After that bout of severe delirium, whether because Zhang Xiaofan’s body had always been strong or because Bi Yao’s comfort had taken effect, the persistent high fever gradually subsided. Zhang Xiaofan slowly regained consciousness, his mind clearing, though his illness was still severe, and he mostly continued to lie down and rest.
One day, Bi Yao wandered the cave with nothing to do and eventually walked over to the four lines left behind by Lady Jinling, examining them closely and sighing involuntarily. Zhang Xiaofan, sitting nearby, couldn’t help asking, “Why are you sighing?”
Bi Yao sniffed. “I’m sighing for the Lady. With such talent and beauty, yet she was betrayed by you stinking men, suffering her whole life—how unworthy!”
Zhang Xiaofan was rendered speechless.
Bi Yao looked over the lines again carefully. Suddenly, she let out a soft exclamation of surprise—she had discovered something odd. In the final character of the last line, the “mouth” component at the bottom was deeply recessed, drastically different from the other characters. A light flashed in her eyes, and she realized almost immediately. Reaching to her waist, she took out the Hehuan Bell and compared it. Indeed, the size was a perfect match. She couldn’t help letting out a cry of joy.
Zhang Xiaofan asked in surprise from behind, “What is it?”
Bi Yao turned back and smiled at him. “We’re saved!”
Zhang Xiaofan started, immediately perking up, and said delightedly, “Truly?”
Bi Yao inserted the bell. Seeing no reaction, she tried turning it left and right. A moment later, suddenly a series of clicking sounds echoed through the stone cave, and the stone wall shook. Bi Yao was greatly startled and hurriedly backed away, holding the bell. With a thunderous crash, a layer of the originally smooth stone wall actually collapsed, revealing an inner layer upon which, like the Heavenly Book in the inner chamber, words were carved.
Zhang Xiaofan was initially overjoyed, but as he examined the stone wall from side to side, his face gradually turned ugly. It seemed this mechanism had been set up by Lady Jinling only to conceal the words on this wall and offered no way out. At this realization, he was utterly despondent.
Bi Yao, however, focused on the words carved on the stone wall. Something left behind by Lady Jinling and hidden away so carefully was certainly no ordinary thing. After a long while, her facial expression shifted uncertainly, but her look of wonder was especially heavy. She said softly, “So this is the ‘Infatuation Curse.’”
Zhang Xiaofan was impatient waiting nearby. He came over and glanced at it a few times, seeing the opening lines:
Haunt of the Nine Nether Yin Spirits, gods and demons of all heavens,
With my blood and flesh, offered as sacrifice.
Through three lives and seven generations, forever fallen into Yama’s realm,
Only for the sake of love, though I die I do not regret.
…
One look was all he needed to know this was a vicious curse from the heretical path. But seeing Bi Yao’s expression, which held more joy than anything, he couldn’t help snorting. “Does this point out where an exit is?”
Bi Yao was taken aback. “No.”
Zhang Xiaofan said indifferently, “Then what use is there in learning it?”
Bi Yao fell silent. After a long while, she said, “You don’t know the origin of the Infatuation Curse. This incantation has been passed down since ancient times in our Holy Sect, but legend says no one has ever been willing to use it.”
Zhang Xiaofan was somewhat intrigued. “Why?”
Bi Yao sighed. “Legend says this incantation was comprehended by a wise female progenitor from the Heavenly Book back in the day, but it can only be cultivated by women. It’s said that it transforms a woman’s entire essence and blood into a ferocious curse of unparalleled power…”
Before she could finish, Zhang Xiaofan interrupted her, his eyes filled with contempt. “Then call it the ‘Ferocious Blood Curse.’ Why call it the Infatuation Curse? Heretical demons and deviants, putting on refined airs!”
Bi Yao’s expression changed, but then she blanked for a moment and said softly, “You’re right. Even an elder like Lady Jinling ultimately never used it in the end.”
Zhang Xiaofan ignored her.
***
The two spent several more days there. In his idle time, Zhang Xiaofan would go look at the Heavenly Book, while Bi Yao often stared blankly at the words on the stone wall that she called the “Infatuation Curse.”
The first volume of the Heavenly Book actually contained no practical cultivation methods. The entire text was abstruse and could be considered a general outline. But since Zhang Xiaofan had learned the true methods of both Buddhism and Daoism, he could more or less understand the text—yet only understand it on the surface. As for the realm described in the Heavenly Book where Buddhism and Daoism merged into one, Zhang Xiaofan remained utterly baffled. Did it mean he had to simultaneously fuse and execute the two great true methods of Taiji Xuanqing Dao and Dafan Banruo?
Although he knew the hope of survival was slim, the temptation remained in his heart. Zhang Xiaofan quickly tried to cultivate according to the direction mentioned in the Heavenly Book, but simultaneously employing these two great true methods—how could that be easy? In no time, his blood and qi were churning, and he had no choice but to stop in frustration. Several days passed without the slightest progress.
But what followed was an even greater problem before the two of them: they had run out of food.
Though cultivators who practiced the Dao could ascend to heaven or dive into the sea, they were ultimately still flesh and blood. Legend spoke of predecessors with profound cultivation practicing breatharianism, neither drinking nor eating, yet no one had ever seen such a thing. After entering the cave, Zhang Xiaofan’s dry rations had been lost. Fortunately, there was still clear water to drink in the cave, but dry rations had only been brought by Bi Yao alone—how could that be enough? Even though the two conserved as much as possible, they quickly finished everything.
They did not know how much longer they stayed in the cave; fearing it had only been two days, Zhang Xiaofan and Bi Yao stared blankly at the already empty food bag.
“Ai!” Bi Yao sat on the platform. Right beside her was that pile of withered bones, yet she showed no discomfort at all. It seemed a demonic sect woman truly was rather different from ordinary people. But now, her face was etched with worry.
Zhang Xiaofan’s illness was improving quickly. The fever had mostly subsided, and aside from his body still being somewhat weak, there was nothing seriously wrong. When he heard Bi Yao sigh, he turned to look at the demonic sect woman. What met his eyes was the woman in her water-green dress sitting at the edge of the platform, her feet dangling in midair, swinging idly back and forth, causing the Hehuan Bell at her waist to ring out lightly. Had it not been for their environment and had he not known her identity, Zhang Xiaofan might almost have mistaken her for an innocent, spotless young girl.
Yet looking at her now, Bi Yao was far more haggard than when they had first met. As a young woman, she still went to the small waterfall every day to wash and groom, so her appearance remained elegant and without any filth. But these past days, she had clearly grown much thinner. Thinking of this, Zhang Xiaofan felt a stir in his heart. From childhood, his master and senior brothers had taught him that those of the demonic path were selfish, cruel, and ruthless. But now, trapped in this desperate cave, why would this demonic sect woman still share half of her only food with him?
Lost in thought, Zhang Xiaofan didn’t notice Bi Yao looking over. Seeing that Zhang Xiaofan had somehow started staring at her blankly, her face suddenly flushed. She said coquettishly, “What are you looking at?”
Zhang Xiaofan was startled and quickly turned his head away, awkwardly saying, “N-nothing.”
Behind him, Bi Yao didn’t berate him loudly as he had imagined. After a long while, instead came a sigh. “We’re trapped in this dead-end cave, not far from death. You needn’t be so restrained.”
Zhang Xiaofan was stunned. He slowly turned around to look at Bi Yao. On her somewhat thin yet still beautiful face was a faint, helpless smile. He couldn’t help blurting out, “Actually, when I was seriously ill, you didn’t have to give me most of the dry rations. That way you could have lived a few more days, and perhaps…”
“Perhaps what?” Bi Yao suddenly interrupted him.
Zhang Xiaofan blanked for a moment, shook his head, and said softly, “Perhaps you could have been saved.”
Bi Yao shook her head slightly, a small smile appearing on her face. “I don’t want to die, but I want even less to sit in the dead silence of this cave, facing that skeleton and another slowly rotting corpse, slowly waiting. In that case, before anyone came to save me, I’d probably go mad first.”
Hearing her description, Zhang Xiaofan couldn’t help shivering. Indeed, that was no way for a person to live.
Bi Yao glanced at him and said lightly, “What, are you afraid too?”
Zhang Xiaofan immediately straightened his back and said loudly, “I am not!”
A smile appeared at the corners of Bi Yao’s mouth. In her gaze toward him, there gradually emerged a trace of faint tenderness. She said softly, “Promise me one thing, alright?”
Zhang Xiaofan frowned. “What?”
Bi Yao smiled faintly. “We’ve now finished all our dry rations. Aside from some clean water, there is nothing left to eat. I’m afraid within seven days, we’ll starve to death.”
Zhang Xiaofan fell silent.
Bi Yao’s face was calm, but what she said next made Zhang Xiaofan turn pale with shock as if seeing a ghost: “In a few more days, if you see that I’m not going to make it, kill me first.”
Zhang Xiaofan’s mouth fell open. He pointed at her but couldn’t utter a word for a moment. He hadn’t expected that Bi Yao would still speak with a calm face words so preposterous and earth-shattering: “After I die, my flesh will remain. If you are determined to survive, then… eating my flesh could probably let you live a while longer.”
Zhang Xiaofan nearly fell to the ground.
After a long while, he recovered from this tremendous shock and immediately said to himself in his heart, “These demonic sect people truly are all monsters, to even be capable of such things!” But seeing Bi Yao’s expression, which was actually completely calm, an even colder chill rose in his heart. He couldn’t help taking a step back, his finger pointing at her almost trembling. “Y-you… what did you say?”
Bi Yao looked at him. The tenderness in her eyes seemed to grow thicker, but in Zhang Xiaofan’s eyes, it seemed even more poisonous than all the toxic things in the world combined.
“Don’t you want to return to Mount Qingyun’s Big Bamboo Peak to see your martial sister Ling’er? You still have several fellow disciples in this Ten Thousand Bat Ancient Cave. They will surely come looking for you. The longer you stay alive, the greater the hope they have of finding you, isn’t that so?” Bi Yao lowered her head slightly, yet her tone remained so flat.
But at this moment, how could Zhang Xiaofan still care about her tone? He didn’t even notice how she knew about martial sister Ling’er. He only pointed at her in fury. “Y-you actually told me to eat, eat, eat… You heretical demons are simply unreasonable! Shameless, disgusting, I, I… you, you…”
The angrier he became, the more tongue-tied he was. “I-I-I,” “you-you-you”—he spoke for a long time without getting anything out. However, his reaction seemed to have been within Bi Yao’s expectations. She was neither angry nor mocking. She only stared at him blankly for a long while, waiting until Zhang Xiaofan’s heavy panting gradually subsided before slowly saying, “Whether you eat me or not is up to you, but you must kill me first!”
“There it is again.” Zhang Xiaofan erupted in anger. “Don’t delude yourself into thinking I would join hands with your demonic path. You gave me some dry rations, and I’ll repay you with this fleshly body of mine. But if you want to drag me down with you, absolutely not!”
Bi Yao slowly shook her head. “No. I’m afraid.”
Zhang Xiaofan reflexively said, “Nonsense, I will never fall for your trick… huh, what did you say?”
As if at this life-and-death juncture, Bi Yao’s mood underwent an unprecedented change. She seemed to fall into some kind of memory, an expression of fear surfacing on her face that Zhang Xiaofan had never seen on her before. Then she shook her head forcefully, as if trying to cast away some thought.
“Do you know what it’s like for a person to wait for death?” she asked in a low voice.
Zhang Xiaofan was startled. He faintly sensed that she had some other hidden story, and his curiosity was piqued. “What?”
The muscles at the corner of Bi Yao’s eye seemed to twitch. Faced with death, faced with this youth—the only one keeping her company before death—she found it difficult to control her emotions. Even her voice carried a trace of haze and emptiness: “When I was six, my mother took me back to the Six Fox Cave on Mount Huqi to visit my grandmother. Unexpectedly, your righteous path attacked at that time. Among them, the wicked monk Pufang of Tianyin Temple used his magic treasure, the Futu Golden Bowl, to collapse the entire Six Fox Cave, burying my mother, my grandmother, and me alive underground.”
Zhang Xiaofan’s body suddenly trembled. A bad premonition, even a chill of horror, welled up from his heart, running ice-cold from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.
Bi Yao now seemed to have completely fallen into her painful memories, her eyes staring straight ahead, empty and hollow, just like her tone—flat and vacant, carrying the deepest agony. “At that time, I was so scared I wailed loudly, terrified to the extreme. It was a small cave, and because a few large rocks were propping it up, we were able to barely survive. But grandmother was too severely injured and soon passed away. Mother and I wept bitterly in that pitch-black darkness, then buried grandmother.”
“We were buried deep underground. Besides a few drops of water trickling between the rocks, everything around us was hard, cold stone. I was very frightened, but mother kept telling me: ‘Little Yao, don’t be afraid. Father will definitely come save us.’”
Zhang Xiaofan held his breath and listened carefully, feeling an indescribable strangeness and faint dread, as if sensing that something was about to happen.
“But it was always pitch-black in there, and father never came. I was so scared in that dark cave, and my stomach was so hungry, and I cried nonstop. I still remember mother sighing at my side, holding me tightly in her arms, constantly saying to me: ‘Little Yao, don’t be afraid. Little Yao, don’t be afraid. Mother won’t let anything happen to you. Your father will definitely come save us!’”
Bi Yao’s face gradually grew deathly pale, but she continued, “But father still didn’t come, and I was already starving beyond endurance, constantly crying to mother for something to eat. Mother searched again and again in the cave but never found anything. In the end, I was so hungry I didn’t even have the strength to cry, only lying in mother’s arms moaning. Then one day, mother found a piece of meat! …”
Almost at the same moment Bi Yao spoke, Zhang Xiaofan saw her body begin to tremble.
“I was too hungry and didn’t care about anything. I ate it, and then seemed to fall into a comfortable sleep. It seemed that at that time, mother also laughed in the darkness. And so, every so often mother would find me a piece of meat, and I survived like that. But mother’s voice gradually grew weaker. Finally, one day, I called to her, but she didn’t answer. From then on, I was alone in the darkness, waiting for death like that.”
Bi Yao slowly turned her head to look at Zhang Xiaofan. Meeting her gaze, Zhang Xiaofan couldn’t help feeling a chill in his heart. “Do you know what it tastes like for a person to wait for death there? Do you know the smell of mother’s corpse slowly rotting right beside you? Do you know what it’s like for a person to never be able to see their surroundings clearly, to always live in fear?”
With every question she asked, Zhang Xiaofan’s body trembled.
Bi Yao fell silent. Zhang Xiaofan didn’t even dare to breathe heavily. Finally, as if waking from a dream, yet still seemingly half-asleep, she continued in a trance: “Finally, one day, suddenly, a ray of light shone down from above. I screamed in fright and hid in the deepest corner. Then the light grew brighter and brighter, and the hole above grew larger and larger. I heard father calling mine and mother’s names. Then I saw father jump down, placing himself in front of me.”
“He didn’t look at me first, but at my mother first. When the light had just come, I only cared about looking up and forgot to look at mother. By the time I remembered, father was already blocking my view. I couldn’t see mother’s corpse, but I clearly saw father’s body shake, his whole person seeming to turn to stone. Then, following father down—Uncle Qinglong, Uncle Baihu, and Uncle Xuanwu—each one froze in place, motionless.”
“I suddenly felt very frightened, even more afraid than waiting for death in that darkness. I called out softly: ‘Father.’ Father slowly turned around. The three uncles lined up in a row and stood behind him, blocking mother’s corpse. I still couldn’t see mother. I asked softly: ‘Father, where is mother?’”
Zhang Xiaofan saw clearly that with every word Bi Yao spoke now, her body shuddered, as if the little girl asking that question were right before them.
“Father didn’t say anything, but his expression was so terrifying. Though I was small, I knew. I knew that at that time, he truly wanted to kill me—wanted to kill his own daughter! But in the end, he didn’t act. He saved me, held me in his arms, and left that pitch-black cave. Just before leaving, I secretly peeked over father’s shoulder. Mother’s corpse had already been buried by the three uncles, with only one hand exposed. But for some reason, that hand, that hand, that hand…”
Bi Yao’s voice suddenly fell silent. Zhang Xiaofan was startled and looked at her, only to see her face deathly pale, her eyes tightly shut, her entire body falling straight backward—she had clearly fainted. Almost instinctively, Zhang Xiaofan rushed forward and caught her, feeling that her touch was icy cold, almost not like that of a living person.
Having just recovered from his illness, his body was weak, and he exerted tremendous effort to lay Bi Yao flat on the platform. Looking at her pale face, Zhang Xiaofan suddenly realized that his entire body had been completely soaked in cold sweat.
That night, Bi Yao remained unconscious, but in her dreams she cried out “Mother!” “Father!” and such words from time to time. The positions of the two people had suddenly reversed; it became Zhang Xiaofan taking care of her.
But this seemed to be an extremely painful memory from the depths of Bi Yao’s heart. While unconscious, she cried out in alarm several times, cold sweat dripping. Zhang Xiaofan was at a loss. Finally, Bi Yao’s arm flailed unconsciously, grabbed his shoulder, and nestled into his embrace. As if she had found some support, she gradually calmed down and fell into a quiet sleep. But those hands tightly clutched Zhang Xiaofan’s clothes, her nails even digging into his flesh, making Zhang Xiaofan grimace in pain. Yet for some reason, looking at Bi Yao’s pale face, he couldn’t bear to leave. He forcibly endured it, letting her nestle in his embrace, sleeping peacefully.