Chapter 49
Chapter 49: Crimson Robes, Scarlet Hues
Jiang Li Sheng’s sea of consciousness churned. Her spirit mansion shook. The storm she’d stirred rose beyond her control, spreading outward like something hungry.
Through the roar, she faintly heard Chen Liu An screaming her name. The sound stabbed straight into her chest, but her body wouldn’t respond—not a finger, not a breath she could command.
She could only endure as the storm tore and swept, tore and swept again, as if it meant to shred the world into pieces.
Time became slippery. It felt like forever. It might have been only moments.
Only when her spirit mansion went dry—when the reservoir was scraped down to nothing—did the storm finally falter and die.
Jiang Li Sheng collapsed onto the ground, limp as water.
She tried to lift her hand for a spirit-replenishing pill. Her fingers twitched, but her arm refused to rise. Her head swam. Darkness pulsed at the edges of her vision. Her eyelids sagged, heavy as stone.
She wanted to sleep.
But the last thread of reason in her mind screamed at her not to. Something was wrong. If she slept now, she feared she might never wake again.
So she bit down hard on her lip until pain flared and blood filled her mouth. The sharp taste forced her eyes open, held her consciousness together by sheer stubbornness.
Then someone appeared.
A figure landed not far away, crimson robes trailing like a spill of scarlet light—striking, almost unreal.
For a second, Jiang Li Sheng wondered if she’d truly hallucinated.
There was a saying that circulated through the immortal sects: “Ten li of fragrant spring hasn’t opened, yet when the crimson robe passes, spring loses its color.”
It spoke of Wei Qing Lan.
Jiang Li Sheng blinked, dazed and breathless, and thought—so it’s true. Spring really did lose.
Wei Qing Lan saw her and froze for the briefest instant, surprise flashing across his face. Then he sheathed his sword and strode over. He crouched beside her, eyes sharp and clear. “Are you alright?”
Jiang Li Sheng’s throat felt like sandpaper. “Wei… Senior Brother?”
“It’s me.”
She pressed her lips together, the motion weak and childish with exhaustion. “Not alright.”
Wei Qing Lan didn’t waste time pretending otherwise. He lifted a hand and touched her forehead, sending a thread of spiritual power into her spirit mansion and linking it with his.
In an instant, he felt it—dry, black, and scorched, like dead land after a wildfire. The reservoir he’d expanded for her days ago had been flattened into ruin. His spiritual power entered… and vanished. No trace, no return, as if the burned earth swallowed it whole.
His expression tightened. He fed more in.
Again, it disappeared immediately.
Jiang Li Sheng noticed too, even through her haze. She couldn’t lift her hand, but she managed to speak. “Senior Brother Wei, don’t waste your spiritual power. I don’t know what’s wrong with my spirit mansion—we can figure it out later. First… Senior Brother Chen. Chen Liu An. He’s here too.”
“I already saved him,” Wei Qing Lan said. “He’s outside the cave dwelling. Don’t talk.”
Even as he said it, his spiritual sense continued to probe her spirit mansion while he fed in controlled streams of power, trying to find anything that would hold, anything that would answer him.
Jiang Li Sheng shut her mouth. She didn’t have the strength to stop him anyway.
About half an hour later, Wei Qing Lan’s face had gone pale. He withdrew his hand, breathing shallowly, and looked at her—still ghost-white, still trembling. All that power hadn’t eased her even a fraction.
He helped her up. “Your spirit mansion… how did it become scorched earth for a thousand li? Before I arrived, what did you do?”
Jiang Li Sheng tried to answer, but the moment he loosened his support she slumped forward, nearly collapsing.
Wei Qing Lan reached out again, bracing her back. Heat bled through the fabric of her clothes, steadying her just enough. His gaze lowered, lashes shadowing his eyes, and he spoke first—cleanly, as if laying out a report.
“When I arrived, Bitter Mountain was collapsing. Chen Liu An was in extreme danger. The storm nearly tore him apart. I barely saved him and raised a barrier to protect a ten-zhang radius, but I was helpless against the mountain crumbling. Only after everything stilled did I trace the source and find my way here.”
The warmth at her back should have been comforting. Instead, it made her feel too aware of how weak she was, how helpless. Still, she forced herself to speak.
“Senior Brother Chen and I entered the Qi Shan Secret Realm with everyone. At the entrance, I grabbed a whole chain of people with An Ru Xu—Senior Brother An. We’d agreed to travel together, but after we entered, we were forced apart. I ended up with Senior Brother Chen, and we fell onto Bitter Mountain.”
Then, in ragged breaths, she told him everything—meeting Shan Gao, being chased and cursed, subduing it, forcing it to swear a Heart-Devouring Oath, the Grand Array opening, being yanked into the cave dwelling, Shan Gao slapping the barrier to wake her, the formations on the wall pouring into her sea of consciousness, her spirit mansion spiraling out of control, and then… him.
When she finished, she looked at Wei Qing Lan with tired, pleading eyes. “That’s all. I still don’t understand what happened. I’m confused too.”
Wei Qing Lan nodded slowly. He shifted, sitting down beside her. One hand remained at her back to keep her upright; the other tapped lightly against his knee as his eyes moved to the wall.
He saw none of what she described—no dense text, no carved bagua diagram.
Understanding settled in. “I don’t see the formations you mentioned,” he said quietly. “This inheritance… it’s probably meant only for you.”
He paused, then added, “I didn’t see Shan Gao either. Chen Liu An is still unconscious. Bitter Mountain has already been destroyed—once you leave this cave dwelling, you’ll see it.”
His brow creased, frustration held in check. “By all logic, receiving an inheritance shouldn’t end like this. It shouldn’t destroy everything. Your case… it’s the first I’ve seen.”
Jiang Li Sheng’s face pinched. “Senior Brother Wei… why did you come to Bitter Mountain?”
Wei Qing Lan’s mouth tightened. “Recently, the Mystic Heaven Realm has been shaking day and night. At first, I thought it was because of the Demon-Suppressing Tower of Kun Lun Sect, but after checking several times, the Demon-Suppressing Tower was completely still. Martial Grand-Uncle Qi divined that the omens in this area were abnormal, so I came to investigate. I didn’t expect to find you and Tai Yi Sect’s Chen Liu An.”
Jiang Li Sheng wanted to scratch her head, but her arm might as well have been dead weight. “Then Shan Gao… is it Bitter Mountain’s mountain god? That damn dog thing. I hope it’s dead.”
Her anger was raw and immediate. If Shan Gao hadn’t slapped her awake and forced her to push forward, she wouldn’t be lying here unable to move, struggling just to talk.
Wei Qing Lan rubbed his brow. “I’ll help you lie down for a while. Then I’ll look for Shan Gao. We’ll talk again when Chen Liu An wakes.”
Jiang Li Sheng nodded weakly. “Okay.”
Wei Qing Lan stood, hooked an arm around her waist, and shifted her to the stone bed in an instant. Outside, the world had shattered—yet the cave dwelling itself remained stubbornly intact.
He withdrew his hand, produced a pill, and fed it to her. “Awakening spirit pill,” he said. “Don’t sleep.”
Jiang Li Sheng swallowed it and nodded with effort.
Wei Qing Lan rubbed his fingertips once, almost absentmindedly, then hid the motion inside his sleeve and walked out of the cave dwelling.