Seven Days

On the seventh day, beside the Luo River, dawn had yet to fully break, but the space before the white jade sacrificial platform on the riverbank was already packed with people. More than half the Luo God Clan had come. Almost every one of the twenty-three youths who had entered the Luo River Abyss had family there: parents, brothers, and sisters, all craning their necks toward the mirror-calm river, their faces filled with anxiety. Seven days ago, the finest of the Luo God Clan's younger generation had jumped into this river. Seven days later, no one knew how many would come back up.

Luo Tianshen stood on the sacrificial platform in his usual drab gray cloth robes, his hands behind his back, saying nothing. Behind him, Luo Yan, Luo Qing, and the other elders were silent as well. Below the platform, at the edge of the crowd, a girl with a bamboo basket on her back stood on tiptoe, straining to see the river. It was A Heng. She had arrived before dawn, earlier than anyone from the Luo God Clan, and had stood alone on the bank from the depths of night until the horizon began to pale. Her clear, bright eyes had not left the river for a single moment.

Luo Su stood beside her and glanced at her. "Don't worry," she said softly. "It's not time yet."

"Mm." A Heng answered, but remained on tiptoe. He had said seven days. He would return in seven days.

The sun finally rose, slowly climbing above the eastern wall of Luo Shen City. Its first rays crossed the wall and fell upon the Luo River. At that very instant, the white jade token that had hovered over the river for seven full days suddenly lit up with a soft white glow.

The river began to spin, ripples spreading rapidly outward from the token. The whirlpool turned faster and faster, and the water parted to either side, revealing the deep rift flickering with a ghostly blue light. A stir ran through the crowd, and everyone held their breath.

A figure then shot out of the rift and landed on the riverbank. It was Luo Feng. His silver armor was covered in dried blood, and thick strips of cloth were wrapped around his left shoulder. His face was pale, but his eyes remained bright and steady. After landing, he ignored the clansmen crowding around him and simply turned to watch the rift.

A second, third, and fourth figure followed... one figure after another shot out of the rift and landed on the bank. Almost everyone was wounded. Some were supported by their companions, while others were carried on their backs. Yet there was something indescribable on their faces. Cries, laughter, and shouts erupted throughout the crowd.

"Eighteen, nineteen..." Luo Yan stood on the platform, counting them one by one. "Nineteen..."

Four were still missing, and the crowd gradually fell silent. Just then, two more figures emerged from the rift, wrapped in the silver cloaks of Luo God Clan youths. Several of the youths who had come out earlier turned back to catch them at the mouth of the rift and gently laid them on the stone steps by the riverbank.

No one spoke. Two women in the crowd swayed and collapsed, only to be caught by the people beside them. In that instant, stifled, heart-rending sobs burst from the crowd. Luo Tianshen stood on the platform, looking at the two figures wrapped in silver cloaks, and something in his clouded old eyes trembled faintly.

Luo Feng walked up to the two bodies and knelt on one knee. Head bowed, he said in a hoarse voice, "Luo Shi and Luo Wen were attacked while guarding the rift. They died in battle. I was their leader, and I failed to protect them."

Luo Tianshen said nothing either. His gaze passed over Luo Feng and fell on the last two figures emerging from the rift. The first was Luo Xiao, who carried a man in one hand. The man was bound hand and foot, his body charred black and most of his hair burned away. Luo Xiao tossed him beneath the platform's stone steps like a dead dog. The man raised his head, revealing a pair of dark red eyes and a faded blood mark on his left cheek. Cries of alarm immediately rang out among the crowd.

"Xue Shi, a deacon of the Blood God Clan," Luo Xiao said grimly. "He brought more than a dozen men and used our clan's youths' blood for a blood sacrifice to sneak into the Luo River Abyss. They woke the Abyss Scale Flood Dragon in the Cold Abyss, then set up a Blood Sacrifice Array in its ice cavern to ambush us. Luo Shi and Luo Wen died at their hands."

In that instant, the entire riverbank fell deathly silent. Within that silence, something kept surging upward. It was anger, anger that had been suppressed for far, far too long and had finally found an outlet.

Luo Tianshen slowly descended from the platform and walked up to Xue Shi, looking down at him. Xue Shi raised his head and met his gaze, but it was as though a red-hot iron nail had been driven into his eyes. He shuddered and quickly lowered his head. Luo Tianshen said nothing, but every Luo God Clan member standing behind him saw it clearly: for the first time, their clan leader's face, usually as undisturbed as an ancient well, darkened.

The last figure leaped leisurely out of the rift. He wore a half-damp green robe, thick strips of cloth wrapped around both hands, and a drowsy youth in fine robes on his back.

"Brother Xiao, I can walk on my own..." the youth mumbled groggily.

"You took three steps and fell twice," Xiao Yan said.

"The ice was too slippery..."

"This is the riverbank. There's no ice." Xiao Yan set Luo Lan down on the stone steps, straightened up, and flexed his bandaged fingers. He raised his head to look at the newly risen sun and narrowed his eyes. The sunlight was wonderful. After seven days in the lightless Luo River Abyss, he had almost forgotten what the sun looked like.

"Brother Xiao!"

A voice thick with tears came from the crowd. Before Xiao Yan could turn around, a small figure had already squeezed through the crowd and stumbled toward him. She grabbed his bandaged hand, then hurriedly let go as though burned. "Your hand... what happened to your hand?"

A Heng looked up at him, tears rolling one by one from her clear, bright eyes. "Does it hurt a lot? Does it..."

Xiao Yan looked down at her, at her little face streaked with tears, and at the familiar bamboo basket on her back. He froze for a moment, then smiled. "Hehe, it doesn't hurt."

"You're lying..."

"It really doesn't hurt." Xiao Yan raised his hand and wiped her tears with its bandaged back. "That bundle of herbs you gave me helped a lot. Especially that packet of Heartwarming Grass. It saved Luo Lan's life."

A Heng froze at his words and blinked her tear-filled eyes. It took her quite a while to realize what he meant, and her little face turned red to the tips of her ears. "It... it's Heartwarming Grass! I wrote it wrong!"

"Mm, Heartwarming Grass." Xiao Yan held back a laugh. "I know."

"You... you..." A Heng was so embarrassed and flustered that she stamped her foot. But as she stamped, she couldn't help bursting out laughing herself. Her laughter was still tinged with tears, making it sound rather strange. Watching from beside them, Luo Su couldn't help smiling and shaking her head.

"Seven days." A Heng finally stopped laughing and looked up at Xiao Yan. "You said you'd come back in seven days," she said very seriously. "You really did come back."

Xiao Yan looked at her, and something inside him softened slightly. "Mm. I promised."

As the crowd gradually dispersed, Luo Feng walked over. Xiao Yan took the silver-glowing jade talisman from his robes and held it out. A thin crack ran from its center all the way to the edge. "It cracked. Here, I'm giving it back."

Luo Feng looked down at the crack and fell silent for a moment. It had cracked when Xue Shi struck him with a palm in the Cold Abyss ice cavern. Back then, he had knelt on the ice, his left shoulder black and purple, watching helplessly as his clan's youths fell one by one. His only thought had been whether the person who had gone down to the seventh level could sense it. He had sensed it. He had come back.

Luo Feng reached out, but instead of taking the jade talisman, he pushed Xiao Yan's hand and the talisman back toward him. "Keep it. Even cracked, it's still a life-bound jade talisman. From now on, no matter where you are, if it cracks, I'll know something has happened to you."

Xiao Yan paused and looked at his steady face. After a moment, he smiled and tucked the jade talisman back into his robes.

That day, news spread through Luo Shen City: twenty-three Luo God Clan youths had entered the Luo River Abyss for their trial, and twenty-one had come out alive. Luo Shi and Luo Wen had died in battle. The Blood God Clan had infiltrated the secret realm to ambush them. Their leader, the Second Grade Sovereign deacon Xue Shi, had been captured alive, and more than ten Blood God Clan assassins had been wiped out.

And the person who had single-handedly broken the Blood God Clan's Blood Sacrifice Array in the Luo River Abyss, swept down more than ten assassins with a single sweep of his ruler, formed a Fire Lotus that blasted half an ice valley flat, and beaten the Second Grade Sovereign who had used a forbidden technique to within an inch of his life was that fellow from a Lower Plane.

The more the news spread, the more fantastic it became. Some said he had slain an ancient ferocious flood dragon. Some said he had gone down to the seventh level and returned alive. Others said his Fire Lotus had melted the entire Cold Abyss. Luo Lan spread the story most enthusiastically. Ever since coming out of the Luo River Abyss, the boy had been like someone injected with chicken blood, stopping everyone he met and telling them how Xiao Yan had slain the flood dragon in the icy pool, saved people in the ice cavern, and then blown up the valley with a Fire Lotus. Spittle flew and his brows danced as he spoke, and at the end he would always thump his chest and add, "That's my Brother Xiao!"

Luo Zhi followed behind him. When she heard him tell it for the eighth time, she finally couldn't help giving his sleeve a gentle tug. "Luo Lan, that Abyss Scale Flood Dragon you're talking about was ten zhang long yesterday. How did it become thirty zhang today?"

Luo Lan choked, his face flushing bright red. "I... I remembered it wrong yesterday!"

Luo Zhi pressed her lips together and smiled without speaking. Deep within the Luo Shen Residence, on the stone platform at the center of the lake, Luo Tianshen stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the calm water. He did not move for a long time. A person knelt at his feet.

Xue Shi.