With Bo and Tirunesh gone, Rui Yifu felt some strength return to his weary body. Tirunesh's intensity and stoicism made him wary, and Bo wore him out for reasons he could not quite explain. Zhu'er sat beside him, resting her head on his lap as he leafed through the pages of another book. While it was exclusively about the White Flame, it was all stuff he already knew. A summation of three different essays and a following critique and additional commentary. The person who had written the book had meticulous handwriting but not much else to offer and he set the book to the side. The entire room felt cluttered and warm, especially with both doors closed. Zhou Feng got up to open the door into the courtyard, but even that only seemed to help a little, and Zhou Feng gave a slightly disappointed sigh before coming to sit back down behind Rui Yifu.

Rui Yifu's bare chest was exposed and behind him he could feel the not quite gentle pull and tug of a needle and silk thread in his skin. Zhou Feng was skilled, but he seemed to have some difficulty redoing the stitches that had snapped. Fish People flesh tended to be slightly thicker than a real human's, and that alone could make much difference for medical reasons. It's why acupuncture never became popular among them. Part of him missed Doctor Lin, but with the state he left the other fish's pond in he doubted he would get better treatment from him.

Cool water rinsed away the blood, trickling down his back.

"Forgive me if I asked before, but why exactly have you all subjected yourselves to this place?" Zhou Feng asked.

"We were on a journey," Rui Yifu replied, picking up another book to go through its pages as well. This one was speaking about the knowledge of the old shapes of gods, allegedly acquired from the ramblings of a blinded shamaness who lived in a barrel in the bottom of a gorge. "Liu Xie said he wanted to reunite Zhu'er and himself with her mother but had to come all the way here to do it."

"Who is Liu Xie?"

"A friend," Rui Yifu said the word before he could stop himself and shook his head. "Actually a god it turned out. Have you heard of the Bone Willow Immortal?"

"The teacher of Lady Gu? Yes, I have. I'm surprised you met the man himself. Most of what I heard said he had left the world shortly after Lady Gu's ascension, and had never been included in the Ten Immortals."

"Well you can't very well be included as an immortal if you were never a living being in the first place, now can you?" Rui Yifu's eyes fell upon one section which was discussing early depictions of the three divine siblings as massive dragons coiling around each other, and how earlier depictions the author had found included a fourth. "'It's commonly accepted that the Three Siblings are the frames of reality, but something must have been the source of those frames in the first place, the missing fourth god could be the origin'..." he read out loud before trailing off. The next page spoke about the moon as a hollow grave, and a illustrious seal created by the First Emperor and the Three Divine Siblings to forever sunder easy paths between the heavens and the mortal world. The writer of this then derisively referred to the shamaness who told him this as a 'stupid woman' and suggested she was mixing the story up with the Gourd Dragon. Rui Yifu decided he did not like this writer very much. Another pull of thread on his back. "Hmm, a lot of agreement with what I found in the library so far..."

"May I ask why you're interested in the White Flame?"

Rui Yifu looked up towards the ceiling as he tried to think of how to explain exactly what had happened as well as his theory on what was possibly about to happen. "It's a long story, I have an unpleasant history with it, but my current interest in it is due to another reason," he said. Zhu'er coughed and curled up, so he placed his hand on her head and gently stroked her curly hair. "The moon is a prison."

"...I've heard that phrase before," Zhou Feng said. "My teacher was from the Eastern Kingdom and said that there was a moon festival in his hometown that was shut down by royal decree. The king said that the festival was motivated by ill-made spirits living on the moon that are attempting to escape. It sounded like nonsense and I believe the actual reason was simply due to the town having slightly less grain to send to the capital."

"That sounds... likely," Rui Yifu reached for another book. "There is this being called Baichan. He had been hiding in the body of the Lady of Calm Waters and posing as the water goddess which enjoyed some measure of popularity. What he had actually been doing though was growing his influence, sewing these strange moon flowers throughout the land. He infected a dragon with it and then flooded the Black River, unveiling tombs." He paused in his thought, were those three cursed women also Baichan's puppets? Had they been manipulated by him to become the monsters they died as, or were they willing actors in the destruction? The numerous legends of them made it impossible to decide. "Apparently, the tombs were traps, and he infected more people. Mostly foreigners, so nobody would care much if they went missing."

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"I do remember hearing about the Black River flooding and Ao Zheng going missing," Zhou Feng muttered. "This all sounds like it had been long planned."

"For a very long time."

"Did you meet Baichan, or is this all second hand?"

Rui Yifu closed his eyes, trying to remember his encounter with the entity. It was not that it had been so long ago, but that the blood loss he had suffered had fuzzed his mind somewhat. He remembered that pale face, like beautiful perfect jade, with eyes blacker than the deepest abyss of the ocean. It had been so beautiful he had felt himself almost lulled into compliance by it, it held the merciful compassion that all mortals sought to find in their gods.

But his eyes.

They stared out at him in his memory, the dim glow of the fire behind them and the smell of ash as lost knowledge vanished in flames.

"He said he wanted to help people, to ease their burdens," Rui Yifu said, closing his eyes as he turned over the blotched memory in his mind. Zhou Feng finished fussing with the stitching on his back and he could hear the man sit down across from him. But what else had Baichan said? Rui Yifu racked through his brain until the words came like a bright fiery brand.

I am the God of Annihilation.

"People can't suffer if they're dead," Rui Yifu muttered.

"What?" Zhou Feng tipped his head to the side.

"He called himself the God of Annihilation," he said, grabbing the book he had tossed aside earlier, the thoughts surging in his mind. He turned through the pages rapidly, "of course. Liu Xie was supposed to bring Zhu'er there, to the First Palace, because that was where the last path from the Heavens to the Earth remained. Presumably the intention was to take them up there, so the seal would need to be lessened or broken to allow it. It would be an easy way for him to get there."

Zhou Feng smiled pleasantly but Rui Yifu could tell the other man believed he was rambling. Perhaps he was. But things were beginning to make more sense now. Baichan believed the world was burdened by suffering, and thus had taken it upon himself to relieve it. That was why he had been chopped to pieces, sealed in the moon and erased from history. But the White Flame was from where all other Flames sprung, and it was the original source of qi. They could not simply destroy it, so they needed to keep some piece of Baichan around to watch over it.

That piece had been the 'dream', Liu Xie.

How long had Baichan been dreaming? At least four thousand years.

"Zhou Feng," Rui Yifu looked at the man, "can you imagine dreaming for a long time, and yet being very awake and aware of it?"

"Yes," he replied, looking wistfully towards the courtyard. "I can imagine that quite well. I also recall reading an essay about a man dreaming he was a butterfly."

"Even for a god, the experience over the long term would be unpleasant. Especially if it was forced," Rui Yifu said. "The being I keep calling Baichan, the god of the White Flame... I believe is utterly insane." But now there was another mystery. Liu Xie's sword was still in Bo's possession, and they had a place to go to in the form of that unpleasantly named mountain. Perhaps the dream was not quite over yet.

Tirunesh stepped inside silently, like a tall ghost. She looked tired and her eyes were downcast.

"Ah, you've returned!" Zhou Feng smiled, before it fell away, "alone..."

"The patient has passed away, I burned her remains." She looked at Rui Yifu, "your friend is sitting in the courtyard."

Rui Yifu gently moved Zhu'er's sleeping head from his lap, shifting slowly so that she was laying on the bedroll instead as he got up. "I'll go speak with him," he said, walking free of the room he now found to be somewhat too warm and musty. Behind he could hear Zhou Feng and Tirunesh following him as he went into the courtyard and found Bo sitting on the ground with his back to the corner wall and his gaze set firmly on something in his hands. Rui Yifu walked quickly up to him and sat down beside him, quiet and glancing down at what he held in his hands.

It was two finger bones and a small amethyst earring, its silvery post charred. The finger bones looked like they had just come out of some recently roasted meat, and Bo's hands were covered in ash.

"The woman, she became those strange flowers," Tirunesh spoke, although it was to Zhou Feng.

"Rui," Bo said softly, "...this is going to keep happening isn't it? We already lost Li Chunning and Boss..."

Rui Yifu was quiet still, not knowing what to say. Instead he gazed to the red leafed canopy above.

"...We need to keep going," Bo mumbled.

"Are you sure?" Rui Yifu asked. Bo's face was pale and his eyes were red from tears.

"Y-yeah," he forced himself back to his feet. "Uh, Ms Tirunesh, do you still have that tea stuff inside?" He asked. "I don't feel great."

Tirunesh nodded, "yes. We have plenty still."

"Do you have a headache? A chest ache? Do you feel cold or warm?" Zhou Feng started asking.

"Just a headache," Bo replied as Rui Yifu got up. Now he was following Tirunesh and Bo back into the cramped little room that now felt a bit fresher from the intake of air. "I think I cried too hard, my eyes kind of hurt too," he added as Tirunesh moved to the small clay stove.

Tirunesh shook her head as she crouched down, "that may just mean you are dehydrated. A cupful of water would also be good for you." Then she looked to the side and furrowed her brow. "I don't recall leaving the back door open."

Rui Yifu turned his head to the bedroll he had just left Zhu'er at and found it empty. Before he could speak however, Bo was already running outside. "Wait, Bo! Don't go running off!"

All he heard in response was Bo bellowing, "JI YING YOU BITCH!"