Chapter 108

Edited By: Mim

“You’re truly shameless,” Xie Fengshao said disdainfully, breaking the heavy silence.

Xie Lanxu turned his head, his smile unwavering. “Patience, Prince Feng. Your turn will come.”

Then his gaze shifted back to Qin Ne. “Well? Have you decided?”

All eyes fell on Qin Ne.

The surviving soldiers looked at him with desperation, their eyes pleading for mercy.

For a moment, Qin Ne stood frozen. Then, with trembling hands, he picked up the golden dagger.

“…Forgive me,” he whispered.

One of the bound soldiers immediately shouted, his voice a mix of fear and fury: “Qin Ne! Don’t do this! Aren’t you afraid of our master—”

Before he could finish, the blade slashed across his throat.

Scarlet blood sprayed into the air, pooling on the ground like a small crimson river that snaked toward Xie Lanxu’s boots. He casually stepped aside, avoiding the mess.

The blood seeped into the treasure-strewn ground, staining the gold a deep, ghastly red.

Qin Ne moved methodically to the next soldier, his movements almost mechanical. The second soldier fell, then the third, and so on, until all four remaining soldiers lay lifeless.

When it was done, Qin Ne stood motionless amidst the carnage. His hands shook, and his face was ashen. It was as though a part of his soul had been ripped from him.

Slowly, he turned and knelt before Xie Lanxu once more, his head bowed.

“Not bad,” Xie Lanxu said approvingly. “Now, free yourself.”

With trembling fingers, Qin Ne used the blood-soaked dagger to cut the ropes binding his wrists.

Xie Lanxu then turned to Xie Fengshao.

“It’s your turn now.”

Li Zhi’s heart clenched. She forced herself to speak, her voice calm despite the tension twisting inside her.

“And how do you plan to deal with him?”

She already knew the answer.

This entire charade—the trap, the carefully orchestrated ambush—was designed to ensure that Xie Fengshao would not leave this place alive.

But how could she stand by and watch someone her twin sister had once loved die before her eyes?

She had already lost the most important person in her life. Could she truly bear to rob her sister of the man she had cherished?

“Naturally, I’ll kill him,” Xie Lanxu said simply, as if stating an inevitable fact. “Once he’s dead, our path forward will be clear of obstacles.”

“But if you kill him, won’t the Emperor grow suspicious?” Li Zhi pressed.

“As long as his body is found in the capital, no one will suspect me,” Xie Lanxu replied.

“Wouldn’t it be more useful to keep him alive? He could be valuable to our plans,” she suggested.

“Banban,” Xie Lanxu said, turning to her with a softness that belied the tension in his voice. “What are you really trying to say?”

His gaze was calm, but there was a storm raging beneath the surface. It reminded Li Zhi of the lake they once visited—a tranquil surface concealing the darkness lurking below.

But she couldn’t back down.

She thought of the prayer whispered over each seashell, wishing peace and happiness for the wearer.

Xie Fengshao was someone worth saving, someone whose life held meaning beyond this deadly game.

“You can’t kill him,” she said hoarsely.

Her words hung in the air, met with silence so profound it was suffocating.

After a long pause, Xie Lanxu finally spoke, his voice deceptively gentle.

“Are you trying to stop me?”

Li Zhi didn’t respond.

“If I insist on killing him, what will you do?”

Without a word, Li Zhi stepped forward.

She moved past Xie Lanxu and stopped in front of Xie Fengshao, placing herself between the two men.

“If you must kill him,” she said, her voice steady, “then you’ll have to kill me first.”

Xie Lanxu’s expression darkened. The fury in his eyes was barely contained, but his face remained eerily composed.

“Say that again,” he demanded, his tone low and dangerous.

Li Zhi met his gaze head-on, unflinching.

“If you want him dead, you’ll have to kill me first.”

The words echoed through the cavern, filling the silence with their weight.

For a moment, it seemed as though even the walls of the pit trembled with Xie Lanxu’s anger. His clenched jaw and tight lips betrayed the rage simmering beneath his calm exterior.

“Why?” he asked, his voice trembling with the remnants of his composure.

Li Zhi could not answer.

“Have I not treated you well enough?” Xie Lanxu walked toward her, staring directly into her eyes. “Is that why you’d rather risk your own life to protect another man, even if it means threatening me?”

“……”

“I gave you a chance,” he said coldly. “Banban… you’ve truly disappointed me.”

He reached out and clasped Li Zhi’s dangling hand.

But it wasn’t a gesture of affection.

In an instant, he wrenched her arms behind her back, binding her to a stalactite column nearby.

The only physical advantage Li Zhi had was her speed—she could run.

But her treasure was here, and her sister’s treasure was here too. What would running achieve?

As she watched Xie Lanxu pick up a long sword and walk toward Xie Fengshao, she shouted from behind “Ah-Li—!”

Her voice cracked with desperation as she cried out:

“Ah-Li—!”

Xie Lanxu didn’t even turn his head.

Xie Fengshao, however, held his head high, his defiance and contempt evident in his gaze as he stared at the approaching Xie Lanxu. There was no trace of fear in his eyes, nor any plea for mercy.

Li Zhi couldn’t think of a way to save Xie Fengshao.

Xie Lanxu was a madman. Today, he wouldn’t rest until Xie Fengshao was dead before his eyes.

He could not tolerate Xie Fengshao’s existence.

But he had it all wrong, and Xie Fengshao had it all wrong too.

In the vast pit, aside from the glimmering treasures she had once dreamed of, there were only blood-stained corpses. Qin Ne knelt in a daze before the body of a former companion, utterly speechless, as though his soul had fled.

The treasures could not help her. The corpses could not help her.

Li Zhi’s vision began to blur as tears streamed from her eyes, one after another.

Xie Lanxu gripped the long sword tightly. His hands, pale and immaculate, seemed untouched by the bloodshed around him. Yet every corpse in this pit was his doing.

He stood above it all, pristine as a cloud.

Like the agate lake filled with waterweed blossoms—so breathtaking at a fleeting glance.

“You’re all wrong…” she said, her voice trembling with sobs. “I’m not Li Zhi at all…”

Her words echoed through the vast pit, quivering with sorrow.

The sword in Xie Lanxu’s hand froze mid-air, and Xie Fengshao, kneeling on the ground, abruptly raised his head.

An indescribable sadness and despair swirled within Li Zhi’s heart like dark storm clouds. She couldn’t meet their gazes, so she lowered her head, watching as her tears fell and merged with the dusty ground.

“What did you say?”

Xie Fengshao lost his composure. Ignoring the sword still poised before him, he twisted on his knees to face Li Zhi.

“If you’re not Li Zhi, then where is she?!”

“Where is Li Zhi… can’t you guess by now?” Li Zhi asked, her voice trembling.

Xie Fengshao froze.

In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through his mind.

His face grew increasingly pale, like a sheet of blank paper trembling in the cold wind of the pit.

“I don’t believe you…” he muttered.

Li Zhi had planned to take this secret to her grave.

Stealing the treasures of the previous dynasty had never been her ultimate goal—switching her identity with her sister’s had.

Only on the day she died with the secret still intact would the plan be considered a success.

“Five years ago,” Li Zhi choked, “it was Li Zhi who died. And I… I took her place.”

Xie Fengshao’s face crumbled, like a fragile porcelain mask shattered by the weight of her words. He knelt motionless, his trembling hands clutching the ground.

“You’re lying… why would you do this?” he muttered, his voice barely audible.

Li Zhi lifted her tear-streaked face, her laughter broken and bitter.

Xie Lanxu remained silent, his sharp gaze piercing through her every word.

“Why?” she repeated, her voice both hollow and resolute.

Her laughter turned into sobs as she spoke, “Because I wanted to give all the beautiful tomorrows to Li Zhi… and take all the disgraceful yesterdays for Li Xia.”

Xie Lanxu’s hand fell to his side, the blade glinting faintly in the firelight.

Li Zhi didn’t look at him, nor at Xie Fengshao. She continued speaking, her eyes distant as though peering into another world.

“I thought I could bury Li Xia forever… erase her from history. That no one would ever speak her name again. That when people remembered Li Zhi, they’d speak of the virtuous empress. And Li Xia…”

Her voice cracked.

“At most, a fleeting sigh. A forgotten shadow in the corners of history, nothing more.”

Her lips trembled as she concluded, “But I would never let that sigh… fall upon Li Zhi’s name.”

Her words hung like a dirge, mournful and haunting.

Xie Fengshao looked as though he had been struck by lightning. He clutched his chest, his breathing ragged, as the truth seeped into his soul.

Li Zhi reached into her sleeve, pulling out a small dagger hidden within. With swift precision, she slashed through the ropes binding her hands to the stalactite pillar.

Her movements were resolute as she stepped forward and raised the blade to her neck.

“If you kill him,” she said hoarsely, her voice tinged with desperation, “then I have no face to meet my sister. I might as well become a wandering ghost, forever adrift in this cruel world.”

Xie Lanxu stared back at her, his sharp eyes scanning her from head to toe, as if seeing her for the very first time.

She couldn’t guess what he was thinking.

Whether she was Li Zhi or Li Xia likely didn’t matter to him.

What he cared about was whether anyone dared covet what belonged to him.

“She’s dead?” Xie Fengshao asked dazedly. “Why… why did she die?”

His eyes shimmered with heartbreak. Though his rational mind refused to accept her words, his emotions already understood the truth: everything she said was real.

“There should be a secret compartment in the Imperial Study,” Li Zhi said softly. “It holds a painting personally drawn by the current Emperor. If you want to know the truth, you might find your answer there.”

She turned her gaze toward Xie Lanxu, who had been silent throughout.

“Now, will you still kill him?”

After a moment, Xie Lanxu let the sword fall from his hand.

“Of course not,” he said, smiling faintly at her.

He ignored the still-stunned Xie Fengshao and walked toward Li Zhi. Taking the dagger from her hands, he wiped away her tears gently with his sleeve.

“Who you are doesn’t matter to me,” he murmured.

He lowered his head, pressing his forehead lightly against hers, as if trying to convey all his thoughts and feelings directly to her.

“You will always be my Banban.”

“And I will always be your Ah-Li.”

“In this world, only we can rely on each other.”

—

Outside the underground palace, snow continued to fall.

A vast expanse of white blanketed the land, as if concealing the sins of the world—or perhaps the holy purity of Xian Naiyue Mountain had cleansed the filth of heaven and earth.

Xie Fengshao stood alone in the snow, his bloodshot eyes sweeping over Li Zhi and Xie Lanxu standing side by side.

“…Regarding the secret of this place, I won’t utter a single word,” he said hoarsely.

“If what you just said is true.”

With that, he turned away, limping as he walked into the biting wind and snow. The golden crown on his head, battered and dulled, shone faintly amidst the blizzard like a small sun about to be extinguished.

Before the cave, only Li Zhi, Xie Lanxu, and the despondent Qin Ne remained.

As Xie Fengshao’s figure disappeared into the snowstorm, a large group of mysterious individuals emerged from the forest. They were cloaked in straw raincoats, their heads covered by wide-brimmed veiled hats, thick snow piled on their shoulders—a sign they had been waiting there for a long time.

Underneath the straw raincoats, their white robes and veiled hats triggered a sense of déjà vu in Li Zhi.

“Your Highness, are you truly going to let him leave?” the leader of the group asked Xie Lanxu.

Li Zhi turned her gaze to Xie Lanxu.

Was this yet another contingency plan he had prepared in advance?

“Let him go. He’s no longer a threat,” Xie Lanxu said with indifference.

The leader hesitated for a moment, as if wanting to voice an objection, but in the end, he didn’t.

“All members of the Shengzi Palace, we greet Your Highness!”

In an instant, everyone knelt before Xie Lanxu and Li Zhi.

Li Zhi’s heart skipped a beat, she finally remembered where she had seen these white robes and veiled hats before!

It was at the marketplace near the Mingyue Tower!

The people of the Shengzi Palace had been offering free medical aid and distributing medicine there. They had all worn white robes and veiled hats, looking like celestial beings.

Even the Shengzi Palace itself was located on Xian Naiyue Mountain.

The people in the marketplace often said that the Shengzi Palace were guardians of the sacred mountain. But now, it seemed they were not the mountain’s protectors, they were the guardians of the treasure!