The river had looked beautiful during the festival.
Lanterns had drifted across its dark surface like fallen stars, music had followed the current beyond the town, and countless people had entrusted their hopes to pieces of painted paper.
In daylight, it looked considerably less trustworthy.
The eastern side of the bridge remained closed to ordinary traffic.
Town guards stood at both ends while White Crane formation disciples examined the damaged seals along the stone supports.
Broken lantern frames moved beneath the bridge, catching against reeds before the current freed them again.
Beyond the northern bank, old willow trees bent over the water and concealed the road leading between the hills.
A few residents had gathered behind the guards to watch.
The mother whose child Chao Lun Hui had protected during the attack offered him a restrained bow.
Another merchant recognised him, whispered something to his neighbour and moved farther from the bridge.
The reactions remained divided even after the rescue.
Some people saw the cultivator who had cleared an escape route.
Others saw the man a demon beast had crossed an entire festival street to reach.
The Luo Clan jade in his hand gave both groups another reason to keep watching.
Chao Lun Hui stood at the end of the stone embankment and watched the current carry another painted fish beneath the central arch.
The Luo Clan jade rested inside his palm, warm enough to guide him but apparently unwilling to provide any useful explanation.
Each time he turned away from the river, the jade pulled north.
Each time he stepped towards the northern road, it drew him back towards the water.
He had tested this six times.
The seventh produced exactly the same result.
Luo Yanhe : “This jade has inherited Master’s communication skills.”
Shen Yan Ting stood beside him, studying the river rather than responding to the accusation.
The water appeared ordinary, but thin traces of black ash had collected along the stones beneath the bridge despite the steady current.
None of it drifted away.
The ash remained trapped in narrow lines between the bridge pillars and the reed-covered island farther north.
Shen Yan Ting : “It is guiding you.”
Chao Lun Hui closed his fingers around the jade and looked at his master with the patience of someone whose problem had just been repeated back to him.
Luo Yanhe : “Towards the river and away from the river.”
Shen Yan Ting’s gaze shifted towards the northern bank, where the current curved beneath the willows before disappearing between the hills.
Shen Yan Ting : “Then the entrance moves.”
That possibility was reasonable enough to annoy Chao Lun Hui .
He opened his mouth, considered arguing, then decided that arguing against good logic required more energy than he currently possessed.
Chao Lun Hui looked between the natural current and the direction indicated by the jade.
It might not be contradicting itself at all.
Two routes could be overlapping here, one beneath the river and another running north through the old spiritual veins.
The jade simply lacked the courtesy to explain which one it wanted first.
Several steps behind them, Gu Zhen was attempting to return the chicken from the repaired vegetable stall earlier that morning.
The chicken had rejected this arrangement by climbing onto his shoulder and refusing to move.
The vegetable merchant stood beside a replacement cart, guarding a smaller and noticeably less confident collection of cabbages.
He looked at the chicken, then at Gu Zhen, then towards the crater left by the demon beast.
Vegetable Merchant : “No.”
Gu Zhen : “It belongs to Senior.”
Vegetable Merchant : “It survived two explosions.”
Gu Zhen waited, apparently expecting this to strengthen his argument.
Vegetable Merchant : “Then it chose you.”
The merchant folded his arms.
Vegetable Merchant : “It is no longer my responsibility.”
Gu Zhen seemed pleased by the decision.
Mu Qingyu did not.
Mu Qingyu : “You cannot bring a chicken into an investigation.”
Gu Zhen adjusted his spear carefully so the bird could remain balanced.
Its claws had caught in his robe, and neither of them appeared interested in correcting the situation.
Gu Zhen : “It found the clue.”
Mu Qingyu looked towards the chicken.
The animal stared back with the calm judgement of a senior elder evaluating a disappointing disciple.
Mu Qingyu : “The squirrel found the clue.”
Gu Zhen considered the distinction before glancing towards the trees, perhaps wondering whether the squirrel might still be available.
Gu Zhen : “Then I should bring both.”
Mu Qingyu turned away before the conversation could become worse.
The vegetable merchant did the same, dragging his replacement cart several paces farther from the investigation group.
Pei Wuchen concealed a smile while unfolding a map provided by the town guards.
He placed it across a flat stone and held down the corners with four pebbles.
The river curved north before dividing around a narrow island covered in reeds.
The eastern bridge, lower river steps and northern road had all been marked in careful black ink.
Pei Wuchen : “All three were last seen here.”
His finger rested on the eastern side of the bridge, directly opposite the point where Luo Yanhe’s jade kept changing direction.
The preliminary witness records lay beside the map.
Chen Yu, nineteen years old, had worked in his family’s trading stall.
His sister had described his fear of an arranged marriage that would send him away from River Lantern Town.
The damp strip recovered from his lantern still carried his exact wish.
[I wish to change what awaits me.]
The second missing resident was an elderly physician whose hands had begun to weaken.
He had wanted enough strength and steadiness to continue treating patients without depending upon an apprentice for every delicate task.
The third was a widow preparing to leave River Lantern Town.
She wanted a life elsewhere, but feared that leaving would mean abandoning her husband’s grave and the years they had shared.
The three had not known one another.
Their ages, work and circumstances were different.
What connected them was ordinary enough to be dangerous in the hands of the Seekers.
Each had wanted to change the future waiting for them.
Chao Lun Hui had once treated wishes in cultivation stories as convenient keys for activating ruins.
Here, the wishes belonged to people with families, habits and unfinished lives.
Chen Yu had not invited abduction by wanting another future.
Neither had the physician nor the widow.
Someone had selected them because their hopes could be turned into instructions.
Chao Lun Hui crouched beside the map.
Luo Yanhe : “Then they did not disappear while releasing the lanterns.”
Pei Wuchen traced the northern current with one finger.
Pei Wuchen : “The town records show no footprints leaving the embankment.
The last festival guards passed this section before midnight and saw nothing unusual.”
Mu Qingyu : “But the witnesses heard something later.”
Pei Wuchen nodded.
Pei Wuchen : “A faint flute after midnight.
Three separate households reported it.
None could identify the melody or its direction.”
Chao Lun Hui looked towards the river.
By then, the crowds would have dispersed and most lamps along the bridge would have been extinguished.
Luo Yanhe : “Someone drew them back after the crowd left.”
The chicken suddenly pecked Gu Zhen’s ear.
He caught it before it could fall and looked mildly betrayed, though his attention had moved towards the river.
His posture settled.
His gaze sharpened and fixed upon the water below the central arch.
The foolish curiosity that usually occupied his face disappeared while he followed something beneath the surface.
Gu Zhen : “They went down.”
Chao Lun Hui turned towards him.
Nothing in the river suggested a passage beneath it, and Gu Zhen had not touched the black ash or examined the map.
Luo Yanhe : “The squirrel told Senior that too?”
Gu Zhen’s expression returned to normal.
He looked at the chicken resting in his arms, then towards the empty trees.
Gu Zhen : “No.”
He searched for an answer convincing enough to survive the group’s attention.
Gu Zhen : “The chicken did.”
The bird made no effort to support his story.
It pecked the fastening on his collar and looked towards the merchant’s cabbages.
Chao Lun Hui added the answer to the growing collection of impossible things Gu Zhen knew without investigation.
Chen Yu’s soul trail had gone north.
Now Gu Zhen had identified a route beneath the river before anyone activated it.
Pressing him for the truth beside an unstable formation would produce another animal-based explanation and waste time.
Shen Yan Ting stepped onto the lowest section of the embankment and held two fingers above the water.
A thin line of spiritual energy travelled across the surface before sinking beneath the bridge.
It disappeared between the central pillars.
Several breaths later, it returned carrying cold spiritual residue.
Shen Yan Ting : “There is a formation below.”
The river responded before anyone could move.
Its current twisted sharply around the bridge pillars, dragging broken lanterns into a slow circle.
One by one, three paper frames turned until their painted sides faced the investigation group.
Fresh black brushwork spread across the damp paper.
『A FUTURE CHOSEN 』
The second lantern rotated beside it.
『A FUTURE REFUSED 』
The third followed.
『A FUTURE SURRENDERED 』
Chao Lun Hui watched the lanterns circle the bridge.
The language sounded ancient, but the brushwork was fresh.
Someone had prepared the phrases recently and hidden the altered frames among the festival offerings.
The Luo Clan jade heated inside his palm.
A fourth lantern surfaced near the centre of the current.
Unlike the others, it carried no written wish.
A Luo-style symbol had been painted across its base.
Chao Lun Hui recognised the errors before he understood the structure.
One curve ended too early.
The spacing inside the central mark was wrong, and the final line bent in the same unnatural direction as the copied carving in the street.
He was not reading it like a formation expert.
He was recognising the same badly copied handwriting.
Luo Yanhe : “There.”
Pei Wuchen remained on the embankment and released a narrow thread of spiritual energy towards the fourth lantern.
His technique touched the paper lightly, intending to pull it closer without entering the water.
The current rose like a wall.
Water struck the embankment hard enough to shake the stones beneath them.
Pei Wuchen severed his own spiritual thread before the formation could drag it towards the centre.
Mu Qingyu caught the investigation records.
Chao Lun Hui seized the map and two of its pebbles before the water swept over the flat stone.
The remaining two pebbles vanished into the river.
Gu Zhen looked down at the chicken, which had dug its claws into his shoulder and remained entirely dry.
Gu Zhen : “This place is hostile.”
Chao Lun Hui folded the wet map and returned it to Pei Wuchen.
River water had soaked the hem of his black robes, and his boots now produced an undignified wet squelch whenever he moved.
Luo Yanhe : “Senior tried to bring livestock into a soul investigation.
The river has standards.”
Gu Zhen looked offended on behalf of both himself and the chicken.
Before he could defend either, Shen Yan Ting drew his sword.
One precise strike passed above the water.
It did not divide the river.
The sword energy followed the hidden formation’s outer boundary, forcing the current aside just enough to expose pale symbols beneath the surface.
The structure stretched from the eastern bridge supports to the reed-covered island.
Its lines crossed the natural current, turned beneath the central arch and continued towards the northern bank.
Some marks were sharp and recent.
Others had been worn smooth by years beneath the river.
Mu Qingyu knelt beside the exposed boundary without touching it.
Mu Qingyu : “The Seekers did not build the entire formation.”
She indicated three sections where foreign spiritual energy had been forced into older channels.
Mu Qingyu : “These are repairs, but they do not restore the original function.
They redirect it.”
Pei Wuchen unfolded the wet map again and compared the visible lines with the route between the bridge, island and northern road.
Pei Wuchen : “The older formation carried energy through the northern veins.”
Chao Lun Hui stepped closer to the edge.
The faded patterns resembled the Luo inheritance symbols he had seen before, though he could not follow every connection.
Their rhythm felt continuous.
The newer lines cut across that rhythm and forced it back towards the river’s centre.
Luo Yanhe : “They found something already here and changed its purpose.”
The jade pulsed in agreement.
That was becoming an unpleasant habit.
Beneath the bridge, the three altered lanterns began sinking.
As each passed below the surface, a faint human projection appeared in the water beneath it.
Chen Yu stood below the first, his eyes closed and his features blurred by the current.
The elderly physician appeared beneath the second.
The widow formed beneath the third.
They were images, not bodies.
The river passed through them, distorting their robes without moving a single strand of hair.
Their actual bodies remained elsewhere, alive and hidden beyond the group’s reach.
Thin golden threads extended from the projections into the northern current.
Chao Lun Hui watched the threads tighten and understood why the images looked incomplete.
They were not whole souls placed beneath the river.
They were traces, pulled far enough from the missing villagers to make the formation recognise them as a price.
If the threads continued drawing north, the distance between soul and body might become impossible to repair.
Pei Wuchen moved towards the shallow water, but Shen Yan Ting raised one hand across his path.
Shen Yan Ting : “Their souls are not inside those images.”
Pei Wuchen stopped immediately.
The formation was drawing loose spiritual energy towards its centre.
Entering carelessly would only give it another connection to seize.
Gu Zhen stared at the golden threads.
The chicken shifted against his chest, but he did not react.
His fingers tightened around the shaft of his spear while his gaze followed the lines north.
Gu Zhen : “They are being pulled.”
The certainty returned to his voice.
Chao Lun Hui heard it clearly, but the river gave him no opportunity to question it.
The fourth lantern split open.
A stone staircase appeared beneath the current, descending from the riverbed into darkness.
Its upper steps formed beside the central pillar while the lower passage angled north, beyond the reach of daylight.
The copied Luo symbol shone across the first step.
At the same moment, the three golden threads tightened around the projections.
Their outlines faded at the hands and faces.
Ancient words formed above the water.
『THE HEIR MAY OPEN THE PATH 』
A second line appeared beneath it.
『THE THREE WILL THEN BE LOST 』
The Luo Clan jade pulled towards the staircase with enough force to drag Luo Yanhe’s hand forward.
Beyond that submerged entrance lay the northern path.
It might lead towards Moonless Mountain.
It might reveal the route towards the Third Key, the old Luo network and the answers the Seekers had spent days forcing him to pursue.
The path mattered.
The Third Key mattered.
Every missing piece of Luo Yanhe’s history mattered.
So did Chen Yu, who wanted the right to refuse a marriage chosen for him.
So did the physician, who wanted to keep using his own hands.
So did the widow, who wanted to leave without betraying the dead.
None of them had agreed to become a toll.
Chao Lun Hui did not know whether the Luo Clan had built an original trial here or whether every part of the bargain belonged to the Seekers.
He knew only that the current choice had been arranged for him, and accepting it would turn three strangers into the price of his progress.
The projections continued fading.
Chao Lun Hui closed his hand around the jade and stepped away from the staircase.
Luo Yanhe : “Master, break the entrance.”
Shen Yan Ting did not ask what Luo understood or what the path might contain.
His sword was already moving before Luo Yanhe finished speaking.
The first strike severed the copied Luo symbol across the upper step.
Mu Qingyu attacked the eastern line.
Pei Wuchen moved along the embankment and cut through the western boundary, using the wet map to avoid the older channels.
The river erupted around them as the Seeker alteration resisted.
Chao Lun Hui drew his sword and entered the shallow water beside Shen Yan Ting.
His boots sank between the exposed stones.
The formation tried to pull him towards the staircase, but his body shifted into a stable stance before he consciously corrected his footing.
He drove his sword Into the lowest altered mark.
The copied line resisted his spiritual energy.
The jade warmed against his palm, and the older Luo channels beneath the river answered through the blade.
Their response carried familiarity without a memory, direction without words.
There was no hidden voice and no other consciousness guiding him.
His body simply knew how to stand within the pattern without feeding energy into the wrong line.
The false staircase cracked.
Gu Zhen lowered the chicken onto the nearest dry stone.
Gu Zhen : “Stay.”
The chicken immediately followed him into the water.
Gu Zhen stopped, picked it up again, returned it to the stone and placed an overturned basket over it.
The bird struck the wicker repeatedly while he charged towards the bridge.
Mu Qingyu broke the eastern junction.
Pei Wuchen severed the western boundary.
Shen Yan Ting’s sword cut through the foreign lines without touching the faded Luo channels beneath them.
Luo Yanhe forced more spiritual energy into the lowest mark.
The river rose around his knees.
The formation pulled at the jade, the blade and the golden threads at once.
The offered path flickered beneath the water, revealing darkness beyond the final step before collapsing inward.
The three projections bent beneath the pressure.
Their threads stretched north, then loosened when another copied line broke.
Gu Zhen reached the final binding point and struck it with the base of his spear.
Dark foreign residue rose from the formation and twisted around his wrist.
His face hardened.
A pale circular mark flashed beneath his sleeve, visible for less than a heartbeat before his hand closed over the residue.
He crushed it.
Nobody saw the mark clearly.
The old Luo lines awakened one after another beneath the altered structure.
Pale gold travelled under the riverbed, bypassing the destroyed staircase and continuing towards the northern bank.
The false entrance collapsed completely.
Its promised route vanished.
The three golden threads loosened enough for the projections to regain their shape.
Then a flute sounded from the opposite bank.
A single pure note crossed the river and entered the broken formation.
The remaining black ash shuddered.
Hidden lines emerged beneath the surface, revealing a second current that ran behind the false entrance, curved around the reed-covered island and stretched north between the hills.
The original route had not disappeared with the staircase.
It had answered from beneath it.
A group of silver-blue-robed cultivators stood under the willow trees on the northern bank.
Their weapons remained drawn, but none pointed directly towards the investigation group.
At their front stood a tall young woman with sharp eyes and a jade flute raised near her lips.
She lowered the instrument and studied the broken formation before looking at Luo Yanhe, who stood knee-deep in the river with his sword embedded in an ancient mark.
Nangong Yue : “Frost River Pavilion has been following that sound for three days.”
Her attention moved over the copied symbol, the loosened soul threads and the places where the group had severed the Seeker overlay.
Caution remained in her posture.
She did not know them well enough to trust what she saw without examination, but she had arrived in time to witness the result of Luo Yanhe’s decision.
Chao Lun Hui looked at his soaked robes, the disappearing staircase, Gu Zhen retrieving an overturned basket that was attempting to travel on its own, and Shen Yan Ting standing beside him as though entering hostile rivers were part of an ordinary investigation.
The day had begun badly and developed ambition.
Luo Yanhe : “You arrived at an excellent time.”
Nangong Yue examined the three projections.
Their golden threads no longer led into the false staircase.
They followed the second current revealed by her flute, pointing towards the northern mountains.
Nangong Yue : “I believe I arrived late.”
The final remains of the stone entrance vanished.
Six words burned across the riverbed.
『THE HEIR REFUSED THE PRICE 』
The current covered the message.
Far beneath the northern hills, an older formation awakened in response.
The jade turned away from the place where the staircase had been and pulled towards the second current.
Chao Lun Hui could not yet understand why rejecting the offered path had revealed another one.
He only knew the older network had answered differently from the Seeker alteration.
The path towards Moonless Mountain had not closed.
It had changed.
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!