The place is deserted - Part 4
Xin Ruien took the pills from Chunhua and swallowed them without further questioning.
Chunhua, on the contrary, seemed somewhat insecure. She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something.
"Is that all?" Shin Rui-eun asked.
Chunhua was a little nervous. She coughed, swallowed, and finally said, "There are two possibilities after taking this medicine."
“Hmm.” Xin Ruien looked at Chunhua, gesturing for her to continue.
"The red pill will dissipate the remaining true energy in your body in the shortest amount of time."
"That means my sword intent has been completely erased."
Chunhua nodded. "The yellow pill will restructure the meridians in your body."
“I see,” Xin Ruien said thoughtfully. “If that’s the case, then we do need to eliminate all the true energy beforehand.”
“Yes. After the meridians are reshaped, if the original true qi is allowed to circulate in the predetermined way, it will eventually lead to the complete severing of the meridians.” Chunhua paused, then continued, “The first two steps are essential, but the most crucial one is the third pill.”
"The two possibilities you mentioned will occur here."
Chunhua nodded vigorously once again.
After taking a long breath, Shin Ye-eun mentally prepared herself. "Let's start with the kind we want," Shin Ye-eun added, "the kind you hope will happen."
“The good kind,” the room was so quiet that Chunhua could hear her own heart pounding, “after the sword intent completely dissipates, the green ‘Life of All Things’ stimulates the body’s potential and fosters new sword intent.”
“I’ve heard of this theory.” The true energy that had accompanied Xin Rui’en for nearly twenty years was nearing its end, and she naturally felt a sense of weakness and emptiness. She forced herself to speak, saying, “Everyone only has one sword intent, but that’s just the surface. In reality, people are born with complex and ever-changing sword intents. It’s just that the strongest sword intent suppresses and eliminates all the others.”
“But theoretically, there can be exceptions.” Chunhua picked up where Xin Ruien left off. “If there is such a sword intent, even the dominant and most powerful sword intent cannot completely erase it; it can only suppress its growth.”
“It must be an unimaginably powerful and resilient being.” Xin Ruien sat down, supporting her upper body with her hands on the table. “You’re gambling.”
"Feel sorry."
"Are you really just a maid?" Xin Ruien didn't blame Chunhua. Things had come to this point; at least she had consumed the "Life-Giving Pill," and there was still a glimmer of hope.
"I've only read about it in books."
"Let's talk about the bad possibility."
"From now on, you will become an ordinary person like me, accomplishing nothing." Chunhua said apologetically, "If you end up like that, please run away. Get far away from here, because there will never be a better opportunity than today."
Xin Ruien lowered her head and didn't reply. "All Things Grow" had begun to take effect, and Chunhua knew Xin Ruien needed time. She needed to sleep, and when she woke up again, Chunhua would get the answer she so desperately wanted.
No matter how eager you are, sometimes you need to wait patiently.
The Blood Palace's three long and two short chimes rang out, cutting through the swirling yellow sand to reach Chunhua's ears. She saw the sand grains drifting outside the window, trembling in mid-air and changing their original trajectory. That was the Blood Palace's highest-level warning signal.
Chunhua looked at the back of her hand, where a few fine grains of sand trembled. She couldn't tell if it was her hand trembling, or the sand. She only felt that the tolling of the bell connected everything in the world, urging something forward.
A team of fully armed guards hurried past the gate.
The sound of footsteps in a group hadn't gone far when a lone footstep returned. The guard's longsword hung at his left hip, his left hand gripping the hilt behind his back, his right hand hanging by his side, close to his thigh. The guard returned to the door of the room where Xin Rui'en was imprisoned, standing upright. He asked with some concern, "Miss Chunhua, are you alright?"
"It's nothing." Chunhua turned around, keeping her movements and voice to a minimum.
The guard glanced at Xin Ruien, who was fast asleep on the table, and instructed, "Don't go out today until you hear the long and short chimes."
“I will keep an eye on her,” Chunhua said.
The guard closed the door. Hurried footsteps sounded outside the door, then faded away.
*
Han Hyo-joo stared intently in the direction of the Misty Rain Pavilion; she could feel the unusually thick air. She stood on the branches of the cypress for a while, making sure that Chishu wouldn't return, before continuing forward.
The further she went, the heavier her heart became.
After a few leaps, she landed on the riverbank. Her ominous premonition had finally come true. The thick, pungent smell of blood assaulted her nostrils. Those people she remembered, so full of life, now lay dead before her eyes.
On the top floor of the Misty Rain Pavilion ahead, a man with white hair and a youthful face sat on the balustrade. Beside him were four blood-stained longswords stuck in the ground.
Han Xiaozhou could tell at a glance that those four swords were all malevolent weapons.
“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time,” Liu Langxian said.
"Slaughter all my disciples, and I will not let you leave alive."
“I didn’t expect Yanyu Tower to have degenerated to this extent. But you should know that crushing an ant is of no help or meaning to me.” Liu Langxian jumped down from the railing. “This was not my intention; they insisted on doing it. If you had come back sooner and given me ‘Tsunami,’ perhaps they wouldn’t have died.”
*
Chunhua sat upright, her hands resting on her knees, facing the tightly closed door. The bell had stopped ringing and remained silent for a long time; the sand on the table had also ceased to move. The stench of blood, carried by the wind, climbed the high-rise building, mingling with the yellow sand as it waded through the window and reached her. It assaulted her eyes and filled her nostrils.
At first, there were intermittent footsteps in front of the door, but as time went by, those sounds disappeared. Everything fell silent.
A terrifying silence.
In this boundless silence, she could only keep company with her own breathing.
"Where should we go?" A slightly weak voice came from behind Chunhua, breaking the existing silence like a thunderclap.
Chunhua clenched her fists and turned around abruptly. Xin Ruien was covered in sweat, her lips were pale, but her eyes remained as bright and lively as ever.
Chunhua felt her throat was dry and she could barely speak. After a long while, she managed to squeeze out a weak voice: "Which one?"
"It's the one you've been hoping for."
Both of their voices were very faint, but clear enough to be heard.
Chunhua turned over the teacups that were upside down on the polished stone tray in the center of the table, one for herself and one for Xin Ruien. Her movements were a little awkward; she even dropped her own teacup once, almost rolling it to the ground. After setting the teacups in place, Chunhua picked up the teapot and poured tea into the two cups one after the other. A fair amount of tea spilled outside the cups.
A considerable amount of fine sand had settled in the tea, clearly visible against the white porcelain cup. Chunhua lifted the cup and took a sip; a warm sensation flowed from the tip of her tongue to her chest. Only then did her throat feel better.
"How long did I sleep?" Xin Ruien asked again.
Chunhua put down her teacup. She noticed that the creases she had made on her skirt earlier hadn't healed. She smoothed out the wrinkles with both hands and said, "Two thousand and twenty-five times."
Shin Rui-eun waited until the sand in the cup settled to the bottom before taking a sip. The tea was squeezed onto her lips. "Two thousand and twenty-five times?"
“It’s the number of breaths I take,” Chunhua replied.
Shin Ye-eun stood up from her chair and said, "It's been a long time, let's go."
Chunhua fetched the sword for Xin Ruien and led her out of the room. There were no guards at the door, and in the long corridor, there was no one else besides the two girls. Their footsteps were clearly audible.
"Ms. Xin, thank you for believing in me and helping me," Chunhua said as she led the way, turned the corner, and prepared to go down the stairs.
Shin Rui-eun followed behind her, starting to descend step by step. "I'm willing to believe in good intentions," Shin Rui-eun said.
Leaving the building where Xin Ruien was being held captive, the journey was much smoother than they had imagined. The guards who usually patrolled were nowhere to be seen. The few men from the Blood Palace who occasionally appeared were all in a disheveled state, fleeing in panic; no one paid any attention to Xin Ruien and Chunhua.
“The situation may be worse than I imagined,” Chunhua said.
"Isn't this a good thing for us?"
"If what I'm imagining is true, it might be a good thing."
Soon, the two arrived at the sect's forbidden area, as Chunhua had mentioned. While the entire Blood Palace was in complete chaos, this place seemed unaffected. Two burly men, one hand resting on the scabbard of their swords, stood motionless at the entrance to the forbidden area, seemingly oblivious to the turmoil within the Blood Palace.
“A little maid from the Western Palace?” One of the men frowned, looked at Chunhua and Xin Ruien, and said, “What are you doing here? And bringing this woman from the Central Plains with you.”
"There's trouble in the palace. Please, my two guards, hurry to support the Palace Master." Chunhua said earnestly and earnestly, "I have been ordered by the Palace Master to bring the Lady here to seek refuge."
The two guards exchanged a glance and drew their longswords from their waists.
“Our orders are that we must not leave this place under any circumstances. Moreover, the Palace Master has instructed that no one from the Western Palace is allowed to set foot in the forbidden area.”
Chunhua was momentarily stunned. Not because her lie had been exposed by the guard, but because the guard's words and actions confirmed the very possibility she least wanted to face.
Xin Ruien grabbed Chunhua's wrist and led her behind her. "The negotiations have broken down," Xin Ruien said. "Leave the rest to me."
In that instant, Chunhua was plunged into darkness, unable to see or hear anything more. It was a truly profound darkness from which neither light nor sound could escape.
A hand was holding hers as they walked.
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