Chapter

5

Is Your Head Fine?

I

Throughout his life, Song Tian had been woken up in many different ways. From the soft urging of his mother, to the strict commands of his father, to the glare of the sun and the prodding of wild animals. He had never been shaken awake before, however, and now that he was experiencing it, he decided that he didn’t like it.

He opened his eyes and groaned. The shaking had already stopped, but he still felt perturbed. His vision slowly focused, and he saw someone staring down at him, blocking the sun and casting a shadow over him

“Lei Shan?” He was still a little drowsy from his sleep; he couldn’t remember the last time he had slept that deeply. He shook his head and focused on the person again. Yes—brown eyes, brown hair, and a plain face. Lei Shan.

And then he remembered—

Lei Shan!

He sat up and stared at Lei Shan’s chest. The robe around it was torn, revealing fair and seemingly unhurt skin. So he was fine. Song Tian breathed out in relief. It had been his first time using his spiritual skill this way, so he hadn’t been sure whether it would work. At the time, however, it was the best idea he managed come up with.

His gaze moved past Lei Shan and fell on Yang Yi’s corpse. He couldn’t help but frown. He had met Yang Yi before a few times, usually accompanying Elder Bei, and he used to have a good impression of him. To think that Dao Lin had managed to convince him to assassinate him…

Dao Lin would have to pay. So far, he had been minding his own business and doing his best to ignore the so-called Tyrant of the Outer Sect, but this time he had gone too far.

“Song Tian?"

He realized that Lei Shan was looking at him. Right, he reminded himself. Lei Shan was involved in this now. He’d have to explain the situation to him first.

“You must be really confused right now,” Song Tian said as he stood up, brushing the dirt and grass off his robe. “First of all, I must apologize. What happened was in, in a way, my fault. I’m currently at odds with—”

“No, no,” Lei Shan said. “We can talk about that later. I need you to tell me something first. Duo Lan. Do you know whether she’s related to this?”

Duo … Lan? Song Tian started. Yes… She was also participating in this mission. Now that he thought about it, he realized that he hadn’t seen her since they arrived here and set off in their assigned directions. He concentrated on his spiritual sense and found that he couldn’t detect her presence.

“No, she’s not here,” Lei Shan in a dry voice, making Song Tian look at him again. “Anyway, do you know if she’s in on Yang Yi’s plan?”

Song Tian furrowed his brow. Lei Shan seemed different, somehow. Granted, he had interacted very little with the quiet, awkward boy, but he seemed more … confident.

“No,” he answered. “As far as I’m aware, she isn’t.” Duo Lan hated him, that much he could tell, but he didn’t think it was to the point she would try to murder him. Then again, it wasn’t as if he had expected Yang Yi to do that, either. Maybe his father was right. Maybe he was too trusting.

Lei Shan slowly nodded his head, his expression relaxing. “So Yang Yi didn’t mention her last night? And you didn’t see her, either?”

“Right.” Why was he so interested in her?

“All right.” Lei Shan scratched his head, then reached into his robe and fished out a small crystal, which he handed to Song Tian. “I went through Yang Yi’s pouch. This is a record crystal containing Dao Lin’s request to kill you during this mission.”

Song Tian’s eyes narrowed. He looked down at the record crystal he was holding, and then channeled his spiritual essence into it. It didn't take him long to confirm Lei Shan's claim; Dao Lin's instructions were clear. If he brought it over to the sect elders, surely they would—

“You’re not thinking of showing this to the elders, are you?” Lei Shan’s voice tore his train of thought apart.

Lei Shan stared at him, and Song Tian felt like a completely different person was standing in front of him. If he had simply thought that Lei Shan seemed different before, now he was certain of it. The Lei Shan he had traveled with for the past few days wouldn’t have been able to muster a stare this intense. He felt like he was being judged.

“You were, weren’t you? I should have known.” Lei Shan shook his head and sighed. “Look, the Outer Sect is, for some reason, under the control of Dao Lin and his father. Unless you take this to an inner elder, nothing will happen—and even then, what will happen is questionable, considering the inner and core elders have been happy to ignore Dao Lin’s transgressions so far. There’s a chance that there’s someone even higher backing the Dao family. Because of that, there’s a good chance that even if we take this to an inner elder, it won’t lead us anywhere.”

Although he had been rather skeptical at first, Song Tian found himself agreeing with Lei Shan by the end of his explanation. However … He glanced down at the record crystal. “Then doesn’t that mean this is useless?”

“No. It’ll become useful really soon, and it can even be useful later depending on the situation.” He paused. “Do you know who Yang Yi’s master is?’

“Elder Bei,” Song Tian said. “Why?”

“As I thought.” Lei Shan slowly nodded to himself, a satisfied smile on his face. What was this about? “What’s your relationship with Elder Bei like? What kind of person do you think he is?”

Why were they talking about Elder Bei now? Song Tian shook his head. He had gotten Lei Shan involved in this mess, even if he hadn’t meant to. The least he could do was answer his questions. “I think he’s a very righteous person.” Song Tian recalled his previous interactions with Elder Bei. “He can be a bit … passionate, though.”

“Righteous…” Lei Shan mused. “We can work with that.” Then he narrowed his eyes. “Wait. How familiar were you with Yang Yi? You two seemed to already know each other when we met up to leave the sect.”

“We had met a few times. He often accompanied Elder Bei. Why?”

“What was your impression of him?” Lei Shan asked as if he hadn't heard his question. “Before the mission, I mean.”

“That…” Song Tian furrowed his brow. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “I thought he was a dependable senior, I guess.”

Again Lei Shan stared at him, judgmental, critical. In light of the recent events, Song Tian had been trying to accommodate his teammate’s odd behavior, but this was starting to grate on his nerves. How come he was acting so condescending all of a sudden?

“During the mission, did you suspect his true intentions at any point, or did his betrayal come as a shock?”

“I ... I was very surprised.”

Lei Shan looked down and rubbed his forehead. “Never mind that, then. I guess we’re back to step one.”

Now Lei Shan had completely lost him. “Step one?” Song Tian asked. “In what way?”

“It doesn’t matter. Anyway, hand me back the record crystal. Let me keep it for now.”

Song Tian obliged, and Lei Shan stored it away inside his robe.

“All right,” Lei Shan said. “What are your plans now? Will you return to the sect?”

“Of course!” What kind of question that? At least he could finally make sense of the conversation again. “Dao Lin must pay for what he did!”

“So he’s that type…” Lei Shan muttered. Again that condescension. Did almost dying change him this much, or was this his true nature? “We’ll talk about that later,” he said, louder this time. “I gotta think about this some more. For now, we should get out of here and look for Duo Lan.”

“I agree,” Song Tian said. He had also been planning on suggesting that. “Just give me a moment.”

He walked over to Yang Yi’s corpse and pulled his sword out; the corpse slumped to the ground. For a moment, he considered storing the sword away inside his pouch, but after recalling what Lei Shan had said about Duo Lan, he dismissed the idea. There was a chance he would have to use it again soon.

He noticed that Lei Shan had walked up to him. Lei Shan glanced at the sword, and then at the corpse, before asking, “So what exactly happened yesterday? You seemed to be at a disadvantage. And…” Lei Shan glanced down at his own chest. “I’m assuming that this also had to do with you?”

So he was curious. “I would have probably died yesterday if it weren’t for you,” Song Tian admitted. “Yang Yi’s spiritual skill can control people of a realm lower than his. It takes a while for it to take hold, though, so he has to either distract the target or do it without the target noticing. He can either directly control them or issue them commands. Directly controlling them is a bit harder, but commands can have different interpretations, so—”

“Wait. How do you know all of that?”

“He told me. Before you arrived.”

Lei Shan closed his eyes and slowly exhaled. “Of course he did. Evil Gloating. Perfect. Go on.”

Evil Gloating? Song Tian was starting to wonder if Lei Shan had hit his head when he crashed into that tree. That could explain the way he was acting. He'd have to ask him about that later. “When you arrived, Yang Yi had to split off some of his control to deal with you, so he couldn’t directly control me anymore and could only commanded me to kill you. I think he still had to dedicate most of his controlling power at me, though, which is why he didn’t command you to kill yourself. That was when I had an idea. My spiritual seed…” Song Tian trailed off.

Right. His spiritual seed. He hesitated. He hadn’t told anyone about it, but … Well, there shouldn’t be a problem in just revealing what it could do. And Lei Shan deserved to know this much. “I can heal people people with my spiritual skill, Heavenly Healing. So when I struck you, even though I did it with the intent to kill you, I also used Heavenly Healing on you. Thankfully, it worked. You felt some heat coming from your chest, right?"

“Yes.” Lei Shan grimaced. No doubt he was recalling it. Heavenly Healing was an amazing ability, but it could get rather ... uncomfortable depending on how much healing it did. He still remembered how he had felt like he was being boiled alive the first time he used. “Yes, I did.” He shook his head. “What happened next?”

Song Tian shrugged. “I think he ended up expending most of his power on making me kill you, because later on, he commanded me to kill myself, but I managed to overwhelm his command with my willpower—”

“Your willpower. Of course.” Lei Shan rolled his eyes. “Obviously there’s nothing willpower can’t solve.”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s nothing. Just … just ignore me. I’m acting a bit strange right now, I know.” He sighed. “Go on. You managed to break free from his control. How exactly did he end up impaled against that tree?”

“Right. About that…” Song Tian thought about how to say it, but he couldn’t think of a good way to put it. “I was pretty mad at the time, I guess, so I just ran up to him and drove my sword into his chest, and … you know how that turned out. After that, I tried to walk over to you to see how you were doing, but I guess I was too tired and ended up passing out. After that—”

Song Tian stilled. He had caught something with his spiritual sense—someone. He looked at Lei Shan, but before he could warn him, Duo Lan appeared from between the trees. Her eyes widened.

“You!” she cried out. “Where were you? I’ve been looking for you all morning!” Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Lei Shan quickly step to the left, blocking Yang Yi's from view.

Before Song Tian could react, Lei Shan reached into his robe and then threw something at her. Duo Lan caught it without even looking at it.

“A record crystal? What does this—”

“View it,” Lei Shan said plainly. “Then we’ll talk.”

She hesitated, glared at the two of them, and then closed her eyes. Not even a moment later, she started, glanced at the record crystal with a blank expression, and then looked at them. “Yang Yi…” She trailed off, glancing at the crystal again.

“…failed, obviously,” Lei Shan said while stepping to the side, revealing Yang Yi's corpse. “Now we can talk.”

As he watched Lei Shan calm Duo Lan down, a feat he doubted he’d have been able to accomplish this quickly, Song Tian found himself thinking that Lei Shan’s change in behavior was for the better after all.