Green Dragon Totem

The morning of the next day.

A corpse shrouded in white cloth was laid in the main hall, and the Old Madam was a.s.sisted to walk in. She staggered several steps, before falling to her knees and crying out: "My ill-fated child!…"

Everyone in the hall could not bear to keep looking, all sighing and turning their heads, with the sounds of "May Old Madam save your sorrows" and "May Young Master save your sorrows" incessantly ringing out.

"Last night a fire broke out at the Manor"s inner courtyard, and my family"s younger sister was too late in escaping the embriodery house, when the fire was extinguished, she was already…" Fu Wenjie paused, holding up a hand to cover his face, and only after a long while did he raise reddened eyes: "This thing happened suddenly, I too did not expect it, yesterday my sister was still standing here alive and well, and today she has already risen to the heavens and departed us entirely…"

Jing Ling turned around from the head of the crowd, looking towards Xie Yun leaning in a corner.

Shan Chao advanced half a step to block his gaze, and Jing Ling made a cold hum, turning his head back.

Last night after the outcry from the fire, the blaze coming from the direction of the embriodery house rocketed up, and the noise of water being transported to fight the fire mixed in clamour, instantly breaking the deadlock within the courtyard. Jing Ling had originally planned to keep interrogating, but several subordinates of the Mysterious Demon School flew up to report important matters, and after they had said something into his ear, Jing Ling had unexpectedly did not continue fighting, only pointing the hook points as cold as the crescent moon towards Shan Chao, gave a cold sneer, and then leapt away.

Shan Chao strode back to stand before the room door, raising his hand to push, yet hesitated in mid-air, changing to use his fingertips to knock twice:

"Miss Long, are you alright?"

The door was silent.

"Miss Long?"

"…many thanks to Master for rescuing me, I"m fine."

For some reason Shan Chao felt that Miss Long"s voice was lower than usual, with some faint hoa.r.s.eness, yet it was normal for people"s voice to tremble after a startling event, and thus he did not pursue the question, and only said: "There is a fire outside, you should stay in and not go out. We cannot stay long at Sword-Forging Manor, tomorrow we shall move ourselves away, never mind what other people say now."

Who knew that the Miss Long in the room laughed, and that sound was like ice flakes striking clear water: "Too late."

"We can"t leave."

White banners had already been put up in the main hall, all the guests were in sorrow, the servants wore mourning robes, and Fu Xiangrong"s personal maids huddled together, sobbing and sniffling beside the corpse.

Fu Wenjie wiped the tears at the corners of his eyes, and choked: "Our Manor was originally indebted with the many kindnesses of fellow martial-artists, and had prepared to undertake hosting the Grand Martial a.s.sembly next month, and we have even prepared all kinds of goods and manpower. Yet with such a tragedy happened, it is truly unexpected…"

All the visitors naturally expressed that the Young Master need not brood over it, only what a pity for the Young Mistress, that the heavens envied young beauties, her fragrance had diminished and the jade perished1, a natural disaster was hard to avoid…

Jing Ling watched the beauty for a while: "I have a question."

"May Young Master Jing please speak."

"—Is the Sword-Forging Manor very poor?"

"What words are these!" In the hall there was immediately someone who blurted this out, inviting some noises of agreement, and the Old Madam guarding beside the corpse immediately made her crying louder.

Fu Wenjie had a great headache: "Our Manor may not compare to the Mysterious Demon School in size or wealth, but in any case we have decades of family estate, and are able to handle every expense, no need for outsiders to worry. What is Young Master Jing"s meaning in asking this?"

"Oh?" Jing Ling "leisurely said: "Yet if the Sword-Forging Manor is not poor, why is it that when the master sleeps there is no servant girl on night duty, and despite the fire against all reason only the Young Mistress was burnt to death?"

In the hall the sounds of criticism one after another quieted, when a maid beside Fu Xiangrong"s body shrieked: "It"s a ghost!"

That maid walked two steps on her knees, and cried as she gasped for breath, her entire person seeming on the verge of collapse: "Since, since the Young Madam pa.s.sed away, at night there would frequently appear ghostly weeping in the inner courtyard, and the night patrols saw a white shadow a few times wandering around in the graveyard behind the mountain, and they all said that the Young Madam"s grievance was grave, and thus… the night of the day before the fire we all personally saw a female ghost in the courtyard, entirely covered in blood, it, it was extremely frightening, Old Madam strictly prohibited us from speaking it out…"

Everyone looked at each other in display, but the Old Madam only wiped her tears, yet had no intention to stop the maid from speaking, as if giving tacit approval.

"Last night we heard outside a ghost howling, sometimes close and sometimes far, and we were very afraid, but did not dare to disturb the Young Mistress, so we secretly ordered everyone to surround the outside, and light the lanterns to pray to Buddha. We pray for about half a shichen, when we suddenly heard movement gradually appearing from the inner rooms, and the window banged, and the Young Mistress shouted from inside: "Guards, there"s a ghost!"… we all hurried over, yet no matter what we could not knock the door open, only seeing the fire-light flickering within, following the sharp crying of the female ghost, and we, we—"

Jing Ling said: "You all ran?"

The maid cried as she continually nodded, certainly terrified to the extreme.

"How could they care about other things in a life or death crisis, they only thought about fleeing for their lives!" the Old Madam cried and exclaimed by the side: "Where would there be that kind of loyal servants as spoken of in the plays, there"s no blaming these girls!"

In the hall everyone sighed, some scared witless, some praying incessantly to Buddha, some praising the Old Madam as being fair and reasonable, there were all kinds of reactions.

Shan Chao gave a light "Yi?" sound.

Xie Yun murmured: "What is it?"

After last night his voice was a bit hoa.r.s.e, perhaps an injury from when Jing Ling used his thumb to press down on the throat, but after getting up this morning his voice had become rather constrained.

Shan Chao shook his head without speaking, and Xie Yun lightly said: "Did you want to say that the Old Madam is pedantic and inflexible, completely unreasonable, and the night before yesterday when she heard the maids speak about the haunting she was still in flat denial, so why when her girl died today, she became of n.o.ble character and unquestionable integrity, yes?"

Shan Chao smiled, and uttered a name of Buddha: "This poor monk is not…"

He wanted to say that he was not that unkind, yet when the words were on the verge of coming out, he said nothing.

"It"s not unkind." Xie Yun seemed very familiar with his way of reasoning, and said: "Your suspicions are correct, the elderly lady is indeed strange, and Fu Wenjie is also quite suspicious, from the first time when we ran into them by the West Lake, he had always been speaking rather suspiciously…"

"To retain a heart of vigilance towards everyone around you in a strange place, and remain firm of the tenets of good and evil in your heart, and move according to your intuition, without letting off easily any doubts, yet without revealing all your doubts on your face." Xie Yun slowly said: "This is the first rule of setting oneself up in the Jianghu."

Shan Chao looked forward, listening to Xie Yun"s measured cadence come from his side, and that strange feeling from that day by the pond-side suddenly returned to his heart.

As if many years ago there was also someone like this, telling him about some principle which was shallow or deep, guiding patiently and systematically with great pains.

"Where did Miss Long come to realise these," Shan Chao suddenly asked, "do you usually come into contact with people of the Jianghu in the Xie manor?"

He turned his head to look at Xie Yun, and the latter also looked to him. After a moment where they locked eyes, the corner of Xie Yun"s mouth crooked up slightly.

"People are all the same. No matter the Jianghu, the Court or the marketplace, in any place people remain the same." Xie Yun"s eyes held a carefree amus.e.m.e.nt: "Of course one reason could be that I am… much… bigger…"

"I"m already pushing my thirties, young man," Xie Yun smiled under Shan Chao"s incredulous expression, "it just can"t be seen."

On the other side of the hall, the Old Madam was crying without restraint as she was supported by a maid, and Fu Wenjie also held tears in his eyes, covering his cheeks heavily.

Yet Jing Ling fixedly stared at the body covered with a white shroud, suspicion appearing in his eyes, and a moment later when there was n.o.body around he took the chance to suddenly walk up, and pick up a corner of the shroud, carelessly tearing it off!

"What are you doing!"

"Quick, quickly stop!"

"Intolerable bullying!"

The hall immediately saw everyone get up immediately, and the curses of rage gathered together, and the Old Madam heavily crashed her walking-stick against the floor, crying while weeping: "How can this wild child from nowhere be so rude! She"s dead and you still won"t let her off! Men!"

Jing Ling did not seem to hear the surrounding hubbub, only seeing that the body was charred, and none of Fu Xiangrong"s beautiful appearance while alive could be seen, only that it was a girl in the prime of youth, in addition to the charred stink which hit his face.

Jing Ling covered the shroud before Chen Haiping and others closest to him could leap up, got up and backed away, casually saluting: "Excuse me, excuse me."

"Young Master Jing, do not take things too far!" Fu Wenjie slapped the table in rage: "She is dead, are you still going to forcibly marry her!"

Jing Ling was about to speak, when suddenly a bird-call came from outside the hall, pressing in quickly from afar.

Jing Ling"s gaze flickered, turning to stride out, and the Mysterious Demon School a.s.sa.s.sin immediately advanced and forcibly pressed back the crowd filled with righteous indignation, opening a path for him.

Outside the main hall was a wide practice ground, and Jing Ling stood there and looked up, sure enough spotting a black dot approach quickly, it was shockingly a small winged eagle!

Jing Ling raised an arm, and the little eagle alighted heavily on his forearm with a "duo" sound, flapping its wings for a while, and making a sharp cry.

Jing Ling touched its hard plume feathers, and from the eagle"s leg he retrieved a silver tube—the eagle claw had already sunk into the leather armour on his forearm. After opening the silver tube there was a paper scroll within, and with a shake he opened it, reading the two lines scribbled in dripping wet ink on it.

"……"

Jing Ling"s expression changed slightly.

"Not only must my younger sister"s coffin be kept in a temporary location before burial, there is also the renovation of the house, the courtyard, and all kinds of arrangements, I am afraid that the Grand Martial a.s.sembly will not be held on schedule now…" Fu Wenjie was resisting choking sobs with great difficulty as he spoke to everyone, when a voice suddenly came from the doorway: "Burial? I presume that Young Master has left out something?"

Jing Ling strolled back into the hall under everyone"s angry gazes, and his posture was akin to strolling in his own home—Fu Wenjie endured his bitterness, and asked: "What does Young Master Jing mean, that I left something out?"

"Since the Mysterious Demon School has already proposed to the Sword-Forging Manor, this wedding day should be on the agenda. Although midway your honoured sister accidentally pa.s.sed away, yet the matters which had already been agreed upon must absolutely remain unchanged, and must proceed according to plan."

Fu Wenjie seemed like he was hearing gibberish: "Why, could it be that you still wish to marry my sister?"

Jing Ling said: "Yes."

"You want to marry a tablet home?"

Jing Ling said again: "Yes."

Both words did not carry the slightest hesitation, and did not seem like joking, without even a perfunctory meaning.

Everyone in the hall was in an uproar, and the Old Madam had even forgot to cry. For a very long time Fu Wenjie glared at this unyielding and yet darkly frightful young man before him, and found his voice only after a long while: "Then… you… what can you do even if you marry her back?"

Jing Ling smiled, revealing white and sharp teeth: "The Mysterious Demon School takes a daughter-in-law, and would naturally give a betrothal gift; and since the Sword-Forging Manor is marrying out a daughter, there should naturally be a dowry…"

"…you," Fu Wenjie finally asked the question buried for a long time on everyone"s minds: "What exactly do you want?"

Jing Ling glanced at the paper, and looked towards Fu Wenjie, his smile filled with the pride of inevitable victory: "Snow, Lotus, Flower."

The Snow Lotus flower!

—the Crown Prince in the Eastern Palace is close to death of poisoning, for which the Snow Lotus is urgently needed to save his life!

Shan Chao"s expression shook, the muscles of his entire body subconsciously tightening, yet Xie Yun beside him seemed to have antic.i.p.ated it, letting out a quiet breath.

Everyone"s face was stunned, ignorant of what Jing Ling was saying, but only Old Madam Fu blurted out: "Out of the question!"

Jing Ling coldly said: "Why not?"

"Young Master Jing may be unaware, but the Snow Lotus became extinct a long time ago!" Fu Wenjie urgently said: "Over the past hundred years our Manor did need ice water immersed with the Snow Lotus flowers to forge, in order to achieve a matchless hardness and edge in the swords, but as early as more than ten years ago the Snow Lotus went extinct due to climate changes in the Western Regions, and though the last plants were in my father"s hands, yet years ago my father had a good relationship with the Chancellery official Pavilion Elder Liu, and had already given it to the Liu manor!"

Jing Ling narrowed his eyes, his gaze slowly sweeping past everyone, falling on the pale-faced Fu Wenjie in the end.

The young man"s eyes seemed to be suffused with a spark of doubt and bloodl.u.s.t, causing people to shiver with fear.

Right at this time, behind him Shan Chao"s gaze fell onto the corpse shrouded in white in the hall, and unexpectedly felt that something was wrong.

— the corpse was originally properly covered, and due to Jing Ling"s messy overturn just now, some parts were now revealed, and one charred hand was drooping out.

The hand could not open up, burnt until the skin opened and the flesh buckled, with not a bit of its former verdant fairness visible, leaving people unable to bear a continued look at that desperate scene after one glance; yet Shan Chao seemed to have discovered something, the peaks of his brows slightly wrinkling, even so much that curled his fingers in testing.

"Does Master intend to fight with that one surnamed Jing for a wife?" Xie Yun asked without thinking.

Shan Chao suddenly turned around: "Miss Long, if a human was burnt to death by fire there should be a process, and during this process they should be struggling in pain, yes?"

Xie Yun earnestly said: "On this I have no experience, but I believe that there should be…"

Shan Chao nodded his head slightly, and then pa.s.sed through the crowd, quickly walking up, as in the hall Fu Wenjie excitedly said:

"After that matter our Manor had sent people to the Western Regions to search several times, but we could not find any trace of the Snow Lotus, even if today the Snow Lotus still exists in this world, it would inevitably be somewhere on a snowy summit of ten thousand li off the beaten path, there is no possibility of finding it… Master! What are you doing?!"

Everyone uniformly turned their heads back, to see Shan Chao unexpectedly half-kneeling by the corpse, lifting up the corpse, and even reaching out to pry open Fu Xiangrong"s mouth!

Chen Haiping was in a towering rage, Old Madam Fu leant on her walking-stick intending to throw herself forward, even Jing Ling stared blankly, yet in the confusion after everyone"s surprise, Shan Chao rapidly stretched his fingers into Fu Xiangrong"s mouth and wiped around, and after wiping he only glanced at it, before closing his eyes.

"Monk, don"t be rude!" "Men, drag him away!" "Guards!"

Chen Haiping went up to grab Shan Chao, about to directly beat him up, yet he was pushed aside by Shan Chao.

"This poor monk," Shan Chao paused, and stood in the middle of everyone"s encirclement, his voice low to the point of hoa.r.s.eness:

"This poor monk knows the five phases2, understands yin and yang, and just now I heard this miss speak her last words… thus I have profaned the body, ten thousand apologies."

Chen Haiping who was raising a fist with red-rimmed eyes started, and everyone in the surroundings were all stunned into stillness.

"You… you heard her…" Chen Haiping spoke in a trembling voice: "What did she say?"

Shan Chao opened his eyes. His gaze was as cold as steel, hard as rock, and swept past everyone"s varying expressions, carrying an indescribably heavy weight.

"She said that she has a grievance," he slowly said.

"She was killed deliberately by someone, and the murderer is some other person."

1 ZH: 香消玉殒 - refers to the death of a beautiful woman.

2 ZH: 五行 - See here.

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