Chapter 167: Wandering Star Overhead

Ding Songyan had already reached the tree-shaded lakeshore. In a low voice, he said to Zheng Zhuxi, "Senior Sister, the moment I make it to the island at the center of the lake, announce that Bai Zhaolin is suspected of colluding with the Two-Faced, and stop the deathmatch at once."

He had deliberately waited to make the accusation. He feared that if Bai Zhaolin heard it now, cornered like a desperate animal, he might resort to some technique or artifact meant to take them all down with him. With everyone still on the shore, there would be no time to intervene.

"All right." Zheng Zhuxi nodded firmly.

On the island in the middle of the lake, against the endlessly falling starlight and the swift, fierce sword art bearing down on him, Bai Zhaolin did not simply hunker down and endure. He counterattacked whenever he could.

His mind flashed back to a scene from several years ago.

Someone had found him not long after he first entered the Dharma Realm, and told him, "Among Grandmasters, few can best Tao Wenshu, and fewer still can kill her. Unless you reach the Heaven-Man Realm, revenge is impossible. And once you become a Supreme Master, you would no longer be able to openly challenge her to a deathmatch. That said, nothing in the world is absolute. I can help you kill Tao Wenshu without ruining your reputation."

These words prevented Bai Zhaolin from slashing out with the two sabers in his hands.

He had listened in silence as the other person went on.

"There is a move in the Celestial Stars Sword Art called Wandering Star Overhead. It can disturb the target’s mind and stir the qi of heaven and earth, making the opponent feel as though calamity hangs over them, stumbling at every turn.

"Under ordinary circumstances it is an extremely skilled and formidable move, with no flaw whatsoever. But if it is used at the Dharma Realm level against an art that can itself draw down real calamity, a catastrophic weakness opens up.

"Your Bai family’s Wind-Rain Eight Wilds Strategy originates from ’brings rain upon the four cardinal directions, wind through the six directions, floods across the eight wilds.’ It does not embody ’calamity upon heaven and earth.’ Other than those with no martial skill and greenhorn disciples who haven’t completed their training, everyone knows that. Tao Wenshu knows it too.

"I have a copy of Heaven and Earth in Calamity. It shares the same origin as your family’s Wind-Rain Eight Wilds Strategy, but leans toward ’calamity upon heaven and earth.’ Three years should suffice if you cultivate it as a secondary art.

"Before you challenge Tao Wenshu to a deathmatch, you must never reveal Heaven and Earth in Calamity. Do so, and you will have no further chance of beating her.

"Heh. Tao Wenshu knows that Wandering Star Overhead can be countered by an art that draws down real calamity, so she never uses it against such opponents. But the Brightnight Sect’s lineage was severed at one point, and she doesn’t know just how large and lethal the weakness truly is. She won’t expect you to know such martial arts and to have resisted showing it for years.

"I ask nothing of you in return. I only require that I be the one to decide when you issue the challenge."

The memories were vivid. Bai Zhaolin raised his left-hand rain saber and deflected Tao Wenshu’s Starwave Sword.

At that moment, a crimson star blazed to life in the dark simulated night sky, scattering phantom light like fire-tinged blood.

As it fell over him, Bai Zhaolin’s mind went adrift. The qi of heaven and earth around him instantly turned hostile—tripping, pushing, entangling—as though trying to prevent him from evading, to make him walk into that brilliant sword tip emerging from the crimson starlight.

Wandering Star Overhead.

Here it is at last! Still mentally adrift, Bai Zhaolin bit down on the tip of his tongue, using the sharp pain to restore a measure of clarity.

Life or death would be decided by this single move.

Either she dies, or I do!

A fierce, savage resolve surged up in Bai Zhaolin. He bent his knees and drove both feet hard into the ground.

The island in the lake suddenly shook, a distinct tremor running through it as though an earth dragon were about to turn over.

Accompanied by this harbinger of calamity, Bai Zhaolin raised both sabers and began to spin, becoming a whirlwind.

All the wind and rain around him was drawn into the force of his sabers, and with it those hostile traces of heaven-and-earth qi, pulled one after another into fuel for the calamity.

Those traces of heaven-and-earth qi had been part of the Wandering Star technique itself, and so the scattering crimson starlight and the brilliant sword tip were also pulled irresistibly and irreversibly into the path of the sabers.

Heaven and Earth in Calamity!

Ding Songyan’s expression froze the moment he saw the island shudder from the side of Alpine Lake.

He abandoned all pretense of concealment. His figure flickered, and in an instant he was crossing the lake’s surface, flying toward the dueling ground.

His reaction made Zheng Zhuxi’s heart tighten and slowly sink.

Beneath the dark "starry sky" where the wind and rain had gone still, sword light and saber force collided.

A sudden burst of radiance erupted, and wind and rain scattered in all directions.

It all vanished in an instant, and two figures emerged into the sight of the Brightnight Sect disciples watching in breathless silence.

The Rain Saber knocked Tao Wenshu’s Starwave Sword slightly off course, and it plunged into the spot where Bai Zhaolin’s left shoulder met his chest. Blood gushed bright red, flooding along the patterns etched into the sword. Bai Zhaolin’s thin Wind Saber struck Tao Wenshu in the neck, then ripped downward to her heart, shattering and mangling her organs in its wake.

This was the scene that greeted Ding Songyan.

Unnoticed by the others, he had just stepped onto the island.

...

Flame Capital.

In the hall of the Chancellery, Zheng Ziming was reviewing imperial edicts when he reached for his brush. His wrist suddenly trembled, and he knocked the inkstone beside him off the table.

It shattered into pieces on the floor.

Staring at the shattered inkstone on the floor, Zheng Ziming felt his heart jolt with sudden anguish, and grief overwhelmed him.

He already knew what was about to happen, and yet he was far away and powerless to stop it.

...

Brightnight Sect. Alpine Lake Mountain.

Ding Songyan, Frostshade in hand, walked toward Bai Zhaolin and Tao Wenshu. Behind him, Zheng Zhuxi was frantically hurling branches and anything else she could find, using them as footholds to fly over. Grand Elder Wang Zhou, Eldest Senior Brother Xu Julong, and the others were also making their way to the island by various means.

Seeing Ding Songyan approach, Tao Wenshu, her face already pale, looked at her disciple with a gentle expression.

"Let him go. This was my own lack of foresight. I was simply outmatched."

She withdrew Starwave Sword, and drops of Bai Zhaolin’s blood fell from the blade one by one.

Bai Zhaolin also withdrew his Wind Saber, and bright red blood immediately spewed from Tao Wenshu’s wound before being stemmed by her circulating true qi and the contraction of her muscles.

He glanced at Tao Wenshu and laughed out loud.

"So this is all the Celestial Stars Sword Art amounts to!"

With that, he turned and walked to the edge of the island, laughing.

"Father, I have avenged you.

"This is all the Brightnight Sect amounts to!"

Bai Zhaolin was caught up by a gust of wild wind and swept to the lakeshore, departing with impunity under the furious glares of the Brightnight Sect disciples. Ding Songyan watched in silence and made no move to stop him. He continued toward his master Tao Wenshu and stepped on the few drops of blood beside Starwave Sword.

Tao Wenshu had sunk down cross-legged, her sword resting across her knees.

"Mother!" Zheng Zhuxi came flying over and crouched beside her, urgently searching through her clothing for medicine.

Her vision had blurred without her noticing. She couldn’t see anything clearly.

"It’s too late." Tao Wenshu placed her hand gently over her daughter’s to stop her, then turned to Grand Elder Wang Zhou, who had just arrived. "Master Uncle Wang, Senior Brother Sun is flexible in his methods but holds himself to a strict moral standard. He can be sect master. Until he returns, I’ll have to trouble you and Junior Sister Yan to bear more of the burden for a while."

Senior Brother Sun referred to Elder Sun Tie, currently in charge of the Brightnight Sect’s external affairs. He cultivated the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra as his primary art, was at the second-rank Subtlety Attuned level, and was a fellow disciple of the same generation as Tao Wenshu.

"Very well." Wang Zhou tried to channel true qi to save Tao Wenshu, but found that medicine and effort alike were no use.

Both Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi had already tried before him.

Tao Wenshu looked at her daughter crouching beside her, her face streaked and blotched, and smiled.

"Throughout my life, I have never had cause to be ashamed of my actions. The only person I have failed is your father. All these years, we spent more time apart than together. I always thought that once you had grown up, your father and I would still have many years left to spend by each other’s side. Who could have imagined that there would be no later?

"Take my coffin to Changhua and bury me in the Zheng family ancestral grounds. This is the only way I can keep him company now.

"One memorial tablet at the Brightnight Sect is enough. I had neither father nor mother; it was your grandmaster who raised me. I believe I have done enough for the Brightnight Sect. I have only one regret: I never lived to see our sect produce a Supreme Master."

This woman, who had always been free-spirited and upright in her ways, now wore a look of regret and reluctance.

Zheng Zhuxi wanted to say something, but her throat felt choked with tears, and no sound would come.

Everything before her was a blur of mist; she only felt something wet sliding endlessly down her cheeks.

Tao Wenshu looked at Ding Songyan, crouching beside her daughter, and let out a sigh.

"I shouldn’t be saying this, but Zhuxi is even more unbending than I am, and hard times lie ahead for her. Songyan, will you look after her for me?"

Since coming of age, Ding Songyan had always lived by the saying that a man does not shed tears lightly. Even so, he couldn’t keep his eyes from reddening.

He nodded solemnly.

"Okay."

Tao Wenshu showed a small smile of relief and lifted her right hand with effort, stroking her daughter’s dark hair.

"I have wronged you too, not just your father. Thankfully, you were a child who came into my life to repay me with your love."

"Zhuxi, promise me one thing. Once you’ve calmed down, install the Azure Dragon viscera. Wait until your body has recovered, then take my coffin to Changhua. By then, your father should have arrived. Will you?"

Zheng Zhuxi tried to say yes, but when the word reached her lips it dissolved into sobs. It was only by sheer force of will that she managed a nod in answer.

Tao Wenshu’s hand stroked her daughter’s head, her voice growing fainter and fainter.

"It’s a pity I won’t live to see you take your sword to the Orchid Fresh List and make a name for yourself throughout the realm.

"But truthfully, what I want more than anything is for you to live a peaceful, happy life."

"Sigh..."

Suddenly Zheng Zhuxi felt the hand stroking her head fall away. It brushed across her face as it went, taking some of her tears with it, cold as ice.

Her entire being froze. At last a small sound was forced from her throat.

"Mother!"

The cry was not loud, only a low echo, like the keening of a young animal.

Zheng Zhuxi wept and sobbed softly, feeling as though all color had drained from the world. She was in a dream. Someone dragged her away. Senior Sister Xue took her into her arms. Somehow she was being led along with the others to the Hall of Myriad Stars. Familiar fellow disciples moved all around her—searching for a coffin, setting up the mourning hall, rushing about with one task after another—but she could scarcely make sense of any of it.

In her daze, a thought suddenly struck her.

Where’s Junior Brother?

Where has he gone?

Why don’t I see him?

Surely he isn’t going to...

Zheng Zhuxi finally clawed a thread of thought back from the depths of grief.

...

Deep in a forest dozens of miles from Alpine Lake Mountain.

Bai Zhaolin trusted that the Brightnight Sect’s style would not lead them to retaliate on the spot, but he was still cautious enough to pour all his effort into his movement technique until he had put a good distance behind him, before slowing down to take medicine pills and attend to his wound.

Abruptly, he turned sideways and looked toward one side of the forest.

A figure immediately appeared in front of him. He was dressed in the black tight-fitting clothes of the Brightnight Sect. His hair was tied up simply, and his facial features were upright. His eyebrows were sparse, and he held a sheathed sword in his hand.

That disciple of Tao Wenshu’s? Bai Zhaolin recalled that this was the first Brightnight Sect member to reach the island.

He asked in a low voice, "What is your purpose in following me here?"

Bai Zhaolin knew the blood he had left behind could be used with the Northern Dipper Wayfinding secret art, but he was confident in his mastery of wind. No Grandmaster in the Brightnight Sect should have been able to catch up with him—or so he had thought.

Ding Songyan’s expression was grave. Instead of answering, he asked, "How long will it take for your wound to heal, Senior?"

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