CHAPTER

45

Rings and Strangers

I

Night had fallen, and Hao Zhen found himself sitting underneath a tree, his back against the trunk. Tian Jin sat to his right and Lan Yue to his left. They hadn’t bothered setting up camp in a clearing this time. Instead, after the sun had set, they just agreed to call it a day, and plopped to the ground—in his and Tian Jin’s case, at least; Lan Yue was a bit more graceful about it—where they were, in the middle of the forest.

Silence hung in the air. They had sat down a few minutes ago, and nobody had said a word since. Tian Jin appeared deep in thought, and the same went for Lan Yue. Considering the conversations they were about to have, he didn’t blame them for hesitating.

Nevertheless, he reckoned that the silence had already outstayed its welcome.

“Tian Jin,” Hao Zhen said, and the other boy snapped out of his daze. Hao Zhen then gestured toward Lan Yue, who had been similarly pulled into the present by his words.

Getting the message, Tian Jin took a deep breath, then started telling Lan Yue about his past—about his clan, about its destruction, about his master. Although nothing about it was new to Hao Zhen, he still paid attention to the story in case he had missed anything before or Tian Jin added anything he had forgotten to include the previous time.  Lan Yue listened attentively, refraining from asking questions. Hao Zhen had already thought so before, but she was a surprisingly good listener.

Tian Jin soon finished his tale. It wasn’t a long one, to begin with, and since it was his second time telling it, Tian Jin appeared to have a much easier time going over what had happened in his past. His recounting done, Tian Jin looked expectantly at Lan Yue, who stared back at him, an indescribable look on her face.

“I see,” Lan Yue finally said. “Your clan…” She frowned. “No, your master…” Again she trailed off. She shook her head. Then her gaze fell on Tian Jin’s hand, which was resting on top of the boy’s lap. “That ring,” she suddenly said, with much more conviction than her previous two attempts at speaking. “Is that the one your master gave you?”

Tian Jin glanced down at his hand, then took it out of his lap, raising it up in the air to give Lan Yue a better look. The ring was just as Hao Zhen remembered—a slightly plain dark gray band. Judging by its appearance, Hao Zhen would guess it was made out of iron, though he doubted that was actually the case. “That’s the one, yes.”

“It looks… mundane,” Lan Yue said, a bit hesitantly. “There doesn’t seem to be anything spiritual about it,” she added, having most likely used Spiritual Sight. Hao Zhen agreed with both of her observations. He was absolutely certain that the ring was special in some way, but it looked about as mundane as it got.

“I’m aware,” Tian Jin said, moving his hand back to his lap. “I don’t really know what…” Suddenly, Tian Jin frowned, and he glanced back at his ring, his eye slightly wide. “Wait.”

“Tian Jin?” Hao Zhen asked, confused. He glanced at the ring. Nothing about it seemed to have changed, so why exactly—

“Before,” Tian Jin said, his gaze still on the ring, “when the inner elder arrived in the clearing after we killed Du Qing and his lackeys…” Tian Jin looked up. “I forgot to mention this before, what with everything going on, but I’m pretty sure the ring did something. Or that it was about to do something.”

Hao Zhen glanced back and forth between Tian Jin’s face and the ring. “What do you mean by that? What exactly happened?”

“The ring… it shook,” Tian Jin said, narrowing his eyes at the ring. “It also… burned, I think. Or it made me feel like my finger was burning. But not in an unpleasant way. It simply felt… hot.”

“And then?”

“That was it,” Tian Jin said, shaking his head. “Nothing else happened. Lan Yue used the Radiant Light Imprisonment Talisman on the elder, and I stopped paying attention to the ring. By the time we were on the magical cloud, flying away, the ring had returned to normal.”

“Hmmm.” Hao Zhen rested his head against the trunk, glancing up at the canopy of leaves and branches above. Stray rays of moonlight and starlight peeked through the gaps. Tian Jin had pretty much confirmed that there was more to his master’s ring than met the eye, but that was hardly a surprise. What exactly the ring was capable of wasn’t clear, either, though Hao Zhen had some ideas.

“Before, in the cave, I thought of how the Weave most likely intended for your encounter with the inner elder to play out,” Hao Zhen said, focusing on Tian Jin again. “Basically, I assumed what would have happened if Lan Yue and I hadn’t been with you. That was how I came to the conclusion that there was probably something in the cave we could use to handle the inner elder.”

“I see?” Tian Jin said, sounding a little confused.

“I’m getting there,” Hao Zhen said, raising his hand. “Back then, I assumed that since Lan Yue wouldn’t have been there to use the Radiant Light Imprisonment Talisman, you would have somehow managed to detain the elder using some other means. At the time, I wasn’t sure how exactly you’d be able to pull that off. Now, however… I’m pretty sure that, originally, you were supposed to use the ring to stop the inner elder from chasing after you. The ring acted up after the inner elder appeared but before Lan Yue used the Radiant Light Imprisonment Talisman, right? And afterward, once you were safe, the ring went back to normal.”

“That’s correct.”

“Well, most likely, if Lan Yue hadn’t been there to deal with the elder, the ring would have done something,” Hao Zhen said. “I’m not sure what exactly it is, but if I’m correct and you were indeed meant to face off the inner elder in the cave, then it’d have allowed you to incapacitate the inner elder—or at least stop him from moving—long enough for you to get on your magical cloud and fly away.”

Hao Zhen spoke slowly, putting his thoughts in order and organizing his ideas as the words came out of his mouth. “Since the ring reacted when you were in danger… it’s most likely sentient, in a way. Now, the question is whether it’s some kind of sentient artifact, or…” Hao Zhen trailed off, the rest of his sentence dying in his mouth.

The alternative was that the ring held someone else’s soul, and Hao Zhen could think of two possibilities. One was the soul of an extremely old, powerful cultivator. The other… was the soul of Tian Jin’s master.

He wasn’t quite sure whether he should tell Tian Jin that, however, because if he planted in the other boy’s head that his master might be alive inside his ring, and he turned out to be wrong… He didn’t want to take that chance. Tian Jin seemed to really care for his Master, and it’d be cruel of him to raise that hypothesis.

“… Or?” Tian Jin said.

“Or the soul of an extremely powerful cultivator,” Hao Zhen promptly said. “Maybe an ancestor of yours, if the ring is some kind of family heirloom.”

“My ancestor…” Tian Jin gave the ring a long, heavy look before shaking his head. “Well, whatever the case, it doesn’t appear to be doing anything right now.”

“Right,” Hao Zhen said. “Considering the circumstances the last time it activated—or rather, almost activated—then it’ll probably only act up again when you’re in danger.”

“That’s likely the case, yes,” Tian Jin said. He sighed. “Well, I believe I have covered everything.” He then turned to look at Lan Yue. Hao Zhen did the same.

“What?” Lan Yue said before realization dawned on her. “Oh. Right. It’s my turn now.” She furrowed her brow, falling silent. After a while, she nodded to herself. “All right. My mother… She was an elder of the sect. A prime elder. Her name was Sang Yu. Growing up, I…” Lan Yue paused, then said, “No. I should probably start before that.”

Again she fell silent. Hao Zhen didn’t say anything, letting her take her time. Tian Jin also refrained from speaking.

“All right,” Lan Yue said. “My mother joined the sect as a prime disciple. After taking the entrance examinations, one of the prime elders of the sect at the time offered to take her as his apprentice, and she accepted. My mother was… Well, beautiful. Really beautiful. The most beautiful woman in the sect.”

The way Lan Yue spoke about her mother’s beauty gave Hao Zhen the impression she didn’t think that was a good thing, and Hao Zhen was inclined to agree. He could definitely see how beauty could be considered a curse rather than a blessing in a world where might made right.

“Because of that, my mother didn’t really have any close friends. The other women envied her, and the men…” Lan Yue’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “There was an exception, however. Na Shui—the daughter of the sect leader at the time, Na Duo. My grandfather.”

Up to this point, Hao Zhen had had no trouble following this story. Now, however, he was very confused. And that most likely showed, because Lan Yue said, “Bear with me. It’ll make sense soon.”

She then continued her story, “My mother and Na Shui were close friends. Like sisters, really. And they ended up falling for the same man—Lan Xing, my father.” If Lan Yue’s expression was dark when speaking of her mother’s beauty, now it was outright hateful. “He courted the two of them, at the same time. I don’t know what they saw in him, but… they fell for him. And when he asked them to marry him, they accepted. Na Shui became the first wife, my mother the second.”

Lan Yue took a moment to recompose himself, letting the anger fade out of her face. She really didn’t seem to like her father, and Hao Zhen was fairly certain they were about to find out why. “Na Shui had a son a few years later after the marriage. My brother, Lan Yuan. Then, eight years after that, my mother had me. The next seven years were… fine. My father didn’t care much for me, but I had my mother and my brother, as well as Na Duo and Grandfather.”

Lan Yue suddenly tensed, and Hao Zhen noticed her hands balling into fists in her lap. “That day, I had been with my mother in my room when my father sent her a sound transmission, telling her that we had a guest. My mother brought me with her, and we met the guest.” Lan Yue was trembling now. “I don’t know who he is, or where he came from, but my father was treating him as if he were the Heavens themselves. Grandfather, Brother, and Na Shui were also there. Father… Father said that the man was someone important, and that he wanted to see my mother.”

Hao Zhen inhaled sharply, realizing where this was going. Oh no. Tian Jin, on the other hand, was simply looking at Lan Yue attentively. His expression hadn’t changed, so Hao Zhen guessed the other boy hadn’t realized it yet—not that he had been expecting him to, in any case.

“That man then approached my mother, and he… he simply stared at her for a few moments. And then he turned back to my father and said… that he wanted my mother. That he had been taken by her beauty, and that he wanted to bring her back with him to his sect. And my father…”

Lan Yue let out a chuckle—a terrible, broken sound.

“My father accepted. With a smile on his face.”