"Li Shixiong!" White Lingmiao's tear-choked voice called out, making Li Huowang, holding a lantern in the dark, turn back toward the people standing in the sunlight outside the cave.
He waved at them once more, "Go on, go home."
"Li Shixiong, come with us!" said Zhao Wu, lying on the back of the giant man nicknamed Fool. His expression was tense, sensing something amiss. "Are you going back for something you forgot?"
"Ha, go where?" Li Huowang turned, hiding his face once more in the shadows.
"Go home for the New Year, of course! Li Shixiong, where is your home?" Zhao Wu asked anxiously.
Li Huowang chuckled silently in the dark and began walking back down the dim tunnel, lantern in hand. "Home? Where would that be for me now? My home has been lost long ago, and I can't go back—never."
He walked on quietly, his footsteps the only sound in the stillness of Qingfeng Temple. Suddenly, Li Huowang began humming a tune, his steps becoming more lively, and the lantern in his hand swayed in rhythm.
With his own singing to keep him company, Li Huowang returned to his small room. He closed the door, placed the lantern on the table, and lay down on the stone bed without even wiping the blood from his face and body. He closed his eyes.
"Today is New Year's Day. I didn't eat that disgusting black Taishui this month, so I should be able to see Yang Na again soon, right?" The thought brought a faint smile to his lips.
He lay there, waiting quietly for his childhood friend, his dearest Yang Na, to take him back to his world.
After a sleepless night, Li Huowang's consciousness began to fade. Just as he was slipping into what he hoped would be a beautiful dream, the door suddenly opened.
Rubbing his eyes, Li Huowang sat up to see Gouwa, Zhao Wu, and the others standing at the door.
White Lingmiao stood there nervously, her gaze darting around before finally firming up with determination.
"Li Shixiong, if you can't go back home, then come to mine. My house is spacious, and the east wing is empty..."
Li Huowang looked at the kind-hearted girl before him and shook his head gently. "This place is fine. I've gotten used to it."
A madman like him, always talking to himself and acting erratically, could only belong in a shadowy, isolated place like this—where he wouldn't frighten others.
White Lingmiao's lips trembled slightly, as though she couldn't believe his words.
"I once had a home, and I once had a family, but..." Li Huowang tilted his head back, gazing at the pitch-black ceiling with a complicated expression.
Gouwa glanced at the others, then whispered conspiratorially, "If Li Shixiong insists on staying here, maybe we should just go."
"Shut up!" White Lingmiao's sudden outburst startled him, a stark contrast to the timid girl they knew.
She strode forward with a determined expression, her tone firm, "Would your family be proud of you for this? If they could see you like this, how would they feel?"
A bitter smile spread across Li Huowang's face. "How would I know what they think? I can't even be sure if they were real or not!"
"I might just be a delusional madman with nothing to my name. Everything—everything might be nothing but a figment of my imagination." His voice trembled with pain.
White Lingmiao's pale, nearly translucent hands reached out and grasped his. "Li Shixiong, you're not alone—you still have us."
Li Huowang stared blankly at her determined face, realizing how little he truly knew about this girl. "Why is she so kind to me?"
Suddenly, the world around him began to shift. The cave alternated with the white walls of a hospital. White Lingmiao's features blurred and reformed into Yang Na's tearful, worried face.
"Na-na!" Li Huowang lunged forward, clutching her tightly in an agonized embrace.
"Huowang, don't give up on yourself! You have to live—no matter what, you have to keep living, okay?" Yang Na's voice shook with emotion.
"You must endure. No matter what happens, never let yourself fall."
Then her face shifted into his mother's. "Son, you can't die! If you die, what will your father and I do?"
The faces continued to morph into people he knew, each encouraging him, cheering him on.
Abruptly, everything froze, and the bright hospital room dimmed once more.
Li Huowang loosened his embrace to find White Lingmiao in his arms. The girl looked a little flustered but didn't avert her gaze.
"Li Shixiong, let's go. I don't want to stay in this place any longer," she said softly.
She then pulled out the slips of paper from her pouch and placed them in his lap. "Li Shixiong, you gave me these, but they're no use to us—we can't read."
"Yeah, Li Shixiong, you're the only one who can do this. No one else can," the others chimed in from the doorway.
"I... I can..." Fool began to say, but Zhao Wu quickly covered his mouth, whispering, "Even if you can read, now's not the time to admit it!"
Li Huowang looked down at the papers filled with scribbled words, lost in thought.
White Lingmiao pushed them closer toward him. "Li Shixiong, you promised them. A real man keeps his word."
Reality and illusion shifted in his mind until, finally, Li Huowang reached out and took the papers. "Let's go."
He made his decision. No matter where he was, he would live as best he could—for himself and for the family that might or might not exist.
Hearing his words, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
They didn't know what was going through his mind, but as long as he left this wretched place, that was all that mattered.
The group surrounded Li Huowang as he walked out of the dim room. As they headed toward the cave's exit, he suddenly stopped them.
"Wait. If we're leaving, we should take whatever we can with us. Fool, carry Zhao Wu and lead the others to the kitchen to grab food for the journey—we'll need it."
With that, Li Huowang and White Lingmiao headed to the alchemy room to gather useful medicines. Having practiced alchemy for some time, he recognized some of the pills that could come in handy. But he avoided touching anything he didn't recognize.
After regrouping at the main hall, Li Huowang said, "Hold on. There's one last thing I need to grab." He lifted his lantern and carefully made his way toward the cave where the black Taishui was kept.