Mie Xingzhe curled himself into a ball, his body trembling uncontrollably. Even the slightest movement hurt so much that he could not stop himself from gasping in short, ragged breaths. Perhaps because his body was too weak and he had lost too much blood, his eyelids felt heavier and heavier.
Mie Xingzhe struggled with all his strength to keep himself awake. Compared with the pain of torn flesh, everything in those dreams filled him with a far deeper, more hopeless terror.
He was not afraid of being humiliated and tortured by Nangzhe again and again, but he had no way to face the people closest to him saying the cruelest things. Even though he knew all of it was only an illusion born of nightmare, every time he heard those words, his heart twisted with pain that he could not control. Every sentence felt like a curved blade driven into his heart, only to be twisted and pulled out again.
A tear slipped from the corner of his eye, leaving a clear track across his filthy face. In the past, even when traffickers had beaten him until his skin split open, he had never cried. Yet this single tear was full of helplessness and despair. If it had been before, Shizun would have come to save him, would he not? But now, who would come for him?
Before he realized it, Mie Xingzhe still fell asleep.
When he found himself once again standing in that place of endless darkness, Mie Xingzhe dropped helplessly to his knees. He was afraid, afraid of watching Yun Qingyi die in front of him again and again with hatred in his eyes. He did not want to watch the father from his dreams throw him to the ground over and over without mercy. Old Man Mie turning into white bones before him, and the cane stabbing into him again and again, felt even more like those blows were driving into his heart and grinding his pain there.
"Nian Nian"
"Master!"
"Nian Nian" The voice called again.
"Master! Help me." Panicked, Mie Xingzhe ran through the black dreamscape looking in every direction. When he turned around, he saw Li Luoning standing behind him, with Little Bingguo at his side.
"Nian, why are you... still not dead?" Li Luoning's brows were calm, and his face carried its usual gentleness, yet the words he spoke stabbed straight into Mie Xingzhe's heart.
"Master!, what... what are you saying?" Mie Xingzhe could not believe what he had heard.
"You killed the disciple I loved most. You caused the death of the Medicine King and Yingde Dragon King. You never knew how to restrain yourself, and again and again you brought trouble to your master. Ever since I took you in, I have never had a moment of peace." Li Luoning pressed closer with every step. Mie Xingzhe stared at him in disbelief and retreated bit by bit.
As Li Luoning's tone grew harsher, Little Bingguo at his side changed as well. The gentle pale blue light that once surrounded him faded, and his body grew larger and larger, dark green smoke swirling from him, exactly like what Mie Xingzhe had seen that day in Nangzhe's residence.
"You are the reason your master lost the Chixi core. Ever since you came to Liao Yin Immortal Realm, have you not brought nothing but trouble?" Li Luoning kept advancing. The gentleness on his face vanished and turned into fury. He raised his hand and slapped Mie Xingzhe hard across the face. Behind him, the enormous Bingguo bared his fangs and crept closer and closer.
"Master, please stop, please. Bingguo."
"I... I am sorry."
Since that day, Yun Qingyi had become a wound Mie Xingzhe could never erase in this life. He owed Li Luoning a debt of gratitude, and he owed Yun Qingyi a life. He knew this in his heart. At that moment, his heart shattered like a glazed lamp struck by a boulder.
"want to see you die. Only your death can count as repayment for the life of my beloved disciple!" Li Luoning's anger turned more and more frenzied and twisted, and his eyes began to glow with a devouring red.
"No, Master, this is not you. You are not my Master. Master would never treat me like this." Mie Xingzhe shook his head over and over in disbelief as he backed away.
"I am not? Then who should I be?" Li Luoning suddenly seized both of Mie Xingzhe's arms and pulled his face very close. His eyes, bloodshot and full of mockery, gleamed as he tilted his head slightly and asked.
"I... I do not know. Let go of me, let go!" Mie Xingzhe cried out on the verge of collapse, trying desperately to break free.
"Do you want me to remind you?" A voice cold as ice drifted through the darkness. In an instant, Li Luoning's light robes turned into the black garments and bound hair of Li Minghan. The blood-red line at the corner of his eye made his already narrow eyes look even colder and more bloodthirsty.
"How can it be you?"
"And why can it not be me? Do not forget, there is still cultivation inside your body that I passed to you. In that case, I count as half a master to you. Ah, in that case, you are nothing but a half-immortal, half-demon thing, something that belongs nowhere." Li Minghan struck Mie Xingzhe in the chest with one palm and sent him flying several zhang away.
Mie Xingzhe crashed to the ground in pain.Trembling, he pressed a hand over it and forced out a few words with difficulty.
"I...am not afraid of you."
"Shall I help you relive the pleasure you felt when you killed Yun Qingyi?"
"It was you! It was you who did it! Not me, I did not kill Qingyi, I did not!" Mie Xingzhe's pupils suddenly widened. He reached out, wanting to grab Li Minghan and demand answers, but the figure before him dissolved into mist.
Li Minghan's cold, mocking laughter layered itself over Mie Xingzhe's ears, like a thousand-year ice awl drilling through his eardrums again and again.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Stop laughing, do not laugh anymore!" Mie Xingzhe flailed wildly with both hands, trying again and again to scatter Li Minghan's shadow as it appeared around him. At last, he sank to his knees in utter weakness and despair, sobbing helplessly.
At Nangzhe's residence,
"Where is he?" Nangzhe stared at the open door of the guest room before him. It was completely empty inside. He questioned the ghost attendant at his side.
"Looking for me?" Li Luoning's voice came from the rooftop.
Following the sound, Nangzhe looked up and saw Li Luoning sitting leisurely on the roof with a jug of wine in his hand, drinking alone.
"Brother Piaochchen truly enjoys high places," Nangzhe said as he spun lightly into the air and landed on the roof.
"It is not safe on the ground,"
"This habit of yours is very much like that of another friend of mine. Come to think of it, Brother Piaochchen's features are also somewhat similar to my friend's." Nangzhe cast him a sidelong glance as he spoke.
"Oh? And where is this friend of yours now? Might you introduce me?" Li Luoning asked.
"I have not seen him in a long time. I am not even sure whether he is still... alive." Nangzhe deliberately paused before the last two words.
"The wine in your residence is strong enough, my lord, but it lacks a certain mellow fragrance."
"Oh? So Brother Piaochchen has drunk wine finer than what is in my residence?"
Li Luoning tossed him a small bottle of fruit wine. "I am only an idle man from the mountains, with no particular hobbies. But even the fruit wine I brew at random tastes far better than your forget-sorrow brew. Would you like to try it?"
Nangzhe raised it and drank the fruit wine in one swallow.
By nightfall, Nangzhe excused himself on the pretense of not holding his drink well and returned first to his room. The moment he stepped inside, he forced the wine out of his system with his inner power.
"A little tricks."
Li Luoning's real intention had been to add a fragrant herb that lingered for a very long time. With his keen sense of smell, it would not be difficult for him to trace where Nangzhe had gone. And the longer Nangzhe stayed in one place, the stronger the scent would become in that room.
Just after midnight, Nangzhe came out of his room and headed toward the back mountain. Li Luoning saw this and followed.
He watched Nangzhe enter a cave in the distance. Only after waiting a little while did Li Luoning quietly slip in after him.
The cave was damp and cold, without the slightest light. Other than the occasional sound of dripping water, there was almost no sound at all. Li Luoning searched through the cave and found that the scent of the herb stopped in front of a wall.
"There should be a hidden door here." He tapped around the wall, trying to find the mechanism. When he accidentally pressed a tiny stone, the door opened at once.
Li Luoning stepped quickly into the secret chamber, only to find that it was a bedchamber.
"He is this cautious even when he sleeps?"
Li Luoning searched everywhere. On the screen hung the clothes Nangzhe had changed out of not long before, and on the far side of the bedchamber there was another door.
He walked over and pushed it open. Following the passage downward, he unexpectedly came out of the cave.
"This is... Xueling?"
Looking at the scenery outside, Li Luoning could not help but feel puzzled. [Why would Nangzhe build a hidden passage to Xueling? Judging by the wear on the door of the passage, it must have been used for a long time. If he wanted to go to Fanli Valley or Bamboo Frost Forest, Pingyan Land would always be the shorter road. If he insists on passing through Xueling, then the only place he could be heading is Liao Yin Immortal Realm. Could it be that he... is someone from Liao Yin Immortal Realm?]
"I should find Nian first." Li Luoning did not continue after Nangzhe. He turned back the way he had come.
When he passed through the bedchamber again,
"Konggu Fairy?"
In Liao Yin Immortal Realm, Situ Fanzhi was handling official matters in his study.
"Little Fanzi, Little Fanzi!"
Hearing the voice, Situ Fanzhi froze for a moment, uncertain whether the owner of that voice was truly who he thought it was. He set down what was in his hands and walked outside. The moment he reached the doorway, Jiagu Qing came charging into the courtyard in a reckless rush, followed by a crowd of immortal soldiers.
"Immortal Lord, we could not stop him," the leading immortal soldier said.
Situ Fanzhi only waved for them to withdraw.
"Ah, Little Fanzi, so you were here. Come, drink with me." The instant Jiagu Qing saw Situ Fanzhi, he strode up, grabbed his wrist, and started dragging him away.
"Senior brother, senior brother...Why have you suddenly come today, senior brother? Is something the matter?" In his memory, this senior brother of his, who never cared about worldly affairs, would never come looking for him to drink for no reason.
"I got tired of staying alone in the peach blossom woods, so I came to wander around your place. What, are you not pleased to see me?" Jiagu Qing said after taking a drink.
"You seldom come, senior brother. How could I not welcome you? I know you dislike being disturbed, so I have rarely gone to visit you. That is my fault," Situ Fanzhi said with a small smile.
A servant stepped forward and whispered something into Situ Fanzhi's ear.
"Tell him to come another day," Situ Fanzhi ordered sternly, then turned back with a smile on his face.
Jiagu Qing cast a careless glance at the servant, and a glint of mischief flashed across his eyes. "This little servant girl must work hard every day attending your Immortal Lord. Here, this is for you." Jiagu Qing pulled out a brocade pouch and handed it to her.
The servant stood there in confusion, then glanced at Situ Fanzhi.
"What are you waiting for? Take it already," Situ Fanzhi said.
"Th-thank you..." It was the first time the servant had ever received such a reward, and for a moment she did not know how to react.
"What are you thanking me for? I should be thanking you for attending my junior brother all this time. I will grant you half a day off today. There is no need for you to serve here later." Jiagu Qing waved his hand and sent her away.
The servant looked at Situ Fanzhi in bewilderment. When he gave a silent nod of permission, she finally retreated.
When Li Luoning returned to Nangzhe's residence, he was still wondering how to find the place where Mie Xingzhe was being held when he saw a ghost attendant carrying a food box out through the back gate.
"It is already past the noon meal. Where would food be delivered at this hour?" Feeling something was strange, Li Luoning silently followed.
He trailed the attendant all the way to the dungeon at the back mountain. After the ghost attendant greeted the guards at the entrance and went inside, Li Luoning thought, "There are guards here. They must be holding someone inside." Nangzhe was not in the residence now, so Li Luoning decided simply to force his way in and see for himself.
He knocked the guards unconscious from behind and hurried into the dungeon.
Inside the dark, damp prison, several guards were chatting with the ghost attendant who had brought the meal.
"Well now, little demoness, the dishes look pretty good today." One guard stared at the food inside the box, nearly drooling.
"Ah, it has been several days now. How is the person in there?" The ghost attendant glanced into the darkness deeper within the dungeon as she asked.
"That one?" The guard pointed into the depths. "He looks weak enough to fall over with a push, but he is stubborn as iron. I do not even know whether he is demon or immortal. This is the first time I have ever seen our lord carry out the punishment personally. The beating was savage, but that boy did not make a sound. He has guts, I will give him that. Ah, what a pity. No one who falls into our lord's hands ever walks out of this dungeon alive."
"You do not even know who he is?" Another ghost guard came over with a bowl in hand, lowering his voice mysteriously.
"He is the one with that golden seal." The guard with the bowl leaned closer as he spoke. "Our lord is probably after that Floating Light Golden Seal of his. That is why he is locked up in here."
"So it is him. No wonder he is so hard-headed. But it is strange. I do not know what kind of medicine our lord gave him. A few days ago, our lord beat him half to death and he did not make a sound. But these past few days, whenever he falls asleep, he starts screaming and wailing so badly none of us can rest in peace." One of the guards grumbled.
Hidden in the dark, Li Luoning clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white and his bones creaked. He could not bear to listen anymore. In a flash, he sprang before them, knocked all the ghost guards down in a few strokes, and rushed deeper into the dungeon.
Inside the dim prison, the air was thick with the sharp smell of blood. Behind the black wooden barred door, Mie Xingzhe was still curled up on the ground. Tear tracks still glistened on his face, his lips were cracked and bleeding, and clear marks from fingernails could be seen on his neck. His breathing was so faint that if not for the occasional convulsion running through his body, it would have been hard to tell he was even alive.