Courting Death

Gently, Kang Yu's fingers pried the small black ball from the silk lining of the casket. He held it up in the light, and everyone caught their breath unconsciously as the light reflected dully off it.

The men surrounding him could not help but crane closer, curious to see what this magical pill was like.

"Look at this small, insignificant thing. Who would suspect that it would cost so many lives? Interesting, isn't it? Why should I, who have carried it for so long, who have done so much for it, die without tasting the power it can give?"

He looked at them with hatred in his eyes, and then suddenly, without warning, he opened his mouth and raised the pill towards it.

"Stop him!" roared Huang, lunging forward in a panic.

His sword flashed as he slashed at Kang Yu. Kang Yu's hand jerked as the blade cut his arm open, and the fingers released the pill involuntarily. The small black ball hurtled into the air, seeming to hover there for a tantalizing moment, and then plunged downwards--into the lake.

As the pill plummeted towards the water, Suzhen felt her heart stop. Suddenly, she realized in a blinding flash that this was her chance. The gods had taken mercy on her. Without her having plotted anything, or done anything, this golden opportunity had fallen into her laps. Instead of letting either side in this petty political struggle get their hands on the immortality pill, it seemed the gods had decided to award it to her, Bai Suzhen.

With a sharp twist of her body, she pierced through the water like an arrow, bubbles churning against her sides, and cut through the surface of the water without even a splash. She was vaguely conscious of a stupid fish or something in the water bumbling into her as she did so, but they could not have stopped her.

Rising smoothly out of the water, she saw the pill in the air above her and opened her mouth, willing herself to catch it before it hit the water. She could not miss--she could not afford to miss. It was the chance, not of a lifetime, rather of an immortality.

Suzhen felt the smooth hard pill roll down her throat and her jaws snapped shut after it. She sank back into the water just as the white, thunderstruck faces of Huang and his men appeared over the edge of the bridge.

Kang Yu fell sideways heavily with several swords piercing through his body. He was dead before he had even hit the ground, but his eyes remained open and a grotesque smile was frozen on his lips for all time, as if even in death he was triumphant in having thwarted them all.

Prince Zhen's men rushed forward but it was no use. Aghast, they stared down at the river with agonized eyes, sick with dismay. The pill was gone. The first one to lean over the bridge only saw the head of a small white snake disappearing back under the water.

Lord Qiao's men finally appeared, moments too late. They rushed forward with a wild shout when they saw Huang holding the empty casket, and Huang's men had to rouse themselves as new enemies came charging up the bridge.

Somewhere in the depths of that murky river, Lu Dongbin's immortality pill, which so many had died for, was lost forever. The mystery was never resolved. No one ever knew what had happened to the immortality pill. Long after the bridge was finally silent, strewn with fallen bodies; long after the grass had grown on Lord Qiao's grave, and Prince Zhen was forced to take poison by the Crown Prince...

Suzhen gasped faintly. She was trying to remember, trying desperately to remember, if for one split second she had not seen Gui Yuan's ugly face in the water with the same desperation in his eyes, moments before she brushed impatiently past him to break through the surface.

"It was you," she whispered. "You were there too, in your terrapin form. So you too, wanted the pill."

"More than simply wanted!" he snapped. "I had followed them as best as I could for days since I first happened to overhear them talking about the pill. I lost Kang Yu and his men as they travelled on land, and I had only then managed to catch up with them along the river. You have no idea how exhausted I was, pushing myself relentlessly to try and keep track with them! I thought to myself, I must at least try, even though I had no hope of getting it. Because if I just so happened to get it, it would change my life forever. But what happened? You cut in, just as I would have gotten the reward I deserved, and stole it from me forever. There will never be another immortality pill in our lifetimes," he said despairingly. "You took the only chance I had. I will have to cultivate years, hundreds of years, to reach the level that I could have been on now, had I been faster than you!"

Suzhen did not know what to say. She had not expected this at all. No wonder he had been so embittered. The immortality pill had given her six hundred years' worth of cultivation instantly, enabling her to achieve an advanced human form almost immediately. She had worked diligently after that as well, to reach the level she was on now. But to Gui Yuan, she could only ever be a thief.

"I did not know," she said slowly. She raised her head and looked him in the eye. "But I have no need to apologize to you. Life has never waited for anyone, no matter how much you believe you deserve something."

Gui Yuan hurled a rock at her with a sound of rage. "Shut up. I don't want to hear you say anything, except beg for mercy as I drain your spirit essence dry and return things to the way they ought to be. I'll kill your human fancy as well, just for the fun of it. Just remember, when you see him gasping his last breath with his heart torn out of his chest, that you are to blame for having started all of this."

Suzhen drove him back as he lunged forward, with a bolt that he warded off hastily. "Don't talk so arrogantly," she said curtly, and there was danger in her eyes. "If you dare to lay a finger on either of us, you are courting death."

He laughed. "Don't be so arrogant yourself. Do you think I can't tell that you lost a good portion of your cultivation? You're not as strong as you were before."

"But still strong enough to kill you," she said through her teeth, and sprang.