Chapter 17: At the Summit (Part 1)

                            

A thousand zhang of ice and snow form the heavenly tower, ten thousand li of nebula illuminate this realm.

At the summit of Mao Ya Peak, not a single blade of grass or piece of vegetation existed—only massive black stones prostrate upon the ground, with white snow lightly falling between them. The snow covered the originally fierce appearance of the giant rocks, softening their terrifying aspect.

The scenery at the peak was not cold, but rather desolate and lonely. There were no excess colors, no excess life, not even excess footing—only an endless expanse of black and white filling the view.

A person sat at the highest point, upon a black stone brilliant with ice and snow, cradling a black pipa. That pipa was extremely black and lustrous—a half-moon gleamed and flickered on the pitch-black surface, painted with some unknown material. Beneath the moon, red plum blossoms bloomed resplendently like drops of blood, covering the entire face of the pipa.

Tang Lici stepped onto the final black rock. Before him spread a stretch of delicate, smooth snow-covered ground. At the far end of the snow field stood a towering black stone, its surface covered with accumulated snow that could hardly conceal the fierce appearance of the black rock beneath.

Hearing the sound of someone stepping on the rocks, the person sitting at the summit slowly raised his head. His face was covered with black gauze and he wore a cloth cap, making it impossible to discern his true appearance. However, his fingers were jade-like, soft and slender—extraordinarily beautiful.

"Sigh…" Tang Lici stepped onto the rocky platform but let out a gentle sigh. "Really… it's you."

His tone suggested this was within his expectations, yet he regretted it wasn't beyond them.

The black-clothed man cradling the black pipa remained motionless. After a prolonged silence, he slowly spoke, his voice surprisingly deep and pleasant to hear. "I didn't expect that after taking my palm strike, being thrown down a well, and having a bucket of tung oil poured on you, you still wouldn't die."

His voice was remarkably pleasant, but the meaning beneath his words was so venomously hateful it had become indifferent.

Tang Lici flicked and shook his sleeves, placing his hands behind his back as he stood with his back to the moon. "You once said that even if it were a place where only mice could survive, the one 'person' who could definitely survive would be me." His face was cast in shadow, and he didn't look at the black-clothed man with the covered head. "That I didn't die is only natural."

"Mm…" the black-clothed man said slowly. "Back then I should have first cut your throat, then dug out your heart, then chopped you into eight pieces and thrown them separately into two wells before pouring two buckets of tung oil."

He spoke very pleasantly—after opening his mouth for two sentences, a gray-white unknown nocturnal bird circled several times before landing beside him, tilting its head to look at him as if quite curious.

"A'Yan…" Tang Lici said in a low voice. "May I still call you A'Yan?"

The black-clothed man said slowly, "You may. If you call once, I'll kill one person; if you call twice, I'll kill two people, and so forth."

"A'Yan," Tang Lici said, "let me ask you something. Did you really make the Crimson Ghost Nine Heart Pills with your own hands?"

The black-clothed man's eyes suddenly widened. Though separated by black gauze, one could still sense the fury in his gaze. "One life—I'll mark it against your book boy's account. Tell him to be careful!"

His voice and expression were both stern. Tang Lici turned a deaf ear, standing in the backlight and slowly asking again, "Did you really make the Crimson Ghost Nine Heart Pills with your own hands?"

The black-clothed man's pipa resonated with a clear sound. "Of course."

"Why?" Tang Lici slowly turned around. Whether his expression was naturally so calm or he had adjusted it well, under the moonlight his complexion looked excellent, showing no stiffness or pain—as elegant and peaceful as always. "Back then when I was taking drugs, you said it was bad, you wanted me to quit. You said that stuff couldn't be played with, that it would harm someone for life… You said you hated drug dealers who sold poison, so I quit drugs and destroyed them one by one… You said my nature was bad, that I was too controlling, so I changed… You wanted me to be a good person… so I became a good person—You owe me an explanation."

He spoke sentence by sentence, neither hurried nor harsh, his tone gentle as he spoke each phrase. By the end, his voice had even become tender, almost like intimate whispering.

"Why?" The black-clothed man stood the pipa upright and chaotically strummed upward, producing a cacophonous jumble of sounds. Then he spread his five fingers again, and the chaos suddenly ceased. The surroundings instantly became silent as death. "Why was it that just for Fu Zhumei, just because you didn't reach the highest position, just because your heart was unbalanced and unsatisfied, you wanted everyone to die with you? You could pull out electrical wires, hide knives on your body, raise a cup and want everyone to drink poison with you? Why, after crossing through time and space to this inexplicable place where in the whole world only we are family and friends to each other, could you still force Fang Zhou to death, trading his life for your martial arts and future? It's all for money, isn't it? It's all for money…"

He laughed coldly. "I've long known you want everything, known you definitely wouldn't admit that Zhumei was better than you, but I never imagined you'd want mutual destruction over such a small matter! The band's funding came from your father, that's true, but we weren't toys playing along with you. Just because it was your family's funding, you had to be the lead singer, had to be the most glorious? If you couldn't be the lead singer, you wanted everyone to die together. You failed to kill us by cutting the electrical wires and instead traveled through time to arrive here, yet you still don't know repentance. Driving away Zhumei, killing Fang Zhou—those were all your good deeds! Still for money! For that little bit of money to make a living—"

His chest heaved as he took a breath himself. "Since it's all for money, with money there's no need to lose everything, no need to be controlled by others, no need to owe favors, no need to do unwilling things or make sacrifices. Then—I swore to myself, since you forced Fang Zhou to death, if I want to live, I must first possess the most money in the world!"

Tang Lici's clear, beautiful eyes slightly closed as he said in a low voice, "Only with money… can one survive, can one avoid losing everything…"

So it wasn't only he who retained such cruel memories.

"But there are hundreds of ways to earn money in this world."

"You have the capital Fang Zhou left behind, you have your talent for power struggles, you have your natural-born luck, you have your eye for spotting opportunities—I don't have any of that." A corner of the black hood on the black-clothed man's head was suddenly lifted by the mountain wind, revealing his forehead. If anyone in the world could make even showing their forehead seem coldly beautiful, this person before him would be it. "All I understand is making medicine. Besides, isn't this world, these people, already dead for a thousand years? Even if I don't make medicine, in the era you and I lived in, they would all be long dead. Early death, late death—they all have to die the same. For you and me, it makes no difference."

"If that's the case," Tang Lici stepped forward, "you don't necessarily have less money than me now. Having obtained what you wanted, you can withdraw and retire, can't you?"

"Retire…" The black-clothed man's fingers lightly touched the pipa strings. "I can no longer stop now. The more people taking drugs, the more infected people there are, the more medicine is needed. This is also saving people."

"That's an excuse," Tang Lici walked slowly forward, stepping onto the black rock where the black-clothed man was entrenched. "And a very poor excuse at that."

"What do you want to hear?"

"Controlling countless amounts of money, controlling countless people—you can't help wanting more, can you?" Tang Lici asked in a low voice. By now, the corners of his mouth slightly turned up, already containing a half-smiling expression. "Since at this moment, under this sky, in your eyes they're all a group of dead people anyway, then being the King of Hell for a group of dead people, trying a taste you've never experienced, doing something you've never imagined—perhaps you'd live more freely than before, and more true to yourself, wouldn't you?"

His eyelashes lifted slightly as he gazed at the black-clothed man on the black rock. "Admit it… A'Yan, you have your ambitions, just like I did back then…"

"The second call—mark down Shen Langhun's life." The black-clothed man said in a low voice. "Shh… don't compare me with you. What you did and what I do have no connection. As for what I want to do, I don't believe anyone's words anyway, including my own. Whether what I say now or what I'll say in the future—none of it is sincere. What exactly I'm saying, why do you need to care so much? What I want to do follows my heart's desire, and has nothing to do with you."

"Is that so?" Tang Lici stepped to the top of the black rock, sharing this piece of jagged stone closest to heaven with the black-clothed man. "It has nothing to do with me because at this moment, in your eyes, I'm also a dead person?"

"Of course." The black-clothed man stood his pipa upright, fingers poised on the strings. "Having stepped onto this stone, there's no need to go down. Burying you atop this peak hundreds of zhang high will be my way of doing right by you and our twenty years of friendship."

Tang Lici stood with sleeves behind his back and cold brows, while the black-clothed man held his fingers on the pipa. Between them, fierce winds howled past. Ice and snow moved slowly like fine sand with the wild wind, bit by bit sliding off the jagged black rock and falling into the ten-thousand-zhang glacier, plummeting into the boundless abyss.

Only Tang Lici could be heard sighing softly, "Burying me atop this peak hundreds of zhang high, considering it doing right by me and our twenty years of friendship… Do you know why I'm standing here today blocking your great undertaking? Do you know why I intervened, why I snatched the pills from Yu Qifeng, why I lured you to Biluo Palace? Why I disregarded the money, reputation, and status I care about and value most, determined to stop you here?"

He spoke word by word. "Because you said that to live happily, to be at peace in one's heart, to not have nightmares, to enjoy life, one must be a good person. Only when the heart is peaceful and calm, without guilt or sorrow, will life not be full of regret and helplessness, will it not be painful. I… have suffered, so I understand. But you? You've never walked the wrong path, yet you yourself don't understand, so I've come to save you—this world is equally full of dead people to me, I have no attachment to it. I don't care whom you harm, but if you harm yourself—if you yourself want to destroy yourself—you will surely have nightmares, suffer, and regret in the future. I must save you! I absolutely won't let you walk the path I once took!"

He extended his hand. "A'Yan, come back."

"Haha, you're getting better and better at talking, and better at pretending to be good!" The black-clothed man threw his head back in laughter, the black cloth flying up to reveal a corner of skin white as jade, with eyebrows slanting gracefully—surprisingly long. "The third call! Since you say you don't care whom I harm, then for the third one, I'll kill this child—"

His hands moved, and he actually brought out a swaddling bundle from behind the wind-blocking black pipa. The baby in the bundle was tender and adorable, with bright, dark eyes—it was unmistakably Fengfeng! Fengfeng had been placed by Tang Lici with a family at the foot of the mountain, but somehow had been kidnapped by the black-clothed man.

Tang Lici stared intently at Fengfeng. Fengfeng seemed to have had her pressure points sealed—her eyes were pitifully filled with tears, yet she couldn't cry out. She looked at Tang Lici helplessly, motionless.

The black-clothed man grasped Fengfeng's neck. "You drove away Zhumei and killed Fang Zhou, coveting money and martial arts. Now you're even the National Uncle's adopted son, possessing the jewels of Wan Qiao Zhai. Such a person dares to speak of saving me—is even worthy of telling me you want to save me? Hahahaha… What a huge joke!"

He channeled strength into his two fingers. "This child will die because of your stubborn refusal to obey orders—"

"Wait!" Tang Lici reached out urgently to stop him, but the black-clothed man held the pipa horizontally, blocking between them. "If you take another step, I'll slap him into mincemeat so he won't even have human form when he dies!"

Tang Lici's expression finally changed slightly. "He… he's her child. How can you bear to harm him?"

The black-clothed man sneered coldly. "This is the bastard she had with another man. Since she's my woman, what's wrong with me killing her bastard?"

Tang Lici said, "The child is her hope. If you kill her child, she'll surely commit suicide. Do you believe it or not?"

The black-clothed man shuddered slightly.

Tang Lici quickly said, "Don't kill hastily—what will you trade for this child's life?" He pressed down on the black-clothed man's hand. The distance between them was only the length of a pipa. He could be heard saying in a low voice, "No matter what you want, I can give it to you, except…"

"You—" The black-clothed man looked coldly at the hand pressing his. "Why do you care so much about her bastard? Could it be that you also…"

Tang Lici's brows slightly furrowed, but he didn't answer.

The black-clothed man suddenly burst into laughter. "Hahahaha, even you're infatuated with that lowly woman? Hahahaha, that lowly woman truly has unparalleled charm, actually even bewitching you… What extraordinary skill! I'll have to reward her well when I return—to have achieved such great merit for me, hahaha…"

Tang Lici said, "What do you want in exchange for this child's life?"

The black-clothed man slowly released his fingers that were grasping Fengfeng's throat. "Kill yourself, and I'll spare his life. Maybe… I'll even take him back to that lowly woman. She'll surely be grateful and devoted to me from then on…"

Tang Lici said, "Right, if you take him back, she'll surely be grateful and devoted to you from then on."

The black-clothed man looked at him coldly. "Kill yourself!"

Tang Lici suddenly flicked his sleeve. "No matter what you want, I can give it to you, except you wanting me to die! If you want me to kill myself, you might as well strangle him on the spot."

The black-clothed man threw his head back and laughed. "Hahahaha… Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy that even you yourself cannot justify! Utterly ridiculous!" He held Fengfeng in one hand and grasped the pipa with the other. "If you won't die, so be it. Let me kill you once more. This time, I absolutely won't let you return to life."

"A'Yan, is killing what your heart truly desires?" Tang Lici shouted sternly. "If I say Fang Zhou isn't dead, you—"

The black-clothed man laughed loudly. "Fang Zhou isn't dead—Fang Zhou isn't dead—at this point, you still dare lie to me saying Fang Zhou isn't dead—it was you—" He pointed at Tang Lici's eyes. "It was you who soaked his corpse in the ice spring, you who made him unable to close his eyes in death, you who wouldn't let him rest in peace, you who wanted to torment his corpse, split open his chest and dig out his heart—ever since you climbed Mao Ya Peak, I've sent people to search your Tang family National Uncle's mansion and indeed found Fang Zhou's body. I personally buried him with my own hands, I erected a monument for him. Today you actually dare say he's not dead yet—who are you fooling?"

"You—" Tang Lici pressed his right hand to his abdomen, as if sudden pain made him unable to bear it, his complexion instantly turning deathly pale.

The black-clothed man held Fengfeng in his left arm, and with a resonant sound from the pipa, "The deception is broken. Say one more word, and the rope you walked on has already been severed by the pipa's sound. Today, except for you, Biluo Palace will be wiped out completely! Make your move!"

"Where did you bury him?" Tang Lici raised his left sleeve. Once that refined, scholarly face showed fierce intent, his beautiful eyes were exactly like ghost eyes—the whites instantly filled with blood vessels, the black pupils particularly black, causing one's heart to shudder upon seeing them.

"Defeat me today, and I'll tell you." The black-clothed man laughed in a low voice. "What ironically good luck, hahahaha…"

"Liu Yan! Tonight you'll learn that even now, I'm still the strongest of the four of us—" Tang Lici's face was deathly pale as he held half a copper flute slanting toward the ground. "I definitely have a way to save you, and I definitely have a way to save him!"

The black gauze-masked man moved his pipa, and the accumulated snow on the massive black rock suddenly exploded upward, transforming into snowflakes that scattered down. Tang Lici's broken flute struck out, producing a series of mournful, sharp flute sounds as he threw his whole body forward—aiming directly at Liu Yan's eyes!

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