I'm Not White Chrysanthemum, I'm Sun Yanqi

Wang Chong chuckled, suddenly walked over, and jabbed twice more with his fingers, sealing the man's acupoints!

Shock covered the man's face, then turned to terror. He shouted with all his strength, "I'm not White Chrysanthemum, I'm Sun Yanqi! Please don't kill an innocent man by mistake."

"I'm Lotus Immortal Nan Xinlan's beloved! Hero, don't kill me! Hero, don't kill me!"

Wang Chong slapped his thigh and said, "So you're a man with a story!"

Over the past few days, he had heard people mention Lotus Immortal Nan Xinlan countless times. After all, she was the victim of White Chrysanthemum's latest crime. He had also heard Sun Yanqi's name and knew that he and Nan Xinlan had privately pledged themselves to each other, though their families had yet to acknowledge it.

Wang Chong listened smilingly to his "explanation" for a while. Seeing the shifting expressions on the fellow's face as he spoke, he could guess that there was surely plenty he had left unsaid. Suddenly, he walked over and delivered another seven or eight finger jabs. Sun Yanqi's face instantly turned ashen, and he cried, "You bandits! You treat human lives like weeds and slaughter the innocent! I won't let you off even in the underworld! I curse you to die horrible deaths! Horrible deaths..."

Wang Chong actually had no idea just what Lotus Immortal Nan Xinlan's beloved was hiding.

But since the man was neither forthcoming nor truthful, he could not be bothered to question him. He pinned him to the ground and searched him thoroughly, actually finding an oilpaper package inside his clothes.

This oilpaper package was Sun Yanqi's greatest secret. Terrified beyond measure, he pleaded desperately again. "This is a keepsake from my late father, merely a few volumes of his poetry and essays, nothing precious at all. Please return it to me, sir."

Wang Chong ignored his nonsense and opened the oilpaper package. Sun Yanqi had wrapped it in seven or eight layers, each tied with fine cotton cord. The outer three or four layers were soaked, but the inside was still quite dry. When he peeled away the final layer of oilpaper, he found two thin booklets within.

He glanced at the title pages of the two booklets, and his eyes lit up. The first read "Fundamental Scripture for Cultivating the Divine Transformations of the Thirty-Two Marks," while the second read "Correct Explanation of the Four Marks." He thought, So they're secret martial arts manuals.

Knowing that all was lost, Sun Yanqi felt as though his heart had died. His face the color of soot, he said in a trembling voice, "Brother, I'm willing to share these supreme Buddhist secret manuals with you. Please don't kill me."

Wang Chong still had many questions. He merely felt that the man harbored countless secrets and behaved in bizarre ways. Flipping rapidly through the pages, he asked, "What exactly is going on? You'd better tell the truth."

Sun Yanqi stared at the two booklets in Wang Chong's hands, his heart all but dripping blood. Every page Wang Chong turned felt like another knife gouging his heart. Lowering his head and gritting his teeth bitterly, he said, "I heard that my dear Lianmei had escaped the clutches of that lecher White Chrysanthemum, so I went looking for her. Then I ran into an unreasonable monk and a madwoman. They wouldn't listen to my explanations at all and joined forces to knock me into the river..."

Wang Chong thought, That matches. That's what we heard too.

He asked curiously, "Who were that monk and that woman? And why did they take you for White Chrysanthemum?"

Sun Yanqi's eyes shifted slightly as he answered casually, "That monk is the notorious outlaw who runs rampant across seven provinces, Sheyang Tiger Chen Ba. I don't know the woman, but I imagine she's a jackal from the same den."

Wang Chong shook his head. This man named Sun Yanqi thought his story was as seamless as a celestial robe, but anyone with even a little workplace experience could tell he was lying.

The only thing Wang Chong could not understand was that this man and Lotus Immortal Nan Xinlan were lovers. Surely he could have nothing to do with White Chrysanthemum? How had he been mistaken for him? And why was he lying? The logic behind his behavior was a complete mess!

Seeing Wang Chong read faster and faster, Sun Yanqi grew endlessly anxious. His voice hoarse, he said, "The supreme Buddhist divine arts in these two volumes are extremely difficult to cultivate. Only through instruction bestowed by Heaven did I comprehend a few crucial points and begin cultivating them. If you explore them on your own, you might make no progress even after decades. But with my guidance, you'll surely achieve something within a few years. Then the two of us can join forces and roam the martial world unchallenged. Wouldn't that be splendid?"

Wang Chong asked a few more questions, but the man strayed further and further off topic, every sentence circling back to those two booklets.

Although Wang Chong was curious about secret martial arts manuals, he did not place all that much value on them. After all, he was not from this world, and his thinking differed from that of ordinary martial artists.

He closed the two booklets, shut his eyes, and silently recalled their contents. Once certain that he had memorized everything, he was just about to return the Fundamental Scripture for Cultivating the Divine Transformations of the Thirty-Two Marks and the Correct Explanation of the Four Marks when a rough, booming voice called out, "Someone really did save that villain!"

A rough-featured, gray-robed monk nine feet tall strode out of the night and called, "This man is heartless and vile, a defiler of women guilty of unforgivable evils. Benefactor, do not place your trust in the wrong man."

At the sight of the monk, Sun Yanqi shook like chaff in a sieve and cried, "Don't believe him! He's the notorious outlaw who runs rampant across seven provinces, Sheyang Tiger Chen Ba! He slaughters innocents, massacres villages, wipes out entire families, and has committed countless evils! He's no good man! He wants to slander me as White Chrysanthemum so he can collect the government's bounty."

The burly monk sneered coldly and roared, "You despicable, shameless wretch!"

Knowing this was his only chance of survival, Sun Yanqi poured out an unending torrent of words, painting the monk as utterly vile, a disgrace to Buddhism. For a moment, Wang Chong could not tell which of them was good and which was evil. He thought, How did I get stuck with this hot potato? It's too late to leave now. He tucked the two booklets into his clothes and was about to suggest taking the man to Pengshan County and letting the Chrysanthemum-Slaying Alliance judge right from wrong, but the burly gray-robed monk lost patience. With a tiger's roar, he lunged.

Wang Chong could hardly stand by and watch Sun Yanqi be killed before his eyes. Though every sentence the man spoke contained lies, there was not really any charge that warranted his death. Besides, Wang Chong had sealed his acupoints; letting him be killed would make him an accomplice. He could only steel himself, flick open his folding fan, and say, "I'm a member of the Chrysanthemum-Slaying Alliance. My brothers in the alliance are all renowned figures from the seven southern provinces. There's Fang Jingru, acclaimed as the Celestial Master Sect's Seventeenth-Generation Number One Expert, and Zhou Yuchen, the Kongtong Sect's senior disciple. There's also Brother Qin Han, Qin Liaokong, who holds the official post of Left Martial Guard Zhechong Commandant, Principal Fifth Rank. Every one of them is upright in character and flawless in virtue. Why don't you both come with me to meet my brothers in the Chrysanthemum-Slaying Alliance and let everyone debate right and wrong?"

The burly monk did not answer at all. His palms, like enormous cattail-leaf fans, whipped up gusts of wind, filling the air with palm strikes.

Wang Chong could only use the Hundred Styles of Wind and Cloud and fight fiercely against the monk.

The fight was rather frustrating. After they had exchanged a dozen or so moves, Monk Xuangang was inwardly startled. Who is this man? How are his martial arts so formidable? I meant to capture him within a few moves, kill this lecher, and explain afterward. I never expected him to withstand the force of my palms head-on.

Wang Chong, too, felt that the pressure this burly monk put on him seemed no less than Qian Luoyi's. In particular, every move he made came with a thunderous shout, adding a fair measure of fear to one's heart.

As Wang Chong concentrated on countering the attacks, he suddenly heard a shriek, followed by a scream of agony. A dainty, pretty girl, her face covered in tear tracks, struck with extreme ruthlessness, driving her sword clean through Sun Yanqi's heart.

...Wang Chong: Sun Yanqi's death was a bit slapdash...