Chapter 121

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Protagonist:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

Yu Si Wu trembled, closing her eyes.

This injured, maddened Wu Nu was named A Zhou, one of the Wu Zhe who entered the capital three years ago. She was experienced in her work, never vied for prominence, and though unambitious and unremarkable, she had a gentle and compliant nature.

For this reason, seeing the Flower Fox temporarily change teams to accompany this person during the day had put her at ease.

Who could have known such a thing would happen!

A Zhou was badly injured and had been examined; the wound was a blade wound. She claimed to have seen an Evil Spirit, which extended a hand to form a blade edge that injured her, then swept away the Flower Fox like black mist in an instant.

Wu Zhe entered the tomb chamber to drive away Evil Spirits, yet ended up with one injured and one missing...

She had done her best to control the spread of this matter, but there had been guards and craftsmen present at the time, so it was destined not to stay hidden, and besides, it could not be hidden, especially when facing...

Yu Si Wu had people watch over the seemingly frightened-mad A Zhou, while she herself went to request an audience with the Taichang Temple Minister.

Two Wu Zhe encountered misfortune while driving away Nuo; the Taichang Temple Minister had already heard of this matter, but never expected: "You mean... the one missing is actually that Flower Fox?!"

Yu Si Wu's face turned pale as she nodded.

Yes, it just had to be the Flower Fox...

She wished the missing person were herself.

"People have been sent to search inside and out, yet to this day no trace has been found." Yu Si Wu's tone still could not hide her anxiety: "I beg the Minister to assign more manpower, or report to the Holy One..."

"Impossible!" The Taichang Temple Minister interrupted her, pacing within the room as he said: "All say it is the work of Evil Spirits... His Majesty is currently vexed, and it is not good to pour oil on the fire."

He stopped his steps, lowered his voice, with a worried expression: "Just now a military report arrived; a battle was lost in the north... Some ministers advised His Majesty to cease war and withdraw troops. How could His Majesty endure such humiliation? He is arguing about it now. I absolutely dare not touch this great misfortune over such a matter."

Yu Si Wu's face had turned white to near transparency: "But if the Flower Fox cannot be found, the Great Sacrifice tomorrow night..."

"His Majesty never said the Flower Fox must serve as the Great Wu Nu." The Taichang Temple Minister said: "I merely saw that His Majesty did not reject the Flower Fox, so I specially arranged for you... This: you first go arrange a replacement for the Flower Fox for tomorrow night. As for her disappearance and this talk of Evil Spirits, wait until the situation on His Majesty's side eases somewhat, and I will report it immediately."

The Great Sacrifice was a state rite; it could not be suspended because one or two Wu Nu went missing.

"The person must still be found. I will send people to continue searching for her whereabouts; we must prepare for both possibilities..." The Taichang Temple Minister felt a splitting headache, muttering: "This Flower Fox, truly..."

First she gave him a headache, then she gave him a surprise, and now she brought an even more deadly headache... This head of his had truly been tossed about and played with by her no little amount.

The Taichang Temple Minister sat back down holding his head with both hands, trembling as he sighed: "In any case, let's first arrange the matters of the Great Sacrifice..."

Yu Si Wu had no choice but to withdraw, going about the various arrangements in a daze.

The Zi hour had passed. After Yu Si Wu arranged everything and went to inquire if there was any news of the Flower Fox, receiving a negative answer, she still would not give up, intending to go see the imprisoned A Zhou again.

Yet when she arrived at that house, she saw the two burly male Wu guarding it had fallen asleep outside the house.

"Good-for-nothing!" Yu Si Wu cursed loudly, striding forward to push the door, only to find the room was suddenly empty.

A Zhou, who should have been locked in the room, now stood in a deserted place in the black night, grabbing the youth's sleeve and urging: "Mo Lian, let's leave quickly!"

The other shook his head: "Not yet."

"He still hasn't given you the antidote?" A Zhou asked in astonishment: "Didn't you say that as long as you helped him accomplish this matter, he would give you the antidote and let you leave?"

She and Mo Lian had grown up together; she was two years older than him, but he always took care of her, and once saved her life in a flood. The two were childhood sweethearts with deep affection, until four years ago, when Mo Lian's family suddenly met with disaster and was exterminated overnight...

She had thought Mo Lian was also dead, until she, as a Wu Zhe, was selected to enter the capital, and saw him again, and he had actually become a Disciple by the Red Yang Immortal Master's side, changing his name to Shunzhen.

In recent years, she learned that Mo Lian had been poisoned with a deadly poison and was controlled by someone. She had originally guessed the poisoner was the Immortal Master, but Mo Lian denied it, only saying that person had great power and influence, and it could not be spoken of.

Half a month ago, Mo Lian secretly contacted her, asking her to help him do one thing, saying only that once this matter was done, that person would give him the antidote, and he could take her away together.

She did not like Chang'an at all. Being selected to enter the capital was not her wish. Being able to leave with her beloved, she naturally could not ask for more.

Although she had to harm someone for this, she also felt reluctant, but she wanted to save Mo Lian. Compared to unfamiliar people, she naturally wanted to protect those she cared about. And she owed Mo Lian a life. She told herself this was only human nature...

But why could they still not leave now?

A Zhou became somewhat anxious: "Right now, only because things happened suddenly, and with the talk of Evil Spirits as a cover, am I merely temporarily locked up... After the Shangsi Festival passes, they will surely interrogate strictly. Once exposed, I fear we won't be able to leave!"

"I know, A Zhou. I won't let you be taken away for interrogation." Shunzhen's tone was gentle: "I will first send you away."

"What about you?"

"I still have some matters to attend to." In the darkness, Shunzhen's voice grew softer: "After I finish them, I will immediately go find you... to make amends."

A Zhou suddenly retreated two steps, her foot stepping on grass, making a faint sound.

The surroundings soon returned to complete silence.

In this tomb chamber beneath the silence, there was an even more unfathomable silence.

In the pitch blackness, a bloody shadow walked out, stumbling and kneeling on the cold tomb bricks, like a true ghostly creature.

By now, Shaowei herself could not remember how many hours it had taken to break through the tomb chambers' anti-theft mechanisms, nor how many times she had been injured, nor how many times she had brushed with death.

The unique power in the world, the five senses that could clearly distinguish everything in the darkness, the lightness skill learned from the First Swordsman, the life-saving experience accumulated in slaughter, the blood-stopping pills carried on her person, the soft armor for protecting the heart made by Mo Li with materials stolen by the house slave, the calm fearlessness in summarizing the mechanism patterns with every step and every injury... Without even one of these, it would be absolutely impossible to survive and break through to here.

And when a person is under extreme tension, they produce a misunderstanding, as if as long as they break through the perilous dead end before them, they can see the path to life.

But the fact was not so.

This should be the outer edge of the underground tomb chamber. Faintly, only a few intersecting tomb passages could be seen. There were no longer tomb traps, hidden arrows, poison needles, poison smoke, or other mechanisms of extreme lethality. All sounds disappeared, leaving only endless deathly silence and darkness.

When dealing with mechanisms, there was no time to think too much, no chance to be distracted. Now that she had stopped, immersed in this boundless deathly silence and cold, it was as if she had already fallen into hell.

The body's sensations were also like being in hell. The blood from wounds everywhere could not possibly be completely stopped, and blood was seeping from her mouth. To delay the inhaled poison smoke from seeping into the organs, she had sealed several acupoints. But in the process of resisting the mechanisms, she inevitably exerted all her strength, conflicting with the sealed acupoints, causing her blood qi circulation to become chaotic.

Her physical strength was nearly exhausted, and her five senses and perception had become extremely weak.

The mask had been removed and hung at her waist, now also covered in blood.

Her blood-stained hands propped on the cold stone bricks. Only her head could still be raised, blankly scanning the surroundings.

She had used all her ability and exerted all her strength to break through the lethal mechanisms, yet it was useless. She simply could not escape this sealed underground tomb.

Every one of these tomb passages before her led to even more twisting, even deeper reaches — which one should she choose? Once inside, she might trigger new mechanisms, and she no longer had the strength to resist; or she might walk into those maze-like tomb chambers, until exhaustion claimed her life.

Amid the chaotic surging of qi and blood, her head buzzed, leaving only a single voice: Chi Yang's methods were meticulous; since he had calculated to this extent, he would not leave her any chance of survival. From the moment that flash of guilt and negligence arose, from the moment she committed that mistake, she was doomed to die — further struggle could not change it, would only make it more painful, more wretched.

The instant this thought arose, her body could support itself no longer, and she toppled sideways with a sudden crash.

Her head struck the stone bricks; her eyes, bloodshot from exhaustion, did not so much as tremble — only a numb despair remained, and beneath that despair, a loathing of herself.

The tomb bricks carried years of damp cold, even corpse qi, which burrowed into that frail body, quickly triggering the lingering cold ailment within her.

This flare-up of the cold ailment reached a degree nearly the same as what she had experienced before meeting Jiang Fu — her blood froze, her bones seemed to shatter.

Yet Shaowei did not feel anger as before; she even gave up resistance.

Shaowei closed her eyes, and those painful old scenes surged forth again — Qin Fu, the Feng Family, Mother… mockery, rejection, killing intent, spurning.

And into those scenes now blended a stroke of black robe — that black robe was Chi Yang, whose face she had not even been able to see clearly; he pressed down like a great mountain, making her see the vast disparity between them, her own overestimation of her strength and weakness.

She simply was not as formidable as she had imagined herself to be.

What extraordinary talent, what unwavering resolve, what fearlessness of heaven and earth — in truth, before this she had merely never truly stepped before others, so naturally she had never had the chance to expose her incompetence.

The last time she abandoned herself, it was because Mother rejected her first — how severe was Mother's rejection? Ever since she had memory, everything revolved around Mother; willingly letting Qin Fu draw her blood, striving in martial arts — all to protect Mother; her greatest aspiration was to take Mother and flee.

So when Mother rejected her, she collapsed at a single blow — because she had never acknowledged her own existence; once Mother denied her, she thoroughly should not exist.

Beneath excessive self-regard and pride lay a hidden evasion — she said she wanted to be a wandering knight, but in essence it was only a wish to cast everything aside and hide far away; she feared facing Mother's denial again.

Therefore that night when she secretly went to see Mother, heard those denying words, she broke down weeping, and weeping blamed Jiang Fu for bringing her to Chang'an, for making her face such denial.

She always blamed others.

Most of the time, she was pushed along by events, unable to choose for herself, so there was always someone to blame — even her filthy origin could be blamed entirely on Qin Fu.

But this time was different; she knew clearly that coming to Chang'an this time was entirely her own choice; only she could bear responsibility for it, so she utterly could not accept that she had made such a blunder.

In the absolute situation of utter exhaustion, under intense self-judgment, she had already concluded she was weak, useless, stupid, self-inflicted — her self-righteous pride and unyielding backbone were all shattered, so even anger seemed groundless.

And because of extreme self-debasement, she began to infinitely magnify the enemy's brilliance and terror.

Her body trembled violently from pain, yet Shaowei no longer wished to open her eyes.

The cold gnawed at her bit by bit, from limbs to viscera, all gnawed into ice shards; only in her heart remained a last spark of anger, like a star.

That was probably the Infant's Anger Jiang Fu had spoken of.

Jiang Fu said: an infant is born with three emotions — one is anger, two is fear, three is love.

Jiang Fu…

Amid the chaos, Shaowei thought of this name, and in a trance seemed to return to that world of ice and snow — soaked, ragged, she was slung by Jiang Fu across an ox's back, heading toward the unknown.

Shaowei's blood-stained fingers twitched slightly.

Just as then, when Jiang Fu took her bloodied hand and rotated the Heavenly Guideline on the Star Disk.

The Heavenly Guideline turned, resonating as if with heaven and earth, stirring the qi mechanism, stirring a soundless wind.

At this moment, Shaowei distantly felt a wisp of cold wind blow in; that wind pierced through her body, swept across her Heart Platform, and the last remaining wisp of heart-fire flickered unsteadily, ready to be extinguished in the wind at any moment.

Shaowei caught a very vague idea — when reading history, she had once read of a rumored secret art that could bring the dead back to life, recreate living beings, named: Gather Bones, Blow Soul.

It was to gather the corpse bones for the dead, then use wind to retrieve the soul and blow it back into the body.

At that time, Jiang Fu had once smiled and said to her: "Little ghost, I merely gathered these remnant bones for you; the soul-blowing art you must perform yourself. Only when you have gathered all the soul fragments does it count as rebirth."

The Infant's Anger struggled in this wisp of soul-blowing wind.

What Shaowei thought in her trance was: she had been bullied and threatened by Chi Yang once, and no longer wanted to live — then what manner of torture must Jiang Fu be enduring right now? One fears he cannot even seek death.

And if she died just like this, Chi Yang would no longer need to use Jiang Fu as bait — then what fate would befall Jiang Fu?!

As this thought arose, the infant's fear and love were born alongside it, bringing forth the most primal fear and love; wind howled within her body, Shaowei struggled to open her eyes, tried to crawl up, yet fell again.

The wind did not cease, sweeping up the shattered pride within her body, drifting and floating, together with fear and love, all drifting above that cluster of feeble firelight — and every bit became fuel for anger.

In the darkness, the young woman slowly recovered her rightful anger; she crawled up bit by bit, swaying unsteadily, and at her ear was Jiang Fu's words: "Little ghost, you need not force yourself to walk alongside those forty-nine strands of heavenly mandate; you need only grasp this one variable."

So it was — beyond the Heavenly Way there is still one variable; how can a person truly have a scheme that leaves nothing uncalculated?

Chi Yang is not a god; he is merely pretending to be one — why should she conclude he is invincible?

She had agreed with the household servant: wherever she walked counted; if she only lay here waiting for death, submitting beneath Chi Yang's fabricated vast shadow — that would be true weakness, uselessness, stupidity, so humiliating that even after death she would have no face to think of becoming an evil ghost, could only be a cowardly, incompetent ghost… that would be even more unforgivable!

Shaowei stood up, gazing at the endless darkness, as if addressing that unseen great mountain, and as if addressing the self that tried to destroy itself, she said loudly: "I am not afraid of you!"

Echoes rippled through the surroundings, yet only the final two words "afraid of you" repeated and lingered; Shaowei choked with rage, and shouted even louder: "I am not afraid!"

Stirring the qi mechanism within her so, qi and blood surged violently; Shaowei suddenly pitched forward and vomited a great mouthful of blood.

This mouthful of blood expelled, yet made her feel countless heart demons and cold qi depart her body together; her chest gradually cleared, the mist shrouding her Heart Platform dispersed, and in an instant a tree grew — nurtured by flesh and blood, absolutely unyielding — a tree of loyalty.

That loyalty was to herself.

Those kings, marquises, generals, and ministers — would they also, because of a single oversight, reject themselves to the point of stopping here and awaiting death with bound hands?

Tears, blood beads, and cold sweat rolled down from her jaw together; the young woman raised her head, chose to temporarily pardon her own mistake, on the premise of walking out.

She finally took out the fire stick she carried, pulled off the cap, brought it to her mouth, and blew gently — a spark of firelight ignited.

This fire stick was made by Mo Li teaching Shaowei; inside it was stuffed mugwort wool, mixed with charcoal powder for lasting fuel, and pine resin to increase the flame — it burned not only bright enough, but could be reused more than ten times, sufficient for her to go on.

And just before stepping forward, Shaowei suddenly seemed to sense something and held her breath.

The flame burning above the fire stick tilted slightly toward her direction.

As she stopped breathing, that tilted arc became even more stable.

Shaowei's eyes shook; she looked straight ahead.

That wisp of wind she had sensed in her daze just now — was not an illusion.

Where wind enters, there must be a Life Gate!

Shaowei only excels at observing stars, not at divining hexagrams, but at this moment this cluster of firelight is the best hexagram text.

First ignite the Heart Platform fire, then ignite the fire in hand — a person with fire has a chance to live.

Shaowei dragged her injured body, one hand hauling up that iron sword she had casually picked up as a burial object, one hand holding the fire, probing forward.

?? (Shaowei: I'm so useless, might as well die.

? Next second, thinking of how pitiful Master is, urgently withdraw an Underworld slot.)

? This time, what Shaowei must overcome is her own pride that hasn't undergone many trials; people always make mistakes, let alone a novice. If she completely negates herself because of a mistake, she can only stop here. This "mistake" doesn't count as a true mistake in the real sense, but it concerns life and death, and can be used to establish a stable frustration quotient. Before, Shaowei's willpower was mostly innate and naturally grown, but starting from this shout, it is a powerful will grown by breaking free of flesh and blood herself. Only determination that has wavered and then firmed again is one's own belief.

? As for why her defenses broke, everything before was Shaowei's passive choice; her courage was the natural order of soldiers blocking, earth covering against water. This time it's a road she chose herself (coming to the Capital City, saving Master), and subconsciously she had to bear all responsibility. When an absolute situation occurred, she could only shoulder the blame herself, so both pride and confidence were crushed.

? Before, when Mother made her pride suffer setbacks, she would flee (protecting Mother is another matter, only discussing the pride issue)

? This time she can't escape, can only face it head-on, be completely ground down or shattered and reforged; Shaowei went from the former to the latter.

? (Stated at the opening: the protagonist isn't a born calm, wise, infallible, never-mistaken big female lead. Shaowei has her own growth arc; some things others can help her with, some she must comprehend herself. Remember a senior saying, a story telling one thing well is enough, can't be greedy. So I think this story tells "love" — people who grow and are reforged because of love, matters of cleaving mountains and severing seas because of love — won't be too complex ^_^)