Though it was only an illusion, it wouldn’t matter to confess honestly. However, if I didn’t suppress these feelings further, I would have no face to see him next time we met.
“No.” I watched tears blur my vision again and again, then drop to the ground one by one. “Divine Lord Yinze, he is my master. A teacher for one day is a father for life. I respect him, worship him, but would never want to marry him.”
At this moment, my pack moved, and Xuanyue poked out her little head, looking at me in confusion, then turning to look at the Azure Dragon. The Azure Dragon stood before me for a long time, remaining silent throughout. Finally, he touched Xuanyue’s head, turned to transform into a dragon, and flew swiftly into the sky.
He vanished instantly, but my tears still wouldn’t stop. It was just a meaningless test—Master himself didn’t know about it, so why was I so upset? Thinking of my earlier complete loss of composure and soul-scattering reaction, I felt even more desperate and cried aloud.
Xuanyue also became anxious, biting my sleeve and pointing with her claws to the aerial kingdom not far away. I looked in that direction and suddenly my tears stopped—that was Suozhao! My homeland, Suozhao! So Lord Azure Dragon had already brought me back, and his earlier transformation into Master was just to amuse me.
Wait, what was going on? My whole body stiffened. Just now, I was kissed by Lord Azure Dragon… that perverted dragon!!!
Meeting Hanmo outside Suozhao’s city gates, we decided to split up. He would go gather reinforcements while I would use magic to secretly infiltrate Zichao Palace and track down Lord Kaixuan. However, on this journey flying from the city gates to Zichao Palace, my mood fluctuated countless times.
Suozhao, the water kingdom blessed by gods, should have been full of vitality with beautiful flowers and full moons. But here, I could only see desolation everywhere, half the city in ruins.
On the Luoshui River, though the water still glimmered, what reflected was no longer beautiful women playing the harp, but flying sand and rolling stones of the desert. In the yellowed sky, there were no longer so many Suozhao people with swords and instruments dancing on water to ascend to heaven—only sparse spirit cranes flying aimlessly. Occasionally, a Xuanniao would hurry away from Zichao Palace, unwilling to linger anywhere. The Chu halls and Qin towers of the aerial towns were already nothing but broken walls and ruins. Looking around, on an entire street, there was only one singing woman, singing a mournful tune. A ragged old man passed by, dropped an amber bead in her bronze vessel, then leaned against the wall to listen, never leaving…
Though Hanmo had already described Suozhao’s current state to me, every scene before my eyes still left me stunned. Looking back, ten years ago, Suozhao was experiencing a golden age with a prosperous national fortune and great peace under heaven. Grand Priest Sibo went overseas to seek knowledge, Father King implemented the “amber-silk concurrent system,” and to encourage more people to come here, greatly reduced taxes for foreign residents. Historians recorded this as the “Zhaohua Governance.”
Now, ten years—just ten years had passed, and Suozhao had become like this. How could such desolation be described with mere heartache…
Thinking that all this was Lord Kaixuan’s doing, new hatred added to old grudges, that fire from my heart kept surging, making me wish I could kill him right now.
To avoid being disturbed by these scenes, I quickened my pace and reached Zichao Palace. Unexpectedly, my luck was excellent—just as I climbed above Lord Kaixuan’s palace, I saw him sneaking out and running to a dry well, casting magic to insert a brocade banner in the ground.
Then an ice-blue magic array appeared below the banner. He looked around, stepped into the array, and disappeared completely. After staying inside for less than a tea’s time, he quietly emerged again. Just as he reached out to cast magic once more, Second Sister’s voice came from within the palace: “Where is he? How did he disappear in the blink of an eye?”
“Your Majesty, I’m here!” Lord Kaixuan said hurriedly, glanced back at the banner with no time to spare, and returned to the palace.
I quickly jumped down and approached the magic array to get a closer look, but was accidentally sucked into it.
The surrounding scenery rapidly distorted like entering a dream. I arrived in a deep black void world. Behind me was an oval exit, and ahead was a long path of flowing light. After walking forward for a while, the surrounding environment flashed, and I entered a deep purple world with another door behind me.
Continuing forward through several doors like this, the colors inside became increasingly lighter, but there was nothing there. Finding it boring and wanting to leave, I heard a woman crying mournfully: “Return him, return him, give him back to me…”
This voice was extremely shrill. I was startled and turned back to see a woman less than a meter away from me. She wore brocade deep garments but was hunched over with disheveled hair, holding a bundle of cotton blankets. Her eyes were blood red—exactly like a female beast: “Give my child back to me…”
Blood tears flowed from those eye sockets that contained only red, making her look as if her eyes had been gouged out. I was so frightened I retreated several steps, but she stretched out her hands and pressed forward step by step: “Give him back to me, you heartless demon! Give him back! Give my child back!”
Her claws swinging down, accompanied by that final shrieking scream, came too fast—I couldn’t dodge. Originally thinking my face would be scratched, I discovered her entire being was like a ball of light that had passed through my body and run to the other side: “Give me my child back, give me my child back! Don’t take my child away…”
I patted my chest, quite shaken by this terrifying apparition. Turning around, I found she seemed unable to see me at all, just dragging the blanket around like a madwoman. Her appearance reminded me of Fu Chenzhi when he was last possessed.
Suddenly feeling extremely unsafe here, I turned to retrace my steps and escaped from this eerie place.
However, when I emerged, I happened to encounter the returning Lord Kaixuan.
He quickly put away the banner and magic array, demanding: “What did you see?” Then he froze, his eyes showing extremely complex emotions: “…Luowei?”
“Yes, it’s me.” I gave him a slight smile. “Thanks to you, I didn’t die.”
“Very good. Then die once more.”
He reached out, preparing to cast magic, but glanced behind me and instead covered his chest with his hand: “Luowei, is it you? Didn’t you die?”
No need to think—Second Sister was behind me. Not having seen her for ten years, I still felt very uneasy. Taking a deep breath, I turned around to face the young Suozhao Emperor behind me.
Second Sister wore the emperor’s dark robes, her azure hair hanging over her shoulders. She was thin as a willow in the wind, her eyes full of shock: “…Weiwei? How is this possible… am I seeing things?”
I said, “Second Sister, you’re not seeing things. I didn’t die but went to take a master’s.”
Second Sister was having trouble processing this: “Take a master?”
“Yes. These ten years, not a day has passed without me thinking of home. Whenever I thought of someone causing our nation’s destruction and family ruin, I wanted to cut him into a thousand pieces.”
Second Sister said, “The person you speak of, could it be Fu Chenzhi?”
“No, it’s him.” I slowly turned my head, pointing at Lord Kaixuan with murderous intent.
Presumably, Master’s reputation was indeed somewhat frightening. Lord Kaixuan swallowed, but quickly masked his emotions, pointing at himself with his usual relaxed smile: “Me? Little Sister Weiwei, what kind of joke is this? For these ten years, your sister has been heartbroken. Seeing her like this, I wish you could all come back to life. How could I possibly want your nation destroyed and family ruined?”
“Still being stubborn! You originally schemed to kill my parents, sowed discord between us siblings, nearly killed me, turned Suozhao into its current ghostly state, and you still dare speak such arrogant words! You think worse than pigs and dogs, I’ll kill you right now!”
I waved my hand, and the pool water behind him rushed out, forming ice that struck directly at his head. But another magic technique skillfully melted the ice back to water and guided it back to the pool. I turned back angrily: “Second Sister, are you still stubbornly deluded, choosing to believe him rather than your sister?”
Second Sister said, “Weiwei, that you can return safely is already fortunate in misfortune. You are my own sister—naturally I believe you. But he is my husband. This matter is grave. Can you produce evidence? If what you say is true, you needn’t act—I will eliminate him myself. But if these matters are false and you want to kill your brother-in-law, I cannot sit idly by.”
“I have evidence.”
That night, Second Sister summoned all the ministers and nobles to gather in Zichao Palace.
I brought out Xuanyue, taking out documents I had prepared long ago: “This is a copied page from the Book of Life and Death that my master obtained from the King of Hell. It bears the seal of the underworld and annotations from the judges. Xuanyue, the little Qiongqi in my arms—its parents were lured to the northern border of the immortal realm by Ruyue Weng and killed personally. But they didn’t eliminate the tiger cub Xuanyue, instead throwing it into other tiger dens and deliberately selling it to tiger cub merchants. Later, I saw Xuanyue at a tiger cub shop and liked it very much, but I had no money to buy it. Lord Kaixuan paid to help me buy it.”
Seeing Lord Kaixuan remain silent, I said, “Lord Kaixuan, you must be struggling now, right? If you deny it, should I find residents who passed by on the night I bought the tiger to testify, you’d be unable to explain. But if you admit it, more flaws might be exposed.”
Lord Kaixuan smiled, “No, Little Princess, you misunderstand. I’m just trying hard to think about the connections here. Helping the Little Princess pay for a little tiger is to be interpreted as colluding with Ruyue Weng? Is this how you understand it? Truly treating good intentions like donkey liver and lungs.”
I said, “When you first came to Suozhao, what did you tell my father?”
Lord Kaixuan said, “That was so long ago, how could I possibly remember?”
I extended my hand to a clerk nearby. He walked over and respectfully placed a scroll in my hand.
I slowly opened the scroll, keeping my eyes on Lord Kaixuan. Seeing him grow increasingly uneasy, I finally said slowly: “This is a transcript recorded by the clerk that year. Father asked about your recent situation. You said: ‘These past three years, I have been traveling the four seas, composing poetry and tasting wine, never returning to the heavenly realm. The only immortal I’ve met was the Wenqu Star, who had also descended to the mortal realm. I am truly ashamed of my immortal name.’ Full of lies—you had already colluded with Ruyue Weng!”
Lord Kaixuan said, “What I said that year was indeed true. Since I had never returned to the immortal realm, how could I collude with Ruyue Weng from Xuanwu Heaven?”
“Ruyue Weng never said he was from Xuanwu Heaven.”