Luo Yanhe had many talents.
According to Gu Zhen, those talents included causing trouble, attracting trouble and eventually becoming the trouble himself.
Chao Lun Hui disagreed with this assessment.
Not because it was entirely inaccurate, but because the list was clearly incomplete and therefore professionally insulting.
Chao Lun Hui had once read descriptions of Luo Yanhe that used words such as dangerous, unpredictable and destined for ruin.
None of them had mentioned that the man apparently possessed a lifelong talent for attracting people who stole his breakfast and then criticised his personality.
The original novel had clearly lacked essential research.
The investigation group departed Azure Cloud Sect at first light the morning after their preparations were complete.
Chao Lun Hui had spent twenty-three years in a world where dawn travel usually involved alarms, transport schedules and strong resentment towards anyone who spoke too cheerfully before breakfast.
The cultivation world had removed the alarms and replaced public transport with a giant sword suspended above the clouds.
The resentment remained.
Sect Master Qing Xu’s final instructions had been simple: follow the safer eastern route, investigate the northern resonance, avoid unnecessary deaths, do not separate, do not activate unknown formations and, if possible, return without starting an inter-sect incident.
He had delivered the last instruction while looking directly at Luo Yanhe and Gu Zhen.
Chao Lun Hui considered this unfair.
Gu Zhen considered it accurate.
The betrayal still hurt.
The five central members travelled aboard a reinforced flying-sword platform large enough to carry several people without forcing them to stand shoulder to shoulder.
Shen Yan Ting controlled the main movement formation from the front.
Mu Qingyu monitored the route seals near the centre, while Pei Wuchen stood beside a spread of White Crane Sect maps.
Gu Zhen had been assigned to the forward guard, which he interpreted as permission to stand wherever the wind made his hair look most heroic.
Two White Crane formation specialists followed on a smaller support platform.
Their presence made the complete expedition larger than five people, but the main platform still contained five cultivators and, by Chao Lun Hui’s estimate, four functioning brains.
Gu Zhen had objected to the calculation.
Chao Lun Hui had refused to explain which person had been excluded.
Morning mist covered the mountains below.
The eastern corridor curved above mapped spiritual veins, avoiding the unstable western region where collapsed channels could disrupt aerial formations.
From this height, the world appeared peaceful.
Chao Lun Hui knew better than to trust that appearance.
In the original novel, tranquil scenery often occupied the page immediately before an attack, betrayal or spiritually significant explosion.
The writer had apparently considered peace a decorative warning sign.
Still, no enemy appeared.
No formation activated.
No ancient voice announced that Luo Yanhe had accidentally qualified for another trial.
The journey remained peaceful for exactly thirty minutes.
Luo Yanhe : “MASTER.”
Shen Yan Ting opened his golden eyes.
Until that moment, he had been meditating while guiding the platform with a steady thread of spiritual energy.
His posture remained composed.
His peace did not survive.
Shen Yan Ting : “What?”
Luo Yanhe pointed across the platform.
Gu Zhen sat near the left rail with the expression of a completely innocent man, which was already suspicious.
More importantly, he held a sealed food container that unquestionably belonged to Luo Yanhe.
Luo Yanhe : “Gu Zhen stole my lunch.”
Gu Zhen hugged the container closer.
Gu Zhen : “Our lunch.”
Luo Yanhe stared at him with the patience of a saint reconsidering virtue.
Luo Yanhe : “No.”
Gu Zhen : “Yes.”
Chao Lun Hui stepped forward.
Gu Zhen retreated by the same distance, keeping one hand on the food and the other near the platform rail.
Luo Yanhe : “Friendship means asking before taking someone else’s food.”
Gu Zhen looked genuinely confused by this revolutionary interpretation.
Gu Zhen : “Friendship means sharing.”
Luo Yanhe : “You did not share.
You stole.”
Gu Zhen considered the accusation, opened the container and offered him one piece of his own lunch.
Gu Zhen : “There.
Sharing.”
Chao Lun Hui had once believed secured containers were designed to prevent theft.
Cultivation had apparently produced spatial pouches, flying swords and life-extending pills while failing to invent a defence against one shameless spear cultivator.
More troubling was how little of the exchange felt unfamiliar.
Gu Zhen’s timing, the look of manufactured innocence and the certainty that he would defend theft as an expression of brotherhood all felt predictable.
Chao Lun Hui did not remember growing accustomed to those habits.
He only knew he had expected every one of them.
The awareness passed quickly beneath his irritation.
Chao Lun Hui slowly turned towards Shen Yan Ting.
Shen Yan Ting looked at him, then at Gu Zhen, then at the stolen lunch.
Shen Yan Ting : “You failed to protect it again.”
Chao Lun Hui froze.
Again, the same injustice had followed him from the Luo inheritance chamber to several thousand feet above the ground.
The word also carried an ordinary familiarity that Chao Lun Hui could not dismiss.
Shen Yan Ting remembered the first theft.
Gu Zhen expected the same argument.
Mu Qingyu had not even looked surprised.
Their lives continued from one ridiculous event to the next, and Chao Lun Hui was no longer standing outside those memories.
He was accumulating them.
Luo Yanhe : “Master.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Hm?”
Luo Yanhe placed one hand over his chest.
Luo Yanhe : “This disciple thought our relationship had improved.”
Shen Yan Ting closed his eyes.
Shen Yan Ting : “Protect your lunch.”
That was not the reassurance Luo Yanhe had sought.
Pei Wuchen had watched the exchange with growing interest.
He had been around Azure Cloud Sect long enough to recognise the names involved, but not long enough to understand why a respected peak master was refusing to interfere in organised food theft.
Pei Wuchen : “Does this happen often?”
Mu Qingyu did not look away from the route seal she was checking.
Mu Qingyu : “Often?”
Pei Wuchen glanced towards her.
Mu Qingyu : “Every day.”
Luo Yanhe : “Senior Sister exaggerates.”
Gu Zhen nodded solemnly.
Gu Zhen : “True.”
Chao Lun Hui’s suspicion returned.
Gu Zhen : “It happens more than once a day.”
Chao Lun Hui moved to kick him.
Gu Zhen twisted aside, still protecting the container.
Chao Lun Hui would not have struck hard enough to send him over the edge, but Shen Yan Ting did not permit the experiment.
One hand caught the back of Luo Yanhe’s outer robe and stopped him before his foot travelled far.
Luo Yanhe remained suspended in an undignified half-step while Gu Zhen ate the piece he had offered earlier.
Luo Yanhe : “He consumed the evidence.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Stand properly.”
Luo Yanhe : “Master is restraining the victim.”
Shen Yan Ting : “The victim was attempting to kick someone from a flying platform.”
Luo Yanhe : “Only a little.”
Shen Yan Ting released his robe once both feet were securely planted.
Luo Yanhe’s body had adjusted to the sudden pull without losing balance.
His weight had shifted before he consciously recognised that Shen Yan Ting had caught him.
He had never trained on a flying sword in his modern life.
He should have stumbled.
Instead, Luo Yanhe’s body knew exactly how to settle against the movement of the platform and the strength of Shen Yan Ting’s hand.
Chao Lun Hui chose not to examine that particular mystery while Gu Zhen was chewing his lunch in front of him.
Pei Wuchen turned his head, concealing what might have been a smile.
Peace returned only after Luo Yanhe recovered the container and moved to sit beside Shen Yan Ting, far from Gu Zhen.
Gu Zhen : “Distance cannot weaken friendship.”
Luo Yanhe : “It can protect food.”
The eastern route carried them across two mountain ranges and above a narrow valley lined with abandoned watchtowers.
The first village passed beneath them shortly after mid-morning.
Farmers in the fields looked up as the platforms crossed overhead, then returned to work once they recognised sect emblems.
Chao Lun Hui watched roofs, cultivated fields and thin roads disappear beneath the mist.
When he had read about the cultivation world, travel had been reduced to a sentence whenever nothing important happened.
Characters departed one sect and arrived at another after a convenient paragraph.
The novel had never mentioned the cold wind at this height, the strain of spiritual movement beneath the platform or the way mountains continued for hours beyond the edge of every map.
Importantly, it had certainly never mentioned guarding lunch from one’s own travelling companion.
Near the second village, the main platform shuddered.
The movement was small but wrong.
The nose of the flying sword tilted several degrees north before the guiding formation corrected itself.
Luo Yanhe’s body shifted with it automatically.
Mu Qingyu placed one hand against the centre seal.
Mu Qingyu : “Slow down.”
Shen Yan Ting reduced their speed at once.
The support platform behind them adjusted its formation and drew closer.
One White Crane specialist released a measuring talisman.
It flew ahead, crossed an invisible boundary and spun sharply towards the ground.
White Crane Formation Disciple : “The aerial current is bending.”
Pei Wuchen unfolded his map across a low formation table.
Three silver paper cranes rose from his sleeve and flew in separate directions.
The first continued east.
The second turned north.
The third circled once before descending towards an abandoned stone marker on a ridge below.
Pei Wuchen : “The mapped corridor should remain stable here.”
Mu Qingyu examined the moving symbols beneath her palm.
Mu Qingyu : “The platform is not failing.
Something below is pulling the navigation formation away from the route.”
Gu Zhen moved to the forward edge.
His spear remained secured across his back, but his posture lost its earlier laziness.
Gu Zhen : “The ridge marker is broken.”
From above, the old marker looked like a weather-split pillar, yet the spiritual current bent towards it as though following an older path.
Shen Yan Ting lowered the platform only far enough for the two White Crane specialists to spread a detection grid across the air.
The nearest specialist glanced towards Luo Yanhe as the grid formed.
His eyes moved to Luo Yanhe’s hands, then to the jade beneath his belt.
Chao Lun Hui recognised the caution.
The man had probably heard that Luo Yanhe was connected to forbidden cultivation and that ancient artefacts had begun responding to him.
A sensible formation specialist would not be eager to watch that person approach an unstable spiritual channel.
Chao Lun Hui could resent the suspicion and still understand it.
Pei Wuchen : “The disturbance is moving beneath the mapped vein.
It may be crossing a dormant branch.”
Luo Yanhe’s jade warmed against his waist, pulling beyond the marker along a curve beneath the mountain.
One specialist took half a step back.
Pei Wuchen did not accept the jade’s reaction immediately.
Pei Wuchen : “What do you sense?”
Chao Lun Hui touched the jade.
Luo Yanhe : “A pull towards the northern slope.”
Pei Wuchen : “From the marker?”
Chao Lun Hui looked towards the detection grid.
He had never studied White Crane Sect’s mapping system.
Chao Lun Hui understood only that the lines represented direction, pressure and spiritual flow.
Luo Yanhe’s body understood more.
His fingers moved towards the outer ring before conscious reasoning caught up.
He stopped short of touching the unfamiliar formation.
Sect Master Qing Xu’s order returned clearly: do not activate unknown formations without permission.
Chao Lun Hui withdrew his hand.
Pei Wuchen noticed both the movement and the restraint.
Luo Yanhe : “The marker is not the source.
It is drawing energy from farther north.”
Pei Wuchen : “What makes you think so?”
The answer arrived in fragments.
Pressure at the outer ring.
A current entering rather than leaving.
A gap in the northern line that felt wrong even before Chao Lun Hui understood why.
Luo Yanhe : “The force enters from the outer ring.
If the marker were producing it, the current would move outwards.”
Mu Qingyu shifted two seals.
A thin current appeared beneath the northern slope.
Mu Qingyu : “He is right.”
Pei Wuchen looked from the map to Luo Yanhe.
There was no immediate trust in his expression.
Only reassessment.
Pei Wuchen : “Senior Brother Luo, can your jade maintain the direction long enough for us to correct the route?”
Luo Yanhe : “It is not a cooperative object.”
Gu Zhen : “A judgemental compass.”
Luo Yanhe : “It has standards.”
Pei Wuchen gave the jade no more authority than the evidence supported.
Pei Wuchen : “Then we use it only as a comparison.”
That answer pleased Chao Lun Hui more than easy belief would have.
Pei Wuchen placed two paper cranes above the northern line and asked the formation specialists to alter the external grid.
Mu Qingyu adjusted the platform’s centre seal while Chao Lun Hui watched the jade’s warmth strengthen or fade with each correction.
Pei Wuchen proposed the correction.
Mu Qingyu tested it.
The specialists measured the current, while Luo Yanhe compared each adjustment with the jade.
The work required him to stand beside Pei Wuchen at the centre table.
Their shoulders nearly aligned as they watched the northern crane change direction.
Pei Wuchen : “Two degrees east.”
Luo Yanhe : “Too far.”
Pei Wuchen looked at him.
Luo Yanhe : “The jade cooled.”
Pei Wuchen adjusted the seal by half the distance.
Pei Wuchen : “Here?”
The jade warmed.
Luo Yanhe : “Yes.”
Pei Wuchen did not ask Luo Yanhe to explain what he could not know.
He only recorded the result.
When the route settled east of the buried pull, the platform stopped shuddering.
Pei Wuchen : “Senior Brother Luo identified the direction quickly.”
Luo Yanhe : “Junior Brother Pei corrected the route.”
Pei Wuchen’s gaze sharpened briefly, perhaps because Luo Yanhe had given credit instead of claiming the solution.
Before he could answer, Shen Yan Ting stepped closer and took Luo Yanhe’s wrist.
His fingers settled above the pulse point.
Shen Yan Ting : “Any pain?”
Luo Yanhe : “Only from losing part of my lunch.”
Shen Yan Ting examined his circulation without reacting to the complaint.
Chao Lun Hui glanced towards Pei Wuchen.
Luo Yanhe : “Master considers every mysterious reaction an opportunity for medical inspection.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Because mysterious reactions keep occurring.”
Luo Yanhe : “This disciple has been very consistent.”
Shen Yan Ting released him once his spiritual flow proved stable.
Shen Yan Ting : “Mu Qingyu confirmed the route.”
Mu Qingyu raised one eyebrow but said nothing.
Pei Wuchen folded the map.
Pei Wuchen : “Senior Brother Luo’s observation was still useful.”
Shen Yan Ting : “It was.”
The reply was correct, concise and delivered while Shen Yan Ting remained closer to Luo Yanhe than the inspection required.
Chao Lun Hui noticed only that his master seemed unusually interested in ensuring he did not return to Pei Wuchen’s side of the formation table.
He assumed Shen Yan Ting remained cautious about the jade.
It was the most practical explanation available.
Chao Lun Hui returned the jade beneath his robes.
The pattern had felt natural in a way he could not explain, and Pei Wuchen had noticed.
Chao Lun Hui had not remembered the formation.
He had not heard another voice or received a hidden memory.
He had simply looked at the current and known which part was wrong.
That natural certainty unsettled him more than a clear vision might have.
A memory could belong to Luo Yanhe.
An instinct that felt like his own was harder to separate.
The support platforms rose again.
They passed the second village without further disturbance and continued north along the eastern corridor.
Gu Zhen waited until everyone had resumed their positions before reaching towards Luo Yanhe’s food container.
Chao Lun Hui slapped his hand away without looking.
Gu Zhen : “Your awareness has improved.”
Luo Yanhe : “Master assigned practical training.”
Gu Zhen : “Then I am helping.”
Luo Yanhe : “You are the training hazard.”
By late afternoon, River Lantern Town appeared between two low mountain ridges.
The town had been built beside a wide river crossed by three stone bridges.
Lantern frames hung from posts along the banks, and craftsmen were still fixing coloured paper over them in preparation for the festival the following day.
Merchants crowded the main road with carts of sweet cakes, grilled meat, fruit wine and carved wooden charms.
Travelling cultivators filled the courtyards outside the inns.
Chao Lun Hui recognised the town’s name.
River Lantern Festival had appeared in the original novel, although the arc had followed a different viewpoint character.
He remembered bright lanterns, an eating competition and a disturbance near the river.
The written version had made the place feel like a colourful stop between important events.
Standing above it now, he saw workers with glue on their sleeves, children arguing over lantern shapes and an elderly merchant chasing a loose sheet of red paper along the road.
The people below were not decorations waiting for a plot to begin.
That thought had become increasingly difficult to ignore.
The expedition descended beyond the eastern gate to avoid alarming the residents.
The two White Crane specialists went ahead to register the group and inspect the inn’s protective formation.
A local cultivator near the gate recognised Pei Wuchen’s robes and bowed.
His expression changed when he heard Luo Yanhe’s name during registration.
The man’s hand tightened around his token before he stepped aside.
No insult followed.
Neither did welcome.
Chao Lun Hui continued walking.
One cautious stranger did not matter.
The reaction still landed more personally than it would have weeks earlier, when Chao Lun Hui had treated Luo Yanhe’s reputation as an unpleasant costume.
Now the name belonged to every conversation, every mission order and every person who decided whether to stand near him.
He could tell himself that the rumours concerned another man’s behaviour.
The irritation no longer felt entirely borrowed.
The others headed towards the inn.
Chao Lun Hui headed towards food.
After Gu Zhen had eaten part of his lunch, this was not greed.
It was recovery.
Pei Wuchen appeared beside him before he reached the nearest stall.
His steps made so little sound that Luo Yanhe only noticed him when white sleeves entered the edge of his vision.
Luo Yanhe : “Junior Brother Pei.”
Pei Wuchen glanced towards the food stalls.
Pei Wuchen : “Senior Brother Luo, are you buying food?”
Chao Lun Hui stopped.
His expression became deeply serious.
Luo Yanhe : “No.”
Pei Wuchen waited.
Chao Lun Hui pointed towards a nearby stall.
Luo Yanhe : “This disciple is entering a lifelong commitment.”
Pei Wuchen followed his hand.
A roasted duck hung beneath the awning, its skin crisp and golden beneath the lowering sun.
The scent crossed the street with enough authority to interrupt several cultivators at once.
Pei Wuchen looked at the duck, then at Luo Yanhe.
Pei Wuchen : “What?”
Chao Lun Hui seemed disappointed by the need for explanation.
Luo Yanhe : “Look at it.”
Pei Wuchen looked again.
The duck remained a duck, although an impressive one.
Pei Wuchen : “It is well roasted.”
Luo Yanhe : “Exactly.”
Pei Wuchen’s formal composure broke.
He laughed, not loudly, but without the careful restraint he used in official meetings.
Chao Lun Hui brightened.
Chao Lun Hui had previously known Pei Wuchen only through written scenes.
In the novel, Pei Wuchen had been disciplined, capable and difficult to surprise.
The text had not mentioned that confusion appeared first in his eyes or that his laugh arrived only after he had tried and failed to preserve his dignity.
The living man continued to exceed the information provided by the book.
That did not make him trustworthy yet.
It made him real.
The stall owner recognised Luo Yanhe’s sect robes, then hesitated when he heard Gu Zhen shout his name from across the street.
The old man’s smile tightened.
Chao Lun Hui paid the full price, thanked him and asked for the duck to be divided into two parcels.
The man relaxed enough to stop watching Luo Yanhe’s hands.
Pei Wuchen noticed the exchange.
He said nothing.
Chao Lun Hui appreciated the silence.
Sympathy from a near-stranger would have felt worse than caution.
Across the road, Shen Yan Ting stood with Mu Qingyu near the inn entrance.
His attention rested on Luo Yanhe and Pei Wuchen for a moment before shifting to the crowd.
Mu Qingyu followed his line of sight, then looked towards the roasted duck.
Mu Qingyu : “A dangerous negotiation.”
Shen Yan Ting : “They are blocking the road.”
Mu Qingyu glanced again toward them.
They were actually standing beside the stall, several feet from the road.
Mu Qingyu allowed the answer to survive without assistance.
The innkeeper had reserved a private dining room on the ground floor.
By evening, maps covered one end of the table while food occupied the other.
Gu Zhen claimed a seat within reach of both.
Mu Qingyu moved the nearest dishes away from him before sitting down.
Gu Zhen : “Senior Sister distrusts me.”
Mu Qingyu : “Correct.”
The innkeeper placed the final dish on the table.
His attention paused at Luo Yanhe, then moved quickly away.
Chao Lun Hui thanked him.
The man blinked, perhaps because the rumours had not prepared him for basic courtesy.
He bowed and left without incident.
Chao Lun Hui had begun recognising that particular expression.
People expected Luo Yanhe to be cruel, proud or difficult.
When he behaved normally, some appeared relieved.
Others only became more suspicious.
A polite villain might simply be planning something.
Pei Wuchen spread the northern map between the tea set and a plate of vegetables.
The two formation specialists sat at a smaller adjoining table, close enough to contribute without crowding the discussion.
Pei Wuchen : “The disturbance is not a single release of spiritual energy.”
He pointed to several faint lines beyond River Lantern Town.
Pei Wuchen : “Three dormant veins changed direction at the same moment.
For several breaths, they connected regions that should have remained separate.”
Luo Yanhe listened while eating roasted duck from the parcel he had successfully protected.
Pei Wuchen : “Ordinary spiritual veins resemble rivers.
They carry energy through the land along established paths.
What we detected resembles an abandoned canal system beneath those rivers.
Most of it has weakened or collapsed, but one northern branch awakened when the Second Key did.”
White Crane Formation Disciple : “The pattern predates our surviving records.
We cannot identify who built it.”
Mu Qingyu studied the map.
Mu Qingyu : “The damaged marker today belonged to the same buried network?”
Pei Wuchen : “Most likely.
It redirected the aerial current because the older branch briefly drew energy from the active vein above it.”
Shen Yan Ting : “How far does the remaining signal extend?”
Pei Wuchen traced the line north.
Pei Wuchen : “Beyond River Lantern Town.
The trail weakens near the next mountain range.
If it fades completely, we may lose the route.”
Luo Yanhe’s jade warmed once beneath his robes.
The pull pointed north, towards the dark mountains beyond the river.
Luo Yanhe’s body recognised the direction without offering a place or memory.
The response carried no image and no clear emotion.
It felt like reaching for a door in a familiar room while standing inside a house Chao Lun Hui had never visited.
He rested one hand against the table until the warmth disappeared.
The original novel had never mentioned an old spiritual network beneath River Lantern Town.
Either the information had been omitted because this arc belonged to another viewpoint or the story Chao Lun Hui had read had never contained the complete truth.
That possibility had stopped being surprising.
It had not become comforting.
Pei Wuchen noticed the movement of Luo Yanhe’s hand but did not interrupt the explanation.
Pei Wuchen : “The network may connect to the Luo inheritance, but we do not have enough evidence to claim that.”
Chao Lun Hui appreciated the distinction.
Gu Zhen, who had been listening with surprising attention, tapped the edge of the map.
Gu Zhen : “If most branches collapsed, could someone be waking them one at a time?”
Pei Wuchen : “Possibly.”
Gu Zhen : “Then someone ahead knows where the working branches are.”
The room became more serious.
Shen Yan Ting : “Or someone is testing which branches respond to Luo Yanhe.”
Gu Zhen’s hand left the map and returned to his chopsticks.
Nobody had forgotten the Seeker.
Chao Lun Hui looked at the northern lines.
The Seeker would not care whether the man following the trail remembered growing up in this world.
He would see Luo blood, the jade and the heir recognised by the ruins.
Chao Lun Hui had once believed that keeping himself separate from Luo Yanhe might keep part of his old life safe.
The northern network had no interest in that distinction.
The discussion continued through route options for the following day.
They would remain in River Lantern Town for the festival morning because the local bridge formations controlled access to the northern road.
The formation specialists needed several hours to compare the town’s records with White Crane Sect’s maps.
Pei Wuchen moved one dish closer to Luo Yanhe.
Pei Wuchen : “Senior Brother Luo, try the river fish.”
Chao Lun Hui accepted a piece.
The fish had been steamed with ginger and spring onion.
His silver-grey eyes brightened.
Luo Yanhe : “Junior Brother Pei has excellent judgement.”
Across the table, Shen Yan Ting’s teacup stopped before reaching his lips.
Mu Qingyu lowered her own cup.
Chao Lun Hui remained unaware.
Pei Wuchen indicated a second dish.
Pei Wuchen : “The lotus-root soup is also good.”
Chao Lun Hui tried it.
Luo Yanhe : “White Crane Sect has chosen its representative wisely.”
Gu Zhen reached for the fish.
Chao Lun Hui moved the plate away.
Gu Zhen : “Friendship means sharing.”
Luo Yanhe : “This fish and I are not your friends.”
A moment later, Chao Lun Hui looked towards Shen Yan Ting.
Luo Yanhe : “Master.”
Shen Yan Ting raised his gaze.
Shen Yan Ting : “Hm?”
Chao Lun Hui gestured towards the fish.
Luo Yanhe : “This is excellent.”
Shen Yan Ting glanced at the dish.
Shen Yan Ting : “Mm.”
Luo Yanhe : “Junior Brother Pei recommended it.”
Shen Yan Ting placed his teacup down.
Chao Lun Hui finally noticed the flatness of the reply.
Chao Lun Hui compared it with Shen Yan Ting’s usual responses and found no useful conclusion.
Perhaps his master disliked fish.
Perhaps he remained focused on the network.
Perhaps Chao Lun Hui had made the mistake of mentioning Pei Wuchen twice during one meal.
None of those possibilities explained why Mu Qingyu was watching Shen Yan Ting over the rim of her cup.
Luo Yanhe : “Would Master like some?”
Shen Yan Ting looked at the fish, then at Luo Yanhe.
Shen Yan Ting : “No.”
Chao Lun Hui shrugged and returned to eating.
Shen Yan Ting : “Luo Yanhe.”
Chao Lun Hui looked up at once.
The response remained too immediate.
Chao Lun Hui noticed it only after turning.
Luo Yanhe : “Yes, Master?”
Shen Yan Ting : “Tomorrow morning.
Additional sword practice.”
The conversation stopped.
Gu Zhen lowered his chopsticks.
Pei Wuchen looked between master and disciple.
One of the formation specialists wisely focused on the map.
Luo Yanhe : “What?”
Shen Yan Ting : “Three hundred strikes before breakfast.”
Chao Lun Hui stared at him as though Shen Yan Ting had personally rewritten sect law.
Luo Yanhe : “MASTER.”
Shen Yan Ting : “What?”
Chao Lun Hui pointed at the table.
Luo Yanhe : “This disciple was eating.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Correct.”
Luo Yanhe : “What does eating have to do with sword practice?”
Shen Yan Ting : “You appear energetic.”
Chao Lun Hui looked down at himself, then at the food, then back at his master.
Luo Yanhe : “This is punishment for surviving the journey.”
Shen Yan Ting : “It is training.”
Chao Lun Hui turned towards Mu Qingyu.
Luo Yanhe : “Senior Sister.”
Mu Qingyu : “No.”
Luo Yanhe had not yet asked.
Pei Wuchen’s mouth moved as though he had nearly smiled.
Gu Zhen used the distraction to take the final piece of fish.
Chao Lun Hui turned back just in time to see it disappear.
Luo Yanhe : “You stole it.”
Gu Zhen : “It was unguarded.”
Luo Yanhe : “Master’s teachings have corrupted you.”
Shen Yan Ting : “He required no assistance.”
Chao Lun Hui tried logic, emotional appeal and an accusation involving abuse of authority.
Shen Yan Ting rejected all three.
Chao Lun Hui privately considered whether the original novel had ever warned that being personally supervised by a main character involved this much compulsory exercise.
It had not.
By the end of dinner, Chao Lun Hui had gained three hundred additional sword strikes, half a bowl of cold rice and certainty that nobody respected food ownership.
The group returned to their rooms.
Outside, River Lantern Town remained busy beneath rows of hanging lanterns.
Merchants closed their stalls slowly, musicians rehearsed near the river and families carried unfinished lanterns towards the festival square.
Mu Qingyu did not trust harmless appearances.
She climbed onto the inn roof instead of retiring and settled where she could watch the surrounding streets.
Below, Gu Zhen accused Luo Yanhe of hiding extra snacks.
Luo Yanhe : “They are emergency provisions.”
Gu Zhen : “This is an emergency.”
Something struck a wall.
Gu Zhen : “Violence cannot defeat friendship!”
Luo Yanhe : “It can improve distance!”
Mu Qingyu decided the corridor could survive without her.
Shen Yan Ting landed on the roof behind her.
His white robes barely disturbed the tiles.
Mu Qingyu : “Peak Master Shen.”
He surveyed the streets, river bridges and northern road.
Shen Yan Ting : “Any movement?”
Mu Qingyu : “Nothing unusual.
The local formations are active, and the White Crane disciples have checked the inn.”
Shen Yan Ting looked towards the northern mountains.
Mu Qingyu : “Did Luo Yanhe do something wrong?”
Shen Yan Ting turned to her.
Shen Yan Ting : “No.”
Mu Qingyu folded her arms.
Mu Qingyu : “Then why the additional training?”
Below them, Gu Zhen shouted that snacks possessed no permanent owner.
Luo Yanhe answered that Gu Zhen would soon possess no permanent room.
Shen Yan Ting : “His focus requires correction.”
Mu Qingyu : “Luo Yanhe is always distracted.”
Shen Yan Ting did not reply.
Mu Qingyu : “The route check went well.
He listened to Pei Wuchen.”
Shen Yan Ting : “Pei Wuchen’s correction was sound.”
Mu Qingyu waited.
Shen Yan Ting offered nothing further.
A faint pulse moved beneath the town.
Both cultivators turned north at the same moment.
The sensation vanished almost immediately, too weak to disturb the lanterns or wake ordinary residents.
Mu Qingyu placed two fingers against the roof tile.
Mu Qingyu : “The buried network?”
Shen Yan Ting : “Likely.”
The mission returned to the centre of the conversation.
Mu Qingyu : “We should rotate watches.”
Shen Yan Ting : “I will take the middle watch.”
Mu Qingyu rose.
Mu Qingyu : “Three hundred strikes may be excessive before a festival.”
Shen Yan Ting : “It is not.”
Mu Qingyu : “At least allow him breakfast.”
Shen Yan Ting considered this.
Shen Yan Ting : “After training.”
Mu Qingyu stepped from the roof with the air of someone abandoning an unwinnable negotiation.
Far beyond River Lantern Town, beneath a mountain absent from surviving maps, Mo Ruoyan stood before a ruined altar.
Golden lines traced the investigation group’s movement from Azure Cloud Sect into the northern region.
The brightest thread ended at River Lantern Town, sustained by the Luo Clan jade and the heir’s bloodline response.
A shadowed figure knelt behind him.
Shadowed Seeker : “They have entered the town.”
Mo Ruoyan’s crimson gaze followed the northern line.
Shadowed Seeker : “Pei Wuchen is travelling with them.
Shall we delay the White Crane disciple?”
Mo Ruoyan : “No.”
The answer left no room for argument.
Shadowed Seeker : “He may identify the buried network.”
Mo Ruoyan rested two fingers against the altar.
The thread representing Pei Wuchen remained beside Luo Yanhe’s, close but separate.
Mo Ruoyan : “Let him observe.”
Shadowed Seeker : “And the Luo heir?”
Mo Ruoyan : “Do not approach him.”
The altar showed the route bending beyond River Lantern Town.
One section remained dark, waiting for a bloodline it would recognise.
Mo Ruoyan : “They are following the intended path.”
The shadow bowed.
Mo Ruoyan : “Continue watching.
Do not interfere.”
The golden lines dimmed until only Luo Yanhe’s route remained visible.
Back at the inn, Chao Lun Hui stood beside the open window with half of his emergency provisions recovered and the other half missing under suspicious circumstances.
Below, festival workers carried lanterns towards the river.
The view reminded him of an illustration from the original novel, but the resemblance ended there.
The air smelt of smoke, river water and roasted sugar.
Someone laughed in the street.
A child complained that his lantern had been given the wrong colour.
Somewhere in the inn, Gu Zhen was opening containers he had not purchased.
Chao Lun Hui had read this world as fiction.
Now the town existed around him whether he watched it or not.
Tomorrow’s festival would not be a scene waiting for the main characters to arrive.
It would be a real morning for everyone beneath those lanterns.
The Luo Clan jade pulsed once towards the north.
His hand lowered to it before he consciously moved.
The warmth vanished before he could judge the direction.
For several breaths, Chao Lun Hui remained at the window.
He could no longer say the jade belonged only to Luo Yanhe without the statement feeling incomplete.
It had guided his steps, responded to his blood and placed dangers before him that now threatened people he had begun to know beyond the pages of the novel.
He still did not know what that made him.
He only knew he would follow the northern trail.
Behind him, Gu Zhen reached towards the last pastry.
Luo Yanhe turned.
Luo Yanhe : “Senior.”
Gu Zhen froze with the pastry halfway to his mouth.
Gu Zhen : “This is not what it looks like.”
Luo Yanhe : “It looks like attempted theft.”
Gu Zhen : “Incorrect.”
Luo Yanhe : “Then explain.”
Gu Zhen looked at the pastry, then at Luo Yanhe.
Gu Zhen : “Transportation.”
Luo Yanhe reached for the nearest pillow.
The first day of the journey ended exactly as it had begun: airborne dignity gone, food under attack and Gu Zhen about to discover whether friendship could survive direct impact.
The chapter has now been updated to the latest revised version.
I truly appreciate everyone who waited and continued supporting this story while I worked on improving it.
I hope this updated version gives you a smoother and more enjoyable reading experience.
Thank you for staying with me.
Happy reading!