Chapter Eighty-One: The Wind of May Brings the Rain of June

On the day of the duel between Liu Chengyin and Qin Xiong at the imperial capital, the news swept across all of New Tang, and the great heroes of the martial world gathered in Luoyang.

Emperor Tang Zhen dispatched fifty thousand armored troops to encircle the city so tightly that not even water could have seeped through, fearing someone might seize the chance to stir up trouble.

Anyone without proof of residence in Luoyang was barred from entering.

Even so, the martial wanderers did not slow their steps. On the day of the decisive battle, within a hundred paces of the imperial outer wall, the crowds stood packed so densely that the human barricade formed by ten thousand imperial guards was forced back again and again.

Liu Chengyin alone had dragged the entire martial world into open confrontation with the court.

It was the greatest clash between the martial world and the imperial government since the founding of New Tang.

Emperor Tang Zhen, Li Yuan, lay upon the dragon throne and sighed over and over. He ordered his second son, Li Shicheng, the King of Qin, who in those years had led Tang forces through southern and northern campaigns and earned glorious military merit, to take troops to the outer city and hold the situation in check.

No matter how they tried to block it, this duel, the most attention-grabbing in decades, could not be stopped.

On the day of the confrontation, not only the people of the martial world gathered there; even immortals from the snowy mountains of the northwest and from Youlong Mountain came as well. Riding beams of radiant light, they hovered above the clouds over the imperial city, simply to see what sort of man dared challenge Qin Invincible.

Qin Xiong, nicknamed Qin Invincible, was a legendary martial artist at the Heavenly Fiend level. For a hundred years he had been recognized as the strongest fighter in the martial world, a man who could rule the realm with nothing but his two fists.

Back when Emperor Ji Long had received guidance from immortals and trained the true dragon body, even he was no match for Qin Invincible. Of the three reverse scales on the true dragon body, Qin Invincible had plucked away all but one.

He was said to be able to contend with immortals barehanded, and yet today a rising figure famed throughout the jianghu for less than half a year had declared that he would challenge Qin Invincible. Opinions were divided.

Some said Liu Chengyin was arrogant and courting death; others said he must have been absolutely certain before seeking out Qin Xiong, that after ten years as the world’s foremost man, Qin Xiong ought at last to step aside for the worthy.

At noon that day, Qin Xiong stood at the imperial outer wall in a robe embroidered with eight dragons.

Liu Chengyin arrived reciting poetry: “The moon in heaven, from afar like a silver disc. The night deepens and the wind grows colder; let me scatter the clouds beside the moon. So that I may see the faithless man.”

Within a hundred paces of the palace wall, there was no one.

Liu Chengyin crossed the human wall formed by armored soldiers, stepping over a skull with every stride.

In less than ten steps, beneath his feet was already a rolling sea of corpses and blood. Riding atop that sea of the dead, he rose to the battlements.

Only a single imperial banner separated Qin Xiong and Liu Chengyin. The banner swayed and snapped in the wind.

Liu Chengyin stared at Qin Xiong for a long while before asking, “Qin Xiong, you now hold high office, beneath one man and above ten thousand, yet your memory is far too poor. You have forgotten a girl who once willingly gave herself to another for your sake!”

The wind tangled Qin Xiong’s long hair, scattering the strands so wildly that the face of this Heavenly Strategist General could not be seen.

After a long silence, he said, “I never forgot. I was only too ashamed to see her again.”

Liu Chengyin sneered. “The invincible Heavenly Strategist General is afraid to see a mere woman?

“That poem I just recited was written by her on a sleepless night, and she asked me to speak it to you.

“Now she no longer wishes to see you either. She only wants me to take your life for her.”

The sea of corpses roared, and Liu Chengyin made his move.

Mountains of bodies and rivers of blood swallowed the two men entirely, and no one could see what had actually happened.

When the sea of corpses receded, the once invincible Qin Xiong had already fallen. He lay upon the battlements, gazing silently at the sky, his robe of eight dragons ripped into strips, a wretched sight.

Yet there was not a single wound on Qin Xiong’s body that had drawn blood. He was merely disheveled, not injured.

Lying on the wall, Qin Xiong asked quietly, “Is she well?”

Liu Chengyin’s expression grew complicated. Then, riding the sea of corpses away from the city, he left only these words upon the battlements: “Qin Invincible, you truly are Qin Invincible. I lost. But your question, I cannot answer. You should ask him yourself.”

Thus ended a duel watched by the whole world, beginning in thunder and ending in anticlimax.

Liu Chengyin had done everything he could to kill Qin Xiong, while Qin Xiong had been willing to be beaten senseless in public without lifting a hand.

That day, great changes shook Luoyang.

Qin Xiong remained lying on the battlements for a long while. Only when the King of Qin, Li Shicheng, came up to ask, “Uncle Qin, how are your injuries?” did Qin Xiong suddenly come to himself.

He leapt down from the wall and walked toward the palace.

That day, the Great Tang’s Heavenly Strategist General resigned and returned home. The mansion in Luoyang, his vast fortune, and the tiger tally commanding two hundred thousand Heavenly Strategist troops, all of it he abandoned. He only asked the palace for a swift horse.

Mounted on that fast horse, Qin Xiong rode alone through the eastern gate and headed toward his homeland.

That night, repeated coughing sounds came from within the inner palace of the imperial court. Emperor Tang Zhen, Li Yuan, founder of New Tang, had fallen gravely ill and ordered the designation of an heir overnight.

The Crown Prince’s seat, empty for three years in New Tang, at last had a candidate: the King of Qin, Li Shicheng, was named heir.

At the same time, another proclamation went out: the King of Xi, Li Jiancheng, had died of illness that very night. A funeral rite was held immediately, and because it was an epidemic, he was sent at once to the ancestral tomb grounds, without even the most basic rites due to a prince or noble.

Those with the sharpest instincts knew that a secret buried within the New Tang royal house for more than a year had finally been smothered over. The court of New Tang was about to change with the weather.

From then on, many officials in Luoyang were thrown into panic.

With one ruler comes one court; many people were about to lose their posts.

...

The wind from the Eastern Sea began wandering inland in early May, and by early June it had finally reached the borderlands.

The sea breeze brought a fine rain, the first rainfall of June.

The drizzling mist shrouded Muddy Lane Village in hazy obscurity, as though a veil had fallen between heaven and earth.

In the small fenced courtyard, Yu Bai sat on the doorstep, staring blankly at the silver sword in her hands. The sword had long since broken; all that remained of its graceful blade was half a length and the hilt.

Yu Bai was wearing strange clothes as well. They were somewhat loose scholar’s robes, and on her they gave her a little of a scholar’s refined air. Combined with her exquisite beauty, they lent her a peculiar and enchanting charm.

Her black martial outfit had been washed and left to dry in the courtyard, but last night’s rain had fallen, and it had had to be brought back inside to dry there instead.

Zhong Ming had tied a hemp rope in the house and helped hang up her clothes before coming to sit on the doorstep too.

Glancing at the broken sword in Yu Bai’s hands, Zhong Ming could not help thinking of how she had looked when she returned last night.

Late last night, Yu Bai came back very late and had not even eaten dinner, breaking the habit she had always kept of leaving at dawn and returning at sunset. Zhong Ming had thought she had quietly departed without farewell.

A strong wind had risen that night, and Yu Bai’s clothes were somewhat torn. A long slash had been cut across her shoulder, the wound so deep that bone could be seen.

She held a broken sword and staggered in her steps. If not for a massive bronze sword flying beside her and tugging at her, she might not even have made it home on her feet.

Fortunately, Zhong Ming had noticed that she had not returned for a long time and waited a little longer. Only then had he seen the weak and exhausted Yu Bai, bandaged her wounds, and helped her onto the bed to rest.

“Don’t keep sitting out here by the door. You’re still injured. With rain and wind like this, you could catch a chill. Better go inside and rest properly.”

His gaze moved from the broken sword to Yu Bai’s shoulder, and Zhong Ming frowned slightly. In his mind, the rather suggestive scene of last night kept rising again and again. Bandaging Yu Bai’s wound, especially at the shoulder, had inevitably exposed things he should not have seen.

Zhong Ming was no innocent boy, but he still felt a little awkward.

Yu Bai tossed the broken sword to her feet, then hugged her knees and curled up, whispering, “It’s all right. I heal quickly, and the injury is nothing serious.”

But her eyes were empty. The cold, lofty expression that had once sat upon her face was gone, replaced by a heavy air of worry.

With a sigh, Zhong Ming understood that Yu Bai had developed a knot in her heart.

External injuries were easy to treat. Given time, they would always heal. But the affliction of the heart was an ancient and unsolved problem; even in later ages, it remained difficult to cure.

Looking up again at the curtain of rain, Zhong Ming asked softly, “Last night, did you go kill people? Was it your first time?”

“Mm. I killed three. The giant was cut down more than a hundred.”

Yu Bai’s voice was very, very low, like the purring of a kitten. If Zhong Ming had not listened carefully, he would not have heard her clearly.

The “giant” she mentioned was probably that flying bronze greatsword. Ever since Zhong Ming had bandaged Yu Bai, he had not seen that greatsword again, as if it had vanished.

But Zhong Ming could feel it still roaming nearby. If anyone harbored ill intent toward Yu Bai, it would appear at that person’s chest and pierce them clean through.

As for where Yu Bai had gone to kill, Zhong Ming also knew.

This morning the news had already spread that River Overpass Village had been slaughtered. Last night, only a few children had escaped from the village and run to nearby River Under Village to beg for help.

River Overpass Village had long been notorious. Those men had eaten human flesh before; their deaths were well deserved, and no one would avenge them. Much less in such a chaotic borderland, where no one had time to care.

The people Yu Bai killed last night should have been the ones from River Overpass Village.

“The first time you kill someone, it’s always like this. When I first killed people, just thinking of it would make my hand shake. I had nightmares for a full month. Slowly, once you get used to it, it gets better.”

Staring at the rain, Zhong Ming recounted in a light tone how he had once killed people with a folding knife, even taking out the redwood folding knife to show Yu Bai.

Turning the redwood knife over in her hand, Yu Bai sniffled and said softly, “I’m not afraid of killing. My mother said that if I want to become a great sword immortal, I have to kill many people. I must possess the resolve to prove the path through slaughter. It’s just...”

After a long pause, Yu Bai continued, “I never thought that a woman holding a child could actually use that child to shield a man from a sword. I also never thought she could throw the child away and, for the sake of that man, desperately try to hack at me with a sickle.”

Zhong Ming did not know how to answer that.

The people of River Overpass Village were far crueler than the villagers of Muddy Lane Village. They had survived the war by eating human flesh, and often they had even exchanged children to eat one another’s offspring.

Taking children from one another to eat—this was exactly what those people did.

After a long silence, neither of them said anything.

The rain outside grew heavier, now pouring down in sheets, splashing even onto Zhong Ming’s shoes.

Only then did Zhong Ming say, “I think you shouldn’t be that decorative silver sword. Look, that silver sword broke so easily. If you really want to be a sword immortal, you should be like the bronze greatsword that protects you... A sword that kills must be tough and sharp.”

Casually handing back the redwood folding knife, Yu Bai let out a long sigh. “Maybe.”

Glancing at the broken sword, Yu Bai picked it up and flung it hard into the curtain of rain. Perhaps the movement tugged at her wound, for she winced, her delicate brows knitting together in pain.

Shaken by last night’s events and further undone by her present helplessness, after receiving Zhong Ming’s care, Yu Bai finally opened the heart she had long kept shut. She said again, “My fate is only to become a sword immortal who has killed countless people. My mother is a great sword immortal, my father is the master of Sword Immortal Palace, my grandfather is a sword emperor through the ages, and my grandmother was the strongest female sword immortal in the world...”

“My father has only me, a daughter. I should also become a great sword immortal.”

Sure enough, Yu Bai’s background was far from ordinary. From the way she put it, the master of Sword Cliff should have been her father.

Zhong Ming truly felt a little envious. He said, “That’s pretty good. Your family is so formidable, and your talent is excellent. In the future, you’ll surely become a world-famous great sword immortal too.”

With a bitter smile, Yu Bai shook her head. “I can’t. My talent is poor. It’s very hard for me to become a great sword immortal.

“Where we come from, becoming a sword immortal is not just a matter of effort. Talent matters too. To be a sword immortal, one must have sword bones. Everyone in the palace has sword bones. Xiao Ling has them. A San has them. Even Hua Bo, the gatekeeper, has them. Only I was born with a broken body and no sword bones.

“My mother said that if I want to become a sword immortal, I can only kill people. When the day comes that my hands are stained with blood and I am reborn in blood, I will gain a set of blood sword bones, and only then will I have the qualification to become a sword immortal.”

For a moment, Zhong Ming listened in a daze. He thought again of how, in his previous life, the old blind man beneath the overpass had told him that he, too, was born to be a blood-handed butcher and a hell-born fate.

A feeling of mutual sympathy, of suffering bound to suffering.

Patting Yu Bai’s arm, Zhong Ming said, “Don’t be so pessimistic. Everyone has their own destiny. Maybe you don’t need to become a sword immortal. There’s no need to force it. If you don’t like killing, then don’t kill.”

“Can I?”

Again Yu Bai shook her head with a bitter smile. She stood up; perhaps she had been sitting too long and her body ached, for she twisted her waist and went into the house to lie down.

Lying with her face toward the wall, Yu Bai once again fell into a daze.

Zhong Ming realized that he had probably said the wrong thing. If he did not stand in Yu Bai’s place, he would never be able to understand her helplessness.

Not to mention resisting fate; even escaping fate was an extremely difficult thing.

Zhong Ming sighed. When he turned back, that bronze greatsword was already standing where Yu Bai had sat moments earlier. Its blade flickered, carving two words into the ground: Thank you.

The greatsword had a spirit. Zhong Ming knew it was thanking him on Yu Bai’s behalf—for treating her wounds, for comforting her.

“Brother Sword, I am ashamed that I cannot help your master escape her predicament.”

He cupped his hands in salute and spoke politely to a sword. The scene seemed odd, yet Zhong Ming found it strangely harmonious.

He had a very good feeling about this sword. It was as straightforward as Liang Heizi, and as pure and kind as Zhang Nianchen. Zhong Ming could sense that it bore him no malice. It was better than many a human face that concealed an unknown heart.

The greatsword swayed twice, as if it still wanted to carve something else, but then it suddenly withdrew, ripples blossoming in empty air before it vanished.

Zhong Ming was still wondering about it when he heard the sound of horses outside the courtyard. A carriage approached slowly from afar.

A thin horse pulled an old, shabby carriage, and from it sprang a young man with a warm smile.

The visitor was Meng Teng, the junior physician from the Hall of Benevolent Relief. Holding a paper umbrella, he called from outside, “Is Doctor Zhong at home?”

Zhong Ming quickly stood and replied, “I’m here, Doctor Meng. What brings you here?”

Meng Teng entered the courtyard, drew a letter from his sleeve, and handed it to Zhong Ming. “Doctor Zhong, there’s some news here. The presiding physician asked me to bring it to you.”

“Oh? What news?”

Zhong Ming was rather puzzled. The Assassins Guild had never been one to send messages proactively. If the presiding physician had instructed Meng Teng to deliver it, the matter must be of great importance to him.

“Yesterday, at the imperial city of Luoyang, Senior Liu Chengyin fought Senior Qin Xiong. Our people received a bit of news. The presiding physician said the person and the matter in this letter are both extremely important to you, and that you should be informed. Please take a careful look.”

Hearing that it was news about Liu Chengyin, Zhong Ming froze slightly, then hurriedly cupped his hands. “My thanks to the presiding physician and the doctor.”

Waving it away, Meng Teng said, “You’re too kind.”

He held up his umbrella and walked back to the carriage. The old carriage slowly departed and disappeared into the rain.