Feigning death

The night had grown late.

The path behind the mountain was narrow. Hazy starlight shone on the leaves beside it, yet the whole earth seemed steeped in a mysterious, desolate mist.

Chu Liuxiang and Wuhua walked side by side along that rugged, narrow path. Even now, they remained silent, as silent as mountains in the night.

Wuhua smiled faintly.

"At last, we've reached the end."

Chu Liuxiang sighed.

"I never wanted it to come to this."

Wuhua seemed untroubled. His gaze remained as clear as ever as he looked at Chu Liuxiang, as though the tension in the little courtyard in the bamboo grove had vanished in an instant.

"Tell me, then. How much do you know?"

"A great deal. You must be Tianfeng Jushiro's eldest son. Though I never confirmed it with Master Tianfeng, the way you spared no effort to help Nangong Ling allowed me to piece together some of the truth."

"That's right. We're brothers."

"Then why did you kill him?"

Chu Liuxiang's voice turned cold, and his eyes filled with profound disappointment as he looked at Wuhua.

"Because he had exposed too much. Not just along the trail you uncovered-some of his moves involving Mount Hua were becoming difficult to conceal, too. To shed the tail and survive, I had no choice but to bring this game to a hasty end.

"What I didn't expect was..."

"You didn't expect that when you returned to Southern Shaolin, intending to poison Master Tianfeng with Heavenly One Divine Water to tie up the last loose end, Southern Shaolin would imprison you outright, leaving you no chance to play any more tricks."

"Yes."

"Why didn't Southern Shaolin deal with you directly?"

"Partly because of my master. He still cherishes our bond as master and disciple. After all, in a sense, I'm like a son to him." Wuhua expressed his thoughts candidly. "Even though I still wanted to kill him."

"And the other reason?" Chu Liuxiang knew this was the crucial point. Even if Master Tianfeng was Southern Shaolin's abbot, Wuhua had stirred up far too much trouble this time. Once the Divine Water Palace learned what he had done...

A mere Southern Shaolin could never stop the Demoness of the Emerald Sea!

"Because of him."

"Say his name." Chu Liuxiang looked deep into Wuhua's eyes.

Wuhua smiled. Unlike Nangong Ling, who had gritted his teeth at the time, he seemed utterly unconcerned about his present predicament.

"Fang Yunhua."

"He could persuade Southern Shaolin?"

"That, I don't know. All I know is that my only chance now lies with you."

"I have one last question. What exactly is your relationship with Fang Yunhua?"

"Rather, you should ask what relationship Mount Hua has with the Huangshan Family, where my mother came from."

Wuhua's account resolved Chu Liuxiang's final doubt, though he never mentioned that the former Li Qi was now the renowned Stone Guanyin.

Once he knew everything, Chu Liuxiang worked through the anger he had felt along the way over Fang Yunhua's use of him. He could even understand why Fang Yunhua would stop at nothing to engineer this entire scheme.

Just as in the original story, after learning that Nangong Ling had killed Ren Ci, the man who had killed his father, Chu Liuxiang had fallen silent for a time before choosing, in his heart, to understand.

Now, naturally, he could understand Fang Yunhua's position all the better.

Chu Liuxiang was a forgiving man, a softhearted man, and a good man remarkably capable of feeling for others in their circumstances.

And now he faced another choice.

Chu Liuxiang stopped and gazed intently at Wuhua. After a long, long while, he sighed deeply.

"You know I've never wanted to kill anyone, least of all you."

Wuhua still wore that faint smile.

"But you should also know that if you don't kill me now, I'll kill you."

Chu Liuxiang nodded with a bitter smile.

"Fortunately, he gave me another choice. I'm beginning to understand why Ying Wanli was waiting in Putian City so early."

Wuhua did not respond to that remark, and neither man said another word.

They knew that everything that needed saying had been said.

The mountain wind grew fiercer, whipping their clothes into a snapping flutter. Though their expressions remained calm and composed, the air between them had grown suffocatingly heavy.

The next instant, Wuhua attacked first!

(Actually writing this fight would drag things out for another chapter or two-nothing but pointless padding, so let's skip it.)

Then-

Wuhua knelt on one knee, dazed.

"Though you've lost, whatever else may be said, you certainly lost with grace."

At these words, the defeated Wuhua burst into wild laughter.

"You think I was wrong? If I had succeeded, who would dare say I'd done anything wrong... I know what you want to do, and I can guess what he intends, too. He has great faith in you, faith that you can win, so he's using this method to show his contempt for me and humiliate me!

"Ying Wanli... the World's Number One Divine Constable?!

"Ridiculous! I, Wuhua, will be judged by no one! No one in this world has the right to judge me!"

At that moment, a brilliant light suddenly flared in Wuhua's eyes, but his gentle, handsome face had turned livid and terrifying.

"You..." Grief was plain in Chu Liuxiang's eyes, yet several things Fang Yunhua had said suddenly flashed through his mind.

[If I were Wuhua, I would never accept that outcome. I would even rather die at your hands.]

[If I were Wuhua, naturally, I would understand Commander Chu very well. Commander Chu would still cherish our friendship. Although he would insist on dealing with me impartially, his being a gentleman would give me something to exploit.]

[When you cannot bring yourself to kill me and only intend to hand me over to be judged by the law, I can choose suicide.]

[As long as I die, given our former friendship, Commander Chu will certainly respect my final pride and allow me a dignified end, with death wiping my debts clean.]

[Precisely because I understand Commander Chu well enough, I can successfully prepare this performance of feigning death to escape. There are many ways in this world to put someone into a deathlike state. With Commander Chu's character, he would never allow anyone to desecrate my corpse, so this would also be my only chance to wrest life from death.]

"Only... chance..."

At last, he understood the true meaning of those words Wuhua had spoken. Now it was Chu Liuxiang whose face turned livid.

For someone who understood him so well to exploit his kindness and affection for his friends without the slightest scruple was the greatest insult of all!

He looked coldly at Wuhua, who was clinging to his last breath, seemingly ready to depart this world at any moment.

"Were you about to leave me with one final statement-that whatever wrongs you've committed, you remain a noble man, far nobler than most people in this world, and would naturally disdain to bow your head before such lowly people?

"But staging this performance before me so you can successfully fake your death-is that nobility?"

Wuhua's signs of life had been like a candle flame that a single breath could extinguish. Yet in the blink of an eye, his face became as rosy as that of the healthiest man alive. He slowly rose, without the slightest embarrassment or discomposure at having been exposed.

His icy expression was almost identical to Chu Liuxiang's. The only difference, perhaps, was a trace of bewilderment buried deep in his eyes.

"This isn't you. Just as when we met again earlier, the man I saw didn't seem like you, either. You would never see through my plan to feign death.

"If it were him, I wouldn't be surprised. But I'm also certain you couldn't possibly have communicated with him during this time! Because throughout that period, you didn't fully trust him, either!"

"Then when do you think he warned me that this would happen?"

"The only possibility is earlier-when you went to Mount Hua, and word spread that he had driven you off while you were trying to steal a treasure!"

Wuhua's eyes widened. He stared at Chu Liuxiang's lips, hoping to hear him say-wrong!

But what reached his ears was...

"You guessed right."