Chapter Text
Blade and Danheng kissed
In the depths of the Xianzhou, a prison harbors the most heinous criminals and enemies of the realm.
These prisoners are guilty of one of the ten unpardonable sins.
Amidst the darkness and chill of the prison, a former Sword Champion, JINGLIU, awaits her trial.
Jingliu whispered, “Tricking the two of us… Jing Yuan truly has grown.”
Next to her, Luocha, her fellow inmate and companion, responded solemnly, “ He’s called divine foresight for a reason…”
“Still… So long as we meet the marshal, our plan will not falter,” Jingliu nodded.
A moment of silence passes.
Luocha in a grave voice asked, “ Jingliu, do you think you’re ready?”
“...?” She was slightly taken aback by Luocha’s sudden question.
Jingliu asked, “Do you think I’m not ready?”
“My opinion of you has always been high, make no mistake of that. The sword you carry in your heart can do anything. That’s what I believe,” Luocha sincerely said.
“And yet.”
Luocha closed his eyes, “I think you’re missing something. I thought you’d find it if you were to say the final farewell to the quintet.”
“I was wrong,” Luocha opened his eyes and locked them with Jingliu.
Jingliu tilted her head, “What am I missing?”
Luocha smiled pleasantly, “Nothing in strength.”
“Then…?”
There was a suggestive pause.
“Let me propose a solution,” Luocha finally said.
“...?”
She looked at him like he had gone crazy.
Luocha gestures towards a beautiful white coffin.
He carefully opens it, allowing light to flood the room.
Jingliu muttered, “ I’m very confused.”
Luocha assured, “Don’t be… I just suggest that maybe, you should visit one last world before you meet her again.”
“One last world, huh… how inconveniencing… however, if you honestly believe I should… then, I’ll trust you,” She resigned herself.
Luocha happily responded, “Thank you for your consideration, my dear!”
“Yes, yes. You better be right about this,” She grumbled.
“I believe in you,” He confidently said.
Jingliu steps inside the coffin, allowing herself to be enveloped by the light.
She closes her eyes against its brilliance.
As the light diminishes, darkness surrounds her. She senses being in another enclosed space.
The temperature rises significantly, making her struggle not to sweat.
Feeling around, she realizes the space is made of wood. Could she be in another coffin?
She whispered to herself, “How strange…?”
Jingliu knocks a few times on the wood, feeling her way around. Suddenly, she hears a gasp from outside the enclosed space and some strange sounds.
Light fills her eyes once more as the coffin opens from the outside. She immediately feels the heat of the desert fill her senses. The dunes in the distance show her exactly where she is.
“How… familiar,” Jingliu muttered as she looked at the figure who had opened the enclosure.
She thought to herself, “Another world’s Luocha...? Their faces are identical.”
A brown-haired girl was next to a blonde person with a shocked expression.
The brown haired girl yelled at the blonde, “So, you were carrying a live body in your coffin?! You liar! You told me no one was inside!”
“Don’t say that... I definitely wasn’t... And I didn’t lie to you,” The blonde defensively replied.
She yelled, “Then how did she get inside?! Huh?! Answer me, Raksha!”
Raksha yelled back, in a panicked tone, “I seriously didn’t! It was a dead body! A dead body! I don’t know where she’s gone or how this lady has somehow replaced her! Seriously!”
“So, you were lying about there being nothing in your coffin!” She accused.
Raksha admitted, “Yes, but this lady is not her! I promise you that.”
Jingliu interjected, “...So, someone else was in your coffin. I didn’t replace her or anything… when I leave, she’ll most definitely go back to where she belongs.”
“What? That’s too confusing,” Raksha murmured in confusion.
Jingliu calmly replied, “It may sound strange but please listen to me. I don’t believe I’m from this planet or maybe
even this time period.”
The brown-haired girl asked, skeptically, “What do you mean?”
Jingliu introduced herself, “My name is Jingliu, nice to meet you both… I am… from a different world. That’s what I meant to say.”
The girl yelled, “Wait wait wait— that’s impossible!”
“Not in my world.”
Raksha thought, “This woman is incredibly strange…”
“I can’t tell whether she’s lying or not but how else would she have suddenly appeared in my coffin unless some part of what she’s saying is true?” Raksha grimaced at his own thoughts.
He finally said, “Then, how about you travel with us until you find what you’re looking for? You may find it on our way.”
The brown-haired girl interrupted his suggestion, “Wait what?! Are you sure? Isn’t she a total stranger? What if she’s scamming us or something?!”
“Well, I have a feeling she’s trustworthy enough, Sushang,” Raksha replied.
Sushang angrily yelled, “A feeling…?! That’s too flimsy!”
“Uhm… Sorry for interrupting but… may I ask where you’re journeying to?” Jingliu asked.
Raksha smiled, “ Sushang is guiding me to her Master because she believes her Master may know the whereabouts of The Sage, a person I’m looking to find.”
“Who is The Sage?”
“The Sage is a powerful immortal celestial who has disappeared from The Shenzhou. I met her once a very long time ago. I… I wish to find her again for a personal reason,” Raksha explained.
“...”
Jingliu muttered, “Immortality, huh?”
She thought to herself, “Sounds like an abomination of Yaoshi if anything.”
“Or… Her.”
She tried not to think about her too much. It was more painful than she liked.
Raksha asked again, “Would you like to journey with us?”
Jingliu smiled, “Well…Yes, I actually would. I hope you don’t mind.”
Raksha beamed at this response, “Not at all. I just have one question, miss Jingliu.”
“You can ask.”
He asked, “Are you blind? I don’t want to assume but you are wearing a blindfold, so it leads me to believe…”
Jingliu shrugged in response, “It’s complicated but trust me when I say I’m not blind. I can see clearly.”
Sushang skeptically thought to herself, “This woman is very suspicious. Saying she’s from ‘another world’ is just too fantastical. And now, she’s able to see even with a blindfold on? Is she mentally alright? Also… her clothing is incredibly strange. It’s nothing like I’ve seen before yet I can tell it isn’t western. ”
“I should keep my guard up.”
Sushang sighed, “Well, we only have two horses.”
Raksha nodded in thought, “You’re right…”
“Ah! I have an idea!” Raksha’s eyes lit up.
Jingliu scratched her head, “...?”
Sushang yelled, “Wait, you don’t mean–”
He got out a cart from the sand and tied it to the two horses.
“Don’t you think this is the best way, after all?” Raksha put his hands on his hips in pride.
Sushang grimaced, “Urgh… Well…. I suppose so. Especially since we have three people now.”
“Sorry for the trouble,” Jingliu quickly apologized.
Sushang grew flustered by the woman’s apology, “No no! Don’t worry about it at all!”
“Yes, I, for one, am pleased to have your company,” Raksha explained.
Sushang relented, “I suppose I am too, in a way!”
Jingliu put her hand to her heart, “Thank you.”
Raksha gets into the carriage, with Sushang and Jingliu following. The carriage is carried away by the horses, trampling over the sand.
Jingliu remarked, “What a bright sun overhead us… Its warmth is scalding.”
“Ahaha… I feel the same way… where I’m from, the temperature is usually much cooler than this…” Raksha muttered sadly.
Jingliu offered her sympathy, “No wonder you look so exasperated.”
“…”
Sushang chided, “You two foreigners cannot handle anything it seems! It’s a desert! It should be hot!”
“I guess so. It’s nice to visit new places,” Jingliu replied, “I quite enjoy being a tourist.”
Sushang grinned happily upon hearing this sentiment.
She happily yelled, “That’s the spirit! You should be overjoyed by the beautiful nature surrounding you!”
Jingliu nervously murmured, “‘Overjoyed’ is pushing it…”
“By the way, Sushang, I wanted to say it before but I didn’t get the chance…” Raksha began, “Tell me, what do you know about The Sage? You said you had relations to her, right?”
Sushang looks surprised by the question.
“Well, it’s not me who had the relations as much as it was my mother and master,” She explained, “They were her direct disciples and yet, they refused to tell me much about her.”
Sushang continued, “I got all my information about The Sage from my maid who loved to gossip.”
Raksha asked, “And what did you learn?”
“They say she was very revered and was the only true immortal in the world. Every emperor who came to the throne would go visit her in Taixuan to get her blessing,” Sushang said.
She added, “There was even a saying that said that if you didn’t go visit The Sage, your rule as emperor might as well be cursed!”
Raksha furrowed his eyebrows in dissatisfaction.
He pushed almost desperately, “Those are all exaggerated praisings, isn’t there something else you know?”
“What…? My maid didn’t tell me much…” Sushang pensively asked, “What do you even want to know?”
“For example…” Raksha suggested, “Since immortals have boundless power that transcends the three realms, have they ever brought people back to life?”
Sushang looked at him like he had grown another head. ‘Bringing someone back to life’.... That meant…
“You mean resurrection?”
Jingliu silently raised an eyebrow, eyeing the two in curiosity.
“...”
Raksha muttered, “That's right.”
“I… I don’t remember,” She replied, uncertain.
Sushang glanced at the coffin worriedly as if she realized something.
Jingliu shared the same realization, understanding the implications. She was all to familiar with this concept. Luocha was exactly like this man.
Her friends too.
Jingliu with a downcast expression asked, “Who do you want to bring back to life?”
Raksha hesitated answering, “...”
Sushang quickly interrupted, “Yes, no wonder you seek immortality! You want The Sage to resurrect a person! The dead body inside your coffin!”
Raksha smiled sadly before crossing his arms.
“Yes. Isn’t every human like that? It’s a simple wish,” Raksha admitted, “Yet the more simple the wish is, the more complicated it is to make it come true.”
Jingliu shook her head, “It’s a selfish wish.”
He looked shocked by Jingliu’s comment before furrowing his eyebrows.
“You should elaborate before I assume you’re insulting me,” Raksha quickly replied, his irritation rising.
“You don’t agree? You should,” Jingliu muttered, “Did the person in your coffin ask you to revive her? Did she beg you to?”
Raksha defended himself, “How can she if she’s–”
“The wish for the dead’s revival is a ritual for the living, not the dead,” Jingliu said, “ It’s selfish because it is used to make our sorrows, solely, to drift away.”
Jingliu continued, “The dead cannot speak. What if you fail in your revival of her and only cause her more pain? Will she be grateful then?”
He sneered, “You talk as if you know me so well yet what you’re saying is all just hypotheticals.”
Jingliu shrugged her shoulders, “But the fact is she did not ask you to. Will she greet you in joy once you resurrect her? Once she is back in the world basking in your selfishness? Birthed again out of your selfish desires?”
Raksha was rendered speechless by Jingliu’s words, battling with thoughts he couldn’t quite express. Sushang looked at him with concern.
She worriedly said, “Raksha…”
“Does it matter if it is a selfish wish? I’m sure that no human wishes to be dead!” Sushang turned to Jingliu as if trying to argue with her logic, “If the Phoenix can revive the dead, then why is it so wrong that he wishes to revive his beloved?”
“You only assume she wishes to be alive,” Jingliu replied.
Sushang yelled, “Every human does!”
“Another assumption,” Jingliu commented.
Sushang falls silent, considering the implications.
Raksha sighed, “Miss Sushang, thank you for defending me but… It’s quite alright.”
“...?”
Sushang was puzzled by him.
Raksha said, “The fact is what Jingliu is saying is true. We do not know if she would be overjoyed or angered by my wish… by what I want to accomplish.”
“However, I still must do it. It is a selfish desire, you’ve opened my eyes to that, Miss Jingliu,” Raksha finally said, “But, I can’t just live my life knowing I could’ve saved her. I just can’t.”
Raksha closed his eyes as if remembering something, then opened them again with a vulnerable expression.
Raksha smiled gently, “I hope you can understand my feelings.”
“Don’t worry, I know all too well how you feel,” Jingliu looked into the distance.
“You do?”
Jingliu smiled, “...But we disagree on what to do about those feelings of ours.”
Raksha falls into contemplation.
As the gentle wind blows, a galloping sound of a horse approaches. A man with long blonde hair and a beard rides towards them on a horse.
“Is that man also going to visit Master? I didn’t know master had friends,” Sushang commented.
Jingliu chuckled, “Why is he approaching us so fast? He looks like he’s going to… attack us or something.”
“You think so? I guess it is strange…” Sushang nervously murmured.
Sushang squints to get a better look at the approaching man.
The man gets closer until he's near enough to reach out and grab them. He suddenly waves his hand, and a light shoots out, cutting the ropes connecting the horses to the cart.
Sushang yelled, “Huh?!”
The cart slams into the sand.
“AHH!!!” She screamed.
Raksha felt the gravity he was used to shift, “?!”
Raksha grimly spouted, “Ugh—”
The three of them fell to the hot sand as the cart tipped over because of the momentum.
Raksha grumbled as his hair was full of sand, thoroughly messed up.
He groaned, “What happened?!”
Sushang quickly rose to her feet, thinking, “That man— who is he?!”
“He just used Edge of Taixuan! With only one hand!”
“Could this be the highest of the five Taixuan Essences? The one that, from her knowledge, was only learnt by her master…”
“Eminence?!”
.