# Chapter 84: Once the Mountain Collapses
"Spread the order — invite every Wandering-Meridian-Realm master in all of Wangjiang City! Any man who can slay this beast, I, the Lin family, will reward with two Dao Essence Stones!"
From the midst of the crowd a middle-aged man pushed his way out, thundering in fury.
This man was none other than Lin Duanxing — the father of those two brothers, Lin Zhengren and Lin Zhengli — and his standing within the Lin clan was naturally considerable.
Yet the fact that the position of next clan head had been passed over him entirely and handed directly to Lin Zhengli said enough about how insubstantial his own ability was.
So when he opened his mouth to offer two Dao Essence Stones, and then closed it with a call for every Wandering-Meridian-Realm master in the city, every eye in the crowd went first to Old Master Lin.
For no other reason than that this man simply did not have such authority.
"Enough." Old Master Lin's voice was flat. "Go and bring Lin Zhenglun here."
"Father, have you lost your senses!" Lin Duanxing cried urgently. "Lin Zhenglun may be beneath contempt, but he represents the face of my Lin family! How can we hand him over to an outsider for disposition?"
Setting aside everything else, this man's speech alone was unqualified. To openly contradict Old Master Lin, to call him muddle-headed — at the lightest it was a failure to know one's bounds, at the heaviest it was challenging the clan head's authority. And besides, whether Lin Zhenglun was worthy of notice or not — was that a thing to be voiced in the full hearing of the crowd? Did he truly not fear chilling the hearts of the clan?
Old Master Lin struck the ground with his wooden staff and raised his voice: "Must you drag this affair into the ears of the whole city before the Lin family can be deemed not to have lost face?"
Lin Duanxing started in alarm, and shut his mouth.
He was, after all, a man who understood nothing of cultivation. Lin Zhengli's standing as Wangjiang City Dao Academy's representative in the Three-City Dao Debate was proof enough that he was among the finest of the Wandering-Meridian-Realm masters in the city academy. Perhaps a man or two in the city garrison surpassed him, but only just.
And besides — if they called on the garrison soldiers to take action, would the Lin family truly not lose face?
To deal with this affair swiftly and decisively was the only proper course.
Before long, Lin Zhenglun was brought to the memorial archway.
Looking at this man — his hair loose and straggling, his bearing haggard, his whole person like a walking corpse — Jiang Wang truly could not imagine how Aunt Song had ever come to favor him.
"Lin Zhenglun is brought," Old Master Lin said, fixing his slightly rheumy old eyes on Jiang Wang, his voice flat. "What account do you want?"
"And now, I ask, and you answer." Jiang Wang walked up before Lin Zhenglun and stared into his dull eyes. "My sister's birth-mother, Song Ruyi — how did she die?"
"She threw herself into a well and took her own life," Lin Zhengli said from the side. "Did I not say it clearly enough?"
Old Master Lin cast him a faint glance, and he fell silent.
Lin Zhenglun had been wandering in a fog the whole time — until he heard those three words "Song Ruyi." Only then did a slow light return to his eyes.
He raised his eyes, looked Jiang Wang up and down, then cast his gaze about in a loop. Finally he turned back and stared hard at Jiang Wang: "What did you just say?"
His voice trembled. "You... are Ruyi's stepson, the one who cultivated at the Dao Academy? Jiang An'an's brother?"
"Good, good!" He grew excited, near to mania. "Brave enough to seal the gates of the Lin family — you've got pluck!"
Jiang Wang repeated it coldly: "I asked you how Song Ruyi died."
But Lin Zhenglun seemed utterly unaware of his impatience and distaste — or rather, the Lin Zhenglun of today had long since ceased to register how others saw him. He lived on nothing but his own emotions.
He spread his arms wide and suddenly burst into great sobs: "What use is all the wealth I hoarded!"
Lin Zhenglun crumpled to his knees and wailed into his cupped hands. "I regret never treading the path of cultivation! Once the mountain collapses, there is only the dead end!"
Jiang Wang had not the least surplus patience for this man.
So his sword shifted slowly, until it pointed at Lin Zhenglun. "I ask you one last time — how did Song Ruyi die!"
"Ruyi..." Lin Zhenglun choked off his wailing and raised his head, his face streaming with tears and snot. "It was me, it was me who killed her. It was I who drove her to take her own life!"
"No!" He suddenly rose to his feet again, jabbing his finger toward the Lin clansmen gathered behind the archway. "It was them! Every one of them bears responsibility — especially Lin Zhengli!"
Lin Zhengli burst into curses: "Lin Zhenglun, have you lost your mind?"
"Zhenglun." Old Master Lin spoke up. "Your wife died, and your heart is heavy — I understand you. But you must not talk wildly."
"Old Master?" Lin Zhenglun said, weeping. "It was you who once permitted me to return to the main line, and to call you Grandfather. So how, when that little beast Lin Zhengli seized my business and drove me out, did you look on as if you saw nothing?"
Old Master Lin furrowed his brow in silence. He knew, of course, of the affair between Lin Zhengli and Lin Zhenglun. But on the one hand, there had indeed been a time when Lin Zhenglun was puffed up with his own success; and on the other, Lin Zhengli was his own flesh-and-blood grandson. However wrongly the boy had acted, he, as grandfather, had to round it out in the boy's favor.
"On the matter of the business, I have indeed not looked into it for a long while. Perhaps you were truly wronged. Wait until I look into it and make another accounting," said Old Master Lin. "But your wife's death was indeed suicide — that much can be verified; even opening the coffin for examination would pose no problem. How can you blame others for it?"
Lin Zhenglun wiped at his tears and gnashed his teeth. "Ruyi and I, we were loving and devoted. The business I toiled to build nearly drew the medicinal-herb markets of two cities under my control! If not that Lin Zhengli, covetous, and leaning on his identity as heir to the clan head, seized my authority and took over my business — how could I have fallen to such a state!"
"If not Lin Zhengli—" he spun about, thrusting a finger at Lin Zhengli, his eyes brimming with rancor and madness!
Boom!
A palm, appearing out of nowhere, pressed down on Lin Zhenglun's crown. Dao essence burst forth, and crushed him into a paste of flesh!
It also ground his unfinished words and his full well of rancor into dust.
Lin Zhengren, descending from above, withdrew his hand and looked at Jiang Wang. "Song Ruyi took her own life — you heard it clearly. I pay you back one Lin Zhenglun! Is that enough?"
Lin Zhengren had appeared abruptly, slaying a man. Ling He and Zhao Rucheng, without hesitating, stepped forward in unison to stand by Jiang Wang's side. Dao essence churned beneath the surface, ready to open battle at any moment.
A living man, present before their eyes, had been crushed into a smear of flesh — him who, but a moment earlier, had still been crying out his indignities.
Such a display of deterrence could have silenced many a mouth.
But Jiang Wang's countenance did not change at all.
Nor, in truth, did he have any other demand left to make. That Song Ruyi had taken her own life was a fact. At most, Lin Zhenglun had treated her poorly after their marriage, and that was hardly a great crime under the laws of Zhuang. There might be some other entanglement beneath it, but Lin Zhenglun was dead. Given his identity as a Dao Academy disciple, this was as far as he could press the matter.
That the Lin family had killed Lin Zhenglun as its account — wherever one placed it, it held water. Had it been any other man come to demand it, there would have been no account at all.
Jiang Wang said: "The dowry Song Ruyi brought with her, and the herb business in Fengxi Town — return them both to me. Those are the enterprises of my Jiang family. They were given to Song Ruyi; now that she is dead, they ought rightly to return to their original owners."
Song Ruyi's dowry had been generous enough. But the herb business in Fengxi Town especially — that was the fulcrum that had pried open the medicinal-herb market of the Fenglin domain, and an important piece in consolidating the herb trade of two cities.
With so large a cut of meat being gouged away, Lin Zhengli naturally could not bear to part with it.
He was about to say something, but Lin Zhengren had already made the decision outright: "Agreed."
"Then I, Jiang, take my leave." Jiang Wang sheathed his sword, and gave a slight nod to the Lin clansmen. "I have troubled you."
"Junior Disciple Jiang, I have one piece of advice for you," Lin Zhengren said behind him. "The road of cultivation is long. Walk it slowly. Do not narrow your path as you go."
"No matter how strong Zhu Weiwo is, can he shield you for a lifetime?"
Jiang Wang drew out the Ember-Spending Spear, wrapped it carefully, covered it in its box, and bore it upon his back.
Only then did he turn back, and say to Lin Zhengren: "I take the lesson to heart."
The three brothers, swaggering, took their leave.