Unite knowledge and action; do not deceive yourself

Zhu Shifu froze, thinking his eyes had deceived him. Behind the marshal's desk, Han Zongwang's back stiffened and his pupils contracted. Once he recognized the visitor, he ground out the name through clenched teeth: "Li-Xing-zhi!" Tong Shanxiong reached for his saber, but Han Zongwang barked at him to stop.

Clad in a blue robe, with white hair and a white beard, Li Xingzhi stood in the hall like an ancient pine. Neither servile nor overbearing, he cupped his hands toward Han Zongwang. "We parted many years ago, old friend. Who would have thought that when we met again, your temples would already be gray?"

Han Zongwang snorted coldly. "Li Xingzhi, did Emperor Chen send you?" Then he shook his head. "No. You must have slipped out of the capital behind his back, haven't you?" He followed this with two cold chuckles.

"To think that after all these years, you're still as tiresome as ever." Li Xingzhi shook his head and sighed.

"What brings you here in the dead of night? Twenty years ago, neither of us could defeat the other. Are you looking for another fight?" Han Zongwang asked mockingly.

"I came only to verify one thing," Li Xingzhi said gravely.

"Go on..." Han Zongwang's voice was icy.

"When you captured Qin Prefecture that year and the eldest prince died, what really happened behind the scenes? If my suspicions are correct, without someone in the court working with you from within, you could never have taken Qin Prefecture with its defenses, even if you assassinated the eldest prince..." Li Xingzhi said slowly.

"That's all ancient history. Since time immemorial, the victors have become kings and the defeated have become outlaws. Eldest Prince Zhao Zhen has long since become a mound of yellow earth beneath the walls of Qin Prefecture. Why keep brooding over it?" Han Zongwang said carelessly. "Since you're here, National Preceptor Li, I happen to have some Du Kang Fine Wine. Let's share a taste. It was brewed in Ruchi, in your Capital Luoyang."

Li Xingzhi frowned slightly and cupped his hands again. "Knowledge is the beginning of action; action is the fulfillment of knowledge. I hope you will unite knowledge and action and tell me the truth."

Han Zongwang rolled his eyes. "Are you lecturing me?" he asked menacingly. With his broad, leonine nose, wide mouth, and shaggy hair and beard, he was a tall, powerfully built man dressed in black leisure robes. Seated behind the desk in a tiger-skin chair, he resembled a fierce tiger choosing someone to devour.

"I have spent more than ten years pursuing this matter and uncovered many suspicious clues," Li Xingzhi said earnestly. "You are the only person in this world who can resolve the doubts in my heart."

Han Zongwang scoffed. "You could have enjoyed being national preceptor, yet you chose all this toil. Why put yourself through it?"

"My heart is filled with light. What more is there to say?" Li Xingzhi replied frankly.

Zhu Shifu had watched from the sidelines for some time. Ever since the blue-robed old man appeared, Han Zongwang's gaze had never left him. Only after listening to their conversation did Zhu Shifu realize that this unremarkable-looking old fellow was none other than the world-renowned Li Xingzhi. The competitive ambition in his heart immediately blazed up like the flames on the hall's candle stands.

In his youth, he had repeatedly failed the examinations, convinced that no one recognized his vast learning and that his lofty ambitions had nowhere to unfold. In the still of the night, he had sometimes fantasized that if Zhao Zhen, then a Salt-Administration Commandant, had met him before Li Xingzhi, Zhao Zhen would surely have been awed by his heaven-ordering, earth-shaping genius and bowed in admiration. Then, through his diplomatic maneuvering and endless stratagems, he would have helped Zhao Zhen ascend the throne that symbolized the highest glory and power under heaven. After that, who in the world would not have known the name Zhu Shifu?

Alas, heaven was blind. His pearl had been left buried in dust, while so many petty men were allowed to fish for fame and steal reputations by deceiving the world.

Unable to restrain himself, Zhu Shifu sprang forward and looked sideways at the visitor with brazen arrogance. "You're Li Xingzhi?"

Seeing this old man speak so rudely, with such a sneering tone, Li Xingzhi frowned and asked Han Zongwang, "Who is this?"

Zhu Shifu raised his chin, making his grizzled goatee jut upward. "I once served as a fifth-rank Assistant Professor at the Imperial College in the capital, Bianliang. Now I have the honor of serving as chief adviser to the Western Liang Marshal's Residence!" With a flourish, he snapped open his folding fan. Across its pristine white surface, four large characters had been written in exuberant, ink-drenched strokes, like dragons flying and phoenixes dancing-"Unrivaled under heaven."

He fanned himself a few times with ostentatious flair, then snapped the fan shut and jabbed a finger at Li Xingzhi. "Reckless madman! How dare you interrogate Commander Zong? I have long heard your name, and now that I see you, you truly fail to live up to your great reputation. In your early years, you followed that disheveled petty clerk Zhao Zhen and usurped the sacred throne of our dynasty—an unforgivable crime... Today, you have invaded the marshal's residence without informing your master. That is disloyalty. You neglect the Zhao Clan Orphan. That is unfilial conduct. You cannot help your master educate the people and bestow blessings upon all living souls. That is a lack of benevolence..."

The more he spoke, the more worked up he became, until he was pointing at Li Xingzhi and loudly denouncing him. "You disloyal, unfilial, heartless, unrighteous wretch! You draw Great Liang's stipend while committing perverse deeds! Rebellious madman, great vermin who stole a nation-how can you stand with any dignity between heaven and earth? And you still dare spout grandiose words here?"

"Emperor Rui of Great Liang was a foolish, tyrannical ruler. Court officials imposed savage taxes and extorted the people. How many were forced to sell their sons and daughters and wander homeless? When a great drought struck Ji Prefecture, leaving a thousand miles of barren earth and fields strewn with the starved dead, the court still collected the green shoots tax everywhere. How could a regime so oppressive avoid falling? How could such a court claim the people's allegiance? Even if we had not taken the realm, someone else would have replaced it!" Li Xingzhi glanced indifferently at Zhu Shifu and continued, "Whether I am condemned or slandered, let the annals of history judge. You white-haired fool, you gray-bearded old thief, have no right to judge me. Even your Commander Zong has no such right."

With that, Li Xingzhi clasped his hands behind his back and stopped looking at Zhu Shifu.

"You-" Zhu Shifu was so furious that stars danced before his eyes and veins bulged on his forehead. He nearly failed to catch his breath and stood there, utterly humiliated.

"I heard you've kept out of court affairs for more than ten years, devoting yourself to cultivation. Your visit tonight truly surprises me. As they say, the sight of a hunt stirs the hunter's heart. I'd very much like to see just how far you've progressed." Han Zongwang's booming voice rang out as he slowly stood, his eyes narrowing dangerously.

With a faint pop, a candle on its stand threw out a tiny spark. The light in the hall dimmed slightly, then instantly flared brighter. Han Zongwang leaned forward. Before he could move, someone else struck first.

With a ringing rasp, Tong Shanxiong's saber left its sheath. His figure surged forward like a flood dragon bursting from the sea, bringing a roiling wind with him. In an instant, he was less than a hundred feet from that blue robe, and his saber slashed down...

Clack! The sheath fell to the floor with a crisp sound. Amid the wavering candlelight, Tong Shanxiong's burly body flew backward and slammed into the marshal's desk. The stacks of papers on it collapsed and scattered across the floor.

Tong Shanxiong crashed heavily to the ground and coughed up a mouthful of blood amid the rising dust.

The precious saber, sharp enough to slice iron like mud, spun through the air and fell. With a chime, it stabbed into the floor, its chilling gleam illuminating Tong Shanxiong's pallid face.

As commander of Han Zongwang's personal guard, Tong Shanxiong stood at the peak of the Dao Integration Realm and ranked among the foremost experts in the army. Yet before Li Xingzhi, he had been defeated in a single exchange. He had not even seen how his opponent struck.

Han Zongwang's hair and beard bristled. He took one step forward-just one-and was already within thirty feet of Li Xingzhi.

Zhu Shifu crouched beside the marshal's desk with his hands covering his head. This was his first time seeing Commander Zong fight, and his opponent was Li Xingzhi, whose cultivation was no lower than Commander Zong's. It was said that their battle twenty years ago had shaken heaven and earth and made ghosts and gods weep. Now that they had met again, who would win and who would lose?

Han Zongwang drew a deep breath, his chest and abdomen slowly hollowing. A crack immediately appeared in the blue bricks beneath his feet. The temperature in the hall plunged, and an intensely cold aura spread.

The light abruptly dimmed. The candle flames shrank to the size of beans, while the striped tiger skin on the chair visibly contracted and caved inward, giving off strange creaking sounds, as though a tiger sprawled there were about to come alive.

Zhu Shifu shivered and discovered in astonishment that a layer of white frost had already formed on the marshal's desk.

Divine Frost Palm, the peerless secret art of the Western Liang Han Family.

Suddenly, the candle flames surged, flooding the hall with light. Han Zongwang exhaled with a shout and crossed his palms. A current of utmost yin and cold swept fiercely around the blue robe, and the air slowly congealed like water.

Crystalline white frost appeared on the walls and pillars. Within this small domain, the air suddenly solidified like water freezing, sealing everything in ice and extinguishing all life.

Li Xingzhi's blue robe fluttered. Like a lone pine on an isolated cliff, buffeted by wind and rain, he clenched his right hand and punched.

His somewhat thin-looking fist broke through layer after layer of solid ice like an iron anchor weighing ten thousand tons.

"If I am fortunate enough to win by a move or two, will you tell me the secret of what happened back then?"

As Li Xingzhi's calm, unhurried voice sounded, a pitch-black sword sheath suddenly tapped toward Han Zongwang's forehead.

Han Zongwang roared like a raging lion and swiftly retreated a step. At the same time, he hooked his foot under the saber embedded in the floor, flipping it up into his hand, then slashed out a streak of lightning.

Wind howled through the hall. The candle flames flared, then abruptly went out.

A snow-white saber flash struck Li Xingzhi. Yet his figure rippled and twisted like water, breaking into scattered fragments in an instant and dissolving into nothingness.

It was an afterimage left for an instant by speed that had reached an inconceivably terrifying level.

Sure enough, a moment later, the pitch-black sword sheath appeared without warning and once again tapped mercilessly toward Han Zongwang's forehead.

After a brief darkness, the hall grew clear and bright. Moonlight poured in from outside like quicksilver spilling across the ground. Beneath it, Zhu Shifu saw two figures separate and converge, locked in a fiercely contested battle.

In an instant, the two had exchanged more than a hundred moves, with neither gaining the upper hand. Then both gave a clear cry, their figures overlapped, and their palms met.

It should have been a blow that shook heaven and earth, yet beneath the moonlight, those two pale hands, seemingly untouched by the mortal world, met gently without a sound...

Zhu Shifu's mind went blank for an instant. In his daze, heaven and earth seemed to sway.

The sensation reminded him of the time he had encountered an earth dragon turning over in the Shu Region. How alike they were.

Fortunately, it lasted only a fleeting instant. With fear still lingering in his heart, Zhu Shifu patted his chest.

A breeze brushed his neck, and he shrank back with a shudder. It felt like a keen blade grazing his skin, a chilling sensation that made the fine hairs on his exposed flesh stand on end.

He squinted around him. The marshal's desk had collapsed into wreckage. The papers scattered on the floor had become thousands of white scraps, swirling and fluttering through the hall like a sky filled with falling snow.

Beneath the moonlight, the two men stood motionless with their palms pressed together, wisps of white vapor rising from their heads.

Zhu Shifu knew that the contest between these two Great Grandmasters had reached its most critical moment.

Life and death hung on a single instant. A moment's distraction, the slightest change, an unexpected disturbance-even one small falling leaf-could become the final straw that crushed the loser.

A vicious gleam flashed through Zhu Shifu's eyes. He made his decision instantly, sitting cross-legged with a look of grim resolve.

From inside his robe, he drew a small silver sword as thin as a cicada's wing and laid it across his knees. Narrowing his eyes, he furrowed his brow into three deep lines and laboriously released a strand of spiritual awareness.

Zhu Shifu was actually a cultivator who had concealed his abilities.

The thin blade on his knees quivered with a faint hum. Zhu Shifu's brow tightened further, and beads of sweat seeped from his forehead.

The thin sword floated above his knees, seemingly endowed with life. Suddenly, it darted up to a roof beam like a silver fish, then glided soundlessly forward along the wall. Without warning, it became a streak of silver light and shot toward Li Xingzhi's back...

Seeing success within reach, Zhu Shifu's lips began to curl into a smile. Before it could fully bloom, the smile froze on his face.

The flying sword, thin as a cicada's wing, abruptly lost its connection to his sea of consciousness, like a soaring kite whose string had suddenly been severed. Zhu Shifu's mind felt as though it had been struck hard by a great hammer, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

At the same time, Han Zongwang and Li Xingzhi both withdrew. Han Zongwang staggered back two steps, while Li Xingzhi retreated one and cupped his hands. "Thank you for yielding."

"Is this the Void Extremity Heart Sutra you've been cultivating for more than ten years?" Han Zongwang asked, visibly shaken.

Li Xingzhi turned and walked out of the hall. The brilliant moonlight shone on him as though coating him in silver, his blue robe hazy, his figure ethereal as an immortal about to take flight.

Han Zongwang followed him outside, only to find moonlight flowing like water and tree shadows swaying. Li Xingzhi was nowhere to be seen. Only his voice drifted down from the air: "No one sees the work you do in solitude, but heaven knows the intentions in your heart. Unite knowledge and action; do not deceive yourself!"