劍問蒼天 - 第215章 弒師 - 翰墨軒

Master Shui Jing's face darkened, and she gave a cold snort: "Seeing them like that, I was truly furious, so I stepped out and called them to a halt. Junior Sister Su and Tian Buhui were of course startled; once they saw it was only me, Junior Sister Su came over grinning and tried to pull me along, but that wretch Tian Buhui actually had the nerve to give me a sour look. I was so incensed I was about to explode—" Lu Xueling thought to herself: if Uncle-Master Tian Buhui had worn a pleasant face at such a moment, now that would have been strange. But hearing Master Shui Jing suddenly fall silent, she could not help pressing: "What happened then?" Master Shui Jing was quiet a moment, then said: "Just then, from the bleak and darkened Ancestral Hall, a strange cry suddenly rang out—a sound like a beast's shrieking, full of anguish, scarcely like anything a human would make. In our terror the three of us instinctively hid in the dense shadows of the woods nearby. A moment later, we saw that... secret." Lu Xueling watched Master Shui Jing closely, and saw a look of pain flicker faintly across her face; she guessed that this secret had truly tormented her for years, and even now its edges seemed scarcely worn smooth.

Master Shui Jing's low voice sounded hollow, yet each word fell like a thunderclap, slowly unveiling the long-buried past: "A figure came staggering out of the Ancestral Hall, clothes in tatters, hair loose and hanging over the face so that his features could not be made out, and he looked half mad, bellowing one moment and groaning in agony the next, all the while speaking words we could not comprehend. The three of us were shocked and frightened—how could such a madman appear in a place as sacred as the Ancestral Hall? But we could hardly let him carry on. Just as we were about to step out and stop him, two more figures suddenly darted from the Ancestral Hall and landed before that mad figure, and to a man they dropped to their knees. The moon was bright that night, and we saw clearly: these two were none other than the two senior brothers whom we younger disciples revered above all—Senior Brother Daoyan and Senior Brother Wan Jiangu." Lu Xueling cried out, "What?" Master Shui Jing glanced at her and said coolly: "You are shocked too, I see. That year the three of us were more terrified than you can imagine—scared stiff. And what came next was even more incredible: Senior Brother Daoyan and Senior Brother Wan both looked overcome with grief, and there they knelt on the ground, one on either side, each clutching one of the madman's legs and holding tight, their voices earnest and pleading, and what they called him was—Master..." By now Lu Xueling was too astonished even to make a sound.

Master Shui Jing seemed wholly lost in the past now, her voice low: "At their cry, we were shaken to the core—and only then did we recognize the madman's build and features. It was none other than the presiding master of the Canglan Sect at that time, the master who had taught these two senior brothers, the very Uncle-Master Tian Chengzi who had but lately shown such awesome power in the great war between the righteous and the demonic." "We saw that this sect master had lost every trace of his former dignity, raving incoherently as though cursing something, though we could not catch the words. The two senior brothers looked utterly grief-stricken, tears streaming down their faces, clutching the sect master's legs and pleading piteously—'Master, wake up, Master, wake up,' and the like. But the sect master, for some reason—a man of such cultivation—had lost his mind; he turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of his two most favored disciples, and in the end turned his head, murderous light flaring in his eyes as he fixed them on the two, gave a great roar, and struck with deadly intent, both palms crashing down." Hearing this, Lu Xueling felt as though she were there herself, and could not suppress a shudder.