Chapter 78: The Other One Does Not Want to Come Back

The Xian Yang City at night is quite and tranquil, with very little sound except wind blowing through halls and birds startled from a distance.

Very few people are awake at this hour.

And those who still are awake are either burglars who sneak over eaves or wanderers who fall homesick watching the moon. Whatever the case is, there are a few people who find it difficult to fall asleep.

And Gu Nan is one of them.

It is already late at night, yet she is still sitting on a branch of the old tree in the courtyard, leaning against its trunk, watching the night view of Xian Yang.

The night is dark, and if not for the moon light, one cannot see anything clear.

Amid the night, holding Guardless in her arms, Gu Nan silently stares at the lofty palace surrounded by a cluster of flat low houses.

Blackie stands under the tree, looking up at Gu Nan. Then he shakes his neck as if confused and lowers his head.

Since there has been less people in the house making it lonely for Blackie to stay in the stable, Gu Nan brought it to her own courtyard and let it live here.

Gu Nan shifts her eyes away from the palace and looks at the moon above head, closing her eyes to savor the tranquil and peaceful moment.

In another yard, Wei Zhuang stands still with his sword. He is not practicing, but only pondering over something.

He has built a vague feeling about the Heavy Sword, but it is not intelligible enough.

Coming out of a room, Gai Nie is surprised to see Wei Zhuang still in the yard.

“Xiao Zhuang, you are still up?”

Wei Zhuang opens his eyes and sees Gai Nie, his expression cold.

“Senior brother, our senior sister is not here, so you no longer need to act like caring about me. It should be none of your business whether I rest or not.”

They are more like enemies rather than brothers of the same sect.

Due to the sect rules of the Ghost Valley, since the very beginning, they could only be enemies who will take the other one’s life in the end.

And they shall not spare an enemy any concern.

Upon hearing Wei Zhuang’s words, Gai Nie falls silent.

Wei Zhuang then shuts his eyes again, pursuing that vague and intangible insight.

Gai Nie sits down by his side, and speaks all of a sudden: “Is that the Heavy Sword you are gaining insight to?”

Wei Zhuang snorts coldly: “If you already know the answer, then don’t ask.”

Gai Nie nods his head: “Today when practicing in the pond, I had quite many enlightenments, but there was this one time that impressed me the most. I was almost exhausted of my chi, and the sword felt exceedingly heavy, yet at the same time I also felt that I almost found the knack of it. However, when I tried to grasp it, it was no longer there.”
 

Saying so, he stands up: “We will try it again tomorrow.”
 

Then, he leaves.

His words, however, just confessed all his enlightenments he has obtained for the day to Wei Zhuang.

Wei Zhuang was momentarily stunned. When he was practicing sword today, he too felt a jolt of enlightenment, however that feeling disappeared quickly.

Only after listening to Gai Nie’s explanation does he realize that the feeling happened at the moment when he was completely drained of internal energy.

“Hey.”

Gai Nie was stopped by Wei Zhuang.

Frowning, Wei Zhuang asks him: “Why did you tell me that.”
 

If Gai Nie kept it to himself, it would be highly likely that Wei Zhuang will fall behind him.

Yet, Gai Nie still told him anyway.

“Well,” Gai Nie turns back to look at Wei Zhuang, “I don’t want to see you too weak at the duel.”

Wei Zhuang stares at him dumbfounded out of surprise. After a while, he seems to smile lightly.

“Do you remember the promise we made to senior sister this evening?”

“You mean digging up the wood?” Gai Nie lifts up the corner of his mouth. This senior sister indeed does strange things.

But it was also fun.

“I don’t want to break my promise, so whoever survives the duel comes back.”

“And if the senior sister ever asks about the missing person,

Just tell her that the other one does not want to come back anymore.”

…

Gai Nie hesitates for a while before he replies: “Agreed.”

Then, he turns around and head back to his room.

Watching Gai Nie leave, Wei Zhuang holding his sword closes his eyes again.

In the following year, Wei Zhuang and Gai Nie had been following by Gu Nan’s side to learn swordsmanship. Except for the time when Gu Nan was in the army, they had always been there and asked her questions whenever they found one.

This upset Gu Nan as children always come up with weird questions, especially the exceedingly abnormal ones from these two.

Questions thrown toward her in quotes of ancient sages made Gu Nan struggle. Afterall, she studied military and martial arts, and thus had no idea how to respond to the questions in polished language of thou and thee and wherefore along aside with all those philosophies of diplomacy.

*School of diplomacy: 纵横家or School of Vertical and Horizontal also can be translated as School of Diplomacy. The Vertical alliance encouraged the six kingdoms to rally together against Qin, and the Horizontal alliance promoted Qin to eliminate the other six.*

It seems that life was back on track: going to the army in the morning, coming back at noon, teaching two children of swords after lunch, having dinner at home in the evening, and listening to Painting Fairy playing instrument or pranking Xiao Lu. Life was simple but also warm at the same time.

Occasionally seeing the two children bored, she would bring them to the street to walk around, and had fun seeing the boys quarrel with each other.

As for the army, there were good results coming, since the modern physical training seemed to be of great assistance to the cultivation of internal energies. All three hundred soldiers built some internal energies, not much, but enough to boost their endurance, speed and strength beyond average people’s.

After the final assessment, they will be approved as a battalion.

There had been news of king of Qin getting furious on the court, affirming the saying that serving a king is like companying a beast.

After three months of recuperation, the Qin army led by General Zhao Jiu set out to attack Han.

And of course, it had nothing to do with Gu Nan.

At the end of the year, the Ghost Valley Master returned and took over Wei Zhuang and Gia Nie who seemed reluctant to leave. Afterall, they are still kids.

They still treasured the wooden swords Gu Nan made for them, which was scolded by the Ghost Valley Master for being crude.

However, their improvements in swordsmanship greatly surprised the Ghost Valley Master, as they were both half way through on completing the Heavy Sword realm.

When he heard the term lift heavy weights with ease the children recited to him, the Ghost Valley Master laughed at them telling them that it is because Gu Nan was too lazy to say anything excessive, but still complimented her for a brilliant conclusion.

On the day they leave, Gu Nan personally sees them off outside the city.

She is still wearing the white mourning robe which looks a little too broad for her figure.

It is a shame to mention it, but except for her dressing, nothing she did fit the rules of filial mourning.  

“You girl, what are you wearing seeing your guest off? You don’t even know to change.” The Ghost Valley Master blames Gu Nan yet his eyes full of joy.

“It is still the filial mourning period of my master and mother’s passing, so I cannot wear anything else.” Gu Nan leads Blackie, one in white another in black, looking conspicuous.

“Whatever.” Stroking his beard, the Ghost Valley pauses: “We will take off from here.”

Without any flowery language of persuasion, Gu Nan simply clasps her hands.  

“Take care of yourself, don’t die early. Otherwise, it will really bother Xiao Zhuang, Xiao Nie, and me.”

The Ghost Valley Master does not seem to be bothered; instead, he only waves his hand at her: “I am in good shape, so you do not need to worry about me.”

“We will be going.”

“Farewell, senior sister.” Wei Zhuang and Gai Nie both salute to Gu Nan.

“Hehe, that is enough; just go.”