Chapter 18 — Answering the Summons

The anger deep in his heart passed in the blink of an eye, but it was so fierce that it nearly suffocated him.

He lowered his head and gripped that ugly black iron rod tightly. Its familiar chill spread through his palm.

"Xiaofan," Tian Lingsu suddenly stopped smiling and said soberly, "I'm sorry."

Zhang Qingyue's body jerked, and he raised his head.

Tian Lingsu said, "I meant to give you a treasure to save you some face, so you wouldn't be laughed at by the other disciples when you went out. But these days Mother has been driving me so hard at cultivation that I forgot."

Zhang Qingyue shook his head instinctively. "Senior Sister, your cultivation comes first. Don't give me another thought."

Tian Lingsu patted his shoulder and said with a smile, "It's nothing, though. Everyone knows what you're capable of. This trip, just treat it as broadening your horizons." She lowered her voice. "If anyone bullies you, you come and tell me at once. Hmph, I'll stand up for you right away."

Zhang Qingyue looked at his senior sister's warm gaze and did not doubt her promise in the least; he could even feel the goodwill in the talk of everyone around him. And yet—and yet, what feeling was it that still surged so within him, what flame was it that blazed so fiercely deep in his heart that he could scarcely breathe?

Tian Lingsu, still grinning, patted the shoulder of this, her favorite junior brother, and whispered, "I'll tell you a secret: there are all sorts of fun places on Jietian Peak. This time, let's sneak off and play. How about it?"

That beautiful face hovered before Zhang Qingyue's eyes, and suddenly he dared not look at her directly. He lowered his head, his heart by turns sweet and troubled—a youth's heart, as if a hundred feelings crossed at once. In a low voice he said, "Yes, Senior Sister."

Tian Lingsu's face broke into a smile. Then she heard He Dachuan behind her: "Master and Mistress are here."

Everyone turned. Out of the Shoujing Hall came Tian Buhui and Su Wan. Tian Buhui wore a sky-blue long robe and cut a rather solemn figure; had he been a little taller and his belly a little smaller, he would truly have had the revered bearing of a grandmaster. As for Su Wan, she made everyone's eyes light up. Always striking in looks, today she wore a pale green dress, a jade-carved flower and gold hairpin in her hair, brows like distant hills veiled in dark green, skin like polished white jade, eyes like water, red lips smiling—truly a beauty to overthrow the world.

Song Dayi followed behind the couple, his face as proper as could be. But the moment the junior brothers laid eyes on him, odd, half-smiling expressions rose on every face. And behind Song Dayi came the yellow dog, Da Huang, and the monkey, Xiao Hui. Xiao Hui seemed by now quite used to riding on Da Huang's back. Catching sight of Zhang Qingyue standing ahead, he gave a few "chee-chee-chee-chee" cries, leaped down from Da Huang, darted over to Zhang Qingyue, and scrambled up onto his shoulder in a few bounds.

Tian Buhui looked over the disciples and nodded. "Let's go." With that, he waved his right hand, and where the seal in his palm drew forth the spell, a red light flashed. His long-famed immortal sword, the Crimson Spirit, was raised aloft, its red radiance blazing ten thousandfold—truly a supreme treasure of the immortals. Tian Buhui was just stepping forward when his trouser leg was suddenly tugged. He turned to look: Da Huang had caught it in his teeth. The yellow dog he had raised from a pup shook his head and wagged his tail, "woo-woo"ing ceaselessly around the mouthful of trouser leg, his tail wagging furiously, his dog eyes fixed unblinking on Tian Buhui.

Tian Buhui hesitated, muttered something indistinct, but in the end waved his sleeve and swept Da Huang up with him. Then he floated onto the Crimson Spirit, exchanged a nod with Su Wan, and was the first to cleave the air and depart.

Su Wan shook her head with a light laugh and said to the others, "Come along, all of you." She paused, then said to Song Dayi, "Daren, Xiaofan's cultivation isn't sufficient. You carry him."

Song Dayi nodded. "Yes."

Su Wan nodded. Without any visible effort on her part, a pale green light flashed by—as if to match her robes—and bore her straight up into the blue sky, chasing the red light of Tian Buhui.

Among the disciples of Dazhu Peak, Wu Dayi, Zheng Dali, and Lu Daxin had not reached the fourth level of cultivation and could not ride magic treasures. So Song Dayi went to Zhang Qingyue, and the rest—He Dachuan, Du Biyan, and Tian Lingsu—each took one of the others, and they set off their separate ways. Of them all, Tian Lingsu's treasure was the Amber Red Silk; He Dachuan's was a "Rivers and Mountains Brush," which suited his usual love of letters well enough. But the funniest was undoubtedly Sixth Senior Brother Du Biyan's dice treasure. Once invoked, white light flashed and three dice swelled tenfold, spinning endlessly in the air, the various numbers appearing in turn. If one spoke of gambling devices under heaven, there was nothing to surpass it.

The fifth brother, Lu Daxin, carefully stepped up to look it over, his face miserable as he said to Du Biyan, "Sixth, this thing of yours isn't going to fall out of the sky, is it?"

Du Biyan said, "Fifth Senior Brother, how about we make a bet? If it falls out of the sky, you win, and I'll..."

Lu Daxin spat, "Ptui, ptui, ptui! Would I even dare win a bet like that?"

Du Biyan said, "That's true enough!"

Song Dayi walked up to Zhang Qingyue and smiled. "Xiaofan, are you ready?"

Zhang Qingyue was about to nod when the monkey Xiao Hui on his shoulder suddenly began to shriek. The two of them started, and saw Xiao Hui pointing now at the sky, now at Zhang Qingyue and then at himself. Zhang Qingyue blinked. "You want to come too?"

Xiao Hui immediately bared his teeth in a grin. Zhang Qingyue hesitated and glanced at Song Dayi, who thought a moment and laughed. "Master's bringing Da Huang anyway. We'll bring Xiao Hui along too."

Zhang Qingyue was delighted and nodded, and Xiao Hui was even more delighted still.

Song Dayi turned to the others. "Let's be off too, or we'll be late and Master will scold us again." The others answered and went their ways on their treasures. As she was leaving, Tian Lingsu came to Zhang Qingyue's side to add a word of caution: "Be careful, and hold on tight to our senior brother."

Zhang Qingyue nodded. "I know, Senior Sister."

Tian Lingsu smiled at him, invoked her spell, and the Amber Red Silk blazed with rosy light and cleft the air. Song Dayi then raised his own treasure, the immortal sword "Ten Tigers." He was the eldest disciple of the Dazhu Peak meridian; though his junior brothers cultivated all manner of treasures, he still trained with an immortal sword. "Ten Tigers" was yellow throughout, four feet long and three fingers wide—on the larger side among immortal swords, though unfortunately a treasure's power cannot be measured by its size.

Song Dayi pulled Zhang Qingyue up. Zhang Qingyue had ridden Tian Lingsu's Amber Red Silk before, so when "Ten Tigers" dipped under his weight and then steadied, he was not too alarmed. The monkey Xiao Hui, however, seemed to know something, and clutched tightly to Zhang Qingyue's head.

Song Dayi smiled slightly. "Little Junior Brother, off we go." With that, he pointed his right-hand spell at the sky, and "Ten Tigers" gave a low hum; the sword, which had been drifting a foot above the ground, suddenly rose three feet. Zhang Qingyue instinctively clutched at Song Dayi.

Then a gust of mountain wind blew up, and the tip of "Ten Tigers" slowly tilted upward, until it had risen about seven parts, and Zhang Qingyue was clinging to Song Dayi entirely to keep from falling—when with a shrill whistle, "Ten Tigers" shot straight up into the sky.