Chapter 42: The Nightwalker
Surrounded by a group of armed and wary officers, Song Sanlang bowed and answered respectfully, “It’s just me and my uncle now. I have no other family or attachments. So I decided to settle down in Wei City and bought a small shop. I’ve left the corpse-carrying trade behind. That last incident… left me deeply shaken.”
Li Yanchu quietly activated his Qi Sight, but saw nothing abnormal about him. He glanced at Bai Hongtu, who gave a slight shake of the head. It seemed like he hadn’t noticed anything suspicious either.
After asking Song Sanlang a few simple questions, the two let him go.
As Song Sanlang walked away, Li Yanchu watched his back with a thoughtful expression. “Could it really just be a coincidence?”
Though they had failed to uncover any hidden demonic monks or rogue Daoists in Wei City, Li Yanchu ordered every paper effigy in the city to be gathered and burned to ash.
Naturally, the expenses were covered by the yamen.
Additionally, Li Yanchu persuaded Magistrate Xu to issue an official decree:
Moreover, Li Yanchu had Magistrate Xu issue a strict prohibition: it was strictly forbidden for anyone in the city to privately make paper effigies, and violators would be severely punished without mercy.
In chaotic times, harsh laws are necessary. With dark forces stirring beneath the surface of Wei City, there was no room for leniency.
Li Yanchu hoped this crackdown would expose clues about the paper effigies’ origins. But his Art of Pursuit was still in its early stages of cultivation, or perhaps the mastermind had already severed the spiritual link, making it impossible to trace back. In the end, the mastermind behind the paper effigies remained hidden.
Still, having successfully slain five of them, Li Yanchu earned a substantial amount of merit. It was enough, at least, to ease his frustration.
For the next two days, there was no further sign of paper effigies, nor any reports of missing women.
***
Li Yanchu remained in Qingyun Temple, seated in meditation and cultivating. Tonight, he didn’t go to the Taiping Inn to visit the innkeeper, because during dinner, the usually cool and aloof Fang Qinglan had ended up arguing with the innkeeper.
The two sisters clashed over Li Yanchu, neither willing to back down. Though Fang Qinglan was known for her cold temperament, this time she had truly developed genuine feelings for Li Yanchu. But the innkeeper had slyly mocked her, calling her “flat-chested” and saying she wasn’t like herself, who couldn’t even see her toes when she looked down.
Hearing this, Fang Qinglan was furious and flustered. As a martial artist, she’d always been careful not to let certain areas protrude too much, lest they become a weakness in combat. Besides, during rigorous training, excessive movement would actually be painful. So she regularly bound her chest, but this was hardly something she could just explain in front of Li Yanchu.
The quarrel escalated. Fang Qinglan’s words, though cold, were sharp and biting, but the innkeeper’s rosy lips and quick tongue made her an equally formidable opponent.
Witnessing this heated sisterly duel, Bai Hongtu, who had originally planned to stay the night at Qingyun Temple, suffered a crushing heartbreak on the spot and immediately fled to the entertainment districts to nurse his wounds.
As for Li Yanchu, he simply chose the path of peace: out of sight, out of mind. He returned to Qingyun Temple to cultivate.
He soon entered a meditative state, circulating the breathing techniques of the Yellow Court Classic, then drawing in the spirit qi of heaven and earth to strengthen his life essence.
Time ticked by, second by second. At this hour, Wei City was completely silent, and its citizens were already deep in slumber.
In ancient times, the city enforced a strict curfew, so once night fell, only the entertainment districts remained quietly active behind closed doors. Ordinary households had long since gone to bed.
Li Yanchu finished his cultivation and extinguished the lamp, preparing to rest. Although his divine sense was powerful and his spirit sharp, he still maintained the good habit of sleeping regularly, unless the innkeeper insisted otherwise. But tonight, he was alone in Qingyun Temple, and after finishing his practice, he was ready to sleep.
Suddenly, in the darkness, he opened his eyes. His gaze was fixed on the ceiling above, as if he could see straight through the rooftop tiles. There was no sound nor movement; there was nothing abnormal on the roof. And yet, Li Yanchu had sensed something, and he continued to stare at the roof in silence.
After a few breaths of time[1]…
Creak… Creak…
A faint sound echoed from above, and it sounded as if someone was treading lightly on the rooftop tiles.
Li Yanchu raised an eyebrow, and a cold smile curled at the corner of his lips. Although the intruder was being extremely careful, deliberately moving slowly to avoid making any noise, their every step was as clear as thunder to someone with Li Yanchu’s heightened senses.
Crack!
Another subtle noise followed.
Li Yanchu sensed a second person had now appeared on the roof above the temple. This one moved with less caution, their footsteps more careless, causing the tiles to creak with each step.
“No wonder in all those wuxia dramas the protagonist can hear people on the roof. These footsteps are ridiculously loud,” Li Yanchu muttered as he sat up.
And besides, that second person clearly wasn’t very professional.
Qingyun Temple was one of only two possessions left to him by his master, the other being that mangy old donkey. Every brick and tile of this place had been built by his master’s own hands. And now someone had the nerve to climb onto the roof of his temple in the middle of the night?
No matter how he looked at it, they couldn’t be up to anything good. Either they were some common thief, or perhaps one of those cutthroats who roam the night looking for blood.
Of course, there was another possibility: it might be a young “hero” freshly stepped into the jianghu.
Unlike older generations, who respected law and order, these youngsters always shouted things like “A true hero challenges the law with martial strength!” and had little regard for official rules. Even knowing there was a curfew, they still liked sneaking around rooftops at night, doing who-knows-what.
Naturally, Li Yanchu’s curiosity was piqued.
“Senior Brother, how’s it going on your end?” The voice came from the first person who’d arrived.
To Li Yanchu’s surprise, it was a young woman.
They are senior brother and junior sister? Li Yanchu thought.
“I’ve checked everything already. No issues. The spot where I buried the items is untouched. How about your side, Junior Sister?” replied the second nightwalker, the one who had arrived later.
The girl replied, “I checked as well. All good.”
After that, the two fell into a brief silence.
Then the young woman said softly, “Senior Brother, lately I’ve felt... uneasy. The gang leader asked us to bury these things, but didn’t let us look at what they were. I keep having a bad feeling.”
The senior brother responded, “You’re too tense. The fact that the gang leader entrusted us with this task shows how much he trusts us. All the more reason for us to serve the gang wholeheartedly.”
Hearing this, the young woman fell silent again.
In the distance, a powerful twang suddenly pierced the night air. It was the sound of a heavy crossbow bolt cutting through the wind.
Bang!
Bang!
A figure in black darted across a rooftop, alerting patrolling officers nearby, who immediately fired their heavy crossbows.
The black-clad man stood no chance against the barrage of bolts flying from all directions. He was struck and fell heavily to the ground.
With strange incidents occurring frequently in the city, and the Qingyi Festival approaching, Magistrate Xu had ordered Head Constable Wang and the city inspectors to tighten security.
The two figures watched the man in black fall, their foreheads beading with cold sweat. The senior brother’s name was Zhang Zhiliang, and the junior sister was Wang Wanrong. Both were disciples of Ren Wanweng, the famed martial artist known as Iron Chain Across the River.[2]
They were far from weak.
Zhang Zhiliang was small and plain-looking, even somewhat ugly. But Wang Wanrong had notable beauty, and when they had trained under their master, many of their senior and junior brothers had secretly admired her toned, graceful figure.
Especially now, with Wang Wanrong clad in a form-fitting nightwalker’s outfit, the curve of her waistline and certain parts were outlined strikingly and dangerously well.
She whispered, “Senior Brother, with the authorities lying in ambush all over, we should fall back and slip away through the alley.”
1. In Chinese culture, especially in xianxia, wuxia, and historical contexts, "a few breaths of time" (几口气的时间 / 几息之间) is a poetic and traditional way of referring to a very short period, usually a few seconds.
一息 (yī xī) = one breath (of time), roughly 1 to 1.5 seconds depending on context.
几息 / 几口气的时间 = a few breaths = approximately 3–10 seconds. ☜
2. In the late Three Kingdoms period, Wu Yan saw small pieces of wood drifting down from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. He surmised that the Jin army was building ships upstream to launch an attack on Wu. In response, he stretched iron chains across the Yangtze River to prevent the Jin forces from sailing downstream and launching an assault.
In A Deadly Secret (《连城诀》), the nickname is used to illustrate how Qi Changfa's methods of dealing with people were insidious and ruthless, putting others in a helpless situation, where they could neither advance nor retreat. That’s how he came to be called by this nickname. ☜
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