Be Gentle, Immortal Master

Bai Ye shook his head. "Your soul is intact, so it shouldn't be possible that this presence is a part of you. But such a level of connection is too high for two existences that don't share the same origins … I'm just as baffled as to what this presence is and how it is related to you."

He squeezed my hand again. "If you want to know more, we can visit the Vermilion Shrine and ask them about this seal. Someone might remember the events that led them here back at the time. But for now, we should leave. Since this seal was designed to trap a soul that had a close connection to yours, the spiritual power here might create ripple effects on you if we stay near it for too long."

No wonder he had been so cautious ever since we stepped into this chamber. I nodded, though I still glanced one more time at the familiar swords. Why did those swords look just like Twin Stars? Was it this similarity that had attracted the being locked inside it? For some strange reason, I thought I felt that my questions could have been answered if I simply walked over and touched those blades myself, but I resisted the urge to do it. Bai Ye was right about erring on the safe side.

I followed his lead, and we traced our footsteps back out of the chamber towards the cave entrance.

~ ~

We decided to pay a visit to the Vermilion Shrine the next day, since it was already late by the time we returned to our cabin. Bai Ye reassured me that we would get all my questions answered in no time, but the thought of which answers might be waiting for us bothered me. When the evening slowly dragged to an end, I found myself lying awake in bed, unable to fall asleep.

Although the presence inside those swords shouldn't have shared the same soul with me, I knew that my connection to it wasn't trivial, and I knew from the look of those swords that this had to be related to Twin Stars. It could even be a part of my past that Bai Ye wasn't aware of—Twin Stars had other owners before him, after all. Whoever or whatever that presence was could have been someone corrupted by Twin Stars' power, or something slain by the demonic sword but somehow escaped its trapping …

The memory of that boneyard hit me again, and I cringed. Never would I have thought that such a savage scene would turn out to have something to do with me. Just how big a role had Twin Stars played in causing all those deaths? How many more lives had it taken?

And that wasn't the only thing that concerned me. The fact that this trapped existence had laid out such an intricate bait for the cultivators bothered me even more. For that many people to have died in the same area in the cave, there must have been a lure that made them go down that route in the first place, and the portals had simply made it more convenient to transport all the victims into one spot to be slain at once. This existence … was not only vicious, but also intelligent. If it really had something to do with Twin Stars, then this might be the power that I have to fight against to win that cure we desperately needed.

Would I be strong enough for this challenge? And would my conscience be able to take whatever new surprises that we might find from Twin Stars?

I glanced up at the small window above us. There was no moon tonight, and all I could see was a few specks of dim starlight. I sighed internally. But just as I was about to toss again in the darkness, a warm embrace circled me, holding me in place. "Still troubled by it?" Bai Ye asked softly.

Of course, he always knew everything that was on my mind. I smiled a little. "I … feel a little frightened," I admitted. Having hardly come to terms with the fact that I had ended so many lives with my own hands in my previous life, I was frightened to find out more about the truth of my past. Frightened that more secrets of Twin Stars would be revealed, and they wouldn't be what we wanted to hear.

He turned me towards him. I couldn't see his face too well in the dark, but I felt him smile as well. "That doesn't sound like you anymore," he breathed. "You never flinched at anything we had to go through the past few months."

I chuckled at his reminder. "T-That's not quite the same," I argued. "Maybe the masters at Mount Hua were right about one thing … I didn't know the power of Twin Stars, and I didn't know the extent of its capability. Now that I've seen more of the havoc it has wreaked in the past, maybe I'm finally starting to realize the gravity of the task I'm facing." Shifting a little uneasily in his arms, I hesitated before continuing, "What if what you suspected turns out to be true? What if we find out that Twin Stars is even more powerful than we thought, even more malicious than we thought … and what if we find out that this dark side of it is still a part of me?"

He rubbed his finger over my forehead, brushing my loose hair behind my head. "Then we will cleanse that part out of you, and we will take on those powerful and malicious swords together," he said simply. "It might take us a little longer, but there is nothing to be afraid of, because these dark forces aren't enough to make you succumb to their influence anymore."

In the dim light, he looked into my eyes. "You have a kind heart and a stronger will than any demonic sword is capable of, Qing-er.. I believe in you."