Heaven Official’s Blessing

Chapter 29.2 : White Wind Master; Swirling Sandstorm

Well, what would you like to eat then, Hua Cheng?

Fu Yao looked bewildered. “Who are you talking to? General Pei Junior? Have you gone mad?With the kind of status General Pei Junior holds, don’t you think everyone would know of it if he descends?”

Xie Lian nodded. “What you said is true. However, what if it was not his true, divine self that came down?”

In the dark, the sound of blades clashing seemed to freeze for a moment, then immediately continued.

Xie Lian said, “My realization came pretty late. In fact, this should have occurred to me long ago.

“I knew that there have been strange happenings at the Ban Yue pass for nearly two hundred years, but no Heaven’s Official has ever ventured to take notice of it. Since everyone else was reluctant to touch on the subject, it could only mean that someone has been deliberately suppressing the matter, and they dared not offend this person. But I wasn’t familiar with the rest of the Heaven’s Officials, so I dared not venture any guesses or make bold speculations as to who this big-shot is.”

Xie Lian had only been reminded of the matter when Fu Yao mentioned the female ghost, Xuan Ji.

When on the subject of Xuan Ji, one would inadvertently connect her with the two generals from the Pei family. The North is the domain of the two Pei generals, and Fu Yao had once mentioned in passing : before General Pei Junior ascended to Heaven, he had once commanded the massacre of everybody in a captured city.

{T/N: Refer chapter 12, on Pei Su’s (aka General Pei Junior) brief history}

Which city was massacred?

It could very well have been the ancient country of Ban Yue!

This sort of thing is not unheard of among the officials of the Court of Heaven. In order to attain success, bloodshed has often been necessary. But then again, slaughtering the innocent folk in a captured city was not something one could brag about either. If word of it gets spread too far and wide, it would be difficult to attract new worshipers, so it was often necessary to cover up these matters. Even if everyone in Heaven knew of it, the polite thing to do would be to gloss over the subject. After all, unless one was harboring some sort of deep grudge or planned on causing mischief, who would go around digging up other people’s shameful histories and drawing the ire of their backers?

Xie Lian said slowly, “The face which was buried in the ground said, among us, there was someone who had been present fifty to sixty years ago. I thought his words were but lies to trick us to get closer, but now it seems that it spoke the truth.

“The one I suspected most was you. The caravans follow you, it’s no chore for you to lead them anywhere you wished. In all the years I spent in Ban Yue, I have never come across a single Scorpion-Tailed snake, yet you lot managed to come across such a rare, venomous creature while seeking shelter from the sand storm.

“When I agreed for you to come with us to seek the Moon Kindred herbs, you even left them with very specific directions to the ancient city of Ban Yue, just so if any of them couldn’t wait for our return, they could go ahead and serve themselves up to be slaughtered. Earlier at the top of the Sinners’ Pit, I did say that if anything were to happen I would step forth first. But you suddenly lost your head and jumped in for no reason, despite having been calm from the start.”

Xie Lian paused briefly before summing it up. “Your actions have been bizarre and senseless all along, but it took me this long to figure it out. It really was slow of me, isn’t that right? General Pei Junior? Or should I call you—– Ah Zhao!”

Deathly silence ensued.

After a long while, a flat, cold voice said, “Has it ever occurred to you, that the face in the ground may have been referring to the youth in red by your side instead.”

Flames blazed up within the Sinner’s Pit, illuminating two figures in bloody crimson facing each other.

One was San Lang in red who had already stowed away his weapons, looking calm and serene. The other was a plain garbed young man who was still holding a sword out horizontally before him, seemingly reluctant to back down.

Because the plain cotton of the young man’s clothing was soaked in blood, it gave the impression that he was dressed entirely in red. His expression was cold and remote, with a body slung over one of his shoulders. It really was Ah Zhao.

In fact, whether it is the deity General Pei Junior or Ah Zhao, that dull and stony expression he favored had always been the same. But Xie Lian’s thoughts had not led him in that direction, so he did not make the connection between these two people earlier.

The person he held draped over his shoulder was Ban Yue. Xie Lian guessed that he had released the snakes to distract them and steal Ban Yue away during the ensuing chaos, but since his mask has now been torn off, there was no longer any use in doing so. The snakes writhing on the ground and those still hailing down from above suddenly fell still. With a skillful twist of the wrist, Ah Zhao sheathed his sword with one hand and lowered Ban Yue to the ground with the other. Ke Mo gaped at him. “Who are you? Didn’t you fall to your death?”

Ah Zhao’s gaze did not waver from San Lang. “Ke Mo, you’re still the same after hundreds of years,” he replied curtly in the Ban Yue tongue

Ke Mo gave a start of recognition at his blandly indifferent tone, then rage suddenly suffused his swarthy features. “……It’s you!!! Pei Su?!”

If it wasn’t because he was firmly tied up by the Immortal Binding ropes, he probably would charged at the young man like a furious bull.

“General Pei Junior, the Scorpion-Tailed snakes do not only obey Ban Yue,” Xie Lian probed. “The snakes which would attack travelers at will were controlled by you, weren’t they.”

“En, it was me,” Pei Su admitted. He seemed strangely pleased.

“Did Ban Yue teach you how to control the Scorpion-Tailed snakes?”

“She did not. But I can learn her ways on my own.”

Xie Lian’s brows rose. “Indeed, General Pei Junior is truly gifted.”

He paused, then asked, “When did you two first meet? And how did you meet?”

Pei Su gave him a brief look and said, “General Hua.”

Xie Lian was baffled. “Why are you also addressing me this way?”

Pei Su said mildly, “Do you not recognize me, General Hua?”

“……”

Then Xie Lian recalled.

Hazy memories surfaced of Ban Yue as a child being ostracized by the other Ban Yue children, only a young Yong’An boy would occasionally take notice of her. Like Ban Yue, the boy was also taciturn by nature. Many of the children at the frontier were born to the soldiers defending the borders, and they tended to join the ranks after growing up as well. Could it be……

“It’s you?!” Xie Lian exclaimed. “I really only just recognized you.”

Pei Su nodded. “It’s me. I too, only just recognized you, General.”

No wonder. Turns out Ban Yue and the military official she colluded with have known each other from way back!

Xie Lian said, “Did Ban Yue really open the city gates because of you?”

Ke Mo spat at the floor, then began bucking around. “Untie me,” he demanded. “Let me and this despicable wretch Pei Su fight it out to the death!”

Pei Su replied coolly, “Firstly, we have already fought it out two hundred years ago, and you lost. Second, dare I ask which part of me is despicable?”

Ke Mo drew himself up angrily. “If it wasn’t for the two of you colluding to strike at us from inside and out, how would we have lost?!”

Pei Su’s lips curled in a faint sneer. “Ke Mo, stop deluding yourself. During the siege, even though I only brought two thousand men with me, as far as I’m concerned, breaking through the city gates was only a matter of time. ”

Xie Lian could not help blurting out, “Wait wait, you were sent to attack a whole country with only two thousand soldiers? Wasn’t it tantamount to suicide? Could it be that you were even more detested within the army than me??”

“……”

Pei Su stopped talking. It seems like he had hit the mark. Xie Lian added, “Since victory was in your grasp, why then did you ask Ban Yue to open the city gates for you?”

Pei Su said bluntly, “Because I wanted everyone in the city dead.”

Xie Lian squinted at him. “What do you mean? Since you were already winning, what need was there to massacre everyone?” It can’t be some kind of hobby right!

Pei Su said, “It was precisely because we were winning, that the massacre was necessary. And it had to be done quickly and immediately, sparing no one.”

Xie Lian noticed the grand way he emphasized on ‘sparing no one’. “Reason being?”

Pei Su replied, “The night before the siege, many of the Ban Yue family heads convened and came to an agreement on one thing.”

“What was it?”

“The Ban Yue people are naturally fierce with tendencies toward violence,” Pei Su explained. “They deeply hated Yong’an. Even if they knew that defeat was imminent, they would not submit to it. So all of Ban Yue’s men, women, children, elderly, were instructed to prepare one thing with utmost haste.”

Xie Lian could already faintly guess at what it was, and the word Pei Su spat out confirmed his guess:

“Explosives!”

Pei Su drew his words out carefully. “They had decided that if the walls of the city fall, all the inhabitants would conceal these explosives within their bodies and immediately flee in different directions. They would then enter Yong’an and try to cause a ruckus to draw as large a crowd as possible, then set the explosives off. Even if they die, they will bring as many Yong’an people down with them as they could. Even if their nation has been vanquished, they would see to it that the ones who had defeated them would know no peace.”

Hence it had been necessary to cut down all these civilians in one stroke before they could make a run for it……

Xie Lian immediately turned to look at Ke Mo. “Is this true?”

Ke Mo replied proudly, “Yes!”

San Lang lifted a brow. “How very vicious.”

He said this in the Ban Yue tongue. Ke Mo’s face contorted in rage. “Vicious? What right do you have to call us vicious? If it were not you people who attacked us first, we would not have been forced to this. You destroyed us and we retaliated in turn, how are we in the wrong?!”

“Very well,” Pei Su said. “How about we start from the beginning? How many times have the Ban Yue people at the frontier stirred up trouble without reason? How many Yong’an caravans and travelers on the way to the Western Regions been maliciously intercepted by the Ban Yue nation? You people knew full well that there were horse thieves amongst you who specialized in deliberately barricading roads and wantonly plundering and slaughtering the Yong’an people, yet you sheltered them. The soldiers that Yong’an sent to round up these thieves and murderers were killed by you on grounds of trespassing. So tell me, have we not the right to deem you vicious?”

Although his speech was impassive and his tone inflectionless, every word was sharp and incisive. Ke Mo said, “But that was because you people first forcefully occupied our lands, so we struck back.”

Pei Su said, “The borders between the two countries have never been clearly delineated, how was it considered forceful occupation?”

Ke Mo said, “Both sides have already marked out the territories long ago, but you people reneged on it!”

Pei Su returned, “The division of the territories was only agreed on your end, when has Yong’an ever acceded to it? Your so-called division of territories was to give us all the barren wastelands whilst you people kept all the oases for yourself. Ridiculous, no?”

Ke Mo was enraged. “The oases have always belonged to us. Generations of Ban Yue people grew up at the oases!”

Both parties obstinately stuck to their side of the story. Listening to them bicker incessantly was enough to make Xie Lian’s head throb. When he recalled how he had been caught in between both opposing armies and suffered a terrible beating two hundred years ago, he felt his face aching dully again. Pei Su turned away from Ke Mo dismissively and said to Xie Lian, “As you can see, the rights and wrongs of earthly affairs can never be clearly grasped. Only through force may the victor be decided.”

Xie Lian said, “I agree with the first half of that statement.”

San Lang said, “I agree with the second half.”

Ke Mo’s anger subsided slightly, then he suddenly said, “The Yong’an people for the most part are shameless, and you are the most shameless one I have ever met. Pei Su, you are a cold-hearted man. Your killing us had never been for the sake of your country, nor was it to save your people.”

Pei Su fell silent.

Ke Mo continued, “You were the son of an exile, scorned and despised by everyone. You only wanted to gain a foothold and establish yourself within the Yong’an army’s ranks and climb up the ladder, which was why you absolutely had to win that hopeless battle. But it’s a pity that Ban Yue thought highly of you. She was used by you, and betrayed us for the likes of you.”

Xie Lian asked, “But General Pei Junior, aren’t you a descendant of General Pei’s?” With the protection of such a renowned ancestor whose fame spread far and wide, it ought not have been necessary to stoop to such tactics right?

“He may be related to General Pei, but who knows how many branches there are in that family tree,” San Lang said.

Ah. That is to say, if Pei Su had not had the ability to ascend to Heaven on his own merit, he was unlikely to have received any blessings from this old ancestor of his.

“Ban Yue was my subordinate,” Pei Su said mildly. “She went to Ban Yue nation and concealed herself there on my orders. She is of Ban Yue blood, and also of Yong’an. She chose a side and stuck to it, she has never betrayed her country. The Ban Yue people are sinister and capricious. I do not regret putting them to death.”

Suddenly, a voice sounded from above. “WELL SAID! What then, of those travelers whom you lured through the pass to their ends in this pit for so many years, dare you say you do not regret their deaths as well?”