He opened the door to find, of all people, Second Elder Yun Yuan standing outside, hair and beard lightly frosted, his face full of mischievous mirth. "Ho, boy, I hear you took quite a beating from that little ancestor of ours?" He squeezed in without ceremony, dangling a fine jade case in his hand. "Here — this old man's heart aches for you, so I've brought you something good."
Yun Qing took the jade case, a little helpless: "Your news travels fast indeed, Elder. A trifling matter — no need to trouble yourself with a personal visit."
"A trifling matter?" The Second Elder blew out his beard and glared, already helping himself to a seat at the table and pouring himself a cup of spirit-tea.
"You, boy, are the clan's man of the hour — everyone's got their eyes on you! How many days since you came back? Those looking to step on you to climb, those looking to fawn on you, and those looking to imitate you to please that one — heh, a whole pack of demons dancing. What a lively show." He sipped his tea, his tone carrying the banter of one who had seen through the ways of the world.
Yun Qing said nothing and opened the jade case the Second Elder had brought. A medicinal fragrance rushed out. Inside were three pills the size of longan fruit, glaze-gold through and through, round and flawless — the Heaven-grade healing sacred medicine, the Nine-Turn Jade-Restoring Pill.
He instinctively circulated his Double Pupils to look, and his brow rose despite himself. Within the pills, several wisps of pure, gentle blazing-sun energy were cunningly coiled — of the same source as the violent force lingering in his own body — dissolving the medicine's potency in some abstruse way, plainly meant expressly to repair meridians wounded by blazing-sun divine power!
This medicine was clearly refined by someone expressly for his present injuries — no everyday handiwork of the Second Elder's.
The Second Elder watched his dawning expression and gave a "heh-heh" laugh, tapping the jade case with deep meaning and glancing toward the Qiwu main hall. The implication could not have been plainer: without the tacit leave and hint of that little ancestor within, how could this old fellow have simply strolled into Quiet-Heart Court, tucked away in the rear of the Qiwu palace?
Whose intent this medicine was needed no saying.
Yun Qing pinched up a pill, his fingertips touching the warm, smooth body of it, and no longer hesitated, sending it straight into his mouth. The gentle, mighty pure-yang medicinal power dissolved in an instant, washing through his meridians like sweet rain; wherever it passed, the stubborn blazing-sun energy was swiftly neutralized and dispersed, and his damaged meridians began to knit at a pace visible to the eye — many times faster than healing by his own circulation.
More surprising still, this pill seemed to hold within it a thread of Yun Huang's own comprehension of the blazing-sun force, so that, alongside his healing, Yun Qing even conceived a vague affinity and insight into this purest-yang, purest-hard power.
Feeling his meridians swiftly mending within, Yun Qing held the jade case, a complicated light crossing his Double Pupils.
When he had first returned to the clan, merely drawing near Yun Huang had been like being scorched by fire, and he had spent a long while barely pressing down the hidden injury. Now he had taken a Blazing-Sun Seal head-on, and instead received such a spirit-medicine — this carefully prepared, wound-erasing treatment was, against that day, a difference of clouds and mud.
The sheet of solid ice between them did seem, in some unspoken accord, to have quietly thawed by a sliver.
Within Qiwu Hall, Yun Huang was reviewing a secret report on the situation in Zhongzhou. The hand holding his brush paused faintly; sensing the aura within Quiet-Heart Court growing gradually steady, the strand of spiritual sense that had kept its attention on the court withdrew at last, quiet as an ebbing tide.
Yun Qing's wounds were wholly mended, his condition even more refined than before he was hurt. He traded a glance with the Second Elder, confirming that the heart-stopping sense of being watched had truly vanished.
His mind stirred, and in the end Yun Qing could not resist asking by secret voice-transmission: "Second Elder, do you know why the Qiwu palace is planted all over with 'Clear-Heart Vine' — could it be that one is...?" He paused, not daring to say outright the words "a flaw in the Immortal Emperor's heart-of-Dao." Even though the secret voice-method was one he and the Second Elder had created themselves, their body-arts being compatible, he truly dared not underestimate the means of a reincarnated Immortal Emperor.
At his words, the mirth on the Second Elder's face drew in a few degrees. He raised a forefinger and, all mystery, pointed at the sky, then waved his hand — meaning: not to be spoken of; this touches on the secrets of Heaven.
"Easy to call a god down, hard to send one back." The Second Elder sipped his tea and, likewise by secret transmission, went on, his tone complicated: "What we did back then was a great gamble of our Yun Clan to begin with. Those old fellows in the clan now would likely give anything for someone to charm the sovereign's heart, to bind him a little more to the Yun, and best of all leave behind a bloodline..."
Yun Qing understood and pressed the forbidden topic no further. He turned the subject and spoke aloud, his voice ringing clearly through Quiet-Heart Court: "Second Elder, regarding today's matter of the Soul-Suppressing Stele at the shrine — how do you view it?"
The Second Elder cocked a brow and smiled with deep meaning: "Talking of this now?" Not afraid of ears beyond the wall? He looked at Yun Qing pointedly.
Yun Qing's expression was frank, his tone firm: "Toward the Young Lord, Qing holds nothing back."
"Hmph!"
No sooner had Yun Qing's words fallen than a cold snort sounded out of thin air, like frost-hail striking jade, clear and crystalline yet carrying a chill that could freeze the very soul — Yun Huang!
The meaning of that cold snort needed no saying — the two of you were murmuring by secret transmission right under This Lord's eyes a moment ago, and now you claim to hold nothing back? Do you truly take This Lord for deaf and blind?
There'd be a ghost before he believed them.
"Cough, cough, cough!" The smile on the Second Elder's face froze for an instant, even the fine lines at the corners of his eyes betraying a flutter of panic. He whipped around, feigning to gaze at the moonlight beyond the court — but his broad sleeve "accidentally on purpose" swept across Yun Qing, his fingertips even sneaking a little tug, wearing the whole grumbling look of "there, that's what you get for running your mouth, you overplayed it."
A great shock struck Yun Qing's heart, cold sweat springing at once to his back. Who did not know this Young Lord's temper was wayward, that he most loathed others playing clever little games before him?
Amid their nerves, the two truly could not keep from wailing inwardly: Ancestor, oh, your eavesdropping comes so timely, so brazenly righteous!
That overbearing spiritual sense swept without the least courtesy over the whole of Yun Qing, as though to see him through, inside and out. But Yun Qing reacted with great speed, swiftly composing his face into a just-right surprise and helplessness, which then dissolved into perfect openness. He bowed deeply toward the Qiwu main hall, his voice clear as a spring:
"In reply to the Young Lord — what Qing spoke of just now with the Second Elder by transmission was nothing but the trifles of an injury; I truly dared not trouble the Young Lord's quiet cultivation with so petty a private matter. Yet the shrine affair bears on the clan's stability, and since Qing enjoys the Young Lord's trust, he must of course set aside private friendship and report it in full frankness, with not the slightest wish to conceal — nor dares he neglect the public for the private, and fail the Young Lord."
He put it airtight: the transmission just now had been "unwilling to trouble him with a private matter," and this report now was "out of public duty and loyalty." Public affairs and private feelings alike were smoothed over in one humble, pleading breath — slippery as an eel.
Quiet-Heart Court fell silent in an instant, only the rustle of the night wind through bamboo leaves. The pressure from the main hall eased somewhat, yet still prowled about Yun Qing without leaving — Yun Huang was plainly still "listening."
Seeing this, the Second Elder hurried to smooth things over, muttering: "All right, all right, the little ancestor's listening — say what you've got to say, out with your— cough, cough, out with your report! Don't waste the Young Lord's cultivation time." Crude as the words sounded, they were in fact a step down handed to each of the brothers.