Book 1 Chapter 26 - Stately Law

Chu Liuxiang blurted out, "Could it be that she was returning to the Central Earth?"

Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ sighed and replied, "This matter cannot be confirmed, but it may be a.s.sumed that that was what happened. Because not long after Miss Li left Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang, out of the Seven Swords of Hua Shan, only four remained; suddenly they all died tragically. Numerous and confusing rumors spread out in Jianghu, saying that the only survivor of Huang Shan school, Li Qi, has returned to avenge her father and elder brothers."

Muttering to himself irresolutely, Chu Liuxiang said, "If that's the case, this Miss Li must have learned some kind of astonis.h.i.+ng martial art, perhaps it was even Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang who imparted it to her."

Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ said, "On this, your guess is off. Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang did not impart any martial art skill to her, she must have had some other fortuitous encounter. But on this matter, she had always concealed it from Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang."

Chu Liuxiang sighed and said, "That's right, this Miss Li's encounter must be very bizarre; otherwise, in such a short few years, her martial art skill could not have progressed to such an extent that she unexpectedly was able to kill Four (sic) Swords of Hua Shan in one go … but after her big enmity was avenged, did she not return to Dongying to see her two sons?"

"She did not," Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ replied, "At that time, her youngest child was still in swaddling clothes. In his grief, Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang took these two children to the Central Earth."

"Could it be that at that time there was no news about this Miss Li in Jianghu?" Chu Liuxiang asked.

Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ replied, "That is the strange thing, after Miss Li performed such an earth-shattering feat, she suddenly vanished without any trace, as if she suddenly disappeared from the surface of the earth. After persistently looking for her for a year, Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang finally gave up all hope … and so he came here."

Chu Liuxiang said, "Turns out he did not seek a battle with Das.h.i.+ as soon as he arrived in the Central Earth."

Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ sighed and said, "He persistently wanted to challenge me, but I determined not to accept it. Until later on he unexpectedly set the Sutra Pavilion on fire, and so I was forced to deal with him. I only agreed to exchange three palm strikes with him; who would have thought … who would have thought that when I sent out the third palm strike, unexpectedly he neither evade nor dodge. I could not restrain the momentum in time, unexpectedly I caused him a serious injury."

Grieved, Chu Liuxiang said, "Wanbei indeed guessed correctly. By that time he was already downhearted and did not want to keep on living, so he just wanted to entrust his two sons to appropriate persons, hence the reason he deliberately received the injury from Das.h.i.+'s palms."

Distressed, Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ said, "After injuring him, I immediately brought him to this meditation room. Who would have thought that he seized the opportunity while I was fetching the medicine to leave without saying goodbye, leaving only a letter, in which he told me about his grieve, and implored me to offer shelter to his eldest son. I rushed toward the place he mentioned in his letter. But when I tried to bring his orphan back to him, unexpectedly I came across Ren Lao Bangzhu. Only then did I know that he had unexpectedly died under Ren Lao Bangzhu's hands."

Coming from a senior monk's mouth, which was as gentle as Buddha's own mouth, such a plaintive and beautiful, yet solemn and stirring story, sounded even more br.i.m.m.i.n.g with some kind of stifling-with-remorse and mystery.

All along Wuhua was sitting quietly on his seat, but his face was completely devoid of any emotions. All along Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ and Chu Liuxiang did not look at him at all either.

It looked like he positioned himself completely outside this matter, and that the story Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ was narrating had nothing to do with him.

The meditation room was silent for a moment, and then there was the sound of water boiling.

Chu Liuxiang cautiously and slowly began to brew the tea.

His every movement was completely deliberate, proper and careful. He wanted to take the opportunity of these slow actions to clear his jumbled thought. And then, he held a cup of fragrant tea with both hands, which he respectfully offered in front of Tian Feng Das.h.i.+, and spoke in heavy voice, "Thank you very much Das.h.i.+."

Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ received the cup with both hands, and spoke slowly, "Everything you wanted to know, you already know by now?"

"Yes," Chu Liuxiang replied.

Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ chuckled indifferently and said, "Very good, because all Laoseng can tell you is also only so much."

Unexpectedly he did not ask why Chu Liuxiang wanted to know the story; he simply started to sniff the aroma of the tea. In this moment, his solemn and grave expression suddenly seemed to relax, but the grief in his eyes seemed to grow deeper. Thereupon he slowly closed his eyelids, and muttered, "This cup of tea is indeed much better than that other cup just now."

Chu Liuxiang stared at him for a long time; he really could not figure out how much this wise and farsighted senior monk really knew. He could not help blurting out a question, "Das.h.i.+ does not have anything you wanted to ask of Zaixia?"

Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ was silent for half a day. He spoke indifferently, "Has Ren Lao Bangzhu pa.s.sed away?"

He did not even open his eyes; this question seemed to be asked randomly.

But Chu Liuxiang exhaled slowly before replying, "Yes."

Offering another cup of tea, he said, "Everything that Das.h.i.+ wanted to know, I am afraid you already know by now."

Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ simply nodded his head without saying anything.

Chu Liuxiang sighed and stood up. "I wonder if Das.h.i.+ would allow Wanbei to speak with Wuhua s.h.i.+xiong for a moment?" he asked.

Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ replied slowly, "What ought to be said must be said. The two of you may go!"

Only then did Wuhua stand up. His expression still looked relaxed, confident and at ease. Respectfully he put his palms together toward Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ before quietly withdrawing out of the room.

He did not speak at all.

When he was already outside the bamboo curtain, Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ suddenly opened his eyes and cast him a glance. The emotion carried in his eyes seemed to be extremely complicated.

But he did not speak either.

The night was already deep.

The pathway at the back of the mountain was very narrow. The hazy starlight illuminated the leaves of the tree lining the pathway; the whole earth seemed to be shrouded in some kind of mysterious and desolate fog.

Chu Liuxiang and Wuhua walked side-by-side along this rugged and narrow pathway, straight to the end. All along both of them also maintained their silence, as quiet as the mountain tops in the night.

Finally Wuhua smiled slightly and said, "Although you did not expose me, I am not grateful to you at all. You did what you did just because you were afraid of Tian Feng Das.h.i.+'s stern att.i.tude, am I right?"

Smiling wryly, Chu Liuxiang replied, "You think that apart from this, there is no other reason? For example, the friends.h.i.+p between you and me …"

Wuhua leisurely said, "Up until now, our friends.h.i.+p remains to be no more than a grain of sand in the eyes."

Heaving a deep sigh, Chu Liuxiang said, "That's right; if there's a grain of sand in our eyes, it might only produce tears."

Wuhua said, "All right, there is no harm in you telling me now: how much do you actually know?"

Chu Liuxiang slowly said, "I know a lot of things, but there are many more that I do not know."

Wuhua smiled and said, "Which ones you do know? Which ones you do not know?"

Chu Liuxiang replied, "I know that you are Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang's eldest son, NanGong Ling's elder brother, but how did you know that NanGong Ling was your sibling? Naturally Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ could not possibly tell you."

Wuhua replied, "The reason you might have guessed. When Xianfu [my late father] pa.s.sed away, I was already seven. A seven-year old boy, although he did not know much, but he may have learned many things, many things that he would never forget."

Chu Liuxiang sighed and said, "What you knew maybe too much already."

Wuhua smiled and said, "Naturally you also knew that I was the one who stole the 'Heavenly One Divine Water'."

Smiling ruefully, Chu Liuxiang said, "Correct. Although the 'Divine Water Palace' forbids men to enter and exit, but a refined, elegant man who had left home is naturally an exception. In the eyes of ordinary people, those who had left home and become a monk cannot be regarded as ordinary men anymore, while in reality, unavoidably this kind of thought has its own drawback. Only too bad that pa.s.sionate girl died because of you …"

Wuhua laughed and said, "A girl who had never had any contact with a man will never be able to resist the temptation; she died very willingly, why do you bother to feel sorry for her?"

Staring at him, Chu Liuxiang sighed and said, "You are really a strange person. No matter how despicable, no matter how hateful, you are always able to speak it out with the most gentle, the most elegant intonation."

Wuhua's expression did not change at all. He even laughed and said, "You ought to also know, I spent so much time and energy to steal the 'Heavenly One Divine Water', for what purpose?"

Chu Liuxiang said, "Only because Ren Lao Bangzhu and Tian Feng Das.h.i.+ are not people that you could easily kill. Moreover, you also want them to die without leaving any trace, so that others would not be suspicious."

"You are absolutely correct," Wuhua said.

Chu Liuxiang said, "On that stone beam, the one posing as Tianfeng s.h.i.+si Lang, naturally it was you. The one who killed 'Heavenly Powerful Star' Song Gang, escaped into the Daming Lake using 'ren shu', naturally it was also you."

"Correct again," Wuhua said.

Chu Liuxiang sighed and said, "That day when I saw you at Daming Lake, I should have suspected you; too bad that although I suspected everybody else in the world, I did not suspect Wuhua, who was unwilling to even have the sound of his qin infected by a murderous aura."

Wuhua smiled and said, "No need to be disappointed, everybody would definitely feel confused sometimes."

Chu Liuxiang smiled wryly and said, "That mentally-impaired disciple of Wuyi Convent's Su Xin Das.h.i.+, before her death she actually exposed your secret, too bad she only said one word 'Wu' and then died. Even worse, all along I thought that she was saying the 'Wu' of 'Wutong' [tree]; unexpectedly I never thought that she was saying the 'Wu' of 'Wuhua'."

Wuhua said, "I really did not expect either that before her death her mind would clear up; otherwise, when I killed Su Xin Das.h.i.+, I would have killed her as well."

"But why would you want to kill Su Xin Das.h.i.+?" Chu Liuxiang asked.

Wuhua replied, "Anybody who has the slightest bit of connection with this matter, I cannot let them alive and open their mouth. You know me, I have always been very cautious; I never want to take risks."

Chu Liuxiang said, "So you want to kill me as well?"

Wuhua sighed and said, "I really do not want you to be involved in this matter. I have already told NanGong Ling that if there is anybody in the world able to expose our secret, this person must be Chu Liuxiang."