This memory was, for Lu Zhi, a blend of beauty, regret, and emotion.
"Sir?" Yin Yue, seeing Lu Zhi wake, mustered her courage and approached, her skeletal hand clasped with another.
Lu Zhi stood up from Shen Qi's embrace, reached out to stroke Yin Yue's hair, his expression softening considerably. "When did your eyes start to lose their sight?" he asked.
Yin Yue puffed out her cheeks childishly and said indignantly, "That bad guy, Shao Xinran, he lied to me, saying he knew you, and tricked me out of the Moon-Gazing Stone. I was so upset, I cried for a long time. Then I met Hei Wu."
Hei Wu was the leader of the pack of silver-furred wolves. Hearing Yin Yue call its name, it rose and walked behind her, rubbing against her back with a gentleness that made it seem more like a dog than a wolf.
"I gave my eyes to Hei Wu," Yin Yue said, reaching out to push aside the fur on Hei Wu's forehead, revealing a crescent-shaped silver mark within, like a piece of jade embedded in flesh and bone. "Hei Wu was dying, and I saved it. Hei Wu stayed with me, always looking for Little Skull."
"So that's what happened." Lu Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought Shao Xinran had tricked Yin Yue out of her eyes as well.
"Um..." Jiang Yue raised her hand, looking cautiously at Lu Zhi. "Can I ask one question? What exactly is... your identity?"
Jiang Yue voiced the confusion in Yan Shao and the others' hearts.
The matter of Shao Xinran had also been a tremendous shock to them.
"I don't know either," Lu Zhi said earnestly, pointing at Shen Qi. "He knows my identity better than I do."
Everyone glanced at Shen Qi's stern profile and silently fell quiet.
"Are we still going into Qing Shen Village?" Shi Yu asked slowly. "Um, it looks like we can go in now."
"We're going." Lu Zhi desperately wanted to know what Shao Xinran had done in Qing Shen Village.
The village gate pushed open easily.
However, unlike the vibrant village during the day, the houses had become exceptionally dilapidated, resembling an abandoned, uninhabited mountain village. All the people had vanished.
No one asked any questions, and they all headed directly for the home of the village chief, Wang Jiu.
Upon pushing open the door, they found not a house, but a curved cave. The walls were lined with niches, and myriad incense burners and candles were used to venerate different deities.
"Cave of Ten Thousand Gods..." Lu Zhi murmured, lost in thought.
Yin Yue let out a soft sound. "That bad guy, Shao Xinran, he's creating gods."
"Creating gods!" Yan Shao's pupils contracted. "Gods can be created?" This completely overturned their understanding of the world.
Yin Yue scratched her head. "The gods he creates are very, very wicked. They can't be called true gods, they are, they are..."
"Evil gods," Jiang Yue supplied for her.
Yin Yue and the skeletal frame nodded vigorously. "Yes, yes, evil gods. Not good things."
"You said Shao Xinran was monitoring you all along, why?" Lu Zhi suddenly asked.
Yin Yue pouted. "I don't know. He stole my Moon-Gazing Stone and Little Skull, created this ghastly place, and trapped me here for a very, very long time. I could never get out."
Speaking of which, Yin Yue sadly nuzzled against the skeleton. "If Hei Wu hadn't stayed with me, I wouldn't have known what to do."
Lu Zhi fell into contemplation.
"I'd like to take a photo, is that okay?" Yan Shao asked Lu Zhi, not Shen Qi.
"Of course," Lu Zhi replied. He had also noticed a subtle shift in Yan Shao's attitude towards him.
There was an indescribable feeling, as if an invisible barrier had formed between him and Yan Shao's group.
It was speculation, suspicion, unease, distrust.
"You know Shao Xinran, and I didn't know?" Shen Qi, who had been silent, suddenly took Lu Zhi's hand.
Lu Zhi rolled his eyes. "Don't you remember I lost my memory? I don't even know what Shao Xinran looks like."
"However..." Lu Zhi frowned. "He gives me a very familiar feeling."
"It's alright, I'll help you regain your memories," Shen Qi said, a frightening emotion flickering in his silver-gray eyes.
Lu Zhi teased, "What's wrong? Are you angry, little divine official?"
Shen Qi visibly faltered, his grip on Lu Zhi's hand tightening unconsciously, his eyes deepening. "What... what have you remembered?"
"Don't be nervous," Lu Zhi said with a half-smile. "I haven't remembered much. I just know that in the past, I used to like calling you 'little divine official'."
Lu Zhi stroked his chin. "That said, you've been by my side for a long time, haven't you?"
Shen Qi remained silent.
Lu Zhi tutted. "And you like to act without consulting me."
Shen Qi raised his eyelids and glanced at Yin Yue, who was following behind Yan Shao's group. "I was afraid you'd hide away and cry," he said.
Lu Zhi's ears reddened slightly, and he retorted irritably, "How could I possibly cry? Don't think you can take advantage of my amnesia to slander me."
"You guys, come take a look," Jiang Yue's voice interrupted Lu Zhi and Shen Qi's conversation.
Jiang Yue had found a mechanism in the cave, revealing a cellar.
"I'll go down first," Yan Shao stopped Jiang Yue from going. "My abilities are better utilized in unexpected situations."
Jiang Yue didn't object, only saying, "Be careful."
The cellar entrance was very dark. Yan Shao, holding a candle, bent down and entered.
After about a minute, Yan Shao's voice could be heard, "You can all come down now."
Only one person could enter the cellar at a time. Li Le guarded the mechanism at the entrance, while everyone else descended.
The setup was so mysterious, Lu Zhi surmised that there must be something very important in the cellar.
He never expected that inside, a colossal statue of a deity would be enshrined.
"Ah, it's Shao Xinran." Yin Yue, who couldn't see but knew the deity enshrined inside was Shao Xinran, sniffed. "The scent of herbs has a decaying smell to it."
Lu Zhi looked at the hazy appearance of the statue in the candlelight, his brows furrowing unconsciously. "Isn't this Shao Banxian from the memories of the Mourning Woman?"
That was it.
Because of an intuitive feeling, his purpose in entering this gilded cage was to find out who this Shao Banxian was.
He hadn't expected it to be Shao Xinran.
"The Mourning Woman was one of his test subjects," Shen Qi suddenly said. "He has been constantly trying different methods to create gods since a long time ago."
Yan Shao and the others looked at Shen Qi in horror.
"Anomalies are born from human malevolence," Shen Qi stated coldly, as if reciting a fact.
Lu Zhi suddenly understood Shao Xinran's actions in the Mourning Woman's memories.
Shao Xinran had sown seeds of desire, luring out the greed and malice hidden deep within people's hearts.
After all, human desires are endless.
Like a dandelion, blown by the wind to all corners of the world, taking root and sprouting.
With the spring breeze, new desires would grow.
"Shen Qi," Lu Zhi's gaze was somewhat peculiar. "You say, in the Mourning Woman's memories, did Shao Xinran make eye contact with me? Was that really the Mourning Woman's memory? Or did Shao Xinran deliberately let me see it?"
"And also..." Lu Zhi's dark eyes met the petrified eyes of Shao Xinran's statue with calm. "Is he... watching us right now?"
For a moment, the cellar fell into a terrifying silence.