Time passed like a rushing torrent, unnoticed by anyone.
The sun rose shyly toward the sky, slowly turning it into a golden palace.
Its light shone, revealing a dense forest from which trees soared — some piercing the sky with their height, others cowering in fear beneath the shadows.
When the sun reached the zenith, it gently cast its yellowish rays upon a muddy patch in the forest — where a pale face emerged, attached to a body lying in the mud.
His body was cold, and a few insects crept over him, checking if there was any sustenance to be found.
Lying on his side, it was as if the earth had finally found a chance for a meal.
The owner of the pale face lay thrown on muddy ground, like a forgotten corpse recovered.
His body was cold; a few insects crawled over him, testing if there was any sustenance.
Lying on his side, it was as if the earth had finally found a chance to feast.
Half of his body was covered in mud, as if he were a statue carved from human flesh.
Like an empty corpse, he lay there silently.
Bang!
In an instant, the insects leapt away in fear. The sound of a drumbeat echoed through the surrounding area.
But the source of the sound was neither a drum nor violent music—it was the heart of the man with the pale face.
Had anyone seen him at that moment, they would have sworn his heart had exploded!
Yet the beats persisted; each pulse was louder than the one before it, as if life was trying to scream within this man's chest.
After a series of loud successive beats, they gradually quieted, then became still—vanished completely!
It was as if he responded; the man immediately straightened up, as if pulled by a string from behind.
He gasped deeply until his lungs nearly burst, then his inhales and exhales came in quick succession.
His eyes were wide open, veins crossing them like tiny bloody rivers.
The man felt cold sweat down his back, then numbness in his scalp.
He could not move his head; his muscles were already too stiff.
He shifted his gaze to his hand and found it rigid.
He wanted to ask what was happening, but no sound came from his mouth.
His vision was blurry; his sight had not fully recovered yet. But he saw black smoke entering between the trees—silent, without a trace. The leaves did not tremble, nor did the grass.
Chang Yu thought it was due to his blurred vision and his mind not fully awake—he assumed he was hallucinating.
But soon that suspicion vanished; the cold sweat running down his body indicated he was shivering.
"Ah... ah...!"
After a strenuous effort, all he could produce was some broken sounds.
"Do you realize what has happened to you?"
With one glance, Chang Yu's body returned to its previous state—perhaps even better.
"This... it's you! Wuchi!"
Chang Yu did not pay attention to his body; instead, he immediately asked questions where his memory had left off.
"Wuchi! Where am I? Moments ago I was advancing to the central zone, for sure!"
The smoke thickened; several shadows darted from the trees, leaping within the smoke.
Chang Yu's vision now returned to normal; he was certain he saw correctly.
Though he had seen Wuchi's strange appearances a few times, he still was not used to them.
Each time Wuchi appeared, a feeling of oppression and fear grew inside him. His limbs trembled; his internal organs became disturbed.
"Chang Yu, do you know what happened to you?"
A deep voice with a faint echo reached Chang Yu, making him dazed for a moment before he screamed.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Warm blood flowed from his eyes, ears, nose, even his nails were not spared.
He lowered his head and held it with his bleeding hands.
It seemed Chang Yu was in an isolated space, for everything around him remained unaffected. Neither insects cared, nor did the leaves. His voice did not attract or scare animals away.
Suddenly, Chang Yu stood up and ran madly while his body bled.
Drenched in blood and tears, he looked at the rising smoke with a glare of anger.
Suddenly, that look turned directly into submission, humiliation, and fear.
Chang Yu's pain increased, as if his sensitivity to pain had amplified.
Immediately after, he felt an intense itch all over his body.
He sat down in place, rested his head, and started scratching his body, but it was not enough.
The urge to scratch grew stronger, his skin could no longer bear it. With his blood and internal organs agitated, Chang Yu began tearing his skin from the scratching.
But despite all this, the itch did not disappear.
"Ahhhhh!!! It hurts! It hurts!!! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Ahhhh!"
Chang Yu drowned in his screams; his eyes were confused—were they shedding tears or making way for the blood?
He started rolling on the ground, hoping to relieve his pain. But ironically, this only tore his skin further, allowing insects to enter his body.
The insects drank his blood and bit him from the inside, while Chang Yu could no longer scream—his vocal cords were torn.
He lay there; his hands were unable to scratch. His skin and flesh were completely torn. Fresh blood oozed out.
The blood mixed with saliva dripping from his mouth. He looked at the rising smoke beside him. His eyes had turned red, filled with blood; when he looked, it seemed as though his vision was covered by a bloody red cloth.
With a lifeless gaze, he turned his eyes upward toward the smoke.
Suddenly, a crackling sound rang out. The world intertwined; the world fell and twisted in Chang Yu's eyes.
In the next moment, he was in the same position he was in before the torture.
Chang Yu—nor his mind—could comprehend what was happening.
He moved his head and looked at his hands; they were completely normal.
"When did my body return to normal? Wasn't it stiff?"
"No, Wuchi is in front of me! What was I thinking—"
While he thought, the familiar deep voice interrupted.
"Chang Yu, I'll ask you for the last time, do you know what they did to you?"
Like a lightning bolt striking his body, Chang Yu jumped in terror. His hands unconsciously gripped his upper arms, his body contracted in trembling.
His eyes trembled as he thought, "No... no! I don't want to endure that thing again... no!"
Tears streamed from his eyes; he was terrified.
Chang Yu did not feel it, but his body suddenly disappeared. Then reappeared in the same place—but high in the sky.
When he opened his eyes this time, he was indeed high in the sky.
Chang Yu gasped; his pupils contracted. Words wanted to come out, but his throat refused to obey.
It was stiff, trembling with fear. So were his other organs, as if terror had given them a will of their own.
Then, the words slipped out like water flowing over a cliff, forming an intense, loud, and desperate waterfall of speech!
"I will speak!! I will speak! Please stop!!"
The next second, Chang Yu found himself as he was before the torture again.
He wanted to be afraid, but could not. Fear and terror had been taken from him at that moment.
He had no choice but to speak, so he said: "What did they do to me? They left me because I fell, and that is natural."
"Since I encountered them, I have been tortured daily! Every time I change, I return. Every time I say I understand something, I return the next day to my stupidity!"
"Even my sister—"
"Huh?"
"Wait... my sister! Where is my sister!!!"
As this sentence escaped Chang Yu's mouth, he realized he had made a grave mistake.
He stepped back a few steps, suddenly crushing some dry leaves and small branches, producing a slight cracking sound.
But this simple sound sent such terror through Chang Yu's marrow that he jumped and then fell to the ground.
His eyes sunken, his face pale again. He felt as if the world lacked colors—and he himself had no definite color.
Grasping his head, he began to sob.
A few small crystals formed near his eyes, then a hoarse voice emerged: "Wu—Wuchi... can you... help me...?"
Then, the smoke thickened much more than before, as if preparing to invade the world.
In the next moment, the smoke spread around Chang Yu, engulfed him, then lifted him up.
This time, the deep voice became a surrounding voice—more terrifying.
"Help? I am not your servant, nor your teacher, nor your master, and I do not intend to have a rat like you as a disciple."
"Let me explain what happened to you, since you are stupid enough not to understand."
"Since Ji Hai saw the technique I gave you, he coveted it."
"Joining? Ridiculous. Why would he join a weak unknown to his army?"
"Did you really think you'd gain power? He kept you close enough to toy with your mind, to extract your memories—and he succeeded. Because of your weakness, your fragile mind, and your personality."
"Your sister? Maybe she was raped, mutilated, and discarded—all because of your stupidity."
"Chang Yu, if you do not become that selfish person I want, you will get nothing but suffering, pain, and ridicule."
After this torrent of insults, Chang Yu had no expression to show. Fear? Anger? Terror? Disgust? Blame? Sadness?
He could not say a word, nor think of anything. He only curled up, inside his own world.
Within this world, all of Chang Yu's feelings appeared while he tried to disappear from it.
Harshness? Not enough to describe what he had endured so far.
Within the folds of his small world, sometimes there appeared a large field with a little girl playing and calling: "Brother, hurry and come."
At another time, the field would burn and show Chang Yu fallen, screaming with tears incessantly falling as he reached out to the little girl.
The same little girl was in the grasp of Ji Hai's shadow, who laughed mockingly as if he mocked him with the worst scorn.
Then suddenly, the little girl's head exploded. Blood poured over the helpless Chang Yu. The scene changed again.
His memories followed—happy,
and sad, painful and disturbing.
His father, his sister, the village children, Tu Yuan, his slaughtering of men, Ji Hai, the soldiers' fear, and Wuchi.
But what Chang Yu did not expect was that one memory would appear. A large city manifested before his eyes, and he was slaughtering its citizens.
The difference was that the slaughtering Chang Yu cared less about what is called life and death, while the watching Chang Yu's emotions still moved him left and right.
Then, the slaughtering Chang Yu turned and looked at the watching Chang Yu and said:
"I slaughtered them, I will not deny it. They are innocent, yes, but I slaughtered them. So what? Will they come back? Or will one person like me be enough to compensate for thousands of lives?"
With this sentence, Chang Yu felt the pressure of several mountains. He felt the coldness of the person in front of him, the overwhelming intent to kill, and indifference.
His facial muscles tensed; his eye lens hurt him. "No... no! That is not me! Not me! That is not Chang Yu!" he thought.
The killing Chang Yu stepped closer; the other stepped back while shaking his head and shouting: "Stay away! You are not me!"
Then the killing Chang Yu said while approaching: "Of course, you are not me. I would not be the path you are on. Let me tell you, because of you, I had to kill this city."
"They died, while I am still here. Do you realize the difference between me and you? I can now kill you and replace you. The living possess everything, including what the dead once owned in life."
At some point, the watching Chang Yu collapsed. He could no longer bear to hear the words of the other Chang Yu.
Unexpectedly, the other Chang Yu stopped in place and said, "Chang Yu, oh me. If it were not for your current weakness, I would not have had to slaughter this city. Do you want to live my experience? Do you want to live the experience of cutting the throat of a newborn infant?"
"Do you want to see his mother's expressions? If you do not want that, then do not be the weak person you are! Foolish! Stupid and gullible!"
The cold Chang Yu extended his hand, but the watching Chang Yu was still stunned. He did not react, nor did he reach out to take the other's hand.
When the cold Chang Yu saw his weak self, he sighed, then withdrew his hand and said, "It seems there is no escape from this fate."
In the next moment, the world withdrew.
---
After some time, Chang Yu woke up.
His head ached intensely; it was not just a headache. Even the sound of his heartbeat was audible in his mind, as if his heart had risen to his head.
Thoughts waited for Chang Yu's awakening to enter his mind in clusters without greeting.
But Chang Yu temporarily ignored them; he had not yet healed from the successive shocks.
He heard Wuchi's surrounding voice again saying, "You will now go east; do not stop until you reach the gates of the Ming Wu sect."
Then, the smoke vanished suddenly. As if there had been no smoke, no blood, no torture.
Chang Yu fell to the ground but did not stand. Instead, he continued lying down as if he had left this world.
This event left a deep confusion inside Chang Yu's soul.
---