A thousand zhang of ice and snow form celestial gates, while ten thousand miles of stars and clouds illuminate this place.
At the summit of Cat Sprout Peak, there is not a single blade of grass—only massive black boulders sprawled across the ground. A light dusting of snow settles between them, softening their originally menacing appearance, making them seem less fearsome.
The scenery at the peak is not merely cold but desolate and lonely, devoid of excess color, life, or even footing—only an endless expanse of black and white.
A lone figure sits atop the highest point, upon a black boulder glistening with ice and snow, cradling a black pipa. The pipa is pitch-black and polished to a mirror sheen. A crescent moon gleams brilliantly on its dark surface, though the material used to paint it remains unknown. Beneath the moon, crimson plum blossoms bloom like splattered blood, scattered across the entire face of the pipa.
Tang Lici stepped onto the final black boulder. Before him stretched a pristine field of snow, its surface smooth and unblemished. At the far end stood a towering black boulder, its jagged form barely concealed beneath layers of accumulated snow.
Hearing the sound of footsteps on the rock, the figure seated at the summit slowly lifted his head. His face was veiled in black gauze, his head wrapped in cloth, revealing nothing of his true appearance. Yet his fingers were like jade—delicate, slender, and strikingly beautiful.
"Ah..." Tang Lici ascended the rocky platform and let out a soft sigh. "So... it really is you." His tone suggested he had long anticipated this, yet there was regret that his expectations had not been proven wrong.
The black-clad figure holding the pipa remained motionless. After a long silence, he finally spoke, his voice unexpectedly deep and melodious. "To think that even after taking my palm strike, being thrown down a well, and doused with a bucket of tung oil—you still refuse to die." Though his voice was pleasing, the words dripped with venom so profound it had turned to indifference.
Tang Lici flicked his sleeves, clasping his hands behind his back as he stood with the moon at his back. "You once said that even in a place where only rats could survive, the one 'person' who would live... would be me." His face remained shadowed, his gaze never meeting the veiled figure. "That I didn’t die—that was only to be expected."
"Hmm..." The black-clad man spoke slowly. "Back then, I should have slit your throat first, then carved out your heart, chopped you into eight pieces, tossed them into two separate wells, and poured two buckets of tung oil over them." His voice was so pleasant that as he spoke, a pale-gray nocturnal bird circled overhead before alighting beside him, tilting its head curiously as if fascinated.
"A-Yan..." Tang Lici murmured softly. "May I still call you A-Yan?"
The black-clad man replied just as slowly, "You may. Call me once, and I’ll kill one person. Call me twice, and I’ll kill two. And so on."
"A-Yan," Tang Lici said, "I have one question for you. Was the Ape-Demon Nine Heart Pill truly... crafted by your own hands?"
The black-clad man’s eyes flashed beneath the veil, his fury unmistakable. "One life. I’ll take it from your page boy. Tell him to watch his back."
Though his tone was sharp and merciless, Tang Lici paid it no heed. Standing in the shadows, he repeated his question, slow and deliberate. "Was the Ape-Demon Nine Heart Pill truly crafted by your own hands?"
The pipa in the black-clad man’s arms let out a resonant twang. "Of course.""Why?" Tang Lici slowly turned around. Whether his expression was always this calm or he had adjusted it perfectly, his face under the moonlight looked exceptionally composed, without any trace of stiffness or pain—just as elegant and serene as ever. "Back when I was taking the drugs, it was you who said they were bad, who told me to quit. It was you who said they were dangerous, that they could ruin a life... It was you who said you hated drug dealers, so I quit and destroyed them one by one... It was you who said my nature was flawed, that I was too controlling, so I changed... It was you who wanted me to be a good person... So I became a good person—you owe me an explanation." He spoke sentence by sentence, neither hurried nor desperate, his tone steady and even. By the end, his voice softened, almost whispering as if speaking directly into someone's ear.
"Why?" The man in black raised his pipa, his fingers strumming chaotically across the strings, producing a discordant jumble of notes. Then, with a sudden spread of his fingers, the noise ceased abruptly, plunging the surroundings into dead silence. "Why is it that just for Fu Zhumei, just because you didn’t reach the highest position, just because you felt unbalanced and unsatisfied, you wanted everyone to die with you? You could cut the power lines, hide knives on your person, raise a toast and demand everyone drink Poison with you? Why, after crossing time and space to this inexplicable place, where we are the only family and friends each other has in the world, could you still force Fang Zhou to his death, trading his life for your martial arts and future? It’s all for money, isn’t it? All for money..." He sneered. "I always knew you wanted everything, knew you’d never admit Zhu Mei was better than you, but I never imagined you’d go so far as to want everyone to perish together over such a trivial matter! Sure, the band’s funding came from your father, but we weren’t your playthings. Just because it was your family’s money, you had to be the lead singer, had to have the most glory? And when you couldn’t be the lead singer, you wanted everyone to die. Cutting the power lines didn’t kill us but sent us through time to this place, and still you showed no remorse—driving Zhu Mei away, getting Fang Zhou killed. All your doing! And still for money! For that pittance to survive—" His chest heaved as he took a moment to steady himself. "If it’s all for money, then with money, you wouldn’t have to lose everything, wouldn’t have to be controlled by others, wouldn’t owe favors, wouldn’t have to do things against your will or make sacrifices. So—I swore to myself, after you forced Fang Zhou to his death, if I wanted to live, I’d first have to possess the most money in the world!"
Tang Lici’s clear, beautiful eyes narrowed slightly as he murmured, "With money... you can survive, you won’t lose..." So it turned out he wasn’t the only one burdened with such cruel memories. "But there are countless ways to make money in this world.""You have the capital left by Fang Zhou, your talent for power struggles, your innate luck, and your keen eye for opportunities. I have none of these." The black headscarf on the figure in black fluttered slightly in the mountain wind, revealing a glimpse of his forehead. If there was ever someone whose mere exposed forehead could exude an air of cold allure, it was this man before them. "All I understand is making medicine. After all, this world and these people have been dead for a thousand years, haven’t they? Even if I didn’t make the medicine, in the era you and I live in, they would have all died long ago. Early or late, they must die. To you and me, it makes no difference."
"If that’s the case," Tang Lici took a step forward, "you don’t necessarily have less money than I do now. With what you desire, can’t you retire and step back?"
"Retire…" The black-clad figure’s fingers lightly plucked the pipa strings. "It’s too late to stop now. The more people take the medicine, the more become infected, and the more medicine is needed. This is also saving lives."
"That’s an excuse," Tang Lici advanced slowly, stepping onto the black rock where the figure sat. "And a poor one at that."
"What do you want to hear?"
"With endless wealth and countless people under your control, you can’t resist wanting more, can you?" Tang Lici asked softly, his lips curling slightly into a faint, ambiguous smile. "After all, in your eyes, everyone beneath this sky right now is already dead. So why not play the role of Yama to these dead souls? Try something you’ve never done before, do something you’ve never imagined—perhaps you’ll live more freely, more true to yourself than ever, won’t you?" His lashes lifted slightly as he fixed his gaze on the black-clad figure atop the rock. "Admit it… A-Yan. You have your ambitions, just like I once did…"
"Second tone, mark Shen Langhun’s fate," the black-clad figure murmured. "Hush… Don’t compare yourself to me. What you’ve done and what I’ve done are unrelated. As for what I want—I trust no one’s words, not even my own. Whatever is said now or later, none of it is sincere. So why should you care so much about what’s spoken? What I do is up to my own will. It has nothing to do with you."
"Is that so?" Tang Lici stepped onto the summit of the black rock, sharing the jagged peak that scraped the heavens with the figure in black. "It has nothing to do with me because, in your eyes right now, I’m also a dead man, aren’t I?"
"Of course." The black-clad figure raised his pipa, fingers poised on the strings. "Once you step onto this rock, there’s no need to step down. Burying you atop this thousand-foot peak is the least I can do to honor you—and the bond we shared these past twenty years."Tang Lici stood with his sleeves folded behind him, his expression cold and stern. The black-clad man's fingers rested on the pipa, and between them, a fierce wind howled past. Ice and snow moved like fine sand in the gale, slowly sliding bit by bit from the jagged black rocks before plummeting into the endless abyss of the glacial chasm.
With a soft sigh, Tang Lici spoke, "Burying me atop this towering peak hundreds of zhang high would be worthy of me—and of the twenty years of camaraderie we once shared... Do you know why I stand here today, obstructing your grand plans? Do you know why I intervened, why I snatched the pill from Yu Qifeng, why I led you to Azure Fall Palace? Why I cast aside the wealth, reputation, and status I once cared for most, just to stop you here?"
He enunciated each word deliberately, "Because you once said—to live happily, to be at peace, to never suffer nightmares, to enjoy life—one must be a good person. Only with a calm and untroubled heart, free of guilt and sorrow, can life be spared the torment of regret and helplessness. I... have suffered, so I understand. But you?" He took another step forward. "You've never strayed from the right path, yet you don’t realize it yourself. That’s why I’m here to save you. This world is just as full of the dead to me, holding no attachment. I care not whom you kill—but if you destroy yourself... If you insist on destroying yourself, you will suffer nightmares, agony, and regret in the days to come. That is why I must save you! I won’t let you walk the same path I once did!" He extended his hand. "A-Yan, come back."
"Hah! You’ve grown ever more eloquent—and ever better at playing the saint!" The black-clad man threw his head back in laughter, the black cloth fluttering to reveal a glimpse of jade-white skin beneath, his long, slanting brows strikingly pronounced. "The third one! Since you claim you don’t care whom I kill, then for the third, I’ll slaughter this child—" With a swift motion, he produced an infant bundled in swaddling clothes from behind the wind-blocking Black Pipa. The baby, tender and adorable with bright, dark eyes, was none other than Feng Feng! Tang Lici had entrusted Feng Feng to a family at the mountain’s base, yet somehow, the black-clad man had abducted him.
Tang Lici’s gaze remained fixed on Feng Feng. The child seemed to have had his acupoints sealed—his eyes brimmed with pitiful tears, yet he couldn’t cry, staring helplessly and motionlessly at Tang Lici. The black-clad man tightened his grip around Feng Feng’s neck. "You drove Zhu Mei away, caused Fang Zhou’s death, lusted after wealth and martial prowess, and now, as the adopted son of the Imperial Father-in-Law, you sit atop the jewels of Ten Thousand Apertures House. A man like you dares to speak of saving me—dares to claim you’re worthy of saving me? Hahahaha... What a colossal joke!" His fingers tensed. "This child’s death will be on your hands—for your obstinacy, for defying orders—""Hold it!" Tang Lici swiftly intervened. The black-clad man crossed his pipa horizontally between them. "Take one more step, and I'll smash him into pulp—so thoroughly dead he won't even resemble human form!" Tang Lici's expression finally flickered slightly. "He... he's her child. How could you bear to harm him?" The black-clad man sneered, "This is the bastard she bore with another. Since she's my woman, what's wrong with me killing her bastard?" Tang Lici countered, "The child is her hope. If you kill him, she'll surely take her own life—do you believe me or not?" The black-clad man stiffened slightly as Tang Lici pressed urgently, "Hold the killing. What will you take in exchange for this child's life?" He grasped the black-clad man's wrist, their faces now barely separated by the pipa's width, and whispered, "Whatever you want, I can give it to you—except..."
"You—" The black-clad man glared coldly at the hand restraining him. "Why do you care so much about her bastard? Unless you too..." Tang Lici frowned slightly but didn't respond. Suddenly the black-clad man burst into laughter, "Hahahaha! So even you've fallen for that slut? Hahaha! Truly peerless charm—to have even you bewitched... What an extraordinary achievement! I must reward her properly when I return, having rendered me such service, hahaha..." Tang Lici repeated, "What will you take for the child's life?"
Slowly, the black-clad man loosened his grip on Feng Feng's throat. "Kill yourself, and I'll spare him. Perhaps... I might even return him to that slut. She'd be eternally grateful, devoted to me henceforth..." Tang Lici nodded, "Indeed. Return him, and she'll be eternally grateful, devoted to you henceforth." The black-clad man stared icily. "Do it!"
With a sudden sweep of his sleeve, Tang Lici declared, "Anything but my life! Rather than my suicide, you might as well strangle him now." The black-clad man threw back his head in laughter, "Hahaha... Hypocrite! You can't even justify your own hypocrisy! Utterly ridiculous!" Cradling Feng Feng in one arm and gripping the pipa with the other, he sneered, "No death? Then let me kill you again—this time, no resurrection."
"A-Yan, is murder truly what your heart desires?" Tang Lici's voice rang out sharply. "What if I told you Fang Zhou isn't dead—you—" The black-clad man roared with laughter, "Fang Zhou isn't dead—Fang Zhou isn't dead—At this stage, you dare lie to me about Fang Zhou being alive—You—" He pointed at Tang Lici's eyes, "You submerged his corpse in the Ice Spring! You left him dead with unclosed eyes! You denied him proper burial! You desecrated his body—cut open his chest and plucked out his heart! Since your ascent to Cat Sprout Peak, I've had men search your Tang family's estate. We found Fang Zhou's corpse. I buried him with my own hands! I erected his memorial! And now you dare claim he lives—Who do you think you're fooling?"
"You—" Tang Lici pressed a hand to his abdomen as if struck by sudden agony, his face bleaching deathly pale. The black-clad man cradled Feng Feng while his pipa emitted a metallic twang. "Your deception is exposed. One more thing—the rope bridge you crossed earlier? My pipa's sound has severed it. Today, none shall survive in Azure Fall Palace—not even the chickens or dogs! Let's begin!""Where did you bury him?" Tang Lici flicked his left sleeve, his refined and elegant face suddenly turning fierce. His beautiful eyes became like ghostly orbs—the whites instantly streaked with blood vessels, the pupils unnaturally black—a sight that sent chills down one's spine.
"Defeat me today, and I'll tell you," the black-clad man chuckled darkly. "What an ironic stroke of luck, hahahaha..."
"Liu Yan! Tonight, I'll show you that even now, I remain the strongest among the four of us—" Tang Lici's face turned deathly pale as he leveled the broken copper flute toward the ground. "I will find a way to save you—and I will save him too!"
The veiled man plucked his pipa, and the massive black boulder beneath them erupted in a violent explosion of snow, scattering icy shards like rain. Tang Lici lunged forward, the mournful, piercing wail of his broken flute slicing through the air—his strike aimed straight for Liu Yan's eyes!
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