Chapter 20 – Trouble

Zhan Changfeng had no idea how long she had been unconscious. When she awoke, she was still draped in her previous clothes — it seemed no one had entered the room.

Due to the conflict between the pure yin energy and the natural balance of yin and yang within her body, the left side of her body — from her abdomen to her shoulder, her arm, and her palm — had been entirely eaten away, leaving nothing but pale, stark white bone.

Even so, it was fortunate that her pure yin bones had been forged to roughly ninety percent completion, and her life had been preserved.

Yet her physical body’s current state was being maintained entirely by the ink-jade thumb ring. Without it, true death would not be far off.

And now a crack had split across the surface of the ink-jade thumb ring.

She had to find a way to sustain her physical body as soon as possible.

There was a medical chest in the room. She tore out strips of gauze and wrapped them around the exposed white bones, then pulled on her inner robes and outer garments.

The weather was still cold, and she was dressed thickly — from the outside, nothing seemed amiss.

She opened the door, startling a figure who leapt up from the floor.

Jiang Wei appeared to have not slept in days. His beard was unkempt, and he looked at her with careful, overjoyed eyes. “Your Highness, are you alright?”

Zhan Changfeng caught sight of her own eyes reflected in his.

Red as blood.

“How many died?” Zhan Changfeng asked.

Jiang Wei came back to himself and lowered his voice. “Excluding the brothers who went out with me, five died. Twelve survived — of those, three have lost their minds entirely, seven are in a poor state as well, as though they’ve been possessed by something, two are wounded, and the rest appear unharmed.”

“This time, I was arrogant.”

Though Zhan Changfeng had planned from the beginning to sacrifice a hundred ghosts and forge her pure yin bones, she had underestimated the strange man’s methods. He had thrown her whole plan into disarray, and the losses were now grave.

Jiang Wei said, “Protecting you is our duty. Even if it costs us our lives, we must see it through. You don’t need to blame yourself — besides, the enemy was far too powerful, completely beyond anything we could have anticipated.”

“Powerful?” Zhan Changfeng lowered her eyelids. “That is no excuse.”

Before she had learned swordsmanship, she thought lifting a thousand jin was strength.

Before she had studied the art of rulership, she thought killing a man in ten paces was strength.

Before she had come to know cultivation, she thought commanding the realm with a single word was strength.

By that logic, there would always be someone stronger, always something she could not surpass — and so strength had no ceiling.

But failure could never be brushed aside with a simple claim that the other was stronger than her.

She had always been comparing herself, always searching for something higher — but looking back now, she had neglected what true strength really was.

Zhan Changfeng seemed to reach some quiet understanding. Coming back to herself, she saw Jiang Wei gazing at her anxiously, and she shook her head. “Where are they? I’ll go take a look.”

“I was afraid that splitting up would be dangerous, so I gathered everyone in the Hall,” Jiang Wei said, trying to lighten the mood. “We caught that thieving Taoist and forced him to treat the brothers who’d been affected. You won’t believe it — the old scoundrel actually has some real skill. The ones who weren’t as badly off, he managed to bring back.”

“Hmph, after all the men we lost, we should make him pay with his own life!” As they neared the entrance to the Hall, Jiang Wei deliberately raised his voice.

The menace in his words was enough to make anyone tremble.

Yet Master Huang remained silent as ever, going about his work without a flicker of panic or anxiety. In that regard, he truly possessed a kind of unshakeable composure.

To avoid frightening anyone, Zhan Changfeng had bound her eyes with a strip of cloth — though this did nothing to hinder her movement.

In fact, because of her training in swordsmanship and cultivation of the Dao scripture, with her eyes covered, the positions, movements, and even subtle emotional shifts of those around her became easier to perceive. Master Huang’s behavior naturally could not escape her notice.

The guards greeted her and paid their respects. After a few words of comfort to them, she walked to the corridor and had someone summon Master Huang.

“Can they be cured?”

Short and plain, without so much as a softening particle at the end — as though a single “no” would send his head rolling in the next instant.

Master Huang was puzzled. The person before him was clearly young, yet carried an air utterly unlike an ordinary person. Even that wealthy landlord attended upon her with the manner of a servant.

But Master Huang was something of a half-cultivator himself, and paid little heed to worldly rank. To him, she was just a small youth.

He answered: “Those few have been bound by yin-evil spirits. My cultivation is limited — I cannot purge them. At best, I can ease some of their suffering.”

“In that case,” Zhan Changfeng said with a light smile, “shall I ease some of your suffering as well?”

One moment she was smiling; the next, she swept his legs out from beneath him with a kick to the back of his knees, forcing him to the ground. One hand twisted his arm behind his back, pressing down on his vital pressure point.

A breath later, Zhan Changfeng released him and produced a handkerchief to wipe her hands clean. “On the verge of death, yet still unafraid. As expected.”

Master Huang bowed his head and said nothing. The sight of it made Jiang Wei’s blood boil, and he sneered, “Look at you, staying noble and unmoved now — pfft! You old Taoist, we have no grudge against you. Even if you’re about to die, don’t go dragging us down with you!”

At that, Master Huang finally let out a long sigh. “Not so, not so. That things have come to this point — it was never my wish.”

Master Huang slowly let the words out, leaving the others speechless.

“You spent half your life-force to summon some so-called yin deity — and all for a thousand gold?!” Jiang Wei exploded. “With that kind of ability, why not just rob someone outright?!”

“Theft and robbery are not the conduct of one of my station,” Master Huang replied with a look of firm disagreement. “Such actions taint one’s original heart and are detrimental to cultivation.”

Good grief, that kind of reasoning actually existed?!

They were operating on completely different wavelengths. Jiang Wei couldn’t even find the words — were these cultivator types genuinely out of their minds?

Zhan Changfeng stood with her sleeves folded, gazing out at the locust tree in the courtyard, withered and bare. “They say that cultivators fear nothing more than becoming entangled in the karma of mortals. What do you think?”

Master Huang heard this and was seized with a start of alarm. Yes, yes — he had only meant to frighten that Taoist away, but instead he had broken the seal and released a hundred ghosts, leaving several dead or wounded.

Think about it: if the dead man had aging parents at home, those parents might grieve themselves into illness and die. That karma would be partly his.

And then — what if the dead man had a son? A son who grew up fatherless, called a bastard, his entire life cast in shadow — was that not his burden to carry as well?

And then if that son went down the wrong path and started killing and burning — the karma of those deaths, was he not to bear that too?

The people those victims left behind — parents, wives, children — all the things that happened to them because of their lost son, husband, or father — was he not responsible for that too?

Of course he was. All of their karma was now linked to him. Until it was settled, he could forget about ever attaining the Dao.

Master Huang broke into a cold sweat with fright, but after a moment, he steadied himself. In any case, enlightenment and immortality had always been beyond his reach in this lifetime — he might as well carry the karma.

“Karma cannot be escaped,” Master Huang said with a slow breath, then he paused and asked: “I have one question that troubles me. Who was it that dealt with the hundred ghosts? If such a person could defeat a hundred ghosts, they may also be able to save those afflicted by the yin-evil poison.”

Zhan Changfeng said nothing. She had already tried — the ink-jade thumb ring could refine and distill pure yin energy, but it could not expel the yin-evil spirits that had already wound themselves into a person’s body.

“Let us revisit this matter later.” She turned to Jiang Wei. “The people that Zero-Three contacted should be arriving soon. It is not appropriate for me to show myself right now — go and receive them.”

“Understood.”

Right now, whose yin energy was the heaviest? That would be hers, without question.

Before she appeared before the newcomers, she would need to get her own condition under control first. If any among those arriving happened to be someone who exorcised demons and drove away evil, she would only be setting a trap for herself.

(End of Chapter)