I

Throughout his life, Tian Jin had been woken up in many different ways. From the gentle calls 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 care for it.

Groaning, he opened his eyes. 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.

“Hao Zhen?” 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—messy dark brown hair and an angular, pointy face. Hao Zhen.

And then he remembered—

Hao Zhen!

He sat up and stared at Hao Zhen’s chest. There wasn’t a tear on his robe, and the boy appeared fine. Tian Jin 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 could come up with.

His gaze moved past Hao Zhen and fell on Ke Li’s corpse. He couldn’t help but frown. He had met Ke Li a few times before, and he used to have a good impression of him. To think that it would come to this…

Du Qing would pay. He’d make sure of it, and it’d be happening sooner rather than later.

“Tian Jin?”

Tian Jin realized that Hao Zhen was looking at him. he reminded himself. Hao Zhen was involved in this now. He’d have to explain the situation to him first.

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

“No, no,” Hao Zhen said. “We can talk about that later. I need you to tell me something first. Duo Lan. Do you know whether she’s involved in what happened?”

Duo Lan? Tian Jin started. Right. She was their teammate for this mission. Now that he thought about it, he realized that he hadn’t seen her since they had each set off in a different direction yesterday. He quickly scanned the surroundings, looking for signs of her.

“No, she’s not here,” Hao Zhen said in a dry voice, making Tian Jin look at him again. “Anyway, do you know if she’s in on Ke Li’s plan?”

Tian Jin slightly furrowed his brow as he regarded the boy in front of him. Hao Zhen seemed different, somehow. Granted, he hadn’t interacted much with him, but Tian Jin remembered him being a quiet, awkward boy—traits that Hao Zhen had yet to show since Tian Jin had awoken.magic

“No,” Tian Jin said. “As far as I know, she has nothing to do with this.” Duo Lan hated him, this 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 been expecting an assassination attempt from Ke Li, either.

Hao Zhen slowly nodded his head, his expression slightly relaxing, but still somewhat tense. “So Ke Li didn’t mention her last night? And you didn’t see her, either?”

“That’s right.”

“All right.” Hao Zhen scratched his head, then reached into his robe and produced a jade slip before tossing it to Tian Jin. “I went through Ke Li’s spatial ring, and I found this. It contains Du Qing’s request to kill you.”Surprised, Tian Jin looked down at the jade slip in his hands, then channeled his spiritual power into it. Moments later, he confirmed Hao Zhen’s claim. Du Qing's instructions were clear. Tian Jin tightened his grip on it. If he showed this to the sect elders, Du Qing would—

“Just to be clear, you’re not thinking of showing this to the elders, are you?” Hao Zhen’s voice tore straight through his thoughts.

Confused, Tian Jin looked at the boy in front of him, who was giving him an impassive stare. If before he had simply thought that Hao Zhen seemed different, now he was certain of it. The Hao Zhen he had traveled with for the past few days wouldn’t have been able to muster a stare this intense. Tian Jin felt like he was being judged. It was an odd feeling, if not uncomfortable.

“You were, weren’t you? I should have known.” Hao Zhen shook his head and sighed. “Look, Du Qing is a prime disciple, and his reputation is nothing short of stellar. I doubt this will be nearly enough to get him in trouble, and even if it is, no outer or inner elder would be able to do anything to him. Only a prime elder would have enough authority to do anything about this, and in that case, it’d have to be a prime elder we trust. Do you happen to know any?”

Although he had been rather skeptical at first, Tian Jin found himself agreeing with Hao Zhen by the end of his explanation. He then considered Hao Zhen’s question for a moment before saying, “Elder Bao.”

Hao Zhen groaned. “Elder Bao, as in Elder Bao Shan, Du Qing’s master?”

Tian Jin gave him a nod, and Hao Zhen sighed. “Yeah, that’s not going to work. If his reputation isn’t fabricated and he doesn’t know what his disciple is up to, great. On the other hand, if he’s a conniving, two-faced snake like Du Qing, we’d just be offering ourselves up on a silver platter.”

Tian Jin frowned again. Although he found what Hao Zhen was saying reasonable, that was only because he hadn’t met Elder Bao before—unlike Tian Jin, who had met Elder Bao a couple of times already and had even grown to respect him. “I think Elder Bao can be trusted,” Tian Jin said, then paused, realizing he sounded more defensive than he had intended. Trying to be more reasonable, he added, “I believe he’s a very righteous person, even if a little eccentric.”

“Righteous…” Hao Zhen mused. He then once again fixed Tian Jin with a stare. “Out of curiosity, how familiar were you with Ke Li? Did you already know him from before the mission? When we met up in the square just outside the gate of the residential area, right before we set out, I got the impression you two already knew each other and that you were on good terms.”

Wondering where Hao Zhen was going with this, Tian Jin said, “We had met a few times. Why?”

“What was your impression of him?” Hao Zhen asked. “Before what happened last night, I mean.”

“That…” Tian Jin hesitated for a moment, then admitted, “I thought he was a dependable senior brother, I guess.”

Again Hao Zhen glared at him, judgmental, critical. In light of recent events, Tian Jin had been trying to accommodate his teammate’s odd behavior, but this was starting to grate on his nerves. The other boy was starting to border on condescending.

“During the mission, did you suspect Ke Li’s true intentions at any point, or did his betrayal come as a shock?” Hao Zhen eventually asked.

Again, Tian Jin hesitated for a moment before admitting, “I… I was surprised, yes.”

Grumbling something, Hao Zhen looked down, rubbing his forehead with his hands. He then shook his head and said, “Never mind that, then. I guess we’re back to step one. Anyway, hand me the jade slip. Let me keep it for now.”

Tian Jin glanced at the jade slip in his grasp. It was his only proof of Du Qing’s involvement in Ke Li’s assassination attempt, so he was hesitant to part with it. But then again, it was Hao Zhen who had found it and handed it to him in the first place, and as far as he could tell the two of them were on the same side.

Tian Jin tossed him the jade slip, and Hao Zhen pocketed it.

“All right,” Hao Zhen said. “What are your plans now? Do you intend to return to the sect?”

“Of course.” What kind of question was that?

“Even though you know Du Qing is trying to kill you?”

“Du Qing doesn’t scare me,” Tian Jin said, firmly. It offended him that Hao Zhen would even suggest otherwise. “It doesn’t matter that he’s a prime disciple. I’ll find some way to deal with him.”

“So he’s that type…” Hao Zhen muttered, and again Tian Jin detected condescension. He couldn’t help but wonder whether almost dying was behind Hao Zhen’s overnight change in behavior. “We’ll talk about that later,” Hao Zhen said. “I have to think about this some more. For now, we should get out of here and start looking for Duo Lan.”

It was unfortunate that he didn’t have Duo Lan’s sound-transmission imprint, or else they’d be able to get to the bottom of the situation much quicker. He doubted Hao Zhen had it, either, so he didn’t even bother asking.

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

He then walked over to Ke Li’s corpse and removed the sword sticking out of its chest, then watched dispassionately as the dead inner disciple slumped to the ground. For a moment, Tian Jin considered storing the sword away in his spatial ring, but after recalling Hao Zhen’s theory about Duo Lan, he dismissed the idea. There was a chance he would have to use it again soon, after all. Tian Jin didn’t believe Duo Lan was involved in Du Qing’s plot, but it was better to be safe than sorry.Turning around, he saw that Hao Zhen had walked up to him.

Hao Zhen glanced at the corpse, grimacing slightly, then at the sword. “So what exactly happened yesterday? You seemed to be at a disadvantage.”

So Hao Zhen was curious about last night. Tian Jin had thought he’d never ask. “I would have probably died yesterday if it weren’t for you,” Tian Jin admitted. “Ke Li was using a spiritual skill on me called Ethereal String Puppetry. It allowed him to control people as long as they’re at a lower level, I think. Using the skill, 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,” Hao Zhen cut in, giving him a confused look. “How do you know all of that?”

“Ke Li told me.” Tian Jin shrugged. “Before you arrived.”

Hao Zhen closed his eyes and slowly exhaled. “Of course he did. Evil gloating.” He shook his head. “ Go on.”

Tian Jin was beginning to wonder whether Hao Zhen 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.

“The spiritual beacon Ke Li set off—it contained poison. Ke Li set off the spiritual beacon when I was nearby, knowing I’d come over, then used his spiritual skill on me. He thought that even if I managed to put up any resistance, the agony caused by the poison would be enough to wear down my willpower. Then you arrived, and he stalled you until you consumed enough of the poison for it to start having an effect on you. Ke Li himself wasn’t affected because he had taken the antidote pill beforehand.”

“I’m assuming that Ke Li also told you this?”

“Right before you arrived, yes.”

Hao Zhen sighed, motioning for him to continue.

“Well, once the poison started working on you, Ke Li used his spiritual skill to command me to kill you. That was when I had an idea. My spiritual skill…” Tian Jin trailed off.

Right. His spiritual skill. Tian Jin hesitated. He hadn’t told anyone about it, but… Well, there shouldn’t be a problem in just revealing what it could do. And Hao Zhen deserved to know this much. “I have a spiritual skill called Zenith Nullification Gauntlets,” Tian Jin explained. “It lets me nullify anything magical in nature that it comes into contact with, though its first form only works on red-grade targets. Yesterday, while punching you, I nullified the spiritual power I had infused into the punch as well as the poison in your body.”

“I see,” Hao Zhen said, nodding his head as if he had already been expecting something like this. “And then? How did you beat Ke Li?”

“I was only in danger because he ambushed me before I could use Zenith Nullification Gauntlets. He then suppressed my ability to use my spiritual skill using his own spiritual skill, as he wasn’t sure what mine could do. When I pretended to kill you, however, Ke Li thought I was only activating it to deal you a finishing blow, so he allowed me to use it. After I punched you, I immediately used the Zenith Nullification Gauntlets to nullify the effects of Ke Li’s spiritual skill on me, picked up the sword I had dropped, and ran him through with it.”

“Hmm. It adds up,” Hao Zhen said, ponderous. “One last question: How did you manage to resist Ke Li for so long? Didn’t you say his spiritual skill could control cultivators a level below him? You’re a second-level, right?”

“I am,” Tian Jin said. It wasn’t as if that was a secret. “As for how I managed to resist… I think it had to do with my willpower. Mine was much stronger than his, so even though he was at a higher level, he couldn’t fully control me.”

“Your willpower. Of course.” Hao Zhen rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing willpower can’t solve.”

Tian Jin frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Hao Zhen blinked, a little startled, then looked away. “It’s nothing. Just… Just ignore me. I’m sorry. I’m acting a bit strange right now, I know.” He sighed. “Anyway. After killing Ke Li, what happened next?”

Huh. At least Hao Zhen seemed to recognize how odd he was acting right now. And he even seemed apologetic about it. Some of Tian Jin’s annoyance simmered down. “Not much. 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—”

Tian Jin stilled. Behind Hao Zhen, stepping onto the clearing, was a tall girl with a squarish face, dark eyes, and short brown hair. She was the last member of their team, Duo Lan, and upon seeing them, her eyes widened.

“You!” she cried out, and Hao Zhen immediately turned around. “Where were you?” she demanded. “I’ve been looking for you all morning!” Out of the corner of his eye, Tian Jin noticed Hao Zhen move to the left in an attempt to block Ke Li's corpse from view.

Then, just as Tian Jin was about to start explaining the situation, Hao Zhen threw something at Duo Lan, who caught it instinctively.

“A jade slip? What does this—”

“View it,” Hao Zhen said. “Then we’ll talk.”

Duo Lan hesitated, glaring at the two of them with palpable suspicion, then closed her eyes. A few moments later, her eyes snapped open. She first looked down at the jade slip with a blank expression, then shifted her gaze to them. “Ke Li…” She trailed off, glancing at the jade slip again.

“…failed, obviously,” Hao Zhen said. He stepped to the side, revealing Ke Li's corpse. “Now we can talk.”

Watching from the side as Hao Zhen promptly stopped Duo Lan from completely misunderstanding the situation, which could have had potentially disastrous consequences, Tian Jin found himself thinking that maybe Hao Zhen’s change in behavior might have been for the better after all.