WPCID 38: Soulless

Crimson blood seeped across the white robes, like the flowers that covered the slopes of Lesser Hermit Peak.

A sound came from the doorway.

Chu Xuan stood there, hair disheveled and in a complete mess. He stared blankly at the sword buried in Lu Buzhuo’s chest. His gaze trembled, sweeping over the familiar pattern on the hilt, and in an instant, it went vacant.

Xie Xianqing followed close behind into the room and sucked in a cold breath.

After that, everything descended into chaos.

Shen Zhou couldn’t remember clearly.

By the time he came to his senses, he had already fled to some unknown place, huddled and trembling lightly beneath a thicket of trees.

Both his hands were covered in blood. It was a familiar blood, one he had tasted and drunk, mixed with faint traces of demonic energy. The path he had taken was also stained with blood—on the leaves, the withered grass, the soles of his shoes, the hem of his robes, his cuffs… Everywhere he looked, it was overwhelming.

That sword strike had been so clean and decisive, not even a ten-thousandth as brutal as the one on the Biancheng city tower. Why was there so much blood, so much that he could never get it clean?

…So much blood.

Lightning flashed across the horizon, followed by a roll of muffled thunder, and rain began to pour down.

Summer had arrived.

His wolf ears were soaked, unable to stand up, utterly drenched. Rainwater slid past his eyes, blurring his vision for a moment before rolling down, carrying the stench of blood with it.

From winter to summer, the home he had briefly possessed had finally seeped into the soil with the bloody water, disappearing without a trace.

Shen Zhou sat in the rain under the bushes for a long time.

Someone had died at his hands in two lifetimes, yet in the end, still smiled at him. Although that smile was for his cultivation partner, Shen Zhou, the demonic cultivator Shen Zhou would accept it on his behalf for now.

In his previous life, Lu Buzhuo’s soul had scattered. In this life, he would probably be reincarnated.

He had to find the reincarnation, return the smile, and tell Lu Buzhuo that his cultivation partner actually liked him very much and never hated him.

And if Lu Buzhuo were to ask, “Where is my partner?”

Shen Zhou didn’t know. Perhaps, when the time came, he could write a letter to Chu Xuan and ask where that suitable match he had found for Lu Buzhuo was.

The rain grew heavier.

Shen Zhou stood up and staggered forward aimlessly, as if looking for shelter from the rain, or perhaps simply not wanting to stop.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before a set of stone steps appeared before him.

They were very familiar, yet he couldn’t remember where they were from.

It was only when he saw the charred ruins and the moss-covered well that he realized this was the Bamboo Cove.

He stood at the entrance for a while, climbed over the toppled fence, and rummaged through the ruins.

He found a blackened clothing trunk that hadn’t been completely burned. From inside, he pulled out a red robe that was much too large for him. It didn’t have the scent of bamboo, but it was clearly Lu Buzhuo’s.

The robe was quickly soaked by the rain, turning a deep crimson. The hem was a little torn, but Shen Zhou didn’t mind. He shook it out and draped the wet, wrinkled garment over his shoulders.

It looked like a bloodstain that could never be washed away.

Kunlun Ruins probably wouldn’t let him go, but he still had things left to do.

Although Lu Buzhuo had told him not to be a demonic cultivator anymore, he was just that kind of terrible, disobedient cultivation partner.

After carefully arranging the red robe, he turned, descended the mountain, and headed in the direction of the Myriad Bones Grotto.

Yellow Ridge Town was desolate and barren, with not a blade of grass to be seen.

On the night the demonic cultivators ran rampant, the Biancheng branch of the Peace Bureau, for some unknown reason, had been very late to arrive.

That night, wretched screams and wails were endless. The next day, the ground was littered with gnawed limbs and severed torsos. The stench of blood shot to the sky and lingered for a whole month.

Wanted posters for the half-demon cultivator were scattered like snowflakes. It was said that this person killed a disciple of Kunlun Ruins, stole Defiled Stones, gathered demonic cultivators to cause chaos, and was cruel and bloodthirsty—a true demon lord.

If seen, he must be executed.

In the blink of an eye, three months passed.

The heat of July faded as the weather turned cool. The flowers on Lesser Hermit Peak had bloomed and withered in a new cycle.

Lu Buzhuo, draped in a thin outer robe, sat under the eaves of the corridor, gazing at the flowers covering the slope before him, yet he seemed to be seeing nothing at all.

Xie Xianqing glanced at the cold medicinal soup. 

“You didn’t drink it again? Was it easy for me to save you?”

Lu Buzhuo didn’t look at him, as if he hadn’t heard. After a moment, his lips moved almost imperceptibly. 

“How is Chu Xuan?”

“He didn’t suffer a cultivation deviation,” Xie Xianqing said. 

“You were too insane. That evil soul thought you were going to take it down with you and hastily abandoned your body to flee. It slammed right into the protective aura on the sword’s blade and was seriously injured on the spot. It just gave Chu Xuan quite a scare.”

Lu Buzhuo gave a soft “Mm,” showing no sign of happiness.

The evil soul was weaker than ever before, unable to occupy his spiritual sea any longer. He had thus moved the entire array, along with his cultivation, back to his sea of qi. It was, in a way, a blessing in disguise.

Chu Xuan had come close to a cultivation deviation and had gone into seclusion upon his return. With the Sect Master absent, the matter of cleaning house was naturally postponed.

“Neither of you even has an apprentice. If something were to happen, wouldn’t Kunlun Ruins have to seal its gates?” Xie Xianqing complained lightly. 

“Don’t tell me you expect me to train an apprentice for you?”

Lu Buzhuo grunted “Mm” again, not even bothering to move his eyes.

Although he wore clean white robes, his entire being was as dreary as sullied snow, as if he had lost all three of his ethereal souls and seven corporal spirits.

Xie Xianqing chattered on for a while to fill the silence, then sighed, picked up the cold medicinal soup, and stood to leave.

He turned and went to the Sect Master’s residence.

Chu Xuan was inside; he hadn’t been in seclusion at all.

“How is Senior Brother?”

“Not well. He’s alive, but it’s no different from being dead.” Xie Xianqing put the soup down. 

“I reckon if you just show your face and tell him to go kill himself at the tomb forest, he’d go without a second word.”

Chu Xuan glanced at the soup. 

“You can’t cure him?”

“I can’t.”

“Then I’ll just take medicine and get better,” Chu Xuan said, looking at him with a reproachful expression.

Xie Xianqing: “?”

Xie Xianqing: “My little ancestor, your illness doesn’t require medicine, you know that? If you cure Lu Buzhuo, you’ll naturally be fine. I’m just feeding you some tonics because I’m bored.”

Chu Xuan: “…”

Xie Xianqing continued, “You and I both know full well where the root of the problem lies. How can a mere medical cultivator like me treat it? Let me ask you, after the chaos that day, did you catch the half-demon?”

Chu Xuan shook his head.

“Do you know array formations?”

Chu Xuan shook his head again.

“Do I? Of course not.” This time, Xie Xianqing simply answered his own question, slapping his palm with his fan. 

“So how did that half-demon just vanish from right under our noses? Who tampered with the restraining array and let him escape?”

Chu Xuan stopped shaking his head and turned to look at the scenery outside the window.

Xie Xianqing walked around to face him. 

“I really didn’t expect it, I really didn’t! Your Senior Brother was on the verge of death himself, yet he didn’t forget to dispel that worthless… array! Just so that half-demon could get away!”

The word “worthless” was delivered with resounding force, spittle flying. Chu Xuan flinched back to avoid it.

“So what’s to be done?” Chu Xuan asked. 

“It’s not Senior Brother’s fault.”

Xie Xianqing: “…”

He closed his eyes in despair, then opened them. 

“Both of you, get lost! Stop bothering me! Let me have some peace and quiet.”

Then he remembered this was the Sect Master’s residence and prepared to get lost himself.

As he reached the door, a scabbard extended from behind him and hooked his sleeve.

“Wait, I have something to tell you.”

Xie Xianqing turned back. 

“Speak.”

“Something strange has been happening at the Myriad Bones Grotto recently,” Chu Xuan said.

“How so? Is the seal breaking down faster?”

“No.” Chu Xuan hesitated for a moment. 

“I feel… that besides me, someone else is repairing the seal.”

Xie Xianqing’s first thought was, “Lu Buzhuo?”

“Impossible. Senior Brother would never use such a crude, clumsy, and atrocious technique for repairs.” Chu Xuan used three adjectives in a row to deny it before speculating, “It must be a beginner.”

There were two ways to repair the array formation sealing the Myriad Bones Grotto. One was a fixed repair method that every Sect Master had to learn, regardless of whether they cultivated arrays.

The other was for array cultivators to flexibly assess the different areas of damage and add new, interlocking formations. This method was more versatile and more robust than the first.

The “beginner” Chu Xuan referred to was using the first, fixed repair method.

“A beginner?” Xie Xianqing guessed in another direction. 

“Did a Kunlun Ruins disciple sneak in?”

It had happened before, but the outcome had been tragic. When found, only half a corpse remained.

Chu Xuan still shook his head.

“That person has been inside the whole time,” he said. 

“At first, they just picked up some rocks and tried to imitate the formations, but they would fall apart after a short while. But they’re very smart. They dismantled a few of the fixed repair arrays to study them. Initially, they couldn’t put them back together and even used rocks to point me in the right direction to fix them. The demonic energy in that place is too thick for me to perceive things from far away. I just occasionally sense someone spying on me while I’m doing the repairs.”

Xie Xianqing: “…”

This was truly bizarre.

“Are you planning to catch this person?” Xie Xianqing asked.

“I’ll go take a look later today.” Chu Xuan fiddled with his sword. 

“Yesterday, I intentionally left one spot of damage unrepaired and set a trap nearby. If that person is truly repairing the seal, they won’t be able to escape.”

Just as he finished speaking, something in his robes moved, and a small paper figure emerged.

Chu Xuan pressed the paper figure back down and raised an eyebrow slightly. 

“The fish is in the net.”