Miracle

The experience of surviving a fall from the cliff felt like an absurd dream. Even after returning to the ground, Gu Shenwei still felt as though he were trapped inside it. The Stone Fortress before him had suddenly become tiny—he only needed to take a step to crush it beneath his feet.

The two Great Peng Birds acknowledged that this human was the savior of their chick, and all hostility toward him vanished. The male bird even pecked out the eye of another gray wolf and kindly presented it to the human for a taste.

The chick had been domineering from the moment it was born. Like a rubber ball, it shot upward, trying to snatch the food from its father's beak.

Gu Shenwei made a series of complicated gestures before "politely declining" the kind offer. His heart trembled with unease. If the Great Peng Bird misunderstood him, his life would be forfeit. Yet no matter what, he could not swallow that bloody wolf's eyeball.

The male bird was very clever. It bent down and fed the wolf's eyeball to the chick.

Gu Shenwei used many more gestures to show that he liked this magnificent nest, but that he had fallen from above and very much wanted to return.

The Great Peng Birds were quite intelligent. They soon understood what the human wanted. The female bird took flight first, seemingly to scout the way, while the male followed, gently gripping the human's shoulders with its iron claws and flying beneath him.

The chick was somewhat reluctant to part. The moment Gu Shenwei took off, it chased after him and viciously pecked the soles of his feet twice.

His feet hurt, and his shoulders hurt too, but neither pain could compare with the wondrous sensation of flying through the air. Gu Shenwei was like a kitten held in an old cat's mouth, afraid to exert even the slightest strength. Layers of clouds and mist swept downward past him. Several times, he hallucinated that he was not ascending but falling.

At last, he returned to the ground. The two Great Peng Birds nodded at him with imposing dignity and quickly flew away. They seemed to dislike this Stone Fortress very much.

Gu Shenwei collapsed into a heap. The Giant Stone Cliff was deserted. Shangguan Yushi and Shangguan Ru had both left, and the scattered odds and ends were no different from before he had fallen.

After resting and recovering his strength for a full half-hour, he finally drew a deep breath and struggled to stand. Limping, he squeezed past the boulder, leaned against the wall, and followed the alley toward the East Fortress gate.

As Gu Shenwei gradually made his way deeper into the Stone Fortress, the world before his eyes became real again. The hatred temporarily obscured by his extraordinary encounter also revealed its clear features once more. He was still the youth whose great vengeance remained unavenged. Nothing had changed—except Shangguan Yushi. She had to be eliminated at once.

Gu Shenwei hesitated and wandered for a long time before returning to the stone hut. He collapsed onto the kang and immediately fell unconscious. In his condition, covered in wounds, thinking about a murder plot was simply too difficult.

He opened his eyes to complete darkness. It was already deep into the night, and he still had not reported the day's events to Xue Niang.

Xue Niang must be furious, he thought, then turned over and fell asleep again.

The next morning, he did manage to rise on time. His entire body had been bandaged, though the crude technique clearly had not belonged to a doctor. He jerked upright, and the pain was just as severe as the day before, without the slightest reduction. His mind, however, was clear, and he could think normally again.

The person who had bandaged him was naturally Old Zhang. The taciturn old man had already gone to feed the horses. A large bowl of rice sat on the edge of the kang, piled high with meat.

Gu Shenwei forced himself to eat every last bit of food, then went straight to the Giant Stone Cliff as usual. Since he was still in the Golden Peng Fortress, he had to perform Huan Nu's duties.

Outside the door, he glanced toward the stables. The towering tree of hatred in his heart loosened slightly, but dark clouds immediately gathered again. He used Shangguan Yushi's image to pile another thick layer of soil over its roots.

The Giant Stone Cliff had not changed at all. After tidying a few things, Gu Shenwei was exhausted. His injuries had not yet healed, so he could only sit beneath the wall and rest for a while. That single rest lasted until noon.

He could not, nor did he want to, seek treatment inside the fortress. If the physician failed to cure him, he might be sent to the Kindling Courtyard to wait slowly for death.

Sitting there was no different from waiting to die.

Gu Shenwei was lost in wild thoughts when three youths walked in from outside the boulder, chatting and laughing.

All three were attendants to the Twins. Their duties were the same as Huan Nu's, and they usually arrived late. Today was no exception.

When they saw Huan Nu sitting blankly at the foot of the wall, the smiles on their faces vanished instantly. They gaped and stood rooted to the narrow entrance.

"Good heavens!" someone shouted. The three youths turned and ran, collided in a knot at the entrance, and then tumbled out together.

Gu Shenwei was baffled, but then he understood. In the youths' eyes, Huan Nu was already a "dead man" who had fallen from the cliff.

He had always believed that mysterious guards lurked everywhere in the Golden Peng Fortress. Since he had walked back to the stone hut alive, the guards should have discovered him long ago. Why, then, did the attendants still know nothing?

Perhaps the flow of information was poor. What the guards knew was not necessarily passed on to a group of young servant boys.

Before long, the sound of a large crowd running came from outside. Gu Shenwei had just pushed himself to his feet against the wall when Shangguan Ru rushed in.

But, like the three attendants before her, she froze the instant she saw Huan Nu. She stopped short and struck a pose that was half flight and half challenge. Behind her, countless pairs of eyes peered inside, yet not a single person followed her in.

"You... are you human or a ghost?"

Shangguan Ru demanded fiercely, unable to fully conceal the panic in her heart.

"If I were a ghost, I wouldn't need to bandage these wounds."

Gu Shenwei smiled, finding it rather amusing.

"He has a shadow!" Little Young Master Shangguan Fei shouted from outside. After saying this, he squeezed inside as well, stood behind his sister, and kept sizing up Huan Nu as though seeing him for the first time.

"How are you not dead?" Shangguan Ru still did not quite believe it.

"I was caught by a tree when I fell. I was unconscious for a while, then climbed back up by myself. By then, you and Young Master Yu had already left."

Gu Shenwei concealed the matter of the Great Peng Birds.

Shangguan Ru's expression gradually softened. Then she suddenly broke into a brilliant smile, ran several steps to Huan Nu's side, grabbed his hand, and said, "Come with me!"

The two ran outside. The youths at the entrance hurriedly made way. They still had not entirely believed that Huan Nu was alive, but they all followed from a distance.

Running after Shangguan Ru was no easy task. Gu Shenwei felt that more than one of his wounds had split open again, but he endured the pain, wanting to know what the Ninth Young Master intended to do.

Outside the East Fortress gate, Qing Nu was pacing anxiously with five or six others. He had failed to stop the two young masters from going to see the "ghost," yet lacked the courage to follow them himself, leaving him as frantic as an ant on a hot pan.

Shangguan Ru pulled Huan Nu over the threshold and came face-to-face with the people outside. Qing Nu abruptly raised his head. Though he was already over thirty, he still cried, "Good heavens!" His legs went limp, and he collapsed into the arms of the men behind him.

Shangguan Ru burst out laughing without slowing her steps. She pulled Huan Nu onward, heading neither for the school nor the Moon Holding Courtyard. After several twists and turns, they arrived at a courtyard Gu Shenwei had never entered.

The courtyard stood along the central axis of the Golden Peng Fortress. It was not large, and it did not look as though anyone lived there.

Shangguan Ru pushed open the door and shouted, "Young Master Yu, Young Master Yu, come out quickly! He isn't dead!"

Gu Shenwei had long wondered why he had not seen Shangguan Yushi. It turned out that she had hidden herself, afraid of a ghost's revenge.

Shangguan Ru called three times before a trembling voice came from the eastern side room. "You... you're not lying to me, are you?"

"No. Look, he's alive and well. He has wounds, and he has a shadow. He definitely isn't a ghost."

The door creaked open, and Shangguan Yushi poked her head out. She looked badly frightened. Her usual proud, cold expression had vanished, leaving her as terrified as an ordinary fourteen-year-old girl.

"Say, who are you?" Her voice tried to remain forceful, but only revealed greater nervousness and unease.

"Huan Nu. Young Master Yu, don't you remember me?"

"How are you not dead?"

"I fell from the cliff yesterday, but a tree caught me. I was unconscious for a while. Then I felt many people holding me up and talking to me, saying that Young Master Yu had only been fooling around and that I wasn't to take her seriously..."

Before Gu Shenwei could finish, Shangguan Yushi let out a scream, pulled her head back, and slammed the door shut.

Shangguan Ru unhappily shook off Huan Nu's hand. "It's good that you're fine. Why did you frighten her?"

"Ninth Young Master, this servant was only telling the truth. I didn't mean to frighten Young Master Yu. Perhaps I hallucinated while I was unconscious."

Shangguan Ru was half convinced. She pushed Huan Nu forward and shouted toward the eastern side room, "Young Master Yu, come out quickly, or we'll go in."

Shangguan Yushi pushed the door open and stepped outside, having recovered most of her composure. If she had to face a "ghost," it was certainly safer beneath the sun than inside the room.

"What do you want?"

There was nothing Gu Shenwei could do. He drew the dagger from his robes, held it out respectfully with both hands, and presented it to Shangguan Yushi. "This servant was fortunate enough not to die. I only wish to serve the two young masters and Young Master Yu for the rest of my life. This is your possession."

Shangguan Yushi slowly extended her hand and suddenly snatched away the dagger. The brief contact with Huan Nu dispelled the last trace of doubt in her heart. This was a person, not a ghost.

"Actually, I never meant to... If Ninth Young Master hadn't said..."

Shangguan Ru darted past Huan Nu, grabbed her cousin's arm, and cut her off. "Don't say it, don't say it. Anyway, Huan Nu is fine, so everything can be just as it was before."

Gu Shenwei was the exact opposite of "fine." He was covered in wounds, and the hatred in his heart burned more fiercely than ever. If anything remained as it had been, it was his resolve to slaughter every member of the Shangguan Family.

But he was still somewhat curious. What exactly had Shangguan Ru said to make Shangguan Yushi so crazed with jealousy that she wanted to kill him?

He did not ask. On the surface, he had to be a sensible, good servant. If his masters let bygones be bygones, he had to respond with gratitude and devotion. As for an apology, how could a master possibly apologize to a servant? It was best not even to think such a thought.

Shangguan Ru held her cousin's hand with one hand and her own servant's with the other. With utmost solemnity, she said, "The three of us are an assassination group. Only the three of us count. So from now on, we must trust one another, help one another, cherish one another, and never betray each other. Whoever breaks the oath, I... will never speak to him again for the rest of my life."

Faced with this childish oath, Gu Shenwei and Shangguan Yushi both pretended to take it seriously and repeated it after her. When they reached "cherish one another," both unconsciously revealed the expression of A gentleman must avenge himself. Fortunately, Shangguan Ru was too happy to notice how unreliable her assassination group really was.

An oath? Gu Shenwei snorted inwardly. Over the past year, he had sworn countless oaths. Only the first had been genuine and effective: slaughter every member of the Shangguan Family.

The miracle of Huan Nu surviving his fall from the cliff caused quite a stir among the youths. Many ignored Qing Nu's furious looks and deliberately came over to speak with him, taking the opportunity to touch him, hoping to confirm with their own hands that this really was a human body.

Things were quite different when he reached Xue Niang.

Xue Niang did not believe in ghosts at all. What displeased her was that Huan Nu had played with fire and offended Shangguan Yushi. It seemed as though he had been the target of an assassination, and the entire responsibility lay with him alone.

She punished Huan Nu with Iron Finger, adding another internal injury to his body.

Thus, when Gu Shenwei came alone to the Giant Stone Cliff the next morning, he could not do any work. He could only lie beneath the sunlight, half asleep and half awake, mulling over from time to time what method he could use to take revenge on Shangguan Yushi without suffering any repercussions.

He had no idea that on that very day, he would experience the agony of Qi Deviation for the first time—and consequently feel a trace of guilt over Yao Nu's death.