Beside this fiery pit stood numerous doors, some open, some closed, exuding an eerie and terrifying aura. It was likely that many passages of Piaoling Mei Yuan led to this pit. Zhong Chunji trembled slightly. Like most women, she feared the dark, and the darkness of this room lurked behind the half-open doors, beyond the flickering flames—making it all the more horrifying.
Chi Yun fixed his gaze on the chain bridge. "This bridge is far too narrow. It looks like it was made specifically for roasting meat." Shen Langhun replied indifferently, "Indeed."
The bridge amidst the flames was only an arm's width wide, barely enough for one person to cross. The interwoven chains on either side weren’t meant for support but rather to intensify the heat. Anyone walking across would inevitably suffer the searing burn of the red-hot chains. Before taking even ten steps, their skin would blister and crack, or they would plunge into the fiery pit below.
On the opposite side of the pit lay a coffin, crafted from crystal, translucent and gleaming with a faint blue hue under the firelight.
"That coffin—" Zhong Chunji gasped. "Is that the Blue Ice Coffin?" Without hesitation, Chi Yun dashed toward the chain bridge. Before his foot could land on the chains, his Moon Crossing Ring flashed out with a ding as it struck the scorching iron links. He intended to use the rebound to leap forward, but the moment his silver blade touched the chain, it softened abruptly, leaving him no leverage. Chi Yun’s body sank, but his combat instincts were razor-sharp. With a swift flip, he kicked the silver blade, using the momentum to retreat. However, the Moon Crossing Ring, now melted and fused to the chain, was lost—slowly dissolving before their eyes.
"These chains are no ordinary metal," Shen Langhun observed coldly, his gaze fixed on the Ice Coffin across the pit. "It seems many have underestimated them and died in these flames. But that Ice Coffin must have been placed there only recently. After stealing Fang Zhou’s body from the Imperial Father-in-Law’s residence, he knew you would come after it. He’s using it as bait to lure you into the fire."
Tang Lici handed Little Peach Red back to Zhong Chunji. The scorching air caused the hem of his robe to lift slightly, curling at the edges in the firelight. His eyes remained locked on the Blue Ice Coffin across the pit. For a fleeting moment, his expression flickered between sorrow and laughter.
"Even if it’s a pit of fire... I have no choice but to jump," he murmured to himself. "He’s always understood me too well. I just don’t understand... How can you know me so thoroughly, yet refuse to trust me? Yes, I’ve always gone too far—but haven’t I always been this excessive since childhood? When have I ever held back? You’ve always tolerated me before... Why can’t you forgive me this time?" His gaze lingered on the Ice Coffin.
"Elder Brother... Please tell A-Yan for me—this time, it’s not just my willfulness. Even if I’ve gone too far again... I truly wanted to save you..."The other three stood aside, watching Tang Lici mutter to himself in front of the Ice Coffin, though none could make out his words. They exchanged uneasy glances. Zhong Chunji tugged at Chi Yun’s sleeve and whispered, “Can’t we stop him from going over? That… that chain…” Chi Yun shook her off coldly. “If he wants to cross, do you think you can stop him?” Zhong Chunji persisted, “But… that’s already a corpse, isn’t it? Even if he crosses, he can’t save him now. Why go?” She grabbed Chi Yun’s sleeve again. “I think there must be even deadlier traps beyond the chains. We should stop him—” Chi Yun glared at her hand gripping his sleeve. “Let go!” Zhong Chunji recoiled, releasing him. Her mind was in turmoil. She felt certain that if Tang Lici stepped onto those chains, he would face dangers far worse than the Million Ironclad Soldiers. But her voice held no weight, and in her helpless panic, something shifted in her embrace. She reached inside and tightly clutched the vial of medicine.
“The Blazing Chain Bridge… If you cultivate Yin-chilled Inner Energy and employ the Bowl Water Freezing Method, you might temporarily withstand the extreme heat,” Shen Langhun mused. “Or, if you have something that can resist the flames below, we could build another bridge.” Tang Lici, his back turned to Shen Langhun, seemed deaf to his words. With a sudden movement, he prepared to leap onto the chain bridge. Shen Langhun reacted swiftly, grabbing his arm. “Wait! Don’t act rashly—” Before he could finish, Tang Lici struck like lightning, twisting Shen Langhun’s wrist with a sharp crack. Shen Langhun jerked back in pain—had Tang Lici exerted even slightly more force, his wrist would have been dislocated. In that instant, Shen Langhun understood: the Ice Coffin was placed beside a pit of fire. No matter what kind of ice it was made of, it would inevitably melt. So… Tang Lici had lost his composure. But then again, Tang Lici was never composed. He acted with a smiling arrogance, never with calm! Raising his eyes, Shen Langhun saw Tang Lici vault onto the bridge, stepping onto the searing, red-hot chains. As he landed, the chains swayed slightly, and his clothes and hair instantly caught fire. Zhong Chunji gasped, her face pale. Chi Yun moved to intervene, but Shen Langhun seized him, eyes blazing. “Even if you make it across, what then? Come back!”
In the time it took to speak, Tang Lici, now fully engulfed in flames, dashed across the bridge in a few bounds, reaching the opposite shore.
On the other side, the ground was slick with water—despite the raging flames, it had not dried. The fire licked at the edges of his robes, though, having spent little time in the inferno, the flames on his clothes had begun to wane. Yet they did not extinguish, continuing to burn quietly. Tang Lici stood motionless, staring at the Ice Coffin on the ground.
It was a coffin carved from solid ice, crystalline and faintly glowing blue. But… beside the scorching heat of the fire pit, it had melted to an impossibly thin layer, leaving behind the pool of water. This liquid, unlike ordinary water, was thick and slow to evaporate.
“Fox!”
“Tang Lici!”
“Young Master Tang!”
Faint cries drifted from the opposite shore, laced with anxiety. Chi Yun’s voice rang loudest. “Are you trying to die? Put out the fire, you madman!”
Inside the Blue Ice Coffin… there was nothing.
“Ha… heh…” Tang Lici chuckled softly, his usually inscrutable eyes now alight with unmistakable fervor, delight, fury, and self-admiration. “As expected—”This blue ice coffin melting beside the raging flames was not the one Tang Lici had used to hold Fang Zhou's body, but a counterfeit made of other materials. Naturally, Fang Zhou was not inside this coffin. As flames licked at his shoulders and sleeves, Tang Lici gave a shake of his robes, extinguishing the fire spreading across his body. Even from the opposite bank, Chi Yun and the other two could smell the acrid stench of scorched flesh. Zhong Chunji's face was deathly pale, her forehead drenched in cold sweat as she clutched the front of her robe tightly with her right hand. She couldn't comprehend the so-called life-and-death bonds of brotherhood, nor understand why a living person would go through fire and water for a corpse. But she knew that if this continued, Tang Lici would surely be killed by these traps specifically designed for him—was it worth it? Was it worth it for a body that could never be revived?
"Are you badly hurt?" Chi Yun called from afar. "Did you find him?" Suddenly, Shen Langhun shouted in alarm, "Watch out! Flame Serpents! Flame Serpents!" Zhong Chunji let out a groan, staggering back a couple of steps until she leaned against the earthen wall beside her. Flame Serpents—deadly silver-ringed snakes coated in potent venom, their bellies packed with explosives. Such things were only spoken of in Martial Arts World legends. Yet now, from the opposite bank, glints of silver scales flashed as dozens of the gleaming serpents slithered out from the earthen walls beside the fiery pit, heading straight for Tang Lici, whose body still wreathed in smoke.
With a deafening boom , dust erupted from the opposite bank, water splashed, and flames scattered as the smell of gunpowder filled the air—like an explosion of fire. Then, as the smoke and flames dissipated, the three stared wide-eyed. The earthen wall on the opposite side had been blasted open into a massive crater, and the dozens of Flame Serpents had vanished without a trace. Tang Lici's hands were drenched in blood, covered in tiny bite marks from the venomous snakes. He had crushed the skulls of each serpent and hurled them into the fiery pit. Yet despite his lightning-fast reflexes, one Flame Serpent had still exploded upon contact, blasting a gaping hole in the earthen wall when he flung it aside. The violent explosion shook the wall, triggering an iron gate overhead to plummet down, its six sharp spearheads slamming into the ground with a metallic clang , missing him by a hair's breadth. Tang Lici suddenly turned his head—his body bloodied, his hair disheveled, his hands riddled with fang marks—trapped behind the fallen gate. Only his eyes blazed with an intense light, like a beast that had tasted blood. He tilted his head slightly, biting his lip, then gave a faint, composed smile and spoke softly to the opposite bank, "Little Peach Red."
Zhong Chunji stood frozen in shock. Chi Yun snatched Little Peach Red from her grasp and hurled it across. The blade flashed through the air with a whoosh , and with a sharp snap , Tang Lici caught it mid-flight. Before the gleam of the blade had even faded, the razor-sharp pink light of Little Peach Red arced in a perfect circle—and the iron gate collapsed with a thunderous crash, tumbling into the fiery pit. With the blade in hand, Tang Lici wasted no time. His figure swept forward like a goose gliding through clouds, crossing the still-scorching, terrifying chain bridge as if it were nothing, returning calmly to stand before the three of them.
Shen Langhun moved like lightning, sealing six acupoints on Tang Lici's hands in an instant. With a clang , Little Peach Red fell from his grip. Chi Yun grabbed Tang Lici's hands, horrified to see that the once snow-white, slender palms were now blistered in places, the backs of his hands covered in wounds—some still embedded with snake fangs, the skin tinged blue-purple, bleeding profusely. It was a ghastly sight. "You—" For a moment, Chi Yun didn't even know what to say. Anger surged in his chest, but by the time it reached his heart, all that remained was bitter sorrow. "You're insane."Apart from his shoulders and hands, Tang Lici's clothes were burned in many places, his body covered in fire wounds, with his legs and feet suffering the most severe injuries. Much of his silver hair had been scorched off, now mixed with blood, ash, and grime, hanging over his shoulders and appearing darker. Yet, though his face was blackened by smoke, it remained completely unharmed. Zhong Chunji stood dumbfounded, tears streaming down her cheeks as she covered her face... Shen Langhun worked without pause, pulling out trauma medicine powder from his robes and applying it over both the wounds and the burnt fabric. However, the venomous bites on his hands were beyond his ability to treat. "Do you feel any discomfort?" he asked gravely.
Tang Lici raised his hands. "It's nothing." Chi Yun slightly lifted the collar of his robe, revealing inflamed skin beneath—all fire wounds. "You were bitten by dozens of lethally venomous Flame Serpents, and you say it's nothing? What do you think you're made of? Do you really believe you're some invincible demon who can't die?" Tang Lici replied softly, "Even the Ape-Demon Nine Heart Pill couldn't kill me—what are mere silver-ringed snakes? Don’t worry, these are just superficial wounds on my hands."
"Covered in fire wounds like this, without the right medicine, the consequences could be dire," Shen Langhun said flatly. "Let’s leave now. There’s no point searching further." Just as Chi Yun was about to speak, Tang Lici glanced at his bloodied state, his eyes flickering slightly before he calmly said, "Very well... But before we go, let me rest here for a moment. Chi Yun, fetch me a change of clothes." Each of them had carried their own packs, but they had left them outside the entrance to avoid hindering movement, so none had them on hand.
"I'll be right back," Chi Yun responded before swiftly departing. Tang Lici sat down where he was, closing his eyes to regulate his breathing and expel the venom through internal energy. Zhong Chunji stood to the side, staring blankly at him, her Little Peach Red dropped beside her, forgotten as she fixed her gaze on Tang Lici. Shen Langhun retrieved an extremely fine silver knife from his robes and slowly cut open the snake wounds on Tang Lici’s hands, extracting the fangs and squeezing out the poisoned blood. Counting them, he found twenty-eight bite marks on his hands—enough to have killed any ordinary man.
"Was Fang Zhou not on the other side?" he asked coolly while treating the wounds. Tang Lici looked toward the opposite shore and smiled faintly. "No." After a pause, Shen Langhun asked, "Does the pain trouble you?" Tang Lici’s fingers twitched slightly as he brushed back his hair, thick blood trickling down and dripping onto his scarred chest. "This... Surely Shen Langhun has suffered worse than mere burns?" Shen Langhun was taken aback, then chuckled dryly. "You, a noble of the court, who has never walked the martial world—how can you compare yourself to Shen Langhun?" Tang Lici paid little attention to his injuries, his gaze resting indifferently on the flames in the fire pit. "Burns and snakebites are nothing... I..." His words abruptly cut off, and he changed course. "Fang Zhou practiced the Rebirth Scroll to transfer his power to me. That pain... that was truly unbearable.""Young Master Tang," Zhong Chunji suddenly asked in a low voice, "you... what kind of person were you in your youth, before you became the Imperial Brother-in-Law?" She had long known about the Three Sounds Fang Zhou transferring his skills to Tang Lici, but that person had claimed Tang Lici was heartless and treacherous, exchanging a friend's life for peerless martial arts. If he truly were such a person, why would he travel thousands of miles here, endure the torment of traps and venomous snakes, and insist on finding Fang Zhou's corpse? He certainly wasn’t the vile villain that person had described, but... but... the issue wasn’t that he lacked loyalty—it was that he was too loyal, so much so that it was almost killing him... What could be done? What could be done?
Tang Lici glanced up at her. "The past? My youth?" He smiled faintly. "In my youth, I was very wealthy—and I still am." Zhong Chunji was stunned. No matter how much she had pondered, she never expected him to say such a thing—the implication being that he had no intention of discussing his past with her. What he chose to do required no explanation or discussion with her; she only needed to follow behind. Even if he leaped into a pit of fire or marched to his death, it had nothing to do with her.
How could a man reject concern so cruelly? She gave a bitter smile. What a line—"In my youth, I was very wealthy." So frank, so arrogant, so utterly dismissive of others...
Just then, Chi Yun returned with a gray robe. Tang Lici draped it over his clothes but showed no intention of standing. He exhaled softly, gazing at the shattered false coffin on the opposite shore. "Do you think... if I left like this, would he blame me in the future...?"
"He's already dead. If ghosts truly exist, he would see how desperately you’ve fought for him and naturally wouldn’t blame you." Chi Yun rarely offered words of comfort, and these didn’t sound particularly convincing. Shen Langhun frowned. "What do you want to do?"
"I want to stay here overnight. Even if I can’t find Fang Zhou’s body, it’s a way to make peace with myself." Tang Lici spoke softly. "Let me keep him company for one night. May I?" The quiet, ashen fragility in his voice—did it signify the realization of shattered hope?
Chi Yun and Shen Langhun exchanged a glance. Zhong Chunji stood motionless to the side, her expression wooden. After a brief hesitation, Shen Langhun said, "I’ll go gather some herbs in the valley outside." Chi Yun glared at Tang Lici and, against all expectations, sighed. "Damn it, I really can’t do anything with you. Fine, it’s already dark. Shen, while you’re out looking for herbs, hunt some game too. If we’re staying the night, we can’t skip food and drink."
The night passed in silence around the campfire. Tang Lici didn’t speak—given his severe injuries, his silence wasn’t strange, but everyone knew he simply didn’t want to talk. With Tang Lici silent, Chi Yun lay down and slept immediately, his dissatisfaction with Tang Lici’s suicidal actions all too obvious. Shen Langhun idly poked at the fire with a branch, his peripheral gaze lingering on Zhong Chunji, his thoughts unreadable. Zhong Chunji stared fixedly at Tang Lici’s back, not uttering a word the entire night.After a long while, Chi Yun began to snore, Zhong Chunji closed her eyes and fell asleep, while Shen Langhun listened intently to the silence around him before sitting cross-legged to meditate in place of sleep. Before long, he had entered a state of self-forgetfulness. Just as the three of them drifted into slumber, Tang Lici opened his eyes, slowly stood up, and with a slightly unsteady figure, turned toward the large doors beside the fire pit, silently disappearing into the darkness beyond.
After Tang Lici left, Zhong Chunji opened her eyes, tears slowly streaming down her face.
So… he still refuses to give up.
He won’t leave until he finds what he’s searching for.
Is the corpse of a friend truly so important—important enough that sacrificing another life means nothing to you? Do you… do you know how much pain and sorrow it brings us to see you like this? You’re chasing after something impossible to find. Even if you recover his body, will it truly ease your suffering? Will it really bring him back to life? Deep down, perhaps your guilt over Fang Zhou’s death weighs heavier on you than anyone else—but no one understands, or maybe even you yourself don’t realize it.
And yet, along this path to find him, countless hidden weapons, poisons, and bloodstained blades lie in wait. Someone as intelligent and calculating as you—how could you not see it? I can’t let you continue like this. The others indulge your recklessness because they think they understand your brotherly loyalty. But I… I only want your life, not your righteousness.
Zhong Chunji reached into her robe, where the vial of medicine suddenly felt icy cold, as if sharp edges lurked within. She clutched it tightly, and for the first time in her drifting, uncertain heart, she made a clear and resolute decision.
The night passed slowly, and Zhong Chunji sat quietly by the fire, waiting in silence.
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