A Quiet Collapse

Li Huowang traced the impressions his brush had left on the paper with sensitive fingertips, methodically searching for a solution, one entry at a time.

"First, I need to change Bai Lingmiao's eyes. Her vision is getting worse, and this can't wait. Since Liu Zongyuan said there are some at the Supervisory Heavenly Office in the capital, I definitely need to go check it out."

"Also, I've done quite a bit of work for the Office by now. I've earned quite a lot, but besides the bribe I gave the Knife-Pawnbroker Hong Da to kill the Heart-Turbid, most of it has been sitting useless in that gourd. This is a good chance to spend it all."

"As for her short lifespan, I wonder if the Yang Life Pills would work on her."

"Speaking of which, where is Bai Lingmiao? I haven't seen her all evening."

"Li Sui, where is your mother?"

"She went into that house with all the black boards hanging on the walls."

Li Huowang's expression dimmed slightly when he heard that. He didn't ask any further. Bai Lingmiao had gone to the ancestral hall.

"It's nothing. It's late, you should go to sleep too."

Hearing his words, Li Sui nodded and turned to leave the house.

Once she had put on her straw rain cape and wide-brimmed hat, she returned to the Bai family compound and headed for the stables. That was where she was staying for now.

The stables were mostly empty, containing only a few carriage horses, making them feel spacious. Li Sui walked to the deepest stall, which was covered in a thick layer of hay.

She burrowed her entire body into the pile, stretched with satisfaction, then curled her monstrous form into a flat, disc-like shape with her head and tail touching.

But she didn't stay still for long. She crawled back out, tilted her head to look toward the ancestral hall, then lifted her reverse-jointed legs and walked over.

She reached the hall quickly. The hidden door in the wall was still open. Li Sui thought for a moment, then hunched her body and slipped inside.

Faced with the unfamiliar surroundings of the spacious White Lotus hall, she was very curious. She would occasionally sniff at the white lotus banners hanging from the ceiling, or drag her claws across the murals on the walls.

After making a full circuit, Li Sui stopped and looked toward a side door in the wall. There was a familiar smell coming from that direction.

She hesitated, then finally walked inside. It was very dark, but the smell was stronger. It was her mother's scent.

Soon, Li Sui heard some choked sobbing coming from the direction of the smell. Her mother seemed to be crying.

"We've spent so much time together, day and night. I know how Senior Brother Li feels about me, and I don't want to make him sad, but..."

"But I really don't know what to do. Every time I'm with him, as soon as I close my eyes at night, my parents come to me in my dreams. They curse me, call me ungrateful, call me heartless. I'm so, so tired..."

"Do I really have to leave Senior Brother Li? But... I just can't bear to..."

"These two sides tearing me apart make me want to die. But because of the Immortal, I can't even do that."

"Wusheng Laomu, no matter what I do now, it's wrong. What should I do?"

The voice coming from the direction of the smell stopped. Li Sui thought for a moment and was about to move closer, but a red figure blocked her path.

"Mother?" Li Sui said softly to the Second Spirit before her. "Mother, it's late. Aren't you going to sleep? Father told me to go to sleep."

The Er Shen extended her pale white right hand, covered in sharp nails, and took hold of Li Sui's right forelimb, which was exposed bone covered in black tentacles. She led her slowly down the dark corridor.

When the Er Shen led Li Sui through a hidden door, she saw a fragile woman in white, kneeling before a lotus. This was the other mother.

Bai Lingmiao held three incense sticks in her hand, tears in her eyes as she looked up at the twin lotus mural on the wall. "Wusheng Laomu... are you real, just like it says in the books? Are you omnipotent?"

"But if you really exist, and the Bai family believed in you, then why didn't you show your power and save them when Senior Brother Li killed them?"

Li Sui just stood there, listening to her mother kneel and speak.

She was starting to feel sleepy when she finally saw her mother, her eyes red and swollen, stand up and bow respectfully three times toward the twin lotus on the wall.

"Wusheng Laomu, if you are truly as merciful as the book says, please help me escape this predicament."

"If you can grant this humble girl's wish, then I, Bai Lingmiao, will surely build you a golden statue. I will believe in the White Lotus teachings for my entire life, and I will serve you forever."

Bai Lingmiao raised her head and looked at the twin lotus on the wall once more. But there was not the slightest change.

It seemed this was already predetermined, but deep disappointment still spread across Bai Lingmiao's face.

When she turned around, dazed and listless, she saw Li Sui and the Second Spirit standing there.

Bai Lingmiao showed no particular reaction. She just wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes and walked outside.

She walked ahead, with the Second Spirit holding Li Sui's hand, following silently behind.

When she reached the entrance of the ancestral hall, Bai Lingmiao stopped. Without turning her head, her voice choked with tears, she asked, "Do you look down on me for that? For praying to something so obviously fake?"

"If you're tired, you can let me take over." A sinister, raspy voice came from beneath the red bridal veil.

Bai Lingmiao bit her lower lip and shook her head forcefully. "No. If a surge of killing intent enters my body again, Senior Brother Li will be even more heartbroken."

The Second Spirit reached out her pale white hands and covered Li Sui's mangled dog ears. "You can barely survive yourself, and you're still worried about what he thinks? You're more like his dog than Mantou is."

"You!!"

The red bridal veil slipped off, revealing a ferocious beast's face beneath.

"Someone just treats you a little bit well, and you can't wait to give them your whole heart. You deserve it."

"If we're going by the rules of the outlaw world, he's your father's murderer. If you want to be a filial daughter, then find a chance and kill Li Huowang. But you don't dare, and you don't want to."

"If you think a living Li Huowang is better than your dead Bai family, then settle down and marry him. Get married as soon as possible. But you can't get past that hurdle in your heart."

"When something happens, instead of thinking about how to solve the problem, you pin your hopes on a nonexistent Wusheng Laomu, begging for a divine miracle. You are weak."

"So wake up. No matter what you pray for, no one can help you. The only one who can help you is yourself. You need to think it through, completely."

Bai Lingmiao couldn't argue with the Second Spirit, and she didn't want to. With a choked sob, she turned around.

The Second Spirit took her hands off Li Sui's ears. "Don't revolve around Li Huowang all day. Our own lives are more important than his. Think about how to survive. Your eyes are almost blind."

Sobbing, Bai Lingmiao pressed her hands to her chest and walked back toward the Bai family compound, dazed and forlorn. "I just... I just wanted to live a lifetime with the person I love... Is that wrong of me?"