Chapter 123: The Third Face, Emerging from the Water

Whoosh!

At the end of the creek, a violent torrent suddenly surged through, instantly overwhelming the once gentle and picturesque stream. It transformed into a rushing river, sweeping rapidly from the upper reaches down to where they stood.

The crowd immediately retreated to the sides, and the village elders were particularly terrified.

"How strange! It’s not the rainy season, and it hasn’t rained in days. Where did such a massive flood come from..."

"Exactly!"

"It’s haunted!"

Suddenly, someone screamed in horror, "Look! There are dead bodies!!!!"

Jiang Yunxiu shivered. It couldn’t be, right? He was only joking.

The crowd stared hard. Floating on the water, what were those if not bodies? They looked... very much like a mass of corpses.

Whether it was the villagers or Jiang Yunxiu’s group, everyone swarmed toward the slightly more open creek mouth. There was a channel there because the villagers had blocked the river earlier, leaving only one opening to provide a spot for washing clothes and to prevent rotting wood from the upper reaches from clogging the lower stream.

Because of this, as the bodies were washed down, they were quickly trapped at the channel opening. Due to the impact and the piling up, some of the bodies flipped over. They appeared perfectly intact, showing no signs of decomposition.

This dispelled much of the crowd’s apprehension, and many people prepared to enter the water to retrieve the bodies.

Jiang Yunxiu, being a doctor, was not easily rattled. He rolled up his sleeves and trouser legs, ready to jump in. However, he didn't expect the man beside him to move as well.

"Hey, Chi, don't you have mysophobia? Aren't you afraid?"

Yi Chilian’s movements didn’t falter in the slightest. He stepped into the water and replied, "I've already endured your socks; there is nothing left that I cannot endure."

Jiang Yunxiu: "..."

*How much do you actually despise me?*

*And you call that 'enduring'? You literally had someone clean the entire dormitory that same day and gifted me a box of new socks... You are a total, obsessive-compulsive tycoon!*

As many people entered the water to retrieve the bodies, just before they could reach the pile, Jiang Yunxiu’s expression shifted slightly.

"Chi, behind you..."

People on the bank also cried out in alarm, as they all saw a swimming black shadow behind Yi Chilian—slender and somewhat long...

The water rippled faintly.

*Behind?*

Yi Chilian instinctively turned his head.

*Splash!*

A human head emerged from the water!

"Ah!!!" someone shrieked.

One scream led to another, and soon, many were crying out in terror. The elders were shouting about the dead rising from the grave.

However, upon closer inspection, the figure emerged further, revealing their upper body. One hand wiped the face, sweeping wet hair back. With water droplets sliding down, the fair skin, crystalline eyes, and delicate, cold features were revealed... along with a slender frame.

"Sui Yi!!!"

The screaming instantly turned into a chorus of synchronized exclamations.

***

Sui Yi had not expected to see Yi Chilian first, nor had she expected to see so many familiar faces looking at her. Compared to the boundless death and eeriness of that tomb world, all of this felt like a dream.

*A dream...* Sui Yi felt that everything she had seen in that collapsing world was the real dream.

Yi Chilian, looking at the beautiful young girl who had appeared from the water for the third time and now stood before him, found himself in a state utterly alien to his usual self: he was stunned.

But it lasted only a moment. He immediately took off his coat and draped it over Sui Yi.

*This girl, who told her to wear so little! And why must she wear a white shirt!!!* Yi Chilian glared.

Sui Yi: "..."

***

Jiang Yunxiu hadn't expected Sui Yi to emerge from the water, nor had he expected that none of those people were actually dead. They had simply fainted.

They were all loaded into vehicles and taken to the hospital for treatment. Sui Yi was supposed to go as well, but the young girl was quite insistent. She refused to go to the hospital, and when both he and Yi Chilian tried to intervene, she merely glanced at them sideways and said coolly, "Aren't you a doctor... can't you tell if I'm unharmed?"

That single line made Jiang Yunxiu perk up immediately. "I can, I can, let me see..."

***

At Sui Yi’s home.

It was quite clean. Yi Chilian sat on the sofa, quietly observing the room while drinking tea, seemingly indifferent to the situation between Jiang Yunxiu and Sui Yi.

Nearby, Jiang Yunxiu pressed his stethoscope against Sui Yi’s fair arm. He listened for a moment, then set it down. "Well, it seems your constitution is probably fine."

He looked at Sui Yi, whom he hadn't seen for many days. Seeing her face, he grinned. "Sui Yi, we haven't seen each other in so long, you've grown a lot! You must be 1.68 meters tall now. And your features have really opened up..."

As he said this, he felt a flicker of surprise in his heart. This Sui Yi...

Yi Chilian also turned to look at her, noticing a faint, delicate fragrance drifting from them. He certainly didn't think the scent came from Jiang Yunxiu.

Sui Yi, having just bathed, had shed her earlier disheveled state. Compared to the callowness of a while ago, her features had changed significantly—translucent and cold, magnificent and otherworldly. Every movement of her eyes held a startling, lingering charm.

She had indeed grown several centimeters taller; perhaps 1.67 meters now?

With long legs, a slender waist, and a graceful figure, her skin was like congealed fat. Her hands were particularly beautiful; as she held her tea, her fingers were long and distinct, the knuckles finely shaped. Her fingertips, resting against the brown teacup, looked like snow—or perhaps like young white jade bamboo shoots in a forest.

It seemed this girl was shedding her cocoon and turning into a butterfly at an astonishing speed.

No, perhaps not a butterfly, but a phoenix.

Yi Chilian watched, somewhat mesmerized. When he noticed the tips of her hair were still damp and pressed against her shoulders, leaving faint marks on her white shirt...

His breathing tightened. He only regained his senses when he heard Jiang Yunxiu calling him.

"Look at you. You look like the one whose brain was soaked in water, Chi."

"Brain soaked? Do I look like it? A doctor shouldn't make such diagnoses about others," Yi Chilian looked at him coldly.

"Heh, I suppose I was wrong... I think it might be somewhere else that is 'swollen'..."

"..."

Jiang Yunxiu looked at him with a half-smile, his expression full of teasing.

Yi Chilian rarely felt embarrassed, but he retorted coolly. The two were used to bickering, and generally speaking, Dr. Jiang was the one who lost. This time was no exception.

*Swollen? Swollen with what...*

Sui Yi heard this and glanced at Yi Chilian. Was there something different? Was he not his usual cold and noble self?

After the bickering ended, Yi Chilian and Jiang Yunxiu both looked at Sui Yi. Sensing that the girl had no intention of confiding what had happened, they tacitly refrained from asking. However, Yi Chilian’s gaze flickered toward the iron sword Sui Yi had dragged out of the water.

The sword was very ordinary. No notches, not particularly sharp, cold and somber. Its design was... slender, long, elegant, and clean.

Nothing else.

Perhaps, there was also a sense of restraint.

That was why Yi Chilian dared not underestimate it. Restraint meant mystery. Even though it looked like the noble sword of a young aristocrat from an ancient clan, it was too unadorned for that.

Yet, when Sui Yi held the sword, he was certain of one thing: the sight was breathtaking.

Truly breathtaking, as if her entire being had been made whole.

She was born to hold a sword, and this sword was born to belong to her.

Belonging to her...

Yi Chilian finished his tea and placed the cup on the table.

"The tea is of poor quality, though the water is decent. Next time, I'll send you a batch of tea leaves so you won't have nothing to serve guests."

His tone was distinctly different from Dr. Jiang’s. It was full of the class gap of a wealthy aristocrat, along with Mr. Yi’s unique... tsundere reserve.

Sui Yi and Jiang Yunxiu exchanged a look and smiled in silent understanding.

***

The reason she didn't confess everything to them was that some things were unspeakable, and some things, once said, would inevitably lead to more questions, making it feel like a deception. Since that was the case, it was better not to speak at all.

That was Sui Yi’s habit of thought.

Because of this, after seeing the two off, she remained in her room, stroking the sword she had been holding when she woke up.

How the sword came to be, she had no way of knowing.

It was like a fragment transformed from the jade wall, appearing inexplicably and magically, before finally merging into her body.

The second fragment had brought her more than just a second transformation of her constitution.

It was more than just a fivefold increase in her magnetic sensitivity, which, translated, meant a fivefold increase in her internal energy.

It was a fragment of inherited memory—strange, unfamiliar, and mysterious.

She called it an inheritance because she felt these things were impossible for her to have acquired on her own; they could only have been transmitted by the mirror fragment.

Some sword techniques—fragmented and non-continuous—knowledge of strange ancient objects or plants, and...

The name of this sword.

"Yaoque."

She had searched the blade for the name, but could not find the characters for "Yaoque." Generally, ancient swords with any history would have their names forged onto the blade.

This one did not.

Was it just an ordinary sword?

Yet, it had a name...

"Perhaps I must wait for you to tell me yourself."

Sui Yi felt a deep connection with the sword. Otherwise, she wouldn't have felt as if a void in her heart had been filled the moment she touched it.

It was as if her life finally had a direction.

But whenever Sui Yi thought of the sculptures on the jade wall, she felt as though her life’s path was shrouded in mist.

If Gong Jiu and the others were to see...