Chapter 12#
Who Brews the Tea (Part 1)#
The moon of the autumn night was cold and white, and the person standing beneath it was indifferent. Those eyes, pitch-black like ink, reflected a sliver of cold moonlight, as clear as the water in a freezing lake. They seemed to hold many emotions, yet appeared rippleless.
Such a gaze did not linger on Yan Wushu for long. In the blink of an eye, it swept past his sword and looked toward Tan Wenzhou.
“It’s getting late; it’s time to bid Peak Master Tan farewell. Thank you for today,” Xiao Man said.
“Why the need for thanks between friends?” Tan Wenzhou smiled, waving his fan. “Take care, Your Highness.”
Xiao Man raised his hand in a salute, turned, and crossed the boundary stone.
Yan Wushu stood on the other side of the boundary.
A clear breeze swept across the ridge, lifting Xiao Man’s plain-colored sleeves and hems, letting them flutter freely in the air. Xiao Man came before Yan Wushu and said to him: “Let’s go.”
His tone was cold, not at all matching the gentleness he had shown when speaking with Tan Wenzhou.
In this instant, an indescribable emotion arose in Yan Wushu’s heart. He sheathed his sword but did not move his feet.
He thought Xiao Man would try to persuade him further, but Xiao Man said nothing. He turned on his own and walked toward the nearest flying beast station on Xingyun Peak. Xiao Man didn’t want to return to Xueyi Peak too quickly.
The formation covering Xingyun Peak shimmered with a ghostly light. Tan Wenzhou made a “please return” gesture to Yan Wushu: “Peak Master Yan, please.”
Yan Wushu glanced at him: “Peak Master Tan, until we meet again.”
The wind rose and then died down. The branches and leaves, gradually withering in early autumn, were still swaying. Without the chirping of cicadas or insects, the mountains and fields were silent. Yan Wushu caught up with Xiao Man. After walking for a distance, he asked in a drawn-out tone: “If I hadn’t come, would you have stayed here all night?”
“The scenery on Xingyun Peak is quite good,” Xiao Man replied with such a sentence. It wasn’t exactly an answer, but it wasn’t not an answer either.
Yan Wushu chose one meaning to understand and laughed mockingly: “Is it not good on Xueyi Peak?”
Xiao Man ignored him and quickened his pace.
He began to regret not choosing to ride the wind back. Walking one after the other on the mountain path like this with Yan Wushu really made his feelings complicated.
“What did you come to Xingyun Peak for?” Yan Wushu caught up.
“…To see a friend, to borrow books,” Xiao Man found an excuse to be perfunctory.
Yan Wushu: “Which ones did you borrow?”
“The Heart-Clearing Incantation and the Silent Zen,” Xiao Man replied extremely quickly this time, and after speaking, he flicked his sleeve impatiently.
“…”
It was a metaphor for him overstepping and talking too much. Yan Wushu looked up at the sky.
After about two or three minutes, the flying beast station was reached. The moonlight illuminated the character for “station” carved on the outermost part, but it couldn’t light up the entire station. In the dark night, the flying beasts were sleeping soundly, some even snoring.
Xiao Man walked in with light steps and came before a white crane standing on one leg, giving it a gentle shake.
The white crane woke up, its eyes widening and its feathers bristling. Seeing that it was about to give an angry peck, Xiao Man reached out and stroked the feathers on the top of its head and the back of its neck, saying softly: “It’s me. Sorry to trouble you for a bit.”
Hearing this voice, the white crane immediately became docile, took a step forward, and bowed its head while bending its knees.
Xiao Man flipped himself onto its back.
In the next moment, Yan Wushu leaned over.
Xiao Man glared at him in warning: “It can only carry one person!” He had intentionally chosen the white crane with less strength.
“Alright then.” Yan Wushu turned to go to the side and shook another white crane awake.
His treatment was not comparable to Xiao Man’s. After the white crane woke up, without a second thought, it flapped its wings at this person who had disturbed its peaceful dreams.
Yan Wushu was someone in the Taixuan Upper Realm; a small flying beast naturally couldn’t harm him, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be provoked. Xiao Man feared the bird would be injured and hurriedly acted to soothe it.
Fortunately, Yan Wushu didn’t take offense. Once the flying beast had calmed down, he sat on its back and reached out a finger to brush the feathers at the back of its head: “To Xueyi Peak.”
The white crane flapped its wings and flew toward the east. Xiao Man glanced at Yan Wushu beside him and said indifferently: “Why must Lord Lingguang trouble himself?”
“Occasionally, one should experience the joy of not having to toil oneself,” Yan Wushu said slowly, toying with his folding fan.
Flying beasts were all different from one another.
The Roc had a broad back and could carry two to three people; its wings were powerful and its speed quite fast. The Cloud Tortoise was the largest in size, its shell able to hold twenty to thirty people, but because it was a tortoise, its speed was the slowest. The white crane was slightly inferior to the Roc in all aspects, with its level being overall medium-high. After about half a stick of incense’s time, it finally carried Xiao Man and Yan Wushu back to Xueyi Peak.
According to regulations, flying beasts only traveled between stations. But Xiao Man was close with them, and the flying beasts didn’t follow this rule, being accustomed to taking him directly to where he wanted to go.
In the three years Xiao Man had been at Gushan, the few times he went out, he always returned to the Xueyi Peak Dao Hall. This time it was the destination Yan Wushu pointed out; Xiao Man didn’t speak, and the white crane, thinking it was the same as usual, circled in the air and landed outside the Dao Hall.
Seeing that familiar door, Xiao Man only then realized where something had gone wrong, but he couldn’t really blame anyone. He took out a few small fish to feed the white cranes and helped smooth their feathers. After they had eaten their fill and bid him a reluctant farewell, he turned around.
Yan Wushu was leaning against the door watching him.
A cloud drifted from somewhere in the sky, and the moonlight was a bit dimmer than before. No lights were lit in the Dao Hall, and Yan Wushu’s profile was hidden in the gloom, making his features appear exceptionally deep.
“If you encounter anything, you should tell me directly. There’s no need to run so far to find Tan Wenzhou,” Yan Wushu said in a low voice. Since they were the only two here, the words were naturally directed at Xiao Man.
Xiao Man looked back at Yan Wushu, his thoughts shifting a thousand times. Yan Wushu was looking at him intently, his narrow eyes pressing down slightly, his brow furrowed, even the sword scar showing some creases.
At this moment, Xiao Man finally understood the way Yan Wushu was looking at him.
—In fact, Yan Wushu’s treatment of him had never changed. It was he who had arbitrarily beautified and filtered some things, adding romantic colors to those attitudes and gazes.
In Yan Wushu’s eyes, Xiao Man was still the child he had picked up from the smelly street ten years ago. Yan Wushu was good to him, providing him with food and clothes, and sending him to Dazhao Temple for treatment, simply because he was weak and pitiful.
Between them, it had never been equal. Casting aside the identity forcibly set by the Heavenly Dao, they weren’t even friends.
Between them, there was kindness and duty. On the path of the Great Dao, they were the kind that least should have formed a bond.
Xiao Man stood on the spot for a long time, until the wind rose and fell again, and the moon of the fifteenth night was completely obscured by heavy clouds. Not a single ray of light could be seen across the mountains and fields.
He tucked his wind-blown hair behind his ear and said to Yan Wushu: “I want to see that Buddhist shrine.”
Yan Wushu’s expression changed slightly, appearing mysteriously strange.
It wasn’t strange that Xiao Man knew of the shrine’s existence; when the Sect Leader’s flying sword had come with the message during the day, he was right there. But why was Xiao Man interested in the shrine?
Although it was a Buddhist object, last year someone had brought back a piece of some Buddha relic, and he hadn’t asked a single thing about it. When offered to take him to see it, he had even plainly said that practicing Buddhism was about the heart, not these external things. Why did he want to see the shrine now?
Could it be at Tan Wenzhou’s instigation?
Yan Wushu was thoughtful, but Xiao Man didn’t know what he was thinking. Previously on Xingyun Peak, Xiao Man had observed the shrine in Peak Master Tan’s painting, and some thoughts had flashed through his mind, but they were difficult to catch. He thought that if he could see the actual shrine, the thoughts might become clearer.
But observing Yan Wushu’s expression, the person seemed unwilling.
Xiao Man lowered his gaze and said: “Sect Leader Shen has already entrusted the shrine to you. If anything goes wrong, Lord Lingguang would be to blame. It was my presumption and lack of consideration.”
In his words, there was a slight, undetectable sigh and a hint of disappointment.
Yan Wushu was already angry thinking about how Xiao Man had stayed on Xingyun Peak for half a day and called Tan Wenzhou a friend. Hearing Xiao Man call him “Lord Lingguang” so indifferently, he couldn’t hold back his temper:
“Are you going to keep on like this with me?”
“I believe my attitude and behavior have not been impolite or out of line.”
Xiao Man looked up and spoke very seriously.
In a moment, remembering a previous scene and realizing he indeed had offended Yan Wushu, he furrowed his brow, his tone carrying an apology: “Earlier on Xingyun Peak, I called Lord Lingguang by your name. It was truly a matter of urgency; please forgive me.”
Yan Wushu’s anger intensified, yet he saw Xiao Man finish his apology and walk away without looking back, truly showing no mercy at all.
Yan Wushu glared in anger, yet was helpless. Flicking his sleeve, he said to Xiao Man’s retreating back: “Fine, come and see the shrine!”