When Daphne Sack and the butler reached Benjamin's room, they saw the family physician clutching his bleeding forehead while directing the burly servants to restrain Young Master Benjamin, who was in a frenzy and hurting himself.
Daphne Sack shouted anxiously, "Ben! Do not hurt yourself!"
Her voice was sharp and high. Benjamin froze for a heartbeat, then lifted his head toward the sound. His pale blue eyes were empty, as if all will to live had drained away. "Sister, I cannot bear it. Let me die."
"Ben, do not do this. The elders are already looking for a solution. You cannot give up on yourself."
Daphne Sack slowed her steps and softened her tone to calm him as she edged closer.
Benjamin shook his head in agony. "No. It is useless. The voices and images keep spinning before my eyes. I cannot stop them. I cannot take it anymore."
He lunged and smashed his head toward the wall.
"Ben!"
"Young Master!"
"Quick, stop him!"
Three voices rang out at once, but their bodies lagged behind their thoughts by a step.
Just as Benjamin was about to spill blood on the spot, a black cord snapped out like a serpent, coiled around his waist, and yanked him back.
Xun Kun reeled him in, then withdrew the long rope he had formed from demonic qi and said coolly, "What are you standing there for? Help him up."
"Quick, help the young master!"
"Ben!"
Daphne Sack cried out and rushed forward.
The family physician stepped up, injected a sedative, and put Benjamin to sleep, only then finding time to tend to his own forehead.
Xun Kun only shook his head. For a soul teetering on the brink of collapse, forcing sleep was not a wise choice.
Tears brimmed in Daphne Sack's blue eyes. Watching her brother sink into slumber, she wiped her cheeks, rose, and faced Xun Kun. "Mr. Xun Kun, I know you can save my brother. Please save his life. Take it as paying back your life-saving debt to me. The Sack family will give you additional compensation, and we will even help you locate your separated companions."
Xun Kun hesitated for a breath, then nodded. "Very well. I hope you keep your word."
"I swear on the Sack family's honor that I will never go back on my promise. If I fail, you may take my brother's life at any time." Daphne Sack gritted her teeth.
"Miss!"
"Miss Daphne, you must not be so reckless."
The butler and the family physician spoke at once, with the same meaning.
Daphne Sack scrubbed her face again and looked at them. "Do you have a better way? Since my brother came here, his condition has not improved. It has grown worse. You just saw it. He wanted to kill himself. We might stop him once. Can we stop him every time? Or keep him asleep forever?"
Faced with her questions, both the butler and the physician fell silent.
Xun Kun spoke at the right moment. "All of you, out. I will do my best to treat him. If I fail, you may come and trouble me then."
Daphne Sack nodded at once and ordered everyone out of Benjamin's room. She was the last to leave. After closing the door, she stood quietly at the threshold, praying this time her brother would truly escape his nightmare.
Xun Kun went to the slumbering Benjamin's side and guided a thread of demonic qi into the body. He first examined the physical condition. Benjamin was weak, but not to the point of dying at any moment.
What made Xun Kun frown was Benjamin's soul. The soul within the body was steeped in decay, nothing like what a youth should possess. It carried resentment and filth, and he even sensed fragments of past-life memories in it, as if he had missed a bowl of Meng Po Soup.
Using demonic qi as a guide, Xun Kun drew out the resentment and foulness clinging to the soul and burned them away with demonic flame. Then he formed a seal to suppress the shards of memory, preventing them from invading the present life.
After that, he weighed the risks, then stripped off a grain of his own merit and flicked it into the youth's soul. In the next instant, Benjamin's soul seemed to pass through a purification. It grew crystal clear, the bright spirit a young man ought to have.
Benjamin's tightly furrowed brow smoothed. His breathing steadied, and he seemed to sink into a sweet dream.
Only then did Xun Kun open the door and address those waiting outside. "He will be fine when he wakes. Do not disturb him now."
Daphne Sack's eyes lit up, joy flooding her blue gaze. "Truly? My brother will be all right?"
"When he wakes tomorrow, you will know."
Xun Kun's answer was certain.
"Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Xun Kun."
Daphne Sack thanked him at once.
The family physician still harbored doubts, but this was not the time to argue. They would wait for Young Master Benjamin to wake and see.
"Miss Daphne, I have fulfilled my promise. I hope you will also keep yours."
"Of course. Tell me what you need, and I will have the butler arrange it."
Xun Kun said directly, "I need the records of this world for the past hundred years."
The butler blinked. "Which area?"
"All of them."
"All of them?"
"Yes, all."
"Oh. Very well. That will take some time. Please wait, Mr. Xun Kun."
"Fine. I will wait in my room."
Xun Kun turned and returned to the room from before.
Daphne Sack watched the retreating black figure and sighed at her inability to remove his mask.
The butler's eyes shifted. "Miss Daphne, shall we really give him everything he asked for?"
Daphne Sack nodded. "He saved my brother. I must keep my promise."
"Yes, Miss."
When Miss Daphne entered to check on Benjamin's condition, the butler called the Sack couple and reported everything that had happened at the estate, hoping they would come at once. He feared Miss Daphne would not be able to deal with Mr. Xun Kun rationally.
Xun Kun did not yet know he would soon face the scrutiny of Daphne Sack's parents. He was busy reviewing Azure Star's historical records from the past century. From them he confirmed that he had fallen into a lower plane. There was no spiritual qi and no demonic qi here, which would make finding his companions even harder.
At the same time, Han Lian, along with her ice coffin, was excavated and, as a cultural relic, transported toward Azure Star's capital.
At the moment she was pulled into the black hole, the red cord on Han Lian's wrist was shredded, severing her link to Yun Chen. She summoned the protective Ice Lotus to resist the tearing force of space. When she was forced into Azure Star, the Ice Lotus exhausted its energy and returned automatically to her dantian.
To avoid being crushed by the pressure of falling, Han Lian took from her storage bracelet an ice coffin forged from ten-thousand-year profound ice. She climbed inside and sealed it. As long as she did not awaken, no one could open that coffin.
The ice coffin plummeted from the sky into a desert and was immediately buried by sand. A nearby drone detected the anomaly, and satellite positioning led to the excavation of the coffin.