~~~

Wong Shou does not wake up gently.

Feng Zhi holds him up by the neck and slaps him across the face multiple times to force consciousness back into him. Once he has achieved that goal, he drops him to the cold, hard floor.

The two are still inside the tower. Though the main Heart Devil has been destroyed, the structure is still standing. However, that will not be the case for much longer. Now that Wong Shou is awake, it will eventually crumble and fade away. The same cannot be said of the other Heart Devils, however. Bei Hong and Huang Shing are still fighting them down below. It seems both lack a way to finish them for good. Feng Zhi will need to take care of them eventually.

But not yet.

“Lord Feng Zhi,” Wong Shou says, coughing as he rubs his throat. He looks at his surroundings and finds them unrecognizable. “What happened? What is this place?”

Feng Zhi stares at him for several seconds.

“Close your eyes,” Feng Zhi says at last, his voice almost gentle. “Let the seconds pass. Think carefully. Then, provided you haven’t already arrived at an answer, ask me that question again.”

Wong Shou looks at him with obvious confusion but nevertheless complies. Even though he has woken up in an unfamiliar place in a situation he does not understand, Wong Shou’s sense of obligation prevails over all other concerns that may occur to him. He is of the Bright Phantasm Sect, and the Bright Phantasm Sect must obey the Eternal Flame Clan.

Feng Zhi does not rush him. He merely looks on as Wong Shou closes his eyes and thinks. He waits until the confusion on Wong Shou’s face gives way to uncertainty and uncertainty to concern. And from there...

Shock.

Realization.

Horror.

“I.. that’s not…” Wong Shou trembles as he opens his eyes, one hand grasping his chest so hard his nails draw blood. “That… it cannot…”

He tries to cover his face but stops to look at his hand. He looks at it as though he cannot recognize it. Cannot recognize himself. His eyes, lost and scared, seek Feng Zhi.

“Lord Feng Zhi…. I… I am remembering things… But it is as though I am remembering nightmares.” Wong Shou’s voice cannot stop quivering. “How can… How can any of them be real?”

Feng Zhi sighs.

“I was hoping you would be the one to tell me that. Tell me, what is it that you recall? When did everything begin?”

“I...I can’t…”

“You can,” Feng Zhi cuts in smoothly. Gently. He kneels down next to Wong Shou. “Your mind is your own. Never make the mistake of assuming otherwise.”

Feng Zhi’s words, the certainty in his voice, have an effect on Wong Shou. He takes a deep breath and, though his trembling doesn’t disappear, it does slow down.

“I… could not stand the situation in the Bright Phantasm Sect. Every day... there were more arguments. Every day, people mocked me. Sometimes in secret. Sometimes... out in the open. They... began to take sides. There were even a couple of fights between disciples as a result.” Wong Shou runs a hand through his hair. His voice slowly grows steadier as he keeps talking. “It was too much. I begged my father to choose someone else as his heir, but he wouldn’t listen.”

It occurs to Feng Zhi that Patriarch Wong had most likely rejected Wong Shou’s pleas because, by then, things had grown far past the point where that would have been enough. For Patriarch Wong to change his mind at that time would have been to admit defeat. His authority in the Sect would have undoubtedly been diminished had he done that.

“No matter how much I pleaded and argued, my father would not be moved. That was when I realized the only way I could fix things was to be the heir everyone needed me to be.” Wong Shou’s hands clench into fists. His knuckles go white. “I couldn’t afford to be scared or nervous. I pushed all those feelings down. At first, it was hard, but eventually…”

“Eventually?”

“It grew easy,” Wong Shou says, looking at Feng Zhi. “It became so easy it was as if those feelings didn’t exist at all. Over time, it began to feel as though they never existed. It felt as if I had become a completely different person. Perhaps, that was more true than I thought.”

The vision of perfection Wong Shou longed for. The words of the Heart Devil echo in Feng Zhi’s mind. Could it be that Wong Shou had slowly ceded control of his own body to the Heart Devil without realizing it? In that case, being confronted by Qing Jin in the forest may have served as the trigger to separate the two.

“I never imagined it was me creating those things,” Wong Shou says. Tears stream down his cheeks. “I never thought I’d end up causing so much chaos… Truly, Uncle was right about me all along. What a pathetic waste I am… though I still do not understand how any of this is even possible.”

“In the past year, do you remember someone giving you any unusual item?” Feng Zhi asks. “Perhaps you encountered someone suspicious? Can you think of anything other than your emotional situation that could have caused this?”

Wong Shou frowns in thought for a few moments but ultimately shakes his head in negative.

“I am sorry, Lord Feng Zhi. I truly can’t think of anything.”

Feng Zhi closes his eyes.

“I see… Tell me, have you ever heard of the Heavenly Profound Body?” Feng Zhi looks up. The ceiling is already starting to unravel. The tower only has another hour or so left in it. “It is a rare condition. Those who possess it are born with unusually broad meridians. It makes it harder for them to develop blocks, either through emotional or other factors. It also allows them to channel more Qi compared to the average person. As you can imagine, it is quite advantageous to cultivation.”

“Is that… Do I possess such a thing?” Wong Shou asks. “Is that why this happened?!”

“No, but I do.” Feng Zhi shrugs. “My ancestors had more than a few opportunities to add that gift to our bloodline. It is not just the Heavenly Profound Body either. Tyrannical Blood. Earthbound Bone Marrow. The list goes on. When people with such gifts appear, it is natural for us to want them. We have done that for so many generations that such Heaven-defying gifts are the norm for us.”

It is one of the reasons Feng Zhi is as strong as he is.

It is not just the education and training Feng Zhi has received that make him strong. It is not just the resources he’s had access to. Feng Zhi is the result of the Eternal Flame Clan seeking the strongest cultivators with the rarest of gifts and adding them to their bloodline for countless generations.

Thus, Feng Zhi simply cannot be compared to a normal cultivator. Even a once-in-a-generation prodigy born to a normal family would pale compared to him.

“It is not just the Eternal Flame Clan that does this. All major Sects do it to some degree.” Even, his father once told him, the Divine Frozen Palace. They may turn most men away from their doors, but they have no problems seeking them out when it suits them. “Rare gifts such as those are simply another type of resource to be monopolized.”

He looks at Wong Shou with cold melancholy.

“I have never heard of a trait that enables you to materialize Heart Devils without dying, yet I am fairly sure you must have something like that.”

“A trait like that… there’s no such thing in my family.”

“As far as you know,” Feng Zhi counters. “It could be that one of your ancestors had such a gift thousands of years ago, and it only manifested again now. Or perhaps not. Perhaps you are something entirely new. Either way, one thing is clear.”

Feng Zhi stands up.

“You are dangerous.”

“D-Dangerous? Me? I-”

Feng Zhi silences him with a look.

Shame wells up in Wong Shou, causing him to look down. Feng Zhi is right. Instinct may compel Wong Shou to object, but it only takes a few seconds for his mind to provide countless examples of the danger he poses. He had created a small army of Nascent Realm creatures and used them against his own Sect. No one had died, but that was mere luck.

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He is dangerous.

“If the Eternal Flame Clan were to learn of you, they’d immediately seize you.” Feng Zhi says, his voice without any shred of vitality in it. He speaks completely without emotion. “Think about it. You’re in the Spirit Realm now, but what of later? If you’re brought all the way to the Heaven Realm, will you be able to produce multiple Heaven Realm Heart Devils? There is not a single high-ranking Sect that won’t be able to see that possibility. If used right, you’d be quite an asset.”

“But I don’t want…” As soon as he starts speaking, Wong Shou stops. He looks at Feng Zhi’s eyes. At the finality in them. “Why... do you speak of ifs, Lord Feng Zhi?”

“If they knew of you, you’d be picked apart,” Feng Zhi continues, not answering the question. “Your body and soul would be prodded, analyzed, and worse until we knew how exactly is it that you function. An animal about to be dissected would have better fortune than you.”

“But that won’t happen,” Wong Shou says, grim acceptance spreading through his body.

He understands what is about to happen.

He understands there is nothing he can do to change it.

“You will not allow it.”

Feng Zhi’s golden eyes meet Wong Shou’s blue ones. “It is as I said. You are far too dangerous.”

If he brought him back to the Eternal Flame Clan, how much fame would he gain? How much praise would he receive? How many favors would he be able to leverage out of the Elders and his father? And yet...

And yet...

A chaotic element like him is not needed in the Eternal Flame Clan. Not at this particular juncture.

“I… can’t do anything, can I?” A sad smile tugs at Wong Shou’s lips. “It seems that is always the case.”

Feng Zhi says nothing.

He lifts his hand, and in a flash of fire, Wong Shou is turned to ashes.

“I will not apologize.”

With the death of Wong Shou, the destruction of the tower has accelerated. The entire structure shakes and trembles. Large pieces fall to the ground one by one and shatter into black mist. The remaining Heart Devils vanish. They never truly manifested, so without Wong Shou, they cannot maintain their existence.

“There are some who argue fire is an element of cleaning. Others say it is an element of rebirth.”

A sweet poison. A pleasant lie to lull children to sleep. One Feng Zhi has never believed.

Yet...

“For your sake, I hope they are right. May you find peace in another life, Wong Shou of the Bright Phantasm Sect.”

For this life certainly did not offer him any.

~~~

Liu Jin and Lu Mei arrive as the tower crumbles. Feng Zhi is already out and waiting for them.

“Young Master,” Lu Mei greets him. “It is heartening to see you are unharmed.”

“A foe of this caliber would never be a threat to me,” Feng Zhi scoffs. “That you can even suggest it makes me wonder what sort of impression I have been giving.”

Lu Mei dips her head. “My deepest apologies.”

“Where is Wong Shou?” Liu Jin asks. He can see Bei Hong and Huang Shing picking themselves out from the disintegrating pieces of the tower, but of Wong Shou, there is no trace. His Qi, which had been so prominent before, can no longer be sensed.

“He did not make it.”

At that moment, Feng Zhi’s face might as well be carved from stone.

“I see.”

“Do you?” Feng Zhi asks. “This was meant to be a simple mission. Now, almost everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong. We were supposed to reaffirm our relationship with the Bright Phantasm Sect and show them they could continue to rely on us. Instead, the Bright Phantasm Sect has lost its heir under our watch. This is a disaster.”

Lu Mei and Liu Jin look at each other out of the corner of their eyes. There is no anger in Feng Zhi’s voice, but they both know that can easily change if they say the wrong thing.

“What are we to do then?” Lu Mei asks.

“We celebrate,” Feng Zhi says, much to everyone’s surprise.

“Celebrate?”

“We’ll go back to Night Phantasm City and tell them the day is saved. We’ll tell them Wong Shou died bravely and honorably. We’ll tell them they have won while pouring food and wine down their throats. We’ll do it until they become convinced that is the only truth.”

He glares at them.

“Let Heaven and Earth know this has been nothing but an absolute victory.”

~~~

It shouldn’t have been easy, but it is.

Hours later, the entirety of Night Phantasm City is caught in a city-wide party. People drink, dance, and laugh. The nervousness and fear born from seeing their city surrounded by all those Heart Devils is unleashed in a joyous celebration that goes well into the morning.

However, not all are happy.

Patriarch Wong is left devastated by the news. He tries to keep the festive mood going, seeing the wisdom of Feng Zhi’s choice. Still, he ends up retiring to his chambers early in the evening. Elder Wong goes to visit him later, carrying a bottle of wine. Whatever it is they talk about that night is not for anyone’s ears to hear.

As the celebration is underway, Liu Jin and Lu Mei are ordered by Feng Zhi to go through Wong Shou’s belongings in secret. They search through his room in hopes of finding anything that could serve as a clue to the unusual phenomenon that took place within him, but their search reveals nothing useful. Wong Shou’s room is as normal as can be.

A formal investigation with the cooperation of the Bright Phantasm Sect is launched once the celebration is over. All the people Wong Shou was close to are thoroughly interrogated. However, no matter how much they look, they cannot find evidence that someone else was working with or influencing Wong Shou’s actions.

It seems they will have to leave the city without fully understanding its mystery.

“There’s talk of Patriarch Wong retiring,” Lu Mei tells Liu Jin one day. She finds him near the lake they visited days ago. “Part of it is due to pressure from the Elders…”

Wong Shou died a hero. Most of the city has no trouble believing that story, but the Elders know better. It is clear now that Patriarch Wong was wrong to choose Wong Shou as his heir. That is something all the Elders understand now. Even if Patriarch Wong is strong in cultivation, his judgment has clearly shown itself to be flawed.

“But there is also the matter of…”

Lu Mei trails off, an uncharacteristically somber look on her face.

“I understand,” Liu Jin says.

Patriarch Wong lost his son. He pushed him too far, and Wong Shou broke as a result. The guilt he’s feeling must be immeasurable.

“I wish we could have saved him.”

“You barely knew him,” Lu Mei points out.

“Do I need to know someone to want to help him?”

“You need to know someone to feel sad for them. If you feel sorry for every person who suffers, you will never be happy.” When Liu Jin doesn’t answer, Lu Mei asks, “Have you spoken with Elder Wong?”

“I haven’t,” Liu Jin admits. “He... probably expected us to save Wong Shou. I couldn’t.”

“Elder Wong is a grown man in the late stages of the True Realm. You are not. If he wanted to save his nephew so badly, he should have defied his orders and gone out there with us.”

“Even so, I feel I have failed.” Failed him. Failed Wong Shou.

Lu Mei clicks her tongue. “Sadness doesn’t suit you.”

“Is that so?” Liu Jin smiles ruefully. “What a pity. There are a great many things that make me sad.”

“Then get rid of them.”

“I’d rather change them.”

~~~

Three days after the Eternal Flame Clan leaves Night Phantasm City, two figures appear in the Night Forest. Both wear blue robes with golden clouds and sparrows embroidered on them.

“Is this it?” One of them asks, standing right on top of where the dark tower created by Wong Shou used to be. He is a tall youth with black hair tied into a long, thin braid that reaches the back of his knees. The front portion of his head is completely shaven. His face is handsome, but right now, it is twisted into a look of disgust. “Ugh, I don’t see how it could be. How can people live in areas with such low amounts of ambient Qi? Just breathing this air makes me feel impure.”

“Nevertheless, this does seem to be the place we are looking for,” his companion replies. Unlike the braided youth, he physically appears to be well into his twenties.

Unlike the braided youth, his head is completely shaven.

“This place is a pigsty,” the braided youth states. “I refuse to believe one of us could be born here. Master must have made an error.”

“That is not possible,” the shaven man replies. He closes his eyes and focuses. “It is true I cannot sense him right now, but that may be a sign we are too late.”

“Too late? Do you mean to imply one of ours could be killed by the rabble that inhabits this place?” The braided youth’s face twists further. “Ugh, I really can’t stand it! To think the other side of the Dead Plains is so poor! Disgusting! Absolutely disgusting!”

“If he was born here, then it is safe to say he wouldn’t have been as strong as us. Perhaps, he only managed to create one Guardian and lost control. In that event, it wouldn’t be beyond the people here to…” The shaven man frowns. “That taint… Do you feel it?”

“Taint, what are you talking…” The braided youth stops talking. His face becomes inflamed with rage. “Those Dead Bastards! They were here! They were here!”

“Control your Qi,” the shaven man warns. “Remember, we are not allowed to be here. The rules are quite clear on this.”

“Neither are the Dead Ones, yet I can feel their Qi! It was them! If he lost control, it was because of them! I am sure of it!” The braided youth growls through gritted teeth, the look on his face far more suitable for a beast. “I hate them! I hate them so much!”

“I thought it was the Heavenly Sword Peak that you hated?”

“I can hate more than one faction!” The braided youth barks back. “The Sword Bastards are always looking down on everyone who doesn’t use a sword and calling us heretics! As if they had the right to say what’s black and what’s white! But no, it was the Dead Ones that did this, and the Dead Ones who have my hate today!”

“A breach of the treaty then.” The shaven man crosses his arms. “Only the Heavenly Sword Peak is meant to interfere with this side of the Dead Plains. Master needs to hear of this.”

The braided youth frowns. “If we follow their trace…”

“There is no guarantee you’ll find them,” the shaven man counters. “No, the best move right now is to return home. Master will want to know of this. If there is one of them already here, there may be more. Who knows how much they have interfered already?”

And, the shaven man adds in his head, who knows if the Heavenly Sword Peak is allowing this?

The braided youth sighs.

“...very well. Let’s go.”

Minutes later, the two vanish in a flash of light, leaving the citizens of Night Phantasm City none the wiser.

~~~