Immortalis

Meat Well Thirteen

Even in the Sword Sect, internal energy is not inexhaustible. Recklessly employing the Longevity Heart Sutra would inevitably lead to qi deficiency and blood depletion sooner or later.

For a full six hours, Yang Wujian found a secluded cave, repeatedly guided Zhuang Tianyou in circulating his energy, and transferred a portion of his own internal energy to Shen Qingshi. Finally, as the sun set once more, Zhuang Tianyou collapsed without a word, and Yang Wujian finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At long last, he had been drained completely.

Yang Wujian dared not delay. He immediately used the Longevity Heart Sutra to twist the Vajra Ring into chains and, together with Zhou Huai, securely bound Zhuang Tianyou. After completing the task, the two repeatedly confirmed that Zhuang Tianyou should be unable to break free before both collapsed to the ground, utterly exhausted.

"How could he suddenly go mad like this?"

Zhou Huai still couldn't understand.

Zhuang Tianyou's strength was terrifyingly formidable—ordinary poisons and hidden weapons were useless against him. How could a mere piece of ore reduce him to this state?

The two remaining bottles of Meteor Star in his embrace had been clamoring incessantly along the way. Yang Wujian knew that the piece of ore was currently on Zhuang Tianyou's person. Taking advantage of his energy depletion, Yang Wujian searched Zhuang Tianyou's entire body. However, Zhuang Tianyou's foul-smelling clothes contained nothing, but there was a hard lump hidden beneath the flesh of his left arm.

In disbelief, he tore open the clothing on Zhuang Tianyou's left arm and immediately saw a mess of bloody, mangled flesh beneath. It appeared as if the skin had been cut open with a knife, something forcibly stuffed inside, and then crudely stitched up.

Now, this wound, which could never heal, had long since festered and rotted, causing countless putrid holes to form all over Zhuang Tianyou's entire left arm. The sight alone was enough to make one's scalp crawl.

Zhou Huai's courage hadn't reached that level; he didn't dare keep staring and exclaimed in shock, "Did he sew that piece of Meteorite Iron into his body?"

Frowning, Yang Wujian used a knife to cut open the mud-like skin and quickly dug out a palm-sized, unremarkable round ore from beneath. Its surface was densely covered with uniformly sized shallow pits, and there were two deeper indentations that looked like marks left by animal teeth.

Almost instantly, Yang Wujian's vision blurred. He thought he saw Zhuang Tianyou—who had just been unconscious—open his eyes and stare fixedly at him. Breaking out in a cold sweat from fright, Yang Wujian stumbled backward, nearly breaking the nose of the young master hiding behind him.

"Yang Wujian, what are you doing?!"

Zhou Huai complained, his voice muffled as he covered his nose, "Suddenly backing up like that—did you see a ghost or something?"

Indeed, it was like seeing a ghost.

Yang Wujian focused his gaze. When had Zhuang Tianyou ever woken up? No matter how high his martial arts, after using the Longevity Heart Sutra for an entire day, even a Great Luo Immortal would have passed out.

But what had he just seen?

Yang Wujian almost immediately realized that, just like under the Meat Well, he had been deceived in that instant. The ore had "bewitched" him, making him see an illusion he couldn't distinguish from reality.

Could this be the truth behind the hallucinations caused by the Meat Well?

Because this thing was at the bottom of the well?

Thinking of this, Yang Wujian immediately activated his technique, swiftly dug a hole in a corner of the cave, buried the ore inside, and kept it as far away from them as possible.

He said, "This is what drove Zhuang Tianyou mad. Just now, I was only close to it and suddenly saw hallucinations, let alone Zhuang Tianyou, who sewed it into his arm and carried it with him every day."Zhou Huai was puzzled: "But just having hallucinations doesn't necessarily mean one will go berserk, right? You had hallucinations too, yet you didn't attack me?"

Indeed, why were Zhuang Tianyou's hallucinations related to the Longevity Heart Sutra?

Yang Wujian fell into deep thought. After a long while, the expression on his face gradually froze.

To worship longevity, one must obtain the Cicada Molt and Tian Ting.

That fortune-teller had said that Tian Ting wasn't him, and that to seek true knowledge and explore the heavenly way, one must bring the Meteor Star to find it.

In other words, neither that fortune-teller nor the Meteor Star was actually Tian Ting—they were merely tools to find Tian Ting.

And the true Tian Ting was now right before them.

Yang Wujian drew a sharp breath.

Tian Ting was the final chapter of the Longevity Heart Sutra, and it wasn't something written on paper or a tangible object at all. To master it, one had to hold this thing and peer into the heavenly way within the mind.

By the time Yang Wujian reached this conclusion, he was practically breaking out in a cold sweat.

He had always known the Longevity Heart Sutra was an Evil Entity, but now it seemed the cultivation method practiced by the Longevity Palace might be far more unpredictable and strange than he had imagined.

Zhou Huai behind him, of course, was unaware of these twists and turns in his mind and sighed with emotion: "So everyone has been fighting over this broken thing for so many years? Speaking of which, I wonder what the situation on the mountain is now. Those Zhaoming Guards saw us escape—surely they must have come searching for us?"

Zhou Huai watched as the sky outside grew dark, recalling how they had narrowly escaped death earlier. It still felt like a dream to him.

Meanwhile, Yang Wujian checked Shen Qingshi's pulse. Under Zhuang Tianyou's powerful internal energy healing, Shen Qingshi's injuries had improved somewhat, but for some reason, her brows remained tightly furrowed, as if even in her dreams she could find no relief.

Yang Wujian cursed himself for still being unable to watch Shen Qingshi die before his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he said, "We've been running for so long, we're probably far from Immeasurable Manor by now. Otherwise, with all four divisions of the Zhaoming Division present, they should have found us long ago."

He hadn't expected the Zhaoming Division to mobilize their entire force this time. It seemed the White-faced Guest had been determined to obtain the Longevity Heart Sutra from Zhuang Tianyou.

But how did he know about this?

No matter how he thought about it, this matter was quite peculiar. Not to mention, the White-faced Guest's expression of shock and anger when he saw Shen Qingshi in the back mountain was something Yang Wujian had never seen before—as if... for the first time, things had slipped beyond his control.

Had he not expected Shen Qingshi to be able to leave the Zhaoming Division?

Could it be that after Shen Qingshi returned to the palace, she was actually placed under house arrest? Why? Just because she was the Cicada Molt?

Yang Wujian's gaze fell upon Shen Qingshi's face once more, only to see her eyelids flutter slightly as she woke up at that very moment. Her slightly dazed eyes met his.

"You..."

It took Shen Qingshi a moment to remember what had just happened. She tried to sit up, but her waist hurt too much to move, and her chest felt unbearably heavy. Struggling to breathe, she had no choice but to reach out and grab Yang Wujian's arm as he was about to withdraw. Softly, she said, "Don't go. I have something to say to you."

"What is there left to say at this point?"

Yang Wujian wasn't ready to face her yet and could only put on a cold expression. Zhou Huai, ever perceptive, immediately stood up upon seeing Shen Qingshi awake: "It's getting dark. I'll go outside to gather some branches to start a fire."

As Zhou Huai left, the cave fell into complete silence.Injured, Shen Qingshi's palms were slick with cold sweat, yet she clung tightly to him, saying, "I never wrote any letter to the Zhaoming Division."

Yang Wujian's heart trembled at her first words being this. "If not you, then who?"

Shen Qingshi shook her head gently and retrieved from her bosom the secret letter she had long concealed, still stained with the blood Yang Wujian had coughed upon it back then.

Cao Zhao had once asked why she kept the letter. At the time, Shen Qingshi hadn't entirely lied.

She said that, no matter what, she wanted to remember Yang Wujian.

"The handwriting resembles mine, but it isn't. I never revealed the location of Longevity Palace to anyone. During that journey, when I occasionally left, it was to meet Zhou Huai, not to send messages to others. And after I returned to the palace, the White-faced Guest claimed I had developed a death wish for betraying you and wanted the Emperor to execute me for alchemical purposes... This matter must be connected to him."

In the first half of her life, Shen Qingshi had almost never defended herself.

Even when misunderstood, she didn't care. If someone hated her for it, to her, it was just another chance to practice her skills on someone.

But now, it was different.

That day at the Aconite Kiln, she couldn't speak these words openly in front of Cao Zhao, so she could only watch helplessly as Yang Wujian fell into the well.

She hadn't expected these words to become blades swallowed raw afterward, hidden bloodily in her belly all these days, repeatedly cutting her from within.

"I didn't lie to you. Though I promised Cao Zhao to find Longevity Palace, I had long resolved to protect you. From the day we left Yongyi, I never did anything to betray you. Pushing you into the well was to save your life. I wanted you to live... I didn't tell you along the way only because I feared you wouldn't trust me."

Shen Qingshi rarely spoke so much in one breath. The pain was severe, and the suffocating feeling in her chest hadn't faded, so she didn't realize that by the end, her tone had bordered on pleading.

But what was she pleading for?

Just recalling the tragedy of that day made Yang Wujian feel as if a gaping hole had been carved in his chest, letting cold wind rush in emptily.

Yes, it might not have been Shen Qingshi. Zhou Huai also said it wasn't her.

But wasn't she sent to his side precisely for this purpose?

Cao Zhao had sent her for this day, and now it had truly happened. What else could he do but resent her and the Zhaoming Division that raised her?

Yang Wujian closed his eyes in agony, afraid tears might fall. After restraining himself for a long time, he whispered hoarsely, "Shen Qingshi, perhaps it really wasn't you. But I no longer dare to trust you. Once your injuries heal, you should leave. I won't kill you, but with you following us, I doubt I'll sleep at night."

He tried to leave again, but Shen Qingshi still held him, her grip even tighter than before.

"Wu Jian, I have nowhere left to go. I escaped the Zhaoming Division just to tell you these words. Now that I've said them, you might as well give me a clean death."

Shen Qingshi pressed the sword into his hand and said softly, "Even if I wasn't the one who sent the message to the Zhaoming Division that day, it was still the Zhaoming Division that took their lives in the end. Killing me may not ease your anger, but aside from this life, I have nothing left to give you... Don't worry, I won't fight back."

With that, Shen Qingshi simply waited quietly, as if she truly had a clear conscience.Yet at this moment, Yang Wujian only felt overwhelming fury.

After all, these were not words he was hearing for the first time.

Last time, out of soft-heartedness and fear that Shen Qingshi would have nowhere to go, he had allowed her to stay by his side. In return, everyone he had cherished since childhood died before his eyes.

"Shen Qingshi, clearly it is you who deserves to die, yet in the end you force me to bear the guilt of a sinner?"

Suddenly, Yang Wujian let out a cold laugh. Consumed by rage, he didn't even bother drawing his sword. Instead, he directly seized Shen Qingshi's slender neck, gripping it as though catching a sparrow, and squeezed with all his might until the old wounds on his body began to ache dully.

"Shen Qingshi, what more do you want! Cao Zhao sent you to my side precisely because I saved you when we were young, didn't he? You were the one who first agreed to this act of repaying kindness with betrayal! And now you still claim you've never done anything to wrong me? Dare you say that all this time, you never once thought of using me to find the Longevity Palace, just to exchange it for your official post and a life of wealth and honor?"

Shen Qingshi, choked into silence, did not struggle. In her suffocation, she only instinctively grasped his wrist, as if helping him kill her.

Before Yang Wujian's eyes swarmed images of severed heads and fingers, the taste of blood thick in his mouth. He snarled viciously, "Dare you claim the destruction of the Longevity Palace had nothing to do with you? With such a clear conscience, you even dare to say in front of me that you'll repay me with your life! So many lives—I couldn't possibly repay them, how could you?"

By the end, Yang Wujian's voice was nearly a roar, but he did not know that to Shen Qingshi, his words were nothing but a dull, buzzing hum.

She couldn't breathe, her vision darkening. Clearly on the verge of death, yet the sharp pain that had tormented her for days remained relentless, chiseling at her bones and eyes until the very last moment, causing her unbearable agony.

It wasn't me.

Amid the pain, words slowly surfaced, densely packed and interconnected.

Even now, despite having taken three Blood Cleansing Pills, Shen Qingshi still did not know what it meant to feel wronged or heartbroken. All she could feel was pain.

Ever since that day she personally struck Yang Wujian down into the well, this pain had accumulated within her body for days, like a rising tide. And now, at this very moment, it finally burst through the dam.

"It... wasn't me..."

Shen Qingshi's fingernails dug into Yang Wujian's wrist as she squeezed out those words with almost all her strength. In that instant, she felt the sharp pain pierce through her eyes.

Scalding blood streamed down.

"You..."

Only when teardrops fell onto his hand did Yang Wujian seem to snap back to awareness, releasing his grip.

He gasped for breath, staring blankly as Shen Qingshi's tears traced paths down her cheeks. She curled into a desperate ball, as if not nearly strangled by him, but rather seized by agony. Between coughs and gasps, she repeated the same words over and over.

"It wasn't me..."

"I didn't write it..."