Chapter 8

On her first day in prison, Meng Ruji slept through the entire morning. She was utterly exhausted from the previous night’s frantic escape.

In the afternoon, a thunderclap startled her awake. As she opened her eyes, she found herself staring into a pair of deep, dark eyes, like a starry night sky. The intensity of the gaze left her momentarily stunned. It took her a moment to realize she had unknowingly fallen asleep on the Mu Sui's legs.

"Why did I fall asleep on your legs..." Meng Ruji murmured, starting to sit up. "Sorry..."

Before she could finish apologizing, a hand gently pressed her shoulder, catching her off guard and making her lie back down. Her head returned to its resting place on Mu Sui’s legs.

Meng Ruji blinked, puzzled.

Mu Sui blinked too, as if suddenly realizing what he’d done. "I... my hand moved on its own," he explained awkwardly, struggling to defend himself. "It wanted you to lean on me."

Meng Ruji was taken aback. She stared into Mu Sui’s eyes, trying to understand him.

Was he really this clueless, or was he deliberately saying such strange things?

After a pause, Meng Ruji decided to treat him as a genuine simpleton. She smiled warmly, playing along like a good sister. "So... can you control your hands now?"

Mu Sui quickly clasped his hands together, pressing them firmly against his chest. "Okay."

Meng Ruji immediately sat up.

As she pulled away, Mu Sui felt a sudden emptiness, as if all the warmth had been taken with her. He mumbled softly, "Actually, you could’ve slept a little longer..."

"No, I’m a bit hungry. Is there any food here?"

Before Meng Ruji could finish speaking, a large bowl of boiled vegetable stems and yams was placed in front of her.

"Here, eat this," Mu Sui said quickly, as if afraid she might go hungry.

"Thank you." Meng Ruji accepted the bowl, but then she heard a familiar rumbling sound, much like the thunder that had woken her earlier.

Following the noise, she glanced at Mu Sui’s abdomen.

"Growl, growl..."

Mu Sui’s stomach growled again, as if it were trying to sing a duet with Meng Ruji.

"They... didn’t give you any food?" Meng Ruji asked.

"They did," Mu Sui pointed to a large bowl beside him.

The bowl was spotless, as if it had been washed.

Meng Ruji was silent for a moment, then glanced at Mu Sui’s abdomen again, thinking to herself: The inner elixir is still in his body; he can’t be too hungry.

She picked at her own bowl. "I can’t eat all of this. I’ll give you some more."

"No need," Mu Sui insisted, "I’m not hungry."

"Growl, growl," his stomach responded, betraying his words.

The prison fell silent for a moment.

If he didn’t look so genuinely innocent, Meng Ruji might’ve thought he was teasing her in some odd way. Rolling her eyes inwardly, she took Mu Sui’s empty bowl without a word and transferred most of her food to it.

Mu Sui frowned and tried to push the bowl away. "I don’t want it," he said seriously, his hands resisting Meng Ruji’s efforts. "You’ll be hungry."

"I’m not hungry."

"Hunger is uncomfortable. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable."

Mu Sui’s refusal was sincere, as if he’d rather go without than take her food.

Meng Ruji thought for a moment and decided not to argue with him directly. Instead, she softened her expression. "Okay then."

Mu Sui, still holding his empty bowl, quietly scooted back two steps, wary that Meng Ruji might try to slip some food into it when he wasn’t looking.

Meng Ruji began to eat slowly, speaking between bites. "When I’m done, if I really can’t finish, would you help me with the rest? It’s better not to waste food."

Mu Sui nodded. "Okay."

Since becoming a half-demon, Meng Ruji had grown accustomed to fasting, and her appetite wasn’t what it used to be. As long as she wasn’t too hungry, she’d be fine. These vegetable stems and wild yams were filling enough. She took a few bites, intending to give the rest to Mu Sui, but Mu Sui didn’t believe she was full after eating so little.

He watched her intently. Meng Ruji wanted to say she was full several times but took another bite under his watchful gaze.

Under his scrutiny, Meng Ruji ended up eating more than she planned.

"I really can’t eat anymore," she said at last. "I plan to meditate this afternoon. Eating too much won’t help my practice." She handed the bowl to Mu Sui.

Mu Sui didn’t refuse and ate everything she left.

But to Meng Ruji’s surprise, even after that, Mu Sui’s stomach continued to growl.

He was still very hungry...

"How about I start teaching you how to cultivate spiritual energy now? If you learn to gather the energy of heaven and earth, your body won’t be as hungry."

Naturally, Mu Sui agreed to whatever she suggested.

And so, Meng Ruji began teaching Mu Sui how to gather spiritual power.

But... he failed.

It wasn't that Mu Sui was lacking intelligence or unable to learn. On the contrary, he was the fastest learner Meng Ruji had ever seen when it came to cultivation. It was as if he was a blank slate, yet as soon as he began meditating and focusing his energy, he mastered the techniques immediately after Meng Ruji explained them.

Mu Sui couldn’t remember his past, but his body seemed to. Meng Ruji surmised that he might have known these methods before, especially since he had managed to break her seal, indicating that his abilities were on par with hers. However, despite his correct execution of the method and the fact that she could see spiritual energy being absorbed into his body, something strange was happening. His body was like a bottomless pit—whether it was spiritual energy or prison food, everything that entered his body vanished as quickly as a drop of water in the ocean.

Meng Ruji spent the entire afternoon teaching Mu Sui, but with no results, her brow furrowed deeper with each passing hour. This little thief was easy to deceive, but his unique physique made it pointless to trick him.

The inner elixir couldn’t be forcefully extracted, and since Mu Sui wouldn’t remove it himself, she was at a loss. Meng Ruji sighed, feeling both helpless and exhausted. It seemed impossible to retrieve the inner elixir here in Wuliudi. The only solution was to return to the human world and seek out her five guardians. Together, they might find a way to extract the elixir from him.

Mu Sui felt even more guilty seeing Meng Ruji sigh. That night, while she rested, Mu Sui continued to practice the method she had taught him, hoping to feel the presence of his dantian and inner elixir. But again, he failed.

For a moment, Mu Sui felt a deep disgust for himself and his past. How could he have been such a thief, harming people? How could he have been so cruel to her? Now, he desperately wanted to make amends, to improve Meng Ruji’s opinion of him, even just a little. If he could manage that, perhaps she would be willing to stay with him a bit longer... even if just for a while.

During the few days in the government office, Meng Ruji, having realized she couldn’t trick him into giving up the inner elixir, focused on her own meditation practice and paid little attention to Mu Sui’s subtle thoughts.

She only noticed that every day at mealtime, the guard would bring two bowls filled with vegetable stems and yams. This place didn’t treat its prisoners harshly. The food was simple but enough to keep them full. Meng Ruji always gave Mu Sui half of her portion, so he ate until he was about 70% or 80% full. Yet, Mu Sui was never truly satisfied.

Each day, he would finish his meal quickly and cleanly. By the time the guard walked to the next cell, Mu Sui had already emptied his bowl. When the guard returned, Mu Sui would stare at him with an empty bowl, his eyes sharp and his expression stern, exuding a murderous aura. The guard, frightened by his gaze, would sometimes pour whatever was left in the bucket into Mu Sui’s bowl.

Of course, Mu Sui never refused.

After three days in prison, they were unceremoniously kicked out.

The guard complained that during their stay, the pigs in the pigsty had nothing to eat and had grown thin because Mu Sui had eaten all the leftovers. The guard suspected they had come to the government office just for the food, so when their time was up, they were promptly kicked out with a loud "clang" as the gate closed behind them.

Meng Ruji glanced back at the place where they had spent three days. A shabby plaque hung above the vermilion gate, with two large, sloppy characters that read "Yamen." There were no other inscriptions on either side of the gate, and no guards were posted. It didn’t resemble a public institution at all. If she hadn’t been locked inside for three days, fed daily by the guards, Meng Ruji wouldn’t have believed there were any official servants there.

(*Yamen: Also known as Government Office)

This strange, absurd place... But at least they were out now.

"So, what’s next?" Meng Ruji looked down the long street ahead, then glanced at Mu Sui beside her. "I guess I’ll have to fend for myself."

She sighed, realizing she had to find a way to support this big eater. They needed to earn enough of the local currency to buy a boat ticket out of this place as soon as possible...

"It’s time to think of a way to make money," Meng Ruji muttered to herself.

In a daze, she recalled the day of her accident eight hundred years ago when a mysterious voice had whispered in her ear, "You... You are destined to be a hard worker."

Today, at this moment, the meaning of those words became clear to her.

Destiny, it seemed, had led her to this point...

Meng Ruji sighed deeply, then took a deep breath. "It doesn’t matter! It’s just making money! Can it be harder than being a demon king?" She raised her hand and pointed forward. "Let’s earn enough today!"

Mu Sui followed her gaze down the long, desolate road, where the ground was littered with crumbling stones. The cold wind blew, stirring up dust and sand that stung the throat.

"There’s no one here," Mu Sui pointed out.

Meng Ruji coughed twice from the wind and sand. "We’ll keep going and see..."

They walked down the crumbling road, leaving the "Yamen" behind, searching for people along the way. Finally, after several turns, they saw some passersby. After asking around and observing their surroundings, Meng Ruji began to piece together the rules of this place.

The Land of No Remain was indeed neither the human world nor the underworld. It was more like a "secret realm" that had randomly appeared between heaven and earth.

This "secret realm" was governed by the "Master of No Remain." The people of Mo Nengdu, as well as the officers who had arrested them, were all subjects of this Master, responsible for maintaining order in the Land of No Remain.

To enter this place, one had to become a "half-dead person."

The so-called "half-dead people" were those who had died in the human world under various strange circumstances but weren’t entirely dead. For example, those who had fallen into a coma and hadn’t woken up for a long time, those who had closed their eyes due to a road accident, or those who, like Meng Ruji and Mu Sui, had been inexplicably struck by lightning...

Once in the Land of No Remain, there were only three possible fates.

The first was what Meng Ruji had heard on her first day here, when the boatman by the Naihe River told her to buy a ticket to be ferried back to the human world. But this required money—a lot of it. No one knew the exact amount; some said one thousand, others five thousand, or even fifty thousand. The only thing everyone agreed on was: "If you want to buy a ticket to go back, forget it. We ordinary people have no hope."

The second option was to jump into the Naihe River. The river would carry them away, send them to the heavens, and grant them rebirth.

The third was to die again and be reborn directly.

However, the Land of No Remain wasn’t without its dangers. Some people were killed by accidents, while others were struck by falling stones. In such cases, the "half-dead" would immediately become fully dead and pass away.

Furthermore, some people mysteriously disappeared from the Land of No Remain, just as inexplicably as they had arrived. Their lives were fleeting and without reason.

After hearing these three possibilities, Meng Ruji felt a wave of despair.

First, earning enough for a boat ticket, let alone two, seemed impossible for them at the moment. And as for the second and third options...

What difference was there between these and dying in the human world? In other words, wasn’t this just "going to die"?

She had awakened after eight hundred years, not to change her place of death! If she was going to die anyway, why didn’t she just die eight hundred years ago? Wouldn’t that have been easier? She had sealed herself away to find a way out!

But what kind of a way out was this!

Meng Ruji, furious, pounded the wall in the corner.

Meanwhile, Mu Sui, who had followed Meng Ruji all the way, remained particularly silent. While Meng Ruji gathered information, Mu Sui listened and observed their surroundings. For some reason, the scenes around him felt strangely familiar.

He thought back carefully—this feeling of simultaneous strangeness and familiarity had been with him since he woke up by the Nai River.

The strange, glowing river, the sensation of the water flowing past his feet, and the crooked, sloppily written plaque with the word "Yamen"...

It all seemed... familiar...

Mu Sui stood there as the hustle and bustle around him made his world spin upside down. He watched Meng Ruji regroup and continue questioning passersby, but he felt trapped in a fog.

In this haze, fleeting images flashed through his mind, accompanied by a sharp, piercing voice that echoed in his ears.

"Mu Sui!"

"Mu Sui!"

"Live!"

"Live! Kill them all!"

As these voices and images surfaced, an excruciating pain exploded in his head, spreading to his limbs.

Mu Sui clenched his teeth, his mind becoming a battlefield. He seemed to glimpse something in the distant past, but he couldn’t catch hold of it, nor could he comprehend it.

A cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

Just as the voices became unbearable, Meng Ruji’s voice reached his ears. "We should leave quickly," she said, turning to him. "Otherwise, we’ll be stuck here forever."

Her voice brought Mu Sui back to reality. He forced his thoughts aside, took a deep breath, and nodded. "Let’s go."

Meng Ruji glanced at Mu Sui, seeing his pale face and cold sweat. "Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, I’m fine," Mu Sui replied. "Let’s keep moving."

Meng Ruji frowned slightly but didn’t press further. She turned and led the way, muttering to herself, "We need to figure out how to make money quickly. We can’t stay here forever."

Mu Sui followed her, his mind still buzzing with fragments of memories and images. As they walked, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something crucial was eluding him.

But for now, he pushed it aside. There were more pressing matters to deal with—like finding a way to survive in this strange, unforgiving land.

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