Chapter 448 - The Young Maestro

The voice came so suddenly that Qingluan and Ziyun’er were startled for seconds before their wide-eyed and open-mouthed incomprehension grew into beaming joy. Those nearby who were leaving immediately turned back when they heard the disembodied voice from inside the Gorge, their faces flushed with disbelief. They scrambled back, screaming vainly, “Please! Young Maestro Liancheng! Save us please!”

But there was no more response from the legendary physician. The two little acolytes echoed themselves yet another time again, “The rest of you can come back again after a month…”

Despite the ceaseless mumbles of begging for help, nothing came from inside the grove sprawled inside the Gorge. Realizing their futility, the people got up, looking positively churlish and disappointed as they dragged themselves away. One of the acolytes came to Xiao Chen and beckoned, “This way please, good sir. The Young Master is expecting you.”

Qingluan and Ziyun’er rejoined him and nudged softly, “Let us go, My Lord.”

Xiao Chen said nothing. He was feeling pained. Anguished at what Qingluan and Ziyun’er were trying to do for a helpless him. They were assassins. Among the best in their craft, they had always been proud to be one of the most deadly assassination squads that walked this earth. Yet, they were prostrating themselves, groveling with all their dignity forsaken, all for his sake…

The pair of acolytes led them down a path between the rims of the magnificent and handsome willow oaks that marked the mouth of the gorge. Splashy and vibrant blossoms festooned the green verdant meadows that blanketed the pastoral utopia, the atmosphere flavored by the melodic chirps of birds and the gentle bubbling of a brook which a little bridge hung over. Then they began to see buildings, gazebos, pavilions, and a few other structures. This must be the legendary healer’s fantasy sanctuary—a domain free from the hustle and bustle of the outside world.

Ziyun’er walked on the little path, looking at the curtains of willow fronds hanging down around like candelabras around her that wavered nonchalantly as the freshly-scented soft mountain breeze refreshed everyone’s spirits. “So, Master Liu’s healing skills must be second to none in these lands?”

“There has yet anyone who could yet best the Young Maestro in his craft,” one of the acolytes pronounced proudly.

Yet despite the jovial mood, Xiao Chen was hardly smiling. “Liu Liancheng, he brooded, a young lad barely twenty of age but already a prestigious and famed Elixir Saint whose name is widely admired and respected by all. Yet here I am, also twenty years of age, sulking and moping miserably while others are trying their earnest to help me.”

He looked up and found that they have arrived just before a deep-scarlet dome-like pavilion. The two acolytes separated. One of them led the first three men inside while the other said to Xiao Chen and his companions, “Please come with me this way. There is a little gazebo that you can wait at.”

They followed the young little boy to an ornately-furnished square-shaped garden arbor which eight pillars were all lavishly painted with three layers of deep scarlet. The white jade table at the center of the gazebo was laid with platters of fruits including specially-prepared grapes and golden-skinned mandarin oranges.

“Please have a seat here, my lord and ladies. The Young Master will send for you shortly. But please do not roam around.” “Understood. Thank you so much, young one.” Xiao Chen nodded.

Saying nothing further, the little acolyte turned and left. Xiao Chen stood at the top of the cliff just outside the gazebo, his hands crossing behind his back. The mountain breeze brushed at his face. The wind picked up strands of his white hair as he beheld the scenery below his feet. A clear, flowing stream coursed through the lush greeneries of the gorge below him, an artery of irrigation that inundated the thick and dense forest below where many other acolytes and orderlies were busy picking herbs.

“The wind is strong here, My Lord,” Ziyun’er’s voice drew closer, “Please rest inside the gazebo, My Lord. That would do you some good.”

Xiao Chen agreed with a solemn nod and strode back inside. There they waited for more than four hours and the sun was a red yolk on the horizon, waiting to sink yet still, nobody came. Qingluan stood at the front of the gazebo, watching into afar, hoping that they had not been forgotten. Koo-chee beast had never uttered anything since they arrived and Ziyun’er sat the white stone table, fidgeting restlessly.

Xiao Chen watched her. A beautiful lass of eighteen when he first met her and now she was nearing twenty, with lips like budded roses and her dark, clear eyes like stars beneath the long eyelashes feathering from her eyes that trembled with every motion from her. She was the most spirited among all twelve girls of the Levitating Dark Fragrance, the one with never-faltering vim and verve. Then he remembered how she blushed when she misunderstood him; how her rosy cheeks had burned with patches of bright pink when he asked her alone to stay with him when they last visited the Xianyong Sect.

Ziyun’er looked up and their eyes met. Seeing how he was staring at her strangely, she asked, “What’s wrong, My Lord?”

Xiao Chen merely smiled and said nothing.

“Oh…” she muttered, feeling a palpable awkwardness. She quickly averted away to hide her embarrassment, looking down the path from where they had come in the afternoon and griped, “‘ The Young Master will send for you shortly,’ he said! Humph! And yet we’ve already been waiting for more than four hours…”

Xiao Chen kept silent. These girls might not be the average young maidens easily moved by emotional compulsions but they were still young lasses nonetheless. Was he being a nuisance to them? Was he wasting their lives? Qingluan, Ziyun’er and the rest of them were all squandering their rosy years of youth by staying by him. Suddenly, before he even knew it, the words escaped his lips, “If I were to lose all of my powers one day… all of you…”

“My Lord!” Qingluan and Ziyun’er gasped with shock. They rushed to his side. “We’ve sworn to stay by you and keep you, by life or by death! Please say no more, My Lord!”

No one said anything else. There were only the soft undertones of the wind in the darkening sky of the dusk.

Then a voice from behind them came so suddenly that they almost jumped. “The Young Master awaits in the Red Chamber. Please come with me,” the acolyte had finally returned.

Ziyun’er helped Xiao Chen up. “Let us go then, My Lord. Master Liu is waiting.”

“This way please,” the little acolyte invited and he led them to the deep-scarlet building they came by just now.

The inside of the Red Chamber was brightly lighted with lamps and the furniture was simple but exquisite. Chairs and tables, ornately chased with engravings of scaly clouds, lined up in two rows leading up from the entrance while, at the seat of honor adjacent to the two columns of chairs and tables, was a screen.

Once they walked in, the acolyte withdrew outside. Heartbeats passed in silence until a male voice, chilly and detached, came from the other side of the screen. “Pain and sorrow that can be cured are called sicknesses. Those that we mortals can do nothing to heal, that is Fate. And yours is exactly that. It’s no sickness.”

Qingluan and Ziyun’er shuddered. The Elixir King whose help they had sought for before, Xue Qingshan had failed to find out what was wrong with Xiao Chen. But without even a glance at him, Liu Liancheng had ascertained Xiao Chen’s condition! The rumors about his prowess in the skills of healing were true after all.

“So, can you help me, Young Maestro?” Xiao Chen asked.

“Fate is bound by the will of Heaven. It will not be altered by the powers of mere humans. But I am no mere human. I enjoy contradicting the will of Heaven. That is why your Fate, in my eyes, is only sickness.”

A man in green stepped out from the other side of the screen, lean, tall, and youthful, his eyes keen and piercing. A lock of hair hung before one of the dark onyx-like eyes, floundering lazily as he moved and made him looked more dashing than ever.

“Please, sit. There’s no need for ceremony,” Liu Liancheng said casually with a wave of his arm, smiling thinly.

Xiao Chen and his companions sat down on the chairs on the left and Liu Liancheng sank into his seat of honor at the head of the hall. “I’m that you are aware of the rules on which the Jueming Gorge operates prior to coming.”

Xiao Chen’s forehead wrinkled darkly. Knowing that he could not afford to make a Blood Oath, he was ready to agree to whatever secondary condition that Liu Liancheng might demand. Lord of the Jueming Gorge betrayed no expression in his countenance and Xiao Chen knew he must speak with candor. But before he uttered so much as anything, Ziyun’er sprang up, saying at once, “My Lord is not able to make a Blood Oath with you. Please tell us about your second condition. We’ll be sure to satisfy your demand.”

A wry smile broke upon Liu Liancheng’s face, his gaze never once leaving Xiao Chen. “I am the only person in the world who can cure you. Are you sure about this?”

Xiao Chen’s stare met his defiantly and he breathed hard. “Let’s hear about your second condition, Young Maestro.”

“Very well,” Liu Liancheng replied. With one long, fixed glare at Xiao Chen, he went on, “These two girls will stay here and serve me unconditionally for ten years. That is my condition.”

Qingluan’s and Ziyun’er’s bodies trembled as soon as they heard him. But Xiao Chen muttered sharply, his tone icy and cool, “No.”

“I am the Young Maestro Liu Liancheng. My decision is final then. Please, my orderlies will see you on your way out,” Liu Liancheng remarked. Without even a glance at Qingluan and Ziyun’er, his arm raised, gesturing at the door.

“How dare you…” An arm jerked Ziyun’er back before she could storm at Liu Liancheng. Qingluan quickly bowed to the Lord of Jueming Gorge after restraining her sister and said, “Master Liu. You might still be unaware of who my lord is or you might have a lower impression of what my lord is capable of. But please, Master Liu, tell us your second condition and I’m sure my lord would be able to fulfill it.”

“Be that as it may, he is nothing more than a man with less than half a month of life ahead of him.” Liu Liancheng observed dryly.

“How dare you!” Ziyun’er hissed again, but she was held back again by Qingluan. “I have no shortage of people who are willing to do my bidding,” Liu Liancheng stated, “There are leaders of prominent sects or schools, or even conquerors or monarchs of countries. Too many, I’d say. So, my decision still stands. I have stated my condition. But feel free to think it over. You can also come back after a half months’ time, but who knows? My mind could be changed by then.”

“Anything else,” Xiao Chen growled icily, “Anything else other than this.”

“But I’m afraid I have no other needs other than this,” Liu Liancheng replied silkily.

The atmosphere in the chamber became manifestly tensed until a shrill whistle rang and a streak of purple shot at Liu Liancheng. Ziyun’er’s Bloodied Violet Blade stopped just in front of his throat. Any further and his head would have been easily lopped off.

“Help him! Help him and your life will be spared! Rest assured that I have shed more blood than all the people you have ever saved!”

Anger and hatred burned in her eyes; a cold and sharp fury that indicated she would swing her blade without mercy. A side that was markedly different from the adorable and spirited young lass before.

Yet despite being threatened at knifepoint, Liu Liancheng merely smirked. “Kill me, and your lord faces certain death. Anyway, I’m revising my condition: twenty years.”

“You scum!”

“Thirty years.”

…

Xiao Chen stood up suddenly. In a cold voice, he called, “Qingluan, Ziyun’er. We’ll go.”

Liu Liancheng chuckled and called towards outside, “See the guests out.” Two acolytes came in and beckoned, “This way please.”

Ziyun’er face turned flushed with red anger and her chest heaved as she caught her breath. But there was little they could do. They walked out of the Red Chamber and were escorted out to the large tree where they and the others had been waiting for their turn earlier in the day and the two orderlies withdrew back into the Gorge with hardly a word. Xiao Chen and his companions walked wordlessly away until a fitful of coughs took him. Qingluan and Ziyun’er quickly caught him before he fell. “My Lord!”

A peal of soft moans emitted from Koo-chee beast. It took quite a while for Xiao Chen to regain his breath. He waved off his companions, saying, “I’m fine…”

But Ziyun’er let out a stifled gasp, seeing something she could not believe. Xiao Chen’s hands were decaying and wrinkles were beginning to show. But Qingluan knew what was happening: the journey these past few days must have taken a toll on Xiao Chen’s health.

The sun was beginning to set and it did not take long for darkness to shroud over the terrain of the Gorge. Qingluan found them a cave where they could take shelter for the night. They moved Xiao Chen inside and helped him to a seat while Ziyun’er started a small fire just at the entrance. Later that night, Koo-chee beast fell asleep, lying down beside Xiao Chen. The moon was a large, luminous crescent hanging low in the sky that reminded Xiao Chen of a woman’s brow. He could not sleep; the cold breeze funneling down through the mouth of the cave made him cough incessantly. His lips were white as snow and wrinkles feathered from the edges of his eyes and he felt weary and tired like an old man in his twilight years waiting for Death to come to claim him.

Already on the verge of tears, Ziyun’er muttered hoarsely, “No… My Lord, you’ll be fine… I’m sure of it…” A deathly-pale Xiao Chen smiled gently at her. “I know… Is, is there water… I would like some water…”

Qingluan immediately hurried over with a waterskin but it was empty. Ziyun’er snatched it out of her hands, screaming, “I’ll have some in no time!” And she ran outside.

Xiao Chen waited until Ziyun’er went far and her footsteps faded before he spoke, “There are things that I do not wish for her to listen. But you… Qingluan… listen to me. Listen closely and let me finish.”

Qingluan nodded. Rings of red curled around her eyes as she braced for the dreaded message from her master.

Xiao Chen merely smiled and began coughing terribly again. He went on slowly when he recovered, “On the way from the Jade Qing Sect in Qing Province to the stronghold of the Widespread Wintriness Sect in Wu Province, you’d see a mountain that shaped like a fairy below you after almost half a day of flying on a Flying-cloud Stone. The vicinity is known as the Beautiful Immortal Mountains…”

Xiao Chen convulsed again in another fit of coughs and went on, “150 kilometers to the south-east of the Beautiful Immortal Mountains, you’ll find seven sunken mountain peaks. Those are actually ancient ruins yet undiscovered by people…”

Tears prickled at the ends of Qingluan’s lashes, trembling as she nodded and answered with a wordless acknowledgment. Her chokes of sobs only sounded all too sorrowful in the soft wailings of the winds outside. Xiao Chen smiled and pressed on, “Go to one of the peaks. The one with many black bamboos… Bury me there when I die…”

The flames flickered with the winds blowing into the cave, tossing up flakes of red-hot embers and two lines of tears rolled silently down Qingluan’s cheeks. Biting her lips, she nodded.

Xiao Chen reached out a hand and rubbed away the tears. “There’s no need to cry. All men must die. Moreover, I shouldn’t have been alive in the first place. I guess this is Destiny. I was only twenty when I died thousands of years ago… It is only fitting that my ultimate end should be the same…”

Xiao Chen rambled on to himself. Qingluan suppressed another choke and croaked hoarsely, “Do you have any more wishes, My Lord?”

Xiao Chen merely sighed. His gaze wandered to the smoldering embers in the firepit. “Go to Mount Wuyue on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. Look for Brother Xiao Ning and tell him that I would not be coming after all…”

More tears drenched Qingluan’s face. Xiao Chen had never seen her smile. Yet the sight of her crying was no less heart-wrenching a moment for him. “When all is done,” he breathed and said, “Disband the squad. You are in the prime of your youth. You girls should never have lived like this…”

The tears never seemed to stop. They have been through thick and thin together and seeing him suffering in his final moments, Qingluan would have given anything if only he could be saved. Her life even, if only Death would spare him. The dread of his impending doom sent a flush of emotions through her: rage, resentment, and finally, despair and grief.

30 minutes passed on in silence as the winds outside slowly died down. There was still no sign of Ziyun’er. Xiao Chen grimaced and frowned. “What’s keeping her so long… It’s only water…”

The salty film of dried tears cracked as Qingluan sprang to her feet, understanding immediately. “Oh no!” Xiao Chen could read her mind and he too cried, “Help me up! Quick!”

Koo-chee beast roused from its sleep and immediately padded by Xiao Chen’s heels. The three left the cave and hurried as quickly as they could back into the Gorge, heading straight for Liu Liancheng’s Red Chamber.

The doors of the Chamber were tightly latched and Liu Liancheng, sitting with one leg over the other casually, was sitting on the seat of honor. He rubbed his chin with a faint smile curling by his lips, enjoying the view of the person in front of him.

It was Ziyun’er. Ziyun’er who had gone off for water. Ziyun’er who had lied to Xiao Chen. Ziyun’er who was trying to save his life. Tears flowed endlessly down and trickled off her cheeks like pearls falling off a broken necklace.

Standing in the middle of the hall illuminated by the glow of the candles, she was contorting, sobbing, and shivering. Her hand rose to her shoulders and tugged at the folds of her robes. The soft velvety ruffles of her dress slid off her milk-white shoulders, revealing the purple plum blossom mark just under her shoulder blades.

More tears came down. Dribbling off her chin, falling on her pearly throat and streamed further down…