Chapter 118
A Gentle Song
Mei, Lya, Song, and Shen Tao waited a full three days before finally deciding to leave the mouth of the tunnel. By now, Yue figured, others must have moved on in search of treasures since there were only about seven more days left before the closing of the realm.
Though they hadn't come across any treasures themselves, at this point they seldom cared; if they wouldn't have gotten mad in the meantime, they would have likely been content spending the rest of the allotted time in the realm inside that tunnel, sprinting out into the world as soon as it was possible. They wanted to distance themselves as much as possible from this place—physically and otherwise.
It wasn't long before they came across signs of other battlefields—even if they were quite unlucky to have run into the Heavenly Jade Pavilion Disciples, that didn't mean others weren't just as unlucky, if not unluckier.
The small alcove against the rather shallow hillside housed seven corpses, and scorch marks abound. Most had died from a single stab wound to their heart, with a few others having died from wounds that weren't immediately visible. Judging by their robes, it was a mix of two Sects--whether they fought between themselves or against some third party, it was impossible to say.
Mei hated the sight but hated more whoever left them here.
One of the deeply rooted rules of being a Holy Blade Sect Disciple was the dead body retrieval—unless your life would be at risk, it was imperative that all Disciple bodies were taken back to the Sect where they would receive proper burial and rites. Even in cases where an entire band of Disciples died on a mission, Elders would be sent out to retrieve the bodies, and, according to some texts Mei read, even the Sect Master had ventured out a few times for that exact purpose.
And yet, seven bodies were left strewn in some nameless alcove, likely to be taken over by the local wildlife soon after the Disciples departed.
"This is horrible," Lya said what was in Mei's heart. "I don't recognize the crest."
"It's two Tier II Sects," Shen Tao said. "Not worthy of note."
"Yet, you noted them," Mei commented, arching her brows.
"I note everything," he said with a scoff. "Just because I do, doesn't mean that it's of note."
"Huh. Your brain must be fairly big to store all that noting."
"Khm," Song coughed awkwardly, prompting Mei to quickly look away. "Should, uh, should we take the bodies? Or bury them?"
"Why?" Shen Tao asked. "They are dead. Does it matter at this point?"
"We'll take them with us," Mei said, storing a few in her spatial ring as Lya and Song stored the rest. The trio all looked at Shen Tao who merely shrugged, not seeming interested enough to argue with them.
Mei smiled invisibly as they departed, moving southwest. At the same time, she was... uncertain. She vividly recalled their conversation in the dark, but... nothing had changed since then. Not that she expected anything to change—well, perhaps a thing or two--
She caught herself and stopped.
This, precisely, was the reason she avoided boys and men altogether. This almost compulsory obsessing over nothing. There were no promises made, neither by him nor her, just some fleeting words spoken within heightened emotions. And yet, she couldn't help but steal glances at him, wondering. A distraction, destructive and pointless. So, she forced herself to ignore it, him and everything, and focus on the task at hand: figuring out what to do next.
They crossed the open plains and happened upon the nearby mountainous region. Jagged peaks streaked out through the clouds; protruding cliffs made it seem like teeth decorated the mountain sides. Brown-red dirt was the most dominant color, with occasional flashes of green barely visible, with even the solitary river streaming through appearing faintly scarlet in hue.
"Blood Mountains," Mei said. "Alright. We'll camp here for half a day and see the situation. If there aren't too many groups, we can go inside to check it out. I've heard that rare herbs can occasionally be found on the peaks."
"We'll set up the camp," Lya quickly said, dragging Song away. "Can you two secure the area?"
"...sure," both replied with a tingling sense of awkwardness.
As the two youngsters disappeared into the small cluster of trees, silence befell the remaining two. Mei glanced to the side, and he seemed to have glanced back at the same time, and the two immediately looked away. Gritting her teeth, she buried it all, once again, taking a deep breath.
"Let's go," she said.
"Yeah." The two moved counterclockwise, subduing Qi until they were all but invisible to Divine Sense, and peeking into any nooks and crannies that could be hiding someone or something.
"Alright, we're done with this side," Mei proclaimed and started moving southward, quickly noticing that he wasn't following her. "What's wrong?"
"Somebody's watching us," he said, his gaze dark and insidious. Mei frowned, growing alert; only someone vastly more powerful than them could have seen them through Divine Sense—and there should be no one vastly more powerful than them. That meant that somebody was already here and hiding so well that neither of the two noticed them until now.
"Are you sure?" she asked, not feeling anything.
"Not from nearby," Shen Tao shook his head. "It's... it's probably the Pavilion."
"..." Mei's heart sank. "A-are you... sure?" she asked, trying her best to hide the fear in her voice... but failing spectacularly.
"No, not really," he said. "It's just... a feeling. I've felt something familiar before."
"When?"
"When I was young. Anyway, I can't be completely sure, but... it's possible."
"How are they even doing it? Isn't it impossible to peek inside the hidden realm from the outside?" Mei asked, astounded.
"There's always a way," Shen Tao shrugged. "If they are doing it, then whoever we killed..."
"... was extremely important. Crap."
"Oh well," he stretched lazily and spun around, beginning to walk rather nonchalantly. "Let's secure the rest."
"--Hey, wait, what are you doing?!"
"Huh? What? I'm securing the area."
"Oh, wow, you don't say! How beautiful of you—didn't you just say that we've been found out?! Why aren't you, I don't know, reacting to it?!" This was a strange dynamic that developed a bit between them, where they would occasionally flip-flop on who was the one being rather indifferent versus who was being... well, the way she was being at the moment.
"Even if they can see us, they can't do anything to us. Not unless they fess out everything they owned, their ancestors owned, and probably even more than that, to hire an actual Immortal to tear open a rift in spacetime," Shen Tao explained. "So, for now, we're safe. And even if they departed at this very moment, using every which way to reach the Holy Blade Sect as fast as possible, it would still take them at least three months. By then, we will have been out for a long time, and we can just leave it to the Elders to figure out what to do. They'll most likely hand me in and bargain for yours, Lya's, and Song's life in some way. You know, push that it was me who did the actual killings, and you were just too scared of me to say anything."
"... Do you really think our Elders would do that?" Mei asked, feeling rather dispirited suddenly.
"Ah, don't get me wrong, I don't blame them," he said. "Or even feel any anger toward them. It makes sense. They don't know who I am—to them, I'm just a random kid they picked up from the street not a month ago. And though I may be a bit of a talent in their eyes, I'm still worth nothing compared to the three of you. So, they will sacrifice me to try and appease the Pavilion. If the roles were reversed and you ended up in Bloodmoon Sect under the same circumstances, the same thing would happen. It's just the nature of everything."
"..." It was subtle, but Mei heard it. She bit her lips and looked at him with a flare of anger in her gaze. "As soon as we're out, you're leaving."
"..." He flinched but didn't seem to dare look at her.
"Really? Just like that?"
"I..."
"You? You what? Fine, just go!" she exclaimed. "You already learned everything that you wanted to by coming to us, so there is no point in staying any longer."
"That's not what I meant!"
"No? Then what did you mean?"
"Do you want me to stay and die?!" He, too, became angry, the red in his eyes flaring.
"Who said anything about you dying?!"
"There is no other option, Mei! Just this one! If you weren't stupid, you would see it!"
"Oh, so I'm stupid?"
"That's not--"
"--I understand that you and I had extremely different lives, Tao," she interrupted. "And I understand that the way you lived in your Sect is so alien to me it doesn't even feel real. But I promise you, from the bottom of my heart, that the Sect will not hand you over. Forget that you're a Disciple; even if you were any one random cleaner in the Sect, they would not hand you over."
"You don't know that."
"I do. Everyone in the Sect knows that," she, for some strange reason, laughed—laughed at the absurdity of everything. "Because that is what we do—we take care of each other. We're not strangers just competing, always pitted against one another in an endless race that only ends when one is crowned and the rest are dead. They will never hand you over, I swear upon my Soul."
"Mei!"
"And if they even entertain it," she added. "I will ask my Master to step in. So, please, cease with your hollow stupidity, shut up, and come back home with us."
"... you're asking me to trust my life on your word that the people I don't know will try and protect me from the Heavenly Jade Pavilion. I cannot trust them with my life, Mei."
"Then trust me," she boldly proclaimed, walking over toward him. "I promise you," she stopped in front of him and grabbed his hand, squeezing it. "I will never let them even mention your name, let alone hand you over."
**
Her eyes were watery, Shen Tao noted. Looking up at him, he couldn't help but feel his heart thaw, and all his convictions begin to vanish. He'd planned on leaving as soon as he saw the Pavilion Disciples—once a Sect tangled with them, it would never end well, not even for other Tier IV Sects. In that scenario, it was better to become a vagrant and roam the world in search of opportunities rather than stake his life on hollow Sect unity.
Yet, he wavered. Just her words alone were enough to make him waver. Well, it wasn't just the words—it was the squeeze of her hands, the faintly trembling lips, the devilishly bewitching eyes that seemed to hold the magic of the world itself within them, and an abundance of other things coalescing into the spear that shattered his determination.
Was it worth it? Risking his life to stay? He didn't care about the Sect in the slightest—if it burned down to the ground tomorrow, he wouldn't flinch. There was less than love there. But, for reasons well beyond his understanding, he cared for her. Though he always thought she was beautiful (and told a slight white lie that it was his Father's idea to send the marriage proposal), this had nothing to do with her beauty.
She was always radiant—but now her radiance was effulgent.
The silver streaks of hair framed her face perfectly, golden eyes locking his into a gaze that he could not escape.
"...fine," he squeezed through his teeth. "I... I'll trust you."
"... good," her serious face suddenly shifted into the brightest smile that Shen Tao had ever seen in his life. For a moment, he was blinded—blinded by beauty, by joy, by sheer desire to fossilize that smile so that he could look at it every single day. "Let's finish our work. I'm getting hungry." She tried to pull away, but he held her, dragging her back. She looked at him quizzically, and without knowing himself why he was doing it, he pulled her further in, his hand reaching out and gently caressing her cheek. She flinched but didn't pull away, the look of confusion vanishing as a streak of red appeared on her cheeks. He leaned in, and rather than waiting, she leaned in, too, meeting him halfway.
It was Shen Tao's first kiss—awkward, tender, sincere, beautiful. A raw stream of emotion burned through both of them at that moment, tearing open a hole in the world and isolating them from the rest. It was both the surge and the lullaby for his heart, and he found himself at opposite extremes simultaneously, feeling more terrified than when he stared death directly in its eyes.