“Boom, boom, boom —”

The war drums thundered. Between the river valley’s towering walls, their reverberations were low and long-drawn — in an instant the ears were full of nothing but rolling, muffled thunder, shaking the chest and cutting off breath.

Amid the drumbeat, every soldier on both banks drew back his bow, raised his blade, and leveled his spear. Linghu Demao raised one hand; the drums ceased abruptly, and in a flash the world was still.

“Demon Wolf!”

Linghu Demao called out loudly. “These years you have plagued Dunhuang and slaughtered our soldiers and citizens without number. Now your great doom is at hand — will you not submit to justice!”

Lv Sheng straightened his robe and swept a glance across both banks, his demeanor composed and unhurried: “Linghu Demao — to this day you still dare not acknowledge that I am Lv Sheng? Soldiers of Dunhuang, men of the homeland — hear me! I am Lv Sheng! The double top scholar of the Great Tang — first in the cultivated talent and advanced scholar examinations — Recording Officer of the Western Sandy Prefectures — Lv Sheng!”

The soldiers’ discipline held; they stood silent and unmoving. But those watching from the lower walkways and the river valley could not suppress their cries of astonishment. Lv Sheng was a man of Dunhuang — the Great Tang’s double top scholar and the pride of the Western Sandy Prefectures — who afterward was said to have betrayed the state and been executed, leaving his name in infamy. Though no one had dared speak of it in public, people had long felt deep shame and bitter resentment. Who could have imagined that Lv Sheng, killed in the army years ago, would appear alive once more!

“Ha ha ha ha —!”

Linghu Demao laughed loudly. “Kui Mu Lang, you are nothing but a demon creature who has borrowed a dead man’s body to live in this world — and you dare call yourself Lv Sheng? What if you were the real Lv Sheng? A treasonous rebel, who was killed in the army all those years ago without proper criminal punishment — it was too easy a death you got! Today I stand in the name of the court, in the name of the Western Sandy Prefectures, to execute the traitor and slay the demon wolf, and to give justice to all who died!”

Lv Sheng laughed coldly: “On behalf of the court? You! When you schemed to destroy me back then, you had no scruple about colluding with the Turks to invade, massacring the Qingdun Garrison to the last man. Between the two of us, who is the real traitor?”

“Preposterous slander!”

Linghu Demao erupted in fury and shouted: “All troops, hear me —”

“All troops, hear me —”

Linghu Zhan beside him hastily cut off his father’s words. “This official acts under orders from Prefect Wang to capture and execute the demon wolf — seize him!”

Linghu Demao was taken aback for a moment. Seeing that Ma Hongda beside him only gave a faint smile, he suddenly realized that he himself had no right to command the troops — giving the order in his own name would be improperly constituted, and in the eyes of those who cared, it would be grounds for accusation.

“Zhan’er,”

Linghu Demao said quietly. “Alive — take him alive!”

Linghu Zhan nodded, waved a command flag, and the armored soldiers at both ends of the arch bridge advanced slowly. In the front were three ranks of shield-bearers, raising their shields to form an impenetrable wall; behind them three ranks of spearmen, their spears — each a full zhang in length — resting on the top edge of the shields as the formation advanced; and behind those, three ranks of archers.

The dense formation clogged the entire arch bridge, moving like a mobile iron rampart. Linghu Zhan waved the command flag again, and two more formations followed behind. Six infantry formations on both sides of the arch bridge thundered forward, pressing in from both ends toward the center.

Xuanzang let out a quiet sigh: “Since Ma Hongda is here, it seems Wang Junke ultimately chose the gentry clans after all — and sold out Kui Mu Lang.”

“Indeed!”

Lv Sheng acknowledged it calmly. “Wang Junke is a man of shifting allegiances. Since Kui Mu Lang has already sent envoys to the Turks and the Tuyuhun, he has lost his usefulness as a bargaining chip — choosing the gentry clans is only natural.”

“Is there any way to break through the encirclement?”

Li Chunfeng asked.

Lv Sheng shook his head: “This is a killing trap. Surrounded on a bridge bridge dozens of zhang in the air by five or six hundred armored infantry, with archers packed on the walkways on both banks — I am only an ordinary man. How could I endure the massed thrust of spears?”

“Is it possible to awaken Kui Mu Lang?”

Xuanzang asked. “With his divine abilities, escaping should not be beyond him.”

“Master,”

Lv Sheng said with a smile. “For three years Kui Mu Lang has occupied my body. The reason my soul has not been extinguished is that I have never yielded. Whenever the opportunity arises, I will seize control of this body and stand upright before the world. I have only twenty days of life left. I said my farewells to Wen before coming here. To fight this fierce battle as the final act of my life — I am content.”

Xuanzang and Li Chunfeng were thunderstruck: “Only twenty days? Why?”

Lv Sheng said mildly: “My soul is fractured. Every time Kui Mu Lang uses his divine powers, it consumes my own vital essence. Three years of barely clinging on is already the limit — how could I live longer?”

“Brother Lv,”

Xuanzang looked at Lv Sheng with bitterness. “What this humble monk pursues is the great way of nirvana — but you are different. If you die, everything becomes ashes. Your memories have not been recovered; your grievances have not been redressed; the dreams you held at the Great Xingshan Temple can never be realized! Brother Lv — Doctor Li has studied the medical arts of the great physician Sun Simiao and the Daoist arts of Master Yuan Tiangang — he must be able to help you find a way. This humble monk begs you — do not give up!”

Lv Sheng’s eyes filled with deep gratitude. He gripped Xuanzang’s arms — his right hand pricked immediately, as though by needles, but he did not flinch. “Master, in this life I am honored to have made your acquaintance. When I was young I burned with ambition, but all that I have lived through has taught me how short and fragile a life can be. Throughout all of history, how many heroes and great men have fallen before their ambitions were fulfilled? I am not the first, and I will not be the last. When I am gone, you will continue forward — and that is enough. Because I will know that among all of us, there will always be someone who walks toward magnificent fulfillment. Life has not deceived me; it has not been a dream. I simply take my leave early.”

Xuanzang was about to speak again, but Lv Sheng smiled and gave him a gentle push: “Go now, Master. Linghu Demao does not dare kill you before so many witnesses. Doctor Li — I entrust it to you.”

Li Chunfeng bowed silently to Lv Sheng, then took Xuanzang by the arm and walked toward the seven-tiered pagoda.

Xuanzang looked up at the sky with a long sigh, then turned back and pressed his palms together in a deep bow toward Lv Sheng. Lv Sheng also clasped his hands and bowed deeply in return. The two lifted their heads and met each other’s gaze — each look spoke volumes of parting sorrow.

Lv Sheng shouted: “Form ranks! Today we will shake the heavens and the earth!”

Kui Yi, Kui San, Kui Wu, Kui Liu and the other six star generals split into two groups, each leading ten squads of wolf soldiers to guard the north and south flanks, their heavy swords held horizontal across their chests. Only twenty-six in all — yet a fierce and boundless momentum radiated from them, tragic and magnificent.

Xuanzang and Li Chunfeng reached the line of infantry. The soldiers, on a signal from Linghu Zhan, opened a passage to let the two through — then closed ranks again and continued their slow advance.

The two sides quickly drew near. The soldiers silent as a mountain; at the moment of contact, the only sound was a single word from each squad leader: “Roar —!”

The shield-bearers — a squad of ten men per rank, three ranks totaling thirty — all simultaneously slammed their great shields onto the bridge surface, simultaneously dropped to a crouch, pressed shoulders hard against their shields, forming a wall of iron. The thirty spearmen, on the squad leaders’ roared signal, gripped their spear shafts with both hands at the rear, put their waist and hips into it, and thrust obliquely upward. Thirty spears, each a zhang in length, bristled out densely from the top of the shield wall — and in front of them stood only three star generals!

The star generals, by nature sparse in speech, emitted a low grunting sound from their throats — three twenty-jin heavy swords swept across in a single arc. With a crunching crack, six or seven of the thirty spears were instantly broken, five were knocked out of their bearers’ hands and sent flying, but several also struck the star generals — even gleaming armor could not withstand spears at such close range, and with a crash of breaking metal, the blades drove into their bodies.

“Withdraw!”

The squad leaders shouted together. “Thrust —!”

Another round of thrusts — blades and spear-shafts clashed violently. This time three or five found their mark on the star generals, but of the thirty spears, most were now lost. The star generals no longer gave ground; they stepped forward, and the heavy swords crashed down onto the shield wall with a thunderous boom. The iron-clad wooden shields could not withstand such force — they shattered, the soldiers behind them had both arms broken and went down, and the rear ranks immediately filled the gaps with fresh shields.

The star generals were immensely powerful; they swung their heavy swords with savage force, and in an instant shields shattered, limbs flew, the soldiers who had lost their spears immediately drew their broadswords and formed a new shield-and-blade line, while the ten wolf soldiers also charged forward — the two sides locked in close slaughter. The moment of first contact was brutal and bloody, and the arch bridge instantly became a field of carnage — screams, battle cries, the clash of blade on shield, the moaning of the dying all echoed in long, mournful reverberations through the narrow gorge, shaking the entire Western Grottoes.

Looking up from the Ganquan River, blood poured from the arch bridge like a waterfall — flowing down the railings, down the sides of the bridge, down over the three seated Buddhas carved inside the open-shouldered arches, pooling on the Buddhas’ faces in rivulets of red, then dripping into the river below, like a gentle autumn rain.

The fighting on the bridge grew more ferocious. In this brief span of time, the sixty shield-bearers and spearmen of the first formation had already been destroyed, their casualties devastating. Corpses lay in heaps across the bridge, and the star generals were drenched in blood — Kui Yi’s left arm had been severed, the stump oozing thick black blood. The wolf soldiers were in even worse shape, only three or five left, propping each other up and standing with blades raised.

“Shoot —!”

Linghu Zhan and Zhai Shu simultaneously waved their command flags.

A violent humming suddenly filled the air, and innumerable arrows crossed over the bridge in both directions. Sixty arrows from front and back flashed like lightning — the last surviving wolf soldiers were riddled with arrows and collapsed. The star generals only used their heavy swords to protect their heads and faces; countless arrows struck their gleaming armor and the flat of their blades — in an instant the star generals were bristling with arrows like a field of grass.

Yet what made Linghu Demeng and the others look on in dread was this: after the arrow volley was done, the star generals slowly lowered their heavy swords — and moved forward freely, charging toward the archers!

“Archers, fall back!”

Linghu Zhan shouted. “Second formation — advance!”

On the other side, Zhai Shu also noticed the star generals’ immunity to piercing wounds and urgently ordered the second formation to relieve the archers.

“Brother Zhai!”

Linghu Zhan shouted. “Order the shield bearers into a mass formation — ram them down!”

Three ranks of shield bearers crammed together in tight formation, shouted in unison, and charged the star generals with the shield wall. The star generals swung their heavy swords — with a crack they knocked down the first-layer men, then the two sides crashed together with a thunderous collision.

The shield bearers at the point of contact screamed as they were flung backward; even the two ranks behind could not hold against the tremendous force and were knocked into the air, sent stumbling — the three-rank shield formation was rammed open by a breach. Yet the star generals were also sent tumbling backward.

Linghu Zhan was jubilant: “Spears —!”

The spearmen who had been following the shield bearers immediately rushed up; a dozen spears stabbed in rapid thrusts. At such close range, even the stoutest armor could not withstand the sustained stabbing of so many spears. In an instant the star generals were riddled with wounds; several iron spear-heads even drove straight through skulls and faces — with a sickening wet sound, like piercing a rotten melon — forcing directly into the brain. Kui Yi, Kui Wu, Kui Liu and the others spasmed briefly, then went still.

“The head is the weak point!”

Linghu Zhan said, overjoyed.

The front-line soldiers also grew energized. The shield bearers reformed into tight lines and charged again at the remaining Kui San, Kui Qi, and Kui Twelve. Though the star generals were slow of thought, they were not mechanical — after three or five ramming collisions in quick succession, they steadied themselves and refused to fall. The shield wall pressed in like a mountain; advance by advance it pushed them back. On one such exchange, Kui San was tripped by a corpse and stumbled. The spearmen immediately rushed forward and stabbed at his head and face — a dozen long spears all targeting the skull, Kui San’s head was reduced nearly to a pulp.

At the same time, Kui Liu was also pinned through the body by three spears; three spearmen braced and held him in place while a dozen blade-and-shield fighters swarmed over him and hacked at his head with blades and shields until Kui Liu’s body too crumpled to the ground. And Kui Twelve was rammed by the shield wall into the bridge railing — the railing shattered with a crash, Kui Twelve lost his footing, and he fell from the arch bridge, dropping like a meteor into the river.

At this, all six star generals and twenty wolf soldiers were destroyed, though the troops had also paid a price of over a hundred dead and wounded. The entire arch bridge had been bathed in blood, littered with corpses and severed limbs. Only the area within a zhang of Lv Sheng remained untouched.

The soldiers leveled their spears and raised their shields, surrounding Lv Sheng so completely that not even water could pass.

Lv Sheng’s expression was composed. He held the bridge railing and gazed at the far-flowing surface of the river, murmuring:

The Jingwei bird carries its small twigs, To fill the vast deep blue ocean. Xingtian dances with his axe and shield; His fierce will shall forever remain.

With the same nature, no cause for sorrow, Transformed and gone, no regrets to follow —

Throughout, Xuanzang had stood on the walkway, palms pressed together, silently reciting the Sutra of the Fundamental Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. His right palm was already bleeding from the Heavenly Robe’s pricks, yet he felt no pain — for the great slaughter before his eyes had driven the pain into his very marrow.

In this world of five impurities and evil… I shall teach and convert these stubborn, difficult sentient beings… Some are dull and slow, and only turn to good after long conversion; some have heavy karma and hold no reverence… each of these sentient beings differs — with manifold emanated bodies I deliver and liberate them… appearing in mountain forests, rivers, plains, lakes, springs, and wells, bringing benefit to people, delivering all from suffering…

As the recitation went on, seeing Lv Sheng standing alone, encircled on the bridge, Xuanzang’s throat constricted: “Doctor Li, why is it that I have cultivated to this point, yet cannot deliver a single person?”

“Master, if you could deliver them, why has Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva not yet attained Buddhahood?”

Li Chunfeng said quietly.

“Let us go!”

Xuanzang turned away, unable to bear witnessing the killing of his friend. He entered the seven-tiered pagoda.

At this moment, all eyes were on the bridge watching the slaughter; the seven-tiered pagoda was empty. Xuanzang stood by the railing of the Buddha hall, gazing up at the enormous Buddha head above him, and murmured: “Doctor Li, if I were to return from India, do you know what I would most want to say?”

“What?”

Li Chunfeng asked curiously.

Xuanzang said slowly: “I would want to weep before the Buddha as Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva once did, and say to the Buddha: since immeasurable kalpas past, through the Buddha’s guidance, I have attained inconceivable powers and great wisdom. My emanated forms fill hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of millions of worlds — as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. In each of those worlds, I transform into hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of millions of bodies. In each of those bodies, I deliver hundreds of thousands of millions of beings. I teach them to return in reverence to the Triple Gem, to depart forever from the cycle of birth and death, to attain the joy of eternal life. I would say to the Buddha: please do not grieve over the beings of future worlds whose karma leads to evil.”

“The path the Master walks is a road thick with thorns!”

Li Chunfeng said with a sigh. “This affair here is concluded — Master, you should still depart west through the pass!”

“No!”

Xuanzang shook his head stubbornly. “I made a promise to Lv Sheng — to find his past for him. Until I have seen the truth, I will not go through the pass!”

“So the Master has not yet severed his attachments after all.”

Li Chunfeng smiled.

“Sever attachments…”

Xuanzang seemed momentarily lost in thought. “I suddenly remember the moment I first met Lv Sheng. I had ridden nine hundred li in three days to reach Chang’an, and he said to me a verse from the Buddha’s teachings: ‘To cling to the afflictions that obstruct — it is like rushing to meet the blade’s sharp edge.'”

“How did the Master reply?”

Li Chunfeng asked.

Xuanzang said: “I replied with a verse: ‘This paltry sack of flesh and bone — cast it down and be unencumbered. In the great furnace of raging fire — the bright moon and cool breeze remain.’ On that day and in that moment, I made that choice, and on this day and in this moment, I make the same choice still. As this humble monk sees it, to sever an attachment is not to go around it and flee — it is to break through it and pass. And Dunhuang is this blazing furnace.”

Li Chunfeng’s expression grew solemn, and he gave a deep bow: “Since the Master holds such great resolve, Chunfeng will be with you to the end! How do you plan to proceed?”

“This battle at the Western Grottoes has left me with some questions. Doctor Li — answer me several things.”

Xuanzang gazed at the distant figure of Linghu Demeng beyond the Buddha hall entrance. “First: why did Linghu Demeng choose the Western Grottoes to set his ambush?”

Li Chunfeng considered: “For one thing, the Western Grottoes has cave shrines everywhere — easy to conceal troops. And this arch bridge is a death ground: even Kui Mu Lang would find it hard to escape.”

“Then,”

Xuanzang said, frowning in thought, “Kui Mu Lang is cunning and wily, and Lv Shilao was a crafty old strategist. Why was it that the moment they heard Linghu Demeng was hiding in the Western Grottoes, they had not the slightest suspicion that this might be a trap?”

“This —”

Li Chunfeng also fell into deep thought. “Could it be that for them, the Western Grottoes holds some special significance?”

“There must be something special about it!”

Xuanzang said with certainty. “And Kui Mu Lang and Lv Shilao would have found it entirely reasonable for Linghu Demeng to be hiding here. What could that be?”

Xuanzang looked around the hall, and suddenly something stirred in his heart. The great Buddha before him was strangely constructed — the pagoda was seven stories tall, yet seven stories only reached the Buddha’s shoulders; the enormous Buddha head disappeared directly into the cliff face above. Listening carefully, there seemed to be quite a number of people up there — footsteps hurrying about, the murmur of whispered voices, the low sound of recitation, and a chaotic “clatter clatter” of what seemed to be beads knocking together.

The sounds seemed to come from above the seventh level.

Xuanzang suddenly awoke to it: “If there are people up there, this statue of the Buddha Shakyamuni is meant to allow people to come and worship the Buddha — then why not build two more levels and enclose the Buddha’s head as well… Could it be that this seven-tiered pagoda conceals something else entirely?”

Xuanzang peered up above the seventh level. The floor height was two zhang; the ceiling was painted with exquisite Buddhist canopy murals but was clearly of wooden construction — not the usual rock vault of an ordinary cave shrine. Xuanzang looked left and right, walked along the railing to its end — and at the end, against the stone wall, stood a painted clay figure of a Vajra warrior, standing on a plinth.

“Doctor Li, lend me a hand.”

Xuanzang lifted the yellow silk canopy aside, and together with Li Chunfeng pushed at this Vajra figure. Sure enough, it gave slightly. Both men’s spirits lifted; they pushed together with all their might and shifted the Vajra forward by more than a chi — and behind it, a passageway appeared!

The two exchanged a glance. Xuanzang picked up an oil lamp from the offering table and stepped into the passage first. There were steps carved into the passage; the two descended several flights, and a low door appeared. Pushing it open, they arrived at the eighth level, and their view instantly expanded.

There on the eighth level, dozens of writing desks were arranged in rows, and a group of clerks wearing black gauze headwraps and narrow-collared robes sat at their desks — calculating, reckoning. Some were copying from scrolls, some were operating counting rods, some were working bead abacuses, and others were sketching complex lines on wooden boards.

“What are these people doing?”

Xuanzang asked quietly.

Li Chunfeng said in a low, grave voice: “It looks as though they are computing some kind of numerical values. Master, look at that wooden board — nine horizontal grooves are carved into it, and a single bead is placed on each vertical rod, with numbers marked from the bottom up. That is the Grand Unity abacus. The Grand Unity’s movement passes through nine roads, come and go. Beside it is the Two Modes abacus — five horizontal grooves on the wooden board, two beads on each vertical rod, blue bead on top, yellow bead below, the blue bead moving top to bottom, the yellow bead bottom to top. The Two Modes abacus can calculate celestial qi flowing downward and earthly conditions across the four seasons. And beside that, from left to right, are the Three Talents abacus, the Five Elements abacus, the Eight Trigrams abacus, and the Nine Palaces abacus.”

“With such an enormous volume of calculation — what on earth are they computing?”

Xuanzang asked quietly.

Li Chunfeng frowned in silence, studying for a long while.

Xuanzang looked around and noticed another passageway nearby. The two of them slipped quietly through the small door and into the passage. The clerks were too absorbed in their work to notice a thing.

Within the passage were more steps. The two walked to the top of the steps, pushed open a door in the ceiling — and both gaped at what they saw above them: an entire sky full of stars!

Both of them blinked; as their vision adjusted, they realized the ceiling above was not the night sky at all, but an enormous dome. This ninth level had been carved into the cliff face in the shape of a lidded-cauldron vault. The enormous Buddha head served as the central pillar of the vault, and behind the back of the Buddha’s head, the cliff face was carved deeply inward so that the Buddha’s head sat precisely at the center of the cauldron-vault ceiling.

The vault arched over everything like the sky itself, and the paintings on the ceiling — not the usual painted Buddhas, nor flying apsaras or lotuses — were dense with stars! Six hundred and twenty-seven of them in all, each giving off a light that was either bright or dim, almost exactly as one saw them in the night sky!

The Buddha’s head occupied precisely the position of the Purple Tenuity Enclosure; beside it were the Supreme Subtlety Enclosure and the Heavenly Market Enclosure, and the twenty-eight lunar mansions. Six hundred and twenty-seven stars in all — every one was lit.

Xuanzang hurried to the cliff wall; several remote stars were set into the rock face. He looked closely and discovered: niches had been carved into the cliff wall, and inside each niche burned an everlasting lamp of mermaid oil, sealed at the front with a piece of red glass. The lamplight passing through the red glass merged into the surrounding surface, indistinguishable from a distance — like a real star.

Thinking of the red glass he had seen at the auction at the Mogao Grottoes, one could understand that constructing such a vault-ceiling must have cost untold thousands. And across the entire dome, the celestial equator had been rendered in gold foil, the lunar orbit in silver foil. If the floor of this pagoda could rotate, it would be exactly like the movement of the universe and stars.

The two of them were walking across in a daze when the floor suddenly gave way beneath their feet — they stumbled and went down. Looking at themselves, their bodies were moving rapidly across the floor. Beneath them was a circular track, rotating around the stars above!

Xuanzang was astonished: “This pagoda — can it truly rotate!”

“I understand now!”

Li Chunfeng said, grimacing as he picked himself up. “They are computing the orbital paths of celestial bodies!”

On the arch bridge, the infantry formations had surrounded Lv Sheng utterly. Innumerable spears, thick as a thicket of thorns, had trapped him within their ring.

Linghu Demeng and Zhai Chang slowly walked over from the bridge entrance. Linghu Zhan and Zhai Shu hurried toward them, bowing in salutation.

“Father,”

Linghu Zhan said. “Today our Linghu and Zhai clans can finally wash away the humiliation of all these years!”

“Order the troops to withdraw ten zhang.”

Linghu Demeng stared fixedly at Lv Sheng and said in a low voice.

Linghu Zhan was immediately taken aback; Zhai Shu said urgently: “Elder Master, this man is full of cunning — even a moment’s carelessness and he will escape!”

Zhai Chang said gravely, repeating: “Order the troops to withdraw ten zhang!”

Linghu Zhan and Zhai Shu exchanged a glance, both at a loss, yet neither daring to defy. “Withdraw ten zhang!”

The military formation maintained its array and slowly withdrew; at ten zhang they laid down a shield wall, archers drawing bows, waiting with focused attention.

Linghu Demeng and Zhai Chang walked straight forward and stopped in front of Lv Sheng, no more than five chi between them. Linghu Zhan and Zhai Shu were alarmed and quickly followed, one drawing a sword, the other a bow, guarding their respective fathers close at hand.

Linghu Demeng studied Lv Sheng with a complex expression and said coolly: “In the early years of the Western Han, our Linghu ancestors and the Zhai ancestors fled to Dunhuang. That was six hundred and twenty-one years ago. We weathered the collapse of dynasties, the upheaval of the Hexi Corridor, and in all that time faced countless fearsome adversaries — every one of them has crumbled to dust, while we still stand rooted in Dunhuang, a great gentry clan. Yet in all our history, no adversary has ever made us feel such dread, such dishevelment, such helplessness as you.”

“Then tell me — what exactly did I do to make you so afraid?”

Lv Sheng said.

“It cannot be put into words!”

Linghu Demeng murmured. “It cannot be put into words! You drove a blade into our marrow — and even so, we dared not cry out in pain!”

“What a pity. I have forgotten everything.”

Lv Sheng said with feeling. “Since you will not tell me, I will never know. Today I die, and you may endure that pain in silence forever!”

“Have you truly lost your memory?”

Zhai Chang suddenly asked. “Do you still remember me?”

“I know you, but I do not remember you.”

Lv Sheng looked at him. “Zhai Chang, style Hongye. The current Zhai clan head. Zhai Wen’s father.”

“You still dare invoke Zhai Wen’s name!”

Linghu Zhan roared and made to lunge forward.

Linghu Demeng wheeled around and struck him across the face with an open palm. Linghu Zhan stood dazed.

Linghu Demeng paid his son no mind and fixed his gaze on Lv Sheng: “Whether your memory loss is real or feigned, tell me where those things are hidden!”

“I have no idea what things you are speaking of,”

Lv Sheng shook his head. “I am now no more than a walking corpse — no memories at all, only a breath of will in my chest, and that is to fight again in Dunhuang. I do not know where this fighting spirit comes from, nor toward what my blade should swing. I am like Xing Tian who has lost his head — swinging his axe and shield, searching for the path he has already walked.”

Linghu Demeng and Zhai Chang exchanged a glance. Both felt a chill run down their spines; instantly they were drenched in cold sweat.

“If that is the case —”

Linghu Demeng turned and walked away, bellowing: “Then let him be buried utterly! Kill —!”

Zhai Chang looked at Lv Sheng with sadness, and without a word turned and left.

Linghu Zhan curled his lip into a sneer, hooked his toe under a fallen spear on the bridge, flipped it up, and caught it, then roared: “Demon wolf — today you and I settle our score!”

Lv Sheng closed his eyes and smiled faintly, murmuring:

It is over now. My realm knows me not. Alone in darkness, who is there to tell? The phoenix soars high and drifts far away — He has always withdrawn and kept his distance.

I walk in the depths of the Nine Abysses’ divine dragon — Hidden in dark depths, treasuring myself. Dissolving, radiant, I dwell in concealment — Why should I follow the ant or the earthworm?

Those little ditches and gutters of no renown — How could they hold a ship-swallowing fish? The sturgeon and the great fish crossing the rivers and lakes — They will always, in the end, be mastered by the ant and the mole…

Zhai Shu also picked up a spear; the two of them struck simultaneously, jabbing their blood-slicked spears straight at Lv Sheng’s chest.

“Stop!”

Suddenly, a woman’s piercing cry came from the north cliff. “Brother, do not kill him!”

Zhai Shu and Linghu Zhan both startled, simultaneously drawing back.

Linghu Zhan murmured: “Brother… could it be —”

“Little sister!”

Zhai Shu said, overcome with emotion.

Both of them gripped their spears and looked toward the north together. A young woman in a half-sleeve long gown was sprinting toward them, two civil-official-dressed middle-aged men following behind.

The bridge was packed with troops; some soldiers leveled their spears to block her. Linghu Zhan shouted: “Let them through!”

The soldiers parted to make a path. The woman and the men came running up close — and it was indeed Zhai Wen. The two men following were Zhao Fu and Prefectural Deputy Zheng.

As it turned out, Lv Sheng and Zhai Wen had been swept along by Prefectural Deputy Zheng and the others to the Western Grottoes. Prefectural Deputy Zheng, acting on instructions left by Kui Mu Lang before sinking into slumber, had arranged to keep watch on Lv Shilao. After Lv Shilao deliberately allowed himself to be captured and lured out Linghu Demeng’s hiding place, Prefectural Deputy Zheng was about to order the star generals to assault the seven-tiered pagoda — when he saw Lv Shilao burst from the pagoda and be shot on the bridge.

Prefectural Deputy Zheng knew it was a trap, yet Lv Sheng had recognized Lv Shilao’s face and wanted to see him one last time and ask about his past.

Prefectural Deputy Zheng and Zhai Wen had argued strenuously against this, but Lv Sheng told Zhai Wen that with only twenty days of life left, he wished to find his memories before he died. Even if this was a trap, dying a few days sooner or later made no difference.

“Wen, forgive me for not being able to spend those twenty days with you.”

Lv Sheng had said at last. “I hope you will live on, and one day find my remains and bury them in the small courtyard by Yumen Pass.”

Zhai Wen wept inconsolably. From a cave shrine above, she had watched, helpless, as Lv Sheng stepped further and further into the abyss — and in the end could not bring herself to let go.

Zhai Wen reached him and slowed her pace. Lv Sheng looked at her in silence, a little bitter, a little consoled.

“Little sister —”

Zhai Shu threw down his spear and said overjoyed: “You… you are still alive… am I dreaming?”

“Brother!”

Zhai Wen’s eyes slowly filled with tears. “I am still alive.”

Zhai Shu wept freely, then turned and shouted: “Father! Little sister is still alive — she has come back!”

Linghu Zhan looked at Zhai Wen in bewilderment; the Zhai Wen before him was utterly unlike the one in his memory. In truth, her face had long since blurred in his mind. He had used her image as an obsession, reconstructing in his mind what she looked like — that young woman who was gentle, pliant, a little fragile, needing to be protected and saved. Countless times he had started awake in pain and torment, walking to his room or to the corridor in the deep of night and conversing with “her” — telling “her” of his humiliation and sorrow, while “she” told him she was waiting, she was longing.

The instant Zhai Wen appeared, “she” shattered with a crash, crumbling to dust. A pain stabbed through Linghu Zhan’s chest as though a piece of him had been excised, leaving him raw and bleeding.

Through the massed ranks of armor, Zhai Chang had already seen Zhai Wen. His expression shifted between shadow and light for a long moment without a word. The other clan heads all watched him. Zhang Bi sighed: “Hongye, go to her. The human bond of father and daughter — we all understand.”

Since they had planted a spy like Zhao Fu among the group, the gentry clan heads had long known that Zhai Wen was not dead. Zhai Chang, for the family’s honor, had maintained publicly that his daughter was gone. Though he knew his daughter was imprisoned at Yumen Pass yet could not rescue her, there was no knowing how many years he had suffered.

Now that his daughter had appeared before him today, his grief and joy mingled, and there was also a sense of a burden lifted from his shoulders. He let out a mournful sigh and moved to go.

He had barely taken a step when Linghu Demeng suddenly seized him by the arm, saying nothing — only staring at him.

Zhai Chang’s face was contorted with pain: “Master Demeng!”

“Master Demeng —”

Yin Shixiong said coldly, “The Zhai family has already sacrificed enough for all of us!”

“And has my Linghu family given less?”

Linghu Demeng said through his teeth.

Zhang Bi, Yin Shixiong, and Fan Renjie saw the ferocity in his expression and all inwardly recoiled, saying nothing more.

“Father —!”

Zhai Shu, thinking his father had not heard, called out tearfully: “Little sister is still alive! She has come back!”

Zhai Chang watched his daughter through layer upon layer of armored soldiers and spear tips — a daughter he had not seen for years — and his vision blurred with tears in an instant. Without looking at Linghu Demeng, he reached out, took hold of the other man’s wrist, and little by little — but firmly — pried the fingers open. Then he walked toward the arch bridge.

The military ranks split to make a path. Zhai Chang made an effort to compose his expression into sternness, but before he had even reached Zhai Wen, his tears gave way: “Wen’er…”

Zhai Wen sank to her knees at her father’s feet: “Father, your daughter has come home!”

Zhai Chang’s hands trembled as they gripped Zhai Wen’s shoulders, his voice thick in his throat: “Has the condition of your knees improved these years?”

Zhai Wen started — and then burst into loud, wrenching sobs. She remembered how from earliest childhood her knees had always been cold; Dunhuang’s temperature swung so greatly between day and night that by evening her knees would often ache. Her father would sit at her bedside and rub them for her. Sometimes she would drift off to sleep like that, and when she woke, she would find her father had dozed off nearby as well — yet his hand would still be rubbing her knees without thinking.

“They have not troubled me these years.”

Zhai Wen said through her tears.

“Little sister, all these years — what happened to you? Why did that Kui Mu Lang —”

Zhai Shu began to ask, his face alight with joy, but before he could finish, Zhai Chang cut him off.

“That is good! That is good!”

Zhai Chang gently stroked Zhai Wen’s head — and suddenly his palm stung as though stabbed by needles; he gave an involuntary cry. Just a moment ago he had gripped her shoulder through her clothing, and now touching bare skin he felt the Heavenly Robe’s pricking immediately.

“Father, what is it?”

Zhai Shu said in alarm.

“Nothing… nothing…”

Zhai Chang knew perfectly well but would not say. He endured the pain, drew Zhai Wen upright, and studied her attentively, sighing with sorrow.

“Ninth Brother!”

Zhai Shu called out to Linghu Zhan. “Come quickly!”

Linghu Zhan slowly walked over, spear still in hand, and bowed his hands calmly: “Miss Zhai!”

“Master Linghu!”

Zhai Wen also curtsied in return.

Seeing the two of them greet each other so calmly yet so distantly, Zhai Shu finally came down from his euphoria, shaking his head bitterly. “Little sister, we all know you have suffered these years. But whatever you may have endured, you are still my Zhai Shu’s younger sister. Ninth Brother Linghu has spent these years searching for you — heart and liver given, through nine deaths he went. You are still the daughter-in-law of the Linghu family; in all these matters I as your elder brother will be your advocate — I will not let you suffer further wrong. I did not protect you on your wedding day; I will not let that happen again!”

“Thank you, brother. It is I who have failed Master Linghu.”

Zhai Wen’s gaze briefly touched Linghu Zhan’s, then swept past his shoulder and settled on Lv Sheng a short distance away. “I am now Lv Sheng’s wife!”

Zhai Chang, Zhai Shu, and Linghu Zhan all froze.

Though Zhai Chang had known all along that Zhai Wen was imprisoned, what Zhao Fu had passed back to him had been vague — only that Zhai Wen was alive and had been taken by force by the demon wolf. He would never have imagined that his own daughter had become the wife of his enemy! And from the look of it — tender and devoted — she seemed entirely willing!

“What nonsense are you speaking!”

Zhai Chang growled in a low voice, then glanced anxiously around and, seeing that the soldiers were all at thirty paces’ distance and unlikely to have heard, let out a slightly relieved breath.

In an instant, Linghu Zhan’s whole face flushed crimson. “Do you know what you are saying?”

“This is my fault,”

Zhai Wen said, looking at him steadily. “I promised myself to you as a wife, but midway married another. There has never been a woman in all the world as shameless as I. Even if in this life I suffer the torments of punishment and in death descend to the Avici Hell — even through thousands upon tens of thousands of kalpas of disaster — I am willing. But I am not willing to conceal my heart’s desire.”

“Zhai Wen!”

Linghu Zhan ground his teeth. “Is every woman in the world as ruthless and heartless as you?”

Zhai Wen sighed: “Once one’s heart is given to one person, it becomes indifferent to another. In this life, since I have pledged myself to Fourth Brother Lv, I will accompany him through whatever hardships come, however many they may be. Even unto a dead end in this mortal world.”

“I am not asking you to change your mind,”

Linghu Zhan said, utterly despairing, yet a surge of pride rose within him. Coldly he said: “Nor am I asking you to feel any debt of gratitude — and I doubt you would understand it anyway. But you should know: whatever feelings you choose, you cannot pay for them with harm to others and harm to your family.”

“Master Linghu, I know full well the shame this has brought upon you and the Linghu clan, and that I have failed to repay your years of searching.”

Zhai Wen said sadly. “Yet I have not failed my family. When my family schemed to destroy Fourth Brother Lv, they betrothed me to him. After he was destroyed, to forge an alliance with the Linghu clan, they betrothed me to you — and then I was seized by Fourth Brother Lv again. In all of this, was there a single moment that was my own choice?”

Zhai Chang’s lips trembled; there was great sorrow in his heart that could not be spoken. Zhai Shu too wore a face full of guilt, sighing desolately.

“From childhood I was cherished and loved by my family, and I never resisted their arrangements — I was willing to be a sacrifice. If I had died on the day I was seized, it would have repaid their kindness. I happened to survive — does that mean I have not yet repaid it? There is no such logic anywhere in the world, and not even the Buddha himself could demand that I sacrifice myself for my family without end.”

Zhai Wen murmured. “In three years at Yumen Pass, Fourth Lord treated me with great kindness. He said that Yumen Pass would be my final refuge — that he would let me live as my heart dictated, that he would protect me to the end of his life, that no one would ever again manipulate my fate. Perhaps at first I was merely clinging to life, afraid to die. But over three years, I knew I had fallen in love with him and could no longer change.”

Zhai Shu looked at his younger sister, and said with some bewilderment: “Little sister, I never imagined you harbored such resentment toward Father and me.”

“I know brother wishes me happiness.”

Zhai Wen said. “Perhaps in this world fate is just like this — one step forward and everything is turned on its head. If being returned as a bride to Master Linghu the second time had been the final outcome, perhaps it would have been a story of a loving father, a devoted daughter, a harmonious brother and sister — yet fate is what it is, and not only weak women cannot resist it; even men cannot.”

Zhai Wen smiled, then walked toward Lv Sheng, passing Linghu Zhan shoulder to shoulder. “Master Linghu, I know perfectly well that this has brought shame on you and your clan and that I have wronged your years of searching. But there is nothing I can do to make you release that burden. You have a spear in your hand — you may thrust it and kill me with a single blow. Today Fourth Brother Lv must die, and I have come so that I may die alongside him. I hope my death may somewhat ease the weight in your chest.”

“Ah —!”

Linghu Zhan’s eyes flew wide with a crazed light; he raised his spear to thrust.

“Ninth Brother —!”

Zhai Shu stepped forward and drew his own blade, pressing it against the armor-plates on Linghu Zhan’s chest with a ringing sound. “A thousand years of friendship between our two families — this matter can always be resolved. But if you harm Wen, you become my enemy!”

Zhai Wen and Lv Sheng stood side by side at the railing, she holding his arm, her expression one of contentment — as though she were looking forward to the death that was coming.

“Father —!”

Zhai Shu pleaded. “You have to save little sister!”

Zhai Chang wept without end, yet was at a loss, not knowing what to do.

“Hongye, I warned you long ago that you should not have come.”

Linghu Demeng walked over from a distance, looked at Zhai Wen and Lv Sheng with distaste.

“That is my daughter!”

Zhai Chang said through clenched teeth.

Linghu Demeng said coldly: “A gentry clan’s daughter, born into the clan’s glory, must also bear the consequences of that glory. For over six hundred years, the ancestors of our two families sacrificed generation after generation for their clans — and that is how today’s glory was built. Why is it that our generation cannot bear to give anything up? Look at the Song and Suo clans — they have grown weaker and weaker since the Northern Dynasties. Why? Because no one is willing to sacrifice for the family!”

“Why must the sacrifice be my daughter and not me?”

Zhai Chang murmured.

“Because each person has their place and their duty, and no one can take another’s place. Zhang Bi could not bear to give up his daughter, and see what disaster has befallen him today — is the Zhai clan to follow in his footsteps?”

Linghu Demeng asked.

“What do you want me to do?”

Zhai Chang said.

“Whether she is a traitor to the state or a demon wolf’s consort — what he has brought you is nothing but dishonor.”

Linghu Demeng said coldly. “Three years ago your daughter was already dead. What stands before you now is sorcery — an illusion.”

“With so many people watching!”

Zhai Shu said in fury.

“And what of it?”

Linghu Demeng laughed coldly. “Back then in Ganquan Street, you and Zhan cut down every witness — and who dared say a word? It is merely a matter of killing a few more.”

Zhai Chang and Zhai Shu were both shaken.

Linghu Demeng grabbed Zhai Chang’s arm and said in a low voice: “A gentry clan’s rules and rituals are the skin of a man. Without skin, what is left to cling to? Today, do you want the Zhai clan’s skin to be stripped from them alive?”

Zhai Chang looked at Zhai Wen in agonized uncertainty — then suddenly burst into loud, wrenching sobs.

“Father!”

Zhai Shu was horrified. “That is little sister! You cannot…”

Zhai Chang suddenly turned and struck him across the face. Then he grabbed him by the silk cords on his armor and dragged him away. As he walked, his whole body trembled, tears streaming without cease, unable to bring himself to look at Zhai Wen again.

Linghu Demeng turned and walked away: “Zhan’er — release the arrows!”

Linghu Zhan stood dazed, looking all around him, then at Zhai Wen before him — his face a mask of confusion.

Linghu Demeng turned back and fixed him with a cold stare: “I am ordering you — release the arrows!”

Linghu Zhan suddenly let out a shout, brought the spear down hard across his own knee and snapped it in two, then turned and walked away. Linghu Demeng flew into a rage, snatched the command flag from him, and swept it down furiously.

The soldiers all around exchanged glances for a moment; Ma Hongda gave a nod. And so together they drew back their bowstrings and aimed at Lv Sheng and Zhai Wen!

In that moment between life and death, Lv Sheng looked at Zhai Wen, with a touch of sorrow: “Wen, you should not have come.”

“As long as two people are together, wherever they are is the small courtyard at Yumen Pass — what does it matter where we are buried?”

Zhai Wen said gently. “Fourth Lord, this kind of ending is truly very good. I am very happy.”

“But I am not resigned to it!”

Lv Sheng shook his head. “I am your husband. I promised you long ago: while I live I will protect you, and after I die I will protect you still. That is my vow to you.”

“In the Yellow Springs below, you can protect me just the same.”

Zhai Wen said with a smile.

“No!”

Lv Sheng was quite stubborn. “Wen — let me arrange your fate one last time. I want you to live.”

Lv Sheng picked up an arrow from the ground, drew it across his arm, and blood gushed out. He lifted his arm and slowly smeared it across his face — instantly his face was covered in ghastly red streaks.

“Kui Mu Lang — I surrender!”

Lv Sheng let out a desolate laugh.

“Shoot —!”

From beyond the military formation, Ma Hongda bellowed out the order.