Chapter 14: Short-Lived Ghost

Shaowei's eyes still held undried tears; she turned her face to look at her mother and spoke word by word:

"You gave me a life, and I have already returned it to you."

"I permitted you to kill me once; you failed to kill me — that is your own uselessness — but I will never let you kill me a second time."

As Shaowei's words fell, she raised her hand and forcefully tore off the wooden pendant tied around her neck; on it were her Eight Characters of Birth, carved by her Mother with her own hands.

The pendant's knot traced an arc through the air and smashed onto the ground, emitting only a very faint sound; along with this slight sound, the blood-soaked Shaowei dropped one final short yet stubbornly decisive sentence:

"Today it is I who do not want Mother."

She was not a pitiful worm who had been abandoned; it was she who no longer wanted her mother, and she was the one who made the choice.

Feng Zhu's body stiffened, her wailing cry suddenly ceasing.

Her mind torn apart, unknown how much time passed, Feng Zhu suddenly lifted her head, blankly staring at the now-empty chamber, and abruptly let out a terrified scream.

As the world spun, Feng Zhu scrambled to her feet in panic to go outside, but her strength gave out and she fell heavily to her knees; so she crawled outward on hands and knees, yet under the impact of all that immense pain she ultimately could not hold on past the doorway and completely collapsed into unconsciousness.

Shaowei had not gone far.

She held a long bow and arrows, standing in a deserted spot, silently guarding that stone house.

Tilting her face to watch the gray Divine Sky, Shaowei wondered: if all this truly was an Illusion, would the Ling Family Army still appear as expected?

The commotion in the Zhai soon gave Shaowei her answer.

Mountain Bandits successively ran here to report to Qin Fu; they first saw Hu Wu dead from arrows, then the heavily injured woman collapsed on the ground with life and death unknown, and finally Qin Fu with flesh and blood shattered... the panicked bandits became even more panicked.

Before long, the Zhai grew even more chaotic; several women and a group of children large and small screamed and fled here, seeking the protection of the most powerful person in the entire mountain stronghold — Qin Fu — and thus they also witnessed Qin Fu's miserable death, then scattered in fright once more.

The several men Qin Fu had previously sent out to secretly monitor the Ling Family Army's movements had all fallen into the Ling Family Army's hands; with them guiding the way, the Ling Family Army swiftly surrounded Tianlang Zhai.

Just like the scene in Shaowei's memory, the sky had already darkened yet snowlight remained; sounds of slaughter and wailing tore the torchlight's shadows into distorted shapes, fresh blood melting concave patches in the accumulated snow, so that the blood seemed to be welling up from underground.

A squad of soldiers charged here, stepping over several Mountain Bandit corpses, carrying torches into the stone house.

Shaowei hid in the dark, once again seeing that undefeated Marquis Ling Ke.

He strode into the house.

Shaowei concentrated, listening carefully to distinguish sounds; a soldier let out a cry of alarm: "Generalissimo, this, this is..."

The corpses lying horizontally inside the room alone were not enough to provoke such a reaction from battle-hardened soldiers.

Accompanied by a wave of commotion and Ling Ke's calm, authoritative shout to halt, Shaowei knew Ling Ke had certainly already seen what she had left behind.

After another moment, amid swaying figures and flickering light, Ling Ke walked out with a grave expression; his cloak covered Feng Zhu just like last time, but this time Feng Zhu survived.

No one knew what kind of life-and-death transformation this was, except Shaowei.

Ling Ke cradled Feng Zhu covered by the cloak in his arms, his face solemn as he ordered the soldiers to guard this place well.

Watching Ling Ke stride away, Shaowei held back her tears, turned, and ran into the darkness.

Shaowei knew there was a gap concealed by debris at the base of the wall on the right-rear side of the mountain stronghold; crawling out through this gap, there was a hidden small path leading down the mountain.

This gap was precisely what Shaowei had secretly chiseled out over multiple times; only recently had she finally chiseled it large enough for a person to pass through; she planned to wait until she found a foolproof opportunity, then bring Mother and escape from here — she had already scouted the route in advance.

But now Mother no longer needed to flee in such a wretched, risky manner; she could leave openly and honorably.

Shaowei crawled out of the cave, covered head to body in snow.

Outside the cave mouth was already nearing the rear cliff; weeds and mountain stones lay in disorder, creating a natural blind spot in the line of sight. Circling around from the front of the stronghold would require climbing over those chaotic stone obstacles, so the Ling Family Army had not yet noticed this place, and likely would not pay attention to it.

This was also precisely one of the reasons Shaowei chose to dig the cave here.

Therefore Shaowei really could not understand: when she crawled out of the cave mouth and straightened up, how she still saw a meddling figure approaching this place.

That figure's build was between a child's and a youth's; the next moment, he also discovered Shaowei.

Taking advantage of his not yet having time to react, Shaowei had already lunged at him explosively.

In Shaowei's eyes at this moment, this person was no different from a Wild Dog blocking the way.

She splashed through the accumulated snow and charged over, her movements still terrifyingly swift and fierce; as she tackled him down, a threatening fist had already struck his face, making him grunt dully and turn his head to the side.

"Shut up, don't block the way! Otherwise I'll kill you!" Shaowei warned viciously.

One hand covered his mouth, the other still gripping that long bow, now pressed against his neck.

Under Shaowei's pressure, the boy forcibly turned his face back somewhat, looking at Shaowei; his widened eyes held no fear, only shock and bewilderment.

Four eyes met; seeing his face clearly, Shaowei suddenly froze.

Liu Qi?

No mistake, it was him.

He had once brought Shaowei back to Chang'an together with his maternal uncle Ling Ke; Shaowei naturally recognized him at this age.

The current Liu Qi clearly did not recognize Shaowei; he stared wide-eyed at this girl who had suddenly appeared, without a word knocked him down into the snow and gave him a vicious punch, pinned him down kneeling on him, and threatened "otherwise I'll kill you."

Her face was smeared with a good deal of blood, disheveled hair wetted by snow, a few strands hanging beside his face; the two were separated by mere inches, and under the reflection of the snowlight he could even see her overly dark, bright pupils soaked in icy tears — that seemed to reveal a fragility she had not yet had time to clean away.

Liu Qi saw his own reflection in those moist eyes.

That reflection, however, underwent a transformation in Shaowei's imagination: she saw the Liu Qi who had begged her for death in the moonlit Mountain Forest.

The images and sounds that invaded her mind after death could prove the person she met in the Mountain Forest was indeed Cangwu Commandery King Liu Qi; moreover, after she killed him, she had already been awakened to some memories by that Three-foot Sword — Liu Qi had carried that sword from very early on, and on the road back to Chang'an she had seen it more than once.

For Shaowei, everything in the Mountain Forest before death was merely something that happened just last night.

She now threatened Liu Qi with "otherwise I'll kill you," not knowing she had already killed him once, had just killed him once.

And after killing him, Shaowei likewise did not survive more than a few hours; no one's life was longer than the other's.

Large flakes of snow still fell, the vast snow curtain seemingly isolating the already weakening sounds of slaughter not far away, circling this place into a void realm forgotten by time.

One Heaven and Earth, two short-lived ghosts, three inches of snow ground, four eyes watching at close range.

"Sixth Young Master!"

A startled shout accompanied by footsteps and the sound of drawing swords broke this brief stagnant void.

: Finally reached the content mentioned in the synopsis (but I guess everyone probably didn't read the synopsis before hh)

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(Chapter End)