Her breathing was shallow, but still visible in the cold, wet darkness. Only the brief instances of moonlight made it to the bottom of the pit where Xu Qianyi's near-lifeless body lay. Her left cheek on the ground, mud covered her pale-white hand as she struggled to extend her long thin fingers, reaching out to her sister.
"Qianyi," a soft voice whispered next to her. "Jiě. Hold on. Hold on."
Qianyi fought to breathe, unable to respond. Her eyes flickered between blue and black as the moon's light touched her skin, then faded when the dark, heavy clouds raced quickly past the moon. "Moon. Light," Qianyi finally exhaled.
"Duì duì duì. You need moonlight," Yisha thought to herself. "Hang in there. Just a little longer. I'll get you out of here. I promise." Yisha crawled closer to Qianyi, clasping her brown fingers around her sister's. She took a deep breath, rolled her sister onto her back, and kneeled by her side.
She raised her right hand to her mouth, holding up two fingers, while holding Qianyi's hand with the other and, attempting to summon her Yuánqì, she whispered,"Cányuè wéi yǐn." The clouds began to allow more of the moon's light to escape and touch girls' skin. "Tàiyīn huà sheng," she continued, using her body as a conduit for the moon's light to transfer healing energy to her sister.
Qianyi's breathing began to steady.
"Cányuè wéi yǐn. Tàiyīn huà sheng." Yisha's hands emitted a faint, silvery blue glow and began to cover her body. A small stream of blood escaped from the left corner of her mouth and slowly flowed down her chin as she continued to chant.
Qianyi's body stiffened uncontrollably, sending a sharp pain through her body. She grunted, breathing heavily, unable to scream as Yisha continued to whisper, "Cányuè wéi yǐn. Tàiyīn huà sheng" as more blood streamed down her chin.
Qianyi's body relaxed. She stopped grunting and tried to catch her breath. Yisha stopped chanting. She stumbled as she tried to stand up. She shook her head, feeling a little dizzy. Qianyi strained a little to sit upright.
"Shāshā. Your spells are getting better," Qianyi said breathily.
"Nà dāngrán. You make me practice nonstop!"
Qianyi looked down at her red dress adorned with green and blue embroidery. "I guess the wedding's off," she laughed.
Yisha let a giggle snort of a laugh, which made Qianyi laugh even harder.
Qianyi stopped laughing suddenly. Her face--expressionless. The moonlight illuminated the death in her eyes, and she said, softly, emotionless, "When we get out of here, he's going to beg me to kill him."
"Yeah, but how will we get out of here," Yisha asked, trying to feel around in the dark pit. The girls sat in silence.
Qianyi stuck her hand out.
"Shāshā, do you feel that?" Qianyi got on her knees and began to crawl to the other side of the pit.
"Feel what?"
"Air. There's air coming from over there. I can feel it, but it's too dark."
Yisha thought for a moment. She straightened her posture and raised her hands to her mouth once more, whispering into her fingers, "Yǐn."
A thin, faint silvery blue light seeped into the pit. Though not bright enough to illuminate the pit, it led her to the far end of the pit to a particular spot. Yisha touched the wall to feel around for any inconsistencies. She found a spot that felt soft. It felt newly covered.
"Here. It's not stone. It's mud."
Qianyi walked over and touched the wall in the same spots as Yisha.
"I guess we'll have to dig," Qianyi said as she removed a long, sharp, golden xǐ zān (hair stick) from her hair.
Yisha felt her hair and then smirked, "Sorry, I left mine in your husband's hand." And the pit was filled with laughter once again.
Qianyi began to dig in the soft spot. Where she made a hole, Yisha used her hands to deepen the hole.
After what seemed to be an hour of digging, the mud began to weaken. Qianyi began kicking the mud in and it finally collapsed, leading to a wide, empty space filled with darkness. Not even a trace of the moon's light could enter.
Yisha focused on finding some way to navigate the dark room. She re-entered the pit and raised her hand once again to conjure the moon's that was still there before passing. "Yǐn."
The sliver of moonlight guided her into the darkness of the room, and she walked carefully behind it where it led her to a shelf. She cautiously moved her hands across the shelf until she touched what felt like a slender tube.
"A huǒ zhézi," Yisha asked herself aloud.
She grabbed it, opened the top and blew, igniting the huǒ zhézi, and giving the room enough faint light to see.
"Nǐ kàn," Yisha said excitedly.
The girls looked around, noticing the roughly constructed bed, a makeshift stove, and a wooden desk littered with dusty books.
"Someone lived here," Yisha said, as they continued to inspect the room.
"More like they were hiding," Qianyi said. Then she backtracked. "Or was imprisoned here," she continued, as she knelt to touch a pair of shackles. She felt a draft of air coming from the opposite side of the room. She looked around at the walls looking for a door or a way out and noticed one of the stone walls looked different.
"Bring the light here," Qianyi said, walking closer to the suspicious wall. "Whoever was imprisoned here had to leave somehow. Or they had to have food and books delivered. How did they get in and out," she asked while fiddling with the wall, looking for a weak point or a mechanism.
She touched an indent on the wall, but nothing happened. She continued to slowly glide her fingers across the wall and found another indent and pressed it. Nothing happened.
"Wǒ lái ba," Yisha said, holding the huǒ zhézi up to her face, illuminating her dark brown skin. "Xiǎn."
The incantation illuminated six numbers on the wall in the form of a hexagon. However, three numbers were particularly bright. 1, 4, and 6.
Qianyi pressed she pressed the three highlighted indents on the wall and waited but a second. There was a loud clicking noise and slowly, the wall moved, opening the way to a dark hallway.
Qianyi took a few steps into the dark, damp, tunnel when Yisha, ever the curious girl, stopped.
"Děng děng. I'm just going to grab those books." Yisha picked up the books, still covered in dust then quickly walked out of the entryway.
Qianyi sighed and smiled a little. "Hurry up," she said, looking over her shoulder as she stood in the dark waiting.
As the girls continued through the tunnel, subtle light from the night's sky appeared, revealing a steep, stone staircase leading outside.
Relieved, Qianyi and Yisha hurried to the end of the hall toward the stairs.
Still weakened, Qianyi stumbled up the stairs in her haste to make it out. Yisha grabbed her arm to help steady her as they continued up the stairs and finally out onto a short patch of grass surrounded by rock and trees.
Qianyi looked around. The area was heavily forested except for the hole they just emerged from. She knelt down and placed her hand on the ground to feel the earth's energy.
"We're not far from Wàng Yōu Zhèn," she exhaled.
"How are you feeling? Think you can make it," Yisha asked.
"Wǒ méishì."
The girls headed into the forest of thick hooded trees and walked until they met the road leading toward town. And for two more hours, they walked until they were standing outside of the Wàng Yōu Zhèn, the town known for being a playground for the wealthy, low and high immortals alike as well as demons. The perfect place to recharge and plot revenge.
"Qiānqiān. Let's go home," Yisha said with a huge smile on her face.
Just as they were about to enter the town's gate, Qianyi stopped in her tracks, frozen with dread. "Zāo le!"
"Qiānqiān? What's wrong?"
Looking straight ahead, eye's full of fear, she touched Yisha's hand. "She's gonna be pissed!"
"Wán le!"