Chapter 193: A Death For Healing, II

By the time he arrived, Master Shu was already seated, and Wu Hao had to wrestle his way through a crowd of people to get close enough to be able to speak. He arrived during a conversation about some place he'd never heard of - who cared how many peaks the Kunlun mountains had, anyway - and, deciding that it'd be entirely too childish to pull the master's robe, instead stood there awkwardly.

Master Shu raised an eyebrow, then excused himself before turning his attention on Wu Hao.

"You're back," he said. "And? I notice you're wearing neither bandages, nor do you smell of medicine. No ailment to treat, then?"

"Overdrawn concentration," Wu Hao grunted.

"Hmm," Master Shu said, though he didn't seem particularly convinced by this.

"How was the tour?" Wu Hao asked. "Learn anything interesting?"

"It was educational," Master Shu said, speaking just a little slower, as if weighing his words. "Young Ke Shuang is very straight-forward, I suppose."

Wu Hao raised an eyebrow. That was putting it delicately. Ke Shuang had seemed intentionally provocative from the moment they'd first met.

"You didn't slap him or anything, did you?" Wu Hao asked.

"I was tempted," Master Shu said, his eyes narrowing. "What did he do?"

Nothing. Nothing yet, anyway.

It struck Wu Hao then - in the same way as physically Ke Shuang had not been struck - that somehow, he had missed out on the challenge to a duel entirely. By his detour to the pharmacy, he'd accidentally avoided doing anything that'd provoke Ke Shuang, and there was no way that he was going to get enough time to talk to the other man now in order to taunt him.

Was that good? Was that bad? There was no way for Ke Shuang to get his blood, now. Maybe it was a better solution than trying to beat him senseless before he could try to get any fake evidence for later, but on the other hand it left Wu Hao feeling curiously disappointed. It was one thing to fail - he'd failed before, he'd fail again - but it was another to not even really try.

"Well?"

"Nothing," Wu Hao mumbled. "I just figured that if you slap me you might slap him."

Master Shu rapped Wu Hao on the top of his head.

"Well, he's not my disciple," he said. "You are. I have expectations for you and none for him. Now shush. The Glorious Sun Sovereign is about to speak."

Ke Taiqi lurched to his feet. He still seemed graceful, well-dressed, charismatic, but Wu Hao couldn't see anything about the man that made him seem glorious, as such. Maybe it was more a descriptor of the Patriarch's martial arts than he himself, but was it really possible to perform something glorious while not being glorious yourself?

Wu Hao glanced at Master Shu, who had stood up as well. From this angle he couldn't really see Master Shu's face except a genial sort of smile.

"Welcome, all," Ke Taiqi boomed, voice echoing. "I'm very glad all of you were able to make it here. Now, not to waste too many words. The reason for this banquet is of course the official visit of the newest Sovereign of the Martial Arts Alliance - unless, of course, news of a newer Sovereign still has yet to reach my ears!"

Giving a moment for some laughter that petered off quickly, Ke Taiqi repeated the rest of his speech. The jokes more or less landed on the same beats as they had before, meriting only some polite applause and laughter. That all was broadly the same as it had been the previous two nights. Wu Hao followed along, only keeping half an eye on the Patriarch as the man spoke.

Instead - bored - he followed the servants bringing food and the like to the tables. It made sense that they were coming now; if they'd come later, then they might be in the way of watching the duel. There was something about it, though. Wu Hao could see several of the men and women bringing food to the various tables, keeping track of where each of them was going, but when the last of them went away again there were a few dishes on the Patriarch's table that he couldn't remember having been put there by anyone he'd seen.

He put the matter out of his mind soon enough, though. Ke Taiqi had a short pause, then gestured over to the side where the duel would be held.

"But before we eat, my own son shall take on a fellow martial artist of the first grade. Boyi, Lu Bowin: step up, please!"

The duel went largely the same. Wu Hao didn't pay it that much attention. On the second go already he'd confirmed that the steps of the duel were more or less rehearsed, with Lu Bowin using the same attacks despite slight differences in timing and whatnot. None of the attacks landed, his dodging maneuver was "seen through" just as easily, and when Ke Boyi held his sword to Lu Bowin's neck, Lu Bowin conceded anyway.

Could Lu Bowin have won? Wu Hao considered the question carefully. It was hard to say, considering neither of the men had gone all out. Presumably Ke Boyi had several techniques that he hadn't used during the show duel, but maybe so did Lu Bowin, and he'd shown flashes of being far faster than Ke Boyi in the duel, his movement technique far freer and more complex than Ke Boyi's own.

Wu Hao felt his belly growl, but as he tried to reach out for the food to start heaping it onto his plate, Master Shu tapped on his hand.

"A little more time," he muttered.

Fine. Wu Hao withdrew his hand.

Finally - when Ke Boyi had returned, sword worn proudly on his hip - they were given the go-ahead. Wu Hao pulled together several bits of food onto his plate, picking things that he'd otherwise avoid based on the doctor's order. It couldn't hurt.

"Are you alright?" Du Linglong asked, plopping down next to him. "I heard from Senior Brother Jiazhong that you went to visit the pharmacy because you might have been injured."

"I'm fine," Wu Hao said. "Master Shu's just being a worrywart. I just had a little bit of enlightenment that I wanted to work through and he's suddenly pretending I'm unwell."

Next to him, Master Shu pretended that he hadn't heard that.

Du Linglong's eyes grew larger. "You got more enlightenment?"

Of a sort, and not exactly in the way he'd asked for. If he could've had it without dying, he wouldn't have complained, that was for sure.

"Yeah," Wu Hao said. He swallowed a piece of fish that had been presented with its entire face still intact, though even with that clue he still hadn't any clue what kind of fish it had been. A sea broam, maybe? That was one of the few types of fish he could name. It looked oily, though, and that was the important part.

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"Into what?"

"Another Heaven-grade art," Wu Hao said casually, studying the table. He hadn't exactly been in a mood to appreciate the banquet the second time, but suddenly he found that he was starving, somehow. Maybe it was the enlightenment.

Maybe it was the spasms that had come together with the vision he'd seen.

Du Linglong gaped at him.

"That's not fair," she said.

"What do you mean, that's not fair?" he asked, turning to her. "It's not anything to do with fairness."

"You've already got a Heaven-grade art," she said. "Isn't it greedy to want another one? My teachers always say to master what you have, before you move on to the next thing."

"Well -" Wu Hao said. He'd wanted to say that no teacher could really compare to getting knowledge for free, just by dying, and that if he wanted there would be an entire selection of options that he could have sampled, by now. He had at least two more Heaven-grade techniques that he knew but wasn't yet able to connect himself to.

But that wasn't exactly something he could tell her, was it?

"It's not greed," he said, then pulled a quote from one of Master Shu's books that he'd always been pressing Wu Hao to read. "It's only greed when you're reaching for something you don't need."

Du Linglong raised a thick eyebrow, but then repeated the words to herself. It was oddly cute. Still, the quote had made more of impression than Wu Hao had thought. Maybe Master Shu really was on to something. Shame he couldn't remember the rest of it.

"So what did you realize?" she asked.

"Weight," Wu Hao said. "It's everywhere."

She stared at him, and he stared back.

"That's your realization," she said.

"Yeah," he responded.

Du Linglong made a face and broke eye contact, shaking her head. Her neatly combed hair fell into a bit of a mess, a few strands flying here and there.

"I don't get it. Why can't enlightenment hit me, too?"

"Don't worry," Wu Hao said. He plucked a bit of duck from the table, knowing that she'd eat it if he didn't nab it first, and reached for the saucepot. "I know you can do it. You're already almost there."

"You say that with so much certainty," Du Linglong said, and sighed. "Unfortunately, for me, it seems as distant as it ever has."

He was certain because he'd seen it. Although maybe - maybe - he'd diverted part of the path that would've led to the ambush by that fat bastard Bai, he'd still seen that she possessed the capabilities to use the Heaven-grade sword art.

Not that he knew how she'd learned it, but that didn't matter. If she'd done it once, she could do it again.

"What do you think of when you're using the Nine Suns, anyway?" Wu Hao asked.

"A bright sunny day," Du Linglong said, slowly. She colored slightly. "It sounds so... stupid when I say it like that, but it's true. I picture the sunniest day I've ever seen. It's not harsh sunlight, it's not hot like the middle of summer, it's just... sunny."

Wu Hao put a walnut in his mouth and chewed, thinking.

"I think you're missing something," he finally said. "For me, what I need is a connection to something larger. I mean, it sounds like you've got the sunny day without the sun itself. That doesn't seem to make much sense to me."

"Maybe," she said, but she didn't seem entirely convinced. "I think that I -"

"Linglong," Ke Jiazhong interrupted. "Do you mind?"

"What is it, senior brother?" Du Linglong asked, turning to the man who would become her fiancee.

"Aunt has a few questions for you," Ke Jiazhong said.

"Sorry," Du Linglong said, turning back to Wu Hao and twisting in her seat. "We'll talk about this again tomorrow before you leave. We can discuss this in the morning."

"Sure," Wu Hao said, though he felt a little cold watching her walk away. Ke Jiazhong didn't follow her but instead looked at Wu Hao.

"Don't misunderstand," Ke Jiazhong said. "We of the Diancang Sect understand the sun better than anyone. We have all the help that she requires for understanding the Nine Suns."

He dipped his head to Master Shu, who looked faintly amused by the whole thing, and then turned on his heel to leave.

Wu Hao watched him go. It was technically true, but the way that Ke Jiazhong had said it rubbed him wrong.

"What was that about?" he asked Master Shu, who huffed a laugh.

"Don't worry about it," Master Shu said, and took a sip of his wine. "Why not eat a little bit more? Follow the doctor's orders. Walnuts, wasn't it?"

Reaching out, Wu Hao pulled a few more walnuts onto his plate, but by and large when Ke Jiazhong had neared Wu Hao had lost most of his appetite. He still had a little bit of space left before he was really stuffed.

At least he'd never have to worry about getting fat unless he really wanted to.

Still, he sat there occasionally undergoing conversations thrust upon him. When the meal had mostly ended, Wu Hao had made his decision.

"Master," he said.

"Hm?" Master Shu said, looking over from an animated discussion on the virtues of particular types of wine. He'd been talking to a clan elder of the Flowing Clouds branch.

"I think I'm going to go talk to someone," he said.

Master Shu put the cup down, giving Wu Hao more of his attention.

"Hm," he said, putting a little more skepticism into his voice. "Another duel, perhaps? I think something can be arranged, but it might have to be tomorrow."

"No," Wu Hao said. "No, that's fine."

Although if Master Shu was offering another duel against someone, then maybe he could provoke Ke Shuang, and.... No, focus.

"What, then?"

"I'm going to try to help someone," Wu Hao said.

He stood up quietly, ignored the considering glance that Master Shu gave him, and ambled up to the table where Du Linglong sat. He had to go out of his way slightly, but he didn't think many had taken particular notice, still discussing the duel proper.

"Hey," he whispered, as he passed. She looked up, startled, a bit of sauce still clinging to her cheek. Ke Jiazhong, sitting next to her, stared daggers at Wu Hao. "I changed my mind."

"What?" she asked.

"I think I can help you with the Heaven-grade technique right now," Wu Hao said. "Come on, let's go outside. I've got something to show you."

He offered his hand. With a bit of hesitation - and a look at Ke Jiazhong, who shook his head with an empathetic no - she took it, he pulled her up, and then they were off into the cold and the dark.