Under the flickering firelight of the stone chamber, ripples spread across the surface of the pitch-black water.
The face submerged in the water shifted, suddenly lunging upward as half a torso breached the surface.
Xiao Nanhui instinctively stepped forward, shielding Su Wei.
However, the figure was merely struggling in the water. The chains bound to his joints and bones rattled harshly as they were pulled taut, sending a grating, ear-piercing echo through the chamber.
An Lü’s cold, predatory gaze shifted until it landed on her. Then, he let out a raspy, unpleasant laugh.
"Young Master Yao?" He paused mockingly, the corners of his mouth curling into a sneer. "Should I call you Young Master Yao, or perhaps Chieftain Pan?"
Hearing the sarcasm in his tone, she stared straight at his face and spoke each word clearly. "Listen well. My surname is Xiao, and my given name is Xiao Nanhui. If you seek vengeance, do not mistake your target."
"So, you are of the Xiao family. I didn't know the Xiaos had produced such an androgynous spy. No wonder you serve so devotedly; it seems you’ve climbed into the Emperor's graces. A general by day—who knows what you are by night..."
His words were foul and his intent malicious. Immersed in the water, he resembled a venomous serpent coiled in a deep pool, spitting poison the moment he opened his mouth.
Xiao Nanhui had little experience with such vicious wars of words. For a moment, she didn't know how to retort, but her palms itched with the urge to step forward and deliver several resounding slaps.
In the next instant, cool fingers lightly brushed the back of her hand. She froze, glancing sideways at the Emperor, but his hand had already withdrawn.
This brief interaction was hidden beneath his wide sleeves; she couldn't see his movement, making it feel as though it were merely an illusion.
Then, he spoke to the figure in the black water, his tone indifferent.
"You’ve made some progress compared to before. It is a pity you lost the Secret Seal previously and failed again this time. The person behind you must feel some measure of regret."
An Lü’s laughter died. He stared fixedly at the man on the stone chair. "You have no idea what he is capable of. One day, you will surely regret..."
A soft chuckle drifted through the gloom.
"Then, have you seen what *I* am capable of?"
An Lü’s face suddenly turned ashen. He remembered that nightmarish scene in the Cave of Parting Dreams.
"You... that was... that was..." He stammered, his breathing becoming rapid, unable to form a complete sentence.
"What was I?" The man’s voice was as cold as the surrounding stone, his tone carrying a hint of deliberate cruelty. "Was I possessed? A descending god? Or... a divine manifestation?"
"You’re a monster! A monster..." An Lü’s voice grew hoarse as he repeated the words incessantly.
"A monster?" The man looked down at the head in the black water with calm eyes. "Those who obsess over dragons have never truly seen one. They spend their days admiring a single dragon scale they’ve acquired, smug and longing. Yet, the moment they finally see the dragon, they realize they are actually terrified of it. Is that not the height of stupidity?"
The faint sound of iron striking iron filled the air—the sound of shackled limbs trembling.
After a long while, the noise finally subsided.
"I know you kept me alive only to extract information." An Lü paused, a hint of smugness returning to his voice. "Unfortunately, this mouth belongs to me. I will say what I want to say, and if I don't want to speak, no one can pry a single word from me."
The man on the stone chair moved his arm, picking something up from the other side of the seat.
*Clack.*
The sound of a hard object being placed on the ground.
An Lü looked up. He expected some horrific instrument of torture, but instead, he saw only a mirror.
A bright, ordinary bronze mirror.
"The light is a bit dim here, but it will suffice."
The mirror was angled directly toward the man in the water. By the flickering light of the stone chamber, An Lü’s vision slowly focused on the distorted face in the reflection.
"No... no... no..."
He fumbled at his face. It was clearly still his own, yet it no longer looked like that of a teenage boy. Instead, it resembled a withered, deformed old man.
His shriveled, wrinkled skin was dull and lifeless. Several strands of sparse, wet hair fell away under his rough touch, tangling in his hands like rotten rags.
He clawed at himself frantically, then suddenly stopped, slowly bringing his fingers before his eyes.
The tips of his ten fingers had begun to turn black. But that was not the most terrifying part.
He twitched his index finger, and a fingernail drifted lightly into the water.
"No, no... what did you do to me?!" His voice broke into a shrill scream. The sight before him seemed to break his spirit more than the agony of a thousand cuts.
The Emperor finally stood up from his chair. He turned his hand over, revealing a vermilion bottle in his palm.
The moment Xiao Nanhui saw the bottle, she recognized it.
Back at Se Hill, she had seen it in An Lü’s hand from a distance.
An Lü clearly recognized the object that had once belonged to him as well. His eyes locked onto it, refusing to move even half an inch.
"The contents of this bottle are entirely gone, which suggests you have consumed quite a lot. Under such circumstances, you are lucky to even maintain your current state. It is a young body, after all; I imagine that is why he chose you."
"What do you mean?" An Lü’s lips trembled, his speech becoming slurred. "Do you think I’ll believe you just because of a few empty words..."
"When he gave this to you, he called it a blessing, but he failed to mention the curse it carries. It grants you power, but it also devours your body. You have been consuming it for months. Once you stop, your body will dissolve into a pool of rotten meat in this water within half a month. Not even a bone will remain."
Xiao Nanhui stood by and watched silently. From her initial surprise and confusion, she gradually began to understand: why An Lü’s strength had increased so drastically in just a few months, and how he could summon wind out of thin air. It was all because of the contents of that bottle.
The people of the world all craved power. Only through power could one win dignity and carve out a place for themselves.
But what she couldn't understand was why someone would pay a price they couldn't afford just to obtain it.
She was willing to spend ten years sweating and eating dust on the training grounds, willing to sacrifice the comfort of the Flower Pavilion, all to gain a body tempered like steel and filled with strength.
But she would never trade her soul for it.
To her surprise, An Lü seemed to know what she was thinking, casting a mocking gaze her way.
"Someone like you wouldn't understand. With my original body, even if I broke every bone and ground every sinew to reconnect them, I could never become a master capable of standing on my own. No one would ever look at me twice. This is something I bought with my life; it was always meant to be mine!"
Xiao Nanhui was stunned, then said earnestly, "But there are many in this world born as frail as you. Even if one cannot practice martial arts, one can still be respected through scholarship. Does having power only mean being able to kill?"
"If I don't kill, others will kill me! What use is scholarship? It cannot change the fate of being born into the pariah class!" That grey, defeated face suddenly snapped up, eyes fixed on the Emperor’s young face, filled with intense jealousy and hatred. "It’s all you. This is all because of you. You are clearly the same as me, so why... why are you unharmed...?"
"Why indeed?" The hem of the Emperor’s robe slowly swept past him in a graceful arc. "Perhaps because what is in your bottle is the same thing that flows through my veins."
Xiao Nanhui froze at those words.
What? The contents of that bottle... were human blood?
An Lü was silent for a moment, then let out a strange cackle. "You’re lying to me! You’re trying to trick me! That bloodline ended long ago; there isn't even enough dead man's blood left, so how could you..."
The man did not answer, merely watching him in silence.
"You’re lying! You’re a liar!" He was crushed by the other's composure. He tilted his head back toward the ceiling of the stone chamber, as if trying to look through the stone to the heavens above. "Where are the gods in this world?! Tell me, if a god truly exists, where was it when my poor sister was struggling on her sickbed?! Where was it when I begged and pleaded not to take my last living relative away?! Those people who drained her blood daily, yet refused her even a sip of water when she was sick for fear of catching her illness—why were they never punished?! I don't believe it! You’re lying to me, you’re lying..."
Shrill cries echoed in the stone chamber, sounding like both weeping and laughter.
Xiao Nanhui’s eyes showed a flicker of pity, and she shouted sternly, "Your sister is already dead! You know that better than anyone. You claim you did this for her—does saying that truly put your mind at ease?!"
"I didn't!" An Lü’s bloodshot eyes turned to her, his words spoken as if to her, yet also to himself. "I didn't do it for myself. I did it for her, for her! He said he would bring her back. He said it, and he can surely do it..."
"Is that so?"
The Emperor, who had been watching the play, finally moved again. He loosened his fingers, and the vermilion bottle fell to the ground, shattering into pieces and revealing a crumpled handkerchief inside.
"This is An Yun’s handkerchief. You obtained it by killing that young brothel servant named Jindou'er. Do you remember?"
Without looking at An Lü’s expression again, he gestured to Xiao Nanhui and took the torch from her hand, bringing it toward the silk handkerchief on the floor.
The torch, soaked in oil, lightly brushed the thin fabric, and the silk caught fire instantly.
"What are you doing? Stop it!"
The man ignored his protest. He turned and casually picked up a shard from the shattered bottle, holding it high above An Lü’s head.
An Lü’s eyes involuntarily followed the hand.
The handkerchief was being slowly consumed by flames, yet his eyes could not leave that hand no matter what.
The pale fingers tightened slightly, and a streak of dark red seeped from between them, dripping down.
An Lü stared at the blood, then turned to look at the handkerchief turning to ash on the other side. Suddenly, he began to strain against his chains like a madman.
His mouth hung wide open, his tongue lolling out. Every hair on his body seemed to be straining toward that dripping crimson. But no matter how he struggled forward, he was always just a hair’s breadth away from the falling red.
He was like a dog that had starved for days, begging for food, having long ago cast aside all dignity.
The man slowly withdrew his bleeding hand.
"You see, this is your choice."
The last spark of fire consumed the silk handkerchief. It turned into a pile of ash, vanishing into the crevices of the stone in an instant.
Xiao Nanhui’s heart grew cold bit by bit.
She felt sorrow for the distorted desires of that pitiable yet hateful person, and she felt a chill at the Emperor’s cold-blooded manipulation of the human heart.
She lowered her eyes, unwilling to look at that disgusting yet real scene.
"The things I need to know, I will find a way to pry from your mouth, word by word. There is no rush today."
An Lü seemed not to hear, still stretching his neck to reach the small puddle of dark red scattered on the ground.
The chains were incredibly strong, tightening until his eyeballs bulged. The veins in his neck popped out from the exertion, saliva and foam bubbled at the corners of his mouth, and a hissing sound came from his windpipe.
The man did not wish to look a moment longer. He turned toward the secret passage Xiao Nanhui had come from.
She was slow to recover her senses until she heard him call her.
"He cannot leave this place alive. Do you intend to stay here with him?"
She took one last look at the figure struggling in the black water, then quickly turned and left the stone chamber.
****** ****** ******
As they stepped back into the long, dark tunnel, the sound of An Lü straining against his chains continued to drift from behind them.
Xiao Nanhui listened as the sound gradually faded, but her heart could not find peace.
She remembered their first meeting at the Tower of Gazing Dust in Muerhe. He had been dressed as a servant, following behind the entertainer named Axi. The moment he saw her emerge from An Yun’s room, the expression on his face had been so vivid—a flash of surprise followed by immediate disappointment.
In that moment, he probably thought he was seeing his long-departed sister.
Yet, after more than half a year, that thin, clever, and faintly anxious boy had completely vanished, leaving behind only a husk waiting to rot.
"What are you thinking about?"
Su Wei’s low, raspy voice sounded three paces ahead. She snapped back to reality and answered honestly, "I used to think that the most precious and beautiful thing in this world was human emotion. But it turns out emotion is such a fragile thing; it cannot withstand any test and can vanish in an instant."
"Then simply do not let it be tested."
Xiao Nanhui was stunned, then shook her head dismissively.
How could that be easy? Life is full of ups and downs, and most of the time, one is at the mercy of circumstances, barely able to look after oneself, let alone a relationship.
The Emperor should know this better than she did. After all, sitting in such a high position, how could there be only one or two things beyond his control? How could such a person say something like that?
She decided to set aside the chaotic thoughts in her mind and asked the question that had been bothering her from the start.
"Why did Your Majesty summon me today?"
"To resolve your confusion."
Resolve her confusion? She was more confused now than before.
She suddenly remembered that she had told him everything about the strange things happening to An Lü, and he hadn't seemed surprised.
Recalling the experience in the Cave of Parting Dreams and the conversation in the stone chamber, he and An Lü shared an absolute similarity. An Lü had only obtained a withered datura flower, while he was the boundless sea of black flowers in the eternal night.
Ultimately, the Emperor was by no means ignorant of all these eerie occurrences.
"Did Your Majesty know what was going on with An Lü from the beginning?"
"I didn't. It was only a guess." The voice paused for a moment before continuing. "Do you think he and I are the same kind of person?"
She was startled by his perceptiveness and immediately shook her head. Realizing he couldn't see her, she spoke up. "How could I think that? He has already fallen into madness; I fear he is beyond saving."
"Falling into madness only requires a bit of obsession. Everyone has things they desire but cannot obtain; therefore, everyone can become a demon."
"Then Your Majesty..."
She almost instinctively wanted to ask the Emperor if there was something he desired but could not have. The question reached the tip of her tongue before she suddenly came to her senses and forced herself to swallow it.
"I have overstepped."
Lately, whenever she was alone with the Emperor, she felt their conversations often drifted in a dangerous direction.
The scene in the stone chamber served as a reminder—a reminder to keep her distance from the man before her.
However, in the next second, the person in front of her stopped as if sensing something, then turned around.
She was startled. "Your Majesty..."
He didn't speak, merely turning his hand over and holding it out to her.
There was a cut in the center of his palm, a mark from the shard of the porcelain bottle. Looking closely, there were also faint scars that had begun to fade.
Those were the scars left from when he saved her.
The slight sense of distance that had just surfaced in Xiao Nanhui’s heart was instantly demolished.
Sighing inwardly, she held up the torch to carefully inspect the wound, ensuring no porcelain shards were left inside. She then skillfully tore a clean strip of cloth to bandage the wound. He submissively allowed her to tend to him, as if this survival had left them with a wordless understanding.
"Your Majesty must not bleed again. If Lieutenant Ding finds out, my life will likely be difficult."
"Did he make things difficult for you earlier?"
She answered truthfully, "Not really." After a thought, she added, "It is also my own sense of guilt."
As she finished speaking, she tied the knot.
The man withdrew his hand, and the two of them returned to their previous distance of three paces.
After standing still for a moment, the Emperor turned to continue forward, and she followed.
Xiao Nanhui walked behind Su Wei, moving through the darkness in silence.
It wasn't until the night wind blew in from ahead, bringing fresh air and the scent of him to her nose.
The soft moonlight filtered through the exit, reflecting off his stationary back.
"I do not like it when General Xiao always walks behind me."
She grumbled inwardly, thinking that the path was almost at its end; why hadn't he said so earlier instead of waiting until now?
"The passage was too narrow just now; it wasn't easy for me to pass. If there is a next time, I will certainly walk in front to lead the way for Your Majesty."
"One person to lead the way is enough, and that is Weixiang."
She was somewhat bewildered, and that feeling of trepidation she’d felt before surged in her heart again.
Before she could process it, the man turned and walked into the night.
"No matter. The world outside is vast; surely it can accommodate a small space for General Xiao to walk side by side with me."
Xiao Nanhui stood frozen in place.
The Emperor’s words circled in her heart several times but failed to land.
She wanted to understand the deeper meaning behind those words, but then felt it was likely just her overthinking. After hesitating for a moment, she finally stepped forward into the night.
