32: Chapter 32 All Things Are Empty

Three days after Elder Sun's downfall, the Danding Sect began purging her remaining faction. Vice Hall Master Liu was suspended pending investigation, Wang Fu was captured from outside and thrown into the dungeon, and Sun Qian was taken away for questioning on his third day as a handyman in the Teaching Hall. The Law Enforcement Hall was like a tree with its main trunk chopped off; the branches and leaves remained, but the support was gone. The Sect Head took the opportunity to install his own people, replacing them one by one from the top down, from vice hall masters to ordinary deacons.

Lu Chen did not participate in any of this. He returned to the small hut behind the Pharmacy to continue refining pills and his Cultivation. Whether Elder Sun fell or not had nothing to do with him. He had heard the words she said when she was arrested—'You are the third; the first two are dead, and you will die too'—but he didn't care.

On the fourth day, Old Zhou told him something in the Pharmacy. "Qian Youwei is dead."

Lu Chen was grinding medicinal ingredients; his hand paused for a moment, then continued grinding. "How did he die?"

"The Restriction flared up. On the day Elder Sun was arrested, the Restriction began to act. Qian Youwei held on for three days but couldn't make it." Old Zhou's voice was very low. "Before he died, he said one thing—'Tell Lu Chen that I left a backup of the account books with the Sect Head.'"

Lu Chen didn't speak. Qian Youwei's death was related to him. If he hadn't taken the account books, Elder Sun wouldn't have moved early, the Restriction wouldn't have flared up, and Qian Youwei wouldn't have died. But he couldn't say the words "I'm sorry"—it wasn't that he didn't want to, but that saying them would carry no feeling. He simply knew that a person had died because of him—an objective fact, with no emotional fluctuation.

"Do you feel bad?" Old Zhou asked.

Lu Chen thought for a moment. "No."

"Not even a little?"

"Not even a little."

Old Zhou looked at him with something indescribable in his eyes—not disappointment, but confirmation. Confirmation that compassion was truly disappearing.

"You weren't like this before."

"Before was before. Now is now."

Lu Chen poured the ground ingredients into a bowl and began refining pills. The fire ignited, greenish-white flames dancing in the furnace chamber. He pressed his palm against the furnace wall, and a deep golden light shone through from beneath his skin. His hand no longer trembled. The Grey Spirit Root had stopped growing; his body had finally caught up.

But the price was compassion.

On the fifth day, Su Qing came. She was wearing a black robe today, her hair tied with a white ribbon, and her eyes were red as if she had been crying.

"Do you know about Qian Youwei?"

"I know."

"You aren't sad?"

"I'm not sad."

Su Qing stared at him for a few seconds. "You've changed."

"Many people say that."

Su Qing didn't say anything more. She pulled a letter from her sleeve and placed it on the table. "The person wearing the veil—Chen Xuan—asked me to deliver this."

Lu Chen opened it. Inside was only a single line—'List of Elder Sun's remaining faction. Seventeen people in total. Be careful.'

The list was very detailed: names, positions, roles within the Law Enforcement Hall, and their relationship with Elder Sun. Lu Chen read it once, folded the letter, and tucked it into his robe. Seventeen people, scattered across every corner of the Danding Sect; some had openly sided with the Sect Head, while others were still waiting for an opportunity in the shadows.

"Does the Sect Head know about this?"

"He knows. But he can't touch them. Most of the people on the list were planted by the Xuantian Sect. Elder Sun fell, but they are still here."

"Xuantian Sect?"

"Yes. The Danding Sect is a subsidiary sect of the Xuantian Sect. The Elders of the three halls—Law Enforcement, Teaching, and Alchemy—are all appointed by the Xuantian Sect. The Sect Head can replace Elder Sun, but he cannot replace the people beneath her. Those people belong to the Xuantian Sect."

Lu Chen was silent for a few seconds. "So Elder Sun fell, but her power remains."

"Yes. It just changed its name."

"Then what was the point of bringing her down?"

"The point is—she is no longer in the Law Enforcement Hall. Her Restriction is gone. Qin Wu is free."

Lu Chen looked down at the white thread on his left wrist. Qin Wu. He had completely forgotten this person. The face, the voice, the things he had said—all forgotten. He only knew this person existed and that this thread belonged to him.

"Is Qin Wu's Restriction undone?"

"Not yet. When Elder Sun was arrested, the Restriction didn't automatically disappear. The Sect Head said the Restriction was placed using a special technique by Elder Sun; unless she undoes it, the Restriction won't vanish."

"Then what can be done?"

"The Sect Head is thinking of a way. He said it might take a month."

"A month."

"A month. Then Qin Wu will be able to come out."

Lu Chen nodded.

A month. Enough for him to do many things. And enough for compassion to disappear.

On the seventh day, while refining pills, Lu Chen discovered something. He could no longer feel the temperature of the Pill Furnace.

It wasn't that the furnace wasn't hot, but that his hand couldn't feel it. His palm was pressed against the furnace wall, which was terrifyingly hot—previously he would have pulled his hand back, but now he didn't. It wasn't because he wasn't afraid of pain, but because he couldn't feel pain. His hand was smoking, the skin turning red, but he had no sensation—no heat, no pain, just watching his own hand turn red.

"Old Zhou," he called out.

Old Zhou walked over, saw his hand, and his face changed. "Your hand—"

"I can't feel it."

Old Zhou pulled his hand away from the furnace wall and rinsed it with water. The water sizzled against the burned skin, but Lu Chen felt nothing.

"compassion is disappearing. Your perception of your body is also disappearing." Old Zhou's voice trembled slightly. "You must be careful from now on. If you can't feel pain, you'll get hurt. If you're hurt and don't know it, you'll die."

"I know."

"You know, but you don't care."

"Yes."

Old Zhou didn't say anything more. He bandaged Lu Chen's hand and turned to leave. His footsteps were slow, much slower than usual.

On the tenth day, Lu Chen met Chen Xuan at the entrance of the Inner Treasury.

He wasn't wearing a veil and was dressed in an ordinary grey robe, looking just like an ordinary Inner Sect Disciple. But Lu Chen knew he wasn't ordinary—Qi Refining Level 6, Elder Sun's former enforcer, and now the Sect Head's spy.

"I've identified Elder Sun's remaining faction," Chen Xuan said in a low voice. "Seventeen people, three of whom are core members. One in the Law Enforcement Hall, one in the Teaching Hall, and one in—the Alchemy Hall."

"Alchemy Hall? Who?"

"Zhao Ping."

Lu Chen's fingers curled slightly. Zhao Ping—the round-faced Disciple who brought him into the Danding Sect, the one who helped him pass messages, the one who seemed harmless to humans and animals.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. He was a spy planted in the Alchemy Hall by Elder Sun. On the surface, he's an ordinary Disciple of the Teaching Hall, but in reality, he's Elder Sun's person. On the day Elder Sun was arrested, he tried to destroy evidence but was stopped by the Sect Head's men. He's currently being held in the dungeon."

Lu Chen was silent for a few seconds. Zhao Ping. The one who said, "Senior Sister Su asked me to look after you." The one who said, "Don't wear that bone fragment in front of people." The one who seemed the least threatening.

"How does the Sect Head plan to handle it?"

"Cripple his cultivation and expel him from the Danding Sect."

Lu Chen nodded and said no more.

Who Zhao Ping was had nothing to do with him. What Zhao Ping did had nothing to do with him. How Zhao Ping would be handled also had nothing to do with him.

He didn't care.

On the fifteenth day, Lu Chen's Dantian was thirty percent full.

He was still twenty percent away from the Middle Stage of Level 4 Qi Refining—which was fifty percent. His cultivation speed wasn't slow, but it wasn't fast either. He ate two small foundation establishment pills and absorbed five Spirit Stones every day, and the Spiritual Qi in his Dantian increased by about three percent. At this rate, he would reach the Middle Stage of Level 4 Qi Refining in less than twenty days.

But compassion couldn't wait twenty days.

He felt it. compassion was disappearing—not all at once, but fading bit by bit. Today he was indifferent to Qian Youwei's death, tomorrow he would be indifferent to Zhao Ping's betrayal, and the day after he would be indifferent to his own life and death.

When everything became completely indifferent, compassion would be gone.

On the twentieth day, Su Qing came.

She was wearing a white robe today, her hair loose and untied. She wore no makeup and looked very haggard. The dark circles under her eyes were heavy, as if she hadn't slept for days.

"Qin Wu's Restriction is undone," she said.

Lu Chen was absorbing a Spirit Stone; his hand paused for a moment. "When?"

"This morning. The Sect Head personally undid it. It took half an hour and consumed quite a bit of spiritual power. But it's undone."

"Where is Qin Wu now?"

"With the Sect Head. He wants to see you."

Lu Chen put down the Spirit Stone and stood up. "Let's go."

Qin Wu was sitting on a chair in the Council Hall. He was much thinner than a month ago, his face all bone, his eyes sunken into their sockets like two dry wells. The white thread was still tied around his wrist—six loops, seven knots.

Seeing Lu Chen enter, he looked up. The corners of his mouth moved slightly, as if he were smiling, yet also as if he were crying.

"You've come."

"I've come."

"Do you still remember me?"

"I don't remember."

Qin Wu lowered his head, looking at the white thread on his wrist. "I don't remember you either. But the thread is here."

"The thread is here. The person is here."

Qin Wu nodded. He stood up, walked over to Lu Chen, and reached out his hand.

Lu Chen took it.

Two hands, two white threads, placed side by side.

The threads were the same. The knots were the same. The people—they didn't remember, but they stood before each other.

"I'm leaving," Qin Wu said.

"Where to?"

"The Loose Cultivators Alliance. The Sect Head said he could give me an identity."

"Will you come back?"

"I don't know. Maybe I will, maybe I won't." Qin Wu let go of his hand and turned to leave.

"Qin Wu."

He stopped.

"Don't take off the thread."

Qin Wu looked down at the white thread on his wrist. "I won't take it off."

He left. His footsteps were light, just like before, and soon they could no longer be heard.

Lu Chen stood in the Council Hall, the temperature from Qin Wu's grip still lingering in his hand. It wasn't that his own hand was warm, but that Qin Wu's hand was cold—cold as ice. Having been locked in the dungeon for so long, his body had not yet recovered.

"He will survive," the Sect Head's voice came from behind him.

Lu Chen turned around. The Sect Head was sitting in the main seat, holding a cup of tea, watching him.

"You don't care whether he lives or not, do you?"

"Right."

"But you told him not to take off the thread."

"The thread is the only thing left."

The Sect Head put down his teacup. "How much compassion do you have left?"

"Not much."

"Soon?"

"Soon."

The Sect Head was silent for a few seconds. "The fourth floor of the Inverted Tower is called 'self-oblivion'. If you walk in, you will lose the last thing—the self. When you come out, you might not recognize yourself, anyone else, or this world."

"I know."

"And you're still going in?"

"I am."

"Why?"

"Because Qin Wu's Restriction is undone, but others' are not. Because the truth of the fifth floor of the Inverted Tower hasn't been found. Because I have already come this far; stopping would be more painful than death."

The Sect Head looked at him with a complex gaze. "You are even more ruthless than Founder Zhou Ding. At least Founder Zhou Ding would hesitate. You won't."

"Because I don't care."

Lu Chen turned and walked out of the Council Hall.

The sunlight was piercing. He squinted his eyes, looking at the distant mountains.

Qingniu Ridge was on the other side of the mountains. The Inverted Tower was beneath Qingniu Ridge.

The fourth floor. self-oblivion.

The fifth floor. The price of immortality.

He would go in. He would reach the end.

Then come back.

Or not come back.

Regardless of the outcome, he would not stop.

Because this was the path he had chosen.

tianxuan calendar, 18th Year of Taiping, Winter.

Lu Chen, Level 4 Qi Refining.

Dantian thirty percent full.

compassion—almost gone.

Qin Wu is free.

The thread remains.

Next—the Inverted Tower.