Everyone at the table was engrossed in eating, heads down in concentration. Yan Dan glanced to her left; the Taoist priest ate with an air of natural authority. To her right, she saw Qin Qi devouring chunks of meat and mouthfuls of rice—truly a heroine's appetite. Diagonally opposite, Tang Zhou's youngest junior brother stood there, pitifully staring at the stewed chicken leg in her bowl.
Yan Dan picked up the chicken leg with her chopsticks, looked at him kindly, and asked, "Do you want it? I'll give you this one."
The Taoist priest coughed sharply, and the junior brother immediately sprang to his feet, standing ramrod straight and loudly proclaiming, "Thank you, young lady, but no need!"
The Taoist priest smiled with satisfaction.
Since their parting that day, Yan Dan hadn't seen Xu'er again, so she asked, "Where did Miss Xu'er go?"
Liu Weiyang put down his chopsticks and, unusually kind, replied, "She didn't come."
Qin Qi seized the opportunity to ask eagerly, "Young Master Liu, how could you embed the chess piece into the stone so easily? Why don't you teach me that move too?"
Liu Weiyang didn't speak, but the Taoist priest chimed in dismissively, "Decades of skill have been put into it. Do you think you can learn it in a single day?"
Yan Dan bit her chopsticks thoughtfully. Even if it takes twenty years, this Young Master Liu looks no more than twenty years old, so wouldn't he have looked absurdly young when he started? Then she heard the Taoist priest continue, "It took me fifty-eight years of martial arts training to accomplish this. With your aptitude, it will take at least another sixty years."
Qin Qi could only whisper meekly, "Master is right."
Yan Dan was utterly bewildered.
"Master, I've heard some rumors that ancient artifacts have recently appeared in the world," Tang Zhou suddenly said, breaking the casual atmosphere.
The Taoist priest responded thoughtfully, "These rumors have been circulating for years. Since they've spread so widely, there must be some truth to them." He turned to look at Liu Weiyang. "As far as I know, there are four ancient artifacts in total. Is that right?"
Liu Weiyang nodded.
"One of the ancient artifacts is the Seven Luminaries Divine Jade, another is called Chumo, and I don't know about the other two." The Taoist priest glanced at his disciple. "Why are you asking? These artifacts are not something mere mortals can touch. Even if you find them, you cannot wield them."
Yan Dan looked at the Taoist priest and thought to herself: The Seven Luminaries Divine Jade is already in your disciple's hands, so he definitely wants the rest. As for the reason why, I'm extremely curious.
Liu Weiyang said calmly, "I've read in ancient books that the Southwest was originally a closed-off region, and the Yi people were even more barbaric, yet they somehow learned witchcraft and even possessed the ability to see into the heavens. I suspect they must have obtained one of the artifacts unintentionally."
Yan Dan nodded to herself. Shen Yijun was a Yi person, and she had indeed possessed the Seven Luminaries Divine Jade. If she'd obtained it after leaving the Yi tribe, it meant the tribe likely possessed another divine artifact; if she'd brought it from her tribe, it meant the Seven Luminaries Divine Jade wasn't particularly important to them, which also implied the existence of a second divine artifact.
Qin Qi wasn't interested in ancient artifacts at all, but stared intently at Liu Weiyang. "Young Master Liu, how many years have you practiced? Even if my talent is dull, I'll still strive to become like you."
Liu Weiyang thought for a moment, then slowly replied, "Fifty or sixty years."
Yan Dan was stunned. Why wasn't his hair bald, his teeth loose, or his skin wrinkled?
She was greatly shocked and asked softly, "Young Master Liu, how old are you this year?"
Tang Zhou glanced at her sideways, remaining conspicuously silent.
Liu Weiyang finally looked at her directly, and with a flick of his long, strong fingers, a pair of chopsticks snapped with a crisp sound.
Yan Dan immediately said, "I was just asking casually. You don't need to tell me, really..."
The mountain was considerably cooler after nightfall. Hearing Qin Qi's breathing become heavier and more regular, Yan Dan rolled off the bed opposite her, pushed open the door quietly, and went out.
The crescent moon overhead was bright and clear. Yan Dan circled the courtyard, found a sharp, protruding rock, and squatted down beside it to continue polishing the seal on her hands. After polishing for a while, she suddenly heard a slight rustling sound not far away. She quickly leaned against the shadow of a tree and remained perfectly still. Then, a figure passed before her eyes. By the moonlight, she could tell that the person was a woman, with a graceful figure, dressed in dark night clothes.
Yan Dan raised her hand to her chin, secretly feeling that the person's back looked somewhat familiar. She hadn't encountered many mortals, and she could count those she'd recognize on two hands. She watched as the woman suddenly stopped a dozen steps away, as if waiting for someone.
Yan Dan slowly moved forward two steps, hiding behind a large tree in the shade. As long as she didn't make a sound, she wouldn't be discovered. She hadn't been hidden long when she felt a gentle breeze behind her, followed by a numbness in her waist, and then she couldn't move at all. She felt cool fingers tap her neck, and her eyelids began to grow unbearably heavy.
In her hazy state, she smelled a faint sandalwood scent. She tried desperately to stay awake, but she grew increasingly drowsy. Before completely losing consciousness, she heard a cold, icy voice say, "...Should we kill him...?"
She thought resentfully: Why am I always so unlucky lately?
When Yan Dan woke up, she found herself alive and well, without a single injury. She tried to sit up, but couldn't move a single finger. She tried to call for help, but found that her speech had been sealed.
An unknown insect was swaggering across her arm. The insect had barbs on its legs, and as it crawled across her wrist, which was exposed outside her sleeve, she felt a chill run down her spine. The insect crawled away, and then another creature appeared, hopping and hopping until it came into her line of sight. She stared at the wrinkled, bulging-eyed toad for a moment, and then the toad finally hopped away backward.
After a while, the hissing sound grew closer, and Yan Dan felt a chill run through her entire body. Even through her clothes, she could feel something sticky and cold, slowly coiling around her.
She had asked Tang Zhou if there were many birds, beasts, insects, and snakes on the mountain, but she hadn't expected it to come to this...
Suddenly, a chill ran down her neck, and the slow, wriggling sensation of tiny scales rubbing against her skin sent shivers down her spine. A thin, brightly colored snake with a triangular head lay beside her neck, slowly raising its body and opening its mouth to reveal three sharp fangs.
Yan Dan's eyes stung from not blinking, but she didn't dare close them. The snake was still waiting for its chance; if she closed her eyes even for a moment, it would bite immediately. She was now no different from an ordinary person; if bitten, she would surely die on the spot.
The snake stood upright, slowly writhing in the moonlight, its forked tongue flicking in and out, making a menacing hissing sound. Yan Dan had already cursed Tang Zhou seventeen or eighteen times in her mind. Finally, she couldn't help but close her stinging eyes.
With a whoosh, a cold sword light grazed her nose, slicing the venomous snake cleanly in two. The force of the sword was immense; it slid forward several feet without losing momentum, finally embedding itself in the sand.
Yan Dan's eyes widened, still shaken, as she watched Tang Zhou walk calmly to her side, sheath the sword, and then help her sit up. Seeing that she didn't speak, Tang Zhou asked, "Were you silenced by a pressure point?"
Yan Dan blinked at him.
Tang Zhou immediately released her speech-impairing pressure point and asked, "Do you remember which other pressure points were pressed?"
Yan Dan said softly, "You almost cut my nose just now..."
Tang Zhou comforted her easily, "I'm always very accurate."
"I remember it was a numbness in my waist that made me unable to move," Yan Dan recalled, "but I only know the general location."
Tang Zhou remained silent, resting her head on his shoulder and gently massaging her lower back. Yan Dan felt a sudden release, and she was able to move again. She wiped her neck vigorously with her sleeve, a look of disgust on her face. "I've never had a snake crawl on my body in my entire life."
She then naturally blamed everything on Tang Zhou. "It's all your fault! You made me run for my life from being chased by mortals, and I had to worry about your master discovering my identity. Anyone could easily knock me down, and if that person had killed me, I wouldn't even have seen who my enemy was. Now it's even worse—a snake has crawled onto my neck!"
Yan Dan gasped for breath, glaring at him resentfully. "Ever since I met you, I've been plagued by bad luck. I don't want to see you again, not even in this life, not even in the next!"
Tang Zhou slowly raised his hand and placed it on her back, whispering, "So you hate me this much..."
He gently grasped her wrist, and a flash of light appeared. The restriction suddenly split in two, falling to the ground.
Yan Dan stared at her empty wrist, still somewhat incredulous.
"If you want to leave now, no one can stop you."
Hearing this, Yan Dan paused, frozen in place.
Tang Zhou turned and slowly took a few steps, turning back to look at her in the night. "Perhaps when I find those four divine artifacts, we can meet again."
Their flower spirit clan's patriarch had once concluded, based on his long life experience, that the intense curiosity shared by flower spirits stemmed from their centuries spent rooted in the same place.
Yan Dan had originally thought herself an exception, but now it seemed she hadn't escaped the common fate.
She stood there, hesitating for a long moment, before finally asking, "Why are you so determined to find those ancient artifacts? Your master is right; these immortal powers are indeed beyond the reach of mortal flesh and blood."
Tang Zhou smiled slightly. "I always have the same dream. In it, I'm in a completely unfamiliar place, where there's nothing but endless white mist. I seem to be chasing after someone, running through the sea of clouds, and every time I'm about to catch up, that person suddenly disappears. I hear a voice telling me that if I want to know the truth of all this, I must obtain one of the four ancient artifacts."
"The artifact you're looking for—it can't be the Seven Luminaries Jade, can it?"
"That artifact is called Earth Stop."
Yan Dan sighed. "As far as I know, the four ancient artifacts were preserved after Pangu created the world, belonging to Emperor Jiuchen. Later, in a great battle between the Heavenly Court and the demons, they were all lost to the mortal realm. You've already found the Seven Luminaries, but there's also Chumo, Lichen, and Earth Stop. Perhaps you'll never find a second one even if you spend your entire life searching."
"...I don't know. I just have a vague feeling that person is very important. You said last time that memories of past lives are sealed away, and I think this is a memory from a very long time ago. Even after a thousand or a hundred years, I remember nothing else, but I still remember that person's back." Tang Zhou's eyes were gentle as he spoke softly. "I just want to see her again. At least, when I look back in the future, I won't just remember a silhouette."
Yan Dan felt a surge of emotion rush to her heart, and for a moment she didn't have time to think before the words spilled out: "In that case, I'll go with you to find Earth Stop. Actually, I don't have anything special to do, and I know more than you, so maybe there's something I can do to help you!"
Tang Zhou smiled warmly. "Thank you." Then he turned and left.
After Yan Dan finished speaking these bold words, the rare, burning sense of justice she'd felt had already vanished. She could only listlessly squat on the ground, burying her face in her hands, muttering to herself, "How could I say such a thing... I'd already escaped, yet I still jumped back into the cage. Am I really such a complete idiot? No way..."
She held her head for a while, then suddenly remembered the blood-written words Shen Yijun had written before her death:
"...I'll take my life, and sever his lifelong hopes."
"The Palace Master of Shenxiao Palace is also searching for ancient artifacts. Even Yu Mo said that he and Zi Lin combined are no match for the Palace Master of Shenxiao Palace," Yan Dan was already on the verge of collapse. "Am I doing something as stupid as pulling teeth from a tiger's mouth? I think I should just run away tonight. I might not even see the artifact and lose my life for no reason. It's too obvious who gains and who loses in this situation... Anyway, I've never taken oaths seriously. Who cares about breaking promises?"
She slowly stood up, but as soon as she took a step, she seemed to hear those words echoing in her ears again: "I just want to see her again. At least, when I look back later, I won't just remember a silhouette."
She couldn't take another step. Those words had hit her deepest sore spot. She didn't know what this obsession would eventually become. It was like a moth drawn to a flame, willing to fly forward even if it meant destruction the very next moment.
Yan Dan returned to her room with a heavy heart. Qin Qi was still sleeping soundly, but she tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. One moment she was thinking about the Lord of Shenxiao Palace, the next she was wondering who the somewhat familiar figure she'd seen earlier was, and then she was thinking about the identity of the mysterious person who had struck her pressure points. She was in a daze, half asleep and half awake, and when she finally opened her eyes, it was already dawn.
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