Thousand Autumns: Qian Qiu (Novel) Vol. 1

by Meng Xi Shi

But everyone wants to be the one who reunifies the Noble Discipline,14 especially Hehuan Sect. Their sect leader is called Yuan Xiuxiu, and the disciples there are all just like her—they’ve always preferred to wield their beauty to satisfy their ambitions.

“This Yuan Xiuxiu has a lover named Sang Jingxing, who was once Cui Youwang’s disciple. Those two vermin work hand in glove together, carrying out their evil schemes day in and day out.

Fajing Sect is the same as Huanyue Sect: disciples scattered over many locations, each acting on their own. They don’t usually gather together.

Shen Qiao sighed. “Grudges have a source, and debts a debtor. Since Hehuan Sect is led by Yuan Xiuxiu, why does Shizun not take it up with her directly? Even if you take it up with Yan Zhiwen, his wives and children have no ties to the jianghu, so why involve them?”

Yu Shengyan was only in his early twenties, but he was a real romantic. In Southern Chen, he’d concealed his identity and discussed poetry and verses, befriending famous scholars and making a decent reputation for himself.

When Yan Wushi traveled, he used the identity of a wealthy merchant with the last name Xie, so the plaque on this house read “Xie Residence.”

Qi’s Gao clan were Xianbei-acculturated Han by descent, so their buildings and architecture, their clothes and customs, all retained some traditional Xianbei influences. Compared to the refined elegance of the South, here there was a sense of unrestrained vigor.

Although Yan Wushi wasn’t about to do the charitable thing and help restore his martial arts, he also hadn’t abandoned Shen Qiao to linger on, half-dead. The medicine he was drinking now was mainly for regulating his qi, blood, and meridians, as well as strengthening his bones and bolstering his yang energy.

Shen Qiao had always had a handsome face. Though it was thinner now, his looks and grace remained intact. He was dressed in a plain bamboo-green robe. His hair held no crown and was kept in place with a plain wooden pin.

Shen Qiao rarely came down the mountain to appear in public. Not before he’d become the sect leader, nor after. It was said that even Xuandu Mountain’s disciples might not recognize their new sect leader. There had been a few Xuandu Mountain disciples who were famous outside of the sect, but in the end, none of them were selected to lead.

“This is Chief Steward Han’s daughter, Han Eying.” Chief Steward Han was Han Feng. He wasn’t just the chief steward for someone’s house, he was the Palace Attendant of Qi. He was a prominent man in Qi—his son had married a princess, and he himself was known as one of the Three Nobles of Qi, along with Mu Tipo and Gao Anagong.

Shen Qiao couldn’t see, but his words were gentle, and his manner of speech was lovely, with a quality that soothed the listener. Even Han Eying, an arrogant and willful rich lady who stopped beautiful men on the streets just to flirt with them, couldn’t help but soften her tone with him.

That girl is the shizhi18 of Zhao Chiying from Mount Tai’s Bixia Sect. Her martial arts are nothing special, but because of her father’s status, she throws her weight around in the city.”

Yu Shengyan wasn’t stupid. By this point he’d realized that Yan Zhiwen had probably been warned that someone was coming to kill him. But Yan Wushi himself had ordered the assassination. Apart from him, only Shen Qiao knew about it—even the Xie residence’s chief steward had no idea.

My prescription contains a portion of danggui.19 I managed to hide some of it and was looking for the chance to send it to the Yan residence. But then, I happened to meet Han Eying outside the pharmacy that day. Using the excuse of a return gift, I put what I’d intended to give Yan Zhiwen inside a box and requested she pass it on to him.

He managed to spit out a broken, stilted sentence. “The truth is…I’m not a Huanyue Sect disciple, am I?” Yu Shengyan froze, and his hand went slack.

“Although I have no memories, my judgment is still intact. Whether it’s Shizun or Shixiong, neither of you treated me like their disciple or martial sibling. The servants who served me at the first villa were very cautious with me too, as if they were afraid of revealing something they shouldn’t.

Not to mention that even if it was due to my own incompetence, me being injured this badly should have damaged my master’s reputation. Yet you never mentioned anything about that. None of it made any sense.”

Although Yu Shengyan had never made any vicious comments, deep down he’d also looked down on Shen Qiao, thinking that only someone hopelessly incompetent could fall from a perfectly fine sect leader into such a dreadful state. But at this moment, as he leaned against the wall, Shen Qiao’s face was as tranquil as a clear day, devoid of fear or panic. There, faintly visible, was the aura of someone who’d once been a grandmaster of his generation.

Yu Shengyan understood a thing or two about his master. The way he saw it, Yan Wushi was definitely not being lenient—he probably had some other calculations going on. Shen Qiao was blind, and the world was in chaos. Anything could happen to him out there. If he got abducted, and then people found out that the imposing sect leader of Xuandu Mountain had been reduced to an abductee, Xuandu Mountain’s dignity would be in tatters.

He had nothing to call his own except a green bamboo cane. Forget copper coins, he didn’t even have half a handful of food. Yu Shengyan was blatantly giving him zero leeway. Just as he’d intended, Shen Qiao was left to fend for himself.

After gradual progress, he was now able to perceive light, though it only came through in blurred shapes, and his eyes stung and wept after looking too long. It was still better than opening his eyes to see nothing but darkness.

The Emperor of Qi, Gao Wei, was erratic and outlandish in his actions, and it was his negligence that had brought about Northern Qi’s decline and the spread of vagrants and refugees. Meanwhile, under Emperor Yuwen Yong’s rule, Northern Zhou flourished more with every passing day—within its borders, life was stable, and the people were prosperous.

Qi and Zhou were northern countries, and during the north’s early years, Xianbei customs had prevailed. But, as time went on, Han influence gradually took hold, and now even their clothes and jewelry mostly embodied Han refinement, with a Xianbei touch.

There had been both truth and lies in Yu Shengyan’s words, so he wasn’t completely trustworthy, but in the end, Shen Qiao had no place to go other than Xuandu Mountain. After giving it some thought, he finally decided to head there first. Xuandu Mountain was located on the border between Northern Zhou and Southern Chen.

“Hey, what exactly were you doing all day? How’d you earn that money?” A soft voice came from the other side of the temple. “Reading palms and telling fortunes.” “You know how to read fortunes?” Chen Gong sat up and faced him. Shen Qiao was still sitting in place, cross-legged. “Honestly, it doesn’t involve much reading,” he said with a smile. “But a person’s palm will always give away small traces of whether they are poor or rich. It’s just a trifling skill to earn a little money.”

“I’m going easy on you now,” said Shen Qiao. “And yet you still won’t leave? Do you want me to stab out your eyes and turn you blind, like me?” His voice was soft, unnerving, mingling with the wind like a ghost.

“What is the Liuhe Guild?” asked Shen Qiao. In the face of his blank and guileless expression, Chen Gong was forced to explain, although impatiently. “It’s a guild that does business by both land and sea. On land they mainly perform escort missions. I’ve also heard that they do some spy work for hire or something like that.

“What kind of place is Xuandu Mountain?” he asked. “A mountain.” Chen Gong let the non-answer hang. He thought Shen Qiao might irritate him to death. “Bullshit,” he said. “Of course I know it’s a mountain! I’m asking what you’re gonna do there!”

The jianghu seemed incomparably distant, so distant that Shen Qiao sometimes felt that he had no need to go to Xuandu Mountain after all, that living his entire life in Funing County might not be so bad. But now and then a heaviness would settle in his chest.

Inside Chuyun Temple were three monks: one old abbot and the two young monks he’d adopted.

The four people who made up the other party made no move to approach them either—just subtly looked Chen Gong and Shen Qiao up and down. When they saw there was no qi strengthening their steps, and that their clothes were shabby, the group paid them no further attention.

Shen Qiao was well aware of the situation. He knew the Liuhe Guild must be escorting something important on this trip, so all four men didn’t eat together at once but left two behind with their cargo to keep watch.

The bamboo cane came at him light as a feather, without even a wisp of internal energy behind it, so Murong Xun thought he could grab it easily. But when his hand touched its edge, it slipped bizarrely to the side and thrust toward a key acupoint on his back.

The current patriarch of the Murong family, Murong Qin, always boasted of being a descendent of the Murong royal family, yet he’d become a lackey in the country of Qi serving its emperor, Gao Wei.

Other than our Hehuan Sect and the Murong Patriarch, there are still other experts who haven’t revealed themselves, are there not? It’s a fine night, and we’ve been given this rare chance to convene. Why don’t we call the rest out, so we can all deepen our friendships and have a fruitful discussion about what to do with this Zhuyang Strategy scroll?

She might have been weaker than Yun Fuyi and Murong Qin in one-on-one combat, but her skills were more than enough to deal with easy pickings like Shen Qiao.

The way she saw it, Shen Qiao was already dead. Yet, when her fingertips were a hair’s breadth from his neck, something else happened. And it didn’t come from Shen Qiao. A hand appeared out of the darkness, stretching over to grab her by the wrist.

The man in blue said, “No need to stare. Sang Jingxing and Yuan Xiuxiu together couldn’t be sure of besting me, let alone you.” Bai Rong’s expression shifted. “May I ask for this distinguished master’s esteemed name?” From the sidelines, another person had the answer already. “What are you doing here, Sect Leader Yan?”

As Yan Wushi spoke, a monk holding a jade chime walked slowly out from the darkness, but he looked nothing like the “bald old donkey” Yan Wushi called him. His face was as smooth as jade, and he couldn’t have been far over thirty years old. His monk’s robes were snow-white and pristine, and even without speaking, he embodied the phrase, “a monk of the highest enlightenment.”

“I never guessed that two such exalted and esteemed people would be found skulking around in the shadows, sneaking into Qi to steal the Zhuyang Strategy. Buddhist Master Xueting, the State Preceptor of Zhou, and Sect Leader Yan, a grandmaster of his generation.

Tao Hongjing’s Zhuyang Strategy was divided into five volumes—Conscious Mind, Corrupted Anima, Lost Soul, Clouded Essence, and Deluded Thought.

She decided then and there to abandon her original plan, settling for the next best option. She chose the one person on the scene who looked the most trustworthy.

It was hard to imagine that this ordinary bamboo tube, thinner than a woman’s wrist, could contain one of the Zhuyang Strategy scrolls that everyone in the world desired.

he said, “We’re only insignificant people rooming here for the night. We’re completely unrelated to the affairs of the jianghu. All debts have their debtors, so can Sect Leader Yan please not toy with us?” Yan Wushi was all smiles. “How can you say I’m toying with you? I’m giving you two a huge advantage, something everyone under heaven desires. And right now, it’s in your hands. Are you really not even the slightest bit happy?”

“That’s hypocritical of you, isn’t it, you bald donkey?” Yan Wushi replied lazily. “You must have read the volume that’s in the inner palace of Zhou when you were the State Preceptor. And you used to be a disciple of Tiantai Sect. Your master Huiwen was still alive when you betrayed them. Considering how highly he regarded you, he probably let you read Tiantai Sect’s volume too. Add in this volume tonight, and you’ll have obtained three of the five volumes. The phrase ‘playing the victim after you get away with murder’ comes to mind.”

To everyone else, it looked like Yan Wushi was threatening him. Only Shen Qiao knew that Yan Wushi actually just used some sort of secret method that instantly opened several of his blocked meridians. A warm stream of true qi flowed through his body, and the scene before his eyes gradually cleared. Finally, he could see just as well as anyone.

Yan Wushi took the slip and paid Shen Qiao no attention. He didn’t speak a word, but with a shake of his sleeves and a flick of his hand, the roll of bamboo instantly burst into fine powder and scattered into the air. Everyone was dumbfounded.

Shen Qiao sighed. “Deputy Leader Yun probably invited us along because she was afraid she wouldn’t remember everything she’d heard. She hoped we could help her write down the contents of the scroll. The outside world is sure to hear the news about what happened here tonight, and they’ll try every trick in the book to get a copy of the scroll. If we went with them, we’d be the first to be abandoned in the face of real danger.”

Less than half an hour had passed since the incident, and the pain in Shen Qiao’s eyes had finally let up a bit. But when he opened them, he couldn’t see a thing. They’d returned to their worst state, just as they’d been when he’d first woken up after his fall. Shen Qiao pondered the move Yan Wushi used on him back on the roof. His vision would almost certainly need several months or even years to return to normal, but Yan Wushi had used some technique that got them working perfectly in an instant. The result allowed him a temporary reprieve from the dark, but it would cost him an even longer recovery.