“Still not possible?”
Basking underneath the afternoon sun with a pastry grasped in one hand and a clasped fan in the other, An Fei pouted her lips. She sat in the terrace of the inn that Xu Lingxin had ‘carefully’ checked out the day before, and was currently delivering a baleful gaze towards the temple maiden seated on the other side.
“Yes. The nightly winter rains have begun, thus its not possible to move anymore.”
“Not even cultivators can move in the night in the face of the winter rains?” the young girl echoed with disbelief.
“The city seems to be relatively unaffected by this winter rain that you speak of, so what is exactly the matter?”
An Fei’s eyes narrowed as she reflexively bit onto the creamy surface of the pastry. The tantalizing combination of sweet and tart taste was lost on her senses as the she stared towards Xu Lingxin’s calm countenance.
Thin waves of unrest weaved throughout her fingertips as she continued gnawing at the pastry crust, and the fan nearly slapped open in her momentary absence of thought.
The temple maiden truly seemed at a loss of how to respond, for the young girl refused to accept any of her shortened explanations. As such, Xu Lingxin found herself with little other choice.
“Little Sister, this must be your first year at Bei Tang, correct?” she sighed, preemptively wetting her throat with a cup of tea.
“Otherwise, there wouldn’t be as much confusion as there is now. Has Little Sister heard of the legend of the ‘Blistered Stone’?”
Blistered… Stone?
An Fei repeated the words to herself, and habitually frowned at the unusual combination of words. She raised her glance towards the bemused temple maiden, and ultimately motioned for her to continue speaking.
“Aih… The ‘Blistered Stone’ legend is nothing more than a short poem, really. A poem should you call it, or an elegy if you will.”
Xu Lingxin paused for breath as she savored another cup of tea. Glancing over and observing that the young girl’s expression had yet to subside from that of suspicion, she gently exhaled to calm her nerves, and broke into a soft chant.
“Behold, the Stone of Heaven. Behold, the bleeding chalice of sin.”
“Shatter light, shatter dark, primal order shall not collapse.”
“Dark brings deliverance of sin. Light strips the will of order.”
“Hear the chalice of sin roar, witness the Blistered Stone bleed, and the world shall repent!”
With each statement that escaped her lips, the weaving stalks of grass besides the wooden perimeter of the terrace shivered in unison, aided by an invisible and sinister wind. The potted flowers and herbs leered as their thorns and nettles extended row upon row of lethal spears, and An Fei heard a soft buzz echo around her surroundings.
The disturbance was not unlike the fading whisper of a ghost, begging for attention for someone to put it out of its misery.
“An existential chant?”
An Fei raised her eyebrow towards Xu Lingxin who massaged her throat after finishing her brief chant. The temple maiden’s lips drew into a soft smile in response, and pointed towards the wooden panels underneath the table.
“Perhaps. On its own, it is nothing more than the ravings of someone drawn astray,” Xu Lingxin placed the cup of tea onto the table.
“However… should you ask anyone who is native of Bei Tang, they will be able to recite this chant word to word, from memory. From the most brilliant of scholars, to the most feral of children – all of Bei Tang know of this from birth, even the specific monosyllabic arrangement. The first words of an infant are not calls for their parents, but the Blistered Stone’s chant.”
“Regional dialects and personal differences in pronounciation have little effect in regards of the chant?” An Fei enunciated with alarm.
“An latent article of information that was inherited through generations, stored deep within… their blood?”
At the last moment, An Fei withheld the word ‘DNA’ from escaping her lips, and replaced it with the more archaic concept of blood. Alas, when she witnessed the temple maiden bob her head in agreement, the young girl found the entire matter laughable.
“Inheritable information, or a religious chant it may be, just why are you apprehensive around it? Just what relation does it have with the winter rains of Bei Tang?”
“Winter rains? When it rains in the night, each droplet of rain contains a small, miniscule rock with a perforated surface, not unlike that of a ruptured blister,” Xu Lingxin casually tapped her finger onto the table.
“The stone can burrow directly through skin, muscle, and bone and infiltrate into the bloodstream. The stone travels through the bloodstream and into the veins of the heart whereupon it disintegrates into formless powder, gradually petrifying it from the inside.”
“Petrification? By a stone?” the young girl’s suspicion grew one step further after having processed the words leaving from the temple maiden’s lips.
“The heart had been transformed into stone? Or was it perhaps solidified and unable to function?”
“The latter. After annexing our territory, the Violet Jade Pavilion presented before us the dissected corpse of a criminal who had spent an hour in the winter rain. The external structure of the heart, major veins, and several portions of the blood itself had been solidified into a form of congealed slurry, similar to molten iron.”
Come into contact with the rain containing hundreds of thousands, even millions of these stones, and what do you think shall happen?
“Should the historical catalogues of Bei Tang be correct, then it took the nation nine hundred years to devise an adequate method of counteracting against the abnormal effects created by contacting the winter rain. Even our Morning Star Temple, after having been annexed within the last decade, only deciphered the method a few months ago.”
Xu Lingxin warned with a stern voice, and her countenance had shed its former expression of elegance and tenderness. In its stead, a solemn gaze pierced An Fei, pricking at the base of her heart with every flicker of the alluring irises.
“In that period, thirty-seven sister disciples were lost forever, and a sizeable portion of the brave experimenters had driven themselves insane. Little Sister, do not underestimate the accursed nation of Bei Tang.”
Accursed…
“Is that word due to the history of the nation as well?” the young girl placed her cup onto the table in an upside-down position.
“Or is that Elder Sister’s personal opinion?”
Xu Lingxin’s lips twitched into a small crescent, and a lilting breath of laughter traced her throat. In response, the temple maiden similarly capsized her teacup and stacked it atop of An Fei’s porcelain cup, calling for the restaurant waiter with a wave of her hand.
“Should Little Sister be interested in the history of Bei Tang, there are several private collections that either belong to secular organizations or sects of the jianghu. There should be one in this city, and Little Sister may try persuading the owner to permit taking a little peek?”
Private collections… essentially a library?
Although from her observations, there wasn’t a lot of books present in this city…
An Fei slouched in her seat as she briefly pondered on the matter of the unusual winter rain as provided by Xu Lingxin. When her thoughts had ground to a halt, however, the waiter had managed to weave his way through the tables to stand and bow before the temple maiden.
“Esteemed Lady, Esteemed Young lady, is there anything else you require?”
“Its about the rain soon. Does the city have any places of shelter for travelers? Preferably… those for the jianghu?”
“Certainly, Esteemed Lady. Although this servant is unaware of many, surely the mayor knows of several acceptable residences…” the waiter paused in his response, his hand resting on An Fei’s porcelain cup.
“For residences… of the jianghu… Esteemed Lady…”
“What is it, does this maiden not look like a cultivator?”
Xu Lingxin’s revealed a playful smile. She raised her finger towards the waiter, and the young man felt the air around him vibrate with an odd keen, reeking of a faint bloodthirst and seductive charm that sought after his life.
“N-no, not at all. The Esteemed Lady need not worry!”
The waiter shivered in fright, and quickly bent his back to reassure of his innocence. With Xu Lingxin’s pointed stare brushing against the beads of sweat trickling down his neck, the young man fought hard to reply mid-bow.
“For residences suitable for those of caliber as the Esteemed Lady, there is the Plum Grove, as well as the Jewelry Foundation’s establishments…”
“Che, so there’s only properties owned by the Violet Jade Pavilion in this city?”
Having dismissed the shivering waiter with an airy brush of her hand, the temple maiden released a discordant sigh of exasperation. When faced with An Fei’s questioning gaze, Xu Lingxin rubbed at the back of her neck with her hand, and curled her lips in distaste.
“Ordinary residences may protect against week’s worth of rain, but can they withstand an entire winter of nighty rain without allowing a single drop of rain through?” she pouted.
“There are specialized residences that people may rent during the winter should they desire a bit more guaranteed security, and the Plum Grove as well as the Jewelry Foundation’s properties definitely possess a sound reputation. The only problem is that they’re owned by the Violet Jade Pavilion, meaning that it costs money – and a lot of money.”
The Morning Star Temple’s maiden only wished to vent a bit of steam and begin searching around for alternative means of temporary shelter. Nonetheless, the moment she raised her hand to her mouth to yawn in discontent, she heard a certain young girl’s reply…
“I have money.”
