CG - Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Once Wu Gu regained strength in her limbs, she walked over to Wei Jinzhi's side and lay down again. The Soul-Piercing Bell was still wrapped around Wei Jinzhi's waist, and the Bronze Sword was placed beside her. It was still some time before dawn. She had intentionally left her electronic devices behind before entering, and in her current state, she couldn't hope to carry Wei Jinzhi out. So, she might as well make the sky her blanket and the earth her bed, tucking her backpack under her head to make do for the night.
Sleeping out in the open was never restful. Wei Jinzhi woke almost as the sun rose. Before they fell asleep, Wu Gu had held her, afraid she would get cold. When Wei Jinzhi woke and looked down, she saw Wu Gu curled up in a ball, nestled against her chest, held tightly in her arms. She quite liked holding her. With a smile, she tightened her arms, pressing Wu Gu's body even closer.
Wei Jinzhi blinked, taking in the situation and trying to piece together what had happened. The sun had only just peeked over the horizon, and the sky was a grayish-blue. She and Wu Gu had slept on the ground, wrapped in each other's arms, for the entire night. She had lost consciousness after entering the formation and didn't know what had transpired, but she knew she had received the great gift Wu Gu had promised. The change was subtle, but her vision was clearer and brighter than ever before, and her heart felt unprecedentedly light and at ease.
She looked down at Wu Gu's serene sleeping face and secretly planted a kiss on the girl's forehead, whispering softly, "Thank you."
When sleeping outdoors, it's hard not to wake once the sun is bright. Wu Gu opened her eyes and first saw a hand blocking the sunlight. She could clearly see that the hand had long, slender fingers and was quite beautiful. She reached up and pulled Wei Jinzhi's hand down, revealing only her own eyes to look at her. "How do you feel?" she asked.
"Lighter than I've ever felt before."
Wu Gu's eyes curved into crescents, her tone filled with proud confidence. "I knew it."
"And you? I saw scrapes on your arm."
"It's nothing. I just fell a few times. I can take a fall."
Wu Gu sat up, swaying slightly as a wave of dizziness hit her. She touched her forehead. Wei Jinzhi also sat up anxiously and felt her forehead. "Did you catch a cold from being out in the freeze last night?" she asked.
"I'm fine." She took Wei Jinzhi's hand. "Sister Wei, I have something to tell you." Seeing her serious expression, Wei Jinzhi sat up properly, waiting for her to continue. "The matter of the ghost curse is more complicated than I thought," Wu Gu said, "but there was a pleasant surprise—your soul is the kind one rarely sees in a century."
"What do you mean?"
"To put it simply, it's like shopping. Your soul is the most expensive kind. But there's a catch. You know about Tang Sanzang's flesh from Journey to the West, right? Although your soul is protected by a golden light, it's still incredibly tempting and attracts covetous attention."
Last night, Wei Jinzhi's soul had been drawn out by the dark shadow several times. Though it had only left her body by a hair's breadth, Wu Gu had seen it clearly. Wei Jinzhi's soul was serene, pure, and tinged with gold. She remembered her master mentioning the Ten-Life Benevolent Soul, which looked just like that—a soul of immeasurable merit. Consuming it would grant a cultivator an incalculable boost in their cultivation.
Wei Jinzhi, however, couldn't feel any particular benefit. "Is there bad news, too?" she asked.
Wu Gu casually picked up a piece of sun-baked, wind-worn mudstone and gestured toward her own forehead with it. "The bad news is that the trouble is even bigger now. At first, I thought the sacrifice would be a Vengeful Ghost at most, but I never expected it to be a Ghost King. It's not easy to become a Ghost King, and your soul is exceptionally rare. This Ma fellow must be plotting something huge." She gritted her teeth and smashed the stone against her head, letting out a yelp as she curled up, clutching her head.
Wei Jinzhi quickly pulled her hands away to check the wound. The skin was broken. Her voice was fierce with heartache. "What are you doing?"
With tears welling in her eyes, Wu Gu continued, "My master used to say, 'Better to provoke a vicious ghost than to get involved with a petty person.' Ma Zhenshan is deliberately trying to harm you, and his methods are insidious. If he finds out I was the one who broke your curse, who knows how many more tricks he has waiting for me. We can only pretend this was an accident. When he lets his guard down, we must remain vigilant and find a chance to strike back."
Seeing blood seeping from the cut on her forehead, Wei Jinzhi knew she was doing this for her, and her tone softened. "Let's just forget it. If he finds out, he finds out. We'll just have to be more careful."
"No. My master said that caution is the parent of safety. Especially now, when the enemy is hidden and we are exposed, we can't reveal our strength too early." She rubbed her forehead. Why did she become so delicate whenever she was with Wei Jinzhi? Last night, she'd been thrown all over the place while fighting the Ghost King and hadn't even thought of crying. "We can't let Ma Zhenshan figure out the extent of my skills, or he'll have an easier time trying to kill me."
Wei Jinzhi naturally understood this reasoning, but she couldn't just watch Wu Gu injure herself. She refused to back down. "When we get back, I'll hire the Tianshi families and sects in North City to protect us in shifts."
"Sister Wei, you don't understand. A Ghost King isn't like an ordinary Vengeful Ghost. Ten Vengeful Ghosts aren't even a fraction of a match for a Ghost King. Yet something that powerful was willing to be a sacrifice. I'm afraid he has more than one Ghost King on hand. If he's determined to harm us, he'll eventually find an opportunity when we're alone." Wu Gu wasn't worried about Ma Zhenshan himself, but about the trump cards he held. She pointed to herself. "Look at us now. One of us is sick." Then she pointed to Wei Jinzhi. "And the other is weak."
Wei Jinzhi slapped her finger down. She could tell that after last night's ordeal, Wu Gu was speaking with a lack of energy. Her body must have been severely depleted. If Ma Zhenshan were to strike now, the two of them would indeed be doomed. "What's the plan, then?" she asked.
"We go home. Master left me many books on magical arts. We'll go back and look through them. My master was so powerful, a mere Ghost King would have been nothing to him. I refuse to believe he has anything stronger than a Ghost King."
"Can't we just pretend it was an accident? I can have the hospital forge a medical report."
"I don't think Ma Zhenshan is that stupid."
Wei Jinzhi found it hard to persuade her. She looked up and said, "Wu Yong is here." Sure enough, with the Yin Qi dispersed, her vision and senses were much sharper.
Wu Gu looked back and saw that Wu Yong was just a black dot several hills away. "Sister Wei, your eyesight is amazing." She packed her bag and stood up, only to find her limbs weak and her legs soft. She steadied herself. Seeing that Wu Yong wouldn't arrive for a little while, she took out the Bronze Sword and began poking and prodding the ground around them to create a false scene.
Wei Jinzhi watched her wobble about, trying to act fine, and sighed. "Can we please go back first and figure something out then?"
Wu Gu couldn't win against Wei Jinzhi and couldn't bring herself to strike herself hard again. She nodded, shouldered her pack, and prepared to leave. Wei Jinzhi smoothly took the bag from her. "Let me carry it for you," she said, then took her hand and led her in Wu Yong's direction.
They had only taken a few steps when Wu Gu's head began to throb even more intensely. Normally, her spiritual energy should protect her from minor illnesses, but this heavy-headed, light-footed feeling was almost certainly a fever. She must have caught a chill lying on the ground after depleting her spiritual energy last night. Since Wei Jinzhi was leading her by the hand anyway, she decided to close her eyes to feel more comfortable.
As they reached a slope, Wei Jinzhi, unaware that her eyes were closed, didn't warn her. Wu Gu took a step, and the loose gravel under her foot rolled away. Her foot slipped, and she tumbled down in the direction of the falling stones, pulling the unprepared Wei Jinzhi off-balance with her. But even while sick, she was a trained practitioner. With agile reflexes, she caught Wei Jinzhi, sacrificing herself to become a human cushion.
Wei Jinzhi scrambled up and looked at her. "How are you? Where did you get hurt?"
Fat tears rolled down from Wu Gu's eyes. Wei Jinzhi gathered her into her arms, her heart aching. She heard Wu Gu say in a choked voice, "Even the heavens think my idea was right! Since you didn't agree, they just made me trip on flat ground. I wasn't hurt that badly in the fight last night, but that fall just now crippled my leg." At that moment, a piercing pain shot through her right ankle.
In her effort to save Wei Jinzhi, Wu Gu had twisted into an odd position. Her sprained ankle had then been crushed under the weight of both of them. If it wasn't broken, it was likely fractured. Wei Jinzhi didn't dare touch it. Finding her words both amusing and heartbreaking, she could only pat her back comfortingly. "Don't be scared, it'll be okay. When we get back to North City, I'll take you to the Changshan Villa to recover. You'll be better in no time."
Wu Gu was scared. She was afraid that if her leg was permanently damaged, her cultivation of magical arts would be difficult to advance. But she couldn't say that, so she just cried. "Sister Wei, I can't be a cripple."
"I'll get you the best doctors. You'll be fine, I promise. Please, trust me, okay?"
Just then, Wu Yong arrived. Without needing to be told, he bent down and lifted Wu Gu into his arms. "Eldest Miss, I was worried, so I came in early. I hope I didn't disturb you." He had waited anxiously outside all night and had come in at the first light of dawn, well before the agreed-upon time.
"You came at the right time. Wu Gu hurt her leg. We need to get down the mountain to a hospital, quickly."
Wu Yong was in excellent physical condition and moved swiftly even while carrying Wu Gu. Wei Jinzhi, on the other hand, struggled to keep up, but her worry for Wu Gu made her grit her teeth and push on. As they emerged from the forest at the base of the mountain, they ran right into an old Daoist priest holding a horsetail whisk, who was about to head in. For a moment, the two groups stared at each other, the atmosphere slightly awkward.
The old Daoist was the first to react. He smiled kindly at Wei Jinzhi. "So it's you." He studied her for a long moment, then exclaimed in surprise, "You found someone who could break your curse? Truly, there's always a higher mountain and a greater person out there."
All three of them understood his words. The old Daoist remembered Wei Jinzhi because she was unique, but Wei Jinzhi wouldn't remember someone she had mistaken for a charlatan. "Daoist Master," she said, "I was young and reckless back then. Please forgive my offense."
The old Daoist laughed heartily. "No need to apologize. In fact, I should thank you! If it weren't for that hundred yuan you gave me, this old Daoist would never have discovered such a way to make a living." Seeing their bewildered expressions, he chuckled again. "If I may be so bold as to ask, how was this curse broken? This old Daoist is very curious."
For some reason, Wu Gu took a liking to the old Daoist. "Daoist Master, I'll tell you next time I come. My master used to say that every school of magic has its strengths, and we should exchange knowledge more often."
Only then did the old Daoist notice Wu Gu being carried. Seeing her pale face, he surmised that her body was damaged and her spiritual energy depleted, which was why he hadn't immediately sensed a fellow practitioner. "So there is a young Daoist friend here. This old Daoist thinks your master was very right. No wonder I sensed fluctuations in the spiritual energy of the earth vein last night, and my compass needle was swinging wildly this morning. I was just about to go in and investigate when I ran into you three. I imagine our young friend here borrowed the spiritual energy of the Huaishan earth vein to break the curse."
"Does the Daoist Master cultivate at Huaishang Palace?"
"Indeed. This old Daoist would like to invite you three to the palace for a cup of tea. Do you have the time?"
Wei Jinzhi replied, "Daoist Master, I'm terribly sorry, but my friend is injured and needs to go to the hospital first. We will certainly visit the palace another day to thank you for the gift of the talisman all those years ago."
The old Daoist looked regretful. "Very well, then."
Wei Jinzhi added, "Daoist Master, I have a presumptuous request. I have been under a curse since I was a child, and the cause is still unknown. I ask that you please keep today's events a secret for me."
The old Daoist's smile vanished, and he made a zipping motion across his lips. "Rest assured, my lips are sealed. I don't need to go up the mountain now anyway. Allow me to escort you three down."
Wu Yong carried Wu Gu all the way to the parking lot at the foot of the mountain. Once in the car, Wei Jinzhi saw that her ankle had swollen to the size of a bun. She took off Wu Gu's shoe and sock, holding her foot to examine it. Wu Gu felt embarrassed and tried to pull her foot back, but Wei Jinzhi quickly caught it and shot her a glare. "Don't move."
Wu Yong bought two ice pops, wrapped them in a towel, and pressed them against her injury. Wei Jinzhi looked at her red-rimmed eyes, so innocent and pitiful, and thought to herself that Master Wu really hadn't picked the wrong name for her back then. Though she had never met Master Wu, she had heard Wu Gu mention him so often that she had formed an image of him. She summarized all of Master Wu's sayings and extracted the central theme: an admonishment for Wu Gu to live her life with caution and humility.
And Wu Gu was indeed earnestly practicing these words. Suddenly, Wei Jinzhi felt a surge of delight. She thought about how Wu Gu must have wanted to back out and leave her to her fate many times since they first met. But here and now, her Yin Qi was gone, and Wu Gu was injured for her sake. It meant she must be special in Wu Gu's heart. The thought was a sweet one.
The drive from the mountain to the town hospital took about fifty minutes. Wu Gu fell asleep in her arms again. Wei Jinzhi used a wet wipe to gently clean the dried tear stains from her face, then stroked her cheek. It was smooth and delicate, wonderful to the touch. She lowered her head slightly and kissed her forehead again. When she looked up, the view outside the window was of distant clouds and green mountains, a landscape of immense beauty.
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