Chapter 2

My second brother had brought back a man named Zou Yan. He was said to be a close friend my brother had made while traveling abroad, and he told me that Mr. Zou would be staying on Ninefold Mountain for a while. I glanced at the white veil covering his eyes and the wheelchair beneath him, then asked my brother, cautiously, whether the gentleman suffered from some hidden illness.

Jiang Wen tapped my forehead. "Mr. Zou is a Sage of the School of Yin and Yang. You must not be so rude before him."

I was struck speechless. In this age, Sages were rare indeed. It was said that in antiquity, only beings such as the Goddess Wa and Lord Shen Nong, who had made great contributions to humankind, could be consecrated as divine sages. Those were true sages. The various philosophical schools of the present day occasionally produced a Sage, and not without the existence of proper sages as well, but neither their merit nor their prestige could compare with those of the ancients.

I had not expected this Mr. Zou to have ascended to sagehood at such a young age. He truly was worthy of being my brother's friend.

When I was very little, my three elder brothers had already been renowned throughout the land. My second brother, Jiang Wen, was praised far and wide as the "Jade Polisher of the Gentleman's Way." The other two were not nearly so easy to deal with. My eldest brother, Fan Yu, had always frightened me somewhat. He was excessively strict with me, and his temperament was the most like Father's. Whatever I did, he had to question and supervise it; if I made a mistake, he would punish me. He was even harsher than Father, and from childhood on, I would detour around him whenever I saw him.

Fortunately, it was Second Brother who had returned this time. If Eldest Brother had come home instead, my carefree days would have been over.

"Xiwei." Jiang Wen called me back just as I was trying to slip away. "Mr. Zou is skilled in the arts of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements. He came back with me at my request in order to examine your condition."

I blinked. "Is he more capable than the Sage of Medicine?"

Father had once taken me to see the hidden Sage of Medicine. I stayed for a time with that kind old man, but in the end the Sage of Medicine could only prescribe a few nourishing formulas. Even he was unable to cure me completely.

Jiang Wen smiled warmly. "The arts of Yin and Yang are strange and unfathomable, with the power to seize the workings of creation. Though they follow a different path from the physicians, they can still regulate the blood and qi, dispel illness, and prolong life."

I nodded in hazy understanding. So that was how it was. Only, this Mr. Zou looked even weaker than I did... perhaps illness had made him an expert.

Zou Yan, white veil over his face and white robes upon his body, sat in his wheelchair and smiled at us. "So this must be Brother Jiang's younger sister."

I felt a little shy. "You can just call me Xiwei."

Zou Yan covered his mouth and coughed softly. I noticed that his lips had no color at all. "Let me see your hand."

I glanced at Second Brother before I extended my hand to him. Zou Yan merely touched my palm before quickly drawing back. After a long moment, he said to my brother, "Your spirit is weak, your qi and blood are frail, your pulse feeble and your breathing short... Very well. I will use acupuncture on her. You stand beside me and protect my work; first let us see whether it has any effect."

Jiang Wen agreed, and even pushed Zou Yan aside. Before leaving, he did not forget to tell me, "I'll take Mr. Zou to the guest room first. I'll come find you again tonight."

I panicked. "You're really going to prick me... with needles?"

Before Jiang Wen could speak, Zou Yan smiled gently and said, "Don't be afraid. I'll seal your five senses first. It won't hurt very much."

At once I felt that Mr. Zou's smile could indeed be called warm as spring breeze.

That night, I sat on the ice bed in tears, my back covered in silver needles.

Zou Yan sat before me, and his own back was likewise full of silver needles.

The two of us looked equally miserable. I was in so much pain that my eyes blurred with tears, and I instinctively clutched my second brother's hand. Jiang Wen paused, then let me hold on. Zou Yan inserted a few more needles into me, and I glared at him in fury.

His eyes were covered by white silk, but I guessed he was not truly blind, because his needling was precise to the point of eerie perfection. His hand was so practiced that I could not tell which acupoint he had struck, and in an instant all the pain seemed to vanish. My entire body grew light and floaty.

I opened my mouth, about to say something, when my vision suddenly went black and I lost consciousness.

It took Zou Yan some effort to remove all the needles from his own body. He smiled cheerfully, as though he felt no pain at all. "The little girl is in rather poor condition. The Heavenly Venerable must have spent quite a bit of effort on her."

Jiang Wen did not answer, only asked, "Even you have no solution?"

Zou Yan spread his hands. "If even a true immortal cannot solve it, what makes you think I can?"

He then laughed again. "Don't be anxious, don't be anxious. There actually is a way."

Jiang Wen looked at him.

Zou Yan smiled as he spoke. "Reverse yin and yang, seize fortune and alter fate. Go and help her kill a few more people. Let others' remaining lifespans and fortune become hers by subtraction and addition. But your sister's condition is not something that can be solved by killing one or two people."

Jiang Wen said nothing.

...

After that treatment, I started avoiding Mr. Zou a little. It was definitely not my imagination—no matter how I looked at it, the way he looked at me was ill-intentioned!

Jiang Wen, however, seemed somewhat relieved. "Xiwei's complexion does seem better."

I held a bronze mirror up to my face for a long time, and in the end discovered that I really did have a bit more color than before. More than that, I also had more energy than before. In the past, if I played outside for a little too long, I would go home and collapse straight into bed, but now I could stand in the wind for ages and still remain bright-eyed and lively.

"Fine, then. I suppose he does have some skill..." I muttered unhappily.

"Second Brother, do you know what Father went to Kunlun to do this time?" I asked, unable to hide my curiosity. I did not have the nerve to ask Father directly, but asking my second brother was all right.

Jiang Wen replied, "There has been unrest at the borders. Half a month ago, the mountain god of Kunlun discovered traces of the Demon Lord."

In this world, good and evil stood opposed. If my father was the leader of the righteous path, then the ruler of the demons and monsters was naturally the Demon Lord. Decades ago, Father had once dealt this Demon Lord a severe blow, and the demons and monsters had gone quiet for so many years. I had never expected the Demon Lord to reemerge in the martial world.

Father must have gone to discuss with Kunlun how to deal with the Demon Lord. I was not too worried; I had yet to find anyone in this world who could defeat my father.

It was rare for our siblings to be reunited. My three brothers usually disliked coming home, so when they did return once in a great while, we naturally had to spend time together properly. Second Brother produced a length of shimmering, rainbow-bright sea silk. "The moment I got it, I thought of making clothes for you... but I didn't know your measurements, and I wasn't sure whether Xiwei had grown taller or put on weight in all these years, or whether your health had improved, so I kept delaying it."

A smile lingered at the corner of his lips. "When you left home, Xiwei, you were still not even up to my chest. Now you've grown so much."

Delighted, I held the sea silk up against myself. Jiang Wen watched me with a smile as I chattered on and on, telling him everything that had happened in the years he had been away. At first he was still smiling, but as he listened, that smile gradually faded. He asked, "Has Xiwei all these years been cared for by Fuguang?"

I answered honestly, "When Father is away, he orders Senior Brother Fuguang to look after us. Apart from me, there's also Weiwei and Yuanyuan. Senior Brother has had such a hard time..."

Jiang Wen's smile was faint. "Xiwei trusts him very much?"

I nodded emphatically. "Senior Brother Fuguang is very trustworthy!"

"Then another day, I will go and thank him in person," Jiang Wen said with a smile.

We talked deep into the night. Of course, most of the time it was me speaking and my second brother listening, until I finally ran out of energy and fell asleep on the bed.

The next day, as I yawned my way past the back mountains, I saw flower petals fluttering beneath the peach grove ahead. A beauty in white stood beneath a tree, face like a lotus bloom, her bearing cool and otherworldly. Merely standing there, she looked like an exquisitely painted masterpiece.

A long sword hung at her waist. Her pale fingers rested on the hilt—grip, stance, slash...

I cried out in alarm. "Weiwei! Stop!!"

It was too late. I watched helplessly as the white-clad beauty, her face expressionless, leveled half the mountain with a single stroke.

She saw me too, and in only a blink she had come to my side. The beauty opened her mouth, her voice ethereal and lovely, like jade striking stone.

"I'm hungry."

I hastily dug a few pastries from my sleeve and handed them to her. Bai Wei lowered her head in silence and bit the pastries from my hand. I watched, expression odd, as this cool and transcendent beauty seriously chewed the pastry in her mouth. She finished one in no time at all, then stared at me fixedly.

I took up the pastries and fed her one after another. She ate them one by one, and when she was done she even licked my fingers as if still unsatisfied.

I drew my hand back and advised her earnestly, "Weiwei, you can't go splitting mountains open whenever you like in the future, all right? If you flatten all the mountains, then we'll have nowhere to live."

Bai Wei tilted her head. "Practice sword. Sword. Fun."

I said, "Let's change to another place to practice, okay?"

Bai Wei said, "Okay. Listen to Weiwei."

Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief. I took Bai Wei's hand and led her outside. Bai Wei had the standard hand of a sword cultivator: callused fingertips, long knuckles, small scars where the tiger's mouth met the palm. It was the complete opposite of mine. My own hands were pale and delicate, lacking even the smallest flaw, and I could not wield even a single sword.

Bai Wei tugged at my hair. "Where is Master?"

"Father has gone to Kunlun and will be back in a few days," I replied patiently.

The woman in white showed no change of expression. She leaned toward me, sniffed, and said earnestly, "Weiwei smells nice."

"I don't have any pastries left," I told her. "Let's go find Senior Brother Fuguang."

Bai Wei nodded obediently.

Fuguang was in the hall taking stock of the cultivation manuals. I dragged Bai Wei in excitedly, and his eyes lit up when he saw us.

I shouted, "Senior Brother, I want the new pastries from the Banquet Immortal Tower!"

Bai Wei said, "I want them too!"

Fuguang nodded. "All right."

I said, "I just got a length of sea silk. Can Senior Brother help me make a skirt?"

Bai Wei said, "I want one too!"

Fuguang nodded. "All right."

I said, "Senior Brother, I want to keep a snake!"

Bai Wei said, "I want one too!"

Fuguang looked up from the many jade slips.

"This one is not allowed."