PingZe returned to ZhiYi's side by dawn the next day, carrying two of the spirit umbrellas with him. Beneath his feet, two small wheels were whirling in place, keeping him up in the air.
Xu Guanting's invention was remarkable as it helped one fly amidst the clouds, yet they were a pain to guide forward. PingZe had travelled miles in just moments, but the wheels seemed to have minds of their own.
As he wanted to stop, they sped up. When he wanted to go south, they curved west. In the end, it took him sunrise to sunset to reach Wupei. As he jumped off the wheels at the gates to the city of lanterns, the wheels sped up to the sky, flying back to their master.
ZhiYi's ghost-like appearance startled PingZe as the room door opened, but instead of pointing it out, PingZe asked,
"Has brother ZhouYan returned?"
ZhiYi only shook his head. His unruly hair swayed with his every movement, draping over his gaunt face.
PingZe already expected the worst. The smell of rotting flesh assaulted his senses as he stepped into the darkened room. He dropped the two umbrellas by the door.
YueQin sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes wide, skin pasty. She was gnawing on her lip, and when she saw PingZe, she jumped up, making way for him to come over.
"How is he?"
"Alive, but unconscious," YueQin whispered as PingZe walked over to the bed and pulled the blanket away to review the wound. His face twisted at the sight.
The skin on MingYu's arm had retracted even further. The flesh was shrivelled and black on areas where there was no skin, and his fingers had turned dark purple and swollen. The arm looked dead from below the elbow. The black liquid bubbled as it oozed out in small trickles from the unbandaged wound.
"No sign of Ye WeiRu?" PingZe asked as he gently tucked MingYu back under the covers. The man was pale and sweat had drenched his undergarments. His breathing was laboured.
ZhiYi shook his head again, and PingZe's face darkened. "Old man ZhiHao sent him a message too. Has brother MingYu come to at all?"
"The last time he came to was before dawn. But not as MingYu. Wu TianLan is back."
PingZe clasped ZhiYi by his shoulders with a hopeful smile. "But that is good news, is it not? So he remembers the past?"
"Yes, and no. He is not the Wu TianLan you know, PingZe," ZhiYi said tightly. "It's the young prince of Wu. He isn't MingYu."
PingZe's eyes widened as he watched the figure on the bed. "You mean the one that shot you in the Misty Forest?"
ZhiYi nodded, his lips pulled into a firm line.
"Oh." PingZe managed. "Well, that is a problem."
"The Emperor Wu TianLan that saved me was entirely different," YueQin mumbled, shocked to witness the young and spoiled Wu TianLan in the flesh.
"But, if he came to as Wu TianLan, what happened to brother MingYu?"
ZhiYi had no time to answer as a talisman, folded in the shape of a bird, flew inside the open window and flapped its paper wings in the air. As it saw ZhiYi, it unfolded itself and attached to the nearest wall.
Flames spread wherever the paper touched, YueQin yelped in surprise as ZhiYi and PingZe both ran to put out the fire. But they were stopped in their tracks when the fire took a shape of a man.
The figure moved forward, and as the fire died down, out came an elderly man, not much older than Fan ZhiHao. He was also in his fifties, but he had white highlights to his hair, and the ends of his eyebrows and moustache had white streaks to them.
He was tall like willow and gaunt to the point skin stretched over bone. A slight hunch had developed over the years of him hovering over herbs and poisons. Dark crimson robes had black scorpions as embroidery, and his unusually ashy pale skin looked even ghastlier against these colours.
His lifeless, slanted eyes swept over the three who looked at him and his unusual entrance with their mouth gaping. Then his eyes trailed over the bed, and he said with a low, melancholy voice, "This is the patient?"
The two men were slapped awake at his words, and both hurried to greet him. They bowed and paid him their respect.
"Xiedu sect leader, Ye WeiRu!"
"You didn't answer my question." Ye WeiRu said as he waved the two men to stand up straight. He had no time to care for two additional patients with strained backs.
"Yes, master Ye, this is MingYu that I wrote to you about," ZhiYi hurried to say, but dared not to rush the man. Ye WeiRu was a force to be reckoned with, and with his temperament, he might disappear the moment he felt annoyed.
Ye WeiRu turned his eyes over ZhiYi, and something even colder than ice flashed in the depths of the two black wells. ZhiYi would have shrunk back if he didn't know the man for centuries now.
"I got no letter of yours. I came only because old Fan asked for my help."
"But that is impossible. Brother ZhouYan flew off almost a week -"
PingZe took a step back as Ye WeiRu turned his eyes over him.
"You want to argue about that or let me take care of the patient?"
The tone was so deadly, PingZe nearly kneeled and prayed for him to just look at MingYu's wound. When PingZe kept quiet, Ye WeiRu glided to MingYu's side. With a wave of his finger, the blanket folded itself neatly out of the way to reveal the wound. He flicked his finger again, and a talisman flew out of his sleeve, lighting itself on fire. The flame hovered over MingYu as Ye WeiRu studied the wound silently.
"What bit him?" He asked as he straightened his back. There was intrigue hidden under his melancholy voice. Whatever had caused the injury fascinated Ye WeiRu.
ZhiYi motioned YueQin to step over before he said, "Master Ye, we don't know. She is freshly turned and bit him as she came to."
"A newborn's bite?"
Ye WeiRu seemed creepily ecstatic over the situation. He was practically beaming.
"Yes, master Ye."
Ye WeiRu's eyes rooted YueQin in her place. She was barely breathing as the man slid around her like a poisonous snake, studying her. Stopping in front of the three, he asked,
"How was she created?"
"She was alive when she absorbed all the vengeful energy from a massacre." Said ZhiYi.
Ye WeiRu looked thrilled as he heard the words. It was a scary sight to witness. "A ghoul with a soul? For once old Fan found me something intriguing instead of his endless supplies of tea."
"Ghouls' bites are deadly. There are no cures for it, I'm afraid," Ye WeiRu continued with no compassion in his tone, as he returned to MingYu's side. "You say she bit him since five days ago. Who is this man exactly? Humans can't endure a ghoul's bite this long, no matter how young or healthy. But he is not one of us either."
He turned his haunting eyes back to the three, and YueQin jumped. "What are you not telling me?"
"He is not a regular human. The body is possessed by a deity." ZhiYi whispered.
Ye WeiRu's eyes lit up like two black fires, and his thin lips tightened. His gaze drifted between the three and the man on the bed.
"You want me to heal a god? Wang ZhiYi, I thought better of you!"
Ye WeiRu tried to take his leave, but ZhiYi leapt before him.
"Master Ye, I beg of you! Just save his life!"
Ye WeiRu brushed him away, but ZhiYi didn't relent. Throwing his pride aside, ZhiYi went down on his knees. Wang ZhiYi begged no one, Ye WeiRu very well knew this. His cold eyes stopped over ZhiYi's kneeling body. After a moment of silence, he let out a deep sigh.
"Why ZhiYi? He is a god. Why should I save him? Where are his people?"
"Master Ye, please. Just help him."
"You didn't answer my question, ZhiYi. Who is he that you must go on your knees to beg?" Ye WeiRu's tone was warning. If he didn't get an answer, he would disappear from this room and leave MingYu to die.
"He, he is the reason I was punished to walk the Earth Realm in spirit form."
The silence was deafening. Ye WeiRu's eyes moved from ZhiYi to the man on the bed. A smile was tugging at his lips. "So, this man is the reason behind the end of the Qin dynasty. Excellent."
PingZe dropped on his knees now, "Please, master Ye. Save our brother."
"There is no saving him." Ye WeiRu said as he paced the room. "Nothing can stop a ghoul's bite. Even if there is a cure, I never had the interest to research on it. Not until now."