The night had grown deep. In Lin Sima’s room, a candle burned. Incense sticks smoldered before the Buddha shrine, filling the room with coils of smoke, making it hazy and unclear.
Lin Sima knelt on the meditation cushion before the shrine, wiping his straight blade clean with a piece of silk. The blade’s edge caught the candlelight and threw back a sharp, cold glare. A cold chill ran through Lin Sima as well. At that moment came a soft knock at the door. Director Sun slipped inside.
Director Sun said in a low voice, “Sima — the people have arrived. Right in the sandy waste, three li away. They can move in at any time.”
Lin Sima said with difficulty, “Wait a little longer… just a little longer…”
“We cannot wait, Brother Sima!”
Director Sun said urgently. “These horse bandits, while they’re killing people for us, intend to loot the goods and wealth of the merchant caravans camped outside! They’ve arrived — even if you want to call it off, they won’t leave empty-handed!”
Lin Sima murmured, “I have spent my life in battle, killing as my trade. Never have I found it as difficult as today. The Lin family has believed in Buddhism for generations, and today I am about to kill a monk. Not just kill a monk — I must also kill the daughter of a prefect. To betray my faith, to betray the court — tell me, after tonight, how are we to stand with any dignity under heaven?”
“Sima,”
Director Sun said with a cold laugh. “You and I were both of humble and poor origins. Yet now you have become a Deputy Lieutenant of the lower tier of the eighth rank, and I have entered the lower tier of the ninth rank — in a county posting, I would rank above a county captain even in a major county, higher than a Dunhuang county captain! Who in either of our families across all the generations could ever have reached that? Now we guard this outpost station, and each year the money and silk flow in by the ten-thousands. We’ve not only built great residences in Dunhuang city — our sons and nephews have entered the prefectural school. From this point on, the Sun and Lin families have broken free of their lowly calling and become families of learning. Affairs like these — can anyone truly enjoy them without paying a price? If the only price we must pay is killing a monk and the prefect’s daughter, that is already an extremely favorable bargain!”
Lin Sima was silent for a long while, then returned the blade to its sheath. “Let us go, then. Let us go kill.”
“Xuanzang is standing on the city wall, lost in thought.”
Director Sun said. “The other two are not with him — now is the perfect moment.”
Lin Sima nodded. The two left the room, crossed the courtyard, and ascended the city wall.
Xuanzang was indeed on the wall, lost in thought. He seemed to have encountered some difficult problem; his fingers traced shapes in the air from time to time.
Above his head, a new moon hung like a hook. In the distant peaks and ridges above the gorge, a white expanse spread — as though the mountains had gone white-haired overnight.
Lin Sima approached Xuanzang and said quietly, “Venerable Monk!”
Xuanzang came back to himself, looked him over from head to foot, and smiled. “Commander — have you come to kill this humble monk?”
Lin Sima was immediately taken aback, and he and Director Sun stared at each other in bewilderment.
“Venerable Monk—”
Lin Sima said with some awkwardness, “What could give you that idea?”
Xuanzang let out a sigh. “This humble monk is a person of simplicity and stillness, and has developed a certain sensitivity to the air of killing… well, let us set aside such grand-sounding words. The truth is, this humble monk has simply encountered enough peril to have become somewhat sensitive, and is admittedly a little timid.”
Lin Sima stood speechless, somewhat at a loss. “No, no — this humble officer has absolutely no such intention!”
Xuanzang could see the wavering in his heart. He shook his head. “In that case, can you answer a few questions for this humble monk? I have been thinking over your account from this afternoon, and several details are puzzling me.”
Lin Sima said sincerely, “Venerable Monk, please ask. I will conceal nothing.”
Xuanzang nodded. “First question: Lv Sheng was an inner traitor — why did he hang lanterns on the flagpole in plain sight?”
Lin Sima pondered. “Those lanterns were probably meant to guide that group of foreign merchants, to show them the direction. He escorted the merchants into the garrison station, and he must have gotten Commander Huang’s agreement — only Commander Huang thought they were ordinary merchants who could provide intelligence on the Tujue.”
“That is a plausible explanation.”
Xuanzang asked. “According to your account, when the garrison station fell into close-quarters fighting, Lv Sheng was himself nearly killed and only survived by scaling down the wall on a rope. Second question: if he had brought Tujue inner agents inside, why would he have placed himself in such danger?”
“Well—”
Lin Sima thought for a good long while. “He probably intended to go along with us back to the prefectural seat and serve as an inner agent for the Tujue from there!”
“That is a reasonable answer.”
Xuanzang said. “Third question: the two soldiers who accompanied Lv Sheng that year to receive the foreign merchants did not die until the first year of the Zhenguan era, of illness. If Lv Sheng had committed treason, why were they not punished along with him?”
Lin Sima froze. For a moment, cold sweat broke out across his forehead. He stood speechless for a long while.
“Fourth question.”
Xuanzang said. “That year when you killed Lv Sheng and were rewarded with official rank, why did each of the other sixteen people receive no reward at all? And why did every one of them, within the span of a single year from the start of the Zhenguan era, die one after another, each from some different cause?”
Xuanzang fixed him with a deep and searching gaze. “Commander Lin — you are the only one still alive from that year.”
Lin Sima’s complexion went ghastly. His right hand closed around the hilt of his blade, as though trying to draw strength from it, but his arm would not stop trembling.
“Fifth question.”
Xuanzang, as if he had not noticed, continued. “The Office of Household Administration has records of all the prefecture’s household registrations, account books, marriage records, land deeds, and miscellaneous corvée matters. When this humble monk came, I examined some of those documents at the Dunhuang County Office of Household Administration and discovered that in the first year of the Zhenguan era, you erected a large residence in Dunhuang city. At that time, you had only been appointed garrison commander of this Qingdun Outpost for three months. Even though the Qingdun Outpost is a golden pass, three months could not possibly be enough to purchase an entire great residence. Furthermore, this humble monk also discovered that after the autumn harvest of the ninth month of the Wude ninth year, the household register of your Lin family suddenly showed an addition of five hundred mu of fertile farmland, divided between the two prefectures of Gua and Sha. At that time you had only just been granted your official rank — how did you purchase all that farmland?”
Lin Sima was drenched in sweat. He stared at Xuanzang with eyes full of terror and fury. Director Sun beside him had gone pale as ash.
“What else did you find?”
Lin Sima’s voice was hoarse and raw, as though he were wailing.
“I also found that those fields had previously belonged to the Fan clan, and the foundation of the great residence had belonged to the Zhang clan.”
Xuanzang looked at him with compassion. “Two great aristocratic clans — one gifted you a great residence, one gifted you fertile farmland. Commander Lin — you bet everything in a single throw of the dice and won your entire life.”
Two ringing sounds — Lin Sima and Director Sun drew their blades simultaneously.
Lin Sima bared his teeth in a grim smile. “Venerable Monk — you are determined to force me into killing you!”
“Of course.”
Xuanzang said with a smile. “You intended to kill me from the start — you were simply unable to bring yourself to decide. Once these questions of mine were asked, you could no longer afford not to kill me.”
“Why?”
Lin Sima gritted his teeth and asked.
“Because,”
Xuanzang said slowly, “the fact that you want to kill me proves I have guessed correctly. I came here to clear Lv Sheng’s name of his false charges. But three years have passed since the matter occurred, and all the traces have been buried. If I cannot drive you to a dead end and place myself in mortal peril, I cannot dig out a single clue.”
“You madman!”
Lin Sima bellowed. “If you die, what use is the clue to you?”
“None.”
Xuanzang said with equanimity. “History’s record is like a blade — it cuts down heroes and great men alike. Even if this humble monk were to uncover the truth, the world would remain as it is. Yet Lv Sheng and I had a friendship between kindred spirits. I have come to know his injustice — for him, for me, that is enough.”
Lin Sima and Director Sun looked at each other, neither able to comprehend this. Lin Sima gave Director Sun a nod. Director Sun pulled a fire-starting device from his sleeve, shook it rapidly, and a flame ignited. Director Sun held the flame aloft and waved it toward the outside of the wall. The light traced circles of brightness in the air above.
Then, suddenly, from somewhere in the distance came the sound of a bowstring — zheng — and in an instant a bolt of steel arrowhead came shooting through the dark like lightning. With a dull thud, it pierced Director Sun’s neck. A gout of blood sprayed across Lin Sima’s face.
Director Sun’s lifeless body toppled headfirst from the city wall.
Lin Sima reacted with lightning speed. His body flashed and moved, pressing himself directly against Xuanzang’s back, his straight blade coming to rest at Xuanzang’s throat. The whole sequence was over in the space of a heartbeat. Only then was there a heavy thud below — the sound of Director Sun’s body hitting the ground.
Lin Sima, holding Xuanzang as his shield, faced toward the beacon tower. He could indeed see two figures standing on the top of the tall beacon tower — one had a bow drawn and an arrow nocked, aimed at him. It was Yuzao and Li Chan.
When they saw that Xuanzang was being held, the two came down from the staircase of the beacon tower and made their way around the southern side of the city wall.
Lin Sima said with a cold laugh, “No wonder you weren’t afraid of death — you had an ambush set!”
“Release the Venerable Monk!”
Li Chan roared.
“What does releasing him accomplish? Tonight all of you are going to die anyway!”
Lin Sima said with a loud laugh.
At this moment, the garrison soldiers in the compound, hearing the commotion, climbed up the city wall in great numbers, bows drawn and blades raised. From front and back and on both sides they surrounded everyone. Lin Sima, holding Xuanzang, slowly backed himself in among the garrison soldiers and with a single shove pushed Xuanzang out in front of him, shouting, “These three killed Director Sun!”
The garrison soldiers erupted in an uproar. At this moment, someone spotted Director Sun’s body beneath the wall, and the fury rose even higher. With shouts of rage, they surged forward. Li Chan and Yuzao placed Xuanzang between them in protection. As the two sides came into contact and were on the verge of fighting, suddenly from the sandy waste came a sound like a muffled peal of thunder.
Everyone looked out in alarm toward the waste. In the light of the crescent moon, a long column of swirling sand rose from the desert waste, sweeping toward the garrison station. As it drew closer, they realized that within the column of swirling sand rode a troop of cavalry. The cavalry were dressed in white long robes, their faces covered with cloth masks, visible one moment in the sand and hidden the next.
“Horse bandits of Mazong Mountain!”
Someone in the garrison troops shouted. The city wall immediately fell into chaos. Everyone moved to hold the key points of the fortification and set up a defense. The merchant travelers camped outside also fell into a panic and came running to bang on the city gate, a chorus of cries and desperate pleading rising from them.
“Commander Lin!”
Xuanzang fixed him with a hard look. “So this is the means you intended to use against this humble monk! Colluding with horse bandits, killing openly in broad sight — this humble monk is truly and greatly disappointed in you!”
Lin Sima said in a low snarl, “Venerable Monk — you wanted to drive me to have no road left. I can’t just hang myself from a tree branch. This is your own doing!”
“What about the foreign merchants outside?”
Xuanzang said gravely. “This humble monk will die tonight — so be it. But open the gate and let them in, spare them from this disaster.”
“If they come in, who will the bandits have left to plunder? Will they loot my garrison station?”
Lin Sima bared his teeth in a cruel grin. “You unworldly monk — when you want to tear open the sky, what pours through must be a torrential downpour of blood. When you reach the Office of the Prefect of Mount Tai, you should understand: these people will have died because of you!”
The two were still arguing when the top of the city wall suddenly went very still. The garrison soldiers and Yuzao, Li Chan and the others all stared open-mouthed at the sandy waste. Xuanzang turned — and went rigid with shock. He watched as the horse bandits of Mazong Mountain swept forward through the billowing sand, and then — a mounted rider plunged from his horse and vanished, leaving only the riderless horse galloping on with the column. And there were already four or five riderless horses in the column! The riders in front still did not know, and charged on, shouting and swinging their long blades. In the swirling sand, a soldier at the rear of the column suddenly tumbled from his horse and disappeared. On it went — throughout the column, mounted riders vanished from their saddles without reason or warning, one after another in the sand. The watching crowd rubbed their eyes furiously, straining to see clearly — but the sand was thick, and it was impossible to make out exactly how those riders were disappearing. In the blink of an eye, one after another the mounted soldiers were gone, as though some invisible creature hidden in the sand was consuming them. The momentum of the whole column grew smaller and smaller. The riders at the front also sensed that something was wrong. They turned their heads — and their souls nearly fled their bodies. The horse-backs were already nearly all empty.
The riders hurriedly reined in their horses and looked around carefully. At this point the swirling sand slowly drifted over. The people on the city wall could not see clearly either — they could only watch as the riders circled and maneuvered in the drifting sand, appearing and disappearing. Then suddenly someone cried out in alarm — but the voice cut off abruptly. Immediately screams rang out from within the sand, one after another. After a moment, silence.
On the city wall and below, garrison soldiers and merchants alike watched, their hearts in their mouths. One by one the warhorses stepped calmly out of the swirling sand and came to a halt outside the garrison station. But their backs were entirely empty of riders.
“A demon! There’s a demon — a demon!”
Among the merchants, someone shouted in terror.
Xuanzang quietly sighed. “It has come.”
Li Chan tightened his grip on his blade. Yuzao drew her bow. Both of them grew grave, and an involuntary trembling of fear showed in their expressions.
“Who?”
Lin Sima called out loudly. “Who has come? And those bandits — where have they gone?”
Xuanzang said nothing. He stared intently into the sandy waste. The sand was still swirling, soundless and still — swoosh — a garrison soldier, unable to contain the terror in his heart, let his hand tremble. An arrow slipped from the bowstring and shot out into the swirling sand, disappearing without a trace. The soldiers nearby stared at that man in alarm. The man trembled uncontrollably, helpless and at a loss — but the sand showed not the slightest response, only continuing to swirl and roll in place, like a great serpent turning upon itself.
Then without warning, a brightness appeared above everyone’s heads. They turned to look — and every one of them froze. A human figure was walking up the steps of the beacon tower, one step at a time. He was carrying three lanterns. He was twenty or thirty zhang away from the crowd. The lamplight fell on the side of his face, but his features were unclear — only his round-collared robe and the futou headwear he wore were visible, and he appeared to be not very old.
The figure ascended the beacon tower and hung the lanterns on the flagpole. The three lanterns swayed in the wind, eerie and strange. Then the figure turned sideways, stood at the edge of the beacon tower wall, and smiled a strange smile. The glow of the lanterns fell across his face — and Xuanzang’s spirit was shaken to its core.
“Secretary Lv—”
Lin Sima let out a cry of alarm.
“Lv郎—”
Yuzao also lost her voice in a startled cry.
Li Chan stared with his mouth agape. He was dumbstruck. Lv Sheng? How could this person be Lv Sheng? Had he not died long ago? How could he appear from thin air atop the beacon tower tonight? He turned his head and looked blankly at Xuanzang. He had never seen such a heavy expression on Xuanzang’s face. This monk who was accustomed to witnessing heaven and earth grinding away and all living creatures laid low — for the first time showed an expression of confusion and shock.
“Master…”
Li Chan murmured.
Xuanzang tugged at his sleeve and kept his attention fixed. After hanging the lanterns, Lv Sheng picked up another and came down the steps from the city wall, walking into the courtyard. His figure drifted and wavered, his wide sleeves floating — he seemed at once a solid human body and at once a thing of illusion. There were garrison soldiers in the courtyard carrying torches. In the light of fire and flame, shadows lay on the ground.
Lv Sheng broke into a wide grin and beckoned to two garrison soldiers with a crook of his finger. The blades in the hands of those two soldiers fell to the ground with a clatter. Their whole bodies turned dull and blank. As though possessed, they hung their arms limply and followed behind Lv Sheng in a wooden, vacant stupor, walking toward the gate of the garrison station. The garrison soldiers in the courtyard scattered back in fright. Several ran up to the city wall to report, but Lin Sima was already standing there stiff and motionless as carved wood or molded clay, incapable of any response.
The garrison soldiers could only watch helplessly as two puppet-men, blank and vacant, opened the gate in a mechanical trance. Lv Sheng, carrying the lantern, led them step by step out into the sandy waste.
The three merchant caravans outside the gate were unaware of what had been happening inside the compound and were not particularly frightened — only somewhat puzzled. But Linghu Zhan, hidden among the Gaochang merchants, was equally transfixed, his wits utterly deserting him. He watched Lv Sheng slowly walk away, clenched his teeth, and slowly drew his straight blade. Beside him, Suo Yi’s eyes grew red. His expression was one of sorrowful feeling.
Li Chunfeng’s expression, however, was solemn and grave. In his eyes blazed a dazzling and brilliant light.
“Ghost! A ghost! A ghost—”
Lin Sima suddenly screamed aloud. With a heavy thud, he collapsed to his knees. “He has come to take my life! Venerable Monk, save me!”
Xuanzang sighed and went over, pulling Lin Sima to his feet, patting the dust from his knees. “He has not come to take your life. He has come to recreate the scene of that night.”
“Lv郎!”
Yuzao, without realizing it, had long since been streaming with tears. Coming back to her senses now, she ran toward the city below.
“Hold her back!”
Xuanzang quickly called out.
Li Chan grabbed Yuzao’s arm in both hands, overwhelmed with anxiety. “Master — what on earth is happening?”
“Let go of me! Let go!”
Yuzao said urgently. “Venerable Monk — Lv郎 is not dead! He is not dead!”
“Young Lady Twelve,”
Xuanzang said gently, “let us watch and see? If this humble monk’s reading is not wrong, he will still return.”
Yuzao froze. Everyone looked together toward the direction of the sandy waste. They watched as Lv Sheng walked into the swirling sand, and the lantern gradually disappeared from sight. After a moment, the amber glow of the lantern grew brighter again. Lv Sheng emerged from the sand carrying the lantern, and behind him trailed a dense, flowing column of smoke and dust. In the moonlight, the dust rolled and surged — taking on at moments the outline of mules and horses, at moments something resembling the forms of people, illusory and ethereal yet somehow present and real — and so it followed behind Lv Sheng, making its way toward the garrison station.
Mist, lanterns, desert, drifting sand, human silhouettes, horses and camels — all strange beyond description.
Lv Sheng carried the lantern through the gate. Yuzao, Xuanzang and the others rushed to the city wall above to look down. That column of smoke and shadow contracted and vanished at the gate’s entrance. Lv Sheng’s eyes held no light in them. He stared into the empty air before him as though those figures were still present.
“Do you know the exact number of Yugushad’s forces?”
Lv Sheng spoke aloud, but there was no one in the empty air to answer. Yet Lv Sheng seemed to have heard, and nodded, then asked, “Where is his main force hidden? How many attached cavalry does he have? How many bowmen under his command? Why has he invaded this time? What is his target…”
Lv Sheng asked one question after another, as though the empty air was answering them one by one, and Lv Sheng listened with full concentration, giving slight nods from time to time.
“Master,”
Li Chan murmured, “he truly is recreating the scene of that night!”
Yuzao, though desperate in her longing, had also sensed the eerie and terrifying nature of what she was witnessing and dared not speak carelessly. She watched in silence. Suddenly the courtyard darkened. The lantern went out. Lv Sheng vanished.
Xuanzang and the others looked around in bewilderment, searching in all directions. Then, faintly, there came to their ears the sound of people shouting and horses screaming, the ground trembling, the dense and steady drumming of arrows like rain on a banana leaf. The seven or eight torches hanging under the eaves of the main hall ignited of their own accord with no cause. The courtyard blazed with light. Lv Sheng appeared outside the main hall, a straight blade in hand. In the firelight, he screamed in a ragged voice, “Why? Why?”
Then from the gate’s direction surged a mass of black fog. Dense and viscous, it spread without restraint and gradually engulfed Lv Sheng.
Lv Sheng’s eyes blazed with fury. He screamed and slashed with his straight blade, but was consumed little by little.
“Lv郎—”
Yuzao wept and charged down from the city wall, charging into the black fog.
Li Chan was stunned and scrambled to grab her but could not. Yuzao charged into the black fog, reaching out to grasp Lv Sheng’s hand — but grasped only empty air, and passed straight through to the other side of the fog.
Yuzao turned in bewilderment. Before her eyes seemed to play out something like a dream of flowers reflected in a mirror and a moon reflected in water — a human tragedy on stage, the vicissitudes of a lifetime — yet untouchable.
The black fog began to dissipate from the ground up. Lv Sheng’s body also dissolved little by little along with the fog. Yuzao wept quietly and slowly reached out a hand trying to touch Lv Sheng. Her fingertips were surrounded by swirling black fog that vanished in an instant. And Lv Sheng’s figure dissolved utterly and was gone.
“Audacious demon — you shall submit to judgment! For my seal—”
Suddenly overhead in the courtyard came a flash. Eight vast talismanic seals appeared! Those seals were drawn in thin tongues of flame in intricate and arcane patterns, arranged in the air according to the eight cardinal positions of the mystical gate formation. From the seals trailed long wisps of deep, white cold flame, like a celestial net spread wide, completely enveloping the spot where the black fog had dissolved!
Li Chunfeng walked into the gate with unhurried steps. Linghu Zhan led Suo Yi and several dozen household guards in close behind him.
“Who are you people?”
A garrison soldier called out.
“I am Linghu Zhan, Western Pass Garrison Colonel — come to subdue demons and devils. All those not involved, clear away at once!”
Linghu Zhan produced his fish-badge tally and commanded.
Li Chunfeng watched the talismanic formation with intense concentration. In the light of the blazing formation, the form of Lv Sheng, which had just vanished, began to appear again — distorting and twisting within the formation, as though raging soundlessly. In his struggle, his fingers occasionally brushed against the cold flame, and immediately a hissing, sizzling sound arose.
“What are you doing?”
Yuzao erupted in fury, raising her blade as she charged forward.
“Do not go near! This person is abnormal — he is not Lv Sheng!”
Xuanzang called out urgently. “Young… Li Chen, go pull her back!”
Li Chan had not yet come back to his senses. Yuzao had already charged forward. Linghu Zhan gave a cold laugh and stepped forward to meet Yuzao. The two blades clashed. Dang — a tremendous ringing collision. Yuzao did not pause to speak, her straight blade rolling and sweeping downward, swift as a violent storm. Linghu Zhan deflected with calm composure, not yielding a single step, holding Yuzao back completely.
Li Chunfeng kept his gaze fixed solely on the formation. Then, all at once, he had a peach-wood sword in his hand. He struck a talisman against the blade and said coldly, “The local deity of this place — most sacred among the divine. Reaching heaven above, penetrating earth below, traversing the world of the dead and the world of the living. By my summoning you are called forth; you may not linger. On the day your merit is established, your name shall be written in the highest clarity. — Seal!”
Li Chunfeng swept his ritual blade. The formation in the air began slowly to contract. The space within the formation grew smaller and smaller. Lv Sheng screamed in agony and struggled. Even his hair was beginning to burn.
Yuzao’s eyes were bloodshot to their limits. She attacked Linghu Zhan with the fury of one who had lost all reason. Yet Linghu Zhan’s bladework was practiced and battle-hardened, and for a moment he could not be overcome. Li Chan, seeing this, gritted his teeth, drew his blade, and charged in, joining Yuzao to fight Linghu Zhan two against one. Linghu Zhan blocked two strokes, then could no longer hold. The household guards were just about to surge forward when Linghu Zhan stopped them with a gesture. “Fall back! These two must not be harmed by my hand!”
Linghu Zhan ran and leapt between the city wall and the enclosure walls, drawing Yuzao and Li Chan further and further away into the fighting.
“Venerable Monk, you need not be concerned — Colonel Linghu will not harm them.”
Suo Yi came to Xuanzang’s side. “Does the Venerable Monk recognize this formation?”
Xuanzang nodded. “Is it the same kind of pigment you used to paint talismans in the Mogao Caves?”
“Indeed! In the first year of the Zhenguan era, the clan obtained three qian of it from the Exorcism Division in Chang’an and gave it to me. Now it has all been used up.”
Suo Yi explained. “This substance has no temperature — at ordinary times its form is like white wax, yet it ignites very easily. Nothing fails to burn in its fire; whatever it adheres to cannot be extinguished. It enters bone and corrodes bone, enters iron and corrodes iron. The smoke from its burning is intensely toxic. It is extremely formidable. The people of the Exorcism Division call it white phosphorus fire. It is said to be extracted by Master Yuan Tiangang and the Medicine King Sun Simiao from human urine and sand and similar materials. Yuan Tiangang used it for writing talismans, and even in doing so, he had to be extremely cautious — otherwise the talisman paper would ignite instantly, releasing intense poison.”
Xuanzang was surprised. “Why are you telling this humble monk all this?”
“I ask the Venerable Monk to lend his aid and save Lv Sheng.”
Suo Yi said in a low voice.
Xuanzang was suddenly startled. He stared at Suo Yi for a long moment. “He is not Lv Sheng!”
Suo Yi gave a rueful smile. “Precisely because the Venerable Monk has seen through that, I dare to make this bold request. Whoever he may be, he must not die!”
Xuanzang was silent for a moment. “Let us watch and see. This person is not so easily subdued.”
At that very moment, Li Chunfeng began to pace out the Seven Stars pattern, chanting the incantation in rapid succession: “The Seven Stars incantation uttered — Kui, Da, Gui, Sha, Bi, Chi. The Five Elements incantation uttered — metal, wood, water, fire, earth. The Heavenly Stems incantation uttered…”
Li Chunfeng brought his peach-wood blade through the forms of the Seven Stars, the Five Elements, the Heavenly Stems, and the Twelve Palaces — yet he still could not suppress Lv Sheng. The peach-wood sword was beginning to smoke. The formation bulged as though about to burst.
Li Chunfeng shook his hair loose. He bit his finger and blood flew across the peach-wood sword. He bellowed, “…The Twenty-Eight Constellations incantation uttered — Horn, Neck, Root, Room, Heart, Tail, Winnowing Basket; Striding Legs, Mound, Stomach, Pleiades, Net, Turtle Beak, Three Stars—”
Lv Sheng suddenly let out a wretched and agonized howl. He raised his face to the sky with a long scream. His robes burst apart in an instant. On his arms, wolf bristles were erupting! Everyone present gaped in astonishment. They watched as Lv Sheng’s body slowly transformed: his fingers slowly grew long, sharp, keen-edged talons. His spine arched and bulged, silver-white fur sprouting across it. Even his face and head began to change — his lips and muzzle pushed forward, fangs lengthened, a pair of furry ears pricked upright. The whole person was transforming into a great silver wolf.
The great wolf let out a furious howl, and a jet of black smoke poured from its jaws. With both forepaws it struck out — and the talismanic formation shattered with a thunderous crash, scattering in every direction as countless sparks of fire. Each spark that fell to the solid sand-packed ground caused it to hiss and sizzle, burning it until it turned scorched black. And Li Chunfeng’s peach-wood blade — it crumbled into powder!
“A wolf! It is the Kui Wood Wolf—”
In the garrison station, regardless of whether they were garrison soldiers or household guards, everyone was thrown into uproar. One after another they shrank back in alarm. The entire courtyard fell into a sudden silence. All were stupefied. The only sound was the crackling and popping of the pine torches as they burned.
The Kui Wood Wolf gazed slowly around at everyone. With one forepaw it drew on the ground a symbol — waist-narrow and pointed at the top, like a worn-out shoe. On its lines were sixteen stars circling around it. The moment the symbol was complete, from the lines there surged a dense and billowing black fog.
At this very instant, a silhouette dropped from the roof of the main hall with a single leap, and blade-light flashed in one hand — aimed directly at the Kui Wood Wolf’s skull. It was Linghu Zhan!
The Kui Wood Wolf seemed to have anticipated this. It spun around in an instant. One wolfpaw came down with tremendous force directly onto Linghu Zhan’s chest. With a crack, Linghu Zhan’s chest armor was torn away. He flew backward through the air, spitting a mouthful of blood in midair, and landed heavily on the ground.
The Kui Wood Wolf gave a cold, sinister laugh, turned, and leapt into the symbol drawn on the ground. A gust of wind swept through, and the black fog dispersed. The Kui Wood Wolf vanished.
“The Thirty-Six Transformations of Tiangang — the Great Vanishing of the Five Elements!”
Li Chunfeng stared at the empty ground, deeply shaken.
Yuzao stood blank and dazed, clutching her straight blade, on top of a piece of enclosure wall. Her face was a mask of confusion. She felt as though the entire world had plunged into a kind of shattered disarray — like the lingering half-darkness of a nightmare at the edge of dawn, like sinking into Zhuangzi’s dream of the butterfly. In the end, was it Lv Sheng who had become the Kui Wood Wolf, or the Kui Wood Wolf who had become Lv Sheng? Or was she still unawakened, ensnared in a nightmare?
Yuzao’s body lurched and swayed. Li Chan pulled her and ran to Xuanzang’s side. “Master! What is all this? Is this thing the Kui Wood Wolf or Lv Sheng?”
Xuanzang gazed sorrowfully across the courtyard. “All that has form — it is all illusion. Why cling to who it actually is? What you have seen is merely the projection before your eyes of the self-aspect, the person-aspect, the living-being-aspect, and the lifespan-aspect.”
Li Chunfeng produced a compass-and-gnomon and fixed his gaze on the needle as it leapt and moved. Suddenly he said, “The Qian position — six chi and three cun!”
Linghu Zhan scrambled to his feet, snatched up a long bow, and without even looking, shot in the direction of the northwest. The northwest corner, the Pig position of the compass, was a wall — and in the very instant the arrow arrived, a ghostly shadow on the wall flickered and was gone in a flash. With a thud, the long arrow buried itself in the earthen wall.
“The Sun position — eight chi and five cun.”
Li Chunfeng said.
Linghu Zhan wrenched his body around and in the same instant released another arrow. To the southeast, the leaves of a poplar tree stirred without any wind, then the long arrow shot through — and only a few leaves came drifting down.
“The Kun position — seven chi and one cun!”
Li Chunfeng kept his eyes on the compass, calling out the positions one after another. Linghu Zhan’s arrows sang from the bowstring one after another, the bowstring humming and vibrating in an unbroken stream. The Kui Wood Wolf deployed the great supernatural arts of the Thirty-Six Tiangang Transformations — the Soaring Body Without Trace and the Standing Upright Without Shadow — concealing its form and dissolving into another plane. Not a single arrow could track its figure.
“The Gen position — five chi!”
Five chi was almost a flat shot. Linghu Zhan, without even looking, released an arrow. At this point the courtyard was full of people. With a dull thud, an arrow pierced the throat of a household guard. Linghu Zhan immediately followed with a second arrow. The Kui Wood Wolf appeared to have also discovered this advantageous situation — it concealed itself and mingled in the crowd. Every position Li Chunfeng called out thereafter was only four or five chi. Linghu Zhan paid no heed to the casualties and shot according to the positions with his eyes nearly closed.
In an instant the courtyard was filled with the injured and dying. Many household guards were struck by arrows. Everyone panicked and scrambled to dodge. Even so, it was not enough to stop the Kui Wood Wolf’s out-of-body shadow. The courtyard was too small, the crowd too closely packed. The moment any one person fell under its control, it would trigger mass slaughter. In an instant, the garrison station had become a bloodsoaked killing field. Countless household guards swung their blades in a frenzy. Even more — driven to the extreme of terror — drew their bows and fired in every direction. The moment any figure stirred, an arrow shot toward it. Screams, moans, cries, the clanging and slashing of blade against spear — all unceasing. Bodies lay heaped in every direction.
“Let us go into the main hall.”
Linghu Zhan struggled to stand.
Several household guards who kept close to his side supported Linghu Zhan. Together with Li Chunfeng and the Exorcism Craftsmen and Exorcism Apprentices, they pressed themselves against the wall and made their way to the main hall of the garrison station. Li Chunfeng pressed a Daoist talisman against the door. Just as everyone was about to pull the door shut, Yuzao kicked one of the household guards out of the way and, with Li Chan, Xuanzang, and Suo Yi, forced her way inside.
The household guards looked to Linghu Zhan. Linghu Zhan gave a nod. “Let them in!”
At this moment, Lin Sima also came charging across the courtyard, cutting down several people who stood in his way with his blade, and shouted, “Save me! Save me!”
Linghu Zhan, covered in blood, sat on the ground — yet he snatched up a long bow and drew it, arrow aimed at Lin Sima.
“This man must not die.”
Xuanzang said firmly.
Yuzao and Li Chan both raised their straight blades and held off Linghu Zhan. Linghu Zhan had no choice but to lower his bow and arrow with reluctant resignation. Lin Sima rushed in with a great surge and tumbled to the floor. An Exorcism Apprentice quickly pulled the hall door shut. Lin Sima was covered in blood. He fell to his knees and gasped, “My thanks… my thanks, Venerable Monk…”
He then glared at Linghu Zhan with fury. Linghu Zhan met his gaze with lofty disdain and looked away.
Lin Sima had no time to argue with him. Those inside the main hall were all in extreme tension, blades and bows raised and aimed at the door, everyone wide-eyed and fearful, bodies drenched in sweat.
From the courtyard came an unceasing stream of screams and slashing sounds. From time to time, bodies could be heard crashing to the ground. Occasionally a person smashed against the outer wall of the main hall with a heavy thud, followed by a spattering of blood spraying up against the window lattice.
“Academician Li — what do we do?”
Linghu Zhan asked.
Li Chunfeng smiled with rueful bitterness. “Let us wait a moment. This creature’s supernatural powers have exceeded my estimates. This art is very difficult to break.”
“If we wait much longer, everyone will be dead!”
Yuzao said angrily.
Xuanzang suddenly, without a word, walked to the door of the main hall. He called through the door in a loud voice, “Lv Sheng — is it the Heavenly Robe you seek? This humble monk is right here. Will you release the innocent?”
The sounds of fighting outside in the courtyard ceased abruptly. After a moment, there came a chorus of panicked shouts and sounds of running feet — clearly the garrison soldiers and household guards in the courtyard had all scattered and fled in all directions. Then: complete silence.
After a long while, still no one inside the main hall dared to move.
“Venerable Monk,”
Yuzao’s voice was a little choked. “Is he truly Lv Sheng?”
Xuanzang’s eyes also showed a trace of redness. He made a great effort to suppress his emotions. “Young Lady Twelve — whether he is or is not, the person you and I long for can never be brought back.”
“Why? Why?”
Yuzao wept. “What has become of Lv郎? Is he alive or dead?”
“Living or dead — how easily can we ordinary people of the mortal world distinguish that?”
Xuanzang’s tears flowed slowly as well. He looked at her with gentle warmth. “Outside teachings postulate a divine self that dies here and is reborn elsewhere, traveling through the six paths of rebirth. Lv Sheng as he is now — he has arisen from the view of a self, and fallen into wrong views and twisted understanding, circling in birth and death… Young Lady Twelve — whether alive or dead, the Lv Sheng of former times no longer exists. As for why he has come to be like this…”
Xuanzang turned slowly and surveyed the people gathered in the room. He saw Lin Sima, Linghu Zhan, and Suo Yi. “Since the three of you happen to be present here — it is time for the answer to this riddle to be revealed, is it not?”
Linghu Zhan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his bearing still defiant. “I know nothing of any riddle. I came to kill the Kui Wood Wolf because it abducted my wife. What does this Lv Sheng have to do with me?”
Xuanzang said mildly, “Lv Sheng not only has something to do with you — the connection is very great. Your newly-wedded wife Zhai Wen was originally promised to Lv Sheng!”
“You—”
Linghu Zhan’s face went suddenly pale. He whipped his head around and glared at Suo Yi with fury. “You old scoundrel — I will kill you yet!”
Suo Yi’s expression was blank. “Before I came, the clan patriarch had already ordered me to die at the Qingdun Outpost. It matters not who kills me.”
“There is no need to vent anger on Elder Suo.”
Xuanzang said. “Even had he not spoken, this humble monk had long suspected Lv Sheng was not dead.”
Everyone stared at him. Xuanzang thought for a moment. “This must begin from the first day this humble monk entered Dunhuang. That day, I went to the Lv family’s old residence in Chenghua Ward and observed the triple formation of shamanic, Daoist, and mechanical trap arts laid out in the courtyard. Elder Suo also participated in setting it up in those years. Fa Rang and Zhai Chang said it was to deal with the malicious energy of ghosts following the death of Lv Sheng’s father. Academician Li of the Exorcism Division is also present — I ask: is a mechanical trap formation necessary to deal with a malicious ghost?”
Li Chunfeng shook his head. “Talismans and incantations suffice.”
“Indeed — then why was such a complex formation of mechanical trap arts needed in coordination with the shamanic and Daoist techniques in that courtyard?”
Xuanzang said with cold deliberation. “There is no other reason: it was to hunt and kill a large-bodied ferocious beast!”
Linghu Zhan was left speechless, with nothing to say.
Suo Yi smiled bitterly. “The Venerable Monk is correct in his reading.”
Xuanzang looked steadily at him. “Yet that formation was ultimately never triggered. When this humble monk visited, it had already decayed beyond recognition. If this humble monk’s guess is not wrong — the reason the clan has held you in such contempt all these years is that you revealed the information to the Kui Wood Wolf, or to Lv Sheng?”
Suo Yi was stunned for a long moment, then gave a deep bow. “The Venerable Monk knows my heart — I may die without regret.”
“After seeing that formation, this humble monk was then struck by a question: why would a formation designed to hunt and kill a large-bodied ferocious beast be laid out in the courtyard of Lv Sheng’s old home? This question could not be answered at the time, and so this humble monk began to consider — what manner of ferocious beast must necessarily be hunted by means of a formation? Dunhuang lies in desert territory — there are no large ferocious beasts here. Moreover, since a formation was used to hunt it, this beast would naturally need to possess certain supernatural and arcane abilities. In the entire Dunhuang and Xisha Prefecture region, only the Kui Wood Wolf fits the description.”
Xuanzang’s eyes gleamed with a keen and brilliant light as he traced through the deductions step by step. “And so the matter came back to the original point: why would the Kui Wood Wolf be hunted in Lv Sheng’s home? Why were those who laid the formation so certain the Kui Wood Wolf would come to Lv Sheng’s old residence? At the time, this humble monk had only just arrived — much of the situation was still unclear. But one thing was beyond doubt: there must be a close connection between the Kui Wood Wolf and Lv Sheng.”
“So Master had already guessed at this back then!”
Li Chan said in admiration. “Then why did you say nothing?”
“This humble monk wished to go on living a little longer.”
Xuanzang said.
“Don’t interrupt.”
Yuzao kicked him. Li Chan quickly fell silent.
“Yet the subsequent events gave this humble monk cause for further suspicion. First, when the Kui Wood Wolf pursued me and Li Chen in the Mogao Caves — at the time, there was actually an opportunity for it to kill us, yet the Kui Wood Wolf did not make its move.”
Xuanzang said.
Li Chan recalled that breathtaking night and could not suppress a shudder. “That is indeed true — when we were on the walkway, given the Kui Wood Wolf’s speed and leaping ability, killing us would not have been difficult.”
Yuzao also silently recalled.
“At the time this humble monk had still thought the Kui Wood Wolf was afraid of damaging the Heavenly Robe. But afterwards, I received from the twelfth young lady the manuscript of Lv Sheng’s Three Discourses.”
Xuanzang took from his robe a silk bag and opened it. Inside were three scrolls of manuscript. “This is the Three Discourses manuscript — the Discourse on Fortune and Destiny, the Discourse on Geomantic Scripture, and the Discourse on Burial Scripture. All were written by Lv Sheng when he was in Chang’an, and this humble monk had carefully read them previously. But these two versions of the manuscript differ in more than ten places. For instance, the Discourse on Geomantic Scripture even has several additional passages.”
These three essays had been written by Lv Sheng in the Wude sixth year while he was in Chang’an. Xuanzang had studied them carefully after becoming acquainted with him, and they differed significantly from this Dunhuang version.
“The Dunhuang version has been refined and revised. Its literary breath and pulse flow in an unbroken line with the originals — this can only be the work of the original author. And so from that time on, this humble monk suspected Lv Sheng might still be alive. And the fact that the Kui Wood Wolf brought the manuscript for woodblock printing also speaks to the relationship between the Kui Wood Wolf and Lv Sheng. So what exactly was the nature of the relationship between the Kui Wood Wolf and Lv Sheng?”
Xuanzang looked at Yuzao. “Not until this humble monk learned from Yuzao of the Lv family’s marriage proposal to the Zhai family, and then went to the Dunhuang county office to examine the old case files from the year the Kui Wood Wolf committed the murders — discovering that the Kui Wood Wolf’s target at the time was specifically to abduct Zhai Wen, and that it had killed only a very few people while far more had died to sharp blades — in that instant, the truth became clear.”
Linghu Zhan gave a cold laugh. “What is clear about any of this? My wedding procession was brutally attacked that year. Many sustained wounds so grievous they could not be saved. I could not bear to watch them suffer until the end, and simply helped them go on their way.”
“No.”
Xuanzang shook his head, his expression sorrowful. “The reason you killed those people was to silence them.”
“Nonsense!”
Linghu Zhan’s face twisted, and he tightened his grip on his blade.
Yuzao immediately drew her bow and aimed it at him.
Xuanzang paid no attention. He fixed him with a cold, steady gaze. “Because on that day, the one who abducted Zhai Wen was Lv Sheng — or one might say, exactly as tonight, it was someone in Lv Sheng’s form. You had declared publicly that Lv Sheng had committed treason and been killed. Yet here he was, appearing in perfect health on the streets of Dunhuang. You could not conceal the lie, and so you killed people to destroy the evidence!”
Linghu Zhan’s whole body trembled. His straight blade fell from his hand to the ground. Before his eyes, in a sudden flash, there blazed the blood-red night of the Wude ninth year — Lv Sheng, hair disheveled, clutching Zhai Wen in his arms and ascending to the heavens — and himself, blade in hand, circling through the crowd. His expression must have been dark and murderous beyond all reckoning.
“What is this thing — man or wolf?”
“You say — what you saw — man or wolf?”
Blade-light flashing, flashing again. He walked through the crowd, sword in hand. People toppled and fell all around him, one after another. He was drenched in blood — his body covered in it, his face covered in it. Yet the fury and violence piled up inside him, compressed like a volcano straining to erupt.
He threw down the sword, raised his face to the sky and screamed — as though he himself had been transformed into a wolf.
“From that moment, this humble monk understood in his heart that the Kui Wood Wolf and Lv Sheng must be one person. Learning from Elder Suo that the Zhai family had once agreed to the marriage proposal — that was merely a confirmation of this humble monk’s conjecture.”
Xuanzang murmured. “This humble monk does not know how a person can become a wolf, nor does he know how Lv Sheng and the Kui Wood Wolf presently coexist, nor does he even know whether — in the worldly sense — Lv Sheng is to be considered alive or dead. Yet this humble monk knows: my dear friend of former times is no longer human. Back then in the Mogao Caves, the reason it did not kill me was because it recognized me — it could still remember the friendship of those former years, and it held back out of regard for that bond.”
Xuanzang’s tears streamed down in torrents.