That very night, I rushed over to the main peak of Chen Ji Shan.
At the entrance to the Wu E Hall, I reported Zhi Yan's name, and the guards swiftly allowed me entry. Mo Qing must have already given them instructions.
His words before, 'If she enters your dreams again, report to me," were not empty words.
I was very pleased. Mo Qing's fervor at wanting to grasp my whereabouts showed how much his heart itched with hatred and fear that I would one day make my comeback and steal his position and riches, just as he had done to me.
I waited in the side hall for some time, yet no one arrived, and so I decided to take a look around the place.
The Wu E Hall had, on the whole, no major differences compared to before. The treasures, the presence, the atmosphere; all that should be here, was present. The fierce ghosts carved on the resplendent pillars, the nine-headed snake that curled around them, the skulls on the ceiling lights – all of which brought out an atmosphere of cold cruelty and murder.
It was just like Wan Lu Sect's style when I was still around.
Standing here in such an atmosphere, I suddenly felt as if I was still alive, with the power to command life and death, living an indulgent life where I was feared and respected by the entire world.
I sat on a chair and leaned back, closing my eyes. Back in the old days…
"Du!" A crisp sound rang out from the main hall to the side. Yi, there were still people in the main hall at this time? Curious, I stealthily crept over and leaned against the door, listening through the wall.
An aged voice, full of suppressed anger, said, "Sect Leader's recent actions have been increasingly going against Wan Lu Sect's purpose and goals."
His loud voice rang out in the empty and deserted hall, and it provoked thousands of resounding echoes in my heart. Yes indeed! Very correct! I hadn't thought that there was still someone so clear-sighed in our Wan Lu Sect!
I felt that simply listening by the wall was no longer enough to satisfy me, and so I pulled open the door a fraction and peered through, hoping to see this old immortal hero.
But from my angle, the first thing I saw was instead the figure reigning over the hall – Mo Qing, sitting in a chair with the shape of a celestial dragon, his face expressionless, as stern as the statues of the gods in the hall. He was completely different from the Mo Qing in the past, who would often hide himself in a huge cloak.
His sitting posture today, was also completely different from how I used to sit on that huge chair, leaning lopsidedly to a side with one leg crossed over the other.
The him now, was more like the drawing of the ancient Demon King passed down over thousands of years – silent yet formidable, his presence powerfully oppressive even in the absence of anger.
I pursed my lips. In my heart I had to resentfully admit that Mo Qing had indeed inherited his bloodline; now that Mo Qing is all dressed up, he looked worthy of being the Demon King's descendant.
At the moment, there was no one else in the Hall but an old man with a head of white hair. He was leaning on a green steel walking stick; the sound of something hitting the floor from earlier must be from the walking stick.
Even though I could only see his back, I had already recognised this old man.
My Wan Lu Sect had countless disciples, and it was impossible for me to manage it all alone. Therefore, under the Sect Leader, there were 4 Peak Leaders – North, South, East and West. This old man, Yuan Jie, was the North Peak Leader during my reign.
He was a stubborn and insidiously evil old man who deeply hated the celestial sects.
Before entering Wan Lu Sect, his entire family had been slaughtered by the celestial sects, and from then on, he was wholly focused on demonic cultivation, killing any celestial sect disciple he came across. In the past, there was a common saying amongst the celestial sects: "Better to come across Lu Zhao Yao, rather than the North Peak Leader."
He could be considered a capable person. Whenever a particularly reckless celestial sect came to offend us, you can't go wrong with letting him handle it. It was just that he had an overly stubborn and eccentric personality, and so we were not particularly close.
Come to think of it, now that Wan Lu Sect had changed leaders, other than such a stubborn person like him, who would defy the new Sect Leader's words?
Yuan Jie said hoarsely, "In the past, when you got rid of the arrays at the entrance of Wan Lu Sect, those were merely formalities, and did not matter…"
Hey, old man, you're making me unhappy with those words. How were those formalities, those were Symbols! Spirit!
"But now, that Jiang Wu of Xin Shan is first-rate, and he is a scourge that must be destroyed, but no matter what, Wan Lu Sect must not ally ourselves with Qian Chen Pavilion!"
I furrowed my brows; I haven't heard of Jiang Wu of Xin Shan before – he is probably a figure who has only emerged in recent years – but I do know of Qian Chen Pavilion.
Like Jian Xin Sect, Qian Chen Pavilion was one of the ten Great Celestial Sects. In the battle at the Sword Tomb, they had also contributed. But because their contribution was neither too large nor small, they had not been as showy as Jian Xin Sect, and I didn't have much of an impression of them. Upon mentioning them, rather than remembering any grudges, I remember their Sect Leader, Qin Qian Xian, far better – that was truly a world-renowned beauty.
And he was not just beautiful, he was beautiful to the point of transcending genders.
Qian Chen Pavilion cultivated the path of the Bodhisattva. This cultivation had no distinction between genders, and shared both genders in a body; upon cultivation the boundaries between gender identities would blur, and as one becomes more advanced in their cultivation, their gender would become more and more indistinct, becoming similar to the legendary Bodhisattva. And this Qin Qian Xian was probably the one living person most alike to Bodhisattva in this world.
Yes indeed, his beauty was a feast for all, appealing to both men and women.
I remembered when I first heard of Qin Qian Xian's beauty, I captured and locked him in the dungeons so I could stare at him the entire night. I had looked to my heart's content, and it was immensely satisfying. Even now, thinking back, my heart still felt a little itchy; it wouldn't be too bad if I had another chance to stare at him again…
"Xin Shan is located in the boundary dividing the Celestial and Demonic Sects."
Mo Qing's voice pulled me back from my wandering thoughts. He coldly said, "Jiang Wu and his people have made use of the differences between the two Paths to remain at large for a long time, and with this alliance with Qian Chen Pavilion, we can eliminate this scourge quickly without going as far to leave ourselves vulnerable to an enemy, how is that inappropriate?"
I mulled over this; hearing Mo Qing put it this way, I also feel that there was nothing inappropriate about this.
My principle of doing things has always been: simple, convenient, fast. It did not matter whether or not we ally with the Celestial Sects, what mattered was – if the goal is to destroy this bunch of people, as long as they are quickly destroyed in the end, everything is fine.
I nodded. Mn, that's decided, then.
"Sect Leader!"
"Enough, I have decided," Mo Qing cut him off.
I sighed dejectedly; I was no longer the one making the decisions within the sect now… I hadn't even finished my sigh when I felt a wave of killing intent sweep towards me.
Glancing up, I caught Yuan Jie's sinister gaze fixed on me.
Having just had his suggestion rejected by Mo Qing, he was ashen-faced with anger, and as our gazes crossed, his eagle-like eyes flashed with killing intent.
"Who's there!"
Following his words, an invisible blade of energy was thrown at me. I startled and tried to avoid it, but Zhi Yan's body was truly disappointing! Threatened by the pressure of a power stronger than her by many times, her entire body was frozen stiff.
The blade reached me in an instant. That's it, I thought, now I don't even have to worry about paper money or getting a body, I can go with Zhi Yan hand in hand, and spend our days playing 'catch the ghost' by that green grave.
But it was at this moment that the blade, upon reaching me, seemed to have smashed against some kind of barrier. The sound of the two things colliding was deafening, so much so that I was forced to retreat two steps by the sound alone. The huge stone door of the main hall, having been outside the barrier, had already been reduced to powder.
Mo Qing waved his hand expressionlessly, motioning for the guards who had heard the commotion to retreat. "North Peak Leader was too impulsive." He glanced at me, then at Yuan Jie. "It was simply one of my informants, here to report to me."
"Your subordinate knows his mistake."
Hn, know your mistake? As if I didn't know how you guys are like. This old man was simply venting his temper on me after having been snubbed by Mo Qing.
Mo Qing did not punish him. Yuan Jie saluted and retreated, his green steel walking sick resounding loudly against the ground with every step. Just as he left the main hall, he turned to look at me. I returned the stare unflinchingly.
He stepped out of the main hall, his face full of condescending disdain.
I raised my eyebrows, and suddenly remembered that the body I'm in was one that practised celestial cultivation. I pursed my lips. Seeing how he said that Mo Qing's actions have gone against the purpose of Wan Lu Sect, I shall forgive this transgression and not count this against him.
I had just watched Yuan Jie leave when Mo Qing's voice rang out behind me. "You're more audacious in the evening." I turned my head, and saw that Mo Qing had already entered the side hall, his hands behind his back as he stood only three steps away, glancing at me. "I let you wait in the side hall, why were you not as obedient as you were this morning?"
I casually found an excuse, "We were at a grave in the morning, of course I had to be more reserved…"
"Oh." He responded. Before I could even blink, a shadow flashed by, and in the next moment he was right in front of me, mere inches away.
I raised my head to gaze at him uncomprehendingly.
His dark eyes were so clear I could see Zhi Yan's face reflected in them. "And you're not as scared of me as you were in the morning?"
He's suspecting me, but I cannot panic. The more panicked one becomes, the more mistakes would be made. Therefore I calmly addressed his suspicion: "Master, this is me being scared silly."
Mo Qing: "..."
A silence descended over the hall. I cleared my throat, unwilling to let him continue thinking on it. "Master, I rested earlier and dreamt of Lu Zhao Yao again."
"En." He turned and languidly sat down on a chair, no longer appearing as imposing as he was in the Main Hall as he played with something in his hands. "How was she in your dream?"
I spoke a load of nonsense at him: "Nothing much, she was just standing there. But Master, I think that it's not a good idea to keep letting her enter my dreams. She's hidden while you're in the open; no matter what you do, you have already lost the initiative. Why don't we find her first?"
Mo Qing raised his head to glance at me, his gaze evaluating. "You can find her?"
"Not now." I walked over to the chair beside Mo Qing and sat down. Only a square table separated us, and I leaned half of my body over, trying hard to get close enough so my breath could flutter the strands of his hair. "If I could look through a few tomes, perhaps I could find a spell to look for deceased people."
I firmly believe that Mo Qing is interested in Zhi Yan's body. Otherwise, how could I have so easily fooled him the last few times?
But just as I got closer and closer to his face, an invisible barrier appeared in between the two of us. My face was squashed against it, looking rather unsightly, so I had no choice but to angrily lean back again.
He didn't look at me, wholly focused on the object he was playing with in his hands. "First tell me how she was standing there, with what kind of expression and posture."
Mo Qing, this little ugly monster, was really so strange to the point that I can't even comprehend him. Why would he mind something so off-topic and unimportant? I wracked my brains, and finally said, "Just…floating in mid-air, not much expression."
"Didn't she make you burn money?"
"Ah…yes."
"She never begrudged that the money was not enough? Never asked you to continue burning? How about tomorrow? Are you no longer burning them?"
Yes…the money was so little it practically was asking for my ghostly life. We definitely have to continue tomorrow, and also think of ways to let others burn money for me as well – it is completely impossible to stop burning money! I sorrowfully replied in my heart; raising my gaze, I saw that Mo Qing was staring directly into my eyes…
I suddenly remembered a scene from long ago. At that time, I had yet to establish Wan Lu Sect. I had just ran out from Wan Lu Shan, and accidentally saved Mo Qing, who was still a boy then. I took him along with me; he had always been taciturn, wearing the black cloak several sizes too large for him and a mask over his face, never revealing it to others.
One night, I had drank too much, and found an inn in the village at the foot of Chen Ji Shan to rest at. I woke up in the middle of the night in a sleepy daze, trying to reach for some water to drink. Then, by my side, a small hand raised my head up, and brought the water to my lips.
I saw his face full of greenish scars. It was so horrifying it made one's scalp go numb.
When he saw that I was gazing at him, he let go of the unfinished bowl of water in a panic, shattering it and spilling water everywhere. He then quietly retreated to a side, clumsily shielding his face from view.
But it was not the scars on his face that I remembered; it was his eyes: "Like a sea of bright stars."
At that time…I seemed to have described it as such.
That scene had originally been forgotten amidst all of my accumulated memories, until now, when I saw the current him, it was like a veil had been removed, and everything became clear.
I flinched back, unconsciously hiding from his gaze.
For in that split-second, I had an illusion that his clear eyes had seen right through me, and into my very soul.
(Translated by jillaimee at Silent Moon Translations)