Chapter 42:
Repaying Kindness
SHEN QIAO HAD nothing more to say to her. The bamboo cane in his hands flashed, quick as a shadow. It struck with the force of a howling squall, flooding the cramped space with true qi. The torch had long ago been extinguished, and moonlight spilled inside the cave to interweave with the blows from their palms like a river of stars splashed across the sky, painting a vivid, elegant scene.
Wherever their internal qi surged and collided, it cut like a knife. In short order, Li Yue’s face and hands were sliced and bleeding. Only Yan Wushi continued to sit as before, seemingly as impervious as diamond. True qi and shock waves buffeted him, but they left little mark.
Bai Rong was impatient, fearful of the unwanted turns the fight could take if it dragged on. With a flick of her sleeves, countless grains of fine powder scattered outward—colorless and devoid of smell, they accompanied her palm blasts. A normal martial artist would have had time to avoid the powder, but no matter how sensitive Shen Qiao’s ears were, he couldn’t detect it right away. Only a moment later, numbness spread over his body, his arms and legs going weak, telling him he’d fallen for Bai Rong’s ploy.
“Shen-lang, oh Shen-lang,” said Bai Rong. “You almost ruined things for me, but I’ll still show you mercy. The drug isn’t poisonous—it’ll just incapacitate your arms and legs for about half a day. You must remember this favor I showed you. But for now, could you please stop getting in my way?”
She still sounded mellow and sweet, like she was playing coy with her lover, all while she struck at Shen Qiao with her palm. After all, the drug might not be completely effective, so it was better to beat him until he couldn’t fight back. That way, she could take care of Yan Wushi in peace.
Her blow struck him, and Shen Qiao slammed into a rough, jagged wall of stone. Pain tore through him, and he felt something warm and wet start to seep through his robes.
“Shen-lang, don’t hold my ruthlessness against me,” Bai Rong said gently. “You insisted on protecting him, so I had to get rid of you first. Don’t worry, though! I’ve changed my mind—a dead Yan Wushi won’t do me any good, but a brainless idiot as Huanyue Sect Leader? That would serve Hehuan Sect’s interests far better, so I’ll spare his life!”
She raised her lovely, fair palm as she spoke, then swung it down at the crown of Yan Wushi’s head.
Bai Rong was certain she’d used the perfect amount of force. With this hit, she wouldn’t damage Yan Wushi’s skull in the slightest but rather only his brain.
But before her palm met its target, she was forced to dodge to the side. The bamboo cane darted after her like a shadow.
“Didn’t you inhale the drug?” Bai Rong was incredulous.
“I did a little,” said Shen Qiao. “But I held my breath in time.” Shen Qiao coughed, his movements slightly slowing.
Spotting her chance, Bai Rong attacked, using her “Sixteen Steps from Heaven to Abyss” to appear before Shen Qiao like a phantom. She jabbed her index and middle fingers toward Shen Qiao’s heart, slipping right through his defenses. She wanted to force him to retreat, but Shen Qiao didn’t withdraw—he even moved forward, forcing Bai Rong to stay her hand.
“Do you like him that much?! Enough to give your life to protect him?!” Bai Rong yelled, utterly exasperated.
Shen Qiao remained silent. It wasn’t clear whether he was unwilling to explain or thought speaking would be too much effort.
Right at that moment, Yan Wushi’s tightly closed eyes sprang open.
Shen Qiao’s back was to him, so he didn’t see it happen, but Bai Rong did.
Her heart leapt in shock at the sight of Yan Wushi staring straight at her. Unable to determine what sort of state he was in, she said, “Shen-lang, your lover’s awake! Do you still have the time to fight me?”
Sure that she was lying, Shen Qiao naturally ignored her. It wasn’t until a cool breeze from behind reached him that he became aware, and he was forced to turn to block.
Bai Rong took this chance to move, alighting softly near the cave’s entrance. “You thought I was lying? Well, you two have fun catching up. I won’t interfere!”
With another giggle, she vanished from the mouth of the cavern.
She could handle someone like Shen Qiao, but with someone like Yan Wushi in the mix—especially one who could fight—the only outcome was death. So, once she was certain Yan Wushi was awake, she made the immediate decision to cut and run.
A brutal swipe from the front sent the bamboo cane flying. Shen Qiao didn’t even have time to speak before his throat was grabbed in a vicious choke hold.
“Shen Qiao.”
The voice was bone-chilling; not a trace of emotion was in it.
The grip around his throat was so crushing, his neck was about to snap in two!
Shen Qiao was about to suffocate, but in his alarm, he sent out a palm strike.
Yet Yan Wushi didn’t evade—he took the blow straight on. His grip slackened and he backed up several steps, but he didn’t hack up any blood.
Meanwhile, Shen Qiao bowed over at the waist, coughing so hard that tears streamed down his face. The remaining strength drained from his body, and he slumped to the ground.
After a long time, Yan Wushi spoke again. “Why are you here?”
His voice sounded much closer to his normal tone, but Shen Qiao remained wary. He leaned against the stone wall, gasping. “You had a qi deviation.”
Yan Wushi looked at Li Yue, who still lay inside the cave, then shifted his gaze back to Shen Qiao. Suddenly he smiled. “I’m not wrong, am I?” he said. “Such a good opportunity was presented to you, and you didn’t seize it and kill me? Or even hide on the sidelines and watch me get killed—you actually intervened.”
“Why would I kill you?” asked Shen Qiao.
Yan Wushi burst out laughing. “A-Qiao, did you spend so much time with me that you actually fell in love?”
Shen Qiao went on panting, then slowly said three words: “Repaying my debt.”
“Repaying your debt?” Surprised colored Yan Wushi’s smile. “I remember telling you early on that I only saved you on a whim. I wanted to see if you were qualified to be my opponent. And I wanted to enjoy seeing whether a poor soul like you would break down—someone who had nothing, who’d been betrayed and abandoned by your dearest kin. I wanted to see if you’d be unable to endure the shock and lose your mind.”
“No matter motives, it doesn’t change that you saved me. Even if you’d saved me only to kill me later, then I should still be grateful before I’m killed.”
Yan Wushi burst out laughing even louder. “A-Qiao, oh A-Qiao, I don’t think you should be a Daoist! If only you’d practiced Buddhism instead. With your soft heart, you might have already cultivated yourself into the highest of holy monks! Then you wouldn’t have been tossed off a cliff and ended up in such a tragic state.”
Shen Qiao ignored his sarcasm. He drew a breath, then continued, “With Yuwen Yong in power now, Zhou could almost be called peaceful. If you weren’t here, and only Bian Yanmei and Yu Shengyan led Huanyue Sect, they might be able to fend off the ambitions of the various powers surrounding you. And if misfortune were to strike down Yuwen Yong, the ministers and officials might be able to carry on serving a new emperor. But if other countries seized upon that opportunity to declare war, then in the end, only the ordinary civilians will suffer.”
Yan Wushi smiled. “Well, your tongue has certainly grown sharper.”
In the middle of their conversation, Li Yue woke up.
At first he looked stunned and bewildered, but when he saw Yan Wushi eyeing him with interest, his shock immediately transformed into panic. He half stumbled, half crawled to his feet, then dashed out of the entrance without another word.
Yan Wushi carelessly flicked a pebble from his hand. The stone shard grazed past Li Yue’s ear, leaving a fine trickle of blood.
Li Yue shrieked and ran even faster.
If Yan Wushi had wanted to kill him, he’d have been a cold corpse by now.
Shen Qiao didn’t know why Yan Wushi had changed his mind, and he didn’t have the strength left to guess. He leaned against the wall, but the dried gash on his back ached more and more. If it wasn’t for the true qi circulating through his body, he’d have been frozen solid.
Yan Wushi turned to him and said, “I won’t kill him, because there are myriad ways to give someone a fate worse than death. He failed to kill me, so from now on, he’s bound to live in eternal fear of my retribution. His life will never grow easier. All I need to do is send people under my name to harass him from time to time, and he’ll scare himself half to death for me. Don’t you think that’s much more entertaining?”
But another thought occurred to Shen Qiao. “Even if I hadn’t intervened, Li Yue and Bai Rong couldn’t have killed you, right?”
“That’s right,” said Yan Wushi. “I couldn’t move, but I could still sense the outside world. I heard your conversations—you discovered the freezing qi inside me. If they’d tried to kill me, they’d have been struck with the backlash from the cold qi too.”
Shen Qiao sighed softly. “Bai Rong left,” he said suddenly.
Until just then, Bai Rong had been lurking outside the cave, trying to confirm whether or not Yan Wushi had really recovered. It wasn’t until Li Yue fled and she heard Yan Wushi and Shen Qiao’s conversation that she finally gave up and left too.