I drew out the wooden sword, and the last thread of golden light vanished from its tip. Wind blew from the crack in the hidden passage, carrying the dampness of the underground and the smell of rusted decay. Ye Qingwan stood at my side, her Black Cloak billowing faintly in the wind, the lingering warmth of crimson flames still clinging to her fingertips.
I closed my eyes. An exceedingly fine golden thread surfaced in my palm—it was the connection left behind as the Heaven-Slaying Origin traced back along the bloodline. Ji Hantian was still moving. He had gone two zhang deeper, then stopped. Not of his own accord; someone had blocked him.
"Someone intercepted him," I said.
Ye Qingwan looked up at me. "Who?"
"We'll know soon enough." I opened my eyes. "Going in now would only disrupt someone else's scheme."
She asked no more, merely tightened her grip on the Treasure Pouch, her fingers resting on the medicine pestle. Footsteps were already drawing near in the distance, but they were not coming from the hidden passage. They came from the entrance to the martial arena.
Three breaths later, a squad of black-armored guards entered in formation, the City Lord's Manor emblem engraved upon their armor. They split into two lines, and a man emerged from between them. He wore a black Cloud Pattern Official Robe, a City Lord's Seal at his waist, his features resolute and his short beard neatly trimmed.
Yan Jiuxiao.
He strode over step by step, his boots crushing broken bricks beneath them. His gaze swept over the ruined arena before finally settling on the crack. Then he gave a cold laugh. "What nerve. To dare set up a Blood Sacrifice killing formation right under the Ji Clan's nose."
No one answered him.
He did not care. Waving a hand, he signaled his subordinates. "Drag him out."
Two guards answered and leaped into the crack. A moment later, they climbed out carrying someone between them. His robes were torn, the Blood Crystal on his left arm dim and devoid of light, his face drenched in cold sweat and twisted with pain—it was Ji Hantian.
They threw him heavily onto the ground. A hoarse, muffled gasp escaped his throat. Some force seemed to be pressing him down relentlessly, leaving him unable even to lift his head.
Yan Jiuxiao looked down at him, his tone contemptuous. "Young Master Ji, three years ago, you stepped on a pile of discarded bones to climb to a lofty position. Did you ever imagine that one day, you would kneel amid these ruins?"
Ji Hantian gritted his teeth and tried to speak, but only spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva.
I walked forward slowly, lightly tapping the ground with the tip of my shoe. My gaze fell upon the rune-patterned crack on his arm that had yet to fade. It spread like a spiderweb, its edges dark red—the mark left behind when he had forcibly connected the Remnant Dao while altering the formation.
"Cousin," I said, my voice low, "do you know why I could break your formation?"
He jerked his head up, venomous hatred flashing in his eyes like blades.
Without waiting for his answer, I continued, "Because the foundation of the formation you used was a Remnant Dao Crystal I left in the Forbidden Ground three years ago. And that crystal... was soaked in my blood."
His pupils shrank sharply.
I raised my hand. Pale golden light glimmered at my fingertips as I shone it upon the crack in his arm. "To speed up the formation, you directly connected your life vein to my root vein. You thought you were borrowing traces of my past, but in truth—you turned yourself into part of the formation."
His face went deathly pale in an instant.
"Every step you took while fleeing tugged at my origin. Every time you activated Demonic Blood, you awakened my mark." I lowered my head and looked at him. "You are not a fugitive now. You are my 'puppet on a string.' Want to run? You can. But first ask whether your meridians agree."
His body shuddered violently. His left arm began twitching beyond his control, and fine cracks surfaced across the Blood Crystal, as though something were tearing it apart from within.
Yan Jiuxiao stood nearby, his brows drawing together. Clearly, he had not expected the situation to be so completely under control.
He said in a deep voice, "Young Master Ji, this man colluded with the Blood Demon Sect and intended to murder his own kin. The evidence is conclusive. By the authority of the Northern Wasteland City Lord, I will detain him and bring him back for interrogation."
"Fine." I looked at him. "But before you escort him away, you must first confirm one thing—can he still stand?"
As soon as the words fell, Ji Hantian suddenly let out a muffled groan and curled up, his forehead pressed to the ground, his teeth chattering. His right leg began to blacken, and a dark-red line spread upward along his meridians. It was the sign of a backlash against his life vein.
Yan Jiuxiao narrowed his eyes. "What trick are you playing?"
"I did nothing," I said. "He was the one greedy for speed, grafting the foundation of the formation onto me. Now that the formation is destroyed and his meridians severed, the backlash will naturally come for him. If you forcibly take him away, his meridians will burst and he will die before you have gone half a li."
"Then what do you intend to do?"
"I intend nothing," I said blandly. "I am merely reminding you that taking away a living corpse and taking away a dead man are not the same thing."
Yan Jiuxiao stared at me for a long while before finally smiling. "This young master of the Ji Clan truly is not as simple as he appears."
I did not respond. I turned to look at Ye Qingwan.
She had remained where she was, silently watching everything unfold. The golden gleam in her eyes had not yet faded, and the Phoenix Mark between her brows still pulsed faintly, as if she had not fully suppressed the summons within her.
"You felt it?" I asked.
She nodded. "Something underground is responding to me. It doesn't feel hostile, but it is very heavy, like a voice that has been sealed away for a long time."
I fell silent for a moment. "Don't go."
"I know it's dangerous," she said softly. "But I can sense where it is, and I can tell whether it is real or false. If it is coming for me, hiding won't help."
"I'm not telling you to hide." I looked into her eyes. "I'm telling you that going down now would be opening the way for someone else. The fire within you should not be wasted in a place like this."
She looked at me without speaking for a long time.
Suddenly, she raised her hand, and a wisp of crimson flame surged from her palm. The fire was not fierce, yet it carried an ancient aura as it slowly flowed through the air.
I extended my hand, and a thread of Heaven-Slaying Origin spilled from my fingertips, touching that crimson flame.
The two did not repel each other. Instead, they intertwined into a ring, and as they spun, they traced a blurred totem in the void—like twin serpents entwined, yet also like flames lifting up the stars.
Her pupils trembled. "This is..."
"Chaos Resonance Seal," I said. "Qingming mentioned it once. He said that only when two constitutions awaken at the same time can they draw forth the resonance from when heaven and earth first opened."
She watched as the totem gradually faded, her voice becoming softer. "So you knew all along? You knew I could sense you, knew that my Blood Phoenix Body would not reject your origin?"
I nodded. "I knew from the first time you helped me withstand the formation's erosion. A Pseudo-Primordial Body cannot casually bear Blood Phoenix True Fire unless it was born to carry a certain power."
"And your power," she stared at me, "was never something an ordinary cultivator could possess. You said you had been crippled for three years, but your eyes were never weak. You hid yourself too deeply, but there is one thing you could not hide—you are not afraid of death."
"Because I know I will not die," I said. "At least, while you are alive, I will not fall."
She suddenly smiled, a very faint smile, like a narrow crack opening in a sheet of ice.
"So you deliberately kept me alive?"
"I gambled that you would definitely survive." I looked at her. "Because you are like me. We are not people chosen by fate—we are the ones who turn around and bite down on fate."
She withdrew her hand, and the crimson flame went out. The black token in the Treasure Pouch grew faintly hot. She did not take it out, merely pressed it lightly once.
In the distance, Yan Jiuxiao had already ordered Ji Hantian carried onto a stretcher. He was still convulsing, muttering something indistinctly through his lips, as though begging for mercy, or perhaps cursing someone.
Yan Jiuxiao walked over and glanced at us. "Don't you want to know who is behind him?"
"I do," I said. "But it is not important right now."
"You will not investigate?"
"I have no need to." I looked into the depths of the hidden passage. "Those who truly wish to make a move will not hide behind the curtain for long. They will come out on their own, because I have already pushed open the door."
Yan Jiuxiao said nothing further. He merely gave me a deep look before turning away.
The guards escorted the stretcher away, their footsteps gradually fading. The wind swept up dust and passed over the ruins.
Ye Qingwan stood beside me without speaking.
After a long while, she suddenly said, "That totem just now... when it appeared, I heard a bird cry."
"What kind?"
"It did not sound like anything from the mortal world." She closed her eyes, recalling it. "It was like it came from the end of time. One cry, and it split open the darkness."
My heart stirred.
Qingming had said that the Blood Phoenix was no ordinary exotic creature. It was a spirit bird born when the first wisp of light and fire intertwined at the beginning of Chaos. Its cry had once awakened heaven and earth from their slumber.
And now, it was answering her.
"The next time it cries," I said, "follow it."
She opened her eyes and looked at me. "You won't stop me anymore?"
"I cannot stop you." I tightened my grip on the wooden sword. "Some roads must be walked to the end by yourself. I will only make sure that when you look back, I am still standing where I was."
She said nothing more, only nodded lightly.
The wind suddenly stilled for an instant.
Deep within the hidden passage, that faint red light that had originally gone out lit up once more. This time, it no longer flashed and vanished. It hovered steadily at the bottom like a lamp quietly lit by someone.
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