"So this whole time, you knew how to wake me."
"No, no, I didn't know!"
Bai Shuo's eyes snapped open in shock.
Sunlight fell across her face, a little too bright, and she blinked, eyes darting about in confusion.
Above her was a stone room, furnished simply with a table and chairs. Scattered across the floor were grass grasshoppers, toys a child had left lying about. She reached down to feel the wooden plank bed beneath her, hard and unyielding, and thought dazedly that this household must be a poor one. The bed was even harder than the one Mumu had carved for her...
Mumu? Mumu!
Bai Shuo jolted upright, springing off the bed, but her legs gave way beneath her, weak and drained of strength. Someone caught her just in time.
"Immortal Bai, you're awake?"
Bai Shuo turned her head and saw a woman's face, lit up with surprise.
"Auntie Xiaoqiugua?"
"Yes, it's me, it's me."
"Where am I?"
"My home."
Bai Shuo froze.
Wasn't she in the stone hall of the Yi palace? How had she ended up here?
Where was the Evil Dragon God? Where was A Zhao? Where was Hua Datie? Where was the Kunlun Sword Cultivator? Where was the fox? Where was her little disciple?!
Oh, she remembered now. The Great Demon had fallen from the sky. Her little disciple was gone.
Bai Shuo, still dazed, suddenly pressed a hand to her chest.
It ached. That made sense. Using her heart's blood to wake the contract that sealed the demigod hadn't just drained her spirit, it had drained her very life.
"Good, you're awake, Immortal Bai. Here, have some porridge." Auntie Xiaoqiugua set the basket in her hands down on the table and helped Bai Shuo to a seat. "You've been asleep for two whole days."
"Two days?" Bai Shuo's head shot up. "Auntie, where are my friends?"
"They've all left."
"Left?"
"That's right. Yi City doesn't keep outsiders, and the Wutong Martial Banquet is over, so naturally they had to go."
Bai Shuo listened in bewilderment. The Yi King had caused such an uproar that the exalted immortals of the Ninefold Heaven Palace must surely have taken notice. Whether or not the Yi King had been used by someone else, the fact remained that he had slaughtered immortal and demon disciples alike as sacrifices. So why was Yi City so calm, as though nothing had happened?
"Come to think of it, we really do owe you immortals our thanks." Gratitude filled the woman's eyes. "His Highness Yong said that some days ago, fiends had slipped into the city and stolen the souls of our people. Thanks to your help, the fiends were destroyed and the whole city was saved."
Bai Shuo blinked, startled. The woman went on, "Oh, and the day the palace blew up, quite a few flying immortals showed up outside the city too."
"Immortals? They didn't do anything?"
"What could they do? Old Man Zhu next door told me that the little immortal who came into the city with you threw every immortal and demon disciple in the city right back out, and rebuilt the spirit-sealing array. Those immortals never even set foot inside. They just gathered their own disciples and left."
Little immortal? Bai Shuo's chest tightened. What little immortal? He was clearly the Great Demon.
No wonder Yi City had been spared. Disciples of both clans had been saved by Fan Yue. If he wanted to protect the Yi people, then never mind Exalted Immortal Jinyao, even Kunlun and the Fox Clan would owe him that favor before anyone else.
"Auntie, then how did I end up here?"
"It was Immortal Xiaozhong who brought you here."
A Zhao? Bai Shuo's heart lifted. Could A Zhao still be here?
"Where is he?"
"He left with the other immortals too. Immortal Xiaozhong asked me to take good care of you. Immortal Bai, His Majesty gave word that you're a benefactor of our Yi people, and that if you like it here, you're welcome to stay in the city for good."
"His Majesty?" Bai Shuo froze. Wasn't the Yi King already...
Seeing Bai Shuo's surprise, the woman's expression dimmed. "The old king and General Wuzhao died fighting the fiends. His Highness Yong has already taken the throne."
So this was the story that had been declared to the world.
Wait, Hua Yong had inherited the Yi throne? Bai Shuo was taken aback. Hua Yong had no spirit bones. He was like an ordinary mortal. How could he inherit the throne?
The woman seemed to see the confusion on Bai Shuo's face, and smiled. "The palace shook so hard that day, the Yi King's Sword is gone now." She paused, and sighed. "Truthfully, whether or not that sword exists doesn't matter much to us Yi people. The Hua family has protected our race for hundreds of years. In our hearts, only they can ever be our kings. His Majesty has always wanted to lead our people out of Yi City, but honestly, I think staying here is just fine. We've lived in this city for a thousand years. This is our home. Why should we ever need to leave?"
Bai Shuo listened, an uneasy feeling settling over her. Generation after generation of Yi kings had paid a brutal price trying to draw the Yi King's Sword, yet it had never occurred to them that perhaps all their people ever wanted was a peaceful life.
For a moment Bai Shuo felt a hollow kind of loneliness. Everyone had left, and she had no idea how this bewildering Wutong Martial Banquet had actually ended, or what had become of the Great Demon...
Suddenly Bai Shuo looked up at the woman. "Auntie Xiaoqiugua, how many days did you say I'd been asleep?"
"Two days."
Then she must still be there!
"Auntie, do you know where the royal tomb is?"
The woman blinked, then pointed toward a direction outside the window. Bai Shuo scrambled to her feet and rushed out.
"Auntie, I'll be back soon!"
In the courtyard, Hu'er was wobbling along on his wooden horse. When he saw Bai Shuo come out, his small face flushed and he raised his grass grasshopper toward her, grinning.
Bai Shuo's steps faltered. Warmth rose in her chest, and much of the heaviness pressing on it eased.
"Immortal Bai, thank you!"
Bai Shuo turned and smiled at the kindly woman, then reached out to ruffle Hu'er's soft hair and made a funny face at him.
"I'm off!"
Out of habit she reached for the flight talisman in the qiankun pouch at her waist, but her fingers closed on nothing. She paused for a moment, then simply turned and ran.
At the royal tomb of Yi City, Hua Hong stood in a plain cloth robe.
Beside Consort Mei's grave, two new graves had been raised.
The sound of hurried, stumbling footsteps rose behind her. Hua Hong did not turn, but she knew who it was.
"You're here."
Bai Shuo stopped behind her, out of breath.
"I remembered the Yi King once said today was the anniversary of the Consort's death. I thought you might still be here."
Hua Hong said nothing. For a while the graves stood in silence.
"I remember... when Hua Yong was first brought back, Uncle Wuzhao doted on him. Mother Consort said Uncle Wuzhao came from a poor, orphaned background, and that the Mei family had taken him in. Perhaps, looking at Hua Yong, he saw himself as a child."
Then, abruptly, Hua Hong spoke. "Did you know? Hua Yong is older than me."
"What?" Bai Shuo froze, the words slipping out before she could stop them. "How is that possible?"
Hua Hong walked to one of the new graves and rested her hand on the headstone. "Little half-immortal, I once told you the story of the Yi king's daughter, the story of Hua Lin. Would you like to hear it?"
Bai Shuo said nothing. She knew the Yi princess needed nothing more than someone to listen.
"Long ago, in the wilderness there was a solitary city that had stood besieged for a thousand years. Everyone born there worshipped strength, but the king's son was born frail. From childhood he knew he would never draw the Yi King's Sword that symbolized the throne, so he never thought to inherit the city. He had no love for blade or sword, but loved playing the qin and reading, an oddity among his own people. The only one who understood and supported him was the little maidservant who stayed by his side. Before long the young lord grew up and fell in love with her, and wanted to make her his wife. The king was furious and meant to put the maid to death. That very night, the young lord fled the palace with her and went into hiding deep in the mountains."
"Though there were no parents to witness it, the young lord and his beloved took heaven and earth as their witnesses and became husband and wife. For a time they lived a plain, contented life together. Before long the little maidservant became pregnant, and the young lord thought that once the child was born, the stubborn old king might finally accept mother and child. But on the very day his wife went into labor, the old king seized the young lord and dragged him back to the palace, using sorcery to reforge his spirit bones."
"That night, the old king and the uncle who had watched him grow up since childhood both died for his sake, and he became sovereign over two lives lost. By the time he had buried his father and uncle and rushed back to the mountains, his wife had already died in a difficult labor, and the infant, his vitality gravely wounded, hung on the edge of death. To save his son, the young father had no choice but to seal the newborn's six senses with his own hands and let him fall into a deep sleep."
"With the old king dead, the solitary city had no protector left, and he had no choice but to become its new king. Later, to repay his debt of gratitude, he married his uncle's daughter and became a father again. Some years after that, his sleeping son woke, and he was overjoyed, but he could not bring himself to tell the whole truth to the queen who loved him so deeply and whose temperament was so fierce and unyielding. So he hid his son's true origins and let him return to the palace under another identity."
"That child was Hua Yong."
Hua Hong's hand, still resting on the headstone, went still.
Before his death, the Yi King had sent a wisp of spirit light into Hua Hong's spiritual platform, and within it lay hidden a lifetime the Yi King had never told anyone.
Bai Shuo looked at Hua Hong's solitary figure and lowered her eyes, at a loss for what to say.
If Consort Mei had known the Yi King was not cold and heartless after all, perhaps she would not have died of grief. If Wuzhao had known there was a reason for everything, perhaps he would not have betrayed his people. But there were too many things in this world beyond anyone's control, too many things no one could ever speak of.
Rong Xian back then, the Yi King now: the same man, then and now, had carried that weight alone.
"You're not about to cry, are you?" A large face suddenly loomed in front of Bai Shuo, startling her so badly she nearly walked straight into the crooked tree beside her.
Hua Hong reached out and hooked the red-eyed little half-immortal back by the collar.
"I was not." Bai Shuo looked away.
"It's all old business from a hundred years ago. Who knows how many times the stars and moon have turned since then. Dust returns to dust now, and whatever grudges or love there was, none of it has anything to do with me anymore." Hua Hong said, then suddenly leaned in close to Bai Shuo. "Honestly, the fact that you weren't slapped dead is a rare thing indeed. Do you think there's something wrong with his head?"
Bai Shuo's face darkened, and her eyes went wide.
You're the one with something wrong with your head. My Mumu is plenty smart!
Bai Shuo didn't say a word of it out loud, but Hua Hong seemed to understand her perfectly. She shrugged and stepped back. "Well then, the story's told, and I should be on my way. Little half-immortal, until we never meet again."
Hua Hong hoisted the blacksmith's iron rod over her shoulder and waved at Bai Shuo.
"Wait!" Bai Shuo suddenly called out.
Hua Hong's steps stopped, and she glanced sideways at Bai Shuo.
"What?"
But Bai Shuo fell silent.
She had so many, many things she wanted to ask, but when it came down to it, not a single one would leave her lips.
Hadn't A Zhao left her any word at all?
Had the fire in the hearts of the fox and the Kunlun Sword Cultivator been put out?
If they met again, would Hua Hong be the blacksmith next door, or the Sky Fire Demon Lord of Haoyue Hall?
And... her little disciple... was he still there?
Just days ago there had been a bustling crowd around her. Now she woke from her dream to find herself utterly alone.
But she was only a half-immortal. Who would remember her?
Hua Hong looked at the little half-immortal, dazed and seemingly on the verge of tears, and turned her head away.
No matter how clever she was, she was still just a half-immortal child after all. Hua Hong shook her head and took a step forward.
"Why do you keep chickens next door to my house?"
Hua Hong's foot was halfway through the step when the little half-immortal's indignant voice rang out behind her.
The fiend rumored to slay across ten thousand miles with a single blow of her rod nearly stumbled, then suddenly burst out laughing.
She shrugged and looked back over her shoulder, eyes twinkling.
"How does that saying of yours mortals go again? When there's work to be done, it falls to the junior to do it. Can't be helped, the old ancestor likes to eat. Until we meet again, little half-immortal!"
Hua Hong let out a long laugh, shot up into the sky, and vanished from Bai Shuo's sight.
Bai Shuo gazed up at the sky, and only after that figure shrank to a speck among the stars did she lower her head, dejected.
She turned, and froze slightly. Not far away, behind a tree, stood a young man.
He wore a crown atop plain cloth robes, his features gentle and pure.
He gave Bai Shuo a gentle nod, then turned and walked slowly away alone, his figure carrying its own trace of loneliness.
Half a day later, Bai Shuo, carrying on her back the wine Auntie Xiaoqiugua had given her and leaning on a small wooden stick, set off south along the road.