Chapter 99 — Old Friends

Little Wan smiled. "Grandfather, that earth-burrowing art of yours may be a secret handed down from the patriarch, but once you've burrowed down, you can't control where we come up. And I'll have you know, we're not far from the Dead Mire now. If you happened to drill us right into it, we'd be well and truly done for."

Zhou Yixuan was stunned. He stammered, "Our luck couldn't be that bad, surely?"

Little Wan rolled her eyes at him. "Do you think your luck is good or bad?"

Zhou Yixuan thought it over, then said with great firmness, "Bad!"

Little Wan giggled. "There you have it. So we can't take the risk." She leaned in close to Zhou Yixuan and signaled with her eyes toward her left hand. "Grandfather, have you forgotten? I still have that protective treasure Sister Ping'er gave me. And besides, Daoist Wild Wolf is no great master of the demon path. Dealing with him shouldn't be so hard."

Zhou Yixuan bowed his head in thought, then let out a long breath. "You're right. Ah—I don't know why, but these past few days I've been jumpy and ill at ease. I suppose it's because we saw so many cultivation masters in the Dead Mire that I've come to think too highly of that Wild Dog fellow as well."

Little Wan smiled with pursed lips. "And besides, Daoist Wild Wolf doesn't seem to be a bad man. Didn't he lend us his umbrella back then?"

Zhou Yixuan spat. "'Us'? He lent it to you. This old man got soaked half to death in the rain, and you heartless girl never batted an eye. Truly unfilial."

Little Wan stuck out her tongue and laughed. "Grandfather, I offered to share it with you. You were the one who didn't want it."

Zhou Yixuan snorted again and strode on, still grumbling. "You're just like that unfilial father of yours, the both of you, vexing me day in and day out. Utterly unfilial!"

Little Wan shook her head with a smile and followed after him.

Behind them on the old road, Daoist Wild Wolf faintly heard laughter drifting from ahead. He frowned, his expression shifting, but in the end he followed on.

Between heaven and earth, the wind swept across the wilderness, moaning softly.

They walked on for another half-hour or so, and Zhou Yixuan began to feel tired. He stopped little Wan. "Let's rest a while."

Little Wan nodded. Seeing a good-sized slab of bluestone by the roadside, she went over and brushed it off. "Grandfather, sit here."

Zhou Yixuan nodded. He leaned the bamboo pole with its white cloth banner reading Immortal Points the Way against the stone, then sat down on it and found himself a little short of breath. He shook his head slightly. "Why do I keep feeling lately that my body's failing me? We've hardly walked any distance at all, and already I'm panting?"

Little Wan was just taking the water flask out of the bundle. Hearing this, a flicker of worry crossed her eyes. She came over and handed him the flask. "Grandfather, have a drink of water."

Zhou Yixuan nodded. He took the flask, tipped back his head for a few swallows, and let out a long breath. Then he turned and looked back, and sure enough, there was still a figure standing far off behind them.

Zhou Yixuan watched for a good while. Then he gave a sudden chuckle, and paid the man no further mind. He handed the flask back to little Wan—but as he turned back, he gave a start. Little Wan was sitting beside him, and at some point she had produced another stick of bright red candied hawthorns and was eating it with great relish.

Zhou Yixuan shook his head vigorously and said with earnest gravity, "Little Wan, I ask you—have you no idea how old you are? Why do you still act like a little girl, so fond of these candied haws?"

Little Wan spat lightly toward the roadside, ejecting a small hawthorn seed, then turned to Zhou Yixuan with a coquettish smile. "But I like them!"

Zhou Yixuan was left speechless. He sighed. "More than ten years ago, in He yin City, with all those cakes and pastries to be had, why did I have to go into a little side alley off the road and buy you these candied haws?"

With that he shook his head and sighed without end. Little Wan smiled and said nothing, delicately savoring the treat in her hand. Perhaps under the influence of the candied haws' bright red skin, a touch of vivid color seemed to have come to her lips as well.

Zhou Yixuan sat a while longer, and feeling his strength gradually return, he meant to call little Wan and go on. But he had no sooner turned his head than the corner of his eye caught sight of something before him—a pair of human feet had suddenly appeared.

Zhou Yixuan was greatly startled. He thought: Can it be that I've been careless, and that wretch Wild Dog has seized the chance to attack? That would never do! It seems I truly cannot trust the girl's words. I've roamed the world for over a hundred years—am I to trip over a turtle and capsize in a gutter today?

While these wild thoughts raced through his mind and he was about to call little Wan to her feet, he heard the man before them say, in a gentle, calm voice, "Are you still reading physiognomy for people?"

Zhou Yixuan and little Wan both rose and looked up. Before them stood a middle-aged man, with fine brows and a square face, refined in feature, his eyes bright and piercing, his forehead full and smooth—cultured, and withal carrying an air of authority that came without anger. He wore a scholar's robe, and at his waist hung a pale purple jade pendant, exquisitely carved and faintly imbued with an auspicious air. It was very fine indeed—by no means an ordinary piece.

Yet at his temples and sideburns, out of keeping with his appearance, there was a great deal of white hair, which lent him an added air of having weathered the years.

Zhou Yixuan's face suddenly turned strange. He stared fixedly at the man before him, and beneath his sleeves, where no one could see, his hands clenched tightly into fists. Yet on his face, after the initial shock, there was a faint stirring of excitement, a faint gladness, and a faint sense of the world's vicissitudes.

Little Wan's gaze circled the man's face once, then returned to her grandfather, and she at once noticed that Zhou Yixuan's expression seemed off. She was about to say something when Zhou Yixuan suddenly spoke. "Little Wan, step aside for a bit. Wait until I call you, then come back."

Little Wan was taken aback—such a thing had never happened before. But Zhou Yixuan's face was grave, and he did not look to be joking, and from the look of the two men, they seemed to be old acquaintances. So she answered, turned, tidied her bundle at random, and walked off behind them.

As she walked, she kept glancing back, and saw that her grandfather and the middle-aged man were still standing face to face, seemingly still not speaking. She felt a little uneasy. She had only just met the man for the first time, yet in that brief moment, for some reason, she had felt a kind of fear of him—a dread that rose in her for no reason at all.

For more than ten years she had followed at Zhou Yixuan's side, and never had she known that her grandfather could be acquainted with a man of such commanding presence!

As she mused, her thoughts drifting, she walked on without noticing how far she had gone, until suddenly she saw another figure before her. She hastily stopped—nearly colliding with the man—and looked up to see Daoist Wild Wolf. She hurriedly said, "Forgive me, Daoist."

To her surprise, Daoist Wild Wolf's face was now utterly wrong as well. Shock was written plain upon it, and his eyes were fixed straight ahead, filled with dread and fear.

Little Wan was startled again. She followed his line of sight, and saw that what Daoist Wild Wolf was staring at was, in fact, that same middle-aged man. Who on earth could he be, to frighten Daoist Wild Wolf so?

As she wondered, she could not help lowering her voice and asking Daoist Wild Wolf, "Daoist, who is that man? Do you know him?"