The scene before Xu Qi’an’s eyes shifted, going from blurry to clear in less than a second.
Then, he realised he was at the mouth of a valley. The valley was quiet, with wilted flowers and grass, bare trees, desolate and silent.
Xu Qi’an closed his eyes and sensed the temperature and humidity in the air. He relaxed slightly. The climate was not much different from the capital, which meant that the first-generation Jianzheng had not taken him out of the Great Feng, or to the border.
For all high-ranking cultivators except martial artists, a distance of dozens or even hundreds of li was merely a step away.
The white-robed arcanist raised his hand, placed his middle finger against his thumb, and flicked a bead of blood. “Buzz”, the blood bead struck an invisible barrier, causing ripples in the air.
“This is a secret place I spent great effort building years ago. Only I, or my bloodline, can enter. Not even the Jianzheng could get in. If anyone tries to force their way, this place will collapse.”
The white-robed arcanist carried Xu Qi’an across the barrier.
Xu Qi’an passed through the thin, transparent barrier, and his surroundings changed completely. The valley was still a valley, but there were no plants, only a huge stone disc engraved with all sorts of arcane runes.
The disc was a hundred feet across, covering almost every inch of the valley.
At the sight of the stone disc, Xu Qi’an again felt that familiar dizziness, like a string bout of morning sickness overcoming a pregnant woman.
“This formation— I carved it over thirty years, on and off, one hundred and eight formations combined into one. Its offence and defence are unparalleled. Apart from a first-rank Jianzheng, very few could break in.”
The white-robed arcanist explained gently.
Why would his secret place be so near the capital…? Xu Qi’an frowned, puzzled for a moment.
He didn’t dwell on it, as his attention was caught by a withered corpse sitting cross-legged at the centre of the formation.
The corpse’s clothes were strange, stitched from fabric and animal hide, with brightly coloured stones hanging at the waist, and a layered turban on its head.
Southern Marches person?
It was the classic dress of the Southern Marches.
“He… he was the former chief of the Heaven Gu tribe?!” Xu Qi’an’s mind stirred and he voiced his guess.
“That’s right, he was the old Heaven Gu Master who, with me, stole the Great Feng’s fortune.”
The white-robed arcanist answered every question, calm and unruffled, as if everything was within his grasp.
“How did he die here?”
Xu Qi’an stared at the first-generation Jianzheng’s blurred face, full of suspicion, as if to say: Did you two fall out?
“He was nearing the end of his life already. When we schemed for the Great Feng’s fortune, he suffered a backlash. Soon after the Battle of Shanhai Pass, he perished.”
The first-generation Jianzheng said with feeling, “To steal a nation’s fortune is to invite backlash. Even now, extracting your fortune will bring me backlash as well. This is the price one must pay.”
Lina had said that the Heaven Gu Master’s goal in seeking the Great Feng’s fortune was to repair the Sage’s statue and re-seal the Gu God… Xu Qi’an mused:
“Would he really have willingly handed everything over to you?”
Anyone capable of scheming for the Great Feng’s fortune would know their own lifespan and health. Why would he have handed everything over so willingly?
The white-robed arcanist stood beside Xu Qi’an, looking at the mummified corpse in the centre of the array. He said,
“This gift comes at a price: the price was sealing the Gu God. That was the relation between us. You need not concern yourself with it.”
Xu Qi’an was silent for a moment, then asked softly, “Must I die?”
The white-robed arcanist said nothing.
Xu Qi’an turned, gazing at him earnestly. “I don’t care for this fortune; it was yours to begin with. You can have it back.”
The white-robed arcanist said slowly,
“If you had reached second rank, becoming a Hedao martial artist, you could have borne the consequences of losing the fortune. But I can’t wait that long.
“Wei Yuan is dead, Zhende is dead, the dragon ley is scattered, these are unstoppable tides. Fortune Refiners must go with the flow. If I wait until you’re second rank, the opportunity will have passed.
“To accomplish great things, one must seize the moment. You understand this.”
He sighed. “And when you become a Hedao martial artist, I might no longer be able to subdue you.”
A trace of sadness flashed in Xu Qi’an’s eyes, but he quickly composed himself and asked,
“How did you hide the fortune on me from the Jianzheng?”
This question had plagued him for a long time. The Jianzheng was a first-rank arcanist, no one understood fortune better. How had the first-generation managed to let it slumber on him for twenty years, undetected?
The white-robed arcanist gazed at the dried corpse and said quietly, “That wasn’t my doing, it was the old Heaven Gu Master’s technique. We used the same method back then to hide it from the Jianzheng and successfully steal the fortune.”
What method…? Xu Qi’an waited a moment, but the arcanist didn’t elaborate.
“The one who tied the bell must untie it. Extracting your fortune requires his help, as well as this great formation.”
The white-robed arcanist picked Xu Qi’an up and, seemingly casually yet with hidden care, placed him facing the dried corpse.
He needed this formation’s help to extract the fortune, he’d started preparing for this thirty years ago… Xu Qi’an marvelled inwardly: a LYB, laying plans across a thousand li.
He did not resist, nor could he. He obediently stood in place, then asked,
“I’m quite curious, can shielding Heaven’s secrets erase my name?”
The white-robed arcanist paused for a moment and asked, “Why do you ask?”
Xu Qi’an gave a faint smile, his face expressionless:
“Just personal curiosity. How far can you go in shielding someone? Can you erase them completely from the world? What would happen if you hid someone known to all, like the Emperor, or myself?
“Would everyone truly forget, or would their memories become confused? If someone hidden by Heaven’s secrets reappeared before everyone, what would happen?
“What about their closest kin, would it be different for them than for others?”
The white-robed arcanist looked at him for a long time, saying nothing.
Xu Qi’an calmly met his gaze. “If you write something down beforehand, and your closest kin later sees something that doesn’t match their memory, what then?”
…
On the main road, just outside the capital.
Xu Pingzhi urged his horse towards Cloud Deer Academy, while Great Scholar Zhang Shen strolled alongside, matching the horse’s pace with his own easy strides.
A figure appeared ahead, shrouded in pure energy, wearing a Confucian crown and old scholar’s robes, free-spirited and unrestrained.
“Dean?”
Zhang Shen was surprised. “What are you doing here?”
Dean Zhao Shou ignored him, taking three slips of paper from his robe. He opened one. It read:
“If you forget to save (blank) tomorrow, give the second slip to Xu Pingzhi.”
There was a blank space in the middle, save whom? It wasn’t written, or perhaps had been, but had been erased.
“What does this mean?”
Zhang Shen looked at the slip and saw Zhao Shou’s face more solemn than ever before, making him realise the Dean must have encountered some great problem.
Xu Pingzhi, still on horseback, frowned. He too saw the slip Zhao Shou had produced. Although he’d never been to school, as a government official he had eaten an imperial salary for years and was used to reading and writing; he recognised most of the words, with only two or three he didn’t know.
“I just went through a fierce battle, but I can’t remember who I fought, or even why. It was only when I discovered these three slips of paper on me that I realised something was wrong.”
As he spoke, Zhao Shou unfolded the second slip, on which was written in vermilion:
“Second Uncle, save me!!”
Four glaring crimson characters appeared in Xu Pingzhi’s pupils, making them contract sharply as if struck by a bright light.
His facial muscles twitched, and beads of sweat the size of beans formed on his forehead.
Xu Pingzhi clutched his head, howling in pain, veins bulging on his forehead. He tumbled from his horse, gripping his head, rolling and roaring on the ground in agony.
Zhao Shou said in a deep voice, “All things shall pass!”
Laws follow commandments.
Second Uncle Xu’s headache eased considerably. He gasped for breath, his face no longer twisted by pain, his whole body drenched in sweat, as if he had just been hauled out of water.
Xu Pingzhi slowly stood up, his lips trembling. At some point, his rugged face had become streaked with tears.
“It seems you’ve remembered something.”
Zhao Shou’s tone was gentle. He then unfolded the third slip, which read: “Go to Quanrong Mountain in Jianzhou, find the Wulin Alliance Patriarch, you’ll know once you arrive.”
…
Quanrong Mountain, within the stone gate.
Squirming chunks of flesh circled around a slip of paper, upon which was written:
“Wait for Zhao Shou, Dean of Cloud Deer Academy, to arrive and go with him to save someone. This is very important.
“Wait for Zhao Shou, Dean of Cloud Deer Academy, to arrive and go with him to save someone. This is very important.
“Wait for Zhao Shou, Dean of Cloud Deer Academy, to arrive and go with him to save someone! This is very important!
“Important things should be said three times.”
In the dim stone cavern, an old voice echoed:
“Why is there a note here? It seems I’ve forgotten something. I’ve been in seclusion for so many years, how could I leave so lightly? This will cost me what little life I have left.
“Wait…”
One chunk of flesh slithered into a corner, rolling out a letter, which read:
“Senior, before long, I shall face a great calamity. I hope you will lend a hand. In return, I promise to deliver a segment of nine-coloured lotus root within half a year, to help you reach second-rank Hedao.”
The old voice in the stone cavern echoed again: “Whose letter is this, whose letter?”
The voice sounded agitated.
“I can’t remember, but the fact that I kept this letter proves its importance. It seems I’ve forgotten something… That’s right, Zhao Shou, wait for Zhao Shou…”
The old voice muttered to itself.
…
The white-robed arcanist smiled:
“Interesting, you being able to ponder such questions surprises me. But it doesn’t matter. Extracting the fortune from your body will take only about ten minutes. Even if the Jianzheng drove off Sarun Agu and rushed here right now, he couldn’t unravel in that time what took me over thirty years to carve.
“Besides, the old Heaven Gu Master left behind certain methods here, methods that possess the property of being ‘unknowable’.”
The property of being unknowable… So that’s why the fortune hidden in my body remained undetected for twenty years? Xu Qi’an realised. He sighed and said,
“Truly watertight.”
The white-robed arcanist said nothing more. He lightly stomped his foot, and a pure light shone from beneath him, instantly “igniting” the whole array. The pure light rippled outward like water, illuminating the runes.
In that moment, Xu Qi’an felt an immense sense of crisis. Every hair, every nerve in his body was delivering “danger” signals.
This was the warning of crisis that came from a Refining Spirit martial artist’s instinct.
But no corresponding images formed in his mind, the danger was mysterious, impossible to grasp or visualise.
He could sense that something within him was drawing away, slowly rising, about to leave through the crown of his head.
The formation is extracting my fortune… Xu Qi’an intuitively understood.
Then the extraction stopped, as if it had met an insurmountable barrier.
At that moment, at the centre of the array, the withered corpse slowly opened its eyes.
Those eyes had only the whites, no pupils, as if containing a terrible vortex.
Crack!
Xu Qi’an seemed to hear the sound of chains snapping, a certain shackle binding the fortune within him broke, and nothing could stop its extraction.
The white-robed arcanist finally smiled.
Twenty years of planning, at last complete, he had achieved his great goal.
But in the next instant, his smiling face froze.
That vast and boundless fortune, invisible to most, was about to leave Xu Qi’an, when suddenly, it halted, then slowly sank and returned into his body.
“There’s something else in you, fortune that doesn’t belong to the Great Feng!”
The white-robed arcanist said, his tone unreadable, but now low.
“Looks like I guessed right.”
Xu Qi’an was drenched in cold sweat, overwhelmed by a fatigue of both body and mind. He was gasping for breath despite no physical exertion, and laughed between breaths:
“I’m sure of two things now. First, the fortune you hid in me had already been refined by you with Fortune Refiner techniques. But the other fortune within me wasn’t refined by you, it doesn’t belong to your line.
“Second, you and the Jianzheng are different. The Jianzheng’s flawless calculations are based on his Heaven’s Mandate rank. But as a second-rank Fortune Refiner, you’re still just human. You don’t know everything. For instance, you didn’t know I once had a strange encounter and acquired a fortune of unknown origin. It seems the two types of fortune have fused, so you can’t extract the part that belongs to you.”
“Ha, haha, hahahaha…”
His laughter became increasingly wild, a rush of euphoria at surviving disaster, and a lingering terror after his brush with death.
The white-robed arcanist didn’t refute him, as if tacitly admitting it, and smiled:
“It’s only a matter of spending a bit more time. For a Fortune Refiner, refining another piece of fortune isn’t difficult. On the contrary, I should thank you for your gift, which has given me an immense bounty of fortune.”
“Haha, hahaha, hahahahaha…”
Xu Qi’an was still laughing, like a madman.
As he laughed, tears streamed down his face.
The white-robed arcanist frowned, his tone uncharacteristically displeased. “What are you laughing at?”
Xu Qi’an wiped away his tears, looked at the white-robed arcanist, with both sadness and hatred, and forced out between his teeth:
“Should I call you the Jianzheng’s senior disciple, or the Xu family’s Literary Star, Sir Xu? Or should I call you… dad?”
Comments for this chapter. You will need a GitHub account. Please follow all terms and conditions of GitHub issues and maintain etiquette in the comments. Cookies are required for this functionality.
If you want to talk with other readers about Nightwatchers (or other cultivation type books) you can join our cultivation groupreading discord server!
I also have a Kofi, which for legal reasons is definitely for supporting my digital art only (promise!): ko-fi.com/yanxin ... plus I guess server space isn't free, and I don't want to put ads/trackers... ever, so thank you if you do!