Chapter 77 (2/2)
”Unless what?”
Hua HuaiXiu thought for a moment and felt his conjectures a bit too shocking. He shook his head and said, ”Nothing.”
Suddenly, Fan JiJing's ears moved a little, then they heard someone pounding on the neighboring room's door at full blast, creating a stream of banging sounds.
Hua HuaiXiu stood up and opened the door. He stuck out half of his body and then asked, ”Song Daxia? Wu Daxia?”
Song BoLin's voice came from outside: ”Hua Gongzi, do you know where Fan JiJing is?”
Fan JiJing hurried out from the room: ”Second s.h.i.+shu. Fifth s.h.i.+shu.”
Song BoLin did not reply but dragged out a disciple from behind. Then he said, ”Well, tell us what you saw on the night of the crime.”
The disciple shrank his neck and spoke in a low voice. ”On the night of zhangmen's accident, I saw eldest s.h.i.+xiong Guan Xing and fifth s.h.i.+xiong s.h.i.+ JiZhong pa.s.sing through the garden together with swords in their hands.”
Fan JiJing was shocked. It was necessary to go through the garden when going from zhangmen's room to theirs.
Song BoLin sneered, ”Didn't they say they were drinking tea and chatting in their room that night? Could it be that they had too much tea so they had to get rid of it in the garden?”
Wu ChangBo asked, ”s.h.i.+xiong, are you suspecting them of murdering zhangmen or ruining the flowers you planted in the garden?”
Song BoLin glanced at him sourly and said, ”Do you think I'm the kind of person that will fall out with them simply because of some flowers?”
Wu ChangBo cleared his throat, then replied, ”Actually I'm the one who accidentally broke the camelia you planted in the garden.”
”…” Song BoLin abruptly struck out his palm at him saying, ”I'm going to kill you.”
Wu ChangBo blocked his attack with a raise of his hand, then sighed, ”s.h.i.+xiong, you just said you wouldn't fall out just because of some flowers.”
Song BoLin replied, ”Just now I was asking you whether I was this kind of person or not. Now I'm telling you, I AM this kind of person!”
Wu ChangBo: ”…”
Hua HuaiXiu was not interested in their almost playing type of fighting, so he cut in: ”If so, I think we need to ask Guan Xing and s.h.i.+ JiZhong to clarify what they were actually doing on that night.”
Song BoLin humphed, ”Is there a need to ask?” Right after the sentence, he found everyone staring at him with fixed eyes. He said irritatedly at once, ”Then do as you like!” then flicked his sleeves and left.
Wu ChangBo gave Fan JiJing a faint smile and said, ”Then I'll leave it to you.”
Fan JiJing nodded solemnly.
During this short stay in the Jiuhua Sect, besides Fan JiJing, Guan Xing and s.h.i.+ JiZhong were the only two people that Hua HuaiXiu felt comfortable with, so he tried to be implicit with his inquiries. However, no matter how implicit his words were, it was impossible to gloss over the interrogative nature of the questions.
Because of this, s.h.i.+ JiZhong's face took on a somewhat ghastly expression. Just as he was going to argue, he saw Guan Xing wave his hand and asked, ”Someone saw us in the garden?”
There was a difference between ”in the garden” and ”pa.s.sing through the garden”. ”In the garden” meant that the garden was his sole destination at the time, and he did not go to any other places afterward.
Hua HuaiXiu asked, ”Why were you in the garden at midnight?”
Guan Xing replied without a change on his face. ”Practicing martial arts.”
Hua HuaiXiu's eyebrows furrowed. Why does everyone in the Jiuhua Sect enjoy practicing at midnight? Song BoLin and Wu ChangBo as well. It surely can't be that the martial arts of the Jiuhua Sect need its pract.i.tioners to absorb the essence of the moon, right?
Fan JiJing said, ”Practicing is a good deed. Why didn't eldest s.h.i.+xiong explain it clearly back then?”
s.h.i.+ JiZhong wanted to say something but couldn't get his tongue around it.
Guan Xing said, ”We were practicing Xianlian Sword.”
Hua HuaiXiu said, ”Wasn't it known publicly that your master taught Xianlian Sword to both of you? Why do you need to practice it secretly at midnight?” As if something suddenly came into his mind, he lowered his voice and asked, ”Are you afraid that someone else might steal it after watching you?”
”It's not the stealing, it's…it's…” s.h.i.+ JiZhong's expression became complicated. Anger, disappointment, agony, confusion… All kinds of emotions tangled with each other, even turning his eyeb.a.l.l.s slightly red.
Guan Xing sighed, ”We are not murderers.”
Hua HuaiXiu said, ”We believe you, but we want a reason to believe.”
Guan Xing had always been an extremely composed person. However, even for a man like him, there were now traces of unrestrained anger in his eyes. ”I'm teaching him the final move of each skill set in Xianlian Sword.”
Hua HuaiXiu and Fan JiJing were both stunned.
Fan JiJing asked, ”Hasn't Master taught the complete set of Xianlian Sword to all of you already?”
Guan Xing said, ”At first, I thought so as well, but I found out later that Master only taught them the beginning part of each set, not the finis.h.i.+ng move.”
Hua HuaiXiu inquired, ”What's particular about the finis.h.i.+ng move?”
Guan Xing replied, ”The finis.h.i.+ng move, together with the inner arts, guides the qi inside one's body back to their dantian [1]. If a martial artist practices without the finis.h.i.+ng move for a long time, he will lose control over his qi and eventually meet his death.”
Translation Notes
Dantian: A place inside one's body that is believed to be the birthplace of qi and also where qi will return to after traveling through the body. An essential spot in meditation or practicing of martial/inner arts in wuxia novels. [back]
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