A Red Thread
786 Words
Chapter 6: A Red Thread***
Heaven’s assassins didn’t wait.
Three white figures dropped from the wall as one. Swords sang. Golden light cut the night, aimed at Li Chen’s heart.
Xie Wuchen moved. Not fast. He was just there, One moment kneeling, the next standing between Li Chen and death, his white hair flaring like a storm.
“Down,” he said.
The world obeyed, the Earth shook, Gravity tripled. The assassins hit the ground on their knees, bones cracking. Their swords shattered. Golden light snuffed out like candles in a blizzard.
“You sent children,” Xie Wuchen said softly. Disappointed. He stepped forward. “Last time it was immortals. Generals. Gods.”
One assassin spat blood and said “Demon Lord Release Bai Ze’s soul. He belongs to the cycle. You defy Heaven—”
“I am Heaven’s defiance.” Xie Wuchen’s voice didn’t rise. It didn’t need to. The pear tree roots ripped from the earth, spearing through two assassins before they screamed. The third tried to run.
Xie Wuchen lifted a finger. The man stopped mid-air. Then folded, Like paper crushed in a fist. Blood rained down, black in the moonlight.
Silence again. Only the drip of blood on stone.
Li Chen hadn’t moved, Couldn’t. He’d seen power before, rogue cultivators in the village, flashy and loud. This wasn’t power. This was erasure. Xie Wuchen unmade people for touching him.
Xie Wuchen turned. White hair was splattered red. His sleeping robes soaked at the hem. His eyes were still black, empty. Dead.
Then he saw Li Chen. Saw him staring at the blood.
The black receded. Slow. Painful. He blinked, and he was Xie Wuchen again - wrecked, not monstrous. He reached up, touched his own face like he’d forgotten what he was.
“Did I...” His voice shook. “Did I scare you?”
Li Chen should have said yes. Any sane person would. Instead he stood. Legs watery. Walked to Xie Wuchen through the blood and bone. Stopped an arm’s length away.
“No,” Li Chen said. True. “You saved me.”
Xie Wuchen closed his eyes. Breathed like it hurt. “They’ll send more. Stronger. Until—”
“Then teach me.” The words left Li Chen before he thought. “I don’t want to be saved. I want to stand next to you.”
Xie Wuchen’s eyes snapped open. “You have no spiritual roots. You can’t—”
“Then give me some.” Li Chen lifted his chin. “If I’m really... if I’m him. There must be something left.”
Something broke in Xie Wuchen’s face. Hope. Terror. He looked away. “Come with me.”
Not the main hall. Not the locked room. He led Li Chen to his own chambers - a place no servant entered. Spare. Cold. One bed, unslept in for centuries. One table. One chair.
And on the table: a comb. Jade. Worn smooth. Beside it, a single red thread. Silk, frayed at the ends. Braiding thread.
Li Chen’s breath caught. He _knew_ that thread. He’d tied it. In a dream, with shaking fingers, into white hair.
“You kept it,” Li Chen whispered.
Xie Wuchen didn’t answer. He picked up the comb. Turned. Looked at Li Chen like he was seeing a ghost. “Sit.”
Li Chen sat. The chair was cold. Xie Wuchen stood behind him. Didn’t touch him yet.
“Cultivation requires roots,” Xie Wuchen said, voice carefully empty. “Yours were destroyed when he died. But an immortal soul... if it’s strong enough... can forge new ones. Through pain. Through will.”
“How?”
Xie Wuchen set the comb down. Picked up the red thread. Wound it around his fingers once. Twice. Like a prayer.
“My qi. Inside you. Every day. It will burn. It will try to kill you. If you survive a month, you’ll live. If you survive a year, you’ll be strong.”
He met Li Chen’s eyes in the bronze mirror. “If you die, I’ll follow you. Again.”
Li Chen didn’t hesitate. “Do it.”
Xie Wuchen’s hand hovered at the back of Li Chen’s neck. Trembling. “A-Ze—”
“Li Chen,” he corrected gently. “I’m Li Chen. But you can call me A-Ze if it helps you hold on.”
Xie Wuchen made a sound like dying. His fingers touched Li Chen’s skin. Cold.
The first thread of qi entered. White-hot. Agony.
Li Chen bit his lip until it bled. Didn’t scream.
Xie Wuchen braided the red thread into his own hair while Li Chen shook. One tie. For each day Li Chen survived.
- Writer
