Flying Dust

But regardless of the secret, Mo Fei Chen soon completely forgot all about it after indulging himself in eating and drinking in the manor.

At the end of the month, news about Yu Jin finally arrived at their manor. 

At that time, Mo Fei Chen was sleeping on a crooked-necked tree, next to a bird’s nest. Don’t be fooled by the fact that he liked to take the eggs out, but he also had a principle. If there were ten eggs in a nest, he would take out seven and leave three, otherwise if the mother abandoned the nest, next month he won’t have any eggs to take. The chicks were chattering in the nest and although Mo Fei Chen wanted to sleep, his mind was still awake.

Under the tree, two young Shi Di passed over him. They were discussing the letter that Yu Jin had sent back.

“I heard that Yu Shi Xiong is going to cut all of the ties with us, Kun Yun Mountain Manor.”

“This time he’s following the footsteps of Mo Chang, Mo Shi Shu1…”

“That’s right! Many better options, why did he have to choose to be the protector of a cult…?” 

Until those several Shi Di had gone far away, Mo Fei Chen slowly opened his eyes yet the corners of his mouth showed a smile, but with some degree of helplessness.

He naturally was aware of Yu Jin’s ambitions. Besides, the so-called cult’s thought or style of this sect only did not fit well with other prestigious and righteous sects in Jiang Hu, in addition to the fact that its whereabouts was secretive.

But at least it’s not a demonic sect. If you want to be a protector then just do so! As long as you can make a name for yourself in Jiang Hu. If you can become famous in Jiang Hu, whether you are the defender of a cult or a disciple from a righteous sect, what’s the difference?

He heard that the name of this cult was Jing Shui2. The so-called as ‘the flowers in a mirror and the moon reflected in the water’ 3, all hopes and efforts came to nothing or all in vain. The name of this cult was quite interesting. No one had ever seen what the Sect Leader of Jing Shui Sect looked like. The only thing they knew was that although the previous Sect Leader, Wen Xin’s origin was from a cult sect, he was a chivalrous man. His personal characters were straightforward and upright. He was a man of honorable character and won the praise of many famous sects. However, he was not careful in practicing his cult’s cultivation method. His mind and intelligence was destroyed to the utmost. He ended up killing many innocent people. He was later sealed by his close friend, Wu Liang Chanshi4 and Liu Fei Ying, the Sect Leader of Xiushui Palace who blocked all of his acupuncture points. Now, like a disabled person, he was imprisoned inside Zen Master Wu Liang’s ‘Dong Chan Temple’. His ears washed with Buddhaghos’s voice every day and no one else ever saw him again. 

The current Vice Leader of the Mirror Water Sect was also the former guardian woman who led Mo Fei Chen’s father, Mo Chang to abandon his wife and son. She must be incomparably beautiful, otherwise she would not have been able to compete with Mo Fei Chen’s beautiful mother.

Mo Fei Chen smiled at the mention of his mother, he really didn’t remember her mother’s face anymore.

He took a breath and jumped down from the tree.

Mo Fei Chen wandered around the mountain manor and before he knew it, he was in front of Wen Qing Yuan’s study room.

The door did not open but a voice came out from it. 

“Do you want to read the letter from your Yu Shi Xiong?”

Mo Fei Chen stopped in his tracks, looked back and smiled, “I won’t read it!”

What happened in Jiang Hu had nothing to do with him. What he was waiting for was for the day when Yu Jin would get tired of Jiang Hu and retire. 

But that night, Mo Fei Chen still had a sleepless night. 

He suddenly thought of many things, such as Yu Jin’s face, Wu Qing Yan’s back, the look on people’s faces when they talked about Mo Chang… and finally the face of He Yunfeng in the silent ice coffin.

It was as if that was the most tranquil scene in the world, not caring about the passage of time and the vicissitudes of change.

Mo Fei Chen sat up suddenly from his bed, a feeling of longing rose up in his heart. He wanted to see… He Yun Feng’s face again. It seemed that if he saw him again, the ups and downs of his mind would settle down again.

However, this time he was not that stupid. He wrapped the flame sticks inside the oilcloth bundle and hid it in his clothes. He then went around the back of the mountain of the cliff path, with one leap he grabbed the hemp rope tied to a certain altar of the deceased Manor Leader and came to the bottom of the valley.

The bottom of the rope seemed to be a couple of metres away from the water. He wondered how the altar (where they put the ashes of the dead) was tied. After all these years, it was actually still securely tied in there. 

“Many thanks to all of the previous generations of Manor Leaders for taking care of me.” Mo Fei Chen smiled wildly and gently swung himself to the ground, stumbling as he landed, after all, he couldn’t tell where the water was and where the shore was in this kind of thick fog.

When he was finally able to stand firmly after so much difficulty, Mo Fei Chen took out his torch and walked towards the cave.

He Yunfeng was still lying there as before. The ‘Liang Yu’ did not seem to be as cold as before. Perhaps it was because Mo Fei Chen didn’t fall into a state of a drenched chicken and a drowned rat 5this time. It was only after a long time that he realized that the reason he did not feel cold was because he had practiced He Yunfeng’s internal martial arts and cultivation method which allowed him to turn the cold air into his own use. Of course, this was what happened later. 

The glimmering light from the torch illuminated He Yunfeng’s face; gentle and handsome.

He could not help but imagine that if such a man stood up in the landscape, talking and laughing, he would be able to overwhelm the world.

The World Detention Sword, Shi Ji Sword, perhaps the reason why He Yunfeng didn’t leave even after more than a hundred years was because he still had unfinished wishes in this world.

“Shi Zu, this disciple is a little bored, so I was thinking of you. Because you are even more bored than I am.”

Mo Fei Chen sat down at the side of the ice coffin and suddenly right before his eyes, appeared the image of himself with his back turned to Yu Jin, he was the only person who had seen him off and also the only one who didn’t turn his head back to look at him. 

Unnaturally, he remembered the day he listened to Jay Chou’s6《A Thousand Miles Away7》while flipping through a pirated copy of Jin Yong’s complete books which was why he didn’t notice his mother entering his room.

He couldn’t remember the lyrics clearly, but he felt that the scene where he was bidding farewell to Yu Jin was especially suitable with this song, so he hummed it in a small voice, as he did so, his nose felt a little sour.

“Shi Zu, you have spent almost a hundred years waiting for Luo Lianyun, but she has already gone before you. I am here waiting for Yu Shi Xiong to come back, perhaps he simply never thought of coming back at all.”

But I don’t regret it.

Mo Fei Chen suddenly startled as he looked at the ice coffin. Those words “I don’t regret it.” were not his own words but it was from another person.

But the expression on He Yunfeng’s face remained the same, so Mo Fei Chen sighed and thought he was delusional and heard it wrong. 

“Shi Zu, this disciple is feeling so much better, so I should go back to sleep.”

Mo Fei Chen kowtowed once more and got up to walk towards the entrance of the cave.

Then, when will you come back again?

Mo Fei Chen froze in place and slowly turned his head, fearing that if He Yunfeng suddenly sat up from the ice coffin, it would be a corpse come to life8! 

No, no… He Yunfeng is not dead yet… Wen Qing Yuan also said that he would not wake up until he slept for hundreds of years and the sword seed was restored.

The ice coffin was still so quiet and He Yunfeng was still lying inside.

Mo Fei Chen smiled in his heart, even if He Yunfeng was really talking to him, so what? Besides, he is not a dead person or a ghost.

“This disciple will come to pay my respects again when I have time.” Mo Fei Chen smiled and left the cave, stepping into the water. He tugged on the hemp rope, climbed onto the cliff path, went back to his room and slept for the whole day.

After that one time, Mo Fei Chen would often sneak out to the bottom of the valley, sometimes bringing a pile of grass and leaves to the cave to weave grasshoppers and butterflies, sometimes bringing some snacks to eat next to the ice coffin. While remembering his life in the other world, he couldn’t help but say a few words.

He liked this kind of feeling where while he kept talking, He YunFeng listened to him quietly. Sometimes, he had the illusion that He YunFeng really did hear everything but he was trapped inside and unable to express it.

As the days gradually passed, Mo Fei Chen turned fourteen and his body began to become thin and long. He could no longer wear the clothes he used to wear. His trouser legs have been shortened by one section.

The sect wanted to save money and cut down the expenses, so naturally they couldn’t make new clothes for him. One of his Shi Xiong brought some old clothes for him. Mo Fei Chen was delighted that he finally had clothes that fitted him. 

Inside the blue coat, there was the character “Yu” [于] embroidered on it. Mo Fei Chen froze and remembered that when he was carried up the mountain by his mother, Yu Jin was a 14 year old boy. This blue coat was the one he was wearing at that time.

The biggest difference between himself and Yu Jin at that time was that Yu Jin had already acquired the strong character of a young chivalrous man, while Mo Fei Chen right now, whether his eyes, nose and eyebrows all looked like a thug. 

These days, he didn’t know what was going on in the Mountain Manor. At night, some of the older in age Shi Xiongs made an inspection tour all over the place, even Wen Qing Yuan who usually sat in his study room and relaxed with a pot of tea and a book, was no longer in the mood for relaxation. He often stood alone in the courtyard and seemed to be thinking about something.

Naturally, Mo Fei Chen was not allowed to run around anymore, even to the extent that he was taken to wake up early in the morning with his Shi Xiong and Shi Di to practice his sword. To Mo Fei Chen who could sleep whenever he wanted and play whenever he wanted, this was simply a torture.

He had no choice when he was given order by Wen Qing Yuan, who had never bothered him much, to hone his sword skills.

In his heart, he had a vague feeling that Kun Yun Peak Manor could probably be in danger.

During lunch time, when some of his Shi Xiong were chatting, Mo Fei Chen finally understood.

It turned out that those two guests had made an invitation card to the manor. 

In theory, It was always a pleasure to greet a friend from afar. However, unfortunately these two visitors couldn’t be counted as friends. To put it more harshly, they were ‘the weasel goes to pay his respects to the hen —with bad intentions.’9

Deng Ling and Li Bilian were a married couple. They were originally from Mu Yun Mountain Manor. They came from a prestigious and righteous sect so this couple should have been well liked and welcome anywhere in Jiang Hu. It was regrettable, they were normally ill-behaved. They once wanted to learn the Sword of the Thousand Clouds of Mu Yun Mountain Manor and entered the secret room of the Lord Manor, Wen Qianliu, to steal the collections of manual books. However, they failed to steal the secret books, ‘tried to gain an advantage only to end up worse off‘,10 they were then expelled by Lord Manor Wen from their sect. 

Thinking about it, these two people are also stupid. Wen Qianliu’s Flying Waterfall Sword is one of the ten most famous swords in Wu Lin, so it goes without saying that this man’s martial arts and cultivation are very good. You guys went into someone’s territory to steal something. You failed and it’s already lucky enough you didn’t lose your lives. It is a pity that this husband and wife did not go to steal the Sword of the Thousand Clouds, but instead came to Kun Yun Villa with their cunning plot. 

Every year, the Kun Yun Mountain Manor paid homage to the deceased Manor Masters including He Yunfeng who was actually still breathing. He Yunfeng’s martial arts were on a par with Luo Lianyun. However, their new generation disciples were not good. This pair of affectionate couple and robbers come to the mountain under the pretext that they were visiting the rituals but in fact they wanted to take advantage of the situation to steal something. 

Mo Fei Chen tsk-ed, he despised the most, those who wanted to snatch others when they didn’t have it, these kinds of people who didn’t know how to create wealth with their own labour. They were no different from Japanese who committed aggression against China and plundered its wealth. 11The problem was that a sick and weak China had finally woken up, even if Kun Yun Shanzhuang (Kun Yun Mountain Manor) had gotten rid of Little Japan this time, there was no guarantee that there would be another ‘Eight-Power Allied Forces12‘ in the future…

Looking at his indignant expression, several Shi Xiong who had been chatting with him stared at him in disbelief.

“Mo Shi Di…are you all right? You’ll be the one who cleaned the dining room today, since you spit on the floor, you are also the one who will wipe it up.”

“I’ll wipe it, I’ll wipe it clean!”