50: Chapter 50 Give Me a Reason

Crack!

Wu Xi pierced straight through the Cave Master's sternum.

The Cave Master's entire skeletal frame instantly lost its strength. His knees slammed into the ground first, gravel embedding into the cracks of his leg bones and emitting a faint, grinding sound.

He tried to brace himself, pressing his hand bones against the ground, but the moment his phalanges caught on a crevice, his wrist bone snapped in two.

His ribs snapped one by one along the fracture in his sternum. He lay flat on his back on the stone floor, the two faint green ghost fires in his eye sockets flickering on and off.

"Almost… I almost succeeded…"

"Father… Mother… Sister… I can finally… go underground… and reunite with you all…"

He splayed his five fingers and reached toward the Void Realm above him, though there was nothing there.

Yet he grasped with extreme force, as if his family were truly standing in that darkness, reaching out to him, waiting for him to come home.

His hand suddenly dropped, and there was no more movement.

That night eight years ago, the candlelight in the pharmacy flickered anxiously.

His back was pressed tightly against the cold bluestone slab, his fingernails digging into the brick crevices until his knuckles turned white.

A mass of something stood in the center of the hall, like an impenetrable, heavy darkness. The candlelight skirted around it, unable to penetrate, and it had no face; even its silhouette was blurred into a patch of Chaos.

A muffled, echoing voice struck the four walls and bounced back into his ears: "Your parents died a miserable death. Help me with a task, and I will let them come back to life."

A roar rolled from his throat as he snatched up the pestle by his feet and hurled it fiercely.

The pestle passed straight through the darkness and smashed against the opposite wall, breaking in two.

"How can the dead live! You are lying to me!"

The scene shattered abruptly—a mass grave from five years ago.

Cold wind whipped the wild grass against his face as he knelt before two lonely graves. His fingertips were worn raw and bleeding as he added fresh soil to the mounds, handful by handful.

That mass of darkness came again.

There were no footsteps, no aura; not even the grass beside his feet swayed as it appeared out of thin air right beside him.

It was the same as before, a darkness deeper than the night. Moonlight cast no shadow upon it, and not even a trace of it could be found on the ground.

"Do you miss them?"

The voice was very light, like the tongue of an ice snake licking his earlobe, sending a chill through his entire body.

The mass of darkness raised a hand. White mist suddenly rose from the soil of the graves, winding upward in wisps and slowly condensing into two blurred figures.

They stood in a blind spot where the moonlight could not reach, gently beckoning to him.

"My son… come here… come to Mother…"

The voice was exactly the same as in his memories.

His knees jerked upward, his feet braced against the ground, and he was about to lunge forward. But in the next second, he bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, spraying the salty, sweet blood onto the ground, the pain causing his whole body to convulse.

"It's not real…" he gritted his teeth, hammering the words into his own mind one by one, "It's not real!"

The darkness pressed closer, its voice winding around his ears: "Think about it again. I will wait for you anytime."

A gust of wind blew, and the figures dispersed. He was left kneeling before the graves, his mouth full of blood, trembling like grass in an autumn wind.

The scene shattered again, piecing together a mountain cave from three years ago.

He had been too eager for success in his Cultivate, and his cultivation had backfired. His Meridians felt as if they had been pierced through by thousands of red-hot steel needles, and his Dantian felt like it was bursting apart. He rolled on the cold stone floor, his consciousness sinking into an abyss, unable to catch even a single echo.

That mass of darkness came again.

It stood right in front of him and raised a hand.

A warm, glowing light suddenly exploded, and his parents along with his young sister stood within the light.

Father's hands were rough and broad, Mother's hands were warm and soft—the hands that had always wiped the tears from his face when he was a child.

It was exactly as in his memories; they smiled at him and reached out to him.

The string he had kept taut for five years snapped. Tears fell without warning, mixing with the blood at the corner of his mouth, and a broken sob squeezed from his throat.

"Let me see them… I will do anything…"

From within that darkness came a very soft, satisfied chuckle.

"Very good."

His consciousness was abruptly dragged back to the present.

"So… from beginning to end… it was all fake…"

He laughed, but in that laughter, there was no hate, no resentment, only exhaustion. It was like walking ten thousand miles, wearing through the soles of his feet, and finally seeing the destination.

Wu Xi lowered his head, looking at the skeleton on the ground that was shattered beyond repair, and at the two ghost fires that were about to extinguish at any moment.

In those fires, there was no fear, no resentment, no hysteria before death.

Only peace.

The peace before liberation. Like a traveler who has packed their bags, waiting quietly for the last bus home.

"I will grant you liberation."

The ghost fires in the Cave Master's eye sockets brightened slightly.

"…Thank you."

The voice was as light as a leaf falling to the ground, like a breath held for a hundred years that was finally exhaled.

Boom. The bones instantly crumbled into powder. The ghost fires in the skull's eye sockets flickered violently—

Then, they went out.

In the instant before they extinguished, the eerie green netherfire suddenly changed color, flashing a hint of warm yellow.

Like the sunlight filtering through a window crack on a winter afternoon. Like the voice of his mother standing by the stove, calling him home for dinner.

He seemed to truly see them—his parents standing in that warm light, reaching out their hands toward him.

The scene was dead silent.

Third Young Master raised his eyes, fixing his gaze on the Prefect opposite him: "With a mere wave of your hand, you could have suppressed that thing to death, my lord. Why didn't you act?"

The Prefect raised his hand and brushed a speck of bone dust from his cuff. His expression was as flat as a stagnant pool, without a ripple: "Since I said that his life and death would be decided by the three of them, I must keep my word."

The two stared at each other. The tension of their Qi crackled in the air.

After a long while, Third Young Master looked away first.

"The matter is settled." Third Young Master turned back. "I have family business to attend to. My lord, please excuse me."

The Prefect nodded, his mouth curling into a polite arc: "Very well. There will be other days."

Footsteps sounded, steady and unhurried.

The Prefect turned and walked away just like that, as if he had finished watching a dull, tasteless juggling act and was leaving the stage.

Here, only Wu Xi, Mr. Xiangli, Niu Fei, and Third Young Master remained.

Third Young Master's voice suddenly rang out.

Half-smiling, with a touch of careless playfulness, yet wrapped in an air of arrogance that warned strangers to stay away: "The Cave Master of the Yin Tunnel is one of my subordinates. Even if he committed a monstrous sin or turned the heavens upside down, whether he is to be killed or flayed, it should be done by my own hand to enforce family law."

Wu Xi slowly raised his head.

Third Young Master stood three steps away with his arms crossed. The previous carelessness was completely gone, and the Qi around his body exploded without warning. The rubble at his feet vibrated slightly, followed by a few crisp cracking sounds, before being shattered into even finer powder.

He took a step forward.

The entire estate hummed with a massive tremor. The gravel on the ground floated into the air, and even the atmosphere felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible giant hand, stifling enough to make it hard to breathe.

That murderous intent, capable of crushing bones, spread across the sky and locked onto Wu Xi.

"You killed my man right in front of me and broke my rules."

There was not a shred of amusement left in his voice. "Now, give me a reason not to kill you."