Dali, the Jade Cave of Wuliang Mountain.
Duan Yu shifted his gaze from the Sunflower Manual in his hands to the jade statue of "Fairy Sister" before him.
The jade statue of Fairy Sister was as lifelike and lovely as ever, but there was no longer the slightest infatuation in the eyes he turned upon it—only terror, his eyes all but bulging from his head.
Yesterday he had followed some people to Wuliang Mountain for an outing. A series of mishaps followed, and in the end he was chased until he lost his footing and fell from the cliff. By chance, he found this Jade Cave.
After that he became obsessed with the jade statue of "Fairy Sister" in the cave. Just as the writing on Fairy Sister's embroidered shoes instructed, he kowtowed a thousand times, and from within the meditation cushion he found the Sunflower Manual Fairy Sister had left behind.
He opened the book and was stunned on the spot.
Cultivating this art could actually turn a man into a woman?
So the Fairy Sister he had been infatuated with only a moment ago, the one to whom he had willingly kowtowed a thousand times... was actually a man!?
While his mind was in utter disorder, a youth with a face full of righteousness walked in from outside the cave. It was none other than the very man who had compiled the Sunflower Manual in Duan Yu's hands—
Qin Zheng!
As everyone knew, the more one's fate lacked a thing, the more one's name had to supply it. Qin Zheng's name meant "upright," and from this it followed that he was a heretical cultivator.
In his previous life he had transmigrated into a cultivation world, joined the most mysterious of the heretical cultivators' sects, the Tianxie Sect, become the sect's Holy Son, and gained the chance to comprehend the "Heavenly Tome."
The instant he opened the Heavenly Tome, a bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky and, in a flash, shattered his body and the entire hall where arts were transmitted.
When he opened his eyes again, he was a newborn infant, and all his cultivation was gone.
Fortunately, the Heavenly Tome had already fused with his soul. Even though the world he now inhabited had no spiritual qi, he could still cultivate the arts he had comprehended from the Heavenly Tome.
This was not because he was extraordinarily gifted, or possessed some special constitution that let him cultivate immortality without spiritual qi. It was because the arts in the Heavenly Tome were simply too sinister.
However bizarre the arts of other heretical cultivators might be, they still required spiritual qi, breaking through one realm at a time. The Heavenly Tome of the Tianxie Sect, by contrast, stole the power of the Heavenly Dao outright. Master any single art comprehended from the Heavenly Tome, and one would command the Heavenly Dao at once.
Imagine it. An enemy of the Mahayana stage has hunted you for a long time and is just about to kill you, when the art you cultivate suddenly reaches perfection.
In the next moment the enemy discovers that everything in the world has come under your control. Life and death hang on a single thought of yours; even what thoughts arise in his heart are yours to direct. He can only kneel helplessly before you, weeping and crying out, begging Heaven to spare his life.
For an enemy, what despair that would be...
Qin Zheng sometimes suspected that the "Heavenly Tome" was simply too defiant of heaven, that the Heavenly Dao would not permit anyone to cultivate it, and that this was why he had been struck by lightning in his previous life.
Fortunately, when he cultivated the Heavenly Tome again in this life, no further mishap occurred. Only then did he set his mind at ease.
Since this art was not something heaven and earth refused to tolerate, then how he had died in his previous life... there was something behind that.
To fight his way back to the cultivation world and take revenge, he poured nearly all his energy into comprehending the Heavenly Tome, and from it he comprehended an art named Stirring Wind and Waves.
This art, however, had no concrete method of cultivation. Qin Zheng groped about for years like a headless fly, until at last, while stirring mountain bandits to fight among themselves, he discovered that the moment he made trouble in the jianghu, his progress in the art immediately advanced.
From that moment he was certain he was destined to be a man who did great things!
As he came into contact with people of the jianghu, familiar names reached his ears one after another—Qiao Feng of the Beggar Gang, Duan Zhengchun of Dali—and at last he understood where he had arrived.
This time he had come to Dali and, in advance, replaced the Beiming Divine Skill with the Sunflower Manual he himself had compiled. His aim was to engineer an affair that would shake the jianghu, so that his Stirring Wind and Waves might break through to the Great Completion realm.
He glanced at Duan Yu, who looked as though nothing in life was left to him. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he said with a kindly face, "Young man sitting on the ground, would you like to come with me and do great things together?"
At the sound of a voice beside his ear, Duan Yu gave a start and came back to himself. Looking at Qin Zheng, who had suddenly appeared in the Jade Cave, deep wariness filled his eyes.
"You... who are you?"
"I am Qin Zheng, proprietor of the Longmen Escort Agency in Guanzhong. You may call me the Hero of Guanzhong, or Hero Qin. Don't be afraid. I'm not a bad man. Can't you see the righteousness all over my face?"
"I can. Now can you take the righteousness off your face?"
Qin Zheng obligingly peeled off the several slips of paper stuck to his face, each written with the words "Righteousness," then asked with a look of concern, "Young man, I see you are struck with a deadly poison. Do you need me to cure it for you?"
Only then did Duan Yu remember that the people of the Shennong Gang had fed him Intestine-Severing Powder. He said in a rush, "I do. I am Duan Yu. Many thanks to Hero Qin for saving me!"
With that he bowed to Qin Zheng. After swallowing the antidote pill, he recounted, just as it had happened, everything that had befallen him these past two days.
The course of events was much as Qin Zheng already knew. First Duan Yu had come to Wuliang Mountain for an outing and happened upon the martial contest between the Eastern and Western Schools of the Wuliang Sword Sect. He met Zhong Ling, who had likewise come to watch the excitement. When the two of them were about to leave, someone barred their way, and Zhong Ling released her poisonous lightning mink, which bit Zuo Zimu, sect leader of the Wuliang Sword Sect.
After that the Shennong Gang, dispatched by Tianshan Tonglao, came to investigate the jade bi of Wuliang Mountain, intending to wipe out the Wuliang Sword Sect along the way. Duan Yu volunteered to go urge the Shennong Gang to stop. At the first clash of words, Zhong Ling released the lightning mink again, and it bit Sikong Xuan, leader of the Shennong Gang, and the others with him.
Now Zhong Ling had been seized by the Shennong Gang, and Duan Yu had been fed Intestine-Severing Powder as well. He had been about to seek out Zhong Ling's parents and trade the lightning mink's antidote for Zhong Ling.
When he had heard Duan Yu out, Qin Zheng said, swelling with righteous indignation, "These jianghu sects are truly beyond the pale. The Wuliang Sword Sect is brutal and overbearing, seizing mountains and rivers for its own. The Shennong Gang is worse still—wipe out a whole household the moment words fail to agree. Is there still any law in this world?"
Duan Yu nodded again and again, as if he had met a kindred spirit. "Yes, that's just what I think, which is why I went to urge the people of the Shennong Gang to stop.
As the saying goes, when will the cycle of grievance for grievance ever end? Even if there is enmity between them, it ought to be handed to the authorities to judge!"
Qin Zheng chimed in, "Brother Duan is right. To my eye they are nothing but a pack of robbers and bandits! I'll write a letter this instant and have the court of the Great Song send troops to put the bandits down!"
"Yes, write and have the court of the Great Song... Wait! Hero Qin, this is the Kingdom of Dali. Shouldn't we notify the court of Dali?"
Halfway through, Duan Yu suddenly realized something was wrong and hurried to correct himself.
Qin Zheng sighed helplessly. "Alas, so this is Dali's domain. In that case, the road of lodging a complaint with the authorities is likely closed.
Brother Duan, there are things you do not know. The emperor of Dali is muddleheaded and unfit to rule. All day long he ignores the business of court and knows only a vegetarian diet and the worship of Buddha.
Prince Zhennan, Duan Zhengchun, is a philanderer by nature, and he has a peculiar taste besides: he likes to go about tricking women into bearing him daughters. People have given him the nickname 'Seed-Flinging Maniac.'
With those two running Dali, the power of the whole royal house has very nearly been hollowed out.
And look at the ministers of the Dali court. They either rack their brains to squeeze the fat and marrow from the people, or plot in secret to usurp the throne. They care nothing for whether the common folk live or die. So even if we notify the authorities of Dali, they will not lift a finger."
Duan Yu: "..."
He had grown up from childhood in a prince's manor and the imperial palace, and knew almost nothing of the world outside.
Only after hearing Qin Zheng did he learn that, in the eyes of others, his own family cut so disgraceful a figure!
"This... what am I to do?"
Anxious at heart, and too worried for Zhong Ling's safety to spare any thought for arguing with Qin Zheng, he muttered to himself, "It seems I still have to do as the Shennong Gang said, and go to Wanjie Valley for the antidote to trade for Zhong Ling."
Qin Zheng cut in, "What if, once they have the antidote, they go back on their word and kill you and Zhong Ling both?"
Duan Yu's body gave a jolt. "That... they wouldn't, would they?"
"Why wouldn't they? People of the jianghu kill without blinking an eye. If they listened to reason, you would not have been reduced to this, would you?"
Having pressed a little deeper into him the image of jianghu folk as vicious, Qin Zheng went on, "What do you say to this? I run an escort agency. Guarding a household, protecting an estate, escorting goods—I take all such work. So long as you pay, I can keep you and Zhong Ling safe. Do you want to hire me?"
Duan Yu let his gaze settle on Qin Zheng's face. Toward this odd fellow who had popped up out of nowhere, he felt in his heart that the man was rather unreliable.
But the man had, after all, cured him of the Intestine-Severing Powder and saved his life. His character ought still to be... worthy of trust, oughtn't it?