by RWX
Fu Hongxue asked, “Where did it reappear?”
Yan Nanfei replied, “The Phoenix Market.”
A year ago, when he went to the Phoenix Market, he went for the purpose of finding this book. Fu Hongxue happened to be there as well.
Yan Nanfei said, “At the time, I was certain that you must have gone there to find the book as well. I felt that it was very likely that you too had been bought and paid for by Gongzi Yu, which is why I attacked you.”
But he had lost.
Although he wanted to kill Fu Hongxue, Fu Hongxue hadn’t wanted to kill him. Thus, all of these tragic, mysterious, and dangerous events had occurred.
Yan Nanfei said, “After I battled you, my mind fell apart. It took me four hours before I was able to go to the Phoenix Market again.”
But by then, the Phoenix Market had been turned into a ghost town. Without question, it had been sacked by the subordinates of Gongzi Yu!
Yan Nanfei said, “That morning, four of the Seven Heroes of the Ni Family had visited the Phoenix Market. They arrived and left in a hurry, and at first they didn’t arouse anyone’s attention. But I couldn’t help but want to go talk with them and find out what was going on. I didn’t imagine that as a consequence of my trip, their precious courtyard, which had been painstakingly maintained for over thirteen generations, would be turned into a barren wasteland.
After thinking for a moment longer, he added, “That was the day I first met Mingyue Xin. She hadn’t been there for more than five days.”
Fu Hongxue clenched both his fists tightly. After a long time passed, he finally said slowly, “Although to this very day you still have not actually seen the Sorrowful Book, who knows how many people have been destroyed due to it.”
Yan Nanfei’s fists were also tightly clenched. “Thus, I must kill Gongzi Yu and avenge the deaths of those murdered souls.”
Fu Hongxue said, “Thus, he must kill you as well.”
They stopped speaking, because at this time, Qiu Shuiqing slowly walked over towards them.
His face was still expressionless. Even his sharp, keen eyes had turned hollow and dull.
He stood in front of them for a long time, as though he were a man made from wood. Only then did he mumble, as though he were sleepwalking, “The members of the Qiu family are all dead now. But their corpses remain. Only one person is missing.”
Fu Hongxue said, “Gongsun Tu?”
Qiu Shuiqing nodded. “It isn’t an easy feat to totally eradicate every member of the Qiu family. They must have casualties of their own as well. However, they’ve taken them all away!”
Yan Nanfei couldn’t resist saying, “These people have always been very neat and tidy in handling their affairs, not leaving behind any trace.”
Fu Hongxue said, “But this many people couldn’t have simply disappeared. No matter where they go, they’ll have left some clues of their passing behind.”
Qiu Shuiqing looked at him. In his eyes could be seen an expression of gratitude. He suddenly said, “My wife is often sick, so I have another woman in the city. By now, she is six month’s pregnant. If she gives birth to a son, he will be the last descendant of the Qiu family.”
He slowly added, “Her surname is Zhuo. Her name is Zhuo Yuzhen. Her father’s name is Zhuo Donglai. He is a master of darts.”
Fu Hongxue quietly listened to him. He paid very careful attention to every word.
Qiu Shuiqing let out a long breath. “I should attend to these matters personally, but I no longer am able to. If I bear more shame and cling to life, in the future, when I go to the netherworld, I will have no face left to meet the ancestors of the Qiu family.”
Yan Nanfei shouted in a fierce voice, “You cannot die. Don’t you want to get revenge?”
Qiu Shuiqing suddenly let out a laugh. His laughter was even more miserable than weeping. “Revenge? You want me to get revenge? Do you know what type of person Gongzi Yu is? Do you know how great his power is?”
Yan Nanfei naturally knew. No one knew better than him.
Aside from the Beggar’s Clan and the Seven Great Sword Sects, which had been long established historical organizations, at least half of the thirty nine other most powerful organizations of the martial world had extremely close relationships with Gongzi Yu. At least eight or nine of them were secretly under the direct command of Gongzi Yu.
In addition, the number of first-class masters who had been bought and paid for by Gongzi Yu were innumerable. In addition, there were one or two masters amongst his bodyguards who possessed a level of martial arts that was unfathomably deep.
Yan Nanfei was about to reveal everything he knew about Gongzi Yu, but Qiu Shuiqing was no longer interested in listening!
Qiu Shuiqing still stood there unmoving, but suddenly, fresh blood began to spurt from his ears, his eyes, his nostrils, and his mouth.
Just as he fell down, from far away the sound of a rooster crowing could be heard.
The Peacock Manor was surrounded on two sides by mountains and a third by water. The mountains were very steep. There was no one that injured people could be brought across them. The river water moved at a torrential pace. Even rafts covered by sheepskin could not pass it.
The Peacock Manor had been guarded tightly, and did not lack for experts. To totally eradicate everyone in the manor would have required at least thirty or fifty first class masters.
Even if the invaders had come by water or through the mountain passes, there was only one way they could have left!
In front of the manor was a thick forest. There was a wide, paved road by it, but not a single wheel track or hoofprint could be seen, nor was there any blood or footprints.
Mingyue Xin gritted her teeth. “No matter what, we must find a third person today.”
Fu Hongxue said, “Aside from Zhuo Yuzhen and Gongsun Tu, who else is there?”
Mingyue Xin said, “Peacock. I’ve already subdued him and sent him back undercover. I’m sure he can provide us with some clues.”
Yan Nanfei coldly said, “Unfortunately, every clue he gives us is possibly a trap.”
Mingyue Xin said, “A trap?”
Yan Nanfei said, “He fears you, but I guarantee that he fears Gongzi Yu more. If he didn’t leak out secrets out to Gongzi Yu, how could Gongzi Yu have come to the Peacock Manor at such a perfect time?”
Mingyue Xin said with hatred, “If your guess is correct, all the more reason for me to hunt him down.”
Fu Hongxue said, “But the first person we must find is not him. It is Zhuo Yuzhen.”
None of them knew Zhuo Yuzhen, but Zhuo Donglai was a famous person. He was a famous alcoholic.
He was already drunk when they found him. He lay drunk beneath the shade of a tree in his courtyard. However, as soon as he heard Qiu Shuiqing’s name, he jumped to his feet and cursed, “That old bastard! I treated him as a friend, but he went around behind my back and tricked my daughter into falling for him.”
They didn’t try to shut him up. The more angrily he cursed, the more he proved that the affair was real. As long as they could preserve this last bit of flesh and blood of Qiu Shuiqing’s family, it didn’t matter how much Zhuo Donglai cursed.
His daughter, however, couldn’t take any more. All of his cursing had caused her to be driven away. On top of her boudoir in her room, she had left a letter. A young girl with long pigtails was bent over the dressing table, weeping nonstop.
On the letter was written, “Your daughter was unfilial, and has disgraced your home. Because of this piece of flesh growing inside of me, I cannot kill myself to redeem the shame…”
The young girl said, “So the young miss left. I couldn’t stop her.”
“You don’t know where she went?”
“If I knew, I would have gone as well. Why would I stay here?”
If there was a drunken demon in the house, no one would want to stay. And so they left as well!
However, they still needed to find Zhuo Yuzhen. How were they supposed to f
ind her within the sea of people?
Mingyue Xin suddenly said, “There’s a place where I’m sure we’ll find her.”
Yan Nanfei immediately said, “What place?”
Mingyue Xin said, “Since he didn’t want her father to know about their affair, Qiu Shuiqing certainly must have prepared a secret place for the two of them to have their trysts.”
Even the boss of the small drapery shop outside could find a lovers meeting place for his mistress, much less the master of the Peacock Manor.
Unfortunately, that place must be extremely well hidden. “Qiu Shuiqing has always been a very prudent, circumspect person. Aside from himself, who might know about this?”
“There’s one person who must know!”
“Who?”
“That little girl with long pigtails.” Mingyue Xin’s spoke with great certainty. “The relationship and affection between a young miss and her personal serving girl can be very close, almost like that between sisters. If I did something like this, there’s no way I could hide it from Xingxing!”
Xingxing was the name of her own personal serving girl.
“That little girl had a sly, clever look about her. She was just putting on an act for us earlier. Within the hour, she’ll go out to look for her.”
Mingyue Xin wasn’t wrong.
Before an hour had passed, the little girl secretly snuck out from the back door and crept down a side alley.
Mingyue Xin secretly watched her, while Fu Hongxue and Yan Nanfei watched Mingyue Xin.
“It’s never easy for an unmarried maiden to travel around by herself, so their trysting place can’t be too far away!”
Mingyue Xin was right once again. The place was only two alleys away, with high walls and a narrow doorway. It was a quiet and secluded courtyard, with a ginkgo tree growing in the middle and around ten or so Chinese roses growing on top of the wall.
The door wasn’t latched; evidently, the little girl was expected. The little girl glanced all around, then quietly pushed the door open, entered, then closed and locked the door.
A delicate fragrance floated down from the Chinese roses on the top of the wall, and the leaves of the ginkgo tree were blown to and fro by the wind. No human voices could be heard at all within the courtyard.
“Go inside first. We’ll wait for you outside!”
Mingyue Xin knew all along that the two men would not be willing to rashly charge into a young girl’s private bedroom. This is because they were real men, men amongst men.
They watched as she jumped over the wall. They waited for a long time. The roses still smelled just as sweet, but from within the yard could be heard a cry of alarm.
It was Mingyue Xin’s voice.
Mingyue Xin definitely wasn’t the type of woman who would be easily frightened.
The leaves of the ginkgo tree were so thick, they cast a shadow into the room, the insides of which were as dark as dusk. The body of the serving girl was bent over on the table. Her dark, oily pigtail had been wrapped around her throat. Her hands and her feet were as cold as ice.
Mingyue Xin’s hands and feet were cold as well. “We came just a little too late.”
The little girl had been choked to death. Zhuo Yuzhen was nowhere to be seen.
No one would choke themselves to death with their own pigtail. Who was the killer?
Yan Nanfei clenched his fists. “It seems as though the affair between Zhuo Yuzhen and Qiu Shuiqing isn’t something which was kept totally secret after all.”
Thus, Gongzi Yu’s subordinates arrived one step ahead of them!
Fu Hongxue’s face was pale white, but a hint of red could be seen in his eyes.
He was searching. He hoped that the murderer, in his haste, might have left some clues behind this time.
Just one act of negligence. Just a single clue. If it was there, Fu Hongxue would not miss it!
This time, he almost missed it, simply because this clue was too obvious.
There was a small mirror on top of the dressing stand. Someone had written three words on the mirror with rouge. The words were written very hastily and sloppily. Clearly, they had been left behind by Zhuo Yuzhen. In his haste, the man who had kidnapped her didn’t notice.
Why is it that the most obvious things are the things people pay the least attention to?
Blood red rouge. Blood red words. “Zi Yang Temple!”
Ziyang Temple was a very ordinary name. There were many Daoist temples named Ziyang Temple. But as luck would have it, there was only a single temple in this city by that name.
“How did she know they would take her to the Ziyang Temple?”
“Perhaps she overheard it. Perhaps her kidnappers numbered amongst them a priest of Ziyang Temple. She was born and raised here. Naturally, she’d recognize them.”
Either way, they would have to go and check it out. Even if this was a trap, they still had to go.
Unexpectedly, the courtyard of the Ziyang Temple was also covered by a vibrantly growing ginkgo tree. Incense smoke curled around about the main hall. Not a single person could be seen. But as soon as they entered the backyard, they could hear voices.
What a cold, desolate courtyard. What a cold, icy voice. It only said two words. “Please enter!”
The voice came from a guestroom towards the left. It seemed as though the people inside were waiting for them all along.
It seemed as though this was a trap after all. But when were these three ever afraid of others’ traps?
Without even thinking, Fu Hongxue walked over. The door was left unlocked. With a light push, he opened it.
There were four people within the room.
As long as he decided to do something, and as long as his sabre was in his hand, even if there were thousands of soldiers in front of him, Fu Hongxue wouldn’t shrink back in the slightest. Much less just four people!
One of the four was drinking wine. Two were playing chess. The fourth was a young man in white who was using a small knife to trim his nails.
No lamps were lit in the room. The young man’s face looked just like the blade of his knife; white with black showing through. So black, it was frightening.
Of the two playing chess, one was indeed a Daoist priest. His beard and his hair were all white, but his face was as red and ruddy as a baby’s. The other player wore black clothes and white socks. He was dressed simply, with only a ring on his finger. But the ring was made out of priceless Han jade, the value of which was enough to purchase several cities.
Fu Hongxue’s pupils suddenly contracted. His ashen pale face suddenly became flushed with a red color.
This was because the person who had been drinking with his head lowered, had begun to slowly lift up his face.
After she saw this person’s face, Mingyue Xin’s hands and feet turned ice cold again.
His face was criss-crossed with scars and wounds. His eyes were as keen as an eagle’s. It was the ‘Immortal Eagle of Heaven’, Gongsun Tu!
He was watching them as well, and within his keen gaze there was a hint of cruel mockery. “Please sit.”
There really were three empty seats in the guest room, and Fu Hongxue actually sat down.
It was always good to conserve a little bit of energy just before a vicious life-and-death battle was about to break out.
Yan Nanfei and Mingyue Xin both sat down as well. They too knew that the time had come for a battle where life and death would be determined in the blink of an eye.
Chapter 9 - Betting One’s Life on a Single Sabre
The sound of the apricot tree in the courtyard gently rustling in the wind could be heard. The sound of chess pieces being placed on the chessboard were gentle and tasteful, as though they were a musical instrument. There was no expression at all on the face of the young man in white who was trimming his nails. The two who were playing chess didn’t even bother to raise their heads.
Mingyue Xin couldn’t keep herself from saying, “We didn’t come here to watch you play chess.�
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Gongsun Tu said, “I know you have come here to find me. I am the one who bathed the Peacock Manor in blood. You didn’t find the wrong person.”
Mingyue Xin’s hands clenched into fists, her fingernails piercing into her flesh. “And the other three?”
Gongsun Tu didn’t directly answer. Instead, he first introduced the young man in white.
“This is the son of Luoyang’s Xiao family, Xiao Siwu [Si Wu means ‘four withouts’].” He explained, “The ‘four withouts’ means this. His flying dagger skill is without equal, he has killed people without number, and when angered, without mercy.”
“The fourth without?”
“Even when he isn’t angered, he’s still without mercy.” Gongsun Tan continued, “He also has another nickname, a very long and strange one. ‘He’ll go to heaven or hell to seek out Little Li, and whole heartedly wishes to kill Ye Kai’.”
In former years, Little Li’s flying dagger overawed the world. Once his flying dagger was sent out, it would never miss! His glorious, magnificent fame had not yet been matched to this very day by any.
Ye Kai received tutelage from him, and gained the essence of his flying dagger. He roamed the martial world for thirty carefree years, and although he didn’t kill a single person without good reason, no one dared to offend him.
Mingyue Xin said, “Not only is this merciless young man certain that he can kill Ye Kai, he also wants to seek out Li Tanhua and compete in martial arts against him?”
Gongsun Tu said, “That seems to be so.”
Mingyue Xin laughed. “He seems to be very arrogant.”
Gongsun Tu said, “Very arrogant people tend to have the ability to back up their arrogance.”
Mingyue Xin said, “That seems to be so.”
Gongsun Tan smiled. “But actually, it isn’t?”
Mingyue Xin laughed. “The more arrogant one is, the less actual ability one has. There are many people in the martial world who are like that.”
Gongsun Tan’s smile was meant to sow discord, but her laughter was nothing short of a direct challenge. These words of hers clearly were meant for Xiao Siwu to hear.
