Upon hearing the word "ants," Li Qiu couldn't help but picture the mole crickets he used to play with as a child: his friends would poke them endlessly with a blade of grass while the mole crickets crawled frantically, trying to escape the circle, only to be flicked over and left tumbling head over heels, endlessly trapped in the same spot with no freedom, while the children laughed uproariously. When the children grew tired of the game, they would lift a foot and stomp down hard, crushing the mole crickets to pieces, sometimes with the remains sinking into the dirt and vanishing forever, as if they had never existed in this world at all.
Suddenly, Li Qiu felt an unspeakable chill seeping from his marrow, making him shiver violently.
A white wolf—no matter what, it was just a beast—had actually spoken such words to a man. Li Qiu recalled the desperate battle against the pack: that White Wolf Leader had constantly looked down upon them from on high, with a proud posture and a disdainful gaze that betrayed the creature's absolute superiority.
A superior beast!
Though Li Qiu felt it was utterly absurd in his heart, that sense of superiority fit the White Wolf Leader so naturally, without a hint of pretense, as if the White Wolf Leader were truly a king, ruling over everything.
Li Qiu fell into a bizarre trance, a state that both fascinated and terrified him.
Around them, the carcasses of the Gray Wolves lay scattered in disarray, the ground stained with blood. Some of the Gray Wolves were not yet fully dead, one leg still twitching rhythmically.
Not a single Cyan Wolf carcass remained; the pack must have taken them along when they retreated.
The entire scene was an absolute mess.
Wang Suo snapped back to his senses and exclaimed in surprise, "Well, look at that, the wolves actually retreated." With that, he suddenly clutched his chest and groaned, "It hurts like hell, I think several of my ribs are broken."
Li Qiu hurried over to help him sit up, then rushed to assist Li Zhuo and Zheng Shude.
Zheng Shude had also broken a few ribs and lay sprawled face down beside Li Zhuo, unconscious.
Li Qiu struggled to roll both men over. Seeing they were still unresponsive, he placed a hand on their foreheads and discovered they were running high fevers.
Horrified, Li Qiu rushed toward the riverbank, hoping to fetch some water to cool them down.
He walked to the edge, bent down, and reached for the water, but stars suddenly danced before his eyes, followed by pitch blackness. With a heavy *splash*, he pitched headfirst into the stream...
Li Qiu had a very strange dream: he had turned into a giant tree, dozens of zhang tall. His feet became roots, his arms branches, and a great river flowed slowly past beneath him. The warm sunlight bathed him, and he felt as though he were drawing boundless nourishment from the earth, growing lush and green.
The sensation was wonderfully soothing. He stretched out his leaves eagerly to better soak up the sun, when suddenly, dark clouds blotted out the sky, and a torrential downpour swept over him...
Li Qiu slowly opened his eyes to find a pair of mischievous, grinning eyes—a grin he knew far too well.
Li Zhuo was leaning over him, holding a blue-and-white porcelain bowl, and continued to splash water onto Li Qiu's face. Seeing Li Qiu open his eyes, he cried out in delighted triumph to Wang Suo and Zheng Shude, "He's awake! Look at that, you guys told me not to pour it. See? I told you my way would work. Back then, I stood calm even as Mount Tai crumbled before me, devising strategies within a tent to win victory a thousand miles away..." And he went on bragging.
Wang Suo and Zheng Shude quickly cut him off, supporting Li Qiu as they asked with deep concern, "How do you feel? Does your body hurt? Are you thirsty?"
Li Qiu moved slightly and felt nothing too serious. He was about to tell them not to worry, but a sudden thought made him change his tune: "I feel utterly exhausted. What on earth happened? How many days have I been out?"
Before Wang Suo and Zheng Shude could speak, Li Zhuo jumped in: "That day you suddenly tumbled into the water, and I grabbed you just in time—" Catching Wang Suo's glaring look, he laughed sheepishly, "Heh, let's let Third Brother tell you."
Through Wang Suo's account, Li Qiu finally learned the whole story.
That day, when Li Qiu fell into the water, Wang Suo had fortunately still been barely able to move and managed to fish him out. Who would have guessed that just a few hours later, Li Qiu would develop the same burning fever as Li Zhuo and Zheng Shude. With no other choice, Wang Suo dragged his own injured body to fetch river water to cool the three of them down, though it had little effect.
In the end, Wang Suo had to pick up his flying dagger and hunt three bowl-thick pythons deep in the woods, skinning them and taking their gallbladders for the three men to consume, which finally broke their fevers.
Li Zhuo, possessing the strongest constitution, had woken up a day later, followed by Zheng Shude. Li Qiu, however, had remained fast asleep for a full three days.
Growing impatient when Li Zhuo saw that Li Qiu still hadn't woken up after three days, he had grabbed some river water and splashed it on him. Shocked back to his senses by the cold water, Li Qiu finally came to.
Hearing this, Li Qiu thought to himself: *So that was it. No wonder it started pouring rain in my dream—it was just Li Zhuo splashing river water on me. What a pity, though; I've never experienced such a dream in all my life, yet it was so intoxicating.*
He then remembered turning into a giant tree in the dream, where in his daze he could no longer tell whether he was the tree or the tree was him.
*Am I the tree, or is the tree me?* Lost in these thoughts, Li Qiu fell into a daze.
Seeing Li Qiu's blank, vacant expression, Li Zhuo was startled, grabbed the porcelain bowl, and prepared to splash his face again, only for Wang Suo to hurriedly block him.
Wang Suo gently patted Li Qiu's shoulder, asking with an anxious expression, "Big Brother, are you alright?"
Li Qiu snapped out of it, his gaze returning as he offered a faint smile, "I'm fine, just feeling a bit tired."
The three of them knew that after surviving a battle between life and death, they were all exhausted in body and mind, let alone Li Qiu, who possessed no martial arts and had the weakest constitution of them all. Since all three of them had broken ribs, Li Qiu had likely suffered internal injuries and depleted his vital energy. Realizing this, even someone as reckless as Li Zhuo understood the severity of the situation and dared not disturb Li Qiu any further, saying in unison, "Big Brother, get some rest."
Li Qiu lay back down as instructed. A profound exhaustion washed over his entire body, and a wave of dizziness swept across him, causing him to drift back to sleep.
***
In some dim and secluded mountains, a palace-dress woman stared with simmering anger at the two white wolves, a white fox, and a little maid with rabbit-ear buns kneeling before her.
The palace-dress woman appeared to be around twenty-five or six years of age. Her shoulders looked as though carved by a knife, her waist was slender as a silk ribbon, her neck was long and graceful, and her fair skin was exposed to the light. She needed no cosmetics or powder, her high cloud-like bun sat grandly atop her head, her delicate brows curved gracefully, her bright red lips parted to reveal sparkling white teeth, her clear eyes beamed with lively charm, and sweet dimples graced her cheeks. Her posture was wondrously elegant, her demeanor tranquil and composed.
She was truly a woman of whom not an ounce more could be added, nor an ounce less taken away.
At this moment, the palace-dress woman wore a faint trace of anger, commanding absolute authority without uttering a harsh word.
The wolves, the white fox, and the maid all trembled violently, not daring to raise their heads.
After a long while, the palace-dress woman slowly spoke: "Rong, you and Susu committed a transgression out of illicit passion and gave birth to Qianuo. That is your own karmic debt, and Heaven naturally has its own ways of reckoning with you. Qianuo's nature is unruly; he frequently sneaks down the mountain to bite the villagers' livestock, consumed entirely by playfulness. Seeing how much you two pampered him, I intended to discipline him myself, which is why I sealed his magical powers and ordered him to reflect upon his mistakes within the sect. Yet he actually seized the moment when Yao'er dozed off and stole down the mountain once more, only to be captured by mountain hunters."
At this, the palace-dress woman glared at the kneeling maid and stopped speaking. Knowing she had committed a grave error, the maid frantically kowtowed and pleaded, "Master, this disciple was wrong! This disciple begs Master for punishment, but please, Master, do not drive me down the mountain! I have no father, no mother, and no one to lean on—only Master is my true family."
The palace-dress woman sighed. "Because I traveled far and grew enamored with the scenery along the way, I returned a little late, leading to all this. Every consequence has its antecedent; in every cause and effect, the unseen hands of fate have already decreed it all."
She looked back at the white wolf and the white fox and continued, "Qianuo's capture is his destined trial—a well-deserved lesson for his unruly and playful ways. The young man who caught him did not kill him either; he was merely bought to be kept as a rare curiosity, and I would have rescued him in a few days anyway. Yet the two of you actually dared to leave the mountain gates behind my back while I was away, rallying the mountain wolf packs just to save Qianuo."
The palace-dress woman glanced at the dejected white fox and sighed again, unable to bear it. "I know that as parents, your anxiety overrode your judgment, leading to such reckless behavior. However, those four youths are mere mortals, yet you disregarded their lives for your own selfish desires and used the Tao Dharma without authorization. Capital punishment is spared, but the punishment for your living crimes cannot be avoided."
Pausing for a moment, she said coldly, "Rong, go to the back mountain to undergo solitary confinement; you shall not step out for a full hundred years." Realizing the enormity of the trouble he had caused, the white wolf nodded instantly to accept the punishment.
She then turned to the young white wolf. "You are unruly and hard to tame, but now that you've received your lesson, there is no need to be too harsh. You are sentenced to fill the Lake of Forgetfulness before the mountain. The moment the lake overflows, you shall regain your freedom."
Hearing this, the young white wolf made a remarkably human expression of wanting to cry, suggesting that whatever job the palace-dress woman had assigned was no picnic.
The white fox, however, looked both startled and overjoyed upon hearing this; she exchanged glances with the White Wolf Leader, and both nodded. Seeing this, though reluctant, the young white wolf knew there might be some fortuitous opportunity hidden within and had no choice but to accept.
"As for you..." She glanced at the little maid named Yao'er. "You are to go down the mountain."
Hearing this, Yao'er was frightened out of her wits and wailed, "Master..."
A faint smile touched the palace-dress woman's lips. "I haven't finished speaking. Take this ointment for mending broken bones and find those four youths. Apply it to them when they aren't paying attention—they've all broken a few bones, after all."
Overjoyed upon hearing this, Yao'er realized her master was merely sending her down the mountain on an errand, and she accepted immediately.
The palace-dress woman added, "When you return, you will still face punishment: you are ordered to copy the texts in the back courtyard's scripture pavilion one hundred times."
At that, Yao'er's face instantly twisted into a bitter melon.
The palace-dress woman turned to the white fox. "You were heavily injured, yet at the very last moment you urged your mate to stop, which spared you from accumulating too much karmic debt. Once your wounds are healed, come serve by my side." The white fox kowtowed to express her gratitude.
Having scolded and punished them as she saw fit, the palace-dress woman felt somewhat weary and instructed, "All of you, withdraw." The people and beasts acknowledged the order and retreated.
Raising her head to gaze toward the south, the palace-dress woman murmured to herself, "Using a stratagem to outwit a tiger, a leopard, and a dhole, bravely slaying three tigers, and then using another stratagem to kill a Cyan Wolf... Heh, this young lad is quite interesting."