The curved dagger emitted a faint green light, interrupting Li Ying’s thoughts.

Li Ying was startled. A curved dagger with a golden sheath? Was it Ashina Jia? Had Ashina Jia come to find her?

Did she already know that something had happened to Cui Xun?

Li Ying lit a red spider lily and summoned Ashina Jia’s form from the curved dagger. Sure enough, Ashina Jia’s first words were: “Has something happened to him?”

Li Ying couldn’t help asking: “How did you know?”

“A feeling,” Ashina Jia said. “I’ve been feeling extremely anxious these past few days.”

Just like during his five escape attempts in the Turkish territories, each time, she would go to the Earth God at Boden Ningli to pray that he might escape safely. She told the Earth God that as long as he could escape, she was willing to sacrifice everything—her eyes, her life, her flesh and blood—the Earth God could take it all, as long as Cui Xun remained safe and sound.

But after each prayer, her heart would become increasingly anxious, so anxious that eventually she would hear news that he had been captured again. And this time, she felt that same overwhelming panic in her heart. She anxiously asked Li Ying: “What exactly happened to him?”

Li Ying was surprised by her deep feelings for Cui Xun. She nodded silently: “Yes, something has happened to him.”

Amid Ashina Jia’s unease, Li Ying calmly recounted how Cui Xun had been framed for killing his former general. Ashina Jia angrily said, “How could he have killed Guo Qinwei? At that time, when Sister Wuduo told him that Guo Qinwei’s head had been cut off and paraded through the army, tears streamed from his eyes, and he couldn’t stop crying. You must understand, no matter how Sister Wuduo tortured him, he never shed a tear. So how could he possibly have killed Guo Qinwei?”

“I also believe he didn’t kill General Guo, but others don’t believe him,” Li Ying paused, then asked Ashina Jia: “Princess Ashina Jia, do you know where General Guo’s skull is?”

Ashina Jia said, “Sister Wuduo once wanted to use Guo Qinwei’s skull to force his submission. She said if he wasn’t willing to be her ‘lotus slave,’ she would chop his former general’s skull to pieces before his eyes and feed it to the dogs.”

Li Ying hadn’t expected that Ashina Wuduo, to force Cui Xun’s submission, could break through even more moral boundaries. She felt a nauseating wave of disgust in her stomach. Gritting her teeth, she asked: “And then?”

“Cui Xun didn’t agree, because he knew that if he submitted because of this, there would be the remains of fifty thousand Tianwei Army soldiers waiting to pressure him further. He couldn’t give in to Sister Wuduo’s coercion. Sister Wuduo was very angry. She was truly prepared to do as she had threatened, but Uncle Nidu stopped her. Uncle Nidu said that Guo Qinwei was a banner of the Great Zhou, and if they excessively desecrated his remains, it would provoke the fury of the Zhou people. So after Guo Qinwei’s head was shown throughout the three armies, Uncle Nidu placed it in the royal court’s stone pagoda. However, I heard that within a year, the skull mysteriously disappeared from the stone pagoda.”

“Then where is it?”

Ashina Jia shook her head: “I don’t know.”

Li Ying was somewhat disappointed: “If we could find General Guo’s skull, Cui Xun would certainly be able to turn defeat into victory this time.”

Ashina Jia thought for a moment, then said: “Perhaps there is someone who might know where Guo Qinwei’s skull is.”

“Who?”

“Guo Qinwei himself.”

In Yu Fuwei’s mansion, when Li Ying conveyed Ashina Jia’s suggestion to Yu Fuwei, he couldn’t help but glance at Ashina Jia sitting quietly to the side. The young woman before him was pale, with delicate features, not at all resembling the cruel Turks. So she had died because of Cui Xun, and her obsession remained undiminished for three years after her death? For a moment, Yu Fuwei didn’t know whether he should be moved by her deep love or sigh at her tragic fate.

Ashina Jia first asked: “Mr. Yu, is my proposal feasible?”

Yu Fuwei didn’t answer directly, but instead asked Ashina Jia a question: “Did Cui Xun truly never surrender to the Turks?”

“Never,” Ashina Jia stated firmly.

Yu Fuwei nodded: “Very well, then I haven’t erred in helping Cui Xun this time.”

What he had hated most about Cui Xun was his supposed surrender to a foreign race. Now, learning that he hadn’t surrendered, Yu Fuwei’s view of Cui Xun improved considerably. He began to answer Ashina Jia’s question: “After death, the body and soul separate. If the body cannot rest in peace, neither can the soul. If we could find Guo Qinwei’s soul, perhaps we could learn the whereabouts of his body.”

Li Ying said, “Hasn’t General Guo’s soul already been taken to the underworld by the soul-collecting envoys?”

Yu Fuwei nodded: “Guo Qinwei committed suicide. His soul should have been taken to the Ghost Judgment Hall in the underworld, guarded by King Qinguang. Although the Ghost Judgment Hall is heavily guarded, it’s much better than the City of Wrongful Deaths. However, the path to the underworld has always been one of no return, so finding Guo Qinwei’s soul won’t be easy.”

Li Ying recalled that the last time she went to the underworld, she had only been able to return because of the Buddha’s bone relic. The path to the underworld truly was one of no return. She said, “Mr. Yu, in this world, besides the Buddha’s bone relic, is there anything else that can illuminate the path between life and death?”

Yu Fuwei immediately saw what she was thinking: “You want to go?”

He shook his head: “You can’t go. This isn’t just about the path between life and death. The Ghost Judgment Hall is in the center of the Dark Spring. You know about the Dark Spring, right? Heaven has nine layers, Earth has nine springs, and the netherworld has ten halls of the Kings of Hell. King Qinguang is the King of Hell of the Ghost Judgment Hall. His hall is located at the Dark Spring. The waters of the Dark Spring are the most yin and evil things. Without the guidance of a ghost officer, ordinary ghosts simply cannot cross the Dark Spring.”

If Li Ying went to the underworld, it would be fortunate enough if she weren’t captured by ghost officers. How could they possibly escort her across the Dark Spring?

Therefore, this plan was utterly impractical.

Before Li Ying could speak, Ashina Jia, who had been listening quietly, softly asked: “If a ghost cannot cross the Dark Spring, what about an obsession that is neither human nor ghost?”

Yu Fuwei was momentarily stunned. Though he was a ghost merchant with vast knowledge and experience, this question stumped even him. He said: “That, I don’t know.”

For there had never been an obsession that was neither human nor ghost that had crossed the Dark Spring.

“Let me try,” Ashina Jia said. “Perhaps I can cross the Dark Spring and enter the Ghost Judgment Hall.”

Yu Fuwei couldn’t bear it. He deeply sympathized with the Turkish princess’s plight. He said, “Princess Ashina Jia, even if you could cross the Dark Spring and enter the Ghost Judgment Hall, just making that journey through the Dark Spring would likely cause your thread of obsession to dissipate entirely. You wouldn’t be able to make it out of the underworld.”

Ashina Jia seemed to be momentarily startled. Then, as if remembering something, she glanced at Li Ying and said: “Then what if a thread of Princess Yong’an’s consciousness enters my memory? Whatever I experience in the underworld, Princess Yong’an’s soul in the mortal world would also know, right?”

Yu Fuwei thought for a moment: “That should be possible.”

Ashina Jia said, “Then why hesitate? Let me go.”

She was naturally timid, typically lacking courage in her actions, and prone to excessive caution. Now, she was volunteering to face death with incredible decisiveness and calmness. Li Ying couldn’t help feeling pity: “Ashina…”

Before she could finish, Ashina Jia interrupted her: “Princess Yong’an, I know what you want to say. You surely want to say that there must be other ways, that I don’t need to sacrifice myself like this. But even if there are other ways, Cui Xun doesn’t have time. This is the fastest method, isn’t it?”

“But you don’t need to do this,” Li Ying said. “If you’re doing this to atone for that flogging, perhaps he doesn’t blame you as much as you imagine. He has too many things on his mind; he probably doesn’t have the leisure to blame you.”

“It’s not about atonement,” Ashina Jia said. “I was a coward for over a decade. When I finally mustered the courage to be brave, I was killed by Sister Wuduo. Now, having spent so long in the curved dagger, I seem to have reverted to that timid Ashina Jia, coming to Chang’an but never daring to see him… What’s the difference between such a me, living or dead? I don’t want to continue like this. I want to be brave a second time.”

So, she wasn’t just saving Cui Xun; she was also saving herself.

Under Ashina Jia’s insistence, Li Ying and Yu Fuwei finally agreed. Ashina Jia’s mood lightened considerably. She took the initiative to ask Li Ying: “Princess Yong’an, could you take me to see Cui Xun?”

Li Ying nodded silently. Ashina Jia added, “I also want to make him a bowl of mutton soup.”

That bowl of mutton soup from that day might have been a small comfort in Cui Xun’s dark life, but it was overturned by Ashina Wuduo’s whip. This had always been something Ashina Jia couldn’t forget. Therefore, before facing her demise, she wanted to make him a bowl of mutton soup to make up for that regret.

The mutton soup was prepared at Li Ying’s new residence. The new residence had only paper maids coming and going, so the kitchen was completely quiet, with only the bubbling sound of the mutton soup in the earthenware pot.

Ashina Jia held a palm-leaf fan, quietly fanning the fire. Li Ying accompanied her, though her face still showed reluctance.

Suddenly, Ashina Jia said, “Princess Yong’an, do you still feel sorry for me?”

Li Ying smiled bitterly: “I’m just thinking that if he hadn’t appeared, you might not have lost your life twice.”

Ashina Jia said, “If he hadn’t appeared, I would probably have been married off by my father to some Turkish nobleman and given birth to two or three children by now. But what meaning would there be in living that way, safely but without purpose? I would have been merely a tool my entire life. Instead, I’m grateful for his appearance, which allowed me to be myself for once.”

Li Ying pondered her words carefully. From the moment of her birth, Ashina Jia’s life had been a tool for her father’s political marriages. She had probably never been able to follow her heart. That’s why she had envied Ashina Wuduo. But in fact, the blood of the Ashina family also flowed through her veins. In her heart, there was also a fire, only this fire had been suppressed by long-standing authority. It wasn’t until she met that unyielding Han prisoner that the fire was rekindled.

She was Ashina Jia. She wanted to be like the free wind on the grasslands. She wanted to live once according to her own heart.

Ashina Jia lifted the earthenware lid, and the rich aroma of mutton soup wafted out. The milky-white broth simmered in the pot, its color reminiscent of the bowl of mutton soup that had been overturned on that snowy night. Ashina Jia’s eyes showed complex emotions. She murmured: “The mutton soup is ready.”