Chapter Ninety: Substitution and Displacement

On Fallen Blossom Mountain, Zhao Sishen caught his breath and waved to the officer. The man had long been stunned senseless by the ferocity of the battle; he stood there dumbly and did not dare to stop Li Zhongyuan and the others as they left. When he saw Zhao Sishen beckon, he hurried over and helped him to his feet, leading him to the edge of the cliff.

Looking toward the dawn in the distance, Zhao Sishen said, “Ruanzhi, would you say the view here is fine?”

The officer, who could make neither head nor tail of it, could only answer at random, “The mountains are bright and the waters clear; the scenery is excellent.”

Zhao Sishen sighed. “Then please sleep here forever.”

With that, sword light flashed. Before Ruanzhi could even understand the meaning of those words, head and body were severed.

Seeing that Ruanzhi still died with eyes unclosed, Zhao Sishen lowered his voice and said, “Good brother, your elder brother has no choice but to borrow your head to save the lives of the people of Garan Temple. I will burn incense for you and send you paper offerings every month in the days to come. Fortunately, apart from one son, there is no one else left in your family, and I shall see to it that your boy is raised to adulthood. You... you may rest in peace.”

Then he slashed the face with his sword until it was a bloody ruin, stripped off the armor and threw it into the ravine, put on Li Zhongjun’s prison clothes, and even crippled the sinews in hands and feet to match Li Zhongjun’s condition. By the time all this was done, the pursuing troops had already reached the summit.

Lifting Ruanzhi’s severed head high, Zhao Sishen shouted, “The fugitive Li Zhongjun has been overtaken by us, resisted arrest, and has been executed on the spot. The remaining accomplices have scattered. Ruanzhi of the Elite Guard, loyal and brave beyond praise, fell in hard battle, his body tumbling down the cliff!”

The commander leading the troops was exceedingly quick-witted and immediately praised him, “General Zhao is peerless in divine skill; we are all in admiration!” Naturally, physicians came forward to tend to Zhao Sishen.

The generals who arrived may not all have believed the story, but every one of them held duties in guarding Garan Temple. If the wanted criminal escaped, that alone would be a capital offense. Now that a head had been handed over to account for it, everyone’s calamity was averted; who would dare expose the lie? Besides, who among them had never done some such thing as taking a man’s life to shoulder a blame, mixing the false with the true? There was nothing unusual about it.

When they returned to the Capital of Brightness, Lady Wei had already received the alarm and was pacing restlessly in the Great Bright Palace. Hearing the eunuch announce that Zhao Sishen sought an audience, she immediately sent word for him to be admitted at once.

Zhao Sishen, covered in blood and dust, limped into the hall and bowed to the ground. “Your servant Zhao Sishen pays respects to Your Grace and prays for your eternal prosperity. I was acting under imperial command to guard the wanted criminal Li Zhongjun. Last night, the rebel band attacked Garan Temple. Li Zhongjun escaped, but the temple troops, unafraid of a powerful enemy, pursued them at the risk of their lives. Owing to Your Grace’s heavenly might and abundant blessings, we encircled the villains at Fallen Blossom Mountain in Yu County. Li Zhongjun has been executed, countless rebels were slain, and the rest fled in rout. More than forty soldiers and officers, including the commander Ruanzhi, perished in loyal service! The head of the wanted criminal Li Zhongjun is here. May Your Grace inspect it.”

With that, he opened the bundle and revealed the mangled human head inside.

Lady Wei was so frightened that she quickly covered her face with her sleeve and cried, “Take that revolting thing out at once!”

Zhao Sishen said, “Li Zhongjun slaughtered the family of a minister. Please use this head as an offering to the dead.”

Lady Wei cared only whether Li Zhongjun lived or died; she had no concern for anything else. Hearing that Li Zhongjun was dead, she at last let out a great sigh of relief and issued a gracious decree.

She praised the commanders and soldiers, granted generous pensions to the families of the fallen, and ordered the dead warriors to be buried with honor. In recognition of his merit, Zhao Sishen was specially promoted to the rank of Junior Second Class Grand General for Pacifying the Army and awarded nine thousand strings of cash. She also ordered that Li Zhongjun’s head be placed before the tomb of Wu Sansi for rites of offering.

Zhao Sishen could not truly put his mind at ease, fearing that someone might grow jealous and let something slip, or that the body might be recognized. So he divided the nine thousand strings among the officers and, on the pretext that his foot was injured, requested leave to return home on account of illness.

Seeing that he knew when to advance and when to retreat, and did not grow arrogant in the face of favor, Lady Wei was pleased. She issued another decree, granting Zhao Sishen several imperial estates and shops in Suzhou so that he might settle down and retire in comfort.

After thanking the imperial grace, Zhao Sishen sold off his properties in the capital and, on a dark and windy night, rode alone to Wu Sansi’s tomb outside the city.

Several sturdy servants kept watch there that night. Ruanzhi’s severed head and body lay before Wu Sansi’s memorial tablet, while those men drank and gambled, making quite the uproar. Enduring the pain in his foot, Zhao Sishen employed the art of the Mystic Gates and the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. How could common folk ever have seen such uncanny mastery? They only saw a black-clad figure flickering in and out of sight in the memorial hall, drifting like a ghost. They were so terrified they turned to stone; only after a long while did someone let out a shriek: “A ghost!” The lot of them fled in a panic.

Seeing that no one remained, Zhao Sishen emerged, stole Ruanzhi’s severed head and body from before Wu Sansi’s tomb, rode to a deserted place, and secretly cremated them. He placed the ashes in a porcelain jar and hid it among his baggage. Only after all this was finished did he finally relax.

On a day of fine, misting rain with few travelers on the road, he took Ruanzhi’s only son and quietly left the city, heading far to the south.

From then on, people in the Capital of Brightness whispered that a ghost had been haunting the tomb of Wu Sansi. Some seized upon the tale to claim that Emperor Taizong, Li Shimin, had known of it from the underworld and could not bear to see his descendants bullied by outsiders, and so had used divine power to carry away Li Zhongjun’s remains.

As the tale spread, it grew more and more fantastical. In the end, no one dared guard Wu Sansi’s tomb at all, and it fell into desolation, becoming a place where foxes and hares ran wild.

Meanwhile, Li Zhongyuan and the others made all haste toward the Heavenly Mountain. After several days they reached the region of Liangzhou, and he was chatting with Li Zhongjun in the carriage.

After several days of recuperation, Li Zhongjun’s mood and spirits had improved greatly, though the severed tendons in his hands and feet meant that he could only sit or lie down.

Li Zhongyuan dared not show his feelings on his face, but inwardly he was filled with endless sorrow: “What a pity for Senior Brother. A famed hero whose renown once spread across the martial world has been reduced to a helpless cripple!”

While he was lost in these gloomy thoughts, he suddenly heard Lin Qingli cry out joyfully outside, “Master! Uncle Master!” His heart leaped, and he hurried from the carriage.

Across the official road stood several people, led by none other than Purple Without a Cloud and Yang Without Extremity. After Zi Lan reached Luoyang, she worried that Li Zhongyuan was too weak to manage alone, so she sent word by carrier pigeon to the Heavenly Mountain Sect. After receiving the message, the head master, Du Nan, knew the matter was far from trivial and immediately sent men down the mountain to assist.

Purple Without a Cloud and Yang Without Extremity had been on their way to the capital to rescue people, and by chance they met them en route. Learning that Li Zhongjun had already been saved, everyone was overjoyed.

After examining his injuries, Purple Without a Cloud sighed and said, “The tendons and meridians in his hands and feet are severed. Fortunately, on Heavenly Mountain there is a method for setting bones and rejoining channels; it will not be difficult to restore his ability to care for himself. Only, his martial skill will likely be far inferior to before, and in future he will not be able to fight others.” He kept shaking his head as he spoke, and after hearing this Li Zhongjun’s spirits sank as well.

Zi Lan, however, was not sad at all. Instead, through tears she laughed and said, “That is a good thing! When he had martial arts, he was always traveling the jianghu. Whenever I missed him, I could not even see him. Now that he has no martial arts, he can go nowhere. He can stay on Heavenly Mountain with me instead. Nothing could be better!” Her words drew laughter from everyone.

The sky was washed clean, cloudless for ten thousand miles, and far away the sea and heavens merged into a single line.

On Green Bamboo Island, Ma Beifang gazed out over the sea, his mind surging like the waves. He had already missed the appointed time agreed upon with Li Zhongyuan. That month the heavens seemed to have changed their face: typhoons raged, great waves rose day after day, and sea vessels could not pass at all. He could only watch helplessly as the agreed day came and went, day after day.

More than a month had passed in delay before the weather suddenly grew calm again.

His thoughts were in utter confusion. He did not know what news had come from Li Zhongyuan’s side, and above all he did not know how Li Zhongyuan would react if he learned that Ma Beifang had not gone north as promised to seek his enemy this past year, but had instead remained on this island aiding Sha Tonghai in training men. Fortunately, with Huang Shan keeping him company on Green Bamboo Island, he did not feel lonely.

If on Heavenly Mountain the two had been bound by the life-and-death fellowship of shared peril, then on Green Bamboo Island theirs had become the love of a young man and woman. Especially after she was young, when Ma Beifang had brazenly taken action to punish Hong Mouchou on her behalf, the memory had left a deep impression on her. Just then she had lost the loving shelter of her parents, and at such a sight she felt at once that Ma Beifang was a reliable man, someone she could trust and depend upon.

From that day on, she quietly gave him her heart. It was precisely for this reason that when Li Zhongyuan and Ma Beifang decided to part ways and search for their enemy, she had followed him north without the slightest hesitation. The day he was injured by Iron Scale, she had stepped forward on impulse and agreed to help Sha Tonghai on Green Bamboo Island, because she feared Ma Beifang would not escape Iron Scale’s vengeance.

Only after arriving on Green Bamboo Island did she discover that the place was cut off from the world. And yet, being able to see Ma Beifang every day and keep him company, Huang Shan did not feel distressed at all; instead, a sense of happiness rose in her heart. At times she even secretly thought that if not for the blood feud she bore, then to remain here on this lonely island together for life would be one of the joys of the human world.

Ma Beifang’s nature had always been somewhat unruly and somewhat solitary, but as the saying goes, affection grows with time. Under Huang Shan’s tender care and feeling, he had long since fallen deeply in love with her as well. They shared the same bitter fate and the same enemy, so their love only grew firmer. If they had not been trapped on the isolated island, and if not for his master’s lack of approval, they would likely have already consummated their union.

Sha Tonghai had not broken his word. He had sent word to friends everywhere under heaven, and before long these friends had sent back a great deal of information. Only one piece of it caught Ma Beifang’s attention.

It came from Xu Province. There, a man who ran a martial hall had once served as a household guard in Wu Sansi’s residence, and more than ten years earlier he had seen Wu Sansi discussing with the then Censor Zheng Yi the hiring of assassins to harm the Grand Censor Li Shan. The matter had been handled personally by Zheng Yi, and no one else knew the details.

Now word had come from the sea vessels visiting the island that news from the capital said Wu Sansi had already been killed by Li Zhongjun. Then the only remaining clue for finding the murderer was Zheng Yi. Unfortunately, Zheng Yi had long since been exiled to the lands of Yunnan and Guizhou, and whether he was alive or dead was unknown.

With the world so vast, where was one to search? Ma Beifang could not help feeling as though his heart had turned to ash.

What troubled him even more was not only this matter, but something more urgent: half a year earlier, he had also begun to drink blood in secret.

Now, under Bamboo Nameless’s painstaking guidance, his power advanced by leaps and bounds. Every day he could feel the inner force within his body galloping like a fiery steed. He estimated that if he met Iron Scale again, he could surely kill him within thirty or fifty exchanges.

Though his martial skill grew ever stronger, his temper grew ever more violent. At the slightest provocation, killing intent would surge in his heart, and he would nearly kill someone to vent his rage. Fortunately, his mind remained clear and he restrained himself with all his might, so nothing came to anyone’s attention. Only by drinking a large quantity of fresh blood to his heart’s content could he calm the blaze within.

Every night he claimed he was making offerings to a demon, carrying living sheep and chickens to Bamboo Nameless. In the long run, this became a routine chore that no one thought much of, except that the sacrifices gradually became two at a time.

At nightfall, Ma Beifang went to the kitchen, where two live sheep had already been prepared for him. He tucked one under each arm, strolled out of the camp, and ran toward the depths of the forest.