Chapter Text

Thwack!

  Shang Qinghua jolts awake. He frantically scans his surroundings while he blinks the blurriness out of his eyes. He stops at a collapsed heap of papers. It's sprawled on the ground after being bullied out of its rightful spot by a slipping arm. “Ah,” he thinks, rubbing his temple, “I need to stop falling asleep at my desk.” 

  He starts lethargically gathering the papers, sorting them into their proper piles. In his dozing, he had knocked over two loosely organized stacks. One was mission documents meant for Qing Jing Peak. The other was documents from the archive of already-finished missions. 

  Usually, those older documents were left to gather dust in the An Ding archives. But Shang Qinghua had been slowly working through them, looking to see if he could find anything related to or near plot events that the protagonist would encounter later. He’s been bringing them to his room to take notes, then sneaking them back after he finished.

  Originally this was to steal some of the protagonist’s future treasure for himself, sharing is caring and Luo Binghe could spare a few. But after receiving a harsh warning from his stick-in-the-mud system, he resigned to gathering the information that would help Luo Binghe when the time came. Being useful and getting on the protagonist’s good side never hurt anyone.

  Distracted by his sleepy musings, he doesn't notice the paper stubbornly sticking to the underside of one of its brethren, accidentally putting it in the wrong stack.

  Oh well, what consequence could this carelessness have? It’s not as if this small filing mistake would seriously affect the future…right?

_______________________________

  Shen Jiu ran a giddy hand across the yellowed paper. "This is it! My first solo mission out of the sect!" It’s been a year since he first joined Cang Qiong, and he got his sword Xiu Ya a month ago. During that month he had rigorously worked to master sword flight so he would finally be allowed off the damn mountain without a chaperone. Now, all those blood, sweat, and tears are finally paying off!

 He looks over the mission details. It was a simple mission, some monsters were sighted in a cave out in the middle of nowhere. It had given a poor passing hunter quite the fright. Normally such trivial things would be ignored by Cang Qiong, but it just so happens that the hunter was heir to an influential noble family who enjoys hunting for sport. Scared out of his mind, the spoiled young master refused to go out into the woods again, complaining to his father all the while. So though Cang Qiong certainly had better things to do than console a whiny brat, nepotism allowed an exception.

  Shen Jiu's mood dampens a little as he reaches the end of the text. These types of missions were the kind he hates the most, completely useless and for the sole purpose of sucking up to those pampered rich kids. But alas his first solo mission was bound to be boring, and he would at least be paid handsomely. With that thought, he grabs his sword and sets off into the sky.

  It had taken a whole day and a half to get to the village where the client lives. Shen Jiu isn’t accustomed to flying long distances on a sword, so he has to take multiple breaks to recuperate. He steps into the residential area where the client is written to be. “Hmm…that’s strange”, he thinks scanning the area, “there isn’t anything that looks like a noble's estate around here. Just a bunch of normal houses that look like they belong to the lower middle class at best…”

  Spotting a middle-aged woman working in her front garden, he approaches her. “Excuse me,” he says, “pardon the interruption, but could I bother you to help with some directions?”

  The woman startles, “A-ah, of course! Please, tell me where you’re headed, immortal master.” She bows hurriedly. 

  Shen Jiu shifts uncomfortably, even after a year he still isn’t used to being treated with such respect. “Do you know where the Zhao family estate is located? They sent a complaint about monster sightings in the area.”

  “Oh…uh. This humble one apologizes, but this one knows of no Zhao family around here.” She says, looking at him meekly. 

 “Weird…usually wealthy families like the Zhao’s are pretty famous in their cities, even if they're not prominent enough to be known outside of it.” He feels the tendrils of doubt start to creep into the back of his mind.

  Seeing his eyes narrow in doubt, the lady panics. “Ah! W-wait, this humble one just remembered something.” she blurts, looking like she was grasping at straws. “There was once a Zhao family here but they moved away some time ago. They sold this land to the lords of this area, who are repurposing it as farmland. Perhaps they are the one’s immortal master speaks of?”

  That gentle scratching of suspicion turns into clawing. “Were they so scared out of their wits that they moved away?” he speculates, “Even then that doesn’t explain how all of these buildings and residents got here so quickly. Cang Qiong’s administration department can be annoyingly incompetent, but it still wouldn’t be slow enough for all of this to appear in the meantime. There are years worth of infrastructure here.”

  Taking his silence as anger the gardener hastily bows. “This one is sorry! This humble one is useless!”

  Shen Jiu blinks at her. “Please, there's no need, I'm not upset. I'm grateful for madam’s help.” He reassures her. 

  The woman obeys and straightens but still looks nervous. Shen Jiu holds back a sigh. “Really, I’m not sure which one’s more grating. This constant dance around eggshells, or the blatant hostility from before. Truly, a change of robes and the addition of a weapon makes a world of difference.” 

  He bid the lady farewell and went around questioning more people. A fruitless endeavor as it turns out. Each person gave him roughly the same account as the gardener.

   “Did I go to the wrong place?” Shen Jiu murmurs, looking over the information given to him again. “No, this is the location written here…” He huffs, stuffing the paper back into his sleeves.

  In the end, he gives up, deciding to go eliminate the demons first and figure out where his client was later. He asks someone for directions to the nearby caves, receiving a satisfying answer this time. He departs quickly, not wanting to squander the daylight.

  When he reaches the mouth of the cave he pauses, prying out with his spiritual senses. His guard rises when he feels no demonic qi. 

  This monster is supposed to be a weak-leveled beast, dangerous for a mortal but straightforward for a cultivator. It shouldn’t be strong enough to suppress its demonic energy like this. Even if it had already left the cave Shen Jiu should have still felt some residual energy left behind. "Something is wrong here…"

  He set up a few traps outside the cave in case he needed to make a retreat while being pursued, and some alarms to tell him if the cave entrance collapses. He then enters the cave with cautious steps, lighting a fire talisman when it gets too dark. However, he reaches the end of the caves having encountered absolutely nothing of note. As he stares at the plain rock wall that marked this cave a dead end, a sudden sense of foreboding washes over him.

  He hurriedly turns back towards the mouth of the cave, running as fast as he can, his heart rabbiting in his chest. But as the light of the opening comes into view, he slows down, confused. The traps and alarms he set were still untouched and he could leave and enter the cave freely. No hexes or mazes were trapping him in, and no demons lurking to ambush him.

  It was just a normal cave.

  He runs a hand through his hair. “What the fuck was going on here!? Was this some kind of prank!? ” With his teeth grinding together he decides to examine the cave one last time, vowing to just head back if he came up empty again.

  He searches every inch of it, investigates every nook and cranny, and yet… nothing. He gets up from the crack he was inspecting and turns to leave, frustrated with this seemingly non-existent mission. But then something barely reflecting the light catches his eye.

  He stops, going to look. It's a set of runes in some old language he can’t decipher. The characters are carved into the stone wall, indents filled in with a shiny bluish metal. It's hiding in a corner of the ceiling, barely visible. Whoever or whatever put it there clearly didn’t want it to be discovered. 

  Shen Jiu stands on his tip toes trying to get a better look, but to no avail. He sets back on his heels with a huff. He pulls out his sword and sits on it, floating up towards the runes. He studies the characters. He tries applying what he learned in his linguistic classes, and he managed to parse out that it probably wasn’t a demonic language but that’s about it. He's still in the beginner’s course, and they haven’t gotten into decoding unknown languages yet. 

  He looks at the material filling in the characters, trying to match it to anything he’s read about but can’t get anything from looking at it alone. After some deliberation, he tentatively reaches his hand out to feel it. Nothing happens. The material is smooth and relatively untouched by the weathering of time due to its location. 

  After another minute of seesawing, Shen Jiu cautiously sends a small tendril of qi into the metal. The runes immediately react. An array that definitely wasn’t there before lights up under his feet, its complicated diagram twists as it activates. 

  “Shit!” He curses as his vision turns black.

_______________________________

   “Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” Shang Qinghua panics, “I really screwed up this time!”

  He frantically looks through his papers again. "Nope, it's gone, it's really gone." One of the papers he took from the archives is missing.

   “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.” Shang Qinghua groans. “How could I have misplaced it!?” He thinks, pulling at his hair. "If my shixiong finds out that I lost something from the archives I'm going to be in for a lecture of a lifetime!"

  In the distraught search of his room, he accidentally bumps over some papers. “Seriously, Right now!? Have I been cursed today or something!? ” He lets out a small angry yell as he squats down to pick up the papers. But as he collects them he freezes, a memory coming to his mind. A memory of him doing a very similar action just a few days ago…

   “No way…I couldn’t have…” His face takes on an unhealthy shade of white. “Forget my shixiong! Whichever Qing Jing disciple I set on a wild goose chase, will have my head! ” Then a disturbing thought enters his mind. “Wait…no. That’s the least of my concerns right now. If the disciple winds up accidentally finding those ruins…”

  You see, the reason why he had taken that mission out of the archives was that the cave the monster was sighted in is the place Luo Binghe finds some ruins in chapter 156. Inside those ruins, Luo Binge was supposed to find an artifact. This artifact was a small jade carving that held a pocket dimension in it, like a Qiankun pouch that could be entered by humans. Much like a spiritual sword, the artifact would form a bond with its owner, only allowing its master and those its master chooses to enter and leave it. 

  However, unlike a spiritual sword, the artifact wasn’t picky with its owners. You didn’t have to have a special soul connection to bond with it. The artifact simply attached to whoever entered it first by feeding it qi. Luo Binghe would later gift it to wife 48, and proceed to have a passionate round of papapa inside the pocket dimension. 

  In any case, the artifact isn’t what Shang Qinghua is worried about. Luo Binghe losing one of his many treasures wouldn’t change the plot that much. What he was worried about was the ruins themselves. That place was littered with traps and demons. Luo Binghe was able to handle them, but if some cannon fodder Qing Jing disciple were to face them, they’d end up dead. If that were to happen and it was Shang Qinghua’s fault…he shudders. 

   “No, it would be fine,” he comforts himself, “the entrance array to those ruins is very well hidden. The only reason Luo Binghe activated it was because he shot a stray qi blast while fighting a demon. Without the magic hands of the plot on their side, it's very unlikely this would be repeated, especially since the beast shouldn’t be there yet. They would have to be either crazy observant or incredibly unlucky to discover it.”

  Reassured Shang Qinghua builds up his courage to report his mistake so they can call back the poor disciple. “Ugh, I am gonna be in for a beating.” He whines, “Well it could be worse. They’d just be investigating an empty cave, so no harm done. Surely I wouldn’t be punished too harshly?”

  He heads to Qing Jing Peak, mentally preparing himself to face the terrifying young masters that reside there.

_______________________________

  Shen Jiu groans, blinking dark spots away. His eyes widen in alarm as instead of finding the damp wall of the cave, he sees tall pillars towering over him. They’re holding up a ceiling with intricately painted images that match the ones on the walls. The ground is no longer cool stone, but decaying wood instead. 

  Grabbing Xiuya he shoots up, only to immediately sneeze.  He looks down with watery eyes. The spot he had just been is a noticeably lighter shade than the rest of the floor and a cloud of dust is currently settling at his feet.

   “...”

  “Where the fuck am I?!”

  If it wasn’t for the fact that this was an unfamiliar and therefore dangerous place, Shen Jiu would kick something. “What the hell is this bullshit!? Did I miss a paragraph in the mission details that said ‘creepy ass ruins nearby’!? Did that paragraph explain where my fucking target is!? Or better yet, my client!? I swear to the gods, when I find whoever researched for this assignment, I’m going to put their head on a pike!” 

   He sucked in a sharp breath through gritted teeth then let out a controlled exhale. “First things first, I need to find a way out of here.” 

  He stalks down the corridor warily, putting on testing amounts of pressure with his foot before leaning his full weight on it. Rotting wood was hardly stable after all. He makes it through a third of the long hallway with this meticulously slow process until he finds something amiss. 

  The plank of wood gives too easily, and not in the way softened wood would bend before it broke, but in a sinking way, like a pressure plate would before insnaring a victim. 

  He hastily retraces his leg and waits with bated breath…nothing. He crouches down. Cringing at the dirty floor, he takes out his handkerchief and cleans a spot in front of him, then leans down, pressing his cheek against it. At this angle, he squints as he inspects the wood plank.

  It is slightly elevated compared to the ones next to it. Its edges are worn down from rubbing, and the distance between it and its neighbors is wider than average, collecting extra dust. 

  Shen Jiu stands and reaches into his sleeve, fishing around inside his qiankun pouch. He takes out his hand when his fingers find a smooth stone. 

  He always keeps a weiqi set on him. He had a habit of playing games against himself and testing out new strategies when he was bored and needed to pass the time during a quiet moment. Contradicting its name, such moments were rare to find on Qing Jing. The peak's punishing curriculum keeps most students busy with little breathing room. But on missions outside the sect, especially the collaborative ones he's been going on up until now, Shen Jiu has found that there would often be long periods of time where he would be left sitting around waiting for one thing or another.

  Going a few paces back he throws the weiqi piece at the plate, forceful but precise. The plank pushes down with a soft click and a blast of fire immediately demolishes the imaginary intruder.

  “So it isn’t just creepy ruins but boomy-trapped as well. Wonderful.”  

  Shen Jiu takes out Xiuya and sends a channel of spiritual qi through their bond to make it hover above the ground. But instead, his sword makes a loud clang as it hits the floor.

   “...”

  Shen Jiu lets out a frustrated noise at the back of his throat. “Great, just great. Xiuya is useless too! This just can’t get any better can it?” He wracks his brain on what to do with this predicament.

  "If I can't send qi through my spiritual sword, talismans are likely out of the question as well. Just what kind of spell is able to disable qi usage like this anyway? Just what kind is place is this? Is all qi manipulation negated in this area? No, that blast of fire felt like the result of a spell... Maybe only more organic qi manipulation is allowed? Both spiritual swords and talismans rely on a third-party structural element to guide and amplify the qi for the desired effect..." 

  To test this Shen Jiu sends a few sparks of qi out of his fingertips, it lights up in a small brief flash. He pushes and pulls at the qi, collecting the glittering energy into a small glowing orb. "Okay, so that theory checks out. If I can at least do this maybe I can.."

  He places another weiqi piece in the center of his palm and closes his other hand around it, he then transfers his qi into the small black stone. Shen Jiu focuses on his control so the stone doesn’t shatter. He slowly guides the qi into a self-containing circular motion, so the qi leakage would be minimized instead of surging out into one forceful strike. He encourages the qi to flow faster and faster until the slate vibrates in his hold.

  He throws the disc at an angle. The piece ricochets off the wall and hurtles at the opposite one at an increased speed. Its vigor grows with each recoil, jumping around like an excited flea all the way down the hall, triggering trap after trap along the way. 

  Shen Jiu tracks its erratic movement, making note of which places set off a trap and which areas are safe.

  The stone reaches the end of the corridor and dashes back towards him, igniting a new wave of traps. When the slate gets close enough Shen Jiu moves to block its path, hands outstretched to catch it.

  The piece barrels into him, and the force of it causes him to stumble back a few steps. His hands bruise where the little menace nestles itself. Shen Jiu winces, plopping the traumatized disc back into its home after dispersing the qi inside it.

  With light feet, Shen Jiu jumps from place to place carefully landing on the safe spots he marked down earlier. Now at the last plank, he looks up at the two foreboding doors. He grips the rusty steel handle, gently pulling it as unobtrusive as possible. His efforts are wasted as a harsh wail of aging metal pierces through the air. 

  Before the echoes of the doors’ tantrum even begin to settle, a chorus of unholy shrieks assault his ears. The pounding of a dozen somethings hit the door, attacking it like it's wronged their whole family. 

  Scrambling, Shen Jiu pressed his body against the gate. He pushes the doors shut as fast as he can, but a wrinkled gray claw still manages to squirm its way through the crack. 

  Panicked Shen Jiu quickly draws Xiuya chopping at the arm while he continues to push. It wrangles and claws in protest, clumsily dodging his strikes. After a brief struggle, the limb severs with a final hack, and the gate booms shut. The beasts continue to hail down on the other side for another few minutes before finally quieting.

   Breath heaving Shen Jiu slides down the door, eyes on the limp claw a few inches from him. A creeping fear begins chipping at his mind. He is in unfamiliar territory with unfamiliar monsters, and he can’t channel his qi into his sword and he can't use his emergency talisman either, or any talismans at all-

   “I might actually die in here.”

  He slaps his face with both his hands. “Calm down. Analyze the situation. There has to be a way out of here.”

  He investigates the mutilated grey thing lying on the floor. “A simese-molape maybe? No, it has too many fingers for that. A fire-breathing malegrite? Its nails are far too blunted. A pale night wraith? Those aren’t a social species, these monsters seem to be in a pack…” He filters through all the information he’s absorbed from books over the past year, as well as every demon he’s learned about in class. 

  “All things considered it’s most likely an eyeless sapienmole-rat or a screeching orangovape. Of course... it's also likely to be something completely unfamiliar to me-” He cuts off that spiral before it can start.

   “If it’s a screeching orangovape then they are strong and fast but a bit dumb, so a simple trick will go a long way. On the other hand, eyeless sapienmole-rats are smarter, but they are blind so they rely on their hearing. The best strategy would be one that capitalizes on both these weaknesses.” 

  He gets to work, taking out “A Guide to Demonic Flora”, the most recent encyclopedia he’s been trying to memorize. He sheds his outer robe and wraps it around the book. He gatherers the ends in his hand to form a sort of sack. 

  He steels himself, then slams a powerful qi blast into the heavy metal. The gate bursts open, and the qi lights up the room for a brief flash, illuminating the hulking rodents inside. “Eyeless sapienmole-rats, then.” With spiritual energy quickening his steps he sprints into the darkness before the lurking shadows can pounce. 

  By the time he was a decent few feet inside, the creatures were split into two groups. One was still swarming the threshold, the other, smarter group, already turning to pursue him. 

  Not wasting time, Shen Jiu throws the sack toward the wall as hard as he can. It collides with a bang. The sapienmole-rats lock onto the book, both groups merging as they spring into action. 

  With the commotion as cover Shen Jiu slips into the next area. The shredding of paper and cloth can just barely be heard between the echos of the shrieking beast. In the back of his mind, he hears his hall master reprimanding him for disrespecting such precious resource material. 

  Some tension leaves his shoulders as he closes the door behind him. Only for his relief to jump back to vigilance as he looks at the dimly lit room ahead.

  The floor is covered in colorful tiles that create a beautiful mosaic art piece. Shen Jiu would have appreciated the craftsmanship if it weren't for the ninety-nine percent chance of it being death trap after death trap.

  He lets out a sigh. "This is going to be a long day huh?"

_______________________________

   Shang Qinghua shivered under the Qing Jing disciple's gaze. 

  She sneers, "Really? You useless An Ding disciples only have one job and you can't even do that right?" 

  Shang Qinghua shrank into his shoulders. "Ahaha, yes there was a small mishap. This one apologizes for the minor inconvenience."

  "Tch, maybe it would've been minor but you guys decided to dilly dally and now that batch of missions has already been sent out. We'll have to call the disciple back, it'll be a real hassle." She grouches.

  "Ah. This one apologizes for the trouble." Shang Qinghua repeats. "If Shijie is willing to tell this one which disciple has been sent. This Shidi would be happy to track them down and do all the explaining." 

  "Hmph, finally something good is coming from your mouth." She says looking over her nose. 

   Her voice twists in green-tinted disgust. "As for who was assigned what, I believe that mission was given to Shizun's little pet."

  Shang Qinghua goes very, very still. 

  “W-what?”

  “The Shen kid. That two-faced bastard is always sucking up to Shizun. I bet if Shizun knew how nasty his attitude really was he wouldn’t favor him so much.” The girl grumbled, “Ha, serves him right to get a dud for his first solo mission.”

  Shang Qinghua is now quaking, having tuned out the rest of what she said as soon as he heard the name "Shen". Because the Shen they are speaking of is the only one in this entire sect that fulfilled BOTH of his unlikely conditions for finding those ruins. AND who just so happened to be VITAL to the plot.

  “No. No! Nonononononono- Why!? Why did it have to be him!? Why couldn't it have been literally anybody but him!? Holy shit if he ends up dead then- fuck, the plot is screwed, I'M screwed."

  At this point, the Qing Jing disciple notices Shang Qinghua's paper-white face and she starts to grow concerned. “Hey, what's with you? Are you alright?”

  Shang Qinghua ignores her. “This is bad, this is very, very bad- No calm down. What are the chances of him finding it? Sure you gave him an unreasonable amount of IQ and an even more egregious amount of misfortune but he’s still a child! I mean this is his first mission without a chaperone! Surely in this stage of his development, he won’t be able to find them right?”

  But as much as he tries to comfort himself all his words feel empty. He has no time to waste. He jumps on his sword and bolts off, leaving behind a very confused and offended Qing Jing disciple.

_______________________________

  Shen Jiu lays his hand on the wall as he catches his breath. 

   "How long have I been in this godforsaken place?"

  It must have been at least a day, maybe more. He had spent his time going through endless corridors and avoiding countless monsters. Through various methods, he’s managed to get through them all relatively unscathed, with only a few scratches and bruises here and there. However, the cost of this was most of his qi, half of his weiqi pieces, most of his outer robes, almost all of his rations, and many other miscellaneous items he keeps in his qiankun pouch. He was running out of materials for escape, which means he will be faced with a more direct confrontation soon if it continues at this rate.

  He looks towards the opening at the end of the hall. The long corridor opens to a room with two big statues guarding a pair of grand double doors.

  Shen Jiu scoffs. "What an obvious trap, if those hunks of rock don't attack me as soon as I step foot into that room, I'll eat my hair ribbon. Still, that doesn't make it any less troublesome." He goes to the archway, examining the room but not crossing over the invisible line marked by the threshold.

   “Just as I suspected.”

  Fancy stone baseboards lined all the walls in the room, and inside them were runes of an array, hidden between fancy stonework. Given the setup, Shen Jiu guesses that once he disturbs the plane covered by the array the golems would activate. Which means that it meant the whole floor was likely dangerous. 

  Shen Jiu moves on to the rest of the room, looking for something he could use. The walls were solid rock. It had a completely smooth surface instead of the usual brickwork, which indicated that they were carved into, not built.

  “Hmm, I probably can’t climb it by stabbing in blades as a foothold then. Maybe I could use the ledge of the baseboard? No, they're too narrow and risky…” 

  The looming steel doors reached all the way over the statue's head, and intricate stone carvings frame it. It notably did not have any handles.

   "A push door then?" An idea starts rattling in his head, "I should have just enough qi left to pull this off…" He winces. "This is gonna hurt."  

  Doing a quick calculation with a glance at the floor, Shen Jiu backs up for a running start. He speeds towards the archway, leaping right before he enters the trap's domain.

  He flies across the room, but he starts to lose steam halfway through. He twists his body sideways so that his feet are pointed toward the door. Shen Jiu raises his hands above his head and fires an explosion of qi. 

  He shoots like an arrow into the gate. The door bursts open, and Shen Jiu crashes into the floor raising a screen of dust.

  Coughs punch out of his lungs while pain blooms all over his legs. He staggers as he gets up, eyes alert and wary of what's hiding in the dark this time. 

  But as the dust settles what is revealed is not a beast or more trap-infested decoration. Instead, he was met with shelves on shelves of scrolls. Along with chests stacked on top of one another. Allowing only a single passageway through the crowded chamber.

   “Some sort of treasure room? Is this what all these ruins were protecting?” He walks into the cramped space, investigating the room for any exit or teleportation array like the one that got him stuck here. He didn’t touch any of the treasures, of course, he wasn’t stupid thank you very much.

  Shen Jiu walks through the winding path, carefully avoiding all the chests and baubles on the floor. When he reaches the end he finds a marble pedestal. On top of it sits a box carved from mahogany wood, soft silk cushion lines the inside of it cradling a small jade ornament. There is a stream of light coming vaguely from somewhere above placed conveniently to draw attention to it. Everything about the display is screaming 'Look at me! Look at me!'.

  Shen Jiu raises an eyebrow. “Of all the things in these ruins, this is probably the most blatantly suspicious one yet.”

  He approaches it like one would a feral cat. He circles it in a slow spiral, drawing closer and closer. When it is only a few feet away from him and nothing happens, he stops and scrutinizes it. 

  The jade was a pale white, so translucent that it looked pink from the red cloth pressed against its back. The carving wasn’t anything to look at, just a small ring with two characters engraved into it, one on top and one on bottom. For all the hype it really was rather plain, except-

  Shen Jiu’s eyes widened. The first character in the jade was the same as the one sculpted into the cave wall!

  He grabs it and immediately channeles his qi into the pendant, his desperate hope overriding his caution. But instead of his vision fading it warps and twists, and the jade lights up in place of the array. 

  Shen Jiu is hit with a harsh sense of vertigo. The world tilts and spins in a dizzying melt of colors.

  Then it snaps back into place. Shen Jiu stumbles and blinks. His eyes work to refocus the world around him. 

  Slowly bright green grass solidifies at his feet, and the rushing sound of water starts trickling in. The smell of crisp air registers in his nose.

  He's in a field of grass spotted with white flowers. The sun is high in the sky, clear of clouds. Next to him a stream playfully pranced around the meadow.

  And yet it's eerily quiet. Despite the cheerful scene in front of him, he could detect no signs of life. There weren't any fish in the water or bugs in the grass. There were no birds in the sky or sounds of people nearby. A sense of unsettled dread sinks into his gut.

  He scans the horizon, trying to pick out what this place is. A suspicious patch of missing grass up ahead catches his eye. Shen Jiu heads over to investigate.

  The patch of missing grass was the result of a flat brick platform. On it was an array, specifically the damn teleportation array he's been looking for all this time.

  He stomps over to the cursed thing and slams his hand down. He forces his qi into it and lights up the spell. Shen Jiu's vision goes black again. 

   "Please, get me out of this fucking place."

_______________________________

  Shang Qinghua flittered about the town square like an anxious moth. Asking everyone he came across if they'd seen a green-robed cultivator.

  "Doesn't ring a bell."

  "I just came into town yesterday, I wouldn't know."

  "What's with the questionnaire, are you going to buy the apples or not!?"

  "I saw a burly green-robed merchant a week ago, could that be them?"

  "Sorry kid, I can't help you but I'll sell you this vase for half price if you're interested."

  Shang Qinghua sat down, feeling defeated after half a day of no results. He nervously checks his communication talisman. He had the foresight to ask one of his Shidi to guard Qing Jing and notify him in case his future shixiong showed up.

  The spell in the talisman stares back at him, it is completely spotless, indicating nothing has happened.

  Shang Qinghua wants to weep. "If he isn't here or at the sect, he's guaranteed to be in those ruins. Which means he is basically as good as dead!"

  "Even if he managed to get through all those traps there were still the two stone guardians at the end! There is no way for him to beat them. They were immune to all normal qi attacks! Luo Binghe defeated them by relying on his demonic side, but my villain son doesn't have that option! No matter how much plot armor he might have as the villain he's bound to be squashed!"

  Shang Qinghua's face screws up as if he were eating bitter melon. He gets up on shaky legs. There's still one place he hasn't checked. 

  The caves themselves. 

   "Maybe he decided to camp out there to wait for his prey when he didn't find his target? I did write him to be quite stubborn after all…"  

  That fragile hope in his heart fuels him as he heads wearily toward the woods.

_______________________________

  Shen Jiu never thought he could be so happy to wake up to a stone ceiling.

   "I'm out! I'm actually out!" 

  He lays there reveling in his relief, letting exhaustion finally set in his bones. After a few seconds, he pulls himself up, convincing himself that sleeping in a cold cave isn't a good idea.

  A clatter draws his attention. It was the jade piece from earlier. He picks it up and flips it around in his hand curiously.

   "I could've sworn I didn't have this on me when I exited the ruins…"

  He was pretty done with mysteries for today, so he simply put it in his sleeve to be properly inspected later. Suddenly a flash and a shriek alerted him.

  It was the traps he set up when he first got here. “Did the demon finally show up after all this time?”

  He dashes out to check. He could see something squirming in the net of qi, but it wasn't a beast or monster. It was a scrawny little An Ding disciple. 

  When the disciple sees Shen Jiu his face lights up, like he's just been saved. 

  "You're here! You're alive!" The brown rat worms up to him "Oh thank goodness you're alright I really thought you were dead!"

  Shen Jiu's mind runs to catch up. "Dead? Why would he think I was dead? Why is he so relieved I'm alive? Wait, no, why is an An Ding disciple here in the first place? What's going on!?"

  Questions swirl around in his head as he moves to untangle his martial sibling from his bindings. "What are you doing here?"

  Hearing his question the small man immediately slumps back. His head disappears into his neck.

  "Aha..ha. Actually, um-you see…" 

  Shen Jiu watches the fidgeting man, his eyes narrowing. "Spit it out. What are you doing here?"

  "U-uh well… about the mission you were sent on…"

  That day a hiker hears terrifying cries coming from the forest. She hurries back to town blubbering about a haunted cave.