Day broke

This would surely be a very, very good life.

(1) Xie Liyou

Beneath the icy moonlight lay the chill silhouettes of the mountains.

The rain had stopped, and the moon had emerged again. The rockery obscured it, casting a wavering, forlorn darkness at their feet.

As it wavered, even the distant wind gradually took on the sound of mourning. There was no knowing whom it mourned, whom it sobbed for.

Red Adornment thought absently that this rain had been truly strange, coming and going in the brief span between their entering and leaving the dungeon. If it could weep, perhaps it really had been weeping for Xie Liyou.

Ji Hanchu tightened his arms around Red Adornment's waist, pressing her back against his chest and resting his chin on her head.

"Red Adornment, you've suffered."

Bewildered, Red Adornment turned to look at him. His eyes were clear, with neither love nor hatred to be found in them, only pain that pierced to the bone.

He took a long while to recover, barely managing to draw a little strength back out of his pain. Ji Hanchu buried his face in the crook of her shoulder again. Fine tremors spread from his fingertips through his entire body. He gripped her hand, and even speaking sounded exhausting, as though it took all his strength.

"You have to live. Live well. My whole life is still in your hands... Once everything here is over, we'll go back to the Southern Frontier and watch the stars. We'll take Liyou with us...

"Whether it's repaying kindness or taking revenge, I won't let anyone hurt you a second time."

Red Adornment could not speak.

After a long while, she laid her hand on his head, clumsily comforting him the way her senior sister always comforted her.

"Mm," she said softly. "Then it's a promise."

They carried Xie Liyou's body out. Familiar with the Ji estate's layout, Ji Hanchu deftly avoided the spies and guards.

Taking him with them, they hurried to the river and found an open stretch of ground, where they piled branches and hastily purchased spirit money around him. The ground was damp from the rain, and it failed to catch the first time. Ji Hanchu held the torch to it again before a few sparks finally kindled.

Those tiny sparks grew into a towering blaze, gradually swallowing Xie Liyou's body.

Ashes danced beneath a sky on the verge of dawn, carrying flecks of scarlet fire as Xie Liyou burned to dust.

His life, and everything he had in this mortal world, vanished with it.

One fire, and everything was gone.

A long time passed, so long that a faint light appeared in the east. Ji Hanchu stared blankly at the ashes strewn across the ground, not knowing what to do.

Red Adornment slowly walked over and opened the blue-and-white porcelain urn she had prepared, gathering the ashes inside. Only after replacing the lid did she carry it over to Ji Hanchu and ask, "Where next?"

Ji Hanchu remained silent for a long time. He seemed afraid to look at the urn. After a moment in a daze, he turned to look back the way they had come.

He seemed caught in an illusion, as though Xie Liyou was not inside that cold urn at all. As long as he turned around, Xie Liyou would still come tumbling over with his plump belly sticking out and his hands over his head, mumbling, "I only came to have a look. Don't poison me. Please don't poison me."

Or he would come skipping cheerfully to his side, waggling his eyebrows and saying, "Third Brother, I heard a secret recently. I'm only telling you because we're friends..."

Or he would lie sulking on a rooftop, casting him a sidelong glance as he complained about how much money Qi Jin had deducted from his Second Gate again that month, making his position as gate master utterly stifling.

But there was nothing. Nothing at all.

Death snuffed a person out like a lamp.

"Back to the inn first. Settle him in," Ji Hanchu said softly. At last, he raised his hand and touched the urn, its slight chill seeping into his palm. "Then to the Ji estate."

To the Ji estate. He had to go.

Day broke.

But some people would never see another sunrise in this world.

Some thought Xie Liyou unimportant and discarded him like a worn-out shoe. But he did not. He would seek justice for Xie Liyou. He would ask them himself-

Why had they denied Xie Liyou a new day, a new sun?

Why had they punished Xie Liyou for his sins?

Why? By what right did Xie Liyou have to walk the road to the Yellow Springs alone?

By. What. Right.

The Gusu Ji Family. The Five Gates.

After the spring rain, the morning was slightly cold. The two guards at the entrance gripped their long sabers, looking uncertainly at the people before them.

Two people stood before them, a man and a woman. The man's face was familiar: he was the Third Young Master, who had only recently awoken from his coma. Dressed entirely in black, with tightly bound cuffs, his face was cold. The red-robed woman beside him had a pair of wicked eyes that held an indescribable allure. Yet somehow, a faint chill lingered in every shifting glance, cold enough to make people shrink away.

Although they seldom interacted with the Third Young Master, they remembered him as an amiable man who never wore such a cold expression. Besides, he was already engaged to the young lady of the Yin Clan. Why had he brought another woman?

Thus, they dared not take this lightly and asked again, "What business does the Third Young Master have with the Second Young Master?"

"Tsk, so many questions," the woman said impatiently. She casually twirled an exquisite curved saber in her hand as though playing with it, then said softly, "To kill him, of course."

"You... you!" The guards had probably never encountered anyone so brazen. After stammering for some time, they finally remembered to draw their sabers. But just as their hands touched the hilts, their Third Young Master suddenly struck, tapping their wrists with blinding speed. Their entire arms instantly went numb.

The woman pressed her blade against their necks and lifted her almost demonically alluring face. "Last chance. Where is Ji Zhiyuan?"

The guards turned deathly pale, as though they had seen a ghost. Raising a trembling hand, one pointed toward the Fourth Gate and stammered, "Over... there..."

The woman brought her saber closer, and blood instantly stained its edge. As though remembering something, she asked, "And those crossbows, or whatever they're called-where does he keep them?"

"I-I don't know." The guard kept shuffling backward, glancing sideways at Ji Hanchu. Seeing him utterly unmoved, he could only beg, "I really don't know. But, but all the Fourth Gate's weapons are in... in the armory..."

His answer was a savage kick that struck both men squarely in the chest. Then their chins were forced up, their mouths pried open, and something rough was shoved inside, sliding down their throats.

The woman narrowed her eyes, her smile sweet as she watched them, though her words were meant for Ji Hanchu. "You saw that clearly. I didn't kill anyone."

The guards froze. "What?"

"Just a little something nice," the woman said leisurely. She pointed outside. "Everyone's asleep. You two should sleep well, too. Perhaps when you wake up, you'll still be in time to collect your Second Young Master's corpse."

With that, she scoffed and pulled Ji Hanchu away without looking back.

There was no one else.

In the vast courtyard, on the broad platform, golden light spilled over a lone figure sitting quietly in a wheelchair.

He seemed utterly exhausted, resting with his eyes closed. Or perhaps he had already tired of his long life and was preparing to calmly accept his impending death. Or, more likely, everything was already firmly in hand, leaving him utterly unafraid.

But whichever it was had nothing to do with Ji Hanchu. Since he had come, he had only one purpose.

"Why?"

Seated in his wheelchair, Ji Zhiyuan slowly opened his eyes. He looked ahead, where clouds and mist wreathed the overlapping distant mountains. Golden light sliced them into fragments, half the mountains golden, half dark.

How lovely the sunlight was. Everyone loved the rising sun, because driving out darkness was human nature.

No one cared about that darkness. Mortal joy, anger, sorrow, and delight were all so straightforward, their judgments just as merciless.

They hated the darkness for the eternal night it might bring, yet never considered that it, too, had once wished to fill the heavens with stars and illuminate the mortal world.

They loathed him, crippled from birth, a child of sin.

Then he might as well truly cast kindness aside. After all, even his blood was filthy.

He deserved ten thousand deaths. His wickedness was beyond pardon.

So what?

Let them judge him.

His name-"At birth, human nature is good; our natures are alike, but habit drives us far apart"-hinted at his neglected, ruined, dispirited life.

It had been wrong from the very beginning.

A damned name. A damned life.

The long wind roared past his ears, lifting every grievance and hatred that had never been cleared.

"There's no reason." Ji Zhiyuan pressed his lips together, then smiled with genuine sincerity. Folding his hands in front of him, he leaned back against his chair, his expression almost serene. "Because I hate you, I tortured him. Is that answer enough, Third Brother?"

Ji Hanchu's lips moved. Agony spread through his chest like a blade driven into his heart, while Ji Zhiyuan's carefree smile filled his vision.

Beneath the vast heavens, upon the high platform, there were only the two of them, like two different lives tangled together.

Ridiculous. All of it was ridiculous.

"My dear little brother..."

Ji Zhiyuan raised his hand, as though touching the top of Ji Hanchu's head.

His life had been a conspiracy from its beginning. All these years, he had struggled and floundered in a sea of suffering. This was probably the first time he had smiled so unrestrainedly.

"How wonderful you are. Everyone doted on you as a child, and everyone respects you now that you're grown. Father treats you as his own son. Second Uncle treats you as his own son, too. You have family and friends. The position of family head is yours, and Little Yan'er adores you beyond measure.

"But what about me? I only had those few relatives. I only had my mother, Aunt Fang, and my grandfather...

"So why did you have to take even them away from me?

"Why shouldn't I hate you?"

Ji Zhiyuan's throat was hoarse, yet his voice was extraordinarily light. "When I was ten, Mother asked Father to come with us to pay respects to Eldest Brother. But he refused. He even shut himself in his study, refusing to concern himself with any of it... Yet the next year, I saw him take you and Xie Liyou to the memorial gardens to burn incense for Eldest Uncle. You looked so happy, just like a family... But my eldest brother was his own son. Why wouldn't he even visit on the anniversary of his own son's death?

"You're the Little Medicine Immortal. Your medical skills are superb. But do you know that my injured legs ache with unbearable pain whenever the weather turns cold and damp? Do you know why I never told you? Because Father wouldn't allow it! He forbade anyone in the Ji Family from treating me! He hates my mother, and he hates me to the bone along with her! He means to kill me!"

Ji Zhiyuan had been calm at first, but as he spoke, his eyes began to redden. By the end, he broke down completely. Every sentence was like flesh being sliced upon a blade; every accusation, like oil seething in a raging fire.

It hurt too much.

He, too, was flesh and blood. He had not been born heartless.

He, too, had longed for a harmonious family and a father's love. He had wanted to live like a normal person!

But what had come of it?

Ji Zhiyuan trembled all over, clenching his teeth as his fingers dug fiercely into the wheelchair's armrests.

"I won't drag out a miserable existence. I want all of you to go to hell with me and be buried alongside me!"

(2) Questioning the human heart

A fierce wind rose around them, like the lament of vengeful spirits.

Historical records stated that decades ago, before the Southern Frontier and the Central Plains had been united, the two nations were evenly matched. To seize cities and accomplish the great undertaking of unifying the realm, they fought the famed Battle of Green Mist Pass beyond Yinzhou's twelve cities.

In that one battle, blood flowed for a thousand miles, and living beings were plunged into misery. Advancing relentlessly through witchcraft and gu techniques, the Southern Frontier captured prisoners alive and offered their flesh and blood as living sacrifices to Despair Cliff.

No one knew how many heaps of white bones lay buried beneath that ten-thousand-fathom cliff. It was said that whenever war came, faint, anguished weeping rose from its depths. The locals called it the "Sacrificial Song."

And now, there was something of that same desolation. A gale rose in the sky, and spring thunder cracked. Not a thread of rain fell, yet the heavens darkened.

A figure came racing from afar, red robes fluttering like blazing flames.

"No one's going to be buried with you! The road to the Yellow Springs is so cold. You can walk it all by yourself!"

Ji Zhiyuan looked up at the woman on the eaves of a nearby tower, her red robes billowing, her eyes icy, her smile a million parts venom. That woman silently held an eagle crossbow aimed at his heart.

She had not died.

She really had not died.

Ji Zhiyuan's lips moved, but no sound came out.

Red Adornment narrowed one eye in his direction and gave a bright smile, as though she knew what he was thinking. "I took a trip down the road to the Yellow Springs. When I couldn't find you, I had no choice but to come back.

"Ji Zhiyuan, until I've taken your life, I can't bear to die."

As though sensing something, Ji Hanchu stepped back, his expression unruffled, putting distance between himself and Ji Zhiyuan. He raised Star Pendant, its tip baring its sharpness.

He asked, "For the last time. Why?"

Ji Zhiyuan scoffed. "I've already answered. You keep asking again and again. Are you hoping I'll deny it?"

Ji Hanchu tightened his grip on Star Pendant.

"I won't deny it. I was the one who harmed Xie Liyou, and I was the one who sent Red Adornment down that ten-thousand-fathom cliff. If Father hadn't stopped me, you would already be a corpse, too." Ji Zhiyuan spread both arms and leisurely gestured around them. "My death warriors are all around us. Did you really think you got in here with that tiny bit of poison? Ji Hanchu, you're so naive. I'm giving you a chance to kill me now. You'd better pray you succeed in one strike. Otherwise..."

His lips curled, a crazed light flashing in his eyes, all reason gone.

"Otherwise, let's see which of us is harder to kill."

Before he had finished, a whoosh rang out as an arrow tore through the air.

Carrying the force of thunder, fast enough to pierce the clouds, it swept from the rooftop toward Ji Zhiyuan. The powerful recoil forced even Red Adornment back a small step.

The sun appeared in the distant sky. Golden waves swept in from the horizon, one after another, breaking through the gloom.

The smile on Red Adornment's lips grew ever more beguiling.

Just then, a frail figure suddenly darted out from somewhere. She staggered toward the platform, her hair disheveled like a vengeful ghost, waving her hands as though trying to catch something, muttering words no one could make out. Yet her speed was astonishing. Just as the long arrow was about to pierce Ji Zhiyuan's heart, an immense strength burst from her body, driving her forward to throw herself squarely in front of him!

Golden light blazed. Drifting clouds were pale. The desolation was blinding.

The arrow tore savagely through her shoulder. Blood instantly gushed out, staining the ground beneath their feet red.

Ji Zhiyuan's eyes flew wide. He stared at the woman before him in disbelief, then frantically stretched out his hands and carefully wrapped his arms around her back.

He panicked.

Ji Zhiyuan spoke softly, every word seeming to squeeze its way out of his throat. All the viciousness and armor surrounding him shattered in an instant. He choked out, "Mother..."

No one knew how Yin Qiqi had come to the Ji estate. Nor could anyone understand how a half-mad woman had escaped the guards' watch and made her way here on foot from the Yin estate.

Perhaps, if there truly had to be a reason, it was that she was a mother. Mothers had an innate sense for their children. Their flesh and bones were linked, their bloodlines joined. She had instinctively sensed that her child was in danger, instinctively rushed over to shield him with her own flesh and blood.

Trembling, Ji Zhiyuan asked, "Why did you... why did you come here?"

Yin Qiqi could not understand. She had long since gone completely mad. She merely raised her hand dazedly, her dirty fingers touching his hair, and softly began to hum a song.

It was the song his mother had loved to sing to soothe him when he was little.

Large numbers of black-clad death warriors gathered around them, surrounding Ji Hanchu and Red Adornment in layer upon layer, pressing closer step by step.

Holding the eagle crossbow, Red Adornment leaped from the roof to Ji Hanchu's side. Ji Hanchu watched the scene before him in a daze. Murderous intent pressed in from all around, yet he seemed not to see it at all.

Red Adornment drew the Bone-Setting Whip with a backhand motion and stood back-to-back with him, her voice low and husky. "Third Ji, are you going to strike?"

At that moment, Ji Zhiyuan was consumed with worry over Yin Qiqi's injury and had no attention to spare for them. His back lay wide open. It was the perfect opportunity to strike.

Black-clad death warriors crowded the rooftops and the edges of the platform. As clouds gathered and scattered, they had surrounded the pair so tightly that not even water could pass through!

Ji Hanchu's clothes were stained with blood, all of it Xie Liyou's. He held Star Pendant in one hand, shielding Red Adornment at his side with the other.

They both understood that Ji Zhiyuan had gone completely mad. He wanted to destroy everything, including Ji Hanchu, Red Adornment, the Ji Family, and himself. He had accounted for everyone. Apart from the two unforeseen elements, Red Adornment and Yin Qiqi, he had predicted everything. He wanted to destroy a centuries-old family in a single stroke with his own hands. From then on, there would be no Ji Clan in Gusu. He wanted the surname "Ji" to disappear completely from the long history of the martial world.

The world had shown him little kindness, and he would show the world no generosity.

He might as well follow the darkness to its end, abandoning everything: reputation, life, family ties.

Red Adornment swept a cold gaze over the scores upon scores of death warriors before her. They were probably still waiting for Ji Zhiyuan's command, so they were in no hurry to strike. Some were intimidated by her, but even they did not retreat half a step, merely clutching their weapons with bloodthirsty eyes.

Death warriors had no road back.

Both sides were stretched to their breaking point. Ji Hanchu's heart twisted in agony. Looking at Ji Zhiyuan, he even gave an almost imperceptible shudder.

Ji Hanchu gripped Star Pendant harder and harder, yet even with all his strength, he could not drive it forward.

He was a little confused, a little lost. He did not know what to do.

He was just like he had been so many years ago, when that child who had lost both parents hugged his knees and sobbed uncontrollably, and the youth in the wheelchair slowly turned toward him and tossed him a handkerchief, his expression arrogant and scornful. "What are you crying for? Isn't my father your father, too? He already treats you as his own son. What have you got to cry about?"

In that instant, his expression had been just as it was now: bewildered, lost.

Seeing his foolish expression, the youth had struggled to bend down and reach the handkerchief on his knees. After finally getting hold of it, he roughly wiped his face twice.

"I told you to stop crying!"

Everything grew blurrier and blurrier, hazier and hazier.

At last, his gaze shifted slightly downward. After passing through the dense fog, he saw the red lotuses blooming at his feet. That was blood.

Like the blood that had stained him before Xie Liyou died.

Like red lotuses, blooming along the river of rebirth, with no knowing whether they could guide him home.

So red.

Like the red spreading beneath someone in a dark dungeon, hands bound in chains, struggling desperately to survive only to sink into despair, finally left with no way out but to write, "Please kill me," seeking only death to escape the pain.

Like the red running wild across the back of someone who, after eighty-two lashes, still stubbornly said, "I have no regrets."

Like the girl at the cliff's edge beneath the setting sun, shot through the heart by an eagle crossbow bolt, falling into the abyss to be shattered to pieces.

Like the woman who kowtowed and pleaded on the snowy mountain, begging for a way to live, only to be denied to the end.

Like the child who had only just seen the rising sun, yet slept forever in darkness, never given the chance to experience a world of flowers blooming like brocade.

Like so many, so very many.

The assassins around them rose together. Amid flashing blades and clashing swords, Ji Hanchu abruptly raised his hand, gathering strength in his arm. Star Pendant glittered gold beneath the blazing sun, making his face look like a rakshasa's.

At the end of the blade's point lay Ji Zhiyuan's fragile heart.

If this was wrong, he would repay it in his next life.

This life's vengeance would be taken in this life.

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out beside his ear, like thunder exploding at arm's length.

"Hanchu, stop."

Ji Hanchu stiffened. Then, just as Star Pendant came within a hair's breadth of Ji Zhiyuan, its force was violently knocked aside.

The saber strike was too fast, too fast to dodge.

Only one person in the world possessed saber skills that swift.

Ji Hanchu looked up and saw a tall figure slowly ascending from below the platform, his back to the light, the renowned Wind Chaser in his hand.

Ji Chengxuan stopped not far from Ji Zhiyuan, staring coldly at the two before him.

Red Adornment said unhurriedly, her smile never reaching her eyes, "Sect Master Ji, what perfect timing."

Ji Chengxuan ignored her and approached step by step. Wind Chaser glimmered in the sunlight, sharp light flowing across its dark-gold dragon-patterned blade. Then he stopped before them.

Red Adornment spun around and drew Crescent Moon from behind her. With Bone-Setting in one hand and Crescent Moon in the other, she stood poised to strike.

But Ji Chengxuan did not look at Red Adornment. He merely gazed at Ji Hanchu and shook his head slightly, his eyes filled with frost. For an instant, the blade's light illuminated his desolate brows and eyes. He turned toward Ji Zhiyuan, every word shattered as he said, "You beast."

Holding Yin Qiqi, Ji Zhiyuan seemed not to have heard him. He kept mumbling, "Why did you come?

"Why did you come? Couldn't you have stayed safely with the Yin Clan?

"Mother..."

At that question, thunder cracked across the horizon, a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

Rumble-

Baleful energy filled the sky, and auspicious clouds rolled.

Ill omen and great blessing had appeared together!

Sand and stones whirled. At some point, the death warriors surrounding them had all lowered their weapons blankly, their eyes vacant. No one around them advanced another step.

Through the long wind came the haunting sound of a whistle. A plainly dressed man stood on the rooftop, his foot planted on a divine beast statue, a tiny whistle between his lips as he played an unknown song.

The melody was familiar. It was the Southern Frontier song Red Adornment had sung to Ji Hanchu on the first day she had abducted him.

Now, from Little Mute's lips, it spread toward the distant heavens, circling and echoing above the Five Gates.

A woman's voice came through the wind. Its pitch was still youthful, yet it sounded weathered throughout.

"Because there's a question from twenty years ago that I must ask her." The gale lifted her black hair, revealing her pallid face.

She smiled, desolation surrounding her. The fierce wind blurred her eyes as she stood in its path and questioned heaven and earth, ghosts and gods, and human hearts alike.

"Twenty years apart. Have you been well, old friends?"

(III) Unable to let go

After those words, every sound fell silent. Not even a crow or sparrow called.

Golden clouds pressed overhead, as though they might break through the heavens at any moment. In the silence, some hearts beat ever harder, some faces grew ever colder, some remained mute, and someone cried in delighted surprise:

"Senior Sister-"

Although he had already prepared himself, although the figure on the rooftop had already given him a premonition, the moment Ji Chengxuan heard "Senior Sister," his head still rang, his mind instantly blank.

Ji Chengxuan's eyes widened and slowly reddened. His habitually expressionless face seemed to crack like shattered porcelain. He pressed his lips together, a barely perceptible wetness in his eyes.

Was it... her?

Was it her?

It was her.

It was... her.

It was her!

He wanted to speak, to call her name, to scream, to embrace her, even to feel pain, because only pain could make all this seem real.

But he only stared fixedly at her, feeling his heart almost stop.

Twenty years of torment collapsed in that instant.

Had he been well?

No, he had not-after more than twenty years of torment, day and night, he had given everything for the Ji Family's century-old reputation, even himself. He had never known a day of freedom, nor a day of ease.

He had endured twenty bitter years and searched for twenty years. Now she stood before him, just as when they first met, her white robes outshining snow, her smile blooming like a flower.

For a dazed moment, those long years seemed never to have passed. They were still the boy and girl who had met in the water towns of Jiangnan, every frown and smile unrestrained, roaming the world with swords, in bright clothes on spirited horses...

"Ji Chengxuan."

Golden light broke through the clouds.

It was as though all darkness retreated at that moment, leaving light forever in the human world.

Hongxiu looked utterly relaxed. She slowly lifted her long lashes, her black eyes just as they had been twenty years ago. She smiled. "Long time no see."

Ji Chengxuan lunged toward her almost the instant she spoke. Over the years, he had devoted himself to martial arts; in both internal cultivation and lightness skills, he could rightfully be called the Ji Family's foremost practitioner. He was already fast enough, yet his fingertips merely brushed the hem of her robe, his lunge unexpectedly meeting empty air.

Hongxiu stood a zhang away, still looking as calm and untroubled as ever. She watched him quietly, making his desperation seem so pitiful.

A thin red thread was tied around her wrist, its end held in Little Mute's hand. Looking at Ji Chengxuan, he blew a provocative whistle.

Hongxiu fingered the thread. Hers was a dead body. Though she could no longer feel pain, any injuries her body sustained could not heal on their own. She did not fear suffering, but Red Adornment's male gu was still planted inside her. Another person's life was bound to hers, so she could not act rashly.

Thus, before they set out, she had specifically asked Little Mute to wind puppet threads around her, leaving nothing to chance.

"I'm here to save my junior sister. She's trapped in your Ji Family.

"Ji Chengxuan, Red Adornment isn't your daughter.

"Our daughter died on the snowy mountain twenty years ago. She was buried completely. I watched her die with my own eyes."

Hongxiu narrowed her eyes. As she spoke, she raised a hand and tucked the long hair blowing beside her temples behind her ear.

Her voice was so ethereal, as though she were speaking of something unrelated to herself.

She had endured all these years, weathered her suffering, swallowed the grief of losing her child raw. Now, reborn through fire like a phoenix rising from its ashes, she was utterly alone in this mortal world. What need had she for anyone else's pity or tenderness?

Ji Chengxuan's grip on his saber tightened, his knuckles turning a frightening white. Mountains crumbled and the earth split inside his mind, and his entire body trembled faintly.

All the blood in his body had gone cold. That single advance and retreat had exhausted every ounce of his strength.

He said nothing more, only gazed at her with longing, watching her from beginning to end. His mind grew heavy and muddled, his arm lost its strength, and the blade swayed with it.

A saber wielder renowned throughout the world could no longer even hold his saber steady.

Only after a long time did Ji Chengxuan say stiffly, "If you want my life, take it."

Hongxiu looked at him indifferently. "What would I want your life for?"

Yes, what could it accomplish?

It could do nothing, bring nothing back.

Beneath the golden radiance, Ji Chengxuan stood on the empty raised platform, looking at her. A smile touched her lips, and her face retained its youthful appearance, but a heavy pallor of death seeped through it. There was a detached release in her gaze as she looked at him. Heaven and earth, plants and trees, mortals-all seemed the same in her eyes. There was nothing left in this mortal world to draw her, nothing left worth her love.

But he felt this was wrong. She should not have looked at him like that. At least she should still have had something to say to him.

After twenty years, how could there be not even a single word left at the end?

"Chengxuan." Hongxiu sighed softly. "Let go. We can never go back."

Silence.

No moment had ever been quieter.

It was so quiet that even the sound of blood flowing backward seemed audible, congealing in the heart, freezing heart and lungs.

Ji Chengxuan had been gripping his saber. At her words, he loosened his hand in bewilderment, and Wind Chaser fell limply to the ground, rocking twice. He stared at Hongxiu's gaunt cheeks, wanting to speak, but his mouth seemed blocked, unable to utter anything. Only the corners of his eyes reddened, revealing a childlike helplessness.

A long time later, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he said blankly, "We can never go back... never, never go back..."

Beneath a blue sky washed clean, Ji Chengxuan looked at the woman who was both within arm's reach and far beyond the horizon. Suddenly, everything felt like an absurd farce.

He had, in truth, lived carelessly. After his eldest brother died, he became family head. His father told him to look after the Ji Family and put it above all else. He agreed, and the price was losing Hongxiu, along with half his life. In his not-so-long life, romantic love, familial affection, and friendship seemed never to have lingered. He had no lover and no friends. All that had accompanied him until now was Wind Chaser. Perhaps even he did not know whether Wind Chaser had kept him company, or whether he had turned himself into an unfeeling "Wind Chaser."

He had spent most of his life searching. As he searched and searched, perhaps by the end even he no longer knew whether he sought Hongxiu or his former self.

The banquet of his life had been a joke from beginning to end, flowers in a mirror and the moon in water, all ending in emptiness. Now the lofty tower had collapsed, the guests had scattered, and every seat lay in disarray, leaving him alone to watch the music end and the company depart. In his daze, he no longer knew what he had held fast to all these years.

The east wind was cruel, joyful love fleeting.

Spring remained as before; in vain, one wasted away.

He froze. After such great sorrow and joy in so brief a time, he could not understand what had happened.

But his one clear thought was that it could not end like this! It absolutely could not end like this!

He could not let go. Even if everyone else could, what about him?

Who would release him?

On the Five Gates' raised platform, scores upon scores of assassins surrounded him. Under Little Mute's control, every one had become an unfeeling puppet, surging forward like waves to block Ji Chengxuan's path.

In an instant, the clamor swelled! Wind Chaser slashed through the puppets like a gale sweeping away scattered clouds, carving a path through the crowd, only for the puppets pouring forward to block it again. He fought on, and still more used their bodies to bar his way. The whistling shifted from cheerful to low, then grew sweeping and expansive, making Little Mute's smile look ever more vicious and unrestrained.

Ji Chengxuan knitted his brows, his patience gone. His pitch-black eyes were like an abyss, dark and bottomless. He slaughtered until his eyes reddened, all to move a little closer to the woman before him, closer still.

His greatest regret, his deepest pain, was that he had failed to protect Hongxiu before, and now he could not keep her.

Hongxiu watched Ji Chengxuan with pity in her eyes and gestured to Little Mute. He understood immediately. In an instant, the puppets beside him stopped attacking. One after another, they threw themselves forward, bursting with formidable strength as they held Ji Chengxuan back.

Ji Chengxuan had suffered minor injuries. His lips pale, he looked at her and said, "Hongxiu, come here! Come to my side!"

Hongxiu lowered her head, the faintest smile in her brows and eyes, and shook her head firmly.

She lifted her eyes toward the mother and son embracing atop the tiers of platforms, and abruptly stopped smiling.

She said, "If my child hadn't died back then, she would be your age now."

(IV) Ji Jingsheng

Ji Zhiyuan supported Yin Qiqi. Her shoulder was already stained red with blood, and she had slipped into a semiconscious state, mumbling to herself.

He glanced sideways, his gaze falling on Hongxiu.

For the first time, this man who had always treated others' lives and his own as worthless wore a wretched expression. At that moment, he looked like the most ordinary young gentleman, his face filled with a sorrow that invited tenderness.

But not one person present felt tenderness for him. The only one who would had already taken a flying bolt for him and lay at death's door.

Ji Zhiyuan raised his hands and rubbed his face in his palms. He drew a deep breath. When he opened his eyes again, they looked somewhat weary.

"Kill me if you want."

Pressing his pale hands against the wheelchair, he slowly shifted himself higher in his seat. He glanced at his father, restrained by puppets, then at his mother, covered in blood. Hatred and madness mingled on his distorted face, finally settling into one flat sentence:

"Make it quick. I'm afraid of pain."

Red Adornment scoffed. "Even you fear pain?"

Looking at her mocking face, Ji Zhiyuan smiled indifferently and nodded. "I do."

He feared pain. Even though he raised his blade and brought it down so readily, even though he tortured others so ruthlessly, he too feared pain.

He had never been properly cherished, so pain had instead left the deepest impression on him. The deeper that impression, the more he feared it.

"I won't kill you," Hongxiu said softly. She pointed at Ji Hanchu. "He decides your fate, not me."

At that, she shifted her gaze, a bleak chill gradually rising in her eyes.

She raised her head and stared coldly at Yin Qiqi, who lay on the ground with her consciousness blurred.

"Let me ask..."

She began, then stopped after only three words.

It hurt too much, far too much. She needed an immense amount of strength to continue.

She had already cast life and death beyond reincarnation, but her towering hatred was like a needle lodged in her heart, rotting and rusting, festering to the root. Whenever she thought of the child whose breathing had gradually stopped on the snowy mountain, another thread of pain stirred within her decaying body.

That thread of pain had kept one breath alive in her heart. Hatred had become the root of her survival.

Day after day, she had relied on that hatred to live among the living like a ghost.

Hongxiu paused, let out a long breath, and forced herself to calm down.

She looked at Yin Qiqi, the red thread trembling in her hand.

"Back then, was it you who secretly handed my child to the Yin Clan servant who entered the Ji Clan in disguise?"

As though in unbearable pain, she clenched her fingers into fists. Countless strands of resentment piled in her throat, her slender white wrists trembling faintly in the bright light.

If she could cry, there should have been many tears there.

Red Adornment abruptly turned toward Yin Qiqi. "It was you?!"

At that cry, everyone looked at the woman on the ground.

Ji Chengxuan slowly turned his head, his cheeks pale, to look at the deranged Yin Qiqi.

"Tell me!" Hongxiu's lips trembled. "Was it you?"

The rising sun hung high, its golden light surging, seeming to drape the earth in a thin veil, yet carrying an oppressive force.

Yin Qiqi opened her eyes blankly. Miraculously, her madness cleared for a moment, but her words remained witless.

She laughed, the sound shrill and terrifying. "Heeheehee, it was me... I took that child out. She had to disappear... she would disappear, never to be found again..."

A cold wind blew. Hongxiu curved her lips desolately in a miserable smile.

Ji Chengxuan bit his lip hard and closed his eyes, his face paler than the sky.

Wrong. It had all been wrong.

From beginning to end, everything was wrong.

"It's over," Hongxiu murmured. "It's all over."

Her eyes held the loneliness of stagnant water. Watching Yin Qiqi babble madly, she suddenly raised her hand. Red thread wound around her palm, cutting deep into its lines. A long whistle rang out, and when she opened her eyes again, they were tinged with red. As she lifted her hand, her five fingers had become sharp claws, her nails hard as iron. Her face was white as paper, yet bore an eerie smile. She had become a puppet without awareness or feeling!

Hers was a dead body. For revenge, she had willingly wound puppet threads around her palms, becoming a female puppet controlled by Little Mute.

There was no question of whether it was worth it. She had waited twenty years for this very moment!

However grievous the sins, the time had come for dust to return to dust, earth to earth.

Her five fingers curved into claws, the female puppet dropped from the rooftop with astonishing speed, flashed past everyone's eyes, and thrust her hand at Yin Qiqi.

The crazed woman retreated step by step before the murderous intent bearing down on her, driven by her instinct to survive. Her lips quivered as she tried to say something, but faced with that despairing face, she could say nothing.

She remembered now. Twenty years ago, she had stolen the little girl in her swaddling clothes under cover of night...

Someone had stopped her then. Thinking herself clever, she had put the child in a food box and smiled prettily at him. "Second Young Master, these are snacks I made for Chengxuan," she had said, deceiving him.

That fool, and that foolish woman, had never known, even at death, that she had stolen the child...

But-but who was this person before her?

That face was so familiar. It was... it was her!

She had come looking for her. Had she come for revenge?

Wasn't she dead... how could she, how could she come looking for her?

A ghost. It had to be a ghost!

"Ah!"

Bang!

Squelch-

Metal rang out several times. In a flash, Ji Zhiyuan produced a dagger from somewhere and lunged forward with all his strength, slashing the back of Hongxiu's hand.

Hongxiu shuddered. Her sharp claws missed their mark in the end, merely grazing Yin Qiqi's arm.

Ji Hanchu darted forward, seized the wheelchair, and shoved it hard. The wheelchair rolled over Ji Zhiyuan's frail body, pinning him firmly to the ground.

But it was still a little too late. Little Mute hurriedly whistled to recall the threads, only for Ji Zhiyuan's strike to have hooked and severed them in the confusion. The threads snapped away from his palm and crumbled into useless dust, while Hongxiu's sharp claws reverted to ordinary hands.

Yin Qiqi stared in shock at everything unfolding before her, the feather still embedded in her shoulder. At a loss, she propped herself up with her hands and backed away, retreating far, far away. Only when she reached what she considered a safe place did she slowly breathe out in relief.

Yet at that very instant, a faint squelch suddenly sounded beside her ear-the sound of a blade sinking into flesh.

Everything before her blurred and grew distant at that moment.

She looked ahead. Sprawled wretchedly on the ground, Ji Zhiyuan's expression went from terror to devastation. He roared, "Mother-"

She turned again. That woman, her nightmare, also wore a startled expression as she looked behind her, her eyes filled with bewilderment.

Then, at the far right, was the black-clad man surrounded by puppets, unable to move.

His gaze was sinister too, though not surprised. He merely watched her in silence, saying nothing.

Just as he had whenever he looked at her throughout all these years.

At that moment, Yin Qiqi suddenly felt threads of incomparable joy.

Look. At least at this moment, his eyes held only me.

At the very end, she lowered her head and saw the tip of a blade protruding from her chest. Its point curved upward, shallow wave patterns etched into it, with two words engraved above them in wildly cursive script-Precarious Leaning.

She suddenly understood why her husband was looking at her that way.

Because she was about to die.

The blade slowly withdrew from her body, churning through flesh, yet Yin Qiqi felt no pain. The blood-red and black before her eyes deepened. She merely stared foolishly at her husband, foolishly at Ji Chengxuan.

She did not know whether this man, whom she had adored all her life, had ever felt even a flicker of affection for her in his cold, hard heart.

Her thoughts gradually drifted away. She remembered a verse she had learned long ago: "The lofty tower rises a hundred feet; my hand could pluck the stars." She had been the Yin Clan's cherished second young lady, gentle, kind, considerate, and attentive. She had lived above countless others, only to meet him by chance.

How wonderful Jiangnan was, to let her meet such a fine young man. And best of all, he had already been her betrothed.

He was her star. She would pluck him down and cradle him in her palms.

But afterward, so much had happened, so very much-too much to count even over twenty years, so much that it seemed like one great dream.

She stayed beside her husband, thinking hazily of the past, but the stars were gone. Only another poem lingered in her faint singing-

In those youthful days, my spring robes were thin; on horseback I leaned by the slanting bridge, while red sleeves beckoned from every floor.

In those youthful days, my spring robes were thin.

She had been too young, ruining his life and her own.

Fortunately, now she was finally escaping the sea of suffering.

If there were another life, she asked only that they never meet again.

He would have his red sleeves, and she would have her stars.

That would be best.

Blood dripped from Precarious Leaning. Yin Qiqi's corpse slumped to the ground, revealing an asura's face behind her.

Hongxiu stared blankly at him. Almost hesitantly, she narrowed her eyes, seeming to study him for a long time before recognizing him.

For he was in a truly wretched state himself.

Ji Jingsheng climbed the steps, Precarious Leaning in his right hand. A thick, heavy chain of black iron hung between his hands. His wrists had been rubbed bloody, scabbed over, then bled again. His body was covered almost entirely in wounds, densely scattered everywhere. Only when he came closer did it become clear that several chips had broken from Precarious Leaning's edge.

But he paid none of it any mind. He looked only at Hongxiu, his gaze calm and gentle.

He approached and stood before Hongxiu. The black iron chain cast broken shadows at his feet, scraping metallically as it swayed.

Ji Jingsheng looked terrible, his face filthy with blood. Looking at Hongxiu, he frowned, then relaxed his brow a moment later. He raised his hand as though to touch her cheek, but upon noticing that it, too, was covered in blood, he hastily drew it back.

Golden light surged like a tide. Long shadows stretched between them, like twenty years of time.

"You..."

Ji Jingsheng spoke softly, his voice hoarse. He looked at the woman before him, so thin and frail. Reflected in his pupils, she gradually turned the hesitation within them into certainty.

"Little Xiuzi."

Hongxiu looked at him, her lips trembling in disbelief. "Ji Jingsheng?"

Ji Jingsheng nodded gently and grinned. "It's me."

Saying those words brought him extraordinary exhilaration. More than improving his saber skills, more than killing, more than breaking his shackles and regaining his freedom.

He had finally found her.

"I killed her," he said.

He spoke calmly, as though he truly were only a witless fool without a heart.

"She bullied you. I killed her."

Hongxiu stood stunned, unable to say a word.

In truth, just now, she had almost failed to recognize him.

Many people from twenty years ago had been forgotten in the torrent of time, including him.

But Ji Jingsheng's emotions were so full they were nearly spilling over. He gazed steadily at Hongxiu, nothing extraneous in his eyes, and merely sniffled with a child's innocence. "I missed you so much."

Memories came in a tumultuous rush. At that moment, the events of twenty years ago broke free of time and the drug's effects, sweeping over him like an all-engulfing storm.

He remembered her name now-Hongxiu.

The beautiful dream of Ji Jingsheng's youth was the person who bought him lotus river lanterns, taught him to fly kites, and made wooden carvings.

Back then, she had just arrived at the Ji Family and knew no one well. Wandering aimlessly, she had happened upon him. Ji Jingsheng would always remember that year, when moonlight flowed like water. The young woman sat on a branch and tossed him a leaf. He caught it, and when he looked up, the delicate-featured girl was smiling and waving to him.

She called him "Ji Jingsheng" gently, as though they had known each other for years.

She was among the treetops, a full moon behind her, as though she sat upon the moon itself. Smiling at him, she said, "Could you come a little closer and show me the way? I can't find my way back."

And he really did go over.

Later, beneath that same tree, she taught him to write his own name, stroke by stroke, writing those three characters over and over hundreds of times.

She did not know that he could already write. But he wanted to learn her handwriting, so he pretended he could not, secretly getting her to teach him for much longer.

It was here, too, that she stroked her slightly swollen belly and patiently taught him woodcarving.

She said, "When the child is born, will you make her a little wooden carving?"

He said yes.

How could he have said no?

The world was dark; she was radiant.

At the time, he held the leaf, already dried and crumbling, not yet knowing why his heart ached so. He only felt that the sight of her with his third brother was so piercing it would stab straight through his heart.

Ji Jingsheng did not understand love, much less deep devotion. But when he thought that, if she married his third brother, he would be able to see her all the time, speak to her, and keep spending time with her, he thought it was good.

That thought sustained him through the entire time he watched her go from pregnancy to childbirth.

The wooden carvings filled a whole cabinet. The leaf rotted completely into mud. He learned to write his name in her handwriting.

But she disappeared, along with the child who was not yet a month old.

Afterward, he kept falling into hazy dreams, dreaming that he lay in a pool of blood, fighting people and demanding they release her. His saber skills had only just begun to take shape then. He could not withstand so many opponents, and naturally could not stop them.

Whenever he dreamed of it, he wanted to find out how it had ended, but he could not see. No matter how hard he tried, only heart-rending pain remained.

He seemed to have forgotten something terribly important, but he could not remember it.

Ji Chengxuan went mad, and so did he.

They searched heaven and earth, the azure skies and the Yellow Springs. They could not find her. They simply could not.

Someone said she was dead. He refused to believe it, struggling to recall their last meeting. She had held the child and coaxed her to say "Second Uncle." The baby understood nothing and only slept. Feigning anger, she had said he looked too fierce and the child would not acknowledge him, frightening him into a fluster. He forced out a stiff smile, making her laugh until tears came to her eyes.

Her laughter still echoed in his ears. How could hell bear to take someone so precious?

Ji Jingsheng firmly believed she was not dead.

He put away the wooden carvings and resolved to wait for her return.

But before long, he suddenly heard that Ji Chengxuan was getting married, to the Yin Clan's second young lady.

For the first time, Precarious Leaning rested against a Ji Family member's neck. He demanded that Ji Chengxuan break off the engagement.

It was then, too, that Ji Chengxuan said he loved her as well.

Realization dawned. So that was love. He loved her too.

But who was she? What was her name?

Xiu... Xiuzi?

That seemed to be what she was called.

Yet no matter what, he could no longer remember her face.

He had forgotten her, then struggled to remember her through fragments of memory.

In the end, Precarious Leaning did not strike. Ji Chengxuan was crying. He never cried, not even when gravely wounded and near death, yet that day he wept so bitterly.

Ji Jingsheng returned to his separate courtyard, ordered a pot of wine, and covered the table with wooden carvings, lotus lanterns, calligraphy models, and kites.

The festivities in the main courtyard had nothing to do with him. He poured a cup of wine and raised it to the distant moon.

"He won't wait for you anymore," he murmured. "I will."

He drained the cup.

Strong liquor burned down his throat, and that person seemed to appear before him again, smiling as she called him "Ji Jingsheng."

The memories of his youth were like fireworks, blooming for an instant. He had seen that beauty, so he willingly kept waiting in the darkness.

In dreams, unaware he was a guest, he stole a brief spell of joy.

(V) Forget her

Behind this man stretched a golden sky and the boundless light of the rising sun. Hongxiu looked at Ji Jingsheng, approached, and stood before him.

She saw those filthy hands slowly lower, Precarious Leaning stained with blood. His head was bowed, his face filled with the wild joy of reunion, like a little child who had finally received his beloved toy.

He said, "No one will ever bully you again."

As though compelled by some unseen force, Hongxiu looked at him and asked, "Why?"

Ji Jingsheng smiled, his expression shy as a boy's. He had been witless for so long, living on a blade's edge, walking a path of bloody rain and reeking winds. Some feared him and some scorned him, and over time, no one had noticed that he was actually a very handsome man.

He said, "I'll protect you from now on."

But Hongxiu could not smile. She fell silent and gently closed her eyes.

There was no other reason. To Hongxiu, Ji Jingsheng was simply too distant a memory, so distant he had blurred beyond recognition. Their paths had crossed, but that was twenty years ago. In the long years afterward, she had counted the days and the names of her enemies, tormented day after day, and had almost never thought of him.

She had not known he would actually be thinking of a "future" with her.

A future? But how could her future and his ever be together?

"You're hurt."

Hongxiu sidestepped the subject, raising a hand to touch his mangled wrists. Blood kept seeping from them, the flesh rubbed almost to ruin. Merely looking at them hurt.

Ji Jingsheng tugged at the chain and said quietly, "He locked me up. I used Precarious Leaning to chop... couldn't cut through... I hacked through the wall. It took a long time. There was an iron cage too..."

Hongxiu looked at him, knowing that his words tended to jump about. Only after listening for a long time did she piece it together. Shock surged through her, and she asked somewhat dazedly, "Who..." Imprisoned you?

"Heh heh heh-"

A chilling laugh came from beside them.

Dark red blood flowed over the steps. Not far from Yin Qiqi's corpse, the man with broken legs lay faceup, unable to rise beneath the heavy wheelchair pinning him down. His slightly disheveled clothes fluttered in the wind, and a hint of madness actually curved his face into a smile. Looking at the old grievances and present hatred before him, he laughed, low and hoarse at first, then gradually began breathing hard. Covering his face with his hand, he laughed louder and more recklessly, his chest shaking, even his limp right hand trembling beside him.

The veins in his neck bulged one by one. His left hand kept clutching his face, his eyes frighteningly red as great tears rolled from them.

"They're all dead," he said softly, whimpering in despair. "Good that they died. So good... they're all dead..."

A foot stamped hard on his chest, with such force that pain stabbed through him, as though it could pierce his ribs.

"Yes, the road to the Yellow Springs is only missing you! Hurry down and keep them company!" Red Adornment said.

But Ji Zhiyuan kept smiling. His bloodshot eyes fixed on Ji Hanchu. His lips parted, and only after a long while did he speak. "I'll remember you."

A trickle of blood escaped the corner of his mouth. He lay helplessly on his back, the relief of release upon his clean, fresh face.

"In my next life, I'll come looking for you again."

Silver flashed, and Crescent Moon pressed against his throat.

Red Adornment calmly traced with the blade's tip, saying carelessly, "You're about to die, yet you still have so much nonsense to spout. Why don't I cut out your tongue first, so I can have some peace?"

"As you please," Ji Zhiyuan said calmly.

Red Adornment gave him an icy glance, but rather than cutting his throat as she had threatened, she stood and silently retreated behind Ji Hanchu.

She looked at the man on the ground, her beautiful eyes brimming with mockery. "How pathetic. You lived these ten or twenty years, born useless, and you're still useless at death's door."

Those words seemed to strike Ji Zhiyuan's sore spot. His eyes flew open, and he suddenly lashed out at Red Adornment, but however hard he tried, he could not even reach the hem of her skirt.

Red Adornment chuckled and pointed through the air. His raised left hand slammed heavily to the ground, as though a thousand-jin weight had pressed down on it.

"Trash is still trash," she did not forget to add.

Ji Zhiyuan clenched his teeth and coughed up a large mouthful of blood. "However useless I am, it's not your place to run your mouth!"

Red Adornment was about to retort, but the man standing before her raised his hand and pressed her shoulder, silently soothing her.

From earlier until now, Ji Hanchu had remained expressionless, standing woodenly in place with a trace of bewilderment on his face. He must have been angry at first, but after all the turmoil, he had become lost again, with no expression left, not knowing what to think...

Intense pain spread through his heart. His pale lips trembled almost imperceptibly. Slowly, he crouched beside Ji Zhiyuan, staring straight at him.

Ji Zhiyuan turned his head, glanced at the Star Pendant in his hand, and smiled faintly. "Do it... the Ji Family is ruined, and so am I. Hahaha, but... but you didn't win in the end either..."

Ji Hanchu gripped the Star Pendant, his refined, handsome face looking deeply haggard. His gaze was somewhat hollow, but even more desolate.

"It's over..." He closed his eyes, his lashes trembling, his voice hoarse. "You harmed Liyou. I have to kill you."

Ji Zhiyuan smiled, dried blood crusting the corners of his mouth. He nodded in agreement. "As you should."

Looking at the hatred entrenched in Ji Hanchu's eyes, his unconcealable grief, and those traces of anguish and bewilderment, Ji Zhiyuan actually felt pleasure and satisfaction. Ji Hanchu's fragile appearance delighted him, and he could not help laughing aloud.

The harder he laughed, the more violently he coughed. Blood dripped down, joining the blood spilling from the wound the Star Pendant had pierced in his chest, staining a broad swath of red beneath him.

It was about to end...

This ridiculous, pitiful life had finally reached its end...

"Stop! Don't!" Someone suddenly roared, grabbing Ji Hanchu's wrist.

Red Adornment turned back with him in alarm. It was Ji Chengxuan, his expression complicated. At some point, he had broken free of the puppet's restraints and come up behind them.

Ji Hanchu slowly rose and stepped back. He looked uncertainly at his third uncle, watching him tremblingly lower himself, set down Wind Chaser, and then slowly kneel before him.

That act seemed to bring some tiny corner of his heart crumbling down.

To Ji Chengxuan, reputation and dignity were both immensely important. For the Ji Clan's century-old reputation, he could endure the pain of marrying a woman he did not love; to advance his mastery of Wind Chaser, he could train tirelessly, day and night. Even when wounded to the deepest, most agonizing degree, he never shed a tear.

The only tears of his life had fallen on his wedding night with Yin Qiqi, before Ji Jingsheng. In that moment of betrayal, he could not escape the bone-deep guilt in his heart, so he had laid aside his dignity and wept for the first time.

But afterward, no one had ever seen him lose his composure again. He had renounced all emotion, living as a cold weapon that guarded the Ji Family.

Yet now he dropped heavily to both knees before his own junior, bending his spine to plead humbly.

Begging Ji Hanchu not to kill Ji Zhiyuan.

Ji Zhiyuan spat out bloody froth, his voice hoarse as though his heart had been gouged out. "Who asked you to interfere! Get lost! Get lost-"

Ji Chengxuan lowered his head. His eyes were unfocused, unable to see anything clearly. Wind brushed past his ears, chilling him to the heart. He said softly, "Hanchu, your third uncle begs you. Spare him."

Ji Hanchu said nothing.

Ji Chengxuan lifted his face, pale and seemingly aged more than a decade in an instant. He had lived this life terribly, never seeing clearly, stumbling through a muddled existence that amounted to nothing. He had lost everything and could hold on to nothing, yet having come this far, he could find no road back.

"Hanchu, Zhiyuan... he's a bastard, but whatever the case, when a son goes untaught, the fault lies with his father. It was all me... I was the one who said he was born a cripple and would never amount to anything. I never looked him in the eye, never cared about him... It was all me. I failed to teach him how to be a decent person from the start, and that was what led him to commit such terrible wrongs..."

Horror appeared on Ji Zhiyuan's deathly pale face.

As he listened, he finally could no longer laugh. The last trace of color drained from his face. He strained his eyes wide to look at his father's back, watching his father kneel before his third younger brother, every word a plea.

His father, such a proud man, was kneeling and begging for mercy on his behalf... begging them to spare his life, a life even he himself had abandoned...

Ji Chengxuan said, "I know there is hatred in your heart, but the Ji Family is already finished... He... he's my only son. I'm not a good father. I've never treated him well, but he is my child, after all.

"Your third uncle has wronged you... Please, spare him... I'm willing to repay your resentment with my life..."

Spare him.

Please, spare him.

Ji Zhiyuan was unwilling to believe it, and dared not believe it. He was the Ji Family's discarded son, yet its lofty clan head, his father, was actually willing to exchange his own life for his.

How absurd this was...

Impossible. Absolutely impossible!

"You're mad. You must be mad..." He laughed wildly, roaring himself hoarse at Ji Hanchu. "Weren't you going to do it? Kill me! Kill me!!"

He shook his head in despair, on the verge of collapse, blood seeping from his wound and dripping steadily out.

Ji Hanchu remained silent, watching Ji Chengxuan's mouth open and close, saying so very much, until eventually he could hear nothing at all. Golden light fell around him, yet the cold still seeped into his body, into his bones, into his deepest depths...

Ji Chengxuan asked him to spare Ji Zhiyuan, said he was willing to exchange his life, but how could he take his third uncle's life? After his father died, his third uncle had raised him. He could not bring himself to do it...

Ji Hanchu stared dazedly at Ji Chengxuan's kneeling figure. He said that if Ji Hanchu would not take his life, he could take something else in payment. Then his blade rose and fell, severing his left arm cleanly at the elbow. Blood instantly gushed out, and the clamor around them grew louder...

He looked at the blood spreading across the ground, at the heartbroken Ji Zhiyuan, at Red Adornment looking at him anxiously, at the stunned Hongxiu and Ji Jingsheng... Suddenly, he wanted to laugh, but in the end, he began to cry.

The sky was still so bright, but his heart grew darker and darker, until at last it became a boundless blackness.

Ji Hanchu gave a sigh that barely made a sound. He turned and leaned wearily against Red Adornment's shoulder, murmuring in her ear, "You handle it."

Red Adornment held him, gently stroking his back. "You're not killing him?"

He nodded bitterly.

A broken sound came from behind him, wrung out in extreme pain, as though forced through clenched teeth from deep in the throat. "Thank you."

Ji Hanchu cradled his head, digging his fingers into his hair, clutching hard and pulling at his scalp, but the sharp pain could not soothe the agony in his heart. He closed his eyes, feeling his body grow emptier and emptier. A sharp thorn was lodged in his heart. He knew that from now on, he could never pull it out; whenever he thought of it, there would be pain.

After a long while, he raised his eyes, both bloodshot, his chin and the tip of his nose covered in tears. Without looking back, he said softly, "Don't let me ever see him again."

A faint, low voice behind him scattered in the wind. "All right. I promise."

The young gentleman sat alone on the ground, weeping. Behind him were his enemies, his family, those he loved and hated most.

He realized that Xie Liyou was gone. Gone was gone; he could never come back to life. When he left, he had still hoped that one day, in the years remaining to him, they might meet again. But who could have known that those remaining years would vanish in an instant? They had made no promise for tomorrow, so tomorrow had never come.

His enemy was right behind him, yet he would never be able to avenge this wrong in his lifetime.

Nor could he return to the Ji Family.

Jiangnan's spring scenery was lovely, but it would never have anything to do with him again.

From this day forth, their lives would lead east and west.

Red Adornment walked up to Ji Chengxuan and pressed several major acupoints to stop his bleeding. Then she went to Ji Zhiyuan, took a tiny pill from her medicine pouch, forced his mouth open, and made him swallow it.

Ji Zhiyuan struggled in vain. "What is this?"

Red Adornment looked at him, lifted her leg, and kicked his crippled lower body. "Why should someone like you get to live well in this world?"

What she had fed him was precisely the poison she had once fed Yin Qingyan. An hour of heart-wrenching pain every day, leaving him unable to live or die. Then she stepped over him and walked toward Hongxiu and Ji Jingsheng.

Neither had stopped Ji Chengxuan when he severed his own arm, though their expressions differed. Hongxiu seemed somewhat melancholy, while Ji Jingsheng looked more unable to bear it.

He was his younger brother, after all, and blood was thicker than water. He could not help feeling some pity. But though he was addled, he was not ignorant of the world, and naturally understood the reasoning involved. By the rules of the jianghu, outsiders must not interfere in others' grievances. Since this was Ji Chengxuan's own choice, whether he lived or died was up to him; he could only let him be.

Red Adornment said, "Senior Sister, we're going home."

Clear skies stretched for ten thousand miles, drifting clouds ethereal.

Their loves and hatreds had reached a stopping point. Bidding farewell to twenty years of entanglements, with the mountains and rivers magnificent and the jianghu unchanged, they had each finished what they had to do and were finally going home.

Back to the Southern Frontier, to that place of vast starry skies and a thousand miles of frozen rivers, to fulfill their first promise-to see just how bright and brilliant the stars above the desert truly were.

Light and shadow shifted. In the golden dawn, Hongxiu paused slightly.

It truly was all over. All the hatred and resentment had turned to scorched earth. Her chest held the warm sunlight of the mortal world, no longer venomous enmity.

Coming to herself, she smiled and slowly walked toward Red Adornment, toward the settling of all the dust, toward a new beginning in her fate.

Someone caught her arm.

She turned back, and that person smiled foolishly at her, as though he had walked through years of suffering to come to her.

Ji Jingsheng tilted his head. "Can we go together?"

Little Mute put away his whistle, and the puppets fell into slumber. All around was quiet, the sunlight gentle. Ji Jingsheng tugged at Hongxiu's sleeve, the foolishness in his features gradually replaced by warmth.

"Go together..."

After a while, Hongxiu looked at the fine wounds covering his body and gave an indistinct murmur of assent.

Her heart had already died in the bloom of bygone years, becoming a dried-up well that could stir no ripples again. She had even held a funeral for herself in her heart, burying the Hongxiu of the past, burying all the girl's innocence and fluttering affection.

A grave that sealed away her youth and innocence.

But it was true that Ji Jingsheng had slain her enemy for her, and true that he was gravely wounded. Her heart was not cold and unfeeling. Even if she were to leave, she had to help heal him first.

She turned, looked into his eyes, and nodded gently. "All right."

And so Ji Jingsheng smiled as though he had obtained some extraordinary treasure, his eyes curving into crescent moons.

Looking up, she saw Red Adornment leaning against Ji Hanchu in the distance, Little Mute standing behind them, waiting for them.

A gentle breeze brushed their faces. Rivers and mountains unfolded like a painted scroll, and the stroke belonging to them was about to fall.

The nightmare had ended; homeward they would go.

Only, as she passed the raised platform, someone gently caught her skirt.

Hongxiu stopped and met a pair of bloodshot eyes.

Ji Chengxuan's fingers clenched tightly. He was in too much pain to speak, yet he still gazed at her stubbornly, veins standing out across the back of his hand, yearning in his eyes.

Hongxiu slowly crouched and took his hand. She exerted force but could not make him let go.

In the hazy light, she stopped, faced his blood-smeared cheeks, and said softly, "Let go, Chengxuan."

As she spoke those words, the gaze of the man before her suddenly changed from stubbornness to profound agony.

Things had come to this, the road had reached its end, and fate had long since made their choice for them. Why keep fighting with their backs against the wall?

Hongxiu recalled that she had been just seventeen when she met Ji Chengxuan. That year, the peach blossoms in Jiangnan bloomed in profusion. She had plucked a blossom and happened to see a young man practicing his saber in the peach grove.

Frustrated that his saber technique would not improve, he swung his blade wildly like the wind. Peach blossoms fluttered down, covering his head and body, making him even more irritable. With a snort, he hurled the saber aside.

"Stupid saber!"

Folding his arms, he stamped on it in frustration, unable to conceal his disgust.

What an adorable boy, so straightforward, every feeling written on his face.

Back then, he had not yet learned to conceal his emotions, and she had always been carefree and followed her heart. Unable to help herself, she burst out laughing.

The irritable young boy turned and saw a beautiful girl smiling down at him from a peach tree. For a moment, he was dazed, his cheeks quietly reddening. But constrained by his immature dignity, he seemed to feel he had lost face, so he scowled and snapped, "Don't laugh!"

The girl leaned forward and stuck her tongue out at him. "You're so fierce."

Peach and plum blossoms in the spring breeze, night rain in the jianghu-what a beautiful past.

But that had been twenty years ago.

Ji Chengxuan's face was deathly pale. He remained motionless, only numbly clutching the corner of her skirt, as though clinging relentlessly to his last hope.

Hongxiu closed her eyes and sighed at length.

She raised her hand, resting her fingertips against the back of Ji Chengxuan's hand. With lowered eyes, she looked at him calmly, her voice ethereal. "Don't keep holding on. Let it go. It's all in the past."

A tiny worm crawled from her fingertips and swiftly wound around Ji Chengxuan's wrist. Catching a trace of blood, it followed the scent, soon climbing onto his wound, burrowing into his flesh and disappearing in an instant.

This was the Heart-Severing Gu Tianshu had given her to keep her rational. Now she gave it to him so that he would let go of everything and bury the past in its entirety with her.

Ji Chengxuan frowned and gave a muffled groan, curling into himself and trembling violently.

"Don't think of me again." Hongxiu smiled, pity and pain in her eyes. Her gaze was very gentle, but her movements were decisive. She savagely tore away that corner of her skirt, freeing herself in an instant.

Ji Chengxuan lay prone on the ground, crawling two steps forward as he cried hoarsely, "Don't... go, Hongxiu..."

But the heart-piercing pain left him unable to move. Pale-faced, he could only watch with wide eyes as the group before him slowly walked away.

Until they vanished.

The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was her back as she left without hesitation.

As the saying went, remember the ambitions that soared to the clouds in youth, when one vowed to stand among the finest beneath heaven.

Yet who could have known that after the years slipped wastefully by, neither fame nor fortune would be won?

All suffering reached its end. The boy's ambition perished, the girl's tender feelings withered, and vows sworn to mountains and seas fell silent. Through wind and rain, it seemed another lifetime. Yet along the road they had come, once those years passed, there would still be more, younger people setting forth for this grand rendezvous with the jianghu.

There would always be those whose hot blood never cooled, whose righteousness reached the clouds, eager to pursue with light cavalry while heavy snow covered bows and blades.

Old friends at the ends of the earth each had a place to return to.

The long, open road was only beginning now.

(6) Home at last

Hongxiu stood outside the Ji Family's gates for a while. Perhaps it was a long time, perhaps a short one. In any case, no one called to her. They merely waited for her to slowly come to herself before walking together toward the inn.

Ji Hanchu kept his head lowered. He seemed to have lost his soul, only following everyone numbly.

After Hongxiu came to herself, he too turned back and took a long, deep look behind him.

Beneath the vault of heaven, the Ji Family's gates were tightly shut, sealing away a century of dazzling renown and two generations of gloom and filth.

From now on, he truly had nothing to do with the Ji Family anymore.

"Third Brother."

Red Adornment came to him and stood at his side.

The morning breeze brushed Ji Hanchu's sleeve. He looked at the Ji Family's gates, then turned to Red Adornment, seeming to want to say something. Yet in the end, he said nothing at all, merely shaking his head, his eyes red.

In such a short time, he had experienced far, far too much, leaving him unusually sensitive and fragile at a moment like this.

His voice trembled slightly, but he told her firmly, "Let's go."

"Let's go home." Red Adornment took his hand and said softly, "My Ji, we're going home."

"Home?" Ji Hanchu turned to look at the familiar Gusu Ji Clan. After a while, he sighed heavily. "All right. We're going home."

This was no longer his home, but he had another home still.

Partings were what the mortal world never lacked, but fortunately, someone was still there to take him home.

A moment of melancholy passed through his eyes, fleeting, and soon settled into calm.

The group walked farther and farther away.

At the Ji Family's gates, bronze statues and stone lions stood imposing. Blue bricks, glazed green tiles, lofty buildings, and pavilions slowly vanished behind them at last.

Partings ought to be soundless. On a morning like this, there was no heart-rending anguish, no raging wind or torrential rain. They left in the warm, faint light, needing neither farewells nor promises to meet again, because everyone knew they would never meet again.

Perhaps, long afterward, someone would remember the misty rains of Jiangnan in the long hours of a lovely night, remembering that distant past on nights intoxicated by the spring breeze.

But that, too, would be long afterward.

By the time the group returned to the inn, the sun was already strong.

Red Adornment and Ji Hanchu had gone a day and a night without sleep or rest, and both were somewhat weary, so they intended to rest a little before deciding what to do next. Ji Hanchu stayed with Red Adornment. Xie Liyou's ashes sat on the table; he planned to take them back to the Southern Frontier for burial.

Red Adornment was probably truly exhausted. Afraid that sorrow would knot itself in his heart, she had intended to hold on and talk with him, but her health was poor, and before long, she drifted into sleep. Ji Hanchu sat quietly at the bedside for a while, then rose and went out.

He went to the door of the adjoining room and knocked gently.

The door opened. Seeing him outside, Hongxiu paused.

Ji Hanchu came straight to the point. "Aunt Hongxiu, I have a favor to ask."

Hongxiu stepped aside to let him in.

Ji Hanchu entered and saw Ji Jingsheng sitting at the table, carefully examining his Precarious Leaning. Hearing the sound, he looked up, saw that it was him, then lowered his head and casually resumed his examination.

Hongxiu came over and sat down with him. Glancing at Ji Jingsheng, she said, "As it happens, I wanted to speak to you too. I've just examined him. Your second uncle's injuries aren't light, but fortunately they're all flesh wounds. With your medical skills, they should pose no problem. It's just this black-iron chain..."

She hesitated, then said quietly after a long while, "Do you know any way to undo it?"

Ji Hanchu truly did not know, and honestly shook his head.

Hongxiu frowned, sinking into thought. She had no obligation to concern herself with what became of Ji Jingsheng, but whatever the case, he had avenged her. No matter what, she could not abandon him. Besides, she actually understood perfectly well that Ji Hanchu was far from the only one who could no longer return to the Gusu Ji Clan.

After that stroke of Ji Jingsheng's blade, the Ji Family could no longer tolerate him either.

Hongxiu sighed and voiced the decision she had long considered. "I'll take him back to Seven Stars Valley and find a way to have Martial Uncle Tianxuan examine him. He enjoys the esoteric arts; perhaps he'll have a way to undo this iron chain."

Ji Hanchu nodded, melancholy filling his heart. Since Hongxiu said so, he agreed. After all, his original plan had been to ask her permission to take Ji Jingsheng back to the Southern Frontier with him.

Hongxiu asked, "Besides this, what else did you come to see me about?"

Ji Hanchu was utterly exhausted and could not bother with roundabout words. He went straight to the point. "I'd like to ask you to help transplant the male gu inside your body into mine, Aunt Hongxiu."

Hongxiu froze.

Only after a long silence did she say, "Do you know what the consequences of implanting the male gu in your body would be?"

The male gu differed from the female gu in that it would not greatly affect its host's body. It simply preferred cool, shady places and needed to live in damp, cold surroundings year-round. Since Hongxiu already had a dead body, implanting the male gu had posed little difficulty. But Ji Hanchu was different. He was a living, breathing person. If he truly became the male gu's flesh-and-blood host, he would probably have to carry a parasol whenever he went out from then on, unable to see the sun.

A grown man going out with a parasol was absurd enough, and there were other things besides... The paired gu constrained both people's freedom. They could not stray too far apart, and if one gu perished, the other would die with it. Once the gu died, its host's body would naturally perish too.

"I know." Ji Hanchu looked at Hongxiu's face, his gaze resolute. "I'm willing to live and die with Red Adornment."

Hongxiu wanted to say more, her lips moving, but Ji Hanchu raised a hand to stop her.

The handsome, devoted young man stood and solemnly bowed before her. His Adam's apple bobbed, and his tone was earnest. "Aunt Hongxiu, this vengeance is settled. The rest of your life belongs to you alone. As for the road ahead of Red Adornment, I'll walk it with her."

That was what he had come to ask for today. Everyone had their own road. He could not be certain what the future held. The only thing he knew was that whatever road Red Adornment chose, he would stay with her, even unto destruction.

Hongxiu's expression calmed a little, understanding settling between her brows. She no longer tried to stop him, merely nodding gently in assent.

"Once we're back in the Southern Frontier, I'll explain everything to Martial Uncle Tianshu myself and ask him to help."

"Thank you," Ji Hanchu said.

"There's no need for thanks. Red Adornment is my junior martial sister, after all. In my heart, she's no different from my own daughter." Hongxiu looked at the young man before her and smiled faintly. "You really are very different from your third uncle. No wonder she was unwilling to remain Yaoguang, all for your sake."

At those words, the room fell abruptly silent.

Ji Hanchu's feelings were complicated. He pressed his lips together. "Let all that belonged to yesterday die with yesterday, and all that belongs to today be born with today."

Hongxiu smiled and shook her head. "I wasn't blaming anyone. I was only thinking that if he'd been as resolute as you back then, perhaps..."

Perhaps what? She did not finish.

If only-but how could the world hold so many if onlys?

Most people were burdened by the affairs of the world. It was not necessarily that the person they loved mattered too little. Rather, some people lived in shackles and could not escape them in an entire lifetime.

There were so many faithless men in the world that Ji Hanchu became all the more precious.

Desolation touched Hongxiu's expression. She smiled bitterly and said, "Back then, I also dragged my body out of the Southern Frontier. Just like that silly girl Red Adornment, I couldn't wait for my wounds to heal before whipping my horse back to Jiangnan. All I wanted was to find him, to have someone soothe the grievances filling my heart. Who knew that when I reached the Ji Family's gates, I would happen upon his wedding to your aunt?"

"And then?" Ji Hanchu asked.

"There was no 'then.' I left," Hongxiu said mildly. "Looking back now, it was all fate making fools of us."

With a creak, the door shut tight, and Ji Hanchu's footsteps faded into the distance.

Utterly exhausted, Hongxiu closed her eyes.

She truly was a little tired. Unfortunately, she could no longer even do something as simple as sleep. She could force herself to close her eyes, but people from her past always visited her dreams. Over time, she had become reluctant to sleep at all.

With half a lifetime's concerns settled, she found herself unable to see the road ahead. Cold and desolate, sorrowful and forlorn-in the end, she was still alone.

A long silence followed.

Before long, a hand suddenly brushed gently against her temple.

Hongxiu's eyes flew open, and she stared in bewilderment at Ji Jingsheng before her.

At some point, he had stopped looking at his precious Precarious Leaning and sat beside her instead, watching her with a slightly blank, slightly hesitant expression.

The world laughed at him for being a fool, but he understood quite a lot. From everyone's scattered remarks, he could roughly piece together what had happened. The aching pressure in his heart kept swelling. He did not know how to handle an emotion like heartache for another person. All he could do was stare at her foolishly.

"They bullied you," Ji Jingsheng said haltingly.

He was so much taller than Hongxiu that sitting before her, he blocked most of her view. Hongxiu moved back a little, crouched, and looked up at him. "Ji Jingsheng, all of that is in the past," she said softly.

Ji Jingsheng lowered his head and reached out to touch her hair, stopping an inch or so above her crown.

When something was too precious, even touching it required the utmost care.

He said, "They bullied you."

After a pause, he added, "They're all bad people. Bullying you makes them bad people... I have a blade. I'll protect you. I won't bully you."

Hongxiu took his hand, gently interlacing it with hers. Her eyes slowly reddened, but nothing could fall from them.

"Yes. They bullied me."

"I'll protect you," Ji Jingsheng said at once.

He paused, then lowered his voice. "Does it hurt?"

Hongxiu clutched his clothes, feeling the warmth of his palm pass into her hand. Her heart ached terribly. "It hurts. It hurts so, so much."

Ji Jingsheng gently cupped her hand, puffed out his cheeks, and blew on it, carefully blowing again and again.

Hongxiu's heart throbbed with pain. It felt so bitter, yet so warm.

She could not shed tears, but there was someone who could understand her suffering without them, someone whose heart could ache for her.

Even though he seemed so clumsy, even though they were still somewhat unfamiliar with each other.

Ji Jingsheng blew on her hand for a long while before looking up expectantly. "Does it still hurt?"

Hongxiu smiled and shook her head. "Not anymore."

His lips curved happily. He took a sheet of paper from inside his robes. It was tattered and stained with blood, but he unfolded it for her as though presenting a treasure.

"Look." He pointed to the three characters on it. "I can write my own name now."

The strokes were bold and flowing, exactly like hers all those years ago.

Hongxiu felt even worse. She turned her face slightly away. "You wrote it wonderfully."

Holding the paper, Ji Jingsheng bashfully rubbed his hair.

Hongxiu took the sheet, folded it neatly, and tucked it into her robes with care.

Thinking of what Ji Jingsheng had done, she found herself in a difficult position. Hoping to discuss it with him, she asked, "You killed Yin Qiqi. From now on, the Ji Family will definitely..."

Before she could finish, Ji Jingsheng interrupted. "I'm not going back to the Ji Family."

He looked at Hongxiu without blinking. "I'm staying with you from now on."

Hongxiu was stunned. "Why?"

Ji Jingsheng grinned. "I said I'd protect you."

Hongxiu opened her mouth, but no words came.

She had thought it was only something he had said on a whim.

So he had meant it... But this was far too absurd.

Of the Ji Family's uncle and nephew, the nephew had rebelled, and now the uncle was following suit. What would people think if word got out? Even a sugar-figure vendor at his stall would probably laugh upon hearing it. How had betraying one's clan become like selling food-buy one, get one free?

Absurd. Truly absurd.

Not only was Ji Jingsheng serious, he had thought beyond even that.

He said, "From now on, I'll be Yaoguang."

Hongxiu jerked her head up in disbelief. "What did you say?"

"I'll be Yaoguang," Ji Jingsheng said.

This time, he crouched down, held her hand, and said softly, "Take me back with you. I'll be Yaoguang."

Hongxiu was dazed for a moment. Ji Jingsheng rarely spoke with such clarity, and he had suggested a good idea that had never even occurred to her.

Neither she nor Red Adornment would be Yaoguang anymore. Their master had no successor, and this had been a constant source of worry for her.

Yes, the Big Dipper Stars had never stipulated that men could not become Yaoguang. But, but...

"Do you know what becoming Yaoguang means?" Hongxiu asked.

Ji Jingsheng nodded hesitantly.

Hongxiu leaned forward slightly, looking into his eyes. "Every Yaoguang-no, the ancestral rule for all the Big Dipper Stars is that they cannot marry or have children. If you become Yaoguang, you can never have children of your own."

"I have you," Ji Jingsheng said.

Hongxiu smiled bitterly. "Haven't you noticed? I'm dead." She took his hand and placed it beneath her nose, then against her wrist. "Feel it. I don't breathe. I have no heartbeat. I don't shed tears or bleed. I don't even feel pain. Because I'm a corpse. A corpse implanted with living dead gu."

Ji Jingsheng let her move his hand, remaining motionless.

Hongxiu thought she had persuaded him. She smiled faintly, but her smile was bitter.

"Don't stay with me, Ji Jingsheng. You have a wonderful future ahead. Don't waste it on a dead person like me."

Ji Jingsheng crouched down with her too. He gently cradled Hongxiu's head and looked at her for a while, then suddenly drew Precarious Leaning and offered it to her.

"What are you doing?" Hongxiu asked.

Ji Jingsheng spoke each word distinctly. "Kill me. Put that gu in me too."

He touched Hongxiu's eyes. The skin beneath his fingers was icy cold. She was an uncanny gu-human, but she was also the moonlight he had searched for over twenty years, lost and finally found again.

He could give up anything... Anything at all.

"If you're dead, I'll be dead too."

Hongxiu gripped Precarious Leaning. The blade sliced her fingers, exposing pale flesh. She felt no pain. She hated so much that she could not feel pain.

Ji Jingsheng placed Precarious Leaning in her palm. "Wherever you go, take me with you."

Hongxiu flung Precarious Leaning aside and buried her face in her arms, sobbing softly. "Who gave you permission to die? Who gave you permission to die with me? You can't be Yaoguang if you're dead, do you know that? Being dead is miserable. It really is miserable... How can you just say you'll die? How could you..."

Ji Jingsheng reached out, hesitated for a while, then gathered her into his arms. "Don't cry. Then I won't die, all right? Take me back with you. I don't have to be Yaoguang. Whatever you want is fine."

Hongxiu did not believe those words.

Perhaps Ji Jingsheng truly had waited twenty years for her, but she had nothing to repay him with. Even if she did, she could not repay him.

She could no longer love anyone, nor could her heart stir for anyone again, because a dead person's heart could not stir.

Betraying one's clan was far too different. Ji Hanchu was Ji Hanchu, and she was herself. Red Adornment was still alive. She was already dead.

All those costs added up to far too much. Her life had already ended. What could she use to repay him?

But just as Hongxiu tossed and turned, turning it all over in her mind, something happened that no one had expected-

Ji Jingsheng left.

He left very suddenly, taking only Precarious Leaning. His quilt was still thrown back, his tea half-finished, but by the time the moon stood high in the sky, he was gone.

Hongxiu sat in her room, a trace of melancholy in her heart. Then, thinking it over, she felt relieved.

It was best if he had come to his senses on his own. Returning to life as a free wanderer of the jianghu was much better than getting tangled up with her.

But despite those thoughts, she still felt a little disappointed. He was an old acquaintance, after all. Only moments ago, he had spoken so earnestly of living and dying for her, yet in the blink of an eye, he had changed his mind.

Fortunately, she had not expected much.

With that thought, Hongxiu sighed. She was just about to rise from the table when someone shoved the door open from outside.

It was Red Adornment and Ji Hanchu. Neither looked particularly well: one seemed moved, while the other held himself in check.

Red Adornment looked as though she were enjoying a spectacle. With Ji Hanchu there, she did not dare appear too excited, but she could not hide the light in her eyes.

"Senior Sister, something's happened to the Yin Clan!"

The Yin Clan of Jiangnan was annihilated overnight.

The blaze reddened much of the long night. All the Yin Clan's refined nobility, all its elegance, all its sins, and all its punishments went to their destruction amid billowing smoke and flames that soared into the sky.

Most people believed a madman could not understand feelings.

But Ji Jingsheng was different. Many people had forgotten that he was not merely a madman, but also a genius who surpassed most ordinary people in the world.

Buried alive. Raped. Tortured to death.

When those words reached his ears, he understood them all.

What this world owed her, he would collect on her behalf.

Flames soared into the sky, burning away the sins.

Twenty years of blood debts scattered like ashes.

The fire never stopped. Instead, it burned ever fiercer.

At the Yin Clan's gates, Hongxiu stood amid the tightly packed rings of people and opened her eyes against the blaze's glare. She felt her heart pounding-the flesh there seemed to have grown back, beating and beating, so fast she could barely breathe.

Nestled in Ji Hanchu's arms, Red Adornment excitedly stood on tiptoe and craned her neck to look inside. Ji Hanchu pulled her back and held her firmly against him, refusing to let her move around.

A window burned through and suddenly fell, scattering sparks as it struck the ground with a clatter, drawing startled cries from the crowd.

In the dim night, pale lightning flashed, tearing open the sky. Its silvery light illuminated the bloodied face of the man at the gates.

Yin Nantian's corpse lay at his feet, a long arrow embedded in its back, its eyes still open in death.

Ji Jingsheng stood before a mountain of corpses and a sea of fire, leaning on Precarious Leaning as he panted. Blood dripped into flowers at his feet. He came forward one blood-soaked step at a time, the chain clinking in his hand.

The crowd parted of its own accord to make him a narrow path. No one dared provoke this terrifying man. He walked unhindered to Hongxiu, lowered his head, and said quietly, "They're all dead. No one will hurt you again."

Black clouds churned, and everyone's faces grew indistinct.

With a crash, lightning flashed and thunder roared.

Hongxiu stared at him, her dark pupils trembling. After a long while, she finally reached out and drew him into her arms. The smell of blood on him must have been strong, but she could not smell it. It did not matter. She could not smell it anyway.

Ji Jingsheng smiled, making her body tremble slightly along with his. "Can I stay with you forever from now on?" he asked.

Hongxiu clutched his sleeve and asked in a shaking voice, "Why?"

"To protect you," he said. "So the rest of your life will be peaceful and happy."

Hongxiu wanted to cry, but though her lips puckered, her eyes were smiling. Her expression must have looked awful. Dead people could not cry, yet she truly was crying, only without tears. In that moment, she suddenly felt as though she had returned to twenty years ago, to that moonlit night. She had known all along. On the day she went to find her child, he had followed her, risking his life just like this, trying to shelter her behind him.

This fool. His martial arts had hardly been good back then, yet he had still followed to protect her.

And this same fool, despite being so badly wounded, had run off without a word to avenge her, drenching himself in blood.

Keeping paper and a wooden carving from twenty years ago, all for a promise made twenty years ago.

Wasn't he foolish?

Wasn't he such a fool!

But she knew he had no regrets.

She had thought the snowy mountain marked the dividing line of her life: before it, all was pure white; after it, all was rot. For the twenty years in between, she had lived on hatred, enduring as she waited for the day she decayed. She had never imagined that someone in this world would willingly take on a blood feud that had nothing to do with him for her sake, ascending a mountain of blades with one man and one blade, crossing a sea of fire with one bow and one arrow.

But she had already lost this life.

Then why not make a promise for the next?

After red lotuses bloomed for eight hundred li beside Naihe Bridge, amid a thousand waves of worldly troubles on the blue sea, even if it had nothing to do with love, she would wait for him there. They would walk the road to the Yellow Springs together.

Together, they would repay their debts of gratitude. Together, they would atone for their sins.

Hongxiu closed her eyes and said softly, "Let's go together."

She had exhausted all her love and hatred in this life, too late for regrets. But if there were another life, she would meet him before anyone else.

Would that be all right, Ji Jingsheng?

In the next life, you must remember to tell me. Tell me that you are Ji Jingsheng, the Ji Jingsheng who waited twenty years for me in his last life, who slew my enemies with his own hands, who shouldered a blood feud as deep as the sea for me.

Then I'll answer, oh, so it's you. Actually, I've waited many years for you too.

In this pure, new life, I've been waiting for you all along, waiting for many years.

The road still lay ahead. As the great fire was about to die down, their party passed safely through Jialing Pass.

Red Adornment sat in front of Ji Hanchu on horseback. Holding the reins, Ji Hanchu took one last distant look at Jiangnan, then left without looking back.

Red Adornment hooked her hand around his and asked, "Will you regret it?"

Ji Hanchu held her tighter but did not answer. Instead, he asked, "Do you still remember the Southern Frontier tune you sang when you first abducted me?"

"I remember," Red Adornment said.

Ji Hanchu brushed a finger over the tip of her nose and said with a smile, "Sing it again. I want to hear it."

The world was vast. Beyond the windblown sands that filled the sky, beyond the seas of forest and snowy plains, lay a new life elsewhere.

They had both done many wrong things.

Red Adornment's hands were steeped in blood, her burden of slaughter too heavy; he had defied orthodoxy and convention, and the world would not tolerate him.

But who in this life could guarantee they would never make a mistake, never bow their head?

They needed neither forgiveness nor salvation. Even if they were reduced to ashes and scattered smoke, that was a matter for after death. In the decades they had left, they would ride horses and tend sheep together, roam far and wide, neither accumulate virtue nor erase their sins nor atone for their crimes. They would spend the rest of their lives doing what brought them joy, galloping freely on horseback, staying by each other's side for a lifetime.

It would surely be a very, very good life-

Beneath the moonlit night, a curtain of secluded dreams; in ten miles of spring breeze, tender affection.

The human world was still good, and the years ahead held promise.