Under Fang Guyuan’s astonished gaze, Shao Feng launched into a poisonous oath of his own accord, his whole face solemn, every word chopping nails and slicing iron.
“I, Shao Feng, swear that I will never reveal today’s matter to anyone, and will never use what I learned today to harm the Phoenix Body. If I violate this oath, heaven and earth will not tolerate me, men and gods will share in the fury, refining gu will certainly meet with backlash, and my cultivation will never advance another inch!”
“Sect Master Shao, this is……” Fang Guyuan’s eyes opened a little wider.
Every flavor mixed in his heart, and he could only be struck dumb.
“Ah, Little Fang. Whether it is the Dragon Sovereign or the Phoenix Body, both bear on matters of great weight. News of her has already spread of itself through the jianghu, and the Dragon Sovereign has still not appeared after all this delay, which makes this single remaining sprout of hers even more the focus of everyone’s eyes. I hear the Nine Heavens side is already quarreling past all settlement over how to deal with her. Think — to those old foxes skilled at this path, how great a value there is in a Phoenix Body who has no common sense, can still be hypnotized and controlled, and will listen to every word.”
“And although she was poisoned by the heretical cult before, and her foundation was damaged quite a lot, her talent still counts as one in ten thousand, and with the fortune of the heavenly dao added on, her cultivation speed is still astonishing. Once she is seized and used by someone plotting harm, she will certainly raise a foul wind and a rain of blood, and bring disaster on all living beings. The Penglai Fang family, the Nine Heavens, Fangfei Valley…… and many demonic cultivators and evil cultivators are all lying low now beneath water that looks calm, waiting for a chance, glaring like tigers.”
Shao Feng paused, a sharp light flashing through his eyes, and went on.
“I know you perhaps have no bad intentions toward her. Even if you could control her, you would be unwilling to do it. But have you thought — what about other people? If today’s matter leaks out, it will not only be her. Even you, who took her in, will be implicated, and your whole Dust Sword Palace will become the target of every arrow.”
“I understand……” Fang Guyuan sighed, helpless, and cupped his hands in salute once more. “This point, I thought of it back when I decided to keep her. I only didn’t think those heretical cultists had also left a gu art of mental control on her. If this matter gets out, it will stir up trouble for nothing. Thank you, Sect Master Shao, for being willing to keep the secret for me. A great kindness needs no thanks. This day’s kindness I will certainly repay in days to come.”
At these words Shao Feng was instead startled, and then he laughed aloud.
“When I was as young and reckless as you, I also acted on impulse, and flew into a rage over a beauty. You, boy, thought so much through, and still took the trouble onto yourself. It actually makes me respect you a little. When I was your age, I didn’t have that many calculations. Only……”
His expression turned a little strange again.
“You really haven’t taken a fancy to her? Since you can consider all this, I truly don’t understand why you would do so much for a stranger you don’t know at all. You don’t owe her anything.”
“This matter is a long story……” Fang Guyuan smiled, his face bitter. “Only, what happened to her is very like what happened to my family, and she looks about the same age. When I see her, I can’t help a pity rising, so take it as a bit of compensation from me toward the family I once failed to protect……”
“Oh? Your family also once met with the poisonous hand of a heretical cult?”
“Mm.” Fang Guyuan nodded. “But it wasn’t the Immortal King Sect. It was the Living Beings Gate.”
“The Living Beings Gate?” Shao Feng blanked, then raised his voice, and even his speech sped up a little. “That Living Beings Gate that cultivates and refines magic treasures by blood-sacrificing living people?”
“Precisely.”
Shao Feng at once showed a look of sighing regret, and shook his head.
“Then I’m afraid it was ten deaths and no life. I heard that a living person who entered the Living Beings Gate didn’t even have ashes left, and the soul would also become a resentful ghost on the Ten-Thousand Souls Banner……”
Seeing Fang Guyuan’s expression grow darker still, Shao Feng hurriedly comforted him.
“Think of the good side. What if your family member’s aptitude wasn’t strong, and they didn’t suffer much?”
The better the aptitude, the stronger the body, and the stronger the spiritual force of a living being, the greater the help it often was in promoting cultivation and in refining magic treasures.
So the Living Beings Gate would screen out the excellent seedlings and torment them slowly to stir up resentful qi, while other living people of ordinary aptitude, and weak, were only handled like fuel.
They died fast, they died in numbers, and the pain was also less.
— But his younger brother’s aptitude, however one spoke of it, could not be counted as poor……
Fang Guyuan forced out from the corner of his mouth a smile that could not be counted as good-looking.
“Sect Master Shao, this way you have of comforting people really is……”
“Ah, the person is already gone. One has to look past it a little, doesn’t one? Don’t people live on just this bit of something to hold to? Think a little further toward the good. The Living Beings Gate was rampant for a time, and now hasn’t it still been wiped out until not a sound of it remains? Just take it as comforting the spirit of your family in heaven.”
Shao Feng also knew this reason of his for comforting was not very good.
Guilty, he picked up the teacup on his desk and quickly drank several mouthfuls of tea to moisten his throat, and also to cover the awkwardness on his face.
“Whatever one says, thank you still for the explaining. I won’t hide it from you. In fact I’ve also been persuading myself this way all along.”
“Ah. Restrain your grief, and accept what has changed.” Shao Feng waved a hand at Fang Guyuan. “You’d still better try first to lift the state the Phoenix Body is in now. She looks pitiful. As for the Immortal King Sect’s things, if your side can send them over as soon as possible, that would be best. If I can see their experimental data and experimental materials, it may be of help in lifting the gu arts on her. If something comes up, contact me again.”
“Right.” Fang Guyuan suddenly smiled, as if released. “She has a name now. You can call her Chi Xuewu. Chi as in sooner or later, Xue as in flying snow, Wu as in dancing.”
“Oh……” Shao Feng blanked slightly, then reacted, and smiled in understanding. “So that’s it. Chi Xuewu… a good name, a good name.”
After the communication was cut, Fang Guyuan called together the disciples on the spot who were keeping the storehouse, and had them swear they would not reveal today’s matter to anyone.
Only then did he lead his disciple back to Qingxuan Peak.
……
All along the road Fang Guyuan had been quite calm.
Only when he led Chi Yujun by the hand and stepped into the bedroom where he usually rested did he finally fail to hold up, and show a haggard weariness.
He supported her so she sat back against the head of the bed, while he himself collapsed powerlessly onto the floor, his back against the edge of the bed, bleakly sighing long toward the sky.
These few days, the shock this nominal disciple he had picked up had brought him, and the various troublesome matters that followed, had almost pressed him until he could not breathe.
That oppressive presence was completely different from the oppressive presence of dealing with official business on ordinary days.
The more piled-up official business he cleared, the more Fang Guyuan would have a sense of release and a sense of accomplishment.
Yet the more he dug out of this silver-haired woman, the more he had a deep sense of blaming himself and a sense of powerlessness.
That despairing blow came wave on wave.
Before he could catch a breath it hammered heavily on his heart again, as if coldly and mercilessly mocking him that in fact he could do nothing at all.