in proper sequence, feel the true qi in you, and let nature take its course."

What both of them said sounded very reasonable, and poor Zhang Chengling did not know which one to listen to. As he boggled, the true qi on him gathered for a second just to scatter the next, or flowed in the proper direction for a moment just to reverse its direction the next. Occasionally, he still had to undergo that special training method of Zhou Zishu's-Zhou Zishu did not look like he had put in much strength, but that hand weighing on Zhang Chengling's shoulder felt like a million catties.

A smidgen of worry involuntarily rose in Zhang Chengling's heart as he thought, what if he could not grow taller because of how his shifu kept pressing down on him over a long period of time? Feng Xiaofeng's savage and feral mien surfaced in his mind, and he involuntarily shivered.

Zhou Zishu did not know about his internal worries, and felt that while this child was indeed hardworking, he simply could not grasp the essence of the teachings. Back when he had taught Liang Jiuxiao, Zhou Zishu had always grumbled that he was too stupid-many times, he had only just managed to suppress his agitation to teach him. Yet, who knew, that compared to Zhang Chengling, Liang Jiuxiao was a top-tier genius.

If it weren't for these years he spent in court, which had since ground him down to patience a long time ago, Zhou Zishu felt that he could even have had the urge to kill this child who gave him much grief with a single palm strike.

In truth, Zhang Chengling was also wronged. In the first place, Wen Kexing's gongfu and Zhou Zishu's gongfu did not share the same approach; if it had been one person teaching him, he still could have made some progress. However, between these two, neither of them knew how to teach a disciple. If one of them said something, the other had to say their own piece, and they did not care if others could understand them. Sometimes, as they yammered on, they would even start quarrelling between themselves, and if they could not settle their quarrels, they would leave to explosively fight their mutual discontent out, before returning. In the end, it would always result in the flushed faces of both parties, and one Ye Baiyi explaining as a narrator would off to one side that they were "using the excuse of exchanging techniques to partake in improper affairs". All his words served to do was to inspire an unending wave of thoughts in a perpetually embarrassed Zhang Chengling, while he, simultaneously, understood nothing.

As the days went by, he felt that not only was his martial ability not improving, it showed signs of regression. The hand his shifu weighed on his shoulder only seemed to grow heavier by the day, and was about to crush the breath out of him.

In truth, this method of learning gongfu that Zhang Chengling had adopted was extremely risky. If it were anyone else suffering the torment inflicted by these two, without Zhou Zishu's burdensome hand on his shoulder inconspicuously helping him to regulate his internal qi, he would have undergone qi deviation a long time ago.

They travelled extremely swiftly on foot. Not many days later, they had already left Dongting, that place of trouble, far behind and reached Shuzhong.

On this day, Zhang Chengling genuinely could not keep walking any further; clenching his teeth, he forced himself to walk for more than ten li. Temple throbbing continuously, he panted heavily with his mouth open, and his heart felt like it was about to leap out of his chest. For every step he took, he had to exert all the energy that he had.

Zhou Zishu's voice rang frostily by his ear. "Why, it's only this, and you can't take it anymore? Keep going!"

Wen Kexing turned his head over to glance at him and raised his eyebrow, like he too felt that Zhang Chengling was pitiable, and could not help but interrupt, "A-Xu…"

"Shut up." Zhou Zishu's eyebrow did not even so much as twitch a little, lacking even the slightest bit of humanity as he was. He ordered, "Little tyke, I told you to keep walking."

It was already growing blurry and dark before Zhang Chengling's eyes. He wanted to speak, but he could not; once he opened his mouth, his internal qi would start to leak out, and when that happened, Zhou Zishu's hand, which only looked as thin as firewood, would drive him into the ground like he was replanting a carrot.

Shuzhong was mountainous. All around them, the ground rose and fell in seemingly boundless undulations, and a sense of despair, one of never being able to reach the end of this endless journey, suddenly rose within Zhang Chengling. The trembling of his legs was growing more vigorous, and he raised his head with great effort to look at his shifu's face. That handsome side profile was still frosty and did not even glance at him. It was like a stone statue with no sentiments and no desires.

"Breaths continuous and unending, passing through the rendu; like hundreds of rivers flowing into the sea, without leaving a trace-"

"There is form to internal qi, as agile as a snake; never extinguished, never broken, it ebbs and flows freely-"

In that split-second, faced with the mountain range of Shuzhong, when it felt like Zhang Chengling had been forced into despair, a line swiftly flashed through his mind-with form, yet no bounds; scatters, but never extinguished!

He felt, all of a sudden, his chest brimming with energy and his vision growing increasingly blurry, but he was able to feel the changes within his body more intimately. In truth, the internal qi that was diffused throughout his whole body had always been there; it was merely that he had not the correct way to engage it. Once he understood the concept, he suddenly felt a great wave of energy surge out of him, which even forcefully dislodged the hand Zhou Zishu had on his shoulder.

The last thing he saw was Zhou Zishu's stunned expression, then everything went black before his eyes and he fainted headfirst.

Zhou Zishu frowned at his hand that had been flung off. Ye Baiyi looked back and coolly said, "Not bad. You've finally pushed him over the edge to his death, are you satisfied?"

Wen Kexing was the only one with some conscience: he bent to 'retrieve' Zhang Chengling, placed a palm on his back, and channelled a thin thread of true qi into his body. A while later, he made a soft sound of surprise, and said, "This kid...unbelievably, his meridians are wider across than those of any ordinary person by nature. Could it be that he's actually a wondrous talent?"

Zhou Zishu replied, "Indeed. I discovered it when I was helping him regulate his qi after he was injured by Enchanted Song's shockwaves that time."

He took Zhang Chengling from Wen Kexing's hands. The youth's face was pale and his brow was tightly knit. The hems of his trouser legs dangled above his ankles, just on this side of too short. In the short jiffy of a month and a half, he seemed to have grown a little taller again. Zhang Chengling was born to the Zhang family, and was, furthermore, Hero Zhang's only son; after so many years, he should not have been this lacklustre. That day, when Zhou Zishu had helped to heal his injury, he had discovered that this child's neigong foundations had in fact been sturdily built; it was only that he could not use it.

To draw a comparison, he was like a young child who had been armed with a sharp weapon, but had not the strength to wield it.

Witnessing this, Ye Baiyi also found it interesting, and reached a hand over to pinch Zhang Chengling on various parts of his body. He remarked curiously, "Unbelievably, such a person exists on this earth: one with a phenomenally stupid brain, but born with great physique. Is Heaven intending for him to lead a blessed life, or a difficult one?"

Thereafter, he glanced at Zhou Zishu and said, "His meridians are clear and wide. He is excellent material to work with in the first place, but his ability to grasp concepts is too poor, and conversely he has more difficulty than any other to figure out the path...yes, you can push him a little further; anyway, he won't be dying anytime soon."

Most thankfully, Zhang Chengling had merely fainted.

Because of Zhang Chengling, that day, the other three decided to find a place to stay and wait a night for this little tyke to recover before entering the mountains. As usual, Zhou Zishu was punctually tortured into wakefulness at midnight by the nails in him. He curled up into a ball, fingers pressing on his chest, but he did not use his internal energy to suppress it. He only laid on the bed with his eyes open, staring at the moonlight shining in through the window, looking as if he was in a daze-he was intimately experiencing the sensation of those nails in his body.

Compared to before, the Three Autumn Nails of the Seven Acupunctures did not only hurt when they acted up now. The original sensation that felt like someone was using a small knife to rummage around in his chest appeared to have lessened, or it might have been that he had already grown numb to it. Conversely, there was a new, gradual sensation of something weighing down on his chest that caused his breath to stutter between exhalations, and it seemed to have grown more and more distinct over the past few days.

Zhou Zishu knew that this was some kind of omen-of the three years, slightly less than half of it had already passed.

A long time ago, he had always thought that these three additional years were a sort of kindness. But he only knew now that it was, in fact, another form of cruel torture.

Death did not scare him-for the past twenty-odd years, it had not been easy for him to survive till today. All the techniques he had used to force Zhang Chengling to pick up gongfu were ones that he had suffered through when he was younger; he had suffered even more merciless ones, and he did not even have that child's natural gift to stand that harshness without the slightest bit of damage. He had lived through so much, experienced so many events that he was unafraid of anyone or anything on this earth. If he was fearless in life, what was so terrifying about death?

However, what agonised him were these three years, in which he had to count down the days as he awaited his death.

He had weathered through so much with his unshakeable will, and never once held a death wish. Yet, in these days-where he had the most freedom, had the least attachments to miss, and was most merry and wild-he had to wait for death to come. Wasn't it very ironic?

Zhou Zishu discovered that this was probably another stupid thing that he had done.

At this moment, there was a light knock on his door from the outside. Zhou Zishu paused, taken aback-Wen Kexing and Ye Baiyi never knocked. He climbed off the bed. The surge of dull pain in his chest nearly made him lie back down again. His hand unconsciously tightened around the blanket; drawing in two deep breaths, he engaged his true qi with strenuous effort to suppress that suffocating feeling, before finally putting on a sullen expression to answer the door.

Zhang Chengling was standing outside, one hand still hesitantly raised like he had wanted to knock again. Once the door opened and he saw Zhou Zishu's poor complexion, he instantly lowered his head guiltily and in distress like he had committed some abominable sin, and mumbled in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz, "Shifu."

Zhou Zishu frowned. "What are you doing?"

The corner of Zhang Chengling's mouth tugged downwards. He looked as though he wanted to cry, but was holding it back. "Shifu, I just woke up...and couldn't fall back asleep."

Zhou Zishu crossed his arms and leant against the door jamb, scoffing, "So...you're saying that you want me to sing you a lullaby and lull you to sleep?"

Zhang Chengling buried his head even lower; Zhou Zishu worried that his neck was going to snap. It was currently deep in winter, and even in Shuzhong, it was rather chilly at midnight. With his internal injury acting up, Zhou Zishu could not withstand the cold too well. Still feeling a little cold from the slight breeze blowing at him, he picked up his wine flask and took a huge swig, looking at Zhang Chengling with annoyance as he asked, "Can you be more straightforward? If you have something to say, quickly say it, if you have a fart to let loose, quickly let it loose."

Zhang Chengling said in a quiet voice, "Shifu, I dreamt of my father and them again. It's been so long, why haven't I forgotten them? Am I especially useless?"

Zhou Zishu paused. After a long while, Zhang Chengling assumed that Zhou Zishu did not want to bother with him any longer, and furtively lifted his head to look at him. He was very much regretting coming over here without a second thought, but discovered that Zhou Zishu had turned slightly to take a step aside, and faintly nodded at him, signalling for him to enter.

Like he had been greatly relieved of a burden, Zhang Chengling waddled in obediently after him.

Zhou Zishu lit the candle. There was no water in the room, so he took a cup, unfastened the flask to pour half a cup of wine, and handed it to Zhang Chengling. Zhang Chengling did not know that his wine was strong and drank a mouthful, only to feel a small fire burn a line from his throat to his stomach. His face turned red instantly and he choked, unable to form any words.

Zhou Zishu looked at his silly demeanour, and his tense face relaxed slightly of its own accord. He turned his head aside, chuckling lightly.

This was Zhang Chengling's first time seeing his "strict master" laugh in his direction with his own face, and he did not dare to even exhale too loudly, staring dumbly at him.

When they had met in Jiangnan that year, he had no one to rely on. Around him, there was only this man who talked loquaciously to others but had few words for him, and he clung to him like a drowning man grasping at a lifeline. He knew that his shifu was good, and could not help but want to be close to him, but was also afraid that he sparked his irritation-although his shifu did look like he was perpetually irritated by him. Slowly, this cautious treading turned into fearful respect; every time he wanted to talk to him, he had to undergo a bout of trembling from his nerves.

But even so, every time he felt sad, he still could not help but come look for him-in Zhang Chengling's heart, his father and shifu looked completely different from head to toe, but for some unknown reason, he just felt that they were the same sort of person.

That sort of person who was tall and broad, courageous and strong, and who...treated him well.

Zhang Chengling said, "Shifu, we followed Senior Ye here to look for that Puppet Manor and to ask about the Lapis Armour. After we clarify the things that happened so many years ago, will we then know why they wanted to kill my father?"

Zhou Zishu cocked an eyebrow, and avoided the topic to give a brisk answer, "Who knows."

Zhang Chengling frowned, and wracked his brains over it for a moment before saying, "Shifu, do you think that there are people who will kill others without any reason? I've thought a lot about it, is the reason why they want to kill my father because my father has done something evil?"

Zhou Zishu thought about it for a while. This question was too immense, and had stumped him. Not knowing how to explain it for the moment, he lowered his head to look at that little tyke who was still furrowing his brow like he was troubled to the bones, picked him up by the collar, and dragged him out of the room, saying, "Since you've slept so much in the day that it's left you with fuck-all to do now and unable to sleep, as the stupid and slow bird has to set off first to avoid falling behind, you might as well practice properly. It seems like I haven't pushed you hard enough, that you still have the energy to continue imagining nonsensical things."

As he spoke, he grabbed a handful of small pebbles from the ground, bent his fingers and, out of the blue, flicked them at Zhang Chengling. Zhang Chengling was unable to dodge in time; the pebble hit him right in the head, and just as he exclaimed "aiyo", another pebble had arrived. Left with no choice, he could only scramble away on his hands and knees, while his evil demon of a shifu derided, "In the gongfu I taught you, there isn't a move called 'Dog Eats Shit'."

At this moment, Zhang Chengling did not have time to think, and could only put in his whole effort to counter those small pebbles cascading onto him like a tightly-woven net with no way out. He only let out a sigh of relief when Zhou Zishu had depleted his pebbles, but even before he had finished exhaling that breath, he heard Zhou Zishu say, "Was that thing you performed the Drifting Clouds Nine Palaces Formation? Even a spider's crawl is more pleasant to look at! The first few steps were still adequately performed, but what were those steps at the end? You stay here, and do it once through from beginning to end. If you make a mistake again, I'll break your damn legs!"

Frightened into extreme wariness, in a manner reminiscent of a baby learning how to walk, Zhang Chengling deeply contemplated each step before he lifted his leg. He was treading more carefully than the crippled old granny, as if he was terrified of stepping on and killing even one ant on the ground. From time to time, he still had to sneak a peek at Zhou Zishu, constantly worried that Zhou Zishu would give him trouble all of a sudden and really break his damn legs.

Zhou Zishu sat down, brooding that this little thing was certainly useless. His chest still felt tight; momentarily unable to hold it back, he turned his head aside and started coughing. An ominous trace of a flush surfaced on his pale side profile. Under the moonlight, it looked rather frightening in its severity.

At this moment, he felt a warmth on his back. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Wen Kexing, who had appeared sometime ago without him noticing, standing behind him and settling an overcoat on him. Silently, he sat beside Zhou Zishu, and after a while, asked out of the blue, "Does it hurt?"

Zhou Zishu scoffed. "How about you give it a try too?"

Abruptly, Wen Kexing stretched his hand out to test the waters, gently brushing open the front of his robes. For some unknown reason, Zhou Zishu did not duck away, but sat there, the flask with half the wine remaining in it still dangling from his hand. Wen Kexing took in the sight of his chest, which was as skeletal as his fingers were, and the topmost nail hammered into it. The light in his eyes flickered. Then, he drew in a sudden, deep breath of air, and refastened Zhou Zishu's robes.

The two of them sat shoulder to shoulder, but had no words for each other at this moment.

A while later, Wen Kexing finally asked, "I say, after spending so much effort all these years, I've finally found this one person that I have affinity with and is to my liking. Can you not die on me?"

Zhou Zishu asked in reply, "Is that something I have a say in?"

Wen Kexing did not say anything else. Suddenly sighing, he moved his gaze away from Zhou Zishu as though he did not wish to see him any longer, and fixed his eyes on Zhang Chengling, who was wobbling in the courtyard like an infant learning how to walk. Casually picking up a few pebbles from the ground, he flicked one out, hitting Zhang Chengling right on his bottom, and said, "Little tyke, what they call martial lightness of the body all comes down to one word: speed. You're over there taking your own time like you're embroidering flowers, is that practicing qinggong? The steps and all that are superficial-even a spirit possession dancer might still have steps to follow. Even if you do not make a single misstep, is there any use in doing it so slowly?"

Zhang Chengling looked at the two of them, feeling very wronged. He discovered that not only did these two differ in their opinions on practicing qi, they also had differed in the ways they taught qinggong; there was simply no way for him to keep living.

To one side, Wen Kexing kept nagging "You have to be quick", while casting the pebbles at him in pursuit. Although Zhou Zishu did not speak, his gaze did not leave Zhang Chengling's feet a single inch, as he predatorily waited for him to slip up so that he could have an excuse to break his legs-

This one night could not have been more nerve-wracking.

Zhang Chengling sighed quietly in his heart, and suddenly recalled that his dream all along had not been to become some peerless master. If it had not been for the sudden tragedy of the Zhang family, he, in truth, had only wanted to open a dessert shop in the future, earn enough to feed his family, perform his filial duties, and busy himself with harmoniously welcoming and sending people off each day.

He had never dared to speak of this dream. Now, he was terrified of even thinking of it alone.

At dawn of the second day, after Ye Baiyi had eaten eight steamers of buns and downed two enormous bowls of congee without pause, and just as Zhou Zishu and the other two were preparing to move to another table, he finally announced that he was bringing them into the mountains today-he had thought of a way to break the formation surrounding the Puppet Manor.

Trailing behind Ye Baiyi, the few of them circled around within the mountain range, wandering, until they ventured into a patch of woods. Upon entering the woods, Zhou Zishu's whole body tensed inexplicably-he could not put his finger on what hidden treachery was present in this forest, but he instinctively sensed a hint of danger.

Wen Kexing, who had been annoyingly loud this whole journey, shut his mouth at this moment as well. Even Ye Baiyi's expression grew serious; he stopped every now and then, extremely cautious.

Zhang Chengling was the only one who was still unaware of what was going on. He was celebrating internally, because it looked like he could take a day off today. One of his shifu's hands was pulling at his arm-those fingers were long and slender but strong, and Zhang Chengling could almost feel the heat of his palm through the thick cotton of his sleeve. It provided a great sense of security, and Zhang Chengling obediently let himself be led, quietly overjoyed.

Ye Baiyi kept muttering something, and had to stop occasionally to write some calculations on the ground with a small branch. At first, Wen Kexing, very interested in what he was doing, stood beside him and watched for a while, but soon felt like his brain was turning into mush. Dizzied by his own incomprehension, he silently retreated to one side to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Zhou Zishu, and asked him a low voice, "Aren't you going to look at what he's doing?"

Knowing his own shortcomings well, Zhou Zishu replied, "What for? I won't understand it anyway."

Still, he frowned lightly, and too lowered his voice to ask Wen Kexing, "Rationally speaking...among the people I sent here, there were also experts on trap mechanisms and the art of the vanishing door. Why was not a single one of them able to find that Puppet Manor?"

Wen Kexing casually asked, "Didn't you say that someone drew a map?"

Zhou Zishu replied, "Yes, he did. When he took the map he drew and brought people on a second trip to find it once more, not a single one returned."

Wen Kexing cast a grave look at Ye Baiyi's squatting figure, and lowered his voice even more. "If even…have perished here, do you think that this old glutton is reliable?"

Zhou Zishu was about to speak, but before he could even make a sound, Ye Baiyi had stood up and turned his head back at them, saying coldly, "The rest of this journey is treacherous. If you don't wish to die, step in my footprints."

Zhou Zishu scratched his nose. Ye Baiyi cast a look at him and scoffed. "An expert in the art of the vanishing door? If their leader is already this incapable, can his subordinates not be rice bins[15]?"

He turned and walked off immediately once he was done speaking.

The facial expressions of those three which included Zhou Zishu were very odd-anyone who had witnessed Old Senior Ye's appetite with their own eyes, and then heard him call someone a "rice bin" with their own ears would have an odd expression on their face as well.

However, odd expressions were one matter; apart from Zhang Chengling, neither of these two adults were people who could not discern what was important from the trivial, and they immediately followed Ye Baiyi. Zhang Chengling glimpsed that there were more and more carcasses of various animals by the roadside, and felt that this place was gloomy and sinister. After walking for a while, he even saw a few sets of human bones, with the heads all separated from the bodies. They looked very terrifying, and, trembling, he asked Zhou Zishu, "Shifu, the person we're looking for, why does he want to live in a place like this?"

Zhou Zishu turned his head to the side to glance at him, and said, "How would I know? In a vast jungle, there will be birds of any kind."

Zhang Chengling carefully stepped over a segment of human femur, and could not help but ask, "He lives somewhere so isolated, and created so many traps that every step he takes is heart-pounding. What if he gets lost too when he makes a trip out of here? Isn't this like putting a mousetrap under your own bed?"

Finding his words strange, Zhou Zishu questioned, "Putting a mousetrap under your own bed?"

Zhang Chengling said, "One time, when I was a kid, mice got into my room. I couldn't catch them no matter what I tried, so I put two mousetraps under my bed and went to sleep. But I forgot all about them the next morning, stepped on the traps, and got my toes fractured by the mousetraps."

Wen Kexing heard this, and a 'pfft' of laughter escaped him. Zhou Zishu sighed; spotting that Zhang Chengling had nearly taken a wrong step because he was focused on talking, he picked him up and reprimanded, "Shut up and watch your step, do you want to die?"

Zhang Chengling stuck his tongue out[16], and Zhou Zishu said coolly, "Don't measure others by your own behaviour-in this world, how are there that many people who are as stupid as you are?"

Wen Kexing picked up the topic of conversation, gently and patiently explaining to Zhang Chengling, "There is actually no more than that small handful of reasons as to why a person would want to hide himself. Either this person suspects that there are enemies out to kill him and feels like he has no other choice but to conceal himself in a place where no one can find him in…"

Zhou Zishu cut in sharply, "Like the Ghost Valley?"

Wen Kexing glanced at him and said, "If you want to put it that way...it's also correct."

Zhou Zishu took the chance to question, "So, what sin unforgivable by the heavens and commonfolk did the Valley Master commit back then, to have no other choice but to hide in the Ghost Valley?"

Wen Kexing did not mind his opportunistic interrogation, and simply replied unabashedly, "Me? I, naturally, was a more special case. I didn't commit any crime, and simply entered it cluelessly. Until now, I don't understand how such a good person as I am has coexisted with evil ghosts for so many years. I am truly the unsullied flower that remains pure despite having grown amidst mud, shining with a chaste beauty after clear water washes me clean."

Zhou Zishu smiled without saying anything, treating whatever he said entirely as bullshit.

Wen Kexing sighed. "A-Xu, you really wound my heart-little tyke, do you think I'm a good person?"

He had a good temperament, was highly skilled at martial arts, and even told stories-Zhang Chengling was in such awe of this senior that he was nearly prostrating himself in reverence. Upon hearing this question, he instantly nodded, bobbing his head in a manner reminiscent of a knife dicing garlic.

Wen Kexing was extremely moved. He patted Zhang Chengling's head and sighed, "The child is still the best: he has a conscience and can differentiate between good and evil, he'll remember it when people treat him well, unlike a certain person...sigh!"

Zhou Zishu did not speak-they were all leaders, but those like Gao Chong who led a bunch of people who thought of themselves as the orthodox, or those like himself who led a group of assassins and spies, were different from the Master of the Ghost Valley. Gao Chong only needed to employ the few words "The righteous cause for all under heaven" and those people would trap themselves by operating within certain boundaries of their own accord. On the other hand, those in "Tian Chuang" basically joined to sell their lives to him, and to the Emperor. Behind that organisation was rigorous and immense sovereign power, and from its establishment till today, other than himself, no one else had dared to challenge it.

But the Ghost Valley was different, because within the Ghost Valley was a bunch of fugitives.

They were like a swarm of the wickedest venomous insects that had been sealed in a narrow, cramped container, where massacring one another was the only way to keep surviving. It was a place of a million evil souls; only when one died, could the other live. There were no morals, and no axioms; there was only the survival of the fittest, and only the one mighty and vicious enough to devour them all-that insect which became the king of poisons[17]-could come out into the daylight again.

Wen Kexing disguised himself too well; many times, even Zhou Zishu would mistake him for just an ordinary, talkative man.

To the side, Wen Kexing continued telling Zhang Chengling, "Other than the fear of being hunted down, there's another reason that makes someone hide from others, and it is sadness. In his heart, he knows that he will not be able to lay eyes on the person he wants to see most ever again, so he might as well bury himself in this place. After a long time, he can comfort himself by saying, the only reason why he didn't come look for me is because he has not been able to find me, and nothing more."

He exhaled a light sigh, and continued, "If your shifu's no longer around in the future, who knows, I might want to find a place like this to hide away in. Otherwise, if I go out and see beautiful people milling about the streets, and yet can never find that one beauty who's the best fit for what my heart desires, won't I be very sad?"

Zhou Zishu teased, "I thought you said you intended to live and die with me."

Wen Kexing chuckled as well. "I said so, but you don't believe it."

To the side, Zhang Chengling chimed in, "Just like...just like Yu Boya destroying his qin[18]?"

The expressions of the two men blanked at the same time. Zhang Chengling looked at this one, then looked at the other one, not knowing what he had said wrong. A while later, he finally heard Wen Kexing say softly, "No one else in this world understands High Mountains and Running River, to put it that way, it's correct...but also incorrect."

He looked at Zhou Zishu, but Zhou Zishu avoided his gaze. Wen Kexing did not say anything else, and continued to follow close on Ye Baiyi's heels.

All of a sudden, Ye Baiyi's footsteps faltered. He stopped walking, listening intently in silence, raised a palm to halt them in their tracks and commanded in a low voice, "Be silent."

The hand which Zhou Zishu was grabbing Zhang Chengling with suddenly tightened. Thereafter, the few of them lowered their heads at the same time, sensing that the ground beneath their feets seemed to be shaking. An unknown buzzing sounded, and Wen Kexing immediately shot Zhou Zishu a melancholic look that said "I told you that this glutton was unreliable, but you didn't believe me". However, Zhou Zishu did not have the time to care about him, because at the next moment, a strong surge of energy burst forth from beneath the ground. As if it was going to split, the earth quaked vigorously. The few of them leapt into the air together.

Keeping his hold on Zhang Chengling, Zhou Zishu lightly pushed at a small branch split from the arm of a large tree with his foot to gain momentum, but as though it was fake, that branch immediately snapped once Zhou Zishu tapped it and fell straight down. Silently aghast, Zhou Zishu whirled in the air, hooking the tip of his shoe around the tree trunk. Yet, in the blink of an eye, that great tree also toppled with a crash.

Zhang Chengling buried his face in Zhou Zishu's chest, suddenly recalling an idiom that his tutor had taught him when he was younger-depend on the mountain, and the mountain will collapse; depend on the tree, and the tree will shake.

So it was true...indeed, if one did not listen to the advice of his elders, the miseries he suffered were as innumerous as money spent freely[19].

The land collapsed; it was like an ominous mouth had gaped in the ground, about to swallow everyone. At the last moment, Zhou Zishu borrowed momentum from the huge tree that had collapsed, and glided out about four to five zhang away. Right as he had just gotten his feet under him, even before he had the time to exhale a breath, his brow furrowed tightly-in the blink of an eye, Wen Kexing and Ye Baiyi had disappeared!

Then there was a sudden nothingness beneath his feet, and he plummeted downwards. Instantly, Zhou Zishu understood why they had all vanished, and in the split-second, he only had time to shield Zhang Chengling with his embrace, the pitch darkness all around him. As if it were alive, the spot where he had missed a step earlier sealed itself back up unnoticed.

He did not know how deep this pit was-Zhou Zishu silently questioned, did this not mean that they were falling to their deaths? Thus he abruptly gathered his qi, and slapped his palm on the rock wall diagonally downwards from them. Using an unknown amount of force, he smashed a crater into the rock wall. Chunks of rock and dirt went flying, but the speed at which they were falling was reduced by quite a bit. Zhou Zishu took this opportunity to kick the wall lightly, demonstrating his expert mastery of that qinggong which left not a single trace.

Except that his figure jerked to a halt for a second, like it had stuck itself to the wall; ultimately, he had overestimated himself a little, and forgotten that his martial ability was long incomparable to what it used to be. Combined with carrying such a big lad like Zhang Chengling, this single strike caused his internal qi to stagnate where it was vital. Not good, Zhou Zishu inwardly thought, but glimpsed the rock wall which he had smashed in quake once again. Before he could react, a sharp blade popped out of a crack in the rock wall, and nearly speared the two of them like candied hawthorns on a stick.

The two people suffered a fright; with no other choice, Zhou Zishu could only withdraw the force he exerted on his leg, and let them continue falling.

Luckily, they were already nearing the bottom at this instant. Zhou Zishu landed on his feet and let go of Zhang Chengling. Thankfully, the small luminescent pearl[20] he had used to illuminate their surroundings when he had fallen into the underground cave with Wen Kexing that time was still on him, and although there was only a weak glow, it was enough for him to see. Zhou Zishu did not know how he had so much affinity for tunnels; he thought, could it be that his luck in life clashed with that of a gopher[21]?

At this moment, Zhang Chengling piped up in a small voice, "Shifu…"

Zhou Zishu shushed him and whispered in reply, "Don't make a sound."

But Zhang Chengling was so frightened that even his voice had changed pitch. "No...shifu, look…"

This time round, he did not need Zhang Chengling to point it out. Zhou Zishu had seen it too-in this narrow, cramped stone chamber, not far away from them, there were two glowing eyes looking back at them.

Zhou Zishu raised the luminescent pearl, and clearly made out the entirety of that thing-it was a gigantic python as thick as a man's waist, flicking its forked tongue as it stared at them predatorily.

Fortuitous events did not come in pairs, and trouble never travelled alone; Zhou Zishu wet his lips, and at this moment, deeply understood what was meant by the ability to even get cool water stuck between one's teeth when drinking[22].

For some unknown reason, when frightened to the core, Zhang Chengling talked more instead, nattering endlessly by his ear, "Shi...shifu, I...I heard that pythons move very swiftly, it's impossible for an ordinary person to dodge. It...it probably has bad teeth, before it eats people, it always has to flatten them by squeezing them, once...once targeted by an python, the person will be strangled to death, and all their bones will be crushed, their intestines squished into a ball, turning into a sack of only skin and nothing else[23], and then when it feels like it's finally easily digestible, it'll swallow the person whole…"

Zhou Zishu reached out and pressed a hand on the flexible Baiyi sword at his waist, grinding his teeth together as he uttered, "Shut, up!"

Then, amidst Zhang Chengling's desolate howling, that python raised its head and swiftly struck at them.

The python was even taller than Zhou Zishu when it rose to full height. Opening its maw, it swooped in to bite Zhou Zishu's throat. Flinging Zhang Chengling into a corner, Zhou Zishu bent and ducked, unsheathed the Baiyi sword in the same instant, and brought it down onto the back of this beast's neck.

When Baiyi's blade collided with that great snake's skin, sparks of friction seemed to fly; the skin on the python's neck was not broken in the slightest. Its tail flicked, and barely missed Zhou Zishu's shoulder as it passed. Had Zhou Zishu not dodged quickly enough, this one move could have broken his neck. With a thump, the snake's tail landed on the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust and debris.

Zhou Zishu retreated three steps in succession, his heart growing cold. He knew that if it had not been Baiyi, but any ordinary sword in his hand, it would have been snapped by this single strike.

Instantly, he sensed that something was amiss, and a thought suddenly flashed through his mind-when that python had opened its maw and struck out at him, he had not smelled the stench of blood! These animals ate their prey raw, with fur and blood whole, all year round. How could it not have the stench of blood in its mouth?

Curled up in a ball but with his neck outstretched, Zhang Chengling observed it closely for a while, before he suddenly exclaimed, "Shifu, this looks like an artificial snake!"

It would have been alright if he had only spoken; that great snake jerked with vigour, arched its neck, and turned towards him, hissing. But Zhang Chengling did not seem as scared as he had been earlier, and dumbly jumped from the ground to his feet. Not forgetting to dust his pants off as he pointed at that python, which was staring predatorily at him and ready to take a bite out of him, he said, "Shifu, look, this snake looks so real…"

Before he could finish his sentence, the python had already struck out at him.

Earlier, Zhang Chengling was terrified, but upon taking a look and realising it was fake now, he started to become negligent, as if he felt that since an artificial snake did not have to eat people, there was no danger. Zhou Zishu did not know what to tell him-was there actually any difference between the snake turning him into a sack, and swallowing him after he had been turned into a sack?

But Zhou Zishu could not simply stand aside and watch, as Zhang Chengling was about to lose his puny life. He jumped from the flat ground, leaping at the side of the snake's head with his arms outstretched on either side of him like wings, and knocked the snake's head askew with a single kick. That snake, made of some unknown material, was astonishingly sturdy beyond all comparison.

Upon landing, Zhou Zishu felt his calf start to vaguely hurt.

This time round, Zhang Chengling did not dare to say anything.

In the instant that Zhou Zishu had landed, he had glimpsed a dark passageway behind the python's body. An idea had formed in his mind. Now, he instructed Zhang Chengling in a quiet voice, "A while later, I'll distract it. You'll run towards the cave over there, but don't enter it. Wait for me by the entrance, do you hear?"

Zhang Chengling nodded his head obediently.

The great snake shook its head, as if it had gotten its bearings back. Zhou Zishu shoved Zhang Chengling hard. "Go!"

Closing his eyes, Zhang Chengling charged forwards like a headless housefly. Almost like he was demonstrating how mice scuttled, he nearly bumped right into the python. Heart palpitating, Zhou Zishu hastily thrust his sword. It struck the python in those eyes made of some unknown material and gouged one out. Unable to concern itself with Zhang Chengling for the moment, the great python sprung forward to battle Zhou Zishu to the death-of course, since it was not alive in the first place, it was difficult for it to die another time.

Zhou Zishu climbed upwards along the rock wall, sucked in a sudden breath, and leapt two, three zhang higher. That python chased after him in relentless pursuit. Out of the corner of his eye, Zhou Zishu glimpsed that Zhang Chengling had made it to the entrance of the cave and was looking in his direction with a face full of anxiety. Letting go of his worry, he kicked off from the rock wall hard, flipping through the air over to him. His body bent like he had been snapped into two, and he dived headfirst into that narrow, cramped space.

No matter how intricately it had been constructed, that artificial python was still a puppet. It followed him over, but that space was truly too narrow, and its waist-which could even break a sword-was not as flexible as Zhou Zishu's.

There was a "crack" in mid-air. Zhou Zishu landed, rolling to the side once he touched the ground-but he had worried unnecessarily, since that snake had only been shortened by half a segment. The half that was still connected was wedged in the narrow entrance, and its giant tail, wiggling in mid-air, looked slightly comical.

Zhang Chengling instantly sprung at him. "Shifu, you haven't been injured, have you?"

Zhou Zishu looked at him without saying anything. Zhang Chengling was extremely worried, his eyes blinking. If it weren't for the fact that his shifu's authority was too mighty most of the time, Zhang Chengling would have pounced on him and felt him up and down to ensure that he wasn't missing any parts.

Zhou Zishu sighed, and slapped him on the back of his skull, saying. "Internal injury-and that's also caused by how you've angered me. Follow closely behind me."

Zhang Chengling bobbed his head, and cautiously followed him into the entrance that the great snake had been guarding.

This was a very narrow segment of corridor with a door ahead of them. Zhou Zishu stopped at the door, stretching out an arm to halt Zhang Chengling in his tracks, and instructed him in a low voice, "Stand close to the wall, to one side."-In such a narrow space, if there was indeed a hidden mechanism that sprung out once he pushed open the door, it would be truly unavoidable.

Zhou Zishu hesitated for a moment, and to err on the side of caution, he instructed Zhang Chengling again, "Hold your breath."

Then he nudged open the small door with the greatest caution. The hinges squeaked, dust cascaded, and Zhou Zishu's entire body tensed, but nothing happened at all.

He raised the luminescent pearl in his hand and gazed out, and saw that it was a small stone chamber shrouded entirely in dust. Two people stood in the corner, but they were not moving in the slightest. Zhou Zishu grabbed the front of Zhang Chengling's robes and carefully edged closer to those two, just to discover when he neared that they were not people, but two human-like puppets.

They were about the size of actual humans and took the forms of a man and a woman. They had been constructed with precise detail down to every hair, and looked like they were alive: their eyes were gazing at the door, as if they were really eying these two trespassers.

Zhou Zishu frowned; no wonder this place was named Puppet Manor. This manor did not seem to have any sign of life, and had odd-looking puppets everywhere. With the prior lesson of the artificial snake, Zhou Zishu did not dare to be careless. Observing the joints of the puppets, he noted that they looked more flexible than that great snake's. He was probably unable to reuse his old tricks. In a low voice, he told Zhang Chengling, "Walk ahead of me, slowly."

Following his instructions, Zhang Chengling trod on cautiously as Zhou Zishu walked backwards with his back against Zhang Chengling's, his eyes never leaving those two puppets even for a single second.

At the other end of the stone chamber, Zhang Chengling whispered, "Shifu, there's a door ahead."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zishu held his sword horizontally in front of himself, told Zhang Chengling to make way, turned and pushed open that small, well-aged door. Before him was another corridor, the end too far away to be in sight. Zhou Zishu said in a low voice, "Let's move."

The two people entered the corridor one after the other. Before they left, Zhou Zishu hesitated for a second-those two puppets were like any other puppets in the world, lifeless and unable to move. Yet, for some unknown reason, he felt the hairs on his back stand on end, and reflexively closed the small door behind them, latching it shut.

Thus, he did not see that in the instant he closed the door, the eyes of the two puppets in the stone chamber darted at the same time, as if chasing after his retreating figure.

This tiny passageway seemed to throw sounds around; their footsteps echoed, making the place appear especially lonely and desolate, but also especially sinister and gloomy. Abruptly, inexplicably, Zhang Chengling's goosebumps rose all over his body. He piped up quietly, "Shifu, I'm...I'm a little scared."

He regretted his words the moment they left his mouth, thinking that Zhou Zishu was going to reprimand him. Yet, Zhou Zishu lifted a casual hand and placed his palm on his shoulder. His hand was so thin, but so warm; Zhang Chengling turned his head to the side, and by the weak light of the luminescent pearl, saw Zhou Zishu's side profile. It put his heart at ease.

It was unknown how long the stone corridor was; just when Zhou Zishu was running out of patience, they finally reached the end of it. Zhou Zishu thought to himself that he did not know where Ye Baiyi and Wen Kexing had gone earlier, but he was not particularly worried either. If there were people who could survive even when the sky came crashing down and the ground collapsed, it would be those two. Rather, it was slightly more tough for himself, who was bringing Zhang Chengling, this little rascal who only made trouble at critical moments, along with him.

At the end of the stone corridor was another door. This time, it was an enormous door; it was like his visual field had suddenly been broadened. Zhou Zishu yanked Zhang Chengling behind him and pushed the door open-it looked to be a great hall, an empty great hall with not a single thing in it at all. Zhou Zishu's gaze drifted downwards, and he noticed that the ground was in fact a dark grey colour.

Zhang Chengling stuck his head out to peer over his side, looking at his shifu with a questioning gaze, not knowing why Zhou Zishu stopped here.

Accustomed to operating cautiously, Zhou Zishu extracted a silver crumb from his robes and flicked it out. The silver crumb landed on the dark grey ground, rolled twice, and nothing happened-he let down his guard slightly, but right at this moment, a drop of water fell from the ceiling. Under the surveillance of two pairs of eyes, that drop of water landed right on the silver he had thrown out, and thereafter, dissolved where it was on the ground!

Then, something even more terrifying occurred-drop by drop, that corrosive water touched down on different spots, growing more and more concentrated, until it looked like it had started to rain.

Zhou Zishu understood then why the ground was that sort of ominous dark grey colour. If a person was doused by this sort of fatal rainwater, even their bones would be reduced to ashes.

His heart sank-in this world, there were qinggong techniques one could use to traverse snow without leaving a mark, but there were definitely none a person could use to drift through rain and not have a single drop touch him.

Zhou Zishu took a step back, and said, "This road is impassable. We're turning back."

They had just turned around when they heard another set of footsteps coming from the long stone corridor.

Tap—tap—tap—

Zhang Chengling was nearly clinging to Zhou Zishu with his whole body as he stammered, "Shishishishi...shifu, is...is this a haunting?"

Zhou Zishu raised a finger, signalling him to shut his mouth. Turning to Zhang Chengling, he said, "Close that door, in case we accidentally enter it again. Quickly do so, then hide by the door, and don't make a sound."

Zhang Chengling instantly did as he instructed. Those footsteps were getting quicker and quicker, more and more tightly clustered, eventually morphing from a sedate walk into a mad sprint. All of a sudden, there was no sound at all. The light of the luminescent pearl could only illuminate a small patch of ground in front of him, so Zhou Zishu had no other choice but to concentrate and prick up his ears. However, in this cramped stone corridor, other than Zhang Chengling, he could not hear a second person breathing.

A flash of light sliced through the darkness. Reflexively, Zhou Zishu raised his Baiyi sword to parry. His opponent's heavy sword slammed down, the force of it jarring the juncture of his thumb and forefinger numb. In the split-second, Zhou Zishu caught a clear glimpse of who the other person was, and cold sweat poured down his back-that person who was swinging the heavy sword in his hand at him was none other than the male puppet in that small stone chamber earlier.

Zhou Zishu's mind whirred at high speed. Instantly, he realised that the person who had designed this place had a devious mind: if they had triggered a mechanism in the small stone chamber just now, the designer feared that he would immediately retreat with Zhang Chengling in tow. That area was vast and empty, and there was no doubt that the puppets could not perform qinggong. Even though it would have been tough, to an expert who could handle the artificial python, it would not have been a hopeless situation.

It was as though the designer had predicted it exactly. All he had to do was to lead them into this hopeless situation where they could not advance even one step. In this cramped corridor, even if one had godly, world-shaking martial prowess, it was difficult to fully utilise it; his aim was to block off all the avenues available to a person.

Zhou Zishu inwardly bemoaned the situation, withdrew his strength and then slashed forward. Baiyi's blade collided with the puppet's arm, but it could not make a dent-whether it was made of the same material as that great snake had been or not, the puppet was undoubtedly just as tough. Without waiting for Zhou Zishu to react, that puppet mechanically swung its sword at him again.

Zhou Zishu timed it exactly right, made a light sound of exertion, and executed a brilliant maneuver. Gracefully, Baiyi twirled in a dexterous flip, blade parrying blade. Exerting great strength, he channelled his continuous flow of internal energy onto the hallowed weapon, and cleaved the heavy sword in that puppet's hand right into two.

Zhang Chengling had never seen this level of technique before, and held his breath as he fixed his eyes on it.

However, that puppet did not care at all. His fingers opened mechanically to abandon his heavy sword, and then he swung his arm over-he did not fear pain or death, his whole body available for use as a weapon. Mind boggling at this situation, Zhou Zishu grabbed that arm swinging at him. If it were a normal person, their arm would have been dislocated by Zhou Zishu's single tug, but this puppet was extremely sturdy. Instead, it pushed at Zhou Zishu, forcing him to retreat until his back was pressed up against the door to that stone chamber behind him.

Zhou Zishu withdrew his hand and shrunk back. With a boom, the puppet had punched a huge hole in the door. He could not have been more thankful that he had prepared for any future problems earlier and told Zhang Chengling to close this door, but at the next moment, he could no longer bring himself to rejoice-behind this male puppet, he saw a female puppet. This thing looked like she was unable to turn, and could only walk forward.

So she walked forward, gliding directly towards Zhang Chengling, who had retreated to the other corner earlier in order to get out of Zhou Zishu and the male puppet's way.

Alarmed, Zhou Zishu ducked the horizontal arc of the male puppet's arm, and threw himself at Zhang Chengling. The female puppet appeared to be moving faster than he was; he had only just managed to shield Zhang Chengling when the long flute[24] in the puppet's hand swept towards him like a stick. The place was too small, and with no way to avoid the blow, Zhou Zishu absorbed the brunt of it with his back, instantly coughing up a mouthful of blood.

Arms braced against the wall, the fresh blood in his mouth dripped onto Zhang Chengling's shoulder. His body pitched forward involuntarily and nearly squashed that youth underneath him. At this point in time, Zhang Chengling ignored his own fear, and hurriedly extended his hands to support him. Pressing Zhang Chengling down, Zhou Zishu laboriously dodged to the side, and the female puppet's second strike zoomed past his head, narrowly missing his scalp.

His Baiyi nearly slipped out of his hand. The seven Three-Autumn Nails of the Seven Acupunctures in his chest tremored violently, and his vision went momentarily black.

Zhang Chengling raged, "You dare to hurt my shifu? I'll fight you!"

He threw himself at that puppet without care. This tyke was always timid when he should have been daring, but daring when he should have been timid; Zhou Zishu was a beat too late to hold him back, and watched as Zhang Chengling ferociously leapt at that aloof female puppet. Unarmed, it was as if he was going to bite her with his teeth.

"Little tyke…" Zhou Zishu wanted to say something, but his own blood choked him once he opened his mouth and he could not stop coughing.

Right at this instant, the wall of the stone corridor next to the female puppet suddenly toppled with a crash. Unable to dodge in time, the female puppet was crushed underneath it, still waving the metal flute around in hand. A hopelessly dishevelled person barged in coughing, dusting himself off as he said, "What is this godforsaken pla...A-Xu!"

Zhou Zishu let out a breath of relief, and very nearly failed to inhale the next breath. This was the first time in his life that he was this glad to see Wen Kexing.

On the ground, that female puppet was still extending her leg; at first, Wen Kexing did not notice it and nearly stepped onto it, only leaping away when the flute sticking close to the floor swept at him. Behind him, the male puppet had already extracted its arm from the doorway and was turning in this direction. Wen Kexing picked Zhang Chengling up, flung him into the hole in the wall with a whirl of his arm, then bent to pick up Zhou Zishu in a bridal carry and jumped in close behind.

The male puppet ran over to where they were. Wen Kexing turned, eying that puppet guardedly, but that puppet seemed to be capable of moving in only two directions: it could only either advance or retreat, and did not have the ability to turn left or right. Unable to locate the humans, it kept turning in circles on the spot. The long flute in the female puppet's hand landed a blow on his leg, and like the sharpest spear turned onto the most durable shield, they instantly came into conflict. With a loud crash, the two puppets toppled onto their fronts. On the receiving end of an attack, the male puppet jabbed at the female puppet's head with his elbow, and then they started massacring each other in internal strife.

Wen Kexing finally heaved a sigh of relief, and instructed Zhou Zishu in a low voice, "Don't talk." He sealed a few of Zhou Zishu's acupoints and set him down, frowning when he saw the bloodstains on his front. He told Zhang Chengling, "Little tyke, go over to that opening and take a look, if there's some kind of…"

He paused, not knowing how to describe it. Gesturing with his hands, he said, "Round, ball-like thing about a foot tall rolling towards you, run. Come back and tell me about it."

Zhang Chengling made a noise of understanding, and asked, "Senior, my shifu, he…"

For once, Wen Kexing was annoyed, and cut him off abruptly, "He's fine, he won't die."

Zhang Chengling asked, "Senior, that thing you described, what is it?"

"I don't know either," Wen Kexing sighed, and pointed at the segment of wall that had been blasted open. "That's the result of that thing exploding."

Zhang Chengling looked in the direction his finger was pointing in, and was instantly troubled. Realising that this senior, who appeared very capable, had also been pursued to this location, he immediately ran to the other end without a single word and nervously stood guard there.

Wen Kexing reached out to open Zhou Zishu's robes, but his wrist was pinned by the latter. In a hoarse voice, Zhou Zishu laughed, "What are you doing? Taking advantage of me when it's opportune?"

Wen Kexing slapped his hand away. Poking him lightly in the chest, he said coolly, "Talk a couple of lines less. You're about to kick the bucket, and you're still so talkative."

Zhou Zishu felt like he had come full circle in his life: he had just been called a rice bin by a glutton, and now, a chatterbox was claiming that he was talkative.

Wen Kexing gingerly unfastened his robe. When his gaze lighted upon the nails in Zhou Zishu's chest, the light in his eyes unconsciously flickered. On the other hand, Zhou Zishu did not care at all. In between breaths, his chest and back felt like they were on fire. At once, he knew that the damage he had suffered was not superficial; he had most likely broken a bone and hurt his lungs. Forcing himself to hold back his coughing, he made himself take extremely shallow breaths, in case he aggravated his injury.

Wen Kexing flipped him over, saw the injury on his back, and could not help but suck in a breath. Frostily, he said, "An inch more to the side, and that thing could have broken your spine, do you believe it?"

Voice as thin as a thread, Zhou Zishu said, "Don't talk nonsense. If I could have my spine broken by a fake human being, I won't have the face to continue living."

Wen Kexing humphed. Placing his hand on his back, he examined his injury closely. A while later, he sighed. "Are you stupid? Didn't think that it would hurt?"

His fingers pressed down on a spot, and Zhou Zishu let out a low grunt at once, in too much pain to speak. After a while, he finally replied through gritted teeth, "Why...don't you ask me to hit you with a stick, and give it a try yourself…"

Wen Kexing fell into one of his rare bouts of silence. He helped Zhou Zishu to sit up straight, laid his hand against his back, and channelled true qi over to him. He did not dare to use too much force, out of fear that he might rattle the nails in his chest like how Ye Baiyi had the other time.

In his whole life, Wen Kexing had practiced martial arts with the purpose of killing and hurting; this was the first time he was using it so meticulously and carefully to try and save someone. He was as tense as a boorish butcher doing delicate needlework, and not long later, sweat began beading at the sides of his forehead.

Slightly less than half a shichen later, he retracted his qi and let go of Zhou Zishu, positioning him so that his shoulder was leaning against the wall. Knowing that his own physical strength was now limited, Zhou Zishu did not waste more of it and simply closed his eyes to rest. The bit of blood at the corner of this mouth had not been wiped clean, and its presence made that pale face look even more shockingly ashen in contrast.

Wen Kexing gazed at him for a while. Suddenly, he couldn't stop himself from bending down to lightly take the corner of Zhou Zishu's mouth between his lips, and lap up the drop of blood that had landed there. He seemed to exhale a sigh as he sunk his fingers into the hair at Zhou Zishu's temple, their breaths extremely close to each other's. Zhou Zishu had opened his eyes sometime ago, but he did not waste any energy by ducking away from Wen Kexing. Instead, he merely said in a low voice, "What lowlife manners, taking advantage of others' misfortune."

Wen Kexing did not even look up at him, and returned his compliment with an equally low voice, "Said as if you were a gentleman."

The way he smiled and spoke was like a murmur; Zhou Zishu could not maintain his pretense of calm any longer, and turned his face away with some discomfort. But his jaw was gripped in place by Wen Kexing, who asked, "Do you have a conscience? I healed your injury. Do I not get even this little perk?"

Zhou Zishu was silent for a while, before he finally said, "I don't have plans to sell my body for the moment."

Wen Kexing chuckled. "Do you know what happens when you're not as strong as someone?"

Zhou Zishu arched an eyebrow and stared at him like he was the pinnacle of human shamelessness. Wen Kexing drew close to his ear, and he heard him whisper, "I'll-force-a-transaction."

Zhou Zishu grimaced. "Your spirits are too high."

Wen Kexing fixed his eyes on him for a while, the meaning of his gaze unclear, before letting him go. Crossing his arms behind his head and stretching his legs to rest his feet on the wall on the other side, he laid down and said smugly, "But you can put it on your tab."

Fatigued, Zhou Zishu stopped talking nonsense with him. He closed his eyes and blearily passed out into sleep.

Wen Kexing knew his own limitations well. Other than Ye Baiyi, none of them understood this unfathomable witchcraft that was the art of the vanishing door, and they might come across unknown dangers if they stumbled around like headless houseflies. At present, Zhang Chengling was a little tyke who hadn't even matured enough to grow body hair, and Zhou Zishu was grievously injured. They might as well adopt a tactic of countering infinite volatile changes with stagnancy; to rest and recover where they were, catch their breaths before thinking of a solution.

With how stifled it was, Zhou Zishu's breathing was very quiet, but yet very even, like he had fallen asleep. Wen Kexing turned his head over to gaze at him, and suddenly recalled the words of the Great Shaman of Nanjiang-"If you incapacitate yourself by ridding yourself of your martial ability, I might have a fifth of confidence that I can save your life." Involuntarily, he sat up straight, channelled his martial energy into his palm and raised it slowly. Maybe…

Just as his palm hovered in hesitation, a hand suddenly plunged out of thin air. Icy fingers came to rest on his wrist. Zhou Zishu had opened his eyes sometime ago, and their gazes met in this cramped space.

Zhou Zishu's gaze was very calm. Not a single fluctuation in tone could be detected in his voice as he asked, "What are you doing?"

Wen Kexing did not speak.

All of a sudden, Zhou Zishu sighed. Moving his gaze away, he said, almost in a non-sequitur, "Others don't understand, but do you not as well?"

Wen Kexing slowly dropped his gaze. A long while later, he gently let his palm fall to the side.

"Yes, I understand." As he spoke, he abruptly sent his arm downwards, and a solid depression half an inch deep in the shape of his hand was imprinted into the ground underneath his palm. Like he was trying hard to convince himself, he repeated once more, "I understand…"

Zhang Chengling did not know when he had fallen asleep, nor did he know how long he had slept for, but he was suddenly jolted into wakefulness by a great noise from not too far away. He jumped to his feet in an instant, turning his neck to warily scan all directions. Then, a hand pressed down on his shoulder. Zhang Chengling jolted, whipped his head back, and discovered that it was his shifu, who had not been able to even stand a day ago.

Zhou Zishu coughed twice, pressed Zhang Chengling still, and instructed, "Don't fidget. Follow us."

When Zhang Chengling turned his head, Wen Kexing had followed Zhou Zishu out. Zhang Chengling looked at one of them, then the other, and asked, "Shifu, has your injury healed?"

Zhou Zishu replied without even looking back at him. "Am I not human?"

Zhang Chengling thought about it. True, with an injury that severe-brushing off Zhou Zishu's unkind tone, he anxiously went up again to ask, "Then, shifu…are you able to walk on your own?"

Zhou Zishu inhaled deeply. It wasn't only his body which was hurting; he felt that his brain was also starting to ache, too. "What else do you think I'm doing?"

Wen Kexing turned his head aside to laugh. Zhang Chengling scratched his head and said, "Shifu, I mean...you're so severely injured…"

Zhou Zishu glanced at him expressionlessly. "Do you think I should be delicately frail for a moment in this godforsaken place? Unless you'd like to carry me on your back?"

Zhang Chengling was just about to demonstrate his sense of filial piety when Wen Kexing immediately spoke up. "I'll carry you on my back. Or in my arms, that's fine too."

Zhou Zishu turned his head aside to cough, pressed on the injury on his chest with his shoulders hunched, and said shortly, "Don't talk nonsense."

Making their way along the underground passage, the three of them cautiously neared the place where the gigantic crash had come from. For the sake of caution, Zhou Zishu wrapped his palm around the luminescent pearl, plunging their surroundings into darkness. Wen Kexing stepped forward to tug at Zhou Zishu, pulling him to one side. Reaching out, he took Zhou Zishu's Baiyi sword, and glided a finger along the blade. A hint of appreciation bloomed on his face. Then, with a quiver of his wrist, the tip of the sword trembled slightly, and the long sword was thrust out.

Blindsided, the person around the corner grunted, and extended a finger to flick the tip of his sword off-target. Wen Kexing instantly switched tactics. In Zhou Zishu's hands, that flexible sword moved in clear and righteous strokes, but in Wen Kexing's hands, it was extremely wicked and unearthly, as vexing to counter as a malignant cyst that had pervaded the bone.

Quick as lightning, the two exchanged about ten moves in the darkness. However, it was Zhou Zishu who suddenly spoke up after a moment's listening with his brow furrowed. "Senior Ye?"

The other party humphed lightly. Zhou Zishu raised the luminescent pearl once more, and illuminated that uniquely foul expression of Ye Baiyi's. Wen Kexing only withdrew his sword then, and cheerily saluted him with a hand over his fist. "It was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. A pure misunderstanding."

He was clearly lying-Zhou Zishu could guess who the opponent was based on sound alone, much less Wen Kexing, who had personally been exchanging blows with him. Clearly, Wen Kexing was dishonestly borrowing the cover of darkness to dish out a beating as he had truthfully wished to do so; it was evident that he still had some persistent preconceived notions against this old senior with a mysterious background.

Ye Baiyi swept an eye across Zhou Zishu, and frowned. "How have you ended up in this half-dead state…"

Zhou Zishu was saving any morsel of energy whenever he could; slumping on his shoulder against the rock wall, he gave in before Ye Baiyi could criticise him, "This junior is too incapable, and is a rice bin."

Ye Baiyi glanced at him in surprise, nodded, and said, "Consider it that you have some self-awareness." He surveyed the surroundings, then beckoned to the three of them. "Come this way."

Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing knew that this old man was very capable[25], and were happy for him to take the lead. The two of them provided support by bringing up the rear, trapping Zhang Chengling in the middle. As they walked, Wen Kexing plastered himself to Zhou Zishu out of the blue, hooked an arm around his waist and silently took an arm of his to prop it across his shoulders.

Zhou Zishu glanced at him and frowned. "Have I been crippled?"

Wen Kexing sighed, "That old freak is here, what are you overtaxing yourself for? Let's keep walking."

It was odd; on their own, the two of them ran into danger multiple times, and they felt that this place had as many paths as a haunted cave. However, as they trailed after Ye Baiyi, the journey was oddly smooth-sailing. The four of them walked around in innumerous circles, and safely reached an area that looked like a large hall. Everything was still and peaceful when they had entered, but yet, a moment later, countless round balls about a foot in diameter came rolling out at them from all directions.

Reflexively, Wen Kexing booted Zhang Chengling behind him, then picked up Zhou Zishu in a bridal carry and glided three to four zhang out. These things had made him suffer immensely; manufactured in some unknown way, they exploded once they came into contact with something. For a very long while, Wen Kexing had been scampering around in the underground passages as they pursued him, feeling like he had become a large rat.

Yet, Ye Baiyi was utterly calm. Watching those spheres surge at them like the tide, he abruptly gave a loud, short shout, and delivered a palm strike through the air in front of him. He was using some unknown technique, but Zhang Chengling's eyes were sharp, and he noticed that the stone tiles by his feet had shattered in an instant. The first ball that rolled over was the first to suffer damage; it exploded, and immediately thereafter, created a chain reaction of continuous explosions. Ye Baiyi's hands were braced in the same spot, appearing to have erected an unseen wall that blocked them from the chaos, which was almost a force of nature in itself.

Wen Kexing's expression became more solemn as he regarded Ye Baiyi, who had his back turned to them, with a thoughtful gaze.

Thereafter, they heard Ye Baiyi command, "Show yourself!"

He reached out a hand and made a grabbing motion. A large tile of stone fell from the wall of the enormous hall. The figure of a person flashed into view.

Zhou Zishu and the rest looked in the direction of Ye Baiyi's gaze, and were temporarily stunned.

T/N: Certain representations of characters with physical disability in this chapter might be uncomfortable to some readers.

By his features, that person looked about thirty years of age. Surprisingly, he was a quadriplegic; his limbs had shrunk to the size of those of a child's, his exposed arms atrophied and wrinkled. His head was disproportionately huge and his neck was tilted to the side, as though it could not straighten one bit. He did not resemble a human at all, and looked greatly frightening. He sat on a wooden wheelchair, which slowly rolled out from that hole.

Ye Baiyi's forehead creased slowly as he stared at that person. All of a sudden, he said, "You are not Long Que."

Long Que and his Puppet Manor was a legend that had been circulating in the jianghu for a few decades; there was no way that the real Long Que could be this young. That person on the wheelchair emitted a screeching laugh, and said, "Of course, I am not."

His eyes were extremely wide. Wen Kexing furtively whispered to Zhou Zishu, "Look at his eyes, don't they look like they're about to fall out?"

Zhou Zishu felt that Wen Kexing had nothing better to do, as though Wen Kexing needed to jump at every opportunity to say something pointless no matter the situation, in order to feel like he had recouped whatever he had invested. He ignored him.

The person on the wheelchair screeched, "Who are you? You dare to barge into the Puppet Manor?"

Ye Baiyi gave this person a once-over, and was of the opinion that this person had a peculiar temperament and did not look to be a good person. Forcing himself to be patient with great difficulty, he spoke in an appropriate tone of voice, "I have matters to see Long Que about."

From Ye Baiyi's perspective, he was speaking pleasantly, but to the ears of others, he was still speaking in that same unpleasantly stiff and arrogant manner. The person in the wheelchair turned his head around. Giant eyes regarded him, and a while later, he finally humphed coldly, saying, "That old numbskull Long Que, he's been dead long enough that even what's left of his bones have decomposed. Why are you looking for him?"

The trench between Ye Baiyi's eyebrows was growing deeper and deeper. He stared at that person and asked, "Long Que is dead? How did he die?"

That person on the wheelchair said smugly, "Of course, I was the one who killed him."

This was too unbelievable; trespassing the Puppet Manor made the three great experts of the present age extremely bedraggled, and they had nearly died within it. How could he, a person who couldn't even walk, enter without being harmed at all and kill the master of the Puppet Manor?

Evidently, Ye Baiyi did not know what 'tact' was; he looked this person up and down, and said, "Don't talk bullshit. If you can kill Long Que, a termite can shake an enormous tree. Unless you're Long Que's son-then he'd lie down, stay still and let you hack away at him."

Once he heard this, Wen Kexing knew that things were going to get worse, and immediately told Zhang Chengling, "Get out of here, quick, run!"

Indeed, even before his words died down, that strange person on the wheelchair roared in rage, "You're seeking your own death!"

He raised his hand and clapped it on the armrest. Human shapes, so many that they appeared as a tightly-packed mass, protruded from the four walls of the great hall. Thereafter, ten-odd bare-headed, polished puppets with ferocious expressions swarmed out from all directions. As he ran towards the exit, Zhang Chengling was unable to avoid them in time, and crashed straight into a puppet. That puppet was rather uncourteous, and rotated its elbow to split his skull open.

Zhou Zishu instantly flicked his finger, hitting Zhang Chengling directly in the knee so that he collapsed to his knees with a 'thud' and just barely dodged the attack. Zhang Chengling scrambled over to him, surveyed their surroundings, slack-jawed, and exclaimed, "Shifu, are we in Hell?"

Zhou Zishu sighed, knowing that he was fated to only ever brush shoulders with the word "pampered". Slapping Wen Kexing's arm away, he slotted Zhang Chengling between them and stood back to back with Wen Kexing, speaking in a low voice, "Of these artificial puppets, one is tough, and the other can't be killed. But there are also benefits to them."

Wen Kexing asked curiously, "There are still benefits?"

Zhou Zishu said, "One can't jump, and the other is stupid."

In the time he took to speak, two puppets had launched separate attacks from the two sides. Wen Kexing picked Zhang Chengling up. As though he had a telepathic connection with Zhou Zishu, they leapt in two separate directions at the same time. Instantly, those puppets lost their targets, crashed hard into each other, and toppled to the ground, entangled.

Wen Kexing swept his gaze over them. With a lecherous smile on his face, he covered Zhang Chengling's eyes and sighed, "Looking at this top and this bottom[27] struggling, it's like watching a pornographic picture start to move."

Once Zhou Zishu landed, a puppet brought a huge stick down at his head. He flipped away to avoid it, feeling a burning pain from his chest to his throat, as though even the slightest cough could bring a mouthful of blood up, and gritted his teeth tight to hold his coughing back.

That puppet missed his strike, and continued pursuing him in dissatisfaction. It swept the stick at his chest, and Zhou Zishu bent backwards at the waist to avoid the blow. Spying the movement, Wen Kexing could not help but murmur, "That waist is sure flexible."

Before that puppet could deliver its third strike, he lifted a hand and tossed Zhang Chengling over through the air. As he watched Zhang Chengling flail his arms and legs in panic, looking for all like a large toad experiencing muscle spasms, he spoke up and reminded him, "Have you eaten the sword techniques I taught you together with your meals?"

Zhang Chengling went "ah", and haphazardly threw himself on the puppet that was closing in on Zhou Zishu. Landing from above, he managed to cause that puppet to lose its balance, and boy and puppet toppled together. He jumped to his feet hastily, rubbing at where his ass hurt from falling on it, and asked, flustered from panic, "Senior, which…which move should I use?"

Zhou Zishu, who was taking the chance to catch his breath, grabbed his collar and threw him at Wen Kexing again, saying, "Stop adding trouble to the mix."

The situation was still decent, for the three of them who had merely been dragged into this trouble. It was slightly worse for Ye Baiyi, who had directly offended the master of this place with his rude words: a dense swarm of human puppets surrounded him, clustering around him so tightly that water could hardly seep through the gaps between them. At the same time, this old man was even more stubborn in old age and was determined to go toe-to-toe with those puppets; it was a racket over there, as lively as a New Year's celebration[28].

Zhou Zishu raised a fist to press it against his own chest, forcing back a mouthful of saccharine blood. To Wen Kexing, who was edging close to him, he said, "This can't do, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold out for long. Who knows how many puppets there are in this godforsaken place?"

Wen Kexing replied, "This place is called the Puppet Manor. He looks to be the only living being to me, while the rest are these objects."

Zhou Zishu narrowed his eyes. "Makes sense. Looks like he's also the only one that can be killed."

The two of them exchanged a look. As neither of them were good apples, they were well-coordinated even without prior discussion. Once again, Wen Kexing flung Zhang Chengling out like the Gaoshan Slave's meteor hammer. Watching him pin another one to the ground as he howled, Zhou Zishu shot out in a glide, picked up that little tyke, and set him aside before the toppled puppet could beat him to death with its elbow. Then the tip of his foot touched the ground lightly, and he sprung at the strange man on the wheelchair, his body as quick and light as a sparrow's.

The person said coldly, "Another one who has come seeking his death." He leant back, and ten or so iron chains abruptly shot out from beneath that wooden wheelchair. A long spear was attached to the end of each chain, which hurtled at Zhou Zishu from various directions.

Zhou Zishu sank a breath to his diaphragm, dropping through the air with 'The Fall of A Thousand-Catty Weight'[29]. With a quick slide of his feet, he was behind a human puppet in a flash. The spear which tracked him crashed into that puppet, its blade bending in the opposite direction as its metal chain wrapped the human puppet up like a dumpling.

Zhou Zishu flicked his long sleeve outwards as he spoke, "Did you think that I won't use a hidden weapon?"

That strange person startled. Smacking the armrest of the wheelchair hard, a metal umbrella suddenly popped open in front of him. Still, after a long moment's wait, nothing happened-This lowlife tactic of frightening someone was one that Zhou Zishu had learnt from Gu Xiang. Under these circumstances, he couldn't care about his expert status, nor whether it was gentlemanly to do so or not, and used it on him.

Discovering that he had fallen for the trick, that strange person was humiliated and furious, and lowered the umbrella. But where was there still any sign of Zhou Zishu before him? Putting Ye Baiyi aside, he searched the surroundings, and suddenly heard someone laugh from the rafters, "I say, do you really take everything handed to you at face-value, dummy?"

That odd man raised his head to look. Wen Kexing was descending through the air, and in his hand, he had a large stick that some puppet had dropped, which he slammed down on his head. Yet, a round explosive ball suddenly emerged out of nowhere above the wheelchair; meeting this nemesis of his, Wen Kexing swung the stick forcefully with a low curse, and sent that ball flying. He did not pay attention to where he had sent that thing off to, but in any case, he heard Ye Baiyi rage afterwards, "The Wen rascal, are you planning to die?"

Wen Kexing executed a mid-air flip and landed. Looking behind him, he saw Ye Baiyi's dust-caked, dishevelled appearance, and was instantly overjoyed. Turning his head, he hollered at that person in the wheelchair, "Quick, give me another ball."

The person in the wheelchair was enraged, but before he could react, he heard a clear whistle by his ear. Turning his head to the side, he caught the pure and bright flash of a sword blade swooping at his throat with a killing aura. Conscious of the danger it posed, he did not dare to take any chances, and opened the umbrella in front of him once more, intending to flee from this great hall.

The next instant, this person in the wheelchair moved no more. Those eyes of his, which were already twice as big as an ordinary person's, grew even wider as they looked down in disbelief. He had not anticipated that it was a flexible sword in his opponent's hand-a flexible sword that could be controlled as one pleased.

This was the last thought in his mind-the Baiyi in Zhou Zishu's hand speared his throat through.

Though he had achieved his target with a single strike, Zhou Zishu did not loiter. Hearing the noises of a puppet in pursuit at his back, he flew into the air without looking back, leaping over that wheelchair. Confronted with an obstacle, the puppet instantly raised its stick and whacked it. There was a "crack", and it smashed that supremely miraculous wooden wheelchair into pieces. Parts and mechanisms littered the floor, then, like they had been frozen with a spell, all the puppets in the hall halted.

Upon landing, Zhou Zishu stumbled. Wen Kexing, who had long been waiting off to the side, immediately reached out to catch him. He turned his head to peck him on the cheek, and praised, "Splendid sword technique!"

Zhou Zishu wiped at his face like he was wiping at the saliva left behind after a dog had licked his cheek, pushed Wen Kexing away, and said expressionlessly, "Splendidly sleazy of you.[30]"

Expression dark, Ye Baiyi collected Zhang Chengling, who had fallen to the ground after a toppled puppet tripped him, and strode over to them. Without a word, he struck at Wen Kexing with his palm, which the latter dodged with a cheeky grin on his face. As Wen Kexing evaded the blows, he said, "Aiyo, old senior, why are you still splitting hairs with a junior over these trivial things?"

Zhou Zishu sighed. He coughed softly twice, weakly sat on a toppled puppet, and said, "Take a break, both of you. I say, Old Senior Ye who's not a rice bin, you should hurry up and take a look at these mechanisms with your omnipotent knowledge, and come up with a way to get us out of here."

Ye Baiyi cast a glance at that wooden wheelchair in fragments and said, "You've smashed the mechanisms to a pulp. Come up with a way, my foot." Turning, he strode towards the hole in the wall which the strange person in the wheelchair had emerged from. Zhang Chengling ran over to them, and asked in a small voice, "Shifu, are you fine?"

This child had just been swung around multiple times like a piece of rock by these two. Yet, he did not hold a grudge against them, his mind still entirely filled with worry over his shifu's injury. Peered at by those pure eyes full of concern, Zhou Zishu instantly felt a little like a scumbag, and so he spoke in a rare gentle voice, "Not a problem."

With his back to him, Zhang Chengling bent his knees. "Shifu, I'll carry you on my back."

Finding it humorous, Zhou Zishu patted him on the shoulder and got to his feet without help, saying, "That's enough, I'm not counting on you to do so."

He had just walked two steps when Wen Kexing came over without giving him time to protest, caught him around the waist and reeled him in. Inwardly griping that this fellow had not gotten his fill of taking advantage of him, Zhou Zishu went to hit him with his elbow, but Wen Kexing hastily said, "Save your energy, if that old glutton fails to successfully tinker with these mechanisms in a while, we still have to count on you to fight."

Zhou Zishu thought about it and found it reasonable, and he borrowed Wen Kexing's strength to lean against him. Once he let himself relax, he found that his whole body felt like it was about to fall apart, and he nearly failed to catch his next breath.

At this moment, they heard Ye Baiyi say, "All of you, come over here."

The three people followed him into that hole in the wall. Within it, there was something else that had been entirely hidden: On the whole face of a wall, the lines on it numerous and complicated, was a map of the entirety of the Puppet Manor.

Wen Kexing raised his head and looked at it once over, flabbergasted. A while later, he finally spoke, "This…even if you show me this, I can't make head or tail of it."

Zhou Zishu laughed under his breath. "That's great, me neither."

Ye Baiyi glanced at them. Finally, for once, he had no words for them. Pointing at Zhang Chengling, he instructed, "You, come with me." Hurriedly, Zhang Chengling followed him, only to see Ye Baiyi fiddle with the wall here and there. He didn't know what he had tinkered with, but that wall opened up in an instant, revealing the various mechanisms inside that would make people gasp in wonderment.

Zhou Zishu tilted his head back and gazed at it, sighing, "This person who constructed the Puppet Manor is truly an eccentric with outstanding skill." With Zhang Chengling as Ye Baiyi's assistant, the old man and the young boy worked and puzzled over it. Finally, after a long period of time, they heard a massive rumbling as the roof opened up and brought a wall along with it, revealing a set of stairs.

The four people climbed it with caution. It was unknown how far they had ventured upwards, but astonishingly, they reemerged back on ground level. There was wind, there was sunlight, and there were plants-it was a small, decent courtyard.

Ye Baiyi said, "This is the actual Puppet Manor."

Hiis gaze surveyed the surroundings, and he suddenly strode towards a small cabin, which door had been gated with large iron grills. That cabin was located underneath a large tree; gloomy, with its windows and door tightly sealed, it looked like a prison.

Ye Baiyi channelled energy into his palm, and tore the gate down in one go. Then, he pushed the door open and walked in with a brazenness born of his peerless skills. The three of them followed close behind, but stopped at the same time as Ye Baiyi did-in this small cell, there was a bed, on which a person was bound in thick iron chains.

He was an old man, his hair and whiskers entirely white. Both his eyes were lightless; they had gone blind, because he had lived in darkness for too long. Like he had heard noises, he turned his head towards them. His skeletal body shivered involuntarily.

A long while later, Ye Baiyi finally asked, "You...are Long Que?"

The author has something to say ：

Orders for Huaidao's custom print are open~ Sorry everyone, this is my first time doing this, I'm still a little clumsy at this, some of you have given feedback that the cover is too ugly, *clutches face*...

When Qi Ye preorders open, I will try to make it look nicer

The old man turned his ear towards them. He gave a neurotic twitch, and the chains on him jangled together with the movement. Furtively, Zhang Chengling tugged at Zhou Zishu, and asked in a small voice, "Shifu...those chains, are they stuck through his pipa bones[31]?"

Zhou Zishu shushed him, glanced over with a frown-and discovered that the chains on this old man weren't wrapped around him, but were pierced through him. Though the pipa bones, through the kneecaps, the wounds there had festered, leaving only bone. In Zhou Zishu's view, to be able to still survive like this was already a difficult feat.

The stench within the house was overpowering, with faeces and piss everywhere. The original colours long faded past recognition, the old man's clothes could not even cover his body, totally depriving him of the decorum a human being should have had. He opened his mouth, and like he had not spoken in a very long time, his pronunciation was slow and slurred as he asked them hoarsely, "Who...are you? Where is...Long Xiao?"

Ye Baiyi asked, "Is Long Xiao a quadriplegic in a wheelchair? He's dead-how was he related to you?

Hearing this, the old man was stunned for a long while. Suddenly, he opened his mouth wide. The expression on his face seemed to be one of hearty laughter, but not a single bit of sound came out. Then, a few murky teardrops slowly seeped out of the corner of his eye, fell instantly, and vanished. Ye Baiyi ignored him, merely squatted down to examine the iron chains on him, and let him laugh and cry intermittently like a lunatic.

A good while later, Ye Baiyi finally extended his hand to Zhou Zishu. "Lend me your sword."

Zhou Zishu knew that he was intending to use Baiyi to break the chains, so he loosened it from himself and handed it over. Taking the sword, Ye Baiyi hacked at a length of chain. There was a sharp "clang", but that chain did not budge in the slightest, and had not even a dent. Instead, the Baiyi sword in his hand trembled continuously.

Looking at it, Zhou Zishu felt his teeth ache.

That old man suddenly spoke up. "You don't have to...waste your energy, it's useless."

Ye Baiyi asked, "What abominable sin did you commit that made that quadriplegic hate you so?"

The old man was silent for a moment, then said, "I committed… the only thing I've done to let him down was to raise such a...son like him."

The few of them exchanged looks. Now, they understood why Long Xiao's shame had turned to fury then when Ye Baiyi had said "unless you're Long Que's son"-this old glutton was practically a divinity, with the way he had accidentally been right about such an implausible relation.

A long while later, Wen Kexing suddenly asked, "You said that his name was Long...it isn't the 'filial' (xiao) from 'filial piety', is it?"

Feeling that Wen Kexing was truly prodding at sore spots, Zhou Zishu jabbed him with his elbow. Not daring to duck away, Wen Kexing bore the brunt of it, and gazed piteously at Zhou Zishu as he rubbed his rib bone.

The old man laughed hoarsely, "I must have committed the greatest sins in my previous life, as severe as murder and arson, and is suffering karmic retribution in this one!"

The old man leant against the bedpost. Extending a hand that resembled the skin of a tangerine, he rubbed that bedpost again and again. Having spoken for a while, his tongue seemed to have limbered up. "This was mine and Yu Zhui's bedroom back then, and that little beast was born here. Come to think of it, us husband and wife will both die in his hands. Heh, isn't this fate?"

Zhou Zishu asked in a gentle voice, "Yu Zhui is your esteemed wife?"

That old man's face was too ghastly to lay eyes on; it was impossible to tell whether it was beautiful or ugly, joyful or melancholic. But when the two words "Yu Zhui" were mentioned, that face overgrown with trenches appeared to relax much. A teardrop was still trapped in the deep wrinkle by his mouth. It glimmered, but did not fall regardless. He sighed. "I lost her because she gave birth to the kid. After Yuzhui was gone, I built the Puppet Manor, and dismissed the servants…"

Zhang Chengling looked at Wen Kexing in shocked amazement. He was finding this Senior Wen even more incredible, because he had been right about even this. The old man continued, "I promised Yu Zhui to raise that little beast properly, but he was born unable to stand. So I imparted to him every drop of knowledge I had, my life's worth of it, thinking that even if he could not master anything else, he could still have had the ability to support himself, ai!"

Ye Baiyi asked, "If it was so, why did he want to imprison you?"

The old man's whole frame started to tremble. After a long while of silence, he finally murmured, "It was for the Yin Yang Manual."

Other than Zhang Chengling, the gazes of the other three people grew serious as they stared unblinkingly at this half-dead old man. Zhou Zishu asked in a soft voice, "Is it...Madam Rong's Yin Yang Manual?"

The old man nodded, and said slowly, "New flesh regrows on dead bones, as Yin and Yang are reversed-"

There was no intractable disease in the world that the legendary sacred artefact of the Healers' Valley could not treat. Even the Green Vixen wished that it could heal her face; who would thirst for it more than a highly ambitious man who had been born paralysed?

Zhou Zishu thought quickly, and asked, "Wasn't the Yin Yang Manual sealed within the Lapis Armour together with the Fengshan Sword Manual and the Six Harmonies Cultivation Mantra from the very start? Did he think that the Lapis Armour was with you?"

"Lapis Armour?" That old man scoffed. Shaking his head, he said, "You all, are wrong. I was the one who crafted the Lapis Armour all those years ago, but it's only a lock. If you want to obtain the things sealed within it, the five pieces of Lapis Armour are useless. Even six pieces, seven pieces, eight pieces are useless. It still lacks a 'key'."

Ye Baiyi raised an eyebrow. "The key is with you?"

The old man said woodenly, "I don't have it."

Ye Baiyi chased him for answers. "If it's not in your hands, whose hands can it be in?"

The old man laughed almost self-deprecatingly. "Yes, you don't believe it. He didn't either."

Zhou Zishu regarded him closely for a long while, then suddenly asked, "Senior Long, you do know whose hands the key is in, don't you?"

The old man turned his head to face Zhou Zishu as if he could see him. Nodding, he said, "You're correct, I do-I made a vow back then. No one could reveal where it was, and no one could be told of the key's whereabouts. Long Xiao...Long Xiao's insane."

Ye Baiyi narrowed his eyes, and pressed on, insistent. "So, you're someone who knows about what happened between Rong Xuan and the others thirty years ago?"

The old man nodded his head in silence, but before Ye Baiyi could ask, he said, "I can't speak of it. Rong Xuan and his wife are benefactors who saved my life. I promised Madam Rong this. I can't speak of it."

Ye Baiyi replied coldly, "This is not up to you."

The old man laughed, and moved his leg over with strenuous effort. Feeling around for the metal chain that had been pierced through his kneecap, he lifted it for Ye Baiyi to see, and continued to make light of it, "What else can you do to me? Long Xiao, that little beast...has already kept me captive for three years. What else can you do to me?"

Looking at this old man, for whom even exhaling was a chore, lean against the bedpost with a faint, barely-there hint of a smile and a languorous demeanour, Zhou Zishu was suddenly reminded of those words that General Fan Kuai[32] of a past era had uttered, "I am afraid of not even death; why would I refuse a mere cup of wine?", and he could not help himself from speculating what kind of person this Long Que was.

He was shockingly talented, yet, for one person, he would seclude himself from the bustle of humanity, and single-handedly construct the highly mysterious and perilous Puppet Manor; for a promise, to keep a secret, he lived through three years of Hell on Earth, and not even his own biological son could loosen his tongue...Zhou Zishu suddenly felt that because there was this old man-who was clinging onto his last breath of life-before his eyes, no one else in the whole jianghu was fit to be called a "noble hero".

The arm that Wen Kexing was hugging him with tightened abruptly, as though he wanted to press Zhou Zishu's whole body into his own. Zhou Zishu frowned slightly. Turning to look at him, he found Wen Kexing staring numbly at Long Que. There was no trace of laughter on his face, and for one moment, Zhou Zishu even thought that a glint of moisture might have flashed past in those incredibly dark eyes of his. But it was there for only a brief instant, and then it was gone.

He heard him tell Ye Baiyi. "Hey, old freak, since he's not willing to speak, stop asking for people to dislike you."

Ye Baiyi ignored him. Grabbing Long Que's arm, he said coldly, "I don't want to know about the Lapis Armour or the key or whatever it is. I only want to ask, how did Rong Xuan and his wife die all those years ago?"

He was gripping him so tightly that the veins on the back of his hands were bulging. An expression of pain showed on Long Que's face at the overly-tight grip, but still he insisted, "I'm not…"

Wen Kexing frowned, set Zhou Zishu down, and passed him off to Zhang Chengling. For some unclear reason, he snapped at Ye Baiyi in anger, "Old freak, haven't you had enough?"

Then, without prior warning, he suddenly made trouble by launching an attack at Ye Baiyi's back.

As Zhang Chengling supported Zhou Zishu's weight, he stared dumbly at Wen Kexing and Ye Baiyi brawling in a dizzying whirl of motion, slack-jawed. He did not understand at all why these comrades of earlier had suddenly fallen out with each other.

The commotion when these two brawled was not minor; this prison which held Long Que captive started shaking like there was an earthquake, as they went at each other with the force of demolishing a house. Each move of Wen Kexing's was wicked and brutal, as he was no longer holding back out of consideration for their relations. Incensed, Ye Baiyi rebuked, "Rascal, are you crazy?"

Wen Kexing humphed coldly. "You're an eyesore, and I want to beat you up. Can't I do so?"

Whenever Zhang Chengling encountered something that he did not understand, he asked for clarification, and thus, he asked Zhou Zishu, "Shifu…"

Zhou Zishu ignored him. His brow was tightly furrowed as the events seemed to suddenly take on an approximate shape in his mind. Suddenly enlightened, he pushed Zhang Chengling away, walked to Long Que's side, and sat down.

Long Que tilted his head to listen for a moment, then asked, "You've been injured?"

Zhou Zishu said, "Your son did this."

Long Que started to laugh. In a low and hoarse voice, he said, "That's fine...look at me, you're still decent."

Zhou Zishu did not speak, but started to closely examine the chains on his body. When it came to traps and mechanisms, he was completely at a loss; when it came to instruments of torture, however, none were more familiar with them than the ex-leader of Tian Chuang. Still, even after Zhou Zishu had looked over it repeatedly, he could not tell what that metal chain was made of. So he gave up, and told Long Que, "I'm at the limit of my abilities. Now that your son is dead, what's going to happen to you?"

Long Que thought about it, and said calmly, "It's time for me to die too-I should have died a long time ago, but he didn't let me. Now, no one can control what I do. In my whole life, the thing I regret the most is not educating Yu Zhui's son well. I know that he's my son too, but I always felt that he took Yu Zhui's life. If only...all these years, if I had only been a slightly better dad, I wouldn't have harmed him so."

Zhou Zishu felt there was reason in these words, and did not know how to comfort him either. In the end, he admitted honestly, "That is true."

By this point, Ye Baiyi and Wen Kexing had literally raised the roof. The two of them leapt outside and continued their fight, but this dark prison was greatly brightened all of a sudden. As though he could feel the sun, Long Que reached a trembling hand out to it, and sighed in deep satisfaction.

Zhou Zishu was about to speak when Ye Baiyi, unable to tolerate it any further, raged outside the house, "What are you sticking your nose in this for, rascal? Long, I have to know what happened to Rong Xuan all those years ago no matter what. He was my disciple!"

With this roar, even Long Que was given pause. Wen Kexing's leg froze in a horizontal sweep mid-air. Holding this comical posture, he regarded Ye Baiyi with an odd gaze, ruminating that since Rong Xuan and Long Que were of the same generation, and Ye Baiyi was Rong Xuan's shifu...could this Ye person really be a long-lived tortoise bastard[33]?

Ye Baiyi glared at him frostily, and turned to return to the house. Standing in front of Long Que, he looked down upon him from a height, and said stiffly, "Back then, Rong Xuan stole the Six Harmonies Cultivation Mantra from me, left the mountain, and never returned. Today, because of what he has left behind, the pugilist world of the Central Plains has invoked the Realm's Command. Do I not deserve to know what happened all those years ago?"

Long Que asked, "You are Ye...Ye…"

"I am Ye Baiyi."

Long Que took a deep breath and shook his head, sighing. "I didn't think that Senior would still be alive…"

An elderly person whose hair and whiskers were entirely white was addressing a person with a young man's face "Senior"-this scene before his eyes was extremely uncanny.

Zhou Zishu thought for a bit, then interjected, "I stumbled across a Puppet Manor trap with two human puppets, male and female. There are many human puppets in this manor, but all of them are bare-headed, polished, and made from the same mould. None of them are like that couple, who were made with great detail and resembled actual human beings. Senior Long, that pair of human puppets of yours, were they you and your esteemed wife, or Rong Xuan and his wife?"

Long Que closed his eyes. A long while later, he finally replied, "Rong Xuan and his wife."

Zhou Zishu said in a soft voice, "In the end, they dashed each other's skulls to smithereens."

Long Que's hand trembled almost unnoticeably. Ye Baiyi asked, "Rong Xuan underwent a qi deviation?"

Long Que nodded silently, and said, "Indeed. Before Madam Rong died, he had already descended into insanity from qi deviation. Madam Rong died at his hands."

T/N: Did you know that Faraway Wanderers costs less than USD 1 if you purchase it via the app (YES, THAT CHEAP)? Support your authors today! . ?novelid=912073

Link to full folder here ( drive/folders/1-MtoURYXKHMq1LAsq1S0Z5CkRdjgImyH)

[1] For those who don't have the context of Lord Seventh, this river runs through the capital and is the centre of glamour and celebration of the city.

[2] The Chinese traditionally celebrate a baby's 满月, which marks a full month after the birth of the child.

[3] Commonly referred to as "funny bone".

[4] Gu Xiang, having learnt from Cao Weining, is bastardising idioms here.

[5] The term here is 名讳, which means something like "name taboo" – in ancient China, as a sign of respect, no other person can use the characters that are in his name; they would have to use another character, or leave out a few strokes. Much less speak it aloud directly, like what Lord Seventh is doing here.

[6] This upper half of the couplet by Wu Weiye can be interpreted as a lament about him selling his life to the empire as a government official, which is pretty much Zhou Zishu's plight here.

[7] From Warring States poet Qu Yuan's Li Sao (The Lament)

[8] As we all know, Lord Seventh is loaded, but the shabby and destitute scholar is a Chinese archetype. Either you make the Imperial Examinations and live in luxury as an official, or you remain a poor student.

[9] For those not familiar with Chinese medicinal beliefs about food, certain foods are thought to be tonics for certain parts of your body. Walnuts are beneficial to the brain presumably because they look like tiny brains.

[10] 娘啊: If literally translated, he's crying for Mommy.

[11] Located at the sternum, in between your nip nops.

[12] Also called the Lo Shu formation, the Nine Palaces formation is closely associated with the Eight Trigrams as part of feng shui. It dictates the placement of objects to help with the flow of qi.

[13] 城门失火，殃及池鱼：Literally describes a situation where the fish in the moat die when the city gates catch on fire, because the citizens drain the moat for fire rescue purposes. Aka if they're fighting a battle, you, a third party who should not be involved, die too.

[14] An acupoint 1.5 inches below your belly button

[15] 饭桶: Describes someone useless, but also used to describe someone who eats a lot

[16] Kind of different from the Western usage-here, he's most probably doing it like "oops, I nearly screwed up".

[18] The same tale that coined the term 知音 (soulmate/lit. one who knows your song): while playing his own composition High Mountains and Running River, Yu Boya met a woodcutter, who instinctively understood his music. After this woodcutter died, he played the same piece by his grave, and smashed his qin on the ground because there would never be another person who shared the same understanding of him and his music.

[19] The original quote is 不听老人言，吃亏在眼前: If you do not listen to the advice of your elders, the mishap is right before you.

[21] 命犯: In fengshui, if you 命犯 a certain thing, it means that it brings (usually negative) consequences into your life. You're usually born with it (ie. the time at which you were born determines what you 命犯)

[22]喝凉水也会塞牙: Usually, water doesn't get stuck between your teeth when you drink it. Describes someone having absolutely rotten luck.

[23]Zhang Chengling says 面口袋 here, which can mean either a flour sack (the more common usage) or a pocket sandwich kind of pastry (a more anachronistic usage)

[24] It's a 箫, you know, the one Lan Xichen plays.

[25] Literally translates to "isn't a vegetarian"; monks, known for their compassion (and are therefore 'soft'), are usually vegetarian. To say someone "isn't a vegetarian" means they're the opposite: they're capable enough to not be a pushover.

[26] There are two ways to read his name: "Que" or "Qiao", but I've chosen the more common pronunciation.

[27] 上下其手 means being in cahoots with someone and manipulating a situation for selfish benefits, but 上下 literally means "upper" and "lower".

[28] Priest describes this as "pi-li-pa-la", which is onomatopoeia for the crackling of firecrackers but also the commotion from a scuffle.

[29] In case you've forgotten about its previous appearance in Chapter 12, it's a martial art move of the Cherry Blossom Pole (梅花樁) kungfu style.

[30] 好剑 (good sword technique) and 好贱 (how sleazy of you) sound the exact same in Chinese (hao3 jian4).

[31] The scapulas

[32] Fan Kuai: A Western Han military general most well-known for his involvement in the Feast of Hong Men, where he saved the life of future Han dynasty Emperor Liu Bang.

[33] 千年王八万年龟: The Chinese soft-shelled turtle (王八) is also the term for "bastard", and tortoises are known for their longevity.