by RWX
Yan Nanfei said, “This is because our enemy is even more tightly organized, and their force is even greater.”
Qiu Shuiqing said, “Who is their leader?”
Yan Nanfei said, “A person who deserves to die.”
Qiu Shuiqing said, “He is the source of your anxiety?”
Yan Nanfei admitted to it.
Qiu Shuiqing said, “You want to use my Peacock Plume to kill him?”
Yan Nanfei said, “Use violence to defeat violence, and kill to stop a killer!”
Qiu Shuiqing looked at him, then looked at Fu Hongxue. He suddenly said, “Release the acupoints on my legs, then come with me!”
They walked past a giant, beautiful mural, passed through a maple grove, and a clump of bamboo. Just after they crossed a bridge with nine bends, the lamp light seemed to scatter and dissipate.
The dark courtyard seemed to carry an unspeakably gloomy, sinister, desolate aura. Even the lamp light shied away from it.
Compared to the magnificent, splendid, palace-like pavilion from earlier, this was a totally different world.
The tall, lofty building was filled with a ghastly cold.
There were over a hundred small lanterns lit within the room. Giving off a sad, eerie light, they looked like so many will’o’the’wisps.
In front of every small lantern was a memorial tablet.
A name was carved onto every memorial tablet. Each and every single name belonged to an illustrious figure. Several of the names belonged to people who, not long ago, were brief celebrities of the martial world who considered themselves without peer!
After seeing the row of memorial tablets, Mingyue Xin’s expression also became very solemn.
She knew that these were all people who died to the Peacock Plume. She hoped to add another memorial tablet and another name to this place.
“Gongzi Yu!”
Qiu Shuiqing said, “Our ancestors feared that their descendants would accumulate too much evil karma through their killings, and so set up a memorial site here, so as to help expiate their sins and propitiate the souls of the damned!”
Next, he took them into the heart of the Peacock Manor. They entered through a paved path through the tomb.
The path they took was tortuous and winding. An innumerable number of iron bars and railings could be seen.
Everyone silently followed behind him. They felt as though they had suddenly entered the mausoleum of some ancient, long-dead emperor. The place was gloomy, damp, and mysterious.
The very last iron gate was formed from a steel plate which was over three feet thick. It weighed more than a thousand jin.
There were thirteen locks on the gate.
“The thirteen keys were originally guarded by thirteen different people. Nowadays, though, trustworthy friends are become fewer and fewer in number.”
Thus, nowadays only six people guarded the keys. All of them were old men with white and gray hair. They numbered amongst them trusted family friends of the Peacock Family and illustrious old veterans of the martial world.
They all had different backgrounds and various statuses. However, their friendship and loyalty were equally trusted by Qiu Shuiqing.
Their proficiency in martial arts, naturally, was even more worthy of trust. Qiu Shuiqing simply clapped his hands, and all six of them appeared out of nowhere like ghosts. The person who appeared the fastest had a gaze like an eagle, and moved like an eagle as well. His experienced, wizened face was crisscrossed with scars and healed wounds. He appeared to be the “Immortal Eagle of Heaven,” Gongsun Tu, whose fame shook the world in years past.
The keys were attached to them with an iron chain. The very last key was held by Qiu Shuiqing.
Mingyue Xin watched as he opened the very last lock. By the time she turned her head around, the six guardians had disappeared. It was as though the ancestors of the Qiu family had specially sent the six of them from the netherworld, to act as guardian ghosts over this forbidden area.
Behind the steel gate was a large stone room. The walls were covered with bluish green moss, and six lamps burned.
Underneath the ghastly, gloomy glow of the lamps, all sorts of strange, exotic weapons could be seen on many wooden racks. Some of them not even Yan Nanfei had seen before, and it was unknown as to whether they had been used by the ancestors of the Qiu family, or by the Qiu family’s enemies. Although these weapons were still here, their skeletons and framework had long since rotted away.
Qiu Shuiqing pushed aside a giant boulder, revealing a steel cabinet hidden behind it. Could it be that the Peacock Plume was hidden in here?
Everyone watched with bated breath as he opened the steel cabinet and reverently, respectfully withdrew a wooden box from within.
No one imagined that within the wooden box, there lay not the Peacock Plume, but a thin yellow skin.
Mingyue Xin didn’t try to hide her disappointment. Wrinkling her forehead, she said, “What’s this?”
The expression on Qiu Shuiqing’s face became even more solemn and respectful. “This is a person’s face.”
Disappointed, Mingyue Xin said, “Is it skin that was carved from a person’s face?”
Qiu Shuiqing nodded. His eyes were filled with sorrow. In a dejected voice, he said, “This person lost something that was extremely important. He felt as though he no longer had any face or any right to continue living. Before he committed suicide, he told his servants to carve his skin from his face after his death, to serve as an admonition for future generations.”
He did not say this person’s name, but everyone knew who it was he was speaking about.
The news of Qiu Yifeng’s sudden death was, in that time, a story which caused great suspicion. Only now did Qiu Shuiqing reveal the truth of the matter.
All the hairs on Mingyue Xin’s body began to rise. After a long time, she let out a long sigh. “You shouldn’t have revealed something like this to me.”
With a calm expression, Qiu Shuiqing said, “I didn’t want to reveal this either, but I needed for you to believe me. The Peacock Plume disappeared long ago from the Peacock Manor.”
Mingyue Xin said, “But those people who recently died at the Peacock Manor…”
Qiu Shuiqing interrupted her. He coldly said, “There are many ways to kill someone. It isn’t necessary to use the Peacock Plume.”
Mingyue Xin stared at the human-skin within the wooden box. When she thought of the tragic and pitiful suicide of that man, who took his own life to atone for his sin, she wished that she had never come here.
Yan Nanfei clearly felt a similar regret in his heart. Just at this moment, a clanking sound could be heard as the metal gate swung shut!
Next, a series of clicking sounds could be heard. Obviously, the thirteen keyholes outside had all been locked.
The expression on Mingyue Xin’s face changed. Yan Nanfei sighed. “As we should not have come here, nor heard this secret, much less disturbed the rest of this elder’s spirit. We do deserve to die.”
Qiu Shuiqing calmly watched them, not revealing any expression on his face.
Yan Nanfei said, “But my life still belongs to Fu Hongxue. Fu Hongxue doesn’t deserve to die.”
Qiu Shuiqing coldly said, “I do not deserve to die either.”
Yan Nanfei stared at him, astonished. Mingyue Xin interjected, “This wasn’t your intention, then?”
Qiu Shuiqing said, “It is not.”
Mingyue Xin was even more shocked. “Then who locked us in here? Who could possibly enter such a secret area?”
Qiu Shuiqing said, “There are at least six people who do.”
Mingyue Xin said, “But all of them are your good friends.”
Qiu Shuiqing said, “As I said earlier. There are many people in the world who are willing to sell out their friends!”
Fu Hongxue finally spoke. “Out of those six people, there only needs to be one traitor.”
Mingyue Xin said, “Who are you referring to?”
Fu H
ongxue did not reply. Instead, he asked Qiu Shuiqing, “Was the person who opened the very first lock Gongsun Tu?”
Qiu Shuiqing said, “Yes.”
Mingyue Xin interrupted, “Is it that ‘Immortal Eagle of Heaven’, the Gongsun Tu who should have died many times over by now?”
Qiu Shuiqing said, “Yes.”
Yan Nanfei asked, “His very last duel to the death, was it with Gongzi Yu?”
Qiu Shuiqing said, “Yes.”
Yan Nanfei looked at Mingyue Xin. Mingyue Xin looked at Fu Hongxue. All three of them shut their mouths.
There was no need to ask anything further.
Everyone in the martial world was astonished at how Gongsun Tu managed to survive his fight with Gongzi Yu.
Only now did they realize that there was nothing astonishing about it at all. Gongzi Yu intentionally let Gongsun Tu live, while bribing him at the same time.
Now, the only question which needed to be asked was, “Is there a second way out of here?”
“None.”
Qiu Shuiqing’s response was very succinct. A secret storehouse for precious goods really should not have a second way in or out!
Mingyue Xin let out a breath. It seemed as though her entire body was about to collapse.
The metal gate was three feet thick. The stone walls were six feet thick. No matter who was locked within this stone room, the only thing they could do was to await death.
Yan Nanfei suddenly asked, “Is there any wine here?”
Qiu Shuiqing said, “There is. There’s only one jug of wine. Poison wine!”
Yan Nanfei grinned. “Poison wine is better than no wine.”
Why would a person waiting for certain death be afraid of poisoned wine?
He located the jug of wine, then broke open the seal. But suddenly, there was the flash of a sabre and the jug of wine was also shattered.
Fu Hongxue coldly said, “Don’t forget that your life still belongs to me. Even if you want to die, you need to allow me to kill you.”
Yan Nanfei said, “When do you plan to make your move?”
Fu Hongxue said, “When all hope is lost.”
Yan Nanfei asked, “What hope do we have right now?”
Fu Hongxue said, “As long as you are alive, there is hope!”
Yan Nanfei laughed loudly. “Wonderful! Well said! So long as there is a single breath left in my body, I won’t forget those words.”
Fu Hongxue didn’t say so much as another word. It seemed as though he had suddenly become fascinated by the various weapons on the wooden shelves.
He slowly walked over to them, carefully examining every single weapon.
The cold, gloomy room gradually became hot and suffocating. Qiu Shuiqing blew out three of the lanterns. Fu Hongxue suddenly removed a chain whip from one of the shelves.
The chain whip was made out of links of pure steel. It should be extremely heavy, and yet it didn’t seem as heavy as it appeared to be!
Fu Hongxue muttered to himself, then asked, “What is the origin of this weapon?”
Qiu Shuiqing didn’t directly answer him. First, he withdrew a very thick accounting book from a cabinet. He blew the dust off of it, then flipped for ten or so pages before unhurriedly saying, “This was left behind by Hai Dongkai.”
Fu Hongxue asked, “Hai Dongkai, of Jiangnan’s Thunderbolt Hall?”
Qiu Shuiqing nodded. “The explosive devices of the Thunderbolt Hall were hidden projectiles that were famous throughout the world. But after the appearance of the Peacock Plume, their prestige began to decline. Thus, Hai Dongkai organized people to come attack us, intending to destroy the Peacock Manor. Unfortunately, he died to the Peacock Plume before he even had a chance to strike.”
A ray of light suddenly seemed to shoot out of Fu Hongxue’s eyes. After repeating this to himself, he asked again, “He died to the Peacock Plume before he even had a chance to strike?”
Qiu Shuiqing nodded again. “Although this happened more than a century ago, the events were recorded in this ledger very clearly.”
Mingyue Xin said, “I’ve heard of this elder before as well. I seem to recall that his nickname was something like the ‘Thunderbolt Whip’?”
Fu Hongxue slowly nodded, then once more began to walk along the wall!
With his right hand, he gripped his sabre. With his left, he held the whip. Suddenly, he closed his eyes. Although the way in which he walked was very peculiar, his face seemed as calm and peaceful as that of an old monk.
Watching him, everybody held their breaths. The stone room became as quiet as a tomb.
Suddenly, there was a flash of a sabre.
This sabre flash was much brighter than any which Yan Nanfei had ever seen before.
With this slash, Fu Hongxue clearly used his internal energy. Although his eyes were firmly shut, this strike landed precisely on one of the cracks on one of the stone walls.
He didn’t use his eyes to see. He used his heart!
As soon as his sabre struck out, it sank into the stone wall.
Fu Hongxue let out a long sigh as he pulled the blade of his sabre from the wall. Just as he finished sighing, he struck out with the chain whip in his left hand, forcefully inserting it into the opening his sabre made in the wall.
At this moment, there was a sudden booming sound. The chain whip exploded within the opening in the stone wall.
The stone wall which had been fashioned using six feet of solid rock exploded as well. Broken stones scattered all over the place, flying about like rain.
And then, everything was quiet once more. A large hole had been blown into the stone wall.
Fu Hongxue had already sheathed his sabre. He only said in a light voice, “The explosive weapons of Jiangnan’s Thunderbolt Hall are really without peer.”
Qiu Shuiqing, Mingyue Xin, and Yan Nanfei quietly gazed at him. Their eyes were filled with respect. “How did you know that this chain whip was filled with explosives?”
“I didn’t know!” Fu Hongxue said. “I only felt that the whip seemed to weigh less than it should. Thus, the insides of it were probably hollow. As fortune would have it, I suddenly thought of Hai Dongkai.”
Hai Dongkai’s midnight assault on the Peacock Manor was one of the most famous war stories of the martial world.
Of the seventy two greatest battles the martial world had ever seen, at least seven occurred at the Peacock Manor!
And yet, the Peacock Manor almost miraculously continued to remain standing in good health. But as soon as they walked out, they discovered that the Peacock Manor which had braved fire and misfortune for so long had turned into a large pile of rubble. Its nine great courtyards, thirty-six towers, and eighty square li of terrain had been turned into debris!
The fresh blood had not yet fully dried. And so, Qiu Shuiqing stood in the middle of blood-soaked rubble.
Eighty square li of land. Five hundred lives. Thirty generations of fame. They had all been destroyed!
It was as though an evil miracle had taken place!
Qiu Shuiqing neither moved, nor shed tears. This sort of hatred and enmity could no longer be washed away by tears.
The only thing he wanted to shed was blood!
But he could not find the person who had caused this disaster. The sky was gloomy and dark. The land all around them was barren and still. It seemed as though the four of them were the only living things in the world.
Yan Nanfei stood off to one side, far away. It seemed as though he were even more pained than Qiu Shuiqing.
Fu Hongxue had been staring at him for a long time. He coldly said, “You are blaming yourself and condemning yourself. You feel you brought this misfortune upon him?”
Yan Nanfei slowly nodded his head. Several times, he wanted to speak, but forbore. Contradictions wracked his heart, increasing his pain.
Finally, he was no longer able to resist. He suddenly said, “This is the third time!”
Fu Hongxue said, “The third time?”
Yan
Nanfei said, “The first time was the Phoenix Assembly. The second time was the Ni Family Garden. This is the third time.”
He spoke very quickly, because he had already decided to reveal all of the secrets.
“In this day and age, the person with the highest level of martial arts ability isn’t you. It is Gongzi Yu.” His words were very honest and frank. “Although your sabre has nearly reached the level of being all-conquering and unstoppable, you yourself still have weaknesses.”
“How about you?” Fu Hongxue said.
“I practice the sword of the heart, the sword of the intention. When heart and mind come together, there is nothing one cannot do. Originally, this is a style which approaches the highest levels of swordsmanship. If I can master it, I will be invincible.”
“You cannot master it?”
“It is as though mastery of this style is blocked by thirteen locks. I know I have all the keys to the locks, but after I open twelve of them, I cannot find the thirteenth.”
Yan Nanfei forced a laugh. “Thus, whenever I execute my strikes, I feel as though my power does not come from the heart. Sometimes, when I send out an attack, it clearly is about to land on target, but when it actually reaches the target, it’s actually off by an inch.”
Fu Hongxue asked, “How about Gongzi Yu?”
Yan Nanfei said, “Not only is his martial arts all-conquering and unstoppable, it is invulnerable as well. In the entire world, there are perhaps only two things which can defeat him.”
Fu Hongxue said, “One is the Peacock Plume?”
Yan Nanfei said, “The other is Sorrowful Book of Yin and Yang and of Heaven and Hell Mingling.”
Within this book was recorded the seven most vile, vicious martial arts techniques in the history of the world. According to legends, when this book was written, the heavens wept blood, ghosts wailed at night, and after the author finished the very last word, he himself vomited blood and died.
Fu Hongxue naturally heard of this legend as well. “But as soon as this book was written, it disappeared. No one in the world has ever seen it!”
Yan Nanfei said, “This book definitely was lost a long time ago, but it just as definitely resurfaced recently!”