Li Huowang curled up into a ball, like an unborn baby, motionless and secluding himself in a corner of the storeroom.
The other Medicinal Guides neither dared nor wished to disturb him, all quietly going about their own work.
Nightfall came imperceptibly, and all the oil lamps on the wall were extinguished, casting darkness over Li Huowang like a blanket.
He lay there like a corpse, having no reaction to the changes in the outside world.
At the third watch of the night, a faint candlelight brightened the doorway, illuminating the shelves beside it and dispelling the darkness that cloaked Li Huowang.
The timid Bai Lingmiao, carrying a bundle of dry grass, walked over to Li Huowang and cautiously spread the grass over him.
Then, she took out a coarse grain mantou from her bosom and placed it by his mouth.
Seeing that Li Huowang still did not move, she pursed her lips and gently nudged him. "Senior Brother, eat something, you haven't eaten all day."
Li Huowang's eyes were open, those eyes that had not blinked for hours numbly stared at the cold ground, not moving a fraction towards Bai Lingmiao.
Bai Lingmiao thought to leave, yet after hesitating for a moment, she finally took out a Jade Pendant and placed it beside Li Huowang's hand.
"Senior Brother, this is yours, take it back," she said.
This time, Li Huowang finally reacted, he looked at the item and saw it was the round Jade Pendant he had stolen from his previous Master Xuan Yang.
Li Huowang remembered that he had given this item to Yang Na to exchange for money. The mere thought of Yang Na made his heart, riddled with holes, begin to bleed anew, "How... did this end up with you?"
"It's... you gave it to me, Senior Brother Li. I said I didn't want it, but you insisted on giving it to me," she replied.
Li Huowang slowly sat up, and in the dim candlelight, he closely examined the cloud-patterned round Jade Pendant.
In that moment, he had never felt everything to be so real. But within this reality, there was only true despair and true pain.
If he had a choice, he would have wished to remain forever trapped in that beautiful delusion.
Seeing that Li Huowang was responding, Bai Lingmiao softly asked, "Senior Brother Li, where were you captured by Master from? I am from Liang State, where are you from?"
Li Huowang paused, then listlessly shook his head, "I don't know."
He truly did not know. Although he had memories of the past, after the day's events, Li Huowang could not discern how much of those memories were real and how much were illusions.
Even here, he was a madman, one who couldn't differentiate reality from delusion.
As he was shaking his head, Li Huowang suddenly felt something odd on his head, and upon touching it, he found his hair matted with blood scabs from a prior injury.
Seeing Li Huowang touch his head, Bai Lingmiao explained, "That was the work of Senior Brother Wang."
Li Huowang knew. This Senior Brother Wang was the hare-lipped fatso who had tried to lay hands on Bai Lingmiao earlier. "Where is this Wang person?" he asked.
"You... you kicked him to death," she said.
Hearing this, Li Huowang saw a flash in his mind of Old Liu, whom he had sent flying in the delusion. He bowed his head and chuckled silently, acknowledging that he really was quite mad.
Li Huowang extended his hand from his bosom and pulled out a gold ankle ring wrapped in a red string, presenting it to Bai Lingmiao. "I believe this is yours, take it back."
Bai Lingmiao looked at her ankle ring and pushed it back with both hands as if offering a salute, "Brother Li, what you said before is correct, this item is useless here, you keep it."
Li Huowang's eyes zoned out as he stared at the golden ring, but the item now was of no use to him either, as everything he cared about had disappeared.
"Um, Brother Li, may I use this item as a reward to ask a favor of you?" Bai Lingmiao's words redirected Li Huowang's gaze to her.
"If you manage to get out of here alive, can you do me the favor of carrying a message to my parents? They live at the foot of Ox Heart Mountain in Liang State. Just tell them their daughter has been unfilial and cannot care for them in their old age." As she reached the sad part of her request, Bai Lingmiao's voice began to choke.
"Brother Li, I truly don't want to trouble you, but I really have no other choice. I expect they will soon take me to the Pill Room, and I..."
Li Huowang's face, previously a mask of despair and numbness, tensed up at her words, and once again a light shone in his silent eyes.
He glanced at the withered grass covering his body, then at the mantou beside him. Tugging at it, he stuffed the Red String Golden Ring back into his bosom.
"My word is my bond. Since I previously accepted something from you, I will help you."
Bai Lingmiao's eyes, marked by sorrow, suddenly brightened but quickly dimmed again. "Brother Li, this isn't right, it will only get you into trouble as well."
"Haha... do you think I'm still afraid of that?" At that moment, Li Huowang had come to terms with his situation. Having cast all concerns to the wind, what else was there to fear if everything he valued was already gone?
"That's the spirit, Brother Li!" A sudden male voice echoed from outside the room, startling both occupants.
With the candlelight illuminating the man's face, they saw a grinning face, sharp-mouthed and monkey-cheeked, with skin discolored with patches of yellow and white, as if afflicted with a disease akin to vitiligo.
The man took out two coarse grain mantou and, eager to please, placed them beside Li Huowang.
"Hehehe, Brother Li, have some steamed buns. When it was dinner time, I thought of you and saved these especially for you."
"You might not recognize this junior brother; I'm naturally nurtured and don't have a fancy name. You can just call me Gouwa, hehehe. Just yesterday, I even presented you with seventeen Wen Money."
Gouwa, looking uneasy and rubbing his hands together, wore an almost shameless sycophantic expression; he clearly wanted to make Li Huowang his support to avoid being sent off as a Medicinal Guide. Clever people exist everywhere.
Li Huowang said nothing and grabbed the three somewhat stiff mantou, devouring them hungrily; he had been starving all day.
Because he ate too quickly, he almost choked, and Gouwa quickly and sensibly ran out to fetch a cup of water for Li Huowang.
After washing down the three coarse-grain mantou with the cold underground water, Li Huowang shoved them into his stomach.
He struggled to stand up, swaying; having lied on the ground for so long, his legs had gone numb.
Bai Lingmiao reached out to support him, but Li Huowang pushed her away.
His gaze fixed on the distant pitch-black exit of the storeroom, he shuffled out.
Now, his enemy was no longer the sudden mutation of his disease, but the loathsome Taoist with a toad-like head who used people for Alchemy, Master Danyang.
As the revolting and nauseating face of Master Danyang surfaced in Li Huowang's mind, his eyes began to fill with a deep malice, and his teeth started to clench with a grating sound.
The very same man who had lost all will to live, now surged with motivation, his only goal was to find a way to kill him!