Mo Xi carried Gu Mang out of the treatment room.
A secret kept in one person’s heart is called a secret. Between two people, it is called a pact. When a third person knows about it, it becomes leverage.
More than a dozen people had witnessed Mo Xi rescuing Gu Mang. Although they were all highly trained elite secret guards of the inner court, they were still human.
There was no secret in this world that could remain airtight once more than a dozen people knew about it. Thus, the matter of Lord Xihe risking his life to save a traitor spread throughout Chonghua City with wings.
There had already been plenty of obscene and salacious speculation among the common people. Once this news arrived, many people who had previously maintained a cautious and reserved attitude also began to question the matter.
“Has Lord Xihe gone mad? Why would he go this far for a rebel?”
“Huh? You still don’t know? Actually, the relationship between the two of them is nowhere near that simple.”
“I know they were brothers who had gone through life and death together, but—”
“Brothers who went through life and death together? You really ought to hear what Murong Lie has to say. He’s a member of the royal clan, so what he says probably won’t be wrong. I guarantee the truth will shock you so badly you won’t even be able to close your mouth!”
For a time, rumors and gossip swept through the entire city.
But Mo Xi had no mood to concern himself with such trivial matters.
Although he had arrived in time and rescued Gu Mang from the vortex of complete demonic transformation, that mysterious “assassin” had told Gu Mang about the Heavenly Tribulation Oath, delivering yet another mental blow to someone who had already been on the verge of collapse.
Gu Mang’s spiritual consciousness had finally been destroyed.
Just as Jiang Fuli had once warned, Gu Mang’s condition had now become even worse than when the Liao Kingdom had sent him back for peace negotiations.
At that time, although Gu Mang believed himself to be a wild wolf, he had at least retained quite a bit of the mentality of someone born human.
But after suffering another trauma, Gu Mang had almost completely lost his sense of human emotion after awakening.
—
“When the Liao Kingdom tempered him back then, their original intention was to turn him into a weapon made of flesh and blood. They didn’t need him to have any thoughts of his own. As long as he could obey military orders, that was enough.”
After Meng Ze finished examining Gu Mang’s condition, she stood beneath the covered corridor in the garden of Xihe Manor and spoke to the haggard-looking Mo Xi.
“However, I imagine this was also the first time the Liao Kingdom had attempted something like this, so they didn’t have very good control over it. That was why Gu Mang’s spiritual power merely underwent changes and his demonic aura became stronger. Other than that, there weren’t too many immediate abnormalities.”
“But when he later began showing signs of becoming violent and increasingly difficult for the Liao Kingdom to control, the Liao Kingdom chose to gouge out the two souls that governed his memories. They then sent him back to Chonghua so that they wouldn’t be affected by any unpredictable danger.”
“As you can see, he has now developed to the point of being completely out of control. Apart from not yet having been completely devoured, he has more or less become someone who cannot empathize with others…”
Meng Ze hesitated.
The word “monster” lingered between her vermilion lips, but she ultimately could not bring herself to say it.
Mo Xi’s expression was simply too exhausted and too painful.
She had grown up with him since childhood and had known him for so many years. She had truly seen him wear such an expression only very rarely.
Outside the covered corridor, a fine, lingering rain was falling. Red lotuses in the pond swayed with the wind, while a golden carp drifted out from beneath a broad lotus leaf, stirring up ripples that glittered across the water.
Amid the silence, Mo Xi suddenly spoke softly.
“But he still remembers me.”
Meng Ze: “…”
“After I brought him out of the treatment room, he was unconscious for nearly two days. Later, when he woke up, no matter what other people said to him, he would only respond faintly, without much reaction. But he still remembers me.”
Mo Xi lowered his eyes, as though speaking to Meng Ze, yet also as though reassuring himself.
“When I talk to him, he always responds.”
“That’s because he hasn’t been completely devoured by the Black Demon yet. In his current condition, his memories are basically gone, with only a very small amount remaining.”
Meng Ze sighed.
“Actually, I don’t know how much longer he can hold on.”
“Brother Mo, Apothecary Jiang told you before as well. If his two souls do not return after this collapse, then there is no way out.”
Mo Xi abruptly closed his eyes.
Raindrops struck the roof tiles, the eaves, and the Taihu rocks.
His black brows were tightly furrowed. Beneath his straight nose, his thin lips were pressed firmly together.
If it were only Meng Ze saying that there was no way to save him, then perhaps it would have been all right. At least he could still hold on to a sliver of hope.
But Chonghua’s foremost Apothecary, Jiang Fuli, had already warned him of the exact same thing before—
“Unless you find Gu Mang’s two missing souls, not even a great immortal can save him.”
Mo Xi’s fingertips dug deeply into his palm.
Suddenly, he asked, “On the Jiuzhou Continent, which medicine cultivators know how to perform soul-summoning techniques?”
Meng Ze suddenly froze.
“Brother Mo, could it be that you want to…”
Mo Xi turned around and said to her, “I want to summon back the two souls he is missing.”
The expression of almost indescribable absurdity on Meng Ze’s face was impossible to conceal.
She murmured, “That… that would undoubtedly be like searching for a needle in the ocean. Once souls disperse, they could be lost anywhere. Across this vast world, even if someone knows how to summon souls, finding them could take ten or twenty years and require enduring countless hardships. How could it possibly be something easy?”
“I know.”
Mo Xi stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the curtain of rain hanging like strings of pearls before the eaves.
“Finding those two souls will of course not be easy.”
He paused, his voice deep and steady.
“But abandoning him is even harder.”
“…”
“In the past, everyone thought my family was impoverished and that I was destined never to rise above my circumstances. No one was willing to pay attention to me.”
“When I first entered the military camp, I did everything alone. I guarded alone, investigated alone, ate alone.”
“Once, I fell into a pack of demon wolves and was covered in poisonous blood. At the time, I thought there was no one who would risk their life to save me.”
“Because in all of Chonghua, I didn’t have a single person close to me.”
Meng Ze felt somewhat awkward upon hearing this.
Back then, Mo Xi had been far too young, and her interactions with him had not been very deep. Now, hearing him recount this past, she did not know how to comfort him and could only softly hum in acknowledgment.
Mo Xi said, “He came to save me.”
“He didn’t consider whether he himself would be implicated. He didn’t consider whether he would be able to dispel the demonic aura after rescuing me. He didn’t care about my identity or my circumstances.”
“Now, Meng Ze, with me being the one in his position, it is the same.”
“No matter how difficult it is. No matter what the result is. No matter how long it takes.”
Mo Xi said, “As long as he is alive for one day, and as long as I am alive for one day, I will never turn back.”
“Until either one of us dies.”
Beside the pale courtyard wall, emerald-green bamboo swayed gently in the wind and rain, making a damp, desolate rustling sound.
Mo Xi spoke the final words.
“Or until he recovers.”
Meng Ze looked at the man before her.
In fact, she had heard quite a bit of the rumors and gossip circulating around the city these days. And as one of the people closest to him, she actually understood the truth far better than most people did.
She also understood what Gu Mang truly meant to Mo Xi.
But precisely because of this, she felt that Mo Xi was simply too strong.
He was clearly holding a handful of dying flames in his arms.
The road before him was clearly pitch-black.
The only news he received was the kind most capable of driving someone to despair.
Yet Mo Xi endured it all.
She had been a medicine cultivator for many years and had seen all kinds of people become timid, desperate, retreating, or lose control when faced with adversity.
For all kinds of reasons, she had seen children sorrowfully give up on seriously ill parents, husbands weakly abandon frail wives…
Perhaps those people had been forced into a dead end and could only bow their heads.
She was not them.
She had never lived their lives or experienced their hardships, so she did not want to presumptuously judge whether their choices had been right or wrong, selfish or cold-hearted.
But after witnessing the warmth and coldness of human nature for so many years, she still found her heartstrings trembling because of one person’s stubborn refusal to yield to fate.
Mo Xi did not complain.
He did not reproach anyone.
There was no unreasonable tantrum or collapse.
Although even a fool could see how unbearably heavy the emotions pressed between his brows were, and could see that even his fingertips were trembling faintly, this man lived with far too much clarity.
And he was far too ruthless toward himself.
He did not waste his energy on anything unnecessary, even if venting those emotions might have made him feel slightly better.
From beginning to end, he dealt with this nightmare—one capable of crushing his heart countless times—with a calmness that was almost cruel to himself.
Meng Ze finally let out a long sigh.
“Spirit-Summoning… is a branch of the Rebirth Technique, one of the Three Great Forbidden Arts. Aside from requiring a medicine cultivator to have sufficiently profound cultivation, mastering this technique also requires the right opportunity to learn it.”
“According to rumors within the Medicine Sect, most of those who know it are already great masters. Their whereabouts are unpredictable, and they are practically legendary.”
“However…”
Meng Ze paused.
Her slender fingers grasped the edge of her sleeve. As if she had made up her mind, she raised her head and said,
“I once saw a legend in a folk medicinal text. North of Lin’an City, there is a vast stretch of deep forests and mountains. An reclusive expert lives within those mountains and possesses the technique of rebirth.”
As she spoke, she could almost see a glimmer of light gather in Mo Xi’s dark eyes.
Meng Ze continued, “Spirit-Summoning is the first step of the Rebirth Technique. If the rumor is true, then this expert must be capable of summoning the two wisps of residual soul that Senior Brother Gu is missing… It’s just…”
She turned her gaze away and said quietly, “It’s just that this rumor consists of only a few scattered lines. There is no way to verify whether such a great cultivator really exists near Lin’an.”
“If there is, this person has hidden himself away in the mountains, so he certainly won’t be easy to find.”
“And the rumor also says that this person’s temperament is unpredictable. When he is happy, he saves people. When he is unhappy, he deliberately harms people.”
“So even if you really find him, you won’t know whether it will be a blessing or a disaster.”
But despite her attempts to dissuade him, Meng Ze could tell from Mo Xi’s expression that he would absolutely not abandon this path.
Meng Ze sighed.
“Brother Mo, if you really want to go, I can’t stop you.”
“The war between Chonghua and the Liao Kingdom has already begun. Brother Lian is also severely wounded and bedridden, his life still hanging by a thread, and we don’t know whether he can be saved.”
“If you can truly restore Senior Brother Gu to how he was before, that would also be an enormous benefit to Chonghua.”
“However, this matter is of great importance… I’m worried that at a time like this, Brother Wang may not be willing to let you leave the imperial capital.”
She paused before saying, “How about this? Go back to the residence and get some proper rest first. You also suffered quite serious injuries suppressing Senior Brother Gu’s demonic aura.”
“As for this matter, I’ll go explain it to Brother Wang and plead with him.”
After saying this, she gave Mo Xi a gentle, warm smile, though the sorrow hidden faintly in her eyes could not be concealed.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t the first person with the insight to recognize your worth, and when your family suffered its misfortune, I wasn’t by your side either.”
“…Let me help you this one more time.”
“If you can save the person you… the person you care about…”
She lowered her head. Fine strands of hair fell against her slender, fair neck.
“Then I’ll be very happy too.”
“Don’t worry. Leave it to me to speak with Brother Wang.”
The rain grew heavier.
Meng Ze explained a few points about the precautions for Gu Mang’s medication, then called Yue Niang. The two of them took their umbrellas and left together.
Mo Xi also entered the room to continue watching over Gu Mang.
Only a few servants remained standing in the empty courtyard.
Steward Li was among them.
“Master, why are you frowning? What are you thinking about?”
His newly accepted young disciple called Li Wei back from his wandering thoughts.
Li Wei turned his gaze away from the screen wall and cleared his throat.
“…Nothing.”
As if.
He had heard every word of the conversation between Princess Meng Ze and his master just now, and the more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt.
Li Wei had once been a servant in the royal palace.
He had seen far too many consorts and concubines.
Although those women came from noble backgrounds, when all was said and done, they were still human at heart.
And as long as someone was human, they would have feelings.
Feelings were not something that could easily be let go of.
That was why some people would sit alone before an empty bedchamber until dawn.
Why some people, upon hearing that a favored consort who had received immense favor had died of illness, would laugh heartily within their own palace.
Why there were schemes, hatred, and jealousy.
Why there were so many things that could not be relinquished.
But Meng Ze was a young woman who surprised Li Wei.
Although she had once struggled, grieved, and felt unwillingness, the struggle, grief, and unwillingness she displayed made Li Wei feel that they were all too false.
Like makeup painted across a beautiful woman’s face.
Feelings that could be put down so easily were not feelings at all.
Besides, she had already waited for Mo Xi in vain for more than ten years.
Or was it perhaps because she was one of Chonghua’s Three Gentlemen, and her bearing was indeed different from that of ordinary women?
Li Wei thought this over, and once again, he could not help slightly furrowing his brows.