Shadow Love (Yu Jin Chang An)

"General, your words frighten me. We're old friends, why be so hostile?" Wu Yin narrowed his eyes with a light chuckle, as if completely oblivious to the killing intent in Li Shuang's words.

"I never considered you a friend."

Though Li Shuang spoke plainly, Wu Yin showed no anger: "Friend or not, it matters little." He continued, "General Li, you worry too much. The person you seek is now a treasure of my Five Spirits Sect. No matter what, I wouldn't let anything happen to him. Why talk of whether he's here or not? I came today to discuss something about him with you."

"I'm not here to discuss." Li Shuang's finger lightly traced the rim of her teacup, her tone calm but her words heavy with pressure. "Either release him, or I burn this mountain. There's no third—"

"General." Wu Yin interrupted, his perpetually smiling eyes finally showing a trace of seriousness. "The current situation isn't such that if I wanted to hand Yu Can over to you, I could simply do so. To put it bluntly, even if I released him to you, you might not be able to control him. By the time your fifty thousand troops light the first torch, who knows whose hands they'll die by? I can't guarantee anything. You've seen Yu Can's abilities in the northern frontier—you know what he's capable of."

Li Shuang had seen it. He could charge into enemy lines with lightning speed and take the general's head before anyone could react. His speed and strength were unmatched not just in this camp, but perhaps in the entire world—few could rival him in combat.

"What have you done to him since bringing him to the Five Spirits Sect?" Li Shuang's gaze was icy as she stared at Wu Yin.

Wu Yin gave a slight pout. "Don't look at me like that—I'm innocent here. I captured him only to extract the Jade Silkworm Gu from his body. After all, my ideal Gu vessel should be pure, never having recognized a master. Who could have guessed his willpower would be so terrifyingly strong?"

Wu Yin's captivating eyes lifted, locking onto Li Shuang. "General Li, he is excessively fixated on you."

Excessively fixated...

"Though, come to think of it, it's not so different from you. You rushed back from the northern frontier thousands of miles away, bringing fifty thousand soldiers to burn my southern mountain—all to save this one man. Aren't you excessively fixated on him too?"

Wu Yin's half-teasing words left Li Shuang silent.

She had never seriously considered what kind of feelings she held for that mysterious man. She only wanted to see him again, to see her reflection in those clear eyes once more, to save him—this thought overwhelmed everything else.

"I don't want to hear this nonsense." Li Shuang forcefully steered the conversation back. "Just tell me his condition and how to take him away. That's all."

Wu Yin folded his arms. "Fine, to put it simply—I need you to come back to the Five Spirits Sect with me. Alone."

Li Shuang studied Wu Yin in silence.Under her scrutinizing gaze, Wu Yin explained, "To be frank with you, ever since I brought the Jade Silkworm Gu master back to the Five Spirits Sect, he hasn’t had a single peaceful day. It’s normal for him to experience rejection after being separated from his master, so I didn’t pay it much mind and proceeded with the usual methods to extract the Jade Silkworm Gu from him. But who would have thought that the longer he stayed away from you, the more violent his temperament became—until it reached a point where it was completely uncontrollable."

Wu Yin sighed and rubbed his temples. "I had him shackled with chains of refined steel around his limbs and neck. He struggles day and night, nearly exhausting an entire chest’s worth of chains. We’ve already changed dungeons three times, and the walls have been torn apart. Just preventing his escape gives me a headache every day. General Li, you should know—not long ago, I seriously considered sending someone to fetch you. As luck would have it, before I could act, you came seeking me out yourself."

"You want me to return with you to the Five Spirits Sect to calm him down?"

"That was my plan, but I don’t know if you can still pacify him now," Wu Yin said. "He’s lost his mind—no different from the demons and monsters spoken of in folklore."

Li Shuang pondered for a moment. "If I go back with you and manage to calm him, will you let him leave with me?"

Wu Yin waved a hand dismissively. "I’ll hand him over to you without hesitation." His expression and gesture were as if he were ridding himself of a plague.

Li Shuang narrowed her eyes. "How can I trust you?"

"General, the Five Spirits Sect only has four dungeons. If this one is destroyed too, I’ll have nowhere left to keep him." Seeing Li Shuang remain silent, Wu Yin reached into his robe and pulled out a jade pendant, tossing it casually to her. Li Shuang caught it midair—the smooth, warm touch revealed it to be a piece of fine white jade.

"What is this?"

"This is the sect leader’s waist token of the Five Spirits Sect—roughly as important as the imperial jade seal in your court. I promise you this: if you can calm the Jade Silkworm Gu master, I will allow you to take him away from the Five Spirits Sect. Only upon your deaths will I reclaim the Jade Silkworm, granting you peace for the rest of your lives."

With that, Wu Yin stood to leave. "Since the Jade Silkworm Gu master is uncontrollable without you, keeping him is useless to me. Right now, I truly just want someone to restrain him—before he descends into complete madness and causes a catastrophe. That’s all I have to say. I’ll take my leave now. If you wish to come, bring the waist token to South Long Mountain. If not, simply send someone to return it. The choice is yours, General."

He lifted the tent flap and stepped out. The soldiers outside tensed, watching him warily, but without Li Shuang’s order, none dared to act. They could only watch as Wu Yin departed.

Li Shuang didn’t sit long with the warm jade token in her grip. She soon stood, flung open the tent flap, and strode out. Fu Changqing had been standing guard nearby. She glanced at him and ordered, "Starting today, if I send no word from the mountain within three days, prepare to burn it down."

Her clear voice carried effortlessly to Wu Yin, who hadn’t gone far.

Wu Yin paused mid-step and turned back to look at Li Shuang, a knowing smile playing at his lips.

Clutching the waist token, Li Shuang marched forward. Fu Changqing stared at her in stunned silence. "General…" He wanted to stop her, but seeing her unwavering stride, he swallowed his words.He had known Li Shuang for quite some time. He was well aware of the iron will with which this general's daughter, raised in a military family, would stick to her decisions.

All he could do was clasp his fists and bow. "This humble general obeys your command."

Li Shuang followed Wu Yin toward the direction of South Changshan Mountain. Along the way, Wu Yin, bored out of his mind, struck up a conversation with her. "The Jade Silkworm was originally the treasure of our Five Spirits Sect."

Li Shuang shot him a glance. "The treasure of the Five Spirits Sect ended up appearing in the northern frontier?" Her words were laced with sarcasm, prompting a chuckle from Wu Yin. "When I first heard the news, I found it strange too. Actually, the story behind it is quite long."

"Twenty years ago, a major incident occurred in our Five Spirits Sect. I was still young then, my father had died early, and I had just taken over as sect leader—though my position wasn’t yet secure. Unexpectedly, my Guardian Spirit Maiden developed ambitions of her own and tried to seize the sect leader’s position for herself. My mother, who was still alive at the time, naturally wouldn’t stand for it. After a fierce struggle, the Spirit Maiden’s faction was defeated and fled to South Changshan Mountain. When they escaped, they took the Jade Silkworm with them. My mother sent people to search everywhere but never found it. Now it seems they actually made their way all the way to the northern frontier. Such a long journey—must’ve been quite the ordeal for them."

Li Shuang’s mind immediately flashed back to the underground stone chamber in the woods outside the frontier city of Lucheng, filled with corpses and the "resurrected" old woman. She distinctly remembered the old woman’s unusually exquisite attire.

"Was that underground chamber in the woods connected to your so-called Spirit Maiden?" Li Shuang asked. After all, it was there that Wu Yin had set a trap for her, the Crown Prince, and that mysterious man. Oh, and Jin An too.

That equally enigmatic child had also disappeared without a trace after the mysterious man vanished...

"That’s where they were hiding. For twenty years, they moved between Lucheng and the Western Rong, staying well-hidden. And in the frontier, people disappear all too easily—it was the perfect place for them to find victims to feed their gu. The old Spirit Maiden was clever, choosing such a spot."

Li Shuang frowned. "Does refining gu require human lives?"

"Not necessarily. It depends on the type of gu. The Jade Silkworm Gu, for instance, must be fed with human blood for a hundred days before it can merge with a person, turning them into a Jade Silkworm Gu host who obeys only the gu master’s commands. But very few can endure a hundred days of continuous blood feeding. The Jade Silkworm Gu host created this time isn’t fully formed, which is why it ended up recognizing you as its master. There are some flaws, likely because the gu was forcibly implanted before the time was up."

"What kind of flaws?"

Before Li Shuang could finish her question, a figure suddenly darted across the mountain path—a woman in pale pink robes. She bowed to Wu Yin. "Sect Leader, the Jade Silkworm is acting up again."

Wu Yin looked up to see the sky already bathed in twilight, streaked with sunset hues. He sighed deeply and glanced back at Li Shuang. "Had I known it would come to this, I wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of bringing him back. Ah, I suppose this is heaven’s punishment for me playing the villain and tearing lovers apart."

The phrase "tearing lovers apart" made Li Shuang freeze for a moment. Wu Yin then said, "Time is of the essence. My apologies, General." With that, he grabbed her arm with one hand, wrapped the other around her waist, and activated his qinggong. The scenery around them blurred as they sped away.Back in the northern frontier, Li Shuang had already witnessed this man's prowess when she saw him spar with that mysterious figure. He wasn't much weaker than the enigmatic opponent. Yet, she never imagined his lightness skill could be this swift—no wonder he appeared alone in Deer City back then. With such speed, few could hope to catch him.

In the blink of an eye, they ascended the Southern Long Mountain. Before Li Shuang could even clearly see the Five Spirits Sect's mountain gate, Wu Yin had already whisked her inside the sect grounds. She barely had time to take in the layout before they came to a halt before a pitch-black cave entrance, barred by thick iron grates as thick as a man's arm.

A cold, damp wind blew from within, carrying faint growls akin to those of a beast.

Hearing this sound, Li Shuang's heart suddenly clenched, then began pounding uncontrollably.

He was inside.

Wu Yin activated a mechanism outside the cave, and with a loud "clank," the thick iron prison door lifted from the ground.

"After you," Wu Yin gestured, leading Li Shuang into the cave. The interior was dim, devoid of daylight, with only the occasional drip of water falling from the ceiling onto Li Shuang's shoulders. Torches lined the stone walls at intervals, their flickering light revealing the increasingly damp air as they ventured deeper. The growls carried by the wind grew more unsettling, gripping the soul.

Li Shuang's mind was wholly drawn forward. After what felt like an eternity and passing through numerous checkpoints, they finally stopped before an iron door. The moment Wu Yin pushed it open, a thunderous "boom!" echoed through the cavern.

No sooner had the door opened than a heavy chain lashed out toward them.

Reacting to the sound, Li Shuang ducked slightly, feeling the chain whistle just above her head before smashing into the adjacent stone wall with such force that it embedded itself three inches deep into the rock.

"Oh dear, this is bad," Wu Yin muttered beside her.

Li Shuang's gaze followed the chain inward. There, the man she hadn't seen in three months stood bare-chested as before—but now, the flame-like markings that once adorned his chest had spread across his entire body, engulfing him like a raging inferno. The flames covered even his face, turning his eyes a searing, magma-like dark red with no whites remaining.

A demon incarnate, nothing less.

"He really did wreck the cell," Wu Yin lamented, his face twisted in distress.

Li Shuang stared blankly at the man, who seemed to have completely lost his mind. His legs and neck were still shackled with thick iron chains anchored to the stone wall behind him, restraining his movements—yet his arms had broken free. Not by snapping the chains, but by tearing them straight out of the wall. The chain that had just lashed out was the one from his wrist, a terrifying display of raw power.

The prison cell was in shambles, with most of its occupants either unconscious or moaning in pain on the ground.

The sound of the iron door opening caught the man's attention. His head turned, those dark red pupils locking onto them, the firelight from the walls reflecting in their depths like flickering blood.

He saw the two figures, yet showed no reaction. The muscles in his face twitched slightly as a low, warning growl rumbled from his throat—every inch the dangerous beast.

"Seems he doesn't recognize you anymore, General Li."

Wu Yin was merely stating a fact, but to Li Shuang, the words chilled her blood.