Wuxian's eyes narrowed behind the metal face mask.

His ploy had worked.

In his mouth sat a circular pill- the defence pill from earlier. He'd not swallowed it because he hadn't needed to the entire time.

In fact, the original reason he placed it in his mouth was so that he could activate it at will, whenever it might be required, which happened to be now.

Had the face mask not been there, the white robed man would have been able to see the lump inside Wuxian's cheek, since pills were around half the size of an adult male's palm.

Slumped over, Wuxian swallowed the pill. A feeling of warmth surrounded each of his dantians, distributing itself evenly throughout all of his meridians and then the surface of his skin.

Using his forward momentum, he raised the Northern Dark Edge.

And then his limp body regained its vitality. He stomped the ground and twisted, left hand outstretched, right hand holding the artifact weapon near the neck of the shaft.

As the weapon was loosed, like an arrow from its string, or a javelin from its thrower, a gust of wind was created.

A path of clear air was created in the Northern Dark Edge's wake, making for the white robed cultivator's chest.

Though he could not see his opponent's facial expressions, just as his opponent could not see his, Wuxian imagined a look of shock to be plastered on whatever visage lay beneath the shadowed hood.

In a clear panic, the man waved his right arm. The corresponding crescent blade followed his movement, spinning back and colliding into the incoming artifact weapon.

And the other crescent blade- the one going through the wall- continued onwards, almost speeding up.

The ruined guesthouse became silent.

On the left was the shadow of a hooded man. This person had their back pressed against the wall. The wall itself was dented- a clear testament to the force applied to it. Impaled in the person's right shoulder was a long reclining moon blade, the red tassel swaying to the wind's gentle breeze.

On the right was a tall man, slumped against a pillar. On his face was a metal mask, the eyes behind its slits shut tightly. He wore few layers. Originally grey, they had been dyed a dark red hue. A long gash ran across his side, blood seeping out with every passing second.

Both the white robed man and Wuxian had been struck at the same time. Both had been wounded.

At the last moment, combined with the force of his crescent qi blade, the white robed man had redirected the incoming attack towards his shoulder and away from his chest.

Meanwhile, despite the defensive enhancement of the pill, Wuxian almost passed out from pain on the spot.

At this moment, the silence in the area was disturbed by a high-pitched buzzing sound.

From underneath the white robed cultivator's hood, a small brown fly flew out. It hung shakily in the air, its compound eyes scanning the environment.

Seeing Wuxian a few metres in front of it, it seemed to let out a feeling of joy and greed, unsteadily making its way towards him.

Suddenly, Big North materialised besides the fly, a cold expression on his face.

He swiped at the fly, attempting to bat it out of the air, but his palms passed through its shaky form.

Cursing the impotence of his spirit body, he continued to strike and swing away. If a third observer was present, they would be able to see that when he was alive, Big North was undoubtedly a top tier fighter.

From every imaginable angle, fists rained down upon the brown fly. Each metre it travelled, it received hundreds of blows, but to no avail.

Then, when it was within half a metre of Wuxian's opened mouth, Big North watched on, his hands trembling, his expression ashen.

"Just like this?" He muttered, fists clenched.

Big North gritted his teeth. He gathered up qi from the surroundings, using his body as a conduit, before sending it out through his right hand. His spirit body had no meridians, but he channelled qi anyway.

He moved to slap the brown fly away, his figure emanating the colours of the five elements.

Pa!

With a gust of wind, the brown fly was blown back a little, but this was of little consequence.

Unharmed, the fly continued on its course, while Big North was drained of energy.

His spirit body flickered, as if did have enough energy to sustain his form any longer. Standing there, he begun to gradually accept Wuxian's fate.

Looking up to the sky, he wondered whether this was Heaven's will. Perhaps it was Wuxian's punishment for escaping the fate of dying at the gorge thousands of years ago.

But reality often took strange turns. Sometimes, reality was stranger than fantasy.

Splat!

Looking down with a blank expression, Big North saw that the brown fly had been flattened against the floor. Its exoskeleton was crushed and its internal juices spilled everywhere, a vile sight indeed.

On top of it was a yellow rectangle of talisman paper, bright red script painted on top.

Turning to look, Big North was faced with a strange person.

This person wore a set of clothes that looked almost no different from that of a fisherman.

He had pouches lining his waist and torso, tall brown boots and navy blue clothes. He wore a wide straw hat that cast a shadow over his face.

But there was always something that delineated the immortal from the mortal, the bizarre from the ordinary.

From the ends of the straw hat were talismans, similar to the one which had killed the brown fly. They each had different characters painted on them, obscuring the face of the person beneath.

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Even the mere outline of the person's head was concealed amongst the thicket of talisman papers.

Regardless, Big North straightened his back. He cupped his fists and bowed, receiving a nod from the stranger in response.

"Ugh!"

Hearing a grunt of exertion, Big North turned back to face the white robed man.

The man's hood had long fallen off, revealing an ordinary looking person underneath.

The man's expression was a mix of shock, confusion and pain as he writhed beneath the Northern Dark Edge.

Despite his confusion, he possessed a strong sense of self-preservation. Upon understanding that he could not push the treasure weapon out, he began wading forward, one painful step at a time.

Each step, blood gushed out, staining his robes and the walls, splashing across the floor. Each footfall was echoed by the visceral squelching of his flesh and the tearing of his tendons.

Due to the trajectory the weapon had flown, it had embedded itself through the man and into the wall at an angle, with the tip of the weapon sitting beneath the raised shaft.

The white robed man was not very tall. As he reached the butt of the weapon, he stood on his tip toes. Even then, it wasn't enough.

Taking deep breaths, the pain lessened by his pumping adrenaline, the white-red robed man jumped the final hoop, a chunk of his flesh staying behind.

And then he padded off into the distance, limping. Each step left a bloody mark on the ruined floor, continuing until the blood coagulated.

Watching him walk off in the distance, Big North turned to the talisman-wearing stranger with a pleading look.

In response, he received merely the shake of a head, the talismans swaying with the movement.

Big North blinked his eyes and the stranger vanished, like the wind.

He looked down at the brown fly's corpse again with a brooding expression. His body then turned into a collection of icy blue lights, returning to the bloodied Northern Dark Edge.

———

Wuxian's face twitched. A second later, his eyes fluttered open.

A sense of confusion washed over him and he instinctively went into self-preservation mode. He tried reaching behind him to take a hold of the Northern Dark Edge, only for his arms to hit the sides of a bed.

Such an action should have hurt, but he was already hurting all over. It took only a few seconds after waking up, but the pain began to emanate from within- specifically from his left flank.

He let out a gasp, his body frozen in shock.

'Calm yourself. Analyse the situation.'

Previously, Wuxian would always take deep breaths to calm himself, but this time was different. Even shallow breathing hurt due to the injury he'd sustained.

He tried to take in a deep breath, only to wince in pain. He subconsciously became more panicked, relying merely on regular shallow breaths to eventually return to some level of normalcy.

After a while, he slowly settled.

He glanced around the room. There were multiple beds- presumably like the one he was lying in. There was one to the left and two to the right, with this arrangement being reflected on the other side of the room as well. There were lamps attached to the walls at standing height at regular intervals. The whole place was dimly lit, shadows flickering here and there.

Opposite him, there seemed to be another person.

'Wan Qiushou. So he's alive.'

Going back through his last few memories, he realised that it was likely they had won. Though he had not directly seen the final outcome of the battle, the fact that he and Qiushou were alive and bandaged up in this room were evidence enough.

He moved his fingers, running them over each other. He let out a sigh of relief, finding that both interspatial rings were untouched.

Besides Wuxian, resting against the bed, was the Northern Dark Edge. The blood that had stained it was washed off, returning it to its suave black-blue appearance.

As if in response to his gaze, the treasure weapon vibrated. Then, Big North materialised, sitting on the bedside- though, since he weighed nothing and could not interact with physical objects, he put no pressure on Wuxian or the bed.

"How do you feel?" Big North asked, wearing his usual icy expression.

Wuxian attempted to shrug, only to end up cringing in pain.

"I've been better." He said quietly.

They looked at each other in silence, both unsure of what to say.

Eventually, Big North broke the ice.

"I'm not good at consoling people…"

Wuxian slowly shook his head, trying to avoid as much pain as possible.

"No need."

Big North raised a finger.

"I insist."

"…Go on then."

The artifact spirit cleared his throat before speaking.

"Little Black has died, his soul destroyed under Heaven's tribulation lightning. He'll never reincarnate again. Your two brothers, Mian Ji and Xiao Chong, have most likely been dead for thousands of years. Out of all of these people, you are the most fortunate. Not only are you alive, but your body is fully intact, though somewhat battered."

Wuxian's head rolled back, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

Big North's eyebrow raised in confusion.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

Rolling his eyes slightly, Wuxian didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Please never console anyone ever again."

Big North had a serious expression, considering Wuxian's words slowly.

"Okay."

Wuxian turned slightly to get a better look at Big North.

"What happened after I passed out? Did the white robed fellow die?"

Big North's expression was cold as ever, if not a little apprehensive.

"No. He managed to deflect the treasure weapon into his shoulder, so he didn't die instantly. It's possible he might have bled to death later on, but we can't be certain of it."

He then closed his pale white eyes in thought. Wuxian lay in silence, looking at his pale hands. The reality began to settle in- in his first fight, he'd been mortally wounded and almost died. Such a close brush with the Yellow Springs made him realise that he wasn't ready to die yet- he had much to do.

If he did die now, he'd leave this world unreconciled.

'Mian Ji and Xiao Chong will have to wait for me in the afterlife.'

Big North's eyes opened. He'd finished sorting his thoughts out and had decided what to say.

"Wuxian, we should leave this city."

Wuxian shook his head in response.

"I owe a debt to chief Li, I cannot just run away with three month's worth of wages with nothing to show for it. Besides, look at me. I can barely breathe properly, yet you expect me to run away from cultivators who are significantly stronger than me."

Big North shook his head quickly.

"You mortally wounded a Qi Condensation cultivator despite being only being in the Minor Yellow realm of Foundation Building. You saved the life of a golden badge Nightwatcher. Junior, you have long since repaid your debt- to stay any longer here is folly."

Wuxian wished to scratch his chin, but decided against moving his arm.

"I truly want to leave as well, but do you think what chief Li said about my choice being my own was true? He said I could leave whenever I wanted, he even gave me two days to myself, only to send Wan Qiushou after me.

This shows that not only do they not trust me, they even want to monitor my activities. Who's to say that the moment I get out of this bed, an entire squad of Nightwatchers won't appear and take me down?"

Big North frowned.

"Junior, though he was monitoring you, that Wan Qiushou engaged the white robed man to protect you. Not only that, but you saved him at risk to your own life. Not only do these Nightwatchers not distrust you, they will look upon you favourably. Who do you think carried you here? Who do you think saw to your wounds?"

"Their guard is down and the person they sent to track you is injured. Retrieve a greater restorative pill from your ring- it will last long enough for you to leave the city. There is no time to waste."

Wuxian shook his head.

"Saving Wan Qiushou was saving myself. Even with the numerical advantage and the threat of looming reinforcement, I didn't manage to kill the white robed man. Trust of these sorts of people is not that easily obtained."

Though despite his continual rebuttals, Wuxian actually agreed with what Big North had said.

'But even if the Nightwatchers trust me, I do not trust them. That is the main issue.'

"There is another problem. The white robed man was merely an indicator- I have been targeted. Wan Qiushou only discovered the man after the man had been in our proximity for some time, no?

So assuming they have not removed their mark- whoever it is that is watching my movements… the moment I step outside the city, in my weakened state, I will be killed.

If they can send a Qi Condenser to monitor a mere Foundation Builder, imagine who they'll send just to kill one. On top of that, assuming the white robed man is still alive, they now know what I'm capable of combat-wise.

If I were to fight that man a second time, I would lose without a question. Not only am I weaker than they are, I am also at an information disadvantage."

Wuxian stopped to catch his breath. He then continued speaking, but in a much quieter voice.

"In the city, whoever the white robed man works for will not be able to target me indiscriminately with the Nightwatch is on their tail. It is better for me to use the Nightwatch as an umbrella- if they cannot eliminate the white robed man's employer, I will at least be in better condition when I do try to leave."

Big North sighed in exasperation.

"You do not understand. That Qi Condenser had been possessed by a gu. It is only with the help of a mysterious stranger that you are currently still in control of your body."