Ch. 81 – Unable to Bear It
The furnishings in the room had not shifted since he’d departed. Ji Chengyue entered his bedroom as usual and closed the door.
Having returned home late at night only a shichen before dawn, he should have taken advantage of this time to get some sleep. But Ji Chengyue had no intention of resting, and went to the incense table to light the candlestick.
But as he lit it, he experienced a moment of doubt. Had this candlestick been here when he left?
Why did he remember it being on the desk……
Feng Ye held his breath where he was watching this scene from beneath the bed. Hao Chen, who was lying next to him, did the same. Ji Chengyue had returned so suddenly that they hadn’t had time to put the candlestick back in place. They were only able to hastily hide themselves under the bed.
Presently, they could only hope that Ji Chengyue’s memory wasn’t very good. The two observed Ji Chengyue’s actions nervously.
Fortunately, after a moment of confusion, Ji Chengyue went on to light the candlestick, thinking that he had been too busy recently and forgot.
But that recent business would come to an end tonight.
Ji Chengyue stared at the tablet on the incense table for some time. He picked up a stick of incense, lit it with the help of the candle, and bowed to the spirit tablet. Then he inserted the incense stick emitting white smoke into the incense burner.
The white smoke twisted and turned through the air, emulating his current mood. Ji Chengyue sat cross-legged on the cushion in front of the incense table.
But rather than facing the incense table, he sat with his back to it.
This was not a normal sitting posture, but more like…..he was waiting for someone.
Just as this thought occurred to Feng Ye, footsteps could be heard out in the corridor.
Knock knock. The owner of the footsteps knocked politely upon arriving at Ji Chengyue’s door.
Ji Chengyue’s thoughts were obscure. He looked in the direction of the door, but didn’t answer. Rather than saying “please come in,” or “go away,” he just stared at it.
“Shifu?” the person standing outside called out with some puzzlement.
The voice was not Cao Zirui’s. Cao Zirui often appeared in Feng Ye’s presence these days because of Fang Yang, so he was very familiar with his voice.
Since it wasn’t Cao Zirui calling out for his shifu, then it could only be Xue Ren.
Why had Ji Chengyue called Xue Ren to his rooms so late at night? Was there something that couldn’t wait until daytime? Could it be…..
A guess occurred to Feng Ye, and he continued to observe in silence.
“Come in,” Ji Chengyue said at last.
But he closed his eyes as he spoke, as if he didn’t wish to see the person who opened the door.
Xue Ren carefully closed the door after entering the room, then paced to the opposite side from Ji Chengyue and bowed: “Shifu summoned me so suddenly in the middle of the night. Is there some sort of urgent matter?”
Ji Chengyue did not answer Xue Ren’s question. He spoke only two words: “Kneel down.”
Xue Ren was dumbfounded. He hadn’t yet lowered his hands when he looked up blankly to see Ji Chengyue’s face under the candlelight, looking much more grave than it had during the day.
Ji Chengyue still had his eyes closed, and Xue Ren couldn’t see the emotions within them, but he had a bad feeling just by looking at the man’s frown.
“Kneel down!” Xue Ren had frozen in shock, and Ji Chengyue raised his voice as he sternly commanded him a second time.
The sound brought Xue Ren back to his senses. He quickly lifted his sleeves and touched his knees to the floor, kneeling straight in front of Ji Chengyue.
His eyes flashed and his mind raced.
Although they were master and disciple, Ji Chengyue didn’t really pay much attention to etiquette, and the act of kneeling and bowing was only performed on a few very important occasions. Normally, Xue Ren would just give a simple bow when greeting his master.
But this time, Ji Chengyue had called him to his rooms late at night to talk, and told him to kneel the instant they met. He looked so serious. Could it be about…..that matter?
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Xue Ren’s forehead, and he inwardly dismissed the idea. There was no way to verify that Xue Ren had ordered Lu Chengye to kill Cao Zirui. How could his master possibly know?
He couldn’t afford to lose his composure. Perhaps his master had summoned him for something else…..it was best to test the waters first.
With this in mind, Xue Ren remained kneeling on the floor, head bowed as he asked Ji Chengyue: “This disciple doesn’t know what he did to upset Shifu…..”
“You don’t know? You don’t even have an idea?” When Ji Chengyue finally opened his eyes, they were aflame with a fury that seemed liable to burst forth.
“This disciple doesn’t know.” Compared to Ji Chengyue’s loss of composure, Xue Ren maintained a normal tone, as if his conscience was clear.
However, no matter how he pretended, the cold sweat collecting in his clenched palms betrayed a hint of his inner panic.
“Good! Good! Good!” Ji Chengyue said three times in a row, so angry at Xue Ren’s denial that he was almost incoherent.
Smack.
Xue Ren’s face jerked to the side slightly under the blow, but he didn’t utter a sound.
Ji Chengyue pointed at the ledger he had just tossed away and questioned: “What did you do with the 100,000 spirit stones you embezzled from the sect a month ago?”
100,000 spirit stones might seem like a lot to a normal person, but for a sect – especially one in the top ten – it was a paltry amount.
Although Ji Chengyue had tasked Xue Ren with managing some of the sect’s affairs, he himself was not entirely clueless when it came to accounting matters.
He simply hadn’t interfered. After all, Xue Ren was his disciple, and he didn’t usually do such things. He was probably just short of money at the moment, so Ji Chengyue didn’t confront him about it.
However…..the night Cao Zirui emerged from the Floating Island Secret Realm, he’d sensed that something was off about Xue Ren’s attitude.
Without explanation, and with evident urgency, Xue Ren had labeled Cao Zirui’s pursuer a demonic cultivator.
What was he so anxious about?
Ji Chengyue had maintained a facade of calmness as he asked after Cao Zirui’s injuries, but in reality, he was keeping a close eye on Xue Ren. And the more he observed him, the more he felt that he was in a very abnormal state.
He had seemed both impatient and nervous.
Although Xue Ren concealed it well, just as Cao Zirui had been raised by Ji Chengyue, so too had Xue Ren.
Ji Chengyue knew Xue Ren extremely well, and his suspicions grew as he noticed the subtle movements that even Xue Ren was unaware he was making.
Cao Zirui had mentioned that an outer disciple named Lu Chengye had hunted them ceaselessly in the jungle, right on their heels like an inescapable ghost. Ji Chengyue’s supposition was thus: the fact that they were unable to shake him off their trail meant that the other party had something with which to track Cao Zirui.
Aside from a few unorthodox methods that relied on scent or similar tracking techniques, the most common involved two connected magic tools capable of pinpointing someone’s location.
When the Floating Island Secret Realm first opened, despite the fact that everyone had been randomly transported from the entrance, Lu Chengye had located Cao Zirui with remarkable accuracy.
Ji Chengyue had been to the Floating Island Secret Realm himself. Tracking someone over such a large island by scent or similar means was virtually impossible, because it was impossible to predict where the target would be transported to.
With the tracking distance so great, scent-tracking and other means would naturally fail.
Therefore, it was most likely that Lu Chengye had utilized a magic tool to determine his location, but this method required there to be two interconnected magic tools. The fact that Lu Chengye was able to track Cao Zirui meant that the latter must be carrying one of the tools as well.
How could an outer disciple who rarely got to see Cao Zirui’s face have an opportunity to plant such a tool on him?
At that moment, Ji Chengyue’s gaze had drifted toward the bell tied to Cao Zirui’s waist. He had also noticed Xue Ren’s attitude toward Cao Zirui. To be honest, Ji Chengyue was quite surprised when Xue Ren suddenly gifted Cao Zirui the bell before he entered the secret realm.
But on the heels of his initial surprise came relief, as well as a sense of pride that after a year of cultivating together, the two sect brothers had finally developed a level of intimacy reminiscent of his own with Ling Yun.
Little did he know that this bell was actually a deadly trap…..Ji Chengyue revealed no suspicion in front of Xue Ren, because he didn’t want to unjustly accuse his disciple, especially of such a vicious crime as trying to murder his shidi.
Thus, he waited until Xue Ren and Fang Yang left, and Cao Zirui was the only one who remained. Then he reached out to examine the bell, and what he found caused his heart to sink even further. This bell was indeed one of a pair of mother and child bells. Although the half connected to this child bell was nowhere to be found, it was easy to guess that it had been left behind in the Floating Island Secret Realm with Lu Chengye.
This bell already implicated Xue Ren in the crime of instructing Lu Chengye to murder Cao Zirui, since it was Xue Ren who had given him the bell.
But Ji Chengyue had refused to believe it. He tried to exonerate Xue Ren in his heart, thinking that perhaps Xue Ren had been unknowingly tricked into obtaining the bell, and had then given it to Cao Zirui.
He attempted to clear Xue Ren’s name, but the deeper his investigation went, the more shaken he became.
In Cao Zirui’s account of his pursuit, there was one other detail: a bow engraved with a dark red totem.
That bow must be of extraordinary origin for a low-level Qi Refining disciple like Lu Chengye to be able to destroy an earth-grade magic weapon with it in a single blow.
Using this bow as a clue to follow, Ji Chengyue expanded his search in all directions. He had been busy with matters in North Sea City these past few days, and today, he finally had results.
This so-called Burning Sky Bow had been sold at an underground auction in Yunzhou a little over a month prior.
Although the Burning Sky Bow was a Heaven-grade magic weapon, it seemed to have fallen into a dormant state for some unknown reason, making it no different than an ordinary bow.
Therefore, the final selling price was a low 200,000 spirit stones, which was practically a bargain for a Heaven-grade magic weapon.
After many twists and turns, Ji Chengyue had finally located the buyer today and completely lost his ability to defend Xue Ren.
The truth was now clear: after obtaining the Burning Sky Bow, Xue Ren had somehow managed to awaken the divine bow from its dormant state. Furthermore, he lent it to Lu Chengye and instructed him to intercept and kill Cao Zirui inside the Floating Island Secret Realm.
Ji Chengyue was fully aware of everything, but didn’t confront his disciple about it directly. Instead, he used the matter of the 100,000 misappropriated spirit stones as a pretext to give Xue Ren a chance to confess.
And after Xue Ren confessed, he would…..
What would he do? In truth, Ji Chengyue didn’t know.
After discovering the truth, he had immediately sent someone to wake Xue Ren and call him to his rooms in a fit of pent-up rage.
But when it actually came to the point of exposing everything, he was somewhat afraid to face it.
Murdering a fellow disciple was a crime so heinous that it wouldn’t be excessive to strip him of his cultivation and expel him from the sect entirely.
But this was Xue Ren, his disciple of twenty years, ah…..
Could he really bring himself to punish Xue Ren in such a way?
After throwing the ledger at Xue Ren’s face, Ji Chengyue shut his eyes once more.
Xue Ren stared at the ledger on the floor, his mind racing. Ji Chengyue had never been a stingy person. It was only 100,000 spirit stones. Even if his master was angry that he had embezzled sect funds, he wouldn’t go so far as to call him over in the middle of the night to scold him.
Ji Chengyue must have discovered the reason he embezzled those 100,000 spirit stones, and that he had possessed the Burning Sky Bow, which meant…..
Xue Ren had never expected Ji Chengyue to investigate the matter from this angle, because he never imagined that his master would suspect him. He had covered his tracks perfectly!
But dwelling on it now was pointless. He was indeed the buyer of the Burning Sky Bow, so the fact that it was in Lu Chengye’s hands directly implicated him.
However…..this couldn’t be considered conclusive evidence……
Xue Ren instantly concocted a story in his mind. He raised his head from its lowered position and looked directly at Ji Chengyue: “Shifu, it’s true, the Burning Sky Bow in Lu Chengye’s hands was mine.”
Ji Chengyue let out a long breath. The moment he dreaded facing had arrived.
Unexpectedly, Xue Ren changed direction and asked him in turn: “Shifu suspects me? Does he suspect that I gave the Burning Sky Bow to Lu Chengye and ordered him to kill my shidi?”
Ji Chengyue opened his eyes to look at Xue Ren. What did he mean by that? Was Xue Ren really going to try to deny it even in the face of such evidence?
“I was worried that I would be suspected, which was why I never told Shifu that the Burning Sky Bow was mine.” Xue Ren gave a self-deprecating chuckle. “It was indeed mine, but it was stolen the day the Floating Island Secret Realm opened. Shifu, since you found out about the auction, you should know that this Heaven-grade magic weapon is only nominally Heaven-grade. In reality, it’s completely unusable, no different from a piece of firewood.”
“I naturally wouldn’t carry around a magic weapon that takes up so much space, and always kept it in my room. That day, after hearing my shidi recall his ordeal of being hunted, I had a vague feeling that Lu Chengye’s bow sounded a lot like mine.”
“But I thought that was unlikely, because I had clearly put the Burning Sky Bow in my room, so how could it have ended up in Lu Chengye’s hands? So I supposed that it must just be a similar-looking weapon, and didn’t speak up at the time.”
“It wasn’t until we returned to the sect that I went looking for the Burning Sky Bow, and was shocked to find that it was gone. I was deeply disturbed and filled with remorse. It was all my fault that Lu Chengye had managed to obtain such a magic weapon and used it to hunt down my shidi. But I feared that I would be accused by Shifu, and dared not admit it.”
“But in the end, the outcome that I feared most still came about…..” As Xue Ren spoke, his voice began to unconsciously tremble with emotion.
Although his story was entirely fabricated, that last sentence came from the bottom of his heart.
The discovery of his shameful deeds was indeed the outcome he feared most.
His tearfulness was not feigned. Rather, it was during his narration that he fearfully realized the extent of the consequences he might face, and it all burst out under his master’s questioning, along with the grievances he had been nursing throughout the years.
Why would his master investigate him? This was simply because he had never trusted him.
He didn’t intend to hide this grievance. He knew that his words were only barely plausible, and could not truly prove his innocence. Similarly, there was no conclusive evidence to support Ji Chengyue’s speculations.
Faced with two outcomes, if he wanted Ji Chengyue to choose to believe him, he must truly move his master’s deeply suspicious heart.
Xue Ren, having accompanied Ji Chengyue for over twenty years, was well aware of this.
“Shifu!” Xue Ren shouted abruptly, startling Ji Chengyue.
Before Ji Chengyue could react, Xue Ren slammed his forehead against the floor. Seemingly oblivious to the pain, he relentlessly banged his head onto the stone.
There was a dull thud from the impact, after which Xue Ren remained kneeling. When he raised his head slightly, his brow was covered in blood.
Tears were welling up at the corners of his red, swollen eyes, and threatened to fall.
He murmured to Ji Chengyue: “Shifu doesn’t believe me……”
As he uttered those words, the tears in his eyes finally rolled down his cheeks and dripped to the floor.
Ji Chengyue watched this scene in silence.
Hao Chen, who had been watching the entire performance from under the bed, couldn’t help but discuss the plot with Feng Ye beside him.
He first poked Feng Ye in the shoulder, and when he turned his head to look at him, Hao Chen mouthed silently: “Do you think Ji Chengyue will believe him?”
But before he could finish his sentence, Feng Ye reached out and covered his mouth.
Hao Chen: “……”
Having silenced Hao Chen with a hand over his mouth, Feng Ye then turned to intently observe the master and disciple in front of him.
After a long silence, Ji Chengyue finally gave a response. He whispered to Xue Ren where he was kneeling and staining the floor with his tears: “Get up.”
It seems he’s chosen to believe Xue Ren, Feng Ye thought.
But when he got a look at Ji Chengyue’s eyes, he discarded this notion.
If Ji Chengyue believed Xue Ren, he would at least feel some guilt for his prior suspicions, but there was only sadness in his eyes.
What saddened him was that after committing such a malicious, shocking act, he still tried every means to exonerate himself and refused to confess.
Although he didn’t know when it had occurred, at some point, the disciple he raised had turned out like this.
But Ji Chengyue hadn’t exposed Xue Ren’s deceit, mainly because…..
He couldn’t bear to.
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Neon Dragonfly Translations 