Chapter 14: Chapter 14: New Developments

CHAPTER

14

New Developments

I

“There’s something else I’d like to know,” Tian Jin said, looking over at Hao Zhen.

The two of them were on their way to Tian Jin’s residence. Previously, when Tian Jin had said that he lived a few doors down from Duo Lan, he had failed to clarify what exactly he considered a “few.” They had already been walking for a couple of minutes now, and their destination was nowhere in sight yet.

“It’s about Duo Lan, right?” Hao Zhen asked.

Tian Jin nodded his head. “Why exactly did you just accept what she said? She was clearly lying.”

“Oh, she was,” Hao Zhen said, shaking his head. “But that wasn’t the time to confront her about it. Moreover, as far as I can tell, she is on our side, regardless of her secrets.”

Tian Jin frowned. “What do you mean?”

Hao Zhen didn’t answer immediately, taking a moment to think of the best way to put his thoughts and impressions into words. “It’s just … I’m certain that despite her crankiness and arrogance, she means well—or, at the very least, she’s not a bad person. Just a while ago, when she gave me the sound-transmission token, that was her natural reaction, as far as I can tell. She saw that I needed help with something, knew that she could help me, and so she helped me, without even taking a moment to think how odd it was for her to not only have a spare sound-transmission token but to also give it away so easily.” Of course, there was another possibility. “Well, either that, or she’s a really good actress,” Hao Zhen added. “What do you think? You’ve known her for much longer.”

“I…” Tian Jin trailed off, thoughtful, before sighing. “I think you’re right. She can be really competitive, and she can’t stand losing, but I don’t believe she’s a bad person, either. Is that why you didn’t try to pry? Because you knew she wasn’t ill-intentioned?”

“Mostly,” Hao Zhen said. “But also because I wasn’t sure how she’d react if I pressed the issue and actually tried to get to the bottom of it. Duo Lan’s rather … mercurial, and she doesn’t seem like she thinks things through before doing them. I didn’t want to risk falling out with her, not when we have bigger problems at hand.”

Tian Jin didn’t appear fully convinced yet. “What about the fact that she seems to know Du Qing?”

“Oh, that would be very problematic,” Hao Zhen said, nodding, “if it weren’t for the fact that she seems to hate his guts. Now that I think about it, even back in the valley, when we revealed to her what happened between you and Ke Li and Du Qing’s involvement in all of this, and she got mad, I thought that it was because she had come to the same conclusion I did—that there was a chance that Du Qing could end up going after us too because we were also on the mission. Now, though, I believe she was angry because she was already on bad terms with Du Qing.” He still hadn’t managed to figure out yet what kind of relationship Duo Lan and Du Qing had, however. There was too much he didn’t know. “Have you heard any rumors about the two of them knowing each other?” he asked Tian Jin, hoping that he might be able to shed some light on the situation. “Or have either of them mentioned the other before to you?”

“Hmmm.” Tian Jin narrowed his eyes, his expression becoming one of concentration. Then he shook his head. “No. Nothing at all.”

Hao Zhen had figured as much. “Do you happen to know anything about her past, then? Her origins, or what kind of life she led before joining the sect?”

“Nothing, either.”

Hao Zhen sighed. Unsurprisingly, Duo Lan’s past was about as much of a mystery as Tian Jin’s had been. “Then I guess that there isn’t really any point in worrying about it right now. At the moment, our focus should be on dealing with Du Qing,” Hao Zhen said. “Of course, that doesn’t mean we should just ignore Duo Lan’s matter altogether,” he added. “We should keep our guards up around her, just in case, and keep an eye out for any more suspicious behavior. I just don’t think we should actively try to pry into her past, at least not right now, as we have more important priorities.”

“I think you’re right,” Tian Jin said, not thinking too long before agreeing. “Also, tomorrow, I’d like to spar with you a little.”

What? Hao Zhen turned to look at Tian Jin, confused. Then he noticed the worry on Tian Jin’s face and realized what this was about. “You want to see how good I am at defending myself, right?”

He could guess what Tian Jin was thinking—that he wasn’t strong enough to protect himself should Du Qing send someone after him while Tian Jin wasn’t around. And Tian Jin would be right: Hao Zhen had absolutely no confidence in his fighting abilities. He had never been in a single physical fight in either of his lives. He didn’t know the first thing about fighting, let alone any martial arts.

“Yes,” Tian Jin said, nodding his head, openly admitting it. “I also think you should start practicing using Ethereal String Puppetry as soon as possible until you’re able to use it effectively in combat. I’ll do my best to help you with it.”

This was something Hao Zhen had been planning on asking Tian Jin for help with anyway, so he readily accepted. He needed to become stronger—not just to deal with whatever Du Qing threw at them, but also to be able to stay by Tian Jin’s side later on. According to the trajectory of a cultivation novel protagonist, it was only a matter of time before Tian Jin left the Blazing Light Sect, and Hao Zhen needed to be strong enough to keep up with Tian Jin if he wanted to follow him. As a second-level redsoul that had already proved himself capable of killing third-level ones, Tian Jin was already far ahead of him in terms of power, and he needed to do his best to close that gap.

After walking for a little while more, Tian Jin pointed out his house in the distance. Hao Zhen could barely see it in the deepening darkness. At a glance, Tian Jin’s house was clearly smaller than Duo Lan’s, but it still appeared to be many times the size of his cottage. Like all the other houses in the area, it was enclosed by tall walls.

Once they got closer, they realized that there was someone standing beside the entrance, right in front of the gateway.

“That’s … Senior Sister Bao?” Tian Jin murmured.

Hao Zhen blinked. Senior Sister Bao—someone related to Elder Bao? And then he remembered. Before, when Tian Jin had been talking about his history with Du Qing, he had mentioned how Elder Bao’s daughter, a girl named Bao Yun, had been the one to prove his innocence when he was being accused of murdering another outer disciple. At the time, Hao Zhen hadn’t thought much about it, as his mind had been on other things, but now…

He thought about Du Qing, and how Du Qing and Bao Yun were fellow full apprentices, and another possibility occurred to him. Damn it. Chances were that the situation was even more complex than he had originally assumed.

Moments after they caught sight of the girl, the girl similarly noticed them. She then strode over toward them, her steps hurried, just short of running.

“Tian Jin!” she said as she approached, her voice tinged with worry. She came to a stop in front of them, and under the reddish glow of the setting sun, Hao Zhen got a good look at her. As it turned out, Bao Yun was easily the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, with long brown hair, and a small, heart-shaped face. She was of average height for a girl, standing just a couple of inches shorter than Hao Zhen, and she appeared to be in her late teens. The girl was looking intently at Tian Jin, and as far as Hao Zhen could tell, hadn’t so much as registered his presence.

“I heard what happened,” she said, looking Tian Jin over as if searching for any wounds. “The inner disciple leading your mission got eaten by a monster, right? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine, Senior Sister Bao,” Tian Jin assured her, giving her a comforting smile. “The inner disciple leading our mission, Ke Li, sacrificed himself to kill the monster.”

“Yes, I heard about that. But just to be certain, I thought I’d…” Bao Yun trailed off, her eyes falling on Hao Zhen. She blinked, surprised. He was right—she really hadn’t noticed him before. “You are…?”

“Hao Zhen,” Hao Zhen said. “Tian Jin’s friend.”

“Oh,” Bao Yun said. “Erm, I’m Bao Yun, Tian Jin’s…” She hesitated, as if unsure of what to say. “I’m his friend, too,” she finally said, a little shyly.

Crap. Hao Zhen had to stop himself from groaning. Now he was even more certain of his earlier assumption. Bao Yun clearly had feelings for Tian Jin, and most likely, Du Qing was infatuated with her—or at least wanted to make her his. As for Tian Jin ... as far as Hao Zhen could tell, the boy seemed completely oblivious to the girl’s feelings for him and was treating her as if she were any other friend. Fantastic. A love triangle. Just what he needed right now. In hindsight, considering all the clichés he had come across so far, he should have been expecting something like this.

Hao Zhen didn’t know for certain whether that was indeed the case, of course, but he was willing to bet on it. And he wasn’t the betting type.

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Tian Jin and Bao Yun kept talking some more as they resumed walking toward the house, Bao Yun mostly asking questions about the mission. The girl hung on Tian Jin’s every word. Hao Zhen walked in silence a few steps behind them, covertly observing them. The more he saw and heard, the more certain he became of his suspicious.

Once they were standing in front of the gateway, Tian Jin invited Bao Yun inside, and she hesitated a bit before accepting.

Tian Jin’s house, much like Duo Lan’s, was built around a courtyard. White jade lanterns hung from the walls, lighting up the area with their soft white light. Unlike Duo Lan’s courtyard, which was beautifully decorated, with a fountain at its center, Tian Jin’s courtyard was bare with the exception of a stone platform in the middle of it. A stage, as far as Hao Zhen could tell.

Tian Jin then led them across the courtyard, around the stage, and into the door directly opposite the entrance gateway, which led straight to what appeared to be the living room. Compared to the living room in Duo Lan’s house, Tian Jin’s was a little smaller, but the furniture was similar.

After motioning for Bao Yun to take a seat on one of the couches, Tian Jin pulled Hao Zhen to the side.

“Sorry about this. You can go ahead upstairs,” Tian Jin said, nodding toward the door right beside them. “The second floor only has rooms, and mine room is on the west wing, so you can just take any of the rooms on the east wing. I’ll head up after catching up with Senior Sister Bao.”

Hao Zhen glanced at Bao Yun, who had already sat down and was looking around curiously, before looking back at Tian Jin. He considered asking Tian Jin some questions about her and if there was anything going on between Du Qing and her, but ended up deciding against it. Now just wasn’t the time for that.

Hao Zhen then opened the door beside him, finding a small hallway with a staircase at the end, leading upward. Once upstairs, Hao Zhen saw that the entire second floor was in the form of a large corridor that spanned the entire building complex, with windows overlooking the courtyard. Hao Zhen then walked over to the east wing and opened the first door he saw.

The room on the other side was large, with a bed on the opposite wall, a large desk with a chair beside it, a large wooden wardrobe on the other side, and a meditation cushion in the center. The furniture looked as expensive as the one in the living room, with intricate carvings. On top of the bed was a large window, and from it, he could see Tian Jin’s backyard. The room alone was probably about as big as the whole interior of his cottage.

Closing the door, Hao Zhen made his way over to the chair and sat down. He let his body sag, and a sigh escaped his lips. He was exhausted—not physically, but emotionally. From their arrival at the sect, to the meeting with the Mission Hall elder, to the discussion in Duo Lan’s house, to the encounter with Du Jian, today had been a busy one.

If he could, he would just throw himself on the bed and sleep for a week straight. Unfortunately, he didn’t have that luxury. Not only did he not have a week to spare, but he also couldn’t even go to sleep right now, as Tian Jin would probably be going up to check on him after he was done with Bao Yun.

Deciding to do something productive in the meanwhile, Hao Zhen began taking Ke Li’s belongings—well, his belongings, but it still felt weird to think of the stuff inside it as his—out of his spatial ring, setting them down on the table in order to take a proper inventory.

Once he was done, on the table in front of him were four magical swords, seven flasks with pills, a tall stack of paper talismans, and a pile with over three dozen jade slips. Hao Zhen then went through the jade slips one by one—before, back when he was going through the jade slips in the clearing, he had simply been looking for one with Du Qing’s name on it, so he hadn’t really been paying attention to their contents—and saw that three of them were cultivation methods, among them the one he had tried to study before. The contents of the remaining jade slips were miscellaneous in nature, most of it stuff he wasn’t interested in, besides the jade slip with the map of the territory of the sect, the one they had used to find their way back, as well as a couple of jade slips containing pill formulas—sets of instructions for concocting a particular pill, including a list of the ingredients required.

Hao Zhen returned the useful jade slips to the spatial ring, leaving the remaining ones on the table.

He then went through the swords, picking up and holding each one for a few moments. Unfortunately, he didn’t know the first thing about swords or magical artifacts, so he couldn’t tell whether they were of good quality, though considering Ke Li had four of them, he reckoned they weren’t all that expensive. He returned the swords to the spatial ring before moving on to the pill flasks.

Once again, Hao Zhen found himself unable to draw any conclusions. He couldn’t recognize any of the pills, but that was a given, considering he had never had the opportunity to take any before. He didn’t dare to open any of them, either, as he didn’t want to risk some of them being poisonous or quickly losing their effects after coming into contact with the outside air or something.

After returning the flasks to the spatial ring, Hao Zhen picked up the stack of paper talismans and looked them over one by one, paying attention to the array of symbols on them, which he now knew were called formulas. Two of the paper talismans, he found, were identical to the one he kept in his pocket. The others he didn’t recognize.

Just as he was about to put the talismans away, a knocking sound came from the door.

Huh. That was fast.

Before Hao Zhen could say anything or stand up, Tian Jin opened the door. “Ah, so you were here after all,” he said, walking inside. “What were you—” His gaze fell on the table. “Going through Ke Li’s things?”

“Yeah,” Hao Zhen said, nodding. “These jade slips are the ones with nothing useful on them. I think I remember hearing that jade slips can be wiped, their contents erased. Do you know how?” He wasn’t about to throw away perfectly good jade slips if he could reuse them.

Tian Jin then showed him how to erase the contents of a jade slip and helped him return all of the jade slips on the table to a blank state, after which Hao Zhen stored them all inside the spatial ring.

“Everything all right with Bao Yun?” Hao Zhen asked once they were done.

“Hmmm? Yes,” Tian Jin said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

“She wasn’t curious about what I was doing here?”

“I don’t think so. Or at least she didn’t ask anything.” Tian Jin shrugged. “She didn’t stay for long, in any case. She had to leave in a hurry. Apparently, she’s preparing for some big event.”

Hao Zhen knew foreshadowing when he saw it. “Did she say anything about it?” he asked, leaning forward a little.

“Only that she’s not supposed to tell me, but that I’ll find out about it soon.”

As far as Hao Zhen could tell, based on both what Tian Jin had told him and what he had seen of the girl, Bao Yun was on Tian Jin’s side, so whatever this big event was, it probably wasn’t anything ominous. Something she had to prepare for … maybe some kind of tournament or competition? She couldn’t tell Tian Jin about it, though, and he’d supposedly find out soon, so there was a good chance it involved both the Outer Court and the Inner Court, considering Bao Yun was a prime disciple.

“Well, I guess we’ll be finding out soon, then,” Hao Zhen said.

“Yeah.” Tian Jin nodded his head. “Everything all right with the room?”

“It’s perfect.”

After giving him another nod, Tian Jin stood. “All right. I guess this is it for today. Tomorrow morning, we’ll go to your place and pick up your clothes. For now…” Tian Jin’s spatial ring flashed, and some sleepwear appeared on Hao Zhen’s new bed, folded. “You can wear this.”

Hao Zhen glanced at the bed. He’d probably look ridiculous in the much taller boy’s sleepwear, but it wasn’t as if he was planning on walking around the sect with it.

He then thanked Tian Jin once more for letting him stay, and after confirming that there wasn’t anything else that Hao Zhen needed, Tian Jin left, bidding him goodnight.

Tomorrow, Hao Zhen would see if Tian Jin could help him figure out what the pills and talismans were as well as whether the swords were any good. He’d also try to get to the bottom of what exactly was going on between Tian Jin, Bao Yun, and Du Qing in order to ascertain whether it was related to the feud between Tian Jin and Du Qing.

At the moment, however, there was only one thing on Hao Zhen’s mind, and that was sleeping. With nothing else he still needed to do today, he changed clothes and threw himself on the bed, falling asleep in an instant.

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