Chapter 154

  Festival of Sins (VI)

  As soon as Xi Zhao opened his eyes, he felt a pang of nostalgia burst through him.

  He found himself standing at the heart of the Sunlight Town's market, at the very crack of dawn, just as the townsfolk were starting to come out and set up their stalls.

  The scent of freshly baked bread began to spread, yet was quickly counteracted with the stiff air of the burning furnaces coming from the blacksmith shops not two streets away.

  He could hear Old Nan and Pap already shouting at each other, with the former mad that the latter overslept and the latter mad that she wouldn't let him sleep in even a bit, ever.

  It was all so... vivid.

  Scarily vivid.

  This was the day they learned he was accepted into the Spirit Sword Sect.

  He'd taken the test almost a month prior and was sent down from the mountain, told he would potentially be in the 'secondary batch', as it were. Kids that were kind of talented but would only be recruited if the sect needed to make up numbers.

  By the time half a month went by, he was certain that he hadn't gotten accepted. Though everyone around him was quite supportive, especially his parents, he could all but hear the mockery and pity in their eyes when they looked at him... and he hated it.

  But it all changed on this day--though the morning was the same as ever, with him leaving the house before his parents got up so he could see the town come alive. And was it ever alive.

  Before long, the streets were teeming with the locals trying to grab the freshest products, while the workers started leaving through the main gates to either the nearby fisheries or quarries.

  The smells, the sounds, even the town… the recreation was perfect... except for one thing: there weren't any kids mocking him.

  Though, even without that, he immediately realized this was an illusion. Even if this was the happiest day of his life, that was only because it afforded him the original opportunity to become who he is today.

  He hardly clung to the past anymore, even if it would always be there to haunt him.

  Nonetheless, he stayed for a little while, interacting with the local aunties that all gave him a candy or two, going back home to see his parents, who both tried to encourage him, and eventually receiving the letter of acceptance, which caused their entire little neighborhood to erupt.

  Ultimately, however, this wasn't where he belonged; while it was nice to reminisce for a moment, he knew that staying any longer might even become dangerous. All it took was the closing of his eyes and a slow hum of a sigh, and he was back in the orchard, staring at the old, weathered trunks of the trees and the shadowed corners that seemed to hide strange secrets.

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  He spun around for a moment and looked for others, but there was nobody else nearby, so he simply headed deeper in.

  All trees seemed eerily similar, but most so in how listless they were in the exact same way. He shrugged it off and moved further in, stopping only when he saw a familiar figure standing by one tree that did look different.

  "Senior Brother!" he called out and quickly joined. Long Tao glanced over at him for a moment before turning back toward the tree. "What is it?" Xi Zhao asked, following Senior Brother's gaze to the trunk of the tree.

  "... does the trunk's shape remind you of a rather round butt?"

  "..." E-eh? Xi Zhao nearly fell, thinking that Senior Brother was joking; however, the boy younger than him seemed deep in thought, finger pressed against the chin.

  Xi Zhao looked at it again and, indeed, from a certain angle...

  "Nature's truly strange," Long Tao shrugged it off, stretching suddenly as he spun back around. "You sure took your sweet time. Indulged a bit?"

  "... just a bit," he replied sheepishly, smiling. "What is this tree, Senior Brother?"

  "Parasite's heart," he replied. "As it's the centermost tree in the orchard, it provides the perfect reach to the rest of it. But that's about it. It's a rare parasite, but not particularly strong."

  "The illusion was... it was vivid, but also kind of... fractured?"

  "That's because it wasn't designed to work on kids like you." Aren't you a kid too, though?! "Your memories are loose and fluid and uncertain. It was designed, instead, to work on old monsters who have exploitable heart demons. However, since you don't, it could only try to form a failed mimicry. But..."

  "But what?"

  "Nothing," he shrugged, twisting back toward the tree. "Since you're here, and those other two left the orchard, and the parasite is still active..."

  "... it means someone else is still inside?" Xi Zhao guessed.

  "Hm."

  "Who is it?"

  "Who do you think?"

  "Hmm," he thought for a moment, and a face immediately popped up in his head. "Light?"

  "Hm."

  "Isn't it bad? Shouldn't we save her?"

  "We can't."

  "What do you mean?"

  "If we destroy the parasite, it will implode within her mind and turn her into a hollow husk incapable of thought. If we want to enter into her illusion and pull her back... we can't, because all of us have already been in it. Besides," he added as he turned around once again and began walking away, with Xi Zhao quickly following. "Even if we could, somehow, get in with her, we wouldn't be able to pull her out. Only one person can at this point, I guess."

  "Master?" Xi Zhao assumed, and Long Tao nodded.

  "Then we should hurry up!"

  "No need," Long Tao said. "Though she's stuck in there, she's not some random, ordinary girl. If we simply leave her be, it would take the parasite literal centuries to fully consume her. In fact, it might even die before it can."

  Xi Zhao hadn't interacted much with Light--at least not beyond their group interactions. To him, she was always an odd girl who mostly only spoke to Master and very rarely to Dai Xiu.

  There was... coldness about her that made Xi Zhao shiver, but it didn't matter--she was Master's disciple, and if anything happened to her, Xi Zhao knew that the Master would be heartbroken.

  **

  She was home.

  Where she belonged.

  Surrounded with warmth and familiarity.

  Stars hung loosely on the rainbow-colored sky; the masked towers pierced like swords toward the heavens; the mountains twisted into cradling arms that beheld her little paradise; all the faces she loved were here.

  The songs.

  The laughter.

  The joy.

  There never was death or the cold that swarmed her upon seeing her father skewered like an animal.

  She never screamed until her throat tore and bled.

  She never saw flames erupt like ghastly embers of death, consuming everything she ever knew.

  She never had her heart ripped and shredded and unmade at its seams, turning catatonic from pain.

  Her mind never broke, severing the pain as it severed the joy, turning her into an empty nothing.

  She was home.

  Where the life was perfect.

  And the song never stopped.