SS CH1

The seventh lunar month’s heat flowed away, and fallen leaves fluttered through the air.

The southern lands were rich with water towns. However, the season had already passed, and the magnificent scenery of lotus leaves stretching to touch the sky was now reduced to a sight of complete ruin and decay. The wild ferry crossing had always been desolate, yet today, unprecedentedly, a guest had arrived.

The guest wore a black cloak, the hood concealing more than half of his face. Beneath his feet was a small wooden skiff obtained from who-knows-where; it didn’t even have a straw canopy.

He had already been standing here for nearly three shichen (six hours), from the sun setting in the west to the moon hanging high in the middle of the sky. His feet seemed to have taken root, not moving an inch. After another moment, a cool breeze blew past, accompanied by the sound of fallen leaves being stepped on. A person dressed in night-traveling clothes treaded along the overgrown, weed-choked small path, approaching from the distance.

Before he even drew close, he first bowed deeply in a grand salute: “This subordinate has arrived late. I have troubled the Zunzhu (Honored Master) to wait for a long time.”

“The battle at the Jinghan Pass has only just concluded, and the journey is far. It is not your fault.” The cloaked guest waved a hand, signaling him to step forward. His voice was somewhat hoarse: “However, bringing tails along—that is a massive mistake.”

Hearing this, the night-traveler was greatly alarmed. Having rushed all this way, his mind and spirit had inevitably slackened, and he had completely failed to realize he had been tailed all the way here. With a shift of his mind, he gathered his neigong (inner energy) into his ears and eyes, and clearly detected the sounds of no less than ten people moving stealthily in the wild forest behind him.

“This subordinate deserves death, I beg the Zunzhu…”

“If they wanted to make a move, I reckon I’d have to send people into the bellies of dogs just to find your bones.” The cloaked guest sneered. Turning his head to look, he saw water splashing up as a small boat approached from the distance. Two people stood upon it. One, wearing a gray robe with disheveled hair, stood respectfully in attendance at the back. The other, wearing white clothes and a jade crown, stood at the bow of the boat.

The white-clothed man held a long brocade box in both hands. His face was as flawless as jade, and his smile was like a clear breeze: “Xiwei, we haven’t seen each other in ten years. You’ve grown taller, and your temper has grown as well.”

“After many years, even a daughter-in-law suffers long enough to become the mother-in-law. Who doesn’t have times when they’re unreasonable?” The cloaked guest flicked his sleeve, and his small skiff glided silently across the water. Before the ripples could even spread outward twice, he had already landed behind the white-clothed man. Reaching back, he pressed a hand against the dao (saber) hanging at the gray-robed man’s waist, mocking: “Do not show off your broadsword in front of Lord Guan; be careful not to smash your own foot.”

The gray-robed man’s pupils shrank. Catching a glimpse of the white-clothed man turning his head with a displeased look, he slowly released his grip, though his entire body remained tightly strung.

“The foundation is not bad, but the reaction time is lacking. He’s been by your side for so many years, yet he only managed to train such a group of…” The cloaked guest paused for a moment, switching to a relatively more tactful term: “…embroidered pillows (useless pretty boys).”

The white-clothed man coughed lightly: “The Lueying Guards mostly joined the sect already possessing their own skills, and the Commander only oversees matters of missions and punishments. Your words truly wrong him.”

“Brother Ziyu, you manage myriad affairs of state every day. Why waste time speaking so many unnecessary words?” A gust of light wind brushed past, its chill biting to the bone, making the cloaked guest’s voice carry a trace of hidden coldness as well. “What business do you have looking for me?”

“The Lueying Guards discovered your subordinate at the Jinghan Pass. Originally, they thought he was the eyes and ears of the enemy army’s remnants.” The white-clothed man remained completely unmoved by his killing intent, calmly explaining the entire sequence of events: “After some tracking and investigation, they learned this person came for the Commander of the Lueying Guards… Although the Lueying Guards are renowned across the world, every member’s identity is an absolute secret, much less the Commander’s. I thought about it over and over; in this world, the only person who could know his identity and pay such close attention to him is you.”

The corner of the mouth beneath the hood twitched slightly: “Disappointed to know that I am still perfectly alive?”

The white-clothed man shook his head, his palm gently caressing the carved flying egret pattern on the brocade box: “Perhaps I was in the past. But now… Xiwei, knowing you are alive makes me very happy. At the very least, I won’t dream of the way he looked when he was furious with me.”

The cloaked guest’s figure stiffened. His gaze landed on the brocade box, and his voice grew even hoarser: “…What do you mean?”

“Last month, the northern barbarian tribes invaded the Jinghan Pass. I presume you already knew of this; otherwise, you wouldn’t have sent someone to investigate.” Sweeping a glance over the night-traveler on the pier, who was now surrounded by his subordinates, the white-clothed man’s tone gradually deepened. “The Jinghan Pass is a vital strategic location of the northern borders. Once the pass is broken, it is no different from throwing the nation’s gates wide open. However, the barbarians had been scheming for a long time. This time…”

“Chu Xun, answer my question!” With a sweep of his robe sleeve, the fierce wind threw the hood back, revealing the cloaked guest’s true face beneath the moonlight. He looked to be barely in his early twenties, with slender eyebrows, almond eyes, and hair as black as splashed ink. He was born with an exceptionally good-looking face that naturally attracted romantic attention. Yet, he pressed his thin lips into a tight line, his brows and eyes slightly lowered, looking exactly like a sharp blade about to be drawn from its sheath—aggressively imposing to the absolute extreme.

The imperial family of Great Chu used the nation’s name as their surname. The current Emperor ascended the throne in his youth, reforming the laws and reorganizing the military, government, and people’s livelihoods. The new laws had gradually been implemented; some commoners cursed them angrily, while others sang their praises. But even a young child with a yellow mouth knew that this Emperor who dared to alter the laws of his ancestors was named Chu Xun, courtesy name Ziyu.

Interrupted so rudely, the Son of Heaven was neither annoyed nor angry, merely continuing to speak: “The defending generals died in battle, and the war situation became a dire emergency. Within the court, there were also obstinate, old-fashioned ministers wrestling for power with me. Therefore, I issued a secret edict for the Lueying Guards to rush to the Jinghan Pass ahead of time, granting them permission to act as they saw fit.”

The Jianghu and the imperial court had always maintained a clear, uncrossable boundary. The government authorities left a margin of leeway regarding martial arts affairs, and martial artists did not use their martial prowess to violate taboos or interfere with the law. This maintained the delicate, subtle relationship between the imperial court and the martial world over these years.

But the Lueying Guards were an exception.

Since ancient times, there had been countless instances of dynasties changing and the nation’s rivers and mountains changing masters. Great Chu had only been passed down for three generations so far. The High Ancestor rose from the military ranks and knew the affairs of the common folk intimately. Thus, after establishing the nation and ascending the throne, he secretly summoned martial arts experts from the Jianghu to form a unit of hidden guards, granting them the name “Lueying“. To this day, it had been more than sixty years.

The late Emperor possessed a soft and weak temperament. Dissatisfied with the ruthless methods of the Lueying Guards, he downsized them and, for a time, completely abandoned their use. However, the very first thing the current Emperor did after ascending the throne was to re-establish the Lueying Guards, recruiting hidden spies and assassins once more, forging the sharpest blade for himself.

A blade suspended over the necks of his enemies, ready to fall at any moment.

No one knew how many of them there were, no one knew where they hid, and even less did anyone know… who they were.

Chu Xun’s hand caressed the brocade box slower and slower. He said softly, “I ordered them to hold the Jinghan Pass regardless of the cost. But I never expected that this cost…

“The barbarian tribes were too powerful, and there were spies within the pass secretly colluding with them. Out of one hundred and seventy-eight Lueying Guards, more than half were lost in a mere ten days… In the end, three days ago, when the enemy army arrived at the city gates, he infiltrated the barbarians’ rear camp and assassinated their leader, Hutar.”

In a place heavily guarded by an army, lurking was already fraught with terrifying peril. How much more so after assassinating the enemy army’s supreme commander and being exposed amidst thousands of troops and tens of thousands of horses?

A cold wind slid down his back like a venomous snake. He heard Chu Xun’s voice growing fainter and fainter: “After the battle, the Lueying Guards turned over every single corpse. Unfortunately, most were already horribly mutilated and difficult to identify…”

“Shut up…”

“In the end, they finally found him. Pinned to the mountain wall by ten thousand arrows. Not a single part of his entire body was intact, except for the Jinghong Saber tightly gripped in his hand.”

“I told you to shut up—!”

With an explosive shout, the cloaked guest struck a palm straight at Chu Xun’s face. The gray-robed man hurriedly raised his dao to meet the attack. As flesh and blood collided with the blade’s edge, not only was his skin completely unharmed, but it actually emitted the sharp, resonant clang of metal striking stone. Before anyone could even feel astonished, the cloaked guest chopped his palm downward. With a body of flesh and blood, he forcefully chopped that four-finger-wide long saber cleanly into two halves!

The blade snapped, yet the momentum of the palm strike did not fade. The cloaked guest’s hand skimmed past like a white egret tapping the water. Following the motion, his fingers pinched a piece of the broken blade, and in an instant, it was pressed tightly against Chu Xun’s throat. Only then did the remaining half of the broken saber, still attached to the hilt, finally fall to the ground.

The gray-robed man’s gaze turned chillingly sharp. He was just about to wave his hand to signal the subordinates on the shore to surround them, but heard Chu Xun give a faint smile: “Good wugong. Your mastery of this move, ‘Plucking the Flower’, is already no less than our Shifu‘s.”

The cloaked guest’s mouth twitched. “Not a single word you say do I believe.”

“Yes, his words always carried the weight of nine tripods (absolute trustworthiness). Unfortunately… how can human calculations ever compare to the heavens?” Chu Xun slowly pushed the blade edge away, raised his hand, and tossed the brocade box into his embrace. “He once said he would keep the head on his neck waiting for you to come and claim it. But now, his heart has already been pierced by ten thousand arrows. His corpse was cremated and buried on the spot. All that remains is this Jinghong… which I am bringing to you on his behalf.

“Chu Xiwei, all those things from the past, the rights and wrongs, the gratitude and grudges, up until today… they are all concluded.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly struck out. Holding his fingers together like a sharp blade, he rapidly tapped a major acupoint on the front of Chu Xiwei’s body. Chu Xiwei’s mind was completely chaotic at this moment. Caught entirely off guard, he was struck in the shoulder by the finger strike. It felt as if a burst of neigong exploded between his bones and flesh. The color drained from his face, and his entire body stumbled backward onto the swaying small skiff. His fingers gripping the brocade box cracked loudly, his tone grim and freezing cold: “Jinglei (Shocking Thunder).”

“You and I came from the same sect. Over these past ten years, I’ve spent day and night with Shifu. There is no reason I should be inferior to you.” Chu Xun stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his expression still that of a flawless, jade-like gentleman. “The long night is about to break into dawn; it is time for me to return to the palace… May the mountains and rivers never cross paths again from this day forward.”

Splashes of water rose, the waves shimmering with light. The small boat drifted silently away just as it had come, and the hidden guards on the pier vanished without a trace. The subordinate dressed in night-traveling clothes ignored his injuries, flying over to land at one end of the small skiff. He knelt on one knee: “This subordinate failed to handle matters competently; I beg the Zunzhu to punish me!”

Chu Xiwei ignored him. Supporting the brocade box with his left hand, he reached out with his right to touch the brass lock. His figure, which had always been as steady as a boulder, swayed slightly, and his hands trembled uncontrollably. It took a long time before he finally managed to open the tiny latch. Only when he saw the completely profound-black, sheathed long saber inside did he regain his composure.

The long saber was three chi (three feet) long and about two fingers wide. The scabbard was a profound black, vividly engraved with the image of a wild goose spreading its wings, looking so lifelike it seemed ready to break free from the bronze and iron to fly right into one’s eyes. The blade itself, however, was as bright as autumn water, clear and radiant like white dew on reeds. Bathed in the moonlight, it reflected a face as pale as paper.

Silently, without a sound, tears streamed down his face.

“I’m crying…” He wiped his face in belated realization, finding it completely drenched. “To think that I… can actually still cry.”

He roughly wiped his tears away and twitched the corners of his mouth, trying to force a smile. Unfortunately, his smile was uglier than crying.

He picked up the saber and began to laugh in a low voice: “How could you… die? You clearly said you would keep your life waiting for me to take it… I did not permit it; how dared you go and die?”

After laughing for a long time, he choked on a breath of air and coughed several times, muttering in a low whisper: “Shifu… how could you, die?”

His subordinate knelt behind him, naturally unable to see exactly what kind of expression his Zunzhu wore at this moment.

Lost, bewildered, and utterly helpless, exactly like a child who could not find his way home.

Note: “Do not show off your broadsword in front of Lord Guan” (關公面前莫耍大刀) is a common Chinese idiom. Guan Yu (Lord Guan) is a legendary historical general famous for his peerless skill with the guandao (a heavy polearm). The idiom means one should not boast or show off their meager skills in front of a true, unparalleled expert.