Guile

Guile The pale red of the setting sun still flickered at the edge of the sky. The demon, clad in splendid finery, turned his head and drew his great cloak snugly about him, then looked toward the True Person at his side. "True Person Chi, would this count as an archfiend?" Chi Buzi looked back at him, his expression plain, even matter-of-fact, and said: "All bluster and no backbone, despicable and incompetent—a petty evil, a contemptible nobody." The demon said with a laugh: "Then is that not perfect? My follower merely used a divine ability to influence the woman, while all his various deeds sprang from his own heart—from that one trace of Mingyang evil. To my eyes, that is already enough." "With such a use, he can lend a hand with the matters Minghuang has no time for." 'Minghuang... that is Li Zhouwei...' Chi Buzi found it all rather strange, a faint cloud of doubt hanging over him. The demon's expression was quite calm as he studied Chi Buzi closely and said: "Chenghai's clear pond, heir to the emerald-white jiao—Dingjiao." Chi Buzi sipped his wine and answered: "So it is the Crown Prince of the White Dragon Branch... I am Chi Buzi, an independent cultivator." Of course Chi Buzi had heard his name. This Dingjiao was a genius of the white dragon clan, a descendant of the Dragon Lord, of pure and noble blood—one of the foremost noble scions of the Chi lineage! Dragon nature is inherently lustful, yet utterly heartless. Within the same branch or the same kind, even between brother and sister, they pair off with one another, and offspring come with great difficulty; yet with all manner of demons they father multitudes of children, most of which are kept and driven as slaves... Only the few offspring of pure blood are fit to be counted dragon sons... Take that Xushui Demon King: his true form is a noble breed of demon bass, likewise a son of the King of Beihai, and yet he must call the offspring born of a pairing between dragon-kindred such as Dingjiao his master! 'What is more, he is a descendant of Dongfang You—that is, a direct descendant of the Dragon Lord. If the dragon kindred's pursuit of the True should succeed, he will surely rise with the tide, and in days to come very likely become one who holds the Gold position!' This True Person slowly drew back his gaze, made a covert swallowing motion, and said: "I see merely a pitiable wicked man. The Mingyang Attainment has influenced Li Zhouwei, and it has influenced his offspring as well—this is beyond all doubt. Why make such an unnecessary move?" The Dragon King shook his head, his expression unreadable. "This is hardly simple. By the workings of the Dao, Minghuang is favored by the Attainment and was naturally born with a Mingyang disposition. Yet he is deeply calculating, two-faced, and not bound by any divine ability—who can say what he is truly like? My elders have always felt that his human nature outweighs his golden nature, making it hard for him to attain the Dao..." "They tried him, and it came to nothing. Yet there is no need to test him directly." The Dragon King smiled. "What my father keeps sealed will surely be spoken from the mouth of his innocent, youthful son. Sons the world over carry their fathers' secrets, and without realizing it they will blurt them out—and so make the father aware of his own ugliness. This is what you cultivators call the sin of ultimate yang." "Test Li Jiangnian, then. If he truly harbors that Mingyang evil, how could his father lack it?" Chi Buzi was silent, but doubt stirred within him. 'The dragon kindred tests Li Zhouwei to judge the possibility of Mingyang—clever enough. But what has it to do with me? For one, I do not seek the Mingyang position; for another, I have no connection whatever to the Li family. Why tell me all this? As though I were one of the Li clan...' Dingjiao shook his head. "And yet my father still dislikes it. He always feels that... once they take the position... they become a True Lord, and how could such a one be schemed against? Far too uncontrollable... I, though, am different." Those pale blue eyes shifted, and Dingjiao smiled. "I am certain the prophecy will come to pass, and I believe my dragon kindred needs to join forces with these True Lords..." At this, Chi Buzi at last grew somewhat grim. "Oh?" Dingjiao said mildly: "Still... my father and I alike are wholly in favor of the matter concerning the Great True Person." At these words Chi Buzi's heart went cold, and a wave of grim laughter welled up within him. 'In favor? How could they not be? Never mind you dragon kindred—even Lushui is all for it... Being able to draw out that Feathered Serpent's golden nature, who would not approve? It is only that no one cares in the least about me... Naturally I am meant to die quietly off to one side. Am I supposed to approve as well?!' The Dragon King fixed his eyes on him in silence, as though he had read the emotions in his gaze, and sighed softly. "There are matters in which Li Zhouwei cannot free himself, and he may not even be able to reach the one behind him. It is not easy for me to speak with him... But to speak with you, Chi Buzi—is that not the same thing?" He turned his head, those pale blue dragon eyes settling quietly upon Chi Buzi. "Great True Person, am I right?" Chi Buzi's eyes narrowed sharply, dense doubt welling up in his heart. Yet his natural gift for disguise kept his face dark and still; he said not a word, only sipped his wine, and murmured: "Now I am the one puzzled. What makes the Dragon King say so?" His words brought a faint smile to Dingjiao's lips. He leaned forward, quite calm. "Back then you were only mid-stage Violet Palace, still trapped in Lord Du's grasp and unable to act of your own will. Yet you seized the moment of his seclusion and drifted blithely off to Lake Wangyue. From that day your temperament changed beyond recognition—you roamed the seas, often acting strangely, and then you crossed into Joining Purple for no reason at all. Truly, for no reason at all!" His smile gradually thinned. "These things Lord Du may not know, but my dragon kindred knows them well. Had no great figure of the dragon kindred cleaned up the whole affair for you, do you imagine Lord Du became a True Lord for nothing? Do you imagine you would have lived to see this day?" Dingjiao's gaze turned cold, carrying a note of menace, and the words left unspoken between his lines were already perfectly clear. 'You exhausted every scheme to visit Penglai, presenting the Xuandan Taiyin White Moon Laurel Branch that had sprung up out of nowhere, forging that cave-abode and leading Chunyi Dao by the nose—we watched it all! It was we who cleaned up the mess you left behind!' "Better to kill by mistake than to let one slip away—our Lord Du has never once hesitated!" Chi Buzi bowed his head, his eyes narrowing. Within him mountains were crumbling and the earth splitting, and yet his mind had gone utterly blank, as though he had dropped into a bottomless abyss. He thought darkly to himself: 'Me? What have I ever done?' Dingjiao's manner truly did not seem like deception. A dignified descendant of the Dragon Lord had no need to hoodwink him with such groundless nonsense. Either the Dragon King before him had mistaken something... or... the dragon kindred had truly covered up some misdeed on his behalf, keeping it from Lushui's knowledge! 'Why do I know nothing of it?!' Yet no matter how the other's words baffled him, no matter how he racked his brains, Chi Buzi kept his composure throughout. Dingjiao, however, laughed. "In all the world... what other house could produce a Xuandan Taiyin White Moon Laurel Branch?" "The cultivation method was given you by Lord Xuan'an, was it not? And it was at Lake Wangyue, beneath the Qingyi Yuanxin Heart-Intent, that you received his guidance—only then did you abruptly awaken, gain some unknowable boon, and set out across the four seas!" 'Xuan'an... which great one is this...' The name was utterly unfamiliar to Chi Buzi; he truly did not know how to answer, so he simply lowered his eyes, said nothing, and let a flicker of complexity show upon his face. Dingjiao waited a while, and seeing that he would not answer, spoke in an even tone. "Rest easy. Now that Wei Xuanyin has placed the Xinyou Swimming Marsh Seal into your hands, it stands for the endorsement of Zhixuan Pavilion—and even of Mount Luoxia—and with us to vouch for you, even should Lushui discover anything, they will still not kill you." A look of some amusement surfaced on his face. "But you are within Luchi, and Lushui is full of suspicion. How he is to keep your scheming and collusion safe from Lushui's grasp, how he is to bring the Fox clan into contact with you... those are matters for him to settle." Chi Buzi—what sort of man was he? At these two remarks, the threads in his mind abruptly fell into place. 'First... this Lord Xuan'an must be the True Lord behind the Fox clan...' 'And Lake Wangyue... must lie within this True Lord's domain. Precisely for that reason—be it a misunderstanding or the plain truth—Dingjiao takes me for a man of this True Lord...' 'The so-called Li family also has this True Lord's shadow behind it—at the very least, this True Lord wants Li Zhouwei to attain the Dao! And I, as the Great True Person who represents his interests, am made use of by the dragon kindred as a mouthpiece!' 'In other words, in the dragons' eyes, Li Zhouwei and I are exceedingly close. Li Jiangnian may well be caught up in certain dealings between two True Lords—certain proofs—and I, being something like a representative of one of them, have been invited to watch this fine show!' His earlier bewilderment dissolved in a flash of clarity. At last Chi Buzi understood why Dingjiao had gone to the trouble of coming to meet him. Yet having unearthed this hidden truth, Chi Buzi felt a jolt of alarm, and then grasped yet another turn of his circumstances—come what may, he now had to be a man of this so-called True Lord Xuan'an! He raised his brows and said softly: "This matter... need not trouble the Dragon King." Dingjiao only smiled, but Chi Buzi's ambition was already swelling with a roar, flooding his whole breast in an instant. Where did the root of Chi Buzi's distrust of the dragon kindred lie? It lay in this: they had no absolute need of him, and he had no background weighty enough to bargain with them! If he could truly borrow the backing of a True Lord, then while turning the pretense into fact was impossible, going along with the tide to pledge his allegiance would be no great difficulty... He still had a chance! 'The pressing matter is to look into this True Lord Xuan'an!' His thoughts raced like lightning. He withdrew his hand, his expression unreadable, and said: "Since that is so, the great one of your noble house surely knew long ago that I meant to cultivate Fushui." His response was most apt. Dingjiao gave a laugh. "How could we not know? Fushui is a thing of Qingxuan—in this present age, how many have the skill to lay a hand upon it?" These words set Chi Buzi on his guard once more. Dingjiao laughed, then, seeing that he still would not answer, sighed inwardly. 'Xuan'an's condition really is poor... Lake Wangyue holds the Qingyi Yuanxin Heart-Intent, which none of the great ones can divine, and yet Lord Tang keeps personal watch beside the lake! That Qingyujian merely lured one of the Si family into the lake to make use of, and afterward that Si clansman was cast down and destroyed... They guard it tight, without the smallest gap...' His thoughts spun, but Chi Buzi raised his brows and looked at him, and very cleverly shook his head. "So that is how it is. Senior Zeng Zan's outing today was not without cause—it was the Crown Prince who granted me this role." Dingjiao could not help but laugh. "Zeng Zan is close to the Black Dragon Branch. As for this thing, consider it permitted to you by Guangfou." At the mention of Guangfou, Dingjiao showed no great displeasure. Unlike his father, the King of Beihai, this White Dragon Crown Prince was the more ambitious, the more driven. Though he had no love for the Black Dragon Branch, he held some measure of goodwill toward Guangfou, and he likewise wished for more True Lords to draw near the dragon kindred—only, a father's command was hard to defy... Otherwise he would never have volunteered today to come and test Li Jiangnian! Chi Buzi's gaze shifted slightly, and he watched him in silence. Dingjiao said softly: "Lord Xuan'an was willing to bring out the Xuandan Taiyin White Moon Laurel Branch and lay it in the hands of Chunyi Dao. My dragon kindred looked on with delight, and when the great one heard of it, he too was full of admiration... He said Lord Xuan'an had at last seen the situation clearly, made his sacrifice, and no longer kept to himself alone that so-called radiant purity..." Chi Buzi frowned and, seizing the opening, murmured: "This matter... is not wholly clear to me. I beg your guidance." Dingjiao frowned and said earnestly: "Back when Jie Qun attained the Dao and perished, it had already shown that the Taiyin position may be flawed. Yet everyone still shrank back in fear. Some True Lord—who can say which—specially wrote a book, the Taiyin Seeking Xuan Secret Method, and slipped it in secret into Chunyi Dao's inheritance... forging Jie Qun's dying testament and quietly deceiving them." "This Taiyin Seeking Xuan Secret Method is indeed a method of breakthrough. Yet in truth, its every secret art likewise points straight at the very root of Taiyin: it fuses the life of a Dao-seeker with a spirit-object of the Taiyin Residual Position, seeking to resonate with the primary position and, out of Taiyin's haze, to probe whether the master of the Attainment truly exists..." "The true state of the Attainment was, from the first, impossible to see clearly. But the Taiyin master of old left behind a small safeguard: he locked down a residual position and made it shine, so that later generations might ascend it... And it was that very safeguard that let the Seeking Xuan Secret Method slip through the gap." The Dragon King flicked his sleeve and said in a low voice: "Through the Taiyin Seeking Xuan Secret Method, a spirit-object attains the Dao, and this can greatly advance the various True Lords' conjecture about Taiyin. Once the Xuandan Taiyin White Moon Laurel Branch uses a spirit-object to attain the Dao and resonate with the Great Void, drawing out the true state, perhaps the Taiyin position will at last have a lead." The sky was slowly darkening. Chi Buzi sat where he was and said, in a low, brooding tone: "Then what are the various great ones still waiting for? And the dragon kindred... what is it that they need?" Dingjiao answered quietly: "They wait for the realm to be at peace, for True Qi to be attained, for the true dragon to appear in the world, for Mingyang to fall, for Shangwu to return to its place. Once the various houses have settled the matters in their hands, and the assembly of great ones takes their places, then Donghua Heaven may descend. The riddle of yin and yang that has vexed all until now must surely come to some conclusion. As for you..." "Can the True Person wait until that time?" Dingjiao said in a low voice: "As for us... I do not know how he has arranged matters for you, but the great one of my house hopes that... once the Great True Person has taken this horn and his divine ability is made whole, he will serve as a trump card for my dragon kindred, and step into Jiangbei at the critical hour!" The demon gazed at him deeply and said mildly: "This is to help you, and to help him, and even more, to help us." For a long while Chi Buzi said nothing. The figure before him had already scattered like the wind; the vast beast sank soundlessly into the depths of the sea, and the enormous palace that had gleamed beneath the night vanished into the water along with it, leaving not the slightest trace. 'Xuan'an... I must look into this properly...' High in the sky at the edge of heaven hung the bright moon, scattering sheets of radiance. Chi Buzi gazed out at the empty, deserted sea, and the feelings in his heart slowly faded. He stared long and deep at the ebb and flow of the tide. 'But Lushui... will they truly pay me no heed?' 'A being such as that—why do they indulge me so? Not caring in the least that I cast in my lot with the dragon kindred's camp, nor minding that in days to come there may be one more enemy of True Lord rank...' 'Can that be possible?' He slowly lifted his head, his gaze turning to the bright, gleaming moon. 'Or is it that Dingjiao and the dragon kindred are deceiving me as well—that they, like Lushui, are utterly certain... that I will never succeed.