In utter darkness, Princess Embroidered Jade suddenly opened her eyes. Even after opening them, it was still pitch black all around—so dark there wasn't a single ray of light. But a faint chill drifted through the air, and when she sniffed, the heavy scent of earth and decay filled her nose. Still, it was breathable air, no doubt about that.
Then, her martial artist's instinct for vigilance kicked in. Princess Embroidered Jade snapped to attention, channeling her energy to her ears to listen closely to her surroundings. The ground beneath her was cold, hard stone, and not far away was the sound of rushing water. It seemed she was lying on a riverbank, and... reaching up, she realized she was covered by a piece of clothing that wasn't hers. Underneath, her own silk dress and sleeves were shredded and barely covered anything at all.
Then she remembered—it was those fish that had torn up her clothes. She also recalled someone grabbing her, and in that situation, there was only one person who could've done it—had to be The Fool!
"Awake?" A voice suddenly rang out in the darkness, startling her so much she nearly reflexively struck out with her palm, but managed to stop herself at the last second.
"Who are you?" She asked, though it was honestly a pointless question—normally she'd never say something so silly, but now it just slipped out.
But the other person paused: "I'm..." The voice in the darkness scratched his head, sounding a bit troubled. "Right, who... who am I again?" He seemed genuinely puzzled—why couldn't he remember his own name? The last thing he recalled was "Teacher Yang," which he was sure was his old man, but who was he himself? Yang... Yang Guo? That name sounded familiar, and it tugged at some memory fragments, but he was pretty sure he wasn't called Yang Guo.
"You can't even remember your own name?" Princess Embroidered Jade couldn't help but find it funny. In this endless darkness, having this clueless Fool by her side made her feel much more at ease. Her voice warmed a bit: "You just saved me, right? I'll hold off on the thank-yous for now."
"Hold off on the thank-yous?" The Fool was puzzled. "I thought this was usually where you say, 'I can never repay your life-saving grace, so I'll marry you' or something like that?"
"You!" Princess Embroidered Jade felt a flash of annoyance—this Fool was actually a bit of a flirt, daring to tease her? What she didn't know was that the guy across from her had no intention of flirting; his memory fragments only popped up in certain situations with associative triggers, and he'd genuinely just remembered those lines.
Her voice turned cold again, a touch of anger in it: "We're not even sure we can get out of here yet. If we die in this place, none of it will matter—so what's the point of all this thanking and not thanking?"
She regulated her breathing, but found her internal energy running more and more sluggishly. It was as if something had locked her will, making her usually rock-solid spirit waver, and her energy refused to cooperate. Ten Evil Soul Scatter, second stage: Will Loss. Nasty stuff. She wondered when the martial world had come up with such a weird poison. And if the first stage was dispersing energy and the second was will loss, were there a third and fourth? If there really were ten, the martial world might soon have another name to strike fear into people's hearts.
"How are the palace maids?" Princess Embroidered Jade asked quickly. "And what about Fang Lingji and Luo Yuxi? Is everyone alright? Any casualties?"
"When I got there, everyone was fine," The Fool shook his head. "But after we fell down here, I have no idea. I gave something called the Yanluo Heart-Piercing Needle to Princess Flower Shifter—not sure if she'll be able to handle the Silverblade King with it."
"Mm." Princess Embroidered Jade wasn't surprised, nodding slightly. "The Yanluo Heart-Piercing Needle is the fifth hidden weapon crafted by a master artisan. It's as thin as an ox hair, hits harder than a crossbow, and its poison can even break through internal energy defenses. With Princess Flower Shifter's cunning and that needle as backup, she should be able to defeat the Silverblade King." She paused, then added, "If you and I both make it out, I promise to thank you properly."
This time, if it hadn't been for The Fool, the enemy attack would've ended in disaster. And really, the only reason The Fool was trapped down here with her was because he came to help. Thinking of that, Princess Embroidered Jade couldn't bring herself to hold a grudge over his earlier teasing.
"The urgent thing now is to figure out the situation and find a way out." Princess Embroidered Jade asked, "Have you found anything?" She'd been unconscious for a while, but The Fool had been awake, so asking made sense.
Sure enough, The Fool immediately replied, "This is a cave connected to an underground river. The stone walls all around are smooth—probably an old river channel. After ages, the water level dropped, leaving behind a complex network of tunnels. Since we can breathe here, it must connect to the outside somehow. Swimming out is probably impossible, so we'll have to explore the cave and look for a way out."
"Did you see Lady Simone?" Right now, her energy was running even slower, and if they ran into Lady Simone again, things could get really tricky.
"Back when we were in the water, I managed to hit her once by surprise, but after that, I have no clue where she got washed off to." That hit landed right on her energy flow line—a real critical strike. But Lady Simone isn't like Young Master Golden Fan; her internal skill is even stronger than the Silverblade King's, so it probably wasn't a fatal blow.
"Lady Simone's been famous for ages—no way she'd go down that easy. She's a master of sound skills and her hearing is extraordinary, so there's a good chance she's here in the cave too. Don't let your guard down." Princess Embroidered Jade stood up, felt her way along the stone wall for a couple steps, then turned back. "To keep us from getting separated, let's tie ourselves together with a rope." It was total darkness here, and with her energy fading, even her senses were getting weaker. Just relying on hearing made every step a struggle.
"No rope," The Fool replied honestly. "If we still had our clothes, we could tear off some strips, but the fish chewed them all up."
"C-clothes?" Princess Embroidered Jade suddenly froze, feeling rare nerves, and finally asked in a low voice, "When I was unconscious, did you..." She remembered someone giving her mouth-to-mouth before she passed out, and figured it must've been The Fool. Years of No-Dust Mind State training usually made her unflappable, but after being hit by Ten Evil Soul Scatter and Lady Simone's sound skill for so long, her spirit was shaken and she actually felt nervous.
"What?" The Fool was confused.
"Did you do..." Princess Embroidered Jade stammered, nothing like her usual cool self. "Did you do... anything bad?" She felt her face grow warm, a rare blush. But she had to ask—she couldn't let it go.
"Nope," The Fool replied with certainty—mouth-to-mouth resuscitation saves lives, so of course that's not a bad thing.
"Oh." Princess Embroidered Jade let out a quiet breath, relieved. If he said no, then that was good enough—she'd rather believe him. Calming down, she came up with an idea: "That shirt you're covering me with—if we cut off a strip, could we use it as a rope...?"
"No way." The Fool's tone turned firm, nothing like his usual softness. "This shirt is really important—I can't cut it." Memory fragments flashed by; he couldn't remember everything, but he knew two sets of clothes meant a lot to him. One was this kung fu outfit, the other was a peach-blossom patterned pajama—they both had special meaning.
Princess Embroidered Jade was caught off guard by his sudden refusal, paused for a moment, then said, "Sorry, I was out of line." She knew she was wrong, but still felt a twinge of annoyance, her voice turning stubborn: "But if we get separated in the dark..."
Smack—a big hand grabbed her wrist. The man in the darkness said, "I'll just hold onto you, that'll do."
"What the—!" Princess Embroidered Jade panicked a little and tried to pull away, but The Fool was already marching forward, dragging her along. When it came to brute strength, she was no match, so she had no choice but to go with him. She opened her mouth to protest, then sighed—urgent matters called for urgent solutions. Besides, grabbing her wrist wasn't the same as holding hands; she could just about tolerate it. Still, she'd never had a man touch her skin before, and the warmth and vitality of his hand made her heart skip a beat.
The two of them walked through the pitch-dark cave, which really was a labyrinth of big tunnels and little tunnels, twisting and branching endlessly. And it seemed like the underground river connected in more than one place—the sound of rushing water echoed from all directions, making her lose her sense of direction.
But Princess Embroidered Jade noticed something odd—The Fool was walking way too confidently, each step sure and steady, like he wasn't worried about bumping into rocks at all. In fact, he never did. She was curious, but her competitive streak kept her from asking. The two of them just walked on in silence for who knows how long.
Until Princess Embroidered Jade's stomach let out a loud growl.