Chapter 161 — The Ambush
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 2 of 6
Hearing the three words "Wan Jian Gu," the old man's body began to tremble, as though those words were three blades, each boring deep into his heart. Even upon his face, scarred so deeply by the years, there surfaced now an agitation long unseen.
"Wan Jian Gu. Heh heh. Wan Jian Gu..."
He murmured the name under his breath, his face complex and twisted with pain. Ming Li, standing to one side, knit his brows. The name Wan Jian Gu—he had heard it years ago, back when he was still a disciple of Canglan Sect. But never would he have dreamed that this figure, long rumored dead, still lived in this world; still less that the peerless man who had set the elders and heads of the present Canglan Sect at one another's throats, who had driven Cang Yan Zi himself to betray Qingyun, should have become so inconsequential a wretch of an old man.
A cold wind swept past, rippling the hems of their robes. Here on this mountain of mist, dreamlike and illusory, it seemed the past itself echoed.
Until—the one who had been Wan Jian Gu, the old man who had once looked down upon the world and now bore a face full of wrinkles, slowly raised his head.
"Pfft"—a faint sound came from his hands. Ming Li and Master Gui both looked: fine gray powder was sifting down. The broken broom in Wan Jian Gu's grip had been crushed to fragments by the force of his agitated heart, and now scattered across the ground.
The mountain wind came and carried the powder away, speck by speck. Wan Jian Gu gazed at the thing that had been in his hands a moment before and was now gone without a trace. Then he lifted his head and fixed his eyes on Master Gui. Word by word, he said:
"Had it not been for you, back then, I would be a cripple today. I have always kept your kindness in my heart."
Master Gui said mildly, "You and I took to each other at first sight. In the wilds of the northwest, there was also that monk, Pu Zhao..."
Ming Li, who had stood silent and still all this while, suddenly gave a start, and a fierce light blazed in his eyes.
But neither Master Gui nor Wan Jian Gu noticed the change in him, and Master Gui went on: "The three of us belonged to different schools, but in the end we were friends. Pu Zhao has been gone these many years, and you had long since vanished without word—I never thought I would see you again today. My trip to Canglan Mountain has not been in vain after all."
His voice carried a weariness of feeling beyond words. The tightness on Wan Jian Gu's face slowly eased. He sighed and said, "True enough. I never thought I would see an old friend again either... Halt!"
Halfway through his words, his voice suddenly sharpened, and he gave a curt shout—for Ming Li had silently turned away, unwilling to hear more of these two men's dredging up of the past, and was making to walk toward the Illusory Moon Cave.
Wan Jian Gu gave a cold snort. Without any visible sway of his body, he merely raised a hand—and his shriveled palm suddenly seemed to grow a thousandfold in size and length, reaching down from behind like a monstrous claw.
Ming Li's step halted. Without turning his head, he twisted his wrist and traced in the air above him a circular figure; in an instant it blazed with light—the Taiji diagram, radiant with blue light. Wan Jian Gu's great claw was caught in that blue radiance and flung back in an instant. But in that brief moment, Wan Jian Gu's withered body had already planted itself before Ming Li. Astonishment had returned to his face. "The Taiji Profound Purity Way? Who are you, really?"
Master Gui's voice drifted faintly from behind: "He is a great man of the Ming Wang Sect of the demon cult, you know."
Ming Li frowned but still said nothing. Wan Jian Gu looked him up and down a few times, then nodded. "So you are Zhang Qingyue, the one Canglan Sect drove from its gates ten years ago when he threw in his lot with the demon cult?"
Ming Li's face was frost. "Out of my way," he said coldly.