The Eyeball

"Urgh... huff, huff."

Xu Fang discovered Ye Wuyou while drawing water the next day and hauled him out of the well.

Xu Fang was badly frightened at first. With that corpse-like complexion and his deathly pale, swollen skin, Ye Wuyou was unquestionably dead as a doornail.

But... he came back to life.

After vomiting up the water in his stomach, the soaking-wet Ye Wuyou sat on the ground, silently thinking.

Lin Qingqing approached cautiously and patted him. "Hey, madman, how are you feeling? Why haven't you said anything?"

Ye Wuyou, the so-called "madman," slowly turned his head and looked at those familiar faces. His eyes were no longer clouded.

The memories of the past few days were etched clearly into his mind.

I really... really did go mad before.

Even though this eerie village couldn't affect him, even though he could detect its abnormalities, the ringing on the mountain still gave him a headache when he recalled it.

To put it in what Ye Wuyou considered more professional terms, his brain had been affected, impairing its functions. Simply put, he had gone mad.

Now his mind had cleared... probably because he had died once last night.

"So this is the innate ability of the Qingqiu Royal Clan's Demon Foxes... how terrifying."

One tail for one life.

That life had been spent on him.

He remembered the Man in Brocade piercing Bai Lu's chest, yet when she revived, her wound hadn't left so much as a scar.

And after his own revival, every abnormality in his body had disappeared. Or rather, his brain had recovered.

Under the others' astonished gazes, Ye Wuyou stood up. After a moment's thought, he walked away without explaining anything.

As for Xu Fang, Lin Qingqing, and the others, Ye Wuyou had no way to bring them back to their senses right now.

Based on what had happened to the Man in Brocade and Bai Lu yesterday, the only method he could think of was to kill them once.

They would most likely remember something before dying.

But they couldn't come back to life.

Still, now that he had regained his senses, everything would be easier to handle.

Ye Wuyou first went to Bai Lu's house. It was already morning, and there was plenty of noise outside, but Bai Lu hadn't come out.

Sensing the additional, faint connection within his body, Ye Wuyou frowned and pushed the door open.

The bed was empty, but a figure lay beneath it. She was still breathing, though weakly.

With his vision restored, Ye Wuyou could naturally see that she had only one white tail left.

Remembering Bai Lu's attitude yesterday gave him a headache.

Now that I've used up one of her lives, she won't go crazy at me again, will she?

[Go crazy? Is she worthy? It's that stinking fox's good fortune to let you use her life. Never mind one life-if she had nine tails, you ought to slit your throat for fun whenever you had nothing better to do.]

Damn it, why has the narrator started barking again lately?

Am I insane? Why would I slit my throat for fun?

Whatever the case, he owed his survival to Bai Lu. Ye Wuyou lifted her off the floor.

A wisp of vital breath drifted from his fingertip into Bai Lu's body, waking her.

Seeing her awaken, Ye Wuyou considered how to begin.

He needed to clear the air so she wouldn't harbor resentment. After all, Bai Lu was currently the village's only other sane person.

Besides, the Beast Taming Sect's Bound Spirit Pact prevented Bai Lu from attacking him, but Ye Wuyou feared she might insist on self-destructing at the cost of her life just to trip him up.

Ye Wuyou already knew how to break this eerie stalemate, but another helping hand was always welcome.

"Bai Lu, listen carefully. Turning you into my Bound Spirit Beast was a misunderstanding, but you and the others wanted to make an enemy of me first. Now that I've used one of your lives, let's call it even..."

Before Ye Wuyou could finish, however, the woman in his arms opened her eyes, her gaze blank.

When she saw Ye Wuyou, she froze and tried to pull away.

But then, sensing his scent-or perhaps some sort of connection-she snuggled back against him.

Shock spread over Ye Wuyou's face. He stared blankly as Bai Lu buried her head in his chest and nuzzled him, both hands clinging tightly to him like paws.

Just like... an animal, or a fox.

"Master..." A soft, sweet voice came from his arms, leaving Ye Wuyou's jaw hanging open.

"What about your memories? Do you know who you are?" Ye Wuyou pulled Bai Lu away and questioned her.

"Memories? What memories? All I know is that I live here in the village with Master, and I'm Master's little..."

Sensing that everything was wrong, Ye Wuyou tossed the woman onto the bed, covered her with the quilt, and issued a stern command.

"Sleep."

Bang.

The door closed.

Ye Wuyou stood beside the street, his sharp gaze sweeping his surroundings.

He gradually understood everything.

The bell that rang at midnight erased people's memories over and over, then reinforced the replacement memories again and again.

Bai Lu hadn't left the village yesterday, so after hearing the bell, the memories she had recovered were hidden away once more, replaced by her impression of herself as a villager.

Still, Ye Wuyou suspected that even if she left the village, she would collapse and be brought back, just like the Man in Brocade.

Only he was unaffected by the bell.

Was it because of the "Ghost" inside my body?

[The slumbering dragon has finally opened his eyes. None can stand against you now, and that ignorant fool, steeped in no more than a trace of great Dao aura, cannot withstand a single blow.]

Great Dao aura?

Not a great Dao remnant?

Ye Wuyou knew that the narrator called the uncanny things in this world great Dao remnants, but what was this great Dao aura?

Soon, he remembered.

He had seen the "source" of all this. Before losing consciousness on the mountain, he had seen a phantom in the sky.

It was a Demon Beast's eyeball.

Whatever the case, between an aura and a remnant, the remnant surely carried more weight.

Although he had lost Bai Lu's help, he no longer had to worry about someone tripping him up.

Ye Wuyou already knew what to do.

He crouched on the ground, pondering the information in his mind, then picked up a twig and began writing in the dirt.

His behavior was rather strange, but everyone in the village knew he was a madman, so nobody came over to look.

That spared him quite a bit of trouble, too.

One: inside the Thousand Illusions Purple-Gold Bell, the source of everything was an eyeball.

Two: being killed restored memories, but the bell at midnight erased them every day. He, however, was unaffected.

Three: the Man in Brocade had been killed by him, yet still appeared in this village.

Four: who was the "fellow" who pushed him into the well yesterday?

With the questions laid out one by one, Ye Wuyou's thoughts instantly cleared. He stood and scuffed away every word on the ground.

A commotion rose at the village entrance again.

"Tu Su, wake the fuck up! Raising chickens and ducks every day-do you really think you're a villager?"

"You... what are you talking about? I don't know you."

The exchange was exactly the same. Clearly, the Man in Brocade had grabbed Tu Su and begun questioning him again.

Neither remembered what had happened yesterday.

Or rather, only one of them didn't, because the Man in Brocade was already dead.

Ye Wuyou quietly watched them, observing their noisy argument.

The eerie, deep-blue figure behind him slowly merged into his body.

Then, in his eyes, everything in the village changed.

Scorched-black earth, withered yellow trees, dilapidated houses, and utter deathly silence.

And up ahead...

Pitch-black darkness obscured the robe's original color. A body that had begun rotting from head to toe extended a ghastly arm with white bone showing through, gripping Tu Su as he questioned him.