Lìngxiāo stepped down on the ground when they were back to the mountain peak—but much further near to the Mèi Xùe restaurant path after crossing the road which leads to the Queen Stone.
His instincts were screaming that the problem was much worse than the way his curses were showing.
'Please not something permanent.'
'Not something which can never be reversed even by Làncǎi gēge.'
He walked over the road path while looking around. Layers of guilt eating him up by the scene around. A lot of trees had been damaged, the mountain had some large questionable holes and fallen pieces from the mountain which he had seen from down there too—because of his energy release.
'All of those..because of me..'
'Because of my untamed spiritual powers...which I myself do not know how or why they sometimes work and sometimes not.'
He swallowed down the tightness in his chest, squeezing water from his hair with trembling hands while trying to remember more.
He didn't remember being here. Not even after remembering everything—which still felt new somehow. He had gone down the narrow side of what was still a joined mountain. That peak of the mountain he had fallen from belonged to the one where he was standing too.
This path was leading to the restaurant directly—though he hadn't yet asked about how he had fallen or why he needed to go this far while the incident happened there.
First, he needed to check on Chóng Fēi and then Mō Qīn about everything and the progress of their work.
He knew his curses weren't doing nonsense.
He walked a little faster, climbing the stairs of the restaurant where they had already reached. It was a smaller hill over the mountain which had stone-made stairs, and right up there was the restaurant which had the open space with the lake view. The thin large roof by the wood was the short-term umbrella which is already half broken.
His heart pounded with every step. Mostly because of worry, not about the run. His ankle sometimes twisted—still numb from the memory of the fall. But every time, his curses caught him, though they never made things easier because it was his order.
He exhaled when he finally laid his boots over the old wooden floor of the restaurant.
The wind here was colder and whistling. The table and chairs lay untouched and damaged in front of the half-survived broken boundary in front of the Mèi Xùe Lake with the mist-filled mountains.
The heavy sky made the moment feel heavy, sad, but also raw and deeply felt. The lake water was still deep blue, alive among the green mountains—a reason why this place was still remembered and people felt bad for not being able to come because of the rumors—or real problems.
"Gōngzǐ, over here." Mō Qīn called in light urgency, shaking his tail towards him like waving—while sitting on a table.
The three-eyed one also sat beside him. His three eyes filled with silent worry, and right there—someone's unconscious body lay.
Lìngxiāo's breath caught silently in his throat. His gaze fell over the figure. His tied bluish-gray hair fell from the table downwards, faintly touching the ground, his head tilted to the side.
'Is this..Chóng Fēi Gōngzǐ..?'
He quickly rushed towards them, his hands resting over the table as he looked at him.
It really was Chóng Fēi.
Even after the illusion broke, he couldn't let it go unnoticed how this little boy had grown up. But he was unconscious while soaked. Also a little pale, his left eye and cheek had a cut mark from something sharp, blood dried but still looking like it was throbbing with dull pain. His left arm had the same mark but more damaged.
His neck had regained those dark veins while the time for the next needle hadn't come yet, which had also left visibly dark circles under his eyes. Otherwise, things were fine. He didn't look like he was dying, but he was in pain, and it might get serious if Lìngxiāo didn't do anything before they headed back to the clan.
The single detail made it hard for him to breathe after making his entire career stand on success most of the time.
The eye—the lashes were frozen by a thin layer of his frozen fire, and a few strands of hair seemed turned golden at the lock that never went behind his ear.
'No no no..not the eye..not the eye. They are sensitive and important source right after the mouth.'
'What would I answer..to him?'
'This is not how I expected things to flow this way.'
He wanted to ask a lot of things to his curses, but no words came. All he could do was hover his hand near his eyes and hair, not knowing if his touch would heal this time or the opposite.
'Has he seen my frozen ice?'
'What if I am getting too late at many things?'
But instead of believing his bare hands after this, he quickly took out his needle bag and the herbs first to treat the cuts and fulfill the course requirements.
"Quick. Mix it for me." Lìngxiāo put the herbs into a bowl he also brought with himself and handed it to the female curse.
At that time, Mō Qīn and the other eight-eyed one shared a glance but didn't speak just yet, as if analyzing their own master.
'Do not.. look at me like that..'
Lìngxiāo shut his eyes lightly before opening them again, his smile pressed thin. He stayed still while he felt like a thief.
'It is alright..'
'I have handled worse..'
'I can fix this too.'
The female curse looked at both of them thoughtfully and mixed it quickly by spinning her long nail. "Here you go, Gōngzǐ."
"Gōngzǐ.." Mō Qīn quietly called. "Are you sure this is how it should have worked..?"
Lìngxiāo paused lightly. His throat tight. "It is. I remember everything. Even the rituals.." He answered calmly while sweating even in soothing weather and his head pounding.
He repeated the ritual he had done the first time with Chóng Fēi. Once done, he dipped the five needles there and was about to put them at the five joint points.
"Gōngzǐ, you are forgetting that we need him conscious to make the needles work too." Mō Qīn said, tangling his tail around Lìngxiāo's wrist.
The other curses blinked.
"Really?"
"Last time he made things too long for being conscious.. he would do the same again."
The three-eyed and female curse didn't know about the ritual much for being short-time helpers, but they had also surely felt how ruthless Lìngxiāo was acting. The eight-eyed one was much more observant.
Mō Qīn curled around his arm and then back to his neck. "You are still not all right, Gōngzǐ. You should wait for him to wake up. Even if it hurts him and he has a terrible relationship with those needles."
"It is spreading, Mō Qīn.." Lìngxiāo almost dully said through his teeth faintly while his eyes shut in distress.
"You are being childish here." Mō Qīn remarked. "Put it down." He took away the needles from his grasp.
Lìngxiāo let the needles be removed after pinning them lightly over his own fingertips. He felt silently embarrassed. He felt like he was locked between his nineteen-year-old self and his twenty-five-year-old self—that in worry, he couldn't even think straight. All he was worried about was Chóng Fēi.
'If I hadn't brought him with me, nothing like this would have happened.'
'What has my body been doing the whole time while I was not myself?'
"Remember—the gûi only tortures him but never kills? We still have time with this. The main concern is his..eye. It has a risk of being damaged..completely." Mō Qīn said again.
"H-how am I supposed to heal THIS?" Lìngxiāo muttered in distress and frustration, looking at Mō Qīn while his palm was open towards Chóng Fēi's eyes.
He held his own forehead, moved towards the boundary. "It is out of my control. It cannot be fixed by my needles. It is deeper than any demonic attack."
"We still can." Mō Qīn encouraged. "I know, yhe steps are too detailed. They always require you to be only within one hundred steps around him—or it will not stay."
He added " If the organ roots, it can never be saved. Just because he had blocked a few damages does not mean his eyes can handle it. His eyes are ordinary. Only that youth water could fix such a big damage—which is nowhere to be found nowadays."
'Lord...' he almost groaned internally in helplessness.
'The youth water is not at reach to even think about.'
'He would run his clan soon. I have my own intentions.'
'How can I always stay with him when he can rot in one place and I cannot?'
"Who am I to be with him closer than his other significant would? It is never possible." Lìngxiāo said, his cheeks heating up just by the word 'other significant'.
Imagining his whole life got upside down just for someone's eye was..questionable. His eye was more precious than his own life? He couldn't answer that—even if it felt simple.
After all, the eye was at risk because of his own mistake. He was taking all of it as his punishment—for a reason he didn't even know why, or if he was even being punished in the first place.
"Tell me already..how did he end up with these injuries..?" He said to them.
His voice still refused to go back to his composed older self—or simply his hiding self, where he could say 'no' to anyone's face.