When Ashina Jia entered the Cui residence, Cui Xun was in his bedchamber, sitting cross-legged before the latticed window. He wore a thin white prison garment, with black, heavy chains on both wrists and ankles. A ray of sunlight filtered through the window gauze onto the floor. He lowered his head, gazing at that streak of light, lost in thought.
During these days, the courtyard was bathed in warm sunshine, and the crabapple blossoms were in full bloom, yet he had hardly gone outside. Partly because the heavy shackles made it difficult for him to move, and partly because he was unwilling to appear outside in prison clothes and chains, looking like a prisoner. He was always stubbornly trying to preserve his tattered dignity. Even though all the pride and self-respect of that once haughty young aristocrat had been shattered six years ago in the Turkish royal court, he still wanted to pick up the remaining fragments from the ground. As if by doing so, he could once again be the seventeenth young master of the Tianwei Army, mounted on a silver saddle and white horse.
Outside the window screen, Li Ying glanced at Ashina Jia, who was staring at Cui Xun, her eyes filled with sorrow and pain. Li Ying said, “I’ll go in first and let him know. Wait for me a moment.”
Ashina Jia nodded silently. Her gaze penetrated the window screen again, looking at the gaunt figure inside. She greedily wanted to look at him once more, just one more time.
When Li Ying entered the door, Cui Xun heard the sound and raised his head. His desolate eyes seemed to gain a hint of warmth. “You’re back?”
He had always walked alone, but at some point, he had begun to grow accustomed to the company of one person, to her gentle presence, to waiting for her return to the Cui residence.
Li Ying nodded. She glanced outside the window, then sat down opposite Cui Xun and said, “Ashina Jia is waiting for you outside.”
Cui Xun was visibly startled. “Ashina Jia?”
“Yes.” Li Ying didn’t mention that she and Ashina Jia were about to go to the underworld. She didn’t want Cui Xun to worry about her safety in his current predicament. She vaguely said, “Her obsession has taken physical form and come to the Cui residence. She wants to see you.”
Cui Xun’s gaze shifted to outside the window. Through the gap of the raised window, he glimpsed a part of a foreign garment embroidered with a dark blue wolf pattern. This wolf pattern had been a nightmare he couldn’t escape for two whole years. He concealed the gloom that appeared in his eyes, turned his head, and looked at Li Ying. “Do you want me to see her?”
Li Ying bit her lip. She knew Cui Xun didn’t want to recall anything from the Turkish royal court. Previously, she would have told him that whether to see Ashina Jia or not was his own decision. She would never force him to do anything. But today, she hesitated.
After crossing the Dark Spring in the underworld, Ashina Jia’s obsession would dissipate, and the soul that was confined in the City of Wrongful Deaths would also disperse due to the connected effect. As for Li Ying, who would hide within Ashina Jia’s memories, even if it was just a thread of consciousness, even if this thread wasn’t harmed by the waters of the Dark Spring, it would inevitably affect her soul in the mortal world. Li Ying couldn’t bear Ashina Jia’s impending fate, so she couldn’t rationally tell Cui Xun to decide for himself whether to see Ashina Jia or not.
Probably perceiving her hesitation, Cui Xun didn’t wait for Li Ying’s answer but said, “It’s fine to see her.”
Inside the room, a red spider lily was lit.
Besides the red spider lily, because Cui Xun’s prison clothes were thin, despite it being April, charcoal still burned in the bedchamber, making the temperature almost unbearably hot. Fortunately, Ashina Jia’s form was created from obsession, so her temperature sensitivity was minimal, and she didn’t feel the heat. Only the steaming bowl of mutton soup placed on the zitan wood table seemed out of place.
Cui Xun glanced at the milky-white mutton soup. Ashina Jia had mustered all her courage to come see him this time, but now that she was truly sitting before him, she didn’t dare raise her head to look at him. Finally, she stuttered out a question: “Are you well?”
Cui Xun replied, “I’m fine.”
After another moment of silence, Ashina Jia raised her head and said, “I’m sorry.”
She finally expressed the guilt she had harbored for years: “That snowy night years ago, I wronged you.”
Cui Xun’s expression remained very calm. He said, “Did you? I don’t remember.”
Ashina Jia looked at his face, as pale as snow. She suddenly smiled softly. “Not remembering is good too.”
The elegant fragrance of Li Ying’s recent departure still lingered around the zitan table. Cui Xun’s fingers inadvertently brushed against the white silk wrapped inside his shackles. Ashina Jia noticed this and asked softly, “Do you like her?”
Cui Xun understood who the “her” in her question referred to. He was momentarily taken aback. Ashina Jia smiled bitterly and said, “If six years ago, in the Turkish royal court, I dared to defy Sister Wuduo, dared to save you from her hands, would you have liked me the same way you like her?”
Cui Xun looked at her. He didn’t confirm whether he liked Li Ying or not, but only slowly shook his head at Ashina Jia. “There are no ‘ifs. ‘”
Hearing this, Ashina Jia couldn’t help but smile sadly. “You’re right, there are no ‘ifs’. Even if time could flow backward, I still wouldn’t have the courage to defy Sister Wuduo. I still wouldn’t dare speak a word for you for a full two years.”
As Li Ying had said before, everyone’s character is shaped by their growing environment. Li Ying grew up surrounded by love, so she could love others. Ashina Jia was different. Growing up under her father’s oppression, she developed a timid personality. She didn’t dare defy Ashina Wuduo, nor did she dare defy her father. She didn’t even dare to bring medicine to him. She could only silently watch as, during those two years, he was neither allowed to live properly nor die, waking each day to a new round of torture. Two years, seven hundred and twenty days. That period of darkness and despair was endured by him alone, gritting his teeth, while she remained silent throughout.
Sometimes, silence is the greatest accomplice.
A bowl of mutton soup was the extent of her courage during those two years, but even that bowl of soup never reached Cui Xun’s lips. Instead, it brought him another cruel flogging.
She smiled, tears in her eyes. “May the Boden Ningli deity bless you, allowing you to meet her now.”
Someone who isn’t as timid as she was, who isn’t as silent as she was, who would steadfastly stand by his side when he was covered in infamy, who would desperately seek ways to rescue him when he was bound in chains. She spoke dejectedly, “Indeed, I am not as good as her.”
Cui Xun didn’t speak, but glanced at the mutton soup on the zitan table. In silence, he picked it up, scooped a spoonful with the golden spoon, and drank it. Then he said, “Princess Ashina Jia, may your obsession dissipate soon.”
Ashina Jia stared at the black chains locked on his pale wrists. A wave of sorrow surged in her heart. She nodded and said, “Yes, I’m about to go to the City of Wrongful Deaths. Once my enemy dies, I’ll be able to reincarnate.”
Cui Xun put down the golden bowl containing the mutton soup and said, “Congratulations. May we never meet again in your next life.”
In Yu Fuwei’s mansion, a large soul-summoning banner had been set up. Dozens of monks formed a circle, reciting the Diamond Sutra. Yu Fuwei entered the inner residence and addressed Li Ying and Ashina Jia, “Everything is prepared. The soul-summoning banner can recall Princess Yong’an’s consciousness from the underworld. The Diamond Sutra can reduce the harm to the Princess. But be careful not to encounter King Qinguang; otherwise, your thread of consciousness might remain in the underworld, never to return.”
Li Ying nodded. She placed her palm over Ashina Jia’s, and a white light flashed. A thread of her consciousness had entered Ashina Jia’s form. Ashina Jia’s image gradually disappeared. Li Ying, remaining in the room, began to see in her mind a dark path with strange rocks standing all around—the road to Mount Xiezhong.
A thread of Li Ying’s consciousness hid within Ashina Jia’s memories. Unlike Ashina Jia, whose deep obsession hadn’t dispersed for three years and eventually took human form, Li Ying’s thread of consciousness could only attach itself to another’s existence and couldn’t coalesce into a form. Before her, Ashina Jia’s image slowly materialized. Ashina Jia said, “We should reach the dark capital soon.”
Li Ying nodded. Both she and Ashina Jia appeared deeply preoccupied. Li Ying was reluctant about Ashina Jia’s sacrifice, while Ashina Jia’s mind was filled with Cui Xun’s lotus-like face and the soft white silk padding his shackles. After a moment, she pressed her lips together and said to Li Ying, “Princess Yong’an, thank you.”
Li Ying came back to her senses, somewhat confused. “Why are you thanking me?”
“Thank you for taking such good care of him,” Ashina Jia said. “Now, even if my soul disperses, I can be at peace.”
Li Ying couldn’t help saying, “Why do you need to do this?”
She sighed. “When you just met with him, you should have realized that he never liked you. Why sacrifice your life for him?”
She spoke bluntly. Ashina Jia replied, “I know he never liked me. Just now, he didn’t even grant me a next life with him.”
“Then why bother?”
Ashina Jia said, “I thought you would want me to save him.”
“I do want to save him, but that doesn’t mean you should pay the price of soul dispersion,” Li Ying said, confused. “You are innocent; I can’t let you do this. If you regret it now, there’s still time.”
Ashina Jia smiled and shook her head. “I don’t regret it.”
She spoke slowly, “Liking him has always been my affair. It won’t change just because he doesn’t grant me a next life.”
Li Ying wanted to say much more, but in the end, all her words condensed into a single sigh.
At Mount Xiezhong, the Ghost Gate opened, revealing the familiar void of the path between life and death. After passing through this void and continuing westward, Li Ying saw the jade-green Dark Spring through Ashina Jia’s memories.
Compared to the eerie blackness of the Naihe River, the Dark Spring was as serene and beautiful as a clear spring in the mortal world. The waters didn’t contain the fanged ghostly beasts like the Bouxiang of the Naihe River. Instead, the surface rippled with light, clear to the bottom. Just as Li Ying was surprised by the difference in the Dark Spring, she suddenly felt a bone-chilling cold. She had never experienced such cold before, as if a thousand ice blades were scraping against her bones. She couldn’t help but shiver all over. Across from her, Ashina Jia was in an even worse state. She had fallen to her knees, her teeth chattering, her form becoming increasingly faint. Li Ying went to support her. “How are you feeling?”
Ashina Jia shook her head. “I’m fine. We’ve entered the Dark Spring. I can hold on.”
Li Ying looked around and indeed saw the deep, bottomless spring waters. She also noticed several souls frozen into ice sculptures. Some souls had even shattered into pieces, scattered chaotically at the bottom of the Dark Spring. Just as Yu Fuwei had said, if one were a ghost, there would be no way to cross the Dark Spring.
But a form created from an obsession that was neither human nor ghost was inherently formless. It belonged neither to the human world nor to the netherworld. The waters of the Dark Spring were not designed to counter such a formless entity. Therefore, Ashina Jia endured and crossed the Dark Spring. She crawled onto the shore and reformed her human shape. Her clothes showed no signs of having been underwater. Even so, Li Ying still felt that bone-piercing cold hadn’t disappeared.
Before the Dark Spring stood the majestic Ghost Judgment Hall. Ashina Jia’s form transformed again into a formless entity and entered the hall.