act19mini

No, she's not local. She just showed up one day, and no one knows what her name is, or where she came from.

Do you know when that was?

Let me think... about the same time that you first came.

...I had just lost my sword then.

Wh-What's going on?

Lin Qingyan, is it? Why do you keep coming for me?

Object of evil, submit and answer for your crimes.

What do you think you know?!

I do have many questions. Why did the Grandmaster's Book of Kung Fu show up here, and why are you after it?

But you won't answer them unless I take you in.

Enough talk. Do your worst—

You missed our appointment.

I thought you had left.

...Zheng Chou, the Delivering Blade?

I don't remember ever doing business with the Tianshi Bureaus.

Lin Qingyan of the Tianshi Bureaus. I read your files when I was working at the Judicial Review Office. It was a thick one. You have been quiet the last few years, though. I see you were hiding here.

And so I end up finding a Judicial Official who knows about me in this place. What a joke, isn't it, trying to retire from the jianghu?

Are you in league with each other?

Didn't you hear him? He left the jianghu behind, trying to wash its stains from his hands these seven years.

He has nothing to do with this secret tome or the entire incident.

But he's trying to protect you.

Protect me? I don't need it.

Hm...

Young lady...

Get out of the way. I can deal with her myself.

The swordsman does not move.

You finally got rid of your sword, of the identity that it gave you. You spent seven years putting your previous life to rest. There's no need to break your vow now...

We barely know each other.

When we first met, you said... I could never rid myself of it.

In fact, it's always been there by my side.

What?

I lost my sword here. Then I met you, who seemed to be born to wield a sword, improving simply by observing my tiniest of reactions...

Of course you could. We were inseparable, once!

I don't know what happened, or why you're doing all this...

Hah. Now you realize. How slow of you.

Funny, isn't it, how you tried to give me the name 'Delivering Blade' when we met last year... when in fact that is exactly what I am.

This is a strange town. There's a mysterious power in the air, causing inanimate objects to become sentient geists.

Teapots, fans, rocks... maybe half the people you see on the streets were once such trinkets.

I don't remember how we got separated, but I've looked like this from my first ever waking moment.

I looked for you, until I found you at the teahouse. You were drinking tea nonchalantly, not the slightest bit anxious. I came up to you and drew your attention, and you said...

I lost my sword. It's a sign from Heaven.

Young lady, no, Delivering Blade, no, how should I call you...?

I...

Don't get sentimental.

A swordsman with blood on his hands wants to turn over a new leaf. That's not wrong. The grumpy Tianshi over there might even exclaim, 'There's no greater virtue.'

But there was one thing that I realized at the time—

This jianghu, which you've grown so tired of... I've seen it and walked it with you, but I've never experienced it myself.

I shall wield the sword and travel the jianghu—this time, under my own name!

But Waregeists cannot leave this town.

I've tried many times. The river to the east, the bridge to the west... it's as though there's an invisible wall around the town, one that stops only the geists!

That's why you said 'It's not time yet'...

...I knew it.

You stole the Book of Kung Fu because you sought to break this barrier for geists through the Grandmaster's teachings.

Such strange affairs. You could not have known who the Grandmaster was, so why would you think his writings would have such power... someone is trying to manipulate geists into causing trouble.

Are you done with your deduction, Tianshi?

Yes.

I thought you might have been a geist, but I didn't expect you to have such a past with Zheng Chou, the Delivering Blade... yet it provides no reference for my judgment of your crimes.

You must answer for the acts you committed in attempting to acquire the book.

Submit, or be annihilated in form and spirit by Lei Fa.

Submit?

The secret tome is already mine. Soon I'll discover its secret and leave this place... this place that I've been trying to get out of for seven years!

No more swordbearer, no more sheath. What is there to stop the sword's edge?

The only way to stop it is to break it!

If that's so...

Thunder of heaven, heed my call.

Lin Qingyan's voice is soft, but it seems as though heaven and earth themselves heed her call. The sky suddenly darkens, dark clouds gather, and a bright arc of electricity forms on her palm.

Tianshi Lin, I don't know how things came to this, but... I can understand why she wanted to do what she did. There's no need to...

She's my sword. I-I'll accept responsibility with her...

Begone!

Fool!

I can understand her desire for freedom.

But violence is inherent in her nature as the Geist of a sword. It is likely that she cannot control herself anymore; the more intent her desire is, the more important it is that I stop her from putting even more innocent people in harm's way.

As for you...

It was a good thing that you took the loss of your sword as a sign to distance yourself from the jianghu and its conflicts. But seven years have passed, and you have yet to fully retire from it.

Hatred and grudges are like snow falling in a valley, piling up deeper and deeper, but you could have freed yourself from it if you truly tried.

Maybe she was right... in your heart, did you really throw away your sword?

Enough talk. As both the Deputy Minister of the Judicial Review Office, and disciple of the Tianshi Bureaus—this thunder must strike!

The clouds and thunder scatter. The sword-bearing woman is gone, and the skies are clear again.

A plain-bound book lies where she stood. The wind blows its cover open—

'Book of Kung Fu'.

(The one who stole the Book of Kung Fu from Yumen might be here in this town. What is this person planning?)

(No use thinking about it. I'll just retrieve the Book of Kung Fu for now...)

There you are!

I've been looking for you!

...Huai Tianpei?

There is only the swordsman left on the street.

He stands there in a daze, staring silently into space.

Such commotion... is something the matter?

I...

I lost my sword.

It's time to go...

Once a year... and never again.

Excuse me, sir...

Y-You're...

Do you know me?

I...

I'm lost. I don't know how I got here. You're the first person to pass by in a while, and I wonder if you know the way.

(So that's what Tianshi Lin meant...)

In your heart, did you really throw away your sword?

I don't know the answer.