The Scent of the Orchid in the Forest of Secrets (密林兰香)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Shu Haolin found out next afternoon about the two young disciples who had fallen victim and died to the curse. They were discovered laying on the ground in a narrow, unfrequented corridor, and by the time they were found, their bodies had long since gone cold. After taking a look at the bodies herself and verifying that the curse was the same as the one she'd seen so frequently, she returned back to her living quarters, turning the matter over and over in her mind. Her minimal belongings that she'd brought had already been packed, ready to leave with the Yu Sect next morning, but the more she thought about it, the more she thought something was wrong.

On a whim, she rummaged through her bag, pulling out the handkerchief that was securely wrapped around the cursed bangle. She hadn't decided yet how to safely dispose of it, so she was planning on taking it back to the Yu Sect and think of a plan later. However, when she unfolded the handkerchief, she found the cursed bangle had been cracked squarely through the center, and it no longer had that chilling aura. It was back to a normal, luxurious silver bangle, as if nothing had happened to it before. Her mind moving fast, she quickly gathered up the pieces and ran to find Yu Jielan.

She found Yu Jielan sitting mindlessly at the edge of a pond decorating the corner of the training grounds. A couple of lily pads floated on the surface, but owing to the cold weather, there weren't any blooms. Her sword lay by her feet, having clearly been carelessly dropped there, and Yu Jielan held a small bag of food for the fish. However, she had zoned out, and the fish had already scattered, having grown too impatient to wait any longer.

"Dashijie, there's something I have to tell you..."

Yu Jielan reacted slowly at first, but when Shu Haolin showed her the broken silver bangle, she understood at once.

"You're saying, there was a third party involved?"

Shu Haolin bit her lip, but she still nodded. A glimmer of hope appeared in Yu Jielan's eyes, but it was quickly dashed.

"Besides, Yu Ziyan has already been captured by us. Who was it, then, that killed those two disciples last night?" Shu Haolin added.

"But that's not right. Yu Ziyan has already been captured by us—the third party should be very clear that to move right now would be to reveal a flaw in their concealment, and not a small flaw either. Why would they choose to make a move now?"

"Either they're not aware that Yu Ziyan has been captured... or they had no choice—they couldn't control themselves." Shu Haolin's eyes lit up, a clue grasped firmly in her hand. "Didn't you say once that the path of demonic cultivation by taking others' yuan qi is addictive—once one starts, it becomes hard to stop?"

Yu Jielan nodded, seeming to follow her train of thought. She was about to open her mouth to speak when she was interrupted by an approaching disciple of the Lianyun Temple.

"Young Sect Leader Yu, the abbot invites you to a meeting." The disciple bowed slightly and extended out her hand. "Please."

Shu Haolin glanced at Yu Jielan, who nodded, and with a light flick of her hand, she tossed out the fish food into the pond in a graceful arc. All the fish in the pond that had been motionless, conserving energy in the cold, suddenly came to life, swimming up to the surface to eat the fine grains of fish food that had fallen from the sky. Like those suddenly lively fish, Yu Jielan's eyes were alight once more with determination and a spark.

"Let's go."

***

"Today, I've invited the heads of each of the martial arts Sect who have blessed my temple with your presence for a short meeting, and it is to discuss how we will deal with the remnants of the Baiyu Alliance. Now that the leader has been captured, the Baiyu Alliance no longer poses a threat to us, but all the same, it is important to pull out the trouble by its roots and to make sure the jianghu is sufficiently cleansed of all remnants of the Baiyu Alliance. I wonder if any of the Sect Leaders have any high opinions?"

The room was silent for a while. Shu Haolin stood behind Yu Jielan's seat and scanned the room. Shao Mingrong was also there. She noted his healthy and lively looking expression—what a striking contrast from his ill appearance yesterday. She wasn't given much time to ruminate on this detail before someone spoke up.

"Recently, the Baiyu Alliance has had many movements in various areas. My Sect, for one, has captured several hostages alive, and I'm sure many others have hostages from the Baiyu Alliance as well. Why don't we interrogate them for details on the locations of their hideouts and close them down, one by one?"

"Sect Leader Wu, you're much too optimistic." Another interjected. "The members of the Baiyu Alliance are each and every one of them trained to undergo pain and torture. How are you planning to get them to 'fess up?"

"People, no matter if they're a demonic cultivator or otherwise, will always have their weaknesses." The person who had spoken leaned in closer to the table and lowered his voice. "Why don't we... kidnap their relatives and force them to confess?"

For a moment, the entire room was silent. Everyone present was either the leader of an entire martial arts Sect, or at least some sort of highly ranked member, and each and every one of them were perfectly clear that this suggestion would certainly get innocents involved. Yet it sounded so simple, so easy, and so effective, and everyone was at least a little moved by the suggestion. The silence became expectant, with everyone waiting for someone to take a stand.

"I say we do it for the greater good." Someone spoke up bravely.

"Yeah. The relatives of demonic cultivators, they're probably not any good people anyways!"

"Exactly! There's no need to have mercy on them."

A clamor was slowly rising, and it seemed that the tide of public opinion was slowly leaning towards the suggestion, sweeping all moral objections under the rug. That was, until Yu Jielan stood up.

"No." She said. There was a stiffness and stubbornness in her cold voice that made people instinctively want to fight back, not because she was right or wrong, but because they couldn't stand her arrogance. "Everyone, don't tell me you don't see the moral issue with this suggestion? Kidnapping people for no reason and out of nowhere, in what position does that put us? How could we claim to be any different from those demonic cultivators themselves?"

There were some dissatisfied murmurs, but the momentum from earlier had been broken by her interruption. For a moment, the room seemed directionless.

"Young Sect Leader Yu, you're young and you have ideals. That's a good thing. But the thing is, in a position of leadership, what's more important is being able to do something. If you disagree with this suggestion, you should suggest something else. Otherwise, you're just holding us all back."

Noises of agreement rang out in the room. Yu Jielan cleared her throat. "I have a couple of investigation leads that I am currently pursuing. I will let you know when the results can be confirmed." She said coolly, and left with a flick of her sleeves. Shu Haolin followed wordlessly.

Perhaps everyone in that room had burst out into heated discussion after she'd left, pointing at her back and criticizing her for turning her nose up to her elders, being arrogant at such a young age. Or perhaps everyone was keeping those thoughts in their minds. But Yu Jielan's straight departing back left no doubt that she couldn't care less. Shu Haolin was half a mind to laugh as she caught up to Yu Jielan, draping her arm over her shoulder.

"Good for you. You left that room of old geezers completely wordless."

There was a trace of a smile on Yu Jielan's face as she glanced at Shu Haolin. "Enough of that, you." She said lightly, but she didn't move to remove Shu Haolin's arm, instead leaning slightly into it.

Shu Haolin pressed her lips together, feeling nervous all of a sudden. She looked straight forward, a little too afraid to look at Yu Jielan as she spoke. "Having a dashijie like you is so nice."

They walked in silence for a little while before Yu Jielan answered. "There's no need to be humble. Having you is also really nice."