Terraced cliffs draped in lush greenery loomed silent under the night sky.Only the crash of waves broke the stillness, driftwood tossing on the dark tide.
"You should head back to the inn and tell the keeper the coast feels dangerous. Say I sent you first," Gu Baizhou said.He had planned to bring the boy here only to meet Chongyun. But now… it felt unsafe.
"Need me to walk you back?"
"I can go myself!" Zhang Richu blurted, exactly as Gu expected.
"Good."Gu vaulted the broken gap in the bridge and landed on the far planks, their old boards squealing.
A dust-coated paper lantern swayed from a thin post at the bridge's end—long unlit.
Abandoned for ages… he thought as he pressed on, night air growing cooler, shapes blurring in the dark.Through an arch of twin peaks he glimpsed Yaoguang Shoal: endless sand, but no full view.
To see more he climbed higher along a muddy slope.The path was eerily quiet, flanked by ruined carts and collapsed Hilichurl watchtowers.A lone wooden sign marked the hilltop:
Mingyun Village"Notice: Mining concluded. Village abandoned."
Gu nodded and kept upward until the valley opened wide. Snow-tipped peaks glimmered against a star-strewn sky. A narrow trail led past a clear pond toward the ridgeline.
Creak—creak…Rotting catwalks on the mountainside groaned.
"…Where would he hide? Too many mines to search," a voice drifted down.
Gu froze.
"Don't bother," a deeper male voice replied. "The final rite begins soon. When the great tide rises, mankind can do nothing."
"But what if—"
"When the moon ascends, His mighty form will awaken and shatter unjust bonds. No one can stop it."
"Perhaps I worried needlessly," the first voice said at last.
The man laughed harshly. "Come. We'll stand before the tyrant's statue atop the mountain and watch the raging sea."
More creaks. Then silence.
A ritual… to rouse a sea god? Gu's mind raced. Those violent ocean creatures must be the by-product.
Report to the inn, or charge ahead?He clenched empty hands, feeling under-armed. The moon already rode high.
Still time? Maybe. But where was the ritual—on Yaoguang Shoal or the mountain peak?Without power, interrogation was impossible. Should've leveled my physique to ten before leaving the hills, he chided himself.
Find Chongyun first, he decided.
Scanning with element-sensitive sight, he spotted bright green traces inside a cave by the pond.
Grass element? Is Chongyun a Dendro wielder? Gu slipped carefully along the water's edge.
A thorny vine-wall guarded the entrance, faint white crystals lighting the darkness.Inside waited a Dendro Hilichurl shaman and two Hilichurls.
"Olah!" it greeted.
"Olah," Gu replied. "Have you seen a white-clad human?"
"Yes," the shaman said, single eye wide. "One greeted him in front, another shot from behind."
"Which way?"
"Upward. Days ago black-robed bad men came. Hilichurls have no home now."
"I'll drive them out if I can." Gu promised and sprinted uphill.
+1 Anti-Detection EXP+1 Stealth EXP+1 Advanced Vision EXP
The notifications flickered through his mind as he reached a dark mine. A chill, pure and white, seeped from within—an icy presence.
He stepped inside. Footfalls echoed; the cold aura vanished into utter silence.
"Wangshu Inn's keeper Huai'an asked me to find you," Gu called, voice steady.
No answer—only his echo.
"You know Zhang Richu?"
A soft voice cut the dark: "Son of the Rongsheng shopkeeper?"
A youth emerged—blue-and-white hair curling at his brow, not tall, dressed strikingly in a short white coat over a loose white-and-blue lantern-style jumpsuit.
Chongyun.