Chapter 35: The Rabbit and the Abyss

 

“Mu Sui.”

The name echoed from the darkness, accompanied by a bone-deep, throbbing agony that ripped through his very core.

Mu Sui lay on chaotic ground and forced his eyes open. Above him, the sky was a haze of gray mist, through which sacred, shimmering, yet dim light filtered.

The pain intensified, spreading from his limbs inward.

He looked down: icicles were piercing his flesh.

The air was thick with the scent of blood, crimson staining the ground. The icicles didn't retreat after penetrating, instead scraping against his marrow. A grinding, shuddering sound reverberated deep within his body.

Mu Sui made no sound.

Yet, through the swirling mist, a faint sob drifted. A voice wept, even as it gritted its teeth and commanded:

“Kill them.”

“Kill them.”

Chilling cries of hatred, stitched together by those agonizing sobs, seeped into his bones.

“Mu Sui. Who are you?”

Amidst the excruciating physical pain, another voice pierced the fog.

Mu Sui parted his lips to answer, but the next moment, clamped his teeth down hard.

“Mu Sui, kill them!”

“Who are you?”

“They all owe you!”

“Do you remember who you are?”

The two voices wrestled in Mu Sui’s mind. The icicles tormented him relentlessly, while simultaneously, the flat ground beneath him transformed into a sucking swamp.

Mu Sui felt himself being impaled by ice and swallowed by mud.

“Mu Sui…”

The mud engulfed him. Unable to struggle, he could only helplessly watch as the sludge buried his face—chin, eyes, mouth, and nose.

Trapped. Suffocating. Desperate, with an excruciating, freezing pain. Mu Sui reached out with his last reserve of strength.

In the chaos, this faintly raised hand was his final, silent plea for rescue.

But how could one such as him ever be saved?

The strength in his hand flickered, about to fail, his palm sinking along with his body.

Then, a soft snap. Another hand grasped his palm.

Warmth surged instantly from the fingertips straight to his heart.

The moment that hand seized him, the muddy swamp trapping him seemed to be purified, turning into clear water.

He was looking up from underwater. It was Meng Ruji who held him.

She watched him from the surface, teeth clenched, clinging fiercely, as if summoning every ounce of her spirit to keep him afloat.

Mu Sui gazed up, perplexed yet profoundly moved. They were chance acquaintances, recent friends; why was she so dedicated to pulling him out? Using such warmth to save a man freezing to death.

“You’re awake—now climb!” The breathless words jolted Mu Sui out of his confusion and violently back to reality.

Mu Sui blinked, his vision finally clearing. There was no fog, no mud, no clear water.

Instead, there was the eerie gloom of Wuliuzhi land, the sickly green moonlight, the surrounding rumbling… and Meng Ruji’s face, strained with desperate effort.

“Why won’t you just climb!”

Mu Sui instantly regained full awareness.

A quick glance confirmed it: He had fallen into a deep pit!

The hole was bottomless, its sides crumbling. Soil kept sliding, and rocks rolled into the abyss, never echoing.

Meng Ruji was clinging to the lip, one hand locked onto Mu Sui’s, the other desperately gripping a tree root. Half her body dangled precariously over the void.

Mu Sui’s eyes scanned quickly. He jammed a falling rock into the wall with a swift motion, tapped it with his foot, and flipped himself up, simultaneously pulling the dangling Meng Ruji back to safety.

They both stumbled away from the crumbling edge.

Rocks and dirt continued to tumble into the abyss.

Meng Ruji pulled Mu Sui back several steps before finally releasing him.

Mu Sui looked down at his now-empty hands, then calmly clasped them behind his back. He surveyed the pit and asked, with unnerving calm, “What happened?”

Meng Ruji turned back, confusion mixing with utter fury in her eyes. “Earlier… just after sunset… I was using Mo Li’s true form to deal with Luo Yingfeng.”

Mu Sui’s face immediately darkened at the mention of Mo Li.

Meng Ruji reached out and lifted the corner of Mu Sui’s downturned mouth.

“Don’t be angry yet. I know Mo Li used his nightmare technique on you, and I had no time to stop him. My mistake. But don’t worry, he learned nothing.”

“Nightmare technique?”

Mu Sui realized the voice in his dream was Mo Li’s. He had been trying to trick him into revealing his identity.

Mu Sui’s expression hardened. “Where is the Nightmare Demon?” he demanded.

“I knew where he was half a quarter-hour ago. Now, I have no idea.”

Mu Sui frowned.

Meng Ruji explained with a gesture, pointing to the deep pit. “You were lying there. I was standing here, manipulating the power with my fingers, directing Mo Li to strike Luo Yingfeng.”

Mu Sui glanced at her fingertips, slightly raised in demonstration.

“I was tracking the spiritual energy. I had just used the stone to pierce Luo Yingfeng’s chest and steal his three golds. I was about to retrieve the stone. Suddenly, you stood up.”

“I did?” Mu Sui was genuinely surprised.

“Yes.” Meng Ruji pointed to her neck. Her voice was flat, detached, as if recounting a strange folktale. “You said you wanted to kill me.”

Mu Sui stared at the red mark on Meng Ruji’s neck.

“…”

“You pinched me for a while. I realized you weren’t conscious—likely a sleepwalking side effect of Mo Li’s spell. I tried to wake you,” Meng Ruji said, a look of profound despair on her face. “Just as I was about to, a rabbit suddenly burst out of the ground.”

“...A rabbit?”

“Yes. A rabbit.”

Mu Sui was struck speechless.

Meng Ruji paused, as if the absurdity of the event was too much even for her.

She continued, “The rabbit bit me.” She held out her hand for Mu Sui to see.

Sure enough, two small, bloody holes marked the side of her palm—the telltale bite of a rabbit’s incisors.

Mu Sui rubbed his brow, a headache forming.

Meng Ruji went on:

“I threw the rabbit away, and then I slapped you, hard.” She gently touched Mu Sui’s cheek, which felt faintly bruised.

“You went down, silent and motionless. Then, the rabbit burrowed past you and vanished. I thought it had gotten away.” Meng Ruji pointed to the large hole. “I didn’t realize it was digging a tunnel. It wanted to use that hole to carry you away.”

Mu Sui turned to stare at the abyss again. It was wide, deep, and impossibly black.

“I don’t know if this rabbit wanted to save you or throw you to your death,” Meng Ruji chuckled sardonically, forcing a smile. “Our Little Sui is quite the marvel. Some rabbit spirit wants to sacrifice its life to save you. I just don’t know whose life it planned to use.”

“Little Sui” took a deep, steadying breath. “So…”

“So, I said, don’t be so quick to be angry at Mo Li,” Meng Ruji concluded. “I controlled him. I seriously injured Luo Yingfeng and took the money. You pushed me down. My spell was broken, the spiritual energy controlling Mo Li was broken, and now I don’t know if Mo Li survived the impact. But my three gold coins? They are gone.”

Meng Ruji stared at Mu Sui, her anger burning clear. “You two have now cheated each other once—it’s even. Just next time, I beg you, do not involve me.”

Do not involve her!

And her money! Both she and the gold were innocent!

Mu Sui looked at the furious Meng Ruji, his gaze drawn to her palm, bruised and bloody from the rabbit bite. He remembered her tenacious grip on him in his hallucination. The wound must have been reopened by her struggle to save him.

“Why?” Mu Sui heard himself ask.

He couldn't distinguish if it was his primal, threatened consciousness or the real Mu Sui seeking the truth.

“Why did you hold me back?”

Meng Ruji let out a sharp, hysterical laugh.

“Then I’ll push you in again! The pit is still here, you still have time to join your rabbit… Heh—”

Meng Ruji’s voice hitched, a sudden, sharp gasp escaping her lips. Not from anger, but because the very ground she and Mu Sui stood on—

Suddenly vanished.

Another deep pit opened instantly.

Grass, trees, and soil, carrying the unprepared Meng Ruji and the now-startled Mu Sui, collapsed into the pitch-black abyss.

Meng Ruji’s last thought, in the final moment of freefall, was that she had firmly grabbed Mu Sui’s arm, and Mu Sui, in turn, had pulled her tightly into his chest.

Their bodies pressed close, not a sliver of the cold abyss wind could slip between them—

Whose rabbit is this good at digging holes?

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