AT THE SOUND of her name, Ye Wangxi turned.
She looked frightful, but her aura wasn't as weak as Mo Ran had feared. At the sight of Mo Ran, Ye Wangxi lowered her lashes and bowed, still in masculine dress—she couldn't shake the habit. "Mo-gongzi," she said.
Mo Ran looked at her, then to Nangong Si at her side. "Where… Where did you two come from? All this blood…"
"We ran into many ghosts and demons on our way out of Linyi," Ye Wangxi said. "We haven't had a chance to change. My apologies."
Mo Ran had more questions, but Xue Zhengyong cut in: "Ran-er's here too? Good, let's all come in."
Chu Wanning entered the room without looking at Mo Ran. He went directly to his place and sat down, fixing his clothes before turning to Nangong Si. Even if he and Nangong Si weren't truly master and disciple, Chu Wanning had been one of Nangong Si's first teachers. His heart ached when he looked at Nangong Si, but what left his mouth was the simple question: "Are you two all right?"
This was the first time since the fall of Rufeng Sect that anyone had asked such a thing. The rims of Nangong Si's eyes reddened; he bent his head, fingers tightening into fists. He closed his eyes, managing after some moments to control the urge to cry in Chu Wanning's presence. "W-we're fine," he squeezed out. "It's been bearable."
But Chu Wanning sighed softly; he lowered his lashes and said no more. Of course he didn't believe Nangong Si. Linyi was a great distance away; it was impossible that they hadn't suffered over the course of their turbulent journey.
Xue Zhengyong was in obvious distress. "Yuheng, since you weren't here earlier—Nangong-gongzi and Miss Ye discovered a clue and specifically came here to tell us about it," he explained.
"So I was told. Something to do with Xu Shuanglin?"
"Mn."
"Sit down and let's hear it, then."
Mo Ran fetched some chairs, but Nangong Si and Ye Wangxi knew they were filthy and stinking and declined to sit. Chu Wanning didn't insist. He took a breath and began: "After we parted at Linyi, where did you two go?"
"The apocalyptic fire forced Ye Wangxi and me past the river to Wei Mountain," Nangong Si said. He paused. "Wei Mountain is deserted, so there was no way to send a message, and Ye Wangxi was injured. After the fire died down, we gathered our strength there before returning to… returning to Rufeng Sect."
The sect where Chu Wanning himself had found refuge when he'd first set out in the world. Nangong Si's words reminded him how much things had changed; he couldn't identify what he felt. After a long silence, he sighed. "It must be completely barren now."
"Zongshi is correct. It is barren, but these things have crawled out from the ruins."
Chu Wanning looked up. "What have?" "Insects."
Nangong Si untied a bloody pouch placed in front of him. Through its half-open mouth, they could see a mass of buzzing and crawling insects, their green backs spotted with black. Three large spots and two small marked each carapace, and the faint stench of blood emanated from their long abdomens. Most stayed quietly in the bag as if they feared the light, but a few flew out to crawl across the walls and pillars of Loyalty Hall, leaving streaks of blood in their wake.
Mo Ran recognized these bugs: soul-eaters. They could only be found in the blood pool near Rufeng Sect, a type of undead insect that relied on human flesh and souls for sustenance.
The assembled elders found them unspeakably vile; the Lucun Elder even pulled a handkerchief over his face to block the stink.
"We found these soul-eaters in the wreckage," Nangong Si said. "At first I thought they'd been drawn over from the blood pool, but soon realized that couldn't be right."
"Why not?"
"There were too many of them. Ye Wangxi and I walked through all seventy-two cities of Rufeng Sect, and these soul-eaters were everywhere—in the cracks between bricks, in the mud and filth, in the ashes. We found it too strange. After digging a little deeper, we discovered there were larvae as well as adults." He hesitated. "Zongshi, I'm sure you see the problem."
Chu Wanning wasn't familiar with gu witchcraft, but it only took him a few moments to follow Nangong Si's line of thought. The blood pool was near Mount Wei, separated from Linyi by a wide river. Soul- eaters couldn't fly great distances, and it hadn't been long since the fire; perhaps adult insects might have gone fluttering over upon scenting death, but larvae? How could larvae sprout legs to ford the river and the creeks? How could they get to the scorched earth of Rufeng Sect by themselves?
Frowning, Chu Wanning asked, "Someone planted them there ahead of time?"
"Mn, that's what I think as well."
At this, the Tanlang Elder immediately understood. "Soul-eaters can store spiritual energy. After the fire, resentful spirits would be everywhere. There were so many cultivators in Linyi. If the insects placed there fed on their spirits, they would've effectively become seeds containing every type of spiritual energy they consumed. Once possessed of such a multitude of seeds, anyone could draw on their spiritual energy to construct many types of arrays."
Then the question was, who planted the insects there? Someone who knew of the disaster that befell Linyi ahead of time, who needed spiritual energy from outside sources…
No one spoke, but the answer was plain. It could only be the perpetrator himself, Xu Shuanglin. Or to call him by his true name: Nangong Xu.
"So the upper cultivation realm has spent all this time hunting for traces of Xu Shuanglin's spiritual energy, while he's not been using his own power at all, but that of the bugs?" Xue Zhengyong asked.
"Mn, exactly so." Nangong Si said.
"Ah…" Xue Zhengyong murmured. "The tracking spell seeks human spiritual energy but not that of beasts or demons. If Xu Shuanglin has been using this strategy, he could indeed hide his tracks for a very long time." He turned to the Tanlang Elder. "Could we find Xu Shuanglin by following the bugs?"
"Impossible," the Tanlang Elder replied. "Soul-eaters move through the underworld; after eating their fill of scraps of soul, they burrow into the earth. There's no trail to follow."
At this point, Xue Zhengyong had another thought. "If they go to the underworld, why don't we ask Great Master Huaizui? He knows much about the ghost realm."
Chu Wanning swiftly cut in. "There's no need to ask him." "Why?"
"It would be pointless," Chu Wanning said. "He's unwilling to involve himself with the mortal world; he won't say a thing."
Chu Wanning had been Huaizui's direct disciple. Even if the listeners didn't understand, his resolute words brooked no argument. The hall lapsed into silence.
At length, Xue Zhengyong mumbled, "Then what do we do? If Xu Shuanglin can use the gu insects to evade detection, our efforts are useless. Do we do nothing?"
"What if we try another method?" Chu Wanning suggested. "Such as?"
"Sect Leader, when Xu Shuanglin left, he took three things with him. Do you remember what they were?"
Xue Zhengyong named them one by one: "Luo Fenghua's spiritual core, Nangong…" He glanced at Nangong Si and softened his voice, "… Nangong-zhangmen, and a holy weapon."
"Right," Chu Wanning said. "No one does anything without purpose. Even in his rush to escape, he still took these with him. It wasn't because he had nothing better to do. Sect Leader, from your perspective, why would Xu Shuanglin take his elder brother?"
"Mn… For revenge?"
"Then why take the holy weapon?"
Xue Zhengyong considered it. "To use as one of five sources of pure spiritual energy to reopen the Heavenly Rift."
"He tore open the Heavenly Rift to retrieve Luo Fenghua's spiritual core." Chu Wanning said. "There's no incentive for him to open it again."
"So what was the reason?"
"I believe it's possible he wishes to use the Rebirth technique," Chu Wanning said.
Xue Zhengyong stared. "But you don't need five types of pure spiritual energy to use Rebirth. Didn't Great Master Huaizui do it before?"
Chu Wanning shook his head. "Huaizui once said Rebirth techniques aren't all the same. Sect Leader, we can't take his method as the model."
The Tanlang Elder scoffed. "The Yuheng Elder speaks with no evidence. How are you so sure Xu Shuanglin means to use the forbidden Rebirth technique?"
"Because of the last thing he took. Luo Fenghua's spiritual core." In the great hall, Chu Wanning's voice was steady and methodical.
"Many years ago, I interrogated a girl in Butterfly Town who died in tragic circumstances. This girl had once met a madman covered in blood, who force-fed her tangerines and said her eyes resembled those of an old friend. That madman left her with a certain phrase—There was a man from Linyi whose heart died at twenty."
Twenty… The age Nangong Xu had been when he was framed and vilified by the masses. At that year's Spiritual Mountain Competition, he'd gone in with high spirits, secure in the assumption that all his talent and years of hard work would receive fair reward. That he would get everything he was due.
But his hard work only earned him a lifetime of infamy. The blade in his hands and the ambition in his heart fell to nothing before his brother's silver-tongued flattery.
He was consumed by hatred. There was no one he could turn to; the whole world mocked him, blamed him, spurned him. In the end, a living man became a corpse, and the corpse became a vengeful ghost. That ghost crawled out from his jagged hate, intent on regaining all he deserved from all the righteous gentlemen of the cultivation realm.
"There's no question that this madman was Xu Shuanglin. But who was the old friend he spoke of? Who did he see in Luo Xianxian's eyes?"
"Similar in looks, surnamed Luo…" Xue Zhengyong exclaimed, "It couldn't have been Luo Fenghua?!"
"I think it was," Chu Wanning said. "At the bottom of Jincheng Lake, Xu Shuanglin tried to use the Zhenlong Chess Formation as well as Rebirth. He used the Zhenlong Chess Formation to control others, but why practice Rebirth? He took Sect Leader Nangong and Luo Fenghua with him. The Rebirth technique couldn't possibly be for Sect Leader Nangong."
"But why revive Luo Fenghua?" Xue Zhengyong murmured. "Didn't Luo Fenghua plot against him?"
"Human hearts are unfathomable. We can't know for sure," Chu Wanning replied. "But I can't think of another reason for him to take Luo Fenghua's core other than for Rebirth."
The hall was stunned. Upon careful thought, they found Chu Wanning's analysis reasonable, but it still lacked evidence. These were merely guesses; the truth was perhaps known only to the elusive Xu Shuanglin himself.
After the meeting was adjourned, Mo Ran, too, thought it over.
When night fell, he went in search of Xue Zhengyong. The sect leader was in a side room poring over books for information on the soul-eaters, searching for some clue they could use to find Xu Shuanglin.
"Uncle."
"Ran-er? It's so late, why haven't you gone to bed?"
"I can't sleep. I wanted to ask Uncle about something."
Xue Zhengyong nodded toward a chair, inviting him to sit. Mo Ran wasted no time getting to the point. "Uncle, what was Luo Fenghua…Xu Shuanglin's shifu…like?"
"Ah, Luo Fenghua." Xue Zhengyong frowned, racking his brain. He shook his head. "I never knew him well. In general he was…righteous, stalwart, and fair. He was a man of few words, but he had a good temper and was careful and competent. He was never sloppy in his work. During his stint as head of Rufeng Sect, he even sent his disciples to the lower cultivation realm to help exorcise demons."
"In short, other than planning to usurp the position of sect leader of the Nangong clan, he had no other scandals. Right?"
Xue Zhengyong sighed. "That's right. Far from being scandal- ridden, he was a good man. I don't understand how someone like him could cast such a hateful spell on his own disciple."
Mo Ran thought it over. "Uncle, don't you feel your description of Luo Fenghua is quite similar to someone else?"
Xue Zhengyong stared for a moment. "Do you mean Yuheng? No way, Yuheng's temper is terrible."
"Not him."
"Who?"
"Ye Wangxi," Mo Ran said.
"Ah…" Slowly, Xue Zhengyong's tiger-like eyes widened, his mouth working around those three syllables before slowly giving them voice. "Ye Wangxi…"
Ye Wangxi was kind yet resolute, steadfast yet not unbending. Indeed, she was quite similar to the Luo Fenghua in Xue Zhengyong's memories, the man who'd led Rufeng for one short year.
"Isn't that right?" Mo Ran asked.
"Yes." Shock grew in Xue Zhengyong. Ye Wangxi and Luo Fenghua were of different genders and far apart in age, and their status within Rufeng Sect was nothing alike. He'd never thought to compare them. But now that Mo Ran mentioned it, he saw that they had basically been cast from the same mold.
The same exact one.
The longer Xue Zhengyong thought, the greater his astonishment grew. Discarded memories surfaced one after another; even the style of clothes Luo Fenghua favored when he was a guest of Rufeng Sect was similar to those Ye Wangxi usually wore. Then there was their comportment and manner of speech. Even the way they drew their bows—
In Xue Zhengyong's younger days, he'd once seen Luo Fenghua shoot at a celebration for Nangong Liu's birthday. Rufeng Sect had extended an invitation to both Xue brothers. In his mind's eye, Xue Zhengyong saw Luo Fenghua in the snow, drawing his bow with only three fingers, his pinky taut. The arrow whistling through the air, cutting through the fluttering snowflakes and taking down a snow rabbit demon at nearly a hundred paces. The onlookers applauded his archery skills, but Luo Fenghua had merely smiled and flipped the bow around so it leaned on his left arm, his fingertips brushing the string. It was a natural gesture, without thought. Even his finishing movements differed from the majestic posturing of others. The sight had left a deep impression on Xue Zhengyong, watching nearby.
But now that he thought back, during the battle of the Heavenly Rift when Ye Wangxi and Nangong Si had been firing their bows back-to- back, Nangong Si's arrows had flown straight and true, yet Xue Zhengyong hadn't taken much note. Rather, it was Ye Wangxi who, upon depleting a quiver, habitually looped the bow around her left arm with a flick of her wrist and unwittingly caressed the string with her fingertips. At that time, he'd only watched, eyes drawn to that gesture, so smooth, so carefree and yet self-assured—a gesture that reminded him of a certain someone.
Xue Zhengyong smacked his head. "Aiya, you're right… You're really right! They're basically identical!"
Mo Ran arched a brow. "What do you mean, identical?"
"The way they shoot. Luo Fenghua is far too much like Ye Wangxi, they're not similar, they're exactly the same!"
Mo Ran smiled against his will at Xue Zhengyong's shocked exclamations. "Uncle, you're wrong."
"Ah? How so?" "Cause and effect." "Effect?"
"Mn, it's not that Luo Fenghua is like Ye Wangxi," Mo Ran sighed. "But that Ye Wangxi is like Luo Fenghua." His eyes were bright. He was finally sure that his guess was correct: Xu Shuanglin's pursuit of Rebirth was an attempt to bring Luo Fenghua back from the dead.
Mo Ran couldn't speak to the secrets that still lay hidden in Rufeng Sect's past, but he'd been through two lifetimes. In the last life, Xu Shuanglin had died for Ye Wangxi; in this one, he'd devasted Rufeng Sect yet spared her alone. Why?
It couldn't be simply because Xu Shuanglin didn't have the heart to hurt his adoptive daughter. There was a certain carelessness to Xu Shuanglin's actions—speaking words like "There was a man from Linyi whose heart died at twenty," giving his residence a name like Farewell to Three Lifetimes—in some ways, it seemed as if he wanted nothing more than to forget his past. Even the name he'd given his adoptive daughter was so clear and undisguised: Wangxi, to forget the past.
To forget his past self, to forget all the bygone grudge and gratitude.
But, perhaps unknowingly, Xu Shuanglin had raised Ye Wangxi to be like the shadow he couldn't forget; he'd molded this abandoned orphan into another's form. This man who wished so fervently to forget his past was forever mired in the mud of memory.
At this point, a faint suspicion unfurled in Mo Ran's mind. Mo Ran knew what it was to wander insane in the darkness; he felt his guesses regarding Xu Shuanglin's actions were more accurate than most. Yet by the same token, he couldn't share his hypotheses; he could only draw his own conclusions and quietly observe events.
The next day, Xue Zhengyong summoned everyone once more; his search through the library had yielded nothing of use. "Poisonous insects and strange beasts are the forte of Guyueye. Why don't we tell Jiang Xi we've found soul-eaters in Rufeng Sect's ruins?"
The Xuanji Elder agreed. "Hanlin the Sage, the finest healer in the world, is a member of Jiang Xi's camp. His expertise would be a great help to our investigation."
But Chu Wanning frowned. "Miss Ye, did you ever see your yifu raise any poisonous insects or beasts?"
"Never."
"What about the healing arts or beast-taming techniques? Did he use any of those?"
"He…looked after a parrot. Other than that, he wouldn't spare the effort to adopt a dog, much less any fantastical beasts. The healing arts had even less appeal to him."
Chu Wanning turned to Xue Zhengyong. "Let's not tell Guyueye about the soul-eaters just yet."
"Why not?"
"Xu Shuanglin wasn't learned in the healing arts or beast-taming techniques. It might not be him feeding and controlling the gu insects. There's still the hand that reached out of the Rift at the very end."
"You suspect Guyueye."
"I won't jump to rash conclusions," Chu Wanning said. "But it always pays to be cautious."