I had thought it would be easy to make an escape by myself. All I needed was an invisible spell and Iâd be able to catch up to Moxi in no time.
But life never turned out the way I thought it would.
Never did I imagine the emperor would take action himself, less still did I expect this blind ruler to be so malicious.
He gave me a powerful blow and followed it with an iron net. It was no surprise I got captured.
Before being dragged into prison, I told myself that as soon as the emperor left, as soon as my spiritual power recovered, Iâd make my escape.
After they dragged me into prison, however, I could only heave a weak sigh. The emperor must have seen Bai Jiu as a very serious threat, or they wouldnât have locked me up in the palace dungeon.
The emperor firstly wanted to prevent me from escaping. He secondly wanted to extract Bai Jiu and Moxiâs whereabouts from me more conveniently. What they didnât know was that this had coincidentally subdued my spiritual powers to their lowest.
Since I couldnât run away, I adopted an attitude of living in peace in this dark dungeon.
The mortalsâ torture instruments werenât particularly dangerous to me. The daily whipping they gave wasnât any different from getting my itch scratched on a scheduled basis.
Though I have to say: I was scratched very wrongfully each day.
They asked me for Moxiâs whereabouts day after day. How was I supposed to know? I honestly told them just as much but they kept insisting that I wasnât being honest. I made a mental note to ask the imps as soon as these people arrived in the underworld whether they had any brains or not. If the answer was yes, Iâd beat them to a pulp. If the answer was no, Iâd simply chop their heads off and push them down the animal reincarnation well.
Since they didnât believe me, I stopped bothering to answer. Over time, they only came to whip me once or twice out of routine. Then much much later, they stopped coming to whip me or give me food altogether. I was kept in captivity, living my days not knowing morning from night. They wanted to starve me to death, but little did they know, I was the spirit of a stone. As long as I could draw energy from the earth, Iâd be able to live for centuries without any foods or drinks.
My only concern was that I didnât know what day it was. I didnât know how Moxi was doing outside.
This prison seemed to be very well hidden. Iâd been here for a long time but I had not seen anyone else being brought in. Had I been an ordinary person, I wouldâve rotted in here and nobody would know.
Fortunately, I did not fear darkness, for this environment perfectly allowed me to concentrate on my cultivation.
During this lengthy time, my spiritual powers made a slight improvement â not enough to aid me in my escape, nevertheless.
I didnât know how long it had been by the time I finally heard another voice in addition to the squeaking rats. Everything sounded so much clearer in the dark.
The door opened and in came a single person.
I sat there dumbly. Did they not come to check on the prisoners?
He passed the fire and rounded the corner, slowly walking over this way. I squinted and gazed up at the person who came â a young lad in his twenties or thirties, dressed in a robe as pristine as snow and looking entirely out of place in this dungeon. His face was inexplicably familiar under the fireâs glow.
When he saw me, a slight change came over his serene face.
I just knew it! I had no idea how long I had been here, but I generally knew it had to have been ten years at least. Who wouldnât be scared witless to see someone who hadnât had any foods or drinks still living and breathing after ten years inside a dungeon? Not to mention my ghastly appearance, it was already a commendable courage he did not throw the torch and run for the hills.
âSansheng,â he called my name. âItâs Changâan.â
I frowned in thought; the name was a bit fuzzy in my distant memory. Quite a while later, I reacted: âAh, the chicken little priest of Liubo.â Because I hadnât spoken for too long, my voice came out croaking.
He furrowed his brow: âIâll help you leave.â
I cleared my throat, smilingly saying: âYou seem to be doing well. Why arenât you afraid I would pick you like when you were younger?â
He smiled back awkwardly: âItâs been thirty years. You still remember pretty well, Sansheng.â
Thirty years. I froze.
In our last lifetime, I had gone to the underworld after Zhonghua killed me and waited two years for him there, after which I had returned to Earth to look for Moxi. We had lived together for eight years, which makes it a total of ten years. Yet Changâan was now saying it had been thirty years.
It turned out Iâd stayed in this place for two decades.
Two decades⊠Moxi must be twenty-eight by now. I wondered how he looked.
Leaving the palace was much easier than I thought.
Changâan found me a servant outfit. After I put it on, he openly took me out of the palace. Along the way, I kept seeing people prostrating to him, saying: âYour Eminence, Imperial Reverend.â
. My ankle was clamped tightly. It couldnât have wounded me for real, but it did hurt quite badly.
While I was near tears and accusing Heaven of being blind, a figure besmirched in the bloodiness of battle swiftly walked over. I still couldnât make out his face for he was lowering his head to carefully remove the snare for me. Afterwards, he rolled my trousers up to check whether the injury had reached my bones.
The large and warm hands that were holding my ankles trembled slightly, as if they were tensed, as if they were excited, but also as if they were abashed.
âMoxi!â
He stiffened. Without any decorum, I removed his helmet for him. I cupped his cheeks and slowly lifted his face.
Gazing at his blood-stained face, I didnât expect to see eyes so eternally transparent even after his shares of battles and intrigues. I sighed: âYouâre grown now so this must be embarrassing for you, but Sansheng really canât wait anymore. What am I going to do?â
He didnât know what I was going on about.
The moment my lips inched near, his eyes abruptly widened. I sighed inwardly, but still placed a kiss onto his lips in the end.
âMoxi, MoxiâŠâ I clung onto his neck, rubbing my cheek onto his temple whispering: âI miss you so much, Sansheng misses you.â
His body went as rigid as iron. Even more rigid was his neck, refusing to tilt toward me for even half an inch. It was too tiring to cling onto him so I simply let him go, choosing to stare at him with a smile instead. âIâve come for you, so why do you still have this look on your face?â
He slightly recovered at these words. My reflection gradually took form in his eyes. He slowly raised his hand, as if he couldnât believe he could touch my cheek. I beamed at him, letting his rough fingers slowly graze my face â my eyes, my nose, my lips, over and over again as if to test whether the one standing in front of him was real and alive.
Finally, he hugged me with shaking hands, a long sigh drifting into my ears â a sigh that finally dispelled all the grief and sorrow of parting we had kept buried. I reckoned even if he could speak, heâd still only sigh in my ear right now.
Because we had been separated for too long, there was too much to say that our time was better used in embracing.
Unsurprisingly, he brought me back to the camp.
The use of a spell would have easily fixed the wound on my foot, but I had chanted to make it look even worse. When he saw that the bleeding couldnât be stopped, the crease in Moxiâs brow had deepened. He transferred me onto his back and headed straightaway for the camp.
I reveled in the feeling of being so deeply cared for.
I received countless salutes from the soldiers while I was on his back. What they saw wasnât a man carrying a woman, but rather a fairy carrying a witch, their eyeballs nearly popping out from their sockets.
I had never cared about how others saw me, but Moxi was afraid that these rough men would give me a hard time. His expression frosted up as he slowly swept his eyes across them. Instantaneously, everyone around us withdrew his gaze.
Amid the warmth in my heart, I pressed even closer to Moxi.
When we got to the main tent, I lifted aside the curtain for him and promptly saw a woman sitting inside.
A womanâŠ
âMoxi,â I felt my mind leaving me. âDid you get married in the time I was away?â I sadly asked.