What kind of logic was this? Not being able to rest well in a safe place, but somehow resting better in this bizarre, small sect?
Yu Zaixi did not care to understand the inner workings of Jiang Yan’s mind and retreated into his room.
Compared to the Tianji Pavilion, the guest room of the Wusheng Sect was cramped and narrow. It was not spacious at all, and even with the window closed, bright light still bled through the cracks. None of that really mattered, though; the most significant issue was the size of the bed. Yu Zaixi lay down to test it, then sat up and sighed.
However, since he was on someone else’s turf, he decided he could tolerate it.
Yu Zaixi persuaded himself to lie down again. He did not have high standards; after just emerging from the Buzhu Prison, he had managed to make do in a cave that had absolutely nothing for years. It was fine, it was fine. It was just that there was a better bed that he could not go back to sleep in. It was fine. Even though the window let in light, the room itself was away from the sun, making it cool and comfortable. A small bed was just a small bed.
Yu Zaixi lay there with a forced smile, mentally listing every person he could think of to curse. He had not eaten dinner, but one missed meal would not kill him. Jiang Yan was right next door; as long as he did not come looking for him, everything would be fine.
Almost a quarter of an hour later, he finally lulled himself into a state of drowsiness, successfully suppressing the pain that flared up in his body from time to time. Just as he decided to endure the discomfort and sleep for the night, footsteps sounded outside.
Yu Zaixi took a long, steady breath, praying that the person would not come to his door.
The footsteps stopped right in front of his room. Yu Zaixi maintained his steady breathing, telling himself he was asleep and that the person should not knock.
The person outside began to knock.
Yu Zaixi could not help but sit up and curse under his breath. He went to open the door with a gloomy expression, which startled the young disciple outside so much that he began to tremble. “Im, Immortal Venerable, the Sect Leader asked me to bring some food for the Immortal Venerables.”
“Why did you not knock on their doors?”
Yu Zaixi was incredibly annoyed. He complained as he took the food, intending to go back to sleep. The young disciple offered a bitter smile and explained cautiously, “The other two Immortal Venerables have formations on their doors.”
Yu Zaixi laughed in frustration. Fine, it turned out he was the careless one.
After chasing the young disciple away, Yu Zaixi placed the food on the table. If he was not eating, he would not let the other two have it either; he would just leave it in his room.
Yu Zaixi went back to bed in a huff. This time, no one disturbed him, and as his consciousness faded, his breathing grew steady. He thought he would be able to sleep for a long time, but he felt as though he had entered an illusion after only a few seconds.
In a state between sleep and wakefulness, he felt as if he were no longer lying in that small room. He lay there for a while until a breeze blew across his face. Unable to bear it any longer, Yu Zaixi opened his eyes and sat up.
This time, he was finally using his own perspective. He turned to look at Jiang Yan standing among the plum blossoms. Jiang Yan stood among the flowers in his white robes, staring at the fine snow on the branches with a gentle expression. Red plum blossoms set against the snow, an immortal in white; Yu Zaixi sat under the eaves watching him. Suddenly, he kicked the small tree beside him, causing a flurry of snow to fall all over him. He looked up at Jiang Yan and smiled. “Brother, if one day there is no one left to watch the snow with you, will you miss today?”
Probably not, he thought, since even the tree in front of the house was cut down.
Yu Zaixi did not expect an answer from Jiang Yan. He was just being difficult; he was not really Yuan Qi, after all. In truth, his memories had always been chaotic. His own memories, Yuan Qi’s memories, and these fragmented memories that surfaced from time to time like illusions had been mixed together for over two hundred years. Yu Zaixi often had to think very carefully to determine which ones were his own.
Jiang Yan did not turn his head when he heard him speak, but instead walked deeper into the forest. With the wind rising and the snow falling, it was impossible to tell if it was drifting snow or if it was falling from the sky. Amidst the swirling white, that back gradually merged with the mountain.
Yu Zaixi endured for three days before he finally collapsed from exhaustion. No longer caring whether he was in an illusion or not, he got up, went to Yuan Qi’s room, and lay down on his bed to rest. Sleeping in the illusion felt better than sleeping outside.
When he woke up again, he saw Jiang Yan sitting in the room waiting for him. Seeing him stir, Jiang Yan’s gaze swept over. Yu Zaixi withdrew his gaze, intending to linger a while longer, but something felt wrong. He turned back to look again. “Are you Jiang Yan?”
No, that was not how he should ask. He should ask if he was the real Jiang Yan. That condescending, cold-as-frost gaze was not the Jiang Yan from the illusion.
Jiang Yan withdrew his gaze and stood up. “Are you awake enough? Let us go.”
Yu Zaixi wore a look of utter exasperation as he sat up and took a moment to compose himself before getting out of bed.
As soon as he opened the door, he was out of the illusion. It was the small, cramped room in the Wusheng Sect. Jiang Yan did not give him a chance to rest; he opened the door and started walking out, saying, “The person has been found.”
Found, so what? Yu Zaixi stretched and followed along, unable to understand what that person could possibly have to do with him.
The person who had been in contact with Elder Tianhe was a teenager from the Wusheng Sect. It was not really contact, just that he had been saved once. The Sect Leader had taken a portrait and asked the entire sect before finding him; this was the only person who had any connection. As for the other elders and disciples, they had not even heard of Tianhe, let alone met him.
The boy was an outer disciple of the Wusheng Sect. Because his aptitude was insufficient, he had failed the internal selection three times in a row. He was practicing bitterly outside and had to help the inner disciples with chores from time to time.
The boy was not tall and was sickly thin; he was even missing an arm, looking nothing like someone who practiced martial arts. When Yu Zaixi saw him for the first time, he could not believe it. How could an immortal sect disciple be in such a state? Regardless of anything else, surely he should have been able to afford a meal in this sect, so why was he so thin and frail?
When Jiang Yan and Yu Zaixi arrived, Tianxing had already asked some simple questions and was waiting for them to arrive before getting down to the serious business.
“Little one, you do not have to fear us. Just tell us the truth. The fate you shared with Tianhe might be able to help you.”
Yu Zaixi curled his lip. The cultivators here were always talking about fate, but everything was just man-made. However, he did not make trouble and just sat to the side to listen.
The Sect Leader was afraid they would be disturbed while questioning, so he cleared out a large courtyard. The four sat in the front hall, with Tianxing and the boy on one side, and Jiang Yan and Yu Zaixi on the other.
The boy listened to Tianxing and nodded. He had a very steady personality and showed no panic in the face of several powerful cultivators. He looked at each of them in turn and said clearly, “Being able to help the few Immortal Venerables is the best.”
Tianxing nodded, very satisfied. “You are quite composed, little one. If I had met you earlier, I would have dragged you to the Tianji Pavilion.”
The boy gave a bitter smile. “My aptitude is not enough.”
“A weak foundation can be bolstered with heaps of elixirs and medicine; there is always room for improvement.” Tianxing sighed repeatedly. “It is just that you did not meet me; you met that cold fellow, Tianhe.”
“Being saved by Elder Tianhe was a blessing from many lifetimes. I have no way to repay him, and I would not dare ask for anything else.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the boy immediately asked, “Is Elder Tianhe doing well?”
It was a polite greeting, or perhaps a sincere inquiry; either way, there did not seem to be anything wrong, and his expression was normal. Yu Zaixi looked on lazily, tilting his head. He still felt something was off, but he could not put his finger on it.
Seeing the boy change the subject, Tianxing realized he had touched a sore spot and quickly closed the conversation to focus on the matter at hand.
“Could you tell us in detail what happened between you and Tianhe at the time?”
The boy nodded and slowly recounted the story he had already rehearsed in his mind.
The boy’s name was Ruan Chi. He was born a displaced disaster victim, and his mother had carried him everywhere begging for food. When he was eight, he followed his mother to a city. Outside the city was an abandoned village. Half the families had moved away, and the houses were left unclaimed. The mother and son cleaned one up and moved in, no longer needing to flee at night or struggle to hide from demons.
They lived in that village for half a year. The dilapidated hut slowly began to look like a home. During the day, his mother helped others with manual labor to trade for food, while he went into the city, trying to scavenge things to help the household. Once, he saw a broken wooden bucket thrown out by a wealthy family. Just as he was about to pick it up, someone kicked it away. They were impoverished thugs waiting to snatch anything of value, and seeing he was just a child, they became even more aggressive.
“Who allowed you to come into the city?”
“It is a miracle you have not starved to death yet, you beggar.”
“We guard the back door of this house. This has nothing to do with you, get lost!”
The bucket only had a broken handle. If he took it back to hold water, he did not know how happy his mother would be.
Ruan Chi sat stunned on the ground, listening to the curses with indifference. When the wealthy family opened the back door again to throw things out, he scrambled up nimbly to grab the bucket. He actually managed to get it, but the bucket was a bit heavy for him to carry, so he did not get far before he was chased down.
“You damn brat, you are still running!”
“Do you think you have the right to take things?”
“Just beat him to death, you stinking beggar!”
Ruan Chi could not recall the specific situation at the time. He gave a bitter smile. “Actually, I do not remember the details of what happened then. It was chaotic. Many people were hitting me. I would not let go of the bucket, so they chopped off my hand. They were going to kill me, but Elder Tianhe happened to pass by and stopped them, and he even helped me stop the bleeding and heal.”
Even though he was saved, his arm was beyond repair. Yu Zaixi glanced at his empty sleeve and could not help but ask, “What happened later?”
What else could happen? The story ended as soon as Elder Tianhe finished saving him and left.
Ruan Chi looked up at Yu Zaixi, his eyes filled with the exhaustion and despair of reflecting on unbearable memories.
“Later, that group of people found my house. I was not there, so they killed my mother because when they arrived, my mother was using that bucket to fetch water.”
“How old were you when you went up the mountain?” Jiang Yan asked.
Ruan Chi gave a self-deprecating smile. “Nine. After I buried my mother, I begged at over a dozen sects on the mountain. The second time I came to the Wusheng Sect, the Sect Leader took pity on me and let me stay.”
Yu Zaixi straightened up, turned his gaze toward the door, and sighed silently.
The front hall was silent for a long time, and no one spoke. That Ruan Chi could be like he was today was clearly the best choice and outcome he could have found. An eight-year-old orphan who lost an arm and his mother, without a single cent to his name, with spiritual roots so inferior that he was not even qualified to be a cleaning disciple at the Tianji Pavilion—being taken in by the Wusheng Sect was already the best refuge he could have found for himself.
However, the purpose of learning these things was not to lament how miserable Ruan Chi’s background was. Tianxing frowned and waited for a while, seeing that Ruan Chi’s emotions had subsided, before asking, “In which city did you meet Tianhe at that time?”
Ruan Chi narrowed his eyes as he recalled. “Luozhong?”
Tianxing asked again, “Are the two children’s clothes in Tianhe’s possession yours?”
Ruan Chi was stunned. “Children’s clothes?”
He thought for a moment, shook his head with a smile, and denied it. “I do not think so. Why would Elder Tianhe take my clothes?”
“But I saw that the clothes had been mended in the exact same spot as the wound on your arm.”