Legend of The Young Master

Chapter 181: Cursed By Heavens

"Your life is mine now; it is the price they want to pay, and the currency is you," Wuyi said.

Guan was whiter, if anything, than when Wuyi had first seen him. "I"m sorry for whatever our clan did," he said. "We both know it was wrong, and if taking my life makes it easier, I am ready to let go."

Wuyi shrugged.

"You can still bear the Yuanjing name if you like—" Guan murmured.

"The Son of Yuanjin Xuan is long gone," Wuyi said. "I am the Young Master. Some used to call me Wuyi, but very few know now."

"Wuyi? Like some nameless bastard?" Guan said. "You"re my brother, kin of Yuanjing, the heir of Yuanjing, son of the Xuan of the Sacred Sword sect."

"Oh, I"m the son of Xuan, all right, but the bastard son," Wuyi said, and he went quiet, seeing Guan actually hurt by his words.

Guan choked. He sat up and cursed. A slow thread of scarlet worked its way across his thighs. "No!" he muttered.

Wuyi nodded. "Yes. If it makes you feel any better, we"re only half-cousins," he said.

"Heavens! You are my brother," Guan said.

Wuyi came to a decision – the kind of decision he made, where he threw out one set of options and adopted another, like life on the battlefield. He moved closer to his half-cousin. "Tell me this terrible thing you did in Jingdu," he said. He took Guan's hand. "Tell me, and I am not taking your life. The clan seems to start to understand me, but still, they are miles from understanding what I want.

I"ll explain sometime. Tell me what happened in Jingdu, and you are not a bad person; I have nothing against you."

Guan lay back, so that their eyes broke contact. "The price of your forgiveness is steep, brother."

He was suddenly red as blood. Then he hung his head. "I am deeply ashamed. I would not confess this to anyone, not even the monk with a silent vow."

"I"m no monk, and I have plenty to be ashamed of. Someday, I, too, will explain. Now tell me."

"Why?" Guan asked. "Why? You"ll only hate me more – add contempt to the list of your grievances. I acted as coward, my behavior was contemptful, and I groveled under another man"s sword." Tears came down his face. "I failed and lost. I was nothing.

For my sins, demons sent this; I was infected by demonic Qi," and he pulled down his shirt to show the scales that had grown from his waist to his neck on the right side.

Wuyi looked at his cousin – He had just met this guy, but if he had more kin like this, he wouldn"t have to dislike his clan as much as he did. Even after such a thing happened, and all unknowing of his own pride. So easy to understand others, Wuyi thought with wry amusement. And surprising sorrow. He couldn"t keep himself from liking this kin of his.

"Losing is not, in and of itself, a sin," Wuyi rubbed his chin. "It took me years to learn that, but I did. Failure is not a sin. Wallowing in failure—" he hung his own head "—is something at which I can excel, if I allow it to myself, but that"s more like the sin."

"You sound like a righteous monk of Heavenly Sects," Guan said.

"I do not care about Heaven. For all I care, it can burn to the ground," Wuyi said.

"Wuyi!" spoke Guan, and then there was visible pain. The situation was very strange. Everyone else could call Wuyi a young master. Guan could not, and the only name he could call his kin was which meant No Name bastard.

Wuyi looked at his half-cousin and had an amusing smile on his face, seeing Guan"s reactions.

"Seriously, Guan, I know you are a righteous follower of the heavens. But I don"t care much about it. What has heaven ever done for me?" Wuyi laughed. "If I awaken after a sword thrust with the eternal flames of the netherworld burning me, I am pretty sure, I"ll still laugh at heaven because that"s all I was ever offered in a rigged game, and I will have played it anyway."

That blasphemy ended all conversation for a long time. The sun was setting.

Guan rolled his hips a little. "My thigh is bleeding again. Can you re-wrap it? I can"t stomach the nursing attendants wrapping me."

"So you want me to be your attendant," Wuyi said. What had been a thread of scarlet was now a rapidly spreading stain—a pool of blood.

"No, I"m getting expert help." He laughed. He could have healed Guan but decided against it, even though he was badly hurt, as a Qi warrior he would survive.

"We"ll both likely die of the family curse—overweening pride—but I don"t have to actively help you die." He moved back. "Liwei?" he called. "Liwei?"

She came so quickly that he knew—from the statue of harmony as well—that she"d heard every word they had said.

And she had brought materials to bandage Guan.

"Hold him down and this will go faster," she said, all business.

Guan turned his face away.

"Really," Wuyi said, when the bandage was off, "you should enjoy having such a beauty work on your thighs."

Liwei paused. He looked into her eyes. He needed not to forget that she was an unlimited supply of Healing Qi. She would be powerful in the future; it was certain.

"Sorry," he muttered.

But she held his gaze. And then he saw her smile at Guan.

"A secret for a secret," she said, with that not-a-smile in the corner of her mouth. She bent over the long wound on Guan"s leg, and when her lips were a finger"s width from his thigh, she breathed out—a long breath—and as she breathed, the wound closed. Wuyi saw the Qi power flow through her, a great pulse of power, as great as anything he'd ever handled.

In his sight, it was bright white.

She looked up from her work and just a flicker of her eyes, and in them was a charge and a promise and in that flicker of a heartbeat he accepted both.

"What did she do?" Guan asked. Wuyi's torso was blocking his ability to see. "It"s all numb."

"She is fixing you," Wuyi said. The room suddenly smelled of summer flowers. She was wrapping fresh cloths around the wound, sponging off the fresh blood and the older dried blood.

Guan tried to sit up, and Wuyi held him down. Under his left hand, something felt very wrong with his half-cousin's shoulder, and he rolled the edge of his robe collar back.

Guan"s shoulder was finely scaled, like a fish or a snake. Wuyi ran his hand over it, and behind him, Liwei"s breath came in a sharp gasp.

Guan groaned. "And you think you are cursed by the heavens?"

Liwei ran her hand over Guan"s scales.

"I have seen this before," she said.

Guan brightened perceptibly. "You have?" he asked. "Yes," she said.

"Can it be cured?" he asked.

She bit her lip. "I really don't know, but it was not uncommon among..." she stammered.

Wuyi mused that a diviner would have said it was a day for secrets, and their revelation.

"I will look into it," she said with the assurance of a medico, and she swept from the room, the pale gray of her over-gown fluttering behind her.

Guan watched her, and Wuyi watched her and then. "She used some bloodline Qi," Guan said quietly.

"Yes," Wuyi said.

"She is—" Guan let his head fall back.

"I was headed here," he began. "The clan sent me on this mission to find you and bring you back by convincing or by force. I did not like the mission, but I couldn"t disobey either, so I decided to accept. Even though I had passed the clan"s test, I was supposed to have a peaceful life going forward."

"Clan test?" Wuyi asked. "Was it dangerous?"

Guan shook his head. "No, not for someone like you. The young ones in the clan are supposed to fight demons captured by clan members. Your future in the clan is decided by how strong a demon you are able to defeat and how many." He laughed. "For me, only one demon was challenging enough, and I killed it with my fist." His laugh was a little wild. "Hand to hand.

I battered it to death, and so some men call me Hard Hands."

"Your parents must have been very proud," Wuyi muttered.

"Oh, they were," Guan answered. "So proud they sent me to the southeast where I could be served on a platter for you. I rode east to Jingdu and put up in an inn." He turned his head away. "I"m not sure I can tell this while I look at you. I took rooms. A foreign Qi warrior came with his warriors—I don"t know how many, but it was a hundred Qi warriors, at least.

Li Xian, heaven curse his name. He called me out into the courtyard, challenged me to combat, and attacked me." Guan fell silent.