Every Passing Moment

Just as Jiang Wang saw the small child's bones and felt a surge of emotion,

Whoosh!

A sharp whistle of wind suddenly cut through the air.

Jiang Wang twisted his wrist. In a moment when it should have been impossible, he had already raised his sheathed sword behind him, catching the sharp object hurtling toward him with a clang of metal on metal.

Jiang Wang turned with the motion and drew his sword in one fluid movement. He glimpsed that the thing that had attacked him was a ghastly white finger bone. He had no time to think; his body instinctively spun around again.

The little girl's skeleton on the bed sprang into the air, its skull splitting open as it lunged at Jiang Wang with snapping jaws!

Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Wang kicked it squarely in the head, sending the skeleton crashing back where it had been. Then his sword flashed through several turns. In that instant, it was like a streak of purple lightning darting through the dark room. The small skeleton's joints were severed, and it fell back onto the bed just as it had been, as if it had never moved at all.

"Ke ke ke ke! Little Daoist, I killed this little girl, and you seem awfully angry. But the last thing left of her was destroyed by your own hand."

The voice was shrill and grating, drifting in and out, impossible to tell where it came from.

This trick of concealing one's whereabouts was no simple illusion. It showed that the enemy lurking in the shadows had prepared well in advance.

Jiang Wang had not yet completed his foundation and had not opened his senses, so for now he had no way to see through the illusion. But he did not panic. Based on what he had learned at the Dao Academy, he could make two judgments. First, the enemy could not be too powerful. The reason was simple: if they were truly a high-level expert, they would have no need for an illusion, and could have killed him outright from the start.

From that followed his second judgment: the illusion could not be too powerful, given the enemy's limited strength. As soon as the enemy attacked or was attacked—or even just moved—the illusion would break on its own. One clue supported this: the enemy's first attack had only manipulated the skeletons, rather than striking personally.

"You were the one who killed her, and you were the one who destroyed her bones. Your heterodox tricks won't shake my heart!"

Jiang Wang moved with his sword, sweeping through the tiny room in the blink of an eye. Swordlight nearly illuminated the entire room!

Purple Qi Comes from the East Sword, First Killing Form!

At the instant the room blazed with light, all the swordlight gathered together. Jiang Wang reached out as if to seize that mass of light, then slashed straight down!

The door, which had somehow been shut, burst open with a crash.

Zhang Linchuan stood outside, faint lightning flickering in his hand.

"The two skeletons outside were manipulated into rising just now. I blasted them to pieces. What happened here?" he asked.

"I was attacked too. I couldn't see through his illusion. But my sword still wounded him!" Jiang Wang flicked his sword, and a bright red drop of blood fell from its tip.

Zhang Linchuan reached out and caught the drop of blood. It hovered in his palm. "With this, tracking down that demon should be easy."

A trace of approval appeared on his face. "Junior Brother Jiang, you've made a great contribution on this mission."

Jiang Wang searched all around, but could find no other traces of blood. "Senior Brother Zhang, the demon may not have escaped yet."

Zhang Linchuan closed his palm and put the blood away. He closed his eyes and sensed the area for a moment, then shook his head. "There's no trace of him now."

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, the corpse aura filling the entire courtyard dissipated.

"Let's go." Zhang Linchuan put away the blood. "There are no useful clues left here. We'll give this drop to the deputy dean. He's skilled in Six Lines divination; he'll certainly be able to flush that demon out."

The shock this mission had dealt Jiang Wang was unlike anything he had experienced before. The mountain bandits and robbers had certainly committed their share of evil, but compared with these demons, who slaughtered entire families and even desecrated and manipulated their bones after death, they were mere children playing at wickedness.

He had witnessed the cruel and cold-blooded side of the cultivation world. Transcendent power could bring transcendent cruelty with it.

Jiang Wang wanted to look back at the little girl's bones, but found he could not.

Just then, Zhang Linchuan spoke again. "The Criminal Investigation Bureau already searched the place once, but made no progress. Then we arrive, and the demons attack us. There's something fishy going on here."

"Senior Brother, you mean..."

"Heh." Zhang Linchuan gave a cold laugh.

After entering the inner sect, Jiang Wang had wanted only to cultivate. He had no wish to get caught up in the struggle between Dong A and Wei Quji. But Zhang Linchuan had pointed out that possibility.

Unfortunately, he still had no right to refuse.

"Junior Brother Jiang's swordsmanship is extraordinary. It's definitely not one of those crude techniques collected by the Dao Academy," Zhang Linchuan remarked, as if casually.

Jiang Wang replied, "For those of us in the Daoist sect, swordsmanship is ultimately a minor path. Your Thunder Method is the truly astonishing thing, Senior Brother."

The two skeletons from the main hall and courtyard were gone now, leaving only a layer of scorched ash in their place. Jiang Wang could almost picture the scene: the moment the skeletons were manipulated, before they could even move, the Thunder Method had blasted them to dust.

"Junior Brother Jiang is too modest. Our Daoist Sect's Dharma Sword is no less than anyone else's. It's just a shame that Maple Forest City Daoist Academy has no techniques in that field. In all of Zhuang Kingdom, probably only the State Daoist Academy has them," Zhang Linchuan said with a sigh.

The Daoist sect also had methods for entering the sword through the Dao. They were exceptionally fierce and no less powerful than the ordinary sword cultivators' techniques. But they were not the mainstream, and Maple Forest City Daoist Academy had no expert capable of guiding anyone in that kind of cultivation.

At that moment, Jiang Wang had no desire to talk at all, but he could not ignore Zhang Linchuan, so he offered a casual compliment. "With your talent, Senior Brother, entering the State Daoist Academy is only a matter of time."

"Yes, only a matter of time." Zhang Linchuan suddenly sighed. Standing in the courtyard, he gazed into the distance, toward the Qichang Mountain Range. "But sooner and later are two different things. I often feel as though a knife is prodding me from behind. Every passing moment presses in."

This noble young master, so talented and powerful, so fastidious about cleanliness, had a voice full of anxiety and sorrow that was entirely genuine.

Jiang Wang fell silent. Had he not wanted to grow stronger faster, to go sooner to the place where he should have been long ago?

Every passing moment pressed in.

"Beyond that mountain range lies Yong Kingdom," Zhang Linchuan said. "If the demon escapes into Yong territory, we won't be able to catch him."

Jiang Wang knew, of course, why he said this.

Zhuang Kingdom had stood for more than three hundred years. Its founding Grand Ancestor, Zhuang Chenggan, had once been a great general of Yong Kingdom. He had conquered a thousand li of territory with his troops, then seized the chance presented by Yong Kingdom's three princes fighting over the throne to carve out a kingdom of his own. Afterward, he forged alliances far and wide, established the Daoist sect as the state religion, and took the opportunity to cling to the powerful Jing Kingdom, a fellow nation of the Daoist lineage. Only then did Zhuang Kingdom secure its footing and endure to this day.

But because of that history, Zhuang and Yong had always been at odds.

The enemies of Zhuang Kingdom might be welcomed with open arms in Yong.

Jiang Wang said nothing about it, and simply followed Zhang Linchuan out of the courtyard in silence.

Tang Dun, waiting outside the door, hurried over, his eyes full of anticipation. "What happened? Was the demon destroyed?"

He had heard the commotion from outside the courtyard and knew there had been a fight inside.

"We have a lead," Jiang Wang said. Then he turned to Zhang Linchuan. "Senior Brother, could I borrow some money from you?"

Zhang Linchuan did not ask why. He simply tossed over a purse.

Jiang Wang weighed it briefly and took out the smallest piece of silver. He had meant to take some Blade Coins, but Zhang Linchuan's purse contained only gold and silver.

Jiang Wang handed the silver to Tang Dun, the small-town constable. "There's a little girl's skeleton inside. Sorry for the trouble, but please use this silver to buy her a coffin and bury her. There are two piles of ashes in the courtyard; they're her parents. Bury them together."

Tang Dun's rough face was full of sorrow, but he firmly pushed Jiang Wang's hand away. "I'll see to their burial. I can't take your money."

"Take it." Jiang Wang forced the silver into his hand. "Consider it something I need to put my mind at ease."

The constable's uniform Tang Dun wore had visible patches, a sign that his family was not well off. And he had been assigned to receive Jiang Wang and Zhang Linchuan, a pair no one thought much of, suggesting that he too was a marginal figure in the government office.

He could not break free, so he gripped Jiang Wang's hand tightly. "I'll thank you on Niu'er's behalf!"

So that was her name. Niu'er.

The picture hanging on the wall seemed to rise before his eyes again. She had once, in her childish innocence, wanted to hold on to a spring. But her life had never bloomed again.

Niu'er, Niu'er.

Jiang Wang silently repeated her name several times, as if tying a certain responsibility to his Dao heart.