"I…"
Otto wanted to beg. He wanted the immortal in front of him to tell him how to revive Lihua. But he worried that he wasn't being respectful enough. Would she be angered by his rash behavior?
In the end, Otto chose to kneel heavily on the ground, lowering his proud head.
As Fu Hua looked at him, somewhat surprised, Otto trembled as he said, "Please…"
"Please save Lihua…"
"Lihua?"
Fu Hua frowned, then shook her head. She turned and walked up the mountain path. "Let's talk at the temple."
Seeing Fu Hua leave, Otto quickly followed. The Taixu Temple was said to be the home of the immortals. As a place where the Previous Era's warriors had lived, perhaps it would contain something that could save Lihua.
As he walked, the smell of smoke from the flames reached Otto. He wanted to ask Fu Hua what had happened, but he was afraid of being rude. He kept his questions to himself.
But when he followed Fu Hua to the top of Taixu Mountain, looking at the scene before him, he couldn't hold back his questions anymore.
"This... what is going on?"
The temple was in ruins. It looked like it had been through a great battle. In front of the temple, seven wooden frames had been erected. And on top of each frame, a person was hung.
One man and six women. They were all bound with rope. Their faces were bruised and swollen. They were barely alive, hanging in the air with lifeless expressions.
"Oh, those guys?"
Fu Hua walked into the ruins of the temple. She searched through the rubble until she found two wooden stools. After dusting them off, she walked back out. "You're probably surprised. My disciples didn't study hard. They thought they were strong enough to betray their master. So, I beat them and hung them there."
She put the stools down in front of Otto. She sat down casually, not even glancing at the people hanging on the frames. "I won't let them down until they understand how unfilial they are, and they reflect on their behavior."
Betrayal?
Cold sweat dripped down Otto's face. Had he heard something he shouldn't have?
"Master, I was wrong! Waaaahhh..." The youngest girl started crying. "I'm really sorry! Please, let me die!"
"Die? That's too easy." Fu Hua said without turning around. After realizing that just sitting was impolite, she went back into the ruins, found a tea set and half a can of tea. She walked back to Otto, sat down in front of him, and heated up the water with a flash of red flame from her hand.
Then, she poured tea for herself and Otto. It was as if they were in a tea room, not at the ruins of a temple with people hanging around them. "Please forgive the simple nature of this place."
It's definitely simple since it's a ruin-- Otto only dared to think those words. Since he had come to ask for a favor, he didn't know the customs of tea drinking, so he could only cautiously take the teacup and drink it all.
It's so hot! My throat feels like it's burning! Is this a trial that the immortal will make me go through?
But for Lihua, Otto endured it, without showing any pain.
When he looked up, he found Fu Hua looking at him with a strange expression.
"Are you not hot?"
It was just boiled water.
"Thank you, Immortal. The tea is warm, and its fragrance is very pure. It is very delicious." Otto said sincerely. He would have drunk a cup of boiling water or molten metal if that meant he could revive Lihua.
"I see. It seems people's constitutions are not all the same…"
Otto didn't hear Fu Hua's quiet mutterings. He thought that the immortal was testing him to see if he was qualified. He sat up straighter.
"The Lihua you mentioned, is she the girl from the Kipchak Steppe?"
After thinking for a while, Fu Hua spoke and looked at the white coffin behind Otto. "She… is dead?"
"...Yes. Schicksal was researching a black box that was passed down from the Previous Era. It released a Herrscher…"
"A Herrscher?"
Fu Hua looked at the teacup in her hand, her eyes filled with confusion. "But since you're standing here, that means that the Herrscher was eliminated, right?"
"…Yes."
Otto used all his strength to squeeze out that single word. "Lihua… used the Judgement of Shamash…"
Seeing the pain on Otto's face as he recalled what had happened, Fu Hua waved her hand, gesturing for him to stop. "I understand. What else do you want from me? If I had been there, it would have been easy to eliminate the Herrscher. But now that everything is over, there is nothing that I can do."
"Do, do you have any way to save her?!"
Seeing that Fu Hua was trying to refuse him, Otto couldn't help but kneel down and begged. "You're an immortal. You have lived since the Previous Era! You must know how to save her, right?!"
"Sigh..."
Fu Hua wanted to say something, but in the end, she just shook her head and let out a long sigh when she saw Otto, who was desperate for hope. "People who die can't be brought back. That is the law of this world. No matter how great a person is, no matter how kind a person is, once she's gone, she'll never come back."
"Since you are the wielder of the Key, then you should know something about the Previous Era. You know what I'm saying."