I've Been Wronged

While everyone stood utterly stunned, Qin Zheng walked up to Ma Dayuan's corpse with a grave face and said, "Shaolin martial arts are fine indeed. This Great Vajra Finger is truly astonishing in its power. A first-rate master of the jianghu like Ma Dayuan had his throat crushed in a single move, without even a chance to strike back. Master Zhiguang, do you know which masters in the jianghu could manage such a thing?" Master Zhiguang's expression shifted for a moment. Grief showed on his face as he said, "Amitabha. A monk tells no lies. In Shaolin Temple, the only masters who have mastered the Great Vajra Finger and could kill Deputy Chief Ma with one blow are the three masters Xuan Nan, Xuanci, and Xuanku. This poor monk will set out for Shaolin at once and ask which of them did it." A gleam came into Qin Zheng's eyes. "You might also ask Abbot Xuanci whether, more than twenty years ago, he had a romantic involvement with a woman." The moment the words landed, every gaze present shot to Kang Min. Kang Min instantly took a step back and said in panic, "Why are you all looking at me? I, Kang Min, am pure and unsullied. I keep strictly to a wife's proper conduct. On ordinary days I don't exchange so much as a word with any man outside the family, much less know Master Xuanci!" Never mind that she still had not recalled whether she had ever slept with a monk. Even if she truly had, she could not admit it under circumstances like these! Otherwise, the lightest fate awaiting her would be being drowned in a pig cage! Zhiguang gave Kang Min a complicated look and sighed. "Alas. This poor monk will ask... Benefactor Qin, I take my leave here." With that, he paid the rest of them no further heed and strode off toward the edge of the grove. After watching him go, Qiao Feng suddenly let out a long cry. Full of rage, he swept out a palm and snapped the apricot tree beside Kang Min. The powerful palm wind swept Kang Min and Quan Guanqing, who stood beside her, off their feet together. "Kang Min, you colluded with Xuanci to murder Brother Ma. Today, right in front of Brother Ma, I will kill you, to comfort his spirit in heaven!" Frightened out of her wits, Kang Min looked in a panic toward the Beggar Gang's Four Great Elders. "Qiao Feng means to kill me to silence me. You know as well that he is a Khitan. If you don't save me, you'll be next!" The Four Great Elders braced themselves, stepped forward, and stood in front of her. Elder Song said, stern in both voice and face, "Qiao Feng, Chief Wang left a testament before his death, stating plainly that you are a Khitan. Do you admit it?" Qiao Feng flew into a rage. "Generation after generation, my Qiao family has lived at the foot of Mount Song. How did I, Qiao Feng, become a Khitan? If you don't give me an explanation, don't even dream of walking out of this Apricot Grove today!" "Bring the letter!" Elder Song reached out, took from Kang Min's hands the testament Wang Jiantong had left, and read it aloud before everyone. He then had it passed around so they could verify whether the letter was genuine. The letter stated it with perfect clarity: should Qiao Feng ever side with the Khitans and harm the Great Song, anyone in the whole gang may kill him outright, by any means. He then produced another letter, written by the abbot of Shaolin Temple to Wang Jiantong. It said that Qiao Feng was a Khitan orphan whose parents had died at the hands of those at Yanmen Pass, and that once he learned the truth he would surely seek revenge. It urged Wang Jiantong not to pass the position of chief to him. After everyone had looked the letters over, someone passed one into Qin Zheng's hands. Qin Zheng looked at the signature on that letter and could not help laughing aloud. "Everyone, this letter urging Chief Wang not to pass the chief's position to Qiao Feng is signed by Xuanci! First Xuanci kept the highly skilled Qiao Feng from inheriting the chief's seat. After that plan failed, he sent Kang Min to infiltrate the Beggar Gang as a spy, eliminate Deputy Chief Ma, and frame Qiao Feng. He wants to ruin the Beggar Gang, so Shaolin can reclaim its place as the foremost sect under heaven!" The moment the words landed, the Beggar Gang members' expressions changed sharply. Even the Four Great Elders looked somewhat uncertain. Judged purely by the outcome, there was nothing wrong with what Qin Zheng had said. The two sects currently most ascendant in the jianghu were Shaolin and the Beggar Gang, and both styled themselves the greatest sect under heaven. If the Beggar Gang were to lose both its chief and its deputy chief at a stroke, the one to gain the most would be Shaolin! When Kang Min saw the Four Great Elders' suspicious gazes settle on her, she felt wronged beyond measure. How had she become a spy sent by Shaolin Temple? She had killed Ma Dayuan and tried to frame Qiao Feng, yes, but both letters were genuine. Qiao Feng really was a Khitan! Qin Zheng glanced at Kang Min and, his face the very picture of righteousness, shouted sternly, "Kang Min, the truth has come to light. Exactly how did you collude with Xuanci to murder Ma Dayuan? Confess the facts at once!" Kang Min broke down. "Wronged! I've been wronged... Qiao Feng really is a Khitan! Elder Xu can testify, and Master Zhiguang can testify too!" Qin Zheng said, his face cold and stern, "No one knows whether Elder Xu is alive or dead, which means he's dead. Master Zhiguang has already left. You want the two of them to come out and testify? Do you take me for a fool?" Kang Min looked blankly all around. Her sharp eyes caught Zhao Qiansun in the crowd. As if she had seized a lifeline, she hurriedly cried, "Hero Zhao Qiansun, you too lived through the Battle of Yanmen Pass. Come and testify for me!" Zhao Qiansun walked out, full of hesitation, conflict written on his face. "I... my mind is a bit of a tangle. Let me sort it out first..." After who knew how long, he let out a long, pained sigh and, recalling the past, began to tell it. "Thirty years ago, Xuanci received word from a friend that a Khitan warrior was coming to seize Shaolin's secret manuals. With him in the lead, twenty-one masters of the jianghu were gathered to waylay and kill that Khitan warrior. After the great battle, we discovered that the Khitan warrior had not come to seize the manuals at all. He was returning to his Han wife's family home to pay a visit to her kin. Realizing we had done wrong, we were overcome with a regret too late to undo." "In the end, the orphan left by that Khitan warrior was taken away by Xuanci and given to a farmer named Qiao Sanhuai. When the child grew up, he inherited the position of chief of the Beggar Gang. That was Qiao Feng." Qin Zheng asked, "Did you see with your own eyes Xuanci give the child to Qiao Sanhuai?" Zhao Qiansun shook his head. "That I did not. I heard it from what he said in a letter." Qin Zheng pressed on. "Then how can you be sure Qiao Feng is that Khitan orphan, and not Qiao Sanhuai's own son? What if that Khitan orphan died in childhood long ago?" Zhao Qiansun gaped for a while, then gave a bitter smile. "How would I know that? All I know is that he gave the child to Qiao Sanhuai." Qin Zheng said thoughtfully, "Then have you considered this? Since the story of a Khitan warrior coming to seize the manuals was fabricated by Xuanci, what was his true purpose? Would you say it's possible that he did it to eliminate the masters in the martial world who threatened Shaolin, so that Shaolin could dominate the martial world alone?" Zhao Qiansun's body jolted. Terror showed on his face, then quickly turned to anger. "Everyone who went to Yanmen Pass that time was a long-famous master of the jianghu, and among them was Wang Jiantong, then chief of the Beggar Gang. After the great battle, only four people survived. Aside from Xuanci, the other three of us all suffered such grave wounds that our martial arts declined... If all of this was Xuanci's plot, then he is vicious beyond measure!" The people of the martial world present, suddenly hearing this secret, were so shocked that their scalps prickled and their eyes went wide. Even Murong Bo, hidden in the dark, was utterly stunned, disbelief on his face. What was this? The affair at Yanmen Pass back then had clearly been him feeding Xuanci false word, intending to stir up conflict between Song and Liao. Hadn't it? How was it that, looking at things now, Xuanci was the hidden hand behind the curtain, controlling everything... Could every scheme he himself had so carefully laid have been nothing more than part of Xuanci's plan to dominate the martial world?!