The sound of a water droplet echoed in the void. Her gently closed eyelids quivered slightly as she heard an androgynous voice calling softly, “Er Sheng, Er Sheng…”
She frowned and opened her eyes to a blindingly stark white scene. She squinted for a long while to adjust before daring to open them fully. Everything around her was paper-white. Standing up, she rubbed her chest, feeling an emptiness there where warmth once resided.
“Er Sheng.”
The voice persisted in its calling. Curious, she looked around until she finally spotted a gray shadow lurking in a corner. She approached and stopped to examine it. “What is this?”
“What I am is not important.” The clear response from the gray shadow startled Er Sheng, causing her to take two steps back—three parts cautious, three parts afraid, but mostly curious. The entity seemed to see through Er Sheng’s thoughts and called out softly, “Don’t be afraid. I won’t harm you. I’m the only one who can save you now.”
“Save?” Er Sheng found this strange. She patted herself down. “I’m fine. I don’t need saving.”
The shadow let out an eerie laugh. “Fine? Your heart has a hole in it, and you call that fine?”
Hearing this, Er Sheng froze. Suddenly, she felt a chill in her chest. Looking down, she discovered a hole in her chest where cold wind whistled through, yet not a drop of blood flowed. She stared in horror, gasping several times. “What… what is this?”
Fragments of chaotic memories fluttered through her mind like falling petals. She vaguely remembered what happened before she lost consciousness—the dull pain of a cold sword piercing her chest and Chang Yuan’s shocked expression. Er Sheng trembled violently, looking around frantically. “Where is this? Where’s Chang Yuan?”
“This is your heart chamber,” the shadow said. “The blood has drained completely. Soon, you will simply cease to exist.”
Er Sheng stared blankly at the shadow, unable to comprehend its words.
“Er Sheng, you’re about to die. You’ll lose your spirit consciousness and disperse into the universe…” The shadow’s voice carried a hint of playful mockery. “Do you want to die?”
To Er Sheng, this was an utterly pointless question. “Stop wasting time with useless talk—what happens if I die completely?” She went straight to the point. “You said you could save me, but what do you want in return?”
The concept of fair exchange was something Shen Zui had taught Er Sheng—if you wanted to secretly eat roast chicken, you had to bring wine back for your master as a show of filial respect.
“Heh, I love your straightforward personality,” the shadow said. “Just make a blood oath with me, and I can fill the hole in your heart, allowing you to continue living.”
Having practiced cultivation for several years, Er Sheng knew that blood oaths weren’t to be made lightly. If handled poorly, fulfilling such an oath could result in complete annihilation with no hope of reincarnation. Her guard went up immediately. “What are you planning?”
“Don’t rush,” the shadow soothed. “What I ask isn’t much. Look at this realm—this is your heart. I only need your permission to move freely within this space.”
Er Sheng stared at it, noncommittal.
“It doesn’t matter if you refuse. Either way, I’m trapped here unable to move while you’re alive, and I’ll still be trapped here if you die. It makes no difference to me. But for you, it’s entirely different—alive, you can still see your master and senior sister, wield your sword across the world, act freely as you wish, and see Chang Yuan… Think about it, you were separated for three years, and how long has it been since your reunion? If you die now, Chang Yuan would surely be devastated. He might even follow you into the yellow springs.”
As the shadow spoke these tempting words, the people and events it mentioned appeared as vivid images in Er Sheng’s mind. When she imagined Chang Yuan standing alone in a pitch-black void holding the Yi Lin sword, she suddenly felt cold and looked at the shadow hesitantly. “You truly will only move within this space?”
“The blood oath’s constraints bind us both equally. If you allow me to move here, I can only move here. From now on, as long as you live, I won’t die, so I will surely protect your safety.” Its voice carried a strange smile, the androgynous tone somehow inspiring fear.
Er Sheng had countless questions: Who are you? Why are you in my heart chamber? What do you want? But there was no time to investigate these questions as the space began to tremble slightly, and the shadow softly said, “The heart chamber is collapsing. Er Sheng, you’re about to die.”
Er Sheng gritted her teeth and said, “Let’s draw blood and make the oath.”
The shadow’s cackling laughter would later become a nightmare that Er Sheng could never shake from her mind.
A sword through the heart—even though Er Sheng had practiced cultivation for several years, even with Chang Yuan transferring divine power to save her, for someone who hadn’t yet achieved their true form, such a wound should have been fatal. Chang Yuan believed this too.
Long after Er Sheng’s breathing had stopped, as Chang Yuan was considering where to bury her, the person in his arms stirred and opened her eyes groggily.
Chang Yuan was surprised for a moment, the term “rising corpse” flashing through his mind, but he quickly calmed down. Stroking Er Sheng’s hair, he said, “No one else could rise from the dead looking as beautiful as you. Er Sheng is truly unique.” As Er Sheng struggled to sit up, Chang Yuan held her tighter, preventing her movement. “Don’t run away. If I dig a grave and can’t find you afterward, what should I do?”
He spoke calmly, but Er Sheng was stunned by his words. She stared at Chang Yuan for a while before saying, “Don’t cry, Chang Yuan. Er Sheng won’t run.” She clumsily reached up to wipe the tears from his face. “Even if I’m a rising corpse, I’ll only rise to be near you.”
Feeling the slight warmth in the fingers touching his cheek, Chang Yuan froze. He grabbed Er Sheng’s wrist, sensing the weak pulse beneath her skin. He stared at Er Sheng, dumbfounded. “Er Sheng?”
“Mm.”
Hearing her response, Chang Yuan suddenly felt his throat tighten, temporarily unable to speak. “Did you… beat up the King of Hell to come back?” After asking this, even Chang Yuan found it amusing—Er Sheng was born from the Star of Fate. If she died, she would naturally return to her original position as the Star Lord of Fate, not enter the netherworld to meet the King of Hell.
Hearing his words, Er Sheng’s lips twitched, but in the end, she forced a smile and said, “I couldn’t bear to leave Chang Yuan.”
Afraid of worrying him, Er Sheng kept something from Chang Yuan for the first time.
At this moment, Chang Yuan had no mind to ponder the reasons behind it all. He lowered his head, his lips gently touching Er Sheng’s forehead. “I couldn’t bear to lose you either…”
If Er Sheng’s death and revival could be considered Heaven’s will, Chang Yuan thought, then in thousands of years, he had never been so grateful for Heaven’s will before.