All the masters, their wanderer “friend,” and the three juniors from Mount Guangfeng checked into an inn nearby to plan for their next course of action.
Within the four walls of the inn, tension began to build up as uncertainty rose.
“Let’s discuss what we have so far,” Shi Ruyi said. “Who was this ghost that’s been terrorizing Xiatong?”
“Shi-Shixiong, I don’t care, we must look for Mei Xie and Li Touliang immediately.” Wu Fulin interrupted, his hands clasped together anxiously. The possibility of them running into the ghost haunted him every second he spent idling, as he worried for his disciples greatly. Perhaps he was to blame for carelessly leaving Li Touliang alone after all.
“Wu-Shidi, we aren’t even sure if they’ve run into the ghost yet. Besides, we must know our enemy before we strike,” Ba Qing commented, her arms crossed as she leaned against the doorframe.
“That ghost… she– ah, no, he was the general of Xiatong a decade ago.” Qi Wenxin suddenly inputted, turning all the attention to himself. Though the sudden change of pronouns did surprise Baqing and Shi Ruyi to an extent. “He wanted to bring back his dead wife.”
“How does killing youths of Xiatong help with that?” Shi Ruyi asked. “Do you know the name of this general?”
“The enemies of Xiatong once whispered the name of a Mulan General, Xiangmu-Jun, around the time when Xiatong was nothing but a place for soldiers to rest” Qi Wenxin answered. “As for why he wanted to kill youths, I am not so sure. He recently kidnapped a boy that I knew so I followed him all the way here.
“He seemed to have made himself comfortable in Xiatong, I even assisted that… sect that your Heavenly Mountain sent. But they did nothing, only hindering my progress further.” Qi Wenxin continued, his tone slowly drifting into distaste toward cultivators.
“What about the bounty money? If you are here for revenge?” Wu Fulin blurted out, forgetting that Qi Wenxin had only mentioned the prize to Fuhou but not to the other masters.
“For the future,” Qi Wenxin simply said, not afraid of making his motives clear. “ I wouldn't care if Xiangmu-Jun eats you all up if you hinder my work as well,”
Such harsh words made Shi Ruyi and Ba Qing look at Wu Fulin weirdly as if to question how he had befriended such a strange man who seemed to not know his place. However, both couldn’t underestimate the ghost or the wanderer themselves, because the Grandmaster wouldn’t call the best three Mountains to descend for some joke of a ghost, nor send a letter that thanked the wanderer.
“Whoever this ghost may be,” Shi Ruyi said. “We’ll see how strong he is.”
“Shi-shixiong, have you run into the master of Mount Zhengcheng by any chance?" Ba Qing asked Shi Ruyi during their preparation.
“About that, I have not,” Shi Ruyi shook his head. “But there is something we can try.”
“Spiritual Link Formation?” Ba Qing guessed, seeing how Shi Ruyi had sat on the inn’s bed in a meditative pose.
“Yes.” Shi Ruyi said.
The moment he started to channel his spiritual energy into the formation, his heart, and mind began to ache.
Shi Ruyi continued through the pain that was poking everywhere, it especially wanted to disturb his mind and cause a reversal in the formation. Though Shi Ruyi’s cultivation is far too advanced for such a trick to work easily on him.
He was able to hear murmurs, but before he could identify what was said, another wave of Dark Qi somehow merged into his Spiritual Link Formation, causing him to spit out blood as his body rejected the sudden malicious energy.
Ba Qing rushed over to help Shi Ruyi, though she was just as shocked as he was.
“We must take off now. I know where they went,” Shi Ruyi said in between his deep breaths, his voice became clear in an instant, immediately extinguish the little Dark Qi that was causing a little havoc in his system. “It's too late now, but it felt forced somehow. Whatever they were planning on doing.”
Some time had passed since their planning. Wu Fulin was forced to stay behind with his remaining disciples, and the masters and the wanderer planned to go on the lookout for the missing Li Touliang and Mei Xie.
Wu Fulin was extremely reluctant and hard to work with.
“I don’t care if I’m going to fight that Ghost General myself,” Wu Fulin said between his gritted teeth, his eyes becoming more moist as he held his anger in. “It was my fault that I lost my disciples, I must find them.”
Qi Wenxin turned around, he had planned to leave earlier but with how hard Wu Fulin was putting up a fight, he couldn’t turn a blind eye to it. Ba Qing and Shi Ruyi had expressed immense concern for Wu Fulin’s poor state in his cultivation, for what reason was still unknown to the wanderer.
“I understand your eagerness to see your disciples again,” Qi Wenxin said, his strong hands gripping onto Wu Fulin’s shoulders. His physique hid Wu Fulin’s moist eyes away from the other masters, saving him some dignity. “I know the way, I will bring them back to you. We need someone to stay here for now.”
This position seemed to remind Wu Fulin of their interactions in Fuhou, almost the exact mirror of it.
“Thank you, for helping me,” The wanderer whispered.
“What?” Wu Fulin looked up, his gaze met the wanderer’s inky ones.
“Nothing.” Qi Wenxin looked away, then left with Ba Qing and Shi Ruyi.
On the other side…
Mei Xie and Li Touliang suddenly woke up in a dark shed. Bound to the pole, both couldn’t move their arms.
Li Touliang’s view was hazy when he woke up from his short nightmarish nap, but he could recognize some of the other youths in the same shed.
Mount Zhengcheng’s disciples, their pitch-black robes with cobalt blue ribbons couldn’t be mistaken.
“Mei Xie…” Li Touliang whispered with great difficulty, already having a hard time breathing with how tight the ropes around him were. And with each inhale, the rope would tightened even more, hurting not only him but also Mei Xie, who was tied at the other side of the pole.
“Ow ow… I know, Li-Shixiong… the rookies of Zhengcheng are here,” Mei Xie squeaked, trying her best to force the words to come out of her throat.
“Before we got here, you smelled a sweet scent, right?” Li Touliang asked, his nose picking up the same sweet smell but it was rather faint this time.
But then…
Silence.
The room fell into complete silence as Li Touliang drifted to sleep again.
Mei Xie also fell into a deep slumber before she was able to say anything.
One thing they both thought of was their Shizun, as this was the same technique he once used to heal.
Slumber At Ease. A sweet scent using spiritual energy that spews out like fresh dew, forcing anyone to fall asleep. Although one downside to it was that it heals whoever that inhaled the scent, whilst draining the other’s spiritual energy drastically.
Only this time, somehow, they felt a sharp poking sensation in their guts before falling into sweet dreams of their own.
At this moment, the two masters and the renowned wanderer had arrived at the Ghostly Realm, hoping they weren't too late.
"Such cheap tricks, they really thought some Conceal Amulets would trick me." With a wave of his hand, Shi Ruyi forced the looping Ghostly Realm to reveal itself before the Wanderer and Baqing. The Realm's atmosphere from within was so oppressively foul that the outer semi-sphere form of it was nearly opaque. This happening during the nighttime didn't really help at all, with the masters knowing that the environment was completely in the Ghost General's favor.
To be fair, nobody has a piece of better knowledge of Ghostly techniques than Shi Ruyi, as he did study near the Abyss at some point. But the Wanderer, unlike Ba Qing, was rather unfazed.
