Daoist Master of Qing Xuan Chapter 40: Perfect and Imperfect People

The snow that had been falling for many days finally stopped and the sun was setting.

The rising and setting of the sun was absolutely the most normal thing in this world.

But it was on this fated day that things were different.

Bai Yufei had already wiped the tables in the big hall clean. Compared to the other works he had done much more using a lesser time. Steward Wu saw him and with mirth in his eyes, he pondered whether he should let Shen Lian dismiss the few others and be done with.

Of course, Shen Lian had nothing to do. He was drinking tea. Ordinary tea leaves, early melted snow water, the smoke of the tea curled upwards, rising in steams.

The normal bystander could only see that Bai Yufei was being diligent, but Shen Lian could see that Bai Yufei was cultivating a special kind of martial arts between movements.

His center of gravity was lower than the average persons. As he lands on his foot his body leaned forward, but his heel bone touched the floor first. His poses were obviously weird but he did know show any awkwardness which allowed no one to notice his weirdness.

This kind martial arts was probably to cultivate a kind of bodily movement, where it focuses on balance.

There was an old saying: "Cultivate the body, manage the nation in order, and peace will prevail throughout the universe. This peace comes from balance.

It was rare to maintain balance in the way of the world.

It was as though this bodily movement was tailor-made for Bai Yufei, because Bai Yufei’s spine was more deformed than any normal person. It was because of this deformity that caused his center of gravity to differ from another person. He was always in an unbalanced state which allowed him to find his own point of balance, which coincides perfectly with this kind of martial arts.

"His knife might not be quick but it will be very quick when he displays his skills," Shen Lian imagined that if Bai Yufei had a chance to use his knife previously, from his bodily movement, his knife technique would be concatenated which not many would be able to dodge.

Simultaneously, he was able to see that Bai Yufei’s knife technique had not reached the level where knife and human are one. Therefore there was not a perfect accord between bodily movement and knife technique and he was not able to use his knife which led to him being injured.

Even though Bai Yufei was doing labor, but he did not feel tired at all. In his entire life, he had not done this kind of labor at all, and never did he earned a living for himself. Once one has entered Jianghu, one has to do things that were not one’s will. He lacked the feeling of safety but there was Shen Lian here. For the first time in his life, he could not resist having this kind of feeling. He also felt that Shen Lian was someone who was worthy of respect. This was because Shen Lian had an edge that no one else has.

That was Shen Lian’s gaze. No matter who he looked at, it was the same to him. When he put you in his eyes, there was no plot and no prejudice.

Bai Yufei had wandered in Jianghu and met countless people. He had his own insight of others and Shen Lian was definitely one of the special kind of people or even he was a kind of his own.

"Young master, the old master is unwell, you have to return quickly."

A man in grey robe burst through the door, he was one of the many members of the Green Bamboo Sect and the ‘young master’ he mentioned was naturally not Shen Lian but An Renjie.

An Renjie shouted back, "Is that old man pretending to be sick so he can trick me into going back?"

The servant replied, "This time is a serious matter, young master. The young master of the Mingjian Peak had arrived and took that treasure from our sect. The leader is injured too. Just come back and have a look, please."

An Renjie’s face fell, even when he no longer cares for Jianghu matters, he too knew about the Mingjian Peak.

Bai Yufei’s expression also moved, "they had come, after all."

"I already said that blasted painting should not have been kept, everything would be solved if we burned it. However, that old man deliberately treats it as a treasure. If that toy really has anything to do with the immortal clan, there isn’t anyone in our family becoming immortal after so many years. I should be able to get some of the immortal Qi rubbed off on me. Now that the item is lost, it’s a good thing because now we do not have to live in dread and fear," An Renjie was not only not upset after hearing this, he was elated.

He then said to Shen Lian, "Young master Shen, don’t you always have an interest towards that kind of stuff? Now’s the chance. The item’s yours after you snatch it back. I promise you that the old man would not dare to ask for it from you."

"There is no need to search for it, it will come by itself." Shen Lian smiled calmly. It was hard to predict the loss and gains, everything came down to the word ‘fate’.

Luck has its own fate, the benevolent has its own fate, the wicked has its own fate, there were fateful meetings and fateful separations, and it was unknowable.

There was a sudden look of terror on the face of the man in the grey robe, he pointed to the front and said, "Young master, that is the palanquin of the young master of Mingjian Peak."

The plain green palanquin did not come from the ground neither did it from the snow but it came from the skies.

The sword slaves who were clad in green tight clothing lifted the palanquin and flew from the opposite roof. The palanquin landed slowly like a lantern, as though it had released itself from the binding of gravity. The setting sun naturally illuminated all places and it pulled a long shadow even-handedly, which coincidentally blocked the entrance.

"Young master, An Inn is just there," Jian Shisan, who was in front, clearly saw the pair of couplet—’Cultured guests frequent here; Unrefined guests are always welcome.' There was a lingering charm about it, this Shen Lian was actually a person of poetic temperament.

"Bai Yufei is also here," this was said by Jian Shisi however. It was obvious that Bai Yufei had left a strong impression on him.

After all, it was the both of them who had hunted Bai Yufei down from the borders of the State Capital of Qing before.

******

No one would have expected that the young master of Mingjian Peak was a handicap, that he was someone who can only move in a wheelchair.

When Bai Yufei completely saw Ye Liuyun, the hatred of being injured dissipated like smoke.

It was because that Ye Liuyun had such wonderful family background, his elegant demeanor was extraordinary and the martial art skills he possesses was superb, all of these could better demonstrate what it meant by even the gods were jealous of his outstanding abilities.

When someone who was overly perfect has a flaw, it is an inevitable travesty. This misfortune lies in the soul and not in the physical material.

No one would really care about how many cavities there are on a piece of rock.

But how many people would feel sad or sorry when there are flaws in a priceless piece of white jade?

Bai Yufei felt pity while An Renjie was stunned. The man in the grey robe who came with the announcement, however, have not seen Ye Liuyun’s true self. This was because to defeat the Green Bamboo Sect, Jian Shisan by himself was enough for the job.

"Brother Bai, that day when you left in a hurry you yet to bid us goodbye, we did not even manage to have a conversation and all that was left by you was your knife. Of course, this item should be returned to its owner now that I have found the owner today."

There was a white knife in Ye Liuyun’s hand, the only part that was black was the handle. It was as though he was holding a streak of light when he held the knife in his hand.

It was very obvious, using this kind of knife at night. This was because even though Bai Yufei commits burglary, he never ambushes when he was in a duel with someone.

With the flash of a white light, the knife steadily lands on Bai Yufei’s hands.

He held his own knife, gave a slight glance and was dumbstruck.

There were originally two words that were engraved on the body of the knife—Bai Yu.

Now, there were still two words on the body of the knife, but Bai Yu had become ‘Sui Yu’ [2].

He could even clearly see the ‘Sui’ of ‘Sui Yu’ had a deeply imprinted fingerprint in each stroke of it.

Not much was needed to be said, the original ‘Bai’ word on the body of the knife was not only wiped clean off but the word ‘Sui’ was carved with immense strength by using his finger.

The white jade was already broken, what was the person to do?

"What’s wrong, Brother Bai? Do you think the words on the body of the knife is no good? If you think ‘Sui Yu’ does not have a good ring to it, you could change it by yourself, or have other people to help you change it."

The material of the knife was especially similar to extremely fine steel, only those with similar finger strength such as Dali Jingang is able to engrave on the blade itself, it was never about the depth of one’s martial arts skill.

The last sentence was obviously meant for Shen Lian.

From the beginning, Shen Lian attracted Ye Liuyun’s attention.

In actual fact, Shen Lian was like the perfect version of Ye Liuyun with his unrivaled graceful bearing, his radiance and his pair of legs that were not handicapped.