"Senior Brother Li!" Bai Lingmiao's voice, choked with sobs, made Li Huowang turn around. He stood in the darkness, holding a lantern, and looked out at the others standing in the sunlight beyond the door.
He waved at them again. "Go on, all of you. Go home."
"Senior Brother Li, you should come with us. It's safer if we travel together. Did you forget something?" Zhao Wu asked from the fool's back, his expression tense as if sensing something was wrong.
"Heh, go together? Where to?" Li Huowang shifted, letting the darkness conceal his face again.
"To go home for the New Year, Senior Brother Li. Where's your home?"
Li Huowang smiled silently in the dark, then turned and began walking back the way he came, lantern in hand. "Home? I don't have a home now. I can never go back to my home. Never again!"
Li Huowang walked on in the darkness. Qingfeng Daoist Temple was quiet, his footsteps the only company he had.
Suddenly, he began to hum a song. His steps grew lighter, and the oil lamp in his hand swayed rhythmically from side to side.
Accompanied by his own singing, Li Huowang returned to his quarters. He shut the door, placed the lamp on the table, and, without bothering to wipe the blood from his face and body, slowly lay down on the stone bed and closed his eyes.
Today is the first day of the month. I haven't eaten that disgusting Black Taisui this month, so I should be able to see Yang Na again soon, right? As this thought crossed his mind, the corners of his mouth lifted into a slight smile.
He waited quietly, waiting for his childhood best friend to take him back to the world where he belonged.
Having not slept all night, Li Huowang felt his consciousness begin to fade. But just as he was about to sink into a blissful dream, the door suddenly opened.
Li Huowang rubbed his eyes and sat up, discovering Doggie, Zhao Wu, and the others standing in the doorway.
Bai Lingmiao stood there anxiously. After a moment of avoiding his gaze, her eyes finally settled on him with determination.
"Senior Brother Li, if you can't go home, you can come to mine. My house is spacious, and the east wing is empty..."
Li Huowang looked at the kind-hearted girl before him and shook his head slightly. "It's fine here. I've gotten used to it." A lunatic who talks to himself and gestures wildly could only stay in a dark place like this so as not to frighten others.
Bai Lingmiao's lips trembled, as if she couldn't believe what he was saying.
"I had a home once. I had a family, too, but..." Li Huowang looked up at the pitch-black ceiling, his expression complex as memories began to surface.
Doggie thought for a moment, then whispered to the others while shooting them a meaningful look, "Since Senior Brother Li says he wants to stay here, should we just leave?"
"Shut up!" Bai Lingmiao snapped, making Doggie jump in fright. She sounded nothing like the timid girl she had once been.
She strode forward, her expression stubborn. "Is this how you treat your family? If your past family saw you like this, what would they think?"
A bitter smile touched Li Huowang's lips. "How should I know what they'd think? I can't even be sure if they were ever real!"
"Maybe I'm just a madman with nothing at all. I have nothing. Everything—all of it might just be a figment of my imagination." Li Huowang's face twisted in pain.
Bai Lingmiao's pale, almost translucent hands reached out and took his. "Senior Brother Li, you don't have nothing. You still have us."
Li Huowang stared blankly at the girl, at her delicate, stubborn face.
In that instant, he realized how little he knew about her. Why is she so good to me?
Suddenly, his surroundings began to transform. The grotto and the sterile white walls of a hospital flickered back and forth.
Bai Lingmiao's features began to melt, then reformed into the face of Yang Na, who was weeping and full of worry.
"Nana!" Li Huowang lunged forward, clinging to her desperately, his face contorted with agony.
"Huowang, you can't give up on yourself. You have to live. No matter what you face, you must live well, alright?" Yang Na's voice trembled.
"You have to persevere. No matter what you've been through, never let yourself fall."
Then the face morphed again, becoming his mother's. "Son, you can't die! If you die, how are your dad and I supposed to go on?!"
The face shifted rapidly, turning into all the people Li Huowang knew, each one cheering him on, encouraging him.
All at once, the scene froze, and the bright hospital room swiftly dimmed.
Li Huowang slowly released his embrace, finding he was holding Bai Lingmiao.
The girl he was holding was clearly bashful, but she didn't avert her gaze. "Senior Brother Li, let's go. This place makes me uncomfortable."
She then pulled a bundle of paper slips from a pouch at her waist and pressed them into his hands. "Senior Brother Li, giving these to me is useless. None of us can read."
"That's right, Senior Brother Li. This is a job for you. No one else can do it," the others chimed in from the doorway.
"I... I can—" The fool started to speak, but Zhao Wu quickly covered his mouth and whispered in his ear, "Even if you can read, you'd better pretend you can't right now!"
Li Huowang silently looked at the last words written by the villagers, his thoughts unreadable.
Bai Lingmiao pushed the slips further toward him. "Senior Brother Li, you promised them yourself. A real man can't go back on his word."
Reality and hallucination warred in his mind. Finally, Li Huowang reached out and took the papers. "Let's go."
Li Huowang had made his decision. No matter where he was, he had to live as well as he could—not just for himself, but for the family that may or may not exist.
As soon as he said this, everyone smiled in relief.
They didn't know what was going through his mind, but as long as he didn't stay in this godforsaken place, that was all that mattered.
Gathering around Li Huowang, the group stepped out of the gloomy room and started toward the cave entrance. After only a few paces, however, Li Huowang called for them to stop.
"Wait. Since we've decided to leave, we need to properly scavenge this place. Fool, you carry Zhao Wu and take the others to the kitchen. Grab some food for the road; we can't travel on an empty stomach."
Next, Li Huowang took Bai Lingmiao to the Alchemy Room to gather any elixirs he recognized. He had been practicing the Alchemy Dao for some time, and with these supplies, he was practically half a doctor. He didn't know how far it was to their homes, so it was better to be prepared.
However, he only took the pills he could identify. Any elixirs made by Master Danyang that were unfamiliar to him, Li Huowang didn't dare touch, let alone take.
After the group reconvened in Zhengyi Hall, Li Huowang spoke again. "Hold on, there's one more thing I need to get." Holding the oil lamp, he carefully headed toward the grotto where the Black Taisui was imprisoned.