Like the other twenty-odd youths who had gone to the forest to
hunt deer, Xue Meng was planted with a Zhenlong Chess piece. At present,
he had stepped out onto the frozen surface of the lake, his expression empty
and lifeless. As ghosts poured from the sky, he and the others were like a
swarm of dauntless puppets: fearing neither pain nor death, they swung
their swords at the evil spirits to keep them at bay. They paid no mind to the
ghosts that ran off and disappeared into the night. The purpose of these
chess pieces was obvious—they were guarding those five elemental arrays.
Chu Wanning couldn't bear to see his disciple manipulated like this.
He tried to keep his cool and failed. As he was about to storm over, Mo Ran
held out a hand and blocked his way.
"Let me go," Chu Wanning warned through clenched teeth.
"Don't go yet, wait a little longer—"
"How can I wait? That's Xue Meng!"
Chu Wanning was too strong for Mo Ran to restrain with one hand;
he had no choice but to wrap both arms firmly around Chu Wanning and
clap a hand over his mouth. He was determined to hang on, howsoever Chu
Wanning struggled. "It's too soon to go over there now," Mo Ran said
quietly, his breath hot against the back of Chu Wanning's ear. "Don't be so
impulsive—listen to me, okay?"
He was rewarded with a fierce jab to the ribs. Mo Ran endured the
pain as Chu Wanning pried away the hand covering his mouth and gasped
for air. Phoenix eyes blazing, he said in a dark voice, "Spiritual power
erodes quickly under the control of the Zhenlong Chess Formation! There
are vicious ghosts on all sides—if anything goes wrong, he'll die!"
"That's not gonna happen."
Chu Wanning glowered wordlessly.
Mo Ran grabbed Chu Wanning's hand, his expression resolute.
"I understand the Zhenlong Chess Formation. Trust me."
Seeing the solemn look on Mo Ran's face, Chu Wanning was
somewhat surprised. Still, his breathing gradually slowed as he calmed
himself.
An eerie whistle sounded in the distance. They turned as one to see a
vengeful ghost tumble out the sky and pelt toward Xue Meng—
Steel sang, and Longcheng's curved blade reflected the frosty moon
as Xue Meng leapt up with the grace of a swallow and ran the ghost
through.
"Living people embedded with Zhenlong Chess pieces will lose their
spiritual energy and become weaker as time goes on. But he's been under its
control for just a short while. He's fine for now."
Chu Wanning turned to look at Mo Ran with a frown. "How can you
be sure?"
"Something I came across during my travels."
The ghost plummeted to the ground and rapidly disintegrated. Xue
Meng lifted Longcheng, and black blood dripped from the blade's edge,
leaving a crooked trail on the snowy ground. Beneath the moonlight, his
expression was ice-cold, his pupils dull. Mo Ran felt his heart seize. Even
in the past lifetime, Xue Meng had never endured the humiliation of being
turned into a chess piece. Who had done this?!
Something was moving at the edge of the forest.
Mo Ran came back to his senses. "Looks like someone's arrived," he
said quietly.
Two figures had emerged from the trees and now traversed the frozen
lake, stopping before an array glowing with jade-green light. One held a
holy weapon, but Mo Ran couldn't tell what type it was from his vantage
point. Its wielder cracked the ice with a slap of their hand and tossed the
holy weapon into the lake water at the center of the array. It lit up at once,
its radiance piercing the darkness just as the moon emerged from behind the
clouds. The clear, cold light fell on the desolate surface of the lake,
throwing the pair in the center into sharp relief.
The first was a man in luxurious formal robes embroidered with gold.
He wore a thick cloak over those robes, and a wide-brimmed bamboo hat
that obscured his face from view. The second person's feet were bare
despite the freezing weather, apparently heedless of the cold. They lifted
their head to gaze at the Heavenly Rift into the Infinite Hells.
Mo Ran gasped. "No way!"
Xu Shuanglin?!
Mo Ran was confounded. Xu Shuanglin… The Shuanglin Elder? But
this was Ye Wangxi's foster father, who had shielded his ward with his own
body in the past lifetime. He was a good man who had died within a torrent
of blades—how could it be him?
Chu Wanning didn't notice Mo Ran's confusion. He tapped Mo Ran
on the shoulder and said in a low voice, "Keep moving."
"Why hasn't he appeared yet?" said the person in the bamboo hat
who stood beside Xu Shuanglin. Mo Ran recognized Nangong Liu's voice
at once. He was clearly anxious and impatient. "Goddamn it, did you get it
wrong?"
"Let's wait and see," replied Xu Shuanglin.
"Hurry up! Tear the Heavenly Rift wider. Who knows when those
guests will send their own people here. We'll run out of time if this goes on
much longer!"
"Now now, I know you're impatient, but you know as well as I why
we can't tear this Heavenly Rift wider. The situation spun out of control at
Butterfly Town because we were too hasty, and we ended up attracting
attention from all ten great sects. Try to control yourself or our efforts will
be wasted again."
"Ugh!"
Xu Shuanglin closed his eyes. "Sect Leader, you went through so
much trouble to obtain these five holy weapons of different elements to
absorb the spiritual energies of these cultivators. You've held out for so
many years—what's one more night?"
"You're right." Nangong Liu took a deep breath and nodded. "I've
waited for five long years… No, more than that. I've been waiting for this
since the day I became the leader of Rufeng Sect…" Nangong Liu muttered
under his breath as he stroked the thumb ring beneath his sleeve, a gloomy
light in his eyes. "I've been waiting all this time…"
"You needn't wait any longer."
A man's austere voice suddenly rang through the silence over the
lake like thunder piercing the clouds. The two on the ice exchanged a look
of alarm.
The bright moon hung in the sky, and the wind soughed through the
pine forest. Upon a branch stood a slender figure, his long phoenix eyes
narrowed in anger. His pale blue robes billowed in the wind. Their hue—
darker than his usual raiment—made his face look pale as icy jade, his
handsome features exuding a bone-deep frostiness. "Nangong Liu, it's
over."
Nangong Liu jumped in surprise. Through gritted teeth, he seethed,
"Chu Wanning!"
Tianwen crackled with golden sparks. By its light, Chu Wanning's
flashing eyes appeared all the more threatening.
"If it isn't the great Yuheng Elder, the Beidou Immortal! What a pity
you didn't stay dead after Butterfly Town. Now you're here to ruin my
plans again—you bastard!"
Chu Wanning blinked and frowned severely. "Then you were the one
behind that calamity five years ago?!"
Now that he'd been exposed, Nangong Liu didn't try to hide. He
snorted. "So what if I was?"
Chu Wanning lifted Tianwen and brushed his hand over the willow
vine, which began to glow by inches following the touch of his fingers,
platinum bright. His eyes were falcon-like as he spoke. "Back when you
sought a weapon from Jincheng Lake, the mythical beast in the lake asked
for your wife's spiritual core in exchange. You ordered someone to cut out
her heart and toss it into the lake. I was so repulsed I wanted to kill you
then, but you pleaded that Nangong Si was still young and couldn't grow up
without a father… You said you'd been possessed and felt endless
remorse… You said that from that day on, you would live up to Rufeng
Sect's upstanding reputation and do no more evil. You…"
As his fingers passed over the last length of willow vine, there was a
burst of golden light. Chu Wanning bit each word between his teeth.
"Nangong Liu, you haven't repented in the slightest! You're a monster!"
"You blame me for this?" Nangong Liu let out a low laugh. "Chu
zongshi, why don't you blame yourself for being so young and naïve back
then? Weren't you but fifteen? So innocent and artless—I only said a few
words, shed a few tears, and threw Si-er forward as an excuse, and you let
me off the hook. Heh, Zongshi, think about it—is the fact that I stand here
before you not a direct consequence of you letting me walk free that day?"
Before his words had faded, a furious gale whirled to life. Tianwen
tore through the darkness as it flew toward Nangong Liu. Light danced and
flames lashed the heavens; in an instant, the sheet of ice over the lake
cracked in two.
"Rise up!" shouted Nangong Liu.
A glimmer flared to life in the eyes of the puppets prowling the lake.
One after another, they turned and rushed toward Chu Wanning. Xue Meng,
the most able fighter among them, charged at the head of the group, and
Longcheng and Tianwen met with a violent clang.
Afraid to injure Xue Meng, Chu Wanning withdrew his power and
leapt back a few feet, his expression ferocious. "Nangong Liu, is this the
extent of your skill? You force others to fight in your stead?"
"Ha, my skill is in making it impossible for you to touch me,"
Nangong Liu said, laughing heartily. "Go on, fight them. They're all very
much alive—they've just been planted with my black Zhenlong Chess
pieces. Chu Wanning, this little Xue-gongzi is your disciple, is he not? Can
you really bring yourself to attack him? Your hands are tied; you may as
well sit and wait for death! You're no different than you were more than a
decade past at Jincheng Lake! You're powerless here, you have no choice
but to let me go, you—"
His raving came to a sudden halt, his triumphant smile doused with a
bucket of cold water, turning to smoke and ash.
Chu Wanning's expression was far too calm.
Nangong Liu stared fixedly at Chu Wanning, unsettled by the steady
assurance on his face. He shuddered, and a note of doubt crept into his
voice as his mouth opened and closed. "What are you planning…"
Chu Wanning didn't waste another breath on Nangong Liu. Gaze
frigid, he brandished his holy weapon in one hand and yelled grimly,
"Tianwen, Ten Thousand Coffins!"
Dozens of golden vines shot from the ground to bind each of the
puppets who had been planted with Zhenlong Chess pieces. Another sturdy,
massive vine soared out of the frozen lake, breaking through the waves like
the legendary Azure Dragon. One elegant leap brought Chu Wanning atop
the vine. Sleeves fluttering behind him, he sat upon it and raised a slender
yet powerful hand. He intoned clearly, "Jiuge, come."
Golden light surged from his palm and coalesced into a guqin on his
lap, black as pitch. The instrument's tail swooped up like a piece of living
wood, its tip covered in lush leaves and haitang blossoms. Each string was a
pure ice-white, threads of frozen mist diffusing from its surface.
This was the holy weapon Jiuge.
If Tianwen's most useful move was Wind, a wide-range killing blow,
then Jiuge's was Ode, a healing technique that cleared the mind. As Chu
Wanning lightly plucked the strings and played a few measures of Ode,
bewilderment surfaced on the faces of the people under the control of the
Zhenlong Chess Formation. They stopped struggling against Tianwen's
vines and looked around in apparent confusion.
Nangong Liu was furious. He mouthed the words of an incantation,
veins bulging in his forehead as he countered Chu Wanning's efforts.
Seeing that he was outmatched, he frantically whipped around. "Shuanglin,
disrupt the sound of his qin!"
"Me? Ah, okay, okay," Xu Shuanglin replied languidly. He sighed
and turned helplessly toward the massive willow vine atop which Chu
Wanning was perched. But before he could make a move, a black shadow
darted before him.
Facing into the wind, Mo Ran raised a hand to block Xu Shuanglin's
path with his whip. "Shuanglin Elder, care for a match?"
Xu Shuanglin blinked. He suddenly chortled. "Trying to stop me?
You and your master really are cut from the same cloth. How very
touching."
"The barriers," Chu Wanning said to Mo Ran without pausing his
hands.
"They're all set."
Mo Ran's belated entrance wasn't for naught: he had been setting up
barriers around the perimeter of the frozen lake according to Chu
Wanning's instructions. Even if this Heavenly Rift wasn't so severe as
Butterfly Town's, the vicious ghosts and evil spirits imprisoned in the
Infinite Hells were twisted creatures with no conscience or inhibitions. The
situation would be manageable if only a handful escaped into the mortal
realm; otherwise, they would be plagued with bloodshed until all the fiends
could be dealt with.
Mo Ran and Xu Shuanglin clashed, trading ten blows in the blink of
an eye. "Shuanglin Elder, stop trying to get to my shizun," said Mo Ran.
"I'm the one you should be dealing with."
"Seriously?" Xu Shuanglin cackled. "Are people only allowed to
fight their assigned opponents nowadays? Young man, you're a bit too
fierce—this uncle's getting too old for such rough handling."
Mo Ran stared at him, speechless.
"I'll be destroyed if I keep fighting with you," Xu Shuanglin
continued cheerfully. "Xiao-gege, have some mercy. Go easy on me and let
me play with your shizun instead, pretty please?"
Mo Ran had no idea how to face Xu Shuanglin. In his past life, he'd
watched Xu Shuanglin die. He'd felt strongly that he wasn't an evil person.
Who could have guessed that in this lifetime, the masterminds behind the
repeated calamities were Nangong Liu and this same Xu Shuanglin?
Mo Ran was lost in silence, pouring all his focus into the fight.
Jiangui had the same interrogation ability as Tianwen—uncovering Xu
Shuanglin's true motives would be a simple matter if Mo Ran could get the
vine around him. But Xu Shuanglin's martial skills were formidable, far
superior to Nangong Liu's. As he floated like a dancing kite above the
shattered ice of the lake, Jiangui's red light struck glancing blows, never
closing fully around its target. Besides, this man was Ye Wangxi's foster
father—Mo Ran couldn't help but harbor some goodwill toward him even
now…
Xu Shuanglin threw his head back in a wicked laugh. "Time's up,
Mo-zongshi. Apologies in advance."
"What?" Mo Ran couldn't make sense of his words.
"I'm off to bully your master."
Xu Shuanglin raised a hand. Light flashed from his fingertips, and a
ribbon of white silk hurtled toward Chu Wanning's qin-playing figure with
a murderous whistle.
Mo Ran cared for Chu Wanning more than anyone; he was
immediately distracted. Eyes dark, Xu Shuanglin used his free hand to draw
a fan from his waist and thrust it toward Mo Ran's throat.
Blood splattered with a sinister rustle from the fan. Despite Mo Ran's
hasty dodging, the sharp edge of the fan had cut into his neck. Xu
Shuanglin recalled the fan, now stained with Mo Ran's blood, and flicked it
downward.
As the drops of blood fell into the lake, a rich green glow lit its
depths.
Mo Ran looked down. Within the central wood elemental array
Nangong Liu and Xu Shuanglin had been guarding, the holy weapon was
submerged in the cold lake water. It had already absorbed all the life
essence from the surrounding vegetation. With this drop of Mo Ran's blood,
rich with spiritual energy, the holy weapon shone with a dazzling jade
brilliance. The earth shuddered; after a breath of silence, a dark and ancient
saber broke the surface of the water, blazing with fearsome light.
"The forbidden spell has been cast!" Xu Shuanglin yelled to Nangong
Liu. "He's coming—quick, get below the Heavenly Rift! Prepare to fight!
Prepare to fight!"
Prepare to fight? Were they summoning some fiend from the Infinite
Hells just to fight him?
But Mo Ran had only a moment to entertain this thought. The instant
he had a clear view of the holy weapon suspended midair, there was no
room in his mind for aught else—he felt that he was the one lashed by a
whip, completely immobilized and unable to utter a single word.
The weapon absorbing the wood elemental energy was none other
than Taxian-jun's vicious blade of a hundred battles—the holy weapon
Bugui!
A dull ache ripped through Mo Ran's chest. His vision flashed dark,
and indistinct voices seemed to murmur in his ears. He was unable to catch
his breath; it was as though all the blood he'd shed in his previous life had
rushed out of the darkness to soak him to the bone. He was nauseated and
dizzy, his heart hammering…
Xu Shuanglin took hold of Bugui. Mo Ran didn't think; he raised his
own hand at once to summon the weapon. But no sooner had he sent out a
thread of spiritual energy than the sound of Chu Wanning's guqin ceased.
Mo Ran turned with a vague sense of foreboding.
His pupils contracted. "Shizun!"
How could he forget?! Chu Wanning's spiritual core was weak; the
doctor at Xuanyuan Pavilion had said as much years ago. Bugui and Chu
Wanning were in some way incompatible—the blade lashed out at Chu
Wanning, affecting his already vulnerable core.
How could he have possibly forgotten!
Mo Ran broke his link with Bugui and leapt onto the massive vine. In
the instant before the spiritual vine began to wilt, he snatched Chu
Wanning, whose face was white with pain, and leapt back into the air.
Cradling Chu Wanning in his arms, he touched down in the nearby
tangerine grove.
Behind them, Tianwen's Ten Thousand Coffins crumbled and fell
away. Fortunately, the pawns within had become disoriented. Although they
hadn't yet completely regained their senses, they no longer heeded
Nangong Liu's commands. They stood with blank expressions, as if
dreaming.
"Shizun!" Racked by anxiety and remorse, Mo Ran knelt in the snow,
holding Chu Wanning as he ran gentle fingers over his face. Chu Wanning's
brows were tightly knit. "Are you okay?"
A trail of blood trickled from the corner of Chu Wanning's mouth.
Mo Ran hurriedly wiped it away, heart aching like it was being wrung out.
He suddenly thought of the past life, when Chu Wanning had also lain in his
arms like this at the summit of Kunlun Mountain, blood flowing from his
eyes, mouth, and ears as he died. Then, as now, Mo Ran had wiped at the
florid streams in a panic, unable to staunch their flow.
His heart felt like it was being drilled into. "Does it hurt a lot?" he
asked, the rims of his eyes red.
Bugui's adverse energy had taken a heavy toll on Chu Wanning. To
him, it had felt like the weapon's power had rushed into his chest and
attempted to split it in two. Even more concerning was the broken
succession of mirages that danced and warped before his eyes. With great
effort, Chu Wanning shook his head to clear those blurry illusions and
struggled to sit. He cast a glance in Nangong Liu's direction and the last bit
of color drained from his face. Tapping into unknown reserves of energy, he
grabbed Mo Ran's arm and rasped, "Over there—watch out!"
Mo Ran saw that Chu Wanning's face was the yellow of joss paper,
his eyes flashing with astonishment, reflecting the light of the fire…
Wait, fire?
Mo Ran turned and saw that the rift was no longer disgorging small
ghosts and demons. Instead, the roiling lava of the underworld spilled into
the sky. The fire lapped at the heels of the escaping ghosts and incinerated
them; the fiends had no chance to so much as scream before going up in a
puff of dark flame.
What was this?
The lava hung suspended between heaven and earth like a waterfall
of red and gold, flowing sluggishly, sinister and breathtaking at once. As it
reached the lake, the shards of ice and surging water caught like kindling.
At the forefront of the crowd, Nangong Liu and Xu Shuanglin cast a
tremendous water elemental spell to avoid being swallowed by the towering
flames.
The lava flowed slowly but inexorably; it wasn't long before it
neared those who had been embedded with Zhenlong Chess pieces. Cursing
under his breath, Mo Ran raised his hands to form a spell sign. But he
wasn't familiar with water elemental spells; halfway through, Chu
Wanning, lying in his arms, reached up to still his hands. Face white, he
said, "The seal is incorrect. Let me."
Mo Ran helped him sit up, supporting Chu Wanning with his own
body, but caught hold of his wrists. "Stop moving. Show me how to do it."
Chu Wanning hesitated. But his own spiritual power had been
damaged, and he might not be able to cast the spell properly. Lives hung in
the balance; he couldn't afford to be careless. He took Mo Ran's hands and
painstakingly arranged his fingers into the correct positioning, then said
hoarsely, "Cast the spell."
Spiritual energy flowed from Mo Ran's fingertips. A barrier formed
swiftly midair, transforming into a blue wave that enclosed the unconscious
puppets.
Chu Wanning let out a small breath. He looked up, intending to praise
Mo Ran, to find that handsome face, lit by the hellfire's glow, glimmering
with tear tracks.
Was…was he crying?
Why was he crying?
Chu Wanning was stumped. Shi Mei wasn't present, Xue Meng was
as yet unharmed, and the others around the lake were strangers to Mo Ran.
Could Chu Wanning be so bold—so greedy—as to presume Mo Ran's tears
were for him?
He eventually settled on saying, "Don't cry."
Mo Ran seemed to come to his senses and hastily swiped at his face.
"Aren't you too old to be acting like this?"
Mo Ran only looked at him with tear-filled eyes and asked, "Does it
hurt?"
Chu Wanning was taken aback. Where pain still lingered in his chest,
a warmth suddenly bloomed, gentle as spring water. Anguish and
tenderness entwined, aching and painful, bitter and sweet. For the first time
in his life, Chu Wanning's personal feelings overtook him as he faced a
crisis. He couldn't hold them back, no matter how inappropriate the time
and place.
"It's just a minor injury. I summoned two holy weapons and put a
strain on my spiritual energy; perhaps an old issue flared up." Chu Wanning
raised his hand. He hovered, hesitating, then patted Mo Ran on the head.
"Don't worry, it doesn't hurt anymore."
He turned again to look at the rushing, raging flames of the
underworld. His eyes slowly darkened as he pushed down the pain, a steady
determination emerging in its place.
"Keep an eye on Nangong Liu. Find the right opportunity…" Chu
Wanning paused before continuing bluntly, "and kill him."
Chu Wanning's glare burned with hatred, yet even more than that,
there was remorse. What Nangong Liu had said wasn't wrong. He had been
a youth of fifteen at Jincheng Lake and hadn't yet understood the ways of
the world. Nangong Liu had shown himself to be evil, but Chu Wanning
had let him go. In choosing to preserve the peace of the upper cultivation
realm, and to protect A-Si, who was then so young, he had concealed
Nangong Liu's sacrifice of his own wife to obtain a holy weapon. In the
ignorant naïveté and kindness of his youth, he had allowed these events to
come to pass. He had released a tiger back into its forest, resulting in the
hellfire before them now…
But he still didn't understand—what was Nangong Liu trying to do?