The Cost

Since they were all pitiful people, they should help each other whenever they could.

That was what he thought, and that was what he did.

Jiang Cheng walked up beside Gongsun Zhiruo and matched his pace. "Back there, beneath the fissure, what did you see?" he asked, turning his head with an easygoing air.

Gongsun Zhiruo's body trembled. Clearly, recalling it made the nerves he had only just managed to relax tense up again. Jiang Cheng didn't want to do that to him, either, but it was better to prepare for some things sooner rather than later.

"I..." Gongsun Zhiruo's expression changed as he sank into his memories. After a long while, he pressed his lips together and said, "I can't remember it very clearly, but I vaguely recall seeing one of my students. He was calling for help, right below me, hanging over the cliff as he clung to a ledge. He was about to fall."

"I tried with all my strength to save him, but the rope around my waist kept pulling me up. When I looked up, there was a ghost about four or five meters above me, pulling the rope." Seemingly recalling the scene, Gongsun Zhiruo looked awful.

Jiang Cheng nodded. He understood more or less. Gongsun Zhiruo had been caught in an illusion created by the Starving Ghost. Everything he had seen was fake.

After a moment of silence, Gongsun Zhiruo said apologetically, "Thinking back on it now, that student... he died during the previous mission. It was all an illusion created by that Starving Ghost. If I'd really managed to break free of the rope back then, or if you and the others had given up on me, Mister Jiang, I would've died as soon as I crawled over there."

"Thank you. Really... thank