Ming Zhu felt that he must have desecrated this boy’s ancestral graves in a past life. Otherwise, why would the lad choose to jump neither a moment sooner nor a moment later, but specifically at the exact time Ming Zhu was perched on his iron rod for a rest? Of all the luck, the boy had landed squarely on him.
If Ming Zhu hadn't possessed a second rod, the three years of arduous climbing he had endured would likely have been wiped out in an instant, sent plummeting back to the bottom of the abyss by this boy’s weight.
Ming Zhu climbed upward one grueling step at a time with Ye Weiai on his back, his mouth never ceasing its relentless scolding. "I’m telling you, you have your whole life ahead of you to enjoy. Why come here to jump off a cliff? Do you have any idea what kind of monstrous things lurk at the bottom? A pampered, delicate thing like you wouldn't even make a decent snack for them. You brat—hey, are you even listening to me?"
Ye Weiai clung to Ming Zhu’s neck with a death grip, his legs wrapped tightly around the man’s waist for fear of being tossed off. Hearing the question, he nodded timidly. "Senior... I-I’m listening."
Ming Zhu gave an "oh" and continued his rambling. "I’m telling you, as long as a person is alive, they should be grateful for Heaven's grace. Don't just go dying whenever you feel like it, jumping off cliffs willy-nilly."
Ye Weiai nodded again, thinking to himself that he hadn't intended to seek death; he had simply lost his footing. However, he didn't dare say this aloud, lest the man become fly into a rage and throw him down.
"But if you truly have no lingering attachments to this world, jumping is fine too," Ming Zhu continued his earnest persuasion. "Just, when you jump... what I mean is, could you at least have the decency to find a better place to die? If you want to seek death, fine, but don't take others down with you. My chest still aches from where you slammed into me. You really are a..." He sighed heavily and concluded, "A total jinx."
Ye Weiai: "..."
Though Ming Zhu’s mouth never stopped moving, his hands remained incredibly skilled as he scaled the smooth stone walls. Likely due to the extra weight, his speed grew slower and slower. After about four hours, he finally wedged an iron rod into a crevice and perched there, hauling Ye Weiai up to crouch beside him for a rest.
The freezing wind from the bottom of the abyss howled upward, threatening to blow their thin frames away. Ye Weiai was unaccustomed to the ominous, deathly aura carried by the wind and turned his head to rub his nose.
Seeing this, Ming Zhu let out a scoff. "Uncomfortable already? Every gust of wind from the bottom takes about a month to reach the top. That foul stench has long been diluted. If you actually went down there, you’d learn what a true purgatory looks like."
Ye Weiai felt both fear and curiosity toward the man who had saved him. Sensing that the man’s tone was no longer as furious as before, he plucked up his courage and asked cautiously, "Senior, what is it actually like at the bottom of the cliff?"
Biri Cliff was the subject of countless legends. Some said it was bottomless, and that once you fell, you would spend eternity plummeting until death; others said the bottom was a swamp that swallowed all physical matter.
Every kind of rumor existed, but no one could truly say for certain, simply because for thousands of years, not a single person who fell down Biri Cliff had ever returned alive.
Ming Zhu thought back carefully before tilting his head. "Nothing special. Just a sea of blood. The smell is absolutely atrocious. Tsk, once I get up there, I’m definitely using ten buckets of water to bathe."
Perhaps the thought of "getting up there" reignited his fighting spirit. He swung Ye Weiai onto his back once more, yanked out the iron rod, and resumed his four-limbed scramble up the wall.
Seeing how difficult the climb was, Ye Weiai whispered, "Is Senior a cultivator?"
Busy climbing, Ming Zhu gave a noncommittal grunt of affirmation.
Ye Weiai spoke again. "Then, since you are a cultivator, why not use spiritual energy or a teleportation array to go straight up?"
Ming Zhu froze for a moment before saying with utter seriousness, "My brain isn't just for decoration. If it were that easy to get up, would I have spent three years climbing like a dog?"
Ye Weiai immediately lowered his head in embarrassment, feeling that he was the one being foolish.
However, after scolding him, Ming Zhu asked, "By the way, what is a teleportation array?"
Ye Weiai: "..."
Ye Weiai was stunned for a long while before explaining the use of teleportation arrays to this "non-decorative-brained" senior with a complicated expression.
The teleportation array was a formation developed over a decade ago by Gui Ning, the Sect Leader of Rizhao Mountain. Although the formation was complex, it was incredibly convenient. One only needed to draw the correct array and apply spiritual energy to the eye of the formation to travel to a previously visited location within a certain range.
Ming Zhu listened with wide-eyed wonder. Once he understood, he asked, "Do you know how to draw this array?"
Ye Weiai immediately replied, "I... my elder brother once taught me the drawing method. However, my cultivation is low, so I’m afraid the distance we can travel won't be very far."
Upon hearing this, Ming Zhu immediately jammed the iron rod into a rock crevice, pulled Ye Weiai to face the cliff wall, and said, "Then try drawing it?"
Ye Weiai said, "But this stone is too hard, I have no way to..."
Before he could finish, Ming Zhu pulled back his sleeve and sliced his fingernail across his wrist. Blood immediately welled up. He wailed, "Quick, quick, quick! Catch it! Blood should be easier to draw with! Hurry up, it hurts like hell!"
Ye Weiai: "..."
Ming Zhu was trembling all over. A few drops of blood seemed to affect him as if he’d been stabbed through the heart. He kept crying out in pain, "Hurry! Ahhh, it hurts, it hurts! Help!"
Ye Weiai: "..."
In a frantic rush, Ye Weiai dipped his fingers in the blood and tremulously began scribbling on the cliff face. The teleportation array was complex, and Ye Weiai hadn't drawn it many times. It took him a long while to produce a crooked, shaky formation. He wasn't even sure if it was correct.
Ming Zhu covered his wrist, squinting his eyes as he studied it for a long time. Finally, he said, "This array... hmm, it certainly has style."
Ye Weiai’s face turned bright red. He awkwardly wiped away a few strokes that had gone outside the lines, then grabbed Ming Zhu’s wrist and whispered, "Senior, hold onto me tightly."
Ming Zhu immediately wrapped himself around Ye Weiai with all four limbs. A salty, foul, bloody stench nearly made Ye Weiai faint. However, facing his savior, Ye Weiai felt no repulsion. He allowed Ming Zhu to cling to him, pressed both hands onto the small array, and intoned softly, "Array, rise!"
The blood-drawn array flashed with a crimson light. The two figures seemed to turn into drops of ink falling into water, their forms twisting into a single black thread in the air before being swallowed bit by bit into the formation.
In the next instant, two figures suddenly appeared in the sky above the Mo River, which ran alongside Biri Cliff. Following two sharp screams, they hit the rushing water with a loud splash and were instantly submerged.
A moment later, Ye Weiai, panting heavily, dragged Ming Zhu to the shore. He collapsed onto the ground, drained of all strength, unable to get up for a long time.
Coughing, Ming Zhu said between gasps, "You... you nearly killed me... *cough cough*..."
Ye Weiai took several breaths, water dripping from his hair. He said weakly, "Senior... you don't know how to swim?"
Ming Zhu gestured as he explained, "I used to be a young master who never lifted a finger. People would scatter flower petals in my path just for me to walk. I never had to learn such things."
Ye Weiai: "..."
By now, the sky had brightened. Since they were no longer within the bounds of Biri Cliff, the thin mist was scattered by the sudden rising sun. Beside the green waters, the autumn leaves rustled. The warm light reflected off the rushing river, the fragmented glints rising like scattered fireflies.
Ye Weiai sat up. Aided by the sunlight, he finally saw clearly what the senior who had saved his life looked like.
His savior wore a black robe that hung in tattered rags, giving him an air of destitute wildness. His frame appeared tall and elegant, but his face was covered entirely in mud, completely obscuring his features.
Ye Weiai watched him for a moment, then turned his head away with a complex gaze, unsure of what to say.
Ming Zhu scrambled up from the ground, paying no mind to Ye Weiai’s complicated expression. He squinted at the red sun rising in the distance. Droplets of water ran from the stray hairs on his forehead, down his cheeks, and into his hairline, making Ye Weiai feel for a fleeting moment as if the man were weeping.
Though Ming Zhu seemed quite rough, the eyes he revealed were unexpectedly beautiful. The fragmented light reflected in his pupils like shimmering starlight, dazzling and brilliant.
"Fifty years," Ming Zhu murmured, staring at the red sun.
Ye Weiai didn't hear him clearly and leaned closer. "What did Senior say?"
Ming Zhu blinked at him and said, "I said, I saved your life. How do you plan to repay me?"
He wiped the water from his face and looked Ye Weiai up and down, as if estimating the price of an object. "Judging by your fine clothes and your pampered skin, you're likely a young master from some family. The reward you can offer must be quite substantial."
Ye Weiai had a soft, naive nature. Because this man had saved him, he didn't find the comment inappropriate. He nodded and said without guile, "My elder brother is the Master of Changye Villa. Since Senior saved me, Brother will surely reward my benefactor handsomely."
Ming Zhu stood up and shook his soaking sleeves, splashing water all over Ye Weiai’s face. He stared at the boy with a very complex look for a long while before stretching. "No need for a reward. Just get me back to Rizhao Mountain and we're even. By the way, how far is this place from Rizhao?"
Ye Weiai tilted his head to think. Just as he was about to answer, for some reason, his pupils suddenly constricted. Then, as if controlled by something, his entire body stiffened.
Ming Zhu was still waiting for an answer when he turned his head, only to see Ye Weiai fall straight to the ground, expressionless, his fate unknown.
Ming Zhu narrowed his eyes. He stepped forward and pressed his fingers to Ye Weiai’s wrist. Upon checking, he was shocked to find that this person actually possessed the pulse of a dead man.
There was little expression on Ye Weiai’s youthful face. At some point, his pupils had turned into the dull eyes of a corpse, staring unblinkingly at Ming Zhu.
Having spent fifty years at the bottom of Biri Cliff, Ming Zhu had long since seen countless bizarre things. He was unfazed by such a creepy gaze. Instead, he nudged Ye Weiai’s shoulder with great interest. "Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Kid, wake up! Don't die on me!"
Ye Weiai stared at him fixedly. Though his mind was clear, he could not open his mouth to answer. He could only feel a secret surge of gratitude toward this stranger he had known for only half a day.
The concern in Ming Zhu’s eyes couldn't be faked. Aside from his own brother, this was the first time someone had cared for him like this.
Ming Zhu said, "If you're going to die, fine, but you have to tell me how far it is to Rizhao Mountain first! Can I make it there in three years? Hey! Finish talking before you die!"
Ye Weiai: "..."
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 蔽日崖 | Biri Cliff | "Sun-Obscuring Cliff" |
| 漠河 | Mo River | A river near Biri Cliff |
| 传送阵 | Teleportation array | A magical formation for instant travel |
| 归宁 | Gui Ning | Sect Leader of Rizhao Mountain |
| 日照山 | Rizhao Mountain | "Sunlight Mountain" |
| 长夜山庄 | Changye Villa | "Evernight Villa," Ye Weiai's home |
| 明烛 | Ming Zhu | The mysterious savior |
| 夜未艾 | Ye Weiai | The young master who fell |
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