I've Become a Stand-in

Everyone present looked toward Xuanci as one. The more they looked, the more he seemed a deep and calculating schemer; his every move made their hair stand on end and sent a chill through them. One could hardly blame them. The recent jianghu rumors about Xuanci were simply too sinister: an affair with Kang Min, the murder of Ma Dayuan, and the use of borrowed blades to cut down experts of the Central Plains, all in a wild bid to dominate the martial world. Even if he truly had sheltered Murong Bo, no one would have thought it strange. Xuanci glanced at the doubting faces around him. A wave of weariness washed over him, but he still rallied himself and explained, "This poor monk has never sheltered Murong Bo. And it was this poor monk who just now raised the possibility that Murong Bo might be the killer." Qin Zheng pressed him hard. "If that is so, then why were you willing to take the punishment in his place? Why did Kang Min confess as well? Explain yourself!" The questions left Xuanci speechless, and helplessness rose in him. How was he supposed to know why Kang Min had confessed? He did not know her at all! If Zhiguang had not blundered into drawing out the matter of his breaking the precept against lust, would he have needed to conceive the wish to seek death, merely to protect Shaolin's reputation? Qin Zheng swept his eyes over everyone present and went on, "Earlier, Master Zhiguang said Ma Dayuan had died beneath the Great Vajra Finger. I too took that as given and assumed Xuanci had killed him. "But not long ago Jiumozhi snatched Ma Dayuan's corpse away. After I seized it back, I found some new clues upon the body. "Men, bring Ma Dayuan's corpse up!" No sooner had he finished speaking than several burly men carried Ma Dayuan's corpse forward. Qin Zheng yanked the white cloth aside, revealing Ma Dayuan's pitch-black face, and said to Zhiguang, "Master Zhiguang, come and look carefully once more. How exactly did Ma Dayuan die?" Puzzled, Zhiguang stepped forward and studied the corpse for a while. All at once his expression changed, and he cried out, "The wound on the neck has been disguised!" Qin Zheng smiled and nodded. "Exactly. The disguise on the corpse was so well done before that even you and I were taken in. Now, after many days of decay, that disguise has shown its flaws." With that, he reached out and peeled away a layer of disguise he had previously put on Ma Dayuan's neck, exposing Ma Dayuan's true fatal wound. Finger marks still showed on Ma Dayuan's neck, only their positions differed slightly from the wounds left by the Great Vajra Finger. Zhiguang stared at those finger marks again and again, and even reached out to feel them. Then he said gravely, "The Throat-Locking Grapple. This was the art that made Ma Dayuan's name. "He died by the Gusu Murong's Using Their Own Methods Against Them. Murong Fu could not have killed Ma Dayuan in a single move, so the true killer is—Murong Bo!" As he spoke, Zhiguang lifted his face and looked at Xuanci in disbelief. "You really were sheltering Murong Bo! Why did you take the blame for him? Could the affair at Yanmen Pass back then have been planned by the two of you together? "One of you wanted to dominate the martial world, the other to stir up strife between Song and Liao, and in secret you struck a filthy bargain?" Xuanci gave a bitter smile. "Master Zhiguang, in the battle at Yanmen Pass that year, I myself nearly lost my life on the spot. If this had been my scheme, the price would have been far too great, would it not?" Qin Zheng put on the look of a man who had seen through everything and said with a sigh, "The price was indeed great. But what if you felt guilty toward Murong Bo—or rather, what if you are Murong Bo?" The words had barely fallen when everyone present fixed their gazes on Xuanci. Xuanci looked over as well, astonishment and doubt on his face. "How could this poor monk be Murong Bo? What nonsense are you talking? There is no art of disguise on my face. If any of you doubt it, you are welcome to come and see for yourselves!" Qin Zheng said unhurriedly, "When I was small, I once heard my master tell a story. Long ago, a nobleman was about to have his whole house wiped out. When a friend of his received word, he swapped his own son with the noble's orphan, sacrificed his own son, raised that noble orphan, and in the end helped the orphan take his revenge." Master Zhiguang frowned slightly. "Is Benefactor Qin speaking of the story of The Orphan of Zhao?" Qin Zheng nodded. "Just so. Master Zhiguang's wide learning commands admiration. Not long ago I occupied the Murong family's Yanziwu, and in a secret chamber of their home I found a letter. It told a similar story. "The difference was that the Murong family's enemy died in a jianghu feud before he ever came to their door, and never truly went to seek revenge on the Murongs. "That orphan of the Murong family was sent to Shaolin and became an eminent monk of his generation. Reckoning by age, the orphan ought to be about the same age as Abbot Xuanci..." Xuanci's body went rigid at once. A tumult of feelings surged through him, and a guess rose unbidden: Am I that surviving orphan of the Murong family? At the same moment, Murong Bo's heart gave a violent jolt: I've become a stand-in?! Everyone there was shaken to the core. Their eyes kept studying Xuanci's face as they began to talk in low voices. "Murong Bo has been false from beginning to end, and Xuanci is the real Murong Bo? That is far too unbelievable!" "I knew there had to be a reason Xuanci would shelter Murong Bo. He felt he had made Murong Bo bear a duty that ought to have been his own, and his conscience was uneasy. Then it is not strange at all!" Xuanci stood dumbstruck for a long while, then said, unable to accept it, "Impossible. Absolutely impossible. How could I be Murong Bo? That letter—show me the letter!" With a face full of pity, Qin Zheng drew out the letter, then tore off the signature and ate it, saying as he did, "I will not hide it from you. This letter was written by my late master. "I truly cannot bear for this one letter of his to raise a storm of blood across the jianghu. Better to let this old matter pass away with the days gone by. Let dust return to dust, and earth to earth." Master Zhiguang looked at Qin Zheng with open admiration and praised him in his heart: Truly worthy of the name Living Bodhisattva that the people of Qinchuan give him. If Qin Zheng and Xuanci were to change places, he would have done the same! Xuanci and Murong Bo, however, were so furious that smoke seemed to pour from their ears. My own origins are at stake, and this is how casually you dispose of them? The two of them moved against Qin Zheng as one, leaping forward and reaching out to snatch the letter from his hand. An instant later, still in midair, their eyes met, and both their pupils twitched as one. Murong Bo's heart gave a sudden lurch. Disaster—how did I jump out on my own! Xuanci, his face full of shock, cried out, "Murong Bo!!" In the lightning flash while the two of them were dazed, the corner of Qin Zheng's mouth lifted. He raised his hands and gave a light push, and one palm sent them flying more than ten zhang away. The moment Murong Bo landed, he drew back and fled into the distance. Xuanci hesitated a fraction, then immediately chased after him, meaning to catch him and ask what on earth was going on. After the two had gone, shock still hung on every face. The whole square boiled with voices, and even the disciples of Shaolin Temple could not help discussing it in low voices. Feeling his cultivation progress surge by a great stretch, Qin Zheng could not help breaking into a brilliant smile. Then he said loudly, "Fellow companions of the jianghu, quiet yourselves a moment. I came up to Shaolin this time with another important matter to announce! "The court of the Great Song, in gracious regard for my merit in suppressing bandits, has specially granted me, Qin Zheng, the farmland within a hundred li of Shaolin Temple. I ask you, my fellow companions of the jianghu, to witness it for me, lest anyone say I seized Shaolin's foundation!"