The door was indeed still there, a deep black, ice-cold door like a mysterious, smiling face. Xuan Yuanshan moved. He walked to the front of everyone, gripped his golden blade tightly, and was the first to walk toward the door. But after taking only two steps, he was stopped by a hand. Xuan Yuanshan looked in dismay at the person intercepting him and said: “Li Si, what are you doing?”
Li Si shook his head and said: “You cannot go.”
“Why?”
“No reason.” Li Si raised his head to look at the sky before dawn, smiled bitterly, and said, “You should know that this time our prospects are unknown. If I truly cannot return, someone reliable needs to be left behind to help me erect a decent tombstone. Moreover, Xuan Yuanshan, I hope you will stay.”
Xuan Yuanshan stared intently at Li Si, closed his eyes, and nodded heavily: “I’ll stay.”
Li Si clapped his hands and said: “Good! With troublesome, cat-fearing people not following, I can work much more easily. Haha…” Li Si laughed heartily and jumped into the black door. Ge Chong followed behind him and also went in. Xuan Yuanshan watched the two enter, his eyes shrouded by an indiscernible mist. Meanwhile, Old Yu beside him muttered in a low voice: “What could be inside the door?”
Indeed, everyone wanted to know—what would be inside the door?
Li Si jumped into the black door. Inside the door was another black door. Li Si pushed open the second door. Inside was still another black door. Between each door lay a corridor permeated with the suffocating stench of rot. At the end of each corridor was still another door. Door, corridor, door, corridor, door… as if endless, continuing downward, leading to hell!
Li Si walked until his feet began to stiffen, not from exhaustion, but because his entire body was surrounded by an icy cold air that froze him stiff. Ge Chong stayed close behind Li Si the entire time, not saying a word, only clenching his fists until they cracked audibly. Li Si exhaled a breath of cold air and pushed open yet another black door before him.
This time, after the black door, dazzling white light stabbed forth. Li Si stood dazed for a moment before he could make out his surroundings. Before him appeared a stone chamber ten zhang in length and width. The stone chamber’s top, bottom, left, and right were all built with rare white ice stone. Wisps of white qi threads wandered through the chamber, like flowing white clouds. If one were not personally present in this place, Li Si would have believed the tales of earthly paradise.
On the left side of the stone chamber, facing the ice wall, sat a row of black long chairs, their seats facing the wall and their backs facing people. At the end of the row of black chairs, which was also the end of this stone chamber, stood a person as still as a sculpture, entirely wrapped in black clothing, with a pitch-black evil spirit mask hanging on his face. The black-clad person gazed coldly at Li Si and Ge Chong through the mask, slowly spreading both arms and saying: “Welcome, welcome to the place of death!”
Upon hearing this, Li Si involuntarily shivered violently. Ge Chong stepped forward and shouted at the black-clad person: “Where is Ling’er? What have you done to Ling’er?”
The black-clad person suddenly laughed coldly and replied: “You need not be anxious. I can tell you that Xue Ling’er is very safe, extremely safe. However, compared to this girl, I think there are some old friends you might want to see even more.”
The black-clad person walked closer to the two, approaching the nearest black chair, and slowly turned it around. Li Si’s gaze followed. On the front of the black chair sat a person peacefully—no, this could no longer be called a person! Li Si saw that sitting on the black chair was a desolate, cold white skeletal corpse, entirely bones, but covering the skull was a layer of skin—a face. And this face skin, Li Si could still recognize, belonged to Nan Jian.
The white bones were also covered with a black brocade robe. The robe was smooth and slippery—how could it properly cover these white bones? It had already slid down. The black-clad person stepped forward to rehang the brocade robe on the white bones, then turned the adjacent second black chair. Just like before, on the black chair sat another desolate white skeleton. The white bone skull was also covered with a layer of human face skin, and this time, the human face became Zhan Xin.
The black-clad person laughed softly, but this low laughter sounded to Li Si full of sinister, cold air. Ge Chong’s gaze also darkened, and his clenched fists began to stiffen bit by bit. The black-clad person, as if showing a friend his carefully collected treasures, walked to the third black chair and turned it around. On the black chair was another white skeleton, another human face. This time Li Si stared at the human face, his gaze shocked, and said: “Lord Huai?”
The third skeletal skull was covered with the face skin of Huai Cheng, the parental official of An City. His face skin was still dripping with blood, continuously dropping dark black blood beads. The black-clad person wiped the blood beads clean, then walked to the fourth chair, reaching out his hand to turn the black chair around.
“Enough, you madman!” Ge Chong seemed unable to watch anymore and shouted to stop him.
The black-clad person’s hand stopped in mid-air. He said indifferently: “Enough? I think the next old friend is the person you most want to see.”
The fourth black chair was still turned around. Xue Ling’er, whose entire body was bound to the chair, saw Ge Chong and began to struggle, but it was futile. Li Si observed that although Xue Ling’er’s complexion looked terrible, the parts below her face were still normal—not white bones. The black-clad person then turned the fifth black chair. Bound tightly with thick rope on the chair was the fan seller, Zhang Younian.
“No matter who you are, quickly release Ling’er, or I will make it so you can never speak another word.” Ge Chong’s pair of fists became a light shade of black, his fists like iron.
“Releasing Miss Ling’er is easy. You only need to answer one question for me, and I can release her. However, I want to hear the truth. If it’s false, then I cannot guarantee anything.” The black-clad person stood before Xue Ling’er, a strange gleam flashing in his eyes, and asked, “I want to know, what is your relationship with this Miss Ling’er?”
“She is my niece and also my disciple.” Ge Chong said angrily.
“Just this?” The black-clad person laughed coldly. “Is this Miss Ling’er truly your niece?”
“Nonsense!”
“Perhaps it is nonsense, but I still cannot believe your words. If you want to prove you’re telling the truth, why don’t we play a game? How about it?” Black mist permeated the black-clad person’s eyes, and a gleaming dagger fell into his hand. The dagger’s edge turned, stabbing directly toward Xue Ling’er’s chest.
Xue Ling’er’s mouth was stuffed with something and she couldn’t speak at this moment, but watching the sharp edge stabbing toward her, Xue Ling’er tightly closed her eyes. Ge Chong raised both fists, and his pair of fists that could shatter all things in the world stirred up a strong gust of wind.
Li Si also wanted to help, but just as he was about to move, he glimpsed a strange black door slowly opening on the ice wall behind Ge Chong. A sharp gleam suddenly appeared behind Ge Chong’s back.
“Watch out!” Li Si cried out in alarm, but it was already too late. In the ice-cold stone chamber came an extremely brief sound of metal shattering. Xue Ling’er slowly opened her eyes. She was actually still alive. Before her eyes, just inches away, a dagger had completely shattered, leaving only a stub of a handle.
Ge Chong’s tall body lunged forward a distance, then fell heavily to the ground. On his back was clearly inserted a dagger, the dagger reflecting cold, deathly light.
All sorts of emotions surged in Li Si’s heart—surprise, shock, even swelling fear—all arrived at once. His gaze fell upon that shattered dagger. It hadn’t shattered in Ge Chong’s hands, so in whose hands had it shattered?
Xue Ling’er breathed slightly, fragrant sweat seeping from her forehead. Her gaze looked aggrievedly at a person, naturally not at Ge Chong lying on the ground, but at Zhang Younian beside her. Zhang Younian had somehow broken free from all the thick ropes binding him. He slowly stood up, looked at the deceased Ge Chong on the ground, then turned his head to look at the black-clad person’s evil mask, and said faintly: “You knew all along.”
The black-clad person threw away the broken blade in his hand and said plainly: “Even though it’s been more than ten years since we’ve met, an old friend is an old friend. How could I possibly mistake you? He was originally a substitute found many years ago to replace you in officialdom, to replace you in accepting assassinations from both the righteous and underworld paths, while you lived freely and at ease in the shadows. You’re formidable, old friend, Ge Chong.”
Zhang Younian’s thin, short body seemed to grow much taller in an instant. He looked at the fake Ge Chong fallen on the ground and said: “Finding this person was extremely difficult for me, because he resembled me by eighty percent in appearance, and his physique was what mine was ten years ago. Moreover, under my instruction, his pair of shattering fists had also practiced three-tenths of my skill. In the official circles on the surface, he seemed more like a favorite of the Crown Prince than I did. I don’t understand—how did you see through that he was a fake Ge Chong, and how did you know early on that I was the Ge Chong hiding in the shadows?”
“What difficulty is there in that?” The black-clad person seated himself, sitting on a tiger-head black chair, and said slowly, “Actually, when the fake Ge Chong first came to An City, I didn’t see through him, but later I always felt something was off, though I couldn’t say what. So, I put this fake Ge Chong through a small trial, and afterward I knew he wasn’t the real Ge Chong.”
“Oh? What kind of trial?”
“Very simple, just this.” The black-clad person pointed downward with his hand. From behind the black chair leaped a slender shadow, crying out sharply, its deep blue pupils staring at everyone present.
“A black cat?” Li Si looked at the black cat at the black-clad person’s feet and said in surprise.
The black-clad person didn’t speak. He was laughing, watching Zhang Younian—that is, the real Ge Chong—laugh.
Ge Chong’s gaze involuntarily fixed firmly on the black cat, beads of sweat appearing at his nostrils. He snorted coldly: “You know my weakness, know that I fear cats? It seems that last night’s group of cats emerging from the black doors was also a good show you staged to test me?”
“Obviously. I sent black cats before everyone, but the fake Ge Chong wasn’t afraid of cats. Among all the roles you might have transformed into, only the Zhang Younian in prison and the god-catcher Xuan Yuanshan feared cats. After eliminating Xuan Yuanshan, this heaven-sent prize could only fall on you. Though it must have been hard for you, pretending to be dead and afraid until now. What a hero Ge Chong is, yet in the end could only pretend to be a madman. Truly laughable.” The black-clad person stroked the black cat’s head and laughed.
Ge Chong snorted coldly. Li Si looked at the fake Ge Chong dead on the ground and couldn’t help saying: “If so, Lord Ge disguised himself as Zhang Younian, but where is the real Zhang Younian now?”
“That’s a good question, Catcher Li Si. You should know that if the fake exists, the real should disappear, disappear completely and cleanly.”
“Could it be that you… killed Zhang Younian?”
Ge Chong looked at his pair of fists, black as ink, and said: “Secrets are always most secure when only the dead know them.”
“Not necessarily!” The black-clad person interjected coldly. “If the dead know too many secrets, perhaps they won’t want to die.”
Ge Chong shook his head slightly and said: “If the dead come alive, they should live meekly and submissively. They absolutely shouldn’t play with fire too much, otherwise even if the dead come back to life, they will still die.”
“Ah, Ge Chong, you haven’t died so you cannot understand, but I have died, and I understand—death is not frightening. What’s frightening…” The black-clad person heavily pounded his chest, his tone agitated as he said, “It’s this fire in my heart, the fire of hatred! It burns me until life is worse than death! I have no other choice but to find you all. Without saying anything else, I invite you all, one by one, to accompany me in death!”
Upon hearing this, in Ge Chong’s vision, the man behind the evil spirit mask seemed truly like an evil ghost crawling out from hell to claim lives. He couldn’t help but pause and slow his tone, saying: “What exactly do you want, Shen Ao?”
The black-clad person’s entire body trembled. From beneath the evil spirit mask came a series of “jiējie” strange laughter, murmuring: “Shen Ao, Shen Ao. Nearly twenty years—I haven’t heard anyone call me this name since. The last time someone called me this way, it was still her. After that, for many years, I forgot the feeling of being called by my name. I only recalled her voice in my memories, again, and again, and again… until I could no longer remember what she looked like, remember her voice, until the woman once engraved in my heart disappeared from my life like a wisp of smoke, a gust of wind, disappeared from my world…” A ray of cold light shot from behind the mask. Shen Ao said grimly: “Ge Chong, don’t you know what I want? If you want to save your dog’s life, tell me, where is she? Where is she?!”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t know? Haha! Then what about her? If you don’t know, where did she come from?” Shen Ao pointed at a person, a hundred emotions turning in his eyes.
Li Si looked in the direction Shen Ao pointed—it was Xue Ling’er. Xue Ling’er had gained her freedom by this time. She pointed at herself and said in confusion: “Me? You clearly said ‘she,’ so why talk about me? I’ve listened to you all say so much, talking about dead people and living people—I don’t understand a single sentence. What exactly are you all talking about? Uncle Ge, can you tell me?”
“Let me tell you instead.” Shen Ao slowly rose. More black cats gathered at his feet. He said, “The source of everything, everything, perhaps comes from that legend, that distant, forever unreachable legend…”