Chapter 74 – Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know

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Chapter 74 – Prosperity and chaos

“Wenren Wu!” Wenren È was carrying little Yin Hanjiang back when he heard a yell. “Was it you who smashed up Wang Whiskers’ liquor shop the other day?”

A tall and sturdy man with broad shoulders and a thin waist, a head taller than young Wenren È, strode over furiously and flicked Wenren È hard on the forehead. “We in the army are meant to protect the civilians, so how could you go around causing mayhem?”

Wenren È stared blankly for a moment before remembering that this was his older brother, Wenren Tai, named for “the country prospers and the people live in peace”.

It was too long ago. Only after a lot of thought did Wenren È remember that he really had smashed the shop. Wang Whiskers was a perpetually pessimistic drunk who always said that this town would fall sooner or later, that the Wenren clan would leave and be replaced by some useless wine-guzzling official who would abandon the town and run away when trouble came. Instead of staying here, they might as well die sooner and reincarnate.

Wenren È had come to the liquor shop a few days ago. The emotions of youth were straightforward and strong. If he despised someone, then he despised someone. If he liked someone, then he liked them. He respected his father and elder brothers and thought nothing could possibly happen to the border town as long as the Wenren clan was there, so he was furious at hearing Wang Whiskers’ words. At night, he covered his face and smashed all of Wang Whiskers’ wine jars, and also shaved off his whiskers, leaving his face full of cuts.

He thought he had lain low, but hadn’t considered that in the border town, there was only him who was a young teenager with good martial arts skills who spent all day leaping across rooftops. His pair of bright and scornful eyes were different from anyone else’s in the town and could be recognized at a glance.

Young Ah-Wu’s forehead was bright red from his brother’s flick. Yin Hanjiang got mad and bit down on Wenren Tai’s arm.

Wenren Tai was frantic. “Little kid, let go! My arm is tough, you’ll break your teeth if you bite too hard!”

Little Yin Hanjiang: …

The sturdy young man was at a loss with Yin Hanjiang, afraid to hurt him, and finally turned the blame on his younger brother. “Wenren Wu, you use children as a shield when you’ve done something wrong?”

“Little Jiang, let go.” Wenren È gently squeezed Yin Hanjiang’s face. “You’ve just gotten your face bandaged. Don’t open your wounds.”

Yin Hanjiang slowly let go. Wenren È held him in one arm, and hooked his other arm around his elder brother’s shoulders. He pressed his forehead against Wenren Tai’s broad arm and said softly, “Brother, I’m so glad to see you again.”

Even if it was only in his memories.

Wenren Tai was stationed year-round at the border and his skin was dark and a bit rough. His face reddened, and, lifting a scarred and calloused hand, he patted Wenren È on the head before coming back to his senses. “Don’t give me that act, it’s not going to make your beating any lighter!”

Wenren È took a beating that day. His father was at the army camp and his eldest brother was stationed at the rear lines, so Wenren Tai dragged him to apologize to Wang Whiskers and pay for the damages, then, in the liquor shop in front of the civilians of the town, enforced military justice on Wenren È and sentenced him to fifty strokes with a rod, beating him until the skin on his young back was split open.

Little Yin Hanjiang was held by Wenren È’s mother, howling in fury and struggling to escape from the pair of rough hands, wanting to throw himself over his Venerable to protect him.

“Don’t move!” The woman appeared gentle, but was actually strict. “Stay still and watch. No matter what the reason, a soldier who harms a civilian for personal reasons must be punished by military law. Since he’s young, his punishment has been lightened, otherwise it wouldn’t end until that rod snaps!”

“It hurts…” Yin Hanjiang put a hand on his own heart.

“Of course it hurts. Pain on a son’s body is pain in a mother’s heart.” A tear ran down Wenren Wu’s mother’s cheek, but she wiped it away and continued. “But he must take the beating. No matter relating to the civilians is unimportant!”

A tear that she missed landed on Yin Hanjiang’s hand. He licked it. It tasted salty and bitter.

After the beating, Doctor Li bandaged Wenren È’s wounds—none too lightly.

When it was done, he also needed to kneel in the memorial shrine for a day and night.

Little Yin Hanjiang wanted to accompany him, and the people around him had no choice but to prepare a cushion for him. Because of the flesh that had just been gouged out of his legs, he couldn’t kneel and had to sit on a cushion, filled with indignation. “The Venerable wasn’t wrong.”

“No, I was wrong,” Wenren È explained gently.

“How could the Venerable be wrong?” Yin Hanjiang lifted his head, his eyes filled with admiration.

“Is this how you’ve seen me all this time?” Wenren È smiled and flicked his nose. “No wonder I’m the phantom least like myself in your eyes.”

At the mention of how he was unable to distinguish the inner demons, Yin Hanjiang’s face creased, looking very troubled.

Since this was Wenren È’s consciousness and Yin Hanjiang was in a spiritual body, he wasn’t affected by his inner demons. In his eyes, there was only the young Wenren Wu. However, he was surrounded by Wenren È’s mother and brother, who looked a lot like him. They had hurt his Venerable, yet since they resembled him so much, Yin Hanjiang couldn’t find it in himself to punish them.

Wenren È rubbed little Yin Hanjiang’s head and said seriously, “Yin Hanjiang, I wasn’t born powerful or wise. In my youth, I thought my father and brothers were gods and could hold back all the world’s calamities, and the border town would be peaceful forever, but this was a grave mistake.”

Who was all-powerful? People only straightened their backs, not letting their weakness be seen even if their spine shattered.

Wenren È told Yin Hanjiang what happened after he was beaten. After he was punished for a month, his father, Marshal Wenren, came back to the town on break, and when he heard what had happened, he gave Wenren È another beating. Afterward, he had gone from strict to kind and told Wenren È Wang Whiskers’ story.

The drunk was fifty years old, and forty years ago, when Marshal Wenren was still a child, the border was in a desperate situation, with the troops having fled and the tribesmen invading. Wang Whiskers, then only ten years old, was hidden in a wine cellar by his mother, and his innocent and tender eyes witnessed uncountable horrors.

Listening, Yin Hanjiang thought of his own past, and the pain in his chest made it hard to breathe.

Wenren È pulled him into his lap and continued. “Yet he survived until my grandfather stepped up during the crisis, leading troops into battle and taking back the town. Since he was a war orphan, he could accompany the army to the nearest governmental office, where there was an orphanage taking such children. However, he didn’t leave the town, instead joining the militia. A few years ago, before I was born, he joined my mother at the city walls, dropping stones on the enemy tribesmen to hold them off.”

“Then why did he say things like that?” Yin Hanjiang asked.

“Because it was all true. The Wenren clan was unable to protect the town.” Wenren È’s voice was filled with pain.

This was the past he had never been able to revisit. All these vivid lives were filled with both good and evil, whether crafty cheats or slippery businessmen. Nobody could be painted in black or white, all making up a frontier town filled with life.

In the end, the Wenren clan was exterminated and the court ceded nine provinces at the border to the enemy tribes. The next day, the tribesmen massacred the town, not sparing men, women, young, or old.

“Don’t look at me.” Wenren È held tiny Yin Hanjiang in his lap, burying his face against his chest. Yin Hanjiang kept trying to raise his head, but it was always pushed back down by Wenren È. Right now, he was still young and could show weakness.

Drops of ice-cold water fell on Yin Hanjiang’s hair. Yin Hanjiang thought that these droplets must also be salty and bitter.

“Venerable…” Yin Hanjiang’s voice was muffled by Wenren È’s chest which was filled with the aura of youth.

“In here, call me Ah-Wu,” Wenren È said.

“A—Ah-Wu…” Yin Hanjiang flushed, and didn’t know if he was just stifled by Wenren È’s chest.

Wenren Wu was very healthy and was jumping around again only a few days after being punished, arguing with his teacher every day. He stole the wine that had been buried for his sister[1] and sat on the eaves drinking it, even giving some to Yin Hanjiang. After his mother found out, she grabbed his ears and spanked him. Little Yin Hanjiang sat on a chair, covering his eyes as he watched Brother Ah-Wu get spanked. His fingers were spread wide, a pair of large, bright eyes peeking out between his third and fourth fingers.

“Mother, don’t let him watch me get hit,” Ah-Wu said unhappily.

“You still know shame!” his mother said, smacking him again. “Yet you stole your sister’s wedding wine to drink—I can’t believe you!”

After he was beaten, he was forced to copy characters. He was young and couldn’t sit still, and his backside still hurt, so he could only lie on his bed to write. Yin Hanjiang watched at his side as he wrote crooked characters. His Venerable’s calligraphy had always been very good.

“My writing became good after I grew up,” Wenren È said. “Back then, all I cared about was martial arts and I looked down on literary stuff. Every day, I wanted to cut off my teacher’s beard and make it into a brush to send to him.” He smiled. “Only later did I learn what use this stuff was. Martial prowess can protect the kingdom, but literature can educate the people.”

“That’s why you looked favorably on Zhongli Qian?” Yin Hanjiang asked, resting his chin in his hand. The wounds covering his body had mostly healed, only leaving some scary-looking scars.

“In times of chaos, the Wenren clan is needed, but in times of prosperity, people like Zhongli Qian are needed. Without us, chaos will never become prosperity, but without them, prosperity will soon fall back into chaos,” Wenren È said.

After one month, Marshal Wenren came back, and Wenren Wu got beaten again just as he said. By now, little Yin Hanjiang was no longer angry. He had realized that here, anyone could give Brother Ah-Wu a few smacks. He got a small beating every three days and a major one every five. Even his ten-year-old sister, Wenren Yan, gave him a scratch after he drank her wine.

Yin Hanjiang’s face was covered with scars, and he had originally thought of wearing a mask, but he noticed that many people in the border town had scarred faces, and there were some with missing hands and legs, but no one looked at them differently.

Brother Ah-Wu told him that these were veterans or civilians who had been injured. Here, everyone accepted their scars and laughed at life. No one pitied themselves, because once you thought like that, you would be truly pitiful.

Thus Yin Hanjiang learned to face people without a mask. No one around him looked at him oddly, and even ten-year-old Wenren Yan adored her little brother, often sneaking the vegetables she didn’t like to him.

Yin Hanjiang knew that these people were only his Venerable’s memories. His Venerable’s buried memories turned out to be so gentle.

In this way, he lived happily for more than a year. What was to come, must. Things that had already happened could not be changed, and so Wenren È’s memories turned to that chapter.

After the army was recalled, Wenren Wu ran to the capital after recovering from his injuries, and found the walls hung with severed heads.

Digging around within a pile of corpses, he screamed and cried within the mass grave, as little Yin Hanjiang silently watched everything unfold.

All of these people, some resembling his Venerable, some looking a little similar to him, some looking nothing like him, were gone just that easily. Life was such a fleeting thing.

Right now, the two lonely figures huddled together and lit a fire. Beheaded criminals weren’t buried, and the young Wenren Wu didn’t have the capability to buy coffins for all of his dead family. He himself was a wanted criminal right now.

He laid the countless headless corpses out in rows and set fire to them one by one. Yin Hanjiang didn’t help, just watching him.

“I remember you seem to like fires.” After lighting the last body, a ten-year-old who might’ve been Wenren Yan, Wenren È turned to Yin Hanjiang.

After a moment of silence, Yin Hanjiang shook his head and said hoarsely, “I like to burn those who’ve sinned so the bodies once used to commit such crimes can go on to illuminate the night sky. I think that’s all they’re good for, but this is different.”

The Wenren clan wasn’t evil. They should’ve been alive.

“I don’t want them to burn…” Little Yin Hanjiang covered his mouth, choking down sobs.

Wenren È wiped away silent tears and said quietly, “Neither do I.”

Yin Hanjiang still remembered that when Wenren È had taken control of Xuanyuan Sect, he forbade his subordinates from harming any ordinary mortals. Any who disobeyed were killed by him with especially cruel methods.

Back then, Yin Hanjiang said indifferently, “Venerable, the Xuanyuan Sect is a demonic sect. If they are overly suppressed, they might rebel.”

“Then anyone who rebels will die,” Wenren È replied coldly. “The common people are innocent.”

Back then, Yin Hanjiang was ignorant, only knowing how to follow orders. At this moment, he understood what it was that Wenren È was willing to descend into the Path of Slaughter to protect in the midst of death and bloodshed. What it was that stood behind Wenren È’s back and provided his inexhaustible fighting intent.

The common lives that Wenren È protected became his will to never admit defeat. As he protected them, they protected him.

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Thank you for reading. If there are any mistakes, I hope my fellow cultivators will offer guidance.

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1. A tradition in the shaoxing prefecture was burying a jar of a type of wine called nuer hong when a daughter was born and digging it up when she got married to serve at the wedding. ↩

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