Under the moonlight, Bai Shuo stood on the bare earth and looked back at the hall behind her, still shaken.
That eerie stone hall lay a hundred meters beneath the Yi Palace. If Fan Yue's spiritual energy hadn't been strong enough to carry her up and out, she would never have left it. No wonder there were no guards. The immortal and demon youths with shattered spirit platforms couldn't leap a hundred meters even if they woke.
The moment they were out, Bai Shuo pulled Fan Yue into a corner and took the turtle shell from her Qiankun pouch. She produced some white powder from somewhere and sprinkled it over the shell.
Fan Yue caught the scent. The powder reeked of face powder and rouge, and it was oddly familiar.
"This rubbed off on me from Hua Datie. I saved a little in secret. She took a sword strike from Rong Xian, so nine times out of ten she's reached the peak of Upper Lord. She might be able to break the Yi King's array," Bai Shuo explained as she worked the shell. "She hasn't been seen since she went after the Yi Prince. I suspect the Yi King has trapped her. This powder carries her aura, so the shell should be able to work out where she is."
Fan Yue watched her bustle about, a little lost in thought. How many clever ideas did this master of his have? Her spiritual power was so weak she couldn't beat even a minor sprite, yet she had thought of finding the Yi King's daughter to save Chongzhao. It was rather interesting.
Under the moon, the boy did not realize that his gaze on Bai Shuo was no longer the plain reverence of before. It carried a touch of appreciation, and of appraisal.
Suddenly something seemed to dawn on him. His face stiffened, and a sharp pain struck between his brows. He pressed a hand hard against his forehead, as if trying to drive out the thought that had just risen in his mind.
That wasn't him! But if it wasn't him, then who was it? His former self?
"Found her!" The shell in Bai Shuo's palm stopped, pointing to a corner at the far north of the Yi Palace. "Hua Datie is there!"
She turned. Her little disciple's face was hidden in shadow, and he seemed to be trembling. Her heart clenched, and she quickly took his hand. "Mumu, what's wrong?"
Bai Shuo's hand was warm. The boy looked up and smiled at her, his eyes curving. "Master, I'm fine."
Bai Shuo let out a breath. "Come on, let's go find Hua Datie."
Fan Yue nodded, put an arm around her waist, and they vanished from the spot.
In one corner of the Yi Palace stood a plain courtyard with no name. A few withered trees were scattered through it, and beside them was a stone pavilion with a crude wooden swing hanging under its roof. The swing must have been there for years, because the cloth ropes tying the board had yellowed.
In the dead of night, Hua Hong lay back on the swing with a stalk of wild grass between her teeth, swaying at her leisure and thinking who knew what.
Bai Shuo charged into the courtyard in a frantic rush and met Hua Hong's eyes across the stone pavilion. Both of them froze.
Bai Shuo looked startled and suspicious. Hua Datie looked delighted.
"What took you so long? Hurry, hurry, get me out of here!"
Bai Shuo looked over the comfortable, unguarded little courtyard, then took a step back. "You need me to rescue you?"
Hua Hong flicked a hand, and a faint barrier flickered into view outside the stone pavilion.
"The Yi King trapped me. Wuzhao set up this barrier, and he can break it." She pointed at Fan Yue.
"He can break it, and you can't?" Bai Shuo took another step back, warier now.
That the Yi King was evil was beyond doubt, and Hua Hong was his daughter, after all.
"I was poisoned with Spirit-Barring Herb. Until noon tomorrow I'm no different from a mortal," Hua Hong said, spreading her hands helplessly.
"The Yi King has something like that? How did he refine it?" Bai Shuo's eyes lit up in spite of herself.
Spirit-Barring Herb was the natural enemy of both immortals and demons. It grew only on snow peaks a thousand meters high, guarded by top-grade snow pythons, so it was hard to pick, and it crumbled on contact with fire, which made it extremely difficult to refine. With her weak spiritual power, Bai Shuo had studied every heavenly and earthly treasure that could save a life, so she knew this herb by reputation very well.
"Wait. Who could poison you?" Bai Shuo paused. "The Yi King?"
Hua Hong said nothing. Then Bai Shuo abruptly asked, "Hua Hong, why were you driven out of Yi City back then?"
Hua Hong narrowed her eyes. "None of your damn business."
"It's not that I want to dig up your Hua family's old gossip. The Yi King has captured every immortal and demon youth who came for the Wutong Martial Banquet. My senior brother's life is in your father's hands, they're all trapped in his array, and you're the only one who can break that evil formation. How do I know whether I can trust you?"
"Believe it or not." Hua Hong gave a light snort, chewed her grass, and glanced at Bai Shuo. "If you don't trust me, then leave."
Hearing that everyone had been captured, Hua Hong looked completely unconcerned. Bai Shuo silently cursed herself for being stupid. Hua Hong had stayed at her side all along, but only to protect Fan Yue. No one from Haoyue Palace was trapped in there, and given Hua Hong's position, she'd applaud if all of them died.
Bai Shuo bit her lip and looked at Fan Yue behind her. Then she suddenly lowered her voice and said to Hua Hong, "Do you believe I'd scream right now?"
Hua Hong froze, glanced toward Fan Yue, and her face turned cold. "Bai Shuo, you wouldn't dare!"
The Yi King did not know Fan Yue's identity, and he would let none of the immortal and demon youths who entered the city tonight go. Fan Yue's divine power had not recovered, so if he met the Yi King now, it would mean certain death.
"What wouldn't I dare? At worst... I die with him." Bai Shuo pressed her lips together, not daring to look back.
I'm sorry, Mumu. A-Zhao can't die. I have to save him.
"You...!" Hua Hong had been a demon for over a hundred years and had never met anyone as shameless as Bai Shuo.
Not far off, Fan Yue quietly watched Bai Shuo. He seemed to have understood, and also seemed to have heard nothing. He lowered his eyes, and no one could see what was in them.
"I'm going to shout..." Bai Shuo shut her eyes and opened her mouth to cry out.
"I destroyed the core of the Spirit-Locking Array." Hua Hong's voice, from within the courtyard, cut her off.
Bai Shuo's eyes flew open. Hua Hong had turned away, and in the moonlight her figure looked desolate.
The Spirit-Locking Array? Wasn't that the one treasure that let Yi City stand its ground in the three realms? Hua Hong was the princess of Yi City. Why would she destroy it?
"The Yi people are born with blocked spirit veins and cannot cultivate spiritual power, so the Yi King's throne isn't passed down through generations. It goes to whoever holds the Yi King Sword. When Muguang founded Yi City, he cast a sword from Dark Spirit Iron of the East Sea and gave it to the first Yi King. It can't be drawn without immense strength. From then on the city had a rule: from each generation of young people, whoever draws the Yi King Sword becomes the Yi King."
She went on without waiting for Bai Shuo to speak.
"But a sword can't control human hearts. Yi City has kept itself shut away for a thousand years, and even a lone city abandoned by the three realms can't stop the desire for power from growing. The Hua family has ruled Yi City for over five hundred years, and by this generation they could hardly hold on to the throne."
"Why?"
"Hua Lin was born frail. He could never have drawn the Yi King Sword."
Hua Lin? Bai Shuo froze, then realized that Hua Lin must be the current Yi King, Hua Hong's father.
But that didn't add up. The Yi King had reached the peak of Upper Lord, one step from demigod. How had a man born frail managed that?
"Besides the Hua family, which held the throne for centuries, Yi City had another great house, the Meis. The Mei family had served for generations as the Huas' aides in guarding the city, and every generation produced a general. In this generation, old General Mei had only one daughter, named Han. To keep the throne in the Hua family, the old Yi King made a deal with old General Mei."
"What deal?"
"The Huas would take Mei Han as the prince's consort, and in return the Meis would sacrifice old General Mei's spiritual energy to the prince, to rebuild his frail body. The Yi aren't without spiritual energy. Their spirit veins are chaotic, and Hua Lin's were more tangled than most. The old Yi King carried the duty of protecting our people, and at that time old General Mei was the only one in the city who had reached Upper Lord. Only his energy could change Hua Lin's spirit veins."
Sacrifice? Bai Shuo thought of the eerie evil array in the stone hall, and her face changed.
Could that stone hall be where the Yi King's body had been rebuilt? But he was already at the peak of Upper Lord. Why would he need to start the evil array again?
There was no time to think it through. Hua Hong kept talking.
"No one expected Hua Lin to be so frail that old General Mei's energy alone wasn't nearly enough. The technique was wicked. Once begun, it couldn't be stopped, or both of them would die. For his son's sake, the old Yi King poured his own energy into Hua Lin as well. After that night, the old Yi King and old General Mei fell on the spot, and Hua Lin rose to Upper Lord, drew the Yi King Sword, and became the new Yi King. To protect the honor of the Hua clan, this was kept as a secret between the two families, and only a handful of people knew. Soon afterward, he kept his promise and took Mei Han as his consort. Later their first child was born, a daughter, and the legend says the girl was born with divine strength, drew the Yi King Sword at eighteen, and carried the hopes of every citizen of Yi City."
Hua Lin had become Yi King a hundred years ago. These people were all Hua Hong's blood relatives, yet she spoke of these century-old secrets as if they belonged to strangers.
Bai Shuo blinked, stared at Hua Hong, and couldn't help exclaiming, "Hua Datie, you're incredible."
Hua Lin had needed the energy of two Upper Lords to draw the Yi King Sword, and Hua Hong had done it in her teens. If she hadn't been born Yi, with her spirit veins blocked, she would have been a true prodigy.
"That's only legend. How many legends in this world are true? They all said Rong Xian killed his wife and child for the Kunlun leadership, and you heard the truth yourself in front of the Yi Tomb."
Hua Hong spoke quietly from beneath the pavilion.
"It's false?" Bai Shuo was stunned.
Drawing the Yi King Sword was marked by a sign in the heavens. Since the story had spread through the three realms, someone must have sensed it, and it couldn't be faked.
"Not entirely false. A child did draw the Yi King Sword, but it wasn't me."
"Who was it?"
The courtyard fell silent. After a long while, Hua Hong spoke.
"Hua Yong."
"The Yi Prince? That fool?" Bai Shuo's jaw nearly dropped.
At the hot spring that day, Hua Yong had shown some brute strength, but in cultivation he was far behind Hua Hong.
"Back then he wasn't the Yi Prince yet. Or rather, the Yi people didn't even know he existed."
Hua Hong seemed to sink into memory and looked back at the plain courtyard behind her.
"As the princess of Yi City, I was adored by the whole city from childhood. I was headstrong and hated being held back. One Mengyu Festival I sneaked out of the palace and came across a child being bullied in the street. His parents had died young and his life was miserable. I felt sorry for him and brought him back to the palace. Hua Lin had always doted on me and never opposed anything I wanted to do, and this time was no different. The boy was soft and simple. At first I only brought him back so he could play with me, but as the days went by, we were less master and servant than brother and sister. Mother had no children besides me and was very fond of him. She taught him to write and read herself, gave him the name Hua Yong, and even taught him the Mei family blade technique without holding anything back."
Her voice caught, and she looked back at the plain little courtyard. Bai Shuo suddenly understood that before Hua Yong became prince of Yi City, he must have lived here.
"So he stayed on in the Yi Palace, until the year I turned eighteen. Mother was pregnant again, the whole palace celebrated, and Hua Lin was happy too. But Mother was worried every day. Any child of the royal house who reached eighteen had to face the trial of the Yi King Sword before the people of the city, and only by drawing it could they inherit the throne. The sword holds tremendous power. Draw it and you become king. Fail and it devours you. Over a thousand years, countless young people of Yi City have died under its power."
"Mother worried about me and couldn't sleep at night, but she couldn't stop me. The Yi King's throne wasn't only the Hua family's inheritance, it was something my grandfather bought with his life. I was the princess of Yi City, and drawing the Yi King Sword was my duty. At that time no one among the young people in the city was a match for me. I thought... I could draw it."
Bai Shuo said nothing and kept listening.
"But that day, when the Yi King Sword chose its master, it wasn't me. It was Hua Yong. And my mother died that same day."
The little courtyard went quiet for a moment.
"What exactly happened that day?"
The sword had chosen its master, so how had the Yi Queen come to a violent death?
"That day, at the Mengyu Festival, with the whole city watching, I tried to draw the Yi King Sword, but I couldn't even get within one meter of it. Not to advance is to retreat, the ordinary law of heaven. The sword's backlash came down on me, and as I was dying, Hua Yong took the backlash for me."
"He saved you?"
"I wish he never had." Hua Hong's voice was cold as ice, and she closed her eyes. "I wish I'd died under the Yi King Sword that day. He took the sword in my place, and in my place his spirit bones were shattered. Beneath the spirit bones appeared the mark unique to the Hua bloodline..."
The old Yi King had only one son, Hua Lin. The old king had long since died, and Hua Yong was still a child. There was no need to ask whose son he was.
"The shock harmed Mother's pregnancy. She forced Wuzhao to talk, and only then learned that the frail prince of years ago already had someone he loved. They had loved each other and pledged themselves to each other. He had married my mother only because my grandfather gave his life to put him on the throne. Mother was fierce by nature. How could she bear an insult like that? She didn't survive the night. Two lives were lost, and she died with her hatred unsettled."
Hua Yong was several years younger than Hua Hong. That meant the Yi King had kept meeting his lover in secret after marrying Mei Han, and had even arranged, by sleight of hand, for their young son to live hidden in the palace under the queen's care. Judging by Hua Hong's own temper, the Yi Queen Mei must have been extremely fierce.
"Where was the Yi King? Even if the queen's pregnancy was harmed, at the peak of Upper Lord he could have protected her." Bai Shuo was furious.
"Hua Yong's spirit bones were broken. He sealed the stone hall to prolong Hua Yong's life. My mother went into a difficult labor on the spot and left this world."
Bai Shuo was stunned. It was hard to believe.
But Hua Hong turned her head, a mocking smile at the corner of her mouth. "What's so surprising? The beloved's son is naturally worth more than anyone else."
The words were bitterly cold, yet full of a grief that reached the bone.
Bai Shuo suddenly understood that perhaps in the instant the Yi King left with Hua Yong, the Yi Queen had already lost the will to live.
Under a murky moon, the Yi King sat before a grave.
"Hong'er is back. She has grown, and she looks a great deal like you." He stroked the tombstone, drank the last cup of wine, and rose to leave, never looking back.
"After Mother died, Hua Yong became the Yi Prince. And I, without Mother's protection, was just a pitiful joke. So on the day Yi City named its prince, I broke into the Spirit-Locking Array. If it weren't for this damned Yi throne, my grandfather wouldn't have had to die, and Mother wouldn't have had to marry that beast in human skin. I lost every one of my family. Why should these people go on living well in this city?"
"But I failed. I was the princess of Yi City trying to destroy the foundation of the city, so how could the Yi people and Hua Lin tolerate me? After that night, I was driven out of Yi City. Since then I drifted through the three realms until Haoyue Palace took me in."
Hua Hong glanced toward Fan Yue, then looked at Bai Shuo. "Now you know everything. Do you think I would help the Yi King?"