Tomorrow

The crowd in the plaza finally dispersed.

When Li Tui left with the last few people, his legs felt weak, every step like treading through mud.

The Blood Bodhi in his chest pulsed rapidly and heavily, thrashing inside Li Tui's body like a wild beast. The scent of blood made it tremble with excitement, and waves of scorching heat surged through his meridians, leaving Li Tui feeling faint.

By the time he returned to the West Courtyard, the sky was pitch black.

The room was unlit. Li Tui groped his way to the bedside in the dark and sat down heavily, panting for a long while before he could catch his breath.

He pulled open his collar. In the darkness, the Blood Bodhi emitted a faint, dark red glow, like a single eye buried in his chest. The patterns on its surface were denser and deeper than before, as if some secret script were completing its final stroke. The moment his fingertips touched it, he recoiled from the heat.

Three knocks suddenly sounded from outside the window, two light and one heavy.

"Who is it?" Li Tui asked, alert.

"It's me."

Li Tui opened the window. Zhao Hao slipped into the room like a shadow, his gaze immediately landing on Li Tui's pale face and the eerie glow on his chest.

"Why is it worse than before?" Zhao Hao's voice was very low. "Will it affect tomorrow?"

"I'm not dead yet." Li Tui curled his lip, pressing a hand to his chest. "This thing... it's getting more and more wrong."

He briefly explained the worsening of his injuries and the restlessness of the Blood Bodhi.

Zhao Hao listened in silence. His breathing was faint in the darkness.

"The finals are tomorrow." Zhao Hao spoke, his voice devoid of its usual calm, replaced by a murderous intent. "It's time for a reckoning between Zhao Yuanchong and me."

Li Tui caught the weight behind those words. Judging by the battle between Zhao Yuanchong and Zhao Wen today, the two of them would likely not end things peacefully tomorrow.

"Likewise, for that Old Ghost, this is the last and best opportunity." Zhao Hao paused, looking at Li Tui with sharp eyes. "That will be when the scene is most chaotic, when attention is most focused, and when it is easiest to exploit a gap. He will definitely come."

Li Tui nodded silently, his fingers pressing unconsciously against his chest. The Blood Bodhi throbbed with increasing intensity.

"I need you to do me a favor." Zhao Hao said, his eyes gleaming eerily in the dark. "At the most critical moment, use that Old Ghost to create a disturbance. You don't need to risk your life; just enough to make those eyes in the shadows flicker or blink for a second will do."

Li Tui remained silent.

Zhao Hao knew he wouldn't agree for nothing, so he pulled a cloth pouch from his robes and tossed it onto the table. It landed with a dull thud.

"One Qi-Condensing Powder," Zhao Hao said. "Enough for you to break through an acupoint. There will be more once it's done."

He then unhooked an iron token and placed it beside the pouch. The token shimmered with a cold light, engraved with a faint image of herbs.

"The Hundred Herbs Hall on West Street, the shopkeeper's surname is Chen. Take this token, and you can collect a portion of restorative herbs every month." Zhao Hao's voice remained flat. "As for that Old Ghost, I will deal with him after the deed is done."

Li Tui looked at the table. The Qi-Condensing Powder was a rare commodity, priceless and hard to find; the herbs from the Hundred Herbs Hall were a steady stream of support; and the promise to deal with the evil cultivator solved his most pressing crisis.

The price Zhao Hao was paying this time was substantial.

"If you help me this time, I owe you a favor." Zhao Hao added at the end. "In the future, whether inside the Zhao Family or outside of it, if you have need of me, just ask."

Having said this much, his sincerity was clear.

Li Tui was silent for a long time.

He knew Zhao Hao was calculating. To give so much, he surely wanted more than just "a little disturbance." That "flicker of a second" was likely a matter of life and death for Zhao Hao.

But Li Tui truly needed these things. The evil cultivator was like a blade held to his throat every day, and his lack of cultivation resources left him unable to move forward. What Zhao Hao offered was exactly what he lacked most right now.

But would he even be able to use these things?

"Fine." Li Tui finally spoke, his voice hoarse. "I will do my best."

He didn't ask what Zhao Hao specifically intended to do, nor did he ask how to clean up the mess if the disturbance grew too large. Some things were better left unasked.

Zhao Hao seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, though it wasn't visible on his face.

"Weigh the risks yourself." He stood up and walked to the door. "Don't actually throw your life away. You have to be alive for these things to matter."

With that, he pulled the door open, his figure flickering as he melted into the night, silent and traceless.

The door closed once more.

Li Tui stood in the darkness for a while, slowly moving to the table to reach out and touch the cloth pouch. The hard lump of the medicinal pill pressed against his hand through the fabric. He picked up the iron token, his fingertips tracing the cold, engraved patterns.

The items were real. The promise might be real, too.

But what Zhao Hao wanted was likely far more than what he had stated.

Li Tui sat back on the edge of the bed, his hand pressing back onto his chest. The tumor throbbed beneath his palm, the scorching restlessness growing stronger by the moment, as if urging him toward something.

He closed his eyes, and the image of the greedy, gluttonous creature from the Treasure Mirror flashed before him. Cold, greedy, a world where the strong preyed on the weak.

In this world, whoever shows mercy dies first.

A thought grew wildly, impossible to suppress.

If there was going to be chaos, it might as well be total. If there was going to be a scene, it might as well be one that no one could control.

Zhao Hao wanted a moment of distraction, but what Li Tui wanted was to stir these waters until they were completely muddied—muddied enough that no one could see clearly, muddied enough that he would have the chance to... do something.

For instance, taking advantage of that absolute chaos to approach the arena, to try and touch, to try and take a bite of... the so-called Star Fate.

The thought was so wild it made his own heart race with fear. But it was not a mere fantasy; Li Tui already felt that his days were numbered.

Even if Zhao Hao truly helped him deal with Old Ghost, it would likely be difficult to handle the Blood Bodhi in his chest. It would be better to fight for his life instead.

After all, the Treasure Mirror's previous reaction to the Star Fate was enough to prove that they possessed something the Treasure Mirror needed.

Li Tui slowly tightened his fingers, clenching them into a fist until his nails dug deep into his palms, drawing blood.

He opened his eyes, looking through the darkness at the bag of pills and the iron plaque on the table, then looked down at the dim, flickering dark red glow on his chest.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow it is.