"It has already been more than ten days. Master is there still no sign at all of him waking up?" Mie Xingzhe muttered to himself as he walked alone through a marketplace in the human world.
"At this rate, before anything else happens, we are going to starve to death in that cabin out in the wild." Looking at the packet of herbs in his hand, Mie Xingzhe shook his head helplessly. These past few days, he had pawned off almost everything he owned just to buy medicine for his master. The money in his pouch was running lower and lower, yet his master still showed no sign of waking.
"I do not have any skill that can actually keep us alive. If Master does not wake up soon, I am afraid I will have to go back to being a thief again. If Qingyi-ge knew that, he would beat me to death." Mie Xingzhe muttered to himself, and when he thought of Yun Qingyi, the sadness in his eyes was impossible to hide.
"Please have mercy, please have mercy."
At the roadside, a blind old beggar woman lightly tapped her broken bowl and begged from the people passing by. Her bent back and her filthy, bony body gave off an unpleasant smell from time to time, and the passersby all went around her without looking.
Seeing the old beggar woman begging there, Mie Xingzhe could not help recalling the days when he had been very small and old lady had taken him from door to door begging for food.
"Grandma, here."
He gently placed the white bun into the blind old woman's hand and patted it lightly.
"Thank you, thank you. It is a bun!" The blind old woman brought it close and smelled it as she spoke. Perhaps because she had not eaten in many days, she had barely taken two bites before the bun made her choke and cough badly.
"Slow down, slow down, Grandma." Mie Xingzhe quickly patted her back to help her and took the water flask he carried with him, unscrewed the lid, and handed it to her.
"Thank you, thank you. This old woman has not eaten for so many days that for a moment I had almost forgotten what a bun tastes like." The blind old woman smiled. Then she lifted the last bite of bun left in her hand and began feeling around to one side as she called out,
"Duoduo, come, this is for you. Duoduo, Duoduo? Where did you go?"
After calling twice with no response, the blind old woman grew flustered. Her old, bony hands kept groping helplessly across the ground.
"Who is Duoduo? Is she your granddaughter?" Mie Xingzhe asked.
"Duoduo is my dog. It has always lived with me and kept me company. Usually when I beg here, it lies right beside me. Why has it disappeared today? Without it, how is an old lonely woman like me supposed to live?" The blind old woman broke into anxious sobs.
"Grandma, please do not worry first. Maybe it just got playful for a while and ran off somewhere. It might come back soon,"
"Where could it run off to? What if some dog trader caught it? My Duoduo." The blind old woman cried in distress.
"Grandma, how about this? Tell me what Duoduo looks like, and I will help you look around, all right?" Mie Xingzhe said gently, trying to soothe her.
"All right, all right, that is wonderful. Thank you. You really are such a good person." The blind old woman agreed at once.
At Nangzhe's residence,
Hua Ruoying still lying unconscious at one side, a jealous fury burned in Nangzhe's purple eyes.
"I have done so much for you, yet from beginning to end, the only one you think about is him. Am I really worth less in your heart than some empty spirit cripple from before?"
A faint chill flashed through the look in his eyes as he gazed at Hua Ruoying. Slowly waving the folding fan in his hand, he summoned a spell streaked with purple, silver, and white, and gently sent it into Hua Ruoying's body.
"If you want to think of him, I simply will not let you remember him."
Back to Mie Xingzhe, he had already spent several hours helping the blind old woman search, yet there was still no sign at all of Duoduo.
"Grandma, could it be that Duoduo already went home? Where do you live? How about I take you back first? It is already dark now, and if you still want to keep looking, at least it should wait until tomorrow, when you can see the road better," Mie Xingzhe urged patiently.
"Silly child, what difference does daylight or night make to an old blind woman like me? But what you said makes sense. Maybe Duoduo has already gone back. My shabby hut is just over to the east side of the city. Trouble yourself to take me back first. You should also have a drink of water too. You must be tired after searching all day." The blind old woman gave the hand that was supporting her a grateful pat.
As soon as Mie Xingzhe helped the blind old woman to the front of her yard, they heard a few barks, and then a little furry creature came running out from inside.
"Duoduo, Duoduo. Oh, at last, I have found you." The blind old woman bent down happily, gathered the little dog into her arms, and could not stop stroking it.
"That is great. Duoduo already came back." Seeing that the old woman's dog was safe and sound, Mie Xingzhe was happy too.
After helping the blind old woman settle back inside, Mie Xingzhe was about to leave when she called after him.
"Young man, please wait. I truly owe today to you, or this old woman and Duoduo would never have made it home safely. This is some mugwort incense I made myself. There are too many mosquitoes in the woods, and with this incense burning, one can sleep more soundly at night. If you do not mind, young hero, please take it. Consider it this old woman's small token of thanks."
The blind old woman held out a paper packet.
"Grandma, I cannot take this. It is already hard enough for you to make a living. This incense could be sold in the market for a little money." Mie Xingzhe tried to decline.
"It is not anything valuable. It is just rough incense this old woman made herself from herbs I gathered. It is not worth much anyway. Take it, please." the blind old woman pushed the mugwort incense into his hands.
"Then... thank you, Grandma." Mie Xingzhe did not refuse again, but quietly took out the last of the money he had and left it on the table beside them.
After Mie Xingzhe had gone, the old woman's eyes suddenly regained their sight. Looking at the figure of Mie Xingzhe disappearing into the distance, she gave a meaningful nod and smiled.
"He really is a good child."
It was already deep into the night when Mie Xingzhe returned to the cabin. Li Luoning still lay there just as before, silent and unmoving on the bed.
"Master, I am back."
Pushing the door open, Mie Xingzhe spoke to him as usual.
"I came back a little late today. On the road, I ran into an old woman who needed help."
"Master, when are you ever going to wake up? Qingyi-ge is gone. We were driven out of Liaoyin Immortal Realm too. I do not even know whether anything happened to Senior Sister Ruling after she let us go that day. I only have you left now. You absolutely cannot let anything happen to you."
Mie Xingzhe looking at the sleeping Li Luoning, and the mugwort incense slipped from his arms.
He picked it up and looked at it.
"I wonder whether Grandma's incense even works. There really are a lot of mosquitoes in this house. I should light it for Master anyway, so the bugs do not bite him."
With that, he found a lotus leaf to place underneath it and lit the mugwort incense beside Li Luoning's bed. As the smoke slowly spread through the room, Mie Xingzhe himself began to feel sleepy, and before he knew it, he had fallen into a dream.
"Where am I?"
Mie Xingzhe stood in confusion, looking around at a boundless place above the clouds. Far away there seemed to be a figure waiting there. He took two quick steps, wanting to see who it was, only to find himself trapped inside an invisible bell-shaped barrier, unable to move.
"Yun Wannian, if you hand over Li Luoning, you can avoid death."
A voice suddenly came from nowhere, yet there was no one in sight anywhere around him.
Mie Xingzhe at once became alert. Turning in a circle and seeing no one, he shouted into the emptiness,
"If you want me to hand over my master, then I would sooner die first!"
"The Moonshadow Pill in his body is something that can dominate all three realms. Are you really not tempted? With it, you would never again be the same person who could be trampled and humiliated at will. And with your own Floating Light Golden Seal besides, you could even place the whole three realms beneath your feet. Faced with such a thing, do you really not want it?" The voice around him went on, coaxing and tempting.
"I do not care about it at all. As long as Master can be safe and sound, I do not care who rules the three realms. I do not need that thing, and I will not allow anyone to set their sights on my master." Mie Xingzhe shouted back.
"Yun Wannian, you killed your fellow disciple and senior brother, Yun Qingyi. If your master is brought back to life, are you not afraid that once he wakes up, the first person he will kill will be you?" the voice asked again.
That question made Mie Xingzhe's ready stance falter. He lowered his hands, and the force in him drained away by more than half. His head dropped on its own, his eyes stinging with unshed tears, as he said,
"Killing Qingyi-ge was never my true intention. Master saved me many times before. My life was already his long ago. If giving my life could ease the pain in Master's heart, then I would have no complaint."
His voice grew calmer and calmer, tinged with sorrow.
The moment he finished speaking, the bell-like barrier binding him vanished without a sound, and the distant figure slowly approached.
It was a woman with the lowered-brow face of a bodhisattva, wearing flowing robes the pale color of cloud-veiled peaks, walking toward him with a gentle smile.
"You are...?"
Mie Xingzhe felt that the person before him looked strangely familiar. He looked more closely, then suddenly remembered.
"You are the old woman from today?"
Only then did he realize that the person before him was indeed the blind old woman he had helped that day, except now she carried an air of drifting immortality all around her.
The woman smiled and gave a light nod.
"To carry such a heart is no easy thing," she said with clear approval.
"Grandma, you were not blind?" Mie Xingzhe asked, waving a hand in front of her eyes.
Realizing that she had only been playing tricks on him that day, Mie Xingzhe immediately became a little upset.
"Grandma, were you deliberately teasing me today?"
"Do you wish to save your master?" The woman's voice was as clear and calm as spring water in the mountains.
"Yes. Grandma, do you have a way?" Mie Xingzhe nodded at once, without a moment's hesitation.
Raising a hand, the woman summoned a jade cauldron of icy blue and placed it in Mie Xingzhe's hands.
"Your master is protected for now by the Moonshadow Pill, but the techniques he cultivated before conflict with that inner core. His original spiritual power must be drawn into this Clear Heart Dust-Washing Cauldron and refined anew."
"The Clear Heart Dust-Washing Cauldron?" Mie Xingzhe looked down at the cold jade cauldron in his hands and repeated the name.
"The process of cleansing the marrow and purifying the heart will be extremely painful. He will have to endure yin and yang spiritual power running through his body at the same time, crashing again and again into his heart meridians. The pain is no less than having the sinews torn and the bones pulled apart." The woman spoke with some reluctance.
"Ah? That painful? Is there no other way at all?" Mie Xingzhe asked anxiously after hearing her words.
"That depends on whether you are willing." Suddenly the woman changed her tone and looked directly at Mie Xingzhe.
"I am willing!" Mie Xingzhe agreed before she had even finished speaking. In his eyes, as long as it could save his master, he would agree to anything.
"In this world, only your Floating Light Golden Seal can protect his heart meridians. It is just that..." The woman paused halfway through.
"Just that what?" Mie Xingzhe asked quickly.
"If you want to use the Floating Light Golden Seal to protect his heart meridians, that means your Golden Pill must be taken out of your body and sent into his. Are you willing?"
"I am. As long as it can save Master, even if it costs my life, I am willing." Mie Xingzhe answered without the slightest hesitation.
"Good. Then I will give this Clear Heart Dust-Washing Cauldron to you. If there should ever be a time of extreme danger again, the answer will be found within the cauldron itself."
Before the words had even fully faded, the woman's figure vanished from before him.
"Thank you, Grandma. Grandma, I have not yet asked your honored name. When my master wakes, we must come and thank you properly."
Mie Xingzhe had only just bent into a respectful bow when he lifted his head and found the woman already gone. He quickly called out into the empty air around him.
"Softly the robes stir, and quietly comes Liaoyin."
Mie Xingzhe repeated the words under his breath. Then after a moment he jolted awake, dropped to his knees, and bowed in full reverence.
"Thank you Grand Master."
Meanwhile, several days earlier, Jiagu Qing had been leisurely sorting herbs in his yard.
The wisteria tree beside him stretched out a vine and lightly tapped his shoulder, signaling that there seemed to be some movement in his room.
"Hm?"
Jiagu Qing answered and walked toward the room. The moment he reached the doorway, he caught a burnt smell.
Following the smell, he first saw the medicine pot simmering on the stove by the door.
"How many times have I said it? You have to watch the fire when you boil medicine. How did it get scorched again?"
Jiagu Qing thought one of the little tree spirits must have forgotten about the herbs cooking inside, which was why the room was full of a burnt smell.
But when he lifted the lid and sniffed the pot, he realized that the burnt scent was not coming from there at all. So he followed the smell into the inner room and looked all around for the source.
"Oh dear, this... this... how can a jade pendant just catch fire on its own?"
Seeing this, Jiagu Qing hurried over and tried to smother the flames on the pendant. Yet no matter how much water he splashed on it, the blue fire burning on the jade showed no sign of weakening.
Suddenly Jiagu Qing remembered what Li Luoning had said to him when he had stayed here some time ago and left this pendant behind.
"Senior Jiagu, I have split the seal on the Moonshadow inner core in two. I will carry one part on me, and I leave the other with you as a warning. The Moonshadow Pill concerns the safety of all three realms. If one day the seal on the Moonshadow Pill breaks, that means something has happened to me. This jade pendant will burst into flame by itself. When that happens, I ask that you make certain it does not fall into anyone else's hands."
"Could it be... has that little medicine fool gotten himself into trouble?"
Looking at the jade pendant burning with blue flames before him, Jiagu Qing instantly felt that something was very wrong.