Dance of Fish and Dragons

Chu Liang listened from behind and could not help smiling as he shook his head.

If that were truly how the credit was to be divided later, then by rights his master would take first place, Lin Bei second, and he himself third.

Of course, he only grumbled to himself. Since his master liked it, let them have their performance.

He still had other matters to attend to.

The handling of what came after was beyond what disciples of the Mount Shu Sect could manage. Lin Bei took it upon himself to contact the city magistrate and the other officials, asking them to take responsibility for soothing the women, returning them to their homes, and investigating the details.

In these past few days, he had indeed grown quite familiar with the people of the city. When he volunteered before Princess Feng, he thumped his chest with confidence and said, “We’re all brothers here!”

He had plainly read the Manual of Connections thoroughly.

The Marquis of Dingshan Manor had been carrying out such vile business for a long time, and for it to have remained undisturbed here all these years, there was likely no shortage of officials shielding them. But that was of little consequence. With the matter having blown up so spectacularly, it would surely spread across the world in no time, and the imperial court would certainly intervene with force. Now that the chief culprit had been slain and the young marquis captured, the others would have no room left to stir up trouble.

Chu Liang’s injuries had stabilized, and there was no issue with moving about freely. After Princess Feng and Lin Bei finished dealing with the aftermath and prepared to return to continue watching Xue Lingxue’s touring performance, he temporarily slipped away.

He went back to the riverbank where he had faced the young marquis in the daytime.

There, relying on the power of the Red Name Sword, he had slain Master Lu. That man had been a powerful expert of the sixth realm; even if he were an unconventional cultivator, after all these years he ought to have accumulated a few treasures, shouldn’t he?

He had been too busy pursuing the young marquis at the time and had completely forgotten to search the corpse.

Now that things had settled down, Chu Liang hurried over to take a look, worried that the equipment he had worked so hard to earn by killing might be picked up by someone else.

Fortunately, the young marquis had harbored murderous intent at the time, and the place he had chosen was a desolate stretch of riverbank seldom traveled by anyone. When Chu Liang returned, everything here looked much the same as before.

He came to the great pit blasted open by the twin wind-and-fire talisman swords and looked for anything that Master Lu might have left behind.

First, he checked for the body.

By rights, a sixth-realm expert should have refined a Dharma body, one far beyond the ordinary in physical strength. But Master Lu’s Dharma body seemed focused more on concealment, and its durability was not especially great; otherwise he would not have been cut down so easily by a single strike.

Under the supercharged force of the twin wind-and-fire talisman swords, there was already nothing left of the body. If one searched carefully, there might still be a few remnants.

Likewise, most of the items on him had been shattered beyond use, with almost nothing left intact. But precisely for that reason, whatever remained must without question be a treasure.

The first thing Chu Liang found was a jade slip, half-hidden beneath a charred fragment of black robe.

He picked it up and examined it. It seemed to be a jade slip for storing information. Aside from its excellent material, there did not appear to be anything particularly special about it.

He sent a trace of spiritual sense into it to see what was stored inside.

Immediately, streams of pale light appeared within the jade slip, carrying words and images that recorded a great deal of material. It was, astonishingly, a remarkably complete inheritance!

The Seven Killings Dao Arts...

Chu Liang opened his eyes and murmured softly.

He had only skimmed it briefly, but this was a complete cultivation method for the Starry Sky Arts, and very possibly a one-of-a-kind manual in the world. Its value hardly needed mentioning, but it held little use for him personally.

He did not lack inheritance. As a mainstream cultivator, at every realm he would naturally be able to learn the techniques for the next realm. In truth, that was a blessing.

There were many unorthodox cultivators in the world, and at the peak of each realm they would have to begin searching everywhere for the method to reach the next. Some could not even continue cultivating within a single lineage, and could only practice whatever they found, their entire cultivation pieced together from many places.

If such a cultivator were to obtain a complete and powerful inheritance like this, they would naturally be overjoyed.

Apart from the main art, there were, of course, divine abilities recorded within as well. But those abilities were likewise unusable by Chu Liang. The cultivation of the Mount Shu Sect still belonged to the orthodox Daoist tradition, and it differed greatly from the Starry Sky Arts, making the two incompatible.

Before breaking through the Earth Pass, cultivation of the Starry Sky Arts generally progressed faster than the three teachings, but it was also more singular.

Roughly speaking, with equal talent, one who cultivated the Starry Sky Arts would advance more quickly. But at the same realm, a cultivator of the three teachings would be somewhat stronger than a practitioner of the Starry Sky Arts.

After breaking through the Earth Pass, however, this situation would change somewhat. Within the three Heaven Pass realms, what mattered most among cultivators was the strength of the Dao, not the superiority of techniques.

Putting the inheritance away carefully, Chu Liang rummaged around some more and found a blade fragment in the scorched earth.

This seemed to be the knife with which Master Lu had pierced him. The hilt had already been destroyed, but the black blade itself remained. Looking at it, Chu Liang still felt a lingering fear. If Xue Lingxue had not happened to be there, he might very well have bled himself to death from that one strike.

He wrapped it carefully in a piece of cloth and put it away as well.

Looking around again, he found a small purple-gold gourd. Though its surface was scorched black, it was completely undamaged.

“Hm?” Chu Liang’s eyes lit up.

Since the material of this gourd was so tough, what was inside it had to be good. Perhaps today’s greatest gain lay right here.

He opened the stopper and found only five or six tiny black pills inside. He sniffed them, but could not discern any scent. He put them away first and would ask someone at the Alchemy Cauldron Pavilion to appraise them later.

After searching for a long while more, nothing else remained.

It seemed that although Master Lu had high cultivation, he was not especially wealthy in terms of treasures. In fact, this was the norm for unorthodox cultivators.

Not everyone could stand with an immortal sect at their back, able to obtain whatever resources they wanted at any time.

And even fewer people carried a wondrous treasure tower with them, one that allowed them to reward themselves without restraint.

Chu Liang stood up and, after carefully scanning once more with his spiritual sense to confirm that nothing remained, lowered his head and picked up that half piece of black robe as well.

He had nearly missed this.

How could any cloth survive the twin wind-and-fire talisman swords if it were ordinary?

He put it away. Even if it were only used as a rag when he went back, it would at least last a bit longer.

In the end, he tallied his haul: the inheritance jade slip, a blade fragment, a gourd of pills, and half a black robe...

As for Master Lu’s death, it had not granted him any mark. That also answered an earlier question. It seemed the White Tower only rewarded him for slaying evil beings; for demons, monsters, and the like... killing people did not count.

After working for quite some time and spending a fair amount of effort, Chu Liang finally stood up reluctantly and flew back toward the site of the performance.

From afar, he could already hear a thunderous roar!

...

“Xue Lingxue!” “Xue Lingxue!” “Xue Lingxue...”

A touring performance lasting several hours could not possibly be performed entirely by Xue Lingxue alone. Usually, the touring artist would begin with a solo, then the other musicians would join in. After that, she would perform together with other instruments, supported by dancers and singers, weaving everything into a dazzling and complete spectacle.

By now the show had reached its middle and later stages, and the atmosphere was at its hottest. Everything that had happened earlier had long been forgotten by the audience.

Xue Lingxue stood on the stage, her zither case raised high before her. Her hands plucked continuously, and within the music could be heard the sound of electric dragons roaming. Golden light flickered across the body of the zither, clearly showing that she had combined divine arts with zither technique, making the sound even more stirring and affecting.

As the strings trembled, pale radiance drifted down from the sky, starlight shivered overhead, and countless birds came flying from the mountains, circling and dancing as they gathered the starlight.

Behind her, the accompanying musicians were likewise wrapped in five-colored auspicious light, lost in the performance. On the left coiled a golden dragon; on the right arced a rainbow.

All the spectators had risen to their feet, waving their arms in time with the melody and shouting her name at the top of their lungs. The atmosphere blazed hot, shaking the land in every direction.

Heavenly phenomena were stirred, and the human heart resonated with the Dao.

This was the charm of the South Sound Pavilion!

On the hillside, Princess Feng and Lin Bei were swaying along as well, while his master occasionally whistled twice, revealing the full bearing of a roguish grandmaster.

Chu Liang landed on the ground and looked at the boiling sea of people, deeply shaken.

“You’re back!” Lin Bei saw him approach and shouted, “Come on! It’s getting exciting!”

“What piece is this?” Chu Liang asked.

“Fish Dragon Dance!” Lin Bei said. “It’s Miss Xue’s original fusion piece. Absolutely explosive!”

“Fish Dragon Dance...” Chu Liang repeated it with a smile, then suddenly his expression changed. “Wait... I think I forgot something.”