Chapter 43: Shattering the Skies

It was March, and the spring flowers were in full bloom. The armies on both sides were still facing off at the frontlines, and most of the common folk along the border had already fled to the south – although the sparks of war had still failed to be fanned into flames, despite the best efforts of many.

The Fei Qing General Wen Yu placed an extra-thick cloak onto the shoulders of Zhou Yitang, who was busy reading a letter. His eyes still glued to the page before him, Zhou Yitang said: "Thank you."

He subconsciously pulled the cloak tighter round him. Then his hands stilled, before stroking the fabric again. He asked: "Did Mistress Li send this?"

Wen Yu asked in surprise: "How could you tell just from touching it?"

Zhou Yitang brushed a finger along its lining. The parts padded with extra cotton were loosely and messily stitched, such that several wisps of cotton came loose at his touch. Zhou Yitang lowered his head and chuckled: "The poor workmanship."

Wen Yu: "…"

Only a husband could disparage his wife like that.

Just then, a soldier hurried into the room, saying: "General! Mr Zhou, Sir, some people are here requesting to see you, and they brought this."

Zhou Yitang looked up to see that the soldier was holding a broken sabre up for his inspection.

Wen Yu said with astonishment: "Who would've the nerve to do that?"

But Zhou Yitang stood up and took that broken sabre from the soldier's hands, examining it carefully. This was a new sabre that hadn't been sharpened, and its blade was still dull. It had evidently been shattered into several pieces with a single blow. He broke into a smile, and said reproachfully: "Get that rascal to come in here."

Wen Yu looked dumbfounded. Zhou Yitang was the epitome of a perfect gentleman, always keeping his emotions in check behind a mask of politeness, and was neither obsequious to his superiors nor overbearing to his subordinates. Even if that traitor Cao Zhongkun himself had come, Zhou Yitang would have been sure to "invite" him in, instead of "getting" him in. While he was feeling most perplexed, that soldier had already left the tent, and led in a young maiden of about seventeen or eighteen shortly after.

The girl had her back to the sunlight. Her long hair was neatly tied up, she was dressed in a pugilist's close-fitting attire, and a worn Miao sabre was slung across her back. She gave Wen Yu a cursory glance as she entered. As a practitioner of martial arts, Wen Yu was extremely sensitive to the aura that others exuded, and when this girl came in, he was immediately placed on the alert even before he got the chance to look at her face. He instinctively and protectively edged a little closer towards Zhou Yitang, leaning his weight into his left foot. Then he saw that person very familiarly thrust her hand out towards Zhou Yitang and say: "Father, where's the sabre you promised me?"

Astonished once again, Wen Yu had a good look at the girl, finally recognising her – it was in fact Zhou Fei.

The last time he'd seen Zhou Fei was in that lawless inn at the foot of the Heng Mountains. While it had only been a year since then, he'd actually failed to recognise her at once. A girl of Zhou Fei's age wasn't likely to change too much in terms of appearance within that amount of time, and if one looked closely at her, one could see that her features were pretty much the same, and her build hadn't changed much either. However, something about her was just completely different.

From what he could remember of her at the Three Springs Inn, while this teenage girl had been quite outstanding in comparison to her peers, she'd still possessed a bit of childlike ignorance. She'd seemed curious about everything, and eager to get herself involved in whatever she might encounter. But she didn't seem to have a good idea of where she should be going next, or what she should be doing.

When he saw her again today, however, he sensed that she had well and truly grown up. Like the long and slender Miao sabre on her back, she possessed a quiet ferocity, such that nobody who laid eyes on her now would dare underestimate her.

Zhou Fei bowed slightly at him and said: "How have you been, General Wu."

"Very well, thank you," replied Wen Yu. Suddenly feeling like he was intruding, he rubbed his nose awkwardly and said: "I didn't get a chance to see you earlier on at the 48 Zhai. Mr Zhou has missed you dearly, and you're finally back…erm, well, I'll leave you both to it, I have some things that need settling." And then he hastily made his exit.

Zhou Yitang remained standing there, as he looked Zhou Fei up and down. He was as reserved as ever, and having spent the last few years walking the most treacherous of tightropes in the imperial court, he had grown even more restrained. While this daughter of his who he hadn't seen for more than four years had appeared before him out of the blue, he didn't seem surprised or moved in the slightest. He didn't even ask her what the hell she'd been up to all this time. There was just a faint smile on his face, as he stretched out a pale and bony hand and measured roughly three inches with his fingers. He said to Zhou Fei: "You've grown by this much."

Feeling her eyes start to prickle with tears, Zhou Fei forced her lips into a smile, which came out all wobbly: "How could I have grown that much – it's not like I've been downing gallons of milk every day!"

"Of course you have. You didn't even come up to my shoulder back then." His eyes crinkling at the corners, Zhou Yitang beckoned to her and said: "Come, see what I've got for you."

People who hadn't seen each other for a long time inevitably tended to be a little awkward around each other at first, as their memories were still stuck in the past. It would take a while for these old memories to slowly play catch up with their souls, before they could remember how things used to be between them. But for Zhou Fei, even after four long years, spanning more than a thousand days and nights, she felt as if Zhou Yitang had simply returned from a brief trip to the foot of the mountain, bearing several toys he had picked up for her from the local markets. Those streaks of white at his temples were just a dusting of snow that had fallen on him along the way, and could be brushed off with a flick of his hand.

Zhou Yitang's footsteps were almost spry in his excitement, entirely unlike what one might expect of the sombre and dignified 'Gentleman Gan Tang'. He hastened further into the tent, and picked up a box that was more than a metre long from the foot of the neatly-made bed. Rolling up his sleeves, he brought this hefty-looking case out to her with some difficulty: "Come, have a look at this."

Zhou Fei quickly took the heavy box from him, and placed it on a nearby table.

A sabre lay within this box. Its blade was long and graceful. It was of a similar length to the Mountain of Lost Springs, and a little shorter than that slightly unwieldy Miao sabre on her back. Its scabbard had perhaps been a later addition, as it was made of brand new hardwood. It was trimmed with iron and leather on both ends, and was a deep and lustrous black. While it didn't look fancy at all, it certainly wasn't shabby in the slightest.

If the Mountain of Lost Springs could be described as an imposingly dignified gentleman, this sabre was instead as splendidly regal as a prince on horseback. It looked practically invulnerable from top to toe, and would instantly catch one's eye even if buried within a pile of weapons. From its long hilt to the ever so slightly curved tip of its blade, every single part of it exuded a peerless magnificence. It inspired a sense of awe in its beholders, and the longer one looked at it, the more difficult it was to tear one's eyes away from it.

Despite its grand appearance, the weight of this long sabre was in fact very manageable. As Zhou Fei carefully unsheathed it, the sound of the blade scraping against the scabbard rang out softly and clearly across the tent. A finely-forged blade was revealed, along with the inscription at its base –

"Skies Shatter."

"I managed to find quite a number of renowned sabres, but only precious few of them suited you. There were many which only looked good, but were not of much use. Those that were well-preserved were mostly mediocre, while the few amongst these that were not mediocre often came with dark histories," said Zhou Yitang. "Until I came upon this last year – this 'Skies Shatter' is not the work of a renowned master forger, as this was its forger's only piece of work."

"This person's name was Lu Run. He was a fabled figure from the pre-Shao Dynasty, known for being well-versed in the three major fields of literature, martial arts and medicine, when a regular person wouldn't be able to master a single one of these things even if he spent his whole life doing so. By his early twenties, he'd already clinched second place in the imperial examinations, acquired a set of skills that the martial arts community was in awe of, and was even designated as the Chief of the Great Medicine Valley," said Zhou Yitang slowly. "But the common folk at the time were living in great suffering, with the emperor hopelessly inept and the imperial court deeply corrupt and riven with strife, clans in the north and south raring to carve out their own fiefdoms in the central plains, and the land plagued with a series of natural disasters. Lu Run therefore swore a solemn oath to alleviate the suffering of the masses. Declining a position serving the imperial court, he set out throughout the land with just a chest of medicine on his back. He accompanied the army several times to provide them with medical assistance, and frequently went deep into regions beset with the plague, saving numerous lives through strenuous efforts. He was also bosom buddies with the legendary General Zhao Yi."

While Zhou Fei had always been quite hopeless at her studies, she had at least heard of 'Zhao Yi' before. She wasn't too clear about what exactly this person had done – all she knew was that he was a great hero from a past dynasty, a general who was the emperor's right-hand man, and who had eventually been plotted against by others envious of his success, who turned the emperor against him. Many people who mourned his unjust demise created numerous legends about him after his death, and even erected statues in his honour to worship. Not long after this great general Zhao Yi's passing, his descendants declared themselves the rulers of the kingdom, eventually forcing the emperor to abdicate the throne. This led to a change of dynasties – and the beginning of the Zhao clan's reign.

"Once, when the emperor was afflicted with a splitting migraine, he summoned Lu Run to the palace to treat him. And while Lu Run was in the palace, General Zhao was killed by villainous court officials as he was carrying out a military campaign in the remote southwestern frontiers. Lu Run was overcome with anger and grief when he found out, and swore to barge into the palace to slaughter the emperor and all of his conniving officials, who were a bane to the empire. But before he could do so, he received a letter from General Zhao Yi containing his last words, in which Zhao Yi pled with him to think of the bigger picture and the well-being of the common people, and not to do anything drastic that would plunge the land into a bloody war which would only hurt the masses. Zhao Yi also entrusted his family to Lu Run's care. Lu Run had no choice but to abandon his long-held principle of neutrality and get involved in the affairs of the imperial court, going to great lengths to keep the Zhao clan safe, all while putting on a false front of sycophancy before the emperor. And then utterly exhausted in both body and soul, he retired to the Great Medicine Valley, and cut himself off from the outside world entirely. But who could have predicted that just eight years later, the southern barbarians would make incursions into the central plains again, forcing the emperor to once again use the Zhao clan's troops, and that those Zhao brothers who Lu Run had protected with his life would regain their control of the military, only this time, their swords would point towards the capital – "

Zhou Fei's eyes widened.

Although Zhou Yitang had told her all of this before, Zhou Fei had treated this as mere bedtime stories, and forgotten it almost as soon as she'd heard it. But now that her father was patiently recounting this ancient history to her, she seemed to have a deeper understanding of it. She couldn't help but ask: "And then what happened?"

"And then a new dynasty was established. In the first year of this nascent Shao Dynasty, war raged on, and there was unrest throughout the land. The new emperor repeatedly visited the Great Medicine Valley to entreat Lu Run to return to the imperial court, hoping to benefit from his wise counsel. However, Lu Run seemed to have undergone a drastic change in character, as he had become obsessed with the pursuit of deityhood and finding a path to immortality. He spent his days surrounded by potions and herbs of all kinds, concocting all manner of pointless pills and tonics, and acted most bizarrely, bordering on madness. The emperor had no choice but to depart in dejection. He eventually bestowed an imperial plaque to the Great Medicine Valley as a mark of honour, and accorded Lu Run the honorific title of 'Teacher of the Nation'[1] – although Lu Run never accepted this honour."

Zhou Fei thought this story sounded strangely familiar.

"Lu Run was brilliantly talented, and proficient in many diverse fields. Even till today, the master blacksmiths of the eastern seas still keep compilations of his notes on forging for reference. He passed at the age of fifty, some say from poison after consuming one of his concoctions, and never got the chance to see peace reign in the land. After his death, the disciples of the Great Medicine Valley found that most of the personal effects he'd left behind comprised formulas for intensely poisonous pills and potions that could cause great harm, and so they decided to destroy the entire lot of it, except for this one thing…" Zhou Yitang's gaze fell on that long sabre lying quietly in Zhou Fei's hands. "Nobody knows when he forged this. When I came upon it, its scabbard was already worm-eaten and covered with dust. It had probably been left untouched for ages. But the gleam of its blade was like the bitterest of frosts, making one shiver."

Zhou Fei looked down at the two words inscribed on the blade – 'Skies Shatter', feeling as if she was holding that great man's broken soul in her hands.

The life of man was so short and so full of regrets, and one was simply so helpless and powerless in the face of cruel fate.

Yet there would always be someone else to rise up and take up the cause with fervour after you were long gone, unable to deny the call of justice, and knowing this you would go to the grave without any regrets.

"The skies hang darkly overhead, but my blade is capable of shattering the infinite gloom, with nothing in this entire universe that dares to stand in its way." Zhou Yitang smiled and said: "I'd thought that you might like it."

Zhou Fei remained silent for a moment. Then she slid Skies Shatter back into its scabbard, unfastened that Miao sabre which she'd made do with thus far, and smiled at Zhou Yitang: "Father, if you have something to say to me, you can just say it. There's no need for you to go on at length like that, about what this blade means, and all that history stuff. Frankly speaking, I didn't pick up a single book after you left, so I can't say that I always understand whatever it is you're saying."

Zhou Yitang: "…"

It really didn't seem like this child could be his, apart from her looks.

Zhou Fei contemplated his words a little more before asking: "Father, if you were Lu Run, would you have done the same? Would you have hid away in the Great Medicine Valley, immersing yourself in pointless pursuits like concocting Sun-Returning Pills and such?"

Zhou Yitang looked stunned for a moment, before he broke into a faint smile.

"I never used to understand why you had to leave back then, but now I think I do. I used to be mad at you for leaving, but I'm not anymore." Pausing, Zhou Fei added: "I…I ran into a senior on my way here, and after he found out that my last name was Zhou, he asked me to pose a question to you on his behalf."

Zhou Yitang asked: "Hm?"

Zhou Fei replied: "This senior is an old monk, and he wanted to ask you, 'If one uses a sharp blade to slay demons and fell devils, after victory comes, and your blade is dulled, what will you have to sacrifice, to quell the brewing resentment in the hearts of those you have beaten into submission?'"

The smile slowly left Zhou Yitang's face. Zhou Fei took out a little cloth pouch from the travel sack slung on her shoulder, and handed it to him: "The old monk said that if you were unable to answer that question, I should hand this to you."

Zhou Yitang took it from her, but didn't open it. He asked: "Is this Seal of Propriety?"

Zhou Fei was shocked: "How did you know that?"

Zhou Yitang said ruefully: "It would have been a small matter if that to-do in Yongzhou were just a tussle between martial arts pugilists. But both Chu Tianquan and Prince Kang were seen in Yongzhou, following which Prince Kang seems to have vanished entirely, and Megrez of the Big Dipper died inexplicably. If I hadn't even gotten wind of such earth-shattering developments, I should just head home instead of continuing to occupy this ridiculous post – did the old monk tell you that his name was 'Tong Ming'? What did that venerable master give me this for?"

The Seal of Propriety had been on Chu Tianquan when he died, but all those by his corpse – namely Ying Hecong and Zhou Fei – had not been in their right minds at the time, and had clean forgotten about this highly coveted prize. Thankfully, the old monk Tong Ming had passed by that corpse in his pursuit of Xie Yun, saving this Seal of Propriety from languishing in the wild, or getting swiped by some wild beast or other to feather its nest.

Opening the pouch, Zhou Yitang pulled out the seal and examined the water ripple carving on it. He contemplated this for a moment, before he seemed to be struck by a sudden realisation, and he murmured: "Could it be…"

Zhou Fei's ears instantly perked up.

But Zhou Yitang swiftly put the seal back in its pouch without saying anything more. He asked: "Did he say anything else?"

Even though she was itching with curiosity, Zhou Fei dutifully answered: "Oh, he also asked you to help point me in the right direction."

Zhou Yitang arched his brow ever so slightly.

"He told me to ask you where Liang Shao was buried." Fearing that Zhou Yitang might think the old monk wanted to disturb the bones of that poor deceased fellow, Zhou Fei hastily explained: "It's for a…a friend of mine, who's been afflicted with a strange poison. We're at our wits' end about how to cure him of it, and it's said that Liang…I meant that great man was once close to people from the Great Medicine Valley, and possessed many precious items from it, and so…"

"A friend?" Zhou Yitang gave her a look.

Zhou Fei lowered her head and examined the tips of her shoes, which had become of great interest to her all of a sudden, as she nodded: "Mmhmmmm."

A smile briefly flashed across Zhou Yitang's face, although he didn't probe. He said: "Venerable Master Tong Ming is really too scrupulous – I can't believe he got you to ask me, and even offered a gift like this to sweeten the request. Did he really think that I wouldn't tell you?"

Zhou Fei: "…"

Even Zhou Fei knew that Liang Shao had been Zhou Yitang's erstwhile teacher. Venerable Master Tong Ming would probably never have guessed that her father would be this happy to hear that someone wanted to dig up the grave of his old mentor.

"I'll draw you a map," said Zhou Yitang as he handed the Seal of Propriety back to Zhou Fei before adding: "Bring his home and give it to your mother. Tell her to protect it as if it were my life itself. I'll need her to help me safekeep it for a couple of years."

Zhou Fei took it with an obedient "Okay", but then remained where she was.

Zhou Yitang asked curiously: "What is it?"

Fidgeting with the pouch, Zhou Fei said sheepishly: "Ahem…Li Sheng and Li Yan are both outside waiting. They've asked me to bring you home…ahem…you haven't been back for quite a few years, father, and we haven't seen you in a while…"

The second Zhou Yitang heard her mention Li Yan, he understood immediately: "It's because you rascals daren't go home to face your mother, isn't it?"

Zhou Fei: "…"

"If you don't even have the guts to go home, why did you run away in the first place?" Giving her a stern look, Zhou Yitang said: "Wait here, I'll go and have a word with them."

Zhou Fei chuckled softly as he exited the tent. But then her smile slowly faded, as she reached behind her and closed her fingers round the long sabre slung across her back.

The old monk Tong Ming had entrusted her with three things. The first, was to find a text of the Great Medicine Valley that was said to have landed in Liang Shao's possession – the 'Book of a Hundred Poisons' penned by Lu Run.

The second, was to gather all manner of precious objects that were capable of warding off the cold.

The third, was to find a master of internal strength who was proficient in the 'dual chi of yin and yang'.[2]

While she might be able to find a lead or two on the 'Book of a Hundred Poisons', she had no idea what kind of precious objects were capable of warding off the cold, and even the old monk had only been able to name her a few. And as for 'the dual chi of yin and yang', there was only a brief mention of this in the assorted texts in Penglai's archives, and no one really knew what it meant exactly. The Venerable Master Tong Ming had told her that she should be mentally prepared – even if she were to scour the very ends of the earth, it was possible that she might never find any of this, and all these efforts might come to naught in the end.

But she just had to give it a shot.

When Zhou Yitang departed the 48 Zhai, she'd stared fixedly at those iron gates that had slammed firmly shut in her face, and thought he would never be able to return. But now, hadn't he come as close to home as possible, lingering in the proximity of the Shu mountains all this while – waiting for these youngsters to come and give him a good excuse to see his wife once more?

Even if fate presented you with a dead end, how could you be resigned to cooping yourself up in a little valley for the rest of your life?

After all, spring had come again, and the flowers were in bloom.