WJ Chapter 130

Go Out the East Gate (3)

Gradually, within Xifeng City, the strange and peculiar rumors circulating between the Sect Leader and the Protector grew more and more numerous. Although Yun Changliu had once doled out severe punishment over the matter, it had done nothing more than drive the gossip from open brazenness into hushed private whispers.

——Truth be told, one really couldn’t be too harsh on those sect members. After all, as Sect Leader, you weren’t staying in Yangxin Hall — you were spending every single day at the Protector’s Qingjue Residence from dawn to dusk. When something so ambiguous as that was going on, surely you couldn’t expect people not to let their imaginations run wild, could you?

Especially as more time passed and the weather grew warmer — when Guan Muyan finally permitted the Protector to leave the room and take walks — the sect members of Xifeng City would often be startled to see two figures, one snow-white and one blazing red, strolling leisurely side by side.

There was the Zhuyin Sect Leader, carefully supporting the Four Directions Protector, as though master and subordinate had been entirely reversed. The two of them walked extremely close together, and the occasional soft words they exchanged could practically be called whispering cheek-to-cheek. What was worse — from time to time, mid-conversation, they would exchange a wordless smile of perfect understanding, eyes speaking what lips did not…

The first day anyone witnessed this scene, every sect member received an enormous shock.

——Th-this, this this this — this pair of devastatingly beautiful people — could they truly be their cold, aloof, reclusive, and taciturn Sect Leader, and their icy, ruthless, kill-without-hesitation Protector!?

——They said the Four Directions Protector was convalescing for a year — how does one convalesce their way into the Sect Leader’s arms!?

Yet as the second day came, then the third, then the fourth… and they witnessed the same scene again, their expressions grew increasingly numb.

After about ten or so days, everyone had grown accustomed to it. At least on the surface they could maintain composure — as for what was said behind closed doors, well, that was another matter entirely…

As for Yun Changliu, he once again displayed a profound lack of self-awareness regarding this “ambiguous” behavior. Wen Feng had tried to probe the matter with an indirect remark or two, and received from the Sect Leader a response of perfectly genuine bewilderment —

Isn’t the Protector’s health still frail right now? So what if this lord feeds him his meals and medicine? So what if this lord holds him and embraces him? So what if this lord keeps him company all day long? So what if this lord goes out of his way to keep him in good spirits? Is this not perfectly normal?

Attendant Wen was left speechless, and could only silently retreat and go cry his eyes out while banging his head against the wall three times.

To hell with your idea of “normal,” you great Sect Leader!!!

Naturally there were also those with ulterior motives — seeing how thoroughly favored Protector Guan was, they couldn’t help but feel envious, and assumed the Sect Leader had a preference for delicate, beautiful young masters of the sickly sort who inspired tender affection. Thus they schemed to curry favor themselves.

The outcome was entirely predictable — without a single exception, every last one of them was severely punished by Yun Changliu and sent packing.

It was also during this period that the spring blossoms gradually fell and the summer leaves grew dense. By count, the harrowing three-sects-five-order encirclement battle was already a year in the past. This long, grueling convalescence that had worn Guan Wujue’s body and spirit to their limits finally showed a glimmer of dawn.

On that day, Guan Wujue sat up in bed and, after a long absence, attempted to circulate his internal energy. The deep, substantial qi flowed through his meridians without obstruction, and the pain he had once silently endured had vanished entirely like smoke.

Yun Changliu and Guan Muyan were both at his side, watching with tense anxiety. They saw Guan Wujue raise his right hand before his eyes and slowly clench his fist, then release it. The Four Directions Protector stared at his own fingers for a long while, then said softly in quiet wonder, “I never imagined… it could truly be healed…”

At those words, the great stones weighing on both their hearts simultaneously dropped away.

Yun Changliu reached out from his wide sleeve and tenderly enclosed Guan Wujue’s slender fingertips within his own palm. “Why wouldn’t it heal — it was always you who refused to take proper care of yourself in treatment.”

The warmth of the hand in his grasp was at last nothing like the once-frightening iciness he remembered. Yun Changliu could not help but go further — with both arms he pulled the Protector into his embrace and held him close, closing his eyes and murmuring softly to himself, “…much warmer, as expected.”

“Sect Leader.” Guan Wujue stiffened slightly, his gaze flickering several times, but in the end did not immediately pull free and kneel as he once would have done.

Yun Changliu, for his part, had merely embraced him in a momentary surge of feeling and released him again shortly after. Yet his thoughts continued to stir — recalling how Guan Muyan had once said the Protector would surely not survive a year without treatment, and how frantic he himself had been at the time; then recalling how, in the depths of winter, this person had grown so weak he had slept for days at a stretch, truly like someone at death’s door…

Now, seeing Guan Wujue sitting hale and whole before him, Yun Changliu found something of the relief of a survivor washing over his heart.

He came back to himself only then, and heard the Protector calling his name.

Guan Wujue sat on the bed, face tilted up to look at him. His color had improved greatly these past few days, and perhaps because he was truly happy, those eyes of his lit with an undisguised, earnest longing. “Sect Leader — the prohibition you placed on this subordinate… might you lift it now?”

Yun Changliu did not answer immediately; his thoughts, barely reined in, went drifting again into old memories. He thought of those early days, how Wujue had pleaded with such self-abasement not to continue treatment, as though he wished to grind himself into the very mud. Truly, one could only wonder how his nature had been so thoroughly suppressed into such a state.

Hmm. Now the body had been healed. And the mind had been healed as well. Truly not bad.

Guan Muyan cut in from the side. “Not yet! You sit quietly and rest for another month, and stop thinking all day long about how to ruin your own health. And let me tell you something — the Ghost Gate’s Three Injury Arts are a life-ending technique. You are forbidden from using them ever again.”

In fact, even without Guan Muyan’s reminder, Yun Changliu had long since prohibited the Protector from using the Three Injury Arts — and regarding this, Guan Wujue had very strong private objections.

To put it simply: although everyone considered the Protector to be reckless and to have no regard for his own life, Guan Wujue had always firmly believed that he absolutely was not the thoughtless, life-disregarding sort. In his own view, he was clearly being completely calm and composed, very precisely calculated in his disregard for his life.

First: he had been used as a medicine person for blood extraction since the age of eight, and his endurance and recovery from blood loss far surpassed that of ordinary people. With the same wounds and blood loss, the same physical pain — an ordinary person would long since have fainted and been unable to hold on, while he could still grip his sword and cut people down.

Second: he was versed in medicine. His grasp of the locations of the most vital organs — the lungs and blood vessels, the meridians and acupoints — was extraordinarily precise. In his hands, the Exchanged Injury technique could be made several times more effective than in the hands of an ordinary Yin Ghost — namely, exacting the minimum self-injury in exchange for the maximum injury to the opponent.

Never mind that at Ghost Gate he had been covered in wounds every single day — in truth, most of those injuries were to the flesh and skin. They simply looked terrifying with all the blood and torn flesh, but they were never fatal.

And yet — such a Heaven-given advantage!

And the Sect Leader simply said it was forbidden, just like that?

What a waste of a gift! How could he do this!?

But where would Guan Wujue find the courage to argue about this now? He only wanted Yun Changliu not to keep confining him in the city to convalesce. He shifted slightly toward the Sect Leader and pleaded in a soft voice, “Sect Leader… this subordinate is already well.”

Yun Changliu gave no credence to this. “Since when does a patient dare defy his physician?”

Guan Wujue said urgently, “This subordinate is also versed in medicine — naturally one knows one’s own body best. This subordinate is truly well now.”

Yun Changliu reflected for a brief moment, then clasped his hands behind his back with an air of perfect equanimity. “This lord knows you have always been the least self-aware about this. In that case, rest quietly for another two months.”

At once, Guan Muyan burst into merciless laughter.

****

In the height of summer, with Guan Muyan’s permission, Guan Wujue once again took up his swords.

The moment Pixing and Daiyue were in his hands again after so long, the Protector grew even more unable to keep still.

In truth, this past year had been Yun Changliu’s first year as Sect Leader, with troubles piling one on top of another. During that time, Guan Wujue had been ill, unable to render any assistance whatsoever, and on top of that had caused the Sect Leader worry and effort on his behalf. Guan Wujue had long been tormented by guilt and distress over it. Had Yun Changliu not persistently coaxed and consoled him with endless patience, he would have refused to continue treatment even unto death.

Now that his old injuries were at last mostly healed, how could he possibly continue to stay quietly in Qingjue Residence?

But with the prohibition Yun Changliu had imposed still on him, Guan Wujue couldn’t even leave the city.

This, he felt, was quite untenable. The Sect Leader had probably truly begun to see him as a useless invalid who would shatter at a touch — and how could that be allowed?

Guan Wujue decided he had to do something to salvage his image in Yun Changliu’s eyes — at the very least, to let the Sect Leader know that he was still very capable in a fight.

And so: on the first day, the Four Directions Protector paid a visit to the Information Hall, shamelessly exploiting his authority for personal ends, and asked Hua Wan to ferret out all the sect members who had once widely slandered him for climbing into someone’s bed to curry favor — then beat every single one of them in turn.

(TL: Archive Hall → Information Hall)

On the second day, the Four Directions Protector “sparred” with Wen Feng in front of the Sect Leader, beating the attendant until he lay flat on the ground, weeping and screaming at the Sect Leader that the “Protector was murdering him.”

On the third day, the Four Directions Protector simply stormed into the Punishment Hall and dragged Left Envoy Xiao out for a fight.

And so it went — Protector Guan, not daring to throw his weight around in front of the Sect Leader, wreaked havoc on everyone else instead. By the time the Sect Leader came to find him with a thick stack of anguished complaints, he would obediently kneel and confess his wrongs, acknowledging his guilt one word at a time, his manner utterly docile and compliant.

Yun Changliu was driven to a state somewhere between exasperation and amusement. He truly had no way with this person — and couldn’t bring himself to scold or strike him — so before Xifeng City could be thoroughly demolished by the Protector, he lifted the prohibition and permitted him to descend Mount Shenlie.

Before his departure, Yun Changliu asked Guan Wujue if there was anything he wanted, saying it would serve as a reward for having obediently seen his old injuries through to recovery.

Guan Wujue had been about to decline and say there was no need, when a sudden thought came to him and he changed his words, asking Yun Changliu to grant him a fine steed.

Yin Ghosts had no personal mounts. When Guan Wujue had first risen to the rank of Protector, he had ridden the ordinary horses of the sect. The warhorses bred in the Zhuyin Sect could not be called poor, only that they were indeed not equal to his level of martial skill. At that time, how could Guan Wujue have ever dared to ask Yun Changliu for anything? When he sometimes found his mount too slow, he would simply travel by qinggong on his own.

He had thought — at any rate, with a wrecked and ruined body like his, he wouldn’t live much longer anyway. Best to just make do. So he had suffered through this inconvenience without ever saying a word, even deliberately concealing it, for fear the Sect Leader would think him troublesome… Who would have thought — looking at things now, it seemed he might live considerably longer after all, and so he mentioned it in passing to Yun Changliu.

Guan Wujue had said nothing more than this, yet the Sect Leader heard it and immediately understood the hardship it concealed. He was simultaneously vexed at the Protector for enduring it in silence rather than speaking up, and annoyed at himself for not having thought of it before. That very afternoon he personally chose a divine steed and had it sent to Qingjue Residence.

Protector Guan took one look and smiled.

It was Liuhuo’er.

The red-maned fierce horse was being dragged over by several Zhuhuo Guards together, still kicking and neighing, a picture of untamed wildness — but the moment Guan Wujue stepped forward and gave it a few casual pats, it quieted down. As expected of a divine steed with near-human intelligence: even after nearly six years apart, it still recognized its young master from those years past.

Guan Wujue couldn’t help but marvel at fate’s capricious ways. Back then, there had been two foals — one red, one white. He had chosen Liuhuo’er first, thinking the white horse better suited the young sect leader. Now the Sect Leader was giving Liuhuo’er back to him, and this chestnut-red fierce horse… was rather a match for his red robes.

From that point on, Guan Wujue at last got his wish, and began the days of killing and handling affairs on Yun Changliu’s behalf in his role as Protector.

With Guan Wujue managing things beyond the city walls, Yun Changliu found himself ever more at ease as Sect Leader. He began sweeping reforms with bold, decisive strokes — in other words, he set diligently to work cleaning up the mess left behind by Yun Guyan.

The first matter Yun Changliu moved on was the question of the medicine people’s status within Medicine Gate. These medicine people had fallen to such a wretched fate ultimately because of him, and the Sect Leader could not ignore it.

The more troublesome part was that the medicine person secret techniques had by now spread to every level of the sect, from the central headquarters down to the branch halls, and truly could not be abolished in one clean stroke. Change would have to come gradually and incrementally.

Yun Changliu therefore began by trying to grant medicine people the right to follow Medicine Gate’s physicians in learning medicine and pharmacology — in effect making them medicine apprentices — while at the same time expressly prohibiting sect members from wantonly abusing medicine people, with punishments for anyone who caused a medicine person injury or death. In this way, at least, medicine people could advance from slaves to servants — which was a step forward of a kind.

Yun Changliu had expected this matter to encounter considerable resistance from Guan Muyan. After all, this eccentric old physician, who was utterly absorbed in his craft, had originally agreed to come out of retirement and submit to the Zhuyin Sect precisely for the opportunity to research and develop the medicine person techniques. By raising the medicine people’s status, it was undeniable that Guan Muyan would lose his ability to freely use these “test subjects.”

Yet, contrary to all expectation, after only a brief moment of contemplation, Guan Muyan nodded without a word.

When the Sect Leader later mentioned this to the Protector, Guan Wujue found it just as surprising, and could not puzzle it out no matter how long he thought.

The various newly enacted rules and regulations of this sort all needed to be issued to the branch halls. That branch halls were displeased and unsubmissive, and stirred up trouble, was far from unheard of. Yun Changliu seldom left Xifeng City, so when outside matters required someone to step in and handle them in person, it was mostly the Protector Guan Wujue who went about running errands and dealing with affairs on the Sect Leader’s behalf.

The position of Four Directions Protector had been long abolished before Yun Changliu revived it, and its authority and rank were entirely for the Sect Leader to redefine. Whenever Guan Wujue wanted to handle something for the Sect Leader but lacked the standing to do so, Sect Leader Yun’s response was one word: promote him.

Promote, then promote again, then keep promoting — however high the Protector needed to be promoted, that was how high he was promoted.

Yun Changliu was truly casual about such matters, elevating Guan Wujue’s rank again and again until, within barely half a year, it had reached the point of being second only to the Sect Leader himself.

There were those who remonstrated, saying the position of Four Directions Protector had originally been abolished precisely because its power had grown too great. Now that Guan Wujue’s standing was truly too elevated, they warned, precautions should be taken against the Protector’s merits eventually overshadowing the master.

Every time Yun Changliu heard such remonstrations, he simply smiled and let them pass.

Especially when someone said that Protector Guan was arrogant and presumptuous and had no regard for the Sect Leader — Yun Changliu thought of that black-armored Yin Ghost who had once knelt at his feet, and felt a warmth of contentment in his heart. He then turned around and went to Qingjue Residence to tell the Protector: you are welcome to be more presumptuous still. This lord indulges you.

And Guan Wujue was indeed outstandingly capable — achieving great merit time and again, genuinely worthy of the Sect Leader’s recognition. Those initial rumors, after witnessing the Protector’s martial skill, strategic mind, and loyalty on several occasions, gradually faded away without a trace.

The reputation of the Zhuyin Sect’s Four Directions Protector came to resound throughout the jianghu.

The ink-plum red robes. The red-maned fierce horse. The twin swords, Pixing and Daiyue.

Unrivaled in martial skill. Peerless in beauty.

Meanwhile, the rumors of a private affair between the Zhuyin Sect Leader and the Four Directions Protector — having spread throughout Xifeng City and throughout all thirteen branch halls of the Zhuyin Sect — finally succeeded in circulating through the streets and alleyways of the jianghu at large.

Story pamphlets appeared one after another without end. By some accounts, just the ones that ended up in the hands of Right Envoy Hua Wan at the Information Hall alone numbered a dozen or so volumes.

The reason was simple: even after Guan Wujue had recovered, the Sect Leader’s closeness toward him only increased rather than diminished.

Wen Feng: Didn’t you say it was all perfectly normal because you were caring for a sick person, Sect Leader?

Yun Changliu reflected on the matter, and supposed that over this past year or so, he had grown so thoroughly accustomed to indulging this person that the habit had become impossible to break.

Nor did the Sect Leader intend to break it. It was rare to encounter someone he both admired and cherished — surely he was not to be denied the pleasure of spoiling that person properly?

What’s that? You say this lord harbors improper feelings toward the Protector?

No such thing — all slander and fabrication!

The Protector was both exceptionally handsome and possessed of a temperament that delighted him. His martial skill, strategic mind, and medical knowledge were all outstanding, and he even occasionally cooked — not to mention how rarely he understood his heart and managed affairs beyond the city on his behalf, remaining utterly loyal and considering everything from his perspective in all things…

Such an admirable person — what was wrong with wanting to embrace and be close to him? What was wrong with promoting him at every opportunity? What was wrong with sending gifts to Qingjue Residence every day? Was this not perfectly normal?

Well, what could be done about it.

The Sect Leader said it was normal, so normal it was.

The sect members all responded: Alright, no need to explain yourself — we all understand perfectly, every one of us.

And so, amid the “perfectly normal” interactions between Sect Leader Yun and Protector Guan, another year passed swiftly by.

The winter of that year brought heavy snow. Xifeng City was busier than in years past, for it was the year in which branch hall leaders would enter the city to pay their respects.