Chapter 109 – The Incident at Medicine Mountain

“Scatter shot, Well Formation!”

The Well Formation required four arrows fired in succession, forming a grid pattern on the target.

Yu Zhihuai nocked his arrows and fired in rapid sequence, but he was standing too far back after all, and one arrow missed the target entirely.

“What a shame.”

“Yu Zhihuai’s archery is quite good. If he hadn’t stepped back that extra foot, he certainly wouldn’t have been any worse than Yi Zhan.”

“Wait—what is she doing?”

Yu Zhihuai’s pupils contracted. He watched as Zhan Changfeng released all four arrows simultaneously, and in an instant they formed a perfect grid pattern on the target. His last shred of consolation was shattered to pieces, and he could no longer comfort himself with the excuse that he had been standing farther back.

Firing two arrows at once was already something very few could achieve, let alone four!

At this point, everyone could see plainly—in archery, he had lost.

But in reality, Zhan Changfeng ended up one point behind, because one of the judges felt her simultaneous four-arrow shot reeked of showmanship and competitive vanity.

When the archery ceremony concluded, Yu Sheng and Zhan Changfeng went up one after another to return their bows. Yu Sheng remarked, “What a pity.”

“What’s there to pity?”

Yu Sheng shook her head, a hint of curiosity in her voice. “Why did you fire them all at once?”

From what she knew of Zhan Changfeng, she was hardly the type driven by competitive spirit.

Zhan Changfeng saw no need to explain. “What, should I have saved him for the New Year?”

Her expression was the same as always—cool, sharp, and indifferent—yet Yu Sheng sensed a restrained, smoldering intensity about her. A flicker of surprise crossed Yu Sheng’s eyes before she broke into a smile.

“Being your opponent is a terrifying thing.” Yu Sheng glanced past the crowd at Yu Zhihuai’s face. He was clearly shrouded in gloom, still reeling from the blow of being outmatched by Zhan Changfeng.

She realized that what Zhan Changfeng had done was to utterly crush him, eliminating any possibility of him coming back to cause trouble or be an eyesore.

Zhan Changfeng did not miss the momentary softness in Yu Sheng’s expression. Something stirred faintly in her heart. “I think we are fated to cross paths.”

“Hm?”

Zhan Changfeng did not answer, instead saying, “The person worthy of being my opponent has yet to appear, but I look forward to their arrival.”

Yu Sheng asked, “Then what kind of opponent are you hoping for?”

Zhan Changfeng spoke candidly. “You have that potential.”

“Me?” Yu Sheng was surprised.

“Possibly, that’s all.”

Yu Sheng replied graciously, “Then I shall have to work hard, so as not to disappoint that ‘possibly’ of yours.”

Zhan Changfeng gave a noncommittal response. Then she suddenly fixed her gaze on Yu Sheng before lifting her head, her eyes sweeping across the entire equestrian archery grounds. Her gaze paused, and her brows furrowed slightly.

“What is it?” Yu Sheng noticed the change in her expression and couldn’t help asking.

Zhan Changfeng said gravely, “There’s something extremely important.”

Her tone was so serious that Yu Sheng’s heart tightened. She straightened up as well. “What?”

“My residence is being rebuilt. Tonight I’ll be out on the streets.”

“…” What an important matter indeed.

Yu Sheng was reluctant to give in easily. “There are inns.”

“I’ve used up all my spirit stones.”

“Your neighbors.”

“We’re not close.” Zhan Changfeng lowered her brows. “Forget it. I’ll just set up a tent by the roadside.”

“…I have a spare room.”

“Good.”

Without a moment’s hesitation.

“I’m heading out. I’ll be back tonight.” Zhan Changfeng made herself right at home.

Yu Sheng watched her departing figure, lost in thought. Recalling where Zhan Changfeng’s gaze had landed moments ago, she turned to look. A young man was chatting with the person beside him. Perhaps sensing her gaze, he looked up, flashed a smile, and started walking toward her.

Yu Sheng acted as though she hadn’t seen him and left without expression.

Xiao Shaobai’s steps faltered. In the end, he did not follow. He furrowed his brows. “The one who was just beside her—was that Yi Zhan?”

“That’s right. She’s the person we saw the night we encountered the wolf pack. Turns out she’s from Orchid Heart Pavilion. What a coincidence.”

A coincidence indeed. Xiao Shaobai’s lips curled into a vicious smirk.

The archery test was the only assessment of the morning, and it ended early. Zhan Changfeng had no interest in watching the competitions of the other three chambers, so after having her cultivation level tested, she left early.

Zhan Changfeng wanted to visit Medicine Mountain one more time. Since childhood, her spiritual intuition had been extraordinary, and she had a vague, inexplicable feeling that something deeply important to her lay there.

The moment she set foot on Medicine Mountain, a string in Zhan Changfeng’s mind drew taut. Nothing around her seemed out of the ordinary, yet she sensed a faint, elusive oppressiveness. Without delay, she headed straight toward the thin mist.

Zhan Changfeng stepped into the mist, and heaven and earth shifted. When she opened her eyes, all she saw was a barren stretch of land. Her heart lurched. She crouched down and prodded a stub of root in the ground. This area should have been covered in vegetation, but now it looked as if someone had harvested everything. The ground was riddled with pockmarked holes, broken roots, and torn leaves.

Sorrow hung over this expanse of land. A faint whimpering reached her ears. Zhan Changfeng’s brows locked together as she followed the only sound, searching carefully.

The whimpering was right beside her, yet when she looked left and right, there was no one. Zhan Changfeng tilted her head, then slowly crouched down. The sound was coming from the ground.

The barren land stretched bare with nothing to hide behind.

Zhan Changfeng stared at the ground beneath her feet—a few torn leaves, a few dug-out holes, and one withered orchid.

The orchid was in a terrible state of decay. Its leaves were curled and shriveled, its roots and stem yellowed, and it lay limp against the dark soil as though it had been dead for a long time.

But Zhan Changfeng knew it was weeping. The weeping of an orchid is the weeping of a noble spirit.

A noble spirit weeps only for the ruin of virtue and the collapse of justice.

Zhan Changfeng took out a small trowel and carefully dug up the orchid along with the surrounding soil. Then she gently broke apart the earth and, among the mass of desiccated roots, found a single rootlet that still clung to life. She dug up another handful of soil, wrapped it in cloth, snipped the living rootlet free, and buried it in the soil. She placed the bundle inside her small herb basket.

With that done, Zhan Changfeng continued to explore the area.

The place seemed infinitely vast—she walked for a long time without finding its end. Yet it also seemed impossibly small, for everything she saw was the same scene of devastation, giving the illusion that she was walking in circles.

A faint irritation began to stir in Zhan Changfeng. That oppressive feeling clung to her heart, impossible to shake, breeding a quiet melancholy.

As she walked farther and farther, at some indeterminate point, a thin fog began creeping in again. This fog was dark and murky, thick with foreboding.

The moment she touched this fog, she heard a thunderous, earth-shaking roar from within, accompanied by the sounds of a cataclysmic battle.

Zhan Changfeng’s instincts screamed danger. She spun around to retreat, but it was already too late. The fog had completely engulfed her, severing her connection to the previous landscape, as though she had been dragged into another world with no way out.

Zhan Changfeng searched and searched but could find no exit. The pouch that had been plump with Beacon Flame Lures had gone flat. She opened it and found nothing inside but a pile of ash.

Steeling herself, Zhan Changfeng headed toward the source of the battle sounds. With each step, the weight on her body grew heavier. Residual shockwaves rolled over her in waves, as if trying to crush her very bones.

Suddenly, a shadow came stumbling toward her. Zhan Changfeng had barely placed her hand on her sword when the figure—clearly still ten meters away—blinked across the distance and crashed right into her.

“Hssss—” A small child clutched his head and stumbled back several steps.

Zhan Changfeng also took a step back, her expression cold and sharp. Before her stood a child dressed in dark blue robes embroidered with arcane patterns. His two normal eyes were shut tight, while a third eye stood vertically on his forehead, ringed by dark, coiling markings—strange and enigmatic, utterly unlike any mortal being.

The child eyed her warily, one foot sliding behind the other, ready to bolt. Then suddenly, a flash of golden light flickered through his vertical eye. His expression shifted—shock melting into elation. “You’re the one.”

Zhan Changfeng betrayed nothing, but the child was already pulling a thin booklet from inside his robes and pressing it into her hands. He shoved her backward with both palms, crying out urgently, “Go! Don’t come back to this mountain!”

The force of those small hands and a drowning, suffocating sensation hit her one after another. It was as though she had passed through an invisible barrier, and in the blink of an eye, she found herself standing at the foot of Medicine Mountain.

Zhan Changfeng stared up at the mountain in shock. The thin mist was creeping down the slopes like the calm before a storm.

What on earth had happened in there?

Zhan Changfeng looked down at the booklet in her hands. It had the texture of something between gold and stone, cool to the touch, yet it gave off not a trace of any special aura—as unremarkable as any common object one might find anywhere.

She hadn’t yet had time to open it when the sound of many footsteps suddenly came from behind her.

(End of Chapter)