Chapter 9 Part 2 of 2

“From today onwards, Huang Fu Yun will become the thirty-first Sect Leader of Bai Ming Sect.  All disciples, kneel and send off our Old Leader as he embarks on his last journey!”

As the disciples of Bai Ming Sect slowly knelt down one by one, Huang Fu Yun arched her brow and looked at Xian Yun. “Will Gentleman Xian Yun record all that has happened today in the Wulin annals?”

Xian Yun met her gaze and replied steadily . “Everything that happens today will be recorded in detail in the Jianghu Major Happenings Scroll.”

She laughed and looked towards Sect Leader, who has died with a smile on his face. She called loudly. “Where is He Zai?”

He Zai stepped forward. “Your subordinate is here.”

“Since the age of sixteen, you have started learning the martial arts of the Huang Fu family.  Since you have mastered the skill, you will become the new Left Protector from henceforth.”

Although it was sudden, He Zai did not hesitate.  “I will obey Master’s orders.”

She looked again at the stiff outline of Sect Leader and feeling a sense of loss at his departure, she looked away as she issued her next order.  “Left Protector He Zai, listen up!”

Perplexed, He Zai waited for her to continue.

“Bai Ming Sect needs someone capable at the helm to steer it towards a thousand more springs and ten thousand more autumns.  It is a pity I do not have the talent and will let down our former leader.  From henceforth, He Zai will take over and become the thirty-second Sect Leader.  He Zai, accept your order with haste.”

From the back of the hall, somewhere near the Sect Leader's seat, something fell with a loud ‘thud’ on the floor.  No one paid it any heed as everyone stared at the woman at the door.

She was dressed in white and with her long hair falling softly behind her back, she looked both elegant and beautiful.  Unfortunately, what she was about to do next was going to ruin this image forever.

She lowered her face, lips compressed.  She could definitely see this through, now that the moment she has been enduring for was finally here. She silently thought to herself - Sect Leader, may you rest in peace!

“Miss…”

“He Zai, are you not going to accept?”  She shot him a look.  A breeze swept up her fringe and revealed the faint scar beneath.

As his heart clenched, he gritted his teeth.  “Miss.  Can this be considered pa.s.sing a cart of rotten apples to me?”

Ay, if he put it so bluntly, it would hurt her feelings.  Her expression cold, she stroked her jade flute.  “Are you thinking to disobey my orders?”

He Zai turned his head and tried to look for Gong Sun Yun.  When he spotted him, he saw that the latter has buried his nose in a journal as if he was busy taking notes. These two… they were obviously in cahoots to make him to take the fall!

“He Zai!” She lowered her voice until only he could hear her. “I know your character only too well.  Bai Ming Sect will be an opportunity for you to showcase your talents. Tian He Manor is too strict-laced and no longer suits you. The place that is suitable for you is actually Bai Ming Sect.”

“Miss is just trying to push the buck.  What do you intend to do now?”

“I will roam the skies and seven seas.”  No, she should not agitate him too much.  “My home will be your home, and your home will be mine.  Once you become Sect Leader, Bai Ming Sect will truly become my home and not some place where I have to be wary all the time.”  Besides, she rather missed the hot spring at Tian Bi Cliff.

“If today has not happened, will there be a place for me when you roam the world?”

She replied without hesitation.  “Of course there will be.  But you are born in Tian He Manor and if everything has never happened, you would have been the leader of Tian He Manor.  You could roam the world with me, but you would also be wasting your talents.  Within Bai Ming Sect, there are problems aplenty.  Do you not wish to test your capabilities and see what Bai Ming Sect can become under your hands?”

He fell silent.  Finally, he asked. “Will Miss return every three or five years?”

“Naturally.  No matter what, Bai Ming Sect is still my home.  Besides, with you as the Leader, we would be as cozy as bugs in a rug.  What you have, I will have the same.  I will be treated like a precious daughter here.  And if anyone tries to bully me, I will surely return to look for you.”

He Zai started laughing at her reply. “Miss is as cunning as a fox, how can there be people capable of bullying you?  But if Miss ever say the word, He Zai will put Bai Ming Sect behind me and leave with Miss without a second thought.  This is my promise to you this lifetime and will never change.”

He looked down the steps towards He Rong Hua who seemed to have something to say.  Sighing deeply, he said loudly.  “The thirty-second Bai Ming Sect Leader He Zai, accepts your order!”

The rapid turn of events had every head spinning from whiplash.

With He Zai holding the fort, she decided it was not her problem how things got resolved now.  As a has-been Sect Leader, all eyes were no longer on her and she decided to return to the hall where she noticed a woman standing close to Xian Yun. She narrowed her eyes as the woman took out a clean white handkerchief and tried to dab at the blood stains on Xian Yun’s clothing.

She did not know when Gong Sun Zhi appeared, but he was suddenly there beside her and sighing into her ear.  “Miss Tang is being very proactive, is she not?”

“One must be proactive to have a future.” She replied casually.  Like her, she has proactively looked forward until the very end. Even when she was down to her last breath at the bottom of the cliff, even when she was captured and brought back to Bai Ming Sect, she has persevered in order to have earned her break now.

Gong Sun Zhi looked at her strangely.  “Do you know what you are saying?”

“Yes.”

“Wu Bo, have you endured too much and lost your mind?  Or does this happen to anyone who has been appointed as Sect Leader?  Quick, give me your pulse and let me check if they have fed you something in the last two weeks to muddle your thoughts, or interfere with your endurance.”

She wanted to roll her eyes.  Will this long-winded Gentleman never stop? Just because she had not seen him for half a month doesn't mean that she missed him!

He continued to tell her about the background of the Tang family; about a Miss Tang who married into the Gong Sun family a long, long time ago, which makes the two families somewhat related; about the balance of power behind various Jianghu families; about the problems faced by good-looking man; about the likelihood of her being with Xian Yun, etc, etc.

Her faced twitched, but she reminded herself she could tolerate this.  It did not matter even if there was a pool of blood in her abdomen, she must endure!

“I think it is a ten percent chance” Gong Sun Zhi sighed.  “Now that your real ident.i.ty is exposed and with Xian Yun being a member of a reputable family…”

Her face continued to twitch.  Had she been too arrogant just now and heaven has decided to punish her?  Never mind.  Endure!  There was a knife in the Chinese word for ‘endurance’.  Maybe today’s knife was little sharp so it left a small cut at her heart. But. She. Can. Endure.

“I will not hide from you.  Everyone young and old in Cloud Manor supports you.  But it is also a fact that there was no precedence of one of us tying the knot with someone from Bai Ming Sect, and a former Sect Leader of Bai Ming Sect at that. Even if you are the leader with the shortest ever term…”

She will take it that Gong Sun Zhi was speaking Greek.  She did not hear him.

At his incessant chatter, she finally reached Xian Yun.  As she stood behind him, she could hear Miss Tang cooing apologetically. “Xian Yun.  To stop both sides from coming to blows earlier on, you have taken a hit from my father without any attempt to block it. I truly felt very sorry for that in my heart.”

Looking at the blood stains on his robes, she finally found out where they came from. Never mind, she shall endure some more.

Instead of sticking close to He Zai, Tu San Lang strode up next to join Xian Yun.  When he caught sight of Jiang Wo Bo standing behind, he decided to change what he wanted to say and say instead: “You are the star among our generation. What a shame that you have to mingle with a Demoness!”

Pak!  She thought she heard the sound of nerves snapping.  It did not matter, she has plenty of nerves left to hold on to her control.  One more or less would not matter.  But she was a bit alarmed when she heard more snapping sound.  Pak! Pak! Pak! One by one, the threads holding her control snapped until none were left.

Was it because she has just pa.s.sed the greatest endurance test in her life so her tolerance level was at its all-time low, or was she simply jealous?

She played with the small box of pills in her hands.  As she took a pill from the box, the faint fragrance of it reached the nostrils of the sensitive healer beside her and his eyes widen. This pill…

“Xian Yun?”

Gong Sun Yun knew she was behind him but when he turned and saw her, he knew that something was off straight away.  His expression as was cool as ever but there was warmth in his eyes when he looked at her.  He saw Gong Sun Zhi’s sh.e.l.l-shocked expression and following his glance, he spotted the small box in her hands.

“It is not every day that I indulge myself.  I have decided that I shall not endure anymore and take it as a reward to myself for holding back the last twenty years.  Do you think it is a good idea?”

Gong Sun Yun arched one elegant brow.  “It is difficult to keep enduring every day.  I would encourage you to loosen up a little.”

“Xian Yun has always been very good at control too, aren’t you?”

“Merely pa.s.sable.” He appeared to be smiling and yet not smiling at the same time.

“In your heart, there is only your savior is it not?”

“Yes.”  He could not contain his smile this time.

As everyone quieted down and tune in to the conversation being held with the dignified Gentleman Xian Yun, everyone heard her order “Open your mouth.”

“Be careful Xian Yun!” Before Tu San Long could finish his sentence, he saw that the Demoness has popped a pill into Xian Yun’s mouth and tapped on Xian Yun’sacupuncture points to render him speechless.  “What did you just feed him?”

It was Che Yan Yan who replied “The Uncontrollable Blissful Pill! You..?”

At one side of the hall, the Gentlemen of Cloud Manor were busy recording the changes happening in Bai Ming Sect.  At the mention of this unusual-sounding name, all moved closer in antic.i.p.ation of some breaking news.   They could afford to leave out some minor details from the wulin annals, but how could they fail to record what goes on in their own family?  What was more, they are getting the scoop of a hundred percent, pure, unvarnished truth!  All crocked their ears expectantly.

“Uncontrollable bliss… blissful pill?”  Tu San Long was an upright man and had never heard of such a thing.  But he could tell that it was not something good just from the sound of it.  Beside him, he could see Gong Sun Zhi shaking his head.

“How vicious!  This drug is very potent and is capable of making the holiest of sages lose control like they never have it at all.  The aphrodisiac drug is but a house cat compared to a lion, a baby compared to an old man!”

Tu San Long was shocked.  “What about its antidote?”

She has decided she shall not endure a second longer.  “Antidote?  What antidote?  Xian Yun, follow me!”  Grabbing him by the shoulder, she lead him out of the hall.  The crowd parted a way for her while a stream of Gentlemen followed closely on their heels.  The whole, unvarnished truth. They must get every detail!

Tu San Lang finally collected his scattered wits and tried to make a grab for Xian Yun.  But for some reason, Gong Sun Yun’s sleeve seem to fall out of his grasp as Xian Yun un.o.btrusively avoided his hold as he allowed himself to be steered away.

Tu San Long stopped in his tracks and stared at his back.  He Zai was equally shocked. “Miss?”

Her reply was clear and convincing. “Xian Yun has been poisoned and I’m bringing him for treatment.  I will bring him back safely once his poison has been purged.”

Behind her, the Gentlemen of Cloud manor nearly tripped over each other.

This sense of liberation is great!  She has been wanting to do this for the longest time. Although everyone seems very polite in the Central Plains, there are all sorts of rumours running beneath the surface.  If she is a Demoness, let her do what a Demoness do!

“Where does Miss intend to ‘treat’ him?” He Zai asked discreetly.

Sweeping her surroundings, her eyes landed on the high peak in the near distance and she pointed a firm finger at its direction.  “The sky may be vast and the land may be big, but only at Tian Bi Cliff can we remained undisturbed.” 

The heady sense of liberation has apparently gone into her head.  She is not going to be bothered about what others do, or how they think.  She is going to follow her heart and if she wants Xian Yun, she will want him.  If she likes him, she will like him.  Why should she waste time listening to nonsense or allow others to s.n.a.t.c.h him away?

She has never experienced such freedom.  No wonder there was only one Gou Jian in history!  Gathering her qi, she leaped towards Tian Bi Cliff with Xian Yun in tow. Her white robes fluttered gracefully behind her as she jumped across the wide chasm.

Behind her, the crowd finally broke out of their daze.  The Demoness has captured one of their own!

He Zai immediately announced. “So long as Huang Fu Yun and Gong Sun Yun are not divorced, Bai Ming Sect will never step foot in Central Plains!”  His voice rang across the hall.

Divorced?  The two are not even married!  But from the look of things, they are as good as married.  How can a Gentleman shirk his responsibility with so many eye witnesses?

As they hesitated, the opportunity to stop the two was lost.  Deity has already flown out of the human realm, and mere mortals can only watch on as his shadow disappeared into the clouds with another.  From where he was standing, He Zai could see that the smaller shadow nearly stumbled but fortunately, Deity-from-Nine-Heavens reached out a hand to steady her and together, they ascend up Tian Bi Cliff