“How lovely. It doesn’t seem to be any different than a revitalized city,” Wu Fulin muttered, walking down the crowded street. Shops and stalls were being reopened like normal. He and his disciples had arrived at Xiatong City, though they weren’t expecting the city to have moved on from the attack so easily.
“Shizun, perhaps the Ghost has already been taken care of…?” Li Touliang suggested, scratching his head the more he thought about it.
Wu Fulin suddenly sensed something, not within the crowd, but above them. As he took a step forward, getting ready to take a huge leap into the air, he got pushed aside by a strange figure. “It” shoved everyone out of its way while running straight down the street as if it was being chased…
Or rather… chasing something?
Without saying anything to his head disciple beside him, he charged after the suspicious stranger, leaving Li Touliang stammering in confusion. Li Touliang slowly turned around to face four of his juniors, five pairs of eyes blinking at each other as if they didn’t want to break the silence.
“…” Li Touliang eyed the little girl with a low-buns hairdo. “Mei-shimei…”
“...” The little girl, Mei Xie, eyed back, sassily twisting her eyebrows as if to say he’s in charge.
“What are you staring at? Look for another master near here and contact our sect!” Li Touliang yelled. “But especially you,” he pointed at the low-buns girl, “do not follow me.” And then he stormed off to find his Shizun.
They couldn’t possibly want to keep running, right? We’re already out of the city’s perimeter! Wu Fulin thought. At this point, the stranger had already climbed up onto the trees and began engaging in mid-air combat with another figure. One thing Wu Fulin could sense was that one of them barely used any spiritual power and the other was abundant with ghostly Qi. In fact, one of them couldn’t even be considered a human.
Without giving it another thought, he joined the fight. Together with the stranger who was beginning to run out of breath, Wu Fulin helped him trade a few blows using only the hilt of his sword. But was caught off guard when the stranger fell over onto him, gripping onto his own chest in pain.
“Are you injured?” Wu Fulin asked out of concern, only to be taken aback by the big gashes on the stranger’s chest. Though there was a strange warmth in Wu Fulin’s gaze, as if he recognized this somebody.
“Don’t let him get away…” The stranger, Qi Wenxin, started to gasp for air as his wounds got worse. He could feel how his ribs ached so badly, as if his bones and flesh were beginning to decay away.
Unexpectedly, he was dragged away instead, as the malicious figure escaped the scene.
“What are you doing?!” Shocked by how the tables had turned, Qi Wenxin got so upset he almost spat out blood. He had been chasing that ghost all day. Staring at Wu Fulin with his eyes full of rage, he gritted his teeth in pain. Words began to form from his pale shivering lips. “Are you his accomplice?”
Without saying a word, Wu Fulin pulled Qi Wenxin into an embrace, one hand forming a seal behind him. Qi Wenxin tried to put up a fight. Although his physique was bigger than that of Wu Fulin, somehow, when Wu Fulin’s arms were around his waist, he couldn’t move. Rather, he felt suffocated.
One of Wu Fulin’s three Holy Realms, this realm in particular was named Fuhou, Lake of Revitalization. The water glowed an iridescent shining teal shade, with golden lotus that shone like crystals gracing the foggy surface. The sky of the realm was pure white, making the blue wisteria forest that surrounded the lake seemed strangely ethereal and elegant—and, somehow, lonely.
With his body slightly leaning against Qi Wenxin, they both started to free fall into the realm. Qi Wenxin could only stare at Wu Fulin in shock, fully convinced he was the ghost’s accomplice.
The blue wisteria stood out to Qi Wenxin the most, as he could see how the wisteria forest forever went on and covered the horizon of the endless Holy Realm. He couldn’t help but wonder what it meant to have this many blue wisterias in a place like this. Qi Wenxin felt an inexplicable calm as he and Wu Fulin crashed into the lake.
Qi Wenxin thought he would drown, with his limbs unable to move freely still. But the moment he could breathe and see again, the first thing he saw was the face of a striking man, with his wet disheveled hair swept back neatly. His eyelashes were long, water droplets dripping down like morning dew from a flowery branch. This man, who had pulled him into another dimension, was so alluring that Qi Wenxin himself couldn’t pull his gaze away at first. Everything about him, so far, seemed so unnatural, yet mesmerizing. There was no way this man was any ordinary mortal that he happened to cross paths with. His first deep breath made the pain from his chest depart the moment he inhaled such a sweet floral scent, assumedly coming from the other man, Wu Fulin. And then slowly, his wounds began to close up.
Suddenly that nagging feeling was back, pulling at his stomach and causing his head to spin. He swore the lake water suddenly got so icy that his skin got pricked with goosebumps. The air suddenly got so oppressive with unearthly silence. He couldn’t understand how this stranger had held his heart that easily. On top of that, this was a man.
“The heart burns to ashes as the soul touches the flames of kindled passion,” Wu Fulin spoke. “May I ask for your name, esteemed Wanderer of the Dao of Heaven?”
Qi Wenxin did not speak, stunned by the miracle that was happening on his chest. That same miracle made his frozen heart melt, thumping louder than ever before.
“If you continue to chase that ghost under such conditions, the decay will get worse, and the effects of it will become irreversible. I hope you understand why I must help you first.” Wu Fulin loosened his grip, slowly giving himself some space so their bodies wouldn’t be awkwardly touching.
“Just call me Qi Wenxin.” The wanderer pried his eyes away from that seemingly perfect individual who wouldn’t let go of him, hiding his flustered face.
“Please call me Wu Fulin as well. No need for any formality.” When Wu Fulin released Qi Wenxin, he thrashed around in the water and then turned his back on Wu Fulin. Seeing the “esteemed wanderer” turning a cold shoulder on him so suddenly, he felt urged to say something before the air got awkward again. But then Qi Wenxin spoke.
“I need to get out of here. I don’t care if you come or not.” His voice was stern and harsh, making Wu Fulin even more worried.
Qi Wenxin did not hear a response, only wet rustling noises. He immediately turned around, hand touching the hilt of his sword in case of a sneak attack. Yet the only attack here was the view of the little pink fruit buds hiding themselves behind a thin veil of translucent wet inner robe. Qi Wenxin violently thrashed around again, hurriedly getting out of the lake with his face flushed.
“Why did you take off your robes?!” Qi Wenxin yelled, feeling a throbbing sensation in his stomach. Whatever else he was experiencing in his body made him feel way beyond irredeemable.
“It’s hard to get out of the lake with this many layers of clothing, I could feel myself sinking,” Wu Fulin did not read the room, thinking Qi Wenxin was just throwing another tantrum. “When we were falling, I was going to land above the water and let you soak in the lake until you felt better. But with how much you were trying to run away, I had to keep my arms around you until you calmed down.”
Speechless, Qi Wenxin remained silent, hiding his flushed face away in shame as Wu Fulin unintentionally tested his morals.
“Why were you chasing the ghost? Distant relative? Revenge? Money?” Wu Fulin asked, leaning on the edge of the shore with his lower body still submerged in the water.
“Money,” Qi Wenxin replied, bitterly biting his lower lip.
“So you do have a reason to fight evil, not some selfless hero.” This statement hit Qi Wenxin in the gut, making him look at his own chest, somewhere beyond that layer of freshly healed flesh, where his core would be.
“We're on the same page now, I suppose.” Qi Wenxin uttered, his voice hoarse as he held back, seemingly hiding something. Or perhaps, many things.
