Millions of lights illuminated the night vista. From where he stood, Ge hua had a magnificent view of the city. He could even make out the distant sound of impatient car horns caught in the monstrous traffic jams that the city was known for. Tonight however, Ge hua wasn't concerned about workers hurrying home from work. He had come here to think things through for the last time. His wedding day was fast approaching and he a decsion to make. He could either go ahead and marry according to his parents' wishes or cancel everything. 

He thought of Shi ling. She wasn't a bad choice for him; she came from a well to do family and possessed beauty and drive. His parents adored their future daughter-in-law, but the heavens often makes jokes of men. Just last month, he'd  met someone else. They'd immediately hit it off. He'd returned from their first date convinced that she was made for him. Hong mei was straight forward and sincere about her feelings. He felt the same way, but he was about to get married

'I just need a sign! Anything! Do I choose my own happiness and break my parents' hearts?'

The sky was indifferent to the conflict tearing him apart from the inside.

'Do I remain an obedient son and live in suffering?'

He asked again, hoping for an answer from the impassive sky.  

'Do i stay with shi ling or go with hong mei?'

What should i do? Who do i choose?'

Shi ling or-'

At this moment, a light flashed in the night sky. Ge hua followed the trail of light with stupefaction.

'Shi ling? Is that your answer? But i don't love her.'

He cried out. He'd asked and got his answer. Although, he hated it, the decision had been made. He was marrying shi ling. 

Miles away, where the trail of light ended, chen yu han steadied himself. Even after all these years of crossing realms, he still fell prey now and again to spatial disorientation. He took a few deep breaths and focused on the ground under his feet as the feeling passed. Once he was certain he could move without accidentally falling over, he located the nearest signboard. 

Spatial displacement wasn't an exact science. It was more along the lines of a gut feeling that got better with experience. The borders separating realms were always shifting. The void expanded and retracted according to some incalculable standard. 

'T-city. I didn't get lost this time.' 

He'd been to this city on the jixing world that its inhabitants called earth once upon a time. The interval between the first visit and now, he guessed, was several decades. He couldn't tell precisely how many years had passed. Time was another amorphous concept that couldn't be calculated when moving between worlds. 

All those years ago, he had left a small package with a stranger in case he needed to return one day. He wasn't supposed to be here, but what's the use of cultivating spatial displacement if one couldn't break a few rules? 

'What the patriarch doesn't know won't hurt him.'

He had been travelling in the Glacier spire world when he'd been struck by curiosity, during a moment of rest. It had led him back to this world. This was small forgotten place at the corner of the universe, but here he was. 

He wondered what had become of the package- no older than three months, that he had been entrusted with. The clan hadn't cared if it lived or died as long as it did so far away from the clan… outside their world. 

Was it a boy or a girl?

 He couldn't remember. He hadn't cared. It hadn't mattered then. But now? His conscience had brought him back. 

Was the child alive or dead? 

He'd come to ask his questions; maybe watch them from a distance and then be on his way. 

The mark he'd left behind was still there and he was able to locate the house without trouble. He stood before the empty crumbled house. 

Was this the same house? Yes, it was. He wasn't mistaken. He'd left his mark those years ago. What had happened during the intervening years was a mystery to him.

'Fortunately, I am a man of contingencies.'

He stretched out his senses. Locating his other mark on the talisman wasn't difficult to do in a world with a total of only two of his marks.

'A different city?'

 

He wondered aloud and flashed away toward his new objective. Houses and streets blended into nothing until he arrived at the destination.

He was more surprised than he let on when he saw the gated mansion. There was something very wrong with the picture. 

Normally, he would have waited until morning to enter and announce himself, but the situation had just taken an urgent turn. He warped inside the house dropping all pretense of civility. If he was right, the protective talisman wasn't working as intended. Not caring for the mansion's occupants, he went from room to room looking for the father of the family. He was the one person who could answer his questions. The search proved fruitless, so he headed over to the master bedroom and found the next best person. 

Fang ruo was having a pleasant dream when he felt a presence in his room. He'd always been a light sleeper so he was awake and alert although his eyes remained closed. 

'I know you are awake. There's no use pretending with me.'

Fang ruo sighed and gave up the game. He opened his eyes.

'I'll give you whatever you ask for, just don't hurt my family.'

'Is that so? I look forward to hearing your answers then.'

Emperor chen replied. 

Fear grasped Fang ruo's heart and paralysed him when he finally looked upon the face of the man who remained a black mark on his mind.

Emperor chen felt the wave of recognition in the man's eyes.

'I am glad that at least somebody recognises me. Since you remember me, you should also know why I am here. Speak!'

Fang ruo stared unblinking at the demon in the shape of a man. He wouldn't bow to him the way his father had done. That's what had caused everything to change.

'Speak now!'

Emperor chen glowered, straightening his body to his full height. He was intimidating.

'I believe that my family has paid the price so that I no longer have to answer to you.'

'You know I can tear you apart where you stand, right?'

'Do- do it and the secret dies with me!'

Emperor chen met the man's hostile gaze again. If he had been a devilish cultivator, he would have been laughing by now. What a lucky mortal!

'You don't fear me?'

'I am, but I also understand supply and demand. You want something from me.'

Fang ruo replied.

This mortal man was infuriating. Emperor chen wanted to break just one of the man's limbs to show him who held power. Just a leg or an arm. It would be so easy to break him. Too easy. 

'I'll consider your impudence to be a sign ignorance. But is this any way to speak to your benefactor? After all, your current situation is due to the thing I left behind.'

'As if i didn't know that.'

His eyes mirrored years of repressed resentment. It had finally found the culprit. 

Emperor chen scoffed, his gaze hardened. He felt no pity for the man in front of him. Although he wasn't the man who'd accepted the child in exchange for money, he was reaping the benefits of the deal no matter how much he showed his hatred.

'Where is the child?' 

'Oh her?

So it was a girl after all. 

'My father gave her away.'

'What!'

He exclaimed wishing the man he'd given the child to, was in front of him. He would give him a slow death.

'You should have chosen a more trustworthy person instead of my father.'

Fang ruo sneered as he spoke of his father.

'The minute the money was gone, so was she.'

Emperor chen was not a man quick to anger, but in that moment he knew that he wanted someone to pay. Fang ruo's voice cut through his bloody reverie.

'You shouldn't blame him. You are no better than him. You sold a child to a petty criminal and you're surprised with the result?'

'You will do well to remember who you speak with! My patience wanes!'

Not wishing to test the limits of his visitor's tolerance, Fang ruo held his tongue. 

He'd been young at the time, but he remembered the couple who had taken the little girl. He hadn't kept tabs on them over the years but he knew their family house was still in T city.

'The Bai family still lives on hao street in T city. The couple who took her belong to that family. Now that I have told you where she is, leave my house… and take that demonic thing with you.'

'I would have taken it even if you hadn't asked. The talisman was the child's, never your family's. You've reaped great benefits under the talisman's protection without working for it and made its rightful owner to live without it. Once i take it away, balance will be restored. Your family will fall.'

'I'm prepared for it.'

'For now maybe, but as the years go by, you'll realise how inadequate your plans are.'

Emperor chen turned to leave, but had one fi al question. 

'Before I leave, the child, what was she named?'

'She didn't have one. My father didn't feel the need to name a child who wasn't his.'

Emperor chen said no more. He couldn't stand being in the mansion any longer. When he left, in a locked safe somewhere in the house, the talisman was also gone.   

…

Her name is Bai li yue.

…

Three days later, Emperor chen stood in what used to be a living room. Dust formed a thick layer over everything. His investigations had led him here: back to T city to the Bai family house and finally to an abandoned house. It was still in the same state it had been in when Bai li yue disappeared. He'd already heard the story of her life. It was excatly as he'd expected: one riddled with death and misery.

Nobody knew what had happened to her either. It'd been months before a neighbour had noticed her absence. The police hadn't seen any sign of criminal activity. 

Was she alive somewhere? If she was, he wanted to know. It was the least he could do. 

He pulled out a sealed glass vial. The two drops of heart blood he'd extracted from the baby finally had a use. A soul lamp appeared in his hand. If she was alive anywhere in the world, the lamp should resonate with her blood and locate her. He dropped the blood into the lamp and waited for it to react. 

At dusk, Emperor Chen sighed in defeat. The lamp had shown no reaction. He finally accepted that the lamp wouldn't react. 

'What a cruel fate.'

He felt sorrow for the girl he hadn't known. Most of all for the parents who wouldn't know of the passing of their child. He wouldn't be the one to tell them the heartbreaking news and destroy everything they had worked for. Their future was in front of them. 

They had mourned her passing at her birth and were only now recovering from the loss. They didn't need to relive the loss again.

He went around the house hoping to get a glimpse of what her life had been like. A painting of a child playing by the riverside caught his eye. He'd heard that she was an artist. The painting was a pleasant piece.  

Even though she was gone, her parents should have something she had owned… touched. The painting was innocuous enough that he won't have to tell them who it belonged to. He wouldn't tell them even if they asked.