Chapter 116 — Tianshui Stockade

Xiaobai wore the ordinary dress of a southern woman, its cut no different from anyone else's—yet these common clothes, matched with her peerless beauty, seemed at once to glow and radiate, revealing a grace never seen before. It was as though this woman had been born to wear such garments, every detail of them betraying the distinctive charm of a southern woman.

Xiaobai seemed to notice Ming Li's gaze. She turned and looked at him, smiling. "What, do I look good in these clothes?"

Ming Li smiled faintly. Given his temperament, he was unwilling to answer such a faintly frivolous question, so he changed the subject. "You seem deeply familiar with the customs and terrain of these southern parts. Never mind the rest—you even managed to find that ancient, out-of-the-way village deep in the mountains near Fenxia Valley. Have you been here before?"

Xiaobai pursed her lips and looked ahead. In the distance the mountains ran on, linked peak to peak without end—the distinctive terrain of the southern wilds. Before them an ancient road wound onward, and on either side, near and far, stood jagged hills of strange rock. Far off, the mountain peaks met the sky, range upon range, and leaden clouds hung at the summits, drifting with the wind.

She walked slowly on, and after a long while sighed softly and said, in a low, distant voice, "Been here before? I did far more than that..."

Ming Li was slightly surprised. "What do you mean?"

Xiaobai let out a long breath and shook her head with a smile, as if trying to shake off the years gone by. "You didn't know, did you? Our fox-demon clan originated right here in the southern wilds. I myself grew up among these barren hills and wicked waters."

Ming Li was startled. "Then how is it that for a thousand years, the folk legends of the Central Plains have always borne the shadow of your fox demons?"

Xiaobai said mildly, "Because a thousand years ago, I led our fox-demon clan away from here, to the Central Plains, and in the end we settled in the Fox Qi Mountains of the southwest."

Ming Li was greatly shocked and for a moment could not speak. At last he said, his voice hoarse, "What—you..."

Xiaobai regarded him with interest, smiled, and a glimmer passed through her eyes—ambiguous, and yet world-weary. "You didn't expect that, did you? It is where the main hall of your Mingwang Sect now stands.

"As it happens, the name Fox Qi Mountain most likely comes from our fox-demon clan!"

Ming Li was silent for a long time. Then slowly he said, "Then have you and the Mingwang Sect ever..."

Xiaobai did not wait for him to finish, but shook her head directly. "Set your mind at ease on that. Our fox-demon clan and the Mingwang Sect have been neighbors for several hundred years and have always lived in peace—more than that, in those centuries there were even a few romances between man and demon. So besides repaying you for freeing me from the Profound Fire Altar, learning that you are a disciple of the Mingwang Sect is one of the reasons I am willing to help you."

Only then did Ming Li relax. Then another thought occurred to him. "After this business is done, will you go back to the Fox Qi Mountains to visit your kin?"

"Kin?" Xiaobai's face slowly darkened. She raised her head to the sky, and after a long while said softly, "My kin—I already caused their deaths."

Ming Li was startled again. Xiaobai gave a bitter smile, her expression growing more desolate still, but she was unwilling to say more.

Ming Li was silent a moment, then changed the subject. "We have been walking three days now. How much farther is it to that 'Seven-Li Cave' you spoke of?"

Xiao Bai glanced at him, her gaze gliding across his face like water, and said, "Seven-Mile Valley is the largest settlement of the Miao people in the southern borderlands. From what I recall, twenty li back that way lies a bustling place where several tribes dwell together, called 'Sky-Water Stronghold.' South of it runs a treacherous little path, and that is the road to the Miao's Seven-Mile Valley." Then she gave a faint, bitter smile and said, "Though I cannot say whether, in these three hundred years, the situation here in the south has changed in any other way."

Ming Li nodded silently and unconsciously quickened his pace.

Xiao Bai followed behind him, her gaze lingering on him a few moments before turning to the road ahead, where range upon range of mountains stood linked and towering, majestic and perilous, as though they too were giants watching these few tiny figures upon the ancient road, between heaven and earth...

Over the past ten years Ming Li had come to the southern borderlands many times on Bi Li's account, and he knew something of the local customs and ways.

The southern borderlands were vast in territory and sparse in people. Apart from the savage clans of the Ten Thousand Savage Mountains stretching ten thousand li through the far south, the folk who had lived for generations at the southern frontier belonged roughly to five principal tribes: the Miao, the Tu, the Zhuang, the Li, and the Gaoshan.

By population the Zhuang were the most numerous, making up nearly four tenths of the south's people; by territory the Miao were the strongest, holding the broadest and most fertile lands; and by temperament alone, the Gaoshan, fewest in number, were the fiercest.

These five great tribes had lived for ages at the southern frontier. Each had its own tongue, but by and large, when they spoke with one another they used a common speech close to that of the Central Plains, though tinged more or less with local flavor.

Over the many years there had of course been times of fellowship and rejoicing between them, but no less of scheming and strife. Through the long ages there had gradually taken shape a state of affairs in which the five tribes each held their own quarter, while their lands interlocked and overlapped deep into one another.

And where the lands of the tribes met, there were often villages and strongholds where folk of several tribes dwelt together, some so mixed that all five tribes lived side by side in a single place.

The Sky-Water Stronghold that Xiao Bai spoke of lay where the lands of the Miao, Zhuang, Tu, and Gaoshan met, and was a lively spot of some renown in the southern borderlands.

As the sky gradually darkened toward dusk, Ming Li, Xiao Bai, and Xiao Hui—two people and a monkey—at last walked into Sky-Water Stronghold.

Though the name bore the word "stronghold," it was nothing like the usual mountain stockades of the southern borderlands. Sky-Water Stronghold was built on a broad stretch of level ground, with a road leading out of it to each of the four directions. According to Xiao Bai's explanation along the way, the place had originally been built by the Tu tribe, and not on this site at all, but on a mountain not far to the west; because of a clear spring on that mountain, it had been called Sky-Water Stronghold.

Only later, as the four tribes' lands came together and the people grew more numerous, did the place become a haunt of mixed folk.

And as merchants and travelers came and went in growing numbers, living up on the mountain became inconvenient—first because the space was cramped and dwelling there awkward, and second because coming and going was difficult. For even though the common folk here were hardier than those of the Central Plains, no one was eager to climb a mountain every day for exercise.

So by degrees people began moving down to live below the mountain; from few they became many, and as the years passed the whole stockade gradually came down. As trade among the four tribes flourished and merchants passed ever more frequently, the settlement grew larger day by day. The old stockade on the mountain fell little by little into ruin, and only the name Sky-Water Stronghold was kept.