Chapter 232 — Killing Intent

Once outside the meditation hall, Wen Pei saw Lu Xueling standing to one side and went over to her. "Junior Sister, are you heading back now?"

Lu Xueling shook her head slightly. "Since I've come out, I thought I'd walk about a little. Sitting indoors all the time grows tiresome."

Wen Pei nodded. "That's true enough. Take care of yourself, then. I'll be going back first."

Lu Xueling gave a slight nod. "Yes. Take care, Senior Sister."

Wen Pei smiled and turned to go. Lu Xueling stood where she was and watched until that figure had gradually vanished into the bamboo grove; then she fell silent for a moment, at a loss as to where she ought to go, and set off at an unhurried pace.

The bamboo grove ran deep, green and lush on every side. High above, the mountain wind swept through, and the tips of the bamboo swayed and rustled. In the faintly damp earth, fresh shoots broke through the soil, and here and there the pointed heads of bamboo shoots could be seen poking up from below, brimming with life.

In the distance, where the bamboo grew thickest, came the clear calls of birds, and even the air around her carried the faint, distinctive fragrance of bamboo. Lu Xueling drew a deep breath. This place held none of the vulgar breath of the mortal world—it had always been the favorite of cultivators like themselves, and was precisely why those who walked the path of cultivation so often withdrew from the dusty world.

Yet though the body might draw far from the mundane realm, that dusty heart and its tangled affections seemed never to have departed by even a hair's breadth.

Thus she went, treading lightly, wandering wherever her feet led, until all at once Lu Xueling realized with a start that she had come to the rear mountain again. She smiled faintly and bitterly. She had not meant to come here today, but perhaps she had come so often in the past that her feet had carried her here of their own accord.

Still, since she was here, she might as well make the best of it. Lu Xueling did not turn back but continued slowly up the mountain. Stone steps rose in tier upon tier, and not far ahead lay the secluded Moon-Gazing Terrace atop Xiaozhu Peak.

It was broad daylight now, and with Master Shuijing in low spirits these past days, no one came to this out-of-the-way spot; the silence around her seemed all the deeper for it. Fortunately, Lu Xueling had long grown used to such quiet, and she walked on up by herself. Every blade of grass and every tree, every stone and every crag here was more familiar to her than she could say.

But no sooner had she stepped onto the Moon-Gazing Terrace than she froze. There, ahead of her on the terrace, stood a figure—standing all alone, robes whipped flapping by the mountain wind. The back was intimately familiar, and it was none other than Master Shuijing, the very master she and Wen Pei had sought in vain.

Startled, Lu Xueling went forward and bowed to Master Shuijing. "Master."

Master Shuijing's body gave a slight start, as though only now aware that someone had come up behind her. She turned, looked at Lu Xueling, and nodded. "So it's Xueqi."

Lu Xueling looked at Master Shuijing and saw that her master's face was somewhat pale, still bearing the marks of grief—but what showed most clearly now was a look of desolation.

Worried, she said, "Master, the wind is strong up here. You must take care of your health."

Master Shuijing smiled. "You stand here all day long yourself, and I've never seen anything happen to you. This old frame of mine may not compare with you young ones, but I'm not so feeble as to wither in the wind."

Lu Xueling was taken aback and hastened to say, "Master, that wasn't what your disciple meant. I only—"

Master Shuijing waved a hand, a trace of weariness in the gesture, and a faint, bitter smile touched the corner of her mouth. "I know. There's no need to explain."

Lu Xueling fell silent and came to stand beside Master Shuijing, though for a moment she did not know what she ought to say. Master Shuijing, for her part, seemed to have no wish to speak either, and master and disciple alike fell into silence.

How long it lasted, she could not say, but at last Master Shuijing, gazing into the distance, suddenly spoke. "Do you think the view from this Moon-Gazing Terrace is beautiful?"

Lu Xueling was startled, not knowing why Master Shuijing should suddenly ask such a thing, but she answered her master honestly all the same. "They say fine scenery is always found on perilous peaks. Here the crags jut out and the cliff hangs sheer in the air; gazing out from above, the sea of clouds rolls like waves and the green hills keep one company—it is truly a place of surpassing beauty."

Master Shuijing nodded slightly, a distant look coming into her eyes, and said slowly, "In fact, many years ago, when your Uncle-Master Su Wan was still cultivating on Xiaozhu Peak, she loved the scenery here just as you do, and she would often slip away to this place alone to play."

Lu Xueling started and raised her eyes to Master Shuijing, who sighed softly and said, "Su Wan and I grew up together. By my reckoning, I entered our honored master True Yu's tutelage only a year before she did. When we were young, we ate at the same table and slept in the same bed—we were truly as close as sisters. She was livelier than I by nature, yet she most loved to steal away here alone; and whenever she suffered some grievance, she too would come to this Moon-Gazing Terrace and sulk all by herself."

At this, Master Shuijing's lips moved slightly, as though some memory of those years had risen before her, and there was something like a smile—but before it could form, it was replaced by a deeper look of vagueness and world-weariness.

"And yet... after she married, she never came here again."

Lu Xueling listened in silence to Master Shuijing's words, then said softly, "Master, when Uncle-Master Su married Uncle-Master Tian of Dazhu Peak, were you not glad in your heart?"

Master Shuijing paused, then shook her head slightly and sighed. "Tian Buhui's temper was poor and his nature somewhat perverse, but he was decidedly a good match. For your Uncle-Master Su to marry him was her good fortune—and a sign of her good judgment."

At this Lu Xueling was truly rather astonished. Everyone knew that Master Shuijing had never looked kindly on Tian Buhui, and she had not expected her to see it this way in her heart. She could not help asking, "Then why did you treat Uncle-Master Tian so..." She had spoken only half the sentence when she suddenly fell silent.

Master Shuijing smiled faintly. "Glared at him and spoke to him coldly, you mean?"

Lu Xueling blushed. "Your disciple would never dare think such a thing."

Master Shuijing said mildly, "That is how I have always treated him. It is no forbidden subject—what is there to be cautious about? Though Tian Buhui and I never got on, truthfully, he was a fine man, and there were few in our Canglan Sect who could match him."

Here Master Shuijing seemed suddenly to recall something, and her brows knitted slightly. "Tian Buhui's eldest disciple—his name was Song Dayi, was it not?"

Lu Xueling nodded, at a loss as to why Master Shuijing should suddenly ask after Song Dayi. "That is so. Senior Brother Song has now taken up the position of head of the Dazhu Peak lineage. Master, why do you suddenly think of Senior Brother Song?"

Master Shuijing was silent for a while, then said, "That Senior Sister of yours, Wen Pei—is there not something going on between her and this Song Dayi?"