On the journey back, Qiu-niang sang the *Huan Xi Sha* lyrics written by Scholar Su for the Dragon Boat Festival:
"Light sweat seeps through green silk; tomorrow’s festival calls for bathing in fragrant orchids. Flowing scents and rich oils fill the sunny river."
"Colorful threads wrap around jade-red arms; small charms hang askew from green-cloud hair. A beauty met for a thousand years."
After finishing that, she sang Ouyang Xiu’s: "Green willows heavy with rain; five-colored silk threads wrap the cornered zongzi. Golden platters are presented. Twin phoenixes painted on raw silk fans... It is the season for bathing in orchids; calamus wine shared in fine vessels..."
These were all verses I had written idly in the study. There were likely characters she didn't recognize; when she hit a word she didn't know, she simply guessed the pronunciation based on half the character. Yet, these two melodies were common among the folk, and she sang them with sweet, accurate clarity.
The young girl’s singing drifted away with the brilliant clouds on the horizon, sinking into the rising twilight. She did not yet know how I would "carelessly shatter" her "window-side dream."
"Five-colored silk threads wrap the cornered zongzi..." Qiu-niang clapped and spoke with a giggle, suddenly turning to walk backward while facing me. "Brother A-Qing must eat a few more zongzi today! Do you like the sweet honey ones or the savory meat ones?"
"Miss Qiu-niang surely prefers the sweet ones."
"No, no." She wagged a finger like an old scholar, her mouth curling into a sly, flower-like smile. "I love them both! Haha!"
"Qiu'er," Madam Lu chided. "Walk properly. Be careful not to trip on the steps. If you knock out your front teeth, you won't be able to eat sweet or savory zongzi at all."
As was my custom, I waited respectfully for the four of them—the masters and servants—to enter the courtyard gate first. Then came the expected scream. Madam Lu stumbled, pulling Qiu-niang into her arms as she tried to turn and flee. What she saw was me drawing my blade, striking down the remaining two servants.
Madam Lu’s face turned deathly pale, but her eyes flashed with a resentful, poisonous fire. She shrieked, "I knew you were a thief!" As she spoke, she crushed a jade slip she had produced from somewhere. It was a token infused with my heart’s blood; typically, when one entered a household as a servant, they had to offer such a pledge of loyalty to their master.
Whether it was Yingzhao Temple or the Wujing Sect, both had ways to deal with such situations. I shouldn't have cared, yet an unexpected, piercing pain tore through my chest and abdomen. I couldn't help but cough up a mouthful of blood. It seemed they had used some trick against me—and against that single drop of heart’s blood. I thought of Madam Lu’s many "kind" meals and smiled softly.
Qiu-niang was completely stunned. Her large eyes remained wide, simply staring at me. They stayed that way until I reached out and closed them.
I should never have written those verses for her in the first place. In the original poem's source, the latter half contained a line: "Whirling winds and jealous rains, a thousand fallen petals end the years. From the corners of the sea to the peaks of the mountains, they should not have drifted toward that house." It was already an ill-omened prophecy.
I sat on the steps in the courtyard, leaning the Still Water Blade—bestowed upon me by Senior Zhai—against a pillar. The sun had completely set. From the banks of the Dan River came scattered sounds of revelry accompanied by intermittent drumbeats. This joy and peace seemed to belong to another world, drifting in from afar. The great array I had laid was an orthodox Evil-Slaying Array, glowing with a faint, ethereal blue—the unique light of the spells used by generations of patriarchs to suppress demons. Tools are inherently neutral; it all depends on the one who wields them.
Because there were one or two experts in the manor who resisted, and because my mastery of arrays was still only at the introductory level, the array was broken in several places despite me sacrificing the maximum amount of heart’s blood. I nearly failed to finish the task in one stroke. Aside from the masters and servants of the Lu Manor, two unlucky souls who had come to deliver holiday gifts also perished within.
I suddenly understood the meaning of "leaving the pavilion." I knew all too well the mindset of the sole survivor of a slaughtered clan, and how they would spend the rest of their life. Only by severing one's own inner demons and cutting off all emotions could one be considered to have passed the Temple's trial.
The poison took effect slowly, allowing me enough time to crawl to the mountain gate of the Wujing Sect’s capital branch. Martial Uncle Zhong Shuren was a close friend of Mr. Feng; because of my unique circumstances, he had always personally treated my ailments. The Soft Bone Body-Forging Pill was something he had refined and improved at Mr. Feng's request. It not only shaped the physique but also strengthened the tendons and forged the body, compensating for the deficiencies of my late entry into the Dao and my female form. The combination of the poison and this medicine made the situation incredibly complex and dangerous. Fortunately, his medical skills were superb. He spared no effort, and the Sect provided all its precious medicines, which ultimately saved my life.
As soon as I was able to walk, I took on another mission from the Temple and prepared to leave. Martial Uncle Zhong sighed, "Lass Yun, I’m starting to regret agreeing to help Mr. Feng with this. Alas."
"This is only the first mission," I laughed. "The journey will take at least seven or eight days during which I won't need to draw my weapon. I'll recover naturally. You needn't worry, Uncle."
It was midsummer then. Although the northern plateaus were cold, it was the mildest season of the year. I had to wear spring clothes with a thin cloak over them, which drew sneers from the bare-chested men traveling with me. I didn't care in the least. Every day, I wrapped myself tightly and sat lazily at the front of the wagon, watching the driver lead the prison cart northward.
Xidu, the capital of Han Province, was in the southern part of the province. The journey wasn't supposed to be long, but because it was the season of lush grass and fat horses, bandit activity was particularly fierce. Less than ten days into the trip, we indeed encountered bandits shouting and killing, plundering the goods of herders and merchant caravans. Seeing blood, the fifty-odd prisoners in the dozen or so wagons grew restless; many cheered and shouted encouragement until the jailers silenced them with whips. I slowly untied my cloak, stepped forward, and killed five or six lackeys. I took the head of the small leader—whose cultivation was barely at the Cloud-Swallowing Realm—and strolled back, dangling it from my hand.
the entire group was stunned. The prisoners, bound by stocks, couldn't clap, so they had been compensating for the violence with thunderous cheers; seeing this, they fell silent. I casually tore a piece of cloth from a corpse to wrap the head, tossed it onto the front of the wagon, and tied my cloak back on.
Captain Zheng, the leader of the Temple's party, frowned and scolded, "Too reckless! Why provoke a feud with the mountain fortresses along the way for no reason?" He was likely most displeased by my disregard for his authority and my acting on my own.
I didn't bother to answer him. I pointed toward the seven or eight small thieves I had intentionally let escape; a squad of local garrison soldiers happened to intercept them, and by now, they had been cleared out. The leading commander galloped over, dismounted, and greeted Captain Zheng with a forced smile before turning his gaze to me. "This young brother is so youthful yet possesses such extraordinary martial arts. Truly a young hero. May I ask your name?"
"Officer Di overpraises me. This humble Daoist is Wei Qi."
Surprise flashed in Di Kuan’s eyes. "An immortal master from the Wujing Sect?"
I smiled slightly. "If Officer Di wishes to uproot this gang of thieves, you may invite us into the city for wine."
In the Bafeng Fortress on the outskirts of Adu County, the chieftain Ku Chong saw the head of his second-in-command and flew into a rage. He mobilized the entire fortress and charged blindly into the great array I had already prepared. Since I had the initiative, the array was not rushed; it was laid out leisurely and meticulously. It merely cost a few more spirit crystals—the expenses for which were footed by the prefecture and county—to wipe out several hundred men within it. Those with higher cultivation or protective artifacts suffered lighter injuries, but they were easily swept away by Di Kuan, myself, and a dozen or so experts.
From that point on, no one in the party dared to look down on me. Even Captain Zheng spoke with more civility and would politely ask for my opinion when matters arose. In truth, after three years in the Sect, I no longer cared much for the cold or warm regards of mediocre people. In small matters, I would occasionally show kindness. By the time we safely handed over the prisoners at the Han Province prison, Captain Zheng’s group had become quite familiar with me, willing to treat me with a degree of brotherly loyalty. Men are actually the best at reading the room; if you suppress them with power or strength, they will naturally be cowed.
Three years passed in a flash. I no longer had the heart to remember whom I had killed or whether they should have been killed. Humans are the most chaotic of things; it is hard to say that a good person has never done evil, or that an evil person will never do good. When involving matters of the court, there is no such thing as justice—only considerations made out of necessity under the balance of power. Mr. Feng had served in the palace of the current Empress Dowager—then Consort Zhao—since he was thirty. He had watched the current Emperor be born and was the first to present him to Emperor Zhenzong. His loyalty to the sovereign was absolute, yet he also dealt with both the black and white worlds, refusing no one. During the first six months of His Majesty’s reign when the treasury was empty, Mr. Feng personally provided over thirty million just to ensure the Ministry of Works' urgent water conservancy projects could proceed. He once joked that even commoners need the "seven essentials" to start their day; if one doesn't have a few coins on hand, how can they keep the gears of a whole country turning?
And then, I met her.
There had been no war for over a hundred years, so the "triumph" at Qingzhou wasn't actually a great victory. It was merely the clearing out of nearly eight thousand scattered soldiers from the Shiying Kingdom over three years. To reach the milestone of ten thousand for merit, there was no shortage of killing prisoners to claim false credit. What both the Temple and the Sect were concerned about were certain strange objects carried by a few soldiers. It was a peculiar source stone that emitted spiritual power. It was pitch black; if used with the proper spells, it could destroy anything tainted by spiritual energy within its range. This object was not mentioned in any records and was unrecognizable. Even before the world was divided into three, there were no reports of such mineral deposits in the territory of Shiying.
I traveled south with the army back to the capital specifically to report this matter. The prisoner being interrogated had a bushy beard, a high nose, and large eyes, yet spoke the Jing language fluently; he seemed to be a spy prepared for infiltration into the Jing border. I employed a soul-searching technique, and just as my spirit wavered for a moment, she took advantage of the opening to eavesdrop.
The A-Zhi of that time was truly charmingly naive. She didn't understand the fashions of the capital, transforming herself into a woman with sharp brows and hooked eyes, wearing a purple gown fit for a noblewoman that looked dreadfully old-fashioned. I hadn't intended to take her life, but unfortunately, this was my first time clashing with a true successor of orthodox illusion arts. I failed to guard against an attack at the Cloud-Eating Realm contained within a spirit crystal given to her by her master. My senior had only taught me the necessary mental cultivation for illusion arts to maintain the phantom markings on my body; he hadn't taught me the corresponding martial techniques. Illusionary voice transmission and soul-searching were things I had learned on my own, and as for illusion arrays, they were out of the question. Fortunately, an array is an array; the principles were the same as the fundamental arrays of the Wujing Sect, so I could still apply them. Her illusionary attack truly left me with no way to respond, and she actually saw through my secret.
In truth, I didn't care much about my identity as a man or woman. I hadn't truly entered the imperial court; as long as power was in my hands, calling a stag a horse wasn't a big deal—it would just be a bit more trouble. I was angry at the fact that I had lost to her.
Thus, in a fit of impulse, before killing her, I activated one of the several backup illusions my senior had buried in my body. I saw through her true form and the layers upon layers of illusionary disguises she wore. She was actually a young cat demon, though her transformation was long-established; she must have been fed precious spiritual items by a Cloud-Eating Master since she was small. The outermost disguise was that laughable purple gown, but the layer beneath that was... the Eighteenth Miss of my maternal family, the Wen family.
Her neck was delicate and fragile, feeling like a warm branch of a jade pear blossom in my hand. I could have snapped it with a gentle twist. However, considering she was a grand-disciple of my senior, killing her felt somewhat unkind. Furthermore, seeing how truly innocent and simple she was—ignorant of the world and adorably foolish—I felt she couldn't stir up much trouble. Since she was about to enter the Wen family, I wasn't afraid of her escaping my grasp. It was better to let things take their course and see exactly who was behind the scheme to bring her to the capital. A cat has the habit of playing with its prey; I, too, wanted to play with this silly cat.
With a change of heart, I let her go. I did not know then that I was letting her into my heart.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 浣溪沙 | Huan Xi Sha | A classic Ci poem rhythm/form (Silk-Washing Stream). |
| 纱窗梦 | Window-side dream | Literally "gauze window dream," referring to a young woman's peaceful life or romantic aspirations. |
| 止水刀 | Still Water Blade | The name of the weapon given to Wei Qi. |
| 柔骨锻体丹 | Soft Bone Body-Forging Pill | A medicinal pill used to alter and strengthen the body. |
| 吞云境 | Cloud-Swallowing Realm | A stage of cultivation. |
| 郑千总 | Captain Zheng | "Qianzong" is a military rank (commander of a thousand). |
| 狄宽 | Di Kuan | A local military official. |
| 八风寨 | Bafeng Fortress | Literally "Eight Winds Stockade/Fortress." |
| 厍崇 | Ku Chong | The chieftain of the Bafeng Fortress. |
| 矢鹰国 | Shiying Kingdom | A foreign nation (literally "Arrow Eagle"). |
| 餐霞境界 | Cloud-Eating Realm | A high level of cultivation (literally "Eating the Sunset Clouds"). |
| 幻纹 | Phantom Markings / Illusionary Veins | Markings on the body used to maintain a disguise. |
| 文家 | Wen Family | Wei Qi's maternal family. |
