Jin Se

Chapter 78

The fifteenth day of the first month, the day of the lantern festival.

Battle broke out.

The people beneath the walls used their bodies as shields. Arrows rained down from the walls, felling wave after wave of people. The whole moat was dyed red with blood, but the soldiers were like the tide. When one wave retreated, another one came. Sabers, spears, swords, halberds, Yan Zhen took one look from atop the walls and thought these people could use their nails to pry the wall to pieces. They were so vicious it made one's scalp numb.

When noon passed, the remnant of the sects' disciples within the city moved out, facing off with the cavalry outside the walls. Day was as night, night was as day, it was utter chaos. No one knew what time it was, some couldn't even tell whether they were alive or dead. They rushed into the fray all the same, driven by instinct.

Until their last drop of strength was spent, until they'd screamed their voices hoarse.

"Bitan-shishu." From afar, Shi Wuduan saw the frazzled man of the Xuan Sect holding down the fort on the walls. He laughed bitterly, as if realizing a beat too late that he was no different from a traitor to his sect.

Then, he waved towards Bai Li, and in the furor yelled incoherently, "Do you know what happens when a person's flesh and blood are separated, and one part is about to die?"

Bai Li frowned, "What?"

"Nothing. Just asking." Shi Wuduan shifted his gaze. He'd gotten considerably thinner recently, perhaps because his thoughts were too heavy. His face became even more expressionless; he seemed like a carefully carved wooden doll.

"Are you asking me how the soul and the fox's blood that I discarded returned to me?" Bai Li asked.

Shi Wuduan asked in return, "Then why... did you end up in a rabbit's body back then?"

He'd never mentioned that question before, but now he'd finally asked. Bai Li pushed his hair, disheveled from the wind, to the side. His fingertips brushed past his cheeks, cold from the relentless northern winds. A good while later, he said, "Maybe I was worried about you, I suppose? If I couldn't see you, didn't know how you were doing, I'd panic."

Shi Wuduan looked at him blankly, but just then, a thunderous drumbeat suddenly rang out, bringing him back to his senses. He looked and saw that the skies, which had just moments ago been filled with stars, was suddenly half enveloped by black energy. A violet-black light rose from the west. The wind stopped unnaturally. The stench of rot permeated the air, like the decay of a mass grave exposed to air after an earthquake.

They heard the sound of rustling from afar; it resembled hushed whispers.

Suddenly someone yelled in alarm, "Demon creatures! Demons out of the depths of hell!"

Xia Duanfang unconsciously glanced towards Shi Wuduan, who was looking at the city walls. His face seemed blurry in the inconstant flickering of the fire. He faintly raised his head; his jaw was clenched tight. The wind had already swept most of his hair from his bun, where it now fell his back, unmoving... yet his expression was tranquil.

He seemed to be forever tranquil. Of all the joy, anger, sorrow in the world, nothing could move him any longer. Xia Duanfang couldn't help wondering sometimes, whether he'd have turned into a lunatic if Bai Li hadn't returned, whether he'd break down all at once or turn into a rock, forgetting everything of happiness and grief?