Deep in the cave, there was no light.
Only the sound of water droplets falling from the tips of stalactitesādrip, dripāechoing a heart-pounding rhythm in the empty darkness.
Madam Xuanji supported herself against the slippery rock wall, moving step by step deeper inside.
Her robe was already tattered, the vermilion red stained dark brown by blood and mud.
With every step, the penetrating wound in her chest sent a tearing pain.
The body of the Saint Transformation Realm should have possessed extremely strong self-healing abilities, but the dragon clan’s fist energy was mixed with some power she couldn’t understandāthat force clung like maggots on bones, constantly eroding her meridians and organs.
In two hundred years, she had never suffered such a severe injury.
“Damn loach……”
She gritted her teeth and cursed under her breath, her voice stirring a faint echo in the cave.
Finally, a trace of faint light appeared ahead.
It was a pale blue fluorescence seeping from the depths of the earth; the light grew brighter until it illuminated a vast underground space.
This place didn’t resemble a naturally formed caveāthe ground was as flat as a mirror, the walls covered in densely packed ancient runes, those runes emitting a pale blue glow.
In the center of the space was a circular stone platform three zhang in diameter, its surface smooth as a mirror, also engraved with runes.
On the stone platform sat a figure in lotus position.
Madam Xuanji stopped, her pupils slightly contracting.
Even though she had come here many times, she still felt a palpitation at the sight before her.
It was a woman.
She wore a set of extremely simple white hemp clothes, the fabric coarse yet spotless.
Her long hair was like ink, draped to her waist, the tips spreading out on the stone platform like spilled night.
Her skin was like jade, glowing with a lustrous sheen under the blue light, as if her entire person was carved from the finest mutton-fat jade.
But her faceāon her face, those eyes emitted no light at all.
She was blind.
But Madam Xuanji knew that this blind woman could see far more than all the sighted people in the world combined.
“Thou hast a day to return after all.”
The woman’s voice rang out. It was very young, clear and tinkling, like mountain stream water striking pebbles.
She didn’t open her mouth; the voice appeared directly in Madam Xuanji’s mind.
Madam Xuanji walked to the front of the stone platform and knelt on one knee with difficulty.
“I beg Your Excellency to save me.”
“Save?”
The woman chuckled lightly; she raised her head, those lightless eyes gazing toward where Madam Xuanji was.
“Two hundred and thirty-seven years ago, you came here for the first time, kneeling in the same spot, begging me to grant you longevity.”
“Yes.” Madam Xuanji lowered her head. “Your Excellency’s grace, I dare not forget.”
“Dare not forget?”
The woman’s voice carried a bit more mockery.
“Then why haven’t you paid me the remuneration yet?”
Madam Xuanji’s body stiffened.
“I……”
“You see, you mortals are always like this. When begging me, you’re willing to lick my toes to show loyalty, saying you’d go through fire and water without hesitation, but once it really comes to paying something, it’s harder than ascending to heaven.”
She stepped down from the stone platform, her bare feet treading on the groundāthose feet white and delicate, ankles slender; with every step, the runes on the ground would light up for an instant.
“I gave you longevity, gave you power, even gave you the method to refine the immortal corpse.”
The woman walked in front of Madam Xuanji and squatted down.
She extended her icy fingers, gently brushing over the wound on Madam Xuanji’s chest.
“But the strand of ‘innate qi’ I wantedāyou’ve searched for over two hundred years and haven’t even seen its shadow.”
Madam Xuanji felt a bone-chilling cold at the wound, unable to help shivering.
“Your Excellency, that immortal qi is ethereal and traceless; I truly……”
“Want to say you truly tried your best, right? Then tell me, how did you get this wound on your chest?”
“It was the dragon clanāa black dragon sealed for two hundred years; I was careless.”
“A dragon? Let me try then.”
Her fingers pressed slightly harder, nails piercing into the flesh; Madam Xuanji grunted, cold sweat seeping from her forehead.
“Let me see……”
The woman murmured softly.
Her fingertips lit up with a faint glow, that light seeping into the wound.
A moment later, she withdrew her hand.
“So that’s it; you’ve done a lot of unnecessary things these years, huh.”
Madam Xuanji prostrated on the ground, not daring to respond.
“If you want me to save you, fine, but this time, the rules have to change.”
“Your Excellency, please speak.”
“First, the remuneration must be paid in advance.”
Madam Xuanji jerked her head up. “What? This is too……”
“You can refuse.”
The woman said indifferently.
“Then leave with this wound. With the erosion speed of the dragon clan’s power, at most three months, your meridians will shatter completely, your cultivation lost, and finally, you’ll turn into a pile of rotten flesh.”
Madam Xuanji’s face turned pale.
She felt the pain spreading continuously from her chest, knowing the woman wasn’t lying.
“Second, listen to me tell a story.”
Madam Xuanji was stunned. “A story?”
“What, unwilling?” The woman raised an eyebrow.
“No, I dare not; Your Excellency, please tell.”
The woman was silent for a moment.
In the cave, only the dripping sound remainedādrip, drip.
“A long time ago, in what you call the ‘Immortal Realm,’ there was a girl.”
“She had no background, no sect, no familyājust a loose cultivator. But she had great talent, excellent aptitude; her cultivation progressed faster than those disciples from great sects.”
“Unfortunately, a loose cultivator is a loose cultivatorāno resources, no guidance; no matter how good the talent, it’s hard to achieve great things. She could only team up with other cultivators, go to dangerous places to seek treasures, trade life for cultivation resources.”
“Just like that, she lived to twenty years old.”
“That year, she took a mission to find a treasure in an ancient ruin. There were over a dozen companions, all loose cultivators, not weak in cultivation; they found the item in the ruin, and then, like all such stories, they started killing each other.”
“She was severely injured, hiding behind a broken wall, watching those people fall one by one. Blood dyed the ground red. She wanted to escape, but the injury was too heavy; she couldn’t move. She thought she was dead for sure.”
“Then, he came.”
For the first time, a certain emotion appeared in the woman’s voice.
Very complex. Like nostalgia, yet like pain.
“A boy, looking only fifteen or sixteen, wearing red clothes, very beautifulābeautiful to the point of unreality.”
“She had heard of him. Many in the Immortal Realm had heard of himāthe ‘Blood-Clothed Beauty,’ that’s what they called him. Not a title of respect, because those who saw him basically all died.”
“The boy walked into the ruin, looked at the corpses all over the ground, then looked at her hiding behind the broken wall. She thought she was going to die too, closed her eyes waiting for death. But the boy didn’t kill her.”
“He just killed everyone elseāthose still fighting for the treasureāthen took the treasure and walked in front of her.”
“He said: ‘You’re going to die.'”
“She said: ‘I know.'”
“He said: ‘Follow me, and you won’t die.'”
“She said: ‘Why?'”
“The boy thought for a bit, said: ‘Because I’m curious. Curious why a person would struggle so hard to live.'”
The woman fell silent again.
This time, the silence was longer.
Madam Xuanji knelt on the ground, not daring to make a sound. She could feel that this story was very important to the woman.
“She followed him.” The woman continued, her voice returning to calm.
“At first, just to survive. After all, without a strong protector, a severely injured loose cultivator couldn’t walk out of that ruin at all.”
“But the boy was truly curious. He asked her all sorts of questions: why cultivate, why struggle, why want to become strong. She answered one by one, saying she wanted dignity, wanted freedom, wanted not to be trampled on casually.”
“The boy listened, nodded, said nothing.”
“In the days after, they traveled together. The boy was very strongāoutrageously strong. Clearly only in his teens, yet his realm had already reached the mountain peak. Wherever he went, she followed. He killed, she watched. He sought treasures, she helped. Occasionally, he would teach her some cultivation methodsāthough just casual pointers, to her, they were more useful than any sect’s secret arts.”
“Years passed one by one.”
“The boy’s reputation grew louder; the four words ‘Blood-Clothed Beauty’ became a taboo for the righteous path in the Immortal Realm. Some hated him, some feared him, and some…… admired him.ā
“And her? Her realm hit a bottleneck. In the Immortal Realm, strength is supreme. No one would remember a little follower always trailing behind someone else. When people mentioned her, they’d only say: ‘Oh, that woman always following the Blood-Clothed Beauty.'”
“She grew up, from a girl to a woman. The feelings in her heart changed too. She no longer just saw him as a lifesaver; she fell in love with him.”
“But the boyāhe was always a boy; time seemed to stagnate on him. From beginning to end, he only treated her as a companion. An interesting person to talk to. He didn’t love her; he didn’t even understand what love was.”
“This made her suffer.”
“What made her suffer more was that the people who could stay by his side weren’t just her.”
The woman reached here, her voice beginning to tremble.
Though very slight, Madam Xuanji heard it.
“There was a fairy maiden.” The woman said slowly.
“A disciple from a great righteous sect, unparalleled talent, world-toppling beauty. She met the boy during some trial, and somehow, ended up following him.”
“The boy treated her the same as her. Just one more companion.”
“But she couldn’t stand it.”
“She watched that fairy maiden stand by the boy’s side, watched them fight shoulder to shoulder, watched the boy occasionally smile at the fairy maiden; she felt her own thing was being stolen.”
“Moreover, she was stuck at the bottleneck for too long. Long enough to start despairing. She thought, if she could be as strong as the boy, would he look at her more? Would she outshine that fairy maiden?”
“So, she made a decision.”
The woman took a deep breath.
That breath was very deep, very deepālike sucking in centuries of pain.
“She betrayed him.”
“She sold the boy’s whereabouts, weaknesses, characteristics of his cultivation techniqueāall she knewāto those great righteous sects. In exchange, resources enough to break through her bottleneck, and a position as a guest elder in a great sect.”
“The righteous path gathered over a hundred experts, laying a heaven-encompassing net on the boy’s inevitable path.”
“That battle lasted three days and three nights.”
“Mountains and rivers shattered, sun and moon lost light. The boy killed over seventy, severely injured over thirty, but in the end, he and that fairy maiden together disappeared in a dazzling white light.”
“The righteous path’s announcement was: dead, no corpse remaining.”
The woman stopped.
The cave was deathly silent.
After a long time, she continued, her voice light as a whisper:
“It wasn’t until that moment, until she could no longer see him, that the woman whose heart was blinded by lard reacted.”
“She realized she had long been unable to leave him.”
“Those years following him had become part of her life. His cold profile when killing, his occasional curious gaze, his serious expression when teaching her techniques…… all of these had been etched into her bones.”
“But it was too late.”
“Everything was too late.”
The story was finished.
The woman sat on the stone platform, motionless, her lightless eyes gazing into the void, as if she could still see that battle centuries ago, see that red-clothed boy disappear in the white light at the last moment.
Madam Xuanji knelt on the ground, her back covered in cold sweat.
She understood.
The “woman” in this story was the woman before her.
And this woman wanted her body, probably not just to borrow, but to.
“You want to find him.” Madam Xuanji blurted out.
The woman slowly turned her head, looking at her.
“You’re very smart.” She said. “But smart people often die quickly.”
“That immortal fetus, what’s his name?”
Madam Xuanji swallowed. “Nanxi. He’s called Nanxi.”
“Nanxi……” The woman softly recited this name, once, and again.
Then she smiled.
Smiled with incomparable gentleness, incomparable nostalgia, and incomparable sorrow.
She stood up, walking once more in front of Madam Xuanji.
“Alright, you’ve heard the story; time to pay the remuneration.”
She extended her hand, pressing on Madam Xuanji’s forehead.
An icy, bone-piercing sensation instantly spread through her whole body.
“I’ve given you the power; if you lose again, your body will belong to me.”
Madam Xuanji didn’t respond.
“Also, when capturing him, don’t injure him. Not a single hair allowed to fall. I want him complete, alive and wellāunderstand?”
“Understood.”
“Good.”
The woman’s five fingers tightened.
Madam Xuanji felt a vast power surge from her forehead, instantly filling her limbs and bones.
The wound on her chest began to heal, the dragon clan power in her meridians forcibly expelled; her cultivation not only recovered but even faintly improved.
She clenched her fist, feeling the power almost overflowing in her body.
“Go. Three months; I’ll wait for you.”
Madam Xuanji kowtowed heavily, stood up, and exited the cave.
Until her footsteps completely disappeared, the woman slowly sat down, raising her hand to touch her face.
In those lightless eyes, there was nothing.
But she “saw” many things.
Saw centuries ago, that red-clothed boy extending his hand to her in the ruin.
Saw those years, his back as he walked ahead.
Saw in that final battle, him turning back to look at her onceāthat look very calm, no anger, no resentment, only a bit of disappointment.
Just a bit.
Yet sharper than any knife, gouging her heart for centuries.
“Nanxi……”
She recited this name again, the corners of her mouth curving into a gentle arc.
“This time, I won’t let you leave again.”
“Never.”
…………………………
At the same time, in the seaside fishing village thousands of li away.
“Ah-choo!”
Nanxi was sitting by the bed meditating when he suddenly sneezed.
A very loud sneeze.
He rubbed his nose, somewhat baffled; with his innate realm cultivation, he shouldn’t have things like colds anymore.
“Young master caught a chill?”
Huang Muzhi turned back from the stove side, asking with concern.
“No, just suddenly itchy nose.”
He didn’t mind, continuing to close his eyes and meditate.
Huh?
But deep in his heart, a certain voice lightly huh-ed.
That long-slumbering existence, claiming to be another self, also sneezed.
Though only in the depths of consciousness.
Who’s thinking about me?
‘What?’
Nothing, just a feeling of being targeted. Very familiar, yet very annoying.
Nanxi frowned.
He didn’t pursue further, but faintly felt a trace of unease in his heart.
Outside the window, the night was deep.
The sound of sea tides crashed and crashed, like endless sighs.
And in the distant mountain forests, a figure was streaking over treetops at astonishing speed, racing toward the fishing village.
On Madam Xuanji’s brow, a faint golden rune was dimly glowing.
The three-month countdown had already begun.
And what she didn’t know was that after she left, the woman in the cave slowly stood up, walking to a stone wall.
On the stone wall was engraved a painting.
A very simple painting, lines scratched out with fingernails: a red-clothed boy, and a girl following behind him.
The woman traced those lines with her fingertips, her movements gentle as caressing a lover’s face.
“Soon, once I get that body, once I find you……”
“This time, no matter what, I’ll lock you by my side.ā