Seemingly coming far far away, music suddenly could be heard. It’s the sound of a flute playing. Gentle and soft, yet insistent as it breaks through the night, the melody of “The Dream of a Conqueror” seems to pierce straight to the listener’s heart.

The dream of conquering, conquering is like a dream, a lifetime of ambitions and hopes, countless gold and war-horses, but all the riches and power are destined to turn to dust in the passing of time. Nations conquered but for what when one is left standing all alone in the end.

Ning Yi’s jumbled mind slowly regains focus as the sound of the flute come closer and clearer. It was as if a heavenly hand had cleared the fog with a simple wave. Zhi Wei suddenly stirred in Ning Yi’s arms. Bending his head down, Ning Yi lightly pats her shoulder “Zhi Wei, wake up. Listen.” Struggling to shake off the slumbering fog, Zhi Wei tries to concentrate on the sound of the flute with her eyes closed. Underneath his palm, Ning Yi could feel Zhi Wei’s boney shoulder, her already slender figure looks to have lost quite a bit weight in the last two days. The sound of the flute comes even closer, seemingly bringing with it a mysterious power. Judging by the panic filled rustling sounds coming from right outside of their door, the men there have stopped whatever they were doing as well.

Looking up, Zhi Wei and Ning Yi exchanged a glance, both seeing a hint of elation in each other’s eyes. Still without any strength in their bodies, Zhi Wei and Ning Yi lean against each other in silence as they focus on listening to the melody of the flute. Sitting on the ground of the old temple, both suddenly feel an inner peace filling them. What’s there in this world that is worthy of dragging one down? Glory and fame all pass like a dream. Everything in this world, from the bitter to the great, all can be thrown away in exchange for a hearty laugh. Zhi Wei hasn’t realized she is extremely close to Ning Yi, nor is Ning Yi aware that his arm is around her shoulder. In a moment of the deepest inner silence they have ever experienced, they have finally let down the tall fence around their hearts. After a moment, Ning Yi whispers “To be able to express such nobility and disregard of what everyone seeks in this world in a song…this can’t be achieved by someone who is ordinary.”

“Hm.” Zhi Wei agrees “What an admirable person.” The two wait patiently for the time until they can finally see the face of the mystery flute player but a long shout abruptly came. The flute playing cut off just as abruptly as the shout came, seemingly no longer coming closer to them.

Both surprised, an expression of pure elation much stronger than before bursts out of Ning Yi’s eyes when he heard the long shout. The shout had sounded like it came from a long distance away when it was first heard but in the next instant, it had arrived at where they are. A series of yells of panic came from outside of their door in the next moment. Zhi Wei could hear amidst the chaos the leader of the group says in fear “The Heavenly War…” Before he could finish, the leader suddenly let out a cry of pain followed immediately by the sound of “Bang!” as something heavy hit the side door. The little door shook violently from the impact, seemingly making the whole room shook with it as well. Zhi Wei stares at the bright red blood slowly seeping in from the door crack with amazement. Even in her best condition, she probably has little chance of beating the leader of those men but whoever just arrived, killed the leader in one move. Thinking back to what the leader had started to say “Heavenly War…” Zhi Wei wonders if he wanted to say – Heavenly War Family? The one who has complete control over the good and the dark side of Jianghu? This family has long been hidden from the world and has almost reached the status of gods in people’s eyes. No wonder there was so much panic outside. But this family, who are supposedly decedents from a royal lineage have never involved themselves in political matters so why would they show up to help them? Judging by Ning Yi’s reaction, he seems to know them as well… so who are they really? And the one who was playing the flute? Why did the person stop coming the moment he or she heard Heavenly War Family’s shout? Zhi Wei was about to go out and see for herself who is outside but there came more sounds of people approaching fast through the air. (Remember this is a Wuxia novel so while people don’t exactly fly but they can move long distance through the air.) The person outside obviously also heard the sound of people approaching and leaves after letting out a huffing snort.

Immediately after the mysterious person from Heavenly War Family left, a familiar-sounding voice came “Is this it? Let’s go in and see.” Zhi Wei then heard another even more familiar voice saying coldly “Too noisy, stinks!” So stunned, Zhi Wei runs smack into the half-opened door. Helian, Gu Nan Yi! Seriously! Is this like all or nothing?! They had no one then now they all show up at the same time! Turning to look at Ning Yi with tears in her eyes, Zhi Wei starts to laugh.

When Helian finally sees Zhi Wei, he lets out a loud gasp then couldn’t get another sound out. Stopping long enough to chomp on his walnut to throw one into Helian’s gaping mouth, Gu Nan Yi promptly pulls Zhi Wei to him so he can check her all over to check her wounds. Magically producing fists full of medicine pills (they are more like little medicine balls…but that sounded weird so I went with pills), Gu Nan Yi stuffed them all into Zhi Wei’s mouth and refused to hear any protests from her. Compare to Zhi Wei, poor Ning Yi had no one to fawn all over him and even had to go rescue Helian who almost choked to death on a walnut. Finally able to breathe, Helian yells “You directionally challenged nitwit! If it wasn’t for me, would you be able to find your way here? You ungrateful jerk!”

Master Gu has never been the sort to listen to other people’s words so Helian’s complaints fell on deaf ears.

“Do you have medicine for eyes?” Finally able to get a word out after swallowing all the pills, Zhi Wei points at Ning Yi and asks Gu Nan Yi. Before Gu Nan Yi could answer, Ning Yi replies “No need to ask him. He doesn’t have this kind of skill yet.” Back to playing with the walnuts in his hands, Gu Nan Yi pays no heed to Ning Yi’s challenging statement.

Zhi Wei looks around and spots a small porcelain bottle by the group leader’s dead body. Judging by the fact that the bottle is clearly labeled “The antidote to Long Slumber” it must be the antidote to the poison incense the men had used on them. With the bottle sitting so neatly by the dead body, it was probably found by the man from Heavenly War Family and left it there for them but for some reason, the man had left the moment Gu Nan Yi and Helian showed up. Zhi Wei could sense from the point when the flute began playing, curious things started to happen. Obviously, the flute player avoided the Heavenly War Family. Then the Heavenly War Family avoided Gu Nan Yi– now, that’s very interesting. Of course no matter how interesting, there are no answers to be had right now and Master Gu is not one to answer her either. (Our heroine knows that Gu Nan Yi is probably keeping some things from her…but she also knows it is very probable that even if Gu Nan Yi is willing to tell her, he most likely can’t manage to express something so complex.)

Zhi Wei took her medicine and rested. Master Gu transferred some internal energy to Zhi Wei and after some pleading from Zhi Wei, very reluctantly took Ning Yi’s pulse. Seemingly quite pained as he hands Ning Yi an extremely foul-smelling pill, Master Gu looks ready to pounce and take his pill back if Ning Yi shows the slightest hesitation. Unfortunately for Master Gu, not only did His Highness not show the slightest hesitation he accepted the pill with a smile then promptly ate it. Poor Master Gu had to console himself with eight walnuts.

As they rested, Helian told them all about what happened while they were gone. That night, Master Gu had indeed gotten lost and was stuck going in circles about thirty miles away from the rest stop. Eventually, Master Gu met Helian who was worried about Zhi Wei and had come after her. The two men almost lost hope when they arrived at the rest stop and saw the piles of burnt bodies until they saw the secret signs Zhi Wei had left behind. They followed Zhi Wei’s signs all the way but it wasn’t easy to find the signs in the mountain so that’s why it took them so long to catch up. Hearing that the two men had stopped at the same village as she and Ning Yi did, Zhi Wei blurts out “Did you see Cheng Yu Meng…” His expression darkening, Helian shakes his head. Zhi Wei falls silent as Helian angrily says “On our side, we lost over ten guards. Over at the rest stop, they were completely wiped out!”

“What’s owed will be paid eventually.” Ning Yi says as he stands up and tells Zhi Wei to find the beef and oil stained paper that had their drawings on it, “Let’s go. We will follow our original plan and go to Ji Yang. Ji Yang is not far from Governor Shen. It’s time we have a heart to heart talk with him.”

Gu Nan Yi stands up and grabs Zhi Wei by the collar. Twisting her head around, Zhi Wei says with frustration “I can walk by myself!” Unfortunately, the considerate but not considerate enough Master Gu had already thrown Zhi Wei on his back and set off on his way.

 

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

Related Posts