Li Qingqian entered the room. His body carried a slight chill, and in his hand was a crimson peony flower he had picked along the roadside.
When Hong Shao saw the flower, her eyes immediately lit up. She smiled and said, “Wow, it’s so beautiful! Is it for me?”
Li Qingqian nodded, not daring to look at her.
Hong Shao was extremely happy. Even illness had not changed her nature of always causing trouble wherever she went. She struggled to climb up from the bed, took the flower, smelled it, and grinned.
“It’s a pity my hair is so messy. Otherwise, I would have pinned it in my hair!”
“…I’ll comb it for you.”
In the past, she had always pestered him to braid her hair, so he did not think too much about it. He let her sit there as he helped undo her long hair, then combed it into the familiar drooping bun she always wore. The delicate, dazzling peony was gently placed among her ink-black hair.
Hong Shao touched the petals and laughed, coughing twice before shouting, “Big brother, bring me a mirror! I want to see if I look pretty.”
Li Qingqian said, “…Get off the bed and look by the table.”
As he spoke, he brought over her only pair of embroidered shoes and placed them in front of the bed.
From beginning to end, he never once looked into her eyes.
Only now did Hong Shao finally begin to realize that something was wrong.
She slowly turned her head and looked back at Li Qingqian.
The little gong that usually clanged noisily all day long had lowered its voice at this moment, like a timid kitten.
She looked at him questioningly.
“…Big brother?”
“…”
“Big brother, do you have something troubling you?”
His fingers clenched into fists, sweat seeping into his palms.
In the end, Li Qingqian still told her about the National Teacher selecting a Saintess.
While speaking, his head was lowered deeply. Perhaps he had thought that by doing so, he would not have to see the expression on Hong Shao’s face, and would not make himself feel even more guilty and miserable.
He indeed did not see Hong Shao’s expression.
But he saw several drops of tears fall.
They landed silently, soaking into the worn-out bedding.
“I… I…” The little gong’s voice was as light as a kitten’s. “I don’t want to leave…”
“…Hong Shao…”
Hong Shao suddenly burst into loud sobs.
“I don’t want to go! I don’t! Ever since I was born, I’ve been sold around from one person to another. Big brother, now even you don’t want me anymore? You’re going to abandon me too! You’re going to sell me to a fourth owner!”
“Even cats and dogs can’t endure being changed between four owners.” Hong Shao hugged her knees and cried miserably. “I’m a person… Even though I’m stupid, even though I’m foolish… I have feelings too. I can feel pain. I can be reluctant to leave you…”
“I don’t want to go! I don’t want to leave! Just let me die from my illness! I only want to stay with big brother every day!”
No matter how Li Qingqian tried to persuade her, she refused to listen.
And how could Li Qingqian truly watch her die from illness?
Seeing that he could not convince her, Li Qingqian hardened his heart. He suddenly stood up, turned around, and said:
“You should go to the National Teacher. Your illness can be cured there, and I can also obtain one thousand gold shell coins. You can preserve your life, and I can gain wealth. It will be good for both of us. Please help me.”
Hong Shao froze.
With tears hanging from her lashes, she stared blankly at him.
Li Qingqian flicked his sleeve.
“Let’s go.”
Hong Shao remained dazed, but still said:
“You… wouldn’t do that…”
“What wouldn’t I do?!”
Li Qingqian suddenly turned his head back. His eyes were red as he gritted his teeth.
“I’m begging you. For three years, I’ve taken care of you. I’m already exhausted from taking care of you. If I sell you, at least I’ll be able to eat a proper meal. Why are you insisting on following me? If you keep following me like this, what will happen to us in the end?”
Hong Shao stared wide-eyed at him.
The color slowly drained from her thin cheeks.
What would happen to them in the end?
Could they really hold a wedding and become husband and wife?
Could they really become wandering swordsmen, carrying swords as they traveled through the mortal world?
For one person to promise themselves to another person, to live together for an entire lifetime, was an endlessly long and difficult thing.
It was not something that could be achieved with only a burst of passion and two sincere hearts.
They needed money.
They needed trust.
They needed a path forward.
They needed hope.
And they lacked everything.
Three years was still possible. They could wander the world together, accompany each other through the mortal realm.
But what reason did he have to make her accompany him in poverty for a lifetime?
That street vendor had been right.
He could not even buy her the ugliest and most broken silk flower.
Their feelings were like the peony flower in her hair at this moment.
When first picked, it was so beautiful that nothing could compare, as if tomorrow would surely be infinitely wonderful.
But it would die.
If they stayed together, there would be no eternal silk flowers.
Only one night of crimson peony brilliance, before it withered and turned into mud.
In this world, many couples ultimately lost to money, lost to status, lost to health, and even lost to love itself.
Li Qingqian did not know what he had lost to.
Put simply, he had lost to poverty.
Put it more nobly, he loved her, so he could never stand by and watch her wither away beside him.
Perhaps then, he had lost to love itself.
But no matter how it was said, he was already someone who had suffered complete defeat.
Aside from sending her away, he had no other choice.
“A poor man bringing along a poor woman, only to eventually become a poor old man dragging along a poor old woman? Do you think I want to live such a life?! Have you ever thought about me?!”
Hong Shao stared blankly at him.
Since the day she met him, this was the first time her big brother had ever lost his temper at her like this.
She raised her head.
The peony beside her temple looked as if it were sleeping in spring, contrasting with the tear stains on her face.
She thought:
I have thought about it.
She had never dared to dream of wealth or honor.
The best ending she could imagine for her entire life was two poor old beggars walking together beneath the sunset.
The old woman would chatter loudly like a clanging gong, while the old man beside her would smile patiently.
Aside from their white hair and wrinkled, weathered faces, they would still be exactly the same as they were when they were young.
Only now did she realize that this ending had merely been too beautiful of a dream.
She had wanted too much.
It was something she could never obtain.
She was nothing more than a little slave girl who had sold herself to bury her adoptive father.
Three years ago, Li Qingqian had fulfilled her wish, which meant he had bought her.
Today, he wanted to sell her away.
What right did she have to say anything?
Hong Shao was not a girl.
Hong Shao was merely a small thing, a little trinket, born with a lowly fate and destined to wander and drift through life without a place to belong.
She had been a child bride in another household.
She had been a servant girl in a wealthy family.
She had been an adopted daughter bought by a farming household.
She thought she could call Li Qingqian “big brother” for the rest of her life and finally have a place where she belonged.
But in the end…
All it took was a gust of wind sweeping across the land, and once again she had nothing to rely on.
She still went to the National Teacher.
The evening bells rang in the fading twilight. The last rays of sunlight scattered across the clouds.
Following the attendant officer, Hong Shao walked step by step toward the high platform, toward the unreachable highest point at the end of the long stairs, to meet her fifth master.
The wind chimes beneath the eaves rang softly and faintly.
At the corner of the high platform, she turned sideways and glanced down toward the city tower.
Li Qingqian was receiving a heavy bag filled with money and silk from the attendant officer. After expressing his thanks, he slowly walked away.
She gazed at his departing figure.
She thought:
Turn around…
Could you say a proper goodbye to me?
Could you at least wave at me, so that I can willingly part from this beautiful dream that lasted for three years?
But then she thought again:
Forget it.
Forget it…
Her throat was filled with so much bitterness and attachment. If he looked back at her, she was afraid everything would collapse.
She was afraid she would become the same as when they first met—panicked, reckless, and without caring about anything else. Crying and shouting, stubbornly clinging to him, forcing him to take her along.
The wind rose.
It blew against the peony at her temple, making its fragrance and beauty even more vivid. Her sleeves fluttered in the wind.
Her eyes were blurred with tears, yet she slowly began to smile.
One thousand gold shell coins.
That could buy so many, many steamed buns.
Big brother would never go hungry again in the future, right?
Actually, it was better that he did not turn back.
It was better that he did not take her with him.
Three years ago, she only wanted to live.
That was why she could shout after his departing figure without hesitation.
But now…
She was afraid.
She was afraid that her cries would not make him stop.
And if that happened, the pain would be so great that she would no longer be able to take even a single step forward.
She still had to move on.
She had to move on…
Before her tears could spill from her eyes, she hurriedly withdrew her gaze. Lowering her head, she walked through the corridor where silk curtains and copper bells gently swayed, continuing upward.
Embroidered shoes beneath her feet.
A peony in her hair.
With the two of them being so poor, after three years, this was all the little trace of their memories they could leave behind.
On the high platform of the imperial nobles, beneath the hanging curtains, the faint sounds of strings and bamboo instruments drifted out. A singing courtesan continued to play and sing:
“Under the setting sun, cold crows bring endless sorrow.
The newly green willow pond, however, remains gentle.
If there were no parting regrets before one’s eyes,
One would never believe that white hair exists in this mortal world.”
The golden glow of dusk illuminated the tiled roofs, spreading across the towers and platforms in magnificent brilliance.
Carrying this final fragment of remembrance, Hong Shao walked.
One step.
Another step.
Further and further away.
“My heart is already broken, my tears impossible to stop.
Longing once again brings me to the little red tower.
Knowing that the mountains have already blocked our path,
I repeatedly lean against the railing, unable to be free.”
The blood-colored setting sun swallowed her delicate figure.
The surrounding scene sank down like the fading glow at the end of the world…
A farewell that lasted for a long time.
From that moment onward, Li Qingqian was alone.
He never again took anyone in to accompany him.
That thousand gold shell coins were almost entirely distributed among poor scholars. He himself did not spend even a single coin.
Many years later, when the peonies and tea roses bloomed in his courtyard, he finally comprehended his own Broken Water Sword Technique.
Its sound was like grief.
Or perhaps like the ringing of a gong.
The wind roared.
Lightning cried.
The Broken Water Sword shattered through the empty sky.
Everything that followed was like fireworks blooming in the endless night—before Mu Xi’s eyes, it suddenly extinguished.
When this rapidly passing lantern of memories finally stopped, they had arrived at the lonely desolate mountain covered with countless white bones.
That was the battle at Female Crying Mountain that the world knew so well.
Actually, when Mo Xi saw Hong Shao walking toward the city tower and becoming the chosen Saintess of Liao Kingdom, he had already felt a faint unease.
Mo Xi was not as simple as Li Qingqian.
He knew the madmen of Liao Kingdom too well.
Especially that rarely seen National Teacher, who was even crazier than a wild dog.
“Teaching the ways of astrology and praying for the nation’s fortune”—others might believe such words.
But Mo Xi did not.
Liao Kingdom ate human flesh and drank blood. They were utterly deranged.
Thinking about it, Hong Shao’s journey there was likely filled with misfortune.
Then, thinking of the rumors surrounding Female Crying Mountain—that Liao Kingdom had captured hundreds of girls, dressed them as brides, and used them to worship the mountain god—when the two matters were connected, Mo Xi had a general guess…
And the truth was that his guesses regarding Liao Kingdom’s actions were usually correct.
On Female Crying Mountain, there were countless fierce ghosts.
Li Qingqian subdued them all.
However, he was kind-hearted. After obtaining the souls of these girls, he did not wish for anyone to harm them. Instead, he decided to leave his Broken Water Sword manual with his younger brother to preserve and cultivate, while he himself carried those hundreds of souls away to a distant island, hoping to slowly perform rites to deliver them.
Delivering fierce ghosts naturally required doing so one by one.
He needed to gradually dissolve their resentment and allow their souls to reincarnate.
Every time Li Qingqian delivered a soul, he watched as the spirit departed toward rebirth, traveling westward across the vast sea.
Those girls who had died on Female Crying Mountain were all dressed in tattered red garments.
When their resentment remained, they had no consciousness.
After their resentment faded, they lost the memories of their lives.
Every day, he watched one ghost after another drift out of the soul lantern, filled with sorrow and resentment, then leave in confusion and emptiness.
Just like this.
Day after day.
The number of souls Li Qingqian delivered grew greater and greater.
Yet the unease in his heart only became stronger and stronger.
Because he discovered…
These girls all looked far too much like one person.
Like the person who had chased after him.
The person he had abandoned on the city tower.
Before female ghosts released their resentment, they would unconsciously repeat the final words they thought of before death.
Li Qingqian had heard many such words.
Some cried out in pain.
Some called for their parents.
Some murmured:
“Don’t bury me…”
“Don’t deceive me…”
“I don’t want to die…”
“Don’t bury me…”
“Don’t deceive me…”
“I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!”
These words, along with the similar appearances of the female ghosts, caused the unease in Li Qingqian’s heart to grow stronger and stronger.
Where had Liao Kingdom found these girls?
Why did they all possess such similar appearances?
There was an answer that seemed ready to emerge.
But he refused to believe it.
He refused to think about it.
The resentful ghosts inside the soul lantern gradually decreased.
Mo Xi could see that every time Li Qingqian released one, his hands trembled.
And when he saw that the female ghost’s appearance was not the Hong Shao he had abandoned, his trembling would finally stop.
Like someone who had stolen a breath of life, he would quietly sigh in relief.
Until he reached the final ghost.
That morning, Li Qingqian carried the soul lantern as usual.
Mo Xi could tell that his footsteps were much lighter than before.
Only one ghost remained on Female Crying Mountain.
Li Qingqian felt that perhaps he had simply thought too much before.
His Hong Shao should still be in the National Teacher’s palace, studying astrology and properly serving as the Saintess.
She absolutely would not have become what he feared in his imagination…
The final soul emerged like a strand of lonely smoke, weakly drifting out from the lantern before slowly taking form.
The female ghost had a petite figure.
She wore a phoenix crown and bridal robes.
But it was…
It was…
Li Qingqian felt as if struck by thunder.
The blood throughout his body turned cold.
Almost instinctively, he cried out:
“Hong Shao?!!!”
That thin reflection was like a nightmare that had finally arrived.
Hong Shao’s resentful soul floated blankly before him.
Her appearance was still the same one he had seen countless times in his dreams.
Even the phantom of the peony remained beside her temple.
Even the pale yellow embroidered shoes remained on her feet…
But she could no longer laugh loudly.
She could no longer jump around.
She could no longer chatter noisily like a little gong, arguing and making trouble with him.
She was merely like all the other fallen fierce ghosts.
Her mind and memories had already vanished.
Only a single strand of soul remained, drifting aimlessly before him, alone and without anything to rely on.
Even the simplest and most foolish person would understand at this moment.
The National Teacher had deceived them.
Those women who had been offered up had never become Saintesses.
They had become sacrifices for the mountain.
They had become scattered bones buried beneath the earth.
The schemes of those in power had deceived countless desperate lives.
Hong Shao floated in the air, murmuring the final words she had held onto before death.
Her eyes were empty.
She said:
“Turn around… Big brother… I wanted to properly say goodbye to you…”
Turn around.
I no longer hope to grow old with you.
I no longer hope that you will reach your hand out again and take me away to wander the world with swords.
I only wanted…
All this time, it was always me chasing after you.
All this time, it was always me watching your back.
When we parted, could it have been you watching me climb the city tower?
Could it have been you looking at me properly, just once?
I am unwilling to die like this, big brother.
In this lifetime, I never even got to say goodbye to you.
From Mo Xi’s perspective, he could not see what expression Li Qingqian had at that moment.
In the silence, there was no sound.
After a long time…
It was as if a flood had finally broken through a dam.
From Li Qingqian’s throat suddenly came a cry of grief almost like a beast’s wail.
It was hoarse and broken, the words unable to form into sound.
Blood and tears fell together.
The cries echoed through the dreamscape.
Every sob sounded as if it had been torn out from his throat along with his own blood.
He said:
“I shouldn’t have sent you away…”
“I shouldn’t have sent you away…”
“Had I not sent you away, I could not have healed you, but I could have stayed by your side and accompanied you properly. The one who suffered would have been me.”
“But I was so selfish. So weak.”
“I pushed you toward someone else, while I ran away myself, leaving all the pain to you.”
He knelt before Hong Shao’s departed soul.
Just like when they first met, when Hong Shao had knelt in the mud, trembling, shivering, crying in sorrow and despair.
I did not even have the courage to say goodbye to you.
I did not use a sincere heart to part from you.
That entire day…
From the first break of dawn until the sky was filled with crimson clouds.
It was the final time one person and one soul accompanied each other.
At last, darkness descended.
The resentful ghosts released from the soul lantern could no longer remain.
They would either fall into eternal suffering or be guided by him toward reincarnation.
Thus, Li Qingqian could only gather all his strength, his voice hoarse, tears flowing down his face, and recite the Rebirth Mantra again and again.
He sent her away.
He guided her away.
Across the vast sea of mortal existence, with Buddhist chants murmuring softly…
This time, it was he who watched her leave.
“Namo Amitabha Tathagata…”
Again and again.
“Jiamini Jiaqiena…”
Within the whispers of the Rebirth Mantra, Hong Shao unconsciously repeated:
“Big brother… turn around… look at me again…”
“I want to… properly say goodbye to you…”
“Big brother…”
Suddenly.
The black aura scattered.
At the edge of the sky, the clouds were thick and brilliantly colored. Ten thousand rays of golden light poured into the sea tide.
Li Qingqian’s lips trembled.
He recited the final syllable, then slowly raised his head.
Hong Shao’s soul had been freed.
Her eyes became clear yet empty, filled with confusion.
She no longer spoke.
It seemed she was puzzled as to why she existed within this vast mortal world.
Then she turned her head toward the final trace of twilight at the end of the ocean.
Without the slightest attachment, she turned and drifted away.
I want to properly say goodbye to you.
Li Qingqian finally broke down into silent sobs.
He watched her departing figure.
He chased after her departing figure.
Calling her name with a hoarse voice…
He stepped into the sea.
The seawater covered his knees.
Then his waist.
The waves crashed over him.
He staggered and fell to his knees.
Yet he did not lower his head.
He watched as she disappeared into the golden brilliance between heaven and earth.
Back then, when we parted at the city tower, I did not turn around.
This time, let me be the one to watch you.
Let me be the one to send you away.
In this lifetime, we will never be able to properly say goodbye.
But I will send you.
I will guide you back.
I will send you on your journey.
Hong Shao.
Hong Shao.
With words like these…
Could you forgive me?
Forgive my poverty and my weakness back then.
Have you forgiven me?
Can you forgive me…
The heavens and earth were hazy.
The setting sun wept blood.
The twilight deepened.
The last trace of light was swallowed by the ocean.
Darkness descended upon the lonely island.
The long night surged forward amid his cries of grief.
Mo Xi did not move.
He did not go over to look at Li Qingqian’s expression.
That shattered, broken face…
After spending half his life on battlefields, he had already seen it countless times.
It was the scene he least wished to witness.
Not long afterward, Li Qingsu went to Liao Kingdom.
He wanted to find that National Teacher and demand an explanation.
“What Saintess?”
“Was a Saintess meant to be used as a sacrifice for the mountain god?”
“They were sacrifices!”
“Sacrifices!!”
His Broken Water Sword had already been cultivated to its peak.
With a heart full of hatred and a belly filled with resentment, the hidden guards of Liao Kingdom’s royal city were no match for him.
He moved swiftly across the rooftops and beams.
In the end, he landed lightly before the National Teacher’s Hall.
Within three moves, he killed the two guards stationed at the side entrance.
Immediately afterward, he kicked open the palace doors—