Legend of The Young Master

Chapter 204: He’s Cautious

Wuyi felt Liwei's presence behind him. He could smell her unique bloodline Qi.

"You," she said.

Unlike other statues that could take energy from demonics or other beings, the Statue of Knowledge and Light had no other direct sources of energy to absorb. They only depended on passive absorption or energy that other statues shared.

However, since the Statue of Valor and the Statue of Shadow required a lot of energy to be summoned, the energy shared with the Statue of Light and the Statue of Knowledge was very limited. The Statue of Knowledge had no other direct option. But the Statue of Light had one direct source to draw large quantities from—her.

So whenever Wuyi was with her, the statue would keep urging him to take her Qi as much as he could. Wuyi turned. He almost had her in his arms. It was like hunger.

"Something is different! There feels something righteous and celestial about you," she said.

He sighed. "No," he said. "Nothing like that."

"I can feel it!" she said. "Why would you deny it? You have used righteous Qi. Was it some righteous heavenly body? You used Qi from Sun? Only righteous few Qi directly take Qi from sun, Have you chosen to be diligent and righteous?"

"I tell you again, Liwei," he insisted. "I don't deny the heavens. I merely don't care about it."

"Must we argue?" she asked. She looked at his face. "Did I heal you?"

"You did," he said, far more rudely than he meant. After coming back, he had slept but did not have time to perfectly heal himself either.

"You were bleeding out," she said, finally moved to anger. "You scared me. I didn't have time to think about it."

"Oh. I thank you, my lady. Why must we always spar? Is it the cut on my face you worry about? I scarcely feel it."

She licked her thumb, like a mother removing dirt from her child. "Don't flinch," she said, and wiped her thumb down the wound. There was a flare of intense pain, and then—

"You shouldn't get that close to the young master, Liwei," said the Pavilion Mistress from the doorway.

Wuyi took a step back from the her. They had been very close indeed.

"We all have our faults and need guidance. When we are troubled, praying can help. It focuses the mind and spirit," the Pavilion Mistress said as she approached them.

"But usually, the heavens help those who help themselves," Wuyi replied.

"So easy to mock, Young Master. I assume you have experienced the power of the righteous way. And yet you feel nothing?" The Pavilion Mistress tapped the floor with her staff, and two novices helped her onto her throne.

"It is, after all, just Qi," Xilai said from the doorway.

The Pavilion Mistress nodded at the old man in greeting. "There are more things in heaven and earth, old man."

"So easy to mock," Xilai said. "And yet—as a seeker of great knowledge, I confess that when I look, lady, I see something greater than myself. In you and in the ladies of the pavilion." He nodded. "Perhaps, in this novice too." He shrugged. "And in Luding."

"Name him not!" said the Pavilion Mistress, striking the floor.

Yun Ming came in. With him came Master Zen, Baijian, and some other people such as Wuli Yuan, the Bailli, Quanbo, and a lady named Feiru who was a seamstress, of all people. Ever since she had come to the fort from her farm, she had been very helpful to everyone in the fort. She had started learning Qi and had talent in it. She seemed to be representing the local farmers.

Elder Yueli sat quietly and with immense dignity, next to Baijian. He grinned at her. The monk of the temple sat at the far right of the table. Shen arrived late, with Zhenying and Jin from the Bridge Castle.

"You took a risk," Wuyi said, looking at the Pavilion Mistress.

She met his gaze mildly enough. "They came through your trench, Young Master, and through the tunnels. This hill has many rooms and many doors."

"Like your father's house?" asked Wuyi.

The Pavilion Mistress's look suggested that he wasn't as witty as he wanted to be.

"And many secrets," Xilai said. "We are thirteen."

"A good number," said the Pavilion Mistress. Xilai nodded.

The Pavilion Mistress looked up and down the table, and they fell silent. "We are here for a council of war," she said. "Young Master?"

He rose and stretched a little, feeling full of energy. A curious feeling, for him. "I didn't summon a council of war," he said. "So what do you wish of me?"

"A report," she snapped. "How are we doing?"

He was being told to mind his manners. Liwei was glaring at him, and Yun Ming, too. He thought of bodyguard Zhen's admonition to be on his best behavior. Zhen seldom said such things by chance.

"We're not losing." He shrugged. "In this case, that constitutes winning." Yun Ming looked away and looked back.

"Your own men disagree with you, Young Master," the Pavilion Mistress said.

"That's an internal matter," Wuyi said.

"No, Young Master. It is not." The Pavilion Mistress tapped the floor with her staff.

Wuyi took a deep breath, looking around to pick up cues from the audience as he had been taught. He did not plan to use harmony.

Liwei was very tense. The Pavilion Mistress gave nothing away, nor did Xilai, although their blankness contrasted—his a studied indifference, hers an apparently angry attentiveness. The monk of the temple was nervous and upset. Feiru was willing him to do well. To deliver good news. Wuli Yuan was too tired to listen well.

Baijian was trying to look down Liwei's dress; Yun Ming was on the edge of his seat; the merchant group leader Master Zhenying was sitting back with his arms crossed, but his whole attention was on Wuyi. Shen was trying not to go to sleep.

Wuyi nodded. "Very well, lady. Here it is." He took a deep breath. "This fortress is old and has a powerful array, but it also has an energy source that strong leaders of all species want. This fortress and the people in it are a challenge to the demonic Wild. A series of events—a slow build-up that recently peaked, Starting from Luding's arrival.

including the arrival of this group—pushed certain powers of the demonic Wild to act. And now, the demonic Wild has come to take the fortress." He paused. "Take it back," he said slowly, for dramatic effect. Even the Pavilion Mistress was surprised.

"It was theirs from the start. The array the fort was built on may be old, but this spiritual Qi land was always here," Wuyi said in a calm, reasonable voice. "They owned it. They made the tunnels." He looked around. "The righteous took it and built an array on it," he picked up his wine cup, "two hundred years ago, I'd guess.

And now the demonic Wild is back because things are changing, and everything is falling apart, and now we're weaker than before."

"Like Leidian?" asked Yun Ming.

"Yes," Wuyi said. "That's just background, but it's important because I've wondered many times why the enemy is taking casualties and fighting us here. It's costing them. Yun Ming, how many of the enemy have we killed?"

Yun Ming shook his head. "Many," he said.

"So many that I can only wish I'd signed the Pavilion Mistress to a per-creature contract," Wuyi said. "In fact, I was suckered into this contract. My youth was taken advantage of." He smiled. "But never mind that. The enemy has lost several dozen irreplaceable minor powers, as well as hundreds—perhaps even thousands—of the small inhabitants of the High Wilderness.

We have lost twenty-seven local people, seven novices and apprentices, and thirty of my warriors. We have lost all the farms and all of the animals not penned within the fortress. We have lost the Lower Town." He spread his hands and leaned onto the table. "But we have not lost the fortress. Nor the bridge. Most important of all, we have not lost."

"Lost what?" asked the Pavilion Mistress.

Wuyi shrugged. "It's spiritual. A matter of faith, if you like. Our enemy depends on success as much as on displays of power to hold his place. It is the way of the demonic Wild. Red in tooth and claw.

Wolf eat wolf. Every tiny defeat we hand him, every bee sting, causes his allies to wonder—is he as strong as he seems?"

The Pavilion Mistress nodded. "Can we win?" she asked.

He nodded decisively. "We can."

"How?" she asked.

Wuyi crossed his arms and leaned against the mantelpiece. "By hurting him so badly that his allies think he is weak."

Xilai shook his head. "None of us can take him, Young Man."

"He's not that bright," Wuyi said. "I think that all of us, working together, can take him."

Xilai rose. "You're out of your depth," he said. "He's more powerful than you can imagine. And even if you hurt him—" He paused, obviously a man on the verge of saying too much.

Wuyi sipped wine. "I've seen him retreat twice now."

Xilai spread his arms. "I admit he's cautious."

"If his people see him run from us, surely that's enough." Wuyi looked at the old man. "Isn't it?"

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