Chapter 49: The New Generation

Rays of morning light filtered through the trees in this little corpse-strewn clearing, as brightly as they illuminated the devastation in the Liu Manor.

Those who had managed to survive still looked ashen-faced and shaken to the core – after the traumatic events of last night. When those ghastly bugs came exploding out of that creature's body, everyone had been practically falling over each other in a mad rush to escape. Thankfully Li Sheng had kept his cool through it all, getting his men to swiftly light their torches while rallying the various sects to stand their ground. This had allowed them to sprinkle what was left of 'Rush of Fire' at these bugs and burn them all, saving everyone here from a gruesome fate.

And just as they'd managed to get the situation back under control for a bit, those terrifying bugs had suddenly dropped dead to the ground, all at once. Li Sheng's initial shock at this was swiftly followed by joy, as he knew that this must mean Zhou Fei had managed to stop Yin Pei. But before he could heave a sigh of relief, every single one of those eighteen creatures had flown into a crazed rage, and started to massacre everyone in sight. Li Sheng had nearly had a total breakdown then, and he'd shouted himself hoarse. He really didn't know how he'd managed to make it through the night – even following Zhou Yitang into battle hadn't been this harrowing. Yet when it finally ended, he still couldn't collapse to the ground in a dead faint, even though that was the only thing he wanted to do right now. While the various sects present had been forced into this by him, after going through a night of hell together they'd already begun to look to Li Sheng as something of a leader, despite his youth. They were now thronging round him, bombarding him with numerous questions and comments and words of thanks.

Li Sheng finally got himself a taste of what Zhou Fei had experienced when she'd first been hailed as the 'Southern Blade'. While all of this attention was an incredible bother, he was nevertheless compelled to put on a polite front, all the while wishing for the first time in his life that Zhou Fei would return as soon as possible, so that he could give her all the credit for killing these monsters and their parasites.

But where had Zhou Fei gone?

Li Sheng first found Wu Chuchu, who was still hiding within the large outcropping of fake rocks in the courtyard. Wu Chuchu had been placed here by Zhou Fei very early on in the fight. Being cautious by nature, and afraid of being a burden to anyone because of her poor martial arts skills, she'd very obediently kept herself concealed, just as Zhou Fei had told her to. Regardless of all the terrifying shouts and screams coming from outside, she hadn't even taken a single peek, and so she didn't know where Zhou Fei had gone either.

Li Sheng waited here from the wee hours of the morning till the sun began to peek over the horizon, but there was still no sign of Zhou Fei.

At first, hemmed in on all sides by a horde of grateful pugilists, he'd cursed Zhou Fei for abandoning him like this. But when he still didn't see her the next morning, he started to get a little anxious.

Throughout the last few years, Zhou Fei had spent most of her time away from home getting up to god-knows-what. She'd even had the balls to set fire to the manor of Tong Kaiyang from the Big Dipper, for heaven's sake. Yet she was still alive and kicking today, proving that she'd never gotten into any trouble that she couldn't get herself out of. While he didn't know how far her skills had advanced by now, he knew for sure that staying alive shouldn't be a problem for her…but Yin Pei's powers were practically out of this world right now – his martial arts far surpassed anything he'd ever seen before, and he had those ghastly bloodsucking bugs on him to boot. If Zhou Fei went after him on her own, would she be able to survive?

While Li Sheng was still trying his best to maintain a mask of equanimity, the anxiety he was feeling started to simmer nervously, like a pot of water over a fire. And as the sky started to get brighter and brighter, this water started to bubble more and more fiercely, the pot rattling dangerously as if it were about to boil over at any second.

Since both the bugs and creatures in the Liu Manor had collapsed, he could reasonably infer that the queen parasite had been killed.

But how had she been killed? Had Zhou Fei done it?

Li Sheng hadn't even seen Zhou Fei leave just now – if she'd really been the one who killed the queen parasite, would she have been able to extricate herself from Yin Pei's clutches after that? And what if she failed to do so? How would he explain this to his aunt?

The more he thought about this the worse he felt. Yet the crowd around him simply refused to give him the space to sit in one corner and brood over this, as they clamoured incessantly for his attention.

"Young Master Li, what should we do about the corpses of these creatures?"

"Young Master Li, we've made arrangements for all of the wounded – what do you think we should do with those poisoned by the bugs?"

"Young Master Li, people say that the Big Dipper has been harassing these parts of late – with everything that happened here last night, will we draw the attention of those dogs of the Northern Dynasty?"

"Young Master Li…"

Li Sheng felt like his head was about to explode, and he seriously regretted getting involved in all of this. He wished he could go back in time to the night before and give himself two tight slaps. He grumbled bitterly to himself: Why do you always have to poke your nose into everything! Did you fancy yourself back in the Shu Mountains? Why did you rush blindly into this! Was this your battle to fight?

Li Sheng had come to the Liu Manor purely as a polite show of support to Old Mister Liu, at Li Jinrong's behest. So when those eighteen creatures had appeared just now, he'd immediately retreated together with the other sects here.

While the 48 Zhai had previously been a kingdom unto itself, rarely ever mixing with those from other sects, after Cao Ning and his troops had besieged them three years ago Li Jinrong was finally made to admit the hard truth that many of the sects in the 48 Zhai were on the decline – what had happened to all of those lionhearted pugilists that banded together with the Southern BladeLi Zheng to become 'bandits by imperial decree'! The names of any one of those great men and women had commanded the deepest awe and respect. But could the same be said about the youths of today?

If even Li Sheng – who in his younger days had been average at best – had been considered 'outstanding' amongst his peers in the 48 Zhai, it was evident that its future was pretty bleak.

In these tumultuous times, it was impossible for a sheltered utopia in the mountains to nurture any sturdy oaks – all it could do was grow a whole mountain-ful of vulnerable sprouts that were all too easily picked off by ruthless passers-by. Keenly aware of this, Li Jinrong had deliberately resumed the 48 Zhai's relations with the outside world over the last two years, and now regularly sent its young disciples out on missions for exposure.

In his efforts to assemble the various major sects to crush the Iron-Faced Devil this time, Old Mister Liu had naturally included the 48 Zhai when sending out his requests for help. And when Li Jinrong received his letter, she instantly knew what was likely to happen – while the major sects would agree to avoid seeming cowardly, over the last few years those which were still surviving had long grown comfortable staying well away from trouble. Even if they went, they might not actually offer any real help at all. They were probably planning to provide a morale boost at most, and should someone really manage to step forward and kill that monster, they would proceed to clean up after that and consider their job done. But the very second they caught the slightest whiff of disaster, they were sure to run for the hills as fast as possible.

As Li Sheng just so happened to be somewhere nearby, Li Jinrong had asked him to go on her behalf, and sent a team of pugilists from their secret post in the next city to assist him.

Li Sheng had been conscientious since young, and always appeared reliably calm and composed when he was with strangers. He had none of Zhou Fei's notoriously quick temper, and so Li Jinrong hadn't worried that he might get into any trouble. She'd asked several of her old friends from other sects to help keep an eye on him, while also urging her nephew to "act as smartly as possible, exercise utmost caution, do as your elders do, and not draw undue attention to yourself" – she'd simply meant this as an opportunity for him to get to know pugilists from other sects. With renowned sects like Shaolin and Wudang taking the lead, all he'd needed to do was provide perfunctory back-up for them if they decided to fight, and make a hasty escape along with them if they ended up fleeing. He couldn't go wrong if he followed whatever these seasoned pugilists did.

Alas, fate had other plans in store for him.

Mistress Li would never have suspected that the 'reliably calm and composed' demeanour which Young Master Li displayed before her was mostly a front. At crucial moments, he could be even more impetuous than the seemingly reckless Zhou Fei. In the end, Young Master Li had very selectively adhered to Mistress Li's instructions, only taking in the first and last parts and omitting everything else in between – he'd "acted as smartly as possible…drawing undue attention to himself".

Stopping himself just short of yelling 'Stop bothering me!', Li Sheng forced his lips into a smile that could only be described as pained, and addressed the crowd with as much calm as he could muster: "The corpses must certainly be disposed of together with the bugs, let's pile them up over there and burn them. As for those who have been poisoned, could I trouble Brother Yang…"

While Yang Jin himself was only good for fighting, his brethren from the Cloud-Bracing Valley proved quite useful now. At Li Sheng's words, they immediately shoved aside their chief, whose limbs had been developed exclusively for sabre-wielding, and swiftly attended to the wounded.

Old Mister Liu chipped in: "Spare no expense with your medicines, gentlemen, the Liu Manor will bear all of the costs."

Li Sheng continued: "And as for the Big Dipper, they are indeed in the vicinity. I encountered them not too long ago, and had a run-in with Tong Kaiyang over something else. They should be on their way south by now…but we can't be sure, so just to be safe, could I request that you send some of your men to patrol this manor's surroundings?" After further thought, Li Sheng added: "If anything happens, you can use the 48 Zhai's flares to send a message back here."

Sighing in admiration, Old Mister Liu said: "The young have truly overtaken us – please listen to whatever Young Master Li here tells you to do."

Li Sheng shot him a grateful smile. Then gathering the 48 Zhai disciples around him, he said softly: "Split up into three teams and go outside with them. I want you to search for Zhou Fei, but don't let anyone else know about this."

These young disciples immediately followed Li Sheng's orders. They seemed to be joining the others in patrolling the surrounding forest, although they were in fact using this as an excuse to find Zhou Fei.

After Li Sheng had finally answered everyone's questions and earned himself a little peace and quiet, Li Jinrong's instructions to him came to mind, and he couldn't help but wallow in bitter regret again – when he'd first arrived at the Liu Manor, a number of senior pugilists had approached him in greeting, and even made friendly introductions for him with many others here. Li Sheng had known instantly that this must have been Li Jinrong's doing, as she'd probably asked her old contacts to take good care of him.

However, while they had indeed looked out for him, he'd dragged all of them down with him in a moment of impetuousness.

Li Sheng had been impressively bold and decisive then – but now that he thought back on the mess he'd gotten everyone into, all he felt was wave after wave of remorse. To atone for it all, he decided to humbly hang his head and go from sect to sect to check in on them. And after attending to them all, he sat himself down to seriously reflect on the consequences of his actions.

Thankfully, nobody else knew how much regret he was feeling right now. While most of them were forced into action by Li Sheng at first, this battle had after all managed to take the thus-far-unchallenged Iron-Faced Devil down a peg or two – even though they couldn't be sure if the real Iron-Faced Devil was among the corpses burning in this courtyard, they had still stuck it to him by killing this horde of creatures, and stamping out so many of those ghastly bugs. As pugilists who claimed to stand for justice and righteousness, they'd been cowering away in safety all this while mostly because they had no other choice – else which one of them would have readily chosen to be a coward? So even though they had grumbled against Li Sheng at first, now that the victory was theirs, and the lad was the picture of humility – Old Mister Liu's mollifying wit and humour certainly helped as well – they decided to let this go.

After sitting in a quiet corner of the courtyard in recuperative meditation for a good long while, Madame Cirrus came over to bid Li Sheng farewell. While it had been years since the Feathercloud Troupe formally retired as assassins, they still preferred not to mingle with the rest.

Madame Cirrus said: "If there's nothing else for us to do here, we'll be leaving."

Li Sheng hesitated to respond. This was still the Liu Manor after all, so Old Mister Liu should be the one to usher his guests out.

While Madame Cirrus was well into middle age by now, she didn't look her age, as she'd always taken very good care of herself, and her advanced martial arts had certainly kept her youthful as well. In fact, as the years passed, she had acquired a world-weary seductiveness that made Li Sheng blush when she glanced at him – and there was even a bevy of pretty young girls behind her who were winking at him flirtatiously. Li Sheng quickly averted his gaze and gave her a deep bow of respect, of the kind that a youth might give to his seniors: "Indeed, many thanks to you for your help. Godspeed, Madame."

Madame Cirrus' gaze lingered on his face. Then with a soft giggle, she raised Li Sheng's chin towards her with an elegant finger.

While Li Sheng was a hot-blooded young male, as he'd grown up with Li Yan and Zhou Fei he thought of girls only as one of two things: 'bothersome troublemakers' or 'irritating idiots'. He'd read his fair share of scandalously explicit novels, but purely out of curiosity. As for any real-life girls beyond the page, he'd always treated them with a kind of aloof respect, which was also somewhat influenced by Zhou Yitang's gentlemanly ways. Unless he had something important to ask them, he would absolutely not initiate casual conversation with girls who weren't related to him. He'd never had to deal with such an onslaught of feminine charm before, and was immediately frightened half out of his wits, his face tensing as he took a step back.

Madame Cirrus chuckled heartily: "My dear boy, I'm old enough to be your grandmother. Why so shy?"

Li Sheng took yet another step back: "You're making fun of me now, ma'am."

"Ah, you're no fun at all, just like your grandfather." Madame Cirrus tapped him lightly and playfully on the forehead. Her laughter subsided as she grew serious once more. Lowering her voice, she said to Li Sheng: "You should try to gain more exposure to the martial arts world in future. I'm guessing that's what your aunt desires as well, else she wouldn't have sent you here."

Li Sheng didn't know it was possible for a person to change her demeanour so quickly and completely. He stared back at Madame Cirrus in bewilderment.

Madame Cirrus looked around her at the pugilists in the Liu Manor as she said softly: "Everyone's treating you well not solely out of respect for Mistress Li. When you led them last night in beating back Yin…the Iron-Faced Devil, they must have seen a glimmer of hope."

Li Sheng continued staring at her, as bewildered as ever.

"You are descended from greatness," said Madame Cirrus to him with a smile. "When villains run rampant, and everyone fears for their lives, barely able to survive under crushing oppression, all of them hope for someone like Li Zheng or Yin Wenlan to emerge. Don't you understand?"

Li Sheng thought to himself: What nonsense is this! I haven't even picked up any of the Li Clan's Snow-Breaking Sabre yet!

Witnessing Zhou Fei's sabre in action had made Li Jinrong realise that she'd held far too limited a view of the younger generation, which had convinced her to pen down the full technique of the Snow-Breaking Sabre for him to learn. And while Zhou Fei was short-tempered, she was quite generous by nature, and extremely proud of her martial arts knowledge to boot. She would respond to any questions he had on this topic in complete detail, and would certainly not withhold anything from him.

But as Li Sheng was too used to wielding his twin swords by now, and already heavily influenced by the various techniques of the 48 Zhai's sects, he'd found the Snow-Breaking Sabre impossible to fully grasp despite his best efforts. He'd eventually given up, settling for having gone through the moves before and possessing a general idea of his clan's renowned technique at least, and hadn't bothered investing any more time and effort to learn it.

"Don't underestimate yourself." Madame Cirrus' eyes crinkled in a smile, revealing several endearing wrinkles at their corners. "Great leaders aren't always those with the most powerful martial arts. You're a good one, boy. Think hard about the path you choose to take, and don't let your ancestors' sacrifices go to waste – oh, and please say hello to Zhou Fei for me."

And then without waiting for Li Sheng to respond, she turned and left with her girls in a flurry of coloured silks.

Still baffled, Li Sheng couldn't help but say to Wu Chuchu: "What does she mean by that? Does she want me to follow in Huo Liantao's footsteps and attempt to lead the martial arts world too?"

Wu Chuchu blinked back at him in surprise, but before she could say anything, Li Sheng realised that he'd spoken to her far too familiarly, like he might towards Li Yan. Overcome with embarrassment, he lowered his head and mumbled: "I'm heading out to look for Zhou Fei too."

And then he scooted off as quickly as possible.

While he'd already been uncomfortable with the fawning praises of the pugilists here, their admiring glances now reminded him of what Madame Cirrus had said: "All of them hope for someone like Li Zheng or Yin Wenlan to emerge". Feeling like he was about to suffocate in here, he lowered his head so he wouldn't have to meet their eyes and hurriedly slipped out of the Liu Manor.

Just as Li Sheng had made his escape from the Liu Manor, he barely had time to heave a sigh of relief before someone darted out from the surrounding trees, squarely blocking his path.

While Li Sheng almost brandished his sword at first, he was instantly overcome with equal parts joy and anger after he got a clearer look at who this was. He yelled: "Zhou Fei, where the hell have you been!"

"There's no time for any of your usual nonsense," said Zhou Fei. Grabbing his arm, she said: "Quick, tell them that you're leaving and come with me!"

Having worried himself sick the entire night for nothing at all, Li Sheng was seething mad. He planted both feet firmly on the ground and asked petulantly: "Where am I supposed to go with you? Where have you been? Why were you gone for so long, and…"

Furrowing his brow, he looked Zhou Fei up and down, taking in the tattered state of her dirty clothes, and swatted her filthy hand away. He was about to ask Zhou Fei if she'd just been rolling about in the mud, when she pulled out something wrapped in cloth and handed it to him with a flourish: "Oh yes, take this."

Li Sheng took it suspiciously: "What…"

But the rest of his question died on his lips, as Li Sheng found himself face to face with two halves of the queen parasite.

He felt his heartbeat suddenly accelerate from 'a nice stroll' to 'tearing madly ahead', and his heart nearly leapt right out of his chest. Li Sheng's first instinct was to fling it away, but then he quickly remembered that while this queen parasite was the vilest of creatures, it was also extremely rare, and so he frantically stopped it from slipping out of his grasp. He stood there frozen, unsure if he should throw it away or keep it with him.

Li Sheng held the queen parasite in his trembling hands. This thing felt oppressively heavy to him. Its wings and skeleton-like body were extraordinarily hard, such that he could feel them poking him even through the cloth. Yet the belly of this bug looked as soft as a caterpillar's body, and he was sure that if he pressed on it lightly, it would squirm and emit a terrifying chirp.

Scared stiff, Li Sheng said tremulously: "What…what is it?"

"Yin Pei's queen parasite," said Zhou Fei. "It seems to be a pretty big deal. While I myself don't know what it's good for, you'd better keep it first, in case it turns out to be of use to us."

Instead of burning this cursed menace to ash, she'd been crazy enough to bring it back with her!

Li Sheng felt sure that the sight of mere caterpillars would give him goosebumps from now on. He forced himself to stay calm, wishing that both of his hands would lose all sensation right now. He barely succeeded in stopping himself from shrieking and flinging that queen parasite onto Zhou Fei's face.

Zhou Fei continued: "Cousin, why don't you come with me? Let's find the Qimen Sect's secret base together. Didn't Chong Yunzi teach you quite a lot of their techniques? I still can't figure out those darned difficult tactical formations."

Li Sheng snorted: "Beg me then."

As he said this, he glanced back a tad anxiously at the Liu Manor. It didn't seem quite right for him to just run off with Zhou Fei like this.

Zhou Fei said impatiently: "Why are you still worrying about them? Take it from me – by tomorrow, they'll be telling tales of how you killed a whopping two hundred and fifty Yin Peis with one blow; the day after, they'll be pestering you to be the leader of the martial arts world; and then the day after that, the Big Dipper or some obscure villain or other will start to come after you, and highly disturbed young pugilists from all over will be begging you to spar with them; and then after that, you might very well suffer criticism for not living up to your great reputation, and end up becoming the next Huo Liantao – all of this because you foolishly allowed things to snowball."

This was a little exaggerated, and made Li Sheng want to laugh out loud at first. He'd intended to put on his best impression of a wise older brother and sagely counsel her against being so cynical, but then he recalled what Madame Cirrus had said to him, and found that he didn't feel like laughing anymore.

As soon as Zhou Fei was done speaking, Li Sheng promptly took off his outer robe and wrapped it securely round the Nirvana Parasite several times, tying it into a little sack that he fastened round his waist. He said to Zhou Fei: "I need to fetch Li Yan first."

As he'd feared Li Yan's loose lips might give the game away, Li Sheng had left her with several dependable 48 Zhai disciples in an inn close by the Liu Manor, telling her that she was there to 'receive' them, when she was actually just there for safekeeping. It wouldn't take long for him to go there and back.

He returned with Li Yan in short order, while Zhou Fei too had sent some of the 48 Zhai disciples back to the Liu Manor to get Wu Chuchu.

Li Sheng wrote an extremely respectful farewell letter to Old Mister Liu, and asked the 48 Zhai disciples here to convey it to him. Then along with the three girls, he sneaked undetected from the Liu Manor and headed south.