WJ Chapter 121

No Clothes (5)

The Yin Ghost knelt there, looking up at him in silence for a long moment.

This person had kept his head lowered the entire time, and it was only now that Yun Changliu suddenly noticed how truly striking this Yin Ghost’s eyes were — his irises pitch-black and pellucid, the outer corners curving gently upward. Eyes shaped with a refinement that should have been soul-stirringly alluring, yet tempered by a body suffused with razor-sharp killing intent, they showed not a trace of coquetry — only a cold, piercing severity.

Seeing the Yin Ghost staring at him in a daze, unable to look away, Yun Changliu assumed he was simply overcome by the emotion of having his Broken Ghost status stripped away. The Sect Leader was about to offer a few more words of comfort before sending the man on his way, when the Yin Ghost, in the very next moment, respectfully withdrew his gaze.

Yun Changliu watched as the black-clad figure knee-walked two steps forward, once again sealing his fresh chest wound with the Armor Wound-Lock Technique, then knelt upright before him and said:

“Sect Leader, please forgive this subordinate’s crime… All Broken Ghosts are recorded in the sect’s archives. For this subordinate to have lost his carved mark is a grave offense. Were I to return now without it, I could not pass through the Ghost Gate — I would only be sent to the Punishment Hall.”

“This subordinate’s constitution is poor,” the Yin Ghost stated methodically. “One full round of punishment would surely cost me my life.”

Yun Changliu’s expression instantly darkened. “……”

The Yin Ghost lightly pressed his forehead to the ground. Those beautiful eyes carried a faint, earnest plea — he raised them to steal a glance at Yun Changliu, then lowered them again. “Since death is unavoidable either way, I beg the Sect Leader’s compassion. It would be better… to allow this subordinate to die here instead.”

“You——!”

Yun Changliu was finally goaded into anger. All the troubles inside and outside the sect these past few days hadn’t truly rattled him — yet this single evening, a mere death-soldier had stirred his emotions again and again.

He was the magnificent Sect Leader of Zhuyin — could it be that he couldn’t even save one Broken Ghost if he wished to? Everyone said the Yin Ghosts were the most loyal and obedient. So what in the world was the matter with this one, so utterly devoted to finding death?

Yet when all was said and done, he truly had nothing on his person to serve as proof of his authority as Sect Leader — nothing to secure this Yin Ghost’s release. The two of them were already quite far from Xifeng City, and there was no one to relay his orders. This was, in truth, somewhat troublesome.

Yun Changliu pondered for a moment, then was suddenly struck by inspiration. He untied the half-piece of white jade pendant at his waist — carved with a phoenix dancing among auspicious clouds.

The pendant was nothing precious in itself, but Yun Guyan had worn it close to his body for twenty years, and anyone of even modest standing within the sect would recognize it. Yun Changliu held the half-piece out. “Take this to your Gate Master. He will not make things difficult for you.”

This was thoroughly alarming to Guan Wujue, who had been quietly calculating how to die at the Sect Leader’s side!

“Sect Leader, this cannot be!”

Guan Wujue recoiled in sudden panic, not daring to reach for it.

What this jade pendant signified — Guan Wujue knew perfectly well. Back when he had still been called Ah Ku, he had even held and admired it together with the Young Sect Leader.

But that was a lifetime ago. Five years in the Ghost Gate had long since changed him. He now thought of himself as nothing more than a filthy death-soldier. How could he dare touch a keepsake left behind by the Sect Leader’s late mother?

“Take it firmly.” Yun Changliu reached out without discussion, seized Guan Wujue’s right hand, and placed the half-pendant in his palm. “Judging by your reaction, you clearly know this is something of great importance to this lord. If you dare damage or lose it, this lord will not deal lightly with you. Now are you going, or aren’t you?”

Guan Wujue said in a flurry, “This subordinate——”

But his throat caught, and he suddenly understood Yun Changliu’s intent.

The Sect Leader had deliberately entrusted him with something of immeasurable value — it was plainly a way of telling him to stop taking reckless risks in battle, to take the jade pendant and withdraw from the battlefield safely and swiftly…

Yun Changliu, for his part, wasted no more words on this Yin Ghost with his obsession for death, and took up the Dragon-Chasing Whip once more. Before departing, the Sect Leader couldn’t help himself — he turned one last time and looked long and deep back behind him.

In the dark of night, the Yin Ghost called “Wujue” was covered head to toe in dark crimson and deep black. He knelt motionlessly on the ground, both hands cradling the half-piece of luminous white jade — as though he were cradling a small fragment of light.

……

The battle atop Mount Shenlie raged through the night.

By the time dawn broke, the forces of the Three Sects and Five Orders had long since been routed, retreating step by step in disarray.

In the mountains several dozen li outside Xifeng City, Yun Changliu’s Dragon-Chasing Whip had long since been soaked through with blood. Even with his level of martial prowess, after a night of fierce battle he was now on the verge of complete exhaustion. Fortunately the overall situation had been decided — the invaders who had arrived so arrogantly just days before were reduced to fleeing in every direction.

Yun Changliu flicked his wrist to shake the blood droplets from the Dragon-Chasing Whip. He breathed lightly and glanced around — he seemed, for a moment, somewhat lost.

“Sect Leader!”

A familiar voice rang out nearby. Wen Feng came riding up on horseback, leading Feixue’s reins in hand.

The attendant first wore an expression on the verge of tears and murmured, “Thank the heavens I’ve finally found you — however did you end up over here…” — before properly clearing his throat and calling out loudly, “Wen Feng has arrived late. Sect Leader, please mount!”

Yun Changliu rose with a burst of lightness technique, and in one smooth motion landed firmly in Feixue’s saddle, taking the reins with his left hand. “Go.”

Wen Feng galloped alongside him, the handsome white-clad attendant beaming with joy. “Sect Leader, we won!”

Yun Changliu gave a gentle “mm.” He looked straight ahead as the morning sun rose little by little from beyond the layered mountain ridges in the east. Wen Feng reined in his horse. “Sect Leader, follow me — our people are this way.”

Sure enough, before long the two of them joined the main body of Zhuyin Sect forces, who were busy pursuing the remnants of the Three Sects and Five Orders.

Xue Duxing and Shan Yi, both mounted on black horses, came riding up to meet them from left and right — not a trace of their former disdain anywhere on their faces. “We were late in escorting you, Sect Leader. Are you unharmed?”

The leaders of the Ghost Gate were naturally not complete incompetents devoid of tactical sense. It was simply that Yun Changliu’s manner of conduct was so unlike Yun Guyan’s — young, reclusive, cool in speech — that it had invited their contempt.

After this night had passed, both Xue Duxing and Shan Yi had come to fully appreciate the subtlety of the new Sect Leader’s strategy: subduing movement with stillness, striking decisively after yielding the initiative. And having now witnessed Yun Changliu’s martial arts — so formidable, yet consistently tolerant of his subordinates’ repeated insolence — they were filled, each in their own way, with deep shame.

Yun Changliu gave a light wave of his hand to indicate he was unharmed, yet at this moment his heart gave a quiet stir: he wondered whether that Yin Ghost had been obedient and gone back…

Beside him, Xue Duxing urged his horse forward and asked in a low voice, “Sect Leader, there are still large enemy forces fleeing ahead. Shall we pursue closely?”

The sky was already fully bright, the surroundings gradually warming. The hooves of their horses sent scattered chips of hard snow spraying across the mountain trails. Yun Changliu said steadily, “Drive them southeast. No need to press too hard — they cannot escape.”

“Southeast?” Shan Yi furrowed his brow and murmured, gazing at the fleeing figures in the distance ahead. “What is there to the southeast…”

Xue Duxing said, “Going southeast from here, within less than ten li, lies the most treacherous and rapid stretch of the Red River. A pity — the Red River is frozen over at present. Though the ice surface is slippery and hard to cross…”

Elder Xue left this sentence unfinished, but its implication was plain enough. To utterly wipe out this force from the Three Sects and Five Orders was, after all, not entirely possible.

Yet they had spurred their horses onward only a short while before, upon reaching the Red River basin, when they saw the fleeing troops ahead suddenly thrown into violent chaos. Squinting to look, they saw the foremost group of soldiers run out onto the Red River — then all at once collapse downward with a great crash, vanishing without a trace!

It was such a strange and uncanny sight that even Xue Duxing and the others were startled, to say nothing of the disciples of the Three Sects and Five Orders. In an instant, the scene ahead erupted like cold water splashed into boiling oil — terrified cries rang out one after another:

“No — how is this possible?!”

“The R-Red River——”

“This is a dead end, don’t come any further!!”

“Heaven above! Heaven itself would destroy us…”

All at once, the sound of river waves beating against the bank reached the ears of the Zhuyin Sect members. Someone craned their neck to look — and saw the rushing red waters of the Red River!

The Red River…

The Red River’s ice had melted!!

Indeed — the weather had at last warmed these past few days, and it was in truth the season when the thick ice on the Red River gradually began to thaw. Only because the battle had been so fiercely contested had this detail gone unnoticed. The ice on the river now consisted of nothing more than a thin, brittle layer — how could it not shatter beneath the surging footfall of the Three Sects and Five Orders’ disciples?

Xue Duxing and Shan Yi looked at each other at the same moment, each seeing tremendous shock reflected in the other’s eyes.

Could it be — that the Sect Leader, who had endured all their coercion and threats these past days and still refused to march out, had been waiting for precisely this?

“When the weather turns warm, then we engage.”

They had assumed those were merely offhand words of deflection from the Sect Leader…

Who could have imagined — that while they had been crying out for the city gates to open so they could meet the enemy in decisive battle, the young Sect Leader they had looked down upon had already been calculating how to cut off the enemy’s retreat, so that this battle might be won even more perfectly.

The Red River was swift and turbulent — no ordinary horse could cross it. One misstep would send horse and rider tumbling in catastrophe. And the majority of the Three Sects and Five Orders’ disciples had no horses at all; their lightness techniques were likewise insufficient to fly across the river surface, leaving them standing numbly on the bank, faces ashen with despair.

As for those with formidable martial prowess — some were bound to their disciples and could not abandon them to flee; others forsook everyone and crossed the river alone. Yet those who abandoned their sects in such a manner would forever carry an unspeakably shameful reputation in the jianghu — a disgrace that could never be washed away.

By the time the Zhuyin Sect forces pressed forward in a dark, dense mass toward the Red River, the disciples of the Three Sects and Five Orders had already raised their blades before the roaring current, teeth clenched, wearing the resolute bearing of those prepared to fight with their backs to the water.

Yun Changliu urged his horse forward, and Feixue stepped out from the Zhuyin Sect’s formation one step at a time. The beautiful Sect Leader in white robes upon his white steed swept his gaze over the scene, then lightly spoke four words. “Those who surrender will not be killed.”

Someone rallied and cried aloud, “Zhuyin Sect has committed countless evils — we would sooner die than——”

The words were not yet finished when Yun Changliu leapt into the air from Feixue’s back and sent the whip lashing out like lightning!

The one who had cried out crumpled to the ground with a thud. Blood slowly spread from beneath the body.

Several people nearby were so terror-stricken their faces had gone the color of earth. Their legs trembled; they did not dare even breathe too loudly.

Beneath the fearful gazes from across the river, the Sect Leader descended gracefully back onto his divine steed, reeled in the Dragon-Chasing Whip with the unhurried ease of someone at rest, and said, “Those who do not surrender will die.”

The crowd on the riverbank shrank back, not daring to speak or move, fear and hesitation written across face after face.

After a moment, hushed, despairing murmurs rose along the riverbank.

Most of the Three Sects and Five Orders’ people were covered in wounds. Pursuers before them, a river behind. Men exhausted, horses spent — they had no strength left to fight…

Finally, someone shouted. “Zhuyin Sect is a path of evil and demons — just because he says those who surrender will not be killed, does that make it true? How can we trust him? We mustn’t be deceived!”

Yun Changliu narrowed his long eyes and raised his chin slightly. He parted his lips, his voice carrying an icy clarity as he spoke each word deliberately:

“This lord’s father, Yun Guyan, walked the jianghu for more than thirty years. Though his hands were stained with much blood, when did he ever conduct himself as a treacherous, faithless man? This lord upholds his father’s will, blessed by the divine soul of the Candle Dragon — naturally, this lord will not bring disgrace to the name of Xifeng City.”

“This lord makes three vows here. First: if you all surrender, the thousand-plus Zhuyin Sect members behind this lord will sheathe their weapons immediately. Should any disobey this order, this lord will be the first to cut them down.”

“Second: once within Xifeng City, our sect will treat you with proper courtesy. No killing. No harm. No humiliation.”

“Third: you invaded Xifeng City of your own accord and have brought ruin upon yourselves — yet Zhuyin Sect has no intention of fostering enmity with your respective sects. This lord guarantees that within two months, you will all be released to return to your own sects. You may then reunite with your families.”

No clever rhetoric or ornate words — only a calm recitation, entirely devoid of the passion and inducement one would normally expect from someone calling for surrender.

Yun Changliu’s cadence was even unhurried, as though every word had been carefully considered before being spoken. Yet this, paradoxically, lent his words a persuasive, settled weight.

…Even when what he said was so extraordinary.

Those who surrender will not be killed or harmed — that was still comprehensible. But the Three Sects and Five Orders had struck at a moment of vulnerability, plainly taking advantage of a new Sect Leader newly in power with the hearts of Xifeng City not yet fully settled… That Yun Changliu would not even seek retribution was one thing — but to speak of having no desire for enmity, and to say he would release them all within two months?

Even the Zhuyin Sect members exchanged glances with one another, finding it beyond belief.

Yet this time, not a single person challenged the Sect Leader’s decision.

Yun Changliu hung the Dragon-Chasing Whip from the saddle and waited, patiently.

Sunlight fell upon the waters of the Red River, scattering a shimmering red radiance.

On the riverbank, the faces of the Three Sects and Five Orders’ people showed the anguish of struggle.

At last, the first person to throw down their weapon appeared.

Then a second, a third…

Blades and arms of every kind clattered to the ground one after another, and more and more people chose to surrender.

Yun Changliu waved his hand, signaling the Zhuyin Sect forces behind him to step forward, bind the prisoners, and escort them back.

And with that, the battle was settled.

Zhuyin Sect had achieved a complete and resounding victory.

……

By the time the Zhuyin Sect members returned to Xifeng City in high spirits to put away their weapons, what awaited them was a victory banquet.

Naturally — one Yun Changliu had arranged for Wen Feng to prepare in advance.

However, the new Sect Leader who had masterminded it all did not celebrate with the subordinates who had at last submitted to him wholeheartedly. Even the earnest entreaties of Xue Duxing and Shan Yi were to no avail. Yun Changliu took only Wen Feng with him and returned alone, expressionless, to the inner chambers of Yangxin Hall.

Once inside, he watched Wen Feng close the hall doors — and then he simply could not go on anymore. As though suddenly drained of all strength, Yun Changliu let out a weary sigh, tilting his head back, then stumbled forward several steps before sinking down into the chair before the writing table, his face pale.

Wen Feng was frightened out of his wits. “Sect Leader!! What is the matter — are you injured somewhere?!”

“……Tired.”

Yun Changliu muttered listlessly, propping his temple with one hand. He slumped limply over the writing table and did not move.

Wen Feng felt a sudden, fierce ache strike his chest. He stood frozen.

The attendant could not contain the swelling pain in his chest — to his own surprise, his eyes began to sting.

His Sect Leader had been holding on through all of this for so many days. All those unbearable words, all that crushing pressure borne by a single person. He had been looked down upon, publicly humiliated, and yet swallowed it all for the sake of the greater picture. When all was said and done — his Sect Leader had only just come of age…

Wen Feng finally could not hold back, his voice breaking. “Sect — Sect Leader——”

“Will you please be quiet…” Yun Changliu’s ink-dark hair and snow-white sleeves lay tangled together across the table, the Sect Leader with his head bowed and eyes closed, brow tightly furrowed, his breath thin as a gossamer thread. “These past few days I have had to speak so very much… I… I am exhausted beyond measure…”

Wen Feng: “………………”

— So THIS is what you are exhausted from?!