Chapter 16: The Woman in Red Returns
318 Words
Shen Moyan stood up, staring at the woman in the doorway.
Same red wool coat, same red scarf, same face with features that wouldn't quite resolve. She stood where the streetlight didn't reach, the light around her bending, like something was absorbing it.
"You came," Shen Moyan said.
"I never left." The woman's voice was as soft as the first time. "Waiting for you to finish the second stroke."
"Waiting for what?"
The woman stepped into the shop. This time she walked into the light, and Shen Moyan could see her face—still that unresolved quality, features all present but somehow blurry, like looking through fog.
"To tell you what the second obstacle is."
Shen Moyan waited.
"The second obstacle," the woman said, "is Lu Jiuyuan."
"What?"
"He has 127 Taoists' memories inside him. Those memories were meant to be implanted in you. But something went wrong, ended up in him. Every stroke you draw now will awaken those memories. By the ninth stroke, all of them will wake. When that happens, he'll either die or become someone else."
Shen Moyan was silent for a long time.
"How do you know all this?"
"Because that book," the woman pointed at the Purple Tenuity Divine Weapon in his arms, "I wrote it."
Shen Moyan looked down at the book.
"You wrote it?"
"Yes. Three hundred years ago, I gave it to Maoshan. Later it was stolen, passed through many hands, ended up here. By the time I found it, half of it was destroyed. I needed someone to repair it, and incidentally unlock its real secret."
"What secret?"
"The last stroke of the nine-stroke charm head." The woman said. "Only with the last stroke complete can the thing at the bottom of that well be opened."
Shen Moyan's heart tightened.
"What's at the bottom of the well?"
The woman looked at him, those empty eyes suddenly focusing.
"You."
- Writer
