Night fell, and the whole of Liuxian Island lay wrapped in stillness and darkness.

Thin moonlight draped down like a sheer veil, casting a mysterious hue over everything around them.

Ziqing, Jun Beiyue, and Xuanyuan Lige sat with their backs against the Fusang divine tree, while Baili Weisheng lay sprawled out on the ground nearby, arms pillowed behind his head, legs crossed, gazing up at the starry sky, a blade of wild grass dangling from his mouth, swaying back and forth.

This fellow, no matter where he went, always carried himself with the same easygoing, carefree air — utterly unbothered by anything. At this very moment, he was, in fact, already half asleep.

Ziqing was surely the most exhausted of them all — and yet, ironically, she was also the one least able to sleep.

“Get some rest. I’ll wake you at dawn.” Jun Beiyue said, gently stroking her hair as they sat.

Ziqing leaned against his shoulder, her bright, wide eyes staring blankly out into the darkness before her, seemingly lost in thought, offering no reply.

Though it was Jun Beiyue who had spoken, Xuanyuan Lige glanced over as well — they both knew she was the one most worn out!

She had played “Parting Sorrow” for days and nights on end — even with her spirit holding strong, her body simply couldn’t withstand that kind of strain!

“Hm? Go to sleep.” Jun Beiyue said gently, giving the tip of her nose a playful pinch.

Seeing this, Xuanyuan Lige turned slowly to gaze out into the darkness before them, his expression calm, showing nothing beyond his usual cool detachment.

“I’m so exhausted that, somehow, I can’t fall asleep at all,” Ziqing finally answered. She wanted to sleep too, but try as she might, she couldn’t manage it at all — her head simply felt heavy, weighed down.

Just then, a bolt of lightning suddenly split across the sky, followed shortly after by rolling peals of thunder.

“It’s going to rain.” Ziqing perked up at once, sitting bolt upright.

Summer thunderstorms were common enough, and the lightning and thunder came on swift and sudden, hinting at a heavy downpour to come. Before long, the already-dim sky darkened further still.

“There’s a house up ahead — let’s go take shelter there,” Jun Beiyue said.

The three of them rose and headed off to the right, with Baili Weisheng stretching lazily before finally getting up to follow.

As the thunder grew louder and the wind grew more urgent, the sky darkened further and further, until it was nearly pitch black, impossible to see one’s own hand before one’s face.

“Stay close together, everyone. Don’t lose anyone,” Jun Beiyue called out loudly. If the darkness deepened any further, it wouldn’t be at all unlikely for someone to get separated from the group.

But just then, Baili Weisheng, walking at the very back, murmured something under his breath. “Let’s not gain anyone extra, either.”

At these words, Jun Beiyue and Ziqing, walking at the front, both stopped dead in their tracks. A cold wind swept past, the sky pitch dark all around, and a sudden chill ran down their spines.

Gain someone extra?

That sort of joke wasn’t funny in the slightest!

“Why don’t you count us, then?” Xuanyuan Lige said, uncharacteristically playful.

“Ha, how many of us are there again?” Baili Weisheng asked with a grin, clearly asking a question he already knew the answer to.

“Five,” Xuanyuan Lige answered, playing along with the joke.

Baili Weisheng feigned shock. “Wasn’t it four?”

Xuanyuan Lige replied with perfect seriousness, “Wasn’t it five?”

Baili Weisheng put on an exaggerated shudder. “That can’t be right… let me count!” And with that, he actually began counting, with mock seriousness. “One, two, three, four…”

When he reached four, he paused for a moment. Ziqing and the others, walking ahead, didn’t even bother turning around — this was nothing more than a silly joke, after all.

Sure enough, just as they’d expected, a moment later Baili Weisheng did, in fact, reach “five.”

But after reaching five, he fell silent for a long moment, saying nothing at all.

Ziqing and Jun Beiyue, walking at the front, were preoccupied with hurrying along, too impatient to pay any mind to this pointless little scare tactic of theirs.

Xuanyuan Lige walked just ahead of Baili Weisheng, having let the joke run its course, offering only a small smile without further comment.

But at that very moment, in the darkness, Baili Weisheng’s finger froze mid-air, his eyes fixed on a pale, bluish-white woman’s face pressed close — so terribly close — to his own, the trailing sound of the word “five” still hanging unfinished in his mouth, drawn out endlessly. “Five… mmh… uhh…”

“Young master, am I the fifth?” the woman asked in a low, eerie voice, her mouth splitting open into a grin so ghastly it sent every hair on Baili Weisheng’s body standing on end.

He had always been a man of considerable courage — but in a setting like this, startled so suddenly, it would have been strange indeed if he hadn’t panicked.

After a long moment, Baili Weisheng finally let out a great cry. “Little Moon-Moon! Help! There’s a fifth one here!”

In that instant, Jun Beiyue’s expression darkened to an almost unfathomable degree — and yet, even so, his very first move was to push Ziqing behind Xuanyuan Lige, saying sharply, “Watch over her!”

With that, he appeared beside Baili Weisheng in a flash of lightning-quick speed, drawing his long sword.

But the figure that had been right before Baili Weisheng’s eyes had already vanished — even Jun Beiyue hadn’t managed to catch sight of it.

And very quickly, Xuanyuan Lige and Ziqing rushed back to join them as well — fortunately, they hadn’t strayed far, only a few steps away. Otherwise, in this pitch-black darkness, how would they ever have found each other again?

Jun Beiyue and Xuanyuan Lige remained alert, watching their surroundings closely, while Ziqing reached out and gave Baili Weisheng a firm smack on the back. Only then did he finally come back to himself, looking utterly forlorn. “Little Qingqing, do you think there’s really such a thing in this world?”

“This is a soul-seizing illusion, a realm of wandering spirits — do you really think there wouldn’t be?” Ziqing shot back.

“It’s not that — it’s just… just that woman just now…”

Baili Weisheng didn’t quite know how to put it into words. He knew full well this was a world of wandering souls, knew full well that Xuanyuan Lige himself was nothing more than a solitary spirit here — and yet, that woman just now had given him a feeling entirely different from anything else!

Something terribly, hauntingly sorrowful! He wasn’t a man easily frightened, and yet, even now, thinking back to that moment when that face had nearly pressed itself against his own, his heart still couldn’t quite settle.

There had been a feeling, somehow, as though that pale, bluish-white face had been about to press itself entirely against his own.

Had he not reacted quickly enough, had that woman’s face truly pressed fully against his — the consequences… well, he honestly didn’t dare imagine.

“Baili Weisheng, are you certain what you saw wasn’t just an illusion?” Jun Beiyue asked coldly.

Baili Weisheng, still catching his breath, answered, “Not certain — but it was genuinely terrifying.”

Jun Beiyue and Xuanyuan Lige exchanged a glance, saying nothing. They had both been paying close attention for quite some time now, and there had been no one else around at all — given the speed at which they’d arrived, if there truly had been someone there, they surely would have sensed it.

Could it have simply vanished into thin air?

Baili Weisheng, frightened as he was, quickly recovered his composure, and likewise sensed no further presence nearby.

And it was at this very moment that heavy raindrops began to fall.

“Let’s find shelter from the rain first — everyone, be careful,” Ziqing said.

Jun Beiyue walked past Baili Weisheng, murmuring under his breath, “Do that again, and this king will personally sew your mouth shut.”

Little Moon-Moon? What in the world kind of nonsense name was that?

Before long, they came upon an empty house, and settled themselves in the main hall, careful not to wander off.

This world, beautiful as it appeared, seemed to take on an entirely different character once night fell.

Xuanyuan Lige found himself a spot near the door and sat down cross-legged, intending to keep watch through the night, while Ziqing and Jun Beiyue settled down nearby.

Baili Weisheng, having finally calmed himself, stood just inside the doorway, turning the memory of that face over carefully in his mind.

But it was at that very moment that, cutting sharply through the silence, Ziqing’s scream suddenly rang out. “Ahh…”