Dusk descends like a foggy memory in the Misty Mountains' demonic beast forest.

As if dimly recalled from years gone by, three youthful figures appear out of thin air, blinking into being in front of a fourth youngling...

The new arrivals stand back-to-back and warily eye their surroundings. Sensing their unease, the fourth youth joined in their jumpiness, and also begins to gaze all about too.

The latter three are dressed in dark clothing and resemble assassins from a distance. The fourth, yet first, figure is female and her attire is strangely stylish for a forest sojourn...

Her tan cotton dress is offset by a wide walnut-brown belt - worn bandit style, thrown haphazardly over one shoulder... She has accessories as well, with a pair of large dangling earrings that match the belt, both being approximately two-shades darker than the dress... To complete the ensemble, she wears a patterned headscarf of some sort...

Overall, her outfit is utterly preposterous for any self-respecting adventurer... She is, naturally none other than newly minted core disciple, Fen Ling!

Which by default makes the other three, her Thundering Tortoise sect-mates, First Elder Jian Cheng, Second Elder Fatty Li Feng plus official First Disciple Xiao Ma!

The four close friends gratefully regard each other in the gloom of the gloaming, having last seen each other in the early morning... The threesome are pleased to be breathing actual air again, while Fen Ling is simply relieved to see a friendly face...

Jian Cheng can tell the last six hours - from dragon to rooster - have been a hard slog for Fen Ling. Trekking beyond the Misty Cloud Sect formation wall, into the forbidden forest, is no stroll in the park... Though to be fair, that is what she appears to have dressed for... Now however, not only does she appear dirty and dishevelled, she also looks a little lonely, he cant help but think.

And why not? Her only company had been 14 snotty core disciples and their 10 grumpy guardian elders... He resolves to solve the situation of her 'outsider' status as soon as they got back to the sect in a month’s time... Ahh, he sighs. His list of things to do is seemingly endless...

Jian Cheng is also constantly adjusting his own clothes. Earlier he loaned his armoured cloak to Xiao Ma for her safety's sake. He'd also left the hefty bulk of his father's battle armour behind... Apart from the forearm vambraces, the shin greaves and the shoulder pauldrons of course... He and Fatty were each wearing one of each... Hence, they also look a little bit ridiculous.

"You two look sooo ridiculous," Fen Ling repeats her morning comment, by way of greeting.

Jian Cheng ignores her jibe... For the second time that day. Though he is glad he hasn't worn the garish helmet, that’s still stowed in the storage belt...

He holds out his hand and accepts the aforementioned spatial belt, that Fen Ling has just shrugged over her shoulder with visible relief.

At dawn, they gathered at Fatty Li Feng's little house to prepare for the four-week-long adventure ahead of them. Everyone had been wide awake and full of beans! Jian Cheng emptied the entire bedroom-sized space within the belt into the spare room he normally slept in. After some fierce toing and froing amongst the foursome, he’d reluctantly put half the items back in - mostly foodstuffs at Fatty's insistence... And, although Jian Cheng had rolled his eyes at the time, his rotund friend had made a good point about consumables ultimately not taking up permanent space.... Precious space that they would dearly need for their many beasts and herb treasures!

My precious space... for my precious benefits!

His reverie is broken because he needs to check something. You always do when working with idiots...

"Is everyone still suppressing their aura?" he asks in a whisper. Receiving three nods in reply, he nods once himself, to let them know he understood that they understood... So far so good...

"So are they?" Fen Ling asks.

"Yes, they both said "yes"!" he hisses back. She must be too lonely.... And now she wants to chatter at him in that incessant chipmunk manner of hers...

"Well, I didn't hear anything..."

This time Jian Cheng doesn't bite... They've had these pointless circular conversations too many times in the past... He'd usually ends up frustrated, while she'd appear pleased as punch, saying something like "it's sooo good to finally hear what you really think..." or "at last we're really communicating...".

I'm not falling into her time-killing trap.... Not today, he vows.

They don't have any time to kill... They have mere minutes to not be killed themselves... Since the second they were retrieved from the spatial belt, they have been under immense pressure of maintain their guixigong aura suppression... Otherwise there is a clear and present danger that the nearby Misty Cloud Sect elders will sense their presences.

After setting up camp for the night, as a basic security measure, several elders would always be tasked to scan the surrounding area with their spiritual sense. Fen Ling has gone as far as she dares into the forest without attracting too much attention... But why would the elders ever let a core disciple stray beyond the limits their consciousness? Not likely at all... Hope for the best, plan for the worst, is Jian Cheng's motto!

At their current cultivation tier they could only maintain the effect for a few minutes at most, so they need to get beyond the elder’s range - estimated to be several hundred chi within that short time...

The three stowaways even began restricting their presence before entering the storage buckle, because whatever is deposited inside the spatial belt becomes instantly locked into a state of suspended animation... With one notable, if tiny, exception... Yama, who seems to be strangely immune to the laws of time and space!

The baby demonic beast appears to be able to, not only come and go as he pleases, but rummage around inside... And of course, nibble on any tasty treasures he discovers... speak of the devil and he doth appear...

Yama's little black rat face pokes out of the buckle and two beady eyes take a curious peek around, his tiny whiskers twitching excitedly up at the twilight...

At the early morning meeting, the impetuous pest bounded forward, leaping into the spatial belt at the very last minute... Mere moments before Fen Ling left to meet the other core disciples at the prearranged time and place... All so they could prepare for their farewell parade. Onr that pompously proceeded across the entire inner court... Yes, they had a parade... Jian Cheng is so relieved he'd missed it, he might have thrown something... Something rotten...

Speaking of making mischief, the little vandal has been surprisingly busy in his suspended animation... Not despoiling an event, but defacing an elder... Hence, it is an irritable, some would say scratchy, Fatty Li Feng, who emerged earlier with several small nicks and cuts marring his cherubic face...

Tracing the shallow abrasions with his fingers, Fatty scowls at his tiny nemesis now scurrying about on the ground below. Naturally King Yama studiously ignores him, standing up on his hind legs with his nose in the air. Slowly and somewhat clumsily, he totters about sniffing interestedly in every direction...

Fatty has smelled something too...

"Oh, gods above,” Fatty makes an appalled face, staring at a wet patch of under brush a zhang ahead. “What's that acrid stench?"

"Shush, is everyone ready?" Jian Cheng asks. He has a steely determined air about him, one that brooked no nonsense. "Let's head off then!"

"It would be courting death go that way, some hideous demonic beast has sprayed its foul musk everywhere to mark their territory?" Fatty says, his face growing fearful. "It must be at sixth or seventh stars at least, to stink that much..."

"What can we do?" Xiao Ma is also becoming a bit frantic after feeding off Fatty's panic. "We can't go the other way, we'll run into those Misty Cloud elders and core disciples!"

'It should be fine to go that way," Fen Ling mumbles under her breath. "Um, he-he, coincidentally this wee one took a tiny tinkle..."

"A tiny tinkle?" When he’s nervous, Fatty often loses all restraint and sense of decorum... "It looks like it rained cats and dogs and smells like a volcano or a skunk erupted, what have you been eating?"

Used to his outlandish foibles, the other two's eyes roll their way over to Fen Ling to hear her reply...

"Hmph, how rude!" she huffs. "I can't hold it in forever you know!"

"Why didn't you go earlier, then?" Fatty has the bit between his teeth now.

"I can't keep leaving the group all the time, they already don't like me - so I waited like Brother Cheng said, until we stopped to make our first camp!"

"Alright, it's fine. Keep your voices down, there's no harm done..." Jian Cheng steps in. "... Except to some vegetation..."

He flashes a smile that has become a rare sight in the last three weeks. Relieved to see it, the two combatants withdrew, their small spat forgotten, their minds already turning back to the dangerous task ahead.

"I'll see you back here in a month then," Fen Ling mutters, clearly gloomy to not be going along too. "Happy hunting!"

"Same to you," Jian Cheng replies with another faint smile, his excitement is rising.

"Shi-jie, please be careful!" Xiao Ma, appears anxious as she turns to leave.

"... Also, drink lots of water...” Fatty finally adds, after some thought. “And avoid using a lot of salt or eating any asparagus..."