WJ Chapter 105

When the Rooster Crows (3)

The medicine boy who had caused that small misunderstanding seemed to be nothing more than a trivial interlude.

Only a few days had passed, and both Ah Ku and Yun Changliu had already put the matter out of their minds.

It was now late spring. The study within Yangxin Hall was bright and clean, carrying the faint fragrance of ink. Wen Huan closed the scroll in his hands, smiled, and bowed his head respectfully. “That shall be all for today. The Young Sect Leader has worked hard.”

The young men seated below rose in turn to return the courtesy as protocol dictated.

Yun Changliu, the Young Sect Leader of the Zhuyin Sect, sat in the central seat, clad in a white robe, cool and otherworldly. To his right sat Ah Ku in his customary blue garb. To his left sat a slightly older youth, also dressed in white, with a refined and upright appearance. This was Wen Huan’s son, Wen Feng — currently serving, at least in name, as the Young Sect Leader’s personal attendant.

A scroll still rested on Yun Changliu’s desk. Although Wen Huan had announced that the day’s lesson was concluded, the Young Sect Leader sat back down after returning the bow and continued reading in silence, lost in his own thoughts.

Suddenly a flash of blue appeared at the edge of his vision — Ah Ku had sidled over and settled himself beside him. “Is there something Young Sect Leader cannot figure out?”

For Yun Changliu, who had been placed in the position of Young Sect Leader by his father from the very moment of his birth, the question of succeeding to the title of Sect Leader carried almost no uncertainty.

Yun Guyan had long since made arrangements for his eldest son to study all the knowledge essential to one day ruling Xifeng City. About sixty percent of these lessons were taught personally by Wen Huan, while the remaining forty percent were delivered by lecturers handpicked by the Sect Leader himself.

What was rather surprising was that, in the course of Yun Changliu’s studies, Yun Guyan seemed to have no intention of excluding Ah Ku.

The Sect Leader’s word was law. Having once promised the Young Sect Leader that Ah Ku could accompany him in his martial studies, he had truly permitted this medicine boy to remain by his side all the way to the present day.

What was more, for all that both followed the Young Sect Leader, Ah Ku had learned considerably more than Wen Feng. After all, Wen Feng, as the future personal attendant of the Sect Leader — even if for now that role was “personal” in name only — was required to study a great many skills specific to the art of service.

Ah Ku, by contrast, had no particular obligations of his own. Having abandoned any serious study of medicine and given up the martial techniques of Wanci Manor, he was naturally free to spend every single day idling at the Young Sect Leader’s side as he pleased.

Yun Changliu glanced at Ah Ku and slid the book in front of him slightly in his direction, asking a few questions in a low voice. Ah Ku thought for a moment and offered his own interpretation, and the two fell into a brief and lively debate, drawing Wen Feng in to listen as well.

Wen Huan, seeing the children so diligent in their learning, was naturally pleased. He watched as the voices below gradually quieted, then strolled over before the three young men and smiled at Yun Changliu. “Come to think of it…The Young Sect Leader is now fifteen. In another two years, the time will have come to consider entering the Wuze Realm.”

All three young men stirred visibly at the words “Wuze Realm.” Yun Changliu reflected in silence for a long while before giving a light nod. “Liu’er has been preparing.”

— The Wuze Realm lay outside Xifeng City, deep within Mount Shenlie, and was counted among the most forbidden of all forbidden places. Save for the successive Sect Leaders of the Zhuyin Sect and the handful of individuals they trusted most absolutely, no outsider knew its precise location or the method by which it could be opened.

The forbidden ground served only one purpose: the Wuze Realm was both the trial ground and the tempering ground for the next Sect Leader. Only one who could remain within the Wuze Realm for a full year or more was qualified to take up the Candle Dragon Great Seal, the symbol of the Sect Leader’s authority.

It was said that in his time, Yun Guyan had remained within the Wuze Realm for a full three years before emerging — a feat that had long since become the stuff of legend throughout the jianghu. Ah Ku propped his chin on one hand and leaned sideways against the desk. “Back then, when the Sect Leader entered the Wuze Realm, was it Uncle Huan who went in with him?”

“Yes. There was also one other person — the shadow bound to the Sect Leader by contract. His name was…” At this point, Wen Huan let out a somewhat helpless smile. “He… was not particularly fond of having others mention his name. Whenever I speak of him to others, I simply call him Ah Ying. The three of us entered the Wuze Realm together and remained inside for three years.”

Ah Ku grinned. “Then when the time comes, I’ll go in with the Young Sect Leader.”

He had barely finished saying this when he sensed Wen Huan’s gaze fall upon him, its quality becoming something difficult to name.

Ah Ku had just begun to feel a flicker of unease when, in the very next instant, Wen Huan looked away with complete naturalness, as though nothing had happened at all.

“Ah Ku!” Wen Feng on the other side had finally lost his patience. He glared at Ah Ku and insisted indignantly, “I am the Young Sect Leader’s personal attendant…”

Ah Ku was not in the least intimidated. He immediately tossed aside that brief and strange sensation, leaned his weight against Yun Changliu, and asked with a smiling embrace, “Who does our little Young Sect Leader want, then?”

Yun Changliu’s expression remained perfectly unruffled. He had long since grown accustomed to these two rubbing each other the wrong way the moment they were in the same room, and had naturally grown equally accustomed to playing the peacemaker between them.

The Young Sect Leader took up his book with one hand and drew Ah Ku in with the other, then turned to Wen Feng and offered soothing words with every appearance of goodwill. “It is not that I am unwilling to have you come along — it is simply that your current strength is not yet sufficient to enter the Wuze Realm…”

Wen Feng felt as though several knives had been driven straight into his heart. “…”

— Young Sect Leader, is this truly what you call comfort!?

Ah Ku wrapped his arms around Yun Changliu and laughed with unrestrained delight. The Young Sect Leader cast him a cool sidelong glance. “Do not celebrate too soon. You are not permitted to come either. I intend to enter the realm alone.”

Ah Ku’s expression froze immediately. It was now Wen Feng’s turn to break into a broad, beaming smile.

The blue-clad youth bristled at once. “Young Sect Leader! Why?!”

Yun Changliu’s face was expressionless. His answer was brief and to the point. “Too dangerous. I cannot bear to have you there.”

Ah Ku: “…”

Wen Feng: “…”

“Enough.”

Wen Huan gave a helpless and gentle cough, drawing the attention of all three young men back to him. He looked toward Yun Changliu and asked in a mild tone:

“Speaking of which… permit Wen Huan to pose a question. If the Young Sect Leader were one day to succeed to the position of Sect Leader, what ambitions would he hold?”

Yun Changliu set down his scroll, paused only briefly in thought, then met Wen Huan’s gaze and replied with gravity, “My wish is to preserve the Zhuyin Sect for fifty years without its decline.”

Wen Feng was somewhat taken aback. He thought to himself that the Young Sect Leader was being rather too conservative — to aspire only to holding the foundations steady without any decline hardly seemed the stuff of inspiration. If word got out, who knew how the sect members might gossip about his lack of ambition.

He was still in the midst of this thought when he heard Ah Ku drawl coolly from beside him with a sigh, “Young Sect Leader does have a fine ambition. Only the burden of it is far too heavy…”

To preserve the Zhuyin Sect for fifty years without its decline? The words sounded simple enough, and yet who ever stopped to think about how Yun Guyan had been conducting himself all these years?

The Dragon-Chasing Whip had swept across all corners of the realm, and it had indeed elevated the Zhuyin Sect to a station that left the entire jianghu trembling in fear. But the full moon wanes and the brimming vessel overflows — the Zhuyin Sect had long since become a structure with a formidable exterior hollowed out within…

To say nothing of advancing further: even if Yun Guyan could hold Xifeng City for another fifty years, it would be extremely difficult to prevent the sect’s inevitable decline!

The blue-clad youth tipped his chin up, curled his lips into a cold smirk, and said, “Hmph. Look at the wreck the Sect Leader has left behind. Can’t even sort out the mess himself, so he expects his son to wipe up after him.”

Ah Ku’s tongue had grown ever more venomous over these years, and he had a particular fondness for finding any opportunity to needle Yun Guyan. Wen Huan behaved as though he had heard nothing, simply turning a look of approval on Yun Changliu before sighing with a touch of melancholy:

“When the Sect Leader posed this same question to Young Master Danjing last time, the Young Master responded with great and bold ambition — going so far as to say he wished to ‘unify the jianghu for ten thousand generations.’ The Sect Leader nearly flipped the table in his fury.”

“…”

Even Yun Changliu felt troubled to hear it. The relationship between his father and his younger brother had been growing ever more impossible with each passing year, and he could only say, “Danjing is still young, it is natural that he is eager to prove himself. Uncle Huan, please do speak more counsel to Father.”

****

A short while later, as he and Ah Ku walked out of Yangxin Hall together, Yun Changliu suddenly sighed with quiet desolation, “…Danjing has always wanted to contend for the position of Sect Leader. I know.”

The two of them continued as always down the road that led out of the city and down the mountain. Ah Ku fixed a long and steady gaze on Yun Changliu, then said, “In your heart, you would not mind at all if you could hand this position over to him. And yet you will never do so.”

Yun Changliu gave a soft sigh. The Young Sect Leader of the Zhuyin Sect, who had only just celebrated his fifteenth birthday, already wore between his brows a heaviness and a weight of worry that belied his age. “The present state of the Zhuyin Sect is like sitting atop a pile of firewood with flames already lit beneath it. It was Father who brought this devastation upon all within and around Xifeng City through his years of militarism and endless campaigns. The responsibility of holding it together should rightfully fall to me.”

Yun Changliu clasped his hands behind his back and walked on, raising his eyes to gaze into the distance at the dark silhouette of Xifeng City’s walls, that single line of deep black that lay across the horizon. “I ask only to protect Xifeng City from collapse. Danjing… cannot do this yet.”

Ah Ku’s heart ached to see the Young Sect Leader carry himself so. He suddenly broke into a smile, tilted his head, and asked, “Speaking of which, Young Sect Leader — when you become Sect Leader, would you be willing to give me some sort of position?”

The Young Sect Leader replied absentmindedly, “You need only remain safely as my medicine. I will keep you well protected and see that you never come to harm… that was the promise made between us.”

“What — are you really taking seriously what I said offhandedly back then?” Ah Ku arched his brow in displeasure, tugged at Yun Changliu’s sleeve, and said, “Can it be that you truly intend to keep me fed for nothing my entire life?”

Yun Changliu rather did intend exactly that, but knowing that Ah Ku would never accept it, he could only offer a casual placation, “Elder Guan has administered Medicine Gate all this time without a deputy. When the time comes, I’ll give you the position of Deputy Gate Master.”

Ah Ku snorted. “That old man has grown used to doing things his own way. He’d take no pleasure whatsoever in having someone serve as his deputy.”

“I rather think the two of you get along quite well.”

The words left Yun Changliu’s lips before he could catch himself, and he regretted them at once — Elder Guan Muyan was, after all, the very person most responsible for administering medicines to Ah Ku and drawing blood from his wrists. To say they got along well could not possibly sit right.

Yet Ah Ku seemed not to have taken it in that direction at all. He merely shook his head with a dismissive humph, “Get along, no such thing. We are simply using each other for mutual benefit.”

Yun Changliu said nothing, only watching him quietly from the side. Seeing that Ah Ku was genuinely untroubled, he breathed a small sigh of relief. And then, his gaze settling on the clean, beautiful lines of Ah Ku’s profile, he found himself unable to help drifting into thought once more.

He wondered: why did Ah Ku never hold grudges?

Not against Yun Guyan. Not against Wen Huan. Not against Guan Muyan. And not against himself.

Toward people who had, by all rights, caused him so much harm, Ah Ku seemed never to have harbored any genuine hatred. Through all these years at the Zhuyin Sect, he remained as quick to laugh and quick to rail as ever, as free-spirited and light-hearted as ever — as though within this young man’s heart, the seed of resentment could simply find no soil in which to take root.

****

Several more days passed. Spring was drawing to its close.

Mount Shenlie entered a stretch of unbroken overcast and drizzle.

On this particular day, by the time dusk fell, a light and pattering rain had already begun to fall once more, and by nightfall it intensified into something heavier, accompanied by a strengthening wind. Even with the doors and windows shut tight, the sound of rain beating chaotically against the surfaces outside still filtered in clearly.

Yun Changliu had been sent back long before the rain started, chased off by Ah Ku himself, and now Ah Ku kept watch over that small wooden house alone. He had lit the candle on the desk, and in its glow he drank his customary medicine, then fished out the candy Yun Changliu had brought him that morning to dissolve the bitter taste left in his mouth.

He had already prepared to sleep. He had barely blown out the candle flame and taken a few steps toward the bed when he became dimly aware that something was off.

In the darkness, Ah Ku focused his mind and sent his internal energy outward — and his expression changed at once.

…Outside the house. Someone was there.

The presence was scattered and unstable, clearly not the Young Sect Leader’s, seemingly without any martial arts at all, and very weak besides. Ah Ku furrowed his brow in puzzlement, felt his way to the edge of the desk, lit the candle again, and by that small point of light walked over and opened the door.

Outside, the wind and rain raged. The darkness was impenetrable in every direction, without so much as a single point of light. Fortunately the candle within cast a faint illumination onto the surroundings. And the first thing that met his eyes was a set of pale blue medicine-boy robes, soaked completely through.

A scrawny, frail little child was huddled pitifully at the edge of his doorway, drenched from head to toe, shivering continuously from the cold.

At the sound of the door opening, the child slowly lifted a pale, ashen little face, stared at Ah Ku in terror, and immediately shrank backward.

Ah Ku’s expression went cold. His gaze hardened in an instant.

He recognized the child at a single glance. Was this not the very same small medicine boy that Yun Changliu had rescued in passing only a few days ago?

The audacity of this little creature, to have dared to come to his own doorstep!

Ah Ku narrowed his eyes until they gleamed with ice. He did not step out of the house — he simply stood inside and addressed the small medicine boy crouching outside with a cold smile. “Who are you? What do you want?”

“Th-this… this slave…” The small medicine boy grew only more terrified. He seemed frightened to the very marrow of his bones by Ah Ku, and did not dare lift his head again. He knelt prostrate in the mud and the rain, trembling as he spoke, “This slave…”

Ah Ku looked down from above at that shaking little bundle, and let his undisguised contempt show openly in his gaze. “The master who picked you up is not here with me. Be off with you.”

He genuinely disliked this small medicine boy’s subservient and cowardly bearing, but what galled him more was something else entirely — Ah Ku naturally did not believe this child had broken out of Medicine Gate and made his way here through a torrential downpour merely to find him. In all probability, having had a taste of good fortune when Yun Changliu saved him once before, the child had presumed upon that kindness and come seeking to attach himself to the Young Sect Leader.

That thought made Ah Ku’s irritation flare without restraint.

Heaven was merciless without favor. Whose lot was truly worse than anyone else’s?

Yun Changliu was already living with such difficulty as it was. If even saving a child once meant being latched onto afterward, wouldn’t it mean that anyone at all could come and treat the Young Sect Leader of the Zhuyin Sect as their fool to exploit?

The small medicine boy cowered even smaller with fear, his trembling growing worse. And yet he did not leave.

Rainwater streamed down from his hair in rivulets. A voice raspy and ugly to hear emerged from beneath that wet and filthy tangled hair. “This slave… this slave does not dare disturb the Daren…”

…In Ye Ru’s eyes, almost every person in the world was more noble than he.

And calling those noble persons “Daren” — that was surely never wrong.

But the young Daren before him was truly frightening — frightening in a way different from the overbearing sect members who came to Medicine Gate to collect and use him. It was a different kind of frightening altogether.

And so Ye Ru’s voice grew smaller still, and he said trembling, “This slave only wanted to see the Young Sect Leader. Just one look…”

Ah Ku felt not a flicker of softness. “I am also someone who serves as another’s medicine,” he said coldly. “There is no use appealing to me. If you truly have a shred of courage in you, go storm the Changsheng Pavilion and find the Young Sect Leader yourself — then I might actually think more highly of you.”

“No, no… no…” The small medicine boy’s face went white with fright. The torrential rain beat down upon him, and he truly looked just like a tender young leaf shuddering beneath the assault of a violent wind and rain. “This slave… this slave absolutely would not dare… would not dare to impose upon the daren…”

“…This slave is almost dead.”

When those words came, this small medicine boy named Ye Ru even let a whimper into his voice.

“This slave only wants to see the Young Sect Leader once. Please, Daren…”