Chapter 615: I Am Not His Equal!

Long Xiu sat down beside the couch as well and took Niu Youdao's wrist to examine his injuries. When he discovered that they were not light, his brows drew together.

Niu Youdao, however, instantly became somewhat wary. He sensed Long Xiu's spiritual power make a sudden probe into his dantian qi sea.

That truly made him tense. Long Xiu had probably noticed that the purity of his true qi was abnormal and wanted to sound out his cultivation realm.

Fortunately, Long Xiu's spiritual power detected nothing unusual and immediately withdrew. Niu Youdao secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Because he cultivated the Qiankun Art, his Dharma source resided permanently within the Ren and Du meridians rather than in his dantian qi sea.

Long Xiu released his wrist and asked in a deep voice, “My disciple Yi Shu did this?”

Wasn't that asking what he already knew? Would you have come here if you didn't know?

Niu Youdao cursed inwardly, but outwardly he gave a bitter smile. “Yes. I didn't expect her to strike so suddenly. At that distance, I had no time to defend myself and was caught completely off guard. Fortunately, I always have guards with me. They rescued me in time and stopped Miss Yi from killing me. Otherwise, I might have escaped the imperial court's murderous hand only to die beneath Miss Yi's jade hand.”

Long Xiu asked, “And whose fault was it?”

“I...” Niu Youdao glanced toward the window and lowered his voice. “Palace Master, back then you...”

Long Xiu raised a hand to cut him off. “What happens between you young people has nothing to do with me. I don't care if you court her, but did you have to be so impatient? Did you put your hands on her?”

Niu Youdao denied it firmly. “Palace Master, even if you gave me a hundred times the courage, I still wouldn't dare lay a hand on her!”

Long Xiu thought about it and felt that was true. He had never believed Niu Youdao would dare molest his disciple. That would be asking to die.

Niu Youdao did not simply deny everything, however. He continued, “We were standing a little close while talking. She saw a cluster of buildings and asked me what they were. When I pointed them out and answered her, my hand brushed against her by accident. And then... Palace Master, why do I feel Miss Yi has some kind of grudge against me? She is rude to me at the slightest thing. We've only met a few times and barely spoken. I don't think I've offended her, have I? Yet the moment I displease her even slightly, she goes straight for the kill. There's simply no guarding against it. Even if she didn't beat me to death, she almost scared me to death.”

Long Xiu frowned. He had noticed this long ago as well. That disciple of his did seem to harbor some prejudice against Niu Youdao.

But what could he do about it? In the end, he lost any interest in lingering at Maolu Villa. He did not make Yi Shu apologize to Niu Youdao and simply departed.

Niu Youdao was injured and did not go see him off. In fact, the moment Long Xiu left Liuxian Sect, Niu Youdao immediately relocated and hid himself.

Even while injured and facing Long Xiu just now, he had maintained the highest vigilance. Once Long Xiu left, Niu Youdao feared some unexpected turn and moved quickly. He did not return to Maolu Villa, but instead went into the spiderweb of tunnels beneath the army's defensive zone.

He let very few people know where he had gone. Only Guan Fangyi accompanied him.

Once swept into the violent currents of the realm, there were many things one had no choice but to handle with utmost caution. A single careless step could lead to eternal ruin.

After entering the tunnels, they stopped in an underground chamber used to store weapons. Guan Fangyi released the arm with which she had been supporting him, took out a pill, and asked, “You can take medicine now, can't you?”

It was a Heavenly Succor Pill, and those were anything but cheap. Niu Youdao looked surprised and waved it away. “These injuries don't warrant medicine this good.”

“I have no intention of sitting in these tunnels with you until I suffocate from boredom. The sooner you recover, the sooner we get out.” Guan Fangyi seized his mouth and forcibly stuffed the pill inside.

After releasing him, she noticed the strange way Niu Youdao was looking at her. She immediately waved a hand and put away the Moon Butterfly. The underground room plunged into deathly darkness, with only the sound of their breathing audible.

Niu Youdao was speechless. He was just about to circulate his cultivation and refine the medicine in his stomach when Guan Fangyi's muttering came from the darkness.

“You're doing well for yourself. You got to take advantage of a young girl's backside, and I still have to spend money buying medicine for you. Remember, the cost of that Heavenly Succor Pill is going onto the debt you owe me.”

Niu Youdao sighed in the darkness. “You and Yuan Fang really are a match made in Heaven.”

“Pah! Don't compare me to him. He isn't worthy to carry my shoes. You still don't know, do you? When Long Xiu arrived earlier, Old Bear saw that something was wrong, packed up his things at once, and tried to sneak out the back gate with a whole pack of monks. He wanted to run. The army's encirclement blocked him, so he failed to get away. You decide how you're going to deal with him.”

Guan Fangyi had only learned about this afterward. She was coming to understand more and more deeply why Yuan Gang, once he did lay hands on Yuan Fang, always beat him so viciously. The man was simply too shameless. Even she wanted to hit him after hearing about it.

Niu Youdao said, “Ah, what is there to deal with? I don't force him to stay. He's free. If he wants to leave, he can leave whenever he pleases. The same goes for you. If one day you want to go, I will never stop you. If even the people beside me no longer want to remain with me, then the fault isn't yours. It must be mine.”

Guan Fangyi fell silent for a while before saying quietly in the darkness, “You really are ruthless enough. For something so small, you actually had the heart to let someone injure you this badly. Though if we're speaking seriously, having Xiaoyao Palace behind you might not be a bad thing. Marry Yi Shu and you could gain Xiaoyao Palace's support. The road ahead might become much easier.”

“Would it really be easier?” Niu Youdao said. “Xiaoyao Palace is only one of the three major sects. Choosing that side may not be a good thing. If something should be cut off, then cut it off. Hesitation only breeds disorder.”

Guan Fangyi did not know what he truly had in mind. If he said so, he presumably had his own calculations. His thoughts ran too deep for her to see through. Still curious, she took the opportunity to ask directly, “What sort of woman could possibly enter your Dharma Eye? Don't tell me you truly intend never to marry for your entire life.”

Niu Youdao's voice came like a low chant from the darkness. “Ride through the jianghu. Wind or rain, either is fine. Come and go without bitterness; do not sink into worldly entanglements. One less fetter means one more measure of ease, nothing more. What Dharma Eye do I have to distinguish among outward forms? When a man cannot act as he pleases, all he can do is govern himself. Shao Pingbo killed his brother and murdered his mother—wasn't that, in its own way, the same?”

Guan Fangyi fell into thought. In truth, most people in the cultivation world were like this to some degree. Plenty cultivated all their lives and never married. Was it not precisely because they did not want fetters?

It was merely that the fellow beside her took things unusually far. He seemed never to approach women at all. That degree of restraint hardly resembled a young man. She even suspected the monks around him might have infected him somehow.

In the silence, Niu Youdao sat cross-legged and meditated to heal.

No one knew how much time passed in the darkness before faint footsteps traveled through the hollow tunnels. Guan Fangyi grew alert and slowly rose.

Niu Youdao said mildly, “Monkey.”

Guan Fangyi turned back in the darkness, wondering how he could be so certain it was Yuan Gang.

A little later, firelight approached along the passage outside. A torch appeared at the entrance, illuminating Yuan Gang's tall frame. The Three-Roars Saber was strapped across his back.

Yuan Gang walked up to Niu Youdao and looked at the bloodstains on his clothes. A chill entered his eyes. “I heard that Yi Shu injured you?”

Without opening his eyes, Niu Youdao said slowly, “You don't need to meddle. If I hadn't allowed her to injure me, she couldn't have. I know what I'm doing. At a time like this, someone must be watching the situation in Nanzhou and Dingzhou at all times. The two of you can't both leave. One has to stay and mind the house. Go back!” The final two words carried the force of a reprimand.

Yuan Gang said nothing more. He turned and left. The torchlight receded down the outer passage.

Guan Fangyi looked back again. Darkness had swallowed Niu Youdao's figure completely.

...

Snow had begun to fall, vast and dense, covering Heaven and earth.

Bamboo blinds hung on three sides of a lakeside pavilion, while the fourth had been raised halfway. Shao Pingbo stood beneath the half-raised blind in a refined fur cloak, staring absently at the frozen lake as snow buried the ice. A few withered lotus stalks jutted starkly from the whiteness.

Tao Lue, Chief Steward of the Inner Palace of Jin, appeared at the entrance. He lifted the hanging bamboo blind with both hands and let someone through. It was Emperor Taishu Xiong of Jin, wrapped in a black fur cloak.

Braziers burned in all four corners of the pavilion. Two messengers from Blackwater Terrace were crouched before one of them burning papers. They were not making offerings to anyone. They were destroying intelligence copied from Blackwater Terrace after Shao Pingbo had finished reading it.

When Taishu Xiong and Tao Lue entered, the two messengers immediately rose to salute. Taishu Xiong raised a hand, stopping them from disturbing Shao Pingbo's thoughts.

Tao Lue took the papers they had not yet burned and waved the two men away. Then he crouched by the brazier and continued feeding the sheets into the flames.

Taishu Xiong sat beside the table near the brazier and looked at a sheet of paper lying there. A number of names had been written across it in seemingly scattered fashion, with many lines drawn between them. He studied it for quite some time and still could not understand what it meant.

A sudden gust of cold wind swept inside. Shao Pingbo came back to himself, drew his fur cloak more tightly around him, and turned. When he saw Taishu Xiong, he froze for an instant, then hurried forward to salute. “Your Majesty.”

Taishu Xiong rose with a smile. “Tao Lue told me you've already selected the men to send to the State of Qi. I thought of that sickly body of yours in this bitter cold and came by to take a look while I was here. I haven't disturbed your thinking, have I?”

“No. I was merely lost in idle thought. It was this minister who failed to come out and welcome Your Majesty...”

“Enough. I was the one who told them not to announce me.” Taishu Xiong waved the matter aside. Looking toward the intelligence Tao Lue was burning, he asked, “You've read all the reports?”

“I have.”

“Maolu Villa was attacked. Zong Yuan met his end, and Zhao Xiongge stepped in to defend Maolu Villa. That last part surprised me somewhat.”

“Your Majesty, it isn't truly so surprising.”

“How so?”

Shao Pingbo immediately explained why he had let the people of Shangqing Sect go back then. “The surviving remnants of Shangqing Sect have always remained connected beneath the surface. Zhao Xiongge taking action is therefore understandable. What matters is the strength Maolu Villa revealed. That strength is also the foundation of Niu Youdao's confidence. If Your Majesty still wishes to recruit him when an opportunity appears, I fear it will be difficult.”

That was not Shao Pingbo's true concern. What bothered him was Maolu Villa's formidable defensive strength. Even if Jin wished to kill Niu Youdao with someone else's knife, arranging his death would probably not be easy.

Taishu Xiong gave a quiet acknowledgment and nodded. “I've already had our people there suspend any move. No need to rush in blindly and make ourselves a laughingstock. What surprises me now is Nanzhou suddenly sending troops against Dingzhou. Will Yan's three major sects not intervene? Can this war truly continue? What do you make of it?”

Shao Pingbo had been brooding over precisely this matter. Now that it was mentioned, an unmistakable trace of dejection appeared on his face. He sighed softly. “Only now do I understand the true purpose behind his killing of the Song envoy. Before this, I thought he had merely been under pressure from the Yan court and was trying to relieve Nanzhou's crisis. Who would have imagined that the scheme was one ring linked within another, each layer concealing the next? It is truly unfathomable. This minister concedes defeat wholeheartedly...” He paused, then said, “I am not his equal!”

[End of Chapter 615]