The Wind Was Rising

Hei Xiazi held a bowl of rice in his left hand and chopsticks in his right. His heart seesawed with anxiety, and in the end, he couldn't hold back. "Mute, what exactly happened to Xiao Yu? What did you run into?"

Zhang Qiling held Yu Zhi sitting in his lap, keeping him steady with one hand and eating with the other. Without so much as looking at Hei Xiazi, he said, "He's asleep. I don't remember."

"Then do you remember who you are? Who is he? Who am I?"

"I don't know. My lover. I don't know." The crisp, emotionless answers brought silence to the air.

Seeing him like that, Hei Xiazi wondered why this was different from his previous bouts of amnesia. Before, he had always been dazed and especially easy to fool; all it took was a fight, and he would follow Hei Xiazi home. This time, he had asked to come home of his own accord, and now he claimed he didn't know Hei Xiazi. Had he really lost his memory or not? Hei Xiazi suspected Mute was messing with him, but then he looked at the person in his arms... Forget it. He would treat it as real. Thinking about it made his head ache.

As for Yu Zhi being asleep, that was pure nonsense. Who put a perfectly healthy sleeping person in a Jade Cocoon? Was Mute trying to fool him like some innocent little white flower?! With his current cultivation, he couldn't sense any sign of life in that body. Or perhaps Mute had been driven mad by too great a shock this time.

That fellow was a dead duck with a stubborn beak; Hei Xiazi couldn't pry a scrap of useful information out of him. He would have to go out and ask around.

Zhang Qiling paid no attention to the little schemes spinning in his head. As long as he stuck to his story that he had lost his memory, Hei Xiazi couldn't do a thing about it.

After eating, Zhang Qiling took Yu Zhi back to the room and began cultivating. He now needed to sustain Yu Zhi's divine soul and body, so he had to work hard!

Hei Xiazi wandered in circles around the courtyard without thinking, twice to the left and twice to the right. In the end, he decided to go out and make inquiries. It might have something to do with that group from the Nine Gates who had come out earlier.

Hei Xiazi rushed out and came back carrying a large bag of food, then hurried toward the door again.

"Mute, I'm going out. I'll be back in three or four days. Don't go out for the next few days. I bought you some food, so make do with that. We'll talk when I get back." Hei Xiazi knew he could definitely hear him.

It wasn't that he liked worrying so much that he had turned into an old nanny; he really had no choice. Before, all he had to do was feed the amnesiac child, who would just sit there in a daze. Now, anyone who saw him like this would shout that he was a lunatic. Thankfully, Hei Xiazi was knowledgeable. Still, come to think of it, he felt something was off. Mute was far too quiet.

"The Blind Man's gone."

"Good. His current state is just right for misleading those people." Yu Zhi began to consider what exactly the False Queen Mother of the West had arranged. Why had she specifically chosen for him to become Wu Xie, rather than Xie Yuhua, Huo Xiuxiu, or anyone else? Why Wu Xie in particular?

"Forget it, I won't think about it. As long as that old monster can't get out, whether in the past or now, you're the ceiling of combat strength here. Whatever schemes they have, just crush them to death."

"Have your injuries healed?" Zhang Qiling's divine soul was not as strong as his, so he couldn't sense it at all.

"More or less. It's nothing to worry about."

"Then when are you planning to return to your body?" Zhang Qiling was deeply concerned. Although they wanted to lure the snake out of its hole, it would be good if Yu Zhi could return to his body as soon as possible.

"That's a good question... I can't get back in." Yu Zhi sounded slightly melancholy.

"What happened? Could the False Queen Mother of the West have done something?"

"I'm not sure! Let's leave it like this for now." Yu Zhi had no solution either. Even with his Nascent Soul Stage spiritual power, he couldn't resolve it, so what else could he do?

On second thought, worrying was useless and would only make his god worry too much. "Zhang Qiling, I'm going to check the space first. I don't know exactly what it's become."

"Okay."

"Holy shit, it really does have spiritual energy now."

"Let me check the system log." Once again, it had devoured the Qilin Ring the moment he entered Zhang Qiling's body. What on earth was this System Space? It was out of control.

He discovered that the size of the space had barely changed, but there was actually spiritual energy inside now, almost as dense as that on Changbai Mountain.

There was another benefit: the System Space now had two masters. Zhang Qiling could enter through the Qilin Ring, while he himself could naturally enter at any time, since it was bound to his divine soul.

This so-called System Space of his was by no means as simple as he had previously thought. It could travel through time and space, and it could upgrade and evolve, yet he still couldn't tell what it actually was. His store of knowledge was too meager, and there was too much he didn't understand.

His gaze shifted to the four Low-Grade Spirit Stones he hadn't been willing to use, lying there untouched. Yu Zhi was so angry he could have spat blood. What was this supposed to mean? Did this thing look down on Low-Grade Spirit Stones? Did it only eat treasures with storage space? This world had already evolved down the technological branch, so where was he supposed to find those things for it?

Come to think of it, Meteorite Jade counted as a treasure too. He didn't know whether the System Space would eat it, but he could try.

"Sansheng, what exactly did you bring back?!" Zhang Rishan's face was icy as he pressed a gun to Wu Sansheng's forehead.

"Rishan, put the gun down. Don't make me angry." Zhang Qishan sat in his wheelchair, trying to keep his voice under control, but it still came out somewhat shrill and grating.

"Fo Ye, we don't have much time left. What are we going to do about your condition?!" Zhang Rishan's mouth crumpled, and he burst into tears. Fo Ye's hair now reached his waist, his nails were long, and his voice was high and thin. Sometimes he lost control of his body and lay on the ground with his limbs twisted. It was getting worse by the day.

"Fo Ye, how could this happen? Could the Longevity Pill have been fake? How could that be? I took the Longevity Pill out of the cauldron myself and carried it back on my person. There's no way it could have been fake." Wu Sansheng muttered to himself. It was impossible.

"How exactly did you get it? Tell us carefully, and don't leave out the slightest detail." Zhang Rishan spoke threateningly. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to kill all those people.

"That day, we led the team toward the Cloud Top Heavenly Palace, following the map. Afterward, we ran into Hei Xiazi, Zhang Qiling, and Mr. Yu. We... (Author: skipping that part of the plot; you can recall the earlier events in your head, hehe)... After that, we made it into the inner hall without trouble. We found the box in the cauldron in front of King Wannu's statue. Zhang Qiling was the one who finally opened it. Then we ran into... Qi Yu died, and the rest of us didn't dare delay, so we returned immediately." Wu Sansheng spent an hour recounting everything, laying out every detail clearly.

"Zhang Qiling was there too? Why did he show up there? Was it a coincidence?" Zhang Rishan speculated about a conspiracy.

"The ten-year promise. It was the ten-year promise. He had to go guard the gate." Zhang Qishan explained it to him. Rishan was a Qilin of his own clan whom he had found outside and brought back. He had been young then and hadn't known much.

Zhang Qishan went on to ask, "Who is that Mr. Yu?"

"He's a man surnamed Yu, but I don't know his full name. We first met him on the way to the Tomb of the King of Lu. We ran into a Corpse Charm... (Author: skipping that part of the plot; you can recall the earlier events in your head, hehe)... Later, we went our separate ways at the inn and didn't see each other again. The Cloud Top Heavenly Palace was our second meeting." Wu Sansheng started rambling again, then paused slightly as he reconsidered whether he could tell them about this matter.

Zhang Qishan noticed his hesitation. "Go on."

"Fo Ye, there's something you probably don't know. Mr. Yu's fiancé is Zhang Qiling. He admitted it himself!" Wu Sansheng found it incredible too.

"Impossible!" Zhang Rishan said.

"Absurd," Zhang Qishan said.

"It's true. They also said they would hold a wedding and invite us," Wu Sansheng said.

After those words, the room was so quiet a falling needle could be heard. The three of them pondered in silence, none saying a word.

In the end, Zhang Rishan broke the silence. "Fo Ye, how about we continue working with 'it'? That map was 'its' doing. We..."

"Don't say that again. From now on, the Nine Gates will no longer obey 'its' orders. Haven't enough people from the Nine Gates died because of 'it' these past few years? Rishan, I should have died already. There's no need to drag out my remaining days, and we can't sacrifice more lives because of me. That's an order."

"Yes, Fo Ye."

"Alas, it is the times and it is fate. Go prepare an iron coffin. I can feel that I don't have many days left. Before I mutate completely, seal me inside the coffin and pour molten iron directly over it." Zhang Qishan gave the instructions in a hoarse voice.

"Fo Ye, you mustn't!" Zhang Rishan dropped to his knees with a thud.

"That's an order." Zhang Qishan's tone was unusually cold and hard. "I don't want to live like a monster."

"Fo Ye, give me some time. There must be another way, there must be. Right, Zhang Qiling, and that Mr. Yu. I'll have someone look into their whereabouts right away." Zhang Rishan seemed to have thought of something, and hope rose in his eyes.

"Sansheng, go home for now. Don't feel guilty. It's time for me to die anyway." Zhang Qishan spoke with great composure, but his eyes were full of unwillingness and fear.

"Yes, Fo Ye." Wu Sansheng bowed respectfully and walked out. Standing outside the Zhang residence's main gate, he looked at the street ahead, where the lively cries of vendors on both sides rang out without end. But at that moment, he was wondering: after the way the Nine Gates had treated Zhang Qiling, what made them think that man would save him?

His eyes were full of thought. Fo Ye was near the end, and "its" counterattack was bound to be fierce. He was still turning over that plan in his mind. What on earth should he do?!

"Third Brother, what did you call me here for? You were in such a hurry, like your ass was on fire." Xie Lianhuan had been checking the accounts at his shop when Pangzi dragged him over.

"Lianhuan, Fo Ye is near the end. We need to think about the plan." Wu Sansheng's tone was graver than it had ever been.

"What? Didn't the Longevity Pill work?"

"The Longevity Pill was fake. Fo Ye has already mutated."

"Fake? So many of us died, and Xiao Yu is gone too, and what we brought back was fake? Then Xiao Yu, didn't Xiao Yu die for nothing?!" Xie Lianhuan had never been able to let go of Qi Yu's death.

"Fo Ye is about to turn into a monster. He doesn't have long. 'It' will definitely use this opportunity to cripple the Nine Gates."

"Then what do we do?" Xie Lianhuan grew anxious too. His Xie Family had already begun to go legitimate. It hadn't been easy to build it up to its present size, and he couldn't let it be ruined in his hands.

"First, find out about Zhang Qiling and Mr. Yu. See if they have any way to help. Hopefully Zhang Qiling doesn't remember being imprisoned in the sanatorium, but the chances of that are very slim. I'm sure it was Mr. Yu who brought Zhang Qiling out of the sanatorium without anyone noticing."

Although Wu Sansheng sympathized with what had happened to Zhang Qiling, once Fo Ye died, pulling one hair would move the whole body. If only Fo Ye could last until his plan was complete and put into motion!

"All right, I'll send people to ask around immediately. If we can find Hei Xiazi, we can definitely find Zhang Qiling. I'll handle this."

Unknown person (someone who hasn't shown their face yet): "Go find out where Zhang Qiling is. Don't alert him, and keep me informed of his movements."

"Yes!"

For a time, winds rose and clouds surged as forces from all sides converged!