Sending You on Your Way

"Xu You... why hadn't he returned yet?"

Under the faint glow of the green lamp, Shen Yan wore a thin outer robe as she paced anxiously around the room.

"Did killing one Xie Zhen really take this long?"

A sense of unease suddenly gripped her.

From Northern Prefecture to Azure Prefecture, she had tested him many times. Xie Zhen truly had no Qi within him.

By her deductions, he should have been nothing more than a Qi Refiner with a slight grasp of talisman arts, perhaps with some ties to the Daoist sects.

At Xu You's realm, killing such a Qi Refiner should have taken no more than the time it took to drink a cup of tea.

"Creak."

A soft sound of the door opening rang out. Shen Yan turned around in delight, but in the next instant, her face turned deathly pale.

The one who had left and returned was not Xu You.

It was Xie Zhen.

"Miss Shen, we meet again..."

A faint smile rested on Xie Xuanyi's face, and his tone was mild, as though he were greeting an old friend.

Yet that very tone sent a chill down Shen Yan's spine.

Because his white robes were still stained with blotches of blood.

"I had thought we would not need to meet again."

Xie Xuanyi closed the door, then slowly strolled to the jade desk where Xu You conducted his affairs and sat down with complete composure.

Xie Xuanyi brewed himself some tea and spoke softly. "Perhaps we truly are fated."

"Xie Zhen..."

Shen Yan was a clever woman.

She quickly calmed herself, suppressing the fear in her heart as she sat across from Xie Xuanyi.

"Xu You... is dead?"

She had already guessed the truth of certain matters, yet she could not help asking.

He was the deputy city lord of Taian City!

At the peak of the Qi Guiding Realm!

"There is a term in the Demon Kingdom called 'rebirth.' Many years ago, when Grandmaster Mozhen bewitched people's hearts, he would tell those foolish cultivators that as long as they served the Demon Kingdom to the death, even dying was nothing to fear... So long as they made sufficient contributions, they could leave behind a wisp of soul thought in the Demon Kingdom. That wisp of soul thought was their hope of 'rebirth.' Those 'humans' who sold their lives to the Demon Kingdom could go to their deaths without hesitation. No matter the outcome, the Grandmaster would give them a chance to 'live once more.'"

Xie Xuanyi lowered his head and took a sip of tea, his voice calm. "In their terms, Xu You was not dead... I sent him off to 'rebirth.'"

Shen Yan's face turned incomparably pale in an instant.

More terrifying than Xie Zhen killing Xu You were the two words Demon Kingdom that had come from his lips.

"Isn't 'rebirth' a laughable word?"

Xie Xuanyi lifted his head and fixed Shen Yan with a half-smiling gaze. "Yet people believe it. How could the dead ever live again? What good could come from selling one's life to the Demon Kingdom?"

Within this chamber hung highly conspicuous plaques reading "Serve the Country with Utmost Loyalty" and "Leave Behind a Loyal Heart."

The calligraphy, paintings, and writings left upon Xu You's jade desk all displayed his devotion to the country: bending himself to the task until exhaustion, dying only after he had done all he could. No wonder the people of Taian City regarded Xu You as a hero. No wonder his adopted son, Xu Jing, had viewed him as a model.

Now, it was ironic to the extreme.

Unexpectedly,

Shen Yan neither begged for mercy nor repented.

She merely stared coldly at the white-robed youth before her. "Then what good comes from selling one's life to Great Chu?"

Xie Xuanyi frowned slightly.

"The Chu Emperor has passed away, the Heavenly Dao has collapsed, and the people of Northern Prefecture live in misery. After the chaos of war came a year of great famine. Before the blood that set the oars afloat had dried, the land was once more strewn with the frozen bones of the dead."

"The imperial capital refuses to strive ahead. It dismisses the Garrison Envoys and seals off the northern frontier, turning a blind eye to the suffering of its people. I hear that Eternal Spring Pavilion is filled with song and dance every night. Does the imperial capital know how many people in Northern Prefecture starve to death, work themselves to death, and die of sickness for every song it plays?"

Shen Yan said expressionlessly, "If I serve Great Chu, Great Chu will not remember my merits. If I serve the Demon Kingdom, at least... I can survive, and I can live well."

"..."

Xie Xuanyi fell silent.

Having slept for ten years, he truly knew very little about the Great Chu of today.

Yet along this journey, Northern Prefecture's misery had proven even worse than before.

"So you could even ruthlessly kill your own birth parents?"

When Soul Searching Xu You, Xie Xuanyi had learned exactly what Shen Yan had done for this mission.

In order to pass the border smoothly,

Shen Yan had personally acted to wipe out Lingluo Mountain.

Even someone like Xie Xuanyi, a born killer, felt "shocked" by such conduct.

"Dead was dead."

Shen Yan smiled without the slightest concern. "By your words, I merely sent them off to 'rebirth'... In this world, what was so good about being alive?"

Xie Xuanyi fell silent again.

Now he understood.

Shen Yan was a madwoman through and through.

Someone like her was even more frightening than Xu You.

"Xie Zhen, you may kill me if you wish. I do not care. But let me remind you of one thing... this is Taian City."

Shen Yan's tone was cold to the extreme. "The Imperial City Bureau's Primal Chaos Monitor watches this place at every moment. Xu You's death will certainly draw the attention of those above. If you kill me, can you escape unscathed?"

"I have a thousand ways to escape."

Xie Xuanyi said calmly, "The simplest is to make the truth public."

"You would not do that."

Shen Yan smiled.

She raised her head and looked at the handsome white-robed youth before her. "The identity of a Demon Kingdom spy may indeed be unfit to see the light... but compared with Xu You and me, isn't your identity something that needs even more concealment?"

Xie Xuanyi's hand holding the teacup paused slightly.

"You are the person meant to cross the border, deduced by a Demon Kingdom venerable at great cost. A 'person' targeted by the Demon Race could never be a Great Chu deathsworn, much less a loyal and righteous person whose soul thought is recorded within the Primal Chaos Monitor. In other words... your identity within Great Chu must be chaotic and vague."

"You have ties to the Daoist sects."

"With Qi Refiner cultivation, you can kill someone at the peak of the Qi Guiding Realm."

"I do not believe someone like that could be an obscure nobody... Your name must be false, and your identity must be false as well. Once the Imperial City Bureau sets its sights on you, you will be a 'suspect' more worthy of attention than Xu You and me. A person with no identity and no background comes forward to expose Demon Race spies—would the Imperial City Bureau believe him?"

Shen Yan spoke slowly. "In other words, even if you say you are a good person, who would know?"

"Miss Shen, you should not have been born on Lingluo Mountain."

After hearing her out, Xie Xuanyi could not help sighing. He said earnestly, "You should have been born in the imperial capital and become one of the Sandalwood Guard."

Shen Yan shook her head, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"So... Young Master Xie, killing me would not be a wise move. You killed Xu You and took the Demon Race's token. Why not make use of it to the end?"

She spoke slowly. "I can help you."

Xie Xuanyi looked at Shen Yan meaningfully.

"Help me?"

"Help you evade the Imperial City Bureau's investigation, escape the Primal Chaos Monitor's surveillance, and erase everything that happened in Taian City tonight."

Shen Yan appeared calm, but all ten of her fingers had long dug into her palms, leaving bloody marks.

She spoke softly, proposing a bargain. "No matter what, you need to prove that Xu You's death had nothing to do with you."

Once she had finished saying this,

the white-robed youth across the jade desk truly fell into thought.

Seeing Xie Zhen's current reaction,

Shen Yan knew that she had guessed correctly—and gambled correctly.

This white-robed youth's identity was even more mysterious than hers and Xu You's!

"Miss Shen, you have reminded me of something."

After a moment, Xie Xuanyi raised his head and said earnestly, "Perhaps the Primal Chaos Monitor is watching me right now. Those fellows from the Imperial City Bureau all have noses like dogs; they are far more troublesome than Demon Cultivators."

Upon hearing this,

Shen Yan inwardly let out a slight breath of relief.

But before she could continue speaking,

the youth across the jade desk, drinking tea with his cup in hand, suddenly swept two fingers together in a cutting motion.

Riiip!

"???"

Shen Yan's beautiful eyes widened as she lowered her head in disbelief.

A slender line of blood emerged across her jade-like neck, stretching unbroken. She instinctively reached up to cover it, but it was already too late.

Blood spurted through her fingers and fell upon the white paper spread across the jade desk, blooming into specks of bewitching crimson plum blossoms.

"As thanks, I'll send you on your way."

Xie Xuanyi cast Shen Yan one final glance.

He rose to his feet, took a talisman from his robes, and pressed it down.

Golden Qi swept out and ignited the entire desk...

Before long, the flames spread.

Billowing black smoke rose from the entire Xu residence.