Xiao Chunhe stepped forward and blocked Ye Shijiu’s view. His tone was cold. “Your master and senior brothers are already dead. No matter what you choose now, it’s too late.”
He spoke each word slowly enough for Ye Shijiu to read his lips. The youth beneath the cypress stood frozen for a long time as the hope in his eyes gradually went out.
“There’s no point wasting your effort binding their souls here either. I calculated just now that they’ve been dead for two months, yet you’ve still been controlling their souls and making them act out this scene with you all this time.” Xiao Chunhe’s fox eyes fixed sharply on him. “You’re just an ordinary person. You don’t even know magic. What are you using to do this?”
Xiao Chunhe had stayed in this Daoist temple for several days without noticing anything amiss. Aside from the daily meals of rice and soup, probably cooked from wild greens Ye Shijiu gathered himself, there was only that crude demon-catching formation at the gate.
Ye Shijiu’s expression tightened. Supporting himself against the cypress, he retreated a step.
Xiao Chunhe narrowed his eyes. “Cen Shuang is vicious and treacherous. There’s no chance he simply let you go. You control this illusion flawlessly, yet there is still moyao qi lingering on your body!”
He suddenly closed the distance, fingers curling into claws as he seized Ye Shijiu by the throat.
Ye Shijiu had not expected the sudden attack. He desperately hammered at Xiao Chunhe’s arm as his face rapidly turned blue. Yue Jingming rushed over and grabbed Xiao Chunhe’s arm. “Enough. He cannot hear and cannot speak. What use is interrogating him like this?”
Xiao Chunhe’s lips curved. “Then kill him, bind his soul, and have him replay everything that happened. Wouldn’t that solve the problem?”
“Let go!” Yue Jingming locked a hand around his wrist and forced it down hard.
Xiao Chunhe turned and stared at him. “Aren’t you looking for the moyao? The clue is right in front of you.”
Anger showed in Yue Jingming’s eyes. “How would that make you any different from Cen Shuang?”
“Why should I compare myself to him?” Xiao Chunhe said with a savage smile. “He’s human and I’m a demon. Stop trying to bind me with your human ideas of benevolence and righteousness!”
“Hey, hey?” Liang Yun looked between them with a headache. “Isn’t breaking the illusion the most urgent thing right now? Stop arguing, both of you.”
The illusion suppressed their true qi. Xiao Chunhe could not use his full strength, and neither could Yue Jingming. Unfortunately, both men had already been nursing their tempers, and within moments they had exchanged dozens of moves.
Ye Shijiu seized the opening and turned to run for the gate.
“The kid’s getting away!” Liang Yun shouted and immediately chased after him, only for the rigid figures of Ning Chuping and the others to block his path.
Ye Shijiu looked back and breathed a sigh of relief, then reached for the broom propped beside the courtyard gate. Someone caught his arm. Startled, he turned in panic and met Yue Jingming’s perfectly calm gaze.
“Well, well. Looks like the important thing was hidden inside this broom.” Xiao Chunhe smilingly picked it up and weighed it in his hand. “No wonder you always carry it around. Let me guess. You’re using whatever is inside to control that cypress, aren’t you?”
Ye Shijiu struggled desperately, trying to snatch the broom from him, but the hand holding his arm did not budge an inch. He glared fiercely at Yue Jingming, nothing like the obedient, pitiful boy from before.
Yue Jingming said patiently, “I know a little Daoist magic, but even I cannot bring the dead back to life. Your master and senior brothers have been dead too long, and their souls are trapped in this illusion, unable to rest. If you are willing, I can help you break the illusion and send them on to reincarnation.”
Ye Shijiu stopped struggling. Tears flooded the ferocity from his eyes. He looked at Yue Jingming with gratitude and grievance, opened his mouth, but still could not make a sound.
Xiao Chunhe pulled an irregular piece of red jade from inside the broom, and his expression darkened.
“What is wrong with it?” Yue Jingming asked.
Xiao Chunhe gave a cold snort, plainly unwilling to answer, but Yue Jingming kept watching his face as though certain he would explain eventually.
“I think I’ve seen jade like that before,” Liang Yun said as he came closer. “There’s a piece in the palace too. Isn’t it called a Phantom Immortal Stone?”
“What bullshit immortal stone? It’s an evil object soaked in fox-clan charm incense.” Xiao Chunhe scoffed.
Yue Jingming remembered the countless bits of charm incense Xiao Chunhe carried on him and asked, “Why is this stone so much more powerful than your charm incense?”
Even when Xiao Chunhe had fed the incense directly into his mouth, Yue Jingming had never hallucinated, much less been trapped in an illusion this oppressive. At worst, his qi and blood had reversed and his movement had been restricted.
Xiao Chunhe: “…”
Yue Jingming took the red jade and examined it carefully, then asked with genuine seriousness, “Is it because you are a half-demon?”
Xiao Chunhe gave a vicious laugh. “That fight just now wasn’t enough for you, was it?”
Yue Jingming had no idea why he was angry again and could only conclude that the man was extremely sensitive about being a half-demon. He said, “You’re already very powerful.”
“Hah?” Xiao Chunhe was so furious that the fur on his tail nearly stood on end. “Just because you’re Yue Jingming, you think you’re so formidable? If I used my full strength, you might not be my match!”
Yue Jingming met his gaze calmly. “Mm.”
Xiao Chunhe burst out laughing. “Fine! If you’ve got the nerve, let’s break this illusion right now and go outside to fight. If I don’t beat you until you’re crying your eyes out, my surname isn’t Xiao!”
Yue Jingming froze. “So your surname is Xiao?”
Xiao Chunhe: “…Didn’t I tell you?”
“His name is Xiao Chunhe. Brother Yue, you seriously didn’t know?” Liang Yun cut in, puzzled.
Yue Jingming looked at him. “How did you know?”
“When we were drinking earlier, Brother Xiao and I exchanged names. We even said we ought to become sworn brothers.” Liang Yun grinned.
Yue Jingming: “…”
Liang Yun laughed awkwardly. “Haha. Maybe Brother Yue happened to be out and didn’t hear us.”
For some reason, the usually gentle and modest young Daoist suddenly looked rather frightening. His face had gone cold, and he seemed angry. Liang Yun wisely attempted to salvage the situation. “Still, what a coincidence. One of you is Yue Jingming, the other Xiao Chunhe. Chunhe jingming indeed. Mild spring, bright scenery. The two of you fit together perfectly!”
Elio’s Notes: Liang Yun is playing on their names here: chūn hé jǐng míng (春和景明) is a classical phrase meaning “mild spring, bright scenery,” so Xiao Chunhe and Yue Jingming’s names slot neatly together into an auspicious-sounding phrase.
The moment the words left his mouth, both men opposite him darkened almost simultaneously.
“Did I… say something wrong?” Liang Yun laughed dryly.
Yue Jingming said coldly, “It is merely another fabricated name.”
“Heh.” A trace of disgust flashed through Xiao Chunhe’s eyes. “I’d rather it were nothing more than a fabricated name.”
Yue Jingming frowned at him. “You…”
“Brother Yue, Brother Xiao!” Liang Yun interrupted just in time. “I think the child is dying!”
While they had been talking, Ye Shijiu had collapsed beneath the cypress. His face was blue-white, and he was clearly breathing out far more than he was breathing in.
“We have to break the formation immediately.” Yue Jingming hurriedly sealed several of Ye Shijiu’s major acupoints, then looked at Xiao Chunhe. “If I break it by force, he will inevitably be injured. You know charm incense well. Is there a way to break the formation without harming him?”
Xiao Chunhe raised an eyebrow. “There is, but why should I help you?”
Yue Jingming’s gaze darkened. “Why say the opposite of what you mean? You risked divining the situation just now because you wanted to save him too.”
Xiao Chunhe clicked his tongue.
Liang Yun shouted, “He’s really going to die! He’s about to stop breathing! Save him first and have your lovers’ quarrel afterward!”
Xiao Chunhe punched him on top of the head. “Quiet!”
This so-called Phantom Immortal Stone contained the charm incense of at least a hundred foxes and had existed for many years. To Xiao Chunhe’s eyes, the charm incense looked like the entwining branches from the illusion, clinging tightly around Ye Shijiu’s dantian and continuously drawing away his life qi. Xiao Chunhe knew how to unravel it, but even for him the process was laborious. In his current adolescent body, with the cultivation level that came with it, his true qi soon ran dry and he could barely continue.
Yet he absolutely refused to lose face in front of Yue Jingming, so he gritted his teeth and forced himself onward.
Then a warm palm suddenly pressed against his back. Xiao Chunhe froze and turned his head. As expected, it was Yue Jingming.
“It will be faster if I help.” Yue Jingming steadily poured true qi into him.
“Hmph.” Xiao Chunhe turned back, formed a hand seal, and carefully peeled the phantom stone’s rootlike tendrils away from Ye Shijiu’s dantian.
Several hours later, the illusion around them gradually collapsed, finally revealing the true appearance of Xingyang Daoist Temple.
No one had tended the temple in a long time. Weeds had overrun the courtyard. Seven desiccated corpses had been crudely pieced back together and laid in a row beneath the cypress, their features long since unrecognizable. Ye Shijiu still wore the blood-soaked Daoist robe from that night. He sat beside the bodies with his knees hugged to his chest, staring blankly, his hair tangled and his body starved down to skin and bone. He looked nothing like the lively boy within the illusion.
No wonder a single shaobing had made him so happy.
Yue Jingming sighed softly, walked over, and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Shijiu?”
Ye Shijiu looked up, pleading and grief in his eyes. He struggled to open his mouth, but could only shape the words with his lips: Daoist… Master… Yue… Master… and… the others… really… cannot… be saved…?
Yue Jingming was silent for a long time, then gently nodded.
Ye Shijiu climbed to his feet, staggered over to the corpses, knelt, and knocked his forehead to the ground several times before them.
Xiao Chunhe had been tossing the phantom stone in his hand. At the sight, he stopped irritably, feeling as though a knot of foul anger was trapped in his chest with nowhere to go.
Liang Yun gritted his teeth. “If I ever find that man, I’ll tear him limb from limb.”
Yue Jingming took Ye Shijiu’s wrist and carefully checked his pulse. “I have a way to let you hear and speak for a short time, but it will injure your body. Are you willing?”
Ye Shijiu nodded in disbelief.
Yue Jingming took out the silver needles he carried with him and inserted them into several acupoints on Ye Shijiu’s head, then infused true qi through them and temporarily forced open the blocked meridians.
After more than ten years of silence, the world suddenly filled with unfamiliar sounds. Ye Shijiu’s eyes slowly widened, and he sprang straight up from the ground.
Yue Jingming immediately held him down. “Don’t move.”
Ye Shijiu looked at him in delight and opened his mouth. “Th-th-thank… you.”
The youth’s voice was clear and still carried a childish quality. He turned toward Xiao Chunhe and Liang Yun. “Th-th-thank… you…”
“Y-you-you’re… welcome.” Xiao Chunhe poked him in the forehead with the phantom stone. “Now tell us. Where did this thing come from?”
Ye Shijiu blurted anxiously, “I-I-I…”
“Aiya, you’re going to drive me mad. Give him a few more needles.” Xiao Chunhe crouched in front of him and sighed.
Yue Jingming said, “No. More would damage his foundation.”
Xiao Chunhe simply said, “Fine. I’ll speak, you fill in the rest. Understand?”
Ye Shijiu hurriedly nodded.
“Cen Shuang left this phantom stone with you, right?” Xiao Chunhe asked.
Ye Shijiu said, “Yes. He… used it… to control me.”
“Why control you? What did he make you do?” Xiao Chunhe asked.
Ye Shijiu said, “Use the illusion… lure people in… I drain their life qi… feed the stone.”
Xiao Chunhe looked at Yue Jingming. Yue Jingming gave the smallest shake of his head, but Xiao Chunhe deliberately asked anyway, “Then how many people did you kill?”
Ye Shijiu hurriedly shook his head. “None… you… first one… I didn’t dare… fox demon.”
“So you originally planned to lure me in and use me, and you deliberately got me drunk on Immortal’s Intoxication. Then you realized I was a fox demon and lost your nerve?” Xiao Chunhe said knowingly.
Ye Shijiu nodded. “Fox ears. Big tail. Like the foxes… behind the mountain.”
Xiao Chunhe clicked his tongue and tapped the stone against his forehead. “Do not compare me to those little wild mountain foxes. Call me the Fox King.”
Ye Shijiu covered his forehead and stammered, “L-long live… the King.”
“I went through all that trouble to save you. How are you going to repay me?” Xiao Chunhe’s eyes rolled slyly. “You don’t have a thing to your name, but that innate yuan core of yours is rather nice. Why don’t you give it to me?”
Ye Shijiu nodded without understanding.
“You agreed.” Xiao Chunhe smiled cunningly and reached toward his dantian, only to have his hand intercepted halfway. He turned. Yue Jingming. Again!
“His aptitude is exceptional, but he has never cultivated. Cen Shuang probably noticed that and spared him because he wanted to use his yuan core to nourish this stone.” Yue Jingming said, “If he formally begins cultivation, he will be a once-in-a-generation talent.”
Xiao Chunhe said with perfect logic, “If I refine his yuan core for my own use, then I become the once-in-a-generation talent.”
“Cultivation requires steady progress one step at a time. Seeking shortcuts will only harm you.” Yue Jingming clearly disapproved. “Besides, you are a half-demon. Cultivation is already difficult for you.”
Xiao Chunhe snapped, “Half-demon this, half-demon that. Are you going to tell me next that humans and demons walk different paths?”
Yue Jingming said coldly, “Humans and demons do walk different paths.”
Xiao Chunhe shot to his feet. “Are you determined to pick a fight with me today?”
Yue Jingming replied blandly, “…No.”
“Then what exactly did I do to piss you off?” Xiao Chunhe seized the front of his robe and dragged him aside. “You’re going to explain it to me right now.”
Liang Yun watched them and sighed helplessly. He took the pastries hidden in his robes and handed them to Ye Shijiu. “Eat something.”
Between the needles and the questioning, those two had not noticed at all that the child they had just rescued was on the verge of starving to death.
Ye Shijiu grabbed the pastries and wolfed them down.
“Slow down, slow down.” Liang Yun hurriedly handed him water.
After several ravenous bites, Ye Shijiu slowed. While eating, he watched the two men arguing not far away and asked in confusion, “Are they… enemies?”
Liang Yun rubbed his chin. “How could they be? Those two are being matched up as a pair of mandarin ducks.”
Ye Shijiu stuffed another pastry into his mouth, puzzled. “How… paired?”
Liang Yun’s old face reddened. “Kids don’t need to worry about that. Eat your pastry.”
Ye Shijiu blinked and stared at the two black-faced men in the distance, feeling more and more as though this pair of mandarin ducks was about to start fighting.
Very strange.