Zhan Ri Fei smiled faintly and slowly stood up. Gazing out through the broken windows of the ruined temple at the boundless night, he spoke softly yet firmly.
“That’s right. The treasure both the Tang Sect and Xing Yun Manor sought is this boy. The difference is that Ge Yun Fei knew the truth, while the others did not. As for the people of Han Shui Palace, they are fully aware of everything.”
Huo Xiao Di couldn’t help but laugh at himself for his and Zhan Ri Fei’s wild theories. “This boy is weak, mute, and unremarkable—his only peculiarity is a faint herbal scent. Even if what you say is true, if he really is the treasure both the Tang Sect and Xing Yun Manor covet, why would Ge Yun Fei try to kill him just before his death?”
— “Could it be that Ge Yun Fei thought, since Xing Yun Manor couldn’t have him, the Tang Sect shouldn’t have him either?”
Zhan Ri Fei turned back with a faint smile and spoke each word deliberately: “Because Ge Yun Fei already knew the true secret—it’s this boy. When he stabbed the boy before his death, it wasn’t to kill him. It was to save his own life.”
— “When he wounded the boy’s arm, just like the others who harmed this child before, it was to drink the fresh blood from his arm.”
— “The phrase ‘a common man is innocent, but treasuring a rare gem invites disaster’ applies here. This boy is none other than the Han Shui Palace’s legendary Chang Hong Bi!”
— “It has been passed down through generations that Han Shui Palace has a miraculous treasure called Chang Hong Bi, said to exude fragrance by water and nourished with the ‘Three Lives Water of Jade Flame.’ It is never revealed to outsiders.”
— “The treasure’s value lies in its ability to neutralize all poisons under heaven. Yet who could have guessed that the Chang Hong Bi isn’t a jade pendant but a person?”
(Historical reference for context: The Ming dynasty writer Zhang Dai records in Night Voyages on the Boat that “Chang Hong’s blood turned to jade”: ‘Chang Hong’s tomb is in Yanshi. A virtuous minister of King Ling of Zhou, he was executed despite his innocence. His blood, preserved, turned into jade after three years.’)
* * *
A sudden, sharp “chirrr” broke the silence, as if a night bird had been startled and flown straight into the sky.
Raising their eyes, they saw that, unknowingly, a crescent moon had emerged from behind the clouds. Perhaps the night bird had been awakened by its light.
Though the clouds shrouded the mountains, they couldn’t obscure the moonlight’s soft radiance. Suddenly, the small temple in the mountains was bathed in a faint, silvery glow.
The mottled moonlight made Zhan Ri Fei’s face look even paler. Yet, upon closer inspection, Huo Xiao Di’s face across from him didn’t appear much better.
Huo Xiao Di’s expression was filled with shock, as if he’d just seen a ghost. “Are you saying… are you saying that this boy is the Han Shui Palace’s Chang Hong Bi?”
— The Chang Hong Bi of Han Shui Palace, said to neutralize all poisons, was a myth that had endured for decades in the martial world. Countless enigmatic tales surrounded the supposed jade treasure, though no one had ever seen its true form.
Zhan Ri Fei replied, “I’d prefer it weren’t true. But I suspect that the stories we’ve heard are nothing more than a smokescreen deliberately created by Han Shui Palace.”
Still recovering from his astonishment, Huo Xiao Di murmured, “‘Exudes fragrance by water, nourished with Three Lives Water of Jade Flame’—”
— “Then, the liquid that the women of Han Shui Palace forced him to drink… was that the ‘Three Lives Water of Jade Flame’?”
— “I did smell the herbal scent on him, especially after the heavy rain at the inn on Little Hammer Mountain!”
Zhan Ri Fei gazed at the sleeping boy, nodded slightly, and sighed. “In the eyes of the Grandmother of Han Shui, perhaps he was never a child at all—merely a precious, poison-neutralizing treasure raised by Han Shui Palace. Though born in Han Shui Palace, he was never treated as a person.”
Huo Xiao Di frowned, quickly raising another point. “I’ve heard that the Chang Hong Bi has been with Han Shui Palace for over a hundred years. If this boy is truly the Chang Hong Bi, could he be over a hundred years old? And if so, why does he still appear as a child?”
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