American Perspectives: Moment of Truth Pt. 1 ("Love and Redemption" Ep. 11)

 

 

"Love and Redemption" can be viewed on Viki or Youtube.  Dialogue adapted from English Subtitle translations by "Destined Love Team at Viki.com"

 

Little Six is asleep against the door to the Cloudless Breeze Hall, where the six disciples have been staying during their demon hunt.  It was a very dramatic night, leaving the six friends reeling in their own way.

The doors behind him open, and Little Six catches himself before he falls flat on the floor.  Linglong glares at him.

"Linglong!"

She slides the doors shut, but before she can shut them all the way, he pries them open.  "Linglong, let me explain, please!"

Her eyes are filled with intense hatred.  "There's nothing to explain."

"Can you stop being so stubborn?"

Linglong walks out the door and onto the patio.  Little Six follows closely behind her.  She turns around while he's still walking, and they crash right into each other.

Her blood boils.  "Yes, I am stubborn," she stutters.  Where is his heirloom dagger when she needs it?  She quickly walks away.  The sight of Little Six right now makes her want to throw up.

"Linglong!"

Ruo Yu stealthily observes them.  The math isn't math-ing.

Linglong takes a deep breath, and walks out on a pretty green trail.

Little Six observes from a reasonable distance.  "She runs whenever she's mad."

Linglong comes upon a crying girl in the middle of the trail.  "Kid, why are you here alone?  What's wrong?"

"Sister, I live on the mountain.  My father is sick.  I came down to pick some herbs.  But I can't go back because I've sprained my foot.  Father must be very worried, but it hurts so much."

Linglong gives her a hug and strokes her hair.  "Don't cry.  I'll get you home, okay?"

"You're not a bad person, are you?" Asks the little girl.  "Father said there's demons who trick children by turning themselves into beautiful sisters."

Linglong laughs.  "I'm not a demon.  I'll take you home, okay?"  She kneels down, and helps the little girl get on her back.

As Linglong is walking down the trail, it proceeds to get darker, even though it's broad daylight.  "You're quite heavy.  Anyway, where's your home?"

The little girl points.  "It's in the forest ahead."

Little Six is carefully following them, making sure that Linglong doesn't get hurt.

While Linglong thinks she has a little girl on her back, Little Six sees no one on her back.  He picks up speed.  It begins to rain, and the little girl who is supposed to be on Linglong's back is skipping in front of him.  Linglong is floating behind her, a large mass of purplish blue energy being drawn from her body.

What the hell?  Thinks Little Six.  The little girl continues to skip happily, dragging Linglong behind her.

The little girl evolves into a young teenager, wearing two braided buns and a purple hanfu.  Linglong continues to be dragged, the mass of purplish blue energy continuing to leak from her body.

What the fuck?  Little Six springs into the air, sword drawn.  He goes after the teenage girl, but misses.  The girl flies into a tree branch, turns around, and emits green energy from her hands.  She hurls the energy straight at him.  He swings the sword, emitting blue.  He misses again.  "That's a demon spirit," he says out loud.

 

Linglong wakes up, but she feels dizzy.  She closes her eyes again, and is about to crumble into the ground.  Little Six catches her.  "Linglong," he shakes her.  "Linglong.  Wake up, Linglong."

He sees a flash of white light, and his head hurts.  "Something's wrong with this rain.  Linglong, let's get out of here."

"Yu'er, someone's trying to seize my prey." Says a feminine demonic voice.

Little Six looks around.  He sees the flashing bright light again.

"That gives us one more prey," says another feminine, demonic voice.

An all girl demon group, dressed in purple, descends, surrounding Little Six and Linglong.

A young woman dressed in a sparkly green and blue hanfu descends last.  The girls in purple attempt to attack.  Little Six defends himself with his sword, but they keep disappearing and reappearing.  The girl in green and blue attempts to attack, and only manages to scratch Little Six's hand.  The cut is deep and ugly.  She attacks again.  He stabs her, but she disappears, leaving a glow of turquoise energy.

Vines quickly slither on the ground like snakes.  Little Six moves Linglong into a safer area.  He has a headache that just won't go away.

The vines find them, wrapping themselves around Little Six's legs, and dragging him face down through the forest.

"Minyan!"  Linglong struggles to stand up.

Little Six flips over on his back.  As he's being dragged, he pulls out his sword and leaves a cut mark on a tree trunk.

 

Xuanji is sound asleep, in Sifeng's bed, completely oblivious to the impact of her words from the night before.

Sifeng is up and at it.  He walks to his bed, observing Xuanji.  They are still very much tied together, but Aoyin's tendon is at a reasonable length.

"Chu Xuanji," says Sifeng.  Still asleep.  "Chu Xuanji!" he says sharply.  She begins to stir.  "Chu Xuanji!"

"What?" she asks sleepily.

"Have you recovered? It's time to set off for Xuanyuan Sect."

Xuanji rolls over.  "Sifeng, I've got a stomach ache.  I can't get up.  Let's not go to Xuanyuan Sect today.  We'll do it tomorrow."

"You can't feel pain, can you?" asks Sifeng.

"I'm not feeling well," Xuanji insists.  "And I feel weak.  Sifeng, since I can't get up, let's just go there tomorrow."

"Are you not feeling well?" asks Sifeng.

Xuanji nods.

"All the more reason why we should go there.  Let Sect Leader Zhu Shi check on you.  We can't delay it."

"I'm not going!" Xuanji whines.  She pulls the blue covers over her head.

Sifeng smiles.

"Sifeng! Sifeng!" yells Little Silver Flower.

Sifeng opens the door and sees Little Silver Flower and Ruo Yu.  "What's the matter?"

"I saw Linglong and Minyan had gone out in the early morning," says Ruo Yu.  "I thought they'd be back very soon.  But it's already noon, and they aren't back yet."

Xuanji runs to the door.  "What did you say?  They've been out since this morning?"  She turns to Sifeng.  "Sifeng, did something happen to them?  Let's go look for them."

"Shaoyang Sect is really something," Little Silver Flower judges.  "He was hugging you yesterday night, and he's run away with your older sister this morning.  Sifeng, I think we should stay out of this."  Little Silver Flower crosses her arms.  "Let's settle the problem of the Aoyin band first."

"No, I don't find the Aoyin band urgent at all," interjects Xuanji.

Little Silver Flower glares at her.

"Ruo Yu, which direction did they go?" asks Sifeng.

"They went in the direction of the forest, the west of Longshu Town," Ruo Yu answers.

"Forest?" asks Little Silver Flower.

 

The four cautiously walk through the rainy forest.

"Are Linglong and Sixth Senior in there?" asks Xuanji.

They walk further in, the forest getting darker, foggier, and rainier.  Xuanji immediately notices the cut Little Six left on the tree trunk.  She kneels down and touches it.  "Sixth Senior left this secret mark with his Cangming Sword.  Is Linglong with him?  Are they in danger?"

"This is a strange place," Sifeng observes.  "Let's look separately for them."

As they part ways (except for Sifeng and Xuanji, as they are still tied together), Sifeng starts to get a headache.

"Sifeng, are you all right?" asks Xuanji.

He doesn't answer.

"It's my fault," Ruo Yu says as he's walking through the forest.  "It's all my fault."

Little Silver Flower's head begins to throb.  She sees flashes of white light.  "It's not me. It's not me."

Xuanji is completely unaffected by all of this.  After walking for a while, she and Sifeng come upon the same tree they had seen earlier with Little Six's cut mark.

"Why are we back here?" she asks.  "Are we going around in circles?"

The pain in Sifeng's head is intense.

"Sifeng?"

He grips his forehead.

"What's wrong, Sifeng?"  She sees Little Silver Flower walking around, pinching her ears.  "Yan ran."  She sees Ruo Yu walking aimlessly.  "Ruo Yu."  The four gather together.  "What's going on?"  Xuanji touches Sifeng's arm.  "Sifeng! Sifeng!"  Everyone except Xuanji appears to be in a zombie state.

 

 

They are surrounded by the all girl demon group, dressed in purple.  Xuanji finally goes under.

The girl in green and blue steps forward.  "The four idiots have taken the bait.  Let's take them back and feed on their blood."  The girls cast a spell.

Surprise!  Xuanji did not go under at all!  She summons her umbrella, leaving a trail of purple energy.  She attacks the girls with it, who immediately disappear.

One girl reappears, and cuts Sifeng's leg.  Xuanji then goes after her, but while she's distracted, the other disciples have their legs bound with vines.

She is pulled away with Sifeng, due to being tied together, but she's able to cut the vine that is binding Sifeng.  She lays Sifeng down, and tries to wake him up.  He won't budge.  What do I do? she thinks.  Let's try Sifeng's anti-poison pill. She searches through his hanfu, finally finding two vials in his sleeve.  One purple, one black.

"It should be okay to have one."  She pulls off the lid to the purple vial.  "This doesn't seem to be it."  She pulls off the lid to the black vial.  "This should be it."  She pours the pill in her hand.

She places the pill in his mouth.  She scoops some water from the nearby river, and puts it in his mouth.  She keeps giving him water, but nothing happens.  So, she puts water in her mouth, and administers it to him by kissing him.  He slowly wakes up.  She gets more water, puts it in her mouth, and gets ready to kiss him again.

He's wide awake, and he sits up in surprise.  "What are you doing?"  He quickly backs away from her.

"I gave you water and medicine," says Xuanji.

He hurriedly fixes his hanfu.

"Here's what happened, Sifeng.  You got caught in the rain in that forest, and you lost your consciousness and couldn't wake up." 

He self consciously feels his face for his mask.  It's still there.  He breathes a sigh of relief.

"I found this anti-poison pill with you."  She holds up the black vial.  "I thought you'd get well by having it.  Don't get mad, please.  I'm glad that you're up."

The color drains from his face.  "You gave me this?"

"Isn't this the anti-poison pill?"

Sifeng keeps his cool.  "It's not.  This is the truth pill.  It took Lize Palace hundreds of years to come up with one.  How could you waste such a precious thing?"

"Did...Did I give you the wrong pill?  Will it affect you?"

"You fool," says Sifeng.  "Of course it will affect me."

"Then...this..."

Fool? Sifeng thinks.  Is the truth pill starting to take effect?  Oh no!  He quickly turns away from Xuanji.  He starts walking, and Xuanji obviously has to follow.

"I'm in trouble," he says.

"You're right," says Xuanji.  "I'm a fool.  And I always cause trouble for you.  That's why you're avoiding me."

He turns to her, the truth pill taking full effect.  "No, I've never seen you as a burden, and I've never thought of avoiding you.  In my heart, I've always wanted to be with you."

Xuanji grabs his arms.  "Really?  Then why did you avoid me?"

"Forget about the past. I'm telling the truth.  Don't you know what you gave me?"

"I..." Xuanji smiles.  "I gave you the truth pill.  Are you telling me the truth, Sifeng?"

"Yes.  I'll answer your questions with truth.  From now on, stop talking to me."  He blushes, walking away, very flustered, with Xuanji following behind.

She catches up to him.  "Sifeng, why can't I talk to you?  Because you don't want to tell me the truth, do you?  Did you lie to me?"

Sifeng is getting nervous.  "That's right.  I wasn't telling the truth.  Chu Xuanji, don't go too far."

"I won't.  I just want to know if you meant it when you said that you don't want to see me, and refuse to be my friend?"

He fidgets his hands nervously.  "That's not the truth!" he blurts out.  "Ever since I met you," his hands are shaking, "I've been lying to myself."

Xuanji giggles.

"I want to see you so badly.  You're my most important friend, and I don't want to lose you," Sifeng continues.

"I knew it!"  She gives Sifeng a hug.  "You haven't changed, Sifeng.  But Sifeng, why did you say that we should stay away from each other?"

"Because," he starts to sweat.  "Because...because I..."  He shakes intensely.  "I..." He starts to cough.  He bites his hand.

"Because of what?"  Xuanji tries to get his hand out of his mouth.  "Say it."

He's trying to keep himself from speaking by closing his mouth tightly.  "Because..."

"Go ahead. Say it, Sifeng.  I want to hear the truth."

He tenses up.  "Because..." the truth pill finally wears off. "Because it's none of your business."  He walks away, dragging Xuanji behind him.

"Sifeng, has the pill's effect gone away?  Why so soon?  I should've asked you more questions."

"That's very inappropriate of you."

"Was it inappropriate?"  Xuanji asks.  "Now that I know the truth, you can't lie to me anymore."

Sifeng takes a breath.  "I think we should be concerned about the others.  The rain in the forest is probably strange.  It makes one lose consciousness.  It gives one a hallucination, and makes him succumb to them."

"Maybe it's because I wasn't born with six senses.  This rain doesn't affect me."

They hear someone walking behind them. 

"Who's that?" Sifeng asks.

It's Linglong, and she's wearing a hat.  "Xuanji?  Sifeng?"

They find a dry place to sit.  "I knew it," says Xuanji.  "Demon spirits wait for humans to lose their will before capturing them with the blood vine.  Linglong, that's smart of you.  You kept yourself out of the rain with this farmer's hat."

"Do you know the whereabouts of Minyan and the others?"  asks Sifeng.

"I can't find Little Six anywhere.  And I don't know what this Demon Spirit is up to.  But I saw someone being hanged up on a tree.  Judging from his outfit, he seemed to come from a nearby village.  It seemed that he was hanged to death without any struggle."

"Are Sixth Senior, Ruo Yu, and Yan Ran in grave danger?" Xuanji asks.

"He's hanged on a tree with a vine," says Sifeng.  "Did you see anything else on the tree?"

Linglong shakes her head.  "Nothing at all."

Xuanji turns to Sifeng.  "Sifeng, do you have any clue?"

"The vine," says Sifeng.  "The bewitching rain.  That reminds me of something."

"What is it?" asks Xuanji.

"Jialuo Blood Vine," says Sifeng.  "It can release a kind of bewitching rain which gives humans hallucinations.  It then wraps itself around them and drinks their blood.  It eventually bears Jialuo blood fruits.  The fruit can make a cultivator powerful.  Someone is coveting blood fruits.  That's why he planted the blood vine."

Linglong gasps.  "That means they're going to drink Little Six's blood.  What do we do?"

"Don't panic," says Sifeng.  "Linglong, we can't delay anymore.  Let's make some farmer's hats first.  They can keep us dry.  We'll go look for them afterward."

 

Little Six appears to be carrying a very seductive Linglong dressed in wedding attire through a foggy and rainy forest on his back.  She is seductively caressing his face.  She whispers in his ear, "Do you remember you once told me that you'll dote on me, love me, and adore me?"

"I do," Little Six replies hazily.

"Do you remember you told me on our wedding day that I'd always be your only one?"

"I do."

"But now you're lying to me!  You're hurting me!  Are you an unfaithful man?"

"Yes."

The likeness to Linglong transforms into a teenage demon girl.  "Since you know you're unfaithful, what should you do?"

"I should take my own life."

"Fine, do it here, then."

The demon girl in blue and green is joyfully running through the dismal forest.  She runs to a male figure tied to a tree trunk.  "Your daughter is here, father."

The male figure is Ruo Yu.

"Father," she says again.  "Your daughter is here."

"Daughter?" asks Ruo Yu.  "But I don't have a daughter."

"Don't you remember, father?" she asks innocently.  "You gave me away to the hunter family when I was born.  On my fifth birthday, I found out that I'm not their biological daughter.  That's why I looked forward to celebrating my birthdays with you and receiving a birthday cake from you.  But you never came.  For my seventh birthday, I got myself a piece of birthday cake with the apricots I picked.  But the hunter's child bullied me.  He seized my cake and threw mud on it.  He called me a parentless brute.  I cried for help.  But everyone stayed out of it.  And I saw you peeking outside the courtyard.  I cried out loud for your help.  But you're like the others.  You just stayed out of it.  Do you remember it now?"

"I do," Ruo Yu says, picking up someone else's memories.

"Do you deserve to be my father?"

"I don't."

"Then tell me what you should do?"

"I should take my own life."

"Do it with this scarf, then."  She hands him a grey scarf, but in reality, it's a vine.  He puts it around his neck.  An end of it grows, and wraps itself around a thick tree branch.

 

Sifeng, Xuanji, and Linglong venture further into the forest.  Ahead of them, three bodies are hanging from a tree.

"Little Six!" Linglong yells.  She runs to the tree.  Xuanji and Sifeng follow.  Linglong reaches for his dangling body.  "Little Six!  Little Six!"  However, the corpse gets turned around, and she realizes, with relief, that it isn't him.

"We must find 6th Senior and the others now," says Xuanji.

Xuanji points at a tree. "I remember this tree.  We went this way.  Why are we back here?"

"Is it a hallucination?" asks Linglong.

"It's not," says Sifeng.  "Because the trees are moving."

"Moving?" asks Linglong.  "How could the trees be moving?"

"There's only one tree that moves," explains Sifeng.  "It's called the Migu tree."

"I read about it from the Demon Manual," Xuanji agrees.  "Jialuo blood vines and Migu trees grow together.  They reinforce and resist one another."

Linglong scans the area.  "Are these all Migu trees?"

"No," says Sifeng.  "There's only one."

"Huh?" Says Xuanji.

"There's only one Migu tree every hundred miles," Sifeng explains.  "This forest is just its imaginary root and the real Migu tree contains spiritual power.  The blood vine covets the power.  Thus, it wraps its root around the real Migu tree."

"The blood vine loves blood," says Xuanji.  "Let me lure it here with my blood.  I have spiritual powers, too.  Surely, it'll drag me to the real tree.  You just remember where I'll be dragged."

"That won't do!"  says Linglong.

"I know you're eager to save him," Sifeng says pointedly.  "I've got an idea.  Look over there."

"Those are Rain Butterflies," says Xuanji.

"We just need to make the Migu tree bloom," says Sifeng, "and let the Rain Butterflies smell the flowers.  They'll lead us to the main tree.  And we'll get rid of the root of the blood vine, and save them."

"But it's obvious that the tree isn't blooming," Linglong points out.  "That's why the Rain Butterflies are all here."

"The Migu Tree has a special characteristic," says Sifeng.  "It loves songs.  They make it bloom."

Sifeng plucks a leaf from the tree.  He puts it in his mouth, and begins to play a melody.  The butterflies begin to fly away.

 

 

....To be continued....

 

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