Arguments aside, there was still important work to be done.

The Life-Borrowing Lamp was in the Purple Cloud Temple. Li Ying said: “I’ve checked, and tonight at the Hai hour is a Yin year, Yin month, Yin day, and Yin hour. This timing only occurs once in sixty years. Given that Lingxu Mountain Man has distributed so many soul-binding talismans, perhaps the grand scheme he’s planning is set for tonight.”

Because of the stimulant medicine issue, Cui Xun didn’t dare look at Li Ying. He lowered his head and said, “Lingxu Mountain Man constantly speaks of immortality. His scheme must be related to prolonging life.”

Li Ying said, “With such an important event tonight, yet he spent time coming to our inn. I don’t believe he came to recruit you as a disciple. His reluctance to leave was likely because he wanted to locate me.”

When Cui Xun heard this, he instinctively felt uneasy. Sure enough, Li Ying continued: “I’ve received offerings from forty thousand Buddhist temples across the country for thirty years. As a ghost, I can even walk in daylight. A ghost like me would be very valuable to Lingxu Mountain Man, which is why he left the temple to find me.”

Cui Xun was stunned: “What do you plan to do?”

Li Ying calmly said, “Your Investigation Department must have undercover agents in Taoyuan Town. I will use myself as bait to lure Lingxu Mountain Man out. Then you can take the agents to extinguish his Life-Borrowing Lamp.”

Without even thinking, Cui Xun said: “No, that’s too dangerous.”

Li Ying looked at him. When he was in Chang’an, his face had been as pale as snow, his body so cold that he couldn’t be separated from his thick crane-feather cloak, and the room had constantly burned special charcoal. But in this remote inn, after the journey, his complexion had improved considerably. He no longer looked completely bloodless, needed special charcoal, and no longer needed to wrap himself in the cloak. Li Ying smiled softly. She looked at Cui Xun and said, “Cui Xun, I’m not asking for your advice. I’m informing you.”

Since Lingxu Mountain Man’s departure, her way of addressing him had changed. She no longer sweetly called him “Young Master Seventeen” but reverted to his name, with a hint of unfamiliarity in her tone. Cui Xun clenched his teeth and said: “You… you don’t need to be like this.”

Li Ying said, “You never asked for my opinion when you made your decisions.”

She paused, then added: “If you can, why can’t I?”

She was still angry with him. Cui Xun looked at her, his gaze momentarily distracted, but finally pressed his lips together and said: “Bright Moon Pearl… don’t risk your life just to spite me.”

“My life…” Li Ying’s mouth curved into a mocking smile: “What about your life?”

Cui Xun was dumbfounded, and Li Ying shook her head: “I don’t think you have the right to say that to me.”

“Bright Moon Pearl…”

“How can someone who doesn’t cherish his own life have any right to ask others to cherish theirs?” Li Ying quietly said: “Cui Xun, don’t impose on others what you would not desire.”

Cui Xun stared at her blankly. He opened his mouth, wanting to explain something. He thought perhaps he could explain his difficulties to her: that his body was too weak to endure the one thousand seven hundred li journey, so he had no choice but to use the stimulant medicine. Perhaps he could explain his predicament—that after waiting painfully for six years, he had finally reached the eve of justice, and he had to ensure nothing went wrong. His fifty thousand comrades had been waiting in the City of Wrongful Deaths for too long, and he didn’t want them to wait any longer.

But in the end, he said nothing. He just lowered his head in despair. His exposed neck was white as jade, and beneath his thin white robe, his shoulder blades protruded slightly. From the shoulder blades down, his back was just a thin layer of skin over bone. He looked like an abandoned, sickly crane—utterly pitiful. But Li Ying merely glanced at him once, her heart unmoved, then lowered her eyes and refused to look at him anymore.

Cui Xun felt increasingly desperate. He knew he had wronged her. Despite knowing how much she longed to spend a long time with him, he still concealed the truth and swallowed one stimulant pill after another, accelerating his body’s deterioration and shattering her wish for a lasting relationship. He had so deeply betrayed her feelings that, despite his thousand excuses and countless hardships, betrayal remained betrayal, and deception remained deception.

Unless she was willing to forgive him, any further explanation would only be futile self-deception.

By the Wu hour (7-9 PM), the sky had turned pitch black.

Throughout the Great Zhou Empire, a curfew system was enforced, even in counties and towns. Therefore, Taoyuan Town was under curfew early, and the streets were empty. Li Ying walked on the bluestone brick road, and sure enough, before she had gone far, Lingxu Mountain Man, wearing a cloud-patterned Daoist robe, appeared before her.

Lingxu Mountain Man held a whisk in his hand and smiled: “Princess Yong’an.”

Li Ying tried to appear as surprised as possible: “You know me?”

Lingxu Mountain Man nodded: “This poor Daoist once entered Daming Palace, so I recognize the Princess.”

“You entered Daming Palace?”

Lingxu Mountain Man said: “Thirty years ago, this poor Daoist was introduced to the late Emperor by Jin Ni, who was then the Commander of the Hundred Riders. Unfortunately, the late Emperor had no interest in Daoist cultivation for longevity. He briefly asked this poor Daoist about some Daoist techniques, then dismissed me from the palace.”

Li Ying hadn’t expected that Lingxu Mountain Man had entered the palace and even met her father. She couldn’t help but ask: “What did my father say to you?”

“The late Emperor said that both the First Emperor of Qin and Emperor Wu of Han pursued immortality, but in the end, they all returned to dust. However, even though they failed to achieve immortality, it didn’t prevent them from leaving their mark on history. For an emperor’s life to be complete, it was enough to accomplish one great deed. Why bother pursuing immortality?”

Accomplish one great deed… That must have been referring to the New Policies. Li Ying felt melancholy. Her father had indeed accomplished this and would certainly leave his mark in history, remembered for generations.

His life, as he had said, must have been complete, without regrets.

But Lingxu Mountain Man said, “Actually, the late Emperor might not have felt complete. At least on his deathbed, he must have regretted expelling this poor Daoist from Daming Palace.”

Li Ying looked up: “What do you mean?”

Lingxu Mountain Man chuckled: “When this poor Daoist met the late Emperor, I observed that he still had more than thirty years of life remaining. Yet the late Emperor passed away after only ten years. Does the Princess know why?”

Li Ying shook her head, and Lingxu Mountain Man said deliberately: “It was because, over one particular matter, the late Emperor was filled with remorse and self-reproach, unable to sleep. Thus, he tortured himself to death.”

Li Ying was astonished. Her father had tortured himself to death over one matter… She blurted out: “What matter?”

Lingxu Mountain Man smiled: “This matter was naturally related to the Princess.”

Related to her… Could it be that her death had hastened her father’s demise?

As soon as this thought occurred to her, Li Ying shook her head: “Impossible.”

Her father had been ruthless enough to order her death. Being so cold-hearted, with only his empire in mind, how could he possibly die from guilt and self-reproach?

It was impossible.

As if to confirm that her thinking was correct, she emphatically told Lingxu Mountain Man, “Don’t talk nonsense. You’re just a Daoist priest who was expelled from the palace by my father. What could you possibly know?”

“This poor Daoist knows quite a lot.” Lingxu Mountain Man looked around: “This is not the place to talk. Why doesn’t the Princess come with me to Purple Cloud Temple? This poor Daoist will tell you the truth in detail.”

Li Ying had originally planned to go to Purple Cloud Temple with Lingxu Mountain Man, but she had expected him to forcibly take her there. She hadn’t anticipated hearing these revelations from him. She pondered that since she had intended to go to Purple Cloud Temple anyway, she might as well listen to what this evil Daoist had to say. So she nodded: “Fine, I’ll go with you to Purple Cloud Temple.”

While Lingxu Mountain Man went to find Li Ying, Cui Xun, dressed in black, led the Investigation Department’s undercover agents into Purple Cloud Temple. There were only five undercover agents stationed in Taoyuan Town, but five were enough.

Purple Cloud Temple was empty; all the Daoist priests had disappeared. However, firelight burned at the Cloud Marsh Altar behind the temple. Cui Xun had visited the Cloud Marsh Altar during the day and recalled its layout. The Cloud Marsh Altar was an open space that could accommodate ten thousand people listening to sermons. It was surrounded by lush pine and cypress trees. In the center was a wooden altar with three banners symbolizing the trinity of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. Nine lamps burned, representing the illumination of the nine celestial palaces of happiness above and the nine boundless worlds below. Besides these nine lamps, there was also a bronze lamp engraved with strange patterns—presumably the Life-Borrowing Lamp.

Cui Xun led the five agents to hide among the pine and cypress trees. As he peered through the lush branches toward the altar, he was startled by what he saw.

The altar area was packed with people sitting cross-legged. But this was the middle of the night—where had so many people come from to listen to teachings? Looking more carefully, Cui Xun realized these weren’t people but souls.

He even spotted the soul of Zhang Silang, the teahouse owner. With their souls separated from their bodies, people like Zhang Silang had likely fallen into a coma at home, becoming the living dead.

Dozens of Daoist priests from Purple Cloud Temple stood guard on the altar. They weren’t gathered around the three banners and nine lamps, but instead all surrounded and guarded the bronze lamp. As the Xu hour (7-9 PM) approached, the bronze lamp’s radiance intensified, while the forms of the thousands of souls in the altar area grew increasingly faint. It seemed that when the Xu hour arrived, these souls would be sacrificed to the Life-Borrowing Lamp, and people like Zhang Silang would surely die.

Cui Xun signaled to the five agents, who then dispersed. Cui Xun circled behind an ancient cypress tree, loaded a poisoned bolt into his crossbow, aimed at one of the Daoist priests, and pulled the trigger.

As his bolt whistled through the air, the other agents also released their arrows. Six Daoist priests fell simultaneously. The remaining priests looked around in fear, but before they could locate the direction of the attack, they were pierced through the heart by one poisoned arrow after another and fell dead.

Despite this major development, the souls remained expressionless. Cui Xun quickly emerged from the pine and cypress forest, passed through the dense crowd of souls, and reached the altar. The five agents crouched down to check whether the Daoist priests were dead, while Cui Xun walked to the Life-Borrowing Lamp and took it down.

The Life-Borrowing Lamp was cast in bronze. At the top of the lamp body was an exquisite lotus-shaped bowl. The lamp bowl was concave, and at its center burned a long wick with a dark red flame dancing above it. Cui Xun reached out his hand, pinched the wick, and prepared to pull it out.

But as soon as he touched the wick, he felt the world spinning. The thousands of souls and the wooden altar before him disappeared, as did the agents beside him, replaced by a vast expanse of white mist.

The Life-Borrowing Lamp was also gone from his hand. He covered his eyes and slowly stood up. White mist swirled around him, enveloping heaven and earth. There was not a sound to be heard. It seemed as if in this vast expanse, he was the only one who existed.

He frowned in thought, then suddenly realized: “Evil sorcery.”

This must be the Daoist magic spell that Lingxu Mountain Man had placed on the wick to protect the Life-Borrowing Lamp.

Cui Xun looked at the surrounding mist and laughed coldly: “My body is still at the Cloud Marsh Altar. How could I be here? All Daoist spells work only if you believe in them, and have no effect if you don’t. Zhang Silang and the others believed in you, which is why they swallowed the soul-binding curse, and their souls were driven by your evil magic. I don’t believe in you, so what can you do to me? This is nothing but an illusion. Everything seen and heard in the mist is false.”

From within the white mist came Lingxu Mountain Man’s cackling laughter: “Don’t speak too soon. The human heart generates three obstacles, and the three obstacles give rise to ten evils. Wait until you’ve passed through the demon, karma, and disaster obstacles before claiming this is all illusion.”

Lingxu Mountain Man’s voice gradually faded away, and the white mist slowly dispersed. Before Cui Xun’s eyes, a slender, beautiful figure slowly approached.