Accompanying the Phoenix

Chapter 25: A Few Laps Around the Ruins

The clamor of broken voices kept assaulting Shen Li's mind. She tried plugging her ears then shutting her senses but nothing worked. The voices still dug through like a knife stabbing away at her sanity.

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut. Up!" yelled Shen Li unable to take it any longer.

"Kill..." It was just that one word ruthlessly repeated over and over again, its tone an alternation between sharp and muffled. Shen Li's pupils turned a murky red, the color of dark blood. She rose forward brandishing her weapon as though she was in a battlefield fighting an enemy in close combat.

Intense heat burned in her chest and rose traveling to her eyes, making them even darker, when suddenly a chill swept through her heart and invaded every limb and bone in her body, eventually extinguishing the heated flames. A palm gently stroked her hair, its warmth and heat was comforting like the rays of the sun on a cold day.

"Ai, how is it you're so violent?"

Violent? Wasn't she, when in the middle of that courtyard, already exercising a lot of restraint?

"Shen Li!" Xing Zhi called out sharply trying to wake her up.

At first when she opened her eyes all she saw was darkness, but gradually Xing Zhi's snow white robe appeared in her vision. She looked at it confused for a moment before looking around and trying to regain her bearings. With knitted brow she asked, "This... is this the ruins?"

Xing Zhi smiled and replied. "Your Highness is so sharp."

"You... Immortal High God, why are you still here? The seal?"

Xing Zhi didn't mince words. "It's been restored, but mending all the seals recently took a lot of energy. I became careless and the yao shou used the opportunity to break through my defenses. Somehow or other I ended up caught in one of their spells. I was unable to break away because the miasma has gotten so dense over the years of accumulation. Since I was unable to break away, I thought I'd take a stroll until I recovered enough to leave."

Randomly stroll around a place as dangerous as this? A place filled with yao shou? A place filled with miasma? Who randomly strolled around like that?!

Shen Li wanted to ask if he was wounded, but after his comment, she felt her worries were unfounded.

Xing Zhi laughed lightly as he looked at Shen Li. "Is Your Highness also interested in a stroll?"

Shen Li smote her forehead at the ridiculousness of it. "No I'm not. I -," she abruptly stopped. "I was patrolling the area with the troops. I was passing by here when a strange force dragged me in."

"Oh?!" Xing Zhi propped his chin on his hand thoughtfully. "How unexpected that they'd be able to pull Your Highness in. This group of yao shou are more fascinating than expected!"

Fascinating?! This kind of thing was fascinating to him?!

Shen Li silently eyed Xing Zhi before speaking. "Does Immortal High God have a way of getting out of here? Please share. I must return to the Imperial Palace tomorrow. If, by this morning I'm still missing, everyone will surely think..." She sighed. "They will surely think I'm trying to escape from the marriage again. There will be some confusion."

"I can't leave right now." Xing Zhi turned his head in her direction as he spoke. He didn't pause, but continued walking forward with complete confidence in the pitch darkness - a darkness where one couldn't even discern up from down, never mind left from right.

Shen Li walked behind, anxiously following the sound of his footsteps. "Immortal High God, please stop joking. I'm serious. I don't know how time flows here, or how many days have passed since I was pulled in, but we, both of us, need to leave. General Shang Bei may have already withdrawn the troops. They may be marching back to the capital as we speak! And he will report that I fled the marriage – again! I will surely be punished – again!" Shen Li acknowledged that the circumstances looked bad, and that punishment was inevitable, but even the most accepting person would feel aggrieved!