"The Old Lord said: the Great Dao has no form, yet gives birth to heaven and earth-the Daoist Calming Incantation. The Great Dao has no feelings, yet moves the sun and moon. The Great Dao has no name, yet nurtures all things. I do not know its name; forced to name it, I call it Dao. The Dao has clarity and turbidity, movement and stillness. Heaven is clear and earth turbid; heaven moves and earth is still. Man is clear and woman turbid; man moves and woman is still. Descending from the root and flowing to the branches, it gives birth to all things.
"The clear is the source of the turbid. The moving-if people can remain ever clear and still, heaven and earth will return to them entirely. The human spirit loves stillness, but the heart disturbs it. The human heart loves stillness, but desire draws it away. If one can constantly dispel desire, the heart will grow still of itself."
"Why are you suddenly chanting scriptures?"
Li Qiuran watched Zhang Qingyuan sit cross-legged on the ground, meditating reverently and dutifully chanting scriptures, and felt thoroughly puzzled.
Zhang Qingyuan opened one eye and said with a smile, "I just killed someone, and I'm full of viciousness. A few recitations of the Calming Incantation will wash away all this killing intent.
"You're a Daoist too. Chanting is good for your mental health. Keep wearing that stiff expression, and when you get older, you'll develop a hormonal imbalance."
"What's a hormonal imbalance?"
"It means symptoms like pimples and peeling skin on your hands and feet."
Li Qiuran turned her head away and ignored him.
After that fight, the two could count as having fought side by side. Li Qiuran no longer treated Zhang Qingyuan with quite the same cries of death and violence.
Zhang Qingyuan rose, took a paper packet from his bundle, and brought it over to Li Qiuran. Firelight fell across her face, giving him the feeling of admiring a beauty by lamplight.
He opened the packet, revealing slices of braised pork hock.
"Have some."
Li Qiuran looked at the meat, then at his hands.
"I washed my hands."
Only then did Li Qiuran pick up a slice of meat and place it in her mouth, delicately tasting it.
Warming himself by the fire, Zhang Qingyuan thought for a moment before asking, "Um, Li... Qiuran?"
Li Qiuran stopped and glared at him. Zhang Qingyuan said, "We've been through life and death together, haven't we? Surely it's fine to call you Qiuran."
"Don't think helping me means you can get familiar with me. Not killing you is already the greatest mercy I can offer. If you need something, use my full name, or call me Daoist."
"All right, Qiuran. I understand, Qiuran."
Faced with such a shameless rogue, Li Qiuran gritted her teeth and simply ignored him.
"Let me ask you something. That manor lord said earlier that you should hand over some Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Art. What is that?"
Zhang Qingyuan grinned. "I really am new to the jianghu. I wasn't lying about that. All I know about the jianghu right now is the Four Great Mountain Manors, and counting you, I've only made three friends.
"It's still early. Let's chat."
Li Qiuran knew he was deliberately trying to get close to her, but considering how he had just helped her, she chose to speak anyway.
Besides, looking at Zhang Qingyuan now, she no longer found him as annoying as before.
"Do you know where I come from?"
Zhang Qingyuan shook his head. Li Qiuran said, "My sect is called the Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Pavilion. Its founding ancestor was Zhao Huaixin, a princess of the previous dynasty, two hundred years ago.
"She was only six when the previous dynasty fell. The head of Pure Heart Temple in Jiangnan adopted and raised her.
"Our founder possessed extraordinary talent. At sixteen, she ventured into the jianghu. At twenty-six, she created the Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Art and established the Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Pavilion, becoming Daoist Heavenly Yin, one of the Seven Supremes Under Heaven."
Li Qiuran glanced at Zhang Qingyuan. Enlightenment dawned on him. "Oh! So you're an heir to Daoist Heavenly Yin's lineage."
He did know about Daoist Heavenly Yin. Daoist scriptures contained records of her.
All Daoist sects under heaven belonged to one family. Under normal circumstances, whenever a Daoist of any sect attained fame and enlightenment, other sects would record it in their own scriptures, acknowledging that person's contributions to Daoism.
Daoist Heavenly Yin, Zhao Huaixin, had established her lineage on Mount Yin, worshipped the Mysterious Maiden of the Nine Heavens, and written a Daoist scripture.
"Then why do they want to steal your cultivation art? Where's your sect?"
Li Qiuran's gaze suddenly grew desolate. She raised her head to look at the starry sky, and loneliness welled up in her heart.
"It's already scattered," she said.
"Oh."
"Don't you want to know why?" Li Qiuran suddenly asked.
Zhang Qingyuan was somewhat surprised. He truly had not expected her to confide in him. Didn't this bring them a step closer?
If there had been a progress bar, it would definitely have shown affection above fifty percent.
Because when a woman wanted to confide in you, she already considered you a friend in her heart.
"I do," Zhang Qingyuan answered honestly. "But seeing you like this, I'm afraid of stirring up painful memories."
Li Qiuran suddenly smiled, like a touch of sunshine appearing over snow.
She lowered her head and said quietly, "There's nothing I can't tell you. Everyone in the jianghu knows."
Everyone in the jianghu knows except me.
"Since our founding ancestor's generation, the Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Pavilion has accepted only women, all orphans. Each generation had no more than three to five disciples."
Zhang Qingyuan thought about it, and a picture formed in his mind. That was far too stifling.
"The first three generations did well. Back then, our Mysterious Maiden Pavilion was a first-rate sect in the jianghu.
"Unfortunately, seventy years ago, my great-grandmaster fell in love with a man.
"He was originally a scholar. On his way to the imperial examinations, he encountered bandits. My great-grandmaster rescued him and brought him back to the Mysterious Maiden Pavilion to recover. During his convalescence, feelings developed between them.
"Once his wounds healed, the scholar wanted to continue to the capital for the examinations. Afraid he might encounter danger again on the road, my great-grandmaster taught him the first three levels of the Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Art.
"But she never expected him to be a martial arts prodigy. Those three levels alone won him fame in the jianghu. After placing second in the imperial examinations, he actually married a court minister's daughter and abandoned my great-grandmaster."
All right, another melodramatic plot.
"And then?"
"And then..." Li Qiuran said hatefully, "Over the next dozen or so years, he actually relied on his own martial talent to revise and complete those three levels of the Mysterious Maiden Technique, turning them into an entirely new cultivation art.
"Afterward, he resigned his post and returned home, passed his martial arts to his son, and entered the jianghu in earnest, establishing Righteous Qi Manor, which remains a first-rate power to this day!"
"Righteous Qi Manor, one of the Four Great Mountain Manors?"
Zhang Qingyuan suddenly remembered that when he had met Li Xiaodong, Chen Ling'er had told him about the Four Great Mountain Manors of the jianghu: Hidden Sword Manor, Righteous Qi Manor, Lord's Residence Manor, and Sword God Manor.
He had never imagined that Righteous Qi Manor had such an origin.
"There was nothing wrong with his using his own abilities to complete the cultivation art. What was hateful was that some people in the jianghu saw his fortunes blazing like the midday sun and assumed the Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Art was better suited to men.
"Thirty years ago, a group of martial artists broke into the Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Pavilion under cover of darkness. Every last one of them was a first-rate martial expert.
"They stormed the Mysterious Maiden Pavilion, seized the disciples, and demanded that my grandmaster hand over the Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Art, or else...
"My grandmaster naturally refused. She fought to the death, intending to take them down with her. Unfortunately, outnumbered, she could only leave thirteen of them dead. The remaining twenty-odd escaped. In the end, only my master escaped the calamity at the Heavenly Yin Mysterious Maiden Pavilion and made it out alive.
"Afterward, my master lived in hiding, diligently training while investigating who those people had been, seeking revenge for our sect."
"Did your master find out who they were?"
Li Qiuran shook her head and sighed. "Only one: the sect master of the Heavenly Saber Sect."
"Did she get revenge?"
"Yes. They died together."
"Was the Heavenly Saber Sect that powerful?"
Li Qiuran shook her head again. "Though the Heavenly Saber Sect's master was a first-rate expert in the jianghu, there are differences even among first-rate experts.
"With our sect destroyed, the transmission of our Mysterious Maiden Pavilion's martial arts was broken.
"Without elders to teach us, our cultivation progressed slowly."
At this point, she glanced at Zhang Qingyuan and said ruefully, "Otherwise, why do you think I couldn't kill you? Do you think my sect's martial arts are weak?"
Zhang Qingyuan shook his head. What a joke. This was weak?
"After my master died, I was left to wander the jianghu alone, while those people coveted my martial arts."
Zhang Qingyuan supplied, "So you killed all those men with ill intentions, and they saddled you with the nickname Bamboo-Green Demoness."
How pitiful. Zhang Qingyuan could not help sighing. This was the jianghu.
A jianghu filled with treachery, plots, schemes, and greed.
An ordinary man was innocent; possessing a jade made him guilty.
Li Qiuran looked at Zhang Qingyuan and asked mockingly, "Now, do you still dare come near me?"
Zhang Qingyuan stood up and pursed his lips.
"If I stay with you, I'll inevitably earn the hostility of those who want your martial arts. They'll see me as a thorn in their eyes and a spike in their flesh.
"And those who destroyed your sect back then will surely try to assassinate you to preserve their secret. Perhaps they were the ones who spread your title of Bamboo-Green Demoness.
"They won't spare the man by your side either.
"A certain Supreme Sage and First Teacher put it particularly well: the best way to kill someone is to blacken his moral character.
"Being with you also means sharing the responsibility of avenging your sect, for you and alongside you. The future is destined to be anything but peaceful."
After hearing this speech, Li Qiuran sneered inwardly. Although she had known he would surely retreat before the difficulties and distance himself from her once he learned all this, she still felt a little disappointed.
After being alone long enough, one grew used to it.
She rallied herself and put on that cold expression again. "As long as you understand..."
Before she could finish, Zhang Qingyuan interrupted her.
He stood up beneath the sea of stars, hands clasped behind his back, his Daoist robes fluttering lightly, confidence on his face.
He declared in a ringing voice, "A man ought to have confidence. This humble Daoist believes that I will surely reach the supreme peak of this world, and it won't take very long."
For a moment, Li Qiuran was swept up in his confidence and stared at him blankly.
"As the saying goes, life is precious, but love is worth still more. Everyone has a love of beauty. Since I'm certain to reach the supreme peak, how could I abandon a beauty over such trifles?
"Today, fairy maiden, I offer you a sincere heart and leave it here in your keeping. Once this humble Daoist has made a name in the jianghu, I will surely come treading the moonlight to retrieve it.
"When that day comes, I hope you will take pity on me and give me your heart in return."
His manner was plainly utterly frivolous, yet he had spoken words that moved the heart.
When it came to this, Zhang Qingyuan thought of Chu Liuxiang and Duan Zhengchun.
Possessed by Jin Yong's and Gu Long's two great sages of romance, he carried himself with carefree ease and confessed his true feelings.
Trading one sincere heart for another?
Sitting before the fire, Li Qiuran watched Zhang Qingyuan make these grand declarations and felt somewhat moved.
The wind stirred the grass,
People stirred too,
And feelings stirred still more.