※ Chapter 11 ※

Yifan's POV »☆●

The sun almost disappeared under the horizon when I reached the temple. Xiudao is already over. There's a sense of silence inside the temple. I like it.

I head directly towards the cavern hidden below the temple, where Sulli asked me to meet her. I sneak in cautiously because I'm not meeting mom now. She's gonna ask a lot of questions.

The inside of the cavern is like a geode - dark and dreary. The only sound that can be heard is the dripping of water from the stalactites. The air smells dry and dusty.

"You're perfectly on time," Sulli smiles, sitting on a rough rock. Next to her, are some materials that you probably see in some fucking cult.

"Remind me why the fuck am I here again?" I gesture at the odd materials next to her, "To see you perform witchcraft?"

She laughs, "Calm down. You want my help or not?"

"Yeah.." my lips twitch, "But how the fuck are these gonna help me?"

"Depending on what you told me, this sounds supernatural, " she stands up, "I can't identify what exactly is your connection with her but what I can do, is help you get visions. Maybe you'll see something that'll give you your answer."

"Or maybe it's nothing like that and you don't wanna admit you can't help me," I hiss. Everything that's coming outta her mouth right now sounds fucking stupid.

"Just give me a chance," she implores, "A warning before you begin, you may witness things you don't understand or don't wanna see."

"Fine by me," I shrug. I know she's just being dramatic.

She directs me to kneel in the centre of cavern, "We perform this in the evening because it's both death of day and birth of night. Similarly you will stop experiencing worldly matters for a while and discover mysteries of fate."

"Mysteries of fate?" I mutter. I don't know why but I always get a disturbing feeling when it comes to fate.

"As we finish these rites, you will transport into visionary world where various scenarios of your fate will appear like a mirage," she begins to circle me slowly, reciting some sort of prayer or something, I don't really know. Doesn't sound Chinese.

"What the fuck are you muttering?" I frown.

"Please be patient?" she requests. Few moments later, she ignites the incense and continues circling me. Haze begins to defuse through the candlelight. The air fills with the pungent smell of herbs. It fills my head with acrid smoke.

"Now we begin the final rite," she motions me to come before her as she grabs an amphora filled with a liquid that looks like some sort of broth. I give a questioning gaze.

"This will separate your mind from your body and ease your journey. Drink it and enter the sacred pool," she says.

"And fall unconscious in the water so that I fucking drown?" I growl.

She shakes her head, "You won't drown."

I raise an eyebrow, "Give me one good reason I should believe you."

"Okay.." she sighs, "I gain nothing from drowning you. If anything, I lose my potential opportunity to escape this cursed kingdom, I get executed for causing murder in this holy place and your mother will never forgive me."

I roll my eyes, "Fair enough."

She smiles and pours some of the broth from the amphora into a cup and I take several long gulps. My face scrunches as I swallow the foul liquid.

"What the fuck is this made of?" I ask through gritted teeth.

"We can't talk now. This works very fast. You need to immediately get in the pool," she hurries me.

I step into the pool and inhale sharply as the water reaches my chest. The water is numbingly chill and my body tenses instinctually as I submerge myself. I feel the broth take effect as everything begins to go out of focus and my grip on reality begins to slip..

I find myself in a crowd of golden eyed people on a bustling foreign street. They're all moving toward an abandoned temple at the end of the road. Although it's day time and everything is crystal clear in the sun rays, the light doesn't reach the temple. The inside is fucking dark like a deep hole to infinity. I peer at the temple and see a large banner hanging on top of it saying "ER SAN."

As I look around, my heart pounds like a drum in my chest as I catch a familiar sight.

It's her.

Covered in a veil, she's moving effortlessly against the crowd, almost like gliding. I try to get a better look, but the crowd is fucking jostling me as it constantly pushes forward. I keep pushing against them. It takes some solid moments of struggling to reach the other side of the street where I spotted her.

As I get a closer view of her, I get an odd feeling that I know her. Like I've known her forever. I don't even notice when my hands reach out to touch her. She looks at me, frowns, and moves out of my grasp.

Why the fuck did I do that?

"The end of ERSAN," she whispers to me with pained eyes, then looks away and turns around to leave. She walks towards a brick building below the dark temple. I follow her and realize it's not her. Rather a simulacrum flickering between infinite past and future versions of her.

I make my way to the brick building and slip inside. The door slams shut behind me, leaving me in a void. As I look around in the vague mirage in search of her, something materializes before me.

I see her sitting by a fountain. Slowly the fountain begins to pour fucking blood, threatening to overflow. A man in some odd outfit appears and sits beside her.

He takes her hand in his and the blood turns back to water. It recedes quickly as soon as she rests her head on his shoulder.

I don't know why I suddenly feel a pull in the of pit in my stomach. My eyes were almost paralyzed as they closely follow the movements of two of them. My hands ball into a fist, a cold and bitter taste of defeat fills my brain. I don't understand where it's coming from but I know this bitter taste can't be sweetened and I don't wanna fucking watch them anymore.

As I close my eyes, everything swirls around me and changes, transitioning into something completely different. The ground bellow my feet changes into sand as I hear a growing animalistic roar of many people.

I see her bound in chains in an arena, held down by a dozen faceless men. The sound of battle draws near. A man fights his way towards her.

My eyes go wide as I realize that man looks exactly like me. That means I'm seeing my simulacrum.

My simulacrum fights, and fights, and fights.. Cutting down a man holding her.. Another man wordlessly leaps into the fray to grab the chain.

Finally my simulacrum manages to approach her. I watch me reach behind her back trying to remove the chains bounding her hands. As I touch her wrist, blood starts dripping from the wrist, wetting her fingertips. I try another.. chain then another.. but whenever my hands touch her, she starts bleeding. At a point, she loses conscious from excessive blood loss and falls.

A man strides towards us and kneels to check on her. It's the same man from earlier. He gently touches her wounds caused by me, and the bruises fade away. Her wounds heal immediately.

My vision swirls again and I find myself in the dark building I started from, but this time I'm surrounded by clinging shadows. I find a glowing parchment in the floor. It's dazzling my eyes as it's the only source of light in this room. I pick it up to realize it's the sketch of her eyes that I drew.

At first, I don't think much of it. It could've dropped from my tunic but it's not supposed to glow. More importantly, there's something scribbled on the back of the parchment that I surely didn't write.

"ER SAN."

I feel a sudden shock of cold that jolts me awake and I find myself back in the pool. I turn to find Sulli sitting in the same place as before.

"I was starting to get worried," she smiles.

"None of these make any fucking sense," I climb from the pool and dry myself off, "I didn't understand anything I saw."

"You'll understand at the right time," she says gently, "But you did have visions, right? See, I wasn't lying."

"It just made me more confused than I already was," I roll my eyes, "What does Er San mean? Is two-three a code for something I don't know of?"

Her expression pales, "Why you ask that?"

"Cause I've seen this again and again in my vision," I shrug, "Tell me what two-three stands for?"

"Er.. represents two souls. San.. represents three lives. Er San is the connection of two souls in three lives," she says.

"Three lives?" I frown.

"Dangxia - the life you're in right now, Xiabeizi - the lives that are about to come or passed before this, and Laishi - the afterlife," suddenly her eyes glows with hope as she looks at me, "If you saw something of this nature, does it mean she could be your soulmate?"

I shake my head, "You know that's impossible. Besides.."

She raises an eyebrow, "Besides?"

"She said something about end of Er San, what does that mean?" I ask and see the light fade from her eyes.

"I don't know for sure but it's supposed to mean the instability of this," she sighs, "I think you're unlikely to meet her again. Even if you do, this will be over in two or three conversations."

"That's..good?" I stutter as I ask, unsure of how I feel about it myself. There's too much going on. I don't wanna think more. I don't know what she is but she's stressing the hell outta me. I don't think I'd be able to bear this. So it's probably for the best that I don't see her. But how do I get rid of these thoughts? How do I stop thinking about her?

"Anyways.." Sulli's voice pulls me out of my thoughts, "I think you should go home and rest now if the plan is to escape tomorrow."

"Mom told you?" I raise an eyebrow, "Do you have a plan?"

She smiles, "I do. Majority here accepted me as the Daoshi. We'll storm off from here and attack Charmaine Sheh and her followers if they cause inconvenience."

"Don't think in if. She will interfere and you must be enough prepared to take her and her followers down. Start the preparations immediately," I say.

She nods, "Will do."

"It's settled then. Don't fucking mess it up because I'm trusting mom with you," I growl.

"What about you? Is everything ready?" she asks.

●☆●☆●☆●☆●☆●☆●☆●☆●

24 hours later..

"Everything is ready," Marshall Mark announces as he meets us in the barracks, "We're lucky that pretty much everyone hates King Wang. All soldiers and majority of the workers are on the board."

I talked to Marshall about the servants and guards last night when we were planning strategy. It's funny how Sulli told me to rest and we were awake all night planning the escape. Marshall said he could send off the servants and guards to the forbidden city. They'll have a shelter and earning source.

"I couldn't have done it without you all," he addresses the army.

"Of course you couldn't have done it without us, you old lug. No one likes you," Tao smirks.

Oyshi returns with a vial of poison, "Here it is. Shall we start now?"

I nod, "Take Chanyeol with you. He'll stand watch."

"Understood," she bows and takes off with some other maids and Chanyeol. The gathered army in the barracks grow impatient as we wait for their signal.

Few moments later, from far below, I hear the ring of a glass shattering. It's our signal.

"Now," I command.

We emerge, one after another, through the trapdoor. As we charge for the trapdoor, I bang the prongs of my trident against a large bronze pitcher, the signal for the whole team to join me.

We sneak out, hiding behind a boulder at the edge of the army's camp. The smell of roasted meat wafting in the air. We hug the walls quietly and move, our weapons drawn, double checking if the job is done.

I look around. The whole camp is silent, all the soldiers collapsed in the ground. The only people standing are Oyshi, Chanyeol and the maids. They nervously look around in panic, their feet shaky.

After making very sure no one else is here, I approach them. Hundreds of our army explode onto the sands.

"I'm Zhanghan," I announce. This is the secret code to identify we're on the same team.

"I'm Zhanghan," Tao announces too. One by one, everyone in our team makes the confirmation.

With a burst of strength, I rip the heavy wooden door of the exit from its hinges, throwing it away as I lead everyone out to the streets. As everyone is hurrying to escape, I notice Chanyeol isn't even budging. He stands motionless as if his mind is somewhere else.

"Chanyeol!" I yell, grabbing his attention, "Why the fuck aren't you going?"

He looks directly in my eyes, then smiles, "I'll stay here."

I frown, "Why the fuck?"

He sighs, "Captain Antares, you're a brave man. I really, really admire you. And when I promised I'll help you in any way that I can, I meant every word of it. You're gonna need someone to spy on here. I'll do it."

I shake my head, "But-"

He stops me, "Please. I insist."

I nod, sighing. I pat his shoulder, "Thank you," I whisper. It's very rare that I say that word but this guy made me speechless. No one has been this kind to me.

He smiles like an idiot, "Now leave. Even though it's unlikely we get caught but don't take risks by waiting around."

"No," I mutter, bringing out a piece of parchment from my tunic and handing to him, "You know how to write? Write down the address of your family. Or tell me, I'll note it down."

He frowns, "I don't.. understand?"

I roll my eyes, "You took a huge responsibility for me, let me return the favour. I'll look after your family."

His eyes go wide, "You will?"

I nod, "They'll be safe with me until you meet them again."

His eyes fill with tears, threatening to fall. Excitedly, he tells me the address. I note it down and take off, starting for Mingluan.

To Be Continued »☆●