Chương 71: Duel to the Death, II

They hurried over to the meeting room in question, only to find that they were some of the earliest to arrive. Jin Qilong explained the concept as they went, though Wu Hao didn't really have an interest in the entire thing.

"It's the elders of the local branch," he said, stepping past a stone lantern. He made an effort to restrain himself from activating his movement technique, which Wu Hao knew was for his benefit, though he also figured that Jin Qilong just liked giving explanations about random things. He suffered through the explanation in silence, letting Jin Qilong's voice wash over him.

"Branches are allowed to have local heads, but this one doesn't have one at the moment," Jin Qilong said, as a servant ducked out of the way hastily to avoid stepping into his path.

"Why not?" Wu Hao asked, when it was clear that Jin Qilong wanted him to say something.

"The head used to be Jin Yuyang," Jin Qilong said.

"He died, though. Ambushed by an unknown group of martial artists on his way back from a mission. He left behind his wife - not a martial artist, so not really relevant - and a young daughter. She's three, so she's not really in a position to matter either at the moment."

"Huh," Wu Hao said, stepping into the short silence Jin Qilong had left him.

"So, anyway, the council of elders. It's how branches without a head operate. They're supposed to act as a sort of regent, you know, step aside when the real heir comes of age and all that."

"Do they?" Jin Qilong gave an amused little cough, which was answer enough.

"So who are the elders?" Wu Hao asked.

"There's Shan Guoxi," Jin Qilong began, as they made their way through a wide door that led to the foot of a short staircase. Jin Qilong took his shoes off, and Wu Hao decided to just copy whatever the other boy did.

"He's the head of the guards here. He's Shan Kong's father."

"Right."

"He won't like you," Jin Qilong said, as if that wasn't obvious.

"Especially not now."

"Why?" Wu Hao asked.

"You nearly killed his son."

"And? It was a duel." Jin Qilong stared.

"It was a spar," he said.

"Do - do you not know what a spar is?"

"A fight's a fight," Wu Hao said, puzzled.

"If you're not trying to kill each other, what's even the point of fighting?" That had been his experience, after all. Kill or be killed. Deathsworn were supposed to be able to kill each other at the drop of a hat. Had Father lied about that, as well? Wu Hao still had difficulty telling Father's lies from truth.

"Sometimes I wonder if you were raised by wolves," Jin Qilong muttered.

"Spars are meant to teach you something." He cleared his throat, then placed his shoes in a nearby rack and made for the stairs on his socked feet.

"But maybe it's more useful to tell you who's coming to the meeting," he said. Wu Hao didn't see how it would be, but he nodded.

"There's Fu Yue," Jin Qilong said.

"The widow of the sect leader, but she doesn't really bother coming to the meetings. She appears to think it invites more trouble than it's worth. I agree but my mother thinks she's just a coward. There's You Fulian, who is the man in charge of acquisitions. That means he meets with the merchants, when they come to visit. There's Pang Liwen, who's the major of the local town around here..."

There were others, but their names entered Wu Hao's ears without establishing any real foothold on his mind, and their functions were even more of a lost cause. He'd remember them if they mattered - like if they wound up killing him, maybe. The odds seemed low, though. Jin Qilong's long explanation of who was who trailed off when they arrived at the meeting room.

It was a long hall, of which the main furniture of note was the long, exquisitely carved table that spanned the length of Wu Hao's own room and then some, though it wasn't all that wide. Chairs had been set out for each of the elders, seven in all. At least one of those would probably be left blank, if Wu Hao remembered Jin Qilong's explanation correctly.

There was a raised stage in front where the elders would sit, and there was a small stage just before that where positions had been marked out for something Wu Hao couldn't identify, in white chalked lines. The groups of elders came in slowly, trickling in occasionally over the course of half an hour or so, some bringing in spectators of their own that mingled with the small crowd forming.

Lady Jin, clad in a pure white dress that seemed as expensive as any Wu Hao had seen, was escorted by a few guards and, after a single acknowledging glance at Jin Qilong, sat herself at the head of the table. The guards set themselves against the walls also, staring straight ahead. On their chests was emblazoned a symbol of a saber, with the patch's color a blood red. The Red Saber Batallion, Wu Hao presumed. The only other elder that Wu Hao took note of was Shan Guoxi.

He had something of his son's looks - that same proud countenance, that same haughty look, that same chin that was slightly too weak to be handsome, though in his case covered with a short, bristly beard. He entered with a slight smile that didn't reach his eyes in the slightest, and when he looked around the room he spotted Wu Hao. His only outward reaction was the smile dropping for a short moment.

There was a single moment where his qi roared outwards in a frenzy of rage and furious waves rearing up to the sky, but then the next it was gone again, like it had never been, and the fake smile was back on Shan Guoxi's face. That was a lot worse than outright fury would've been, honestly. Wu Hao could deal with anger, but cold fury that was easily restrained was vastly more difficult to predict. He was the last elder to enter, and afterwards the room grew quieter.

The last whispers cut out the moment Lady Jin tapped the table with her war fan.

"Honored elders," Lady Jin called. Her voice didn't sound sarcastic but her qi made it obvious.

"I'm glad to see you all here, of course. Except Fu Yue. Where is she?"

"The branch mistress is busy with lady Jin Meiyan," Shan Guoxi responded.

"As Lady Jin knows, the heiress is currently recovering from a bout of illness. I sympathize, of course. I understand well the feeling of a parent whose child requires the attentions of a doctor. It's a pain that I shouldn't wish on anyone. It may make any parent irrational, I fear." His eyes very definitely didn't bore into Wu Hao's, nor in anyone else's, but his words were clear.

"Of course," Lady Jin said blandly.

"I would hate to be in such a position. Let us be glad that this appears to be mere happenstance and not the result of some childish foolishness." Shan Guoxi's qi roared again, struggling for its freedom, and his hand twitched. Everyone had laid their sabers at the entrance, though, or handed them to servants to keep hold of, so he couldn't whip his saber out even if he'd wanted to. This time it took him more effort to rein himself in.

"Yes," he said.

"Thank you for your wise words, Lady Jin." She gave him a small victorious smile and then tapped her fan on the table again.

"All the well-wishing aside," Lady Jin said. Her qi bubbled with a faint amusement.

"We move on to the reason I've called you here. I have found the perpetrator of the theft from the book repository." This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. There were some surprised murmurs. Librarian Zhu looked up. He'd walked in without saying more than a few words to anyone and he managed a smile, but his qi screamed with suspicion. He hadn't expected this, and it was clear that he didn't like it in the slightest.

"Yes, lady Jin?" he asked.

"Who?"

"You, Librarian Zhu," she said, matter-of-factly. There was a surprised silence before whispered rumours broke out, winding up in frenzied conversation, but Wu Hao focused on Librarian Zhu. He swayed as if hit with a punch, face turning whiter.

"I don't know what you mean," he said, but his voice must have sounded weak even to his own ears.

"Why would I steal from the book repository? I was given the position of head librarian in full confidence by the lord Jin Yuyang. I could never steal."

"Please, Lady Jin," one of the other elders wheezed, a mustached man to who the title of elder seemed immediately applicable.

"Explain, if you would be so kind."

"For years now," she said, "this man has been stealing from the clan. An exact count of how much he has thieved or embezzled will be impossible to determine, I suspect, but rest assured that it is a sizeable sum nonetheless."

"Be that as it may," Shan Guoxi broke in.

"Lady Jin, the council of elders will still require proof of this allegation."

"Very well," Lady Jin said. She tapped her fan on the table again, this time with a louder thud, and then spoke: "Bring in the documents." One of the men with the red saber patch bowed, marched out the door, and returned with two scrolls, which he handed to Lady Jin. She brought just a little qi to her finger, twisted it in several difficult-looking patterns, and tore the seals off with a single flick of her wrist. Both halves of each of the seals twirled down slowly, landing on the table.

"These," she said, "are the ledgers of the resources given to the book repository to reestablish its arrays, as is traditional for a new librarian to do, when they take up the post. I have here in my possession the ledgers of the Hebei branch here, as well of the Jiniang branch, where a new librarian took office just a year ago." She pointed to several items.

"These are the lines indicating the resources required for the re-establishment. They're nearly identical." Shan Guoxi smiled tightly.

"Pardon, but what is this supposed to prove, exactly?" Lady Jin held out a hand, and another scroll was placed carefully in her waiting palm. With another quick movement the seal fell, joining the other two, all aligned in a neat row.

"This, on the other hand," she said with a small smile, "is the real ledger. This is a fact that may not leave this room, but we of the main branch have additional checks to make certain that we are handed the real scrolls, you see." Then she snapped her finger - her qi jumped forward, catching each of the seals in turn. Two - the ones that belonged to the real seals, or so she'd claimed - burned with a deep red fire. But the one she'd claimed was fake burned blue.

Librarian Zhu made a soft sound, in the back of his throat, and slumped in mute horror. But Wu Hao had watched her qi carefully, and he'd seen that there'd been a small, minor twist to her qi as she ignited the other scroll. He didn't have more than a faint suspicion, but Lady Jin might have simply made that up.

"I trust I don't need to say anything else. The same can be checked with the ledger itself, of course." As the fire crackled and then, slowly, extinguished itself, leaving not a trace of the seals behind, it turned out that she didn't. No one else spoke. It wasn't great proof, Wu Hao reflected, but apparently it was enough. He didn't quite get all of it, but she seemed satisfied and Shan Guoxi seemed furious, though his face remained a stone wall of impassivity.

"It is lucky that we arrived," she said blandly, almost offhand.

"Otherwise this wound might have festered for far longer, a rot seeping ever deeper while you slumbered blissfully."

"Lady Jin -" the elder with the mustache said, but he was interrupted.

"Unless it is not luck," Lady Jin said. Her voice, already cool, lost any pretension at charm.

"Unless this is a wound that has been deliberately allowed to fester. That might be called... rebellion, no?" Several of the elders flinched back. Jin Qilong swallowed as it became clear what she was driving at.

"Are you suggesting, Lady Jin - " another elder asked, voice trembling.

"Why would I be?" she asked.

"Surely no one has to fear reprisal, if this was merely an act of one greedy, foolish man." The elders were too old and too canny to show all of the fear they were feeling, but Wu Hao saw clearly as one by one, their cores erupted with qi that roiled out of their skin, twisting into tangled knots of fear. Several elders funneled that qi into thin almost-arrows of power that flicked forwards, lancing out to others and, most of all, to Shan Guoxi.

"This is a heavy accusation," Shan Guoxi said heavily, slowly, taking in the messages that he was receiving. His smile was gone.

"The punishment for stealing from the main clan would be determined by the severity of the losses, I believe."

"Correct," Lady Jin drawled.

"I see you're not the leader of the security forces here for nothing." Shan Guoxi gave a little smile, but said nothing. Instead his qi burst forward into a brilliant beam piercing directly into Librarian Zhu, leaving no injury on him but sending him to sway on his feet anyway. Librarian Zhu's eyes went wide, but then he bowed his head, deep in thought.

"I request a trial by combat," he finally said, a full minute later. Shan Guoxi tried to look surprised, but only a little. Then he just nodded, clapped his hands, and ordered: "Prepare the dueling arena!"

"There's no need," Lady Jin said flatly.

"Give us space and I'll kill him here and now." Librarian Zhu shook. After everything, it seemed she'd finally touched a sore spot, and his head grew redder from anger. His hands reached out to nothingness, and after an eruption of qi, he suddenly had his saber back. It had ripped itself from a rack where the sabers had been held, dumping several others on the ground. There was nothing left of his attempts to play weak.

He stood, beard whipping in the qi building itself into a storm around him, and he stood tall and straight despite his age, like an oak tree that had survived multiple storms. An air of faded vitality sprung from him, though: the oak tree's roots had been cut or infected, and it was dying all the same. Still, his qi burst forth with all its remaining power, and that power was substantial. His wizened hands held onto his saber, which Wu Hao hadn't seen before.

It wasn't an ornate saber by any means and it was short, but its edge spoke of being forged to chop through anything that stood in its way.

"I beg the council to resolve this matter in a fair way," he said, with a hoarse voice.

"I fight the Lady Jin only to prove my innocence. I hope that fairness and the rules will be upheld, no matter the outcome." Lady Jin sighed, then swished her sleeve.

"Move aside," she commanded.

"Clear the space for a duel."