IN THE DREAM, Taxian-jun opened his eyes to find himself standing in the middle of an endless plain. The clouds overhead were crimson, so low they seemed within reach; he was surrounded by lush reeds and willow fuzz, rising and falling in the breeze. Human voices echoed through them, some laughing, some weeping. The sound was as soft as gauze slipping through one's fingers, or the brush of flowing water.
He walked forward, startling the deep blue fireflies from within the depths of the reeds. The great band of a river flowed sluggishly past his feet, larger and wider than any he'd seen. He glimpsed boats floating on its surface in the distance, and the song of the ferrymen echoed through the air.
"My body sinks into the abyss, my limbs reduced to paste. My head emptied of thought, my tears ground to dust. Feed on my entrails, you scarlet insects; feast on my organs, you hovering vultures… Only the soul returns…only the soul returns…"
The past flowed by like water, leaving only the soul.
He felt he had been here before—but when? Taxian-jun looked around. The scenery seemed so familiar, yet no matter how he cast his mind back, he couldn't recall ever having seen it.
"Hey, you," came a voice behind him.
Taxian-jun whirled around but saw only the fireflies.
The voice was very faint, like snatches of a half-heard dream. "Walk a little farther. I'm right there."
Despite his distaste for taking orders, Taxian-jun's curiosity got the better of him. Frowning, he walked into the reeds where those fireflies danced. He soon saw a ruined mill, its overgrown courtyard piled with rubble. In its center, upon a pitch-black grindstone, sat a man. His back was turned to Taxian-jun, and his face was turned to the sky.
"Who are you?"
The man didn't look back. He sighed. "I'm probably leaving soon."
"Leaving? Where are you going?" Taxian-jun didn't wait for a reply before asking in frustration, "Where are we?"
"You're on the shore of the soul river. Do you see them out there? Take one of those bamboo boats and head downstream, and you'll reach the underworld."
Taxian-jun watched him in silence.
"It takes about eight years to get through the reincarnation queue, and at the gates there's a guard with his intestines spilling out who will measure your merit in life. If your sins are too heavy, you'll get sent right to the eighteen hells." The man's voice was light and easy; he spoke of the business of the dead as if reminiscing about the past.
"The first level is called Nanke Town. There's a poor artist in there, but he shouldn't be poor anymore. I burned a lot of paper money for him. There's an old man selling wontons, and if you go in deeper, you'll see a palace built by the Fourth Ghost King. Oh, and there's also Tailwind Hall—"
"Blah blah blah." Taxian-jun cut him off. "Get to the point."
The man paused. "Taxian-jun, do you fear death?"
He scoffed. "What's there to fear?"
"I used to think so too. Once, I chose to end myself with poison. I thought there was nothing more I wanted in life; that I didn't fear death." The man lowered his head. "But now, I don't want to go. He's still in the world—I can't leave him."
The man leapt lightly down from the grindstone, stepping out of the shadows and into the clear light of the moon. Wind ruffled the water at the banks of the soul river, willow fuzz flying into the air as the fireflies leapt and spun.
Taxian-jun's expression shifted. "You?"
Mo Ran walked toward him, a hollow black hole in his chest where his heart should've been. His handsome features—the high bridge of his nose and the clean lines of his face—were relaxed: He looked little different from the first time Taxian-jun had seen him at Mount Jiao, other than the fact that he was now much calmer. All the fear and confusion had been wiped away.
"How are you still…"
"As you can see, I'm not. But for some reason, I'm a little different from the other dead. It's been seven days since I passed, but no Hei Wuchang or Bai Wuchang7 have come to take me to the underworld. I've been drifting around on the shores here this whole time."
Taxian-jun narrowed his eyes.
"Don't worry. My spiritual core is inside your body; I can't survive." Mo Ran turned his face toward the rushing waters of the soul river. "But I don't want to leave…" he murmured. "I want to go back."
Blinking, Taxian-jun brought a hand to his own chest. A malevolent grin appeared on his face. "Your spiritual core is within this venerable one? So then…Hua Binan succeeded? He did it; this venerable one will be able to move around at will, this venerable one will—"
"Do you know who Hua Binan is?" Mo Ran turned, watching him quietly. He stepped up to Taxian-jun, then lifted one glowing, incorporeal finger and tapped him between the brows.
"Actually, there's no point in telling you. He's messed with your mind, and knowing him, he'd cut away anything that would stand in the way of his control of you. But since your cognizance soul remains, you should at least remember a little… Don't let him use you so easily."
For some reason, Taxian-jun felt a splitting pain where Mo Ran touched him. Scraps of memory flashed before his eyes. "What are you doing?!"
Mo Ran said nothing. He took Taxian-jun's face in his hands, watching him quietly and a little sadly. "If only you could learn the whole truth."
"You…"
"At least then, even if I have to leave, I'd feel better about it."
Taxian-jun clenched his jaw. "What truth? What a load of shit! Unhand this venerable one!" Furious, he tried to struggle free of Mo Ran's hold, but it was like beating cotton fluff. His spells and his limbs went right through his other self's intangible body.
Mo Ran closed his eyes and sighed. "Honestly, I really do want you to see what I've been through since my rebirth. I want to give you all my memories. Maybe it's because this fixation runs too deep that my soul hasn't been taken away—maybe it's so I could meet you here."
He leaned forward, pressing his forehead to Taxian-jun's brow. "Turn back," he whispered. "Forgive yourself."
Those murmurs sounded far too similar to Chu Wanning's dying words—Taxian-jun flinched, but before he could unleash his fury, bloody crimson filled his vision. He saw the Heavenly Rift to the ghost realm once again. It was the calamity that had changed the trajectory of his life, a time when no one had spared a thought for him, when everyone's pained cries had shaken the sky.
Taxian-jun seemed to flutter in midair like a paper kite. Laid out beneath him were the sobbing crowds and the bloody stink of broken limbs. He looked around—where was Shi Mei? Where had Shi Mei gone? He couldn't find him, couldn't see him. Anger scorched his heart, sending him spiraling into madness—and then he froze.
In the smoke of battle, a familiar silhouette was twitching on the ground. Taxian-jun descended and found, to his surprise, that it was his own youthful self, unconscious and on the verge of death.
What had happened here?
As if in answer, his surroundings changed. Someone was hoisting his battered body onto their back and pitifully crawling out from that sea of blood and bone.
Who? Who did those torn and bloodied hands belong to? That person who refused to set him down even when they could hardly move, that person who dragged him to safety with everything they had—who was it?
Taxian-jun swept to the ground. He hovered around that pair of figures, staring at the man who carried him—that man covered in wounds, his face smeared in filth. Recognition came upon him like a clap of thunder.
"Chu Wanning…?"
But how could this be… How could it be?!
Someone seemed to be howling in his ear. The voice was distant, yet its fury slashed into him like a knife. "The stairs are still stained with a trail of blood; that's the road he took to bring you home!" they screamed.
The Discernment Barrier is twinned! Whatever damage you took, he suffered the same!
How could you say he didn't save you… How could you say he didn't save you…
Taxian-jun felt cold all over. His eyes flew open, revealing bloodshot whites. He stared at Mo Weiyu, a muscle jumping in his jaw. "What are you trying to show this venerable one?! That's…that's impossible!"
But the sight of Mo Ran's eyes startled him out of his furious rage. His other self was gazing back at him, his dark, placid eyes sheened with tears. "I've given you as many of my memories as I can."
"Who wants to know about you and him?! Who wants to know what's happened since your rebirth! You pathetic slug—you betrayed Shi Mei… You and this venerable one aren't alike at all!" Wrath flared in his chest. "Who asked you?! Get out of my way!"
The rage that had struck fear into so many hearts failed to stir anything in Mo Ran, who looked at him almost pityingly. He stood before Taxian-jun; a golden flame had lit the hems of his clothes, and his incorporeal body was slowly disappearing in the fire, scattering into motes of firefly light. "You don't have to shout. It's time for me to go. I've used the power of my soul to give you all my memories in defiance of the natural order—I don't know what's going to happen to me now." Mo Ran paused, then grinned. "Maybe I'll be locked out of the Wheel of Reincarnation, or maybe I'll get sent right to the Infinite Hells."
Taxian-jun watched him in silence.
"Ah—but in the best-case scenario…maybe both my soul and my spiritual core will merge into your body."
Taxian-jun had listened to the rest with bored impatience, but this statement made him scowl. "Don't even think about it!"
Looking at him, Mo Ran's mouth curved in the hint of a smile. "Why—what are you afraid of?"
Considering this a grievous insult, Taxian-jun narrowed his eyes. "What does this venerable one have to fear? This body belongs to this venerable one—don't you dare try to usurp me!"
Mo Ran sighed. "There are certain truths you just can't bear to accept. I've already acknowledged them, but you still try to ignore them."
"Shut up!"
Mo Ran watched him peacefully. The patch of nothingness was spreading faster, eating up his waist and then his chest.
In the moments before he vanished, he reached out once more, almost brushing the hair at Taxian-jun's temples. As if threatened with some awful poison, Taxian-jun took a disdainful step back.
Mo Ran only smiled. The motes of golden light that had formed his body flew toward Taxian-jun's chest like moths seeking a flame, leaving only his face and one outstretched hand. Taxian-jun sensed a familiar strength reawakening inside him, searingly hot, like the flow of magma beneath stone. It was a strength he knew intimately yet despised utterly.
"Don't even dream of merging souls with this venerable one!"
"No one ever wants to leave. How could I not make one final attempt?"
Taxian-jun was snarling. "Get the hell out!"
Mo Ran gazed at him. "I'm sorry. Even at the very end, I have to fight you for this body."
Taxian-jun was silent, seething.
"If only you could return to who you were. Be Mo Weiyu, won't you?" The golden flame burned all the way to his fingertips, then swallowed that young and handsome face. "Don't be Taxian-jun anymore."
His voice faded with a whisper of ash.
In the secret chamber inside Tianyin Pavilion, a dazzling light exploded from the coffin. It was like the sun brought to earth, so blinding Shi Mei squinched his eyes shut and threw up his sleeve to shield his face. After what seemed like an eternity, the piercing light slowly faded.
Shi Mei had never seen anything like it. Paling, he flicked his sleeve aside and peered into the icy coffin, only to meet eyes so black they gleamed purple.
Taxian-jun slowly sat up. His cheeks were bone-white and cold, his lips still devoid of color. He resembled a statue of cold jade formed from some underwater spring. His robes, gold-embroidered black, emanated an icy mist; even the light shining upon him seemed somehow frozen. He reached out, pale and slender fingers resting upon the lip of the coffin, and looked around, his eyes coming to focus on Shi Mei.
Shi Mei was this creature's master—but the eerie look in those eyes made him take an involuntary step back.
"You're…" He swallowed, mastering himself with effort. "Finally awake."
Taxian-jun said nothing. His expression was fiendish—even more cruelly unpredictable than it'd been in the past. He panted shallowly, his back soaked in cold sweat. Mo-zongshi's final smile still flickered before his eyes. He closed them, trying to feel for an extraneous set of souls inside his body, but it was not something he could tell by feeling.
At the sight of his stormy expression, Shi Mei, standing beside him, swiftly reached out to put a hand on his forehead, muttering spells to settle Taxian-jun's uneasy heart. After completing a few, Shi Mei stared into his face. "How do you feel?"
Taxian-jun didn't reply. He put his hand out, wiggling his fingers experimentally. Those neatly trimmed nails were like still water, devoid of any vital flush. He got to his feet in the coffin. His first, rasping words were: "I dreamed quite a long dream."
Shi Mei watched him warily. "It wasn't real."
Black robes billowed like clouds and golden thread gleamed like water as the emperor stepped out of his coffin, a darkness in his demeanor. "I thought so."
He stared at Shi Mei, and Shi Mei returned his gaze. Shi Mei probed quietly, "Do you remember who you are?"
There was a short silence. That cruel and handsome man smiled faintly, his thin lips parting to bare his teeth. "How could I not. Taxian-jun, Mo Ran, Mo Weiyu." He paused, dropping his eyes to the ground and giving the tense Shi Mei an insouciant bow. "Ready to serve my master."
A flicker of joy passed through Shi Mei's eyes, but he dared not relax just yet. He produced a crystal from his qiankun pouch, which shone with a queer, jade-green gleam—the strongest type of crystal used to test a cultivator's spiritual energy. He swallowed, coming to stand before Taxian-jun and handing him the stone with barely concealed anticipation. "Can you light it up?"
Taxian-jun's eyes swept coolly over it. "Of course," he said easily. He tightened his grip on the little crystal, tendons protruding. When his powerful spiritual energy poured into the stone, it did more than glow. Fine fissures spread across its surface.
Shi Mei held his breath, staring at the crystal without blinking. With a loud crack, the green stone shattered in Taxian-jun's grip. That formidable crystal had been reduced to dust—infinitesimal motes that streamed between his pale fingers.
"Was it supposed to be difficult?" Taxian-jun flicked the powder from his fingertips and sneered. "Fragile little thing."
The tension melted from Shi Mei's body. He took a few steps back and collapsed onto a nearby bench, utterly drained.
This…this was the world's most powerful force. Had it finally returned to his control?
Shi Mei couldn't help it. His trembling grew violent, the dim light in the stone chamber illuminating his impossibly beautiful face. Was it joy? Or relief? Shadows slid over his features, blurring them into a ghoulish mask. He buried his face in his hands. "Mother, do you see?" he murmured. "I did it."
He jolted to his feet, near hysterical, shouting madly at those blank walls in the stone room that held no one but himself and Taxian-jun. "Do you see this?! Soon! Do you all see?!"
No one replied. In that silent chamber, he began to laugh so hard tears streamed down his cheeks.
Golden tears—like the Butterfly-Boned Beauty Feast Song Qiutong.