Then He Went Mad

"Are you not a Transmigrator?"

"I told you I wasn't."

"Then how did you answer the questions in the Mansion?"

"I've read a lot of books. There are many books in the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone."

The Red-Haired Monster lowered its head in silence. Its fangs slowly retracted into its mouth, and a strange light flickered in its vertical pupils.

Only two living beings remained in the Old Ye Residence.

One was an ominous monster with red fur and fangs. The other was the third disciple of Great Emperor Changsheng, the legendary Third Mister.

Anyone could see how unfavorable the situation was for the Red-Haired Monster.

Since no one could be certain whether Gu Baishui had Li Shiyi's Great Emperor's Inheritance, none of the Old Saints in Luoyang City would dare risk attacking the Gravekeeper's Third Mister.

But those Old Saints had no such qualms about the Red-Haired Monster.

Because it might be the first Transmigrator captured alive in countless years.

News of Transmigrators circulated across the continent only among a tiny number of High-Rank Cultivators. But half of the Human Race's Saints, and the oldest ones at that, had gathered in Luoyang City.

Naturally, there were people among those old things who knew what the three words "Transmigrator" meant.

A great secret, and a great terror.

No one would let this living Red-Haired Monster get away, especially since it was holding the only dagger that might have something to do with Li Shiyi.

It was an inescapable dead end, at least from Gu Baishui's perspective.

But as the wind and rain roared outside the window, the red-haired monster remained silent for a long time, then suddenly opened its bloody maw, gripped the dagger, and thrust it deep... into its own mouth.

As Gu Baishui stared in astonishment, the wounded Red-Haired Monster began coughing violently.

"Ptooey! Ptooey!"

Bright red blood sprayed everywhere. The monster's body convulsed violently, but it kept stubbornly and frantically working its throat, as if it didn't care whether it lived or died.

After a while, everything fell quiet again.

The curtain by the window was spattered with red blood, and the Red-Haired Monster, its eyes dimmed, had swallowed the Bronze Dagger into its belly.

"Cough... cough..."

The blood-drained Red-Haired Monster grinned widely, fangs jutting out, and let out a strange, hoarse laugh.

"I know what you're thinking. A monster who's a Transmigrator, carrying a dagger that might be an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon, would surely be tied up by those Old Saints in the city. They'd skin me alive, tear out my tendons, search my soul, and squeeze out every last secret-even the ones hidden in my marrow."

The Red-Haired Monster rolled its neck and looked at the Green-Robed Youth. "You're the third disciple of Great Emperor Changsheng, the exalted and mysterious Gravekeeper, and even the future leader of the righteous path's younger generation."

"Once we leave this residence, our status will be as different as clouds and mud. You're a prodigy above the clouds. I'm an eerie, ominous Transmigrator, a rat hiding in the crowd."

"You forced me into a dead end. You wanted to drag me out of the shadows, make me return the dagger to you, and kill me. That way, no one would know what happened tonight. The restrictions in the Old Ye Residence have blocked all perception."

"But in the end, you still don't dare make a move."

The Red-Haired Monster laughed wildly, blood streaming freely down its face.

"You and I are both in the Immortal Platform Realm. Your Spiritual Power has scattered and your Divine Sense has run dry. You don't have the certainty of killing me, or you'd have acted already. I'm badly wounded too, and I'm not sure I can kill you."

"You want me dead, and I want you dead. But we both know perfectly well that if either of us lets tonight's events slip, those Old Saints in Luoyang City will fix their eyes on us like maggots on a corpse, haunting us without end."

Gu Baishui's body paused slightly. He narrowed his eyes and said nothing more.

Outside the window, the Red-Haired Monster, already driven to the brink of madness, kept babbling on.

"To those old codgers whose lifespans are almost up, does Great Emperor Changsheng's disciple matter? Does a Transmigrator in the Immortal Platform Realm matter? Neither really matters."

"The only thing that matters to them is Li Shiyi's inheritance, the hope of breaking through to a higher realm and extending their lives."

"Now that dagger is in my belly. Do you really want to hand me over to the Old Saints outside?"

The candlelight in the room flickered. The Red-Haired Monster said to the Green-Robed Youth inside:

"Hand me over to them, and you'll get neither the Great Emperor's Inheritance nor the Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon."

"And those old things will notice you too, watching their prey from the shadows like a pack of wolves."

"But if you keep quiet, no one will know what we got. One day, you'll have the chance to kill me, cut open my belly, and take the dagger back. It'll still be yours."

"An entire Great Emperor's inheritance..."

The Red-Haired Monster's voice was deeply persuasive. It looked at the seemingly hesitant Green-Robed Youth with utter sincerity.

The room fell silent for a moment. At last, Gu Baishui raised his eyes and asked it one question.

"When did you come here?"

The Red-Haired Monster froze, then answered truthfully, "Three years ago."

"I see."

The Green-Robed Youth's eyelids twitched. He murmured to himself, "You underwent Soul Transmigration too... just like Li Shiyi."

Dawn approached. The morning light spilled from the edge of the clouds, illuminating the Stone Lions at the entrance to the Old Courtyard.

The gates stood open. A refined, easygoing middle-aged man and a ragged Old Beggar stood on either side, blocking the entrance as they watched the courtyard, apparently waiting for something.

Behind them, on the street, Outsiders appeared one after another at the corner.

Some looked like merchants and peddlers doing business; others were Scholars carrying book cases. There were Rangers and Fishermen, burly men and Old Women.

But whatever their attire, most of those Outsiders had a hazy, aged look deep in their eyes. They stared at the Old Courtyard with numb indifference.

Half an incense stick later, some raised their heads, and some opened their eyes.

The gate opened, and two young men walked out of the courtyard.

One wore blue robes. He silently glanced at the old things on the street, then walked over to the Old Beggar.

The Old Beggar chuckled and rubbed his hands together, only to realize that Gu Baishui hadn't brought anything out of the courtyard.

The other young man's face was pale and bloodless. He walked over to Ji Clan Head and silently, feebly shook his head without saying a word.

Ji Clan Head and the Old Beggar exchanged a glance, both seeing disappointment and calm in the other's eyes.

But then again, expecting a junior in the Immortal Platform Realm to obtain a Great Emperor's Inheritance had never been very likely.

These Old Saints who had lived for countless years were more accustomed to relying on their own methods to seek out what they wanted.

Ji Clan Head brushed his sleeves and turned to look deeper into the courtyard.

The Old Beggar sighed softly and rolled up his sleeves, preparing to search the Old Ye Residence himself.

On the street opposite the gate, figures stirred. One aged Old Saint after another rose to their feet and quietly stepped forward, intending to enter the Mansion together and search for the Emperor's Tomb.

No one noticed that Lu Ziyou, who had come out with his head lowered and remained silent, had silently clenched his fists.

Deep in his eyes, a heart-stopping tension flickered without a sound, along with the gradually rising joy of having survived a calamity.

But just then, the Green-Robed Youth beside the Old Beggar, who had been gazing up at the sky, slowly turned around and tossed a blue-and-white Token onto the smooth street.

The Token hit the even paving stones with a crisp clatter.

The character "Three" faced up, drawing everyone's gaze at the entrance.

"Don't bother. Li Shiyi's inheritance is in his belly."

Lu Ziyou's expression froze. He looked up in disbelief, staring blankly at the youth who had deceived him.

Countless gazes swept over. The Old Saints of Luoyang City were visibly taken aback for an instant, then focused their attention on the pale-faced youth beside Ji Clan Head.

An unbearable pressure rushed over him. Lu Ziyou felt the world freeze for an instant, then his mind went hazy as the Saints' Spiritual Pressure and Divine Sense burst his Meridians and Dantian.

He didn't die, but the Saints saw him as an ordinary mortal.

"The Great Emperor's Inheritance is important to you, but to me, it doesn't really matter."

Gu Baishui fell silent for a moment, then suddenly grinned at Lu Ziyou, who had fallen into an abyss, and gave him an innocent, bright smile.

"I just don't like you. I don't like the idea of something like you staying alive, especially in this city of Luoyang."

A very long story had once unfolded in Luoyang City.

In that story, there was a little beggar, dusty from the road and utterly bewildered, and a lazy young man with no lofty ambitions or aspirations.

There was a mute girl who knew things from birth and was always in the habit of feeling guilty, and there was a great Willow Tree. Beneath it, a big salted fish and a little salted fish often lay side by side.

Luoyang City must have been beautiful back then-quiet and peaceful, far from the world's strife.

The young man would bicker with his younger sister, and he would also take a little beggar by the hand and sneak out of Luoyang City.

When the willow catkins flew, snow that never melted would drift across the clear lake.

They would sit in the Mid-Lake Pavilion, watching White Birds fly down as they told one another stories they had made up.

But in the end, they all died, at different times, in the same season when the willow catkins began to fly.

A strange soul destroyed everything. And now, at the entrance to the courtyard, stood one of that thing's kind.

They really did deserve to die.

Gu Baishui didn't like the ending of that story in Luoyang City, so naturally, he hated them too.

Second Mister on the mountain had said that they kept a little Panda on his mountain.

That Panda had never come down from the mountain. Usually, it was honest and carefree; even if you prodded it a few times with a branch, it couldn't be bothered to pay you any mind.

But he always felt that the Panda on the mountain would go mad, one day in the future.

"Lu Ziyou is a Transmigrator. Li Shiyi was one too."

The Green-Robed Youth's clear voice echoed through the street, like a blinding bolt of lightning tearing apart the curtain of the sky.

Silence. The rain froze beneath the eaves, no longer falling or swaying.

The shadows of the trees stopped. The wind fell silent. Not a sound remained in the street.

The Green-Robed Youth raised his head, gazed at the distant white willow catkins beyond the city, and let out the pent-up breath in his chest.

The story in Luoyang City should end here, with the death of a Transmigrator.

But everything that happened next completely exceeded Gu Baishui's expectations.

Silence reigned. When the Green-Robed Youth spoke the three words "Transmigrator,"

almost every aged, clouded gaze in Luoyang City shifted eerily onto Gu Baishui.

They had turned from Lu Ziyou to Gu Baishui.

Of those Old Saints, hardly any watched the ominous monster huddled in the corner, perhaps the first captured Transmigrator. Instead, they all stared eerily at the youth who had spoken.

No one spoke, and no one moved.

Gu Baishui sensed the strange atmosphere and turned his head in confusion.

Across the doorway, Ji Clan Head-the refined, elegant middle-aged man-said nothing. He simply stared at Gu Baishui without blinking, his eyes unfathomably deep, concealing emotions Gu Baishui couldn't understand.

The Old Beggar to his right lifted his head. His unkempt face showed no expression, but his eyes were just as strangely blank. He watched the Green-Robed Youth and licked his lips.

Gu Baishui unconsciously took a step back, retreating behind the threshold of the residence.

Yet silently, every gaze hidden in the shadows moved along with him.

Gu Baishui didn't know why. Could it be that the Old Saints in Luoyang City didn't know what a Transmigrator was?

Why weren't they looking at Lu Ziyou, but staring eerily at him instead?

The next moment, a familiar heat came from his chest.

No one in Luoyang City could sense it: an awakened Bronze Mirror began to tremble quietly, sending its master the most urgent warning it had ever given.

Gu Baishui lowered his head slightly.

He felt a chilly breath spread out from the mirror on his chest, dragging part of his Divine Sense into the Bronze Mirror.

Gu Baishui's eyeballs shifted slightly,

and a wisp of invisible Divine Sense drifted into the sky, looking down over all of Luoyang City.

That wisp of Divine Sense swept across the city, seeing nearly a hundred aged, weather-beaten Old Saints hidden in the shadows,

and also seeing nearly a hundred pairs of scarlet eyes that had appeared across Luoyang City at almost the same moment...

Each pair of scarlet eyes belonged to a different Red-Haired Monster.

Nearly a hundred strange, ominous Red-Haired Monsters stood silently behind the Old Saints in Luoyang City.

There was one behind Ji Clan Head, and one behind the Old Beggar, too.

"Every Transmigrator has a Red-Haired Monster following them. It's been like this for a very long time."

In the 35,244th year of the Changsheng Calendar, Third Mister, who had never appeared in the Great Emperor's Forbidden Zone, showed up in Luoyang City.

Then, he went mad.