Chapter 47 — The Scholar
劍問蒼天 · Page 4 of 6
The two sat down, and the scholar looked at Zhang Qingyue. "Might I ask your honored name, young brother?"
Zhang Qingyue had grown up in Liumiao Village and had afterward been taken in by the Canglan Sect. In all these years, apart from his fellow disciples on Dazhu Peak of Mount Canglan, he had scarcely spoken with outsiders — not counting, of course, the days he had been trapped beneath the Dead Spirit Abyss with the demon-cult girl Bili. As he spoke now with this scholar, he somehow already felt a certain respect for the man. He said respectfully, "I would not presume. This junior is Zhang Qingyue. May I ask your honored name, sir?"
The scholar first repeated, "Zhang Qingyue." He nodded, smiled slightly, and said, "My surname is Wan. My courtesy name is Renwang."
"Wan Rengui!" Zhang Qingyue repeated silently. The name sounded ordinary enough, yet it gave one a sense of iron horses and armored hosts. Zhang Qingyue could not help looking at him. Wan Rengui's face was all mildness, yet between his brows there was a majesty that seemed inborn and very heavy, and matched with such a name it faintly carried the sense of commanding ten thousand hosts.
Wan Rengui looked Zhang Qingyue up and down and smiled. "Forgive me for asking, but might young Master Zhang be a cultivator of the true way?"
Zhang Qingyue was startled. After he and Qi Hao and the other two had come down the mountain, they had all changed out of the Qingyun garb and into ordinary clothes for convenience on the road, and they looked no different from common folk. He could not imagine how this middle-aged man had seen through them.
In his surprise he was just about to ask how the man knew, when he saw the middle-aged man smile slightly and point to the north. "Might I ask, young Master Zhang, whether you are of late the foremost orthodox sect, the Canglan Sect of Mount Canglan?"
Zhang Qingyue was all the more startled and could not help rising to his feet. Looking at Wan Rengui in amazement, he said, "May I ask, Brother Wan — how, how did you know?"
Wan Rengui smiled and waved a hand. "Please sit, please sit."
When Zhang Qingyue had slowly sat down again, Wan Rengui smiled and said, "I saw that young Master Zhang is full of spirit and vigor, and after a long road shows no sign of weariness at all. You look young, yet you surpass many a grown man. In the world today the fashion of cultivation is widespread, and I took it that you must be a man of rare skill."
Zhang Qingyue lowered his head in modest thanks, but could not help asking, "And how did you know my sect, sir?"
Wan Rengui laughed carelessly. "Nothing to it. I saw that you were dusty from the road and kept gazing north, with a look of longing on your face, as though your heart were already flying home. And to the north, the nearest and most famous sect of cultivation is the Canglan Sect. I speak only from random guesswork, I assure you — idle talk, fit only to make young Master Zhang laugh."
Zhang Qingyue said quickly, "Not at all, not at all. You see into the smallest thing, sir. We had never met, yet you saw it at a glance. I am truly impressed, truly impressed!" These words came from his heart.
Wan Rengui smiled slightly. "The Qingyun Sect has long been famous on the world's path of cultivation, with deep roots and profound arts, admired by all under heaven. To enter such a renowned sect at your young age — your future holds no limit!"
At the words "no limit," Zhang Qingyue felt a stir at heart and, for no reason he could name, thought of Qi Hao of Dragon Peak. At the last, Lin Jinghong's shadow even flitted through his mind. He shook his head and said, "You overpraise me, sir. The Canglan Sect is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. I am but a rotten stick, a good-for-nothing."
Wan Rengui was taken aback, then laughed aloud. "I never thought young Master Zhang could joke as well."