Chapter 77 — The Fifth Chapter

"In those days you were nothing but a dull, ordinary disciple of Dazhu Peak; even your master and your senior brothers looked down on you. But after Senior Brother Wan met you, his discerning eye saw that you were a man of promise, and from then on he nurtured you with all his care—not only sharing with you his own insights into cultivation, but urging with all his might that you be included among the five who went to the wildlands. Only thus did you rise to become a figure of renown in the Canglan Sect, only thus did you come to sit in the seat you hold today. Am I right or not?"

Tian Buhui drew a deep breath, his face mingled with pain, and only after a long while did he say slowly, "Senior Brother Wan's kindness to me was profound beyond measure; though I be ground to dust, I could never repay it!"

At these words, not only the disciples of Dazhu Peak but the elders of every other branch too—including those of the Fanyin Temple and the Fenxia Valley, who stood by astonished at the infighting within Qingyun—all changed countenance. Plainly even Tian Buhui admitted as much, and so there must indeed be more to the tale of this Senior Brother Wan of whom Daoist Cangyan spoke.

Daoist Cangyan gave a cold chuckle and said, "Good, good, good. So you admit it at last. There is still some conscience left in you. And how did you repay him? Speak!"

Tian Buhui slowly lowered his head, his jaw clenched tight, and his body seemed to tremble faintly.

Daoist Cangyan laughed wildly. "Good—if you will not say it, I will say it for you. Shameless man! Senior Brother Wan thought so highly of you, and for nothing. After you returned to Canglan Mountain in those days, you knew full well that Senior Brother Wan had set his heart on Junior Sister Su Wan of Xiaozhu Peak—and yet you cut in and stole her love. Was that so or not?"

Tian Buhui jerked his head up, but the moment he met Daoist Cangyan's nearly mad gaze, that scorching fire that seemed to burn within it—somehow he felt that in the unseen dark a white figure stood behind Daoist Cangyan, and at once the words died in his throat, and he slowly lowered his head again.

He said nothing, but Su Wan beside him suddenly stepped forward and said loudly, "Senior Brother Cangsong, if you have a quarrel, bring it to me! It is true that in those days Senior Brother Wan held me in his heart, but from first to last I felt only respect and affection for him. His kindness to us both was as weighty as a mountain, but that I should come to love Buyi was my own choosing, and it cannot be called stealing another's love. And Senior Brother Wan himself, in our presence, gave us his blessing with his own lips."

Daoist Cangyan sneered. "What pride Senior Brother Wan had! Betrayed by the two of you, how could he cling and pester like some common man? He would ever rather grieve alone than let others see it."

Here he seemed unwilling to go on. His eyes fixed on the wounded, gasping Perfected One Daoyan, and a boundless hatred shone in them. "In those days Senior Brother Wan was as a brother and a father to me; he trained me with his own hand, and in the wildlands he risked his life to save mine. This life of mine was long ago given to him! To my grief, a hundred years ago I strove with all my strength and still could not save him; from that day I told myself that whatever it took, I would have vengeance for him!"

The last few words he cried out in a voice cracked and spent, as though speaking to the depths of his own heart, or again to those eyes in the unseen dark.

Xiao Yichen's face lost its color—but what astonished him more was that the body he was supporting suddenly thrust him aside.

The Perfected One of the Canglan Sect, for a hundred years the supreme leader of the righteous path under heaven, Perfected One Daoyan—while the wound still bled and that black aura seemed to thicken ever more—suddenly, by his own strength, slowly came forward, one step at a time.

In an instant his presence overshadowed all others. His dark green daoist robe billowed though no wind blew; dimly one could see his hands clenched deep into fists, his nails sunk into his flesh.

He looked straight ahead, his body erect, facing Daoist Cangyan—and as though facing that formless white figure too—and laughed aloud: "Good, good, good! I never thought that old case of a hundred years ago should weigh so on your mind. Come then, come and try me—see whether I, your senior brother, am fit to be sect master!"

He glanced sidelong at Cangsong, and suddenly his clenched fists sprang open into flat palms; from the wound on his right hand black blood gushed out drop by drop, and the black aura on his face gradually thinned. Only his face grew paler still, but his voice turned shrill and bleak, with a note of contempt: "As if you were fit!"

Daoist Cangyan suddenly burst out laughing. "Yes, you are mighty. In those days, among the Canglan Sect, Senior Brother Wan and you were ever the twin jewels of your generation. I am no match for you—but there is one who will deal with you."

Perfected One Daoyan's face turned grave, and he said coldly, "Who?"

In the great hall all held their breath. The Canglan disciples exchanged glances, and the party from the Fanyin Temple and the Fenxia Valley, standing by and watching the Canglan Sect's internal strife, likewise looked ill at ease.

Daoist Cangyan's laughter would not cease—and at that very moment, from far beyond the Yuheng Hall, a deep, resonant voice came: "Old friend Daoyan, a hundred years have we not met, and I see your bearing is as of old. This is cause for rejoicing!"

The voice came rolling in like thunder, and in a moment the cry of battle rose on every side beyond Jietian Peak; the front of the mountain fell into chaos, and amid the panic someone far off seemed to shout, "The demon cult fiends are storming the mountain!"

"What?"

Every Qinglan disciple went pale. Perfected One Daoyan drew a sharp breath, pointed at Daoist Cangyan, and said, all but unable to believe it: "You—you dared betray our sect and collude with the demon cult!"

Daoist Cangyan laughed wildly. "That's right, I colluded with the demon cult—so what of it! To my mind, Qinglan is a nest of filth and rot, worse than the demon cult itself! To avenge Senior Brother Wan, I would not care if I walked into hell itself, let alone collude with the demon cult!"

Su Wan's face was ashen. "Mad," she murmured. "Mad. He's truly gone mad!"

Tian Buhui heard it all, his expression grim. He knew that in recent years Daoist Cangyan had wielded enormous power within Qinglan, that even the routine defenses had been his sole responsibility. And today the demon cult had come in full force, and they had not even been noticed until they were nearly at the Yuheng Hall—the situation could hardly be worse.

In a flash he caught sight of his youngest disciple, Zhang Qingyue, standing amid the chaos, Black Iron Staff in hand. Seizing a moment when no one was looking, he pulled the boy behind him—but in the next instant he realized that something was wrong with his young disciple as well.

Zhang Qingyue's eyes were faintly red, fixed dead upon Daoist Cangyan's figure, and his lips seemed to be moving, murmuring something over and over: "It's him, it's him, it must be him..."