Kang Min stood stiff and stunned where she was, staring at the fans in the Beggar Gang disciples' hands, with the feeling that today she might be in for it...
The plan had been seamless. How had so many unforeseen turns sprung up?
Damn that Qiao Feng. Why couldn't you just cooperate and die!
Two years ago, at the Hundred Flowers Banquet in Luoyang, heroes of the jianghu had gathered. Kang Min considered her looks peerless under heaven. Of all the men present, old or young, handsome or ugly, not one failed to be drawn by her beauty. Some stole glances; some offered flattery.
Qiao Feng alone, chief of the Beggar Gang, kept a frank and open gaze the whole time. From beginning to end he did not look at her once, as if she were only an ordinary woman by the roadside.
Since childhood, Kang Min had been obsessive and venomous to the bone. Whenever a man saw her and remained unmoved, she took it as a humiliation. She could never tolerate anyone who would not fall prostrate before her beauty. If others adored her, she toyed with them as she pleased. If someone ignored her, she would destroy him.
Qiao Feng's utter disregard planted a deep hatred in her heart. She swore she would destroy him, ruin his name, and leave him with nothing.
Not long ago, she had unexpectedly discovered a letter left by Wang Jiantong and learned that Qiao Feng was a Khitan. She meant to use this as grounds to bring him to ruin.
As it turned out, Ma Dayuan not only refused to cooperate in the slightest, but word also got out of her romantic affair with Duan Zhengchun, which left her nursing a deep grudge.
So she seduced Quan Guanqing, Xu Chongxiao, and others into killing Ma Dayuan, hoping to pin Ma Dayuan's death on Qiao Feng.
Now that the scheme to frame him had been wrecked, she could only stake everything on one throw and produce Wang Jiantong's testament.
"My late husband seemed to have foreseen that someone would kill him, and left two letters in advance. He told me that if he should one day die unexpectedly, I was to read them aloud in public before the heroes of the realm."
"Amitabha. Madam Ma, please read the letters aloud, and win justice for Deputy Chief Ma."
A Buddhist invocation rang out. Everyone turned, and from behind an apricot tree emerged an old monk in a gray patched robe, square-faced and large-eared, with an imposing bearing.
The moment Zhao Qiansun saw the monk, he cried out in excitement, "So it is Master Zhiguang of Mount Tiantai! More than thirty years have passed without a meeting, and the master is still so hale."
Monk Zhiguang's name was not well known in the martial world. More than half the jianghu folk present did not know his origins.
But anyone with a little knowledge knew that in his youth he had come from Shaolin Temple. Many years ago he had crossed the sea to savage lands far overseas, gathered unusual kinds of tree bark, and cured countless common folk across Zhejiang, Fujian, and the Two Guangs who had contracted miasma poison. The local people revered him as the "Living Buddha of Ten Thousand Households."
He had also twice fallen gravely ill from mistakenly eating poisonous tree bark, and lost his martial arts entirely. From then on he took no further part in jianghu affairs, and went to Zhiguan Temple on Mount Tiantai to cultivate in quiet devotion.
The poison in Qin Zheng's possession that could abolish a person's internal energy had been refined from the poisonous tree bark Zhiguang had eaten by mistake back then.
Seeing this old acquaintance appear, Qin Zheng could not help sighing. "Old monk, why aren't you staying properly in your temple, keeping to vegetarian fare and chanting the Buddha's name? How do you have the leisure to come here and join the fuss?"
Zhiguang pressed his palms together and bowed to Qin Zheng. "Benefactor Qin, it has been a long time. Hearing that Deputy Chief Ma was killed by Qiao Feng, this humble monk grew uneasy. To keep the martial world of the Central Plains from a great calamity, I have come specially to verify the matter."
Both Zhiguang and Zhao Qiansun had personally lived through the Battle of Yanmen Pass thirty years before. When they heard that Qiao Feng had killed Ma Dayuan, they at once sensed trouble. They thought that, having learned his own origins, Qiao Feng meant to overturn the Beggar Gang, and so they had hurried here on purpose, intending to expose Qiao Feng's identity.
Regret showed on Qin Zheng's face, and his tone was full of lament. "A true monk is hard to come by. I thought you might awaken to the Way and find liberation. I was even waiting for relic beads to burst out of you after you died.
"Who would have thought that five years would pass, and your Calm-and-Insight method would not have advanced in the slightest? You cannot even see through so crude a trap. This great hero is sorely disappointed."
Zhiguang's brows drew slightly together, and he bowed a little. "This humble monk is dull by nature. I ask Benefactor Qin for instruction."
Qin Zheng said, "Let me ask you: from what did this affair arise?"
Zhiguang intoned the Buddha's name. "Amitabha. It arose, of course, from Ma Dayuan's death. I was invited here today to uncover the truth."
Qin Zheng clicked his tongue. "Then why not examine the corpse and look into the cause of Ma Dayuan's death, instead of running here?
"Do you lack confidence in your own medical skill, and dare not trust the result of examining the corpse yourself? Or has your mind been clouded, so that you are willing to believe only a letter anyone could use to spin a tale?
"You cannot even make out where the cause arose, and cannot use wisdom to see the true nature of all things. That is why I say your Calm-and-Insight method has not advanced in the slightest!"
Zhiguang felt suddenly enlightened, as if the way before his eyes had opened wide. Shamefaced, he bowed. "How shameful. This humble monk was lost in an obstruction of the mind and gave rise to a discriminating mind, unable to see where the cause arose. Truly a sin.
"Thank you, Benefactor Qin, for the guidance. I shall go at once to Luoyang, open the coffin, and examine the corpse, beginning with the cause of Deputy Chief Ma's death."
Seeing that Zhiguang meant to leave, Quan Guanqing's heart gave a violent lurch, and he said in a rush, "Master Zhiguang, why pass over what is near to seek what is far? Deputy Chief Ma's letter from before his death is right here. Perhaps it holds a clue to the killer."
Zhiguang gave him a deep look and said, "No need. How Deputy Chief Ma actually died, this humble monk will investigate for himself."
A film of cold sweat at once broke out across Quan Guanqing's back. He knew Master Zhiguang's medical skill was superb. If it were found that Ma Dayuan had first been poisoned, and then died when Quan himself crushed his throat, Quan would be utterly finished!
He was still racking his brains for a way to keep the monk there when Qin Zheng spoke with a smile. "One thing Quan Guanqing said was right. Master, why pass over what is near to seek what is far?
"I have already had people bring Ma Dayuan's corpse from Luoyang, traveling day and night. Master Zhiguang, you may open the coffin and examine the corpse this very moment, before all the heroes of the realm!"
"Ah!"
Several cries of shock rang out at once in the grove.
Quan Guanqing and Kang Min turned ashen. They exchanged a glance, and the thought of fleeing rose in both their hearts at once.
Qiao Feng keenly caught their strange reaction and asked coldly, "Sister-in-law, what is the matter with you?"
Kang Min at once began to weep like rain upon pear blossoms. "My husband was murdered by villains. That was already wretched enough. Why must you dig up his body as well, and give him no peace even in death? Wu, wu..."
Ordinarily, the moment she cried, someone would immediately leap out to take up her grievance.
This time, though, she cried on for a long while, and still not a single person spoke for her. Even those of the martial world whose faces showed they could hardly bear it stood where they were, eyes cast down and minds kept to themselves, and anxiety surged through Kang Min.
These people had their own reckoning. Winning a beauty's favor was well enough, but to vent her anger by going up against Bandit King Qin Zheng... were they tired of living?
At the same time, several burly men carried a coffin up.
Qin Zheng glanced at the coffin and said to Zhiguang, "Master, first check whether the coffin shows any trace of having been opened, so no one can say I tampered with it."
Zhiguang nodded. He circled the coffin and studied it for a long while, then said, "The coffin is intact and undamaged. Once the lid was nailed on, it was never opened. I can testify that you did not tamper with it."
Qin Zheng swept out a hand and ordered, "Open the coffin!"
At once several burly men came forward with tools, and before long they had the coffin lid off.
Once the stench had dispersed, Zhiguang stepped up and looked into the coffin. Ma Dayuan's corpse had a greenish-blue face, several finger marks printed on the neck, and the look of a man who had died with his eyes open, unable to rest.
At the sight of those finger marks on Ma Dayuan's neck, Zhiguang's pupils contracted of their own accord, and he could not help crying out in shock, "The Great Vajra Finger! How is this possible? Can the killer truly be Xuanci?"
"Ah?"
Kang Min, who had been sick with dread, started as well. She hurriedly drew close beside Quan Guanqing and asked in a low voice, "When did you learn the Great Vajra Finger?"
Quan Guanqing's eyes bulged like brass bells. "How could I possibly know it? What on earth is going on? Did you really have an affair with Xuanci?"
"..." Kang Min suddenly began to doubt her entire life.
When Quan Guanqing killed Ma Dayuan, she had clearly been watching from the side. How had the killer turned into Xuanci in the blink of an eye?
Unless Xuanci had meant to take the blame for her, and after they killed Ma Dayuan had used the Great Vajra Finger to fake the cause of Ma Dayuan's death...
Could I really have had an affair with Xuanci, and simply not known it myself?
Chapter 22