Chapter 180 — Gloom
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 6 of 6
Lin Jinghong's doubts deepened, but he answered nonetheless: "This disciple has kept vigil for the elder day and night, burning incense at the appointed hours, and has not been remiss."
The figure in the shadows stirred, and said slowly, "That he had you to see him off with such devotion—then his ten years of teaching you were not in vain. Heh heh..." His laugh was cold, and in that dim Ancestral Hall it took on a certain eeriness. "I wonder, if I were to die, would there be..."
He broke off abruptly, as if he felt he had misspoken. Lin Jinghong naturally dared not say more either, and stood there with his hands at his sides. A deep silence fell over the Ancestral Hall. After a moment the Perfected One Daoyan said, "Step outside for a while. There are some words I would speak to him alone."
Lin Jinghong was taken aback for a moment, then assented, saying, "Yes," and stepped out.
Once outside the Ancestral Hall, standing on the sunlit open ground, Lin Jinghong at once felt his spirits lift—and only then did he realize that inside the hall just now he had somehow felt oppressed.
He paced the open ground around the hall and waited nearly half an hour, yet still the Perfected One Daoyan did not come out. Puzzling over this, he turned his head and caught sight of a retreating figure just vanishing down the path ahead that led to the Illusory Moon Grotto-Heaven. Since the end of the great battle, the Illusory Moon Grotto-Heaven had again become forbidden ground, and the only one who could enter was, of course, the Perfected One Daoyan alone.
Lin Jinghong gazed in that direction for a while, shook his head, and turned back into the Ancestral Hall. He walked to the blank tablet and saw that three slender sticks of incense had been newly set before it, and that in the brazier on the ground before it there seemed to be much more ash, as though someone had burned more paper money here.
Lin Jinghong pondered for a moment, then slowly raised his head. There the blank tablet still stood quietly in that secluded corner, silent...