The Golden Blade’s Pursuit and the Pavilion Master’s Test

On the night Ye Di departed from Quzhou City, Golden Blade Constable Tan Xianglong was a guest at a friend’s home within the city.

As Lei Ling had mentioned, Tan Xianglong was the foremost expert within the Golden Blade realm across the entire Great Liang jianghu, rarely encountering a worthy opponent in his daily life.

He and his friend clinked cups and spoke merrily, drinking until late into the night before he rose, somewhat tipsy, to bid his farewells.

Stepping over the threshold, Tan Xianglong looked up.

A moon emerged from behind the clouds, exceptionally bright and clear.

The cold night wind dispersed a portion of his intoxication. With a clearer head, he followed his memory to return home by the original path.

As he passed a residence, he heard a faint, peculiar disturbance.

Years of experience as a constable immediately made him realize this household had likely been targeted by a thief.

He concentrated, listening intently for a moment. Yet, he couldn’t discern the exact nature of the sound; it wasn’t the rummaging of overturned chests, nor the sounds of a struggle.

Tan Xianglong held his breath and scaled the wall into the courtyard.

After he leaped and landed steadily, he immediately surveyed his surroundings.

He found nothing unusual about the household. There were a few benches for cooling off in the courtyard, grain drying in a corner, and slightly charred meat smoking on a rack.

Tan Xianglong’s gaze flickered, and he instantly sensed something amiss.

In the shadows of the corner, a yellow dog lay curled.

When he had previously entered the house, he hadn’t deliberately concealed his movements. This was partly intended to scare away any thief inside.

Logically, the yellow dog should have woken up and barked furiously to alert its owners.

Tan Xianglong took a few steps closer, then crouched down to examine it. The yellow dog had indeed been dead for some time, its body cold and stiff.

Tan Xianglong couldn’t help but frown. He glanced towards the window, which still emitted a dim, yellow glow.

The strange sounds persisted, growing more unsettling with each passing moment.

‘This household has likely met a grim fate,’ Tan Xianglong thought.

He no longer hesitated, striding directly through the main door.

Immediately, two bodies lay sprawled on the floor before him: a man and a woman, who appeared to be a married couple.

Tan Xianglong quickly assessed their state of death. Blood flowed from all seven orifices, their expressions frozen in terror.

Notably, they had lost an immense amount of blood, as if they had been drained dry, like mummified husks. Their blood was also pitch black, not the normal color of human blood.

‘Such swift and precise methods—could this be the work of a jianghu practitioner? Perhaps someone practicing a poisonous art with living victims.’

Tan Xianglong swiftly scanned the interior of the house. All the furnishings were relatively tidy, without much damage.

It seemed to be just a simple farming family. It was unlikely they would have made enemies with a jianghu master, and seeking wealth here would be absurd.

This further confirmed his earlier suspicion: ‘The perpetrator was cultivating a poisonous art.’

In a flash, this series of thoughts raced through Tan Xianglong’s mind.

The strange sounds in his ears continued without cease. They seemed to be coming from the inner room.

Tan Xianglong immediately decided to investigate. His Golden Blade slid from its sheath at his waist, clutched firmly in his hand.

As he turned into the doorway of the inner room, he let out a sharp “Hah!” and pointed his Golden Blade directly inside.

There was no one there, only the sound of cold wind whistling through a broken old window.

It was just an ordinary room, even a bit shabby.

Tan Xianglong dared not be careless; he entered the room, scanning his surroundings as he moved.

The room seemed to have been unoccupied for a long time, with a thick layer of dust covering the furniture.

Suddenly, Tan Xianglong’s gaze caught something. He noticed an unnaturally clean spot on the windowsill, roughly the size of half a footprint.

‘Someone just left through here!’

Tan Xianglong’s brows furrowed. He immediately rushed over and vaulted through the window.

The instant he landed, he looked up and gazed into the distance.

He saw a figure, white as snow, under the cover of night. It leaped and vanished across the various rooftops of the city, fleeting and swift.

Tan Xianglong paid no mind to anything else. He immediately executed the lightness skill ‘Reed Crossing the River’ and pursued at full speed.

****

Tan Xianglong pursued for several li, reaching the outskirts of the city.

It was an open wilderness, with a biting cold wind and profound darkness all around.

Tan Xianglong relied on the sole illumination cast by the bright moon above, straining to discern the traces of the figure’s departure.

Just as he regretfully shook his head, believing he had lost the trail and decided to give up, a clear, cold female voice spoke from behind him:

“Why do you follow me so far?”

Startled, Tan Xianglong whirled around.

Beneath the moonlight, a masked woman in white was staring coldly at him. Clad in white, she resembled an ethereal fairy, her dark hair cascading like a waterfall to her waist.

Tan Xianglong was instantly filled with dread. To approach him so silently from behind, without him noticing, was astonishing.

Such skill was likely possessed by only a handful of people in the entire world. ‘What is this woman’s background?’

Tan Xianglong instinctively reached for his saber hilt. His entire body’s coiled muscles tensed, subtly preparing for an imminent strike.

“By asking that, are you admitting that you were the one who committed the crime at that household in the city just now?”

The masked woman in white gave a cold laugh but offered no reply.

Tan Xianglong fixed his gaze on her. Yet, he dared not draw his saber rashly.

In a clash between masters, victory and defeat often hinged on a mere fraction of an inch. The pre-battle ‘momentum’ and ‘aura’ were also crucial.

Truly formidable opponents often exuded the bearing of a grandmaster, standing like an unmoving mountain before battle.

At this moment, although Tan Xianglong didn’t sense an exceptionally powerful ‘aura’ from the woman, her silent approach from behind earlier had already placed immense psychological pressure on him.

The masked woman let out a small, clear, cold laugh. “Suppose I admit it was me. What can you do about it?”

Tan Xianglong’s face was ashen. “Then I shall use every skill at my disposal to bring you to justice!”

The masked woman said, “But can you catch me?”

She abruptly turned, unleashed her lightness skill, and departed.

Tan Xianglong froze for a moment, just about to give chase. After a few hurried steps, the figure’s silhouette had already vanished without a trace beneath the moonlight.

He had no choice but to stop, a profound sense of frustration welling up within him.

However, his despondency lasted only for a moment. He immediately turned back along the original path, resolved to return to the crime scene to re-examine the situation and search for any overlooked clues.

****

The masked woman looked back, confirming she had shaken off Tan Xianglong’s pursuit.

Her figure darted like a startled rabbit, turning from the main road onto a small path and passing through a dense forest.

A small village came into view, with faint lamplight glowing from the windows of a few houses.

She removed her mask and gently knocked on the door of a small wooden cabin.

The door creaked open.

She was greeted by a man and a woman, both dressed in black.

The man asked, “How did it go? Was it smooth?”

The woman who had removed her mask had a delicate and beautiful face, with a pair of long, bright phoenix eyes.

After pouring and drinking a bowl of water at the table, she finally caught her breath and spoke. “If the Pavilion Master’s predictions are correct, that Golden Blade Constable should now begin to suspect her.”

The other woman in black said, “But what if Constable Tan truly encounters Murong and discovers a significant difference in skill compared to you tonight? Wouldn’t that expose the deception?”

The woman in white, disguised as the ‘Murong’ they spoke of, let out a cold laugh. “Do you think the Pavilion Master wouldn’t have considered that? She specifically chose me, the one with the best lightness skill, and instructed me to only display my lightness skill before Tan Xianglong, without engaging in prolonged entanglement. This was to implant the psychological suggestion that the opponent is a master at least one realm stronger than him.”

The man in black said, “The Pavilion Master sent us here to ‘clean house,’ but we haven’t found Kong Xiuwen. Instead, we’ve staged quite a performance.”

The woman in white said, “It’s a pity the Pavilion Master had other matters and couldn’t oversee this personally. Besides, she only devised this plan temporarily after hearing that Murong Qihuang had appeared in Quzhou City.”

The other woman in black glanced at the three brocade pouches placed on the table. Two of them had already been opened, with only the last one remaining sealed.

The woman in black said, “Of the three brocade pouches the Pavilion Master left for us, the first stated: ‘[Murong values her reputation above all else. As she aids the common people, we can ride this wave, elevate her status, and build her up.]’

“The second said: ‘[Murong’s reputation will take a sharp turn for the worse around three days from now. This will be when the common people have used her medicine, yet corpses still reanimate within the city. Your disguise as Murong tonight is meant to plant seeds of doubt in everyone’s hearts.]’ Both of these steps are now being fulfilled, one by one.

“Only the last brocade pouch remains.”

The man in black glanced at the ‘Heaven’ character token at his waist. “When did the Pavilion Master say to open it?”

The woman in white seemed lost in thought, recalling. “Before she left, the Pavilion Master said she merely wished to see if Murong Qihuang was truly a great hero, one who takes it upon herself to restore order to the world and sacrifices herself for righteousness.”

As she spoke, she reached out to open the third brocade pouch on the table. “The Pavilion Master said that since Murong is coincidentally in Quzhou, performing charitable deeds and aiding the common people, why not truly test her?”

Impatient with her slow movements in opening the pouch, the black-clad woman beside her eagerly asked, “How does the Pavilion Master intend to test Murong Qihuang?”

The man in black, standing by the door with his arms crossed, seemed to grasp something. He murmured, “‘The Five Corpse Heart Sutra, corpse puppets, pure blood…’

A thread dropped to the ground, revealing a crumpled small paper ball inside the opened brocade pouch. The woman in white unfolded the paper ball, read its contents, and then, with a smile, spread it open for the other two to see:

“[Huang’er, a hundred years ago, you sent Brother Ye to his death to save the common people of the world. Now, with corpses reanimating throughout the city, only your pure blood can save humanity. Thus, a hundred years later, Xiao Huiqing of Zhaixing Pavilion requests Sword Immortal Murong to embrace death.]”