Chapter Ninety: All Matters Here Are Concluded

The moment An Youyu set the fire, the cloud of fortune that had hovered above the An household for generations vanished in an instant. Worse still, strands of black miasma began to coil there, growing thicker by the breath, until the whole estate seemed steeped in a strange, bone-deep chill.

Soon, a damp mist began to rise. Anyone who stayed there for even a short while could feel their clothes growing clammy, and a faint reek of serpents lingered in the air.

After a while, people realized something was terribly wrong. Snakes and insects swarmed over the ground, over the trees, across the walls, and through the house itself; some even crawled onto the beds.

When Old Master An learned of it, he hurriedly organized men to catch the snakes. He also had realgar scattered everywhere. Once the snakes were dazed by the fumes, the men beat them to death.

Yet though snakes were killed by the heap, people still kept dying from bites. Some servants and maidservants sensed danger and fled one after another.

Only when the dead began to mount did Old Master An understand that the situation was not normal. Just as he was preparing to run, a snake bit him. Madam An, too, was bitten through her own carelessness. Though these snakes were not as venomous as those on Axe Mountain, Old Master An and Madam An were already elderly and could not withstand the poison. So they sent men to look for An Youyu.

When they learned that An Youyu had gone to Axe Mountain to exterminate the serpent demon, and had even taken most of the household servants with him, they at last understood the cause. Old Master An was so enraged that he could not draw another breath and died on the spot. Madam An, seeing him die, was overwhelmed by grief and fury; with the poison in her veins, she soon followed him.

It was not until the next day, when the sun had climbed high in the sky, that An Youyu woke and found himself lying in a ruined hut.

“Master, you’re awake?” A servant saw him stir and came forward to ask.

Staring blankly ahead, An Youyu heard the servant grind his teeth and say on his own, “The An household is gone. The master and madam are both dead.”

“What? Say that again.” A hot wave surged through An Youyu’s head. He sprang upright, seized the servant by the collar, and cried out in despair, “Impossible. Everything was fine yesterday. How could this be?”

“Master, calm yourself.” The servant pried An Youyu’s hands away from his collar and stepped back two paces, afraid he would be grabbed again. “After you went to Axe Mountain to exorcise the demon, snakes appeared all over the An estate. The master and madam were both bitten. Because they were old, they couldn’t survive it. Everyone says this matter is tied to you, Master.”

“Heh… ha…” Hearing this, An Youyu was struck with such grief that he regretted everything. For the sake of a few words, whose truth he had never even verified, he had set fire to the snake cave. Not only that, he had burned the entire mountain to the ground. With a tragic laugh, he murmured, “It was my fault. All my fault.”

“Where are my parents’ remains? Take me to them now.” Suddenly remembering that he still had to lay his parents to rest, An Youyu rushed to the servant, trying to get out of bed.

Perhaps because his spirit had been utterly drained, he collapsed to the floor with a thud. He did not care. He dragged himself toward the servant.

The servant saw this and seemed about to come closer, but after a brief struggle in his expression, he not only failed to approach, he even retreated another two steps.

An Youyu understood at once. While he had been the eldest son of the An family, everyone had revolved around him; whatever he wanted, he got, and wherever he went, people followed. But looking at the servant now, he could already guess the truth.

He was no longer the young master of the An household.

So he no longer tried to crawl closer. He knew it was pointless to rely on others now. He only hoped to learn what had happened after he fell unconscious.

With a helpless sigh, he said to the servant, “Ah Hu, can you tell me what has become of the An household?”

The servant hesitated inwardly, then said with an apologetic face, “Master, this is the last time I will call you that.”

As if he had expected this long ago, An Youyu nodded.

Then the servant known as Ah Hu said, “I’m not Ah Hu anymore either. My name is Li Long now. The An family is finished. Everyone has gone off to fend for themselves.”

Though An Youyu had prepared himself for the worst, and though he had once looked on such things as reasonable when they happened to others, when it happened to him it was not so easy to bear. His mind shook violently. Something seemed to press hard against his chest, and he could hardly breathe.

“Li Long? Fine. Fine. Fine.” Even though An Youyu had been taught from childhood to possess a far steadier mind than most, he still could not suppress a surge of rage.

He had never imagined that a household rich in splendor, with people bowing and flitting about before and behind, could collapse into such a state at the slightest sign of decline, like a tree falling and scattering the monkeys.

Angry as he was, he had no choice but to turn his head away from the servant who was now Li Long.

The servant, too, was embarrassed. Paying no mind to An Youyu’s attitude, he said, “Young Master An, after this happened to the An family, I was heartbroken too. Everyone was grieved by the deaths of the master and madam. But I have old people above me and young children below me. If I have no income, my whole family will starve. I hope you can understand my difficulty, Young Master.”

“Go then. I can understand. Live well from now on.” An Youyu seemed to have been drained of all strength. Weakly, he waved the servant away, looking half-dead himself.

“Then please take care of yourself, Young Master An.” Li Long did not dare look at him. The once-bright An Youyu now looked worse than a beggar. Afraid his heart might soften if he stayed, he turned half away and said, “I’ll go first. I hope you can pull yourself together.”

“Oh, right. The servants you took with you to exorcise the demon never came back. They must all be dead. People are searching everywhere for you, so you’d best hide yourself, or even leave here.” Before going out, the servant added one more sentence, then left without looking back.

Only after he was gone did An Youyu crawl to the ground and cry his heart out. One moment he was weeping, the next he was laughing, muttering nonsense between sobs. After a long while, he finally whispered to himself, “It’s all my fault. One wrong thought, and I not only destroyed my family and brought ruin to our house, I also left other people’s wives and children without husbands and fathers.”

His hair had long since been torn loose; his clothes were already in tatters. Slowly, he got to his feet and walked outside. No one could have recognized him as An Youyu now; they would only have taken him for a refugee driven from his home.

He walked to the front of the An estate. Ignoring the crowd gathered there, he stared blankly at the home that, overnight, had fallen into utter ruin. Then he knelt and bowed his head several times.

“Who is that beggar, bowing to the An estate like this?” said one onlooker.

Another guessed, “Maybe he was once helped by Old Master An. It would be normal for him to bow a few times after seeing the family end up like this.”

“That beggar at least has some conscience. He knows gratitude.”

“Isn’t that the truth? At the very least, he has more heart than An Youyu, the An family’s young master. Everyone he took with him to Axe Mountain died there, and many households were left with nothing but widows and orphans. And even now, I hear he has not shown his face once.”

An Youyu heard every one of those words, but he made no response. Since coming out onto the street, that was all anyone had said. He had long since gone numb. In Yinhua County, the An family’s calamity was the greatest event of the day, and everyone spoke of nothing else.

Then he heard someone else say, “I hear Landlord Zhang has called on the faithful to offer worship to the green serpent.”

“When did that happen?”

“Just yesterday.”

“Is it because of the An family?”

“No. It’s because of a story about a serpent tamer. Landlord Zhang said he was guided by an expert, and that the worship of one flood dragon and two green serpents was meant to protect the household and bring peace to the whole county.”

“There’s such a thing? Tell us about it.”

So one person recounted the story of the serpent tamer. When the crowd had heard it, they all cried out in wonder.

An Youyu also heard it, and for some reason he murmured softly, “The serpent tamer.”

Then he left without once looking back.

After that matter was settled, Wang Yuanfeng set out toward the mouth of Dongting Lake together with Little Green and Second Green. As for Zhang Sangu, because of An Youyu’s act of setting the mountain ablaze, guilt had already taken root in her heart. Moreover, long before, she had personally witnessed her clan being slaughtered by Zhang Xiangzi, and had remained only to care for Huaguniang.

For so many years she had endured humiliation and borne her burden in silence. With the torment inside her, she had long been in agony. It was only after Zhang Xiangzi was exposed and Wang Yuanfeng and the others surrounded and killed him that all her emotions finally burst forth. Yet when Huaguniang died in the end, Zhang Sangu still fell into a deathly resolve. If Wang Yuanfeng had not told her that Huaguniang still had hope of reincarnation, Zhang Sangu would never have been able to go on.

She merely said that she would repair Huaguniang’s magical treasure and wait for her reincarnation, then bade farewell to Wang Yuanfeng and left.

Wang Yuanfeng, however, had heard that a heavily wounded fire tiger still remained on Axe Mountain. He thought it might be useful to him, and besides, as the mountain spirit of the southern half of Axe Mountain, it also held half of the mountain’s fortune. Together with Little Green and the others, it occupied one half, yin and yang dividing it evenly.

So Wang Yuanfeng asked Zhang Sangu to stay on Axe Mountain a little longer, to sort out the mountain’s spiritual veins and, while she was at it, search for the badly wounded fire tiger. He hoped she could treat it if possible. If she encountered any difficulty, she was to contact him at any time.

Zhang Sangu agreed at once, without the slightest hesitation. There was only steadfastness in her eyes.

After parting from Zhang Sangu, Wang Yuanfeng went with Little Green and Second Green to the summit of Blade Mountain, crossed the iron-chain bridge, and passed over Axe Mountain.

Though he still felt that this affair was not truly over, it no longer concerned him, for he still had to go to the lands of Southern Province.

After crossing Axe Mountain, Wang Yuanfeng knew it was time to part. He was bound for the mouth of Dongting Lake to search for traces of Marquis Wu'an, while Second Green and Little Green had business waiting for them at Lake Taixuan.

At a fork in the road, Wang Yuanfeng stopped and looked at Second Green, who seemed on the verge of speaking, and at Little Green, who had been clinging to his side the whole way. He said, “Ladies, after all we have been through together, we may be said to share a bond of cooperation. From here on, we must deal with the affairs of Southern Province.”

“Yes. I’ll take Little Green and hurry to Lake Taixuan to discuss the matter of an alliance with our eldest brother.” Second Green also knew that the time to separate had come. After this farewell, whether they could meet again was hard to say. Though they had a verbal pact and the possibility of meeting remained, neither of them was the one truly in charge, and besides, the situation in Southern Province changed in the blink of an eye. Whether success could even be achieved was still uncertain.