Zanxing frowned, “You want me to escape?”
“The scales of the shark demon clan won’t hold for much longer,” Gu Baiying muttered to himself, “I have no spiritual power and can’t leave this place. My aura is on Zhuyan. Once you escape, the sect leaders will find you quickly and rescue Men Dong with you.”
Zanxing shoved the hairpin back into his hand, “I’m not leaving.”
“Don’t be stubborn,” Gu Baiying scolded.
Zanxing looked back at him, “Using soul power to activate it, what the Mirage Woman said just now was clear. Your spiritual veins are severely damaged. Once you start practicing, your qi will become even more chaotic.” She looked at the crimson headband, as beautiful as a dream in the dimly lit secret room. “This is a top-grade spiritual weapon. Given your current condition, if you try to activate it, it’ll be a path to death. If I leave, what will you do?”
Gu Baiying smiled indifferently, “If that damned monster wants me as her lover, I’ll play along for now. Once you find help, it won’t be too late to save me.”
Zanxing chuckled at her words.
“Why are you laughing?”
The soft blue light in the secret room seemed to temporarily dispel its chill. Zanxing said, “Martial uncle, after all, I’ve spent some time in Gufeng Mountain, and we’ve traveled together for quite a while. You’re not good at lying, comforting others, or pretending. You’re not the type to play along. With your personality, you’d rather die than say a soft word in front of her. I’m afraid that as soon as I leave, you’ll follow the Mirage Woman to the end.”
Gu Baiying remained silent.
Mimi glanced at Zanxing, then at the young man sitting against the wall. After hesitating for a moment, she finally snuggled up to Zanxing’s feet.
After who knows how long, Gu Baiying finally grunted, “You do understand me.”
Zanxing sighed inwardly. Gu Baiying was exceptionally strong-willed and never easily showed his vulnerability to others. When he left Li’er Country, dissatisfied with the hypocrisy of the royal family, he had shattered the statue by the sea with a single shot. So, the outcome here would likely be the same.
“You don’t need to pity me.” The young man sat quietly in the corner of the secret room, his snow-white robe splattered with blood, casting some light into the dim room. His hairband was removed and held in his palm, his glossy black hair cascading down to his waist like soft black satin. His complexion was paler than usual, his lips less vibrant red, but his beautiful eyes remained as bright as ever.
“I was born with damaged spiritual veins,” he spoke calmly. “I was never meant to live past twenty. It’s my fate.”
Even though Shaoyang Zhenren searched the entire continent for him and found the Qinchong seeds, in the nineteenth year of his life, by some twist of fate, the seeds were taken away by someone else.
The will of heaven is a mysterious thing. Practitioners of Daoism spend their lives resisting fate, but those who can truly defy fate are few and far between.
“Even if you don’t save me, I won’t live much longer. Didn’t you once say that in a person’s life, apart from meeting, there is only parting, with much parting and little meeting? That’s just how life is.” He raised an eyebrow slightly. “Are you unwilling to leave me?”
Zanxing silently gazed at him.
“Take this.” He looked down at the crimson headband in his hand. “When you get out, find the sect leaders as soon as possible…” His voice trailed off.
Zanxing took Zhuyan from his hand. The hairband was cool and soft, its bright red color vivid like the flowers of the Biyi tree. She lifted his hair and wrapped the hairband around it again.
Gu Baiying was taken aback. “What are you doing?”
“When I spoke of parting, I meant the kind where fate has run its course and we can face it calmly,” she explained as she re-fastened the hairband, not as neatly as Gu Baiying had done, making the young man look softer and gentler.
And she herself was gentle too.
“I won’t leave,” Zanxing declared.
Gu Baiying frowned. “You’re being overly kind-hearted.”
“I’m not as noble as you think,” Zanxing finished the last loop, released her hand, and let the soft strands slip through her fingers like ice-cold water. “It’s because of you that I stayed.”
She and Gu Baiying, two seemingly unrelated individuals in the original story, were brought together by fate’s twists and turns. Gu Baiying had once grabbed her hand without hesitation when she fell into the dark abyss, and she had returned to a collapsing cottage for relics left by his birth mother. They investigated truths in the palace Li’er Country, busied themselves in the Tianlu Pavilion, witnessed the flowering of the Biyi Blossom tree together in secret realm, watched the night rain in the caves of Wudong Mountain, and listened to people sing in the desert of Wufan City.
He had seen her in disarray, and she had seen him in his moments of weakness.
Just as Gu Baiying hadn’t abandoned her back then, Zanxing wouldn’t leave alone now.
The plot of “At the Summit of the Nine Skies” had already derailed so much that it was unclear which direction the story would go. Perhaps as the protagonist, Mu Cengxiao had ‘luck’ on his side and would survive until the end, but supporting roles might not necessarily make it halfway.
Zanxing looked at Gu Baiying and murmured softly, “You’re a supporting role, and I’m a cannon fodder. Our destinies were decided from the start. But I refuse to accept it.”
“What do you mean?” Gu Baiying asked.
“I mean,” Zanxing stared at him seriously, enunciating each word, “Gu Baiying, I want to change my fate, and I want to change yours too.”
As soon as she finished speaking, a loud noise erupted behind them.
The silver scales of the shark demon clan, unable to hold any longer, disintegrated in midair and vanished completely. A violent gust of wind surged towards them. Zanxing grabbed the flower-patterned staff and tried to resist with all her might. With a crisp sound, she was thrown against the stone wall, the sturdy staff snapping into two pitiful pieces on the ground.
In the swirling dust, the Mirage Woman’s face bore a sinister beauty. Her red lips curled in disdain as she spoke, “I told you earlier, using the last of your strength only brings misery upon yourself.”
She reached out towards Gu Baiying, but in the next moment, a greenish-blue light shot towards her, forcing the Mirage Woman to step back.
The disheveled woman stood up again, holding the broken flower-patterned staff in two pieces, shielding the person behind her. Her expression remained calm as she said to the person behind her, “We’ll have to try before we know.”
Gu Baiying was taken aback.
The woman was not tall, even somewhat delicate, but her posture was upright. Her dark hair, tousled from their trials, was lively and vibrant, with a lake-green hairband resembling fresh willow branches, shining brightly in the spring sunlight.
A faint sound emanated from her side.
It was a subtle, clear, and melodious sound, like snow melting under warm sunlight after winter, dripping onto the fresh soil of Gufeng Mountain’s Chu Hong Terrace. It was like a stone dropping into an ancient, untouched ice pool, stirring up mesmerizing ripples that spread gently.
Soft and profound, it resonated deeply.
The young man instinctively lowered his head.
The green bell, which had never made a sound before and seemed destined to remain silent forever, suddenly rang out.