The bonfire beside Liu Xing and Hua Beifeng flickered. A moth flew into the cave and began to circle the bonfire, its shadow dancing along the ground and walls. The movement was like a small, sacrificial ritual, ending only when the moth would throw itself into the flames. Liu Xing slowly described Yu Yongrui's face. His sharp eyebrows, his long hair, his pale skin and more. Liu Xing gave Hua Beifeng excruciating detail, all in an effort to buy time and lull Hua Beifeng into the illusion that he was cooperating. A normal person would have been bored or frustrated by the details Liu Xing spouted, but Hua Beifeng watched him with sharp eyes, as if constructing a real image of Yu Yongrui behind them.

  After a while, Liu Xing still had not found a perfect time to summon his gun and shoot Hua Beifeng, and the conversation drifted toward the core of the information.

  "Where was the last time you saw him?" he asked.

  Liu Xing was silent for a moment, his right hand grasping at the air as if searching for his gun. Flying atop the bonfire, the moth flapped its wings frantically, as if it needed to launch itself into the fire but hesitated.

  At that moment, the talisman behind his head began to feel warm. Liu Xing instantly panicked, thinking it might harm him, and summoned his gun to his right hand. It appeared silently, and the grip calmed him down considerably. He then realized that the paper talisman didn't hurt him or suppress him. In fact, he felt as if his qi was moving slightly faster. A moment later, the paper talisman suddenly burned. A small fire lit up the back of his head for an instant, then vanished, leaving only a little trail of smoke.

  "It seems that you're doubting my words," Hua Beifeng said. "When I said that I'll free you after you told me everything you know about Yu Yongrui, I didn't lie."

  Liu Xing looked at the man's crimson eyes. They shone with a cold light. However, beneath that coldness was a calm intensity, akin to a simmering fire that would burn slowly.

  "Did Yu Yongrui... wrong you?" Liu Xing asked.

  The man nodded. "He killed my lover, cut her body to pieces, and stole her precious treasure."

  Understanding dawned on him. It was because of the race. With so many things happening, it was easy to forget the race, and the fact that aside from him, other disciples from his sect were currently roaming the continent to gather the most treasures. Liu Xing's own adventures gathering treasures had led him to kill people, steal from a grieving mother, form a bond with an old man, and fight spirit beasts. It seemed Yu Yongrui’s adventure had led him to kill Hua Beifeng's lover. Sympathy wormed its way into his mind, but he soon remembered the blood-soaked beach, the severed limbs of his friends, and more. Liu Xing schooled his face. The man in front of him was a demonic cultivator and an enemy. Even if his words were true, it didn't matter. He deserved to die. Liu Xing gripped his invisible gun tighter. It seemed that Hua Beifeng either hadn't realized his gun had appeared or didn't care. Whatever the case, it was still not the time to launch an attack.

  "I met him on an island quite far away from here," Liu Xing paused for a moment. "If I'm not mistaken, he was captured by an elder from your sect, a woman called Bewitching Princess. A battle broke out there, and I helped the inhabitants of the island fight against your sect. When I left the island, he was with me."

  Liu Xing omitted a lot of information about his adventure on that island, but in the end, it didn't matter. Hua Beifeng only cared about Yu Yongrui, and Liu Xing gave him exactly what he wanted.

  Ever so slightly, Hua Beifeng leaned his body forward.

  Liu Xing was suddenly silent. Hua Beifeng waited patiently. After several seconds of staring, Hua Beifeng finally relented. He cycled his qi in a pattern, and several needles began to lift from his shoulders, his back, his waist, and his legs, as if invisible hands were pulling them. The moment they escaped his body, they clattered to the ground. Liu Xing felt many of his previously blocked qi paths were suddenly free, and his qi began to move faster and faster inside his body, though he reined it in a moment later. Instead, he silently cycled his qi with the speed of a crawling snail, almost as if it were stopping, but definitely moving in a specific pattern.

  "We talked a little bit," said Liu Xing. Though Hua Beifeng's eyes narrowed, he didn't respond, so Liu Xing continued. He recounted how, despite being weak enough for Liu Xing to kill, Yu Yongrui had provoked him, confident that Liu Xing wouldn't do it. As an added detail, he told Hua Beifeng about his subsequent contemplation about how his actions boiled down to whether or not people were a threat to him. Hua Beifeng didn't seem particularly interested in such morality, but he didn't interrupt, as if trying to glean something more from his words.

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  "Then, where is he right now?" he asked.

  At Liu Xing's silence, Hua Beifeng released a needle near his heart. The needle was black, as if forged from ink. When it was released from his body, it turned into a little snake that slithered toward Hua Beifeng and entered his shadow. With this needle gone, he felt his body and his qi were freer. Though he knew for a fact that several things were still suppressing him, preventing him from fighting with his full power, he could at least fight in his current condition. The qi he was cycling had completed several patterns; he just needed a little more time, and then he could activate it, let it be absorbed by his gun, and begin to attack.

  Liu Xing decided to give him an honest answer. "I don't know."

  That made Hua Beifeng frown. "You don't know?"

  "Yes," he nodded. "There was... an accident on the way, and we entered some kind of mysterious place." The details about the mist that had blanketed everything were a little foggy, but his memory of the Silver Saint was vivid. Still, he wouldn't divulge that information to Hua Beifeng. "I don't know exactly what happened, but we suddenly arrived near the Mirror Tide Empire. There, Yu Yongrui decided to leave us. I didn't try to find him."

  As he finished talking, his qi cycling was complete, and he held back from activating the technique. At that time, the moth that had been flying around the bonfire finally made up its mind. However, instead of throwing itself into the fire, it landed on the wall, spread its wings, and began walking along the walls, as if it had decided that instead of following its impulse, it realized that if it stayed alive, it could enjoy the warmth and light of the bonfire more.

  Hua Beifeng rose from his seat and then nodded. "Thank you. Your information, while not complete, is useful. As promised, I'll let you be free." He flicked his right wrist, and a giant brush appeared in his hand. It was the weapon he had used to fight Liu Xing, yet even though he had summoned his weapon, he didn't attack. What's more, he even showed his back to Liu Xing. When he swung his brush, a stroke of ink appeared in the air. In an instant, a snake's head formed from that stroke, and it opened its maw wide before a blue portal swirled inside it. Hua Beifeng started walking toward it.

  Upon seeing this, Liu Xing hastily rose from his position. The Lightning Palm technique was still not activated. His eyes widened in disbelief. "You... you will let me go, just like that?"

  Hua Beifeng stopped walking. "There was a time when I intended to kill not only Yu Yongrui, but the Purple Moon Sect too. Of course, that meant all the people who belong to that sect, including you."

  Liu Xing activated his technique, let the gun absorb it, and readied himself to aim and pull the trigger.

  "Let me tell you something. Even though I live and fight alongside the Nether Lotus Sect, I am not one of them. My goal is to kill Yu Yongrui. That's why I decided to follow these barbaric people and try to gain power. As long as they benefit me and help me achieve my goal, I will stick with them. However, I firmly refuse to be associated with them. Just as I don't want to be associated with those people, I also don't want to associate an outsider with Yu Yongrui. Although you're an acquaintance of his, it seems that you two aren't friends." He looked to the side, toward the paintings that lined the wall. "Not only that, you're actually a painter. One that has a unique style. I appreciate your art, and it would be a waste if you died right here and right now." The man looked at Liu Xing, his crimson eyes glowing with qi. "However, don't mistake me for a kind person. I am not. And if you decide to become a hindrance, I will kill you without hesitation."

  "Aren't you afraid of Ye Xuanming?" Liu Xing blurted out, his voice trembling.

  "He is formidable. I am not sure if I can kill him. However, he is not untouchable. You must have seen it, right? A mortal successfully hit him. If it was you, could a mortal sneak right behind you and hit you with a piece of wood?"

  Liu Xing blinked several times, his brain working to digest that information. And at that moment, Hua Beifeng stepped into the blue, swirling portal. The moment he was swallowed whole, the portal vanished, leaving Liu Xing alone inside his cave, with the bonfire lighting up the darkness, a single moth enjoying its warmth, and paintings leaning to the cave wall.

  Liu Xing began to walk to the mouth of the cave. When he arrived at the edge, he looked around and realized that this little cave was not too far from the blood-soaked beach. He jumped from the cave and landed on the sand. At that exact moment, a wave rolled in and touched Liu Xing's feet, the coldness washing over him. He began to walk, and as he processed what had happened, he finally arrived at the beach where his friends had been stabbed and their limbs severed. The blood felt sticky on his bare feet.

  Before, Liu Xing had been preoccupied with Hua Beifeng. He had strategized—though in the end, he hadn't needed to execute his plan—suppressed his emotions, and had a distraction from his thoughts. But now, even though he wanted to focus on Hua Beifeng's last words about Ye Xuanming being successfully hit by Qing Lian, his mind returned again and again to his failure.

  After standing for a full ten minutes on the beach, Liu Xing began to walk deeper into the island. He was naked, his body was dirty with blood and mud, and his newly grown hair cast a shadow that obscured his eyes. The smell of blood permeated the air, and Liu Xing's body instinctively moved toward a single spot.

  A spot where he had truly failed to save his friends.

  keep the lights on.