Qiao Xian brought his medicine here. The way Cui Buqu looked at the bowl of medicine was more hateful than the way he looked at Xiao Lu. Even when he spoke to Qin Miaoyu about those distinguished families who refused to give in unless they've seen their own coffins, his tone was not friendly at all.
"Those who refuse to comply, kill them."
Qin Miaoyu stared at him in disbelief, "All of them?"
She couldn't hear the implicating humour from Cui Buqu. Qin Miaoyu was neither a kind-hearted nor a soft-hearted person, but these distinguished families in Guangqian Prefecture contained many complicated relationships, and since the mastermind had been Yang Yun, who was related to the Royal Family, it would be no surprise that those underneath him would also share relationships with people in court. It was easy to simply kill them, but if someone sought out the Jiejian Bureau in the aftermath, she was only a little scout of the Jiejian Bureau; she could not bear this sort of responsibility.
Moreover, Feng Xiao was now in seclusion, and Ming Yue was in a coma. All the decision-makers were not present. At where she stood now, she had no power to make such a decision for the Jiejian Bureau.
Cui Buqu remained silent because he noticed that too. It was not appropriate to let Qin Miaoyu handle this matter. By the end of the day, she was not the Commander of the Jiejian Bureau. When it came to position and rank, there was only him.
"An epidemic would surely come after the calamity. Go gather all the physicians in the city into the largest hospital, let them issue some prescriptions meant for epidemics for those victims. Order someone to burn some mugwort in the city. Yang Yun left behind quite a lot of golds and silvers, so deduct the costs from there temporarily. Keep a record. Rong Qing has already delivered an edict to the Imperial Court about this, once we return to the capital, this record, as well as evidence of Yang Yun's crime, will be submitted together."
"Also, go to the coffin house and look for a few corpses. I need new ones, not old, and best if they died a violent death, the type that would offer nightmares if one were to take a longer look."
Qin Miaoyu gave him a strange look; perhaps this was the first time she heard such a strange request. But she responded very swiftly: "Some enemies died in a fight that took place in the Stormy Tavern before. They could be used, it will save us the time to look for them."
Cui Buqu nodded and said: "Good."
Qiao Xian reminded him at an opportune moment: "Commander, it's time for your medicine."
Cui Buqu: "…"
Both of them exchanged glances for a while, which finally ended with Cui Buqu raising the bowl to his lips.
Qin Miaoyu quickly left to carry out Cui Buqu's orders. Only Qiao Xian and Cui Buqu were left in the room.
After pondering for half a beat, Qiao Xian silently knelt.
"Have you thought it through?" Cui Buqu wasn't surprised.
Qiao Xian drooped her head low: "Yes, as long as I could remain in the Zuoyue Bureau, this humble subject is willing to remain close and wait, the Commander may expel me however he wished."
That day, both of them had discussed for a long time. Cui Buqu gave her two choices: One is to leave the Zuoyue Bureau forever. And two is that she could remain, but no longer by his side. There were many secret stations of the Zuoyue Bureau in many places. Qiao Xian will be stationed at one of them and start over. After she could prove herself, she would be promoted.
The second choice was a very difficult path, since the moment the Zuoyue Bureau was established, Qiao Xian had always been following Cui Buqu. She even carried the rank of a seventh-ranking official. This demotion was equal to sending her back to square one.
Cui Buqu said: "I thought you would choose to leave and cast all burdens off of yourself. Having your freedom restored to you is not a bad thing."
Qiao Xian insisted: "I want to remain. Regardless of what I will be doing, it is fine."
The Qingcang Sect was a very small sect with mediocre martial arts and nothing worthy enough to steal. The only thing its disciples were skilled in was the art of disguise. But even this wasn't anything special. In the face of a true martial artist, disguises were pointless. There were very few disciples in the sect, and so the new Sect Leader married the only daughter of a Sect Leader from a large sect in the Southwest regions. The latter was loved and spoiled since she was young, so her standards were high. After she was married here, she ordered the Qingcang disciples around, interfering with everything. Qiao Xian was beautiful, and so it was difficult for the Sect Leader's wife to not feel annoyed by her. Hence, under such a circumstance, she was expelled from the sect.
Qiao Xian, who hence became an outcast, had nowhere to go. At this moment, she received instructions from the Thirteen Pavilions of Yunhai, who told her to proceed to Chang'an, the capital of the previous dynasty, the Northern Zhou. Qiao Xian waited at the teahouse outside of Chang'an as promised for half a month. She spent all her money and continuously encountered situations due to her beauty. She was in a sorry and tight corner, no longer able to advance. It was during that time, where Qiao Xian was slowly leaving the small ambit of a little sect, when she realised that the world they lived in was a limitless and vast place. Perhaps the Thirteen Pavilions of Yunhai had left her here to experience the good and the bad of the mortal world, teaching her a lesson.
She failed to wait for the Thirteen Pavilions' ambassador, but she didn't fail to wait for Cui Buqu.
During that time, Cui Buqu hadn't assumed the Zuoyue Bureau although he was deeply favoured by Empress Dugu and was the honoured guest in the Prime Minister's residence. However, very few people knew about him. At first Qiao Xian too didn't know, until after Cui Buqu asked for her background and experience, he asked her if she wanted to remain by his side. Only then Qiao Xian vaguely felt that this was the purpose she was supposed to serve for the Thirteen Pavilions of Yunhai.
She came from a small sect; other than the art of disguise, she didn't have anything else that was useful. Cui Buqu allowed someone to teach her medicinal knowledge, and seek out traditional arts of disguise for her to hone her skills. After the Zuoyue Bureau was established, he would often bring her along when he left for expeditions and travel to many places.
Qiao Xian did not only obtain Cui Buqu's precept and example, but she also felt a sense of belonging to both the Zuoyue Bureau and Cui Buqu. This made her feel more like home compared to her previous sect. Only when she was in the Zuoyue Bureau, she could feel her heart beating like she was alive, and that there would forever be someone for her to pursue, as well as a countless number of goals for her to accomplish.
After that, she was blackmailed by the ambassador of the Thirteen Pavilions. Qiao Xian was forced to choose between "being abandoned by the Zuoyue Bureau", or "assist in delivering trivial information that would not harm Cui Buqu". In the end, she had chosen the latter. When one wrong step was taken, every other step taken was also wrong. By the time she wanted to turn back, she realised it was already impossible.
She had originally carried a heart with the anticipation of death when she proceeded to the Zhao Family's Teahouse, but who could have guessed that the path Cui Buqu left for her, was for her to live.
"Your health requires a long period of medical attention. These Bingzhi pellets are time-consuming to make. There are only a few left. Please allow this humble subject to make you another bottle before she leaves. Before you return to the capital, this humble subject will write its prescriptions down, so the old physician from Huize Hall will know how to make them in my stead."
These words of hers, as well as all that was against her will, could not make Cui Buqu soften his heart nor give her hope that she could remain. Everyone would have to take responsibility for the things they have done. Regardless of what difficulties or reasons they had behind them, they should be prepared for the consequences before they've done them. Since Qiao Xian chose to remain, she had to receive the punishment she deserved.
Besides, leaving the capital to a secret station might not be a bad thing.
Cui Buqu replied with an "En," before the medicine in him took effect. His mind began to feel sunken and dizzy. He had originally wanted to wait for Qin Miaoyu to report back before lying down, but who could have known that his body had already given him a warning. Even with a more stubborn determination, it couldn't withstand a body that was exhausted to the brim. Of what Qiao Xian said afterwards, he only had a vague impression about it, like it was separated indistinctly by a gauze cloth.
He slept uncomfortably. A countless number of dreams came to him thick and fast; as he spun around he saw the people who had died, and enemies he knew from before, yet more were the people Cui Buqu had killed or pitted. All of them climbed up from the prison known as the Yellow Spring; a dense aura of hatred and resentment was surrounding them like spider threads, howling and wailing for revenge. Even if Cui Buqu was invincible, with guts and a heart made of steel more difficult to chisel open than rocks of gold, in his dreams he was as expressionless and unmoved, allowing the ghosts and spirits to groan.
His body felt like a huge boulder had been tied onto it, pulling him down into deep waters against his will. The sound of an uproar rolling by his ears, as if they wanted to pull him up, but there was an unknown source of strength from the abyss down below. With his hand as his blade, he cut open the cocoon made of silk, yet his consciousness was floating in the ocean, having no luck in finding a raft.
It was unknown how much time had passed, the voices in his ears became clearer. It was Qiao Xian speaking to someone else.
The other voice also sounded familiar.
The dream truly did make him a lot slower. Cui Buqu pinched his brows as he thought for a long time, before realizing that it was Pei Jingzhe.
They both spoke quickly and softly, unlike a usual banter. He could even hear the panic that was difficult to conceal; among them were: my Lord, Second Commander Feng, and other words.
And then there was a brief, sharp scream!
Cui Buqu abruptly opened his eyes.
His heart hurt because he was jerked awake from a state of slumber, like a silk thread being pulled and wounded his shoulder.
The scream wasn't from Pei Jingzhe or Qiao Xian, but from the manor next to them, filled with the screams of young women. Pei Jingzhe immediately ran over to take a look. Qiao Xian wanted to follow him out, but before she left she turned around to take a look and caught Cui Buqu opening his eyes. She immediately came back and helped him sit up.
"What happened?" Cui Buqu woke up abruptly, feeling a thundering headache in his head.
"Second Commander Feng's healing in seclusion… it seems like something happened." Qiao Xian said.
Pei Jingzhe had arranged for many maidservants to deliver goods and change the water outside Feng Xiao's room so that when Feng Xiao woke up, he could use them whenever. But in the half-day Cui Buqu passed out, the maidservant ran into Feng Xiao who should be meditating in seclusion, and he attacked her. With the combined strength of Pei Jingzhe, Qin Miaoyu and Ming Yue who had woken up not long ago, they were able to hold Feng Xiao down. But Feng Xiao was also experiencing a qi deviation and fell into a comatose state.
Cui Buqu's gaze slowly cleared up. "I heard you people were talking about Bingzhi Pellets. What has it to do with Bingzhi Pellets?"
Qiao Xian didn't hesitate before shaking her head. "There's nothing to do with it. You've heard wrong."
Cui Buqu looked at her silently.
Qiao Xian: "…"
....
Pei Jingzhe knew his martial arts and Feng Xiao's were like heaven and earth, but he had never truly felt it on a personal level until now.
A hand held him by the neck, and this hand was squeezing tighter and tighter, resulting in the difficulty of his breathing, he would very quickly go to see the Judge of Hell.
"My… Lord!" Two words barely seethed out through Pei Jingzhe's gritted teeth.
An unkempt and unruly haired Feng Xiao turned a deaf ear to it. There was a red vertical line between his brows, proof that qi was blocked when it tried to flow through his yintang acupoint1, but it was all the more proof that his mind was being affected.
After he absorbed those two Śarīras, his inner strength surged wildly, but it was due to this it left a latent danger. Any paths that involved walking cut-corners would more or less make one encounter an unexpected calamity. Feng Xiao hadn't experienced qi deviation during his fight with Xiao Lu because his will was stronger than most, though be it now or later, this calamity would come soon enough.
Against his will, Pei Jingzhe threw a palm at Feng Xiao, but it was whipped away by the other in the blink of an eye. When inner strength rebounded, Pei Jingzhe himself was wounded.
A Second Commander Feng who was in the midst of qi deviation didn't show an ounce of weakness in his abilities; instead, he had lost all his senses, and there was no one who could hold him under control.
Pei Jingzhe was about to cry.
He regretted it immensely. Had he known this earlier, when Ming Yue and he were holding him down they would have been crueller. Who could have guessed that his Lord could free himself from his imprisonment so quickly and wake up?
Pei Jingzhe suspected that before the Third Commander and others came to his rescue, his little life would already have left him.
When that time came, once his Lord woke up and realized he'd killed him in person, how saddened would he be!
"I am… Jingzhe!" Pei Jingzhe struggled to buy himself some time and the opportunity to live, hoping to wake Feng Xiao up.
But he didn't.
Although Feng Xiao didn't go berserk, he could claim a life with every palm he threw out. At this moment, it was very obvious that his heart, soul, and spirit was in a stupor. He couldn't tell what was going on in the outside world.
Tears wet Pei Jingzhe's eyes. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Ming Yue, Cui Buqu, and the others hurrying here. It was like the Heavens had sent him his saving grace; his eyes sparkled.
"Er-lang!"
"Feng-er!"
They were all familiar voices.
At this moment, it was as if Feng Xiao's soul had left his body. Those voices rang from afar, delivering it into his empty shell. His spirit was busy battling with the former Grandmaster that those Śarīras had turned into. Qi flowed everywhere, and since they couldn't find a place to focus themselves on, they could only allow his body to do as it pleased.
The voices were a little slower when he felt it.
Ming Yue?
And that one surnamed Cui.
Feng Xiao sighed, looking on at a faint shadow.
Someone was standing not far off with a beard on his face and hands behind his back, his expression was wild as if there was nothing in this world worthy of his grace.
The owner of those two Śarīras.
The former Sect Leader of the Demonic Sects, Cui Youwang.
Feng Xiao thought, how could Xiao Lu be so generous? Giving away two Śarīras as he pleased. Now look, guess who's waiting for me here.
Yet, how could just any normal person accept relics like these? If it wasn't for the fact that he came from a Demonic Sect and succeeded a technique of the martial arts from many generations before, now he wouldn't be just experiencing qi deviation, his body would have already exploded and met his death.
Pei Jingzhe was oblivious of the massive change happening in Feng Xiao's body. He only knew that Feng Xiao, who was strangling him a moment ago, had loosened after he heard Cui Buqu's voice.
Ming Yue took the opportunity to move forward and sealed Feng Xiao's acupoints, holding his burning-hot body alongside Qin Miaoyu.
He had been following this Lord for a few years now, yet he couldn't compare to someone who barely knew him for a year, Pei Jingzhe's heart was filled with displeasure as he thought, then he heard Ming Yue dully said: "It won't do to carry on like this. This is the only external strength that could aid Er-lang to successfully pass through this stage."
Qin Miaoyu curiously: "Second Commander Feng is now in qi deviation. Medicinal aid alone won't be of much use. Why don't we each transfer some qi to him?"
Ming Yue laughed bitterly. "That cannot do. He isn't lacking qi now, his body is going to burst from overflowing qi. We could only bank on his own will to dredge his meridians. Although medicine like the Bingzhi Pellets cannot change the course of events, as things progress currently, it could assist the recuperating process."
Qin Miaoyu gasped and gave an ugly look. "Just now I took a stroll outside. All the medicinal stalls in the city have either closed down, haven't heard anything about Bingzhi Pellets, or only knew a bit about it, saying the ingredients are hard to find and that they could only be found in the capital. How can we still get them on time?"
"There is no need to go to the capital. I have them."
When Cui Buqu's words were spoken, the colour drained from Qiao Xian's face. Just as she wanted to stop him, Cui Buqu had already fished out a ceramic bottle and poured all three pellets out, opened Feng Xiao's mouth and stuffed them in, before closing it shut, forcing him to swallow it.
====
[1] 印堂穴: the place between the eyebrows.