Only the two of them remained in the tent.
Mo Xi walked to the bed and sat down beside Gu Mang. He raised a hand and touched Gu Mang’s forehead—it was still somewhat hot to the touch, but at least it was much better than it had been over the past few days.
“Meng Ze said you woke up during the day, but perhaps my luck is just bad. Every time I come to see you, you’re asleep.” Mo Xi spoke to him in a low voice, as though hoping he would hear him, yet also hoping not to disturb him.
When a person faces the one they love most, no matter how powerful they usually are, they become vulnerable.
“The Blood Fiend Beast’s remnant soul has already been sealed away again. It’s been secured properly, and you’ve completed your mission once more,” Mo Xi said softly. “You… no matter how difficult the task someone gives you is, no matter how harsh their demands are, you always manage to accomplish it. His Majesty has never been wrong about you… You’re better at getting things done than anyone.”
He lowered his head, gently resting his forehead against Gu Mang’s.
“But when will you start caring about yourself a little more?”
The person lying on the bed was utterly still, his long, soft eyelashes casting deep shadows over his eyelids.
Mo Xi said quietly, “You clearly knew the Black Demon energy within you was already impossible to suppress, yet you still chose to unseal the demon wolf’s blood, all so you could hold off the State Preceptor and give Murong Lian enough time to deliver the brocade pouch into my hands.” He closed his eyes, his eyeballs shifting restlessly beneath his thin eyelids.
“Senior Brother…”
The sleeping man gave no response. Mo Xi remained with his forehead pressed against his for a long time before saying, “You’ve done everything you could. Once we return to the capital, you can focus on recovering. You don’t need to worry about anything anymore. I’ll take care of everything.”
“…”
“I don’t know how long I’ll be able to protect you, but as long as I’m alive, I won’t let anyone bully you.”
“…”
“Rest easy.”
After saying that, Mo Xi stayed with him for quite some time. It wasn’t until a messenger arrived with an urgent report on the situation of the displaced refugees in the eastern part of the city that he finally rose and left the tent.
The wind outside was howling fiercely. When the tent flap was lifted, it carried with it the sharp rustling of the wind. Once it fell back down, the tent returned to silence.
Amid that soundless stillness, the eyelashes of the person lying on the bed trembled faintly. Tears trickled down his soft cheek and disappeared into the hair at his temple.
Gu Mang slowly opened his eyes.
He had never actually been asleep.
Every night when Mo Xi came to see him, he was awake.
He simply didn’t know how to comfort himself, nor how to face him.
He feared neither Heaven nor Earth. The only thing he feared was parting.
That day, he had broken his own seal and unleashed all the demon wolf blood within him to fight the State Preceptor. From that moment onward, the Black Demon energy inside him had run completely out of control. He could feel his memories practically collapsing as they slipped away, and there was no way to conceal such a loss, no matter how hard he tried.
And Mo Xi already had so many things weighing on him. If every day when he came to see Gu Mang, he discovered that Gu Mang’s mind was less clear than it had been the day before, what would happen to him?
A swift blade taking one’s head was certainly frightening, but a dull knife cutting flesh inch by inch was even more agonizing.
Gu Mang didn’t want to drag Mo Xi into that suffering, so he would rather choose not to speak to Mo Xi directly.
Only when night fell and the great tent was empty would he reach beneath his pillow and bedding and take out the collection of memories he had written down before. He would carefully unfold and smooth the pages, like a drowning man clutching at a piece of driftwood, reading through them over and over with an almost obsessive determination.
At first, he could still force himself to recall what was written there.
But as one day passed, then another, the words on the paper increasingly began to resemble someone else’s story.
By today, he could barely remember any of the details in half the book.
Gu Mang raised a hand and pressed the wrinkled pages, worn from being read so many times, against his chest. He pressed so hard that the veins on the back of his hand stood out, clutching the memory book against himself as though doing so could lock all those shattered memories back inside his heart.
Curled up on the bed, he ultimately spent the entire night without sleep.
It took seven days to restore Daze City after the battle.
By the evening of the seventh day, everything concerning the army had been settled, and they were preparing to break camp and return to the capital.
By then, almost none of the memories Gu Mang had regained through the Temporal Mirror remained.
But that wasn’t even the worst part.
Even if his memories were incomplete, at the very least he could still function as he had before going to Bat Island.
The most terrible thing was that, because the Black Demon energy had become uncontrollable, Gu Mang’s mind was constantly on the verge of collapsing and running wild.
Meng Ze had to give him calming medicine every day just to barely suppress the evil energy within him.
That night was no exception.
Gu Mang finished the medicine Meng Ze brought him as usual, then sat on the edge of the bed, silently playing with his fingers while wondering what kind of demeanor he should adopt when facing Mo Xi the next day.
He couldn’t keep pretending to be asleep forever.
Just as he was lost in thought, he suddenly heard a guard outside say, “Princess, Lord Wangshu requests an audience.”
Meng Ze was putting away the medicinal soup. At those words, she froze and exchanged a glance with Gu Mang.
Gu Mang was slightly surprised. “Why is he here…”
“I don’t know, but put your mask on first.” As she spoke, Meng Ze handed him the face covering.
Although most of the cultivators in the army now firmly believed that this mysterious “personal attendant” was Gu Mang, and the truth was already practically an open secret, there was still a difference between having it exposed and not having it exposed.
At the very least, that final layer of paper still needed to remain intact.
Gu Mang had just put on his mask when Murong Lian swaggered in.
The moment he entered, his peach-blossom eyes swept over Gu Mang before settling on Meng Ze.
Meng Ze placed the last packet of medicinal powder into the medicine box, then turned to Murong Lian with a smile.
“Brother Lian, we’re breaking camp and returning to the capital tomorrow morning. Why aren’t you resting early and getting enough sleep? What brings you here?”
Murong Lian said nothing. He took a couple of puffs of Fusheng Ruomeng, then his gaze returned to Gu Mang.
Finally, he exhaled a stream of pale smoke, pointed his pipe at Gu Mang, and said, “I’m not here for you. I’m here for him.”
Meng Ze’s expression changed slightly, but she still spoke gently.
“He’s only a lowly personal attendant. If you have something to say to him, perhaps you should—”
“A lowly personal attendant?” Murong Lian sneered. “Meng Ze, fine, if you want to help Mo Xi hide this from everyone else. But why bother hiding it from me too? Do you really think I don’t know who he is?”
“…”
“When he handed the brocade pouch to me and asked me for help, he revealed his identity to me himself.”
Meng Ze fell silent.
Murong Lian said, “Gu Mang, come here.”
Meng Ze hurriedly said, “Brother Lian, he suffered tremendous damage when he unsealed the demon wolf’s blood before. His consciousness has also been unstable these past few days, and he can easily lose control. You should go back for now. Whatever you have to say can wait until we return to the capital.”
“What do you mean? Do you think I’m going to beat him up? Or that he’s going to beat me up?”
“…”
Murong Lian gave her a cold look.
“Relax. Your brother isn’t going to stoop so low as to fight some useless brat.”
With that, he impatiently waved at Gu Mang again.
“Come here. I have something to say to you.”
Gu Mang thought for a moment and got to his feet, but Meng Ze said, “Your mind is unstable. You really shouldn’t go—”
Murong Lian ignored her. Without another word, he grabbed Gu Mang by the hand and dragged him outside the tent.
On the eve of their return to the capital, the cultivators were all busy packing their belongings, and there was hardly anyone around the main tent.
Murong Lian dragged Gu Mang quite a distance without saying a word, finally releasing his hand only after they reached a secluded riverbank on the outskirts of the city.
Gu Mang didn’t understand.
He rubbed his reddened wrist. “What is it?”
Murong Lian didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he paced back and forth along the riverbank.
Moonlight illuminated the rippling water, its reflections falling across Murong Lian’s pale face. He looked rather agitated. His collar was slightly open, revealing layers of overlapping bandages beneath. He had also been seriously injured in the previous battle, and despite recuperating all these days, he still looked somewhat listless.
His silk shoes crunched over the scattered stones along the edge of the riverbank.
After pacing several times, Murong Lian finally stopped.
He stared at Gu Mang, raised his hand, and took several hard pulls from Fusheng Ruomeng before speaking stiffly.
“There is something I want to confirm with you.”
“…”
He took two more harsh puffs.
Then he raised his peach-blossom eyes and glared fiercely at Gu Mang.
“But before I say it, let me ask you one thing. Just how much of your memory have you recovered, you bastard?”
Gu Mang answered honestly, “…I had recovered quite a lot before. Now I probably don’t even have twenty percent left.”
Murong Lian looked as though he had choked on something. His expression darkened even further.
“Then do you still remember Aunt Ni?”
Gu Mang shook his head.
He had barely shaken it twice when Murong Lian shouted furiously.
“Why are you shaking your head?! You still remembered her when you asked me to deliver the brocade pouch a couple of days ago. Think carefully before you answer me!”
“…I think I remembered her a couple of days ago. Now I can’t remember clearly.”
Murong Lian cursed under his breath and said irritably, “Back at Wangshu Manor, I asked you to tell me the truth, but you kept playing dumb, pretending to be crazy and stupid. Well, now you’re actually stupid again. Damn it! What use are you?”
After saying that, he cursed and kicked a stone.
Gu Mang said helplessly, “What exactly did you come here to tell me? Surely you didn’t come all this way just to curse at me a few times?”
“Obviously! I came to see you because I have something to say. Otherwise, who the hell would want to look at that face of yours?”
Gu Mang touched his mask, confirming that his face was completely covered.
Murong Lian was simply being unreasonable.
Gu Mang said, “Then go ahead.”
Murong Lian opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
After repeating this several times, he cursed and turned his head away. He walked to the edge of the riverbank by himself, took two hard pulls from Fusheng Ruomeng, then suddenly exhaled the smoke.
Amid the pale green haze, Murong Lian looked gloomy.
“There is something you told me back when your mind was still clear. I originally wanted to find you and confirm it again.”
“…”
“But at the time, I thought what you said was too absurd, so I didn’t really believe you. Until all these things happened recently.”
Gu Mang’s eyes widened slightly.
“Huh? I told you something?”
Murong Lian snorted.
“Did you tell only me?”
Another nasal snort.
“When?”
Murong Lian snorted again before answering, “When you had just been sent back to Chonghua.”
Gu Mang looked at his reflection in the lake, somewhat bewildered.
“Really? But I should already have been confused by then. I vaguely remember something. Before Liao sent me back to the city, they had damaged my memories again.”
Murong Lian exhaled smoke.
“If they had really destroyed your memories completely, would you still have even that little bit of an impression?”
Gu Mang: “…”
That did seem to make sense.
Murong Lian said, “Listen carefully. What I’m about to tell you is exactly what you told me yourself when you returned to the city. At first, I thought you were a deeply calculating person who held a great deal of hatred toward Chonghua, so I didn’t want to believe your attempts to sow discord. But now…”
He lowered his eyelashes and shook the ashes from the bowl of his pipe.
The ashes drifted into the wind like specks of lingering snow.
Murong Lian pondered for a moment, seemingly making his final decision.
At last, he raised his head and looked at Gu Mang.
“What you said may not necessarily have been false. But there are some things I still need to verify with you. Are you—”
Before he could finish, a fierce gust of wind suddenly stabbed sideways!
Murong Lian instinctively startled and raised his palm, unfolding a layer of protective barrier.
With a crisp crack, a sharp arrow carrying wood-and-water spiritual energy shot from the dark forest and struck directly against the barrier, exploding violently on impact.
“Bang!!”
Murong Lian had been weak for a long time, and his previous injuries had yet to heal. Under this single strike, the barrier shattered and crumbled into dust.
He fell onto the jagged riverbank, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
After only one exchange, Murong Lian already knew that his opponent was far stronger than him.
He had no time to put up a second defense. He immediately reacted and shouted fiercely at Gu Mang:
“Run!!!”
Gu Mang was horrified!
The surrounding trees looked like countless ghostly shadows. From among the branches and treetops came the continuous rustling of assassins rushing through the darkness.
Murong Lian took a breath and shouted, “Run! What are you waiting for?!”
“But you—”
From deep within the forest came a voice that had clearly been distorted by illusion magic.
“Lord Wangshu, you don’t need to be in such a hurry to make him run. No one is going to hurt him.”
Murong Lian said coldly, “What are you?”
“Heh heh. Do you think I’d tell you?”
The voice gave a sharp, night-owl-like laugh.
“In the imperial palace, among royal bloodlines, there can actually be someone as naive and ridiculous as you. Murong Lian, you’ve truly opened my eyes.”
Murong Lian bit his bloodstained lip.
Suddenly, he raised his hand and rapidly formed a defensive barrier, signaling to Gu Mang.
“Run!”
“Ridiculous!”
With a loud bang, accompanied by the other person’s mocking sneer, the barrier was violently shattered.
“You think that with your frail body and Gu Mang’s damaged body, either of you can escape alive?”
“But Murong Lian, you can rest assured. I’m only here to kill you. As for him…”
The person’s laughter pierced into their ears like sharp needles.
“If I kill him, then tell me, who will take responsibility and pay the price for your death?”
“Don’t worry. Your death won’t be very painful, nor will it be very disgraceful. On the contrary, it will be very valuable.”
“Come. Attack!”
The assassins moving swiftly among the trees immediately surged out at the command.
More than a dozen cultivators dressed in black and armed with bows and arrows stood atop the fir trees, surrounding them like a pack of wolves closing in on their prey.
At their head was a man wearing a black cloak trimmed in gold.
He leaped into the air and landed lightly atop the highest tree, the full moon behind him in the night sky.
Gu Mang looked up at the group of assassins.
He had intended to raise his hand and summon Yongye, but his body could no longer withstand any Black Demon spell.
At the instant he tried to summon it, a sudden, excruciating pain erupted inside his head.
Then he abruptly fell to his knees.
His vision swayed. His ears rang.
In his dazed state, Gu Mang heard the black-clad assassin coldly issue the order:
“Execute Murong Lian on the spot.”
“Fire!”