Chapter 58: The Way of the Golden Source

Actually, I hadn't planned on sleeping; I wanted to keep watch over Jinyuan all night. That way, if anything happened, I could step in at a moment's notice.

However, after enduring until three in the morning, I simply couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. When I opened them again, it was already the following morning. Li Xiang and Hutou were sprawled haphazardly across the floor, and Jinyuan was nowhere to be seen.

My heart gave a violent lurch the moment I saw Jinyuan's empty bed. I bolted upright, frantically searching every corner of the dorm, but there was no sign of him. I rushed to wake Li Xiang and Hutou. The instant their eyes flickered open, they both cried out in terror, "Jinyuan's gone mad! He's completely mad!"

I never imagined that after I fell asleep last night, something so disastrous could have occurred.

In the dorm, Li Xiang and Hutou recounted the events of the previous night with expressions of absolute dread, finishing each other's sentences in a nervous, overlapping chatter.

Li Xiang went first: "I fell asleep last night too, but later on, I heard some kind of noise and woke up."

Hutou chimed in, "I heard that sound as well and woke up right away. When I opened my eyes, I saw Jinyuan sitting straight up in bed."

Li Xiang continued, "Then I called out Jinyuan's name and told Hutou to get down from his bed quickly. I never expected that when I reached out to touch Jinyuan, he would turn and viciously bite down on my hand. He even tried to go after other parts of my body, so I started running. The next thing I knew, something struck the back of my head, and I blacked out."

After that, when Hutou saw Jinyuan knock Li Xiang unconscious, he panicked and tried to flee as well. But just as he rushed forward to try and calm Jinyuan down, Jinyuan smashed a chair over his head, rendering him unconscious too. At that moment, Jinyuan possessed strength that was terrifyingly unnatural—far beyond the limits of any ordinary human.

Hearing their accounts, everything fell into place in my mind. It was clear that in the dead of night, that evil master had once again used puppet sorcery to take control of Jinyuan. A burning wave of anxiety flared up in my chest. I had no idea how Liu Sui and Jinyuan were holding up.

Before Hutou could even finish speaking, I bolted out of the dormitory. I sprinted all the way to the school gates, but Jinyuan was nowhere in sight. I hopped onto a public bus and raced back to the spot where Liu Sui and I had parted ways the day before, yet I found no trace of either Jinyuan or Liu Sui.

Right then, I noticed a massive traffic jam up ahead. The line of vehicles stretched endlessly, and drivers had abandoned their cars to stand by the roadside, rubbernecking as if something extraordinary had happened.

I hurriedly got off the bus and broke into a mad dash toward the front.

About two hundred meters ahead of me stood a patch of woods. This grove served as the landscaped green belt for the street; the highways on either side were set at some distance, making the wooded area rather expansive.

As I ran closer, I realized the crowd on the street had gathered specifically to gawk at this very patch of forest. Amidst my mounting anxiety, a wave of confusion washed over me. Shoving my way past the spectators one by one, I finally managed to push closer to the front.

It was then that I saw the trees inside the grove—every single one of them had withered and turned completely yellow.

The previous day, while Liu Sui and I were rushing toward the kindergarten, we had passed right by these woods. I remembered looking out the car window and staring closely at the grove because it wasn't just a simple green belt, but a genuinely scenic landscape. Only yesterday, those trees had been lush and vibrant. How could they possibly have turned utterly withered and yellow overnight?

In other words, every tree in this forest had died in the span of a single night?

Standing wedged in the crowd, I stared at the grove before me in utter shock. Inside the woods, leaves that had already turned brittle and yellow were drifting down one by one. One of them fluttered right onto the top of my head.

I reached up, caught the leaf, and inspected it closely, feeling another jolt of shock. The moment the leaf touched my hand, a piercing, ghostly chill seeped into my skin.

I pushed forward again, desperate to see what was happening deep within the woods.

After pushing through the dense wall of people with immense difficulty, I finally reached the front line of the crowd. Through the trees, I caught sight of two figures: one sitting on the ground, the other lying flat.

The one sitting was Liu Sui; the one lying down was Jinyuan.

A sudden, chilling realization dawned on me. Last night, when Liu Sui had pursued the blue ghost-fire to track down the evil master, had he chased him all the way into this forest? Did that lead to a fierce, brutal battle that caused the trees here to wither and die overnight?

Anyone witnessing such a sight would have been profoundly shaken, and I was no exception.

At the sight of the two of them, I immediately hurried forward. As I stepped into the grove, shouts of warning rose from the crowd behind me, but I ignored them entirely and walked straight toward Liu Sui and Jinyuan.

When I drew near, Liu Sui finally raised his head slowly. I saw that his eyes were bloodshot, and his clothes were stained with patches of dried blood. Jinyuan, lying on the ground, was also covered in blood, though he thankfully didn't appear to be dead.

I let out a long breath of relief and asked Liu Sui, "Can you still move?"

Liu Sui nodded and struggled to his feet with agonizing effort. I crouched down and heaved Jinyuan onto my back. Without paying any mind to the gasps and murmurs of the onlookers, the two of us carved a path through the pedestrians and walked away from the street step by step.

Along the way, I could tell Liu Sui had been pushed to the absolute brink of exhaustion. The moment we got into a vehicle, he slumped over and fell into a deep, unconscious sleep. Though my mind was racing with questions, I had no choice but to swallow them down.

Soon enough, the car pulled up outside the school gates. I called Li Xiang and Hutou back out, and between the two of them, they carried the unconscious Jinyuan while helping me support Liu Sui as we made our way back to the dorm.

Liu Sui seemed to have been truly severely injured this time. Once he fell asleep, he didn't wake up until the following morning. As for Jinyuan, after we carried him back to the room, he hadn't stirred once. Staring at the two of them, I couldn't help but speculate. It seemed I had greatly underestimated that evil master; to inflict such heavy damage on Liu Sui was no small feat.

Furthermore, the clash between those two had drained the life out of an entire forest in a single night. Clearly, neither of them was an ordinary person. I could only wonder what the final outcome of their confrontation had been.

That evening, the three of us took turns standing guard over Jinyuan and Liu Sui. To prevent Jinyuan from being possessed or controlled again, we tied him securely to the bed with ropes.

The next day, I woke up in a hazy fog. The moment I opened my eyes, I discovered that Liu Sui had already regained consciousness. He was currently sitting on Jinyuan's bed, looking utterly exhausted.

I greeted him with a casual "good morning" and exchanged a few brief words about how he was feeling before immediately steering the conversation toward the evil master. Liu Sui gave me a slow shake of his head. "He got away."

A sense of urgency gripped me. "How could you let him escape? He'll come back, and next time, he'll only be even more ruthless."

Liu Sui shook his head again. "I won't let him succeed."

While we were talking, Hutou and Li Xiang woke up as well. At the same time, Jinyuan stirred.

Jinyuan opened his eyes, looked straight at me, and said in a voice of extreme weakness, "Li Xi, thank you. Even though I was unconscious most of the time through all of this, I could feel what you were doing."

Seeing that Jinyuan had finally recovered his clarity of mind brought a wave of joy to my heart. Just as I was about to speak, Jinyuan turned to Liu Sui and said, "Master, let's go."

I froze in surprise. "Where are you guys going? You've only just woken up."

Liu Sui turned his gaze back to me. "When I was fighting the evil master yesterday, he manipulated Jinyuan to shield himself from my attack. Jinyuan's body has been wounded by my talisman, and he is still afflicted by the puppet sorcery. The only hope of saving his life is for me to take him to a specific place."

A dull ache spontaneously pierced my heart. "Will he be in danger?"

Liu Sui replied flatly, "There is nothing more I can do for him now. As for whether he will face danger, I cannot say."

Jinyuan stopped Liu Sui from saying more and looked at me. "Li Xi, I will remember you as my good brother for the rest of my life. It's just... that mission Master assigned for us to complete together—I'm afraid I won't have the chance to finish it by your side. You must carry on and complete it in my place."

Jinyuan and Liu Sui left. Li Xiang, Hutou, and I stood at the school gates, watching them gradually recede into the distance until they vanished from sight. In that moment, it felt as though my heart was bleeding.

This parting might very well be forever.

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