~~~

Feng Zhi walks with a noticeable limp.

The Young Master of the Eternal Flame Clan has exerted himself too much too quickly, and all he can do now is grit his teeth and bear it. His body might cry out in protest, but that’s nothing compared to his inner turmoil. He is no stranger to difficult fights and bitter defeats. The latter, in particular, has happened to him far more often than he’d like.

And yet, though he did not lose, Feng Zhi cannot recall the last time coming up short has stung this much.

“Young Master…” One of the three disciples that now accompany him says with obvious hesitation. “Perhaps it would be best if we… carried you?”

“I will walk,” Feng Zhi says without turning around or slowing in the slightest.

“Are you sure, Young Master?” asks the other one. He looks at him with faint disapproval. “Based on your condition, I cannot recommend-”

“I am entirely sure. Be silent.”

It is not just pride or stubbornness that stops him from taking their advice. If he allows himself even a moment of weakness, Feng Zhi doubts he will be able to remain conscious. That cannot happen.

He will not rest until he finds Feng Hao.

“You should reconsider, Young Master. Don’t worry. This one will make sure no harm comes to you.”

Feng Zhi glares at the disciple walking in front of him. Unlike the other two, this one doesn’t shrink under his gaze. And why should he? He is one of the Core Disciples chosen to represent his father in this endeavor.

Guo Xuesheng.

Had it not been for his timely appearance, Feng Zhi would have likely lost against Xi Mou.

“I will not rest,” Feng Zhi repeats. His body is not in such a poor state that resting is an absolute necessity. Feng Zhi knows his regeneration speed better than anyone. His wounds will heal before exhaustion gets the better of him. “Your concern is appreciated, but I will be fine.”

“Fine? If you believe that, then I am beginning to doubt Lord Feng Gui’s ability as a parent.”

Feng Zhi glares at Xi Mou.

Being saved from Xi Mou is not something Feng Zhi particularly enjoyed. That he was in a position where he needed to be saved is already bad enough for his pride, but having four people, one of them being Xi Mou, know about it is just too much.

“Why did you even bring him with us?” Feng Zhi asks Senior Brother Guo. “We could have left him.”

“We are not animals, Young Master,” Senior Brother Guo says. He is carrying Xi Mou over his shoulder as one would a sack of rice. “To kill our brethren is beneath us, especially if what you said is true.”

Xi Mou flinches, but his face quickly morphs into a scowl.

“I already said I have no idea what that was! I helped you fight to protect Young Master, didn’t I?”

“And then you immediately kept him from me!”

“The Young Master did not seem to want to be with you. I merely respected his wishes. Besides-”

The twitch of a muscle.

A spark of Qi.

Senior Brother Guo reacts far before anyone.

Xi Mou screams as Senior Brother Guo lifts his body and brings it down on his knee with crushing force. Feng Zhi looks away, but that does not stop his ears from hearing Xi Mou’s spine breaking once more.

“Argh!” Xi Mou cries with tears in his eyes. “How dare you!”

“Do you really think I hadn’t realized your wounds had healed?” Senior Brother Guo tells Xi Mou while throwing him over his shoulder once more. “I noticed. I just didn’t want to break your bones again without reason. You gave me one.”

“How?” Xi Mou asks him in a pained voice. “How are you so fast? We are both in the Earth Realm! Even if you’re older, the difference should not be this much!”

That is something Feng Zhi wants to know as well.

Ever since Feng Zhi broke into the Earth Realm, he has had to deal with its curse. Gravity constantly tries to keep him pinned to the ground like a mere worm. The more one advances, the worse it gets. Some people have to spend several days learning how to walk again after a breakthrough.

However, Senior Brother Guo’s movements are so swift it is hard to believe they are under the same curse.

“Perhaps, if you had chosen a different side, it’d be you with this power instead of me,” Senior Brother Guo muses, confirming Feng Zhi’s suspicions. His speed is not natural. As if sensing his stare, Senior Brother Guo looks at him and grins. “Are you curious as well, Young Master?”

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t,” Feng Zhi replies.

Senior Brother Guo laughs. “So proud!”

He pats him on the shoulder, and Feng Zhi winces. He takes a small amount of comfort in the pained groan that comes from Xi Mou due to Senior Brother Guo’s sudden movement.

“It’s alright, Young Master. There is no harm in telling you. I don’t even mind this one overhearing.”

“You overestimate your-Argh!”

“As I was saying,” Senior Brother Guo continues as though he hadn’t just broken someone’s hand, “it is not much of a secret. Were it not for the contest, there would have been some sort of announcement already. The truth is, I cannot claim this to be a result of my hard work. I was merely one of the first offered the opportunity and the first one who took it.”

“Opportunity?” Feng Zhi echoes. He does his best to ignore the way the other two disciples are pretending they aren’t eavesdropping on their conversation.

“A few days before the contest, two disciples came to Elder Xue with a project that, if successful, would ease the burdens of the Earth Realm. Elder Xue took this information to your father, Lord Feng Gui, who summoned the Core Disciples chosen for this contest.”

Feng Zhi frowns. “I was not called for this.”

“Your father must not have wanted to risk you,” Senior Brother Guo replies, albeit too quickly for Feng Zhi’s liking. “You must understand, Young Master. Success, despite various assurances from the disciples who created the method, was not certain. It was not a choice to be made lightly.”

“Yet you made it.”

“I made it,” Senior Brother Guo says. “Unlike the others, I knew one of the disciples who created the method. The others probably felt uneasy trusting the judgment of Inner Disciples.”

“Inner Disciples?” Feng Zhi echoes, an uneasy feeling starting to grow in his gut. “You are saying two Inner Disciples came up with the idea?”

“There is no way that’s possible!” Xi Mou shouts. “What do Inner Disciples know of the rigors of the Earth Realm!”

“Quite right,” Senior Brother Guo says, ignoring Xi Mou. “I am fairly sure you’re familiar with one of them already, Young Master.”

No.

It couldn’t be.

“As I recall, you went on a mission with him,” Senior Brother Guo continues. “As you can see, the project worked. Though I stand before you as an Earth Realm cultivator, I feel none of the rigors of the Earth Realm. Not anymore. It is… freeing.”

“So that’s why…” mutters one of the other two disciples accompanying them.

As expected, even an Inner Disciple can tell how monumental this is. Though still superior to those below them, Earth Realm cultivators are greatly limited by the curse of earth. Once that is removed, the difference becomes obvious. No wonder Senior Brother Guo had been capable of so easily subduing Xi Mou.

However, how on earth had Qing Jin figured out something like this?

“Once the procedure was deemed a success, your father entrusted me with ensuring Young Master Feng Hao’s safe return.”

Senior Brother Guo says it casually, but there is a warning in his eyes, one that is too subtle for anyone but Feng Zhi to notice. Senior Brother Guo knows Feng Zhi has no intention of letting Feng Hao return to the Eternal Flame Clan, and he’s taking the time to warn him before he forces his hand.

As expected, his father had foreseen his plan.

“Unfortunately,” Senior Brother Guo continues, “I have not been as successful as I’d like.”

Senior Brother Guo glares at the bound and broken Xi Mou. It is surprising that’s all he does. Had Xi Mou not covered that fool Huang’s retreat, Senior Brother Guo would have already secured Feng Hao, and they’d be on their way back to the Crimson Cloud Empire.

“Do not worry, Senior Brother!” says one of the other disciples. “Unlike before, we are on the trail of the Young Master.”

“We’ll find him,” says the other one, though Feng Zhi gets the feeling he only talks because he feels obligated to.

“Hmph, you all act as if Young Master Feng Hao needs to be rescued. We’d never be so foolish as to ha-Argh!”

Feng Zhi tunes out the comedy act and focuses on the path ahead. Feng Hao is waiting for him.

And yet, for some reason, it is Qing Jin’s name that keeps coming to his mind. That small, unimportant disciple.

He angers him.

~~~

There is something profoundly relaxing about resting in the entrails he personally crafted. One of the old men had likened the experience to returning to the womb. As a young initiate, the idea had been new and strange to him but he understands now. There is never a moment when he is more at peace than when surrounded by dead flesh.

And yet, something is not right today.

It is perhaps silly of him to be worried about something so small. Several of the creatures he scattered over the Dead Plains have already met an early end. He always knew that would happen. One more should not be cause for concern.

However, that one had been different.

The link he has to his creations is destroyed when his creatures are, but that time, the link was destroyed before the creature. It had been like the stab of a cold needle. So light he barely felt it happening, yet impossible to ignore once it was done.

“Are you still thinking about it? How disappointing.”

He narrows his eyes and glares at this… Xun Huwen, not that the outsider can see him. The cultivator from the other side is relaxing on top of his creature.

“Do not pretend to know my thoughts, visitor from the other side.”

Except he does. This Xun Huwen does not feel like someone from the other side of the Dead Plains. Rather, he cannot help but be reminded of the tales of demons the old men would tell him back when he was just a young initiate. Horror stories and little else. That is what he had believed, yet the way in which this one tries to see into his soul at every turn is unnerving.

Another oddity, yet far from the only one.

“Should we not take care of him?” He makes his creature say. There is no need for him to specify whom he is speaking of.

There is only one fool in the entire Dead Plains that dares stay close to them.

“There is no point,” Xun Huwen says. Rare irritation shows on his face. Xun Huwen had been happy when fighting him and equally happy when he decided to stop and join him on his task. Only this… Mud seems to unnerve him. “If I fight him, it’d be a waste of time. Fighting me is what he’s made for.”

He glares in the direction in which Mud is. Mud does not follow them closely, perhaps because it’d be far too brazen to travel alongside them. However, they know he is there, and he knows they know.

What a farce.

“However, that goes both ways. If I don’t initiate combat, you can’t do anything, can you? You can only watch!”

For someone so twisted, his outrage at this Mud’s existence is nothing short of amusing. Does this Xun Huwen not understand the useless ones must be made to serve a purpose somehow?

Well, he supposes this Mud is certainly an extreme case.

“I will defer to your judgment for now.”

“Don’t say words you don’t mean,” Xun Huwen says. “You have figured out the same thing.”

“How distrustful of you.”

How annoyingly perceptive. People who follow the path of Destruction should be far more short-sighted.

“Oh, dear. Fine. Keep denying it.” Xun Huwen lays down his back on top of his creature. “Tell me, the other side of the Dead Plains… what sort of place is it?”

“What is the point of me telling you when you will just go see yourself?”

Xun Huwen laughs.

“Good point. I have outgrown this place.”

How arrogant. People from the other side are far too arrogant.

And yet, even as he thinks that, his mind keeps going back to the severed link.

How could any of these ignorant people have done that?

~~~

“They’re like maggots.”

Shi frowns in distaste as she watches the dead creatures moving into position. They could crawl underground, but they don’t. Instead, they form large groups all around the temple walls, probably so the disciples can better see them and be intimidated.

“We don’t need them,” she says, looking back at her companions. At him. “We could go in and take Young Master Feng Hao ourselves.”

“I am sure Qu Rou thought similarly,” He answers. “He was wrong.”

She flinches. Qu Rou might have been the weakest among them, but he still should not have fallen to anything less than a Core Disciple.

And yet, she does not feel Qu Rou’s Qi anywhere near.

Shi wants to tell herself he simply abandoned them, but that thought does not ring true at all. More than anyone else, Qu Rou had been eager to fight.

“It is better for us to wait,” Senior Brother Yong continues.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Yong Zhunyi’s voice does not change, nor does his expression falter even for a moment. He radiates calm. Elegance brims from his every pore in a way few can match.

“Besides, it is easier this way, is it not?”

Shi frowns.

She can feel the various Inner Disciples deep inside the temple. Their power cannot possibly hope to compare to the horde about to go in. The beasts will attack, and the disciples will be overwhelmed, and she will have to watch none of it.

Just like she didn’t have to pursue the disciples who fled.

The creatures took care of them far beyond her sight.

“Yes,” she says. “Yes, it is.”

~~~