Secret Rumors

Zhang Yuanshan's mind was a mess. All he could picture was Qi Xia smiling as she introduced the Tang Flower on the Reincarnation Plaza, explaining all manner of miscellaneous knowledge about mechanisms and hidden weapons. He had originally thought that if anyone dared risk exposing the truth about the Reincarnation World, it would have to be either him or Jiang Zhiwei—not Qi Xia, who seemed to have encountered the things she had dreamed of in the Reincarnation World, and whose wish now seemed within reach!

Who could have known that while he was still hesitating, she had already made up her mind? No—she seemed to have made up her mind long ago!

Had her delight before and after the exchange just been an act?

No, it didn't seem fake. Perhaps her delight simply couldn't overpower her determination to escape danger!

As soon as Qi Xia spoke, Kong Wen looked at her and recited, "Amitabha. Please, Benefactor Qi, go ahead."

"What do you know?" Daoist Shou Zhuo, seething with anger toward the true culprit, looked at Qi Xia and waited for her to offer a clue.

For a moment, Su Wuming, Xuan Yuanzi, and Qi Xia's father, Qi Yuantong, all turned their eyes toward her. They couldn't understand how she, several courtyards away from Xuantian Sect's quarters, could have discovered anything related to Qing Jing's death. If she had run into something while getting up in the night, they would have sensed it in their sleep as well. Or rather, anything capable of evading their senses could never have been stumbled upon by Qi Xia, a young woman who had yet to open her orifices.

Zhang Yuanshan instinctively edged behind his martial uncle Xuan Yuanzi. His left hand clenched without his realizing it, while his right touched his sword hilt. The cold feel of it eased the tension and worry within him a little, but his mouth remained dry. He stole a glance at Jiang Zhiwei and saw that her right hand was also resting on her sword hilt.

After blurting out those words, Qi Xia had no room to turn back. She looked at the elders and Dragon Subduing Arhat Kong Wen, secretly hoping that a Dharmakaya-level expert could frighten off and stop the Lord of Six Paths Samsara. Even if Abbot Kong Wen was the mastermind behind it all, he would protect her in front of all these witnesses so as not to expose himself. He might even escort her back to the Great River Gang himself. Once there, her father and the other elders would surely be on guard thanks to her warning, and would bring out their sect-protecting divine weapon, the Sea-Stepping River-Flipping Cudgel. Then she would be safe.

"Reporting to you, Abbot, Qing Jing and I were both targeted by the Six—" Qi Xia began, trying to put her words together in a way that would alert the elders as quickly as possible.

The instant she uttered the word "Six," Qi Xia suddenly felt her heart pounding wildly. Blood rushed upward, her head throbbed, her throat tightened, and she couldn't breathe.

Crack!

Qi Xia seemed to hear a sharp sound of something breaking in the unseen world. Her vision turned scarlet. She vaguely saw a large hand shimmering with solemn Buddha-light reaching toward her, its gentle, calming aura seeking to save her. At the same time, a streak of sword light, like Azure Nether beyond the heavens, appeared in a flash and pointed at the empty space three inches behind her.

"The Lord of Six Paths Samsara actually dared to strike in front of a Dharmakaya-level expert..."

"Too bad they were a little late..."

Bitterness, regret, shock, and indignation filled Qi Xia as she plunged into endless darkness. Her body crumpled to the ground.

"Xia'er!" Qi Yuantong cried out in anguish, like a white-haired fisherman from a poem. His movement was swift as he caught her, pouring True Qi into her body from his palm as if it cost him nothing, but she showed no response.

While Jiang Zhiwei still wore a dazed, shocked expression, Su Wuming withdrew his long sword and ran his left hand along its blade. His half-closed eyes opened, their edge sharper than words could describe, but his expression was unusually grave, full of thought.

"Amitabha. This old monk was too late." Kong Wen pressed his palms together. The solemn, sacred Buddha-light no longer shone around him, and for the first time, shock and bewilderment appeared on his placid face.

He pretended to have been caught off guard and to have arrived too late... Zhang Yuanshan's mind roared as if struck by a succession of thunderclaps. Shock and fear, relief and lingering dread, frustration and self-reproach all tangled together, impossible to sort out.

Suddenly, a flash of insight came to him. "No, that's not right. Abbot Kong Wen didn't even reveal his Arhat Golden Body just now. If he really was doing as I suspected—pretending to be caught off guard and to have arrived too late—then at the end he should have done everything in his power to prove his innocence. Yet he just went through the motions! Perhaps he really was caught off guard? Even I, who know what's going on, never expected the Lord of Six Paths Samsara to strike so quickly, so ruthlessly, so mysteriously..."

He looked at Qi Xia, lifeless in Qi Yuantong's arms, and felt as though a giant hand had seized his heart. Grief and heaviness nearly stopped him from breathing.

Daoist Shou Zhuo had also been too late to save her. At first, he glared at Kong Wen, seemingly ready to berate him for holding back and failing to use his full strength, as if he were connected to the true culprit. But his expression suddenly shifted several times, as though he had recalled something, and he gradually calmed down. Xuan Yuanzi, Qi Yuantong, and the others did not speak up either.

"Benefactors, what happened to Benefactor Qi just now reminded this old monk of several similar incidents," Kong Wen said slowly. "It was also my own momentary negligence that kept me from connecting them with what happened to Benefactor Qing Jing. Otherwise, I might have been able to save Benefactor Qi."

Several similar incidents? Zhang Yuanshan felt that too many things had happened tonight for him to take in. He looked at Kong Wen, tense and shocked, and, as expected, saw that Jiang Zhiwei wore much the same expression and held herself much the same way.

Fortunately, everyone else reacted similarly, so the two of them didn't stand out.

"I'd be grateful to hear more," Xuan Yuanzi said with a salute. Qi Yuantong's slightly bloodshot eyes also turned toward Kong Wen.

Kong Wen sighed. "Have any of you heard of the mysterious organization called Immortal Trace? Whenever one of its members tries to reveal the organization's secrets, they die mysteriously, just like Benefactor Qi. I suspect there may be some sort of curse inside their bodies, one that, once triggered, can draw on a power from the unseen world."

"Immortal Trace? I once crossed hands with their Doumu Yuanjun. Heh, I nearly lost my life," Xuan Yuanzi said self-deprecatingly. "But I've never captured one of their members, so I've never seen a mysterious death like this."

"What? You nearly lost your life? And who is this Doumu Yuanjun?" Daoist Shou Zhuo asked incredulously, his temper flaring.

Xuan Yuanzi was the True Martial Sect's chief of affairs. Though he wasn't among the sect's very top experts, he was still a renowned figure on the Earth Ranking, with strength close to Daoist Shou Zhuo's. The thought that he could be defeated by an expert from an obscure "organization" was hard to accept.

"As far as this old monk knows, Immortal Trace has very few full members, no more than twenty. Each takes the name of a renowned Daoist, immortal, or deity from the Ancient Mythology Era, and none reveal their true names. Doumu Yuanjun is one of them." Kong Wen explained this to those present who had never heard of Immortal Trace.

Xuan Yuanzi gave a wry smile and shook his head. "Abbot, you certainly know more than I do. I somehow ran into that Doumu Yuanjun and fought a battle, then fled in a sorry state. Aside from the name Immortal Trace and my opponent's title, I learned nothing. Hmm, ten years ago, Doumu Yuanjun should already have been at the peak of the Exterior Scenery realm."

"They use the names of immortals and deities, and never reveal their true names? Where could so many unknown experts have come from? I'd say it's more likely that ambitious people from various sects secretly joined forces to form this organization! Xuan Yuanzi, could you recognize the origins of Doumu Yuanjun's martial arts?" Daoist Shou Zhuo snorted, unwilling to believe that so many experts could remain unknown. Besides their codenames in Immortal Trace, they must have prominent identities in the martial world!

So he still suspected there was a traitor in Shaolin Temple!

Xuan Yuanzi gave a laugh. "If I could recognize it, I'd have followed the clues right to the person by now. My True Martial Sect inherits the legacy of True Martial Emperor; we're not so easy to bully. Doumu Yuanjun seemed to use the Star God Descends Art, the ultimate technique of Mother of All Stars from the Mythological Era. But the Star God Descends Art and the Primordial Chaos Returns to Void Art have been lost for tens of thousands of years. How could I know who might have stumbled upon their inheritance?"

"Primordial Chaos Returns to Void Art... Star God Descends Art..." Zhang Yuanshan's face paled slightly. He remembered seeing both of those divine arts on the Lord of Six Paths Samsara's exchange list. The former cost five hundred thousand Merit Points, and the latter eighty thousand. "Could this Immortal Trace organization really have some connection to the Reincarnation World?"

Daoist Shou Zhuo circled Qi Yuantong once, then nodded slightly. "A mysterious power burst from within the body and connected to a power in the unseen world. As expected, this is beyond the means of ordinary people. But since there are traces of a curse or something similar inside the body, we can start by checking one another."

Just as Zhang Yuanshan's hair stood on end, Su Wuming, standing in front of Jiang Zhiwei, spoke up. "Traces like these are deeply hidden. Unless we understand their origin and use a targeted method, we may not be able to uncover them."

"Su Wuming, speculation can't take the place of action," Daoist Shou Zhuo said, unafraid to be blunt even with Su Wuming.

"What Su Benefactor says is indeed right. Even knowing what to look for and having made preparations, I found no hidden traces when I examined that Immortal Trace member, Taiyi Tianzun..." Kong Wen briefly recounted the few encounters he'd had with Immortal Trace, then looked at Su Wuming. "It seems you've had a similar experience?"

Su Wuming said calmly, "I encountered an organization called Mythos. It was similar to Immortal Trace, but the two were mortal enemies. Its members used the names of ancient deities."

"Su Benefactor, did you learn anything?" While the others were still shocked to hear there was another mysterious organization, Kong Wen asked with concern.

Su Wuming remained as unruffled as ever. "The Dong Wang Gong I encountered was quite strong. I couldn't hold back."

So he had returned to dust, and dust to earth? Quite a few of the younger disciples broke out in a sweat.

"And the corpse mysteriously destroyed itself," Su Wuming continued.

Kong Wen sighed. "With this old monk watching, Taiyi Tianzun's corpse didn't get destroyed. His true identity was quite remarkable, though. I'll tell you all about it later."

There were too many people here to discuss the matter in depth.

"Whether it's Immortal Trace or Mythos, both are secretive and furtive. They must be harboring some unspeakable scheme. I propose that the various sects join forces to investigate!" Daoist Shou Zhuo declared in a booming voice.

Kong Wen nodded and took up the Nine-Ringed Monk's Staff again. "If we learn anything in the future, Shaolin Temple is willing to share it with the other sects."

"The Xuantian Sect agrees as well." Daoist Shou Zhuo readily accepted, then looked at Qi Yuantong. "Please search your daughter's belongings and see if you find anything."

Qi Yuantong's face darkened as he nodded. As expected, he found the method for making that Tang Flower. Then he gritted his teeth and said, "My Great River Gang doesn't use this kind of hidden weapon. Hmph! I'll kill those rats from Immortal Trace and Mythos to offer them as a sacrifice to Xia'er!"

The unfamiliar method for making the hidden weapon, something he'd never seen in the martial world, reminded him of the Star God Descends Art that Xuan Yuanzi had said was lost long ago. He became even more convinced that his youngest daughter's death was connected to those two mysterious organizations.

Xuan Yuanzi looked at the disciples behind the experts from each sect. "This matter is of great importance. I ask you all to keep your disciples in check and not let word of it get out."

Everyone allowed into the Daxiong Baodian was a future elite of their sect and had earned some right to know, so he merely told them not to spread the news carelessly.

"Yes, Martial Uncle," Zhang Yuanshan answered at once. The other disciples also agreed one by one.

After the few leaders went behind the hall to discuss things in private for a while, they each returned. Zhang Yuanshan followed Xuan Yuanzi out of the Daxiong Baodian and toward the courtyard where they were staying.

All along the way, he remained troubled and conflicted over what had just happened.

As they walked, he heard Martial Uncle Xuan Yuanzi let out a soft sigh.

That sigh was like a spark, setting off the doubts hidden in Zhang Yuanshan's heart. He hurried forward and asked in a low voice, "Martial Uncle, why didn't you question Abbot Kong Wen? He didn't use his full strength to save Junior Sister Qi. He didn't even reveal his Arhat Golden Body."

At least, he hadn't revealed the "Golden Body" Zhang Yuanshan had seen described in various texts!

Xuan Yuanzi smiled, praising him. "Keen observation. You notice the smallest details."

Then he looked up at the sky and said with a mixture of melancholy and emotion, "So the rumors were true."

Zhang Yuanshan stared at Xuan Yuanzi in confusion, but Xuan Yuanzi didn't seem inclined to explain. He shook his head, signaling him not to ask.

The night was cool as water, light snow drifted through the air, and the sky slowly began to brighten.