Chapter 85: Phantom Dream (I)

A faint footstep sound came from the half‑open window outside; Bu Sha snapped his eyes open, sat up from the bed, and looked around.

An assassin's intuition let him, no matter where he was, quickly assess the situation around him, thereby confirming his own safety and the likelihood of completing his mission.

It was a very ordinary wooden hut, yet it made him frown slightly. Calling it ordinary is because he had seen the dwellings of common folk, which are generally just as crude and simple.

But why was he lying here? At this time, he shouldn't……

What should he? Bu Sha couldn't help rubbing his forehead; just now, what was he trying to tell himself?

It seemed there was nothing particularly urgent; he got up from the bed, lowered his head to examine his attire. His clothes were still the same set, and Blooddrawing was by his side—good.

The footsteps grew closer; Bu Sha tensed up, instinctively putting himself on guard, with some true qi circulating naturally—a common condition after injury, not unfamiliar to him. Yet he couldn't help but startle, feeling that something was off.

"Ah——!" The moment the visitor pushed the door open, beneath the descending horizontal slash of the Blooddrawing blade, his face turned pale; after a moment he flung the basket from his hand and shouted angrily, "Bu Sha, what the hell are you doing?!"

Bu Sha stared blankly at the girl before him, her brows slightly furrowed, her small face holding back anger; he even forgot to retract Blooddrawing.

"What's wrong?" Seeing his state, the girl instead eased her anger; a hint of worry flickered in her amber eyes as her cool, smooth little hand rested on his forehead, murmuring, "Could your injury have flared up again?"

"Bing... Yi...?" Bu Sha withdrew Blooddrawing, gazing at the person before him; after a moment, then another, he finally couldn't restrain himself and spoke doubtfully.

"Hmm?" Bing Yi tilted her head, looking at him for a while, then sighed, "Is your thinking a bit muddled? That's also unavoidable."

"Who made you get injured this badly?" Bing Yi couldn't help complaining while she sat down on a nearby wooden chair; but in an instant her lively spirit dimmed, her gaze fixed on him, the amber glimmer flowing with luster, yet unable to conceal the worry and sorrow deep within: "Don't risk your life like that again—not even for me, understand?"

Bu Sha only felt a faint ache in his chest, yet he didn't know why. His thoughts were clearly blank, but to outsiders his expression remained as cold as usual; still, he gave a slight nod.

I don't know when it started. Her demands—I have never refused them since. It's unwillingness, and also…… an inability to refuse.

Seeing him nod, Bing Yi finally broke into a light smile, picking up the scattered herbs on the ground, and said softly, "Your external injury is fine now. The internal injury is more troublesome—it might heal in just two or three days, or it could take two or three years to fully recover."

"You now have only thirty percent of your inner strength, so for these few days you must absolutely not go out, lest you be hunted down."

"Good." Bu Sha gave a cold nod.

His mood returned to a faint calm, yet something always tugged at his heart, giving him an inexplicable sense of unease.

He…… had he forgotten something very important……?

Right—Bu Sha jolted, quickly lifted his head to gaze at the girl before him, whose eyes held a satisfied smile, and nearly growled, "Qi? Where is Qi Ran?!"

The girl before him slightly furrowed her delicate brows, gently tilted her refined head, and after a while spoke indifferently: "Qi… who is that? Qi Ran… who is that?"

Her eyes flickered faintly, shedding a serene inner light that drew one in deep; beneath those threads of glow lay pure, naked curiosity and bewilderment, with no concealment at all.

Bu Sha only felt a tremendous roar in his ears; even as he widened his black eyes filled with terror, he panicked, unable to determine who the person before him was, who Qi Ran was, or even who he himself was.

……

Put down the sword in your hand, I am willing.

Calling back the heart's affection, destiny fulfilled.

Why must I circle you alone on the other side of the world?

How could my deep affection for you be exhausted in mere words?

Not greedy for a single wish.

……

In the tranquil deep valley at night stood an extremely ordinary stone house, newly renovated. Before the stone house under the moonlight, a man and a woman stood. The man wore black clothes and black hair, his expression aloof, gripping a slender black longsword, lost in thought. The woman looked about sixteen or seventeen; at this moment she had tightened her small face, resting her chin in her hands, deep in thought.

"Why is your internal injury still not healed?" Bing Yi blinked, gazing at the star‑sparkling night sky, and mused, "Your meridians are blocked and congested, and the energy that wounded you carries a yin‑soft force that opposes your own yang‑hard inner strength; therefore, no matter how you circulate your true qi through the twelve heavenly circuits, you cannot clear all the meridians."

Bu Sha glanced at that utterly earnest little face, feeling a faint amusement deep down, yet he did not respond.

"So I have you study the healing method from martial‑arts novels, letting true qi flow in from the Yongquan points on both soles, must be one yin one yang, one cold one hot; first let the innate qi penetrate the apertures, then gently and gradually permeate the meridians from weak to strong, nourishing the vital spots."

Hearing this, Bu Sha also couldn't help being slightly moved; Bing Yi often uttered things he didn't understand, such as the martial‑arts way and healing methods she had mentioned these past days.

At first hearing it seemed merely strange and amusing, but after unraveling the silk from the cocoon, he was astonished to find that some actually pertained to the qi‑control method for cultivating supreme martial arts.

"But why is the effect not as ideal as described in the book?"

Seeing her on the verge of tearing her hair out, Bu Sha's mouth corner twitched almost imperceptibly upward; he pulled her cool hand onto the bench, thinking: she still fears the cold. He said lightly, "If you can't figure it out, just forget it."

These past days, life has been peaceful and tranquil. Bu Sha only felt that the hostility in his heart was fading, while a faint, unusual joy took root and spread within.

Sometimes he would wake, feeling as if he had forgotten something of utmost importance, yet in the next instant he would feel that nothing mattered at all.

"Ah! Right! It's natural!" A clear cry suddenly broke his reverie; Bing Yi sprang up with an excited face, grabbing his sleeve and shouting, "The natural qi you need must be the purest in heaven and earth, and must be absorbed naturally, completely unconstrained by form. Yet these past days, though you are in the great outdoors, you have been too focused on your injury, losing your ordinary mind, and thus cannot merge with nature or draw from it."

A strange hue flashed in Bu Sha's eyes; then he pondered, and his heart suddenly opened. It turned out… his internal injury was not incurable; rather, he himself had been too fixated, preventing him from attaining the state Bing Yi spoke of—'clear‑minded self‑forgetting'.

Thinking of this, he handed the Blooddrawing in his hand to Bing Yi, then in this seamlessly natural secluded valley forest, he slightly raised his head, faced the night‑star sky, and gently closed his eyes.

After a moment, he was immersed without emotion or thought in this everyday‑overlooked heaven and earth; in the state of clear‑minded self‑forgetting, he finally directed his pursuit of the martial way and his yearning to protect those nearby into the world of insect chirps and cicada songs, the transition seamless and traceless.

Strong inner energy flowed naturally; Bu Sha slowly opened his eyes, his expression still cool as before, yet unusually peaceful and calm. He gently met those eyes, shimmering with amber luster, and whispered, "Thank you."

Bing Yi's beautiful eyes curved like crescent moons, then opened, shedding light over the whole valley. As if she had just recalled something, she lowered her head to rummage at her waist for a moment, then lifted her head with a mysterious smile and said, "Bu Sha, stretch out your right hand."

Bu Sha blinked, his vision somewhat hazy, his ears humming; he slowly extended his right hand and lay it open, still.

This scene—how familiar; this scene, as if engraved, left a deep imprint in his heart…… because he had promised that person, from now on he must firmly remember this day.

Bu Sha withdrew his hand, staring blankly at the black wrist guard on his wrist, embroidered with the character 'Bu' in crooked white thread; he heard the girl chattering beside his ear: 'This is called a wrist guard. When practicing the blade or fighting someone, it can cushion the harm to your wrist…'

Yes, he knew. He had long known this was a wrist guard.

Bu Sha suddenly spoke quietly, cutting off the girl's words: 'And Qi Ran's?'

"Huh? Whose are you talking about?" the girl's eyes flickered with a hint of bewilderment as she asked in surprise.

Bu Sha stared at the wrist guard on his hand, focusing intently, second by second; then the corner of his mouth lifted, revealing an extremely self‑mocking yet suddenly enlightened smile, and he murmured to himself: 'It turns out… in my heart such a longing truly existed.'

Only now did he finally become clear, and could be certain that he was dreaming at this very moment. Moreover, it was a phantasm that stripped bare the deepest, most unbearable desire from his heart.

He took the black blade Blooddrawing from the girl's hand, gripping it with his right hand. After smiling, his countenance seemed as if stirred by water, then gradually calmed.

He raised his head, looking at the girl before him still bearing a bewildered hue; his eyes slowly revealed a gentle light he dared not usually show, thread by thread gathering into a sea.

Bu Sha sighed, his left hand slowly stroking the hilt of Blooddrawing, his hands exchanging grip up and down. The tenderness in his eyes receded like a tide, turning into a steadfast hue that no one could influence or sway.

He had always known that he must protect those two people—if he could guard them for a day, then it was a day; for a year, then a year; for a lifetime, then… a lifetime.

Such a belief is unstoppable, unsoftened by emotion. Yes, it is unstoppable, unsoftened…… by emotion.

Even he himself could no longer budge even the slightest amount.

"Perhaps, this is truly the wish buried deepest in my heart." Bu Sha's hands slowly rose, gazing at the world before him, like flowers in a mirror and the moon in water, gradually rippling and overlapping, his face showing a calm yet extremely precious smile, "But it is absolutely not— the wish I most desire to fulfill!"

The black blade flashed with a white shadow, chopping straight down without a hint of hesitation or pause, then it shattered the mirror-flowers, shattered the water-moon, and also shattered…… the world buried deepest in his heart.

Soaring, the boundless center of the azure heavens.

Traversing, turning through the cycles of a thousand years.

Why let loneliness grow with me on this side of the world?

How can my longing for you be made clear with thousands of words?

I only hope to get drunk once.

……

(End of chapter)