Chapter 154 — The Old Abode
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 2 of 6
Tian Buhui knew why. With the great calamity of the world looming, no one knew when those dreadful beast-demons might come charging in, and as one of the leaders of the Canglan Sect he was naturally troubled by it as well. Yet it was precisely for this reason that, after repeated urgings from his wife Su Wan, and for the sake of his disciple Song Dayi's happiness, Tian Buhui had finally gone to the Lesser Zhu Peak three days earlier to propose marriage on behalf of Song Dayi and Wen Pei to Master Shuijing. To his surprise, Master Shuijing had been like a keg of gunpowder that day, exploding at the slightest spark; she had not spared even Su Wan, who was present at the time, let alone the pale-faced disciple Wen Pei standing nearby, but had refused outright and mocked Tian Buhui with cold, cutting words.
What sort of temper was Tian Buhui's? How could he not fly into a rage? On the spot, atop the Lesser Zhu Peak, he had quarreled furiously with Master Shuijing and come close to blows; in the end it was all Su Wan could do to drag him back to the Great Zhu Peak, while Master Shuijing had been held back by a crowd of disciples kneeling before her.
After that scene, Song Dayi was naturally utterly dejected, his spirits sunk, his face like a bitter melon all day long. Tian Buhui's mood had already been poor, and the sight of him made him angrier still; he cursed him roundly time and again, saying that if he had no wife, then he had no wife, so devote himself to cultivating the Dao, and who knew but that misfortune might turn into blessing in the end. Song Dayi naturally dared not talk back to his master, but though his mouth murmured assent, the look of disagreement was written plainly on his face; clearly he still pined for Wen Pei of the Lesser Zhu Peak. Tian Buhui grew even angrier at the sight and cursed him all the more harshly, until in the end Song Dayi was like a mouse that had learned to fear the cat, scurrying into hiding all day and not daring to face his master again.
That day Su Wan had gone out early, expressly instructing Tian Buhui to go to the Lesser Zhu Peak himself and talk some sense into Senior Sister Shuiyue. Tian Buhui snorted a few times and made a few cold, sarcastic remarks about Shuiyue, but Su Wan paid him no heed and went straight off, leaving him to stew in his own ill humor. Yet as she was leaving, Su Wan had whispered a few words privately to Tian Buhui that had made him begin to understand why that woman Shuiyue had been so unreasonable that day.
What Su Wan said was in fact quite simple. She only said, "I hear that the day before we went, the very day Lu Xueling returned to the mountain, Senior Sister Shuiyue summoned Lu Xueling alone and spoke with her for a good while. In the end, for some reason, not only was Lu Xueling severely punished by our senior sister, but all the other disciples were scolded as well."
Tian Buhui was outwardly dull, but by no means slow-witted. In a moment he grasped the reason behind it all. Yet after Su Wan had gone, every time he thought of how he had delivered himself up to be humiliated, he still could not swallow the insult, and he simmered with indignation.
The Shoujing Hall was silent now, save for the sound of Tian Buhui's footsteps, and his expression shifted slowly with his pacing. Somehow, in the end, his look grew rather strange, as though something had occurred to him: he knew of the matter of Lu Xueling refusing the marriage to his face in the Yuheng Hall on the Jietian Peak, and he had also heard the rumors concerning Lu Xueling, the most outstanding talent among the younger generation of disciples.
But what concerned him deep in his heart was another person among those "rumors."
"Ten years now," he sighed softly, his expression somewhat distant. At times even he found it strange himself: that little disciple who had seemed so unremarkable back then, for what reason had she kept him thinking of her all these years?