Princess Mengze wore a pale-gold robe and shawl, her hair arranged in a Drooping Cloud coiffure. She walked in from the shadows of the flowers outside the door. Her maid, Yue Niang, followed behind her, carrying a golden-threaded huanghuali wood brocade box.
After entering the room, she swept her gaze over everyone’s faces one by one. She glanced at Gu Mang lying inside the gauze curtains, then finally settled her eyes on Mo Xi’s pale face.
“You’re going to disregard your own life again, aren’t you?”
“…”
Mengze’s eyes flickered with emotion.
“Last time, when your heart was shattered… it was also because you wanted to bring your senior brother back. He nearly took your life then. I was the one who saved you. I asked nothing of you in return. All I wished was that, from then on, whenever you encountered someone or something, you would first think about whether it was worth it.”
The room was frighteningly quiet. Only Mengze’s low voice could be heard, yet the grief in it was unmistakable.
She said each word slowly and clearly.
“Brother Mo, so many years have passed. Now I’m asking you: are you still going to be just as stubborn as you were back then, making the same choice again?”
Mengze was referring to the Battle of Dongting Lake all those years ago.
That year, he had wanted to exchange his own life for Gu Mang’s return. That was why he had stabbed himself through the heart during the Battle of Dongting Lake. The wound had been so decisive that even now, whenever he thought about it, he would feel a chill in his heart.
But now that he knew the truth about Gu Mang’s identity as a spy, when he looked back on it, all he could feel was how much pain Gu Mang must have been in.
—“What are you to me? Do you think that if you die, I’ll feel guilty and come back to you? Don’t be stupid.”
“When you’re a general or a soldier, when you’re born as a human being, you can’t cling too tightly to old affections.”
When Gu Mang had said those things and done those things, what had he truly been feeling…?
Mo Xi closed his eyes.
There was simply no way he could explain everything to Mengze in such a short amount of time, and he also felt that she could not immediately understand all the twists and turns involved.
His heart was already a tangled mess.
He wanted to preserve Gu Mang’s spiritual consciousness. He wanted to protect this man whose body was already covered in wounds. He wanted to seek the justice that was owed to the spy who had spent five whole years infiltrating the Ghost Realm.
But the words of the elder medicine cultivator from Shennong Terrace kept echoing in his mind—
He may forget everything… and become unable to speak.
If the collapse is severe enough, it may even damage his eyes.
In his memories, those bright, gentle black eyes curved into a smile, the joy rippling across them like stars floating upon water. The black eyes blinked once, and when they opened again, they had changed into a deep blue, like a pristine lake untouched by the mortal world slowly flowing toward him.
The carefree Gu Mang before the Reforging had laughed heartily without a care in the world.
The quiet and obedient Gu Mang after the Reforging had gazed at him peacefully.
They had called him—
“Junior Brother Mo.”
“Mo Xi.”
“My princess.”
“My master.”
Mo Xi’s hands were trembling.
He did not answer Mengze again. Instead, he walked to Gu Mang’s bedside and bent down, staring at that face, now deathly pale after the bloodstains had been wiped away.
After a long silence, he said to the elder from Shennong Terrace,
“Continue.”
A flash of anxiety finally appeared in Mengze’s eyes.
“Mo Xi—”
“I’ll explain everything to you afterward. As long as you trust me.”
Mengze: “…”
Mo Xi said, “I have to save him.”
The silence around them was terrifying. It seemed as though some invisible undercurrent was surging through the room.
For a moment, almost everyone thought Mengze was about to berate him, explode in anger, or completely break down.
But after a long pause, Mengze finally said slowly,
“…All right. Since this is your choice.”
She paused, then stepped forward.
“I’ll help you.”
Yue Niang was startled.
“Princess!”
Mengze seemed to be desperately holding some emotion inside. She had always been exceptionally good at enduring things in silence, but this time, almost everyone could see the pain and grievance surging in her eyes.
Her lips moved slightly, as though she wanted to say something else.
But she had probably overestimated the limits of her own endurance. Before she could speak, her eyes had already reddened.
She turned her face away and lowered her lashes.
Yue Niang was heartbroken. Forgetting all considerations of master and servant, she said sorrowfully,
“Princess, why… why must you do this to yourself…?”
Mengze closed her eyes for a moment, her lashes trembling. Once again, she forced herself to restrain her emotions.
This time, she finally managed to suppress the sorrow that was almost spilling over.
She opened her eyes.
“Bring me my medical kit.”
Everyone was stunned!
Was Murong Mengze actually planning to perform the medical treatment herself again?!
Chonghua had two Grandmaster medicine cultivators.
One was Jiang Fuli, among the Three Defilements of “Greed, Anger, and Delusion.”
The other was Murong Mengze, one of the Three Sages of “Precepts, Meditation, and Wisdom.”
But years ago, because she had exhausted the power of her spiritual core while saving Mo Xi, she could no longer personally handle many matters. Over the years, she had carefully nursed herself back to health, and only then had her body gradually recovered.
If she personally performed the medical arts again, she might achieve the best possible results, but she would probably become completely crippled.
How could Mo Xi possibly allow her to sacrifice herself a second time?
He immediately grabbed her arm and said quietly,
“Mengze, go back.”
“…”
“I already owe you one life. He cannot owe you another.”
With Mo Xi holding her wrist, water gradually gathered in Murong Mengze’s beautiful, elongated eyes.
Perhaps she had truly waited too many years and restrained herself too much.
The noble princess, who had always kept her emotions hidden, had actually reached the point of standing before everyone with tearful, reddened eyes.
“Brother Mo…”
“If something happens to him, you’ll be heartbroken. But have you ever thought about me?”
No one present had ever heard Princess Mengze reveal her emotions so intensely.
For a moment, everyone was at a loss.
They knew they should neither listen nor look, yet they could not leave the room. All they could do was stand there like wooden statues.
Mengze’s voice trembled.
“What do you think will happen to me if something happens to you again? I can never cultivate the orthodox path again in this lifetime. Is that really how worthless I am in your eyes? Am I only worth exchanging for these few short years of peace in your life?!”
As she spoke, the tears finally broke free.
They streamed down her crystalline, delicate cheeks and fell onto the back of the hand with which Mo Xi was holding her wrist.
“Your senior brother… if he truly means this much to you, then I would rather perform the forbidden technique one more time and save him for you! Brother Mo… I’ve done everything I can! I only ask that, from now on, you remember me a little more…”
“Then I also… I also…”
She suddenly closed her eyes.
Large tears rolled down one after another like pearls from a broken string.
Mo Xi’s state of mind had already been stretched taut like a bowstring.
Gu Mang’s condition could not be delayed any longer. He desperately needed to ask the elders of Shennong Terrace whether there was any other way to save him.
But at the same time, Mengze was standing before him like this.
He had absolutely no idea how to comfort a woman.
His heart was anxious and heavy, yet he did not know what he could say to make her stop interfering in this matter.
Mo Xi knew all too well how painful it was to owe someone a debt of gratitude that could never be repaid.
Every time he saw Mengze, he felt guilty and blamed himself. And that guilt and self-reproach were destined never to be compensated.
Because what Mengze wanted from him had already been given to the man lying on that bed.
There was simply no way he could give it to her as well.
That was precisely why, whenever he was in front of her, he never knew what to say or what to do.
It was as though he were bound by invisible puppet strings.
No matter whether he was willing or not, as long as Mengze asked something of him, he would do it.
The feeling of being unable to control his own actions was unbearable.
That was why he absolutely did not want Gu Mang and himself to incur another debt of gratitude that could never possibly be repaid.
And just then, the medicine cultivator who had been continuously maintaining the stability of Gu Mang’s spiritual consciousness suddenly coughed up a large mouthful of stagnant blood.
“Wah!”
The magical formation in his hands immediately dimmed.
The elder from Shennong Terrace cried out,
“What happened?!”
“His… his spiritual consciousness is too strange. Just now, an extremely fierce will suddenly surged out from inside him. This disciple is incompetent. I really can’t hold it…”
At that very moment, Gu Mang’s eyes suddenly flew wide open on the bed.
But he had not regained consciousness.
His eyeballs shifted from side to side, his pupils horribly unfocused. His lips moved as though he were muttering curses.
Then blood tears suddenly welled from the corners of his eyes and streamed down his long, phoenix-tail-shaped lashes.
A young medicine cultivator with insufficient cultivation cried out,
“What’s happening?!”
“This is…”
Mengze murmured,
“The Black Demon Curse is beginning to backfire inside his body…”
She suddenly looked up at Mo Xi.
“His consciousness has already begun to collapse. At this point, I’m no longer certain whether I can save him. If we can’t get it under control, Brother Mo—he will die.”
Mo Xi’s face went deathly pale!
Mengze saw all the concern in his eyes and said sorrowfully,
“…If you don’t want anything to happen to him, then let me try. Anyway… anyway, in your heart, I also…”
But before she could finish, a voice came from outside the door and interrupted her.
“Why must the princess be so pessimistic?”
The voice was lazy, carrying a natural hint of disdain and arrogance.
“In my opinion, the fellow on the bed has a very tough life. He won’t die, and his brain may not be damaged either.”
As soon as the words fell, a man dressed in blue with wide sleeves, his hair tied with a golden clasp, leisurely walked into the room.
“Isn’t there still me?”
If Princess Mengze’s arrival had already made the medicine cultivators present, all of whom admired her medical arts and magic, extremely tense, then the moment this man entered, nearly every medicine cultivator was ready to kneel before him.
“Greetings, Medicine Master Jiang!”
“Greetings, Medicine Master Jiang!”
Mengze was also slightly stunned.
“…Medicine Master Jiang…”
Jiang Fuli’s expression was indifferent, his eyes narrowed.
He always liked to squint.
Perhaps it was because he had spent so much time counting money that his eyesight had never been particularly good. Whenever he was not wearing his glass spectacles, his almond-shaped eyes always looked hazy and indistinct, like a misty rain falling over Jiangnan.
Jiang Fuli raised two fingers. Between his fair, slender fingers was a golden bank draft.
He turned toward Mo Xi.
“You sent a messenger spirit beast to deliver this to me?”
Mo Xi said, “Your wife said you had gone to the southern border…”
“Yes. But I hadn’t gone very far. Besides, why would I turn money away? I came straight back when I saw the draft.”
Jiang Fuli lightly flicked the gleaming golden bank draft, then glanced at Gu Mang on the bed.
“But his condition is pretty serious. Add three more.”
Mo Xi anxiously said, “My senior brother’s life—”
“His life and his eyes will be fine.”
Jiang Fuli paused for a moment, then walked forward and raised a hand, tapping Gu Mang lightly between the brows.
“…His spiritual consciousness is hard to say. But it won’t necessarily be beyond saving. We’ll treat him first and talk afterward. Whatever happens, I’ll do my best.”
Jiang Fuli was an indifferent man who took no side.
He had only one principle when doing things:
Money.
As long as the payment was sufficient, he would inevitably give it his all.
Jiang Fuli sat down beside the bed and reached out to undo Gu Mang’s robe, examining the scars covering his body.
As he looked, he sighed.
“You people spent half a day treating him and only managed this? Quacks.”
Everyone from Shennong Terrace: “…”
Jiang Fuli raised his long, slender fingers and swiftly tapped several vital acupoints.
The flowing blood immediately stopped.
He raised his hand.
“Hand it over.”
He did not say what he wanted, apparently assuming that the others could figure it out themselves.
The young medicine cultivator nearest to him hurriedly handed him the medical kit.
Jiang Fuli: “…”
“What do I need your crappy little box for? Give me gauze!”
The young cultivator was terrified when Jiang Fuli fixed him with his almond-shaped eyes. He trembled and hurriedly handed over a piece of gauze with both hands.
Jiang Fuli wiped the blood from several of Gu Mang’s more serious wounds.
But when he reached Gu Mang’s shoulder, he suddenly froze.
Mo Xi immediately asked,
“What is it?”
“…”
Jiang Fuli frowned as he stared at a scar on Gu Mang’s shoulder.
“This petal-shaped scar…”
“This wasn’t left by these injuries. He’s had it since he was young.”
“I naturally know it isn’t a new wound.”
Jiang Fuli’s gaze remained fixed on the scar.
“I just think it looks familiar. Why does it feel like I’ve seen a similar one on another patient before…”
As he spoke, he became uncertain himself and shook his head.
“Probably just similar. I must be remembering it wrong.”
With that, he tossed away the bloodstained gauze, straightened up, and began formally treating Gu Mang with magic.
Beside the table in the bedroom, the water clock dripped slowly.
The room was extremely quiet.
Jiang Fuli sat beside Gu Mang, two long fingers resting against Gu Mang’s wrist. While taking his pulse, he continuously sent magical incantation-based spiritual power into Gu Mang’s body.
The healing spells he used were different from Chonghua’s traditional magic, so the surrounding medicine cultivators could not make heads or tails of what he was doing.
They could only stare eagerly.
They watched as the wounds on Gu Mang’s flesh healed at an astonishing speed, while the bruising on his cheeks gradually faded.
Mengze said softly,
“Jiang Fuli, the one who can bring people back from the brink of death through the Unorthodox Path. Truly, your reputation is well deserved.”
Jiang Fuli replied calmly,
“The princess flatters me.”
The elder from Shennong Terrace cautiously approached and asked,
“Medicine Master Jiang, do you need anything else? Is there anything we can help with?”
Jiang Fuli said,
“Oh, yes. I do.”
The elder hurriedly said,
“Medicine Master Jiang, please tell us what you need. We’ll do exactly as you say.”
Jiang Fuli said,
“I need you all to be quiet.”
But it seemed as though the world was deliberately working against him.
Not long after he said those words, a young servant suddenly rushed in from outside, shouting at the top of his lungs,
“This is bad! This is bad!”
Jiang Fuli: “…”
Mo Xi abruptly turned around.
“What happened now?”
The servant cried,
“This is bad! Master, Steward Li is about to collapse out there! Duke Zhao is already furious. He says that you, Master, are resisting and disobeying the imperial decree. If you still refuse to come out, he’s going to lead people in by force and take you to the palace!”