Long in the Cage

Qian Chen was only joking to himself with that thought. He had not fallen to the point of killing someone just because they uttered a few unpleasant words. So long as it was not a clash of ideals, a matter of good versus evil, or a blood feud of life and death, Qian Chen was actually quite good-tempered. He was not the reckless sort who would butcher someone's entire household over a single sideways glance. He stowed away the spirit pill and said calmly, "It was presumptuous of me to offer such a pill in exchange. If the patriarch does not permit it, this young Daoist can simply offer another magical implement instead..." Wei Taiping sneered, "Offering such an inferior pill to cheat me shows how narrow-minded and opportunistic you are. What decent implement could someone of your character possibly produce? Now that Daoist Zhen has seen right through your facade, how can you still have the nerve to linger here? I am afraid my Wei clan will entertain you no longer..." Faced with this barrage of accusations hurled at his head, Qian Chen felt quite innocent. It was clearly their own lack of discernment... But the man was the host here, and if he refused the trade, Qian Chen could hardly stoop to robbing him by force. So he rose, cupped his fists, and said, "If that is the case, I shall take my leave!" Wei Lecheng said in an amicable tone, "Then allow me to see the young Daoist out..." Qian Chen smiled. "No need!" With that, he soared up in a flash of sword light and streaked out from the hall. The burst of sword light immediately startled everyone present. Wei Taiping had never imagined that this young-looking Daoist actually possessed respectable cultivation and even carried a flying sword. The exquisite swordcraft Qian Chen displayed as he took flight gave quite a shock to everyone seated. A twinge of regret instantly stirred in his heart: Had I known this young Daoist had some skill, I ought to have saved him some face. Then second thoughts struck him: For some reason, Alchemist Zhen seemed displeased with the young Daoist. Perhaps the boy's slipshod pill refining offended him. The priority right now is to curry favor with Alchemist Zhen and get him to pass down some alchemy secrets. If I can take Alchemist Zhen as my master, even if I cannot inherit the title of clan patriarch later, my position in the clan will remain rock-solid on the strength of alchemy alone. He immediately offered toast after toast, dropping heavy hints along those lines in his conversation. Little did he know that as Daoist Zhen watched the sword light vanish into the distance, his eyes were already burning with greed... The Earth-Baleful Dragon Snake Sword he wished to forge was merely a heterodox flying sword, inherently inferior to the Black Gold Baleful Hook Qian Chen had bought. While the others only marveled at Qian Chen's exquisite swordcraft, Daoist Zhen could tell that Qian Chen was merely at the Qi Refining Sensing level and had not yet condensed a true talisman of fundamental magical power; his cultivation was far below Daoist Zhen's own. Furthermore, proud of his own vicious cunning and seeing that the young Daoist seemed rather slow and wooden today, Daoist Zhen figured he was hardly a shrewd fellow. Thoughts of plotting against him began to take root in his mind. Seeing Wei Taiping currying favor so warmly, Daoist Zhen's mind turned, immediately conjuring several vicious schemes to murder by borrowed knife. Shaking his head with a chuckle, he said, "That lad cannot take advice... overly arrogant. Flaunting his trick before leaving only betrayed his timidity. To my eye, his magical power is merely at Qi Refining; he has yet to achieve Spell Comprehension. That flying sword of his was likely nothing more than a lucky windfall." This planted a seed in Wei Taiping's mind, making him easy to manipulate and sway later on. He played a few rounds of verbal fencing with Wei Taiping, finally cajoling the second young master of the Wei clan into dropping to his knees and kowtowing to study alchemy under his tutelage. Daoist Zhen feigned reluctance and declined several times before finally acting as though he could not resist everyone's persuasion, grudgingly accepting Wei Taiping. He even promised to host a pill assembly and refine a furnace of spirit pills to share among them at a bargain. For a time, waves of flattery rose from the gathering... The jovial, harmonious atmosphere returned, and Qian Chen's parting sword strike was cast completely from their minds. Streaking out of the Wei residence in sword light, Qian Chen felt slightly depressed. Today's scene reminded him of the petty, sordid scrambles of his previous life. Back when he was a graduate student, he had taken his share of grief, slaving away daily like an ox or horse for his advisor only to swallow a bellyful of stifling frustration. That advisor was disgustingly slick and had even boasted with grandiose words: "If you can't hold at least three liang of liquor, don't even dream of graduating under me!" In that past life, he had studied and slaved until he went nearly bald, suffering no end of pointless vexation... What did getting chewed out today amount to? In his previous life, whenever he was scolded like that, he still had to put on an obsequious smile! Qian Chen slashed his sword outward. A biting arc of sword light swept across Jiuzhen Lake, churning up surging waves wherever it passed, tangled and turbulent just like the countless troubles of his past life... With a sharp shout, he urged the sword light further. The black-gold sword light surged to thirty feet, its speed breaking through an invisible barrier. In an instant, the sound of the flying sword slicing through the air vanished completely, and the lake's surface settled back into tranquility. That single sword strike sheared away all the vexations dredged up within him, leaving Qian Chen to burst into uninhibited laughter. "Can all those tangled troubles still bind me today?" "The me of today is no longer the me of yesterday. That old self who struggled in the secular quagmire has now broken free and gained freedom! If I still had to endure all those compromises and helpless indignities like in my past life, what joy would there be in longevity? It would merely mean marinating deeper into the muddy waters!" "With a long sword in hand, why should I swallow those damn bastards' foul abuse!" "In this life, not only will I seek immortality, but I will also live in unconstrained freedom... If I cannot have freedom, then even if immortality were handed to me, I wouldn't take it!" Qian Chen proclaimed these words with righteous backbone, though in truth, his heart was not quite as unyielding as his tongue made it sound. Frankly speaking, if immortality were handed to him on a platter, even if it took a compromise or two, he would still happily declare it smelled mighty sweet. Qian Chen curled his lips into a sinister grin. "For some reason, that Daoist Zhen harbored ill will toward me, which my spiritual sense picked up. The malice lurking in his heart runs deep, far from a momentary tiff. Since ancient times, venomous entanglements have always come from stealing someone's love, petty spite festering into grudges, or greed sparked by wealth and conflicting interests... "Before leaving, I showed off my flying sword without tapping into the magical power of my external qi primordial dan. "He will surely assume my magical power is modest. If greed flares in his heart and stokes his malice to action, he will only be courting his own death." Qian Chen shook his sword light, flashing across a hundred li in an instant. Only at this moment did he truly understand what sustained his devotion to cultivation. It was the boundless vexations of the mortal realm, the grievances and compromises one was forced to swallow while muddling through mundane life, all that vulgarity, helplessness, and self-betrayal, the shackling threads of an invisible web, the suffocating frustration in the quiet of the night in the modern city that made one want to scream at the top of one's lungs. Only after stepping onto the path of cultivation had he suddenly realized there was another choice, seeing the vastness of heaven and earth and the grandeur of the world. He had finally found a path to transcend it all... Long in the cage, trapped as though in a net. One day riding the rising wind, returning to nature once again. Qian Chen stood above Jiuzhen Lake. The night was tranquil and beautiful. He hewed wood to make a raft, laid his sword across his knees, and gazed out over the moonlit waters, drifting leisurely through the night. Aside from refining clear qi as usual, his mind was thoroughly relaxed, having long cast all thoughts of the Wei clan to the back of his mind. Yet back in the Wei clan, someone had stayed up fretting over him the entire night. Wei Taiping went to Wei Lecheng's study to pay his respects. Entering, he found Wei Lecheng holding a cup of fragrant tea in one hand and a book in the other. Seeing Wei Taiping come in, his father merely nodded. Wei Taiping said in a low voice, "Father, I have settled Master into his quarters." "Make sure you learn some real skill from him!" Wei Lecheng said leisurely. "Only then can my mind be at ease..." Wei Taiping's eyes flickered. "Father, that young Daoist today was merely at Qi Refining cultivation and hasn't even cultivated magical power, yet he actually possesses a flying sword. Our Wei clan has only a single sword implement passed down through generations... Jiaobu Town is our territory. Since he wants to venture deep into the Great Marsh, he won't be leaving anytime soon. "The Great Marsh holds countless perils. It wouldn't be strange at all if a Qi Refining cultivator were to vanish." Wei Lecheng chuckled. "Did your master tell you to say that?" Wei Taiping panicked, his gaze instantly scattering. "Master said... it's just a flying sword, and he would pass it to me sooner or later..." "Fool!" Wei Lecheng slammed down his teacup and pointed at Wei Taiping, cursing, "Fool! Not a single copper of benefit has landed in your hands yet, and you're already willing to murder someone for him? If that Daoist Zhen covets the flying sword, why doesn't he make a move himself? Why would he share the prize and let you do the dirty work?" "Jiaobu Town is our territory after all. If anyone acts, they could never hide it from us. Naturally, Master has to rely on our strength," Wei Taiping looked up to argue. "He is an unattached rogue of the jianghu! If anything goes wrong, he can kick up his heels and vanish, wandering the jianghu or even fleeing across the seas. Even a Core Formation Grandmaster wouldn't be able to scry his whereabouts! But we have a family and business here... The Wei clan sits right here—can we run?" Wei Lecheng said, exasperated at his son's uselessness. "But every year, those jianghu travelers lucky enough to find precious spirit medicine, aren't they also..." "That is because we thoroughly investigated their backgrounds! How much do you know about that young Daoist's origins? Was that flying sword bestowed by his elders, stumbled upon by chance, or granted by his sect? Is he a true transmission disciple of Daoist orthodoxy, a scion of a prominent heterodox sect, or the son of a great aristocratic clan? Just because his visiting card said he was a loose cultivator of the jianghu... you actually believed it! "Your father is known as the Vulture! Everyone in the jianghu mocks me for being short-sighted, fixing my eyes only on petty immediate gains. "Yet which time did your father not secure the benefits firmly in hand before doing anything else? Look at you! Someone drew you a pie in the sky, and before a single crumb has reached your mouth, you're already willing to take the risk of killing someone for your master! "Right now, your master needs something from us. Instead of dangling him along to seize the chance to learn real skills, you're practically rushing to push him out the door!" Wei Taiping felt both fear and confusion. "That young Daoist's movements are unpredictable; he might not stay long. Wouldn't it be better to get our hands on the flying sword first, and then deal with Master slowly?" "Once his goal is achieved, do you really think you'll have a chance to take that flying sword?" Wei Lecheng sneered. "Once he gets what he wants, wouldn't he dust off his seat and vanish far away? Would he hang around waiting for trouble to come knocking?" Wei Taiping argued a few more sentences, but Wei Lecheng broke down every point for him until he finally had no choice but to withdraw, disgruntled. Wei Lecheng said, "Go fetch enough spirit medicine for several batches of Qi-Replenishing Pills for your master..." Wei Taiping said with heartache, "That's worth tens of thousands of taels!" Now Wei Lecheng flew into a true rage. He smashed his teacup right in front of his son and roared, "When it comes to doing major things, you act rashly and recklessly, yet when spending a bit of pocket change, you cower and shrink! You dare to commit murder at the drop of a hat, yet you gripe over this pittance? Useless wretch! If you give him no benefits, why on earth would he teach you? "Present the spirit medicine and ask him to refine a few cauldrons. You could pick up plenty just by stealing glances! "With the name of master and disciple between you, would he have the nerve not to offer a pointer or two? That is the real benefit you can grasp! That young Daoist's background is somewhat unusual, and judging by his bearing, he doesn't hail from some petty sect. Why did I not fawn over him, choosing instead to curry favor with your master? Even if he were of Daoist orthodoxy's true transmission, how much could he possibly help our Wei clan? "Your master's alchemy skills, on the other hand, are something that can truly expand our family enterprise. "If we offend disciples of those great sects, they have rules to follow; would they wipe out our entire Wei clan over such a trivial matter? But if you offend your master, a petty villain like him might seek vengeance day and night. That is knowing your limits and weighing your options! Look at you—someone we should keep at a polite distance, you talk of killing right away; someone we should slowly suppress and bring to heel, you willingly grovel beneath... "How did I, Wei Lecheng, ever sire such an idiot?" When Daoist Zhen saw his bargain of an apprentice respectfully present enough ingredients for several batches of Qi-Replenishing Pills, claiming they were offered for Master to practice his craft, he ran his hand through the well-prepared, top-grade spirit medicine and sneered inwardly, Old fox!