Alas

Shen Hui woke up in bed.

Staring at the familiar wooden beam on the ceiling, his mind was still a bit dazed.

Sunlight filtered through the yellowed window paper, spreading a hazy layer of grayish white across the room.

That indigo coarse-cloth cotton quilt was still covering him, the rickety wooden table with a missing leg still sat in the corner, and on it lay a few fruit pits set aside as seeds.

Everything was as usual.

He blinked.

Then let out a long breath.

Raising a hand to wipe his face, he sat up from the wooden bed.

He rubbed his somewhat groggy head, feeling his whole body sore and weak, as if he'd been stuffed into a sack and thoroughly beaten.

"Good thing I passed out in time last night..."

He muttered under his breath, about to get out of bed, when something occurred to him. He sank his mind inward and summoned the parchment interface.

[Dao Name]: Qingxuan

[Bone Age]: Twenty-two

[Realm]: Qi Induction (121/10000)

[Status]: Meditating

[Dharma Power]: 0 (unallocable)

[Dharma Art]: Two-Realm True Fire (Minor Completion): Heart Lamp Main Refinement, Sha Ghost Main Kill, Body and Soul Same Furnace, Inner and Outer Both Burn.

[Lifebound Dao Path]: Not yet revealed

Shen Hui stared at those few lines for a long moment, momentarily lost.

Two-Realm True Fire? Minor Completion?

Wasn't that just a hallucination he'd seen after being poisoned? Wasn't that little imp just a mushroom toxin conjured figure?

He scrolled down further, trying to find more explanation. But the interface only had these few lines; nothing else below.

He sat blankly on the bed, and those absurd thoughts began stirring again, trying to surface from the depths of his mind.

If it was all an illusion, then why had he actually refined that little imp?

But if it was real, then what about the hole in his chest? What about all that blood? How could it all be gone after one night's sleep?

Throwing off the quilt, he jumped out of bed, first feeling up and down his chest, stomach, and ribs—all fine, not even a bruise.

He then lifted the hem of his Dao robe to check—still fine.

Not reassured, he finally undid his belt, looked down, and peeked inside.

No problem either. Still there.

Just as he breathed a sigh of relief and was about to fasten his belt again, a voice devoid of any inflection suddenly came from the doorway:

"What are you doing?"

Shen Hui's heart jolted, but his face remained calm.

He casually tied his belt back up, turned around, and saw Second Senior Sister Jingming standing at the door, her gaze flatly fixed on him.

Today she wore a gray cloth Dao robe washed nearly white, her hair bun meticulously neat, her expression as unruffled as ever—quite similar to Shen Hui's own face at the moment.

Shen Hui straightened his collar, quickly scanned Jingming's expression to confirm nothing was amiss, then cleared his throat and spoke calmly:

"Senior Sister, is there something you need?"

Jingming's gaze lingered on his face for a moment. "You missed morning lessons today. Master sent me to see if you were awake."

Shen Hui's heart skipped a beat.

Morning lessons?

He looked up toward the window.

The sky was bright, the sun already high in the sky—far past the hour of Yin.

"I..." He opened his mouth. "Overslept."

Jingming didn't press further. She turned and walked out the door.

Shen Hui paused, then followed.

The two left the room. Jingming stood by the water trough in the courtyard, watching him scoop water to wash his face.

"About last night," she suddenly spoke, "how much do you remember?"

At this, Shen Hui nearly dropped the water ladle into the trough.

He looked up at Jingming's profile, then finally answered honestly: "Truth and illusion blur together. I can't tell clearly, and I don't remember much."

Jingming gave no indication of agreement or disagreement. She didn't look at him again, her voice as flat as reciting scripture:

"Those mushrooms we ate last night were poisonous."

Shen Hui paused in his movements—he had already guessed this much.

"That mushroom can cloud a person's mind; anyone who eats it will be plagued by all kinds of illusions."

Jingming continued, "After I returned to my room, I saw a civet cat sitting on the table, speaking human words. I knew something was wrong right away, so I immediately went to find Master."

Shen Hui splashed water on his face as he asked, "And then?"

"Then Master took me with him, searching from the West Courtyard all the way through, rescuing the disciples trapped in their illusions one by one."

"And how were they saved?"

"Talisman Wine." Jingming's tone was flat.

Shen Hui breathed a quiet sigh of relief, thinking to himself, At least it wasn't manure.

Jingming continued, "The first one we found was Jinghui. She had plastered her face with straw and mud and was primping in front of a bronze mirror."

Shen Hui, who was rinsing his mouth, nearly choked. I didn't ask about that either, he thought.

"Then it was Senior Brother. In the open space of the East Courtyard, he was using his sword to plow the ground. He'd plowed three furrows and hadn't finished the fourth."

Shen Hui silently wiped the water from his face, momentarily at a loss for words.

"Third Junior Brother was sitting in his room, muttering over a stack of straw paper, flipping through it again and again, saying it was his secret cultivation manual."

Shen Hui felt a laugh bubbling up and quickly changed the subject. "And what about Fifth Junior Brother?"

"Fifth Junior Brother was the easiest. He was fast asleep, and no matter how we called, he wouldn't wake up. Master said he was probably unwilling to leave his dream."

Shen Hui silently cursed his own folly. Experience really is a killer. I can't rely on my past life's knowledge to identify things in this world anymore.

Especially when it came to ingredients.

Just then, Jingming turned her head to look at him. "The last one we found was you."

Shen Hui's heart tightened.

"Your delusion was the worst. When we found you, you were lying on the kitchen floor, muttering to yourself. Master gave you Talisman Wine, and then..."

She stopped abruptly, not finishing her sentence.

Shen Hui waited a moment, then couldn't help asking, "And then what?"

Jingming glanced at him, her expression complicated. "Then you chanted a few incantations and set a fire."

Shen Hui opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but not knowing what to say. In the end, he could only ask dryly, "Master, he..."

Before he could finish, he saw the corner of Jingming's mouth suddenly twitch.

"Aside from having his beard, eyebrows, and hair singed off quite a bit, there was no real harm done."

Shen Hui's heart leaped back into his throat.

"Then..." he ventured cautiously, "the old master... he isn't angry, is he?"

Jingming didn't answer right away.

She turned around, her gaze falling on the mottled wooden door, her tone still as calm as ever. "Master said for you to go see him once you woke up."

Shen Hui's heart skipped a beat.

Jingming seemed to sense his unease and, for once, added a few more words. "Master looked in the mirror for a long time this morning. He didn't hold morning lessons and has been staying in his room ever since."

Shen Hui swallowed hard. "...Doing what?"

"I don't know." Jingming paused. "Occasionally, I could hear the sound of a blade being sharpened coming from inside."

Shen Hui: "..."

Alas!

The heart that had been hanging finally died.

Jingming glanced at him, and there might have been a trace of sympathy in her eyes—or maybe Shen Hui was mistaken, since Second Senior Sister had always been a woman of few words and little expression.

"Take care of yourself."

With that one admonition, she turned and walked out of the courtyard.

Just as she reached the moon gate, she suddenly stopped and tossed out a seemingly random remark.

"That was some impressive fire."

Only after saying that did she truly walk away without looking back.

Shen Hui stood by the water trough, staring at the direction where she had vanished, the dripping ladle still clutched in his hand.