Night had grown late, yet the sounds of laughter, flirtation, and plucked strings from Xinghua Tower continued without end.
Mo Xi took a side path toward the pavilion where Gu Mang was staying. He was not worried about being seen, because the cloak draped over him had been made by Yue Chenqing’s grandfather from the feathers of a Concealment Bird. Although the feathers of a Concealment Bird lost their effect once separated from its body, the Yue family’s ancestor had been a grandmaster of artifact refinement and had successfully preserved the feathers’ properties. The cloak he made could render its wearer invisible three times.
Mo Xi swept down from the eaves and silently stopped outside the terrace where flowers bloomed in abundance.
The eight-panel Nan bamboo sliding door was open at this moment. Gu Mang had not called back the flying celestial girl who had been playing the pipa. There was only him inside.
Gu Mang rested his cheek on one hand, sitting before the table with his eyes closed.
He looked as though he had already fallen asleep, yet also as though he remained completely awake. His long eyelashes trembled faintly with each breath. Wisps of incense smoke curled upward from the censer beside his hand, bathing his features in a soft haze…
Mo Xi gazed at him inch by inch, from the corners of his eyes and brows to his lips and jaw. Candlelight flowed across him like orange butterflies settling upon the tip of his nose.
Wrapped in the invisibility cloak, Mo Xi held his breath and quietly approached him. Looking down at that all-too-familiar face, he suddenly understood just how deep Murong Lian’s dependence on A Dream of Floating Life truly was.
Knowing it was laced with poison, knowing he absolutely should not touch it, knowing it could erode a person’s will and consume their muscles and bones, yet still indulging in the poison for the sake of temporary peace—
So this was how deeply his addiction to Gu Mang had already sunk into his bones and marrow.
As deep as smoke and hemp.
“Knock, knock.”
Suddenly, the closed door was knocked upon.
Mo Xi and Gu Mang almost simultaneously came back to their senses. Mo Xi took a step backward, while Gu Mang rose to open the door.
Mo Xi had assumed that another little demoness, one of those flying around the heavens and earth, had come knocking. But when the door opened and Gu Mang stepped aside to let the visitor in, he saw that the newcomer was not a singer.
Instead, it was a man who, like himself, wore a black cloak.
The man was not using an invisibility cloak, but his features were completely concealed behind a silver-gold face covering. Judging only from his tall, upright figure, Mo Xi could determine that he was most likely a man.
Who was he?
The moment suspicion arose, the cloaked man spoke. His voice had clearly been distorted with a voice-altering technique, making it sound extremely hoarse and strange.
The man asked, “Has anything unusual happened today?”
Gu Mang was silent for a moment before answering, “No.”
“Is that so?” The cloaked man seemed thoughtful. “Has no one come looking for you?”
Gu Mang still answered, “No.”
Seeing that he insisted on this answer, the man did not question him further. He placed a bundle he was carrying on the table.
“I brought this for you. Go change into it.”
Gu Mang lifted a corner of the bundle, but quickly closed it again.
He asked the cloaked man, “What does this mean?”
“You’re going to that place. You should make some preparations.”
Gu Mang’s fingertips were still resting on the edge of the bundle. At those words, they suddenly stiffened, his knuckles unconsciously curling as he gripped the cloth.
His reaction made Mo Xi even more puzzled.
Gu Mang had always been an extremely composed person. Even if the sky fell, he could probably use it as a blanket. Yet with just one sentence from this cloaked man, Gu Mang’s complexion had changed.
“The situation there… I’m afraid you won’t believe it if I merely tell you,” the cloaked man said. “Tonight, I’ll take you there to see it with your own eyes. Seeing is believing.”
Even the warm candlelight could not warm the pallor of Gu Mang’s face.
Gu Mang seemed to be suppressing an extremely complicated emotion. Even the color was gradually draining from his lips. He lowered his eyes, his shoulders trembling faintly. Finally, he picked up the cloth bundle and turned to the screen behind him.
When Gu Mang emerged from behind the screen again, he was wearing exactly the same outfit as the black-cloaked man.
A cloak embroidered with faint golden cloud-and-thunder patterns concealed him completely from head to toe.
Gu Mang said, “Let’s go.”
The two left Yifang Pavilion one after another, with Mo Xi following behind them the entire way.
A pleasure quarter was precisely the kind of place where people of all sorts mixed together. Whether madams or courtesans, everyone remembered three words: look less, ask less, listen less.
Thus, when the two oddly dressed men walked through the long corridor of the brothel, none of the serving girls showed the slightest surprise. They simply lowered their heads in greeting, then kept their eyes lowered and minds composed, allowing the two men to pass.
Gu Mang and the black-clad man remained silent along the way. Their relationship did not seem particularly intimate, either. The black-clad man walked in front, while Gu Mang followed silently behind him…
Mo Xi could not discern the man’s movement technique, and the aura around him was concealed perfectly. Without exposing himself, Mo Xi could not sense any further spiritual fluctuations from him. All he could do was follow them and see where they were going.
After roughly the time it took to burn one incense stick, their direction gradually became clear.
But the doubts in Mo Xi’s heart only grew deeper—
Was this… the direction of Battle Soul Mountain?
Sure enough, they eventually stopped at the foot of Battle Soul Mountain.
Eight years ago, there were still no guards stationed at the entrance to Battle Soul Mountain. However, because the summit contained the memorial tablets and tombs of the heroic martyrs of every generation of Chonghua, there was still an invisible barrier before the mountain gate to demonstrate solemn respect.
That barrier could dispel almost every disguise and invisibility technique.
This meant that Mo Xi’s pursuit had to end here.
Gu Mang lowered the hood of his cloak and looked up at the winding stone path. Pine and bamboo swayed on both sides, while the bright moonlight filtered through the leaves and scattered across the ancient blue-stone road.
The black-clad man asked, “What’s wrong?”
Gu Mang said, “I was thinking that very soon I’ll have to leave this place, and my hands will be stained with the blood of Chonghua soldiers. I…”
He did not finish.
Mo Xi’s heart tightened abruptly.
When the two of them had met earlier, Gu Mang had indeed lied to him.
Gu Mang had truly already decided at this point to betray his country and leave.
Gu Mang had truly already anticipated that his hands would one day be stained with the blood of his former comrades.
Gu Mang…
Gu Mang…
What are you doing this for? And who exactly is this mysterious black-clad man accompanying you?!
Mo Xi desperately suppressed his urge to go forward and tear off the man’s mask, even though the desire had already burned his eyes red and hot.
He had a premonition that if he removed this man’s mask, many questions would be answered and many mysteries would be unraveled.
But the clues would also end there.
He would no longer be able to discover anything else, and that would undoubtedly be a poor exchange.
Mo Xi swallowed and calmed the agitation surging inside him.
Then he heard the black-clad man say,
“The situation in Chonghua is simply like this now. You saw it with your own eyes after the defeat at Fengming Mountain. You and your army have fallen into ruin. There are only those who kick you when you’re down, and none who offer you a hand when you’re in need.”
The black-clad man seemed to see that Gu Mang wanted to argue, so he raised a hand.
“You don’t need to tell me that if Lord Xi and He were here, he would stand on your side. His support would be useless, too. You’re an intelligent man. You should already understand that Chonghua has always been ruled by the powerful and noble. With your strength alone, you cannot change anything.”
Mo Xi’s mind was buzzing chaotically.
This man was clearly trying to incite Gu Mang to rebel.
He was telling Gu Mang that Chonghua was in this state.
He was telling Gu Mang that no one stood on his side except Xi and He…
A person from Liao?
No.
Impossible.
What person from Liao could move so freely within Chonghua, as though no one else existed?
What person from Liao could stand so openly before Gu Mang without provoking Gu Mang’s intense disgust and causing him to turn against him?
Unless…
Unless Gu Mang trusted the black-clad man before him more than he trusted Chonghua itself.
But how could such trust be established in a mere ten days or half a year, through a few casual words?
Could it be that Gu Mang had been in contact with some Liao spy much earlier?
How was that possible?!
The black-clad man said, “Things have reached this point. Once you make this move to betray your country, there is no turning back.”
Mo Xi’s throat seemed to fill with a chilling taste of blood.
It had only been a single day.
A single day eight years ago, on the eve of Gu Mang’s betrayal.
Yet so many things had been buried beneath the sands of time—
His Majesty’s cold ruthlessness.
Lu Zhanxing’s stubborn determination.
The heavy thoughts in Gu Mang’s heart.
And this… black-clad man who was pushing Gu Mang toward the road to Hell without even trying to conceal his intentions.
Gu Mang listened to every word the black-clad man spoke, yet gave no response.
The night wind grew stronger.
The wide sleeves and hem of his robe fluttered like fallen flowers about to be swept away.
In the cold night, Gu Mang seemed chilled. His fingers curled slightly, as though he wanted to hide them inside his sleeves.
But at that moment, several slender fingers emerged from beneath the black-clad man’s sleeve.
He took Gu Mang’s hand.
The gesture startled not only Mo Xi.
Gu Mang abruptly turned his head as well, his dark brown eyes staring at the man in near disbelief. He tried to pull his hand away, but in the end, he did not.
The black-clad man said in a deep voice, “Marshal Gu, if you want to carve out a path, there is no such thing as keeping both hands clean of blood.”
As he spoke, he lowered his lashes and carefully examined Gu Mang’s fingers and palm.
“You already understand the power of Chonghua’s nobles. You’re an intelligent man. I won’t say anything more. Go up the mountain and see for yourself.”
The black-clad man paused.
“I hope that after you see it, you will understand what can be trusted and what cannot, what is worth it and what is not.”
Gu Mang abruptly closed his eyes.
The night wind howled against the hem of his cloak.
In this silent night, Mo Xi desperately wished Gu Mang would deny it outright.
He wished Gu Mang would push this black-clad man away and say, I don’t want to betray my country.
Even if he merely said, Let me think about it, that would have been enough.
But Gu Mang said nothing.
And Mo Xi’s heart slowly grew colder amid that heart-shattering silence.
Gu Mang said, “I understand. Let’s go.”
He dropped those words and walked straight through the barrier at the entrance of Battle Soul Mountain. His black robes rolled like clouds of ink, and without looking back, he headed up the mountain.
Mo Xi did not know how long they remained at Battle Soul Mountain.
His entire body felt numb.
One day inside the Time Mirror seemed to have opened a chest containing eight years of secrets, and an avalanche of them came crashing down upon him.
This man, whose back had always been straight as though he could withstand anything, was forced to lean against the stone wall just to remain standing.
Yet even standing there, his blood still seemed unable to circulate properly. His vision repeatedly went black.
One memory after another crushed his bones and severed his tendons.
In the end, he slowly slid down and sat beside the blue-stone path, bending over. He raised his trembling hand and covered his face.
There were simply too many threads to untangle, and instead they had become one enormous knot.
Moreover, how cold and detached would he have to be, how thoroughly could he convince himself that none of this concerned him, to retain a calm heart in the face of such stimulation?
When the first light of dawn began to seep through, Gu Mang finally descended from Battle Soul Mountain with the black-clad man.
As before, the black-clad man walked in front, while Gu Mang followed behind.
Mo Xi wearily raised his eyes. Blood vessels like spiderwebs filled his gaze.
Facing the blurry light of dawn, he watched the two figures draw closer and then pass through the barrier.
At this moment, Mo Xi’s mind was utterly chaotic. His entire body had been battered and broken.
For a proud man favored by Heaven like him, even if someone asked him now to recite the Record of the Tribulations of Fufeng Heaven, which he had been able to recite backward since childhood, he might not have been able to say a single line.
Yet even in this state, amid the hazy morning mist and drifting clouds, the moment he saw Gu Mang, he still realized—
Gu Mang had cried.
Gu Mang was a very strong man, but a strong soul did not necessarily have to be housed within a strong body.
Gu Mang’s body was warm and soft. His eyes were as gentle as an epiphyllum blooming in the night, easily brought to tears by sorrow and emotional pain.
And Mo Xi had once explored Gu Mang’s body as intimately as he had explored his own heart. He had memorized the state of Gu Mang’s body under every possible emotion.
The moment he saw the faint redness around Gu Mang’s long, narrow eyes, he knew that Gu Mang had cried.
Why had he cried?
For whom?
For the irreparable past, or for the all-or-nothing future?
The two stopped at the foot of the mountain.
The black-clad man looked up at the sky and said, “It’s getting late. If we don’t leave soon, someone will discover us.”
“Yes.”
Gu Mang’s voice was moist and faintly hoarse. He gave the black-clad man a perfectly proper bow.
“I’ve seen what I needed to see. Thank you for accompanying me tonight. We’ll part ways here.”
“No need. You should also… take good care of yourself.”
With a flash, the black-clad man launched himself into the air with his lightness technique. His speed was so fast that it was impossible to see clearly, and he disappeared into the faint dawn light.
Gu Mang turned back for one final look at Battle Soul Mountain, shrouded in clouds and mist. He tightened the black cloak around his shoulders, as though it concealed some secret beneath it that could never be revealed to anyone.
He lowered his head and walked away as well.
After Gu Mang left, Mo Xi no longer needed to hide himself.
He dispelled the spell and went alone up Battle Soul Mountain. He searched for traces and clues, eventually reaching the Forbidden Grounds of Battle Soul.
Gu Mang had previously told him that the Forbidden Grounds of Battle Soul Mountain seemed “strangely familiar” to him, so Mo Xi believed that this was most likely the place they had just visited.
Although the Forbidden Grounds had been constructed at the order of the royal family, eight years ago it was still only a crude prototype. Breaking through the barrier was therefore not particularly difficult.
Mo Xi stood outside the Forbidden Grounds on the barren mountain, pressing his fingers against the flowing barrier array.
He could sense that it was merely an ordinary high-level defensive array, nothing like the impenetrable barrier eight years later.
Yet he was now inside the Mirror, an uninvited visitor whose spiritual power and techniques had been greatly weakened.
Thus, even though the array was imperfect, he still could not break through it…
The light of the barrier around the Forbidden Grounds continued surging, as though mocking this wandering soul from eight years in the future.
—
“The situation in Chonghua is simply like this now. You cannot change anything by yourself.”
“Marshal Gu, if you want to carve out a path, there is no such thing as keeping both hands clean of blood.”
“You already understand the power of Chonghua’s nobles.”
“Once you make this move to betray your country, there is no turning back…”
Who exactly was the black-clad man?
The meaning behind his words was clearly to make Gu Mang see Chonghua’s bloodline-based hierarchy, choose a new master, and abandon his old allegiance. His words sounded remarkably like those of a military officer from Liao attempting to incite a rebellion.
But had Gu Mang truly allied himself with someone from Liao so early?
Besides that possibility, there was another.
Since the Forbidden Grounds of Battle Soul Mountain had been constructed at the command of the royal family, perhaps a nobleman with an opposing position had discovered something inside, learned of His Majesty’s plans, and developed rebellious intentions.
Perhaps he had brought Gu Mang there to see it with his own eyes, hoping to make Gu Mang grieve, lose all hope, sever ties with the Chonghua royal family completely, and carve out a new path elsewhere.
But that theory had its own contradictions.
Although there were undercurrents within the Chonghua royal family, what nobleman would truly want to overthrow a government that placed bloodline above all else…?
Question after question seemed to pound against his heart.
Mo Xi felt as though he were standing in the middle of a fog. He groped through it, yet could not grasp the truth.
The secret separated from him by that barrier ultimately remained unknown.
The only thing he could be certain of was that Gu Mang’s betrayal back then was indeed far more complicated than it appeared.
Even after returning to Xi and He Manor, Mo Xi had not fully recovered.
Shuangqiu approached cautiously with a tray of pastries.
“Master?”
“…”
“Master, did you not sleep well last night?”
Mo Xi said nothing.
He could imagine how terrible and ridiculous he must look now.
Ancient books said that entering the Time Mirror was a matter of surviving nine deaths before finding a chance at life. He had once thought the statement absurd, but now he felt that it was not exaggerated at all.
Not to mention Gu Mang, who had already been completely hypnotized—even he, as someone who had been dragged into the past alongside him, could not escape the fate of being tormented by the Mirror.
In every person’s life, there were always regrets, more or less.
And in every cycle of life, there would always be secrets of all kinds hidden away.
When faced with those regrets, how could someone who returned to the past not wish to make amends?
When faced with those secrets, how could someone who came from the future not be shaken?
Once a person returned to the years inside the Mirror, they would discover that perhaps nothing more than one careless word or one wrong thought could turn the vast sea into mulberry fields.
Or perhaps, like him, they would discover that many “facts” they had taken for granted were nothing more than an embarrassingly crude layer of heavy makeup, deceiving them for eight whole years.
And as for what the truth actually was, he had no way of knowing.
Mo Xi’s head throbbed violently, and he was almost driven mad by the pain.
Shuangqiu said, “Master, you…”
The hand holding the teacup suddenly lost its strength.
With a sharp crack, Mo Xi crushed the porcelain cup into fragments with his bare hand.
Shuangqiu cried out. Blood immediately flowed from his sliced fingertips, winding across the pale backs of his hands.
He hurriedly said, “M-Master, I’ll take care of—”
“Get out.”
“Master?”
Mo Xi’s dark eyes were so bloodshot that they seemed covered by a layer of red clouds. He stared at his bleeding hand and said hoarsely,
“Get lost.”
Shuangqiu dared not say another word. He hurriedly gathered the tray and dishes and left in a panic.
Mo Xi did not wipe the blood from his hand.
He even hoped that this slight pain could bring him back to greater clarity.
The clarity he desperately needed.
There were still two days before the day Lu Zhanxing would be executed.
He felt that he could endure it, without acting on impulse and disrupting the past inside the Time Mirror.
He also hoped that Murong Chuyi and the others would not defeat the Shanguai too quickly and rescue them from the Mirror.
Reality had already sealed this portion of the past and buried it.
He wanted to remain here in the eight-years-ago past a little longer—
Gu Mang had once said that even if flames burned his limbs and bones into ashes, he still wanted to kindle a light.
As for him, he was not like Gu Mang, carrying some heroic dream within his heart.
But even if pain reduced his muscles, bones, flesh, and blood to dust, he still wanted to dig out the truth.