The mercenary looked back.
Chen Ba was gaining.
Confusion replaced confidence.
The boy should have been slowing.
Instead—
Crack!
Closer.
The mercenary vaulted a fallen trunk and disappeared around a bend.
Chen Ba followed.
Empty trail.
He stopped.
Listened.
Leaves.
Wind.
His own breath.
Tuk.
Something struck his neck.
Chen Ba jerked aside.
One black needle fell past him.
Another had already pierced the skin.
He pulled it free.
Green liquid coated the tip.
Poison.
Ahead, hidden behind a tree, the mercenary smiled.
"Got you."
Then ran.
Numbness spread from Chen Ba's neck toward his shoulder.
He circulated Qi instinctively.
The numbness accelerated.
Wrong.
Chen Ba stopped forcing Qi through the area.
The mercenary's footsteps receded.
The cold sensation continued.
Then slowed.
A strange warmth spread beneath the puncture.
The numbness faded.
Not entirely.
But enough that his arm still moved normally.
Breathing normal.
Vision clear.
Chen Ba frowned.
No time.
The blueprint was escaping.
He dropped the needle and ran.
The mercenary heard thunder again.
His head snapped around.
Impossible.
Another crack.
Closer.
He knew that poison.
Numbroot.
Made specifically to cripple cultivators once Qi circulation carried it through the body.
A low-level cultivator should already be losing control of an arm.
Instead—
Crack!
Chen Ba appeared ahead of him.
The mercenary skidded to a halt.
"How?"
Chen Ba raised the Black Pole.
"Give me the blueprint."
"You were hit."
"Blueprint."
The man reached behind his back.
Then threw the leather tube over the side of the slope.
Chen Ba moved toward it.
A knife flashed.
The blade cut across his side.
Pain.
Blood.
The mercenary reached for another poisoned needle.
The Black Pole struck first.
Bang!
Wrist.
Second strike.
Shoulder.
The man staggered.
Chen Ba stopped the third blow inches from his head.
"Don't."
The mercenary froze.
Chen Ba knocked out his footing and bound his wrists and ankles with the man's own belt.
No killing.
Then he climbed down the slope.
The leather tube had caught between two exposed roots.
Inside—
rolled parchment.
Dense formation lines.
Seals.
Annotations.
The blueprint.
Found.
Chen Ba secured it beneath his robe.
His side still hurt.
But the bleeding had already slowed.
Too quickly.
The mercenary was staring when he climbed back up.
"That poison should have put you down."
Chen Ba said nothing.
"You were definitely hit."
Still nothing.
Chen Ba turned away.
He did not understand it himself.
The poison had not vanished.
A faint heaviness remained beneath the skin.
But whatever should have happened—
had not.
For now, that was enough.
The journey back took longer without the chase driving him.
Chen Ba had gone far.
Too far.
The sun was already descending.
He should have been on his way back to the Chen Clan by now.
Instead, he was retracing broken branches and footprints through unfamiliar woodland.
Eventually he reached the place where he had left Chen Miao.
Empty.
Blood remained on the ground.
A discarded bandage.
No Miao.
No Kairen.
No Han Jizhou.
Then Chen Ba found the mark carved into a nearby tree.
Chen Clan field sign.
An arrow.
Toward Willowbank.
Below it—
Medical help.
Good.
Kairen had not waited.
If the poison was serious, waiting would have been foolish.
Chen Ba adjusted the blueprint tube and ran.
Kairen had made the decision quickly.
Chen Miao's condition worsened after Chen Ba left.
Numbness spread along one side of her body.
Her breathing became uneven.
Her pulse changed whenever Qi moved.
Common antidotes did little.
Han Jizhou finally spoke.
"Willowbank has a physician."
"How far?"
"Closer than the clan."
That settled it.
Kairen supported most of Chen Miao's weight.
Han Jizhou helped.
The journey that should have taken less than an hour took nearly three.
They reached Willowbank near sunset.
The settlement was larger than Chen Ba expected.
Fields stretched beyond rows of low houses.
Water channels divided them, several nearly dry.
He found the others inside a stone medicine hall.
"Kairen."
Kairen turned.
Relief flashed across his face.
"You're alive."
Chen Ba pulled the leather tube from beneath his robe.
"And I have it."
Han Jizhou stood so quickly his chair nearly overturned.
"The blueprint?"
He checked the seal.
Opened the tube.
Exhaled.
"Yes."
Chen Ba ignored him.
"Miao?"
Kairen pointed toward the inner room.
"She hasn't woken."
Chen Ba entered.
Chen Miao lay on a narrow bed.
Some colour had returned to her face, but not much.
An elderly physician sat beside her, needles placed along her shoulder and arm.
"You're with them?"
"Yes."
"She'll live."
Chen Ba's shoulders loosened.
"But?"
The physician glanced at him.
"You learn quickly."
He removed one needle.
"Numbroot."
"Mercenaries use it against cultivators."
"It's ordinary poison, not some Qi technique."
"But the more aggressively a cultivator circulates Qi, the faster the body carries it."
Chen Ba remembered the numbness spreading when he had circulated.
His face stayed still.
"Your friend fought for too long after being poisoned."
Kairen entered behind him.
"Can you remove it?"
"Enough to stabilize her."
"Fully?"
"No."
The physician gestured toward several bowls of dark medicine.
"I can control the fever and slow the poison."
"But it has entered too deeply."
"Willowbank doesn't have what I need for a full cleansing."
"Who does?"
"Your clan."
Chen Ba looked at Chen Miao.
Tomorrow was Friday.
They would not make Combat Lesson.
Nothing could change that now.
"When can she travel?"
"Not tonight."
Kairen exhaled.
"Tomorrow?"
"If her condition improves."
That was enough.
Han Jizhou delivered the blueprint that evening.
Formation workers gathered around it almost immediately.
The old plans showed buried foundation channels, original control points and structures lost beneath generations of repairs.
They could work again.
Chen Ba watched from the side.
Then looked at Han Jizhou.
"We need to talk."
The surveyor's face fell.
He knew.
Later that night, the three men sat inside a small storage building.
Chen Miao remained with the physician.
Kairen spoke first.
"You lied."
Han Jizhou lowered his head.
"Yes."
No denial.
"How much did you know?"
Silence.
"Who wanted the blueprint?"
"Black Reed Trading House."
Han Jizhou explained.
Whenever Willowbank's water formation failed, Black Reed profited.
Transport.
Storage.
Emergency supply.
Repairs.
Loans.
As the old formation deteriorated, the settlement became increasingly dependent on them.
Then Han Jizhou discovered that the original blueprint still existed in a private archive.
He had grown up in Willowbank.
His parents were buried there.
So he used his own savings to retrieve it.
Black Reed learned about the blueprint.
Someone approached him before he left the southern town.
Offered enough money to buy several years of his life.
He refused.
Then he posted the escort mission.
Kairen stared at him.
"You knew they might send mercenaries."
"Yes."
"And you still listed ordinary roadside danger."
Han Jizhou clenched his hands.
"I didn't have enough money."
The words came out hard.
Then softer—
"I wasn't hired by Willowbank."
"The settlement couldn't afford this."
"I paid the archive fee."
"I paid to retrieve the blueprint."
"I paid for the escort."
"And that was all I had left."
A properly declared mission would still have been Yellow-grade.
No high-level cultivator.
No danger requiring an elder.
But known professional mercenaries targeting a specific object changed the staffing completely.
Five cultivators at minimum.
Possibly more depending on level.
And a far higher reward.
Han Jizhou had known he could not afford it.
So he lied.
Kairen's expression remained hard.
"Miao is poisoned because of that lie."
"I know."
The anger in Chen Ba was quieter.
Han Jizhou had not lied for profit.
He had spent his own money trying to help the place where he grew up.
That made the choice understandable.
It did not make it acceptable.
"We report everything," Chen Ba said.
Han Jizhou looked at him.
"Everything?"
"Yes."
"The clan decides what happens next."
Kairen nodded.
The matter ended there.
Friday morning.
The Chen Clan Outer Court combat ground was missing one disciple.
Chen Zhaowu noticed before anyone spoke.
Chen Gao.
Chen Yiru.
Chen Lanyue.
Chen Xueyin.
His gaze stopped on Xueyin.
Then sharpened.
"Level Four."
Chen Xueyin bowed.
"Yes, Instructor."
"When?"
"Yesterday afternoon."
"Stable?"
"Yes."
Chen Zhaowu stepped closer, checked briefly, then nodded.
"Good."
No celebration.
No long praise.
Just confirmation.
Then he looked toward the empty place in the line.
"Chen Ba."
A gray-robed assistant approached.
"Instructor."
"What?"
"Mission Hall reported him absent."
"Mission?"
"Same-day Yellow escort accepted yesterday morning."
Chen Zhaowu frowned.
"Same-day?"
"Yes."
"Returned?"
"No."
"Emergency signal?"
"None."
"Mission failure notice?"
"None."
Chen Zhaowu looked at the four disciples.
"Record the absence."
The assistant nodded.
"Training continues."
Chen Lanyue glanced once toward the gate.
Then forced her attention forward.
At the same time, Chen Ba woke on the floor of Willowbank's medicine hall.
Friday.
His hand went to his neck.
The puncture mark had nearly disappeared.
No numbness.
No fever.
His side was also closing far faster than expected.
The poison seemed gone.
Or buried too deeply for him to notice.
Chen Ba could not tell.
Miao had been struck by the same thing and nearly died.
No one knew he had been hit.
Kairen had not been there.
Miao had been fighting elsewhere.
The mercenary was far behind them.
Chen Ba lowered his hand.
There was nothing useful he could explain.
So he kept it to himself.
Chen Miao woke shortly after noon.
Barely.
Her eyes opened.
Closed.
Then opened again.
Kairen leaned over her.
"Miao?"
"What day?"
"Friday."
Her eyes closed.
For several breaths he thought she had fallen unconscious again.
Then—
"We missed training."
Kairen stared.
"You were poisoned."
"So?"
"So stop worrying about training."
One eye opened.
"Easy for you to say."
Then shut again.
The physician allowed them to leave several hours later.
Not because Chen Miao had recovered.
Because she was stable enough to travel.
She could stand with help.
Walk briefly.
Remain conscious most of the time.
The deeper poison remained.
The physician gave Kairen several packets of medicine.
"Straight to your clan."
"No cultivation."
"No fighting."
Chen Miao looked displeased.
The physician pointed at her.
"Especially you."
She did not answer.
That counted as agreement.
They left Willowbank Friday afternoon.
Han Jizhou remained behind with the formation workers.
Before they left, he bowed deeply.
"I am sorry."
Kairen gave no answer.
Chen Miao was too tired.
Chen Ba looked at him once.
Then nodded.
The clan would decide the rest.
The return journey was slow.
At times Kairen supported Chen Miao.
At others, Chen Ba did.
By the time the Chen Clan walls appeared, the sun was already sinking.
Friday evening.
More than a full day later than planned.
The Mission Hall attendant's expression changed the moment they entered.
Relief.
Then anger.
Then he saw Chen Miao.
"What happened?"
Kairen placed the mission slip on the counter.
"False declaration."
They reported everything.
The theft.
The pursuit.
The mercenaries.
The poison.
Han Jizhou's admission.
The true staffing requirement.
The attendant listened without interruption.
When they finished, he looked at the original entry.
Yellow Escort — 500 Achievement Points.
"Still Yellow-grade."
"Yes."
"But incorrectly staffed."
"Yes."
"At least five cultivators?"
"Yes."
"Higher reward?"
"Much higher."
He processed the agreed mission first.
Chen Miao—
200 Achievement Points.
Chen Kairen—
150 Achievement Points.
Chen Ba—
150 Achievement Points.
Chen Ba's token changed.
425 → 575 Achievement Points.
Then the attendant marked the mission record in red.
"What's that?" Chen Ba asked.
"Elder review."
"For what?"
"Unexpected danger."
"False mission information."
"Performance beyond assigned scope."
"Recovery of mission property."
He closed the ledger.
"Additional Achievement Points are decided during monthly review."
"When?"
"Before the monthly points update."
The elders would decide whether the original reward still reflected what had actually happened.
Not today.
Chen Ba nodded.
That could wait.
The attendant looked at him.
"You missed Combat Lesson."
"I know."
"It was reported."
Chen Ba nodded again.
Nothing he could do about it now.
"Take Chen Miao to the medical compound."
They did.
Saturday morning arrived quietly.
Chen Ba woke early.
His body felt normal.
The wound at his side had almost disappeared.
The needle mark was gone.
He washed.
Changed robes.
Ate.
Then stepped outside.
A gray-robed Outer Court assistant waited at the gate.
"Chen Ba?"
"Yes."
"Come with me."
"Where?"
The assistant turned toward the training grounds.
"Yesterday's Combat Lesson."
A pause.
"Instructor Chen Zhaowu wants to speak with you."
Chen Ba followed.