The sky was bright and the air clear. In a secluded valley of Mount Song, a vast crowd stretched out in one long line, making its way toward the Shaolin Temple at the mountaintop.
At the very front were Beggar Gang disciples in ragged clothes. Four of them carried a burly man forward on a bamboo chair. One look at his face showed it was none other than Qiao Feng, Chief of the Beggar Gang.
Behind them came a band beating gongs and drums and playing their instruments. Led by Qin Zheng, they sang at the top of their lungs: "The long road stretches on, and I'll brave it as I please, courage and a warm heart upon me. Find myself and true feeling again—wherever I stop, that place is home..."
Qiao Feng sat in the chair with a hand pressed to his brow. Fierce shame kept him from lifting his head.
At last he could bear it no longer. He leaped up from the bamboo chair, came to Qin Zheng's side, and pleaded, "Second Uncle, can we stop singing? I came to Shaolin on serious business. If it comes to that, once I'm done I'll sing with you!"
Qin Zheng waved a hand and had the band stop. He glanced at Qiao Feng and shook his head. "Forget it. Hearing you sing would be the death of me. I'd still like to live a couple more years."
Qiao Feng let out a long breath, went to the front, and led the Beggar Gang disciples on. Before long they reached the gates of Shaolin Temple, and he shouted, "Qiao Feng of the Beggar Gang has come to pay respects at the mountain!"
He infused his voice with Shock Across a Hundred Li, a move from the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms. It rang out like a great bell and a mighty chime, shaking everyone who heard it.
The Shaolin warrior monks guarding the gate were all cowed. The hands gripping their sticks trembled, and they involuntarily retreated through the gate, leaving a wide stretch of empty ground in the temple courtyard.
Xuanci led a host of Shaolin masters out of the great hall and came before the crowd. Pressing his palms together, he said, "Amitabha. I do not know why Chief Qiao has come in such force. What is your intent?"
Qiao Feng answered, his bearing fierce and commanding, "Qiao Feng has come to demand from your honored temple the murderer who killed Ma Dayuan, deputy chief of my Beggar Gang!"
Xuanci said, his brows knit with worry, "Deputy Chief Ma's death has nothing whatsoever to do with our Shaolin. I ask Chief Qiao to see clearly."
Master Zhiguang stepped forward. "I examined Ma Dayuan's corpse. I can prove he died beneath Shaolin's supreme art, the Great Vajra Finger.
"In all the jianghu, the only ones who have mastered this art and could kill Ma Dayuan in a single strike are the three of you: you, Xuanci, together with Xuan Nan and Xuanku."
Xuanci argued, "When Deputy Chief Ma was killed, the three of us were not in Luoyang. We can find people to testify. Moreover, as this humble monk knows, aside from the three of us, the Gusu Murong are also versed in the Seventy-Two Supreme Arts of Shaolin. Should Benefactor Murong Bo, who died and returned to life, not be counted among them as well?"
Concealed out of sight, Murong Bo drew a sharp breath of cold air.
This old monk Xuanci was truly cunning. Even with witnesses and proof laid out before them, he could still talk with a silver tongue and pin the whole affair on Murong Bo's own head!
Once the shock passed, Murong Bo hurriedly changed the subject, lest the fire spread to him. In a hoarse voice he called out, "Don't drag other people into this. Your illicit affair with Kang Min is already known to everyone in the jianghu. Bring her here to confront you. Question her, and it will all be clear!"
Qiao Feng felt these words made good sense. He couldn't help nodding, then raised a hand. "Bring Kang Min, Quan Guanqing, and the others up!"
At his word, the Beggar Gang disciples immediately brought up Kang Min, Quan Guanqing, and the Four Great Elders, all bound with rope, and made them kneel in the courtyard.
Qiao Feng glanced over them, then fixed his gaze on Kang Min and demanded, "Kang Min, you colluded with Xuanci to kill Brother Ma. Do you admit your guilt?"
Disheveled and grimy, Kang Min lifted her face and swept her eyes over the monks on the steps. She found she didn't recognize a single one of them. Bewilderment filled her gaze. "Which one is Xuanci? Step out and let me have a look."
Xuanci frowned and stepped forward. "This humble monk is Xuanci. Why do you slander me by claiming we were involved?"
Kang Min spat a thick mouthful of phlegm and said with utter disdain, "Ugly as that? Only a lunatic would sleep with him. You're insulting my taste!
"Even that old bastard Xu Chongxiao looks far better than this Xuanci in front of me. Do you really think I, Kang Min, will take any ugly reject that comes along?
"I killed Ma Dayuan. If you want to kill me, then kill me. Don't humiliate me any further!"
Xuanci was equally at a loss. Looking at the unfamiliar woman before him, he frowned. "I have never seen this woman in my life. How could I have plotted with her?"
Qin Zheng said, his face full of admiration, "The two of you truly have a love firmer than gold. Even now you keep your mouths shut and protect each other."
Xuanci was instantly struck dumb. He glared hard at Qin Zheng, so angry he could not get a word out.
At this, Master Zhiguang stepped out from the crowd and said, his face grave, "Xuanci, yesterday, right in front of me, you admitted with your own mouth that more than twenty years ago you had a romance with Kang Min. How is it that today, before the heroes of the world, you dare not admit it?
"Do you mean to say this humble monk is slandering you as well?"
Xuanci's heart filled with anxiety. He wanted to explain that his lover had been Ye Erniang, yet he feared that saying so would destroy in a single stroke the reputation Shaolin Temple had built over several hundred years. For a moment he stood there tongue-tied, unable to utter a single word.
Murong Bo silently shifted to another spot in the crowd and fanned the flames in secret. "Nothing to say now, eh? These Shaolin monks speak of nothing but mercy, yet behind people's backs they harbor evil designs and scheme to dominate the martial world. If you ask me, we should rush them all at once, kill every last one, and put this place to the torch. Only then will it be clean!"
Xuanci's body gave a sudden jolt, and he came to his senses. In a panic he said, "No! All of this is my sin alone. If you must kill someone, kill me. You must not implicate Shaolin or the monks of the temple!"
Qin Zheng was briefly stunned, then asked in some disbelief, "You're admitting you killed Ma Dayuan?!"
This was absurd. He actually dared to own up to a thing like this. How had this old monk suddenly gone mad?
Xuanci said, his face full of sorrow, "This humble monk did not kill Ma Dayuan. But if someone must step forward to bear the sin, this humble monk is willing to take the punishment in his place."
Only then did Qin Zheng understand. He feared dragging down the reputation of Shaolin Temple, and so meant to prove his resolve by dying, so that a dead man could give no testimony. After thinking a moment, he said, "So you're saying you clearly know who the real killer is, but you simply refuse to say?"
Xuanci: "..."
Was that what he had meant?
Qin Zheng had long since spotted Murong Bo hidden in the crowd. From the corner of his eye he caught the upward curl of the man's mouth, the look of a scheme that had succeeded, and he couldn't help a slight smile.
Stirring things up in the dark and killing with a borrowed knife—had he asked Great Hero Qin about that?
Then Qin Zheng went on, brows tightly knit. "You're in such a hurry to confess. Who are you trying to shield? After you die, Kang Min, as your accomplice, won't escape death either, so you certainly aren't shielding her.
"Let me guess... You're shielding Murong Bo, aren't you?"
Xuanci froze. A look of someone questioning his entire life crossed his face. "Why would I shield Murong Bo?"
Qin Zheng pulled out a pipe and clamped it between his teeth. "Murong Bo has hidden in Shaolin for many years. If no one were shielding him, he would likely have been discovered long ago.
"And he is also proficient in the Seventy-Two Supreme Arts of Shaolin. Such profound manuals, which most Shaolin monks never even get to touch, must have been taught to him by someone of extremely high standing in the temple.
"Everyone, think it over. Who is that person most likely to be?"
At once someone in the crowd cried out, "Xuanci! It has to be Xuanci!"
Chapter 30