Chapter 135 — Strange Arts

The Burning Cloud Valley, a secret chamber.

An old-fashioned screen divided the stone room in two. Shangguan Lue, dressed in gray, stood quietly in place, waiting patiently.

After a long while, the hoarse voice of Yun Yifeng, Valley Master of the Burning Cloud Valley, came from behind the screen: "I hear that on this pursuit of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox, Junior Brother, your movements were strange, and at the final moment you suddenly ordered all the disciples to withdraw. Is this true?"

A faint sneer surfaced at the corner of Shangguan Lue's mouth. He could well guess from whom Yun Yifeng had "heard" it. In all the Burning Cloud Valley, at this moment, apart from himself, only Li Xun, Yun Yifeng's most beloved disciple, could speak with him here.

But Shangguan Lue made no argument. He only said slowly, "It is."

Yun Yifeng was silent for a moment, then said, "Then your senior brother is greatly puzzled. Will you explain it to me, Junior Brother?"

Facing the screen, Shangguan Lue gave a slight bow. "I would not presume. It was on the trail of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox that I met a certain person, and so I ordered the disciples to turn back at once and hurried to the valley to report to you, Senior Brother."

Yun Yifeng's voice clearly caught. "What sort of person could make you take him so seriously, Junior Brother?"

Shangguan Lue slowly spat out two words: "A witch demon."

Behind the screen, silence fell abruptly, and for a long time no sound came.

Shangguan Lue waited patiently where he stood. This reaction of Yun Yifeng's was entirely within his expectations. On the day he had seen the witch demon with his own eyes, the shock in his heart had been no small thing either.

How much time passed, he could not say, before Yun Yifeng's even voice came from behind the screen: "So they have finally been unable to hold back."

From Yun Yifeng's voice Shangguan Lue could not discern in the least what his senior brother was thinking. Whether it was anxiety or shock, he could not tell at all. He fixed his eyes on the screen and went on, "There is one more thing…"

Yun Yifeng gave an "mm," and this time seemed somewhat surprised.

Shangguan Lue drew a deep breath. "In the witch demon's hands are two of the Five Tribes' sacred relics: the Black Staff and the Bone Jade."

"What?" Yun Yifeng could no longer keep his composure, and the words burst from behind the screen.

A trace of a sneer flitted through Shangguan Lue's heart, but his face showed no change at all. "It seems the beast demon found a Li Tribe shaman somewhere, passed on to him the 'Black Fire' sorcery, and used him to stir up strife between the Miao and the Li, thereby seizing the Black Staff and Bone Jade from the great shaman of the Miao altar. Afterward the Li shaman meant to turn against the beast demon, but the beast demon was ready—he had the witch demon kill the man with the 'Black Fire Essence Pearl' and take the two sacred relics back."

Yun Yifeng gave a cold snort. "So there are still fools who do not know when they are beaten!" He paused, and his voice took on a faint note of severity. "These sacred relics are of great consequence. Why did you not act?"

Shangguan Lue's expression was blank. "By the time I arrived, the Black Staff and Bone Jade had already fallen into the witch demon's hands, and there was a vicious dragon at his side as well."

Yun Yifeng fell silent, and only after a good while did he slowly sigh. "Fate—fate, indeed! Our century-long plan, ruined in a single stroke!"

Shangguan Lue said nothing.

Mount Canglan, the Heaven-Reaching Peak.

White clouds drifted, immortal air coiled about, and in this place like a paradise on earth, the calls of cranes rang clear and sweet, echoing across the sky.

The Jade Balance Hall, destroyed in a fierce battle ten years before, had long since been rebuilt, and now it stood magnificent and imposing, grander in scale than ever before. Dozens of great red stone pillars upheld the beams; the roof was of yellow glazed tile, and beneath the sunlight it dazzled the eye in a blaze of splendor.

At the center of the roof rose a spire like a pagoda's tip, a round ring of jasper shaped in the form of a treasure pagoda, thirty-six tiers from large to small, from bottom to top, capped with a yellow stone, translucent and luminous.

The eaves swept out toward the eight directions. On the four sides—east, south, west, north—were carved golden dragons sporting with pearls; on the four corners—southeast, southwest, northwest, northeast—were carved brilliant phoenixes in flight. From the mouths of dragons and phoenixes alike hung glazed wind chimes, swaying with the wind and giving out crisp notes that lent the place an added air of the immortal.

Amid the crane calls and the chiming of bells, Lu Xueling, robed all in white, climbed slowly up the stone steps before the Jade Balance Hall.

Now and then a few Qingyun disciples sweeping the steps saw her and nodded in greeting. Among them were one or two young lads newly admitted, whose cultivation was still shallow; captivated by her beauty, they dared not look again after the first glance, and lowered their heads with faintly reddened faces.

Lu Xueling returned each greeting, her face as expressionless as ever, and walked on toward the towering hall at the top of the steps.

Behind her there came a sudden great splash, and a sound like a dragon's cry broke the stillness. Lu Xueling did not turn; it was the water qilin, the mountain-guarding spirit beast of the Canglan Sect, in the cold blue pool, hauling itself out onto the bank once more to bask in the sun and doze.

Everything here was so tranquil, so harmonious. And who would know that a youth had once stormed out from this very place and thrown himself into another world, filthy and blood-soaked?

Lu Xueling finished the long climb of steps, glanced silently at the towering Jade Balance Hall, and went in.

Within the great hall, light poured in through windows open on every side, making it especially bright, with no hint of gloom at all. The sect master of the Canglan Sect, Dao Yan Zhenren, foremost of the orthodox path in the world today, sat smiling upon the master's seat. At his lower right sat another—Lu Xueling's honored teacher, Master Shui Jing, head of the Xiaozhu Peak of the Canglan Sect.

Lu Xueling was startled. She had returned this time from the southern frontier at Dao Yan Zhenren's dispatch, and so had first come back to the main sect on the Heaven-Reaching Peak to report to him, intending afterward to return to the mountain and see her master. She had not expected Master Shui Jing to be here on the Heaven-Reaching Peak as well. And in this Jade Balance Hall, apart from Dao Yan Zhenren and Master Shui Jing, no one else was seated—as though the two of them had been waiting expressly for her return.

Seeing Lu Xueling enter the hall, Dao Yan Zhenren was the first to smile kindly; beside him, Master Shui Jing, though ever cold of manner, was naturally different toward this, her most beloved disciple, and a measure of tenderness showed in her eyes.

Lu Xueling went forward and first bowed to Dao Yan Zhenren. "I pay my respects to the Sect Master."

Then she turned and bowed to Master Shui Jing as well, but with this teacher who was to her as a mother, her speech was far more casual. "Master, why have you come here too?"

Dao Yan Zhenren laughed. "Yesterday I received word that you would return to the mountain today, so I sent someone to inform your master. And it happened I had a few trifling matters to discuss with her, so I simply asked her to come."

Lu Xueling murmured her assent. Master Shui Jing, seated to one side, looked at her beautiful disciple. Lu Xueling's face, fair as frost and whiter than snow, was as lovely and as blank as ever—yet somehow, looking at her, one felt her color was faintly pale.