Again and again, the bell rang—deep and prolonged.
The black-clad figures surrounding them did not move, as if they too were waiting for the bell to stop.
The leader lowered his head and glanced at the bronze mirror in his hand. His brows furrowed slightly before he looked up, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Jiang Wan and Sheng Zixu.
“Which one of you is injured?” he asked coldly.
Jiang Wan’s heart stirred.
The question was strange. They clearly knew Sheng Zixu was the target, yet he was asking which one. That meant the order had changed—or perhaps the order had never been clear to begin with.
She did not answer.
Neither did Sheng Zixu.
After waiting a few seconds, the leader lifted his chin toward two of his men.
“Take them both back.”
“Wait,” Jiang Wan said.
The leader looked at her.
“Your orders are to take the injured person back, right? You don’t know which of us is injured—or perhaps you think both of us are—so you’re planning to take us both to avoid making a mistake.”
The leader’s expression changed slightly, but he said nothing.
“You’re uncertain, but I can tell you.”
Jiang Wan pointed at Sheng Zixu.
“He’s injured. I’m not. He’s your target. Take him and let me go.”
Sheng Zixu turned to look at her, disbelief appearing in his eyes, but he remained silent.
The leader sneered.
“You think I’ll let you go just because you say so?”
“If you don’t, that’s fine too. But he’s seriously injured. If you delay any longer, he might die.”
Jiang Wan’s tone remained calm.
“If he dies, you won’t be able to report back. I’m alive, but I have no use to you. You’d only have one more person to keep alive. It isn’t worth it.”
The leader stared at her for several seconds before lowering his eyes to look at the bronze mirror again.
Taking advantage of the moment, Jiang Wan probed his thoughts.
Over and over again, only one sentence surfaced in his mind:
Lord Guixu wants them alive. They cannot die. They cannot die.
Beneath that thought was another layer of anxiety.
It wasn’t because they feared losing their targets.
They were running out of time.
Something was approaching. Something they were rushing toward.
She couldn’t see clearly what it was, but the emotion surrounding it was overwhelming.
“I won’t go with you,” Sheng Zixu said.
His voice wasn’t loud, but it was firm.
“You take her or you take me. Choose for yourself. Don’t regret it if you choose wrong.”
The leader glanced at the chipped broken blade hanging at his waist, then at the blood-soaked bandages around his shoulder. He gave a contemptuous snort.
“You’re already in this condition. You can still fight?”
“I can kill one.”
Sheng Zixu said it as casually as if he were saying, I can eat a bowl of rice.
Jiang Wan understood.
He wasn’t trying to intimidate them.
He was calculating.
There were thirteen men in black. If he gave everything he had, he could probably take one of them down with him. The remaining twelve would still be more than enough to capture them.
He was gambling that the leader wouldn’t dare take the risk.
Because the order was to bring him back alive.
The loss of even one target was a risk.
The leader had clearly understood this as well.
After a moment of silence, he flipped the bronze mirror over, holding its reflective surface upward. The mirror reflected the grayish-white sky, but there was nothing in it.
Still, he stared at it.
As if waiting for something to appear.
Then, the bell stopped.
The birds in the forest began singing again.
The sound was abrupt, as if someone had suddenly released their grip from the throat of the entire forest.
The leader put the bronze mirror away and pointed at Jiang Wan.
“You, go.”
Then he pointed at Sheng Zixu.
“He stays.”
Jiang Wan didn’t move.
She had only suggested that he take Sheng Zixu as a test. She hadn’t expected the other party to actually let her go.
What did that mean?
It meant Guixu wanted only Sheng Zixu.
She herself was of no immediate use to Guixu.
But the fragments of his memories might contain clues about her younger sister…
A contradiction.
Unless what Guixu wanted and the clues about her sister were two completely separate matters.
“I said I’m not leaving.”
Sheng Zixu drew his blade another half inch from its sheath. His pale face was reflected in the blade.
Jiang Wan stepped in front of him, facing him with her back to the men in black.
She lowered her voice.
“You can’t get away. Neither can I. Go with them first. I’ll find a chance to rescue you.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
“Because they’re willing to let me go. That means I still have some use. Useful people aren’t abandoned.”
Sheng Zixu looked at her with an expression that clearly said he didn’t believe her.
Jiang Wan turned to the leader.
“I’ll leave, but I have one condition. His injuries need treatment. You need to find a doctor for him. If he dies, you’ll be in even more trouble.”
The leader neither agreed nor refused. He merely waved at two of the men in black.
They stepped forward and seized Sheng Zixu by the arms, one on each side.
He didn’t struggle.
Nor did he sheath his blade.
He allowed himself to be taken away with the weapon still half drawn.
As he passed Jiang Wan, he paused for a moment.
“Don’t die.”
His voice was so quiet that only she could hear it.
“Mm.”
The men in black escorted Sheng Zixu toward the town.
The leader walked at the back of the group. When he passed Jiang Wan, he also stopped.
He took the bronze mirror from his robes and showed it to her.
“Lord Guixu said that sooner or later, you would come looking for him yourself.”
With that, he left.
The forest fell silent.
Only Jiang Wan remained, along with the footprints left behind by more than a dozen people.
She didn’t leave immediately.
Instead, she stood there and replayed everything that had just happened in her mind.
The leader’s words—
Lord Guixu said that sooner or later, you would come looking for him yourself.
That meant Guixu didn’t consider her useless.
He simply didn’t need to capture her yet.
He was waiting.
But what exactly was he waiting for?
Jiang Wan lowered her head and looked at her hand.
Beneath the cuff of her sleeve, the grayish-blue threads had reached the middle of her forearm. They had crept farther upward since that morning.
She pulled her sleeve down and turned, walking in the opposite direction.
Jiang Wan traveled east along the mountain path for more than half an hour. Her mind-reading ability remained fully active the entire way, but she detected no further signs of pursuit.
Guixu’s people had truly withdrawn.
At least for now.
Soon, a fork appeared ahead.
The path on the left led downhill. In the distance, she could faintly see fields and wisps of cooking smoke. There was probably a village there.
The path on the right climbed higher into the mountains and disappeared into denser forest.
She didn’t know where it led.
Just as she was hesitating, a voice came from behind her.
“Miss, take the path on the left.”
Jiang Wan spun around.
An old man stood up from behind a large rock by the roadside. He brushed the dirt from his trousers as though he had been crouching there for quite some time.
He was thin and gaunt, dressed in coarse gray cloth, with a basket of medicinal herbs on his back.
“Who are you?”
Jiang Wan tightened her grip on her sleeve, instinctively going on guard. She had no weapon on her.
“Just an old man passing through while gathering herbs,” the old man said casually.
“Seeing you standing here alone at the crossroads, I thought I’d kindly remind you. The left path leads to a village. The right path is a dead end. At the very end is a cliff.”
Jiang Wan probed his thoughts.
Unlike the people serving Guixu, whose minds seemed strangely blank, the old man’s thoughts were perfectly normal.
What herbs did I gather today?
I need to dry them when I get home.
I hope the old woman doesn’t scold me again for coming home late…
There was no killing intent.
No deception.
But Jiang Wan still didn’t completely let down her guard.
“Thank you,” she said, stepping onto the left path.
The old man followed.
He walked two paces behind her at an unhurried pace.
“Did you come down from the mountains, miss?” he asked with a friendly smile.
“Mm.”
“There are men dressed in black up in those mountains. I saw several of them yesterday while gathering herbs. Aren’t you afraid, traveling alone?”
“I am.”
“If you’re afraid, why were you running around in the mountains?”
Jiang Wan did not answer.
She noticed that as the old man walked, he kept glancing at her wrist.
It wasn’t deliberate. It was more like a doctor’s habitual way of observing a patient—a quick glance from the corner of his eye, then looking away, only to glance again a moment later.
“Are you a doctor?”
The old man froze for a moment, then smiled.
“You noticed? I am indeed a doctor. For dozens of li around here, I’m the only one who treats people.”
“Then what did you see when you looked at my wrist?”
The old man’s steps paused.
He hadn’t expected her to ask so directly.
After thinking for a moment, he said, “There’s something in your body. It’s not poison. It’s something else… I can’t really describe it. If you trust me, come to my house and I’ll take a look.”
Jiang Wan looked at him.
An old doctor she had encountered by chance in the middle of the wilderness was inviting her to his home.
It sounded like the standard beginning of a trap.
But her mind-reading ability detected no ill intent. The old man’s thoughts remained open and natural, unlike the people associated with Guixu, whose minds seemed to have been artificially emptied.
She needed a place to stay.
She needed a doctor.
And she needed somewhere to hide.
“Alright.”
The old man’s home stood at the very edge of the village.
It consisted of three earthen houses. Various medicinal herbs were drying in the courtyard, and the air was filled with a bitter, earthy smell.
An old woman was sorting vegetables in the courtyard. When she saw Jiang Wan, she looked her up and down but asked nothing. She simply turned around, went inside, and returned with a bowl of water.
“Drink.”
She handed the bowl to Jiang Wan.
Jiang Wan accepted it but did not drink.
The old man led her into the eastern room. Inside was a wooden bed, while all kinds of dried medicinal herbs hung from the walls.
He pointed at the bed.
“Sit down. Hold out your hand.”
Jiang Wan sat down and rolled up her sleeve.
The grayish-blue threads had already reached her elbow. They twisted beneath her skin like the roots of some kind of plant.
The old man leaned closer to examine them, then reached out and took her pulse.
He closed his eyes and felt it for a while.
His brows gradually furrowed deeper and deeper.
“This thing in your body didn’t come from outside.”
He released her wrist and took a step back.
“It grew from within. Have you come into contact with something you shouldn’t have?”
Jiang Wan thought of the Mirror System, but quickly dismissed the idea.
If it had been the cause, she would have noticed from the beginning.
“Something like that. Can it be treated?”
“No.”
The old man answered directly.
“I don’t know what it is, and I don’t know how to cure it. But I can prescribe some medicine to slow its spread.”
“How long can it suppress it?”
“Ten days. Half a month at most. After that, it will continue spreading upward. Once it reaches your heart, you won’t survive.”
The doctor calmly delivered his conclusion.
“If you have other things to do, you’ll have to keep taking the medicine to suppress it.”
Jiang Wan’s fingers curled slightly.
Ten days.
Half a month.
She had been transported into this world for less than two days, and the countdown had already begun.
“Write the prescription.”
The old man turned around to prepare the medicine, muttering as he worked.
“In your condition, you need to find a place and rest properly. You can’t keep running around. Where’s your companion? Was he captured?”
“How did you know I had a companion?”
“You looked toward the entrance three times when you came in. It looked like you were waiting for someone.”
The old man didn’t even raise his head.
“And there’s someone else’s blood on you.”
Jiang Wan had a new appreciation for the old man’s powers of observation.
An ordinary country doctor shouldn’t have been this perceptive.
She probed his thoughts again.
They were still normal.
No disguise.
No blank spaces.
But beneath the surface was a faint trace of exhaustion, as though something from the past had worn him down and left a lingering mark.
This old man was not simple.
But he bore her no ill will.
“He was captured.”
“By those men in black?”
“Mm.”
The old man wrapped up the prepared medicine and handed it to her.
“What do you plan to do now? Rescue him alone?”
“I haven’t figured it out yet.”
“Then drink the medicine first before you figure it out.”
The old man glanced at her.
“If you lose your life, who are you going to save?”
Jiang Wan accepted the medicine and thanked him.
Only then did she finally drink the bowl of water.
From the outer room, the old woman called them to eat.
The old man stood and walked toward the door. Just as he reached it, he stopped without turning around.
“Miss, I’ve seen that aura around you once before.”
Jiang Wan looked up.
“Twenty years ago. There was someone whose hand looked exactly like yours.”
“He didn’t make it.”
“Who was that person?”
The old man fell silent.
“Someone who wasn’t supposed to come here.”
After saying that, he left.
Jiang Wan remained seated on the edge of the bed, clutching the packet of medicine in her hand.
The old man’s final words kept repeating in her mind.
Someone who wasn’t supposed to come here.
Was he talking about her?
In this world, aside from the Mirror System and herself, no one should know that she didn’t belong here.
She lowered her head and looked at her hand.
The grayish-blue threads lay quietly beneath her skin, dormant, waiting to erupt.
Then the sound of barking dogs came from the direction of the village.
It was followed by footsteps.
Many footsteps.
Uniform.
Orderly.
Not the kind of footsteps villagers would make.
Jiang Wan immediately stood and went to the window.
At the village entrance, a man dressed in black was speaking with the old doctor.
The distance was too great for her mind-reading ability to catch his thoughts, but she recognized the way he stood and the slight angle at which he tilted his head.
It was the leader.
He had found her.
Jiang Wan immediately turned toward the back window.
Outside lay a vegetable field, and beyond that were the mountains.
She climbed out through the window, ran across the vegetable rows, and disappeared into the forest.
Behind her, the old man’s voice rang out:
“She isn’t here! You won’t find her no matter how much you search!”
Then came the old woman’s voice—sharp and furious, cursing at someone in a dialect Jiang Wan could barely understand.
Jiang Wan did not look back.
She ran deeper into the forest and crouched behind a dense thicket, forcing her breathing to become as quiet as possible.
The grayish-blue threads around her elbow seemed to have crept slightly higher again.
She had no time to inspect them.
Because the Mirror System suddenly spoke in her mind.
“Host, five steps to your right, there is a loose stone. Beneath it is a crack in the ground. You can hide inside.”
It was the first time the system had ever voluntarily guided her.
Jiang Wan felt her way over, moved the stone aside, and sure enough, found a narrow crack in the ground—just wide enough for her to squeeze into sideways.
She put the stone back in place and curled up in the darkness.
Outside, she heard footsteps drawing closer, then moving farther away.
Only after every sound had completely disappeared did she crawl out from the crack.
The sky was already beginning to darken again.
Jiang Wan crouched beside the stone and opened the packet of medicine the old doctor had given her. She chewed two of the leaves, their bitterness and astringency almost unbearable, and swallowed them.
The grayish-blue threads around her elbow did not recede, but the swelling sensation had indeed eased somewhat.
She stood and brushed the dirt from her clothes.
The current situation was giving her a terrible headache.