No demons in all realms

Chapter 27 Revisiting the Myriad Swords Manor

Su Yang walked quickly down the street.

He doesn't usually walk like this. He usually walks with a bamboo cane, step by step, steadily and rhythmically, like he's measuring the land.

But now he walks very fast, so fast that his bamboo cane taps the ground with a series of rapid sounds, and Ye Qing has to jog to keep up.

"Little blind boy!" Ye Qing called after him, "Why are you walking so fast? Wait for me!"

Su Yang did not stop.

He walked to the edge of the town, stopped under an old locust tree.

He stood under the tree, leaning on his bamboo cane, facing the dark wilderness, motionless.

Ye Qing caught up, panting heavily.

"Why...why are you running?" She bent over, her hands on her knees. "They didn't even recognize you."

Su Yang did not answer; his shoulders were trembling slightly.

Ye Qing straightened up and looked at him.

The moonlight shone on his face, on his bandaged eyes, and on his clenched teeth. His expression remained the same, calm and indifferent, but Ye Qing could tell that he was enduring it, that he was desperately trying to hold back.

"Little blind girl," Ye Qing said softly.

Su Yang did not respond.

"If you want to cry, then cry," Ye Qing said. "I won't laugh at you."

Su Yang remained silent for a long time.

"I didn't cry."

His voice was trembling.

Ye Qing looked at him but didn't say anything more.

She squatted down next to Su Yang, took a handkerchief out of her bundle, and stuffed it into his hand.

"Take it."

Su Yang clutched the handkerchief tightly.

The night breeze carried the fishy smell of the Canglan River and the fragrance of wildflowers on the bank—the same smell as it had many years ago.

Su Yang stuffed the handkerchief into his pocket, took a deep breath, and said, "Let's go back to sleep. We have to travel tomorrow."

Ye Qing stood up and followed beside him. The two walked one after the other in the night of Canglan Town.

"Little blind man."

"Um?"

"The junior brother that girl was talking about... was it you?"

Su Yang paused briefly on the ground with his bamboo cane before continuing to walk forward.

"no."

Ye Qing did not ask any further questions.

She knew he was lying, but she didn't call him out on it. Perhaps he really had already moved on from the past.

The next day, before dawn, Su Yang got up.

He packed his bundle in the dark, the sound of his bamboo cane tapping on the inn floor waking up Ye Qing next door.

Ye Qing rubbed her eyes and pushed open the door, her hair a mess like a bird's nest. She saw Su Yang already dressed and standing in the corridor.

"What are you doing up so early?" Ye Qing asked, yawning.

"Let's get going."

"Why are you rushing? It's not even dawn yet."

"Aren't you in a hurry to find your fiancé?"

Ye Qing paused for a moment, then remembered this and muttered, "No matter how anxious I am, a little more time won't make a difference." But her body betrayed her and she went to wash up.

The two checked out of the hotel, bought some steamed buns from a street vendor, and ate them as they walked north, taking advantage of the morning mist.

It's less than twenty li from Canglan Town to Wanjian Manor. Su Yang knows this road so well that he could walk it with his eyes closed.

In fact, he walked with his eyes closed. His bamboo cane touched the ground, and every step he took landed in familiar places. He remembered where there was an old tree, where there was a big rock, and where the road had a bend.

Back when he was still blind, he had walked this road countless times. Back then, he would ride his flying sword down the mountain, the wind whistling past his ears. The town below was tiny, with smoke rising from the rooftops and drifting crookedly into the sky.

"Little blind man, have you been here before?" Ye Qing walked beside him, and seeing how smoothly he walked, she became suspicious.

"no."

"Then you walk more steadily than me?"

"I'm blind, so of course I have to walk steadily."

Ye Qing rolled her eyes, thinking that the explanation was barely acceptable, but she still felt that something was not quite right.

After walking for most of the day, the two finally arrived in the afternoon.

Su Yang stopped at the foot of a mountain, leaning on a bamboo cane, facing the mountain.

The mountain is very high, and the summit is hidden in the clouds and cannot be seen clearly. A stone staircase runs from the foot of the mountain to the top. The staircase is wide enough for five or six people to walk side by side.

Wanjian Manor is located on this mountain.

Su Yang stood there, motionless, the wind blowing his clothes, the gauze covering his eyes, and his face, which revealed no expression.

He stood there silently for a while, pressing back the things that were surging up one by one.

"Let's go."

The two people walked up the stone steps.

The stone steps were very long, more than a thousand steps. Ye Qing was out of breath after walking half of them, holding her knees and complaining of being tired. Su Yang, on the other hand, walked very steadily, tapping his bamboo cane on the stone steps, going up one step at a time, as if nothing had happened.

"Aren't you...aren't you tired?" Ye Qing asked, panting.

"Not tired."

"Are you even human?" Ye Qing muttered, gritting his teeth as he continued climbing.

Upon reaching the mountaintop, a large stone gate came into view. On either side of the gate stood two stone pillars, with the four large characters "Wanjian Manor" carved on them.

Two gatekeepers stood in front of the stone gate, dressed in blue disciple robes, with long swords hanging at their waists, standing ramrod straight.

"Who are you two? What brings you to my Ten Thousand Swords Manor?" one of the disciples asked.

Ye Qing stepped forward and said politely, "Senior brother, I'm here to find someone."

"Who should I look for?"

"I don't know his name," Ye Qing said. "He's my fiancé. My parents arranged this marriage for me when I was very young. I only know that he works at Wanjian Manor, but I don't know his name."

The two gatekeepers exchanged a glance, both somewhat bewildered.

"Young lady, you don't even know her name, how can we help you find her?"

"I know he's probably around twenty-three or twenty-four years old. Could you ask him one by one for me?"

The gatekeeper hesitated for a moment. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. Wanjian Manor had a good reputation in Qingzhou, and occasionally people would come to claim kinship, but this was the first time he'd encountered someone whose name he didn't even know.

"Wait a moment, I'll go inform the elder." After saying this, a disciple turned and ran inside.

Su Yang stood behind Ye Qing, leaning on his bamboo cane, quiet and still, like a piece of wood.

Just then, a series of barking sounds came from inside the door.

Su Yang's ears twitched.

A big yellow dog rushed out of the door, running very fast, kicking up dust with its four legs.

The gatekeeper was startled and reached out to stop it, but he couldn't. The dog rushed straight to Su Yang, circled his legs, wagged its tail like a windmill, and made whimpering noises.

Su Yang squatted down.

He reached out and touched the big yellow dog's head. Its fur was a bit coarse, not as soft as before, and there was a scar on its head, which felt like it had been chopped off by something.

Su Yang paused his hand on the dog's head for a moment.

"Big Yellow," he said in a voice only a dog could hear, as soft as the wind rustling through leaves.

The big yellow dog whimpered and buried its head in his hand.

"How have you been these past few years?"

The big yellow dog whimpered again, its voice muffled, as if in response. It stuck out its tongue and licked Su Yang's palm, leaving his hand covered in saliva.

Su Yang's hands were trembling. It turned out that so many years had passed in the blink of an eye.

"Don't tell them I'm back." Su Yang's voice was very low, so low that only Da Huang could hear it. "I'm leaving soon, so take good care of yourself."

The big yellow dog suddenly stopped wagging its tail. It raised its head and looked at Su Yang with its wet eyes.

The dog couldn't see his eyes behind the gauze, but it could smell his scent—the scent it had been waiting for for ten years.

It let out a whimper, the sound drawn out, like crying.

Su Yang paused his hand on its head for a moment, then withdrew it. He stood up, his face as calm as ever.