Chapter 511: Plague

Nanzhou, Tianyu Sect.

Inside the main hall, the Elders had gathered in force, all looking toward Peng Youzai, who stood at the head of the hall with a cold expression.

With the Sect Leader wearing such a face, something had clearly happened. Feng Entai asked, “Sect Leader, did you summon us because something happened?”

Peng Youzai tilted his head in indication. A disciple beside him carried a secret letter down and handed it to the Elders to pass around.

Ding Kuai was the first to read it. “Ah!” His expression changed drastically.

The other Elders immediately crowded around, heads drawing close as they fought to read the contents. Every person who saw the letter was shaken.

Peng Youzai slowly said, “Elder Chen Tingxiu is dead. He was killed by Wen Xinzhao, wife of Tianxing Sect’s Sect Leader and daughter of Tianxing Sect’s previous Sect Leader.”

The message sent back by Tianyu Sect’s disciples at Myriad Beasts Sect had already explained matters quite clearly. Chen Tingxiu had tried to exploit the Hongniang affair to incite Wen Xinzhao into killing with a borrowed knife, only to anger Wen Xinzhao instead and lose his life outside Myriad Beasts Sect’s mountain gate. Under pressure from Yan’s three great sects, the true circumstances could not be openly discussed. Tianyu Sect could only accept one million gold coins and let the matter end there.

Even so, Feng Entai could not help asking, “How did it come to this?”

Peng Youzai said, “When Elder Chen first visited her, Wen Xinzhao drove him away. Later, she lured him outside the mountain gate and killed him. If she wanted him dead, she could have lured him out and killed him from the beginning. Why wait until afterward? I keep feeling there is something strange about this. If there truly is another layer to it, I’m afraid Niu Youdao, who is staying inside Myriad Beasts Sect, cannot be unrelated!”

Feng Entai, still holding the secret letter, fell silent. On one side were his fellow disciples; on the other was his sworn brother. When Tianyu Sect had decided to eliminate Niu Youdao, he had found it difficult to voice an opinion and could only remain silent.

“That little thief is hateful!” Tianyu Sect’s only female Elder, Lin Feixue, stamped her foot angrily. “Tianxing Sect has gone too far!”

Ding Kuai sighed. “Tianxing Sect is powerful. What can we do?”

Peng Youzai ground his teeth. “Remember this hatred. Let the younger disciples remember it as well. Everyone in Tianyu Sect must strive harder and grow stronger. When the day comes, we will avenge this humiliation!”

Lin Feixue said, “Niu Youdao is already colluding with the three great sects. We must have Martial Uncle Cheng hurry to Myriad Beasts Sect and stop him as soon as possible.”

Peng Youzai replied, “That little thief is cunning. An open spear is easy to dodge; a hidden arrow is hard to guard against. Martial Uncle Cheng should not show himself before that thief, lest some accident occur. Let him associate with the three great sects if he wishes. Our original plan remains unchanged. Martial Uncle Cheng will continue waiting for an opportunity to kill him. I have already sent word to the disciples at Myriad Beasts Sect. They are to remain there, watch Niu Youdao’s movements, and cooperate with Martial Uncle Cheng’s operation.”

...

Verdant mountains rolled beneath a hazy sky. Maolu Villa still stood where it always had, with a solitary grave beneath a tree outside the estate.

Three Golden Wings came from afar and separately plunged into three buildings hidden among the mountain woods.

Fei Changliu had just emerged from the hall when Zheng Jiuxiao and Xia Hua arrived one after another, all three gathering beneath the eaves.

“You received Niu Youdao’s message too?” Fei Changliu asked.

Zheng Jiuxiao and Xia Hua each pulled a decoded secret letter from a sleeve. Fei Changliu produced one as well. The three placed them together and compared them. The contents were identical.

The letter ordered the three sects to mobilize their people at the shops near the Ice and Snow Pavilion with all possible speed and intercept a courier. The target had to be taken. Niu Youdao wanted the letter in the courier’s possession.

Zheng Jiuxiao said, “Where is he now, and what is he trying to do? This comes out of nowhere and tells us nothing. Song Jiuming’s son Song Shu went to join Shao Pingbo in Beizhou, didn’t he? Has that fellow abandoned Nanzhou and started fighting with Beizhou now? Or does he still remember Shangqing Sect’s old hatred and intend to wipe out the Song family root and branch?”

Xia Hua sighed. “This fellow always works like a divine dragon—you glimpse the head, never the tail. He never reveals his hand easily. Who knows what the hell he’s stirring up? Whatever he wants, we have to carry it out. Didn’t you read the wording? Keep it secret, and succeed at all costs. If we fail, he’ll erase our three sects from the face of Nanzhou. I don’t much like that tone.”

Fei Changliu sighed as well. “What good does disliking it do? No matter what else, after all this time he has finally contacted us again. At least it proves he hasn’t severed relations with us. During the Nanzhou war, we wavered from side to side. He has already been showing us his displeasure over that. If we fail him again, I’m afraid this fellow really will turn against us. Once we can no longer establish ourselves in Nanzhou, everyone in our three sects may truly become homeless dogs.”

Zheng Jiuxiao and Xia Hua both nodded. It would be far too easy for Niu Youdao to make trouble for them. He only had to send a word to Shang Chaozong, and the local troops could come harass them until they had no peace. Would they dare kill Shang Chaozong’s soldiers?

“Look at the state of our three sects,” Zheng Jiuxiao said with a bitter smile. “We have all these people, yet not only are we living under someone else’s roof, we still have to watch their expressions. Then look at that fellow. He’s an expelled disciple of Shangqing Sect. He has fewer people than we do and nowhere near our strength, yet in reality we’re the ones who have to watch his face and run errands for him. What kind of situation is this?”

Xia Hua said, “Don’t complain. Since our three sects were founded, how many masters have we changed? No matter how difficult things became for him, he never served a second master. He stayed loyal to Shang Chaozong and supported him all the way from utter desperation to where he stands today. How could Shang Chaozong not be deeply grateful?”

Zheng Jiuxiao said, “There’s no point comparing things that way.”

Xia Hua replied, “Then how should we compare? Kill an envoy of Yan—who among our three sects would dare do that? Clash head-on with Tianyu Sect in Nanzhou—would we dare?”

Fei Changliu lifted a hand to stop them. “Enough. Stop arguing. Give me a clear answer: are we doing it or not?”

There was no choice.

The three briefly put their heads together, then quickly separated. Before long, three Golden Wings soared into the clouds and disappeared into the distance...

The message went straight to the Ice and Snow Pavilion.

Upon receiving it, Xiao Tie of Liuxian Sect, Cao Heng of Fuyun Sect, and Li Huoyun of Lingxiu Mountain, each responsible for his sect’s shop there, did not dare delay. The mission was desperately urgent. The three immediately assembled their available manpower.

Amid wind and snow, three groups streaked one after another out of the valley and across the snowy ridges.

Once outside the Great Snowy Mountains, they headed straight for a relay station beside the official road across the snowfield and bought mounts. The three groups arrived one after another and regrouped there.

The relay station had no shortage of mounts. Cultivators traveling to the Ice and Snow Pavilion often left their horses behind at this point.

“Hyah!”

Fewer than twenty riders charged from the relay station, hooves spraying ice and snow across the official road as they galloped hard into the freezing wind.

Once they left the frozen plains and the first green fields appeared, they reached a crossroads. Without slowing their horses, the riders cupped their hands to one another in farewell from the saddle, then split into three groups. Hooves thundered away in three directions, trailing dust behind them...

Myriad Beasts Sect, Spirit Transformation Valley.

The sky was filled with sunset clouds, their light reflecting off Xi Haitang’s iron-dark face as he crawled out from inside a cage and turned around.

Most of Myriad Beasts Sect’s senior figures who were still in the sect had come. They gathered before a row of large iron cages outside a line of cottages. Inside the cages, more than twenty enormous birds of various colors lay dead and motionless.

One giant bird whose plumage was pure snow-white made Xi Haitang’s heart ache especially badly.

Flying mounts were simply too expensive. Few people could afford them, and the creatures had limited lifespans, living at most around twenty years. In truth, Myriad Beasts Sect sold only a handful each year, but the sect insisted on keeping the price that high.

They were not a high-volume commodity. A flying beast had to be trained from childhood before it would obey commands and carry riders. It had to grow accustomed to training from a young age, and only upon reaching adulthood could it be sold. Preparing one flying mount fit for sale took three full years.

To Myriad Beasts Sect, only a mount that had actually been sold counted as money. Until then, it was simply inventory. The sect currently had several hundred flying mounts waiting to be sold.

But this was no longer a question of price. More than twenty had died at once, and five or six of them were still small, essentially juveniles.

“Junior Brother Mao, what exactly happened?” Xi Haitang turned and shouted angrily.

The elderly man nearby looked somewhat disheveled. His graying hair had already been scratched into a mess, and his eyes were red with anxiety.

He was Mao Wushuang, the Elder responsible for Spirit Transformation Valley. His head hung low, his face full of misery. His heart ached too.

Chao Jing spoke. “Junior Brother Mao, something like this has happened. You can’t simply stay silent. At the very least, you need to give everyone an explanation.”

Mao Wushuang replied in a voice hoarse from anxiety, “I don’t know what happened either. One after another, they suddenly grew agitated in their cages and started crying out, leaping and thrashing around. Nothing we did could calm them. We could only watch as one after another collapsed before our eyes.”

Chao Jing said, “By rights, that shouldn’t happen. Spirit Transformation Valley has long mastered the training of this kind of bird. Unless their bodies were weak or they contracted some illness, they shouldn’t suddenly die so easily. Could they have eaten something they shouldn’t?”

Mao Wushuang’s voice carried the edge of tears. “Their food was all live prey hunted by sect disciples in the mountains. That’s what we always feed them!”

Chao Jing bent down and stirred the water in a trough with his fingers, then brought his hand to his nose and sniffed. “What about the water? Any problem there?”

Mao Wushuang stamped his foot. “We tested it. We tested everything. No poison was found.”

Chao Shenghuai, hidden toward the back of the group, suddenly tossed out a remark. “Sect Leader, could they have caught some kind of plague?”

The suggestion immediately reminded Xi Haitang of something. He turned at once. “There’s nothing wrong with the flying mounts over at Spirit-Gathering Mountain, is there?”

Everyone understood that he feared contagion.

The Elder responsible for Spirit-Gathering Mountain was named An Shougui. He answered slowly, “For now, there has been no sign of anything abnormal over there.”

Xi Haitang pointed toward the row of iron cages. “Keep several carcasses sealed in a private chamber and examine them carefully. Deep-bury and destroy all the others immediately. They are not to come into contact with any other spirit beasts or flying mounts. Inspect this entire area thoroughly as well!”

Then he turned toward Mao Wushuang and barked angrily, “First determine the cause. Punishment can wait until afterward!”

The old man looked as though he might cry at any moment. Whether he himself would be punished was secondary. He was genuinely heartbroken.

After remaining gathered for a while, the senior figures dispersed. Those left behind immediately began carrying out the Sect Leader’s orders.

Chao Shenghuai did not hurry away. Instead, he approached a disciple responsible for disposal and said, “Senior Brother, the sect has enormous numbers of birds and beasts. If this really is some kind of plague, it would be best to bury them farther away. If it spreads, the consequences will be serious, and Senior Brother might even be implicated. Better to destroy them in the mountain forests outside the sect!”

The disciple’s face turned grave. He nodded, finding the reasoning sound.

Chao Shenghuai did not make any sarcastic remarks or show disgust over whether the carcasses might carry plague. Instead, he even brought two people to help. Each shouldered a huge bird carcass and crossed mountains and ridges into the distance.

Chao Shenghuai himself, naturally, carried one of the younger birds.

By the time the sky was half dark, the group stopped. Some began digging a pit while others went to cut firewood. Chao Shenghuai, however, wandered away to look around.

[End of Chapter 511]