Chapter 140 — Killing Intent

Tian Buhui gave a snort. "There's nothing off about it. If there were really a problem, that senior sister of yours would have refused him coldly and cuttingly long ago. But you saw that she made not a sound—so it's clear the Sect Master Brother spoke with her about this beforehand, and that senior sister of yours agreed to it too."

Su Wan was taken aback, then nodded. "Mm, you're right. I hadn't thought of that. But Senior Sister has always doted on that disciple Lu Xueling above all. How could she..."

Tian Buhui said coldly, "Is that Li Xun so unworthy? In her eyes, I daresay he is far better than any disciple of ours."

Su Wan said in surprise, "What are you talking about? Why drag that into it?"

The corner of Tian Buhui's mouth twitched, and he said casually, "That year on Liubo Mountain in the East Sea, on that stormy night, when I punished the seventh one, was she not..." Here he suddenly caught himself, broke off, and said no more; but for some reason he shook his head and gave a sigh.

Su Wan frowned. "The more you talk, the stranger you get. Now you're bringing Xiaofan into it. What is going on?"

Tian Buhui seemed to have suddenly lost all appetite for the talk and had no spirit left for it. He shook his head. "Don't ask."

Su Wan knew her husband's temper and said no more; but something had been stirred in her heart this time, and she could not help sighing as well. "Ten years now. I wonder how Xiaofan is doing these days?"

Tian Buhui was silent a long while, then slowly rose and said coldly, "Haven't you heard? He is now the vice sect master of the Hades Sect, and has changed his name to Mingli. They call him the Blood Young Master, and a formidable figure he is!"

Su Wan lowered her head and slowly sat down in the chair beside her. After a long while she said in a low voice, "Ah. When he first came to our sect, he did seem a little slow and simple, but..." She did not go on. After a long silence she said softly again, "He was such a good boy, so filial and respectful to you and to me alike. And now... to end up cast out of the sect like that!"

A flash of anger crossed Tian Buhui's face, and he suddenly said loudly, "If they wanted to expel him, they expelled him. I never said I wanted to expel the boy from..."

Su Wan stood up at once, cutting off her husband's words. "Buhui!"

Tian Buhui glanced at his wife, swallowed the rest of his words, and said no more; but his face showed even more indignation than before. Suddenly he stamped his foot, gave a heavy "Ai!", and strode off into the rear of the Hall of Quiet Keeping.

Su Wan watched her husband's retreating back in silence, then quietly sighed, turned, and looked out.

Looking out through the great doors of the Hall of Quiet Keeping, the warm, gentle sunlight shone down upon Great Bamboo Peak. In the distance, faintly visible, was the secluded kitchen, a corner of its eaves showing behind the shadows of the trees.

The house still stood, but the one who belonged to it was gone.

Su Wan watched for a while in silence, shook her head, turned, and went into the rear hall of the Hall of Quiet Keeping as well.

Night was closing in. Layer upon layer of dark clouds filled the sky, pressing low, and the sight was somewhat suffocating.

On a night like this, with no stars and no moon, on the desolate ground at the foot of the mountain, there was only a single bonfire burning on a slope sheltered from the wind.

Zhou Yixuan and his two companions, together with the newly joined Mingli and the monkey Xiaohui, had been traveling along the ancient road, and on this day they came to the foot of Kongsang Mountain. The sky was already dark, so they built a fire in this sheltered spot and prepared to camp in the open.

Though they had spent years on the road and were long used to such things, the moment Zhou Yixuan sat down he began crying out loudly in pain, pounding his back and loins with his hands and carrying on as though his waist were about to break. But the others paid him no heed, and after complaining for a while to no effect, he grew bored and gradually fell silent.

Little Wan crouched by the fire and held her hands out to warm them, while the Wild Wolf Daoist set down Mingli, whom he had been carrying on his back, along with all the bundles, then walked over to the fire and only then truly began to gasp for breath. Among the whole party, it was the monkey Little Grey who was the liveliest; the moment it touched the ground it was looking this way and that, leaping hither and thither.

Ever since Little Wan had decided to take Mingli with them, he had remained in this drunken stupor for a very long time, only occasionally waking once, glancing at the people around him as though they were not there at all, summoning Little Grey, opening the wineskin on its back and drinking without pause—and in no time at all he had fallen drunk again. Truly, he lived in a stupor of wine and dreamed of death.

All along the road, the Wild Wolf Daoist had, besides the bundles, taken on the added task of carrying Mingli, and more often than not the monkey Little Grey would leap onto Mingli as well, adding weight upon weight; had he not cultivated the Daoist arts for some years, an ordinary man could never have borne it.

This time the Wild Wolf Daoist panted for a long while, then looked about him: Zhou Yixuan had been muttering to himself for ages, and now was probably tired too, for he had lain down on one side and gone to sleep in his clothes; Little Wan lay not far from the fire.

As for the slumbering Mingli, because the Wild Wolf Daoist had just now, whether by design or not, set him down some distance away, the firelight could not reach that spot, and only a blurred shadow could be made out; and the three-eyed monkey beside him had now run off somewhere—most likely it had gone to look for wild fruit to eat, as Little Grey so often did along the road.

The wild dog sat in silence before the fire, and all around gradually fell quiet; Zhou Yixuan's snoring slowly rose, and Little Wan's body rose and fell faintly—she seemed to have fallen asleep too.

The firelight was mirrored on the wild dog's face, throwing his expression into shifting light and shadow, and setting off the strange, restless gleam that turned in his eyes.

After a long while, he suddenly raised his head and gazed into the night at Mount Kongsang—tall and perilous, its crags jutting like a night demon baring fangs and claws. There lay the holy ground of his own lineage, the Blood Refining Hall. But now the Blood Refining Hall had long since been reduced to ashes and scattered to the winds, leaving only him behind, a lone ghost of the wild.

Slowly he turned his head back. The man, sunk in drunken slumber within the shadows of the night, lay motionless in the distance.

The Wild Wolf Daoist drew a deep breath, and his hand instinctively went to his waist, closing around his beast-fang talisman.

Then he rose slowly and walked toward Mingli. The firelight shone on his back and stretched his shadow longer and longer, until gradually it swallowed the man lying on the ground.

The next moment, he stood before Mingli.