CHAPTER 7

The Devil of the South

Before I could even make sense of things, something extremely hot and fast flew right beside my head, grazing the tip of my left ear. Unlike before, I was not that swift and nimble anymore so I was not able to dodge it. I did not even sense it coming.

That must be a firebolt, but the heat was too extreme I could immediately tell it was a blue fire, something that only a Dark Cultivator could cast.

I knew that the target was Lord Lan who was seated comfortably in front of me before the attack. I thought the firebolt had hit him, but to my surprise, nothing happened. He remained in his seat and just raised one hand, and the fire just faded away from my senses.

How did he manage to…

I froze when I remembered the name that the attacker had mentioned earlier.

Is Lord Lan really Ruan Yanjun?

Lord Lan yawned as he indolently rose to his feet. “Another unworthy cultivator who overestimates his capabilities.” His posture suddenly became hard. Even I who could not see very well felt intimidated. “If you’re seeking death, just throw yourself out of the window.”

“Your arrogance ends here.” The hoarse voice came from right behind me.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed my arm and pulled me aside. Just in time, a man jumped onto the table and an exchange of fists ensued.

“Let’s go,” Jinjing said and pulled me down the stairs.

“It’s Grandmaster Wang Bei. He’s upstairs!” someone yelled and the diners below suddenly panicked. “He’s challenged another grandmaster!”

Before the commotion turned into chaos, Jinjing and I squeezed our way through the tables and ran out of the building.

The moment we made it out, I heard a loud blast and the ground beneath my feet vibrated.

Jinjing and I stopped and looked back. My poor vision saw a big flash of light on the horizon.

“The roof!” Jinjing exclaimed. “It’s been blown out!”

My heart stopped for a moment. I had never witnessed a force that strong. If that man was indeed Ruan Yanjun and the other was a grandmaster, I was afraid the restaurant would not be able to contain them.

A duel between two grandmasters would definitely catch the attention of the public and lure other martial artists in. If we were to remain there, I might get caught up in the middle of too many cultivators. There was a risk someone might recognize me.

No matter how small the possibility, I’d rather play safe.

“We have to go.” I pulled Jinjing’s hand. While everyone else was coming in to witness a spectacular battle, we were running away from it instead.

A quarter of an hour later, we made it home and we were both gasping.

“That was scary,” she said as we sat at the table to rest. “I should not have brought you there. I’m sorry.”

“Did you hear the name that the intruder mentioned earlier?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No.”

“He had called him Ruan Yanjun. Have you heard of him?”

“Ruan Yanjun…” She pondered for a moment and then gasped. “When I was still working as a…” she paused and did not mention the word, but I already understood. “I had heard my clients discussing about a certain Ruan Yanjun. They said he had killed twelve people that previous night. They called him ‘the devil’, and no one could make him accountable for the deaths because everyone was scared to confront him. Could it be that he was referring to the same Ruan Yanjun?”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure. I admit that the man was obnoxious, but I don’t think he’s as evil as the infamous Ruan Yanjun.”

“Me too,” she replied. “But if he is indeed Ruan Yanjun, what does he want from you?”

“He wanted me to accompany him to check on someone who is terminally ill, and when I declined, he hinted that he might do something to you. It makes me suspect that there’s more than what he’s telling me. And if he were Ruan Yanjun, the more reason I have to doubt his real intention.”

She was silent for a moment. “He’s a really bad man. I should have avoided him when he approached me this morning. Let’s hope he’s just Lord Lan and not Ruan Yanjun. Because if he’s Ruan Yanjun, I don’t think he’ll ever let us go even if I returned the money.”

Something about my earlier conversation with Lord Lan kept bothering me and I could not get it out of my head. “Jinjing, did you happen to take a good look at Lord Lan? Could you describe him for me?”

“He’s tall, physically fit, and he wears an expensive-looking brocade robe. He looks very wealthy.”

“How about his face?”

“I wasn’t able to take a good look at his face. Being a woman, it’s improper for me to stare at a man, especially of someone his stature. But I remember his glaring eyes. They looked deep and dark and… I can’t explain, but it’s intimidating to look at. Overall, he’s a good-looking man. Despite his intimidating gaze, no one will suspect him as a notorious person, especially since he is dressed like a noble and his hair has that luster that only the very wealthy can afford to maintain.”

I pondered about it. I had already connected the similarity to his height, and Jinjing’s description of his eyes matched the person I vaguely recalled from my childhood memory. As for the rest, I could not quite remember because I was too young then.

I suddenly remembered a vivid image of him as I had watched him walk out the door of the Frost Mountain Hall twenty years ago.

“Can you describe his hair in detail?” I asked.

“Oh, he has a beautiful hair. It’s black and straight and long it reached below his waistline.”

“Does he wear any accessories on his hair?”

“No. He simply lets it loose.”

That was exactly how I remembered that man. He had no hair accessories and simply had his hair down. Everyone in Frost Mountain was required to tie their hair with a piece of ribbon or hairband so seeing someone with his hair down was uncommon. Even outside Frost Mountain, men adhered to the same practice. They always tied their hair up because custom dictated that hair must be kept neat and clean at all times.

“Whenever he moves his head, his hair follows,” she continued, “…flowing in the air like strands of silk, and afterward, it goes back in place, still neat and straight as if it has just been combed.”

The details she had given me were a lot more than I had expected. Even the dreamy sound of her voice was that obvious “You have not taken a good look at his face but you’ve been staring at his hair.”

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“Ah…”

Even if I could not see her reaction, I knew that she blushed.

“It’s because… I was jealous of his hair and I couldn’t keep my eyes off it while you two were talking earlier. I thought it was unfair that a man like him has such beautiful hair while a woman like me has to struggle with these tangled curls every day.”

I stared at her silhouette. I could indeed see the waves on her hair. “Your hair is beautiful as it is.”

“Your eyes are not fine, so you can’t tell.”

That may be true. “As you’ve said, he is wealthy and has servants to take care of his hair. If he were born a commoner, I don’t think his hair had turned out that way.”

“You’re right.” She sighed. “The advantage of being rich.”

“How old do you think he is?” I asked.

“From what I see, he has the look of someone in his late twenties to early thirties.”

Late twenties…

That was close to my earlier guess based on his voice.

I tried to remember how that man who had traumatized me as a child looked like, but I could not paint a picture of his face. I only remembered the look in his eyes. They were dark and frightening even for an adult. “He looks that young?”

She nodded. “But I may be wrong. It’s hard to tell the exact age of someone who comes from a noble family. Wealthy men don’t do hard work. Servants do everything for them, including pampering their skin and hair. So it’s possible that he may be older than how he looks.”

“You think he’s a noble?”

“He has the bearing of a noble, and his robe is made with the finest silk brocade. Just one look and you’ll know that he is.”

I nodded. Even with my visual impairment, I definitely had not missed that. His domineering stance and the air of arrogance wafting from him while he spoke imperiously yet eloquently were signs of a man who boasted both power and wealth.

“Why did you ask?” she asked.

“Because he told me earlier that he is older than my master, which I found… preposterous.”

“How old is your master?”

“He’s sixty-three.”

She gasped. “That’s impossible! Even if he is indeed older than he looks, he can’t possibly be more than forty.”

“Unless he is indeed Ruan Yanjun.”

“He really is?!”

I shook my head. I refused to believe that Ruan Yanjun was that guest that my master had accommodated in the Sacred Hall twenty years ago. My master was too righteous he would never want to have anything to do with a devil. However, I could not simply turn a blind eye to glaring pieces of evidence just because I found them hard to believe.

“Ruan Yanjun… is the strongest cultivator in the world,” I explained. “Once a person reaches the grandmaster level, aging slows down drastically. To someone of his level, aging stops entirely.”

“Wow,” she whispered, her voice sounded awed. “So you’re saying that Lord Lan may be Ruan Yanjun. He simply did not age up?”

“It’s possible.”

“Have I known that, I should have signed up into a sect when I was young.”

I smiled as I tried to get a feel of her aura. “Not everyone can be a grandmaster. Ordinary humans cannot possibly reach that level unless they have a core to enhance their attributes. And in order to sustain a core, they need to have a good foundation, and that’s something that a person must build at a very young age, and not every person is capable of building one.”

“You mean core like… light core and dark core?”

I nodded. It seemed she had some knowledge about cultivation. “That’s correct.”

“And what’s a foundation?”

“That’s the totality of a human’s strength, internal and external, not only physical but mental, as well as emotional. They should be stable and strong enough to handle the power of a core.”

“Do you think I have a good foundation?”

I reached for her hand and pressed my fingers on her wrist. I shook my head. “I’m afraid… your foundation is weak. Unless you can pay, no sect will accept you.”

“Oh.” She sounded sad.

“Don’t be unhappy. You should be glad you have done the right thing not to waste your time entering a sect.”

She sighed. “You’re right. Going back, you are level seven, right? Does that mean you are also a grandmaster?”

“Was,” I corrected. “My cultivation has been nullified. I’m currently level zero.”

“Oh…” She sounded sorry for me. “What about Ruan Yanjun. What is his level?”

“Although he is not officially recognized, he is one of the very few, and the only one alive, who have reached the ninth level.”

She gasped in surprise. “Ninth?!”

“Since history has been recorded, he is only the third who has achieved the pinnacle of cultivation.”

“Wow! But I heard there’s also the level of immortality. Has anyone reached that level?”

“The ninth level is the immortality stage. Anyone who reaches that level becomes immortal and will live forever.

“So you mean… Ruan Yanjun is an immortal?”

“He is.”

Jinjing was silent for a moment as she digested the information she had heard. “How about the gods? What level are they?”

“For light core cultivators, there is what they call as Ascension, where an immortal ascends to the heavens and becomes one of the gods. That’s what they refer to as the tenth level.”

“What about the dark core cultivators?”

“They have an equivalent for it, and they call it Descension.”

“Descension? You mean… they’ll go down instead of up?”

“That’s correct.”

“And where does down lead to?”

“To the underworld.”

“And they become real devils?”

“That’s what they say, but so far, there’s been only one recorded to have made it that far and was not seen again, so no one can tell what happens to them after Descension.”

“But since he is immortal, he should still be alive, right?”

“No one knows. Five hundred years ago, he disappeared.”

“Has there been a record of anyone ascending recently?”

“Unfortunately, there has not been for a long time. The most recent was Liang Hu. He was also a priest and is recognized by all light cultivator sects as a god.”

“Does he still exist?”

I shook my head. “Five hundred years ago, he fought with a demon. One book I read says he had sacrificed himself to hold the demon down so the heroes can seal the demon’s core.”

“Heroes?”

“They’re a group of seven people who had trained for years to master the art of sealing a core. They were made for one purpose only, to put an end to the demon who’d been reigning havoc all over the continent.”

“And what happened to Liang Hu?”

“He died and ascended to the heavens.”

She gasped in amazement. “That’s some kind of story. Was it real?”

“It’s been five hundred years. No one can attest to its truthfulness. The book I read was written just a century ago, so its accuracy is in question. That’s why people consider it a legend. But the person of Immortal Liang Hu is real. There are many ancient books detailing his existence. The demon is also real, but nothing much was written about him. No one even knows his name. I’m not sure why. I suspect that it’s a matter of prejudice. Most writers of history belong to light sects. They probably did not want to waste their effort talking about a dark-sect cultivator.”

“I can understand that. But what a shame. It would have made an interesting story.”

“The same thing is happening now. Those who make the rankings of the top ten cultivators usually lean towards the light sects. They don’t mention anything about Ruan Yanjun. They ignore him as if his existence and his immortality is only a tale.”

“They pretend he does not exist?”

I nodded. “Exactly.”

“You come from a light sect. Why do you speak like Ruan Yanjun is real then?”

“I don’t like to be blind from the truth just to feed my ego. If it’s real that Ruan Yanjun has actually achieved the ninth level, then we should take that as a fact and not pretend that it’s just a tale.”

“You should write a book about it. Become an example of an unbiased light sect disciple.”

I shook my head. “I don’t have that credibility anymore. Who will believe the words of a level zero?”

She sighed and did not speak about the matter anymore. “Do you think… Ruan Yanjun will someday attain that final level that you were talking about?” she asked instead.

“It’s highly possible. In fact, based on what I have heard about him, I don’t even doubt it.”

“Is he really that good?”

“The fact that he has made it to level nine means he’s that great. Just the mention of his name is enough to make people tremble, cultivators or not.”

“Is he that scary?”

“He’s a devil, notorious and ruthless. It’s best to stay away from him. There’s a reason why even Emperor An of Wun and Emperor Yin of Xianru fear him.”

She took a deep breath. “Then we’re lucky to have made it out of that restaurant before we got caught in all that chaos.”

“But I am still in doubt if Lord Lan is indeed Ruan Yanjun.”

“Why?”

“When we were talking earlier, Lord Lan mentioned a certain man who is dying of an unknown illness, and he believes he was poisoned. He said we show the same symptoms, and he believes that whatever afflicted that man has also afflicted me. So he wants me to go see the man myself. If he were Ruan Yanjun, he would not have been that concerned about anyone else. He is known for his extreme self-centeredness. It’s not his trait to concern himself about anyone else’s life.”

“Even if it were true, what can you do about that man? You can’t even heal yourself.”

“I think the man is rich and is willing to provide everything that I might need to find out more about the illness. We don’t have the resources and that is why I cannot find out what is ailing me. But if they will provide the necessary resources, then there’s a chance that I might find a cure.”

“You’re right… Did you agree?”

“I was about to, but then that man barged in. And when he referred to Lord Lan as Ruan Yanjun, I was no longer sure.”

She did not speak for a long moment. “This is quite a dilemma you are into. I can’t seem to decide either, but then… looking at you, your condition is indeed not getting any better. Rather than just waiting for your condition to worsen, maybe it’s better if you take the chance.”

I sighed. “That’s what I’m thinking too.”

She tapped my hand. “Lord Lan may look intimidating, but I don’t think he is a devil. If he wanted to harm you, he would have done so already. That grandmaster had probably just mistaken him for Ruan Yanjun.”

It was unlikely. Wang Bei was a grandmaster. A grandmaster could not possibly be mistaken. “If I had not lost my cultivation, I probably could tell. Right now, my senses can no longer recognize and comprehend the aura of a high level.”

“So what is your decision?”

I looked at her. Even if I could not clearly see her face, looking at her profile was enough. “If you think I should give it a try, then perhaps I should.”

“Are you sure? It’s not that I’m forcing you.”

I took a deep breath. “I think you’re right. I should take the chance.”