Chapter 104: Hatred Born, the Twenty-First, 7

Only now did Su She realize something was wrong, and at once he pulled the robe shut over his chest. But those facing him had already seen, clear and plain, the chest he had just laid bare. On the skin near his heart, densely set, were a dozen or more ghastly black holes of varying size.

The marks of the Hundred Holes Curse!

And these were certainly no Curse Mark left behind after being cursed. Were that so, then judging by how far these holes had spread, by now Su She's organs and even his Golden Core would already be riddled with black holes, and he would be wholly unable to use Spiritual Power. Yet he could still call again and again upon the Teleportation Talisman, which devours great stores of Spiritual Power. So there was but one explanation for these marks — they had to be what was left after he cast a curse upon someone else and had it rebound upon himself!

In those years Wei Wuxian had not failed to strive to find out who the curse-caster was, to try to clear his own name, but in the end the sea of faces gave him nowhere to begin, and besides, what came afterward lay far beyond anything that finding the caster could ever have set right, and so he had let his hopes go. Who could have known that tonight, after wearing through iron shoes in a search that turned up nothing, it would fall to him without the least effort at all.

Jin Ling did not understand, and Nie Huaisang likely did not either, but Lan Xichen had already turned to look at Jin Guangyao and said, 'Sect Leader Jin, was this too a link in the Qiongqi Path Ambush?'

Jin Guangyao said, 'Why would you think so?'

Jiang Cheng said coldly, 'Need you even ask? Had Jin Zixun never been struck by the curse, none of what followed would ever have happened! One ambush, and it cleared away for you two cousins of your own generation, Jin Zixuan and Jin Zixun, sweeping every obstacle from your road to inheriting the Lanling Jin Clan and the seat of Chief Cultivator. The curse Su She laid — and he your own trusted man — at whose bidding he acted, need you even ask?!'

Jin Guangyao neither owned to it nor denied it, seeming sunk in the regulating of his breath. Wei Wuxian, so furious he laughed, fixed his eyes on Su She and said, 'Have I ever wronged you? There's no grudge between us, no enmity — I'm not even acquainted with you!'

Jin Guangyao said, 'Young Master Wei, should you not of all people know best? That no grudge and no enmity means men live at peace with one another? How could that be — everyone in this world starts out with no grudge and no enmity, and there is always one who strikes the first blow.'

Jiang Cheng said, hatred in his voice, 'Vile, venomous little man!!!'

Who would have thought Su She would only sneer in answer, 'Don't flatter yourself. Who said I cursed Jin Zixun in order to frame you? At the time I had not yet come under the Sect Leader's command at all — I laid that curse for no reason but that I wished to!'

Wei Wuxian said, 'So you bore a grudge against Jin Zixun?'

Su She said, 'Men of that breed, who hold all others beneath their notice — every one I meet, I kill!'

Wei Wuxian knew without asking that the “man who holds others beneath his notice” he loathed most had to be Lan Wangji, and could not help saying, 'What exactly lies between you and Hanguang-Jun? Where on earth has he ever held a soul beneath his notice?'

Su She said, 'Is it not so? Had Lan Wangji not been born into a good womb with a good family name, what right would he have to look down on all the world? By what claim does he keep saying I imitate him?! The whole world praises his noble character — noble enough, this famed gentleman of the immortal sects, Hanguang-Jun, to tangle himself in filthy, shameful deeds with the Yiling Patriarch whom all condemn as steeped in evil and spat upon by ten thousand mouths? What a joke!'

Wei Wuxian was about to speak when of a sudden he felt that this gloomy, resentful look was somehow familiar; he seemed to have seen it somewhere before.

All at once it came back to him: 'It's you!'

Caiyi Town, Biling Lake, the Water Abyss, the sword that fell into the water, the slaughter of the Xuanwu — that disciple who had shoved Mianmian out of harm's way: Su She!

Wei Wuxian suddenly broke into loud laughter.

He said, 'Now I understand.'

Lan Wangji said, 'Understand what?'

Wei Wuxian shook his head.

He knew well enough what kind of man Jin Zixun was. He often paid the people of the subsidiary families no mind, reckoning them no better than household servants, finding it beneath his dignity even to sit at a feast beside them. And Su She, being himself of one of the Lanling Jin Clan's subsidiary families, could not avoid going often to Koi Tower for banquets, and so was bound to cross paths with Jin Zixun. The one narrow-hearted and forever tallying petty scores, the other haughty, arrogant, and overbearing — that these two should have had some falling-out, that Su She should have come to nurse a grudge against Jin Zixun, was not the least bit strange.

If that was truly so, then the whole affair of Jin Zixun being struck with the Hundred Holes Curse had nothing whatever to do with him. And yet in the end it was he who bore the blame for it.

The cause of the Qiongqi Path Ambush was precisely that Jin Zixun had been struck with the Hundred Holes Curse. Without that beginning, the Lanling Jin Clan would have had no pretext to hunt him down, Wen Ning would not have lost control and slaughtered all around, Wei Wuxian would not have borne upon his shoulders the heavy weight of Jin Zixuan's death, nor would all that came after ever have followed.

And yet only now did he learn that even the curse-caster's purpose might not have been to frame him, that the root of it had nothing to do with him at all!

— And this, in truth, was harder still to bear.

Laughing and laughing, the rims of Wei Wuxian's eyes went red, as if in mockery, as if in self-derision, and he said, 'So it was on account of a man like you... for so trifling a reason!'

But Jin Guangyao, as though he had seen straight through his thoughts, said, 'Young Master Wei, you mustn't think that way.'

Wei Wuxian said, 'Oh? You know what I'm thinking?'

Jin Guangyao said, 'Of course; it's easy enough to guess. You're thinking nothing other than how unjust it all was. In truth, it was not unjust. Even had Su She never cursed Jin Zixun, you, Master Wei, would sooner or later have been hunted down for some other reason.'

He smiled and said, 'Because that is simply the kind of man you are — put kindly, gallant of heart and bound by no rules; put unkindly, you give offense wherever you go. Unless every last one of those you have offended lives out a whole life safe and sound, then the moment any mishap befalls them, or someone trips them up, the first to be suspected will surely be you, and the first they will think to take revenge upon will surely be you as well. And that is something past your power to control.'

Wei Wuxian actually laughed, and said, 'What's to be done? I find I rather think there's something in what you say.'

Jin Guangyao said, 'And even had you not lost control back then on the Qiongqi Path, could you swear you'd never lose control your whole life long? So a man like you is fated to die young. There — doesn't seeing it that way ease you a good deal?'

Jiang Cheng said in fury, 'You're the fucking one who'll die young!'

Heedless of the grievous wound at his vitals, he gripped Sandu and made to surge up, and at once the blood came gushing wild; Jin Ling hurried to press him back down. Unable to stir, hatred boiling within him, Jiang Cheng cursed, 'You son of a whore, scrambling to climb higher with no scrap of shame left in you — was it not you who set Su She to it?! Who do you think you're fooling!'

At those four words, “son of a whore,” Jin Guangyao's smile froze for an instant.

He looked toward Jiang Cheng, thought a moment, then spoke lightly, 'Sect Leader Jiang, calm yourself; I understand how you feel just now. If your temper runs so high, it is nothing more than that you've learned the truth of the Golden Core, and looking back over all you've done these many years, that proud heart of yours feels a touch of guilt — and so you are anxious to find, for the affairs of Wei Wuxian's former life, a culprit, a demon onto whom every burden of blame may be laid, and then to flog and denounce him, calling it revenge for Young Master Wei to vent your spleen, and easing your own load a little along the way.'

'If you feel that deciding I plotted the whole of it from first to last, from the Hundred Holes Curse to the Qiongqi Path Ambush, will ease your troubles, then think so all you please; be my guest. But what you must understand is this: that Young Master Wei came to such an end, for that you too bear responsibility — and no small share of it. Why did so many strain so hard to denounce the Yiling Patriarch? Why did all, the concerned and the unconcerned alike, raise their voices in the cry? Why was he beaten down on every side, with not a hand lifted against the tide? Was it truly nothing but a sense of justice at work? Of course not. Part of the reason lies with you.'

Jiang Cheng gave a cold laugh; knowing Jin Guangyao was about once more to stir the pot and sow discord, Lan Xichen said low and sharp, 'Sect Leader Jin!'

Jin Guangyao was unmoved, and went on, smiling, holding forth at his leisure, '...Back then the three houses — the Lanling Jin Clan, the Qinghe Nie Sect, the Gusu Lan Clan — were contending among themselves, and had already carved up the greater share, leaving the rest only small fry to feed upon; and you had only just rebuilt Lotus Pier, with an immeasurably dangerous Yiling Patriarch, Wei Wuxian, standing at your back. Do you suppose the other families were glad to see so young a clan head blessed with so singular an advantage? As luck would have it, you and your shixiong seemed not on the best of terms, so everyone felt there was an opening — and naturally, where a wedge could be driven between you and you set against each other, they pushed the matter along as best they could. Whatever else, to keep your Yunmeng Jiang Clan from growing stronger was to make themselves the stronger. Sect Leader Jiang, had you only worn a kinder face toward your shixiong in those days, made your alliance seem unbreakable, made outsiders think better than to try their hand at sowing discord — or had you shown a shade more forbearance once it was done — things would never have come to what they became. Ah, and speaking of it, the main force in the Siege of the Burial Mounds counted you among its number too...'

Wei Wuxian said, 'So the son of a whore really is Sect Leader Jin's reverse scale, is it? Small wonder you killed Chifeng-Zun.'

At the mention of Nie Mingjue, Lan Xichen's expression changed. Jin Guangyao's smile froze a moment too, and then he rose to his feet.

His breath set in order, he tested the fingers of his left hand; the five could move freely at last, and he said at once, 'Pick the men, and set out.'

Su She said, 'Yes!'

Two monks, one to the left and one to the right, took hold of Lan Xichen and were about to open the great doors when Jin Guangyao suddenly said, 'I'd nearly forgotten.'

He turned to Lan Xichen and said, 'By my reckoning, the Spiritual Meridians I sealed in Zewu-Jun are near due to come loose.'

Lan Xichen's cultivation was far higher than his own; if Jin Guangyao meant to keep his Spiritual Meridians sealed, he had to seal them anew once every hour, or Lan Xichen would shake free of them by himself. He stepped up before Lan Xichen and said, 'Forgive me.'

He was just reaching out his hand when something pale and white came crashing down heavily before him. Jin Guangyao sprang warily clear, and fixing his gaze upon it, found it was a pale, naked body of living flesh!

A woman, stark naked, lay sprawled face-down upon the ground, body and limbs writhing, as though she meant to crawl toward Jin Guangyao. Su She thrust out his sword; the woman gave a shriek, and all at once her whole body took flame. She rose to her feet and went on, lurching, reaching out her hands toward Jin Guangyao. Body and face were charred black in the blaze, yet one could never quite fail to see, in those two eyes, the uttermost venom of hatred. Su She struck again, and his sword cut her away to vanishing smoke. Jin Guangyao had drawn back no more than a few steps when he tripped on something; looking back, he found two human bodies tangled together, one of them with a hand fast about his ankle. Just then a whistle sounded behind him, and Su She said, hatred in the words, 'Wei Wuxian!'

At some unmarked moment, that Guanyin Statue in the Guanyin hall had been painted over, in fresh blood, with several wild streaks of Talisman Casting.

The Array Core of this Guanyin Temple lay precisely within this Guanyin hall. And now that the Array Core had been broken by Wei Wuxian while no one was watching, the thing held down within it was pouring forth in an endless stream!

Suddenly Jin Ling cried out in alarm, 'What's happening?'

Jiang Cheng beat at him again and again with his hand — the hem of Jin Ling's robe, it turned out, had caught fire of its own accord. And Jin Ling was among the luckier; several monks were already wreathed head to foot in flame, screaming and rolling all across the ground. Su She and Jin Guangyao knew there was no help for it but to wipe away the bloodstains Wei Wuxian had painted on the Guanyin Statue, yet they were caught fast by the cultivators thrashing everywhere and the naked Evil Spirits that kept rising up. Those bared men and women, under Wei Wuxian's command, did not set upon Jiang Cheng or Jin Ling or the rest, but Jin Ling still held Suihua upright before him and said, 'What in the world are these things — I've never seen anything so...'

So utterly naked, so shameless an Evil Spirit!

Fire blazed in Jin Guangyao's eyes; he loosed a palm, the firelight burst apart, and at last he gained the front of the Guanyin Statue. He was just about to wipe away the Talisman Casting Wei Wuxian had painted there when a chill of a sudden touched the small of his back.

Lan Xichen's low voice came: 'Don't move.'

Jin Guangyao made still to strike back, but Lan Xichen dealt a palm to his spine. Jin Guangyao said, 'Zewu-Jun... you, you've recovered your Spiritual Power.'

Before Lan Xichen could answer, over on the far side Su She's blade Nanping had already lanced toward Wei Wuxian — only to ring against another sword, like in the gleam of its edge, yet with a light coursing along it clearer, purer, more limpid by far.

Bichen!

The two blades met, and Nanping snapped clean in two!

In an instant the tiger's-mouth of Su She's hand split open, blood streaming, and even the joints all down his arm cracked and rattled. The hilt fell to the ground; he clutched his right arm with his left hand, his face ashen as death. Lan Wangji, Bichen in one hand, with the other circled Wei Wuxian's waist and turned him round, sheltering him behind. Wei Wuxian had no true need of the shelter, yet leaned against him all the same, taking no small pleasure in it and playing along.

The whole train of upheavals had passed between flash and spark; in no more than a few blinks the cultivators of the Lanling Jin Clan came to their senses at last. But by then Su She was cradling his bleeding right hand, the wound on his chest had torn open, and the edge of Bichen rested at Jin Guangyao's throat.

Their mainstay held in check, not one of them dared a rash move.

Lan Xichen was about to speak when all at once the faces of everyone in the Guanyin hall changed as one. Lan Xichen said, 'Young Master Wei, you... you'd best put these things away first.'

These Evil Spirits were not only stark naked, an affront to decency, but gave out the most mortifying moans, so that one heard at once what they were about. None present had ever beheld Fierce Spirit so obscene, so past all bearing; Lan Xichen turned his face aside and would not look, Jiang Cheng's face went iron-dark, and Jin Ling's flushed red and white by turns. Wei Wuxian glanced at Lan Wangji beside him and thought that to set before a man who in his youth would flush with shame and anger at the very sight of a spring-palace picture such things as these was really too outrageous, and offered in his defense, 'My only aim was to loose the Evil Spirits he'd sealed in the Guanyin Temple, to buy time however long I could — how was I to know things like this would come out...'

At this, Lan Wangji took but a single glance at those Resentful Spirits and then, like Lan Xichen, drew his gaze away, and looking off elsewhere said only two words: 'Great fire.'

Wei Wuxian nodded at once and said, in perfect gravity, 'Yes. These Resentful Spirits were every one burned to death. It seems a great fire once broke out in this place, burning many to death, and then Sect Leader Jin, to cover it from sight and to hold down these Fierce Spirit turned vicious by being burned alive, raised a Guanyin Temple here with his own hands.'

Lan Xichen said, 'Sect Leader Jin, this fire — had it to do with you?'

Jiang Cheng said coldly, 'Those Resentful Spirits hate him to the very marrow — what chance is there it was unconnected!'