Chapter 181: A Sunny Day Chapter 158: One Life for Another

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Shaowei

Liu Qi

Anyone sent to the Xiuyi Prison for trial was usually involved in a major case, and harsh interrogation was unavoidable.

But since the purposes of interrogation differed, the methods used also differed.

If the goal was to extract the location of a secret, and the prisoner still refused to confess after successive rounds of severe torture, the rhythm of subsequent interrogation had to change, taking into account the prisoner's physical limits of endurance and recovery; otherwise, life would be lost before the mouth was pried open.

Of the assassins captured alive earlier in Nanshan, more than half were injured, and most had died from being unable to endure consecutive heavy torture. Those still breathing could endure severe torture at most once every three days; at other times they could only be questioned verbally with threats. Yet these trained death warriors, despite being weak in both body and will, still refused to reveal the true mastermind behind them, or kept pitifully claiming they knew nothing at all, leaving He Pingchun feeling both anxious and vexed.

The person behind these death warriors must be thoroughly investigated and handled with due caution.

And Chi Yang harming children—this evil art might conceal a plot to bring disaster upon the nation. The Emperor was furious, the court was in an uproar, and the interrogation of Chi Yang by the Xiuyi Guards could not be the slightest bit careless.

Chi Yang was ill, his constitution never strong. After being bound to the torture rack and barely enduring two rounds of heavy torture, he spent most of his time in a coma; when he regained a little consciousness, he either recited the Heart Sutra or spoke of immortal arts.

In the small, dim prison cell, a mud platform was built against the wall. A Taoist with a head full of snow-white hair hanging loose sat on the mud platform, unable to close his eyes, leaning against the wall, his hands hanging at his sides still forming hand seals, murmuring the Heart Sutra under his breath. At first glance, he resembled a statue of a Holy Person fallen into a bloody mud pit.

"Dust does not stain, worldly appearance does not taint... Heaven and Earth are boundless, all things are one..."

"... My righteousness is awe-inspiring, ghosts and spirits are all startled..."

A girl dressed in green witchcraft attire stood in the prison cell filled with low recitation, expressionlessly asking the reciter: "Reciting the Heart Sutra to ease the pain of the body—does it hurt very much?"

"Yes, it hurts so much, more than when testing medicine..." Chi Yang stopped reciting, still not opening his eyes, his words hazy and muddled: "So that's why I want to see the Great Witch God."

The girl's sharp gaze scrutinized him, and told him: "The illness in your body has long been at its end. If you go without medicine for more than half a month, life will be worse than death. At most within a month, the sickness will enter the marrow, medicine and stone will be of no use, death is certain."

Someone from the Taiyi Shu had come here; this was privately told to Hua Li by the Spider Woman.

Chi Yang's illness required medicine to be taken on time. Previously, Shunzhen had attended to his medicine; after Shunzhen disappeared, Song Ya, whose movements were hard to track, had secretly traveled back and forth to Lingxing Terrace. But now Chi Yang was trapped in prison, heavily guarded, with food and water inspected layer by layer. He had been forced to go without medicine for more than ten days.

Just two or three more days, and even without further torture, he would suffer bone-piercing pain.

And at most within a full month, whether he could escape or not, all that awaited him was a dead end.

"Yes, so that's why I want to see the Great Witch God..." Chi Yang repeated these words in a low voice.

Hearing this, Hua Li had completely gained the upper hand in the negotiation, but Chi Yang did not rush to beg for mercy. Instead, he said: "My time is short, so is hers... If I die, her life no longer has any reason to be preserved..."

A faint smile, like mockery, like joy, touched the corner of his pale mouth smeared with blood. He sighed softly: "Wonderful, Shixiong shares life and death with me."

Shaowei asked in a restrained and straightforward tone: "Where is she?"

Chi Yang finally opened his eyes. He looked at the girl before him, who was like a signless stubborn stone, and a smile slowly appeared in his pale, light-colored pupils.

This eerie smile made Shaowei's spine tremble slightly. A thought she had had recently surfaced again: successfully capturing him might not be the end, but perhaps the beginning of another hateful and unsettling ordeal.

No ripple showed on the surface. Shaowei asked again: "Where is she?"

She only wanted to get to the point, but Chi Yang did not answer; instead he asked: "Why must you insist on finding her..."

Their eyes met. Chi Yang's expression gradually turned pitying: "To this day, haven't you realized yet? Everything she did, finding you and saving you, was only to use you."

"Your life-and-death encounters all along this way, the injuries you suffered, the blood you shed—all because of her, all thanks to her..."

Chi Yang's voice grew lower, audible only to the two of them. In this wretched, dim place, he casually revealed the heavenly secret countless people had painstakingly sought: "What she cares about is only the two words 'heavenly secret,' never you yourself."

"She is so hypocritical, never sincere. She made you a blade, not caring at all about your life or death, yet you risked your life to find her..."

Chi Yang's eyes were full of pity and sorrow as he looked at the girl standing motionless.

In the dimness, her gaze gathered again, her pupils pitch black. She spoke in a firm voice: "So what? I long knew she was no kind-hearted do-gooder."

From the very beginning of their acquaintance, she had demanded blood as payment.

And when she was confused and unclear, unable to fully understand human nature, she had already seen through Jiang Fu's pitiful yet cruel true nature.

Besides, in daily life she was also cunning and hateful, full of lies, and even when leaving, she deceived her, saying she was going to buy wine.

But so what?

So what if she was hypocritical, so what if she lied, so what if her motive was to use her? She now understood human nature, considered herself decent at being human, considered herself capable of seeing through hypocrisy and lies and discerning whether there was sincerity behind being used. Why should an enemy be the one to instruct her on how to distinguish and treat them?

And that one inch of pure and holy essence in her heart had no need to be produced to prove anything to a dirty person. Shaowei only spoke plainly: "I saved her because I wanted to save her. I wanted to save her, so I saved her. It doesn't matter what kind of person she is."

Chi Yang looked into those dark, lustrous eyes and saw only hatred and contempt within, like a blade cutting toward him: "You yourself repaid kindness with betrayal, and still want to drag me along with you, to become someone like you... You don't even pull off being a traitor with panache. So base, truly laughable."

Perhaps due to physical weakness, his teeth began to tremble slightly. Amid the trembling, Chi Yang laughed, repeating the girl's words: "Repaid kindness with betrayal, traitor, hahaha..."

This was probably the first time since leaving his sect that he had laughed out loud in front of others. His back left the wall, both hands propped before him, hunched over, he looked up at the girl: "You really are impressive. It seems you know quite a bit of old matters... but still not enough, far from enough. Let me tell you instead: between her and me, she owed me first!"

His voice grew louder, as if to confirm the root of this bond, and he said in a tone of self-evident rightness: "So Shixiong should rightfully bear the so-called evil that the world speaks of me. She is now atoning for me... This is what she deserves, and she has never once complained! And you, an outsider, what business is it of you? What right do you have to interfere?"

Shaowei stepped forward toward him, saying in a low voice: "When did I ever interfere in your and her affairs? Are you deaf? I just said, saving her is my own business, unrelated to her, and even more unrelated to your so-called cause-and-effect grudges between you—it's you who couldn't kill me and instead became a defeated subordinate. That's your own incompetence. What right do you have to blame me for meddling?"

Stopping before the mud platform, Shaowei's voice was firm as stone: "As for whether I am her outsider, that's not for a traitor and defeated general like you to decide. On the contrary, you, an outsider ten thousand li away from her, are no longer qualified to call her Shixiong."

"What an outsider ten thousand li away..." Chi Yang laughed again, his reddened eyes full of stubbornness: "But when I met her, you hadn't even been born yet. What do you know? You only need to remember: she can never repay what she owes me. As long as she owes me, even if she becomes a ghost in the future, she can never get rid of me!"

There were only two people in the prison cell.

The Great Witch God had come this time to interrogate the demonic Taoist, but the content of the interrogation was different—

This special interrogation conversation must not be leaked, but if no one from the Court was present, it would also arouse suspicion. Therefore Liu Qi came along and personally stood guard outside the prison cell door.

Martial artists had keen hearing, and some of the conversation inside inevitably reached Liu Qi's ears.

At this moment he turned his head, looking through the gaps in the bars of the tightly closed prison door.

He stood guard in the shadows outside the door. Due to the angle, he could see the situation inside the room, but those inside could not see him.

At this moment he only saw two shadows facing each other, one sitting and one standing, each with their own anger and stubbornness. Those who had repeatedly fought to the death were now in this prison, and at this moment such a strange dispute was taking place—fighting over one person, over who came first or later, near or distant.

When he found Que Er, Liu Qi already knew that the person being painstakingly sought was a woman, the Female Monarch described by her as having immortal grace and elegant bearing.

Now hearing Chi Yang's words and titles, the identity of this Female Monarch was about to be revealed... Such a marvelous and unparalleled extraordinary person, even the various loves and hatreds she attracted were intense and strange beyond compare.

But closeness and distance between insiders and outsiders—where was the need to fight over it? In the eyes of this true outsider, one wanting her dead, one wanting her alive, only she, who insisted all the way, was the Female Monarch's rightful close family. This answer was beyond doubt.

Liu Qi's gaze only fell on that upright shadow; she evidently believed just as firmly, steadfast as bedrock.

She was bedrock; that weak, trembling person was like a wicked fire.

This mass of fire could not burn down the stubborn stone; Shaowei did not waver in the slightest regarding what she had determined, but her patience was scorched away, and from the moment she stepped into this place she had been striving to keep calm — this was to observe Chiyang's attitude and reaction, attempting to capture clues from his words.

But every word of Chiyang's made her feel loathing, as if it were a defilement of Jiang Fu.

Unwilling to be his listener on the road to the end any longer, simply listening to him speak these disgusting and utterly useless arguments, Shaowei suppressed her emotions and directly played her biggest chip.

"Cut the nonsense." She stared at Chiyang, concise and to the point: "One life for one life."

Chiyang's morbid obstinacy still frozen on his face; hearing her non-negotiable negotiation, he seemed to react for a moment, then his gaze flowed anew, and he said in a slow voice: "Life for life, that is very fair... I agree."

This agreement was too readily given; Shaowei could not help but remain suspicious, yet hope still rose uncontrollably in her heart; she did not let the hope show, only stared fixedly at Chiyang.

Under her gaze, Chiyang urged softly: "Make your move."

"With your life, exchange for her life..." He spoke slowly: "You die, she lives, I agreed."

The next moment, a hand clamped onto his throat without warning; he was knocked backward by that tremendous force, his back forced against the damp wall.

"What, the Witch God reluctant to part with this life?" Chiyang's voice was hoarse and labored, yet still could not hide his mockery: "It seems my Shixiong isn't that important after all..."

Shaowei exerted utmost control over the strength in her hand, her eyes flickering between light and dark, yet she asked him: "No, I simply do not know how to trust you; if I die, how would I know whether you will keep your promise?"

She said: "I must at least see her first, confirm she is still alive, before I can consider your proposal."

"To see her, that is very simple, she is right..." Chiyang breathed with difficulty, yet his voice paused just right, then he laughed and said: "Seeing her is very simple, but without me to guide the way, I fear you would find it very hard to find her before she dies..."

"I can let you see her first... but you must show some sincerity." His gaze shifted upward, carrying appreciation: "These eyes are both spirited and imposing; gouge one out to express sincerity..."

Shaowei looked at this person before her, already covered in blood and ruined, yet still looking down on and bullying her, and asked in a steady voice: "Just one, is that enough?"

Chiyang answered magnanimously: "Must leave one, to go see her..."

The end of his words had not yet faded when a miserable scream suddenly erupted from his throttled throat—

With one hand Shaowei pinned his neck, the other hand gripping horizontally the short knife drawn from her sleeve; that short knife was backhandedly stabbed obliquely into Chiyang's eye socket on one side, then pried and pulled out, fresh blood splattering onto the wall.

The immense pain made Chiyang scream incessantly; his whole body struggled with all his might, yet still could not overcome the girl's suppression of strength.

Looking at the person struggling beneath her hands, and his face covered in blood, Shaowei suddenly leaned forward, single knee kneeling onto the mud bed, one hand still throttling the prey's throat, the other hand's dagger pressing against his chest.

Today gouge an eye, tomorrow sever both arms; she captured prey, was it to dismember herself before the prey?

Wrong; she wanted to teach him how to be a prey.

Black shadow and sense of oppression together enveloped Chiyang; across a layer of crimson, the girl's untamed ferocity was fully revealed in her eyes.

"Pain is good for clarity, so you can recognize your situation." She spoke word by word: "The one who should show sincerity to survive is you; this sincerity I have accepted. Now, I can give you a chance to answer again."

She released the hand throttling his throat, switching to pressing her arm horizontally against his collarbone; Chiyang could breathe, yet still could not move.

Left eye bleeding unceasingly, he spasmed in pain, head drooping crookedly; after a long delay, enduring again and again, he barely managed to say in a trembling voice: "... You don't trust me, so how can I trust you would truly let me go? You won't be willing..."

His consciousness was fragmented and blurred from pain, but the reply he heard was exceptionally clear: "Of course I'm not willing."

"After letting you go, I will kill you again. Whether the hunt succeeds is my business. Whether you can seize an opportunity to escape and turn defeat into victory is your business."

Her killing intent was domineering and frank, the posture a victor should have; Chiyang was in extreme pain, yet laughed instead; that trembling laughter was hoarse and strange, gradually carrying gnashing hatred.

Shaowei noticed that this hatred resembled Shunzhen's hatred toward her, yet was ten thousand times more surging than Shunzhen's.

"Escape to survive, turn defeat into victory, indeed tempting..." His breathing was disordered, voice broken: "But what if I don't want to leave? Why would I abandon the near for the far..."

"Unable to remove you, this evil star born from stealing Heavenly Way's Qi, living on is more unbearable than death for me..." Chiyang's blood-covered pale face was an indistinguishable mix of crying and laughing; it seemed a kind of madness no longer disguised: "What am I... only a Heavenly Mechanism's life is worthy to exchange for Shixiong's life."

"I don't want my life, I only want yours... yours!"

Hoarse trembling laughter, accompanied by blood beads dripping from his lower jaw, struck Shaowei's wrist, as if carrying poison they seeped into the wrist veins, then flowed through the heart vessels, affecting heartbeat and breathing.

She gritted her teeth, silently spat out two words; Chiyang could guess what she said.

"Madman, right?" Chiyang's skull tilted crookedly, laughing: "To deal with the lofty Heavenly Mechanism, if not mad, if cherishing life... how could there be a chance to win?"

"You are also a madman; for a heartless person, daring to enter the capital and fight to the death to this day... you and I originally had many similarities..."

"But in the end you are too young and naive..."

"Matters in this world are not such that just because you caught me, you count as having won..."

His expression pained yet strangely satisfied, vision blurred, person nearly fainting, yet still propping himself up, using a disjointed voice to say: "It just so happens her life is in this madman's hands... you say what to do? Is it you die, or she dies?"

The arm Shaowei pressed horizontally before him tensed and trembled; the shadow cast by her eyelashes was like a drowning bird's fluttering feathers.

She had risked her life time and again, finally captured this prey, yet at this moment it ignored her threats, trampled her victory, and even wanted to destroy her existence.

She had endured through three hundred plus pitch-black days and nights, yet fell into an even more resentful and vicious abyss of human nature.

Three parts worse than the anticipated outcome; this damn thief was not someone who refused to say anything, but someone who forced her to make such a choice.

The person she wanted to kill instead made her kill herself; Shaowei did not utter a word, but her emotions had reached the edge; the hand gripping the knife and the blade seemed to have become one; at this moment, in this place, in this situation, it seemed someone simply had to die before it could end, before this human torture could terminate.

At this time, a hand landed on her trembling shoulder.

Someone came to her rear; another arm reached around to her front, taking and receiving the short knife tightly clenched in her right hand.

Before long, Deng Hu entered with an Embroidered Uniform Guard; that Embroidered Uniform Guard saw Chiyang's miserable state lying on the mud bed, then looked at the knife in the Sixth Prince's hand, ran out to summon a Doctor while secretly thinking this Sixth Highness truly had a reckless temperament, how could he privately impose such a troublesome mutilation punishment — executions have their professional particulars... moreover, look at what a state Jiang Tai Zhu has been frightened into?

The Embroidered Uniform Guard left; Liu Qi held the bloodied knife in one hand, grabbed the dazed and rigid Shaowei's arm with the other, and led her outward.

Arriving at the prison door, a weak voice came from Chiyang curled on the mud bed.

"Great Witch God... you only have this one chance."

"If you step out this door, it is equivalent to personally killing her..."

This sound was low and weak, yet like wind scraped from hell.

Chiyang's vision and mind were both blurred; he shrank there, his intact eye also covered in blood, therefore he could not distinguish who the person beside Huali was, nor did he care whether the other was Huali's accomplice, or whether these words would make them suspect Huali; at this moment he only cared about his own purpose.

Shaowei was enveloped by that hellish cold wind; her footsteps froze.

Compared to the towering anger and frustration, the unreasonable ghost words from behind brought not those, but an undeniable sense of guilt.

Shaowei lowered her eyes, looking at this step beneath her feet.

Ahead, Liu Qi was half a step faster; the hand holding her arm tightened further; he turned his head, also lowered his eyes, only looking at her, and said in a low voice: "Fake. He only wants to retaliate against you; I testify. You are very smart; don't fall for the scheme. We still have other roads we can walk."

He learned her certainty when she spoke, he believed, he bore witness.

But in truth he could not fully fathom the mind of that madman behind it all.

He urged her to choose, led her to take this step, insisting she shoulder that formless responsibility; should it come true one day, he would be the sinner. Yet he was willing to bear it — this came from his own selfishness.

Liu Qi gripped her arm tight, meaning to forcibly take her away from this hell.

But she still refused to move.

Her strength was unmatched; if she insisted on not moving, she was as immovable as a thousand jun, and if he forced it further, he would injure her tendons and bones.

Liu Qi wanted to urge her again, but Shaowei extended her other hand, grabbing the hand that held her arm.

Her hand carried a hint of coolness, yet Liu Qi felt as if scorched by fire, and for a moment he stared at her, stunned.

She raised her eyes, her eyes holding tears born of endurance and struggle, but now the struggle was nowhere to be seen; she gave him a slight nod and said, "You're right, that's exactly what I think."

Because she thought the same, she pried his hand loose and let it fall.

Shaowei lifted her foot and walked out on her own.

She understood his intent, but she refused to be led away in a muddled, half-reluctant way, refused the buffer he tried to place between them, refused to let him shoulder this decision in her stead — what was hers was hers, and if she dared make the choice she had to dare bear the consequence.

She walked past him, moving ahead.

Liu Qi watched that back, watched her straight shoulders, unable to tear his gaze away for a long time.

She walked toward the night in a daze; he came to himself and walked toward her.

Outside the prison the sky was pitch black, the dome empty of stars, only dark clouds.

But no matter how the dark clouds drifted, they still could not send down a single drop of symbolic sweet rain.

In the courtyard, Shaowei sat on the stone steps outside the hall, head tilted back looking at the sky, and asked blankly, "Zhao Shu, if it's truly proven tomorrow that Chiyang spoke the truth, and I must exchange my life for hers no matter what — then today's me is abandoning her, killing her?"

"Nonsense." Zhao Qie'an stood behind her, voice hoarse: "Whether she lives or dies, if you agree today, that is killing her all over again."

"You and I sought her, died on the road, consequences our own — any outcome could be explained. But if you trade your life for hers, even if you truly get her back, she's someone who values cause and effect so heavily she'd rather bare her neck for slaughter — how do you expect her to live then?"

The household servant paused, voice low yet daring to speak: "Last time you took poison at the Rui Family, I wanted to say something but didn't dare, and I knew you had your own difficulties and considerations... only because the result was still largely controllable, I let it pass. But such things had better not happen again, and certainly not escalate further — this really isn't right, I'm terribly worried, you must stop."

The household servant bared his heart tonight, and bared his courage.

Shaowei stared blankly, then heard him add, "We can't kill her in the name of saving her — that's not chivalrous, not free and easy, and it would let enemies see a joke."

"To save her, you've never spared your life — there's no one and nothing in this world that can deny your sincerity in saving her."

"She's important, and you're important too."

"If you want to be a good child to her, don't treat her like this, and don't treat yourself like this either."

Shaowei's blank eyes blinked once, a single tear falling, lightly, yet heavily.

A moment later, she lowered her head, burying it in her bent knees.

Only spoken by a fellow accomplice like the household servant could these words carry enough force.

Liu Qi had no standing; rash comfort would only seem pale.

So he sent word a step faster to the knight-errant Zhao, borrowing the knight-errant Zhao's mouth to persuade her.

These words had been carefully revised by the household servant; he admitted he wasn't as scheming as this young man, but he understood Jiang Fu better, which counted as a sort of prescribing the right medicine.

At such a juncture, in such a trap, the danger was real; he had to make this child who earnestly studied human nature understand that even when saving others she must keep her own principles, and that principle lay in herself.

Factoring in Jiang Fu's temperament, the household servant thought a moment, then added: "If you truly agreed, she'd surely feel you were repaying kindness with enmity; then in her heart you'd be no different from Chiyang, even more vicious — do you really want...?"

Those words were indeed vicious; Shaowei's whole face muffled in her knees, voice stifled as she cut him off: "I know, stop talking."

?? (Six thousand characters! Back with an update!!! Thank you all so much for your tolerance and comfort — true feelings exist in the human world, kowtowing to you all right here!)

? (I've read every single one of your comments; so as not to interrupt your reading mood, I'll wait until I finish this major plot arc (roughly five chapters or so), then properly share my thanks and gratitude with you all.)