44: Chapter 44 Ye Family Village

Ye Family Village wasn't large. About thirty households, stone houses, surrounding a well. Three sides of the village were low hills, with tea planted on them. The spring tea had just been picked, and the remaining old leaves shimmered a deep green under the sun.

Ye Yuan walked very fast. Eighty li, from morning until evening—stopping only once in the middle to drink water. His urgency was real. It wasn't the kind one just talked about—it could be seen from the soles of his feet. Every step was planted firmly. Not the firmness of someone who had practiced martial arts—but the firmness of someone in a hurry to get somewhere.

At the entrance of the village, an old man was splitting wood. Seeing Ye Yuan return with people, his axe stopped mid-air.

"Yuan-zi—you found someone?"

"I found them."

The wood-splitting old man's gaze fell on Lu Chen. He looked at his grey robe. He looked at the short blade in Qin Wu's hand behind him. After looking, he said nothing—he lowered his head and continued splitting wood. The axe fell on the wood—crack. It wasn't that he didn't care. It was that he didn't dare to speak too much.

Ye Yuan pushed open a wooden door at the end of the village.

The house wasn't large. The main room was piled with medicinal herbs—dried, semi-dried, and freshly picked. The air was filled with the scent of herbs. Bitter, astringent, and a bit of sweetness—licorice. A young girl lay on a low bed in the corner.

She looked to be fourteen or fifteen years old. Her face was very pale. Her eyes were open.

But she didn't look at anyone.

She stared at the roof. There was a crossbeam on the roof. There was nothing on the beam. But she just stared there—it wasn't a daze. A dazed gaze is scattered. Her gaze was not scattered. It was focused on a single point on the beam—as if there really was something up there.

"Qingye." Ye Yuan knelt by the bed. His voice was very soft—not quiet, but soft. Fearing he would startle her. "Big brother is back."

Ye Qingye had no reaction. Her eyes remained on that beam.

"It's been three months." Ye Yuan stood up. "She's been like this—eyes open, not speaking, not eating—she only eats when fed. Sometimes she stands up and takes a few steps—but the direction she walks has no purpose. She stands there if she hits a wall. She stands until someone pulls her away."

Lu Chen walked to the bedside. He reached out and peeled back Ye Qingye's eyelids. Her pupils were normal—they contracted when exposed to light. But the thing behind the pupils wasn't right. It wasn't empty. It was—locked. It was as if something had covered her consciousness with a layer of shell.

He took out the fifth bone fragment—Li Xuanyi's. He placed it in Ye Qingye's palm.

There was no reaction.

The fourth one—self-oblivion Pass. He placed it in her palm.

There was no reaction.

The sixth one—Senior Bai Jie's. He placed it in her palm.

Ye Qingye's finger twitched. It was very slight—like being pricked by a needle. Then she turned her head. She wasn't looking at Lu Chen. She was looking at the three bone fragments in his hand. Her eyes still didn't move—but her head turned. It turned about an inch, toward the deep gold light within the bone cores.

"She's looking at the light," Qin Wu said.

"She's not looking at the light." Lu Chen held the three bone fragments higher. Ye Qingye's head followed, lifting an inch. "The light is in her eyes—what she sees isn't the bones. It's the thing she lost herself."

Ye Yuan clenched his fists. "The person who stole the Pill Formula—he used a black bone. There was this kind of light in that bone too. The light hit my sister—and she became like this."

"What did that person look like?"

"He wore a bamboo hat. I couldn't see his face. His voice was very old—not the kind of old like Senior Bai Jie. It was—" Ye Yuan thought for a moment. "It was the kind of old from someone who hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time. His throat was rusted shut."

"What Pill Formula did he steal?"

"Soul Returning Powder. An ancestral Pill Formula of the Ye family—it's not for Cultivation. It's a medicine to treat Soul-Detachment Syndrome. If a person's soul is unstable or their memories are disordered—Soul Returning Powder can temporarily stabilize them. That person said he needed this formula—he needed a lot of it."

A Pill Formula to treat Soul-Detachment Syndrome.

A Disciple of Li Xuanyi.

A voice rusted shut—not having spoken to anyone for a long time.

For a Cultivator with a Grey Spirit Root, emotions are refined away layer by layer—eventually, they don't remember who they are, or why they should speak. By not speaking, the throat rusts.

"You know this person?" Qin Wu looked at Lu Chen's expression.

"I don't know him. But I know who he is." Lu Chen tucked the bone fragments back into his robes. "A Disciple of Li Xuanyi. Likely the fourth. Or the third. Senior Bai Jie is the fifth. His Senior Brother—the second—is dead. His Senior Sister went to the Hehuan Sect. That leaves the first, the third, and the fourth—three people whose whereabouts are unknown. The one who used a black bone to steal the Soul Returning Powder—is one of them."

"He stole the Pill Formula to—"

"To treat himself," Lu Chen said. "Soul Returning Powder can stabilize the soul. Once the soul is stable, memories can be fixed. He doesn't want to forget—but he's about to forget. Residual power from the Love-Refining Furnace is stored in his bones—when that kind of light hits someone, it extracts a part of what's in their heart. He didn't hit your sister on purpose. He just couldn't control the power of the bone."

Ye Yuan's lips were trembling. "What was extracted from my sister?"

Lu Chen looked at Ye Qingye. Her eyes were still focused on the beam.

"I don't know. The Love-Refining Furnace extracts emotions in a set order—the first layer extracts fear, the second extracts friendship, the third extracts compassion. But the light in the bone fragment is residual—there are no rules. It extracts whatever it hits. It might be the 'will to speak'. It might be the 'ability to perceive others'. It might be—something I don't know about yet."

"Can she be saved?"

Lu Chen was silent for a while.

Reversing the Love-Refining Furnace could return the extracted emotions. But reversal requires Ten Fingers Clasped. Moreover, after reversal, the Grey Spirit Root would shatter.

He currently only had six bone fragments—three of which were still in his hand, unabsorbed.

He couldn't reverse it.

But there were other ways.

He pressed his hand onto Ye Qingye's forehead and closed his eyes. The Ink-gold Spiritual Qi in his Dantian traveled up along the Gray Line Meridians—passing the heart, passing the throat, reaching the brain. There were four branches of Gray Line Meridians in the brain—one of which connected to perception. His perception was amplified tenfold through the perception robe.

Through perception—he saw it.

Ye Qingye's consciousness wasn't empty. It was encased in a layer of deep gold light. The light was thin—but very resilient. Like a cocoon. Outside the cocoon was her conscious awareness—able to see, hear, and walk. Inside the cocoon was the thing that had been extracted—compressed into a tiny point. It was glowing. Not deep gold, but white.

"She's inside," Lu Chen said. "She isn't lost—she's encased. Like being sealed in a shell."

"Can the shell be broken?"

Lu Chen didn't answer.

He poured Spiritual Qi into the Gray Line Meridians—his sense of touch opened. His fingers felt the temperature of Ye Qingye's forehead. It was cool. Lower than a normal person's. Then he separated a sliver of Ink-gold Spiritual Qi from his Dantian—an extremely fine sliver—and let it seep along his finger into Ye Qingye's consciousness.

It wasn't reversal. It was resonance.

He had three bone fragments—all three stored the power of the Love-Refining Furnace. This power was of the same origin as the layer of light encasing Ye Qingye's consciousness. When powers of the same origin meet—they attract each other.

The deep gold cocoon shell began to move.

It didn't crack—it thinned. The speck of white light encased within the cocoon was pushing outward. Like a seed planted in the soil—someone had opened a tiny hole above it. The seed poked its head out through the opening.

Ye Qingye's eyes moved.

They shifted from the beam. They shifted onto Lu Chen's face.

"——"

She opened her mouth. No sound came out, but her lips moved. It wasn't a meaningless opening and closing—it was an attempt to say a word. A syllable. That syllable was stuck in her throat and didn't come out. But she tried.

Ye Yuan knelt by the bed, his hand grasping his sister's. "Qingye—"

Ye Qingye didn't look at him. She was still looking at Lu Chen. Her lips moved again—this time the mouth shape was clearer. It wasn't a word. It was a single character.

"Scared."

She said it. Her voice was very light. Like a bubble floating up from a great depth—only breaking once it reached the surface.

Then she closed her eyes and fell asleep. It wasn't a faint—she was sleeping. The eyes that had been open for three months finally closed.

Ye Yuan held her hand. The rims of his eyes on his dark face turned red—but he didn't cry. It wasn't that he was holding it back. It was that he had forgotten how to cry. Three months. He had waited at the village entrance for three months. The strength to cry had long since been used up.

Lu Chen stood up, moving his fingers away from Ye Qingye's forehead. The Ink-gold Spiritual Qi retreated to his Dantian—he felt a bit empty. It wasn't that the consumption was high. It was that during the resonance just now, some of the light in the bone cores had separated—it wasn't a loss. It was sharing. Like a cup of water being poured into another empty cup.

"She will relapse," Lu Chen said. "The cocoon shell isn't completely broken—only an opening was made. Her speech will slowly recover. But the thing that was extracted—I have no way to return it. I can only make the shell thinner, so she can reach the 'self' inside the shell."

"It's enough." Ye Yuan's voice was a bit hoarse—not because his throat was dry. It was because the strength he had held in for three months had suddenly loosened. "Being able to speak is enough."

"That man in the bamboo hat—what else did he say?"

Ye Yuan looked up. "He said—'If the person Senior Bai Jie made you wait for comes, tell him—I'm in Thousand Miasma Valley.'"

Thousand Miasma Valley. The natural miasma barrier outside the Hehuan Sect.

"What else did he say?"

"One more sentence. 'Tell the person you are waiting for—in the Hehuan Sect, there is someone not surnamed Hehuan.'"

In the Hehuan Sect, there is someone not surnamed Hehuan.

It meant—there was an outsider in the Hehuan Sect. Or a mole. Or—

"Did he say anything else?"

"Nothing else. He took the Pill Formula and left—when he left, he left a small piece of black bone. He said—it's for the person who can recognize it to see."

Ye Yuan fished something out from his robes.

A small section of black bone. About the size of a fingernail. It was different from all the bone fragments he had seen—this section of bone had no deep gold light inside. It was empty. But a tiny character was carved on the surface of the bone.

"Lu."

Qin Wu leaned in. "Your surname."

It wasn't his surname. It was Li Xuanyi's. Li Xuanyi had kept three bone fragments—the first was at Qingniu Ridge (bone fragment), the second and third were in the Inverted Tower. This was the fourth one he had obtained.

No. It wasn't the fourth.

He flipped the black bone over. There were more characters on the back—even smaller, almost invisible.

"Seven."

The seventh bone fragment.

It wasn't in the Hehuan Sect.

It was in the hands of this man in the bamboo hat.

Senior Bai Jie said the seventh was in the Hehuan Sect's Cave of Ten Thousand Desires—his Senior Sister took it. But now the black bone the man in the bamboo hat used to steal the Soul Returning Powder—it had 'Seven' sealed inside.

They weren't the same one.

The one in the hands of Senior Bai Jie's Senior Sister—and the seventh among the three Li Xuanyi left behind—might be two different bones.

Or—

Or the man in the bamboo hat had come out from the Hehuan Sect. He took the seventh bone fragment from the Cave of Ten Thousand Desires. Then he fled. Stealing the Soul Returning Powder—was to stabilize his own soul. He had been hit by something in the Cave of Ten Thousand Desires.

"He said he's waiting for you in Thousand Miasma Valley." Lu Chen returned the bone fragment to Ye Yuan. "Keep it—if she relapses again, put this under her pillow. The power of the same origin will continue to thin the cocoon shell."

Ye Yuan took the bone. "Are you leaving now?"

"Tomorrow morning."

At night, Ye Yuan built a fire in the courtyard. His mother brought out a pot of porridge from the kitchen. The porridge was thin—not much rice, but with wild mountain mushrooms added. The fresh scent wafted through the courtyard.

Qin Wu drank three bowls.

Lu Chen drank one bowl. He sat by the fire. The perception robe glowed slightly in the warmth of the firelight—not bright, but warm. The Inverted Tower stones within the robe absorbed the heat of the fire, converting it into a faint energy that seeped into his Meridians.

"Tomorrow we head south. Thousand Miasma Valley." Qin Wu put down his bowl. "That man in the bamboo hat—if he is Senior Bai Jie's Senior Brother, what is he waiting for?"

"He's waiting for the person who can finish the Inverted Tower," Lu Chen said. "Senior Bai Jie waited for seventy years—and he found me. His Senior Brother is waiting in Thousand Miasma Valley—also waiting for me."

"Why not wait at the Loose Cultivators Alliance?"

"Because he can't. The black bone in his hand is empty—the power within the bone fragment was used up by him. Or it was sucked away by something in the Cave of Ten Thousand Desires. His need for Soul Returning Powder to stabilize his soul indicates his memories are scattering—the price of the Grey Spirit Root. He's about to forget who he is. The miasma in Thousand Miasma Valley also affects the soul—it can temporarily suppress the soul's scattering. He isn't waiting. He's hiding in Thousand Miasma Valley."

"Hiding from what?"

"Hiding from the people of the Hehuan Sect. He took something from the Cave of Ten Thousand Desires—more than just the seventh bone fragment."

Qin Wu thought for a moment. "Then the Hehuan Sect right now—"

"The Hehuan Sect is also looking for him. When we enter the Hehuan Sect—this might be a bargaining chip. Or a trouble."

A piece of wood snapped in the fire. Sparks splashed up. Lu Chen watched those sparks darken in the air.

Hehuan Sect. Cave of Ten Thousand Desires. The man in the bamboo hat. The notes Han Yuan wanted. Xuantian Sect's eavesdropping technique. The white line turning grey. The sense of touch disappearing. The Gray Line Meridians had opened a switch—but every time it was opened, something was consumed.

Many threads were all converging toward the south.

Qin Wu poured a bowl of water and handed it over. Lu Chen took it—and took a sip. The water was cool. The coolness of well water. He felt it.

Not by using the Gray Line Meridians. It was a natural sensation.

He looked down at his fingers. Touch—without opening the Gray Line Meridians, his fingers themselves felt the temperature of the bowl and the coolness of the water. It was weak, but it was certainly there. It wasn't a switch. His body's own sense of touch was slowly recovering.

Qi Refining Level 6. Ink-gold Spiritual Qi. Gray Line Meridians.

His body was changing.

He looked up at the sky. To the south. The direction of the Hehuan Sect. Half a month's journey. Between them lay the Thousand Miasma Valley. In the Thousand Miasma Valley, someone was waiting.

A person who was about to forget who they were.

A person who had run out from the Cave of Ten Thousand Desires.

A certain Disciple of Li Xuanyi.

tianxuan calendar, taiping 19th Year, Spring.

Ye Family Village. First day of the journey south.

Qi Refining Level 6 stabilized. Gray Line Meridians have been cleared.

The sense of touch is slowly recovering—not because of a Cultivation Technique, but because of the body itself.

The seventh bone fragment is not in the Hehuan Sect—it is in the hands of a man in a bamboo hat. He is waiting in the Thousand Miasma Valley.

In the Hehuan Sect, there is someone not surnamed Hehuan.

Tomorrow—continue south.