"Do you remember what happened?" YuLan asked Zuo BingTan, who was now meditating to further calm down his energy. Zuo JinHai was by his side doing the same.
For all of them, the danger had passed. Compensation for the inn had also been properly done. A while ago, Cao Lu had directly stuffed some gold ingots into the inn perpetrator's hands. The innkeeper's expression changed from looking like it was the end of the world because of his inn's second floor's demolished state, to him looking like he had won the lottery as he quickly hid the gold ingots into his robe's sleeves.
With the gold, he could easily purchase lands and build three more new buildings in Ru'An. Cao Lu and YuLan the criminal of his business, had become his goddesses of fortune, so he quickly offered his own house located at a separate courtyard of the inn, for them to recuperate. The four of them sat across each other, the two women also supervised Zuo BingTan and Zuo JinHai in their meditation. It was to ensure there was no further mishap in their recovery.
Zuo BingTan opened his eyes and looked into YuLan's gaze. Her expression as she waited for his answer was soft and concerned, but that caused him to quickly avert his gaze. Silence ensued for a few breaths, and Zuo BingTan hoarsely croaked,
"There is no amount of words in the world to express how sorry I am for how I have behaved."
Cao Lu recalled the earlier events when Zuo BingTan was madly chasing after YuLan and screaming his 'needs' and 'wants',
"BingTan... . Do you really... . Have you really... ." She looked at YuLan, "Have you really been feeling that way towards YuLan?"
YuLan rolled her eyes inwardly. Her DaShijie was definitely not the subtlest person in the world.
Zuo BingTan looked at his sister and YuLan in turn,
"I would be lying if I said I did not have a speck of such thoughts." He smiled at YuLan, now looking completely at peace,
"But YuLan, believe me that I would never ever have forced myself on you. I never had the thought to even express my 'speck' of 'want'. It was just a passing scenario of 'what-if'."
He clenched his fists and frowned, his expression showing self-loathing, "But even now, I can recall the sensation of being free, in that muddled state of mind. All my 'wants', my 'desires' were multiplied thousands folds, and as if I would rather destroy everything if they could not be fulfilled."
"CaoLu-jie. YuLan. That meant I would also destroy you if I could not satisfy those 'wants'. And... that is something I will never ever do."
"It may not make sense. But do you believe me?"
YuLan smiled without doubt, "I believe you, BingTan-shiong."
The man smiled back, "It was like a nightmare, to be honest. I still remember I wanted to wake up from that nightmare though. But it was as if I was restrained by a dark substance, a prison that would not let me reach the light."
"It's the same for me." Zuo JinHai sighed, "All I could think about was how to battle those voices that urged me to kill."
"I... hate Imperial Father. But for some reason, in my nightmare, that hate turn into desire to kill."
"I thought 'Surely, if I could destroy this world, my Imperial Father would also be destroyed? I would destroy the Dynasty he was so fond of, everyone and everything in it.' That... is not me."
Cao Lu let out another sigh and squeezed YuLan's hands, "I am just glad that the heavens are still looking after us siblings. Thank you, YuLan." She paused,
"But if what you said is true, that they have been corrupted by malice, that means they should have become Daemons? Shifu clearly said the fire talismans would not be able to purify human Daemons. And even if a Fire Phoenix could purify a Daemon, it would always rob them of their past memories and render them mentally incapacitated. Even the farmers and vice-magistrate of this town were no exception."
YuLan's smile became wider, "That is true. But I have a hunch."
"DaShijie, you have once told me that your late Mother has given all three of you some precious pills to aid your cultivation?'
Cao Lu nodded.
"Do you still have some left?" YuLan asked. Cao Lu, Zuo BingTan, and Zuo JinHai proceeded to take out some pills from their storage rings and presented them in their palms for YuLan to see. YuLan hovered her own palm on the pills, and soon, the pills wafted a fragrance. She smiled as she observed on. Her suspicion turned to be correct after all.
The three's eyes widened as they glanced at each other. The fragrance emanated from the pills was almost indescribable, but it reminded them of the smell of air at early dawn, when the congregation of purest energy in the universe was at their highest.
"Your Mother has truly gifted you some treasures. These pills that you have consumed all this time, not only have aided your cultivation, they have assisted in strengthening your Dantians. Your qi is constant and strong; if one were able to look at your Dantians, they would have been some of the strongest and flawless ones."
"Just like a river whose path does not have any crevices or cracks where water could leak, this river flows in your Dantians. The pills strengthen this river, the qi's path. When malice tried to poison the river, it usually use these 'cracks' in one's Dantians to corrupt the energy flow, pushing one's own qi and replacing them with the malice threads. Soon, the cracks would become bigger and malice would overtake one's cultivation. However, because your Dantians were well protected and flawless, your qi was also so densely pooled that they could fight back."
"If malice was a disease, these pills have built a natural resistance within you all. It also helps lending force to the fire talismans' purifying fire to expel those malice, without actually hurting your Dantians."
"If it was any other person, or any other cultivators, malice would have already occupied their Dantians. Which is what normally has happened: once purified, even by a purifying fire as strong as a Fire Phoenix', because one's Dantians have been corroded by malice and has none of their own qi left, when those malice was gone, it leaves nothing but an empty shell."
The three hung their heads in silence. Cao Lu's eyes moistened. YuLan patted her hand, "I could only sense energy and this is only my own conjecture. Although I am sure I am right, as soon as I saw those pills, I know the similarity of the qi I could feel that is contained in those pills, with your own qi's signatures."
"Mother... ." Zuo JinHai whispered quietly and tightly gripped his 'Muhou'. He recalled that he almost killed himself, using the sword named in remembrance of his Mother. If there was no such gift that had been bestowed by the late Empress, that had protected him, he would not have the face to meet his Mother in the afterlife.
"But DaShijie, malice is actually considered a disease. It can be transferred from one person to another, but only by the qualified carrier." YuLan's expression turned cold as she was reminded of a certain Princess who had been coveting Zuo ZhouLei,
"Has Zuo Shan'er been traveling with you?" She finally asked straightforwardly.
The three of them looked at each other with a slight frown at the sudden mention of their distant cousin's name. They nodded,
"Yes, she has been able to sense where Daemons would appear. She has been traveling with all of us since a while back, but she is necessary if we wanted to locate these Daemons."
"Has Zuo Shan'er touched any of you?"
"Has she touched my man?" Was really the only important question YuLan wanted to ask, but obviously it was not the right time to address it.
Zuo JinHai nodded, "She attended to me and changed my dressing while I was recuperating from the wound that child-Daemon inflicted on me... ." His eyes widened, "Did that child actually pass the malice to me?"
YuLan shook her head softly and turned to ask Cao Lu, though she already knew the answer, "What about you DaShijie? Has she touched you?"
Cao Lu shook her head slowly. YuLan asked the same question to Zuo BingTan. He frowned, "No... I don't think she has really been around me that much. Shan'er much preferred to stay close to ZhouLei... ."
"Exactly what I am concerned about!" YuLan screamed inside, but her outward expression was still as tranquil as could be.
"Wait!" Cao Lu held up her hand, "Zuo Shan'er attended to your wound as well after our fight with the vice-magistrate and the henchmen Daemons."
YuLan nodded, "She has not touched DaShijie. However, although only for a brief period of time, she had some sort of direct contact with you both."
"She is a Daemon, and a carrier of malice."
"A-Are you sure?" Zuo JinHai stammered. Zuo Shan'er, although just a distant cousin, had always acted amiably and pleasantly with everyone. She did not seem to be a different person as well, unlike the vice-magistrate, the henchmen, or even the child Daemon and his parents that would attack at first sight. Zuo Shan'er looked a every bit a normal person,
"I mean, she looks normal. I think the farmers' son is more suspicious. I got this wound from him after all, so he might be the carrier."
"But that child has not touched or hurt me directly. It was only you, JinHai." Zuo BingTan interjected.
YuLan nodded, "Zuo Shan'er has likely inflicted some malice to the townspeople – those lesser human Daemons you have encountered. But she is definitely one as well, a more troublesome at that as she – as you have claimed – look as normal as the rest of us."
"Then... . She has left with Zuo ZhouLei, Shen Wei, Ao Xiang... ." Cao Lu's face paled, "And even Xiao Zi and Zhen Zhu, Oh heavens! What if she hurt Xiao Zi and Zhen Zhu?"
No one else apart from herself, Zuo BingTan, and Zuo JinHai, had the fortune to have those miraculous pills from the late Empress.
"We best track them straight away." YuLan said, "I doubt she would act carelessly as there is Ao Xiang-shiong, and he is a powerful beast-master. Even the most powerful Daemons would still be wary of the Fire Phoenix. But if she decided to inflict more malice to normal humans, our friends might be hurt one way or another."
After Zuo BingTan and Zuo JinHai spent around half a day to recuperate and steady their qi, they immediately left for the Imperial Capital.
Normally, Ping sect would receive news from Cao Lu by means of messenger birds. However this time, YuLan asked Cao Lu to use a high-grade communication talisman; there was only one of them, granted by the Ping sect's Sages for emergency use only.
It was a long-range communication talisman, a one-way message transfer from the bearer to Sage Hu Lan. Because of the distance it could cover, though it might take a few days or more for their message to be transmitted to Sage Hu Lan, it was a much faster option than utilizing birds, Ping sect actually did not have a lot of such talismans. However, YuLan decided that this moment was as good as any.
She doubted that Zuo Shan'er was the mastermind of this disease named malice. YuLan was the only Sage in the group, and she needed more help from her elders.
As senior disciples, Shen Wei should have a similar communication talisman. Ao Xiang would as well – for them to relay messages to Wu Shan sect and Hui Lin sect respectively. However, until the four of them were able to rendezvous with Shen Wei, Ao Xiang, and the rest, they could only seek assistance from the Sages of Ping sect.
The elders could not, should not sit idly by anymore, now that even Enlighteneds such as Zuo BingTan and Zuo JInHai could easily be corrupted.
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Runexi's notes:
Yun Ying - the late empress - might be cuckoo. She is a straightforward character though. She dared to love, dared to kill, even if it was someone she loved. By killing the person she (Yun Ying) loved, she believed she had liberated her (Shuan Bing).
And although no one would know anymore whether or not she really loved the children she bore from the man she loathed, she was a good mother. Better than most.