That Wasn't My Move

Inside Chen Yi's courtyard.

A pigeon circled lightly overhead.

The evening haze hung heavy. The Capital City sank into a wash of dusky yellow, the outlines of its pavilions and towers growing indistinct. Blurring along with them was the boundary between humans and ghosts.

Min Ning had sobered up by now. She shook her head and raised a hand to catch the pigeon.

Chen Yi asked:

"From your sister?"

Min Ning nodded, removed the note tucked inside, read it, and handed it to Chen Yi.

"For you."

Chen Yi took it and read: There are demons and ghosts in Huai River Village, outside the western outskirts of the Capital City. We ask the Thousand Household to eliminate them. This is also Grand Secretary Lin's wish. From the Do Not Use Tower.

This is also Grand Secretary Lin's wish... It seemed that after the Empress Dowager's warning that night, the Do Not Use Tower had decided to throw in its lot with the Lin faction.

Even so, this was the Do Not Use Tower's first request since reaching an agreement to cooperate with him.

Although that night, he had done nothing except steal Min Ming's first kiss.

Come to think of it, Min Ning probably didn't know about that.

"What are you looking at me for?"

Min Ning noticed his gaze and asked.

Chen Yi smiled and shook his head, changing the subject:

"Now, isn't it time you taught me that saber strike?"

Min Ning snorted coldly and drew Thoughtless from her waist.

Gripping the hilt, she said seriously:

"For a single strike to have its underlying principle, first, your mind must be free of distracting thoughts when you strike. Second, you must grasp the knack of circulating your qi-which meridian your true qi should travel through, which acupoint it should surge against to exert force. The movement of the saber is merely the form; what lies within is true intention. Form is the exterior, like a military banner streaming in the wind. True intention is the interior, like the thousands of troops beneath that banner.

"Quickly mastered martial arts, such as Zhao Zilong's Eighteen Spears, emphasize form rather than true intention. You can complete your training in three or four months, but afterward, making even an inch of progress is difficult. Difficult martial arts, however, mostly emphasize true intention over form. Once you cross the threshold, you become a master in your own right. As Zhou Jianjia of Yinjian Mountain said, 'With true intention in the sword, three hundred soldiers shall be broken.'"

As Chen Yi listened to Min Ning explain the principles of this strike in detail, he found it somewhat long-winded and said directly:

"Just get to the point."

Min Ning knitted her brows:

"With such an impatient mind, so eager for quick results, how can you become a master?"

Chen Yi smiled:

"I'll just be a master behind Young Hero Min."

Hearing those loaded words, Min Ning shot him a fierce glare.

"Then listen carefully. As your qi circulates, first sink it into the Qihai acupoint, raise it to the Shenque acupoint, then circulate it through the Hand Shaoyang Sanjiao Meridian..."

As she spoke, Min Ning shifted her feet, the saber moving with her body. Then she held her breath in her abdomen and slashed across the air.

A fierce gust washed over Chen Yi's face after the saber's gleam swept past, sending her skirt ribbons fluttering.

Having finished the demonstration, Min Ning sheathed her saber, lifted her chin, and said with some smugness:

"Go on, try it. You'll know how hard it is once you do. You're so eager for quick results-don't beg me to demonstrate again. Let's see how you play the ugly girl aping the beauty's frown."

Chen Yi drew his saber, turned to the panel, and smiled:

"It certainly is difficult."

As his words fell, Chen Yi stirred his thoughts.

Without hesitation, he poured twenty years of true qi into it.

[Through Min Ning, you encountered the "Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber." Her comprehension astounded you. You have also witnessed this strike's power: among those of the same realm, none can withstand it unless they specialize in body-tempering arts.]

[You spent five years comprehending this strike, drawing and withdrawing your saber again and again. Your form was identical to Min Ning's, yet you could never reproduce her strike exactly.]

[Another five years passed. You had invested a great deal of time but gained nothing. You no longer interrupted your practice of this strike, yet it was when you had no saber in hand that you gradually began to grasp its true intention. Three months later, you took up your saber again and could indeed use the Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber, just as Min Ning had.]

[Another five years passed. Sometimes you trained diligently; sometimes you slacked off. Your pace alternated between urgency and leisure, yet within this rhythm, you gradually comprehended the principle within this strike and gained insights beyond Min Ning's.]

[In the twentieth year, you used the Wind-Crushing Strike in spring, cleaved rain in summer, slew leaves in autumn, and blew snow in winter. Then spring came again. The four seasons turned, and worldly affairs were ever-changing. This strike was no longer limited to the Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber; it held further true intention. You wished to speak but forgot the words, and only then understood: true intention had already reached your heart. Your saber art achieved mastery.]

[Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber (ultimate perfection)]

[True qi remaining: 130 years]

Chen Yi tightened his grip on the Embroidered Spring Saber and bent slightly, shifting his feet as Min Ning had to seek the sensation of qi as he attempted his first strike.

Watching him copy her like someone drawing a tiger from a cat, Min Ning said with the air of an old veteran:

"This strike is called the 'Wind-Crushing Strike.' It emphasizes true intention rather than form, so it's extremely difficult to master quickly. There's no room for impatience. I've only just created it and haven't mastered it yet. Once I do, I'll name it the Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber and write a saber manual. Presumably, when it's mastered, even raging winds and torrential rain can be severed with one stroke. Severed... severed..."

Boom!

A fierce wind abruptly howled, like a dragon leaping from the depths. As the saber's gleam flashed, a faint, fine line seemed to divide the stretch of heaven and earth before them. The severed air currents turned into wind and slammed to either side, making a nearby water vat hum like a great temple bell.

Young Hero Min's smug expression first froze in bewilderment. Then her eyes widened in shock, and her hand instinctively pressed against her saber's hilt.

Having personally executed the strike, Chen Yi sheathed his saber and praised it in satisfaction:

"That's a fine strike. If I run into Huang Liuqing of the White Willow Sect again, with this killing move, who will emerge the victor remains to be seen."

Min Ning could kill Li the Rakshasa, who was in her realm, outright with one strike. Having brought this strike to perfection himself, he could probably cut down two people of his own realm outright.

Young Hero Min lowered her hand from her saber's hilt and asked incredulously:

"Where did you learn that strike?"

Chen Yi looked at Min Ning and blinked:

"From you. Didn't you teach me?"

Min Ning's eyes widened:

"I taught you?... That-that wasn't my move!"

The true intention in that strike went far beyond the Wind- and Rain-Scattering Saber... It was clearly several stories higher than her own strike!

How could she reach such a level with the same strike?

Min Ning grumbled inwardly, her mind full of black lines.

Looking at the stunned Min Ning, Chen Yi instantly realized something. Wanting to tease her, he unwisely patted her shoulder and smiled:

"Sorry, I helped you master it."

At those words, Min Ning nearly spat blood in anger. Then came surprise, followed by shock. Finally, after pondering it, she suddenly understood and fell silent, with nothing to say.

Her strike had originally come from watching him kill twenty-one people in the rainy alley that night.

It was perfectly normal for the blue to surpass the indigo it came from, but to reach such a level in so little time... Just what kind of Martial Dao talent was this?

Min Ning smiled bitterly. She had originally wanted him to become her student and true disciple. Now, it seemed she would be lucky not to become his true disciple herself.

Looking at her dejected appearance, Chen Yi wanted to laugh, but even so, he did not underestimate Min Ning's talent.

He had relied on his cheat to execute that strike. Min Ning had relied on talent.

"All right... Then let's talk about my grandfather."

Min Ning committed his strike to memory, then took the initiative to change the subject.

"I remember your grandfather was implicated in the Chancellor Case. The chancellor at the time was... Zhang Yan, Chief Grand Secretary Zhang?"

The chief grand secretary could also be called the chancellor.

"Twelve years ago, in the twenty-fourth year of Qingying, Chief Grand Secretary Zhang proposed an Immortality Method to the late emperor. The late emperor ordered my grandfather to lead a hundred Embroidered Uniform Guards in a great search across the land for several divine elixirs of immortality. When my grandfather brought the divine elixirs back, the ministers suddenly remonstrated, impeaching Chief Grand Secretary Zhang for throwing court affairs into chaos and being incurably corrupt. The Chancellor Case erupted, Chief Grand Secretary Zhang fell from power, and my grandfather was implicated too."

"But my grandfather shouldn't have had to die. Although he'd received favors from Chief Grand Secretary Zhang, at most he should have been dismissed from office. So my father always said there was more to the matter... Later, my father traveled everywhere, running around over this affair, only to suddenly drown during a mission... Two months later, my mother, torn apart by grief, followed him."

As Min Ning spoke of this, her voice gradually grew hoarse.

"So, what do you think?"

Min Ning looked at Chen Yi and said with utter seriousness:

"It's very likely that the late emperor deliberately had my grandfather executed!"

"Your grandfather brought back the divine elixirs, yet the late emperor executed him. Why? Come to think of it, the late emperor didn't actually achieve immortality either. Does that mean the divine elixirs were fake?"

Hearing Chen Yi's questions, Min Ning shook her head:

"I don't know either. That's why I want to learn the truth. And after this incident, Grand Secretary Lin was appointed to the Grand Secretariat as second grand secretary and entrusted with important responsibilities by the late emperor. The Lin faction gradually formed too."

"You're saying Grand Secretary Lin, who benefited most from all this, is the most suspicious?"

Chen Yi recalled that since his sixtieth birthday celebration, Grand Secretary Lin had become particularly enthusiastic about cultivating the Dao.

"Exactly... You aren't really part of the Lin faction, are you?"

Min Ning hesitated for a while before asking.

"I belong only to myself."

Chen Yi grinned:

"Or perhaps to you."

"Hmph. Never serious."

Min Ning breathed a sigh of relief.

"So, do you have any ideas?"

Having cleared this once, Chen Yi naturally had a way.

However, saying it outright would be meaningless and might even send the plan off course. Besides, Min Ning might not believe him.

So Chen Yi thought for a moment, then guided her:

"Think about it. Right now, during the Suppress Bandits and Exorcise Demons Blessing Ritual, yin and yang are muddled, and humans and ghosts are indistinguishable. What's the best way to learn the truth of what happened back then?"

Min Ning furrowed her valiant brows and thought for a while.

"What way? What do those two things have to do with each other?"

Chen Yi tapped her head and said directly:

"Just ask your grandfather!"

"Ask my grandfather? He's long since passed away."

Seeing Min Ning grow even more confused, Chen Yi sighed:

"Soul-Summoning!"