Wayfarer

Chapter 21: The Top Guqin Master

One month later, deep within a prison of the Taiqing Island, two convicts screamed on a torture rack as a hot brand was held to their chests.

Zhao Yuanjiao watched from a tidy desk nearby.

"Senior Brother, we've gone over and over the new recruits' information until we found a few discrepancies that allowed us to catch these two demonic spies," a disciple reported.

"Have you learned anything from them?" Zhao Yuanjiao asked.

"They're low on the demonic hierarchy, and they don't know very much themselves. They claim that certain nominal disciples will get in touch with them, but they don't know their identities. They also claim that the demonic sect has taken over at least one high-ranking position of the clan."

"To think that the demonic sect's encroachment has grown so extreme..." Zhao Yuanjiao's face grew dark.

"Senior Brother, this is no small affair. Should we report it to the sect leader?" the disciple asked.

"I've already done so. I have taken full charge of this investigation—they'll pay for what they've done!" Zhao Yuanjiao promised. "Do not speak publicly of this. Continue investigating secretly, and figure out what these two spies know. I don't believe that their knowledge is quite so dismal."

"Yes, Senior Brother!"

"Right, has anything happened at the Vault of Scriptures?" Zhao Yuanjiao looked toward the junior disciple.

"Do you refer to Junior Brother Nanfeng, Senior Brother?"

"Junior Brother? It's far too early to call him that, not before we learn more about his background. What's he been up to?" Zhao Yuanjiao asked.

"Are you aware of his fight against Junior Sister Yu'er, Senior Brother?"

"I am. Yu'er is unfamiliar with the Marching Fist. When restricted to the same cultivation and to that sole technique, it's normal that she would lose to that lad—Marching Fist is all he knew, isn't it? Does he really think that being able to recite a few Taoist scriptures is all that impressive? I've memorized more scriptures than he's even aware of. Junior Sister Yu'er is honest to a fault, to have given him three hundred taels of gold just for losing," Zhao Yuanjiao criticized.

"Senior Brother, Elder Ku seems particularly taken with his new disciple. He personally spent five days tutoring him in Hegemon's Fist before entering secluded cultivation. Furthermore, despite Elder Ku's tendency of punishing disciples with reciting scriptures, he hasn't done that a single time to Xiao Nanfeng," the disciple reported.

"Individual tutelage, and five days in a row at that?" Zhao Yuanjiao frowned.

"Yes, Senior Brother! In the next twenty days since, he's led a very structured life. He spends all morning practicing Hegemon's Fist, and the afternoon and night reading in the Vault of Scriptures."

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"Reading in the Vault of Scriptures? Has he tried to access the second floor?" Zhao Yuanjiao narrowed his eyes.

"No, Senior Brother. He doesn't qualify to do so, and he's never made such an attempt. He seems to be spending all his time reading Taoist scriptures intently on the first floor. He's obsessed with them."

"Intently? Obsessed?" Zhao Yuanjiao glanced at his junior in shock.

Taoist scriptures were cryptic and near-impossible to understand. He had memorized his fair share of them, but would hardly claim to understand the vast majority fully. Trying to read one deeply had, it was well known, a soporific effect. How could Xiao Nanfeng be obsessed with them?

"Even to the point of forgetting to eat, Senior Brother," the disciple reported.

Zhao Yuanjiao: ...

"He's read no fewer than three hundred Taoist scriptures over the last month, the majority of which deal with fist techniques," the disciple continued.

Zhao Yuanjiao's eyebrows rose in skepticism. "What? Three hundred in a month? Ten scriptures a day? Are you trying to fool me?"

"It's true, Senior Brother!"

"Doing so would be impossible even if he were just reading each one in a cursory fashion. He has to be feigning it—he's just trying to mislead us," Zhao Yuanjiao concluded.

"But... that's what the disciple in charge of watching him reported, Senior Brother!"

"Ridiculous. How many such scriptures could you read 'intently, as if obsessed' for a month straight? He must have suspected that he'd be watched, so he's trying to trick us all—but unfortunately for him, he's overdone it. Ten scriptures a day? Does he think us all fools?"

"Senior Brother, then..."

"Keep tailing him. Track who he talks to and communicates with—there's definitely someone he's in contact with. He'll surely avoid our surveillance to meet up with whoever his contact is. When that happens, seize and interrogate him straight away."

"Seize him? But he's Elder Ku's disciple! We—"

"Seize him!" Zhao Yuanjiao commanded.

"Understood!"

The Vault of Scriptures, at daybreak: as he basked in a ray of dawn light, Xiao Nanfeng sat cross-legged, meditating and absorbing the qi of dawn. Half an hour later, as he spat out a mouthful of turbid air, he slowly opened his eyes.

The sound of chanting and recitation surrounded him and left him in a state of bliss.

Just then, a nominal disciple strode up to him with a lunchbox.

"Senior Brother Nanfeng, you've been quite lucky! A batch of golden spirit eels was sent to the kitchen yesterday, and I've prepared a slightly smaller one according to your preferences. This eel cost a hundred taels of gold," the nominal disciple reported.

"Thank you."

"No thanks is necessary, Senior Brother. I'm just a nominal disciple working under Senior Sister Yu'er. Please, just call me Tang!"

Xiao Nanfeng handed Tang a hundred taels of gold. Over the course of this month, he had spent all 1,300 tales of gold of his stipend on food of pure yang, and this was the last of that stipend.

As he sat by a dining table nearby and ate, he suddenly heard Yu'er's laughter from a distance. "I knew you'd be interested in this batch of golden spirit eels! But are you trying to make them all drool to death?"

"Senior Sister? What are you doing here?" Xiao Nanfeng turned in the direction of the voice

to see Yu'er strolling over in tight-fitting robes, a large smile on her face.

"I'm here to check up on just how much you've been spending, of course!" Yu'er laughed again. "Look at those poor disciples reciting scriptures by the Cliff of Meditation. Recitation is punishment enough, but now they even have to bear with hunger pangs from the smell of your food! Have you spared them a thought at all?"

As if on demand, several disciples' stomachs rumbled all at once.

Xiao Nanfeng smiled. "My senior brothers and sisters can buy their own food, can't they? It's not as though they're forbidden to eat while reciting their scriptures."

Yu'er rolled her eyes. "The stipend is a thousand taels of gold for the entire year, but you've finished it all in just one month! What are you going to do for the rest of the year? Do you think the others are like you?"

Upon hearing that, the disciples by the cliff all smirked at Xiao Nanfeng. He'd be eating mud for the rest of the year, at that rate!"

"I don't have a choice, Senior Sister," Xiao Nanfeng replied. "As you know, my cultivation will stagnate otherwise."

"Well, I'm personally hoping you buy more—that's how I make money, after all. I fought for this eel with my very life! I accompanied a few other disciples out raiding an aquatic spirit lair, and we found plenty of golden spirit eels there," Yu'er described proudly.

"Ah? Did my hundred taels of gold end up lining your pocket, then?"

"Not quite. The profits were evenly divided among us all based on our contribution. I only earned about a thousand taels," Yu'er replied. Her tone was modest, but her eyes were laced with pride.

"You can make money and eat your fill of demonic lifeforms on these expeditions?" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes lit up.

"Oh? Is that a look of interest in your eyes? Would you like to go out exploring and making money with me?" Yu'er tempted Xiao Nanfeng.

Xiao Nanfeng considered matters thoughtfully for a moment, then resolutely shook his head. "No, not yet. Given my current cultivation, I'd just be a walking target. Better for me to remain in the sect and practice diligently."

"Che! You've already used up your 1,300 taels of gold. How do you intend to cultivate? Without any foods of pure yang, your cultivation will grind to a halt!"

"There's no need for you to worry, Senior Sister! Even without any such food, the Vault of Scriptures is right here waiting for me. Reading all these scriptures is enough to make me happy," Xiao Nanfeng replied.

Yu'er: ...

This was what irritated Yu'er most about Xiao Nanfeng. She had believed that Xiao Nanfeng was just trying to flatter Elder Ku when he pronounced the Vault of Scriptures a paradise, but over the course of the month, she had witnessed him diligently reading Taoist scriptures all afternoon each day. Reading is enough to make you happy? Are you crazy? This is clearly thick-skinned flattery!

"Did you come find me for a reason, Senior Sister?"

"What, do I need a reason to speak with you? I had the best chef prepare your eel, and this is how you treat me?" Yu'er glared at Xiao Nanfeng.

Xiao Nanfeng bowed his head. "I apologize, Senior Sister. If there's anything I can help you with, please let me know."

"Aha! I was waiting for you to say just that!" Yu'er's eyes lit up.

Xiao Nanfeng: ...

"Don't worry, I won't make things difficult for you. I simply want to apprentice under Elder Ku, and I'm hoping you'll advocate on my behalf," Yu'er requested earnestly.

"Is Elder Ku particularly skilled at the guqin?" Xiao Nanfeng asked curiously.

"You're unaware?" Yu'er cried out.

"I know that Master is extremely strong, but not to what extent. Could you tell me more?"

Yu'er glanced at Xiao Nanfeng with a strange expression on her face. "How lucky you are—and you don't even know it!"

Xiao Nanfeng: ...

"Let's put it this way: Elder Ku's cultivation is founded on his understanding of the guqin. He's the master of this field in the sect, and even the sect master would pale to him in his specialty—oh, but I think there was someone in the past able to compete on equal grounds with Elder Ku, but he hasn't been heard from in years," Yu'er recalled.

"Oh? Who?"

"I think his name was... Xiao Hongye? Some elder of the Mortal division."

"Xiao Hongye?" Xiao Nanfeng raised an eyebrow. Isn't that... my father?