Blossoming Path

Gu Bei’s face went pale, his eyes darting around, desperately searching for a way out. “It was just… you know… a slip of the tongue,” he stammered, the words spilling out clumsily. “We’ve all been drinking, and sometimes you say things you don’t mean…”

I stepped closer, letting the threat hang between us. My eyes never left his. “Save it,” I said, my voice cold. “I already know what happened. And unless you’d like to spend the next fifteen minutes struggling to breathe, I suggest you start talking.”

I pulled out the vials from my sleeve, holding it up in the moonlight. The liquid inside was a sickly, pale yellow, catching the light with an eerie gleam.

“Do you feel it yet? The shaky breathing? The rapid beating of your heart?” I raised an eyebrow, watching as realization dawned on their faces. “In a few more minutes, that’ll be the least of your problems. Soon, the spasms will start. Your lungs will burn, nausea will take over, and then the vomiting… and the blood. It’ll be excruciating. A slow, painful death.”

One of them clutched his stomach, breathing heavily, while another stammered.

"You… poisoned us? When?"

A flash of panic crossed their faces. They looked at each other, half-believing, half-doubting. Watching them quake under my words, I felt a faint, bitter satisfaction. But it left a sour taste in my mouth.

But the memory of my garden; ruined, trampled underfoot, all for control, for someone else’s gain, reignited the anger within me.

Elder Ming's warning of the Jianghu was right; righteousness could only go so far. Sometimes, you had to fight fire with fire.

I pushed the thought aside, but it lingered, shadowing the edges of my satisfaction.

I saw the fear in their eyes; none of them were willing to test me. I gave the vial a little shake, letting the liquid inside slosh ominously. “And before you get any ideas,” I continued, “if you try to take this antidote from me, I’ll throw it on the ground. You’d be out of options, left to writhe here until morning. You have my word, as an alchemist.”

Their backs pressed against the greenhouse wall, and I could see them cornered, visibly shaken. Tianyi and Windy loomed behind them, each a silent threat in the darkness. Windy let out a low, venomous hiss, and I saw four of the disciples flinch, their eyes wide with a fear that ran deeper than I thought. Whatever it was, I could see the terror plain on their faces.

Gu Bei swallowed hard, his voice cracking as he spoke. “Fine. You win. What… what do you want to know?”

My fists clenched at my sides. I’d tried to keep my anger in check, but the sight of them, their deceit, their arrogance, it stirred something in me that refused to stay quiet.

“You think you can come here, threaten my village, attack my home, and I’ll just let it go?” My voice was calm, too calm, every word sharp enough to cut. “I want to know why you sent someone to destroy the greenhouse. I want to know what else you’re hiding, and why the hell you think you can invade this place and control it.”

Gu Bei’s face twisted in fear, his mask of bravado cracking as he stammered, “I… I don’t know why! We were just following orders. Senior Brother Wei Long told us to chase off Zhao Wen, our Senior Brother who was… pretending to be a bandit. Make sure he gets away. That’s all I know.”

My eyes narrowed. “And where is this Senior Brother of yours hiding now? What does he look like?”

The bald disciple hesitated, glancing desperately at the others for support. They only looked back at him with wide, fearful eyes, equally trapped. He turned back to me, his mouth twitching, clearly struggling with the weight of revealing too much.

I slowly lifted my hand, the vials clinking faintly, my gaze steady. “Last chance. You’re all running out of time.”

One of the other disciples couldn’t take it any longer, his face ashen. “He’s staying at the Green Peak Inn! East of here, by the mountain pass leading up to Narrow Stone Peak.” The words tumbled out of him in a rush, his voice breaking with desperation. "He has a scar on his upper lip, a-and bushy eyebrows! That's all we know!"

"...Tianyi?"

She glanced over to Windy, and the two shared a silent conversation as the serpent proceeded to stick his tongue out repeatedly, pointing his head off into the sky. Pointing to the east.

They weren't lying.

I nodded, letting the silence settle heavily before tossing the vials at their feet. They scrambled to snatch them up, frantically uncorking the antidotes and drinking the contents like men starving for air. The relief in their eyes was fleeting; within moments, their eyelids began to droop. Their bodies swayed, fighting against the 'antidote’s' sedative effect, before they finally slumped to the ground, unconscious in a scattered heap.

I took a long, controlled breath, taking in the scene before me. Zhao Wen. The final, missing link in this conspiracy.

With a final glance at the slumbering disciples, I turned to Tianyi.

"Help me put them on the cart."

One by one, I lugged each of the men onto the cart. She stared at them for a moment too long, as if inspecting them.

"These men..."

"No, they're not dead." I waved her off, guessing what she was about to ask. "Fed them a sleeping aid. They'll be out for the next day, minimum."

She shook her head. "No, I recognize them. They're the ones from the... city. The ones who hurt you. Now they're here."

Tianyi’s wings shimmered, and she cocked her head, her expression turning oddly detached.

“Should I kill them?”

Her question hung in the air, and for a moment, it was like a bucket of ice water thrown over my rage. Kill them? Even in the haze of anger, the word jarred me, sank into me in a way I didn’t want to admit. I’d come this far, but… had it really come to that?

“No,” I said, and even as the words left my mouth, the doubt gnawed at me. How far was I willing to go to protect my home? What lines was I willing to cross? I’d thought I knew, but each step down this path left me wondering who I’d be at the end. "It'll make things worse for us."

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She shrugged, unbothered. “Then… on the cart, as you said.”

Once we’d loaded the unconscious disciples, I made my way back to the Soaring Swallow with the cart in tow.

When Lan-Yin spotted me and the limp bodies of the disciples, she immediately walked over, arching an eyebrow.

“They had a bit too much to drink,” I explained with a casual shrug. “They’ll sleep it off here. Mind watching them until the morning?”

Her expression shifted from surprise to suspicion as her gaze swept over the men, and then back to me. “Kai Liu, tell me you didn’t slip something into their drinks. I swear, if you poisoned our alcohol supply without telling me, I’m banning you from my tea house for life. And how aren't you drunk? You drank half your bodyweight in alcohol keeping up with these oafs.”

I held up my hands. “Swallowed a couple of pills with arrowroot and ginkgo leaf extract before I started; nothing short of Master Qiang's rice wine in a barrel could get me drunk right now. And it’s not poison, Lan-Yin. Just a little lie. I told them they’d been poisoned, and they believed me. Desperation does the trick sometimes.”

The Five Fists didn't look like the smartest or bravest. Tricking them like this, especially when they were so drunk, was easy to do.

Her narrow-eyed look of suspicion cleared, but her frown didn’t fully disappear. “What are you planning? You've been silent this past week, and now this... Is it so hard to let us know when you're doing something? We can help you, you know.”

She’d never seen me like this. Truth be told, I’d never seen myself like this either. Normally, I kept everything in the open. But here I was, keeping my friends in the dark, working in the shadows. I tried to shrug it off with a smile for her, but I could feel the weight of it settling deeper.

I nodded apologetically, glancing down at the slumped disciples. “It's hard. When they're patrolling the village so often, monitoring me... That’s why I can’t waste any more time. I need to get things finalized before it's too late. But don't worry. I'm not acting alone.”

She paused, then leaned in, her voice hushed. “Where are you going?”

“East,” I replied simply, leaving her with a slight nod before slipping away. From my peripheral, I could see her grabbing one of the Five Fists and heaving them over her shoulder, bringing them into the Soaring Swallow.

I moved through the village’s quiet streets until I reached Elder Wen’s stable, where the horses rested with their heads low, puffs of warm breath misting the frigid air. With an apologetic mutter, I led one out, patting its side before mounting it. Tianyi settled herself on my shoulder, while Windy coiled around my arm, his tongue flicking the air in readiness.

With a quiet nudge, the horse surged forward, and we cut a silent path toward the east.

Hours passed under the cover of night, and I pushed the horse harder, determined to reach the Green Peak Inn before dawn. I kept my gaze sharp, my mind set on the plan unfolding ahead of me. The snowfall intensified, collecting on my shoulders and the horse’s mane as we pushed onward.

As the snow thickened around me, muffling the world in cold silence, my thoughts grew louder. Zhao Wen’s name lingered on my tongue like a bitter taste. Was this the right choice?

The frigid air bit through my cloak, each gust of wind carrying a chill that crept under my collar and settled deep into my bones. Tianyi huddled close to my neck, her wings pulled tight against the cold, while Windy coiled a little tighter around my arm, his scales warm against my skin.

The Green Peak Inn finally loomed ahead, a solitary silhouette nestled against the mountainside. It looked desolate in the pale dawn light, its wooden frame frosted over, the windows dark save for a faint glow leaking from within.

The inn was closed.

"So, how am I going about this?" I muttered to myself.

I couldn't just barge in, after all. I looked at my status.

HEAVENLY INTERFACE: KAI LIU

PERK(S):

Interface Manipulator - Allows manipulation of the Heavenly Interface and access to special features.

Dao Pioneer - Grants a unique status softens the rigid thresholds that usually constrain skill acquisition and evolution, allowing for more fluid and spontaneous development of skills and cultivation techniques.

Race: Human

Vitality: Sufficient

PRIMARY

Affinity - Wood

Cultivation Rank: Mortal Realm - Rank 5

QI: Qi Initiation Stage - Rank 5 (...)

MIND: Qi Initiation Stage - Rank 1 (...)

BODY: Mortal Realm - Rank 4 (...)

SKILLS

Spiritual Herbalism - 5 (...)

Nature's Attunement - 4 (...)

Accelerated Reading - 8 (...)

Cultivation Techniques:

Rooted Banyan Stance - 3 (...)

Crimson Lotus Purification - 1 (...)

Bamboo Reprisal Counter - 1 (...)

Memory Palace Technique - 1 (...)

Refinement Simulation Technique - 1 (...)

Currency:

Technique Token - 1

Based on the Five Fists and Tianyi's information, this Zhao Wen was a second-class disciple. Even after all my training, could I deal with someone of that caliber?

I shook my head. It wasn’t the time to get cold feet.

Dismounting, I guided Elder Wen’s horse to the side and gave it a grateful pat, letting it rest under the shelter of a nearby tree. I took out the Verdant Lotus sect's charm; the proof of my friendship with them. I'd carried it around as a good luck charm, but tonight...

I gathered myself, tying my hair back in a style that mimicked Feng Wu’s, neater and more disciplined, knowing that for this to work, I needed to look the part.

Taking a deep breath, I strode to the door and knocked, sharply and persistently, until the innkeeper finally answered. His face, flushed from sleep and irritated by the interruption, peered out into the cold, his frown deepening as he took me in.

“What is it you want at this hour?” he grumbled, rubbing at his eyes.

Adopting a more formal, serious tone, I spoke.

“I am... Lan Sheng, disciple of the Verdant Lotus Sect. These two are my companions, and our presence here is a matter of urgency.”

The innkeeper’s irritation faltered, but his expression changed to suspicion. “The Verdant Lotus sect?”

I held up my token from the Verdant Lotus Sect, the intricately etched lotus catching his attention immediately. The innkeeper’s hesitation flickered, but I saw the faintest nod of recognition in his eyes. He knew what it meant. Even if he doubted my claim, he wouldn’t risk opposing the authority of the Verdant Lotus Sect.

“Word has reached us that a dangerous criminal may be hiding in these mountains. He’s posing as a disciple of Narrow Stone Peak, which is likely why he has escaped your notice so far. I ask that you assist us in locating him before more harm is done.”

The innkeeper’s eyes flickered toward the shadows inside the building. His hand lingered on the doorframe. “I… I don’t know who you’re talking about,” he said, the tremor in his voice betraying him. "My inn wouldn't house any criminals. We're a reputable establishment."

“You’re lying,” I said softly, stepping closer. Tianyi’s wings rustled, her presence adding weight to my words. “If you protect him, you’ll be sharing in his crimes. Is that what you want?”

The innkeeper squinted, the skepticism still lingering, but he was visibly more unsettled. “... What exactly does this fellow look like?”

I nodded, as if expecting the question. “Bushy eyebrows and a scar on his upper lip. He may be visibly injured, walking with a limp.”

The innkeeper’s eyes widened briefly. Barely a flicker, but enough for me to catch. I pressed on, speaking with a slight edge of urgency. “This man is wanted for murder and robbery. His presence here puts everyone at risk. Please. Tell me what you know.”

His face paled, and he swallowed, eyes darting toward the shadows within the inn. His voice dropped to a whisper.

“There is… someone."

Zhao Wen lay sprawled on the thin mattress, his breaths shallow and uneven as he stared up at the ceiling. His ribs throbbed with a dull ache, each pulse a reminder of the brutal encounter he hadn’t been prepared for. The image of her eyes; cold, unblinking, and predatory, lingered in his mind, piercing through the haze of his pain. The woman had been unlike anything he’d ever faced.

His Senior Brother’s voice echoed in his mind, calm and unyielding as always:

'Lay low. Burn everything after you read it. Leave nothing for them to trace back to us.'

Zhao Wen scoffed bitterly, his lips curling into a grimace. Lay low. As if lying here, half-broken, could be called anything else.

He turned his head, eyes settling on the small brazier in the corner of the room. The faint embers glowed dimly beneath a layer of ash, barely warming the cold air around him. In those ashes lay the remnants of Wei Long’s last letter; burnt scraps scattered with meticulous care, just as instructed.

He muttered curses under his breath, the bitter taste of resentment rising unbidden. Wei Long always had the perfect plan, the perfect orders. But why did they always seem to leave Zhao Wen as the one doing the dirty work?

"Why hadn't Senior Brother informed me?"

The orders had been clear and brokered no room for negotiation. Zhao Wen was to wait here, stay hidden, and await further instruction. But waiting was agony. Every creak of the inn’s old wood set his nerves on edge.

Suddenly, a sound broke the silence. Soft footsteps up the stairs, drawing closer, echoing in the quiet of the night. Zhao Wen tensed, the hair on his arms prickling. The steps stopped right outside his door.

His pulse quickened. For a moment, he thought of remaining still, hoping they’d leave. But the silence stretched unbearably, each second pressing down on him until his nerves snapped.

The door exploded inward with a deafening crack, splinters flying in every direction. Zhao Wen’s eyes widened as his worst fears materialized in the doorway. Her. The woman with those piercing eyes, flanked by the serpent and a boy in maroon robes.

No words were spoken. They didn’t need to be.

Zhao Wen threw the blanket forward, a desperate attempt to shield himself as he moved. But before he could take another step, a sharp, tightening pressure coiled around his arm. Serpentine scales glinted in the faint light, wrapping around his wrist like a vice.

Pain blossomed in his side as a fist drove into his ribs, and Zhao Wen’s strangled cry filled the air before the world turned dark.