Nine Nights Owl Song

After the hustle and bustle of the birthday banquet subsided, the Marquis's mansion returned to its usual tranquility.

Su Jiuge thought life would continue peacefully like this, at least until the end of the year.

She was wrong.

On the eleventh day of the twelfth lunar month, she received a letter from Hades.

The letter was placed directly on her desk by someone from the Dark Pavilion.

She didn't have one before she went to bed last night, but when she woke up this morning there was one more. The envelope was as black as ink, and a blooming black lotus was printed on the seal.

To be able to sneak into the Dingyuan Marquis's residence undetected amidst layers of guards, leave this letter, and then escape unscathed, the person's lightness skill must be at least at the peak of the Transformation Realm.

Hades is telling her—the Dark Pavilion can touch you anytime it wants.

The letter contained only one line: "At the old site of Cangwu Mountain, on the fifteenth of the twelfth lunar month, I will see you one last time. Whether you come or not is up to you."

The handwriting is vigorous and powerful, and it is Hades's own handwriting.

There were no threats, no inducements, not a single superfluous word.

Su Jiuge placed the letter on the table and stared at the black lotus mark for a long time.

The old drunkard sat opposite her, holding a gourd of wine in his hand but not drinking.

His face was solemn, his lips were tightly pressed together, and there was an expression in his cloudy eyes that Su Jiuge had never seen before—an expression that was hard to explain about his old friend.

"He's been waiting for you."

The old drunkard spoke, his voice hoarse.

"From the day he left the Dark Pavilion, he's been waiting for you. Not for you to kill him, but for you to grow strong enough."

The old drunkard slowly recounted the stories of Cangwu Mountain—he and Hades were from the same school, their master being the old Dark Pavilion Master, whose martial arts were unfathomable.

Hades is the junior apprentice. He is not as talented as the old drunkard, but he is deep in thought and extremely cunning.

Before his death, the master passed on the Dark Pavilion to his eldest disciple, Yin Wuji, and handed him the Black Lotus Token.

Hades, dissatisfied, joined forces with the elders of the Pavilion to launch a rebellion.

That night, the headquarters of the Dark Pavilion was stained with blood.

The old drunkard fought his way out, took the Black Lotus Token with him, and lived in anonymity for thirty years.

Hades chased him for thirty years, hated him for thirty years, and waited for him for thirty years.

Wait for him to return, wait for him to admit defeat, wait for him to hand over the Black Lotus Token. But the King of the Underworld can't wait any longer—he's old, older than an old drunkard, and no matter how high his martial arts skills are, he can't stop the erosion of time.

Before he died, he needed to settle things once and for all.

After listening to the old drunkard's story, Su Jiuge remained silent for a long time.

He invited me to Cangwu Mountain.

The old drunkard nodded.

"It's not a trap. He wouldn't stoop to such tactics."

Su Jiuge stood up and walked to the window, looking at the bare pomegranate tree in the courtyard.

"I promised him I would go back and take his life. Now is the time."

The old drunkard didn't say anything, but unscrewed the gourd and took a swig.

On the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, at Cangwu Mountain.

Heavy snow blocked the mountain roads, which were covered with thick snow, and even hunters stopped going into the mountains.

Su Jiuge came alone, without bringing anyone with her.

This was a matter between her and Hades, destined to be resolved from the day she stepped into the Dark Pavilion.

The headquarters of the Dark Pavilion is located deep in the Cangwu Mountains, with its black stone buildings lying dormant amidst the swirling snow.

She was only seven years old when she first came here; a ghostly hand led her through that door. Nine years have passed, and when she walked out of here, she thought she would never come back.

Hades was waiting for her in the main hall.

It was still that same room, so simply furnished it was almost shabby, with a long table, chairs, and that withered landscape painting on the wall.

He sat behind the long table, wearing that gray Taoist robe. His hair was sparse and gray, his face was covered with age spots, and his body was so thin it looked like a skeleton. He looked even older than he had three years ago. But his eyes—those half-closed eyes—opened the moment Su Jiuge pushed the door open and entered.

There was no murderous intent or hostility inside, nothing she had anticipated.

"Sit." Hades' voice was old and slow.

Su Jiuge did not sit down.

She stood opposite the long table, her hand resting on the hilt of her knife.

Hades said, "You carry the Black Lotus Token."

It's not a question, it's a statement.

Su Jiuge took the wooden box out of her bosom, placed it on the table, and pushed it in front of him.

Hades stared at the wooden box for a long time, then reached out to open it, but pulled his fingers back as soon as they touched the lid.

He didn't open it.

Do you know what's in the box?

Su Jiuge said, "The Black Lotus Token is the token of the Dark Pavilion Master."

Hades asked, "Do you know why it's called the Black Lotus?"

Su Jiuge replied, "The mark of the Dark Pavilion."

Hades looked up into her eyes, and a light suddenly appeared in those cloudy eyes.

"The black lotus rises from the mud, yet remains unstained. This was the earliest tenet of the Dark Pavilion—though in darkness, one's heart yearns for the light. Didn't your master tell you this?"

Su Jiuge shook her head, and Hades suddenly laughed.

The smile that appeared on his withered face seemed abrupt, yet it also made him look like a real person.

"Thirty years. He hated me for thirty years, and I hated him for thirty years. In the end, the person he's waiting for is you, and the person I'm waiting for is also you."

Hades coughed a few times, and dark red blood quickly seeped from the handkerchief covering his mouth, just like the blood coughed up by the old drunkard.

Su Jiuge stared at the bloodstains without saying a word.

Hades folded the handkerchief and tucked it into his sleeve.

"Retribution. I killed my master and seized the position of sect leader. In the end, I won't outlive him."

A long silence followed inside the hall. The sound of snow falling on the roof was muffled, like the distant drumbeats of a battlefield, deep and lingering.

A gust of wind blew in through the torn window paper, causing the landscape painting to sway slightly.

Hades suddenly stood up.

In that instant, Su Jiuge finally saw his true strength—the peak of the Core Formation Realm.

Her aura pressed down on her like a mountain, far surpassing Chen Beixuan's by more than one level. She didn't even need to make a move; the sheer difference in their cultivation levels was enough to render a late-stage Transformation Realm martial artist incapable of fighting.

Su Jiuge gripped the knife hilt tightly, her knees slightly bent, but she did not back down.

Hades looked at her, a complex light flashing in his cloudy eyes.

"You are stronger than I imagined. I entrust the Black Lotus Token to you, and I entrust the Dark Pavilion to you as well. Not the current Dark Pavilion, but the real Dark Pavilion."

He took out a token from his pocket, the same black lotus token as Su Jiuge's, but with a more ancient pattern.

"The one I have here was passed down from my master. The one your master took away was a fake."

Su Jiuge's pupils suddenly contracted.

"The fake Black Lotus Token was deliberately taken by your master. The real one, I've kept all this time. For the past thirty years, he thought he had taken the rightful inheritance of the Dark Pavilion, and I hunted him down because he stole the Pavilion's most precious treasure. Everyone thought so. Nobody knew that there were two Black Lotus Tokens, one real and one fake. The fake one was the bait, and the real one was the root."

Su Jiuge remained silent for a moment.

"You have taken advantage of my master for thirty years."

Hades' voice calmed down:

"I used him for thirty years, and I protected him for thirty years. I gave the order for the Dark Pavilion to hunt him down for thirty years, but I never sent any assassins with a gold medal or higher. I only sent silver medalists, silver medalists whose outcomes I could control. If I wanted to kill him, he would have died thirty years ago. It's not because I can't kill him, it's because I can't kill him. He was chosen by my master, and even if he betrayed the Dark Pavilion, he can't die by my hand."

Hades placed his Black Lotus Token side by side with the fake token on the table. The two tokens were exactly the same, even the sealing runes on the back were identical.

"I'm dying."

Hades' voice was very low.

"The Dark Pavilion needs a new leader, someone with martial arts skills, courage, a sense of responsibility, and who won't be used as a tool by anyone. You are the best candidate, and the only candidate."

He paused.

"This is my last chance, and the Dark Pavilion's last chance."

Su Jiuge looked down at the two black lotus tokens on the table.

She carried one piece for eight years, and Hades hid it for thirty years. One was real, and the other was fake; they should have been one.

"I don't want to be the head of the pavilion, I don't like managing people, and I don't like being managed."

Hades looked at her: "Don't be the Pavilion Master, be the soul of the Dark Pavilion. The Pavilion Master is in charge of affairs, you are in charge of the Pavilion Master. If the Dark Pavilion goes astray, you pull it back. If the Dark Pavilion is dirty, you clean it up."

Su Jiuge raised her head and looked into Hades' eyes. Those eyes, which seemed to be perpetually sleepy, were devoid of calculation and manipulation, containing only something that should never exist in a ruthless and ambitious man—pleading.

"I know the person you're waiting for isn't me," Hades slowly shook his head.

"The person I've waited for my whole life is gone. You are the person he's been waiting for, and that's enough."

Hades fell silent and closed his eyes.

He was too old, and he had said too much, exhausting his remaining strength.

Su Jiuge stood in front of the long table, looking at the withered old man opposite her, and remained silent for a long time.

Then she reached out and put both black lotus tokens into her bosom.

Five items now—a wooden box, a gold medal, a jade pendant, an iron medal, and these two tokens—more and more, more and more crowded, more and more heavy.

She turned and walked to the door, stopping without looking back.

"I will never forgive you for hunting down my master. But he is still alive, and I will let him live to see me transform the Dark Pavilion into what it should be. What you owe him, I will repay."

There was no response from behind. Only the mournful sound of the wind whistling through the torn window paper.

Su Jiuge pushed open the door and went out.

Outside the palace, the snow had stopped, and Mount Cangwu was covered in a blanket of white.

She stood on the steps in front of the hall, looking at the sea of ​​clouds in the mountains, at the distant peaks that appeared and disappeared in the sea of ​​clouds, and at the direction of the stone house where she had lived for eight years.

From today onwards, she has something more—the Dark Pavilion. Not the assassin organization Dark Pavilion, but a responsibility called "Dark Pavilion" that needs to be rebuilt and brought back to the right path.

She didn't like this responsibility; it was too heavy. She was only sixteen years old, and all she wanted to do was kill people to earn money to eat osmanthus cake.

But she accepted, because the old drunkard had waited his whole life, Hades had waited his whole life, and this world should wait for its turn too.

Su Jiuge walked down the mountain without looking back.

Behind them, the sea of ​​clouds over Cangwu Mountain surged, engulfing the Dark Pavilion's headquarters. The wind and snow may bury everything, but they will also give birth to new life.