Chapter 12: Chapter Twelve: Relics

Flower Creek Water Pavilion, pavilions and winding bridges, warm towers and halls, vast lake and emerald mountains.

Though the Chen clan’s mansion was opulent and exquisite, with servants and maids standing ready every few steps with teapots and tea trays, the people in the great hall had no heart for admiration—every brow was furrowed, faces dark with anger and shame.

“The relics of Ah Heng’s father? No, no!”

Hearing the clan chief Chen Kuang’s question, Chen Zhan, whose back had long been hunched, slammed his cane down, a flicker of anger crossing his aged face:

“To watch him taken up the mountain by the Xuanzhen Sect was already an act of cruelty by our clan—how can we now take his father’s relics without asking, to use them against our enemies? Unfilial! Unfilial!”

With Chen Zhan speaking first, several elder clan members who favored him also voiced objections, each offering their views; the previously silent hall erupted into clamor.

“Enough! Stop!”

Chen Kuang’s temple veins throbbed; he roared, and his aged body suddenly erupted with fierce blood qi, silencing the noise.

“Unfilial? How laughable! Didn’t the clan provide for him, feed him, clothe him? We haven’t even asked him to sacrifice himself—only to borrow a few of his father’s relics—and yet you, Chen Zhan, stall and refuse—what are your true intentions?”

Chen Kuang’s old eyes sharpened as he stared coldly at Chen Zhan:

“Back then, the clan merely entrusted you to raise Chen Heng—he was never formally adopted by you! Why are you rushing to speak up now?”

“Moreover…”

He turned to the other elders:

“Since Chen Heng entered the Xuanzhen Sect, he has sent not a single letter in three years. Such an ungrateful wretch—why are you defending him here? Do you still consider him a Chen? He himself has surely long despised this surname!”

“Indeed, we did wrong back then. He has every right to harbor resentment.”

One elder pleaded: “A noble young master, reduced to being another man’s concubine—that is where the clan failed him.”

“The clan has done nothing wrong to him! Without our support, how could he have become a noble young master? I—”

Chen Kuang had not finished when Chen Zhan slammed his cane hard against the floor, cutting him off.

“The clan did raise him, but that debt was repaid long ago—when he ascended the mountain—and there was even surplus left.”

Chen Zhan stepped forward: “Dare you claim that after he went up the mountain, you never used the Xuanzhen Sect’s name to enrich yourself? Those estates in the west city and the fertile fields beyond—weren’t they all acquired under Heng’s name?”

“Even the matter of Xi’er being demanded by the Yangshan Daoist—wasn’t that your arrogance? You not only struck his disciple, but threatened to have the Xuanzhen Sect send troops to destroy his ritual grounds—who else can you blame?!”

“….”

Chen Kuang fell silent, cheeks flushed with shame and fury.

Who could have imagined Yan Zhen was dead!

The Chen clan’s greatest pillar and protector had collapsed so suddenly!

That day, drunk, he had cruelly humiliated the Yangshan Daoist—whom he had long despised—and watching the Daoist’s helpless rage had filled him with delight.

But fate is ever capricious.

Not long after.

When news of Yan Zhen’s death and Chen Heng’s punishment finally reached Rong State,

the entire Chen clan stood stunned into silence.

The Yangshan Daoist clapped his hands in delight, drank for a full day and night, and took eight concubines.

After that,

the Yangshan Daoist demanded ten thousand taels of silver and ten chests of pearls and yellow jade, and forced Clan Chief Chen Kuang to marry his youngest daughter, Chen Xi, as his concubine.

Without the protection of the Xuanzhen Sect, the Chen clan had no strength to resist—their situation was now dire…

“Ah, Xi’er, come in.”

Facing the discontented elders, Chen Kuang sighed heavily and gestured with his hand.

A soft footstep, barely audible, brought a thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl in a pink dress into the hall—her skin pale as porcelain, beautiful and delicate, her expression heartbreakingly pitiful, evoking instant pity.

After being called in by her father, Chen Xi bowed with tear-filled eyes to the elders, then stood trembling in the center of the hall.

“My fellow clan members, Xi’er is my youngest daughter—how can I bear to give her up?”

Chen Kuang’s eyes welled with tears as he trembledly pointed to the slender, willow-like Chen Xi: “Look at her innocence—if sent to the Yangshan Daoist, how could she possibly return alive?”

“Younger Brother Thirteen, I know you resent me because my foolish son rashly suggested the plan that trapped Heng in Yan Zhen’s hands—you’ve held this grudge against me.”

He looked at Chen Zhan, then suddenly knelt: “But Xi’er is also your niece—you watched her grow up! Brother Three begs you—save her!”

Chen Kuang wept uncontrollably.

Chen Zhan’s expression flickered between doubt and resolve.

Before Chen Zhan could answer, a haughty laugh rang through the vast Chen mansion.

“Save her? How? Do you have any other tricks?”

The boy’s voice drifted like a phantom: “My father has claimed this girl—dare anyone defy him? Perhaps after he takes her, I’ll get to sip the broth too!”

“No!” Chen Kuang’s face turned ashen.

Such a loud laugh—and yet not a single servant or guard reacted; clearly, they had been silently subdued, unable to even raise an alarm.

“Thirteenth Brother! Hurry! Brother Three begs you!”

He roared at Chen Zhan, then leapt from the dais, slinging his daughter onto his back, rushing to flee.

But before he could reach the hall’s exit, a group of yellow-clad men blocked the way; their leader, a bearded giant, struck with one palm and sent Chen Kuang flying, spitting blood.

“Damn it… Xiao Ding, go fetch the wooden box from my secret chamber!”

Seeing this, Chen Zhan no longer hesitated—he barked an order.

Behind his seat, a clean-shaven thirty-year-old man nodded; with a mere flick of his toe, he vanished from the hall—so fast even the bearded giant couldn’t stop him.

“Good! Good!”

Seeing Chen Zhan’s guard move with such skill, the bleeding Chen Kuang laughed wildly. He gently placed his daughter aside, then rallied himself and charged back at the bearded giant.

“Attack! All of you! Hold them off until Xiao Ding returns!”

The other Chen elders roared and surged forward, engaging the yellow-clad men in battle.

Though their initial momentum was fierce, their age and weakened qi left them vulnerable—and soon, the fearless yellow-clad men overwhelmed them.

“This is…”

Chen Kuang, having crushed a yellow-clad man’s skull with a palm strike, suddenly collapsed—his eyes wide with disbelief: “Poison? Such potent poison.”

“Precisely. Without this poison, we could never have entered so boldly.” The haughty boy’s voice echoed again.

“Despicable! Shameless!”

“Old man, are you trying to stall, waiting for that so-called Xiao Ding to rescue you?”

The boy laughed again.

A dread surged in Chen Kuang’s heart—he looked up, almost against his will, and saw, not far beyond the hall, a bloodied corpse stripped of its skin.

The corpse’s face was unrecognizable, but it clutched a wooden box in its arms.

Inside the box: an ancient book and several strange talismans.

“Xiao Ding!” Chen Zhan’s eyes bulged with rage.

Chen Kuang’s vision darkened; his movements slowed a fraction—and the bearded giant kicked, shattering his arm bone, sending him sprawling, unable to rise.

“Hey, cousin, this little girl’s skin is so tender.”

The bearded giant swept his hand, crushing another elder who tried to stop him—his body splattered against the wall into a bloody pulp.

He reached out with a palm as large as a fan, seizing Chen Xi:

“After you and Uncle have had your fill, can I have a turn?”

“You brute only know how to devour—dare anyone give her to you? No!”

The boy laughed again, his voice drifting unpredictably; no matter how desperately Chen Zhan searched, he could not locate the boy’s true form.

“You’ve grown even less likable.”

The bearded giant muttered, glancing at the wooden box and talismans in the corpse’s arms: “What’s this? If I bring it to Uncle, will it please him?”

“Some heretical nonsense left by Chen Heng’s father—useless!”

“Oh.”

The bearded giant sighed in disappointment.

The battle was now one-sided slaughter—only a few elders, like Chen Zhan, still struggled to resist.

“Gurgle… gurgle…”

The bearded giant, bored, glanced at the girl in his hand; the faint scent of her skin teased his senses, making his fingers twitch with hunger.

“Heretical nonsense left by my father?”

At that moment, a voice as smooth as jade suddenly spoke.

Both sides paused in the midst of slaughter; faintly, at the distant gate, two white horses stood, bearing riders.

“Why have I never heard my father left any relics?”

The bearded giant’s face changed—he seemed to realize something, raised his great blade to throw it—

But his arm had barely lifted—

An arrow pierced the air, piercing his skull clean through.

Blood burst like crushed watermelon pulp; Chen Xi, drenched in gore, stood frozen, unable to cry out.

Arrows flew through the air.

Amidst a blinding storm of arrows, fleeing yellow-clad men were effortlessly slain.

Skulls exploded, red and white matter splattered the ground, reeking of decay.

This grotesquely elegant yet bloody scene left Chen Zhan stunned—he stared at the gate, his hands trembling uncontrollably.

“Chen Heng? You’re mad! How dare you kill my cousin!”

The haughty boy’s voice rang out again—now stripped of its mocking calm, filled with panic.

At the gate.

Chen Hang glanced back indifferently, and the woman in the fox-fur cloak who had trailed him all this way immediately understood, drawing an arrow and respectfully offering it to him.

“You’re hiding terribly.”

Those fingers, long as jade from years of playing the qin, effortlessly drew the six-stone bow into a full moon, yet not a tremor stirred in his palm, like an ancient pool untouched for ten thousand years.

A celestial being drew his bow.

The arrow’s light flashed like lightning.

The bowstring rang out, and from a waterside pavilion, a figure cried out in pain before tumbling down.