“General, your words terrify me. We’re old friends; why such hostility?” The Shaman Guide smiled, seemingly unaffected by Li Shuang’s murderous intent.
“We’re not friends,” Li Shuang stated bluntly.
Unfazed, the Shaman Guide continued, “Friend or not, it doesn’t matter. General Li, you’re overthinking this. The person you seek is now our Five Spirits Sect’s treasure. I wouldn’t let anything happen to him. I came today to discuss something about him with you.”
“I’m not here to negotiate,” Li Shuang replied, her tone calm but threatening. “Either release him or I’ll burn the mountain. There’s no third option.”
“General,” the Shaman Guide interrupted, his usually smiling eyes now serious. “The current situation isn’t as simple as me handing over the Jade Silkworm to you. Even if I did, you might not be able to control him. Your fifty thousand troops might face an unpredictable threat. You’ve seen the Jade Silkworm’s abilities in the northern frontier.”
Li Shuang had indeed witnessed his power—his ability to strike enemy leaders with lightning speed. In this camp, no one could match him, and perhaps few in the world could face him in battle.
“What have you done to him since bringing him to the Five Spirits Sect?” Li Shuang’s eyes bore into the Shaman Guide.
He shrugged. “Don’t look at me like that; I’m innocent. I only wanted to extract the Jade Silkworm parasite from him. My ideal host should be clean, without prior allegiance. But his will is terrifyingly strong.”
The Shaman Guide’s eyes met Li Shuang’s. “General Li, his devotion to you is excessive.”
Excessive devotion…
“Then again, you’ve traveled thousands of miles from the northern frontier with fifty thousand troops to burn my South Long Mountain, all for one person. Isn’t your devotion also excessive?”
Li Shuang remained silent at the Shaman Guide’s teasing words. She had never seriously considered her feelings for the mysterious person. She only knew she wanted to see him again, to see her reflection in his clear eyes, to save him—this desire overshadowed everything else.
“I don’t want to hear this nonsense,” Li Shuang forcefully steered the conversation back. “Just tell me his condition and how I can take him away.”
The Shaman Guide folded his arms. “Simply put, I need you to come back to the Five Spirits Sect with me, alone.”
Li Shuang silently assessed him.
Meeting her scrutinizing gaze, the Shaman Guide explained, “Since I brought the Jade Silkworm host back, he hasn’t had a peaceful day. It’s normal for him to have withdrawal symptoms away from his master, but I didn’t worry. I used standard techniques to try extracting the Jade Silkworm, but the longer he was away from you, the more violent he became, eventually becoming uncontrollable.”
The Shaman Guide sighed, rubbing his brow. “We chained his limbs and neck with steel, but he’s gone through nearly a crate of chains with his constant struggling. We’ve changed his dungeon three times; he’s cracked the walls. Just preventing his escape gives me headaches. I was considering having you brought over, but you arrived on your own.”
“You want me to come to the Five Spirits Sect to calm him?” Li Shuang asked.
“That’s the plan, but I’m not sure if you can still pacify him,” the Shaman Guide replied. “He’s now in a state of madness, no different from the demons and monsters of folklore.”
Li Shuang pondered briefly. “If I go with you and can calm him, will you let him leave with me?”
The Shaman Guide waved his hand. “I’ll hand him over gladly.” His gesture suggested he’d be relieving himself of a burden.
Li Shuang narrowed her eyes. “How can I trust you?”
“General, we only have four dungeons. If he destroys another, we’ll have nowhere to keep him.” Seeing Li Shuang’s continued silence, the Shaman Guide pulled out a jade pendant and tossed it to her. It felt smooth and cool—a piece of fine white jade.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“This is the Five Spirits Sect leader’s token, perhaps as important as your imperial seal. I promise, if you can calm the Jade Silkworm host, I’ll allow you to take him from the Five Spirits Sect. Until both of you die, I won’t reclaim the Jade Silkworm. I grant you a lifetime of peace.”
With that, the Shaman Guide stood to leave. “Since the Jade Silkworm host can’t be controlled without you, keeping him is pointless. I just want someone to restrain him before he goes completely mad and causes disaster. That’s all I have to say. I’ll head back now. If you decide to come, bring the token to South Long Mountain. If not, send someone to return it. Consider your options, General.”
He left the tent, with the soldiers outside watching him tensely but not daring to act without Li Shuang’s orders.
Li Shuang, holding the smooth jade token, didn’t sit long before standing up. She lifted the tent flap and exited. Fu Changqing, who had been guarding nearby, received her instructions: “From today, for the next three days, if I send no message from the mountain, prepare to burn it.”
Her clear voice easily reached the ears of the departing Shaman Guide.
He paused and turned back to look at Li Shuang, a knowing smile on his lips.
Li Shuang gripped the token tightly and stepped forward. Fu Changqing watched her, stunned. “General…” he began to protest but fell silent as Li Shuang continued without hesitation.
Knowing the determination of this tiger cub from the general’s family, he could only bow and respond, “I obey your command.”
As Li Shuang followed the Shaman Guide towards South Long Mountain, he chatted idly, “The Jade Silkworm was originally our Five Spirits Sect’s treasured parasite.”
Li Shuang glanced at him. “Your sect’s treasure appeared in the northern frontier?”
The Shaman Guide laughed at her pointed question. “When I first heard about it, I was surprised too. It’s a long story.”
“Twenty years ago, our sect faced a major incident. I was young then, my father had died, and I had just become the sect leader. My protector, the Spirit Woman, suddenly wanted to usurp my position. My mother, still alive then, opposed this. After a fierce struggle, the Spirit Woman’s faction fled South Long Mountain, taking the Jade Silkworm with them. My mother sent people to search, but they were never found. It seems they fled to the northern frontier—quite a journey.”
Li Shuang immediately recalled the underground stone chamber in the forest outside Deer City, with its corpses and the ‘resurrected’ old woman in her unusually fine clothes.
“Is there a connection between that underground chamber and your Spirit Woman?” Li Shuang asked, remembering how the Shaman Guide had trapped her, the prince, and the mysterious man there. And Jingan, that enigmatic child who had disappeared along with the mysterious man…
“They hid there for twenty years, moving between Deer City and the Western Rong. They concealed themselves well, and in the frontier, it was easy for people to vanish. Finding hosts for their parasites was simple. The old Spirit Woman was clever in choosing her location.”
Li Shuang frowned. “You must use human lives to cultivate your parasites?”
“Not always. It depends on the parasite. The Jade Silkworm needs to be fed human blood for a hundred days to fuse with a person and become a Jade Silkworm host, obeying only the parasite’s master. But few can survive a hundred days of continuous blood feeding. This Jade Silkworm host isn’t fully complete, which is why he recognized you as his master. There are some defects, perhaps due to forcing the parasite into his body before the full time had passed.”
“What defects?” Li Shuang asked.
Before the Shaman Guide could answer, a woman in lotus-colored clothes appeared on the mountain path. She bowed to the Shaman Guide. “Master, the Jade Silkworm is raging again.”
The Shaman Guide looked up at the twilight sky, sighed deeply, and glanced back at Li Shuang. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have bothered bringing him back. This must be heaven’s punishment for separating a pair of lovers.”
The phrase ‘separating lovers’ startled Li Shuang. The Shaman Guide said, “Time is short, General. Forgive me.” He grabbed Li Shuang’s arm and waist, and with a burst of qinggong, they sped off. The scenery blurred around them.
Li Shuang had known the Shaman Guide’s skill from seeing him fight the mysterious man in the northern frontier, but she hadn’t realized his qinggong was this fast. No wonder he had appeared alone in Deer City—few could catch him.
In the blink of an eye, they reached South Long Mountain. Li Shuang barely glimpsed the Five Spirits Sect’s gates before being whisked inside. When they stopped, she found herself before a dark cave with thick iron bars at its entrance.
A cool, damp wind blew from inside, carrying faint, animal-like growls.
Hearing these sounds, Li Shuang’s heart skipped a beat, then began to race uncontrollably.
He was inside.
The Shaman Guide activated a mechanism outside the cave, and the thick iron gate rose from the ground with a “clang.”
“Please,” he gestured for Li Shuang to enter. The cave was dark and damp, with occasional water dripping from the ceiling. Torches lined the walls every few zhang. As they went deeper, the air grew more humid, and the howls carried by the wind became more heartbreaking.
Li Shuang’s mind was drawn to these sounds. After an indeterminate time and passing through many checkpoints, they stopped before an iron door. The Shaman Guide pushed it open, and suddenly there was a loud “BANG!”
As the door opened, an iron chain flew towards them.
Li Shuang reacted to the sound, bending slightly. The chain whistled over her head, slamming into the stone wall with such force that it embedded itself three inches deep.
“Oh dear, this is bad,” the Shaman Guide muttered.
Li Shuang’s gaze followed the chain inside. There, the man she hadn’t seen in three months stood, bare-chested as before. But now, the flame pattern on his chest had spread across his entire body, as if wrapping him in fire. The flames covered his face, turning his eyes completely red, like smoldering magma.
This was the very image of a demon.
“He’s wrecked the cell,” the Shaman Guide said worriedly.
Li Shuang stared at the man, stunned. He seemed to have completely lost his mind. His feet and neck were still bound by iron chains fixed to the back wall, restricting his movement, but his hands had broken free.
He hadn’t broken the chains; he had ripped them out of the stone wall. The chain that had just been swung at them was from his wrist. The strength required was terrifying.
Prisoners lay scattered in the cell, some unconscious, others whimpering for help.
The sound of the iron door opening had alerted him. He turned his head, his dark red eyes reflecting the torchlight, seeming to dance with bloody flames.
He saw the two figures but remained unmoved. His facial muscles twitched slightly as he emitted a low, warning growl from his throat. Everything about him resembled a dangerous animal.
“It seems he doesn’t recognize you, General Li,” the Shaman Guide stated matter-of-factly.
Though he was merely stating a fact, his words chilled Li Shuang’s blood.