"This Li Changshou—why must he split the party into three routes!"
Seated cross-legged upon a grey cloud amid the mist over the Chaotic Miasma Treasure Forest, Immortal Jiu Jiu slapped her knee in frustration, tempted to knock back a gulp of wine.
She had never expected so many disciples to come to the Northern Jambu Continent for this trial—and four of them were the sect's precious immortal seeds. Now these five had split into three. No wonder the pressure mounted.
Calves unafraid of tigers, knowing nothing of the way of the world! Yet had her own spirit been tamer as a small disciple?
Jiu Jiu squinted, a faint smile curling at her lips. She produced her wine gourd and drew out the cork—then, after a brief hesitation, stoppered it again. "Forget it. Twenty more days of patience."
Because of the miasma, even Jiu Jiu's True Immortal-realm immortal sense could not probe far, though this was only the outer fringe of the Northern Jambu Continent, where venomous beasts were weak and human cultivators or demon folk rarely came.
After a moment's thought, Jiu Jiu turned toward Yuwen Ling standing on the grey cloud behind her. She half meant to send him to trail Youqin Xuanya and Yuan Qing, but the words were barely on her lips when the memory rose unbidden—Li Changshou's whisper as she sent him flying with that kick: 'One of unknown source is always a little suspicious; do not trust him lightly.' Jiu Jiu had dismissed it then; that meaty hulk could be taken down in a single breath. Yet somehow, she truly hesitated.
'Still, these five are within my immortal sense. No need to rush.' Steering the cloud onward, she called back: "Big fellow, keep close to me."
"At ease, Most High Immortal," said Yuwen Ling with a cupped-fist salute, keeping three zhang back.
The five had chosen three different forks, and the farther they walked, the farther they drew apart. Jiu Jiu chose to trail Wang Qi and Liu Yan'er; she had more confidence in Yuan Qing and Youqin Xuanya. As for Li Changshou, she fretted but could hardly abandon the pairs to guard a lone wolf. She would trail all three on rotation, splitting her protection evenly.
The sect's immortals were only meant to deliver the disciples and let them temper themselves. Life and death were written in fate; danger made disciples grow fast, but with it came the risk of losing some.
Through her immortal sense, Jiu Jiu watched Youqin Xuanya and Yuan Qing hurry toward the pool where the Yanhuo Mingxin Grass grew, a fairly safe corner of the forest. They could not fly, but their pace was brisk; they exchanged no words, and the occasional venomous ambush they settled with ease. No wonder the Po Tian Peak disciples gave a body least worry.
Below, Jiu Jiu looked down on Wang Qi and Liu Yan'er, chatting as they walked, a hint of budding fondness between them. Poison beasts harried them constantly, yet they handled everything with composure. Nothing much happening—and yet it rankled.
Jiu Jiu's mouth twitched. She swept her immortal sense toward Li Changshou...
Gone! Had a venomous beast already torn him apart, or swallowed him whole! Jiu Jiu knit her brows and deepened the sweep.
No. Some means of blocking immortal sense was at work. She felt his aura off to the north, racing at near twice the speed of Youqin Xuanya and Yuan Qing!
'You idiot, charging into the depths of this forest with your transformation-stage ninth rank!'
Jiu Jiu shook out her threadbare robes and flicked her left hand, driving her cloud in swift pursuit. She would drag this fellow back and stuff him under Wang Qi's watch.
But a moment later she swept overhead and kept pace beside him, peering down for a long while. Her brow only creased deeper.
This one... He seemed to be using a concealment talisman to hide his aura, sparing him from fiercer beasts at a distance. Moreover, he did not risk flying; instead he employed that brilliant Soaring Dragon, Parting Clouds Step, raising trails of afterimages as he wringed the utmost from his transformation-stage ninth rank. No, wait—that medicine cauldron hanging at his waist...
Jiu Jiu sniffed the air and caught a strange odor, then a look of enlightenment crossed her face. Red-Sun Poison Dragon Saliva?! Born in the North Sea, the Red-Sun Poison Dragon had been so savage that the dragon clans swept it from the world. This saliva was not a rare treasure, though not cheap either. Who knew where Li Changshou had gotten a lump of it... With that at his side, ordinary venomous creatures would not dare draw near. No wonder he bounded ahead so recklessly.
"Fully prepared, isn't he," Jiu Jiu murmured. "There's a herb he's in real need of. What could he be after?"
"No need," she told Yuwen Ling, who had suggested asking him directly. "One who cultivates only under the sect's shelter becomes a useless immortal. Come, let's check on your Highness."
Yuwen Ling nodded at once, a touch eager—fitting for a loyal guard.
Only, as Jiu Jiu turned and flew off, a black beetle darted out from beside Yuwen Ling's leg and burrowed into the grey cloud underfoot. The motion was tiny, and it came exactly in the gap while Jiu Jiu was checking the other four disciples; her cultivation far exceeded his, yet she noticed nothing. Once the two had left, the beetle raced through the mist, clinging fast to Li Changshou's figure.
...
"What?" Li Changshou looked up at the sky. In his headlong rush he had caught a pair of eyes aloft seeming to watch him, but a careful probe turned up nothing. Uncle-Master? It should not be her. This gaze carried hostility.
By his rule of trusting the possibility rather than dismissing it, Li Changshou halted, pressed his hands into a swift seal, and murmured a chant. Fine ripples spread across the grey-black ground before him. He stepped into them, and his form sank quickly into the earth—the Earth Escape, a Five-Element Escape art.
A moment later, Li Changshou emerged from a patch of grass fifty li away. The gathered venomous insects and beasts scattered in all directions. The feeling of being shadowed was truly gone.
He took stock of the terrain and ran on, pressing two thousand-league stride talismans to his thigh—a common charm that boosted sprinting, meant for novice Qi-Refining cultivators.
Li Changshou had long since concluded that this party was bound to run into unexpected trouble. The Chaotic Miasma Treasure Forest was dangerous, but this was only the outer fringe of the outer fringe of the Northern Jambu Continent; a Return-to-Void cultivator with a little care could manage. It was the continent's notoriety that loomed so large.
But that Yuwen Ling who appeared so suddenly midway... that Yuan Qing who always seemed so kind... that Youqin Xuanya, cold on the surface but of no great cunning... a princess, a mortal court's authority... One thread wove itself into a pattern in his mind, and his certainty grew: something was bound to happen. Whoever schemed in the shadows assumed every calculation flawless, yet to have a mortal army guard show up along the road, rather than sending someone to the sect to stop Youqin Xuanya from leaving—that in itself did not hold water.
Well, none of it had anything to do with him. Had he any other way, he would never have come to such a perilous place; it flew against his creed of hiding in the mountains until he died old. But his master...
"By Taishang above, may no cause cling to me, and all evil flee my path!"
With a light cry, Li Changshou dashed on through the poison-thick black groves.
Yet before long, that subtle sensation of being watched returned. He revealed no more escape arts; instead he checked the implements in his storage treasure, while his spiritual sense scanned for a place to set an ambush. He was cautious, but no coward.
For a good long stretch he felt only those watching eyes; no ambush, no sneak attack. He kept his nerves taut for two whole days and nights, breaking out the Earth Escape several times, yet the feeling of being stalked never left him. By then he had gone deep into the forest, surely beyond the reach of Uncle-Master Jiu Jiu's immortal sense, and had not rested a single step—years of endurance training paying off.
And then, all at once... killing intent?
The spiritual sense he had spread out caught no threat whatsoever; whoever this was plainly had some means of slipping past it. Letting his gaze sweep toward its source—that dark grove on his left—Li Changshou kept sprinting. But his left fingertips drifted lightly, trailing web-fine transparent silk at his side, while his right hand raised a small breeze on the other flank.
A probe-trump: the Three-Headed Pupil Spider's silk.
Before long, a blurry image surfaced in Li Changshou's mind.