Rebirth, All She Could Say Was...

But He Zhuoming was certain she'd closed the door properly last night.

She stared at her reflection in the bronze mirror. The girl in the mirror held the tangled strand of hair, her brows furrowed in a frown, her face full of vexation—He Zhuoming puffed out her cheeks and thought indignantly: It must have been Lin Qingyun who did this!

She bent her head and fumbled with the knot, trying to untangle it herself. But it seemed to be a stubborn tangle. After struggling for a good while, all she got for her effort was a thin sheen of sweat on her forehead, while the tangled hair remained completely unchanged.

Xu Feixian had already finished her snacks. She turned around and saw He Zhuoming still fiddling with the comb in front of the bronze mirror.

She had no idea what He Zhuoming was doing, but she wasn't tying her hair up properly; if anything, it looked messier than before.

Xu Feixian asked suspiciously, "Do you even know how to comb your hair?"

He Zhuoming said, "My hair's tangled."

Xu Feixian walked over and took the tangled strand of hair from her hand—after examining it closely, she said, "It's a knot. It can't be untangled. Just cut this strand off."

With that, she pulled a pair of scissors out of her vanity drawer and set them on the table.

He Zhuoming snatched her hair back, strongly resistant to Xu Feixian's suggestion. "That's so much hair! If I cut it off at the knot, I won't be able to tie it up properly on this side!"

She muttered, rubbing the knot between her fingers, then covered the part below the knot with her hand and mimicked in the mirror what it would look like if she cut it off: it looked like she'd gotten half a hime cut.

He Zhuoming didn't like hime-cut hairstyles.

She swept the tangled hair back, tucking it into the rest of her hair, and said proudly, "See, you can't even tell now! After I wash my hair a few times, the knot will come loose on its own."

Xu Feixian said, "Suit yourself."

Because there was a knot in her hair, combing it would pull at her scalp—He Zhuoming was afraid of pain, so she set the comb aside and used her fingers instead, gathering her hair into a loose, casual low ponytail.

When she reached into her pocket for a hair tie, she didn't find one. Instead, her fingers brushed against something triangular. She pulled it out of her pocket to look at it and found it was a protective talisman.

It was the one He Zhuoming had picked up in the gambling den earlier.

Holding the talisman, she asked Xu Feixian, "Feixian, Feixian, can you take a look at this for me? What kind of talisman is it? Can it be used to curse someone?"

After all, it was something she'd picked up at a Corrupted Deity's domain, so He Zhuoming didn't exactly have high hopes for it.

Xu Feixian took it, examined it, and handed it back to He Zhuoming. "It's a protective talisman from the Temple of the Dao Lord of the Two Principles. Where did you get it?"

She remembered that He Zhuoming hadn't even finished copying the scriptures.

He Zhuoming gave her a full account of how she'd stumbled into the gambling den, though she left out the part about the Corrupted Deity taking on Lin Qingyun's form, as well as the strange face of that crimson monster.

"But why would a protective talisman from the Temple of the Dao Lord of the Two Principles end up in a gambling den? Did one of the gamblers drop it?" He Zhuoming turned the talisman over in her hands, examining it again and again.

Xu Feixian thought for a moment, then said, "They say that when the chaos broke out, the first thing to change was the temporary temple of the Dao Lord of the Two Principles—maybe the Corrupted Deity occupied the place and took the talismans stored there to use as props to prop up the gambling tables."

He Zhuoming said, "...I feel like the Dao Lord of the Two Principles is kind of weak."

Xu Feixian said, "That's because this is the Divine Palace of an Earth Immortal, and it happens to be the Day of Divine Celebration. The True Deities' physical forms aren't here; only a strand of divine thought remains in the temporary temple. It's only natural that a Corrupted Deity would take advantage of that opening."

"It's also common throughout history for the Divine Palaces of True Deities to be overrun by Corrupted Deities. What really matters is whether you can hold the palace after taking it."

He Zhuoming said, "It doesn't seem like the Corrupted Deities are all that afraid of the True Deities either..."

Xu Feixian said matter-of-factly, "They never really were. Most Corrupted Deities aren't right in the head. They aren't even afraid of death."

"You got lucky. This talisman hasn't been tainted by evil energy, so it's still usable. You don't need to go copy those scriptures anymore."

He Zhuoming held the talisman up and spun it in her hand, clearly doubtful. "Is it really still usable? It looks so ordinary."

Xu Feixian said, "If you don't want it, you can give it to me. I could use it as a gift for someone—an easy favor."

He Zhuoming immediately stuffed the talisman back into her coat pocket. "I want it!"

Since she couldn't find a hair tie, He Zhuoming borrowed a ribbon from Xu Feixian and tied her hair up in a messy low ponytail.

Just then, someone knocked on the door. Xu Feixian went over and opened it just a crack—she blocked the gap with her body, and when He Zhuoming craned her neck to look, she couldn't see who was on the other side, only hearing a young woman's voice.

"Mibo is leaving. We're going to see her off. Are you coming?"

Xu Feixian asked, "Is the sect leader going?"

"He's already there."

Xu Feixian said, "Let me tidy up. I'll be right there."

The person outside left. Xu Feixian closed the door and turned around, nearly bumping into He Zhuoming's forehead—she jumped in surprise, then, after a moment of silence, pressed her index finger against He Zhuoming's forehead and pushed her back.

He Zhuoming asked, "Are you holding a funeral for the dead?"

Xu Feixian's expression turned somewhat peculiar as she answered, "There are no dead. Huang Mibo has already come back to life."

He Zhuoming was stunned. "How is that possible? I saw it with my own eyes..."

Xu Feixian said, "Yes, she did die earlier, but the Earth Immortal brought her back to life. The other cultivators who died in the gambling den were also revived by the Earth Immortal. But this kind of revival is worse than death."

He Zhuoming said, "...What do you mean?"

Xu Feixian pulled He Zhuoming along as they left the room, warning her not to speak and to stay hidden behind her.

The main entrance of the side hall was already crowded with Xuanhua Cave disciples and elders. The father of Huang Mibo, whom He Zhuoming had met before, was also there, standing at the very front of the crowd—He Zhuoming hid behind Xu Feixian, peeking out with half her head, her eyes scanning the area.

It took her several glances before she finally confirmed that the young woman in white robes, with a gentle smile on her face, standing at the doorway was Huang Mibo.

Her severed ear had grown back. Her smile was serene and gentle, so much like the smiles of the other white-robed attendants in the Earth Immortal's Divine Palace that it was as if they'd been stamped from the same mold.

Seeing Huang Mibo take her leave of Daoist Chiri, He Zhuoming whispered to Xu Feixian, "Where is she going?"

Xu Feixian answered in a breathy voice, "She's going to the Earth Immortal's main hall. From now on, she'll remain in the Divine Palace forever, serving the Earth Immortal."

He Zhuoming was dumbfounded. "But—but doesn't Xuanhua Cave worship the Dao Lord of the Two Principles?"

Xu Feixian said flatly, "There's nothing to be done about it. The best thing is to stay alive. If you're going to die, you must never die in the Divine Palace of any True Deity."

Huang Mibo left. Xu Feixian went over with the crowd to offer a few words of comfort to Daoist Chiri, and when she came back, she found He Zhuoming squatting by the wall with a grave expression on her face.

She kept her head lowered, and Xu Feixian couldn't quite make out her expression—Xu Feixian called out, "Let's go."

He Zhuoming jumped to her feet and caught up with Xu Feixian. "Do you think that person is still Huang Mibo? I can't even imagine such a gentle expression appearing on her face."

Xu Feixian said, "This is the kind of thing you're better off not knowing too clearly, just like how, after people throw their fallen teeth up onto the roof, they don't go checking whether the tooth fairy actually comes to take them away."

He Zhuoming said, "They usually do take them, right? I once secretly used my mom's lipstick and accidentally snapped it in half, but the tooth fairy still came and took my fallen tooth and even gave me a gift—my dad said the tooth fairy is very generous."

Xu Feixian: "..."

She turned her head to glance at He Zhuoming and found that she was completely serious about what she'd just said.

He Zhuoming had always thought tales of spirits and the supernatural were fake, and she'd grown up reading science magazines—but the girl's logic was oddly wonderful. In her mind, the fact that humanity could fly into space and the existence of a tooth fairy weren't mutually exclusive at all.

Xu Feixian wasn't a modern person and had never read science magazines, but she was clever enough and had enough survival instincts to easily infer the meanings of the unfamiliar words He Zhuoming spouted from her nonsense.

"Ba" was probably father. As for the tooth fairy giving gifts—at least to Xu Feixian, that was a folk tale she'd never heard of.

He Zhuoming asked, "Why can't we look into the tooth fairy?"

Xu Feixian turned her head away and said mildly, "No reason."

The two of them exited the side hall through a small door. Half the wall beside Xu Feixian's quarters had collapsed, and a few bricklayers were repairing it—He Zhuoming habitually glanced at the white-robed attendant supervising the work. Seeing the unfamiliar face, she felt a faint, subtle disappointment in her heart.

But she didn't show it at all on her face. She kept her hands in her coat pockets, clutching the protective talisman inside.

He Zhuoming said, "I didn't even finish copying the scriptures. Will the talisman still work? Will the True Deity think my heart isn't sincere?"

Xu Feixian thought for a moment, then said, "If you're worried, you'd better finish copying them... Anyway, the temporary temple is almost repaired. You can still make it in time to burn them there. I'm going to the Demon Suppression Bureau. Where are you headed?"

He Zhuoming hadn't had any particular plans today anyway, so she followed Xu Feixian to the Demon Suppression Bureau—it was her first time at the Bureau's official premises, but she didn't find it particularly special. Apart from the guards at the entrance being Bureau officers, the palace itself was quite unremarkable.

Xu Feixian stepped forward and exchanged a few words with the guard. The guard looked surprised at first, then smiled and said, "You've come at just the right time. If you'd been any later, he'd have already left."

Xu Feixian asked, "Are you pulling out of the Divine Palace?"

The guard shook his head. "The Corrupted Deity caused chaos and damaged the palace. We of the Demon Suppression Bureau bear some responsibility for that. How could we just walk away? We have to stay and help repair the palace, lay the floors... And this time, the Earth Immortal is angry too. Tomorrow, His Majesty himself will come into the Divine Palace to offer his apologies, and we'll have to serve as guards again. Plenty of work to do."

"Qingyun's out of luck—his neighbor, Rong Gu, was also lured by the Corrupted Deity into the gambling den and lost his life. Dying is one thing, but last night, for some reason, the corpse rose again and went straight for Qingyun, biting at him relentlessly."

"This is a Divine Palace. If a person has bad luck here, it can only mean the Earth Immortal doesn't like him." The guard spread his hands and said, "So our chief ordered him to pack up overnight and return to Moyi. If you go in now, you'll just catch him in time to say goodbye."

He Zhuoming didn't say a word, but she listened intently from the side, nodding along as she thought: So that's how it works.

Remembering that her schoolbag and wooden sword had been returned to her, He Zhuoming felt the Earth Immortal probably liked her well enough.

But then she remembered that the Earth Immortal was actually the villain—and the Earth Immortal not liking the young man Lin Qingyun was, in a way, the destined conflict between villain and protagonist?

So the "Lin Qingyun" she knew was just someone who happened to share the same name?

After finishing her conversation with the guard, Xu Feixian turned to see He Zhuoming standing there in a daze. She grabbed He Zhuoming by the shoulder and tugged. "Let's go."

He Zhuoming said, "Oh, oh, oh—"

As they passed many black-robed officers along the way, He Zhuoming looked left and right, then leaned in close to Xu Feixian. "Are you going to work here in the future?"

Xu Feixian said, "...No."

He Zhuoming asked, "Why not?"

Xu Feixian glanced at her, speechless. "Have you forgotten the dangerous thing I told you about?"

He Zhuoming thought blankly for a long moment before she finally remembered what Xu Feixian was talking about—that the Earth Immortal's accumulated karma was too heavy, making it easy to fall and become a Corrupted Deity.

They hadn't even reached the Demon Suppression Bureau officers' quarters when they ran into Lin Qingyun halfway. He'd changed into ordinary clothes, though his sword and waist token were still on him, and his right arm was wrapped tightly in bandages, hanging from a sling around his neck.

Seeing He Zhuoming and Xu Feixian, he looked surprised as well.

Lin Qingyun said, "Did you come all this way to see me off?"

Xu Feixian told the truth: "I didn't know you were leaving. I came to return your money. She has nothing better to do, so she's just tagging along with me."