A biting wind swept through the cliffs, sharp as a steel blade scraping bone. Even in his thicker monk's robe and undergarments, Meng Qi shivered with cold. He had no choice but to circulate the Shaolin Heart Method, letting his inner energy flow slowly through his body to drive out the chill.
The road to the Back Mountain was guarded every three paces, with a sentry every five. Even the sheer cliff edges, which looked impossible to cross, had Warrior Monks keeping watch. Meng Qi, Zhenhui, and Zhending had been assigned to guard the entrance of a narrow path leading straight to the Back Mountain. Cliffs rose on both sides, and dense forests loomed darkly ahead.
"Senior Brother, are there Bone Demons and Spider Demons in the Back Mountain?" Zhenhui still hadn't opened his Dantian, so his inner cultivation was progressing slowly. Shivering, he hopped in place, eyes fixed on the darkness at the end of the narrow path. The Back Mountain lay beyond it.
"Bone Demons? Spider Demons?" Zhen Yong paused, then turned to look at Meng Qi, wearing the same expression that asked, What strange stories have you been telling Little Junior Brother this time?
Meng Qi chuckled. Between the grueling martial arts practice he needed to survive the Reincarnation World and the pressure of life and death, this was one of the few pleasures he had. "Since Senior Brother Zhen Miao said there were demons and monsters, there must be demons."
He didn't know much about this, so he had asked on purpose to see if Zhen Yong could tell him anything.
Zhen Yong gazed distractedly toward the end of the narrow path, almost talking to himself. "Real demons and monsters... How many people have ever seen them? Since the age of 'Demonic Chaos on Earth' passed, the Demon Race has vanished without a trace. At least, people like us hardly ever see them anymore. Now and then, you hear stories about a scholar meeting a Fox Demon or an expert subduing a Snake Demon. Heh, but I've never seen one myself."
Meng Qi nodded and didn't press him. Zhen Yong clearly didn't know much.
The long night wore on, and the north wind grew colder still. Zhenhui had found a rock and sat cross-legged in meditation, while Zhen Yong paced back and forth to fight off the chill.
Everything had been quiet, and behind them were senior monks from the Damo and Bodhi Courtyards keeping watch. Meng Qi gradually focused on figuring out the final step of Eight Steps of Divine Travel. Suddenly, a bone-chilling gust swept past. He shivered, his mind clearing in an instant, and inspiration struck. Every obstacle fell into place.
Now that he understood the key to the final step of Eight Steps of Divine Travel, Meng Qi was eager to practice.
Though Zhen Yong "knew" that he had inherited martial arts from his family, Meng Qi still wasn't comfortable practicing his footwork openly. He could disguise it with saber techniques, but that would make too much noise and risk drawing the attention of Zhen Miao and the others on patrol—and earning a scolding.
After looking around, Meng Qi clutched his stomach and said to Zhen Yong, "Senior Brother, my stomach's bothering me. I need to relieve myself. Sorry for the trouble."
Zhen Yong had seen him do this several times at the Scripture Depository, so he didn't think anything of it. Grinning, he said, "Go ahead. If Senior Brother Zhen Miao and the others come by, I'll explain."
Meng Qi took up his Monastic Blade and darted into the forest ahead. He didn't dare go too far, and began practicing his footwork around the giant trees near the cliff face.
Eight Steps of Divine Travel was both subtle and strange. In the dark of the late night, Meng Qi seemed like a ghost, vanishing and reappearing in the shadows.
"Great. Just as I thought!" After practicing a few rounds, Meng Qi nodded in satisfaction and decided to head back.
He had just started to move when he heard a faint grinding sound from the cliff face. His nerves tightened at once. Mind and body moved as one; he soundlessly slid behind a tree.
"My luck can't be this bad! Aren't the senior monks guarding the inner area? And there's a whole mountain between us!" Meng Qi's first thought was demons and monsters.
He peered out. Beside a massive, slightly reddish boulder, a large opening silently appeared in the cliff face, and a figure darted out warily.
The figure felt around at a spot behind the boulder. The grinding sound started again, and the stone wall slowly closed.
"A secret escape tunnel the demons and monsters dug?" Meng Qi thought bitterly. He regretted ever going into the forest.
He had assumed there would be little more than wild animals here. And in the bitter winter cold, surely they wouldn't be out and about. It had seemed perfectly safe. Who could have guessed he'd run into this mess?
The figure turned and started running toward the other side of the forest.
Just then, by the dim moonlight, Meng Qi saw the figure's face.
Him? Meng Qi was so shocked and bewildered that he nearly cried out. He barely stopped himself by biting down hard on his lip.
The person who had come out of the Back Mountain was Zhen Guan!
The same Zhen Guan who had attacked him, consumed by the anguish of having no hope of revenge!
"Hadn't he been expelled from the temple long ago?" Meng Qi wondered. He believed Xuan Xin hadn't lied to him about that; Zhen Yan, whom he'd befriended in the Servant Courtyard, had said he hadn't seen Zhen Guan since that day.
Meng Qi didn't attack. He watched Zhen Guan disappear into the distance, knowing his own strength was nowhere near enough to get involved in matters of demons and monsters.
"People need to know their own limits. Not everyone gets to be the protagonist..." Meng Qi grumbled inwardly.
If he rashly opened the Secret Passage and went inside, he'd probably be killed to keep him quiet, have his flesh devoured, or be turned into a puppet—not obtain a monster's inner core or the Demon Race's divine arts. Those were the sort of fortunes reserved for a "protagonist," and so far, he didn't seem to have that kind of "luck halo."
He quietly backed out of the forest, deciding to find someone capable of dealing with the matter. He had long since made up his mind to leave the monastic life, but for now he was still in Shaolin Temple. If chaos broke out, he might well get caught in the crossfire.
"Junior Brother Zhending, did you eat something bad?" Zhen Yong teased when Meng Qi finally returned.
Meng Qi's expression was grave. "Senior Brother Zhending, something strange happened while I was relieving myself. I'm afraid we need to report it to the senior uncles and masters in the inner area!"
"What? Then set off a signal flare!" Zhen Yong was startled. His eyes darted about, but he didn't ask what had happened. He simply told Meng Qi to send an emergency signal.
Meng Qi's mouth twitched. Senior Brother Zhen Yong was usually warm, cheerful, generous, and loyal, but when it mattered, he could be pretty slippery. He hadn't asked a thing, clearly trying to keep himself out of it.
Ignoring Zhen Yong's little scheme, Meng Qi decided to keep an eye on him. But before he could act, Zhenhui pulled a small bamboo tube from his robes, aimed it at the sky, and removed the cap.
Whoosh! A streak of red shot skyward and burst into a brilliant display.
"Little Junior Brother really is the type to act first and ask questions later..." Meng Qi wiped away a cold sweat, then stood in front of Zhenhui with his saber ready, on guard against a possible attack.
Two or three breaths later, Meng Qi's vision blurred. A middle-aged monk with handsome features and a deeply melancholy air had appeared before him. He wore a Yellow Monk Robe and a Red Kasaya, and held in his right hand a string of black beads carved with Buddhist images.
"Yellow robe, red kasaya... Is he a Chief Monk or an elder from one of the courtyards?" Meng Qi opened his mouth to greet him, then froze. Should he call him Senior Uncle, Grand Senior Uncle, or Great-Grand Senior Uncle? He didn't even know the man. The question of seniority was such a headache.
Still, seeing a monk of this level arrive put Meng Qi somewhat at ease.
The middle-aged monk had arrived with a grave expression, but when he saw that all was quiet, his face relaxed. Noticing Meng Qi's hesitation, he guessed what was troubling him and smiled slightly. "This old monk's Dharma name is Xuan Bei. Why did you set off an emergency flare?"
A monk of the Xuan generation was already a Chief Monk or an elder? Meng Qi was startled, but he suppressed his surprise and recounted what he had just gone over in his mind. "Senior Uncle Xuan Bei, I went into the forest over there to relieve myself. I saw a secret door appear in the cliff face..."
Xuan Bei listened to Meng Qi's account without so much as a flicker of emotion, then nodded slightly. "You did well. You neither acted recklessly nor concealed anything. Are you certain the figure was Zhen Guan, who was expelled from the temple?"
"Your disciple recognizes his face, but doesn't know if he was a demon in disguise," Meng Qi answered honestly.
After confirming the location of the secret door and the surrounding landmarks, Xuan Bei instructed them, "Wait here. You'll return to the Warrior Monk Institute with Xuan Chi. Leave what happened here to this old monk."
"Yes, Senior Uncle Xuan Bei." Meng Qi couldn't wait to leave. He was now worried that demons or monsters might leap out of the darkness around them at any moment.
Xuan Bei didn't move his feet or sway his body, yet suddenly he vanished from where he stood and appeared at the edge of the forest. Faint Buddhist chants seemed to echo around him, while specks of Buddha-light flickered in the air. He was solemn and sacred, beyond the mortal world, like an Arhat or Bodhisattva descending from the heavens.
"Is this the strength of someone nearing the peak of the Exterior?" Zhen Yong murmured, staring in the direction Xuan Bei had vanished.
Meng Qi looked at him in surprise. "Senior Brother Zhen Yong, you know this Senior Uncle?"
Zhen Yong came back to himself, his face full of feeling. "Apart from the Senior Uncles I see every day, like Xuan Chi and Xuanku, I don't know the others. But Senior Uncle Xuan Bei is famous. I've heard Senior Brother Zhen Chang talk about him."
Zhen Chang, the foremost of the three great disciples of the Zhen generation? Meng Qi knew of Zhen Chang. Apparently, he was just a little more powerful than Zhen Miao and Zhen Ben.
Zhen Yong continued, "Senior Uncle Xuan Bei was once a Peak Expert who roamed the world, known as the 'Seven Absolute Hands.' But then he suffered a terrible calamity: his entire family was massacred. Though he eventually avenged them, his enemies had powerful connections, and a martial arts grandmaster came to capture him. He had already grown disheartened, and that incident pushed him further. So he entered Shaolin, took up the Buddhist path, cut off his worldly ties, and devoted himself to the Green Lamp Ancient Buddha."
"Because of his exceptional talent and wholehearted devotion to Buddhism, the Abbot valued him and accepted him as a direct disciple on behalf of his own master. He made an exception and let him learn the Maha Demon Subduing Fist. Xuan Bei was extraordinary as well; in just a short time, he made a breakthrough and entered the ranks of the grandmasters. Later, he became the first monk of the Xuan generation to reach the eighth heaven of the Exterior, just one step from the peak."
"People like him are always surrounded by legends..." Meng Qi thought quietly. Zhenhui listened with rapt attention.
Soon, Zhen Miao and the others arrived, along with many yellow-robed monks Meng Qi didn't recognize. Xuan Chi led the three of them back to the Warrior Monk Institute.
The next morning, just as Meng Qi was about to go out to practice calligraphy and find out what had happened—he hadn't needed to get up early to fetch water because he'd been guarding the Back Mountain the previous day—the door was suddenly pushed open. Xuan Kong, the Disciplinary Monk with the rather sinister look, walked in, followed by a dejected Zhen Yong.
"Your discovery yesterday foiled one of the demons' schemes in the Back Mountain. The Bodhi Courtyard will reward you, though it'll probably take a few days," Xuan Kong said with a mirthless smile. "But you abandoned your post while guarding the main path, Zhending. The Discipline Institute has no choice but to punish you. Considering your contribution this time, you'll spend three days facing the wall in your Zen Room."
Just three days facing the wall? Meng Qi gave a brief "oh." He wasn't bothered by the punishment; it was far too light, and he could use the time to quietly refine his inner energy.
He looked forward to the Bodhi Courtyard's reward. Would it be one of the Seventy-two Unique Skills?
Three days later, Meng Qi had eaten the evening meal they brought him and finished facing the wall. Cheerful and relieved, he opened the door.
"Uh, Little Junior Brother, why don't you look happy?" Meng Qi had just stepped outside when he ran into Zhenhui returning.
"Today, the uncles and senior brothers came to choose disciples," Zhenhui said angrily. "But you were punished with three days facing the wall, Senior Brother, so you couldn't come out."
Meng Qi's face darkened at once. So that had been the point!
Was it because of his earlier disrespect, or because Zhen Liang had an elder brother in the Discipline Institute?
He narrowed his eyes, then calmly said to Zhenhui, "Let's go to the Martial Arts Hall."
Meng Qi hadn't been eager to take a master's disciple in the first place, since that would make leaving Shaolin difficult. But in this situation, he couldn't exactly be happy.
As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed two lines of writing on the thin snow in the courtyard:
"The second Reincarnation has begun!"
"Prepare yourself. The next time it begins, you will not be notified. You will be pulled in directly."
Before you continue